[I've returned from the holidays. And, that's fine.]<br/><br/>The escarpments jutted into the sky like bouldered towers, their tops buffeted by benumbed winds, the mistral's piercing barrage echoing off crevices and through the dense foliage that followed the steep contours until they grew substantial approaching the apical of the cliff. Poised beneath winter greens at the top of the precipice, her shoulders pushed back with regal demeanor, Marlena scanned the landscape that stretched unbounded below her, the fine tufts of pearly fur that covered her face curled naturally over her firm skin, thick spotted locks of downy feathers entangled around the downward slope of her beak. Hoarfrost covered her form and as she calmly tilted her massive head, conceding the owl in her blood. She stole a glance behind her, broad eyes blinking lazily as the gales combed through her coat.<br/><br/>The forest was difficult to maneuver through considering thick timber, withholding sunlight from reaching the ground. Despite this, Marlena cocked her head and drew on the power of her eyes - amber tinted stained with saffron- as she had some skill in seeing into the murky darkness that decorated this part of the planet. The sky was unusually darker, more so than sheâ€™d seen before, and her yellow orbs traced the outlines of the swirling clouds that hinted savage storms. The gryphon yawned and extended one powerful hind leg into a stretch, her paw digging grooves into the firm earth below it.<br/><br/>"..." The gryphon inhaled sharply, expanding two lungs that situated themselves on her neck and allowed her to breath in the planet's unique atmosphere. The high nitrogen levels that circulated through the air gave nutritional value to the creature that was a combination of owl, snow leopard, and whatever abominable appendices the planet had forced her to evolve, and although the combination of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Carbon Monoxide gave her strength, she felt herself shaken with a wave of sudden fatigue as she sensed sudden presence in her territory. Her muscles quivered as she scanned the sky, although she didn't need to search for long as a creature glided over the tips of her trees, Marlena's sharp eyes catching the sight of the quadruped glider who wore a gas mask for survival. Marlena clicked her beak and, driven by curiosity, boredom, and territoriality, the gryphon spread her prodigious wings and took flight. Thunder rumbled in the distance.