October 1999

Irkutsk, Russia

The streetlight flickered fitfully for a moment, and Anatoly Terentyev glanced up at it momentarily, his slanted eyes narrowing against the glare. He moved the strap of his bag more securely over his shoulder and picked up his pace, moving forward into the puddle of light cast down from the next streetlight. His shoes scuffed through the accumulated dirt on the sidewalk, and the rundown wood buildings on either side of the street did nothing to help lighten his mood. The trees seemed to loom menacingly over the sidewalk, and the garish yellow billboard with its blue and red Cyrillic lettering seemed a harsh, taunting presence.

"Damn it, Anatoly," he muttered to himself, "why'd you have to fall asleep on the tram?" But he already knew the answer to that. It had been a long day in classes at the university, and he'd been exhausted when he had finally climbed aboard the tram for the ride back to the Soviet-era tenement that his apartment was in. He was usually alert on those rides - some unsavory types thought that all the students who went to Irkutsk State University were foreigners with money - but he had gradually drifted off until he'd awakened far past his stop, and was now definitely in the wrong part of town.

"Maybe I should have gotten a cab," he muttered, glancing around briefly as he walked quickly down the street. He had been reluctant to part with the rubles needed for the fare, living as he did on a student's budget. But the longer he found himself walking through this neighborhood, the better an idea it seemed. As he looked around, Anatoly realized that it wasn't as workable an idea as it had once been either. Payphones were few and far between, and those he did see didn't seem to be in working order. "If only I had one of those cellular phones," he sighed.

Anatoly felt alarm tingling along his spine as he caught a glimpse of some figures moving through the darkness behind him. Sparing a longer glance at them out of the corner of his eye, he picked up his pace. The tingling turned into a cold feeling along his skin as he noticed the figures starting to move after him. He swallowed hard through a throat gone tight with fear, turning his head forward again and ducking it down slightly between hunched shoulders as he kept walking as fast as possible, trying to avoid any sort of confrontation.

He stopped abruptly as someone stepped out of the darkness to directly block his path on the sidewalk. Anatoly stared at the Russian man who glared at him from cold dark eyes, his Slavic face emotionless as he pulled a Makarov pistol from the pocket of his Red Army overcoat and let it rest in his hand at his side.

"Give me your bag," the Russian said, his tone as dead as his expression. His eyes flicked around the street as he spoke, his hand tightening and untightening on the grip of the Makarov.

"Listen, I don't want any trouble," Anatoly began, taking a reflexive step back, his swarthy features paled. "I'm a Buryat, not a foreigner. I don't have--"

He stopped as the Russian thug abruptly raised the pistol and pointed it straight into his face. "Give me your damn bag!" he shouted, spittle flying from his mouth, his eyes suddenly wild as they stared directly into his over the looming barrel of the gun.

Anatoly felt his heart stop as his eyes looked into the dark pit of the barrel, his hands held up in front of him. He heard low laughs and talking behind him as the people that had been following him in the shadows moved up, blocking off any chance of escape. His mouth went dry. "I..." he began, voice quavering, then trailed off as he heard louder laughs behind him.

"Hey, are you scared, student boy?" he heard a voice taunt from behind him. The remark produced more cruel laughter, and even the corner of the thug's mouth tugged up in a smirk. Anatoly felt his heart sink, realizing there was no way out of this, and that the thugs were in a... playful mood.

A sharp whistling sound behind the thug with the Makarov had him looking back over his shoulder reflexively, and Anatoly blinked, finding himself peering into the darkness as well. There was nobody there that could have whistled, and it didn't look like there was anything that could have made the sound either. "What was that?" one of the thugs said harshly behind him.

The next thing Anatoly knew, the air was filled with an unearthly howling scream. The thug with the pistol spun his head back around just in time to see the Makarov knocked out of his hand by the edge of a strange-looking axe that flashed through the low light thrown up by the edge of the light pool created by a streetlight, the blade hacking partway through the short barrel as the gun fell from suddenly numbed fingers. The thug stepped backwards away from his attacker, eyes wide as he cradled his hand and stared at the apparition with glowing red eyes attacking him.

Anatoly, for his part, wasn't sure exactly what he was seeing as the large figure stepped after the thug, the one-bladed axe with a spike on the opposite side raised at the ready in one hand. The light wasn't strong enough for him to see his rescuer clearly, but he could've sworn that it had dropped down from the air when it knocked the gun out the Russian's hand. That, and the silhouette was... strange, to say the least. What most caught his attention were the two shapes flared out from its back, looking almost like... wings?

"Bozhemoi," the Russian thug gasped, his eyes looking from the two glowing red slits that glared at him to the weird axe. With strength borne of desperation, he tried to grab the wrist of the hand holding the axe with one hand while swinging a fist at the thing's face with the other. A snarl erupted from the thing, and it charged forward to slam into him bodily, knocking him back a few paces before it crouched and a slithering shape swept along the ground and pulled his feet out from under him. He fell roughly to the ground, the wind knocked out of his chest, and shrieked in terror as the axe came flashing down towards his face, clenching his eyes shut as he heard a metallic shoonk. He opened his eyes slowly to see the axe blade driven into the sidewalk near his ear and the red eyes filling his vision above him. The thug gave one last frightened croak before fainting dead away.

Anatoly backed away from the scene in front of him, only to tangle his own feet against each other and fall backwards to the sidewalk. He blinked as he saw another of the weird silhouettes in the midst of the thugs behind him, eyes glowing white as a hand snatched the front of one thug's coat and lifted him into the air effortlessly, then threw into another one of the thugs, sending them both sprawling. The other three thugs started to advance towards the thing's back, but then three objects ffffwipped through the air. One thug yelled out as one of his legs gave out from under him, clenching his hands to the front of his thigh as he fell to the ground. A second had his breath huff out explosively as he doubled over in pain, clutching his stomach. The third fell over like a puppet with its strings cut as an object hit his skull with a light thock, and Anatoly was able to see an arrow rebound from the thug's head.

"He'll feel that one tomorrow," a voice coming from overhead said wryly.

Anatoly looked up and felt his jaw sag open in shock. Flying overhead was a lithe man-shaped... something, held aloft by two bat-like wings. It had two triangle shaped ears on top of its head and a face that seemed to come to a point to a nose wreathed with small whiskers. Its eyes, though, looked human and held amusement as it landed its feet on top of a streetlight and crouched there, a slithering tail hanging down on the other side, while its hand held what was unmistakably some sort of bow.

"Wha--?!" Anatoly blinked and looked back over his shoulder to see the figure there finish picking up the three arrows with blunt arrowheads that had hit the thugs from the ground, then straightened and looked over his shoulder at the student lying on the ground, folding his wings around himself as he held the arrows in a four fingered clawed hand. His head was that of a tiger, with longer triangular ears and orange and white fur with black stripes. His human-like eyes were more grim as he studied the young man staring up at him.

A sigh sounded in front of him, and Anatoly turned to look at the figure with the strange axe as it stepped toward him into the light, hanging the axe from a belt at its... at her waist. She was bird-like, with fine brown feathers at her neck and face with with a orangeish-yellow beak whose top portion ended in a slight downward curve over the edge of the bottom part. Her eyes seemed to hold a sort of infinite weariness as she looked down at the astonished Anatoly. She wore a long hide jacket with fur trimming at the edges that accentuated a female form; it came down to midthigh with a leather belt tied about the waist. Below the edge were leather pants with patterns worked into the smooth leather along the front while braided leather held the sides of the legs; they ended at her ankles just above large three-toed feet that tapered upward to a rear toe. She had a slithery tail like the others that swished from side to side as she stepped forward. Another look around showed that the other two wore similar outfits.

Anatoly and the three creatures stared at each other for a while, then the one that looked like a tiger turned away, saying, "Let's get going." He walked to the edge of a house and jumped up, catching onto the edge and pulling himself up until his feet landed on the roof. His wings flared out with a leathery snap, then he jumped off and began gliding away. The furry one on the streetlight - whom Anatoly realized looked like a sable - unstrung his bow and slipped it into a leather carrying case hanging from his back before snapping his wings out and following.

As the bird-like female stepped towards another house, Anatoly scrambled to his feet. "Wait!"

She paused and stood with her back to him a moment before turning her head to look at him, a brow quirked in question.

"Uh..." Anatoly hesitated, unsure of just what to say at first. Finally, he straightened and nodded to her. "Spasebo," he said, "Thank you."

The bird woman blinked, seemingly taken aback, then nodded to him a moment before jumping up and pulling herself up to the roof. She snapped her wings out and paused at the edge of the roof, looking down at Anatoly for a moment. She smiled as she leaped off and glided after her two comrades. Anatoly turned to watch her go, three winged shapes flying off into the distance.

A groan soon brought his attention back to earth, coming from one of the thugs on the ground. Suddenly realizing that he was alone amongst them, Anatoly quickly grabbed his bag from the ground and hurried away, glancing over his shoulder at the six thugs sprawled on the small Irkutsk street.

"What were they?" he wondered aloud as he hurried off. There was something vaguely familiar about them, as if he'd heard about them from somewhere else... and he was going to find out where.

***

"Hey! Wait up!"

Anatoly turned to see a girl about his own age with brown hair and green eyes hurry towards him, waving one hand while the other held her schoolbag's strap at her shoulder. He paused long enough for her to catch up with him, then started walking alongside her.

"Hi Nadia," he said. "What's up?"

Nadia Shalenko, an ethnic Ukrainian girl, mock glowered at him. "What's up? What's up? I'll show you what's up." She elbowed him hard enough to make him stagger sideways a couple steps. Anatoly smiled and shoved her shoulder back, and she laughed and settled down to continue walking alongside him. The two of them had been unlikely friends for a few semesters, and they usually hung out or went clubbing together when school wasn't dominating their lives. Which meant, of course, not very often.

"So where are you headed?" Nadia asked, looking over at him curiously. "I thought you didn't have any classes today."

Anatoly shrugged. "I thought I would head over to the library, get some extra studying done." Which was true enough, though the subject he was planning to study had to do with more recent developments.

"Extra studying? You mean they don't give you enough work to do as it is?" Nadia asked, eyes wide. She smirked suddenly and narrowed her eyes. "Hold on, if you have that much free time, then why aren't we hitting the town, huh? Maybe head over to Club 01?"

Anatoly chuckled and shook his head. Nadia was an incorrigible clubber, and he'd been forced to practically drag her home more than once after a little too much dancing and vodka. "Maybe it's because you have classes today," he replied, smiling smugly. He really wanted to get to the library today, and the retort had the added bonus of being nothing but the truth.

Nadia winced and waved a hand in surrender. "Yeah, you're right. You really know how to bring a girl down, don't you?" She punched him playfully in the arm and headed off, smiling again. "Okay, I'll see you around then."

"See you, Nadia," he replied, and watched her hurry off towards her next class. He sighed when she fell out of sight and rubbed his arm absently, the corner of his mouth quirked up. "I wonder if I can sue her for abuse," he murmured to himself, then laughed quietly.

Before long the university library loomed ahead of him and he hurried to the doors leading into the neoclassical building. He quickly made his way to the computers and signed himself in for some internet time, then sourly handed over the rubles necessary to reserve it. That was the only reason he didn't make as much use of the internet as he could, and one of his long term dreams was to get his own personal computer.

"Why don't I wish for a dacha and a Mercedes while I'm at it," Anatoly muttered to himself as he slid into the computer chair.

He paused in thought, then began typing away at the keyboard, typing in some of the defining characteristics of the creatures he'd seen the night before. He frowned when some websites about wildlife with tenuous connections to his search parameters came up. "Okay," he mumbled to himself, "Let's try the English sites then." He began retyping the search parameters in the Latin alphabet as opposed to his native Cyrillic.

Anatoly blinked as the search results flooded onto the screen. Bemused, he scanned through them until he came to a website for some American news show called NightWatch. The brief description below the link had highlighted most of his search terms, but there was one word that seized his attention.

Gargoyles.

As he clicked on the link and read through the story, he suddenly realized why they had seemed so familiar. The international news media had trumpeted the reports out of New York City a few years ago about real, living gargoyles which had, up to then, seemed nothing but the latest local urban legend. There were two sides to the story, with one that said they were murderous demons that stalked New Yorkers during the night, while the other said they were a fully intelligent race that protected the citizens of Manhattan. Considering his own experience, Anatoly knew which side he himself was leaning towards.

"What are they doing in Irkutsk, though?" He frowned and as he clicked through the confirmed pictures of gargoyles on the website, he soon had his answer. The New York gargoyles in the pictures - the best ones coming from their sighting at St. Damien's Cathedral - looked nothing like the ones he'd seen last night. Oh, there were the wings and tails, but these mostly had features that were more human than the animal-like ones he'd seen.

Anatoly frowned as he pondered what it could mean. "Perhaps... perhaps it means that these are different gargoyles," he said softly to himself. "Another group of them?" He scribbled the thought down on his writing pad, then tapped the pen thoughtfully against his bottom lip. Two different groups of them meant that there could be an entire race of them. It was a daunting prospect.

He sat back in the chair and contemplated the possibility, absently doodling on the pad of paper on the table next to the keyboard. When he finally refocused back to reality, he noticed that he had been sketching the faces of a sable, a tiger, and a bird, all of them with human eyes. Surprised, Anatoly spent a few moments to stare at the images, resting his cheek against a fist.

Images ran through his mind - of an axe blade flashing through the low light the slice into a Makarov pistol that had been pointed at his face, a clawed hand grabbing the coat of one of the thugs that made the life of so many Russians miserable and throwing him into his partner, of three arrows hitting three other criminals without actually killing them, and the wry humor of the sable gargoyle as it perched on top of the streetlight.

"I have to see them again." The words left his mouth seemingly on their own, and Anatoly blinked as he thought them over. Finally, he smiled. "Yeah, I guess I do," he remarked, as if answering himself. "But how?"

He began typing in Cyrillic again, this time using the term gargoyles. He frowned as the most he came upon was the NATO designation of a Russian Surface-to-Air missile system, a stone carving at the University of Toronto, and images of various decorative gargoyles in places like Paris and Prague. Anatoly rubbed his forehead with the tips of his fingers, lost in thought. "What am I missing?"

Pursing his lips at a sudden thought, he turned his attention back to the keyboard and began looking up local legends. A smile slowly formed as he finally came across a Russian folk belief about creatures known as leshie, supposedly woodland spirits that herdsmen and hunters could make pacts with for protection of their pastures. One tale of a leshii told of a soldier appearing at midnight and eventually revealing that he had a long black tail and wings, and by all accounts they were associated with the animals of the forest.

"Hmm... yeah, these leshie sound a bit like the gargoyles from last night," he murmured to himself, and scribbled more notes down on his pad. "Let's see if I can find out some more about them."

Anatoly began typing again, this time searching specifically for the leshie. He came across some encyclopedia articles about them, but along with them were several conspiracy websites about UFOs, government conspiracies, and secret societies. But on one of them he finally happened upon local reports of leshie sightings on Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal.

He blinked in surprise. "Lake Baikal?" That was relatively close to Irkutsk; tourists who came to the city usually used it as a base for bus trips to Lake Baikal.

"Bus trip," he sighed, then smiled. "Oh well. I guess I'm due for a vacation anyway."

***

All along the bus ride to the MRS on the shore of Lake Baikal and the short ride on the ferry to Olkhon Island, Anatoly wondered if he was insane for doing this. He had a tight enough budget as it was without throwing money away on some wild goose chase to some tourist trap looking for mythological forest spirits that may or may not have something to do with some gargoyles he'd seen briefly one night. But each time he would look back upon the pad of paper that had the sketches he'd kept drawing and the various notes he had taken, and rediscover that solid determination that remained inside of him.

A short while later, he stepped out of the guesthouse in the island's main village Khuzhir and frowned as he took in the rapidly darkening sky. "I don't know if I should be wandering around this place after dark, but I don't want to waste too much time before I start looking around," he remarked to himself. He stood there a few moments in indecision, then shrugged as he made his way over to the bicycle he'd rented from the owner of the guesthouse.

"I can always sleep when I get back home," he muttered to himself, shaking his head.

He climbed aboard the bike and, after making sure the straps of his backpack were secure on his shoulders, started pedaling along the road. Anatoly took in the sights of the taiga forests that dominated most of the island, as well as the endless sweeps of it on the mainland of Siberia, as well as the expanse of Lake Baikal itself and the sight of the Altai Mountains to the south. They made for a breathtaking sight, and he decided he could see why tourists from across Russia and the world decided to visit this place.

He continued riding long after night fell, looking to the sky every so often. After it became dark he had the road to himself, most of the tourists heading back to their rooms in Khuzhir and the other small settlements after a day of biking, hiking and sightseeing. Anatoly stopped the bike to unzip his bag and pull out a flashlight, though the moon and stars were providing a good amount of illumination themselves. He continued along the road, walking the bicycle along.

A few hours passed, and soon he sighed aloud. "Maybe this wasn't such a great idea. Why would I think I'd be able to find them in the middle of the night, anyway? I'd have a better chance during the day."

He was just working himself around to heading back to the guesthouse in Khuzhir when a distant whooshing sound caught his attention. Anatoly immediately looked up and blinked as he saw three winged shapes flying by overhead, their silhouettes against the night sky showing unmistakable legs trailing behind them. He stared after them for a bit, then smiled and laughed at himself.

"Well, what do I know?," he commented, and hopped back onto the bicycle, shoving his flashlight into a coat pocket and pedaling after them.

One thing Anatoly discovered in a hurry was that riding a bicycle at a high speed along an unfamiliar road in the middle of the night with only the moon and stars to light your way wasn't the safest thing to do. A few times he had to brake sharply, squeezing the handbrakes and digging his heels into the dirt, to stop himself from going over a ledge or heading straight into a tree. He was sweating from more than just the physical exertion by the time he reached an open spot where he saw the three winged shapes standing on the ground, discussing something.

Two of them he recognized immediately. One was the tiger-looking one, while the other was the bird-like one he had managed to thank before she had flown away. The third wasn't the lithe sable-looking one, and seemed as different from that one as it was possible and still remain the same race. He was a hulking figure that towered over the other two, and from the snatches of conversation he could hear, he had a deep, rumbling sort of voice.

Anatoly stared at the three of them and wondered what exactly he was going to do now that he'd found them. "What am I going to do? Just walk on up and say 'Oh, hi guys! Remember me? Saved me from those muggers the other night about 300 kilometers away? I just happened to be in the neighborhood, and...'" He shook his head and sighed. "Yeah, that'll work."

He leaned his elbows on the handlebars of his rented bike and thought about it for a bit, frozen in indecision, when he heard a strange wet sucking sound. "What was that?" Anatoly peered into the darkness, and blinked as he caught sight of movement along the edge of the small cliff overlooking the lake.

"What the..." His gaped as he saw several figures pull themselves up over the edge, their heads covered in something soft-looking. He could hear more of those sucking sounds as they moved, making their way to the three gargoyles still talking among themselves, their voices probably covering the sounds that the things were making.

"Oh crap..."Anatoly started forward on the bike suddenly and raised his voice to shout, "Look out!"

The three gargoyles spun towards him in surprise, then finally noticed the figures slouching towards them. He saw the gargoyles' eyes start to glow, and the bird-like female and the large one pulled axes from their belts, the same strange design with one blade and a spike on the opposite side, while the tiger-like one merely growled and raised his clawed hands.

As soon as the figures from the cliff saw that they had been noticed, their own eyes started to glow a flickering red-orange, like red-hot coals. They straightened and gave bubbling moans as they charged the gargoyles, raising webbed hands. One of them grabbed for the bird-like female, but she ducked the grasping arms and leaped backwards out of reach. She let out a yell of fury as she leaped forward at the thing and brought her axe down on it at the junction of its neck and shoulder, cleaving the blade in to its chest. The glow of the thing's eyes flickered then died as it gave a last bubbling groan before falling to the ground. The bird-like gargoyle pulled her axe free from it as it began to melt, then jumped back into the fray.

The large gargoyle gave out a rumbling roar of sheer bestial fury as it charged forward with its own axe and swung on one of the coal-eyes. The axe sliced off the top of one's head, then the gargoyle spun and drove the reverse spike into the chest of another as the first toppled to the ground. Another of the coal-eyes spread it's arms wide and charged at him while the spike was stuck in its chest of its comrade. With a roar, the gargoyle pulled the spike out and charged it, driving the head of the axe into the thing's chest and lifting it into the air as he charged to the edge of the cliff. He roared as he threw it out over the edge to go sailing through the air towards the lake below.

The tiger-like gargoyle growled as two of the coal-eyes advanced on him, giving off their bubbling moans as their eyes blazed brighter. He crouched and leaped forward, slashing his claws upward across one of them from it's stomach up to it's face, then spun and slashed at the other one in the same motion, sending a portion of it's face flying off in what looked like a clump of mud. He roared as he pounced on it, clawing away more portions of it until it was nothing but a puddle of goop at his feet.

Anatoly hurried toward the fighting, but gasped as one of the coal-eyes suddenly loomed in front of him and slammed on his brakes, digging his heels into the dirt. Up close he could see more details of the thing. It was human-sized, but it had a long beard and hair made of what looked like moss, while the rest of it's body looked to be made up of algae and muck with patches of what looked like black fish scales. It's eyes burned brighter as they caught sight of Anatoly, and it spread its arms out to grab him as it let out a bubbling moan.

Anatoly gave a yell of fright as he pushed himself back over the seat of the bicycle, falling away from the grasping arms as the coal-eyes leaned in over the handlebars. He quickly shoved himself back along the ground away from it as he doubled over the bike, then finally grabbed it and threw it to the side before continuing after him.

"What is this thing?!" Anatoly quickly got back to his feet in time to see the coal-eyes loom over him, giving a bubbling moan that blew air that smelled of stagnant water and rotting vegetation into his face. He yelled and threw himself backwards, landing flat on his back on the ground again. His flashlight flew out of his pocket and skidded along the ground, turning itself on in the process. The coal-eyes staggered forward after him, and he grabbed the flashlight and raised it, ready to use it to try and club the thing away from him.

He was astonished when the thing winced as the beam of the flashlight flashed over it, taking a step back. He blinked as he looked at the flashlight, then back at the coal-eyes, but he knew an advantage when he saw one. Anatoly quickly scrambled to his feet and pointed the flashlight at it, making it throw an arm over its face and pushing it's other hand at him in a fending off gesture, letting off a bubbling groan with an unmistakable note of pain.

Anatoly grinned as he started to step after it, pointing the flashlight at it's face, then stopped as it suddenly dropped the arm away from it's face and gave off another bubbling moan, this one with the unmistakable sound of a growl in it. He blinked in surprise that rapidly turned to terror as it advanced on him again, the illumination of the flashlight giving it an even eerier look, before the coal-eyes' head suddenly disappeared in a flash of metal.

The student stared at the body of the thing as it fell over and began melting into a puddle of muck, then looked up to see the bird-like gargoyle standing there, her axe still splashed with the muck of the coal-eyes on it. Her eyes were glowing red, but they faded back to normal as she straightened and looked at the human standing in front of her.

"Don't I know you from somewhere?" she asked, tilting her head to the side as she looked at him.

Behind her, the tiger-like and the hulking gargoyles walked up behind her, having dispatched the last of the coal-eyes. Up close, Anatoly finally saw more details of the larger one, and saw that he had a head like a bear, with two round ears and dark brown fur. It loomed over him as it walked up, his axe still in a hand hanging at his side as it glared down at him.

"A human," it rumbled with an element of a growl in his voice.

"Hold, Gnurus," the tiger-like one said in a commanding tone, then looked at Anatoly questioningly. "You... You're that human from Irkutsk, aren't you?"

The light of recognition flashed into the bird-like female's eyes as Anatoly hesitantly nodded. "Um, yeah," he replied, lowering the flashlight. "You saved me from those muggers a couple nights back."

The tiger-like gargoyle nodded slowly, then glanced down at the puddle of muck that had been one of the coal-eyes before bringing his eyes back up to look at him. "And it appears that you returned the favor. Thank you for the warning."

"Ah... sure," Anatoly replied, blinking and sliding the flashlight back into his coat pocket. He watched the three of them for a moment, then cautiously held a hand out towards the tiger-like one. "My name is Anatoly. Anatoly Terentyev."

The tiger-like gargoyle looked down at his hand for a moment, then reached out and clasped his forearm. "I am Saulius. It is... good to meet you, Anatoly Terentyev." He released the human's arm and gestured to the two gargoyles standing behind him, gesturing first to the bird-like female. "This is Anya. She was with me when we... involved ourselves in Irkutsk."

"Yes, I recognized her," Anatoly replied, and clasped forearms with Anya.

She smiled back, her mouth turning up at the edges of her beak. "I thought I recognized you," she said, nodding to him.

Saulius gestured to the bear-like gargoyle as they released each other's forearms. "And this is Gnurus."

Anatoly held his hand out towards him, but the hulking gargoyle just stared back at him impassively. After a few moments, he let his arm drop. "Er... nice to meet you, Gnurus," he said, trying a smile. The bear-like gargoyle merely grunted in reply.

Saulius eyed Anatoly speculatively. "I appreciate your assistance, huma-- ah, Anatoly," he began. "But Irkutsk is a fair distance from this island. Why are you here?"

"Well..." Anatoly reached a hand back and scratched the back of his neck, averting his eyes in embarassment. "After our run-in, I did a bit of research, and..." He sighed and let his arm drop to his side, closing his eyes a moment before looking back at Saulius. "I guess I just wanted to see you guys again, maybe meet you properly."

Saulius blinked and exchanged a bemused look with Anya. Gnurus grunted and narrowed his eyes, eyeing Anatoly as if he wasn't sure what to make of him.

"I... see," Saulius answered after a long pause.

"What were those things, anyway?" Anatoly asked, gesturing to the puddle of muck at their feet.

"Hmm... them, yes," Saulius said. "It is what's called a vodyanoy, the physical shell of a water spirit. We have encountered them before, but their appearances have been more numerous of late." He frowned. "It's disturbing that they can follow us even here."

"Oh." Anatoly frowned. "Water spirits..." He looked back up at the three of them. "Gargoyles. Or leshie," he continued, smiling, then frowned again. "All that stuff is real?"

Anya smiled, and said, "You would be surprised, Anatoly Terentyev."

Anatoly looked back down at the puddle of muck, deep in thought. Slowly, he raised his face and looked back at them. "If you wouldn't mind, I... I'd like to hear more about it."

Saulius raised his brow ridges, and glanced aside at Anya, who smiled and shrugged. The tiger gargoyle then looked to Gnurus, who glanced aside, then grunted.

"It has been a while since we've taken a human into our confidence, Anatoly Terentyev," Saulius said, then held his arm out. "But, if you truly want to find out more... then we accept."

Anatoly looked at the gargoyle's arm, then down to the puddle of muck. What am I getting myself into?

He reached out and clasped Saulius' forearm.