A mist appeared out of nowhere on the lake, and the small vessel emerged from its shroud. Rene brought the craft ashore silently. They hadn't spoken much since leaving the island. Denna had expressed her determination to find her rookery brother. Rene felt bad for having hurt her, and he felt that he owed his daughter, and immediately offered his help. Lila found that she couldn't speak to the point. She didn't regret her decision, but at the same time she wasn't as sure of it as she once was. She and Rene knew the humans hadn't left the area where the clan's old home was. Their house was a short hike from the lake. Denna wrapped her cloak tighter around her as she followed Rene through a neighborhood. The sidewalk sloped up as they entered another, a neighborhood where the houses were a bit more secluded on the hill. Rene and Lila kept their fae "feelers" out for the same vibrations they'd felt in the cave so long ago. Finally they came to a normal-looking, one-story house surrounded by tall, thick Italian Cyprus trees. There was a basketball hoop above the garage door, and various wind chimes hanging above the porch. There was a large front lawn, and some kind of large tree off to the side. Lights were on in the house, and from somewhere there came the sound of a guitar being played. Denna looked at her parents, and they nodded. The three stood before the door, and Denna rang the bell.
A tall woman with dirty blonde hair answered the door. She looked at the couple standing on her porch a moment, then said, "can I help you folks with something?"
"Forgive the intrusion," Lila said. "Eighteen years ago there was a terrible tragedy in the hills, many lives were lost."
The woman looked surprised at first, then wary. "How do you know about that?" she asked. A voice came from inside the door, "Pam, honey, who's at the door?" A man appeared next to her, he had darker hair and was as tall as the woman. He also didn't say anything at first when he saw them.
The sound of the guitar floated out from inside the house.
Lila went on. "There were thought to be no survivors, but that assumption was wrong."
"Who are you? What's this all about?" Pam asked.
"A child was left with you, isn't that right?" Rene asked gently. "We mean no harm, we're not with any authorities. You do have a child, don't you?"
The man and woman were at a loss for words. Eighteen years ago they found a gargoyle egg on their doorstep. They'd raised the child as their own, the last of their clan that had perished that tragic day. They recognized the boy's features, saw their friends' faces in his, and called it a miracle. Their closest friends and neighbors kept the secret, there had never been a problem with someone finding out that the human couple was raising a gargoyle. "Who are you?" they asked again.
A third, cloaked figure appeared from the shadows. Denna removed the hood of her cloak and extended a taloned hand to Pam. "My name is Denna," she said. "I'm looking for my rookery brother."
Pam shook the young girl's hand and stared at her. She saw other faces in hers, just as she saw when she looked at her son. "Mike," she gasped to the man, "I don't believe this..."
"Maybe you better come in," Mike said to the trio, holding the door open for them.
"Pam met them first" Mike said, handing Lila and Rene each a cup of coffee. "She works as a park ranger, she's always up in the hills, hiking around for one reason or another." Mike sat down, sipped his coffee. "Sometimes I'm up there with her, getting inspiration," he said, indicating a painting on the wall of the hills nearby. "I always wanted to paint the clan, but.." he trailed off, and sipped from his cup again.
"I sprained my ankle trying to lead those goons away," he continued. "I guess they saw us come out of the cave, we were just outnumbered." He couldn't look at Denna. After all this time, raising his son, a constant reminder of their helplessness, and he couldn't look at this girl. She understood that, and sat quietly listening, and watching the doorway through which Pam had disappeared a few moments earlier.
"Their two eggs were the only life left in that cave," Lila said. "They were hidden deep inside, farther than the rest of the rookery. It's not surprising that they didn't bother to look deeper for other eggs to destroy." Lila and Rene had explained to the humans about the third race and their powers. Pam and Mike had learned long ago that there are things in the world that most people don't know about, like gargoyles and the fae.
Denna could hear the guitar the whole time the adults chattered, until it suddenly stopped. She watched the door expectantly.
A few moments later, Pam reappeared in the doorway, along with her gargoyle son. He was only slightly taller than Denna, with light brown, shoulder length hair. His wings were eagle-like, unusually varied from the normal bat-like wings like Denna had. His hair conveniently covered his ears and forehead ridges, Denna assumed that he could pass for human as easily as she could. He was not fully grown, but it was obvious he would have the broad shoulders and height characteristic of male gargoyles.
"This is our son, Dante," Pam said.
Denna stood and walked towards her brother. All the things she'd wanted to say, since Avalon, since finding the house, all the little speeches she'd planned on making, were now gone from her mind, and all she could do was look at him. Had he grown up like her, loved by adoptive parents and yet still very much isolated and alone? Was meeting his rookery sister as much of a weight lifted from his shoulders as it was for her?
And all he could do was stare back at her.
After a while they all sat down again, and continued to exchange stories of the past. Denna listened intently, but Dante seemed a little disinterested.
"So we decided to keep one egg, but what to do with the other..." Lila said, but Pam interrupted. "Wait a sec, you just up and decided to separate them? The last two survivors of an entire clan, and you decided to separate them?"
"That's right."
"Well who the hell were you to decide that?" Pam said, her voice growing louder. "They were clan, maybe that doesn't mean much to fairies but to gargoyles, next to protecting their home, clan is the most important thing!"
"Mom, calm down," Dante said.
"We could have left them to die, but we didn't," Lila pointed out.
Denna couldn't stand the arguing anymore. She excused herself, threw on her cloak and headed out the front door. She didn't go very far. She stood on the lawn, looking up at the stars. She heard coyotes in the hills. She thought of the cave her clan had lived in, was it still there? Were there still pieces of shattered gargoyles on the cave floor?
Dante came out a few minutes later, an acoustic guitar in his hand. He sat under the large tree and began playing quietly. Denna glanced over at him a moment, then returned her gaze to the night sky. After a while, she wandered over and sat down beside him.
"You're pretty good," she said a moment later, indicating the guitar.
"Thanks," he said, never missing a beat. "It's the one thing I've always been really good at. It's how I got my name. It's actually Andante, but they only call me that when I'm in trouble," he said, smiling a little. Denna smiled too, and listened to the music. "What about you, where did 'Denna' come from?"
"Lila said they made it up, but I remember once when I was very young, a human child..couldn't have been more than two..she saw me, my wings and my tail and my clawed hands and feet, and began screaming. 'Denna!, denna!' she cried. Her mother came running, and she saw me too, and screamed 'A demon!' Lila and Rene wiped their memories clean with a spell, so now they don't remember the incident. I guess they thought I'd forgotten, but..."
Dante stopped playing and looked at her seriously. "Denna, that's so sad," he said.
"Sad or not, it's my name. I've defined it with my personality, my soul if you will. It's mine...it's me."
Dante sat silently a minute, letting this sink in. Then he started playing again. Denna ran her hands over the grass, feeling its energy. This was one of Dante's favorite places to practice, she could feel that, the glamour of hours spent under the tree playing one tune or another.
"They showed me once where our clan used to live, but they never let me go inside before," Dante said. "I think now would be a good time to do that, don't you?"
"I don�t' know," Denna said quietly, "isn't that a little morbid?"
"Yeah, I guess, but I've always wanted to see it anyway."
"Do you remember where it is?"
Dante thought, then said, "actually, I don't. It was a while ago."
Denna stood up. "Then we'll just have to ask for directions," she said, offering her hand. He took it and stood as well, and they headed for the house, but the adults appeared in the doorway before they got there. Lila and Rene walked swiftly to Denna. "We're leaving, now," Lila said.
"I'm not going anywhere," Denna said definitely. "You may leave if you choose, but I'm staying."
"Denna, you..."
"No, Lila," she said, "I said I was going to reunite my clan, and that's what I'm doing." They stared at each other intently, stubbornly. Finally Rene went to his daughter and said, "when you're ready to come home, you will be welcome." Denna looked up at him and gave him a huge hug. She glanced once more over at Lila, but neither of them said another word. Rene led Lila down the street, towards the lake.
Dante put a hand on her shoulder. "You gonna be okay?" he asked.
"Yes, in time, I suppose," Denna said, watching the fae disappear around the corner. She turned to him and said, "let's go see the cave."
It didn't take the three of them (Mike had stayed behind) very long to move the rocks blocking the cave's entrance. Pam was worried that the weather would have sealed them tighter, but Denna and Dante found that they could claw the rocks away easily. They stood in the cave's mouth, Dante with a flashlight. Neither of the gargoyles could move just yet. This is where their parents had lived, this is where they died. Pam stood in front of them and said, "I'll leave you two up here, but don't stay too long, and seal the entrance again when you leave." They nodded. Pam looked at them again, seeing old friends again, and said, "We knew your parents. Your mothers were best friends, and I remember, they were so excited about raising the rookery, it was all they ever talked about." She looked like she wanted to say more, but didn't. She just hugged Dante, and then Denna too, and left the cave.
Dante shone the light around the cave. It looked like any other cave in the hills when you first walked into it. But towards the back there were small tunnels leading deeper into the mountain, and Dante followed one. Denna kept her glowing eyes on the floor. Mike and Pam had collected the pieces of the gargoyles and buried them all together somewhere in the cave, with no marker. Denna figured that their vibrations would have long ago faded away, but she tried to sense them anyway. Dante came back into the first cave. "Hey Denna, check this out," he said, heading back down the tunnel, this time she followed.
They came into a large, slightly damp chamber. There was, in the center, a shallow hole dug in the sand, no more than a foot deep, with a short wall of dirt around it. Dante aimed the light at the walls, and Denna could see a few bed-like indentures carved into the rock.
"The rookery," she said, awestruck.
"Do you think this is where we started?" Dante asked. She didn't answer. She was now sitting in one of the indentures, staring at the hole. "Denna?"
"I was just thinking of what Pam said, about our mothers. How they were looking forward to being mothers...and they died before we hatched." She stood up and asked him silently for the flashlight. She scanned the cave wall with it, and found another tunnel near the one they'd come through. She followed it, winding and down sloping, and came to a very small chamber. There were shelves in the walls, lined with moss. Dante looked over her shoulder at one of them. "This is where Lila and Rene found us," she told him. "I think our mothers put us down here, to protect us."
"Denna, shine the light here," Dante said. She aimed it at his hands, in which he held a small silver tear-shaped pendant on a black leather chord. Denna had seen him wearing it earlier. "Pam said she found this when they came back, after the destruction. She said it belonged to a friend of my mother's. I'd like you to have it." He draped the chord over her head. She looked down at it, grasped it in her hand. A wave of images flashed through her mind as she held it, a lifetime's worth, but they were too fast for her to see clearly. She released the pendant and looked at her brother. "Thank you," she said almost in a whisper.
"Sure," he said, a small smile on his face.
They wandered around the cave only a short time after that, then resealed the entrance and glided back to the house.
** Chapter 3: (West San Fernando Valley, California, 1996) **
Anna Ramirez threw her pencil down on the table and sighed. She took her glasses off and set them on the table a bit more gently, and leaned back in her chair. "I'll never get these stupid reports to come out right," she said, exasperated. A mess of papers lay before her, and beside them an electronic calculator.
Denna glanced over her shoulder from where she stood at the sink. "Take a break then, it's not like they're due tomorrow," she told her. "Put it away for now and keep going tomorrow."
Anna sighed again. "No, I can do it, I just need to stay focused," she said, putting her glasses back on. Then she glanced over at the living room door. "Of course it'd be easier if someone's TV program wasn't so loud," she said into the doorway.
Two male voices responded in unison, "sorry", but the volume remained the same. Anna only laughed and shook her head.
Denna looked at the plate in her hand and decided it was clean enough, and handed it over to her special helper, Anna's 10 year old son, Michael. The boy took it from her very carefully and dried it thoroughly, then set it on the counter with more clean dishes. "Are we almost done?" he asked Denna.
"Yes, almost." Denna felt around in the sink water for other dishes. She leaned over and whispered, "I can finish the rest, if you really want to go watch the game with them." She had barely finished her sentence when Michael threw down his towel with a smile and scooted into the living room.
"I'll pretend I didn't see that," Anna said, not looking up from the papers. Denna smiled.
When all the dishes were dried, Denna also wandered into the living room. Michael's father, Miguel, and her rookery brother Dante were deeply enthralled with the baseball game on TV. The boy sat between their legs on the floor, watching what he called his "future co-workers." Denna leaned in the doorway and asked halfheartedly, "so, who's winning?"
"The Dodgers are whippin' major butt tonight," Miguel said, his eyes still glued to the screen.
"What did you expect, they're playing Chicago," Dante said, equally as distracted.
Denna stood in the doorway for a while watching the guys watch the game. Denna didn't dislike baseball, but it wasn't an obsession like it was with them. She knew the rules of the game and which teams were currently in the mainstream, and that was enough for her. She smiled when Dante's face lit up when one player got a triple. The past years with her rookery brother had felt truly like living. Through good and bad, there was someone there with her who understood her exact position. They didn't argue very often, but when they did it was totally intellectual. Dante still played guitar like a pro, and Denna had exchanged her magickal art for research, trying to find out all she could about their race. She learned that long ago gargoyles were many in the world, and their primary function was to protect their home and any humans that were kind to them, and each other. But no clans had been reported for many, many years. Of course, Denna thought, the world being what it is today they all probably went into hiding. Still, she hoped one day to meet others. But for now, she had Dante, and they were happy.
Denna was pulled from these thoughts by a chorus of "aw, man!" and "what the-?" She focused on the screen as the announcer said, "we interrupt this program for a special news bulletin."
"But the news doesn't come on until I'm asleep," Michael said.
"For this breaking story," said the announcer, "we join our correspondent in New York City."
"We're here live at the site of massive destruction. Some kind of explosion has destroyed the entire top half of an NYPD precinct. Rescue teams are just moving in, so no reports of injury as of yet. But we are told that the explosion was most likely intentional. Our sister station here in New York has recorded evidence of some kind of creatures flying away from the ruins of the clock tower. Witnesses say these creatures, though thought to be long extinct, are gargoyles that have been living in the city for at least a year..."
"A year...," Denna breathed.
"The footage you're now seeing was taken shortly after the explosion, and clearly shows at least a half dozen of these legendary creatures flying away from the scene. The NYPD has not issued a statement on their response to this incident, or whether they believe the gargoyles are responsible. Right now the main concern is reaching those inside. We'll keep an eye on the situation and report back anything new as it developes. Reporting live from..."
Dante clicked off the TV and looked to his rookery sister. He imagined that same look of shock on his own face.
"Why did we never hear tales of gargoyles living in New York?" Denna asked awestruck. "All our searching and not one word."
"They probably tried to hide themselves as best they could," Dante said. "It'd be the perfect place to hide though, above a police station. Fitting for protectors, you know? I doubt they'd blow up their own place."
Anna appeared in the doorway beside Denna. "Time for bed, Michael," she said.
"But Mom, did you hear what just happened? There's gargoyles in New York City!"
"Yes mijo, I heard, but it's still bedtime."
"Come Michael," Denna said, "I'll tuck you in."
When the boy had brushed his teeth and put on his pj's and crawled under the covers, he asked Denna, "are you gonna go meet the gargoyles?"
"I don't know, New York's pretty far, and once we got there, where would we start looking for them, New York's big too."
"Well I think you should go. You're always talking about meeting other gargoyles, I bet they'd wanna meet you too. I bet they know what happened to all the other gargoyles in the world. They could show you around the city, then it won't seem so big. And Dante could bring his guitar and play for them, and you could tell them stories."
Denna smiled. "Is that a request?"
Michael shrugged, but looked hopeful.
"You should go," he said, "we'd miss you, but I bet you'd have fun. Dante too."
It was late, and the pair were gliding back to the place where they sleep, an old Spanish mission in the hills that was now a gift shop. The Ramirez family and the shop's owner were the only ones that knew they existed, and that was fine for them. They perched by day on shelves on either side of the back door, and when they awoke, they went on patrol, gliding over the valley unseen. Then if it wasn't too late, it was to the Ramirez house, and on the way back from there, another patrol. It was a good life, but a lonely one, as they imagined it must be for the New York clan.
"I believe we should try and meet them," Denna said as she set down in the back garden.
"Okay, no problem, I'll book the next flight out."
"I'm serious," she said. "We could hide on top of trains for most of the way. Besides, it'd be a wonderful opportunity to see the country."
"I don't know Denna. How do we know that clan didn't high tail it out of New York? That's what I'd do if an entire city thought I'd blown up a cop station."
"It's their home. They wouldn't leave."
They were both silent for a moment.
"Tough call," Dante said.
Denna hopped up onto her perch. "I want to go, Dante," she said softly. "I would very much like it if you went with me."
Dante climbed up opposite her. He gave a shrug and said, "why not? What am I going to do around here by myself?" He smiled. "Okay, it's off to the Big Apple for us."
Denna returned the smile as the first rays of morning crested the eastern hills.
to be continued....
12-13-99