GARGOYLES: Re-Awakening

Stone Walls: 1

In the year 981 castle Wyvern was at its peak. As the defensive outpost for a relatively minor fiefdom in Scotland, it was not of tremendous strategic importance, but its lack of military significance boosted its domestic charms. Unlike many of the other castles of its time, Wyvern had a large number of families living within its walls. Prince Malcolm allowed his lieutenants to take wives and have children and they in turn, on occasion, allowed their underlings the same privilege. Children running and playing amidst the knights and blacksmiths within the high stone walls made for an odd site, but also a homely one.

Ailith was waiting patiently outside the rookery, waiting for nightfall. She was looking at the stone platforms spaced evenly across the castle walls. She preferred how they looked now, during the day, with their menacing stone Gargoyles keeping watch. At night, when they were empty, the walls looked so incomplete. On the other hand, the Gargoyles themselves were much more interesting when they were awake. She wasn't supposed to get too close to them, but their magnificence was just as visible from afar. As a little girl, they all seemed huge to her, especially when their wings were outstretched. In reality though, they were comparable to human stature—some were bigger, others smaller; some more muscular, some skinnier; a few a little chunky.

When nightfall came they would all burst out of their stone skins. Well, not all. Her friend would simply change from an ashen gray to a dull blue. Ailith wasn't supposed to know that, because she was not supposed to be playing with Gargoyles. More than that, she was certainly not supposed to be down in the rookery, but one night she had snuck out and played with her friend all night—it was her little secret, but she was pretending to be a Gargoyle herself—and when dawn came she went down to the rookery to wish her friend good night, or good day. That was when she learned that unlike the big Gargoyles, who turned to stone at sunrise, the children Gargoyles simply turned a grayish stone color and then went rigid, like stiffened leather.

Sunset came at last and it happened. Each stone statue cracked, then burst into motion, shedding shards of stone as the creature within emerged. In a moment, Ailith's playmate would come up from the rookery and the two of them would continue their game from the night before. They were two warrior princesses on a quest to find the ancient crown jewels of their kingdom, and time was running out! As the big Gargoyles awoke they glided down to speak with the Prince's lieutenants. There had been some trouble in the fiefdom as of late. Marauders had sacked a few traders and there was speculation that as the group grew more bold, they may try their luck with the castle. But none of that concerned Ailith. She was glad to let the adults and the Gargoyles distract each other so that it was easier for her friend and her to sneak off and play together. Sure enough, the door to the rookery cracked open and a small, blue, female Gargoyle emerged. A smile grew on her face as they saw each other. With a couple stolen glances, they sneaked away.

"Ok, we better get going!" Ailith said. "We've only got an hour or two to find the crown jewels and restore us to our rightful place as Princess Ailith and Princess..."

She hesitated.

Gargoyles did not have names. Ailith found it odd, but it was so. They didn't seem to need them, and her mother had told her that they didn't have any because they were demons. Demons, she said, were not to be named, they were to be avoided. It was a fight that she'd been having with her mother for some time now. Ailith did not find the Gargoyles to be demon-like. In fact, she found them to be comforting. They were protectors of the castle, and that was all she had ever known them to do. If that was somehow bad, if it made them dangerous, then so should be the knights and lieutenants and probably even the Prince himself. They all walked around with swords, and they killed people with them when they had to. What was the difference?

Her mother did not share her sentiments. There had been a couple of incidents in which Ailith had attempted to say hello to some of the Gargoyles and her mother had made a scene. She'd come rushing over, shouting at Ailith, dragging her away, and acosting whichever poor Gargoyle Ailith had approached. After a couple times of that, they had learned to move away whenever the little blonde girl came approaching. Ailith had almost lost interest in the Gargoyles until one day, she caught the child, the blue one, looking at her. The children didn't seem to attract as much attention as the big ones, so it had been much easier for the two to find a corner where they could play games. Quickly, in the way that children seem abundantly capable of, the two bonded and a friendship was formed.

Ailith really liked her friend, and they had been playing together regularly for a couple of weeks. But the closer they got, and the more time they spent together, the more Ailith found her friend's namelessness to be a problem. Thus, she'd been spending the last few days thinking hard about a name for her friend. She'd considered various human names, but they felt wrong somehow. The same way that trying to give human names to the hawks in the falconry felt odd. But last night, she'd hit upon it. She was lying in bed, thinking about her friend, and her mother, and her mother's dislike of all things Gargoyle when it came to her, and it immediately put a smile on her face. Not only did it fit, but it was a small act of defiance—something the twelve year old Ailith was beginning to enjoy.

"Princess Demona." she finished.