Chapter Text
In an apartment high in the skies of New York a young girl began to get ready for bed.
Andraste Aldwyn, at the young age of six, appeared to be a very normal child to the unseeing eye.
She was tiny, adventurous, and cheerful like any young child should be. Her long white blonde hair was a mess from her recent brush with a particularly difficult pyjama shirt, her amber coloured eyes sluggish as she determinedly stayed awake for her father to come and read her a story, a rare treat due to his work and the hour he kept.
Her brightly coloured room of sky blue was covered in soft plush toys, books and games only recently unpacked by her father. Her ceiling, decorated like the night sky, was covered in special glowing stars a child of her age often needed to combat her fear of the dark, to stop any bad dreams.
It was only when one began to look in more detail that one began to see something…
Well odd.
The stars on the sky were not the typical stick on glowing ones anyone could pick up at a shop, but opaque white crystals set deeply into the ceiling in patterns and constellations, which matched the currently lit golden crystal that made up the main light of the room.
The books that covered her room were numerous, and several were ancient and leather bound, the mess actually placed strategically over the room in neat piles and on bookcases and shelves, along with carefully placed pillows, large knitted blankets, and cuddly toys set up in little ‘nests around the room. The books bore odd titles like “The History of the Archmagi war.” Or “A child’s guide to the magic of plants.” Or bore a teenage serpentine runic in golds and silvers.
The tired girl went around the room another time feet padding against the soft grey carpet, carefully arranging the books into a more neat pile, brushing of dust here she saw it from soft toys.
Not to mention the jewels that sat around the room were abnormal for most people Delicate strands of sapphire were hung by chains of silver around the tops of her walls and dripped down half way to the floor, emeralds embedded in the woodwork of the room, making the bookcases glitter. The thick fabric of her curtain, which surrounded large windows, were studded with sapphire shards, golden filigree covering the tops and bottoms of her wall and connecting the stars on her ceiling into constellations.
Her bed was by far the oddest feature of the room. The massive mattress was set into a wide platform, and the wall seemed to bulge out to cover the bed, making it like a small soft cave.
Its entrance was draped with sheer fabric weaved with golden thread and studded with black sapphire, opals embedded in the arch of its entrance, a numerous soft pillows and blankets had been expertly placed within its confines.
Not to mention the writings, the same serpentine runes that the books bore, which were delicately carved into her windows and door, seeming to shift eerily in the light of the crystal.
An unusual room for a young mortal child.
But not for a young dragon.
Andraste huffed as she finished, air coming out in a frustrated chirping growl as she glared balefully at the door waiting for her father to arrive, struggling to keep her eyes open even now.
She would not fall asleep without hearing a daddy story! He was always away at work when she was due to sleep, and she only got his stories on weekends! Now they had moved she had been getting them nearly every night, but he was going to work tomorrow! She couldn’t wait a whole four days for another story!
Just as she was ready to go and search for her errant father, the doorknob twisted and a man nearly identical to her stepped through the doorway.
Truly the only things that separated the two were age and gender. The man before her stood over six feet tall and muscled, as all the men and women in their family were, with the same shining blonde hair that was usually draped over his shoulders but was now tied in a messy bun. Golden stubble covered his jaw and lower half of his face, carefully maintained. His bright amber eye were tired but bright with amusement as he looked down at her smiling apologetically, dressed in a dark blue jumper and soft worn jeans.
She huffed at him “You’re late daddy!”
Arthur Aldwyn chuckled slightly, obviously amused by his daughters indignation “I’m sorry my little Firespark, I just had to take a quickly call from work and it went on a little longer than expected.” He spoke apologetically, giving his daughter his best puppy dog face
Andraste hummed at that, considering “I suppose I can forgive you.” She finally said, considering it more than agreeable in the face of such information.
Her father simply laughed, reaching down and in one fluid movement lifting her from the ground into his arms.
Andraste found herself face to face with her father, giggling as he smiled at her.
“I am so lucky to have such a forgiving daughter!”, and with that rubbed his cheek against hers in affection making her giggle even more as they wandered to her bed. Carefully pulling aside the sheer fabric aside to gently place Andraste inside her “cave”.
Working quickly Andraste began to pull the pillows she selected under and around her, her most loved and softest toys quickly being placed in prime hugging positions. Her father worked along side her, pulling the covers and blankets he loved most around her until his daughter was completely surrounded but her chosen items.
It was a necessity of their species, and indeed their particular breed that they seek small caverns in high places, much like their ancestors did in the age where they mostly stayed in their draconic forms and they lived in the cold mountains of Northern Europe and Britain.
It was why Arthur had selected this property above the others his family held in New York, it was the penthouse of their tallest building, and had all the features his kind deemed necessary.
The security features were nothing the sneeze at either, much to his reassurance.
Once his daughter was settled, curled deeply in her pocket of softness till only the blonde of her hair and the amber of her eyes could be seen, he himself settled at its entrance, laying chest down to the mattress, his legs laying on the soft stone of the platform.
“So, what story would you like tonight hatchling?”
Andraste purred a hum, eyes drooping even then making Arthur wonder if he would even get through the first minute of any story before his daughter fell asleep.
“I wan’ the one ‘bout George and Aethelwulf, the nice one. Where Aethelwulf wins, not stupid George.”
Arthur smiled.
“Once upon a time Aethewulf fell in love with a trapped princess, one who her father sought to force to marry only for his own advantage…”
Arthur barely got to the bit where their Ancestor began to plan with his beloved their escape when a small snore emerged from the pile of blankets before him. With a smile he pressed a finger against the symbol just near the bed entrance, dozens of tiny pink crystals, barely the size of his fingernail, lit up in the cave, casting his daughter in gentle pink light.
Pressing a gentle kiss to her brow, smiling when he received a tiny chirp in response, he carefully backed out of the cave and silently walked to the door.
As he closed the door gently behind him he once more pressed the tip of his finger against the door, making the symbols carved into it glow a fiery red, and much the same would be occuring to the symbols on the window a well. Then he pressed another symbol next to it, and the golden light of the main light dimmed and vanished, to be replaced by the gentler silvery light of the clear crystals embedded in the ceiling.
The night sky come alive.
The room secured and his hatchling protected the elder dragon made his way back to the living room, through emerald hallways covered in artwork and more bookcases, along with several cabinets filled with fine crystal carvings and metal engraved with beautiful patterning.
His own hoard leaned more towards books, soft things and metal carefully engraved. Gems and fine metals too much like all his kind, but a home of multiple dragons meant multiple hoards of increasing size.
The owner of the other hoard in question sat curled on a plush sofa of the large living room/dining room/ kitchen, the two spaces separated by a short set of stairs leading from one to the other, the kitchen done in soft browns and pale butter yellows, the living room on the higher part of the window near the bay windows and the secure glass doors leading to the balcony, done in darker reds and dark browns
The Tv was off and his aunt Morrigan sat curled on the sofa, a cable knit blanket, with ruby threads as thick as her wrist, covering her legs and feet. Her shining blond hair was unmarked by grey despite her age, her skin tanned like all of their families were and only lightly lined despite her age of sixty. A blessing of their species, a fire that would last 400 years on average.
“You planning to stay up long auntie?” Arthur asked the elder woman who looked up at him with bored eyes.
“Only till the normal time lovie, Goddess knows what I’m going to do for the rest of the year till my ‘retirement’ runs out. Dunnon why they decided to so it now with all that’s going on…” She grumbled, flipping the page of her book agitatedly. Arthur could see now it was one his own favourites ‘American Gods’.
“It’s only a year Auntie, then you’ll be back on the street with all remnants of the last sixty years updated and changed. Besides you always wanted more time to refine your black smithery, if not now then when?” Arthur questioned, smirking as he settled down into the plush sofa and she glared at him balefully, knowing all to well he was ignoring the larger issues at hand.
The issues plaguing their world, the reason why they had been sent to America.
Despite that she grabbed another cable knit blanket, of a similar ruby shade, and covered him to his shoulders, curling her arm around his shoulders and nudged him until he rested his head on her shoulder and let out a happy rumble.
“You sure about staying up until after Andraste goes to school? You’ve been up for 32 hours already and even for us that is dangerous.”
“I’ll be fine Auntie, I’ll even take six whole hours of sleep like I promised. Work Doesn’t start till seven anyway, and I’ll only be doing four 12 hour shifts as agreed, Monday to Thursday nights as promised. Then the weekend Is ours as promised.”
“Really you are lucky our kind needs so little sleep Arthur, you push yourself to hard child.”
Arthur hummed “I push myself just enough auntie, not any more than I need too.” He said assuredly, knowing her words were slightly true but knowing if it ever got as bad as it was again his family would help pull him out. His ears still rang with his mother’s roaring the last time he and his siblings had pushed themselves too hard.
That incident was not to be spoken of in the slightest.
“At least its only four nights I suppose, and you’ll actually rest on the weekends?”
“Whenever I’m not out on the town with two of my favourite ladies. New York is ours to explore now after all.”
The night sky hung outside the windows, black velvet studded with beautiful gems easier for them to see than most others, the skyline of New York glowing with artificial light in the dark.
A new Kingdom for its newest guardian to explore, full of magic and creature unknown, people and cultures and treasures yet encountered.
Unknown to them, in a castle in the sky, lay such beings that would one day become as important to them as family.
And in the air a whisper was heard, the ancient voice of fate and destiny weaving her newest web.
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Aunt Morrigan went to bed around one, ready to awaken at six as normal whilst Arthur stayed awake. To stave off the fuzziness he felt he wandered the house checking the security, the organisation of his hoard, and several times on his sleeping child.
He unpacked a few more boxes along the way, putting away silver ware, Knick knacks, and other homey non-necessities they had decided to leave packed until later. He quickly checked the time afterwards and glared balefully at the clock when it showed the time to only be 4 am.
With two hours still to go until his daughter awoke he decided to sit down and watch some tv, the volume low despite the soundproofing on the bedrooms, not wanting to interrupt the sleep of his family.
Flicking through the channels he found himself having to decide on various infomercials or the morning news, and easily decided on the news.
American Tv was a lot to get used to, the blaring advertisements and panicked nature of their shows amused him and angered him in equal turn, several news channels had been banned from the apartment by both adults including one Fox news. However local channels were still up for grabs and that’s how Arthur found himself staring at a particularly tired looking anchor with leathery skin, a bad looking blond wig, and a wide false smile.
The title under him was “Mysterious Monsters of Manhattan!? And Arthur let out a long groan.
It was one of the main reasons he had been brought in, these mysterious Guardians of New York, members of a supposedly legendary species, as old as Humans, the lost Fae, and even the Dragons of old.
Gargoyles.
Arthur himself had only heard whispers of the old Guardian species, they were legends lost to time, a myth even in the magical community, as mysterious as the fae, a fierce guardian species who supposedly guarded the palaces, fortresses, and temples of humanity since they first started being built, in exchange for their own protection during the hours of sunlight. One of the Three races outside the reach of the slowly formed magical society.
The Fae: Avoided for the sheer danger they were
The Humans: Too young and too fearful of the strange and different, to
Gargoyles: Too rare, supposedly too intertwined with these other two species to be interacted with.
Then they were gone, their exisistence only found in old records and vague legends.
This was the first instance of their possible existence in modern day, and Arthur had been sent to not only help guard New York, but initiate a first encounter with the ancient species long thought extinct.
To gain new allies, ones who could possibly assist them in the strange events currently occuring, the discordance in the magical world
How the bloody hell he was supposed to do that was left up to him, but inducting a species with seeming minimal contact with both the human and magical world would be difficult at best, and they were anything like other guardian species, specially his own, then getting them to trust him would be an incredible effort.
It was giving him a headache just to think about so he quickly turned the channel over just as the host began to scream about immigration somehow being the cause of all this and dully watched two older women demonstrate a product that was somehow supposed to assist with shredding cheese that vaguely looked like a sponge on a stick.
It probably was a sponge on a stick.
Before he could fall into another fugue state the alarm on his phone buzzed, and to his relief it was finally half-past five in the morning.
Time to get breakfast ready.
Reaching into the fridge he grabbed some eggs, bacon, back bacon of course, and fruit. He quickly put bacon in the pan to fry, washing his hands quickly before slicing and chopping the fruit and drizzling them with a quick squirt of lemon juice before putting them in a bowl in the fridge. He quickly removed the bacon from the pan and placed it onto another plate he covered in foil before putting it into the oven to keep warm.
The eggs were put in next, swiftly scrambled with milk, salt, and pepper. As they cooked on a low heat he quickly grabbed several slices of bread and put them in the toaster, setting it to the highest setting.
Burned food was a guilty treat for their kind, burned carbs especially.
They just loved the taste.
When the eggs were cooked he heard a shuffling behind him and smiled as he saw his daughter tumble into the room, her hair in disarray and sleep still caught in her eyes. But she was awake and excited, leaping into her chair with exuberance. He quickly poured a portion of eggs onto two burned slices of toast, placing several slices on bacon on the side and picking up a small bowl of fruit he placed both in front of her.
It was a portion made for a grown man, but their kind needed more to feed their unique biology. His portion was twice the size of what any normal man could eat. Placing a glass of orange juice near her he smiled and plated his and his aunt’s food just as she walked through the door, looking bright and refreshed.
V Smiling he passed her portion to her, pressing a mug of tea into her hands as well before sitting with his own food and tea.
Both adults listened to Andraste chat cheerfully about her new school, a specialist one designed for magical children and masked as an elite private school. She was happy which was good, eager to explore and make new friends, eager to learn an take part in lessons.
It was a blessed difference to Arthur and his siblings who struggled to make friends whenever they were moved, who unlike Andraste saw social situations as most others saw battle, whereas she saw it as easy as breathing. He, Boudica, and Robin were attached at the hip, equally shy and introverted enough that making friends was a struggle.
They always had each other however, and with a pang of shock Arthur realised suddenly that this was the farthest he had been from his siblings for his entire 33 years of life.
Shaking his head he pushed the thought away and continued listening to his daughters excited chatter.
Once she had finished her massive meal he shuffled her off to the bathroom to get ready after breakfast, helping wash up quickly before going to help his daughter get dressed. She had chosen trousers for her uniform, as it was too cold for skirts, and her Black blazer was emblazoned with the golden sigil of the school Lady Boudicca’s, a tree of life its branches holding seven stars.
As soon as she was dressed and ready he got her to brush her teeth whilst he carefully began to braid her hair, a fishtail he had long since perfected.
Once done he allowed her to rush to the tv for morning cartoon in the scant 45 minutes they had left until they had to leave. Opening the cupboard he retrieved three dosset boxes and passed one to his aunt before wandering over to the sofa with the other two and a glass of water.
Dragons didn’t always get the things they needed in the modern day, luckily magical medicine had advanced quickly enough to help with that. He opened the pick coloured dosset box to see a small collection of pills; Sulphur, pure iron, gold, phosphorus, concentrated magic dust, and pure calcium were contained in these tablets, to help maintain their health in more innocuous ways.
His daughter easily swallowed the pills with her leftover orange juice, having had to take them nearly every day since her flame began to grow and her scale began to harden.
Soon enough it was time for them to leave, as the school began at 8:30 and was a 15 minute walk away, and Arthur found his tiredness washed away by nerve as he helped his daughter put on her little blue rucksack and helping clip her black shoes around the ankle,
He remembered her true first day at nursery and reception with vivid clarity, the sheer nervousness he felt that his daughter would end up alone like he had excepting his siblings. But she had thrived both times
Arthur had no doubt now would be any different, but it was a fear that never left him.
It was a fear any parent had he supposed.
So as they exited the apartment and began their short alk to the school it was Andraste who bounced and pulled excitedly at her fathers arm whilst he tried to drag his feet against their eventual separation.
But soon enough they were at the schools gates and Arthur could only watch as she was led into the lovely looking school already chatting with some her classmates as they wandered inside.
The walk back home felt much brighter after that.
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By 8:30 he was back home and found himself being pushed to his bedroom by his aunt who nagged him about the importance of sleep and his health.
Really he was lucky to have her with him in this Place, babes of their kind were often raised by the entire family, guarded and cared for. It was one of the reasons he was able to keep his career in the early days.
When he was offered this position he feared what being away from so much of their family could mean, only to have his aunt bully her way into coming as well.
He knew it was only a matter of time before others came too, his siblings and mother had already been making noises about visiting.
Aunt Morrigan would help to care for Andraste as she helped care for him and his siblings, much to his unending gratitude, and as they arranged would pick Andraste up at the end of school so he could get some sleep.
Stepping into his room he immediately felt exhaustion take over, but he still took the time to admire and study the space he had created.
His hoard was very much present in this room, books lining nearly the entirety of the walls on dark wood shelves carved with symbols of mountains and lovely plants richly coloured in vivid shades studded with grey sapphire. The thick black carpet was soft to the touch, threaded with small bits of amethyst thread to give it some life. Fine carved metal daggers and metal plates, hung about the room, carved with beautiful designs and patterns. Sapphires hung from the ceiling, pink diamonds and opal in his grey curtains, gold flecked over blue-grey walls.
After assuring himself that his hoard was correctly placed he undressed and wandered into the dark stone bathroom, rubies lining the tops of the walls and the mirror. He slipped into the shower and sighed in relief as the water hit his aching muscles. The water was beyond boiling, hotter than hell to be precise, just the way his kind preferred it. The son of one of his mothers friends, arrogant and stupid, had once made the awful mistake of turning off the automated temperature control, one designed to keep everyone who used the shower safe from harm, trying to prove something or other.
The burns had been horrific, and without magical treatment would have scarred badly.
Shaking his head from that memory he quickly washed his body and hair, not wanting to get up to early to wash himself before work today, far too tired to sacrifice any of the few hours of sleep his king got.
As soon as he stepped from the shower he to a breath, and steam erupted from his nostrils as the water on his skin and hair began to rapidly evaporate, the air around him wavering with the heat his body emitted. As soon as he was nearly dry he quickly ran a towel over his body to mop up any residual wetness before slipping into his flannel pyjama bottoms and a light top.
Wandering back into his bedroom he was shocked at how tired he felt, but he ignored that as he made his way to his own cave.
The Opals in the arch twinkled in the low light, and he shuffled through the sheer grey curtains, sighing in relief as the black sapphire studded in them brushed against him like a cold kiss.
He was soon curled into a mass of soft quilts and blankets, a mound of pillows surrounding him like a wall. He breathed three times, the smell of rose and lavender enveloping him.
He pushed away all thoughts of the mission he had, the strange events occuring the world over, anxiety that continued to thrum within him.
And he was asleep.
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Elisa Maza looked over the skyline of New York from her apartment balcony, the chilled wind blowing in her face indicating the departure of summer and the return of Autumn.
She was glad for it, she had come to despise the shorter evenings of Summer and the time it took away from her nearest and dearest friends, Autumn meant longer hours of night and more time with the people she loved.
Letting out a small breath Elisa tried to force herself to go to bed, to get ready for the next night, but something fizzed in the back of her mind, a sense of something impending heading her way, something Goliath also seemed to sense if indicated by his tenseness the night before.
I didn’t feel totally bad however, it felt like the first drop of a rollercoaster, something exciting and slightly scary, something that made your stomach swoop with nerves and your heart race.
Elisa believed in magic, and more importantly her instincts.
Something was coming, and what it meant for them she wasn’t sure.
But her eyes drifted over the skyline to a massive apartment building further away, its penthouse glinting like a Jewel in the light of the morning.
And her heart raced as the wind whispered in her ear.