Welcome to chapter three. Here you see some events and not just random day-to-day happenings. Enjoy.

Absolutely no Dragonlance characters belong to me.







Dragons of a Modern Age

chapter three



Unfortunately, Tanis wasn't completely 'fixed' the next morning. Taliya dropped him off with his friends with a frown.

"Darn, it didn't work . . . " she muttered as she walked off.

"What didn't work?" Tas wondered.

"You don't want to know," Tanis intoned darkly. This just earned him odd looks. "No, not that! Do your brains live in the gutter or something?!"

The whole day pretty much passed by in a haze for Tanis. It seemed like his body was running on autopilot while his brain was off in some faraway realm. One of the only things he noticed was that Gilthanas did seem a bit friendlier. That realization did nothing but confuse him.

Finally, the time for his date with Laurana arrived. Tika and Goldmoon had thrown him out to the nearby field and made him pick some flowers earlier, so he was now waiting, rather ill at ease, for her to come out, with said flowers.

While he was waiting, Laurana had quickly dashed into the bathroom to make sure she looked all right.

'My hair could use a bit of brushing,' she thought, digging in her bag for her hairbrush. Not finding it, she turned to the only other person in there at the time. "Kitiara, you have a brush I can borrow?"

"It's unsanitary to share brushes," she replied, a bit coldly.

"Oh . . . Sorry, I can't believe I forgot that." Laurana hastily used her fingers to get the knots out and ran out to meet Tanis. "Sorry I'm late, Tanthalas!"

"Er . . . It's not a problem. Here, these are for you." Nervously, he handed her the small bouquet he picked.

Laurana accepted them, blushing. "Thank you. Um, well . . . let's get going then."

They bought tickets to the movie they thought was most interesting that was currently playing and sat down to watch.

It was about a boy who had died and come back to life with strange new powers, which was very unusual in the real world unless one of the gods intervened. The boy teamed up with three others who also had superhuman powers to fight against an evil king from a place called Meikai who was trying to take over the world.

Laurana found it really sad when blue-haired girl was kidnapped while the main character could do nothing to save her. Tanis noticed her unhappiness, and put an arm around her.

The movie continued, with all the fight scenes, until the evil king was defeated. They both left the theater, talking about their favorite parts.

"I rather liked the ending," Laurana remarked.

"It was nice," Tanis admitted. "But I think I liked the part when the three-eyed evil guy realized he underestimated his, also three-eyed, foe."

Suddenly, Laurana noticed it was starting to get dark. Rather reluctantly, they said goodbye and went home.

When Laurana arrived at her house, Gilthanas immediately started to question her. "Did he do anything to you? Did anything bad happen?"

"It was fine, brother. No need to worry," happily, she set off up the stairs to her room.

Tanis managed to avoid his sister and grandfather since both were currently out of the house, and flopped down on his bed to think on how much he actually enjoyed it.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~


They continued to date like this for a long time, and, within a week, the whole school knew they were going out. Taliya, Gilthanas, and all their friends wasted no opportunity to lock the two together in empty classrooms, storage closets, etc.

Gilthanas became much friendlier towards Tanis, but still said, "If you ever break Laurana's heart, I will come after your blood."

Kitiara drifted farther and farther from the group as the time passed, and eventually dropped out altogether, making friends with another student named Ariakas.

And, also, as Kitiara dropped out of the group, Tanis began to like Laurana more and more. He also realized he no longer liked Kitiara in that way anymore.

Then, one day, his grandfather got a hold of an ancient sword.

"Taliya, Tanis! Come and look at this! The very same sword of legends, held by Kith-Kanan, then Tanis Half-Elven! The legend behind this is so great that — "

Taliya tuned him out and took the sword, turning it over and admiring it. "Fealan thalos, Im murquanethi. Sai Kith-Kananoth Murtari Larion," she murmured in tribute to one of the greatest Elven kings ever to walk on Krynn. "Wyrmslayer, first wielded by our king, second by the legendary Tanis Half-Elven."

"Yes, and our Tanis is the namesake of the Hero," their grandfather said proudly, pausing in his retelling of the legend itself.

Taliya reverently handed it to Tanis, to whom it felt strangely familiar. Not quite sure what he was doing, he lifted Wyrmslayer and executed an intricate sword-dance, right there in the living room. His brain seemed removed from his body, which was doing this all on its own. Images flooded his mind, images of a Krynn hundreds and thousands of years gone by, Krynn during the War of the Lance.

Shocked, and finally regaining control, the enchanted blade fell, clattering, to the floor. Tanis clutched his head, which ached as if a dwarf were inside, hammering. He barely heard the worried cries of his sister and grandfather, drowning in what felt like an endless sea of memories, images, bits of speeches, faces, and all sorts of ghostly figures.

He couldn't tell past from present anymore, it was so muddled. Then, in that sea of faces, he saw Laurana, only appearing slightly different from how he had seen her earlier that day at school. Using her face as a focus, he was finally able to place all the pieces of the puzzle back into place. Finally, the storm subsided.

He was, at last, able to fully comprehend that his family was frantically trying to get a response out of him. Groggily, he sat up, having no clue how he ended up flat on his back, on the floor, with the magic blade of Kith-Kanan next to him.

"Tanis! Oh, gods . . . Little brother! Come on, please say you can hear me!" Taliy was on the verge of tears while their grandfather was frantically chanting useless "spells" on him. Of course, those "spells" weren't actually real spells. The old man only thought they were spells. But, sometimes, thought can become reality. Not in this case though.

"What . . . where am I?" Tains croaked, feeling curiously exhausted.

"T-Tanis . . . " The tears spilled over the brim. "We thought you were dying!" Taliya grabbed and hugged him tight, then began to shake him. "Never, ever scare us like that again!"

"S-sis! You're sc-scrambling my brains!" Tanis squeaked. She stopped.

"You are all right, aren't you?" she asked anxiously.

"Yes — " He was interrupted by a huge sobbing sound. His grandfather had hugged him from behind and was currently sobbing into Tanis's back.

"The spells worked! Oh Paladine, Mishakal, Kiri-Jolith, and fellow gods, thank you so much!"

"Uh, grandpa, my back's soaked now . . . "

"Praise all the gods that he has returned to us!"

"Grandpa . . . "

"Th — " Neither Tanis or Taliya could stand his preaching any longer. They both buried him under a pile of cushions.

"What happened?" Taliya asked.

" . . . It's really hard to explain . . . "

"Oh, come on, you can do it."

"I'm not appreciated," their grandfather complained, sticking his head out of the cushion pile.

"Sure you are, Grandpa. It's just that Tanis is trying to talk and you're interrupting," Taliya said sweetly. "Not to mention all those legends," she muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Something I'll tell you later. Now, Tanis, please continue."

'I guess I'm trapped,' Tanis thought wryly. "I'm not really sure why, but . . . when Taliya gave me Wyrmslayer, this – I guess you could call it a flood of memories – took over my mind. It was so confusing . . . and that's an understatement!"

"If that explains why you looked like you were in pain, then what about that sword-dance earlier?" Taliya probed. "Sure, you did used to take some swordplay lessons, but there is no way any of those could have taught you that level of skill. It was beautiful to watch," she added quietly.

"I think it was part of the memories," Tanis answered.

"Then . . . what were the memories?"

This, Tanis didn't answer, couldn't answer. It was too unbelievable, he couldn't, not for a moment, imagine even his far-fetched grandfather believing it.

He settled for saying, "I don't know."

Taliya and his grandfather gave him odd looks, but left off on the questioning.









The movie mentioned is the second Yu Yu Hakusho movie. Yes, I have an obsession with anime. And, now that the plot's finally set in motion, I think the chapters should come out a bit faster.

Same as always, all comments are appreciated. They're all inspiring, really. Just don't flame me. I may like fire, but not that kind.

Kuroki Kaze: Well, it's your opinion. I just have trouble thinking up English-style names and find Japanese ones much easier.

Ja!