Author: Wyrd Sister
Fandom: Gargoyles
Disclaimer: I know you know, so I keep it brief: I own nothing apart from Chris and the characters I make up on the way.
Unfortunately I´m not making money with this story. But presents and cheques (and most of all: reviews) will be gratefully accepted…
Rating: Suitable for all ages
Summary: Dimension travels are possible after all! Join Chris on her first adventure in another world. Can the Clan help her getting back in her own world?
I don´t really know how to begin.
So I just write down what´s going through my mind.
You are about to hear the story of a traveller between worlds, between dimensions that have only one thing in common: All of them had been created by people of this world – my home world, the world you´re living in. My name is Christine, I´m 20 years old and live in Germany. And not long ago I had an experience most people dream of all their lives…
Chris´ Chronicles
Journal of a Dimension Traveller
Part 1 - The first step
It was a bright summer day, a Friday, to be exact. I was just coming home from work and – after a quick snack (a bowl of cereals, followed by ice-cream - typical for a single, who hates washing dishes – and loves sweets) I turned the computer on, checked emails and glanced at the TV every once in a while. Reruns of Star Trek NG. Seen all, of course, but it´s nice to have them as kind of background entertainment while you´re doing other things.
Anyway, I got the emails and some paperwork done and after flipping through the TV-magazine and finding nothing interesting I turned the set off and took the book I´d bought on the flea-market only an hour ago. Of course you´re asking yourself now: Why is this girl reading a book, at home, on a Friday evening?
The simple answer is: I didn´t have a date and actually I love having Friday evenings all to myself. They just seem to pass so quickly. I´m not exactly a loner, but enjoy having time for reading and thinking. And – okay, okay, watching TV also, I admit it.
The book I´d bought from this strange bearded man still smelled a bit like him, like peppermint and cough syrup. It would probably vanish soon.
It´s title was "A Guide For The Dimensional Traveller" (surprised I´d noted the absence of an author´s name) and I expected it to be some parody of "The Hitchhiker´s Guide Through The Galaxy", especially since the introduction started with "You don´t need a towel!"
The cover had been spotty and shabby, but after I carefully wiped it with a damp cloth the brown leather quickly shone through the dirt again. Funny that they still produced books with leather cover, usually they´re only made of cardboard, just very old (and expensive) books are covered in leather. I´d only paid a few bucks for this one, so it was probably no real leather.
Hopping onto my bed and turning the radio on (I always need background sound) I opened the book and started to read.
It wasn´t easy to read at first, mainly because the text was written in old German (another strange thing for a book about a humorous topic) and you have to get used to it, but also because some passages didn´t seem to make sense.
After a while I began to blink, then – suddenly – I was so tired I could hardly find the switch to turn out the lights. When the room went dark I had the brief impression that the book was glowing blue-ish, but a second glance found no strange light from it and I decided it must have been my imagination. Yeah, right! Was I naive…
In the middle of the night I woke up and found the whole room filled with blue light. The book was still on my nightstand, sitting upright, the pages fluttering, but there was no wind.
"That´s just a dream." I thought, slightly amused by the crap I was always dreaming of, but not frightened.
Of course not.
Then the glowing grew stronger and a round circle built up around the book, growing bigger till it was nearly as high as the ceiling. "You know where this comes from", I thought to myself, "TV, of course: Quantum Leap, Stargate or Sliders. And too much ice-cream."
The first real doubt about this being a dream came when I felt a strong wind blowing through the room and making me shiver. It grew stronger and stronger, pressing me in the direction of the book and the center of the blue circle. I fought against it, but suddenly I was sucked into the circle, head first and fell through waves of light. For the first time in my life I lost conciousness.
Were the hell was I?
I sat up and pain shot through my head and muscles. Obviously I had been lying on the ground for a couple of hours. Right next to me I could see a red-brown brickwall, all around me were grey junk bags. It seemed they had covered me a bit from the cold. But everything I saw looked…weird somehow…no: "wrong". I couldn´t put my finger on it, but something definitely looked wrong.
"What´s the last thing you remember?" I asked myself, forcing my mind to recall my last concious moments. There was this network problem we had had at work, my collegues in the IT-department and I had tracked it down to a broken cable, lunch with my friend Matthias, there was the flea-market, a telephone call…wait a minute: the flea-market! The book! Suddenly it clicked and I remembered what had happened at night. Or what I thought I had seen happening.
But this didn´t really help me figuring out what had happened.
I got up and made a quick check. Nothing broken, just a few bruises and cuts, I would survive.
Thank goodness I still wore jeans and t-shirt instead of a pyjama. Usually I don´t fall asleep with my street-clothes still on.
"First I´ve got to find out where exactly I am, then what happened and then I´ll contact my friends." I thought, walking out of the small alley onto a busy street – and stopped right away.
"We don´t have this kind of buildings at home!"
High buildings.
Like skyscrapers.
Very high skyscrapers!
Where the hell was I?!
People were walking and talking all around me and suddenly it occurred to me that they were talking English.
Where the hell…?!
I felt like Sam Becket from Project Quantum Leap. Only he always had to find out not only where he was, but also when. And as far as I remember he had never leapt into a foreign country. I was just glad I could understand and speak the language quite well after spending a year travelling through Australia. In a distance I saw a newspaper box and started to walk over, while watching the people on the street - not few of them talking into small mobiles.
Then I was there and my jaw dropped when I read the first few lines of the paper:
I was in New York!
None of the above.
After a while I did what I always do when I know I´m dreaming: I started to explore.
Walking through the streets of New York (or what I thought NY looked like for I´d never been there in my life and only seen it on TV) I saw taxis and other cars moving slowly forward, people in suits and costumes carrying briefcases were quickly passing others who looked like they only possessed what they had in their shabby plastic bags. It was obviously around 9 o´clock in the morning, although my watch showed 6 pm 45.
I moved on in no particular direction, impressed by the buildings and the buzz along the streets, feeling as part of a gigantic ant hill. But still, something felt "wrong", the way buildings and people looked…the colours…but I couldn´t focus on this thought and decided to leave it till the solution would hit me in the face.
After walking around for a few hours my stomach made clear it needed something to eat. At this point I decided to treat the whole situation as real. After all, I´ve never been hungry in a dream – I may have eaten something, but I´ve never been hungry. And – boy – was I starving!
But what can you do when you´re stuck in a foreign city, without money? Uncomfortably I looked around and tried to think of what my favourite TV-heroes would do. Didn´t help much. Finally I entered a fast food restaurant and asked for work, but without a work permit the owner couldn´t hire me. Right, American law. Wouldn´t have been different at home. However, when she saw my desperate face the lady told me to wait for a moment and brought a bag containing two hamburgers, french fries and a coke. I thanked her and left the restaurant quickly, feeling like a beggar.
In a nearby park I wolfed down the food and threw the bag into a bin.
What now?
"Try to contact your friends and family." a voice in my mind told me firmly and I had to admit this sounded reasonable. I still didn´t know how I had gotten here, but at least I could inform my family where I was and tell them I was okay.
And they could send me some money, by the way.
I checked out a few internet cafés, but when I told the owners I had no money right now and promised to pay them later they didn´t let me use the terminals. Frustrated I moved on. Should I go to the German embassy and ask for help there?
"Yeah, and tell them that I was at home just a few hours ago before waking up in a NY side street. Bet they never heard this particular story before."
Which other possibilities were there?
The police?
Same thing.
Fed up with the whole situation I went into a park and sat under a tree beside a small lake to think. What could I possibly do? There had to be a way to contact my family and friends, my parents were probably already worried to death.
Leaning onto the broad trunk of the oak behind me, I fell asleep.
"Miss? Miss? Are you okay?"
I opened my eyes and looked into the face of a young security officer.
"W…was ist denn los?" I mumbled and, noting his puzzled expression, the events of the past hours came back to my mind. „Oops, sorry, I must have fallen asleep." I said and stood up.
He shook his head.
"You shouldn´t stroll through this part of the city at night time." He said. "Can I call you a cab to bring you home?" I must have looked really dumb, because he lowered the walkie-talkie he was already holding to his mouth and watched me compassionately.
"Don´t you have a home? Can I do anything for you?"
For a moment I felt anger growing in me, but the look on his face made it melt away. This young man just wanted to help me and at the moment I needed help.
I guess my appearance led him to the conclusion that I had run away from home or so. I was already 20 years old, but still looked like a teenager to some people.
I made a decision.
"Would you mind telling me where the next police station is?"
I would ask there if I could spend the night in one of the cells and maybe – just maybe – they´d let me use the phone to call my parents. My previous doubts were gone – I didn´t have to tell them anything if I didn´t want to. Even if they didn´t let me sleep in one of the cells they would probably not throw me out. Everything´s better than the street.
The young man gave me an odd look.
"The 23th precinct is the closest. I´ll bring you there."
On the way I learned that his name was Thomas, that he was 22 years old, single and lived in Brooklyn. He had just started working at a local security company and was quite satisfied with his job yet.
I only told him my name and that I´d just arrived in New York and he didn´t try to find out more.
Suddenly he stopped and pointed to a building across the street.
"That´s the precinct."
I looked at the building and my jaw dropped for the second time on this day.
I´d seen it before and when I looked up and recognized the clock tower on top of it, it hit me.
Suddenly I knew why everything looked "wrong" and – more important - what the blue circle probably had been.
A passage.
A gateway to another dimension.
THIS dimension.
I couldn´t see much around the clock far above my head, but I was sure that in broad daylight you could see stone creatures standing up there.
Gargoyles.
Suddenly I knew what I had to do next.
I put the piece of paper with his number in my pocket and walked over to the huge stone building.
"No, I´m waiting for her."
"She probably won´t return till 6 am."
"That´s okay, I´ll wait."
The officer looked puzzled, but I just went over to a bench and sat down. During the next few hours I watched NYPD officers deal with hookers, gang members and other criminals.
"We never see this side when watching "Gargoyles" on TV." I thought, "It´s always about the big crimes, hardly ever small stuff like a purse being stolen. And the existence of prostitution is never even mentioned. After all, it´s a cartoon series for kids."
I must have dozed off a little, because when someone touched my arm lightly I jumped, again experiencing a moment of disorientation.
"Slowly kid, no one´s going to harm you." An amused voice told me and I looked into the face of Elisa Maza. She stood right in front of me, wearing her red jacket and jeans. It had been a strange feeling when this police officer confirmed that there was indeed a detective named Elisa Maza working at this precinct, but to meet her in person – wow, I got goosebumps.
"Carey told me you spent the last four hours here, waiting for me. So what can be so important?"
I must have stared at her like a fool, because she examined me closer.
"Have we met?"
I shook my head, more to clear it than to answer the question.
Now that she stood right in front of me I couldn´t think of anything to say. She patiently watched me struggle for the right words and finally I managed to introduce myself without studdering and asked her if we could go to a more private place to talk.
She raised an eyebrow, but nodded and led me into a small interrogation room nearby. We sat down and I felt myself searching for words again.
How to begin? Bursting out with "I know about the gargoyles" couldn´t be a proper start.
Elisa smiled at me.
"Why don´t you start right at the beginning?" she suggested as if reading my mind.
But what exactly was the beginning?
"We haven´t met before," I said slowly and watched her carefully, "but I know about some very special friends of yours. I´d like to talk to them. I need their help."
She tensed a little, but it could have been my imagination.
"What are you talking about? Which friends?"
Could I have stumbled into this dimension before she´d met Goliath and the others for the first time? Then I´d really be in trouble. I had been sure the gargoyles were already living in the clock tower of the police precinct, but for all I knew Xanatos could be the only one knowing about their existence yet.
Somehow I found the courage to say "Goliath" and saw Elisa jump a little. No imagination this time. She watched me intensly before asking.
"Who are you and what do you know about Goliath?"
I told her it was hard to explain, but I had to speak to him and the others as soon as possible. "I´m afraid, I don´t know what you´re talking about." She said slowly.
I rolled my eyes and decided to spill a bit more to convince her that I indeed knew about the gargoyles. It´s been a while since I had watched an episode, but I still remembered a few things. The German translation of the spoken introduction of the series wouldn´t help much, but there were a few other pieces of information not many people in this dimension could possibly know.
"In the year 994 A. D. they lived in a castle together with others of their kind and humans, protecting their home at night. Goliath was the only one having a name, he was stronger than all the others and their leader. Demona and a human he had thought of as a friend betrayed them and all the other gargoyles were killed."
I went on, recalling the scenes of the battle, seeing the Magus before my inner eye as he cursed the 5 remaining gargoyles before realizing he made a mistake, then, in order to unite Goliath with his friends, putting the spell on him as well.
Xanathos buying the castle and transfering it to Manhattan.
The night when the spell was finally broken.
"Now there are 6 Gargoyles living in New York. Their names are Goliath, Hudson, Broadway, Brooklyn, Lexington and Bronx. They kind of adopted the city as their home and try their best to protect the innocent."
I looked up and saw Elisa staring at me in disbelief.
"How do you know…?"
I smiled, suddenly feeling very tired.
"I´ll try to explain later. But first…do you mind if I take a little nap in one of your spare cells? I feel like I haven´t slept in days."
"Would make a great first impression – asking for food." I thought and smiled at the gargoyle, who rested his head in my lap while I patted him.
"He seems to like you." The snarling voice came from the opening that led out onto the platform of the clock tower. I had been too tired to realize Elisa had brought me right up into her friends´living room. But there I was, staring at Hudson, who quickly stepped inside and walked down the stairs in my direction. He looked a bit grumpy, but when Bronx jumped up, greeting him anxiously, he broke into a smile and patted his head.
I leaned forward.
"What time is it? Is it still night? How long did I sleep?"
Hudson grinned.
"Still night? You slept the rest of last night, all day and nearly through this night as well." I grinned back.
"You´ve got a very comfortable couch here."
Suddenly there was a flapping noise and a moment later the other gargoyles entered the room behind the clock. Goliath was the first coming down the stairs, followed by Broadway and Brooklyn, who seemed to have an argument of some sort and Lexington, who rolled his eyes and flew past his friends in my direction.
He was the first arriving at the couch, landed on it and threw me a surprised glance.
"You´re awake!" And turning to Brooklyn. "I knew she wasn´t under the influence of a sleeping spell."
Brooklyn was about to respond, but a glance from Goliath stopped him.
They stood around the couch now, eyeing me closely. All of them looked…bigger…more massive than on the small TV screen. I asked myself which physical laws allowed them to fly, even if it was more a gliding of some sort. Maybe it was the same as with the bumble bee – scientists said it was in fact impossible for this small creature to fly, considering its weight and shape, but it did anyway. Probably it was the same with gargoyles.
Goliath bend down a bit.
"Elisa told me you knew about us and the curse. And that you needed our help." He growled.
I nodded.
"Well, I don´t really know if you can help me, but…from my point of view it seemed to be a logical step to come to you." I said slowly.
Goliath shook his head.
"Are you a sorcerer?" he wanted to know.
This wasn´t the kind of question I had expected.
"A sorcerer? No, certainly not. What makes you think I could be one?" I asked, puzzled.
"You know things about the our past nobody else does. Elisa repeated everything you´d told her and the only way to know all the details of the betrayal and the battle…" he stopped, because Elisa came from behind and joined the circle.
He glanced at her and she shook her head. Then both looked back at me.
"You must have been there to know all these details." He continued. "How else did you know what happened after I had transformed into stone?"
I cursed myself for not thinking of this in the first place. But I had been tired the previous night and not really capable of thinking straight anymore.
"It hasn´t got anything to do with magic." I told them, but then stopped. "Well, at least I don´t think so."
"What does that mean?" Broadway asked with a puzzled expression.
"I don´t really know myself." I groaned confused.
"Hey hey," Hudson interrupted, waving his hands in a calming gesture, "give the kid some time, will ya? She just woke up."
I threw him a grateful glance and tried to find a way of explaining what went through my head. "You´re heroes of a Disney TV-series" wasn´t exactly the phrase I was looking for and I dropped it right away. Elisa took a chair from a corner of the room and sat opposite me.
"I fed the computer your name, but it couldn´t find anything. Not in the US or any other parts of the world. You don´t seem to exist."
This brought a smile to my face – the police having computer connections around the world? I was definitely not at home anymore!
"I come from Germany." I began. "But not from this dimension. It´s quite similar to this one, but there are no gargoyles and magic, at least as far as I know."
They looked a bit stunned, but not fully convinced yet. I decided not to tell them that we could watch their adventures on TV, but said that there were books about them I had read. Well, comics are books as well, aren´t they?
Then I gave Elisa and the Clan a brief summary of my arrival in New York.
"And I don´t really remember much after talking to you." I said to Elisa.
She smiled.
"You already looked pretty absent when I brought you here. I think you slept before your head reached the couch."
The others grinned as well and the ice was broken.
Lexington jumped closer.
"If I understand you correctly, you don´t really know how you got here."
"Yeah, that´s right."
"What makes you think we can help you? Was there anything in this flea-market-book about us?"
"Not as far as I remember." I replied. "But the only book I know having enough power to send a person into another dimension is…"
"…the Grimorium Arcanorum." Goliath finished the sentence.
I nodded and rubbed Bronx´head. The blue-ish gargoyle sat next to my feet and panted delighted.
For a moment it was the only sound in the room.
I watched Goliath and the others exchanging glances, then my stomach started to rumble.
Very loud.
"When was the last time you had a good meal?" Broadway asked.
"Um…after my arrival, at the fast food place." I answered uncomfortably.
"What?! That was…more than 24 hours ago!" He waved his arms, turned around and disappeared behind a corner. When he came back he carried a cardboard box full of donuts.
"It´s not what I call a balanced meal…" Elisa began sceptically, but I was already stuffing a yellow one into my mouth. It was the best donut I´ve ever eaten. I mean, Germany is famous for quite a few different sorts of cake and sweets, but donuts…no, you don´t get good donuts in Germany. Not like these, soft and with a thick layer of icing…yummy.
The gargoyles and Elisa watched me eating half of the box´ content with amusement, then I lay back and – seeing Bronx´ glance – offered him half of the last donut, which he gulped greedily.
He nearly took off my arm as well.
"Watch it, pal!" I shrieked, pulling my hand away quickly. He gave me an innocent look and everybody – including me - started laughing.
I closed the box and looked at Goliath.
"So…are you going to help me?" The big silver-blue gargoyle glanced around at his friends, then back at me.
"We´ll do what we can." He replied smiling and offered me his hand.
Grateful I shook it.
While Goliath was – as usual – carrying Elisa and Hudson Bronx, Brooklyn and Broadway took me in turns. Flying itself was fantastic, but changing partners 400 metres above the ground pretty scary. I was glad when we finally landed in the forecourt of the castle.
"We´ve got to be careful." Hudson said quietly, "Xanatos is on a business trip abroad, but his assistant, Owen, is still around."
I wasn´t expecting to get the book – in fact, I was sure we´d be caught in the attempt to take it. After all, Xanatos had enough money to protect his valueables and the Grimorium Arcanorum was one of the mightiest magic books in this dimension. I wondered how he´d gotten it.
But I had no choice – I had to take a look into it. Hopefully there was a spell that would bring me back home.
We moved around a few corners, avoiding doors that were certainly connected to the alarm system. Hudson led us to a wall and pressed on a stone. Suddenly part of the wall moved, and we could see the dim corridor on the other side. Quickly everybody stepped in and Hudson closed the door again. Then we moved on.
Xanatos´ office was dark, but the moon shone through the huge windows, so we could see most of our soroundings. The Grimorium was laying under a glass cube and before Elisa or I could say anything Broadway had already lifted the cube and Brooklyn took the book and handed it to me. Startled I waited for an alarm, but everything remained silent. After a moment I heard Elisa exhale slowly and knew we had shared the same thought.
We seemed to get away with the book after all.
But when we turned around to leave the room there was a dark silhouette standing in the doorframe. It moved forward and suddenly light swept through the room, causing us to blink. I recognized the politely smiling man instantly.
It was David Xanatos.
I had always considered Xanatos a remarkable opponent for Goliath and his Clan. He was intelligent, well-equipped with technology and always searching for ways to increase his power and wealth. Besides these facts he was extraordinary good-looking and had excellent manners. Failures didn´t seem to bother him that much.
I had to remind myself of his crimes against innocent people and that he still was the enemy. Wouldn´t have been wise to develop a crush on this guy right now – after all, I knew more about the future of the people in this room than anyone else.
And despite the fact that Xanatos would become sort of a friend of the Clan later on, he was the bad guy now, working together with Demona and Dr. Sevarius whom I didn´t even want to meet in person.
While I forced myself to stop drooling over this handsome villain Goliath moved in front of Elisa and me and growled.
Xanatos´ smile broadened and suddenly the wall right next to his desk moved upwards, giving way for five gargoyle-shaped robots, marching into the room and aiming their phaser weapons at our group.
Hudson raised his sword, Brooklyn, Broadway and Bronx jumped between the robots and us two humans - time seemed to freeze.
While the gargoyles prepared for battle, Xanatos´glance fell onto me, still holding the Grimorium. He raised an eyebrow and turned to Goliath.
"Is this your new hobby? Teaching burglar technics to kids?" he asked him cheerfully - and in Elisa´s direction, "And you´re supporting this? I´m very disapointed in you, detective."
Realizing that his enemy wouldn´t attack us right now, Goliath´s wings folded a little.
"We need the book to help her get home." He growled.
Xanatos stared at me.
"Why didn´t you use the telephone book? It´s far easier to get and you´re more likely to find her parents´ number in there."
Elisa stepped at Goliath´s side and I followed her quickly, shifting the heavy book to my right hip. "It´s not that easy." She told him, then stopped, looking at me. I realized she wanted to leave the decision of what to tell Xanatos to me.
I met his gaze and shrugged, nearly dropping the book.
"I came here from another dimension. It was kind of an accident. Now I hope there´s a spell in the Grimorium I can use to go back." I said.
The amused smile was still there, but he didn´t make another remark, only his stare seemed to be searching my face for a sign of untruth. I stared back and after a while he turned to Goliath again. "Why didn´t you just ask me if you could use the Grimorium?" he asked him in a hurt voice. "Instead of breaking into my office and trying to steal it?"
I could almost see Goliath´s jaw dropping and repressed a smile. Xanatos was obviously enjoying this situation.
Elisa was sceptical.
"You´ll let us leave with the book?"
He shook his head.
"I´m sorry, but I can´t do this. Please understand, the Grimorium is a very powerful magic book and I can´t just give it to you. But…" his smile brightened, "…I can offer you my office while you´re searching for the right spell to bring…" he glanced at me intensly, "…this young lady back where she belongs."
Hudson nodded in the direction of the still waiting robots.
"Shall we use these fellas as bookends?"
A simple command from Xanatos made them disappear behind the wall again.
Brooklyn turned around.
"Why would you let us use the book?" he asked suspiciously.
Xanatos pressed a small button next to the light switch.
"This is obviously an emergency, who am I to turn my back when there are people in trouble?"
Nobody replied, but our expressions spoke for themselves. "Yeah, right – who´s supposed to believe that?"
Suddenly Owen stood in the doorway.
"You called me, Mr. Xanatos? Oh, you´ve got…guests. Do you want me to lead them out?"
"No, Owen, they are going to stay a bit longer. Could you bring us a little snack?"
"Certainly, sir." And he disappeared again.
"Now!" Xanatos rubbed his hands and came in my direction, "I´m sorry, we haven´t been introduced properly – my name is David Xanatos."
I shook his hand.
"Christine Stein. Please call me Chris."
"Okay…Chris. Where exactly do you come from?"
I gave him the same brief explanation I´d given Elisa and the Clan before, while the gargoyles were standing around, trying to figure out what Xanatos was up to.
Well, I had a hunch here: My dimension may not have been very interesting for this man, but others propably were. And if he found out how to control leaps to other places I couldn´t even imagine all the different possibilities he would suddenly have.
Worlds with better technology he could buy or steal.
Worlds with unlimited mineral deposits.
Or he could just kidnap people for Sevarius´ experiments without leaving a trace.
Oh yes, he´d have quite a few possibilities.
Anyway, I had to play along for now, I would think of a way to fight him later if we found anything in the Grimorium.
Owen returned and brought a trolley with sandwiches and drinks. I watched him walking to the fireplace and lighting the fire. This guy was Puck, one of Oberon´s children – and no one knew this yet, apart from me.
Suddenly he looked up and met my gaze. I returned to the passage I´d been reading before, but the old English was even worse to understand than the old German had been to read.
A few hours later I was still sitting at the desk with Elisa, Hudson and Xanatos. Goliath stood at the window, keeping an eye on Xanatos and Owen. Brooklyn and Lexington had found a game of chess and played on the floor near the door to the corridor, and Broadway finished the plate with tuna sandwiches. The 4th one if my calculations were correct.
Elisa and Hudson helped me with the translation of some difficult English parts (for Hudson was still illiterate, I read the parts aloud) and after a while we found some lines about time travelling that sounded promising. But when the huge Latin passages began I gave up. Sighing I leaned back.
"I had Latin at school", I said to no one in particular, "but only for two years – this is too difficult for me."
Xanatos, leaning against the desk, reached for the book and looked at the page. "It´s about a traveller…who falls…into something…mhmm…"
He fell silent, then signaled Owen.
"Could you take a look?"
"Certainly, Sir."
He read the lines Xanatos pointed at and translated without hesitation.
"The traveller who falls into this world like a stone into a lake sees the future and will not return alone. Her waves will be recognized in the places she visits." He raised an eyebrow, reminding me of Spock.
"That´s unusual. This passage deals with dimension travelling, but there are no spells or descriptions of how to do it, only this prediction."
Bronx strolled over to me and rubbed his head on my knee, pushing Xanatos´ comfortable chair a few inches over the floor. Absent minded I ran my fingers through his horns.
Elisa stared at Owen.
"Are you sure it´s about a female traveller?"
Frowning Owen looked up.
"Of course I am. The Latin grammar…"
"It´s okay, Owen," Xanatos interrupted, "we believe you. So…" He watched me closely, "…this prediction could actually be about you."
Hudson wasn´t convinced.
"Only because a female traveller is mentioned?" he shook his head, "That´s not more than a hunch." "It´s a bit more than that," Owen said stiffly, "the part about the stone and the lake is pretty obvious."
"What do you mean?"
Before Owen could respond I saw the connection myself.
"Stone…that´s my last name – the English translation of "Stein" is "stone"! And the gateway looked like a huge lake, only…well, as if looking at it from above."
Xanatos stared from me to the book and back.
"Can you see the future?" he asked quietly and I felt the gaze of nine people – humans and gargoyles (and one of a child of Oberon) – on me.
I shifted a little in the chair.
"Yes, I know a few things that will happen here." I said carefully.
They waited.
I looked around.
"I can´t tell you!"
Broadway abandoned the empty trolley and stepped closer.
"Why not?"
"This would change the time line. I can´t do it!"
"But you could prevent catastrophes from happening." Brooklyn said softly.
"This…this wouldn´t be right."
I shook my head, trying to express my feelings and thoughts about the matter.
"You can´t just…walk around and change the time line. What if you actually prevent something just to find out that you only made things worse?"
Elisa touched my arm.
"Do you have anything particular in mind?"
Actually I had.
I thought of her brother Derek and the mutagenic that turned him (or would turn him) into Talon. But if I told them and – always on the condition that they believed me – this change could be prevented, what would happen to the others whose life he´d save later on? What would happen to Maggie? To the gargoyle clones and the homeless? Could I save them too and at what price?
My head was spinning and I closed my eyes. Remembering the first directive of the United Federation of Planets, I decided to use this rule for now as well, at least till something better came up.
"I can´t tell you!" I repeated in a firm voice and opened my eyes again, preparing myself for more questions.
But Hudson only nodded and tapped me on the shoulder.
"No one should know too much about the future. It wouldn´t do much good. It´s okay, nobody will mention this topic again." He gave the others a long stare, as if to see if anyone would object this statement.
No one did.
In the uncomfortable silence Goliath pointed to the line Owen had translated.
"How does this help Chris to get home?"
Owen took his glasses of and cleaned them with a white handkerchief.
"The book says she is going to leave this world – and obviously she´ll take someone with her – to visit other places, but there´s neither a spell nor any other piece of advice that gives a hint on the way she is going to use."
I rubbed my eyes, it was already 4 am and I was tired.
"So when there´s no help in the Grimorium – how else can I find out how to go back?"
No one reponded and I felt depression sweaping over me. Bronx licked my hand and wailed in sympathy.
"Miss Stein? Could I talk to you for a minute?"
Tired I nodded and while the gargoyles were watching him closely he led me a bit to the side.
"Do you have…a certain information about me…" he stopped, searching for words.
I raised my hand.
"I know who you are if it´s that what you mean. Don´t worry, your secret is save with me." I grinned a little. "Just like everyone else´s."
His expression was unreadable, as always, when he nodded.
"Thank you, I appreciate that."
I turned around to walk back to Elisa and the Clan, then hesitated. Looking back over my shoulder I found him still standing there.
"Owen?"
"Yes?"
"There´s nothing…I mean…nothing you could do…?"
He shook his head.
"I´m sorry. This particular matter lays beyond my competence."
I nodded sadly and went back to Brooklyn and the others.
I had expected this reply.
"Hot chocolate?" she offered and I nodded.
"Yes, please."
Then we sat on the table in silence, sipping the hot liquid.
I saw a photo of Elisa and her family on a nearby shelf and she followed my glance.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"
"Yes, a little brother. He´s still at school."
The silence returned while I was thinking of my family at home.
The Grimorium said I would get back, but not when. How long would I have to stay here? It was an interesting place, no doubt about it, but I didn´t want to spend my life here.
Xanatos had already been in prison (and released), but not yet built/brought back Goliath´s brother Coldstone. Derek wasn´t working for him yet.
Once more I thought about warning Elisa, but decided against it. After all, from my point of view these things had already happened. And she hasn´t been able to talk him out of this job before – so he wouldn´t believe her when she told him about the mutagenic anyway.
"What if my appearance here already changed something?" I asked myself. But I couldn´t find the courage to leave Elisa and the Clan and continue the search on my own.
"I won´t be sitting around another night, trying to figure out how to get home! The Grimorium was of no use, Xanatos obviously hasn´t found anything else and if I keep on doing nothing I´ll freak out!"
So Goliath allowed me to come, but only if I stayed behind the battle line with Bronx and didn´t try to help. Meddling into a fight between gargoyles and gangsters? Do I look stupid?
We flew to the harbour, where – according to one of Elisa´s sources – an illegal weapon delivery was about to take place this night. From above we saw a few people loading heavy containers on trucks.
Goliath signaled Hudson and Brooklyn, and they went down to drop Bronx and me.
"Don´t move away from here!" Hudson ordered before turning around to help his friends stopping the delivery. Followed by Bronx I only went over to the corner to watch the fight. While Goliath was throwing containers on the workers who defended the delivery with phaser weapons, Brooklyn was beating the crap out of 7 or 8 workers with black masks who attacked him with baseball clubs.
Broadway drove a heavy loaded truck over the wharf and into the water, where it sank within seconds. I was completely absorbed in the fight, but suddenly an angry growl made me turn around. Behind me, from the other side of the small alley Brooklyn had dropped me, came a little army of robot-like creatures. Both, a still growling Bronx and I, carefully moved backwards, the other gargoyles hadn´t seen the robots yet. I turned around and whistled as loud as I could to get their attention.
Goliath looked up and his face darkened.
"Go back! Can´t you see it´s dangerous here?!"
"It´s more dangerous in the alley!" I shouted back, "There must be 20 robots coming in this direction." The huge gargoyle turned to a few puzzled guys who stood in a doorway of a warehouse and didn´t seem to be sure what to do next. He growled and the men screamed, dropped their weapons and ran away.
Suddenly I heard Bronx barking, but when I turned around a large silver robot was already flying in my direction at high speed, grabbing me and shooting up into the black sky.
Pain shot through my ribs were he held me and I kicked him a few times. Of course this only resulted in an aching foot. Then Hudson was there, attacking the robot, whose right arm transformed into a phaser weapon. Green balls were flying in the direction of the gargoyle. One hit Hudson and horrified I saw him falling.
I heard a scream and realized it was my own.
With my clenched fist I hit the "face" of the robot hard. Something cracked and suddenly the robot was spinning in mid air. The grip around my chest loosened and I was catapulted away, falling instantly. In a distance I saw Goliath carrying Hudson, and Brooklyn, Lexington and Broadway flying in my direction. But I knew they wouldn´t make it in time.
Under me, coming nearer and nearer, was the wharf where Bronx was running along and the dark shimmering harbour water I would hit any second.
From this height it would be like falling on concrete. I hoped it wouldn´t hurt too much. I put my arms around my knees and pictures of my family and my past stood before my inner eye.
Playing with my brother and our stuffed animals – already a few years ago; talking to my parents, my father making a funny remark over something, my mother smiling. The first job I had, the first big journey through Australia. The party with friends in my first appartment was the last thing I remembered, then I hit the water.
I blinked and saw a small wooden desk with a computer on it next to the bed. Posters on the walls, a stuffed Tazmanian devil on a shelf on the other side of the room. Even the flea-market book was still there.
It was my bedroom.
I was at home again.
So it had been a dream after all.
But when I sat up, pain shot through every inch of my body. I lifted the t-shirt (which was dirty and had various cuts) and found a huge dark bruise where the robot had held me. My foot was blue-ish and the knuckles on my right hand were bleeding and swollen.
Obviously no dream after all.
Groaning I got up and swayed into the kitchen to make some tea – and to search for the 1st Aid Box. The calender/clock-mix on the freezer told me it was Saturday morning - the little adventure had only taken one night.
While the water heater was hissing, I bandaged the open wounds and put some ointment onto the bruises. Suddenly I heard a noise from my bedroom.
The prediction of the Grimorium Arcanorum came to my mind when I slowly got up.
"What if it´s the robot?"
I grabbed a huge kitchen knife from the sink behind me and moved towards the bedroom.
The creature sitting on the floor ignored the knife and hopped over to me instantly, panting loud.
"BRONX!"
I threw the knife onto a shelf and caressed the gargoyle´s head. He licked my hand and looked around with interest.
"How did you get here, my friend?" I asked him, puzzled. Obviously he was the one the book had mentioned, but as I still didn´t know how I´d made it home myself I couldn´t imagine how he got here. "The water", it shot through my head, "there were two remarks about water in the prediction: "the stone in the lake" and "waves". I tought it were only symbols, but what if not? Maybe water is the connection."
I desperately hoped the important word wasn´t "fall", I didn´t want to hop off a skyscaper everytime I travelled into another world.
"Everytime…? That means I´m going to do it again – I´m going to use the flea-market-book to find out which other dimensions I can visit. Maybe I even find a way to travel without the book."
Yes, I would return to the gargoyle dimension soon, experimenting with my new found powers - and bringing Bronx back to his friends, of course!
While I watched the sun playing on the gargoyle´s ears something else hit me: It was day, but Bronx hadn´t changed into stone!
Another mystery, but I didn´t want to think about it right now.
I took a large bowl of lasagne out of the fridge and heated it in the microwave. Then I shared its content with my panting visitor and went back into the bedroom, pulling the blanket over my shoulders and reaching for the telephone.
"Hi Mom, it´s me, Chris. How´re you doing? No, everything´s fine, I just wanted to hear your voice…"