DoomPet

Chapter 27

She could barely open her eyes. All she could make out was a blur of reds and greys in front of her. Warmth radiated from bodies of her fellow gargoyles next to her.

She was in the community 'pile.' A wriggling mess of wailing, squeaking baby gargoyles, of course they were called squabs as slang. Other demons have similar methods of child care. The good old throw 'em in a pile and make a few adults take care of them.

Gargoyles just tossed their spawn in the pile and hope for the best. There were no caretakers of any sort, only the kind minority who would toss scraps into the pile just to watch the babies struggle to eat them.

Of course, Daisy didn't have her loving name given to her by Vega, not yet at least. She was referred to as "The big one," but when she remembers back on her time as a squab she likes to think she's always been Daisy.

Daisy was decently sized and had earned the affections of the scrap bearers. They made sure to feed her well and she could bully the others into getting plenty of food, unlike the starving runts that sat on the edges of the pile. She had her own warm resting spot in the center that allowed her to enjoy the body heat of all the others.

She was the strongest and most powerful; it felt good to have her claws sunk deep into the possibly that she really would grow up to be and adult and leave the pile.

A clawed hand reached down and picked her up. She screamed and thrashed around, attempting to bite whatever grabbed her, as she was yanked away from her resting spot.

"Hush now little one. You'll need to save that energy."

She struggled to open her eyes and made out the face of an ugly looking man with grey skin wearing a weird hat.

"Open your eyes all the way." The man turned his head to face one of the gargoyle she recognized as a scrap bearer. "Is this one... defective?"

There were the screeches of a gargoyle and then a translator out of view spoke, "Apparently not. They open their eyes much later compared to other demons."

The man held Daisy's body in his palm and steadied her head in between his thumb and forefinger and with his other hand he slowly pried her eyes open. "There. Now go do that with all the others we collect. We want them to be warriors not blind slugs."

Daisy's new view was blurred by tears. Every blink stung her burning sensitive eyes that were now exposed to the hot stinging air of hell. She started whimpering and curled in on herself.

A chorus of howls and shrieks exploded from the gargoyles that had gathered around; the translator spoke nervously to the man, "Deag Grav that one you're holding has become their favorite squab. They say if you want to take that one it will cost an extra carcass."

Deag Grav let out an annoyed huff and sighed, "Why would I do that? The payment for twenty of these little squirming slugs was five pinky carcasses. I'm already overpaying."

A pure white female gargoyle, the matriarch of the swarm, lunged off a ledge behind Deag Grav and snatched Daisy out of his hand. Her wingspan was so large the tips of her wings brushed against the cave walls. She turned and sprinted down one of the long tunnels carved into the rock ways of the huge sprawling gargoyle's nest.

She was only holding Daisy here temporarily until the threat of Deag Grav running off without paying was gone. The adult pitied the little child. She had such a bright future as a gargoyle only to be sold for a heap of flesh to become a test dummy for experimentation.

She looked down at the little writhing beast. This squab definitely had a good chance of being her daughter. Most of the time it was easy to tell, due to her albino gene expressing itself. Each gargoyle nest had a specific recessive gene. Some were melanistic, piebald, gold, or like her albino, but she supposed this little gargoyle would never learn their ways.