The Alpha's Secret

SISTER WORLDS

MORIA

The mountains are nothing like I could ever find back on earth.

They are a startling lilac colour and tower so high that their snowy caps, like jutting white fangs appear to brush the very heavens.

The sheer beauty and majesty of the scene draws a soft, whispered gasp from my lips and drives all other thought and questions from my mind.

“Oh…”

All my senses are telling me this place cannot be real.

Colours on earth just did not look this...tangible.

Almost like they were not simply a coating but had a life of their own that they lent to objects on which they laid causing everything to feel more real.

Axe takes the slight bend in the road so we are now steadily driving upward and along the mountains.

The "road", if I can even call that, is a ribbon of a path cut out of the side of the mountains' surface and we are so close that if I had less common sense and wanted to, I could try to reach out and touch their rough, jagged sides.

I almost do.

But then I hear something that stops me in my tracks.

"What was that?"

It had been loud. Really loud.

Something similar to the calling sound of a golden mountain eagle, except no eagle I ever heard sounded that loud, or big.

It comes again. Closer this time.

"Axe..."

A large winged shadow falls over the car.

I tell myself not to look but my body refuses to listen to common sense and I find myself craning my neck upwards.

That is definitely no golden eagle.

“What…”

I start and stop, spluttering like a

No words I know could adequately describe the sight above our heads.

It is single handedly the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.

Body of a lion, head of an eagle, it swoops through the air with more grace than a beast its size should have.

Its body and wings are a dazzling silver blue colour that shimmers and glistens with a life of its own and when it flaps them once it is like a gust of wind strong enough to dislodge small rocks from the mountain's surface and send them rumbling to the ground.

Thanks to a phase where I was obsessed with Greek mythology, I know what it is, or what it is supposed to be.

Hounds of Zeus.

Kings of both birds and beasts, and believed to pull the chariots of the gods Apollo and Nemesis.

A Griffin.

I also know, that they should not exist.

Axe of course grins at the shock shell expression on my face.

“What’s wrong princess, gryphon got your tongue?”

My neck is staring to hurt but I am unable to stop looking. “You mean griffin?”

Axe snorts, his voice half coated with irritation. “Earth people…always messing with the names.”

“Maybe it’s because things like this are not supposed to actually exist”

He sakes his head once.

"No. It is because the people in that world no longer remember. All they have are stories and twisted versions of a time they can barely recall. And like all things passed down by word of mouth, with time..."

"...They get distorted."

He glances at me, one eyebrow raised.

And the look of appraisal in the way he searches me face like there might be something about me he missed before causes me to bite my lip and look away, wondering where those words had come from.

I glance at my fingers. "So you're saying Earth does not remember Xesperia?"

"Yes."

"But they used to and that's where most of the myths and stories come from?"

"Yes."

"Then what happened?"

Axe is quiet for a long time.

I watch an emotion I do not understand flicker across his face. But it is gone so quickly that I cannot be certain I did not imagine it.

And the he sighs into the air. "Sometimes, even with siblings. It is better when they are apart."

I do not understand what he means and I start to tell him so but then I hear my voice take on a breathlessness of awe as the gryphon cuts an arch through the sky, swoops around and come back rushing in our direction, dipping so low, I am unable to help but duck in fear.

Axe of course remains unfazed and laughs heartily at me. “Guardian of Keeper’s manor and Commander’s familiar. Relax, it knows we’re friends. Well...knows me a least. We might have to let it know that you're a guest and not dinner."

I whirl around in my seat so fast I almost get whiplash. "What?!"

But he refuses to look at me

I slide lower into my seat.

"I swear to god Axe if there is a possibility that this thing plucks me out of this car..."

Axe laughs again.

I like his laugh.

I don't want to like his laugh.

The violence of the gryphon’s wings is so close, it is a loud rushing sound that stirs and whips our hair in different directions.

Despite my fear, I find myself twisting around in my seat to watch it as it flies off, the feathers at the end of its tail catching and reflecting the sun.

“It’s so….”

“Beautiful?”

I shake my head, eyes still fixed on what is now a far away speck behind me.

Beautiful Isn’t a strong enough word.

His voice drops. “In that case, you might really want to turn around and see this.”

For what felt like the hundredth time that day, I am unable to believe my eyes.

I could try.

Could try with all my might, but no words would be able to adequately express or describe the sheer imposing magnificence that is Keeper’s manor.

The rocky road ends abruptly, widening out and continuing as a weathered stone bridge that Axe slowly cruises unto.

It is not nearly wide enough for comfort especially given how deep and wide what had to at some point in time, been a moat separating the manor from the surrounding area is.

The roaring sound of rushing water flows below the bridge as if heralding our arrival and the echoes of it fills me with a buoyant sense of warmth I find difficult to place.

At the far end of the bridge are two grey, moss covered pillars, whose top halves had been carved into enormous statues of two women.

They are so tall, their faces are hidden in the clouds.

One of the statues has a snake wrapped around her waist and a flame of purple burning in one held out palm.

The other is holding a scepter in one hand, and has on a hooded cloak so intricately carved, it seems almost fluid.

Almost like it would move in the wind.

Both statues are extending an arm out to the clasp the other, creating the effect of a massive carved arch.

“Earth and Xesperia, sister worlds and children of the gods, side by side for all of eternity”

Axe’s words as we pass beneath the entwined arms of the statues strikes a chord buried somewhere deep within my very soul.

And even though the words carved on the arch above are half buried beneath moss and in the shape of runes long forgotten, I know instantly, that is what they mean.

"Sometimes, even with siblings. It is better when they are apart."

Axe's words.

I know I will be getting an explanation soon.

And I also know, I will not like it.