Megaman Battle Network - New Generation
Book 5 - Creator of Darkness
By Zelloss
Author's Note: Book 5 already... And I haven't even finished book 2 or 4 yet... Oh well. Did you notice the book's name? 'Creator of Darkness'? Does that give you a hint?? And I went through a few names for this chapter... 'Iced Cream', 'Festival Night', and 'Black Card', before finally deciding on the most innocent thing I think I've ever written in here: 'Cookie'. And this chapter is probably the most innocent thing you'll see in the entire New Gen, so enjoy it... ^^
Chapter 1 - Cookie
Slowly, I awoke.
Ah, I could sense it. A bad day was coming soon... Today? Yeah, that's what the cards had said...
I sat up for a moment. Yes, three days ago it had said it would be three days from now that some kind of catastrophe would hit the island.
I absolutly hate days like that.
I thudded back down onto my bed, my short, messy purple hair spreading on the pillow.
"It's time to wake up!"
"Oh, go away, bro..." I whined through the door.
"No, not today..." Jounou was calling out, wrapping on the door. "You know today's the Festival!"
My deep, purple eyes shot open. The festival? And yet, the cards had foretold...
"Comeon, slowpoke, it's time to get up!" Jounou shouted.
"I... I don't feel well..." I joked a bit, trying to sound realistic.
"Dad, brother's lying again!" Jounou shouted.
"Get up, lazyass!" I heard my dad's harsh voice through the walls.
"Alright!" I cried back. I threw the sheets back, and planted my feet on the floor, getting up.
I straightened up my baggy, black pants, and grabbed the side of my Tygyrenn sash, tightening it up. The Tygyrenn was a rough, woolen sash, usually scarlot in color. It gets it's past from the whole 'island war', the scarlet color was to hide the fact they were bleeding from the enemy...
As for the pants, although they were a couple sizes to big for me (Dad said I'd grow into them), what kind of significance they have makes no sense to me. After all, the island is rather chilly, but baggy pants like this, you'd think they wouldn't keep you warm.
I walked over to my desk, rubbing my eyes, and grabbed onto my silken black shirt. I tucked it uner the Tygyrenn sash. The shirt, as far as I know, just looked kinda neat, with it's short sleeves, and close neckline.
I grabbed onto the doorhandle, and pulled it open.
Jounou smiled at me. "Morning, bro!"
Jounou was a pest, really. He had the bright blue eyes and silver hair of his mother. While I got stuck with the 'accursedly bad' looks of dad, as he said. Honestly, I think having deep purple hair and eyes really sets you apart, don't you?
Oh, stupid me! I haven't introduced myself!
My name is Neero Grausherra. Creator of Darkness.
And, seeing as how you already know the tales of my descendants, it's time you know MY story! After all, you can't know the end, without knowing the beginning, can you?
And if you mention the fact that the story actually began about 700 years ago, I'll tell you to go shove it. Or something like that.
But I don't need to tell you that old legend, there's hardly enough time for my story!!
Either way, I turned and faced the living room of our one-floor house on Eyod.
"Hello, Neero..." Dad smiled.
"Where's mum?" I asked, seeing she wasn't anywhere around.
"She's already out preparing the festival..." Dad answered. My dad, Terso Grausherra, had the same dark purple eyes and hair as I did. He was very tall, a good sign for me. Well, tall for an Eyodian, about 6 feet in your sizing.
Oh, and me? I'm just over ten years old. My hobbies? Reading and Divination - The ability to tell the future. After all, that kind of thing IS an important part of the old Eyodian Culture.
Yes, this is Eyod. This place, which is like any other island, I would suspect, sees snow every year, and sun as well. That's actually rather nice, I think it's normal. I didn't know that it would change soon enough.
I grinned, and looked at the icebox. I pulled it open. "What's for breakfast?"
I looked through the contents of the Icebox, sliding out each of it's drawers. "Apples... Bread... Carrots... I think I'm going through the alphabet..."
"Grab yourself whatever you want..." Terso smiled, his head bent over the low table.
"Busy with something, dad?" I asked, closing all the Icebox's drawers and walking over, hiding a few cookies in a pocket of my pants.
Dad loomed over a set of cards.
I shut my mouth, watching carefully. Dad was working with the old Eyodian Deck, a Shisar... The cards that are believed to be able to tell the future.
Dad had mixed the deck, and had seperated it into three piles, with the left hand, then mixed them back up and seperated again with the right, as accustom for one to do in this way. You use both hands at all times so that neither the good or bad side of you influences the cards.
"I'm trying to see what today will be like..." Terso responded, grabbing onto the first card with his left hand.
He flipped it up.
I knew that one, too. The winding trail up the mountain, the peasants walking from a bleak pit towards the top of a shining mountain. "The Advance."
"Yeah... And..." he grabbed his right hand, and flipped over the third card.
The falling snow, the freezing cedars, it was all very obvious. We didn't need to see the buildup on the young woman's hat to see it was The Snow.
"If you will..." Terso pulled back.
I reached for the middle card, from the other side, put both hands on it, and flipped it over.
We both froze.
The card was blank. It was all completely black.
"Ho... Hold on..." Terso shook his head. "This... makes no sense..."
"I know, I've never seen any card like it before..." I gasped.
"Huh? ..." Jounou looked at the card. "What is it supposed to mean?"
"Neero, you flipped it over..." Terso looked up. "Which hand did you use when you turned it over?"
"Both" I responded honestly.
Terso bit his tounge. "Okay, despite this... this... whatever, I think my mind's clogged up... I can't do this right now..."
Terso stood up, and packed together the deck of cards, putting the black one aside.
As Terso walked out of the house, muttering something, Jounou grabbed the deck.
"I want to confirm it..." Jounou thought hard.
"Okay..." I sat down opposite him, and Jounou did the same opening procedure. Shuffle and cut with the left hand, then shuffle and cut with the right hand. The black card remained to the side.
Jounou thought for a few moments. "Okay... What's with the Black Card? Did Neero do it?"
"Hey!" I made a mock cry.
"Oh, don't bother, I just wanna know!" Jounou smiled.
"But, dad's..." I blinked.
"Don't you wanna find this out too? Besides, you've done it before..." Jounou grinned.
"When you put it that way..." I sighed.
"Okay..." Jounou grabbed the first one. "You're the expert at interpretation, so..."
Jounou flipped up the left one with his left hand. The two, men and woman, kissing and doing something me and Jounou were probably too young to figure out (Well, I knew, but that's because I read a lot... Jounou, well, it was better he didn't know. He was only 7, after all). "Lovers..." I responded instantly.
"Okay..." Jounou thought, before turning over the far right one.
Two boys. They were both standing back to back, looking almost the exact same. Except, around one boy, there was an aura of light, a darkness at the very center. On the other, there was an aura of darkness, a light at the very center. "The Inversed Brothers..."
Jounou nodded. "Mabye it's telling me your future!"
I blushed a bit.
"Ha ha, gotch'ya!" Jounou grinned. "Oh, but... You have to do the third, 'tis custom..."
I reached with my left hand, then stopped, and grabbed it with both, flipping it over.
I stared again.
The black card...?
I looked over to the side. Yeah, it was still there... So another one?
"..." I stood, speechless, looking at the strange omen.
"Neero, you're the interpreter..." Jounou looked up at me.
"Alright..." I looked. "Yeah, the Lovers and the Inversed Brothers..." I thought. "And a Blank Card..."
I thought for a moment. "Okay. Lovers and Inversed Brothers... That's a confusing proposition..."
I looked over at Jounou.
He looked at me.
We both shuddered.
"No, enough of that..." I sighed. "Okay, let's see. The Lovers probably refers to my future wife... The one... That dad said he'd make me engage tonight..."
"Oh, THAT girl..." Jounou grinned.
"Will you PLEASE tell me who it is??" I cried out.
"Nope! Dad made me promise" Jounou stuck his tounge out.
"Fine..." I sighed. "But that is the girl... Okay. And the Inverted Brothers... It's possible in many things..."
"Oh?" Jounou asked.
"Well, it could be symblifying us... Or perhaps my twin sons... Or mabye it is one person torn apart two ways..." I sighed. "It's a hard one, without the help of the other two. But the Lovers makes me think of a child..."
"Why's that?" Jounou asked, a bit curious.
"Oh, nevermind" I stuck my tounge out. "And... This blank one... Always, the middle is the identity of the person who's fortune is being told..." I thought. "The person who's recieving always flips over the middle card..."
"Oh, so the blank card represents you?" Jounou asked.
I shook my head. "Well, there is ONE other way to interpret it... But the black card, a second one where there never were any... It could mean that the Inverted Brothers and Lovers are outside factors that are affecting my future, but that would mean that the Black Card IS my future..."
"Nothing?" Jounou blinked.
"Damn, this is too creepy, I KNEW I shouldn't have gotten up this morning..." I sighed, packing up the deck. I was lucky I did.
"Boys, boys!" Terso suddenly ran in. He didn't notice there were now Two Black Cards. "You have to come! Something extrodinary has happened!"
We stood up quickly. "What?" I asked.
"Somebody... Another human, from a far away land, he landed on a 'boat', as he calls it..." Terso looked around. "Comeon, this is big! Bigger then big! This is the first time in Eyodian History that somebody has ever arrived on this island since we were seperated from the Continent, 700 years ago!" Terso turned and dashed out.
"I'm coming!" I ran, following my father.
* * * * *
We ran outside, and the small center of the little village was empty. A few decorations hung around the town - flourescent materials, ribbons, the like - hanging from cables suspended between the houses and off of the tip of the giant glass fountain in the center.
Everybody was down at the beach, so me, my father, and Jounou ran, down the small snowy trail, to see who this 'visitor' was.
There was a group of people down at the beach. That was the small population of our village, and some strange, metallic object floating in the water. It was rather large, I noted.
A woman ran up to me. "Ah! Mum!" I smiled.
Mother looked a lot like Jounou did, he got her looks - The flowing silvery hair and brilliant blue eyes that marked her as part of the Hitomi family - The Light family. That always confused me - Grausherra was darkness. You'd never expect love to come from them.
"Ah, Jounou, Neero... You won't believe this! Comeon, you have to meet them!"
"Them?" I blinked.
Mother grabbed my shoulders and pushed me through the crowd.
I gasped.
There was a rather tall man, even taller then my dad, by about half of a foot. His fiery red hair was pulled back into a long ponytail, the top of his head covered up by a white hat. His face was tanned from the sunlight, his features looking not too old, and a well-formed body. What struck me most was his clothes - a baggy white shirt without sleeves that went past the bicep, and some kind of blue fabric that I had never seen before woven into pants, weird stitching all over them.
Then, I knew why mother had said 'them'.
Meekly peeking out from behind the man's pants, was a beautiful girl. Truly beautiful.
The girl was about my height, and looked to be about my age. She had shining green eyes, the color of which I had never seen before on the island. Her features were colorful, youthful, and shy. Her brilliant whitish-golden hair flowed down most of her back, and her clothes we so very similar to her father's clothes, although her shirt was a rather light red.
The girl looked up at me, blinked, and hid her head again.
"Oh... don't be shy, Aroyea, come on out!" the man laughed. "No need to be shy..."
His words were in a foreign language, but I could swear I picked out 'Aroyea' as being the girls name... It didn't sound like the rest of his words.
"But they speak another language, daddy!" the girl clung to her father.
"Excuse me..." the man called out. "My name is Jamsu. Does anybody speak Electopian?"
There was a few moments of silence.
"Nobody... But... There has to be some semblence of something... According to the maps, this place doesn't even exist!" the man babbled.
We stayed silent.
"Are you hungry?" I asked, pushing my way forwards. I grabbed for the cookies, and pulled out one, offering it to the girl.
The girl hid again.
"Don't be silly, Aroyea!" he grabbed the girl's shoulders, pulling her around. "I think the boy wants you to eat it!"
"They scare me, daddy..." she clung tight to her father.
I stood there, holding out the cookie. There was a low growl from the girl's stomach.
"But, I am kinda hungry..." she reached out, timidly, and snatched the cookie away, biting it.
She paused after the first bite.
"Yum! It's delicious!" she ate the rest in a couple bites.
I smiled, extending my hand forward, only my middle and index fingers out.
The girl looked at me, before smiling back at me, and doing the same. Our fingers touched, and I pulled my hand back.
Not just because that was the traditional way of greeting, but... Her fingers were so warm...
"What's your name...?" she asked.
I thought for a moment. What was she asking me...? I produced another cookie.
"Well, I'm going to call you cookie!" she laughed a bit.
I thought for a moment. Well... would it be worth a shot? Just from listening, I think I had figured out what she asked me...
"My... name..." I spoke nervously, "is... Neero."
"Hello, Neero!" she smiled.
I smiled back.
And that was the 'first contact' I had with the outside world.
* * * * *
Needless to say, there was much to celebrate. I was constantly busy that day, not even bothering to think about the fact that I would be engaged to a different girl... But did it matter? To be married and to be in love are two different things, right?
Me and Aroyea were trying to learn to communicate with each other - I'd say what I wanted in sign language, and once she figured it out, she'd tell me how to say it... I learned the basics of the language rather quickly, despite how unusual it was for my tounge, used to the quick changes between syllables that the Eyodians used, to slow down for Aroyea to understand me.
But that was her name, all right. Her father, if I was understanding her right, was named Jamsu, as I thought. While as Aroyea was teaching me the language, Jounou was off gossiping with the other kids in the village.
A slightly round girl walked over to me. One of our own. She had a rather rude look on her face.
"Neero! Neero, Neero, Neero... What about the poor girl who gets you tonight?" Perce stuck her tounge out.
"Ah, go away!" I stuck my tounge right back out, tempted to curse her away. I caught myself using Aroyea's language, and quickly restated it in Eyodian. "Haio, bazarko!"
Perce pulled back for a moment. "You rude tykybereft..." she turned and walked away.
I froze.
"Did she insult you...?"
"What?" I had learned that much. When I need to learn, we'd do something like 'twenty signals', and I'd figure out just what she meant. When she said "Did she hurt you?", I knew.
"Yes... She... she..." I mimicked talking.
"She said...?" Aroyea offered.
"She said I... Tykybereft..." I was still shaky with the language.
"Tykybereft?" Aroyea blinked.
"Bad name" I gave her the best way I could put it with my limited vocabulary.
"That was rude..." Aroyea responded, and I knew what she had said without needing to ask. "Hey, Neero..."
"Yeah?" I turned and looked at her.
She pointed to my sash. "Could I try that?"
"What?" I asked, and through a short series of questions, I figured it out. "Oh, one..." I offered for a moment, holding up my ring finger in perhaps the one gesture I had learned, hoping she caught onto the idea that I would be right back, and I ran to my house, grabbing one of my tygyrenn sashes, and ran back out. I found Aroyea fast, and held it out.
"Oh!" Aroyea smiled. "Help me?"
I nodded. She lifted up her arms, and I grabbed onto her waist, sizing her up for a moment. She giggled. Well, some things didn't change, it seemed, if you were an Eyodian girl, or not.
I wrapped it around, and tucked it into itself at the back, tightening it up a bit, then stood back.
Aroyea spun around in place. "Oh... It looks gorgeous! Just great!"
I smiled.
Jounou walked past. "It's Perce" he whispered under his breath. I knew what he was talking about.
I shuddered.
* * * * *
"So, who is the young girl?" my mother asked, sitting down at the edge of the fountain, beside me.
"Her name is Aroyea..." I responded. "She's... beautiful..."
"I... I know..." she blushed a bit. "She reminds me of me when I was little."
I laughed a bit.
"But you do know it's not meant to last, right?" my mother asked again.
I gulped. "I know, mum, but... I... I don't want to have to deal with any of the girls on this island... She's different, she's special..."
My mother laughed, sitting down. "You realize why this is all being done, right?"
"I know all about all that bloodline and Eyodian custom and the birds and the bees!" I sighed. "Mother... I... I just..."
My mother looked at me. "I'm sorry, I know how you feel... There was a different one from your father I wanted to marry, but my father wouldn't hear of it... In your case, it is too late to change..."
"It can be stopped..." I grinned. "What if I'm not there? They can't go through with the ceremony of engagement if I'm not there, right?"
"Neero! Since when did you even think of something like that?" my mother gaped. "I... I..."
"Sorry, but I will not go with that...!" I cursed something awful, turned and ran off. Before my mother could catch me, I had dissapeared behind some of the houses, off into the woods that surrounded our island.
My feet kept running, and I tripped and fell, rolling. I felt a dip in the ground below me, and I kept rolling.
Then sand, and a splash, and I had hit the water. I stood up instantly, catching my breath, and washing the sand out of my hair.
Aroyea laughed. "Neero... You're funny!"
I half-smiled, not sure if she was making a compliment or not. She explained it quickly, and I grinned again.
"Thank... you..." I smiled. "You... are... beautiful..."
Aroyea blushed. "Do you mean that?"
I nodded.
Aroyea suddenly jumped into the water, grabbing at my neck and hanging off of me. "You're pretty cute yourself!" she laughed.
I blushed a bit. We played in the water for a couple minutes, before we pulled ourselves back up onto the shore, our bodies and clothes soaked.
"You need... new name... for here..." I smiled, looking over at her.
"New name? I'm happy with Aroyea Wily... What else can you offer?"
I thought for a moment, before clarifying what she had said. When she was done, I gave her my answer.
"Aeoya Amerias" I smiled.
"Aeoya... Amerias... I like it!" she jumped at me, hugging me. The sun was falling behind us, the night of the festival would soon be here.
"Neero..." there was a gruff voice.
My head snapped up. "Dad..."
"What are you doing?" Terso looked down at me from the edge of the trees. "All the way down there... Soaking wet... And with the foreign girl... Neero, she cannot be on your mind for tonight!"
I made the 'wait a moment' signal with my index finger, and stood up. "Dad! I... I don't care about the arrangement!"
"You what?" Terso glared down at me. Aeoya hid behind me.
"I don't care about her... I hate her... She's such a bitch..." I used the one curse that Aeoya had taught me.
Aeoya let out an eep. "Not you..." I whispered. Aeoya let out a sigh of relief.
"Bitch? So, you already are starting to ignore your own land..." Terso looked down at me. "You'll do what I say, Neero! Ignore that Aroyea girl, and come back..."
"Her name is Aeoya Amerias, father..." I shouted out her new name. The Angel of Rebirth. Angel for her beauty, Rebirth for the hopes she gave me...
My father glared at me. "And... And..." the words came out a bit shakily. But she could not understand me... could she?
"And I love her!" I shouted back. I caught her face out of the corner of my eye.
She was blushing.
Author's Note: Book 5 already... And I haven't even finished book 2 or 4 yet... Oh well. Did you notice the book's name? 'Creator of Darkness'? Does that give you a hint?? And I went through a few names for this chapter... 'Iced Cream', 'Festival Night', and 'Black Card', before finally deciding on the most innocent thing I think I've ever written in here: 'Cookie'. And this chapter is probably the most innocent thing you'll see in the entire New Gen, so enjoy it... ^^
Chapter 1 - Cookie
Slowly, I awoke.
Ah, I could sense it. A bad day was coming soon... Today? Yeah, that's what the cards had said...
I sat up for a moment. Yes, three days ago it had said it would be three days from now that some kind of catastrophe would hit the island.
I absolutly hate days like that.
I thudded back down onto my bed, my short, messy purple hair spreading on the pillow.
"It's time to wake up!"
"Oh, go away, bro..." I whined through the door.
"No, not today..." Jounou was calling out, wrapping on the door. "You know today's the Festival!"
My deep, purple eyes shot open. The festival? And yet, the cards had foretold...
"Comeon, slowpoke, it's time to get up!" Jounou shouted.
"I... I don't feel well..." I joked a bit, trying to sound realistic.
"Dad, brother's lying again!" Jounou shouted.
"Get up, lazyass!" I heard my dad's harsh voice through the walls.
"Alright!" I cried back. I threw the sheets back, and planted my feet on the floor, getting up.
I straightened up my baggy, black pants, and grabbed the side of my Tygyrenn sash, tightening it up. The Tygyrenn was a rough, woolen sash, usually scarlot in color. It gets it's past from the whole 'island war', the scarlet color was to hide the fact they were bleeding from the enemy...
As for the pants, although they were a couple sizes to big for me (Dad said I'd grow into them), what kind of significance they have makes no sense to me. After all, the island is rather chilly, but baggy pants like this, you'd think they wouldn't keep you warm.
I walked over to my desk, rubbing my eyes, and grabbed onto my silken black shirt. I tucked it uner the Tygyrenn sash. The shirt, as far as I know, just looked kinda neat, with it's short sleeves, and close neckline.
I grabbed onto the doorhandle, and pulled it open.
Jounou smiled at me. "Morning, bro!"
Jounou was a pest, really. He had the bright blue eyes and silver hair of his mother. While I got stuck with the 'accursedly bad' looks of dad, as he said. Honestly, I think having deep purple hair and eyes really sets you apart, don't you?
Oh, stupid me! I haven't introduced myself!
My name is Neero Grausherra. Creator of Darkness.
And, seeing as how you already know the tales of my descendants, it's time you know MY story! After all, you can't know the end, without knowing the beginning, can you?
And if you mention the fact that the story actually began about 700 years ago, I'll tell you to go shove it. Or something like that.
But I don't need to tell you that old legend, there's hardly enough time for my story!!
Either way, I turned and faced the living room of our one-floor house on Eyod.
"Hello, Neero..." Dad smiled.
"Where's mum?" I asked, seeing she wasn't anywhere around.
"She's already out preparing the festival..." Dad answered. My dad, Terso Grausherra, had the same dark purple eyes and hair as I did. He was very tall, a good sign for me. Well, tall for an Eyodian, about 6 feet in your sizing.
Oh, and me? I'm just over ten years old. My hobbies? Reading and Divination - The ability to tell the future. After all, that kind of thing IS an important part of the old Eyodian Culture.
Yes, this is Eyod. This place, which is like any other island, I would suspect, sees snow every year, and sun as well. That's actually rather nice, I think it's normal. I didn't know that it would change soon enough.
I grinned, and looked at the icebox. I pulled it open. "What's for breakfast?"
I looked through the contents of the Icebox, sliding out each of it's drawers. "Apples... Bread... Carrots... I think I'm going through the alphabet..."
"Grab yourself whatever you want..." Terso smiled, his head bent over the low table.
"Busy with something, dad?" I asked, closing all the Icebox's drawers and walking over, hiding a few cookies in a pocket of my pants.
Dad loomed over a set of cards.
I shut my mouth, watching carefully. Dad was working with the old Eyodian Deck, a Shisar... The cards that are believed to be able to tell the future.
Dad had mixed the deck, and had seperated it into three piles, with the left hand, then mixed them back up and seperated again with the right, as accustom for one to do in this way. You use both hands at all times so that neither the good or bad side of you influences the cards.
"I'm trying to see what today will be like..." Terso responded, grabbing onto the first card with his left hand.
He flipped it up.
I knew that one, too. The winding trail up the mountain, the peasants walking from a bleak pit towards the top of a shining mountain. "The Advance."
"Yeah... And..." he grabbed his right hand, and flipped over the third card.
The falling snow, the freezing cedars, it was all very obvious. We didn't need to see the buildup on the young woman's hat to see it was The Snow.
"If you will..." Terso pulled back.
I reached for the middle card, from the other side, put both hands on it, and flipped it over.
We both froze.
The card was blank. It was all completely black.
"Ho... Hold on..." Terso shook his head. "This... makes no sense..."
"I know, I've never seen any card like it before..." I gasped.
"Huh? ..." Jounou looked at the card. "What is it supposed to mean?"
"Neero, you flipped it over..." Terso looked up. "Which hand did you use when you turned it over?"
"Both" I responded honestly.
Terso bit his tounge. "Okay, despite this... this... whatever, I think my mind's clogged up... I can't do this right now..."
Terso stood up, and packed together the deck of cards, putting the black one aside.
As Terso walked out of the house, muttering something, Jounou grabbed the deck.
"I want to confirm it..." Jounou thought hard.
"Okay..." I sat down opposite him, and Jounou did the same opening procedure. Shuffle and cut with the left hand, then shuffle and cut with the right hand. The black card remained to the side.
Jounou thought for a few moments. "Okay... What's with the Black Card? Did Neero do it?"
"Hey!" I made a mock cry.
"Oh, don't bother, I just wanna know!" Jounou smiled.
"But, dad's..." I blinked.
"Don't you wanna find this out too? Besides, you've done it before..." Jounou grinned.
"When you put it that way..." I sighed.
"Okay..." Jounou grabbed the first one. "You're the expert at interpretation, so..."
Jounou flipped up the left one with his left hand. The two, men and woman, kissing and doing something me and Jounou were probably too young to figure out (Well, I knew, but that's because I read a lot... Jounou, well, it was better he didn't know. He was only 7, after all). "Lovers..." I responded instantly.
"Okay..." Jounou thought, before turning over the far right one.
Two boys. They were both standing back to back, looking almost the exact same. Except, around one boy, there was an aura of light, a darkness at the very center. On the other, there was an aura of darkness, a light at the very center. "The Inversed Brothers..."
Jounou nodded. "Mabye it's telling me your future!"
I blushed a bit.
"Ha ha, gotch'ya!" Jounou grinned. "Oh, but... You have to do the third, 'tis custom..."
I reached with my left hand, then stopped, and grabbed it with both, flipping it over.
I stared again.
The black card...?
I looked over to the side. Yeah, it was still there... So another one?
"..." I stood, speechless, looking at the strange omen.
"Neero, you're the interpreter..." Jounou looked up at me.
"Alright..." I looked. "Yeah, the Lovers and the Inversed Brothers..." I thought. "And a Blank Card..."
I thought for a moment. "Okay. Lovers and Inversed Brothers... That's a confusing proposition..."
I looked over at Jounou.
He looked at me.
We both shuddered.
"No, enough of that..." I sighed. "Okay, let's see. The Lovers probably refers to my future wife... The one... That dad said he'd make me engage tonight..."
"Oh, THAT girl..." Jounou grinned.
"Will you PLEASE tell me who it is??" I cried out.
"Nope! Dad made me promise" Jounou stuck his tounge out.
"Fine..." I sighed. "But that is the girl... Okay. And the Inverted Brothers... It's possible in many things..."
"Oh?" Jounou asked.
"Well, it could be symblifying us... Or perhaps my twin sons... Or mabye it is one person torn apart two ways..." I sighed. "It's a hard one, without the help of the other two. But the Lovers makes me think of a child..."
"Why's that?" Jounou asked, a bit curious.
"Oh, nevermind" I stuck my tounge out. "And... This blank one... Always, the middle is the identity of the person who's fortune is being told..." I thought. "The person who's recieving always flips over the middle card..."
"Oh, so the blank card represents you?" Jounou asked.
I shook my head. "Well, there is ONE other way to interpret it... But the black card, a second one where there never were any... It could mean that the Inverted Brothers and Lovers are outside factors that are affecting my future, but that would mean that the Black Card IS my future..."
"Nothing?" Jounou blinked.
"Damn, this is too creepy, I KNEW I shouldn't have gotten up this morning..." I sighed, packing up the deck. I was lucky I did.
"Boys, boys!" Terso suddenly ran in. He didn't notice there were now Two Black Cards. "You have to come! Something extrodinary has happened!"
We stood up quickly. "What?" I asked.
"Somebody... Another human, from a far away land, he landed on a 'boat', as he calls it..." Terso looked around. "Comeon, this is big! Bigger then big! This is the first time in Eyodian History that somebody has ever arrived on this island since we were seperated from the Continent, 700 years ago!" Terso turned and dashed out.
"I'm coming!" I ran, following my father.
* * * * *
We ran outside, and the small center of the little village was empty. A few decorations hung around the town - flourescent materials, ribbons, the like - hanging from cables suspended between the houses and off of the tip of the giant glass fountain in the center.
Everybody was down at the beach, so me, my father, and Jounou ran, down the small snowy trail, to see who this 'visitor' was.
There was a group of people down at the beach. That was the small population of our village, and some strange, metallic object floating in the water. It was rather large, I noted.
A woman ran up to me. "Ah! Mum!" I smiled.
Mother looked a lot like Jounou did, he got her looks - The flowing silvery hair and brilliant blue eyes that marked her as part of the Hitomi family - The Light family. That always confused me - Grausherra was darkness. You'd never expect love to come from them.
"Ah, Jounou, Neero... You won't believe this! Comeon, you have to meet them!"
"Them?" I blinked.
Mother grabbed my shoulders and pushed me through the crowd.
I gasped.
There was a rather tall man, even taller then my dad, by about half of a foot. His fiery red hair was pulled back into a long ponytail, the top of his head covered up by a white hat. His face was tanned from the sunlight, his features looking not too old, and a well-formed body. What struck me most was his clothes - a baggy white shirt without sleeves that went past the bicep, and some kind of blue fabric that I had never seen before woven into pants, weird stitching all over them.
Then, I knew why mother had said 'them'.
Meekly peeking out from behind the man's pants, was a beautiful girl. Truly beautiful.
The girl was about my height, and looked to be about my age. She had shining green eyes, the color of which I had never seen before on the island. Her features were colorful, youthful, and shy. Her brilliant whitish-golden hair flowed down most of her back, and her clothes we so very similar to her father's clothes, although her shirt was a rather light red.
The girl looked up at me, blinked, and hid her head again.
"Oh... don't be shy, Aroyea, come on out!" the man laughed. "No need to be shy..."
His words were in a foreign language, but I could swear I picked out 'Aroyea' as being the girls name... It didn't sound like the rest of his words.
"But they speak another language, daddy!" the girl clung to her father.
"Excuse me..." the man called out. "My name is Jamsu. Does anybody speak Electopian?"
There was a few moments of silence.
"Nobody... But... There has to be some semblence of something... According to the maps, this place doesn't even exist!" the man babbled.
We stayed silent.
"Are you hungry?" I asked, pushing my way forwards. I grabbed for the cookies, and pulled out one, offering it to the girl.
The girl hid again.
"Don't be silly, Aroyea!" he grabbed the girl's shoulders, pulling her around. "I think the boy wants you to eat it!"
"They scare me, daddy..." she clung tight to her father.
I stood there, holding out the cookie. There was a low growl from the girl's stomach.
"But, I am kinda hungry..." she reached out, timidly, and snatched the cookie away, biting it.
She paused after the first bite.
"Yum! It's delicious!" she ate the rest in a couple bites.
I smiled, extending my hand forward, only my middle and index fingers out.
The girl looked at me, before smiling back at me, and doing the same. Our fingers touched, and I pulled my hand back.
Not just because that was the traditional way of greeting, but... Her fingers were so warm...
"What's your name...?" she asked.
I thought for a moment. What was she asking me...? I produced another cookie.
"Well, I'm going to call you cookie!" she laughed a bit.
I thought for a moment. Well... would it be worth a shot? Just from listening, I think I had figured out what she asked me...
"My... name..." I spoke nervously, "is... Neero."
"Hello, Neero!" she smiled.
I smiled back.
And that was the 'first contact' I had with the outside world.
* * * * *
Needless to say, there was much to celebrate. I was constantly busy that day, not even bothering to think about the fact that I would be engaged to a different girl... But did it matter? To be married and to be in love are two different things, right?
Me and Aroyea were trying to learn to communicate with each other - I'd say what I wanted in sign language, and once she figured it out, she'd tell me how to say it... I learned the basics of the language rather quickly, despite how unusual it was for my tounge, used to the quick changes between syllables that the Eyodians used, to slow down for Aroyea to understand me.
But that was her name, all right. Her father, if I was understanding her right, was named Jamsu, as I thought. While as Aroyea was teaching me the language, Jounou was off gossiping with the other kids in the village.
A slightly round girl walked over to me. One of our own. She had a rather rude look on her face.
"Neero! Neero, Neero, Neero... What about the poor girl who gets you tonight?" Perce stuck her tounge out.
"Ah, go away!" I stuck my tounge right back out, tempted to curse her away. I caught myself using Aroyea's language, and quickly restated it in Eyodian. "Haio, bazarko!"
Perce pulled back for a moment. "You rude tykybereft..." she turned and walked away.
I froze.
"Did she insult you...?"
"What?" I had learned that much. When I need to learn, we'd do something like 'twenty signals', and I'd figure out just what she meant. When she said "Did she hurt you?", I knew.
"Yes... She... she..." I mimicked talking.
"She said...?" Aroyea offered.
"She said I... Tykybereft..." I was still shaky with the language.
"Tykybereft?" Aroyea blinked.
"Bad name" I gave her the best way I could put it with my limited vocabulary.
"That was rude..." Aroyea responded, and I knew what she had said without needing to ask. "Hey, Neero..."
"Yeah?" I turned and looked at her.
She pointed to my sash. "Could I try that?"
"What?" I asked, and through a short series of questions, I figured it out. "Oh, one..." I offered for a moment, holding up my ring finger in perhaps the one gesture I had learned, hoping she caught onto the idea that I would be right back, and I ran to my house, grabbing one of my tygyrenn sashes, and ran back out. I found Aroyea fast, and held it out.
"Oh!" Aroyea smiled. "Help me?"
I nodded. She lifted up her arms, and I grabbed onto her waist, sizing her up for a moment. She giggled. Well, some things didn't change, it seemed, if you were an Eyodian girl, or not.
I wrapped it around, and tucked it into itself at the back, tightening it up a bit, then stood back.
Aroyea spun around in place. "Oh... It looks gorgeous! Just great!"
I smiled.
Jounou walked past. "It's Perce" he whispered under his breath. I knew what he was talking about.
I shuddered.
* * * * *
"So, who is the young girl?" my mother asked, sitting down at the edge of the fountain, beside me.
"Her name is Aroyea..." I responded. "She's... beautiful..."
"I... I know..." she blushed a bit. "She reminds me of me when I was little."
I laughed a bit.
"But you do know it's not meant to last, right?" my mother asked again.
I gulped. "I know, mum, but... I... I don't want to have to deal with any of the girls on this island... She's different, she's special..."
My mother laughed, sitting down. "You realize why this is all being done, right?"
"I know all about all that bloodline and Eyodian custom and the birds and the bees!" I sighed. "Mother... I... I just..."
My mother looked at me. "I'm sorry, I know how you feel... There was a different one from your father I wanted to marry, but my father wouldn't hear of it... In your case, it is too late to change..."
"It can be stopped..." I grinned. "What if I'm not there? They can't go through with the ceremony of engagement if I'm not there, right?"
"Neero! Since when did you even think of something like that?" my mother gaped. "I... I..."
"Sorry, but I will not go with that...!" I cursed something awful, turned and ran off. Before my mother could catch me, I had dissapeared behind some of the houses, off into the woods that surrounded our island.
My feet kept running, and I tripped and fell, rolling. I felt a dip in the ground below me, and I kept rolling.
Then sand, and a splash, and I had hit the water. I stood up instantly, catching my breath, and washing the sand out of my hair.
Aroyea laughed. "Neero... You're funny!"
I half-smiled, not sure if she was making a compliment or not. She explained it quickly, and I grinned again.
"Thank... you..." I smiled. "You... are... beautiful..."
Aroyea blushed. "Do you mean that?"
I nodded.
Aroyea suddenly jumped into the water, grabbing at my neck and hanging off of me. "You're pretty cute yourself!" she laughed.
I blushed a bit. We played in the water for a couple minutes, before we pulled ourselves back up onto the shore, our bodies and clothes soaked.
"You need... new name... for here..." I smiled, looking over at her.
"New name? I'm happy with Aroyea Wily... What else can you offer?"
I thought for a moment, before clarifying what she had said. When she was done, I gave her my answer.
"Aeoya Amerias" I smiled.
"Aeoya... Amerias... I like it!" she jumped at me, hugging me. The sun was falling behind us, the night of the festival would soon be here.
"Neero..." there was a gruff voice.
My head snapped up. "Dad..."
"What are you doing?" Terso looked down at me from the edge of the trees. "All the way down there... Soaking wet... And with the foreign girl... Neero, she cannot be on your mind for tonight!"
I made the 'wait a moment' signal with my index finger, and stood up. "Dad! I... I don't care about the arrangement!"
"You what?" Terso glared down at me. Aeoya hid behind me.
"I don't care about her... I hate her... She's such a bitch..." I used the one curse that Aeoya had taught me.
Aeoya let out an eep. "Not you..." I whispered. Aeoya let out a sigh of relief.
"Bitch? So, you already are starting to ignore your own land..." Terso looked down at me. "You'll do what I say, Neero! Ignore that Aroyea girl, and come back..."
"Her name is Aeoya Amerias, father..." I shouted out her new name. The Angel of Rebirth. Angel for her beauty, Rebirth for the hopes she gave me...
My father glared at me. "And... And..." the words came out a bit shakily. But she could not understand me... could she?
"And I love her!" I shouted back. I caught her face out of the corner of my eye.
She was blushing.