FIREBIRD
Celebwen Telcontar: Here I am, back again. Well, this one’s different. It starts out in a very well known part of America, although the story is a Harry Potter fanfic.
Balrog: Oh? And what is the area that we’re talking about?
Celebwen Telcontar: A large American landmark.
Balrog: Hunh?
Celebwen Telcontar: You’ll see.
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Morning Glory lifted her head, her eyes closed, and glided out over the falls. She dove down, her wings nearly clipping the walls of the canyon, her forelegs extended and her talons closed like a falcons when trying to knock someone down. She decided that since it was April Fools day, she would give everyone a good sharp shock. She pressed her control, and Steamboat Geyser erupted with a massive force, sending water and sulfuric gasses high into the air. She screamed her joy as she dashed along the river, her mate on her tail, and she shot out over the lake, splaying her forelegs and spiraling up along a thermal. Norris was hot on her tail as she streaked out to the center of the lake, and, with a practiced move, lifted herself, tipped downward, and made a full and beautiful dive, closing her nares with a flap of skin inside so she could recycle the air already in her lungs for extended periods of time, meant for use in ash clouds, but still of use here. She also invoked a similar feature of her eyes, and she swam deftly under the water. She spotted Norris streaking overhead, and, with a shriek that came out as a large bubble, she erupted from the water, gripping his hind legs and dragging him down.
Suddenly, she spotted another Gryphon overhead, and shot up, her soaked feathers drying quickly.
“Who are you?” she asked in Gryphonic.
“I… I’ve failed them…” the new Gryphon said, barreling down. “I died! I abandoned all of them!” He dove with a shriek of self pity, the feathers barely hanging to his body, as bony as a Thestral.
“Come on, Newcomer,” Norris said, gripping the newcomer’s ribcage and hauling him up out of the water.
“Bloody hell! Let me go! I deserve this; I let my godson nearly get killed! I should have persuaded him harder to go back to Occlumency!”
“Occlumency? Hell, this one’s a British Wizard, love!”
“Come on, newcomer. You can tell us all about yourself once you’re all dry.” She gripped his hindquarters and helped Norris in towing the protesting Gryphon off.
They landed in an area right on top of Steamboat Mountain in a soft valley covered in grasses. “It makes a nice nest,” she said, then let the newcomer curl up into a fetal position.
“Alright, Newcomer. Who are you? We can’t continue to call you Newcomer, now, can we?”
“I’m… uh… You can call me Snuffles.”
“Snuffles? Padfoot? Sirius! Sirius Black!” Norris cried, rearing and flapping his wings. He gryph-grinned. “I’m Norris, this is Morning Glory. Since we were first here, we took names of the Land. We are in Yellowstone National Park, in the United States of America, Sirius. Before we died, we were James and Lily Potter.” Sirius looked at them, his jaw gaping, his crest slack with shock, his wings drooping in the valley.
“No you’re not.”
“We are. We’ll prove it to you.” Norris changed into a stag, and Sirius looked like he would faint. When Norris returned to his Gryphon form, he was embraced by Sirius, or as best as the Gryphon could. (No slash; this is just two old friends being happy to see each other!) Then, the two older Gryphons began to teach Sirius about the park, and that they were guardians.
“We are the Guardians of the Land. We are the only beings capable of surviving the magmatic heat that the Earth puts off.”
“What do you mean, Guardians?”
“When the Earth was first formed, the Firebirds were not around. The Earth was a maelstrom of churning lava and magmatic currents, never cooling long enough to keep the world stable, or to create water that would stay as water, not as mist or cloud. Then, the Gryphons came. They controlled the Earth’s eruptions, cooling the crust and allowing life to form. Now we watch, and wait, and when the Earth is strained, we remove some of the pressure in the form of volcanic eruptions. We also warn the Humans of impending eruptions.”
“How? Muggles won’t answer to a gryphon!”
“True, but we can let them know that we mean business by sending a transonic quake up, letting them know that it is about to erupt.” Sirius nodded. “Now for better news, when you’re finished with your training here, you must choose a name for yourself. I chose Norris, for Norris Geyser Basin, and Lily chose Morning Glory for Morning Glory hot spring. I would suggest Excelsior, after Excelsior Geyser near Grand Prismatic hot spring.”
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The days passed and soon Sirius was well inaugurated into the Park life. He chose an aerie for himself near Yellowstone Falls, and simply watched and waited. He took the name Excelsior, and was often seen flying with Norris.
“Norris, how come the Muggles can’t see us?” Excelsior asked once.
“It’s because they don’t have Earth Sense. Only a few people have Earth Sense now, mainly because of their modern minds. The only humans to have Earth Sense are those who live on an island or something, away from everything, and extremely primitive people. Mainly it’s animals that have Earth Sense.”
“So is it Earth Sense that allows animals to know when something will happen geologically?”
“Yes.”
“Our time in Yellowstone is nearly over. Wizard is coming from Mt. Mazama, Bulge is coming from Mount St. Helens, Lahar is coming from Mt. Rainer, and Pahoehoe is coming from Kilauea. Their leaving their domains to their apprentices: Lake, Dome, Glacier, and Aa.” Morning Glory preened her feathers, and then turned to the West, watching the sun sink behind the horizon. Soon all three Gryphons left for their aeries.
The next afternoon, just after the sun reached its zenith, there was a whirring, and a Firebird landed.
“You’ve had too much on your talons, Morning Glory. And who’s this?”
“Bulge, this is our apprentice, Excelsior. He was a human Wizard, and now he’s a Gryphon. Excelsior, this is Bulge, the Gryphon who formerly held Mount St. Helens, in Washington State.” The Gryphon had a wild look to himself, and his wings were in disarray, as was his crest, all of which were sure signs of volcanic activity in his home region.
“Obviously.” Another landed.
“Hello, Lahar. Where are Wizard and Pahoehoe?”
“They’re coming in time,” the female gryphon said. She took a drink of water from Grand Prismatic Hot Spring. “By the Mother! I had forgotten how good Yellowstone water is!”
“I think it’s the high sulfur content that makes it taste so good to us.”
“Hmmm!” Pahoehoe landed and began to drink some water with Lahar. Wizard landed then and flicked his tail, and the seven Gryphons began to talk.
“So, what’s with the caldera? What’s new?” Lahar asked.
“The caldera’s warming up. There’s a bulge under the lake, and the lake is heating up. But that’s about all, save the bloody tourists.”
“That’s natural…”Wizard said, eyeing a family on the bridge across the way. “They can’t see us. I’m hungry…”
“Wizard!” Norris cried. “No eating the tourists!” Wizard laughed, fluffing his wings in mirth.
“I was joking! Anyways, Celebaelin is coming.”
“Ce… Celebaelin! I thought she was retired!” Norris cried in shock.
“She was, until that ridiculous British Hitler-wannabe decided to take over the world. Celebaelin is going to be pushing us all to our limits, as she wants us to join the war. On the side of the Light, before you ask. Apparently there’s some British Firebird over there as the head of the forces against Darkness,” Wizard said, eyeing a small buffalo calf as it ambled over to its herd.
“Makes sense. So who’s watching Yellowstone?” Lahar asked.
“We’re blowing it up,” Wizard replied.
“We’re what?” Excelsior cried, flapping his wings.
“We’re setting the Yellowstone Caldera off. It’s going to be a small eruption, unless more of the magma than we surmised is eruptible,” Bulge said. The family on the bridge moved off, and Wizard turned his full attention back to the Gryphnonic council.
“About how large is it going to be?” Morning Glory asked.
“It will be relatively small; about the size of the 1815 Tambora eruption. The earth’s temperature will fall only about three degrees Celsius, and though the world will be plunged into a Nuclear winter, it’s better than another Huckleberry Ridge sized eruption,” Bulge replied.
“I agree with that. But how will mortal society handle this sudden geologic shift in power and pressure?” Pahoehoe asked.
“They’ll deal. They’ve dealt with volcanic eruptions before,” Wizard said, not caring about the humans.
Suddenly, there was a thumping, and all looked up to behold a beautiful female Gryphon. Her feathershafts were white, as were the edges of her feathers. Her eyes, unlike the normal Gryphon’s bright gold, were the color of newly erupted lava, and the eyes themselves had a slight translucent film over them, rendering the Gryphon nearly blind.
“Celebailin,” Bulge cried. “We are down here.”
“Just because I’m almost blind doesn’t mean I can’t use my other senses to see where you are,” Celebailin said temperamentally. “So, these are the new Gryphons. Morning Glory, Norris and Excelsior; it is good to meet you three. Now, are we ready? Bulge, you take the Northern end of the caldera. Wizard, you take the East, Pahoehoe the West and Lahar the South. Morning Glory, Excelsior and Norris, you’ll take the center, in a triangle five miles from each other. I’ll take the exact middle. On my mark, we’ll all erupt the areas we’re holding.”
“But the humans…?” Bulge asked.
“Humans need to be lessened. They’re getting too big, too many of them, and too few areas they can live. We’re helping the breed in general,” Celebailin said.
“I see…” Bulge said quietly.
“Alright!” Celebailin called. “Everyone take your positions!” The eight Gryphons took to the air, gliding over to their designated areas to watch and erupt. As Morning Glory flew over to her designated area, she could feel the magma straining against her boundaries of control. It would only listen to her for so long, until Gaia intervened. Then, the magma would force itself to the surface, and all their preparations would be in vain.
Morning Glory landed, waiting for Celebailin’s signal.
:NOW: Celebailin’s voice shouted. Morning Glory let the magma loose. It was an adder, writhing and snapping, a wild horse, with the bit between its teeth. It blew from the Earth with a force rivaling the Tambora eruption in 1915. The lava danced with the sky, and with it, Morning Glory launched herself up to play in the fountain of liquid rock. Smoke and stones, pyroclasts and debris were flung heavenward as well as the lava, hiding the brilliant red-orange molten rock.
Within an hour, the sky was choked with ash. And the seven eight Gryphons were on their way to England, to join the second war against Voldemort, a war Morning Glory, Excelsior and Norris had long been dreading yet half-expecting. None of the three realized that the Firebird in England was in Hogwarts, or had been Harry Potter, or even that Severus Snape had adopted the young gryphlet.
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Celebwen Telcontar: So, Yellowstone is gone, and with it a good chunk of the human race. Winters are going to grow far colder, ash is going to blanket a good section of the American West, and is going to shut down all sorts of businesses.
Balrog: Cool! So how does England get affected?
Celebwen Telcontar: No summer for at least a couple of years, nasty storms, and general unrest in the atmosphere.
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