Between Night & Day: Extended Version

by Storyseeker

What would have happened if Prince Malcolm had died from the Archmage's poison and realised just how destructive Katherine's view of the Gargoyles was? Set in an alternate universe, in Wyvern's past. Extended/revamped

4. Chapter 4

All the characters appearing in Gargoyles, Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles and Gargoyles comics 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 Storyseeker and Hardwing.

Here it is, the newly revamped saga! With fresh new/extended and altered scenes!

Once again, this story was co-written with the great author Hardwing! Many thanks!

This fic saga is set in an alternate universe, in Wyvern's past, with characters from the Gargoyles comics, the Dark Ages Saga in TGS and some of Hardwing's own characters. It starts off right after the events shown in the show's episode 'Long Way To Morning' in 984 A.D. where the events in that chapter lead to a different conclusion for the clan. It is also set in the same timeline as the show in that era, with two small differences… and that's Goliath didn't get his name until 984 A.D. and the eggs hatched soon in 995 A.D.

Oh, and in case some people get offended at some of the sexist remarks in this saga… Please remember that it is set in the medieval ages (things were different back then).

Many thanks to Kimberly Towle for her suggestions, and to the author Aesop for all his proofreading!

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One Month Later; Castle Wyvern:

Time had not been so kind to the Royal household of Wyvern…or at least to its Princess anyway.

Goliath had intended to give Katherine different duties to attend to each night, to make her better understand clan-life. But after the fiasco with the beast-hounds and her continuing outbursts with the clan, he thought it best that she remain with just that one duty, at least for now.

On the other hand, if he knew what she truly thought of the beasts and wanted to do to them, he would have undoubtedly taken her off that one duty as well.

He had hoped that over time she would get over her prejudice toward him and his kind, but so far she had yet to even stop scowling at him.

He couldn't understand it, really. Oh, Goliath knew she was a stubborn brat, but this went far beyond mere arrogance. With every night she seemed to grow more fearful of him, despite the fact that he had done nothing to make her so.

The next full moon had come and gone, leaving the rest of the clan with mixed feelings over the events of the past month. Despite Katherine's behaviour, there had been a lot of changes in the castle for the clan, all for the better, and the elders seemed to have set aside their plans to overthrow Goliath as leader…much to his sly brother Iago's disgust.

Despite the good news, Goliath could not help but still feel anxious. The constant dark looks he kept getting from Iago were no help, but he also knew it was because there were still many in his clan who frowned upon his mate-ship to Katherine. Thankfully, though, for the moment, all seemed content.

A lot of them, particularly among the younger generation, were reaping the benefits of the union, some even daring to speak back to the castle guards who had at one time made it their pastime to insult and/or belittle them. Although, he didn't approve of any strong talk between their two races, he was glad his clan no longer had to fear defending themselves to the humans anymore. As long as they didn't start any violence with them, then they were within their rights to defend their honour, as far as he was concerned.

Many of the humans were left disgruntled, but some had actually begun to respect the Gargoyles a bit more, and had even started talking to them.

Katherine, however, had yet to offer even a civil word.

Because of her continuing refusal to openly accept the clan as now permanent full members of her household, Goliath still wouldn't allow her to take part in any of her prior Royal duties. As such, she was stuck with mere beast-keeping as the main event of her nightly schedule.

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Castle Wyvern; Shortly Before Dawn:

Princess Katherine looked at the form of the beast that dared to call himself her husband, as he soared past her window with one of his other warriors. Dawn was approaching, so he was making his last rounds of the castle.

'Night after night he acts more impudent,' she thought, fearing what might come soon. 'I will probably be eaten by the beasts soon.'

Shivering, she looked out of the window, watching the dim light of the morning's approaching sun, enjoying the view of its rising as a welcome escape from the nightmare her nights had become.

"Princess, do you feel cold?" a concerned voice asked from behind her.

She turned around to see Mysie, one of her handmaidens, standing at the door, white garments in her arms to take away to be washed.

"Excuse me, milady," her servant began. "I knocked at the door, but there was no response. I came to see if there were anymore laundry you needed washed?"

"It is all right," she replied, thinking she must have been very deep in her thoughts if she hadn't heard the knocking on her door. "I was just thinking over my cruel fate."

"Oh dear, milady," Mysie said comfortingly, though inwardly she didn't think the Princess had it anywhere near as bad as she made out. True, the Gargoyles still scared her from time to time, but the nights of her serving the Gargoyle Prince had revealed to her that as fearsome as he looked, he was definitely no monster. He had been nothing but polite and courteous to her since the night of their first meeting.

Mysie, though, had better sense than to tell this to her Highness, yet she couldn't resist speaking out, if only to comfort her a bit. "It could be worse, Your Highness," she added.

"How could that be possible?"

She frowned for a moment, wondering what she could say on this; until she noticed three more shapes pass by the window. "You could be married to one of them," she remarked jokingly, pointing at the window.

The Princess looked to see what she was pointing at, which turned out to be three young Gargoyles gliding past her window, most likely returning to their roosts for the day. They looked to be physically the same age as she (around 18 years old). The first was a red one, who could easily be mistaken to be the devil himself, except he had a long beak.

She cringed, trying to imagine him giving her a kiss on their Wedding Day with that beak.

The second was a small, green one with webwings and enormous eyes. The first sight of him made her think of him as a flying squirrel, and the second look as an overgrown lizard, because of his green skin. Neither was very appeal-able.

Then there was the one closest to her window, and who was completely un-miss-able.

He was a huge Gargoyle, with large fin-like ears, completely bald except for some horns on top of his head, tusk-like fangs, and an absolutely massive stomach. Even now, as he was gliding overhead with his belly beneath him, it seemed to hang off him like a large sack of potatoes, making her wonder how he could stay afloat in the air.

She recognised him as the one who had sat beside her on the first night when the Gargoyles had feasted in the Great Hall. She grimaced, as she remembered the sight of his wobbling posterior before her, not to mention his atrocious table manners. And then she imagined him being her husband.

"You are not well, My Lady?" Mysie asked, observing her as she suddenly took on a sickly expression, shuddering and grimacing. "Allow me to help you into bed, Highness. A cold will do you no good."

Still grimacing by the thought of the large aquamarine one, Katherine didn't bother to correct the maid on her error, and allowed herself to be dressed in her nightdress and put into bed.

"Will there be anything else, Highness?" Mysie asked.

She shook her head. "No thank you, Mysie. You may go."

The maid bowed shortly, and then left the room, leaving Katherine alone in the silence of her room, no sound save for the crackling from the fireplace. Goliath would undoubtedly be back soon, so she wanted to be asleep before he came.

As she curled up to sleep, she couldn't help but think about Mysie's remark concerning Goliath and the young ones. Personally, she didn't see how it would matter which one of the clan she had married, since either way she would have a monster for a husband. But then again, she had to admit that the thought of calling the round one husband, and sitting next to him at dinner for the rest of her life was enough to give her pause. Particularly how he always ended his meal with a belch loud enough to be heard across country.

He would probably give her an earache for the rest of her life if she had to put up with that eternally, she thought, smiling bitterly.

Shuddering again, she sank her head into her soft pillow, welcoming the sleep waiting for her.

But sleep, that night, offered no relief.

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She found herself at the feast again, but this time there wasn't the brute Goliath by her side, but...

"Ummm, you gonna eat that?" a muffled voice said.

'Oh no,' she thought, recognising the voice.

Sure enough, when she turned around she found the aquamarine Gargoyle sitting beside her, where Goliath should be sitting, with a goose's leg in his mouth and eagerly grabbing some vegetables with his other claw.

Katherine fought to quell her stomach, as she watched him endlessly fill his mouth with every scrap of food on the table, chewing noisily, his belly seemingly growing with every bite.

"This is great!" he told her, praising the greasy goose leg, which he held under her nose after ripping out a large piece of it with his mouth. "You should try some!" he said, spitting out some of the meat from his mouth as he spoke.

She grimaced, as he held the leg out to her, definitely not tempted to eat something that he had already taken a bite out of. But it seemed her new husband was not to be swayed.

"You should eat something," he insisted, pressing the leg closer to her face. "It wouldn't do to have my wife hunger."

"Get that thing away from me!" she demanded, rising up from her throne to leave, but her *husband* held her down by resting his heavy arm around her shoulders.

"You must become full and healthy like I," the young Gargoyle insisted good-heartily, patting his huge belly, which emitted a loud booming sound like a drum, while all the court, Humans and Gargoyles alike, laughed loudly.

Katherine forced herself to rise, glaring at the young upstart.

"Hey! Don't be like tha…whoa!" he yelped, as the throne upon which he had been sitting on seemed to finally lose its strength, as it cracked and splintered under his weight.

Even sitting down, he still towered over her, and when the throne shattered, he fell to the side, with his arm still around her, pushing her down under him.

She squealed, as she lost her footing and fell over sidewards, with the heavy Gargoyle falling on top of her…

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Katherine screamed, fighting to get the giant Gargoyle off of her before he crushed the life out of her. "Get off! Get off! GET OFF!" she yelled.

"Katherine!" a deep voice called to her. "Katherine, wake up!"

With a final yelp, she opened her eyes.

"Wha…?" she breathed shallowly.

"It is all right," Goliath said, standing over her, his claws on her shoulders, having had to shake her slightly to arouse her. "You were dreaming. I came in and found you seemingly struggling with yourself."

She said nothing at first, and just took deep breaths while still looking around, half-expecting the large Gargoyle to appear suddenly. Once she was certain she was well and truly awake, she blushed, realising that for the last few minutes she must have been struggling with nothing more than her own blanket.

"Are you well?" Goliath asked her.

She opened her mouth to answer him, until she remembered to whom she was talking to, and self-consciously pulled the blankets up to her neck, covering herself as much as she could.

"I'm fine!" she snapped, making him take a step back.

Goliath looked as if he was about to say something further, but before he could, the first rays of daylight came shining in through the window, turning his lavender-coloured skin into a hard grey. His face was frozen in a look of surprise and confusion, and worse his whole body was stuck standing over her bed, right at her side, looking down on her.

Katherine cursed. "Oh, by the…!"

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Next Evening:

Katherine had left her chambers, making her way to where the Gargoyle-hounds were even now waiting for her, eager for their walk. Despite the fact that taking care of such beasts was obviously messy work, she still insisted on wearing her fine Royal gowns, refusing to look anything like a mere servant.

And because of this decision, she was now more than several gowns short in her wardrobe, most of them having been torn, shredded and slobbered on by the beast-dogs.

As she made her way through the long corridors, leading the way to the courtyard, she could make out the faint chatter of the castle-servants. When she walked on further, she heard the voices gradually increase in volume and realised she was close to them.

She soon neared the source of the chatter, as she reached the far corner of the corridor. The servants in question were beyond the corner, chattering amongst themselves, and had not noticed her arrival.

She couldn't tell how many of them there were, as she couldn't see them, but she could now clearly hear them…a variety of mixed voices.

"...and so my cousin went to the Priests residing in the Wyvern's Inn and told them to intervene for her on her behalf," one of them said. "They did and he had to marry her!"

"But aren't they English Priests?"

"It matters not, as they are God's servants as much as our own Priests are."

"What are English Priests doing in an inn of all things? If they are from England, shouldn't they be here at the Castle or somewhere?"

"Nay, they are not high members of the Clergy. They are just some lowly Priests wandering our country. They claim they are just travelling, but I suspect they are keeping an eye on our kinsmen. These damned English think they own everything!"

A few murmurs of agreement came from them, followed by the first one then saying...

"And the best thing is…it turns out my cousin isn't pregnant at all!"

Giggles arose and the Princess prepared to calmly leave. After all, she had better things to do than to listen to her maidens gossiping when...

"Oh, did you hear the latest news?" one of the others said.

"No, what is it?

"I heard our new Prince is planning on having his clan made the official guards of the castle now. Just think, soon we'll have to be bowing down to those creatures every time we see them!"

"Yes, now that they have free reign over the castle, you can't go anywhere without one of those blasted things taking up space in the corridor!"

"What about the Princess? Surely she can do something about this?"

"Not from what I've heard. Apparently, our Prince Goliath has completely taken over her Royal duties."

One of the other ladies snorted in disgust. "If you ask me, she put up no damn resistance to this union in the first place."

"How do you mean?"

The previous lady sniggered lowly. "Well, put it this way…I hear that every time she and our lord have a disagreement, he takes her right up to their bed-chambers."

The assorted women gasped.

"Surely you jest!"

"Oh, how revolting!"

"Tis a disgrace!"

"Maybe, but it makes sense when you think about it," the first woman remarked. "Think of how easily she caved in, agreeing to this marriage. She probably didn't plan it, but I bet she didn't object. My guess is she likes the overgrown bat."

From beyond the corner, Katherine's face was seething in rage, as the women laughed and joked about their mistress's plight.

Unable to listen in anymore, she turned and went to find another way down to the courtyard.

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The inseparable Trio of young male Gargoyles made their way across the castle courtyard. They had just completed their chores for the night.

"Couldn't we find some way to get out of tonight's lesson?" the red beaked one whined. "I swear, if I have to listen to one of that old windbag's lectures one more time, I'll…"

"Oh, calm down!" the small, green web-winged one hushed him. "I know he can go on a bit, but Goliath says we can learn much from his experience."

"A bit?" the red one half-laughed, half-scoffed. "More like an eternity! The last time he had us listening to one of his tales, we were with him for nearly half the night!"

"I see no harm in hearing a tale or two," the large aquamarine one remarked, looking at the sky. "At least we can get some sleep."

The three were, of course, referring to the elder known in Brother Edmund's journals as Agamemnon. An intelligent Gargoyle, with the same build as the former leader from whose generation he was also part of, with brown hair instead of white, a slightly lighter skin tone, and known for being more than a bit pompous in his almost constant and long-winded lectures.

"But that's just the thing though," the first moaned. "We're always having to wait till another night, because our chattering elder uses up all our time in telling us stories, as if we were hatchlings. We stopped listening to stories years ago!"

The small one turned his chin up. "Personally, I don't think you're ever too old to listen."

"Maybe, but…" the first stopped, having noticed something. "Hey, look who it is."

His two rookery brothers looked over the courtyard and saw none other than their leader's human mate coming out of one of the tower staircases.

"You'd think she would have learned by now," the second sniggered, indicating the fine gown she was wearing. "I've heard she's already lost over twenty dresses to our hounds' jaws and saliva."

"Maybe we should go help her?" the large third one suggested. He had always been the kindest and most thoughtful one in their group.

"Why should we?" the red one grumbled. He didn't have a fiery vendetta against all the Humans like some of those in his clan, but the Princess had never been one of his favourites. He knew her hatred for his kind all too well, remembering a time when she had yelled at him just for walking the same path as her.

"Because it's polite," his large eared brother told him. "Because maybe she would appreciate the help. Because she's our leader's mate and…because she's our clan-sister now."

The first groaned. He knew that ever since Goliath had told them all to treat the Princess as they would one of their own kind, it would come back to haunt him.

"It can't hurt to offer," the second added, looking at him thoughtfully with his big wide eyes.

The red-skinned warrior sighed. "Fine," he said and led the way to where Katherine was heading.

Katherine fumed and seethed inwardly, her thoughts ablaze. How dare they accuse her of collaborating with the clan! And more importantly, how dare they suggest she actually held feelings and was having some kind of sexual relationship with her monster of a husband!

She came close to where the beast-hounds were being kept, eager to start and finish her duties for the night, when…

"Greetings, sister!" a loud voice boomed at her.

She turned to see three young Gargoyles coming toward her, one of which she recognised very well.

It was the three young Gargoyles from last night, including the one with the large fin-like ears, and an appetite that would rival a hundred starving lions. She stared at him, fighting her fear. Even now, she couldn't help but think back on that stupid dream from last night.

The large youngster gave her a bright smile, apparently not noticing her discomfort. Neither did the other two.

The red one with the long beak led the way with the other two behind him. He had a smile on his beak, though it looked forced. The small green one's smile, however, looked as genuine as the large ones, as he came to her on all fours like the hounds.

Maybe it was from eavesdropping on the servant's gossiping about her predicament, or maybe all the long weeks she had spent taking care of the hounds, or how her husband had managed to steal her throne with barely raising a talon, but whatever it was…Katherine was incensed.

And the fact that one of these monsters had dared to call her its sister had not helped matters at all either.

"DO NOT CALL ME YOUR SISTER, MONSTER!" she screamed at the three youngsters, making them stop in their tracks. "I am NOT your sister, nor will I ever be! No matter what your leader may say, I am Princess of this castle and you will address me as Your Royal Highness. Nothing less! And if you ever attempt to say so otherwise, I will personally have you all shattered myself, you filthy VERMIN!"

She then rushed off in a huff, kicking at the earth as she did so.

The three stood where they were, speechless, wondering what it was they had done wrong.

"What in the name of the Dragon got her dress in a tangle?" the red one muttered. He was angry about being spoken to in such a way, though it was no big surprise to him, as he had expected as much from the Princess.

His two brothers, however, were not.

"What did we do?" the large one asked out loud. "We barely got a word out, and all we were going to do was ask her if she needed help."

"She's the Princess," the first one scoffed. "What reason does she need for acting like a stuck-up wench?"

The smallest among them just looked aghast, as he stared at Katherine's retreating form.

"Hey, don't worry about it, brother," the first said comfortingly. His smallest brother had always been the most sensitive one. "She gets that way with all of us, including our leader, and he's supposed to be her mate. Don't take it too personally."

"How can I not?" the green one snarled. "Did you hear what she called us? Vermin! After everything our clan has done for hers, after all our years of loyalty, the risks we have taken, the sacrifices…she dares call us vermin! And she's supposed to be one of us now, what with her union to Goliath!"

"You can't expect her to change her opinion of us just because she's mated to one of us," he told him. "If you were to marry a cat to a mouse, you wouldn't expect the cat to not eat the mouse just because they were mated, would you?"

"Hey, what's happening here?" a new voice called out.

The trio looked up to see The Wild Four, a group of four young males as close as the Trio, but known for getting into twice more mischief, gliding down toward them.

"We saw the Princess with you," the small black one asked. "What did she say?"

The red one of the Trio sighed. "What she usually says…" He explained what had happened, telling them of their intent to help their would-be sister, ending with her shouting out at them before they even made the offer.

When he was finished, all four of them were quietly gnashing their fangs in anger.

"Why the ungrateful, whining little…!"

"After everything we've done for her, too!"

"We've done?"

"Well, everything our clan has done anyway."

The crested and light-brown skinned one stared hard at the Trio. He knew, as well as they did, that they supposed to leave the Princess be, and any problems that they had with her they were meant to tell the leader, but… What she had just done demanded nothing less than retaliation!

"So what are you planning to do about it?" he asked.

The Trio looked blankly at him.

"Do what?" the red one asked. "What can we do? She's the Princess."

"Aye," the brown one replied, grinning. "That may be, but she's no longer in control, is she?"

The leader of the Trio shrugged. "Aye, I suppose, but even so, what's that got to do with anything?"

"I'm saying remember that she is now mate to our leader," he explained. "And whether she likes it or not, she is now sister to our clan, and Goliath told us to treat her as such. So tell me…if one of our rookery sisters did what she just did now, what would you do?"

"Well…" the large one said thoughtfully. "If it were one of our real sisters then…I guess we would either report her to one of the elders."

"Tattle-tale," the small green one muttered, earning a hot glare from his larger brother.

"Or…" the large one continued. "We would simply get back at her somehow."

The four wild ones all grinned. "Exactly!" they said simultaneously.

"Now let's see," the brown one wondered out loud. "Brother, what do you think would most irritate our Human sister?" he said, addressing his small smoke-black sibling.

The smoky coloured Gargoyle sat on the ground deep in thought, as he pondered this. After a while, he smiled. "I think I have an idea," he concluded, grinning.

His plan was a simple one and easy to explain, after which all of the Four were close to laughter. But while the Four were busy grinning, and the green and red ones of the Trio definitely looked interested with big smirks on their faces, the largest of the Trio looked unsure.

"Err…I'm not so certain about this," he said slowly.

"Oh come now, brother," the tall green one with the long spikes said. "There may have been a time once when we were forced to lay down and kiss that impudent wench's feet, but now… Now she's in the same boat as us, and none of us are obliged any longer to indulge her. And I, for one, am not going to spend the rest of my life letting that whiny brat walk all over me!"

The Trio looked at each other, each searching the other's faces for some sign of agreement.

"She does no longer hold any power in the castle," the beaked one remarked.

"And as our brothers here say, she is our clan-sister, so we should treat her as such," the large one affirmed, though still with a touch of hesitancy.

"And Goliath did say he wanted her to learn humility," the web-winged one added. "In a way, when you think about it, we would be doing her a favour by letting her know the error of her ways. Didn't the elders once tell us that sometimes the only way for someone to learn from their mistakes is to experience its consequences firsthand?"

The Trio then each gave a long grin of their own, including the large one who had overcome his doubts. "So what do we do?" they all asked.

The other four just smirked. "Let's go find our little sister!"

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Away from where the young warriors had just been chatting, the castle's gargbeasts stood enjoying themselves, playing with one another by either chasing or wrestling each other, all in good harmony except for...

"Now stand still!" the Princess shouted at an especially thickheaded, yellow Gargoyle-beast, which had her favourite red handkerchief in its mouth that it had acquired from her pocket in a moment of inattention.

The beast didn't do as ordered, but jumped away from the Human, making turns in the dust as if it was its greatest joy in life, which for all the Princess knew could very well be the case.

For a moment, the Princess even believed that the beast was grinning at her from behind the red piece of cloth.

"You..." she swore, pointing on the beast in a desperate attempt to get its attention long enough so that she could get the handkerchief back.

To the Princess's total surprise, the beast did stop its running and jumping, and just stared at her…or actually, as it dawned on the Human too late, at something behind her.

Before she could utter another word, or even think, a strong pair of light brown arms suddenly grabbed her under the arms and lifted her high up into the air.

"AARRGHH...!" she screamed, but quickly lost her breath as the world under her became smaller.

"She is heavier than I thought," a voice noted behind the terrified Human.

Managing to avert her eyes from the ground, where the gargbeasts were running around and barking like mad, much too far beneath her, she discovered six young Gargoyles gliding beside her, and the one holding her.

"Must be all the garments she wears," a small red-skinned one answered through his beak.

In a corner of her mind, that somehow remained calm, the Human felt inclined to deny this since she could feel the cold of the wind through the thin material of her clothing, but before she could say anything...

"HEADS UP!" the brown one holding her yelled, and with a mighty heave of his arms, he tossed her higher up into the air.

"YEEEAAARRRRRGHHHHHH!" she screamed, as she soared through the sky before gravity caught up to her and she felt herself fall like a stone. Just as she began to make peace with God, she felt one of the other Gargoyles grab her around her waist, once more gliding through the air with her.

"Throw her to me!" a green-spiked one called out cheerfully, his black mane whirling in the wind.

"No, to me!" another voice yelled out. This came from another young Gargoyle who was also red-skinned, but taller and with a longer beak. This turned out to be one of the three young Gargoyles whom she had had the displeasure of meeting in the courtyard just moments ago.

"You weren't nice to our brothers, you know," a voice suddenly said, and opening her eyes the Princess looked to her side where the beak of the one holding her was split into a wide grin. "But because we are now clan, we have decided to forgive and forget. In fact, as celebration of you becoming our new clan-sister, we have decided to give you your first gliding lesson!"

"Don't you daAAAAAARRGHHHHHH...!" she screamed, but already she felt the grip on her loosen and her body beginning to move in another direction, and she quickly accelerated as she began to fall.

"Heave-HO!" the black one laughed, as he tossed her away.

She screamed, as she plummeted to earth, only to end up in the arms of the one with the long spikes.

"Ugh!" the green-skinned one commented, catching her. "You are heavy!"

Katherine yelped, as he soared through the air with her in his grip. All around them, there were six male Gargoyles cheering excitedly, all aching to see if one of them would be her next catcher.

"RELEASE ME AT ONCE!" she ordered, but all that earned was another outburst of laughter from her captors.

"As you wish, Your Highness…" the green-skinned one sniggered. "Who wants to hold our new sister next?" he called out, followed by six eager voices crying out for a chance to catch her.

"How's about giving me a go?" a new voice yelled. She had a chance to look down to find the owner of the new voice, recognising him as the large aquamarine one of the Trio, before her current captor released her.

"NOOOOOO!" she screamed, as she fell a few feet to her waiting abductor's arms, only to end up missing his clawed-hands altogether, and land on something else.

The reason the large one had missed her, had been because he was gliding right underneath them, looking as though he were lying on the air, with his front facing the duo. He had put himself in this position to have a better chance at catching the gliding/falling Princess. However, by doing this, he had inadvertently gotten himself a full look up her skirt, thereby viewing her undergarments.

The sight had made him look away, and brought a deep blush to his cheeks, just long enough for her to slip through his claws. Fortunately, while she did not meet his claws, she did land on something else that saved her from a long fall back to earth.

When the green one released her, she fell head over heels, right down to the aqua one, past his claws, and face first into his stomach!

[BOING!]

That was the sound his stomach made when she fell right onto it.

"Oof!" he groaned, as the top of her head sank deep into his gut, only for it to come rising back up again, as he instinctually straightened his back, pushing his belly right out and her with it.

His stomach had acted as a sort of bouncy cushion, as she felt herself propelled back up into the air like a rocket, right into the claws of the green one who had just previously held her.

The spiked one looked at her in amazement for one second, before breaking out into laughter, along with everyone else.

"Always knew that big belly of yours would come in handy one evening," the tall red one chuckled.

"Let's just be thankful that he was facing her when she fell," the little one with the web-wings said, laughing. "Otherwise she would have fallen on his other side!" With that, he swatted the big Gargoyle's rear with his tail.

"Hey!" the large one roared, giving a short glare to his smaller brother who just laughed at his show of temper.

"Throw her to me!" the lean red one with the short beak shouted from some metres in the distance. "I might be able to catch her!"

Since she couldn't stand the smile on the Gargoyle's face, Katherine closed her eyes, trying not to imagine what it would be like to fall to her doom, how the beasts would feast on her remains.

"Here she comes!" she heard the Gargoyle holding her yell out, laughing as he began swinging her back and forth.

She felt the claws of her captor once again loosen their hold on her, as she swung in the air until…nothing held her.

She couldn't help but scream again, as the Gargoyle holding her released her again. This time, as a result of all the swinging, she ended up doing a perfect 360 as she felt herself fall head over heals before falling down to earth, wondering for the hundredth time if this would be the last time she would feel the wind in her face, and then...

Strong arms captured her. Arms that held her whole body instead of just her shoulders, as the other Gargoyles had done before.

Katherine would still not open her eyes, as she valiantly prepared herself for whoever it was holding her to throw her up into the air again.

"You're safe," a deep and strangely welcome voice told her.

Her eyes opened slowly, and she found the one holding her to be none other than her husband, Goliath. His expression and voice were both soft, as he tried to be comforting while they slowly lost altitude.

Katherine didn't believe him until she felt him touch the ground, and she noticed that they had landed in the courtyard with various Humans and Gargoyles looking at them.

Among the Gargoyle observers there stood Iago, looking at the Princess with something akin to interest…and almost delight.

"Let me down," she tried to order, but it merely came out of her mouth as a weak request, something she hated herself for.

As soon as she touched the ground, her legs felt as weak as pudding, and she needed to prop herself on Goliath's arm for a moment until she believed herself to have enough strength to stand on her own, but not for a moment longer.

Hearing the hated whooshing sound of wings, the Princess looked up to see her former captors, the seven young Gargoyles who seemed now to shrink under their leader's glare, landing. They landed together with the Clan-Second and the former leader, Othello and the Mentor, who were both giving each of the youngsters a heated and white-flared glare.

Othello and the Mentor had been on the battlements discussing clan politics, the Second continuing to update his former leader on how the clan was faring now that Goliath had finally stood up to his mate. Everything had been going smoothly…until Othello had looked up.

When he first saw the seven youngsters, Othello had thought nothing about it, as he knew what game they were playing. He and his rookery siblings had often played catch when they had been young. He hadn't even been bothered when he saw that they weren't using a ball to play the game, as sometimes as a joke his siblings used to use the smallest sibling of their rookery as a ball.

However, when he realised that they were using neither a ball nor a Gargoyle…then he got worried.

The elder soon spotted them, and recognised the Princess at once from the fine garments she was wearing. He knew that Katherine would never willingly participate in anything with his clan, let alone this, so he knew right away that was something was up…besides her.

Fortunately, at that exact moment, Goliath had come out of the Castle, having finished temporarily with his Royal duties, wanting to check in with his clan and see how Katherine was dealing with the Gargbeasts.

He too quickly realised that something was wrong once he saw the youngsters, and raced off the battlements, taking to the air and heading towards the combined quartet and Trio. He had just glided down in front of the smoke-black one when Katherine had literally fallen right into his arms.

Othello and the Mentor had followed their leader into the air, coming up behind the reckless youngsters, preventing their escape in case they made an attempt to make a glide for it.

The young ones now all shared the same look of worry, insecurity…and downright fear at their leaders and elder.

"They will be punished," Goliath promised, managing to give his wife a comforting look, and spared one of pure iron on the young warriors. "I promise."

The Princess wasn't interested in what her husband had just said. In fact, she wasn't even really listening, as instead she turned and hurried back into the relative safety of the castle, leaving the Gargoyles outside alone.

He watched her for a moment as she left, before turning back to the young troublemakers. He glared at them fiercely, not even bothering to cross his arms as he usually did when he was mad, which showed just how furious he was now.

The night's events had at first gathered quite a crowd. Gargoyles who had been close by or on watch duty had glided down to the courtyard, and Humans who had heard all the commotion from inside the Castle had rushed out to see what was happening. Most of them had now left though, not wanting to intrude on something that, to them, was obviously best left to the Gargoyle clan to sort out.

The assembled youngsters gulped, their knees close to knocking, as they stared nervously at their leader who stood glaring at them, clearly waiting for an explanation.

"W-w-we w-w-were…" the brown-crested one of the 'Wild Four' began hopefully, stuttering as he did so. "…We were giving her a gliding lesson?"

Goliath's eyes flared bright white, revealing that this excuse was not acceptable.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE TROUBLE YOU HAVE CAUSED TONIGHT?" his voice roared. "Years of planning, months of trying to get the Princess to see reason… All may have been lost tonight because of you!"

The young ones cringed.

"We meant no harm!" the red one of the Trio pleaded. "We spoke to her earlier, and we were only being friendly. We even offered to aid her with her duties in caring for the beasts, but all she did was throw our offer back in our faces. She called us vermin and even threatened to have us shattered during the day if we ever spoke to her again."

"So you decided to get back at her by tossing her around like a ball in midair?" Goliath demanded, not in the least mollified.

"No, not at first, but…" the beaked one began, but paused.

"But what?"

The leader of the Trio remained silent, the end of his beak screwed up slightly, as he stared nervously at the ground.

"But then we came along," the brown crested one added. "They told us what had happened and we suggested that they get their own back by helping us play a little joke on her." He and the others were nervous enough as it was, and they weren't keen to get into more trouble, but they weren't about to stand by and watch as their brothers took all the blame for their mistakes.

"A little joke?" Goliath's eyes seemed to glowing brighter by the second.

Deep down, he didn't know why he was so surprised at the youngsters' prank. He had, after all, been putting up with their antics for years now. The Wild Four were known for getting into the worst trouble, and the Trio were only slightly better, but this was the first time that the two gangs had teamed up to pull one together.

"We never intended to hurt her!" the smoke-black one insisted. "Just shake her up a little. Let her know what it was like to be afraid, like we are during the day. But we never intended any actual harm to come to her, we swear!"

"Maybe," Goliath admitted, still glaring at the seven. "But no matter what your intentions, the fact remains that the Princess thinks that you did intend her true harm! And now, after months of trying to reach her, we may never have a chance to do so again!"

He swore below his breath. "From now on, all you seven will have increased chores, including taking over Katherine's duty of caring for the watchdogs. Seeing as she has already completed that chore for tonight, you will start that duty first thing tomorrow evening. As for tonight, you can clean out the stables from top to bottom, and once you've finished that, you can then spend the rest of the evening together in the Rookery!"

All seven youngsters gasped and stared at their leader in shock and disbelief. Being sent to the Rookery was a punishment reserved only for naughty little hatchlings, not grown warriors.

"The Rookery?" the brown crested one and the tall red beaked one cried out. "Oh but… "

"And no dinner for any of you tonight!" he added finally.

The aquamarine one looked especially horrified at that part of the punishment.

"Ye heard our leader!" the old Mentor ordered, also looking furious at them. "Now get going! To the stables, all of ye!"

The seven of them groaned pathetically, as they grudgingly made their way to the stables.

Goliath, meanwhile, just stood where he was, seething and wondering. He knew Katherine still hated him and his clan with a vengeance, but he really thought he had been making some progress with her. But now…

Now, who knew what her reaction was going to be?

0000000000

"It was horrible!" the Princess said, sitting in one of the chairs in the Magus's chamber, still in her dirty clothes and shaking slightly. "Their laughter, and the heights they dropped me from..."

The Magus in his usual white robes, having knelt beside her, held one of her hands comfortingly.

"Vile beasts," he cursed angrily.

"I don't know if I'll ever feel safe again," she shuddered, removing her hand from the Magus and embracing herself. "For all I know, they or some like them could be waiting outside right now for when I come out, to pick up where they left off."

"Surely Goliath would not allow that?" he asked helplessly.

She snorted. "For all I know, he is probably up there right now laughing with the rest of his clan at my expense! My God, he will probably make a nightly routine of it, just to give some of his demon spawn some amusement!"

'Not while I am breathing,' the Magus promised in his mind.

"I understand, My Princess," he said out loud, standing up. "Humans aren't created to fly or glide...this is unnatural! If we could have just been able to stop them…"

While he talked, Katherine couldn't help but remember that Goliath had indeed stopped them. She secretly wondered why he would have done that and then threatened to punish them afterwards. After all, they were of his kind so he no longer had to act nice around her for the sake of his clan, and he obviously bore no real love towards her.

If this had occurred a month or so ago she would have understood, because if something like that had happened she would have expected nothing less than for Goliath to get down on all fours and beg for forgiveness, but now… Now he had her Kingdom, her title and everything, so why should he continue being civil let alone friendly towards her?

She frowned. 'Could it be that…?' she thought, and then shook her head quickly; ridding herself of the ridiculous thought that he might actually have done what he did to help her.

She remained silent while a serving maiden brought her a cup of warm wine, bowed before the Princess and then left.

"If there were just a way to bypass my uncle's influence..." she spoke to herself, holding the warm cup to her lips and then suddenly remembered the maidens who had been joking about her behind her back.

'I should exile them all for that!' the Princess thought angrily. 'Or perhaps even throw them in the dungeon…' But deep down she imagined that her beast husband would set them free anyhow, not allowing her to rule even her own servants. Suddenly, she remembered something else.

"The Priests!" she suddenly exclaimed, staring ahead and dropping the wine-filled cup.

"My Princess?" the Magus asked, still kneeling before her and looking surprised, even worried.

"Earlier tonight, I overheard one of my maidens speak about some English Priests who are staying at the Wyvern's Inn not too far from the castle," she explained, standing up and thinking loudly. "If we can bring them here to see my situation, they will surely see how unholy it is and intervene on my behalf!"

"But your uncle…" he said uncomfortably.

"He won't be able to do anything, Magus. Not if he wants to hold his alliance with the English anyway," she exclaimed happily, beginning to walk up and down the room out of excitement, thrilled of the chance to finally be free of the situation. "You know how they long to rid their land of these beasts, too! So they won't accept them here..."

"Are you really sure you want to take such drastic measures?" he asked, far less convinced of this idea than she was. "The diplomatic situation is delicate, and your uncle will no doubt be unable to deal with this easily."

The Princess looked out of the window, seeing beasts walking on the battlements and their masters gliding in the air...amongst them with her former captors, now holding buckets and broomsticks.

"I am," she said icily, staring at the Magus. "Do what is needed to inform them and bring them here tomorrow. The sooner the better."

Still not entirely certain but nonetheless loyal, the Magus nodded.

"Good, I will return to my husband so as not to make him suspicious," she said, beginning to leave. "Oh Magus, you will see… Soon I shall be free again!"

He watched her as she left his chamber, happy to see her spirits return, but still not entirely convinced of her plan.

Nevertheless, she was still the Princess, and thus, he would walk barefoot into Hell itself for her.

0000000000

Next Day; Shortly After Sunset:

The Captain of The Guard stood at the battlements above the Castle's gate. He had just assigned new watch-rotas to some of his guards and, he was happy to say, some of the Gargoyles, too. Since Goliath had now made them all official guards of the Castle, he had left assigning them their posts to him.

He smiled, as he had always hoped for the time when he would be able to treat both those of Goliath's clan and his own soldiers as equals. Now it had finally come to be and…

The sound of approaching horses reached his ears and he looked down from the battlement to see five riders nearing the castle. The leader of the group he recognised as one of the Castle's servants who was most loyal to the Princess, while the four riders following him wore long robes, identifying them as Priests...but their robes proved that they were not of the Scottish clergy.

'Strange,' he thought to himself.

"Hey, you!" he addressed the two guards at their post, or rather trying not to fall asleep at their post. "When did this man leave?" he said, indicating the approaching servant on horseback.

Both guards looked surprised, and winced a little.

"Several hours ago," the one closest to him said. "He said he was to get some English Priests from the Wyvern Inn."

The Captain's eyed widened. "By whose order?" he demanded.

"Princess Katherine, sir."

"And you didn't tell me?" he shouted at them, on which both of them each took one step backwards.

"B-b-b-but..." one of the soldiers stuttered for an answer, but the Captain didn't care for it, noticing that the riders had already reached the gate, asking the guards for entry.

Turning around and leaving the still stuttering guards, forgetting them eventually despite swearing to himself he would not. He raced down to the courtyard where one of the last few groups of refugees still left were getting ready to leave at daybreak tomorrow.

"But, mother!" a small blonde boy whined at a thicker woman, as he packed a carriage with some of the other people. "Morg told me you can see all the way to the end of the world from the highest tower."

"Forget it, Tom! I know you only want to see those beasts," the woman told her son sternly. "I didn't keep you away from them all these months just to allow it now!"

"But, mother, I heard they have eggs as big as dogs!" the boy grouched.

The Captain paid this no attention, and instead looked to the part of the courtyard where the riders were just dismounting...and at just that moment, the Princess arrived from inside the castle.

'She's been waiting for them,' he thought, as he watched her greeting the English Priests while her servant bowed to her and took the horses to the stables. 'God damn her!'

"Holy fathers, I summoned you here for I need your help in a most awkward and damnable situation," she said to the four Priests in front of her, with the Captain listening.

"Indeed, so it seems," the oldest and apparent leader of the four, with a grey line of hair around his otherwise baldhead, said angrily. "I had heard that some of these beasts roam freely in this wild country, but this!"

With a wild gesture of his hand he pointed to the sky where two hatchlings, one female with red skin and long blonde hair, and her rookery brother who was pale brown with two small horns, were gliding around and chasing each other. On the wall-walk there were several Gargoyles of various ages watching them.

"And this is just the surface," Katherine said with grim determination. "Let me tell you what I'm forced to endure..."

The Captain closed his eyes briefly, as he listened to her complaints. What had been his, King Kenneth and the late Prince Malcolm's worst fear was now coming true. If the Church were to find out about Wyvern's new Prince, it could lead to…

Suddenly, when he opened his eyes again, he noticed something rather important about these visiting Priests.

The apparent leader of these Priests was an aged and, judging by his speech, learned man. Something that the Captain would have expected of such a man sent by the Church to be their emissary.

The other three Priests, however, were all of a much younger age. None of them could have been beyond their late teens.

This told him that these Priests were obviously not high in their Clergy, and the Church would never send mere boys to do something as important as diplomatic work. They would send only their most experienced.

It was most likely that these visitors were just lowly Priests sent to travel the Scottish roads, to spread The Word as it were. It must have been just a case of extraordinary bad luck that their path had brought them to Wyvern's doors.

Discovering this, the Captain gained hope. If the Church hadn't in fact sent these men, and the Church was still ignorant of Princess Katherine and Goliath's wedding, then there was still hope to salvage this.

Looking around, he discovered the Magus, holding the Grimorum close to himself as always, watching the scene at roughly the same distance from the priests that he maintained, on the other side of the Courtyard, having a satisfied look on his face.

"This was your planning then," he growled, as he walked over to the sorcerer.

"No, it was the Princess's," the Magus admitted, looking at the soldier with triumph in his eyes. "And it was a good idea it seems."

"Don't be too sure of that," the older man said, though it was more to himself, as he watched the scene unfold in the courtyard.

Just then a large shadow passed over the two of them and soared down to the middle of the courtyard where the Princess and Priests now stood. The Captain didn't need to look up or be told whom it was.

The Gargoyle in question landed right beside the Princess, making everyone give way.

The Priests backed away in fear of the huge Gargoyle now in their midst. For one insane moment they thought the devil had risen from Hell to engulf them. They had rarely seen any Gargoyles on their travels, and certainly not one of this stature.

"I am Goliath," the Gargoyle said politely, "Prince and Regent of this castle and all its subjects. Whom can I hold welcome?"

The Humans surrounding him stayed silent for a moment, giving the Princess time to gloat, the Priests kept silent both out of fear and partly out of surprise that this beast could speak.

"You are married to her?" the older Priest asked, pointing a finger on the Gargoyle while his younger companions stood behind him. "And you dare to rule above Humans? What on earth gives you the right?"

Goliath looked at his wife for a moment, noticing her look of angry triumph, before looking back at the Priests.

"The late Prince of this castle ordered our marriage in his last will and testament," the large Gargoyle explained, though with a more cautious voice. "His brother the King affirmed it, as did the Church."

This caused Katherine to intervene.

"The Church followed my uncle's unwise wishes," she added. "But they did not know I was to marry a Gargoyle and…the marriage was sealed by a former friend of my father in the Church."

"I see," the near bald Priest said calmly at first, but the look on his face was nowhere near calm. "I will personally intervene by informing my King of this situation! Such an unholy union to have taken place is a perversion against not only both our countries, but against the Holy Bible itself! The fact that your uncle and King took part in this blasphemy is beyond words! Therefore both he and all who took part in this is will be excommunicated!"

"At once!" one of the younger Priests added, eager to say something on this matter.

This caused the Princess to lose the look of gloating on her face. Indeed she looked shocked at what the Priest had just said.

"The King was misguided, yes," she said quickly, pointing at the Captain across the courtyard and at Goliath. "But it was these two here who obtained my father's trust by..."

"You will be excommunicated, too," the older Priest noted.

"What?" the Princess shouted, offended as her arm dropped. "I was forced to marry him against my will!"

"You could have resisted," the Priest replied, looking hard on her. "Many past martyrs have died for lesser reasons. Did not our Lord Jesus Christ sacrifice himself for our sins?"

She stared at him unbelieving, while Goliath turned to look angrily on her.

"See what you have brought upon us?" the Captain scolded the Magus meanwhile. "Did it ever occur to you that should the Church ever find out about the Princess' marriage, they would excommunicate not only she, but her uncle the King as well, for allowing it to happen in the first place?"

"I...I…" the Magus stuttered. "YOU and the others were the ones responsible for this happening! YOU forced her to marry!"

The Captain shook his head angrily. "It matters not who is to blame now! Whether you like it or not, the Princess is now married to Goliath, a Gargoyle warrior. If the English Church were ever to learn of this, they wouldn't care who started it, they would only see it, as you yourself just heard, as a blasphemous act against God! Anyone and everyone who was involved, including the Princess, would be disowned from the Church, ridiculed as a sinner and an insult to God, perhaps even burnt at the stake! And that's only what will happen to Katherine!"

The Magus gulped.

"If the Church discovered that his Majesty King Kenneth was involved, and that not only did he not stop it, but encouraged it," the Captain continued. "Then being cast off from the Church would only be the start! That would be the only reason the English would need to wage war upon us! Our whole country could be in danger now because of you and that dumb brat!"

The Magus stood there aghast, his mind processing all that the Captain had just said to him, and after quickly going through all the facts he knew the old soldier was right. The truth had been there all the time, but he had just been so blind in his love and loyalty to Katherine that he hadn't allowed himself to see the flaw in her plan.

Helplessly, he was forced to watch as the Priest further insulted his Princess. Goliath was at her side, but he said nothing to contradict the old Priest. This was most likely because he too was furious at her for going behind his back, and for bringing this damnation upon them all.

What had supposed to be a chance for a better life for him and his clan was now turning into possible war for them and the whole of Scotland.

"Maybe Brother Edmund could talk to them?" he suggested. "He is English, like they are."

The Captain snorted. "Doubtful. Have you heard what they're saying? I doubt the word of a Monk who's lived for years with things they think of as demons, will change their minds. Besides, have you forgotten when those priests from years ago came to take him back to England? These ones sound as bad as they were."

Years ago, Monks from Brother Edmund's homeland had come to Wyvern, demanding his return, as they weren't too thrilled with him living in a castle full of Gargoyles. Although he had been forced to go with them, he had returned several months later.

'If I just could just go back and make all this undone...' the Magus thought, and a sudden realisation made his head rise and stare directly into the Captain's face.

"There might be a way out of this," he explained silently, giving the Princess a worried glance. "But I need you to do something for me first."

The Captain looked at him sceptically, while some metres away the situation seemed to escalate.

"I'm not in line with this devil!" Katherine shouted angrily. "I don't even want him anywhere near me!"

"Nor I her," Goliath replied, irritated.

His wife glared at him before turning back to the Priests, while the Captain silently approached the Gargoyle.

"Goliath," he whispered to him urgently. "I have just spoken to the Magus. He now knows the seriousness of this situation and wishes to help. He claims he knows a spell that will undo this night's fiasco, but he needs to speak with both the Princess and the Priests for this. So let the Priests be my problem for the moment, and let him talk with Katherine alone."

Goliath looked behind him at the Magus who was busy searching through the Grimorum, then back at the Captain and nodded.

"This sin is for certain merely the first of many in this Kingdom," the older Priest began. "Long investigations will be needed…"

"For sure," the Captain agreed out loud, stepping closer to the Priest. "And we need them right now, for there is much more sin in this castle."

The Priest looked surprised at the thick man, probably noticing him for the first time.

"More than this?" he asked.

"I fear even deeper ones," the Captain lied, holding little respect for the Church, this Priest in particular.

The elder Priest looked at the Princess, interpreting her look as one of total surprise and of guilt.

"Very well then," he agreed. "We will see what part of Hell this place has become."

With a respectful looking Captain leading the way, all four Priests entered the castle.

"What have you two planned?" the Princess demanded to know of Goliath, but the Gargoyle just turned and left to go up to the battlements, leaving the Magus to approach her.

"Magus?" she demanded. "Tell me what is happening here at once."

"My..." he began hesitantly until he was sure that Goliath was out of ear reach and no one else of the people was close enough. "My Princess, it was my idea."

"Your idea?" she asked him. "What idea?"

The Magus explained. "I will cast a spell to make the Priests forget," he said, meeting her eyes. "It will open their minds to my words, allow me to make them believe whatever I wish them to, and I will make them believe that you have a normal Human noble as a husband."

She stumbled a bit by these words.

"But..." she began and stopped. "But, Magus, if you can do this then you can make them believe, make them see that it is the beast's fault and not my uncle's, you could..."

She stopped when she saw the Magus shaking his head.

"Even if I did do that, it would make no difference," the Magus said sadly. "You heard the Priests for yourself, Princess. They care not who forced you into this terrible predicament. They care only that both you and your uncle went along with it, however unwilling you were, and thereby committing what they believe to be a great sin against their lord and God. This will give their countrymen all the reason they need to declare war."

Katherine felt all the fight go out of her, as she realised that in her desperation to be free of her marriage, she hadn't wanted to see that there was no way she could have achieved it this way.

"I have already made a bargain with the Captain and Goliath," he tried to explain, for once using Goliath's name instead of just referring to him as The Beast, looking away and holding the Grimorum tightly.

"So you conspire with them against me," she replied, cold and angry.

"NO!" the Magus nearly shouted on her. "Never! I will always be on your side. It is just...just...I love you." He said the last part in nearly a whisper, but not so low that Katherine did not hear it.

She looked on her most valued advisor, who was also her closest friend, feeling as if a lightning bolt had struck her.

"Magus, I..." she began.

"It is all right, my Princess," he said, not waiting for any further words and quickly opened the Grimorum to the right page, not daring to look at the Princess's face any longer. "Tonight was a mistake, but thankfully it is one I can rectify."

That being said, he made one final check around the courtyard, ensuring that they were momentarily alone, and then raised one hand.

"Omnis conspecti, omnis auditi, memoro et dediscere aput meus imperium!" the spell was cast. "All who see this, all who hear this, remember and forget at my command!"

The Grimorum suddenly seemed to glow, and blue lightening flooded in the night sky, lasting only for a few moments. Many of the castle's inhabitants inside raised their heads in surprise, expecting an oncoming storm, but when they went to look they saw nothing but a cloudless sky.

"Wh…" the Princess stuttered, while at the same time stumbling a bit and holding her head.

The Magus rushed to her side, looking in her eyes, but saw only confusion in them.

"You..." he began. "…You will remember nothing of the visiting Priests, or ever hearing anything about them. You wanted to come out tonight for a short walk since the night was clear and calm."

Her eyes remained confused for a short moment, but then they seemed to clear, as realisation came into them. "Oh yes, yes," she agreed, smiling a little. "It is a nice night, indeed."

"You had better go in now," he added.

"You are right," she agreed once again, giving the Magus a smile before turning to leave for the castle doors.

Just as she was halfway inside, she stopped and turned back around to look at the Magus who had just begun to look at the sky.

"Magus?" she said.

"Yes?" he answered, surprised.

"I wanted to tell you that you are a great advisor and an even better friend," she explained. "It is good to have you around in times as troublesome as these."

He smiled. "Always, My Princess."

He watched her leave, staring for a long time at the door where she had entered the castle, and held the Grimorum close to his heart as though for comfort, to prevent it from shattering.

After a while, the Captain arrived in the courtyard with the Priests following him.

"And this is, of course, the courtyard," he told them. From the looks on the Priest' faces, it was obvious they had not enjoyed their tour all too well.

"Fascinating..." the elder Priest replied, sounding bored. "Well, now that our time has effectively been wasted, perhaps you would care to…"

"I shall take over from here," the Magus explained, stepping in. "Captain, you had better go see that your guards are all at their posts."

The Captain just nodded and left, leaving him alone with the Priests.

"Was that lightning I saw just recently?" one of the younger Priests asked, looking up at the sky. "Strange that there's no clouds in the sky."

"I believe I can explain that," the Magus said, and once again opened the Grimorum, after making another quick check around the still empty courtyard, now that the Captain had gone.

"What are…?" the elder Priest began, perplexed.

"Omnis conspecti, omnis auditi, memoro et dediscere aput meus imperium!" he quickly repeated the spell, casting it once more.

The same lightning as before reigned across the sky, but soon was gone. When it had vanished, the Priests all stood where they were, their faces as blank as their minds.

"You will remember nothing of seeing or even hearing about any of the Gargoyles here," he began, giving one servant, who had just then come outside to investigate the lightning, a silent order to bring the horses around. "You were travelling, and stopped here to replenish yourselves. You met the Prince who was a kind man."

"Yes," the near bald Priest agreed, speaking slowly. "Indeed."

"There will be no need for you to say anything about him when you leave," the Magus continued. "But if you are asked, you will just say what a good and noble Prince he is."

"For certain we will," all the Priests simultaneously said, while in the background the servant approached with the Priest's horses.

"Then I wish you all a good journey," he concluded, handing the horse's reigns over to them. "It was nice here, but you will find no need to ever return or send others here."

"Naturally not," the older Priest agreed once more, climbing onto his horse. "God be with you."

"And with you," he replied, as he watched the Priests leave through the Castle's open gate, leaving confused guards behind them.

He watched them ride away for a while longer until he turned around and returned to the Castle, the Grimorum close to him, heading for his chamber...alone.

0000000000

"It is done," the Captain reported, as he approached Goliath and his Mentor.

The three of them all gave out a huge sigh of relief.

"You are certain they will have no memory of tonight?" Goliath asked, concerned.

He nodded. "One thing you can count on from the Magus is his accuracy with spell-casting. If he says they won't, then they won't."

"Can we trust him, though?" the elder said unsurely. "I mean, he was the one who helped the Princess pull all this off in the first place."

"Don't worry. He won't try anything like that again."

"I agree," Goliath concurred. "The Magus didn't fully understand the consequences of his actions until it was almost too late. He now knows what would happen if people beyond Wyvern were to learn about Katherine and me. He may be a fool sometimes, but he would never do anything that would risk war or bring harm to her."

The others nodded in agreement.

"What shall we do about the lass, though?" his Mentor then asked.

"What can we do?" the Captain noted. "Her memory's been wiped now, so even if we did punish her, she wouldn't remember what it was she was being punished for."

"Agreed," Goliath added. "So we will all just forget about it. However, I do believe we should keep a closer eye on Katherine from now on. It seems her hatred and determination to be rid of me is even stronger than I first realised."

The former Gargoyle leader and the Captain nodded.

"Possible war, Katherine's never-ending ranting, over-preaching Priests," the Captain moaned. "With everything that's going on, it makes ye wonder what's going to happen next?"

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Meanwhile; Elsewhere:

Iago glided across the land, far from Wyvern, heading towards the place where the split off clan made their home. He had told the clan that he was going out hunting, and would be gone for most if not all of the night. Since hardly any of the clan cared what he did, they had taken his excuse and left him be. This worked in his favour, as the journey to the second clan, as well as the journey back, was long and would most likely take up most of the night.

He had been planning this trip ever since it had begun to appear that Goliath's mate-ship to the Princess was, surprisingly, starting to work. The muscle-head had finally grown some backbone, put the Princess in her place and was starting to make life bearable for the clan.

Although this was a good thing for the clan, it put a wrench in his plans. Those who had once agreed with him were now siding with Goliath, ensuring his continued place as the clan's leader. But Iago wasn't finished just yet.

Over the last generation, his clan had increased in size so much that the castle could no longer support all of them. Not to mention, the humans could no longer tolerate so many of them running around the place. Princess Katherine had more or less demanded that some of them leave, but for once it was an order that his clan agreed with. The castle was simply too small for all their clan and the humans to live in, so it was agreed that some of them, from various generations, would leave to establish a new clan together.

During his banishment, he had, for a time, sought refuge with the split clan. Since they were now a separate clan all on their own, it was not against their law to take him in, even if he was banished. He would not go so far as to say he was a friend with any of them, but that they had most likely just pitied him for his exile, as it was unnatural for a Gargoyle to be alone.

Among the split clan, he had become quite familiar with the leaders, whom he had known back when they had been part of Wyvern. Again, they weren't exactly his friends, but they weren't his rivals either. The main reason for this was because he hadn't been close to any of them back in Wyvern, as they had been from the generation before his.

The clan had, thankfully, not moved since he had last been with them. They had made their home in a large cavern hidden deep within a huge hill. He soon reached the cave's entrance, and found some of the Gargoyles seemingly waiting for him.

There were six of them, as well as two watchdogs. One of the beasts closely resembled a younger one who was still at Wyvern, and was often at the side of the clan's Mentor. The skin of the older male, however, was red instead of blue. The other beast was the first one's mate, with four horns, a long pointed nuzzle and a long tail. Her skin was blue, just like the male at Wyvern, which would have suggested that they were the younger male's parents, if Gargoyles cared to follow bloodlines.

As for the Gargoyles, the first among them was the leader, a large and burly male. He was a powerful looking Gargoyle with a ruddy-brownish colouring, no hair and two large horns on either side of his head. Iago remembered him being a fierce fighter. One of the other Gargoyles was his mate, a small web-winged female from his rookery with black hair and a soft red colouring. She was also his Second, and the two rarely left each other's company.

The next one was Iago's own rookery brother, a dull tan-coloured Gargoyle with a beak and some facial hair. He was very similar in appearance to the red Gargoyle of the trio, except that he had only one claw at the apex of each wing. In addition to the usual loincloth, he also wore a low cut tunic with a single shoulder strap, both of which were blue.

The fourth one was from the trio's generation. He was an odd looking red Gargoyle with a very long, beak-like nose, but with a much smaller and more humanoid lower jaw. Iago remembered him being fond of fighting with a spear.

The last two Gargoyles were a male and female, both of them mere youngsters, hatched from the very last rookery, about eight years old in human terms. The male was small with green skin, like the web-winged one of the trio, very simple wings, a small beak, two horns and no hair. The female had tan skin and white hair, a small crest with points down the centre of her head, and wings with two digits at the apex. She wore a simple blue dress, and looked at her older brother curiously.

"Brother!" the leader greeted him warmly, grasping his claw in the traditional warrior's handshake. "What brings you way out here?"

Iago smiled. "I've come to ask for your assistance on a most grave matter, my friend," he replied. "Mayhap we could speak in private?"

The leader gave him a short look, but nodded and indicated for the others, save his mate, to leave.

The two teenagers nodded, and waved at their younger brother and sister to follow them into the cave, both of them protesting loudly.

The hatchlings were unlikely to be of any help to him, Iago thought, but the two older ones might be…if their leader agreed.

"Now what's this all about then?" the leader said, crossing his arms and looking at him, while his mate just watched in interest.

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"A human?" the leader exclaimed in surprise. His mate was likewise shocked.

"The little Princess?" she asked. "Goliath mated with her?"

Iago shrugged. "Well, yes and no. By human terms, although they are official mates, I don't believe that they have yet consummated their mate-ship."

The larger male frowned. "How can you become mates if you don't consummate the bonding?"

Again, he shrugged. "Human rules," he said simply, letting this be his only answer.

"And how is it working out so far?" the web-winged female asked.

"Terribly I have to say," he explained with false sincerity. "Although I have the deepest respect for my leader and rookery brother, I can only say that he has handled this whole situation most dreadfully."

"How so?"

"To begin, he kept the arrangement of his marriage to Princess Katherine a secret, even to his own clan. Literally, none of us knew his intentions until the night when he announced them to the Princess herself."

"Well, that isn't such a big surprise," the leader said. "He clearly didn't want anyone who could stop the marriage to find out about it. Hell, I probably would've done the same thing myself."

Iago frowned. "Perhaps, but nevertheless there are many in the clan who look down on his decision to hold such important information from them. After all, what kind of a clan would we be if we held secrets from one another?"

The two of them had to agree with him on that, as keeping secrets and telling lies was not the Gargoyle Way.

"And if that were not severe enough," he continued. "Goliath's plan has not even worked! He did all this for the sole purpose of bringing our two clans, humans and Gargoyles, closer together. But all it has done is drive the wedge between us even farther. I have heard that many of the elders frown deeply on their union, and the humans are even worse. Some may even plan to leave the castle altogether."

The Second gasped. "Surely not!"

"I wish I could say otherwise, dear sister," he said slyly. "But for all intents and purposes, Goliath has made a most grievous error, which has led to the clan being split in two and the entire castle close to civil war."

The leader frowned, letting everything his younger brother had told him slowly sink in. "If what you say is true," he asked, "then what can we do?"

He kept his face straight, but inwardly he gave a nasty smile. "The only thing I fear we can do, brother and sister… We must break the union between Goliath and Princess Katherine, once and for all!"

The burly warrior and his mate each cocked their eye-ridges at him in wonder.

"How?" the male asked.

"I can only think of one way for now," he explained. This wasn't true, as he knew of another way, but that idea would not work with their clan, as they lived too far away. "Brother…I must ask you to go forth to Goliath, at your earliest convenience, and tell him that you and those like you…intend to sever all connections to our clan!"

The leader growled, while his mate just stared at Iago.

"Why in the name of the Dragon would we do that?" he demanded.

"Although our clans are now separate, we are still descended from the same one. And despite you leaving us, Goliath still values you all. He would never risk the link between our two clans severed, not even for his so-called marriage."

"Isn't that a little dishonourable?" the Second said hesitantly.

Iago merely waved her off. "For the safety and security of both our clans, we must be willing to get our hands a little dirty, sister."

Her mate frowned, his eyes gazing at Iago keenly "Brother, I understand your misgivings about our brother Goliath and his mate-ship to the Princess…but I believe you maybe reading too much into this. The Goliath I remember was a noble warrior and a smart leader, who would not wander into any situation unprepared."

"You have not seen him since Princess Katherine now has him!" he insisted.

"Be that as it may," he said, "I regret to say I must refuse your suggestion. Although I will admit your tale about Goliath and the Princess does give me cause for worry, I cannot and will not willingly go behind my former leader's back!"

Iago continued to keep his face straight, but beneath that mask, a raging fury was slowly building. "I'm sorry to hear you say that," he said which was probably the only truthful thing he had said all night. "Well, with that being the case, I think it best I be on my way now."

"There's no need to go right away, my brother," the Second offered. "Please, stay a while and rest yourself. You can start your journey home tomorrow."

"Thank you for the offer, but I think not." He turned back to the large warrior, not bothering to give him a warrior's handshake this time.

"I'm sorry if my reply was not to your liking, brother," the leader told him. "But as leader, I cannot risk the safety of my own clan. What you say about Goliath maybe true, but then again it may not. It's not worth risking our ties with Wyvern over. And if Goliath's intentions do turn out for the worst then we will see it through together, but we will not act before then."

"As you say, brother," Iago replied, but said nothing else, as he turned and made his way up the hill, launching himself from the top and gliding away.

"Me thinks he was disappointed in your response," the Second told her mate.

He looked at her. "Do you disagree with my decision?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Definitely not! You did the only thing you could do, and…"

"And?"

She sighed. "To be honest, even if our brother was right in his assumptions about Goliath, which I doubt he is, but even so… The thought of trusting our clan's future with our brother there…disturbs me."

He looked at her curiously. "I never realised you had a problem with him before."

"I don't… At least, not really." She frowned. "I never really had much to do with him, as he was always a bit of loner compared to the others of his rookery. And when he grew up… I don't know. There's just something about him that I don't trust."

"He does tend to give off that impression, doesn't he," he agreed. "But whether or not he was telling the truth tonight, it matters not. Like I told him, we cannot afford to risk severing out ties with our home clan."

"And for that I most grateful," she agreed whole-heartedly.

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Iago was bitterly disappointed that the split clan had decided against him, not that it had been much of a surprise. He knew right from the beginning that it was unlikely they would agree with him, but still… Having them on his side would have helped considerably.

He didn't know for certain whether Goliath would have risked losing contact with the former members of their clan, but even if he did then it would have still caused a large amount of friction in the clan.

"Oh well," he said aloud to himself. "Spilt milk."

He wasn't done yet, as he still had other ideas to get through. Although the clan was starting to side with Goliath, he knew there were still those who had misgivings about the whole thing. He would have to go back to his original idea…to seek out those among his clan who harboured resentment to Goliath's mate-ship to Katherine.

He knew there were many who looked down upon the union, despite recent events, and even more who resented Katherine herself. Some of them had always held a large grudge against the Princess for her treatment of them in the past, so he should have some luck in recruiting there.

He already knew of at least three among the clan who had the greatest misgivings about Goliath, and one of his own rookery brothers who could be easily convinced to join. Brother Edmund referred to him as Javin, and Iago had always found him simple to manipulate.

Smiling, he continued on his long journey back home.

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One Month Later; Kincardine Castle;

Fettercairn/Scotland:

Lady Finella paced the ground of the Drying House in anxiety.

"Keep calm, my love," her beloved Lord Constantine remarked. "It will all be over soon."

Finella nodded, not noticing the dark look upon her lover's face, and took a big breath to calm herself.

"Let me speak to him first," she then told him. "You will be too blunt. I don't want to hurt him."

The door of the Drying House started to slowly open.

Constantine put a finger to his lips to silence her, as he backed up to the wall at the side of the door, unnoticed.

A cloaked figure walked into the room, causing her some alarm, but she then gave a sigh of relief as she realised who it was.

"Oh, Your Highness," she said, bowing before King Kenneth II, son of King Maol Chalvim I, and brother to the late King Duff and Prince Malcolm of Wyvern.

"I came as swiftly as caution would allow," he told her, taking her hands in his. He had long been enamoured with the young beauty of this castle, and had even proposed to her earlier that day.

'Mayhap with any luck,' he thought. 'She has summoned me here to accept.'

"What is it you wish of me?" he asked.

"Your throne!" a new voice spoke up behind him.

Kenneth spun around and saw none other than his own ward, Constantine III, the son of his throne's predecessor, King Culen.

Kenneth and his two brothers, Duff and Malcolm, were the rightful heirs to the throne, but had lost it more than once in their lives. The first time had been when the tyrant Indulf had stolen it by slaying their father, King Maol Chalvim I, only to lose it when Kenneth and Duff had fought back. Indulf had then been banished to Ireland, along with his son Culen, and since Duff had been the eldest, he had inherited the crown in 962 AD.

Alas, he died 4 years later when Indulf and Culen returned, slaying him in the Battle of Gaine in 966 AD. Kenneth and Malcolm had fought together five years later with the Gargoyles of the place that would later be Malcolm's own kingdom, Castle Wyvern, vanquishing the two blackguards once and for all.

Duff had had one son in his life, Prince Kenneth, but who had been but a baby in arms when his father perished, so his uncle Kenneth became king instead until such time when he would be ready to take the throne.

But Culen had also died leaving behind one son…Constantine.

Most kings would have had their enemy's heirs executed right after battle, or at the very least banished, and there had been a time when Kenneth had come close to doing just that. But when the time came for him to deliver the killing blow…he just couldn't bring himself to do it.

Constantine had only been a baby at the time of his father's death, like Duff's son and Prince Malcolm before him. It seemed to be a horrific tradition, since the last three princes of Scotland had been brought into the world at the same time that their fathers had been despatched from it. And when Constantine had looked up at him with those, then, wide innocent eyes of his, Kenneth's conscience refused him to complete the deed.

Many in his court had tried to persuade him to remove the former Prince from the land, but Kenneth would not listen to them. He not only spared the boy's life, but also took him in as his own ward.

A decision he was now living to regret.

Constantine came at the old King with a dagger, attempting to strike him down. The two men struggled against one another, Kenneth valiantly trying to knock the blade out of Constantine's hand, but alas the poor old man's strength was no match for the vigorous youth of his opponent.

Finella gasped in shock, as the men fought.

"Aargh!" Kenneth's cried out when Constantine's dagger plunged into his heart, ending his life instantly.

All Finella could do was stand there against the wall, staring in shock. The King lay in a growing pool of his own blood, and her lover standing over his body, looking down in smug satisfaction at his victim.

"No…" she breathed out, and then fell to her knees as the shock faded, and she buried her face in her hands, sobbing her heart out. "No!"

Constantine stayed where he was, still looking down in grim pleasure at his handiwork.

"The King is dead," he said, as if he was announcing it to the world, though no one besides Finella could hear him. He then reached down and removed the crown from Kenneth's head and placed it upon his own.

"Long live the King."

To Be Continued…