~*~Chapter 2 Revenge~*~
Frog awakened because his nose was about to catch fire. Something smelled awful. With a groan he tried to raise his hands to cover his nostrils. But the arms felt so heavy that he hardly could move them. It was hard to see, too. The world seemed to be nothing more than big lumps of color. Frog tried to blink everything into place again…
One of the lumps stood up and moved closer, away from a bright, flaming lump.
"Finally awake, are we?" a cold, familiar voice said.
The world suddenly became clear.
"Magus, thee?" Frog gasped.
He tried to sit up but was pushed back, not too softly. Suddenly his whole body was aching, remembering what had happened. He couldn't stop another groan. Magus sat down in the grass.
"Stay where you are," he said, warning, "you've been hurt."
"Why did thee...?"
The dark lord raised a hand, holding an old book. Its cover was of dry, cracked soft-wood and there were pointy shadows on it, which lead to assuming there might have been jewels attached to it once upon a time.
"I found this book in the year 1134 AD," Magus said with a strange, cold little smile, "they've built a big library at that time, containing most of the books written by then. This is the diary of queen Leene."
He opened the book and turned the pages as he kept talking:
"Now let's see, it was on the 10:th of March..."
"Thou should not be..." Frog began.
"Shut up. Aha, here it is... it says here: 'March 10, 601. Today the troop my husband sent to Ozzie's old lair returned, and my heart is still frozen solid with fear as they left their terrible rapport. I should have followed my hunch and not have let Frog lead the expedition! The soldiers told us that as soon as they landed on the beach, the ground suddenly opened and swallowed our faithful general!' "
Magus looked up at Frog, with no expression in his eyes at all.
"When I found it, the continued text said 'When they finally found Frog, inside a great cave, he was already dead. At the sight of his body which they brought back, even I can conclude that he had suffered attacks from strong magic. The soldiers also found a message on the cave floor by poor Frog, written in his blood. It said 'Let everyone know that I, Magus, was victorious in the end.' If only I had stopped Frog from going there!' Touching, wasn't it?" the warlock said with a sneer, "since I knew I wasn't even thinking of ever have to see you again, I came to wonder who had dared to kill you in my name. That is the only reason I returned to your time."
Frog tried to say something but the dark lord held him back by continuous speaking, once again looking at the book:
"My appearance obviously changed history a bit; the text is different. It now says this: 'My heart is still frozen solid from hearing the terrible news; Frog was abducted by the undead Magus! I shiver as I think about what torments my dear friend must suffer in those dark clutches, and I can not do anything to help him!' "
Frog tried to sit up again, but his wounded arms couldn't hold him. He fell back.
"I must returneth!" he said with a husky voice, "I cannot leave the queen in such a..."
"You're not going anywhere until I say so."
Magus slammed the book shut. Frog stared at him, with growing unease.
"First of all," the warlock said, "I wasn't planning on saving your neck. But since I did, you caused me a lot of unnecessary trouble."
Frog clamped his teeth.
He had been into situations that could be rated as worse than this.. Together with trusted friends (and Magus) he had traveled through history and faced the worst creatures that ever had tormented the planet. He had been battling Lavos; the most powerful beast in the whole world.
But through all these perils, he had been in a condition when he could fight and use magic.
This seemed to be much darker than trying to survive Lavos' very core; the ultimate evil.
Frog had no strength to fight whatever Magus had in store for him.
"So," the knight coldly said, "I suppose my next query should be what thou planeth to do with me."
Magus put the diary away.
"I was considering roasting you alive," he said thoughtfully, "but I think I'll bring you along instead."
"Pardon?!"
Frog sat up of the pure astonishment. He fell back with a painful moan.
"I'm still searching for Schala," Magus said with a cold smile, "and you're coming with me."
"I cannot..."
"You can, believe me."
Frog shook his head, in his state it could pass as violently.
"No!" he said, "I simply could not, not ever, do anything like that without the permission from my liege! It would be absolutely inexcusable!"
Magus calmly raised his eyebrows.
"Well then," he said, "you spitted out yourself that you are indebted to me. Tell me, how would you explain to your beloved queen Leene that you have to leave to follow the Dark Lord on his journeys?"
By those words Frog turned away, his eyes burning with anger. Magus didn't waste his breath anymore. Without another word he went back to the fire he had set up and started stirring the boiling potion, turning his head away to be able to stand the odor. He had found a piece of an old candleholder outside of the ruins as he had looked for a place that seemed safe enough for a rest, and for just once he'd decided to actually try to use his knowledge of potions for something… "good". After a simple fire spell, the broken candle carrier had turned out to work quite well as a small pot for cooking. The smell was giving away that it was something absolutely terrible he had managed to create. Splendid, actually.
Frog used the free time to check what kind of mess he'd gotten into. To his surprise, he found that Magus actually had wasted some time to take care of the knight's wounds. He had cut Frog's own, torn cloak in pieces and used them as bandages. But what was really shocking was that he had assembled some soft spruce twigs and laid his own, blood-red cloak upon the green heap. Then he had put Frog down and spread the red cloth over him, making a simple bed. It was completely astonishing, even a bit bizarre. How could this be, it was something that simply could not happen!
Magus reached for one of the many tiny, hidden pockets in his belt and found a dry, blue herb. It was probably at least ten years old, but as he dropped it in the small pot, the yellowish color became sickly green-brown. The stench became even worse, though it had seemed impossible.
"What on earth is that?" Frog asked, with a trace of horror in his voice.
The warlock didn't answer. He lifted the pot from the fire, still turned away. Then he pointed at the source of the awful smell and muttered in a low voice. A small icicle left his finger and hit the small bowl, which turned frozen white for a moment before it went back to normal burned brown. The stench became a little more bearable, but it definitely didn't disappear.
"It might be a long journey," Magus said as he stood up.
"Yes?" Frog said, frowning.
As the dark lord came closer, there was an evil sparkle in his eyes. The knight felt a cold hand grabbing his heart.
"You're badly hurt, and you've got fever because of the wounds," Magus explained with a cruel smile, "you're in need of a medicine to heal faster, since I can't use that kind of magic."
It was amusing to watch Frog's terrified gaze.
"Oh, no. No, please..."
The knight tried to move away, but his wounds kept him bound. Magus put his free hand under the green head and forced his patient/prisoner to sit up.
"I believeth I would feel better with thy scythe through my chest," Frog said, trying to turn his head away.
"I admit I'd probably find that just as satisfying," Magus sneered, "but I'll have you drink this instead. Now, be a... man. Shantara na loga."
Magus gave another wicked smirk as his short spell mercilessly brought Frog's forcefully clenched jaw to bend open.
Terror and disgust flowed in the prisoner's eyes as Magus poured the potion into the big mouth. When it finally was all gone and the knight was allowed to lie back, he desperately gripped some grass and put it in his mouth to help off the remaining taste. The dark lord found himself with a true smile on his lips, even a shadow of laugh in his chest. Frog just looked too pathetic.
"What by the love of God was that?!" the swordsman finally croaked.
"Do you really want to know?" Magus asked, still with a trace of the smile.
"No!" Frog shuddered.
"Surprisingly wise decision."
The warlock went back to the fire, throwing the pot into the forest as he walked. He sat down, watching the flames.
Not a word was spoken for a while.
Finally, after surely half an hour, Frog used his tongue.
"Magus, dost thee even have proof of thy sister not being dead in the Ocean Pala..."
The dark lord turned to look at the knight, and there was a dangerous flame in his eyes.
"She's alive," he said, sharply, "I know she is. Don't ever question it."
Frog sighed.
"Aye, let it be so, then," he tiredly said, "where shalt we search her?"
Magus was a bit surprised over this sudden lack of protests, but decided to watch and see if it was real.
"As soon as you can walk we'll go back to the library where I found the diary," he said, "if there's somewhere written about a blue-haired woman, the chances are good that it can be found there."
"I understand thou believeth that she also was thrown through a Gate, then?" Frog concluded.
Magus nodded.
"Myself and the three gurus were thrown through time as Lavos awakened," he said, "it seems quite possible that the same happened to Schala."
Frog was about to point out the fact that queen Zeal hadn't got thrown anywhere, but found it wiser not to. Instead he said, thoughtfully:
"It comes to my mind, the memory of a thought which once moved into my head..."
"Get to the point!" Magus said, irritated.
Frog didn't take any offence, used to the warlock's ways. He simply continued:
"We easily found proof that the pendant of Marle and Schala is the same, and I once wondered where the princess of Crono's heart had got it from. As I asked her, Marle told me she inherited it from her mother who'd also acquired it from her mother. Therefore I say that it could be wise to search out who was the first of Marle's ancestors to own the treasure, since that might give a clue about where thy sister is."
Magus didn't answer at first, which lead Frog to believe that the dark lord actually hadn't considered that. On the other hand, he'd never cared about what others did...
"Did Leene have it, then?" the warlock finally asked.
"I dared to ask Her Majesty even though it was most impudent, and she told me that she owned a pendant like that, but never wore it…"
His voice had steadily become more and more hoarse, it was no surprise as he started to cough violently. Magus just watched the fire, considering the different paths. When Frog after a while regained his self-control and once again laid back, the dark lord spoke.
"Looking for paintings probably won't help us," he said, "most of the queens owning it might do like yours."
Frog had to catch up with his breath before he could talk. "So what dost thee suggest instead, Magus? Shalt we go to different eras and simply ask the queens?"
"It's not very effective either, but it'll have to do."
Magus looked at the knight and smiled coldly.
"You should rest. If you don't recover, I will have to make you some more medicine."
"I am fine!" Frog snapped.
"You better be, I'm not exactly fond of making healing-potions."
Oh, really…
Frog snorted, turned his back at the evil magician, and tried to sleep. But he couldn't. Go figure...
After an hour trying to make the body feel sleepy instead of aching, he sighed and turned around to look at the warlock, who hadn't moved at all. He was just sitting there, watching the fire. Frog was glad to be alive, but this was almost worse than death. He had hardly been able to stand Magus even with Crono and the others around, the knight had a feeling he had a hard time ahead. The chances of Schala even being alive in any time weren't great either. Last time Frog had seen her, she had been so weakened by Lavos that she couldn't even stand up straight. And the fact that the Ocean Palace had been about to fall into pieces as she'd warped everyone else to safety, not to forget that Lavos had wreaked havoc on everything... if Magus was wrong about the Gates, it was most unlikely that his sister had survived.
Frog awakened because his nose was about to catch fire. Something smelled awful. With a groan he tried to raise his hands to cover his nostrils. But the arms felt so heavy that he hardly could move them. It was hard to see, too. The world seemed to be nothing more than big lumps of color. Frog tried to blink everything into place again…
One of the lumps stood up and moved closer, away from a bright, flaming lump.
"Finally awake, are we?" a cold, familiar voice said.
The world suddenly became clear.
"Magus, thee?" Frog gasped.
He tried to sit up but was pushed back, not too softly. Suddenly his whole body was aching, remembering what had happened. He couldn't stop another groan. Magus sat down in the grass.
"Stay where you are," he said, warning, "you've been hurt."
"Why did thee...?"
The dark lord raised a hand, holding an old book. Its cover was of dry, cracked soft-wood and there were pointy shadows on it, which lead to assuming there might have been jewels attached to it once upon a time.
"I found this book in the year 1134 AD," Magus said with a strange, cold little smile, "they've built a big library at that time, containing most of the books written by then. This is the diary of queen Leene."
He opened the book and turned the pages as he kept talking:
"Now let's see, it was on the 10:th of March..."
"Thou should not be..." Frog began.
"Shut up. Aha, here it is... it says here: 'March 10, 601. Today the troop my husband sent to Ozzie's old lair returned, and my heart is still frozen solid with fear as they left their terrible rapport. I should have followed my hunch and not have let Frog lead the expedition! The soldiers told us that as soon as they landed on the beach, the ground suddenly opened and swallowed our faithful general!' "
Magus looked up at Frog, with no expression in his eyes at all.
"When I found it, the continued text said 'When they finally found Frog, inside a great cave, he was already dead. At the sight of his body which they brought back, even I can conclude that he had suffered attacks from strong magic. The soldiers also found a message on the cave floor by poor Frog, written in his blood. It said 'Let everyone know that I, Magus, was victorious in the end.' If only I had stopped Frog from going there!' Touching, wasn't it?" the warlock said with a sneer, "since I knew I wasn't even thinking of ever have to see you again, I came to wonder who had dared to kill you in my name. That is the only reason I returned to your time."
Frog tried to say something but the dark lord held him back by continuous speaking, once again looking at the book:
"My appearance obviously changed history a bit; the text is different. It now says this: 'My heart is still frozen solid from hearing the terrible news; Frog was abducted by the undead Magus! I shiver as I think about what torments my dear friend must suffer in those dark clutches, and I can not do anything to help him!' "
Frog tried to sit up again, but his wounded arms couldn't hold him. He fell back.
"I must returneth!" he said with a husky voice, "I cannot leave the queen in such a..."
"You're not going anywhere until I say so."
Magus slammed the book shut. Frog stared at him, with growing unease.
"First of all," the warlock said, "I wasn't planning on saving your neck. But since I did, you caused me a lot of unnecessary trouble."
Frog clamped his teeth.
He had been into situations that could be rated as worse than this.. Together with trusted friends (and Magus) he had traveled through history and faced the worst creatures that ever had tormented the planet. He had been battling Lavos; the most powerful beast in the whole world.
But through all these perils, he had been in a condition when he could fight and use magic.
This seemed to be much darker than trying to survive Lavos' very core; the ultimate evil.
Frog had no strength to fight whatever Magus had in store for him.
"So," the knight coldly said, "I suppose my next query should be what thou planeth to do with me."
Magus put the diary away.
"I was considering roasting you alive," he said thoughtfully, "but I think I'll bring you along instead."
"Pardon?!"
Frog sat up of the pure astonishment. He fell back with a painful moan.
"I'm still searching for Schala," Magus said with a cold smile, "and you're coming with me."
"I cannot..."
"You can, believe me."
Frog shook his head, in his state it could pass as violently.
"No!" he said, "I simply could not, not ever, do anything like that without the permission from my liege! It would be absolutely inexcusable!"
Magus calmly raised his eyebrows.
"Well then," he said, "you spitted out yourself that you are indebted to me. Tell me, how would you explain to your beloved queen Leene that you have to leave to follow the Dark Lord on his journeys?"
By those words Frog turned away, his eyes burning with anger. Magus didn't waste his breath anymore. Without another word he went back to the fire he had set up and started stirring the boiling potion, turning his head away to be able to stand the odor. He had found a piece of an old candleholder outside of the ruins as he had looked for a place that seemed safe enough for a rest, and for just once he'd decided to actually try to use his knowledge of potions for something… "good". After a simple fire spell, the broken candle carrier had turned out to work quite well as a small pot for cooking. The smell was giving away that it was something absolutely terrible he had managed to create. Splendid, actually.
Frog used the free time to check what kind of mess he'd gotten into. To his surprise, he found that Magus actually had wasted some time to take care of the knight's wounds. He had cut Frog's own, torn cloak in pieces and used them as bandages. But what was really shocking was that he had assembled some soft spruce twigs and laid his own, blood-red cloak upon the green heap. Then he had put Frog down and spread the red cloth over him, making a simple bed. It was completely astonishing, even a bit bizarre. How could this be, it was something that simply could not happen!
Magus reached for one of the many tiny, hidden pockets in his belt and found a dry, blue herb. It was probably at least ten years old, but as he dropped it in the small pot, the yellowish color became sickly green-brown. The stench became even worse, though it had seemed impossible.
"What on earth is that?" Frog asked, with a trace of horror in his voice.
The warlock didn't answer. He lifted the pot from the fire, still turned away. Then he pointed at the source of the awful smell and muttered in a low voice. A small icicle left his finger and hit the small bowl, which turned frozen white for a moment before it went back to normal burned brown. The stench became a little more bearable, but it definitely didn't disappear.
"It might be a long journey," Magus said as he stood up.
"Yes?" Frog said, frowning.
As the dark lord came closer, there was an evil sparkle in his eyes. The knight felt a cold hand grabbing his heart.
"You're badly hurt, and you've got fever because of the wounds," Magus explained with a cruel smile, "you're in need of a medicine to heal faster, since I can't use that kind of magic."
It was amusing to watch Frog's terrified gaze.
"Oh, no. No, please..."
The knight tried to move away, but his wounds kept him bound. Magus put his free hand under the green head and forced his patient/prisoner to sit up.
"I believeth I would feel better with thy scythe through my chest," Frog said, trying to turn his head away.
"I admit I'd probably find that just as satisfying," Magus sneered, "but I'll have you drink this instead. Now, be a... man. Shantara na loga."
Magus gave another wicked smirk as his short spell mercilessly brought Frog's forcefully clenched jaw to bend open.
Terror and disgust flowed in the prisoner's eyes as Magus poured the potion into the big mouth. When it finally was all gone and the knight was allowed to lie back, he desperately gripped some grass and put it in his mouth to help off the remaining taste. The dark lord found himself with a true smile on his lips, even a shadow of laugh in his chest. Frog just looked too pathetic.
"What by the love of God was that?!" the swordsman finally croaked.
"Do you really want to know?" Magus asked, still with a trace of the smile.
"No!" Frog shuddered.
"Surprisingly wise decision."
The warlock went back to the fire, throwing the pot into the forest as he walked. He sat down, watching the flames.
Not a word was spoken for a while.
Finally, after surely half an hour, Frog used his tongue.
"Magus, dost thee even have proof of thy sister not being dead in the Ocean Pala..."
The dark lord turned to look at the knight, and there was a dangerous flame in his eyes.
"She's alive," he said, sharply, "I know she is. Don't ever question it."
Frog sighed.
"Aye, let it be so, then," he tiredly said, "where shalt we search her?"
Magus was a bit surprised over this sudden lack of protests, but decided to watch and see if it was real.
"As soon as you can walk we'll go back to the library where I found the diary," he said, "if there's somewhere written about a blue-haired woman, the chances are good that it can be found there."
"I understand thou believeth that she also was thrown through a Gate, then?" Frog concluded.
Magus nodded.
"Myself and the three gurus were thrown through time as Lavos awakened," he said, "it seems quite possible that the same happened to Schala."
Frog was about to point out the fact that queen Zeal hadn't got thrown anywhere, but found it wiser not to. Instead he said, thoughtfully:
"It comes to my mind, the memory of a thought which once moved into my head..."
"Get to the point!" Magus said, irritated.
Frog didn't take any offence, used to the warlock's ways. He simply continued:
"We easily found proof that the pendant of Marle and Schala is the same, and I once wondered where the princess of Crono's heart had got it from. As I asked her, Marle told me she inherited it from her mother who'd also acquired it from her mother. Therefore I say that it could be wise to search out who was the first of Marle's ancestors to own the treasure, since that might give a clue about where thy sister is."
Magus didn't answer at first, which lead Frog to believe that the dark lord actually hadn't considered that. On the other hand, he'd never cared about what others did...
"Did Leene have it, then?" the warlock finally asked.
"I dared to ask Her Majesty even though it was most impudent, and she told me that she owned a pendant like that, but never wore it…"
His voice had steadily become more and more hoarse, it was no surprise as he started to cough violently. Magus just watched the fire, considering the different paths. When Frog after a while regained his self-control and once again laid back, the dark lord spoke.
"Looking for paintings probably won't help us," he said, "most of the queens owning it might do like yours."
Frog had to catch up with his breath before he could talk. "So what dost thee suggest instead, Magus? Shalt we go to different eras and simply ask the queens?"
"It's not very effective either, but it'll have to do."
Magus looked at the knight and smiled coldly.
"You should rest. If you don't recover, I will have to make you some more medicine."
"I am fine!" Frog snapped.
"You better be, I'm not exactly fond of making healing-potions."
Oh, really…
Frog snorted, turned his back at the evil magician, and tried to sleep. But he couldn't. Go figure...
After an hour trying to make the body feel sleepy instead of aching, he sighed and turned around to look at the warlock, who hadn't moved at all. He was just sitting there, watching the fire. Frog was glad to be alive, but this was almost worse than death. He had hardly been able to stand Magus even with Crono and the others around, the knight had a feeling he had a hard time ahead. The chances of Schala even being alive in any time weren't great either. Last time Frog had seen her, she had been so weakened by Lavos that she couldn't even stand up straight. And the fact that the Ocean Palace had been about to fall into pieces as she'd warped everyone else to safety, not to forget that Lavos had wreaked havoc on everything... if Magus was wrong about the Gates, it was most unlikely that his sister had survived.