I don't own anything except Chris Keon
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Once inside the inn, where Dart lay unconscious on one of the beds, Lavitz and Shana began questioning Rose. "Who are you?" Shana demanded. "And what did you do to Dart?"
"What was that power you used?" Lavitz asked.
Chris alone was silent. The quiet martial artist was still thinking on the events of the past several minutes. Who is she, really? he wondered. I know her name, but nothing else. Why do I feel a connection to her, and why do strange images go through my head when I see one of those stones? He shook his head as his friends continued to ask questions of Rose. But they won't get any information that way; c'mon, guys, let the woman get in a few words edgewise, huh?
He finally interrupted them. "Shana, Lavitz, could you be quiet for just a sec? She can't answer questions when you won't stop talking."
They fell silent, and Rose glanced at him briefly, nodding silent thanks. "I just saved his life. I should be thanked, so why do I have to be yelled at?"
It was then that Dart groaned and sat up. He saw Rose right away. "It's you," he said in surprise.
Shana looked at him. "You know her?"
He nodded. "Yes. She's the one who saved me from the Dragon on my way to Seles. Without her help, I would be dead. Thank you," he added, addressing Rose directly.
She waved a hand. "You don't need to thank me; I just did it because I wanted to. You guys interest me. Particularly that artifact you carry," she said, nodding at Dart. "The Dragoon Spirit of the Red-Eyed Dragon." Rose lifted the choker she wore, revealing a similar stone. "This is the Dragoon Spirit of the Black-Burst Dragon."
Dart lifted his own. "I had no idea my father's memento hid such power..." He looked up at Rose. "What are they?"
"They're the souls of Dragons; when a Dragon dies, it leaves behind a Dragoon Spirit, which may be used by a human. They give the bearer the power of Dragons, transforming them into what you saw, and became, a few minutes ago. You've heard the story of the Dragon Campaign? The seven incarnations of Dragons that served Emperor Diaz were the Dragoons, who bore the Spirits of the seven elemental Dragons." Rose glanced at Chris again for a moment. "There were eight, once," she whispered, so low that only Chris heard her.
"So why did you help Dart?" Shana asked. Now that she knew that Dart knew her, she seemed more trusting.
"Honestly, I was surprised, myself." She leaned against the wall. "But you remind me of my old friends; they, too, took their destinies into their own hands. I want to see how far you can go." Another enigmatic look at Chris.
"Where are your friends now?"
Rose grimaced. "Dead."
"I'm sorry," Shana apologized.
"It's nothing." After a moment's thought, and another look at Chris, Rose turned again to Dart. "He's coming with us," she said, indicating Chris.
Dart frowned. "But he's leaving tomorrow, on his own journey. To find his way home."
Rose simply shook her head. "He's coming with us," she repeated. She turned to leave, then paused. "Dart. You should rest now. Whatever happens tomorrow, you'll need your sleep." Rose glanced back at Chris. "Come with me."
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Somewhat bemused, Chris followed Rose into the dark night, where the battle had been but recently won. "What do you want with me?" he asked. "Why is it so important that I go with you? I'm trying to get back to where I belong; I don't have time to go around trying to stop a civil war. And despite what happened tonight, I'm no fighter."
Rose turned. "That can, and must, be remedied." She drew another rapier, similar to her own, and tossed it to him. "What I will say now is this: you are coming with us, for there is more to your arrival here than mere chance or coincidence. The winds of fate are about you, and you cannot defy your destiny. Not when it is so important."
Chris lifted the blade, unsure of its use. Then he sheathed it at his belt. "Just what the blazes is that supposed to mean!?" he demanded in frustration. "I'm not part of your war! I can't fight, and all I'm trying to do is go home. What is going on!?"
She shook her head slowly. "This is not the time or place for this discussion. When we are on the road, perhaps... but not now, not in a town." Rose drew her blade. "For now, there is much that needs to be done. Draw your sword."
Realizing that he wasn't going to learn anything more this night, Chris sighed and drew the rapier from his belt. "What am I supposed to do?" he wondered quietly.
Rose heard him. "For now, learn how to use that blade. By the time you are finished, you should be able to defeat the greatest swordsmen; if not, all is in vain."
She said no more about why Chris's proficiency with a sword was so important, but they spent much of the night sparring, as Rose taught him the basics of rapier combat. Fortunately, his training in karate proved a good foundation for sword skills, since they were but another form of the martial arts.
Finally, only a few hours before dawn, Rose stepped back and sheathed her blade, satisfied. "That's enough for one night. A good beginning." She turned and headed back toward the inn, then glanced back at Chris. "Once we're on the road, I'll tell you why you're coming; you need to know it, if you are not to be fatally unprepared. But this is not the place." She resumed walking. "Get some sleep. You'll need it."
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After the sun had risen, Chris walked out of the inn, still somewhat frustrated and bemused. Yet he could not stay angry at Rose; something told him that the beautiful warrior was telling him the truth, so far as it went. Of course, he still had no idea why he was so important.
The others where near the town gate when Chris approached. "So you are coming with us, Chris?" Dart asked.
The martial artist glanced at Rose, then nodded. "Looks that way." Then he grinned. "Besides, given that Dragoon Spirit you carry, it looks like staying with you will be the best way for me to find my way home; you seem to attract magical happenings."
If only that were true, Chris, Rose thought. But for some, there is no way home, no "happy ending". All that there is for us is to play the parts fate has given us. The Black Monster, and the heir to Kristov's legacy. But perhaps you will find some measure of peace, Chris. Perhaps.
Lavitz clapped Chris on the shoulder. "Good to have you with us, Chris." He turned to the other knights that were present. "Remember this guy, fellow knights! He may look harmless, but Chris is sudden death on two feet. Get him mad and you'll be wondering why your head is backwards and your arms are upside-down."
It was then that a badly wounded knight limped into the town. "The Seventh Fort is under attack! The Sandorans have brought the Dragon!"
Lavitz rushed to his side. "Someone get Sir Kaiser, and a healer! Get this man's wounds attended to!" He looked down at the injured man. "How strong is the Sandoran attack? How long can the fort hold out?"
The knight coughed painfully. "At least five hundred troops, and the Dragon. It took me over a day to get here, so I would say the fort will last another two days, perhaps. But no longer. Please, send help!"
Kaiser knelt by him. "We will do what we can, brave knight. Rest, while we decide what we can do." After the healer had taken away the injured knight, Kaiser turned to Lavitz. "Sir Lavitz, we have no one to send; all that we have are needed to guard the town and repair it. I don't know what can be done."
The younger knight slowly straightened. "I am Sir Lavitz Slambert, a knight of Serdio, as was my father Servi before me, and his father before him," he said proudly. "I will go to the aid of the Seventh Knighthood! Even if I go alone!"
"Brave," Rose said quietly, "yet a mere human cannot defeat a Dragon."
Lavitz looked at her. "Do you say that we shouldn't even try? Even if it is futile, I must try!"
"I'll go with you," Dart said. "Perhaps with the power of the Dragoon Spirit, I may face the Dragon."
"And I'm going with Dart," Shana announced. "I'm not staying here while he is in danger."
Rose was silent for a long moment, then nodded slowly. "Then perhaps you will stand a chance. I, too, will go. Even the Green-Tusked Dragon, Feyrbrand, cannot withstand the might of two Dragoons."
She looked at Chris, but he was already shaking his head with resignation. "Then I'm going too," he said, "even though I may be of little use against a Dragon. In my world, they're only myths now, though I believe they once existed." He smiled. "Besides, I've nowhere else in this world to go. If it is my fate to die, then I shall die well."
Much like Kristov, Rose noted. It's to be expected, I suppose, since he is destined to be the second Dragoon of a Void dragon, if I am correct. The Dragoons of like element are of like personality, or so it is said.
Dart glanced at each member of the little group, then nodded with a slow smile. "Let's go, then!"
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According to Lavitz, the fort was two days march from Hoax with an army, and about one day for a small group moving with haste. They would likely arrive the next morning.
The day passed uneventfully, aside from the occasional monster attack, and the five of them made fast progress along the road and into the swampy forest in which the Seventh Fort was situated.
Since it was a swamp, full of insects and fairly warm besides, Chris was not in the best of moods. "Oh, for cold Alaska," he mourned. "Where there are no insects and the air is not so humid. Now I remember why I never had any desire to visit the Everglades."
"Makes it difficult for the enemy to approach," Lavitz pointed out.
"Sure, but it makes it hard to sleep here, I'll bet!"
Chris's prediction proved to be correct, at least for himself. That night, feeling restless and unable to sleep, he wandered away from the camp, to another clearing not far away. He needed to think for awhile, undisturbed. And there was also Rose's promise to explain more of what was going on.
Around midnight, after the others had gone to sleep, Rose walked over. "This is likely the only chance I'll have for a while to explain this," she said.
"Explanations would be nice," Chris agreed. "Like how I ended up in this world, and why you were so insistent that I come along."
"Eleven thousand years ago," Rose began, "during the Dragon Campaign, the Jade Dragoon told of a prophecy: When the time of the Dragoons comes once more, there will come a man from the frozen lands beyond the edge of the world. Though he be not warrior when his journey begins, he will conquer the King of Dragons and become its master."
"What makes you think that has anything to do with me?" Chris demanded.
"The time of the Dragoons has come again," Rose replied, "and you yourself said that you are from the frozen lands beyond the edge of the world, and that you aren't a warrior. It is apparent to me that you were brought here, however it occurred, to fulfill this prophecy. Nothing else makes sense."
Chris nodded reluctantly. "I hate to say it, but that makes some sense. But what is this 'King of Dragons', anyway?"
"The last Dragon alive," Rose said. "The Divine Dragon, with seven wings and seven eyes, who has long been chained in the dormant volcano of the Mountain of the Mortal Dragon."
He started at the description. "Seven wings and seven eyes...?" he whispered. "I... saw that thing. When you arrived in Hoax, I had these visions, and the last of them was the Dragon with seven wings and seven eyes." He looked right at her. "Why do I get these visions? What are they?"
"I can only surmise that they are because you are the chosen one, the man destined to defeat the Dragon. Beyond that, I don't know. But Kristov was said to have had the same experiences."
Chris frowned. "Kristov? Who's Kristov?"
"He was the only other bearer of a non-elemental Dragoon Spirit," Rose said. "He was the Dragoon of the Celestial Dragon, but he was killed in battle long before the Winglies' final defeat at Kadessa."
"Then perhaps I am the one of whom you speak," Chris said slowly. "But maybe after all this, I'll be able to go home."
Rose shook her head. "You cannot go back," she said softly. "For there is more to the prophecy: Forever trapped in a world that he knows not, still he will fight to save Endiness from destruction. And in the end, he will find love in this new world, and be at peace for a time. But before his time is done, he and his love will fight again. I don't know exactly what your future will bring you, Chris, but at the least, you'll have some reward for your trials. Unlike some," she added in a whisper. She stood, and began to return to the others.
Chris grabbed her arm. "How do you know all this?" he asked. "How can you know so much of what happened eleven millennia ago?"
Rose hesitated, then sat once more. "Perhaps you, at least, should know the full story," she said at last. "But do not mention this to the others, especially Dart. They would... not understand." She looked into the dark sky. "I was one of the Dragoons of the Dragon Campaign. Eleven thousand years ago, I fought with the other seven: Damia, bearer of the Blue-Sea Dragoon Spirit; Shirley, the White-Silver Dragoon; Syuveil, the Jade; Kanzas, the Violet; Belzac, the Golden; Kristov, the Celestial. And Zieg, the first bearer of Dart's Dragoon Spirit, the Red-Eyed. He lead us, in those dark times, until the battle of Kadessa, when the Wingly dictator Melbu Frahma was finally overthrown."
Chris nodded in understanding. "They're the friends you mentioned? How did they die?"
She sighed. "Kristov was the first; as the Celestial Dragoon, he was the most powerful of us, and the Winglies spent a great deal of time and resources trying to kill him. It was finally Magician Faust, Frahma's second-in-command, that destroyed him, in the Tower of Flanvel. They simply overwhelmed him, and then Faust himself entered the battle. Kristov was killed slowly and painfully, from what the rest of us could hear, but his death wasn't in vain. In the end, he used his power to aid in the destruction of the Tower. Flanvel came down from the sky, and Faust was either killed or sealed in the rubble. As for the others, they died in various ways at Kadessa. Zieg himself was the last, for he chose to confront Melbu Frahma directly. They died on each other's swords, with Frahma cursing Zieg as they fell, turning him to stone for all time."
Her companion winced. "Ouch. But why would it be so dangerous to let Dart, Lavitz, and Shana know this?"
Rose met his gaze. "Because their was another prophecy, that was only discovered after the war ended: 'Count 108 years, and when the Moon That Never Sets glows red, a Moon Child will descend to fill the world with holy bliss.' What comes instead, or so most believe, is the Black Monster. A demon, not a blessing. Yet in truth, the Moon Child does descend, and the Black Monster is the only thing keeping the demon from arriving." At Chris's look of confusion, she continued. "The Moon Child is actually the soul of the God of Destruction, created to destroy the world. Before the Dragon Campaign, even, the Winglies separated the soul from the flesh and sealed it, to prevent this doom. But the Crystal Sphere, in which it was trapped, was destroyed in Kadessa. The soul began traveling the world every 108 years, taking the body of a human, in an attempt to return to the Moon That Never Sets, where its body remains." She paused. "Eighteen years ago, it passed through the village of Neet, in the country of Mille Seseau."
Chris's eyes widened. "Dart's village...? That's why it was destroyed?" He stared at Rose in shock. "That means... You're the Black Monster?" When she nodded, but did not reply in words, his eyes narrowed. "Why destroy an entire village just to kill one child!?" he demanded harshly. "Why slaughter all those people!?"
Rose's eyes flared in anger. "Those who witness the passage of the Moon Child become its servants, advancing their own doom! Do not presume to judge me! You have no conception of what these past millennia have been like!"
Chris edged away from Rose, realizing then that to anger Rose was to die, as she had killed so many others over the long years. Chris, just what has your temper gotten you into this time? he asked himself. Better be real careful here. And besides, you know she's right. He slowly raised his hands. "Sorry, Rose. I shouldn't have said that. Please don't kill me, okay?"
She glared at him a moment longer, then nodded, with a ghost of a smile. "I can't afford to kill you, anyway; the prophecy must be fulfilled, if the cycle of the Moon Child is to be stopped." With that enigmatic statement, Rose walked away, leaving Chris yet more confused.
What on Earth... okay, Endiness... does this prophecy about a Dragon have to do with stopping the Moon Child? he wondered. Then he shrugged. Whatever. I should just get some sleep.
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The next day was also filled with mud, as they moved through the swamp. Unfortunately, there was also a plethora of monsters just waiting to eat them.
"Another thing I hate about this place," Chris said, swatting at a Sea Dragon with his rapier. "Way, way too many things that want to eat us. At least in my world, you can generally go from one town to the next without being eaten by something toothy."
"Where's the fun in that?" Lavitz asked with a grin. "How do you stay in proper fighting trim if you don't have hungry monsters trying to make your life miserable?"
"Easy for you to say, Lavitz," Chris retorted, "but as for me, I was never trained for this kind of thing. Karate is meant for use against people, not animals. And until we hit Hellena, I'd never hit a man in earnest, let alone killed one."
"I, for one," Shana said, letting fly with an arrow, "could do with a few fewer enemies, too. Sandora, monsters, a Dragon, a Giganto... Ah!" She broke off, crying out as her foot sank into the mud.
"Shana!" Dart hurried to her side. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, my foot just got stuck. I'm fine now, see?" Shana stood, then moaned as her ankle refused to support her.
"I think you twisted it," Dart said after a brief examination. "I'll carry you."
"But... That would be embarrassing..."
"You used to like it, when you were little," Dart said.
Shana accepted then, and they moved on, Rose, Lavitz, and Chris a little behind while Dart and Shana talked. They had a lot of catching up to do, after all.
After hearing them talk about old times for a while, Lavitz turned to Chris. "That reminds me, Chris; what was your childhood like, growing up in your world?"
He thought for awhile. "Hard to say," he said finally. "I don't really have anything else to compare it to. We lived a quiet life on Alaska's coast, since my father was a fisherman. Nearest town was a place called Port Heiden, where he sold his catch, aside from what we ate. My brother Kevin and I were no strangers to long, cold walks, of course, which is why I haven't had much trouble walking as far as we have."
"Your family must be worried about you," Lavitz said then, concerned. "Given the way you disappeared from there and appeared in Hellena Prison."
Chris shook his head sadly. "My family is dead. About ten years ago now, when I was just eleven, our house exploded. It was later determined to be a gas explosion, but whatever the cause, it killed both my parents."
"What about your brother?"
He swallowed. "Five years ago, after we'd been taken in by a karate master and been living at the dojo for some time, there was a sparring accident, in which Kevin's neck was broken by an errant side kick. I've been alone ever since."
"Not even friends?"
Chris snorted. "I'm not the most gregarious guy you'll ever meet; I'm a loner. Always have been, always will be. Nope, no friends. I've always thought that there are simply some people who aren't meant to have close friends." He looked up at the sky, barely visible through the vegetation. "It is my fate to be alone, I think," he murmured.
Rose observed him closely. You can defy "fate", Chris. That is what I have been doing for the past eleven thousand years. And have you forgotten the prophecy?
Chris noticed her gaze and watched her in turn. You've told me the facts, Rose, but I still do not know who you are. You are the Black-Burst Dragoon, and you are the Black Monster, yet those are not who you are. Not the you beneath the surface. What are you thinking of, Rose? Why is it so important to you that my "destiny" be fulfilled? He recalled his reaction the night they had met, as he had truly looked at her for the first time. And what are these feelings? Chris shook himself. Not the time, buddy. There's a battle ahead.
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Author's note: Chapter 4 complete. No real action in this one, I know, but the prophecy has been revealed, and Chris now knows some of his role in the events to come. The plot thickens, yet it will thicken even more by the time the story is finished.
Also, in reply to YSYF, the game doesn't really tell you much about the Lost Dragoons, so it was simple enough, particularly given Syuveil's scholarly bent, to cast him as something of a prophet, as well.
That should about cover everything for this chapter; read it and let me know what you think. -Solid Shark