Burning wings spread wide, sparks and embers drifting in the wind that danced playfully through the clear space and around the dark stones. The sharp, red-edged black beak opened, revealing a large deep red mouth. A shrill shriek of sound split the air like so much lightning and those wings snapped once, sending a wash of burning hot air over Lucky. With the wings tucked up once more against its sides.

“What do you want from me?” Lucky asked, head cocking to one side. Bravado. That was what had his head high and his tail flagging behind him. Pure bravado.

Again, it cocked its head to the right, eyes sweeping over Lucky once more. The voice when it spoke had the crystalline sound of cooling embers snapping in a breeze. “What makes you think that I want anything from you?”

Lucky couldn’t help it, he snorted. “Why else would you lure me all the way out here?” He screwed up his courage, nestling it close to himself. “If you didn’t want to talk, you would have attacked me the moment I entered the clearing.”

“Well deduced.” The expression on the avian face never changed, but Lucky could hear the condescension in the crystal-ash voice. Everything about this creature made Lucky think of the various stages of a fire. From the raging bonfire of its wings, to the smouldering embers of its voice.

It watched Lucky in silence for several long moments, head cocking from one side to another as its pale eyes scorched a path over him. When it still didn’t speak, he blew out a heavy sigh and finally tore his eyes away from the burning gryphon. That looming feeling of oncoming disaster welled up inside him, threatening to overwhelm him.

“You still haven’t told me what you want with me.” Lucky said, firmly.

It moved so quickly, muscles rippling beneath its ember-like fur as it slid down from the stones and stepped up to Lucky’s side. He could feel the heat rolling off of it. It was like standing next to a bonfire. He took a half-step sideways away from the heat. “So certain of your own importance, aren’t you?”

“Everyone is important.” He protested.

It started to circle him, piercing avian eyes scouring over every inch of his fur. “But everyone is not equally important, are they?”

Lucky’s copper brows draw together and he tilts his head to the side, considering. “What do you mean?”

“You are the Favored Chosen of Xerinos.” It said simply, that crackling crystal sound of its voice scraping along Lucky’s spine as it spoke.

“So? Maybe that makes me unique, but so is everyone else.”

It circles him again, Lucky turning his head to follow it. “If everyone is unique, no one is.”

“Do we need to be?” Lucky asks.

It steps back in front of him, settling down on its feline haunches and curling its long tail around its taloned forelimbs. “Do you truly think you don’t?”

Lucky shakes his head. “I don’t think I understand what you’re getting at. Do you?”

It laughed. The sound was more grating than its voice. “Of course I understand what I’m getting at.” It chuckled again. “I can see why Xerinos chose you.”

“Really, why is that?”

“If you don’t know, I’m certainly not going to tell you.” Again the gryphon laughed, throwing back its beaked head and laughing uproariously. “That is not the point tonight.”

Lucky chuffed out a breath and drew himself up straight, meeting the ashen eyes of the gryphon. “What is the point? You are talking around me in smug circles.” His brows drew together further and his face was tense. “I don’t appreciate it.”

“Interesting.” It looked him over again, eyes trailing away from his for a long moment before they met them again. “Straight to the point then. You plan to leave your shelter in the morning.” Lucky arched one brow and tilted his head to the side, waiting for it to go on. “You have so many questions, so many concerns. It’s eating at you, isn’t it?”

Again, Lucky blew a breath out of his nose with a snort. “Everything is uncertain now.”

“It’s hard to deal with uncertainty, isn’t it?”

“Are you going to answer my questions?”

“Of course not. Life is about the journey, not the destination.” Again the gryphon chuckled. Then it drew itself up, feathered chest puffing out. Its burning wings mantling once more. The heat of those blazing wings washed over Lucky once more. “I am Ishtara BrightWing, Earthly Avatar of Xerinos.” Wings wide spread, it flared them out into a bow and lowered its head regally. “As the Favored Chosen of Xerinos, you have been given many gifts already, and yet he has sent me with still more.”

Lucky tilted his head in the other direction, brows still tight. “Isn’t it dangerous to accept gifts from beings like you?”

Ishtara’s head tilted to match Lucky’s. “Probably.” It conceded. “Still, there are gifts to be given and you may want to accept them. You don’t have to, of course, but I encourage you to.” Ishtara sat down again, tail curled around its talons. “The first gift is a simple one, it is a many faceted gift. Saddlebags.”

“Saddlebags? Aren’t those for horses? We haven’t got any of those.”

Ishtara reached one foreclaw forward and plucked the smooth brown leather bags from thin air.

The bags, two attached together, landed on the soft ground at Lucky’s feet. “Look at them carefully,” Ishtara suggested. “See if you can tell me what they are.”

Lucky studied the dark brown bags carefully, taking in the soft leather and the tight stitching. He sniffed at it, taking a deep breath of the earthy smell of the leather as well as something else. His nose followed that strange scent for a moment, only to realize that the smell permeated the leather, mostly inside each of the two identical bags that the wide leather strap joined.

**DA-DING!! You have gained +1 Scent!!**

**DA-DING!! You have acquired the general skill Mana Sense!!**

Words swirled to existence in front of his eyes as he continued to study the item. They were the color of sunlight on water. [Exquisite Saddlebag of ???].

**DA-DING!! You have acquired the general skill Identify!!**

“Magic? I didn’t know magic was real.”

“Where do you think your abilities came from?”

Lucky was taken aback for a moment. “I guess I hadn’t thought about it.”

This time it was the gryphon that snorted. “Perhaps you should. There are quite a lot of things you should think about.”

“Can’t you just tell me what’s going on? You know. I know you do.”

“Journey, Lucky, remember the Journey.”

Lucky chuffed out a sharp breath. “It’s a dangerous journey, Ishtara, you can’t blame me for looking for advantages.”

“I cannot blame you, but I cannot answer you either. Those saddlebags are your first gift. I assume you gleaned a couple of skills from that.” At Lucky’s affirmative nod, it went on. “Your second, and final, gift is this.” Again reaching out one clawed talon, it plucked the gift from the aether.

This time there was a gleaming dark leather belt with a pair of shining silver holstered weapons. Again, fine stitching traced over the leather, this time in elegant swirls and curls. In the same color as before, words swirled in front of Lucky’s eyes. [Exquisite Gunbelt of ???]. Oddly old looking guns were snugly settled in each holster. Where the saddlebags and gunbelt had smelled of magic, the scent of it on the guns was almost overwhelming. This time when the letters spun into being before Lucky’s eyes, they were the vibrant color of the sunset. [Aces ‘n Eights]. Both weapons identified the same. Still, Lucky’s frown was deeper as he looked up to the gryphon again. “I don’t know if you noticed.” He said dryly, “But I don’t have thumbs.”

Again the gryphon laughed, this time a tight chuckle that barely changed the expression in its eyes. “It’s for you, but it isn’t for you.” It said, “You worry for your Girl. That she is not prepared for this trek.” It shook its head, ashen eyes burning again. “Neither of you are prepared.”

“If we’re not ready, shouldn’t we wait?”

It snorted, tossing the gunbelt to Lucky’s feet. “If you wait, you will never be ready.” The last few inches of its ember sparked tail twitched sharply. “I cannot say you are making the right decision, but I feel that you are making the best decision you can make at this time. Whether that’s the right path or not is something you will have to make for yourself.”

Lucky tore his eyes with difficulty from the treasures at his feet, looking up at the brightly blazing gryphon once more. “You are speaking in riddles and half-thoughts.”

“Would that I could speak more clearly, but there are rules that even He daren’t bend.” Large feline paws shifted as the gryphon stood up, long tail lashing once before stilling behind it. “Perhaps we shall one another again, in the fullness of time. He has given you all the help he dares, even this little bit may change the path you tread for the worse.” Turning its back on Lucky, it leapt back onto the rocky outcropping. “May your journey be long and your path filled with as many answers as questions.” It said over its shoulder.

“Wait!” Lucky leapt to his feet as the gryphon leapt into the sky, one hard downward stroke of its burning wings sent a hot dry wind through the dog’s thick fur. He scrambled back against the heat, tangling his feet in the gunbelt and landing in the mud on his face. He rose, shaking out his muddy fur and watched as the blazing gryphon soared into the night sky. When he could no longer see the bright figure, he gathered up the gifts and followed his own steps back to the dooryard.