As soon as Marcus hopped onto Retharin’s back, the massive gryphon turned his head back towards him and said, “Make sure to hold on tight and enjoy. I very rarely give anyone the opportunity to ride one my back.”
After he said this, Marcus’ vision went blurry, as they suddenly catapulted into the sky and began moving at a tremendous speed.
Quickly Marcus heard the pop of a sonic boom, as Retharin broke the sound barrier and continued to speed up.
Once he had gained his bearings, he looked from side to side and watched as the landscape quickly slipped by.
Then only a minute later, Retharin began to slow down, and the ice elf city of Glenna Reota was back in view.
‘Wow, it really did only take him a minute to travel from his home to here.’ Marcus thought as he looked down at the city below them.
Circling down into the city, Retharin slowly descended, allowing every ice elf in the city to know that he had arrived.
Naturally, for all those that witnessed their guardian’s arrival they were quite surprised.
It had not been but six years since his last appearance, and it was very rare for him to show up again within such a short amount of time..
Yet what truly stunned them was when they saw that a figure was perched upon their guardian’s back, like their legendary city’s founder who was once the master of Retharin.
By the time Retharin touched down after circling around for far longer than it took him to get here. A crowd of ice elves had already come to greet him.
Though as members of the council gathered as well as those that recognized Marcus, they could not believe their eyes.
When he had said that he would go and meet with their guardian to have him break the tie in the council, most of them wrote him off as dead.
However, in only a single day he had gone into the mountains and returned on the back of the mythic beast that was almost like a deity to the people of Glenna Reota.
Seeing this there was no doubt that Retharin would vote in favor of Marcus and letting him ride on his back actually raised Marcus’ status very high in the eyes of the people.
Smiling and waving, Marcus made sure to do his best to ingrain the image of him riding on Retharin’s back in the minds of the people.
Now even those that absolutely hated other races and were totally xenophobic, would have to give him some degree of respect as one who had ridden on the back of their guardian.
Jumping down, Marcus walked over to Bianca and her family who were standing their stunned.
“Well, I have brought Retharin back as I said I would, and now we can have that tie broken.” Marcus said with a confident smile.
Though as he said this, the old ice elf councilor who had tried to question why there even needed to be a representative form Borealia yelled, “Who gave you the right to call our great guardian by his name so casually!?”
Turning his head towards Councilor Valyra, Marcus rolled his eyes.
Seeing this, the old ice elf’s pale complexion turned red with anger, but he soon froze in fear when Retharin said loudly, “I gave her permission.”
As Retharin said this, every ice elf in the vicinity froze up, and looked towards their guardian who was radiating a menacing aura.
He had really come to like Marcus and his fearless attitude, and truthfully, he disliked most of these meek ice elves that hid under his metaphorical skirt.
Still, he had promised his master who was the founder of this city that he would watch over them for a thousand years and had kept up with his duty.
Retharin then transformed taking the form of a hansom ice elf male. Before walking up to Marcus and putting a hand on his shoulder like the two of them were buddies.
“Now call one of your council meetings so that I may quickly break the tie that you currently have. It is high time that Irene here becomes the new representative from Borealia.”
Puffing out his chest and smiling smugly, Marcus looked out at all of the ice elves and held his head up high.
He had just overwhelmingly won against those that disliked him or Borealia and was feeling really good about it.
Quickly the council of Glenna Reota was called together, and an emergency meeting was held.
This time there was no questioning and not a single person spoke out against Marcus as Retharin broke the tie in his favor.
Now he was officially a representative and held an even stronger position that had he simply won through a majority of votes.
With Retharin’s approval and public display, Marcus now was cemented in the minds of the entire city as someone recognized by their guardian.
This would make his position in any negations that much stronger.
Once Retharin had finished up his business with helping Marcus out with the council, he moved to a reception hall where a large feast was prepared whenever he visited.
Except while he normally ate alone, this time he invited Marcus, who to everyone’s surprise kept up with their guardian who ate literal tons of food.
“Mmmm this pretty good. And you say that it was some type of mammoth?” Marcus said as he ate a piece from a very large cutlet.
“Yeah, that is right, and it is one of my favorites.” Retharin said in between bites.
The two of them continued to eat like gluttons with bottomless stomachs until all of the food was gone.
Yet there was one last course left, and to finish things off, an ice cream that was made from goat’s milk and the winter melon natural treasure that was grew around the city was brough in.
Eating it Marcus’ eyes went wide since it was really delicious.
It had a sweet but mellow flavor and was something he wanted to try and recreate at a later time.
When they had finally finished the last of the food that had been prepared, Retharin got up and said, “Well it was really good meeting you Irene, but I am going to head back home now. Just remember that once you get stronger to come and pay me a visit. I am looking forward to the day we can spare together.”
Nodding his head, Marcus gave his confirmation, as this battle hungry gryphon had grown on him.
Of course, he did not plan on showing up until he was much stronger, but he figured one day he would keep his promise.
Not long after he and Retharin finished their meal, the mythic grade magical beast and guardian of Glenna Reota took off, heading back to his home deeper in the mountains.
“Irene how did you win over our normally cold and uncaring guardian.” Bianca said once Marcus had returned to her home.
Smiling Marcus said, “He was actually a pretty reasonable guy. All I had to do was hit him as hard as I could to win him over.”