Gargoyles: Growing Pains
Chapter One: Not so Happy Birthday
Tanner looked out over the darkening skyline listening to the sounds of the city change as night deepened. Loose strands of his dark brown hair lashed wildly about his stern wide face. He was fifteen today, nearly an adult, and had grown into a very handsome gargoyle. He was tall, just a half a head shorter than Goliath, but lacked all of the clan leader's bulk. Tanner was near as strong as Goliath was however, making him a formidable opponent. He was very lightly colored, merely tan, a hue that made him conspicuous in the night sky. His face was a near duplicate of his father's, from the heavy jaw to the prominent eyebrows. Each eye ridge supported an elegant horn that curved around his head and slightly down at the ends, looking almost like a natural crown. He kept his long mane of hair gathered and banded between his shoulder blades. There was the exception of two strands braided neatly and falling just behind each ear. His wings were large and strong, carrying him over even the slightest currents. His tail was powerful, like all gargoyles, a formidable weapon in any fight. He had seen his share in his short life.
Tanner was born in Manhattan, the first gargoyle ever to claim such. He was a child of the city as much as he was clan, he knew its technology as well or better than Lexington, who had started Tanner on human science shortly after his second birthday. He could drive a car as well as he could glide on the strong breezes. He was a wizard at getting things broke down, fixed, and back together in working order. Yes he was indeed a paradox both to himself and to the Clan.
His "Birth" day… Tanner laughed shortly without humor, then he sighed heavily and closed his eyes, thinking how it should have been his hatching day. The only eggs he had ever seen belonged to his half sister's young daughter, her current egg in the rookery, and those present at Avolon when he had visited with his father. Tanner emerged from no egg… he was born.
In fact his skin tone was exactly that of his mother, the human, Elisa Maza. Goliath and Elisa had told him the entire story when he was old enough to understand it, and old enough to realize he was different from the rest of the clan.
When Xanatos betrayed the clan it was her who had befriended Goliath and then the clan. She and Goliath had become fast friends and that friendship grew into love. It was a love that went unmentioned and unrequited for two years, for Gargoyles and humans were too vastly different for their relationship to be whole. There was always a certain tension between them because they both understood not only the way they felt, but also the reasons it would never work. Elisa had never allowed Goliath to speak of it, for the truth hurt.
Circumstances changed one night when the Lady of Avalon granted Goliath a full twenty-four hours as a human, allowing their differences to be overlooked. Tanner believed that Titania planned for him to come into the world thus, for a purpose he was yet to understand.
A gargoyle comes into the world quite violently, tearing with sharp claws through the leathery casing of their eggs. That instinct proved bane for his mother. Tanner himself had to be sedated and extracted by emergency cesarean section when he followed his nature and nearly killed Elisa. She barely survived the ordeal, coming very close to death several times. She would bear no more children, from the damage he caused her. There was a measure of guilt in that knowledge.
Slowly Tanner opened his eyes noticing yet again his hands. He raised one in front of him… different. Yes he was different, from anyone on the planet. He wiggled the small digit on the outside of that hand that was supposed to be a fifth finger, little more than a nub with a claw attached to it. It was a marker of the human blood that ran in his veins. Though it was the only visible sign of his mixed heritage, there were others disadvantages to being a half-breed gargoyle. The biggest being that he was more easily injured, his skin was heavier than human skin but not as thick as a Gargoyle's, and therefore it was more easily cut. He had broken bones in fights that Goliath would come away from merely winded. He had adapted for that by becoming crafty, and by thinking before he acted. That was hard for him to condition himself to, for he, like Angela, had inherited their father's "short fuse".
Elisa, despite her hardship at Tanner's birth, had been proud of him. She had proved to be a devoted and loving mother, as much as Goliath was as a father. She had spent every moment of her free time at night at the castle learning with Tanner about Gargoyle life. But Elisa had recently been promoted to the chief of police in her precinct. That put her on the day shift and curtailed her excursions after the sun went down. It had been easier when she had worked nights, they had worked right alongside each other during patrols. Tanner honestly missed her visits and was beginning to resent her change of occupation. But if she had not been a police officer then she and Goliath would never have met, and Tanner would not have been born.
Tanner wondered silently if that would have been a bad thing. He was a being trapped between two worlds. Tanner could not explore his human heritage because he appeared to be a gargoyle and human society in majority still feared and distrusted Goliath and his clan. And while the clan treated him well enough there would forever be that small wedge that he was not whole.
Even as much as they liked Elisa they were uncomfortable with what Goliath had allowed happening, and some of them were more vocal about it than others. Tanner was unsure if he would ever forgive Lady Titania for allowing the chain of events leading to his conception to happen.
He had met Titania for the first time when he was but six. She had an air of arrogance and superiority about her that had irritated him even then. She had stared at and studied him like some prize experiment that was moving along as she expected, all the time with that smile of pleasure. He still remembered how he had shrunk from her, as the resentment in him had neared violence.
Goliath still led the clan, ferocious and proud as ever, though more and more he was turning responsibility over to Brooklyn. Tanner believed it would not be more than a year until he actually handed the mantle over to the younger gargoyle. Goliath had lost a little of his drive the night the clan had awakened, a year ago, to find old Hudson had not. His stony countenance still graced the spot of honor on the top parapet in the castle. Goliath had insisted, for old Hudson had been Goliath's Mentor and friend for the twenty-eight years that he had been Clan Leader. Tanner hoped silently that Goliath would hold out a few more years. He was unsure he could work under Brooklyn, when he was the most displeased about Tanner's existence, and made sure to make him uncomfortable about his mixed heritage.
Tanner looked back toward the clock tower, sighing heavily. He had seen so little of Elisa lately, would she not even show up for the day of his birth?
Standing out of sight was Goliath looking concerned for his young son. He had aged a great deal, since Tanner had come into the world. His hair was beginning to gray, and he had grown a neat beard and mustache. Facial hair seemed to only come with age for Gargoyles. It looked good on Goliath.
"Will he not come inside?" Came Angela's voice from behind.
Goliath turned to look at her, her dark hair ruffled with the air drawn through the open door. He only shook his head. They were easy to identify as father and daughter, their dusky purple coloring, dark hair and even their eye ridges were the same. Their personalities were very similar, though both of her parents had quick tempers, she was luckily more like Goliath than Demona.
At her side Angela had Timar, her two-year-old daughter. Timar was a rose color, several shades lighter than her mother's dusky purple, and had her mother's face. She had no hair at all but sported a growing crown of horns swept straight back from her brows and tapering longer to shorter as it neared her elfish ears. She was a quiet and introspective Gargoyle, constantly listening to everything going on around her. No one was even sure if she spoke for she had not uttered a word since her hatching.
Goliath drew a deep breath and then sighed heavily resting a hand on the doorframe. He heard Angela come up a step behind him.
"He has been very…withdrawn lately," She added.
"Yes," Goliath said drawing out the word. He glanced back at her saying softly, "Take Timar inside, I will talk to him."
He heard Angela draw away from him, Timar's feet padding quickly beside her. Drawing another deep breath, Goliath stepped out onto the balcony. Tanner glanced up at his father as he neared his brooding spot, "Father," He said simply, trying not to betray his own roiling emotions.
"Are you not joining the rest of the clan tonight?" Goliath asked his son in concern.
"In a few," He said evasively, looking back over the skyline.
Goliath looked down sighing again before looking directly at Tanner, "Something bothers you, Tanner," Goliath stated, "Will you tell me what?"
He was did not miss Tanner's glance at his hands, and his mouth thinned as the problem dawned on him. Tanner had fought with bouts of self doubt since he had been six, when all the others treatment finally made sense to him, when he had realized that he was different from the rest of them. Goliath held his tongue not offering his son a way to close this conversation before it had started.
Goliath saw Tanner's jaw set in a frustrated line, "I feel…alone," Tanner answered suddenly to which Goliath nodded. Tanner went on unexpectedly, "Half my heritage would run at the sight of me and the other…well, sometimes I wonder if they don't pity me."
"Pity you?" Goliath asked in surprised.
Tanner nodded, looking sidelong at his father, "They are too kind to me, patronizing almost. And I don't know whether it is out of respect for you that they hold their tongues, or that they are afraid of your reaction if they did speak up about it. Then there is Brooklyn, whom dislikes me for what I am and for the mistake he believes you made the night of my conception."
Goliath looked grim now, knowing all too well about Brooklyn's view on Tanner's birth. They had spent many months butting heads over the very subject when Elisa was pregnant with Tanner. With Tanner's birth Brooklyn had settled into the idea, or so he thought. Now it seemed with the Leadership of the clan looming on Brooklyn's horizon, the prejudice was rearing back into view, "Is that how you view yourself…As Pitiable?" It took a moment for Tanner to respond to the direct question, but he shook his head negatively, "Neither do I, nor does Elisa. Your birth was hard for them to accept and my choice was questioned. I know that all of this has been hard on you, but you are accepted here."
Tanner nodded silent, wanting to argue the point, but not seeing a way for him to win it. He looked into Goliath's eyes, "When is mother coming again?"
Goliath's face softened, understanding the hurt he must feel, "Come inside, Tanner," he said straightening and stepping toward the door. He turned back to see Tanner, however reluctantly, following him inside, looking dejected. Goliath stopped a short distance beyond the door, leaned over a moment, and then stepped aside.
"Well…I see you decided to join your own party," A familiar voice said.
Tanner started looking up and his face brightened significantly, "Mother!" He exclaimed rushing to gather Elisa in his arms.
"Oh…Tanner, you'll crush me!" Elisa said jokingly. Tanner set her down smiling broadly, "I'm sorry it's been so long," She said apologetically.
Tanner looked back at Goliath who smiled devilishly that the surprise had come off and then he turned back to Elisa, still holding her hand, "I thought you weren't coming!" Tanner added excitedly.
"I'm not so busy that I would miss your birthday, Tanner."
As he looked at her he realized just how much she had aged. Her hair was graying and her face was lined, but she still exuded a vitality that was startling. She dressed much the same way as she did when he was younger, blue jeans, black T-shirt and a red leather jacket. It was very different from what was required of her at work any more. He had seen her on several occasions on her way to or coming home from work. The skirted suit and heels did not suit her at all. He was amused to notice that she seemed just as uncomfortable wearing them.
He watched smiling as Goliath wrapped Elisa in a warm embrace, happy that they were still so enamoured with each other even after all of these years. He was happy for them.
He turned to see that they had gone all out and everyone that he knew, liked and loved (And even some he was not so fond of) were in attendance. There was cake, sandwiches, vegetables and dip, drinks of all kinds. With eagerness he had not possessed just short minutes ago Tanner moved into the room intent on seeing just how well they had prepared for this party.