Parade of Memories
Vera drifted slowly. She felt as if she were in a slowly meandering stream, floating along. She opened her eyes slowly...
A field lay before Vera. The grass waved in the gentle breeze and a village could be seen in the distance. Vera breathed in the air and looked around her.
" Where am I?" she wondered aloud. Her voice fell flat in the air, as if it didn't carry far enough to be heard. Something leaped ahead of her.
" Gotcha!" a shrill, childish voice cried. A young cat-girl stood. She looked like she couldn't be more than eight years old, a kitten by cat- people standards. Vera faintly recognized something about her.
" Hey, you!" Vera cried to her. The cat-girl was busily peering into her cupped hands and then gasped and ran toward Vera.
" Yeah, you. Where am I?" Vera asked. To her complete shock, the cat-girl simply continued running until she ran right through Vera. Vera screamed.
" Ahh! What's going on?" she asked.
" You are no more than apparition here. You can't be seen, heard, felt, smelled, or even tasted. You are here to observe, not interact." a voice whispered in Vera's ear. Vera jumped.
" Folken! Where am I?" she asked quickly.
" Merle's past." Folken answered after a minute.
" But that's not possible." Vera protested. Silence answered her.
" Folken? Folken!" she screamed, but to no avail. He had left, however he did that. Vera turned her attention back to the cat-girl.
" Look, Sophie, look at this." the cat-girl said. Vera approached her and saw she was speaking to a cat-baby, a newborn kitten. The infant squealed in delight as the older one opened her hands, revealing a butterfly. The butterfly flapped its wings and flew away and the baby giggled.
" Merle!" the infant cried, holding her arms up to the other. The cat-girl smiled.
" Okay, little sister." she said, reaching down and scooping up the kitten. " We'd better get back, Mamma will be worried." Vera suddenly realized something. The infant had bouncy, curly pink hair and had called her sister Merle. Vera gasped. Perhaps the cat-girl was Merle, before Fanelia. Vera followed them into the villiage, overcoming her fear and simply walking through things and people. The villiage seemed to consist entirely of cat- people. A cat-woman stood outside one of the houses that lined the streets.
" Merle, your late. Sophie might have gotten a chill." the cat-woman scolded. Merle hung her head.
" I know, Mamma. I'm sorry. I was trying to catch a butterfly for Sophie, and I lost track of time." she said. Mamma sighed.
" Well, you made it home alright. And Sophie is happy, and I did get my work done, so I suppose it's all right." she said. Merle smiled. Vera watched in awe. Was this Merle's, the Merle she knew, mother she was seeing? Vera wondered what Mamma would think of her daughter if she saw her in the future. Vera followed the family into their home. It was scantily furnished and looked like what Hitomi would call very child safe. Mamma sat baby Sophie on a blanket on the floor. Sophis sat and bubbled away in her baby garble happily. Everynow and then, she would say something distingushibly.
" Merle!" she cried every now and then. Her older sister always turned around from her chores and replied.
" Sophie!" she always said. It seemed to be a game between the two of them. A cat-boy bounded into the room, sporting the same tabby fur the whole family seemed to share.
" Mamma, can I go out and play?" he asked.
" No, Tryan, you can not. It'll be dark soon and supper is almost ready." Mamma replied. Mamma's old, wise face bore many wrinkles and a few scars but seemed full of laughter and love. She looked just like a slightly older version of the Merle Vera knew. Two older cat-boys came in through the door.
" Hello, Mamma." they both said, pausing to kiss Mamma on the cheek.
" Hello, Chrono, Brono. How was work?" Mamma asked. The two males shrugged in unison. They appeared to be twins. One wore a blck shirt and the other wore a white one, obviously so they could be told apart. After a while, Vera was able to figure a few things out about the family. The father had died in an accident shortly before little Sophie was born. Brono, in black, and Chrono, in white, were the oldest children at seventeen and were twins. Merle was actually ten and was the second oldest, the most responsible child. Tryan was the third, at seven, and was a prankster and playful. Sophie was the baby, six months old and already showing signs of taking after Tyran. Mamma was trying her best to support her family alone, but she had to send Chrono and Brono to work for money and Tyran often went around the villiage asking to do odd jobs for pay. With Mamma working so hard to keep the family intact, Merle was left to tend to Sophie. Suddenly, a crashing sound came to Vera's ears from outside. Brono and Chrono ran out to see what was going on.
" The villiage is under attack!" Chrono shouted. A light flashed before Vera's eyes and she blinked. When her vision returned, she was standing amid the wreakage of a burnt village. A baby's cry rose.
" Merle! Merle!" the infant's voice bleated. Tears rose in Vera's eyes. Sophie was sobbing for her sister.
" A sole survivor, a single witness to slaughter, and she was only an infant. A Fanelian trader found her, and brought her to the Queen." Folken's voice whispered sadly. A woman appeared, holding Sophie.
" Since she keeps saying Merle, we'll call her that. She'll be a play mate for Van." the woman said. Vera knew she was looking at her grandmother, the past Queen of Fanelia. The resemblence was undeniable. Vera closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, she was drifting in darkness.
" Where now, Folken?" she asked defiantly.
" To a place that you are tied to mentally, a place you have missed when you don't even know what you were missing." his voice replied. Vera looked around to see a strange sight. She was standing on some kind of strange, black stone with strips of pale stone running on the sides. There were small plots of land seperated by hedges and behind them, houses. But they were different than any house that Vera had ever seen. They were made out of stange red blocks and were painted different colors. A little boy with sable hair walked down the street. Vera instantly recognized him.
" Michael?" she asked. A younger version of Michael, about six years old, walked down the pale strip of stone. The name of the place she was in suddenly occured to her.
" The Mystic Moon. I'm on the Mystic Moon." she murmured to herself. A dog walked up to the boy on the pale stone.
" A doggy. Nice doggy." the little boy said, reaching out to pet the creature. In a flash, the dog attacked the boy. It ripped at his face until an adult came and pulled it away, screaming at it to go away. The man picked up the child and carried the six-year-old Michael away, Vera staring after them. The light flashed again, and darkness surrounded Vera. A voice came to her ears, and this time, it wasn't Folken.
" He suffered serious injuries to his midsection and his face. I'd say he'll have permenant scars..." the voice trailed off. Vera knew the man's voice was talking about Michael.
" A young boy was attacked by a stray dog today," A female voice said. " The boy was severely injured in his midsection and face. Doctors think he might go blind and he might have internal injuries. Authorities are still looking for the dog to find out whether or not it has rabies." Vera covered her face with her hands. Her beloved Michael's beautiful face had been destroyed in a split second. He had told her, but he had never really told her about what had happened that day.
" I never knew. I'm sorry, Michael." she whispered. A new place began to arise. Vera cried out.
" No more! No more, Folken! I don't want to see anymore!" she screamed, but no one answered. Vera clsed her eyes, hoping that if she kept them closed she wouldn't see anything. A dragon's enraged roar met her ears.
" Huh?" Vera asked, opening her eyes. A young man she had never seen before stood, facing a dragon. He had pale hair, almost white, and a face that strangely resembled Vera's father. The dragon lay down, as if was giving up. Vera's father's voice rang in her ears. Dragons play tricks with your mind, he had said. Something clicked in Vera's mind.
" No!" she screamed. " No! Don't fall for it! It's a trick!" The young man couldn't hear her and Vera knew it, but she had to do something. She stamped her foot and screamed more, but the man advanced on the dragon. The young man watched the beast's eyes, watched them begin to close... And then suddenly, the dragon snapped its head up. The young man screamed in shock and fear, and then, pain. Vera turned away, but something forced her to turn back. The man was laying on his side, clutching the place where his arm should have been. The dragon stood over him, blood dripping from its jaws onto his face. The man's face sobered as he accepted his death, but the dragon backed away. The scene faded from Vera's vision.
" Dragon's only attack when they sense fear coming from someone. When that young man stopped being afraid, the dragon backed away." Folken said quietly. Vera raised her head.
" That was you, wasn't it?" she asked. Folken didn't answer. Scenes begin to float up, disappearing as quickly as they came. A scene of her father, younger, flying on Escaflowne. Her mother, again younger, running through streets. Images floated to Vera's mind and left almost to quickly to be interpreted.
" The war." Folken said mournfully. Vera screamed as she saw a horrible scene that stayed put a little longer. A burning town smoldered in the distance, but in the foreground stood Merle, a younger Merle. Merle screamed loudly, but Vera found she couldn't hear anything. Something told her that the place that was burning was Fanelia. Tears of sorrow and injured patriotism rolled down Vera's cheeks.
" I've seen enough, Folken. No more." she whispered.
" Yes. That is enough. For now." Folken said. The burning country faded into blackness and Vera closed her eyes and waited...
Vera slowly opened her eyes.
" Where am I?" she whispered hoarsely. A deep, masculine voice answered.
" You've been taken prisoner by Zensho." it said. Vera sat up quickly. Dizziness caused her to sway and clouded her vision. " You also have a fever, so I suggest you lay down." the voice added. Too weak to do otherwise, Vera obeyed. Something about that voice was very familar, but Vera couldn't remember what. It was like a voice from a dream... A dream? Vera's eyes snapped open.
" Who are you?" she asked ferociously.
" Who wants to know?" the voice returned. Vera felt herself drifting to sleep and fought it.
" I do." she answered.
" Who are you?" the voice asked. Vera's eyes closed but her anger stayed.
" Quit avoiding my question and answer me!" she demanded. If the voice answered Vera didn't know it because she had fallen asleep.
A caped figure stepped out of the shadows and looked at the sleeping girl on his bed. Who is she, he wondered. She looked like someone he knew, or had known long ago. He looked closely at the girl. Her hair was pitch black, and the shape of her face was familar. A little like mine, he thought. Then he remembered her voice, that dangerous edge in it.
" Van?" the figure asked in wonderment. She looked just like Van, with a dash of something else. Maybe she was Van's daughter. So that would explain why she had been captured. If she was Van's daughter, she was also the Princess of the now very powerful country, Fanelia. A thousand questions ran through his mind. The figure shook his head.
" Brother, I think I might have finally met your daughter." he murmured, stooping over the sleeping girl and placing a wet cloth on her fevered forehead. A moan escaped her lips. The figure stood and walked over to a chair at a desk nearby. He sat and waited for her to awaken so that she could answer his questions and he could answer hers.
Vera drifted slowly. She felt as if she were in a slowly meandering stream, floating along. She opened her eyes slowly...
A field lay before Vera. The grass waved in the gentle breeze and a village could be seen in the distance. Vera breathed in the air and looked around her.
" Where am I?" she wondered aloud. Her voice fell flat in the air, as if it didn't carry far enough to be heard. Something leaped ahead of her.
" Gotcha!" a shrill, childish voice cried. A young cat-girl stood. She looked like she couldn't be more than eight years old, a kitten by cat- people standards. Vera faintly recognized something about her.
" Hey, you!" Vera cried to her. The cat-girl was busily peering into her cupped hands and then gasped and ran toward Vera.
" Yeah, you. Where am I?" Vera asked. To her complete shock, the cat-girl simply continued running until she ran right through Vera. Vera screamed.
" Ahh! What's going on?" she asked.
" You are no more than apparition here. You can't be seen, heard, felt, smelled, or even tasted. You are here to observe, not interact." a voice whispered in Vera's ear. Vera jumped.
" Folken! Where am I?" she asked quickly.
" Merle's past." Folken answered after a minute.
" But that's not possible." Vera protested. Silence answered her.
" Folken? Folken!" she screamed, but to no avail. He had left, however he did that. Vera turned her attention back to the cat-girl.
" Look, Sophie, look at this." the cat-girl said. Vera approached her and saw she was speaking to a cat-baby, a newborn kitten. The infant squealed in delight as the older one opened her hands, revealing a butterfly. The butterfly flapped its wings and flew away and the baby giggled.
" Merle!" the infant cried, holding her arms up to the other. The cat-girl smiled.
" Okay, little sister." she said, reaching down and scooping up the kitten. " We'd better get back, Mamma will be worried." Vera suddenly realized something. The infant had bouncy, curly pink hair and had called her sister Merle. Vera gasped. Perhaps the cat-girl was Merle, before Fanelia. Vera followed them into the villiage, overcoming her fear and simply walking through things and people. The villiage seemed to consist entirely of cat- people. A cat-woman stood outside one of the houses that lined the streets.
" Merle, your late. Sophie might have gotten a chill." the cat-woman scolded. Merle hung her head.
" I know, Mamma. I'm sorry. I was trying to catch a butterfly for Sophie, and I lost track of time." she said. Mamma sighed.
" Well, you made it home alright. And Sophie is happy, and I did get my work done, so I suppose it's all right." she said. Merle smiled. Vera watched in awe. Was this Merle's, the Merle she knew, mother she was seeing? Vera wondered what Mamma would think of her daughter if she saw her in the future. Vera followed the family into their home. It was scantily furnished and looked like what Hitomi would call very child safe. Mamma sat baby Sophie on a blanket on the floor. Sophis sat and bubbled away in her baby garble happily. Everynow and then, she would say something distingushibly.
" Merle!" she cried every now and then. Her older sister always turned around from her chores and replied.
" Sophie!" she always said. It seemed to be a game between the two of them. A cat-boy bounded into the room, sporting the same tabby fur the whole family seemed to share.
" Mamma, can I go out and play?" he asked.
" No, Tryan, you can not. It'll be dark soon and supper is almost ready." Mamma replied. Mamma's old, wise face bore many wrinkles and a few scars but seemed full of laughter and love. She looked just like a slightly older version of the Merle Vera knew. Two older cat-boys came in through the door.
" Hello, Mamma." they both said, pausing to kiss Mamma on the cheek.
" Hello, Chrono, Brono. How was work?" Mamma asked. The two males shrugged in unison. They appeared to be twins. One wore a blck shirt and the other wore a white one, obviously so they could be told apart. After a while, Vera was able to figure a few things out about the family. The father had died in an accident shortly before little Sophie was born. Brono, in black, and Chrono, in white, were the oldest children at seventeen and were twins. Merle was actually ten and was the second oldest, the most responsible child. Tryan was the third, at seven, and was a prankster and playful. Sophie was the baby, six months old and already showing signs of taking after Tyran. Mamma was trying her best to support her family alone, but she had to send Chrono and Brono to work for money and Tyran often went around the villiage asking to do odd jobs for pay. With Mamma working so hard to keep the family intact, Merle was left to tend to Sophie. Suddenly, a crashing sound came to Vera's ears from outside. Brono and Chrono ran out to see what was going on.
" The villiage is under attack!" Chrono shouted. A light flashed before Vera's eyes and she blinked. When her vision returned, she was standing amid the wreakage of a burnt village. A baby's cry rose.
" Merle! Merle!" the infant's voice bleated. Tears rose in Vera's eyes. Sophie was sobbing for her sister.
" A sole survivor, a single witness to slaughter, and she was only an infant. A Fanelian trader found her, and brought her to the Queen." Folken's voice whispered sadly. A woman appeared, holding Sophie.
" Since she keeps saying Merle, we'll call her that. She'll be a play mate for Van." the woman said. Vera knew she was looking at her grandmother, the past Queen of Fanelia. The resemblence was undeniable. Vera closed her eyes tightly. When she opened them again, she was drifting in darkness.
" Where now, Folken?" she asked defiantly.
" To a place that you are tied to mentally, a place you have missed when you don't even know what you were missing." his voice replied. Vera looked around to see a strange sight. She was standing on some kind of strange, black stone with strips of pale stone running on the sides. There were small plots of land seperated by hedges and behind them, houses. But they were different than any house that Vera had ever seen. They were made out of stange red blocks and were painted different colors. A little boy with sable hair walked down the street. Vera instantly recognized him.
" Michael?" she asked. A younger version of Michael, about six years old, walked down the pale strip of stone. The name of the place she was in suddenly occured to her.
" The Mystic Moon. I'm on the Mystic Moon." she murmured to herself. A dog walked up to the boy on the pale stone.
" A doggy. Nice doggy." the little boy said, reaching out to pet the creature. In a flash, the dog attacked the boy. It ripped at his face until an adult came and pulled it away, screaming at it to go away. The man picked up the child and carried the six-year-old Michael away, Vera staring after them. The light flashed again, and darkness surrounded Vera. A voice came to her ears, and this time, it wasn't Folken.
" He suffered serious injuries to his midsection and his face. I'd say he'll have permenant scars..." the voice trailed off. Vera knew the man's voice was talking about Michael.
" A young boy was attacked by a stray dog today," A female voice said. " The boy was severely injured in his midsection and face. Doctors think he might go blind and he might have internal injuries. Authorities are still looking for the dog to find out whether or not it has rabies." Vera covered her face with her hands. Her beloved Michael's beautiful face had been destroyed in a split second. He had told her, but he had never really told her about what had happened that day.
" I never knew. I'm sorry, Michael." she whispered. A new place began to arise. Vera cried out.
" No more! No more, Folken! I don't want to see anymore!" she screamed, but no one answered. Vera clsed her eyes, hoping that if she kept them closed she wouldn't see anything. A dragon's enraged roar met her ears.
" Huh?" Vera asked, opening her eyes. A young man she had never seen before stood, facing a dragon. He had pale hair, almost white, and a face that strangely resembled Vera's father. The dragon lay down, as if was giving up. Vera's father's voice rang in her ears. Dragons play tricks with your mind, he had said. Something clicked in Vera's mind.
" No!" she screamed. " No! Don't fall for it! It's a trick!" The young man couldn't hear her and Vera knew it, but she had to do something. She stamped her foot and screamed more, but the man advanced on the dragon. The young man watched the beast's eyes, watched them begin to close... And then suddenly, the dragon snapped its head up. The young man screamed in shock and fear, and then, pain. Vera turned away, but something forced her to turn back. The man was laying on his side, clutching the place where his arm should have been. The dragon stood over him, blood dripping from its jaws onto his face. The man's face sobered as he accepted his death, but the dragon backed away. The scene faded from Vera's vision.
" Dragon's only attack when they sense fear coming from someone. When that young man stopped being afraid, the dragon backed away." Folken said quietly. Vera raised her head.
" That was you, wasn't it?" she asked. Folken didn't answer. Scenes begin to float up, disappearing as quickly as they came. A scene of her father, younger, flying on Escaflowne. Her mother, again younger, running through streets. Images floated to Vera's mind and left almost to quickly to be interpreted.
" The war." Folken said mournfully. Vera screamed as she saw a horrible scene that stayed put a little longer. A burning town smoldered in the distance, but in the foreground stood Merle, a younger Merle. Merle screamed loudly, but Vera found she couldn't hear anything. Something told her that the place that was burning was Fanelia. Tears of sorrow and injured patriotism rolled down Vera's cheeks.
" I've seen enough, Folken. No more." she whispered.
" Yes. That is enough. For now." Folken said. The burning country faded into blackness and Vera closed her eyes and waited...
Vera slowly opened her eyes.
" Where am I?" she whispered hoarsely. A deep, masculine voice answered.
" You've been taken prisoner by Zensho." it said. Vera sat up quickly. Dizziness caused her to sway and clouded her vision. " You also have a fever, so I suggest you lay down." the voice added. Too weak to do otherwise, Vera obeyed. Something about that voice was very familar, but Vera couldn't remember what. It was like a voice from a dream... A dream? Vera's eyes snapped open.
" Who are you?" she asked ferociously.
" Who wants to know?" the voice returned. Vera felt herself drifting to sleep and fought it.
" I do." she answered.
" Who are you?" the voice asked. Vera's eyes closed but her anger stayed.
" Quit avoiding my question and answer me!" she demanded. If the voice answered Vera didn't know it because she had fallen asleep.
A caped figure stepped out of the shadows and looked at the sleeping girl on his bed. Who is she, he wondered. She looked like someone he knew, or had known long ago. He looked closely at the girl. Her hair was pitch black, and the shape of her face was familar. A little like mine, he thought. Then he remembered her voice, that dangerous edge in it.
" Van?" the figure asked in wonderment. She looked just like Van, with a dash of something else. Maybe she was Van's daughter. So that would explain why she had been captured. If she was Van's daughter, she was also the Princess of the now very powerful country, Fanelia. A thousand questions ran through his mind. The figure shook his head.
" Brother, I think I might have finally met your daughter." he murmured, stooping over the sleeping girl and placing a wet cloth on her fevered forehead. A moan escaped her lips. The figure stood and walked over to a chair at a desk nearby. He sat and waited for her to awaken so that she could answer his questions and he could answer hers.