You are one of two boys, Dar and Mikel, who have been dared by your friends to spend the night in the ruins of the Hall of the Gargoyle King. It's a far piece from your village, but its granite blocks mark the hillside where it's said a terrible king lived and died, and all his enemies became stone gargoyles, forced to guard his home. The season is late fall, and the full moon will soon rise in the sky for Harvest Eve—a time when the hall is rumored to come alive.
You take your ponies and go into the hills, after telling your parents the two of you are going fishing and camping overnight. But you're really riding into the hills to the fortress ruins of the Gargoyle King!
As you ford a river, the waning sun reflects two boys on stocky ponies. Each boy is about fourteen years of age, with the first few whiskers breaking through on his chin. Mikel is tall and rangy, with hair as dark as a raven's wing, and he smiles little. He is moody, the son of the village moneylender (a well-thought-of and generous man). The only thing that always brings a smile to Mikel's face is solving puzzles. But he has a secret fear, a terror which gnaws on him that he's never told anyone—not even his best friend, Dar. He knows that secret may cost him his life in the Hall of the Gargoyle King. But not even that knowledge could make him turn down the dare.
But the river's water also reflects a second boy to you; Dar, a short and solid individual who is much like his father, the blacksmith. He's good with animals, though he has a quick temper with most humans. Blue-eyed and with tousled brown hair that reflects the gold of the sun, Dar is dressed in a rough, simple shirt, tunic and trousers, and old, scuffed boots, unlike the more richly woven clothes of Mikel. Dar has a great talent, but one which he has used little and which may protect or destroy him in the Hall of the Gargoyle King.
As the sun captures both your reflections, you grow slightly dizzy and reel in your saddle. A deep voice seems to call out:
Who goes there?
One dark, one fair
If ever the other one wanted to be—
Now is the time to choose!
If you choose to be Dar, go to Dragon Road 20
If you choose to be Mikel, go to Dragon Road 1
