Chapter 5

Ebb and Flow

He sat shrouded by leaves, hidden from view, boredom causing his concentration to waver as various unbidden thoughts brought themselves to his attention. Despite his growing unrest, he was very pleased with his current situation. Crono had managed to find a wonderful hiding spot in a mid-sized oak tree. It was tall enough to keep him out of sight, but gave him a clear view of his surroundings. There was no way that anyone was going to be sneaking up on him this time. It was a slightly underhanded tactic, but he wanted this over with soon. His father was about to go away on another trip to Medina, and besides, he needed to get Lucca out of her house and to Truce Canyon. He'd drag her by her ankles if he had to.

Ever since the accident she had kept her self holed up in her room tinkering with some odd gadget or another. She had told Crono about it two weeks after Lara got out of the hospital. It took her almost a year to come to terms with herself before she told him about her plans to understand all of the machinery so that another accident didn't happen. He knew that for her health she needed to get out, but Taban hadn't taken her on a nature walk in ages. He was too busy doing something with a new invention, a telepod, if he remembered correctly. One of those walks in the forest that she used to like so much would probably do wonders for her.

Since her mom had become crippled four years ago, he saw Lucca on nearly a daily basis. Gina had stepped in to help the family and started schooling Crono and Lucca. At the beginning when his mother told Crono that Lucca was going to be learning along side him, he was surprised, but happy. Who wouldn't be thrilled? His best friend would be staying with them every other week. Taban helped his father add a spare guest room to the house for Lucca. It was easier for her to stay the week than to cart all of her books and such from their distant house to the opposite side of Truce.

This was one of their 'off' weeks, Lucca was at her place helping her father and Crono had spent the time sneaking around, weight training, or having more knowledge of a fighting form stuffed into his head. His mind switched gears as he thought back to how he ended up stuck in a tree waiting to surprise his father.

"The first rule of swordsmanship is to never let your opponent see what your next move is going to be. If you don't have control over your body language, it's as good as giving your adversary a play-by-play announcement." Crono replayed his dad's speech in his head, still a little confused as to how sneaking around and surprising him was supposed to teach his body how to hide his thoughts.

For the past six months his father had been giving him a basic boot camp training of sorts. He had spent the first three years learning about the different kinds of weapons, fighting styles, and maneuvers. Now that the textbook section was out of the way, he had moved to physical development. His father had told him that before he could be trusted with a blade, he would have to develop his muscles, stamina, and discipline. Although the work was hard, Crono had to admit that he hadn't felt in such great shape before. The start of mildly bulging muscles in his chest and arms were not any source of complaint. As his hormones caught up with him, he realized that many girls would find that attractive. He wondered what Lucca thought of him whenever she saw him.

"Probably nothing," He thought. "She sees me everyday and probably hasn't noticed." The though sobered him slightly. Despite his attempts at controlling himself, he had to admit that he was rather attracted to her.

Crono managed to get his inner self quieted down and focused on the oncoming task "Come on dad, get trapped already." He hissed through his teeth.

Any moment now his father was going to come into view and Crono would have him. His muscles tensed up with anticipation while his forehead developed a mild wetness. Every snapping twig, rustling leaf, and bird tweet was amplified as he sat in silent observation, waiting for his moment to strike.

"Snap. Rustle. Clink..." He mentally recorded every sound and placed its position accurately.

"Wait a second...Clink? That's not a normal sound, and there it is again! I know that sound, who would be having a swordfight out here? Okay, kind of a stupid question considering what I'm doing right now, but..." Crono turned his head in the direction of the noise and studied it further. "That's toward the castle, but there's no way that I could hear the training grounds from here."

He quickly made up his mind and moved to check it out. Abandoning his post, he deftly leapt to a shorter tree next to him and shimmied down to the ground. It took only a few minutes to narrow his search. Up ahead he was able to hear grunts and the occasional clink of a sword. He realized that something didn't sound right and he quickened his pace to a silent jog. He was soon able to see the scene safely from the backside of a thick tree.

A young man holding a short sword and clothed in a blue uniform with a light armored vest stood on a beaten path. He faced off with what looked like two small green children. Crono recognized the man as a soldier from the castle. He assumed that the man was probably making rounds and encountered the children. The green kids were new, but judging from what he had heard it was probably an imp. They weren't known to be very powerful but they were an annoyance; the problem was that they tended to travel in groups and gang up on you. Why imps were in Guardia Forest, he didn't know. Normally everything was peaceful here.

Crono spotted four other imps lying lifeless on the ground, lacerations across their chest and arms told how they had met their fate. He studied the soldier. His movements were slow; his breath was heavy, ragged, and quick. The sword drooped in his hand, which was barely able to hang onto the hilt. Gashes in his vest leaked blood onto the ground at his feet and pooled with the rivulets from the four bodies around him. Although the wounds weren't mortal, they had weakened him and put him at a severe disadvantage.

Crono wagered a guess that the imps had gotten in a fair amount of hits on him before they fell. He racked his brain in an attempt to come up with some way to help the poor guy, but he needed a weapon, something that was lacking at the moment. Unsatisfied with his inability, Crono pounded his fist into the ground and swore under his breath. With no other viable option, he was forced to watch the scene unfold.

One of the imps had shuffled itself to the side, making a triangle shape with each being at a point. There was no way for the soldier to block an attack from both imps at once, in a last desperate attempt, he lunged for the imp positioned in front of him. The imp sidestepped the weak attempt while the one behind jumped onto his back and bit him on the left shoulder causing his reflexes to bring his right arm up to knock the imp off while the pain caused him to lose his grip on the sword completely. As the first imp took a bite out of his leg, the sword flew across the path and landed just in front of Crono.

Crono remained behind the tree and stared at the red tinged metal lying in front of him. Fear shook him from head to toe as a fleeting thought of charging into the fray occurred to him. These imps had managed to almost kill a trained soldier and he didn't want to imagine what they would do to a ten-year-old kid. He heard a muffled scream and looked up to see the soldier on the ground; both imps were biting and kicking him mercilessly. Crono didn't think, he knew what he had to do.

Coiling himself up, he launched from behind the tree and ran towards the fallen man, picking up the sword as he passed it. The imps, so intent on mauling the now defenseless man, didn't see Crono running at full speed with the sword raised above his head until it was too late. With a quick flash of steel, Crono brought the sword down and swung to the right; tearing into the vein in its neck and throwing it to the side. He let the momentum of the swing turn him around and leveled the sword. As his body completed the pirouette the now horizontal blade forced its way into the neck of the other imp as it stood up. The somewhat weakened swing stopped as it made contact with the imp's spine, preventing a full beheading. The imp grasped hopelessly at the protruding metal and fell off the soldier as it tried to remove the source of its pain. It soon gave it's last gasp and fell silent as Crono just stood in horror and watched. He slowly realized that he had killed another living thing. Crono stared at the ground but didn't see anything.

A muffled gurgling sound brought Crono back to his senses and he turned his attention to the injured man. He kneeled down and looked at the extent of his injuries. Most were scratches and bite marks on his face and arms. There was a large amount of bleeding from numerous wounds on his chest, but they didn't seem to be very deep. The worst seemed to be a rather large tooth shaped gash on his neck.

Crono thought quickly and took off his over shirt and tied it around the man's neck in an attempt to curb the bleeding. "This won't work very well since I can't tie it tightly, but it may help. Do you think you can walk if I help you?"

The soldier made a feeble nod and answered in a raspy whisper, "I, I t-think so."

With as much strength as he could muster, Crono helped him off the ground. Unable to lift the larger man's weight, he stood still and let him use Crono to pull himself up. With most of his weight on Crono, they trudged off towards the castle, the soldier using him as a walker as Crono half held, half dragged the man behind him.

Twenty minutes later they had arrived at the castle door. Crono shifted his balance and wearily knocked on a closed view window set in the large wooden door. A moment later the window slid open to reveal two eyes and a nose.

The eyes scowled at him before asking, "What d'ya want, kid? There's no tresspassin' on these grounds."

He resisted the overwhelming urge to punch this rude jerk in the face. Obviously he wasn't very observant and had failed to notice the person behind him, "I found a soldier in the forest. He's been attacked an' is in bad shape. I brought him here for help." He managed in a slightly breathless voice.

The eyes looked over Crono's shoulder and widened considerably. They disappeared and some shouting could be heard behind the doors. They opened and two other guards came out to help Crono bring him in. Crono, thinking his job was done, turned to leave but was held back by the person he had saved. The soldier had a look of utter terror on his face and his white knuckled fingers refused to let go of Crono's arm. The guards didn't notice at first and started to drag them both towards the infirmary.

A quick yelp of, "Let me go!" drew their attention to Crono's predicament. They tried to remove the deathly grip on Crono's wrist

"Please, don't leave me." It was barely more than a whisper but Crono was able to hear it. How could he refuse him and leave?

"I'll go with him."

Both guards stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. "What do you mean?"

Crono took a second to think how to respond. "It was a pretty bad attack and he doesn't know what's going on. I doubt he knows where he is. I'll go with him. And it'll be faster than trying to get him off me."

The guard looked into Crono's eyes and made a side glace to his comrade. They both nodded their heads.

"Right. This way."

They went down a hall to the left that ended at a staircase. Crono looked around as they walked; he would have been in awe if the circumstances were better. A tour of the castle would have been nice, but now was not the time for such thoughts. He silently wondered where his dad was and what he was going to tell him. He hated to think of his father worrying about him if he couldn't locate him.

The quartet walked down the dark-stone staircase into the knight's quarters. Although it was called the knight's quarters, it housed all of the castle military, the infirmary, and the war room. They went through a doorway on the right that lead to the medial section.

"Hey! Can we get some help in here?" One of the guards bellowed.

An attractive woman in her mid twenties came out of a room on the right and took in the scene. If it weren't for the severely injured person in the middle, she would have found the scene of two guards surrounding a soldier clinging onto a ten-year-old rather funny. "What happened here?"

The two guards looked at each other. It dawned on them that they didn't have a clue as to what happened. They both looked down at the boy, it was making Crono nervous.

"He was attacked by six imps. I think they were imps. They looked like green kids." His voice was meek, but easily audible. Everyone continued to stare at him for a moment before rushing into action.

One guard told the other to fetch someone called Nathan. The nurse and the first guard brought the man into a very clean room with a few beds. They, with Crono in tow, lay the soldier in a bed as the nurse sedated him and started to look after his wounds.

While he waited for the sedative to take effect, Crono killed time by looking around the room. All four walls, the ceiling, and the floor were made of a dark-grey stone. Purple was a dominant theme. Purple and gold tapestries hung from the walls; even the beds had purple and gold covers. A quickly moving flick of blonde hair drew his attention to the first room. A large oak table was visible through the doorway he had just walked through.

Within a few minutes the soldier's body slipped into unconsciousness, his grip on Crono's wrist grew weak enough to wrest himself from his grasp.

Crono, relieved that this event was over, turned around and found a rather tall man's stomach. He looked up at him and saw the man give him a warm smile and noticed the second guard standing next to him.

"I assume this is the child you were referring to, William." Crono was getting unnerved; this guy wasn't taking his eyes off of him.

The guard next to him spoke up, "Yep. He brought Charles in from the forest."

He kneeled down to Crono's level. In a smooth and reassuring voice as possible he spoke, "Hello. My name is Nathan. I'm the head of the castle guard. What's your name?"

Crono was a little dumbfounded. "Am I in trouble for something? Oh, no, they probably think that I did this to him!"

Seeing the fear in the child's eyes, Nathan bid him to a seat in the corner. "Don't worry, you aren't in any trouble. I just want to know what happened out there." He gave a sigh as he took his seat across from Crono. "Charles was a very good friend of mine. I would like to know what did this to him."

Seeing that Crono didn't calm down he tried again, "Can we get you anything, a drink, maybe? Would you like me to find your parents and have them here with you?"

Crono shook his head no and stayed rooted to the spot. His eyes widened in fear as he realized that his father was still out there, and there could be more of those...things. "I'm Crono." He let out in a small voice. Urgently he added, "My dad was out there by himself too. I need to find him."

Nathan reassured him, "Don't worry, I have men combing the forest. Anyone that they find they will bring back here. You can tell me which one is your dad and if you tell me where you live, I'll also send someone to bring your mom here."

Crono thought for a second, unsure if he should trust this stranger before replying in one breath, "We live in Truce. My dad owns the sword shop so mom should be there."

Pleased to see that the kid was relaxing, he again beckoned to the chair and motioned for Crono to sit. "Nice to meet you Crono. Now, can you tell me what happened out there? The guard told me that you said something about him being attacked by six imps."

Crono started to relate the whole story to Nathan. "I heard some strange noises in the forest, so I went to check them out--"

"What were you doing in Guardia Forest by yourself? Where was your father?" Nathan injected while leaning forward in his chair.

"He was teaching me sub...sub-viative tactics." Crono struggled with the word his father had said before using his own explanation. "He was teaching me how to sneak around."

"Your father was teaching you subversive tactics?" He threw himself back into his chair, put his hand to his forehead, and stared at Crono with a puzzled expression. It wasn't a question so much as a statement of wonder. Crono was after all a ten-year-old boy; much too young for such advanced training.

"All right." Nathan continued, "So you followed the noises. I assume they lead you to Charles?"

Crono nodded his head in affirmation before continuing. He had gotten to the point where the sword flew from Charles' hand before being interrupted by a few soldiers. They both looked at the soldier at the doorway who was speaking. "Sir! We found another one!"

Crono, not wanting to appear rude, stared forward at the far wall as the soldiers talked. He saw people running across the doorway in the room behind the man Nathan was talking to.

"Another soldier's been attacked?" Nathan started.

"No sir, this one's a civilian. He's in bad shape Sir and it doesn't look promising, the nurse isn't holding out much hope. He managed to say that his son was in the forest with him. So I've got men looking for the kid now."

Crono's head snapped to attention at the last words spoken.

Nathan glared at the man and looked back towards Crono. He didn't need to say it, Crono already knew who the victim was.