Memories

By Dixxy

Chapter Two: The Problem At Hand

Once all three boys were back in their rooms, it was time for the adults to have a long discussion. General Viper led the Devas, the monarchs, and several other high ranking officers of both the Dragoons and Guardia's army through the double doors, onto the secret platform, up to the second story, and finally into the parlor, where the meeting would take place.

Apon entering the parlor, the group found a large bowl of chocolate chip cookies with a note at the side of the bowl that had been scribbled in purple crayon. Viper walked over to the note, picked it up, and rolled his eyes. "They're all right. My daughter thought we might get hungry during our meeting and left us a snack."

The monarchs chuckled.

"Well, if Riddel used real chocolate chips this time they should be just fine," said Radius.

"What did she use last time?" Marle asked.

"Actually, I don't know, but I think they were brown rocks she thought were chocolate chunks," said Radius. He took a bite, chewed a little, and swallow. "Don't worry, they're all right this time." He smiled, taking another cookie. "And they're quite good!" He chewed happily. "Where did she learn to bake, Viper?"

Viper shrugged. The only thing he knew about food was how to eat it. How was he supposed to know where his daughter learned to bake? "Maybe Orcha taught her," he mused as he tried the cookies himself. He took time to taste the baked treat and nodded. "They are good. But let's get down to business."

Once everyone was seated, the meeting began. Radius stood and began to relay what he knew to the monarchs of Guardia. "To our knowledge, Porre has been showing interest in setting up military bases on the islands in this archipelago. Which islands we do not know, but there is a high possibility they will want this island as it is the largest of the islands and our largest city is located here."

"What other resources are here?"

"A Hydra Marsh," said Zappa. "Hydras. . . they're valuable."

"This is true," said Radius. "Hydra Humour is a very strong antidote for almost every poison known to man, dwarf, mystic, demi-human, and fairy alike. They've been dropping in numbers as of late, and they may very well join the ancient Dragonians in the eternal slumber of death."

King Crono nodded. "Yes. Why would they want bases here?"

"Well. . . we really aren't sure," said Viper. "The only thing we've been able to figure out is that they might wish to utilize our Element system." He cleared his throat. "Elements are magic spells that can be used by anyone. They are divided into six different colors- black, white, red, blue, yellow, and green. These colors are called innate colors. The innate color determines the property of the spell. For example, red elements have a fire property. Most elements are used for attacking purposes, but other elements heal, enhance you and your allies, or lower the power of your opponent. There are also rumors of elements that can summon great beasts, but they've never been proven."

"Fascinating," said Marle.

"Furthermore, people have innate colors. Garai, for example, is white innate. He can used black, red, blue, yellow, and green elements, but when he uses white elements, they are more effective. They are especially effective against someone whose innate color is black. However, vice versa, Garai is vulnerable to black elements just as his white elements make him strong against black elements. Then you have consumable elements-"

King Crono held up his hand. "As fascinating as this is, what is the point?"

"It's a grave one. Some elements can cause massive amounts of destruction, such as Deluge or Inferno. They even SOUND deadly," said Garai. "Imagine what something like Earthquake or Tornado would do to the unsuspecting, unarmed people of the Zenan continent and of this group of islands." He stayed silent, letting this sink in. "The destruction can be even worse if they discover a whole village or even an island with a majority of say, red innate people. If they unleashed blue elements, then the people would be all killed."

"So if they capture the El Nido Archipelago and gain control over your Elements, then they have a very deadly weapon on their side," said Crono. "That is a bit unsettling. All right. Whatever happens we can never let them gain control over the Elements. Furthermore, I would not object to you using these Elements against the Porre army if need be."

"I've done some research and many of them are white innate," said Radius. "If we were to use powerful black elements like Black Hole or Free Fall against them, we could lower their numbers quite quickly. But do we truly want to sink to their levels of mass destruction?"

"He has a point," said the Queen.

"All right, only if there is no other choice," said King Chrono. "Is there anything else?"

"No," said Radius. "Your turn."

The King nodded and rose. "We have bad news. The elders of Choras and Medina would have joined us, but sadly, Porre had already invaded and captured both nations." The Acacia Dragoons bowed their heads in respect for the fallen nations. "We know they want Guardia next. We burned the Zenan Bridge to slow them down, but they have large war ships- it wouldn't take much for them to sail to the coastline and get to us by sea."

General Viper nodded. "Yes. Continue."

"They seem to be looking for something called the Frozen Flame, if that's of any significance to you," said Queen Marle. "We have no idea what this Frozen Flame is or why they care so much about finding it, but it may be a clue as to why they're trying to take over everything."

"If they're that desperate for it, perhaps it's some sort of a powerful talisman," said Garai. "Perhaps it's a legendary weapon like the Masamune or the Einlanzer?" He patted the Einlanzer, which was at rest by his side. "Both of those swords weld a nearly unimaginable amount of power."

"We don't know what it is. For all we know it's one of your Elements! We know NOTHING about the Frozen Flame or what it does!" said Queen Marle. She growled in frustration. "All we know is that Porre wants it. What else is there that we can tell you? That it makes pancakes?"

"Marle!" said King Chrono, placing his hands on his wife's shoulders. "Calm down. We know that the Frozen Flame puzzle is bothering you, but for now we can't do anything about it." The Queen nodded and relaxed back into her chair, though she remained looking a bit tense.

"All right, so we know they want the Frozen Flame and we think they want Elements and military bases. What else?" asked General Viper. "What kinds of resources do you have that you think Porre might use to try and capture other parts of the world? Minerals, valuables, money, anything!"

"Lucca, maybe," said King Crono.

Radius' eyes widened. "Not Lucca Ashtear? The famous inventor?"

King Crono nodded. "She's an old friend of ours- I've known her since I was in diapers. She and I grew up together. Lucca's a brilliant inventor. Between her and her father, Taban, they've invented some deadly weapons and highly protective armor, especially armors that increase defense against fire magic. If they were to gain their knowledge, they could easily force them to build defenses against all of the innate colors AND powerful weapons."

"I don't like that," said Radius. He shook his head. "Where are they now?"

"Lucca and her parents are currently operating an orphanage out of their home," said Queen Marle. "They have five or six children right now, some of them orphans of Choras that they were able to find." She sighed heavily. "If they go after Lucca, they could hurt those children."

"I doubt Porre would attack an establishment with children. Their morals can't be THAT bad," said Garai. "Many of them must be parents, correct? I'm a parent myself- I have two children. I climbed down the Bluffs because one of my boys was down there. I would never even THINK to hurt an innocent child because of my own children. I would hope they'd think the same."

"Many of them may be young men who don't have families and don't have that view yet," said King Crono. "Still, you do have a point. Lucca and her parents might be very well protected because of that orphanage. Still, to be safe, I'll tell her to set up some sort of a security system, just to be safe. She's our friend, too."

"If you need it, I can send some of my Dragoons to watch her," said Viper.

The King shook his head. "Not necessary. At most a few of my men will suffice."

"Is there anything else you can think of?"

"Now that I think about it, the Masamune could be a target," said the Queen.

Garai snorted. "Yeah, right! I have the Einlanzer! It'll cancel out the Masamune's power if they try to use it, and if I'm not around to use it, then one of my boys, most likely Dario, will do it! The Masamune would certainly help them, but even if they did get their greedy hands on it, we have the best defense there is against it."

"Thank you, Garai," said Viper. He turned to Zappa. "You've been quiet. Is there anything on your mind?"

Zappa looked up, blinking. "Eh?" he shrugged. "Radius en Garai r'makin' good enough comments. I dun have anything to add. I'm taken' in the infermation, I know what I ken use and what I ken not use, what else is thar for me to do? If I think of something, I'll let ye know."

"Thank you," said Viper. He turned to the monarchs once again. "Did you gain any information from the attacks on Choras or Medina that you think would be beneficial to this meeting or any future meetings we have? A note, a war cry of some sort, mentions of a secret weapon?"

The monarchs shook their heads. "No," said Queen Marle. "That is all of our information as well." She closed her eyes. "Perhaps we should all get some sleep and return here in the morning. Perhaps we'll think of something overnight that we can either plan or bring up."

"Excellent idea. It is getting a bit late," said Viper. "Meeting adjourned."

After Garai had escorted the King and Queen (and their escorts) to their rooms, he started to head off towards his own room. As he was just about to place his hand on the doorknob when he had an afterthought. I just lost my wife. I almost lost Glenn tonight. Maybe I should check on the boys, Garai thought to himself.

He sidetracked towards the staircase and descended to the lower level. He walked along the wall, nodding his head to any of the Dragoons he passed in the hallway. Orcha was walking out of the kitchen and gave Garai a greeting "CHA!" before heading off towards the door. It was the beginning of the cook's week-off- he hadn't seen his wife or his year-old son in a number of weeks and he was well overdo for a visit.

Garai finally found the room he was looking for. Quietly opening the door, he found the room was dark and that both of his boys (and Karsh) were asleep. He quietly closed the door behind him and allowed his eyes to adjust to the dark. Once his eyes were adjusted, he crept over to Dario's bed and sat down beside his sleeping son.

Dario was a boy that Garai had to admit he was very proud of. Despite his young age, he was a very skilled swordsman, maybe even as skilled as he was. Many of the young village girls thought he was attractive and many of the women in Termina had told Garai many, many times that Dario would break many hearts when he married. Garai smiled at the thought and gently rubbed the top of his elder son's head.

Finished with checking on Dario, he moved onto Glenn. Glenn. . . it was too early to say too much about him, though many of the women agreed he, too, would break many hearts when he got older. Glenn had been given soft, flawless skin that reminded Garai of his now deceased wife. Glenn had shown interest in using swords before, but he was a bit too small to use even the smallest practice swords. Maybe next year, Garai thought.

As Garai stood to leave, he heard movement in the room. He looked over to where Karsh was sleeping and saw the violet haired boy was waking up. The boy turned to Garai, blinking. "Wha?" he asked. Garai silently raised a finger to his mouth, but it was too late. Dario and now Glenn were both waking up as well.

"Daddy?" asked Glenn.

"What's going on, Dad?" asked Dario, who sat up in bed. "Are we at war?"
Garai sighed. Might as well tell them now, he thought. "Well, no, we aren't at war," he said. "We COULD go to war with Porre, but what we want to do is try and stop the war from happening. Porre wishes to control every life form in the world and we don't want that. They've taken Medina and Choras already. The Guardia Monarchs and General Viper fear that the next two areas for take-over are Guardia and the El Nido Islands. We're going to have another meeting tomorrow, but for now. . . we just don't know."

"So the whole meeting was fer nothing?" Karsh asked.

"No, not at all. The meeting did allow us to compare notes and come up with ideas on what they want to do based on what we know about Porre and what we know about ourselves that Porre might be interested in. For instance, they could be after our Elements," said Garai.

Dario and Karsh exchanged looks. "So?" they asked in unison.

Garai cleared his throat. "Think what a strong Volcano would do to a town."

All three boys paled.

"We're all gonna die!" Glenn exclaimed.

"No we aren't! Dad just said that they're trying to stop the war! No one's gonna die!" said Dario.

"Oh, that's good," sad Glenn. "We don't want people to die. That would be bad."

"Right, now get some sleep," said Garai. "Good night, boys."

"Good night, Dad."

"Sweet dreams, Daddy!"

"See ye in the mornin', Garai."