Amidst a towering crumble of stone emerges a form, a silhouette, a grimy crustacean which might have possessed a certain charm if it had not moved. Unfortunately it did. And thus began a rapid descent from a certain charm bequeathed to gargoyles eroded, corroded, pitted and pockmarked by time into quaint representatives of an ignorant antiquated milieu; to the common everyday grotesque.
Such opinions did not matter to scampering Crystobell; though upon closer inspection its horny hide and crooked limbs bore very little similarity to the clawed, cloistered, chitin armored creatures of the briny deep other than in cousinly fashion. Though well used to the transfigured expressions that unceasingly occurred upon the faces of its viewers, as it had been for some time just such delightful emotive responses which Crystobell had deliberately encouraged: standing solitary, mute, somber -a basilisk sentinel, aged and weary, steadfast and unflinching: thus stirring hidden and deep seated romantic longings coursing within the soul of the viewer for a purer and more noble time however phantasmagoric. Yet in a blink, with the slightest twist in expression, the merest droop in position and all the wisdom and knowledge contained within the expression of the reliquary became subtly depraved, it leered, mocking such sentimental drivel now worming not singing its way through the onlookers being.
However, such responses now bored it; Time to seek better entertainment.
shhhh...cuuuhshhhh...cuuuh The sound Crystobell made on its journey was that of sand slithering over itself along precipices, sandpaper joints grainily showering bits into chasms, becoming a vast sand-fall, funneling downward only to rise again in clouds of dust and grit.
Crystobell paused for a moment - a susurration of sand filling and settling into the bottom of a beaten pail. Eyes slid from one slanted corner to the other, then continued limb over limb, inserting slender joints into crevices as a hook insinuates itself into the gills of a fish, then slipped them out again, silkily.
Once more a pause, as a slender tongue curved briefly over a protruding jagged tooth, before the creature slipped over a few crinkled crenellations and scuttled into the castle proper.