Quiet stillness hit the sleeping Brooklyn's ears the next day. His eyes fluttered open when he saw sunlight filtering through the roof, close to late afternoon, around 3:30. The storm and his belly cramps had really exhausted him to sleep that long, still seeing himself in the old barn.

A little yawn and a smile of relief filled him, for it had stopped raining. Rubbing his eyes, Brooklyn sat up, stretching. He also felt dry, as well.

Glad the storm has ended. I can finally keep going, Brooklyn thought since he was now close to the border of North Dakota hence it being a small state. He had really lost time in getting home from this storm. He would travel all night to get to the border if he had to. As much as he wanted to travel during the daylight hours, he didn't want to risk being spotted. He would rest up for the rest of the day for his trip tonight.

But Brooklyn then felt his stomach growl, putting a hand over it and flinched, especially from his cramps affecting him too. Sadly, his bag was practically empty, which had Brooklyn decide he needed to unfortunately go into the next town to get some more supplies, which made his nerves jumpy at the idea.

Swallowing, he kept up his pace, finally flying over the border into Minnesota.

.....

St. Paul was another few miles' gliding, but Brooklyn thankfully had the wind on his side, soaring over the flat lands, even spotting a mountain from some distance, making him smile a little, never having seen a mountain like it before.

It was well close to 10:50 pm, but Brooklyn finally spotted the lights of St. Paul, making him sigh a little in relief, but his belly fluttered with nerves as the buildings got closer.

Will have to stick to roofs or the shadows. Can't handle the idea of running into... adult humans, Brooklyn thought to himself, cringing a little. There was no way he could trust anybody in any town, for they would see his mark and call up Anthony to nab him again. It made him sick at the thought of going back to that devil of a human.

He spotted a roof close by after flying above the apartments tall enough for him to fly over, landing quickly and finding a hiding spot under a roof on the building, panting from exhaustion, but taking a look out at St. Paul. It was rather beautiful, even having a chapel building far off in the distance. Brooklyn sat to catch his breath against the wall, happy to be able to rest again, but knew he couldn't stay long hence needing to resupply. But Brook knew at least two days ago would suffice him enough time to try and enjoy himself, deciding to settle in his hiding place on the building to rest until the next night since he arrived late.

The next night he woke around 11 pm, yawning from his tiredness without his stone sleep, seeing the city lights again.

Brooklyn glanced around to find a closed store with food from the roof, until he saw one with darkened windows but having little dimmed lights, a small grocery store. He didn't fancy stealing, but gargoyles usually never had the need to carry wallets which he didn't like about, but knew he had no choice in his situation.

Quietly gliding along, Brooklyn couldn't help but be awed at the lights and some tall buildings around. He liked the sight of the St. Paul cathedral, too. He figured it couldn't hurt to wind down and take a look around. Maybe this town had a theater, too. It would do Brooklyn good to see a movie again after so long. It would be rather nice to slow down his time on the run from Anthony. But after he restocked, of course.

Brooklyn managed to find a back door at the store that thankfully had no security cameras. He grunted a bit and managed to force it open but made sure it didn't alert anybody. He snuck around, managing to grab food and drinks that didn't need refrigeration and even took some candy off the shelf near a register, knowing he could eat something sweet to cheer himself up if it was necessary. He made his exit afterward, returning to his hiding spot so to not draw attention until he wanted to venture into the streets again, already feeling tired again from all that searching, taking a quick nap.

He decided to go to St. Paul Cathedral first, which reminded him of Trinity Church back in Manhattan. Brooklyn landed upon the roof among the pillars, even seeing gargoyles on the roof that weren't alive. They brought some comfort at seeing even stones, deciding to sit for a bit and looking at the city. The cathedral itself was amazing too. Brooklyn always liked these modern, sometimes still ancient churches too. He decided this could be a better hiding place than the previous building then.

Brooklyn next knew he desperately wanted to watch a movie before he left after seeing other sights, finding a theater, and sneaking inside, settling above the theater room and saw a Disney movie playing: the Hunchback of Notre Dame. He had heard of it but never saw this one yet, which sparked his interest, taking a bucket of popcorn there as the movie began.

It was so far a rather good movie, despite the gargoyle designs in it with Quasimodo's friends being a little downgraded in design, especially their lack of feet, making Brooklyn chuckle while having popcorn in his mouth. But then, tears of homesickness arrived when seeing how much like siblings that the gargoyle trio was like him, Lex, and Broadway. It made him long for home more than before.

But the moments between Frollo and Esmerelda with Frollo claiming the gypsy woman to be his set his PTSD for Anthony on the edge, feeling his body trembling, gripping his popcorn bucket. But Brooklyn knew he couldn't miss the ending; doing his best to pull it together by taking slow breaths. He had a smile on his face at the end when Quasimodo finally conquered over his abuser, and Frollo falling to his death.

It-it was good. I hope my brothers can see it with me whenever I get home. If... I do get home... Brooklyn thought to himself, ears having fallen after throwing the last of his popcorn away and leaving. He had been in this city for two days, making sure his pack was with still on him. Now was time to move on.

While leaving east to the edge of the city, Brooklyn's ears perked when hearing a sound; the sound of someone in distress. Even with his mistreatment, Brooklyn wouldn't ignore a call for help.

As he went to investigate, he followed his ears to where it was coming from. He came to land on a rooftop and looked over the side first. He saw something that he was all too familiar with; a man being backed into an alley with a gang of hoodlums advancing on him. This angered the red gargoyle. He was going to put a stop to this before the innocent victim ended up in the hospital.

The gang members had bats and knives in their hands.

"Give us your wallet, Pal, or you ain't walking away at all." One of the gang members threatened, laughing.

"I don't have much cash on me." The victim man whimpered.

"You trespassed on our turf and now you must pay the price, Geek." Another smirked.

The scared man started to crouch down in protection of his body, and just as one of the men raised his bat to hit the man on the head, that ignited the fighting spirit in Brooklyn.

He dropped his pack off his back, growled his anger, his eyes glowing and he roared on his way down to help the victim man.

The gang were scared and shocked at the same time. They screamed in terror as a red creature came flying down at them. His feet came to land on the leader, knocking him down.

"AAAAGH! It's a monster!" One shouted in distress.

Brooklyn landed and he angrily picked one of the men up and he whimpered in fear. Brook threw him into a dumpster in the alley. Then he punched another in the face, knocking him out, all his rage being from his previous memories of having been treated like the victim man. Two of the men got past him and ran.

The man that had been about to be beaten up was scared and shocked too. He was watching this red scary looking creature beat up the gang that was about to take him out. He was in too much shock to move.

Two of the other men tried to take on Brooklyn with a knife and a bat.

He grabbed the wrist of the one that had the knife and threw him into the wall, knocking him out. The last one with the bat he got down on all fours and used his tail to whack the bat out of his hands before grabbing his shirt and also throwing him into the other wall.

When all the gang members were down, Brooklyn stood there breathing hard, but when he turned to the last man in the alley that was still conscious, he saw the man was scared stiff. He saw the fearful look in his eyes.

Brooklyn let his eyes return to normal. He softened his expression, but given his mistreatment in the past, he wasn't going to stick around. "Call the police about these ruffians." He said quickly and turned to jump up to the wall to climb back to the rooftop.

The victim man was scared witless. That thing didn't just tell him to call the police. He finally got up and screamed and ran out of the alley. He wasn't going to call the police as scared as he was.

Brooklyn got back to the rooftop, and he grabbed his pack full of food supplies and took off into the night. He had to get away. That had been his first saving of a human since his kidnapping. He was glad the innocent man was alright but still wasn't going to stick around.

The red gargoyle flew back to the cathedral to calm down again. His heartbeat was beating so fast in his chest he felt like he was having a heart attack. He hadn't done that in so long. He knew that when he got back home, he would have to build his confidence back because right now, he really lacked it and all due to Anthony and his men's abuse.

He sat there for a while, admiring the city, and calming down, even pulling out a little bit of candy to eat to try cheering himself. Brook had no idea what day it was. He might stay here another day to just get some more sights in.

....

The following night, Brooklyn came across a concert hall in the town, and he attended it. This was his first concert in a long time too. It was a Friday night.

The concert went on till late into the evening. It was wonderful. How he had missed going to them with his brothers. It brought up more sad memories and wishes longing for home. Tears fell from his eyes again in just wanting to be at home.

After the concert was done, Brooklyn wasn't waiting around anymore. He was getting the show on the road again, or in his case, the skies again. He spread his wings and took off from the concert hall and continued on his way east, hoping that none of those thugs had seen his branding mark.

It had been a big risk to take on bad hunans while still having this horrid thing on his arm, knowing that sooner or later it will have to come off. But Brooklyn just didn't know whom to trust to help, scared of Anthony learning where he was from anyone, desperate even further to get back to his family and have things return to normal.