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A young gargoyle sat on a cast iron chair outside her clan's home. From the deck she could see the entire valley below the house. Everything was still, calm, and serene. It was very boring. There was probably something more interesting going on on the other side of the hill. Berkley was always more fun than this quiet hillside, or even downtown. She walked to the door, her long skirt rustling softly and her strings of beads around her neck making a quiet, clattering noise. She leaned inside.
"Hey, Dartainia, want to make a break for Telegraph?" she called inside.
"Sounds groovy, but what about the eggs? I mean, it wouldn't be cool to get caught leaving them," Dartainia replied.
"We'll get Rindama to watch 'em," the gargoyle responded. "This place is totally square."
"I hear ya, man!" was what Dartainia said.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The two gargoyles dove and glided off the deck to a dark café somewhere in Berkley. They had left Rindama alone to watch over the brood of eggs and keep their home safe while the others had gone their separate ways. Rindama was a bit preoccupied, and rightly so. The clan was going to die. It was going to happen soon, and it was going to be at the hands of one of the creatures contained within these four eggs.
There was a flash of light on the deck that went more or less unnoticed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"When are we now?" Brooklyn was heard to say.
"It's our home!" Mikaia suddenly shouted, "It's the clan house in California!"
"Yes," Banshea told her, "but this is 1966."
"The year we hatched!" Shaunsha said excitedly. Banshea nodded solemnly as she disappeared in a ball of flame.
“Who are you? What are you doing here?” somebody demanded. Brooklyn, Shaunsha, Mikaia, Casha, and Lilah started at the unexpected voice. They turned to see the speaker.
“Rindama!” Casha exclaimed. Rindama looked puzzled.
“Do I know you?” Casha struggled to explain herself.
“Well, you see, I’m from the future, and –“
Rindama cut her off. “And I’m a flying monkey. Look, you had better explain yourselves right now. This is my home, and I have been left to protect it at all costs.”
“But we are from the future!” Mikaia protested.
“Do you think I hatched yesterday?” Rindama said. Then her voice became stern. “Get out now.” She looked from one bewildered face to another. “If you won’t leave, then I shall make you leave!” She picked up a large, red book, the Grimorum. “Fulminos venite!” she cried.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Demonita and Lucifess looked around them in confusion.
"What are we doing back at this place? We were banished, remember?"
"You haven't been banished yet," Banshea explained. She was getting tired of these two. She constantly had to explain things to them. They couldn't even seem to keep her sisters off her back properly.
"What are you talking about?" Demonita asked. Banshea growled slightly.
"The year is 1966. You haven't been hatched yet. Nobody has ever heard of you, let alone care that you will be banished in three decades," she explained. If her cousins annoyed her much more they may have to get used to life in the sixties. At least it would keep them out of her hair for a while.
"Why are we here?" Lucifess wanted to know.
"Why are any of us here, Lucifess?" Banshea snapped. "You are here because I brought you here. We are going to rid ourselves of my two sisters and get them out of the way. I don't know about you, but I am sick of the two of them constantly interrupting my plans!”
“What are your plans?” Demonita asked. Banshea sighed. Perhaps the Jurassic Era would be an acceptable time for her two cousins. They certainly weren’t doing her any good in this century. Banshea pushed the door that led off of the deck and into the house open. There was no one to be seen. She remembered that her sitters were never very eager to be left at home watching out for her and her sisters. She smiled. Things were finally working out for her. There was no way that she could fail now. She would be able to kill her sisters before they got on her nerves. She could achieve her ultimate goals uninterrupted. She was going to win.
The three of them looked around. Everything was as they remembered it from before the fire that destroyed their home in the early 90’s. There was the kitchen, and the dining room adjoined it. Banshea walked through the dining room, closely followed by her cousins, opened a door, and walked down a dark staircase. She looked around at the room. It was the nursery. She opened another door, and stepped into a dark, warm, and humid room. The rookery. In the dim light the four eggs could barely be made out. Four? Why four? Was this a sibling that Banshea had never before known, had never heard of? It seemed unlikely, and yet there was an egg. A fourth egg, when there were only three sisters.
Lucifess had picked up a baseball bat on the way down, and raised it as she was about to bash in two of the eggs. Banshea raised a hand to stop her.
“We don’t know which egg is which yet!” she hissed angrily. “You might be about to kill me!”
The door behind them suddenly closed. Banshea ignited a small fireball which she used as a torch to try to see who it had been. Thought most would not have been able to see the person leaning against the door, Banshea held a special bond with her sisters. It was this that had prevented Shaunsha from being injured by a fireball intended to kill Casha, and it was this that allowed Banshea to see a faint image of Mikaia holding the door shut, made invisible to most by Shaunsha’s magic.
Lucifess could not see her cousin, but she knew of Shaunsha’s powers. She ran charged at the door, swinging her baseball bat at whoever was there. She was, however, picked up and thrown across the room by hands she could not see. Lucifess hit the wall, hard, and after a moment picked herself up and braced herself against any attack.
“Mikaia,” Banshea hissed. “I came here to rid myself of you!” Banshea took a step forward, but was knocked over by a shaft of lightning from another side of the room.
“Go,” Rindama said, “now. If you must fight do it not in here. I am to protect these eggs and I will.” When Banshea, Lucifess, and Demonita did not immediately leave, she held her book up and cried once more, “Fulminos venite!” And Demonita reeled from the lightning bolt that left Rindama’s fingertips.
Shaunsha removed her invisibility spell from Mikaia, Brooklyn, Lilah, and herself. “Don’t hurt my sister!” she shouted.
“I do not care who you are, or where or when you are from,” Rindama said, “if you are going to fight it must not be here. I will protect these eggs and the creatures within at all costs.” Mikaia nodded. In a lightning-quick move she rushed Banshea, knocking her over. Banshea’s head hit the floor and she was stunned. Brooklyn managed to pin Demonita, and Lucifess, now badly outnumbered, shrugged and walked out the door, closely followed by Casha, then Mikaia, supporting Banshea, Brooklyn leading Demonita, Shaunsha, and Lilah. Rindama watched them leave, satisfied. The eggs and the infants within were safe, even if one of them would eventually be responsible for the clan’s death. What was to be done about that? She could kill the first hatched. That way the prophesy could not be fulfilled. Yes, that would be a wise course of action.
One of the eggs started to move. There was a squeaking noise as the tiny being within struggled to break free of its shell. The egg began to crack, and a tiny head emerged. The hatchling was large, had soft brown skin, and a tiny black tuft of hair. She made soft mewing noises as she waved her arms, seeking warmth.
As Rindama looked at the child, she knew she could never bring it to harm. She wrapped it in a warm blanket. Perhaps, if the hatchling was taken far away and never was part of the clan, the prophesy would not come true. Yes, that would probably do it. She held it, wrapped her wings around it. She would name it Casha. It was a good name. She rocked Casha into sleep, picked up the Grimorum, and left out a little-used door. Casha would never know her clan, and it would probably be better that way.
Rindama didn’t realize until it was too late that by leaving her clan she had sealed their fate. The hatchling would not be directly responsible for the clan’s destiny being fulfilled, but it was because of her that Rindama left the clan. Rindama, the one gargoyle in the clan who wasn’t caught up in the euphoria of the time. If she had stayed, instead of trying to hide from fate, the clan probably would have survived.
Just after Rindama left, one of the other eggs moved, began to crack, and broke as the creature within forced her way out. This hatchling had light gray skin, bright blue eyes, and dark blue “peach fuzz” for hair. She blinked, looked around, and let out a shriek, receiving no immediate attention.
“Whoa, man,” Mirr said as she walked in to investigate the noise. “Hey! Dartainia! Check it out!” Dartainia came in.
“She sounds like that thing in Ireland that they told us about.”
“The banshee?”
“Yeah, man! Whoa, totally cosmic thought, here: that should be the kid’s name!” Mirr nodded her approval.
“How do you spell that? We could put it on her diapers or something.”
“Gee, man,” Dartainia said in reply over the din, “I really don’t know.”
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