The gryphon kept his back to Al and the guards while they were ordered to the fountain, more to spare himself the sight of their reaction than anything else. When they had departed, he spoke again.<br/><br/>"I am thirsty, that is all. If you are referring to earlier, I do not want my presence here to be a prison to you..." He paused before letting out a great, heaving sigh. "Truthfully, there is more to it than that. Until I had summoned the courage to come here, I spent much of my time living as a beast. I was alone, and spent my time merely trying to survive, and stay out of sight; now I cannot run from memories of what I have lost. You and your brothers are all I aspired to once be, and what I know now I can never be; what's more, that you must stay here with me is an indignity I know you are not glad to suffer. To see a brother of the Temple playing caretaker to an unnatural beast would have angered me, once. To know I am that beast..."<br/><br/>He fell silent as the guards returned with his water; true to his words he walked to the tub and plunged his beak into it, closing it around a mouthful of water before lifting his head and throwing it back, letting it slide down his throat. He walked away from the tub immediately after, to avoid his reflection.<br/><br/>"...I have harmed none, no, save for the animals I've slain for food. But there have been times... What I told you of the wolves and the bear was true, and what perturbs me is how simple it would have been for me to simply take flight. But when I have been wounded..."<br/><br/>Swiftbeak looked to Al, fixing an intense, severe stare on the man.<br/><br/>"When the arrows hit my skin, and I fell to the ground, there was fury I could not describe within my breast. I wanted more than anything to last out at the guards, at Wolfram, at anything in sight; it took all of my strength, all of whatever remains of my will to hold myself steady in the face of it. I believe... When I was given this form, I knew at once how to fly. When I went to hunt, I knew how to strike with my talons and tear with my beak. In truth, I believe it has changed me inside- Given me the instinct and the savagery of the wild. When I am harmed, when I am force to wound, I am unsure if I could stop myself from killing. I speak now as a man might- But I move as a beast would, and see and hear and smell as a beast would. I believe I may fight as a beast would. No restraint, no quarter; perhaps no thought at all..."<br/><br/>His voice softened.<br/><br/>"I trust you to stop me if I tried to harm one of your brothers; to stop me with steel or fist. But to fight alongside you, I may need... tempering. I do not know if I am worthy of such a thing in the eyes of the Guard. I fear if I ask for aid, if I seem to be slipping, that I may become... too much of an uncertainty."