In your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which I cannot touch because they are too near ~ verse 1, lines 3&4, E.E Cummings
Chapter Two ~ The Falling Maiden
Scotland, June 24th, 994
"What sorcery is this?!" he had cried in horrified outrage upon seeing the last few that remained of his clan petrified as stone statues before him.
"Sorcery indeed!" snarled a voice. Goliath had turned to see the Magus, advisor to the Princess, his eyes red from tears, face contort with anger. "And now you shall join them!"
The Magus had brandished his spellbook, the Grimorum Arcanorum, and his mouth twisted to summon the curse. But then, a voice had shouted "Magus, nay!"
He had frozen upon seeing his princess step out from behind Goliath's wing. She had gazed upon her Magus, expression torn as she then looked to the monstrous statues between them. "Oh, Magus… what have yeh done?"
The Magus fell to his knees and buried his face in the hem of her skirts to hide his tears. "Princess! Oh, my beloved princess! I thought you were dead, Your Highness. If the Gargoyles had not come to our rescue, Hakon might've ransomed us both and you wouldn't have been in danger. I was mad with grief! Please, forgive me."
But Goliath had no more room in his heart left for forgiveness. He had grabbed hold of the feeble man's robes and lifted him into the air. Fangs bared, he roared. "Reverse the spell! Change them back!"
"I cannot!" The Magus cried, stricken. "The page with the counter-spell was burned!"
An empty void that Goliath had struggled to hide most of his life cracked a little wider inside his heart. He'd lived a life with no true soulmate, had just discovered most of his clan to have been murdered in their sleep, and now all those that remained of his family were turned to stone.
"There be no way to help them?" he'd faintly heard Princess Katherine ask. "Yeh turned them to stone forever?"
"Not forever." The Magus intoned sullenly. Goliath turned to watch his face, some fool's hope igniting in his chest. "The terms of the spell were that they would sleep, until the Castle they guarded rises above the clouds."
The fool's hope vanished, and Goliath hung his head. "Princess Katherine? I have a favour to ask."
"Goliath, I have done yeh a great wrong," her voiced sounded truly remorseful. He only wished her penance had come years before now. If it had, none of this might've happened. "Any favour within my power to grant is yours!"
"At the castle, the eggs in the Rookery… they will soon hatch." He had realised he could not care for them. Perhaps he was cursed, and it would be wise to separate them from him for their own safety. "If I relinquish them to you, will you provide for them?"
"As if they were my own."
A crossroads laid before him, to wander until death, or to accept his fate. "There is also something you could do for me, Magus. Cast your spell one more time."
New York City, October 5th, 1994
Those had been the last words he had spoken on that horrible midsummer night. Those had been the words he had thought would be his last to ever speak. Some part of him, as he had allowed the foreign sensation of magic to wash through his entire being, had suspected he would never wake again. The spell required the castle to rise above the clouds before he or his brothers would be released. An impossibility, his rational mind had said. Not even the strongest of spells in the Grimorum could raise an entire castle so far into the air. It had seemed like a death sentence, and he had accepted it. For what more was there to live for? He'd been betrayed, his entire clan murdered save for a handful of others, and his mate was dead. The grief was too much to live with.
And yet, here he was. Awake. Alive. The joy of being reunited with his clan-brothers was short lived, however, upon learning that too much time had passed… one thousand years, far from the Scotland he knew. Yet to him, it was as if what had happened occurred only yesterday. The pain had not left him, the grief, the anger, it was still a raw and bleeding wound within his soul.
Then what should happen the moment he awoke from a thousand years of slumber? His castle, his home, attacked by human invaders. He and his clan defeated them and their strange weapons, but it was enough to solidify Goliath's convictions. It did not matter what the human Xanatos claimed; yearning for friendship, a partnership to protect this castle, it all made no difference. Goliath had put his trust in humanity once before, and it had ridiculed, demeaned and betrayed him. Never again.
So when a few hours later, he had spotted another human in the castle, sneaking around where she obviously shouldn't be, it did little to improve his already foul mood. And when she aimed her weapon – similar to the strange devices the invaders had used – to cause potential harm to the clan Gargoyle-Beast, he had acted without hesitation. He'd removed her weapon from her grasp, destroyed it in a show of deliberate force, and made ready to attack. He didn't know what he had planned to do afterwards, interrogate her? Turn her in? Banish her from the castle? He did not know, he was merely acting in the moment.
And then he'd seen her face and paused. Though Goliath was no judge on human beauty, even he had to admit that by their standards this one was fair indeed. Her copper skin was smooth and without blemish, her long midnight hair loose to flutter in the wind, carrying to him a slight scent of wild bluebells. Her body was strong, he could see it in the defined shape of her legs beneath her strange clothing. Yet she still appeared feminine in the curve of her lips or the delicate shadow of her lashes over her honey coloured eyes.
Perhaps he had studied her a little too long, for the woman tried to take a step away from him. The movement broke his momentary lack of focus, and he once again continued the hunt. He strode towards her, to apprehend her, but she only edged further away. Goliath spotted behind her the ramparts that she would slip through. He opened his mouth to issue a warning – but too late.
The woman hit the wall and tripped with a startled scream over the edge and fell into the abyss. He leaned over to try and snatch her up, but she slipped through his talons. Goliath was immediately seized by the familiarity of the situation to when he had saved Princess Katherine over his enemies. His beast's bark of alarm roused him into action, and he launched himself off the side of the castle after her.
The wind whipped into his face as he plummeted like an arrow straight after the woman. Her terrorised screaming halted as she watched him, shocked, as his weight and aerodynamic fall meant he quickly caught up with her. Reaching out, he slipped his arms around her body, one hand beneath her knees, the other cradling her back. He expected her to recoil from him, to fight and struggle. But he was surprised when she reflexively curled her arms around his neck and held on tightly to him as the pair of them plummeted. Inside his own ears, Goliath thought he heard a 'click' as something locked into place.
Only less than a thousand feet from the ground, Goliath thrust his wings open wide, feeling the membrane stretch at the force of the wind filling them up. Immediately catching an appropriate current, he levelled them off, and quickly glided around to the side of the building on which the Castle stood. There was a small ledge of stone that he landed on with ease and set the woman down. She shakily stumbled away from him, and his hand hung in the air to catch her again if she fell off the ledge. She gasped upon seeing that the pair of them were still many metres above the ground and pressed her back against the wall behind her.
Slowly, she looked over towards him, doing little to hide the growing panic that made her chest rise and fall rapidly. Goliath allowed her to look him up and down, not caring for what she thought. Human prejudice was not a new concept to him.
Swallowing thickly, she spoke in a soft voice. "Okay… I-It's okay. Just take it easy."
She spoke as if trying to placate a child – or a mindless beast. Goliath didn't like either one being applied to him. "What were you doing in my castle?"
The woman gasped, shrinking away. "Y-You talk?!"
"Obviously."
"B-But what… Who are you?"
"My kind have no use for names," he told her. He debated on telling her the name most humans had once called him. She was a stranger, a potential danger– No. He corrected himself. He had taken her weapon, she was unarmed. And some intuition inside himself told him she was no threat. "But you humans call me Goliath."
"Your kind? You mean there's more than one of you?"
Images of the burning castle assaulted his mind. His brothers and sisters, his elders and young ones, all of them murdered, smashed into pieces. He banished the horrible thoughts with a growling sigh. "Barely."
Something in his expression must have given him away. Because she was staring at him – or as much as she could with the strong breeze of their altitude pushing her hair all around her head. "Well, um, I'm Detective Elisa Maza. Nice to meet you, I guess?"
Hesitantly, she held out her hand to him. He stared at it and did nothing. Oh, he knew exactly what she meant by it. The human custom of greeting a friend, or sealing a pact, or forming an alliance with a shake of hands was something that had been practiced even in his time. But they were not friends, and they were not allies. After a few awkward moments, she let her hand drop with a slight flush of embarrassment.
"You still have not answered my question. What were you doing in the castle?" he pressed.
"Well, I was–" she was cut off when the blare of one of the human's horseless-carriages on the city street below roared up at them. Her eyes darted towards the sound, and upon being reminded of the drop just a few inches away from her toes, she squeezed her eyes shut. "Um, c-can we discuss this somewhere else, please? Either on the street or back at the castle? Can't you fly us–"
"I can't fly." He quickly corrected. A common human assumption that wings must only be used for flight. "I can only glide on currents of wind. There are none strong enough down here to lift us back up."
"So… we're stuck?" she gulped.
He debated for a moment on what to do, whether to leave her here or take her back to the castle. Threat she may not be, he reasoned, but she was still an intruder, and the mystery of why she had trespassed still needed to be answered. And it would be wrong to leave her here with no way to get down of her own accord…
With a groan he relented and reached across to her. He grabbed hold of her arm, the limb completely engulphed in his large talons. The woman – Elisa, he reminded himself – startled as he lifted her up with ease and slung her over his back between his wings. With subtle touches, he adjusted the hold of her arms around his neck.
"Hold on." He commanded. A loud CRUNCH sounded as he drove his talons into the brickwork of the building in order to make his own handholds and pull himself up. In this manner, he climbed up the side of the building, with the human dangling from his shoulders – not that she weighed much to him at all.
Elisa was on the verge of panicking, hyperventilating in his ear and pressing her face into his hair and neck to hide from the sight of their potential plummet. Goliath blinked at the foreign sensation. No one but his angel of the night had ever touched his mane. It was an unspoken rule of intimacy, to touch, or to run talons through the hair of another was reserved for only a mate. Yet even if that were not the case, it was strange to consider this human huddling into him in an unconscious display of seeking comfort or protection from what she considered a fear. Most humans he had dealt with shied away from him, would not dare lean into him, even for protection. But not this one. He could sense her fear, it was palpable. She must be petrified of heights, he thought, because in an uncanny way, her fear was so strong he could feel it.
An urge to dissuade this fear rose up in him, and he blurted: "Trust me."
He felt her head turn a little, could feel her eyes on the side of his face. "Promise not to drop me?"
"Should you fall – again – I will catch you."
"Okay," she murmured, and then stronger, "okay then, I trust you."
It shouldn't have made a difference to him. After all, he had already vowed to never trust humans again. But to hear a human so willing put their life in his talons, after he'd said only a few words… It made him feel rather odd.
They climbed in silence for the rest of the way. When they reached the top, back on the rampart where they'd left, Goliath helped the woman climb off his back, her legs a little wobbly. Once she settled back on the rampart, Goliath climbed over himself, watching the strange woman named Elisa, as she bent over her knees, breathing deeply to calm her heart.
A growl beside her made her yelp and jump back. The Gargoyle-beast awaited them both, growling at the human intruder. Elisa shrank away from the show of teeth. "I forgot about him…"
"He won't hurt you," Goliath said, strolling past her to pet the beast. Its growl turned into a rumble of affection as it nuzzled its Clan Leader's talons. With the beast calmed, Goliath turned to his human 'guest'. "Now, once again: what are you doing here? And please, don't fall off the building this time."
Despite his hard tone demanding answers, despite the beast at his side, despite her earlier fear, the human did the most unexpected thing – she smiled. "Never gonna let me live that one down?" He didn't answer, just folded his wings across his chest, the membranes wrapping around him like a cloak. "The thing is, I was trying to find out what happened here. There was a fight up here earlier tonight,"
"Yes. Humans attacked the castle," Goliath nodded, keeping his expression and his inner thoughts guarded. "Castle Wyvern is my clan's ancestral home. It is our duty to protect it."
"Wait, you were the guys who fought off these invaders? No wonder Xanatos dodged me."
"I still do not see how the battle up here meant you have the right to infiltrate the castle."
"Well, it might've escaped your notice, but that battle nearly squashed several dozen people on the street." He cocked a brow at her stern tone. She was hiding something, he didn't know how, he could just sense it. It was clear she didn't trust him fully, and in truth, he did not trust her at all. They were uneasy with each other, and Goliath should have banished her from the castle. And yet, he found himself drawn in with curiosity, a need to know more. Evidently, she felt the same, for she softly asked: "How about I ask a question now? If you don't mind… what are you? Where did you come from?"
"We came from Scotland, along with the castle."
"No, I mean, did Xanatos create you? I've never seen anything like you."
"No one created us!" he snarled, wings flaring open with outrage at such a heinous thought! "We are Gargoyles. Our race is as old as humans themselves, we lived amongst you, we protected you, even when all you did was scorn us… but now, there is only my clan left."
"It's okay, Goliath. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to offend you." Elisa murmured, hands held up in a sign for peace. Slowly, he cooled his temper, further coaxed by her soft words. "Just try and explain it all to me."
Some might call him foolish, but he saw no need to hide the truth, for she could gain nothing from it. And besides, if he showed he was willing with some of the truth, she might be inclined to reveal the rest of hers. "My clan and I lived in Scotland, in Castle Wyvern. We were its protectors, it was our home as well as for the humans who claimed to rule it. I was the Clan Leader. It was the year 994–"
"Wait, are you serious?!"
"Yes." He bluntly retorted with a reproachful look. "Vikings had come to sack the castle, but we repelled them back. Not that our help was rewarded with any gratitude. Princess Katherine, niece to King Kenneth, did not care for us. She, along with most in her court, considered us to be mere beasts. But we were tolerated because we were the ones who could protect the castle when all else failed."
"So what happened? How did you end up here?"
He could not stop his eyes from glowing white, or his fists from clenching with held in rage at the memories. "We were betrayed. The Vikings had returned whilst we slept, and sacked the castle. They killed–"
He could not say the words, had to bite his tongue for fear that the emotion would choke him. Inside himself, he could feel empathy, pity, and knew it belonged to Elisa. Her soft voice was right beside him, as if she wanted to touch him to offer him comfort but refrained for fear of his reaction. "You lost someone…"
"Yes. My mate. And almost all of my clan." He backed up a step or two away from her, needing a little room to breathe. "The humans were gone, betrayed by one of their own, by a man I trusted above all others of their kind! He gave over the princess and the other humans to the Vikings for ransom. We followed to save them and have our revenge. But we were denied. Frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years. We could not be released until the Castle rose above the clouds. We awoke as soon as the sun set, this very night."
"So, a thousand years ago you were betrayed by the one human you trusted…" Elisa said quietly into the heavy silence that followed the abbreviated version of his tale. Goliath could tell she was made sad by the story. It intrigued him as to how well he could read her, usually he found humans a little difficult to decipher, but not her. Her, he could read like an open book. "Does anyone else know about you?"
"Only the man called Xanatos." Goliath said, once again composed. "He brought us here. He claims to have heard about our tale in the Grimorum Arcanorum – the spell book that was used to curse us."
"There's gotta be more to it than that," she snorted disbelievingly. "No one – not even Xanatos – spends millions of dollars putting a castle in the clouds just because he's curious about some story he read." Pulling in her frustration with a sigh, she ran a hand through her hair. "Sorry, it's just… spells? Curses? Magic? It's a little hard to swallow all at once."
"Goliath!"
He and Elisa looked over at the sound of the voice, to find his Clan quickly making their way up the ramparts towards him. Elisa immediately took a step closer to Goliath, again surprising him with her instinctive reaction to him – and his urge to react to her. "Who are those guys?"
"My clan. Or, what is left of it."
They all crowded around her, curious. His former clan leader and mentor stood by Goliath's side, whilst the trio of younger Gargoyles (each of them in the limbo state between adolescence and full adulthood) were closer to Elisa. The leader of the trio, a lean-built red male with a beak and mane of white hair, sniffed at Elisa's shoulder. "Is this a new friend, Goliath?"
Elisa did her best to not appear intimidated. "Boy, I hope so…"
"This is Elisa Maza, a…" Goliath paused in his introduction, trying to search for the strange title she had called herself by. "Dee-tek-tive?"
"Second class, NYPD." She declared and proudly pulled out a piece of leather from her pocket, upon which laid a golden badge of some sort.
"What does a detective do, lass?" asked the old one.
"Well…" Elisa touched her lips in thought. "When somebody does something wrong, it's my job to find out who and arrest them."
Goliath frowned. "Who decides what is wrong?"
"We have a justice system. Laws and rules to follow. Penalties and assessments that the people decide."
"You mean the humans decide–" he cut himself off as a light glimmered out of the corner of his eye. Goliath looked towards the horizon, and saw it begin to grow lighter. He hurriedly spun around to the human woman, urgency in his face. There was no way by the Great Dragon he would allow her to remain and learn their final secret. "You have to go, now!"
"Wait! Can't I see you again?" she said too quickly. She flushed as if unsure why she herself had said those words. "I-I mean, I'd like to know more about you. I find out Gargoyles are real, magic exists, all on the same night, and you expect me to just walk away?"
"Why shouldn't you?"
"Look, you saved my life, so I owe you." She took a step towards him, and he watched, surprised, as she slowly reached her hand out towards him and placed it upon his arm. Her touch was warm and her bare skin as soft as silk. "Goliath, let me at least return the favour. I could show you this city, you need to understand it, know how it works,"
"If we're to defend the Castle… I suppose we need to be prepared for whatever's out there." He searched her eyes, and tried to use this new strange ability on her to try and see if he could detect any deceit or unsavoury intentions. Instead, all he could feel was a desire to see her again, to puzzle out why things felt so strange with her. "Very well."
"Alright," she smiled. "Tomorrow (or I suppose today) is my day off. I'll meet you in the afternoon–"
"After dark."
She faltered, confused by his insistence. But he would not budge. "Um, okay. Here after dark."
"Not here." He pointed out to a random building across the street. "Over there. On that rooftop."
"Why there?"
"Why do you insist on seeing me at all?" he rebutted.
She looked away from him. "A good detective trusts no one…"
Perhaps she didn't mean for him to overhear her, but his sharp ears still caught the words anyway. So much for the feeble trust they'd established on the climb up here. He didn't know why it stung, it shouldn't have, but it did, so he snapped a retort: "That's one thing we have in common."
They met each other's eyes unblinkingly. Goliath wasn't sure what had possessed him to entertain her for so long, all he knew now was that it was over. She had to go. Eventually, she relinquished her side of the staring contest and retreated. He watched her go, eyes not leaving her form until she disappeared down the stairs and out of sight. Even with her gone just a few seconds, he felt the urge to go after her. He was unsure why, but ignored the compulsion all the same.
"It seems that much has changed from what we knew," came the voice of his mentor, bringing him back to the present.
"Goliath…" came the voice of the largest member of the trio, broad in structure with a face similar to the Gargoyle-beast with his prominent underbite and large webbed ears. "What are we going to do?"
"We don't know anything, and we barely won the fight tonight," said the red.
"Do not fear." Goliath assured them gently, placing his talons on their shoulders. "We will adapt. We will survive. Together. Even in this new and uncertain world, the one thing that we can be sure of, is that we are clan. We are family."
"And if more humans come?" asked the smallest member of the trio, crouched on the floor like a frog. Instead of wings, his gliding membranes were positioned to stretch between his wrists and ankles, similar to a flying rodent.
"So long as we are vigilant," he vowed, "we can protect our home. I promise you this: no one will betray us and hurt us as we have suffered in the past. So long as we stick to ourselves, I will make sure of that."
