Chapter 4.

"Oh my god. That was amazing!" Willow gushed as they landed in Giles' courtyard. "I can't believe I was afraid to fly!"

"Shush, Willow. People are trying to sleep. And I would rather they didn't look out their windows right now," Giles shushed her as he landed as expertly as the others.

"Sorry," she whispered.

They made their way into Giles' apartment where he laid out bread, meat, condiments, and drinks. "Make yourselves some sandwiches. I'll be down in a minute."

"We've got it Giles," Buffy said when he returned from upstairs. "We find a park and then just let ourselves turn to stone there. People will think we're just statues and leave us alone. Vamps can't hit us in the sunshine and when we wake up, people will already have abandoned the park. 'Cause, you know, vampires."

Giles nodded without really agreeing. "That isn't a bad idea, Buffy. But what's to keep the park commission from removing the unauthorized statues during the day? And who knows what might happen then? Whether we get smashed on purpose for being unauthorized 'art' or whether they accidentally drop one of us...?" he let the implications for that settle on everyone. "Perhaps in a bit, we can come back and decorate this fair city. Though first I'll want to order some carved gargoyle imitations and have them left around town and see what happens to them first."

The children nodded at the wisdom of that idea.

Giles went on. "Soon enough, we'll approach someone we think we can trust with our secret. However, it's too late to wake someone for that."

"What about our parents?" Willow asked.

Giles sighed. He'd forgotten that each of the students had guardians who cared for them and would miss them if they didn't return tonight. He didn't want them thinking about parents, or anything in their old lives right now. Such thoughts might lead to brooding. Brooding would lead to depression and he would do his utmost to keep them from that. "Thank you for reminding me. Is there a way you can call and tell them not to worry about you for a day or two?"

"I can call my folks and tell them I'll be staying at Willow's for a few days," Xander shrugged. "My voice hasn't changed that much, has it?"

"And I'll call my folks and tell them I'm staying at Buffy's!" Willow said a bit too excitedly.

Buffy smiled at the enthusiasm of her new friend. "And I'll call my mom and... Well, I hope she'll let me stay over at Willow's. Not like there's much I can do if she won't let me." The Summers women had only recently moved to Sunnydale, after all. Buffy was counting on her mother being too happy about Buffy making new friends to do the research she might normally do.

"Tell her you're staying at my place instead then," Amy said. "If she says no, then at least Willow won't go down with you when she figures what's up. Better than your parents calling each other and figuring out about both of you."

"Thanks, Amy," Buffy put a gentle hand on her other new friend's shoulder.

"Very well. Make your calls quickly, please. It's been a rather exciting night already and I would rather spend the rest of the night looking for a spot to rest for the day. Here," he pulled out a map and pointed. His other hand tapped out a nervous rhythm on his leg. He wanted to get going and avoid giving the children too long to think. Keep them busy until they accepted their new lot in life. Keep their hopes up with promises until it became too obvious to deny. Not that he would stop looking for a cure, but with Catherine dead and her books burned, there would be no quick fixes from this.

"Los Padres National Forest," Buffy read. "That scrub-land just north of Sunnydale?"

"It's 'scrub-land' around here because the trees were logged off over a hundred years ago. But Los Padres is an immense place with a wide variety of habitats from scrub-land and desert to old growth sequoias, nearly 2 million square acres all told. And while it gets several million visitors yearly, most of those never go more than a hundred yards from the nearest road or campsite."

"In other words, if someone had say, a set of wings," Xander put in, "they could find a place far from any trails and settle down for the night. Or for the day."

Giles nodded, "Precisely. There are several areas we might try. Including some old growth Jeffrey Pine stands. Though, I'm not sure how much they might shade us without providing adequate cover from prying eyes on the ground. What I'm really aiming for is something called Chaparral. It's a type of dense scrub-land vegetation which should shield us from prying eyes on the ground while still allowing for good sun penetration from above. Still, we won't know until we get there. I suggest we be off?"

After making their calls so their parents wouldn't worry for at least one more day, they exited the apartment and followed Giles as he jumped first to one level and then the second. Xander and Buffy had a contest to see who could jump from the ground to the rooftop without hitting the first story first. Both made it, which only started an argument about who had jumped higher.

"Ahem. If you two are finished?" Giles raised an eyebrow. He waited until they were sufficiently chastised then he jumped high above his apartment block and snapped his wings open. The children followed suit just behind him, heading north. As they neared the hill that marked the beginning of the forest, Giles started flapping to gain altitude. However, it soon became clear that even flapping hard, they were none of them going to make it over the first hill overlooking the town.

Giles found himself letting out a low growl of frustration. Then he dove, he didn't even look back to make sure the others were following, trusting that they would follow on their own and would instinctively learn how to control their new wings and tails. He pulled up to fly just above the vegetation which only sparsely covered the earth below. He was gliding up the hill just over the tops of the brush. Up and up he went, though soon enough he was running out of momentum. Without even thinking about it, he folded his wings behind him and landed. Then he started running, not on two legs, but in bounding leaps on four legs. It was amazing to him how fast the brush moved past him, especially considering that he was running sharply uphill. He reached the top, settled for half a moment into a great crouch and bounded up just as far as he could again before snapping open his wings again to fly. Behind him, the snap of several other pairs of wings told him that the others were following. He gave a quick glance back to make sure that everyone made it.

He became slightly alarmed when he didn't see Buffy behind him but just as he was getting ready to turn around a shadow passed over the moon. He looked up to see Buffy. She must not have followed him and instead had flapped hard enough to pull her smaller frame over the hill using only her wings. A stab of pride hit him, she was going to be a phenomenal flier, he was sure of it.

Buffy floated through the air with the greatest of ease. When everyone else had had to get out and push, she just kept on flying. Small hairs on her wings fed her a wealth of information about the air nearest her and her night vision allowed her to see bugs and bats that would normally be invisible to her. Their movements told her about the air currents all around her. She could almost see said air currents themselves. She floated up to avoid a gust that was about to blow in her face in the 50-75 feet of altitude range. Above 80 feet there was a slight tailwind she caught, which gave her a slight push.

Below her she saw her the group forming up instinctively in a staggered line behind Xander, who had the next biggest wings after her. But she could see he didn't have her vision. He was flying at about 55 feet of altitude. All he had to do was drop 10 feet and he could lessen the wind he was fighting against dramatically.

Instead he pressed on.

Buffy sighed. She didn't feel like shouting down instructions. And she felt that learning to ride the air currents was like learning to ride a bike. No one could tell you how to do it, you just had to do it and learn as you went.

The Jeffery Pines were certainly not what the gargoyles wanted. Too open underneath. They weren't even all that good as takeoff points as the mess of branches starting midway up the trunk was an impediment to launching yourself for flight.

Other stands of different trees were even thicker. Offering no more protection from prying eyes on the ground and even more limbs to obstruct take off. They left to look at Giles' Promised Land, the chaparral.

The problem with the chaparral was finding somewhere to land. 'Thick' didn't begin to describe the woody scrub. After several minutes of circling, Giles called out, "Wait for me to clear a place to land," then folded his wings tightly and fell. Not terribly far or fast as the chaparral was only 7-9 feet tall where they were. He crashed through the woody branches and hit the ground. Contemplating his new talons for the first time, he swiped them at the nearby vegetation. They ripped through it like a hot knife through butter. Soon enough he had a small area cleared and was pushing the scraps to the side when Xander, Amy, and Willow landed nearby.

They all looked up to see Buffy way too high to contemplate landing. But she folded her wings anyway and started falling feet first. Then her wings flared, but not in a flat plane like normal, they seemed to twist around her like a barber's pole. She began spinning as she fell. As she fell, she started spinning faster and faster and started falling slower and slower. All the gargoyles in the small clearing had to push themselves up against the sides of the clearing in order to not get smacked in the head by Buffy's wings as she lightly touched down and eventually stopped spinning.

Giles rubbed his temples. The girl was too dramatic and showy by a factor of ten to ever be an effective Slayer. But don't ever say she didn't have style.

"Wow, that was fun!" Buffy smiled when she finally stopped spinning.

"How are you not sick?" Willow wondered.

"Figure skating. They teach you how not to be sick while spinning really fast," Buffy explained.

Giles walked over to the indentation Buffy's spinning had made in the earth and brought a bunch of kindling he'd broken off from the nearby plants. "Very graceful, Buffy. Now, I wouldn't normally be lighting a fire here as the chaparral is much too quick to burn, but I think we could all do with the psychological comfort it can bring." And putting action to words, he put a piece of the vegetation he'd just cleared to the indentation made by Buffy's spinning landing. The heat from the friction of slowing her down made the small stick smolder, smoke, and finally burst into flame. He used that flame to light a small pile of sticks without any tinder at all showing just how quick to light it was. Then he piled on larger and larger sticks until they had an established fire going and a nice bed of coals.

The gargoyles all sat around the fire. "Gargoyles lived in large family groups called clans for several thousands of years," Giles began.

"Family groups?" Buffy said with a sniff. "What about inbreeding?"

"I'm not sure. The books I have didn't cover that or at least I don't remember if they did. More research will be necessary. May I continue?" Giles answered. "Now, the first thing I would like you to consider is that we should form a clan here and not try to meet or integrate with the other clan in New York just yet."

"Why shouldn't we try to meet them?" Willow asked.

"Yet," Giles reiterated. "And I don't want to meet them yet because despite our new physiology, we are all still human at our cores. We have human thoughts and follow human norms and customs. Gargoyles have gargoyle thoughts and follow gargoyle customs. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

"Not really," Buffy said with furrowed brow. "I think you're going to have to spell it out."

Giles sighed. He really didn't want to spell this out. "It goes back to your earlier point about inbreeding. We don't know how the gargoyles avoided that. Perhaps they didn't and that's why there's only a few clans left. But back when humans lived in tribes and clans of that size, one way they avoided inbreeding was by capturing women from neighboring tribes."

All three women made similar faces of shock, horror, and outrage.

"You think that they'd-"

"Eww!"

"..."

"No. I don't know that they'd do that," Giles interrupted. "In fact I'm fairly certain they would not. But I would rather not take the chance with something like that. I would like the opportunity to do more research and also train all of you in combat before we meet them."

"Training?" Xander perked up at that thought.

"Combat training?" Willow looked slightly apprehensive. "Why?"

"For several reasons. The other gargoyle clan in America appears to have at least five members as well. At least five that venture out from their roost, which might or might not be the whole clan. And secondly, the Hellmouth is now unguarded. All of your loved ones who still live here are now much more vulnerable to attack than they were just the other night." And those were just the reasons he was speaking out loud. A huge, underlying reason was simply for something to do. An action to take. He couldn't let the children stop and think about what happened or they might slip into melancholy that might take weeks to snap out of, if they ever did. Which was why he kept pushing them, pressing them to act. After a few nights- days of sleep, the risk would diminish as they saw that they could still lead lives as gargoyles – different lives – but lives none the less.

"Unless we do something," Buffy added resolutely.

Giles gave a small smile. His Slayer had accepted that she still had a sacred duty, Slayer or not. And where one leads...

"I'm in," Xander said quickly following Buffy's example.

"Me too!" Willow said right after him, ever following Xander. She had her reservations, but if Xander was in, so was she.

"Does this mean we're giving up on changing back?" Amy asked.

"Not at all. The first and most obvious way to change has eluded us but that doesn't mean that we might someday soon figure a way back. In the meantime, however...?"

Amy nodded solemnly. "I'm in."

"Very good. We are a clan then. Next we need a leader," Giles said, trying not to be too obvious in the direction he was leading them.

"Ooh! I nominate Mr. Giles!" Willow said.

"Do we vote for the leader?" Buffy wondered.

"Thank you Willow. Anyone else?" Giles said.

"I don't know, I suppose we could. We're kinda making it up as we go," Amy said.

"Xander, say 'seconded'," Willow ordered.

"Seconded?" Xander queried.

"Very well, seconded," Giles said. "All those in favor?" he raised his hand. Eventually, everyone else raised theirs too, some with more understanding of what was going on than others. Giles looked up at the stars in the night sky. "Right. We have several hours before sunrise. Any volunteers for training?"

Surprisingly, Amy was the first to stand up, with Buffy and Xander following just behind her and Willow grudgingly standing as well.

"Wonderful," Giles smiled a rather fearsome grin. Then he started twisting and turning his body in various ways. The kids looked at him, then spread out and also started to stretch. "What? Oh, no. I don't think you need to stretch. The stone sleep will heal any injuries you might have while training. I was just trying to figure out how this new body works and how to adapt the fighting styles I know to them. Buffy, if you could assist me?" Buffy stepped forward. "I'm going to attack you. I want you to perform a hip throw on me, okay?"

She nodded and he threw a punch. She blocked it expertly and used his own momentum to throw him over her hip. But then she overbalanced and crashed down on top of him.

"What the heck?" she cried as she got to her feet.

Giles also got to his feet. "That was what I feared. Our bodies are somewhat dissimilar to our human forms, not even counting our wings and tails. That's three new limbs we all have to learn to deal with. Our feet are also quite different to their previous forms, you'll note that we're all naturally standing on the balls of our feet with the heels forming something like a reverse knee. We'll all have to learn how to use our feet all over again as well."

"So much for all my shoes," Buffy pouted.

Giles smiled at the joke more because it was a show of good spirits than because it was funny. "My apologies, Buffy but it looks like we're all starting back at square one. Still, I think a familiarity with the forms should give us both a slight boost." He then set about designing a brand new martial art and teaching it to the children all at the same time. The moves were less important than the fact that they were doing something, anything, that didn't involve thinking about their current situation. And beyond that, the exercise was good for teaching all of them about the ways their new bodies worked. Giles swished the new muscles in his tail to help him maintain his balance as Amy tried a move on him.

It was nearing morning, they could all feel it, a stiffness slowly creeping up on them. The fire had long since been put out by Xander falling on it during training, though none of them had really noticed. Their eyes adjusted rapidly to the darkness such that they could quickly see much better without the fire than they had been able to with it.

"Well, I suppose we should get ready for our stone-sleep," Giles said. He unfurled his wings slightly and took up a ferocious pose.

"You do what you gotta do, man," Xander said as he curled up near the northern edge of the clearing, putting him in place to absorb as much sunlight as possible from the southern winter sun.

"What are you doing, Giles?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It- well it- it's traditional for a gargoyle to assume a ferocious posture to scare off potential- I look silly don't I?" Giles relaxed into a normal stance again.

"Only to us," Buffy said. "Come on. I think Xander's got the right idea. If we're going to be rocks, we should imitate rocks."

Xander hadn't actually been trying to imitate a rock, he'd just been trying to get comfortable before going to bed. And when in Rome... So if he was an animal, he had decided to try laying down like an animal does. Luckily it turned out to be pretty comfortable. He looked to his right as Amy laid down and snuggled up next to him then to his left as Willow did the same thing on the other side. Buffy snuggled next to Willow and Giles next to her, not quite touching the others as he was unsure of the propriety of such an action. And thus did the five gargoyles greet their first sunrise. Disguised to all the world as five rocks in a clearing.