• Detention that day was excruciatingly long. Even by my standards. Doug sat in the seat directly behind me. Of course, to make matters worse, Ms. Cartenger (who else?) was the detention proctor that evening. That being said, at least detention gave me a reason to do my homework for once…
    “The Greeks believed in many different creatures that today we know do not exist. For example, take the griffin. Griffins were said to have the head, talons, and wings of a bird, but still possessed the body of a lion. They were capable of flight, according to the myths, and were as large as a small school bus. A question many ask to day is “How were they able to fly?” Some say flight would be incapable of them because they were so big.v Well, planes today are much bigger then griffins were said to be, but they still fly. What really poses the question about why griffins were able to fly is the fact that their bodies were very dense. It was written that they had very thick bones (as opposed to a bird’s hollow ones) that allowed them to swoop down at speeds of up to 300 miles per hour. Griffins may have been as strong as an elephant. They would be among the ultimate preditors, able to feast on almost anything from a rat to a horse.”

    List 3 reasons why griffins may have been able to fly.
    1__________________________________________
    2__________________________________________
    3__________________________________________

    Is it possible that griffins ever existed? Why or why not?
    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    The rest of the questions for that particular assignment were all the same. All of them almost impossible to answer with the given information. It was like Cartenger was trying to make us fail. In Mythology, we weren’t just studying the Greeks, though. We also had something on an ancient tribe living in Egypt around the time when Greece was starting to abandon their old myths.

    “A curious aspect of the Scarian tribe’s mythology was the idea of heriti. Heriti (singular “heritus”) were humans that possessed powers not much different than the creatures of Greek Mythology. A scroll found inside an old ruin site translated to this:
    ‘In the year of the birth of the man Jesus of Nazareth, the council of the Elder creatures made a plan for the continuation of their bloodline. The 14 original civilizations were clearly about to die out. The council, at that time consisted of Zelma the Kurin, Rose the Emeraldian, Melody the Siren, Germanis the Phoenix, Amiran the Griffin, Festir the Animus and Xiomara the Centaur. They told their respective tribes to mate with Man, for it was clear that he would soon rule the world. As a result, there are certain peoples who possess characteristics of the creature he is descended from. Those people are to be called heriti    .
    “Yeah, that’s realistic.” I mouthed to myself. “They don’t even know if these creatures existed, how the heck could they come to that conclusion?”
    Cartenger and Doug entered the room. Apparently Doug had finally put Cartenger over the edge. I braced myself, if I knew Cartenger at all, she was about to give Doug the punishment of a lifetime.
    “Mr. Simmons, you are excused from detention,” Is what she said. Everyone else in detention (that being me and Syd) gasped. The evil Francine Cartenger absolutely hated Doug Simmons. She was looking for excuses to punish him! There was no way in the world that she could’ve possibly let him go. Doug left with a grin on his face. Syd had a look of horror splayed out on her face.