• The darkening clouds never leave this place...
    This place of sorrow, of suffering, of pain...

    This castle used to be a place of glory, of joy and celebration... children playing in the courts, soldiers watched from the keep. The courts were always filled with nobles, peasants, and merchants. Of friends and lovers. Of children hand in hand with parents.
    They were happy and full of life.

    The siege took care of that. With fire and arrows they came… bashed, destroyed and burned… They slaughtered the children, they burned the courts. Destroyed its statues and monuments, tore down its banners and left none alive… nor did they, the destroyers, the heathens survive…

    The castle had a protector. A gargoyle, a beast of myth and legend… A disfigured, demon like creature… with claws like that of a bear, massive and powerful. Fur that wrapped its neck and wings of a dragon all of which was stone gray. The beast had a face of a lion, Its jaw always clenched, eyes ever focused. It was a man, or at least it used to be so they say… but it was a creature always to be feared… hated… and respected…

    For years it protected the castle. The people in the many years of peace forgot about him and in the tall tower he watched. It protected in silence. Watched the people live in joy. His heart broke, for he longed to be part of them. Longed to feel the warmth of an embrace. But this creature was cursed… He couldn’t talk, nor touch any living creature. That was his choice. His price to pay. After loosing all hope of finding love, or comfort in the one he loved. The captain of the guards swore to the gods that he would commit his life to protect the castle. He bargained his life away. So that he would stop hurting…

    Her eyes were always soft and calming, her voice always brought light into his life. Her hair always fell perfectly around her face. Her spirit was what he had loved the most, her thirst for life and blazing passion of beauty in nature drew him to her. She would sing in the forests and run over fields almost every day… the feel of the wind, grass, and morning dew, was the perfect wine that she drank in. Until the sun seemed to shine out of her eyes and into his… He would come with her whenever he could; she filled him with peace and anxiety, weakness and strength, and love. She was the sun and moon to him. She filled his thoughts by day and arms by night.

    On a cold day, with a breeze of unrest in the air… her heart failed, she died, and with her, she took his soul. When she left she took all of what was inside him… and left a void which filled itself with hatred, and sorrow. He hated himself for falling in love hated the world for letting her die… so young, so gentle. Why!? WHY NOT THE SOILDER!? THE CAPTIAN?! WHY THE INNOCENT?! He only had one thing to live for… the kingdom… the place in which both of them were born… but he couldn’t walk the streets without his knees buckling… curse him for being so weak… So he went to the temple… and swore…


    He wanted them to take away his pain. His feeling.


    Gods are cruel creatures, for they took him and made him anew. Made him stronger, faster, and force to be reckoned with. Replaced his skin… with unfeeling stone.


    But they left his heart alone…


    It bleeds every day. With want and longing. People run from him in fear, throw rocks and sticks. Children hide from him. He would cry or scream if he could. But no tears of pain can he shed, nor no cries of anguish can he scream. Just silence and a pain that drives him. They did exactly what he had asked… made him stronger and unable to feel pain… and gave him everlasting life until all life had left the kingdom. So he flew to the highest tower and watched and every day screamed...silently… in anguish and torment…

    When they came… he did all he could… there were just too many… and they were just too well prepared. They burned and destroyed everything in their path. They came to ruin not conquer… They wanted to test their might against this kingdom, and its protector.

    They bound him, tied him down. With chains and ropes. That only slowed him down enough… He broke free and slaughtered every intruder, every invader, every man that destroyed his land that he loved and cared for. The land in which his everything had loved. They had tried to run scream for mercy… but their cries landed on ears of stone. They had come out of blood lust; left in fear and were destroyed by a power and anger too great to be contained.

    After that day he searched the ashes. For any sign of life, but all the life that was still in that castle… was one single rose. It had been a gift for the princess. She had just turned 20. Full of life and passion she had left many years ago. A lot like he had once known she had planted the rose she had found placed at her chamber door, She placed it in the garden, not knowing that the man who had given it her was watching. Her bodyguard, and later, her lover… he had left with her, because their love would have never been accepted or allowed. The king was a man of principle and status. When he heard of their disappearance he sent legions after them, but they came back wounded by a strange beast that came by night, attacked and wounded them until they lost their steel and went home. Foiled time and time again by a beast that wounded but killed none of his men. He left his daughter alone. To live her life in love that was not allowed. Beautiful as it was.

    The gargoyle crouched around the rose coiled his wings around it, and left an opening in the canopy his wings now created, for light and life giving water. And there he stayed, crouched, watching the rose age for years. He gazed at it in wonder, and awe. This was a representation of the love he had lost… he protected it from the wind and snow for many years. Never being able to be near this rose, he found it radiated warmth that soothed his heart, and calmed his soul. He protected it until the year in which the rose slowly died… and as the last petal fell the gargoyle crumbled. The last of the life in the castle… had left this place. As the beast fell, he thanked the gods for the second chance he had to feel the warmth of true love, He realized that love stays in your heart and never dies.

    He crumbled fell and became good fertile soil in which a garden of blossoming red roses grew. It stood there for many years of a monument of love, true love. Which is the most precious of things, and which no creature will ever die without knowing…