June 29, 1931

Oh boy, I am NOT having fun. Well, all right, I suppose it is kinda cool to see the clan, especially Sadie, but still, I much prefer it at home! Even if I am technically at home. Okay, I guess this is explanation time....

It started with that incantation of Sadie’s that I read out of the book - out loud, like an idiot - and it turns out to be an ancient spell. Huzzah. And since I’m the Recorder, that means magical ability, so I’m here doing a time travel episode. I always hated those.

So I said the magical words and a portal opens up - right under my feet. I fell for I don’t know how long, except there was only bright fuchsia light all around, without any reference points at all. I’ve never been afraid of heights before, but the reality that I was falling, and I didn’t have a damn clue to which way was up, down, whatever.... I don’t ever want to do that again. Unfortunately, the only other option is living through disco.

Again.

Whee, ha ha, I’m falling and I can’t get up!

Ahem. Back to what happened.

So I was falling for I don’t know how long, then suddenly there’s another hole beneath me, but this time it’s not the fuchsia color hole, but a patch of ground. Good old terra firma. Of course I slam into it, knocking the wind right out of me. I blinked, trying to get rid of "sunspots" and just doing my best to breathe.

"Holy - ! It’s a gargoyle!" a male voice exclaimed. It sounded somehow familiar.

No shit, you think? I snarled mentally. Hey, I’m not at my best when time-traveling and landing hard with roots ending up digging into my kidneys.

"I don’t recognize her. D’you think that there could be other clans?" This time it was a female voice.

"Don’t know, but she looks hurt."

Congratulations, Holmes! How do you do it? Hands gently grabbed my shoulders and rolled me over. I stared up at the two gargoyles, then screamed.

The two yelped and jumped back, expecting probably any reaction except that one. I ran out of breath pretty fast and tried to scramble away, crab-walking right into a tree. Great. There went my exit.

The male, a tall, hunter green with light red hair held out his hands. "It’s all right," he said in a quiet voice reserved for large, dangerous animals or idiots, "we aren’t going to hurt you. We’re gargoyles, like you."

"You - you - you’re - this is impossible!" Ooo, I managed a complete sentence. Hurray for me.

The two exchanged a Look that clearly said "We got a major Loony here".

"What’s impossible?" the female asked. She was an orange-ish color, kinda like a deeply tanned human that fell into a vat of orange juice, so it’s more like a tint of coloring. Her hair was long and a startling white, for all she was obviously only a few years younger then me.

"You- you- "

"Oh, not again," the male groaned quietly.

I swallowed and tried to get my composure back. "H - how old are you?"

Another Look. "Why does that matter?"

"Please tell me."

"We’ve just turned thirty."

Oh shit. I’m talking to a gargoyle that just became a father and he hasn’t even been on a mating flight? What’s wrong with this picture?

"Maybe we should take her Sadie," the female suggested.

"Are you sure that’s a good idea?"

"Can you think of something better?"

"What’s going on?"

This voice was acheingly familiar, yet somehow strange. An elderly gargoyle came down the path and stared at us. "Mector, Talia, who is your friend?"

My jaw dropped. I’d never seen her this young. Well, okay, that’s not saying much but still, she was about equal to a human in her late eighties. She stood straight and walked without the limp she had gotten when a human had cracked her leg while she was protecting us as eggs. Her hair had not faded to the pure white yet, but had streaks of fiery red still in it. Something pulled at my heart. She rarely left the house in the last few years, only doing an occasional patrol of our land and joining us on our Winter Solstice/Christmas celebration. Now she was going along like business as usual, patrolling on the ground. "Sadie?" I whispered, unable to believe my eyes. This is impossible!! an inner voice screamed, She is dead!

She looked at me, then seemed to do a double take. "Have we met?"

That shattered my ego, not to mention any illusions I might have had. "Yeah, you were at my hatching. Remember me? Megan?"

Mector and Talia were glancing back and forth like spectators at a Ping-Pong championship. "Elder? What is going on?" Mector finally asked.

Sadie gave me a surprised look, then turned to the future Leader and Second. She mumbled something in Latin, then snapped her fingers. The two got a dazed look and stared off into space. "Come," she ordered, then started walking off in the direction of Porter’s Rock.

When we finally reached Porter’s, Sadie settled herself onto the rocks. "Well, youngling, what do you want to know?"

"What’d you do to them?"

"That was a magical spell. It made them forget what happened for a certain length of time."

"Like the flashy thingy in M.I.B.!" I laughed.

The elderly gargoyle gave me a look. "Like what?"

Suddenly I felt really stupid, like I was just five years old. "Um, nothing. " Well, that explained why she had laughed at the movie so hard when it came out. "Well, no offense, but... I haven’t got a clue what I’m supposed to be doing. Or why I’m here, or anything!" I growled and ran a hand through my hair, pulling off the scrunchie and playing with it.

"Well. That is a tall order. You obviously know who I am, correct?"

"Right."

"I - WE - are the ones of the clan who are responsible for keeping the history of the clan alive. We keep records of hatchings, egg layings, and deaths. While officially there is no notion of who is who’s child, we try to keep an accurate guesstimate of a family tree. And sometimes, we must interfere with prospective matings." She sighed and looked older. "We can’t have too much inbreeding, or we will die off that much faster. Ours is not a fun job." She looked up, a sudden gleam in her eye. "Have we found other clans? Are we really the last?"

I squirmed. I never liked the travel-into-the-future/past-and-totally-screw-up-history-because-of-saying-the-wrong-word movies. Back to the Future was way too weird. And I’ve seen it one too many times (Thanks heaps, Nina!). "Um, well, I can’t really say. It’s not like I don’t want to, it’s just...."

"You don’t want to mess up the future. I understand," she sighed. "Although... No. Never mind. Anyway, we are chosen by blood."

"Excuse me?" I yelped.

She grinned. "Direct decent. You are my...," she paused and squinted at me. "Probably my great or great-great-granddaughter. I’d need to check the records to be sure."

There was a moment of stunned silence. "Are you serious?" I finally managed to croak. "I mean, really?"

"Yes."

My mind kind of overloaded at that moment. I couldn’t do anything. It was just a bit too much.

Sigh. Yup. I admit it. I nearly fainted. Hey, HEY, HEY! I said nearly. Okay? Near-ly!! Humph.

Sadie grabbed my arm before something nasty happened. "I take it the hatchlings are still children of the entire clan?"

I mumbled something. Finally, I came back to earth. "S- sorry ‘bout that."

"Don’t worry about it. Now, what else do you need to know?"

"Uh, more about the hereditary part."

"Of course. Well, a necessary part of the position is magical talent. Doesn’t matter if all you can do is light a candle or toast several soldiers with a fireball, you must be able to use magic. Were you taught anything about it?"

"Nope."

"All right, we’ll do the abridged version. Magic is energy that manipulates the world around us. A sorcerer can channel those energies to change it to the way he or she wants it to be by his or her will. But the will is not the only part. It can be, but that tends to get erratic results. Use of song, chanting, gestures, or various materials narrows the focus to create a spell. Usually, chanting what you want in Latin will work. You’ll find spells in the book you brought with you."

"And?"

"And that’s the abridged version. That’s all."

"Okay, so what about the spell I cast?" Is it me, or did that sound weird?

"Ah. That is... well, somewhat like an initiation."

"You really lost me."

Sadie sighed again. "It takes you through space and time to where you are needed, to fill holes in the timestream. It is somewhat like the magic of Avalon, except it works through time as well as space. Imagine combining the magic of Avalon with that of the Phoenix Gate."

I blinked, then held up a hand. "I understood about a third of that, and I think that’s all I want to know. Well, except I still don’t get the initiation part."

"We all did or will do it."

"Okaaaay."

We spent the rest of the night discussing magic and my new duties. Let me tell you, I pity my successor. This is not fun. At all.

Come sunrise, I left. It was pretty simple, actually. Sadie wrote down the neurolizer spell (she said it didn’t have a name, but c’mon, after the movie, I hafta call it that!) and sent me on my merry way.

A few chanted words, and then stuck in fuchsia limbo (again).

A circle of ground, the carpeted floor of the library, appeared beneath me...

The previous entry Part 1

The next entry Part 3

Let me out of here!!!! A.K.A. Home

I want to read more! To get back to the fic archive

Any questions? Complaints? Screams of outrage that I actually consider myself a writer and/or dared to show this in public? Tell me! Send it all to Norcumi@backtick.net! I love mail!!!! 

Except for a bit of lore and the gargoyle race in general (which are respectfully used from the Great Mouse/Buena Vista without permission) and Men in Black references (which belong to Warner Brothers, I believe, but I could be wrong), everything in here belongs to me. That means you can't use it without asking me first.