[Dramatic Break]
Demona stared at the wooden servant, as if he had made a joke, thinking for a moment that the trapped trickster inside him had come through, but the cell phone was activated.
The immortal took up the phone, hiding the irritation that she, like the other gargoyles, felt through a slight growl.
Who is so idiotic to... Demona didn't come to an end with her thought, since another question came up. Who knows I'm here? Who...
"Yes?" she spoke into the phone, her voice now barely hiding her nervousness... This couldn't be.
"Hello, mother!" a well known voice greeted her, the tone sounding lovely and warm, even slightly amused… But it was false, and Demona didn't need to be a good liar herself to know that this voice had any of these feelings.
"Hello, Lucifia." the immortal replied, her voice sounding even more emotionless than Owen's did and her face being once more a mask.
Darlene, like the rest of the gathered gargoyles and humans, stared on this unbelieving.
This can't be, Darlene thought, we saw her die... Mom burned her!
It took some moments until she realized that she had actually heard her fallen sister's voice and some more seconds until she discovered the source of this voice was on the loudspeakers hanging on the ceiling of the hall.
Lana's face meanwhile had become completely bloodless again, as Darlene noticed, even when she guessed that she didn't look much better.
"Oh, mother," Lucifia's voice noticed sadly. "Somehow I nearly believe you aren't happy to hear that I am alive again."
"Where are you?" Demona asked her, her voice sounding monotone, as if she hadn't even noticed what Lucifia had said and for a moment Darlene believed her mother to be shocked. "How can you be alive again?"
"We both know ways, don't we?" Lucifia replied, not going into this topic. "Unfortunately, I lost a great part of my power during this process, but there is a ritual which can give me this back... and I have everything I need."
If Darlene hadn't been so shocked, she would have noticed that the remaining color had vanished from her mother's face. Instead, she just felt dumb and the voice of her daughter, asking her what this meant, reached her as if it were far away."Brooklyn, go to the rookery and look after the eggs." Goliath ordered his second. Brooklyn took this with a nod, rising at once, even when he seemed definitely shocked, and raced to the rookery along with other clan-members who had decided to look after the clan's eggs.
Gem meanwhile began to cry. Even when the infant didn't understand the details, she disliked this voice and felt the reaction, the shock from the other gargoyles, especially her mother, which was enough to make her fear.
First, when she noticed that Gem had begun to cry in her arms, Darlene concentrated on the world outside again, softly rocking her youngest child back and forth, telling her that everything was good, even when she knew it wasn't.
She has an egg, Darlene thought near trembling, by the Dragon...
"An egg." Demona noticed with a trembling voice, fighting hard to hold her self-control.
"Your egg, mother." Lucifia told her and the clan, laughing amused. "I had no idea of this before I entered the rookery, but then... I couldn't have missed the smell of related blood."
"What?" Angela exclaimed, staring on her mother unbelieving. "But this... you... "
Demona seemingly hadn't heard it, or wasn't interested in the look of shock showing on the faces of her daughter and some of her former clan-mates, but had to control her claws not to crush the cell-phone.
"What do you want?" Demona snarled into the cell-phone.
"Just a little talk, mother." Lucifia noticed. "And maybe I could give you a little hint to where to find me... Wouldn't this be nice?"
"Your egg???" Darlene whispered more to herself than to anyone else, looking first to her mother, then to the gargoyle she knew she had to have mated with.
There had been one egg in the rookery, which had been her mother's and now it was in the claw of her somehow still living sister, Lucifia... waiting to be sacrificed.
Tears were threatening to emit from her eyes when she thought of loosing yet another sibling before she had the opportunity to get to know it. She noticed that Angela was fighting hard not to cry too, being comforted by her mate.
While she tried to gather strength, Darlene heard her mother and Lucifia speaking about things... how Demona had taken revenge on the Hunter who had killed her mate and so had lost some, maybe precious hours.
While Lana gasped by the cruelty her grandmother was once again showing, what she was capable of, Darlene didn't register this fully. She was more captured by the tone of guilt her mother was trying to hide.
You're asking yourself if did the right thing, Darlene noticed unbelieving, you never questioned yourself, mother.
But before she could digest this, her mother revealed another little detail she had left out by her story.
"...You couldn't do it, mother." Lucifia noticed amused. "I offered you to kill me and you couldn't do it... even if you would have had a millenium of more time."
"Yes." Demona replied icily.
"And so the ghosts of our clan had to appear to help you, for if not then you wouldn't have known for sure that they had been killed..." Lucifia continued, "…much as your other former clans"
"Yes." Demona answered, confirming what she had thought by herself, from the night when she had retained the Phoenix Gate.
"You killed them all." Lucifia's voice noted, still calm, but everybody, even if he wouldn't have understood the meanings of these words, could feel the darkness in it.
Darlene stared on her mother in shock, by these words coming out of the loudspeaker.
She can't possibly think that... she thought, but was stopped by her mother's words.
"Yes." Demona answered, her voice trembling by the effort just to emit the three letters of this word, and she held her eyes, which had stared ahead all the time, closed to not let the tears emit from her eyes, as Darlene guessed.
"No..." Darlene whispered, even when this word went under in the mass of voices she heard coming from the clan, all telling the once clan-member that she was wrong.
"Oh, they tell you that what you did was understandable," Lucifia told her mother, in a caring voice which was just a fake, "that it wasn't your fault, that you couldn't know, but we both know what it was... A weakness."
Demona's eyes opened; now glowing slightly red and the light seemed to break through the wetness of the tears. For one moment, Darlene believed to see two gargoyles standing in the place of her mother, one near of breaking down and crying, while the other seemed near of screaming in anger and unleashing the fury trapped in her about being so helpless.
But the moment faded when Darlene heard the cell-phone slightly cracking, as it threatened to be crushed by an angry gargess.
"Yes." Demona answered once again, this time nearly snarling, making some of the gargoyles who had stopped trying to comfort her, gasp.
"That was it," she continued. "All I didn't mention about this night... Now tell me where you are?!"
The last words were more a snarl than anything else was was, and when Lucifia didn't reply at once, half of the gathered gargoyles feared that she might have hung off.
"Where you wanted it to end." Lucifia voice revealed and let a little click follow when she ended the call.
For one moment, everyone in the room stared on the immortal, who instead simply stared ahead motionless.
This is too much, Darlene thought, looking to her mother, by the Dragon this...
"The St. Damien's Cathedral." Demona thought out-loud. "It was there where I wanted to release the virus, and there is an altar."
"Quickly!" Goliath ordered and half of the clan followed the order, even Darlene felt herself standing up, despite the fact that she still held Gem in her arms.
She stopped when she noticed that her mother showed no sign to rise, or even to move.
"Mother, come on, we..." Darlene began, just to be stopped by her mother.
"We will arrive too late." Demona finished the sentence in a distant, emotionless voice. "She would never give us a real chance."
Most of the gargoyles stopped by these depressing words of the immortal.
"Fuck you!" Brooklyn screamed angrily, even more frustrated since he knew she was right. "Shall we simply sit here while Satan's daughter kills one of our eggs?"
"Even the fastest here couldn't glide the distance in the time needed." Demona said, not even registering Brooklyn's offence. She raised her head and looked around as if she searched for someone to neglect this.
"I think I can help." a calm voice noticed and when the crowd of gargoyles looked to the source of this voice, they saw David Xanatos, standing in his full-gargoyle-armor in the doorway outside to the courtyard. "But we don't have lot of time."
"Xanatos, what..." Goliath began.
"I'll show you in the courtyard." the billionaire told him, eyeing Demona for a second, and turned around to walk out.
Goliath exchanged a look with his second and then followed him, like the rest of the clan did, feeling a bit of hope rising.
Finally, even Demona followed her former ally with Darlene by her side, not feeling any hope about how this human could possibly help her.
If he makes a joke, the immortal thought I'll take his throat as a trophy.
But when she reached the courtyard, she saw that Xanatos was indeed serious.
"These two," the billionaire began, pointing with one of his mechanic claws on two steel-clan robots standing activated in the courtyard, "should be fast enough to reach the church in time."
"Then do it fast." Goliath nearly pleaded, not noticing that Demona had come up to his side, while the rest of the clan formed a circle around the things, which still looked strange for most of the clan-members.
"The main memory-chip is deleted, so they can't fight against anyone." Xanatos explained, looking to Goliath. "But I can order them to fly to the cathedral with someone on their back."
"I'll go." Demona told Xanatos, as a matter of fact and then gave a short look to her ex-mate.
The exchange of looks between these two lasted for one second, and Goliath nodded, knowing that his former second was maybe the best one to fight her daughter for her egg's life.
"And who shall ride on the other robot?" Deborah asked her, more than displeased by the way Demona took control.
"You." Demona told her former teacher and then turned around to jump on the robot.
Deborah, still standing beside her mate, looked unbelieving on her former pupil, not believing what she had heard, like most of the others.
"Go." Goliath ordered her, accepting Demona's choice and having come over the shock a bit, the old teacher followed, climbing on the back of the free robot.
"Mother..." Darlene told Demona, going nearer to her.
Demona nodded and even if she wanted to say more, she never got the possibility to do so since the robots started their jetpacks and she had to concentrate on holding onto her unusual jet.
"Please come back." Darlene whispered, seeing her mother vanishing very fast in the night air.
"What is it with you and your battle-suit?" Brooklyn asked. "Can't you transport one more?"
"Just half the normal speed." Xanatos explained. "Like the steel clan, it was in an upgrading process, you have luck that just these are ready."
How fitting, Brooklyn thought sarcastically, Lucifia has really chosen the right moment, hasn't she?
"Xanatos, can you go with me?" Goliath asked.
The billionaire nodded.
"Sister," he addressed to Desdemona, "make a group of four of the fastest gliders and follow us."
Desdemona nodded, turning around to call for the ones she knew were the fastest.
"Brooklyn, you are in command." Goliath told his second, who wanted more to go with his leader, but just nodded obediently, knowing that an argument would lead to nothing than the loss of more precious seconds.
"Please be careful." Elisa asked her mate, laying a hand on his broad shoulder.
Goliath nodded and a second later, a booster was heard, bringing Xanatos and the leader of the Manhattan clan nearer the place where they maybe couldn't change anything anymore.
Darlene didn't notice much of this, like she didn't notice Desdemona, her new sister and several other gargoyles vanishing into the night, following their leader surely much too slow to matter. Being more centered on what happened around her, she would maybe have handed Gem to her sister and glided with them, but all her thoughts were with her mother and the fate of the egg, which was decided maybe at this moment.
"Please come back." she whispered anew, cuddling Gem in her arms, just to be sure that her baby was okay.
"Mom." she heard Lana's voice beside her and when she looked around, she saw her daughter's face, worried like her own.
As much as Lana seemed to dislike being with the clan, the thought of loosing an egg seemingly even troubled her, especially since it turned out to be a would be uncle or aunt to be hatched.
"What now?" Lana asked, helpless, while Shade stood at Darlene's feet and added a slight whining, as if to ask this too.
Darlene sighed, but before she could say something to calm both the gargbeast and her daughter, another voice stopped her.
"Okay," Brooklyn began, raising his voice to be heard over the muttering in the courtyard, which was filled now with the greatest part of the clan, "listen!"
Much to his wonder, the muttering died at once and all eyes were directed on the second from one moment to the other, and Brooklyn felt himself suddenly very young again.
"There is nothing we can do for the egg now, but hope." he explained, noticing what everyone was thinking. "So I think the best thing we can do, is go back in again."
Much to Brooklyn's surprise, it wasn't Kronos who refused.
"But there has to be something we can do..." Angela asked him, tears shimmering in her eyes. "I mean, we can't simply..."
Brooklyn shook his head and despite the way he felt, he looked twenty years older now.
"If your mother and the teacher don't stop Lucifia in time," he noted, his voice as cold as his eyes, which were now looking in those of his former flame, "I doubt that the whole clan would make a difference."
Darlene felt her stomach growing cold by the words she heard of this gargoyle, knowing deep in her heart that he was right, as the other gargoyles around her knew, including her half sister who now cuddled herself on her mate's bulky body.
"Come in." Brooklyn ordered the depressed clan and went in, paying a short look to Kronos, but he still didn't say anything. Maybe even he respected the earnest of the situation.
Darlene followed the other gargoyles in, not knowing what else to do and set herself on the chair she had sat in before. Shade set herself to Darlene's feet-claws, whining, depressed of not being able to follow her friend.
Darlene understood the beast completely, but even so knew that there was nothing to do than to wait and try not to go crazy meanwhile...
Which one had it been? She thought If mother knew this...
In the distance, she heard Brooklyn ordering two gargoyles, Connor's father and another gargoyle, resembling Brooklyn but with a long white beard, to guard the rookery.
"I don't see what this shall bring," Kronos noticed, "Lucifia has what she wanted."
"Do you want to take this risk?" Brooklyn asked him irritated.
"No," the black-skinned gargoyle replied, "but this should have been thought out earlier, ever since we learned of Lucifia."
Brooklyn's eyes lit up white shortly and he had to control himself not to snarl, knowing that this would lead to nothing.
He truly does it deliberately, the second thought angrily, this bastard tries to hang this on Goliath.
"No one thought of this, Kronos," Brooklyn told him finally, his voice near a snarl, noticing the silence around him, but not seeing and not caring of what the others thought in this moment. "You included that this is not the time for blaming each other."
"The second is right." Hudson confirmed, stepping demonstratively to Brooklyn's side. "In times like this, the clan has to hold together."
Agreeing murmurs showed that great parts of the clan seemed to support this position, maybe more by a natural reflex than through conscience thoughts. Kronos, noticing that he was on a lost position, just eyed the second angrily.
"It is always like this here?" Lana asked her mother while looking around, being relieved that at least the singles of the clan were busy with something other than looking at her.
"No, Lana." Darlene replied, hoping that she spoke the truth. "It is just a bad time."
Amongst others, she thought, they could write books about the trouble that mother told me that the clan had been through just when she was young.
Naturally there was no reason to tell this to Lana now.
"Don't worry, Lana," she told her when she saw the worried look in her daughter's face. "Your grandmother is the best warrior I can imagine to stop Lucifia, and Deborah is a warrior too."
Lana nodded.
"Hey," Angela's voice came from beside them and when Darlene looked up, she saw her half-sister standing there, her eyes still a bit reddened, "can I sit beside you?"
Darlene nodded, offering her the chair their mother had sat in before.
"I can't believe that she hasn't told us about another sibling." Angela said. "I mean, why? This makes no sense."
"Mother loves to have secrets, that is her point." Darlene replied; trying not to sound irritated. "And she had set her departure before the hatching of the egg."
Angela stared at Darlene for a second... she hadn't thought of that yet.
"But we would have noticed it." Lana came in. "I mean, blood relationships are very evident amongst fr... Gargoyles."
Darlene stared at her daughter and had to suppress a smile, despite the situation.
"Not necessarily." she replied. "Some gargoyles come after more than one parent... or after their grandparents."
"I would recognize someone who is related to me." Lana noted self-secure, which made her aunt and her mother look at each other, exchanging knowing looks.
09.08.98; 05:36; Castle Wyvern Great Hall:
An unnatural silence had lain over the hall, of a sort Darlene couldn't really bear. She had placed Gem on the ground, watching her try to encourage Shade into a game, to which she didn't respond, as the beast seemed too depressed for such.
Suddenly the doors to the great hall opened and showed two dark forms in front of many other dark forms. Darlene only needed one second to learn that it was her mother, standing with caped wings besides Goliath. She seemed to hold something in her arms.
All eyes were centered on the immortal when she swung back the wings, revealing what it was in her arms, which was definitely no egg.
Lucifia has done it, was the first thought going through Darlene's mind and the gasps around her made clear that she was not the only one to think so.
Then the little body in Demona's arms began to move and so showed that it was indeed very much alive.
Barking happily, Shade stood up and raced towards her master, greeting her by touching her legs while Angela and Darlene, followed by the rest of the clan, came after her.
"Mother," Angela greeted more than relieved "you have..."
She stopped in shock while looking on her new little sister, a cute little naked hatchling with blood red hair in her mother's arms... A hatchling with two little horns growing out of her head, Grey skin and a somewhat burlier body than her mother ever had.
"Mother!" Darlene exclaimed, not knowing what else to say.
"Old clan rules." Demona explained in a calm voice while eyeing her biologically eldest daughter, relaxed and then looking somewhere behind Darlene's back.
When Darlene followed the look, she saw the nameless gargoyle who had been her mother's second back in Moray and who was definitely her new sister's father.
The nameless studied his blood-daughter from a somewhat distance and then exchanged a long look with his former leader.
Five children, Darlene thought unbelieving, noticing in the distance how Goliath and Desdemona were greeted by their mates. Five children by five partners.
Her thoughts traveled further, but she was stopped when she felt something touching her legs.
It was Gem, the infant who had been forgotten by the tables, who had a great interest in what was going on and was now standing by her mothers leg and looking curiously up.
Smiling, Darlene took up her youngest daughter into her arms and smiled on her.
"Wanting to see your new aunt?" she asked Gem and turned her to the hatchling in Demona's arms.
Gem looked curiously on the other infant, greeting her with baby talk.
The younger hatchling just stared on the other hatchling curiously, but definitely still confused.
"Well, she definitely takes after you, sister." Thersities noticed with a big smile on his beak.
Demona nodded, but now her eyes had again somewhat of ice in them.
"And Lucifia?" Angela asked, her voice suddenly bare of the happiness she had felt before.
"She escaped." Goliath told his daughter and the clan, who had gathered around Demona to see their new member.
The murmurs showed that the clan was definitely not happy about this.
"So we have to be prepared for an attack now." Othello noticed.
"Yes," Goliath said with a nod, "but for now..."
He turned to Xanatos.
"Xanatos, we owe you a great debt for helping to save our egg..." the clan leader stopped, looking shortly to the hatchling in his ex-mate's arms, "…this child of our clan."
With this, Goliath extended a claw to his once enemy.
"No need, Goliath," the billionaire replied with a cold grin, slowly shaking the claw with his own mechanical claw. "It was for the security of my own family as well."
Goliath understood indeed, but nevertheless felt a sort of new trust for this human, rising in him.
This scene was watched with approval by nearly all gargoyles of the clan.
Nearly, Darlene thought, noticing that her mother's face had become a mask of ice.
The green eyes in this mask suddenly had a red glimmer in them when they discovered something.
When Darlene followed the eyes, she discovered Elisa Maza, the clan leader's mate.
"Mother..." Darlene exclaimed, shocked, but when her mother's eyes turned to her, she saw no sign of regret in them, just hardness.
Before she could continue, a gargoyle, the one who resembled Brooklyn, came running into the great hall on all fours.
"The eggs, they hatch!" He exclaimed, his voice being a mix of worry and happiness.
At once, Darlene forgot what she wanted to say and turned in shock around to the male.
The shock lasted, as long as she noticed the other gargoyles moving the quickest way to the rookery and felt her being pulled to it even so.
"Mom?" Lana asked questioningly.
"Come." her mother simply replied, laying a claw on the shoulder of her eldest, as if to lead her while she still held Gem in her other arm.
When they reached the rookery, Darlene noticed that the hatchlings, including her son, had already been led to the event and were now excitedly kneeling in front of the eggs, which moved back and forth.
Something definitely wanted to come out of them.
Despite the fact that her eyes were now centered on the sink in the middle of the room, where the eggs of the clan were slowly moving. She noticed that her mother slowly came forward and then knelt beside Connor and Jarred with the little hatchling that was her newest daughter, in her arms.
For a moment, the nightmare she and the clan had been through minutes before, seemed far away for Darlene, especially when a clawed leg finally broke through the first egg.
Unluckily, this moment of happiness faded when Owen came in, a cell phone in his organic hand and heading through the mass of gargoyles, straight to the kneeling Demona.
When the servant laid a hand on her mother's shoulder and everyone looked up Darlene feared she might yell on him and so destroy the peaceful atmosphere completely, but then Demona discovered the cell phone in his hand and understood.
Darlene noticed how Demona's eyes became icy while she tried to let her face stay a calm mask when she talked to Connor standing beside her and finally handing him his little sister.
She took the cell-phone from Owen and made one last look to the eggs... her eggs, where now a hatchling with white hair had nearly freed itself completely from the eggshell, while two other eggs already showed large cracks.
Darlene didn't see her mother's eyes, but she guessed that she could see through them what she thought of this moment, that there wasn't a moment of peace for her even now.
Demona turned around, walking straight out of the rookery, followed by the surprised looks of most of the gargoyles and Darlene would have followed her if Goliath had not turned around to her and shook his head, showing that he wanted to go after her alone.
Reluctantly, Darlene followed the clan leader's wish and stayed, even if her heart wished to be able to follow her mother and help her somehow. When she looked back to the center of the rookery, she noticed that three more hatchlings were on their way to free themselves from their eggs.
Yet the happiness she had felt by this sight before hadn't come back again, since her mind wandered to her mother and which talk she had with her sister.
After some seconds, the greatest part of the hatching was over when even the last egg showed large cracks and then released a surprised female hatchling, screaming loudly.
Smiling, Angela came forward, kneeling beside Connor while she saw how the rookery mothers took up the last newly hatched hatchlings and took care of them like it was habit, since gargoyle clans existed.
"Hey." Angela directed to Connor, who still held his little sister in his arms.
Demona's youngest daughter was beautiful, for Angela she seemed like the most beautiful hatchling in the world, yet she couldn't come to oversee the various innards of the egg still hanging in her blood-red hair and partly covering the whole naked body.
Time for her first bath, Angela thought smiling.
"Little Brother," she addressed him, as how it was custom in the clan to someone of the younger generation. "Might I take her?" Angela asked her half-brother gently. "She needs a bath and afterwards she surely will be hungry."
Connors seemed distrusting for a moment, but then the look in his green eyes changed, showing just a bit of reluctance.
"Aunt Demona told me I should hold her." he told her.
Angela nodded.
"Yes, but she is..." she hesitated, not wanting to ruin for him, or his siblings, this evening, "…busy. Believe me, it will be okay."
Connor looked to his big sister, still a bit reluctant, but finally his trust in her won and he gently handed the infant into Angela's big arms. The hatchling herself looked up curiously into this new face while she felt the arms holding her securely.
These arms somehow weren't so strong like the ones she had been in at first and this female smelt different, but yet the female smiled which was all the hatchling needed and such she tried happily to reach the female's brown hair with her tiny claws.
"Maybe I should take her." a voice came from Angela's right side.
Looking up, she learned that it was one of the rookery mothers, actually two generations above her mother's rookery, who now looked on her with a neutral face, only her eyes seemed slightly disapproving.
"You have never bathed a hatchling before," the nameless elder explained calmly. "Besides, she will be hungry afterwards and you can't nurse."
Angela couldn't, but help take a look on the swollen breasts of the elder that had enlarged during the last few months. They were a sign that she, as a fully-grown clan-member, was ready to nurse the clan's new children, while 'young ones' like Angela had to wait for the next rookery.
For a moment, Angela didn't know what to say. Luckily though, someone intervened in time.
"I can help her." Darlene, still with Gem in her arms, said as she came from behind. "I have lots of experience in bathing infants and we will be back soon enough to let you feed her."
Knowing she was beaten, the elder nodded, even though reluctantly.
"Be careful." the elder told them, before turning around and heading to the other rookery mothers who just talked amongst themselves with the hatchlings in their arms.
The rest of the clan began to leave, except for a few that had left the rookery already, knowing that it was time for the rookery mothers to care for their newest clan members.
"Thank you." Angela said to her big sister. "I don't think I could have convinced her."
"No need." Darlene replied smiling, while looking on her sisters.
09.08.98; 06:16; Castle Wyvern:
Darlene and Angela had successfully bathed and clothed the newest member of their seemingly ever increasing family when Broadway joined them, greeting his mate in a way which made her older sister more than a bit jealous of her.
When they were on their way back, they discovered Demona and Goliath in a seemingly very serious talk.
"Mother?" Angela, with the hatchling in her arms, spoke to her mother who hadn't noticed her yet.
Surprised at this, Demona turned her head around. For a moment, Angela could see a glimmer of joy in her mother's eyes, but it vanished, leaving just the usual coldness."Lucifia called us and we made a bargain." Goliath explained to them. "She won't attack us at our homes if we don't do this in her home."
"But we don't know where she lives." Broadway noticed startled. "Why should she do this?"
"To play with us." Demona informed her son in law in human terms, her voice as cold as her green eyes.
"Xanatos also has discovered some bugs that Lucifia installed here unnoticed for a time we can't emulate." Goliath added, looking into the shocked faces of his listeners. "I will speak about this with the clan assembly later."
"And I will check the mansion after them later..." Demona explained, crossing her arms to make this point clear, "…thoroughly."
A moment of silence followed, in which Darlene noticed the looks her mother threw on the hatchling in her arms, like she saw how the hatchling stretched out her tiny claws after the big gargoyle who had greeted her into this life.
"You can hold her." Darlene offered, taking a step closer to her mother. "I think she misses you."
Demona just shook her head and made no effort to do so, or just to touch the hatchling.
"No." she replied coldly and leaned against the wall, not looking to her children, but a place somewhere on the other wall of the floor with icy green eyes.
"Well, then you can you hold her later." Darlene tried again, more than a bit irritated of her mother's behavior. "When we glide home. She..."
"She will stay here." Demona told her daughter, as a matter of fact without even looking at her. "She is a child of the clan and I don't claim her as my own."
Darlene and Angela stared at their mother, unbelieving of what they had heard.
"What?" Darlene asked, not knowing what else to say.
"I never planned it any other way." her mother explained, not giving her a look, but noticing her shock, like she noticed Goliath being at first surprised and then letting his face become stoic again. "It is best."
"For whom?" Darlene demanded to know in an angry voice, not noticing that the hatchling in her arms had begun to whimper since she definitely disliked the loud voices and couldn't understand why the gargoyle in front of her didn't want to take her.
"For everybody." Demona replied, her voice still icy and emotionless.
"How can you simply abandon her?" Angela asked, more than shocked. She hadn't directly thought that her mother would take the hatchling with herself, but just the way her mother spoke made her shudder.
"She has all she will need here." Demona told her daughter, looking straight into her eyes. "And I will stay here as long as it takes until we have defeated Lucifia."
Or until we die by this, she added mentally, but knew that there was no reason to speak it out loud.
Darlene stared at her mother and finally her eyes' turned to her... Eyes, which were hard, like the jade stones they looked like, and cold like a planet without a sun.
She wanted to say something, wanted to smash it into her mother's head that she couldn't simply leave this little life she had created alone, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do so. Not now, not after this night... maybe later when they could talk alone... later.
"You should take her to the rookery mothers." Demona noticed on the fact that the whimpering of the hatchling had increased to small cries, showing that she somehow wasn't happy with the situation. "I guess she is hungry."
Darlene stared at her mother an endless second, softly rocking the hatchling in her arms to calm her down. Beside her, Broadway laid a claw on his mate's shoulder, comforting her while he threw a hard look on his mother in law.
"May you at least give her a name?" she finally asked in resignation. "Or is even this too much?"
Demona's eyes wandered from Darlene to the unnamed hatchling that was her daughter and for a moment both eyes met. Both eyes were green, both had the same glimmer in them, but this was it, since the first pair of eyes showed innocent curiosity and softness, while the others were hard like emeralds and studied the others with the experience of an immortal life.
"Jaheira." Demona said finally, and this time her voice was, even though still hard, softer then before. "She shall be called Jaheira."
Goliath, whom his ex hadn't paid much attention to, nodded.
"So shall it be." the clan leader agreed, making clear that he would ensure that the clan would accept this.
"Well..." Angela began, knowing that there wasn't more to be told and sensing that her mother and her father had still some things to speak of. "I think we have to go now."
"I will be in the hatchlings room later..." Demona told the quartet who slowly moved away. "I owe them a story."
Angela nodded, while Darlene's eyes stayed centered on her mother accusingly all the way around her.
"I can't believe it." Angela exclaimed unbelieving when they had gone around a corner. "How can she do this to her?"
"I don't know," Darlene replied calmly, embracing the little hatchling in her arms a bit more, as if to protect her. "I really don't know."
"I mean every child needs parents." her younger sister continued, looking shortly to the newly named Jaheira.
"Maybe I can reach her later." Darlene told Angela, but even more to herself. "When we are alone... She should take at least a small place in her life."
"Maybe she shouldn't." Broadway stated from behind, much to the surprise of the two half-sisters.
"What?" Angela exclaimed unbelieving.
Broadway winced a bit by the looks that both gargesses gave him, but he knew that there was no way back now.
"I mean, Demona isn't the best person to raise a hatchling." he explained to them.
"She raised me." Darlene replied calmly on this statement of her brother in law. "And she was a great mother to me."
"Yes, and she was a great big sister for me and my siblings... once." he answered "But she isn't now."
The clan's cook saw the now hurt look in his mate's eyes and knew he had to say more.
"Look, I don't hate her, or still blame her for what happened 1000 years ago," Broadway said, "but you heard what she said tonight, how she is... she hasn't changed."
"She has," Angela insisted, "at least a bit, and a child belongs to its parents."
Her mate shook his head.
"She has the clan," Broadway reminded her, "which has been enough for every gargoyle before."
"And shall this be enough for our children?" Angela wanted to know.
Broadway looked damned unlucky on his mate.
Darlene noticed that the hatchling that was her youngest sister had begun to whimper slightly, sensing the tension in the air and knew that it was better to let her sister clear this with her mate alone.
"I'll take Jaheira to the rookery mothers." she told them "You can see us later."
Since neither of them answered, Darlene went away, slowly rocking the hatchling in her arms.
"So young and seen already so much trouble." she told the hatchling, looking in the emerald green eyes, which were so much like her mother's and yet so different. "Not the best greeting, is it?"
The hatchling seemingly hadn't mind the rough beginning of her life and looked up to the older gargoyle with wide-awake curiosity, a curiosity which had risen since the warm comfort of her first bath that had made her sleepiness go away, leaving a strange feeling in the hatchlings stomach.
By looking on the little life in her arms, Darlene felt a slight pain in her breast, but when she reached the doors to the rookery, the pain was gone even though a strange feeling remained.
The first thing Darlene noticed when she entered the rookery was that the whole room had been cleaned completely of the innards and the shells of the eggs. Then she noticed the dimmed light of the rookery, its intensity reduced to be closer of that of ordinary gargoyle rookeries and more friendly to the light-sensitive eyes of the newest clan members.
In the relative darkness, which was still as bright as the usual night seen by gargoyle-eyes, Darlene could see several rookery-mothers, nursing the clan's children, which had also been bathed and wore tiny loincloths now.
This is it, Darlene began to realize.
Her mother had told her that at this time all grown-up female gargoyles became ready to nurse the hatchlings.
Sure, this is it! She thought, remembering her risen hunger and the strange feelings she had felt. I simply came into this period.
Maybe nursing one of the hatchlings will help? Darlene thought. If the rookery-moth...
"Will you give her to me?" a voice in front of her asked.
Darlene looked up, being disturbed in her thoughts, seeing a rookery mother, maybe the leader of this group, looking impatiently on her.
"We needed a little longer." she explained, sensing the look in the older gargoyle's eyes. "We met the leader and my mother..." she smiled a bit, looking down to her little sister. "She named her Jaheira."
The frown on the rookery-mother's face, like on that of the other's, showed more than words could of what they thought of this.
"The leader approved this." Darlene quickly added.
A longer silence followed, but finally the female in front of her sighed, even though reluctantly.
"Aye," she replied simply, expressing the way she felt about this in one word.
A moment of silence followed.
"Where is your youngest hatchling?" the rookery mother asked somewhat carelessly, while she removed her top.
"I left Gem with Jarred." Darlene replied in the same distant tone. "He's watching over her."
The rookery-mother's eyes widened while Jaheira began, at first cautiously and then more and more demanding to suck on her breast.
"You left a young one to watch over her?" she asked, more than a bit shocked about this act by this gargess and asking herself if maybe the times with the humans had changed this gargoyle.
"I let her brother watch over her." Darlene replied, her tone being now just at the border to hardness. "He has done so before and I trust him. Besides, Lana is somewhere near him…" And with her, half of the young males of the clan. "…So there is no reason to worry."
The rookery mother studied the gargess in front of her a moment longer, then she nodded.
"Aye," she replied, sounding again not very convinced.
Darlene didn't care.
"I'll go to the hatchlings room now." she explained and turned around, leaving the rookery mothers to stare at her back.
I don't believe it, Darlene thought when she stood on the floor. How can she criticize me for the way I trust my children?
Slowly, her mother's temper left her and she had to admit that the elder gargoyle hadn't directly criticized her, even though she had shown that it wasn't their way... or what she believed was the way of the clan to raise their young generation.
I don't care, Darlene thought, slowly wandering through the floors in the direction of the hatchlings room, as long as they don't try to interfere in my family.
And it didn't matter what her mother thought, as the little hatchling she had just left behind was part of this family.
Now fully assured, Darlene entered the hatchlings room.