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Far outside of Loghedge, and just off the road in Ironwood forest was an Orchard, cut out from the forest that every year tried to close the gap the Orchard and farm created. It was mostly an apple orchard, but also had peaches and some plums, along with a number of vegetables. the owner of the farm was Richard Phelps, and every day he would send his son into Loghedge to sell their goods to the different vendors, the inn and taverns before selling the rest themselves. Any leftover or bad fruits and vegetables got sold to a group of pig farmers.

On this particular day, Richard was walking between the rows of the orchard, checking for signs of bad insects or wild animals getting at the trees and fruit, carrying a hoe with him in case there were some weeds to clear away

This was a complicated matter…. What was she thinking complicated didn’t start to cover this. She thought of the large mass of… Of… muscle? She shrugged or it was as close as she got to shrugging now. At least the tail was easily hide able. She looked up after a while to see trees were those apples? Her stomach made a growling noise and she flashed back to when she had even eaten.

Well she already looked like a monster, might as well seem to act like one to. She moved closer to one tree and looked at its lower branches, this would be so much easier if she wasn’t a hunch back….

Coren nodded this tree was no good least for her anyway. Scouting the area she moved over a tree grabing a branch and attempting to bend it down to her lvl to get a nice juicey apple, there went her stomach again....

She stoped then looked back at her tail, wagging like normal.. she expected it to be tight between her legs given what she was doing, oh well once a theif always a theif... Finally working the branch along and down she got ahold of the apple and let the branch you to snap and crack on the other branchs. Cringing she looked around...

Yes, Alex was a leaf in the wind, only he was being about as stealthy as a bright neon sign it seemed. And as the farmer yelled at him, his tail and winglets stiffened, ear tuffs turning towards the sounds. The wind through the orchard picked up slightly, as the gryphonic humanoid's heart beat inside his chest.

"Oh Jao Gao*", he muttered to himself. Sadly, the lack of movement in his tail from being startled seemed to be causing him to start to tip a bit on the branch. He knelt down, and grabbed ahold of the branch with his talon-like hand, steadying himself.

Ok, he hadn't fallen out of the tree, but he was a bit nervous as he looked down at the farmer who seemed none to pleased. His feathered hair and ear tuffs twitched from the breeze, and without even thinking about it, he jumped down off the branch, and landed on all four, his winglets spread out wide, instincts and his new biology making a rather painful landing into one that seemed not so bad at all.

A few of the apples though weren't quite so fortunate in the landing, some hopping free of the bag he had slung over his shoulder. But Alex wasn't concerned with that, or maybe it was the instincts inside his head that were flying the plane of his mind. "I'm just a bad dream...", he said, clicking his beak a few times. Maybe the guy would believe it. Most likely not.

Solid Gryphon, Tactical Espionage Agent, he wasn't.



*Chinese for "Not Good"

"A Bad dream huh? I'll make you wish this was a bad dream!" Richard the farmer said as he took the hoe and used the end to try and push Alex back towards the forest with a series of unfriendly shoves.

"I don't care what manner of man, beast or monster you are, but a thief is a thief and you will leave or you'll regret it!" Richard warned as he heard Coren as she almost tripped close by, making the farmer turn around to stare at the hunchbacked Coren.

"What is this? there a festival you all got kicked out of? what are you both doing here? you both need to go or I'll call my dogs to chase you both off" Richard said seriously as he looked back and forth between Alex and Coren

She stumbled before finding words, “Well leave….” something about him as familiar…. She just couldn’t figure out what, of course he wasn’t all the biggest issue they had right now, she focused on the hoe in the farmers hand and thought of the damage that could do and slowly backed up. She wasn’t sure where she was going but at least it was away from the farmer. Her hand was tight around the apple it was sure to bruise but better that then a bruised ego.

The thing.. had said we so it as good as place to head, he seemed to suffer from the same he was still somewhat human. She started creeping in that direction after him all the while watching the farmer and ready to turn and bolt.

Alex looked over his shoulder as he entered the sanctuary that was the Ironwood Forest. He was sort of glad the person he saw earlier was following him. Not the farmer that is, but the one with the hunched back. Not that he was great at standing up either, but he had winglets and weird legs. Still, he found a place to hide out of sight of the farmer and waited for Coren to catch up to him.

While he waited, he did a quick check of what he'd managed to steal. It was only after that quick accound did he realized he'd managed to only get about a dozen apples. He sighed as he sat on the ground, and peaked over his little hidey spot so he could check out the farm to see where Coren was. And as soon as she was close enough, he waved one of his deformed hands to her. "Ah, there you are. Uh, sorry about being about as stealthy as a box of rocks out there. Was trying to snag some food for a friend. Errr... a kid anyways."

Now there was an ironic phrase, considering Jamie was becoming a kid... a goatish one.

The pilot nodded a bit as he sat there. "Yeah... well, just because it was more to help someone out doesn't make it any better." His tail twitched a bit as he sat there. "You look sort of familiar. Uh, let me guess, you're from Earth, like everyone else who's changing? Well, welcome to Athlaias."

Alex offered her his taloned hand to shake, then realized maybe she might not want to, considering it hand wasn't much of a hand as much as a bit scaley claw thing. "Anyways, I'm Alex Barrett. I guess at the very least, it's good that I found you. I was coming close to town to look for others like myself, and as stated before... for some food for someone."

The pilot looked back over the bush he was hiding behind, down towards the farm once more. His eyes were a bit better than most and so he spent a good amount of his time looking for the farmer, trying to keep track of him. He didn't want to have to admit defeat. Not for 12 apples. No, he needed more than that. He just had to wait.

His tail swished happily at the thought of laying wait in ambush, for the perfect time to strike, but then Alex's thought realized he was thinking less about sneaking in for apples and more for swooping in to kill a suprised sheep, and promptly shook his head as he looked back to Coren. "Uh, sorry, what were you saying?", he asked. Those instincts were starting to bug him, since a human shouldn't think of stuff, not like what he was thinking.