Stretching her wings lazily, she gave a contented nod. "Alright hop on. Let's go make sure all is quiet towards the valley." And make sure no one finds either my glade or is about to cause trouble. The humans that were not harmful were unable to survive the wilds that were on this end of the valley. That is why they lived on the other end of the valley. Also, if her guess was correct, someone was already on the mountain. She just needed to double check who, where, why, and how.

Kirin gets on her back and holds on. He did enjoy flying with her.

She glanced back to double check that he was safely on. Then shifting her weight, she leaped into the air and beat her powerful wings. Gaining altitude quickly, she didn't stop pulling them up until they were high and hidden in the clouds.

Kirin shivers as it is a bit cold in the clouds. He uses his magic to warm himself up. He wonders why she's taken such precautions but he trusts her.

Flying along, she dipped out below the clouds just a little. They were pretty high up so no human on the ground would readily spot them. Anyone looking up wouldn't be able to distinguish her gray feathers from the clouds around her. Her eyes began looking for details.

Kirin remains silent not want to distract her. He hopes everything will be well.

Her eyes roamed back and forth. Patrols could be boring or fun depending on circumstances. Tiring ones that the last one didn't occur often. She saw the remains of the campfire and checked the area. No sign of anyone nearby, so she tilted and quickly went to land before anyone saw her descending. Perhaps there was clues here.

"Somebody has been here." He says getting off. He goes to the fire. "It's still warm, hasn't been out long."

She looked around. No human had ever traveled this far unaided before. The footprints were clearly human. Most likely male too. At the edge of the campsite, in some bushes, she saw some pale white. Walking hesitantly over, she used a talon to bush aside some of the branches. Bones.

"Kirin, this human practiced blood magic last night. This is not the leftovers of a meal or two." Switched her vision, she looked at the land around her. The taint of red mist covered everything. The life in the trees, flowers, birds' eggs... it was all looking slightly sick. Switching back to normal vision, she growled.

"It sounds as if my father were here... but that can't be. He's dead." He whispers. He starts shaking. It seems his past is catching up with him again. He forces himself to calm down. He can't let this overwhelm him.

She felt a tremor in the magic currents coming from Kirin. Alarmed, she turned and looked at him. His heart rate had increased, tense muscles were trembling, and pupils dilated. Stepping quickly to his side, she folded a wing around him and pulled him against her thick-feathered side. "He better be dead or I will remedy that faster than you can blink." Glancing around, she saw a trail head up hill. Nodding towards it, she said, "Looks like this person is traveling out of the valley. Sadly, that leads to our glade. We cannot let a blood mage taint that haven. Worse, we can't let him find the temple ruins. You felt the power from inside them." Turning, she smoothed his hair back with her beak and then lifted her wing away to push him up on her back.

Kirin calms when he puts she puts a wing around him. He gets on her back. "Yes we must protect our home." He says. He's still a bit tense but he knows he must focus on protecting their home.

She quickly leaps into the air and beats her wings to gain altitude. She is almost back at the cloud cover when a bolt of energy shoots from the ground. Feeling a piercing sensation that burned like molten lava fly through her wing... she screamed in agony and plummeted towards the ground.

Kirin gasps then focuses using his healing powers on her. He hopes he can do it fast enough. He also puts a protective bubble around them.

Struggling to gain control over herself despite the pain, she thought she was starting to have amazing success then realized that Kirin was healing her. Quickly, she spread her wings out to break the wind in order to slow their descent. Just before hitting the trees below them, she wrapped her wings back in to make sure no more damage to them occurred.

Luckily, as they hit the trees, the protective bubble holds so they just get jostled a bit. "Are you o.k.?" He asks concern filling his voice. He truly hopes she's alright. He doesn't know what he'd do with out her.

Slowly picking herself off the ground, she nodded. Looking around, she stilled in order to not make any noise. "I'm fine little one. Perhaps we should..." Bolts of energy started battering at the bubble from the foliage, quickly reducing it's strength.

Kirin focuses attempting to strengthen it. He starts weaken after awhile.

She switched to her magical sight and examined where the bolts where coming from. What scared her was that there was red lines draining out of the plants and trees towards that area. He was using blood magic again, only this time stealing the life force of the local vegetation. She hated was she was about to do. Yet she could think of nothing else. Using her own magic, she did what she once would never have considered. She used a dark magic spell to poison the plants and released it.

A dark multi ring wave flooded out from their bubble and smashed against all living things for yards around. It left behind dead debris and rotting flesh of rodents and birds. Pure death. The wave had the multi effect of taking away the power gained through such an effect and creating a poison. If anyone used that power, they would only hurt themselves. Something a dark mage would use against a blood mage. Something she hated herself for. No gryphon would approve of her method.

The bolts stopped firing as the blood mage eagerly tried to grasp at this newfound power. Not realizing it did more than destroy the vegetation, he pulled the poisoned life energy into himself and imagined himself stronger. She growled once the deed was done and jumped forward to rush where he was, her teeth bared.

Kirin collapses exhausted. He knows she's in danger but there is nothing he can do. He just watches as she takes off hoping that she will be safe.

She slammed into a barrier. A force shield protected him. Behind it, she could see his blurry form with glowing red eyes. That really bothered her. Humans were not supposed to have red eyes. She snapped at the shield and then spun around and whipped her tail into the shield. There was a resounding boom but it didn't give. Not giving up, she started body slamming into it.

Kirin sees her hit a force field. Worried for his friend he forces himself to get up. He focuses on the shield trying to use his powers to dismantle it. He hopes that this works because he can't bare to see her get hurt.

She felt the shield starting to give way. Increasing her efforts, she really laid into it and finally crashed through. Coming to a dead standstill, she stared in horror at the mage. Clearly in front of her was a blood mage who used the exact same techniques as Kirin's father. The signature in the magic use was clear. He was almost the same except for genetics. Even his appearance was changing to the characteristics of a blood mage. Pale. Wrinkles. Twisted smile. The horror filling her heart only seemed to increase his power. He grinned at her and sent a webbed lightning net at her. Tangling in the crackling pain, she screamed out in agony. Unable to break from the lightning that clung and zapped her repeatedly, she felt herself growing dizzy and blackness covered her.

"NO!" Kirin rushes to her. He starts to pull of the netting with his bare hands. He hasn't noticed the blood mage. "No, wake up please wake up." He says still pulling off the netting.

The blood mage's eyes narrowed as his attention turned to that of the human. How convenient. His prey had come to him of his own free will. The human was trying to pull at the lightening net that covered the gray gryphon, but of course was only hurting himself in the process. The blood mage grinned and began to suck into his staff the power the human's pain was creating. Such was the ways of being a blood mage. Then he created another lightening net and sent it spiraling at the human.