Bulletin #8 - Take Wing and Fly - NoQu 2025

NoQu 2025

Day 25

Total Words: 41,667 Words

Chapter 8: Take Wing and Fly

"…be on thy guard against the keen-fanged hounds of Jupiter that never bark, the gryphons…

who dwell on the banks of the gold-gushing fount, the stream of Pluto:

go not thou nigh to these."

—Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, translated by Theodore Alois Buckley

You feel a jerk as you are lifted off the ground by talons, sharp and careful. You freeze and scream.

"Oh, be quiet, won't you?" A voice comes from over your head. "It's not like we're going to eat you, Phoenix Herald."

"What is going on!?" You cry, not for the first time.

"No, we have a much better use for you," he ignores you. "We just couldn't wait around for you to get to us on your own."

"Put me down! Safely!"

"So of course it was just simpler to grab you— oh hush! The cliffs are plenty safe. Stop your yowling, you sound like a tumbling grifflet."

Prompt: Make a list of at least 10 words you associate with your project. Use this word bank for your writing session.

With a huff, you bite your tongue. Clearly this thing wasn't going to be listening, and the beach was small enough now that there wasn't anything to be done besides wait to be set down at his leisure.

The cool surf breezes whirled around you with each beat of the griffin's powerful golden-brown wings. You had to admit, the view from up here was almost worth being uncomfortably grasped by your shoulders.

Fortunately, the flight was at an end. Without another word, he placed you carefully on the top of one of the cliffs overlooking the cove. He landed near you softly and began to preen his ruffled feathers.

"So what do you need me for?" You ask, glad to breathe freely again without his claws digging into you.

He pauses his preen to give a full-body shake. "Your key."

Ambiance: Eagle Calls

"My key?" You pointedly ignore how the map in your pocket felt even hotter for a moment.

"Griffins are protectors. We protect something greater than even our famed gold in this cliff-side." He motions for you to follow him, ignoring (once again) the confused look on your face.

He leads you through a pile of boulders down to a secret passage.

"So I'm supposed to have the key for this… thing that you guys have down here?"

"The only one in existence. We've been locked out of the chamber for days."

"Okay then…" You fumble with your pocket. Half the remaining piece of paper is glowing. You tear it off and look carefully at the keyhole, then clumsily roll the warm paper to match, or at least good enough. The lock clicks open.

Dare: Write for 10 minutes without either backspacing or second guessing your wording.

"Well done, Phoenix Herald."

You stare at the messy roll of paper. "This doesn't even look like a key!"

"Yes, but it still has the same creative power. You see, the thing we protect? It's freedom. Freedom from perfection. Because if you had tried to make that key match perfectly? It would have taken far too long! Good enough makes a thing exist. The fairies know how to take good enough and make it beautiful. But we griffins aren't concerned with their rules. And at the start of things? Neither should you." He plucks a ruffled golden feather from his own tail and exchanges it for the key.

You take it wordlessly. Nothing has been perfect this whole trip. But it's been the most exciting (and terrifying) thing you've ever done. Maybe this lesson has come near the end so you can apply it better to your projects back home… but for now, you have to find where the last piece of map wants to take you.

Question: What ways do you hold yourself back in your writing?

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