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All the characters appearing in Gargoyles and Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company. No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder. All original characters are the property of Amber a.k.a. Jubilee
7:30 P.M.-Erie Building
The three stared at each other, not knowing what to say. The duplicated Elisa suddenly got the notion to shift and save her tail. She didn’t plan it this way. She was just curious about what her twin had of a life, and she wanted to explore it. This was going too far. Backing away from the two, she concentrated on a creature she remembered seeing in her homeland. Her body reshaped, human legs and arms becoming powerful forelegs and hind. Her feet and and hands became hooves, and her face elongated and her human hair grew back and down her neck, becoming a white mane. Wings sprouted from her back, a large, feathery wing span. She grew a tail which swished with formality.
Goliath and Elisa looked on in an awed silence at the creature before them. She was once Elisa Maza, and now a graceful Pegasus that denied all the physical laws of nature. She was beautiful, a silvery, pearly white, her wings made of feathers of the softest down. She stood fourteen hands high, about the size of a pony, but she lacked the bulk of one. Lean and delicate, the tiny horse with wings pranced away from them.
Goliath spoke first, but it was a hushed whisper. “What creature is this?”
Elisa looked at him, eyes wide. “I...I wish I knew...it was me, then it’s...she motioned to the prancing animal.
The Pegasus looked at them with wide, glistening silver eyes. It snorted like a horse, then whinnied like a chorus of silver bells at Christmas. It’s hooves made a tapping, ringing sound on the stone as it shied from the gargoyle and human, it’s wings ready to take flight at any second.
Elisa took a tentative step forward, arm outstretched. “Here...beastie. I won’t hurt you.”
The Pegasus let out a frightened squeal and lept the parapets, in a downward dive, legs outstretched. It continued down that way until it suddenly flexed it’s wings open wide, letting a draft catch her. She flew, flapping to get away.
Goliath leaped up after her, spreading his wings full length. “Elisa, get the others. I am following it.”
Elisa opened her mouth and protested. “No! Wait! I want to go with!” But Goliath was already following the Pegasus, and was out of hearing range. Elisa groaned and raced down the stairs. “Hudson! Brooklyn! Angela! Guys, get up here!!!”
7:45 P.M.-Over Manhattan
Her wings ached with the remembrance of fleeing the storm. She hated it, and that spurned her on, the thought of the storm. She saw it again, in vivid detail. The grays, blacks, and streaks of white lighting, coursing through it’s core. Only the storm this time happened to be her pursuer. She stroked her wings harder, the wind lashing at her face as she fled. She was turning around the towers that reached to the sky, almost hitting one. The rain started to fall, and she couldn’t see. She glanced behind her, and noticed that every time she maneuvered around a building, her pursuer could gain on her. Pegasus’ were good at straight arrow flight, always were. If she didn’t have to move around these tall towers, she would have easily out-flown them.
She go the idea the creature following her was a gargoyle, maneuvering was their thing. She used to race the gargoyles back home in this form. She always won, being able to actually fly and not needing the updrafts of the wind to carry her. Of course, she had fun in gargoyle form, too. But now was not the time. She had to think about where she was going, but the rain was too heavy, weighing down on her feathered wings.
She hit the radio tower before she knew what happened. There was a loud ‘SMACK!’ and she crumpled and fell to the earth, hitting the heavy concrete on the top of the skyscraper.
She lifted her head, seeing a shadowed figure descend upon her, and then her Arabian-like head went slack, and everything drowned with that.
******************************************************************************
Manhattan
She woke up, her head spinning. Figures were looking at her, facing her. They were blurred and cloaked in fuzzy grays. The world beyond them was a bright white. Her vision cleared, and she could see these beings’ mouths moving. She picked out a group of Gargoyles, and one human, the one called Elisa. The gargoyle that had hugged her in the castle was there, too, and some new faces. The talk appeared to be pointed to her, but she could hear nothing of it.
Then, in a surprising shift, sound returned, as if listening down a long tube at first. Gradually audio built up, until voices were clear and unmistakable. She heard a female gargoyle speak. “Will she be alright, father?”
The larger lavender gargoyle she recognized slightly nodded. “I think it is safe to say so.”
“What is she?” Piped a smaller voice, coming from a little green gargoyle looking directly over her.
“I don’t know.” Came the reply from the lavender one.
She lifted her head slightly, and it hurt, also collecting several gasps of astonishment in the process.
“She’s awake!” A bright red one exclaimed.
“Are you alright?” Came the question from a few all at once.
Her head spun, and she made the effort to sit up, extracting a groan from her. One hoof slid out for balance, and, like a young foal standing for the first time, she pulled herself up, on wobbly legs. Snorting in determination if nothing else, a tiny step was taken in the forward direction. Then another, and another, and yet another, until she was walking. Bruised and strained, yet walking. She felt their gaze on her, ever the watchful, but she didn’t mind, which surprised her. With a crick in her graceful neck she turned it to regard them, and blinked.
“Thank you.” She said politely.
Several astonished gasps and then a startled “She can speak!”
This made her want to laugh, but in her current form that was physically improbable so they all got a good-humored nicker instead. “Yes. I speak. But not well.” She mouthed the words slowly, her horse-like throat and larynx unable to sound them out easily. She knew her words probably sounded a bit guttural to them, but thats all she could deal with now. She was too drained to shift into a creature that could deal with the art of speech.
“What are you?” Asked the inquisitive little green gargoyle. Here it was. Off with the
gloves. She snorted. “I...have no...” She strained to get this right. “...Words...for... what I...am.”
She shook her head, the now all-too-familiar throbbing coming back again. She wished she had a word for that too. It hurt like crazy.
Elisa stepped forward. “You seem to be able to alter whatever form you wish. You were me, then a Pegasus, and...”
“A...Pegasus?” The word was new to her. Humans had names for everything!
Elisa nodded. “Yeah. A horse with wings. You changed into that. You seem to ‘shift’ forms. Can you be whatever you want?”
She got a slight nod, then a shake of the head from the Arabian-like animal. “Only... ‘living’ things.”
Elisa nodded. “Are you a shapeshifter?”
Everyone looked awed, but the creature just snorted, swished her long white tail, and looked ever the more perplexed. “Shapeshifter?” She questioned Elisa.
Elisa nodded once more. “Yeah. What were you called where you came from? In fact, where did you come from? Do you have a name?”
The shapeshifter looked at the ground. “I...where I came from...I will not speak of...it. We didn’t call each other anything. We didn’t need names. We used...” She pawed the ground helplessly, unable to have a word for it. “Pictures...in your head. You knew what the other beings looked like, and they each had a...picture.” That was the best she could do. How would they understand a communication without verbalization? In her old world, they used pictures sent from one mind to the other, telling scenes on what they wanted to get across to the other. The beings here would not understand, just as she didn’t quite understand this audible way of communicating.
A sigh. Everyone turned to look at an old brown gargoyle with a white beard and a scar over his eye. He pointed to the human Elisa. “We gargoyles did not need ‘names’ either, but the Lass here insisted, so we had to have em’.” He said in a surprisingly thick Scottish accent.
Elisa smiled at the credit being given where it was due. “Yeah. Everything needs names...”
“Even the river.” The old gargoyle chimed in with a smirk.
“Yes, Hudson.” Elisa laughed. She turned back to the confused shapeshifter. “You need a name. Here we don’t communicate with ‘pictures’. How about...Venessa?” Elisa herself wasn’t sure where that one came from. It was just the first one to hit her head, and she took it. Besides, it didn’t seem half bad.
The strange being considered it a moment. “I think that will...suffice.” She grinned inwardly, remembering a cook say that to a delivery boy on the street where she had roamed for a day. If she could have pat herself on the back and knew the custom in the first place, she would have.
Elisa laughed. “Your catching on quick. By the way, are you hurt anywhere bad?”
The newly named Vanessa shook her head, and ruffled her aching wings, setting them at a satisfactory position over the length of her back. “I am fine. You have named me. But still, what are your names?”
Elisa nodded. “Guess it’s only fair.” She pointed to the large, lavender gargoyle. “That’s Goliath.” Vanessa and Goliath’s eyes met for a split second, then looked away, embarrassed.
Elisa didn’t seem to notice, and continued with the introductions all around, leaving no gargoyle unnamed except for the watchdog back at the castle. Vanessa politely said hello to each, and got the response back in return.
Goliath spoke when introductions were over, though it sounded entirely formal to her, as if this would make up for the little fiasco from before. Elisa seemed to have forgotten it totally.
“We should return to the castle and figure things out from there.” He rumbled.
She looked to the sky, noting the rain getting worse, the storm starting to lash out in it’s fury. Nodding her head in agreement, Vanessa spread her wings, her wet feathers nearly plastered together. The female gargoyle called Angela approached her almost timidly.
“Can you fly back?” She had to yell against the onslaught of the rain.
Vanessa merely nodded. Her sensitive ears were getting irritated by the constant motion of rain, so flicking them constantly was about the only thing she could do.
A few gargoyles already left, throwing a worried glance behind them before taking to the air, Goliath left with Elisa, but notbefore telling Angela to stay with Vanessa, in case she might need help.
Vanessa sent one aggravated glare to the tall radio tower that had been her downfall, but the darkness was so complete that even with the bright lights beaming through the night, it was hard to see. Turning to where she saw the other gargoyles go, she suddenly realized she was alone, save for Angela. Her wings felt heavy and cumbersome, and suddenly she wondered if she could make it back at all. Her energy had returned a bit, so shifting might be possible. Couldn’t hurt to try. With all the concentration possible, the Pegasus shuddered, and shifted to a more suitable form. She grew upright, hooves becoming talons, her face shortening, her white coat becoming a sky blue. Long, blonde hair grew out, and wings followed suite. She became a beautiful young gargess, marveling even Angela’s beauty. She stood clothed in a white silken dress that reached to her taloned-feet. These were the clothes that the gargoyles of her world wore, short outfits weren’t needed as no fighting ever broke out that a long dress would become dangerous. Angela couldn’t see her entirely, but she gasped anyway, more for the fact of the shifting, if anything else.
“How?” She stated loudly.
Vanessa shook her head. “As...Elisa said.”
Vanessa thought she saw Angela smile, but her attention lacked in that area when the first streak of lighting shot across the blackened sky. Fear burst inside her, it was just like the storm...
Angela glanced up. “Bad weather. We better be getting back.”
Vanessa trembled, and it wasn’t the cold. This was so familiar...almost like it was the very storm she had run from itself...no, it couldn’t be...it was just...bad weather.
The two spread their wings and took to the air, gliding on the fast updrafts of the storm. No aerial acrobats were intended, but the wind made up that choice for them. Swirling through the air like stray leaves, the two figures hastened their retreat to the castle.
That’s all...for now. As the story continues...what is with the weather?
Amber