"What was your name again?" Ash asked the Amazon he was sitting behind. They had been flying for an hour now, and he had stopped trying to look down and see where they were headed, they were flying too high right now among the clouds and he had just discovered that he had a slight fear of heights. There was no proper seating harness on the griffin, it was only meant for one, or maybe two but since the Amazon was pretty tall she was taking all the space, Ash had to sit on the bare furs of the bird and it was not comfortable, he kept changing positions and grabbing different places on the harness, what he wanted was to hold her waist, but he was too scared to hold it for long, she hadn't said a word so far.
"Aris," she answered.
"You are a rider?" he asked.
"What else would I be?" she said.
"No I mean, Yuri told me she was going to send a rider but I didn't know what that meant," he said.
"The amazons have long believed griffin to be sacred creatures, we share a common homeland and have lived in harmony for centuries, some of the amazons who prove to be good warriors in the sky are appointed as griffin riders," she answered.
"How long till we reach our destination now?" he asked.
"Are you in a hurry, you have asked that question twice now?" she asked.
"No, it's just I am not used to riding a griffin," he said.
"Oh, well there's only supposed to be one person riding usually, but since you are small I thought it would be fine," she said. Ash had long learned to not mind an Amazon calling him small.
"You can hold me like you did at the takeoff, " she said.
"Yeah sorry about that, I was just surprised by the speed, " he said grabbing her waist, she could feel her ripped torso and abs.
"No need to be sorry, you are a guest of my chieftain so I must look after you, you humans can be very delicate sometimes, " she said.
"Have you ever met another human before?" he asked.
"No why?" she asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"If you don't mind me asking what is your relationship with the chieftain?" she asked.
"I don't know what you mean, student Or something I suppose, since I am a student of Sasha anyway, why?" he said.
"Have you ever performed any act of pleasure with her?" she asked out of the blue.
"Why do you want to know?" he asked.
"As you know we Amazons don't let men in our homeland, but we do sometimes choose suitable male candidates for carnal purposes, but we can't do that unless the chieftain has chosen hers, and Yuri hasn't chosen one in decades, some of the senior amazons including her mother herself have tried to get her to choose some, but she always rejects them, she says that she'll only choose one who can defeat her in a fight, which is pretty much impossible, " she said.
"How is the chieftain chosen?" asked Ash.
"You must complete the fire trials and defeat the previous chieftain, when a new one is appointed the ones that have mates already must leave them too until she chooses hers and as you know humans don't live for that long, many have tried to defeat Yuri since then but she is too strong, " said Ciara.
"I thought everyone liked her, " he said.
"Of course we do, she is the best chieftain in centuries, we would gladly die for her, and everybody respects her but they want to have some fun too," said Ciara.
"Hmm well I think you'll have to persuade her to change her mind about finding a man who can defeat her because that's a hard task, " he said.
"That's why I am talking about this with you, you will be the first man to be in such close quarters with her maybe you could finally break her resolve, " she said.
"I am sorry but I am not going to risk getting killed just for that, " said Ash.
"If you do succeed, you will be the chief mate, and the chief mate has a very respectable position in the Amazons, you can have any Amazon after that no one would refuse you, " she said.
That had Ash racing his head with all kinds of images, Ron would lose his mind if he told him this. The sudden memory of Ron stopped him, he hadn't thought about him in a while and about his letter, which led him to wonder how Fiona and his parents would be doing.
"Ciara, I'll accept your offer but on one condition, " he said.
"What?" she asked.
"Can we make a small detour, I want to meet someone, " he said.
"Who?" she asked.
"My sister, Fiona, " he said.
"Hmm, let me check where she is, " she said.
"You can do that?" he asked.
"That's how I found you, " she said.
"What's her full name?" she asked.
"Fiona Blake, what else? " he said.
"Age, " she asked.
"20" he replied.
"Hmm, there is no one like that in the human kingdom, although I do find her in the half-breed kingdom in the South, a human too, " she said.
"No that can't be right how would she get there? Check my parents, " he said and told her about their information.
"I am sorry I can't find anyone like that on the continent, " she said.
"Your device must be broken, " he said.
"It isn't, I am sorry but I think they are dead, " she said.
Ash had a panicking moment, he wasn't going to believe an object but something in his heart told him it was true, he was more worried about Fiona now.
"C... Can you find out more about Fiona?" he asked.
"Let me see, hmm she is with, oh she is near this Derek person, I think Sasha recently asked me to find him, don't you know him?" she asked.
"She is with Derek? " he wondered aloud.
"Can you look for Ron too?" he asked, if he was at the South tower he would know everything.
"This Ron is with them too, " she said.
"What?" what the hell was happening?
"Can we go there?" he asked.
"It's far, it will take us days because we'll have to stop for rest, " said Ciara.
"I am sorry about your parents but your sister seems all right she is with people you know, I promise when they are back in the human kingdom I'll take you to them myself, I'll keep checking every day," she said.
"What is that artifact?" he asked. He wanted to distract his mind by any method.
"It's a blessing, gifted to me by Yuri when I won last year's Riders race," she said.
"It's pretty useful, " he said.
"It can't be used too many times I only used it because it was you who asked me, " she said.
"Thanks," said Ash. They didn't talk for the rest of the journey, Ash kept wanting to cry and then would shake his head thinking that his parents couldn't be dead, but it wasn't such a wild theory, they lived in a remote village near the forest, he had already seen a large goblin army come out of one, maybe some kind of monsters killed them like they killed his older brother. Derek must have heard and gone to help, where he might have found Fiona, he was supposed to be going south, he had said, he must have taken her with him. He was dying to see Fiona, hug her, and feel the familiar warmth, the not knowing was more terrible than anything else.
They were going over some mountains now, he looked down and saw trees that were similar to those he was used to seeing in the Amazon's homeland. Ciara had decreased their heights and they were following a sort of path now through the mountains. They must be close, they flew through the gap between two mountains and came out on the other side, Ash suddenly saw a shadow fall over them, he looked up and saw another griffin flying overhead. The rider came beside them.
"Ciara, you are back, is this the human?" asked the woman, she was also dressed just like Ciara, it must be the rider uniform, with a bit more cloth to protect from the wind.
"Yes, Theresa, where is the chief?" she asked.
"Should be at the base, she had a meeting with Lufina," she answered. Ciara started descending faster, he looked down and saw several griffins, some were flying some sleeping here and there, there were also several huts and a very big one in the far back where they were headed. The griffing landed with a thud, its large talons sinking into the ground, Ciara got off first and turned to help him down like a child. He jumped down on the other side, he wasn't going to embarrass himself in front of all these amazons.
It was the second time he had been surrounded by so many of them, but last time he was still pretty far. He couldn't help but feel nervous and awkward as most of them were staring at him. He also couldn't help but stare they were all so amazing, he also noticed that they were also pretty varied like humans, as he had assumed so far with Sasha, Yuri, and Ciara they were all kind of similar in stature, but he saw some really bulky ones, one even about nine-feet tall, some were even closer to his height and quite lean, they could pass for a very tall human woman. Some were carrying swords, some spears and some were carrying on their shoulders a hammer-like weapon only it was rounded at the head like a ball.
"Come on the chief must be waiting for you," said Ciara and he followed her into the large hut. Inside there were a lot of weapons leaning against the walls, some skulls of very big and vicious-looking monsters and beasts he had never seen before, it looked like the kind of thing the Amazons would be proud of.