Naughtika

“Beep, Beep, Beep!” the sound of the alarm clock went off before Garo could jump out of bed and turn it off.

          Slumping into an awkward sort of sleepy walk, Garo made his way to the bathroom to get ready for work. Grabbing a left over sandwich from yesterday, he scowled at it. Garo never really liked tuna fish, but it was the end of the month.

          “Today is not a good day,” Garo declared snidely, threw the sandwich in the garbage and headed out the door.

          As Garo was locking up his apartment, a sound crept up from his surroundings. It was a different sound, like none other he’d ever heard before, a loud shrill. He turned his head to look around, but all he could see was a little old lady.

          “Excuse me Mrs. Ryno, did you hear that loud squeal?” Garo asked.

          “No, my young child. I haven’t heard a thing.” Mrs. Ryno smiled.

          As Garo made his way out of the apartment complex he heard the shrill once again – and this time he saw a shadow. Dropping his suitcase in surprise, Garo decided to follow this mysterious shadow. The shadow slipped and slid across the vast landscape and into the forest. Garo followed.

          “Garo,” he heard from the voices of the forest. “Garo!” They repeated relentlessly, until suddenly his surroundings disappeared into the great black abyss beneath his eyelids.

  

          In the morning Garo awoke on top of the roof of a tall castle. His human shape had taken the form of a slightly dragon like creature. Garo’s once thin hands were now meaty paws with claws big enough to leave a good gash. He sat up and stood, feeling a bit wobbly. Crash! Garo’s now twice as long neck allowed him to turn his head around to see the massive wings that had sprawled out and crashed into the rims of the roof.

          “What the heck?” He said.

          “Lord Gar Goyle? You’re awake,” A gruff, crackled voice came from beside him. It was another older gargoyle with a beard that ran down to his tummy.

          “What am I?” Garo asked.

         

          “You are a gargoyle, the prince of King Garo the Fourth and the future king of Naughtika,” the old gargoyle said. “Come now, it is your duty and destiny to be king.”

          The old gargoyle whisked Garo away to attend his duties as king. He was taught how to control his mighty claws and wings. He was taught how to fight and block. But most of all, he was taught how to judge fairly.

          “What did he do this time?” Great King Garo would ask his Squires.

          “We caught him in the act of killing a cat by tying its feet and nailing it to a board, sir,” one of the squires answered.

          “Send him back to the dungeon. Maybe six more years will cure him of his madness.”

          Just then they brought a lovely looking vampire woman to her knees in court. She had red flowing hair and the softest blue eyes.

          “She was --” one of the Squires started to say.

           “She didn’t do it!” Garo barked as he waved off her punishment.

          “But, Sire, she --”

           “Didn’t do it,” Garo growled standing up from his chair.

          This unfair judgment shocked the courtroom and in turn enraged the court, including the Squires. Fights quickly broke out into a fight, but Garo was able to drag the woman he defended out of the courtroom and into the sky. He flew away with her.

         

          “What is your name?” Garo cleared his throat a little. His voice was hoarse and deep.

          “ My name is Antoinette.” Her soft and tender voice rang into Garo’s ears and his wings almost stopped flapping. He was in love with this woman and he took her to a cave to impress her.

          Not too long afterwards, Garo became Antoinette’s boy friend as he took care of her. He made her a table, some chairs, a hut to keep the raw meet fresh, a container for water and a bed.

          Garo worked hard to please her, remembering the entire special dates that rolled past as the years unfolded. He brought her flowers, made her new dresses, gave her sweet things to eat like honey sickle and coconuts with sugar cane.

          “Garo?” Antoinette said nervously, “I-I want to go h-home.”

          Garo smiled a bit. “That’s fine. We can leave to go to the northern most parts of Pennsylvania tomorrow.”

          “You don’t understand, Garo. I cannot live this sheltered  any more. I need my husband. I can’t do this any more.”

          Garo’s eyes widened and then turned angry as Antoinette moved back behind the table. An empty wine bottle sailed through the air and crashed into the wall beside Antoinette’s head as she flinched from Garo’s anger.

          “I spotted you, woman! I saw you! I helped you and took care of you for two years! Where was he, Antoinette?” Garo slammed his fist on the kitchen table, his claws leaving marks in the wood he had carved for her. “This is how you re-pay me for digging you out of your debt to the law! I lost my title as king for you!”

          His wings fluttered in great frustration at what his once sweet Antoinette had just told him. A husband! She had a husband!

          Antoinette was afraid to move or even talk to him at this state. She knew particularly how violent Gargoyles could when enraged.

          “But I didn’t ask you to help me,” she managed to squeak.

          “You didn’t have to ask! I did it for you! I did it all for you… because I loved you!”

          Garo growled and his eyes went soft with sadness for a moment. But as fast as the great light in the sky could strike, his anger returned.

          “I’ll fix this,” Garo said in his hardest of tone in his voice.

          “No! Please, Garo, don’t!“ Antoinette squeaked again before Garo’s mighty wings crashed into her, knocking her to the floor.

          Garo left the cave and took flight through the night. Early the next morning Garo made his way into the tavern of northern Pennsylvania.

          “Attention, everyone!” He announced. “A Miss Antoinette was found in the lower parts of Pennsylvania and needs her husband to accompany her home.”

          Garo was sure one of them would fess up. Instead there were grunts and groans, until Garo felt a hand of a little old lady on his shoulder.

          “Down the street about a block from here is where all the vampires rest,” the little old lady said with her crackly voice. She dressed like a gypsy with a hood covering her face.

          “Thank you,” Garo said in a stern voice and embarked on his mission to kill Antoinette’s husband.

          A couple hours later Garo found himself at the door of an old building. He opened it, finding that it was conveniently dark. Garo slowly and quietly crept around the building as he removed all of the shades that had dimmed the inside area. He found it easier to spot Antoinette’s husband, Louis, because they were marked.

          Garo opened Louis’s Casket and there laid man with beautiful long dirty blond hair and sharp looking black clothes. Garo growled at him as he woke Louis up. But he could react; Garo cruelly drove a wooden steak into his heart. Instantly his carcass turned to ash and the smell of rotted flesh woke the others. One by one they opened their caskets to a fiery death by sun. Until all that was left was Garo.

          Antoinette walked into the building, shrouded in a robe. Her presence expressed nothing but misery for her family’s death. But before she could kneel by her beloved Louis, Garo nabbed her into his arms and folded his wings around her.

          “May the gods give me power to turn to stone, for I will never let my dear sweet Antoinette go.”       

          From this point on in the history of all gargoyles, the great gods gave them this power to turn to stone throughout the day and thus encase their treasures for eternity.