Stolen One
     The Gargoyles and all associated characters are the 
property of Disney.  With the exception of Stolen One, 
whose mine, and all mythological and Shakespeare 
Characters who belong to us all.

                        Scotland 994 AD
     Dawn was quickly approaching and Goliath and Hudson 
had yet to return.  Stolen One began to despair of ever 
seeing them again.  He alone knew of Goliath's love's 
plot, but his foolish and unrequited love for her 
prevented him from telling anyone.  He knew his love 
for her was foolish.  She loved only Goliath and she 
hated humans, unlike Stolen One.  Stolen One pitied 
humans.  They could not fly, they did not heal with the 
sun, and they were not as strong.  If only she could see 
that these drawbacks made them creatures to be 
protected, not held in contempt.
     Dawn was only moments away, if he was to live, he 
must escape  now.  His eyes brimmed with tears, knowing 
that by protecting her secret he had condemned his 
adoptive clan to death.  As he flew away in the 
brightening morning, he silently hoped, prayed that the 
human commander would be able to keep his word and 
protect the helpless Gargoyle statues.  Sadly, he 
realized that his love for Goliath's love was slowly 
twisting, and changing into something else.
     Stolen One found refuge during the day in a cave 
not far from the castle.  While in his stone sleep, he 
dreamed of his past.
     A hundred years ago, he had been stolen, as an egg, 
by the Three Weird Sisters.  It had been the unlikely 
team of Puck and Goliath's love that had rescued his egg 
from the Three Sisters.  But not before they had 
performed many spells on it.  It was for this reason he 
had been named Stolen One.  While his clan was very 
kind to him, he had left to be near the one who had 
rescued him. 
     It was with this clan that Stolen One felt truly 
happy.  And not just because he was near the one he 
loved.  He felt a deep kinship with the members of that 
clan that he did not feel with the Irish clan.

                        Scotland 992 AD
     Two nights following his escape from Castle Wyvern, 
Stolen One returned hoping to encounter his friends 
alive and well.  To his horror and dismay, he instead 
found crumbled statues, and his closest friends and 
Goliath frozen in stone at night.  He let out an enraged 
roar.  The change in his feelings towards the one he had 
loved was now complete.  He solemnly swore she would pay 
for what she had done.  If he ever saw her again, he 
would kill her.

                           Ireland 1005
     "This way!" a voice shouted.  "The demon is here!"
     Stolen One fled the angry mob, terrified.  He 
clutched a tablet in his hand, one he had stolen from 
the ruins near these humans' town.  They had seen him 
and thought to destroy him.  
     He fled into a deep cave, hoping to hide.  But the 
humans found him.
     "Seal the cave!" the leader shouted.  "Don't let it 
escape!"  Fearfully, Stolen one retreated further into 
the cave.  When the sounds of the humans finally died 
away, he returned to the sealed entrance and tried to 
dig his way out.  But it was hopeless.  There was only 
one way he would survive.  Forcing his eyes to glow, he 
began to read the tablet aloud in the light his eyes 
provided.  When he had finished reading, he turned to 
stone until such time as the tablet was read again.
     Three bats on the ceiling watched in silence above 
the frozen figure of Stolen One.  One brown, one black, 
one white.
     "Now Sisters," the brown one said.  "We can 
continue our work."

                           Ireland 1996
     The steamshovel took another chunk of dirt from the 
hillside.  The construction had been going on many days 
in order to complete a new road to Dublin.  The Foreman, 
Thomas was the first to notice the opening in the hill.
     "Stop the shovel!" he shouted.  He went over to the 
small opening in the hill.  "Someone bring me a shovel!" 
he called.  Martin handed him one.  Thomas began to 
clear away the dirt from the cave and suddenly stopped.
     "What's wrong?" Martin asked.  Then he looked where 
Thomas was staring.  There, crouched in the cave opening 
was a beautifully crafted Gargle.
     "Good lord, look at that." Thomas said.
     "Aye, it's a beaut.  I wager it's worth a pretty 
penny."
     "And I know just the buyer."

                          Dublin, Ireland
     The Gargoyle statue sat in the woman's office as 
she inspected the tablet.  Inwardly, Demona smiled.  He 
was alive.  Of all the deaths that she had mourned at 
the fall of her clan, Stolen One's had hit her the most. 
 Next to Goliath's of course.  She had always known of 
Stolen One's love for her.  And now that Goliath had 
abandoned her, that love would be requited.
     "You've done well Thomas." she purred at the man 
standing nervously in front of her desk.
     "Thank you maam." Thomas said.  He was not used to 
being in such a nice office.  And the way the woman 
looked at that statue, as if it were some long lost 
friend.  The woman was a nut for sure.
     Demona quickly wrote the human a check.  His boots 
were dirtying her carpet.
     Thomas' eyes brightened at the amount on the check. 
 "That's five thousand for each of us!" he said.
     "And worth every penny." Demona smiled.

                   New York, three days later.
     Demona paced the length of her office impatiently. 
 She had decided to wait until sunset to revive Stolen 
One.  For if he had seen the destruction at Castle 
Wyvern then surely he would strike out at any human.  
She smiled, now he must realize humans for what 
they were, a threat to be eliminated.
     Finally, the sun began to set, and Demona felt the 
familiar pain of her transformation.  Slowly, her human 
form began to twist, distort.  Wings sprung from her 
back, and her skin turned a dark gray.  Within moments, 
the human was gone, replaced with a Gargoyle.
     "And now my friend," she purred.  "It's time to 
rise and shine."  She picked up the tablet, and began to 
read.  As the magical words left her mouth, the air 
seemed to thicken, and she could have sworn she heard a 
groan from somewhere deep within the Gargoyle statue.  
When she had finished reading she waited expectantly.
     At first nothing happened.  Then, tiny hairline 
cracks appeared.  With a roar born of a thousand year 
sleep, Stolen One burst from his captivity, eyes glowing 
bright green.
     Stolen One stretched and peered curiously around 
the room.  Then his eyes lit on the room's other 
occupant.
     "You!"  To Demona's surprise, it was not a cry of 
joy, but one of deep hatred.
     Demona flung herself back as Stolen One leapt at 
her.  His eyes glowed bright green, a side effect of the 
Weird Sisters' tampering.
     Stolen One pinned her to the floor.  "Murderer!  
You betrayed the clan!  Killed them!"
     "No my love!" Demona cried in fear.
     The battle glow faded slightly from Stolen One's 
eyes.  "Your love?" he murmured.
     Demona took advantage of his hesitation.  She freed 
her hands and grabbed his head, kissing him as hard as 
she could.  She rolled over so that it was he, not her 
who was pinned to the floor.  She pressed herself 
against him.  "Yes, my love." she murmured in his 
ear.  "It was not I who betrayed out clan.  It was 
Goliath."  She moved to kiss him again, but he clamped 
his hand over her mouth.
     "Mmmmphhhf!" she tried to mumble.  The glow was 
back in his eyes.  "MMMMMMPHHF!  MMMPHFFFFMMMMM!"  She 
tried to shout, but he was too strong.  He had always 
been stronger than the other Gargoyle's his age but 
never this strong.  The sisters had gotten to him again.
     "Liar!" he cried.  He stood, picking her up.  "You 
killed them!  You hated the humans so much, you 
sacrificed your own clan to kill them!"
     He threw her across the room, but she managed to 
stop her momentum with her wings.  In a moment, she was 
out the window.
     "Run murderer!  When I catch you, you will die!"  
Stolen One leapt out the window to pursue her, but 
stopped short at the sight of the city before him.
     "Dear God!" he murmured.  "What manner of place is 
this?"  Before him he saw strange rectangular buildings 
that stretched to the very sky, below him were strange 
creatures with glowing eyes.
	He flew lower to the ground to get a better look 
at them when bright lights were suddenly shone on him 
from below.

     "Goliath!" Hudson's voice echoed through the 
castle.  "I think ye'd best come see this!"
     "What is it Hudson?" Goliath asked as he entered 
the TV room.  Then he saw what Hudson was watching."
     "This is the third reported Gargoyle sighting in as 
many days." the Anchor woman said.  "One eyewitness was 
able to take this picture of the creature."  A 
photograph appeared on the screen.  A picture of a 
frightened and confused...
     "Stolen One!" Goliath and Hudson said at once.

                        to be continued...