The Greatest Honor of All

The dust settled, and I realized I was unscathed. I looked up at the Gargoyle towering behind me, his wings unfurled to form a protective barrier. He had a few new scars and bruises, but he seemed unfazed, as always.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He rumbled with a low chuckle. "Of course. Are you?"

"I think so," I offered. There was an ache in my spine, a familiar chest pain, and a ringing in my ears that still hadn't gone away. I told him so.

"Nothing that won't heal in time," he assured me, dusting off his thick stony arms. We were both covered with a thin layer of ash from the explosion, and the aftershocks had loosed debris all around us. The Gargoyle caught the look of hopelessness in my eyes as I surveyed the damage. "And we can clean all this up, too." He began to pick up the pieces.

I shook my head, nearly on the verge of tears. "It's too much. Why bother? We should just leave and start over somewhere new."

"But you like it here," he said matter-of-factly, cradling an armful of rubble.

"I can't keep doing this all by myself." I felt stupid and childish as soon as the words passed my lips. Had I always been this whiny?

He chuckled again. "You don't have to do anything alone. I've always been here, you know."

I plopped onto the floor cross-legged as he cleaned up the disaster zone around me. "Well, yes... but, I only just realized it. And it's not the same."

"No?" He perked up from his work to look at me with his fluorescent blue eyes and a craggy smile. "I'm hurt," he laughed, before going back to gathering.

"It's not as good, anyway," I insisted. "We can't... you know."

"Mmhmm. But is that really necessary?"

"Sometimes it feels like it."

He dusted his hands off in thunderclaps, having cleared away most of the wreckage, and sat down beside me. "That's the kind of thinking that usually gets you into these sorts of messes in the first place, you know."

"Do I just suffer with it, then?"

"Embrace it," he replied immediately, with a small shrug. The Gargoyle scooted closer and wrapped his fluffy tail around behind me. "Now that you're aware of my love for you, remember that you will always have it."

I leaned against him, wracked with utter despair and frustration. "It's still not the same."

He gently lifted my chin with a single claw so that I could look into his calm sapphire eyes. "That's the best part."

Inspired by Alanis Morisette's new single, "Guardian."