“It’s remarkable.” Scaplo continued. “I never seen anywhere like it.”

Young Vison sat upon the grass, eyes wide with anticipation. Young Arthor, his older brother, did not care much. He was only there because it had been too long since their old neighbor, Scaplo, had come back to town. Arthor slouched on the trunk of the shadeful Viridia Elm. Lucifer’s light had no chance against the wide leaves found on the viridia elm trees of Monrosia. And so the boys sat comfortably, listening to their returned friend.

Scaplo was slim, and had light brown shaggy hair. He wore his service uniform, a short cut jacket with trousers and a cap, which were all a deep green, like the colour of the Royal Guard.

“Iarhu is huge.” Scaplo went on. “It’s got hundreds of buildings. It’s about fifty times bigger than Ducksworth. No. A hundred times bigger.”

Vison peered down the road from where they sat at their little town of Ducksworth. What a place Iarhu must have been to be a hundred times bigger than lovely Ducksworth. Vison listened on.

“The whole place is full of Qatahni’s. And there’s lots of other people too. I think the Qatahni started to let people come for business and stuff, but I know everybody just goes there to see the Qatahni history. There’s loads of ancient buildings in Iarhu. Old temples and castles. And there’s especially the Domes. There’s heaps of them domes, but the biggest ones are close to the city.

“The domes are the most enormous things I ever seen. But I only saw them from Iarhu. I didn’t get a chance to go to them. Apparently the Qatahni don’t like people going near them.”

“Why not?” asked Vison, curiously.

“I wanted to know too. A Qatahni lad told me that the old Rons hid their treasure deep inside.”

Arthor was curious “What are old Rons?”

“I guess it’s what they call their kings”

Vison grew excited, nodding to questions nobody asked. Arthor remained slouched, as if he didn’t care much, but his curiosity did not aid his act.

“Doesn’t sound like a good hiding spot for treasure, Scaps.” Arthor spoke. “If it’s so out in the open. How do they know there the treasure is even still in there?”

“I don’t know. That’s just what the Qatahni all say.” Scaplo answered. “I would have asked others, but I don’t really know their language.”

“Their language? Is it like elvish?” Vison wondered.

“Nah. It’s really different. They call it Qataq. A fellow I met up there told me it’s older than human talk, and he told me their kind has been around for even longer too.

“Bullocks” Arthor said. “Everyone knows the Father above made humans first in the worlds.”

Scaplo disagreed

“Nah. We’re not the first. The fellow told me so. He told me he was a scholar, from one of the oldest schools around. And he said no one knows who was really came around first, but they’re trying to figure it out. He told me that the trolls were most likely the first.”

“No way.” Arthor could not agree. “The trolls? Then why are they still so wild and tribal?”

“I don’t know. That’s just what the fellow says. He seemed to really know what he was talking about. I sort of trust him.”

All the news and details was different to what the boys were used to hearing. But it was interesting, non-the-less. Arthor turned around, feigning his lack of interest.

“What are the Qatahni like?” young Vison asked. His curiosity was still storming, and Scaplo was happy to see an excited listener.

“They look like humans, I tell you. But then again they don’t. Just like the elves. But they don’t look elf either. They got dark brown skin that shines in Lucifer’s light. It looks like the colour of rusted metal, but still shiny.” Scaplo thought on and further explained. “They got two arms and legs, a head on top too. And they got really dark hair. And the old get grey hair too. That’s why I say they look human.”

“Do they have willies?” Arthor asked. The boys cracked into laughter.

“I think they do. They had toilets in Iarhu. Normal toilets.” Scaplo answered.

“Why don’t they look human, then?” the younger boy then asked.

“It’s their eyes. They have thick black lines around their eyes. It makes their eyes look big. It’s a little like the makeup that ladies put on.”

The boys continued their fit of laughter.

“So they go no willies and they wear makeup?” Arthor added.

Scaplo was more serious when he continued.

“No. It wasn’t make up. The lines were thicker. Real thick and black. And it went all around the eyes.” Scaplo traced around his eyes with his fingers. “Then the lines go further out.” His fingers flicked out the sides of his face. “And everybody has it. The males and females, the old and young. I even checked a baby to make sure and the baby had the same eyes too.”

The two boys finally settled to listen.

“Their eyes and their dark metally skin made them look different. They were all sorts of sizes too. So I don’t know if they’re all smaller or bigger. A lot of the Qatahni in the city were little, but others were huge. Like the guards and the ones that saved me.”

The two boys paused their breaths and looked at Scaplo, curious as to what he meant.

“Oh. I was just gonna get to my part about my journey.” Scaplo explained. “This is a good place to start.”

“To get to Iarhu, I had ta’ sail to Kwasson, then I had ta’ ride to the coast. And then I had ta’ sail the Olivian sea all the way to Kairoza, then when I got to Kairoza, I had ta’ take another boat down the Gudrahm River until I got to Iarhu.”

Vison was in awe at the length of the travel, or at least what sounded a lengthy travel. He barely knew any of those places.

“Yep. It’s a long trip. It’s lucky I’m a Griffin” Scaplo tugged at his green Griffin cap. “We Courier Griffins get special privileges for travel. We can ride any boat or any carriage going to where we’re headed. And the Plateau pays for it all.”

The boys seemed a little confused. Vison asked,

“What’s a plateau?”

“It’s the main establishment of the Courier Griffins. All the griffins go there to ‘receive assignments’ and ‘hand in reports’.”

The boys still did not understand. Scaplo could tell by their uncertain expressions.

“Okay,” he explained. “So, we griffins gotta go to our base in Hurley. You know Hurley, the capital. We gotta go there so we can get the packages or letters. And that’s when we gotta deliver them after we find out where to take them to.

“After we finish, we gotta go back to base and tell them the delivery is done. And we gotta tell them how much it all cost for us to deliver.”

“Ohh…” Vison finally realized.

Arthor shook his head at his brother’s dawdle. Scaplo continued,

“Right. So, since the Griffins is a big organization, we should have quick safe trips. But my trip to Iarhu was anything but quick and safe.

“It’s okay! I knew I was going to a different world, so I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy. But I’ve been the best griffin around for the past few years. And so, the Plateau really trusted me with the letter. They even told me I had to get it to Iarhu in 5 days. ‘5 days? That’s not a problem for the best griffin around.’ I told them. So I took the job.”

Vison smiled, impressed that he knew the best griffin around. Scaps went on.

“First, I was at the plateau, when one of the head griffins came around asking for the ‘bravest’ griffon around. No one said anything, so I figured it must have been me, and I asked him what he wanted. He was pretty happy to find me and told me I had an important delivery to send to Iarhu. I didn’t know where it was but the head griffin showed me where it was on the map. He even showed me how to get there, which was nice of him. But then he started to look worried and said it had to be there in 5 days. I didn’t see what was wrong and told him ‘5 days? That’s not a problem for the best griffin around.’ and I told him I’d get it there for sure.”

Scaplo stood up straight, and showed the boys his most reassuring smile. He did look trust worthy in his green Griffin jacket, though the boys knew he was quite goofy at times. The griffin continued his story.

“So then as soon as I left the plateau, I found a wagon going straight to Trough. I asked the driver to sign my travel log, but he didn’t want to. He told me he didn’t care.”

Vison and Arthor did not know what a travel log was and ask about it. Scaplo took out two little books from his jacket and showed one to the boys. On the brown leather cover, it said ‘Travel Log’. Underneath there was an emblem of a shield with a picture of a griffin wearing a crown.

As Vison opened the log, the first page had a small perfect drawing of Scaplo, his name and his details. The pages after that were sectioned with spaces for ‘Name’, ‘Dates’, ‘Means of travel’, ‘Time of travel’, ‘Departure location’, ‘Arrival location’, and ‘Signature’.

Scaplo had left Ducksworth for service for about two years now and must have had many deliveries. But Vison looked through the log and was not impressed by what he saw. Inside there was only eight logs filled in, and one of them was from the capital, Hurley, to Ducksworth. Had he been messing around the whole time?

“What’s with the face, Vison?” Scaplo noticed the younger boy’s expression.

“There’s only eight logs in here. One of them is your ride here to Ducksworth. How many deliveries have you really done?” the boy questioned. Arthor came closer to check the disappointment.

“I’ve done heaps of deliveries. I haven’t been doing nothing.” Scaplo laughed. “That’s only my current travel log. My third travel log actually. It says so at the front.”

Vison flipped back to the front page with his details and noticed it said ‘Travel Log 03’ on the bottom right corner.

“This is my delivery log.” The griffin gave them the other little book. It said ‘Consignment Log’ on dark navy leather and had the same emblem on the front.

This book was completely filled with delivery names, details, signatures and stamp marks. The amount of deliveries done was overwhelming, almost like they were all going to fall out of the book. There were over hundreds of pages full, it was hard to believe Scaplo was capable of all this. Only two more spaces were free for new delivery logs. Vison and Arthor were pleased to know their old neighbor had been working hard. It was impressive, especially for someone dopey like Scaps. The boys flicked through the pages to see where he had been. There were logs from everywhere: Tamata, Jeezeburg, one from somewhere in Kardashia, and even one from Achey Fort in Vodfrost, the Ice Country.

“You went to Vodfrost? That’s cool!” Arthor mentioned in surprise.

“Yeah, it was cool. Cold, I mean. It was hard travelling through there. Always blizzards and snow storms, so I had to stay indoors a lot. But the Vods are really nice. Always made sure I was fed and warm.”

“What do they look like?” Vison asked.

“They just look human. I think they are human, just a lot bigger, and hairier too. They got lots of hair all over. It must be from the cold.”

Vison flicked through the Consignment Log more to see Scaplo’s amazing accomplishments. It seemed it would have taken 5 or more years to complete the book. Vison got to the front page and saw the drawing of Scaplo’s silly smile again. It made the boys giggle, and they looked up to see him still wearing that same expression. As they looked back and forth at the drawing, noticing how much Scaplo’s hair had grown, Vison noticed something peculiar on that page.

On the bottom right corner, it was printed. ‘Consignment Log 03’. This book was almost finished. And it looked like it would have taken an eternity to fill, but it was book number 03. Did Scaplo truly travel that much in 2 years? Arthor noticed what his brother saw, and the two faded out of their giggle. When they looked up at Scaplo and his dopey smile again, they saw somebody different. His smile was not one to be taken lightly.