2021 G : Gryphlor

 

One aspect of writing fantasy is to create your own world and everything in it from customs to creatures. In the world of the dragshi, there are the gryphlor. Shading of tawny-beige coloring (which sometimes appears as stripes) provides camouflague in the rocky crags and woods of the mountains that are their domain. 

 

Expert climbers, gryphlor can also be found lounging on tree branches, sunning on rocks, or perched ready to pounce on unsuspecting animal--or person--or passes by. 

 

 

 

 

Dangerous even as a solitary hunter, the grphylor usually hunt in packs making them dangerous even to a shifter in dragon form or to a true dragon. 

To illustrate, an excerpt from First Change: Legends From The Eyrie of a gryphlor attack. 

Yelling and waving his staff to distract the attacking pride, Kedar ran from the protection of the woods. A pair of brown- and tan-shaded gryphlor peeled off and loped through the grass. Their target was obvious—him.

The element of surprise now gone, the full pride, from the gray-muzzled to the youngest kit, rose from concealment in the grass until the dragon faced more than a dozen cats. A shifting circle of brown and tan, they padded around Rioghnach, keeping just beyond the reach of her claws. Kedar suppressed a moan at the realization of the dragon’s plight. Teeth and talons weren’t enough. She needed dragon fire. But every time she sucked down air, a cat leaped so that she could not catch more than a quick draft, never enough to fuel her flame. No matter how hard she tried, the dragon didn’t catch more than an odd piece of fur with her fiery breath.

And I can’t help, Kedar cursed. He needed all his focus to battle the gryphlor stalking him.

A giant paw raked toward his face. The staff blocked the blow, but the force of the collision rocked him from hand to shoulder.

 

The Dragshi Chronicles - one click to estores

 

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~ till next time, Helen