The mountain air was crisp and clear. Mist billowed from Isidre’s mouth, her breaths were deep and heavy with exertion, though her [Stamina] wasn’t greatly depleted. This looked to be a successful mission.

Perhaps because of their Dungeon origins, griffins didn’t have a set mating season. The nesting grounds were always occupied by nesting mothers and fledgeling grifflets. However, there was a season for capturing mounts, and that was Autumn.

In winter, the griffins all huddled for shelter in their nesting grounds, surviving off their stockpiled food stores. In spring and summer, they hunted for food, but spent most of their time mating and lazing around. Autumn was when they got serious about gathering meat, with the males hunting non-stop and depositing it to freeze above the snow-line.

Autumn was the season where the numbers of male griffins were at their lowest. Not that the females were any less of a threat, but if you bonded one of their offspring they wouldn’t attack you.

It had taken a few days of sneaking around, but with the aid of a pair of experienced Monster Tamers, they’d managed to net and bond about ten adults and twice that number of fledgelings. Some were bonded with [Tame], others were controlled by a dungeon treasure that dropped from a local dungeon. Now the last of the hunters were returning to the camp, and it looked like they’d be able to start heading back tomorrow.

Isidre took one last look at the view when something caught her eye down at the tree-line. Movement. A small party of what looked like beast-kin were making their way up from the forest below.

“Orson! Get ready to break camp!” she called back. There were a few hours of daylight left, and if there was trouble, she wanted them ready to leave. They didn’t have enough mounts for them all to fly - most of the younger griffins were too young to carry a rider.

The party below was small, only six people. Too small to be a threat, assuming matching levels, but they were moving quickly up the slope. Four days ago she and her troop had spent hours pushing through the snow, but this group was somehow running over the six-foot drifts. It wasn’t the strangest thing she’d seen since coming here, but it was annoying.

Calling up a few men as backup, she waited for the group to approach. They were all beast-kin, of different races. All of them were female, and not dressed for the climate either - though they had fur, so they probably didn’t need to?

“That’s close enough!” she called out when they got close enough to talk to. They stopped, but one of them took a step forward.

“Good afternoon!” she said. “Do I have the honour of talking to Lady Tamayo?”

“What the - how do you know that?” she exclaimed.

The Beast-kin smiled. Isidre knew enough about Beast-kin to know that it was a polite smile, because she didn’t show her teeth. “When you are on a mission from a God, you don’t lack for information,” she said. In Spanish.

“You-” Isidre started. “You’re another one, another chosen.”

“Yes. My name is Kaito Washiyama, from the nation of Japan,” she said, still in Spanish. She gave a little bow, and then straightened. “I am on a mission of diplomacy, may I approach?”

“I suppose so,” Isidre said, still processing what had occurred. She quickly glanced back at her men to make sure none of them had drawn a weapon.

“It’s an amazing thing, isn’t it? This ability to speak all languages?” Washiyama said, smiling warmly.

“It’s not every language,” she said. “We speak Spanish at home, but there are more than twenty Mayan languages still spoken. I only speak Mam, and I can’t speak any of the others.”

“Mam, you say?” Washiyama said, in that language. She thought for a moment. “You’re right!” There’s a language called Ainu, spoken by a few people in the north of my country. I can’t speak that, and yet I can speak Swahili, English… most of the European tongues I can think of.”

“I think it must be only languages that people who have been taken from Earth have spoken,” Isidre said. “If no Ainu have been taken, then the language didn’t come across.”

“Aaahh… interesting,” Washiyama said. She seemed to be lost in thought, pondering the implications, so Isidre decided to get the conversation back on track.

“A diplomatic mission you said?” she asked in Latorran. Should I have switched to Japanese? she thought. It seemed polite to do so, but at the same time, she wanted her men to hear what was being said.

“Oh yes!” Washiyama said, snapping back to reality. “You are about to make a serious mistake. The Beast Nation - ”

“Wait, what’s the Beast Nation?” Isidre interrupted. “I thought all the inhabitants of this forest were in separate tribes.”

Washiyama frowned, clearly irritated at being interrupted. She paused for a moment, and then continued. “The Kingdom of Latora doesn’t recognise the Nation. And it is true that there isn’t much in the way of central authority or permanent institutions beyond that of the tribes themselves. But the Tribal Council is the final authority on those matters it chooses to deliberate on within the bounds of its territory.”

He spoke like he was reciting from memory - which he probably was. He hadn’t been here any longer than her after all. He paused and gave her a questioning look. She nodded for him to continue.

“The Beast Nation does not begrudge hunters the opportunity of coming to the mountains to tame beasts,” she continued. “Nor do they feel the need to control their borders the way that Latorra - or Earth nations do. You were free to enter, and you are free to leave.”

“But?”

“But. The silver griffin must stay here, Lady Tamayo.”

Isidre flushed. She’d guessed this was coming, but it still made her feel like a thief. “I was meant to have Manchas,” she blurted.

“Meant by who? The griffins are part of Nature, which is part of the domain of Naldyna. She does not mean for you to take him.”

“I don’t think Duit… acknowledges Naldyna’s authority in this area,” Isidre said carefully.

“Has Duit told you this?” Washiyama asked, knowingly.

“No,” Isidre admitted. “But… it was like I was led here, to see him.” She shrugged to find the words, of how it felt when she first saw the pure white griffin among all the others.

“For what it's worth,” Washiyama said wryly, “Naldyna also thinks that Duit meant for you to take the griffin. Not speaking to you is just his way of maintaining plausible deniability.”

“But I’ve bonded to him!” Isidre protested.

“That just means that if you order him to stay with his parents, he will,” Washiyama told her. “The bond will fade in time, or be supplanted by a new one. I’m told that if you don’t take the grifflet, the Council will provide a fully trained adult griffin of the highest quality for you to bond with. It can be in Talnier in three days.”

Isidre thought about it. It would be more convenient to have a full-grown mount. As far as she could tell, there was nothing special about Manchas aside from his colouring. On the other hand, the thought of leaving the grifflet behind, now that she’d bonded with him was… unacceptable.

“What if we do take him,” she asked, flatly. Was this group sufficient to stop them?

“Free to enter, and free to leave,” Washiyama reminded her. “We’re not going to try and stop you. But we won’t shield you from the consequences of your actions either.”

“What consequences?”

“I’m sure you’ve realised by now, just how intelligent the griffins are,” she said. “They know that the griffins you take get fed and cared for. They put up a fight because they’re wild animals, but they understand.”

Isidre’s eyes narrowed. That… actually matched up with what she’d observed up here. The griffins, however much they’d fought against it, didn’t seem upset by being captured. Like it was a game that they’d lost.

“The silver griffin is different,” Washiyama warned. “He’s needed here. When the males come back and find him gone, they will come after him.”

“It’s just a colour,” Isidre protested uneasily. “And it’s not like they can track us through the air.”

“They don’t need to,” Washiyama said softly. “They already know where the humans live.”

Isidre was taken aback by the implication. “Is that a threat?” she asked incredulously. “You’re going to send them after us?”

Washiyama shook her head. “Just a consequence.” One of the other girls behind her spoke up.

“We don’t control the griffins, but we understand them. They’re animals, but they have a greater understanding of the wider world than you imagine. All their past attacks on human settlements have been for reasons. Reasons that your nation has chosen to ignore.”

Isidre looked back at Orson, her second. He gave the delegation a dismissive look.

“As far as I know, all the attacks have been random. There’s never been a case of griffins following hunters back to Talnier.”

“You said you’d never heard of a white griffin before either,” Isidre pointed out. She was starting to have doubts.

“The decision is yours, ma’am,” the man told her. “Listen to your heart - if Duit didn’t trust you, she would have told you what to do.”

Would I have listened, if she had? Isn’t she a false idol? Isidre thought. She still hadn’t squared her Catholic faith with this new reality. She pushed the thought aside, it wasn’t helping her with this decision.

Focussing on her feelings, she realised that they hadn’t changed. If anything, this intervention only confirmed that Manchas had a uniqueness that went beyond his colour.

“We’re leaving,” she told Orson. “Double-mount everyone you can, any that can’t fit will have to camp in the forest and make their way to the meeting point.” She didn’t look at her fellow chosen. “The rest of us will head to Talnier - if there’s a griffin attack coming, we can warn them and help defend the place.”

Her second saluted and started yelling at the troops. She turned her back on the tribal delegation. “Sorry,” she said. “But I’m taking him with me.”

Fast as griffins were, [Wood Walk] was faster, if somewhat limited. The party stepped out of one of the many trees that surrounded the second dungeon claimed by the town of Talnier. Called the Temple of the Ogre God, it boasted a variety of mostly humanoid monsters, a few of which were intelligent enough to have skills.

“Do we really have to do this?” Kaito asked his friends. Ettalle, the fox-kin [Druid] hugged him.

“I know you don’t like it, darling, but this is nation-stuff.”

Orino, the other [Druid] in the party directed the Milax Panther she was controlling into the cave-like entrance to the dungeon.

“Um, it’s orders from the Tribal Council, you see?” Fassi said, her long ears twitching nervously. “If they ignored us, we were told to send this message to remind them who really controls this forest.”

“Still…” Kaito said. He looked at the entrance. “This sort of thing never ends well.”

“It’s done,” Orino said. “They found it. They’re coming.”

Ettalle focussed on a spell of her own. Grass and flowers sprung up around the party’s feet. They only rose up to their knees, but they marked a prayer of concealment.

The first monster that came out of the cave didn’t notice the group. A misshapen humanoid with blood on its mouth and claws, it cast around. It wasn’t long before it found the trail. Humans had been travelling to raid this dungeon for a long time. There wasn’t a road, but to the enhanced smell of the ogreling there might as well have been. It growled, and started shambling off in the direction of Talnier.

It wasn’t alone. Monsters began making their way out. For the moment it was the lesser creatures of the first level, but the others would emerge soon enough.

“It’s started,” Ettalle said with a mixture of sadness and satisfaction. “It won’t stop now until it runs out of mana. They should start arriving the day after the hunters get back. Let’s get going.”

The party linked hands again and stepped into the tree once more, heading for the other dungeon.