Hunting the Gryphon

[Solemn Creed]

You Know, Stuff....

Sol strolled through Athens, a smug smile on his face. It had taken him a long time, but finally he had found it. Sol had been hunting for the Gryphon for some time, but because of his extreme laziness and tendency to procrastinate it had taken him longer than one would have expected.

Sol was fully confident in his ability to kill the beast on his own, but he would prefer some assistance from a few others. This was why he had not immediatly left for the Pindus mountain range where his sources had told him there had been sightings. Quite the formidible beast, the Gryphon was even bigger than Sol was in his most natural form.

Sol knew that people other than normal humans tended to flock to such cities, as full of history as they were. But where would he find one, that was the real problem. He supposed he could check the library... Most wandering members of a nonhuman race tended to be interested in their history and the history of others.

Sol almost stopped to ask a passerby where the library was but he changed his mind and kept walking. He had decided to go to a more social place, such as a bar. Many times before he had run into nonhumans inside bars, and at those times it had been completely coincidential.

Sol kept walking untill he found a nice place that he deemed suitable for his purposes. He walked inside and quickly examined his surroundings. There were not very many people inside, but to make sure they were all human Sol took a deep breath, inhaling the smell of the place.

He was immediatly assaulted by the strong urine odour that seemed to be coming from the bathroom, the door to which was closed and on the other side of the room. It smelled as if it hadnt been cleaned in a millenia. The scent of the place made Sol stagger across the room over to the bar, his eyes watery, and he leaned against it.

After a few moments, Sol managed to successfully block out the smell. He analyzed what he had originally scented and he discovered that he had indeed been successful. Sol smiled and began to look around the room, expecting to find some detail that would tell him who he was looking for. What he didnt expect was to see a familiar face.

Cleo was going by her given name of Karva, she was sitting in a dark corner with a cloak covering her face, but what she could not hide was the strands of blue hair that flowed from her under her hooded cloak. She watched Solemn as he walked in, she did her best to keep from laughing as she watched him stumble to the bar, but the one thing that she could not hide was her smile.

A man walked up to her and started talking to her, the stench of his breath made her sit back in her seat. "Hello, what are you doing in a place like this? You really should let me show you around this beautiful city."

The smell of booze, and bad oral hygiene filled the air as he spoke. Soon she felt his hand on the arm she had on the table, and she quickly looked up at him with an evil stair. "If you don't take your hand off of me I will brake it into a million peaces."

She hated it when people like that hit on her, it made her stomach turn, and she felt ill. Why did he have to bother her at all? Did she look like she was lonely? God how she wanted to freeze his hand and shatter it, she also felt the need to take a shower, but that could wait.

[Azriel Gideon]

Azriel was in a bar once more, attempting to drown his memories of old with mind numbing beverages. Sadly it had been poor past few months. He had recieved no contracts, nothing, and his heavy drinking habit had left him strapped for cash.

His pockets empty, Azriel had stumbled over to a table in a nice dark corner. The last of the money he had spent of liquor had hardly been enough to even blur his vision. His face twisted into a grimace. The things he had done in the name of a God who probably didnt even exist...

Azriel closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, trying to think of happy thoughts. The bar door opened and out of reflex, so did his eyes. A man walked in acting strange, he stumbled to the bar as if he was already drunk but Azriel could tell he hadnt even had a taste yet. In the other dark corner of the room, he heard some commotion. Some drunk was pestering a woman who had blue hair.

Azriel may have no longer been an angel of God, but he did not approve of men who lost themselves to the drink that was his salvation. He quickly crossed the room and put a hand on the man's shoulder. "Dont pester the woman." Azriel warned him, but under this pretense of defending her, he took the drunk's wallet for his own.

Azriel grinned, maybe he would have enough to drown his memories afterall.

[Solemn Creed]

Sol saw a girl he had met back in Ireland not too long ago. Her name was Cleo, or at least that is what she had told him her name was. She was a water elemental, and an attractive one at that.

He smiled, but it quickly faded when he saw a drunk stumble over to her, grab her arm, and begin to hit on her. It was disgracful and it brought an angry look to his face. Sol always prided himself on having perfect dicipline and seeing one who had just let himself go... It angered him.

Sol was about to walk over and break every bone in the drunk's body but he stopped when a new form walked over to the man and stopped him. From what Sol could tell, this new man was defending Cleo before even he could. Sol's face relaxed slightly when he realised he wouldnt have to be hurting anyone after all. When he saw the fair haired man lift the drunk's wallet though, his face broke out into a grin. He liked this man already.

Sol walked over to Cleo and shoved the drunk out of the way. "You would heed him, If you wish to drink without a straw ever again." He turned to the fair haired man who smelled of. Liquor and something else... He was an angel. Sol said nothing he just smiled and winked at the man before turning to Cleo. "I never expected to meet you in such a place, Cleo."

Merka walked into the bar and froze. Over in the corner was an elemental, an angel and a demon, they seemed to talking about something. This could be fun, he thought. He walked over to them and said "what's going on." He hoped they couldn't see the burns on his neck, he didn't want them to know he was a demon quiet yet! while he was waiting for a reply, he looked around the bar and caught sight of all kinds of people. there were a lot of drunks, a few good looking girls and a lot of guys hitting on them. There was a smell of alcohol as always in bars. He could hear glasses clinking and shouting, It was so annoying, He could hear everything. There was a drunk stumbling around them, he seemed human enough, although the sound he made didn't sound human. Were they ever going to answer. He was about to walk to walk away, but he decided against it.

She could not help but smile when she watched the man's wallet be taken, she could not help it. She did not need help with the drunk, he was so far gone that if someone pushed him gently he would fall over. She pulled the hood of her cloak back letting it fall back, and showing her light blue hair, pale skin, and light blue eyes that almost is seemed as if they had a glow to them. She never took him for the type to visit a place like his, a part of her wondered why it was he came here. Either way she was glad to see him.

"I have come here to watch people, listen, and maybe learn something. The things that happen here are rarely taken note of, so far I have noticed that humans can not hold liquor too well."

She looked over at the man that walked towards them and raised an eyebrow at him when he spoke. "Why do you care?"

She started to grow tired of the crowd, and she hatted the attention of so many people. She was fine when no one noticed her, but now that more than two people were around her she felt trapped. All she wanted to do was get away from them before more people came to talk to them. With the bar being crowed it is vary well possible, and she hated that possibility.

She started to look around the room nervously as she pulled her hood back over her head. She really wished that she was invisible right now, she did not want to be there anymore, and she hated the fact that she was in a corner. "If we are all going to talk can we please step out side."

She asked as she looked at the people around her, it really did not matter if they were going to follow her, she was going to leave. She got up out of her chair and kept her head down trying to hide her face in her cloak as she walked out of the bar. Once she was out side she let out a sigh and relaxed against the building as she pulled back her hood.

Merka followed the elemental outside, not just because he wanted to talk to her, but because he knew she wanted to be alone. "I care, because I know what you and them two are" he said, then in a quieter voice he whispered in her ear "elemental."

Outside he could hear all the sounds of nature, especially wind. Then he lifted up his neck and showed the elemental his burns "Can you guess what I am?" He said laughing but before she could answer he said " a demon" he said before she could answer.

A human walked by and Merka flicked his chin down to cover his neck. He couldn't believe from that even from here you still smell the alcohol from here. Then something strange happened, one of his burns went on fire, the one that was on his leg. He patted it out quickly and said "Well, that doesn't happen often!"

As the leaned against the brick building that was the tavern she watched the man step out a few moments after she did. As he talked she looked him over trying to remember if he ever stayed at the bed and breakfast she once worked at. She spoke only after he put out the fire on his leg, "Well then what is it that you want with me?"

She was unsure of why out of the group that she was standing in, why would he chose to follow her. She did not understand what it was that he wanted, but it seemed that Demons were able to tell what other races were easier then she could......Maybe it came with practice, or maybe it was instinct. Either way that did not answer the question of why her.

"Do you know when I was born" said Merka "1000 years ago, and in those 1000 years I haven't told the truth for 500 years, I needed to talk to someone and those two in there didn't seem to want to talk to me. So that is why I chose to talk to you" Merka didn't realize he was almost shouting by the end so he said "sorry for shouting, it is just, well my parent's died only hours after I was born and I raised myself. My only friends were a couple of other demons who taught me how to fly" The burn on his neck burst into flames and he patted it down as well angrily. "Why does that keep happening!" he said frustrated. Then he waved his hand in the air and tried to blow the smoke away but it wouldn't go away as easy as that.

Karva felt like she was being cornered by the man, his loud voice made her cringe. She pressed her body against the wall some more wishing that she could phase through it. Now she wished that she never left the tavern, she did not like being cornered by people. She did not like many people, and she hated feeling boxed in. She looked around wondering if anyone else was around, it was not like the man was hurting her, she just didn't seem to like him much. He was pushy, and loud that was some thing that the quiet element did not like. "I am sorry that you lost your family when you were young, but do you have to talk so loud?"

She didn't really want to plug her ears, but the man was talking so loud she could not help it.

"I am sorry" said Merka feeling ashamed "Most people I have talked to, die a few seconds later" Merka then held his hand out "I am Merka Alazeal, A demon born in Glasgow, and what is your name" As he stood there he wondered what was going on inside the tavern, they had stepped out side quiet a while ago, why hadn't her friends came out yet! Another one of his burns went on fire and he furiously put it out. In a hushed voice he said "would you mind giving me some ice for these burns" as he patted out more fire. He really was going to have to put out these burns if he wanted to do anything stealthily.

She wondered why he was so impatient, it was like he never spent time with anyone at all. "I am a water element." She said as she looked up at the demon, she really wished that Solemn was there. She found that she was messing with her hair nervously as she slowly started to move along the wall. She was trying to get a way from the wall, well at least to some place so that she didn't feel trapped.

She could have made some ice for the man, but she just wanted to be some place else right now, the man rarely stopped talking so that she could and she felt like he might hurt her. She hated the feeling of helplessness and that is what she felt right now, and that is why she hated for others to talk to her.... she could never handle anyone that was not mellow.

"Please don't go away" he called after her in a soft voice "I haven't had a friend in over 900 years" he said a tear rolling down his cheek. He quickly wiped it away as he looked towards her, plea in his eyes. "please" he said softly

[Azriel Gideon]

As Azriel studied this ebon haired man he could not get a clear opinion on him, as if he was hiding his true self. Once his eyes reached the ice blue orbs of the man Azriel cam to a conclusion: this man was a demon. He could tell from the faint sulphur like smell coming from him along with eyes that had seen the rise and fall of a millenia.

Ever since his fall from grace, Azriel had considered himself more of a demon than an angel. He had been raised that an angel could commit no sin, for that was what demons did. And yet, here Azriel was, gorging himself of mind numbing drinks like some glutton.

Azriel just looked at the man. This was the first demon he had met who had not warranted a killing. Yet...

[Solemn Creed]

A strange man walked up to Sol, the angel, and Cleo and began attempting to start a diallogue with them. After Sol got a quick smell of the man he knew he was a demon. This made him smile because if he could identify others so well then this demon probably could too.

Karva began to say something about going outside to talk but Sol was temporarily distracted by the way the angel was looking at him. It was an uncomfortable stare at best. Not that Sol had any particular aversion to being looked at, it was just the intensity in the man's gaze.

Sol deduced that the man must have figured out that he was a demon. He had run into this sort of problem before, some angel's had convinced themselves over millenia that they and demons were actual mortal enemies, and that demons had to be obliterated. But no, this was a different sort of look. One Sol was unfamiliar with. Was it a look of kinship? "Take a picture, itll last longer." Sol said to the angel. The sort of response this brought forth could tell him much.