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Information supplied by Andre and added at his request by Jane
The Crimson Griffin
The Crimson Griffin was a woman of middle age with pale skin. She dyed her hair crimson and painted her finger-nails, she wore crimson mail into battle and had a crimson standard. Her enemies said that this was ridiculous, all this crimson gear, and poured scorn upon her. Until she was riding into battle, with her armies always of seven times seven, and always with blood-thirsty Chaos and ferocious Danfive Xaron, with her Griffin Captors close about her, and riding upon a griffin that shrieked his rage and defiance yet was forced absolutely to obey. Then she was not ridiculous but terrible, and there was no laughing then.
So this was the woman seated in the pavilion, and she was playing chess with one of the two men there. This man was the Purple Sage, and he stood high in the regard of Irripi Ontor. This Purple Sage had sworn a great oath to follow the Crimson Griffin always, and he had sworn a great oath to be as humble as she was proud. He was so humble that if she had cup of gold, he must drink from silver, and if she ate roast swan he must eat roast peacock, and if ever she was so reduced as to sleep on straw, there would be nothing for him but to sleep on thistles. So his modesty was as terrible as her pride and everyone was horribly frightened of his humble rages on her behalf. He was a large, handsome man, with a long beard he dyed purple and he wore purple. So he and the Crimson Griffin clashed frightfully but no one ever commented on this because it would at one blow offend her pride and his humility.
Now the third man was different again, and he was a terrible wound to the Purple Sage this man. He was small and neither handsome or dignified. He was always soft-spoken and polite no matter the rank of the person he was addressing. When he was hungry he ate and when he was tired he rested, with no regard for the need to impress everyone. If the Purple Sage was not always so strict with him that man would have gone about all day in singed clothes that stank of mammoth dung, and with dirt on his hands, because it was with mammoths and siege engines and dirt that this man worked. So he was called Earth-Sapper. He was quiet and peaceful, except he loved mammoths and siege engines. He loved best Pandur Ban.
People said Pandur Ban was fourteen feet from shoulder to tail, and fourteen feet from foot to shoulder, but Earth-Sapper's mind was exact so he knew Pandur Ban was only ten feet to the shoulder, which is still very large. Pandur Ban was everything a mammoth should be, which is white-tusked and with trunk mottled white and pink, and he was brave, and placid except when 'must' was on him. Then he had to have his forehead bathed in wine, and be sent to lie in cool water. Except Pandur Ban had one flaw which was that his tail tip was bifurcated, which every mammoth-handler knows means he will one day kill a man. There is a marvellous story to tell about Pandur Ban and Earth-Sapper, about how they harnessed a river and turned aside a mountain, but this story is too long to tell now. Earth-Sapper loved Pandur Ban, and did not care that one day Pandur Ban would kill a man.
Keywords
Lunar
Initiate of the Red Goddess
Initiate of Jakeleel
Beloved of the Red Goddess
Beloved of Jakaleel
Followers
Griffin
Griffin Captors; Soldiers, Sword fighting,
The Purple Sage; Irippi Ontor
Earth Sapper