FLIGHT OF THE GRYPHONS

Valentino 'Val' Leon and his family were seated on a thick woollen blanket in the forest outside Glen Hartwell, in the Victorian countryside, having their last picnic outdoors before winter started. However, it was June the first, the first day of the Australian winter. Val was a tall, dark handsome Latino type, his wife Desdemona 'Desi', was a tall lithe white-blonde as was their eldest daughter Yasmine 'Yaz', aged nine, named after a friend of the family. Lillibet, aged eight, named after Queen Elizabeth, was a tallish ravenette like her father. Cerille 'Sally', aged six, was a short green-eyed redhead, like Desi's mother.

"Tell us 'gain why we're fweezing outside when we could be heatin hinside in the warmf?" asked young Sally, between eating a hardboiled egg, with plenty of pepper. Sally refused to eat anything, except sweets, without plenty of pepper.

"We're having our final family picnic lunch outdoors before winter starts," explained Val.

"Technically, since it's June the first, winter has started," insisted Desi.

"Dat's white," insisted Lillibet; who always agreed with her mum.

"'Sides couldn't we have our final family picnic lunch before winter inside in the lounge room?" asked Yaz.

"Where it would be warm," added Desi, doing an exaggerated shiver.

"It's not cold," insisted Val: "It's just a little bit bracing."

"Yeah, well it's bracing my tits off," said Desi; making the girls giggle, and their father give his wife a stern look.

"Don't encourage the girls," said Val.

"Coubn't we least have a small fire? asked Sally.

"If you want to risk starting a forest fire," replied Val.

"Honey, it pissed down all last week," said Desi, making the girls titter again: "The grass is sodden. I doubt we're gonna start a bushfire."

"Okay, but you'd better come help me," said Val, reluctantly standing up.

"Anything to avoid freezing," said Desi climbing to her feet and following her husband into the forest to look for dry wood to burn.

"Don't be too wong," Sally called after them.

"Yeah, it's bracing our tits off," said Yaz, making her sisters giggle.

"Yaz!" called back Val in his sternest voice.

"Sorry, Daddy," said Yaz, making her two sisters titter again.

As soon as their parents were out of sight, Yaz started packing up the picnic stuff, saying to her sisters: "Give me a hand with all this."

"Whatcha doin'?" asked Sally.

"Moving our picnic to the back seat of the car, where it will be a little warmer."

"Dat's cwever," said Lillibet, starting to help to pack everything up.

A few minutes later they were in the back seat of their family's emerald green Mitsubishi Outlander, happily eating their last family picnic before winter; even though winter had already started.


"Now where the hell are we going to find any dry wood?" asked Desi as they crunched through the pine needles and gum leaves that blanketed the forest floor.

"Probably beneath the largest, most sprawling trees."

"Good thinking, babe," said Desi walking across to an ancient spreading red gum tree; which conveniently had a dry greying branch almost broken off: "Okay, Tarzan, give me a hand pulling this off."

"Yours to obey, my chestalicious angel," said Val, going across to help tug at the branch; which initially, despite looking almost broken off, refused to come away in their hands.

"I take it back," teased Desi: "Tarzan he ain't."

"Very funny," said Val. Lifting up his feet, he pulled with all of his weight upon the stubborn branch, until it suddenly, unexpectedly, came away dumping him into a sprawling heap beneath the gum tree, with the branch lying on top of him.

"Are you all right?" asked Desi, doing her best not to snicker at her bedraggled hubby.

"As all right as any man can be after losing an arm-wrestling contest to a tree," said Val, making Desi giggle.

Picking himself up, Val brushed himself down and handed the ornery branch to his wife, before heading deeper into the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus forest.


"What's keepin' dem?" asked Sally after nearly a half an hour.

They had finished their meal and were now snuggling together for warmth under a thick red woollen blanket, identical to the one that they had been eating upon outside.

"All the wood is probably wet. As Mum said, 'It pissed down all of last week'," said Yaz, making Lillibet and Sally giggle.

"Well, I hope dey come back soon," said Sally: "I wanta get home to pway video games on da 'puter."

As though in response to Sally's words, the girls heard the crunching of feet upon the wet pine needles and gum leaves, then Desi and Val appeared, carrying armfuls of dry-ish wood to burn.

"Where the Hell are the girls?" asked Val as they stepped into the clearing.

Pointing, Desi said: "They're not silly, as soon as we were out of sight they packed up and moved to the car, where it's less cold."

"Those conniving..." began Val, partly impressed, partly angry at the three girls.

"Ah, they know you might growl a little, but your bark is worse than your bite," explained Desi: "They've taken advantage of the cross-gender parenting trick."

"What's that?"

"Every child knows that if you're a boy and you want to get away with something, or get something, you go to your Mum for it. But if you're a girl and you've been naughty, you give your Dad your prettiest I'm-a-good-little-girl-really smile, and he soon forgives them; when their Mum mightn't."

"Those cunning little..." began Val, stopping as the screeching rang out from overhead.

"What the Hell is...?" began Desi, her words cut off as the great eagle-like lion-like Gryphon swooped down to grab her in its oversized front talons.

"Mum!" shrieked the girls from the backseat of the family car as the Eagle-topped gryphon soared away with their screaming mother dangling from its razor-sharp talons, dropping sticks of wood in her wake.

As Yaz reached for the doorknob, Val shouted: "Girls, stay in the car!"

Seconds later he was screaming too as a second Gryphon swooped down to grab him by the shoulders with its oversized eagle-like front talons, then soared off carrying the hysterical man with it.

"Dad!" shrieked the girls from the back of the Mitsubishi Outlander.

"What'll we do?" cried Sally.

"Wing for powice," said Lillibet.

Taking her at her word, Yaz climbed over into the front seat of the car and reached into the glove box on the left-hand side, where Desi always left her mobile phone, to the chagrin of Val who complained it was a good way to get it stolen.

"Not if the car is locked up," Desi would say. However, neither Desi nor Val was very good at locking up the car.

Picking up the phone, Yaz dialled Triple-O and was soon talking to Alice Walker, at the Mitchell Street Police Station.


Over at the Yellow House in Rochester Road in Merridale, they were enjoying a sumptuous home-cooked roast lamb prepared by the owner of the boarding house, Deidre Morton. A short, dumpy sixty-something brunette, Deidre was a Michelin-Star standard chef who was also obsessed with the colour yellow, which was why her boarding house was painted yellow inside and out.

"This is your best roast ever," said Sheila Bennett, delighting in the succulent meat.

At thirty-five Sheila was the Chief Constable of the entire BeauLarkin to Willamby area; a Goth chick with orange-and-black-striped hair.

"Delicious," agreed Natasha Lipzing.

At seventy, Natasha was the Yellow House's oldest resident and had spent the last thirty-five years at the boarding house.

"Superb," said Terri Scott. A beautiful ash blonde also thirty-five, Terri was the top cop of the area; Sheila's boss, and fiancé of Colin Klein.

"You make Gordon 'Bloody' Ramsey seem like an amateur," said Freddy Kingston. A recent retiree, Freddy was a tall, thickset man, bald apart from a ruff of curly black hair around the back and sides of his head.

"Oh no, that's going too far," said Deidre disingenuously, since she knew damned well it was true.

"No, he's right, you leave Ramsey for dead," insisted Colin Klein.

A tall, redheaded man of forty-eight, Colin had been a top London crime reporter for thirty years before retiring to the Victorian countryside to take up a post with the Glen Hartwell Police Department early in 2024.

"Eat up Sheils," said Terri: "You've got to get back to studying the police manual, ready to resit your exam in late November."

"Oh, I've got facts and figures coming out of my ears," complained Sheila.

Sheila had foolishly admitted recently to copying the exam answers from Terri when she had passed the Victoria Police exam fifteen years earlier, so now she was being forced to sit a mock exam in late November.

"When you can keep them inside your ears you can rest," teased Terri, stopping as her mobile phone buzzed:

"Alice? Yes .. giant eagles, okay. Are you sure? All right." To Colin and Sheila, she said: "Alice says the Leon girls just rang from their family car outside Glen Harwell to say their parents have just been carried away by gigantic eagles."

"They're taking the piss," said Tommy Tucker, also a recent retiree, a short, fat, blond-haired man. A recovering alcoholic, due to Deidre Morton having discovered and seized his secret stash.

"I don't think so, Alice said the girls were crying while talking to her," said Terri: "She's rung the hospital to send a team out to get the girls, but we're also needed out there."

"Including me?" asked Sheila hopefully.

"Yes, virtually everyone else is off with a cold or flu."

"Makes me feel like a real cop again," said Sheila picking up the keys to Terri's police-blue Lexus to resume her position as designated driver.

"You would be a real cop if you hadn't cheated on your exams," said Deidre Morton. Trying her best to stay angry at Sheila; although the Goth chick had always been her favourite out of her family of boarders.


Thirty-five minutes later they were in the forest near the Leons's emerald green Mitsubishi Outlander. Also at the site were Elvis Green the local coroner, and a lifelong Elvis Presley fan; Jesus Costello (pronounced 'Hee-Zeus') the administrator and chief surgeon at the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital, and Tilly Lombstrom, a tall attractive fifty-something brunette, Jesus's chief assistant.

"So, what's up, Docs?" asked Sheila doing the worst possible Bugs Bunny impersonation.

"Well, we found the girls cowering, clearly terrified, in the back of the Outlander," said Tilly: "Something clearly scared the shirt out of them."

"Also there are peculiar blood drippings leading off into the forest," said Jesus pointing: "As though blood was falling from the sky, possibly by something being carried off, as the girls claim."

"Did they say by what?" asked Colin.

"Yaz and Lillibet claim they were gigantic eagles," said Elvis: "But little Sally swears they were two flying lions or tigers that grabbed them."

"The Mantikhora's back!" cried Sheila. [See my story, 'The Mantikhora'!]

"The Mantikhora fired quills into people and killed them on the ground," reminded Terri: "It didn't swoop down, grab people, and carry them off."

"Oh, yeah!" said Sheila.

"So the burning question is," said Elvis: "Are there any eagles in the world large enough to carry off full grown adults?"

"Don't ask us," said Colin: "But we know someone who would know."

"Totty,' said Sheila, Tilly, and Elvis together.

A few minutes later, Terri was speaking on her mobile to Totty Rampling at the Melbourne Wildlife Safari Park.

Hanging up, Terri said: "She almost deafened me squealing from excitement at the mention of gigantic eagles ..."

"Yes, we heard," said Colin.

"But she agreed to come down from Melbourne by the midnight train."

"She couldn't tell you over the phone?" asked Sheila.

"I think she was too excited. Hopefully, she'll have calmed down a little by tomorrow morning."


The next morning a couple of minutes after 9:00 they were waiting at the railway station in Theobald Street, Glen Hartwell, when they heard the tooting of the steam train from a few kilometres away.

"It's barely late?" said Sheila in amazement.

"At least it didn't come early this time," said Colin: "We're all still recovering from the shock of it arriving two minutes early the last time Totty came down to Gen Hartwell."

"Trust me, that will never happen again," teased Terri.

At a few seconds after 9:07 the train pulled up at the platform. And forty or so people alighted, including Totty Rampling: a tall, attractive, thirty-something brunette.

"You were nearly early again," teased Colin, taking Totty's luggage from her.

"This time the train driver listened to me when I told him to slow down or we wouldn't be late," said Totty with a laugh.


After getting Totty booked in with Deidre Morton at the Yellow House, they retired to the Mitchell Street Police Station in Glen Hartwell to discuss eagles with Totty.

Looking at her notes, Totty said: "According to Guinness World Records the largest living eagle based on weight and wingspan is Stellar's Sea Eagle with a wingspan of up to two point four metres and weighing up to nine kilograms. At that size it can carry off cats, dogs, rabbits, maybe even sheep. But it could never carry off a full-grown adult."

"What about Sally Leon's claim that it was flying lions or tigers that snatched her parents?" asked Alice Walker, a forty-six-year-old brunette who only worked part-time for the Glen Hartwell Police Department.

"Even in Africa, where lions come from, or Asia where tigers come from, you don't see too many flying lions or tigers," said Totty: "Certainly not swooping down to carry off people."


Mavis and Mervyn Bramston were part of the Glen Hartwell and Daley Mountaineering Society. Although the mounts in the BeauLarkin to Willamby area barely qualified as more than large hills by world standards. Nonetheless, the society was setting out today to attempt to scale Mount Abergowrie on the northern edge of the forest outside Glen Hartwell.

"It may be only fifteen hundred metres in height," said Haydon Garvey, a tall muscular forty-something man, who had been mountaineering, by Victorian standards, since he was sixteen: "But it does have its challenging sections. At one point it goes up sheer for three hundred metres."

"You've climbed it before, then?" asked Mavis, a tall sharp-faced brunette of fifty-two, who had been in the society for nine years but had never been up Mount Abergowrie.

"Twice before. I almost fell the first time, when I was twenty. But eleven years later I climbed it again with no major incidents."

"Perhaps we'd better check our equipment again first, then?" suggested Mervyn, at forty-eight, a far less experienced climber than his wife, having only been climbing for three years since they had been married.

"Good idea," said Haydon: "You can never check your equipment too often before starting out."

After carefully checking their equipment again, the eleven climbers started out with Haydon in the lead, followed by Mavis, then a nervous Mervyn next. The first five hundred metres or so were not too dangerous, and they reached a large rocky tor, an overhanging rock embedded deep into the mountainside, upon which they could relax and catch their breath for twenty minutes before continuing the climb.

After another couple of hundred metres they had reached the sheer section - three hundred metres straight up with no possible handholds.

"Here comes the tricky part," said Haydon: "There are some pitons still in place from the last time anyone climbed this section of the mount, but we'll have to go slowly so that I can check, and if necessary replace them with new pitons, before trusting our lives to them."

"Going slowly is fine with me," said Mervyn, already a little fatigued, not as fit as Mavis, Haydon, or most of the other climbers.

"Don't worry, Merv," encouraged Haydon: "Just above this section is an eyrie once used by ancient birds as a nesting spot. It makes a great resting place before continuing to the top."

"That's something," muttered Mervyn as they continued upwards, more slowly and more carefully than ever.

It seemed to take forever to cross the sheer three hundred metres, but finally, they reached the top, and Haydon looked up into the ancient eyrie.

"Holy Jesus!" said Haydon, startled.

Trying to backtrack he almost fell, but was saved by Mavis pushing him in the backside, sending him sprawling into the ancient bird's nest, crashing upon the two fresh human skeletons that lay in the nest.

"You, okay...?" asked Mavis climbing p to the top.

She stopped and stared in amazement and horror at the scattered and now shattered human bones that Haydon had not wanted to climb onto.

"Holy shit, are they...?" she asked.

"Yes, human skeletons," said Haydon climbing back to his feet, anxious to leave the eyrie: "We'd better rest up for ten minutes or so, then start down again."

"What's the holdup?" asked Mervyn, anxious to leave the side of the mount.

"We can't go into the eyrie," said Mavis, not wanting to tell him why until they were safely upon the ground again.

"Why not?" he demanded.

"You're better off not knowing," said Mavis, stopping at the hellish sound of screeching from close by.

"Something tells me whatever did this is returning," said Haydon: "Time to start down again."

"We're starting back down again!" Mavis shouted to the other nine climbers.

"We haven't had time to rest," protested a forty-something brunette, Hattie Jenssen, stopping as the bird-like screeching rang out again: "What the Hell was that?"

"Something tells me you don't want to know," said Mavis: "Start back down as quickly as safely possible."

"At least this time we know the pitons are safe," said Hattie as the climbers started down again.

They were about midway down the sheer section, at their most vulnerable, when the two eagle-like, lion-like gryphons appeared and landed within their eyrie.

For a moment it looked as though the giant creatures had not noticed the eleven climbers perched precariously upon the side of the mountain. Then screeching in delight at the sight of more food, the two monsters stretched their great wings and swooped down toward the mountaineers, who were helpless, with nowhere to hide as their talons reached out to claw at them.

Two of the climbers, including Hattie Jenssen, in trying to escape the deadly talons, lost their hold and fell screaming to their deaths at the base of Mount Abergowrie.

"Hattie!" screamed Haydon who had been sweet upon the brunette since she had joined the society three years ago.

More enraged than terrified now, Haydon released his hold upon the rope and landed on the neck of one of the gryphons. Using a sharp piton he began hammering at the eagle-like head of the huge creature shrieking and swearing as he hammered away in rage.

Caught unawares, having never before been attacked by a human in its many centuries of life, the great creature tried craning its neck around to peck at him with its knife-edged beak. However, its neck was too thick to crane past, and for a moment, the mountaineer had the advantage.

"Kill ... poor ... Hattie ... will ...you?" shouted Haydon, battering the gryphon's eagle-head with the piton after each word.

For a few minutes, it looked as though the hysterical mountaineer might manage to kill the great creature. Then the second creature, realising that its mate was in trouble, abandoned the other climbers, allowing them to continue unsafely down the sheer mountain face, as the gryphon soured up to lash at Haydon Garvey with its sabre-sharp talons.

Grabbing at the slashing talon, Haydon leapt off the first, injured creature and started whacking at the lion-like underbelly of the second monster.

Shrieking as much in rage as in agony, the gryphon soared back up to the eyrie. Followed after a moment by its injured companion.

"Die you fucker, died!" screamed Haydon, continuing to lash at the second monster with the piton Even as the first creature soared up and started stabbing at him with its eagle-like beak.

For an insane moment, it looked as though Haydon, in an adrenalin rush, was too strong, and could defeat the two monsters. Then, as the injured gryphon continued pecking at him, gradually the mountaineer's strength began to wane, allowing the two creatures to kill him, tearing out his throat to begin gnawing at their recently living meal, greedily gulping down warm blood and human meat alike.


At the bottom of the mountain at last, the other climbers looked up, not wanting to see Haydon devoured, but unable to avoid looking up.

"What do we do now?" asked a young climber Loridana Grieg, a nineteen-year-old brunette with a touch of Asian beauty to her.

"Ring through to Mitchell Street," said Mavis, the most experienced of the survivors.

"I really thought he was going to kill that monster for a moment there," said Loridana.

"Yes, well he didn't!" said Mavis, more sharply than she had intended: "So now we have to concentrate on the injured."

Collecting her mobile phone from their Land Rover, she rang through to Mitchell Street.


At Mitchell Street Police Station in Glen Hartwell, Totty, Terri, Sheila, Colin, and Alice were still discussing giant birds and which ones, if any could carry away a full-grown human being.

"Maybe it's a return of the dino-birds," suggested Sheila Bennett. [See my stories, 'Night Feeders,' and 'The Beldame'.]

"The dino-birds couldn't fly," reminded Colin: "They were like a cross between roadrunners and small dinosaurs and ran super fast."

"Maybe they've learnt to fly," persisted the Goth chick.

"That's like expecting ostriches to learn how to fly," pointed out Alice, going across to answer the phone as it started chiming. After a few minutes she said: "Well, whatever they are, they've struck again."

"The dino-birds?" persisted Sheila.

"No, whatever carried off Val and Desi Leon. They attacked eleven members of the Glen Hartwell and Daley Mountaineering Society attempting to scale Mount Abergowrie. It seems the oversized birds, or flying lions, have a nest about a kilometre up the mountain ... in which the climbers saw two human skeletons..."

"Val and Desi," whispered Terri.

"Presumably so. And they killed three members of the society, including its leader Haydon Garvey."

"Poor Haydos," said Sheila.


Forty minutes later Terri's police-blue Lexus pulled up near the base of Mount Abergowrie, where Mavis Bramston and the other survivors were being treated by Jesus, Tilly, and Elvis. The two corpses at the base of the mount had been taken away, although Haydon Garvey's corpse and the Leons's skeletons were unreachable by the ambulance crews.

"So what was it that attacked you?" asked Terri Scott.

"Two gigantic eagles," insisted Mavis Bramston.

"Definitely," agreed Loridana Grieg.

"No way, they were giant flying lions," insisted Mervyn: "But with bird-like talons for front feet."

"Yes," agreed two of the other survivors.

"The same as we got from the Leon kids," said Elvis Green.

"Maybe they're half and half," suggested Tilly Lombstrom, guessing the truth: "Part eagle and part lion."

"Barring a mad scientist doing wacky gene-splicing that would be impossible," insisted Colin Klein: "Different species of birds can breed together and different big cats can cross-breed. But no way could a lion and an eagle produce offspring."

"Tell them that," said Jesus, pointing to the survivors, as three ambulances returned to take survivors to the Glen Hartwell and Daley Community Hospital.

"Next question," said Tilly: "How the Hell do we get the remains of Haydon, Desi, and Val down from the lion-eagles' eyrie?"

"I think it's time to call in Louie Pascall," said Terri.

"Terrif.," said Sheila: "We haven't been up in his Bell Huey in ages."

"Trust her to see a bright side to it," teased Colin.


It was nearly an hour later before Louie Pascall, a huge, burly farmer, arrived with the only helicopter in the BeauLarkin to Willamby region. In record time they were in the chopper, heading up to examine the remains in the eyrie a kilometre up the side of Mount Abergowrie.

"Well, there's no doubt about it," said Sheila, riding shotgun next to Louie.

They all peered out at the bloody remains of Haydon Garvey and the skeletal remains of Desi and Val Leon.

"So how do we get them down?" asked Colin

"No way to land the Huey there," aid Louie: "You'll need mountain climbers to bring them down."

"Not until we take care of whatever caused this," said Terri.

"Which is what?" asked Louie.

"Either flying lions with talons, or gigantic eagles," said Sheila: "Depending on who you ask."

"Flying...?" began Louie, stopping as a hellish shrieking started out from behind them: "What the...?"

"I think we're about to see for ourselves what the killers are," said Colin as the two gryphons soared up to the Bell Huey, smashing into the right side of it.

"What happens if they break off the tail rotor?" asked Sheila.

"From a kilometre up?" said Louie: "We all die."

So saying he spun the helicopter 180 degrees to protect the rear rotor. And for the first time, the four people saw what the gryphons looked like.

"The front halves are giant eagles..." said Sheila.

"And the rear halves are lions," said Colin: "That explains the conflicting reports."

"It also means I'm getting us down to the ground as quickly as possible," said Louie: "Before they take us down."

As he spoke one of the gryphons soared straight at the front windscreen ... missing and almost being decapitated by the overhead rotors as the chopper suddenly plummeted out of immediate reach.

Shrieking in rage at this cowardly retreat, the two gryphons soared down after the helicopter, reaching it, just after it landed. Slamming against the rear of the chopper, they managed to tear off the rear rotor and toppled the helicopter over onto its side causing Sheila to fall on top of Louie Pascall, and Terri to fall on top of Colin.

"So how do we get away from them now?" asked Sheila.

"Well, there's no taking off again," said Louie: "And boy are you lot getting a large bill from me this time."

"Won't your insurance cover it?" asked Terri hopefully.

"What, damage by flying half-eagle half-lion monsters? I can just imagine what they'd say if I put that on a claim form."

"Sounds like it's time to get shouted at again by the Deputy Commissioner of Police up in Russell Street," said Terri.

"And maybe put in a request for a military helicopter to come help out while you're at it, babe," suggested Colin.

"More shouting,' said Terri.

The good news though, was that, having toppled the chopper, the two gryphons, deciding that they had made a kill against the mechanical bird, had soared up to their eyrie again to roost.


When they finally returned to the Mitchell Street Police Station, Totty, beaming in pride said:

"I've found out what your lion-like, eagle-like creatures are. According to Google, they must be gryphons."

"Well, whatever they're called, we've seen them," said Terri: "And it's time for me to get shouted at by the Deputy Commissioner again."

Taking out her mobile phone, she rang through to Melbourne and explained the situation, cringing from time to time as the Deputy Commissioner indeed shouted at her.

"Why is Glen Hartwell the only part of Victoria I get phone calls about monster attacks from?" he demanded: "You only have twelve thousand or so people, compared to nearly seven million in all of Victoria."

He waited for a minute or so for an answer that Terri was unable to give, then finally he agreed to get in touch with the R.A.A.F. to send down a military chopper and to buy Louie Pascall a brand new Bell Huey.

"Louie'll be chuffed," said Sheila when told the news: "He was planning on trading it in for a new one before Christmas anyway. Now he gets it for gratis!"

"Just don't tell that to the Deputy Commissioner," said Colin.

"Certainly not," agreed Terri.


A little after 8:40 AM the next morning, Terri, Colin, and Sheila were in the front office of the Mitchell Street Police Station in Glen Hartwell, when they heard the unmistakable sound of a helicopter approaching.

"That sounds like our girls!" said Sheila as they went outside to stand on the sundried lawn outside the station to wait as an R.A.A.F. A25 Sikorsky S-70 Blackhawk helicopter approached the station.

After landing in the street, out stepped the pilot, fifty-something Jennifer Eckles, an attractive brunette with pixie-cut hair, and her twenty-something daughter, Barbara, with longer brown hair.

"Barbara, Jennifer," said Terri, giving them each a hug.

"They still don't trust us with a groovy new SR-72?" asked Sheila.

"No," said Barbara: "They still haven't forgiven you for destroying an SR-71 last year."

"That wasn't our fault," protested Colin. [See my story, "Across the Plains Comes the Verdillac'.]

"Besides Stanlee Dempsey was in charge of that case, not me," said Terri.

"That's right," said Colin: "You hadn't been made top cop yet."

"Well, we'd better get aboard and start gryphon hunting," said Jennifer.

"If it was anywhere else we'd think you were crazy," said Barbara as they climbed into the chopper: "But with the goofy stuff that's been going on in Glen Hartwell for decades now, gryphons are hardly anything unusual."

"So, where to?" asked Jennifer as she took the chopper up.

"They've got an eyrie a kilometre up Mount Abergowrie," explained Sheila.

"Hang on," said Barbara pressing some buttons on her monitor screen: "We've had GPS details for the Glen Hartwell area fed into the computer, since this seems to have become our second base over the last year or so."


Dennis DuBeck was only a hundred and fifty-five centimetres tall, but as its founder and leader, he was a giant of a man at the LePage and Elroy Battle Re-Enactment Society. The society prided itself upon being able to re-enact any war. However, they had suffered great losses over the last year due to the deaths of many of their members. [See my stories, 'The Battlefield' and 'The Questing Beast'.] However, Dennis refused to allow the society to die out. Battle re-enacting was his life, his raison d'être, to misquote René Descartes was, 'He re-enacts battles, therefore he is'.

They were now made up as Roman soldiers out to conquer the Goths, played by members of a rival re-enactment society.

"Chief Centurion Dendemone," called Dennis's second in charge Kenneth Maudsley: "The Goths are rapidly approaching."

He pointed to where a herd of battle-ready figures were rapidly approaching from out of the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus forest.

"Sir Kay call your Chivalry to attention!" cried Dennis to his third in charge, Marsha Maudsley, Kenneth's wife.

"My chivalry to attention!" called Marsha-Kay. Then unhappy at their slapdash shuffling, she shouted: "Stand to attention you worthless curs!"

Which had the desired effect of bringing the chivalry (groups of knights) to order.

"Excellent, Sir Kay. Now Sir Galahad!"

"My chivalry to attention!" shrieked Kenneth, terrifying his 'troops' into action.

"Excellent! Now my chivalry to attention!" shouted Dennis-Lancelot: "Come on you worthless layabouts!

Finally, his chivalry moved to attention to Dennis's satisfaction: "Now to battle. We must vanquish the accursed Goths."

"Vanquish the accursed Goths," shouted Kenneth and Marsha and many members of their chivalries as they started marching toward the rapidly approaching enemy.


In less than ten minutes the A25 Sikorsky S-70 Blackhawk helicopter reached Mount Abergowrie, where they found the eyrie with the skeletal remains of Desi and Val Leon, and Haydon Garvey. However, there was no sign of the two gryphons.

"So what do we do now?" asked Jennifer, as they hovered near the mount.

"If you hover above it, I can go down the rope ladder to collect the human bones," offered Barbara.

"No way!" shouted Sheila, Colin, and Terri.

"You haven't seen these monsters," said Terri a little more calmly: "They crashed Louie Pascall's Bell Huey..."

"With us inside it," added Sheila.

"I can climb back up the ladder if they appear."

"Not fast enough," said Colin: "You haven't seen these bastards move."

"What he said," agreed Sheila.

"It seems wrong to just leave them there."

"You can collect them, in safety, once we take care of the gryphons," said Terri.


The battle of the Knights of the Round Table versus the Goths was going full out, with losses on both sides, but no clear winner yet, when the screeching came from deeper in the forest.

Glaring at Kenneth, Dennis asked: "I hope you didn't get your mad sister, Jenny, to build some kind of over-the-top questing beast again."

"No, Sire. I followed your instructions to keep Genevieve in the dark about this latest crusade."

"Excellent," said Dennis, chagrined as the hellish shrieking rang out again: "Then what the hell is that?"

"Maybe the Goths are using some kind of sound effects, Sire," suggested Marsha-Kay.

"Well, they had no right to do so without first getting approval from the Re-Enactment Council! And notifying us in advance!"

"They've never been above cheating," pointed out Kenneth-Galahad.

"That's right," agreed Marsha-Kay.

"Who's never been above cheating?" demanded Morris Martin, leader of the Goth army. A tall, fat redheaded man, nearly sixty years old.

"You lot!" said Dennis DuBeck: "Who gave you permission to use sound effects for this battle."

"And what has bird-like screeching got to do with the war against the Goths?" demanded Marsha.

"Who's using sound effects?" asked Morris.

"You lot!" insisted Kenneth as the shrieking rang out again; much closer this time.

"That isn't us!" insisted Morris as the two eagle-topped, lion-bottomed Gryphons soured into sight.

Swooping down, one of the monsters clawed Morris across the back, slashing right through the leather costume that he was wearing.

"Bloody Jenny, what kind of creatures has she made for you this time?" demanded Morris as he leapt to the ground to avoid further attacks by the gryphons.

"They weren't made by Genevieve," insisted Kenneth swinging his sword against the talons of the second creature.

"Well, we didn't make them," insisted Morris, as he started trying to crawl away into the imagined safety of the sweet-smelling pine and eucalyptus forest.

Not having any of that, the gryphon swooped toward him again, ripping off most of the leather costume from Morris's back. Along with a generous chunk of flesh, making the Goth leader shriek in agony.

"Retreat to the forest, both sides!" shouted Dennis, as the second gryphon swooped toward Marsha.

A thirty-something two-metre-tall body-builder, Marsha swung her steel sword at the talons of the creature, almost amputating one of its claws.

Shrieking in surprise as much as agony, the gryphon soured up to safety. Then abandoning the Amazonian warrior, it swooped down toward her shorter, less muscular husband, Kenneth Maudsley.

"Oh, no you don't, Tweety!" shouted Marsha racing across to protect her hubby.

Swinging her authentic battle sword again, this time she amputated the gryphon's damaged talon.

Shrieking in agony and terror at this unexpected attack, the creature soared up high. Then shrieking again, it took off back to the imagined safety of Mount Abergowrie to lick its wounds.


Over at Mount Abergowrie, Terri and co. were undecided whether to stay or go off searching for the two monsters. Then from the forest behind them, they heard the screeching of the retreating gryphon.

"Sounds like they're returning," said Jennifer.

She swung the helicopter around to confront the returning creatures.

"There's only one of them," said Barbara: "I thought you said there were two of them."

"There are," insisted Terri Scott.

"Well, let's take care of this one now, then hunt for the other one later," said Jennifer. Then to her daughter: "Prepare the rockets for firing."

Pushing a few buttons on her console, Barbara said: "Rockets are prepared for firing."

"Good ... wait for my order, honey. Let's let the bastard get well within range first."

"Gotcha, Mum," said Barbara, doing her best to keep her itchy finger off the red firing button for the rockets.

"Wait for it! With for it!" said Jennifer. Then when the gryphon was about ten metres away: "Okay let the overgrown budgie have it!"

"You got it, Mum," said Barbara almost punching the red ignition button.

Two rockets whooshed out of the chopper, making a direct hit upon the injured gryphon, making it shriek as it plummeted out of the sky.

"Nice shooting, babe," said Jennifer, high-fiving her daughter: "Now let's take her down to finish off buzzard-breath."

So saying she took the helicopter down to twenty metres or so, before giving the order for Barbara to fire two more rockets at the blackened and bloody creature.

"It looks dead already," said Barbara launching the second two rockets: "Still, it doesn't hurt to make certain."

"That's my girl," encouraged Jennifer as the second two rockets hit the gryphon full on, reducing it to little more than feathers, lion hide, shattered bones, and smouldering meat.

"Anyone for barbecued turkey?" joked Sheila.

"No thank you," said Terri: "If that were the last meat on Earth, I'd become a vegetariloony before eating it."

"Well, if no one's hungry, let's go find the second turkey," said Jennifer. She turned the chopper to start in the direction that the gryphon had come from.


On the battlefield, Kenneth and Dennis had had to virtually carry the ravaged Morris Martin out of the open into the protection of the forest.

Six other re-enactors had been injured by the second gryphon, but no one mortally, due to Marsha's unrelenting attack upon the creature with her sword.

Having never encountered such a savage counterattack before the creature was screeching constantly from fear, anger, and dismay. It had been attacking, killing, and eating humans for centuries without ever having been injured ... until now. Marsha had managed to damage one of its wings, which was spraying blood; although, the creature was still able to fly. However, it was starting to lose its desire for combat.

"Yeah, you'd better take off, Tweety!" shouted Marsha as the monster turned tail and zoomed off toward the imagined safety of Mount Abergowrie, screeching as it flew away.

Racing across to her husband and the others, she asked: "What's the injury count?"

"Half a dozen injured, four needing certain hospitalisation," said Dennis: "Thankfully no one was killed this time."

"Thank God," said Marsha, trying not to look embarrassed as her husband grabbed her in a bear hug.

"Thanks to you, babe," said Kenneth, getting nods of agreement from the others.


The helicopter was halfway to the battle zone when they encountered the second retreating gryphon.

"Rockets, ready?" asked Jennifer.

"Rockets, ready!" confirmed Barbara.

"Wait for it to get close, babe!"


Seeing the helicopter approaching, and remembering how easily they had taken care of Louie Pascall's Bell Huey, the gryphon soared toward the chopper, deciding that this would partly make up for the unexpected defeat against the re-enactment society."

"Wait for it! Wait for it!" ordered Jennifer. Then when the creature was ten or twelve metres off: "Okay, let the oversized budgie have it."

"Firing rockets," said Barbara slamming her left fist into the red ignition button.

As the rockets zoomed toward it, the gryphon hurriedly tried to change course. However, being heat-seekers the rockets changed course also and blew the shrieking monster out of the sky.

"Okay, let's go down for the kill, Mum," said Barbara, anxious to finish off the second creature.

"You got it, babe," said Jennifer taking the chopper down so that Barbara could make certain that their last two rockets hit their target.

"Direct hit!" cried Jennifer as the last two rockets blew the second monster to oblivion.

"Let's go get the remains from their eyrie now," said Barbara as Terri's mobile phone rang.

"Will do, babe," said Jennifer.

"Cancel that," said Terri after talking on the phone for a moment: "The buggers badly injured four members of the LePage and Elroy Battle Re-Enactment Society before you got them. We'll need to ferry them to the hospital ASAP."

"On our way," said Jennifer changing direction.

"They should have stuck to playing Snakes and Ladders, or Chinese Checkers as Totty suggested last time," said Sheila.

"Good point ... strangely made," said Barbara.


At the battle site, they loaded the four badly injured re-enactors into the chopper, requiring Colin, Terri, Sheila, and Barbara to stay behind.

"You know, I just thought of something," said Sheila as the chopper flew off.

"What's that?" asked Terri.

"Totty will be pissed when she learns that we blasted the gryphons to oblivion, without her getting a look at them first," said Sheila, making everyone laugh.

THE END
© Copyright 2024 Philip Roberts
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia