"i have been vorse." and that was the end of it. he tipped his own muzzle back heavenward. the lore it carried. her remark, and soon thereafter a question to explain it. the man grunted amusedly. "i forgot to tell you that my stories are very boring."
a pause. "vonce upon a time i knew a vitch, however. her name vas caiaphas." settling into the memory of it. "she vas my leader on the coastline, many years ago. and she is the only soul i have ever feared. that is how i knew she vas unholy."

"something about her. i am not sure how to describe it," he said softly, lost in the reverie of a thousand months ago, it felt. "vhen she looked at me, it felt as though she looked beyond my eyes. if that is understandable," mahler murmured. "and the vay she spoke," a shiver chasing its way over the peak of his broad shoulders. "the sound of her howl vas like nothing i had heard before."
a breath, a sigh, an airy chuckle of self-deprecation. "have you ever met somevone like that?"

mahler sighed, a plume of warm breath cooling whitely against the cold air. "i do not know. she vas old vhen i knew her, and vould be quite aged now. but — if anyvone could be that determined to live, it vould be her." a silence, mind threatening to sweep back in a farther degree.
"listen; i prattle on. it is your turn, asra," the gargoyle invited with a smile. if she so chose, of course; he would have liked to know more about the pale-splashed woman and to what end life had granted her such a visage.

"whoever she vas then, she vas not that vhen i knew her." mahler scarce had time to introspect upon the nature of another's past life. he hardly dared to meander into his own memories, too full of painful pitfalls they were. starlight chasing itself across the lilac reflection of his eyes.
"i vould indeed," mahler grunted softly. fables could provide a greater joy whereas old recollections could not. and the night was too beautiful to sully with the inordinate shift of pain inside his head each time he reflected.

mahler did not know what a dragon was, but listened all the same. a pensive look crossing his brow; he gazed out toward the distant teeth of the faraway mountains and considered carefully.
"perhaps the god should be ashamed of himself for not knowing that the cat vas not there. he is god after all. can he be outsmarted by a rat?" a somber tone that did not match the glint of amusement in his gaze.
growing aware that he was beginning to enjoy the attentive company of astra, and knowing it was a betrayal, choosing to hear the proper voice of guilt, warranted or not, mahler stood to his paws.
"this vas a pleasant time. i must finish my tasks." and if she did not pause him, the gargoyle would dip his broad muzzle, turn, and depart the way that he had come.