DC:13Unresistable

by Hardwing

Fear, desires, hope and blaming sometimes proof to be unresistable no matter what cost, read how it culmilates when the clan welcomes guests...

I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES for creating such a great background and Storyseeker for correcting my fics and helping me with great ideas and for the characters of his ficverse.

13.Unresistable…

Xanatos offering solutions to his missing leg

"Actually," the billionaire explained. "I just talked with the doctor about ways to help you."

"Can ye grow me a new leg?" Hudson asked him in a dry voice.

"My scientists aren't so far yet." Xanatos explained even so dry. "Yet there are other ways."

"Which ones." Hudson asked sitting up, this news sparking his interest.

"There are two ways." Xanatos explained. "One is indeed to breed a new leg... yet on the genetic way."

…

"Then there is the mechanic way." Xanatos continued. "My scientists could make you an artificial limb."

6.Betrayal

Darlene looking through some of her mother's things…

The photo was fixed on a paper with a paper clip and looking over the document Darlene found that it contained every important dates of Paul's life. His birth date, his parents, where he went to school, his wife, children, his job… the information about his job had been circled with a ballpoint pen.

Not being able to think, Darlene dropped it, starring again in the box where she discovered something else, a newspaper, a newspaper she knew… the newspaper with the date of the 14.06.1997.

The day after her husband's death.

She took the newspaper up and read over the headline of a certain article, an article circled with lines of a ballpoint pen.

Man dies in horrible car crash

The blood in Darlene's veins froze as she read the article again and again and finally she let the newspaper sink down when her arms no longer had the power to hold it.

"Mother what have you done?" Darlene whispered.

10.Friendship

06.09.98; 22:05; Destine Mansion, Demona's Workroom:

Darlene stepped inside, seeing her mother working on her computer with Shade by her feet. She could no longer bear it.

"Mother?" she called her, approaching her table. "We have to talk."

The immortal looked up. "What it is daughter?" Demona asked, relaxing in her chair while Shade raised her head.

Darlene took a deep breath.

"I went through our old things and found the files you had made on Paul," she explained, staring on her mother. "Did you kill him?"

Demona stared at her now biologically eldest child, and began to laugh.

"Child, really!" she began. "That you even ask."

Darlene relaxed, feeling a heavy burden lifted from her. Naturally her mother wouldn't do it, despite all what had happened between them, she couldn't.

"Naturally I did!" Demona said in the same happy tone, and turned on the monitor of her PC, revealing the scene of a demolished car lying on its back, a car that had once been Paul's.

Darlene stumbled, having to hold herself on the desk, while her mother smiled at her evilly.

"And now I'm going to kill the rest of your family." the immortal explained, rising from her desk. "So you will feel what it means to be alone."

Darlene wanted to say something, but she had no air to do so. Instead she heard a growling, and turning her head down she noticed Shade rising, the opened mouth of the black gargbeast covered with blood…

06.09.98; 20:03; Castle Wyvern, Outside:

Darlene woke up with a roar, shuddering as the shock slowly left her.

Gem, sitting in front of her, stared up wondering at her mother, and began to cry, sensing that something was wrong.

Still breathing heavily, Darlene took up her youngest daughter.

"It's okay," she tried to calm the hatchling down. "Your mother just had a day-mare, everything is okay."

As Gem slowly calmed down, her mother looked down at the castle and the city, knowing that she would never get enough of the sight, at least as long she and her children lived here while her mother was on the search for artifacts they could use in the fight against Lucifia. She had left three days before.

"Sister?" a worried male voice called her from behind.

Darlene turned her head to see Desdemona and her mate, whom she had shared the resting perches with, looking worried at her.

"It's okay," she said, jumping from her perch and trying to give her siblings a smile. "I just had day-mare."

"It must have been pretty bad?" Desdemona commented.

Darlene nodded; hoping that her sister wouldn't ask further, which Desdemona didn't, sensing that she didn't want to talk about it.

"Let us go into the great hall," Darlene suggested. "Gem needs a bit of movement, and I too."

Her siblings shared a look, but didn't ask further, knowing that their sister had had these dreams for some time, and would talk about them when she wished.

Together they went in.

06.09.98; 20:09; Castle Wyvern, A place on the wall:

Lana sat on the perch, Ruth and her smaller, web winged sister, waited besides her.

It didn't need long as the reason for their waiting arrived in form of Mary a fine young warrior of bluish skin, broad though not thick build, white hair falling from an enlarged forehead with two pair of ridges and rather compact muscular for his age.

He had something in his left claw which looked very much like a picnic basket.

„So what is the great surprise he promised you?" Ruth asked curiously.

„A time out of the city." Mary said laying an arm around her rookery brother's waist and giving him a smile no one could misinterpret. „He even talked with the leader already."

„Great!" Lana congratulated.

„Sounds better than kitchen duties at last." the web winged tailor said with a warm hearted, knowing smile while looking at her sister..

„You were assigned?" Mary asked.

Her web winged sister nodded.

„With the clan's chief cook underground and our guests arriving?" she asked „Half the clan is."

„Maybe we should…" Mary began.

„…go before we're dawn?" her rookery brother ended the sentences before Mary could end it in an unfavourable way.

Mary gave him a smile.

„Exact!" she confirmed and stroke his hair while giving him a deep look in his eyes with a wide smile before jumping on the parapets. „Don't expect us back soon!"

Her brother followed and together they jumped into the air, gliding north-east in perfect symmetry.

„They look quite happy." Lana commented while looking after them.

„They'll probably be much happier soon." the web winged one noticed with a smile.

Lana looked surprised on her, while Ruth stayed looking after her rookery siblings with a half dreamy half pained look on her face.

„Hey sis." Mary called her, making her turn around. „Let's go catching some bread."

Ruth nodded and followed them, only to look after the happy couple her siblings made one moment longer.

06.09.98; 20:56; A small private airport outside of New York:

The leader of the Manhattan clan and his second watched, as the small private plane drove into the hangar and finally came to a halt not far away from them. They stood half between the plane and an ordinary brown van that its driver had parked behind them.

As they approached it, the door of the plane opened and Dr Moore stepped out.

"Evening," he greeted them, stretching himself.

"Hi, doc!" Brooklyn replied,

Goliath gave him a respectful nod, yet quickly turning his eyes to the next person who stepped out of the plane who followed his example, not regretting it as he saw the guest stepping out.

She was a beautiful young gargess, maybe eight years older than his generation. Her skin partly covered by a near white, two parted loincloth, was green like that of an apple, her hair brown like wood, and despite the visible try to tame it, it fell over her eyes which sat over a beak as large as Brooklyn's own.

But what he would always remember of this first meeting were her eyes, as they were light blue, which looked around in the hangar with a mix of concern, fear and a part of sadness which was quickly hidden as her eyes focused on him and then on Brooklyn.

"I'm Goliath, leader of the Manhattan clan, and this is my second, Brooklyn," the older gargoyle began, pointing on Brooklyn. "Be welcomed."

"I'm Nia, second of the clan of Nevyn." she replied in a serious voice, which was just for a short moment broken by a hint of softness. "In the name of my clan, I thank you for your hospitality and help."

Having said this, she turned her head and looked back into the interior of the plane.

"Come out, it is all right." she told someone.

Brooklyn strengthened himself by the sound of something pounding inside, and didn't show his shock as he saw the reason for the visit, and the request of this Welsh clan's help, hobbling in the doorframe.

The hatchling, more a teenager in human terms, was maybe 24 years old and wouldn't be called hatchling if going by the custom of the Manhattan clan. His skin was slight blue, and two horns around fifteen-centimeters long rose in the air at the side of his skull where his large ears were, rising out of his hair that was brown like that of his older sister.

His worried, pained brown eyes stared out of a beakless face, which made him look older than he probably was, and Brooklyn at once registered why he looked this way, realizing that Moore's description had even been an understatement.

It began with the scar running from the middle of his brow and ran up angular to the left, heading to his left horn and vanishing under his hair. The next visible injury was at his left upper leg…

Brooklyn could see the bone shattered and shifted to another place, clearly visible from outside under the skin, making it clear that the hatchling couldn't stand on it, which was why he used the cane at his right side to prop himself on it.

Maybe most shocking for the second of the Manhattan clan was the left wing of the new guest, which unlike the right one was properly fitted on the hatchlings body, while the left stuck out in a painful angle. As Brooklyn took a closer look, he realized that the rather delicate wing bone, which held the ripples wing together had been smashed, some parts nearly un-glossed, especially where the so important wing-elbow had been.

The second of the Manhattan clan had to take all the self-control he had achieved in the time since he had achieved his post, to not gulp. It looked worse than bad, and even with all the miracles of science Brooklyn had his doubts that the hatchling would ever glide again.

Let's hope you haven't promised this boy too much, doc, Brooklyn thought with a quick glance on doctor Moore.

The hatchling remained silent a moment, seemingly too shy to speak, so Goliath overtook this part.

"Welcome to Manhattan," he welcomed their younger guest. "I'm Goliath, and this is Brooklyn my second."

"My name is Blaen," the older hatchling said insecure, and Brooklyn could see how much he tried to look even a bit brave. "Thank you for your help."

"Thank me after the operation," Moore switched himself in, as Blaen climbed down the stairs with the help of Nia. "Now I suggest we get back to the castle."

"I agree," Goliath said, watching Blaen once again standing on his crane. "You must be tired from your voyage? The van will bring us to our home."

Nia nodded, yet Brooklyn noticed that Blaen looked a bit disappointed, which was maybe the first sign of youth he had discovered of the older hatchling.

"Don't worry," the second of the Manhattan clan said, approaching him a bit. "From the castle you have the best view over Manhattan, and maybe you'll even be able to make a glide"

Blaen looked at the strange gargoyle for a moment, as if he had caught him by surprise, worries and pain once again burned in his face, but finally he nodded and propped in the direction of the van.

Brooklyn allowed himself a short smile, as the hatchling passed him and entered the back of the van with a bit of help from Goliath, but as Nia followed him the look she gave him made him think he made a mistake.

What have I done wrong now? the second asked himself, as he followed the gargess into the van, closing the door behind him.

06.09.98; 21:46 Castle Wyvern, training rooms:

Lana sweated, finding herself facing her teacher after a warm-up, which hadn't been as hard as it had been the weeks before.

"Claw to claw combat," her drill master said, taking a short look over the four other young warriors, which were two pairs, Tom and his gray hairless rookery sister, who were busy fighting with swords, and Lexington having a duel with Bea, both fighting with swords and shields.

Lana nodded, and took her battle-position.

A second later, and surprisingly fast considering her interest in the other gargoyles in the room, the drillmaster had caught her pupil's shoulder without any problem, having got behind Lana's arms.

The half gargoyle quickly laid her claws on the elder's arm so that she couldn't use them to attack her further, unfortunately the elder didn't intend to let loose, but let herself fall behind, dragging a surprised Lana with her.

Lana found herself flying over the older gargoyle and landing hard on the training mats.

"If ye had any sense of reflexes in you, ye would have rolled of and had already attacked me, young one." Lana's trainer noticed in a disapproving voice.

Lana felt the pain in her breast and claws, but nevertheless rose, staring at her teacher, and once again took her position, slowly moving closer, eyeing her drillmaster angrily.

Her teacher looked unmoved, something which made Lana even angrier, and made her even wanting to win, wanting to see her teacher on the ground if just to see this arrogant look vanish from the older gargoyle's face.

Lana tried an attack with her right claw on her teacher's face, which she held, as she grabbed her claw with her own. Nearly at the same time the younger gargess tried to punch the older one's stomach, which she blocked with her remaining claw.

"You're too slow," the teacher stated in a cool voice, still holding her pupil's right claw.

Lana's eyes turned red, as she once again attacked with her remaining claw, this time aiming on her opponent's face, and which was once again blocked.

But this was what she had planned…

Quickly she grabbed the claw her teacher had used to block her and draw her closer, at the same time using her left leg to attack her opponent's right leg that she had her weight centered on.

It was a good attack, the teacher had to admit, at least compared to what the young one had delivered until then. But she was prepared for it half a second before Lana had even started it, seeing the plan in her opponents eyes.

As Lana's leg appeared, she shifted her weight on her left leg, preparing a counter attack that would send her pupil once again to the ground.

The counter attack never came… Instead her left leg denied its service under great pain, making her fall on her butt through the loss of balance.

The drillmaster felt the pain of embarrassment more than the pain in her leg, but it was nearly even more, as the young one now stood over her with a triumphant look on her face.

"Spare you this smile," the elder gargess said harshly, standing up by using her healthy right leg.

She massaged her left leg for a moment before looking to her pupil who still had a satisfied look on her face.

"You!" she ordered Tom who was some meters away, preparing himself to block the attack of his sister's sword with his own. "Take the swords and show the lass what a long way she still has to go on the road of a warrior."

Tom exchanged a short look with his sparring partner, but obeyed, taking the gargess's sword and handing it to Lana while approaching her.

"Good luck," the young warrior noticed.

Lana nodded, taking the sword in both her claws, and holding it as she had learned, feeling that she would need it.

Intensively, the drillmaster and Tom's former sparring partner watched both.

Tom made the first attack, aiming slowly on Lana's right, which she blocked easily.

"If I had wished to see a game, I would have called one of the hatchlings," the drillmaster commented. "By the dragon, take it seriously!"

Quickly, Lana and Tom shared a look of understanding that the elder luckily didn't see. But Tom's former sparring partner saw indeed, and definitely didn't like.

Following an idea, Lana quickly withdraw her sword and pushed it against a point five centimeters away left from Tom's ears.

"Hey!" he thus complained, quickly kneeling down and trying to kick away Lana's legs with his own by turning a circle, which failed as Lana jumped, letting his legs pass her from beyond.

"Ha!" Lana said triumphantly, suddenly relating to her time as a cheerleader. "I… "

She didn't speak any further since Tom had let his tail roll against her left angle, and pulled her from her feet, making her fall on her back.

"Ouch…" Lana said, feeling the pain rise from her back to the rest of her body.

"I have seen this trick before." Tom said, as he approached her and extended his left claw to help her up.

Lana took it gratefully, and quickly found herself standing on her feet and looking in the young warrior's eyes.

"Thanks," Lana said.

Tom gave her a friendly nod.

This was too much for his former sparring partner, and the gray-skinned gargess ran out of the training room.

"Stop talking around and continue your training, will ye?!" the drill master ordered from aside them, having just randomly taken notice of the gargess's leaving. "And no more moving. I want to see just your sword skills."

"Aye, teacher," Tom assured.

06.09.98; 21:49 Castle Wyvern, Floor at the elevator's:

Goliath and Brooklyn stepped out of the elevator, which had brought them up from the second sub-level of the building's car park to the highest available level, the clan's guests behind them..

"The clan will be taking the meal in less than a hour," Goliath explained. "You are invited to take part in it. We can introduce you to the clan and show you our home meanwhile."

"Thank you, but the glide was long and Blaen needs his rest," Nia explained, giving the hatchling a short look as he hobbled in, his face showing just a short expression of disappointment before becoming straight again. "Besides, the leader of my clan and that of the others want to know why your clan keeps yourself shut off from the others."

Goliath looked seriously on the younger gargoyle, and then he nodded.

"We can discuss this in my office if you like," the leader of the Manhattan clan suggested. "My second can bring Blaen to the medicine station."

"No!" Nia stopped him harshly, sounding a bit frantic in Brooklyn's ears.

Goliath and Brooklyn looked surprised on her.

"Please…" Nia said, this time more caught. "Let me take him there myself."

Goliath hesitated for a second, looking on the hatchling who had remained silent over the ride and seemed to stay that way, looking away from his older sister in a look of slight pain, but not contradicting.

"As you wish," he said, showing her the direction of the medicine station.

Nia nodded and laid a claw on Blaen's shoulder, leading him along the floor while he kept his unhappy face.

As their guests walked down the floor, Brooklyn and Goliath shared a short look before following them.

06.09.98; 21:52; Castle Wyvern, The Female's Bathing Room:

Lana was glad that she reached the bathing room, as the training lessons always left her sweaty, this time even more than normal since her teacher had seemed to be eager to let her pay for her victory over her.

Did she? the young half gargoyle thought, as she entered the bathroom, smiling by this thought. I won against her, and she knows it.

Still smiling, Lana removed her clothes and laid them on one of the long bars fixed on the wand ready to let clothing, mostly loincloths, hang over it.

Entering the room with the showers, Lana found five females of her generation already in, still clothed, four of them talking together while the fifth, Ruth, stood aside, looking reluctant.

"Hey?" she addressed the gray-skinned hairless female standing in the middle of the room. "Tom is looking for you."

"Is he?" the young gargess asked cynically.

"Yes," Lana replied, suddenly feeling unwell by the look of the gargess. "'Uhhh… is something?"

"Catch her!" the gray female ordered.

She and the three other females stormed on the shocked Lana and grabbed her before she could even think about defending herself. In half a second she found herself held over the floor by two gargesses each holding her leg, and one of them holding her tail, while the other two held her by her arms.

"Hey!" Lana protested, twining with effort, as she was carried out of the female's bathing room.

Lana shortly asked herself what they were planning to do with her, for she was sure that the older clan members wouldn't be pleased to see this. As they changed direction, Lana turned her head to see the door of the male's bathing room next door.

"No!" Lana exclaimed in sudden panic. "No, no, nononon… "

"You wanted our males?" one of the females holding her asked sarcastically, ignoring her pleading as the gray one opened the door. "You can have them!"

"Think about this the next time when you seduce someone, bitch!" the gray female said, as Lana was carried in and thrown on the tiled floor.

The half-gargoyle stood up as fast as she could, but by the time she had reached the door it was already closed, with four gargesses pressing against it from the other side, bringing all of Lana's shouting and hammering against the door to no avail… aside from gaining the interest of the room's other occupants.

"Hey, what's all the noise?" a voice came from behind her. "Hatchlings, if this is you again… "

The voice stopped, and Lana took a deep breath before looking around.

In the doorframe, leading to the shower room, stood a young gargoyle that was looking as stunned at her, as she on him in return. Water still dropped of his smoke black skin, and his short beak.

Lana stared for a moment just on the bold gargoyle's face, recognizing him as one of the males who were always looking at her. Then her eyes wandered down, realizing that he wasn't wearing a loincloth, and his wings were just clipped on the back. She quickly found her eyes drawn irresistibly to the under section of the male, and needed at least three seconds until she could part her eyes from what she saw there.

The young warrior smiled, and Lana folded her own wings in front of herself, realizing with a blush of red that he had been able to see her foreside.

"What's happening…?" a voice behind the male said, which turned out to be the crested, light brown-skinned brother, who was now also staring at Lana in utter surprise.

"It seems our guest has decided to pay us a visit," the smoke-black one said, elbowing his brother's stomach playfully, hiding the front section of his body with his wings. "Let's be polite."

With this he moved closer to Lana, making her press her back on the door and feeling panic rising in her.

"Hey, do you want to see more?" the young warrior asked, and made a pose he had once seen a human body builder doing in a television show, flexing his not very impressing wings and once again revealing all of his under body section.

Lana tried to turn her head away, but the young warrior quickly jumped into the new direction, showing another pose and grinning by this, which didn't get any better as two other brothers, Edward and Queens who had been attracted by the noises, soon joined in.

Lana hid her face behind her claws, as the four males posed in front of her, grinning and flexing all of their muscles, wings, and even their tails. Being naked gave them the perfect opportunity to show their muscles… having a gorgeous female come into the male's bathroom was enough to entice any young male.

One of the Gargoyles tails brushed up against Lana's leg, during his posing. It was no doubt an accident, as he was so focused on his posing that he didn't notice, but it broke Lana out of her shock, making her feel the panic in her totally take control, causing her to scream.

This was when the door opened and she nearly fell on her back, if two red legs hadn't stopped her.

Brooklyn stood in the doorway, watching his naked brothers still frozen in their poses, quickly realizing what was going and not being happy about it.

"What the hell is going on here?!" he asked the four males standing in front of him before kneeling down to look after Lana.

His brothers at first looked stunned, quickly wrapping their wings around their bodies, as they had noticed the five females, including the newly arrived Bea and Lexington.

"Hey, it's okay," the clan's second meanwhile tried to calm Lana.

She thus calmed down, but Brooklyn could see that Lana was trembling slightly and that she had cried under the claws she now removed.

"What were you thinking about, scaring her like this?!" he asked, his eyes glazing white, first looking at his brothers, making Edward take one step back as Brooklyn seemed ready to leap on him, and then at his sisters outside the room. "She is our guest for the dragon's sake!"

Bea meanwhile had approached Lana, lying a claw on her shoulder and helping her to stand up, slowly leading the still stunned half-gargoyle away, with Lexington by her side. She was watched by three females, with more than a bit of shame in their eyes, while that of the two others stayed calm.

Their brothers tried to explain. "Hey, she came into our bathroom! We thought she wanted some fun. How could we know that she was scared?"

"Maybe by taking a moment to look at her face instead of her breasts?" the second asked, his eyes having become normal again.

"This would be easier if she wasn't always show them," the gray hairless female noticed cynically, making Brooklyn look at her and the slightly red skinned, white-haired female behind her. "She robs us of our possible mates!"

"Yes, because your possible mates think more with their tails than their heads," the second of the Manhattan clan noticed, turning his head from females to males, and then back to the gray-skinned female. "You know, your pranks were never funny… but this tops it."

The only response he got was an arrogant look of his sister.

"Oh come, brother. You're not much better." Brooklyn's brother, Queens, noted. He had stepped out from the bathing room, while taking care that his wings covered his under section. "If you hadn't become second, you would be after her tail as much as we are."

Brooklyn looked at his rookery brother for a moment, his eyes thin.

"Maybe, but now I am second," he pointed out. "And as such, I tell you that all of you have 1 month of extra duties, cleaning, cooking and guard duty."

Protests arose.

"If you don't like this, then go to Goliath," Brooklyn proclaimed unimpressed. "I'm burning to see how you can explain this to him."

The second in command waited for a moment, and looked around to see if his sibling had understood. When he was sure they had, Brooklyn turned around and wordlessly walked away in the direction Bea had led Lana.

06.09.98; 22:00; Castle Wyvern, hatchling room:

The hatchling's room was crowded as ever, since the training had been relocated after lunch, as tonight they were to greet the clan's guests.

Mike, and a pale brown skinned hatchling with fair hair, sat at a table reading two of the newest Harry Potter books. On the other side of the room, Duncan, Victoria and four other hatchlings were gathered before a dart disk.

Jarred looked up at the clock.

"Mau. Mau." Alexander said with a wide grin.

Eve, Connor and finally Jarred threw their cards to the others on the floor that they were sitting around.

"The third time in a row," Eve noticed bad tempered, staring at the cards.

"Uncle Puck taught me how to play it," Alexander replied grinning. "He said he invented every card game."

"I doubt this," Eve replied sighing, taking the cards and mixing them for another round.

In this moment, Amy came running in, looking over the other hatchlings until she found the group.

"Hey!" she told them, practically jumping at their sides. "The guests from the Welsh clan have arrived."

"When?" "What do they look like?" "What're their names?" Connor, Eve and Alex asked at the same time.

"They arrived ten minutes ago, the elder said," Amy answered, having gained the interest of all the hatchlings in the room "I didn't see them, but I heard an elder say it."

"Cool, let's take a look at them," Alex suggested.

The red skinned, blonde hatchling shook her head.

"The elder said that the adult is having a talk with our leader and second about the other clans," Amy said. "The hatchling is at the medical station. They will be officially introduced at the meal."

"Then let's visit him," Eve suggested, gaining nods from the others around her.

Good spirited, they walked out of the room, just to find Alexander's mother on the half of their way to the medical station.

"Bedtime," Fox told her son.

"But, mom!" Alex complained.

"We wanted to go meet the new hatchling," Eve said, seeing that her friend wouldn't get far with these words. "He is alone in the medical station, so it would be good to greet him."

Fox Xanatos looked for a moment at her child standing in the middle of his gargoyle friends, and then she nodded.

"Okay," she gave in. "But I want to see you in your bed when the others are called to dinner."

"Thanks, mum!" Alex said, and embraced her before running ahead in the direction of the medical station, making the hatchlings follow him quickly while his mother looked after them with a smile.

As the group reached the door to the medical room, Moore just left it, his head sunk in a file.

"Hello, doc!" Eve greeted the human.

"Oh, hello." Moore said, looking down from his file. "Are you looking for our guest?"

The group nodded collectively.

"Well then, don't let yourself be stopped by me. I have some calls to make before we make further tests," the doctor explained and wanted to go, but stopped for a moment "His injuries look worse than they probably are. I said this to him, but please when you see him don't look too shocked."

Eve stared at Moore while the rest of the group stared at each other.

"What injuries does he have?" she asked half curious, half shocked by these words.

The doctor took a pause of half a second.

"It is his left leg and his left wing mostly," he explained. "But I and my colleagues are working to get him back on his feet, so please don't worry about this at the moment, and don't make him worried."

The group nodded and after seeing this, Moore walked further down the floor leaving the group to go into the medical station.

Much slower than how they had raced to the door, they now walked into the station, lead by Eve, finding the new hatchling lying on one of the beds, his claws lying under his head and staring worried at the ceiling, his wings hanging on both sides over the bed.

"Hello!" Eve greeted, as she and the others stepped in front of his bed where they noticed the cane that he was leaning on.

This made the hatchling discover the arrived hatchlings, and the child looked at them surprised.

"Uh, hello?" he said surprised, seemingly not having expected any visits, and wiped his eyes and face with his right arm to not let them see the few tears he had released.

To have a better look the strange hatchling rose, letting his legs hang over the bed, giving the others a perfect look on the injuries of his left in return, in particular the extended left wing unable to shift its position, making Amy gasp despite her promise while the rest of the newcomers stiffened.

The hatchling looked away, as he noticed these reactions.

"I'm sorry," he said as if he had been slapped, looking in the other direction, giving the others in the room thereby a good look on the scar on the left side of his forehead running up to his left horn.

"Why?" Eve asked surprised.

"You're scared," the hatchling said, not yet looking at her.

"I'm not scarred." Eve replied, sounding a bit angry "Just surprised."

This made the hatchling turn his head to the younger hatchling and looked at her in a mix of pain and curiosity.

"What is your name?" Alexander asked. "And where do you come from?"

"Blaen," the hatchling replied hesitantly, looking over the group. "I am from the clan of Nevyn, in Wales."

"I'm Eve, this is my rookery brother Connor, my sister Amy…" the pale green skinned hatchling began.

"Jane," Amy stopped her. "My name is Jane."

Eve and the other visitors looked at her.

"Not again, sis," she said desperately. "You know what trouble it brought you two weeks ago."

The red skinned hatchling with long blonde hair crossed her arms and looked out on her rookery sister with a defiant stare.

"The elders told us we could choose names by ourselves, if we liked," she pointed out.

"They surely didn't mean that you could change it every half a month," Connor threw in.

"It is my choice." Amy, or Jane as she was now called, replied, staring at her older brother.

Eve sighed and looked to Blaen who had watched this scene with genuine interest.

"Well, this is Jane, though don't be surprised when she is someone else later." laying a great emphasis on the name. "And this is Alex, his father owns the castle."

"Hi," Alexander said and waved to the new gargoyle, receiving an interested look as he had himself.

"Wow," Blaen said, honestly surprised. "We didn't have castles in Wales in my time…"

"Which time are you from?" Amy asked.

"I'm from the 7th century," Blaen said. "I never can remember the exact year, just that our clan was brought here before we were… killed "

The hatchling stopped.

"We too," Eve noticed, looking serious. "Part of us lived in 1057 at Moray, and the other came from Wyvern at 994, which is where the castle is from."

"I know," Blaen replied, this time showing true eagerness in his eyes. "I and my siblings often talk about you."

This time it was the group's turn to look surprised.

"You talk about us?" Jane asked.

Blaen nodded.

"I heard that the other clans do it, too," he explained. "About how you saved the other clans…. how you fought against the Quarrymen… this must be exciting."

"Well, mostly our second makes the time-dances," Eve explained. "And we haven't heard much about the Quarryman lately, as they were defeated nearly a year before we arrived."

Blaen opened his mouth, but closed it as he heard the door to the medical station being opened and someone come running in… fast.

Whatever came in weren't a gargoyle or human, but small enough to be covered by the others in the room, as it pressed itself though them on his feet claws.

"Uh," Blaen noticed surprised, as the big blue gargbeast stared at him while panting with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, happy to have found the new hatchling he had smelled.

"This is Bronx," Jane explained.

"Hello?" the Welsh hatchling greeted the beast.

Whatever had held Bronx back was taken away, and the gargbeast jumped on the bed beside Blaen, and instantly began licking the hatchling's face, his little tail wobbling like mad.

"Hey!" Blaen protested, but didn't gain anything except that the beast had pressed his upper body down on the bed so as to be able to lick the hatchling even better.

"Enough, Bronx!" Eve said, as she and Connor tried to draw Bronx away from their guest

"Down!" Connor added, and finally Bronx obeyed and jumped back on the ground under whining protests.

"They are a bit enthusiastic," Connor noticed, watching how Blaen rubbed the saliva from his face.

"I know," the clan's guest noticed. "We had two beasts before I left the rookery. They were mates, but one died and her partner died a week later since he didn't eat anymore."

"Horrible!" Alexander said shocked, stroking Bronx who seemed to calm down for a moment.

Blaen nodded, clipping his right wing on his shoulder and then, as Eve could see, trying to do the same with his left even when it was just a reflex, which proved to be silly as the smashed middle bone of the wing didn't let itself fold in any way, and left the wing erected as before.

The hatchling sighed unhappy, but got distracted as Bronx barked loudly and tried to get the young ones' interest by licking their claws.

"He wants us play with him," Connor noticed, trying without success not to laugh.

"Why not?" Eve asked. "Lets go outside. We'll show you our home."

Blaen looked enthusiastic at first, but then his face became dark as he remembered something.

"I can't," he said morosely. "My second ordered me to stay here until she comes back."

"Well, if we are fast…" Eve began.

"No!" Blaen cut her out a bit too loud, having a frantic look on his face before adding calmer. "I will stay here."

The group looked at their guest surprised and more than a bit startled.

"I could bring the cards and we could play Mao Mao here?" Alexander suggested.

"Mao Mao?" Blaen asked, surprised but definitely not indisposed.

Alex gave him a wide grin, which his comrades spontaneously reminded the group of that of his father.

"You'll love it," he said, and had already raced away.

06.09.98; 22:12 Castle Wyvern, one of the guest rooms:

Bea led Lana to the bed, making her sit on it after she had asked Lexington to see if he got the half-gargoyle's clothes. After he had closed the door behind him, Lana relaxed a bit.

"I feel better already," she said on the worried look of the other female.

"You don't look so," Bea noticed.

Indeed Lana's cheeks were quite bloodless, and she looked rather unsure.

"It…" she began. "It's just the shock, okay?"

Lana drove her right claw through her hair, to feel it trembling slightly.

"The second will see that they are punished," Bea assured her. "This has truly gone too far."

Lana nodded, not knowing what else to do, and pressed her legs on her body.

"In my old school, I once heard of a girl from another school that the others locked in the men's locker-room," she said after some seconds, not knowing why she said it. "They did this because they were jealous of her, too. I dunno if it's true."

Bea snorted, looking angry by these words.

"Than they were as silly as my sisters who played this prank," she noticed. "If a male turns his interest by the next pretty tail, he isn't worth the effort. It is good that not all males are this way."

Lana strangely had to think on Brooklyn by these words, remembering how he had tried to protect her when he had found her…

Quickly, she rose from the bed.

"Look, maybe I overreacted, but those males…" the half-gargoyle began.

"I know, I saw them when the second opened the door. They looked crazy. Believe me, I would have been shocked, too, if I had to look at them without anything on," Bea said. "Can you imagine that when some of the elders were young, no one in the clan wore anything?"

Lana gulped, as she couldn't imagine, though this hadn't been what she had wanted to say.

Would she believe me if I said that I thought they were going to rape me? the former human thought, looking on Bea. Would she understand this, or think I'm crazy?

She didn't know the answer, and felt a bit stupid to even have thought this herself, so she felt some relief as a knock sounded on the door.

"That'll be Lex," Bea said, walking to the door and opening it. "What do you want?" she suddenly said, sounding annoyed.

Lana had turned around so that her back was to the door, but Bea's reaction made her turn around.

"I've brought her clothes," a female voice said, sounding somewhat depressed. "Please, can I come in?"

Bea looked to Lana who had recognized the voice, and nodded.

A second later Ruth stepped in, looking very sorry and nervous as she held the clothes over to Lana, while Bea closed the door behind her.

"What do you want?" Lana asked, crossing her arms and making no signs of planning to take her clothes back.

"Look, it wasn't my idea," Ruth began. "My sisters came in angrily and talked about how you were stealing one of their mates again…"

"And you believed them?" the half-gargoyle asked, looking more and more angry.

"NO!" Ruth assured her hastily, searching for signs that her friend was understanding, but found none. "Please, there was nothing I could do…"

"You could have warned me. You could have stopped them!" the half-gargoyle replied angrily, just to add in a more hurt voice, "I thought we were friends."

"We are!" Ruth said desperately.

Lana looked away.

"You better go," Bea suggested sharply, having listened to the whole conversation.

Ruth threw a last begging look on Lana, but seeing no signs of mercy she left, after having placed the clothes on the bed, dragging her tail that was drooping dispiritedly

"She really shouldn't have done this," Bea said, as she closed the door.

Lana just nodded, beginning to clothe herself, starting with her t-shirt.

By the time she was ready, the half gargoyle felt her stomach growling.

"Guess it is time to eat," she noticed.

"You can sit by me and Lex, if you want," Bea offered.

Lana thought about it, and then she shook her head.

"Thanks, but I guess I'll place myself by mom," she replied. "Bea, one more thing… please, don't let this spread too far. I don't want the whole clan knowing what had happened."

"I'll see what I can do," the other gargoyle promised. "But such things rarely leave the borders of the rookery."

"What?!" Lana asked perplexed.

Bea sighed, remembering once more that this was no hatched gargoyle.

"I mean that those things will rarely be told to someone outside our generation," she explained. "The elders don't have to know everything… But I warn you, as this is a small castle for such a large clan, so word tends to get around, so I can't guarantee anything."

Lana nodded, understanding though not knowing if Bea did.

It wasn't that she was ashamed of what had happened… Well she was, but for the moment she thought more on her mother and how well she seemed to like being in the clan, finding it seemingly relaxing, what with all her trouble with her pregnancy. This was nothing that Lana planned to take from her just because of some she-goats that had gone mad.

"Lets go," she suggested with a slight smile, trying to overplay her own thoughts, though not very successful judging by Bea's eyes.

As they opened the door, they found Lexington and Brooklyn waiting outside it, seemingly sunken in a talk by themselves.

"How do you feel?" Brooklyn asked, looking worried.

"Better," Lana answered truthfully, giving the second a short look.

Brooklyn didn't look very convinced.

"I spoke with them and will see that they're seen to." he explained. "I promise you, they won't get away with this. And if they ever try such again, tell me."

Lana nodded, yet feeling a little push of adrenaline by the mere mention of the possibility of another prank.

"Hey, I know my brothers are idiots, but they would never hurt you," Brooklyn said, after having seen the look on her face.

The half-gargoyle sighed.

"I know." Lana said, yet not knowing it for sure. "I was… just shocked. That's all."

With these words, she hugged the red gargoyle deeply, giving him a kiss on his beak after that.

"Thank you for being there," Lana said honestly, after she had departed from the shocked gargoyle.

"Ummm… " Brooklyn stumbled, totally surprised, rubbing his beak since he felt like in a dream. "It was my duty."

Lexington shared a short look with Bea, grinning amused as he noticed his brother's beak turning slightly redder (if that was possible?), his girlfriend hiding a smirk.

"Shall we go to the great hall now?" Bea asked. "The meal should be ready."

This suggestion was commonly accepted, but Brooklyn shook his head.

"I must get back to Goliath and our guest," he said, still a bit surprised while trying not to look at Lana. "I was supposed to get them something to drink… I'd better go now. You'll see us at the meal."

With these words, Brooklyn turned around, racing in the direction of the kitchen.

"We'll hold you a place!" Lexington called after his brother, but he had already raced around the corner.

06.09.98; 22:37; Castle Wyvern, medical station:

The hatchlings were happily and hungrily taking their dinner from the table that the elder had rolled in, filled with everything, which was even so served in the great hall this moment.

"This is good!" Blaen noticed, hungrily devouring the steak on his plate with Eve, Connor and Jane who were sharing the bed with him.

"Mhhh…" Victoria said with a full mouth. She and her pale brown, fair-haired brother sat on the bed right of Blaen. "What do you eat at home?"

"Mostly the finished products Xanatos delivers to us," their guest said. "Our elders would like to hunt, but there is no game out in the environment anymore."

"Yeah, none in ours, too." the blond haired hatchling noticed. "But Mr. Xanatos sometimes lets us hunt on his estate outside of New York. I even heard some elders speak about letting our generation fly over to Wyvern to learn some hunting."

"Really?" Jane asked suddenly, chocking very fast. "Cool!"

Her rookery brother nodded.

"Why not Moray?" Eve threw in, looking around suddenly not so happy. "There were good hunting grounds there, too."

Connor who had finished his plate shrugged his shoulders.

"The elders will have their reasons," he explained. "Besides, I would be happy to be away from here some time, no matter where."

Eve nodded reluctantly.

"Gliding around free," she threw in.

"Learning to hunt," the blonde hair hatchling added.

"Swimming in the sea!" Victoria said with some yearning.

"Uh," Blaen said surprised, swallowing the last of his steak "I thought you liked it here?"

"Theoretical," Eve explained with a sigh. "But even before Lucifia, we were barely allowed to glide more than a block around the castle, and now we're lucky if we can glide around the castle at all. Do you know how it is not to glide…?"

She stopped, looking embarrassed to Blaen, whose face got a slight pained expression.

"What broke your wing?" Jane asked.

"Sister?!" Eve said unbelieving.

"What?" Jane asked. "You want to know it as much as I do!"

Her bigger sister looked first at Jane, and then at Blaen.

Blaen's face had become unhappy, even scraggy suddenly, and he looked at the earth.

"It was my fault," he said without looking up, his eyes staring in nowhere.

"Why?" Eve asked, trying to look in their guest's eyes.

"I got bored of always staying in the mansion, and went out an hour after midnight," Blaen began in a low voice. "I went far out, as much as our territory reached before we were brought to this time."

He swallowed, looking up to Victoria, lying on the bed before him and listening captured.

"It was a quarry, and I stepped on the border of it believing to have a steady stand," Blaen swallowed, slowly leading his claw over his left upper leg, feeling the shifted bone in it, which was visible. "It wasn't."

He remained silent for some seconds and Eve felt the urge to rise to comfort him by laying a claw on his shoulder. Fighting the inner voice, which questioned if she could dare this, but in the end she actually did it, earning first a surprised and then an actual happier look of Blaen.

"I woke up the next evening though I hadn't realize it at once since my head, wings and legs were still hurting despite the stone sleep," he continued more steady. "I couldn't move with the rocks lying on me, but one hour later our leader and her mate found me and freed me."

He swallowed.

"The next thing I remember is waking up in the clan's mansion with the leader watching over me." Blaen explained. "She said that the sun had fixed my bones, and that they maybe could fix my leg by breaking it anew, but my wing…"

The hatchling closed his eyes as the memories of the pain of that night threatened to drive tears in them.

"Hey, look it could be worse," Jane said stepping forth. "You could still be in our old time..."

Blaen opened his eyes and this time they were glowing white full of anger.

"THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN A POND IF I HAD BEEN IN MY TIME!!!" he screamed on the shocked Jane who jumped from the bed, making her and Eve take two steps back, while the rest of the surprised hatchlings watched. "IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE A QUARRY! If it had been right, I never…"

The last words were stopped, as he no longer had the voice to say it, and at the same time his twisted left leg now gave in and let him fall backwards, his arms waving helplessly.

Eve was quickly by his side, having overthrown her shock much faster than the others, now grabbing Blaen's arms and helping him to sit back on his bed where he had thus drawn his legs to his upper body and looked away, taking deep breaths, tears glistering in his eyes and running down his cheeks.

The other hatchlings didn't know what to say after the older one's outburst, so they remained silent some seconds until the blond haired, brown skinned one took himself a heart.

"The doctor will be able to help you for sure," he said.

"You don't know this," Blaen replied defiant but calmer, wishing his tears out of his eyes with his arms. "No one knows."

"Hey, he and Xanatos's scientists even made a new leg for one of the elders," Jane noted. "They can do anything!"

Blaen didn't respond, but starred ahead, his eyes cold, so that Eve found it better to sat himself in the bed besides him.

"We can go out," the blond haired male suggested. "At least we have a great view over the city."

Their guest just shook his scarred head.

"My second said I…" Blaen began.

"She is eating with the clan," Eve replied. "This will give us enough time."

"Yeah," Jane agreed. "The elder always makes a small celebration when we have guests."

"Mhhh," Victoria noticed. "We have a mass of time, at least half an hour until your second finds time to see you."

Agreeing murmurs surrounded Blaen, though he didn't show a bit of enthusiasm. He just knew what trouble such trips could bring… This was when he looked in Eve's mild blue eyes and actually found something in him, which longed for more than sticky rooms.

"Okay," he agreed, taking his cane from one side of the bed. "But we have to be really quick!"

The other hatchlings smiled.

06.09.98; 22:41; Castle Wyvern, Great Hall:

Brooklyn actually liked it when they had guests from other clans, as aside from the possibility to start new relationships they always had some stories to tell, which the clan liked to hear before or after they told their own.

The Nevin clan's second proved to be a genuine exception of the rule, seemingly not being much interested in her hostess's history, forcing herself to listen with at best a neutral look on her face.

Though despite her seldom-short nods, Brooklyn felt a sort of coldness, and wished he hadn't agreed to sit on the leader's table right beside their guest tonight.

Not that this seemed to stop a special elder very much…

"So, lass," Agamemnon said friendly, sitting on Nia's left side. "I heard your little brother is still at the medical station?"

"He was exhausted," the younger female replied politely.

Brooklyn gave her a short look.

Oh really?! he asked her mentally, having not noticed such in the hatchling himself.

Nia had turned her sight back to her meal and had caught a glimpse of the look he gave her, lowering her eyes, which made Brooklyn look back on the food in return.

"Oh, but eating with the clan is the best thing in such a situation," Agamemnon threw in, either not having seen or was ignoring the little scene between the two seconds. "I always say a Gargoyle can heal no better than when he is with his siblings and other Gargoyles. Let the sun do the rest, but the clan is the best for our souls, what is…."

The Welsh Gargoyle looked at the elder in a way, which was very close to a glare.

"The injuries… attacked his constitution," she said, as she believed the elder had ended his speech or he just made a pause. "I will not… not risk anything. Please understand this."

"Sure, lass, you're his second, but we have had our own dealing with the wounds of accidents and fights…" Agamemnon said, giving a short look to the clan's drillmaster, as his mate softly laid an arm on him, stopping his speech.

"What my mate wants to say is that we know how painful it can be to see another clan member suffer," she said, throwing a short look to Hudson. "We will help you and your brother to go through this, if you wish this."

Nia shortly closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"The only thing that I and my clan wish is that your doctor can help him," she said woodenly, with a chilly voice. "And that he hadn't had to make this journey for nothing."

The expression on the elder's face changed from compassion to worry.

"You have my word that Doctor Moore will do his best," Goliath said on the other side of the table.

Nia looked on the large Gargoyle and nodded after two seconds, seemingly calmed down by now if just by the tone of Goliath's voice, turning back to her meal.

Two tables afar, Darlene was eating her meal while trying to feed a reluctant Gem at the same time with a bit of meat, with only the success of dirtying her bib.

"She seems a bit tensed," she said, observing the visiting second, without looking up.

"Yes," Desdemona replied, sitting at the other side of the table and giving Gem a deep smile. "Being a second can be a burden, even our brother has been tensed by his position."

Darlene hesitated a second.

"Was my mother?" she asked.

"Humph!" Arnadela said sarcastically from left of Desdemona. "Our rookery sister burned for this position. This is why she wanted our former leader to be removed!"

"Sister! You don't know this." Desdemona replied scornful. "She believed he had been too old, and she wasn't the only one who said that."

"But she was the only one who became second when he stepped back," Arnadela pointed out. "She knew she would get this post with her mate as leader."

"Come on, you don't really believe our brother chose her as second because of this," her mate noticed from besides her, gaining the agreement of the others from the table.

Sighing, Arnadela shook her head.

"No," she admitted. "But everyone knew she had the best prospects on this post."

Darlene watched this exchange with mixed feelings.

"So seemingly mother always knew what she wanted." she said diplomatically.

Like whom she wanted to kill, Demona's daughter thought, and at the same time fighting the idea.

To divert herself, she looked at Lana left of her, who didn't seem to listen to the conversation at all, eating her meal silently sunken in thoughts.

"Sister?" Desdemona asked, making Darlene look at her. "Why did you ask?"

Darlene hesitated a second.

"Just interested," she said. "It is nothing my mother would speak about after all."

Desdemona looked on her in a way, which said that she had serious doubts about that.

Meanwhile at the leader's table, Nia raised another piece of the steak to her mouth, but stopped in the middle of the movement, laying it cautiously back on the table.

"I'm sorry, but the food on the plane was plenty if not good," she explained with a wooden face, looking at Goliath. "Though this one is good, I feel no real hunger at the moment, and if you don't mind, I'll take a walk."

Goliath replied with a short nod, his calm eyes making clear that he knew that it wasn't just the meal, which was preventing her from eating.

"You can have your meal later when you are hungry again," he offered.

Nia nodded and left the table and room, not looking back at the faces, which were looking at her for sure. Taking the way she had entered, the second of the Nevin clan moved through the strange corridors, making sure she past a corner and was alone in the floor until she propped herself on the wall and took heavy breathes.

They know, she told herself, and I didn't take a good look at the meal either…

The Welsh gargess shook her head as if to shake her worries off, and stood upright once more, looking around to be sure no one had seen her come this way and thought about what she was to do now. She should go visit her younger brother, but for now she really needed to take some fresh air, not wanting him to see her like this.

After being with this mass of Gargoyles, more than she had ever dreamed to meet, she decided that some fresh air was the right idea, so she took the way to the courtyard that Goliath had shown her before.

Taking some corners and one staircase, Nia neared the exit to the courtyard when she heard voices.

"The view is great," one voice said.

"No," Nia said more to herself

The gargess practically jumped out of the entrance, nearly scaring the group of hatchlings to death. But she didn't take mind the hatchlings looking surprised at her, as she went straight forward, starring on Blaen sitting on one of the perches of the wall, with Jane by his left and Eve by his right, formerly staring in the sea of light Manhattan, both his wings extended.

"You!" she exclaimed, her eyes lighting up red. "What are you doing here?!"

"I…" Blaen began, but he never got the opportunity to explain himself, since his second came forth, making him move back, nearly loosing his balance by this.

He never got the opportunity to regain it since Nia grabbed his arm, pulling him down from the perch and letting him painfully land on his damaged left leg too, making him go down to his knees by this while his cane fell on the ground behind him.

Tears of pain filled his eyes, though the older gargess didn't seem to notice.

"WHAT DID YOU THINK OF DOING HERE?" she screamed on him. "GETTING KILLED? I won't let you!"

Unconsciously she grabbed his arm even more, and Blaen had to press his fangs together so as not to scream.

"Hey!" Jarred screamed, jumping up one perch and between Nia and Blaen.

"It was our idea! Let him go!" Eve added, having jumped before Blaen half a second later than Jarred while the other hatchlings around them were still too shocked to move.

Nia stared down at the hatchlings, her eyes still red and full of anger.

"Go back in the castle," she replied icily. "This is not your business."

"He is our friend," Eve said, meeting the elder's eyes without hesitating.

"You're hurting him," Jane said, still sitting on the perch next to the Welsh gargess, more desperate than accusing.

This made Nia actually loosen her grip, staring at Blaen with somewhat less anger, her eyes back to normal.

"Hey, what is going on?" a voice behind Nia's back demanded to know, and looking behind she discovered Brooklyn.

"I found him here standing on one of the perches. He and the others went out without permission," she said, looking back at the hatchling that she still held with one claw. "You could have hurt yourself again!"

Blaen winced, as Nia's grip tightened once more and Eve gave a pleading look to Brooklyn to help…. which wasn't needed since he had already rushed to Nia's side, staring at her.

"Why don't you let him loose and we talk about it," he suggested in a hard tone.

"This is not your business," Nia replied icily before turning back to Blaen. "You will not leave the medical station again, understood?"

Blaen didn't respond, but looked away, tears glistering in his eyes, which he stubbornly tried to suppress.

"UNDERSTOOD?!" Nia screamed even more angrily.

This was enough for Brooklyn, and he grabbed her arm, effectively forcing her to let go.

"That is enough!" Brooklyn growled, as the other hatchlings rushed to Blaen's side to support him. "Kids, go back in the castle."

"We just…" Connor began.

"Now!" his second ordered, never taking his eyes of Nia.

The hatchlings followed the order, probing Blaen and quickly passing the entrance.

"What did you think about speaking to me in such way in front of the hatchlings?!" Nia asked furiously.

"What did you think when you treated Blaen like dirt, and this in front of his friends?" Brooklyn asked, his voice more controlled, though filled with the same anger, his eyes slowly turning white. "Hasn't he gone through enough that you treat him this way?!"

"He is my problem not yours," Nia hissed, baring some fangs out of her beak. "Take care of your own hatchlings."

"I will take care of everyone who is a guest here," Brooklyn growled back "And I won't allow you to harass him further…"

"I DON'T GIVE HIM FALSE HOPES OF BEING ABLE TO GLIDE AGAIN!" the other second screamed on him, subconsciously extending her wings to look more threatening. "Who will tell him that if not me?!"

"So you make him feel low because of this?" Brooklyn asked with contempt. "Is this how your clan treats its children? Well, we don't."

"I'm his second…" Nia replied.

"You shouldn't be," Brooklyn hissed rather calmly. "You shouldn't even be allowed to come near him. I will speak with Goliath and make him speak with your leader, and then we will see, but for now you'll leave him alone."

The other second glared on him, but instead of countering she jumped on one of the perches and glided away to another part of the castle. Brooklyn watched her leave, thereby discovering two of the clan on guard duty at a near tower who were watching with interest.

"Great!" he told himself, taking deep breathes while turning around to look over the city. "Just great."

06.09.98; 23:04; Castle Wyvern:

Lana moved slowly through one of the many floors, her thoughts twirling.

What is going on between mom and grandma lately? she asked herself.

It wasn't that they had had the warmest relationship, but back in Germany Lana had at least felt a bit of warmth between them, something that had now been replaced by a forced smile on her mother that was full of coldness. It was the same with her grandmother, but then that was nothing new, as she rarely smiled.

Lana sighed, guessing that it would be a lot easier to figure out the problems of her relatives as long as she hadn't to think about how to look in the eyes of the males who had seen her naked again… maybe Mary could help?

She tried to think when she heard voices and steps behind her. Asking herself what more would come this evening, she turned around to face whoever might come, praying that it wasn't one of the males.

It proofed to be Ruth, being dragged by her web winged, yellow skinned and brown haired rookery sister down the floor.

"You can let me loose," Ruth protested.

Her rookery sister didn't respond, but looked at Lana, determination in her eyes.

"Okay, my sister has told me what happened and we can agree it wasn't nice. She is sorry so please forgive her," she said, looking in Lana's eyes that just stared on her. "I still have kitchen duties and have to go, but when I see you two I expect you to be friends again, understood?"

Lana stared after her, and then at her former friend, Ruth, who seemed also surprised.

"She can be determined in such things," the dark blue skinned gargess noted.

The half gargoyle didn't say anything, but looked on Ruth with a more than reserved look on her face.

"Look, I already said that I'm sorry," she said. "If there is anything…"

"Did you truly believe I would go after anyone's boyfriend here?" Lana interrupted her. "Do you really think I'm that sort of bitch?"

Ruth swallowed and slightly shook her ruby head.

"Then what?" Lana demanded to know. "Why do I constantly have the feeling that half of the females here want to kick me?"

"We have more females than males in our generation," the dark blue skinned gargess said. "Everyone knows that some will be left mateless."

Lana sighed and leaned against the wall.

"I thought you had a sort of exchange program with the other clans?" she asked.

Ruth's face darkened.

"Oh yes, declaring no one wanted you in your clan and hoping someone will take you just for the sake of our race… sounds great!" she said sarcastically. "And if I find one I will probably have to move to his clan in another part of my world, probably never seeing my rookery siblings again."

The young gargess stopped and crossed her arms, leaning on the wall while Lana looked at her.

"I thought I had found someone with my brother who would be my mate," she explained, adding more desperate and vulnerable. "I thought he really liked me."

Lana stared at the desperate young gargess, not liking the irony of the situation. Here was a gargoyle searching for a boyfriend, she was one who didn't, but the males seemed to just like her smell…

The half gargoyle stopped, staring ahead.

"What?" Ruth asked, having noticed the change in the face of Lana.

"Maybe…" she began, but stopped, parting from the wall. "Come!"

Lana began to walk down the floor.

"What is it?" Ruth asked, totally surprised.

"Just come!" the half gargoyle called for her and was already at the corner.

Ruth looked at her for a moment, and then she sighed and followed.

06.09.98; 23:05; Castle Wyvern, Outside:

Goliath listened, as his second retold the last hour's events.

"This is serious," he said, as Brooklyn's story came to an end.

"More than that," the smaller red gargoyle added. "Goliath, you should have seen the hatchling's face, he was terrified."

"He still went out against her orders," the leader of the Manhattan clan noticed.

"That doesn't justify the way she treated him," Brooklyn replied, as calm as possible.

"He's right," Brooklyn's gray-blue rookery sister with the dark blonde hair said, "And she definitely didn't have herself under control."

"Mhhh…" Goliath grumbled, not liking the whole thing. "I will speak with her, maybe we can resolve the situation."

"And if not?" Brooklyn's rookery sister asked.

"We will see," her leader said. "Don't you still have guard duties to do?"

The gray blue female got the hint and nodded, giving Brooklyn a short look before jumping on the perches and jumping into the night, letting the air take her up to her post.

"What do we really do, if we can't solve the situation?" Brooklyn asked when he was sure his sister was out of hearing.

"Then we will have to talk to her leader," Goliath explained. "But this must be the last option."

Brooklyn nodded and watched his leader go back into the castle in search for Nia, deciding to take a glide around the castle.

At least I can stretch my wings, Brooklyn thought, jumping from the perch and from there into the night, using the updraft to begin with a circle. I wonder if Blaen would mind a visit?

Playing with the thought, he took a corner to the left and noticed a person sitting before the second large window, which extended on the backside of the castle.

Normally he wouldn't have taken a closer look, as his brothers and sisters often used these windows when they wanted to be undisturbed. It was a poor replacement to the wide and dark forests of Wyvern.

This time he did, and discovered Nia sitting in the little room, her legs close to her body. Brooklyn shortly considered to continue on as if he hadn't seen her, and to tell Goliath where she was, when he saw that her face was partly full of tear stains and an instinct told him to glide down to the wall where he folded his wings and slowly climbed to the right side of the alcove, not entering it yet.

"So?" Nia noticed in a sad sarcastic tone. "Has your leader talked with mine already?"

Brooklyn gulped. He hadn't believed she had noticed him, as she hadn't moved when he had climbed up.

"Goliath is searching for you," he said in a forced neutral tone. "For now he just wants to talk."

Nia remained silent for a moment, staring on the wall before her, as the wind played with her brown hair. The sad look of her eyes made Brooklyn suddenly feel an attraction to her, which hadn't there before.

"He wanted to kill himself before, did you know that?" the other second asked, making Brooklyn come back to the present.

The second of the Wyvern clan shook his head, trying to overcome the shock over this news, as well as over his sudden feelings, while at the same time trying to hold himself on the wall as a strong updraft pulled on him, making his hair whirl around.

"It was the second night after his accident, I think it was then that he truly realized that he would probably never be able to glide again," Nia explained and sighed. "He stood on the roof of our mansion as the sun came, and wanted to jump when she rose. Thank the night an elder was able to pull him back in the last second…."

Brooklyn gulped, even more as he suddenly realized something.

"You were in command when it happened?" the second of the Manhattan clan deduced.

Nia nodded, turning around, now letting her legs hang over the edge and staring out into the night though she didn't seem to see much.

"The younger ones go out regularly on their own, so I didn't think much about it when he was gone, and even when he didn't come back to the meal I still waited till the end of it until I started a search." she remembered. "If I had made one earlier, thought about it more… every time I see his wing and leg, I think on my failure."

Brooklyn had had enough of hanging on the wall and climbed beside Nia, perching down, which she didn't seem to mind.

"Look, I won't tell you that it wasn't your fault, as you've probably heard it before from your clan," the red skinned gargoyle said. "I know how I would feel if something like this happened to one of our hatchlings while I'm in command, but we can't take all responsibilities of everything that happens."

"I have no idea why the leader sent me here with…" Nia said, looking directly in Brooklyn's eyes. "She knew how I feel around him."

"Maybe it was because of this?" the other second guessed. "You have to live with him after all."

Nia didn't respond, but stared into the night sky again, feeling a knot in her throat.

"I once had an argument with my leader and ran away," Brooklyn explained.

Nia gave him a surprised look, on which the white-haired second just nodded.

"I'm not proud of it… to be honest I still wonder why Goliath had me as second after this." Brooklyn remembered "Running away is the worst thing we can do, because we are supposed to protect and take care of our people… and right now Blaen needs you, and I don't just mean to save his life."

The second of the Nevin clan sighed and rose.

"I must look like the worst second ever to your clan," she guessed.

"The second worst," Brooklyn replied in an ironic tone, which made Nia look on him with a risen eyebrow. "But the worst definitely rose the bar."

With these words, Brooklyn climbed on the wall to his left, offering his guest with a claw to come with him.

Nia looked on Brooklyn for a second with a strange look, and then she followed him with a small smile.

06.09.98; 23:07; Castle Wyvern, Dr. Moore's Office:

Moore went through the documents regarding Alexander's health, once again trying to figure out where the boy had got the energy from his growth, but finding nothing.

The boy's parents had simply told him that it was magic, but his scientifically education simply didn't allow him to accept this explanation this way… much.

Suddenly his cell phone rang, and the doctor discovered a number on it that he didn't know.

"Moore here?" he began. "Dr. Kelly, what is it?" Moore replied, as the other person had answered. "If it is the money we… Yes, I understand how important this conference is for you, but my patient counts on that it is made soon." the doctor explained, his forehead wrinkled. "This is a special case. Remember, we can't extend the operation too much."

Moore listened to further arguments and sighed.

"Okay, just be at the clinic as soon as possible," he said, and turned the phone off.

Now lets hope that's true Moore thought and dialed a number connecting him with the office of the Scarab Corporation.

06.09.98; 23:09; Castle Wyvern, A Guest Room:

Sitting on the earth with the bed in her back, Darlene smiled as she watched her youngest daughter run on all fours after the soft plastic ball she had thrown to the other end of the room.

The gray gargbeast on the other side of the room watched Gem with the same interest, catching the ball with her right claw and wagged with her tail, as she pushed the ball with her snout to the hatchling's direction.

As the ball had only been pushed softly, Gem was able to catch it and laughed in delight.

"Now come on, darling," Darlene told her daughter, extending her arms. "Come, Gem."

Gem looked up at the mentioning of her name, holding the ball close to her, then deciding to rush to her mother as quickly as she could, with one of her four legs holding the ball.

As she reached her mother, she took her up, raising her in the air and kissing her navel, which made the hatchling giggle.

"Now you are tired enough for your midnight nap, aren't you?" Darlene asked her daughter with a smile.

Gem in response bit the ball with her sharp teeth, which her mother took as a yes and stood up, walking to the door.

The gray gargbeast rose with her, slipping through the door as it was opened. Darlene smiled on this, but her smile froze as she discovered Shade waiting for her before the door.

Darlene tried to uphold her smile, as she watched the gargbeast watching her, but subconsciously she held Gem closer.

"Sister," a voice called her, making the gargess turn her head to see Desdemona come from the left side of the floor. "I was looking for you."

"Gem needed a bit more playing time than expected," Darlene said, and looked back to Shade who had begun to move down to the other side of the floor.

"I see," the caramel gargoyle noticed. "Sister, something's been bothering you for a while now, and I think you would be better off if you spoke about it."

Darlene looked at her sister for a while, and then she nodded.

"Yes, it would be better," she admitted. "I will talk to you and Elisa when she is back home from duty… but please, don't talk about it with anyone."

"Angela?" Desdemona asked.

"Especially not her," Darlene replied, sounding deeply serious.

Desdemona nodded and rubbed Gem's forehead who replied with a purr.

06.09.98; 23:11; Castle Wyvern, Floor Before The Medical Station:

The two seconds walked along the floor, finally reaching the door to the medical station.

"I can come with you?" Brooklyn offered.

"No," the green gargess replied calmly. "I must do this alone."

With these words, she touched the door of the station, but was stopped in the movement.

"Hey," a high voice interrupted her. "He wants to be alone."

Looking to the source of the voice, Brooklyn and Nia discovered Eve standing at the corner.

"It is okay," Brooklyn said, watching the hatchling come closer. "She just wants to talk to him."

"As she did last time?" Eve asked, crossing her arms and staring angrily at the new female. "She hurt him."

Brooklyn bit his lip, as he knew the hatchling had every right to be angry, but even more she had no right to speak this way to someone older than her. Yet before he could rebuke her, Nia answered.

"I know this was wrong, and I'm sorry for it," she explained. "This is why I have to go in and apologize, can you accept that?"

Eve swallowed, as her eyes met that of the second and she nodded, watching her go in before looking back to Brooklyn.

"She…" Eve began.

"She won't hurt him, and I doubt she will scream on him," Brooklyn explained in a light tone. "In fact I think she might help him."

The hatchling turned back to look to the door, making the second wonder.

"Feeling the love?" he asked in a mild sarcastic tone.

"Hey!" Eve complained, making Brooklyn grin all over his beak.

Inside The Medical Station:

Nia slowly entered the station, her tail wanting to wave so much that she had to control herself to make it stand still while her face remained ever cool. Yet even this shattered, for a moment, into a worried expression as she found Blaen sitting on his bed, his healthy leg drawn to his body, the broken one extended, with the wings in the same manner, his eyes closed while he breathed slowly.

"Blaen?" she called him, discovering his cane laying two beds away, seemingly thrown there.

Her younger brother turned to her, the eyes reddened by tears, as she saw now.

"What?" Blaen asked in a tensed voice.

"I wanted to speak with you," his second said, trying to stay as calm as possible while looking in this eyes, yet feeling the knot in her neck return.

"About what?" the hatchling asked, his eyes glistering and his voice trembling. "That I can't leave this bed until we go home? That you told our leader about what I did?!"

"I came to say I'm sorry," Nia said, staying calm at the words of the hatchling.

Blaen looked in his older sister's eyes for a moment.

"Yeah, right…" he spit out in a sarcastic voice, full of anger. "Because they forced you to, didn't they? Did their leader tell you that you had to come here?"

"No," Nia replied, though not very convincing, for his words had been too close to the truth.

Blaen laughed and turned on the bed to look directly on her, his legs hanging over the bed.

"Go," he said. "Tell them I forgave you if that's okay… Just leave me alone."

But Nia didn't, realizing that this was what she had wanted for too long.

"I want to talk," she began anew, taking a few steps on to her younger brother. "I…"

"YOU HATE ME!" Blaen screamed on her, his eyes blazing white now, jumping from his bed and holding himself on his legs though shaken, while he pointed with one claw on her. "You despise me, you can't even look at me…"

The balance never really found, the hatchling now lost it completely and fell backward on his butt, his tail slowing it down a bit.

Nia wanted to help Blaen, but as she knelt down, the hatchling lashed out with his left claw, missing her face just by centimeters and only due to his second's fast reflexes.

The hatchling crawled backwards until his back touched the cupboard, letting some cards sail down, which he didn't notice, his eyes wild with a mix of anger and desperateness in them staring on his second.

Nia meanwhile stared at the hatchling in shock, realizing that she had by nearly pure luck missed to get three interesting scars from running along her face. But even more it shocked Nia that she had let it come so far that her little brother had truly wanted to hurt her.

"You don't want my leg and wing to heal," Blaen continued, making a shudder run through his big sister's spine, as his voice was cold and full of pure hate, which slowly turned into a cry "This is why you don't speak about it, why you tell me not to hope for it."

"No," the second of the Nevyn clan said, unbelieving on these words. "Why should I want this?"

"You want me to suffer," Blaen said, and for now he couldn't get control over the tears, which ran down his cheeks, and his voice that seemed to break. "You want me to suffer for the rest of my life for not obeying you, for making you look bad before the leader."

"We came here to make your bones heal," Nia tried to explain, her voice soft as she realized in which state of emotions the hatchling was in. "This is what it is all about."

"Do you think I don't know that the leader had to order you to come with me?" her little brother asked, shaking a bit by exhaustion and he looked away back on his misshapen leg "You didn't want to come, you can't even bear to be near me!"

Nia grabbed the youngster's shoulders, forcing him to look at him and she had to control herself very much not to burst out in tears, as her little brother had just done, knowing she would else be unable to speak.

"I didn't want to be near you," she revealed. "But not because I hate you, but because every time… every time I see your injuries I'm reminded of my failure."

Nia swallowed, feeling tears rise in her eyes.

"I was in command, I should have protected you," she said. "If I had ordered the clan to search for you earlier, if we had found you just a minute before sunrise…"

"The healer said she didn't believe that she would have been able to fix my wing even if they had found me earlier that night," Blaen threw in a low voice.

Nia let him loose and sat down beside him, her back leaning on the bed.

"I know," she said, tears running down her cheeks. "But with the leader on his mission, it was my duty to look after you."

"I had the right to go out, there was nothing you could have done," Blaen said. "I should have been more cautious, I should have known it wasn't safe, if I…"

The hatchling stopped, the words being too hard to speak further, as he looked down on his disfigured left leg, Nia watching him.

"It was an accident," she said, stopping to say it again and this time she fully meant it. "It was an accident, and no one is at fault in this."

Carefully Nia moved to him, her arms slowly embracing him.

"Don't think otherwise, will you?" she asked him.

"And will you?" Blaen asked in return.

But his big sister didn't respond, but tightened her embrace, making the hatchling return the embrace.

This lasted for uncounted moments until Blaen loosened his embrace.

"Can we let the clan show us their castle?" he asked hopefully.

Nia nodded.

"And then we can introduce you to the clan," she said. "They have waited long enough for it."

Blaen practically gleamed, and he moved with his right claw over his face, feeling the dried tears by this.

"Uh," he began a bit embarrassed. "I think I better clean my face first?"

Nia smiled.

"Me, too," she said.

With these words, she rose and offered her smaller brother a claw, which he accepted with a nod. Blaen probing on Nia, both walked to the sink where the hatchling sat on a chair and let cold water run on his face, his second by his side.

This was when the door was pushed open, and Goliath entered.

Nia looked at the leader of the Manhattan clan, opening her mouth since she thought he was here to talk to her about the incident before, but then she saw Dr. Moore entering along with Brooklyn and the hatchling who seemed to have become Blaen's friend.

"The operation must start at once," Goliath explained, making his guest look at each other in worry.

06.09.98; 23:31; Destine Mansion, Demona's Secret Lab:

"Coeo adficio apud me arbitratus," Lana said in Latin. "Unite under my will!".

She then looked on the little test tube and watched how the two fluids interacted, slowly becoming one.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" Ruth asked skeptically, pounding some herbs with the mortar.

The half gargess nodded, and looked up from the test tube where the contents seemed to be developing well.

"Well, from what it says in grandma's notes, it sounds like just the thing that would solve our problems," she said.

Ruth didn't know what she could say on this, as she wanted it, even more than Lana did.

"The herbs are ready," she said with a look on them.

Lana followed the look and nodded, realizing that it fitted perfectly after what her grandmother had taught her.

Natural talent I guess, Lana thought.

"Okay, now the Pheromones," she said.

07.09.98; 00:39; Medical Centre of Xanacorps:

As they pushed the door open, Brooklyn, Nia, Blaen and Dr Moore discovered a room which seemed to be a mix of a doctor's room and a waiting room, complete with a bed and a TV hanging near the large window.

They discovered Leicester in an argument with an older, already gray haired woman who wore a partly worn out blue sweater and ordinary jeans, which were quite a contrast to Leicester's perfect white doctor outfit.

Chang meanwhile listened to the argument stoic, yet her blue eyes showing full interest.

"I heard doctors in the jungle who had…" Kelly said, the eyes under her big glasses sparkling.

"Ä-hem," Moore coughed.

The combatants looked in his direction, discovering that their patient had arrived and ended their argument, though the views they exchanged made clear it was definitely far from over.

"This is Leicester and Dr Chang from Xanatos's mechanical department," Moore said while looking at Blaen who in return looked interested to the unknown humans. "They have the greatest knowledge in how to operate on a gargoyle, and will mainly take care of your leg, which will be operated on if the wing gives us enough time."

He gave the so called a short look before turning to Dr. Kelly and giving her an even harder glance.

"This is…" he began

"I'm Dr. Kelly," the woman explained, looking with great interest on the hatchling, and even more on his disfigured wing. "I will take care of your wing tonight and fix it with a bit of luck."

Blaen swallowed.

"You really think I'll be able to glide again?" he asked, and as much as he tried to suppress the hope in his voice, it let him seem even younger and vulnerable.

Kelly looked on him for a moment, having a thoughtful look on her face, though understandable considering it was the same time she had seen a gargoyle directly. She then nodded.

"I never give promises," she said. "But your wing has the same structure as that of the bats I usually work with, and is larger which will make the operation easier."

"Bats?!" Nia asked surprised, and suddenly very skeptically.

Kelly returned the look.

"And some birds, yes," she answered. "What else do you think has wings except you? Though if it goes to my colleague, humans will have some soon, too."

The second of the Nevyn clan noticed this hidden attack, but didn't pay him much mind, being too much concerned with the coming operation to think on this, yet before she could say something, Blaen coughed.

"Can I sit down?" he asked.

Kelly nodded and pointed to the bed standing two meters behind her, on which he began to hobble on with his cane while Nia resisted the urge to rush to his side, looking on Kelly instead.

"I heard you want to start the operation tonight since you want to go to a congress tomorrow." she noticed, her voice sounding suddenly hard, as her eyes turned smaller.

"You heard right," Kelly replied, sounding not impressed at all. "Besides… do you have a name?"

"Nia," the gargess replied.

"Well, Nia, in my experience such an operation is done sooner rather than later so that the animal…" she corrected herself at once. "Or the person doesn't loose the necessary muscles due to inactivity it…"

Dr. Kelly stopped, as she noticed a gargoyle gliding past the window outside.

"More worried relatives?" she asked skeptically.

"Just precautions," Brooklyn said, having kept silent until now since he knew it was Nia's duty to ask the questions. "Besides, some of them have Blaen's blood type."

The human woman just shook her head and crossed her arms before her worn off blue sweater, looking once more like an ordinary work force.

"I have never even once needed such in any operation before," she noted.

"You've never operated on a gargoyle before," Brooklyn pointed out.

Kelly gave him a look, which told him that she was holding back from his smart aleck remarks.

"Better be quiet before doubting a doctor's abilities," she said, and turned around, muttering more to herself while walking to Blaen. "I know why I prefer bats, because at least they don't contradict."

Behind her back, Brooklyn and Nia exchanged looks, but quickly turned their eyes to the bed where Kelly stood before Blaen.

"Okay…" she hesitated a moment. "Blaen?"

He thus nodded.

"I need you to tell me, do any parts of your wing feel strange since the accident?" the doctor asked.

"Yes, sometimes it tickles," the hatchling explained. "And when something touches it, even if it's just the wind, it feels less… it feels somehow less than the other part of the wing, the healthy one."

Dr Kelly nodded.

"May I touch it?" she asked.

After a nod she went along the primary bone, holding the leather together, and then over the place where the joint had been smashed.

"Okay, Blaen, now try to move the upper part of your wing," Kelly said.

The hatchling followed the order, thought he had to bit his lip not to emit a scream, as the attempt to move this part of his wing, even a little bit, caused him great pain.

"It hurts," the doctor stated.

Blaen nodded, not being able to say more.

"I told you, the bones have mingled too much," Dr Leicester went in. "You'll have to create a whole new joint if you follow your plans!"

"I didn't say it was easy," Kelly replied irritated, not even looking up from the wing. "But it is much better than cutting the whole thing out."

"What?!" Nia and Blaen asked in union.

Kelly looked first on Blaen and then on Nia.

"You're his mother?" she asked.

"My second," Blaen replied.

"I'm his big sister," Nia added. "And what is your colleague planning to cut out?"

"We have two ways of treating this mess," Kelly said, looking to the gargess. "My… colleague suggested to remove the joint and replace it with a mechanical one…"

"We have had success with such a prosthesis already," Leicester threw in. "It would feel like the original, and won't cause the pain that a remodeling of the one, which probably won't work, will bring with it."

Dr. Kelly gave the rather fat man a hard look.

"Your prosthesis has been of a total other kind than this," she noticed. "Besides that, you don't know if we'll get all the nerves connected properly, which are still there as we have seen, this child…"

"Hatchling," Brooklyn threw in.

"Hatchling," Kelly corrected herself after a short angry look at the red skinned gargoyle. "He is still in growth, and we'll have to operate on him again sometimes during his growth with unforeseeable possible damage."

"We don't know this for sure," Leicester pointed out. "And this could easily be corrected with replacement surgery."

Nia swallowed, having watched the scene with an enlarging feeling of coldness in her stomach.

"And the other method?" she asked.

"We try to rebuild the joint with the bones we have," Kelly said. "If what we find at the joint isn't enough, I will take other parts of the body to remodel it."

"This is much more work, and stress to the patient than my method," Leicester pointed out nearly sulkily.

"Probably," Kelly agreed, looking to him. "But it is not mine or your decision to make."

With this she looked to Nia, whose face quickly became a cold mask as she thought about it.

Brooklyn watched all this, and wished he hadn't had to. He wished that he could somehow help his fellow second out of this, but he knew as second that it was her duty to decide, especially since no one had told them of the choices before.

Finally, Nia came to a decision.

"What do you think?" she asked Blaen.

Her younger brother thought for a minute, and then he nodded.

"I want Dr. Kelly's method," he said dryly yet determined, looking in his second's eyes with a smile.

"Then we do it," Nia said seriously, but smiling on Blaen.

"Fine. Then let's prepare, colleague," Dr Kelly said with a sort of dry triumph in her voice before turning to Blaen. "We'll see you in the operating room."

With these words she left the room, followed by a rather irritated Leicester while Chang stayed behind.

"Let me bring you into the operation room now," she offered in a mild voice. "Dr Kelly and Dr Leicester will join you there soon."

Blaen nodded, and wanted to leave the bed, but Chang stopped him with a gesture of her hand.

"Just lie down," she said, and undid the blocks on the bed's wheels.

As Blaen followed the order he looked to Nia, his fears in this look, as the bed was slowly moved to the door.

His big sister quickly moved to his side, squeezing his right claw and giving him a smile, as she moved with the bed being pushed by Chang.

"Thank you," Blaen said. "For being here."

Nia gave him a smile, feeling close to tears as they passed through the door to the operating room, Brooklyn staying behind to let them some privacy, and to speak with the blonde haired female goon called Susan, being stationed before the door.

"We should have talked before," Nia said, the doors closing behind her.

"Yeah," Blaen agreed. "But we will afterwards, okay?"

Nia nodded, genuinely ignoring the other humans in the room, being masked in white operation tunics.

"I have to sedate him now," Chang said beside her, having taken up a mask linked with a flexible tube connected to a gas bottle. "Then you will have to go, for we will have to start at once."

Nia nodded, rubbing her knuckles against Blaen's brow as a sign of affection and confirmation, as the mask was put over his face, and he slowly drifted off.

While she still held his claw, Chang handed her the cane.

"You must leave now," she said in a mild tone. "We will start immediately."

Nia finally let loose of the deeply sleeping Blaen, and stared at the cane, which she finally took from the Chinese doctor.

"How long will you need?" she asked.

"Two hours is my ordinary time," Dr Kelly said, as she entered the room, perfectly clothed in disinfected clothes like the other doctors in the room. "Give me four hours before you start to worry, will you?"

Nia nodded, and slowly left the room after having taken another look on her sleeping younger brother, as his left wing was lifted up by some assistants and laid on a second bed while being smeared with a disinfecting unguent.

As she passed the door, the second of the Nevin clan pressed the cane hard till it was near breaking, discovering Brooklyn standing before the door, waiting for her with a worried look in his eyes.

07.09.98; 1:43; Castle Wyvern:

"No one is near," Ruth said after having carefully looked around.

"Good," Lana said, taking up the test tube from the bag on her belt.

Suddenly they could hear voices, from the level it were clearly the males of her generation.

"Here," Lana said, and handed the test tube marked with an X over to Ruth, opening her own.

Ruth looked on the test tube for a moment, and then she opened it and rubbed it over her claws, arms and finally her leg.

"Let's hope it works," the young gargess told more to herself.

Right in this moment, the light brown skinned one with something like a shark's fin parting his stray hair, Edward and Queens passed the corner, sunken in a talk seemingly about the injustice of the tasks their brother had ordered them to.

As they noticed Lana and Ruth standing in the floor, having quickly hidden the veils in their clothes, they became quiet, giving Lana a longing look as they passed her, just restricted by the memories of the trouble it had brought them before, not looking at Ruth at all.

Just as they began to think it had all been for nothing, Edward who had passed her at last turned around, staring at Ruth in a strange way.

"Tell me, sister, did you comb you hair different tonight?" he asked, sounding a bit surprised.

His brothers looked surprised on him, but then they looked at their sister and something strange crept into their eyes.

"Your eyes glister like stars," Queens added, seeming to draw up the smell.

Ruth gave Lana a look, as if she just had entered the seventh heaven.

"Well, thank you for noticing," she said with a big, seducing smile.

"Even your teeth shine," her crested brother noticed, trying to stroke her hair.

"Hey, get away from her!" Edmund said, pushing his crested brother's arm away from her. "You had your chance, and left her."

"She is still mine," his brother replied angrily.

"She isn't," Queens said likewise angry. "My beloved deserves the best!"

"And this should be you?!" Edward noticed sarcastically. "You missed a deer with a spear out of 10 meters."

"Better me than a half gargoyle like you," Queens replied

"For that I fight double the way you do," the smaller gargoyle said, taking a battle position to prove it.

"Please stay peaceful, brothers.," Ruth asked them, and they immediately did so looking at her in adoration.

"How soft your voice is," Queens said dreamily.

"Like honey," his crested brother threw in.

"Lovely as the moon," Edward added.

Lana smiled, satisfied with herself.

"Okay, why don't we…" she began, and made a step to them.

The response was a snarl from all three of them, and white glowing eyes, which made Lana jump back.

"Don't come near us," the crested one ordered. "You bring nothing but trouble."

"Yes," Edward agreed. "You distracted us from the real beauty."

"Hard to believe I ever found this filthy hair beautiful," Queens added and turned back to look at Ruth.

Lana absently touched her hair.

Well, she thought, not knowing what else to think about it. It kinda worked…

"I told you I heard snarls," she suddenly heard a voice coming from the corner of the floor…. a male voice.

Lana looked at the corner and saw a slight blue bold male of her generation, coming with a gray blue female with dark blonde hair. She knew what was coming, yet the half gargoyle could only wince, as she saw the male's eyes turn to Ruth and nearly at once filling itself with adoration and longing.

"Okay, what is going on here now?" the female asked.

Her brother wasn't quite interested in her now.

"What a view you are, sister," he gasped.

"What?" his companion asked genuinely surprised.

Her brother didn't even respond but walked to Ruth.

"What kept me from noticing this beauty all this years?" he asked.

"My Love?!" the female behind him asked.

Lana went between him and Ruth, seeing the look on his companion's face.

"Look, you aren't quite yourself now, why…" she began.

She couldn't end the sentence because the male just pushed her hard against the wall.

"Don't stand in my way, half bred!" he growled on her, quickly continuing his way.

"Hey, I was here first," Edward said, blocking his way. "Go back to your own."

"No, she is mine," the crested one said.

At once the four males were deep sunken in a heated discussion, which at each time threatened to evolve into a fight, watched by a worried, stunned and a totally clueless female.

"You better wash it down," Lana told a totally bewildered Ruth who watched the males, nearly unbelieving. "Fast!"

Ruth looked up, looking at her sister who didn't looked amused at seeing her boyfriend fighting over another female and nodded, taking a step back.

"Hey," the slight blue male said, grabbing her claw. "Let me come with you. I'll give you the moon."

"Let her loose, she is mine," the crested one said, hitting his brother's claw with his own.

As the blue male let her loose to fight her former boyfriend, Ruth used the opportunity and turned around to find the quickest way to the bathroom, having the four males on her tail a second later.

The gray blue female turned to Lana.

"What shall she wash down?" she asked, thoroughly suspicious. "And why is my boyfriend after my sister's tail?!"

Lana grinned desperately, knowing she had a lot of unpleasant explaining to do.

07.09.98; 01:45; Castle Wyvern, One of the Special Rooms:

"These beds are quite soft," Deborah said, as she put her own breastplate on. "I can't see how humans can sleep on them."

"Oh, they have their uses," Hudson chuckled, as he put on his closes.

"At least you don't have to help pull all the grass and leaves out of my hair," his mate gave in.

Hudson smiled and rushed to her side, embracing her and enfolding his wings around her.

"Oh, I always enjoyed this part, too," the former leader of the Wyvern clan noticed.

Deborah smiled, enjoying the warmth of the well-known body, yet suddenly the embrace loosened and the former second of the Wyvern clan looked up to him, noticing the strange expression on his face.

"What is it?" she asked.

Suddenly he let her fully loose and looked to the door, a moment later rushing to it, leaving his mate and his sword behind.

Bewildered, Deborah rushed to the door seeing Hudson rushing around the corner of the floor, and seeing Bea walk by.

"Have you seen Lexington?" her rookery daughter asked. "He wanted to show me a program when he rushed off suddenly."

Deborah looked to the corner where her mate had vanished, having absolutely no idea what was happening.

"Something strange is going on," she said. "Come."

With this she followed her mate, Bea on her tail.

07.09.98; 1:46; Castle Wyvern, a floor:

Ruth knew exactly what was going on and got more desperate about it by every second passing, as she ran on all her fours through the floors. Aside from the growing mass of males behind her, a group of elders had just come from the floor leading to the bathing rooms, the males effectively blocking her way… her only hope for now being to somehow get out of here and find a place to hide.

"Out of the way," she told a group of hatchlings who had just come in.

"Hey," a male hatchling protested, just to become quiet and pressing himself to the wall, as he saw the males coming after his big sister.

At least he isn't affected, Ruth thought.

She didn't look back, being able to imagine what she would see by the sounds all too good, so instead she took another corner and watched the door leading to outside appearing in front of her.

Breathing deeply, Ruth raised her tempo once more, just to find her leader suddenly appearing in front of her.

"Leader, please…" she began; before realizing from a look in his eyes that he was affected from her scent as the others were.

Quickly the young gargoyle jumped through the place between the enormous male and the wall, and from there running down the battlement.

"Please stay a moment, young one!" Goliath boomed from behind her, his voice sounding strangely soft. "Wait, this is an order!"

Ruth knew better than to follow this command, and jumped on one of the perches and from there in the sky. In the sky, she let half a minute pass before she looked around.

It was worse than expected, as nearly every male of the clan, safe the ones out on patrol, or in the labyrinth, was behind her, Goliath at the front.

Knowing it was her only chance, Ruth looked ahead, heading for the Hudson and hoping that at least for this night she would be the fastest one in the clan.

07.09.98; 1:46; New York, Lexington Avenue:

"And drive careful next time, Mr. Yale," Morgan told the unhappy man, as he went back into his Mercedes.

"Margot will kill me," Brendan said, desperately staring on the traffic ticket.

"Successful night?" a female voice asked Morgan from behind.

"Oh good so far, detective," the older cop said, greeting Elisa with a smile. "At least better than you could expect with a sect out with a craving for our blood. Did you read that vampire sect is the newest name for them?"

Elisa shook her head, guessing that any name would be good as long as the public didn't learn of who lead it.

"Hey, mister, you can go now," Morgan told Brendan, as the man didn't seem eager to go his car, but instead looked up in the sky.

Being used to it and seeing other passer-by doing the same, Elisa followed the look and actually got a shock seeing a young female being hunted by what it seemed like dozens of male gargoyles, one of them…

"Goliath?" she whispered surprised.

The same time, not too far away in one of the unnamed skyscrapers with mirrored windows:

"Interesting," Lucifia commented, as she saw the mass of gargoyles passing, having her claws on her hips. "Either this female is too hot, or we're witnessing a spell gone wrong."

Sighing she returned her view to the person sitting on the chair at the other side of the table.

"Now what do you think of my offer?" she asked.

The person on the chair leaned forward.

"Worth thinking about," Thailog stated with an evil grin.

07.09.98; 1:48; New York, Over Manhattan:

Ruth tried her best, but the winds seemed to work against her and the fastest members of the clan slowly caught up, with Goliath, Kronos and the others not far behind.

"Hey sister wanna see some good tricks?" Lexington asked, gliding under her and then turning around so he glided above, Queens at his side.

A yellow skinned male of the generation from above rammed him and made the small gargoyle falling and tottering, just being able to regain control shortly before he hit a building.

"Let this night be our mating night." the yellow one suggested.

Ruth tried her best to ignore him and began gliding down to Hudson river near some docks she saw in front of her, enlarging her speed until she nearly fell just to stop abruptly over the river to fall softly in it.

Feeling the water she didn't want to know what all floated in it embracing her she dared to emerge to the surface, noticing two of her followers land in the water besides her, with the rest of them landing either on the docks or circling above her.

Lex emerged on the surface besides her.

"The water let your hair seem even more… more…" he stopped "What am I doing here?!"

Ruth emitted all her breath, as she knew it had worked, noticing the other males looking as surprised as Lexington did, or even embarrassed. She swam to the dock and began climbing up the stones, just to be greeted by her leader.

"What sorcery was this?" Goliath asked, his arms crossed and his eyes flaring white.

"It wasn't planned this way…" Ruth began, as she noticed even more male clan members landing, everyone staring on her.

Goliath growled on her, making the gargess feel suddenly very young and small.

"Ahh, Goliath, maybe we should talk about this at the castle?" Lexington threw in, looking past his leader.

Goliath followed the smaller gargoyle's look and saw some dockworkers doing very late work, and even two Japanese tourists filming them with a camera.

"Right," he said, looking back to Ruth. "But we will talk."

With this the leader of the Manhattan clan turned around to go and climb the nearest wall, and as a sign the others did so too, with Ruth following depressed, thinking that having none of the males wanting to flirt with her hadn't been the worst thing possible at all.

07.09.98; 2:11; Castle Wyvern, Courtyard:

The whole clan was gathered, with even the rookery mothers with the youngest hatchlings and the soon-to-be-adults hatchlings who wisely stayed in the background. They marked a circle with Lana and Ruth in the unhappy center, both wanting most of all to just sink into the earth, but the ground didn't have such mercy.

"What you did was careless, deceitfully, immature and dangerous. To even think to play with such dangerous as magic like this, is madness," Goliath began, standing in front of them, looking hard on them. "While we were under your spell, one of us or one of you could have been hurt or even killed, and…"

"Miss Darlene?" a voice stopped his speech, though it tried very much not to. "Is there someone here called Darlene?"

The so called with Gem in her arms turned to the source of the voice, one of Xanatos's watchmen looking quite unhappy under the looks of a whole Gargoyle clan, as he handed her a cell phone.

"Sorry, but she demanded to speak to you," the watchman said apologizing.

"Who…?" Darlene asked, quite embarrassed. "Mother?"

Surprised, she handed Gem over to Desdemona who was standing beside her.

"You saw it?" she asked. "On Fox… oh, and the other channels, too."

By hearing this, Ruth's face turned so completely red that she believed it would melt from the heat.

"Yes, it was the spell. Mother, this isn't really the best time," Darlene spoke into the phone, feeling the looks of the clan on her.

"What?!" she asked unbelieving, just to answer very dryly. "No. No, I don't think she had any control over the males… Goodnight, mother."

With this she switched the cell phone off without waiting for any further comments.

"Sorry," she told the rest of the clan while looking up.

Goliath grumbled, and turned his attention back to the two females standing in the circle.

"Permanent rookery for you beginning now except for the main meal and duties, lasting at least one month if we see you learned from your mistakes," he said. "Additionally you will have an enlarged set of duties for this time…"

"For you, Lana, this means rookery when we are here and arrest in your room back at home," Darlene added.

Goliath nodded.

"It begins now," he noted

Lana swallowed, as it had been harder than she had expected for seeing as she didn't care much for the clan.

"Okay, lassies, follow me," Agamemnon told them, showing them a way through the mass. "Ye will learn that magic is really no way to solve problems, it only…."

The two young gargess followed the elder with dropped tails.

07.09.98; 4:07AM; Medical centre of Xanacorps:

Nia looked up from her armchair to the television fixed in the corner of the ceiling near the window.

Personally she found it had been one of the most useless inventions that humanity had ever made, as it didn't even take her mind off that her younger brother was being operated on in another room of the building.

"We will now stop our reportage over the white shark to show you a video that some of our men in New York sent us minutes ago…"

Nia sighed and turned off the sound, looking to the cane lying on the table in front of her, and then to Brooklyn who sat a little away on the couch. Without thinking much, she walked to the couch, sitting down beside him. The seconds looked at each other, while up on the TV a young red haired gargess was being chased through the air by dozens of males.

"There's still some time to go," Brooklyn said.

"I know," Nia said calmly, knowing that driving herself mad wouldn't bring her, and more importantly Blaen, anything... She was just too tired.

Seeking the warmth, Nia leaned against Brooklyn's chest. The red gargoyle was surprised for a moment, but then he took his arm around the green skinned gargess, enjoying the feel of her skin and the scent of her hair.

"Ä-hem," someone coughed, turning out to be Dr. Kelly, standing before the door leading to the operation room, her mask removed and her tunic showing signs of blood.

"Blaen?" Nia asked, jumping up.

"It's fine so far," the doctor explained, sounding a bit exhausted. "Everything went as expected, no complications, and from what I can say he will be able to glide again."

Nia breathed out, feeling Brooklyn rise behind her.

"I want to see him," she said.

Kelly nodded and showed them the direction of the operation room, to which Nia went.

Brooklyn wanted to follow, but the doctor stopped him by laying a hand on his arm, which surprised him even more since humans normally were reluctant to touch them when they met gargoyles the first time.

"Leicester told me you plan to transfer him back to the castle tonight?" she asked.

"Yeah, with all the people there still wanting our heads we want him as safe as possible," Brooklyn explained, taking care of staying blurred. "Are there any medical concerns, doc?"

Kelly shook her head.

"I chugged his joint thigh enough, so no worry about that," she explained. "That only means if he really rests the rest of the night. I want to come with him."

These words surprised Brooklyn.

"No offence, doc," he began. "I thought you needed to go to that congress?"

"I wanted to," Kelly corrected the red gargoyle. "But if I took the next plane, I would barely sleep while getting all my things together, and I can't sleep in a plane… to hold a speech for my colleagues, you have to be awake."

Brooklyn grinned on this.

"You're welcome, doctor," he said. "I doubt Xanatos will have any problems with this."

"Good," the gray haired woman replied. "Then let's see after our patient."

07.09.98; 4:35; Castle Wyvern, Elisa's room:

A lonely phone rang on the table before a wall, a chair with a red bomber jacket hanging on it standing near.

Seconds later the door was pushed open and Elisa stormed in, wearing jeans and a black shirt, taking up the phone.

"Mum?" she asked.

"Dear, I got worried already!" Diane Maza said sounding accusing. "What took you so long?"

Elisa sighed.

"The meal took longer than expected," she explained. "You know we got guests."

"I know, dear, but tell me is this Xanatos treating you good?" her mother asked.

"It is all okay with him mom, at least for the moment, and we haven't heard from Lucifia for a while, too." Elisa calmed her down while closing the door. "And Derek and Maggie are pretty busy with the clones and the work. They say hi by the way."

"This is good, working always helps…" Diane said, and Elisa asked herself by what it would help. "Oh, and we met Taya and Fara."

Elisa had to smile shortly at the mention of the were-panthers.

"How are they?" she asked.

"Oh well, well…" Diane answered. "Taya believes she is pregnant."

"Oh…" the cop could just imagine. "Can I congratulate them?"

"Maybe," her mother said. "You have no idea how hard it is to get a pregnancy test down here."

Elisa shortly asked herself if she had to send them congratulations for a child or a kitten, but drove this thought out of her mind.

"How are dad and Beth?" she asked.

"They're fine. Beth complained for a bit because she hasn't got all the things here she needs for her university work…." Diane stopped for a moment. "Okay, okay, here she is… Your father wants you. I love you, dear!"

"I you too, mum," Elisa said.

"All right, love?" Peter Maza asked.

"Yes," his daughter answered. "And how bout you, everything calm?"

"Oh, there is some tension north of us, but not more than usual," her father said. "All in all, the peace holds."

"Good," Elisa said, a bit cautious, as she knew there was more in her fathers voice. "Dad?"

"Dear, your mother and me really would like to see you here with us," Peter said, giving not much on talking around it. "With your family."

"I'm with my family, the part that needs me," Elisa said, looking on the picture of her and Goliath in his human disguise hanging over the table, and stroking it slightly. "We talked about it."

"I know," Peter admitted, giving in, knowing his daughter's stubbornness all too well. "Just make sure you won't loose your perspective, will you?"

"I won't," she promised.

"Good," her father said, sounding calmed down. "Your sister's come in… yes."

Elisa heard the phone being handed over.

"Hi, sis, heard you are great, so what about the garg-girl the males of the clan flew after?" Beth asked, definitely interested.

"So you heard about it?" Elisa wanted to know, somewhat surprised.

"Oh, we saw it on one of the village's two TVs…" her little sister explained. "Half the town laughed."

Elisa sighed, imagining how Ruth would react if she heard such news.

"She had some problems with her boyfriend and used a magic potion," she explained.

"Worked well," Beth noticed. "Did your Goliath…"

"I forgave him, and I think most of the clan's females did the same with their mates," Elisa explained shortly. "Look, I would love to talk, but it is morning here and I'm really tired."

"Okay, sis, I just wanted to say that since you, along with our parents, convinced me to move to then end of the world then maybe you could get some things for me? I need the Hp-360 cartridges for my printer, I can't get them down here, and my professor won't accept work through the Internet. Then there is a book that I ordered and sent to your apartment, send it over to me," she explained. "Mum wants her favorite chocolate, dad the New York Tribune, oh and if this garg-girl actually has a less powerful portion of this magical perfume, which works on humans…"

"Good morning, Beth. We'll talk in one week, and greet mum and dad from me will you?" Elisa said, and hung up.

07.09.98; 4:53; Castle Wyvern, A guest room:

As Desdemona and Elisa entered, Darlene was already sitting on the bed and seemingly lost in thoughts.

"Thank you for coming," she said, looking up at them. "I don't know if this is right, but I just can't keep silent about it anymore."

"Sister, what is troubling you?" Desdemona asked.

Darlene stood up and bit her lip.

"I think mother was involved in Paul's death," she said and tears welled up in her eyes. "I think my mother killed my husband."

To be continued…