Hello—I'm back with "Fire, Ice, and Stone," the Fruits Basket/Petshop of Horrors/Tokyo Babylon crossover! Thanks to those of you who've read everything, once again. For people checking this out for the first time, a few things:
If you have not done so, I'd recommend reading "The Killing Wind" first, because it'll help you understand the situation here better.
I changed a lot of things—the country, character names, and the Juunishi curse, among other things. If you don't like stories with that kind of extensive reworking, please don't leave nasty comments for me.
My updates will be slower since I've not actually finished writing "Fire," and I also have school...(go homework-NOT) I'll try to update once a week, though.
Hope you enjoy it! Please review if you wish :) I'm also willing to answer questions about anything you find confusing in my next update. Just a note: in this story, "Juunishi" is changed to "Dzuni," and the two children in this chapter are members of the Dzuni.
Disclaimer: FB, PSOH, and TB do not belong to me, nor does anything else you recognize.
Fire, Ice, and Stone
Prologue
"What three elements make up a flame tree?" The melodious, hypnotizing low voice asked the small boys huddled next to each other on the king-sized bed. A soft amber glow emanated from the delicate antique nightstand lamp, the only source of light in the darkened bedroom.
"We already know that, Seki," the boy nearest to the adult man pointed out. His normally white skin gained some rosy coloring from the lamp, but a bluish tinge clung stubbornly to his midnight-black hair.
"Yes, I know, Sharlen, but I am adding something new tonight," said Seki in his harsh accent, smiling indulgently. "Have patience. You are five now, and old enough to hear what I am about to tell you. Again, what three elements make up a flame tree?"
"Fire, ice, and stone." The staccato answer came from the child next to Sharlen.
"Very good, Khureno. And why those elements?" Seki's penetrating, narrow brown orbs focused on his charge's blurred figure. The child sat just outside the lamp's ring of light, as if taking shelter from the cold Hothan winter in the bed's safe embrace. Khureno had pulled the cover all the way to his chin, and sat up against two pillows piled behind his back.
"Their flowers burn with life, they survive in winter, and they stay in place even when the wind gets really high," recited Khureno automatically.
"Perfect again, Khureno. Now, Sharlen, what makes their flowers such a rich red?"
"Blood, of course," said Sharlen, grinning mischievously. "When are you getting to the new stuff?"
"Very soon, my little boy. Do you remember the next question, Sharlen?"
"Yeah. Why are the flame trees so important to Hoth?"
"And the answer is?"
"Because they are the life force of Hoth."
"Correct. As you two know, that is where I have always ended before. Now, do you know where the flame trees' life force comes from?" The strange new undertone in Seki's voice made Khureno whip his head around to look his guardian in the face. Golden eyes met unfathomable brown eyes. In the dimness, Seki's perfectly smooth face resembled a mask more than at any other time, rarely revealing any expressions besides a thin, indecipherable smile and an occasional amusement at Sharlen's antics.
"Me?" guessed Khureno, almost inaudibly. He shivered involuntarily, and then suppressed it. This unnamed aura around Seki had appeared before—invisible, but one that invoked feelings of dread and terror.
"Almost, Khureno. When you are older, you will be responsible for tending the trees. But you do not pass on any life force to them. No, the flame trees' power comes from the blood. That is what gives the blossoms such bright coloring, what allows the trees to live well into the bitterest of winters, and what anchors their roots firmly into the ground during haríthes."
"And where does this blood come from?" Sharlen asked, despite Khureno's discomfort. Sharlen, too, detected the subtle change in Seki's aura, and the hair on his neck rose.
"Good question, Sharlen, but I have already gone as far as I wished to tonight. I will leave you and Khureno to think about that question until you are old enough for me to reveal the answer."
"Please, Seki, I'd like to know," requested Khureno, curiosity relentlessly propelling him.
"I'm sorry, Khureno and Sharlen. I cannot say yet," said Seki, shaking his head gently. His waist-length braid rustled against his loose-fitting Zi Aldan cotton shirt. The dark green fabric complemented his tan skin.
"Just one more question," begged Khureno, regarding Seki with a mixture of awe and fright. "Are we human?"
Seki, who had risen to his feet from the bed's comfortable edge, stopped. His hands lay across his midsection, folded into each other. It was his customary posture. After calmly regarding both Khureno and Sharlen for a protracted time, he gave them his mystery smile and spoke. "A fascinating question, my little darlings. Are the Dzunis human? That depends on what view of humans you adopt. Here in Hoth, being human saves you from succumbing in despair to this godforsaken weather." Seki made no secret of his preference for temperate Zi Alda. "Hothans make and break relationships every day, and gossip about it. They live on relationships, which distracts them from the ice, wind, and snow. At the same time, Hothans still appeal to animal deities to control the weather, and help them snare the loves of their lives. Hothans use animals for fortunetelling and determining a newborn's personality traits. In Hoth, the Dzunis are a perfect mix of human and animal.
"It is similar in Mougoth, eastern Gogotha, where jungle dwellers depend on a close partnership with nature. There, humans tend to see animals as sacred, and as their equals in the environment. That is easy when the weather is so wet and warm, and food and water exist in great abundance.
"West Gogotha, however, is not such an easy place to live. They have very hot summers, and very cold winters. Survival becomes a more savage matter. The Tsaavo people accept for a fact that animals have the upper hand as predators, and that they are prey." Seki glanced pointedly at Sharlen. "After all, lowly humans do not possess fangs, claws, wings, sharp hearing, nighttime vision, or any of those sort of things. It says much that humans must have weapons in order to win a battle against predators, and even guns can fail in such situations.
"Zi Aldans, perhaps, have the worst views about humans. Although they will not admit so now, Zi Aldans worshipped animal gods a very long time ago. Their myths say that one day, a small group of lesser gods tried to overthrow the Great Deity, and failed. The Great Deity banished them from the mountains, and sent them into the valleys and plains. He stripped them of their god-like powers, and transformed them into humans. He sent half-humans, half-animals called the borustange to watch the new humans. Humans, then, are disgraced former animals in Zi Alda."
Seki paused. "And now it really is getting late, dear children. You must sleep. Good night." He bent down and switched the lamp off, plunging the room into darkness. No windows existed to let in moonlight or any outside light into the room.
"Good night, Seki," said Khureno quietly, watching his guardian's shadow vanish into the darkness. Sharlen's purplish-red eyes, perfectly adapted for nighttime vision, only looked at Seki's back with a new suspicion.
