The Intuitives(68)

Rush flashed her a look that managed to say ‘Give me a break, already’ without uttering a word, but otherwise he ignored her.

“Its head didn’t feel… well, it didn’t feel like feathers…”

“Really?” Kaitlyn asked, and she crawled up to it slowly, sitting down next to it when she got close enough to touch it and reaching out a hand of her own. The gryphon reached its head out to brush her hand, and Kaitlyn gasped in surprise, snatching her hand back involuntarily and then reaching out to it again.

“What? What’s wrong?” Mackenzie demanded.

“Nothing,” Kaitlyn reassured her. “I mean, it didn’t hurt or anything. Rush is right, though. It’s weird. It’s like… it’s there, but it’s not there.”

“What do you mean, ‘it’s there, but it’s not there’?” Sam asked, finally standing up and moving out of the runed circle, stepping over the chalk outline carefully so as not to disturb it.

“I mean, when you touch it, your hand kind of… goes into it a little,” Kaitlyn replied.

“Huh?” This last was from Daniel, who had moved up next to Kaitlyn, kneeling just behind her and watching the gryphon over her shoulder.

Kaitlyn reached her hand out again, brushing its back slowly with her fingertips, but when Daniel looked closely, he could see that her fingers were, in fact, sinking partly into its back.

“Whoa!” Daniel exclaimed.

“It feels like…” Kaitlyn was clearly having a hard time trying to describe the sensation. “I don’t know… Almost like dragging your fingers through clay, kind of, only it’s not sticky at all. See?” She pulled her hand back out of the creature’s back and rubbed her fingertips against her thumb, showing them that there wasn’t any residue on her hand.

“OK, that is not normal,” Mackenzie declared. “I don’t think anybody should be touching it, let alone… merging with it…”

But Sketch had already started imitating Kaitlyn, only he let his hand push even farther into its back than she had—and then kept right on going.

“Look!” he exclaimed. “You can pull your hand all the way through it!” Demonstrating, he dragged his entire right hand through the creature from one side to the other. He had to struggle a bit to do it, but the gryphon just stared at him all the while, apparently not at all disturbed by this new turn of events.

As soon as Sketch’s hand was clear of its body, however, the gryphon cub shivered all over, its fur bristling and its feathers all puffing up slightly before settling back down. Sketch had pulled his hand away at the first sign of movement, but once the gryphon seemed to have relaxed, he tried to drag his hand through it again, only this time it didn’t work.

“Hey,” he said, sounding disappointed. “It’s normal now.”

Rush’s eyebrows furrowed as he reached an experimental hand out toward the gryphon cub.

“No way! He’s right!” Rush exclaimed, sounding a lot more excited than Sketch had. “It feels like you’d expect it to now. With feathers and fur and everything.”

The cub stretched out its neck and rubbed the side of its head against Rush’s hand, purring like a cat. Kaitlyn reached out and scratched the feathers on the side of its face, and the cub twisted its neck until her fingers were scratching under its chin. The cub purred even louder and then sighed happily, making Kaitlyn giggle.

“You guys are crazy,” Mackenzie muttered.

“Sit, boy,” Rush said to it. “Can you sit?” He moved his hand up in the air over the cub’s head and then toward its tail, forcing the gryphon to tilt its head up to follow his movement. Rush expected the gryphon to sit down on its rump eventually, but instead, the gryphon just continued to bend its neck backward until its head was completely upside down, resting along its own back, making them all laugh out loud, even Mackenzie.

“Well, it works with dogs,” Rush said, still chuckling. “Come on, buddy, sit. Sit.” Rush placed one hand against the cub’s chest and the other on its rump, gently pressing down until the cub suddenly sat.

“Good boy!” Rush said, scratching its chin and praising it enthusiastically. “That’s a good boy!”

“It’s not a dog,” Sam commented, but Rush just grinned at her with a wicked gleam in his eye.

“Hey, Sketch,” he said. “Go get me a blank page from that notepad.”

“OK.” Sketch retrieved the pad from the table and tore a page out of it from behind his drawing, handing the yellow sheet to Rush.

Rush took it and wadded it up into a ball, showing it to the gryphon.

“Look, boy! Look what I’ve got! You want it?” Rush waved the ball in front of the gryphon, which followed its movements with its head. Sam just rolled her eyes. “I’m gonna throw it, OK? Are you ready? Go get it!”

Rush tossed the paper lightly, not wanting to throw it so far that the cub wouldn’t chase it, but the gryphon whipped its neck out to the side quick as lightning and snatched it out of the air as it flew by without moving the rest of its body at all.

“Whoa. That was insane,” Mackenzie said, and even Sam managed to look grudgingly impressed.

“Do it again!” Sketch begged him.

“Give it here, buddy,” Rush said, grinning from ear to ear. “Drop it… drop it…”