Al had tensed as the gryphon suddenly jumped a taloned limb onto the table; but he saw it as merely to spare Mary the sight of its meal. -Damn that Zato, his blindness may have caused Mary some discomfirt!- But Al knew it was wrong to think such. The gryphon had started talking to Mary now. The tone it used was probably an attempt to be charming. But to Al it sounded sickeningly like the voice of a monster whose dinner had wandered right up without any effort at all. Like some kind of cautionary fairy tale.