Preserved

It’s been perhaps a week in here. After cutting me loose, no one has been in this room since.

It is a large room, however. I think this was one of the staterooms of the castle, but this architecture is new… really new. I wouldn’t think they would have a vaulted ceiling like this: I didn’t even know that that was structurally possible.

What is up with these gryphons- they don’t even speak our language- are they foreign invaders or something? They all act like scientists or something in their prissy white lab coats, looking at me from that overhang.

At least I know that isn’t part of our architecture. It looks like it was strung together with hay wire, all of them squawking in that weird gryphon language of theirs.

It’s really rude of them not to speak to me properly, but no matter how long I berate them for their incivility, they just tilt their heads as if I were crazy! Maybe I am; this is all impossible! There’s no way that these people could take our castle in one night! I wonder if those damned windigoes had something to do with this…

Stupid gryphons. They all just stare at me from that overhanging observation– thing. They won’t even touch me; they’re treating me like I’m– some– alien or something! How could they even possibly be so rude?! I thought they wanted friendly relations with our kind, not to suddenly conquer us and put me in this room for no reason… why would they put me in a room this big, anyways? The ceiling is– like– 5 times my height!

This whole thing is sketchy. It’s like they think I’m toxic or something. I mean, I know that SOME diseases transfer across species, but come on! Gas masks? Are they kidding me?

The biggest insult is this room, no matter how big it is- I feel like I’m in a zoo! At least they let me keep my clothes, but look at how they feed me and give me sanitation! They have a little washbasin with a tiny fountain for my water and other bodily functions… thank the stars they know that humans don’t like the smell of their own poop… but the way they feed me every day- they hook three fish on a string and lower it on an automated crane- these people have magic, but don’t use it right- I thought magic like that was damned expensive- where did they even get the money to power that thing- for fish?!

This isn’t right. I need to get outta here. If there was a way out. At least it’s warm in here…

I need to find something in this damned place to entertain myself. What if I were to escape? I could probably run back to the village and warn my folks that Gryphons have taken the castle… but first, I would need to get out of here. I’m not sure if that’s even possible. I can’t climb through those windows, so that’s not an option without a grappling hook. I don't think I'd get one if they asked nicely- assuming they would understand me in the first place.

The doorway has been sealed shut with fresh concrete, and I don’t have a hammer nor the means to prevent them from catching me... unless the hammer was the means of preventing them from catching me…

No, that’s not possible; there are too many of them. I have to do something sneaky or something. That’s fine with me; I like sneaky just fine… I think… I never was good a hunting…

I'm going to need to think up a way to get out of here...

It looks like whenever they lower the crane, it automatically returns to its original position. Whenever that fat one is in charge of the crane, he looks away as it returns. The crane ends up over that overhang. I could then sneak through the hole in the wall above it and crawl my way up into the attic. At least- I think this is the way to the attic. I knew the castle like the back of my hand, but this architecture- it must be an addition to the castle or something.

The fat one doesn’t seem to care too much. It’s the tall one and the bald one I need to watch out for. They actually look at me when they feed me to make sure I don’t do anything funny. I suppose those odd looking symbols on their sleeves means they’re part of some rebel gryphon alliance.

Hell, I could kill two birds with one stone by getting out of here: tell my village to send for reinforcements, and tell the Gryphon kingdom that a rebel faction has taken over our castle. Actually, never mind. I doubt they’d give a shit…

Oh look, the fat one is lowering the crane…

Herman was lowering the crane with part of their latest shipment of fish. The human looked sulky. He wished he could do something for the poor specimen. He looked down as the human took the fish off the hook. It looked at him expectantly. When he didn’t look away as the crane raised itself, the human seemed disappointed. There had to be something that he could do for the poor thing, what ever it really was. He had a hard time believing that it was really a live human.

Herman went to look for Schultz, but couldn’t find him. After managing the count-offs for the coming night-shift, he went into the castle library. The dried out room was loaded with every kind of book imaginable. Sadly enough, the scribes were still trying to decode the language of whoever it was that lived here. Herman strongly suspected that the human’s kind was actually a real part of their history and not just some myth; though that one being preserved in the ice was rather far-fetched. It didn’t matter now, anyways. He took two random books off the shelf and put them in a small box, then returned to the observation deck. He hooked the box on the crane, and lowered it down to the floor. The human picked the books out of the box and looked curiously at them. Hermann smiled and went away. He hoped he had done something right.

The human missed the crane the second time. He looked at the two books. The first one was a thick, leather-bound volume with brass clamps on the spine. On the front cover, there lay a gold image of a unicorn. There were only images. The first was of a paradise. He saw rolling hills, tranquil towns, abundant grass, and far in the background, a tall castle protruding from a mountain. There were two winged unicorns above: a pink-maned white coat, and a blue-maned dark coat. They looked like images used for the Equestrian Kingdom in the far Southeast. He had always hoped to go there one day. He took a closer look at the images. One controlled the sun, and another controlled the moon. The dark one’s night was abandoned, as the subjects of the kingdom avoided the night. The dark one was depressed, then angry. The white one confronted the dark one, probably driving her mad. The dark one rebelled, and the lighter one, forced to retain her own power and stability for her people, used a series of artifacts to banish her to the moon. So this explains the image of the so-called mare in the moon!

The human looked through the window at the glowing orb in the sky. There was no mare. Where did she go?

The other was a calendar. He wondered if he would be able to read it. He opened the front cover. This type of calendar corroded at a measured rate at the spine: one page per year exactly. The year was: 5623. The day he was frozen was the second day of spring, 4725.