A sleepy, quiet farm deep in the laid-back country. An entire complex full of buildings, barns, pens, and most importantly to the two thieves who were breaking into it this evening, a sprawling, ornate country manor at the center of it all. One of these aspiring criminals had heard a rumor that the farmer who ran the farm was out on holiday for the weekend, relayed it to his partner in crime, and so, they found themselves standing at the farmer’s front door in the dead of night.


"You think you can pick the lock?" one of the thieves said as the other knelt down in front of the house’s patio, clicking on a small flashlight to inspect the lock more thoroughly. He didn't seem to notice the "BEWARE OF GRYPHON" sign posted up right to the side of the door, something he had learned to ignore in his years of thievery. "Mmm…yeah, probably. Grab the tool bag and I'll give it a shot." the other one replied plainly, pointing in the general direction of a small sack on the ground. A few minutes of finagling and tinkering later, and they had managed to pick their way in. 


Although the two thieves tried their best to keep quiet as they rummaged and picked through drawers and cabinets, such a thing was basically impossible to do. Though the errant noises they were making may not have woken up any soundly-sleeping farmers that may or may not have been on the premises, it would certainly be enough to draw the attention of any pets that just happened to be around at the time. In a small, chilly back room attached to the kitchen that the thieves were rifling through, there was a rather large, soft pet bed, home to an equally large, cream-colored gryphon, who had just been roused from a lovely, deep sleep. His name was Shertu, and he was not particularly happy, to put it lightly.


The lion-sized, bird-like creature yawned and furrowed his eyebrows as he slowly sauntered out of the back room and into the kitchen, sort of aimlessly heading in the direction of what he perceived had rudely ripped him out of slumberland. As the gryphon approached, he started to hear things a bit more clearly. Unfamiliar voices, shuffling and clattering…intruders! In the darkness of the kitchen, it was difficult for the gryphon to tell exactly what was going on, but he knew it wasn't good, and he knew that he needed to put a stop to it. Thankfully, he would have the element of surprise; the thieves were just as in the dark as he was, far too focused on the spoils of their work to perceive the huge bird-cat that had just made his way into the kitchen.


That was, until they heard a sound somewhere between a squawk and a roar. At first, it just startled them. "The fuck is that?" one thief said, shining his flashlight in the general direction of that noise…only to jump back with a yell when he saw Shertu laying against the ground in a pouncing position, facing right towards the other thief…and then, from there, everything happened in slow motion. "Dude! Watch out!" the flashlight thief said as Shertu started to lunge for his friend, said friend barely being able to turn towards the light and mutter a staggered "huh?" before a few hundred pounds of gryphon slammed right into him, forcing out another yell as he fell to the floor. His friend reached out for him instinctively, but all that happened was that his flashlight clattered to the floor uselessly. And that was more than enough to kick his fight-or-flight reflex into full gear. His friend pinned down by Shertu, certainly being ripped to shreds from the screams that erupted from his lungs…all he could do was run, with the few scraps of valuables he had managed to find in the brief looting they had done. Run as far as he could go, and forget what happened here.


“DUDE! What the fuck? Help me!” the other thief screamed a few moments later, as he heard the prattling of his friend’s feet becoming quieter and quieter. Contrary to his friend’s worst possible thoughts, he was not being torn limb from limb by Shertu, though he was still being pinned down and scratched up a bit by the big bird. Keeping the thief in place, despite how much he tried to push and wiggle out from under Shertu’s grasp. “Nngh - fuck! Get off me, you overgrown…” the thief started to curse, before he was cut off by something else. The sound of feet against stairs, descending from the second floor, far more gently than the frantic steps he heard just a few moments ago.


"Catch someone, Shertu?" came a voice the thief assumed to be the farmer from behind him, footfalls still gradually and calmly making their way down the stairs until a harsh light flicked on in the kitchen. As the farmer looked on at the mess that his kitchen had been turned into, drawers askew, belongings strewn all over the limestone…and in the center of it all, his pet gryphon pinning down a dirty little thief. And all he could do was chuckle. "Pfft. Playing with your food, huh? Let me help you out with that…"


The thief wasn't able to turn and look at the farmer, but he still started to plead and beg nonetheless. "H-hey man, I'm sorry, my-my friend gave me this crazy idea and then he fuckin' split. Just - just get this thing off of me, and I'll never bother ya again!" he started to frantically say, though he was cut off by the sharp *schWING* of a knife being unsheathed before the farmer stepped closer. "N-no! What the fuck, you don't have to go there!!" the thief started to scream before the farmer calmly responded. "Quiet. I'm just cutting these off…"


The farmer grabbed the thief by his shirt collar, telling Shertu to keep holding him down as he took the knife and calmly sliced right down the middle of the garment. The shirt fell away instantly, though the knife kept going, right through the thief's pants and underwear…it was an impressively sharp knife, to say the very least. Shertu kept his paws on the thief's limbs all throughout this, allowing the farmer to whistle a jaunty tune as he went about completely stripping the burglar. At this point, his voice went from intense panic to audible confusion. "U-uh, c-can you stop?? It's, like, cold in here…" 


Of course, the farmer didn't bother responding. He just whistled a little tune to himself as he reached down and slipped the thief's shoes off from behind Shertu, returning and binding together the thief’s hands with a scrap from his shirt. "W-what the fuck are you doing, man! This is illegal! I-I'll get my buddy to call the cops! He's waiting outside, I swear…"


The farmer turned to his gryphon a few moments later. "He's all yours. Make sure you finish your food, though…"


As soon as the farmer said that, Shertu jumped backwards, the thief starting to scream at the top of his lungs as he was suddenly keyed in on what the farmer had planned for him. "F-FOOD? HELP! POLICE! ANYONE! Oh, god, you are going to jail for a long time, you fucker!" he yelled, so engrossed in chewing out the farmer that he barely even realized what Shertu was doing. Namely, that the gryphon's beak was starting to scoop up those unbound, naked feet, trapping them in the heat and slime of his beak as the hungry hybrid eagerly pushed his way up the thief's legs. And the farmer still didn't even give him the time of day, instead just stuffing a wad of fabric into the thief's mouth to keep him quiet before calmly walking over to a chair in the adjacent dining room and taking a seat to watch the sparks fly.


At this point, the bound-up meal looked back towards Shertu, his face turning pale as he watched and felt the gryphon steadily working his way up. Not even really swallowing the thief, just walking his mouth over him like a snake. And every time the thief moved, Shertu looked up at him with a glance that made it very clear the gryphon was willing to use his claws if he didn't stay put. The first gulp dragged Shertu's meal across the carpet, a large bulge forming in his lightly cream-colored, feather-covered throat. The confident, angry yelling of the trapped meal quickly turned to panicked pleading as Shertu's beak clamped tight over his chest, the gryphon scarfing him down in record time - it had been quite a long time since dinner, after all, and now the farmer would definitely not have to feed him for at least a few days…


This progressed for another minute or so; Shertu calmly swallowing down his wiggly meal, to the point where pretty much only the thief’s shoulders and head were left in the outside world. But the banality of the scene had quickly accrued was shattered by another noise from upstairs - more footsteps. The farmer rolled his eyes a bit as he heard them, like he expected all this to wake somebody up and had been preparing for it. A few seconds later, his disheveled wife popped out of the staircase, cursing up a storm at whoever had interrupted her good night's sleep! "What the hell is all this ruckus, Larry!? Don't you know I'm trying to-" 


The farmer's wife quickly locked eyes with the thief, a pleading look on the man's face as half of his body was lodged firmly in Shertu's throat. She looked back to her husband, then to the thief, then to the husband again before finishing the sentence that she cut herself off from earlier. "Finish up whatever the hell this is." she said curtly, before turning away and heading back up the staircase just as quickly as she stormed down it. Shertu immediately swallowed again after she left, his beak starting to look over the thief's face. Warm spittle dripping down off the roof of his mouth occasionally, splattering the thief in the face and really getting him acclimated to the caustic dungeon he would be locked in for the next few hours. Shertu held his meal there for a moment, tongue slipping out from underneath his meals neck to lick and slobber at that face before-


*gglRRRrunk~*


Another powerful gulp, and Shertu was able to clamp his beak shut again, the muffled protests of the thief descending deeper into the gryphon's body as natural peristalsis began to take over. His hunger sated, and a huge, sloshing bulge starting to form beneath him, the gryphon rolled over onto his back, letting his gut splay out everywhere as the thief writhed inside of him. With the deed done, the farmer got up out of his chair and walked back over to his pet, crouching down and placing a hand against the gryph's feathery stomach before giving it a few cursory rubs. "Goooood boy! Good boy. You know what to do with intruders, don't you?"


The baby talk continued for a few moments, the farmer feeling how the thief's form squished under his palms before he retreated and started to head back up the stairs. "Good night, Shertu." he calmly said, as if he hadn't just watched his pet devour an entire person…and speaking of such. Shertu was woken up from his sleep, as well, and nothing would make one want to go back to bed more than an oppressively-full stomach. So, the gryphon rolled back over onto his feet, belly grumbling and sloshing like a river rapids as he made his way back to his little room, and laid down on his bed to go back to sleep. There wouldn't be enough room for the bulge the thief made, but that wouldn't be a problem for much longer.