September Surprise Story Week: Sebastian continued: Random: 532 words

[k_a_webb]

See the beginning of this story here (LJ link).
See the second part of this story here (LJ link).

 

“Why is there no way to get breeders banned?” Sebastian asked. “People have been breeding griffins for years and surely there should be a system in place by now.”

“I agree,” Sebastian's dad replied. “We've been working on getting one in place but there's been a lot of arguing about pointless things, like the definition of griffin, and it just seems to be taking forever. A lot of the breeders have been trying to stop a law from going through because they knew that it will decrease their profits and make griffins available to everyone, not just the few people who can afford to pay thousands of pounds per animal.”

Sebastian looked at Ida. “How much would you have sold for?”

'Female griffins are worth more than male because we are rarer and that means I would have sold for around £6,000. My sister would have gone for around the same price, while my brothers would have sold for around £3,500 each.'

“Really? That much?”

Ida nodded. 'We are in high demand, Sebastian, and mated griffins can only have one clutch a year.'

“What did she say?” Sebastian's dad asked, as he gently stretched Ida's wing out.

“She would have sold for £6,000.”

“That sounds about right for a female griffin. As far as I know there are twelve mated pairs in the UK and each of those mated pairs has one clutch a year. Normally there will be between four and eight cubs in a clutch. We've known about griffins for ten years and those twelve mated pairs are the same twelve pairs that were first found. In those ten years there no one has found another mated pair or created another pair.”

'That is to be expected,' Ida said. 'A female griffin is not ready to mate until their twelfth year. That is not information that has been shared with breeders, so I would appreciate it if you and your father would keep it to yourselves. When a female griffin is ready to breed it would be a simple enough process to find a mate in the wild but I believe that being captive creatures will make it much more difficult.'

Sebastian smiled at his dad. “Ida's just told me that griffins don't mate until they're twelve, but we have to keep that information to ourselves.”

“Twelve is an older age than I would have expected.”

'Tell your father that female griffins are able to mate until their seventieth year.'

“Female griffins can mate until they're seventy.”

“Interesting.” Sebastian's dad looked at Sebastian. “How much does Ida know about being a griffin?”

'I know everything that my mother knew. She passed on all the knowledge in the hope that I would find the right person.' Ida looked unblinkingly at Sebastian. 'You are to be the first true breeder, Sebastian. We have been a long time searching but I am grateful to be the one to find you.'

Sebastian stared at her, unable to believe what she'd just said to him. “Dad, griffins pass information from parent to child and Ida believes that I'm to be the first true breeder.”

'I don't believe, Sebastian, I know.'

© K A Jones 2011


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>A lot of the breeders have been trying to stop a law from going through because they knew that it will decrease their profits <<

That should say "know" above.

>>'A female griffin is not ready to mate until their twelfth year. <<

That should say "her" instead of "their" above.

>>'You are to be the first true breeder, Sebastian. <<

That's cool.