Summary: When two girls have an exploration mission that goes awry and Yulia intervenes, they get thrown almost two thousand years into the future! Lost in a world both familiar and alien to them, they must adapt quickly to survive. Easier said than done when one uses a fighting style that no longer exists and the other's species is extinct.
Rating: 'T' for violence, language, and a little romance later on
Pairings: Ion/OC, Luke/Tear, Asch/Natalia, Guy/OC, and a little Sync/Anise... (Don't ask about the last one, because I'm honestly not sure where it came from...)
Kairi: Hey there! It's me, Kairi, or Twilight PhoenixFyre, to those of you who've read my stories. I'm on this account because this story is a collaboration fic between myself and Winx. Well, kinda. She's pretty slow, so, aside from this prologue, which we worked on together, chapters from her will be few and far between.
Winx: Hey now, no being rude!
Kairi: I'm just being honest. Anyway, do you realize how hard your writing style is? And to think, I wanted to use it for Whisper's POV...
Winx: Oh, quit whining. Anyways, this is adapted from a roleplay that Kairi and I did... are doing... whatever. Well, except for a large part of the prologue, but that's beside the point.
Kairi: Anyways... Disclaimer time!
Winx: We don't own Tales of the Abyss, though we wished we did. Whisper belongs to Kairi while Echo belongs to me, and Whisper's species belongs to both of us.
Kairi: Read, enjoy, and please review.
Cries in the Night
Prologue
Ruins of Light and Time
"Hey, you realize Mother will skin you alive if she catches you wearing men's clothes again, don't you?" my brother's voice stops me as I head out the door. I turn and look at him, noting that he's making another glider as I do so.
"Is she going to find out?" I ask him. He smiles conspiratorially and shakes his head. "Good. I'm heading out with Echo. She wanted to go exploring in the forest, something about ruins or something," I tell him. "I'll see you later, Van!"
I close the door behind me and run up to the nearby cliff. My village is well-hidden in a valley. The humans call it Teslar Valley, but to my people, it's the Valley of the Velis. Of course, there is only one remaining village there, but the valley has been the home of the Velis since before the great city of Tanis was built. Looking up at the sky, I smile as I catch sight of the fonstone ring glinting in the sun.
I pull my bow off of my back and pull something else out. It's a piece of Velis technology, and when I press a button, the long, rectangular shape created by collapsing metal opens up and locks open, turning into a relatively flat, wing-shaped piece. There are three indentations. Two of them, placed on either side of the center, are ovular and deeper at one end, one is circular and placed in the middle of the metal.
I'm holding the wing-shaped contraption with my right hand, my bow with my left. Carefully, I slip the metal into the bow so that the bow is the front edge of the 'wings.' It's a perfect fit, because that's how my brother made it to be.
Holding the 'wings' with my right hand, I reach into the bag on my left hip and pull out a stone. It's encased in a metal cage of sorts. Two criss-crossing rings wrap around it, connecting on opposite sides of the stone, which is glowing blue-silver. I insert the stone into the circular slot in the middle and turn it half a quarter to the left.
The glider comes to life in my hands as the flightstone cover flips into place, and I quickly grab the top with my left hand while I hold the bottom end down with my right. I take a few running steps and then jump on, and suddenly, I'm in the air.
Flying on a glider is a wonderful feeling. The wind is flowing through my hair, or what's loose from my long braid, and caressing my mostly-bare skin. Even though I have to stay crouched to control the glider, my legs don't get tired any more, because I fly like this so often. My feet are in the ovular indentations on the glider, and the way they're kept tilted forward plus the fact that I'm not simply standing on smooth metal helps me keep my grip on the glider.
Almost every Velis in our valley owns a glider, mostly because the gliders are the only way to get out of the valley safely. It is possible to leave the valley by foot, but no one has ever succeeded in getting in without a glider.
My brother, Vanlyss, or Van as he prefers, is a professional when it comes to building the gliders. Mine was specially made because I'm an archer. The support for the wings of the glider is actually my bow, and the string is made of special materials so it won't break.
I'm taking my time flying when I spot a familiar flash of purple down below on the road to Charon. I maneuver the glider a little lower, and my suspicions are confirmed. I fly down, close to the ground, and shift so that my right hand is controlling the glider instead of my left. Then, slowing down and hitting a button on the glider, I jump off, landing on the ground with perfect balance born of practice. I pull the flightstone out of the glider and put it away, then collapse the glider's wings and put them on my back.
"Hey, Whisper!" a girl calls out. Turning around, I see that it's the purple-haired girl I had seen a moment ago. Smiling and pulling my bow around my torso, I walk over to her. She embraces me and then we part to get a look at each other. It's only been a week, but Echo and I are used to being together all of the time. "You're wearing Van's clothes again," the purple-haired ninja states.
"Yes, what of it?" I ask. She smiles and shakes her head.
"Nothing. Hey, you remembered my invitation to join me in Ruin Exploring, didn't you?" she replies. I cross my arms and pretend to look thoughtful.
"That's right, you sent me that invitation a few days ago," I say. Echo looks annoyed.
"Don't tell me you forgot about it," she grumbles. I smile.
"No. I just like getting you all worked up," I tell her teasingly. She looks confused for a moment before irritation crosses her countenance.
"Why I oughta…" she mumbles. I laugh, and after a moment, her smile returns. "Anyway, you wanna come or not?" she asks. I nod.
"Did you really think I was just flying around?" I ask. She rolls her eyes and starts walking, heading into the forest. I follow her, happy to be in her company again.
We've been walking for almost an hour in the forest when we find the 'ruins' Echo wanted to check out. I'm about to ask her how she found out about them when monsters attack. Echo pulls out her shuriken, and I pull my bow off again and draw an arrow, nocking it and preparing to fire.
The fight, if it can be called that, is brief. Echo has spent a lot of time practicing lately, so she's a little stronger than I am now. I frown when I realize this, noting that I'll have to work on my own training soon.
Echo uses one of the Ninjitsu Artes to stun all four of the monsters while I fire a few arrows their way. I've slacked off in my training, but that doesn't mean I'm not strong. Two arrows kill one monster, and the third brings a bird-like monster to the ground. Echo's shuriken cuts through it and kills another, and the two of us aim an arrow and a shuriken at the last monster.
"Jeez, that was easy," Echo mutters. I chuckle and pick up the little Gald the monsters had found that travelers had dropped. We go a little further into the ruins, curiosity driving us on.
We've been exploring the broken structures and standing stones for a few hours, taking out the odd monster or two that attacks us, when we find the door. It looks like the opening of a cave, but it's too perfect, too rounded, to be natural, which means that it was made by whoever made the village? shrine? that became these ruins.
"Should we go in?" Echo asks. I look at her and raise an eyebrow.
"I don't know. I'd be most grateful if the leader of this expedition would make up her mind for us," I reply, sarcasm lacing my words. Echo rolls her eyes at me and heads through the archway carefully. I follow her, knowing that her eyesight would be so much better than mine. After all, she had been trained to see and move silently in the dark. Not only had I not received that training, but Velis had poor night vision anyway.
I'm not too concerned about what could possibly be waiting for us in these ruins. This close to the valley, they were probably built by the Velis, a hypothesis that was supported by the knowledge that the humans hadn't populated this area until quite recently, only a couple hundred years at most.
What I am concerned about, however, is monsters. They like to hide in darker places where it's easier to overcome prey, and since I can barely see in this darkness, my bow won't do me or Echo a lot of good. Thinking back on it now, that was probably why she asked me if we should go in or not.
"Hey, there's light up ahead," Echo's voice reaches me. She's speaking softly, probably in case the tunnel tries to collapse on us, but an echo still sounds in the distance. I can't help but giggle. "What's so funny?" Echo asks. I bite my lip to stop my giggling, then hiss when my fang pierces the inside. "You just bit yourself," Echo states quietly. I can imagine the look on her face, one that says 'Oh Lorelei, tell me you're joking.'
"You're echoing, Echo," I finally tell her when I decided that my lip will survive. I hear Echo sigh.
"Yeah, yeah," she grumbles. I can hear her footsteps again, so I follow those, and as Echo said, we come out into a nice-sized cavern that, somehow, is lit. "Wow… How do you think it's staying lit?" Echo asks. I roll my eyes.
"Give me a minute to look around and I might be able to answer that," I told her. I've got just about as many clues as she does, so I start walking around, trying to figure out where the glow is coming from. I'm examining the walls when I notice that the ground is sandy. "Echo, be careful of sinkholes. We're walking on sand," I warn my companion. I hear her make a sound of agreement, and then I go back to my investigation.
I've searched the entire cavern without going into one of the three paths out of it and I can't find any reason for the light. "Well, it looks like my investigation has proven fruitless. Yours?" I tell Echo. She shrugs and stands up, and I roll my eyes again. "You weren't even trying to look."
"Hey, I prefer to leave all of the detective stuff to you. You've got the photographic memory, after all," she replies. I sigh.
"What is it with you and teasing me about a trait of my species?" I ask. She smiles and heads down one of the paths in the wall. "Is that the path we came down?" I inquire.
"No. I marked that path with a green ribbon and a kunai," she tells me. Turning to look at the path that wasn't in my line of sight, I see the knife mentioned sticking out of the rock wall, green ribbon tied to the end. I sigh and follow her down this second tunnel, and, after walking for a while, we find another cavern, just like the one before. Again, it is lit by a source unknown.
However, unlike the first cavern, this one has only one path connecting to it, and that is the path we came down. Echo seems disappointed, but we walk back the way we had come and she marks that path with a kunai and a red ribbon. Then we head down the third and final tunnel.
This one takes twists and turns, and is not at all straight or level as the last two were. This tunnel takes us down, further below ground, and I have to wonder where we are going now.
Echo finally sees a light at the end, and we move a little faster. I'm not at all surprised when we come upon another cavern like the ones we've already found. But this one, unlike the second one, has another path.
Unfortunately, this cavern also contains a few monsters. They see us almost as soon as we walk into the cavern, and I take my bow from my back as an instinct. Then they attack, and Echo charges forward to hold them off, because I've started casting.
The fonic arte I'm using is one based in the sixth fonon, and as I gather fonons, I finally figure out how the caverns are lit. "Thou who wouldst take revenge, carve here thy holy seal… Éclair de Larmes!" I chant. The arte isn't very effective against the monsters, and the caverns darken a bit.
"Note to self, no using artes that require the sixth fonon," Echo says as I start firing arrows. I laugh nervously as we kill one of the monsters. I'm worried, because they seem to be really strong.
I don't notice the monster sneaking up behind me, nor do I hear Echo's warning. My world is black before her words can reach me.
White, gold, red, blue, green, all swirling, twirling, twisting around me here. Where here is, I don't know. Everyone I know seems to be somewhere else, though somehow, I'm not too surprised. I'm just floating here, wondering what happened. Thinking back on it, all of my memories are fuzzy. That's funny, one of the clearer memories is of a girl with purple hair teasing me about photographic memory. Maybe it's someone else's memory she's talking about.
I'm pondering who the girl is when a giant mass of gold gathers and then dissipates, leaving behind a new addition to the scenery. It's a person, small of stature, with short, purple hair. I realize that it's the girl from my memories. Huh… Is this a dream then, where thinking about people brings them here?
"Come, children. It is time to wake," a quiet but distinctively female voice reaches my ears. I'm confused, because the voice is unfamiliar. Within moments, another golden mass appears and disappears, leaving another person in the swirling colors. This time, however, it's a woman I'm unfamiliar with, wearing white and blue and tan, with ash-brown hair and warm blue eyes. "It's alright. You can wake," she tells the purple-haired girl.
"Who are you?" I hear a familiar voice ask. The purple-haired girl turns to me and looks confused. "I know you… Whisper," she says. I realize that she's said my name a moment later, and hers comes to me almost as soon as I realize it.
"Yeah, I'm here too, Echo," I tell her. Then, together, we turn to the unfamiliar woman, waiting for an explanation. A golden mass is floating behind her. She smiles.
"My name is Yulia," she says. The name rings so many bells in my memory that I'm frozen in shock, not that I can move easily anyway. "I need your help. I fear that the Score I read fifty years ago will not be overturned. There is hope, however. I want to send the two of you almost two thousand years into the future."
"Wait, you read the Score, didn't you? I thought you wanted us to follow it," Echo says. I nod, just as confused. Yulia looks sad, though.
"I read the end of Auldrant in the Score. I don't want that to happen, so I've left clues, warnings, and I'm hoping that my descendants will be able to stop it," she explains. I stare at her in shock. Echo and I had grown up being taught that following the Score was the best choice you could ever make, despite how young the prophecy was, and here was the woman who created it, telling us that she didn't want us to follow it to the end. Then again, I'm not sure I'd want to follow it either, if it really does end with the death of the world.
"But, won't it be dangerous to move us through time? What about the people who know us? And won't the people in the future wonder where we came from?" I ask. Yulia's smile comes back, though it's still tainted by sorrow.
"You two went out monster and ruin hunting, remember? Your Scores stated that you wouldn't return from that expedition. The people you know believe you dead…" she explains. I think back to my last birthday Score. 'You will live patiently until you seek out something new, and what you will find shall surpass your expectations, though it will take you far away from everything you know.' Well, this definitely surpasses my expectations.
"Now that I think about it…" Echo mutters, and I know that she's come to the same conclusion I have. But Echo doesn't look like she's quite made up her mind yet, though I know I have. In fact, I think I know now why my memories are fuzzy, though they're clearing up. I've died. My memories shouldn't exist at all…
I look up at Yulia and the golden mass floating behind her, which I assume is Lorelei. "Well, I'll go," I tell them. Yulia's smile seems brighter somehow, like some of the sorrow has faded from her eyes. Echo seems shocked.
"Jeez, Whisper. I'm usually the one who jumps into stuff," she says. I shrug.
"We're already here… We might as well," I reply. A few moments of silence later, Echo nods, having made up her mind.
"Alright. I guess we're both in, then," she says. Yulia raises her hands, and Lorelei envelopes the three of us. I'm blinded, but I can still hear Yulia's voice before I black out completely.
"Thank you."
Winx: Well, that turned out nice.
Kairi: -glaring- You just had to make me expand the prologue, didn't you?
Winx: Well, I thought that it would be a good idea to explain a little more about what Whisper is and what their time period is like. Besides, keep in mind that the—
Kairi: -puts a hand over Winx's mouth- Shut up before you start giving away spoilers!
Winx: -from behind Kairi's hand- Sorry.
Kairi: Please review on the way out! FanFiction made it really easy... (So I hear.) And I happen to love constructive critisism... And please notify me if there's a verb that's in the past tense that should be in present tense, since I was trying to mimick Winx's writing style and it's obviously quite different from my own.
Winx: Okay, enough talking! -throws down smoke bomb and disappears-
Kairi: Well, I'm off to go work on 'A Spatial Tear.' Oh, one more thing before I go. I'm planning on updating this every three weeks, but a lot of reviews might prompt me to update early. -winks and teleports out-