Warp Token Update

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***

“What is it?” she asked curtly, her neck bending at an odd angle as she followed his gaze. “Is that…”

The shadow came and went in the time it took to blink. Through the haze, behind and above them, was a dark spot, framed against the cerulean heavens. It was travelling in a wide circle, swooping around to their east, then to their south. It was steadily losing altitude, and it began to dip, there was a sharp sound, and then the spot rose up in height. The noise was of a pair of flapping wings, solitary and powerful.

“D-Does it see us?” Skyseeker whispered, her voice trembling as she began to panic.

Roderick didn’t reply, his legs rooted to the spot as the dot continued to circle. He didn’t dare wipe the bead of sweat that had formed to drip over his eye, fearing even the smallest movement would give them away. He had been trained to always be assessing his options, to always have a plan should an unexpected obstacle crop up, but terror had driven such thoughts away, the horrible prospect that he would be eaten alive the only thing on his mind.

When the spot soared to their north, completing a full circle around the pair, it began to grow, first to the size of his thumb, then to the size of a war balloon. He turned and yelled for Skyseeker to run, but his voice was drowned out by a bestial screech, a sound so horrible it ignited a primal terror he had never felt before.

“SCAMPER!” Skyseeker wailed, rushing ahead as Roderick forced his legs to move. They took off in a mad dash over the incline, moving in the direction of the woodlands walling off the edge of the Trantine Hills.

They sprinted the next valley chain over when the beast flapped its wings again, the noise reminiscent of fluttering ship sails. It was descending. The rolling landscape hadn’t been much of an issue for Roderick, yet somehow suddenly found himself losing his footing, every step costing a tremendous effort, the terror gripping him making him feel slower, heavier.

Skyseeker’s pink tail arced over the next incline, the rodent no doubt used to outrunning her pursuers, Roderick heaving beneath his helmet as he tried to keep pace. He didn’t want to turn around, didn’t want see how close his doom was to catching him, but a bigger part of him couldn’t help it, Roderick stealing a glance over his shoulder as he scaled the incline.

It was flying in at a steep arc, like a living cannonball fired from an artillery piece, another great beat of its wings steadying its momentum. The gryphon was close enough he could make out the irises on its eyes, a reflective orange shade that was at once predatory and intelligent, rapidly growing in size as it soared over the ground.

His mail leggings rattled and clinked as he rushed down the opposing slope, his eyes on the horizon. The edge of the Trantine Hills had seemed a trivial distance a moment ago, but now they seemed to stretch an impossible away, as though he were experiencing a perverted, horizontal twist of vertigo.

Another flap of wings, the gryphon was mere meters away. What felt like a rope began to constrict around his lungs as he heard the sound of scraping dirt some distance at his rear. He could see the cause of the sound in his mind’s eye – the beast was raking its claws through the earth as it tailed him, preparing to pluck him up like a bird of prey abducting a helpless rabbit.

He could sense it drawing close, it would be practically on his heels in the next few moments. With a sound that was somewhere between a cry of effort and a cry of fear, Roderick threw himself to the side in a desperate dive, feeling a gust of wind bracket his helmet as something flew over his shoulder.

Wiping dust from his eyes, he looked up to see a pair of giant feet clamp together on the spot he’d just vacated, the wicked talons capping the toes snapping together with a sound like giant pairs of scissors. The gryphon loosed a frustrated squawk, Roderick having half a mind to throw off his helmet so he could block out the sound. It was like listening to a thousand nails scrape against a chalkboard.

The beast lifted back into the air on its flapping wings, preparing for another pass. Roderick was on his feet in an instant, running right beneath the monster’s feet, the beast swooping in arc as it tracked him.

“Man-thing!” he heard Skyseeker call, spotting her standing up on the next hill, waving her arms. “Scamper-go! Tree things here-here!”

The gryphon turned its gaze towards Skyseeker, the Skaven shrieking in fear. Perhaps it thought her an easier target, or perhaps it saw she was covered in fur as opposed to metal like Roderick, deducing she would make a tastier meal. Either way, the gryphon switched its attention to her, balancing on its wings as it descended on Skyseeker, its feathery coat roiling like the surface of a disturbed pond. Roderick’s pace faltered as the beast slipped behind the slope, the man buffeted by the backdraft of its wings.

Roderic hauled himself up the hill after a few moments, that rope around his chest tightening all the while as he heard Skyseeker cry out in terror. He’d heard people scream for their lives many times before, but hers was something more, the shrill sound chilling his blood.

He looked up to see the gryphon gaining on Skyseeker, the beast landing on the stretch of grass with a thunderous report. It bounded across the ground for a few paces, then lifted one of its forelimbs in a vicious strike, Skyseeker ducking out of the way. Here the grass began to take on a more healthier shade of green, the edge of the woodlands within arrow distance. The Skaven rushed towards the treeline, her panting audible even from where Roderick was standing.

The gryphon swiped at her tail again as it gave chase, but Skyseeker avoided the attack, eyes seemingly in the back of her head as she dodged without breaking stride, dropping to the ground in a short slide. The muscles in her thighs shifting, she launched herself the last few feet into the trees, plunging into a wall of ferns, the leaves shaking as she retreated deeper into the woods.

The gryphon loosed its terrible screech as its quarry slipped away, turning its gaze back on Roderick, drawn to his presence by his clanking armour. It propelled itself after him, its four legs as large as some of the trees behind it, the limbs carrying its gigantic body with an ease that shouldn’t be possible for such a bulky creature.

He was almost there, the treeline a stone’s throw away, the gryphon closing in to intercept him, the way it propelled itself bringing to mind images of lions chasing after deer. As Roderick threw himself the last few feet, the beast brought its head down on his right, its avian features framed by a mane of feathers. He would have called his escape close, but the gryphon come near enough that he could pick out the tiny scars marking the monster’s yellow beak – that was more than just close.

He made to retreat further into the forest, when his foot clipped on a protruding root, and he fell onto his front hard. The error would have doomed him if not for the two trunks barring the way for the gryphon, the beast too bulky to squeeze through. Roderick flipped over onto his back, crawling away on his ass and elbows as the gryphon shoved one of its front legs through the obstruction, narrowly avoiding crushing his leg by a few precious inches.

He felt something hook around his elbow, Roderick turning to see Skyseeker trying to lift him, despite the fact the Skaven mustn’t have weighed even a third of his overall bodyweight, her feet slipping on the dirt as she wheezed with effort.

“Get up!” she snarled. “Up-Up-Up!”

He did, but as soon as he had, the frenzied gryphon made another attempt to smash through the trees. Using its head like a battering ram, it shoved its face between the trees, its long neck giving it the reach it needed to come dangerously close. It opened its beak wide, exposing a maw impossibly wide Roderick might have been swallowed whole if the beast managed to catch him. It clamped its mouth shut, the sound of its snapping beak like that of a coffin lid slamming shut, Roderick and Skyseeker recoiling away.

The gryphon reared back on its hindlegs, slamming its shoulder into the trees again, the canopy shaking above them. One of the branches snapped off its trunk, the sound of splintering wood making Roderick’s exhausted heart hammer inside his chest. It was trying to break through, and he didn’t think the trees could stand another impact like that.

It braced itself once more, one of its eyes regarding the pair hungrily as it prepared another shoulder charge. Roderick drew his handgun with practiced speed, thumbing the hammer in a smooth movement that contrasted with the fear gripping his chest. The gunshot was followed by a whiff of gunpowder, the gryphon screeching as the bullet ripped through the side of its head, the impact knocking a handful of its bronzed feathers from its mane, the quills see-sawing slowly to the ground.

Pistol shots would do little to a beast with a skull the size of a boar, but the gryphon had at least been startled enough by the wound, swiping at its feathery face with one of its long claws, like a dog trying to scratch at an itch. By the time it had regained its senses, Roderick’s handgun was primed, the man bracing the barrel against his free arm. The beasts eyes, narrowing into furious slits, flicked from him to his weapon, an uncanny awareness visible in its expression. It seemed to know that his weapon was the source of its sudden pain, and why wouldn’t it? Gryphons were among the most intelligent, fiercest war beasts in the Imperial army.

Its head rose away on its long neck, but it made no move to penetrate the forest. It moved off to the right, its long tail disappearing behind the ferns. It suddenly reappeared, walking left on its monstrous legs. The beats was trying to look for another way in.

It searched the treeline for a tense few minutes, Roderick and Skyseeker too exhausted and terrified to move. After a time the gryphon decided to move away, retreating back into the hills. It lifted its wings, their span easily the breadth of a tavern, and then took flight, releasing another of its ear-piercing calls as it rose to the sky.

“You alright, lass?” he breathed, watching as Skyseeker collapsed onto the ferns beside him.

“No!” she snapped, giving him a hard look. “Feather thing almost eat-eat me!” Her expression relaxed somewhat as he pulled his helmet off, running a hand down his sweaty face. “Is… Rick-rod hurt?”

He shook his head, listening to the far-off sound of flapping wings. It seemed the gryphon had decided they weren’t worth the effort, and had given up in search of easier prey. He’d seen from afar that the woods were bountiful, so they should be safe for the moment.

He reached for his canteen, popping the lid off and holding it over his mouth, but only a scant few drops reached his lips, Roderick scrutinising the neck.

“Fresh out,” he said, his companion sagging her shoulders at the news. They wouldn’t exactly die of thirst, but sprinting for so far in such a short amount of time had taken the wind out of them, his mouth as dry as the hills they just vacated.