OK Finally, another chapter for your perusal. Please R&R I know that this a bit slow to build to a point, but there is one that I am getting to. Thank you for bearing with my long delays.

Darwin

Chapter Four: Yet Another Day

Tanner's dread turned out to be very real the following day when he again woke hours before the rest of his clan. He had been half expecting it but was no less shocked and anxious when it came to be. His shoulders sagged visibly seeing the bright orb hanging high in the sky. He gazed about him seeing the gallery of statues still surrounding him. So this was what Lady Titania had been speaking of, though he could not see just what she meant by it being a gift. It was a curse, he thought stubbornly, what good was waking before the rest of the family? There was nothing for him to do each day but wait, unable to leave for fear of being found out.

Reluctantly he moved away from his perch, hunched over as if he was about to get caught by someone doing something wrong. He gravitated toward the nearest Clan member, his sister, still locked in the stony embrace of sleep. His eyes searched her face detailing each facet of her features. He had never seen their sleep from this perspective, and it was as eerie as it had been watching his fellow clan members wake the night previous.

A shiver ran through him, ice in his veins, looking on her countenance and then remembering the night when Hudson had not wakened. Pain lanced through his heart at that memory, for Hudson had been exactly what he pictured a human Grandfather to be like. Paternal and indulging, but tough when the need arose, and he had been the one member besides Goliath and Angela that treated him as truly a member of the Clan. Hudson had explained how deep the relationship between Goliath and Elisa had been, for almost as long as the two had known each other. He had said that any product of a love so strong as theirs was nothing short upstanding, an equal in his eyes.

He focused again on his half sister's face then his eyes glanced down to her young daughter crouched at her feet. He smiled at the positions that they had posed in before going to sleep. Gargoyles always assumed thoughtful or threatening poses. This served to blend them in with the other stone Gargoyles, the ones that were truly stone. Those carved figures were based in the long past on the true defenders that had been seen by the artists. Such as those decorated many of the older buildings within the city. It was considered a defensive mechanism, their posture, one that had ensured their survival over many long thousands of years.

Still smiling he mantled his wings and moved around the circumference of the tower looking at each of his clan mates in turn, studying and reflecting on each of them, and how they had treated him in his short life. There was Broadway his huge girth overshadowing him and blocking the bright sun, he had always seemed indifferent about Tanner, seeming undecided about just how he felt toward the young halfblooded gargoyle. He had never been openly aggressive or condescending to him, and often Tanner wondered just what opinion he hid.

Lexington crouched slightly leaned forward and with his arms above his head, seemingly in the process of leaping. His slight frame showed wiry muscles standing out in sharp relief. The diminutive gargoyle had been very eager to teach Tanner all that he knew about technology and Tanner had always proved a good student. He had absorbed Lex's lessons well. But again he often wondered if he taught Tanner because he was lonely for someone who was interested in the same things he was or he truly liked the younger, if larger, gargoyle.

Bronx…the one gargoyle in the clan that did not judge him, one way or another. Bronx was always friendly to any member of the clan, just as human dogs were usually friendly to their families. Tanner had nothing to complain about when it came to the oversized Gargoyle dog.

His pace slowed considerably and he stood staring for long moments at the next statue he came to. He looked over Brooklyn's face his own face turning into one of smoldering frustration.

"Why do you hate me so?" Tanner whispered to the unaware statue, "When all I ever did was be born…"

He was met with only silence, Brooklyn's unseeing eyes turned outward staring out over the city they protected and Tanner drew a heavy sigh. Brooklyn was pragmatic, a very level head, and a huge asset in a fight due to his smaller size and quick wits. Overall he was a consummate leader, and Tanner could not fault Goliath's choice in putting Brooklyn as Second in Command. So why did the obviously well suited second find such irritation in his existence.

Tanner couldn't help but wonder why he had always been so afraid of Brooklyn, or what the second thought of him. No that wasn't right, he was not afraid of Brooklyn persay, he was afraid of the treatment he might receive from the older gargoyle once he was in power. As sly as Brooklyn was there would be some way for him to get unfair treatment even under Goliath's tutorship.

"He's going to be in charge soon…Too soon," Tanner muttered to himself. He shook his head again and turned back toward the tower.

The young Gargoyle turned his eyes up to the parapet seeing the lone statue well above him. Goliath's features showed in sharp relief, etched by the rays of the sun. Goliath stood in silent grace there above him, poised in a state of deep concentration, as was typical lately. His father was troubled, though he would never admit such, troubled by Hudson's death, by the current state of the world they lived in, and possibly by the thought that he had a son that was so much different from them all. Tanner frowned, telling himself that his father would not fall prey to such thoughts as Tanner's differences.

He skirted the tower again until he was back in front of his own nightly perch. Some of his anxiety had worn off now and the thought of several hours of boredom ahead of him set him into spiraling thoughts.

Why had he started to wake before the rest of the clan? That was a thorny question when none of this had happened to him before. Could Titania have given this gift to him, bestowed the ability to wake hours before his brethren? But to what end? What would her purpose be to give him such a weighty gift? What was he to do with it?

His mouth thinned considerably, somehow he doubted that even Titania could give him a gift so great as this. What had she said? "I will warn you of a gift of your heritage…" He had paid little attention to the words at the time. Now they seemed to beat at him trying to make him understand some meaning that was eluding him. A light flickered a moment in his head then snuffed before he could grasp it.

"Of your heritage?" He repeated in a low tone, "What did she mean?"

It could be nothing from the Gargoyle blood in his veins…beyond Goliath's stories about his time seeing the sun, and those only by one magic or another, there were no instances of Gargoyles having the ability to wake before sunset. It was a physiological impossibility.

His gut twisted a moment as it finally hit him. Could it be that this was because he was half-human? Tanner had been always a bit jealous of his few human friends, his mom, Inspector Bluestone, and the few others that would associate with their ilk in these strenuous times, how they were able to sleep only when they wanted or needed to. Life as a gargoyle had always had that kind of limitation to it, an inability to control the hold the sun had over them, and there had always been a part of him that wanted the kind of freedom humans possessed as an everyday right.

He had been told many times by humans and gargoyles alike that it would take very little for him to appear human. His skin tone was such that he looked like a well tanned human, of Indian descent, and all that had to be hidden was his tail and his abnormal facial features. Both easily done…in fact he had done just that many times, spying at night for his clan on such as the quarrymen, the mob, and sometimes just hoods on the street that had drawn the clan's interest. Those had been thrilling times for him, times when he didn't feel so alone, so ostracized.

His thoughts stopped abruptly mulling over the thrill that he had felt the warm acceptance that had washed over him at the moments when, because of his input they had stopped some very bad situations. It was only then that the possibilities of his new situation came to mind in him. Tanner slowly straightened a slight smile turning one corner of his mouth up. Things that he had always wanted to do flitted through him mind, always apart from him by the fact that he was only awake during the night. In combination with his ease of blending into the population…some of those fond wishes might just come to fruition.

His anxiety slowly turned to excitement as his thoughts took on life of its own. The hours snailed by as he waited, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet with his prepared story that would get him the needed time away from the clan to do what he intended.

Tanner turned somersaults in the air as he sped away from the castle, ecstatic that his story had been believed. Catching a strong updraft he executed a flawless inverted loop twisting again to put the ground below him instead of above. He was unable to help his exuberance, his energy overflowed with the knowledge that he plan had worked.

He had known of a concert that the humans were having at midnight, an odd time, but not totally unusual, after all it was New York. He had begged his father to let him go, showing a very realistic interest in the happenings at the concert hall. Goliath had looked reluctant to allow him out of sight of the rest of the clan, especially overnight, but many vows of caution from Tanner, and his earnest pleas had finally convinced his father that he could be trusted. They had believed him! But then again why wouldn't they? He had never lied to his father, or to the rest of the clan. They did not think it possible of him.

His gut twinged slightly at the thought of breaking his otherwise clean record by committing such an egregious sin. The guilt was quickly overwhelmed by the widening possibilities before him now. He flew on intent on going to the concert. That at least was not a lie, he truly liked the kind of music that would be playing there. The human's called it "Alternative" music and it suited Tanner to a "T", moody, depressing and seemed to say a lot of what he was thinking. The artists spoke heavily of not being understood, of feeling isolated and alone even when surrounded by familiar faces. These were things Tanner understood all too well.

Lex however disapproving he had been for Tanner's taste in music had oddly seemed to understand his fascination, calling it a "teenager thing" and explaining that he had had his own forms of rebellion in his youth. Tanner smiled to himself as another draft lifted him higher into the night sky.

He glided down toward the concert hall thinking about the second part of his plan knowing he was free to roam the city once he woke this coming day. The thought reminded him of the pack on his back, his wings bumped it lightly as he fanned and mantled his wings, playing in the ebb and flow of the wind currents. It was filled with "treats", he had told the others. He could not exactly swoop down upon the gedunk venders and purchase refreshments from them as the concert went on. So he had claimed to pack it with his favorite snacks and drinks.

That description of its contents was a lie, it held his overcoat and a few other items that Tanner used to hide his true identity to the humans around him. He would be using them in the coming day, exploring places he had always wanted to and had never been able to. The Clan would be none the wiser for his foray not expecting him to be back until well after dark tomorrow night. It was as if the reins on his life had been removed filling him with a giddy excitement. A gift indeed! And he had no intention of letting the opportunity to practice his gift slip by him.