A scared scream split the night on the savanna. No moon shown down upon the scene yet fiery torches flickered in the night. A mob of angry humans surrounded a pile of dead or mortally wounded beings that looked like various types of African animals yet most had wings.

“You’ve been in league with the spider from the beginning,” one of the protesters shouted to the few remaining living winged beginnings, “And now because of this Ananci has banished us from Karadishi.”

“We have had no partnership with the Spider,” a leopard like beast coughed, “Gargoyles protect, that is our way. Our nature! We learned long ago not to trust the trickster and made a pat to always protect your people. It is you who are the betrayers.” At the gargoyle’s feet was one of the few uninjured clan members, a hatchling of only twelve years. He was lean and cheetah like in appearance dressed in red shaded clothing. In his grasp he held a young gargoyle beast that looked like he could be a very distant relation to a hedgehog of some type with brown spinney fur and burnt bronze skin. Both shook in fear as their kinsmen lay on the ground dead.

The mob, egged on by the elder gargoyle’s words started to surge forward once again to rid the world of the last of this South African Clan. Fear welling up in the leopard gargoyle’s eyes he hefted the hatching and gargoyle beast into his arms and made a mad dash away from the throng of angry villagers. Bounding high into the air he threw the child and clan pet into the air.

“Take to wing, Kazey,” the leopard roared over the din of the masses behind him as he fell to the ground, “Fly, save yourself and Cremp. Head North, to Kemet. There should be a clan still there if you do not find one on the way. They will keep you from harm there.” Kazey’s greenish blue eyes widened in fear and disbelief while Cremp bark viciously in his arm. He reflexively snapped his glider type wings out to catch the small air currents that only the skilled or hatchlings could glide upon. The two gargoyle hatchlings had not flown more than a league away from where they had taken to flight when the hatchling turned to see the elder gargoyle taken down by the humans. Anger took the hatchling as tears streaked his face and a roar emanated from the cheetah gargoyle like a young male lion. His eyes glowed a bright white and Kazey started to turn back to battle though he was too young to have any real skill in the area.

Balls of fire appeared in the sky before him, blocking his path. The next moment Kazey found himself and Cremp running into a group of nearly one hundred gargoyles. A number of them were his own age though three fourth of this clan that had appeared from the fire were much older than himself.

“Where are we?” One of the members called out and noticed the hatchling and his gargoyle beast. Fear weld up in the female gargoyles face. Before she could say much more though fire once again flared. Kazey’s eyes went back to normal with a start. With a yelp from Cremp he realized that the world was disappearing from him.

“PAPA!” Kazey howled as the image of where the dead leopard gargoyle had been disappeared and flames surrounded him. He didn’t even notice that there was a type of fire ground that was now under him and a good twenty gargoyles surrounded him as he cried for the death of his clan.

Kazey burst from his stone sleep with an anguished howl and looked about at his new surroundings. He was no longer a hatchling but a tall lean gargoyle around the age of thirty-eight, the equivalent of a nineteen year old human. Kazey took in a shaky breath; the dream of his early life still haunted him in his stone sleep. He had it less now than when he had first joined up with the Timewalker Clan but it still scared him. He was still a bit jumpy around humans and Cremp was untrusting of most humans. Kazey was shy towards his fellow gargoyles while Cremp had become a fearsome beast towards most people, both gargoyles and humans alike if they weren’t the African gargoyle.

A bark at Kazey’s feet called him back to where he was once again. The young male reached down and stroked his spiky furred beast. Cremp whined happily in reply and licked Kazey’s claw like hand. After a time the cheetah like gargoyle looked up and at their new home for the time being. They were no longer on Earth but a planet called Pern… or at least they had when the Timewalker Clan, now known as the Pern Clan been abandoned by the Phoenix Gates a month or so earlier. It was said that this place they now called home, Ryslen, was not even on that planet anymore.

This Ryslen was made of red stone and looked a bit like a castle though it was obvious that the castle feature was only just a recent addition. It reminded Kazey of a castle that the clan had visited a few times since he had unintentionally joined up with them all those years ago. He smiled ever so slightly at the sight of the sunset that he found over the West wall. This place might not be too bad to live in for the time being.

“Hey, Kazey,” a giant of a gargoyle male called to him from half way down the stairs, “Are you going to stand there all night or are you going to come down and have breakfast with the rest of the clan?”

“Oh, ahah,” Kazey chuckled sheepishly, “Sorry got caught up in trying to remember where I was, Bryce. I’m coming.” Opening his orange and gold toned wings the cheetah gargoyle stooped to pick up his gargoyle beast. Cremp barked loudly and Kazey backed up, “You don’t want a ride down tonight?” The gargoyle beast growled and Kazey chuckled before leaping off the parapets and gliding slowly down to the courtyard like many of the clan members were doing themselves. The few gargoyle beast members of the clan ran down the nearest set of steps to the ground level of Ryslen while a few actually descended down the walls head first with their powerful clawed feet.

Upon landing, Kazey ran a hand through his fur like hair as some of it had fallen over his red bandana and into his eyes. He made sure his red vest and shorts were presentable and then walked through the passageway into the dining caverns of Ryslen. Many of the clan were already milling about and talking among themselves and with a few of the humans who had stayed up to interact with the new guests. It had surprised a good many of the Pern Clan that most people in this place were unaffected by gargoyles suddenly moving into their home.

That is most except for the blue searchrider, J’lenn. Kazey probably disliked the rider more than the rider disliked his clan. He was not like the humans Kazey had seen murder his original clan but the blue rider’s hard attitude did nothing to make Kazey even slightly amused at the man. In fact, J’lenn made Kazey nervous for a surprise attack on the clan lead by the rider. Though even with these thoughts logic did poke him time and again to remind him that the clan leader, Jilly, was now a dragonrider of a beautiful sunset winged crestless silver female dragon. And Jilly herself had stated, J’lenn would never try anything other than scowl and make rude comments at the clan for both the current and former leaders of Ryslen would have choice words with the man.

Despite these words, many of the clan were still unnerved by the fact that they were now living among dragons. Prior to what they had been brought up to believe, these dragons meant them no harm, however after learning about killer dragons most of your life one does have a hard time accepting that they can be life long friends.

Kazey gave a sharp nod in greeting to one of the kitchen staff before retrieving a red fruit and some meat rolls from a table set up for gargoyles and other night wonderers to snack on. He tossed one of the meat rolls to Cremp who caught it with his front claws barely leaving the ground in the effort. Kazey chuckled and scratched the gargoyle beast’s head

“Oof, pardon me,” a young male rider with curly hair exclaimed as Kazey unconsciously ran into him. Cremp growled menacingly at the rider who seemed to have a knowing twinkle in his eye as he cracked a half smile.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kazey replied stiffly continuing on to get away from the human. He didn’t feel like dealing with them tonight. Aside from that, the way Cremp growled at the man he may have had to deal with a human losing his hand to the over protective gargoyle beast. The hedgehog like beast followed his master only stopping for a moment to cock his head at a darkened hallway the run to catch up.

Ar’wen slowly walked over to the hallway the golden gargoyle beast had looked down only a moment before and leaned against the wall a smug look coming across his face.

“So we hit it about right then?” a voice asked from the shadowed hallway.

“He did say we would make it on the first jump,” Ar’wen replied.

“How did he know we would make it right on the first time,” the other asked not daring to leave the shadows in case he was spotted.

“You and your clan time traveled for so many years and you don’t get how he would have know yet?” the blue rider chuckled

“We didn’t have control of our travel, the Phoenix Gates were not like our dragons.”

“I didn’t realize that, Alex,” Ar’wen replied though he did not look at the marble blue gargoyle as he inched slightly out of the shadows to see where Kazey and Cremp and gone.

“Aren’t you going to go after him?” The white haired gargoyle asked.

“You know Kazey at this time in his life,” Ar’wen replied, “He just showed it now. Even if I told him what his future held he would not believe me nor willingly follow me. You are going to have to do this one”

The gargoyle messaged his brow, “You do realize he didn’t trust me much or anybody else much at this time.”

“He came for some reason or we would not be coming to get him now.” Ar’wen replied. The blue toned gargoyle mock glared at the blue rider before heading off in the direction the cheetah like gargoyle had retreated to while being cautious of who he might run into.

Kazey walked out of the caverns that were the belly of Ryslen and walked towards the ground entrance. He didn’t feel like being in this former Weyr tonight. A glide would be nice tonight but with Cremp along it looked like a walk for him so the spiney gargoyle beast could keep up.

The duo had been walking for only a short time when Cremp sniffed the air and whined at Kazey. The cheetah’s eyes narrowed in concern and looked around. The sounds of clawed feet settling in a tree lead him to look up. He was only slightly surprised to see one of his clan mates staring back at him.

“Good evening, Kazey,” the marbled gargoyle smiled weakly at the much taller cheetah.

“Alex,” Kazey replied with some curiosity. He didn’t converse with the white haired gargoyle much even as hatchlings so it seemed odd to him that the web winged gargoyle would seek him out, “How’s Lexxy? For that matter where is she, she’s usually not so far from you.”

“She’s doing well, I left her behind for a bit,” Alex smiled trying not to chuckle. It was during this point that Kazey took notice in what the marble blue gargoyle was wearing. He was no longer wearing his usual red brown lone cloth with a rope belt. He was wearing what seemed to be a wher hide jump suit that looked similar to what some dragonriders wore when flying into battle.

“What’s with the clothing change?” he asked in curiosity. Cremp seemed to mimic the same curiosity as he sniffed the blue gargoyle and cocked his head for the second time of the night. However unlike his master he turned his sniffing the air madly, gave a howl and ran off.

“What in the name of…?” Kazey started hesitantly before following the beast that was howling like a bloodhound.

Behind him Alex’s eye glowed a soft white for a moment before charging after the two with a worried curse of “SHARDS!”

For five minutes the three gargoyles crashed through the woods outside of Ryslen. Soon they found themselves near a small cave with a dragon-sized entrance. It was Cremp’s yelp in startlement that caused the cheetah like gargoyle to slide to a halt just outside the cave only to see Cremp streaking back towards him as a blue dragon head that seemed to be kissed by the dawn light followed the beast to the entrance.

“Dragon!” Kazey shouted and tried to push the marbled gargoyle back in the other direction with him, “Alex, it’s a dragon, a wild dragon!”

“Yes he’s a dragon but he’s not wild!” Alex growled only a moment before both slipped. Both were surprised that they had not noticed the snow that had started to come down, a light layer had already covered the ground. The shock of the light snowfall nearly made Kazey forget the dragon and what Alex had just said. It was when his eyes feel upon the dragon once more as he emerged fully from the cave that he gawked at the blue. The dragon walked over slowly until his head hovered slightly over both gargoyles.

To Kazey’s surprise, Alex reached out to the dragon used the blue to help him to his feet. To add to this mystery he watched in amazement as Alex hugged the blue’s wedge shaped head before turning back to the cheetah, on of his claws still lightly touching the blue.

“He’s not wild because he has a rider,” Alex replied before Kazey could pose the question, “This is Braudanth. I’m his rider.” At this moment Cremp ran up and stood between Kazey and the gargoyle turned dragonrider.

“I see why he didn’t come with, that would be very disruptive of a hatching,” Alex replied shaking his head at the gargoyle beast who did not growl but glared at the dragon, Braudanth.

“When? How?” Kazey babbled, he had an idea but he didn’t want to believe it.

“You’ll see it in a few years, don’t worry about it. It’s not important,” he replied, “What is important is that you need to come with us” Kazey stared at he marble blue gargoyle like he’d grown a few extra heads. Blinking he looked at the dragon who eyed him in such a serious way the cheetah had to fight the urge to take a step back. So intent on keeping eye contact with the dragon he jumped as something brushed his leg.

Braudanth turned his stern gaze to the gargoyle’s leg where Cremp was now looking at him growling. The dragon seemed to contemplate the beast for a moment before snorting causing Cremp to stop growling and look at the dragon like he was listening to words only he could hear. Slowly, almost like he was not sure if he should, Cremp’s ridged tail started to wag.

“Brau just explained the situation to Cremp,” Alex explained to the spotted gargoyle’s dumbfounded look to which Cremp gave a happy deep bark at his master.

“That’s great, the beast knows but I don’t have a clue what this is all about,” Kazey scoffed, crossing his arms though part of the reason was because he was starting to feel the cold and his fur was starting to become damp from the snow melting on him because of the heat was giving off.

Do you wish to always be heartbroken, gargoyle? Kazey jumped at the stern words which his ears did not hear but his brain felt as if he were being reprimanded as a hatchling by the elders of his clan. The cheetah like gargoyle became a bit meek in the moment, realizing that the Dawn Blue was the one responsible for the words. Despite this however he grew curious. Jilly’s sunset winged silver had never bespoken him so he had never really felt the need to explore fully the bonding of a dragon to a gargoyle, curiosity now filled him as Braudanth gave him his first glimpse into this exclusive world of the riders of dragons. Well, little one? Braudanth asked tilting his head and seeming less stern this time.

“What do you mean?” Kazey asked after a moment’s thought, was he a heartbroken gargoyle.

Alex looked at his clan mate and looked serious as he spoke quietly, after all this was a delicate subject, “You lost much long ago, even you may not realize it as this moment but you will. Least that’s what you told me.”

“You talk in riddles, Alex,” Kazey replied, “That’s not like you. Aside from that, when did I ever tell you this. How would you even know, I do not talk of that life with the clan.”

“Well he said he wouldn’t get it right away,” Ar’wen sighed as he walked onto the scene, “Just ask him the question; give him the chance to make his own decision.”

“Who’s this human?” Kazey growled slightly in anger, he felt like he was cornered. Cremp growled at Ar’wen as well, his eyes glowing white hot.

“Ar’wen, you know how Kazey is about humans,” Alex scolded the blue rider as a huge blue dragon came up behind him. The blue dragon caused Kazey to flinch as well, he was striped in a darker blue color.

“However, you would not be here if not for me. Braudanth is too young to make the jump easily on his own without Cammy’s help and seasoned guidance,” the human blue rider half snorted in a chuckle. He then turned to the cheetah and winked, “Don’t worry, Kaz, you may not like me much but you can trust me. I can cause trouble but Quachir still trusts me as does Jilly.”

“By Faranth though does he try their patience at times,” Alex concurred while running his talons through his grey speckled white hair, “But as Ar’wen said I should get to the point not that we’d be really late if we kept at it.” At this Kazey fully understood what was going on though why he’d not thought of the fact of time travel really didn’t make sense to him, after all he’d been time traveling for twenty years up until a few months ago it should have been second nature.

“So the short of it is this,” Alex continued, “we realize you know little of the dragons here even with living among them as you have now. I know you have had no interest in them until recently,” here Alex seemed confused at what he had just said, “but I was told I had to ask you this, would you be willing to try your claw at impressing a dragon from Ryslen?”

“Why did you have to bring me out here to ask me?” Kazey questioned back not even thinking about the question the web-winged gargoyle had asked.

“Because as you realize we’re not from this time,” Ar’wen replied seeming as if he was getting bored and wanted to get to a bigger event, “We ask because you won’t be standing at this time’s Ryslen.”

“What will the clan do with me disappearing?” Kazey asked remembering Jilly’s disappearance in which she was gone for twenty years of her own time but was back in their lives immediately.

“I take that as agreeing to it then,” Alex finally smiled as he rummaged in his blue’s bag, “You told us you returned a week after today, I guess we did that so you wouldn’t run into yourself by accident, it takes a lot out of a person being in the same time as themselves when time traveling by dragon rather than by Phoenix Gate. You’ll want to put these on, they should fit you perfectly.”

Kazey caught the bundle that was tossed to him by the marble blue gargoyle. Taking a talon to slice through the twine that held the parcel together he found a red tinted wher hide jump suit like those that dragonriders wore. Felling a moment of shyness even though he was among males he ducked into the cave Braudanth came from and quickly changed. He came out to fine a small red object flying towards him. He caught it, but barely and looked at the object in his claw. It was a simple ruby with a leather thread strung through it to make in a pendant. His eyes went wide, this was Jilly’s new pendant that could cause a gargoyle to stay flesh during the day instead of sleeping in stone. Before he could protest though the one who’d tossed it to him spoke.

“A search gift from you from, Jilly,” Ar’wen smirked, “I told her you might need it and that she’d get it back in a sevenday. Don’t worry, she agreed to it, I didn’t nick it off her. Konjakuth would have had my arse then.” He winked at the spotted gargoyle.

Kazey looked at the little ruby in awe, not many in the clan had warn one of these pendants yet, they had only been produced a few days earlier by the clan sorceress, Pleiades. In fact those who the clan leader chose so far were the only one to have worn one and that was a mere handful. It was an honor that Jilly allowed it. He slipped the pendant over his head, stroked the gem once still in awe then looked to the two riders.

“So what hatching am I standing for,” he asked.

“Another Flurry,” Alex replied with a smile as he mounted Braudanth’s neck and extended a claw to the lanky gargoyle to help him up, “I think it’s the fourth Flurry, I haven’t kept track too well, but then that’s why Ar’wen and Camoth are going to be our guide to the right time.”

“Well, we may have time but let’s get moving, shouldn’t make Kazey wait much longer,” Ar’wen smirked as he covered his face in the traditional riding scarf and brought down his goggles, “He might change his mind.”

Alex laughed in agreement and Kazey just raised a fuzzy eyebrow at the duo. Within a few minutes the two dragons were in the air and Kazey wondered at the idea of flight rather than gliding like gargoyles actually did. No air currents to restrict a gargoyle. This will be an adventure, he thought only a moment before being surrounded by the darkness of between.