Chapter 9 – A Cold Night...
::The Third Soul Calibur Chapter::
"I see now" Garlyle smiled at Kozo. "Well, you know what?"
"What?" Kozo asked.
"Two things. First off, back where I come from, when people say 'you know what', they don't expect an answer. And second, Kozo..." Garlyle looked at the older boy.
"What?"
"Let's travel together," Garlyle smiled. "Maybe, if we both travel together, eventually, we'll reach our homelands..."
"Thanks, but..." Kozo stood up again. "All I need is my wits and Falcon's advice. I think I'll be fine..." and with that, he turned away from the room and walked off. "I'll find my way home by myself."
"But, wait!" Garlyle tried to run after him, but he felt Ceres' will holding him back.
"Garlyle, let him go..."
"But... we both want to get home! Why doesn't he come with me?"
"Some people just don't like travelling with others... he originally was only staying with Acentine because he needed the home, I believe..."
"Still, why didn't he just...?"
"Garlyle..."
"Alright, I'll drop it" Garlyle sighed, and left the room another way, and saw Kilik, Xianghua, and Maxi, who were all seated around a small table, faking as if they had just started eating. But Garlyle couldn't smell the food, and he knew it had been cold for a while. He realised they had been listening.
"Hey, you sneaks!" Garlyle growled at them, and Maxi nearly spat. "You've been spying on us, this whole time, haven't you?"
"Well, can you blame us?" Kilik asked, after swallowing a chunk of meat. It looked good to Garlyle, and it suddenly dawned on him that he was hungry again.
"No... Is there any there for me?" Garlyle asked.
The three laughed, before pulling out a chair for Garlyle, and giving him a bit from each of their meals.
As they finished eating, and Xianghua retrieved the dishes to wash them up in a water basin, Kilik stood up and moved for the doorway.
"Wait, Kilik!" Garlyle cried over, running towards him. "Where are you going?"
Kilik paused, and felt Maxi and Xianghua's gazes over him, too. "Nowhere, not tonight... It's getting late..."
"That's right..." Garlyle looked outside through a window, and could see the stars beginning to rise. "Wait, I wonder... if Kozo's okay."
"Don't you dare, Garlyle!"
It was too late. His young mind had formed the idea, and now he was going to see it through. "He hasn't come back... that's it! I'm going to go find him!" and he took off, running, leaving quickly, despite the protests.
"Kilik, go after him!" Xianghua cried.
"No, Xianghua... if he really is me, he'll be okay..." Kilik responded quickly, trying to calm her fears.
"Fine, then I'll go..." Maxi muttered, standing up and grabbing his nunchucks. "This kid is obviously quite important... Kilik, are you coming?"
"Like I said..." Kilik muttered.
"You aren't just going to let the a fragment of Soul Edge get away, are you?" Maxi demanded.
Both Xianghua and Kilik grabbed their weapons. "Damn, forgot about that!" Kilik growled, before taking off behind Maxi.
"Split up, we have to find him!" Maxi shouted. Instinctively, Kilik headed towards the temple, though he didn't know quite why...
*****
Soon after leaving, Garlyle discovered that he had wandered a fair distance. He had gone right past the temple Kilik had mentioned, heading a bit farther, before he heard a few soft shivers.
He knew the tone of voice. "Kozo? Are you here?"
The voice started, and became silent. Garlyle followed it. "It's okay, Kozo..."
"It's you, Garlyle..." Kozo was sitting on the ground, shivering. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."
"Well, did you seriously think I wouldn't come after you eventually?" Garlyle asked.
"But... we barely even know each other" Kozo responded, confused. "Why would you be so nice to me?"
"Because we're both in this strange land, and chances are we'll be going through stranger still" Garlyle responded, smiling. "It's better if we stick together, we're much more likely to survive."
"You're right" Kozo smiled, as he settled back against the tree he was under. "But don't you get some weird friendship idea in your head, okay?"
"Alright" Garlyle laughed. Then there was the crackle of a storm overhead.
"Oh, great..." Garlyle muttered, seeing the moon high above him. It reminded him of that night back home, when he had seen the moon as being blood red. It was said those who did would somehow live important lives that would affect the lives of many, but Garlyle had never quite discovered how he was to...
"It's getting late, and there's no time to get back to the house..." Garlyle muttered, as he curled up underneath the leaves high above in the trees. Rain began to pour, lightly, but both boys knew that it would get worse shortly. "Maybe we can rest here, tonight..."
"Yeah" Kozo nodded. "It'll be cold, but..."
"Kozo-dono," Falcon chimed in, "Are you sure that it's wise to sleep out in the rain without any shelter?"
"Can't you tell?" Kozo asked. "There's no time to get one up... I don't have the energy left to do it, I haven't eaten all day..."
Garlyle suddenly felt bad. He wished he could help, but he had no idea how to construct a shelter using what bare minimum he could even see around him, and aside from that it had been a few hours since he had eaten now, too. It was almost midnight. There was nothing he could do. He remained curled up on the ground, shivering, his teeth chattering without him wanting them to.
Then he felt a coat go over his own shirt, and he felt warmer. Naturally, he pulled it closer, and almost instantly fell asleep afterwards.
*****
As Garlyle slept, he could feel the white-haired man taking care of him again, and he shouldn't have been too curious again. However, he felt like there was something wrong, so he shuffled around for a moment, before opening his eyes, to stare up at the man.
"Why... did you give me that?" Garlyle asked.
The man remained smiling, and Garlyle felt that peace move over him again, but he fought hard to resist it. He wished that Ceres were here, in his dream, so that maybe he could call upon the dragon's willpower to help stop this strange magic...
"Please, you have to tell me!" Garlyle cried out.
The handsome man seemed surprised at Garlyle's force of will, but closed his eyes and smiled wider in response, as if glad to see Garlyle's will kicking in. The calming force was strong this time, but Garlyle had to know.
"Why'd you give me the fragment of Soul Edge?"
The man's eyes opened again, and he bit his lip and looked away. Garlyle followed his gaze.
He saw nothing but a slightly blue haze as far as he could see. It wasn't darkness, but... it was so lonely...
Who was this man? Was he lonely?
Perhaps this man simply didn't know how to speak, though Garlyle could have sworn he had heard this man speak to him once before, the first time in the dream...
What if this wasn't a dream, Garlyle began to wonder. What if this place really did exist, and this man was lonely... maybe he had given Garlyle the fragment of the Soul Edge so that he could come together with Kilik and help him rediscover his past... which led to him meeting Kozo...
Wait! That was it! "Did you...?" Garlyle began, but the man simply nodded calmly. "Can you...?" Garlyle began again, ready to ask if he could read his mind, but the man nodded again before Garlyle even finished.
"Then who...?"
The figure looked as if he might respond, but then suddenly Garlyle was jostled from his sleep by a brilliant flash.
*****
"Huh? What?" Garlyle's eyes opened up, to see the sun peeking at them over the horizon.
Realising quickly he couldn't get back to sleep, Garlyle sat up and felt the coat slide off of him. He became curious, and looked at it.
Kozo's vest... but that meant...
He looked over to the boy, who was still asleep, but his upper body, though obviously well-formed and probably resilient to it to an extent, had probably been soaked during the storm. He looked very dirty, and Garlyle felt incredibly guilty.
"He gave me the vest... so that I wouldn't be cold... why would he...?" Garlyle thought to himself, wondering. As he did, Kozo began to stir, pushing himself off of the ground.
Garlyle inspected the boy, and noticed a black fang-shaped mark upon his left bicep which made him shake a bit. He threw the coat over towards Kozo, and a few moments later, the boy had it back on.
"So where will we be going?" Kozo asked.
Garlyle thought. "Perhaps we should head back" Garlyle responded. "Besides..." he held out the fragment of the Soul Edge. "This needs to be shattered, and..."
Kozo's eyes narrowed as he saw it. "That... shush, Garlyle!" he held up his hand, demanding silence. Garlyle focused his ears.
He heard a rustling, and both boys kicked off the ground, pushing backwards, as something rushed towards them.
As it slowed down, Garlyle could see that it was some kind of strange dinosaur, wielding a short sword in one hand, and a shield in the other. Its skin was green and speckled with red and brown.
"What the...?" Garlyle immediately reached for the fang around his neck.
Then another blur, and Garlyle dived down, as it flew over him. It was another of those strange beings.
"They appear to be Reptilian Humans... Lizardmen, if you will..." Falcon explained.
"What kind of monstrosity..." Kozo seemed to be totally unarmed. "Garlyle, what's going on?"
"I don't know! I've never seen anything quite like these!" Garlyle growled. "But I don't think they want to greet us!"
There was a couple more rustles, and suddenly Garlyle realised they were totally surrounded by the beasts, which had all kinds of different skins.
The first one let out a harsh roar, or something like it, and all of a sudden, all ten (was that how many Garlyle had counted?) of them were diving for them.
"Kozo, look out!" Garlyle cried over, but he didn't have time to help his seemingly defenceless ally, as he swung his fang into the eye of one of the Lizardmen. As it howled in pain, blood spurting out, Garlyle drove it in and used it as an anchor to swing around and kick another lizardman hard enough to knock it out for the moment.
Landing behind the first, Garlyle removed his blade, and ended up taking the beast's eye out with it. He stared at it for a moment. Suddenly, he felt very nauseated, and raised his foot to kick it off. The unorthodox projectile made its mark by smacking into the eye of another Lizardman, temporarily blinding him.
"Stupid beasts..." Garlyle muttered, but there was still the other two to deal with. He avoided one swing, and drove Ceres' fang straight past the shield and into the heart of one of the beasts, before grabbing its shield from its quickly-loosening hand and using it to block the other one's attack, before slamming it down on the beast's head, crushing its skull.
As he withdrew the fang, his attention turned back to Kozo, where he knew he'd have to help him, if the boy hadn't already fallen prey...
And he was surprised to see the Lizardmen already slain around the boy, who was apparently bare-handed, though Garlyle couldn't see his hands. He was busy panting, kneeling on the ground.
"Woah!" Garlyle walked over, and Kozo turned around.
For a moment, Garlyle had to step backwards, because Kozo looked as if he might turn on him, a harsh look on his face, and a bloodthirsty look in his eyes. Then, a moment later, his somewhat kind, though proud face returned. As he stood up again, Garlyle could see a pair of long blades extending from gloves upon his wrists.
"Where did you...?" Garlyle muttered.
"What do you think I keep in the bag?" Kozo asked, pointing to the now-open bag that he had been carrying that entire time.
Garlyle smiled. "I was worried that you wouldn't be able to defend yourself!"
"Please..." Kozo grinned. "Those things had no sense of timing, just a taste for blood. They might have been able to get it, too, if they had've worked together..."
Garlyle nodded, understanding.
"Garlyle! You're okay!"
"Kilik!" Garlyle turned towards the source of the sound, seeing the older man walk towards him.
"I knew it, the moment I saw the lizardmen... I was worried I'd be too late..." he muttered, as the two boys put away their weapons. "But apparently I didn't need to worry."
Garlyle and Kozo both smirked in unison.
"Come on, lets get back... Xianghua's even gone as far as calling in some others to help look for you, they'll be pleased to know you've been found"
Garlyle smirked. "I suppose you'll want Soul Edge's fragment destroyed?"
"Yeah" Kilik answered quickly.
"Alright. Once everybody's together, we'll do it" Garlyle responded, looking over to Kozo as Kilik walked away. "Are you coming?" Garlyle asked.
Kozo thought for a moment, about what Garlyle had said.
"Well? Are you coming, or not?" Garlyle demanded.
"Hmm?" Kozo blinked. "Oh, yeah!" Kozo ran along after him, as Garlyle took off ahead, anxious to get back.
"He seems nice, Kozo-dono. I know you're afraid to call him it, but I think he already thinks of you as a friend" Falcon observed.
"Yeah, Falcon..." Kozo smiled. "I know, and..." he didn't finish his thought.
"So what do you think of him?" Garlyle asked Ceres, mentally.
"I'm not sure... he changed the moment he fought those things, couldn't you see it in his eyes?"
"I know," Garlyle responded. "I think he still has a lot of surprises... Good thing we're travelling together!"
"Err... sure..." Ceres sighed.
::The Third Soul Calibur Chapter::
"I see now" Garlyle smiled at Kozo. "Well, you know what?"
"What?" Kozo asked.
"Two things. First off, back where I come from, when people say 'you know what', they don't expect an answer. And second, Kozo..." Garlyle looked at the older boy.
"What?"
"Let's travel together," Garlyle smiled. "Maybe, if we both travel together, eventually, we'll reach our homelands..."
"Thanks, but..." Kozo stood up again. "All I need is my wits and Falcon's advice. I think I'll be fine..." and with that, he turned away from the room and walked off. "I'll find my way home by myself."
"But, wait!" Garlyle tried to run after him, but he felt Ceres' will holding him back.
"Garlyle, let him go..."
"But... we both want to get home! Why doesn't he come with me?"
"Some people just don't like travelling with others... he originally was only staying with Acentine because he needed the home, I believe..."
"Still, why didn't he just...?"
"Garlyle..."
"Alright, I'll drop it" Garlyle sighed, and left the room another way, and saw Kilik, Xianghua, and Maxi, who were all seated around a small table, faking as if they had just started eating. But Garlyle couldn't smell the food, and he knew it had been cold for a while. He realised they had been listening.
"Hey, you sneaks!" Garlyle growled at them, and Maxi nearly spat. "You've been spying on us, this whole time, haven't you?"
"Well, can you blame us?" Kilik asked, after swallowing a chunk of meat. It looked good to Garlyle, and it suddenly dawned on him that he was hungry again.
"No... Is there any there for me?" Garlyle asked.
The three laughed, before pulling out a chair for Garlyle, and giving him a bit from each of their meals.
As they finished eating, and Xianghua retrieved the dishes to wash them up in a water basin, Kilik stood up and moved for the doorway.
"Wait, Kilik!" Garlyle cried over, running towards him. "Where are you going?"
Kilik paused, and felt Maxi and Xianghua's gazes over him, too. "Nowhere, not tonight... It's getting late..."
"That's right..." Garlyle looked outside through a window, and could see the stars beginning to rise. "Wait, I wonder... if Kozo's okay."
"Don't you dare, Garlyle!"
It was too late. His young mind had formed the idea, and now he was going to see it through. "He hasn't come back... that's it! I'm going to go find him!" and he took off, running, leaving quickly, despite the protests.
"Kilik, go after him!" Xianghua cried.
"No, Xianghua... if he really is me, he'll be okay..." Kilik responded quickly, trying to calm her fears.
"Fine, then I'll go..." Maxi muttered, standing up and grabbing his nunchucks. "This kid is obviously quite important... Kilik, are you coming?"
"Like I said..." Kilik muttered.
"You aren't just going to let the a fragment of Soul Edge get away, are you?" Maxi demanded.
Both Xianghua and Kilik grabbed their weapons. "Damn, forgot about that!" Kilik growled, before taking off behind Maxi.
"Split up, we have to find him!" Maxi shouted. Instinctively, Kilik headed towards the temple, though he didn't know quite why...
*****
Soon after leaving, Garlyle discovered that he had wandered a fair distance. He had gone right past the temple Kilik had mentioned, heading a bit farther, before he heard a few soft shivers.
He knew the tone of voice. "Kozo? Are you here?"
The voice started, and became silent. Garlyle followed it. "It's okay, Kozo..."
"It's you, Garlyle..." Kozo was sitting on the ground, shivering. "I'm fine, don't worry about me."
"Well, did you seriously think I wouldn't come after you eventually?" Garlyle asked.
"But... we barely even know each other" Kozo responded, confused. "Why would you be so nice to me?"
"Because we're both in this strange land, and chances are we'll be going through stranger still" Garlyle responded, smiling. "It's better if we stick together, we're much more likely to survive."
"You're right" Kozo smiled, as he settled back against the tree he was under. "But don't you get some weird friendship idea in your head, okay?"
"Alright" Garlyle laughed. Then there was the crackle of a storm overhead.
"Oh, great..." Garlyle muttered, seeing the moon high above him. It reminded him of that night back home, when he had seen the moon as being blood red. It was said those who did would somehow live important lives that would affect the lives of many, but Garlyle had never quite discovered how he was to...
"It's getting late, and there's no time to get back to the house..." Garlyle muttered, as he curled up underneath the leaves high above in the trees. Rain began to pour, lightly, but both boys knew that it would get worse shortly. "Maybe we can rest here, tonight..."
"Yeah" Kozo nodded. "It'll be cold, but..."
"Kozo-dono," Falcon chimed in, "Are you sure that it's wise to sleep out in the rain without any shelter?"
"Can't you tell?" Kozo asked. "There's no time to get one up... I don't have the energy left to do it, I haven't eaten all day..."
Garlyle suddenly felt bad. He wished he could help, but he had no idea how to construct a shelter using what bare minimum he could even see around him, and aside from that it had been a few hours since he had eaten now, too. It was almost midnight. There was nothing he could do. He remained curled up on the ground, shivering, his teeth chattering without him wanting them to.
Then he felt a coat go over his own shirt, and he felt warmer. Naturally, he pulled it closer, and almost instantly fell asleep afterwards.
*****
As Garlyle slept, he could feel the white-haired man taking care of him again, and he shouldn't have been too curious again. However, he felt like there was something wrong, so he shuffled around for a moment, before opening his eyes, to stare up at the man.
"Why... did you give me that?" Garlyle asked.
The man remained smiling, and Garlyle felt that peace move over him again, but he fought hard to resist it. He wished that Ceres were here, in his dream, so that maybe he could call upon the dragon's willpower to help stop this strange magic...
"Please, you have to tell me!" Garlyle cried out.
The handsome man seemed surprised at Garlyle's force of will, but closed his eyes and smiled wider in response, as if glad to see Garlyle's will kicking in. The calming force was strong this time, but Garlyle had to know.
"Why'd you give me the fragment of Soul Edge?"
The man's eyes opened again, and he bit his lip and looked away. Garlyle followed his gaze.
He saw nothing but a slightly blue haze as far as he could see. It wasn't darkness, but... it was so lonely...
Who was this man? Was he lonely?
Perhaps this man simply didn't know how to speak, though Garlyle could have sworn he had heard this man speak to him once before, the first time in the dream...
What if this wasn't a dream, Garlyle began to wonder. What if this place really did exist, and this man was lonely... maybe he had given Garlyle the fragment of the Soul Edge so that he could come together with Kilik and help him rediscover his past... which led to him meeting Kozo...
Wait! That was it! "Did you...?" Garlyle began, but the man simply nodded calmly. "Can you...?" Garlyle began again, ready to ask if he could read his mind, but the man nodded again before Garlyle even finished.
"Then who...?"
The figure looked as if he might respond, but then suddenly Garlyle was jostled from his sleep by a brilliant flash.
*****
"Huh? What?" Garlyle's eyes opened up, to see the sun peeking at them over the horizon.
Realising quickly he couldn't get back to sleep, Garlyle sat up and felt the coat slide off of him. He became curious, and looked at it.
Kozo's vest... but that meant...
He looked over to the boy, who was still asleep, but his upper body, though obviously well-formed and probably resilient to it to an extent, had probably been soaked during the storm. He looked very dirty, and Garlyle felt incredibly guilty.
"He gave me the vest... so that I wouldn't be cold... why would he...?" Garlyle thought to himself, wondering. As he did, Kozo began to stir, pushing himself off of the ground.
Garlyle inspected the boy, and noticed a black fang-shaped mark upon his left bicep which made him shake a bit. He threw the coat over towards Kozo, and a few moments later, the boy had it back on.
"So where will we be going?" Kozo asked.
Garlyle thought. "Perhaps we should head back" Garlyle responded. "Besides..." he held out the fragment of the Soul Edge. "This needs to be shattered, and..."
Kozo's eyes narrowed as he saw it. "That... shush, Garlyle!" he held up his hand, demanding silence. Garlyle focused his ears.
He heard a rustling, and both boys kicked off the ground, pushing backwards, as something rushed towards them.
As it slowed down, Garlyle could see that it was some kind of strange dinosaur, wielding a short sword in one hand, and a shield in the other. Its skin was green and speckled with red and brown.
"What the...?" Garlyle immediately reached for the fang around his neck.
Then another blur, and Garlyle dived down, as it flew over him. It was another of those strange beings.
"They appear to be Reptilian Humans... Lizardmen, if you will..." Falcon explained.
"What kind of monstrosity..." Kozo seemed to be totally unarmed. "Garlyle, what's going on?"
"I don't know! I've never seen anything quite like these!" Garlyle growled. "But I don't think they want to greet us!"
There was a couple more rustles, and suddenly Garlyle realised they were totally surrounded by the beasts, which had all kinds of different skins.
The first one let out a harsh roar, or something like it, and all of a sudden, all ten (was that how many Garlyle had counted?) of them were diving for them.
"Kozo, look out!" Garlyle cried over, but he didn't have time to help his seemingly defenceless ally, as he swung his fang into the eye of one of the Lizardmen. As it howled in pain, blood spurting out, Garlyle drove it in and used it as an anchor to swing around and kick another lizardman hard enough to knock it out for the moment.
Landing behind the first, Garlyle removed his blade, and ended up taking the beast's eye out with it. He stared at it for a moment. Suddenly, he felt very nauseated, and raised his foot to kick it off. The unorthodox projectile made its mark by smacking into the eye of another Lizardman, temporarily blinding him.
"Stupid beasts..." Garlyle muttered, but there was still the other two to deal with. He avoided one swing, and drove Ceres' fang straight past the shield and into the heart of one of the beasts, before grabbing its shield from its quickly-loosening hand and using it to block the other one's attack, before slamming it down on the beast's head, crushing its skull.
As he withdrew the fang, his attention turned back to Kozo, where he knew he'd have to help him, if the boy hadn't already fallen prey...
And he was surprised to see the Lizardmen already slain around the boy, who was apparently bare-handed, though Garlyle couldn't see his hands. He was busy panting, kneeling on the ground.
"Woah!" Garlyle walked over, and Kozo turned around.
For a moment, Garlyle had to step backwards, because Kozo looked as if he might turn on him, a harsh look on his face, and a bloodthirsty look in his eyes. Then, a moment later, his somewhat kind, though proud face returned. As he stood up again, Garlyle could see a pair of long blades extending from gloves upon his wrists.
"Where did you...?" Garlyle muttered.
"What do you think I keep in the bag?" Kozo asked, pointing to the now-open bag that he had been carrying that entire time.
Garlyle smiled. "I was worried that you wouldn't be able to defend yourself!"
"Please..." Kozo grinned. "Those things had no sense of timing, just a taste for blood. They might have been able to get it, too, if they had've worked together..."
Garlyle nodded, understanding.
"Garlyle! You're okay!"
"Kilik!" Garlyle turned towards the source of the sound, seeing the older man walk towards him.
"I knew it, the moment I saw the lizardmen... I was worried I'd be too late..." he muttered, as the two boys put away their weapons. "But apparently I didn't need to worry."
Garlyle and Kozo both smirked in unison.
"Come on, lets get back... Xianghua's even gone as far as calling in some others to help look for you, they'll be pleased to know you've been found"
Garlyle smirked. "I suppose you'll want Soul Edge's fragment destroyed?"
"Yeah" Kilik answered quickly.
"Alright. Once everybody's together, we'll do it" Garlyle responded, looking over to Kozo as Kilik walked away. "Are you coming?" Garlyle asked.
Kozo thought for a moment, about what Garlyle had said.
"Well? Are you coming, or not?" Garlyle demanded.
"Hmm?" Kozo blinked. "Oh, yeah!" Kozo ran along after him, as Garlyle took off ahead, anxious to get back.
"He seems nice, Kozo-dono. I know you're afraid to call him it, but I think he already thinks of you as a friend" Falcon observed.
"Yeah, Falcon..." Kozo smiled. "I know, and..." he didn't finish his thought.
"So what do you think of him?" Garlyle asked Ceres, mentally.
"I'm not sure... he changed the moment he fought those things, couldn't you see it in his eyes?"
"I know," Garlyle responded. "I think he still has a lot of surprises... Good thing we're travelling together!"
"Err... sure..." Ceres sighed.