5. In the Aftermath(1/3) Hope

"How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!"
Isaiah 14:12

07.08.03; 23:98; Demona's Mansion:

Demona sat in her room and looked on the newest report of her company. All was going well.

It was unusual for her to take the work of Nightstone with herself in the night, but it diverted and she needed it so much. Else she would have gone to the secret floors underneath her mansion where she kept great parts of her magical artifacts and the things that she had gathered over the millennium, in her laboratory. She kept these to learn new spells or to try and reconstruct the full spell of collective amnesia that she had unfortunately destroyed four nights before.

But she had to stay in the upper parts of the building in case Angela or her caramel sister came to say hello or if her old teacher wanted to check to make sure that she was not planning the destruction of mankind.

Whatever, she had to divert herself anyhow and anything was better than to revel in memories of a time long ago, which had finally ended on the night 4 days previously. Suddenly, she heard a bark and looked down to Shade who was sitting beside her chair and looking out into the night, outside the doors of her balcony, and was now wagging her small tail.

Demona looked through the glass door and smiled weakly when she saw two familiar shapes behind it.

"Come in" she said, "the doors are open."

The doors opened and Desdemona entered together with Angela, both smiling at Demona.

"Daughter, Sister, how are you?" Demona asked and saw how Angela knelt down to stroke Shade, who was seemingly happy to have visitors.

"Wonderful, and you?" Desdemona asked, even so with a smile.

"I have some work to do for Nightstone," she lied.

"Are we disturbing you?" Angela asked, looking up from Shade.

"No, no!" Demona tried to explain. "It's just some business reports from my firm lords." She smiled "but why am I the chief of my company for if I can't decide myself when I can work or not?"

Desdemona nodded and Demona raised herself from her chair, but not without throwing a short glance at her sister's stomach.

~It has healed well. ~

"You're wearing your hair short again?" Desdemona asked with a look at her sister's head.

This was true, because of the incident four nights ago. First, from the sword of her sister's mate and later from the fire. She had lost much of her hair and so decided to cut great parts of it completely so that she could wear the same haircut like a teenager. Not that she liked it mind you, or that she could say this to her sister.

"Mpff," Demona responded "an incompetent human, who dare called himself a hairdresser, cut too much so I had no other choice. Naturally, I saw to it that he was fired the same day."

Desdemona nodded, "of course."

"What brings you to me?" Demona asked finally and Angela raised even so.

"We missed you mother." Angela answered at once "besides, there is nothing else to do."

"Well I have some snacks in the refrigerator," Demona offered "we could go downstairs and make a little meal."

Her skills as cook were terrifying, she did not need this since she couldn't die through this she ate and her skills as a hostess were miserable, mainly because she had never been one, since Puck definitely did not count as one. But she knew that eventually Angela or her sister would come one night and so she had bought what she knew her caramel sister and what she guessed her daughter liked to eat. She had even bought some food that she knew her old teacher liked, just in case she did come, but she doubted that Deborah would even taste it, in case it was poisoned.

Desdemona shook her head. "Sorry sister," she said "we ate already with the clan just some minutes ago, but are you interested in a little talk? It has been a long time."

Demona hesitated shortly, but finally nodded. It had been a really long time and neither of them was surely there to talk about what Deborah had come to Berlin to speak to her about.

"Why not" Demona answered "Let's go down."

So she led both of the women down, past the room where she had gathered her weapons on the walls and into the dining room, the only room with more than one chair.

Angela noticed that, besides of some old garnitures, her mother still hadn't took her whole equipment from Europe or where ever she had took it to... or she used definitive less things to live with than Elisa.

"Make yourselves comfortable," Demona said "if anybody wants something to drink or so... "

Her guests shook their heads, so Demona sighed and sat down next to them.

"Well... " Demona started, unsure of what to say. "How fares the clan?" That was all she could say, as her skills in chatting were more than bad.

"Oh very good," Desdemona explained "the hatchlings learn very eagerly. Brooklyn teaches them now to write and we expect that the eggs will hatch soon."

Demona nodded. "Yes," she explained "at around this time it was the mating season back in Moray... It is good that they will hatch in this year, so they don't have a completely different rhythm than the other rookeries in the world."

Desdemona appreciated this, as Gargoyles mated in a 20 years rhythm and so the eggs hatched. 1998 was again such a year and since the eggs hatched now, they would later have no problems to find friends or mates outside this clan of the same age. It had indeed been a lucky accident.

"Besides of the hatchlings... " Demona started, "when will they ascend? I mean, the hatchlings of Moray are so 4 years older of the Wyverns, how do you regulate this?"

"They will ascend in two years" her rookery sister explained. "The clan has talked about this and thinks that it is the best thing that all hatchlings ascend together, even when this means that some will ascend later and some earlier."

Demona nodded, as she thought that the clan would regulate it so and closed her eyes. Then she looked on Angela "you have a half-brother amongst them."

Angela's eyes widened and Desdemona seemed even shocked.

"What?!" They asked in union and Demona nodded.

"He has my eyes and wing structure, even so my forehead" she explained "the one with the brown-Grey skin and white hair that he has from his father."

Angela leaned back in the chair, "Wow" she looked on her mother again "you had a mate in Moray?"

Demona shook her head. "No mate," she explained "it was just a Breeders Moon... Goliath has surely explained to you what happens then?"

Angela nodded "this... is fantastic mother." She answered with a smile "I can't wait to speak with him and I know which hatchling you mean." She looked to Desdemona "what is his name?"

"Connor." Desdemona answered and Demona nodded, before she abruptly realized that she had no reason for nodding "I have spoken with him some times before... He is very intelligent." Desdemona looked into her sister's eyes "and he speaks seemingly in admiration of his *aunt.* He doesn't know does he?"

Demona shook her head "no. And please, don't let him know."

Angela looked on her mother in wonder "why?"

Demona sighed "you see daughter, it surely won't bring him any advantages to be seen as my son... Or would you say that I am, at the moment, in your clan a person who would be considered the Gargoyle of the year?"

"It is your clan too mother!" Angela started "and Connor has a right to know."

"Firstly Angela..." Demona began "I am not clan and I don't want to be." When she saw the hurt look in her daughter's and sister's eyes, she continued. "You see, I don't fit in the clan and this does not have anything to do with what happened 1000 years ago. I am simply not the kind of person who would risk my life for what Goliath and the clan stand for."

"And what is this in your eyes sister?" Desdemona asked.

"Subjugation under the humans." Demona said simply and saw in Desdemona's eyes that this was the answer that her sister had feared.

"You know that isn't true." Desdemona answered, but Demona simply laughed.

"Come sister," she explained "you follow the humans rule, the human justice system and protect them... How else shall I call it?"

"We have made progressions!" Angela started, but Demona shook her head.

"Our race is not yet recognized as an intelligent species besides that of the humans" Demona lifted a talon "by one authority."

"The New York Police do so." Desdemona noted.

"No," Demona started "one police district do so, lead by one captain and I don't see the fact that they use our race as reserve cops, or better police dogs as an act of recognizing." On this Desdemona and Angela, the police dogs, looked hurt, so Demona added more calmly. "Maybe Captain Chavez is honest in her help for our race, but just because she lets some of the clan accompany her officers doesn't mean recognition. Besides, such posts can switch, what if she is killed tomorrow and someone who is not so merciful with us gets her post?" Demona shook her head "there has never been such who helped us... But you know such people who did otherwise has ever been more... And better armored."

Angela looked on her mother ~I hoped she would have changed her opinion~ she thought ~but seemingly, there is still a long way to go... Why can't she see that humans are our friends~.

"But sister you have to see... " Desdemona started, but Demona lifted a claw and made her quiet.

"Listen sister," Demona began "we could talk about this topic for the rest of the millennia and it would lead to nothing. You and the others have your opinion, I have mine and we are both much too different to come to one point about this. I have spent so the last millennia trying to show the other clans that I was right and even the ones, like the one in Paris, who had nearly or partly been destroyed did not want to see. It costs me this millennia until I realized that they... " She looked on her daughter and then her sister "you can't see it any other way. It is just the way you are... I am not so."

Demona sighed "so you see sister, I finally gave it up to try and convince the other clans of my position, even so yours, so please let us not argue about something we both know we can't solve. And even if this... disagreement about humanity would not be there, I still couldn't be with the clan. I am still too different and have some enemies who would bring you in danger."

Angela shook her head. "We have faced the Hunters and Macbeth... " Angela noted "who else is there?"

Demona smiled weakly "oh there is still danger outside..." She noted, looking in the air "some have been destroyed," she sighed "others have not."

She looked on her daughter again. "This is even so one of the reasons why I will leave the city in some weeks."

This shocked Angela and Desdemona very much.

"Sister this... " Desdemona started.

"Mother it is... " Angela began.

Demona sighed. "Please, it is not so easy for me either" she tried to explain. "But it is the best I can do. I have already explained to you why."

"Sister," Desdemona said, "you can't be serious."

Demona shrugged her shoulders "I had decided this even before I came here" she answered "I wanted to settle my affairs with the clan and some other business, which I have had. Staying here would in the end just mean problems for the clan, either through me or my enemies."

Angela shook her head. "Mother, I thought we could finally spend some time together." She explained sadly.

"We can," Demona tried to calm her "I will still spend some weeks here so we will have enough time."

~Will I?~ Demona asked herself ~I planned to move in two weeks back to Germany!~ But with a look to her daughter, she sighed. ~A few weeks more will not kill me... or the clan~

"And even when I move away," Demona restricted "the world has become small in the last years, I will visit you often."

Angela was definitely not convinced. "This isn't enough for me and surely even so for Connor."

"Or me!" Desdemona added angrily "tell me sister, what is it that drives you away from us? The fact that you think we are slaves... watch dogs of the humans or that you think we are weaklings who can't face your enemies?"

Demona looked deeply into her sister's eyes.

*"To make this clear, if anyone tries to attack me. I'll break her neck." Lucifia said and grabbed Desdemona, who senselessly tried to free herself, at her neck.*

"No sister," she lied "it is simply that because of our different philosophies, the clan and I will collide sooner or later if I stay."

"And the enemies you mentioned?" Angela asked, "do you think we could become a weakness for you?"

Demona closed her eyes and leaned back. ~How can I make them see?~

"Listen," she said and looked at her guests "it is more the opposite. I may become the greatest problem the clan has." She sighed, "you have no idea what trouble my enemies can cause."

~Absolutely no idea~ she added in thought.

"As clan, we help one another when we have problems sister." Desdemona started "we stand together when one enemy threatens one of us and it does not matter how large this enemy is."

Demona shook her head "To repeat my point: I AM NOT CLAN, besides sister I am immortal, I don't need help."

Desdemona knew that her sister wouldn't argue with her in this point, so she tried something other.

"You said you have enemies... " She started "which one?"

Demona's face hardened "even if I were to give you names, I would put you in danger." When she saw that this answer definitely did not satisfy her sister, she added "believe me, if I would believe that the clan could do anything, I would perhaps consider it, but they can't."

Desdemona sighed, "okay sister," she said "but if there is ever anything we could do for you, please ask us."

Demona nodded.

Angela looked at Demona, as she knew her mother would not give her anymore answers so she gave up and came back to the original topic.

"I still can't see why we can't tell Connor that he is your son?" She said.

"He is lucky so," Demona noticed "and he was so back in Moray. He never missed it... If he does and if he asks after his mother one night then I will tell him the truth, but not now. Please accept this."

Angela looked on her mother and nodded "I will mother... But I think I will have a special look on him now."

Demona nodded "I am happy that you do so." She answered.

"But," Angela continued "have I anymore siblings?"

Demona shook her head at once. "No," she answered with certainty "you have no other siblings wandering through the world, believe me."

Angela nodded... ~A pity.~

"Sister," Desdemona started "if you think that you are alone with your opinion about humans, you are wrong. Kronos and Ajax... Together with large parts of the clan have the same opinion. They rebel against Goliath's course and try to undermine his position as leader, like Brooklyn's as second."

Demona leaned back, ~this are news~. "And Kronos is?" She asked and added quickly "or Ajax?"

"Ajax is the name our crested brother has chosen," Desdemona explained "Kronos is the one who even so fought against Goliath's appointment as leader and yours as second."

Demona nodded, she remembered him all too well.

"I suppose my... betrayal has firmed his position in the clan?" Demona asked and Desdemona nodded slightly, still unsure of this part of the history.

"This and the absent recognition of the humans." Desdemona answered.

"Thank you for this information."

Desdemona and Angela looked on her. "Why?" Her daughter asked.

"Because now I will definitely not argue with Goliath before the clan." Demona sighed "see, I was honest when I said that your relation to the humans is your business and so are the things in the clan... I do not wish to interfere and if I were to argue with Goliath, I might undermine his position in the clan."

Desdemona and Angela looked at each eyes in wonder. Finally, Desdemona answered. "This is considerate of you sister." She answered.

Demona simply shrugged her shoulders. "It is not because of any love for Goliath," she explained "but just because I don't want to interfere."

"Has anything else happened to you?" Desdemona asked, "I mean, else than your new haircut... By Nightstone perhaps?"

Demona shook her head. "No. " She answered "I had success in taking over a company in Canada, which I have tried to do since last month."

When she saw the disinterest in her guest's eyes, she sighed. "It may not be the most interesting thing in the world for you, but on this way I earn my money."

Angela nodded "we know mother."

"Well then, perhaps you will tell me how the rest of the clan is so?" Demona proposed and her guests accepted.

08.08.98; 02:11; Demona's Mansion:

They had talked for nearly 3 hours about everything, how the clan came along in the new world, Desdemona and Angela about their mates, Demona about some of her journeys around the world without going into details. They even spoke about their hatchlinghoods and Demona discovered that some of the things her sister spoke about had already sunk into the darkest part of her memory and she was happy that there was somebody who could refresh this.

"It is late," Desdemona noticed finally "I promised my mate to glide with him tonight."

Angela nodded "and I promised to read a new book with Broadway tonight." She added.

Demona smiled weakly "of course" she said, "it was nice to see you."

"What if you were to return this favor sister?" Desdemona asked "we would like it if you would come tomorrow night to have a meal with the clan."

Demona winced, this was definitely not her thing. "No sister I..." She started

"Mother please," Angela interrupted "it would mean so much to me and the hatchlings. Have I mentioned that the ones of the former Moray clan miss you very much?"

Demona hesitated. She did not want to go because she knew that this would surely mean a confrontation with her old teacher. That and there was the fact that she had practically promised Connor to come and tell him and his siblings some stories. Even though nobody, besides Demona, could remember this, she felt bound by it and this meant more to her than a confrontation with her old teacher.

"Okay, you have won," she said with more resignation in her voice than she felt. "When?"

Angela's face lighted up "tomorrow night at 22:00." She said "Oh mother you will see, it will be great."

Demona nodded, not really sure of this and accompanied her guests to the balcony.

"Until next night." Desdemona said and leapt in the air.

"I'll wait for you mother." Angela said and embraced her mother.

Demona nodded and saw how the two female gargoyles vanished into the night then she looked down on Shade.

"Me thinks you will be happy to see the rest of the clan again soon?" She noticed and Shade barked happily.

Demona stroke Shade's head and looked out into the night, unsure what the future might hold for her.

08.08.98; 21:27; Castle Wyvern:

Demona landed in the courtyard and sat Shade down, who at once ran away, obviously to meet the other beasts.

Demona did not look around, as she didn't need to.

"Well old teacher, I have nothing dangerous with me. Neither a gun nor a sword to threaten the clan." She spoke to the darkness "search me if you want, but on any case, come out of your hiding place!"

Demona heard a light snarl and didn't need to turn around to know that her old teacher had now emerged from the darkness, her eyes glaring red.

"You are the weapon" an angry voice declared behind Demona "and even if I were able to take you your claws and fangs, you would still be one."

Demona slightly turned her head around and saw Deborah's eyes, which to her surprise weren't red, but icy.

"Well, this is what you trained us for?" She asked her old teacher "To be sharp as the dagger you like to wear?" Her eyes remained in these of her old teacher and she saw how a glimmer of red in the older gargoyle's eyes sparkled, remembering all too well her last talk with her pupil back then.

Demona sighed, remembering all too well how far their discussion could go. "I'm not here to harm anyone, but have been invited to come here. I will try to make no trouble and you will do even so and if you can't stand my sight then we can keep out of the other's way, can't we? The castle should be large enough for this!"

Deborah now stood beside her former pupil.

"I don't avoid places in my own home!" She answered icily, but now Demona sensed not so much anger like before.

"Good, then go where you want!" Demona suggested and then suddenly she noticed something or more accurately. Had something to notice.

"I see the courtyard has been renewed?" She said and pointed to the ground where some stones seemed newer than the others.

Deborah nodded slightly "yes, it suddenly fell in five nights ago," she explained, still with a hard look on Demona. "Xanatos said it had to be some kind of structural damage, which had not been noticed when the castle had been set together here."

Demona nodded, ~the spell has worked all too well. ~ Then she laughed sarcastically, "he should have asked my architects," she said, "Nightstone's workers are much better."

Deborah glared at her. "Sure they are," she declared "but Xanatos's workers don't betray us."

Demona's fists tightened and she looked angrily into her old teacher's eyes.

"See..." She did not speak any further since the happy voice of her daughter interrupted her.

"Mother!" Angela called out to her, excited, and Demona turned to her. "It is wonderful that you have come."

~At least there is one who greets my coming~ Demona thought sarcastically.

"Hello daughter" she said calmly, "I said I would come in time!"

Angela looked uneasily at Deborah "am I interrupting something?"

Demona shook her head. "No, Deborah has just welcomed me" she looked deep into her old teacher's eyes. "Shall we go in?"

"Why not." Deborah answered and went off to the castle doors.

Demona looked after her old teacher and her eyes showed in this moment more than Demona ever wanted to show.

"Give her time," Angela, seeing into her eyes, interrupted her mother's thoughts "she'll forgive you."

"I'm not interested in what she thinks of me... Or her forgiveness." Demona said coolly, but even in her own ears, it sounded like a bad lie.

Her daughter knew this, but did not comment. Instead, she lay down a hand on her mother's shoulder and smiled weakly.

"Let's go in." Angela suggested calmly and her mother nodded. So both gargoyles walked inside the great hall.

It was not yet as full as Demona had supposed. Some of the gathered gargoyles turned their heads around when they saw that the rogue gargoyle had entered, but few held the view or even glared angrily on her.

~A progress~ Demona thought ~or maybe my daughter and my sister simply have asked them to do so? ~

"Mother." Angela said and Demona noticed that she had sunk into her thoughts.

"Mhh?" Demona answered and looked to her daughter.

"It is still another 30 minutes before the meal starts" Angela explained "why don't we walk around a bit?"

Demona nodded and walked with her daughter through the corridors of Wyvern.

"Will the detective take the meal with us?" Demona asked cautiously, as she still hated this blasted human who had hindered her so often and the thought to eat with her did not make her happy, but somehow it would perhaps be better than the meal with her old teacher.

"Yes, but Elisa will be a bit late. She has duty tonight," Angela answered "even so, she takes irregularly meals with the clan, as her duty roster hinder her most times."

"Pity" Demona said and looked around. While they spoke, they passed some gargoyles that looked on Demona and then returned to their business.

~Seemingly, I am not as bad a person here as I am supposed to be~ Demona thought

"Tell me daughter. I have not seen my other rookery brother, the one Xanatos has named Coldsteel, here until now." Demona said "what is with him?"

Angela stopped. "You don't know?"

Demona looked on her in wonder "what?"

"After you brought the three souls back in Coldstone, there was a fight in him." Angela explained "Coldsteel tried to bring Othello to attack Goliath so that they would kill each other and he could have Desdemona. He was nearly successful in this and when Xanatos gave them the new bodies, he attacked the clan again."

Angela looked in her mother's eyes "Othello and Desdemona were on their quest to stop him when they got the news that you brought back the clan and we were able to restore them completely. Since this time, nobody has seen him again."

Demona shook her head "pity, I thought my brother would have been able to hold his desire to my sister longer than this... " She said almost with regret, but then shrugged her shoulder "whatever, Sevarius still has the cell sample, so it is still possible to help him."

Angela nodded and walked further while her mother followed her, once more deep in her own thoughts.

~Oh how interesting! ~

She nearly missed that Angela had stopped in front of a door.

Demona looked at her daughter while she tried to remember what was behind this door, back in the old times, but failed.

"What shall we do here?" Demona asked her daughter, a bit uneasy.

Angela smiled, "well there are some gargoyles who would like to see you." She explained and opened the door.

What Demona saw, made her smile. This big room had seemingly been transformed into the hatchling room for the clan's hatchlings of both ages who all seemed to be gathered there. They were gathered around a female gargoyle, who Demona knew as one of the storytellers of the clan. Even Bronx and another beast, a female with red skin and two large horns above its forehead, that Demona did not know the name of, sat beside one of the hatchlings on the ground.

But whatever story the female gargoyle was telling became instantly quite unimportant when the hatchlings saw who had arrived.

"Aunt Demona!" Was the happy greeting of the hatchlings, mostly of the rookery from Moray, but even the hatchlings from the former Wyvern clan were seemingly happy to see her, even when they stayed behind while the older hatchlings ran to Demona with sheer laughter.

Demona smiled her first true smile since she had arrived at the castle and kneeled down when the hatchlings ran to her and embraced her eagerly.

"Uff, hey you're crushing me!!!" Demona said with a laughter and Angela looked on her in wonder, as she had never heard her mother laugh for any reason that most persons, with a normal sense of moral, would see as funny.

"Aunt!" "We missed you!" "Where have you been?" "Will you tell us stories?" "Have you faced the Hunter again?"

"Not all at once!" Demona ordered with a smile.

She looked around the bunch of hatchlings who were in some way more her children than Angela ever could be. "I've missed you, too." she said softly with a quick look to Connor "All of you, but I had some business to do in other parts of the world, but now I can spent some time with you. Yes, I have faced the Hunter again in the last 1000 years and I can tell you many stories about my encounters with them as about many other things."

Demona looked to the storyteller of the clan, a brown skinned female with long orange hair, "If that is okay?" Since her reputation in the clan was still bad, she feared that the female might have something against the former clan's greatest enemy telling the hatchlings stories, but her fears proved wrong.

"Naturally, there is nothing which speaks against this, but first after the meal." The female spoke calmly, being defeated by the pleading views of the hatchlings, but then she added fast "If I can listen even so."

She looked deep into Demona's eyes "I'm interested in stories, too."

Demona nodded, ignoring the hatchlings for a moment. It was clear that she wasn't just interested in Demona's life experience, but wanted to make sure that Demona would not influence, with her stories, what the hatchlings thought about humans or better yet, what they thought about the clan.

"Sure." Demona answered calmly and luckily the hatchlings did not notice the power between them.

"Well why don't you tell me what has happened to you since you awakened here?" Demona asked and added in a more serious voice, with a short look to Connor, "have you improved your fighting skills?"

Angela looked on her mother in wonder and then smiled when she saw how the hatchlings of the former Moray Clan, proudly, told Demona their progressions.

~Seemingly, mother is as good in being a rookery mother as in being a leader~ Angela thought with a short feeling of pain ~what would it have been like to have her with me while I was a hatchling?~

But these thoughts were fast forgotten when she saw the smile on her mother's face and the happiness in her eyes.

08.08.98; 22:08; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

The whole clan had gathered to take their meal. Even Demona who sat, much to her indisposition, nearly in the centre of the hall beside Angela and, for her taste, much too near by Goliath and her old teacher who sat directly in front of her.

The meal was served. It was roast pork with fried potatoes and the clan threw themselves happily onto it, especially Broadway. During a little Smalltalk with her daughter, Demona learnt that Xanatos had to open two new kitchens to supply the rapidly enlarged clan, while Shade chew happily on her large bone to her master's feet.

But during the whole time, the teacher looked on Demona with a sparkle in her eyes, which made Demona feel uneasy.

Finally, Demona couldn't bear it any longer and spoke to the old soldier beside his mate.

"Well Hudson" Demona started "how have you been?" She asked this without true interest, just to better the more than weak atmosphere and her empty glass.

"Aye lass," the old soldier started calmly "it is all well. My right upper leg has felt a bit weak since Lucifia has pinned it with my own sword on the ground of the courtyard, but else it is great."

It was a great understatement to say that when Demona realized what Hudson had just said she was shocked. Indeed, Deborah saw with greatest joy how her former pupil nearly choked to death through the water, which suddenly refused to glide down her throat.

When Demona had managed this, she looked around in the faces of the clan who had suddenly become damned quiet. Some looked on her with gloating; others with suspicion and even some glared.

Some elders herded the hatchlings out, surely to keep them uncertain about what had just happened.

She looked into her daughter's eyes and saw no hatred, but much happiest gloating and knew that this was a situation she would not come out so easily like she had 4 days before.

~Damn!~ Demona thought and looked back to her old teacher whose eyes sparkled with sarcasm.

"Well Demona," the old teacher started "now you see that your little spell, which so unfortunately had delete our memories of that nice night 4 days ago, has been undone by us."

"But how... " Demona started perplex, but then realized the easy answer.

"I should have beheaded that damned Fay long ago!" She hissed angrily.

"Puck was really very helpful Demona!" Goliath started.

04.08.98; 21:23; Castle Wyvern, Helicopter airship:

Xanatos smiled when he embraced his son, who had jumped out of the helicopter to embrace his father and then he embraced his wife whose eyes glittered in desire for her husband.

"I missed you David." She whispered into his ear and Xanatos smiled his most charismatic smile

"I know," he answered "I am a person nobody wants to leave so easily!"

Fox beat her husband on his shoulder for this little impertinence, but couldn't hide her smirk.

"Ahem" a dry voice from the helicopter started and Xanatos sighed and looked up to see the most wooden servant in the world standing with Fox's bag in his healthy hand before the helicopter.

"Hello Owen, how was the flight?" Xanatos asked with a grin, as he knew that Owen would not make an jump in the air and scream *wonderful*.

Owen did not disappoint him. "Adequate Mr. Xanatos," he answered "but may I ask what has happened with the courtyard? Seemingly it has been damaged, since there is a hole in it."

Xanatos shook his head "there were defects in the structure of the courtyard, which led to the collapse of it," the billionaire explained "but I've already ordered a team that will repair it."

The servant laid the bag down. "But the architects you had ordered, said it would be alright for perhaps an even further 1000 years." Owen noted.

"Mhh yes, I should sue the architects for the money I've paid them." Xanatos answered "if I let them come through with it, I even so could sell Xanatos Enterprises to Nightstone at once."

"This isn't what I meant sir. It is... " Owen stopped suddenly in the middle of his sentence. "Well it is better," he started and laid his glasses in his breast pocket and then he whirled around with an unbelievable speed and suddenly, where once there was a wooden human, now stood a lively Fay. "My turn!"

Xanatos looked at the Fay in wonder "Puck, what is this?"

"Well," the Fay said with a bride grin "seemingly someone has cast a spell on you, so it is my turn to find out if this harms Alex in any way."

Xanatos frowned, "a spell?" He started "what sort of spell?"

"A spell, which blocks and forms memories." The Fay said and floated around Xanatos as if he wanted to smell him "ah! And now I feel that it is Demona's magic."

This made Xanatos feel damned uneasy as he, like the others, had thought that Demona had changed, so why should she do this? When he thought about the spells Demona had cast before, it shuddered him.

"Can you neutralize it?" Xanatos asked calmly.

"Oh yes, nothing easier than this!" The Fay answered with a grin.

"By the Fay's power. Let this mortal spell be cut like a flower." He spoke and with a finger snip, he ended it.

Xanatos looked at first perplexed and then hard when the true memories of this night came back.

"David, what has happened?" Fox asked worried "what has Demona done?"

"She killed her daughter!" Xanatos answered calmly.

Fox's eyes became big in shock "Angela is dead?"

Xanatos shook his head, "no Lucifia, Demona's other daughter." When Fox looked even more confused, he sighed "but she had to do it... I think."

He looked to his wife "I'll explain later" and then to Puck "can you restore the memories of the clan of this night? And I mean just the clan and not the humans in the city, otherwise it might become a bit rough."

"Is there any threat, which might threaten Alex?" The Fay asked and Xanatos shook his head

"No," the billionaire answered "Demona has taken care of this already."

Puck sighed, "no, big Daddy's order is clear. I can just use my magic to protect or to teach Alex... " The Fay started, but then he grinned "fortunately, this might just be the right time to teach Alex how to undo spells of mortals."

Xanatos nodded. ~Demona sure won't be pleased.~

04.08.98; 21:52; Castle Wyvern, information centre:

"Ah," Xanatos said when he saw Brooklyn enter "so everyone's gathered."

"Yes and what for?" Goliath, who stood beside Xanatos, asked.

Xanatos looked around. Goliath, Brooklyn, Desdemona, Othello, Angela, Deborah and Hudson were gathered there and Puck flew with Alex in his arm a bit away from them.

"Well, to make it short. You, like the whole world, are victims of a spell spoken by Demona, which deleted and replaced the memories of the night two days before." When Xanatos saw how all the Gargoyles were shocked and Deborah angry, he added. "It was no hostile act, indeed you all had agreed with it although Demona's spell was seemingly a bit more effective then she told us."

"What has happened?" Goliath asked angry.

Xanatos sighed, "it is not so easy to explain Goliath," he told the lavender Gargoyle "so with your agreement, Alex will undo the spell."

Goliath nodded and on this cue, Puck floated into the middle of the room with Alex.

"Alright, now do it like I showed it you my little apprentice" Puck said to Alex.

The infant nodded and made some strange gestures with his hands, on what the present Gargoyles in the room blinked in wonder when the memories returned.

"THAT DAMNED, CURSED, HONOURLESS, LYING DECEIVER!!!!" Deborah roared, her eyes blazing red. "THIS FILTHY LITTLE RAT! THIS TREACHEROUS SNAKE!"

"Oh," Puck, who held his hands over Alex's ears, said "seemingly this is not a gathering for little Alex and it is already late, so I'll put him to bed."

With this, the Fay disappeared leaving Xanatos and the Gargoyles to discuss the situation.

Deborah made her point clear. "That's it, I will skin her alive!" She ended her thoughts of two nights before on how to kill Demona in the most painful way. "This damned person, who is not even the shadow of a gargoyle, has tricked us for the last time!"

Hudson laid a hand on his more than furious mate's shoulder, but first Goliath's powerful voice calmed her down.

"We will do nothing like this" he ordered with a hard look on his teacher. "Demona wasn't responsible for the massacre at the shopping mall, neither had she another way to ensure the safety of the clan than to delete the memories of the world from this night. You can't blame her for that, as we were also included in this."

Deborah starred disbelieving on her leader. "She tricked us!" She noted angrily "first, she lead us into a trap to Lucifia and then she played even with us. SHE LAUGHED ABOUT US! And not enough, no she even lied to us when she said that the spell wouldn't affect us!"

Goliath sighed "I knew that the spell would influence us even before she spoke it and when she would have told us the truth from the beginning, I would not have changed my opinion... It was the only way."

Deborah shook her head "are we to let her get away with this so easily again?" She asked, unbelieving, "I can't believe this! Not again!"

To Goliath's surprise, even Angela joined in. "She is right fath... " She corrected herself fast ". leader. Mother owes us at least an explanation!"

"And an excuse!" Othello added, "I can still feel the kick she gave me!"

"Aye leader," Hudson said, "after all the clan has gone through, we have a right to learn why this happened."

Goliath nodded slightly. "Yes, but we can't simply go to her mansion and ask her," he noted "she surely won't give us it so easily."

"Then we should bring her here and interrogate her!" Deborah demanded.

Goliath shook his head, "she would refuse and how this will end, you already know."

Deborah grumbled and wanted to answer that this time they surely won't underestimate Demona, but Angela started.

"Then perhaps we should show her that she is not the only one who can fake!" Angela said with a smile and when she explained her plan, even Deborah smirked.

08.08.98; 22:24; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

"The hatchlings do not know the truth since we couldn't be sure that they could act so well to fake you." Goliath continued "even so, Elisa will free Chavez of the spell tonight."

Demona tried to regain her self-control, which was not so easy when she realized that there was no way out for her then telling the truth... Something, which made her feel even more uncomfortable.

"So Demona," Deborah started "since you promised to answer all my questions that I would still have about Lucifia after that night... " Deborah's eyes glittered, with a sparkle of red in it ". That time has come now! So you will answer them... Or do you think we are too idiotic to understand them?"

Demona winced a bit by this. "It was a damned hard night," she explained "you went into Lucifia's trap so easily and held me captive damned rough... I can still feel the sword in my intestines" she added with a short look to Othello.

"If I would have given you time," Deborah started "would you have told us the truth?"

Demona shook her head. "No."

"So stop complaining!" Deborah hissed angrily.

Demona and Deborah glared at each other and Goliath found himself forced to interfere before the clan would be witness to a catfight.

"Demona, why this facade?" Goliath asked, "why couldn't you simply tell us the truth? We could have defended ourselves!"

Demona couldn't hide a smirk. "Oh yes Goliath, I saw how capable you were to defend yourselves off against her..." She looked around at the faces of the gathered clan "and the funny thing is, she just played with you!"

There were some growls amongst the clan and a damned angry Deborah snarled.

"Oh yes, we all saw how great you fought against her!" She noticed "tell me how many injuries you have suffered, which would kill someone who is not immortal? Ten or more?"

Demona glared on her old teacher "at least I was able to defeat her!"

"So we are weaklings for you sister?" Desdemona, who sat beside her mate a little further away, asked in a neutral voice. "Like I asked you before and this time, the truth please!"

Demona bit herself on the tongue while she tried to find the right words to speak the truth without embarrassing her former clan too much. This wasn't easy after all.

"I knew that you couldn't achieve anything against her, so warning you was senseless." She answered and looked into her sister's eyes "even I would not have been able to stop her if not for the Angel's swords, so I did what I had to do."

"Since when did you know that she was around here?" Goliath, who did not want to make this any harder than it was already but wanted to know the truth, asked.

"Since the thing with the Stealth Guy" Demona answered calmly. "When you flew away and before, I felt her."

"And why didn't you tell us the truth?" Goliath continued.

"It wasn't any of your business." Demona answered icy.

Angela couldn't believe what she had heard. "Not our business?" She asked disbelieving, "Mother, she was my half-sister!"

"And my problem." Demona answered with a hard glance to her daughter.

"Mother, after that night I thought the worst of you!" Angela said angrily "I thought you used me to kill my father and clan-leader! And you wanted to let me continue to believe in that! Why?"

Demona felt herself become angry. Her daughter seemingly was unable to understand. "Well daughter, what should I have done? Go to you and tell you: 'Hey daughter I wasn't it, it was your older evil sister whom I have imprisoned 300 years ago and now I have to go hunt and kill her!' Now Demona's eyes started to glare red and she stood up "oh and this is what I did the month before the *Large Reawakening.* I was searching for her in order to kill her! Why do you think I wasn't out there hunting those bastards called Quarrymen, the newest example of the great tolerance of humanity?"

Finally she calmed down a bit, sat down again and when she looked to her daughter again, her eyes weren't red anymore, just hard.

"Tell me, what do you like more to see in me?" She asked hard "someone who used you to kill your father or someone who killed her own daughter?"

"Someone who tells me the truth mother." Angela answered sadly and for a moment, it was totally quiet in the hall.

Demona sighed. "I can't serve you with this daughter," Demona answered "I'm sorry."

The silence became large while mother and daughter looked in each other's eyes and finally Deborah made a move.

"Tell me whose trap was this all?" Deborah asked "I mean, when you knew that she was here before you brought us back." She glared at her former pupil "was this all, the comeback of the clan inclusive, a trap for her?"

Goliath looked at his teacher in wonder. This was something he hadn't thought about.

Demona shook her head. "No, I did it this time because the winds of magic, as the winds of space and time, were convenient." She massaged the top of her nose and continued.

"But you knew what she would do." Deborah noted.

Demona capitulated.

"Yes, I thought she would act so even before I brought you back and naturally I wanted to plan this in." Demona answered calmly "so I thought about what to do and decided to play her game to make out this trap for me, a trap for her. Lucifia naturally knew what I would do, but nevertheless she played her game. On this way she thought it would be the more dramatic." She even smiled slightly "she always had a sense for this."

"So you both played with us." Goliath noticed angrily.

Demona shook her head "no Goliath," she replied "Lucifia played with you. I just decided to join in because it was the best way to prevent victims."

"Then you failed sister." Desdemona noticed and on the weird look of her sister she added, "I mean she has killed 48 humans in this shopping mall."

Demona snorted slightly amused.

"I couldn't care less for them." She answered, to Angela and Desdemona's shock.

"What?" Desdemona asked, unbelieving.

Angela, who had more experience with her mother's hate for human, but was although shocked, added.

"Mother she has even killed children!" Angela shook her head "it can't leave you so cold!"

Demona simply shrugged her shoulders by her daughter's reaction.

"Humans kill each other, even their children. Such is neither new nor uncommon." She added and when she saw the more than shocked view in her daughter's eyes and in some of the clan's faces, she added "see at this moment, there is war in a really large, but mostly unknown country called Congo, former Zaire. It is the greatest conflict since the second World War and already 3.5 million humans have slain each other in a massacre that's worse than in the Dark Ages... And believe me, the worst part of this time had yet to come. I don't want to explain the reasons for this war, as they are equal in every century, mainly the human desire for power and their intolerance. There is the massacre on the Tutsi, you don't know of, or the little thing where under the eyes of the so-called civilized world where 800.000 men, women and children were massacred simply because they were the wrong race. In this conflict in Congo, children of our hatchlings age serve as soldiers. They fight under drugs or not and believe me, they are not just cannon fodder, but make massacres for themselves very good. This happens and seemingly the humans are not interested in it. I see no large demonstrations on the streets, hear no large speeches of so called politicians who want to stop this like the Iraq when he attacked Kuwait. I see no so called peace activists demonstrating against this...." Demona sighed, as she had drifted away from her topic.

"What I want to say," she started anew "is that when the humans care so few for the lives of members of their own race, why should I care more?"

There was a long silence and in this moment, the last members of the clan realized how much Demona had changed from the Gargoyle they knew 1000 years ago.

"I am not interested what humans do to each other in any Asian country!" Deborah hissed.

"It is an African country and the whole region is in flame." Demona answered calmly.

"Whatever!" Deborah answered angrily "this is not our business, but you are! And you practically handed over 50 humans to death for your scheming."

Demona glared at her old teacher, but then smiled to the shock of all present persons.

"Yes," she answered somewhat happily "indeed I have."

She looked around in the hall to show that she spoke to the whole clan.

"I accepted the possible death of... No. The absolute sure deaths of humans, but even I didn't know it would be so much. Seemingly Lucifia had worked really hard." She smiled on this, as if it would be a joke, something which let some gargoyles shudder "Well I accepted and accept their deaths to play the game, as Lucifia made the rules for. If I hadn't have done it this way, the clan wouldn't have gone through this so easy like it has. Don't forget that she just played with you, if she would have wanted to kill you, there would have been much more victims."

"I don't accept this Demona." Goliath growled "you should have told us, we would have found a way without these deaths. As clan, we fight instead of letting people get killed for our own safety."

Demona looked deep into her former mate's eyes. "A really good speech Goliath, please tell them to the clan in LA..." she started "oh I forgot, they are all dead! Have you any idea why?"

Goliath growled on this insult, but stopped to say anything more, as he knew it would lead to nothing, but another. A black skinned male gargoyle took the opportunity.

"Demona is right," Kronos said with clear voice and stood up "we are few and the humans many, so we should see after our safety first since the humans seemingly don't do so."

Approving muttering came from great parts of the clan and Goliath wanted to stop this when Demona's voice raised, this time in Krono's direction.

"I am not interested in your opinion Kronos." Demona said in cool voice.

The black gargoyle was a bit confused by Demona's attack.

"I'm on your side sister!" He defended himself.

"So?" She asked, not amused in any way and still looking at the older gargoyle deep in his eyes. "Tell me *brother* when you all thought I had killed these humans and Goliath wanted to hand me over to the police, what would you have pleaded to do with me?"

Kronos eyes grew big.

"Who has told you..." He started and then stopped by Demona's icy look, "I mean I..."

"Nobody has told me that Kronos," Demona said calmly, but with a hidden fire in her voice "but I know you!"

She held her look on him and the wannabe agitator suddenly felt damned uneasy.

"When I need somebody to defend me and I don't need somebody," Demona explained "then it will surely not be you. Sit down."

This last sentence was clearly an instruction, which was strange since Demona neither had any rank in the clan or even a clan member, but somehow this was forgotten at this moment.

"I really... " Kronos stumbled "you cannot..."

*Give me orders* would have been the next words, but Demona interrupted him, seemingly not caring for what he wanted to say. Desdemona and Angela saw how Demona's claws crawled deeply into the wooden desk and Angela thought she could even hear it splinter.

"I... said... sit... down!" She nearly spit these words and every one of them was as sharp as swords, but together they were deadly.

Kronos sat down with his last dignity and nearly collapsed in it.

Demona still looked on him for a few seconds with her hard look, which seemingly melt Kronos down even more, then she turned to Goliath.

"What were you going to say Goliath?" Demona asked calmly, ignoring the surprised views around her.

Goliath swallowed, as he had to control himself to not answer *nothing second, * since she was it no longer. But for those seconds she had been it again, his second in command, defending him and holding the clan together with the balled fist if necessary.

While Goliath regained from this little shock, Angela took the initiative.

"Mother you made your point." She noted and looked deep into her mother's eyes "I could tell you that it was wrong that you let these humans be killed, but it wasn't in your power to prevent it and this is not the reason why I wanted you to be here." Angela sighed, "who was Lucifia?"

Demona shrugged her shoulders "My daughter, an unbelievable evil immortal. I imprisoned her for all time or so I thought. She apparently freed herself some years before and now threatened you and every other being on this planet, gargoyles, humans, even Fay so that I had to kill her finally."

Angela shook her head. "This is what she has done," again she looked deep in her mother's eyes, this time nearly pleading "but not who she was... She had to be someone else even when it was long ago?"

Demona's eyes suddenly seemed to be far away and when she spoke, she spoke like of a dream. "Yes she was." This moment was perhaps two seconds long and Angela thought she could see the glitter of tears in her mother's eyes, but it was just the piece of a moment then her mother seemingly had regained self-control.

Demona looked deep in her daughter's eyes "I have to tell the whole story?"

Angela nodded "yes mother, please."

Demona sighed and sat down. "Well then, listen well because it is a long story and I have no intention to repeat it."

Angela and some others nodded and Demona leaned back, her eyes closed.

"It was in the year 1622 that I came with a ship from Spain to the so called New World." Demona said and while she spoke, she seemed to sink more and more into her memories "I was on the search for other gargoyles since I knew that America was mainly unsullied of human civilisation and I searched one year until I discovered one." Demona smiled slightly "or better yet, he discovered me... It was the 2nd of February 1623."

The clan looked at each other. This had been the code for Demona's safety! It must really have been special.

02.02.1623; 23:14; A cave about a small town, near the later Greensborough:

Demona sat in the cave and bit her tongue in order not to scream in pain, trying to grab the bullet, which had penetrated deep into the soft flesh of her stomach. She felt the blood in her mouth and the pain was nearly unbearable, but she had to pin the bullet out.

Sure, she knew unfortunately all to well that the bullet would be pulled out by the healing power sooner or later, but she had made even so the experience that when the bullet was out, the wound closed much faster. Demona did not want to be wounded too long, this made her immobile and she did not know if the farmers had followed her to her hiding place.

She looked down to her loot, which were a small bag of apples and some eggs. Perhaps it was enough to give her the energy back that she had lost through her action tonight, but never to support her for more then two nights.

~Why did these cursed humans have to be so damned clever? ~ She asked herself while thinking about what had happened. She had, like the nights before since she had decided to rest in this area a bit, tried to steal something eatable from the farmers in the small town in the valley below, but this time the humans had been prepared.

Earlier this night

When she came out from the barn, away from the larger farm house, that she had just plundered, a man tried to catch her from above with the help of a net, but luckily she had heard him on the roof since humans were luckily damned clumsy. She had despite the weight of her full bags moved forward very fast and so could escape the falling net, but just to discover that she was surrounded by armed men.

Demona had roared her most terrific roar, which made the humans move a step back. One of these humans held a bible and a cross in front of him and murmured something like "to hell with you, child of Lucifer!" And wouldn't the situation have been so bad, Demona would have laughed, ~humans never change! ~

Unfortunately, another man was more practical and shot her with his gun in her stomach so that Demona had to gather all her power not to collapse out of pain. Demona looked at the mass of humans where the sniper was reloading his gun and noticed that many forks, swords and spears were holding her back from killing this human.

She was going to snarl in frustration when the humans on the roof behind her had an idea for which he seemingly had used more of his heart than his brain. He jumped on her back in order to bring her down and for one moment Demona stumbled really hard, which led to her loosing many of her robbed food, but she caught herself and used this unwanted opportunity to her advantage.

She grabbed this blasted human by his throat and threw him into the circle of men who were surely his friends. When he landed on top of them either a sword or a fork stabbed him, but she did not care for this. But she did care that there was now a hole in the line of her attackers and she was going to use it.

With a scream, which echoed on the valley, she rammed forward on all fours through the hole in the living circle, above the humans who lay on their backs, and ran straight into the night.

Demona was fast on her fours, not as fast as the air, but surely faster than these pathetic humans, even despite her wound and soon she did not even hear the shouts of those humans any more.

Back in the cave

Demona sighed. If the situation would stay the same then she would starve. If only she wasn't immortal. The farmers would now guard their supplies better than before and they had already expelled the most game in this area so that she couldn't go hunting.

~Time to leave~ Demona thought, but this did not make her sad since the cave wasn't a home, just a hiding place.

While she painfully grabbed her flesh, she heard a noise somewhere out of the cave and was on full alarm again. It might be an animal, but Demona did not want to risk anything, so she grabbed the spear beside of her and kneeled, despite the pain, down so as not to be discovered so easily by any intruder.

There were long seconds of silence and Demona was beginning to believe that it was really an animal, but there was a second noise outside the cave, nearer this time. Demona cursed herself for not having been more cautious. The humans would have been able to follow her track anyhow and now she was trapped in a cave where she couldn't use the advantage of her wings! But Demona swore to herself that she would either not let herself be defeated by those pathetic humans or she would kill as many of them of these bastards as possible before she *died. *

She heard how the noises of footsteps came nearer and brought all muscles in her body into war mode.

Suddenly, a large figure stepped out of the darkness and Demona was going to throw her spear at him when she noticed something... It was a gargoyle!

He slowly entered the cave and now Demona could see him better. The male gargoyle had an impressive body, even though he was not as large as Goliath had been, he still had enough muscles... and he looked different.

His body had some resemblance with a hawk. A large yellow beak set in the face, dominated by intelligent brown eyes. He had some sort of black and brown feathers, which even so made the greatest parts of his wings and wore a loincloth, unlike the gargoyles from London that Demona had met so long ago.

He even wore a ribbon with three long feathers, sure from one of the hawks Demona had seen in this area, on his right upper arm and a necklace with a hawk head out of wood, with eyes seemingly out of a red diamond, sparkling in the dark.

"Who are you?" Demona asked conspicuously. It was weird that a gargoyle had discovered her here and if it was one thing that the experiences in the last six centuries had taught her then it was to be cautious.

"I'm a friend." The strange gargoyle said.

"What is your name?" Demona asked.

"My clan calls me Shaman. Sometimes even Hawk, but this is merely my nickname."

"Shaman..." Demona murmured and felt how beads of perspiration ran down her cheek and her wound was bleeding again. "The human's gave me the name Demona and I... "

"Need help?" The strange gargoyle noticed and came nearer to her, studying the wound on her stomach. "Sit down please."

Normally, Demona would not have let herself be commanded even by one of her own race. But this time, she didn't have the power to argue since she already relied on the spear not to sink down. Somehow she had managed to open the wounds even further, so she followed the orders.

When she sat down, the male sat beside her and studied her wound even more. She saw for the first time that he was about her age... When she went by biology anyway.

The gargoyle... She was going to have to call him Shaman, took the bag on which hung on his belt and opened it.

"Your wound is deep..." Shaman noticed "you have tried to pull out the bullet?"

Demona nodded. "Yes," she answered slightly, "I wanted to... " She was going to say that she had tried to fasten her healing, but then she bit herself on the tongue. She did not want to tell him about her immortality yet. She had had bad experiences with other clans when she had told them about this. "I did not want the bullet to stay in the flesh when I change to stone."

Shaman nodded even when he did not really look like he had hearing it after all, but opened the bag.

"I will put some healing leaves in the wound," he explained "it will ease the pain."

"You're a healer?" Demona asked in wonder, while she let him put the leaves on her wound and felt that the pain became smaller at once.

"I'm a Shaman," he explained "this makes me the healer and leader of my clan."

Demona nodded, she had heard of Shamans, even though she had never met one. Back in the old times, before Scotland became Christian, Shamans had led the human tribes who wandered in no large groups through the rough country.

The elders of her clan had told her stories about these Shamans when she and her siblings were hatchlings, but definitely no good ones. They said shamans could call the souls of the dead to enslave them and would have contact with evil, unearthly powers that desired only to rule and destroy.

Back then she had believed her elders. But then she had started to become interested in magic and when she was finally learning it, from the Archmage, she started to wonder how the shamanism had really been? Unfortunately, there were no more Shamans in Scotland, as all had been killed by good Christians who wanted to serve their God by destroying the pagans who dared to worship another way then the one of the church.

~funny that they use Jesus to justify their wars and massacres~ Demona thought ~a man who preached tolerance and non-violence~

But she had stopped since a long time to wonder about such, the humans would ever find a reason for wars and bloodsheds.

The hawk-like gargoyle frowned. "You are right, the bullet has to be pulled out or it might bring constant pain." He looked deep into her green sparkling eyes and she saw herself mirrored in his. "I'll do it, but it will hurt."

Demona nodded, "I've been through harder things."

Again he looked deep into her eyes and she almost believed he could even so see into her soul. Then he turned to the wound and calmly grabbed it.

Demona clenched her fangs even if it wasn't as painful as she supposed it should be and after some seconds, he held with a happy smile the bullet in his bloody claw.

"That's it my lady!" He said, gave her the bullet and pressed the leaves again on her wound.

Demona studied the bullet in her hand and snorted, humans had ever been very inventive when it was to build new weapons, whether it was this or the flying machine that a hunter had used 125 years ago in Florence. She started to believe and to hope that one day; the humans would create a weapon through which they would rid themselves from the earth.

But this wasn't it and so she threw the bullet away and looked to Shaman.

"Thank you, you have saved me." Demona declared with a short smile.

Shaman shook his head. "No, I just pulled the bullet out" he explained "indeed your wound closes very fast, practically before my eyes."

"In my clan in Scotland, it was usual that wounds close so fast." Demona said. This was a lie, but she did not know how much she could reveal from herself to him. She knew that some gargoyles were very much like humans and Fay in things of magic and even though he looked intelligent and good- hearted, she did not want to risk to loosing him.

"Ah..." Shaman said, but Demona could see in his eyes that he did not believe her.

~You have lied better already~ she said herself silently and added out- loud, to divert him from this.

"You said you have a clan?" Demona asked "but I have been out here for some time and have not seen one?"

Shaman nodded and sat himself beside her, still pushing the leaves into her wound.

"No you haven't," he told her "my clan lives five nights flight away from here, deep in the mountain area that the English call Appalachian."

Demona looked on him in shock. She must have misheard "FIVE NIGHTS FLYING?!" She asked in wonder and shock, but he just nodded. "What lead you so far away from your clan?!"

Shaman looked deep into her eyes. "You" he answered with a smile.

"You knew that I was here?" She asked, even more confused and a bit suspicious, "how?!"

Again, Shaman smiled a bit and threw a look on the wound, which had nearly closed.

~Amazing.~

"The spirits told me where I could find you." He said and leaned back on the wand of the cave. "They said here would be someone who needs my help, so I came."

"Spirits?" Demona noticed in wonder. ~So the books told the truth~ she thought.

Shaman nodded. "Yes, they help guide me to lead my clan and to protect them." He explained "we taught this even to the humans who had lived past in this area... The English call them Indians, but indeed they named themselves as *Pocu marcate,* which means Children of Moon."

He sighed sadly "but that is another story."

Demona nodded and then they just sat there beside each other in silence.

"You did not ask me about my clan." Demona noticed.

Shaman sighed, "it is always the same story Demona," he answered "since we are not made to be alone, you had to have been forced to come here alone. This means that, either you came here to explore this country to see if it is safer than your old one for your clan. Or your clan had been destroyed and you try to find out if in this country, which is referred to by the English as the *New World* or *America,* there are still gargoyle clans where you can live with. Since you spoke of your clan in the past tense, I fear it is the second one."

Demona looked on him in wonder by his sharp mind.

"You forgot the possibility that I may have been banished." She noted dryly.

Shaman bent his head in order to study her.

"No," he answered finally "someone so beautiful wouldn't be banished from a clan. It doesn't matter what she did."

Demona smiled weakly by this compliment. It did good to be treated in such a way again, but she still had so many questions.

"The way you talk let me thinks that you have met other gargoyles from the European world already." Demona said.

Shaman nodded. "Yes, my clan has met many other gargoyles. Once even a whole clan who came from your so called *Old World* in order to find a new home." He explained "some were Spanish, German, English, French, Italian... Me thinks every gargoyle of the Old World is desiring for a new home."

Demona nodded. A part of her was happy that at least a few of the European clans would exist further, but another part, the one where her warrior instincts came from, was frustrated since she knew that it was just a temporary solution. When she came here, she had seen how the thousands of humans had come every day! Demona knew that sooner or later, the human civilization would go west until they reached the next ocean where Demona knew was on the other side of the continent. How the settlers had expelled or wiped out the native population did not leave Demona any illusions that these humans were any other than the ones in Europe.

"I do not desire to keep you away from your clan any longer" Demona explained and raised "and it is a long journey that we have to do, so let us start."

Shaman looked on her in wonder "But your wound... "

Demona took the leaves from it and showed him the wound, which was now nothing more than a little scratch.

"I don't let myself get stopped by a mere scratch" she noted "besides, the humans in this area, even when they have no experience with our kind, might search me during the day, so it is better if we leave fast."

Shaman, who was still a bit shocked by the female's healing capability, nodded and when they had gathered the few things that they needed for the trip, they started.

08.02.1623; 21:23; A plain, high on a rocky mountain:

They did not speak much on their five-day journey, but this wasn't necessary since they simply flew most of the time. After seeing Shaman hunting, Demona asked herself how someone could be so bad at it and yet could survive a five-day trip.

So she asked him and he answered that he disliked to kill all manner of creatures, animals, gargoyles and humans alike because when he killed them, they often came to him in the space between the worlds of the living and the dead and he felt uneasy by this.

This made Demona wonder. Shaman explained that hunting was a nearly holy action in his clan so he, before the clan sent a hunter to kill the animals, asked the spirits of this animal to give them their flesh so that his clan could live, which they did most of the time.

Demona had seen other strange rituals in other clans, but this was the strangest she had ever heard of. In her clan, prey had been... prey, and nobody had thought about making a holy ritual out of hunting and killing it.

~If he thinks that hunting is a holy ritual and the prey is holy too~ Demona thought ~what will he think of me when... If I tell him that I was prey for 600 years and still be? ~

Finally, they neared a plain on a high mountain and Demona looked around. As they came nearer, she saw some figures wandering over the plain that quickly doubled in number and when they finally landed it seemed that the whole clan had gathered.

When she landed beside Shaman, Demona had a very good overview of the clan. There were old ones and hatchlings of the last rookery that, to Demona's confusion, were nearly as many as the elders, while the middle generations were very few, about 30 or more. Some had hawk features, some were similar to bears and others to coyotes or wolves. They were in some way like the gargoyles of the London clan and Demona thought that maybe there was a connection... But that wasn't relevant now.

Even though she had seen greater clans, it gave Demona hope to see a clan of her kind.

~Don't be no fool~ she said to herself ~there were greater and more powerful clans all over the world and they are mostly all dead now. ~

Aside from her, Shaman who was at once greeted by the clan especially by the hatchlings, started to speak.

To Demona's wonder, he spoke in a language that she had heard once by some Indians and even though she could not understand what he said, she heard her name at one time.

There were a lot of nods and some of the clan's elders came to her. "Pagatio loku," they greeted or so Demona thought and just nodded.

"I am the only one of my clan who can speak your language." Shaman explained "the others are not interested to learn this new language of the whites... They even so don't need it. I have told them that you came here from Scotland and so we will celebrate this with a large meal."

Demona shook her head. "You need not," she replied "I'm really thankful for this offer, but it is still winter and I can imagine that the supplies of your clan are low. I don't want you to waste food for me."

Shaman laughed a bit. "Demona, it is not all well in these times, but we sure don't starve" he explained "we have enough food from the summer and there is still game in the forest. There's a river float not far from here so that we can get, for the whole winter, fresh fish because it never becomes ice and we have even other help... " He hesitated, seemingly thinking about it "or not, but I'll explain later."

Demona wanted to say something, but Shaman raised a hand and stopped her "please Demona, it is an invention and I ask you as clan leader to accept this. My clan greets every gargoyle from the Old World so!"

Demona hesitated, but nodded after a look in Shaman's brown eyes. It had been a long time since she had eaten with other gargoyles.

08.02.1623; 22:34; the clan's feast:

The meal was great and Demona had not seen so much food for some years. So she ate thankfully, even if she couldn't understand what the clan was talking about.

"I know it is hard for you to understand what they speak about my lady." Shaman said when he noticed the neutral expression on his guest's face. "I can teach you our language... If you want to stay at least a while."

Demona looked in his eyes and saw a bit of pain and uncertainty. She was going to answer him that she already knew a lot of languages, perhaps even more than any other gargoyle before, but surely more than most humans. She would like to stay for a bit, when suddenly a gargoyle with the appearance of a bear came out of the shadows from behind them and laid a claw on Shaman's shoulder.

Demona did not understand what he said, but she saw Shaman's face darken and that certainly couldn't be good. When Shaman nodded and spoke something to the gargoyle, she saw how the strange gargoyle looked curiously on her, but nodded even so and retired.

"Demona, I have to plead you for a favor." Shaman asked.

Demona nodded. "Naturally," she said and while she said this, they rose from the table and went to the edge of the plain "what has happened?"

"I don't know it exactly," Shaman admitted "but me thinks someone is ill and needs my help." He gave her a strange look ". and I need you."

"Naturally I will help," Demona explained "but I have no idea how I could help you. I'm no healer."

Shaman smiled "you will see."

They came to the edge of the plain, on the other side where Demona had landed shortly before and Demona looked down. What she saw made her shudder.

Down in the valley her sharp eyes saw human houses... It couldn't really be called a town, but there definitely lived humans. Even when they were miles away and perhaps 100 meters down the plain, it was much too near for her taste... much too near and she snarled nearly unconsciously.

"Please fair lady," Shaman said and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I know how you feel. Even though I, to my luck, have never felt the loss of my clan, but I need you there."

She looked on him, curious, nearly suspiciously and noticed the tired expression in his face.

"The person you want to help is a human?" She asked, nearly annoyed by the thought that a healer of her kind should help a human.

"Yes I assume so, or it maybe just an animal, which needs help." He explained "but they want me to help." He noticed the still angry expression on her face. "The deal is that I help them and they give me and my clan some of their provisions. Either at once as payment or later when we need some... They even lend us tools and knowledge to build useful things."

While he spoke, his brother came and gave him a bag out of which came some strange smell, which Demona couldn't identify. After he did so, he went off again into the darkness.

"I plead for you to come with me," he said again "I need somebody to help me and you are the one I want... for my clan."

Demona looked into his pleading brown eyes and sighed. She did not want to let him go to these humans, but she knew he would do so on every case so this was senseless. And if it was a trap of the humans then who would help him when she wouldn't?

She nodded slightly. "I'll follow you" she answered and Shaman's face lit up.

"Then come!" With a jump he started from the plain and was, before her, in the sky. "We have to hurry."

Demona sighed and threw herself with a jump into the sky and followed him.

~Why do I let myself always get persuaded by such good-hearted fools? ~ She asked and realized ~I'm the greatest of all fools for following them! ~

"We have arranged it so that they make a large fire on the high rock in the middle of their settlement every time that they need help." He explained "you won't believe how often I have to come to help them!"

Demona nodded slightly while flying with him through the sky. "Humans are so fragile!" She said, but Shaman seemingly did not notice this since his attention was centered on the couple of humans in the middle of the little town who apparently were waiting for him.

While she landed beside him, Shaman went to those humans. She studied them like they did to her. Demona knew the expressions on their faces, as it was the same expression of controlled disgust and hate. She knew this expression from her time at Moray from humans who tolerated her race because they had to, not because they wanted to, and who wanted in the best case no contact with the demons. But Shaman was already ready for them and beckoned Demona to follow him.

"Hake Moke Lake!" Shaman said to her, as she went beside him and at first she was stunned. Why had he spoke to her in his language even when he knew that she could not understand him? But then, with a look in his deep brown eyes she understood.

"Loke Maga Ne Kola!" She answered and Shaman nodded. While she had to control herself not to smile evilly and making the humans suspicious.

What she had said was absolute nonsense, but at least it sounded like the language that Shaman's clan spoke and the humans did not know them either, so they thought this new gargoyle was just able to speak this language without understanding them.

~This is the reason I should go with him! ~ Demona thought, surprised with Shaman's cleverness of a sort that Goliath had absolutely lacked of ~or at least one. ~

Finally, they came to a door where a worried looking man stood, seeing Shaman with somewhat like relief and her with surprise.

"Come fast!" The man said, "me thinks she won't survive this night!"

Shaman nodded and they both went in. Demona went with them and followed them until they came to a room, which was seemingly the children's room of the small house.... And one of them was seemingly very ill, having fever and coughing. In the bed, beside a woman whom Demona guessed had to be the mother, laid a girl about 12 years old and dying, which Demona could see even without being a healer.

The mother was shocked when she saw the gargoyle entered and held her child even tighter to her breast, as if she could protect her from these monsters... or death.

"Wife! Go outside!" The husband ordered "we have given God enough possibilities, now let us give this... Shaman, a chance."

The wife looked at him angrily. "No!" She said and held a bible high between her and the gargoyles. "These are creatures from the devil himself!" She said fearfully "it is better that Maria dies and goes to god then let these monsters take her soul."

Demona had to control herself not to snarl.

~This human really is crazy! ~ She thought ~seeing her breed dying and instead of accepting help, she pleads for their God! ~

The man seemed near to loose control himself.

"Shaman had helped Markus's son as well last month," the human noted "and does he look soulless? So leave her and in God's name let them help."

But the woman did not seem accessible and instead tightened her embrace around her daughter even more. Demona threw a look at the girl's pale blue and painful eyes and shuddered. This child would die soon if Shaman didn't help, indeed Demona doubted that they could do anything for her even now... Not that she cared for this human brat.

But the child's father obviously did and combined with his anger about his wife's refusal, he became damned angry. He went to his wife and beat her in the face so that she fell from the bed on the ground, then he took her up and screamed "YOU WILL OBEY ME WIFE!"

With this he threw the sobbing woman to the door where she fell down again.

"GO," he ordered angrily "go in the kitchen and wait there!"

Demona nearly believed the woman would refuse and they would be witness to how the human would beat his wife even more, but the woman seemingly did have enough brains or experience to know that she couldn't refuse this order so she went sobbing into the kitchen.

Demona and Shaman exchanged views. It was clear that he did not agree with what the human did with his wife, but he cared too less for her to do something and Demona saw it even so.

She had always wondered how human females let this happen to them. For gargoyle males and females were equal and this had been ever so since the beginning of their race. They were both capable of having the same position in the clan and a female clan leader or second like she had been once was nothing unusual. The thought that this would be any different was funny.

~And then how the human females let themselves get treated by their mates! ~ Demona thought slightly amused ~if ever one of our males would dare this with me, he would plead for death! ~

This led Demona back to Goliath. He had always treated her well. He had been soft despite his enormous strength and the nights they had spent away from the clan... But this was past, he was stone already for more than 600 years and she was here, so she concentrated again on the present.

She saw how Shaman went aside of the girl and looked on her.

"Can you help her?" The man asked, worried. "Please, she is my only child."

"You should have called me earlier this night." Shaman explained without looking on him. "But yes I can. Please leave the room so that I can start."

The man nodded, as he seemingly knew what was to be done and went into the kitchen, maybe to calm down his wife or beat her further. It didn't interest Demona.

"Shhh," Shaman said softly to the girl and placed a dried leaf in her mouth "this will ease your pains." He checked her cautiously and spoke to Demona silently, seemingly in fear that the humans would eavesdrop. "She has high fever, maybe the influenza or worse." Shaman sighed and looked to his companion while taking things out of his bag, "I'll make a little ritual to heal her. When it is over, bring me home."

Demona looked on him in wonder. "But... "

Shaman raised a claw to his beak as a sign to be quiet. "Please," he asked silently "you can ask me all your questions when we are back on the plain."

Demona looked into his eyes, this did not please her and she had the feeling that what would come would not please her either, but she nodded. She had to trust him.

While she leaned against the wall she saw how Shaman took some strange stones from his bag and placed them around him and the girl. Then he took a club of some kind, laid it between himself and the child and put some loaves on it. Finally he spoke some words in his language and the stones started to glow until they made a circle of light around him and the girl while the loaves on the club started to burn and a light fog laid itself around them.

Demona starred at this in wonder. She did not feel any magic, which meant that this was a total other form of magic, which she couldn't sense or that another form of energy was involved.

Shaman spoke again some strange words and suddenly Demona heard a scream like that of an eagle. Indeed, at that moment, a hawk came from the window into the room. But it wasn't a real animal but Demona noticed in the greatest of confusion, a ghost that quickly circled around Shaman and the girl while Shaman murmured words in his strange language and made a barrier around them.

Suddenly, the spirit went into the body of the girl and it seemed to shine through her eyes an unearthly white light. Then the spirit came out of the girl's chest with a band made out of white light as its tail and flew directly into Shaman's chest causing his eyes to glow even so white.

Demona noticed in wonder how two shimmers of light had appeared around the bodies in the circle and she knew that it was their auras. The girl's aura was weak, as it did not shine brightly, but Shaman's aura really brightened the room, which showed that he was very powerful and in the blossom of his age. But when the band between them was ready, something happened and his aura started to become weaker while the girl's became brighter and in this moment, Demona understood what Shaman was doing.

~Damn! ~ She cursed and a part of her wanted to storm to Shaman and stop the ritual, but she did not know what the effect would be and so she had to helplessly watch Shaman's aura become weaker and the girl's become brighter every second.

Finally, it seemed enough even for Shaman and with an order in his language, he cut the band. The spirit of the eagle flew out of Shaman's chest and again out of the window into the night or the place that it had come from. But this did not interest Demona since she ran at once to Shaman and embraced him so that he did not collapse.

"Are you mad?" She asked him angrily, feeling the cold of his body and his weak muscles; unhappy to discover another reason why she had to come with him. "Why didn't you tell me what would happen?"

He tried to smile, but this went over in a cough. "I saw in your eyes that you would never have let me do this if I would have told you" he explained "or would you?"

Demona growled something about idiotic good-hearted fools and in this moment, the girl woke up.

At first, she was confused and didn't know what to do, but when she saw the strange creatures near her bed, she started to scream.

"MUMMY DADDY THE DEMONS ARE HERE, THE DEMONS!!!" The way she screamed convinced Demona that this girl was definitely on the way to becoming fully healed and wouldn't need further help... But only if Demona wouldn't kill her in the next few seconds.

But her screams weren't unheard and so the parents ran from the kitchen to see what had happened. The mother at once stormed to her child and embraced her tightly without even looking on the gargoyles that had saved her child some minutes ago.

The father looked on his daughter and nodded. He then looked to the weak Shaman and the other gargoyle at his side.

"Thank you that you have saved her," he explained and to Demona's wonder, she really heard a piece of gratitude "I will give you what you need when you ask for it."

Shaman nodded while the man went to his daughter and wife to embrace them.

Then Shaman looked to Demona. "Sali Kaol Makate" he said and silently pointed to his bag and the stones, which still lay around the room.

Demona nodded and started to take the materials carefully into the bag while looking on Shaman. He had leaned with his back against a wall, sitting on the ground and breathing heavily.

She looked on the bed and took the last object, the club. While she did so, she came with her claw nearly unconsciously near to the girl who saw this at once and started to crawl deeper into the arms of her mother. Her mother took the fact that the gargoyle had come too near to her daughter, neither very well and held the bible directly in front of Demona's face.

"Might the power of God banish you to the depths of hell whence you come from!" The woman nearly ordered.

Demona starred at her and didn't know if she should be angry or amused. This woman who didn't even have any power over her man believed to have power over her just because of this book? It wasn't even magic, just some letters printed on paper and no interesting ones as far Demona could say since she had read it once on the request of Goliath in order to make her understand the humans better.

But she was freed of the decision whether she should tear this ungrateful human into pieces or simply laugh at her because of this madness, since the man pulled his wife strongly back with his arms.

"You should better go now." The man said, now without something like thankfulness in his voice.

Instead of killing him for this order, Demona took the club and then helped Shaman up so that they could leave the house while she wore the bag on her back.

"Thank you," Shaman said, "I know this was hard for you."

As an answer, Demona growled slightly. "Can you glide?" She asked and he shook his head.

Demona looked around. There was a little cliff from where she could try to leap into the air.

"Then I'll have to carry you," she explained without joy "come."

He did what she had said and soon they were up in the air, he in her arms on the way to the plain of the clan.

09.02.1623; 00:23; the clan's plain:

"Loku Mata Poraka!" The gargoyle with the appearance of a bear said angrily to Shaman who lay on a bed in his cave "Fola Meka Luti!"

"Mone Hoki Balo!" Shaman answered and responded his view.

It was a quiet moment in the cave after that, then the gargoyle growled something and went out leaving Shaman and Demona, who had been there for quite some time, behind them.

"I can't understand the language of your clan but I have to agree him." Demona said calmly, leaning on the wall on the opposite side of Shaman's bed and studying the exhausted gargoyle.

Shaman smiled slightly. "You are right," he admitted, "some things need no understanding of the language to understand them." His smile fated "my brother could never understand how necessarily it is what I do.... But I hope you will."

"And what do you do?" Demona asked angrily "you give the humans a part of your living energy in the hope that they will not destroy you while you sleep!"

Shaman slightly shook his head. "What you said is wrong," he explained calmly "at least the largest part of it. The humans can't harm us, we are safe here."

"Ha!" Demona snorted "don't believe this, already in my.... Back in Scotland, the humans have started to make machines and tools, which could overcome the cliffs in which we have made our home for so long." She explained "I don't think that even this high plain might be able to stop them if they really would want to come here."

Shaman shook his head with a little laugh "My lady, it isn't the high plain, which protects us, even when the plain makes a part in the protection. It is... " Shaman stopped and sighed. Then he sat up on his bed and motioned Demona to sit herself beside him.

She did so and he took a long breath. "Well, I think it's for the best that I tell you the whole story!"

With his claw, he first started to rub his tired eyes and then his beak. "My clan and the tribe of humans who lived here before the whites came, were more than allies. We were practically one. The members, especially the leaders of both our clan's were often the best of friends and we shared knowledge, food and wisdom together, a longer time than the tales of my clan exist. The members of my clan were all hunters and could track down game even in the deepest winter while the humans gave us some grain that they had cultivated in the summer. When they hadn't enough, they offered little trucks of them to us in-exchange for protecting them as they traveled to the great plain in the west where the grain was ever large enough so that we could buy such in exchange for furs or rare stones. It was a long period of peace and our both clans celebrated many celebrations together, as long as I can think we had peace."

He sighed and leaned with his back against the wall.

"Then the whites arrived and everything became worse. It was first a few pioneers who explored this area, but already these brought death and pain. With them diseases came, diseases we never had seen before and they spread faster than the flames in the great plains, under the humans we called our friends. With the help of the leader before me, we could heal a lot of them and just some elders and children died... It is few compared with the stories we heard afterwards from whole cities who had been devastated by the whites' diseases in the great plain and other areas."

Demona nodded. She had witnessed the plagues that had killed nearly whole Europe centuries before and she had even so seen how sensitive the humans in this new world seemed against the diseases of the old world and died by this even more then through the whites' weapons.

"But this seemed to be a warning," Shaman explained "shortly after this, the first settlers arrived here and said that this land where both our clans lived since centuries. They said that their government had given it to them and that we should go... Naturally we refused, so they sent their soldiers, but with the combined forces of both our clans we could drive the invaders back every time. Unfortunately, because of our stone sleep the whites discovered and decided to use this to their advantage very quickly and started just to attack during the day, which led to many victims under our allies. In the end, the leaders who were, how I said, even so shamans of both of our clans, decided to plead for the help of the great spirit, the first spirit who was the start and is the end, to protect our clans. It was the largest invocation I was ever witness of and surely ever will be."

Shaman looked on his guest with a pale smile and continued. "They both died by this, but they had success. at least a bit. The whole plain is protected by a guardian spirit, no one can harm us here."

Demona's eyes widened. If she could copy such a spell and offer this to the other clans she knew....

"Why just a bit success?" Demona asked "this is fantastic! When the humans can't harm us we... "

"No you don't understand," Shaman said "they can't harm us here on the plain in the valley they can and the spirit just protects us here, not the human clan we were allied with down in the valley."

Demona looked on him in wonder when she understood. "The humans couldn't protect their homes and so they abandoned you." She noticed, but anew Shaman shook his head.

"Wrong again my lady." He responded "they haven't abandoned us, as we still hold a council of both our whole clans... It was clear that the whites wouldn't tolerate our allies in the valley and they couldn't live on this plain since their fields were in the valley. So they decided to dare the journey to the west, about the great river that the English named Mississippi and seeking another home where they could live in peace. A female of the generation of our former leader thought even so and argued that we should follow them in order to find a more peaceful place to life, besides of that it would be impossible to supply our clan here without the help of our allies. I argued that this land is our land as long as the memories of my clan reach and that besides of this, the whites would soon be everywhere so fleeing would be senseless and we had to arrange us with them, making the same deal we had with the other humans that they gave us food in exchange for our help."

He sighed and Demona could see deep pain in his large brown eyes. "My clan was divided and since I was just clan leader for some days and a damned young one too, I hadn't enough respect in the clan to convince them all of my position. In the end we decided to split the clan."

The last words came through his throat hard, with more pain than Demona had heard of him before and she could understand him all too well. It was usual, at least in Scotland, that when a clan became too large for the area to support them, they would split in two parts. One would stand and one would start searching for another place to life in. But it was more than tragic when a clan split through a quarrel or simply when they divided when a part of it could no longer agree with the leader. Usually the leader would rather change his or her mind instead of the splitting the clan, but it happened.

Back in Scotland, the elders had told her once as a hatchling about such things in other clans but she hadn't believed that this would be possible, that a gargoyle clan would split up just because of a disagreement. Years later, it had nearly happened when some of the clan refused to help the humans of Wyvern against the Vikings after the death of the clan's second. At this time, she had been a friend of such an alliance and helped the old clan leader to hold the alliance... A mistake that she now knew.

"Surely you have noticed that the clan is mainly made out of elders and hatchlings?" Shaman asked slightly, noticing the depths of thoughts she had seemingly dived into and when she nodded, he continued. "The elders mostly stayed because they were too old to make the long trip while the youngest are the eggs, which had at this time just been laid... That was another reason why I argued for staying here. The middle of my clan hasn't stayed much and I suppose if the whole clan would have been mobile, I would be alone here now."

He laughed a bit and Demona knew it was pure sarcasm.

"Not that I blame them!" Shaman tried to explain, "my sister made a very good argument, as she had had an education as a shaman. Even so, she was never supposed to be second or leader and although I don't doubt that she could lead her followers to a better area, but..." Shaman looked deep into Demona's green eyes and thought about how wonderful they sparkled in the light of the torches. "Demona, do you understand why I and the few who followed me stayed here?"

Demona swallowed. She understood, even when she did not want to understand. "Well naturally, because we protect and most of all we protect our clan and the place where we live. And this place is damned good for it. I mean a place where we are protected through a guardian spirit during the day is something all clans of our race dream of."

Shaman nodded. "Yes, these all are reasons why I would stay here and perhaps they would even be enough, but there is another large reason why I chose to stay and you know it."

Demona sighed. "You want to achieve a peaceful coexistence of humans and gargoyles." She explained, "but believe me the humans are not to be trusted! Maybe the humans who lived here former were the exception, but these humans would love to slaughter your clan like they did it in Europe!!!"

Her eyes had started to glow red by thinking of all the deaths that the humans had brought over her kind. And naturally he wouldn't understand her, he would say she should have trust in the future or say something else idiotic good hearted, he would...

"I agree totally with you." Shaman answered instead.

Demona could just look on him, speechless for some seconds, as no gargoyle she had ever spoken with had agreed with her on this before! At least, no leader...

"You surely saw it in the eyes of the human woman whose daughter we have saved tonight," he explained "or the other who you saw at the signal point. The best of them barely tolerate us whereas the others just have no choice. Trusting them totally would mean death. This is the reason why I never go without one companion to them, at the beginning even with two."

"But... " said Demona who had caught herself from this shock again "then why?"

"Why I stay?" Shaman asked with a laugh "see from my viewpoint, we have no choice and my guardian-spirit agrees with me in this." He saw the confused look on her face and smiled. "guardian-spirits are the soul partner that every Shaman meet in the world between the worlds when he ascends to a real Shaman. They are our friends and guardians in the form of animals, they help us when we seek advice, my friend is... "

"A hawk," Demona said "I saw him when you healed the girl."

Shaman nodded. "Indeed, but he comes just sometimes to help me in really hard cases. When I need him otherwise, I travel to the world between the worlds. That he is a hawk is so because everyone gets the partner that his or her soul is linked to and everybody, even folk who are no Shaman, has a partner with the form who is adequate to him."

He sighed. "Whatever, I think we have to arrange with the new humans here so or so and when we do it, we can it do at the same time here where we are somehow safe."

"Will the guardian spirit stay forever?" Demona asked.

"Yes," Shaman admitted "as long as there is a full Shaman in the clan who binds him with this sphere of living. To this, he has to have full contact with the sphere between the worlds and has to make a ritual every time when the circle of sun changes. One time in the year and just here on this plain, only then the guardian stays."

"And you have a... " Demona started, but Shaman shook his head.

"No," he answered "indeed I have no candidate in my clan who is old enough to be my successor or just apprentice. The candidates have all gone with my sister." He saw the disapproval in her eyes and continued "I know it is a risk to help the humans in this state, but think about it. Wouldn't it be a greater risk to let the humans know that I am irreplaceable for the clan?"

Demona sighed and nodded, even when she did not like it, his words sounded logical. On the other hand, it did not make the bad feeling that she had every time when she saw how one of her kind relied on a human, disappear. She knew now that it would never end.

"I don't like this!" Demona said honestly "I mean if one of your clan is outside the plain and they have to, they are prey! It is just a question of time when one of these humans will attack one of your clan, even when the most of them need you."

Shaman's face darkened and Demona saw through the pain in his eyes that a part of his story had yet to come... A painful part.

"They have already." He explained "one of my sisters died barely a year after the clan had split when she searched leaves for me, down in the woods. She had been shot through the heart from a gun behind her... She had no chance." He sighed and closed his eyes as if to make a clearer picture of her. "You have to know I liked her, more then the other females in my clan. Through my training to be a Shaman, I had myself pretty much alienated from my clan and later through my post as leader, I had even so a lot to do, beside the fact that we had not much females of my age anymore.... To make it clearer, a mate was not in sight, but if... "

He looked again in her eyes and Demona nodded. She felt a kind of relationship to this gargoyle who was more than simple understanding. The time, so unbelievably ages ago came back to her mind, when she took training by the Archmage and so alienated herself pretty much from her siblings... and how she finally sacrificed the relationship with her green skinned brother, which could have so easily blossomed into mate-ship.

Yes, she could understand him completely. It must have been hard, like had been for her, but it was for their clans. The only difference was that he could practice his arts openly while she had to hide her knowledge in magic as long as her clan existed and never discovered an opportunity to help her clan, just one time she could have....

But this was past and now a question came to her mind.

"What did you do?" She asked calmly "I mean, I would have killed all the humans with greatest joy."

Shaman smiled weakly. "Oh I would have done it nearly..." Demona's eyes widened by this, as she couldn't imagine him, doing anything like that.

"I was ready to kill all the humans in the valley and maybe would have gone on until I had expelled or killed all whites on this continent." Shaman said this calmly and just by this, Demona could see that he spoke the truth. "I stood there on the border of the plain and called the lightening, which came like a drum roll. I knew that the humans would all crouch in the corners of her houses, perhaps their holy books in the hands and praying that their God would help them and I even so knew that they prayed for nothing. This gave me an unbelievable feeling of satisfaction."

He swallowed and continued "I did not hear the pleads of my clan to stop, but sent them away, angry that they dared to stop me in my rightful revenge... By the great spirit if they would have tried it more to stop me then I think I would have even killed them..." He looked again into Demona's eyes and his eyes were now full of despair and guild, "I was ready to kill my own clan for this!!!"

He closed his eyes again and leaned back. The pain seemed too much for him, but then he felt the soft touch of Demona's claw on his shoulder and when he opened his eyes again, he saw just understanding and affection in her eyes, not hate or disgust like he had feared, as she sat beside him.

She knew that this was hard for him. He seemed too good-hearted to kill even animals. Or just humans, but in the moment of rage he would have killed even his whole clan!!! This must have shocked him deeply.

"Well," he continued with a bit more strength in his voice. "I went to the world between the worlds to call spirits, which should help me buy my vengeance. Dark spirits out of the darkest part of the worlds, hungry to kill, hungry to feel alive and they are all to willing to serve the person who lead them into this world... This means if this person can control them. But for the luck of the world and my clan, she waited there on me, she spoke to me and brought back the sense of honor in me and the sense for the way of our race and what I fought for."

"When I came back I cried," he admitted, "I cried for the failure I nearly would have committed and cried for the death of my sister, which I hadn't done before. After I was ready, I felt as weak as never before in my life, but I knew what I had to do."

"I glided down into the town and called the leaders of the community." Shaman said, "I knew that they knew the person who was responsible for this. My sister said this to me, but couldn't tell me his name since it wasn't allowed for her to influence the world of the living in such a direct way. I said this to them. I added that I would no longer help them as long as they wouldn't overhand me the responsible man." He swallowed, "it lasted one month until the daughter of a family in the west became sick. Scarlet fever, the whites call it and he pleaded for my help. I refused, even when he threw himself in front of my claws, but I demanded the same thing from him as I had demanded from the other men in the town, then I departed."

"The next night, he started the fire again and when I came down. He, his oldest son and some other men from the town had gathered there, a chained man in their midst." He told me that it was a man who lived alone at the border of the town, a hunter who hunted game in the wood to sell the skin. I guessed already that it was he, but the look in his face confirmed it. They gave him to me and said I could do with him what I wanted to, but I should help the girl..." He laughed a bit "they thought I would tear him to pieces with my bare claws and for a moment I wanted to do exactly this. Then I looked on him, how he knelt there in front of me, shuddering, pleading for his life... crying!!! Then I recognized why he shot her from behind. He was nothing more than a coward, I doubt that he would have had the nerve to shoot a gargoyle from face to face, perhaps he did it to talk big about it from his friends, but whatever it didn't matter. I grabbed him at his throat and took him near to my face, so that I could look him deep in his eyes, his feet hanging above the earth and made my decision. I told the men to banish him and that he should never come under my eyes again or I would show him what true cruelty means."

He smiled weakly. "I've never seen him again after I turned my back on him and went to help the girl.... I healed her from her disease, but she stayed deaf, If I would have healed her the day before, she would have stayed completely healthy." The last words seemed really painful for him.

"Do you regret it?" Demona asked calmly.

Shaman shook his head "I regret that this girl had to suffer, but not for what I did. If I had overseen this for my clan then that would have been unbearable! I mean if I hadn't shown the humans that I wouldn't tolerate this, perhaps more of them would have harmed my clan, but since this time, nothing has happened."

There was some seconds of silence, until Demona started.

"You could have done more," she argued "I mean seemingly all humans in the town knew who had killed your sister and nobody had the decency to tell it you... They all deserve punishment."

"Sure," Shaman admitted, "but what should I have done?"

Demona thought about it some seconds. "What about your power," she asked calmly "can't you ask the ghosts to help you, to make your clan safe for all time, to expel the humans of this valley?"

Shaman sighed. "It is not so easy. My powers, which is indeed the power of the spirits who are willing to help me are not mine... Besides as Shaman I have sworn an oath that I would use this energy just for the benefit of my clan, of our allies and all living things, which are worth this. Else mean...." He swallowed again, then he sighed

"Wait, I will show it to you, come." With this, Shaman raised from his bed and, even when he was still weak, stood on his claws.

"You should stay in the bed." Demona said, with a slightly worried expression on her face. "You're still weak and the disease will not heal properly."

"This little cold?" He asked amused, even when she heard from his voice that it cost him much energy.

She nodded and followed him deeper into the cave, many minutes through many windings, until they came to a larger room and the dust she breathed in showed her that nobody had entered it in many years.

In the middle of the room was a table... but this wasn't interesting for Demona at the moment, since she saw the strange statues in every one of the four corners of the room.

They had wings like gargoyles, but they were of feathers unlike her own and they were, even when they were folded, larger than normal gargoyles. Instead of loincloths they wore something, which seemed like a mix of body armor and cowl, whose cowl hide their faces in the dark. Their bodies were as large as Shamans, but somehow they seemed larger, with an unearthly dignity and beauty, with runes decorated, stoneswords they held in front of their bodies made clear that they were guardians, ever watchful and full of power. But Demona knew just one word for them...

"Angels." She whispered in confusion and Shaman noticed this.

"My lady?" He asked "what is it?"

"These are statues of angels," Demona explained "creatures who serve God in the human bible. In the human churches of the old continent they are often shown, as in windows or as statues like here."

Shaman shook his head. "This can't be," he said with certainty in his voice, "these statues, like this cave, are older then the start of the Christian timeline. Much, much older. They represent the Aleka Nobake, the guardian spirits of the light and have been made at the beginning, as guardians like their models and to honor them."

Shaman stopped a moment and Demona nearly saw how it worked in his head. "Maybe they are both," he explained "your angels might be the same one. They are just called other names. They serve the light, the first good, maybe the Christian God is just one misunderstood form of this, but whatever, look."

He showed her the stone table and Demona followed his claw, to find two swords lying on it. They were the same like the statues were, just that these were real, their blades glanced and an unearthly light seemed to come of the runes. They had no dust on them, just beside of them and this showed Demona that they hadn't been moved for a damned long time. A part of her wanted to touch them, but she waited, in order not to embarrass her host and looked on him, her eyes glittering with questions.

"These are the swords of the Aleka Nobake. You might call them even angel- swords, given to us by them in order to prevent the worst." He looked deep into her eyes "and the worst is something we always have to count with."

When he saw that his guest was even more confused, he continued. "See the reason that I brought you here was because of your question, why I don't use my powers in a more offensive way, and I am going to answer this. A long time ago, before this continent was populated with the humans who are now extinguished and expelled. There lived only our kind here, spread over the whole continent from one ocean to another, full of clans. But then something happened, something that is called the Great Darkness. A Shaman had tasted the dark power... the Kole Nako. I really have no words in your language to describe it. Imagine the power of evil, which already exists as long as the light, even longer before, some believe. It waits there in the world between the worlds to prey Shamans who just begin to ascend and make their first trip to the world of limbo."

"Nobody knows why it happened just then," Shaman said "or why this evil, which had never before been there could do this, but we knew what it had done. The Shaman was now more powerful than ever, as the darkness had claimed him and it showed itself in the darkness in his eyes... and his soul. He wandered over the country, free of the stone sleep with no need to rest or sleep, bringing nothing but pain and death, making massacres unimaginable for my ancestors and they had nothing to stop him with. No weapon could kill or even hurt him permanently. They called upon all the spirits they knew, but the evil was more powerful and there was nothing they could do... Finally, one went deeper into the world of twilight than any other had done before. He wanted to find the power that could fight against this evil because in life and death there is a balance and so there had to be a way. He was in a trance for days and my clan finally gave up hope for his comeback, but just when the clan prepared for the battle that we knew we couldn't win, he came back and he had two companions. They were the Aleka Nobake. The guardians of light that fight against the darkness and still do. After a fierce battle, which shook the earth itself and it is said that this plain was formed by it. They were able to kill the creature, which had once been a gargoyle."

He threw a long look on the statues of the angels... or the Aleka Nobake, and Demona understood now why they had been created. To remind them of what had happened and to honor them out of gratitude.

Shaman looked back to Demona. "You can imagine how grateful we were to them, but they weren't interested in such. They gave us these two swords and two more which the rest of my clan has taken with them on the trips westwards. Then they said from now on, we had to be ever watchful of every Shaman who ascends since this would be the time when the darkness may try to get into his heart, and so we have. From that time forth. Every apprentice Shaman has, when they make their first journey to the land of twilight, an honor guard of four clan members and the present Shaman at his side. They wait at the entrance of the tent and check him afterwards to see if he is infected with the evil. When he is, it is his death sentence, despite the fact that he was a brother or sister once, it is for his own good and the best for the world."

"How often does this happens?" Demona asked nearly unbelieving. The way he told it, shamanism seemed much more dangerous than simple sorcery.

Shaman shook his head "Not often at all. Indeed, the last time it happened has become no more than a legend. An unbelievable time has past since this... But we are forever watchful, who know when the evil shows itself again."

Demona thought about Shaman's story. "But if these Shamans who have tasted the darkness, are so powerful then how can the honor guard do anything against them?"

"The only thing, which allows this, is the fact that they don't receive their powers directly after they come back from the world of twilight." Shaman explained, "they just have the knowledge of the darkness, but aren't more powerful than they were before. To do this they have to do a ritual first, which allows them to take more of the dark energy with them from the world of twilight."

By the look in Shaman's eyes, Demona knew that she didn't really want to know what this ritual was, but she had to ask.

"What ritual?"

Shaman explained it to her.

Demona believed she was going to become sick. She had heard a lot of cruel things, but this!!!

"I believe this explains why my clan is damned cautious in this... " He explained "and why we refuse to seek the help of more aggressive spirits. The price might be too high, much too high."

Demona nodded.

"And these swords... " She started "are in case that such a thing might happen again."

Shaman nodded. "They said these swords would be the only thing on earth, which is able to stop the evil and they gave it to us because they said they couldn't help us the next time. A sort of war was going on in their own realm and we haven't heard of them since this time. We just take the swords with us when a new Shaman ascends."

Demona looked at the swords and touched one. She could feel power of a sort that she had never felt before.

"Am I allowed to take them?" She asked calmly.

Shaman nodded.

She took the sword and held it in her claw, then made some movements that she had learnt from her teacher. This blade felt good, it was well balanced and lighter then Demona had supposed it was, it even felt warm.

Slowly, she looked on the blade in front of her and touched it with her claw. She cut herself in a finger and licked on it to stop the bleeding. To her surprise, the blood on the blade didn't stay there, but rolled down from it onto the ground of the cave while the runes shone even brighter...

~The sword seemingly doesn't like blood~ Demona thought, but at once thought further, ~don't be a fool! It has no awareness... I hope?~

Demona sighed and put the sword back on the table.

"Your clan has a long history Shaman." Demona noticed.

"Yes and we are proud of it." Shaman admitted.

Demona looked deep into his eyes. Could she trust him? She had told her story to other clans before, but it had not been accepted very well anywhere, but he seemed different from all the other gargoyles that she had met before.

"There is something I have to tell you." Demona said calmly "come, let us go up. It is the story of my life."

Shaman looked on her in wonder, "it is long?"

Demona nodded, "centuries long."

They went up together and while they went up, Demona noticed that her wound hadn't closed and still bled a bit.

~So these swords are more powerful than even the Fay's magic~ Demona noticed ~how interesting.~

Up there she told him everything, the massacre on Wyvern through the humans and how her second clan died through the betrayal of another ally, the centuries of loneliness, ever hunted and never peace...

08.08.98; 23:54; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

The entire clan was silent, listening to Demona's fascinating story, even some of the hatchlings, Connor amongst them. He had somehow managed to escape the elders who had herded them and now listened unnoticed by the clan.

"After I told it to him, I allowed him to tell the story to the clan, like the fact that I was a sorceress." Demona explained "in the end he asked me to stay, even when I wanted to travel further west in order to find other clans, and I agreed."

She sighed. "He taught me the art of shamanism and his language while I taught him how to read English and some minor magic tricks." She said, "he had potential and the right spirit, so he easily could have become a more cunning sorcerer, but he had a clan to lead, even so to teach me shamanism and so didn't have the time for this."

Demona bit her lip. "Finally, I became a Shaman, his second... " She hesitated shortly, trying not to look at Goliath, "... and his mate."

Goliath on the contrary starred at his former mate and a part in him really woke up at this moment.

~Did I really think she would have stayed abstinent all this time?~ He asked himself ~that she had waited on me all these centuries without living on?~

But he had, at least a part of him had. Yet when he had fallen in love with Elisa, he still believed that a part of Demona still loved him.

A part of him reminded a night, now 1023 years ago, where a soft voice spoke.

*Take this token of my love. Cherish it always, as I will cherish my half. Upon this, I pledge my heart to you forever.*

~How long is forever for you Demona?~ Goliath asked her silently while clenching his fists, but then he rebuked himself.

~She had spent at least 600 years without a mate while you chose Elisa just 2 years after you awakened. Even though she had betrayed you, it is a short time to get over her.~ He thought, but just ended up asking himself another question ~what if she had another mate before Shaman?~

Suddenly, he felt a soft touch beside him and he looked around to see his Elisa standing by him, smiling slightly. In this moment, he forgot his grudge and jealousy and was happy for Demona with full heart. At least she had not been alone all this time because she had waited on him and this made Goliath feel better.

"15 years later was hatching season." Demona interrupted his thoughts.

13.06.1638; 00:56; The Clan's Rookery:

Demona looked on and leaned on the muscular chest of her mate in the rookery of her clan and the 7 eggs that lay there, especially the one in front of her and waited for them all to hatch.

While she did so, she thought about her life, her new life with her new clan. It had taken her two years until she fully understood the language of her clan and five more until she had become a full Shaman in their eyes.

She looked down at her chest where her amulet lay, which had been given to her by her *partner* when she had ascended to a full Shaman. It was still weird for her to see the face of a panther with eyes like emeralds, brighten the face out of a sort of dark stone.

With the help of Shaman, she had made her first trip to the world between the worlds and it was so strange from all that she had known.

The things in that place had been clear and unclear at the same time and she had just gasped at it after looking around and seeing the panther. It... or better, her coat had been darker than the darkest night and her eyes had been green, wild and pride like Demona's own.

When the panther or her companion turned and went off, she had followed her instinctively so that the panther had shown her places in this world, which she still couldn't describe with all the words she knew.

After this trip, she had discovered the amulet in her tent and was at first confused, but then she took it and wore it since that night. Later, Shaman had explained to her that it was a gift of her partner to show the bond between them.

With this, she had even so become their second, accepted by all clan members. A fact, which honored Demona deeply and she had vowed to herself that she would protect them from all evil... with her life.

She snuggled herself deeper into her mate's arms and he embraced her tightly, which made her feel so safe. Then it was time, as the eggs soon would hatch and a new cycle would start for the clan.

While looking around, Demona noticed with a smile, the good feeling inside of her. She felt like she hadn't felt for a long time.

Yes, this was her clan like the others had been. She knew it when she looked on the hatchlings. They were adolescents after their ascent in the year before, of the last rookery that had even so gathered with the clan to look on this happening. She had come to look upon these hatchlings as her own, like she had of the ones in Moray and Wyvern, even when she knew that not all of them was biologically hers, but this didn't matter, since such a bound was more a human custom.

The hatchlings who had gathered to witness this miracle had indeed accepted her as first in the clan and had become very fond of her, which was not simply founded in the fact that she had brought new stories with her. Stories of her old clan and stories of her own journeys that the younglings still listened to with the greatest of interest.

She looked further around at the newest part of the clan. Gargoyles, who looked like the ones in Scotland, from the mighty Holy Roman Empire of German Nations, which was now at war with itself and their even so powerful neighbors France and Sweden who wanted to get use of its weakness.

Once, Demona had traveled through this large country, which was indeed many little or middle large states, and could speak their language even when the dialect was much different from this one she knew.

Indeed, it had been three groups of gargoyles that came from this country. The first group was from Bohemia where the war had started, the second from Vienna and the third of the Lower Saxon where the war had raged very cruelly since Denmark had attacked it. After this, Sweden and finally France attacked through self-torment and weakened the empire bringing more death and pain.

The war had still lasted when the gargoyles had immigrated to the New World and after what she had heard from them, it would still last some years.

~Foolish humans, ~ Demona thought, ~why can't they simply live in peace? ~

From what the gargoyles had told them, the war played havoc with the countries and even came to the cities and when the situation became too dangerous, the people in Vienna blamed the gargoyles of being demons who brought the war. As if a gargoyle could do such a thing?! They were both expelled when their clans were destroyed when the humans ransacked their cities. With a lot of luck, the survivors escaped and came to America in order to find a world free of human war. Guided by the spirits, Demona and Shaman discovered them and brought them to the clan.

Together, it had been 17 mostly young and healthy gargoyles since the weak and old ones had died on the long journey. With Demona's help as interpreter, because not even Shaman spoke their language, they all became integrated into the clan very quickly. The first ones even laid their eggs in the rookery, partly with mates from their old home, but partly even so with mates from their new, more peaceful home.

"Look, it hatches my love." Her mate said with love in his voice and at once she turned her attention back to the present where her egg was going to hatch.

She knelt down before the egg, which had got delicate drafts in the shell that enlarged rapidly with quiet cracks. Finally, a leg came out of the shell then another and finally. the whole egg collapsed and allowed a full view of the hatchling.

The newly hatched gargoyle at once protested to be freed of its long year home with a loud screaming, but Demona just smiled, picked her up and cradled her in her arms, in which the hatchling calmed down.

It was a female! Demona had already suspected this through the colouring of the egg and she was beautiful indeed. She had a contrast similar to that of her mother. Her hair was darker than the night, her body structure like hers whereas the colour of her skin was perhaps a bit darker. That and the two little horns, which were above the girl's forehead, were something Demona hadn't got. Aside from that, she was nearly identical to her.

But her mate, who stood beside her, noticed something other.

"She has your eyes." He said with a smile on his beak and Demona noticed it now while looking into those wide open eyes that studied her in wonder. These were indeed her eyes!

She looked up to her mate who had started to softly touch his daughter. Even though she would grow up as child of the clan, there would forever be a special bound between her and her parents and they both knew it.

Softly, Shaman embraced his mate with his newly hatched daughter in her arms and at this moment, Demona felt completely happy while looking on her daughter.

~My light in the darkness. ~

To be continued... soon.