The Troublesome Gryphon Hatchling
On one particularly average day a clutch of gryphon hatched, a male, and a female. The male hatchling's name was Midnight, for his plumage was as black as the inner folds of night. From the time he hatched, he was giving headaches to anyone within his sphere of awareness. His sister's name was Moon Dancer, for she looked like she was forever dancing in the middle of a moonlit midnight field.
Upon emerging from his egg, he nudged Moon Dancer's egg, which she hadn't yet managed to escape from, up against the edge of the nest. He got it so that the side she'd started to break was snug up against the nest, and her brother leaning against the other side so that the egg wouldn't move. It took her at least three hours to finally get out. Her first thoughts were to peck his brain's out, but their mother returned with food, so she didn't get the chance.
As he grew, so did his methods of torture. He convinced Moon Dancer that she was to give up her food to him when he asked for it. His excuse was that since he was the eldest, he was to get the best food, and she could only eat what he didn't. She didn't ask her mother, because he also told her that if the younger child asked their parents about this, that child was eaten. Their mother thought Moon Dancer's behavior was odd, but said nothing of it.
He next convinced her that she was to sleep on the edge of the nest under the rain when there was more than enough room in the part of the nest that was close enough to the cliff face that the rain couldn't touch it. He told her that sleeping under the rain would toughen her up, and give her feathers a nice sheen. He told her he would do it also, but being the male of the clutch, he wasn't allowed to, only the females were allowed to do this. When his mother would wonder about why she did this, he'd tell her that his liked the rain, and stopped his mother from asking her herself.
One day while their mother was out hunting, he decided he'd torture her once again. "Sister dear, what are you doing?" he asked, she turned to him from where she was perched upon the ledge.
"Watching the clouds," she answered, and looked back up where she had been. He walked over to where she sat.
"Do you want to catch the clouds?" he questioned, she turned to him.
"How?"
"Well, here's what you hav'ta do..." he started to explain a complicated, and confusing plan which in short ended up with her make a fool of herself, possibly ending up in the lake below the ledge they were currently standing on. She bounded back toward the nest to gather what was left of their egg shells, and he looked down at the lake, picturing the look on her face as she broke the mirror like surface of the frigid water below, seeing the look of anguish, and utter fear in her eyes. He was chuckling to himself softly when she returned with what she seeked.
"I simply run off the cliff, close my eyes, then when I start to fly, hold out the shells, and the clouds will stick to them? Isn't that more or less what you said?" She asked him, after carefully laying down the shell from where she'd carried it in her beak.
"Well, if you want to put it in idiot terms, I guess you could say that," he answered snidely. She realized then this was another of his tricks.
"I'm not sure if I could do it... Could you show my how? You're obviously much more talented and smarter than me. And if there's some reason such as you're not allowed to, I won't tell mother. What she doesn't know, won't hurt you."
"I'm not able to, the shells only attract clouds for females."
"Could you at least show me how to fly? You have such strong and handsome wings, I'm sure I would fly that much better if I saw you do it first," she practically begged. Midnight had become so wrapped up in the flattery that Moon Dancer had given that he'd forgotten the trick he was playing, and the fact that neither of them knew how to fly yet.
"If I must. But I do this only because you will benefit from seeing it." He stepped back from the ledge, took a running start and jumped. As soon as there was nothing under his feet, he remembered the trick, and braced himself for the impact with the water below. Moon Dancer sat on the edge of the cliff looking down, laughing at her brother, who finally got what he deserved.
The moral of the story: Those who make trouble for others will in the end be making it for themselves.