6.2: Getting There is Half the Fun

Inside the delivery truck, conditions were a bit cramped with six adult gargoyles in the back. Lucretia and Cassius assured their guests that the truck normally held this many gargoyles twice a week, when the clan rotated the patrols in New Orleans. But, Yvette cheerfully added, their clan had very few members as large as Broadway, let alone their so-aptly-named giant leader Goliath.

And when confronted with Angela's furious glare, Broadway's glum look down at his still-very-overweight torso, and Brooklyn's uncomfortable cough, Yvette brightly added, "So I will make more room on the bench, for the elders and the already affianced ones to make themselves more comfortable!" And with that, she hopped right into Brooklyn's lap. "You don't mind, do you, cher Brooklyn?" she murmured as she settled in, blithely throwing her left arm across his shoulders and caped wings and wrapping her tail around his right calf. "So gallant, to be so considerate of your elders and clanmates' comfort…"

Brooklyn blushed and stammered, and Angela looked outraged, but Lucretia and Cassius only chuckled indulgently before turning conversation to the sights they intended to see that night. They intended to show Broadway and Angela the French Quarter, the French Market, the Musée Conti Historical Wax Museum and Mardi Gras World where many of the famous parade floats were made. "And you, Yvette and Brooklyn; where do you intend to go tonight?" Lucretia asked.

"If you are willing to make 'the Wax' your first stop, I think Brooklyn and I shall join you for that one," Yvette mused. "It's a fine place to learn more of our city's history, and Brooklyn would probably appreciate your fine storytelling, Lucretia, than my poor attempts at same. After that… cher Brooklyn, what place would you like to see, or see again?"

"Well… I've already seen the French Quarter and French Market a couple times, but I haven't been to Mardi Gras World yet," Brooklyn said hesitantly. "How about making it a double date, or triple date, for that place too?"

Lucretia and Cassius were agreeable, and Broadway said he was fine with it too, though Angela hesitated a bit before agreeing. Yvette said with a smile, "Then it's settled! Once we are arrived at the safe house, I shall take fifteen minutes to take Lexington's measurements and discuss ideas for his wedding wear. Then we are all off to 'the Wax' together, and from there to Mardi Gras World. And after we have seen all there is to see there," as she lightly caressed Brooklyn under his beak, "You and I, cher Brooklyn, shall leave the group and find other places to see. I have a few ideas for wonderful places to see, and grand ways to show you a good time…"

Brooklyn audibly gulped and blushed even redder. Angela's face was expressionless, but her tail lashed once or twice before she wrapped it around her calf, just as Broadway noticed the movement. He gave her a brief worried look, before saying aloud, "Well, while we're all waiting to get there, what shall we talk about?"

"Why not tell us a tale of old Scotland?" Cassius suggested. "We've told you plenty about where we live, but I believe only the chronicler has heard any tales of where your clan used to dwell. How about a story from your younger days?"

"That's a wonderful idea!" Angela said with a smile. "Princess Katherine and the other guardians used to tell us tales of what life was like in their old home, but it'd be even better to hear the stories from a gargoyle's perspective!"

Yvette crooned while running her talons through Brooklyn's mane, "Please, Brooklyn? I really know so little about your mysterious past, and I would so like to get to know you better…"

Brooklyn and Broadway looked at each other a bit uncomfortably, but finally nodded. "The bandit raids from the winter of 983?" Brooklyn suggested. Broadway agreed, and suggested that Brooklyn start the tale.

Brooklyn cleared his throat a couple times and began, "In the year 983, the gargoyle we now call Hudson still led the clan, and Goliath was his second-in-command. Winter came early that year; we'd already had the first snows by the time the humans had their Michaelmas celebration. Fortunately, the humans had listened to the Magus's warnings, and harvested as much as they could before the killing frosts, so they weren't any more worried about starvation during the lean months than usual. We in the clan were ready for a long winter, too; our elder sister with the spiral horns had shown us how to smoke meat like the humans did so it lasted a long time, and we'd made our own smoking-cave in the cliffs, where we had plenty of smoked meat stored. But the sudden snows caught some folks unprepared, and we heard about other places where crops were ruined and people were already starving. And when word was passed around that Wyvern had food aplenty, people began showing up on our doorstep; just beggars and such at first. But then a bandit chief decided he wanted Wyvern's food stores …"

While Brooklyn told the story, growing more at ease and more animated in his speech with every passing minute, Broadway looked down and noticed that Angela's tail was no lounger wound around her calf, but lying free and easy except for a slightly twitching tip. Casually, he shifted his tail across the floor or the truck until his tailtip was lying beside hers, then maneuvered to twine them together.

Angela hadn't been too happy about having to share the delivery truck with Yvette for the trip into New Orleans. She'd formed an instant dislike of the female when, during their welcoming feast, that—that strumpet!—had tried to play tail-games with Broadway, right in front of her! Her dear, loyal Broadway had put a stop to such games immediately by publicly declaring himself "off the market", and since then Yvette had been concentrating on Brooklyn. But Angela still didn't like her, and secretly hoped that Brooklyn didn't favor her either. Although, judging by the way he wasn't throwing Yvette off his lap or objecting to all the caresses she was giving him…

Well, at least Yvette was leaving Broadway alone now. Except for that rude comment about Broadway's size... The sheer nerve of that wench! Even if Angela privately and wholeheartedly agreed that Broadway needed to lose a lot of weight, one did not say anything about it in front of strangers! Did Yvette have no inhibitions at all?

Silly question; it was all too evident that she didn't. Princess Katherine would have had extremely strong words with Yvette for acting like that in public. Princess had always been very clear on which displays of affection were acceptable in front of others, and which should be done only in private. There were rules… but Yvette didn't seem to care about those rules, or about anything except making Brooklyn her mate. It's true she wasn't nearly as bad as Marie, but really, Martha would make a much better mate for Brooklyn and better addition to the clan.

But as Brooklyn told his tale from old Scotland, she forced all that out of her mind and just concentrated on the story. And it was a grand story, too… She'd heard part of it before, from her guardians while growing up on Avalon, but Brooklyn had a completely different perspective, and gave a lot more details about the clan's involvement.

Oh, how Angela loved storytime… Some of her best memories of her family on Avalon were of sitting with her rookery kin at the feet of Princess Katherine, or the Magus, or Guardian Tom as they told stories of what life had been like at Castle Wyvern. As well as tales of Jason and the Argonauts and other Greek heroes, and tales of heroes from the Bible, and eventually tales of what Guardian Tom had seen in his journeys to the outer world every four years. Even once the gargoyles had grown until most of them were as tall as or even taller than their guardians, everyone would come running for storytime.

Angela sighed happily, and wondered when Brooklyn would get to the part where Goliath (her father! All those stories took on even greater significance to her now, now that she knew she was actually related to the hero in so many of them) took out a small band of raiders nearly all by himself. With Brooklyn telling the tale, it would probably be even more thrilling…

She felt something brushing her tail, and automatically flicked the tip up and away with barely a second thought. That opossum her rookery brother Theseus kept for a pet was always scampering around underfoot at storytime. It was a pest, but Theseus would get upset at anyone who swatted it away; best to just get one's tail out of reach…

Angela didn't even look at Broadway; just flicked her tail up and away from twining with his.

She didn't want him anymore. Up until last Sunday, despite the firm restrictions Angela had set on intimacy during courting (right after the Coldstone affair), she had been perfectly okay with holding hands and twining tails with him, both in private and in the Great Hall right in front of everybody. But now, even with Yvette right there in Brooklyn's lap showing it was okay to be more physically affectionate, she wasn't willing to even twine tails with him anymore.

It was because of his wing, he knew. Even if he regained the skies and learned to glide solo again, he'd never be as fast or maneuverable in the air as he used to be. Angela knew that as well as he did, and despite what she'd been saying for the last few days, now she was looking elsewhere for a mate who actually had a hope of catching her during a mating flight. That's why she was so angry about the way Yvette was acting; she was looking at Brooklyn as a potential mate again, and Yvette as her competition!

Damn that Quarryman assassin! He'd cost Broadway not only the use of his wing, but his one true love…

Broadway screwed his eyes shut, determined that he would not cry in front of everyone. But he spent the rest of the trip in silence, not even contributing to the stories Brooklyn was telling about the old clan. A glum silence, spiked with occasionally bitter thoughts about the future. The thought that gave him a mean measure of satisfaction was that Angela would probably find she had some stiff competition now…

To be continued…