The Slave ~ Chapter II

There is a very unique animal called a gwin. Every one-hundred years a gwin is born and taken to the air by its parent, which is both male and female. When the adult gwin finds a human that it approves of, it swoops down and drops its child onto the human; a quest which may continue for a few weeks. Soon after, the parent dies and the new Gwin takes its place as guardian of the world with its human, in this case, Alai.  

Alai yelled in surprise and the voices of the trolls became silent, all eyes fixed on the treetops. He realized his blunder and slowly crept away with difficulty, for the strange creature was clinging to his arm.  In desperation, he tried to shake it off, but to no avail, for with each shake it let out an eerie screech so loud that the noise echoed far into the night.

When Alai had hiked about a mile, he stopped and made camp again. Even now, the creature was not about to let go. He glanced apprehensively at the life form attached to his arm. It was slightly larger than a house cat, with intelligent eyes although not crafty like a griffin’s or a cat’s. It had four legs, two large bat-like wings each the size of its body, and a tail like a whip.  Curiosity overwhelmed his fear.  He reached out hesitantly and felt its soft fur.

It looked at him with trusting eyes. Alai wasn’t sure what to think of this animal that had so abruptly dropped down onto him. He examined the “it”, who let him do so with complete submission, but did not see any injures that might have caused his plummet.

In the morning he had hoped that it would be gone but it was still sitting contentedly next to him. It appeared as if it hadn’t slept at all, not that he thought it needed to; it was a very strange creature. Most of the hybrid animals where evil and could not be trusted. This animal was as innocent as the flowers in May, yet very little resemblance to anything he’d ever seen.

“Very peculiar” Alai whispered to himself. As he sat up, the creature hopped forward, its movements rather like a kangaroo with curious eyes as if it, too, did not know what he was. He stood and stretched, his back searing with pain, and looked over at the creature. He had to hold back a laugh because the creature was mimicking him. It stood up and walked around like a human, straining its neck to see the ground where it was stepping.  So Alai stretched again to see what it would do. It slowly put its arms up in the air and then promptly fell over with a cry. They played this game until the sun was high in the sky.

They resumed their journey until night fell, the creature following along filling its stomach with bugs and mice.  Every once in a while it would burp, then jump back and look around as if trying and see who would make such a detestable noise. After setting up camp, Alai made a leaf bed for his new pet and one for himself.