"Come on. Hurry up!" Laura skipped along the mountain pathway always a few feet in front of Hanta. He got the feeling that she was up in front of him to show that just because she was younger did not mean she was lacking in any ability he possessed. In fact Hanta was sure that if they were to have a magic battle she could wipe the floor with him. "Hey what's the matter, why are you all they way back there?" Not realizing it, Hanta had stopped walking.

"Sorry about that."

"It's no big deal. But you'd better stick close from now on, we have to leave the path in just a little while."

"You mean your village isn't down the path?"

"No." She smiled, "A lot of demons think that just because we are an organized civilization it would be logical for us to have a path leading towards our village, right? But you see that's where they'd be wrong. In fact this is one of the reasons we are the most peaceful in the entire demon world. No one has ever found out just where our race lives!" Her voice wavered the tiniest bit on her last sentence.

"Then why is it I get the feeling you know how to fight better than I do?" Laura frowned slightly. It was the first expression that had appeared on her face that hadn't been in the form of a smile since Hanta had met her.

"Well, I shouldn't really tell you but you'll probably hear this from someone else eventually... A number of years ago, just after I was born, the head elder got into an argument with some of the younger men about leaving the village without permission. The elder banished them from our land and told them that if they ever returned he would kill them himself. I guess since one of them was his son he never intended to carry out his threat. But seven years ago they came back, and they had reinforcements. Not just any reinforcements, they had lead the Resistance right into our mountain home! It was a terrible battle and many of us were injured, but not as badly as the head elder. He had kept part of his word by killing his son but the other one managed to escape. Since then he has made it a personal project to train everyone in our village to fight the Resistance. I don't really remember it myself but grandfa- I mean the elder hasn't been the same since." Grinning she pranced forward, "But it doesn't matter now!" Hanta was puzzled by her sudden mood swings.

"If you you don't mind my asking, but who was the other griffon?"

"I'm pretty sure his first name is Nicks." Banking sharply to her left Laura deviated from the path and began bounding over rocks. Hanta had no problems keeping up with her and could have outpaced her, but he did not want to lose his way in unfamiliar territory. As they went further along the ground became rough and boulders the size of houses made the going difficult. Leaping and bounding after Laura Hanta began to lose pace and she pulled in front of him. He had lived on the flatlands at the foot of the mountains all his life. And as a result was a very fast runner on flat ground, but this was a completely different field. He stopped panting, but when he looked up Laura had vanished. He began to panic.

"Hey, gryphon girl!" He stumbled around looking wildly for her, "Laura! Where are you?"

"Over here." Hanta's eyes widened. There in front of him was Laura's head floating in midair. Hanta stared, dumbfounded, at her. "What?" Looking down she realized what had happened. "Ohhhh, this." She stepped forward to reveal the rest of her body. "This is just a barrier we keep up to hide our village. If we didn't you would be able to see it from where you're standing now." She offered her hand to Hanta who, pushed it aside, and entered the unknown world.