Victor the Gargoyle

     "I ’m not cursed! Right Noir. Today is the day I will see the sunrise,” The young gray eyrie watched as the sky began to lighten with his black barbat perched on his shoulder. He watched as the sun rays began to rise over the leafless trees of the Haunted Woods. The stiffness in his feet traveled up his leg to his waist as the sun rose. With a sigh, almost no one heard the eyrie disappeared and, in his place, one could see only another gargoyle perched among them many that perched on the manor’s roof.

     Victor longed for, more than anything else in the world, to watch then sunrise over the trees of the Haunted Woods. It was a dream he was sure would never come true. He’d long ago lost track of the years and was unsure of what his age may be. For as long as he could remember as soon as the light hit him he would turn to stone, falling into a dreamless soundless sleep.

     He had a few friends, he didn’t often get too close to others, but he was fond of a particular young bori. The bori had a certain charm and had spent many nights exploring with him. Victor had lost count of how many contraptions and “solutions” Goo had thought of to help the eyrie.

      Most of the time he spent with his friends, and the young bori were spent exploring. Some witches in the forest were easy to find, others were not. Victor, though he would never admit it, not even to himself, wanted to find someone to break his curse. He had tried Edna and even consulted Sophie. Edna wasn’t much help and Sophie didn’t know how to break his curse, but she did offer to turn him into something else.

     Sophie was not a complete dead end though, she had advised him to seek out her teacher and mentor Ilere, who proved harder to find, although he did find her. Ilere though was another steppingstone on his path to breaking the curse. She hadn’t refused to break the curse exactly, but she also didn’t break it. All she did say was that she could, but she didn’t have the means. Victor wasn’t sure what that meant, but he had a feeling he would know it when he found it.

     ---

     “Where are you going tonight?” Victor landed beside the mutant lupe. She did not look up at first as she was pouring over her maps.

     He picked one of the maps up, hoping to get the lupe’s attention, but Stubs was too focused on her work to pay him any mind. Victor studied the map for a long while. It was a good one, though he knew it would be from the signature. He’d met its creator, a magma xweetok who was the sister of one of his friends.

     “I have a party wanting to go to Altador,” She said, finally frowning. “I told them it would be easier to leave the woods and travel through the Lost Desert to avoid the mountains and travel to Altador from there, but they refused.”

     “If you don’t want to take them to the mountains why did you take the job?” Victor questioned.

     “I didn’t say that I said it would be easier,” She retorted, then looked at him. Stubs seemed to have studied him for a moment before continuing. “You can come if you want.”

     “Really?” He asked surprised. Stubs rarely invited him except to keep an eye on Goo when he was staying with her. He helped keep Goo from getting lost. Even if he did though Victor knew of another cursed pet in the forest who usually found him for them.

     “Yes, I could use your help you helped Scarlet make this map,” Stubs responded. “Besides, they are a bit, well you’ll see.”

     “Alright, you’re sure they want to travel at night? Most of your clients tend to avoid nighttime travel.”

     “Like I said they are a bit…”

     ---

     Victor saw what she meant when she said they were “a bit…”. They all had wings. The party consisted of one korbat, a skeith, and an elephante. While the skeith and elephante were both on the rather plump side, it did look as if their wings could carry them. Most winged pets did not seek out Stub’s services.

     Most of her clients hired her to show them a safe path through the forest, but those with wings could fly above it all. All they need were maps to show them the safe fly zones and places to land. So why had this trio hired her, and why did they want to go over the mountains?

     "Hi," Victor said as he landed among them. They were standing in a circle about a foot or two away from Stubs who appeared to be searching the skies for him. He had come as soon as the sun had set, and he was freed from his stony prison. "My name is Victor, I am Stub's assistant on this expedition." He offered his paw but none of the trios accepted it.

     "Carly," the korbat told him her eyes on the ground.

     "Sam," the elephante continued, then introduced the skeith who did not seem to notice Victor standing there. "That's Finnious. You can call him Fin. Can we go now?"

     This last question was directed to Stubs who had turned when she heard Victor's voice. She adjusted the straps of her pack and took one more look at the map before folding it up.

     "I am if you are." She told them. Victor stood aside so she could take the lead. He preferred to take the rear on these expeditions. Carly and Sam followed her quickly but Fin hesitated giving Victor a weary look. After a moment he took his place behind his companions.

     ---

     The journey was long and difficult, made worse by the blandness of their companions. Carly was the most engaging of the trio but every time she spoke for too long or too excitedly Fin or Sam would shut her down. Sam never spoke a word, all he did was give her a stern look and she would stop talking abruptly. A few times she would give a rather lame explanation for why she had stopped so sudden disengagement in their conversation.

     Victor had learned however that they were from Altador. She had also told them that they were siblings. All of them were adopted by an owner who had taken them on vacation in the Haunted Woods. They were traveling home to meet their dad.

     He would have like to ask her where their owner was. Why did he leave them in the Haunted Woods? Couldn't they just fly home? Did Sam always talk for Fin? Could Fin talk at all? He never did.

     Every time he thought he might crack and explode upon them with his many questions one of two things stopped him. Stubs, similarly to Sam, could get Victor to stop with nothing more than a single look. The other thing that always stopped him from speaking was the rising sun. Carly never talked when they were traveling only when they set up for camp at the end of the night.

     "We made it!" Carly squealed when the mountains came into view.

     "We're not there yet," Sam warned but the Korbat had already grabbed both her brother's hand and pulled them toward the mountains. Stubs made no effort to stop them. They were at the end of the woods now there were few dangers here, and any danger they could encounter would be minor ones.

     "Are we taking them over the mountains?" Victor asked looking up. The sky had begun to lighten. He did not want to be in the air when the sun did rise. He did not know what would happen if he turned to stone while flying and didn't want to find out either.

     "No, my services only extend to the border of the Woods, once we reach it our work is done," Stubs replied.

     "Come on," Victor looked down in surprise to see the young korbat holding one of his paws. "We must reach the mountain's base before the sun rises." She pulled him forward to where her brothers waited for her. He wasn't sure why she was so anxious to get him there, but something told him to follow her.

     "We made it!" Victor almost jumped when he heard Fin speak for the first time as they stepped out of the woods on to the white rocks of the mountain. He flapped his wings a few times and hovered over the ground.

     "We made it!" Sam cried hugging his sister.

     The trio spent a long time, with Stubs and Victor, awkwardly, standing by, hugging and crying. After a few minutes, they finally turned to Stubs and Victor. It was Fin who remembered them.

     "Carly, we can't forget to give it to him," He said, pushing the korbat forward.

     "We were cursed," Carly explained as she approached Stubs and Victor. "We weren't allowed to talk about it, and it stopped us from flying. Our dad wanted to come with us to break it but we were worried he might get hurt or you might not take the job, so we made him and our sisters go home. We have two sisters-"

     "Carly," The two brothers interrupted in unison. It was clear they were used to stopping their sister from rambling on.

     "The sun is rising," Fin pointed out, pointing the rapidly lightening sky.

     "We have something for you," Carly continued blushing. "Our father bought them for us, to allow me to speak, Sam wasn't cursed, just Fin and I, we, we wandered off."

     "Carly," Sam warned again.

     "Anyways, he could only afford one," Carly went on as if she had not to be reprimanded. Sam came cause he was the oldest." She pulled a necklace out from under her tunic and slipped it over Victor's head. "We could tell you were cursed the moment we saw you."

     The sun came over the tops of the trees. He felt the rapid hardening of his body, but there was something different this time.

     "It won't break the curse," Fin finished for his sister. "but it will make it more bearable."

     Victor's eyes were open, he could see the trio standing before him. He couldn't blink, but he didn't feel the need to either. He could feel the warmth of the sun on his fur, the wind wrapping around his stony body. Nearby petpets called in the morning.

     Stubs thought she saw a single tear run down the eyries cheek as he watched his first sunrise.

      The End.