All the characters appearing in Gargoyles, Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles and Gargoyles comics are copyright Buena Vista Television/The Walt Disney Company.
No infringement of these copyrights is intended, and is not authorized by the copyright holder.
All original characters are the property of Storyseeker and Hardwing.

Here it is, the newly revamped saga! With fresh new/extended and altered scenes!

Once again, this story was co-written with the great author Hardwing! Many thanks!

This fic saga is set in an alternate universe, in Wyvern's past, with characters from the Gargoyles comics, the Dark Ages Saga in TGS and some of Hardwing's own characters. It starts off right after the events shown in the show's episode 'Long Way To Morning' in 984 A.D. where the events in that chapter lead to a different conclusion for the clan. It is also set in the same timeline as the show in that era, with two small differences… and that's Goliath didn't get his name until 984 A.D. and the eggs hatched soon in 995 A.D.

Oh, and in case some people get offended at some of the sexist remarks in this saga… Please remember that it is set in the medieval ages (things were different back then).

Many thanks to Kimberly Towle for her suggestions, and to the author Aesop for all his proofreading!

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Two Days Later; Castle Wyvern:

Princess Katherine walked though the halls of Wyvern, thinking with nervousness and disgust about the new chores her husband was certainly already planning for her. She had hoped that, ever since that fearful night when Goliath had gotten drunk and mishandled her, he would have forgotten all about setting her a new task to replace the royal duties he had usurped from her.

So far he had not made any suggestions of a new chore, but she had the sneaking suspicion that he was planning one soon enough. There had also been the night when he had taken her into the forest in the dead of night, and actually looked as if he were about to undress right in front of her.

She had raced nearly all the way back to the castle, her legs aching but not stopping until he had caught up to her, asking her what was the matter. She hadn't said, only demanded that he return her home at once, which he had done.

Goliath still did not know what had been wrong with her that night. He claimed that he had only wanted to talk to her, nothing else. She had been too nervous at the time to think clearly, but she gradually realised that if he had truly intended to do anything then he would have done so already.

Still, she couldn't imagine why he thought she would want to go out with him into the middle of the forest together…alone.

'I'm not giving in,' she swore to herself, 'never.'

And even though she meant this with all her heart, she still couldn't banish the nagging feeling growing in her that this was indeed her fate.

"Good evening, dear sister," a voice said cheerfully to her, as a dark figure landed on the floor before her, having just skilfully glided through a window.

"You!" she nearly hissed, as she stared on the form of Iago, the slim beast being the third of her least favoured Gargoyles of their damned race, the Mentor and Goliath being tied for first.

This Gargoyle had been the one who had told her of Goliath's intent to take her to the forest. When he had done so, he had made odd little comments about how frustrating it had to be for him to be mated and yet not have borne any eggs yet. The conversation had left her scared that he had intended just that. That belief was further fuelled when her husband looked as if he were about to start stripping at the lake.

Once she had calmed down, she begrudgingly accepted that maybe she had just overreacted. After all, this Gargoyle had never actually said that Goliath was planning to do anything with her. She must have, as the English would say, gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick.

"What do you want, besides to block my way?"

The Gargoyle's eyes grew smaller, but he still had the slim smile on his face.

"Your dear husband sent me," he told her, his grin growing wider as he noticed her scowl at the mention of his brother. "He expects you to meet him in the courtyard near the rookery."

"What does he want?" she asked suspiciously.

"How should I know what a Prince wants with his wife?" he replied sarcastically, and jumped out of the window, leaving her to stare at his retreating form.

Frowning, she sighed in submission and started to make her way to the courtyard, guessing that her earlier suspicion about Goliath was about to be proven correct.

'Beast-keeping, here I come again,' she thought, depressed.

While she made her way there, the smiling Iago quickly made his own way around the castle to the Princess's husband. He found it almost too easy to play with this human, as he glided a circle around the castle's highest tower. He evaded a collision with two mates, who were enjoying their time to themselves a little too much, gliding nearer to his leader.

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Goliath stood at the top of the tower, overseeing one of the hatchlings' gliding lessons out over the ocean, despite his longing to attend the party that the males of his clan had thrown together in the courtyard.

The celebration was in honour of a young couple that had decided to be mated. In human terms, it was a stag-night, to wish them well and the best of luck in their new lives together. Goliath, as Prince and leader, had given his clan permission to use the courtyard for their celebration, and had informed all of the humans about it in case any became offended, or might wish to attend.

Most of the clan's males were celebrating together in the courtyard, while the females chose to have their celebration separately in the deeper parts of the castle. Although the tradition of the bride and groom not seeing each other before the wedding was strictly a human custom, not Gargoyle, the genders of their race often had different ideas on how to celebrate. Hence they preferred to have their fun separately. And judging by the cheering he heard from within, they also seemed to be having the time of their lives.

Although most of the clan were attending each celebration, a few of them had to watch over the hatchlings and oversee their lessons. Goliath had chosen to stay, feeling he owed it to them, as his duty as leader…despite wishing he could have gone. He hadn't been to a stag-night since his green rookery brother with the beak had mated, who had been the last of their generation to do so. He particularly felt envious whenever he heard the cheers of his brothers arose from below. Gargoyle celebrations were known to get pretty raunchy, and he had always enjoyed himself at them.

"Good evening, brother," the sly Iago said, as he landed beside him.

"Brother," he greeted him, though reserved. "I'm busy watching the hatchling's training..."

"I don't want to hold you from your important task," Iago noted, his voice full of sarcasm. "Your wife sent me to ask for your attendance in your room."

"Why?" he asked, suddenly interested.

"She wouldn't say," his brother replied, shrugging. "But she sounded calm at least. Maybe she just wanted to talk."

Now the ruler of the castle looked more than interested, feeling hope rising in him. Maybe she was finally willing to forgive him for his actions while he had been drunk.

"Would you watch over the hatchlings for me until I return," he said, not waiting for a reply, and hurried down the steps leading down into the castle. "Thank you, brother."

"Always, brother," Iago whispered with a smile.

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Meanwhile, Katherine had reached the place in the courtyard that Goliath had seemingly planned to meet her at, only to find the place filled with most of the clan's male Gargoyles.

"What is he planning...?" she thought, feeling an uneasiness rise in her, though the males were just joking around, eating and drinking.

Steadying herself and taking posture, she walked into the group, planning to end this as soon as possible. Most of them didn't notice her at first, as they were all too busy having fun, laughing loudly, singing crude tunes that she didn't recognise, clinking their goblets together and downing whatever spirits they had.

She cringed, as she tried pushing past the large Gargoyles in front of her. Having these huge and bulking things around her was bad enough, but the worst part about Gargoyles, in her own opinion, was the extra limbs they possessed. Their wings and tails took up whatever bit of room she had left to move about in. Already she had had a few wings flap into her, blocking her vision and nearly knocking her off her feet, and several tails slapping her whenever their owners moved from side to side.

She didn't bother voicing her disdain since everyone was being too noisy to even notice her, and they were used to accidentally hitting someone with their back-limbs, which was why they usually kept them caped close to them at all times. Hence they didn't bother to look behind them to see who it was they had hit, especially since this was a Gargoyle celebration, and the courtyard had been cleared just for them, for the evening.

"Have you seen your leader?" she asked the nearest Gargoyle, a large black-skinned male with fin-like ears. He looked a bit older than Goliath, and who just stared at the human for a moment before snorting and turning his back on her.

Angry at this impudence, she walked past him, heading deeper into the crowd where they were making some music with primitive flutes and drums. Some of the clan looked as though they were ready to start dancing, as several of them drew together in a circle.

"Hello!" she nearly shouted. "Can you tell me where...?"

She didn't get the chance to speak any further, as she was suddenly seized by both arms by two Gargoyles who, with their brothers and elders, began to move around in the circle, pulling the unwilling Princess with them.

"EEK!" she squealed, as she was pulled along with the flow of warriors, their talon feet tapping on the ground, as they danced to the tune of the music. "RELEASE ME!" she screamed, as the two tall brutes held her up to their chest-heights, leaving her feet to dangle helplessly below her.

"Isn't this fun?" a Gargoyle with dark-brown skin and bull-like horns on her left asked jovially. He was grinning ecstatically, no doubt drunk from the alcohol she could smell coming from all around her.

"NO!" she shouted angrily, struggling in vain to get her arms free.

"Come on!" the Gargoyle on her right, a clouded-white one with four long horns on his head, said, as he held her arm in his massive claw. "That's why you came here, isn't it? Our parties aren't as dusty as the human ones!"

"Hear-hear!" a chorus of voices shouted out from the crowd, some coming even from the elders who were almost smiling, like they were in approval, as the Gargoyles in the circle paraded her about with them.

"Let her be part of the circle!"

"PARTY!"

"LET ME GO, YOU BEASTS!" she shouted at them, kicking her legs, wishing she could strike any of them on the shins.

On this, both Gargoyles on the side of her exchanged a look, and then shrugged their shoulders.

"I SAID LET ME…OHHH!" she yelped, as they suddenly let her go in the middle of the dance-movement, causing her to stumble backwards. She flayed her arms around her, trying to stop herself from falling over, until finally gravity won and she lost her balance, landing straight on her rear and eliciting a raucous laughter from all the surrounding warriors.

She glared hatefully at them before lifting herself up from the ground, smoothing out her dress as best as she could.

[SLAP!]

She squealed again, as she felt one of the Gargoyles' confounded tails slap her. She whirled around, glaring daggers at the one nearest her, who happened to be the black one she had spoken to first. He had his back on her and his nose turned up, looking innocent.

She gave a very Gargoyle-like growl below her breath, as she moved backwards, keeping her front to him at all times. Unfortunately, she obviously couldn't see where she was going, and ended up tripping over a small mould of dirt, and would have fallen right onto her back if not for an older Gargoyle, who grabbed her from under her arms, holding her up.

"Be careful now, lass," a thick Gargoyle, who had once been called Agamemnon by Brother Edmund, said kindly, but with a touch of mirth as well. "You'll do yourself a mischief if you don't watch where you're going."

Yet Katherine had no ear for the kind tone of his voice, but instead looked in rage at the Gargoyles who had now broken the circle and formed a line, looking at her.

"You are nothing but wild animals!" she yelled at them. "Filthy, disgusting, wild animals!"

Many of the Gargoyles' voices arose in indignation and protest, yelling back at her.

"We were just having some fun!"

"Aye, this is supposed to be our free time, our celebration! And yet you come here and ruin it!"

"Well, since she has no problem in telling us what she thinks of us, why don't we show her what we think of her?"

The last words came from one of the males in the line, the dark-brown one with the bullhorns, in front of her. He seemed more unbalanced on his feet than the rest of them, looking as though he had drunken maybe a few too many cups of wine. He whispered something to the rest of them, and whatever he said made them laugh, making Katherine nervous.

They all shared a grin, but made no move to walk over to her. However, her relief was short-lived…

In union, they all turned around, bent over…and lifted their loincloths at her, making her face go bright red.

The drunken warriors then raised their tails high in the air, showing off their naked backsides to the stunned and blushing Princess, as she instantly slapped her hand to her eyes, covering them. While from behind her, she could vaguely make out the groaning sound of Agamemnon.

"Lads!" he said in desperation, yet she couldn't help but detect the faint sound of a chuckle in his voice as well.

"DISGUSTING BARBARIANS!" she shouted on them. "I will see you all punished for this!"

With this she turned around and left the courtyard, forcing her way through the rest of the crowd, all of who were laughing at her outrage, not to mention how she tried to walk past them with her hand still covering her eyes.

"Oh yes?" one of them shouted from behind her. "Don't forget that our brother is ruler now!"

She stiffened, and stopped for a moment, before continuing to walk away, cursing under her breath, her hand still over her eyes.

While not far away, secure on a battlement above, Iago was looking around and having to stop himself from laughing.

"This worked perfectly." he thought, rushing inside the castle. He knew he had chosen well when he had listed the help of those ridiculous oafs from the previous rookery. Obviously the years into adulthood had not given them the maturity of adults. "Now for the second part."

Once inside, he rushed to the royal quarters, finding his brother waiting there as he had expected.

"Dear brother, I'm happy to find you here," he told his leader who looked at him, a bit surprised. "It seems I made a mistake. Your wife is waiting in the courtyard."

"Brother, if this is one of your games, I..." Goliath began.

"Relax!" he insisted. "She seemingly noticed our celebration for the soon-to-be mates, and thought you were there."

Goliath stared at him a moment, but figured that talking to him would only make his wife wait longer, so he rushed through the floors leading outside. He could always ask Katherine what she had told Iago to tell him.

However, when he found his wife, all the questions about what Iago had exactly told her were instantly forgotten, as he saw her arguing with a group of his clan, seemingly backing away from them…with her hand over her eyes for some reason.

"What is going on here?" he asked in a voice full of authority. There were a few of his clan-mates standing before him, two who were his own rookery brothers, the one that Brother Edmund called Javin, and the red one with the long beak and white beard. There were also three others from the rookery before, a black-skinned one with fin-like ears, a clouded-white one with four horns, and the large dark-brown one that Edmund called Minos for some reason.

His clouded-skinned brother, quick witted and never at a loss for words, was the first to answer.

"We were celebrating peacefully in the courtyard when she arrived," he explained. "We thought she wanted to celebrate with us, but when we tried to get her to join our dance, she just screamed and offended us."

"You filthy lying scum!" Katherine shouted on the Gargoyle before turning to her husband. "It was an orgy, and you are the one responsible for allowing it to happen in the first place!"

Goliath frowned. "It is hardly an orgy, Katherine," he said in a hard tone, being hit by this. "It is merely a celebration to honour two of our clan who intend to be mated…or married, as you would say. I will admit that sometimes our way of celebrating can seem rather extreme, but no more than how I've seen your soldiers celebrate over the years. And you did not have to join them if you hadn't wished to. You could have simply stayed out of the courtyard, as I told all the other humans within the castle."

She glared at him a moment, lacking words to describe the hate she felt right now, before storming away from him, back into the castle.

`Beasts like his kind will never change,' she thought.

Goliath gave his brothers another look, but they each just put up an *honest* face and shrugged their shoulders.

'She will never change,' he thought, depressed, and made his way back to the hatchlings to continue covering their training.

Once he was gone, Iago glided down to the ground, smiling brightly at his comrades. "Well done, brothers," he praised them all equally.

Minos smiled. "T'was a pleasure," he said honestly. "I was grateful for the chance to give that arrogant brat a taste of humility!"

The others, however, did not look so certain.

"I'm not so sure about this," the dark one explained. "Haven't we just made things more difficult for our leader by doing this?"

"Definitely not!" Iago hastened to assure him. "By increasing the gap between our leader and his human mate, we can rest assure that he will never allow her to take advantage of him again. Remember, the more aggravated we make her, the more Goliath will see of her true nature! If we had done nothing, she would have kept edging away at him until he began submitting himself to her every whim again. Then we would all be right back where we started…rugs for the humans to wipe their feet upon!"

The last statement made all of them growl.

"We must do what we can for the good of the clan," Javin added, chewing his lower lip.

"Aye, no matter how loathsome it may feel," the white one agreed. He found this whole sneaking behind the leader's back, sabotaging his attempts to reconcile with his mate, to be dishonourable and unworthy. But he also didn't want to risk Katherine coming back into her former power. There was no telling what she would do in retaliation, particularly after tonight.

"Have no fear, brothers," Iago told them, smiling. "I can honestly say that after tonight, the chances of Katherine and Goliath getting too close are slim to none!"

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Few Hours Later;

Just Before Dawn:

Katherine fumed, as she paced the floor of her room. How dare he believe the word of those drunken lunatics over hers! That miserable, arrogant overgrown Ox of a husband of hers! As her husband, wasn't he supposed to trust her word?

She paced the floor a few times, becoming angrier and angrier at each step she took. She felt enraged and humiliated after tonight's escapade, even more so than when those demented youths had taken her gliding.

The door to their room opened, and she turned to see Goliath bow his head shortly, to avoid bumping his head on the doorframe, before stepping inside.

"What did you mean by belittling me like that?" she demanded, wasting no time.

Goliath sighed. "I did not belittle you…" he started.

"By God you didn't!" she snapped. "I told you what happened, yet you chose to accept your brother-monster's word instead!"

He thinned his eyes at her. "Considering your attitude toward us, is it any wonder?" he said silently, but added more loudly, "All the castle was made aware of my clan's celebration concerning my brother and sister's impending Mating Ceremony. Why you did not know of it is beyond me. But since you just barged into the celebration, my brothers merely acted as they would with any other person who would do so."

At her angered face, he also added, "I know that they probably handled you in a way you are unused to, Princess. But no more than I've seen the males of your race act so in celebrations of their own. And it was not as if they intended any true harm."

"They threw me around like I was a straw-doll!" she insisted. "They were rude, acting like ravaging Vikings…"

"If you're going to say they were about to take liberty with you!" he quickly interjected, referring to her part about ravaging Vikings." Then, please, do not bother. My brothers may have acted a little wild, but they are hardly savages. They were merely enjoying themselves, as many people of either race have done before."

She glared at him. "I should have known," she said snidely. "You beasts always stick together, do you not?"

At that note, his eyes flared white again, making her take a step back.

"I have given you every courtesy since the night of our exchange of vows," he hissed below his breath. "At first I bowed down to your every whim, giving in to your every desire or will, all the while treating you with nothing but respect and honour. In return, all I asked for was the same treatment…and although we got off to a shaky start, I foolishly dared to believe you might do so. Now I see what a fool I have been!"

Katherine said nothing, merely staring at him with a hard look.

"I had hoped that given enough time, you would begin to change your views on me and my clan, but now I fear your views are so set in stone that they will never change." He closed his eyes, breathing deeply as though tired.

"From now on, you will not be shown an ounce of leniency, nor any special treatment, regardless of what you have seemingly suffered recently or before."

Her face flared up, as she opened her mouth to protest, but he didn't allow her a single word.

"If you wish to be treated with respect, then you will have to earn it, as my clan have done for many years. With that in mind, I see no more reason in waiting, and have organised your new chore within my clan."

She stuttered, but still he wouldn't let her get a word in edgewise.

"It shall be as we previously…discussed. You will take up residence with the Rookery Keepers, and help them care for our clan's eggs. With any luck, maybe working to help take care of the innocent will teach you some humility, though I'm seriously starting to believe that such teachings are beyond you."

"How da…!"

"You will begin first thing tomorrow evening!" he said in a final tone. "I will speak with the Keepers tonight and arrange everything. I suggest you get some rest, as egg-keeping is a lot harder than most people believe."

With that, he turned and made his way outside, via the balcony, taking flight to the air and gliding away.

Katherine watched him leave for a few seconds, before she literally screamed and grabbed the sheets from her bed, pulling them off and ripping them into shreds.

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Next Night:

Katherine fumed, as she straightened the crease in her dress, waiting for Goliath to enter her room. A few minutes later, he arrived.

"Are you ready to face your chore?" he asked.

"I'm curious," she began, sarcastically. "Since you spoke so highly about punishments in your clan, then tell me, how do you handle someone who got drunk and mistreated his wife?" She was, of course, referring to his disgraceful behaviour when he had gotten drunk at dinner…again.

'Severely,' he thought, though he would hardly call what he did to her severe. It was humiliating yes, but hardly anything terrible.

"I'm sorry if I scared you," he said instead, noticing the sound of someone coming up to the door of the room. "But that changes nothing for tonight, and I have tried numerous times to make it up to you. You obviously will not accept my apology, so I see no reason to further dwell on it. Now, once again, are you ready for your chore?"

Her eyes glared at him in defiance. "What if I say no?"

"Well, if you insist, then there is another clan tradition you can do instead?" he added, shrugging as if unconcerned. "It is where the younger ones aid the elders during their time in the bathing chambers."

Her eyes grew wide, and her mouth nearly dropped.

"I am certain my old Mentor and the other elders would be grateful for the help," he continued. "They have had trouble reaching their back-ends lately. And they could always use a good massage to help untie the knots in their muscles."

Although Goliath's face was as stoic as ever, she swore she could see the outline of a smirk on him.

He waited for an answer.

"Where is the Rookery, then?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"We will meet down in the courtyard," he replied, his arms still crossed.

Katherine looked at him for a moment longer in total anger before she turned to leave, only to discover the elder, who had failed to save her father's life, standing in her way.

"Out of my way!" she hissed, and nearly spat at him.

The former leader did so, knowing there was little point in arguing now, and was soon left alone with Goliath.

"An interesting tradition," he said, bemused. "Funny I've never heard of it, lad."

Goliath didn't comment, and merely looked at him with an innocent expression upon his face. They both knew that clan members often took communal baths, and that there was hardly ever an elder in need of, or even willing to accept, the help of others.

"I am running out of ways to deal with her, old friend," he admitted with a sigh, feeling weariness in his head. "I am making progress with nearly all the other Humans in the castle, but with her, it seems I will have to fight her forever."

"You knew, as well as we did, that it wasn't going to be easy, lad," the Mentor replied, laying a claw on his leader's right shoulder. "She's spent most of her life believing the lies that Human fear and bigotry have spread about us. You can't expect her to abandon those ideals overnight? But do not despair. Even if you haven't made progress with her, take comfort in the fact that you have made progress for your clan, for us all! And this is something you should be proud of."

Goliath remained silent for a moment, fighting the feeling of weariness, and looked out the window of the balcony, watching as the youngest members of his clan soared through the air.

He watched them for a minute, envying them for their innocence. They had no responsibilities beyond their own personal world of fun and games. What he wouldn't give to be young again, to not have to worry about the safety of his clan, to deal with every suffering problem of the castle, and most of all…not have to deal with the almost constant nagging of his wife.

"Maybe," he admitted. "But I had better go to my wife now. Until later, My Mentor."

With this, the large Gargoyle stepped out of the Royal bedroom, onto the balcony, and began to glide down, his Mentor watching him from above.

As he soared down to the courtyard below, Katherine greeted her husband, in her own special way, when he landed.

"Do you take pleasure in making me wait?" she told him.

"I had an important matter to attend to," he simply replied, and began to move. "Follow me."

She wanted to protest, but he was already walking on ahead, and she knew screaming after him wouldn't help. She shortly considered the option to just storm away, but she remembered how fast this beast was, not to mention how he had transported her the last time she had tried refusing, which was NOT something she wanted to repeat.

Believing that her dignity couldn't stand a further episode of such, she followed him.

Finally, they arrived at a distant part of the courtyard where an older Gargess was waiting for them. She appeared to be one or two generations above Goliath's. Her skin and hair were a dirty grey colour that the Human found repulsive, and as she noticed, the female was studying her angrily.

"Show her around and instruct her," Goliath ordered the elder, "as we discussed."

"My leader," she replied calmly but icily, turning to him with the same look she had given her, making Katherine realise that she was not the only one to be unhappy with her being in the Rookery.

"Come!" the Gargess told her, as Goliath turned to leave. The old one started to walk down to a large set of gates that were almost hidden. Katherine had only seen them a few times herself, and had had little interest in them.

It was only after she had opened one of the gates, which led into what she thought seemed like a grave, the Gargess turned around suddenly, staring straight into the Human's face and nearly making her take a step back in fear. The Gargess's claw then shot out and grabbed her left hand, almost crushing it.

'They've sent me here to be fed to their young!' Katherine thought in panic, but already the Gargess had opened her mouth to speak.

"Listen, Human!" the female began. "Not one of us Rookery Keepers agrees with the leader in letting you down here, but it was his order to do so, so you may stay. But I don't care if the Humans call you maiden, Princess, or even the Queen of Scotland herself. If I find even a single scratch on any one of the eggs that you take care of…you are dead."

The Rookery mother neither shouted these words nor even raised her voice, but in a way she didn't need to. For the way she emphasised every word, and the look she gave her, got the message well and truly through.

Katherine nodded.

"And I will check on every single egg you look at," the female added in a calmer tone, letting loose her arm and resuming her way down into the cave, followed by an even more reluctant Human.

Descending slowly, her eyes gradually grew used to the darkness…or rather half darkness, for there were layers of moss growing all around the cavern, which seemed to glow in the dark, illuminating some of the cave.

As she looked over, she saw a mass of thirty to forty eggs, all lying within a bed of dirt, moss and straw. And around them she saw more Gargoyles who were all looking at her with faces nearly as angry as that of the female who had led her here.

"Come on!" her reluctant guide called her from farther below. "We don't have all night!"

Angry but determined to bear her fate with dignity, Katherine walked down into the darkness.

There were seven Gargesses in total within the cave, including the female who had led her in. They were all of different ages, but most were of the older generation…and none looked too happy to see her.

"There are thirty-six eggs down here, Human," her guide informed her. "Each Rookery Keeper helps out by taking care of five eggs on one night, and then another five on the next, but never the same five every night. Understand?"

She just nodded, knowing that each Gargoyle looked upon all their clan's children as their own, a tradition she found most curious above all. She couldn't understand how or why any Gargoyle couple would willingly give up their child to the whole clan.

"Since there are seven of us here," the female continued, "not including you, then that means there is an odd egg out. For now, you will only have the responsibility of caring for one egg each night. Do you think you can manage that, Your Highness?"

Katherine glared dangerously at her, but simply replied, "Yes."

The elder nodded. "Very well. Select an egg then. It doesn't matter which one you pick, as they are all equal, even the ones that will bear beasts."

'Oh, wonderful,' she thought sarcastically. 'Seems I've gone back to beast-keeping after all then.'

She moved closer to the nest, a little nervous from all the hard and hawk-like glares that were being thrown her way. None of them were taking their eyes off her, for fear of her damaging the eggs.

She stopped at the egg closest to her. At first she was unsure of what to do next, and considered asking one of the Keepers, despite the uneasiness they brought up in her. Fortunately, she observed them as they each picked up an egg and turned them around in their claws. She vaguely remembered her father telling her once that Gargoyle eggs needed to be turned regularly or else they would crack too soon.

Copying their movements, she reached down to pick up the egg closest to her, lifting it gently up towards her. It was, surprisingly, lighter than she had expected.

"Be careful with that!" one of the other females practically snarled at her. "You drop it, you die!"

"I know!" she replied, frustrated. She could tell it was going to be a great deal of fun working with these females.

To Be Continued…