The Magical Misadventures of Marco Diaz

Gargoyle City

Gargoyle City. A magical, mystical place where gargoyles and other monsters could come together and live in peace and harmony.

At least, that's what it read on the sign. Population: 7,001,789,260.

Marco stood next to his new friends, looking up at the beautiful city, his mouth agape at the sight. The whole city was inside a humongous medieval looking castle. The castle had many large towers and a huge courtyard with many smaller buildings dotting around it. It was like Marco had just stepped into a fairytale. It was one of the most beautiful and amazing things he'd ever seen.

Just as the four friends were about to go inside, Ren stopped them with a "Hold it."

He stood behind Salia and undid her crazy, messy, buns. Then Ren used his fingers to brush through the messy curls and braid the hair tightly. He secured the braid with the two hair ties that were used to hold her buns in place. It was the neatest Marco had seen the girl's hair during the two days he'd known her.

Ren licked one of his fingers, laying down a cowlick before nodding his head in satisfaction, "Alright. Now we can go."

They went inside, Ren took the lead and led them towards one of the smaller buildings in the courtyard. There were all sorts of monsters and gargoyles, flying, walking, talking. It was a very busy city.

The four stepped inside the small building, well, Salia floated inside of course. As soon as the group stepped inside, one of the smaller gargoyles jumped up from his chair.

"Ren! Salia!" he rushed over to them, embracing the two with a hug, "It's so good to see you guys again! What brings you here?"

"Hey, Jumper," Salia greeted with a laugh, patting the gargoyles head. "We've missed you."

Ren grinned, "Sure have. Hey, do you have a notebook our friend here can use?" he pointed over in Marco's direction, "We're helping him find Hekapoo."

Jumper nodded, "Sure do!"

The gargoyle flapped his wings and flew over to a shelf, taking a small brown leather book. He then flew back towards the group, handing Marco the book. "Here ya go. Never been used."

Salia began rummaging in her pack, "How much is it?"

Jumper waved the girl off, "Ah, don't worry about it. It's not that big a deal. Why don't you guys stay the night? It could be just like old times."

Kia, the old man, finally spoke up. "Yes please. We've been walking for hours!"

Jumper gave a bright smile, "Great!"
He then looked over at Marco, "Uh, you said you were looking for Hekapoo. She didn't happen to split apart into clones, did she?"

Marco nodded with a sad sigh, "Yeah. About 50 of them. I've got to find the real one."

Jumper frowned and looked over at Ren, "You, of all people, remember the last time she did that. You told the kid it's gonna take a while, didn't you? How long did it take you?"

"Eighteen years."

Marco clutched the book in his hands, "Ei...eighteen years?! That means... that means I'll be in my 20's before I get home!"

"Hey," Salia tried to comfort, "It'll be okay. We'll get you home. I promise. Don't worry."

Marco lowered his head in sadness and went over and sat in a corner, burying his head in his hands. He'd never see his family or friends again.