One thousand years ago superstition and the sword ruled, it was a time of darkness, it was a world of fear, it was the age of gargoyles, stone by day warriors by night. We were betrayed by the humans we had sworn to protect, frozen in stone by a magic spell for a thousand years. Now we are in Manhattan, the spell is broken and we live again. We are defenders of the night we are GARGOYLES.
"Halloween Ball"
Jason walked out of the elevator wearing his prince Adam costume to match Elisa's Belle dress. He arrived just after sunset and realized that he was running late. Elisa had asked him to pick up the Princess and Guardian for the Ball. While she was with the twins as they were doing a quick round of trick or treating before going to pick up her parents.
Angela was already waiting with them.
"Hello Jason." She waved Jason over to where they were waiting. When he got close she turned towards the other two guests. "Please allow me to introduce Princess Katherine and Tom the Guardian, and this is Jason Canmore who is the husband of Elisa. He will be the one taking you to the park for the ball." Angela turned to Jason "I've already told them about the Halloween costume thing."
"Well it's not like we need to dress any different to meet this custom lass" Tom pulled out his sword to prove a point.
"Put that away Tom, we don't want you to scare away their guests." Katharine pointed out.
"Well we best be going if we expect to make it in time." Jason led the two humans to the elevator.
The gargoyles broke off in to six groups each group having one that was familiar with Manhattan. With so many gargoyles the nights patrol only lasted an hour before meeting up at the park.
All the groups had already landed in the park when Hudson's group arrived with the beasts in their arms. Within seconds all of the little kids where around all the new gargoyles.
The park was set up with a dance floor with picnic tables spread out all around it.
Goliath and Demona headed over to a group of tables. They found the one that princess Katherine sat at with Tom along with some of their human friends. Tom was having a heated conversation with Rody Daniels who had arrested him during his first trip to Manhattan.
"Hello Rody" he then looked up at Goliath.
"Hey man I wish you guys told me that the guy I arrested all those years ago was a real knight."
"Would you have believed us?" Goliath grinned down at his old friend as Mary; Rody's four year old daughter began to lead her daddy around to meet the other guests.
"So Princess Katherine was telling us about this breeder's moon… Tell me do you really only have kids once ever twenty years." Valerie Rody's wife asked while she was speaking to Goliath. Goliath looked over at Demona and grabbed her arm as she was about to walk by.
"Love, I do believe these questions are best answered by you." Goliath pulled Demona over to the woman.
"Ok what do you want to know the standard mating practices, who's on top, or more of the traditional stuff?" Demona sat next to the princess still looking at Valerie who began to blush a deep crimson due to Demona's openness regarding the subject.
"All of it if you don't mind. Are you guys that different from humans. Let's start with the biological aspect first, I'm a midwife, and I would like to know what it would be like to be a midwife for a gargoyle." Valerie asked excitedly.
"Well if you were a midwife for a gargoyle you would have a job for the next ten years. Every twenty years the females of our species go into a heat. For females during their first time they eat a special herb to make sure that all of us will have eggs at the same time. So, this time next year all the females in our clan will be taking it." Demona informed her. She tried to explain it has she always imagined she would to Angela the first time if she had raised her.
"Aren't these girls kind of young they look like teenagers." Valerie whispered. Demona just grinned back at her.
"There all forty-nine years old, we age three times slower than humans so that is why they only look like they are no older than teenagers." Demona replied.
Princess Katherine pointed at Tom "he is only eleven years older than they are."
"Wow! My god you're sixty and still able to where full armor, sorry I'm getting side tracked. How long is your typical life span?"
"I don't know most of the time we fall in battle but Hudson is one hundred and twenty nine as of yesterday. I think in the modern world with medicine and proper diet we might make it to two hundred or so. A female will be fertile for four breeder moons. We carry the egg for a full year before laying it. For another year the egg needs constant care it will double in size before the shell hardens. After eight years the egg will hatch on their own. I know that we could make them hatch sooner but it would be like having a baby not a toddler. The toddlers always had a better chance to survive back then."
"So you guys only have sex once every twenty years" Valerie felt sorry for the gargoyles. She couldn't imagine a life without sex.
"Oh, no our kind mates for life. Okay, the best way to describe it is to tell you that all of the younger ones you see are in a courting stage at this time and a tradition Goliath and I started copying from humans was the exchange of vows and a token. The first time we exchanged tokens we broke a magical object in half and he kept one half while I kept the other. We are planning to renew our vows with mating bands this time." She pointed to her arm band. "But to your topic about sex after our first breeder's moon we are more like humans in this regard, and it becomes a fun pass time to improve our bond with our mate, but thankfully no egg comes of it. We have our own built in birth control." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Goliath loaned me a human book and I'm going to see just how many different fun ways we can find to pass the time." She winked at Valerie as the young woman sat there stunned.
"Wow you should write a book about gargoyle customs. Anything else to highlight?"
"Some of the stuff we did when I was might not be passed on to this generation." Demona sighed as she thought about what she would like to pass on.
"What is one of the things you would want to be passed on?" The Princess and Valerie asked in unison.
Demona smiled "I would love to pass on the dancing but I don't know if our music made it into this century."
Goliath overheard her last statement his angel said and turned away from Tom who was telling Rody about how he got his armor. Putting his hand on Demona's shoulder he began to whisper in her ear.
"My love Lexington was able to recreate some of our music with his computers. He has it on his new I…Um, I think it is called an I-pod. On second thought would you ladies like to see one of our customs first hand?"
Before Demona could stop him he was on his way over to Lexington. Demona blushed as she let out a deep sigh. "I haven't danced in over a thousand years." She said nervously.
Elisa walked up to them wearing her Belle costume with her parents.
"Did I just hear that you're going to dance." She asked curiously. She had seen Demona move gracefully when she wanted to, but she never thought she was a dancer.
"Yes I was telling everyone about gargoyle traditions. When I mentioned dancing he ran off to have Lex play some of our old music." Demona stated and her cheeks began to turn a deep crimson color while she took a drink of her wine to steady her nerves.