Well. Wasn't that just the most odd thing?
In the south of the Thunderblacks, in the green hills that were still almost mountains, Allette had been out for a stroll around noon, coming back from a bath. She had flown to the spring, but felt like walking back, so she had, winged shoes hung casually over her shoulder. And she had come across a gargoyle! or, Allete assumed that it was a gargoyle.
It was a gray statue, made of stone that was, in some places, too delicately and perfectly carved to truly be a sculpture. Slightly ruffled hair, a bandanna, horns... Well, quite a sight! Especially here, they were miles from the village so it had to be a gargoyle--who would drag a statue all the way out here? Quite excited, Allete for brief moment planned on leaving, and returning with nightfall.
But then she recalled that several of the village men were to be hunting dear on that hill and the hills around it that afternoon, and she did have her book...
The men in her village, well, they weren't so horrible or anything, but they weren't curious like Allete, and were less prone to their whims. Allete was the sort of person who would do quite well with a pair of wings, letting the breeze take her wherever it pleased. She had no proof that the gargoyle before her was nice, except that she rather thought that it was true, and that the lines of his face and the crinkle of his eyes hinted on a kind smile that Allete thought she might like to see in flesh.
And, she considered, it would be just a shame if some man from the village thought he would be dangerous and broke him.
So Allete took out her book and settled in to wait for night fall, hazel eyes studying the pages for hours. She had just cut her hair and it was short and dark. Occasionally she would reach up to tuck a piece behind her ear.
Perhaps now would be the time to explain about the shoes.
They were a simple affair, soft black leather shoes with straps that tied nicely up her calves. On the heals of the shoes were wings. Soft, feathery, but immobile and lifeless without feet in the shoes. He mother had given them to her, a gift from a stranger who had once passed through the village. Her mother was too old to use them, so she had given them to Allete.
By the time the sun was skimming the hills, Allete was quite hungry, but soon the gargoyle would wake and she could be on her way. It had turned out that only a few boys gathering firewood had come near her at all, and she had sent them towards an old, dead tree she'd seen, away from the gargoyle. But now she was trembling in anticipation. She had never met a gargoyle before, and she loved meeting new people.
