Sorry that took so long, my phone got cut off for a day or two and I couldn't get anything uploaded. If anybody has any ideas for this story and would like to help me out, the more, the merrier! R & R, please! ~Sergeant Phoenix
Chapter 2 ~ Encounter
"Here, that'll be 15G," the clerk said at the counter of Porre's only café. It was a nice little place, with a piano in the corner. The only thing strange about the scene was a kilwala sitting at the piano, playing a tearfully sad tune on the ivory keys. There wasn't another piano player like him in the world or so the frequenters of Porre Café said. Crono certainly hadn't ever seen anything like him.
"So, what're you kids up to today, eh…?" the clerk said, handing them their plates of food. Crono and Lucca's had eaten two large plates of corned beef surrounded by carrots, potatoes, and cabbage while Marle had a bowl of clam chowder. The clerk handed them three mugs of apple cider as they handed him empty dishes.
"Not much, Nick," Crono replied, gulping cider out of his glass. "Just running around."
"Ah…just being kids?"
"If you want to call it that, I guess," Crono said, digging into his plate. He stopped just long enough to point a finger at the clerk. "But, we're not kids."
"Oh, I know," Nick replied as he began to wash out a glass. "But, just because ya aren't kids anymore doesn't mean ya can't act like it." He leaned forward to whisper, looking around and making sure no one was paying any attention to him. "You couldn't go and get another box of jerky seasoning in Choras, now, couldja…? Gotta have it to make some more jerky, if I order it now, it won't be here for another week. Hoppin to Choras and back should be nothing for ya!"
"Hmm….Lucca, do we need anything from Choras….?" Crono asked, turning to her in the bar stool.
"I…"
Lucca was just about to answer his question when the bell rang at the entrance to the café, meaning that someone had come inside. The door clattered shut behind the man with long silver hair and a sword on his back that would make the best of knights think twice. Everyone seemed to cringe in their seats a little as he passed them, making his way toward the bar.
Crono seemed unaffected, drinking from his mug like nothing had happened while everyone else in the room was deathly quiet. The only sound that could be heard was the predictable clunk of a pair of boots on the hardwood floor.
And Crono gulping cider.
But, then he stopped.
The man was looking at him. He was watching him from only a few feet away.
Crono watched the man's eyes intently.
Were they……glowing…?
The man's eyes gave off a cool green hue. They were studying every fiber of his being, boring down into the depths of his soul, and judging him for everything he was worth. They seemed as though they could set fire to anything they turned their gaze toward. There was nothing in the room more captivating.
They weren't menacing or angry eyes of any sort. They were calm, just as his posture was calm, nonchalant, apathetic. The kind of person that you thought could outstare the devil himself. The walls and ceiling could cave in and he would still be there, just as detached from the world as he was before.
It was a relief to hear him speak.
"May I sit here…?" he said, gesturing to the bar stool between Lucca and Crono.
"Yeah…..s'sure…" Crono replied. He didn't really care if the man sat there, but he quickly found himself wondering what would've happened if he had said 'no'. And just as quickly, he decided that he didn't want to know.
The clerk swiftly and efficiently poured the man a mug of cider and sat it on the counter in front of him. The man sat down in the stool and picked it up.
"Here's a gift to ya, newcomer, on th' house," he said, trying to mask his nervousness with a tiny smile.
The man nodded, allowing the clerk to go and attend to other customers at the far end of the bar. He turned to Crono.
"Where am I?"
Crono and Marle exchanged glances.
"Well….you're in the city of Porre, on the southern continent," Marle replied, a tinge of anxiety in her voice. As she watched him take a drink of the cider, her eyes drifted down to a hanging pendant on a gold chain. It was a deep violet, almost red hue encircled in a gold band. She tried her hardest not to stare at it, but the pendant…was so much like her own. She quickly tucked her own pendant down into her shirt, looking over at Lucca. Lucca seemed to be a tad uneasy as well.
"We should be getting back," she commented, finishing off the rest of her cider. "We've got those mattresses to take back and then we have to go to Choras."
Crono nodded in agreement, handing his mug to the clerk.
"Seeya later, Nick. Seeya, man," he said to the man in the stool next to him. "Have a nice stay in Porre."
Crono, Marle, and Lucca exited the café, letting the door clatter shut behind them.
The man in the stool motioned for the clerk.
"Where is Choras…?" he asked.
"Choras…? It's a city on the southeastern continent, a pretty decent distance from here," he said, a tad perplexed. Who was this man that he didn't know where the city of Choras lied on the planet? He dismissed the thought, not wanting to become involved with him. "The boats go that way once or twice a day, but it takes a few days to cross the ocean. I wouldn't go to Choras unless it was something important, like for medicine or just for a vacation."
The man was quiet then, watching vacuously the bubbles in the mug on the bar in front of him. He swirled the liquid in the glass, a small bit of it plopping down onto the counter.
"…..Choras……"
