for those of you who are just tuneing in a lot has happened. you might want to go back and check the last chapter seeing as i updated that chapter and didn't update the summary. well, thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!
Chapter 3
*****
After a few slow hours of unconscious I finally woke, shivering in the slight breeze. Wakeing was the first surprise of the day, and many more I found were comeing. It was still night outside, but a bright light painted orange and red across my vision in an odd mosiac of colors. I opened my eyes and stared confused at the campfire in front of me. My entire body ached, tiny rivults of pain shooting up my arms and legs as I tried to sit up. Even breathing hurt. *How am I still alive? My wounds must not have been as bad as I thought, but didn't sometihng fall on me? And what of the monster the Dragnois? More importantly where the hell am I and how did I get here?* I probed gently at my back and discovered bandages where I half remebered pulling out glass shards from the exploded windows. I grimaced at the movement then sat up strait was I realized I wasn't alone. The pain from that movement made me double over. A I felt a omforting hand on my shoulder after the pain passed and I looked up to see Li, the one person I hadn't expected to see at all. My surprise must have showed for he grinned and backed away to the other sidde of the fire again.
"Nearly lost you again. What's with you and almost dying anyway?" He handed me a small package with blanket wrapped up so many times I didn't think I'd find the end of it as I unwrapped it.
"So where are we? Shouldn't we be back at the base or something?" I ignored his question and posted one of my own.
"Well, where in the middle of the desert. Leena was headed out this way, and we need to catch her before she it's too late."
*Leena...that's right! She was going all nutsy on us and then stomped off. What the hell got into her?* Question's swirled through my head one leading to the next and creating more questions in the process.
"Ohhhkey.....well, how the hell did we get out here? I mean I couldn't have walked, I can barely breath without something acheing, and I don't see a car or any other sort of transportation...so how did we get here?"
He sighed and muttered something unintelligible then grinned at me, a white slashing of teeth through the night.
"The truth is I'm not who I seem. I've been around for centuries and have never had to do half the things I've had to do in the last few months. I've never had to heal myself, and realy have never had to; I never thought I'd fly again or eat food like a normal person, though I do admit flying isn't something a normal person does." He stared off into the distance at nothing.
*This guy has offically gone nutters. Where's a strait jacket when you need one anyway?* I pulled the blanket tighter around myself as the slight breeze picked up, and grimaced as pain spread fire down my nerves. *Not that I could move to put it on him in the first place.* I almost grinned but I caught sight of Li's face and quickly stopped. He was dead serious.
"Who are you really?" I looked at him really for the first time. Close cropped silver hair framed clear amber eyes, a delicate looking nose and a mouth that laughed at the world. His armor looked like Liger's, black and white. He had a dangerous air about him, and even unarmed he seemed capeable of very severe violence. He started slowly savoring the memories.
"I was what your raced called an Ancient Zoidian. Back then there were no Zoids, just the animals and us. Our continent was a vast vast place filed with jungles and plains of grassland lakes and ponds of all sizes. Villages were scattered around the whole continent and we lived in peace till one day we were invaded by another race of Zoidian's, a barbaric race that destroyed many of our villages and killed many of our strongest warriors. Our King and Queen summoned us to their valley one day we gathered in tremendous display. Deep into the valley was our...our...capital, our biggest city. We gathered in the plaza in the front gates that led to the desert and were about to recive a speech from out King when She burst in."
His gaze had turned inward long ago, but he turned to look at me, through me really, following the events over again as if they were happening now.
"The walls that surrounded the city were made of wood at the time, and an easy thing to break for a Zoid of Her size. She came galloping in as a great cat, much like a Lightning Saix, broke through our doors and seized control of the army with her look alone. Before our very eyes she shifted shape, and settled down into a very attractive human female form, and we fell to our knee's and proclaimed her Queen. The old king and queen didn't even put up a fight. There were several of us who did not fall, we were too awestruck or scared to move, me among them. She told us to go find animals, dinosaurs, beasts of every kind and tame them, then bring them back to her. We thought it odd, but she was our new Queen and She was not to be displeased. We dispersed to all the lands north south east and west of the city to find and bring back the animals we wanted. Anyway, many came back with beasts that could barely fit through the gates, other's with palm sized companions. Some found rare beasts that came to do horrible things as they let their memory slip of who they were."
I didn't get what he meant by that, but I paid even greater attention, not wanting to miss a bit of his story. It had been pure entertaiment thus far and I hoped it would get better. *A world without Zoids. He really has flipped his lid.*
"As we all assembled the next week in the plaza again as SHe had requested. No one dared talk. With a wave of her hand and a chain of gold surrounded the necks of every person there, and scared most of us either to our knee's or fainted on the spot. Magic was a thing that very few people had those days, and to see such a display would make even the strongest willed person doubt themselves. I had fallen to my knee's and had bowed my head when I saw the small disk form on the chain. At the time it was a blank gold coin, and back then even the smallest sliver of gold back then was worth a lot more than you. I glanced up at Her as she began to talk. She told us that once we walked through those gates we would never be the same and that if we did as we were told then we would live forever. Many didn't believe her. Many did. They had no time to reply for with one sharp gesture she told them to sleep and they did, all except for a hundred or so soldiers and lutenients who had not found beasts."
He paused again and turned to stare in the campfire. I was so far from believeing that I actually was beginning to believe. *Where is this going...What does this have to do with how we got here...?*
"Then she said, "For those of you who have no beast come with me for you are my Chosen. You are the bravest, cleverest, and strongest of this army. So you shall become even more powerful. Follow me to your destiny." I had not fallen asleep with the rest, so I trudged along behind her and the other men. First she took a group of thirty to the mountains. She came back alone. The next group of 30 went to the grasslands to the east. Again only she came back. The next group was of 30 as you probably have guessed went to the north. We were the last of her 'chosen'. She beckoned, we followed. We plunged in and walked for hours till we came to a clearing in what was undoubtedly the middle of the jungle. In the clearing there was a small waterfall that fed an even smaller pond. By that time we were very thirsty and weary, but not thirsty enough to approach the it for it was ringed by lions of every size and color. There were a few tiger's on the ledge where the water fell, but I have no idea what happened to them."
He looked up.
"I thought it odd at first that tiger's would be mixing with lions, but I forgot about that as soon as a sinister looking black maned one quickly caught my eye. I locked eyes with it and stared down into alien depths for what seemed like eternity. Finally I wrenched my gaze away and looked around to see everyone else but Her was just as transfixed as I had been. The women who had been in our party were gone. I looked back at my lion and found it was slowly advancing on me, then stopped about a meter away and stared at me with those alien eyes. I stared back, then held out a tentative hand, inviting him closer. He sprang on me, claws as big as daggers I had not seen unsheathed. I grimaced in pain as they tore through the light chain mail I had on and into my shoulders underneath."
He was really into his story now, he'd even grimaced in pain as he'd told the part about getting clawed.
"His weight was suffocating but I bore through it and his tests. He leaned down close and nipped my cheek, getting rancid smelling slobber all over me, then licked it all back up, tasting me."
A ghost of a smile almost played it's way across his lips.
"I grabbed his mane and pulled his head closer, then licked his nose and then pulled the chain off and looped it around his neck. There was a tingling sensation and the world went black then I felt as my skin was getting to large for me to hold me, to hard to be my own. Then some tree branches were poking me in the eye and there were twigs in my mouth, and I found I was on all fours instead of on my own two feet. I looked down to find Her weeping. 'What is wrong?' I tried to ask, but again all that came out was a lions roar. I was puzzled by this, but she pointed to the pond in a silent request to look. I took a step forward to look into the pond and nearly crushed her, my hand was now a paw made of something other than flesh and as big as the pond itself. I peered down into the pond and found no eye to glare back. I had become a Shield Liger. I took a step back and a twig snapped, but it wasn't a twig, just a very small tree. In a sudden rage I tore down other numerous tree's till the small clearing had become bigger then myself. The small pond had been covered with tree's but she hadn't been touched in my rampage. When I stopped, my feet buckled from underneath me and I landed with my nose barely touching Her soft small legs. She ran her hand along my new nose and muttered something under her breath, then aloud she said
'You are one of the first, you are the first of your species the Ligers. You now are Liger and forever you shall be. Or at least till you lose the will to live.'
The last was barely above a whisper, and I had a hard time focusing on her shape.
'You must not forget who you are, or terrible power shall be loosed upon the world that no one could stand against.'
The last I don't know if I heard or if it was simply my imagination but for the last time in my 'life' I slept. Year's later I awoke. Even I have no idea how long I slept. When I awoke I was covered in vines and blood was permanently stained to my claws. 'Where has this some from? 'I asked myself over and over again as I lay there in the dark the first night. As it began to get brighter and brighter I saw that a shrine had been built in front of my face. A young boy was always there trying to keep things tidy and orderly. I didn't know and couldn't move enough to ask. I had begun to rust and the vines had penetrated every nook and cranny that my new body possessed. One day after watching the people come to leave their offerings I asked the boy if he could clear the vines from me. He was so startled that he nearly fainted; a statue had come to life just for him. Of course he had no idea what I'd asked him to do, but I made an attempt to get up then fell down hard on purpose to tell him what it was I'd wanted."
He stopped and took a dep breath then began again.
"He left momentarily and came back with a small knife and began to cut the vines away from me. He worked hard all night then as the sun began to rise again he fell asleep on top of my back his little knife still cutting into a vine that had wrapped it's way around one of the protruding metal things on my back. People came as they always did and left again saying a few words of thanks at a victory I had given them long ago and the plea to keep guarding their small village. I had no idea of what they were talking about at the time, but I planned to go see what had become of all my comrades as soon as I could move."
He fell silent for a time, reliving the experience. *This...is amazing! He's...he's the first Zoid ever created! Jesus tap dancing Christ. He's gotta be like a million years old!* After a few more moments of stareing into the fire, *No into the...past.* he looked up at me not through me, then grinned.
"Think I'm crazy yet?"
"...No." He raised an eyebrow, then he grinned again. *How can this be real...? But how can it not be? With all that I've seen recently there's not much you can say is impossible.*
"What happened next?"
"Well the boy cut me free and eventually greased my joints up well enough that I could move again. The last night the boy worked on me there was sadness in his eyes as he put the last touches on my face plates. He finished his shineing then sat there and began to talk. He told me of his life, and of his dead parents, and then he told me about me.
'Do you know what? You're one of the greatest heroes of the world. My grandfather told me that there were these really bad people who came and killed a lot of us but you and many other ones like you came you and a whole army like you came to defend us. The bad people swarmed you and your companions but you fought them off. they had a few like you too, but you slew them in one stroke. All at once the invaders descended on just you and split open your head. After smashing or killing or whatever was inside they withdraw again. You somehow recovered, grandpa said it was a miracle. But you went wild. You just started killing everything. When other's from your army approached you slew them and when the enemy retreated you went after and slew them too. Every last one.'
I roared. He stroked my face plate a little startled, but not discouraged.
'You won the day, you slew all the enemies! Enemy blood stains your claws and now they are no more, nothing can stand against you.'
He patted me fondly again. +NO! I... I wouldn't have!+
'After the battle you retreated to here,' he told me 'and died, though you had sustained no great injuries. Now you are alive again, and are about to leave.' I stood, something I hadn't done in years. The screech of metal on metal made the boys eyes go wide and he fell onto the switch that opens the cockpit. I stood there amazed that I was still alive after my head had 'exploded'and the boy took advantage of my being stunned and climbed into the cockpit. He was to be my first pilot. I wandered and when he needed food we stopped at villages to get some. I stayed. One day I found out what had happend to my army. They had attacked the invaders and utterly destroyed them. I found a few bones from the invaders skeletons in a field one day while I was wandering. There were two or three other's like me, other fallen Zoids. When I saw this I silently cried for their loss, but moved on. Every once in a while I'd come across another of my transformed comerades, but when I spoke to them they didn't not respond. It was as if they had forgotten. If I approached one of them they'd either stand their ground and fight me or run away. I always won. Many years after I aquired my first pilot he died. I didn't realize at first, then as a month passed I realized it had been a while since the boy had needed food realized what had happend and dumped him from my head. I hadn't liked him much though I had grown fond of him in the end, so I scraped some dirt over him and left. I wandered aimlessly for years, watching Zoidians die out and the humans take control. I felt pity for my former race, but I wasn't one of them anymore, and didn't care what happeend to them. I had become quite unattached from everone and everything. Besides, I reasoned to myself one night while pondering the new invaders, if they had really cared about me they would have missed me and would have come looking for me or my comerades."
He stopped and looked into the fire, guilt etching it's way across his face. I was silent. What could I say to all this? That he was crazy and needed to be drugged into oblivion? My stomache took this moment to grumble loudly. His head jerked up out of the memories and he grinned.
"I suppose you haven't eaten anything lately have you?" He rummaged around in a bright yellow pack that bulged to the limit, it's seams popping under the weight of everything it contained. He pulled out two containers of ramen, a large pot and a pouch of water. He laid the pot on the fire and poured the water into it and let it start to boil.
"Not recently no. If you were a Sheild Liger back then, then how did you come to be a regular Liger?" I watched him carefully looking for any hesitation on his part. He looked up sharply at me then back into the fire.
"It happened shortly after I was captured. I allowed them to take me, I was getting bored of wandering and I wanted another pilot. They were in a war, the first war since the Zoidians had fallen. These were the days when Ziods were just being tamed and the days when they were forgetting who they were...I was assigned an ameture pilot at first, but I didn't like him so I didn't allow him to stay in the cockpit. The assigned me another, better pilot. I accepted him. We were to go on a scouting mission, they figured that if we got into any kind of trouble I could at least have a some defense against an enemy. We had been gone for three days before we were found. A Konig Wolf found us." My eyebrows drew in in confusion. What the hell was a Konig Wolf? Apprently muy confusion must have shown again for he began to elaborate.
"A Konig Wolf is a like a Command Wolf only about three times faster and more powerful. It was built to destroy my kind. t caught mr totally unawares in the middle of the forrest, and I didn't even have time to raise my sheild before it sank it's electric teeth into me. I fell, and tried to turn around, but that form was too slow and it caused me to almost get killed. I got back up and readied to face it again, but it had run away. I thought it had just been playing with and had grown bored and gone away. My pilot was a bit shocked, he had never seen a Zoid like that before. Neither had I but he was the pilot and I had to respond ot most of his actions, so when he froze in shock so did I. The Wolf took advantage of that and took up a snipeing spot and struck me down. I hadn't had a chance to anything, everything had happened so fast. It was my first defeat. I couldn't believe my pilot. I had thought he had better skills than that, and after that I've studied the people who wanted to pilot me and if I found their skills did not please me i never let them in. Anyway, my pilot climbed out a day after my defeat and went back to his pitiful war to pilot another Zoid. I lay there for years before another found me. She was a young girl with raven black hair with ghostly white skin and delicate features. She walked up to me and tutted.
'Look what happend to you.' she said. She spoke to me as if she had known me my whole life. 'You should have been more careful. If I promise to bring you back stronger than before will you agree to something?'
I didn't think I could even growl I was so weakend, but I managed something. I did not want to fade in the middle of nowhere. I knew there were bigger things for me.
'I'll take that as a yes.' she grinned, I could barely tell, her teeth looked to be the same color of her skin. She walked over to my open cockpit and bruched all the wildlife and twigs and other things that had collected in there over the years. I suddenly didn't want her to touch me. She reminded me of someone, someone I didn't want to remember. SHe climbed into the cockpit after she had cleaned it out sufficiently and started playing in my head. That's what it feels like when you yank on the controls or give an order. I set my mind on something, and suddenly that something changes."
I shuddered there had been someone in my head and it hadn't been one of the most pleasant experiences.
"I've long since goten used to it, and I know what is really going on in my own head now, but when I had my very first pilots I was almost always confused by what I wanted to do and what I was being told to do. She played about with the controls for a few minutes then climbed down out of the cockpit and walked a perfet circle around where I lay, while muttering something incoherent. After she finished with the fist circle she did another, this time running her small pale white hand along my sides and legs as she made her way around, still muttering nonsense under her breath. She came back to my head and touched my nose just like She had all those years ago and I felt, really felt for the first time in who knew how long something. It statred as a tingle and as it moved down my body it turned into a burning wave. It hurt, and I jumped up from the sudden feeeling, and almost smashed the small girl into the turf, but she dodged away from my bulky claws before I could damage her. I shook myself, purely enjoying the sensation of moving. I roared and told the forrest it's king was back. I had been reborn as a Blade Liger."
don't own nuthin cept a couple a kawai models^_^. oh ya and i'll try to update sometime before the end of the year though I'm not promising nuthing.
Chapter 3
*****
After a few slow hours of unconscious I finally woke, shivering in the slight breeze. Wakeing was the first surprise of the day, and many more I found were comeing. It was still night outside, but a bright light painted orange and red across my vision in an odd mosiac of colors. I opened my eyes and stared confused at the campfire in front of me. My entire body ached, tiny rivults of pain shooting up my arms and legs as I tried to sit up. Even breathing hurt. *How am I still alive? My wounds must not have been as bad as I thought, but didn't sometihng fall on me? And what of the monster the Dragnois? More importantly where the hell am I and how did I get here?* I probed gently at my back and discovered bandages where I half remebered pulling out glass shards from the exploded windows. I grimaced at the movement then sat up strait was I realized I wasn't alone. The pain from that movement made me double over. A I felt a omforting hand on my shoulder after the pain passed and I looked up to see Li, the one person I hadn't expected to see at all. My surprise must have showed for he grinned and backed away to the other sidde of the fire again.
"Nearly lost you again. What's with you and almost dying anyway?" He handed me a small package with blanket wrapped up so many times I didn't think I'd find the end of it as I unwrapped it.
"So where are we? Shouldn't we be back at the base or something?" I ignored his question and posted one of my own.
"Well, where in the middle of the desert. Leena was headed out this way, and we need to catch her before she it's too late."
*Leena...that's right! She was going all nutsy on us and then stomped off. What the hell got into her?* Question's swirled through my head one leading to the next and creating more questions in the process.
"Ohhhkey.....well, how the hell did we get out here? I mean I couldn't have walked, I can barely breath without something acheing, and I don't see a car or any other sort of transportation...so how did we get here?"
He sighed and muttered something unintelligible then grinned at me, a white slashing of teeth through the night.
"The truth is I'm not who I seem. I've been around for centuries and have never had to do half the things I've had to do in the last few months. I've never had to heal myself, and realy have never had to; I never thought I'd fly again or eat food like a normal person, though I do admit flying isn't something a normal person does." He stared off into the distance at nothing.
*This guy has offically gone nutters. Where's a strait jacket when you need one anyway?* I pulled the blanket tighter around myself as the slight breeze picked up, and grimaced as pain spread fire down my nerves. *Not that I could move to put it on him in the first place.* I almost grinned but I caught sight of Li's face and quickly stopped. He was dead serious.
"Who are you really?" I looked at him really for the first time. Close cropped silver hair framed clear amber eyes, a delicate looking nose and a mouth that laughed at the world. His armor looked like Liger's, black and white. He had a dangerous air about him, and even unarmed he seemed capeable of very severe violence. He started slowly savoring the memories.
"I was what your raced called an Ancient Zoidian. Back then there were no Zoids, just the animals and us. Our continent was a vast vast place filed with jungles and plains of grassland lakes and ponds of all sizes. Villages were scattered around the whole continent and we lived in peace till one day we were invaded by another race of Zoidian's, a barbaric race that destroyed many of our villages and killed many of our strongest warriors. Our King and Queen summoned us to their valley one day we gathered in tremendous display. Deep into the valley was our...our...capital, our biggest city. We gathered in the plaza in the front gates that led to the desert and were about to recive a speech from out King when She burst in."
His gaze had turned inward long ago, but he turned to look at me, through me really, following the events over again as if they were happening now.
"The walls that surrounded the city were made of wood at the time, and an easy thing to break for a Zoid of Her size. She came galloping in as a great cat, much like a Lightning Saix, broke through our doors and seized control of the army with her look alone. Before our very eyes she shifted shape, and settled down into a very attractive human female form, and we fell to our knee's and proclaimed her Queen. The old king and queen didn't even put up a fight. There were several of us who did not fall, we were too awestruck or scared to move, me among them. She told us to go find animals, dinosaurs, beasts of every kind and tame them, then bring them back to her. We thought it odd, but she was our new Queen and She was not to be displeased. We dispersed to all the lands north south east and west of the city to find and bring back the animals we wanted. Anyway, many came back with beasts that could barely fit through the gates, other's with palm sized companions. Some found rare beasts that came to do horrible things as they let their memory slip of who they were."
I didn't get what he meant by that, but I paid even greater attention, not wanting to miss a bit of his story. It had been pure entertaiment thus far and I hoped it would get better. *A world without Zoids. He really has flipped his lid.*
"As we all assembled the next week in the plaza again as SHe had requested. No one dared talk. With a wave of her hand and a chain of gold surrounded the necks of every person there, and scared most of us either to our knee's or fainted on the spot. Magic was a thing that very few people had those days, and to see such a display would make even the strongest willed person doubt themselves. I had fallen to my knee's and had bowed my head when I saw the small disk form on the chain. At the time it was a blank gold coin, and back then even the smallest sliver of gold back then was worth a lot more than you. I glanced up at Her as she began to talk. She told us that once we walked through those gates we would never be the same and that if we did as we were told then we would live forever. Many didn't believe her. Many did. They had no time to reply for with one sharp gesture she told them to sleep and they did, all except for a hundred or so soldiers and lutenients who had not found beasts."
He paused again and turned to stare in the campfire. I was so far from believeing that I actually was beginning to believe. *Where is this going...What does this have to do with how we got here...?*
"Then she said, "For those of you who have no beast come with me for you are my Chosen. You are the bravest, cleverest, and strongest of this army. So you shall become even more powerful. Follow me to your destiny." I had not fallen asleep with the rest, so I trudged along behind her and the other men. First she took a group of thirty to the mountains. She came back alone. The next group of 30 went to the grasslands to the east. Again only she came back. The next group was of 30 as you probably have guessed went to the north. We were the last of her 'chosen'. She beckoned, we followed. We plunged in and walked for hours till we came to a clearing in what was undoubtedly the middle of the jungle. In the clearing there was a small waterfall that fed an even smaller pond. By that time we were very thirsty and weary, but not thirsty enough to approach the it for it was ringed by lions of every size and color. There were a few tiger's on the ledge where the water fell, but I have no idea what happened to them."
He looked up.
"I thought it odd at first that tiger's would be mixing with lions, but I forgot about that as soon as a sinister looking black maned one quickly caught my eye. I locked eyes with it and stared down into alien depths for what seemed like eternity. Finally I wrenched my gaze away and looked around to see everyone else but Her was just as transfixed as I had been. The women who had been in our party were gone. I looked back at my lion and found it was slowly advancing on me, then stopped about a meter away and stared at me with those alien eyes. I stared back, then held out a tentative hand, inviting him closer. He sprang on me, claws as big as daggers I had not seen unsheathed. I grimaced in pain as they tore through the light chain mail I had on and into my shoulders underneath."
He was really into his story now, he'd even grimaced in pain as he'd told the part about getting clawed.
"His weight was suffocating but I bore through it and his tests. He leaned down close and nipped my cheek, getting rancid smelling slobber all over me, then licked it all back up, tasting me."
A ghost of a smile almost played it's way across his lips.
"I grabbed his mane and pulled his head closer, then licked his nose and then pulled the chain off and looped it around his neck. There was a tingling sensation and the world went black then I felt as my skin was getting to large for me to hold me, to hard to be my own. Then some tree branches were poking me in the eye and there were twigs in my mouth, and I found I was on all fours instead of on my own two feet. I looked down to find Her weeping. 'What is wrong?' I tried to ask, but again all that came out was a lions roar. I was puzzled by this, but she pointed to the pond in a silent request to look. I took a step forward to look into the pond and nearly crushed her, my hand was now a paw made of something other than flesh and as big as the pond itself. I peered down into the pond and found no eye to glare back. I had become a Shield Liger. I took a step back and a twig snapped, but it wasn't a twig, just a very small tree. In a sudden rage I tore down other numerous tree's till the small clearing had become bigger then myself. The small pond had been covered with tree's but she hadn't been touched in my rampage. When I stopped, my feet buckled from underneath me and I landed with my nose barely touching Her soft small legs. She ran her hand along my new nose and muttered something under her breath, then aloud she said
'You are one of the first, you are the first of your species the Ligers. You now are Liger and forever you shall be. Or at least till you lose the will to live.'
The last was barely above a whisper, and I had a hard time focusing on her shape.
'You must not forget who you are, or terrible power shall be loosed upon the world that no one could stand against.'
The last I don't know if I heard or if it was simply my imagination but for the last time in my 'life' I slept. Year's later I awoke. Even I have no idea how long I slept. When I awoke I was covered in vines and blood was permanently stained to my claws. 'Where has this some from? 'I asked myself over and over again as I lay there in the dark the first night. As it began to get brighter and brighter I saw that a shrine had been built in front of my face. A young boy was always there trying to keep things tidy and orderly. I didn't know and couldn't move enough to ask. I had begun to rust and the vines had penetrated every nook and cranny that my new body possessed. One day after watching the people come to leave their offerings I asked the boy if he could clear the vines from me. He was so startled that he nearly fainted; a statue had come to life just for him. Of course he had no idea what I'd asked him to do, but I made an attempt to get up then fell down hard on purpose to tell him what it was I'd wanted."
He stopped and took a dep breath then began again.
"He left momentarily and came back with a small knife and began to cut the vines away from me. He worked hard all night then as the sun began to rise again he fell asleep on top of my back his little knife still cutting into a vine that had wrapped it's way around one of the protruding metal things on my back. People came as they always did and left again saying a few words of thanks at a victory I had given them long ago and the plea to keep guarding their small village. I had no idea of what they were talking about at the time, but I planned to go see what had become of all my comrades as soon as I could move."
He fell silent for a time, reliving the experience. *This...is amazing! He's...he's the first Zoid ever created! Jesus tap dancing Christ. He's gotta be like a million years old!* After a few more moments of stareing into the fire, *No into the...past.* he looked up at me not through me, then grinned.
"Think I'm crazy yet?"
"...No." He raised an eyebrow, then he grinned again. *How can this be real...? But how can it not be? With all that I've seen recently there's not much you can say is impossible.*
"What happened next?"
"Well the boy cut me free and eventually greased my joints up well enough that I could move again. The last night the boy worked on me there was sadness in his eyes as he put the last touches on my face plates. He finished his shineing then sat there and began to talk. He told me of his life, and of his dead parents, and then he told me about me.
'Do you know what? You're one of the greatest heroes of the world. My grandfather told me that there were these really bad people who came and killed a lot of us but you and many other ones like you came you and a whole army like you came to defend us. The bad people swarmed you and your companions but you fought them off. they had a few like you too, but you slew them in one stroke. All at once the invaders descended on just you and split open your head. After smashing or killing or whatever was inside they withdraw again. You somehow recovered, grandpa said it was a miracle. But you went wild. You just started killing everything. When other's from your army approached you slew them and when the enemy retreated you went after and slew them too. Every last one.'
I roared. He stroked my face plate a little startled, but not discouraged.
'You won the day, you slew all the enemies! Enemy blood stains your claws and now they are no more, nothing can stand against you.'
He patted me fondly again. +NO! I... I wouldn't have!+
'After the battle you retreated to here,' he told me 'and died, though you had sustained no great injuries. Now you are alive again, and are about to leave.' I stood, something I hadn't done in years. The screech of metal on metal made the boys eyes go wide and he fell onto the switch that opens the cockpit. I stood there amazed that I was still alive after my head had 'exploded'and the boy took advantage of my being stunned and climbed into the cockpit. He was to be my first pilot. I wandered and when he needed food we stopped at villages to get some. I stayed. One day I found out what had happend to my army. They had attacked the invaders and utterly destroyed them. I found a few bones from the invaders skeletons in a field one day while I was wandering. There were two or three other's like me, other fallen Zoids. When I saw this I silently cried for their loss, but moved on. Every once in a while I'd come across another of my transformed comerades, but when I spoke to them they didn't not respond. It was as if they had forgotten. If I approached one of them they'd either stand their ground and fight me or run away. I always won. Many years after I aquired my first pilot he died. I didn't realize at first, then as a month passed I realized it had been a while since the boy had needed food realized what had happend and dumped him from my head. I hadn't liked him much though I had grown fond of him in the end, so I scraped some dirt over him and left. I wandered aimlessly for years, watching Zoidians die out and the humans take control. I felt pity for my former race, but I wasn't one of them anymore, and didn't care what happeend to them. I had become quite unattached from everone and everything. Besides, I reasoned to myself one night while pondering the new invaders, if they had really cared about me they would have missed me and would have come looking for me or my comerades."
He stopped and looked into the fire, guilt etching it's way across his face. I was silent. What could I say to all this? That he was crazy and needed to be drugged into oblivion? My stomache took this moment to grumble loudly. His head jerked up out of the memories and he grinned.
"I suppose you haven't eaten anything lately have you?" He rummaged around in a bright yellow pack that bulged to the limit, it's seams popping under the weight of everything it contained. He pulled out two containers of ramen, a large pot and a pouch of water. He laid the pot on the fire and poured the water into it and let it start to boil.
"Not recently no. If you were a Sheild Liger back then, then how did you come to be a regular Liger?" I watched him carefully looking for any hesitation on his part. He looked up sharply at me then back into the fire.
"It happened shortly after I was captured. I allowed them to take me, I was getting bored of wandering and I wanted another pilot. They were in a war, the first war since the Zoidians had fallen. These were the days when Ziods were just being tamed and the days when they were forgetting who they were...I was assigned an ameture pilot at first, but I didn't like him so I didn't allow him to stay in the cockpit. The assigned me another, better pilot. I accepted him. We were to go on a scouting mission, they figured that if we got into any kind of trouble I could at least have a some defense against an enemy. We had been gone for three days before we were found. A Konig Wolf found us." My eyebrows drew in in confusion. What the hell was a Konig Wolf? Apprently muy confusion must have shown again for he began to elaborate.
"A Konig Wolf is a like a Command Wolf only about three times faster and more powerful. It was built to destroy my kind. t caught mr totally unawares in the middle of the forrest, and I didn't even have time to raise my sheild before it sank it's electric teeth into me. I fell, and tried to turn around, but that form was too slow and it caused me to almost get killed. I got back up and readied to face it again, but it had run away. I thought it had just been playing with and had grown bored and gone away. My pilot was a bit shocked, he had never seen a Zoid like that before. Neither had I but he was the pilot and I had to respond ot most of his actions, so when he froze in shock so did I. The Wolf took advantage of that and took up a snipeing spot and struck me down. I hadn't had a chance to anything, everything had happened so fast. It was my first defeat. I couldn't believe my pilot. I had thought he had better skills than that, and after that I've studied the people who wanted to pilot me and if I found their skills did not please me i never let them in. Anyway, my pilot climbed out a day after my defeat and went back to his pitiful war to pilot another Zoid. I lay there for years before another found me. She was a young girl with raven black hair with ghostly white skin and delicate features. She walked up to me and tutted.
'Look what happend to you.' she said. She spoke to me as if she had known me my whole life. 'You should have been more careful. If I promise to bring you back stronger than before will you agree to something?'
I didn't think I could even growl I was so weakend, but I managed something. I did not want to fade in the middle of nowhere. I knew there were bigger things for me.
'I'll take that as a yes.' she grinned, I could barely tell, her teeth looked to be the same color of her skin. She walked over to my open cockpit and bruched all the wildlife and twigs and other things that had collected in there over the years. I suddenly didn't want her to touch me. She reminded me of someone, someone I didn't want to remember. SHe climbed into the cockpit after she had cleaned it out sufficiently and started playing in my head. That's what it feels like when you yank on the controls or give an order. I set my mind on something, and suddenly that something changes."
I shuddered there had been someone in my head and it hadn't been one of the most pleasant experiences.
"I've long since goten used to it, and I know what is really going on in my own head now, but when I had my very first pilots I was almost always confused by what I wanted to do and what I was being told to do. She played about with the controls for a few minutes then climbed down out of the cockpit and walked a perfet circle around where I lay, while muttering something incoherent. After she finished with the fist circle she did another, this time running her small pale white hand along my sides and legs as she made her way around, still muttering nonsense under her breath. She came back to my head and touched my nose just like She had all those years ago and I felt, really felt for the first time in who knew how long something. It statred as a tingle and as it moved down my body it turned into a burning wave. It hurt, and I jumped up from the sudden feeeling, and almost smashed the small girl into the turf, but she dodged away from my bulky claws before I could damage her. I shook myself, purely enjoying the sensation of moving. I roared and told the forrest it's king was back. I had been reborn as a Blade Liger."
don't own nuthin cept a couple a kawai models^_^. oh ya and i'll try to update sometime before the end of the year though I'm not promising nuthing.