The Fairy & The Gargoyle
This story first appeared in my mind as a vision of a gargoyle. I was right at the end of a work day, sort of staring blankly at an email from a customer when an image of a gargoyle atop a building popped into my head. In the past I’d have shook it off, but I’ve been learning to listen to this as actual communication. From where it comes, I’m not sure yet, but I listen anyway. As I leaned into the feeling, a movie appeared. It was a clip from the Ghostbusters movie, where a gargoyle was running through the streets. As I googled the word gargoyle to make sure I was recalling it correctly, a story began to emerge of a fairy and a prince in the woods. Part one of this story poured out of me over the next 20 minutes.
Part One
This first story almost wrote itself, the words coming out of me faster than I could type them. I clocked out and finished the first draft before turning to the kitchen to fix dinner. I polished it up after dinner and made a video for TikTok. I was disappointed by how it ended, and hoped there would be a second part. I know now to not push for more, but wait. More always comes when the time is right. Divine Timing, I’m learning, isn’t actually all that relevant to time as we know it. It’s not really when something happens, but under what conditions and in what energy. When conditions are right and the energy is aligned, the rest of the message will come.
Hunched in the brush, he spies on her as she dances
He can feel the source alight within him
When her eyes catch hold of his
He races from behind the branches
Crushing the leaves beneath him on his way
Begging his gods for the riz
Her face brightens when she sees him
Watching the light of the sunset
Dance atop his feathery flaxen hair
Her smile beams at him as she takes his hand
And holds close the child within him
Whom she would take with her anywhere
Harps play her song in the distance
And she asks him if he'd like to dance
Her silky wings spreading wider with the request
Though he fears he can't dance
He steps forward to meet her
And holds her as they move
His chest to her breast
As the strings trill on
She revels in his beauty
Lets loose the stories of him that fill her mind when he’s not there
Her eyes flutter as she laughs
And holds him tighter
Because he is the friend she’s longed for above every other
He trembles slightly as her head lay on his shoulder
A flood of warmth filling his wounded heart
There are so many places he wants to take her
Dreams he'd like to live out by her side
The sweetness of her is a craving he can't stop
Even one day without her would tear his world apart
Trying hard to stay in the moment
He hears a voice from his past saying, "Go! Run! Hide!"
And then from the corner of his eye
He sees a mirror that once hung on the tree
But it's fallen like his courage
Followed by his hands from her dress
And gone is the boy's jubilee
He sees the pus and the horns
And the crowded teeth of a bat-winged beast
He's shorter now as he falls backward to the ground
His fairy is puzzled and slightly amused
She thinks he's tripped over his cape
And she laughs like she's just seen a clown
Her fair-faced prince is all tangled in weeds
So she offers her hand to lift him to his feet
Beaming with love for this boy on his bum
She falls harder for him now
Can’t imagine how
She could ever leave him alone in his kingdom
He cowers in the grass at the sound of her laughter
For his wounds she's just slashed
And his ego she's crushed
There’s nothing more painful than what’s to come after
“Leave me now,” he snarls
Moving away from the sight of her gaze
Confused, she offers her hand again
Only to be met with a louder growl
And in his eyes a smoky haze
She doesn’t see the mirror
She doesn’t see what he sees
“My love, you’ve only stumbled, I can help—”
But a sudden knowing comes to her on a breeze
His wings crackle open
And she can see now a sliver of his silver skin
The spear of his words
Sinks in and she’s heard
His self hatred is a demon that belongs to him
This is a fight she cannot win
With the wisdom of her ancestors she steps back
She knows what’s being asked of her
She’s never met a pain like this
Nothing like even the loss of her mother
Her prince is gone
His mirror too
And she watches as the round-backed beast climbs into the sky
The grass is beginning to bounce back
The weight of him gone
And she’s left in the quiet and the cold of the night
The scream that rips through her
Has never been heard before
It’s a soul-stretching cry
That reaches across the astral and onto another shore
When it’s done
She’s left undone
Wondering what spirit has taken her over
Baffled and bruised
She’s alone and confused
And longing for the laugh of her loverPart Two
Six months later, I was walking in the woods, which is a sort of meditation for me. About 5 minutes into my walk, the second part of the story came to me. I have an audio file with my voice telling this second part roughly, the fall leaves crunching beneath my feet. At some point my voice chokes up and I’m crying. The energy in the channel was deeply loving as it ended this time, the opposite of the way the other one ended, but there were no details for how it would end. I sat down this weekend at my favorite coffee shop to write it down. Again, I’m left wanting more, but also with the knowing that it will come in time. I have a feeling it’s going to tell the fairy’s story.
He straightens his bow one more time
As he feels the choke of it again
His suit doesn’t fit, but he doesn’t complain
This world has never been his friend
A triple knock at the chamber door
Signals an hour left of this life he’s leaving behind
The entourage is unrolling a silver carpet downstairs
Waiting for his gargoyle bride to make him their kind
Behind him in the mirror a porter pries open the door
And slides a glittery box to rest aside the other gifts
He wonders where it could have come from
The others have no ribbon at all, proud symbols of thrift
His mirror has a crack from that time it fell in the woods
"But it’s fitting," he told his sister,
“Because I’m a bit cracked too.”
She nodded in agreement as sisters often do
Saying this is just how gargoyles are
“We’re smelly, hairy, and hunchbacked too.”
His fairy’s tender laugh suddenly ripples through him
And an electrical current awakens something inside him
It’s been two years since he left her at the edge of the woods
Months since there’s been something to remind him
“Don’t look now, my love, you’re not the monster you think you are,”
Comes her soft breathy voice that so gently haunts him
Intuition says she’s right, but he’s still in fight or flight
And he has yet to reach a place her words don’t still taunt him
A shake of his head returns him to his room
And an intuitive nudge turns his head to the left
Where his eyes hasten from the mirror to the window
Across the courtyard he sees a brute watching his bride from below
A grin on his face like a lover in a trance
Something familiar in this moment, his heart is now in limbo
Looking up, he sees her watching him just as intently
A smile on her face he’s never seen
Reserved for someone else, of course
He can see clearly now what this means
Leaving his coat, he rushes down the stairs and across the snow
He races to her room and bursts in to face her
She cackles at him the way she did last night
When he had doubts and she said he’d never replace her
Grabbing her by the hand he asks about the beast
Mouth stuffed with muffin she seems to want to savor it
He asks her again, but her eyes dart away and she swallows,
“Oh don’t be silly, you know you’re my favorite.”
His stomach drops as he remembers what his brother once said
Something about an old lover of hers, what did he mean?
What does he not know and how long has he not known it?
How did he not see this is who she’s always been?
His brother had been the one to introduce them
The family all in knots about his hopeless love for a fairy
This family of gargoyles so sure he’d be ruined
She’d see him for the beast that he is and he would never marry
This gargoyle princess was more like him, they said.
She’d wallow in the mud with him
Never ask anything more of him
And with her, he would never leave and disown them
He’d forget the fairy soon enough
And never worry about losing her love
Because here, he was everything the mirrors have shown him
He suddenly remembers the shimmering box left by the porter
And he races back to his room to find it
Boots leaving a trail of melting snow
He nearly slips on the steps of the stone
Desperate to get at the wrapping and see what’s behind it
He claws at the paper, thicker than fabric
Revealing a glass this kingdom has never seen before
Beams of light fill the chamber
Washing away the rest of his anger
And he sees the mirror that’s been sent from across the shore
It’s the fairy’s mirror with the ornate gilded edges
The one she had so proudly hung in her hall
He saw himself in it every time he visited her
And each time he left her he felt ten feet tall
He jumps back for a moment
An old fear pulling at his wounded heart
But the prince in the glass stares back, his jaw firm with pride
What has he done and how to undo it?
He doesn’t belong here in this dreary old fortress
This isn’t his life, that isn’t his bride
A clamor of claws come skittering into his chamber
His family all in arms at the news of the bride’s other lover
“You can’t back out now,” says his brother
And his father implores, “Never in this life will there ever be another.”
The prince looks at the mirror again as it leans against the wall
He sees his shimmering humanity
The absence of his depravity
And smiles at the brilliance of his fairy’s trickster mind
She didn’t send this gift just for him
It wasn’t a flighty thing done on a whim
She’s always had a purpose for everything all this time
With a grin, the prince grabs hold of the mirror
And tells his family to hold very still and not to look away
He turns the glass to face his dubious clan
And watches their faces alight with wonder and dismayFollow me on social media for Part Three!
