*So what, no prelude, no straight off bad disclaimer things? We're just going to drop straight into the story.*
*Yes. Why would you need to do a disclaimer on every page, especially when it's part of a connected story, just look at the start.*
*Fine, take the fun out of it…*
Chapter 3: Can Someone Explain this…
Strangely, of all the things that captured the attention of those that had landed in the crater, it was not the beep sounds coming from the potty mouth human, or the random bits of dirt still coming from above, or even what appeared to be left over remains of the Orcs coming down as well.
It was the corpse of a spider falling on top of the one called Sir, with a somewhat distinct squishing sound.
When the sound did arrive, the Human on the back of the dragon looked up, and half froze at the sight of four armed humans and two armored teenaged dragons.
"Uh…" A voice too high to be a male coming from the newest human, "...Hey Marshal...we're not alone here."
The dragon below her groaned as he stood up rather slowly and responded, "I am aware of that Andreas."
The human named Andreas looked down at the slowly rising dragon below her, "How the heck Are you aware? You've been looking down this whole time. And if you answer with…"
"Magic." Was the interruption.
"Damn It! Why do you keep using that excuse, I know it's more than just that!"
"You'll get a better excuse once you understand the fundamentals of Elemental theory. Until then, shut up and get off my back, the saddle got dislodge and is chafing in all the wrong areas."
The apparent Female tried to lean to the side and up so that her head was closer to Marshal's but only got about halfway up the neck, "Not until you give…"
She was again interrupted, this time by what appeared to be a pulse of energy coming directly from Marshal himself. This pulse threw her off and had her landing on the human named Archer. And despite the strength, he had he too hit the dirt.
"-Beep- Lady, how much equipment are you lugging around?"
Without missing a beat, Andreas gets up, as she pulls out one of her pouches, "What in here? Let's see…" She sticks her whole arm into it and pulls out a Warhammer, a big two-handed Warhammer. "Oh only enough to supply a platoon" Then she drops back into the pouch, nothing is heard from it. "I'm not even a quarter full; normally we have enough for an army."
All but Marshal and the Unconscious and spider piled Sir look at the female with wide, blinking, WTF eyes.
Marshal decides to shock them even further from his position at the lip of the crater, "Only one? I could have sworn we were rated for two and a half."
"We are, but why would you want to carry that much on you. You can't use any of them, I only have two arms, and we both complain when we return to civilization and have to sell off an army and a half of equipment. All that damn bargaining and going from shop to shop to make sure we don't bankrupt someone is annoying."
Marshal, now sitting on his hind legs and messing with the saddle attached on his back above his wings, nods. "Point. Though, the amount of currency that rolls in is lovely. That last batch rolled in what, Two wagons of Gold with 100 High-Level Gems?"
"Two and a half Wagons and 50 Master Gems."
"Sounds like the same amount."
"I don't know anymore; it's all currency."
The rest of the living had their head jumping between the two talking like they were watching a ping pong match still with wide eyes. Thankfully they were saved thanks to Sir regaining consciousness.
"Oh, what the...WHY IS THERE A DEAD GIANT SPIDER ON TOP OF ME!?"
Sir's four companions all flinched and looked to the struggling Long Sword wielder while the other human and three dragons all looked, two with concern the other two not caring.
It was the dragon of the "not caring" two that responded, "Maybe because we are currently underneath it's compromised nest? And given the body is rather heavy, it had to drop somewhere."
Sir's four companions had already moved to get the spider off, but hearing Marshal Speak got Sir responding in right fast and in a hurry. With surprising strength, he flung the spider off up, and he sat up looking dead at Marshal.
Marshal ignored the looks of the human and continued to mess with the Saddle attached to his upper body.
"The -Beep-. Do all of your kind talk!?"
"How else would we communicate? And on another note, why are you making beep sounds?"
"We've been wondering that ourselves." The Black Dragon and the Human with a sword and dagger looked at each other with concern.
"I don't care about the -beep- beeping! I care that there are the giant fire-breathing lizards with wings talking to me!"
That seemed to partially get the attention of Marshal, who stopped with his fiddling and looked straight at the Long Sword wielder. "I take offense to that. One, I'm not even fully grown, two Lizards are simple creatures, three why wouldn't we have wings? And four, While I can mimic a Fire Dragon, I am not one, nor have or will I ever been one."
"Like I care! You're an over glorified lizard! One that shouldn't even exist!"
Spyro and Cynder looked slightly offended at that, and both were about to give a rebuttal when Marshal and Andreas both let out a mighty "HA!"
Marshal then chuckled a bit more before talking, "Well...an unexplainable amount of time ago, that would be true. You humans thought we were myths, and we thought you...at least in your evolved state were a horror story. It turns out we were both wrong and right."
Five humans and two dragons looked at the extremely well armed human female and the maybe crazy dragon with a combo of confusion and concern.
Andreas sighed, "Marshal, you're doing it again. Didn't that one General talk to you about this?"
"Which part? The Stop destroying everything around you part? The stop creating tension where it is not needed part? Or the explanation but not explaining everything part?"
"The last one, yo….Wait...did you destroy that one mountain on purpose?"
"Not entirely...but how about we come back to that, I have a feeling anymore, and our new friends might go and think we really are crazy."
"Too late for that!" Came the rather quick and multi-front response.
Marshal merely chuckled again, "Alright then, I'll explain a bit more. But first, I think we should head somewhere that isn't here. Being Underneath a Spider's Nest, even one that is half empty, probably isn't the best place to explain things."
The purple dragon nodded in understanding, "I guess that would make sense, but where would we even head to?"
Andreas chuckled light, "He's got you there."
Marshal simply rolled eyes and shook his head for a second. Then closed the eyes and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly.
At first, the group could not understand why he was doing that, then their curiosity left and in came worry and confusion as a stiff breeze started to buff up against them. They could even see the effects on the dirt around them. And strangest of all, it seemed to have been radiating out away from Marshal.
After a few seconds of silence Marshal opened his eyes and looked at those there, "There's a clearing about a hundred feet to the west, we should be able to set up a camp there and get everything out of the way."
Seeing nothing better, it was agreed, and they all set off. The five human warriors were at the back, the female walking slightly in front of them completely relaxed, the youngest dragons in front of her and behind Marshal looking at said dragon over with critical eyes.
Marshal seemed to notice this, and as he walked, he leaned his head over so that he had one eye on where they were going and another on the two of them.
"So I take it you two are Spyro and Cynder? The legendary Couple?"
Spyro rose an eyeridge while Cynder sputtered slightly, noticing the sputter Spyro responding, "Yes to the first, maybe to the second?" That set off a new round of sputters from Cynder mostly from embarrassment
Marshal chuckled, "Well, you two are definitely a legend, the question are you a couple, and I can guess the answer to that one."
Cynder caught her breath and glared as she came back with, "And how can you do that?"
Marshal shrugged, "The way you two walk so near, the ease in which you can tell each other's actions. But mostly it's the fact that your guy's tails are currently intertwined."
The two youngsters' eyes quickly expanded before they turned to look to see that in fact their tails were intertwined. They looked at each other, Spyro shrugged, Cynder smiled, and they both looked back at Marshal who chuckled.
Spyro rolled his eyes, "So apparently yes to both. Why do you ask?
Marshal hmmed before responding, "No real reason. Just fills in some hypotheses that I'll talk about in a bit. Also lets me say I got to meet two who are technically both older than me but also way younger at the same time." The more massive dragon would go on to smile and start whistling a random toon at the couple's response of a bewildered face.
Andreas in the meantime rolled her eyes and looked back at the five males all glaring daggers into her back; she let out a small chuckle shook her head and kept on walking.
...
*Um...hay….author…*
snores
*Wait...he fell asleep...great now how is explanation supposed to be created...I can't do this shit…hm...maybe I could…*
*DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THAT!*
*Hey, you're awake...can we get a move on now?*
*I was asleep? ...a move on? ...oh I thought I finished this...well back to work*
They walked in silence, the men glaring at something, except for the one called Sword who seemed to be nursing a headache still.
Marshal lead them with almost a bounce in his step, well he was bouncing until they heard a loud crack from him.
Marshal did not stop moving, but he did try and let them know he was alright, even if his voice contained a bit of pain in it, "Um...everyone ignore that...I just popped my spine and shoulder back into alignment. Oh...I guess that is what I get for the crash landing."
Spyro and Cynder both had raised eyeridges as they watched a much more subdued older dragon walk normally, while he also appeared to try and loosen some muscle or another.
Andreas rolled her eyes, then stretched or arms back, making the males behind her almost reach for their weapons.
Thankfully they were able to get to the clearing that Marshal apparently knew about without difficulty. Once there Andreas reached into her pack and pulled out anything and everything needed to make camp for the day. Marshal meanwhile did not even stop walking as he reached up, flicked a latch and vibrated out of the harness he had one him. Then he walked to the edge of the clearing and started to grasp firewood and literally tossed them towards where Andreas was building a fire.
The seven tagalongs could not help but stare at not only the ease in which the two of them worked but also in how much Andreas kept pulling out of her packs.
In little time the camp was set, and a small fire had been started, they still had time before nightfall, but it looked like Andreas and Marshal planned to stay put at the very least. Not knowing what else to do, the five other humans and two young dragons decided to it around the campfire of which Marshal and Andreas decided to sit on opposite sides of.
Seeing all of them sitting Marshal took a breath before speaking, "So...I believe we left on something related to Unexplainable time, and our two collective species both thought each other were myths?"
They All nodded and Cynder was the first to speak, "I've...practically grown up around apes...but…" She points at the humans, "...you all are something I've never heard of or seen."
Four humans looked to their boss, and Sir responded, "There have been stories and legends about some brave person fighting 'Grate Winged reptiles, as big as a castle hold, scales stronger than steel, and able to breathe fire hot enough to melt stone' and that sort of thing. But everyone knew it was either overhyping or some kind of thing created by some magic user or another."
Andreas nodded, "Sounds about right…"
Marshal looked up at Andreas and interrupted, "Andreas...they're back."
Andreas's face contorted then he smiled reached down and patted his crotch, and said in a much deeper voice, "Oh thank goodness, It always feels weird when I swap."
Everyone looked at the apparent male shocked, Marshal however chuckled and cut them off before they could ask their questions, "He transitioned into a female when we crashed landed and transferred back just before we got to the clearing."
Andreas smiled and stretched a little bit as he continued for Marshal, "Near as anyone can tell, it's a curse I got from some combination of a magical artifact, potion mishap, and miss cast spell. We've tried to fix it but not much success yet."
Sir, much like his companions, raised an eyebrow and slowly turned their heads back to Marshal, "Ignoring strange gender changing people, what was that explanation for...the current state of affairs."
Marshal smiled, "Well before I can say that, tell us, what were each of you doing before you found yourself in this forest?"
The five humans looked between each other, Spyro however, noticing Marshal was also looking at him, and Cynder sighed and responded, "We...had just defeated Malefor, The world was falling apart, and so I used my power to...pull it back together?"
Cynder nodded, "I was right there next to him."
The five humans looked to the legendary couple, ignoring the head bobbing from Marshal. Sword took a breath and figuring if that was the best they two of them had, then why not, "We were...taking care off...a lord of a castle. However, a mage's staff got in the way and it sort of got...blown up…"
Everyone looked at Sword now, who merely shrugged.
Marshal signed and shook his head before responding, "Alright...that...would do it I guess. I'll also go on a limb and say to you guys this feels like it happened, maybe yesterday or at the least not very long ago." He got nods before he continued, "That was, by the longest known instance one hundred years ago."
The stares he got almost made Marshal laugh, but he held it in and continued. "Near as the best mages in the word can figure those to events you experienced messed with the local reality of the two worlds, and apparently they happened around the same time relatively speaking. The two events somehow caused our two realities, our two planets to sort of merge. But not all at once because of the effects of two systems of magic merging, and the two events affecting the world in different ways.
"The first plots of land to form where...actually almost on the exact opposite side of the world from here, the furthest from the epicenter if you will. And the merging slowly moved from there."
Andreas cut in here, "And when says merged, he means it. Mountains split apart to allow for new lakes and rivers, new islands where there wasn't before. By the gods, entire forests, mountains, and only the gods know what else got thrown together with entire cities quite a few times."
Marshal nodded and took back over. "Like I said a lot merged and it happened slowly, those that lived in the affected areas went and appeared as where they were got fused together. Entire boats have ended up in the middle of land mass because of that. When it comes to time, however, well unless you were already merged into the new world it was...stopped for lack of a better term.
"For the longest time, we could always follow where the merging was at, all we had to do was look up and see the giant wall of magic. It was almost a solid barrier. Eventually, it sort of dissipated, but that was after it had merged more than half of the world. And even then traveling isn't exactly easy."
Andreas spoke up again, "A great example, how old would you guys say we are." He pointed to him and Marshal."
The humans shrugged, and Map responded, "Early twenties."
Spyro and Cynder looked at Marshal, then at each other, then back at Marshal, and Spyro responded, "Under twenty."
Marshal and Andreas nodded, and Marshal spoke again, "About right...biologically. He's 21; I'm 18. But if you go by how long we've experienced time...he's about 30ish, and I'm...68. If you went off the time based off when our portion of the world merged for me or born for him...he is 25, and I'm 83."
"Huh...talk about time -beeb-"
"Time Fuckery indeed, Time...when it comes to this merged world...is not stable."
*There...a sort of explanation…*
*Hm...it works...for now…*
AN: Um...sorry...maybe? I thought I had posted this, then randomly I'm looking at notes for different things, I see something for this, and I figure why not looked back. Surprise, Surprise, I apparently did not finish this...oops. You can sort of tell where I left off and forgot...
Well, not this is done. It shouldn't be that hard to move on if I feel like getting into this more. That may more depend on if there is enough interest in this. May also use it for when I feel I want to type something silly for a change.
Anyways, This is still open for OCs of literally any type.
Andreas belongs to rgss (on Fanfiction). I do want to thank him big time for letting me use his character in such a ridiculous way. And for those wondering, yes he will randomly change genders depending on what is going on.
Now, until we meet again...Happy reading.