Gargoyles X TMNT: Shadows of New York

Sorry I'm Late, the Weirdest Thing Happened On the Way to the Rendezvous

Goliath closed his eyes. For a moment, everything was peaceful. The wind filled his ear fins, brushed through his brow ridge and hair, glided over his wing membranes, and lifted his body like... well, like wind. It was impossible to compare the sensation to a bed, a sail, to water, or to anything else in the world. The gentleness of the breeze buoyed him higher, finest instincts adjusting the shift and feel of the scales of his wings and the point of his tail with not even the faintest conscious thought.

It filled his soul. It whistled around him. It whispered to him.

But try as he might, he could never quite rebuild the memory of the sound of the dozens upon dozens of wings in the air. He found himself struggling with the posture of this air current, cold and more humid in a way that left him feeling heavier in the air, when he had once flown like gossamer thread. He was so used to flying with his brothers and sisters. He was used to riding the upwash of their wings, leaning with them and watching their drift and swoop to read the wind conditions ahead.

He wasn't used to flying alone. He wasn't sure if he'd ever be used to it.

"Goliath?"

He blinked his eyes open, the beast still squirming in his arms. He muttered an apology to him, adjusting his arms again. The old one drifted closer, beard lashed by the wind. "You've something on your mind, lad?"

"Just dreaming old dreams." Goliath muttered. The stone wall around his heart crumbled just a little more.

"Best leave dreaming to the day." The old one's eyes, drooping with their age, grew concerned and sympathetic. "Our friend here seems to need to take a breather, before he squirms right out of your arms."

As if to answer, their beast whimpered pitiably, hind legs kicking in the air. His eyes drooped. Down, please. They seemed to beg. Of course, Goliath had to answer. He couldn't say no to puppy eyes.

They circled, finding a suitably tall building within their needs. A brownstone apartment complex, with bicycles, potted plants, and fairy lights hanging off of balconies. Each one marked a tiny boxed-in home, each one of what may have been dozens of families within. Goliath set the beast down, and immediately the creature arched its back, rump high in the air and paws reaching far out away from him. Claws broke stone as the beast stretched, jaw creaking wide. Briefly, Goliath thought of what might happen if a cantaloupe were placed between his massive, hand-length fangs at that instant. The splatter would have been incredible.

Goliath tried to cling to this humorous image rather than what had been occupying his mind for the better part of the night.

A month. It had been a thousand years for them, but for him it had only been a month. He closed his eyes, and still the bodies of his friends, his family, his brothers and sister were fresh in his mind. Images of shattered faces, expressions of fierceness engraved there for eternity. Had they known? That the sunset would have been their last?

He found himself wondering, and not for the first time, if his family had felt any pain when they were shattered.

The old one spoke again. "Leader." He said, urgent.

Goliath rubbed his eyes. "I'm sorry." He murmured. "I am still... adjusting."

That one single sightless eye certainly drew attention. Over the years, Goliath had gotten used to it, learning to read his mentor's expression on only one half of his face. But even so, the way his old clay-brown skin and his pale eyes fell, it was not hard to see it. He missed them too.

The mentor drew a deep breath, closing his eyes. "I know." He said softly. "A wind ceremony with no bodies to give to the wind. It certainly does nothing to fill the hollow hole they left in our lives."