Standard disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea and my characters
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Author's Notes: Heh, remember me? The psycho chick that tortured you fine people with the Dragon Legend and Shin Ryuu Densetsu stories? Or that odd girl that was almost chased off the 'net by an angry lynch mob of rabid Jin fangirls carrying torches and pitchforks? No? Well, just for the record, I am Airess Byrd and the author of the above mentioned stories. (as well as some other short stories, but that's another story)
Oh, and the reference to the lynch mob was from the Xenosaga fanfic I wrote a little while ago…
Anyway, so… another Breath of Fire fanfic. This idea has been bouncing around my little hollow head for the past year. I dunno, for some reason, when I was planning a sequel for SRD, I just lost my drive for the story… and for writing in general. Yeah, I know. Crazy, huh? Well, it really has been a year since I wrote anything… other than my Get Ready to Rumble fanfic. The above mentioned Xenosaga fic. Heh.
Okay, maybe I should make this clear to begin with. This is supposed to be one of those deep, philosophical stories about humanity, destiny, and all that crap. Well, it would be if it was written by someone else. Because this story is written by me, it will probably turn out to be more funny and stuff. Eh, sure.
Right. Well, thought I'd warn you. I'd figure I'd go ahead and categorize it as humor/adventure. Call it experience, I guess. Oh, and I suppose I should say that there's swearing in it, too. Lots of it. Eh, okay, not that much. But still.
Okay, onto business here. This is a story that's running under the assumption that Breath of Fire's 1-3 are a trilogy and 4 and Dragon Quarter are not connected. (they're not, but thought I'd mention that anyway). So, this is one of those "next cycle" stories with all new characters and stuff.
Meaning this story, timewise, takes place 500 years or so after Breath of Fire 3. Oh, and I took some liberties with the government, society, etc. Why, because I can :D
Oh, and I'm touching on the religion aspect of Breath of Fire. I think the only other fic that I read that does that is Meiu Sedai's Reborn Again. Really good story. You should go read it. Then email her and tell her how good it is. :)
Of course, I've been out of the loop for so long, other stories have probably been written touching on that sort of thing, and I've just not been able to read them. Feel free to correct me. :)
Hm, maybe I should also state that the story takes place in two parts: childhood and adulthood. I am saying this so I don't confuse people and have them go "huh? Wasn't Ryu just a kid the last chapter? Why's he an adult now?" Well, there you go. The answer to the above question.
Well, here's the prologue to Dämmerung der Götter (German: Twilight of the Gods). Sorry, couldn't come up with a better title than that. Heh… I'll not insult the readers' intelligence and come up with something like I did for Dragon Legend. Oi, what was I on when I wrote that prologue??? O.o;;;
(Random shoutout: LOOK ARCAHAN!!! I'm NOT dead!!! Lol)
Oh, wan more thing! Two characters might seem familiar to DL and SRD readers. Let me assure you, they are not for DL or SRD. Yeah, remember Troy de Pearl and Manna Sphere? They're in this story, but they are not the same characters from DL and SRD. Just thought I'd point that out. Oh, and Troy de Pearl is the creation of my sister Crystal and Manna Sphere is the creation of my friend Mana.
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Prologue
Day of Night
There is a legend about seven brave men lead by a dragon warrior. They say that when the world is on the brink of destruction, a warrior will come forward with the power of the Dragon and oppose the threat.
Meh, details.
Legends and stories were the last things on his mind as he raced through the dark forest. Crying and screaming, he franticly dodged fallen tree limbs and misplaced bushes that seemed to want to stop him in his tracks. He couldn't let the one chasing him catch him. If he did, then…
He quickly leapt over another fallen tree branch as he saw what looked like a soft glow out of the corner of his eye. He jerked his head around and saw a young girl with long red hair and bangs that layered her face. She was wearing a knee length white short-sleeved dress and had a cross shaped pendant around her neck. The girl was also transparent.
The girl gave him a glance and then looked behind her. She then vanished.
"Where are you?" a soft baritone voice echoed throughout the forest, cutting through the silence of the night.
He stopped dead in his tracks. Had he found him that fast? He quickly ducked into a thicket of bushes and huddled up in a tight ball. He franticly prayed to Ladon that the man had not found him.
The sound of leaves crunching under sturdy boots shook him from his fervent prayer. He held his breath and squeezed his eyes shut.
Please don't find me. Please don't find me. Oh, Ladon, please don't find me… "I can smell your scent, little one…"Please don't find me…
"Stop hiding. There's no use in it…"The footfalls slowly started to fade away. He dared to open one eye. Nothing. The one that was chasing him was gone…
A loud, angry roar shook him from his reverie.
Both eyes widened in fear and terror as he looked up into the star-dotted night sky. A massive black and silver-scaled dragon looked down on him with golden, slit eyes.
The dark dragon looked down at the small, blue-haired boy and snarled. The dragon opened its maw and let loose a jet of green fire. The boy screamed as the flame consumed him. He could feel his skin burn on contact. He choked as the smoke filled his lungs.
When the flames died down, the boy collapsed, motionless, to the ground. The dragon sniffed at the fallen form and snarled. Suddenly, the boy started convulsing as a loud heartbeat cut through the silence once more. The boy's body flashed as he was suddenly jerked to his feet by an unknown force.
A blinding light and a shrill howl came forth. When the light died down, the dark dragon was staring face to face with a golden scaled dragon that seemed to tower over the other. The dark dragon flapped its wings and jumped back, eyeing this new threat. The other dragon howled in rage and lunged right at the other.
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A small wail came from underneath a crumpled pile of sheets on the bed. A few seconds later, a small girl emerged from underneath her sheets. Dressed in only a white, sleeveless shirt and capris, the little girl stumbled out of her bed and onto the floor. She fumbled for her large, round glasses on the nightstand and after placing them on her face, walked out of her bedroom and into the living room.
She pushed her dark brown hair out of her eyes as she quietly tiptoed around the dark house. No one seemed be to up. She glanced at the clock. It read 2:30. No wonder! It didn't seem that late.
That dream had really shaken her up. She stopped outside of one of the rooms. She quietly opened the door peered inside. The only occupant of the bedroom seemed to be a young woman with light brown hair that currently had half of her face hidden in the pillows. The other side of the bed was empty.
The little girl sighed and quietly closed the door. Did she even want to talk to anyone about that dream? She finally figured she wasn't going to be able to go back to bed anytime soon, and no one else seemed to be in the house, so off to the back porch she went.
She quickly tiptoed outside onto the back porch and glanced around. There didn't seem to be anyone outside. She walked down the steps and out onto the grass. She walked pass the flowerbeds that were planted throughout the back yard and passed the small koi pond, and walked over to the large wooden swing that was tied to several large oak trees. She jumped onto the swing and tried to get it to rock with her. She was so short that her feet didn't even touch the ground.
A soft click of the back door being opened caused her to glance up. She squinted as she saw a tall figure emerge from the house, apparently trying to take great care in being quiet. The figure slowly shut the door and glanced over at the swing and it's current occupant.
"Isn't it a little late to be wandering around like a thief?" the little girl asked.
The figure responded with a deep chuckle and sat down on the edge of the porch and pulled out a book from the sleeve of his robe. Paying the girl on the swing no mind, he opened the book and started reading.
The little girl scowled in annoyance and jumped off the swing and walked over to the older man. She walked around him and peered over his shoulder. The dark haired man ignored the girl and went on reading.
The girl swayed back and forth from one foot to another for a few moments before finally becoming irritated. She poked the man on the shoulder with her pointer finger several times. The man shook his head and finally turned his attention to the girl.
"Is there something you wanted, or are you just bored?" the man asked her, the amusement evident in his voice.
"Hmph," the little girl grunted as she placed her tiny hands on her hips and gave the man an irate look from behind her glasses.
"Alright then," the man said and turned back to his book.
"Um…" the little girl's face suddenly changed and she placed her hands behind her back.
"Hm?" the man asked, not even bothering to look up from his book.
"Uh, why are you up this late?" the girl finally asked.
"Couldn't sleep," the man responded as he idly turned a page.
"But, aren't you afraid Yui might be mad if she woke up and you weren't in bed?" the girl asked.
The man shook his head. "Don't you think that she'll be even more angry if she caught you wandering around the backyard at this time of night?"
"Um…"
The man finally placed his book down beside of him and turned around to face the little girl. He noticed she looked slightly upset. "Miyuki, what's wrong?"
The little girl, Miyuki, just shook her head and walked over and sat on the other side of the man. She played with the heels of her feet for a few minutes, not even bothering to look up at the man.
"Yuki?"
"Um…" Miyuki said after a few minutes. "I… um…" She sighed and placed her hands on her lap. "Just had a bad dream… that's all…"
"Somehow, I don't seemed convinced," the man said. "Miyuki, what really happened?"
"Just a dream…" Miyuki repeated again, though it seemed more like she was trying to convince herself rather than the man she was seated next to.
"What kind of dream was it?" the man asked.
"Why are you up?" Miyuki asked again in a desperate attempt to change the subject.
"Apparently for the same reason you are. I had a dream and couldn't seem to go back to sleep afterwards."
"Oh…"
"Well then," the man said as he began to stand up. Miyuki quickly grabbed his left wrist.
"Brother?"
Okay, now he knew something was wrong. He sat back down and turned his body towards Miyuki. The little girl shook her head and laid her head down on his lap, not even bothering to look at him.
The man quietly picked up his book again and found where he left off.
"There was a little boy in the dream," Miyuki said out of nowhere. She closed her eyes as she tried to fight off tears. The man placed a hand on the side of her head while he held the book with his other hand and continued reading.
"He… he was being chased by someone bad…" Miyuki hiccuped. "And… and… the bad man changed into a dragon…"
The man stopped reading and placed his book down and looked down at the little girl. Miyuki was silently shaking as she continued to cry. She gripped the man's pants leg and buried her face. The man tensed slightly and took his hand off the side of her head and started to gently rub her back.
"The boy… the dragon attacked the boy and he got hurt really back and…" another hiccup. "The fire was burning him and he was dying and… and he… changed…"
"Changed?" the man asked.
"He… the boy turned into a giant gold dragon and was about to attack the black dragon… but I woke up and…"
The man nodded as he gently picked up the little girl and stood up. She buried her face into his shoulder as he slowly walked towards the door. He quietly opened the door and let it close with a small click. He then carried Miyuki to her room and put her back down on her bed.
Miyuki removed her glasses and placed them back on the nightstand. Miyuki laid back down as she pulled the sheet on top of her. The man sat down on the edge of her bed. Miyuki snuggled up against the pillow and soon fell asleep, but not before she was able to get out a sleepy mumble, "Thanks, brother…"
As soon as he was able to see that she'd gone to sleep, he quietly walked out of the room and closed the door. When he looked up, he came face to face with a woman with light brown hair and vivid blue eyes.
The woman tightened the night robe around her and looked over at the man. "Is she okay?" the woman asked.
"Yui," the man almost gasped out loud, actually startled to see the woman staring at him.
"Jin," Yui deadpanned.
Jin crossed his arms. "She said that she had a bad dream. Something to do with dragons attacking each other."
Yui looked down at the floor. "Oh," she muttered.
"Oh?" Jin asked.
"Is… is this what I think it means?" Yui asked, looking at Jin. "Are you… is she…?"
"Not if I can help it," Jin responded, placing his chin in his hand. "But if I think that dream means what I think it means… then it was no dream."
Yui tugged on Jin's arm, directing him back to their bedroom. "What do you mean?" Yui asked as they entered the room. Yui sat down on the bed as Jin stared off into space. "Jin?"
"I think… the Kaiser has awakened," Jin finally said after a few moments. He sat down next to Yui. "And I think Miyuki saw it in some sort of dream vision. I know I certainly felt it."
"I wonder if the others felt it," Yui mused as she laid back down on the bed. Jin soon followed suit and wrapped his arms around Yui.
"Even if they did, it's not like they will be able to do anything about it," Jin mumbled to the top of Yui's head.
Yui sighed and turned her back to Jin. "What do you mean that they wouldn't be able to do… dear?" Yui stopped in mid-sentence. The only response she got was the sound of light snoring.
"Hmph," Yui smirked and snuggled back in her pillow and attempted to fall asleep.
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At around the same time…"Wah!" a loud scream followed by a loud and painful thump emitted from a large pile of blanks that were currently sprawled across the floor.
"Little Master?" the door to the bedroom opened to reveal a young woman with light purple hair, who was dressed in a light purple nightgown. The woman walked into the messy room and flipped the light switch.
A messy red-haired head poked from out of the mountain of blankets on the floor. The owner of said head tried his best to untangle himself from the mess. The woman gave him a point look and knelt down to assist him if need be.
The boy, who looked around twelve or thirteen, sleepily, finally, managed to untangle himself from the pile of sheets. He was dressed in a black tang-top and had on a pair of black boxers. He seemed to have what appeared to be a red serpentine dragon tattooed on his upper left arm. He sat on top of the mess for a few moments, eyes slightly glazed over. He seemed to be mulling something over in the back of his mind.
"Little Master," the woman said in a calm, controlled voice. "What are you doing?"
"Whu?" the boy responded. He looked up at the woman, as if for the first time noticing her presence.
"I asked you what you were doing," the woman sighed. "Did you fall out of bed… again?"
"Urg," the boy muttered darkly as he attempted to stand up. "That call…"
"Call?" the woman asked as the boy stood up and after standing for a few moments, decided to just plop back down on the edge of the bed.
"It was so loud, it managed to knock me out of a very nice, much needed nap," the boy grumbled.
"It is your own fault if you decided to stay up at unearthly hours playing with your firearms," the woman chastised him.
"Hey, you're not my mother," the boy pouted.
"No, but I am your personal assistant, Little Master," the woman said. "It is my duty to keep you in line."
"Eh, heh," the boy grinned sheepishly. "I'm a perfect little angel, Shelley. You have nothing to worry about!" as if trying to emphasize his point, he gave the woman a thumbs up.
The woman actually rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's exactly what the mayor of Cedar Village said, too."
"See, what did I tell ya!"
The woman placed her head in her hand. "Namanda, give me strength…"
"HEY!"
The boy stood up and started to pace the room. The woman's eyes followed the Little Master's moves for a few moments. He crossed his arms and stopped pacing when he got to the large picture window. He stared out into the city.
"Shelley, the call was a cry for help," the boy said finally.
The woman nodded. "Shall I try to identify the source then, Little Master?"
"I… don't think that will even be possible," the redhead mused.
"Beg pardon?"
"If I can't get a reading, then you most likely won't either," the boy said.
"What course of action would you like to take then?"
"Coffee…" the boy muttered darkly. "Cuz I highly doubt I'll be going back to sleep anytime soon…"
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Torches aligned the stone walls of the sparsely lit room. The room was in an ancient temple that's actual purpose was long ago forgotten, save for the several figures that stood around what appeared to be a pool of water. The water shimmered and suddenly an image appeared in the pool. The image was of a young boy, no older than seven or eight, with short, wild blue hair, dressed in a long, purple and blue tunic with long white sleeves and white, long pants. A gold circlet was around his forehead.
One of the individuals cleared his throat. He was a young man with an almost elven face a slight tapered ears, with long white-silverish hair that fell well past his back. He was dressed in midnight armor with gold runic designs running along the chest and shoulder guards, dark pants and leather boots and had a cape draped across his shoulders.
Everyone turned their attention to the man as he crossed his arms. "This is the boy?" the man asked.
A young woman glanced at the mirror. She had midnight black hair that was done up in a multitude of braids and had gold rings attached to the ends of them. She wore a light blue corset that just barely covered her upper chest and a light blue, ankle length skirt with a slit running down the left side of it. A multitude of gold bracelets were on each of her wrists and she wore gold, lace up sandals.
She turned to the mirror also and placed her arms behind her back. "The very earth itself trembled upon his awakening. I have no doubt in my mind he is the one."
"This might be a trap, set by the enemy!" a low growl came from the far corner of the room. A young Woran woman stepped forward. She had short, fire red hair that was held back by an ornate, beaded headdress. She was currently clad in a gold chestplate with a symbol of a tiger's paw on it and a short, pleated gold skirt. She had on purple and gold boots that stopped short of her toes, allowing for her claws to move freely and had the same color of bracers on her arms.
"That is one possibility, though I highly doubt it is likely," a slight voice said. This being resembled a walking plant more than anything. He was dressed in what appeared to be leaves and rosy petals wrapped around a thick hourglass stem. His head was shaped like a rosebud and he had golden eyes.
"Then, what do you think it is?" a young girl asked. She seemed to be the youngest out of everyone there. She was dressed in a pink and purple sectioned dress and had elbow length gloves on her arms. She had shoulder length blue hair that was held back by a golden tiara. She also had giant sunset colored wings protruding from her shoulder blades.
"The beginning of the Cycle," a woman who was standing in front of the mirror said. She had long, purple hair and was dressed in a white gown with a blue and gold crisscross design that looped from the top front of the dress to about her waist with a gold ring on the front of the dress that had blue strips of fabric hanging down the lower part of her dress and gold arm bands on her upper arms with the same blue material attached to them.
The woman held a gold staff high in the air. The staff had what appeared to be a trinity knot with a blue stone on top of it. The stone flashed and the image changed to that of a young man with black hair bound back in a ponytail. He was dressed in dark colored robes.
"That's…" the silver-haired man almost gasped.
"Prince Demus," the black-haired woman finished.
The purple haired woman sighed. A soft white and blue light appeared from behind her and those assembled turned around and stared at the new comer. The man was cloaked in a dark cloak and had his face covered with a hood. He walked over to the group and did a slight bow to the purple haired woman.
"We… may have a problem," the man said.
"We know," the silver haired man said.
"The question is, what will we do about it?" the winged girl said.
"The ripples are making waves," the purple haired woman said. "The flow of destiny is slowly, but surely changing," the woman turned to the cloaked man. "You know what you need to do. You must act quickly, or all will be lost."
The man nodded. "Understood," he then vanished.
The silver-haired man turned to the purple-haired woman. "What shall the rest of us do?"
"We must lay and wait," the woman said.
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The sun rose as dawn claimed the night. A large man with long brown hair and a beard dressed in leathers made his way through the woods, humming tunelessly to himself. He had a mighty axe swung over his shoulder.
Nothing like a good stroll through the woods at the crack of dawn to get ready for the day ahead. The man grinned to himself, but stopped abruptly when he noticed the charred trees and burnt ground. He quickly ran forward when he heard a small moan coming from what looked like ground zero of some sort of explosion.
A small boy with blue hair and dressed in charred clothes laid motionlessly in the middle of the charred ground. The man quickly bent down and placed his axe on the ground. He flipped the boy over and quickly checked for injures of any kind. He was rather surprised when he found none.
The middle-aged man shook the boy gently until the boy's eyes fluttered open. He looked over at the man in confusion, and then suddenly tried to jerk away. The man was able to easily hold him still as the boy fought to move. After a few moments, the boy ceased his movements and just sat still.
The older man cleared his throat, catching the attention of the boy. "What happened here, little one?" the man asked.
"I…" something flashed across the boy's eyes for a moment, but soon faded. "I don't know…"
"You don't know how you got here?"
"No…"
The man hmmed. "Well then, who are you?"
"I… don't remember…" the boy said hesitantly.
"You don't… remember? Do you at least remember your name, little one?" the man asked gently.
"Uh… I think it's Ryu," the boy said.
The man laughed and stood up, and helped Ryu up as well. "Well Ryu, I am Bunyan, lumberjack and guardian of Cedar Woods. That's where we are right now, but the way."
Ryu nodded slightly. "Okay."
Bunyan shook his head in amusement. "What are you going to do now? Try to find your family?"
Ryu shook his head. "I… think that they are gone…"
"Ah," Bunyan mused. "If that's the case, then come with me Ryu."
Ryu nodded as he started to run after Bunyan.
To be continued…