Ancient Legacy
Chapter 10
Splinter and Tyroth sat opposite of each other, as the slightly musky scent of incenses filled Splinter's room.
"So, what should I do?" asked Tyroth.
"Not very much, most of the work fall upon me, as I am the one who will be entering your mind. Just do as you normally do when you meditate, then you will have to lower your mental barrier."
"I have one of those?"
"We all have barriers of varying strengths. They protect our minds from intruders and because of that, it is not easy to lower them."
"Then, how do I do it?"
"When you are meditating, try visualizing your barrier as a wall, then picture an opening in it, a door or gate. Focus on opening it and do not resist when you feel my presence. It may not work on the first try, but I have confidence in your abilities. Once I am in your mind, focus on me and the link should stabilize."
It took some time, but eventually Tyroth managed to visualize a wall in his mind.
"What the heck is this?!" he asked himself as he looked around in his mind. The normally black area was now a grassy field with a large stone wall stretching from the right horizon to the left. He had been in his mind several times, but it always looked the same, it had never changed before.
"Hmm. I suppose that it would shape itself after my will. It is my mind after all, and that makes me a bit worried. Now what, oh right, a door."
Tyroth closed his eyes and concentrated on the image of a door in the wall. When he opened his eyes, there was a door in the wall. Granted, the door wasn't large enough for anything other than an average mouse, but it was a door none the less. Scratching the back of his head, Tyroth closed his eyes a second time and wanted the door to be larger. He opened his eyes again and this time the door was larger, much larger. It was at least twenty meters wide and fifty meters tall. Tyroth did a face palm, as well as a mental note about being very specific about what he wants in his mind.
Not really bothering with changing the door, Tyroth focused on opening it instead. Slowly, the door swung ajar with a typical creaking sound. After a short time, he felt the presence of someone waiting outside the wall. Tyroth focused all his attention on the presence, gently, just in case he'd accidentally do something potentiality dangerous towards it. The presence entered through the door.
"Splinter?" Tyroth asked.
"Yes, Tyroth, I am here."
"But where? I can feel that you're here, but I can't see you, only hear you."
"I am experiencing a similar predicament. I can not see anything at all."
"Okay... something is not quite right here."
"Indeed, but I am not sure what. The link is strong, so I do not believe that is the problem. It could be that your mind is too different for this kind of meditation."
"Great. Now what?"
"The purpose of this was to allow us to communicate during your meditation, since you are completely unresponsive at that time. While I can not see what you see, at least you can describe it for me."
"Well, it's better than nothing, I supposed. Where do we start?"
"That is for you to decide, it is your mind, after all."
"I was afraid you'd say that. This is gonna be a long night."
"Okay, so far whips, axes, knives and holy items work against demons, as does magic." said Mikey, rather proud over his progress.
"Not to burst your bubble, Mikey, but most of that is stuff we already know, and I have my doubts about holy water and the like. Magic, however, is a good bet, but it's not easy to find magical items." said Mona.
"But it's not impossible, we've seen several things before. Wonder if the Daimyo would be willing to lend us his war staff?"
"I don't know if that's such a good idea. Leo said something about it rejecting those it finds unworthy, or worse."
"No need to worry, sis. Remember that I'm the Battle Nexus Champion!" Mikey said as he stood up in a heroic pose, which was quickly interrupted when a thrown pillow hit him in the back of his head.
"Tell that ego of yours to pipe down Mikey! Some of us are trying to work around here!" shouted Raph.
"You're just jealous." Mikey responded.
"Watch it, Mikey! There are only so many soft items here, eventually I'll throw a book at you, a large one!"
Mona giggled at the two turtles bickering. Aside from the almost imminent threat of demons, things were back to the abnormal way she was used to.
"Found anything yet?" Leo asked, attempting to prevent a fight between his two brothers.
"Nothing other than the usual 'priest this' and 'exorcist that'." Raph complained as he returned to the book. "How about you?"
"More or less the same." Leo answered "Most of the demons in the old stories appear to be spirits, rather than physical beings. Those that have a physical form, however, seem to be capable of shape shifting. And nearly all can possess people, animals and even inanimate objects."
"Sounds troublesome."
"If you think that's bad, wait until you hear what I found on the web." said Sephie, as she started to read what she had found.
"'In folklore traced back to medieval legend, a succubus is a female demon or supernatural entity that appears in dreams, who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men. The male counterpart is the incubus.'"
"What harm would they do? Not that I'd like to meet one of them, but they seem mostly harmless." said Raph.
"Well, as far as I can tell, they would somehow brainwash their victims, turning them into obedient thralls."
"Okay, from now on, if anyone has a strange dream, we tell the others. No exceptions." said Leo
"Deal." Raph responded, while Sephie nodded in agreement.
"What do you see?" Splinters 'ghost' asked as Tyroth descended deeper into his mind.
"A memory of some sort, it's a bit fuzzy at the moment, though. Let's see if I can clear it up." The blurred surroundings became clearer almost on cue, and a familiar place took shape around Tyroth.
"I know this place." he said as he looked around in the dimly lit cavern he now stood in. "It's the cave back at Mutopia, where the well that mutated me is." He then noticed several figures standing nearby, next to said well.
One was a humanoid turtle with a wooden cane and dressed in what could best be described as a monks robes. The other two were human, one was a girl in her early twenties with long brown hair and greenish brown eyes, she wore blue jeans and a black top. All of her clothes were ripped, torn and burnt in several places and she had her left arm in a sling. There were also several band-aids and a few bandages visible here and there on her body.
The last human was a young man, slightly older than the girl, his body almost completely covered in bandages with dried bloodstains in a few places. Of what could be seen of his body, he had short dark-brown hair and hazelnut colored eyes, and would probably been quite handsome if he weren't so torn up. In the way of clothing, he wore only a large towel around his waist and he was sitting in an old wheelchair.
Tyroth didn't need long to recognize the three.
"That's me, and Sephie too, before we mutated. And Gramps is there too. This must be from when I drank from the well the first time and... uh-oh."
"What do you mean by that?" Splinter asked. But before Tyroth could answer, his human self had, with great trouble, knelt by the edge of the well and taken a mouthful of the crystal clear water.
"AAAAAUUUUGHHH!" the two Tyroth screamed at the same time, as the mutant fell to his knees while the human one started to heal. Bones were mended, torn muscles reattached and internal bleeding's closed, then the transformation began.
His size increased and his skin was replaced with with red scales. Nails grew into claws, horns sprouted on the back of his head and his face became more reptilian. New organs grew inside his body. The bones twisted, merged and separated as his anatomy changed, a tail grew out and a pair of wings erupted from his back.
When Tyroth opened his eyes and looked over at the well, he saw himself now transformed and Sephie laying in the well mutating and screaming in pain. He closed his eyes again, not able to witness her transformation and wished that he were somewhere else. Shortly after, he found himself in the dark space of his subconscious.
"What happened? Are you alright?" Splinter asked worried.
"Hard to tell." Tyroth groaned. "We were just in my memory of mine and Sephie's mutation, and I relived all the pain I felt back then. Hell, that hurt."
"When we first met, you told us of your transformation, but I did not think that the pain was that strong. For as long as my students and I have known you, pain has never affected you much. After what just happened, it is clear that the description you gave it was an understatement."
"Yeah, maybe. But there's no need to worry about me, just... give me a few moments and I'll be fine."
"If you relive sensations from your memories, you should be careful with what memory you choose to visit."
"Good idea. Let's just hope that I can navigate this maze of a mind good enough to stick to that plan."
After taking some time to gather his strength, Tyroth set out through his mind once again to find some clues about the demons. It wasn't long before he came before yet another familiar sight.
"Haven't seen this in a while." he said.
"Where are we now?" Splinter asked.
"Remember that dream slash vision I had last year? The one with a burning village and dragons flying above it?"
"Then maybe we can get some answers here. What more do you see?"
Tyroth scanned the entire village and soon noticed that there were several figure running around in the village that wasn't human, in fact only a few of them were even human-like. He instinctively knew what they were.
"There are demons attacking the village. I wonder if..." Tyroth didn't get to say anything more, as a deafening roar startled both him and Splinter. A large black dragon, with a menacing amount of bone-spikes swooped straight passed them, heading for the village. Fire rained on the village as the large dragon flew above it. But both the buildings and humans escaped the flames unharmed, only the demons were caught in the fire.
"That pretty much answers my question. The demons and dragons are not allies, they are more likely enemies instead."
"If they are ancient enemies, it would explain the reaction of the demon you met earlier today."
"It does, especially if the demons believe that dragons are extinct. But why haven't the demons returned earlier if the dragons are gone, why now? If the dragons were wiped out last time they fought, why didn't the demons stay?"
"Good questions, Tyroth. There is more to this conflict than we know of."
"Figures. More questions and no real answers. But I'm not leaving until I know where the dragons stand in all of this. So, let's see what we can find. This is gonna be a long night."
Ending things of in the middle of a mind-trip. Not sure how much the plot actually advanced in this chapter, but hey, it still makes for good reading, I hope.
Anyway, next time, we dwell deeper into Tyroth's mind and hopefully get some answers. Don't get your hopes up though, I'm not sure what will come out of my mind. Got a basic idea, but the details are formed as I write.
Be seeing you all. :)
AN: For those that didn't guess it already, the particular game that Mikey was playing here, was from the Castlevania series. For those that did, have yourself a cookie.