The Forest's Lake
 

Far, far out in the middle of a huge forest rests a mile long and wide lake. In the mornings the lake and pine forest seems to be covered in a mild misty fog, which hangs over the lake in lazy patterns. In the lake itself, far under its depths lay hidden underwater caves which sometimes open into underground caverns and tunnels, mostly dark and unexplored.
The forest itself contains creatures both friendly and not. Unexplained noises can be heard in the night, but strangely unpleasant things are rarely seen.
In the middle of the lake lays a small island, which Arlene is sitting on in her human form. A small tent is built near her, and she warms her hands by the fire. Something is bothering her, but she can't place it. Her daughter sleeps in the tent, always a dragon for she is too young to learn to shapeshift.
A noise resonates from the north side of the woods surrounding the lake, and Arlene looks up sharply. At first there is nothing, but soon a figure comes out into the open and stops, looking across at Arlene.
With her eagle like eyes, Arlene can see almost every detail of the stranger's appearence. She finally realizes who it is, and remains motionless.
The stranger is a female gargoyle, standing 5'7" and almost entirely a purple-grey color. Tattooes can be seen on the sides of her face; they consist of light red short curved lines on both cheeks, almost along the jawline. Black, wavy hair flows down to her midback, which is held away from her face with a hair tie. Her wings are carfully tucked on her back, free from clothes as she wears a backless black shirt. She wears leather trousers, which look a little worn out, and her long scaly tail hangs loose from the back. The gargoyle's feet are bare, for they are dragon-like talons.
"I guess this is it.." Arlene says to herself, and closes her eyes in a short prayer.
The gargoyle, who's name is Sylvia, watches Arlene with her richly beautiful blue eyes. A smile touches her lips as she realizes she is in for a fight, and as she remembers her life up to this point...
She was born to a gargoyle clan countries away from the place she and Arlene would meet for the last time. Gargoyles were a dying breed back then, and a poor race at that. Though they were indestructable in their stone form at night, their possessions were not. It was not a surprise to gargoyles that when they awoke in the mornings, their homes were burned or ransacked by robbers or nearby townsfolk who wanted nothing of their kind. Heirlooms or prized possesions could be protected by grasping or covering them when the sun went down and they became stone. And though they could not be destroyed while in their stoney state, they could be picked up or moved. Most young gargoyles were lost this way, for they were not in the habit of clinging to unmovable objects before the sun went down. It was a mystery to the gargoyles what happened to the ones that were taken. Perhaps it was better they had not known.
Like most gargoyles, Sylvia wondered what the night was like; she wondered what happened to the world when the sun went down. And she was tired of being afraid. If she could be free of the stone curse, she thought, she would travel the world and be free of fear. She would no longer wonder if she'd be where she had fallen asleep in the morning, and no longer fear that she'd be caged like an animal while she slept. She'd bring her wrath to those who would hurt her race, and make the world a better place for them.
One afternoon, as her clan prepared for the night, Sylvia wept. The night before, her brother had been taken from them. There was nothing they could do. She gazed at the setting sun with hatred burning in her eyes. As she tied chains around her feet that were attached to a rather large rock, she waited with the others. The sun set, and her clan became stone...but for the first time in her 18 year life, Sylvia did not. She began to panic as the stars came out before she realized what they were. She looked around at her family and friends, all completely stone and defensless. From the darkness an old witch came forth, and Sylvia shyed away from the cold that suddenly dawned on her.
"Don't fear me, child, I'm here to help." The old woman said, smiling. "I know what you feel in your heart, and I know how your kind suffers. I wish to free you upon...to the world."
"Who are you"? Sylvia asked.
"I have no time for silly questions," the witch barked. "Keeping you in this state is quickly draining my power, and I'm growing weak. If you wish to unleash your wrath upon the world, I would like to free you of your curse. But I can only help you to help yourself. Do you see the night sky? Would you like to see it again? Then you must learn to fight and defend yourself from the world. You must leave your clan and find the one with a powerful weapon. This person isn't human, that much I have seen in my dreams. But they carry around their neck an amulet of great power. If you can touch this amulet, it will take your curse into itself, but not for long. The owner of that amulet can take it into herself to protect it, and if the curse is in it, the curse will no longer be yours. My dreams have not been kind enough to tell me if you will ever succeed, but I believe you have the power to do it. If you have the will and the strength to leave your people, the reward could be freedom. Tell these words to no one; wouldn't you rather have this to yourself?" The old woman fell to her knees, growing weaker.
"I must take my leave now. I am too old and weak for this world now. In a few hours I will be dead, but in my death I will have the pleasure of knowing that someday those who pursecuted me may die by your hands."
The old lady began to crawl away, and as she did Sylvia could feel the curse taking her for the night. She gazed up at the stars one last time before becoming stone.
That had been 10 years ago, and in those years she had actually met the creature who owned the amulet. She had failed to touch it in her encounter, and had almost given up hope afterward. But she regained her will when she thought of the freedom she would have someday, and now she found Arlene again, the simple dragon fool who would feel Sylvia's curse.
"You won't escape me this time, Dragon." Then she began to swim.

((After this post this is pretty much a free form place thread...I'm just finally killing off my character like I've been trying for so long :P))

Sylvia reached the small island that Arlene stood on, and pulled herself out of the water with ease. Walking to stand two feet in front of her enemy, she squeezed her ponytail out, the water splashing to the ground.
"Why must you follow me, Sylvia?" Arlene said, crossing her arms over her chest. Her body was changing.
"You know why. I won't give up until I'm free," Sylvia replied.
"Your idea of freedom means my imprisonment...are you really that selfish?" Now Arlene was fully dragon, her height increasing to her full size. Sylvia appeared not to care.
"Do you think I care about you? You'd be just as likely to do the same thing." With that Sylvia jumped back and pulled out what appeared to be a short stick. She pressed a small switch and the piece of wood grew into a full spear. She jumped at Arlene, who slithered out of the way with ease. Sylvia cried in rage and spun around to face her adversary, who in turn slashed out at her. Sylvia tried to dodge but only partly succeded. She looked down and saw three long scratches on her arm, then looked up growling. They were about to charge again when something moved in the tent.[/i]
"Mom? What's going on out there?" said a small purple dragon climbing out of the tent.
Sylvia looked from the small dragon then to the bigger one, smiling as she realized.
"Your daughter, eh?" She turned and thrust the spear towards Arlene's daughter's throat, but merely held it an inch away from doing actual harm. Arlene froze.
"What's your name, young one?" Sylvia asked, no longer smiling.
"M-my name is Rubyia...my mother's original dragon name."
Sylvia turned to look back at Arlene "Give me the amulet, if you care about her."
Arlene looked from her daughter back to her enemy. She had no choice. From the front of her chest, where there appeared to be a tatoo of a necklace on her scales, something began to happen. The tatoo was no longer 2 dimensional, and was now real. Arlene pulled it from her neck, snapping the necklace. She handed it to Sylvia, who grabbed it greedily. She had done half of what it took to free herself of the curse.
"Now take it back, and reabsorb it."
Arlene looked at her for a second, and took the amulet in her claws. She looked from it to Rubyia once more, dispair in her eyes. Her story would end.
"Mother?" Rubyia asked, wondering what was going on. Her mother had never told her much of anything about her past.
Arlene turned and shrunk to about 10 feet long and tall. She looked out at the lake whose fog was begining to clear for midday, and she reabsorbed the amulet. She knew she would never see night again, the curse was hers. But for some reason, she was already becoming stone. She did not care. She would never turn back again.
"Hmm, that's strange. I never expected this....well, she only got what she deserved," Sylvia said, laughing a bit. "Finally...I'm free..." She began to cry, while Rubyia only stared at her mother in confusion.

"What are you gonna do to me, now?" Rubyia asked, backing up a little into the statue.
"To you?" Sylvia asked with a laugh. She layed back and put her arms around her head. "Nothing. You're no threat to me. I'm not really in any hurry to do much right now...I'm waiting for nightfall. It kinda feels good to relax and not worry about where I'll cling for the night."
"what do you mean?"Rubyia asked, sitting.
"Think about it. I'm a gargoyle. I don't really feel like explaining myself to you," Sylvia replied. She close her eyes, ignoring the sound of people nearby.

Matt's eyes widen and supressed memories come flooding back. He pales as images he never wanted to look at again dance before his minds eye but he regains himself realizing that the figures before him are not the ones he had buried deep into a dark part of his mind. Not the monsters that secretly terrified him. He mutters quietly, "Yeah...anywhere's better than there... I suppose they're not overly hostile or they might of attacked us when we were coming over... Or they just didn't hear us. Maybe we should just listen in?"
((*kicks post for sounding over-dramatic* >> ))

Night begins to draw nearer, and Sylvia now stands, waiting impatiently.
"It's funny that something you finally want takes forever to arrive, as to before, I hated it and it always came too quickly."
"So," Rubyia sneered, waking up from a short nap. "You don't deserve to see night or day. So how about shutting your trap...I'm already sick of your voice."
Sylvia glanced over at the young dragon fiercly. "Watch what you say, stupid little lizard," she replied angrilly. "Don't you have somewhere else to be? You're mother won't be any use to you now, haha. Go hang out with those guys over there and let me enjoy my night." She pointed towards the trees nearby, snickering. Rubyia looked a little scared, but only grew steadily more furious. The remark about her mother...

Looking the men up and down, Sylvia just turns back to looking out over the lake with a slight snicker.
"Rip your throat out? I wouldn't worry about that. You're no threat to me, and I have better things to do."

((Took me a while, sorry.))
Matt leans toward John, and grins with a hint of uneasiness. "Well, it seems she doesn't want to kill us, but I'm still lost as to what's going on." Cautiously, he wanders closer, as if stepping on a twig would spell a doom for him that, according to Sylvia, would not come.

Soon it is completely dark, and for the first time in years, Sylvia sees the stars.
"Magnificent....totally free..."
She spreads her wings wide, stretching. Looking back at the frozen statue that used to be Arlene, she laughs and then takes off into the night, alone to begin new adventures. Rubyia merely watches, hate in her eyes and sworn revenge in her heart. She laid her head back down and fell into a terrible sleep.