Chapter 209

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Chapter 209: Indigenous People

Leaving Quel’danil, Jesse followed Greed to a gentle slope.

Here, there were large spruce trees, and the forest would occasionally echo with sudden sharp whistles.

Is this the sound of a gryphon?

However, Jesse only heard the sound without seeing the bird itself. He kept looking for the gryphon’s presence by following the sound but couldn’t see anything.

Greed walked to a clearing, slung the bow over his back, and waved his hand to signal Jesse to step back.

Jesse stopped not far away, watching to see what he was up to.

The dwarf looked up at the pale sky and blew a very loud whistle with his hands outstretched.

The whistle made a few twists and turns before making a series of short sharp sounds, ending suddenly with a sharp noise.

After blowing the whistle, he took a deep breath, patted his chest, feeling ready for a fight.

Soon, there was a rumbling sound like a motorcycle engine coming from the sky, and a black shadow landed in front of the dwarf, hopping on several tree trunks with giant wings flapping. It screeched sharply at Greed, keeping a cautious distance, as if trying to scare him away. It was a quite large gryphon, almost as tall as Jesse.

It was deep gray all over, with silver feathers around its neck, making impatient barks while holding a claw towards Greed.

Although not as large as the white gryphon ridden by the Kirin Tor Mage, according to Greed, the gryphons in the Hinterlands were generally smaller in size compared to those in Alterac. This Hinterlands gryphon was already bigger than any others Jesse had seen before.

Greed said something in Dwarven language, making the gryphon visibly more agitated, shaking its head and taking a few steps back.

Surprisingly, Greed didn’t seem anxious or displeased with the gryphon’s reaction. Instead, he threw his shield and hammer on the ground, shouted loudly in Dwarven language, and even started laughing.

The gryphon made a series of low growls, then flapped its wings and charged towards Greed, causing Jesse to feel uneasy.

But seeing Greed looking pleased, realizing this was what he expected, he didn’t lend a hand to help.

Greed faced the charging gryphon, and when the gryphon raised its upper body, Greed accurately grabbed both front claws!

The gryphon anxiously began to screech sharply, wanting to flap its wings to strike the dwarf’s head. Greed also roared while dodging the wing strikes and struggling with the opponent.

The monster’s large body seemed less stable than the dwarf’s. After struggling for a while, it suddenly slipped on its hind legs to the side and fell, but with a great force fell down, pulling the dwarf down with it.

The gryphon clearly became angry. It flapped its wings, stood up, raised its hand to strike, the dwarf shrank his body to dodge. The gryphon then kicked back and tried to bite.

Greed skillfully avoided the pecking and directly grabbed its neck. The gryphon began to jump and struggle on the ground, trying to shake off the dwarf. However, the dwarf held on tightly, and all the struggling was in vain.

Jesse never doubted Greed’s strength, but he didn’t expect the gryphon to have a stronger explosive force. It suddenly retracted its neck, rotated its whole body, and then, like a spring, flung Greed to the ground not far away.

The gryphon didn’t continue the pursuit. Greed climbed up from a pile of leaves, wiped his face, and looked at the palm of his hand, seeming to have been scratched somewhere.

Just when Jesse thought he was defeated, the gryphon took several steps back, scratching the ground and fallen leaves with its claws, constantly chirping and complaining as if in protest.

Greed huffed over with some cuts on his face and arms, he smiled and said, "Come, let’s go up. The gryphon is willing to carry me, but we need to buy it some meat when we get to Southshore."

"Is it that simple?" Jesse asked.

"Simple?!" Greed frowned and took a few steps closer, holding his fist and said, "Come here, let me show you how strong I am now, and see how fierce it can be."

Jesse laughed and stepped back, saying, "Forget it, haha, sorry, I can’t understand how you communicate with the gryphon."

"No more talking." Greed pointed over there and said, "Get on and try. Haven’t you always wanted to ride a gryphon? Now, this lady is right in front of you!"

Hearing Greed’s words, Jesse looked at the gryphon in front of him. Although he felt the gryphon’s gaze was a bit odd, he couldn’t hide his excitement.

This was a real gryphon… And the best part was, it was a gryphon waiting for him to ride!

Jesse carefully took a few steps closer. The gryphon made uneasy sounds, its four rough claws scratching the ground as if wanting to back away.

He glanced at Greed, the confident smile on the dwarf’s face seemed to have faded a bit.

"Come on, you’re standing there foolishly, the gryphon won’t come over to carry you."

Jesse nodded and took a few steps forward, the gryphon reacted even more vigorously this time, making continuous "ha, ha" sounds.

With his past experience of raising cats for many years, this was definitely not a good sign.

But this was not Earth after all, and the gryphon was completely different from a cat, he couldn’t just back down because of those unrelated experiences, could he?

Feeling determined, Jesse tried to grab the feathers on the gryphon’s back, but unexpectedly, the gryphon exploded in feathers and jumped away just as Jesse’s hand was about to touch it, all the while screaming at Jesse.

It puffed up its neck feathers and suddenly charged towards Jesse, who quickly stepped back several paces.

Luckily, it seemed like it only wanted to scare Jesse and didn’t actually charge directly at him, but it was enough to show its refusal.

"What’s… what’s going on…"

Although he asked so, Jesse wasn’t surprised at all.

He is a warlock after all, and creatures as wise as the Wildkin can sense the corrupt aura around him, but they felt that Jesse meant no harm so they didn’t attack him.

Gryphons are very smart beasts, but they are still beasts, and they instinctively reject unfriendly things.

It can be said that even before coming to the Lordaeron continent, he had considered this, but he was just hoping that the gryphon wouldn’t notice.

So, in the end, was there no chance to ride it?

Jesse felt a bit disappointed, thinking, if he hadn’t studied dark magic back then, would he have been allowed to?

But without learning dark magic, would he have come this far, relying solely on a Light Spell to survive until today?

The dwarf remained silent, walking over to grab the feathers on the gryphon’s neck, as if trying to convey something to it. The gryphon kept trying to free itself from his grip, stepping back, much like an angry mare.

"Forget it… Greed, let’s not force it," Jesse said helplessly.

Unexpectedly, Greed suddenly burst out laughing.

"Haha! She wants to duel with you too, Jesse. You think it’s easy, why not give it a try yourself."

"Can I defeat it?"

"Do you still want to ride?"

After Greed asked this, Jesse’s heart suddenly sank.

"In that case, let’s just go for it!"