A frigid castle in ruins

"I didn't say anything about a ca-..." She went silent as the displays came to life before her eyes, vivid and vibrant. She couldn't really deny... some of them looked beautiful. It would be nice to see something other than the raging snow and freezing shadows of her home... but what would she do if she left? She went silent for the moment.

She remained terribly quiet for a period longer, seeming distraught in her own thoughts. She bit her lip, baring one of her fangs in the process, and exhaled slowly. Her attention would shift past him towards the crumbling walls of the place she called home.

"... you'll want to leave by daybreak, if not later," she would mumble. "And by that hour, I will not be able to move, let alone leave..."

Needless to say, his sudden shift in demeanor and the polite motion he took - it was unsettling to Khakyi. She hesitated to walk past him, but eventually gave in and make paces to head back into the entry chamber - assuming he would follow to get out of the weather. Despite her lack of attire, the cold didn't seem to bother her but she knew that humans couldn't tolerate it very well. They weren't beings of stone, of course.

"... I would not ask to walk during the day. It is when I sleep. If I were to be awake in the day, when would I sleep?" she would ask, almost scoffing - the answer was obvious to her, but she couldn't read what was on this archer's mind... strange as he was.

My lady. It was off-putting. And that was clear in her following leer as he spoke. The idea of him openly admitting to upsetting her further wasn't pleasing - and he was already pushing boundaries just with his very presence. But she snapped her wings roughly about her shoulders as she turned to stare him down, eyes narrowed thin and watching him expectantly.

She had a feeling she would be taking another swing at him before this was over.

At the thought of having to delve that far back into her memories, well past the years of loneliness and spanning years of trying to tolerate power and wealth hungry human lords, something about Khakyi seemed to shift. Her expression softened and seemed to fall into a twist of nostalgia and longing. Some of the tension eased out of her stance and even her wings seemed to ease up around her shoulders a little. Her eyes shifted to look elsewhere, anywhere but at the archer.

She began to pace slowly and carefully around the ruins of this empty hall, remaining silent for a little while. It was a hard question to answer. She hadn't thought back that far in quite some time.

"... hm. I remember... there was this small court here. No king, no one man looking to rule. These people tended to themselves and made a self-sustaining living here within these walls. They were a bit scared of me, of us.

"I remember my father. He was large and powerful..." She gestured with a level hand several inches over her own head. "And I was barely here." Her hand would lower to about her knee, if not a touch lower, before resuming to pace. "But he was never mean or aggressive. He was quiet and calm and patient with the humans. We lived alongside them for many years. Even when he made to sleep or woke with the coming night, he never took a vicious stance to ward off the wary or ever let loose a roar. Nothing of the sort.

Again, she went quiet for a time in contemplation. Her steps became less stomping and more fluid as she continued to pace, her eyes still wandering over the worn stones of the walls and the floor.

"It was gradual... I remember standing at my father's shoulders, so it had been several, several years. New humans came and moved into the castle. There were more with armor and swords. They promised protection and new additions to living, ways to farm - things like that. But they were very... loud. Aggressive. Rude.

"I'm certain they single-handedly unraveled all the work my father had done trying to bridge the gap between man and gargoyle.

"These men, these warriors. They answered to one who, I swear, never lifted a sword in his own name save for when his enemies were on his doorstep. Cowardly bastard," she spat, her wings ruffling a bit. "I would see them march out and return with more humans... not more warriors so much, but common people. They were herded like livestock. The castle expanded with more building, part in turn from the humans brought in and from us. We grew in numbers, too. But those that came after..."

She stopped and turned her head, settling a disgusted look on the archer. "I've heard the men yelling in pain and saw how they were treated. I heard what they did to the women they dragged into the castle from their raids."

Once again she resumed pacing, obviously disgruntled. "And it was always the same. Even when another band of men came to oppose the ones living here and overthrew him, the cycle just repeated under another banner. But some of these... these 'kings', they didn't take much to us. I remember fights and brawling at night. There were some nights where we had to take to the highest towers in hopes of staying out of reach."

Khakyi stopped and sighed deeply, bringing a clawed hand up to her face to rub at her eyes. "I remember that night that we started sleeping up high, even in the mountains on occasion. There was a fight the night before. My father had broken it up, between two of my nest-brothers and the humans. We all stayed away from them for the rest of the evening. We took to the towers and walls to sleep when dawn came. When night fell again... we found both of my brothers reduced to rubble off the castle walls."

As her words trailed off she went quiet for a painfully long period of time before resuming to walk around the hall, arms crossed beneath her wings. "I don't know why we didn't all leave then... even when the few good humans that wanted to leave spoke with my father and plotted to leave one night, why we all didn't go with them? He told me to stay, he told most of us to stay. He left with those humans and only a few of the older gargoyles, years ago - he promised he would be back.

"Yet he still hasn't returned. And now there's nothing left, after decades of staying here the humans thinned out and died and left, as well did my brothers and sisters," she barked, growing all the more upset and visibly frustrated - swiping an arm back in an angry, inclusive gesture of the castle that was just outside the other entryway. "It's all gone, but it's all I have."

The only thing close to an answer was a depressed sigh before she came to stand in the shade of a corner of the hall, watching the archer with a pained stare.

"If I leave these walls, I run the risk of being smashed to pieces in the sunlight by another human. It's safer to just stay here," she murmurs.

The thought of her broken brothers made her wings ruffle - it was clear it wasn't appealing to her. Her gaze thinned to a deadly leer again, and if it had been possible she would have struck him down in that instance that she glared at him. But she remained calm despite how much it bothered her.

"... their remains are in the basement rookery. I tried not to disturb them after I moved them... it didn't feel right leaving their pieces in the rubble as the castle began to decline." She began to pace out of the hall, towards the inside of the castle rather than back out. Whether he followed or not was entirely up to him though she made no offer.