In one of the more remote areas of the mansion grounds Jeramya opened his eyes slowly. From the smell of the air he could tell it was still night, though he suspected only just barely. He had fallen asleep with a nearly finished stone carved dove in his hands. He moved toward pushed the light divider at the entrance of the room to the side as he crouched to enter the exit tunnel. After moving a few feet just past the first bend, he could see the sky only just beginning to lighten.

One more look at the dove and he moved back to his room to retrieve the tools he would need to finish it. Once he had them in a small cloth sack he took to the tunnel again. When he got outside he set the sack down, shifted to the burrow form and made his way toward the mansion with the sack clenched in his teeth.

Jay cruised across the ground faster than most humans could sprint, dodging and weaving his way between bushes, trees and rocks in his 'neck of the woods', over the well kept grass, past the large fire pit and stone grill he and Sam had built together shortly after he had begun to live at the mansion, past the pool and fountain near the school. When he reached the wall he didn't seem to slow at all, having already memorized where to place his hands and feet to scale the wall quickly, safely and without damaging it, up the wall and onto the roof.

He shifted not to his natural form, his claws while helpful in some ways couldn't do delicate work well, so more natural hands were needed, thus a stone farmer sat on the roof of the mansion at an incline facing the raising sun. From the bag Jay pulled out small precision carving tools to put the finishing details in such as the eyes, feet, and wings.

~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later Jay gently blew any little bits of debris from dove as he put his tools away. Freshly polished and buffed he held it up into the light and smiled. The dove had it's left wing slightly extended as it preened under it's wing, while it's tail feathers were splayed out slightly. "Where should I put you?" He spoke to no one but himself, though a pigeon did coo as it looked at him from a chimney nearby. "Ahh, I know." He said happily as he shifted once again and made his way down to the back entrance. Letting himself in, he made his way quickly and as quietly as his stone feet could to the living room, where he placed the dove on the table so it's wing extended over the television remote.

Jay made his way back to his 'den' to put his tools away. If one didn't know where and what to look for, they would completely miss the entrance mistaking it for just another small hill covered with a few young trees, bushes, uncut grass, and stones and rocks of various sizes and shapes littering the ground. There was nothing remarkable about the place, nothing to set it apart from the rest of the area, except for the almost perfectly smooth, egg shaped stones set 10ft away from each other and the entrance to the tunnel. Since each stone was nearly three feet tall, the first six inches were in the dirt, while two thirds of their surface was hidden behind grass. Carved into the middle of the eight stones (one for each cardinal and intermediate directions) is the crest his father used as his signature, granted it was just slightly different so he didn't shame his father by claiming his crest.

Once he entered the tunnel he began to wonder, not for the first time, where the little sculptures go when he puts them around the mansion. The first time he had done it, it took nearly a month before the first one disappeared and by then, he had already finished with two others. The students and/or residents seemed reluctant to take them at first, so they had sat around for weeks before finding a home. Now they seemed to last hours, a day at most if he put it some place odd or in a very easy to overlook setting. He made sure them randomly around the mansion so any and all would have a chance to spot them, not just those in certain areas or early risers.

The tunnel to his den was completely natural except for the supports placed every few feet to help prevent it from collapsing. Once he reached the divider Jay stepped onto the a relatively soft carpet that lay over top the many pieces of hard wood that he had placed into the ground to give it a solid surface to walk on. Structural supports lined the walls and ceiling with mortared rocks and stones to line the walls. Along one wall was a low table that he used as a desk and work station with a shelf the held some books and random paper. On the other side lay six stone slabs each three feet by three feet and four inches thick, three were set on top of the other three to make up his bed frame which was covered by one quilt and one pillow, though it would be obvious he almost never slept on it. He had a small propane heater in another corner away from everything else, though he hardly ever used it, along with candles and oil lamps around the room.

After putting his tools away Jay sat at his desk. Taking a long match from the box he struck it on the wall in front of him and lit the lamp on the desk. After adjusting it so the flame and light were just enough to wright with, he pulled a pen and paper from his shelf and began to write. Like he had done often, he made note of what he had done with his most recent sculpture, what he thought he improved on and what he might be able to change or do better with next time. When he finished, he took a file with other similar notes in it from the shelf and began to glance through it. "What else could I do?" He spoke as he scratched his head just behind his right horn. After a few minutes he sat up straight and grabbed a new sheet of paper and shifted to the farmer for the second time that day, his handwriting was much easier for others to read this way.


I hope you all have enjoyed the statuettes as much as I've enjoyed making them. I'm not sure why I didn't do this before, but better late than never. I've only carved a few different things as I'm sure you've noticed, so if there's something you would like to see or have made for you, write it down and place it in the frog's mouth near the fire pit. I'm not familiar with everything, so if you'd like to add a picture or description it would be appreciated, I'll do my best.

Jeramya Olax


His handwriting was very stiff, straight, and crisp since he made sure anyone looking at it would be able to read it with little trouble. Picking up his tools again and a new stone, he put the light out and made his way toward mansion again. Once he posted it in the kitchen where he was sure people would see it, he went up to the roof again and began to work on a new statuette.

Tythan closed the refridgerator door quickly, but quietly. He felt like some sort of spy up so early and sneaking food. He grabbed a spoon and sat down at the table to eat his yogurt. Vanilla. His favorite. He hadn't really been able to sleep ever since he arrived at the mansion. Well at least no longer than 5 hours. Then again, he wasn't really used to sleeping in a real bed in a real house, mansion at that, and not worrying about how to travel the next day.

Suddenly he heard someone in the living room. They were apparently trying to be quiet, but whoever this was had really heavy steps. Hmm not bad for him. thought tythan considering how hard it must be to move quietly with steps like that.
He stepped into the living room briefly, but no one was there. odd, i could have sworn i hear someone in there.....and i don't typically swear... he chuckled softly to himself and sat back down to his yogurt, almost empty already.
Then the person was there again, except this time they were coming to the kitchen. Tythan slipped back into the shadows slightly. He didn't know who this was yet and didn't want to get caught by a teacher or something. And he didn't want to startle this person.
The figure set something on the counter and then slid back out of the room....well slid heavily out of the room. Tythan followed just enough to see that the person went outside, then he returned to the kitchen and looked at the note.
Jeramya Olax....hmm....nope, don't know him. And what's this about carvings?
He stepped back into the living room and headed towards where he thought he may have heard the earlier sound. He was about 10 feet off, but eventually he found the small stone figurine of a dove, so lifelike that it appeared ready to turn on the tv and settle back for some Corner Gas... Wait, this is the States, they don't have Corner Gas here.....Too bad....
Now tythan headed outside, might as well meet this person if they were up as early as him. He looked around, and then for no particular reason looked up. There on the roof sat something. Tythan strained to see better, it was a ....gargoyle???
Shocked at this realization, Tythan stumbled back and fell to the ground, but before hitting it, he inadvertently joined with a blade of grass, unmerged from it, rolled down a slight incline and ended up face down on the ground again reminiscing about how just a few days ago he'd been in this postion after a similar mishap by the front gate.

Jay hadn't been back on the roof for more than a few minutes before he noticed someone step outside. At first he just smiled slightly at the thought of another 'early bird' like himself, but then it dawned on him that the boy was looking for something or someone. Looking past the tools and stone in his hand, he tilted his head as the boy looked up at the roof where he sat. The boy looked right at him before falling back in surprise.

Jay's body twitched forward slightly and blinked. In that split second the boy vanished to which Jeramya pulled his head back as if a recoiling from unseen flash of light. When he tilted his head to the left the boy reappeared, rolling a bit, as quickly as he had vanished. "I didn't mean to startle you, are you alright?" His voice hopefully loud enough to be heard clearly, but not so loud as to disturb anyone.

"Huh? Oh yeah, i'm fine, sorry about that. I'm just still getting used to not being the only mutant around." He smiled. "I was just up early, i haven't been able to sleep recently, and then i heard you in the living room, so i went to investigate, and found your carving." He took a breath" and then i came out here to look for whoever had made it, namely, you."