Gryphon

"Yes, just like that. Keep eye contact, stay friendly, and keep smiling. Whatever you do, don't blink—that'll make him think you're untrustworthy."

Although the booming voice ringing in his ears was a bit of a nuisance, Alvin had no time to pay attention to the dwarf. The eight-foot-long beast before him was staring back with wide, round eyes. For a boy not even five feet tall, the pressure radiating from a predator several times his size was no small matter.

"Don't blink!"

The prolonged staring match made the boy's eyes feel dry and his eyelids heavy, but the dwarf's shout forced him to suppress the urge to blink.

In the end, the boy's persistence paid off. The beast, possessing a pair of pale gold wings, responded to the boy's steadfast demeanor—Snowwind, the close companion of Kurdran, gently lowered his back toward the boy who had maintained his smile and manners throughout, looking for all the world like a nod.

At this moment, Kurdran finally let out a long sigh of relief. Though Snowwind was his intimate partner and friend, the gryphon still possessed the innate wildness of his kind. If the prince of the Kingdom of Lordaeron were injured because of him, it would put him in a truly impossible position. Fortunately, the young child had earned Snowwind's approval through persistence and kindness.

"Well done! Snowwind has accepted you; you can try touching him now."

Following the Wildhammer Dwarf's instructions, Alvin slowly reached out a small hand and gently touched the gryphon's lowered, razor-sharp beak. The texture was different from what the boy had imagined—it was smooth to the touch, not rough at all.

Seeing that the massive beast showed no aggressive reaction, the boy moved a little closer and stroked the creature's sleek feathers. As he petted him, Snowwind displayed an incredibly human-like expression of satisfaction, appearing quite pleased with the contact.

After completing his first intimate encounter with the strange gryphon, the boy began to follow behind Kurdran, accompanying him and Snowwind on a walk through the wilderness near Southshore. According to the dwarf, this was to cultivate the habits of living together and build a bond through time.

"Wildhammer Dwarves have been in contact with the gryphons living in the mountains since we were small," Kurdran said, a look of nostalgia crossing his face as he spoke of his childhood.

"Once we learned to walk and climb, gryphons became an important partner in our lives. They are incredibly intelligent—they are our most important friends, not livestock like the horses you humans use."

"Hey, lad, don't run too far!"

The dwarf shouted at Snowwind, who was soaring freely in the sky, before turning back to look at the boy with a grin. Compared to craning his neck to talk to adult humans, he preferred interacting with someone of a similar height, even if the other party was just a child.

"See? He can understand what I say."

Kurdran boasted to Alvin about the intimacy and trust he shared with his gryphon companion, acting not at all like an elder of his years.

This was the nature of dwarves. In daily life, they were heavy drinkers and reckless; on the battlefield, they were heroic, tenacious, and fearless of sacrifice; yet in political discourse, they could occasionally display flashes of astonishing wisdom.

In the history of the game Alvin had once experienced, the Wildhammer Dwarves were supposed to have had little contact with humans before the Second War. But in this timeline, for reasons unknown, these recluses of Aerie Peak maintained a good relationship with the Kingdom of Alterac, keeping up constant trade.

Due to the War of the Three Hammers that had erupted in history, their relationship with the Ironforge Dwarves was not as harmonious as people imagined. However, their relationship was not as rigid as legends suggested; after all, the fuse of that war had been the conspiracy of the Dark Iron Clan. To a certain extent, both the Wildhammer and Bronzebeard Dwarves could be considered victims of that war, though the Bronzebeards had better luck and won.

After that war, the two clans often communicated and fought together against the fallen Dark Iron Clan. They left behind many things that would be passed down through the ages, such as the Thandol Span, which connected the north and south of the Eastern Kingdoms; that famous, massive arch bridge was the product of the two clans working in unison.

Though they were wild and eccentric, they possessed an unwavering yearning for justice. When the Ironforge Dwarves, who shared nearly identical physical features, fell into the quagmire of war, these nature-loving, justice-seeking, hot-tempered folk chose to pick up their warhammers to contribute to the cause of their former kin.

To this end, the King of the Wildhammer Clan, Falstad Wildhammer, chose to join the Alliance and sent the gryphon squad to which Kurdran belonged to Southshore to participate in the war against the Orcs.

Because of his curiosity about gryphons and his fantasies of flight, the boy spent most of his time in Southshore with these Wildhammer Dwarves and their airborne companions, aside from following Lothar to observe Alliance war meetings.

"Kurdran, how much longer do you think it will take before I can fly with Snowwind?"

Soaring freely in the sky was the most primal fantasy of all races bound to the earth by gravity, and even Alvin, coming from the modern era, was no exception. The boy tilted his head slightly, shielding his eyes with his right hand as he watched the jubilant gryphon fly toward a small grove against the brilliant sunlight.

"To have this lad fully accept you, you'll need at least two months," the dwarf said, extending a thick palm and beginning to count off on his fingers. "You also have to learn to estimate wind speed, control direction..."

As he spoke, Kurdran looked up and glanced into the distance. Suddenly, his expression turned ghastly, and he let out a shout: "Oh, no!"

"What happened?" The boy followed his gaze. The sturdy gryphon was still circling slowly above the withered grove; everything around them was peaceful, the scene like a painting.

No, wait!

Just as he felt confused, a flash of white light entered his vision—it was an arrow with white fletching. The arrow tore through the sky at high speed, climbing to the very peak of its kinetic trajectory before falling toward the ground, tracing a perfect parabolic arc in the air.

If he wasn't mistaken, the target of that long arrow was meant to be Snowwind, who hadn't been over the grove for long. At this moment, the boy's expression shifted as well.

"Damn it!"

The Wildhammer Dwarf cursed loudly, his short legs pumping as he accelerated forward, grumbling as he ran: "Whoever that is, I'm going to use the hammer in my hand to make that brainless fool wake up!"