The Phantom of the Night

by Tigris Euphrates

Christine P. Shelton of Salt Lake City, Utah accidently runs across the gargoyle she names Phantom, resulting her becoming involved in a massive feud of warring halves of the Children of Oberon. Illustrated. (homepage: http://www.miniclan.org/tigris/saga.

9. Angels In the Night

Writing begun on: January 25, 2000
Writing completed on: January 31, 2000
This version is current as of: February 29, 2000

This is an original work, not associated with the Walt Disney Corporation. No copyright infringements intended. All rights to the elements of this work reserved by the author. None of this content is in anyway directly copied from any Disney publication. "Gargoyles" belongs to Walt Disney Studios.

This fanfic is rated for all audiences, though it does contain some mild sexual innuendo and some mild language. I WOULD rate it as G, except for the honeymoon scene which paints some very unsaid images. The story does contain transgendered themes, which means one or more characters may change gender. If you are offended by this idea, you may want to not read on. I would recommend it be rated PG.

U2 gets the song credit for the words to "With or Without You". "All I Ask of You" is also from the Phantom of the Opera. Lastly, Princess Jasmine and Thundra's phrases like "Loco Scientifico" belongs to the Disney Afternoon cartoon Aladdin, and for those who don't follow Gargoyles, Aladdin used to air right before Gargoyles on the Disney Afternoon, which should be all you need to catch the jokes/references.

DEDICATED TO

Lanea "Sharm" Zimmerman

and the other Dreamweavers: Rachel J. Mahnken and Elizabeth aka "Addersting".

May our relationship someday rest in peace.

May we find it in our hearts to forgive one another.

Salt Lake City, Utah

January, 2020

The storm had been brewing for hours, but when it finally touched ground, it's impact was sudden. Snow flurries filled the air in minutes, and within an hour the highway was covered in snow. The trucks and cars ploughed their way through regardless, some slowing, others speeding by as if there were nothing amiss. Night fell, and in the darkness the snow redoubled.

It was a skier's heaven - Steve deduced, but a trucker's nightmare. From his vantage point it was all the four-wheeled vehicles that were cutting him off and whizzing by him as he crawled cautiously through the snow storm. He was angry and frustrated at them and his company too - his dispatcher had made it clear to him in no uncertain terms that if he was late on a load again, he would be fired, and this weather was making him very late for his delivery. Steve was having a very bad night, and constant whine of the diesel engine was making his teeth grind. He worried about his teenage daughter at home, too. He was starting to nod off to sleep, and he could not let himself fall asleep at the wheel.

However, he wasn't going to get much sleep anytime soon, this night. He felt his rig jolt forward with a loud crunch, and a flash of sparks in the night in his rear view mirrors.

"Oh, no way! No way..." he muttered to himself as he pulled the red and white classic Kenworth onto the shoulder, pulled the air brake, and swung down onto the ground to see what had happened. The rear of the trailer on his eighteen wheeler was bent, but relatively unharmed, but a small commuter lay down the road behind him, crumpled and on fire.

"HELP! HELP!"

Steve's eyes went wide. Startled, adrenaline flowing, he rushed down from his cab, grabbed his fire extinguisher and toolbox from the driver's side compartment, and ran to the burning car.

Steve was the kind of guy who believed in the Trucker's Code of Honor, and in other such ancient myths like Chivalry. If you told him Truckers were all mean and evil bastards, he'd probably punch you in the jaw, but if you had a flat tire, he'd make sure you got home safely. Make sure to hold the door open for the ladies. You always respect the bikers, and let them ride your wake, and they'll flush out the fuzz for you to make sure you got home on time without a ticket. Above all, always - when he saw someone on the side of the road who needed help, he helped!

With more enthusiasm than was probably warranted, Steve broke in the window with the butt of the fire extinguisher. Inside the car he could make out a man and a woman, screaming because of the flames. They were trapped by the flames on the one side, and by a crumpled door on the other. The air Steve let in simply fanned the flames, but Steve struggled to get the door open. He couldn't use the fire extinguisher - not yet! Not until he got those people out of there! It could asphyxiate them in a car this small! Using the screwdriver from his toolbox, Steve worked on the latch trying to pry it open unsuccessfully. One was melted and would never unlock again, and the other was crushed beyond recognition! The flames were starting to spill out of the side of the hood now, and the lady in the passenger seat had passed out from fright. Steve had to do something! That woman would die soon! The man in the car didn't look too good either - he had a big gash on the side of his face - he had been driving, and it was the driver's side which they had tried to bury under his tandem axle. Steve began to sweat. What could he do?

A familiar cry reached his ears - not one of the humans screaming - but a sound he knew all too well from Salt Lake City, the sound of a panther's snarl, or a monster's cry to battle.

Steve didn't have time to react, he was pushed aside in a matter of moments as someone snarled like a tiger, and with a swipe of razor sharp talons, ripped the smashed locking mechanism right off the car's door. The figure pulled on the door, and it still wouldn't open. Steve looked up, and in the flash of headlights from another car on the freeway, he could make out a young woman with long blonde curls, as well as large leathery wings and tail.

A gargoyle!

She didn't waste any time, though. When the lock continued to do it's original design purpose, she took hold of the car door on both sides, and pulled. It stripped away from the car like tearing a paper poster from a wall. Steve's jaw dropped. She reached into the car, grabbing hold of both humans. The flames were starting to billow now, spilling out of all corners and regions of the small car.

"The fuel tank!" Steve shouted in realization.

The gargoyle had lifted the two humans out of the vehicle, and made a mad dash into the hills with them, running through feet of snow like it were mere smoke. There, she deposited the two humans, and spread snow on the female to make sure her skin cooled. Then she turned back to the car.

There was a tremendous thudding sound, the ground rocked, and the air reverberated. There was a flash of light, and the bits and pieces of the car began to fly everywhere. The truck driver had been thrown backwards by the blast into the street. He screamed, flailing in the air. He saw the road go past him, and then headlights coming from the other direction...!

There was a snapping sound and he felt a crushing tightness around his belt. He looked up in time to catch the sight of minty green flesh, blonde hair, and the shape of women's breasts wrapped in animal hide. Steve fainted.

Tigris Euphrates wiped the sweat from her brow. She felt good.

The medical examiner found the victims of the wreck, as well as the driver of the semi they had rear ended, laying unconscious in the snow several hundred feet away from the road in the snow. A police deputy approached her, a fairly nondescript Latino man in his late forties. "Found them?"

"They'll be fine after some time. Both drivers are here and one passenger." she replied. She was a woman in her late twenties with an air of educated sophistication around her.

"How'd they get way out here?"

She pointed to some tracks in the snow. "Look!"

The police deputy shined his flashlight on the tracks. He saw three pairs of prints - his, the medical examiner's and some odd three-toed marks from looked like a very heavy beast - or a beast carrying people?

The two officers looked at one another. "Gargoyles!"

* Wednesday, January 8, 2020 *

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!" shouted the trio, consisting of two gargoyles and a human - Phantom, Christyne, and Mandy. They were holding up a large ice-cream cake decked out eight candles, some were lit, some were not.

Startled, Tigris Euphrates jumped backwards on the newly tiled marble floorway. She laughed. "Wow! Thanks you guys!"

Christyne opened her arms, and took up her middle sister into them. Phantom set the cake on the table, and began dicing it out into blue china bowls.

"What's with the candles?" Tigris inquired.

"It's binary." Christyne explained. "It means thirty-six."

"Oh, thanks a lot. I sure hope I don't LOOK that old!"

"At least you don't look your real age!" Mandy protested, who was really starting to show all of her 44 years. "You only LOOK eighteen!"

"Yeah, but finally turning eighteen is a big thing." Phantom said. "You can be legally prosecuted as an adult."

"Hah hah. It only took me thirty years to get here." Tigris replied with excitement, sampling the ice cream in her cake. "Mmmmmm! Orange cream swirl!"

"Let's not forget presents!" announced a new voice. From the other room came Keturah - a human with the wings and hair of a falcon, holding a small box in her hands. It looked like she'd somehow had her nails done just for the occasion, because she was being very careful not to bump them.

"No way! What did you guys do?!!!" Tigris exclaimed with excitement, hugging her little sister triumphantly.

Tigris quickly deposed of Keturah's lovely wrapping job, and found herself looking at a small jewelry case. She lifted the lid, and say the most exquisite diamond necklace she had ever seen.

"Oooooh my... this must have cost a fortune! Did you use the Internet?"

"Actually, let's just say I pulled in some favors." Christyne smirked in a self-satisfied way.

Tigris looked sympathetically over at Keturah, who was thirty, but didn't look it. She didn't see how her sister and Mandy could stand coming to these birthday parties, when they only demonstrated that they were getting older, and their friends weren't - at least, not as fast. Yet, here they were, time and time again, valiant as ever. She loved them. "What on earth would I ever do without you guys?" she sighed. "Where's Sharm? Away on business?"

There were some uncomfortable looks and an uncomfortable silence.

"Did I... say something wrong...?" she began to stutter.

"Oh, no nothing like that." Mandy interrupted her.

"Honey, you have to understand Sharm was raised back in the swords and chivalry days." Christyne attempted to explain. "She feels... uncomfortable, being around you."

Tigris hung her head. "What your saying is - in the nicest way possible - that she hates me."

Christyne and Phantom looked at each other, and they exchanged one of those incomprehensible looks. "Well no, she... she just..."

No one dared to speak. They knew better.

Tigris sighed. "May I... take a short walk? I'll be right back..." She stood up, leaving her bowl where it was on the glass table, and walked out of the room, leaving the party in icy silence.

"Care to talk, sis?" Keturah's voice was confident, but gentle - exactly what Tigris needed right now.

She had been crying, Ket noticed that right off. Tigris was sitting on a railing which surrounded a glass chamber, in which a bight yellow light pulsed and glowed. It had pipes leading to it from the ceiling and floor, and there were several little glass tubes leading from the chamber in the center, which seemed to be filled with little strands of yellow plasma flowing along it's length. It was a power reactor made from interacting magics, captured with the power of science. One of the latest of Christyne's crazy creation when they had started pulling too much power from the city of Salt Lake. In fact, Tigris's old friend Obsidiana had a running joke going with Christyne which Chrissy herself found highly annoying. Whenever Obsidiana saw Christyne, she would refer to her as "Miss Loco Scientifico" (Ms. Mad Scientist) in her lovely Spanish, and Tigris LOVED to giggle along with her Guatemalan friend.

Tigris stared at it with a sad and morose look on her face. "I just miss her, that's all. I miss her terribly." she sighed, referring to Sharm.

"I understand. I miss some of my friends from back home in Park City, but I can't just stroll down and see them anymore than you can. How am I ever supposed to meet someone when I'm like this?" Keturah encouraged her, seating herself beside her sister. "Look on the bright side. Your happier, aren't you? You found your inner peace! I think I did."

Tigris nodded, looking into her little sister's eyes, well sort of. Keturah had grown older than Tigris, now that Tigris aged at only half the rate she did.

It had would not be long now that it would be ten years since Tigris had joined the fairer sex, which she knew to be the cause of Sharm's distant behavior. Tigris had not been home much in the last ten years, traveling, seeing the world, and having a variety of adventures. She spent time with other clans, and helped save lives. Was she happier? By far! For the first time in her life, she loved to look at her face in the mirror or in a lake and toss her hair around. For the first time since her transformation into Gargoyledom back in the big adventures of 1996 and 1998, she felt that she once again had purpose and meaning to her life.

Why then, was she still fighting her own loneliness?

Perhaps Sharm was right, and she was running from that problem too, Tigris reasoned. How does one go about solving THAT problem? For some reasons she was still itching for something... something quite beyond her grasp of comprehending.

"Yes, I'm much happier, sis - I have a reason to go on living, which is something I think... I may never have really ever had before in my life. Still, though, I feel... lonely."

Keturah threw her head back and chuckled at this remark. "Hah! You think I'm getting old now, you and Christine'll be squeezing out eggs until I'm seventy - and Mandy is eighty!" she paused and did a little mental math in her head. "...Almost ninety! You've got more than enough time to find... someone."

"I still watch Christyne with envy, though." she admitted. "Is that wrong?"

"Of course not. I envy her too! She's on - what - her fifth child right now? A sixth down in the rookery? How does she do it, I wonder? She's STARTING a clan to guard this city - on her own! I was born a woman, and I still envy all the things she does." Keturah waved it off. "Besides - SHE'S eternally locked as a twenty-five year old. I squandered my life living with dad... and now I'll be lucky if I find someone within the next ten years."

Tigris stood, and embraced his little sister, who trembled a little in her arms. "I'll be fine," she reassured Keturah, "I just need to find Sharm and talk to her about... all this."

Ket pulled on her sister's hand, and pulled her to a bench by the wall where they sat, and watched the lightshow for a minute.

Tigris spoke. "Do you remember my first period?"

Keturah laughed, like remembering an old joke. "Yep."

It had been a rather humorous event. One day, six years before, Tigris had a bad stomach flu one morning before going to sleep, and then noticed blood on her loincloth after waking in the evening, panicked, and went over to see her mother Tutela and sister Christine. She had been screaming and hollering about being sick and was going to die, but Tutela and Christine just looked at the leather and chortled. They had never let her live that day down.

"Remember what Christine said?" Tigris asked. "That having periods was the first of three things that make a woman a woman, right?"

Keturah nodded. "Mother told me that when I had my first, and I think she told Christine too."

"Well, I've come to the conclusion that it's just not true."

"Why?"

"What were the other two things that make a woman a woman?"

"Menstruation, Marriage, and Motherhood." Keturah laugh, poking fun at the idea.

Tigris looked at Keturah seriously. "I don't think I need a marriage to be a woman."

Keturah smiled in a sisterly way, and took her sister's paw in hers. "You were a woman the day you were born. You don't have to prove anything to me."

"And Sharm?"

Keturah scowled. "Who knows?"

"I think she's on Avalon, from last I heard." Christyne noted for her, looking up from a huddle of sprawling young gargoyle children.

The scene was something like a twenty first century version of "Little Women", only with gargoyles. Corala and Carribea were a little masculine, while Pacifica enjoyed being very prim and feminine. Although, Tigris reasoned, they probably went to fewer parties than their literary counterparts. This was her clan, Tigris thought to herself - Tanya (10), Corala (8), Carribea (6), Pacifica (3), and Atlantica (about 14 months, just starting to walk). Tanya had grown to be quite an independent and fun loving girl, seemingly taking after her third-race ancestry. Each were female, oddly - following what appeared to be a family legacy - or a curse, depending on how you chose to look at it. Christyne herself was not worried.

"Don't fret about it. It's only luck. The next egg I lay will hatch a boy, I've already seen it."

Of course, their ages were deceptive, as each of them were about twice that old in truth, as a gargoyle ages. Tigris wondered if, like their mother, they would reach a certain age and then stop aging. That wasn't what she wanted - she decided. She wanted to grow into an old lady. She did not relish the concept, but for some reasons she knew it was what was right for her.

Christyne had taught them well, in an intricate combination of human values, and Phantom teaching them to control their extreme magical powers. They played games like Monopoly and Life, watched movies, and enjoyed the company of Phantom's friends. The parents still told stories about the interesting times they'd had trying to teach them to do so, and still maintain sanity. Tigris looked on in envy - what a life. They had built a series of fault-ridden caves in the bowels of the Twin Peaks mountains overlooking downtown Salt Lake City into a magnificent and sparkling example of how lovely a home can be. There were computers, ethnic foods, and always someone kind to talk to.

However, Tigris knew this was not her home. Her heart... belonged elsewhere. She had her own life to lead.

"I thought she was trying to avoid being Gathered?" Tigris was asking about Sharm.

"She was, but she has a safety net. However, for some reason, she has gone to Avalon, and I don't know why - she hasn't told me anything about what's going on."

Tigris was puzzled, and scratched her head, trying to imagine a reason.

"Go to the mirror in the dining hall. It's magic will transport you there." Phantom instructed her. "And go soon - it will be dark there for a few hours still, but the morning will come soon here. Besides, someone is waiting for you there, and I'm not talking about Sharm." Christyne intoned.

Surprised and a little taken aback by the prophetic words, the young female took her leave of her elder sister and her... attractive mate, and turned to the dining hall - a large cave which sports a large circular mirror at one end. Tigris passed her paw over the plane of glass once, then - cautiously - tested the surface with one talon. Her talon sank into the glass like it were made of water. With confidence, she strode through the magic portal into the mystic land of Lord Oberon himself.

She found herself walking in grass along a high bluff next to the sea.

Tigris had been here only one or two times before with Demona and Cearda as a male, and those visits were usually not long ones. Tigris knew exactly where she was going. Beyond the braziers on the beach, and up the canyon to the castle where the gargoyles stood and glided about as sentinels - Goliath's clan, and Oberon's Honor Guard of Avalon.

Three figures stepped out of the castle to meet her approach at the gate. Two were gargoyles, a male armed with a sword, and a female with a bow. The other was a male human in a suit of armor - the Guardian - Tom.

Tigris knelt. "I come in peace from Christyne's clan."

"Any clanmate of hers if a clanmate of ours." said the gargoyle male in a softspoken manner. "Consider this your home."

Tigris nodded her appreciation, and was escorted inside the fortress walls. She was escorted to the princess, who was very welcoming. Christyne's clan was considered a part of the Honor Guard of Avalon by Oberon's own decree.

"I have not heard from her in weeks." Princess Katherine's voice was reassuring. Fortunately, she did not seem to remember Iolair, and that was one part of Tigris's life that she preferred remained forgotten. "She often comes by to visit us, but something has caught her attention of late, and I am not sure what it is. You might ask Erik."

"Erik?"

Erik, it turned out, was a fairly attractive bronze-colored male of very medium build and with single finger wings that most male gargoyles seemed to feature. He had a few small horns around the brim of his brow which framed in his musky brown hair. He had seductive green eyes, and Tigris realized, and felt a little stirring in her breasts. He was the one of the Avalon Clan considered their expert on the contents of the library. He was a learner, curious about anything and everything, which Tigris considered the boy's most endearing quality.

"I want Erik and ye to go together to search for her. You are a capable warrior and sorceress Tigris, and Erik has expressed an interest in learning about the outside world." the Princess explained. "No one better to lead him in learning than someone who was once human herself."

Tigris was surprised. "How... how did you know that?"

"Your sister told us you were coming." Erik explained. He was also a gentle-spoken young man, as were most of the young male gargoyles of the Avalon Clan. "We need to know what's out there if we are to best protect our clan here."

"And we need a sorceress who can return Erik home when ye complete your journey." Katherine explained. "As for Christyne, she explained things in advance."

Tigris swallowed hard. Christine's foresight could prove... difficult at time. "And... you approve?"

"My place is not to judge." Katherine said. "One wiser than us made the choice, and you and I should not question their will."

"I have died and been reborn - I had hoped to let the past remain buried."

"If I did not trust ye," Katherine admonished Tigris harshly, "I would not ask Erik to accompany ye."

Tigris bowed in a masculine fashion, showing her respect for the princess's will. "I am your servant." she said.

Katherine turned and left the two alone. "Fare ye well then."

After she had left, Erik turned to Tigris, and bowed himself before her. "And I am your student."

Tigris nodded, and turned away from the parapets and battlements of the castle, looking out to sea. She scratched her head. "If she has already come and left this place, then the next place we should look should be Manhattan. Mandy and Christine told me about her dealings with some companies and people there, perhaps that's where she's gone."

"Might I make a suggestion?" Erik advised, "Avalon might know better where we need to be to find Sharm. We might let her choose where we need to be."

Tigris smiled. "An excellent idea! Can we get a skiff?"

* Monday, February 3, 2020 *

"The mist is clearing now." Erik announced. Before them appeared a very large mountainous setting, reaching down to the sea. A single road rang along the edge of the base of the mountains, and continued in both directions as far as the eye could see. There were many mountains and many peaks, reaching far up into the sky, some with snowy tips shaped like a dormant volcano. These mountains were covered in thick pine forests, dotted by occasional farms. Long strips of trees were missing from the mountains.

"It's like my home! It's like Avalon! Lush and green..." Erik was saying.

"Yes, much like a home I had once too." Tigris pondered introspectively. "I don't see any landmarks that give me any clue as to where we are. Could be anywhere." Tigris put a talon in the water and tasted it. "Kind of sweet, kind of briny. We're on a river or straight that leads to the sea."

"Do you see that?" Erik pointed to a small water craft that appeared to be patrolling the shores. Tigris could easily place the sound of it's two-cycle Detroit Diesel motor. As they got closer, they could see that on it's side it read "US Coast Guard".

Tigris raised her pointing talon in their direction, and spoke a single word. "Blind!"

"What was that for?" Erik asked.

"I just don't want them to see us. They're fine, they just won't see us." she explained. "The last thing I need to have right now is trouble explaining that you are not a US citizen and don't have a visa - at least not one that's legal."

"Okay, okay, that's a problem." Erik laughed. "This is America, then?"

"Yes, but the question - which part? There are three oceans which shore with the US. Look there."

Tigris was pointing much further along the misted shores, where a large iron vessel of "battleship grey" was slowly moving it's way out to sea. Erik could make out the markings "USS Enterprise" on it's hull. Erik turned around, looking behind him - he could not see the other side of the river behind them.

"This river is very wide and very deep." Erik concluded, "Or else it could not feature such large ships and distant shores."

"It strikes me familiar for some reason." Tigris said. The rocks were black, volcanic in nature. From the strips of missing trees, Tigris concluded that logging was very heavy in this area. As they neared, Tigris noted with familiarity the way the moss and vines covered the trees.

The skiff reached ground, and the two warriors disembarked, pulling the skiff up onto the beach head, and wedging it between the rocks where the tide would not claim it. Tigris stood over it, and raised a paw over it. "Unnoticeable!" she proclaimed, and turned to Erik. "That should shield it from prying eyes until we have elsewhere to store it."

"Now what?"

"Well, I think I see our first clue." Tigris said, pointing one talon up the rocky shoreline to a bluff not too far away where a large stone edifice was erected, standing defiantly against the natural chaos that surrounded them.

"Curious. Do you know where we are yet?"

"No clue. I don't think I've ever been here before. I'm pretty sure we're not in Salt Lake City, though, more like western Canada. I've never seen this building before. Besides, while this water is briny, but it's not salty enough for the Salt Lake - there would be salt all along this beach. It must be an ocean."

Two gargoyles walked up the bluff in the moon toward the building. Tigris muttered another spell. "My sword!" she said, and a sword sheathed in a blue scabbard appeared. Erik thought the sword's hilt was elegant, set in sapphires. "A wedding present from Obsidiana, several years ago." Tigris explained.

"Wedding present? I thought you were unmated."

"I am. She's... He's dead."

Erik nodded. "You needn't cover up the truth, I know about your former gender, remember? I just did not know about your mating this person."

Tigris looked momentarily at the ground, sighing. "We never really mated, only married. I... prefer to forget it." Tigris belted the sword around her waist. Erik thought to himself how trim she was as she buckled it around her, and he was tempted to go up to her and offer to help just so that he could touch her. He repressed the feeling.

"You don't mind, do you?" she asked, referring to the issue of her former gender.

"No, not in the slightest. You are the gargoyle you are, and I see a beautiful female just a few years younger than I. To be honest, I find you quite attractive." Tigris noted the slight bulge forming in the young gargoyle's loincloth, but pretended not to notice it. "Where is your former mate now?"

"Dead, in battle." Tigris sighed, and finished belted her sword quickly. She turned to Erik, who was armed with rather plain sword with a touch of brass at the hilt, made of Caspian steel. She nodded in approval, and the two began to circle around to the front of the building.

There was a large marble sign erected out front, which they stopped at first.

THE FIRST PORT ANGELES BIBLE SCHOOL

A High School for young followers of Christ

Erected in 1897

Erik went stiff, and spun around. "Did you hear that?" he whispered harshly. Tigris hadn't, but if Erik had, that was enough for her.

"No, but I can feel something... Someone's there." Tigris struggled to explain. "I feel someone... A stirring in my soul I haven't felt since I was only five..."

"Good or ill?" Erik inquired, drawing his sword.

"Good, don't draw - I want whatever it is to come to us." Tigris said, stepping forward, motioning for him to hold the sword back. There was a road in the front of the school, and forest beyond, filled in moonlight. She hurried across the road to the trees, and began to step through the underbrush. Erik followed, eyes and ears keen and pricked for danger.

"I'd almost forgotten, I know of town called a Port Angeles on a river, and that means we're in Washington again, and I'm willing to bet that this river is a strait - the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which leads directly into Seattle and Tacoma!"

"Washington - D.C.?"

"No, state, I used to live here once with my sister when I was newly a gargoyle. I've been here before even that, as a human child. Think about it - we're in the US, the scenery looks like western Canadian, and there's a major US naval base nearby. It has to be the SeaTac area! Port Angeles, like the sign said, is a small town on the strait, and on the opposite side of the strait is Canada itself. I haven't been here since I was five! She's here! She must be!"

"Who's here? Who is 'she'?" Erik asked, baffled and struggling to follow her train of thought.

"Can't you feel her? She's here! Somewhere! I've got to find her - ah!" Tigris suddenly gasped.

As if the trees themselves were alive, a glade opened up before them - the kind of holy place where a doe gives birth to her babies, there - bathed in the glory of full moon, a shadow merged into solid form, and Erik too gasped. The shape began to walk towards them, into the moonlight. Tigris ran forward in jubilation, her arms wide. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

"MY CHILD." An unearthly, kind voice said. Erik was agape - Tigris stood with her arms wrapped around the most beautiful sight Erik had even seen in his life. With cloven hooves that seemed to be made of pure silver, with a single spiral horn that seemed to be made of the moonlight itself, and with wings of gentle snow...

A Unicorn.

Stunned, Erik felt himself fall down to one knee, he was some overcome with the awesome presence of something so pure and good - besides, he reasoned, it seemed like the appropriate thing at the time.

Tigris was in tears. "It's been so long!" she ran her talons gently through the proud creature's mane, caressing it like a child.

"WE ARE ONE, YOU AND I." the creature told Tigris in a gentle tone that seemed to come from everywhere and reverberate in your bones. "WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG, YOU TOOK A PART OF ME WITH YOU."

Erik spoke. "I presume this is why we have come to this place, to protect this creature of purity."

Tigris nodded. "It must be, Erik. She came to me when I was little, in the same forests, and we flew together through the full moon. Port Angeles is a local city, named after repeated myths and legends about angels in these woods. SHE is the angel of Port Angeles."

"YOU HAVE DONE WELL, SMALL CHILD. NOT ONLY HAVE YOU SURVIVED BY JOINING THE RANKS OF THE GARGOYLES, BUT YOU HAVE FINALLY ATTAINED YOU TRUE GENDER IN FORM AS WELL AS IN SOUL." the Unicorn said.

Erik looked at Tigris, puzzled. She explained, "Remember reading about Unicorns? They are attracted by young innocent females. When I was little, I was female in soul but not in body, but very very innocent and pure."

"THE OUTSIDE IS BUT A SHELL, AND I SOUGHT ONLY THE HEART WITHIN." The Unicorn replied. "EVEN TO THIS DAY SHE IS PURE AND INNOCENT."

"I have grown older and have seen the heat of battle." Tigris shook her head mournfully. "It took years for me to learn that I had to live as a woman - I tried every other way I could think of."

"YOU ARE STILL A VIRGIN, YOUNG WOMAN."

"How can that be? She's been married once!" Erik protested.

"That doesn't mean we had sex." Tigris retorted, somewhat bitterly.

"NOW NOW, NO MORE ANGRY FEELINGS. WHAT HAPPENED COULD NOT HAVE BEEN HELPED. YOUNG WOMAN, YOU ARE TO RIDE WITH ME AGAIN - WE HAVE MUCH WE MUCH TALK ABOUT."

Tigris's face lit up, with an almost childlike joy.

"BUT FIRST..." said the Unicorn. There was a tinkling of magic and light, and small ruby rings appeared on a talon on the left paw of both gargoyles. "YOUR DESTINY AWAITS YOU. THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO GO AMONG THE STUDENTS AT THE SCHOOL IN SECRET. FIND THE ONE WHO IS TRAPPED THERE, AND IF YOU CAN, FREE HER! GO NOW!" she commanded.

Tigris and Erik looked at each other, when the whole world seemed to suddenly become fluid, and melted all around them, and the two gargoyles fainted as the magic took hold.

"Sandra! Sandra! Are you okay?!!! You look like you've seen a ghost!" said a young girl in her late teens, who was running up to Tigris. She shook her head in confusion. Where was she? Startled, she looked around, shaking the fog from her brain.

She was in a restroom. There were stalls and sinks, and several mirrors - no urinals, thank goodness. Tigris faced the mirror, and was startled to see a thin slip of a human girl looking back at her with straight long blond hair and deep blue eyes. She was dressed in the same turtle neck and midskirt as the girl who was running up to her. She was barely mid-teens with a small figure, and standing in a pair of once inch heels and wearing white hose. There was a slight waxy feel of lipstick on her lips, and the weight of mascara on her eyelashes.

Apparently, the other girl shouting a name that wasn't hers thought SHE was Sandra, because she was addressing her as such. "I'm... just a little dizzy." she said.

"You looked like you were about to pass out." she said.

"I don't know what happened." Tigris replied, honestly.

The other girl grabbed Tigris's small human hand, and began to pull the girl forward out of the bathroom. Tigris was startled when she realized, there on her left hand, on her middle finger was the ring The Unicorn had given her and Erik. Tigris's heart stopped... Erik! Where was he?!!! She'd have to keep an eye out for him.

"You and I can't be late to mass again - Ms. Phoebe will be furious!" she said, and Tigris allowed her to lead the way. She was a little unused to walking in heels - she'd been a gargoyle ever since she joined the fairest of the sexes and never really had the chance to wear them. They reached the chapel. Ms. Phoebe was a staunch disciplinarian with raven hair, who regarded both girls guardedly, addressing them as the other girl crossed herself, and Tigris followed her lead. Ms. Phoebe addressed to other girl as May. So that was her name. May was a skinny girl, although a little older looking and slightly taller than Sandra. She had Latino features framed in raven hair.

She'd worn heels before of course. When she was little, and ignorant to what gender was, Matthew tried on Terra's shoes from her closet and played with her lipstick. He spent many nights secretly trying to make himself look pretty. Matthew had always been careful returning the things he borrow to where they had belonged. Tigris now shuddered, thinking how violently Mike might have reacted if he'd learned his little boy was secretly crossdressing in Terra and Christine's clothes. He'd even worn Christine's underwear to school a few times, though to Tigris's knowledge Christine had never found out about it. Thankfully he had never been caught by his family, though there had been a few close calls. As he started middle school, Matthew would do odd jobs in the city, from which he secretly bought panty hose, had his ears pierced, and started his secret collection of earrings, bracelets, and rings. He borrowed Christine's bras, which he would stuff with tissue paper. He began to slip them in occasionally in his dress at school. Other kids called him everything from "Eclectic" to "a Faggot".

May and Tigris, Sandra rather, seated themselves near the back of a large chapel, as candles were being lit for the ceremony. Having been raised Mormon, she was not used to this kind of pomp and bombast, however she was certain she could follow the format.

Then Christine had "died" and Matthew had become the eagle-headed gargoyle soon to be named Iolair. When he needed to express his femininity, he'd always had Tigris to hug and touch, and for a while he seemed happy. When they were reunited years later after defeating Demona and her clan was when Iolair was maturing, and forming his own identity, and things began to fall apart...

Just then, there was a slight commotion in the hall - shaking Tigris/Sandra out of her thoughts. Some loud footsteps were heard, and a new face appeared in the door. Most of the students for this session were already seated, and this boy was almost late. He was dressed in the same style of school uniform, only it featured pants instead of a midskirt.

It was Erik! Tigris, as Sandra, could tell by his trademark brown hair and green eyes. He was in his late teens like May, and carried a couple of books under his arm. He appeared to be out of breath from running, but their eyes immediately connected in recognition. Playing the good school boy, he crossed himself at the dais like the other students and seated himself next to Sandra. May gave him a strange look, but that was when the priest stood to give the sermon.

Erik leaned over to Sandra. "Weird morning, eh?" he whispered.

"You don't look to good, Eric! You feeling like Sandra? She almost fainted!" May whispered back.

"Must be that January flu." he lied. He poked Sandra. "Notice anything weird about the headmistresses?"

Sandra looked. Seated at the head of the room by the ceremony officials, were three women who might as well have been triplets except for their obvious distinction in hair color.

"Those are Ms. Luna, Ms. Selene, and Ms. Phoebe." May explained.

"The Weird Sisters." Sandra/Tigris almost snarled, mostly to herself.

"Yeah, they are at that. Ms. Selene is the principal, Ms. Luna is her vice principal, and Ms. Phoebe is the school disciplinarian." May explained.

Sandra winced. She'd been in middle school before, but a public school, not a bible school, as a boy and not a girl, and not with a fairy triumvirate playing the administration! At least... not that she knew of...

Then it occurred to her. The trio seemed oblivious to the presence of the two gargoyles who at least appeared to be human for the moment, so she wanted to check something. Did she have an ID? She looked around for a school bag, a purse, or something... and found both sitting under the seat. There was a petite leather handbag with some papers and a lot of cosmetics, and a bookbag with her school books in it. Had these been here before?

Looking in the purse, there was a State of Washington Driver's Learner's Permit, made out to a Sandra Shelton, 1471 North Avalon Way, sex: female. Eric/Erik produced one from his from his wallet, and discovered it said Eric Xanatos, also 1471 North Avalon Way. They looked at each other.

"I'll bet my lunch this is a fake address. Notice the 'Avalon'?" Eric deduced.

"I think you're right." Sandra said. She looked at her planner. School had only recently started a few months ago, and nearly half the year remained. There was a family photo from a photo studio that included her current self, her sister Christine, human and about 25, her mother Terra looking fairly distinguished, a much younger version of Ket without wings, and her father Michael. "Your typical family photo, only using members of my REAL family." she whispered to Eric. "Minus a few years here, or wings and a tail here..."

"I think this is the Unicorn's work. A lot of effort was spent to make us look like typical kids attending school here. Look!" Erik pulled a photo from his wallet. It was another family photo, this time taken in a back-yard setting, where they were all smiling and posing for the camera in silly ways.

"That's a... human version of our clan-father, Goliath." he said pointing to a stocky and well-built African man in his thirties. Sandra/Tigris recognized princess Katherine, only she was dressed a little more 20^th / 21st century, instead of 10^th / 11^th century. There was the Guardian Thom, a normal enough looking man in his middle years. Sandra recognized humanized versions of Erik's rookery siblings from the Avalon Clan. Eric recited their names. "Gabriel, Angela, Ophelia, Marcus, Prosperina..." he broke off. Lastly, on the side, was Eric himself in what looked like the current illusion of a human he wore, with his arm around a girl a year or so younger than him - Sandra. "Heh. I guess we're supposed to be friends or something." he stammered.

This was cute, Sandra thought to herself, as she hailed along with the priest. She wondered what other photos were in his wallet. Nothing else appeared in Eric's wallet. However, a closer inspection of her blouse produced a locket on a nice brass chain. It had a fairly nice, large photo inside. It had been taken at a formal dance. There stood Sandra dressed in an elegant gown of sapphire blue chiffon, and Erik in a matching midnight blue suit with sapphire cummerbund, kissing each other fully on the lips and their arms wrapped around each other, with the words "I'll Never Let Go - 2018" on the bottom.

Eric paled noticeably. Tigris found it rather amusing.

"We're at least good friends that have gone to at least one formal dance together." Sandra deduced. "Very good friends, it appears."

"Have you both gone nuts?" May asked. Sandra and Eric suddenly remembered their human counterpart had been listening the whole time. "You two have been friends since grade school. You've dated a few other people, but I think you both had more fun on THAT date than any other. What exactly is going on with you two? You guys have been acting like you don't know who or where you are."

"You wouldn't believe us if we told you."

"You know me better than that, Sandra. You can tell me anything. I don't care if you've seen gargoyles attacking your airplane like I saw - I'll believe you."

Eric and Sandra looked at each other in amazement.

Tigirs/Sandra was amazed to learn that Sandra's mother had been on a Citation jetliner traveling from Salt Lake City when two gargoyles (pink and blue) and a woman with long red hair and pointed ears rescued it from an attack by an angry dark colored gargoyle. Sandra listened quietly as they told May their story, hoping that May was a friend they could trust. Apparently, from the story May recounted from her mother, May had only just been born when this had occurred, but had been too young at the time to remember it herself.

"Macaren." Sandra corrected May recounting of her mother's story.

"Beg your pardon?"

"The dark gargoyle that Christine killed - he was a jerk. His name was Macaren. He was pissed off because Christine dumped him."

May blinked. "How could you be so certain about that?"

"The pink gargoyle, Christine - she's my older sister. She later married the blue guy."

Eric nodded it was true. Sandra turned to Eric. "Is it safe to trust her?"

"I believe she is sincere. If she knows of Christyne, I am willing to believe her."

"Don't you trust me like you used to?" May asked, eyebrows narrowing. "Or... are you even the same May I knew before?"

"What do you mean?"

"The Sandra I knew before was kind of shallow and not all there, like she was just a place holder for someone." May explained. "You ARE her, but you have more depth and personality to you. This is the first time you've ever been suspicious of me."

Sandra looked at Eric. "For the months since school started - there was a shade holding our place, until we came. Someone went to a lot of trouble to set all this up!"

"Try years - I've known you since we started at this school." May corrected. "I always knew you were important. There's something about you."

"How else could you tell there had been a change, or that we were just shades until today?" Sandra asked. "I think you have a little bit of magical insight."

May blinked. "Cool!"

At that moment, one of the teachers shushed their heated little conversation, and the three children were silent.

The mid day sun was bright, but there was a definite chill in the air as the three emerged from mass, ears ringing about sins and repentance. "That is not the worship of Christ I learned in the library at Avalon." he noted.

"The bible has been mistranslated for over two millennia now since Christ, and many more since the time of Adam and Eve." May said sardonically.

"You don't like it here at this school, do you?"

"Not really. My parents insisted, though."

"Wow! Look at that!" Eric exclaimed, standing in the sunlight, looking at his arms and hands. "The sun!"

"What about the sun?" May asked, puzzled.

"It's so... so... bright!" Eric stammered. The three were off on their own walking through a garden on the grounds, so Sandra thanked the Goddess they were out of anyone else's earshot.

"Hush." Sandra chastised him. "You could give us away if somebody heard you..."

"You've never seen the sun before? Who are you?" May was still asking.

Sandra sat down on a bench and crossed her legs, trying to relieve the pressure from one foot. She smoothed out her skirt, and May did likewise. May and Eric sat down on either side of her. "We ARE gargoyles. We were sent here on some kind of quest which someone has gone to great lengths to prepare us for, making up two students for us to fill in for, your becoming our friend May. Just look." Tigris pointed to the shadows the three children cast onto the sidewalk. Sandra and Eric's shadows were those of gargoyles.

May blinked and turned to Sandra. "Does this have anything to do with that secret room?"

Sandra and Eric looked at her.

"We found it about a week ago, and we've been sort of meeting here to get away from bullies on lunch hour." May explained, opening up what had looked like a storage closet from the outside, but on the inside was a large room filled with stage props, old broken science projects, and lots of dust and cobwebs. Sandra felt like she were stepping from the moors of England into The Secret Garden. "Somehow, other people can't see this room. I found this key out in the lawn, and made a copy for you, Sandra, when we discovered it fit this door."

"I think you have a definite magical ability, so I doubt it's coincidence we became friends." Sandra deduced. "Will you help us?"

Eric seemed uncomfortable. "We can handle it by ourselves."

"Trust me, Erik. Will you help us?" Sandra said, holding a hand up to stop him. "You never know."

"Is it dangerous?" May asked.

"Perhaps." Sandra replied honestly.

"Good! Sure, I'll help."

Sandra laughed a little. Looking at the room, she inspected the mess for a few minutes, before she clasped her hands together in front of her, and then flung them wide speaking one word. "CLEAN!"

With that, the room wavered and the mess disappeared, to be replaced by an empty room with a single industrial light fixture overhead, and on window on the far wall. The wall were stone, set in one corner of the building, and they could see through the window that they they were pretty far off the ground (the third floor, as they came up the stairs).

"Wow! How'd you do that."

"Household cleaning spell. Household spells are the easiest to do." Sandra said.

"You can do magic?!!!" May exclaimed in wonder.

"I'm a warrior, but I am studying to become a gargoyle sorceress, but that takes many years to do. There is still much I cannot do."

She nodded. "How old are you really? What are your names? Can I see you?"

Eric motioned to the floor, where Sandra and Eric's shadows manifested their true gargoyle shapes. "Who knows how we take this illusion off and look human again." he said to Sandra. To May, he explained. "We were placed here by... someone else. Who knows the terms of this spell."

"My name is Tigris Euphrates, and I'm about thirty six, because a gargoyle ages at half the speed a human does, so that makes me about 18 by your standards. Eric lived on Avalon for over a thousand years so he's a little older than me, but he's about 21 by human reckoning."

Eric was still thinking out loud. "If this human shape is only an illusion, why do we then not turn to..."

Sandra shushed him. She gave Eric that look. 'Don't give away ALL our secrets.' Tigris still had some difficulty trusting humans.

"I've been meaning to ask you guys if I could move in up here. My dad was in a wreck and he doesn't get injury pay for at least a week, and the land owner is giving me hell since I couldn't pay him on the first of the year."

"Your father is a truck driver?" Sandra inquired. "He wouldn't happen to have pulled for a rich museum owner in Salt Lake City, named GT Roland, twenty some years ago?"

"How did you know? I never even told Sandra..."

"I saved the lives of the other two drivers in that accident." Sandra replied thoughtfully. "Perhaps we can help you with that problem, but yes May - you can do whatever you need. I don't know what's going on here, but I think it's serious, and we need allies. You may not know it yet, but you are a powerful ally." Sandra extended a hand to her.

May was stunned - they knew things, besides just having magic. Whatever was going on, it would sure be exciting! They clasped wrists, in a distinctly gargoyle fashion.

"What do you know about rumors of angels along the forests?" Sandra asked, scratching her chin.

"People tell stories, sometimes they might hit the local paper, once in a while, but nobody really takes them seriously. Is there something we should read into them?"

Erik picked up on her train of thought. "Do you mean the Unicorn?"

"Yes, I do. We both saw her with our own eyes, I can attest she's been there since at least the eighties."

"The rumors go back further than that." May added. "I love Unicorns!"

"You might get to see one if your heart is pure, May." Eric smiled. "She did say she would be back for you, Tigris."

Sandra nodded.

"Look, lunch hour is almost over. I wanna grab a bite to eat before we have to go to gym class..." May began...

Tigris, as Sandra, was a little unprepared for the locker room itself. The last time she's seen a locker room, it was a horrific experience, back in Matthew's middle school days before becoming a gargoyle. It felt like being watched from every which way while boys made fun of your tiny male parts, as you knew in your mind you just weren't like them. You knew they could see your breasts, and as soon as they realized you were an imposter they would kill you! It's like dressing up a lamb in a sheepskin, and throw her in among the lions. Sure, at first the lions may be fooled, but eventually they'll catch on and rip the lamb to shreds. Of course, nobody realized you felt this way but you, but for the first time in Tigris's life, she looked into the locker room, and felt like she was in the right place.

"Sandra, what's wrong?"

"Hm?" she asked. Sandra had stopped in the doorway, thinking. May had turned around in concern.

"You were crying."

"No I wasn't."

"Liar." May flicked a tear from the corner of her eye.

May helped her friend with the locker they shared, and the two changed clothes, throwing their other school things into the locker. Sandra got some jeers looks from other girls, she was apparently quite the geek, being flat figured, the other girls were very cruel. Unlike when she was a boy, Tigris didn't mind it this time - because she knew she was NOT a tomboy or a lesbian as they accused, whereas before when the boys had called Matthew a fairy he didn't know if it was true or not. Knowledge was truly an empowering thing.

One girl, in particular, seemed to give Sandra a great deal of trouble, a Susan Packham. Susan was fairly large boned herself. The irony was profound. May, before, had simply encouraged her friend that she was just a late boomer and would, without a doubt in her mind, blossom very healthily once her body was ready, and that she'd probably wind up better endowed than they were. Tigris, however, wasn't much to mind Susan's antics - Tigris knew she was a real girl now, not a boy who crossdressed, and that was all that mattered to her.

"Hey fatso!" Susan shouted when the two reached the gym floor, emerging from the locker room. The two looked at each other. May seemed to take up on Sandra's attitude, and was nearly laughing.

Sandra winked. "Watch this." Sandra faced off in front of Susan, her hands on her fairly wide hips.

"Okay, Susie - I may be fat, but you're ugly and I can diet!" she said in a gloating tone, folding her arms in front of her.

"Ooooh! You really think you're something, don't you! I'll teach you!" Susan snarled, and lunged for her, but Sandra was just too limber and fast for the bigger girl. Sandra spun on one heel, Susan missed her lunge and flew past Sandra, and then Sandra's tennis shoe landed onto Susan's back. Susan collapsed on the floor with an audible thud.

"Whops!" Sandra said, faking astonishment. "Did I do that?"

"Wow! Small girl's got the MOVES!" said one of the classmates.

Sandra smiled to her. "I've been waiting to do that all semester." Sandra lied. "She left herself wide open."

Class began, and the teacher led her students out onto a field. To one side were the gardens they had walked in earlier, to the other another building was under construction, as there was heaving construction equipment scattered about. "Today we run the mile." the teacher announced. "Eight laps around the track! Pace yourselves, the goal is not to beat everyone else, the goal is to finish without slowing to walk."

Sandra began to do some mental figuring - did she still have the stamina of her gargoyle self? If this shape was truly an illusion she would, otherwise, she would have to see just how much jogging Sandra had done in the morning, if at all.

A small blank pistol shot was fired, and the girls were off. Soon she could feel her strength, that endurance from being a gargoyle, returning at her command. It was true then! She was still a gargoyle underneath a spell of illusion so that people only saw a human girl. Sandra sped up, outpacing other girls. She could feel a familiar weight on her chest, and knew that Sandra would not be flat chested for very long - there was something heavy in there, and it ached a little. Ah, being a teenager, she sighed. She outpaced Susan, and poked her in the arm. She found her second wind, and began to speed up. Her small size gave her a big advantage over many of the other girls.

Sandra was careful though. She muttered a spell under her breath to give May more endurance, and she too started passing people. As she finished her last lap, she saw other girls had finished before her - that was fine, she didn't want to go to the head of her class in one day, someone might get suspicious. After she crossed the finish line, the teacher scratched her head, checking her tally sheet.

"Shelton! Don't you have another lap?"

"No ma'am, but I think I could do one!"

The teacher counted off eight laps on her tally sheet. "Never mind. You did well - much better than your old time."

"Me and May have been jogging the mornings."

"Good for you. It'll put muscle on your figure. You did well too, Ms. Hestia." she said to May, who was finishing behind her. "You two get a gold star for effort - go ahead and shower."

This meant they were dismissed from class and free to go change. "Hurray!" May shouted. "I need a shower!" The two friends shared a knowing look. "You gave me a boost, didn't you?"

"Sure did! Do you mind? I found I could still run like a gargoyle, and wanted the teacher to think everything was normal, and not suspect I was on heroin or something."

May laughed.

School was letting out, and May had a car to get home. Most students did, as the shore-line based school was somewhat remote. The two gargoyles did too, but Sandra was not in the mood to try and learn how, let alone teach Eric. The girls had met up with Eric fairly quickly after gym, but Eric had a history class, and the girls had Home Economics. However, this meant they knew where to find each other after the school day ended. The plan was to visit the address on their IDs, and see if it was real or not. If not, the two gargoyles in disguise were told they could stay at her house if necessary.

However, while crossing the front lawn toward the parking lot, a boy approached Sandra and blocked her path. Eric and May paused, wondering what was going on.

"Hi Sandra! You still going with me to the dance next Friday?" the new boy asked. Sandra immediately decided he did NOT like this boy - he was way too cocky and sure of himself.

May and Sandra looked at each other - May's expressed seemed to say she knew about as much of this as Sandra did.

"What are you talking about?" Sandra inquired, guardedly.

"Don't you remember?" he asked. "Our big night! We were gonna go hit the town, drink a little, crash the dance here, have a great time, and spend the night at my house!"

Eric felt himself clasping his fist in his hand in from of him, a classically gargoyle response to someone you don't like.

"Your delusions are getting grander, Scott." May told the new boy. So that was his name, Sandra thought.

"Delusions?" Scott said proudly, reaching out to touch Sandra, who backed away. "We had a great night planned! And the sex would be outta this world!"

"What?!!! Never!" Sandra protested.

"I'm not gonna let you go back on it!"

"NO!" Sandra protested. "What part of that don't you understand?!!!"

Eric's fists were rubbing together violently now, rubbing the ring on his left hand in the process. Scott reached out and grabbed Sandra by the wrist. She struggled to break free, but found herself much weaker than the boy, not having the time to call up her gargoyle strength as before. May pushed and beat on Scott, but Scott shoved her aside like a grain of sand.

Fury raging, Eric's form melted away, until his true self stood in front of Scott. Now much taller than Scott, the male gargoyle flicked Scott aside and away from Sandra like an insect. Erik's wings snapped taught. "You leave her alone!" he snapped.

Scott got to his feet and ran forward. "Stupid gargoyle! Get out of my way!"

Erik spun and punched Scott once in the face, and was surprised to see him not flinch, but return the punch. Erik seemed to be struggling now - the fist fight with the gargoyle was fairly evenly matched! Both were throwing punches hard enough to crush a rock! Erik, however, had surprise on his side, and used it. He feigned a swing, and instead swung his tail under the young human, who tripped and fell to the grass. Erik picked him up by his feet, and threw him down onto the ground again. Scott was unconscious.

Erik rubbed the ring on his finger again, and became Eric once again. He and May looked around - no one had even noticed the commotion. Once again, they had somehow been shielded from prying eyes in the crowded place. Sandra was on the ground, a few tears in her eyes, and her arm looked like it was going to bruise, but otherwise she was none the worse for wear. "So that's what the rings do - they control the illusion. That's probably how I got my stamina back so that I could run the mile."

"That still doesn't explain why we aren't... asleep." Eric said. "I was myself just now, in broad daylight."

Sandra looked at May, and sighed. She seemed trustworthy enough. Besides, she had no reason to believe whatever kept them from turning to stone would stop working until their mission here was fulfilled. "The rings probably do that too." Sandra took his hand, and tried to take his ring off. It wouldn't budge. It was perfectly loose and comfortable on his finger, but it simply would not come off. "Looks like only the Unicorn can take them off, too."

"I'm not complaining. That protects us from one vulnerability." Eric said.

The trio drove for a while about the small towns that interconnect all the way out to Port Angeles itself, looking for the address defined on the driver's permits, but had no luck - concluding it HAD to be phony. Sandra gave a healthy "I told you so!" when they were done. They stopped to get something to eat, and at May's apartment.

"My mother's a drunkard. After she and dad got divorced, she went off with whatever man will support her, and dad drives trucks to keep the bills paid." she explained.

Using her magic, Sandra pulled few thousand dollars in hundreds from some unknown source, and gave them to May. "Use these to pay the bills, now. Christine won't miss the money. If she ever patents half the inventions she and her photographic memory of her have made, she'd be the richest person in the world."

"Okay, then that's taken care of. Now what?" May said after paying the bills on her apartment.

"I'd like to go back to the school, if it's alright with you, May." Eric replied.

"Why?" May was really against this idea, that was obvious.

"I think whatever we want is there, otherwise, we wouldn't have been sent there, and been made students there. Whatever we're up against, it's there." he said thoughtfully.

"I think he's right." Sandra said, turning to May. "It's a blustery night, how'd you like to ride the wind there?"

May's face lit up. Sandra turned to Eric and winked.

Riding atop Tigris's back, the two gargoyles glided across the moonlit landscape back to the school. "If the two of you just met, then why are Eric and Sandra a couple?"

"Don't know." Tigris smiled. "What's that saying - that even shadows have a secret life of their own?"

"Looks quiet." Erik said, referring to the school. "Thankfully."

"It should be. Even the jocks end practice and go home after the sun goes down - school policy."

"Convenient." Tigris said.

"You know something?" May asked Tigris.

"What's that?"

"You're a lot prettier as a gargoyle." May replied.

"Glad you agree! Hang on, we're going to land." Tigris laughed, blushing a little (though no one could see it in the night darkness).

With a gentle swoop upwards and a few steps forward, both gargoyles and the young human were on the ground. Tigris looked at May and smiled. "You're shorter."

May looked down at Tigris's fetlocks and said, "If I had feet like those, I wouldn't be as short."

"You can't paint your nails." Tigris discouraged her, laughing.

May didn't reply, laughing.

The trio approached the building, which appeared dark. May had to hurry to keep up, because she seemed to need to take two steps for every one the gargoyles made.

Tigris extended her paw to the door, and spoke one word. "Open."

The door did as it was commanded, and the three filed inside, locking the door again behind them. Tigris patted the door behind her, as if to say "Thank you."

"Listen!" Erik whispered.

The trio crowded against one wall, listening. Down the corridor was the auditorium, where the light was on, and voices could be heard.

May whispered to Tigris. "Can you make us invisible?"

"Perhaps if I were better trained in human magic, but right now my expertise is fairy magic."

May was puzzled. "There's a difference?"

"Did you ever see the movie 'Star Wars'? The original from the seventies?"

"Sure!" she replied, still in a whisper.

"Remember what Obi Wan said about 'the Force'? He said it was created from living things and it binds the universe together? That's basically true. The differences lay in how you channel it. Humans use objects like books, rings, pendants, or even vases, but fairies do it differently. They have their given name, and then they take another name, a secret name, which become their TRUE name, and that's what they channel their magic through, because nobody can take away your name. My sister taught me that." she explained. "Invisibility is a big spell, and not much use against someone who can sense a BIG spell. I won't risk casting a spell on them, they might have wards and detect us instantly. I can shield us against them, though."

"What use IS magic, then?" May asked, disappointed.

"Not much. That's why I stick to being educated."

"How DO gargoyles become educated?"

"Reading and apprenticeship to other gargoyles, or humans." Erik answered.

"I'd like that better than school." May replied.

The two gargoyles and human crept down the hall, as the voices in the auditorium became more distinct.

"You can't make me your slave forever, eventually Titania will find out what you've done, and then she'll take care of you!" Came a voice Tigris recognized, but couldn't place just yet.

"I'm not worried about that, my dear. It was her mirror that brought you here, so I don't think she'll really mind if we borrow you for a few nights." came Scott's voice.

May was about to say something to Tigris upon recognizing Scott's voice, but Tigris's put a talon to her lips to shush her.

"You know that I could twist any demand you make of me into a shape you wouldn't like. I'd probably enjoy that immensely right now. Besides, two warriors have already been dispatched to deal with you - you met one of them today."

Erik's eyes glowed angrily at the thought, but he did not make a noise.

"I'll deal with them as I deal with you. By these iron chains, and by my power, I bind you to human form, Sharm. Now you will be no problem for me to control."

Upon the naming of that name, Tigris sprung to life. The loud crackle of electricity and magic came from the auditorium. The gargoyle woman tried to shout her friend's name, but Erik slapped his hand over her mouth. Tigris wasn't about to stop, though, and broke from his grasp and into the auditorium - just in time to see the pale and weak form of the flame-red haired fairy melt away to that of a flame haired human woman no older than Tigris's sister Christine.

The human woman with the red hair fell to the floor in a weakened heap, looked at her hands once, and then looked up to see Tigris standing there looking at her with a horrified expression on her face. Sharm, trapped as a human woman, reached out to Tigris, before fainting onto the floor face down.

"Sharm!" Tigris exclaimed.

There, on the stage, sat Scott, sitting in what appeared to be a golden throne. Sharm lay before him, in the Orchestra pit, almost smouldering in her own flesh. There was another boy next to the throne that Tigris didn't recognized.

"Deal with them!" Scott shouted, pointing at the gargoyles.

In the center of the floor between Tigris and Sharm's comatose form, three pillars of smoke seemed to rise out of the floor and coalesce into the three witches from Avalon, the Weird Sisters themselves. Raising their hands, they emitted a large beam of magic, which struck Tigris. She put up her hands to defend herself, and for a moment held up a magical shield that kept them at bay, but was quickly overwhelmed. The beams struck Tigris's body, and she screamed in Terror, as any woman would when he skin was on fire. Erik and May peered around the corner only to see Tigris collapse in a smouldering heap of burned flesh.

"Scott? Paul?" May whispered to herself, before Erik pulled her back.

"That's why we can't let ourselves be seen." he whispered.

"Is she... dead?"

"I hope not, but I fear so. The Magus is the only man I've ever known to defeat them, and he's dead." Erik sighed, the pain of loss in his voice. "He gave his life, doing so."

"I'm sorry." she said.

Erik scowled. "Tigris has survived worse than this, if what I was told is true. We must get out of here, now! They will come looking for me, and most certainly kill you too. Sorry, but..." he said, picking up the human in his arms, and escaping down the hall...

The body of Tigris was laid before the teenage boy, next to Sharm. "There's the first off your rescue party." Scott said to the still weak Sharm. He motioned to the Weird Sisters. "Take her sword."

Her sword was the one thing on the female gargoyle's burned-away body that remained totally unscathed.

"We cannot touch it." Resisted the first of the trio.

"It contains our death."

Scott looked down at them, and reach out a hand in their direction. The sword unbuckled itself and flew to him. "Yes, it has a good deal of iron in the core. Interesting. I like it."

"Let us finish this tonight." said the third weird sister.

"You'll do my bidding as long as I command it. However, I too am anxious to see that this is finished. You three find and dispatch that male gargoyle I tangled with earlier, and I will finish this task."

Her wings burned away, her hair gone, body nothing more than meat clinging to bones, the horrid stench roused Sharm. She immediately recognized Tigris, and gasped in horror. He had taken Tigris's sword, she noticed, therefore she had little defense in case he returned. Looking around, Sharm saw trees surrounding a moonlit glade. There was a presence of goodness and life here. All the same, she dreaded it, because she knew what it would mean.

Tears welled up in her eyes, and she found herself crying. She hadn't meant for this to happen! Here she was, laying next to the burned out mass that used to be her best friend's brother. This was all her own fault! How had she allowed this to happen? She had no powers now, she was helpless to save Tigris. She reached out, and found the burned flesh that covered the vein of life in her neck, and touched it. No pulse.

Without intervention, the soul would surely pass on - this was what, the third time Matthew had died? She raised her eyes to the moon, and silently pleaded. "Please, Titania! Don't let her die! This is all my fault!"

There was a noise behind her, and she turned around. The shadows and moonlight seemed to mix and blend together until a shape formed. Sharm's heart fell into her stomach. The Unicorn looked right past Sharm, and down at Tigris, who's body shimmered and became whole again, and began to breathe.

"YOU ARE NO LONGER MINE." the Unicorn told Sharm without even looking at her. Tigris stirred, moaning.

"I'm sorry. I have no choice now."

"THEN DO IT, DAMNIT! DO WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO!" the Unicorn cursed.

From her pocket, Sharm withdrew several strands of gold wire and chain. A bridle. Tigris, barely stirring back into consciousness, knew nothing of how close she had come to death. All she saw was the bridle, a golden bridle. Such a device was so rare, it could only have one purpose... Tigris sounded her battle cry, throwing her wings wide, screaming in rage. She raced forward, one paw outstretched.

"BACKWARDS, FOREWARDS

INSIDE OUT

UPSIDE DOWN

AND RIGHTSIDE UP!"

Tigris cast her spell. The air sparkled with magic. Sharm blinked once, and found herself holding the golden bridle on the head of... TIGRIS! The Unicorn stood where Tigris had stood only a second before! The Unicorn blinked once, wheeled, and ran - vanishing like a shadow into the night.

Tigris leashed out wish her claws, but Sharm suddenly shouted. "STOP!"

Tigris stopped, dropping down to her knees. "Whoa... what's... wrong with me?" she asked, dizzily, holding her temples with her paws.

Sharm was not above a short, evil laugh - an alien sound - the happy fairy Tigris had once known. "You're an idiot, Tigris! I made that bridle with more magic than you can possibly imagine! Only a unicorn can be held in it, and will be subject to my every command. You should never have interfered, and none of this would ever have happened. I was just going to teach you a lesson, persuade the Unicorn to teach you to be a boy again - I knew you'd listen to her! Look at how you've mucked things up! You ruined everything!"

Tigris was sweating and groaning, on all fours with her wings drooping. Her breathing was labored, still moaning. She held her arms across her breasts, leaned her head began and began to scream like a wildcat, eyes red and aflame. She began to claw at her skin as white hair began to sprout across the length of the gargoyle's body. Sharm's eyes grew wide in fascination. "Whoa! I should NOT have used that Life Lotion making the bridle..." she muttered to herself.

Tigris screamed again, flicking her tail about madly... but Sharm noticed it wasn't the leathery tail of a gargoyle anymore, but a long mane of hair. Tigris's wings had begun to sprout snowy feathers, and the gargoyle's nose and jaw seemed to protrude from her face in a grotesque fashion.

The gargoyle gave one last shrill scream, as a little trickle of blood began to run down her brow. There was a cracking sound, as a little nub appeared in the center of her brow. Lightning crackled out of the middle of nowhere, snow falling from a clear sky, falling all over the body. Tigris choked once, coughing and spewing blood. Her neck twisted backwards in a grotesque fashion, bones cracking. Her knees and elbows snapped sickeningly, the joints changing to move backwards of before. Lightning lanced down from the clear sky and joined the growth at the center of Tigris's forehead, casting it in purity and twilight wonder, forcing it's way down the length of her body.

She collapsed on the ground and was still. There was silence. "That's what I get for using Paradox magic." Sharm said to herself.

Upon the ground, in an unconscious heap, amidst a cluster of torn bits of cloth, lay Tigris - the Unicorn.

"Mission accomplished!" Sharm proclaimed as she walked, triumphantly into the gymnasium, a Unicorn in tow.

"Well done, Sharm!" Scott announced. "So the legends ARE true!" said Scott in wonder. "There be uuuuunicarns in there hills!" he laughed.

"I've done my part of the deal, now you do yours." Sharm said.

Scott sat to one side, and thought for a moment, fingering something under his Bull's T-shirt. Tigris was willing to wager it was Sharm's necklace. "I don't think so. Sisters!"

"Your bidding, Master?" the trio said in unison, as they appeared, basically out of thin air with a plethora of magic.

"Place her under your control."

The trio sighed, unwillingly. "Yes, master." Their eyes glowed together, and turned to Sharm.

Sharm didn't waste any time. She used all the adrenaline in her system to leap up atop the creature. "Go! Go! Faster than lightning!" The unicorn charged out of the room with a dash, carrying the flame-haired woman along with her.

"After them! After them!" Scott demanded, the Weird Sisters in hot pursuit.

"Run! Run while you can, mortals!" The first shouted.

"We'll see you pay for what you've done to us, Sharm!" The second shouted.

"Your time has come!" Said the third.

"Not yet! Even I have a few tricks left!" Sharm came back, as she disappeared from sight.

Tigris, the Unicorn, leapt through front door, and galloped into the forest, narrowly avoiding twists and turns, disappearing into the shadows, and before any time at all, came to the river, where she began to wade.

"Oh Tigris, I can't believe I got you into this." Sharm sighed. "I wanted to teach you a lesson, I admit that. I didn't want to get you killed, or hurt, or transformed. I think we're both in trouble this time. They think YOU are the Unicorn now, but at least that means the other is safe. I don't want her hurt anymore than you. I just wanted her to... teach you to be male."

Tigris nickered slightly - almost bucking, shaking Sharm off her back. She landed in the water with a splash. Sharm let out a yelp.

"I deserved that." Sharm sighed to herself, wringing the water from her hair. She took the lead on the bridle into her other hand, and began to lead Tigris the Unicorn up the river. It was going to be a LONG night.

"What can we do?" she asked the creature. Tigris stuck her head up, and looked back in the direction of the school, her ears swivelled forward. "I wish I knew why you can't talk. Let's start with yes/no questions, okay? Do you know something we can do?"

A nod.

"Is there anyone who can help us?"

Another nod.

"Do they have any magic to let me be myself again?"

Tigris shook her head.

Sharm sighed. "You were my last hope, then."

A shadow covered them, and there was a whooshing sound as Erik, carrying May, came to land on the riverbank.

"The Weird Sisters are searching the wood for you. You are not safe. It will not take them long to find us."

"I must get my powers back, or else Tigris..." Sharm trailed off for a moment, embarrassed when she realized they did not know the Unicorn on the bridle was Tigris. "...Will never fight again."

"She's not dead then?" May inquired.

"No, the Unicorn restored her body." she replied truthfully, "But Socrates and Plato have her now, and I cannot free her until I have my powers back."

May, in wonder and astonishment, walked up to the Unicorn - unknowing it was Tigris, and stroked the Unicorn's head. It seemed to have a rejuvenating effect on the Unicorn, as it perked up.

Sharm smiled and laughed in a friendly way. "The touch of a young virgin female is what they crave." she said. "Just by petting her, you give her strength."

"She's so... beautiful!" May said with wonder.

Sharm looked up at Erik. "That's why they used me - they knew I could draw the Unicorn in." she lied. Erik seemed pleased with the answer.

"Can a virgin boy do the same thing?" May inquired, referring to male gargoyle next to her.

Sharm shook her head. "No, pure female virgins are what they crave."

Erik nodded. "Tigris had the same effect on her."

"That makes no sense to me. I can't figure out why the unicorn came to him when he was six." Sharm said.

May was confused. Holding onto the Unicorn, she looked up at Sharm and Erik. "What do you mean? Tigris isn't... a girl?!!!"

Sharm snarled in frustration. "No, Matthew was transformed into a girl using magic."

Erik looked at May. "Matthew was a young human, also."

May was agape. "That's incredible! Could I become a boy?"

Sharm was startled. "Why would you want to?"

"Just to see what it's like. Did... Tigris become a girl willingly?"

"Yes." Sharm huffed.

"Why?"

Sharm was silent, fuming. The Unicorn hung it's head. Erik answered the question. "Matthew was the younger brother of the gargoyle woman who rescued your mother when that Xanatos jet was attacked, twenty years ago. Christyne, as she's called since her marriage, used to be human too, but was needed in a battle by fay, therefore was changed. Matthew was killed saving young gargoyle's life, and part of the conditions of his restoration were becoming a gargoyle forever. That's why Tigris and I cannot become real humans here at the school - she is forbidden. However, young Matthew was also a transsexual - he wanted to be a girl since he was little."

Sharm filled in more. "Becoming a gargoyle did not change that, and after a failed marriage to another gargoyle who also bore the name of Tigris, Matthew attempted suicide."

May winced. "I know what that's like." she stroked the magical beast in her hands for comfort. She looked at the scars on her wrists. The Unicorn saw them too, and touched them with her horn. The scars twinkled and vanished. May was aghast.

"Eventually, Matthew came to the conclusion that life as a female was better than suicide, and a powerful Oracle changed him into the female you and I know as Tigris Euphrates." Erik concluded the story.

"Circe was a fool, she just gave him what he wanted." Sharm muttered angrily.

In a flash of insight, May began to piece things together. She turned to Sharm. "Why do you hate her?"

Sharm was frustrated. "I don't hate her. I'm just... not comfortable with her. He's my friend's younger brother. I just wanted the Unicorn to show him that he was really a boy."

Erik laughed. "That reasoning is pure folly, Sharm - you said yourself that the Unicorn does not prefer boys, and Tigris was visited by this Unicorn when she was little."

May's eyes lit up. "That's right! The Unicorn looks on the inside for feminine nature - not the outside!" she kissed the creature in her hands on the nose. "She was meant to be a girl from day one! Maybe that's the way some transsexuals are - they really are girls in boy's bodies."

Sharm was about to disagree and protest, but Erik stopped her. "This is not the time. We have tarried here too long already. The Weird Sisters..."

But it was too late. A plethora of magic appeared. Sharm was thrown backward as Luna picked up the lead on the bridle. Tigris, as a Unicorn, bucked and reared wildly, but in the end was subdued by a single thought from Luna. Shackles appeared around Sharm's wrists. Sharm tried to run, but tripped, and fell into the water. Erik had grabbed May, but like hungry snakes, more shackles slithered out of the ground itself, found their legs, and snapped their hungry jaws shut around their ankles. The two tripped, fell to the forest floor, and began to pull on the shackles which remained rigidly in place.

"NOW YOU WILL SUFFER!" the trio shouted in unison, as every person there vanished into thin air in a burst of magic, reappearing in the orchestra pit of the bible college's auditorium. All of them were shackled except Tigris, the Unicorn, who was bridled and Luna held her lead.

"Well done, girls." Scott told the trio.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" Erik demanded hotly.

"Temper temper, gargoyle. My name is Socrates, and this is my assistant Plato."

"Don't any of you Unseelie-lovers believe in original names?" Sharm rolled her eyes. "First Shakespeare..."

Socrates/Scott slipped down from his golden throne on the stage, and stood on the lip of the stage, looking down at the Unicorn. He was holding Tigris's sword with the ornate sapphires on the hilt in his hand. He drew the blade, setting the scabbard aside. With a leap, he jumped down into the orchestra pit, and walked towards the Unicorn that was Tigris, who remained silent and placid as a rock.

"Where's Tigris? What have you done with her?!!!" May demanded, not knowing she was the Unicorn.

Erik struggled on the chains, but to no avail. He, Sharm, and May watched their foe as he approached with sword bared. Socrates approached the Unicorn, and raised the sword. Tigris, the Unicorn,'s eyes went wide.

May and Sharm simultaneously screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The last thing Tigris saw was her own sword coming down at her face when he whole world went dark.

There was music out on the balcony, the dreamer realized, as she looked down at herself, and realized that the music was coming from behind her. Her gargoyle skin was colored white, and she was dressed all in white. She faced out from the balcony, across the desert, but her attention was on the music.

He sang to her.

She could not see him, but she knew he was there, because he sang. From somewhere she knew the words, but they didn't make any sense. Why did she feel like she'd always been here, waiting to hear this song? What did she do, now that he was here, singing it to her?

Slowly, she turned on the balcony to face the tall human male in a dark tuxedo who sang to her. He gently took her in his arms.

"Say you'll share with me

Each night, each morning

Say the word and I will follow you

Tell me all you say is true

Love me, that's all I ask of you!"

With a plethora of sparks and magic, Tigris was separated from her horn. May and Sharm were still screaming, as Tigris's eyes rolled back in her head, and she fainted in a heap of Unicorn to the floor. A cold wind seemed to fill the room from nowhere, and the lights seemed to darken. Tigris's sword rang with a resilient and clear note. With a clack, the horn came to rest on the gymnasium floor, as small curls of smoke rose up from it's base. Erik, however, wasted no time. The distraction was perfect. He reached over to May and with all his gargoyle strength, opened the shackle on May's leg just enough for her to slide her small ankle out. "Get the sword!" Erik shouted at her over the noise.

May dashed across the floor, doubled her fists together as one, and belted Socrates in the stomach. Not expecting the attack, he doubled over, dropping the sword, which May neatly intercepted by the hilt. With a single throw, she spun the blade end for end over the heads of those present. Erik reached out and caught it before the others knew what was going on.

The Weird Sisters back away, but one gestured towards May, who was suddenly surrounded by four new shackles mounted to the hardwood floor which attached themselves to her arms and legs, pulling her to the floor by the fallen form of Tigris and her still smoking alicorn. Sharm screeched and kicked at Socrates, who turned around and punched her in the face. "THAT was very stupid of you, Sharm!" Socrates snarled. She doubled over, holding one eye.

The Weird Sisters surrounded Erik, their hands held agressively in front of them. Erik held the sword poised. "You cannot kill us with THAT blade!" they said.

"No, but I can weaken you!" Erik replied with confidence. He lunged for Selene. He felt nothing but air, and spun to slice at the others, but Selene did double over, holding her middle. Enraged, Sharm's eyes glowed with red gargoyle flame, as she struggled against the chain that bound her in place.

"Are you afraid to fight me yourself?" she challenged him.

"I am not stupid enough to give into your challenges."

In the midst of this distraction, everyone had forgotten May - chained to the floor, and the smoking alicorn - newly separated from Tigris's body. She reached her left hand through the shackle, trying to reach the alicorn. No one had noticed her move toward it - they were all busy with Erik and Sharm. She stretched as far as she could, trying to get her fingers onto it.

Sharm managed to mash the heel of her shoe into Socrates's foot. "Take that, Senior Creep! A well dressed woman is never unarmed." Now Socrates was pissed off!

Just the second May touched the alicorn, she felt the shackles around her break into pieces. She picked it up, raised the alicorn over her head, pointed the tip at the Unicorn, and drove the thing like a dagger into the Unicorn's side.

It was if a nuclear explosion had suddenly rocked the gymnasium. Suddenly the whole room was filled with light and crackled with magic. A wind storm erupted like a hurricane - chairs flew, bits of paper and pencils pelted those present like raindrops. May stood still among the chaos, eye wide and a smile across her face. She'd done it! She knew it! Sharm and Erik felt their restraints vanish, and Sharm's form shimmered and her small elven features returned as the spells all around them broke down in this chaotic magical wind. At the center of this blast was a pillar of light which seemed to be spinning. A screaming call filled the air, that of a mighty cat. Out of the spinning pillar of light, a gargoyle flared it's wings.

The Unicorn and the alicorn had both vanished, and as the lights in the room returned to normal, a huge burn mark covered the floor, where Tigris lay unconscious, naked as a jaybird, in the center of the burned area - with a small silver star glowing right in the center of her forehead.

Sharm lay in a heap of red hair and iron chains on the carpeted auditorium floor, and Erik lay on the floor with burn marks on his skin, and Tigris's sword skidded across the floor, with the Weird Sisters between him and it.

Everyone was staring at Tigris.

"Wait a minute... I don't get it." May said, looking down at her fallen gargoyle friend. She removed her jacket from her shoulders, and used it cover Tigris's loins. "How could Tigris have been the Unicorn?"

Sharm, unfortunately, was out for the count, and not available to comment.

"You've lost!" Socrates shouted. "You've put up a good fight, and I've beaten you! Fair is fair! Sisters! Bottle them! They are becoming much too annoying." The sisters eyes glowed, and from their eyes and mouths shot beam of light. May, Erik, Sharm, and Tigris were enveloped in energy. May and Erik screamed. Socrates walked over and picked up Tigris's sword, enjoying the sound. "You will all pay for making me loose my prize."

The curtains in the auditorium had been closed, and the stage lights were all on. The chairs had somehow all been restored, and the burned area was gone. Tigris shook her head, and looked around her. In a line in one of the aisles, she lay between Erik on her left and May on her right. Sharm, bound by iron chains, lay to Erik's right. May and Erik started to shake their heads and rouse as well. Tigris reached over to Sharm and broke the chains around her, taking all the chains in her hand, she spoke a command. "Storage." The chains vanished, and her hands were all empty.

Sharm blinked, and sat upright. "Oooooh, that feels a WHOLE lot better."

"How did you get like this, Sharm?" Tigris inquired.

"I got called with Titania's mirror, much the same as Demona called Puck, and of course, with me in chains, I had to do his bidding." she explained, brushing the dirt from her tunic, rising in the air as she did so. "He was really good. He wanted to use me to call the Unicorn, but then you guys showed up right in time to stop him. You know the story from there."

"But..." May cut in, rubbing her head, and running a hand through her ebony hair. "How could Tigris have been the Unicorn?"

"I pulled a switch, see!" Sharm smiled, holding up two fingers. "There were two Unicorns. The original one is still out there. I was being forced by the jerk to call her, and she appeared. Tigris was there, injured by the trio, and the Unicorn restored her, like I said before." She gestured in the female gargoyle's general direction. "I had made a gold bridle to capture the unicorn out of some powerful magic to capture her and try and teach MATTHEW how to be a boy!" Sharm slurred the ex-human's name in a nasty way, and Tigris scowled at her angrily. She continued. "But then Tigris here casts a simple first-graders spell - it was actually kinda clever really - and where Tigris stood, the Unicorn appeared, and where the Unicorn stood, Tigris stood. So there I was, with Tigris in my bridle, and with the bridle filled the Unicorn ran to safety." Tigris smirked, Sharm put a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "My bridle was made with some unpredictable magics. Those magics needed a unicorn in the bridle to do their job, and magic sometimes takes the path of least resistance - it transformed Tigris into another Unicorn. I'm not surprised, there was plenty of magic there to do it."

Tigris rubbed her arms, and looked away. She wasn't going to talk about it.

"The magic made Tigris subservient to my will, and I also think they kept her from speaking." Sharm went on.

"THAT'S why the unicorn was so quiet!" May sighed in relief.

"More like I had nothing to say." Tigris finally snarled. "Being a Unicorn... it changes your perspectives on life a little. Things... suddenly don't seem to matter as much anymore, and you don't have much that you care about."

"Not something I want to try." Sharm announced.

"Neither did I." Tigris spat back at her.

"Anyhow, May - you have a gift for magic, you knew exactly what to do. Skewering Tigris with her own alicorn, or by any other Unicorn, would heal whatever spells she was under, and that's why she returned to normal. It's also what broke all the spells in the room at the time."

May was crestfallen. "Then I never actually saw a real Unicorn."

Sharm put a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, NO! You saw a REAL Unicorn! I take no half-measures. There was enough magic in the life lotion that I used on that lump of lead that I used to turn it into gold for the bridle, to turn every human in the world into gargoyles! That takes some real doing! She was a real Unicorn alright, just look at that flashy new mark on her forehead, she's gonna be branded now for life!"

"Mark?" Tigris asked with puzzlement, putting a paw to the silver star between her horns on her brow where her horn had been before Socrates had dispatched it, trying to feel it.

"Yes dear, it'd look just charming with a pair of silver moon earrings." Sharm smiled, and then suddenly smacked her forehead. "Oh, I CANNOT believe I just SAID that!"

Erik and May laughed, Tigris smiled. "That's the Sharm I remember." She shifted May's jacket around her, and pointed at Erik.

Sharm put a hand over Erik's eyes. "No peeking, young man."

Tigris handed May's coat back to her, and spoke another magic command. "Clothes!" Instantly, her loincloths reappeared belted around her, and she tied a small blue ribbon around her blonde hair. Sharm let Erik go, and looked at the hair band critically.

"Ummmm, no..." Sharm said critically. "You need a matching green."

"Oh hush. Fine time for you to be giving me fashion advice." Tigris shushed her. "You're the one that prefers I worship the phallus God, remember?" Sharm was insulted, folded her arms defiantly, her face bright red, but did not reply.

"Uh... guys...?" Erik said, looking up at the stage. All eyes turned in that direction.

The main curtain was billowing, changing color, almost like were made of water, and little concentric circles started to form like droplets were falling sidelong into that water. All of them lined up , facing the apparition.

Tigris raised one paw in the air. "MY SWORD!" she commanded, and all at once her scabbard and sapphire hilted blade appeared in her paw, which she belted on. Sharm produced one for Erik, as she herself shimmered to Gargoyle form, and also wore a sword and scabbard. Sharm even handed a small amethyst hilted dagger to May, wrapped in a scabbard, and winked. "Just don't tell anyone where you got it. It's got iron in it."

Little mouths appeared at the center of the rippling rings on the curtains. The mouths began to speak, using Socrates/Scott's voice. "Hey! I liked that sword!"

Tigris stood defiantly. "My sword knows it's master and comes to me when I call it." she strode up the aisle to the Orchestra pit, looking up at the stage, her friends beside her. She pulled the sword half out of it's sheath, standing at attention. "Declare yourself!"

The curtains parted, and there was Socrates and Plato again. "I am Socrates and this is Plato. We are here to deal with you once and for all."

With a clear ring, Tigris and Erik's sword jumped from their sheathes, and the two warriors held them before them. "Come and face us then, human!"

The two human boys on the stage vanished, but a voice remained. "Oooh, but we're not human!"

There was a rushing of wind, and the terrain suddenly changed. The two gargoyles, human, and fairy were standing on the well-manicured lawn outside the gymnasium, where the waning moonlight and the breaking light of the dawn to come revealed the heavy construction machinery working at the new building site. There were three heavy machines, a backhoe, a bulldozer, and a wrecking ball. In the seats of each of these sat a woman in workman's garb, each with the same face, but different hair - gold, silver, and ebony.

"The Weird Sisters! Find cover!" Erik exclaimed.

Three CAT diesel engines roared to life, and three sets of treads were put into motion. The trio turned their heavy machinery in the direction of their prey, as they were busy hiding behind large steel pipes and concrete blocks. They began to circle the four repeatedly. As they did so, the ground began to seep with some kind of a gas. May began to wheeze first, and soon Erik and Tigris followed, followed finally by Sharm.

"Poison!"

"Made virulent by magic!" Sharm coughed, as she too began to be affected. "Even I'm vulnerable to it!"

Tigris looked around for something she could do, but felt all the strength leave her body. She collapsed to the ground in a head, dropping her sword, staring up at the trees overhead.

She managed to pull herself up - but without her body!!!

Erik and May were there too, looking down at their own bodies. They looked at each other -- appearing like apparitions above their bodies, only half there.

"Oh m-m-m-m--my G-G-G-G-God! Are we d-d-d-d-dead?" May stuttered in rising horror.

Tigris looked around, quickly. "DON'T ANYBODY MOVE!!! As long as we can see ourselves we haven't moved on to the next life. I've been here before."

"Twice in one night? You're not doing well, Tigris." Sharm noted comically.

"What a time to joke, Sharm!" Erik exclaimed, pointing at her fallen self. "You're in the same predicament!"

"LOOK!" Tigris exclaimed.

As the poison gas dissipated, the trio in their heavy machinery began to circle inwards, moving objects out of their way sometimes with their machines or by their magic. Circling like hawks, ready for the slaughter.

"Their going to pulverize our bodies while we're down, under those... things! We'll never survive this!"

From nowhere came the sound of Socrates's insane laughter.

What happened next was something of a blur to everyone present, or at least those who were half-present. Something like that. Out of the predawn moonlit trees - calm, proud, and tranquil as a summer's day, she slowly stepped out of the forest. The Unicorn - the original native Unicorn of these forests, stepped forth. Trees began to grow out of nowhere as she walked along. The Weird Sisters, turned, saw her, and tried to move in her direction, but the trees grew into enormous impediments that blocked the path of the heavy machinery. Luna actually rammed her backhoe into the trees, destroying the machinery, and was thrown to the ground as the fuel tank exploded in a ball of fire. Selene attempted to bulldoze one unsuccessfully, and Phoebe slung the wrecking ball at them, only to find the dents she made we small. The trees were enchanted.

Confidently, the Unicorn skewered the bodies of each of the bodies with her horn in turn, and the floating spirits found themselves blinking their own eyelids again, and rising to a sitting position. When she was finished healing each of them, Tigris raced forward and embraced the Unicorn's neck.

"My sister! I understand now! We are alike now, you and I!"

Gently, the Unicorn nuzzled the gargoyle. "SO YOU ARE, MY CHILD. WE WILL FLY THE WIND TOGETHER SOMETIME." Her voice was still as gentle as ever, soft and caring, like a mother to a child. "BUT FIRST, YOUR DESTINY AWAITS YOU."

Tigris turned to face the three evil sisters, having abandoned their construction equipment, and the associated garb, and had come flying in their direction. Tigris raised a talon in the air, and began to chant, her eyes aglow - this time with magic.

"Chains of iron!

Do as thy master wishes!

Form thyselves together,

And bind these witches!

The chains that had bound Sharm appeared, hanging in Tigris's other paw, began to glow with light and magic, and then leapt out from Tigris's grasp, touching each one of the fay trio, drawing them together in a bundle, and locking themselves together in one endless chain, tightly around the three.

Erik was aghast.

"Where's Scott and Paul?" May asked. All five were startled when black smoke rose from the ground behind them where the construction equipment had been left behind, and the two humans appeared, walking towards them.

Tigris grabbed her sword, and held it to Selene's throat. "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" she ordered.

Socrates and Plato stopped. "You're an innocent! You would never slay them!" Socrates shouted at her. "I saw myself - the unicorn came to you!"

"Don't bet your sister's life on it." she replied. "I've killed in the heat of battle before. Are you willing to take that risk?"

"ENOUGH!!!" came a booming voice that shook everyone nearly to the ground. The Unicorn raised her head, but did not become alarmed. The others shielded their eyes, as a brilliant portal opened, and out stepped a large man with blue skin and ornate tenth century clothes.

The Unicorn nodded her head to him. "LORD OBERON."

* * *

"I have come to take back that which was stolen from my lady wife!" Oberon said, pointing in Socrates's direction. Making a motion to one side of him, the portal beside him closed, and another opened to his side, and a tall mirror with irregular right-angled sides appeared in the place of this second portal. "You and the rest of the Unseelie-sympathizers have disobeyed my wishes and made my life difficult for the last time! I commanded you not to touch the honor guard clan, of which Erik and Tigris are members, which you have nearly slain tonight. Each of you here are bound! Bound as humans until you learn to obey me properly!"

Each of the Weird trio and the two humans boys were instantly aflame in magic, and started screaming in pain. The weird trio became the three school mistresses again.

"Yes, my Lord." they each said in unison.

Pacified, the Lord of the Third Race turned to face Sharm. Like the cat who had caught the canary, Sharm hid one hand behind her back, and waved at him with her fingers. "Uh... Hi..."

"I'm disappointed in you Sharm."

"Disappointed, My Lord?"

"You were supposed to learn humility with the others, but you are still too proud."

"P-proud, My Lord?" she stuttered.

"Proud of your link with the human - your 'safety net' as you call it. I could easily break your link, but I have no wish to kill an innocent human." Oberon gestured towards Tigris. "You are too proud of your femininity - it clouds your judgement regarding my Honor Guard warrior Tigris, and led to this... incident." His voice was irritated still - he was obvious not happy with Sharm.

Tigris walked up to the Lord of the Third Race, a smile crossing her lips. She stood beside the imposing blue figure, motioning to Sharm. "I'd say she needs a taste of how the other side lives, My Lord."

"Very wise, young Tigris. You impress me with all that you have learned. Most of my children have already explored life as both, but your human upbringing clouded your judgement, Sharm. If you value the life of your human protectorate, you will listen to me. I think Tigris is wise." Oberon reasoned, rubbing his chin with his pointer finger and thumb. He thought for a moment, and then raised his hands out towards Sharm.

Sharm began to shimmer slightly. Not very much, but a tiny glow. Her hair lost some of it's body and fullness, her face became sightly pointed and angular, her chain became slightly pointed, her legs and other curves thinned and became a little more muscular, her feet got a little bigger, her beasts lost their fullness, and her white blouse and violet dress shifted into a white tunic and violet leggings with a gold belt.

Tigris giggled to herself. "You look like Puck!"

Mortified, Sharm touched her chest. "But - NO! I'm in love! I can't...!!!!" she stopped, touching her throat, hearing the sound of her new, young masculine voice.

"You WILL, Sharm. Once you can prove to me your humility, I will return your young womanhood." Oberon commanded. "Even puck knows how to be a young woman, and so you must learn to be a young man."

Sharm, the boy, collapsed to the ground in a heap, and put his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees.

Erik felt sorry for him, and walked over to him, touching him on the shoulder. "It's not so bad... when you get used to it." Sharm decided to ignore THAT comment.

"But I'm... I'm a woman! TRAPPED in a man's body!" Sharm protested.

Tigris feigned forgetfulness, and scratched her chin with her talon. "Now where have I heard THAT cliché before?" she returned Sharm's previous evil laugh. Oberon smiled, enjoying the joke. "Oh, yes - I said it, and YOU told me to just adjust. Well Sharm, ADJUST!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Sharm wailed, but Oberon was unsympathetic. "Look, Papa Smurf, I'll...!!!" she began to threaten him.

Oberon made a motion with his hand, and a gold band appeared across Sharm's mouth. The Lord of the Third Race had heard enough. "You dare to threaten ME Sharm?"

Sharm's frame relaxed, and she lay on the ground in a heap.

The Father of the Third Race walked forward, his robes swaying, towards Erik, and then turned back to Tigris. "Yes, I bless your union. This forest is to be your protectorate, Tigris - I command it."

Tigris blinked in confusion. Union? What was he talking about?

He then turned to the Unicorn. She nodded once more to him. "A good day then, Lord Oberon?"

"Aye, cousin. These warriors shall serve thee well, fulfilling our bargain perfectly. They are yours. Fare the well." He bowed slightly to her, turned, walked over to his mirror, and vanished in a plethora of magic. The two human boys and the weird trio vanished as well. The damage to the construction equipment suddenly righted itself, and everything appeared normal on the school grounds.

"Union? Protectorate? What does that mean?" Tigris asked the Unicorn.

"YOU'LL FIND OUT ABOUT THE UNION PART IN DUE TIME. HE HAS COMMANDED YOU AND ERIK MAKE THE FORESTS HERE A PROTECTORATE OF YOURS, LIKE THE GUATEMALA CLAN GUARDS THEIR RAIN FOREST, YOU ARE TO GUARD THIS ONE. THAT WILL ALSO ALLOW YOU AND I TO SPEND SOME MOONLIGHT FLIGHTS TOGETHER NOW THAT WE ARE BOTH OF THE SAME BLOOD." she replied.

Tigris nodded, looking into the forest, and nuzzling the unicorn.

May shook her head. "Jalapeña! I'm glad that's over!" She helped Sharm, the boy, to her feet. "I'm just glad he didn't decide to start giving me lessons, either! God knows, I've had enough lately..."

Puzzled, Tigris looked at the human girl. "Huh? What do you mean? That was Oberon - Lord of the Third Race."

"Yeah, I know. We've met before." May said, brushing dirt off her coat.

Tigris and Erik looked at each other. "How could you have met before? He's the king of Avalon! You only tangle with him if you have a death wish!" Erik exclaimed.

May smiled, and looked up at the female gargoyle. "Don't you know who I am, yet?"

Tigris paused, then smiled. "Demeter."

The human girl shifted, and in her place stood Tigris's shoulder-friend, the tan colored female gargoyle with green wings. "What clue did you pick up on?"

"The alicorn - you, more than anyone I know, would know what to do with an alicorn - you taught me just about everything I know. Although, how could I miss a name like May Hestia? Your handclasp? I'll bet you arranged this whole school girl/school boy scenario in advance just to get things ready."

"THAT WAS MY DOING. YOU NEED TO FINISH YOUR HUMAN EDUCATION, AS WELL AS YOUR GARGOYLE ONE." The Unicorn added.

"As long as I don't have to use the boy's locker room, I'm fine with it." Tigris smiled. She turned to Erik. "Come on - you'll have a good time. I can show you the way society works outside of school."

"YOU ILLUSIONS WILL SHIFT TO YOUR GARGOYLE FORMS ON SUNDOWN UNLESS YOU USE THE RINGS. UNTIL YOU GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE, YOU BOTH WILL NOT TURN TO STONE DURING THE DAY."

Tigris and Erik both nodded. "Gargoyle by night, school kid by day. We can always stay in the hidden room upstairs!" Tigris agreed.

Demeter/May stepped over to Sharm, and hugged him. "Go visit Christine, they'll cheer you up. They're expecting you."

Sharm vanished in a poof of magic, but her voice lingered for a moment. "When doesn't she?"

That was when the sun peeked over the horizon. Demeter turned back into May, and the Unicorn watched as her two little protégé's became school girl and school boy again, with their book bags over their shoulders. "GO, CLASSES WILL BE STARTING."

Each, in succession, kissed the Unicorn on the nose. "Until later!" Sandra/Tigris exclaimed as she, May/Demeter, and Eric/Erik ran off to the main building.

The Unicorn smiled like a mother, watching her children go off to school in the morning before she vanished into the forest shadows.

* * *

Several weeks later.

The lights were low, and the music was loud - but not too loud. The beat was heavy, and the air was hot around them. (Was it all the other people, or was it the two of them?) Tigris, as Sandra, wasn't quite sure. She was dressed in green velvet from the tips of her shoulders to her toes, with green velvet heels, black hose, her hair done up in golden ringlets with hints of silver. The back reached down teasingly, and the neckline hinted at better things to come. Her skin was milky white and she smelled of jasmine.

She was being twirled about by Erik, as Eric, who - as it turned out - was not a bad dancer! He was dressed in a black suit with a matching green cummerbund, matching green button cover over the top button, and a tuxedo shirt underneath, and in his jacket pocket was the white rose Sandra had given him, and a matching one of baby's breath was around Sandra's wrist.

My hands are tied
My body bruised
She got me with
Nothing to win
And nothing left to loose!
And you give yourself away!
And you give yourself away!
And you give! And you give!
And you give yourself away!
With or without you
With or without you
I can't live
With or without you!

As the song ended, Sandra paused, wrapped in Eric's arms, letting him hold her. She loved the feeling. She felt Eric's lips kiss her ear, and felt her body tingle at his touch. "I love you, Tigris Euphrates." he said.

Tigris was stunned. Her? Eric, well Erik, knew that she used to be a boy - a human boy, even. Could he possibly be that blind? They always say love is blind. But is it really blindness? They'd only known each other for a couple of weeks now, but since their adventures with the Unicorn, they had gotten to know each other, and ever since then, she'd felt herself falling, falling helplessly out of control.

"Unicorn, oh Unicorn

If I fall in love tonight

Will I still fly with you?" she silently prayed. All at once, and answer to her prayer came.

"OF COURSE, MY CHILD. EVEN UNICORNS MUST REPRODUCE."

They both added a new photo to their collections that night, time reading "With or Without You - 2020".

After the dance was ended, the two walked up the stairs to their secret room, and closed the door behind them. Once the light was on, the two shimmered, and appeared as gargoyles again, dressed in their loincloths and breeches.

"Oh, that was wonderful!" Tigris exclaimed, falling onto the couch with a dreamy look on her face. "I've never felt so alive! So full of energy!"

Erik smiled, sitting on the couch next to her. He bent down, and kissed her full upon the lips. Tigris felt his tongue begin to search, and felt her body begin to tingle in a way she'd never dreamed possible. She was nothing but a puddle of quivering nerves now.

"I think I've fallen in love with you." Erik said again.

"Why?" she inquired, breathlessly.

"Because your perfect! "You're intelligent, but at the same time naive, serious and at the same time funny, strong but in the same instant fragile and helpless, able to kill and able to nurture and cry. No other gargoyle I've ever met is like you."

"You know I used to be a boy?"

"I don't care." he replied, honestly. "I don't know him - I know you. You're perfect."

"You know my family only seems to produce female eggs?"

"I don't care!" he said again. "I want YOU! We can always adopt from another rookery." Erik stood, paced the floor for a minute, and sat down again, searching for the words he wanted.

"Don't you get it?" he continued. "I don't want your body, I don't want who you used to be, I want you for YOU! ...Who you are now!"

Tigris smiled. She remembered the dream she had when she had been returned from her Unicorn form to her proper gargoyle form. He had been the one singing to her, singing the words, "Love me - that's all I ask of you." For the first time, Tigris realized she loved him too. Tigris reached up and cautiously touched his chest. It had been a long time since she had touched the chest of a gargoyle male, and the last time it had happened, it had probably been his/her own. She felt an electric tingle inside her that filled her breasts. "I love you too, Erik of Avalon."

Erik took her paw in his, and looked deeply into her baby blues. "Then you'll marry me?"

How could she say no?

AVALON

"What's the girdle for?" Tigris inquired, baffled. Gargoyles never have been able to invent panty hose that won't tear on their fetlocks - it would have to wait until they invented untearable Nylon.

The forest-mint colored female gargoyle stood in front of a large set of tripe mirrors while five other gargoyles - Djali, Lysander, Obsidiana, Christyne, and Jade fussed and fussed with the stitches in the lace on the dress on a table. They would magically remove stitches, reposition lace, and then magically restitch them, and then find something wrong and start all over again. Tigris was dressed in a set of slips made for a gargoyle's dress, a large layer of crinoline to flare the skirt, and Keturah was using her feathered fingers to try and snug up the fasten on the girdle.

"Oh, you are so naive, girl. Haven't you ever read a romance novel?" Keturah laughed. "OUCH!" she suddenly yelped.

"Hundreds of them. Doesn't mean I understood it all." Tigris looked back in the mirror to see Keturah holding one of her feathered hands in her mouth, and a lone feather stuck in her girdle fastener. Tutela used two of her red talons to draw the feather out the right way and handed it back to it's owner. "You lost this, Ket."

"Fat lot of good it does me now." she moaned.

Tutela pulled on the girdle a little and shook her head. "What we need is someone with fingers."

"Guess that'll have to be me." Christyne volunteered. The other girls filled in on around the table as Christyne went over to Tigris. Tigris started to try and help, but Tutela quickly batted her paws away.

"Stop that! This is your wedding. Your job is to stand there and look as pretty as possible, and NOTHING else."

"But..." Tigris began to protest, but Tutela would have none of it.

Christyne instantly shifted to her human form, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of tennis shoes like she were going down the block to the store. Being a shape shifter obviously had it's perks. She easily tightened the girdle correctly. She didn't like her other forms, and she wasn't afraid to tell you so. Her self image was that of Malcora the gargoyle, and she stayed in that form pretty much of the time. It was also basically necessary in regards to her children, because she carried, bore, weaned, and raised the in her gargoyle form as well.

"HOLD STILL!" Shayde chastised Tigris. Once again, Tigris straightened for her. Using the skill of many years, she had a few small brushes in her hand, and was gently dabbing something across Tigris's cheeks. Tigris couldn't see exactly what she was doing because she was facing sideways in the mirror so that she could see the other working behind her.

"I sure wish I had Sharm's help."

"He's helping with Erik." Demeter noted. Was there a note of laughter in her voice?

"Now I know how a piece of paper feels." Tigris muttered.

"We'll turn that paper into a masterpiece." Tutela corrected her. "A little talent, a little experience, and a dash magic for good measure. It's those first impressions that will last you both a lifetime."

"We're gonna get it right this time, if it kills us all!" Demeter laughed from the table.

"It just might." Ket muttered, looking at the sore spot of red on her hand.

"Hopefully not." Tigris sighed. "Mother?"

Tutela looked up from the girdle and crinoline skirt. "Hm?"

"Am I doing the right thing?"

"Cute! She's got the jitters!" Jade exclaimed.

"Sí!" Obsidiana added in her lovely Latin accent. "Es getten wet feet!"

"It's a good sign." Christyne said. "A very good sign. She was way too confident last time, and look what happened."

"I'm serious!" Tigris said. "Am I going to jump in, and then have the same thing happen again?"

Tutela positioned her dragon/gargoyle-like self in front of Tigris's field of vision. "How do you feel? Why are you doing this? Is there some reason you need to do this? You don't have to, you know."

"I..." Tigris honestly couldn't think of but one answer to that. "I... I love him. A male..."

"And you're a female." Tutela followed her train of thought. "That's very natural. He's a good boy - I like him a lot - Princess Katherine and the others raised him well. I think you chose very well."

"It wasn't a choice... so much as... it just happened."

"My girls deserve the best - all of them."

"If he doesn't, I'll hunt him down an kill him." Christyne muttered, with pins sticking out of her teeth.

"Please don't do that." Tigris replied. "I've been dead too many times - I don't want him to have to go through that again... for a long time."

Tutela smiled. "You're doing fine. If you want to stop, we can, but tonight's the night - it's the altar or bust."

"Don't say that mom, please." Tigris said, pulling the edges of her top slip and checking her reflection in the mirror. "Am I too small for him, you think?"

Christyne looked up at her. "You're bigger than me."

"Me too!" Keturah added, bluntly as ever. "Lucky sh** - you go straight from tissue paper to the boobs of the family. Besides - after a few hatchlings, you'll probably hang down to your waist!"

Tigris blushed furiously. "How did you know about THAT?!!!"

Christyne laughed. "I don't always foresee the future exactly. Besides, she's right." Christyne added. "Give it a couple hatchlings, and you'll probably grow to a C cup."

"I just want him to like me." Tigris worried.

"Honey," Lysander added, "I think he'll like you in a burlap sack. He's SO enamored with you."

"But how long will that last?" Tigris asked.

"Forever." Tutela answered.

"How can you know?"

Tutela held her daughter's chin between her thumb and pointer talon. "You believe in it, and never let go of that belief. How else do you think I go on?"

There was a long silence in the room. Tigris sighed. "Poor daddy."

Erik's palms were dripping wet. Lord Oberon himself was here! They had sent him an invitation, not wanting to alienate such a formidable ally, and he had asked if he could give away the bride as she had no immediate father figure who would do it. It was, after all, his castle and his Island. Not long ago, Lady Titania had whispered something in his ear, and he had turned and left for the bride's dressing suite. That meant they were ready and the ceremony was starting. He checked his collar again. Sharm was sitting next to him, looking backwards, up the aisle, also waiting for things to start.

"What could be taking so long?" Erik whispered to him.

"Do you have any IDEA how hard it is to put one of those things on a gargoyle? Let alone a human?" he whispered back. "It's a whole night's work, that gets disassembled in ten minutes!"

"Why? Why all that work for so little?"

"The first impression is pretty valuable, Erik. I've got bets going on how low they can make your jaw drop." Sharm grinned.

Erik scowled. Ever the tricky one.

Lysander and Christyne carefully slipped the shoes on her feet, softly padded two-inch heels in a pearl color. The back of the dress was carefully laced and tied around her wings so as to allow plenty of motion without straining the lace in the bodice. The neck gently scooped down to provide a teasing glimpse of her cleavage through the lace without being provocative. The dress was sleeveless with ornate embroidery work and lace surrounding the bodice. She wore opera gloves made of a gaussy material that did not reach past the points on her elbows. She winced uncomfortably at the way it pushed her breasts around, but then... she wanted them so badly at one time, she'd best count her blessings. Lord Oberon stepped forwards with the veil. Tigris was led off the stand in front of the mirror, so that she wouldn't have to bend in the dress. Oberon was tall, but not THAT tall. With the veil in place, Christyne rose up in the air in her human form, fiddled with the arrangement slightly so that it worked with the tiara in the hair arrangement. Finally, she was given her large white rose bouquet, and led back to the stand and the mirrors.

Christyne, in her human shape, hung in the air like a fairy, scratching her chin, looking at her. "There's missing something..." She snapped her fingers, and the whole outfit changed. All of the girls present suddenly cried out in consternation. Tigris looked in the mirror, and saw herself done up in a Mardi Gras dress with a big feathered blouse, wild hairdo, and a hat covered in fruit. Tutela shouted in consternation. Christyne snapped her fingers again. The outfit became a fur suit with a mask that looked like the face of a rat, including a covering for her tail, making her look like a rat from The Nutcracker Ballet with breasts and wings. Everyone shouted in consternation again. Christyne snapped her fingers a third time. This time a human girl appeared in an off-the-shoulder bright blue bare midriff with baggy pants, curly cloth shoes, a large sapphire set in her hair, and very long black hair done up in matching blue ribbons. Around her neck hung a heavy gold necklace, matching a pair of large gold earrings.

"WHOA?!!!" Christyne shouting, madly shaking her head. "Where did THAT come from?"

"Stop trying to improve, Chrissy! You're becoming more and more like Sharm every

day!" Tutela shook her head at her eldest child.

Tigris reappeared as herself. Lord Oberon and Lady Titania, at the end of the chamber, were chuckling a little to themselves as well. Christyne, hanging in the air just next to her shoulder, slipped a pair of brightly polished silver moon earrings into her ears, and nodded in satisfaction. She helped lift the veil for a moment - much more opaque than other veils she had seen - Oberon had insisted on that. Tigris gasped - she felt so... so... Elegant!

"Splendid work!" "I love it!" the girls were saying to each other, admiring their collective work.

Tigris searched her shape with her eyes, amazed. With the perfect touches of makeup, the dress, and whatever magic they had used, couldn't help but stare. She felt a smile creep across her lips. She looked so much prettier when she smiled, she concluded. There, between her horns was a brilliant silver star where her horn had been, and Sharm had been right - the earrings and diamond necklace did set it off perfectly.

Smiling, she turned on the platform to face her sisters, both in blood and in rookery. "I'm ready!"

"You still want to get married?" Tutela asked.

Tigris was beaming. "Oh yes!"

Tutela smiled in a self-satisfied way. "I thought you'd feel better once you saw the finished product."

She turned to Oberon, who also smiled. "Listen to your mother, she knows best. Come now, Titania tells me Erik is ready and waiting to begin."

Erik could not hear the music. He shifted uncomfortably as things were set into motion. There were too many people here - gargoyles and fay alike. A lot of the Miniclan, the Avalon Clan, and the children of Oberon himself. All he knew was the pounding of his heart.

Tigris felt something nearly trip her as she began to walk in the dress, when she realized it was her tail hitting her sword. Her good Sapphire sword was in a white scabbard, and hung in place on the dress - per Miniclan tradition, that there be ceremonial battle dress present. There were even stories of weddings where those ceremonial weapons saw blood. Tigris shivered at the thought. In front were Jade and Lysander, followed by Djali and Obsidiana, lastly Demeter, the flower girls, followed by Christyne with the ring. Lysander's eye's met Lex's at the stand, and for just a moment old hatreds allowed to cool, if not for this one occasion.

Tigris paced herself. Step, step, pause... step, step, pause... She saw Erik! Wow, he looked mighty dashing she thought, feeling her body heat up. Not now, she chastised herself, I'm saving myself for marriage. Step, step, pause... Step step, pause... Oh, why couldn't she just run up to him, kiss him, and end it all right now. Pace yourself, girl... Step step pause. Damn this cathedral is bigger than it looks... step step pause... She momentarily wished Erik had to do this same pomp... step step pause...

SHE WAS RAVISHING! ABSOLUTELY HEAVENLY! Erik had no words to describe her beauty... except one... perfect. Tigris. His Tigris. He couldn't see much through her veil, but the silver star on her brow shone radiantly. His heart felt like it would leap out of his chest. He wanted to run to her... but no... he had to wait.

After what seemed like an eternity, she reached the dais. The flower gar-girls were seated, Titania was holding Erik's arm, while Christyne and Sharm (the boy) held the ring pillows. King Gorebash once again stood over the ceremony, as he had before for Tigris's last wedding. Erik would have preferred Goliath himself, but he was... unavailable.

Tigris wasn't listening to the sermon, as the two gargoyles knelt at the altar. Tigris felt suddenly tired and sick to her stomach. Was this right?

"Do you, Erik, take this woman to be your wife, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, under the eyes of God, for the rest of time?"

"I do." he said, giving her a sidelong wink.

Tigris panicked. Now it was HER turn. What would she say?!!! It was if she were on stage and suddenly had forgotten her lines. That had happened to her once in a grade school play, and she had been so embarrassed....

"Do you, Tigris Euphrates, take this man to be your husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, under the eyes of God, for the rest of time?"

Oh, Dammit! She was on! The question! Did she? Could she? Would she? But all it took was one look in his seductive, deep green eyes, and she couldn't say no.

"I do."

Erik turned to Sharm, who handed one gold band to him, and Tigris did the same, turning to her sister.

"With these tokens, do you seal a solemn vow of love, that in the eyes of whatever God watches over and protects Gargoyles - the protectors of mankind, the hunted, the hated, and the scorned, may you be blessed by him or her for the rest of time. May there be a home, somewhere, for two souls in love, no matter how different they may be - a heaven for rich and poor, male and female, gendered and transgendered, human, gargoyle, and elf. May you watch over one another, and together find happiness. You may kiss the bride."

He was talking to her, Tigris realized with a start. Gendered and Transgendered, human and gargoyle... she and Erik were all those things...

Erik lifted the veil, and the lovely face of his bride, with tears rolling down her cheeks. She dabbed her face with a tissue for the thousandth time during the ceremony, and looked up at him with those wonderful baby blue eyes of hers. She waited, longingly, while Erik moved every so slowly. Tigris seemed to hang on this as it were final word that he loved her.

As if there was any question.

Erik gently leaned over to her, and their lips met. A loud cheer went up, but the two didn't even notice. Tigris finally let go her inhibitions. She was married - she didn't give a Sh** anymore! She threw her arms around his neck, and the kiss lasted for several very long seconds.

The couple turned to their audience, and there was relative quiet. "MY BRIDE! LADY TIGRIS OF THE HONOR GUARD OF AVALON!"

"MY LORD!" she replied, and the cheering went up anew.

With a deft scooping motion, Erik picked Tigris, who yelped, up in his arms and ran across down the aisle. With a flinging motion of her wrist, Tigris flung her the bouquet, and where it went she had no idea, as she watched it go. It flew threw the air, almost as if on a string, and landed right square in Keturah's lap. Startled, she looked - her eyes glazed, and a smile crossing her lips. She already had tears in her eyes, but now they were happy tears. "THANK YOU!" she exclaimed, screaming in excitement.

At the end of the hall, Erik stopped and let her down. "Wha... what are you doing." Tigris asked, confused. Erik shushed her, and she was quiet. Erik placed one of her legs on a chair, and stuck his paw up her dress. Tigris gasped in shock, but Erik quickly found what he was looking for. There was a snap, and Tigris felt the girdle slide free. He'd cheated! - he used a talon to cut the girdle off! Tigris sighed, "Oh, NOW I get it!" Now she knew what the girdle was for! He'd run with her down the aisle so that everyone else wouldn't see up her dress. He slung it at the men's side of the chapel, not really knowing where it would land... which was right into Sharm's face. Startled, he picked the bit of lingerie off his face, and blinked several times stupidly. Tigris thought he looked exceptionally cute.

"But..." Sharm whispered to himself.

They had a forest - and a Unicorn to protect. Tigris held open her arms for Erik once more. "Take me, or we'll be buried in rice!" she exclaimed. Erik did so, and they were out the door, up the stairs, and off the battlements into the air to the skiff waiting by the shore. Of course the skiff had already had any number of aluminum cans tied to it, but Erik sat his bride down in the boat, lifted it out into the water, and jumped in.

As they entered the mists, the crowd had gathered on the beach. The last thing the crowd saw of them as they went out of sight was Erik raising one paw to them in leave-taking.

* Epilogue *

Washington state: later that night.

Tigris Euphrates had been blindfolded by her lover on the skiff, as he knew exactly where they were going. She giggled and laughed, allowing herself to be courted. To be honest, she thought she knew where they were going too, but she kept quiet about it. He carried her - enormous dress and all, up over the lip of the skiff - dousing his suit in the water, and carrying her along the steep black rocked bluffs near Port Angeles. They had a forest - and a Unicorn to protect, but Erik, however, was concerned with the other Unicorn - HIS Unicorn.

The secret upstairs attic room at the high school on the Pacific coast now featured one of the magical presents that had been presented them at the wedding. It was a large four-poster bed. There were also matching couches and chairs. The couple were turning this room into their little sanctuary - forever hidden away from the world. Tigris was a little surprised to see all the effort Erik had put forth to prepare the room for tonight as she found herself being un-blindfolded, and she was very pleasantly surprised. She sighed to herself. He knew exactly what spot would mean the most to her. He was so sweet. Sure, she may have rushed into their marriage, but she didn't regret it - not for one single second.

He set out candles and incense, the air smelled of trees and forests. She knew exactly what was going through her lover's mind - he was trying to make everything just PERFECT. She had done the same thing at Iolair and Tigris's honeymoon a decade before. She remembered how she had felt then - she wanted more than anything to get her paws on the old Tigris and explore every part of her body. With some amusement, Tigris Euphrates noticed Erik was feeling this same way, from the little ways that his hands twitched with excitement as he tried to make everything ready. There was one critical difference, though. At her first honeymoon, Tigris had felt unabidable tension at playing the part of the aggressor - the male, when she wanted the part she found herself in tonight. Tonight that feeling was absent, and was replaced by something wonderful and euphoric - this was IT! This time it was RIGHT!

There was music, but it wasn't real, Tigris was sure of that. Tigris wasn't sure if she was hearing it or not - if she was hearing voices or not, but there was a drumbeat somewhere, and voices - Gaelic, chanting old melodies. It was almost as if Tigris felt her mother hanging over in spirit singing to her in the old tongue.

She felt Erik's talons gently unlacing the leather laces that fastened together the back of the dress - so carefully placed there by her girlfriends earlier that day. She felt a twinge of cold air hit her bare gargoyle skin, and felt the laces slipped around the base of her wings. She flexed them twice, letting the laces fall free.

Erik's suitpants were ruined. Tigris deduced she could probably fix them with a little household magic. Erik had undone the top of his shirt slightly, letting open a few buttons. He was sweating. Tigris, again, understood just how he was feeling. He was tense, but doing his best to make sure he was as slow as tact allowed. Tigris smiled to herself. That was good - slow was exactly how she wanted it. She wanted to be unwrapped like a Christmas present, not displayed for him like a side of beef.

Gently, the Avalon raised gargoyle picked her up under her knees, and set her gently down in the soft folds of the bed, and gently kissed her several times. His arms were still wrapped around her waist, and she kept hers around his shoulders. Oh, he was not a large built gargoyle like Phantom or Goliath like Tigris had always found herself lusting after in the part. While small, Erik was enough, and she loved the feel of him. The touch of his skin against hers felt like magic! Tigris felt the star on her brow radiating a magical glow.

Erik paused, a puzzled look on his face, looking in her eyes. Tigris was suddenly alarmed. What had she done? Had she been too passive? Was there something they were forgetting? Did he find her unattractive? A hundred horrific scenarios suddenly flashed through her mind, as she panicked. She'd been afraid of this! Tigris began to feel everything fall apart around her. "Whatever is the matter? Don't you like me?" she pleaded, almost in desperation.

"Of course I do, my love! I was just wondering if I was getting the fair end of this deal." he replied with a gentle smile.

"What deal?" Tigris asked, confused.

"Me and you. Is being a female so much better than being a male?"

Tigris blinked. She hadn't expected THAT to come up. "It has it's ups and downs. Try having a period sometime - or breasts." She almost laughed at herself for how much she worried about them!

"You seem to enjoy it." Erik retorted.

"True. Why do you ask? Do you wanna try it?" She grinned like the Cheshire cat.

Erik laughed. "Hell no!"

Tigris smiled, closing her eyes. "Then shut up and kiss me, you fool."

No more talk of darkness
Forget these wide-eyed fears
I'm here - nothing can harm you
my words will warm and calm you
Let me be your freedom
let daylight dry your tears.
I'm here, with you, beside you,
to guard you and to guide you...

Say you love me
every waking moment
turn my head
with talk of summertime
Say you need me
with you, now and always
promise me that all you say is true
that's all I ask of you...

Let me be your shelter
let me be your light.
You're safe: No one will find you
your fears are far behind you

All I want is freedom,
a world with no more night...
And you, always beside me
to hold me and to hide me

Then say you'll share with me
one love, one lifetime
let me lead you
from your solitude...
Say you need me
with you, beside you
anywhere you go,
let me go too
Christine, that's all I ask of you...

Say you'll share with me
one love, one lifetime
say the word and I will follow you
Share each day with me
each night, each morning,
Say you love me

You know I do

Love me
that's all I ask of you

Anywhere you go
let me go too
Love me
that's all I ask of you...

("All I Ask of You", the Phantom of the Opera)