“’It is not safe for us’. ‘You are the strongest’. ‘Please, Blayne’.” The gargoyle identified as Blayne muttered as he stepped down into the dungeons and looked around. His face fell as he looked at the shut off cells and he growled, purely devastated as Elora could see from his face. He was devastated that they were in the cells. “Of course you would be in the cells. I am surprised you even thought of that.”
That’s right! Elora suddenly thought, her hopes rising. Gargoyles can’t touch iron! At least that is similar to this world! So that means this is the leader of all the gargoyles in this castle!
Blayne glared at Chaiya and Kieran. They looked familiar, as if he should recognize them, but he didn’t and neither did he care. As far as he cared, they were food with a new fresh toy for them to use, but he couldn’t care less. They were inside of the cells so it was useless, no one could stop them. No one.
Kieran, however, noticed one thing. The being had not noticed Elora. He had simply skipped over her and hadn’t even noticed where she was and what she was doing, or what was wrong with her. She was just standing beside Chaiya, and Blayne’s eye hadn’t even gone over her. She was being ignored. She was invisible to Blayne.
“There is only one way out of the castle: out the front doors then across the cross bridge,” the creature spoke, his tone frigid as ice. “And I have all the time in the world for you to attempt to leave. You will eventually come out, and I will eventually kill you, though perhaps for yourself you shouldn’t be doing this.”
The gargoyle’s leader then unfurled his wings, and flew off, leaving the group in the cells alone in the darkness with only the light of the moon shining down from the holes and the small windows. They heard the gargoyle talk to his brethren, so that meant that there were six of them.
“So,” Vali asked, now that they were alone. “What now?”
None of them had any clues as to what to do, or how to speak about it. But then they heard another voice from the top, of a gargoyle at that.
“None of the others have managed to use the cells this way.” The gargoyle spoke, his voice carried all the way down to the cellars. “Perhaps they are a smart bunch, yet they have no hope now, we have them cornered.”
Kieran, however, had other ideas. He looked right at Elora, his eyes wide and calculative.
“That gargoyle...he couldn’t see you,” Kieran said, softly, as to not let anyone find out. Elora looked at him, as if trying to ignore his words for she was sure it would end badly for her. She could act as strong as she wanted, as mighty as she wanted, but she was no match for that. “It was as if you didn’t even exist, as if you were invisible to it! You can go up there, Elora! You can try and find out how many there are, and what is the best way to escape! You can save us all!”
Elora’s mouth opened up in shock, and so did Chaiya’s. Was this man serious? Did he just say that? Did he just open his mouth to not gloat Elora for being stupid, or a girl, and instead say that she should go and save them, from a bunch of Gargoyles?!
“Are you serious?” Elora growled. Kieran, for the first time, not only noticed the anger and the fear inside of her eyes, and realized that she was actually afraid this time, that he had something to keep up against her. But there was nothing that he could do about it, for he was afraid himself. These weren’t men, these were gargoyle’s, powerful creatures that could destroy them instantly. And that one felt really, really familiar as well. “Do you realize what you’re saying? Do you, Mr. ‘I am a hero so I should be in your bed’, say that I, an unarmed girl, should go up there and face six gargoyle’s without a semblance of how to fight or use a weapon?! Are you the one that is still sane or have you gone mad?!”
“Why I am only acknowledging the fact that you’re strong.” Kieran decided to use another way to urge her out. He knew that he would be appearing a total ass now, because of his words, but he had to say it and she had to go out there or they were finished. “I would go up there, without a doubt, if I could, but then you would think I was treating you as a mere girl. You said you were strong and could do anything, so I am just putting my trust in you. Or was it all a lie and you were actually tricking us all the time simply to gain our pity and protection?”
His words brought a halt to her thoughts. She could feel her anger bubbling down her throat and her blood, and her blood pumping, screaming for her to take revenge against this stupid man and punch him across the face and beat him to a pulp. But then she realized that perhaps he was right. The gargoyle hadn’t seen her, she was invisible for him, so she would be invisible for the lot of them. She wouldn’t be detected or seen, and she wouldn’t be alone either. So she had to go ahead and then try and find the way herself. But that didn’t excuse Kieran from using the tone that he had. It was Chaiya that put up a stop to it.
“Enough, Kieran,” Chaiya growled. “And you, Elora, ignore him. He’s being an ass as he can’t do anything about this situation, he’s hated being holed up hiding like this. Takes out of his attitude, you see. We will find another way, no one will go out there, and no one is going to sacrifice himself. There will be another way, and we will find it.”
“No,” Elora said, as she got up from the ground and took a deep breath. “He...was right. Kieran was right, the gargoyle didn’t even see me.”
Even Kieran was surprised that Elora was admitting defeat. But instead of pride, he only felt a hollow feeling inside of him, because of a hollow victory by manipulating her emotions. In fact, he seemed surprised that Elora was almost agreeing to his plan!
“I will go up there and look out for the gargoyles,” Elora said, glaring at Kieran. “And show this stupid boy that he is not the only one here that is strong. The gargoyle didn’t even look at me so I’ll admit, this is a good plan. But if I die, I’ll haunt your life forever and make sure you are never, ever able to sleep with a woman ever again.”
Kieran couldn’t know as to what she meant by that, he was just shocked that she had agreed to his plan and admitted defeat. There was no way that he could have done that, even if it was the best plan in the world. She had willingly controlled her pride and accepted the plan like it was nothing, and was going to go up there, by herself, without a weapon, to face six gargoyles. He paled as he realized what she was about to do, and now was unable to stop her in any way as she had already said her goodbyes to Chaiya and was moving towards the doors of the cells. Before she could leave, though, Kieran grabbed her by the hand.
Elora didn’t know what to do, she had no clue why she had agreed to this and cursed her stupid pride by acting out like this. She didn’t want to do this over a simple theory, but she had to because her life was as stake as well as her pride, and she wasn’t going to let Kieran get the pleasure of watching her break, not right now. She had revealed enough as it was.
This isn’t going to end well for me, I don’t know why, I just have that feeling, Elora thought inside of her head. What is...what will I do? I am going to face gargoyles on my own! Oh god!! I have no idea what to do!
She had hugged Chaiya tightly as she had left, and grasped the door, ready to open it, when Kieran suddenly pulled her towards him. This was the first time that he had acted like this, and she got ready to slap him to dare touch her. But she couldn’t, not when he was looking at her with those eyes of his.
His eyes were on her own, looking deep into her own eyes and staring into her soul. She felt as if something was wrong and something was going on, as if someone or something was going to stop time itself as they started into each other. Elora felt her heart beating out of her chest and she felt her heart literally smacking against her, but she was not going to say anything. She didn’t say anything because of the closeness that she felt with this man and it was strangely...helping her out.
“Try not to die and get eaten. Good luck.” He smiled, and then stood back. Elora’s eyes twitched as she shot him a nasty glare and started to go up the cellar room, and made up the stairs. But everyone could see the small smile that she h
ad on her face as she walked up.
Chaiya, once Elora was gone from the room, punched her brother lightly, yet hardly in the shoulder and glared at him.
“Perhaps for once, brother, you should remember that you can be defeated.” She growled and glared at him. Kieran didn’t say anything. He just nodded as she continued. “Why are you so mean to her?! She is so much better than you and can do so much, hell she doesn’t even know anything about this world!”
Kieran didn’t say anything, he just kept his mouth shut. Chaiya sighed and shook her head. Perhaps things were going to be bad, but Kieran was lost in his own thoughts.
If I am not going to be able to bed her... Kieran thought, looking back at the door. I think I’ll have to agitate her into a tentative friendship, somewhat. I don’t know, why is she so strong? Why doesn’t she bend?
Elora, on the other hand, was already at the top of the stairs, hearing the gargoyle’s talk in some strange language. She didn’t know what language it was, so she simply ignored it. She didn’t know what to do, she knew that it was impossible to actually pass through these six and just go on the other side because it would get really, really dangerous in no time at all.
Alright, let’s see if that fool’s idea actually worked or not, Elora thought inside of her head. She didn’t want to know what exactly would happen now and what she was going to do, but she had to at least try and find something out. So she simply walked right into the room, and as Kieran had noticed, they didn’t even notice her.
The room was strange. It was round and had a simple table in the middle with six different circles on them. She could see that every circle had a mark on it, and in front of the mark was a seat with a similar mark, where the 6 gargoyles were sitting, their grotesque features and their eyes wide and white. What really caught her attention, however, was an image. It was an image of the tapestry that was right beside the mantle, where she could see it.
There was a leather bound book that was lying right there, an old book, opened to the page of the explanation of the armor.
‘But first...’ Elora quickly pulled out her phone and clicked the photo. She was glad that the flash was turned off, and she had been able to take a nice photo of the tapestry, she needed to do it, take a photo of it, because other than that she couldn’t do anything. ‘Yes, there we go.’
She quickly walked over to the book, and started to read what was written on it. And she realized with a dreadful chill that she was right all along. It was clearly written in the book in English, at that, the location of where the armor was.
‘The one spot in the cellar where the ground is different from the land. A Blotch of the gargoyle’s blood shall open the tunnel of stone to take to the armor only those with a pure heart can hold. Crap! It is that place! I knew I was right! Take that Kieran you jerk!’ Elora exclaimed in her head, cheerfully. Then she took a deep breath and looked back at the table. Right in the middle she could see it, the cloth to soak up the cut that Blayne had on him, where it was doused with his blood. She couldn’t believe that she was actually so close to it, but she was now coming up to a point that she could get the armor and get out of this castle. ‘I have to get that blood blotch, but how? There are six of them and if I pick it up they’re sure to see it, I just know it!’
She didn’t know what to do, and she didn’t know what to talk about. She just knew that she had to get that cloth to get the hell out of here.
It is clear they can’t see me, she thought, her face scrunched up in confusion, as she looked on towards the six gargoyles. But can they...hear me?
She got a really, really nice idea as she grinned widely. As lucky as she was to be invisible, she could finally do this, just like she wanted. She could finally trick someone with that useless app that she had downloaded and have fun with it, and it was going to be glorious. She quickly got her phone on, and suddenly pressed her button.
“Gargoyles of Tarith, I AM CASPER THE UNFRIENDLY ONE!!!” Using her tone and her voice, she used the distortion to make her voice completely and utterly distorted, like a demon. “And I am very...disappointed by your doings. I am not called The Unfriendly One because I am a nice ghost, you see...and I am going to say this in the most frank and normal way possible. STOP ALL YOUR WRONGDOINGS!”
The gargoyle’s literally jumped in their seats and Elora felt it, an emotion she was common to ever since she came into this world. It was a very, very normal emotion that she remembered everyone hold, fear.
“W-What is that?” One of the gargoyles’s muttered, looking around. “I-Is it a real ghost?!”
Blayne stood up, sensing something wrong. He didn’t know why things were like this, but he knew that there was some trickery here, he was not going to believe in this voice just like that?
“Go and look at our ‘guests’, see if they have moved.” Blayne called out to his brethren. Two of them quickly moved towards the cells. Elora quietly looked as the two came back five minutes later, and they were pale as a ghost. She wanted to snicker. This was just too good. “What is it?”
“T There is no one there, they’re in their cells and are just waiting.” The one on the right said. The one on the left was even paler. “A-And the g girl said that that...t-that…”
Before the gargoyle could even continue, Blayne had a natural idea as to what was going on. He shuddered in his boots as he now realized there was an actual ghost around that could easily kill them. Ghosts weren’t real, and they couldn’t be touched. And so, he had no choice.
“What do you want, Casper?” Blayne said, his voice holding all of his fear. “W-what is it that you want from our castle?! This is our home?! Leave! We have nothing for you!”
“You will be punished for harming my guests!” She cried into the phone so her voice would be even more distorted. “I sent them here, for the armor! Because we needed it for the battle against Claw Worth! And you now have interrupted us and caused lives to be lost, and I shall make it so every single life that has been lost will equal to hundreds of thousands of hours of pain for you!”
Every single one of the gargoyles were scared boneless of this ghost and it’s very, very disastrous voice. They flew out of the castle, as fast as he they could, through the windows, through the doors and the only one that was left was Blayne. Blayne who couldn’t fly. Blayne that hobbled out of the throne room. Blayne that Elora knew was the strongest of the gargoyles, scared of her. Once she was sure that they were gone, Elora smiled, smirked and giggled at the same time. She quickly grabbed the cloth that had the blood stain on it, and the book. She would read it later on. As she picked it up, she grunted. ‘That’s heavier than it looks. But I need it.’
Quickly turning around, she ran back down the steps and came into the cellar room.
“Out, all of you,” Elora said, grunting as she held up the book. “They’re gone, for now. Come on, quick! We don’t have time.”
Quickly all of the campers, Chaiya and Kieran came out. Chaiya was the first one to crash into him.
“That was brilliant!” Chaiya grinned. “I have never been so proud of a fellow girl before! I heard that all the way down there!”
“Casper: The Unfriendly One?” Vali snorted. “That is definitely one of the strangest things I have heard.”
“Listen, Elora. I am sorry for forcing you up there,” Kieran, after pondering about it for a bit, apologized. “I didn’t want to, but we were stuck, without a way to get out, and-.”
Elora just shoved the giant book into his hands. He grunted at the surprising weight that the book had and looked at Elora strangely. Elora grinned.
“Just forget it. I guess everyone does get a second chance and so do you,” Elora said, quickly holding the rag. “And stand back, all of you.”
Chaiya looked on in concern as Elora took the bloodied rag that she had and quickly smothered it on the strange patch of ground on the floor. She looked to Kieran, who shrugged, both of them curious as to what they were even doing. Elora didn’t have any idea as t
o what this was supposed to do, but as the book had said, they needed a gargoyle’s blood, and then they needed force.
“Elora,” Chaiya asked, concerned. “What exactly are you doing? We’re all concerned.”
“If you see the opened page on the book in the middle, it says you need the gargoyle’s blood on the patch of ground different from the land,” Elora said, getting up after the patch of land was covered in the gargoyle’s blood. “And once that is done, I think I have to apply force on the spot to open the tunnel down. Watch this.”
Elora got up and jumped up and down a few times on the spot where she applied the blood. On her fifth try, they all heard a crack, a very, very loud and noticeable crack. Elora winced as she felt something tear in her arm and looked at her arm.
“What...” Elora muttered, looking closely at a strange red colored line on her hand. “Why is this here? What is going on?”
Unknown to her, though, everyone else looked at the crack which had formed on the ground instead. Kieran looked around and nodded, and at once, the four campers, Kieran and Chaiya all jumped to perhaps crack open the entire spot and reveal the tunnel. Unknown to them that was not what they wanted to do. The ground below them caved open, like ice, and all of them plummeted into the deep, cavernous darkness below, not seen by anyone or anything.
6
Why is it so dark?
That was the first thought that Elora had in her mind as she woke up.
What is going on? Why is it so dark? What...
Suddenly she snapped her eyes open, remembering all that had happened, what she just looked at around. It was dark, but there was a lot of dust flying around. Breathing was really hard as she wondered where they had landed.
They all jumped on the ground together. This means we’re where the armor should be, Elora thought, looking around and coughing, a lot. God, what is up with this dust? It is nasty!
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