every day it haunts me

[tsubame]

So I dreamed I dreamed a dream . . . I dreamed, briefly, of the mage and the gryphon, and the gryphon was tremendously out of character, and I needed to find out why. So I wrote the following. In script form because of the little hearts.



::the door to the mage's suite in the palace swings open, crashing into the wall behind with a loud bang. Oasis staggers in from the hallway with the gryphon. The gryphon's arm is looped over her shoulders, and his head is down; he is distinctly unsteady on his feet::

Mage: ::has dropped the scroll he was reading in surprise:: Oasis?

Oasis: ::nervously:: Ah, hello, Lord Siyamak. Just returning your gryphon . . .

Gryphon: ::raises head slowly, bleary eyes focusing with effort on the mage:: . . . Siyamak?

Mage: ::starting to rise:: Oasis, what in the name of the gods did you do to--

Gryphon: ::happily:: Mine! ::performs a spectacular flying tackle-glomph across the room, grabbing the mage around his mid-section and slamming him back into his chair::

Mage: ::stunned::

Oasis: ::edges back towards the door::

Mage: . . . Oasis. What did you do to him?

Oasis: ::nervous laugh:: Well, nothing really . . . ::catches the mage's look and starts babbling:: I invited him for tea! I invited him for tea, I thought I should do something to thank him, because we've been through so much together and all, what with- well, you know, everything, and we've never really been on the best of terms as you're surely aware-

Mage: Yes, yes. Continue.

Oasis: ::rushes on:: And so of course I entertain a lot and so I just had the servants prepare the usual, and he came and sat down and everything was really going quite well, very well, and did you know that he's absolutely nuts about anything sweet?

Mage: ::somewhat pained:: Oh, yes. I know.

Oasis: Anyway, he ate all of the candied apricots and most of the sugared violets before we even got to the tea. Of course blending teas is a little hobby of mine, I'm really quite good at it, I'll send you some of my special blend one of these days, it's- ::catches herself:: So blending teas is a hobby, and I made one special for the occasion, I didn't think it would do any harm-

::they both notice a low, contented thrumming sound at the same time and shift to stare at the gryphon, his face burried in the mage's robes::

Mage: Is he . . . is he purring? Oasis, just what did you put in his tea?

Oasis: ::gulp:: Catnip.

::the purring sound continues::

Mage: Catnip?

Oasis: ::wails:: I didn't think it would do any harm! I have a cat, Hector, and he's always so amusing when I give him catnip, and of course gryphons are part cat, so I was wondering . . . I was curious, all right? Of course he's not a gryphon now, so I wasn't sure if it would effect him . . . I really didn't think it would . . . I wanted to see what would happen!

Mage: You laced his tea with catnip? Just how much of it did he drink?

Oasis: Well, he tried some and he really seemed to like it, so, um . . .

Mage: Oasis. How much did he drink?

Oasis: The entire pot.

::they both stare at the gryphon for a moment, who is purring contentedly into the mage's chest::

Mage: ::finally:: Well, I don't think you've done him any harm. With cats catnip just makes them happy and acts as an aphrodisiac. It wears off after a while, I don't see why it should be any different with him-

::the gryphon starts nuzzling at the mage's ribcage::

Oasis: An a- aphrodisiac?

Gryphon: ::small hearts::

Mage: ::a distinctly calculating expression crosses his face:: Where did you get the catnip, Oasis? Was it from the kitchen gardens?

Oasis: Um, I'll just be going now . . .



Before anyone tries to nail the mage for taking horrible advantage of the gryphon, they're already a couple at this point. This actually takes place after several key events in their story, that being one of them, so.

Oh, and Oasis? She and the gryphon get off on the wrong foot at first, for two reasons: first, the gryphon has an innate distrust of all females due to certain peculiarities of gryphon behavior, and second, Oasis is in love with Siyamak for quite a while, and does not appreciate the competition. So they don't like each other for a good long time, and spend much of it sniping at each other, spying on each other, etc. In fact, for most of the book the reader isn't supposed to like Oasis, either. She's a bit of a minor villain. But I decided that I really liked her, so I wasn't going to just leave things that way.