Art was done by  eyrichwho did an AMAZING job and I'm so in love with this <3 Here's a story I wrote during my downtime at work today. It's longer than I expected haha but if you read it, I hope you enjoy!
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In a world without men was a kingdom revered across the land for its fierce exterior. The Kingdom of Shadow, as it was known, was located deep inside an expansive forest. Guards, draped in red, could be seen outside all known entrances into the forest. Emotionless, these beings were disciplined to dissuade outsiders from ever wanting to come in. They were armed, they were intimidating, and they were doing their job. Despite the intimidating exterior, and isolation to the rest of the world, the kingdom was well-able to sustain themselves. Commoners across the land knew only of the kingdom through hearsay. Questions turned to theories, theories turned to stories, stories turned to legends, and with legends came tales of treasure and unimaginable power.

Brave souls left their homes and travelled to the kingdom, unable to keep themselves from acting on their impulses to obtain treasure and power. All who left, were never heard from again. And yet, none had ever seen the guards enact any violence, and no kingdom has ever dared to declare a war. So where were these explorers disappearing to?

He had to find out.

A griffin, plumes the color of a clear baby blue sky, left in search of a childhood friend. The friend became enamored over the tales of voluminous wealth. An untouched kingdom, known to be self-sustaining without the needed diplomacy, had to be sustaining itself in some way. When the scrappy and poor are desperate, they are willing to throw what little they have away to chase an opportunity to change their life. Despite the griffin’s protests, his friend turned and travelled across the field and over the horizon. The griffin stood and watched as his friend turned into nothing more than a blur of gray even squints couldn’t make out, until he saw him no more.

It was ten days to the minute when the griffin decided to head out in search of his friend. He had heard no word in either correspondence or even gossip, and refuted the thoughts of his friend becoming another numberless statistic in legends to come. He had no knowledge of where the kingdom is, as many don’t, and yet he somehow knew which direction to start walking. He donned black armor with a yellow cloak, and brought with him very few supplies. He thought having not heard from his friend in 10 days meant The Kingdom was in a far away location, but he found it in just a day.

He surveyed the forest from as far away as he could. His blue feathers made him stick out amongst the green flora and trees, with brown dirt and dark tree barks. As if that wasn’t enough, he could see every guard was outfitted with some kind of light red armor. Some of it was leather, some sheet-like ranger cloaks, and some wore what looked like military uniforms, with pockets and buttons. From an outsider’s perspective, it all looked so disconnected. This is supposed to be their infamous defense, why were there no consistencies in uniforms? The gryphon did note that the guards looked as serious, stoic, and deadly as he had heard, but something about the uniforms just bothered him too much.

Any thought the gryphon may have had of leaving were now completely gone. He had forgotten about his friend - instead now he only thought about the pursuit of knowledge, the same trap many fell into to begin their march to this kingdom. The gryphon spent an entire day carefully surveying the guards. He noted their marching patterns and shift changes, and realized something: There was no way he was going to sneak in. The defense is as airtight as he’d heard. What would normally draw others away, continued to pique the gryphon’s curiosity. “How can the defense be this tight with no verbal or physical communication between the guards?”

Before he could even begin another thought, the gryphon realized he had already started walking towards the entrance he had been scoping out. His vision turned into literally tunnel vision. He was walking down a single dirt road - on the border of mud - with not a single turn in sight. Skyscraping trees surrounds him, as one foot finds itself still walking in front of the other. Despite the harrowing vision surrounding him, there was still light. Typically one would expect the encompassing trees to bring in darkness, but light was still flowing in between all the leaves and branches. Finally, two guards came into view.
And that was it. That was the last memory the gryphon had. Then it was just black.

After some time, the gryphon regained consciousness. He found himself in an empty room. Everything in the room appeared natural, notably a single bench that seemed to have been fashioned out of a huge tree branch, and the door also looked to be made completely out of tree bark. The remainder of the room was made out of some kind of brick and stone material. There was a single window, definitely too small for anyone to try to climb through. The sun was coming in ridiculously bright. Almost unnatural, the gryphon pondered. Just as the gryphon got comfortable with his surroundings, there was a knock at the door, and suddenly it was opened.

There stood at the entrance a red squirrel. Almost equal in height, but the squirrel’s ears put him just a bit above the gryphon in height. He was wearing a red, buttoned up uniform jacket, which the gryphon noted was the same uniform he saw on the outside guards. The squirrel said no words, instead he simply motied for the gryphon to follow him. Cautious and defensive, the gryphon slowly exited the room, expecting the squirrel to attack him at any moment as if this was some trap. They walked down a corridor that mirrored what his room looked like - stone and brick materials for mostly everything except the doors, made from the same tree bark as his door had been.

At the end of the corridor, a couple lefts and rights were taken before they found themselves at your stereotypical royal room; a huge double-door setup that seemed way too big to be able to be opened. Yet the squirrel knocked twice, and grabbed one of the door handles and began to open the door towards them. What the gryphon saw before him took his breath away. It was a massive room, with the floor being made of the same brick and stone material the rest of the palace had been made of, but this floor seemed to have explicitly placed cracks, for vanity purposes. Columns of rock connected the floor to the ceiling, and vines were encircling them in what also looked to have been explicitly designed for the room.

The gryphon then spotted another guard at the end of the room, next to the figure on the throne. A bearded vulture with gray skin and red eyes, draped in what seemed like the same red ranger cloaks the outside guards had worn. It was his friend! “Avian!” The gryphon exclaimed. He began to jog to the other side of the room to reunite with his friend; but Avian had not moved an inch, nor make any facial expression, almost as if the gryphon was not even there. The only sign of life was Avian’s eyes following the gryphon as he worked his way across the room. Heartbroken, the gryphon’s face dropped. “They’ve turned him into a zombie!” He thought to himself, “what kind of place is this!?” Despite his racing thoughts, the gryphon could hear the faintest of chuckles.

It was then the gryphon turned to finally take in the royal figure. The throne’s base was pretty simple, made from large stone bricks, but the throne itself was most definitely naturally fashioned. It had been expertly carved from what appeared to be an ash tree, with elegant designs surpassing anyone the gryphon had ever come to know. It was also draped with a red cloth, which was clearly a theme of this kingdom. Finally, the gryphon looked up at the figure on the throne. A creature garbed in heavy black boots, a red & orange colored bottom, and an unusually casual white explorers shirt - at least unusually casual for someone to appear to be royalty. He had majorly red fur - if you could call it that - with a white pattern on his front. He wore a simple crown on his head, which was the only sign of some kind of royalty. His hair featured what looked like a mohawk, a giveaway of his hedgehog species, with jet black roots and a crimson top. What stood out the most, however, was the front part of the mohawk was actually rainbow colored, with the red blending into the rest of the hair. This was the source of the chuckle that broke the gryphon out of his trance.

“Welcome,” the hedgehog started, “my name is Jasper… And you are?”

“A-Ash.” The gryphon stuttered, still anxiously awaiting to hear his fate. “Ash… What brings you to my doorstep?” Ash looked over at Avian, who had returned to staring forward towards the door, still never once having turned his head to look at Ash. “I came here for Ash.” He said, matter-of-factly. “Ah… Ash… A recent addition to my army. He never mentioned he had a friend.” Ash’s face somehow had fallen even more than it already had, immediately believing that Avian had forgotten him. “Tell me,” Jasper said, bringing Ash’s attention back to him, “what do you think of my kingdom?” A question Ash had not been expecting, so it took him a few seconds to gather his thoughts before he spoke.

“Well… You seem very thorough. Your men are elitely trained, they must be for Avian to… Become what he has-” “Become what he has?” Jasper interjected, “and what exactly has he become?” Another question Ash wasn’t expecting. “Clearly he’s been brainwashed. He, and your other men, are completely void of any emotion. It’s unnatural!” “BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” Jasper bellowed out a huge laugh, “brainwashed? That’s a new one!” Ash had now become completely confused. What is this dude’s deal?

“Alright men… At ease.” The red squirrel began walking his way to the throne as Avian immediately turned to hug his long lost friend; “Ash!” He cried out. The two hugged in a tight embrace, the kind of embrace two brothers who had been separated at birth would share. A smile appeared on Jasper’s face as he watched the two friends reunite, as the squirrel had now joined them and also smiled. “I’m so sorry,” Avian said, “I didn’t want to leave you in the dark but I… I wasn’t allowed to-”. “That’s enough,” Jasper interjected. The two avian brothers separated from their embrace and Avian returned to his post, although now he was allowed to look onto the throne, where Ash and Jasper were now staring each other down.

“My kingdom has a reputation, you see.” Jasper’s face had loosened up from somewhat that of viciousness, to one of comfort. “I have put in a lot of work to provide a haven for those who seek asylum from the problems of the Outside World. It’s not perfect, nothing is perfect, and we share our own problems within our kingdom, but we have gone a very long time without any kind of external conflicts.” Jasper was now glancing towards the very large window that was behind his throne. “This is a land of serenity. A land of vulnerability. A land of openness, acceptance, and bountiful resources thanks to all of the hard work my people have put in.”
Jasper turned back to Ash, who had finally let his guard down and was taking in his words. “But places of bountiful resources, be that physical or spiritual, they are not left in peace. Those of greed, wrath, and lust work very hard to upset the balance of such a utopia. A utopia, mind you, that did not come to be overnight.” Jasper got out of the throne and began to pace around it. “Our kingdom must retain that of a tough exterior,” he continued, “a tough defense dissuades outsiders from trying to enter where they do not belong. However, I treat every single person in my kingdom with love and respect, as I expect them to do with each other.” Ash turned to Avian for some kind of confirmation, with Avian smiling and giving a genuine nod to indicate that has been his experience so far. “I keep a tight defense but don’t spend towards military because we have no need to cause conflicts with others. I want to share with as many people as I can what I have to offer, but only those that can be proven to have a heart of gold, and have the right intentions of coming into my world.”

Jasper sat back down on the throne, and extended his hand out to the gryphon. The red squirrel and Avian gathered together as the gryphon knelt before the hedgehog. “So. Ash, was it?” Ash nodded. Jasper smiled and extended his other arm outward towards the rest of the kingdom, “let my power be your power.”