6.7: "Girl Talk"

Angela looked up at the pair gliding in tandem in front of her, feeling both hurt and frustrated. She had to admit she was unskilled at gliding in tandem with anyone, but how could she get any better if she didn't practice? And she had to learn, because Broadway was going to be her mate, and despite all the exercises she'd been coaching him in every night his wing still wasn't as flexible and strong as it used to be; she might well have to help him glide for long distances or in severe winds for the rest of their lives together. She shuddered at the thought, but it had to be thought, the possibility had to be faced… but how could she practice gliding with him if everyone else kept insisting they do it instead?

Oh, wonderful. Yvette wasn't gliding at Brooklyn's side any longer; now she was dropping back to glide next to Angela, barely a wing's length away. Angela reminded herself of her manners, and said quite civilly after a quick glance upwards, "Do you think it will rain soon?"

"Soon, but not yet," Yvette said after glancing upwards herself. "The air doesn't have the taste of rain yet, and the clouds are wrong for the sort of sudden downpour that surprises everyone. What have I done recently that offends you so?"

Angela was startled enough to almost lose her glide plane, but she straightened up and replied just as honestly and bluntly as Yvette had asked: "You tried to play tail-games with my Broadway, right in front of me!"

" 'Your Broadway' does not have your mark on him yet," Yvette pointed out. "After your leader's surprise announcement, I made very sure to get his scent and be sure he was unmated before letting him know of my interest. And after he declared himself 'off the market', I haven't even touched him, yes?"

"But you did it right in front of me, when not five minutes earlier I'd been holding Broadway's arm!" Angela argued. "You knew he was mine!"

"Yes, you had your hands on him, just as Rebecca had her hands on Brooklyn," Yvette said with a smile that showed a bit of fang. "Did that mean that Brooklyn was already claimed by Rebecca?" Angela had no answer for that one, and fumed in silence for a few moments before Yvette sighed and said, "Do be sensible, and make peace with me; we may well end up in the same clan together, and I have seen enough feuds in my life already!"

"What feuds exist in the New Orleans Clan?" Angela asked, suddenly curious… not to mention eager to change the subject. "I haven't seen anyone be anything other than civil with each other… well, except for the first few days here, when you and your sisters were fighting over Brooklyn…"

"When you glimpsed that, you might well have glimpsed Isabel and Marie fighting more with each other than the rest; those two have hated each other since we were all in the rookery together," Yvette confided. "And then there is the feud between Marie and Robert; that one is almost as bad… But between Isabel and Marie, there is spilled blood, and no hope of reconciling."

"What happened to make them hate each other?" Angela asked.

Yvette shrugged. "At first, it was simply who they were. Even as a hatchling, Isabel was very independent, always going off by herself to draw or build something… And Marie, back then, led our generation in nearly everything else. But even when we listened to Marie and played the games she wanted to play, Isabel wouldn't listen to her or do anything she said. Marie hated that, and tried to force her into submission, or make us hate her too… but Isabel, she is an artist like no other; she can take a pile of ugly scrap from a junkyard and turn it into a thing of beauty. Her art is her life, and none of us could hate her for that, so we tried to simply make sure the two were always apart.

"After Isabel began welding her art, Bernadette was sure that someday she would burn herself terribly in an accident with her welding torch—you may not know this, being a leather-wing like myself, but feather-wings are terribly vulnerable to fire—and when it happened, if Marie would only be kind to her sister in distress, then Isabel would accept her in turn and all would be well at last. But instead, one night about eight years ago—or was it nine? No, it was eight years ago that Marie went into Isabel's workshop, where she had been making a magnificent metal gryphon, and took a hammer to it. I think Marie meant to completely destroy all of Isabel's works in progress, in order to break her will so she would be more likely to submit… or perhaps Marie had just finally snapped, and wanted to hurt Isabel any way she could. Who can say? But Robert saw her going in and alerted not only Isabel, but Adelbert and Joan, and they all looked in through the window to see Marie swinging the hammer and wrecking the gryphon.

"Isabel was furious, of course; so furious, she went right through the window at Marie, grabbed the hammer away from her and broke her left wing with it! Marie went screaming for the healer, and crying that Isabel had gone mad and had to be banished… but when Robert, Adelbert and Joan testified as to what they saw, and the elders saw what Marie had done to the gryphon—one that would surely have sold for thousands of dollars, too; income the clan could use!—it was Marie who was banished the next night, after her wing was healed. It was only for four nights in the bayou, but that was long enough for the rest of us to realize that Marie was nothing like a good leader should be. Some of us wanted to persuade the elders to banish her forever, but that would have been wrong; she hadn't killed or crippled anyone. Finally, we decided that we would welcome her back, but she would never be our leader again. That is, most of us would welcome her back; we all knew that Marie and Isabel would never forgive each other."

"Or Robert, since he was the one who saw her first and alerted the others?" Angela guessed.

Yvette snorted. "Oh, that feud began a good two years before the gryphon statue was even started! That began when… er, Angela, you have heard of gays, the males who prefer other males, yes?"

"Oh, of course!" Angela assured her.

"Ah, good; since you were all hatched in medieval times, some of us weren't certain. Well, Robert is a male like that. It's not by his choice, really! He lamented to me once that, if he could only be aroused by a female at all, he and Rebecca would surely have become mates years ago. They have always been so close, but… Anyway, you understand his gayness is just something he must live with, like lacking horns or having feathered wings, yes?" Yvette asked a trifle anxiously.

"Okay," Angela shrugged.

"But Robert did not always know he was gay, and neither did the rest of us. And Robert is a fine male to look upon, wouldn't you agree? You did see him for a bit when we were at the safe house."

Angela nodded. "He's very handsome… but don't tell Broadway I said that!"

"We all think he is handsome; such a waste, that he can take no female for a mate!" Yvette sighed. "Some elders have given him grief over it, too; it took a long time for them to understand. But I was talking about why Marie hates him…. Once we were mature enough to think seriously about the males, Marie decided that Robert would be hers, and she set out to make him so. But nothing she did to flirt with him and seduce him worked; Robert simply could not be aroused, not even slightly, even though by that time Cecilia already had Martin following her every move by using much the same tactics. And Robert had never liked Marie that much anyway, because she used to be cruel to Rebecca sometimes, and I already told you how Rebecca and Robert are very close. So at a fais do-do, when Marie tried once more to claim Robert as hers for more than just a dance, Robert finally told her, in front of everyone, that he was no more interested in her than in a clay pot!

"Marie was humiliated, and she has never forgiven him for embarrassing her like that. And ever since we learned Robert is gay, Marie never fails to insult him and his gender preference, and encourage others to speak out against him. Which only makes Robert hate her even more, and he has a tongue even sharper than his talons when he wishes; if the two of them are stuck in a room together for more than four minutes, we must herd the hatchlings out before they hear words and phrases they're not supposed to learn yet! So you see, Angela, I have long had to live with two feuds, and I would much rather be friends with you than start a third one," Yvette finished.

Angela did indeed see her point. "All right, I'll forgive and forget," she agreed, "if you promise to leave my Broadway be in the future, even if Brooklyn finds he's interested in someone else. Oh, and leaving him be also means not making any cracks about his size or weight, okay? We all know he's overweight, but it's rude to remind him of that."

"Well, of course I wouldn't make remarks about his being overweight!" Yvette said, sounding affronted. "When have I ever?"

"How about, during the ride into town tonight?" Angela said pointedly.

"When did I—oh, you thought that was about his girth? Angela, I was complimenting him on his size overall; haven't you noticed he has such wonderfully broad shoulders and wings? He needs only lose a few pounds for the rest of the world to see that he is très homme; very manly indeed!"

Angela had to remind herself that she was trying to make peace with Yvette and become friends with her. So she held her tongue for a good four seconds before saying in a deliberately calm tone, "Yes, once he loses that weight, he'll be much more virile. And he and I will still be promised to each other, so you won't be chasing after him, right?"

"Yes, yes, promised to each other," Yvette said with an annoyed look. "Didn't I already tell you, I do not go pursuing males who have said already that they are happy with somebody else! If I were that type, you and he would know already!"

It was true, Yvette had kept her talons off Broadway since that first night. And it was as Diane Maza had said at the bachelorette party: It's all right if they look, so long as they don't touch, and the same rule applied for males as well as females. Angela said as much, and apologized to Yvette for her insinuation.

"That's all right," Yvette said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "But tell me truly… Broadway's weight bothers you greatly, doesn't it?"

"Well… somewhat," Angela admitted.

"But you love him, as he loves you, yes?"

"…Yes!"

"Then you should become mates as soon as possible!"

"What? No! That is, that's his incentive to lose weight; I've told him already that we'll become mates as soon as he loses enough pounds to… well, once he's fit and trim!"

"But haven't you heard, that sex is a fine aerobic exercise? Perhaps not as much as gliding, but it can be far more fun! Since his wing is injured he cannot chase you in the air for now, but you both have good legs, yes? Make him chase you on foot for a while each night before he catches you, or before you trick him and pounce on him. Back at the estate, we have dozens of acres of bayou for chasing each other in… A good chase and a good long frolic every night, and the pounds will just melt away!"

Angela's tone was acidic. "And you speak with the voice of experience, I suppose?"

Yvette looked hurt. "You doubt me? Then speak with Lucretia, or Ursula, or any of the clan elders; any of them would tell you the same! And yes, they will speak from experience!" and with that, she sped up and glided away from Angela, moving to glide alongside Brooklyn and Broadway.

Angela was a little sorry that she'd evidently offended Yvette with her last comment, but she didn't try to glide up and apologize. Instead, she hung back and followed the others to their destination; Yvette had given her something to think about.

To be continued…