The gryphon could not smile back at Vanessa, though he attempted to; the resultant beak gape looked hungry. And creepy. He let her depart before he himself left for the open air of the temple gardens.<br/><br/>Swiftbeak made his way to the hasty tent that Brother Al had put up for him; to its credit, it had withstood three months of weather and sun. It was only truly now that it had hit him: This was his home. Not the tent itself, but the temple; for three months he had skulked about, each day feeling alternately like a guest or a guardian or a prisoner or a curiosity, but never had he truly felt like a resident. But now, amidst the buzzing of the bees that had become as unforgettable to him as the sound of his own paws, he realized that each day things had gotten a little more familiar. Be it the lessening suspicion, or his growing recognition of the many hallways in the temple, or even just being on hand when others had grieved Vernassus, the temple was now as much a part of him as he was of it; whether the others felt the same way he did not know, nor would he dare to ask, for ultimately a small part of him still feared the answer. But if ever a chaos-tainted creature such as himself were to know peace before death, if ever to know friendship, it would be here; and at that moment the great gryphon bowed its head, touching its beak to the ground, and whispered a silent prayer to the temple's buzzing goddess- For if she had not bestowed upon him this great gift, this forgiveness, then who had? No; this was no mere chance, no mere fluke that he had lived through the hail of arrows that greeted his arrival here. In his heart, below the great muscle warped by monstrous magics to beat to the rhythm of his wings, there remained something human, still- Something that sought answers. That sought faith. And, in the grand fortune he'd had at the temple, found it.<br/><br/>But the world does not stop nor even slow for one man's epiphany, no matter how ground he felt it; Swiftbeak heard from one of the walls a yell, and a short time later the tell-tale sound of a taught string being released. It was the bowshot that prompted him to take flight, and in a few mighty flaps he had carried himself off the ground and launched himself towards the wall; he caught the inside edge near Geoffrey with his talons, and scraped the claws of his hindpaws along the stone to carry the entirety of his body to the top. By now the guard was already departing with the wounded man, and a glint on the ground caught the creature's eye.<br/><br/>"I will secure the axe. There is nothing more demon power can do to me."