The Other Clans

The Clan Meeting

Lilias stretched and watched as the last rays of sunlight left the sky. She extended her wings out to their fullest extent. Her rookery brothers and sisters broke out of their stone skins as well. Lilias looked down over the castle that her clan roosted and guarded. The owner of the antique castle, a Mr. Duncan Faulkner, knew about them and protected them during the day. He gave tours of the majestic castle during the day, but he closed the doors early enough that no one would be in sight when the sun set and Lilias' clan awoke for the night. Lilias had had many conversations with Faulkner; he had told her of two other castles that he owned that also had gargoyle clans roosting in their walls.

"Hey Lilias, you coming for breakfast?" Gillian, one of her rookery brothers, asked as he spread his wings and prepared to fly down to the vast meeting hall.

"Dude, why are you even asking?" Coll asked from his own roosting spot, his dual wings jutting out of his back like moth wings. "She always has her head in the stars or her nose in a book."

"You might learn a thing or two if you bothered to pick one up," Lilias jested back as she hopped down and walked towards the stairs. She knew he could read, it had been one of Faulkner's stipulations on them staying. The other being that they helped protect the castle from humans who wanted to steal the antiques that the castle held.

"Whatever," Coll huffed before launching off into the night sky and pumping his wings. Lilias looked at her own wings. They seemed large and out of place on her small frame, but they were strong and could carry her easily to the other two gargoyle castles. Apparently, a thousand years ago, her kind could only glide on currents of wind but could not truly fly. Lilias shrugged mentally and opened the door to descend to the library. However, her rookery sister Elspeth landed on their tower out of breath.

"What's wrong Eli?" Gillian asked, draping his wings over his shoulders.

"Didn't you hear? Apparently we're not the only gargoyles!" Gillian and Lilias glanced at each other.

"We already knew that Eli," Lilias said. "There are at least two more clans that we know of." Elspeth was shaking her head before Lilias had finished.

"No, not them. There's a new clan." She was hopping from foot to foot with excitement, her winged arms fluttered with the movement. "It's across the ocean in a place called New York!"

"What?!" Gillian exclaimed, throwing his wings back with shock.

"Are you certain?" Lilias questioned; Elspeth nodded her head vigorously.

"Yeah, Faulkner is in the great hall now. He's asking if anyone wants to go and meet them." Eli clasped Lilias' talons tightly in her own. "Oh, please say you'll go. I want to so badly, but I don't want to go with complete strangers."

"Let's see what this trip entails first." With that Lilias extracted her hands and dove off the tower and flew towards the large open doors. Gillian and Elspeth followed closely behind her. Lilias slipped in the back, but her presence was not overlooked by those in the front of the room. Faulkner smiled and nodded his head at her. Lilias wasn't surprised. Her off-white scales were hard to miss, especially in the well lit environment. Next to Faulkner stood five gargoyles that Lilias had never seen before. There were three, two females and a male, that looked to be around her age, and the other two were an older couple. She assumed that they were all from the other clans. Her attention was drawn to her clan leader who stood near Faulkner and the unknown gargoyles.

"Does anyone else want to join our friends to see if there really are others of us in...America?" Neil asked the group. Elspeth nudged Lilias.

"I would provide safe transport to any who want to go," Faulkner said, glancing over at Lilias with a small smile. "And if you wish to return I can arrange that if or when the time comes." Lilias looked at Elspeth and Gillian. Eli still hopped from foot to foot with a grin. Gillian merely shrugged while a smirk played at his lips. Lilias finally raised her hand.

"I'll go."