AUTHORS NOTES AS WELL AS PROLOGUE, PLEASE READ OR THE FOLLOWING WILL MAKE NO SENSE BECAUSE I'M REALLY, REALLY LAZY;

Ok so this story actually has one or two chapters ahead of it, but I didn't feel like writing them because 1) they would not have been that interesting to read and 2) no one likes original characters. This is supposed to be a story about Caramon and Raistlin, and those two chapters needed to get the story started would just be boring. So let's recap; Caramon finds a wandering child who can not speak, but who seems to recognize him. Thing is the child has silver-grey hair and golden skin (no, this is not a story about any child of Raistlins, though Caramon occasionally thinks so). Anyhow the kids sweet and innocent, so Caramon takes him home, much to Tikas dismay. But after a few days she too takes to the cheerful, naïve child. And then the story starts. See how effective that was? Oh and the kids name is Mila (they know because he has a bracelet with the name ingraved on it (yes, my fellow NDS-lovers, it's a Hotel Dusk tribute! Rather out of place though, but I just stole the name). Ok, so the story goes;


"Mila! It's time to get up!" Tifa called before entering the small room "If you sleep any longer Caramon will have eaten all the…"

She came to an imidiate stop in the doorway, her face turned pale as Lunitaris light as she started at the figure in the bed. The person that should be Mila, the adorable child, was now instead oddly, terrifyingly familiar as it turned it's golden-yellow eyes towards her.

"Caramon!" she called before running down the hallway "CARAMON!"

The figure sitting in the bed, who was no longer a young child with gold-tainted skin, but a full-grown young man, with the same metallic feature and waist long silver hair, reckoned he could do nothing but wait. He was still shivering, and he felt sick and confused. Images spun in his head, and he couldn't quite place them all. It was like his mind was split in two. Or worse, one part of it had gone missing. He hadn't expected…

Then a huge body filled the doorway, blocking most of the light streaming in trough the hallway windows. Caramon was larger then he remembered him, his shoulders almost touching the panels of the doorway on both sides. In three steps, the giant-like man had covered the distance between the door and the bed. He stood only inches away, towering over the replica of his lost brother. His breathing came heavy, ragged, and the name seemed to cut this throat as he uttered it, quietly.

"Raistlin?"

The golden-skinned young man didn't answer, his gaze shifted from Caramons face to his hands and back again. Caramon swallowed what seemed only to be ill-tasting air.

"You still can't talk?" he asked, in the same, oddly quiet tone.

"Yes" the voice was so familiar, even though it was more hushed then raspy "I can talk"

Caramon roared like a bear and thrust himself forward the short distance that remained between them. He caught the young mans shoulders before he had any time to react and halfway lifted him straight up into the air, bringing their resembling faces close.

"You bastard!" Caramon growled, shaking the significantly smaller body "You used me! Again! And I was stupid enough to fall for it! Again! Where's Mila? What did you do to him? Why did you come here Raist? What are you trying to -"

"I am not Raistlin" the man said, quietly, but it managed to bring Caramons angrer to a halt "At this point, I am not sure who I am"

"What in the name of the Abyss are you saying?" Caramon continued, his anger not quite subsided.

"I'm saying I might be your brother, but I might also be Mila. Maybe a combination of them both, and maybe of others as well" the man continued, his eyes wandering as if it was looking for answers in the area around Caramons head. "I'm not sure. I'm not… I'm… Part of me is Raistlin… but I'm not sure… which part"

He again looked up into Caramons confused eyes.

"I'm scared, Caramon" he said "And that does not sound like me"

There was silence between the two. He who might be Raistlin again looked away, Caramon just started at him. He looked like Raistlin, but the young Raistlin. The brother he had known before the Test. The lines of the face where the same, and though his skin shone golden bright in the morning sun, his body was not sick and the face did not bear the marks of the suffering that his brother had endured every day since their visit to the Tower, almost 10 years ago. Also, the long hair was Milas, falling straight and smooth all the way down his back. And some of the features in his face also looked like a more grown version of Mila.

"But… what…who?" he murmured.

"I do not know" the possible Raistlin responded, then turned his golden eyes upward again "Do you think you could set me down now, Caramon? You're hurting me"

Slowly, and without taking his eyes of the young mans face, he set his bare feet down unto the wooden floor. Instantly, the mans knees gave away underneath him and he sat down on the bed, resting his head in his hands.

"Raist?" Caramon placed a heavy hand on the thin shoulder where a bruise was already staring to show, dark-copper against gold "Are you okay?"

The one called Raistlin gave away a little laugh.

"You go awfully fast from abuse to comfort" he said, with just a small hint of mockery in his voice. Caramon quickly withdrew his outstretched hand, and Raistlin found himself kind of wishing he had not.

"Yeah, god's know you don't deserve it"

"Yes, I probably don't"

Silence again. Then Caramon dropped down on the bed so hard Raistlin though it would give away and crash unto the floor.

"I… I don't know what to think, Raist" Caramon started "I don't know how to feel. After all this years and after all you did. And… and then, this kid. And you used me"

"I sent him to the only place I could think of that would be safe" Raistlin answered in his low voice "So yes maybe I… or Raistlin… took advantage of the knowledge that you would not discard someone who needed you. But that is my weakness, not yours" he added, in an even lower tone.

"You sure don't sound like Raist" Caramon noted "But then again, you do. Who are you?"

"I might be a number of people" Raistlin said, his eyes fixing on a point in the distance "I might be Fistandantilus, I might be Raistlin, I might be Mila. This body, is Milas, but was never his to claim. And the memories, the thoughts, the emotions, I do not know. I remember what I did yesterday. I remember… searching for an artefact I thought I might have misplaced, but I also remember helping Tika with the dishes"

"Yeah, Mila helped out a lot. So" he said and pointed a finger at Raistlins chest "Mila is in there, and so are you and… who in the abyss is Fisdanmantaras?"

"Never mind that" Raistlin waved the name away with a gesture of his hand that looked a lot like Raistlin "And yes, Mila is me, and I am him. And I might be someone else as well. I am not sure of anything. I don't know how much of Raistlin is within me"

"What do you mean?" Caramon asked "And… how did you get in there, anyway?"

"Caramon" Raistlins head snapped up and the turned to his brother with eyes that looked … frightened "I… I think I died"

"Oh"

Silence.

Then

"And…" Raistlin continued "And I'm terribly hungry, actually"


AFTERWORD BY AUTHOR (man I love these things);

Ok so I completely messed up the timeline here. Do not worry your pretty little dragonlance-fan heads on the whereabouts of Dalamar, if Raistlin has been to the abyss or not and why Caramon and Tika doesn't have children yet. I didn't put any thought into it, which is kind of not my style because I USUALLY keep to at least some logical time/space-perspective. But I just like this story. And I hope you do to. I know our beloved Raist is a little out of character (but if you do remember your DL, you'll know he was pretty remorseful at the end, maybe not about his choices, but about his relationship with Caramon) but it'll make sense eventually. Um, crazy-fan-girl-who-can't-wait-for-the-movie-sense. But still. There might be some sense there! Oops look at me rambling. Anyhow, Thank you for reading this far///Clownfoodie