“Nanaki in the City”

The creatures of the night were singing their music long before the sun had gone down in the canyon. Nanaki awoke from a sound sleep to the sound of a large chiming clock that his grandfather had put in place a few nights before. It was an interesting clock, it tomed on the hour, but never seemed to know quite which hour it was. But the first chime came at sunset and worked as a good alarm clock for him to wake up to. He yawned and stretched his claws along the ground underneath his pillows, then stretched his back out before shaking his head. The rings in his ears tinked softly and the rest of his headdress ruffled with it. He sighed and looked around.

Everything seemed somewhat dull lately. After the eradication of Meteor and the freeing of Midgar, life seemed to just fall into a routine. He did a fine job of protecting the canyon; too fine, it seemed as there had been no signs of intruders, pirates, bandits or anything in several months. His patrols around tended to devolve into his chasing bugs, and catching the occasional pick pocket who made their way into the camp. He made his way out into the canyon, a cool night breeze had made its way in and fluttered through his fur as he walked over to the fire where several frequent visitors of Cosmo Canyon often accumulated.

“Heeey Nanaki. It’s good to see you.” One man said.

A woman smiled at him and waved. Nanaki awkwardly waved a claw back at her before her attention returned to the fire. A few steps forward and he was suddenly accosted by a young child who practically tackled him off his feet as she ran up to give him a hug. “Hey!” He exclaimed in surprise, making the girl pause and gasp in shock that he could speak. A second later, a woman ran by and snatched her up and took her away, leaving the warrior to sit down next to the flames and listen to the various conversations going on around him.

Nanaki looked up at the observatory far overhead and watched the telescope protruding from it swivel from one end of the sky to the other; grandfather was working on something again, but what could it be? He’d had his door locked for weeks, and from what he could tell, he barely exited his room to eat much less do anything else. Getting a strange intuition, Nanaki stood up and started to walk toward the stairs that led up to the tower.

It was still a good climb to make it up to Bugenhagen’s observatory, though as he made it to the halfway point, he was surprised to see the old man floating his way down to meet him. “Ohhh there you are, Nanaki.”

“Grandpa...” Nanaki said nodding his head. “You’ve been in your observatory for many weeks now, what have you been up to.”

The man’s face brightened with a smile seen, even under his enormous goggles. “I’m glad you asked me that! Please come with me, I’ve got something to show you...”

Nanaki paused for a moment as Bugenhagen floated past him and approached his iron door. Entering in a flurry of numbers, and a scan that shot across his eyes, the doorway opened, revealing the dark cavern behind it. “Come, come!” He exclaimed excitedly as he floated past the frame and disappeared into the dark behind it. Nanaki slowly started to follow, but as soon as he reached the door was surprised to a jump as the lights behind the door suddenly came on. “Hurry, Nanaki! I must show you this!” He heard Bugenhagen’s voice echo from further in the room.

Nanaki followed quickly, looking around the room as it began to slope down into the caverns that dwelled at the back of Cosmo Canyon. He recognized this place; it was where the ghosts of the canyon invaders had made it to, and he had to defeat the invasion with his new friends. “Grandpa? Where are you?”

“Right here.” Bugenhagen said from immediately behind Nanaki’s shoulder, making him jump in shock. “Do you remember your friend Griff from the other world?”

Nanaki paused and stared at him. “As if I could forget, he stood out around here about as much as I feel like sometimes.”

Bugenhagen nodded almost absently as if he didn’t hear the last half of Nanaki’s sentence. “Yes. Well that Gargoyle came from another dimension, and thanks to my research, I may have found a way to cross his dimension with ours... that is if you’d like to see the world he came from and all.”

“Really?”

“Now, I can’t guarantee you’ll see him exactly.” His grandfather warned. “From what I found, that planet has millions upon millions of people on it. But I can open a gate between here, and a place where I registered gargoyle lifesigns. If you’d like to visit.”

“But I can’t leave.” Nanaki said. “Who would protect this canyon?”

“Seto will.” Bugenhagen responded definitively. “His legacy and the legacy of his son will keep us protected for years... at least long enough for you to go pay a visit to your friend in return for his visit here, yes?”

“With this device.” He said as he leaned forward and replaced one of Nanaki’s earrings with a small silver stud. “All you need to do is say Cosmo Canyon and you will return here in the blink of an eye. Use it wisely though, once the gate is closed it will remain closed forever. I only have the power for one trip.”

“So... how do I get there?” Nanaki asked.

“You simply need to speak the name of the place and you will teleport there in an instant. Let me see...” He picked up a sheet of paper out of a large beeping machine that sat behind the next door. “It started with an ‘M’ but... it was a strange word--ah here... ‘Manhattan’.”

“Manhattan? What’s that supposed--”

Nanaki suddenly felt nauseated as a bright green light surrounded him, he felt the world vaporize around his body, his grandfather vanished in an instant and all was black. About three seconds passed in which Nanaki could not feel anything, he could see only blackness and then suddenly he could speak again: “--to mean?” He finished his sentence and then realized he was in a completely different place.

The first sound he heard was a loud, piercing noise like an alarm that passed nearby. Nanaki cringed and looked around in surprise as red and blue lights flashed by in the distance. Curiously, he moved toward the lights only to see them fading away much faster than he could run. He stopped and looked up; magnificent shiny towers littered the sky from the ground up, he’d only seen buildings that tall in places like Midgar, but this was much more than that. The sky was open and black as night had fallen in this place as well. He hummed to himself as he started to walk, only to put his foot down on something as hard as stone. He looked down to see a pathway in front of him, leading off different directions next to what looked like a black surface with lines on it.

“Such a strange place...” He muttered as he looked around.

People were here, humans that were scattered all about. They minded their own business... or so he figured as they were mostly talking on strange little devices pressed to their ears. Looking back and forth, he didn’t see any sort of creature that resembled a gargoyle though; only humans as far as the eye could see. Vehicles also existed in this realm; though they were also in much greater numbers, giving loud honking noises as they passed in a seemingly long chain before coming to a halt at a strange light at the end of the road that turned red, then green indicated them to move forward. Not thinking much of this, Nanaki set out to follow this walkway, looking around as he passed by stores and people who barely caught a glimpse of him. As he approached a woman with a handbag, he noticed an object fall from it. Going to pick it up he suddenly found the woman swinging her bag at him, then kicking at him.

“Hey! Scram! Get out of here you mutt!” She shrieked angrily.

“Well, excuse me!” He scoffed. “I was only trying to help!”

The woman stared at Nanaki for a good three seconds before letting out a cringe-worthy scream. She threw her items down and jumped away, falling onto the pavement as she scrambled to back away from him.

“Wait! I’m sorry I didn’t mean to frighten you, I am trying to find some--”

The screaming continued, unconsoled by Nanaki’s words, they only seemed to frighten her more. As he looked around, several pedestrians had stopped and were pointing at him, all aiming their devices at him as he pivoted around on his hind paws and started to run away. Looking back, he saw several of the humans were still chasing after him, he ducked back into the park area that he’d exited a few moments before and leaped onto a statue of several figures, freezing his features to try to blend in. The humans came running in and scrambled around, searching behind bins, lifting up benches, scouring through plants trying to find him as he stood there trembling in surprise as one woman came so close to him that she could feel the breath on her neck. She rubbed it and looked around before shrugging and walking off.

As the humans each parted, one took a long look back. She stared at him for a moment, then continued on, sticking her hands into her red jacket as she made her way out of the park. After a moment, Nanaki exhaled a deep breath and moved again.

“Well, that can’t be good. I guess humans aren’t used to someone like me here.” He said to himself as he hopped down from the podium. “But where is here? This... Manhattan does not seem like a very nice place.” He realized that he would probably need to keep a low profile to keep from being spotted so easily. If he were to find any gargoyles in a place like this, it wouldn’t be simple.

Nanaki found a small basket of sorts that reeked like nothing else. Hopping up and looking down into it with the light from his tail he realized that it was a garbage bin. He couldn’t find anything in there to use, but perhaps he could find a bigger one. Humans always tended to discard things they didn’t need; but if he could find something to hide himself, he could move about the city a little easier. He looked out the gateway leading from the park and spotted a large bin just as a human was throwing a white trash bag into it. “Hmm...” he mused to himself as he hopped down from the small trash can and made his way toward it. “Manhattan... Garbage.” He read off the side of the bin. He shrugged. “Well I guess that’s the best place to start.” He surmised.

“Oh man, you should’ve seen it. The thing was hideous!”

Nanaki gasped. “Uh-oh!” He exclaimed before hopping up onto a small stack of boxes next to the bin and diving head first into it. “Oh, yuck.” He complained immediately after landing.

“It roamed on all fours like an animal. Its tail was glowing brighter than a lamp post. The woman who saw it was screaming, at least that’s what I got from YouTube anyway...”

“You’re lying. That’s totally a fake video...” They continued as they passed by the dumpster and on into the darkness as Nanaki peered out at them.

“A video? They have a recording of me already and other humans have seen it?” He huffed. “Ugh... this stinks.”

Nanaki had managed to wrangle what looked like an old torn coat from the garbage and flung it over himself. Trying to remember back to his time where he pretended to be a human and stand upright, he wobbled his way out into the public with no one raising an eye of suspicion. Though the smell tended to ward them off, Nanaki could at least go a little bit without being outed as a strange creature.

As he walked along, he noticed that many of the humans were strange creatures; some listened to music so loud that it hurt his own ears though they were listening to it within the cove of their ears. Women stood on the corners of streets waving at cars as they passed by; Nanaki thought it was them being polite until he realized what his grandfather had told him about people like that. The realization made him cringe as he continued on down. Traveling down some stairs in the sea of people, he encountered great silver snakes that humans boarded and were shot off down great dark tunnels. Nanaki stepped on board one before hearing someone shouting.

“Hey! You haven’t paid! Get back here!” Three men were running at the snake and Nanaki stepped further back into the doorway before they closed up and the train suddenly jerked into motion.

“Say, you come here often? You look familiar.” A man asked. He was clearly out of it, and smelled strongly of alcohol. It made Nanaki’s nose crunch in disgust and he shook his head.

As the snake came to a stop, the doors opened, and he was again washed up in the sea of humans. Someone stepped on his coat and it slipped off of him, he gasped and realized he was exposed. Looking across the platform at an elderly man walking several small creatures that barked, he quickly took his place among them, glancing back and acting like these creatures; barking, sniffing and yapping at one another. Eagerly, he followed the lot of the canines up the stairs and back out into the night air before he could breathe again. He looked around a few times and quickly separated from them, slipping into an alleyway. He groaned. Humans, why did he have to hide from these creatures just on the off chance that he would find the gargoyle that he knew? He raised a paw to his ear, ready to activate his teleporter back home when he heard a voice from behind him:

“Hey big guy.” A red gargoyle had appeared from above, sliding down the ladder to meet Nanaki face to face. Nanaki lowered his paw. “Huh. Are you a dog or a cat?” He asked. “You look a little like both...” He stared at Nanaki curiously. “Scarred up, and are those tattoos? What the hell kind of owners would tattoo their cat?”

Nanaki raised an eyebrow and approached the gargoyle, sniffing him. He smelled like Griff did; leather and stone, a unique combination of scents that must be common among their kind. He hesitantly leaned forward and ran his claw over Nanaki’s head. Why did creatures have a habit of petting four-legs? But he was amused by the look that he gave him. “Well, I’m Brooklyn.” He said. “You should probably get back to your owners though.”

“Oh, they’re not my owners.” Nanaki answered. “I’m Nanaki.”

Brooklyn’s eyes widened, but he didn’t scream like the humans. He jumped back a moment in surprise. “Whoa! You--You just talked!” He exclaimed. “Are you a gargoyle too? You look like you could be.”

“You know, Griff told me the same thing when he first met me. What makes me so gargoyle-like anyway?”

“Hold on. You know Griff?” Brooklyn asked.

“You know Griff?!” Nanaki replied. “What a small world! Yes I came here looking for him. Do you know where he is?”

“Well... erm... not exactly.” Brooklyn said. “But if you want to come with me, I can introduce you to my clan and we can figure it out. Maybe you could tell me your story?”

“Sure.” Nanaki nodded. “I mean, your friend Griff surprised me when he came to Cosmo Canyon--” He gasped and clapped his paw over his mouth. There was a buzzing noise and a pop. “YOWWW! OUCH!” He shouted as he swung his paw at his earring and knocked it out. The stud hit the ground and vanished in a green flash. “What the--? No!”

“What happened?” Brooklyn asked.

“That earring... it was supposed to send me home as soon as I mentioned the name, but it burned me and fizzled out! I’m... I’m stuck here!”

Brooklyn put his claws up. “Wait, wait hold on... just calm down...”

“Calm down? I’m stuck here on an alien world...” He frowned. “How am I going to get back?”

Brooklyn frowned in return. “Okay you’ll be fine... Nanaki was it?” The beast nodded, then hung his head. “Look, why don’t you stay with me and my clan for a while. We’ll try to get you in touch with Griff and we’ll try to help you find a way back home.”

“Really?” Nanaki asked. “You’d do that for me?”

Brooklyn smiled. “Sure I would. How hard could it be? If Griff got to your world, I’m sure we can get you back there too.”

Nanaki smiled. “Thank you... Brooklyn.”

TO BE CONTINUED?