The sickly pale moonlight illuminated his way through the marsh, lending an eerie radiance to the ever present pall of low lying mists.

The Gargoyle glanced warily back and forth, brown wings folded tightly about his shoulders like a cloak over his lighter brown-pigmented skin. After two nights' journey from Castle Wyvern he was nearing his goal.

Closer now to the heart of the swamp in this secluded vale, he was only too aware of the lack of life here, even the constant clouds of midges had petered out leaving him very much alone.

Despite the warm, sticky atmosphere he felt a chill, like a creeping sensation of evil. The trees here were all either dead or stunted and twisted in their growth. Some had been torn up from their roots or marred by scorch marks and corrosion. More and more frequently he was finding himself stepping over the carcasses of animals and sometimes the remains of human would-be heroes who had failed before him. He was almost upon the dragon's lair.

'Bloodbane', as the dragon was known, had terrorized this part of Scotland for months; razing castles, stealing treasure, killing livestock and attacking travellers and villages merely for sport. He had corrupted the land, turning this once peaceful valley into a fell bog inhabitable only by scavengers and himself.

The young Gargoyle considered himself a warrior and sought to prove his skills and courage. His clan's leader had not yet named a successor but, mayhap, through ridding Scotland of this dark menace, this would put him in the running...But he couldn't help but wonder if the task he was undertaking was perhaps a little beyond his depth.

But there was no time for doubt now as he found himself standing on higher, rocky ground outside a rent in the cliff in the narrow gorge, like a scar, at the heart of the valley. The Gargoyle was sure that this had not existed on any of the maps he had seen.

Something crunched beneath his feet. Bone. The sound echoed disproportionately from the rocky walls. Well if the wyrm was not aware of his presence through that, then he would be sure to know now that the Gargoyle summoned him,

"Wyrm! Come out and fight!" Okay, not too eloquent, but it did the trick. A deep rumble sounded within the cave, sounding like the echoes of childhood nightmares. Suddenly the glow of two eyes became visible. The right purest blue, burning like ice. The left a red orb of blood and fire. Malevolent intelligence glimmered laughingly within their seemingly limitless depths. The dragon left the cave, graceful movements making him appear almost to flow beneath the boney plate armour covering his back and belly.

The Gargoyle was a little surprised at how the dragon looked - the creatures he had seen in portraits, books and tapestries were serpentine in appearance with long graceful necks and thin bodies with fine scales. This creature, about thirty feet long, was powerfully built and the leathery skin, visible where the plates did not cover, did not disguise heavy muscles. His neck was quite short and the dragon's visage was made more terrible by the skin stretched tight across his face, giving an almost skeletal appearance as the fangs and incisors jutted almost horizontally forward with no lips to cover them. Contrary also to the images the Gargoyle had seen before, rather than being red, green or white, Bloodbane was black as darkest fear.

"Ha! A fight against you would not even be worth my bother!" Bloodbane reared up, spreading his bat-like wings to give the illusion of increased size. A cruel smile twisting his face.

"That's what you think, lizard!" the Gargoyle sounded confident, but inside he was telling himself this was madness! But there was no way back now.

"The slight of being referred to as a mere 'lizard' angered the dragon and he snarled, "I'll break you like a twig!" and lunged forward, jaws open wide.

The youth twisted to his left just as the massive jaws snapped shut and countered with his claws, slicing so deeply dwon the right side of the dragon's face - just missing the eye - that he felt the tips of his claws scrape bone. The dragon reared up with an earsplitting scream of pain, venomous blood flowing freely from the wound.

Bloodbane lashed out in fury and intruder fell back. Although he escaped having his head torn clean off the monster did not miss completely. It was the Gargoyle's turn to roar in pain as the tip of one of the dragon's talons slashed the left side of his face.

"My eye!" the cut was so deep it had gone numb, but he knew his eye was ruined.

"I'll take more than just your sight!" snarled the dragon, thick black smoke escaping his mouth as he spoke. The greenish glow deep within his maw intensified as he dew in a rushing breath, and then a stream of semi-liquid acidfire erupted forth.

With a gasp the Gargoyle hurled himself aside, wincing as a few stray drops burned him.

Then another great gout of the yellow-green flame came, then another and another. But each was weaker than the last until finally they stopped and the sound of the dragon breathing heavily filled the silence left. He had used all his energy in such a short space of time...perhaps he was less experienced in combat than he made out.

Thankful for the brief respite, the Gargoyle glanced round his hiding place behind some boulders. On the ground beside him lay the rotting arm of one of Bloodbane's previous meals. More relevant however, was the fact that a curved shortsword was still held in its grasp. He prised the blade from the decaying fingers murmuring, "I hope this does me more use than it did you," to the owner of the appendage - wherever they were now -and gripped it firmly in his had. An idea came to mind and the Gargoyle smiled grimly, all he had to do was bide his time.

"Where are you? Show yourself so I can finish this!" the dragon was moving about, looking for him, becoming increasingly enraged, "The longer I must seek you the slower your demise will be!" he threatened, meaning every word he uttered.

Bloodbane paused beside some boulders, looking around furiously. He had his right eye closed to stop the blood getting in so he had to turn his head more than usual - an inconvenience that served only to further his ire, "Where are you?" he snarled again.

"Right here!" the dragon received his answer as the Gargoyle, having approached on the wyrm's currently blind right side, plunged the sword into his chest at the gap of exposed leathery skin between the two sets of plate armour. With a thunderous roar he turned. A mistake because the movement dragged the blade along his flank, leaving a deep rent in its wake. His legs buckled and the great beast slumped to the ground.

Looking to make a quick, clean finish, the Gargoyle cautiously approached the dragon's head, preparing to thrust the sword through his eye and so into the brain.

The right eye suddenly flashed open, and he found himself staring into its limitless blue depths. The slick surface that acted like a two way mirror - reflecting the viewer's own emotions and thoughts whilst revealing nothing of what went on within the dragon's own mind - was gone for a moment, giving him a chance to see what lay beneath. Fear. All pride and arrogance gone.

It occurred to the Gargoyle that, in terms of relative age, they were only as old as each other! Maybe Bloodbane, too, had been testing his might.

Now the dragon was staring at death - and he was afraid. The sword waivered. Then the eye blinked a transparent inner eyelid and the mirror was gone, the deep azure pupil constricted to a slit once more. Had the wyrm shown him this deliberately? Was it a trick, or simply weakness?

"This...this need not end in death," said Bloodbane, all threat gone from his deep-throated voice, "Spare me and I will leave this place."

"Aye, so ye can find another Thanedom to terrorize, no doubt," the Gargoyle tensed again to strike, but for some reason stayed his hand, feeling an odd sense of compassion for the fallen, but still majestic, creature.

Bloodbane spoke again, "No. I mean that I will return to my own realm. I am not of your world and would gladly leave it in return for my life."

"And you will never come back here?"

"I swear, upon my honour as a dragon, that as long as there's life within me I shall never set foot upon your world again."

Bloodbane was beaten. The Gargoyle knew that dragons could not be trusted, but felt this one had little to lose in keeping his vow.

"How will you get back?"

"There lies a magical portal within that cave," the dragon nodded toward the dark cleft in the rock face behind, "I discovered its counterpart back on my birthworld, Tymaera." He started to drag himself towards it. The Gargoyle followed to make sure that he did not delay in his departure. Within the cave was a sizeable hoard of gold, gems and other trinkets and weapons of great value.

"I would advise not to touch... the curse upon my treasure is potent."

"I'd wish fer none of your ill-gotten gains anyway, wyrm. As far as I care it is tainted with the blood of those you stole it from."

"Aquired," corrected the dragon, speaking from the rather unique viewpoint typical of black dragons.

They had reached the portal. It comprised of a large circle carved into the smooth stone of the floor with strange runes in an archaic language (although the Gargoyle could not read, he had seen writings before but did not recognise any of the characters here). When he looked at them for too long they started to twist and writhe in his head, as though not wanting to be read.

Bloodbane stood in the centre of the circle, flanks heaving as he breathed unsteadily, weakened by his still bleeding wounds. His obsidian scales seemed duller than before, their previous iridescence lost. He whispered strange words and the runes glowed, flooding the cavern with their blue fires until the Gargoyle had to shield his eyes from the brilliance.

Then there was darkness. But, as the afterimage of the dragon faded form behind his eyes, he wondered, had the beast been smiling? He questioned as to whether he had truly made the right choice in following the course of mercy and letting Bloodbane live. What if there were beings on Tymaera who would suffer because of it?

He climbed out of the gorge. The lightening of approaching dawn was now penetrating through the thinning clouds above, driving away the unhealthy mists. Even in this short space of time new life seemed to already have taken hold; the first tentative birdsong could be heard nearby.

Stepping away from the edge he decided he could just make it to a safe roost before sunrise, and then glide back to his clan at Castle Wyvern the next night. He turned at a deafening rumble from behind and was knocked from his feet as the ground shook and heaved, sending up a cloud of dust as rocks split and cracked. When the view was clear once more he saw that the gorge was gone! All traces of its existence erased save for a hairline crack in the ground surrounded by a thin strip of earth on either side where no vegetation would ever grow again.

The Gargoyle who would, one day in the far future, be known as Hudson shook his head. Whether he had chosen rightly or not, what was done was done and Bloodbane was gone, from this realm, at least, forever.

The End. Or have things only just begun...?

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disclaimer: Hudson and Gargoyles are copyright (c) of Disney. ie. they are not mine, used without permission, no money being made, etc. Bloodbane, Tymaera and related concepts, on the other hand, are mine.

Comments, questions, whatever, can be addressed to me at the www.NecroDragon.com forum.