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Quinka awoke late in the night to the sound of a tiny kit's cry. She slinked away from her comfortable nest towards her wailing younger sister. "What is it Yaraka?" Quinka whispered sleepily. The baby gryphon looked up at her with sorrowful brown eyes. "I can't sleep. Too dark. Too scary." Quinka grinned at Yaraka. "I'll tell you a story." Yaraka lit up "A story! Yes! Yes! Story!" Tucking a blanket closer around the kit, Quinka began her tale. "Once, in a different land...
Welam quietly entered his community's library, a place full of records, stories, and information on any topic you could think of. It was a large room, carved into the rock of a mountain, with stone walls and ceiling. The floor was tiled with a magnificent mosaic that was covered with colorful designs. He scanned the shelves with his eagle eyes, and found what he was looking for, and old, beat up book with tattered corners. On it was the title "THE CLAN OF THE SOCKS" Welam removed it from it's place and opened it. On the page, surrounded by an elaborate border, was a riddle.
To find the secret horde of the Clan of Socks,"Still trying to solve that old rhyme?" Welam turned around to see a brown feather gryphon. "It's only nonsense." she said. "I think there may be some truth to this riddle, Taylana." Welam told his friend. "All I need to do is find the leaf as red as..." He paused. "What is it?" Taylana asked. "Move your foot." Welam ordered. When she did, he gasped. "Look what you were standing on!" Taylana looked down to see in the mosaic..
start at the leaf as red as a fox.
Jump to the flower of blue,
although a hop or two will do.
Follow the green path,
and unless you have trouble doing the math,
you'll come to a ring of gold.
Inside this circle is a door that's old.
Open it and you will find,
a treasure left by our kind!
"What the Clan of the Socks?" Yaraka interrupted her sister's story. Quinka sighed. "I should have explained. You see, a long time ago, gryphons lived in small groups called clans. The gryphons here don't do it anymore, because the clans would get into fights, so we decided to just all be one big group. Anyway in this land, the Clan of the Socks were obsessed with socks." Yaraka tilted her head with puzzlement "Like the ones some creatures wear on their feet?" Quinka nodded. "Yes, those socks. The sock was their symbol. Well, like in our land, these gryphons no longer had clans. But, the Clan of the Socks left a treasure..."
"And Welam was looking for it!" Yaraka squealed. "Yes, Yaraka, he was. Now can I finish the story?"
A red leaf! "A coincidence, I'm sure..." she said. "I'm not so sure." Welam replied, standing on the leaf. "See, Taylana! A blue flower!" He pointed at another design. Taylana sat down and gave Welam a look. "Why would the treasure of the Clan of the Socks be in the library?" Welam said "Most of this community was built after the Great Joining of the Clans, right? Which one did the library?" Taylana grew silent, then exclaimed "The Clan of the Socks!" Welam smiled as he leaped to the blue flower and walked on a snaking green line. He came to the middle of the room, where there was a large yellowish circle in the mosaic. "See, Taylana! The gold circle! But.. where's the door?" Welam paced around on the rug in the middle of the room. Suddenly, he pulled the rug away, exposing a small door....
"How come nobody saw the door under the rug before?" Yaraka said, stopping her sister again. Quinka groaned. "Because unlike some gryphons, they actually got rid of dust in the library instead of sweeping it under the carpet, and they never cleaned the rug. Now stop interrupting me!"
"Is this it?" Taylana asked. "I think it is!" Welam said with much excitement. He tried to open the door. "It's stuck!" Taylana joined in, but it wouldn't budge. A fledgling gryph walked by. "Hey! You!" Welam yelled. "Who, me?" the fledgling asked. Taylana looked up. "Can you give us a hand?" The fledge shrugged. "Sure!" she said, and dashed towards the two gryphons. After much pulling, they got the old door to open. Sure enough, there was a small room under it. Taylana and Welam were too big, so the fledge girl, being littler, went in. She found a small box, opened it and found.. lots of pairs of glittery socks! Oh, they were in many colors; green, silver, gold, red, striped, checkered, polka dotted.. you name the sock, it was there. Each one of the gryphons took a pair, and they shared what they found with the rest of the community. The...
"End." said Quinka. "Now go to sleep Yaraka." The little kit yawned and snuggled into a pillow. Quinka went back to her nest nearby, and closed her eyes. "Quinka?" she heard Yaraka's little voice say.
"Yes?"
"Was that story true?"
"Maybe somewhere it is."
Quinka wiggled her toes in the pair of glittery green socks she wore
on her back feet. Smiling slyly, she repeated "Maybe somewhere it is..."
