Tales From Gryphon Beach: A Day Of Darkness And Light

Once upon a time, along the mystical Gryphon Beach, where mermaids watch the sands from nearby stones and where high cliff walls are carved with magical gryphons, there was a little girl named Darkness.

Darkness was a little shy, and didn't know anyone on all of Gryphon Beach, not at all, and so she would often wander the shore, with her toes in the water -- the water at Gryphon Beach is always warm, you know -- and sometimes from a very long way off she would watch Para-chan the panther and Sean the butterfly play.

But because the beach was so long, and seemed frightening, Darkness would stay on her end of the beach, instead of going to visit.

Darkness woke up very very early one morning, so early that she beat the sun out of bed, and while she was walking down the beach with just the moon's light, she stubbed her poor big toe on a rock.

She was a brave girl, though, and so she didn't cry very much, even though it hurt quite a lot. She straightened all up, and frowned down at the stone she'd bumped, and very firmly, said to it, "That wasn't very friendly."

The stone, being a stone, didn't say anything back.

Darkness sniffled a little, and went on down the beach. By now, the sun was rising, and cast bright new shadows around, and made a path down the beach.

Because it was very very early, and no one else was up, Darkness followed the sunpath down the beach, playing with the sand in her toes and talking to the crabs and starfish who lived at the water's edge.

One bad-tempered crab (that's why they're called crabs, you know) was woken up by Darkness running down the sandpath, and to teach her a lesson, it dug right out of the sand and pinched her toe! The very same toe that had been stubbed earlier, in fact.

Darkness' lower lip quivered, at this, and she edged away from the mean old crab, and sat down on a stone a safe distance from the crab, and cried. It was, after all, very early, and she'd been hurt *twice* already.

She didn't notice, while she was crying, that someone was sneaking up on her. Sneak sneak, it went, and eventually it perched very nearby on the sand, peering at her. Finally, it said, "Grr?" in a very friendly way.

Darkness looked up and let out a shriek! Sitting before her was a demon, just her size! He was full of fierce teeth and sharp claws, but he had terribly interesting and sparkling brown eyes. "Wh-who are you?" Darkness asked.

The demon looked at himself all over. "I'm Kirby!" he answered. "I'm a Gryphon Beach demon! Who are /you/?"

Darkness looked herself all over, and her shoulders dropped. "I'm just Darkness," she said softly.

Kirby hopped forward, to look very carefully at Darkness. "Just Darkness?" He looked around at shadows, and then back at Darkness. Dubiously, he says, "You look to me like you have lots of lightness in you, though!"

Darkness looked up skeptically. "I do?" she asked.

Kirby nodnodded, and blinked his bright eyes. "Look," he said, and lifted her hand up with a fuzzy paw. "You're all golden colored, not dark at all. Only your eyes are sad and full of darkness. How come your eyes are sad?"

Darkness looked away from the demon who was just her size. "I don't know anybody," she said, "and I got my toe stubbed and pinched this morning."

"Stubbed and pinched!" Kirby said. "Who did that?"

"Well," Darkness said, "I accidentally stubbed my toe, and then later a mean old crab pinched the same one."

Kirby frowned, and oooooh, it was a scary frown. "You need the Gryphon Beach crowd around to protect you!" he said.

Darkness looked unsure. "But I don't know any of them."

"I do!" said Kirby. "They'll like you just fine. They won't pinch your toes, I promise! And if they do, I'll *growl* at them, and they'll behave."

Darkness looked at Kirby. "Why would you do that?"

"Because! I'm your friend!" Kirby said it like it made all the sense in the world.

Darkness looked surprised. "Is that all you have to do to be friends? Talk to someone?"

Kirby nodnodded again, all fluffy and sparkling teeth.

Darkness looked worried. "I'm shy," she said.

Kirby shook his head. "That's okay! I'll introduce you to Sean! She's a butterfly who makes lights on people! And Para-chan, she's a panther who'll cuddle you all up!" He offered a fuzzy paw to Darkness. "They don't expect you to be anything other than you are, see. That's what's wonderful about Gryphon Beach."

Darkness took Kirby's paw, blinking at him. "Okay," she said. "I'll try it."

Kirby's bright eyes sparkled happily. "I know you'll like them," he promised, and pulled Darkness down the beach, runrunning as fast as he could, tugging her along and chortling happily to himself.

And when they got to the crowd on the beach, everyone peered curiously at the new girl, and Sean the butterfly landed right on her nose.

Darkness giggled at the butterfly, because it's very hard to be shy and serious when there's a butterfly on your nose, you know. Soon everyone was talking to her, and learning about her, and wondering why she hadn't come to live with them /sooner/.

And Darkness settled down among the creatures and people of Gryphon Beach, and her toe didn't even hurt anymore, because now there were friends around to care and take care of her.