Stitches

by Hopefullygoodgrammar

Now.

It’s so...odd, I’ve never felt this way before. Sure I’ve felt happiness, but only when lost among the words of a book. But I’ve never felt happiness in this quantity.

But, then again, I’ve never had a reason to be truly happy.

Until now.

I’m free.

I AM FREE!

I can feel the joy flowing through my veins, making my heart soar and making my bones feel like they were made of air.

I am currently sitting near a gurgling stream that winds its way down from the rolling green hills and snakes its way past where I am situated and disappears into the distance.

I can see the sky, too, and it is so beautiful that my eyes have been leaking almost nonstop. It’s so blue and the sun is so yellow and there isn’t a cloud in the sky.

And the smells! I can smell the earth scent of the grass and dirt, the soft, clean smell of the cool breeze that ruffles my head feathers, the strong, musky scent of the animals that have been visiting the stream, though I find it odd that they’re all gone now. The smell seems fresh to me, maybe there’s a timberwolf or something of the like nearby?

If that’s the case then I should leave as soon as possible, though I am loathe to do so considering how breathtakingly beautiful it is, but I don’t know what my limits are.

So I’ll go now, I don’t want to get in a fight with some wild beast.

---

Gilda finished writing and tucked the piece of paper into the satchel that she had found in the foyer of her father’s mansion.

She got to her paws and started for the thicket that lay to her left, remembering how she got out in the way she did.

She had been reading by candlelight as usual when she had heard the sounds of several individuals getting into a very loud and very heated argument. Gilda had gone to the door and listened in, her longing for the sounds of others overpowering all else.

“I don’t care, Dimitri!” said a high, feminine voice that Gilda vaguely recognized as belonging to a young griffon maid by the name of Martell.

“But we’ve been forbidden to talk to her.” pleaded the one named Dimitri, his voice sounding higher pitched and whiny.

“I’ve known Gilda for five years!” bellowed Martell, “What the master is doing is wrong, Dimitri.”

“But it isn’t our place to question him.” insisted Dimitri sounding closer to the door, “She probably did something really stupid, you know how she is.”

“She may be a bit...crass sometimes, but that doesn’t give the master the right to imprison her like a wild animal!” growled Martell, who sounded like she was just inches from the door.

“I won’t let you enter, you stupid little hatchling!” bellowed Dimitri.

There was dead silence, then a teeth-rattlingly loud lion’s roar pierced the stillness.

Gilda drew back as what sounded like a violent scuffle erupted just outside the door. The griffoness backed away as the door shuddered in its hinges as something was slammed into it hard.

The object was slammed into the door twice more before it flew open and two fighting griffons in a maid and butlers garb respectively came rolling into the room in a flurry of punches, claws and kicks.

Gilda avoided them as they slammed into the far wall, still growling and trying to throw punches. The griffoness took several steps towards the open door, seeing a brighter form of light than she was used to.

She didn’t even realize that the two had stopped fighting until she heard Dimitri whimper.

Gilda turned and laid eyes on the two griffon youths, taking Dimitri’s yellow fur and gray feathers, and Martell’s small wings and parrot-like beak. Of course, as she was examining the two, the two were examining her.

And, judging by what happened next, they didn’t like what they saw.

Dimitri and Martell let out simultaneous screams that blended together to form a cacophonous bellow that made Gilda clasp her talons to her head in pain.

The griffoness stumbled back and let out a pained moan that, to the two other griffons, had sounded like the wail of a damned soul; that sound made them scream louder.

Finally Gilda had heard enough of the damnable roar and so she turned and fled down the nearest corridor, but the screams still followed her and they kept her running until she had thrown open the main doors of the dank dungeons, barely feeling the sudden dry trait the air took on as it was no longer laden with mold.

She erupted through another set of doors and raced into the kitchens. She almost kept running, but then she realized that the screaming had stopped, so she looked up from the floor and found herself looking at a clear night sky framed by glass.

It’s a window… she realized, gazing intently at the full moon and the glowing stars that formed a glittering halo around it, I’ve never seen one before.

Gilda drew closer to the window and pressed her scarred palm against it, feeling the cool condensation on the glass wet her skin.

She smiled, then she felt the sudden realization of her current situation hit her and she turned around to see the splintered door. I got out if my cell, so what am I doing here?! she thought, turning around and looking for another door, which she found and exited.

The griffoness found herself in a darkened dining room complete with a large table and a well-maintained chandelier that hung over the spot where a centerpiece would go; the only light came from a small candelabra with only one lit candle. Gilda paced into the room and immediately spotted the door that led out, though she paused and took the lit candle before she continued.

The door that she picked led to a sitting room, which led to a hallway, which led to a smoking room, which led Gilda to wonder if her past self had had this much trouble navigating the opulent mansion.

She moved past the smoking room and found herself in the most luxurious and grandiose room yet: the ballroom.

It was bigger than the rest of the rooms for obvious reasons, with slick marble floors, two ornate chandeliers that hung from the ceiling from golden chains and an entire wall composed of spotless mirrors.

Mirrors…

Gilda felt her heart leap into her throat when she saw her silhouette multiplied tenfold by the mirrors.

She moved forward slowly, the need to see what could have inspired such fear in Dimitri and Martell smothering her trepidation.

She had to see with her own eyes, even if the sight drove her mad.

One step.

Two steps.

Three steps and she was standing a mere foot away from the mirror, but she didn’t have the strength to move any closer, because she saw staring back at her from the polished glass, with the monstrous visage cast in deep shadows by the orange flame of the candle.

The face-her face- was thin and pale beneath her already pale feathers, there were two massive scars marring her soft skin: one ran down the right side of her face, running past her eye-which was silver instead of golden like her left eye-and ending at the base of her neck where it joined an even thicker and more ghastly scar on her neck.

The other seemed to start from the side of her right beak and end somewhere at the back of her head.

The black stitches stood out like back smudges on a white canvas, giving her the impression of gaudy stage makeup.

But this wasn’t makeup, it was as real the tile under her paws.

Gilda’s trembling talon caused the small flame to flicker, making the shadows that framed her face dance horribly.

She felt the the scream bubble up within her throat, but was numb to stop it and it exploded out of her open beak to ring around the room and drive themselves into her mind like red-hot spikes.

The sound, the pain and the abominable sight all blended into a single, excruciating agony that brought her meager dinner up and forced her to her knees; the sound of the metal cap that connected her leg braces adding more pain to the already growing amount.

She looked up and saw more of her maimed and mangled body through tear stained eyes, catching a look at the thick, Y-shaped scar that ran from her chest to her stomach, the multitude of smaller, yet no less ghastly scars that ran across her skin.

She nearly threw up a second time when she saw the monstrosities that constituted as her wings; an amalgam of metal and strings and joints with feathered flesh stretched over a curved frame. She had never felt the need to preen and hadn't even thought of flying but, upon seeing her wings-if she could call them that- she knew that she wouldn't be making any attempts to get off the ground in the near future.

Gilda didn’t even realize that the candle, which had fallen from her grasp, was going out, all she cared about now was running as far away from that horrible monster in the mirror as she could.

And so she ran out of the ballroom, letting the phantom of her tormented scream fade into nothingness.

---

Now it was sunny, but the chilling reminder of the previous night had frozen her skin.

Gilda stopped and fell to her stomach as the horror returned, bringing with it a tidal wave of acidic self-loathing that pulled her into its dark depths and buffeted her mercilessly.

Why did Melkonis make me like this? she thought as sobs tore their way out of her throat, Why couldn’t he have made me like the other griffons? What will I do now? No one on this earth could possibly want to aid me, not with this face and this body.

Gilda curled up as tightly as she could, the metal braces which had once felt so natural now felt alien and unwanted, like metal leeches embedded permanently into her flesh.

Now I know why Father hates me so much, who could possibly love a monster like me?

Gilda abandoned herself to her tears until the sun was swallowed up by the horizon in a blaze of yellows and reds and purples, and she cried herself to sleep as the moon shone brightly over the countryside.

Comments

[Skunkiss]

Huh... just wanted to get some sleep.. well reading this is obviously way more important

[Punk Rock Prom Queen]

Excellent chapter, though I have to say Gilda's escape and discovering her appearance seem to differ from what we discused before, but it works very well none the less. I'm liking the direction this story is going, and how you set up her personality its very close to that of Mary shelly's Frankenstein. Keep up the good work.

[Hopefullygoodgrammar]

4781181 I will, and thank you, Miss. Kinder

[Hopefullygoodgrammar]

4781176 Annnnd...THERE'S the scene that you should draw... if you want to, I mean

[Skunkiss]

4781234
Sorry I wasn't able to write anything constructive yesterday, but it was really late and I literally just fell into bed after I finished that chapter

To this chapter:

I think you managed the escape quite well. I actually wasn't sue if she would ever leave that cell, could have gone either way.

Yeah... to the constructive criticism

I know you somehow have to "all at once" reveal her new appearance to her, but it still feels really weird...
Gilda, as any catlike/ birdlike animal should usually be able to clean her feathers/ fur, especially for something like preening.
That means she should be able to see way more of her new body than just her paws, and she should have definitely been able to see her wings or tail.

I know this is a big problem. The idea of how her wings look now is really cool and it would have been spoiled by this logic... maybe you could find a good explanation why she could not see them before? Maybe till she freed herself she could be somehow limited in her movement or her range of sight by something? (I got something like a medical dog collar in mind) The only alternative would be to reduce the damage mostly to the parts of her body she would actually not be able to see, like her face, but again, I like the idea with the wings and it would be a shame to sacrifice that.

I know this may be a little nitpick-ish but I think a little more logical backup would make your story a lot better, so yeah... that was my constructive criticism

Unconstructive criticism:

Lizard tail?... that just feels really strange (in a bad way) and out of place to me, I personally think she should just be Original Griffin parts (must not be all HER original body parts alà Frankenstein) and artificial parts.
Body parts from other species seems a bit over the top and makes her appearance a little ridiculous instead of sad/scary, but that may just be me

Well, that was a big comment
Again, I liked this chapter and you can do what you want with your story, but maybe think about the changes mentioned above for a later rewrite, I think they would help to improve this story

Oh, of course I'll draw something of this version of Gilda

[Hopefullygoodgrammar]

4783414 Thank you so much for your criticism, and I'll be sure to fix this stuff soon

Alright, I got a few things fixed, but the not seeing the rest of herself is because, well.... she didn't really notice before, she had been reading so much and the cell was so dark that she just didn't really see all that much.