PAWPAW'S MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS 51 - Gargoyles!

PAWPAW'S  MESSAGES TO MY GRANDSONS

Pawpaw loves Bryson, Connor and Archer!

In 2006, I was a very healthy 43 year old. I exercised every day. I had built a lot of muscle in my body. I lifted weights and played competitive tennis. I even had two certifications as a professional tennis instructor. Then, I developed a strange cough that would not go away. My office at the church where I worked found black mold in my office. I became deathly sick and spent 14 days in the hospital at the University of Florida. Six days were in intensive care.

I was given morphine for the pain. One night I had a strange dream about an ancient gargoyle who told stories about his race. The next day, I wrote notes about my dream and began adding more thoughts. I asked your Mom (my daughter) for her thoughts. She loved the idea. Eventually, I published a book titled THE GARGOYLE SCROLLS. It didn't feel right to me though. A few years later, after a lot of thinking and planning, I rewrote the book in a better direction. I titled it THE GARGOYLE JEWEL. I placed it for sale on Amazon.com. I hope you can find it and read it. It contains a lot of my personality and beliefs about the importance of history and memories.

I wrote it under then pen name SE McWilliams in honor of my mother's maiden name.

Here's a bit of it. I love you all, Pawpaw

THE GARGOYLE JEWEL

By S.E. McWilliams

Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.

Hermann Hesse

CHAPTER ONE

The gargoyle race had once ruled the skies, living peacefully amongst themselves as the human race grew and grew and spread like a plague devouring more and more of the planet. It was only a matter of time until the humans, conquerors and polluters of nature, would eventually pillage their way to Molotopon, the last sanctuary of the gargoyles.

The gargoyles had lived in peace and harmony for thousands of years, retreating and retreating again and again from the ever-growing human strain. Humans were not interested in peace. They were driven by domination. They were driven by annihilation.  A single human could be reasoned with. Unfortunately, groups of humans easily became mindless mobs following whatever voice played loudest to their fears and prejudices.

The gargoyles retreated as far as they possibly could retreat. It made no difference. A coalition of human armies fed by religious extremists amassed and surrounded their sacred home in Molotopon. Gargoyle ambassadors FreeGyel and PenTakion were chosen to negotiate peace with the humans. Despite FreeGyel’s passionate pleas, the violent humans refused any offer to coexist with gargoyles. 

When the humans tired of listening to reason, FreeGyel and PenTakion were netted, bound, ridiculed, tortured and then beheaded. Their severed heads were placed on poles by one of the human’s religious military leaders and displayed at the front of the human encampment. He laughed as he placed them there. The wings that had bourne FreeGyel and PenTakion through the clouds since they were hatchlings were hacked off and burned as the human mob cheered and beat their swords against their shields.

The last of the peaceful gargoyles, less than one thousand, watched from Molotopon. Their eagle-keen eyes witnessed each and every horror that FreeGyel and PenTakion endured.  They knew that it was only a matter of time until the human mobs attacked their very gargoyle home. 

The gargoyles held a council in the Great Hall of Discernment to decide whether to continue the way of peace or engage in bloody battle with the human attackers. After much debate, it was decided that they would follow the path of peace even if it meant the end of their race.

When the human armies began their siege on Molotopon, a sacred trust was bestowed on a young gargoyle named GrameeBull, barely more than a hatchling himself. He would carry with him the sacred Jewel of Simipar that stored the memories of his race. 

So that GrameeBull would have time to escape the human assault unnoticed, others chose to sacrifice themselves. It would give him that one vital chance. Each and every mighty gargoyle, wherever they stood, knelt down on their knees, gathered in their wings, bowed their heads and entered a peaceful meditative state where nothing happening outside their spirit mind would distract them.

Weaving his way through the mountain caves to a hidden ledge camouflaged by the heavy mist rising from the waterfall below, GrameeBull took one last look back at Molotopon knowing in his heart that he would never see his kind again. Turning back to the ledge with eyes moist from more than just the rising waterfall mist, GrameeBull sprang from powerful legs, spread his mighty wings and soared to the clouds carrying the history of his people in the sacred Jewel of Simipar. 

The humans, busy with their slaughter of the meditating gargoyles, never noticed GrameeBull. Their victory over the gargoyles at Molotopon would be chronicled and catalogued in the great libraries at Alexandria, Ashurbanipal and Pergamum. When the libraries vanished or were destroyed, the Molotopon massacre passed from history to legend to folk tale and the peaceful race of gargoyles eventually became nothing more than monsters in fairy tales and statues on cathedrals. Only GrameeBull, the last of the gargoyle race was left to remember the truth. He vowed that the memories of his people would not be forgotten as long as he continued to breathe. This was his sacred trust.

https://www.amazon.com/Gargoyle-Jewel-S-McWilliams-ebook/dp/B086SH1QVR