The nights looked cold…

Sitting atop the tallest branch of the tallest oak, I stared at the moon. It had been three days since I had been assigned to my new task.

The hours had passed by quietly, but they weren’t good hours…

As I tried my best not to fall asleep, or as Isa called it, drifting, I ended up falling into dark thoughts.

After all, I could only keep my mind occupied for so long by counting leaves, or by watching ants carry chopped up leaves.

Dark thoughts. What were those? I don't know, they were a blur. I didn’t want to put a name on them, but what I did know was that if I were still human, if I still had to sleep, I would not dream. At least, unless you consider nightmares to be dreams.

All to say, gargoyles did not dream. But thoughts were worse than dreams.

Crunch! The sharp pan of cracking wood sneaked into my ear. Finally, something was happening.

Salvation. If only.

“Isa, Bale, come over here.” In the few days since becoming a gargoyle, I finally learnt that gargoyles spoke using mana which was how I was able to speak to the gargoyles without speaking even as a human. The only difference was that as a gargoyle I had a much better sense and control of mana. So instead of the mangled messages I used to unknowingly send out as a human, I could now speak with mana just as proficiently as I would with sound.

I wondered if humans could also eventually learn to speak with mana, or perhaps they already could, I just wasn’t privy to the information as a non-class holder for so long. Again, I really needed to speak to a mage, or even just Damien.

The sound coming from further down the path grew louder. I wondered if it was perhaps one of Frederick’s men, but… no. There was something odd about how the sound traveled. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it wasn’t natural.

Thankfully, Isa and Bale soon arrived. Landing on nearby trees I asked, “Did you see anything on your way here?”

“Not me,” answered Isa.

“I.” This had been the first time since his initial words that Bale had spoken so we quickly turned to him. “Two horses. A cart. Men.” He couldn’t speak well. Apparently, he wasn’t like this before but his twin’s death had hurt him bad. I wondered who was the gargoyle craftsmen that decided it was a good idea to create intertwined, and dependent gargoyles.

“A cart.” I repeated. “Only one?” I asked to make sure it was what he meant.

“One.”

But one cart wasn’t enough to deliver enough supplies for a city like Le Mans. Could they simply be testing the route? But then if they got caught it would make things infinitely harder the next time, they tried to resupply Le Mans. It didn’t matter. We just needed to convince them that they wouldn’t be able to resupply the city.

Threatening them with starvation would be quickest and safest way for them to hand the keys to the city to us.

“Bale, lead the way. And Isa head back and keep an eye on the two other paths left unattended. This might be a diversion. Make sure to inform me before acting.”

“Yes, my prince.”

That word grated against my ears but I ignored it and flew off towards the sound.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

It didn’t take long for us to find the caravan. As Bale had said, it was a single cart dragged by two horses and a skeleton crew of two men, one driving, and the other clearing the way of debris.

They didn’t seem to have noticed us as their behavior hadn’t changed and they trudged on under the little moonlight that crossed the canopy.

Both had swords on them which, to me at least, meant that they probably didn’t have a magic class if any. I still couldn’t forget those dragons. Just like they would have killed me then, they would kill me now.

“Bale, attack, do not kill them, but make sure to strip them of any clothes and jewellery.” We couldn’t know if they had an artifact that might be able to contact reinforcements.

Bale did not move right away. He stayed as still as all gargoyles, on a branch above the trail. The cart was approaching. Slowly, but surely. And five minutes later, they were finally only a step away from being under Bale.

Bale didn’t jump down. Instead, he let his body slip off the branch as he passed between the branches below him, barely rustling the leaves. His arms outstretched, he let his arms crush the horses’ head. Unfortunately for them horses made a lot of noise, much more than humans.

I closed my eyes. They didn’t deserve it.

“Done.” Bale called out to me.

Finally, opening my eyes, I immediately found that Bale had only captured one of the two men. “Where is the other!” I couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Sorry, disappeared.”

“He disappeared?” How! Could he have had a class? “Get back up here.” The other one could still be here. He could ambush us; we should leave. “If you can carry the one you caught bring him, if not forget about him, let’s leave.” And like that we flew away back to Isa’s location. Maybe I was being overly cautious, but fighting someone whose class you know nothing about was about the most dangerous thing you could do.

After asking for Isa’s opinion, I decided to head back with the man Bale had caught.

He was unconscious, lying on a thick branch like a worm wrapped around a twig. Jumping over to his branch, I dug my claws into his shoulders, trying my best not to crush or rip him apart. Slowly, I started to beat my wings, making sure I had a good grip on him before finally flying off.

#

“How did you only manage to get one person?” Frederick stood up. His forehead was red, and the hair on his head was beyond greasy. He mustn’t have slept since I left a few days ago.

“No, he had a class. He went invisible.”

“How many gargoyles do you have?” He looked desperate.

“Three.” I should have lied.

“Three? And there were two of them. Tell me again from the start. How did they get away!”

I wondered if the war wasn’t going according to plans. I couldn’t ask him as he was right now, maybe I could ask Damon later on. “When I saw the transport, I called Isa and Bale to do some reconnaissance and make sure there weren’t any other carts in the caravan. When they made sure it was just that one cart, I had Isa go back and make sure they weren’t trying to sneak in carts through the different paths. So, I had Bale deal with the two on my path, but one escaped.”

“And you just stood there? You did nothing!” The duke ran his hand through his hair which had been falling over his eyes.

“Yes.”

“What the fuck? Are you not leading them! Are you not the class holder! If you went down there with your other gargoyle, you would have gotten them both. Do you not know how valuable it would have been to seize an enemy class holder? That’s easily worth a hundred men if not more.” The duke’s face was gradually turning redder by the second until his anger finally reached his voice. “Why did you do nothing! Are you not from this era! Are you not someone who has lived his life in the dead-ends all his life? Tell me, why are you so useless!”

…I didn’t want to kill.

“You don’t want to kill?” The duke looked at me confused beyond belief. “Gregoire, do not get this confused. You are not killing. You are following orders. That is all. We are not doing this for pleasure’s sake. We are doing this for the sake of the people. If we lose this war, strife and famine is awaiting them. If we win this war, it is liberation.”

I didn’t add anything. I didn’t know why I even spoke up, especially when I was hiding it even from myself.

“I can’t have you doing anymore. Stay in the camp for now. I’ll have someone else take the task of guarding the pathways into Le Mans—”

“No! I can do it,” I insisted. I understood that I’d have to fight. I was still getting the missions done, just not myself.

“No, you can’t.” The duke wiped his brow once more. “Damien, find some young men to take over his job. At least since one of them got away he’ll report back to his camp that there’s a beast guarding the area. They’ll most likely stay away. Hopefully it’s enough for them to launch the assault.”

“Yes, my lord.” Damien bowed and left the tent.

I wanted to follow him, but the duke held spoke up, “Wait, we are not done speaking.”

Turning back, I looked at the duke. He did not look well. “Yes, my Lord," I answered.

“Don’t forget that I am your Lord. You are my hand. Any sins you may believe yourself to be committing are mine.”

I did not agree, but I understood that for the people, there were things I would need to do. “Yes, my Lord.”