A Griffon's Duty

	You finally finished dusting the bust you were brushing off and stepped back to admire your work. The bust was old, really old. huge chunks of the more delicate parts such as the nose and hands have long been broken off and lost to the sands of time. And the surface of the statue was heavily eroded leading to an appearance of pox marks on the skin of a once immaculate sandstone bust of the goddess Hathor. The bust, of course, looked exactly the same as before you started dusting it, as did every one of the may busts you had dusted in this long hall. This task was getting ridiculous. Not only did none of these busts need a dusting, but nobody was ever going to come by to admire them in the first place. Your patience had finally worn thin. Your outburst was a long time coming.
	"Can we be done now? This task is completely pointless!" You shout to the other end of the hall. Your captor, currently reclining on a low couch near a cistern is momentarily surprised by your outburst before her eyes narrow in disgust. She curtly uncrosses her muscular furred legs and swings them over the side of the couch before hoisting herself up and stalking to your position, cat walking the whole way. It was certainly a sight that exited you the first time you saw your captor, and would undoubtedly have under other circumstances, but right now you were having none of it. Those long furred legs and, deeply tanned skin, and toned physique did little to persuade you, and her odd avian hands and claws, coupled with her regal main of feathers did little to scare you into submission. As she approached, her hunched wings spread to their full gargantuan span, and brilliant golden eyes shot daggers into you from their glared pose. Not even these venomous and animalistic gestures could falter your burning indignation. This task was pointless, you knew it and she knew it. The powerful griffon stalked into dangerously close range to you before she bothered to regard your outburst.
	"this is the hall of the GODS" she scorned, "and I would hope that even a repulsive thief such as yourself would show some respect here." She drew herself into a powerful stance, arms crossed as she scolded you like a child. "On a more mundane note, this is where people come to read and converse, and I will absolutely not have it look a pigsty under my watch!" You chortled at that, this hall was immaculate when you had entered, as was every other room than your captor had you swab, sweep, and polish today. This as a punishment of busywork. You held you ground defiantly against her aggressive advances and insinuations.
	"This whole hall looks like it was dusted yesterday, as did the foyer and the copy room!" You noticed her hackles have already rose at your comment, but you pressed onward indignantly. "And what do YOU care about visitors? No one has come to this library to study in years, and you called me a thief just for approaching this hellhole! This whole day has been a torture, and you cannot keep me here! I'm going back to the city, and in the Pharaoh's name you will not stop me." With your tirade over, you had the pleasure of seeing its effect on your cruel captor. Judging by her red face, bristling feathers, and flexing talons you make the educated observation that perhaps you took things too far. Her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits and her tail swished behind her.
	  "It really shouldn't surprise me that such classless scum as yourself could not appreciate a place of learning such as this, but you disappoint me thief." A taloned paw shoots out and griped you by the shirt, pulling you close to the dreaded curator. "I suppose it was naive of me to expect a rat such as yourself to be able to work a honest day in his life." The claw holding you curled upward, drawing you onto your toes and bring your tightly shut eyes level with the griffon's chin. If you were not so scared, perhaps you would have noticed her smell your hair as well. "Maybe you really are not a thief... maybe you are some anubis scribe's oil boy who ran away. You sure are pale enough to fit those jackel's taste." She pulled you away and regarded you carefully. "Perhaps if I can't get you to repent through work, I could get some use out of you as MY oil boy..."  You balked at that proposition.
	"The Pharaoh's law says-"
	"The Pharaoh?" She cuts you off with a glare. "You'll find no salvation in her law thief." She suddenly drops you shirt, causing you to unceremoniously to fall on your ass. "I think we may go to the city tomorrow, to get this whole situation straightened out." She turned her head and puffed her luxurious brown hair with her hand. "I'll need to buy some oils if I wish to try to transform you from common scum to a proper oil boy." She looked unbearably smug about the whole situation, her ruffled feathers and red face a thing of the past. She looks down at you, still sitting on your ass too flabbergasted to retort. "I think we are done here thief. Sleep where you may tonight," her eyes sparkled challengingly, "If you decide to flee, I'll just run you down and make your life particularly unpleasant." You had firsthand experience of what that body could do from your original capture and knew that it was no idle threat.


   You shifted uncomfortably on one of the large couches in the hall of the gods. It was nighttime now, and without the sun's heat the desert had grown uncomfortably cold and you had little to cover yourself with except the worn and faded pillows of the couch. It did not help that almost every room in these ruins had huge gaping windows or holes to let in the nighttime breeze. It was warmer towards the center of the ruins to be sure, but the library at the heart of the complex currently housed your griffon captor and you felt a strong desire to sleep far away from her. And she snored. From here her defining uproar was drowned out by the soothing sound of waves breaking on the shoreline far below. This really was a beautiful spot. You had first seen the ruins before you had even stepped foot in the Pharaoh's kingdom. Two days ago, you were a passenger on a ship, sailing along the coastline to reach the Royal city. As you drew near the port, you noticed the ruins perched atop a cliff that jutted out of the coastline. From the boat, it had appeared to be long abandoned. The walls and columns were falling apart in places, the bleached white stone contrasted with the green growth and ivy that threatened to choke the walls and pillars. The moment you saw it, you knew you had to visit. It was not even a long walk from the port, and it looked like the perfect spot for a picnic.
	How were you to know the ruins were occupied? The pace was a dump from the outside, even if it was kept tidy on the inside. You wandered the halls admiring the architecture until you finally came to the great library at the center of the complex. Racks and racks of scrolls stretched to the ceiling, the whole room was a maze of rows and shelves. It was while you were exploring that treasure trove of knowledge that you had the misfortune of running into her.
	For all her haughtiness, size, and strength, your first meeting had left quite the… impression on you. You could not help but smirk when you remembered they way you found her in the library, spread out on top of a wide desk, surrounded by books and scrolls and napping in a convenient patch of sunlight.  Even more enjoyable than that mental image was  when she noticed your presence, waking with a jolt and a yelp as she fell off the table in a heap of feathers, fur, and books. At the time you could not help but laugh at the immature if cute display, and in the fallout that followed she made sure that you paid dearly. A whole day of being dragged around sweeping floors that did not need to swept and being sent on a snipe hunt for phantom dust in every nook and cranny in the complex, all while a pissed of cat bird verbally berated you and accused you of every crime in the books. At least if she does drag you to the royal city tomorrow you could get some kind authority to have your released from your captor. But you could do right now is fall asleep the sound of the waves below you and hope that tomorrow you can get yourself out of this mess…


	The day had not started out well. Your captor had kicked you awake at an ungodly early hour, and you knew this was done solely to torment you. Her eyes were still groggy, and judging by the way you first encountered her in the library it was probably safe to assume that the big cat was used to sleeping in. The early start did have one  blessing though, the streets of the capital city were mercifully quite as the griffon dragged you through them with a rope tied around your wrists. A lot of security for a girl who was perfectly willing to run you down had you chose to run off in the night. And you got off lucky with only bound wrists, the sadistic cat insisted on a blindfold, gag, and collar to complete your humiliation but you succeed in throwing such a fuss that the more excessive bindings were discarded on the walk to the city. Nevertheless, you were dragged and kicked to the royal palace of the Pharaoh like a common criminal all the same.
	Perhaps you could better appreciate the majesty of the place if you were not being guarded over by the griffon as you aweted your hearing with the pharaoh herself. Apparently, your captor had quite a lot of clout in the Pharaoh’s court and was able to demand an audience, a fact that did not sit well with you as you pondered on how to get out of this whole situation. The Griffon was guarding you closely, although most of her effort was directed to shooting venomous glares at a poor Anubis soldier, she caught stealing looks at you. The silence was starting to make you uneasy, and the only way to alleviate the awkwardness was to strike up a conversation with your captor.
	“So are why go through the trouble of taking me here again?” Your question caught the griffon off guard, mostly because she was in the middle of winning a staring contest with the trembling guard in the corner.
	“What are you saying thief?”
	 “Well the way I see it, the pharaoh is just going to force you to free me, it’s fairly obvious that I’ve been unfairly imprisoned. Seems to me like you could have just chained me up in your crumbling old ruins rather than bring me here.” The griffon’s tail twitched when you described her home as a ‘crumbling old ruin,’ but she kept her cool. She crossed her arms and smiled smugly down at you.
	“I told you the pharaoh’s law was not going to save you, didn’t I? Besides, I need to make your servitude to me official, there is some paperwork I need to fill out here for that.” You had the awful feeling that she knew something that you did not, and her confidence was warranted. Before you could deliberate on such thoughts, a regally dressed mummy entered the room and informed the two of you that the pharaoh was ready to hear you now.
	The throne room of the pharaoh was magnificent sight to behold, one that you never though you would see in your life. Onyx, jade, and gold adorned every visible surface, and marvelous statues flanked the entire hall. Unfortunately, you were not spared a single second of marveling, as a rather impatient griffon was dragging you forward to the pharaoh sitting on the golden throne herself. Once you were before her, you captor threw you onto your knees before dropping down on her own to bow in respect. The Pharaoh greeted your captor.
	“Helena, it is always a pleasure to see the keeper of the kingdom’s knowledge.” Helena, well at least you had a name for your slaver.
	“Your majesty, I have captured this thief skulking about the Great Library, by the authority of my position I request that his life formerly be bound to me.” The griffon never takes her eyes off the floor, keeping the kneel in perfect form. You are a little sloppier, looking from captor to queen in panic. ‘Authority of her position?’ Was she not just some overzealous  squatter? The pharaoh, for her part, looked rather uncomfortable about the situation before her and could not seem to hold eye contact with you for very long.
	“Of course, Helena, it is your right after all. I will have the paperwork sent to the library as soon as it is prepared.”
	“W-wait!” You interrupt, “Shouldn’t I get some sort of hearing? I swear on my life I’m innocent of all crimes!” You had thought getting your freedom would be something of an uphill battle, but this was moving faster than you had expected it to. The Pharaoh now look very uncomfortable, she was obviously looking for this hearing to end as soon as possible. Something told you she knew this conversation would happen eventually, and she had a drink waiting for her when it was over.
	“Well it’s not exactly my jurisdiction you see, The Library that is. I’m afraid I don’t have the authority to judge hearings of crimes committed in the compound you see…” Your face scrunched in confusion, out of the Pharaoh’s jurisdiction?
	“Well then who has the authority? I am innocent.” you ask,
	“Actually, that would Helena.” You spun around to face your captor, eyes wide and mouth agape in disbelief. Gods she looked insufferably smug, with a shit-eating grin slapped on her face. You could tell she was doing her best to keep down a fit of giggles as well. She curtsied quickly to the Pharaoh.
	“Thank you, your majesty. I do look forward to receiving that paperwork.” The Pharaoh sighed under her breath and rested her head on a hand.
	“Yes, yes. You are dismissed. And Helena, do try to gentle on your… thief.”
	“Of Course, your majesty.”


	Helena was beaming as she dragged your skulking form out of the royal place and into the bazaar. Anyone walking past the two of you could almost feel equal measurements of joy and despair radiating off the pair of you. Of course you had know getting claimed by a monster was always a risk when visiting the Pharaoh’s Kingdom, but you had expected if it was going to happen you would have been wooed by some sultry monster in a bar and not forced into domestic service for the heinous crime of entering a library. A sharp tug of the cord connected to your bindings snapped you out of your thoughts.
	“Come slave, we have some shopping to do before we go back.” Helena put a finger to her lip and looked at you thoughtfully. “How odd, when we walked into the palace you name was ‘thief,’  and now it is ‘slave.’ I expect that will take some getting used to.” If looks could kill yours would have left the smug griffon a smoldering husk, but you knew better than to talk back to her right now. The streets had already started to fill, and undoubtedly your new ‘owner’ would relish the opportunity to humiliate you further. Instead you grumble and allow yourself to continue to be dragged past booths and tables of venders peddling all kinds of strange and exotic wares. You all but flew past these merchants, people tended to make room for a griffon in a hurry.
	Finally, you came to a halt in front of a stall covered with jugs, glasses, and vials. Many of these were finely crafted made out of silver and elaborately decorated. Through the clear ones you could see that each was filled with what looked like a light, thin oil. Apparently, your captor’s threats last night were not idle, it looked like the next name you were going to have to get used to was going to be ‘oil boy.’ Great. The lamia manning the stall smiled warmly at your approach.