She slowly became aware of the pain leaving her. It was such a relief. After so long... she let her exhaustion claim her and fell into a restive, deep sleep.

Kirin takes her to the small hut he had built and lays her gently on the bed. He then goes to make food for when she awakes, and for himself. He goes to where he's stored the food and starts putting together some food.

She slept right through the night. As the early morning rays start to lighten the sky, she stirs and slowly opens her eyes. She feels disoriented and weak. Looking up at a simple hut roof above her, she groans and rolls onto her side. Slowly standing, she wavers on her two legs and walks to the entrance. Looking outside with weak, human eyes she feels a sudden desire to cry. How could any species live this way?

"Good morning." He says standing from where he had been making breakfast. Guilt for what his father had done weighs heavily on him. "Are you hungry."

She grimaced,"Not really. Eating as a human is not really as enjoyable." She paused, surprised at the sound of her own voice. She had never spoken in this form before. At least, not in such pleasant conditions.

"What happened?" He asks. He isn't asking about the transformation but about the injuries.

She looks up at him and then walks over and slowly sits down beside him. "I guess you would have a lot of questions Little One. Though I can't even call you that now. I was out on patrol in the desert past the mountain range and hills beyond that. There was an evil army invading. It took a few weeks to destroy them, and as I was returning a dying soldier got me. Then a mage who cursed me in my youth came back to haunt me. His greed is seen in this form I am in. Come sundown, I will return to my normal state. I hate mages." She stared sullenly into the fire.

Kirin just stares at his hands. Of course he would hate his kind. After what his father did to her. "I wish I could undo that which my father has done to you." He whispers softly. "So you are like this every night of the new moon?"

She spun around and stared at him with horror filled eyes. "Your... your..." She started to stumble to her feet and staggered sideways from the blood loss her injuries had created. He was the son of her nightmares? What had possessed her to bring him to her sanctuary? Her retreat? And now when she was most vulnerable.

Kirin stands. He hates to leave, for this place truly felt like home, but he knows he must. "Thank you for your hospitality." He heads to pack his few things and some food. He hates his father And the horrible legacy he had left him. Soon he is done packing. He says nothing for he knows if he does he will break down.

She stands huddled against the stone walls of the ancient temple shaking. Her entire being trembled as the unwanted memories assaulted her. It was almost physically painful. The proud mage who had admired her beauty and wanted her to bow before him.

Her refusal had set off an explosive tantrum. He had used his abilities to bind her in human form. Torturing her in ways beyond humiliation just to show gryphons that he could control even them, she had hidden the memories away. When she had escaped, gryphons had used their magic to release her magical bonds and allow her to return to her gryphon form. Yet the entire curse couldn't be lifted. She had made due by not thinking about it and her past.

Running away, she fought to protect the land from the evil that was in her bounds to fight against. Yet nothing could protect her from the memories that returned with a vengeance after all these years. Eyes squeezed tightly closed, she was unable still to even cry. No warmth or friendship had been strong enough for her heart to mend enough for even that. Her body felt as cold as the temple walls she was crouched against.

Kirin feels her pain and cries out with it. He falls to his knees trying his best to fight through it. Tear slide down his cheeks. He knew he was being punished for his father's evil. He wanted to go to her, to try and take away the pain. But he knows that it will only cause more problems. "I'm so sorry." He says. "I'm so so sorry."

She looks up unseeing towards him. "Why? Human. Mage. Son. Why are you sorry?"

"For what my father did to you, for the pain it brought you. I would do anything to take that pain away." He says "Even if it means leaving. I just don't want to see you in pain. To see you sad or in pain." He wipes at the tears that still flow.

She shook her head and took a slow breathe, attempting to control the memories that were flashing through her mind. "Leaving wouldn't change the past. Your just going to have to prove your character." She struggled to her feet and stumbled down the path to the lake shore. Settling into the sand, she slipped her feet into the water and focused on the sensations of sand and water. Anything except the memories that had been unleashed.

*I thought I already had.* He thinks to himself remembering the first time they had met in the forest. Kirin goes and unpacks his things. He eats a few berries then just sinks to the bed in the cabin. The pain recedes and he realizes that he must have been feeling the gryphon's pain both times. He hated that things were different between them and he wishes he had never said anything about his father.

As she regained control of her onslaught of memories and was able to push them aside, she wondered how to deal with the emotional end. Human emotions were a bit different than gryphons. More easily flunctuating as well as replacing the logical aspect of the mind. She hated how she felt like she wasn't thinking straight. Her anger, bitterness, sadness... all these replaced the normal and coolly logical workings of a gryphon mind. Looking up at the blue sky, she watched the sun climbing towards it's peak. She just had to get through until evening.

Remembering that she had crash landed on this very shore, she reached a hand up and felt her shoulder. The wound itself was healed. That mage. He was an interesting character. Healing the abused pet of his father. That is what his father treated her as. A pet. If that evil mage was here she would tear him splintered bone by splintered bone. With effort, she pushed the anger aside. She needed a friend, not more enemies.

Getting up, she uncertainly walked towards the shelter Kirin had constructed. Why he didn't sleep in the old temple was beyond her, but perhaps the ruins were too foreboding to him. Whatever the case, he seemed to be proud of his work. She stood hesitantly in the doorway, fighting with that sense to flee. Repeating mentally to herself over and over, "He is not his father, he is not his father, he is not his father." Slowly kneeing by his side, she hesitantly touched his shoulder and again fought the panic down. Human emotions. So volatile in nature. Letting out a slow, deep breathe to steady herself she asked, "Kirin, I need a friend..." She felt herself about to cry. He had no idea what she had been through. No one did. She had always been alone after that horrible time.

"I to need a friend." He whispers. He had been through his own hell growing up. He was an outcast and abused. He had lost everything. He didn't want to loose her too. "I am not my father." He says softly. He just stays there not wanting to frighten her.

She nodded, silent tears spilling from her downcast eyes. Tears. That was new to her. "I might sometimes snap at you. If I do, forgive me. I'll try not to."

"You have every right to be angry." He says. "I thought if I took a different path, I could escape my past, escape that I'm his son. I was such a fool to think I could escape." He whispers.

"But I have no right to be angry with you. This is what you were angry about in the valley. That you would be judged for another's crimes. And crimes they were...." she clenched her fists and froze, struggling to rein in her anger.

"According to the villagers I am my father's son." He says softly. "I can't escape him, no matter what I do." He shakes a bit but pushes those thoughts and feelings away. This wasn't about him.

Finding her anger finally releasing its grasp on her, she was left feeling empty and numb. Still, the warm presence of her friend eased the void a little. "Who will you listen to? Ignorant villagers or a mighty, educated gryphon? I think you might not be able to escape him. Perhaps instead the peace he took away you were meant to restore."

"I've been trying to restore that peace for so long. I just don't know how." He takes a shuddering breath. "I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm not like him."

"You may have to confront him." She reached over and squeezed his shoulder before getting up and heading back outside.