For those who know spanish, I apologize if I made any grammatical mistakes.
1997 AD
Wyvern Castle, Eyrie Building, Manhattan.
It had been hours since the sun had set, and patrols were over. After watching a little late-night tv with Hudson, Brooklyn decided he wanted some fresh air and went to find a stairwell.
He ascended the stairs at a relaxed pace, breathing in the cold night air. As he stepped out into the night, he marveled at the beauty of the castle in the moonlight.
He sighed. "It's great to be home."
As he approached the parapets, thinking of taking a glide around the castle, something on the floor caught his eye; the glint of moonlight on gold.
"What the...?"
He bent down and picked the object up. The blue and gold Pheonix Gate felt warm in his hand. "Wait a minute," said Brooklyn, examining it. "This looks familiar..."
Before he had a chance to ponder, the awesome power of the Gate activated and Brooklyn was engulfed within it's flame. Try as he might, he could neither escape the fire nor release the Gate from his clutch.
As Brooklyn struggled, Lexington appeared in the doorway, having heard a commotion and immediately rushed to see if he could administer aid.
There was no time to assess the situation; it seemed to Lexington that his rookery sibling was aflame.
In a heroic attempt, Lexington rushed from the doorway and barreled towards Brooklyn, hitting him with enough force that he was pushed free of the Pheonix flame. He left the fire at such a speed that his impact with the parapets left him groaning and rubbing his head in pain.
Looking up from the ground on which he lay, Brooklyn beheld a sight that truly horrified him. Lexington, panicked and afraid, had trapped himself within the flame during Brooklyn's rescue. Then, while Brooklyn stood idly by, the Pheonix fire disappeared.
"No," said Brooklyn in disbelief. "No, it can't be." For when the fire vanished, it had taken Lexington with it. All that remained were some scorch marks on the stone.
With difficulty, Brooklyn got to his feet and examined his moonlit surroundings. No signs of Lexington were evident. Worried for his friend's safety, he ran down the stairs and burst into the gargoyles' common room.
"Hudson! Goliath!" He panted as he yelled, fighting for breath. "Lex is gone! There was this thing on the ground, and I picked it up, and there was fire! Lex pushed me out of the way but got stuck and-" Brooklyn took a gasping breath. "-Lex is gone!."
Broklyn leaned one hand against the wall for support, quickly switching his attention from Hudson to Goliath, and back again. Neither of the elder gargoyles had yet reacted to what Brooklyn thought was obviously terrible news.
"Now laddy," Hudson finally said. "Ye speak so quickly, we dinnae understand a word. What has happened? Where is Lexington?"
Frustrated at having to repeat himself, Brooklyn screamed his answer at the top of his lungs.
"Gone!" he yelled. "Lex disappeared in a ball of fire!"
"A ball of fire..." whispered Goliath under his breath. "Could it be?" Then, grasping his mentor's forearm: "Gather the others, old friend. Brooklyn, bring me to where he vanished."
Hudson left down the hall to find Angela and Broadway. Meanwhile, Brooklyn rushed back into the cold night, Goliath following at his heels.
"Here," Brooklyn told his leader, pointing at the scorch marks. "Suddenly, he just wasn't there anymore."
The lavendar leader examined the burnt stone for only a moment, for he was already certain of what had happened; the Pheonix gate had somehow returned.
A chill breeze blew Goliath's dark brown hair across his face as he looked over at Brooklyn. "It was the Pheonix Gate," he told him. "And if it activated without the incantation, there is no telling when- or if- we will see Lexington again."
At that moment, a cloud moved before the full moon, obscuring Brooklyn's features, and preventing Goliath from discerning his reaction.
There was a moment of silence between them, the only sounds being that of the street below, which was only broken when Hudson arrived with Angela and Broadway.
"Well?" asked Broadway. "What happened?"
Brooklyn, still obscured in shadow, did not speak, so Goliath related the tale as best he could. When he had finished, a shroud of silence fell upon the entire group. No one spoke and no one moved, not even when a slight glow appeared in the doorway and quickly disappeared again. The group remained still as the sound of footsteps on stairs echoed from the stairwell. It was only when an excited and cheerful voice exclaimed: "Brooklyn! Broadway!" that the clan turned.
What they saw was nothing short of a shock. The male gargoyle standing before them, bathed in the light of a newly unobscured moon, could only be Lexington. However, he was not the same as he had been only minutes before. Taller, oddly clothed, and sporting a short beard, this Lexington was obviously many decades older than the one they knew.
Lexington ran forward and hugged both of his rookery brothers. Very confused, they said nothing.
Then, while Lexington was reaching out to shake Goliath's hand, Angela called out: "Look!" and pointed at the stairwell.
Standing in the doorway were three female gargoyles. Two, an adult and an adolescent, each had the same frostly pink skintone, and curly blond hair. The third, an adolescent, had Lexington's characteristic webbed wings and green skin, but also wore the same curly blond hair as the other two. Cautious, all three remained in the doorway, and the eldest removed a sword from her belt.
"Lex," asked Broadway in a hushed voice, staring shrewdly at the strangers. "What happened to you? Who are those females?"
Lexington chuckled. "Ellos son mi familia," he said, and the clan members frowned in confusion. Lexington continued, however, before they could question him. He moved toward the doorway.
"Consuela," he took the elder female's hand and presented her to the clan. "Consuela es mi esposa. Y Buena y Inez," he gestured to the younger girls, "son nuestro hijas."
It seemed that Lexington was prepared to continue, but Goliath stopped him with a quick, "pardon?"
A look of realization dawned upon Lexington's face. "Oh!" he exclaimed, and turned to the girls. "Habla ingles, ninas." He then took a few steps towards the clan and spoke:
"I'm sorry, guys; we don't usually speak english. I want to introduce you to my wife Consuela, and our kids." He smiled widely, "I'm so glad to be home."
Brooklyn gasped incredulously. "Kids?" he said. "Kids!? How do you have kids? You disappeared five minutes ago, how did you come back with kids!?"
Lexington's brilliant smile faded. He opened up the pouch which hung around his waist and pulled out the same blue and gold object that Brooklyn had found near the parapets.
"This is how," the timedancer explained. "This damn Gate." He tossed it roughly against the ground. Scratches were visible on both the gold and the enamel, and Brooklyn noticed that it did not shine as brightly in the moonlight as it once had. Lexington continued:
"It was broken long before I got ahold of it; the incantation won't work. The Gate activates whenever it wants and brings me wherever it feels like. I know to you it seems like I've been gone five minutes, but to me it has been forty years. At least, I think it's been forty years; it's hard to tell time while timedancing."
The clan was silent for a moment, then: "Forty years? Really?"
"Yes, Angela," Lexington answered. "Look at me; can't you tell?"
When Angela took a close look, she was easily convinced. Besides his growth and facial hair, Lexington had also gained wrinkles, under his eyes and around his mouth. Also, a long battle scar, healed by time and stonesleep, was half-visible under the breastplate he wore.
Still peering at him, Angela quietly said, "yes, I can," then stood up straight and smiled. She manuevered around Lexington and reached out her hand toward Consuela. "Hello, I'm Angela. It's nice to meet you... Consuela?"
"Si, Hola," the elder pink female responded. "I mean, hello."
Following Angela's example, the rest of the clan introduced themselves to Lexington's family. Hudson clapped his hand onto Lexington's shoulder and said, "Congratulations, lad." The two girls, Buena and Inez, blushed when Broadway said hello, and then laughed when Angela told them a joke about his cooking. Consuela became engrossed in a conversation with Goliath, in which he was relating to her stories from Lexington's childhood. Brooklyn, upon introducing himself to Lexington's green daughter, Inez, recieved in return an affectionate stare. Feeling awkward getting such a look from a 30 year old gargoyle, he went on to Buena.
As the introductions continued, a buzzing sound began to emanate from the Pheonix Gate. The pale white light of the moon, which had been illuminating the gathering, was soon being surpassed by an orange glow originating from the Gate. Lexington and his family were the first to notice this, and fell silent as they watched.
The Gate, already buzzing loudly and glowing incredibly bright, began to shake violently. Soon, the clan had backed away, blinded, with their hands over their ears. As they watched, the Gate began to levitate. When it was three feet from the ground, the Gate burst into pieces, accompanied by a marked increase in the volume of the buzzing. The force of the blast propelled the pieces great distances, and the clan were forced to shield themselves.
Shocked, it took a moment before those present let their guard down. Then, a voice spoke up.
"Padre," asked Buena. "Does this mean, can it be, that we are free?"
Lexington bent down and picked up a shard of the once-powerful Pheonix Gate. He walked over to the parapets, extended his arm, and crushed the shard within his fist. The dust flew through the air in the cool breeze, disappearing into the night sky.
"Yes, Dragona," he answered. "We get to stay here." He smiled, "We're home!"
-The End
Gargoyles mature at approximately half the rate of humans, so a 30 year old gargoyle is the mental and physical equivalent of a 15 year old human.