Tessra = Lysander (cmorgan@mosquitonet.com) Orourke = Eagle of Arabia (Cadence@inQuo.net) * Tessra Leanne * 10/30/98 Dear Orourke, Hey buddy. Sitting in english class now. GHODS, it's boring. I wsih I could just spread my wings and fly away, but I have to wait till sundown. How bout we meet in the old park near the firehouse? Sounds like a good place to meet. So how's school where you are? here in New York it's tough. even tougher hiding My.......... Difference. Heck, most of the action happens at night. and my teachers are beginning to wonder why i sometimes sleep in class. But when your born to fly at night, you gotta fly!! And being a gargoyle, I hae to fly!! of course, i hide it. I find ways. like I'll say that there was a party in my neighborhood, or something else, like a fight. Looked in the mirror this morning, I find my Hair appalling, even for a gargoyle..... this color of grey, it's odd for a teenager. and I think the teachers notice. Hehe, if they saw me at night, I wonder....... and it's hard when the guys here asjk you out for a night on the town. "Oh trust me, you don't want to be with me after Dark" Gets a little monotonus after a while. and the old building i live in is so darn drafty at night!!! and of course, I have to keep to sets of clothes, one for after dark, wing holes you know, and one for during the day. Homework is a damper, I do it before "Going to bed" so to speak. Hey Rourky? Can I ask you somwething? been getting these weird notes lately...... from some bunch of PPL who are calling them selves the JRQ. it's weird.......... well, gotta go now. See you soon!! Your Friend and wing mate Tessra Leanne * * * * * * I put my pen down, and looked up at my teacher who was scowling at me again, then quickly folded up my letter to Orourke. School was almost out, and I needed to pack uip for the day. i did so hurredly, and when the bell rang, I rushed out of class to my locker. I was so busy putting things in my back pack that I almost missed the new peice of paper in my locker. I opened it, and read it to myself. We know who you are, and you WILL Die, GARGOYLE Signed, the JRQ I blanched, and crumpled it up, throwing it into the back of my locker, and walking away. Back at my home, an abandoned Apartment building, I looked at myself in the mirror. Human, I'm about 5'8, with long to my butt silver hair, and flashing green eyes. pale complexion. I wear a pair of jeans, and a tee shirt that I love. soon, the moon rises. I cry out in pain, and in moments, standing there looking in the mirror, is my true self. My long silver hair and green flashing eyes are all that remain of my human form, and my lavender wings, which join at my wrists, are once again part of me. Being a gargoyle, is a true state of bliss. Flight is the only thing left in my life that brings me joy. My clan had been destroyed by Hunters. Orourke was the only other gargoyle I knew. He and I had always been the best of friends, and had shared many adventures together. It was our last adventure, which had involved a couple of Fae, that had given us this 'Gift" of human during the day. but we're both young, and so looking Like humans during the day does us no boon, as we have to go to school to cover up for everything. I sighed, and looked at myself in the mirror, rasing my arm behind my head to examine my wings, and smiled. Then, I stepped to the window, grabbing the letter in the envolope, and took off into the night to mail the letter and to find a meal. * Orourke Azuron * I got the letter sometime the following morning. I said to myself "Drat! I think I just missed her!" was the first thought that passed through my mind. The two of us had been forced to live apart from one another, and to only hunt every few nights while we spent the daylight hours in human form because that was what little human children were supposed to do. Besides, two gargoyles living in the middle of a major populated area like Fenton, New York tended _not_ to remain unnoticed. I had agreed to live apart and away from the school and the city, to keep from attracting notice. I took the letter down out of the tree. The sun had just risen, and I had felt the searing pains of losing my tail, wings, talons, fur, and face, making me once more the skinless, pitiful little creature with a flat face. The letter was more of a comfort, and the small and slightly wrinkled peice of paper enclosed inside. "Oh, finally found us has someone? I'm amazed they stopped fighting long enough to look up." Of course, there were Quarreymen in Manhattan, but someplace as rural as this? No one would have guessed until now to look around. School was the part I dreaded the most. Before our clan had been killed, we had learned all this already as hatchlings! However, it wasn't as if I could go up to my teacher and say "I'm actually twice as old as I look." If had the chance again, I'd kill that fae as soon as I met her, if only to be rid of this rotten little human body. I sighed and changed into my school clothes, which I kept in a sealed wood box, buried beneath the forest floor. I contained everything I owned. It was a secluded little spot in the woods -- only I knew my way there. Any homework I had I finished in school, anyway, or if it was reading, I just did that along the walk out to my spot in the forest beyond. That way, the moment the sun went down, I was out and looking for my meal on the wing. Being human had given me more appreciation of my natural body though, I'd admit that. The humans had no feeling for the wind and the ground like his gargoyle self had. Well, I couldn't meet her until nightfall, I sighed, so I laid back to get a little sleep before I had to be at school. I was actually a little surprised that Tessra was nowhere in sight for most of that school day. She might be off on a field trip or something, I reasoned. She'll be there tonight. That was why I was absolutely unsuspecting when it happened. I was walking with stiff determination at the time, down the math hall after one class with a backpack so full of books it felt like my wings were sopping wet and hung on my shoulders. I was scowling fiercely my determined disliked for pitiful human kinds all around me as I moved to my next destination. It was then I noticed a boy standing at a corner, watching me walk by. Once I did, I noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that same boy start following me down the hall. I made a few tight turns and double-backs to make sure I'd lost him. However, in doing so two more followers appeared. Normally several midpubescent humans would have been no concern, however I was no gargoyle now, and far more vulnerable. I hurried off to class, and quickly planted myself in my seat, immediately making motions of being busy shuffling through schoolwork. Three tagging behind me approached the teacher's desk. I noted two boys with brown hair and on with redder hair before they turned and left. The teacher hardly glanced at the envelope they had given her with my name on it, and a hammer on circle insignia. "What is this, the Marxist revolution?" my history teacher asked. I had no idea. There was a short note inside. "Gargoyles are killers. We will exterminate you and your kind if you do not leave this town by tomorrow. The JrQ." Jrq? "I dunno. Sounds like a creamery, if you ask me." Was Tessra's comment, as we sat down in one of the locker rooms after school, scribbling off some homework. I'd already put all my book in my locker, grabbed my jumpsuit cut for a boy with wings and a tail from out of my gym locker where I'd stashed it, and was ready for a night of hunting with Tessra. I stood in front of the mirror, taking my hair out of the ponytail I had stuck it in. "Junior Queen? Sounds more like a girl at a dance." I added. Tessra huffed a bit, but didn't reply, going on with her homework. The teacher closed the door and left -- they knew we'd leave when we were done. I glanced at my watch. 6:48. "It's almost time!" I exclaimed. Tessra looked up, slapped her book shut, and shoved her bookbag into her gym locker, pulled out her gargoyle clothes, and slipped into one of the rooms to change. Suddenly, I felt my entire body light on fire, as a searing pain shot through my skin. My wings exploded from my back, and my tail tore out of my back. I felt myself go up onto my toes, and my talons growing. Once it ended, I snarled with jubilation! Free at last! Tessra made a comment about timing, and came out of the dressing room, resplendant in her lavender coloring. I glanced once at my own reflection -- a small gargoyle boy, perhaps, covored in fur patterned in orange and black tiger stripes. My wings were leathery, and covored with an ebony and orange velvet. I twitched my whiskers, and redid the strap on my black jumpsuit for a slight increase in size from my human self. The jumpsuit was armless and legless, and made of a newage material that dried quickly and didn't absorb much water. This was how I glided. Smiling at each other, we dashed out of the school, peered around cautiously to make sure everyone was gone first, and then scaled the back of the school and took wing. "So, shall we find out who this Jrq person is?" I suggested, laughing and the joy of being on the wind again. "After something to eat. I'm famished." Tessra noted. * Tessra Leanne * Orourke looked splended upon the air. Even on the wing it was hard to believe he was my brother of hatching, he looked so different from me. Then, we'd had too different birth mothers. Neither of us really remebered who they were, and by the time we'd hatched, there were several others almost like us in the clan, all elders compaired to he and I. I had always been the shortest of the clan, and he, seemed to me a giant, a gentle one at that. I smiled, thinking of the book that the Humans had made me read in the "Junior High". The BFG, or Big Freindly Giant, By Roald Dahl. It had been my favorite of all the books. I had liked all of Mr. Dahl's books. Even for a human, he had a kind of wonder about him. Orourke didn't like the humans, but then, he had never liked the Humans who had watched out for our Clan either. I had a reserved respect for a few humans. My teacher for Science was one of the few humans I actually liked. Another had been my human mother from the Castle, but she had died so long ago. I hate most humans though, specially the Hunters... The Hunters... I thought about the strange letter as we sat back at Orourke's little place in the wods with the burgers we'd gotten. we had a friend among the Humans, who left us food in the church at the park. one of the humans we'd saved a while back one night. He'd seen us during a tinme of little food, and after we'd saved him that night, he promised to see that we would be well kept. I dunno, he was nice. He gives us clothes as well. I thought silently about the letters, then pulled the five I had received out of my backpack, which I had brought with me. I carried nothing of my School things in it. All I carried was the few belongings I had, not trustuing the people who owned the apartment I stayed in. "What do you think, Rourky? They look Alike." I pointed to the handwriting in his letter, and the handwriting on mine. "What does that tell you?" "Well, it says that their from the same person.." he said, eyes glowing in realization. "Exactly." I took a bite, then a few fries. The Human's food tasted slightly salty, and I always liked salt, I dunno why. "If they come from the same person, and those boys delivered it, it must mean..." "That there's a bigger group in this then we thought?" He asked. "Elementary, My dear rookery brother." A snap in the bushes brought our attention, and we left most expediently, leaving our meal as we climbed the trees, and took off. Even a couple of gargoyles can't be too careful in New York. We glided about upon the wind, happy to be free, or at least, as free as a creature that must remain Human during the day can get. Thinking of the Day, I looked to the Sky. "We must part now, my brother. I have to prepare for the coming day. I'm sorry for this. Keep hope, after all, as long as there is you and me, gargoyles shall never be gone." I said, as I landed upon the roof top near my housing. He nodded, and took off. "If only there were others of our Kind... all we know of are the small clan upstate, of mostly males." I thought to myself quietly. "I hear the only adult female of that clan is a renagade... AND the harbringer of the hunters." I shook my head sadly as I hopped to the roof of the shorter buildeing, and made my way to my apartment. but as I hopped to the roof of the tall tower before my home, I could see the billowing red smoke of disaster, and looked down, upon the charring remains of my small abode. * Eagle of Arabia *