Ancient Statue (story)

Long peaceful days were spent in the far reaches of an unknown world as night fell, blanketing their green fields in darkness. However, deep beneath the earth, in caves that were beyond the limits that man has dug underground, a Dantesque and desolate panorama is found among the strange mixture of steam and lava that runs through the subsoil and the shores of these caves. As if it were hell itself or a kind of ancient and mythical pantheon of pagan gods sealed and trapped by some hero, all kinds of statues abound, some more fearsome than others, and of all sizes, although in general most of the statues that are there are of an abysmal size, with several tens of meters high.

Among the dim lights of the lava and the Dantesque landscape full of silhouettes of the statues, a shadowy but delicate and apparently weak winged shadow walks slowly and peacefully among the statues. It is then when the winged shadow stops in front of the largest statue, which was about 55 meters, and which has a strange shape, a mixture of a gargoyle and a gorgon. Then the calm step of that silhouette turns into grandiloquent and frantic gestures, while jumping all around the statue, as if that winged shadow had found something it had been looking for a long time and finally found it. Then, that shadow extends its hand and begins to glow in a strange shade of fuchsia-colored light, while that great statue begins to regain its color, as if it came to life again. And this is the way in which the great game begins and the way in which the good days of peace have come to an end to give way to more fateful times.

[Drawing 1]

In the following days a great beast emerges from the confines of the abyss in the guise of a vengeful, world-destroying pagan god. Any of the eyewitnesses of the return of such a beast to the outside world would believe that the only thing left for the world would be times of destruction, pain and death, until that beast that the ancient writings identify with the name of Gargorgon stopped in front of a town just before crushing it. The most logical thing to expect for its inhabitants was the complete and absolute destruction of their town by the monster, so the inhabitants had already evacuated the town, although due to the vertiginousness of the circumstances they ended up dividing into two groups: one of men and the other of women.

However, to the bitter surprise of some of the few villagers who remained watching from the distance offered by some hills, Gargorgon had decided to ignore that town when he realized that there was no inhabitant hidden there, so he followed where his instinct directed him, which in this case, to the stupefaction of the observers, would be towards the group of women evacuated from the town.

Then it became clear what the beast that was reborn from the deep abyss was looking for, women, specifically, but why women? Then once the Gargorgon reached the group of women fleeing from their village it launched its powerful ray and all of them were instantly petrified, turned into simple stone statues, frozen in the last pose and gesture of horror they had before being petrified.

[Drawing 2].

And so it was that Gargorgon was turning into stone the women of every town he came across, as if he had a specific taste for women or if he was looking for a specific woman. However, after so much chaos caused by the monster, it seems that finally a worthy rival for Gargorgon has appeared. Despite all the chaos and despite all the women Gargorgon has turned into statues, a strong and brave female warrior stands up to him and wields her sword, demanding that he leave these lands or face the consequences.

The monster, impressed by the bravery of this warrior, is supposed to fight against her, hitting her sword with his tail to defeat her as soon as possible. However, the warrior, who goes by the name of Robin, deftly dodges Gargorgon's tail, thus beginning their legendary battle.

As the minutes pass, and then the hours, it becomes more and more evident to Robin that she is not at Gargorgon's level in any way, for all the attacks she tries to deliver to the monster, it repels them with the brute force of its tail without hesitation. It is then when that winged woman, who reappears sitting on the monster's head, nods her head in approval. That woman who seems so brave and noble is not the one the winged shadow is looking for, a winged shadow who apparently controls the monster at will in some way as if she were supposed to be some kind of pet.

Then Gargorgon raises his head, and his great eye begins to glow, to the horror and surprise of Robin, who only perceives that his body is slowly petrified while he screams uncontrollably, until the stone covering reaches from his feet to his head and captures it in that perfect moment of anxiety and horror that Robin, his statue, will now project forever.

[Drawing 3]

Even if Robin is not the right woman they were looking for, the winged woman thinks she will make a great trophy in their garden, as she gently caresses Gargorgon with her hand, as if that fearsome monster were her pet. Meanwhile Robin lies perfect, eternally waiting for some future awakening that may never come, each curve of her slender and beautiful body standing out and contrasting with the horror of her gesture, a perfect work of art, thinks the winged woman. Perhaps it could even serve to be adapted to some kind of rudimentary fountain or, failing that and in the long run, as a kind of garden ornament or even as a bench: the possibilities for the winged woman on what to do with that statue are almost infinite.

[Drawing 4]

Finally, the winged shadow decided that the best thing to do was to make a beautiful garden fountain, standing on one end showing her slender and well-formed body while spitting water, having changed her position and pose using a bit of her powers, thus remaining the statue of Robin perfect and immobile for many centuries

[Drawing 5]