While walking to his home, Lecter showed the twins around the city. They cautiously walked behind them. He had been nothing but cheery the entire time, still the boys were not fully trusting of him.
'I wonder if our identity is the problem.' Raten glanced at his brother. 'What if we had said our real name. Would he be walking with us right now?' Raten thought.
"We're here." Lecter said, stopping him in his line of thought.
The brothers looked up at the house in front of them. It was as tall as a two-storey building. The building had an ethereal feeling to it and welcoming due to the flowers planted about the portico.
The bright colours of the peonies planted around the building's corners added more beauty to it.
"He's at the back, come on." Lecter said, waving at them to follow him. The twins picked up their pace. Their level of joy was at its peak already. They couldn't wait to see a griffin up close.
"Goldfield! Goldfield?! Goldfield!" Lecter called out several times as he walked around. "Don't tell me you've gone out again." He mumbled. "Goldfield!"
Raten and Kiyan believed now he must have been telling a lie.
"Are you done joking around?"
"He must have gone into the woods." Lecter said, smiling nervously. He was beginning to sweat. 'They must think I'm a liar now.' He thought. "Where are you, goldfield?!"
"He's just wasting our time." Raten sighed, watching as he hopelessly called out for what they believe doesn't even exist.
They looked at him with disappointment, and a little bit of annoyance when suddenly, Lecter was swept off his feet and lifted into the air by a creature.
The wind caused by its wings pushed back the twins' hair. It played around with him in the air for a while, before coming back down.
"You certainly took your time, eh goldfield?" Lecter smiled, stroking the feathers of his griffin. It wasn't as large as the ones they saw earlier, reaching just short of their shoulders. Its eyes had a golden hue, thus its name.
"You, you weren't bluffing!" The twins who had their mouths hang open, blurted.
Goldfield turned his attention to them as soon as he heard them speak. It had a fierce look in his eyes, and got into a defensive stance. The twins took a few step back in fear.
"Be calm, they are friends of mine." Lecter said, touching Goldfield's feathers softly. Goldfield looked at him and back at them.
It shook its feathers a bit and sat down next to Lecter.
"It understands you?" Kiyan asked.
"Of course. You can come closer, he won't harm you."
Hesitantly, the twins walked closer to where Lecter and the griffin sat. They went down on their knees next to the griffin. Raten stroked the fur on its lower body.
"So cool!" Kiyan squealed.
"How were you able to tame it?" Raten asked.
"It's more like I raised it. Three years ago, I and my cousin wandered into the woods. There, I found him. Young and badly wounded."
"Oh. You nursed it back to health."
"I did. With the help of my parents of course."
"They just let you keep it?" Kiyan asked.
"Obviously not. But, I wouldn't let him go. After much bickering, I got to keep him."
"He's beautiful." Raten complimented taking his hands off.
"He is so soft." Kiyan let himself fall onto goldfield's back. Startled, goldfield spread his wings and took off to the sky.
"AHHH!" Kiyan screamed as he was taken aloft.
"Not everything you throw your lazy self on." Raten shook his head.
"Goldfield, come back down!" Lecter yelled. Goldfield kept spinning in the air, flying around in circles, getting close to the ground and flying back up.
"AARGHHH! HELP ME! AAHHH!" Kiyan screamed, keeping a firm hold on the creature.
Lecter and Raten could hear Kiyan's screams from the ground.
Goldfield flew high up to the sky, and twisted his body till his head faced the ground and his tail faced the clouds. Its wings closed in.
Like an arrow, Goldfield shot himself down.
"I CAN'T DIE LIKE THIS!" Kiyan yelled. His eyes closed shut as he held on tight to the beast.
"Lecter! Do something!" Raten screamed at him worried for his brother.
"Goldfield! Stop this, right now!" Lecter yelled, worried as well.
"AAARGHH!"
The griffin kept falling at a great speed.
Lecter and Raten were beginning to feel the wind blow past them. When they thought he would collide with the ground, the griffin spread its wings and hovered in the air, few metres above the ground.
His wings flapped slowly, as he landed. Kiyan, shaking with fear, fell off its body. He seemed paralyzed.
Raten could see the tears that fell from Kiyan's eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asked, kneeling by his side.
Goldfield walked over to Lecter who heaved a sigh of relief. "Showing off, I see." He smiled. "Sorry about that. He was just messing around."
"Messing around?!" Kiyan who now sat up, yelled. "I could have died. If not from the fall, from fear." He laid back down on the grass, gasping for air. "That.. was.. awesome!"
"I heard screaming. Are you okay?" Running out the backdoor of the house, a lady with a scarf placed on her shoulders, just over her simple lengthy silhouette with a worried look, asked.
With her was a man and a woman both dressed for duties of a guard and a housemaid respectively.
"Nothing's wrong mother. Goldfield was just.. taking my friends for a ride." Lecter replied. She was relieved he was okay. Glancing at the ones her son called 'friends', she tilted her head and squinted her eyes.
"Good day, ma'am." They greeted, their voices a bit shaky.
"Your friends? I have never seen them before." She squinted her eyes looking at the boys.
"That's because we just met. Their names are Kiyan and Raten. They just moved to this city." Lecter explained. His mother mouthed an 'oh'.
"And your way of saying welcome was to introduce them to that beast of yours?" She lifted a brow. "Why don't you boys come inside?" Turning her attention to the twins, she offered with a smile.
"We would love to, but we have to get going." Kiyan said, rising to his feet.
"Huh, but why?" Lecter asked.
"Our father's waiting for us at the town's square." Raten stated their reason. "We took a lot of time to get here and all, he must be getting worried. Might even think we've gotten lost."
"In that case, you had better get going then."
"I will see them off." Lecter said to his mother. Hurriedly taking goldfield back to his cabin, he ordered him to stay put. Then returned to the twins, they left together.