Curiosity, Cats and Gargoyles
By Chyna Rose
Disclaimer: I don't own Gargoyles. This was supposed to be an entry to the 2002 Gathering contest, but I missed the deadline due to finals at school and not knowing about the bloody contest until two weeks before the end of it. Not that I'm bitter about it…
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So this is how it finally ends. No grand battle to the death with the forces of evil. No peaceful sleep with the hatchlings of my sons and daughters waiting to say their final goodbyes. Instead I die the death of a trapped animal; desperate and torturous.
How did I get here? What, do you ask, are the events that lead up to my unhonorable death? Well I'll tell you. It's not like I'm going anywhere.
Like most heroic stories, it started with a girl. She wasn't a princess, or the lone survivor of a lost tribe, or anything like that. She was just and ordinary girl from Brooklyn. Her parents both worked hard, but that was born more out of a love of work and the belief that anything worth doing was worth doing well, than any need for the money. We met by accident; a chance meeting in the park after I mistook a LARP for a mugging when I was out on patrol. The fact that I was a gargoyle didn't seem to faze her at all. She truly was a kindred spirit; even though she hated to fight. But unlike those stories, I never fell in love with her.
When I was given the opportunity to go on a world tour via Avalon, she was the first human I thought of asking to come along. It took her all of about two minutes to say yes. It was to have been, according to her, the ultimate adventure. Two friends sailing off into the unknown. Sounds like a best seller.
We were ready for whatever fate was going to throw at us. A cell phone, portable GPS, credit cards, matches, flashlight, batteries, emergency supplies… Everything Goliath and Elisa would've needed to make their trip bearable. Not that our trip was a vacation by any stretch of the imagination. We fought with poachers, drug lords, and even a few human slave traders on all six continents. Hell, we got stuck in a small civil war in Somethingorotherstan (one of those poor third world countries that no-one's really ever heard of and used to be a part of the Soviet Union).
Our last stop (last in so many ways), started out peaceful. We found ourselves on a small river in the middle of a tropical rainforest (which we later found out was in South America). We must've been the only sentient life for miles. And since we had no idea why we were sent there, we decided to take the time to enjoy ourselves and explore the area.
We walked up stream from our skiff. About ten feet away, there was a small lake and a cave. The gleam in her eyes when she saw the cave… I knew that we probably shouldn't have checked it out; I was getting a bad feeling about the cave. But she begged me to go in with her.
"Come on Lex." She pleaded, "Where's your sense of adventure?"
"I think I left it back in Germany." I replied. She just snorted and kept trying. Eventually, she tried the one tactic that she knew would get me to follow.
"Fine. Stay here if you want then. But I'm going in."
I couldn't let her go in alone. I swore to both Goliath and her father that I'd keep her safe above everything else. Not that my arm had to be twisted about it.
We went pretty far into the cave. About thirty winding feet in, there was a large chamber filled with crystal. Not really a treasure trove; mostly quartz and amethyst. But it was spectacular -almost as spectacular as the look in her eyes when she first saw it. We stopped to eat, and she grabbed a few gems that had already fallen off the surrounding rock. Then everything went to hell. That bad feeling I had had was back ten fold. I looked at her, and managed to get out one word before the mountain around us began to shake.
"Run!"
And we did. We both began a mad dash towards the mouth of the cave, me following her. It seemed like the entire mountain was coming down around us, as the rocks fell. Five feet from the entrance, a boulder struck me on the arm and I fell. I tried my best to stagger out, but by the time I could get to the entrance, it was too late. I found myself trapped in a small air pocket. She had made it out, for which I'm eternally grateful.
I don't know how much time I have left. It's getting hard to breath. Even if I had the strength to try and dig myself out, the threat of another cave-in's too great; I just barely survived the last one. Besides, I'd run out of air before I could get very far. It's funny you know. After all I've survived, I get done in by a stupid cave.
"Hold on! We're coming to get you!"
But at least I won't die alone. I know she'll stay by my side till the end even though tons of rock separate us.
"We're almost there Lex! Just a few more minutes!"
It's nice to have someone care about you.
"Don't you dare give up on me!"
Don't worry my sister and friend. I won't give up. God I'm tired. I think I'll just rest. Sun's almost up anyway. I can feel it in my bones.
Oh God no! Lex!