Revelations
Disclaimer: Don't own the SaGa Frontier characters or anything else from the game.
ThreeFive years later…
"Mom! Mom! Come here! COME HERE!!"
Leaping out of her seat in shockin half a second, Liang ran to the garden. Was that Rouge's voice she just heard? She had never heard him shout like that before!
When she reached her large garden, located behind her house, to her relief she saw the twins unhurt. Leaning against the door frame, she released a pent-up breath. Sigh, paranoia can be such a pain sometimes. Especially where boys are concerned. The boys were huddled at the far wallmango tree by the far wall, their backs turned to her. Their long white hair, which hadn't gained its natural color yet, were in a mess. They were whispering softly. Pointing at something too. Walking slowly, she called out,
"Okay, I'm here! What's the emergency kids?"
One of them turned and regarded her with wide slightly-reddishred eyes, shining with excitement shining from them. He ran over to her and cried, "Mom, lookcome here! Blue and I found Ssomething's hiding in there!" He pointed at the wall with one hand, and tugged at Liang with his other. Liang followed him dutifully, her eyes narrowing slightly. Hmm, they found something hiding? In her garden?
Oh my. This is serious. No one hides in her garden and gets away with it.
When she was standing directly behind him, the other twin stood up slowly and turned around, something furry in his arms. Squatting onto her knees, she asked, "What is it, sweetie?"
HeBlue shook his head, "I don't know." Then he handed it over to her. Liang cradled it gently in her arms and examined the furball. It slightly resembled a kitten, but… she didn't know think kittens were this small. It had -oh my, pink fur?!- but that was all she could see. It was wet though, shivering from experiencing the coldness of the rain that had just recently stopped.
Liang shook her head, "Sorry, kids. But I don't know what it is. Maybe we should let Uncle Jalian see it." She turned to the red-eyed twin, who was looking at her curiously. "Rouge, honey," she said, "Could you go inside and fetch me a towel? We've got to dry this little thing up right now, or else it'll catch the sniffles."
Actually, she had a feeling that it would die from exposure if she didn't warm it up right now, but no point in scaring them with it. Rouge nodded and ran into the house.
Standing on his tiptoes, the other oneBlue tried to get a better look at the interesting thing. Then he looked at his mom with worried eyes, "Rouge better hurry. I don't want it to catch the sniffles. I hate the sniffles, and Rouge does too." Liang just laughed. The innocence of a child. He giggled too, not really understanding why, but did it anyway, because Mom was doing it. Then he asked shyly, "…Can I hold it?"
She nodded, "Of course, honey. Here you go."
He nodded and carefully took hold of it. Imitating the way Liang held it, he cradled the creature gently in his arms. He held it close to his chest to keep it warm while Liang kept a careful watch on it. Who knows? It might just leap up and transform into a hideous monster or something when she wasn't looking. Oh great, paranoia attack once again. After a while, he handed it back to her.
A few minutes later, Rouge came back with a large towel in hand. She took the towel from him and proceeded to wipe the creature gently. After several minutes or intense cleaning, with the twins watching just as intensely, the creature was dry and wrapped snugly in the thick towel. Rouge whispered to his brother, "Blue, do you think Mom will let us keep it?"
Blue nodded, "I hope so. I want it. It's so cute."
Liang, oblivious to their whispering, nodded, "Okay, it's all dry. Now let's go on in and I'll call Uncle Jalian to take a look at it." They nodded and followed her into the house.
After studying the creature for several minutes, Jalian got up and explained to his spectators, which wasnamely Liang and the twins, "I've read about this type of animal before. It is called a 'Chuko'. It's, er… a member of the cat family and, um… a meat-eater, I think. And it's usually found in Shingrow. I wonder how it came here?"
Rouge pondered out loudtried the new word out, "'Chuko…"
Liang asked the twins, "Kids, did you see where it came from?"
They shook their heads. Blue said, "We just found it near the wallmango tree, then Rouge called you to come see it." Turning to Jalian, he asked, "Um, Uncle Jalian… Can we keep it?"
Jalian raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Shouldn't you be asking your mom that?" He glanced at Liang, "If you're worried, Liang, don't be. The Chuko is a fairly simple animal to take care of. Many Shingrow residents keep it as pets, or even as security."
I didn't even know they wanted to keep it, she thought silently. Then, upon hearing Jalian's reassurance, she arched an eyebrow. "Security?" she asked in an amused voice, "A little thing like that?"
Jalian nodded, "When trained properly, it can be a really effective watch dog- I mean, watch cat. Its claws are razor-sharp as well as its teeth. It has sensitive hearing and smell as well. You really should keep it."
Liang was quiet. Thinking…
"Pleeeeeease?" a pair of reddishruby red eyes and a pair of bluishsapphire blue ones look up at her eagerlypleadingly. Ever watched an anime where the character's eyes just go all big and wobbly and cute? Well, that's how they are now. Liang sweatdropped. Well now, how could she say no to that? Shrugging, she nodded.
"Hooray!! Thank you! Thank youuuu!" They hugged her tightly and jumped up and down, giggling happily. They have a pet! Wheee!! Jalian chuckled slightly, but didn't say anything. Thanks to all the noise, the Chuko woke up and exclaimed, "Chu! Chuchuchuchuchuuuuuuu!!!" The twins were so excited they started petting it and hugging it.
When things calmed down a bit, Jalian asked, "So, what's its name?"
With that question came another load of noise, as the twins tried to decide what name they should use for it. After fifteen minutes of deciding, with no ending in sight as of yet, Liang suggested, "What about 'Cirin'? Do you remember that show we watched? It was about two dogs and a cat named Cirin. What do you think?"
Rouge immediately nodded and said, "Okay!"
Patting Cirin's head, Blue nodded.
Liang smirked. And to think she hadn't wanted a pet. Now she's stuck with a Chuko! …Aw hell! It was pretty cute, after all. And since Jalian had said that it would be good as security… then it wasn't as useless as she had first thought after all. Ah, the possibilities..
Glancing at the towel that she had used to wrap the Chuko up, Liang blinked. That towel looks awfully familiar… Picking it up, Liang asked, "Rouge, where did you get this towel?"
"From your bathroom," the red-eyed twin answered, stroking Cirin's fur.
"The one I use to wipe my face every morning?"
"Yes."
Liang sweatdropped, and released a flat, "Oh." Looks like she won't be using this towel anymore. Congratulations Cirin. You've got yourself a brand-new face towel.
And since that dayLife was simple and happy for the small family, with Cirin as the twins' new playmate. When the twins turned seven, Liang opened a gift shop where she sold her flowers and other stuff, mostly for teenagers. Whenever Liang had to leave the twins home alone, she usually called on her best friend's daughter, Dawn (who was three years older than the boys), to babysit them. The pay? Ten bucks per hour. Not too bad a deal, since the twins didn't give much trouble, with the exception of Rouge on a really bad day.
Liang, the twins and Cirin lived together, with Jalian visitingvisited them every once in a while, and occasionally even Ares visited themstopped by to say hello. The twins loved it whenever Ares or Jalian came, 'cause that would mean getting presents. And it didn't even have to be on their birthday! The twins, thanks to Ares' persuasion, were sent to different schools. But even though they went to different schoolswere separated for nearly half the day, the bond between the two boys grew stronger every day. Keeping her promiseStaying true to the agreement, Liang kept the cloning process a secret from her children, and from everyone else. It was quite hard for her to convince him, but eventually Jalian too had agreed to keep the cloning process a secret from the boys.
And what about Ares?
Well, he hasn't forgotten his deal with Liang, and has been keeping tabs on the twins. That's what his visits to their house were for. He still doesn'tdidn't know who iswas the clone and who iswas the original, but it didn't bother him in the least. The difference didn't matter, since it played no role in the plan. What did matter was that the twins did not become too close, for that would be a major drawback. And his plan couldn't afford drawbacks. Keeping the twins in different schools lessened the chances of them bonding, but he knew that it would be a matter of time before they asked to be in the same schools. And since all mothers had a soft spot for their children Liang had a soft spot for her children, sheLiang would undoubtedly comply to their wishes.
Another problem was getting her to enroll both boys into magic academies to become magicians. From the few conversations he had with her whenever he visited them, Ares could tell that she was firm with her decision to keep her son from being a magician. But she doesn't know who is her biological son, and who is the clone. And that leads to the problem that worried him the most: that Liang might just break the agreement and run off with both of them.
He had to do something fast if he wanted to prevent that from happening. He already had the plan, but it all came down to timing, the timing had to be perfect. And luck. And Ares was a lucky man.
