Chapter 8

Morning mist still lingered in the dips and hollows when Jak and his friends started out. Tobi sneezed as he scampered ahead while the others followed more slowly. When he came back, the fur on his head and arms was damp.

The sun was just beginning to burn away the mist when Jak adjusted his backpack. “I’ve been thinking,” he said to Tobi. “Oberon taking Tamisin like this is the worst possible thing that could happen right now. The goblins are restless and Titania needs Oberon’s support more than ever, but kidnapping Tamisin was bound to drive a wedge between them. It wasn’t like it was a friendly invitation.”

“That’s true,” piped up Tobi. “Rumors say that Titania’s furious, which is why I’m not going anywhere near her.”

“The fairy queen will never thtop until the hath Tamithin,” Lamia Lou said. “I can’t blame her, though. I would do the thame thing if it were my daughter.”

Herbert snorted. “Even after she gets Tamisin, she won’t ever forgive Oberon. This is so much worse than that time they fought over that blue boy.”

“Everyone who doesn’t like fairy rule would be happy,” said Tobi. “There’d be chaos again, just like there was before Titania and Oberon took control.”

“There won’t be any fighting if I can get Tamisin back to her mother fast enough,” said Jak. “I just have to get there before Titania’s army starts the first battle.”

They were well into the hills of the Griffin Hunting Grounds when Tobi began to whine. “Can I ride on your back?” he asked Herbert. “I’m tired and my feet hurt.”

“No!” said the unicorn. “What do you think I am, a horse?”

Tobi ran around Herbert to walk beside Lamia Lou. “Then how about you?” he said. “I know you give people rides.”

“Only thertain people,” she replied. “And you’re not one of them.”

Tobi pouted, but a moment later he was skipping along next to Jak, looking up at him with big pleading eyes. “Jak, could you—”

“No,” said Jak. “I’m not carrying you.”

“But I had to walk all the way to the Sograssy Sea just to talk to you, and now you’re making me walk all the way to—”

“No one is making you go,” Jak told him. “You could always turn around and go home.”

“Huh,” Tobi grunted.

It wasn’t long before the little goblin disappeared over a hillock, returning only a few minutes later carrying small blue eggs. “Look what I got, Jak! Do you want one?”

“Sure,” Jak told him, holding out his hand.

Looking disappointed, Tobi shuffled away a few steps. “They probably aren’t fresh. I wouldn’t want to cause you tummy trouble, Jak. You probably shouldn’t eat any.”

“Then why did you offer them to me?” Jak asked, trying not to laugh.

“Because I’m an extra-considerate person!” said Tobi. “Everyone always says—”

“Shh!” said Herbert. “Listen!”

Jak glanced at the unicorn, whose ears were pricked toward the next hill. He turned toward the hill, but couldn’t see anything at first. Then he heard it—a very faint, very shrill whistle like the kind he’d heard people use in the human world to call their dogs. The sound grew louder as they stood waiting for the source of the sound to appear.

Tobi shrieked and threw up his hands as a dark shadow swept over them. The eggs he’d been holding flew through the air, splattering on the ground when they hit. Pressing his hands to his ears, the little goblin ran behind Jak and tried to make himself look as small as possible.

Jak had never seen a griffin before and couldn’t help but admire the way it soared over them, its eagle wings spread wide to catch the updraft from the hills. The griffin was enormous, with the lower body of a full-sized male lion and the upper body, head, and wings of a golden eagle. It eyed them as it flew past, the sound becoming a scream as it turned and banked in their direction.

“That whithtling thound cometh from the air ruthing over their lion clawth,” said Lamia Lou. “Thee how he can’t tuck hith back legth clothe to hith body?”

“Are you sure griffins are afraid of lamias?” Tobi asked, peeking out from behind Jak. “Because he doesn’t look afraid to me.”

Lamia Lou shaded her eyes with her hand and watched as the griffin drew closer. “Maybe he hathn’t theen me yet.” Rising up on her tail, the lamia waved her arms in the air and shouted, “Thoo! Go away!”

The griffin opened his beak and screamed. Whimpering, Tobi tried to dig a hole in the ground.

“Uh, Lamia Lou, I think Tobi’s right,” said Jak. “That griffin doesn’t look like he’s afraid of anything. Don’t worry. I can handle him.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a comb. Transmogrification was one of the skills Jak had learned in goblin school. Unlike full-blooded goblins who could turn one natural object into another, he could turn one manufactured object into another. He’d found that he could make even intricate machinery, provided he’d studied an example and knew how it worked. However, right now he didn’t need anything so complex. A simple sword would work just fine. Jak held up the comb and concentrated.

Bobbing his head up and down, Herbert snorted, and pawed at the ground. “If he comes any closer, I’ll get him with my horn!”

The lamia sighed. “He mutht be a young one if he doethn’t know enough to be afraid of me. He needth to be taught a lethon. I’m the one who thaid we thould go thith way, tho it’th up to me to deal with that griffin. I wath jutht hoping I wouldn’t have to do thith. Thtand back, everyone. I can handle thith guy.”

Lamia Lou coiled her tail beneath her, waiting for the griffin’s return. The beast swooped low, the eagle claws on the front of its body reaching. “Duck!” shouted Lamia Lou.

Jak threw himself to the ground when Lamia Lou shouted, and Tobi was already halfway into a hole he’d dug for himself, so the griffin veered toward the still-standing unicorn. Lamia Lou shrieked as the griffin descended on Herbert, but the unicorn was lunging and thrashing, and she couldn’t get near him. Then Herbert swung his head around, smashing his horn into the griffin’s foot and breaking off one of the beast’s talons. Screaming, the griffin grappled with Herbert until he was able to wrap his remaining talons around the horn. He was straining to lift Herbert off the ground when Lamia Lou launched herself into the air like a suddenly released coiled spring. Latching on to the griffin’s leg with her hands, she swung her tail up and over its back, getting an unbreakable hold on its massive body.

Herbert was half off the ground when Lamia Lou began to squeeze the griffin around the middle. Jak peered up as the griffin screamed. Seeing the griffin half lift, half drag Herbert, Jak jumped to his feet. Precious seconds ticked away as he refocused on the comb he was holding. He pictured what he wanted it to become—a sword made of steel with a razor-sharp blade. Suddenly the sword was in his hand, so heavy that he dropped it and had to bend down to pick it up. When he stood, the griffin had dragged Herbert nearly twenty feet.

“Let go!” shrieked Lamia Lou, her face growing red as she squeezed the griffin.

The griffin thrashed the air with his wings, sending up a cloud of dust that made everyone cough. Herbert squealed as he danced on the tips of his hooves across the ground, partly suspended under the beast that wasn’t quite strong enough to lift a full-grown unicorn.

Suddenly the griffin had had enough. Opening his claws, he released Herbert’s horn so that the unicorn fell to the ground with his legs sprawled under him. Without the unicorn to weigh him down, the griffin was able to fly a bit higher, though he still had an enraged lamia on his back. Twisting and turning, he tried to tear at Lamia Lou with his eagle talons and lion claws, but by now Lamia Lou had wriggled around the griffin so that her upper body was behind his head where he couldn’t snap at her with his beak. She screamed as she pulled out handfuls of feathers, flinging them into the air.

“Lou!” bellowed Herbert as he got to his feet. “Let him go!”

The griffin looked as if he wanted nothing more now than to get away from the lamia. His eyes were wild as he thrashed around. Soon his breathing became labored and his wing beats slowed, and then he was plummeting from the sky and everyone below him was trying to figure out where he might land so they could get out of his way.

“Lou!” Herbert yelled. “Jump!”

Lamia Lou slithered off the griffin’s back seconds before the unconscious beast hit the ground. “Oof! Ouch! Oh my!” she cried as she tumbled across the rocky terrain. When she finally stopped rolling, she lay still with only her chest moving as she struggled to catch her breath.

“Are you all right, my darling?” Herbert called as he galloped to her side.

“I’m fine,” she said, sitting up. “Jutht a little bruithed ith all.”

“Mmf!” came a muffled voice from where the griffin lay.

Lamia Lou turned around. “Who thaid that?”

“I think it was Tobi,” said Jak. “Tobianthicus, are you under there?” Jak ran to where the griffin lay like a dead sparrow with its beak open and its eyes glazed.

“Unh!” Tobi groaned.

Lamia Lou and Herbert both had to help Jak drag the still-breathing griffin aside before they could get to Tobi. The little raccoon goblin drew in a long, shuddering breath when he was finally uncovered. Groaning, he sat up and glared accusingly at his companions. “Fine friends you are,” he grumbled. “I could have suffocated, stopped breathing, lost all my air while you three fooled around.”

“We’re sorry, Tobi,” Jak said, although he couldn’t keep from grinning. “Next time we’ll pay more attention to where you dig your hole.” While his friends gathered around the griffin, Jak turned the sword back into a comb and shoved it into his pocket.

“What about him?” Herbert asked. He poked the griffin with his hoof and sniffed the motionless body.

Lamia Lou bent over the griffin. When she stood up again, she said, “He’ll be fine. Jutht a little bit thore.”

“If you don’t mind my asking,” said Jak, “why didn’t you bite the griffin when you had the chance?”

The lamia looked shocked. “Why would I do that? I wath trying to teach him a lethon, not poithon him!”

Herbert snorted and glanced from side to side. “Which way do we go from here? A tussle like that gets me all turned around.”

“Thith way,” Lamia Lou said, pointing. “I’m very good at directionth. Lamiath have to be or we’d get lotht in the tall grath.”

“I’m too tired, worn out, exhausted to go anywhere,” Tobi whined. “That fight took a lot out of me.”

Lamia Lou sighed. “Oh, all right. I’ll give you a ride. You might as well climb on, too, Jak. I can move a lot fathter than you, and we’ve already lotht a lot of time.”

“I’d offer to help, but my head hurts,” said Herbert.

“That’th okay, Thweetie,” Lamia Lou said, brushing his forelock out of his eyes. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“Tobi, where are you going?” Jak asked as the little raccoon goblin scurried away.

“I want a souvenir,” Tobi replied, snatching up a griffin feather and waving it in the air. “You don’t come across these every day.”

Lamia Lou motioned to the little goblin. “Hurry up if you want a ride. We’re leaving now, with or without you. Collecting thouvenirth,” she muttered, shaking her head. “The next thing you know, he’th going to want an autograph.”