Some time passed after her first somewhat disheartened proclamation of her presence – nothing much to be heard other than the gentle buzzing of a few rather fat and content looking bees that occasionally bounded the high grey walls, bobbing around the gargoyles that stood silent vigilance over the gate before disappearing out of sight beyond. The silence continued unabated for quite some time after until it was eventually broken by the sounds of grating stone – as if someone were rubbing one large stone against another, or perhaps grinding them together in a way that neither cared. ‘Well well, she’s certainly eloquent this one’ came a low strong voice from a little way above her head, sounding for all the world like gravel that had learnt to talk. ‘Perhaps – although one would think she’s coming to court a dragon rather than Mr Kos…’ came another – sounding much the same as the first, to the extent that one could very well believe it was the same voice. ‘Is there much difference?’ before there was a very loud sound – like gravel being sieved, and then crushed through a grate.<br/><br/>Were she to look upwards, she would see that both of the gargoyles flanking the gates had animated to some extent – hunched forwards as they squatted, forearms rested upon their thighs as they studied the girl sitting beneath them with beady little eyes. One of them idly reached down to his feet and picked up something small and black – perhaps a piece of his body that had crumbled off over the time he had been sitting guard over the gate, and idly pitched it towards the girl in a none too pleasant gesture. ‘The difference, my stony little friends, is that while a dragon might think of a pair of smart mouthed gargoyles as a source of amusement, I am quite happy to blast you both back into the ground from which you came before starting afresh… Perhaps Granite would produce a far more agreeable personality’ came a rather booming voice – this one sounding all together more human than that of the two gargoyles, who instantly bit their tongues.<br/><br/>The silence seemed to continue for some time afterwards – again, nothing breaking it apart from the stirring of the tree branches around her creaking softly in the breeze. After a while, one of the gargoyles raised its fist to its fanged mouth and coughed rather forcefully. ‘Err, Mr Kos? The visitor…’  it said, a little less boisterously than before – even going so far as to slump its shoulders as if awaiting some inevitable strike from the heavens upon its head. ‘Hmm? Oh, yes, right… What, girl, do you want from me?’ came the booming voice once more – seeming to ring out from everywhere around her all at once.