Demona hurried quickly through the halls. While she had a vague idea where the nursery was, she had never actually been allowed to be this far into the building since the clan had awakened from the sleep spell that damnable magus had cast on them.
She remembered the layout of the castle from before the spell, and so she made an educated guess from there.
She came to an abrupt halt near where she thought it would be, just as Nayeli woke fully and began to wail.
Demona tried to calm the child. It had been so long since she'd been around young ones, and even when she's had many around her, she'd had little to no interest in caring for them other than in a defensive keep-them-alive kind of way.
The day to day care of them had been left to the softer, more maternal clan members.
She gave the small child a bounce, as she'd seen the nanny do, but the small female was inconsolable.
"Ellie?" came a loud voice as multiple pairs of feet began pounding through the hallway.
Demona whirled to realize that she had passed the room a few doors back, and there was now a small human boy running towards her, as well as Brooklyn.
The human boy ran towards her, his arms outstretched. "I can take her," He said, his voice surprisingly firm and mature for someone his age.
Brooklyn looked as if he wanted to say something about the fact that Demona had been holding Nayeli, but then he seemed to look around and truly take in the situation.
"Where are the others?" He demanded.
"It turns out that your shape shifter was using Bronx's form to hang out in the courtyard and spy on us," Demona said, gratefully handing over the crying child to the human boy. "I happened to be holding the child, when someone, the nanny I believe, figured it out."
He seemed to stiffen, "They're all still out there with it?"
Demona nodded.
"Liam," Brooklyn said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder. "Go back to the playroom. Fox is still there, and she'll keep you safe."
The boy nodded, and Brooklyn abruptly turned and ran down the hall. He seemed to slap he hand on the doorframe of a room, and all but ripped the door open. "Let's go," Brooklyn called out, and the room emptied of several gargoyles as they ran toward the courtyard.
Still in the hallway, Liam eyed Demona suspiciously.
Demona met his eyes, careful to try to keep her face blank and not with her habitual smirk.
"Thank you for helping my sister," He said, finally seeming to come to a decision about her.
He'd said, 'my sister'…
"Are you," She felt her gut give a twist, but forced the words out, "Goliath and…" she had to pause and get herself censored here. "Elisa Maza's son?"
He nodded, shifting his "sister" to his hip as Skyler had carried her earlier and held out a hand. "My name is Liam. Liam Bryant Maza."
She shook the hand the boy offered. He was a brave one…
Nayeli gave a squealed laugh, now that everything seemed right in her world once more.
Ah, the blessings of youth.
"Liam!" She squealed, bouncing in his grip. "Wanna play!"
"Alright," Liam said, grinning at his sister. "Let's go."
Turning, He walked towards the play room, leaving Demona to follow quietly.
Liam placed his hand over a nearly hidden hand scanner that had been placed on the doorframe. It was then that Demona realized that Brooklyn had slapped his palm on that to open the door moments ago.
It really was a clever design, Demona mused, coming forward to inspect it closely. It was a flat black panel, so no reflective surfaces. It had a cover that was designed to look like the stone it was set back in, and as Liam pulled his hand away from the screen, the cover closed almost seamlessly.
If she hadn't known it was right there, she wouldn't have seen it at all.
The door gave a click as the door lock disengaged, and finally Liam pulled at the door. Demona assisted when Liam seemed to struggle a little because he was holding Nayeli. The door itself was thick, almost reminding Demona of a vault door, though it was easier to open than that. With the door opened, the sudden noise of happy children drifted out.
Demona eyed the door, then at the obviously improved upon walls inside the door, and realized that the thickness must have provided enough soundproofing that she had been able to walk right past it and not hear the raucous children inside.
Oh, how times had changed.
In her day, if there was an attack or an enemy in the castle, the hatchlings would have been gathered together in the rookery and taught since birth to remain quiet until the danger had passed.
Demona followed Liam and Nayeli inside the room and shut the door, effectively shutting them off from the outside world again.
"Demona," Came Fox's cautious voice from nearby. Demona turned to see her, the red headed fierce fighting warrior herself, currently sitting in a rocking chair with a young child asleep on her lap.
"Fox," Demona said, in almost the same tone.
"Down!" Nayeli demanded of her brother, and Liam, laughing, set her down.
"What are you up to?" he asked her.
"Need to help," she said, a fierce look on her face.
"Alright, 'Ellie," he said. "Go ahead."
Nayeli beamed at her brother, and ran back to Demona. She reached up a hand to the female gargoyle. "Come," she said.
Demona gave the small female a frown.
"Come," the little one said, practically stomping her foot in irritation.
"You might as well just do it," Fox said, still eyeing Demona as if expecting that she was a ticking time bomb. And maybe she was. "Nayeli has a plan, and she always gets her way."
Demona looked between the red haired woman and the winged child demanding her attention.
Slowly, Demona lowered a hand to the girl's height, and was almost pulled off her feet at the child's exuberance. Nayeli practically dragged her to a corner of the room that had been blocked off a bit from the rest. There was a door with a small window there, and looking through it, Demona could see an indoor play yard that included climbing equipment and a ball pit filled with primary colored balls.
Nayeli patted the door, and Demona opened it to more laughter and shrieks.
"Conna," Nayeli called in a near yell, "Bwenna."
From the looks of it, the hatchlings had been climbing to the top of one tall platform and using their wings to glide across the ball pit to a lower platform on the other side to help strengthen their wings and prepare them for outdoor gliding.
Demona knew that exercise well. Of course, in her day, there wasn't anything like soft ball pits to catch them if they faltered. If they were lucky, they were able to practice over a loch or a river. If not…it was the hard rocky Scottish soil.
The noise stopped as two gargoyle hatchlings, Conner and Brenna, stopped their play to hurry forward.
"Hey, El," Brenna called out. "What's…?"
Demona felt her body give an involuntary jerk as the young ones came into view.
The twins paused, standing next to each other, and so much a reflection of their parents, yet with a look unique to themselves.
Brenna seemed to be a bit of a throwback, with the thick dark hair of her mother, yet holding strong hints of red from two generations back from Demona herself. She had the small, delicate brow ridge spikes like Angela, with the larger fin-like ear shape of her father as well as the aqua blue-green skin tone. She was wearing a simple cream colored wrap dress with a wide leather belt. Flowers and vines were tooled with great care and attention to detail into the belt, leaving Demona with the impression that someone within the clan had made it as such talents were rare in this modern world.
Conner was taller than his sister by a few inches, and with the exception of his lavender skin tone and the smaller pointed ears, was almost a mirror image of Broadway. A little broader in the chest and shoulders, a little more muscular from his training and definitely thinner, but the resemblances were there for all to see. He was clad in a sleeveless tunic styled top, and a dark leather loincloth as like the other males in the clan.
While she'd been taking them in, the twins had been doing the same.
Brenna spoke first, her head tilted as if in thought. "You look like our mom."
Those four words hit their intended target, and for the first time in a century, Demona felt tears come to her eyes.
She took a breath and knelt to one knee to be more on an eye level with the young ones. "Your mother is my daughter," She admitted.
Conner's eyes narrowed speculatively. "So…You are our grandmother?"
Demona nodded.
"Does dad know you're here?" Brenna asked quietly.
"They fight a lot," Conner said, moving to stand protectively in front of his sister, "About whether you should be allowed to see us."
Nayeli let out a huff, walked forward and took one hand of each of the twins before all but dragging them forward. The twins, easily twice her size, could have easily broken free from her grip, but allowed themselves to be moved.
Nayeli stopped inches from where Demona still knelt, and held the twins' hands out to her with such an innocent smile, that Demona found her hands lifting to take the hands offered to her.
Nayeli let go of the hands, reached up to pat Demona's cheek softly, then turned to run to the equipment to play herself. With a small leap, she grasped the edge of the large ball pit and hauled herself over, disappearing into the multi colored balls with a laugh.
The trio stared at each other, none knowing what to say.
Finally, Conner broke the ice. "My name is Conner," he said, turning his hand to grip his grandmother's wrist in the ageless greeting style of warriors.
"I'm Brenna," the girl said, mirroring the action. "It is very nice to meet you."