The Firedrake's Lost Heir

Chapter 5

In Middle Earth in the dense forest Mirkwood, a bright flash of light suddenly showed up out of nowhere; and Brooklyn fell out of it, tumbling to the forest floor. He grunted when rolling over on himself then hitting against a tree.

Brook rubbed his head, shaking the dizziness from it. "Thanks for the landing, Puck," he grumbled dryly, struggling to get to his feet. As he got a better view of his surroundings, what he saw was a huge dense wooded area all around him for miles. Brooklyn gulped a bit, wondering if Puck had sent hin to the right location.

"If this is Middle Earth I should probably look for any souls living here to help me," The hybrid said softly, eyes looking around for any sort of path to lead him out of here, wandering among the trees.

While wandering for a while, Brooklyn began to think more about his real father. He felt scared about it for he grew up without ever acknowledging his folks, unlike Angela and Goliath. Did Angela feel the same as him when she learned Goliath and Demona were her parents?

Brooklyn gritted his teeth, heart thumping as he struggled over more logs and rocks in the messy undergrowth, feeling his head spin from this awful forest and thinking the trees were closing in. How am I gonna get out? He asked himself. The air felt too still and the trees looked too intimidating to climb up. Plus there was no water, and he was thirsty.

But then he saw something weird upon reaching a dark area. Webs. Big webs. Brook's ears fell again, looking around for any hostile creatures. He remembered that spider from the third LOTR book he read a time ago and didn't want to run into any giant spiders.

He stepped back to go in another direction, but stepped in some web. The red male yelped in disgust and tried shaking it off, but it kept being stuck. Brooklyn's ears fell when the sound of clicking could be heard. "Oh man," he mumbled in fear, eyes rounding at the sight of a huge spider coming it's way down towards him. Brooklyn breathed eratically, wishing to turn into a dragon now to blast this thing away but he couldn't at the moment, foot still stuck. He tugged at the web but the web was tough. Sweat came along, the spider coming closer.

The spider smelt this stranger, which had a dragon smell on it. Another spider joined it much to Brooklyn's fright. "I can sense this is the hatchling of Smaug, now having returned to Middle Earth." Growled one spider.

Brooklyn was shaking, eyes glowing as he heard the spiders chittering, now sitting on the ground and tugging. "I-I dunno what they're saying but I think they wanna eat me!" He yelped, now more frantic. The second spider seemed to laugh now.

"Too bad for the fire demon, we can tell him his hatchling fed us well..." crooned the spider. The two began to close in around Brooklyn. Brooklyn screeched at them, ears still flat, eyes flashing to look scary but the spiders seem to out-intimidate him. One spider bared its fangs; ready to inject its sleeping drug into their victim. Brook whimpered, shutting his eyes and waiting for his demise. But suddenly a whooshing sound came, and a spider gave out an angry screech. Brooklyn opened his eyes, seeing an arrow in the spider's side.

A strange person emerged from the brush, a wild look on his face as he shot more arrows. Brooklyn looked at him and saw he had pointed ears. He quickly put his hood over himself, stuffing his hair down it. Eventually the spiders ran off. Brooklyn felt scared with this stranger close, leg still stuck in web. The stranger went up, seeing the newcomer trapped.

"I see you're stuck. I can help, if you tell me who you are," the stranger spoke in his native language. Brook tilted his head, confused at what he was saying. The stranger then caught on.

"You don't speak Elvish. Is this what you can understand?" That made the gargoyle gawk a little bit. This guy was an elf?

"Y-yeah. B-but who a-are you?" He asked in nervousness. The elf put his bow away. "They call me Legolas. And you?"

"Brooklyn." Brook responded shyly, still tugging to free his leg. Legolas took his knife out. "Hold still. I'll have you out of there," he said, reaching to cut off the webbing. Brooklyn bared his teeth, hoping the elf wouldn't cut him.

Eventually the webbing was gone and Brooklyn pulled his foot away, sighing in relief. "Thanks, was almost spider chow back there," he said. Legolas didn't get his humor but his face was grim. "The spiders have been overrunning Mirkwood and getting bolder. You shouldn't be out here. What is your business?"

"Trying to find m-my father," Brooklyn said in sadness. Legolas couldn't help but be curious about who Brooklyn really was.

"I see. But can I see your full face?" That made the red gargoyle gulp. He wasn't sure. "If I do, you promise not to tell anybody else?" Legolas considered this then nodded. He had saved this newcomer, Brooklyn lowered his hood to reveal his face. This caused Legolas to step back a bit. "W-what are you?" He asked in disbelief.

Brooklyn's ears flattened. "A gargoyle. Or I thought I was. All I seek is to leave this place and acquaint myself with this land before reuniting with my father," he explained in a nerved tone. Legolas studied the newcomer. If what this 'gargoyle' said was true, than his leader probably wouldn't welcome him openly.

"I shall take your word... Brooklyn. And help you out of my woods. Come." The elf reached for the creature's hand. Brook took it, allowing the elf to guide him out on the small path. It took another hour but eventually open skies came and Brooklyn noted it still dark. He would have to find a safe place to turn to stone for the day.

He turned to the elf. "Thank you. I hope we will encounter each other again one day." Legolas was somewhat surprised by the gargoyle's kindness but accepted his hand, shaking it. "Be wary of orcs during your travels, for there have been many that have appeared."

Brook was confused. "Uh, what are orcs?" He asked, but Legolas had already disappeared in the trees again. He shook his head, grumbling a bit before heading across the open field, spreading his wings and taking to the air.

...

Another hour of gliding and Brooklyn was feeling rather exhausted, wondering where to go to begin the quest for his father, and seeing the sunrise about to come.

"Gotta find a place to sleep," Brooklyn muttered before suddenly spying a small cave with a river nearby. Perfect.

He glided down to land close to the cave, so ready to have his Stone Sleep rest him.

Brook after settling in the cave suddenly felt his stomach growl. All this excitement and the spell made him hungry. But he didn't know what was safe to eat right now. He would have to wait until the next night.

He continued to watch the sun rise but didn't feel any stone covering him. What's taking so long? Brooklyn thought, eyes glazed with tiredness, staring at his arms. Was it because this world didn't recognize his gargoyle life and was slowly changing to his dragon one? It was possible. Whatever the reason Brooklyn just didn't feel like thinking about it now, yawning, curling up there on the cave floor and slowly drifting to sleep.