His tale was strange; almost border-lining on unbelievable and impossible, if the proof wasn't standing in front of her; or all around her and or even on her very skin. Viking raiders, a scornful princess, a young man able to wield magic, a loyal Captain turned betrayer and a whole clan of gargoyles slaughtered in their sleep. The story was almost parallel to the story "Grandfather" had told her about; the destruction of the Arizonan Gargoyle Clans that her biological parents were descended from. In fact, it was almost uncanny how alike the tales were.

But still, magic that put Goliath and the last remaining remnants of his clan into a sort of suspended animation for a thousand years?

As far as she knew, magic existed only as tricks that deceive the viewer's eye and cause the wanting to figure out how they got away with it, even if they could not figure it out. Elisa knew this when the need to patrol the New York streets around where the Mazas lived at the time were too strong to ignore. She had begun witnessing a number of street magicians perform their tricks for interested pedestrians. And later, she had taught herself some of those tricks to entertain Derek and Beth when they were little children.

Nothing like what Goliath was describing, especially with the young man called The Magus.

But if she really thought about it, wouldn't magic explain the strange rush-like feeling she felt when she first stepped onto the stones of the castle?

And wouldn't she be considered magical in some way? She was a living breathing gargoyle after all. Something the world hardly knew really existed. And wouldn't some might as well think magic when a living thing suddenly becomes stone with the rising of the sun then living flesh once again when the sun set?

So maybe the idea of real magic is not so far-fetched, even if she still had her doubts. But it would explain how Goliath suddenly appeared in her city and why he seemed so confused by not only her presence but the whole world around him.

So intense on listening to Goliath that Elisa failed to notice that she, Goliath, and the beast now sitting at his side were no longer alone.

The Gargoyle Elder sighed in dismay once again as he listened to his three youngest surviving sons (he was much too old to really call any one of them, even Goliath, brother) try to explain why the kitchen they were found in by the humans was all but destroyed by their curiosity-provoked antics.

Apparently from what he could make out from their babbling, his red son somehow accidently set something on fire, which surprised him enough that he lost his delicate balance on his feet and crashed into his smallest brother, who was sent flying into a shelf full of pots. Somehow the shockwave of the crash disrupted the shelf above him and sent more pots and pans raining down upon the smallest of the brothers. That would have been all there was to the mess if his son that had the face that looked so much like his long-passed beloved hadn't found the room where meat and some other foodstuff was stored and somehow got trapped inside. His brothers were in amidst of pulling the surprisingly heavy metal door open when his largest son rammed into it while carrying a large armload of food, not knowing his brothers had just gotten the door open slightly.

The door was therefore thrown open under his heavy weight catching both the red brother and the yellow-brown brother off guard and off balance. Due to the momentum of his charge, their aquamarine brother couldn't stop in time even if he tried. Like a fast rolling ball hitting two other balls, the three brothers and the majority of the food ended up rolling around on the ground in different directions until they hit something, which unfortunately happened to break under their gargoyle weight, causing a huge mess. Meanwhile the rest of the food flew everywhere, splattering on walls, the ceiling and landing everywhere else, causing upset of other foodstuff and kitchen utensils, furthering the mess.

They tried to clean the mess up and the smallest brother tried in vain to fix whatever it was that they had broken, but all their efforts did only made the disastrous mess worse until Owen and Xanatos arrived to figure out what the commotion was.

The Elder himself had been looking for Goliath to get ready for their stone sleep when he heard the crash. Fearing that more intruders had got into the castle, he had searched for several agonizing long minutes to find either his sons to warn them of the danger or the intruders themselves if he happened upon them; only to find a basically destroyed kitchen, an apologetic trio and the two humans looking around at the damage. Thankfully Xanatos seemed more amused then furious with the fact that his kitchen was basically destroyed by three juvenile gargoyles. Meanwhile Owen was as stone-faced as ever while he called for some still sleeping servants to come up and clean the mess and fix whatever was broken. The trio then sheepishly went to their obviously cross Elder as Xanatos actually shooed them out of the kitchen.

"The fine mess you made of that kitchen lads," the Elder said sternly to the brothers as they walked (jumped in the red brother's case due to his small talons making it hard to balance his weight on his feet) down some stone stairs into the courtyard. "When I heard that crash I thought the—"

He was abruptly cut off by his smallest son's gasping "Look!"

The Elder and the rest of his young sons followed their brother's pointed finger up to a part of the castle's parapet where the west guard tower was located. The Elder felt as if his heart suddenly jumped into his throat at what he saw and the two small gasps beside him confirmed that his red and aquamarine sons were just as surprised as he was, if not more.

Very much flabbergasted, his yellow-brown son could barely comprehend what he was seeing. "Is Goliath talking to a female?"

The Elder answered his smallest son, much too surprised to rebuke him for his obviousness. "Aye lad."

"Whoa," gawked his red son, "I've never seen a female like her before."

Aye, the Elder agreed to himself. In all 116 years of his life, he had not once seen a gargoyle so human-looking as this lass. Not one female in their clan even came close, even though the faces of Goliath's mate and their blonde haired pink rookery sister could be considered "human" in gargoyle terms. Her form was not strong and muscular, but thin and graceful; a form built more for speed and aerodynamic maneuverability much like his red son. Unlike him however, she looked liked she was built for being in flight almost all the time; a trait he never saw in the few other gargoyles groups back home in their time. Her choice in clothing gave credibility to this fact. She wore no armor or weapons that could slow her down, other then what appeared to be what Xanatos called a "gun" in a small holster on her back. Instead she wore a black form-fitting shirt-like garment that covered her chest, midsection and half way down her arms, and pants made of a strange blue material that hugged her legs seemed to be fitted to not cause drag for her wings. The small red jacket tied around her waist seemed to serve no true purpose as far as the Elder could see.

The Elder briefly wondered if all gargoyles in this strange new world they found themselves in were all like her, but then stopped himself when he remembered what Xanatos said.

"You are the last of your kind" indeed!

"Do...do you think she's friendly?" the smallest brother asked.

"She must be," replied the red brother, "After all, Goliath wouldn't be talking to her if she wasn't. But let's go see for ourselves."

Before the Elder could say otherwise, the trio were gone from his side and heading toward Goliath, their friend-beast and the unknown female. With a shake to his head, the Elder took a different direction towards their leader, their friend and the fascinating young lass. During the whole way up, the Elder kept his eye on the three of them, searching for any sign of hostility from either one of them. But it was for not it seemed.

Their friend-beast was unusually passive for meeting yet another stranger, which was certainly different from the way he first met Xanatos and Owen, but perhaps it was merely because this particular stranger was one of their own kind. Goliath wasn't at all tense in the way he was expecting to be attacked; instead he was calmly talking to the lass, who was listening intently as she contemplated Goliath's words. These were all a good sign.

They could certainly use more allies to defend their castle if the danger of this strange era were as dangerous as those strange warriors that attacked their home were any more indication that they were out of their element. An alliance with the city's local clan would benefit them in re-learning how to survive living in the city, and if they could negotiate well enough, perhaps they would have more warriors come live with them here in the castle, hopefully bringing mated pairs or some young bachelorettes for the trio if possible.

But for now, talking to the lass and finding out why she was at their castle took precedence over any hopeful feelings for their clan's future.

"So a thousand years ago you were betrayed by the one human you trusted," he heard the lass say as he got close enough to hear what it was she and Goliath were saying.

Ah good, the Elder thought, Goliath had finished telling her about their strange circumstances. He could see in the lass's face that she held some understandable skepticism, yet she took Goliath's word for the truth they were. Another good sign as it showed that the lass had an open mind.

"Does anyone else know about you?" she asked

"Only the man called Xanatos," Goliath answered as the Elder walked to his side, "He brought us here."

His appearance noticeably startled the lass, who apparently didn't see him coming. Her alarm was further strengthen when she finally noticed that the trio were coming up behind her. But luckily, she didn't become offensive or hostile at being mostly surrounded by strangers. If anything, the Elder noticed, she seemed more to be in a shocked/awed astonishment at just seeing all of them.

"This can't be happening," the lass said as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

The red brother of trio got his beak close to the lass's face to sniff her, causing both Goliath and the Elder to glare at him for his rudeness, as the lass nervously brought her hands up in front of herself in attempt to keep the rest of him from coming any closer. But despite her defensive and uneasy stance, she sniffed him as well, probably out of laden curiosity or her own gargoyle instincts. After all, smell was a large part of the ancient way gargoyles could tell the difference between one another without using labels like humans did.

Once the red brother satisfied his curiosity enough to established that the lass was older then him and his brothers, but in the same age group as Goliath, as he pulled away from her he asked, "Is this a new friend, Goliath?"

"Boy. I hope so," the lass said quietly, as she lowered her arms and relaxed her stance now that the red gargoyle teen was giving back some of her space.

"This is...uh, Elisa Maza?" Goliath introduced the clan to the lass in a somewhat awkward but understandable fashion as gargoyles don't normally have names.

He was an exception to the fact because Prince Malcolm, the father of Princess Katherine, felt he needed to address the Clan Leader and/or his Second by a human label when the Clan first made the alliance with the humans they had protected. Goliath allowed Prince Malcolm to give him the label since the attempt on labeling the Elder, who was still Clan Leader at the time, wasn't holding up. But Goliath was still "Brother" among his rookery siblings and his older brothers and sisters, and some of the even older gargoyles, "Son" by the elder gargoyles, "Friend" to rest and "My Love" by his Angel of the Night. Although many of his younger siblings, like the Trio, would also call him "Goliath" due to their young age of thirteen (the equivalent of a human 6 to 7 year old) when Goliath got the label at age thirty-three (or about 16 in gargoyle terms). It may or may not would have continued on with his first children if they had lived and Goliath and his remaining brothers weren't cursed to sleep.

Which brought up the question on why "Elisa Maza" even had a label. Her clan must have an alliance with the humans of this city, much like they did back in the 10th century. But would that make "Elisa Maza" a Second, or perhaps, the Leader of her Clan? Both would make sense as Leaders and Seconds were the main protectors of a Clan itself and therefore would be the first to scout out a possible danger. Her age wouldn't really factor in whether she was one or the other since Goliath himself was only forty-six when he became Leader. But the fact that she had asked Goliath "Who are you?" still puzzled him greatly because it wasn't the Gargoyle way to ask that question to another gargoyle, even to a stranger.

And why was she so surprised to hear him say "Our kind?"

It didn't escape Elisa's eye that all five of the male gargoyles seemed very much confused by her name for some reason. Maybe because of the existence of her surname? Last names did seem to be more of a human custom rather then a gargoyle one to Elisa's mind as she often addressed her few human friends by their first name because it seemed more natural that way to do so.

"Please, just call me Elisa," she told them hoping it would help, but instead it seemed to do little to relieve them of the confusion.

But instead of asking about her name, the gargoyle that seemed to be oldest one asked in a gentle and very grandfather-like tone that somehow soothed Elisa further, "What exactly are you doing here lass?"

Right, Elisa thought, back to the basic question that Goliath wanted to know but had strayed away from when he was explaining how he and his friends (or "clan" she supposed it was to be) had ended up in New York to her. Letting her arms cross comfortably and her wings to droop down lazily, she answered at long last, "Well, I was told to come here by..." she paused for a second to think of what to call Maria Chavez that would make sense to these Middle Ages-era gargoyles, "...one of the human Captains in charge of protecting New York. When she or one of the detectives suspects someone has done something wrong, they ask me for help in finding out who so they can arrest them."

While the oldest gargoyle and the three youngest ones seemed to be fascinated by Elisa's basic job description despite how rather water-down and vague it actually was in her opinion, Goliath on the other hand seemed to grow even more wary then he had been before as he listened. It was even evident in his question: "Who says what's wrong?"

For some reason that was a question that rather stunned Elisa. Maybe it was because no one ever had to ask her that kind of question before, not even her human siblings. To her it had just been obvious since even she was old enough to understand what a judicatory was. But then again, these are medieval time gargoyles; European Medieval Time Gargoyles if she had to guess since medieval Scotland was technically part of Europe by it's connection with Britain. From what she can remember from her childhood history lessons, Magna Carta, which brought the rise of the modern democratic parliaments, wouldn't be for another two hundred and twenty years for these gargoyles. So to them, the ones who "decided what's right and wrong," or the simply known as the laws, would be the human kings of their time.

"Well...we have a justice system: laws, penalties, assessments, that the people decide," Elisa answered, but even as she tried her best to explain she could feel more and more mistrust coming off Goliath.

"You mean the humans decide," he said sharply with the emphasis sharply on the word "humans." It was almost as if he was disgusted by the notion of humans being the ones who created the very laws and justice system she believed in. Elisa very much stunned by this thought as Goliath sharply turned away from her, making how he felt all the more apparent.

But Elisa was still confused by Goliath's behavior. Granted, she knew that he had been betrayed by humans, which would explain his displeasure about them. But why did it feel like he was treating her as if she had been doing something wrong with the fact she was following laws decided by humans? Human/Gargoyle relationships weren't always bad after all. The stories "Grandfather" told her of the Gargoyles of Arizona long ago, the fact that the Hopi clan had taken her in as one of their own, and Peter and Diana's parental (if oftentimes boardline smoldering) love, along with Derek and Beth's sibling love, was more then enough proof that humans and gargoyles could have good, even loving, relationships. And she trusted the police officers and detectives in the 23rd Precinct that knew about her with her life only furthered strengthened that fact in Elisa's eyes.

It just didn't make sense to Elisa.

But then again, Goliath and his clan were from a different time period...and she knew she wouldn't be considered a "normal" gargoyle anyway because of her upbringing of being raised by humans, not to mention interacting with them all her life, without ever meeting another creature that was anything like herself that wasn't told in legends and myths. Heck, for years Elisa was more then convinced she was the last Gargoyle ever.

Tonight had really changed everything Elisa thought she knew concerning her own species. Perhaps Goliath's behavior was the supposed norm of gargoyle behavior? Elisa couldn't really say, but she hoped not.

Beside her, the eldest Gargoyle sighed in dismay and turned back towards her. "I'm sorry lass," he said apologetically, "I fear some wounds still run fresh with Goliath."

Elisa merely nodded her understanding, but the feeling of being unfairly judged was still stinging. However, it would be better to let go of that for the moment. The elder gargoyle it seemed was willing enough to talk to her despite any weariness he might have. Meanwhile the younger gargoyles, the teenagers if she were to guess the age from the scents, which she had almost immediately recognized as the same group of scents she smelled in that hallway before the sound of the crash that sent her scurrying to the safety of the outdoors, were content enough to stand by and listen.

They were all unique in the way of their looks. The tan elder and the aquamarine teenager were both portly in terms of body weight structure while the red and yellow-brownish teens were thinner in comparison and more wiry. She saw similarities in their wing structures, although the red teen's lack the characteristics of bat's wings, and looked more like the wings of a pterodactyl with three "thumbs." And the smallest gargoyle's wings were particularly unique as they weren't on his back, but attached to his arms and torso, reminiscent of the wings of a flying squirrel.

With the exception of the small teen, whose head was completely smooth save for a pronounced eye ridge, they all had unique head horn structures. The elder with his three small horns on each side of his forehead, the red teen's two long impressive horns and the large teen's three horns running over the center of his skull. Like Goliath, they all looked stronger then her with their pronounced muscle tones, although the large teen's big belly made it hard for muscles be seen on him, causing Elisa to wonder if he was actually overweight. And like the small teen, the large teen was bald, while the red teen and the elder had long white hair. The final two physical distinctions was the red teen's long beak, which further likened him to a pterodactyl and the elder's beard that contradicted Elisa's belief on the idea of gargoyles only having hair on top of her heads.

Like Goliath, they were all wearing leather loincloths, but the elder was wearing in addition a tough leather jerkin, wrist bands and hand spun trousers. There was also a medieval steel sword attached to his side. Then Elisa noticed something off with the elder's left eye. It was off-white and yellowish with a cut going down in a diagonal slash from his pronounced eye ridge to just under his eye, clipping his cheek. It also appeared as if it wasn't focusing at all, making Elisa realize that the eye wasn't functioning as it should; meaning it was more then likely completely blind.

The elder smiled reassuringly when he noticed her curiously, but with a growing hint of worry, staring at his blind eye. A good soul this one was if she showed concern for an injured gargoyle, especially one who was not of her own clan. He would have to explain to her that he was not in pain or incapacitated in any way that he hasn't already adapted to. But that would have to wait another night, for the time was getting closer for the sun to rise.

"Now lass," he said, turning her attention away from his eye. "I'm sure you have more questions but you should return home to your clan. I'm sure they're worried about you being that it is so close to sunrise."

He waited for her to say something in agreement. But as the seconds ticked by the lass continued to stare at him, her expression growing more and more confused. When she did finally speak, her words would bring a shock of bafflement to them all.

"...my...Clan?"

The trio visibly jumped or startled, the elder's eyes widened, the beast let out a confused yip, even Goliath, who had walked not far away from them, turned his head around to look over his shoulder in surprise.

"Well yeah," the red teen said, confusion heavy in his even in his low voice as he caught Elisa's attention, "You know your brothers, your sisters, your friends?"

"Your family?" the big teen added, trying to be helpful.

Oh, Elisa realized, a great feeling of sadness filling her chest like water weighing down a tightly strung tarp, causing a heavy sag to droop downward into her stomach. She had to turn her face away when she felt the beginnings of moisture pooling in the corners of her eyes.

Clearly she had been looking at these gargoyles all wrong. They weren't a clan of friends; not in the sense she thought when she mentally compared them to herself and the police officers of the 23rd precinct. They were much more then that; something far deeper and more precious.

They were family. They were what a clan was all about.

Her feeble attempt, if it could be called an attempt at all, to hide her troubled emotions did nothing to quench the growing worry that was stirring among the male gargoyles. Elisa had grown too quiet for too long after the large aquamarine had offered his suggestion to her for them not to grow concern.

The smallest of them, the yellow-brown brother, carefully trying to catch Elisa's gaze as he asked softly, "What's wrong?"

Elisa slowly looked down at the little teen gargoyle. She didn't have to look closely to see in his large dark eyes that he was unbashful in his worry for her. It was genuine in the purest sense. Elisa felt the corners of her month turn upward a bit, feeling the weight in her chest become a little lighter and the wetness in her eyes return to their ducts. She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding in.

As she turned her head back to look at all of them, not just the little gargoyle teen. "I..."

Her voice was strained and her throat was a bit dry she realized when she started to speak. She paused and swallowed a couple times to clear it. She needed to tell these gargoyles the truth about her, and she needed it to be clear. "I don't have one..."

She saw confusion once again sweep over them, but this time the confusion was not has drastic in surprise as the first one was. "What do you mean?" the little gargoyle teen ask.

"Your not banished are you?" the aquamarine teen asked hesitantly, thinking back to a particular incident that happened over a year before the Clan Massacre and the spell that put him and his brothers to a thousand year sleep.

While he didn't fully understand the full details of the incident, he got the basic understanding of it all. A steel-colored rookery brother of Goliath's had wanted to mate with a rookery sister, a pink blonde-haired gargoyle, who was already mated to another, a stone-gray gargoyle, who was actually Goliath's closest friend, much like how the Trio were close to one another. The steel-colored brother tried to dupe the stone-gray brother into thinking that his mate and Goliath were lovers or something, and at the same time attempted to make Goliath's mate jealous of their pink rookery sister. While the stone-gray brother had believed his steel-colored brother, Goliath's mate thankfully did not. But that wasn't enough to keep Goliath and his stone-gray brother from fighting one another. Fortunately, the pink sister convinced her mate that she was indeed faithful to him, and the steel-colored brother's scheme was exposed in the aftermath. As punishment, Goliath had banished him for a year.

There had been protest amongst the clan about the punishment being too light, but Goliath had reasoned that the clan still needed all it's members as the clan had splintered not five years earlier due to overpopulation within the castle. Approximately between thirty to fifty gargoyles had left, taking no eggs from the rookery with them, but many gargoyles both from his generation and their friend-beast's generation had left. Because of that, their numbers were no where near where they had once been, as such Goliath couldn't afford to lose even one gargoyle, not even one as treacherous as that steel-colored brother. At least since the brother proved untrustworthy, the clan had kept a close eye on him when he returned a year later.

Now the aquamarine gargoyle knew deep down that he wasn't the brightest gargoyle in the trio (he had to give that credit to his littlest brother, although his red brother was no dummy either), he liked to think he was a least smart enough to recognize a bad rogue Gargoyle from a good one. Unlike that steel-colored brother, Elisa just didn't have the look or the feel of gargoyle who would simply go out its way to intentionally cause harm to another gargoyle. In the little bit of time that he known her, he just couldn't get the thought of her as someone to be weary of to stick in his head, unlike Goliath, whom he could see in the corner of his eye still looking at her with caution even with the flash of concern he had when Elisa said she had no clan.

There were other reasons for a gargoyle to go rouge other then because of banishment-by-crime after all. It was actually fairly typical for some gargoyles to leave their clan on their own free will. Overpopulation being the most common factor, but he had heard stories of gargoyles leaving in self-imposed exile for numerous reasons, or just simply because they wanted to leave due to the fact they felt more comfortable with being self sufficient. But a more darker and much more sadder reason could be because it simply wasn't any gargoyle's choice at all. There had been a few stories of clan destruction due to starvation and/or diseases, natural disasters, or worse, as has happened to his clan, massacre.

He had been lucky though. He still had his two closest rookery brothers, a little brother, his leader, and a mentor albeit a stern one. But if Elisa had suffered through what they had, then she would have had it worse since she appeared to be alone, and who knows how long she had been since if that was the case. If she had to take up a name and work with humans, then it had to have been quite some time.

"No, it's not like that," Elisa reassured him, "...it's just..." She trailed off again.

"Lass?" The elder gargoyle spoke up, "Are you alone?"

You could trust the elder to ask the right question when no one else could, the aquamarine gargoyle mentally sighed in relief.

Alone.

Yes, that was the right word, Elisa thought sadly as she answered slowly, "Yes. There are no others." She looked away as she started to feel moisture pool in her eyes as she finished, "I am...alone..."