Feathers & a Dash of Magic

Chapter 49: A Griffin Named Griffin

CW: monster hunters, cages, being chained up, cells, animal abuse, implied torture, overwhelming fear but not yet a panic attack

Virgil's arms and back were sore, he would rather lay down and curl up on the bottom of the cage than continue to be strung half way up like he was. Luckily it had hay on the bottom so he wasn't being burned by the iron.

His eyes kept closing, as the carriage moved, sleep threatening to take him over. He didn't want to fall asleep though, it wasn't safe. He hardly slept the night before, being woken up by nightmares and anxiety in general. Every sound set him on high alert, and it was starting to drive him crazy.

Still, the lack of sleep and the constant moving of the carriage made it so easy to doze off. That was until the moving wasn't constant anymore. The carriage seemed to roll to a stop, and there was shouting outside.

"Open the gate!" a voice called.

Gate? What gate?

There was loud screeching outside and after a moment the carriage started moving again. It was much slower this time, and Virgil felt his anxiety crawling up again. He tried to tug on the chains, but they stayed intact.

The carriage stopped again and there was a lot of movement from outside. People were talking, and it seemed like they were taking their time with it too, before the door opened and light spilled in. Virgil shut his eyes closed as they burned from seeing sunlight for the first time in who knows how many hours.

Three hunters came in, one staying by the door with his arms crossed and the other two walking over to the cage. Like last time, one had keys in his hand and the other held a gun pointed at him.

The one with the keys unlocked Virgil's cage, swinging the door wide open. He reached over to him and Virgil flinched back, squeezing his eyes shut in fear. He felt them grab his arm, pulling him closer and unlocking the cuffs on his wrists.

"If you don't behave then you'll be shot dead, got it?" the hunter warned.

Virgil didn't respond, he didn't want to comply obviously but he didn't want to be hurt either. Once the cuffs were off, he was pulled out of the cage roughly. He yelped when he hit one of the iron bars, but the hunter didn't seem to care and pulled him up to his feet.

The other hunter who had stayed back moved forward and they cuffed his arms together, once again with steel cuffs that had those black crystals on them. Virgil was too focused on the gun to do anything about it, and let them lead him off of the carriage. There were more hunters outside, all of them holding some sort of weapon.

Virgil found it hard to keep his footing, but he didn't know if it was because he was shaking too hard or because there was iron in his system. The steel shackles rubbed against the iron burn on his wrist, who knows how long that was around his arm before they took it off. Well, the burn wasn't too bad so probably not long.

The hunters led him inside a large building made from white cement bricks. The forest around them seemed to have worn on it, since there were green and brown stains, some ivy even grew on the sides and into some cracks. Looking around, Virgil saw there was a tall wall surrounding the building, metal gates being closed and locked behind them. There were metal rods on top of the wall, bent to make a cage around the building, a chain netting to keep anything from slipping in or out. This was a prison after all, they would want all of their prisoners to stay in.

He was led inside, down a set of stairs to a hallway that matched the outside of the building. There were several cells on both sides, several creatures in all of them. Virgil passed cages stuffed with wolpertingers, one with a giant wolf that was chained up, and one that had a sad dragon in it, their mouth muzzled and wings chained. All had scars, or were missing scales and horns, among other things.

Virgil started to tremble again, his breath becoming shaky as they stopped in front of a cell. Inside was a griffin who had stumps for wings, an avion siren who didn't have many feathers, and a person who had gray hair, their dark skin ashen and wrinkled, they seemed to be in their 60's.

The monster hunters unlocked the cell door, making all three look over as Virgil was pushed inside. The door was shut loudly again and the fairy watched as it was locked.

"Play nice you four," the hunter teased before walking away.

The aging person sighed, making Virgil tense up. He couldn't tell if they were a man or woman, the gray hair reaching down to their shoulders.

"Relax kid, none of us will hurt you. It's the hunters you need to worry about," they told him.

Virgil nodded, not sure what to do. He was tired and wanted to rest, his arms were heavy from being held above his head the whole trip, but he didn't know these people and didn't know if it was safe to rest.

The siren leaned against the wall, her arms were wrapped in bandages and the little feathers that had started to grow were ruffled and dirty. She looked empty inside, and utterly defenseless.

The griffin was curled up in a corner, it's beak resting on it's paws. There were several scars on it's side, and it didn't have any claws. It certainly didn't look like it was going to hurt Virgil, for now at least.

Lastly there was that androgenous person, they held themself in a way that showed strength but there was no magic coming off of them. Their eyes were a mix of orange and green though, so they weren't human, and they had numerous scars all over their body, most thin and jagged like surgery scars.

"Just sit down and relax, there's no point in standing around like that. Rest while you can," the stranger told him.

Virgil hesitated but walked along the wall to the empty corner, sitting down and resting his body. "I um... who-who are you?" he asked quietly.

"I go by Elliot, and I prefer they/them pronouns. The siren over there is Cynthia," they gestured to her. "She can't speak, her voice box is damaged."

Cynthia nodded, looking over and giving Virgil a tired smile.

"And we call this griffin, well, Griffin. We're not the best at names, but he seems to like it."

Griffin purred, inching over before rubbing his head against Elliot's side.

"I'm... I'm Virgil," he told them.

Elliot smiled. "I wish we could have met under better circumstances. Why don't you rest for now, take a nap, our meals should be coming in a few hours. If we hear anyone coming, we'll wake you."

Virgil nodded, curling up some more and covering himself with his wings. He leaned into the corner of the room and closed his eyes, desperately trying to push down his fear so he could rest. He didn't know these people, but given what state they're in, he should trust them, for now at least.

He could still feel worry, guilt, and anger coming from Roman. He wanted to tell the witch that, for now at least, he wasn't hurt. But even if he could, he was still scared out of his mind. Virgil wanted to feel love for Roman so the witch would calm down even a little bit, but the fear was too overwhelming. He hoped that Roman was okay.