“SQUEE!!!” The griffin was jumping toward Aura the Sphinx as she threw herself to the left. She she landed on the ground, a big dust cloud was made. Aura accidentally inhaled and coughed. After cleaning her throat, she got back on her feet.
“ROOOOWR!!!” Aura made it very clear that she was not afraid of Bronze-Beak as she took a stance, still holding on tight to her rope.
The other griffins and the fifteen-year-old human Dimi watched from a safe distance near the barn. Dimi lifted two dumbbells without looking away from the brawl.
Bonze-Beak leapt into the air and then dived toward Aura as the raptor he was. Aura gambled and lept toward the griffen that torpedoed itself at her. She managed to not only evade the attack but to also slap Bronze-Beak with her left wing. Bronze-Beak got so startled that he accidentally crashed into the dirt. Aura saw her chance and jumped on the back of the griffin and started to tie the rope around Bronze-Beak’s beak. The young griffin did not like that and did his best to both snap the rope and throw the part-lion-part-bird woman off his back. He failed at both as the rope was made of the same fur he and his horde had, and Aura tied her arms around his neck, refusing to left go.
“ROOOOWR!!!” Aura was sweating like a yeti inside a volcano as she kept her arms locked around the griffin.
It took longer than Aura had expected, but Bronze-Beak finally collapsed. Aura stood up, stretched her very sore back and untied the rope around the griffin’s beak. “Alright! Are we done here?! Do you accept me as your pack leader or what?!”
Bronze-Beak used what little stamina he had left to stand on one of his front legs and bowed his head before Aura to show his respect.
“Good.” Aura spat on the ground and dried her mouth with the back of her hand. She then turned toward her attention toward the rest of the griffins. “And how about you overgrown pigeons?! You want a piece of me?! ROOOOWR!!!” She bared her teeth and swung her tail like an angry cat.
The other griffins lowered their head in respect as well. Dimi almost did so herself.
Aura groaned as she walked over to the bench that Dimi sat on and took out of a sack what looked like the collar worn by a jester. She showed it to the griffins. “Look, I get it. these are beneath you to wear. If I could have it my way, I would stick them up the rear-end of the client and tell him no. But you guys HAVE to be part of the show of that stupid parade in Onyxville. I need the cash and you guys can’t have a roof over your head if I can’t keep this farm running. Got that?”
There was no objective sounds to be heard from the lion-bird monsters.
“Good...” Aura sighed as she sat next to Dimi, almost slapping her in the face with her wing.
Dimi dropped her weights and stretched her fingers. “You get that they can’t actually understand what you are saying, right?”
Aura nudged her temples. “They can understand what I mean, that’s enough. Dimi... You mind feeding the chickens? I feel like crap.”
“Sure... but don’t you think it would just be easier to turn into a giant lion monster instead of taking them on in normal shape?”
“Dimi, I’m their pack leader. I need them to respect me, and they won’t if I rely on magic. Even if I feel beat up afterwards.”
Dimi handed her a cup of water. “Well, okay. But don’t you think you are a bit too old to wrestle griffins?”
Aura gave Dimi a glare.
Dimi blushed. “That... is what I WOULD have said if you weren’t so youthful! GonnafeedchickensBYE!”
As Dimi rushed away to the chicken coop, Aura drank her water. Her body felt like it weighted a ton, but the word old made her feel like she was wearing a stone-wheel for hat.
***
Ivan had not joined Dimi and Aura for dinner, he had been busy with some suits of armor for a client in Onyxville. Aura practically drank up her soup and asked Dimi to excuse her so she could go to bed early. She had to get up extra early next day for the preparations for the parade. That, and she was exhausted.
When she got into the bedroom, Ivan was already in bed with his head on his specially-designed minotaur-cushion that held his neck so he did not accidentally turn in his sleep and stick his horns into something. He had his blanket cover him from his feet to just below his neck. He looked half-asleep and his face and hors had soot on it.
“Hey, darling.” Aura got undressed and then put on her nightshirt.
“Hey...” Ivan yawned. “Sorry, I didn’t wash up first.”
“That’s okay.” Aura got in bed and lied on her stomach, then pulled her blanket over her back and under her wings. “I didn’t wash up either. I stink and I’m sweaty. Sorry about that.”
Aura considered extending her wing to lay it over Ivan, but then decided that it would be a bad idea due to her current lack of hygiene. Ivan’s arms felt like jelly, so he didn’t reach for her either. They just laid in bed and tried enjoying lying down after a hard day. A hard week on top of that.
“Oh, by the way...” Ivan sighed. “Happy second anniversary, Aura.”
Aura opened her eyes wide. “Shit. That was today?! I’m so sorry, I forgot!”
“That’s okay.” Ivan stroke Aura’s right wing. “I only realized that it was today just now.”
Aura lied in the bed not saying anything. She felt tired but at the same time NOT tired. “Ivan, should we... cuddle?”
Ivan sighed. “Aura, I’m not sure I can... I don’t know if I... I’m just not in the... urgh.”
“Yeah, me too...”
They lied in bed, practically paralyzed. Then, Ivan lifted himself up and rested his head on his palm so he could look at his wife. “I’m not even finished with this order for suits of armor. The money is good, but the job is killing me and Dimi. There is this rich goblin in Onyxville who wants the suits since he decided to dig up his ancestors’ bones and put them inside the suits.”
Aura sat up in the bed and leaned her winged back against the wall behind the bed’s end. “He WHAT?!”
Ivan rolled his eyes. “I KNOW! When I hammer the steel, when Dimi gets a burn by accident, when I feel like I’m about to boil alive, I think of what those armors are going to be used for, and I feel like a clown.”
Aura groaned. “Yeah, I had a bad day, too. Bronze-Beak got frisky on me and challenged me. It's a question of time before they won't respect me anymore.” Aura pouted. “And then Dimi reminded me that I’m old.”
Ivan blinked rapidly. “Aura, you are not old!”
Aura grunted. “Whet makes you say that?”
“Because if you are old, then that would make me old. And we are NOT old. We are forty-five, the prime of our life!”
Aura made a bitter laugh. “Ivan, when you were Dimi’s age, what did you think of creatures past forty?”
“That...” Ivan closed his eyes as he imagined that he kicked his teenage-self in the crotch. “I thought that they were old...”
They both grew silent as they processed their old-ness.
“Ivan...” Aura scratched her massive hair. “Do you ever wish we had met each other earlier?”
Ivan blinked. “What do you mean?”
“You know... when we were younger! When we were fifteen or something. We wouldn't be tired and bummed out just because of a hard days work and we could have fun, enjoy each other. Or something.”
“Well... Ah...” Ivan narrowed his eyes. the minotaur blew a raspberry as he thought about the question. “Well...You know what? No.”
The answer surprised Aura. “No? What do you mean?”
“Well, first of all, you were on the run from the Sun Kingdom for deserting the military when you were fifteen.”
A dark shadow came over Aura’s face. “Yeah, you don’t have to remind me.”
“And I was busy. I had just left home and moved to Peridotpolis to start my career as professional. I had to take a lot of crappy jobs so I could afford proper training. I had no free time at all.”
“Okay, point taken. But how about when we were in our twenties? I actually lived in Nesredna at that point of my life.”
“Well... you wouldn’t have liked me.”
Aura laughed. “What?!”
Ivan shrugged. “I’m serious. I was the most promising contender of my generation, money was not a problem. And I was a schmuck.”
Aura ran her hand through Ivan’s hair. “I can’t imagine you being a schmuck.”
“Well... there is something very satisfying about earing something when you have worked for it with your bare hands. And I literally had. But I ended up being waaaaay to self-satisfier. I wasn’t mature enough to be in a serious relationship.”
Aura smirked. “Well, for what it’s worth, neither were I. I was kind of a... bad girl.”
Ivan laughed. “A bad girl?”
“Yeah, you know... drank too much, got into stupid fights and arm-wrestling contests. I had a couple of boyfriends, but I wasn’t looking for an actual relationship.”
Ivan bit his lower lip as he blushed. “A couple of boyfriends, you say?”
“Oh, come on, Ivan!” Aura grabbed his horn and gently tugged it. “They didn’t mean anything to me, don’t be jealous. They were just flirts when I was bored.”
“Alright, but I think you get my point. The timing would have been all wrong if we had met earlier. We found each other at the right time. When we could appreciate each other.”
“Well... “ Aura moved closer to Ivan and wrapped an arm around him. “I appreciate you a lot.”
“So, um...” Ivan smiled awkwardly as he wrapped an arm around her as well, just below her wings. “Those... flirts you used to have... do you think I could have been one of them?”
Aura grinned as she placed a loving hand on his chin. “Oh, absolutely. You know, I used to see illustrations of you on posters advertising your fights back then. And I recall that I thought you were extremely sexy.”
Ivan was grinning from horn to horn as they kissed. Then, Aura got on top of him. They embraced each other and locked lips.
“IVAN!”
Aura and Ivan seized what they were doing as they heard Dimi yell.
“IVAN! My stupid princess puppetry crap is kicking in again! I accidentally summoned a bush in the kitchen, and there are roses growing from my armpits! Dangit! I thing I cut my finger on a thorn! HELP!”
Aura got off Ivan as he got up from bed. He kissed his wife on the forehead before leaving the room. “I love you.”
Alone on the bed, Aura laughed as she shook her head. “Perfect timing.”
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