Impaired (Prologue)

‘Impaired.’ A word which means to be weakened or damaged, displaying some sort of specific disability.
It is a word which represents a state of being, whether it be temporary or permanent.
To be judged as impaired under a traditional gryphonic code is simply put, a death sentence.
The codes to the members who obey them are regarded as law,
with impairment as the worst possible offense, aside from murder or adultery.
Impairments include albinism, deformities, dimwittedness, physical weakness and being frail in nature.
The worst form of impairment is to be the offspring of two differing species,
a hybrid.

To be regarded as a hybrid is to be regarded as a mutant,
a freak of nature which was never meant to be and therefore must be destroyed.
Any time a hybrid arises, they are considered to be a threat.
For in gryphonic codes, all threats to a species’ survival and continued existence must be eliminated.
Should hybrids mature and reproduce, they will only taint the bloodlines of each distinct species.
Such a thing will only lead to a future where there is but one species,
one where there is no diversity and whatever differences will vanish,
leaving future generations vulnerable to disease, physical and mental weakness.
Because of this fear, the codes stand firm and absolute.
It is all but one’s duty to their flock to destroy whatever hybrids they encounter,
to preserve each species and ensure their continued existence.

In a subtropical land which borders a vast sea, there are a pair of bays enclosed by a peninsula.
Linking the bay to the sea is a broad inlet in the south, where tides are constantly at work.
Coating the shores of the bay are dense mangrove forests and occasional stretches of open sand.
A small peninsula juts south and separates the two bays, where pine flats dominate.
Along the western coast are barrier islands, forming long but thin coastal bays.
On the northwestern and northeastern points of the bay,
two separate rivers form deltas where mammoth cypress stands grow.
Everywhere, there is life to be found.
From the barrier islands and rivers to the bays and sea itself, life is abundant.

A near infinite amount of species inhabit the land,
but none have made their presence more distinct than the gryphons with their distinct flocks.
They are all much the same size at three feet high and share feline like qualities,
but that is where most similarities end.
In the southernmost region of the bay, beyond the larger peninsula, lives the Sawbeak flock.
Their feathers are a distinctive green, like that of palmettos and occasional sweetgum trees.
On the large peninsula and southernmost barrier islands live the Pikeclaw gryphons,
whose blue feathers rival the sky and waves of the incoming sea.
The northernmost flock, the Sunfeathers, inhabit the oak forests along the northwestern river.
Their feathers are orange, resembling a sunrise of sunset over the smaller western bay.
Furthest from the coast and living on the northeastern river delta are the Ashenwings.
their members have sooty grey wings with lighter bodies.

In this diverse and wild land, there are whispers of a nameless creature,
one rarely seen and never before spoken to.
Its primaries are blue, secondary feathers green, and coverts orange.
Its eyes are red, upper body black and feline haunches ashy grey.
The creature is a female gryphon, that fact is known.
What is not known is her name, her purpose, or even where she originated.
What is known is that she lives in the pine flats of the small peninsula dividing the bays.
The pine flats are known by the flocks for their fires, predators, and lack of favorable prey.
This nameless creature does have a name, and parents who she lives with.

Her name is Rysha, and she, according to gryphonic codes, should not exist.
For Rysha, like her parents, are judged as impaired.
They are all hybrids, each doing their best to live while remaining hidden from the flocks.

Her mother’s plumage is brown, while white streaks along her body and wings gave rise to her name,
Cirrus.
Cirrus’s life was a source of trouble from the start,
her mother was from Sawbeak and father from Pikeclaw.
She was the result of a love which formed after a traumatic event,
an understanding after her mother saved her father from drowning while his family perished in a storm.
Cirrus came as a result of selflessness and courage, but was met with controversy from both flocks.
Most wanted to see Cirrus destroyed even before she hatched,
but her parents didn’t give in to the ridiculing and belittling they received.
As a result, her parents and all of their future offspring were banished from both flocks,
under pain of death.
They fled to the pine flats on the small peninsula where Cirrus was hatched and raised in isolation.
She was tough and could withstand just about anything that came her way.
Cirrus didn’t have friends, but she did have parents who watched and loved her.
That is, until one fateful day when Cirrus was almost old enough to gain her independence.
A titanic storm ravaged the bays for two days straight.
Her parents perished in the floods brought on by the storm surge,
they drowned getting Cirrus to higher ground.
She survived and lived on her own in the pine flats,
finding no other refuge from the pain of her parent’s demise.
Life alone was difficult, but Cirrus put her past behind her and moved on knowing she was loved.

Rysha’s father was all black like a crow, with red eyes and a pink scar on the lower left side of his neck.
His black and sheeny plumage gave rise to his name,
Coal.
Coal’s life was a sad tale from the beginning,
he was the result of love which degenerated into hostility.
His mother was once a carefree Sunfeather,  
until she met a male from Ashenwing after straying into unfamiliar territory.
They were at first openly hostile and vicious,
but began meeting each other again and again until they became friends.
Knowing their friendship was against the law, they left whatever they had behind.
They started a new life between Sunfeather and Ashenwing territory, falling in love.
When Coal was hatched, his father saw something beautiful.
He saw the most amazing creature ever to walk the earth.
His mother, however, saw an abomination.
When Coal was young, his mother feared him, she refused to believe he was her child.
As a child, Coal was timid, but eager to explore and learn once given motivation.
While his father’s love for him grew, his mother’s fear did the same.
Until one day, her fear transformed into hate, which quickly became outright hostility.
Coal was terrified of his mother and his father protected him,
but not before Coal was accidentally burned on his neck.
He survived his injury, but the experience left his throat damaged.
Coal was still able to speak, but the pain in speaking was immense,
he could only speak a few words at a time.
To him, it was better to remain silent.
His mother felt horrible about how she once thought of him,
for he was her only son and she forgot she loved him.
He became old enough to leave on his own and left at the first chance he had,
he knew how to take care of himself and knew where he could live without fear of being found.

Coal and Cirrus met one afternoon in the pine flats.
With nowhere else for him to go, he wandered there and Cirrus saw the scar on his neck.
Thinking he’d been hurt, she rushed over to him.
Speaking and communicating was very difficult at first,
but together they learned they were both alone in the world and Cirrus was slightly older than he was.
At first, they remained on separate ends of the pine flats and kept to themselves.
Over the course of two years, they began meeting one another,
all while flying between home and suitable hunting grounds further inland.
Coal discovered he didn’t need words to communicate his feelings, he learned he could improvise.
Cirrus spoke about her past, all while understanding his unorthodox gestures and simple sounds.
In time, they became friends, soon becoming lovers.
Finally, they came to a decision which would forever alter their lives, they wanted a family.
After knowing one another for four years, they made their longstanding bond permanent.
Coal became a father and Cirrus a mother, she laid a single pale brown egg.
Despite being smaller than it should’ve been, it hatched nonetheless,
and they were blessed with a daughter.
They named their child Rysha, she had the blood of all four flocks running through her veins.
She was weak and slow to grow at first, but all doubts were erased as time went by.
Rysha took after her mother’s toughness and certainly her father’s eagerness to explore.
Her parents became extremely protective of her once she started flying,
they knew what would happen if she was ever seen by the flocks.
The flocks would hunt down and destroy her, simply out of fear of the unknown.
Rysha was all Coal and Cirrus had, she was the one mark they would leave on the world.
If it came to it, they would both die to defend her and did everything to ensure she lived a good life.

Rysha still isn’t old enough to live on her own,
but she constantly fantasizes what it would be like to see the other flocks,
perhaps meet the other juvenile gryphons she had only ever seen from afar.
She is young and inexperienced, unlike her parents who are well aware of the flocks and their codes.
Despite everything they do to convince her otherwise,
their daughter is bent on seeing the world in its entirety, to do what they never did or could as children.
But as Coal and Cirrus know, their world is one full of gryphons who would likely kill her on sight.
Not to mention filled with predators such as bears, alligators, foxes, and coyotes.
All are known to eat unfortunate gryphons who wander into their midst and can’t get away fast enough.
Every day Coal and Cirrus worry about their daughter, she is naïve.
They know they can’t protect her and conceal her from the world forever,
they know their daughter will be discovered at one point in the future.
What terrifies them most is that they know it isn’t a matter of if,
rather it is a matter of when and how.
Until that all but inevitable moment, both Coal and Cirrus remain on their guard,
all while young Rysha is often lost in her childhood fantasies and imaginings,
wondering what’s out there and waiting to be seen.