Timedancer: The Naming of Things by kiatrix [Reviews - 0] 
Disclaimer: Timedancer, Brooklyn, etc, etc, are owned by Disney. I just write fanfiction. Additional Disclaimer: Heather, David, Hayden, Red (RIP), Jazmin and Gizmo own themselves. Though I guess technically David and Heather own Jazmin and Gizmo. Previously on Timedancer Just then, the annoying tingle started and Brooklyn glanced down at his belt, then back to his companion. He drew her in close, one wing wrapping around her as he explained in a rough voice, "We're going now." "Do you know where?" she asked, putting one arm around him as he had instructed her. "Hopefully some place with electricity." Brooklyn said hopefully, "And hot dogs." ~ Fall of Rain Somewhere in Russia The gate opened and deposited Brooklyn and the rose gargoyle next to a snug looking cottage. It was one of the gentler landings by the gate the Brooklyn had ever really experienced. A well tended garden lay to his right and a small shed with a goat was to his left. His companion looked up at him with a curious gaze, one brow quirking quizzically as he removed his wing from it's fold around her. Brooklyn glanced at the cottage, noticing movement inside. He pulled his companion away from the door, against the wall and lifted a finger to the edge of his beak, gesturing for silence. She nodded, leaning against the wall next to him. The red gargoyle reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a gold talisman, a backdrop of blue outlining the gold phoenix inlaid in the center. He scowled down at it and then replaced it in his belt pouch as the door to the cottage opened and a voice called out curiously, "Hello? Is anyone there?" The rose gargoyle looked at the human and bared her fangs, eyes beginning to burn. Brooklyn dropped a hand to her shoulder and gave her a quiet look before he spoke up, "We mean you no harm, sir. We're just passing through." his low rough voice pitched soothingly. The human turned to face them. Brooklyn thought momentarily that it was odd that the human carried no lamp or lantern or even a torch, but the moonlight would be enough to outline that the two visitors weren't human. To his surprise, the man lifted a hand and without any change to his features other than a smile, spoke "You can't just pass through. I get so few visitors this far from the roads. Please, come inside and rest yourselves, at least for a bit." Both gargoyles exchanged a wary glance, then Brooklyn stepped forward and asked, "You aren't afraid?" before he noticed that the elderly man's eyes did not track his movements. Brooklyn raised a hand and waved it in front of the man's face. "No, but you can stop waving your hand in front of me, young man. Now, come inside. It's drafty out here, and an old man like me just isn't up to standing out here chattering away like a squirrel." The rose female stepped up to Brooklyn's shoulder and spoke up, "Why do you offer us your hospitality? You don't know who we are." The man smiled and stepped back inside, "Such suspicion in you youngsters today. Come in, come in." The man tipped his head to the side, hearing the swishing of some material, perhaps a leather cloak and he asked, "Shall I take your cloaks? We can hang them on the door here." as he stepped in, patting the hooks set to the right of the door. "Uh, no thanks." Brooklyn hedged, ducking a bit to fit in through the door, "We probably won't be staying long." The rose female had less trouble than he, following close on his tail and looking around with suspicious eyes. The man gestured to two wicker chairs, moving over to the fireplace and with a steadiness of hand that belied his apparent blindness, took a cloth from a hook and grabbed the handle of a pot, "Sit down sit down, tell me of your travels." Brooklyn looked dubiously at the fragile seeming chairs and with a glance at the human, pulled one away from the table, letting the legs scrape on the floor. He didn't sit in it though. After a moment, the rose gargoyle did the same. "Well," Brooklyn started, "We're a bit lost right now. Could you tell us where we are?" The man rattled off a long sounding name that Brooklyn didn't recognize, nor think he could repeat if asked. It sounded Russian though, and Brooklyn grumbled, "Ah, that narrows it down. Not." His host removed two bowls from a cabinet and set them on the table, before starting to ladle the contents of the pot into the containers, "Where are my manners," he said after a minute, "My name is Bogdan." Brooklyn eyed the bowl hungrily, as he replied, "My name is Brooklyn, and .." he turned to look at the rose gargoyle swiftly. She narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head with a confused look. "My companion is Rose." The confused look turned swiftly to anger and she started to open her mouth. Brooklyn held up one hand placatingly and gestured in silence at the human, then shrugged. The rose gargoyle rolled her eyes. Bogdan frowned a bit and said, "Brooklyn? A foreigner? You speak the tongue so well though." "I uh, get around." Brooklyn said lamely, accepting the bowl of stew carefully from the human, "Thanks for the food. It's been a while since we've had a real meal." 'Rose' also took the bowl gently, and jumped when Brooklyn gave her a nudge in the side and a pointed look. She hastily grumbled, "Yes, thank you." Bogdan gave a gentle frown at the ungracious response from the lady and settled down, "Something troubles you, my dear? Perhaps my food is not good enough?" The rose gargoyle shook her head, then realizing the man could not see her, added verbally, "Your food is fine, ... Bogdan." "Yet you don't care for me much?" the perceptive man asked. Brooklyn was silent, listening to his companion as he ate. The rose gargoyle gave him a beseeching look, to which he answered with a shrug and another scoop of food to his mouth. "It... isn't you." she finally admitted, "Specifically." "Ah, but men in general?" "Yes." The blind man pursed his lips and said, "Though we are all created in the image of our Lord, some men choose to do great evil with their lives. But do not judge all men by the actions of a few, my dear." The female fell silent, and Brooklyn hastily swallowed and said to the man, "You're exactly right. There's the potential for good and evil in everyone." 'Rose' rolled her eyes at her companion again. Brooklyn abruptly looked down at his waist and then said, "Rose, we have to go. Thank you for your food, Bogdan, and I'm sorry to eat and run, but... we really need to go." The rose gargoyle looked over at Brooklyn curiously and when the red male gestured to his belt pouch, she widened her eyes and gulped the last of her food. She set her bowl down on the table with a thump and followed Brooklyn to the door. "Wait," Bogdan said, standing up and moving clear of the table, followed them to the door, "Why do you have to go so suddenly?" There was an odd sound, like air rushing through space, though the wind was quiet. Bogdan did not hear his two guests at all. "Brooklyn? Rose?" ***** "My name is NOT Rose!" the rose gargoyle snarled as Brooklyn deposited her on the grass. "Do I LOOK like a flower?" Brooklyn looked around carefully, they appeared to be in a field. The gate still buzzed so he kept one arm around the younger gargoyle. "Your coloring is like some roses I have seen," Brooklyn said finally, looking down at the fuming female. "I do not want to be named 'Rose'. I do not even want a name at all!" she snarled. Brooklyn replied, "You don't have to take a name, if you don't want. I didn't, when I was your age. It's just ... well, it's just easier." The fire started up around the pair and she grumbled, "If I take a name, it will be a real name. Not a flower." ***** It was another field, this one spotted with flowers. The gate stopped the annoying buzz and Brooklyn slowly released his young companion, "What's wrong with flowers?" he asked, while he carefully examined their location. The female also looked around at her surroundings, the wide field they were in was surrounded by trees all around. "Nothing," she finally said, looking back to the red gargoyle. "But I just don't think I'm a ... a rose." Brooklyn grinned and he said, "What, do I look like a bridge?" The rose female gave him a measuring look before she smiled a bit, "No. But I am still not a rose. So..." she turned, looking around her, "I do not recognize this place, do you?" Brooklyn shook his head, one taloned hand dragging through his mane, "Not especially, but really, if you've seen one woodland glade, haven't you seen them all?" "Now what?" she queried. Brooklyn gestured to the eastern sky, "Looks like we sleep. Let's get under some cover." ***** The next evening, the two gargoyles glided on silent wings over the forest. Brooklyn noted the scattered patches of farms and lonely villages, lit with torches. The female gargoyle glided silently under and behind him. Brooklyn angled up, hovering for a moment as he pointed, "Doesn't look like they invented electricity yet." "So no 'hot dogs'?" his companion asked as she glided up, angling in a lazy circle to come up opposite him. "Yeah, no hot dogs. Let's land and see if we can find some food." Brooklyn headed for an outlying farm that had no obvious lights or movement from the farm house. The two gargoyles dropped silently to the ground near the barn. The curious sound of a cow came from inside. The rose gargoyle glanced inside and said, "They're spotted." with some surprise. Brooklyn glanced in at the holsteins and said with a grin, "Those are dairy cows." "Can we eat one?" she asked with a frown. "Well, I don't think that would be a good idea. It isn't like in the old days, cow missing here or there was nothing. We eat Bessie there and there's bound to be problems." Brooklyn moved away from the barn, the rose gargoyle falling in step behind him. She asked after a moment, "Bessie?" Brooklyn glanced back and then shrugged, "Just a name for a cow, I guess." "They name their cows?" "They name everything." ***** Brooklyn finally managed to pilfer enough food to feed the two of them, and they rested with their backs to a stone wall to eat. Brooklyn glanced at his companion and asked her, "You know, I never asked... how did you survive until sunset?" The other gargoyle looked down at the bread in her hands and started to pick at it, before she said softly, "I sometimes didn't take my place on the castle wall. I was up in the church bell tower." Brooklyn ate a bite of food, watching silently. She shrugged one shoulder and said, "I went up there because... I like to sing," she admitted in a timid voice, giving him a swift glance before looking back down to the bread in her hands, "And when I would sing, I was asked to go up there. So I wouldn't wake anyone who was sleeping in the castle." After a moment, she tore a chunk of bread out and popped it in her mouth, then continued her narrative. "So I was singing that night, just some little song that a minstrel had been singing the evening before. I woke up the next day and ... well, you know the rest." Brooklyn reflected quietly, then asked, "Why not name yourself after something with music then? An instrument or..." The rose gargoyle gave him an irritated look, "Will you stop trying to name me?" Brooklyn spread his hands placatingly, "Sorry." ***** The next evening, Brooklyn called her over and wrapped a wing and arm around her as the Phoenix Gate activated. ***** They skipped into Texas, then China, and finally landed with a muffled whump into a snowbank. Brooklyn groaned and pushed himself out of the snow. His companion got to her feet and said haltingly, "We jumped in and out. Is that normal?" "It happens from time to time." Brooklyn admitted, brushing snow off of his shoulders and looking around. Snow. Snow and more snow. Great. Suddenly the rose gargoyle grabbed his arm and pointed at the sky, "Brooklyn! What are those lights?" Brooklyn turned swiftly, falling into a battle crouch before he straightened and said with some wonderment, "That's the aurora borealis." A grand sweep of color lit up the night sky, slowly shifting as though in a breeze. "It's beautiful." she said softly. "I wish I could show Sata this." A light pressure touched his wrist and his companion stood by his side until the gate flared up around them again. ***** From a land of snow and light, they dropped into a muddy marsh with an explosion of fire. The sound of automatic guns had Brooklyn dropping to the ground swiftly, yanking his companion down besides him. He wasn't fast enough, a spray of blood exploding from her right shoulder as she screamed. The gate flared again. "Ah mi dios! Did you SEE that?" one man shouted to another, dropping back under cover. ***** Somewhere north of Kansas City, Missouri, 1992 They landed in a cornfield. Brooklyn supporting his collapsed companion and lowered her to the ground, "Oh no... hey, hey, stick with me. Open your eyes. C'mon." his talons felt for her pulse and was relieved to find it, strong and rapid. She gasped, eyes flying open and started to claw at her shoulder. Brooklyn grabbed her hands and said, "Calm down, calm down. I need to see how badly you're hurt." He held her hands until her eyes focused on his, then he helped her get into a sitting position. She hissed between clenched teeth and said, "What was that? What happened to me?" "You were shot." Brooklyn answered shortly. He pushed her hair to the side and gingerly moved her right wing aside where it had curled in protectively, "Let me see. Sorry kid, this is probably going to hurt." She grunted in pain, turning her head away as Brooklyn evaluated her shoulder. A diagonal line ran up from her biceps to her collar bone. Three bullet holes marked her skin, one creasing the edge of her muscle, and one seemingly having passed completely through by her collar bone. There was one hole that did not have a corresponding exit wound. "Huh. I think one's lodged by your shoulder blade. Seems to have missed your wing though." "And that means what?" his companion gritted through clenched teeth. "We need to get it out. If we leave it in, it may not heal properly. Here, try to move your arm." "It hurts," she complained, but wincingly shifted her arm, flexing and curling her fingers. "Yeah, bullets hurt. Not as much as a bazooka or a laser gun, but they do sting." Brooklyn said dryly. He looked around and helped her get to her feet. Blood ran freely from all three wounds, but not in such quantities that she was in immediate danger. At the edge of the field was an overgrown pond and a wooden fence. Beyond that fence was a large wooden house. Brooklyn was relieved to see a porch light on and a truck parked in the gravel driveway. Electricity meant that basic first aid supplies should be obtainable. Slinging an arm around the rose gargoyle, Brooklyn started in that direction. A large dog with shaggy red-gold fur and a wildly waving tail greeted Brooklyn at the gate. "Hey Rover," he greeted the dog, who promptly lay down on it's side and rolled over, tail still wagging a happy tempo. Brooklyn snorted, "Sorry girl, you're no Rover. Anyone home?" he asked the dog. The rose gargoyle said to him, "Now you're talking to a dog?" her voice strained. "Hey, stranger things have happened than a dog talking, so I'm not adverse to being polite." Brooklyn replied, easing past the dog, who bounced to her feet and followed them to the door. A light turned on, brightly illuminating the yard and the chain link fence that surrounded a concrete backyard with toys scattered around. The two gargoyles froze, and after a moment, the light turned off. "Huh, motion sensor light." He reached for the front door and to his surprise, found it unlocked. "That's a first, something going my way for once." he grunted, as he pushed the wooden door open. He helped the rose gargoyle into the home. They stepped into a large living room with a big wrap around couch covering two walls, a large screen TV on an entertainment center opposite. A half-wall separated the living room from the linoleum tiled kitchen and another door led from the kitchen to the concrete yard. A small black and white dog ran up to them, her whole body in wriggle as she squirmed around Brooklyn's foot. An aging one eyed pekingese surveyed them with all the disdain of a thousand years of royalty, before laying his head back down and snorting. "Such strange little dogs," the rose gargoyle said softly, causing the little black and white dog to transfer it's attention to her. She reached down and gently touched the dog, which went into a spasm of joy, rolling over, then back up, and jumping up to rest it's small paws on her calf. He stepped carefully onto the linoleum, trying to not score it as he examined the kitchen. A pair of old-style western bar hinged doors separated what must have been a pantry, and Brooklyn gestured to the other gargoyle, "Go through there," he said softly, "See if you can find some food. I'll see about finding a first aid kit." She nodded, pushing open the half doors with her left hand and stepping into the pantry, wings folding around her. Brooklyn started opening cabinets, and started to mutter to himself, "Geeze, they've got a whole pharmacy in here." He gingerly pushed aside a variety of bottles and vials and containers, moving from cabinet to cabinet, "C'mon, a pharmacy but not a first aid kit?" he muttered. "Brooklyn," his companion' voice called gently, as she returned from the pantry, "There are just these odd containers... oh." Brooklyn looked up at her soft exclamation, but she was staring past him. He turned and looked and a small human child was staring at him from the only exit to the closed section of kitchen, between the gargoyles and the two doors. She was a delicate girl, with tousled strawberry blond hair and bright blue eyes. Her mouth formed a wide 'O'. Brooklyn crouched a bit and said softly, "Hey there, we're not here to hurt you." He shifted forward and the girl drew in a deep breath, a prelude to a scream. Brooklyn winced and fell back, and the girl stayed silent. Meanwhile... Upstairs, a woman woke from a sound sleep and reached over to where her daughter should have been sleeping. She sighed and got out of bed, pulling on a robe as she grumbled, "Hayden,". She paused briefly to check on an infant in a crib, then started down the hall to the stairs. She heard a low rumbling voice from downstairs. She frowned, "Robbie?" as she started down the stairs. She was unable to see directly into the kitchen, but saw her daughter standing in the moonlight, staring at SOMEONE in the kitchen. If it was Robbie, Hayden would have thrown herself gleefully into her uncle's arms. Heather gasped as a voice that was definitely not one she recognized spoke to her daughter, ".. here to hurt you." Heather turned and fled to the bedroom, grabbing the phone from the bedside stand and stretching the cord as she pulled open the closet. "911, what's your emergency?" "There's a man in my kitchen, he has my daughter!" "Ma'am, calm down. We're sending a unit right away..." "My name is Heather Daniels. My husband is David Daniels with the Platte County Police Department. You get someone here RIGHT NOW." She flipped open the door to the safe and pulled out a gun. She dropped the phone to the ground and started back to the stairs. Brooklyn heard a woman's voice from upstairs and he said shortly, "Great." He heard his companion shift her weight behind him, asking hesitantly, "Brooklyn?" Suddenly a short woman with dark brown hair with blond highlights entered into view, a gun held in a trembling arm as she said, "You get..." her voice trailed off as she took in the two creatures in her kitchen. Brooklyn stepped away from the child, blocking the rose gargoyle with his body, "Ma'am, we aren't here to hurt anyone." Heather gasped, falling forward and grabbing her daughter by the arm, pulling the girl back and keeping the gun pointed at the large red creature in her kitchen. "What are you?" she demanded, "The police are on their way here!" Brooklyn winced and said, "I'm just looking for a first aid kit, my companion is hurt." Heather blinked and answered automatically, "Cabinet below the sink." Brooklyn slowly reached to the cabinet and opened it. Sure enough, one of the ubiquitous white boxes with a red cross across the front sat next to a fire extinguisher. "Thanks," Brooklyn said, taking the kit and closing the cabinet. He looked back to the woman with the gun and asked, "May we go now?" in a hopeful voice. Heather's arm had started to drop as the red creature was getting the first aid kit and the gun came back up again to point at Brooklyn's chest. Brooklyn sighed and said, "Lady, you're between us and the exit. We're going to be leaving, the only question is, will it be the easy way or the hard way?" The woman's blue eyes widened and Brooklyn finished hurriedly, "The easy way being you back up with your kid and we leave, the hard way being we go through your wall." thumbing towards the small window over the kitchen sink. Heather felt her jaw drop, as she evaluated the muscular red creature with the wild white hair, and the paler pink one with purple hair behind him, her gaze going between them and the wall that separated her kitchen from the outdoors. Heather pushed Hayden behind her and backed up, "Don't make any fast moves, I'll shoot you. I swear I will." Brooklyn heard the rose female growl and he said sharply to her, "No. We're leaving." He moved forward slowly as the human woman backed away. He pointed at the back door, "There," he ordered. His injured companion moved to the door and grabbed the handle with her left hand. The crack of a door breaking from the hinges was followed quickly by the echoing ricochet of a bullet hitting the wooden frame to his left. Heather looked just as startled as the gargoyles. The rose female said quickly, "Sorry, it was locked!" In the distance, the clarion call of police sirens became audible to the gargoyle's sharp hearing. Brooklyn nudged his companion out the door and said with some embarrassment to the gun wielding human, "Sorry about the door." He turned and followed the rose gargoyle to the fence. She leapt to the top of the fence and hopped over lightly, Brooklyn following on her heels. He didn't think the woman would follow them out, but he didn't want to take chances as he raced with the rose gargoyle for the fence line. Brooklyn spotted a water tower, not too far away and pointed it out, "There." A short while later, Brooklyn had to support his companion as they climbed the water tower. Once at the top, he looked back over his shoulder at the grouping of red and blue lights that swirled around the farmhouse. He turned back to his panting companion, her eyes were closed wearily. He crouched next to her and said, "It's going to be dawn soon, I need to get that bullet out." She opened her eyes and grunted, drawing her wing away and turning her shoulder towards Brooklyn. He suggested, "Grab onto the railing and try not to scream, we don't exactly want attention and this is going to hurt." Brooklyn opened the first aid kit and found a sturdy pair of forceps. He picked them up delicately, "Good thing I've some practice with chopsticks." he joked. "Not... funny." his companion gritted out as he reached for her shoulder. ** Surgery over, his companion red eyed and growling between clenched teeth, Brooklyn held out the small wadded bit of metal, "Want a souvenir?" he asked The rose gargoyle looked at the small piece. Using her left hand, she reached out and picked it up between her fingers. Brooklyn attended to binding the now furiously bleeding wound. "All that, from this?" she mused. "Yeah, bullets are nasty that way. They travel much faster than arrows do, and do a lot more damage." Brooklyn confirmed. "A bullet..." she said wonderingly, then asked, "Is this what hit the wall in the house?" "Yeah." Brooklyn said as he put a piece of tape over the bandaging, "There, it should be healed by sunset." ***** The next evening, the female spread her arms out in a long leisurely stretch. "Better?" Brooklyn asked, his attention on the ground around the water tower. "Yes," was her quiet reply. She dropped to a crouch next to the red gargoyle and asked him, "Are all humans in this age so violent? That woman was going to hit us with bullets, when all we were doing is trying to heal my injury." Brooklyn ran a hand through his mane as he glanced at his young companion, talons scratching at his skull before he said, "Well, try to see through her eyes for a minute. Two big monsters," he held up a placating hand as the female gave him an angry glance, "with her little daughter in range of their teeth, or claws, or whatever else her mind probably pictured. Laser beams from our eyes or something. She was just protecting her family." She looked away from Brooklyn and then laid a hand on her stomach, "I'm hungry." she said after a minute, deflecting the conversation. Brooklyn laughed, "Yeah, thought you'd be used to it by now." The two gargoyles glided on the night air. Brooklyn noted the active police presence patrolling the small town that the farmhouse had been on the outskirts of. He spotted a gas station, but it was still too early and crowded for him to chance landing to look for food. Brooklyn did spy the highway and pointed it out, "We'll follow that, uh, south." he picked at random, "It should lead to a city. We'll be able to hide better and find something to eat." They passed over a slightly larger town called 'Platte City', judging by the highway signs, and Brooklyn finally landed next to what appeared to be a gas station closed for the night. He glanced around the building, but didn't see any evidence of security cameras. "Gotta love the Midwest," he said as he gingerly broke the back door in. He entered the station and after the female followed him inside, replaced the door into a somewhat normal appearing manner. She looked around and trailed a hand over the counter, her nose wrinkling as she said, "It smells funny." "It smells like a gas station," Brooklyn said, as he moved over to the packages of junk food. He picked up a Snickers bar and tossed it at the other gargoyle, "Try that, it's good." She caught it reflexively, and then peeled the wrapper back. She sniffed it once, then gingerly bit into it. Her eyes widened as she chewed, and she moved over to the location that Brooklyn had taken the bar from. Brooklyn had moved on, he opened one of the cooler doors and picked up a six pack of soda, as well as two frozen pizzas. He glanced over at his companion and laughed a little, "You look like a kid in a candy store." She gave him an uncertain glance and fell into step with him as he started for the exit. As he stopped to grab a map and a newspaper, the rose gargoyle turned back to grab two more of the Snicker's bars, before hurrying to catch up with Brooklyn. The two sat on the roof as Brooklyn broke off a piece of frozen pizza, "This stuff is better when it's actually hot, but beggars can't be choosers." he passed the piece to the rose gargoyle. She accepted it and said hesitantly, "Brooklyn, I .. I don't like this, this stealing we have to do." Brooklyn nodded his head and said, "I don't like it either. But we don't have any money, and this close to civilization, it's hard to find food that isn't claimed." She chewed on her lip and asked, "There's nothing we can do to repay them?" Brooklyn shook his head resignedly, "No, can't even leave them an I.O.U.," he tapped the newspaper, "Because according to this date, I'm still asleep in Scotland." The female shifted over and looked at the paper, one talon touching the picture below the headline, "What is this" she asked, as her gaze skimmed over the paper. Brooklyn wondered if she could read, and judged she may be able to by the way her one talon traced the words in a sentence and the way she moved her lips with each word her talon passed. "It's a newspaper, it tells of what's been going on, sometimes just locally, other times world wide." Brooklyn explained, crunching into the frozen pizza. "Maybe we can repay them by catching the men who did this." she suggested, lifting the paper and pointing to the article, the caption declaring the details of a theft. Brooklyn took the paper and flipped it open, "Happened in Kansas City..." he said, then turned to the map, also opening it and locating their position, "We're just north of Kansas City. We can probably make it there by dawn, find a building to sleep on." The rose gargoyle jumped to her feet, "Let's go then. We can repay our theft by catching their thief!" Brooklyn rose to his feet and said with a chuckle, "It isn't exactly that easy, but we can do what we can." ***** They glided in silence, and before too long the lights of Kansas City rose in the distance. The rose gargoyle said softly, "It's so large." "Yeah, it's great." Brooklyn enthused, "Just wait until you catch the updrafts. Those big buildings create some interesting currents." The two winged shapes flitted into the city, Brooklyn adjusting back to the sometimes sudden changes in air current formed by the crossing of streets and skyscrapers. His companion kept sky-slipping, wings flapping as she started to lose control. Brooklyn stayed close enough to catch her if she lost control, but she seemed to catch on before too long. Finally the two landed on top of a building. She leaned over the edge and looked down at the vehicles. "It's so different." she said softly. "Yeah, you're not in Kansas anymore." Brooklyn said, also leaning over to look down. "But.. yes we are. We're in its city." Brooklyn glanced over at his companion who was frowning at him. He grinned and said, "It's a movie quote." At her inquisitive look, he explained, "This girl named Dorothy gets caught up in a tornado, and is transported to a magical land along with her dog, Toto and ... well, it just seemed appropriate." he finished lamely. The rose gargoyle shrugged and looked back down to the streets, then she glanced back at Brooklyn and said with a grin, "Does that make you Dorothy and me Toto?" Brooklyn chuckled and said, "And me without my ruby slippers." to which she gave him another befuddled look. "Uh, you'll just have to see the movie sometime." Suddenly she said, "Toto." "What?" Brooklyn asked, his turn to be confused. "That's what I will be, Toto. My name, I mean." Brooklyn hesitated and then said, "Toto is a dog." She turned and put her hands on her hips, asking him, "And Brooklyn is a bridge, or so you have said." "Yeah but... It's a boy dog." Brooklyn said again. Toto lifted her chin and said stubbornly, "And since when were bridges males?" Brooklyn held up his hands in surrender and said with a smile, "Just making sure you know what you're getting yourself into." The east started to line with the coming dawn and the two gargoyles stepped back from the ledge. Brooklyn sang quietly to himself, "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my." The newly named Toto looked over at him and said with a confused and amused grin, "You are so strange." The sun caught Brooklyn in the motion of a self depreciating shrug, Toto's face lit with laughter. |