His tears fell down his face while gliding towards Sasha's now empty house, the young gargoyle trembling from the fact that his new and only friend here in this big country was gone and he was alone again. Brooklyn knew he had to get out of here before Yegor found out what happened and decided to take him back.
Upon arriving at the house, he swallowed, going over to the door and went in, having to hurry before the cops arrived here, going to find his bag that she gave him.
"I hope you don't mind me taking some food on my trip with me, Sasha." Brooklyn murmured, wiping his eyes as he held his bag against his chest, seeing the spot where Sasha's body fell after that bastard shot his friend.
He packed food that didn't need to be refrigerated such as bread, fruits, etc, and with a slice of ham from the fridge to have dinner for later. After looking around one more time, Brooklyn gave a heavy sigh and left the house, closing the door behind him, shouldering his bag over his shoulder and took off from the roof in an eastern direction, but had no idea where he was gonna end up.
....
After gliding for most of the night past the town of Yakutsk, Brooklyn managed to reach the utmost wilderness where no towns were around, the wind howling around him from the winter weather. Brooklyn shut his eyes from the fierce wind biting his skin that felt so cold, praying some kind of warm solution would come his way, wrapping his arms around himself to try and keep warm while gliding.
I hope I can make it home, but dunno where the heck I'm goin', Brooklyn thought to himself, as he eventually spotted a sheltered enough tree to sleep for the day in, knowing he had to rest eventually for his long trek through the rest of Russia, and hopefully find a friendly face to help him on his way.
As he climbed into the hole in the tree roots, he settled his achy body in for a day's sleep, readying for his stone changing, though when seeing his tail, Brooklyn trembled again at the idea of other horrible people who maybe lived in this forest to come and do away the rest of him while asleep.
"Don't think about it, just sleep," Brooklyn murmured softly in sadness, relaxing, and eating his ham from his bag, taking a drink of water and rubbing his arms, teeth chattering, longing for the nice warm summer days of New York. Living in bitter cold like this all the time just wasn't his way of feeling like home.
Soon his inner clock told Brooklyn it was time to change into stone, and Brooklyn closed his eyes as his stone skin crept up his body and covered up his face, right as a couple snowflakes began to fall, signaling a blizzard. Other animals in the forest had no idea about this new creature that was there, most of them were busy hibernating or struggling to survive.
...
Nightfall came again, and Brooklyn broke out of his stone sleep, roaring weakly, mostly from the cold, and felt the snow in his hair that had gathered on him while sleeping. Guess this tree hole hadn't been that protective against the elements. Stretching and eating some more of his food, Brooklyn clambered out only to face against a whole blizzard in the woods.
Brooklyn swallowed. He didn't feel brave enough to glide in these conditions, still weak and shivery as he was right now, holding his bag against his chest to keep his supplies and chest warm, wrapping his wings around himself, and beginning to trudge through the snow through the trees, hoping for some kind of civilization or sign to get him back to the states.
The icy wind hit his sensitive skin, the wind whipping his hair against his face. Brooklyn shivered more violently; afraid he wouldn't last long in this treacherous snowy forest. "S-so c-c-cold..." Brook complained, kneeling in the snow drift, hugging his body ever so tight, afraid to pass out from it should he never wake.
But at one point, he thought he heard a voice.
"Brooklyn..." It was female, and it made him jump in the snow, his hair soaked and icy from it. Looking around with weak eyes, he looked about, seeing a strange light figure before him. But it couldn't be...
He gasped at the sight of his beloved Sasha there, tears in his eyes, running towards the vision. "Sasha! I'm here!" He sobbed openly in a croaky voice, reaching with his hand but felt nothing there when reaching the spot. He had been going nuts, probably from this stupid snow.
I hate snow! It's making me hallucinate! Brooklyn thought grumpily and sadly, kicking it weakly, longing to hear Sasha's voice again as he continued on his sorrowful way, feeling so alone.
He had stumbled quite a few times, getting his bag wet since Sasha hadn't gotten him a complete waterproof bag. But Brooklyn felt too numb to care, his skin so pale, and wings too weak to glide, and no idea where the heck he was. The wind got worse too.
Brooklyn crouched in the snow, shivering to the point of losing his mind, wanting home so badly, forgetting about eating. He whined, collapsing near a tree, no one hearing his pleading cries for relief or help.
"A-Am I gonna die out here?" Brooklyn asked hoarsely, holding his bag, his only company, wrapping his frozen wings around his achy, cold body for some kind of protection but the good that would do. He lay there for a time, unable to go anywhere, the wind howling in his ears. But then a new noise came, a growling, snuffling noise in the trees.
It made Brooklyn jerk up, eyes rounding in fear, looking around for any bad ones or carnivorous animals who would want to eat him alive. Shaking, he slowly got up, knowing he had to keep moving. Brooklyn limped along further, the snow always getting deeper and deeper, and the growling getting closer.
His panic grew further when looking around, he actually saw the creature, which was a bear! Brook gave a little yelp of fear at the sight of the huge Siberian brown bear, which he too had seen in the auction that Brook learned was very dangerous. And in his condition, he couldn't take this thing on at all. The bear huffed, growling lowly, swaying on its four paws.
"Oh, sh-!" Brook squeaked, ears flat, as the bear next stood on its hind legs, giving out a bellowing roar now, cutting off his curse word, knowing he had to run. Brooklyn gathered himself together, running as fast as he could go, on all fours, the bear having woken up from its hibernation and feeling hungry, wondering what this strange creature would taste like.
Brook felt his tears fall down his face again, running desperately, not even watching where he was going, too desperate to not be eaten, unable to fly since his wings were so weak and tired now. But while running, he screeched when running into a thorn bush, thrashing as the thorns caught in his hair and on his deformed tail, cold sweat coming down his shoulders and saw the fierce bear noting his trapped situation, struggling with all he could, cringing from pain.
The bear growled hungrily, drooling, getting ever too close. Brooklyn felt his heart thump wildly, the bear's hot breath in his face, pressing and wiggling in the thorns. In a scared attempt, Brook lashed out with his talons, scratching the bear's muzzle, making the beast roar in agony before scratching his shoulder back, breaking through the thorns right near a cliff. Brooklyn yelled in pain, holding his scratched shoulder, falling down the slippery slope.
He grunted upon impact on the hard surface that he thought was snow, the bear charging down then stopping only five feet away, swaying again. Brooklyn gripped his sore shoulder tight, shaking but grinning.
"What's wrong o-overgrown f-fur b-b-bag? C-can't take me on?" he called mockingly, unaware of the danger he was in. The bear paced back and forth, glaring, before eventually trudging off in another direction, not stupid to venture onto a frozen lake.
Brook smirked, standing up on two legs. "Th-That's right, Yogi Bear. N-No match for me!" He had somewhat got his confidence back before eventually hearing a strange noise under his feet, a cracking and gurgling noise. Frowning, Brooklyn brushed away the snow to see ice cracking. He gasped again, going to run for it but was too late. The ice broke open, revealing the cold, dark water.
He felt himself slipping on the ice, screeching again in horror, clawing at the ice flow he was standing on to keep his feet from touching the icy water. It was all in vain however as Brooklyn slipped even further, tears of fright slipping down his cheeks, feeling his deformed tail touching the water, then his feet and legs.
"No, no!" Brook sobbed in panic, scrabbling at the ice flow, his body now halfway in the water, until eventually he fell in, the howling wind cutting off from the liquid in his ears.
The water was so bitingly cold, feeling like hot knives were poking relentlessly at his skin. Brooklyn's hair flowed in the water as he writhed under the surface, struggling to hold his breath, the current of the lake dragging him out further away from his only way out.
Brooklyn gave pained muffled grunts, his lungs on fire from holding his breath, his skin hurting so badly from the water, feeling his skin burning painfully. His chest was tight and aching, the current so strong he couldn't get back to the surface.
Eventually, he couldn't hold in his breath anymore no thanks to that awful water, his mouth opened, and water flooded his mouth, screeching with water getting into his lungs now.
His vision began to grow hazy, losing his strength, drifting lazily in the water now, eyes drooping in exhaustion, unable to resist the pain any longer. Sasha's voice whispered melodically inside him, making his body feel warm and disconnected from his brain like he was dying. His bag had slipped from his shoulder too, losing it to the depths of the water.
Can't... fight... any... longer... Brook thought wearily in sorrow, his head hitting the top of the ice, unaware of a person's boots standing there. Even if he couldn't return to his clan now, Brooklyn felt a wave of peace knowing that soon he could be with Sasha again, allowing it to take his mind, his vision going out, bubbles trailing out of his mouth as an ice pick broke the surface...
....
Out in the lone wilderness of Siberia, several miles out from the auction, lived a lone 50-year-old man named Viktor who was a climatologist for a living. But from coming out here where no other humans were to do his research, it had cut him off from his family and any other kind of communication for anybody.
At first, he welcomed the quietness of him living in a cabin they provided to allow him to live in but in time, Viktor felt like he was desperate for someone to come along for him to chat with.
He had been ready to trudge out into the snow again to take samples from trees and stuff like that to send to the laboratory in his old home city. He went walking out near the lake to see if there were any interesting animals around here too. But to Viktor's surprise, he spotted something under the ice, struggling, a hand on it. Taking caution and pulling out his ice pick, Viktor carefully went towards it, kicking snow aside to reveal the strangest creature under the ice he had ever seen!
It was a beaked animal who floated under the water in the ice, looking quite weak and near death too, eyes drooping. Without giving it a second thought, Viktor used his ice pick and broke through the ice as hard as he could, grunting hard from it. From being a climatologist, he grew to love the welfare of any animal too, especially those who were in danger.
The body floated to the opening of the ice, his hair floating everywhere. Viktor knew his sled could help bring this poor creature he now was trying to pull out, having bravely reached into the icy water and grabbing its taloned hand. Upon closer inspection, Viktor recognized that the creature was a gargoyle. His face looked so sad and tired, and Viktor wondered how this one had gotten out this far.
After a struggle, Viktor was able to get his new gargoyle out onto the snowy shore. The gargoyle was quite heavy even if his body was so skinny looking. But thankfully, Viktor knew what to use to put this one on to get to his house; his sled he usually brought with him if he ever found any interesting rocks. Grunting, Viktor dragged Brooklyn onto the sled, his hair so wet from the water, which stuck to his neck. Viktor next began pressing his hands gently on the gargoyle's chest to have him expel the water he swallowed.
"I... won't let ya die, weird gargoyle, breathe!" Viktor panted, pressing hard as much as he could until at last, Brook's eyes shot open from shock and spat out the water, greeted by the howling wind and fuzzy vision, a strange man looking at him.
He whined again, closing his eyes. "Get... way..." He slurred in a tired voice before passing out once more from cold, shaking, somewhat startling the man that he could talk but glad it wouldn't be much trouble to bring it home.
Viktor shook his head, patting the gargoyle's hand as he began to haul the sled back to his cabin which was only 20 minutes of a walk to his house since he couldn't live too far away from water resources. He could hear Brooklyn wheezing badly while pulling the sled, feeling sorry for the poor thing.
After those tedious twenty minutes, Viktor finally came to his home, unlocking the cabin then pulling the gargoyle indoors. Brooklyn began to shake violently from the sudden change of temperature even if there was no fire in his woodstove yet. Viktor knew he had a big challenge to take on, and this gargoyle looked like a doozy, especially with his scratched shoulder too.
....
Back in Manhattan, it was getting desperate for the clan to find Brooklyn since his disappearance. On TV the day since he was gone was a report of poachers in the area.
Goliath was sitting in the library, looking rather melancholy about the entire situation, wishing he gave Brooklyn more attention and that the rest of the clan displayed more of their love for him.
Elisa came by, seeing him holding the book for Crime and Punishment in his hands, and figured Goliath felt it was his fault for his Second's disappearance. She sat down with him with a smile.
"Hey, big guy," she greeted, holding his hand. Goliath turned to his love, a sad smile on his features. "I always feel better when seeing you, Elisa. But the castle... it feels empty without Brooklyn. Do you think he's alive?"
That made Elisa cringe slightly, but she gave him a hug. "I'm sure Brooklyn has found a way to escape. He's smart and strong, Goliath. And he'll find his way home." Goliath looked at his lover in a gentle way, and he hugged her again, hoping she was right.