Seeking a Path

Cailean followed the humans ahead of him.

The small, closed in space felt exceedingly unnatural to him. The longer he spent underground, the more his nerves felt frayed. Walking away from the other two gargoyles felt innately wrong, like he was leaving a life line behind.

The tunnels got darker again. He felt something constrict in his chest. "Are we nearly there?" He asked in a small voice.

"Yes, here we go."

George opened a large door with a flourish. Inside a great cavern opened, several long benches set up with many humans eating among them, open kitchen sit against one wall with people filling individual bowls from a communal pot. Cailean ducked underneath the doorway and looked up with wide eyes. How did they have such bright light down here? The entire ceiling blazed with painfully bright white light. The effect hurt his eyes but did make the room seem much bigger.

"Its okay, you can stand up straight," George said kindly.

"The fires up there are not the ones I'm used to."

He chuckled. "There isn't a fire. We'll have to have Lexington explain light bulbs to you."

He led the gargoyle to catch up with everyone again. Cailean filled his bowl with the thick stew that smelled delicious. He concentrated on what might be in that. Sitting with the folks he knew, he dug in. For the first time since traveling to this Big Apple he didn't feel completely ravenous for the food.

He was contemplating one oddly shaped chunk in the spoon when the door opened again, admitting the gargoyles of the labyrinth. Cailean froze, and watched them over his spoon. The normal ones, the non-furred type he normally saw, looked like any other gargoyle he'd seen. In fact, he felt like they might have some relatives within the Avalon clan. He didn't see Talon or Lexington in the group.

The taller female looked over at him, her wings immediately up and on guard. Her face looked strikingly familiar. Could she, and not Angela, have been the one in the storm? There, the big one who'd been closer. Cailean relaxed. He wouldn't be discovered.

The female charged forward, clasping him by a joint in his folded wings. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I'm... I'm Cailean." She lifted him to his feet awkwardly. He followed more because he didn't want her to dislocate the shoulder by the wing she held.

"Easy Delilah." Cailean sent a worried glance at the door. Talon and Lexington stepped in. Talon put a restraining hand on Delilah's forearm. "He's a friend of George's. He's just passing through."

"Kale-ee-an. He looks weird." She released him, for which he was grateful. He remained standing, opening his wings to shake them out. He had a set of double wings that Princess Cathrine said she'd only seen in a couple of the adults, back in Scotland. It meant that he basically had four wings, each of them smaller than most of the others, and more delicate. The reality of still feeling the female's hand print on one of his upper wings reminded him that he'd soon have to get a lot of strength in the fragile members, if he had any intention of continuing on his wings.

"Wow, real weird."

Cailean blushed and folded his wings back up.

Talon wrapped an arm around a tan, female version of himself, feline faced, furred, and bat winged. "Cailean, this is the Labyrinth clan. You've met Delilah, this is Malibu, Burbank, Hollywood, and Claw. On my arm is the beautiful Maggie."

Cailean extended his hand, as Lexington had done before. The more normal looking gargoyles barely greeted him. Delilah greeted him warily. Cailean sighed. Making great impressions with everyone. Claw said nothing at all, which Maggie assured him was normal, the striped gargoyle was mute. Her smile was very warm, her voice soft and shaking.

"If you'll pardon us, I'd prefer to get food while it's still hot."

"Of course, please, don't let me keep you."

Lexington returned first. "Mind if I sit with you?"

"Please."

Lexington picked through the food a little bit, keeping his eyes on his food. Cailean sensed questions that he wasn't sure he could answer. Then again, if it had been Delilah and Broadway the night before, then what did he have to be afraid of?

When everyone else sat and began to eat, he noticed that all but the humans remained quiet, watching him out of the corners of their eyes. He sighed and opened his wings again, trying to make a conscious effort to relax.

"Lexington?"

The smaller gargoyle looked up, a chunk of noodle sticking out of his mouth. He slurped it up.

"George said to ask you about the sky fire. How is it so bright? Why can't I smell any smoke?"

Lexington blinked a few times, then smiled. "They're sunlight imitating light bulbs. All the gargoyles down here need them, though it helps the humans too. None of us can make Vitamin D, so after a while everyone gets down, depressed, and eventually sick. If a gargoyle goes into stone sleep without sunlight for too long we aren't able to keep any nourishment in our bodies, we don't heal."

"Aha," Cailean said, chewing on another bite of food while looking up at the ceiling. Now that his eyes had adjusted to the brightness, he could see seams between the light sections. He didn't understand most of the words Lexington said, but he could ask George later. Bulbs... those were things plants grew from, like a daffodil bulb. So, a light bulb must be a seed that grew light. He knew well enough the effect of staying inside too many days. "Quite clever to have them where everyone eats."

"Actually, they have them set up in a lot of the other rooms as well. Its more important to sleep under one than eat under it. Cailean... where are you from?"

"I'm..." Cailean sighed and rubbed one of his horns. "What does it matter where I'm from. I'm here now."

He looked up into Lexington's dark eyes. "We're having a hard time trusting you."

"I know. Here I am, in your home."

"Their home," Lexington said, with a wave of his talon towards the other gargoyles. "I'm a guest too."

"Right, sorry. Look, Lexington, I'm..." He groaned. "Could we talk about this privately?"

Lexington looked over at Talon. Cailean did as well. After a moment's consideration, he waved them off. Lexington lead the way out of the common room. Cailean followed. As he closed the door behind him, Claw pushed his way through. He leaned against the closed door, lazily crossing his arms over his broad, muscular chest.

Cailean fought the urge to fold his wings up and hide his borrowed clothing again.

"So, where are you from?"

"I've run away from home," Cailean said, side-stepping the actual question in favor of one that could be admitted easier. Even if Claw didn't have the power of speech, he doubted the tough feline had no way of communicating. Hopefully Claw was only here to defend the small gargoyle. Cailean did his best to ignore him.

"Why would you run away?"

Cailean rubbed his horn again. "I didn't feel welcome there anymore. My mentor died." Well, eternal sleep, but its basically the same thing, since the last one who fell asleep on that slab had been there for a couple thousand years.

"I'm so sorry." Lexington took a step closer.

"Nothing anyone could do." He shook his head. "I just can't go back, that's all. I'm starting a new life, I don't know where, but that's why I'm traveling."

"You're from Avalon, aren't you?"

Cailean gritted his teeth. "How did you guess?"

"Goliath's been there a couple times you know. He's told us about what happened, and Angela and Broadway were the ones who found you."

"Angela and... Broadway?"

"Yeah. Broadway looks a lot like Hollywood."

He rubbed his horn again. "Right. Thought so. So... what happens now?"

"Are you hiding from Angela too?"

"Not specifically," Cailean lied. "I just don't want to go back."

"No one will send you back, if you don't want to go back. Goliath and Elisa even saved your boat, so if you want to take that back, its safe."

Cailean wasn't sure he could preform the spell again, but it would certainly be easier than flying. He smiled gratefully to the smaller gargoyle. "Thank you."

Lexington grinned. "Come on, lets go tell Talon your not planning everyone's demise."

"Planning everyone's demise?"

The smaller gargoyle laughed. "Its an issue we've all dealt with at one point or another. It makes us a little wary of strangers, sometimes."