Present Past

A/N and Disclaimer: I used the people in my AIM CAMPAIGN game that I run with a few of my friends. It's Dungeons and Dragons with a touch of Dragonlance thrown in (thus, the kender). I own Ceria, but I do not own the other characters. Bristle belongs to TheUnbalancedOne, Sofia belongs to Ixi, Zaph belongs to Duo, Kaisui to Vamptai, Kelra'an to Striker, and Ka'Lore to FallenAngelHolly. Not that any of you know who they are, but these things must be said. I don't own DnD and I don't own Dragonlance. I really don't own a lot. Poor me, I should file for unemployment. Seeing as these are character ripped straight from our game I will say simply this:

Ceria – Kender, Female, Bard, Age 24
Bristle – Kender, Male, Bard/Rogue, Age 22
Sofia - ..A lot of things, but currently an Aasimar, Female, Psionic Telepath/Soulblade/Fatemaker, Age 22
Zaph – Half-dragon (black) Aasimar, Male, Psionic Telepath/Chaotician, Age 24
Kaisui – Sea Elf, Male, Sorcerer, Age 24
Ka'Lore – Werewolf, Female, Druid/Horizon Walker, Age 36
Kalra'an – Rakshasa, Male, Sorcerer/Ranger, Age 32

BEEP BEEP

Starting scan…

Scanning specimen…

… …

… Scan complete. Data collected. Welcome, Ceria Mageream, to the year 4301.

Ceria gasped in surprise, and then winced against the bright lights. Steam rolled around the ground at knee level, and a shiver wracked her body. She wasn't cold, there was no frost to denote coldness, but she felt terribly drafty. Once her eyes adjusted to the strange sun overhead, she began an immediate search of her surroundings. The thing she was rested in was very comfortable, at least. It was padded with something soft and pliable, but firm. After amusing herself with poking the substance, and wondering why she was in a glass coffin, she slowly stepped out of her cylinder container.

"Perhaps it is because I died again," she mused. "Maybe I went into trance and they thought I wouldn't wake up. I certainly must have missed a lot to get placed in a coffin, though why of glass? It's so expensive… And this isn't really underground, unless they put me in a tomb of some sort. How peculiar though. Maybe that's not the sun up there, but a long lasting light spell." She was overwhelmed with all the oddities in the room, as well as the sight of other glass coffins. These were not opened, however, and seemed to be misted on the inside to prevent her from looking in. It was just as well – Ceria already knew what the dead looked like, and while she wanted to know who her dead companions were, she didn't feel up to disturbing their rest. There were other things to preoccupy her.

There being so much, in fact, she was forced to continuously examine only her closest surroundings to limit her distractions. After emerging from her coffin she took a few moments to stare at the odd form of stone beneath her feet. It was slick and well polished, for it appeared shiny in the light spell, but an odd white color with little flecks of other colors dispersed throughout it. It was unlike any stone she had ever seen.

"If I were a stone collector, I would be most interested," she reflected, and quickly moved on to the next item of interest. Taking up an entire wall on its own was a creation of blinking lights. Ceria scratched her head, trying to make sense of this creature. It was caged behind some odd type of glass structure, so well that she could not see any way to get inside. She wondered how the creature was fed, pet, and taken care of. However, she deduced that it was asleep for it did nothing but remain in one spot and blink its lights. "It must be from some other plane of existence. One with lots of lights." Eventually growing bored watching it, Ceria examined more closely the glass coffins in the room.

While approaching the nearest one, finding more lights fixated on this and wondering where it all came from, a coffin that was next to her own began to blink rapidly and make odd noises. Entranced, Ceria stopped and watched.

"Starting scan…"

She was startled by the voice that had an odd ring to it and sounded as though it came from the walls. Was this some divine? "Hullo?" There was still silence, followed by a whirring noise and more blinking lights. Ceria frowned, confused, and began to get agitated. Was there someone here or not? And if there was, who was it? What was it?

A large section of the creature hide, reaching as high as the ceiling and touching the floor, suddenly lit up. Ceria whirled around, her attention once again diverted, and was amazed as pictures began appearing on the section of the creature.

"Hullo in there!" Ceria called through the glass cage. "Are you awake? What's your name? What's going on? I have so many questions to ask, but I think I shall settle for your name first." The creature didn't answer and the odd glyphs on its skin continued to flash in and out of existence. Ceria deduced that either the creature was extraordinarily dumb and did not understand her, sentient and was ignoring her, or extraordinarily intelligent and was ignoring her. Frowning, Ceria watched the strange symbols for a while, wondering what it could all mean, and then was amazed yet again the outline for a person, a kender from the shape, around her size and a touch smaller, appeared on the screen.

"Scanning specimen…"

Ceria grumbled. "If there's someone in here, kindly answer me. I'm confused, lost, and would like to have at least a clue of what's going on." No answer. Ceria was now sure that whoever was speaking was very rude indeed, and that she would not humor the other person by talking to it anymore. Instead, she watched between the outline of the kender and the flashing lights on the coffin. Odd looking words, scrolling too fast to read, flew over the hide of the creature and then the section of the hide went dark again.

"… Scan complete." There was a loud hissing noise and a few clicks as the coffin top slid off! Ceria was entranced, amazed, and watched. She blinked against the mist and fog that swirled again in the room, now assured that they came from the coffins.

"Data collected. Welcome, Bristle Tindershoot."

Bristle?

There was a familiar gasp, much like she had done when she had awakened. Ceria hurried over to the coffin and waved with her hand to clear the fog. Bristle had his eyes shut against the lights and was trying to get his bearings together again. Ceria was ecstatic. "Bristle!" Bristle opened his eyes quickly in surprise, winced, and blinked at Ceria.

"Ceria!" He scrambled out of his coffin and embraced her. She smiled and hugged back, happy for familiar company in such a bizarre and alien place. She held tighter and resolved not to let go. Bristle, however much he was glad to see his betrothed, was eager to see more of where he'd woken up at.

"Where are we?" he inquired, easing her grip off him so he could roam around the room. "What is all this?"

"I'm not sure," Ceria admitted, settling on holding hands and guiding him in a circle around the room. "I haven't been awake very long – I was in one of these glass coffins as well. Nothing here makes sense. There's a strange voice that won't talk to me, this sleeping, stupid beast with bright and lit up hide, and all these coffins. I was hoping you might be able to tell me…" Bristle had a hard time comprehending what she was talking about. He was still disoriented from what seemed like a very long and deep sleep. The sleep spell that was cast on them must have been very strong indeed. And now, he speculated, they've been put in some prison on another world.

Before the two could confer any more, however, the voice rang out again.

"Starting scan…"

Ceria made a vague motion upwards. "You see. There's this voice. It won't talk to me."

"Hullo somewhere," Bristle called out hesitantly. "What's your name?" Silence and whirring. Bristle frowned and Ceria made a small "hmph!" noise to punctuate her point.

"Scanning specimen…"

Ceria sighed. "Maybe it's an automaton or a zombie. It doesn't seem to say anything but those words." Bristle shrugged. He was having fun watching all the blinking lights.

"Scan complete. Data collected. Welcome, Sofia Windancer." Ceria and Bristle exchanged an excited look. Sofia!

They hurried to her containment and helped her as she sagged out. Sofia was still in a half-sleep as they helped her to stand and began chattering away in their excitement. Their words didn't even register in her mind. She felt strange, different. Curious.

While Bristle and Ceria were busy talking to Sofia, the voice started again on its familiar chant. "Starting scan… Scanning specimen… Scan complete. Data collected. Welcome, Zaph Brightrune." The kender rushed off to help Zaph, who appeared to be in an uncomfortable position with his wings covering him and his tail curled up around his legs. He too was in quite a stupor.

By now all the coffins in the room had been opened, and their occupants beginning to wake up, groggy but in tact. With a grin, the two kender tried their best to explain what they'd seen, but none of it made sense to any of them yet. A voice rang out from its omnipotent presence, this time much more human sounding, and certainly cheerier.

"Welcome, past-walkers. I hope your sleep was pleasant."

Everyone looked all around and at the ceilings for the source, and was baffled not to find it.

"Hullo," Ceria spoke first. "Are you going to talk back?"

"Indeed I shall."

This pleased her, and so she continued. "Are you going to show yourself?"

"In time. I'm still preparing things for you – food, clothing, a documentary to watch as explanation."

The group was famished, to their surprise. However the term 'documentary' was not one they recognized. The voice must have sensed their hesitation somehow. "Just stay there. Your other friends are waking up as well and you'll all be reunited soon. There's just a few things that need done beforehand."

"Are we prisoners?" Sofia inquired, perplexed. It felt like they were, for she could not see any exits.

The voice laughed. "Of course not."

Zaph strolled around the room leisurely. "This is most intriguing."

"Good! I am glad you approve. Now I shall join you shortly…" The voice cut off and left the room in silence. The two kender fidgeted, talked in low tones to each other on who the voice may be.

"Do you think it's a divine being?" Ceria mused. Bristle was skeptical, but had no time to reply. His answer was momentarily forgotten in the surprise and delight of seeing a part of the wall slide upwards and a young male human with a white lab coat walk into the room. The man looked to be of average age, perhaps in his late twenties, for a human. His hair was black, tussled and laying messily on his head – a trademark of the habit of running his fingers through his scalp. The effect was not unpleasant. It gave him a cute bishi look, only to be enhanced by the black wire rimmed spectacles that were beginning to slip down his nose.

"Hello!" the two kender chorused in unison. Bristle and Ceria had a playful race between themselves to see who could get to the man first, which Bristle won. With a grin, he stuck out his hand. "My name is Bristle Tindershoot."

The man smiled at him and obligingly shook the proffered hand. "Yes, I know. I read all your data files and so I know the basics about you, at least."

Ceria eyed the man curiously while extending her own hand. "Well, I don't know what a data scan is, but it must be a type of literature to read it. My name is Ceria Tindershoot." The man was confused, shook her hand, but stared at her oddly.

"That can't be right," he mumbled. "The computer said that your surname was Mageream."

Bristle and Ceria puffed up in pride. "We're newlyweds."

The man simply smiled. "Ah."

Sofia and Zaph remained quiet and watching. They were not so quick to make introductions to this strange man who, for all they knew, was holding them captive. The kender simply stared, waiting expectantly. The man stared back at them, confused again, until a thought visibly lit up his face. "Oh dear, I nearly forgot." Kneeling politely to be on eye level with them, the man introduced himself. "I am Doctor Tachiban."

"A doctor!" Ceria squealed happily. "I knew a doctor once, in the sea elf village before it was destroyed. That was a long, long time ago." Amused, Dr. Tachiban turned his attention to the quiet remaining two. They just stared.

"I can see that you two are not quite as social as your companions," he noted. "No need to worry. I'm not going to hurt you – I'm going to help you in fact. I'm sure that you have many questions to ask about whom I am and where you're at, as well as how you came to be here. However, food and a medical scan must come first."

"I'm not going anywhere until you tell us a few things," Sofia replied stubbornly, crossing her arms and leering at this stranger who talked so quickly. The kender pouted. They were tired of this room.

"All will be revealed after the necessary steps have been taken," he assured her. Ceria tugged on the white lab coat sleeve.

"Doctor, sir," she piped up. "I don't think she has cause to trust you, and neither do we, though I do like doctors. You see, this is peculiarly like the time we were caught in the Fey Kingdom and they kept insisting we eat their food. It turns out the food was enchanted! Oh, but it was a lovely place…" She drifted off the conversation with a dreamy, happy look. Bristle giggled at the memory.

The doctor furrowed his brow. "I see. You fear being poisoned? Tricked? If it makes you feel better, I will eat first and prove that there is nothing wrong with the food. You are our honored guests, and it is our privilege to serve you."

This only enhanced the suspicions of the other two, but the kender were already out of the door by now. Dr. Tachiban hurried after them to keep up and, with a sigh, Zaph and Sofia followed.

The hallways had more of those odd light spells in the ceiling, and the floor here was covered in much worn down, albeit softer than stone, throw rugs. They were also extremely well fitting for the dimensions of the corridor, which was odd. Ceria thought the patterns of the furs were pretty indeed and stopped short to examine them. Bristle, who hadn't anticipated this, rammed into her from behind and the two toppled over in a giggling heap.

Dr. Tachiban caught up after his dash through the hallways, pushed his spectacles back up his nose, and tried to get his breath back. "Oh my. It's just like chasing my nephews around." Ceria and Bristle grinned at him in good nature, got up, and remained docile as they look in the sights of the floor, the wallpaper, and the stucco ceiling. Dr. Tachiban glanced back to see the other two following after him, and so gently ushered the kender down the hall and into a large white room.

Ceria sniffed the air. "Smells funny here." Bristle sniffed and agreed.

"That's what most hospital places smell like," the doctor explained. "It's the smell of sterility." The two kender just stared blankly at him, and so, with a sigh, directed them to take a seat. He escorted Zaph and Sofia to their own seats as well, and then walked off a moment to confer with a nurse. The two kender continued to giggle and bounce in their strange chairs.

At length, the doctor returned. "We'll be checking you all over for sickness, disease, or any major abnormalities that should be of concern. We'll take Bristle first." Bristle looked between the doctor and his friends a couple times before a reassuring nod from Ceria prompted him to jump out of his chair and walk over to the doctor.

"I don't know what's going on, but hopefully I'll see you all later," he chirped and waved. Ceria smiled and waved back, now a bit lonely to see him go. She looked around the room. There wasn't much to keep herself busy, but when in a pinch, she could always make do…