Timeline 4536
Chapter 4
Disclaimer: I don't own this stuff, well except for Tomas
French
"If we could get this boulder out of the way, then we could get into these ruins," said Doctor Jones.
"Right," Ranma starts punching the rock.
"I don't thi…" Indy shuts up when he saw that Ranma's second punch left some major cracks in the rock and the next punch caused a large part of the rock to collapse under the weight of the stuff on top of it "I need to ask you about how you are able to do some of the more unbelievable things that you do, like lifting twice your own weight or jumping over two stories, or braking fucking large rocks."
"Ya mean when I use chi? What do you want to know?" asked Ranma his enthusiasm for the Art showing clearly on his face.
"What is it, how does it work and who can use it?" replied Indy
"Don't want to know much do ya," yes Ranma was being sarcastic, "Let's see, chi's lifeforce sorta. It works by, well that changes ya know depending on who ya ask. Stuff Tomas can do is completely different then what I can do," Ranma stopped and took a breath and tried to think of how to answer the last part "hypowhatisly…"
"Hypothetically"
"Right that word,
anyone can use chi, but the way it flows in the body changes. At
about my age ya get a big upwelling of chi and can learn stuff real
fast. After that if ya don't have any chi control by then ya won't
get any."
Indy remembered what they were suppose to be doing,
"Right , now that we have the boulder out of the way, lets clear up
this rubble.
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"Looks like I'll have something to celebrate while the others are celebrating Bastille Day," said Indy when they were done, "What are the plans for that anyway?"
One of the workers answered Indy's question "The town will be having a dance with free food and champagne. There will be fireworks and I saw a band of Gypsies setting up."
Ranma's ears perked up at the words free food and he wondered just how important this day was that they were giving away something so important, "What's Bastille Day anyway?"
"It's French Independence Day, on the 14th of July a group of common townsmen stormed the Bastille and this act signaled that start of the French Revolution." Explained Indy, "Ranma could you get your friends? I want just people who can deal with traps to come in at first."
"What kinda traps?" asked Ranma, "Minako doesn't know much about them."
"If what I expect is true is correct then her and Makoto won't have to worry."
"Ah" thought Ranma 'the traps won't hurt the Sailor Senshi, I guess' as he ran to get the others. He was back faster then many would think possible.
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Makoto leaned against a wall and her hand brushed across a gem embedded in the wall. "If we find anything interesting call him, huh. Just empty rooms so far." Then the wall she was leaning against disappeared and Makoto used her superior martial Arts skills to fall down the stairs with a little bit more control then a normal person.
"You ok?"
"Yeah," Makoto looked around the room she is now in, "Ya better get Doctor Jones. He'll want to see this."
The room was, or rather had been, someone's study. The long ago person had obviously been a scholar of some note but yet there weren't as many books or other things you would expect to see in a scholar's study. Some of the things that were there seemed to be of the highest quality while others pieces seemed to be homemade.
"It appears that what I heard about a man from the moon living here was true," Doctor Jones said looking at the crescent moon carved on many things, "This is a big find Makoto thank you."
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"I wish there was someway to see into the past and find out what the stuff was used for," commented Indy as they were cataloging the things Makoto had accidentally found.
"Actually there is," said Tomas
"Is that right?"
Yes, since Bards are the keepers of historical lore, there have been a number of ways made to look into the past. Some of those are more complex then others," Tomas looked like he wanted to say more, but he stopped talking.
"Which of the methods would you think is the best to do tonight? That festival is coming up so we don't have the time for anything too complex right now."
Tomas thought for a moment "The best way for this instance would be to call fourth the history of an object. It just requires a song and a focusing of awen. The scenes shown don't last more then a couple of hours. Only problem with it is that is not safe to use on magical items though, so will have to chose some thing that isn't magic, but we'll have seen what we need to know."
Indy held up the pen case they had found in the study, "Would this work?"
"That will work just fine, could you go get the others while I prepare a few things."
Tomas started to play 'Only Time' and focused his awen on the pen case and after a few minutes and orb appeared above it. The orb grew until it was about the size of a normal TV screen, then pictures started to from in the orb and then there was the sound; first the sound of a hammer then voices. The first few glimpses of the past weren't very useful, although Indy found them interesting. They were of the pen case being made and then being sold to a middle aged man who said it was for his son.
"So you will be taking up a position as a teacher at the Palace tomorrow, will you not?" said the middle aged man.
"Yes father" this was said by a nervous looking young man who had an obvious resemblance to the older man. He had gotten the job because, aside from his skill as a scholar, he had this little talent called aura reading. He could tell the state of a person's health, state of mind and other things, very good things for a teacher to the royal family of Jupiter to have.
"That is good. I may not be the best at showing it, but I am proud of you," He picks up the pen case, "Here this is for you I know it will serve you well in your new position."
"Thank you father. I will be sure to bring honor to the family name."
A few years passed without much happening. Gares' student was not the most attentive, but he was able to get her to learn what she needed to.
Ow let go, my ear is not a handle," although they looked almost nothing alike everyone knew that was Makoto in her past life.
"If you don't come to your classes on time then it is, Princess Jupiter."
Being reminded of this doesn't help, "I get to visit the Moon so infrequently so why do I have to spend half of that time in classes."
"The other princess all have classes the same way and some of them come to the Moon even less. Now the quicker you settle down the sooner we can get done"
The princess sat down quickly and pretended to be an attentive student and so Gares started to lecture on the wars that proceeded the creation of the Moon Kingdom, how at one point Mars was allied with Mercury and at another point they were fighting each other and how the Earth wisely stayed out of the fighting. "Now the Rulers of each of the planets had made, whether though bioengineering, magic or some combination of the two, yoma, for lack of a better word, to support their soldiers. The longer the wars dragged on the worst the fighting got and the more powerful the yoma created were. .Until so much magic saturated the battlefields that a new being was born out of the dead. It was called Melliaca and it hated its creators. It called to its service all of the yoma that had not become a part of it and commanded them to attack each of the planets environmental systems."
"There was one lady who not only kept her compassion during this time, but would go out onto the battlefields to heal the wounded and remind them that they were all still human regardless of anything else. Now all the leaders found her to be one of the most annoying people they had ever met, but they respected her too much to kill or imprison. She had a magical gem that she used for healing and protection. This gem was called the Ginguishou. I trust that you have all heard of it?"
"It would be an idiot who didn't know about that."
"Yes, anyway the lady used the Ginguishou to seal away Melliaca, but she knew that it would be back someday. She then told the leaders of each of the planets what was needed so that Melliaca could not come back. The Planetary leaders agreed to all of this with one condition; that the lady become the High queen of the Federation they were going to form. She agreed and became Queen Serenity the first. Now what Queen Serenity did in first year of her rule and how it grew to the nation we know today, we will discuss at a later date," seeing that his charge was raring to go Gares asked, "Now what is happening that you so want to go to?"
"The princess of Mercury is coming in. I would like to be there to greet her."
"Ah then provided that you promise that I will not be the target of any of the practical jokes the two of you come up with you may go," Dago, the teacher for the Princess of Mercury, had complained many times about Jupiter's princess being a bad influence on his charge, but it really was the best way for them to learn some about math and physics.
The years passed and the Princess of Jupiter grew up to be a beautiful young lady and Gares saw to it that she was well educated. It was the night of the Grand Ball and all of the Royal families were in attendance. Due to the political tensions between the Earth and Moon everyone was pretending that the masked man in the tux was not Prince Endymion.
"Is that Beryl over there? Do you think that the Queen is negotiating with her to resolve the current dispute?"
"On a night when everyone can see Beryl's fiancé dancing with someone else, not likely. Don't forget the people of Earth do not believe that lifebonds exist." Gares friend started to say something indigent about that fact the lifebonds were sacred, when Gares looked over at Beryl, "By the gods, we had better find the Lunar guards quick."
"What why?"
"Melliaca, Beryl's aura reeks of it." Just as Gares got over to the Lunar Guards, he saw Artemis and another Moon cat who is named Luna come rushing in yelling about the Palace being attacked by the Shitennou and that the magical defenses are already down. Out of the corner of his eye Gares sees Beryl attack the Moon Princess, but he is unable to do anything about that or about the many other deaths that happen that night. The only thing he can do is get away with his life and Gares is barely able to do that with the help of the Lunar Guards. That was the night the Moon Kingdom fell and the vision ends with Gares making it to earth with a bunch of other refuges.
The music stopped and Tomas sagged to the ground. "I forgot how tiring that was. Where's that drink that I put aside?"
"Here it is," said Minako handing it to him.
"What's in that anyway?" asked Ranma
"A mixture of herbs that help to body metabolize some of the ambivalent awen in the air," he looks at Ranma and Makoto, "And no I am not going to tell you what herbs. It does have side effects among which is the fact that you can't project any awen for several hours."
"Ya mean ya can't do any chi attacks, man that sucks."
The town of Brive-la-Gaillarde was all dressed up for the coming festivities. There were banners hanging from all the buildings around the town square; many of the banners had the French flag on them its three colors displayed proudly. The sound system was all set up for the musicians would be playing for the dance.
"…Just relax and try to enjoy the evening. We will probably be moving on soon, that is if you don't mind hanging around me longer," said Indy.
"Depends on which way ya are going. We're heading east, want to go home."
"I'd say I am heading in that direction too. Nothing interesting north of here or in Spain and I can't go west easily."
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The festivities were in full swing. Artemis had been able to get a big bowl of cream from some old lady. Tomas and Minako had been doing a bit of busking earlier, but they had decided to stop for a while to do some dancing. Some girl had managed to drag Ranma out on to the dance floor and it looked like several other girls were 'discussing' who would dance with him next. Makoto wasn't dancing with anyone; She was kinda wishing that Ryouga would show up though. Indy decided that now would be a good time to go see an old friend of his, so he went off to the Gypsy encampment.
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"…So the green haired lady whose outfit was one to set a young man's heart afire said she would kill anyone who tried to use the magic of the Moon for evil. There was a titanic battle between the Evil Sorcerer and the Good Lady. They contested for many hours, but in the end the Good Lady won. In honor of her victory she was given the name of Dama Mantuitor, Lady Savior. Then unlike many heroes she stayed and helped people recover from the ravages of the Sorcerer before she left."
As the crowd of kids left after the story ended, Indy walked over to the Gypsy storyteller, "That was an interesting story, Tshilaba."
"Ah Doctor Jones it is good to see you. Yes I find that it is a very interesting story. It is said to be several hundred years old. I first heard it when we were traveling to the east of here. They have several paintings of the Dama Mantuitor in their Town Hall, the story is correct about the outfit, such a short skirt," Tshilaba had met Indy before when, well I'm sure you don't want to hear that.
"Where would I find those people? I would like to ask them about that story."
"They are an insular people; if you want to talk to them you will have to be introduced by someone they know," Tshilaba said anticipating the next question Indy would ask.
"And will you be going in that direction soon?"
"Maybe," Tshilaba smiled, "If you and that bard I keep hearing about are willing to teach our children, then you may come with us."
"Why me? Surely you can find someone better. The only people I have ever taught were adults and that was a good few years ago," Indy had been expecting to be asked for money or maybe an artifact or a story not this.
"It is hard to get a schoolteacher to come with us. We will not stay in one place and even if we did, then the schools don't like the Romami, our children won't get fair treatment."
"You know I can not force Tomas to do anything."
"Anyone who tries to force a Bard to do something deserves to have something bad happen to them. It is not only the Good Neighbors who follow the Convent."
"I would like for Makoto, Minako and Ranma to learn how to defend against and get rid of possessions. My research shows that they will need it someday."
Tshilaba noticed Indy's slip but she figured he was talking about the boy carrying Excalibur not the Sailor Senshi, "Nothing is going to come after them anytime soon, right?"
"No, just planning ahead."
"Then it is a good deal, teaching for teaching."
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Andre was trying to work up the courage to ask the beautiful, brown haired, Japanese girl if she wanted to dance. He had heard some scary rumors about what she did to guys who acted in a ungentlemanly manner towards her, but asking her to dance was not ungentlemanly no was it. Just as he was about to try his luck, this young man with a very large backpack who looked to also be Japanese asked him where Brive-la-Gaillarde was.
Before Andre could tell the odd black haired boy that he was standing in the town square of Brive-la-Gaillarde, the girl he had been eyeing ran up and gave the boy a big hug. "You were able to find your way back, Ryouga. I'm so happy"
"It is good to see you again Makoto. You are looking better then you were last time." Ryouga see that there were people dancing, "Um would you like to dance?"
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The next morning Indy said that he had arranged for transportation for them last night and they needed to get over there and catch it.
As they set off Makoto asked one of the Gypsies "So where are we headed?"
"Transylvania, don't worry the vampires don't bite; They use the blood banks now a days."
