Carolyn's Comments:
Mood: Bored
Rant: Just a note, Cassandra Knight is actually a character from a story that Katie's working on. You can read some of it at fictionpress.com. Her name is VampireLover666, and the story's title is 'Red White and Black'. It's very good in my opinion, but Katie doesn't think so. Then again, Katie just likes to make things hard on herself. And Marcus Lineth is a character in the sequel of the novel I am currently working on. And Cassius is a character from a webcomic I'm planning on making some day! And just a note, this chapter is the beginning of Cronos's backstory. It came out extremely long, so it's going to have to span about three chapters. Sorry about this. But it's really good!
The next day was probably the most awkward in Cedric's life. He guessed Mia hadn't told Riku about the little 'incident' that occurred, because when he went to go eat breakfast the next morning, Riku didn't try to kill him. Mia, however, wouldn't look him in the face. And as soon as he sat down across from her, she excused herself and left.
"Damnit," He thought angrily, "What the hell was I thinking? What I did was inexcusable. I'm scum. I deserved to be slapped."
Cedric sat there for a while, silently cursing himself, until he was the only one left in the room. Then he slammed his head down the table. Familiar anger boiled in his heart. He was full of anger at himself, and anger at the world.
"This is perfect…" He grumbled, "I find a girl I love more than anything in the universe, she's kind, she's smart, she's beautiful…and she belongs to someone else. Why does this sort of thing always happen to me…"
"You think your life is bullshit?" A familiar voice broke in, "Wait until you hear my story."
Cedric looked up. Cronos was sitting down across from him. He was smirking at him.
"I'm in no mood to talk…" Cedric grumbled lowering his head back down to the table's surface, "Just leave me alo-"
A searing pain in his scalp interrupted Cedric. Cronos had grabbed a handful of his blue hair and jerked him up so he was looking Cronos in the eye.
"Okay, enough of this angst-filled crap. Got it? I've got some stuff to say, and you're not leaving until you hear it, alright?" Cronos said calmly, as if he was used to saying stuff like this to people. Cedric could only stare at him in shock.
"Cronos, are you being mean to him?" Carolyn's voice rang out. She and Katie were walking up to them.
Katie rang up and flung her arms around Cedric in a tight hug. "Aww…Poor Cedric got shut down!" She said smiling cheerfully.
"Huh?" Cedric sputtered in shock.
"Mia told us what happened. She couldn't tell Riku, he would've killed you, but she felt she could trust me and Katie enough to tell us." Carolyn said. She smiled gently and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it Cedric." She leaned over and lightly kissed him comfortingly on the cheek, "Just listen to what Cronos has to say to you. He may not look like it, but he's pretty smart."
"Gee thanks!" Cronos huffed. But he smiled at her, and she smiled back.
Carolyn then turned from her usual 'calm-laid-back-sweet-gentle-scared-by-Katie-mode', back into 'no-nonsense-able-to-control-Katie-mode'. She snapped her fingers. "Come Katie." She turned and began to leave.
"RIDE 'EM COWBOY!" Katie screamed suddenly. She jumped up and landed on her friend's shoulders. Carolyn's eyes bugged out. She immediately reverted back into 'calm-laid-back-sweet-gentle-scared-by-Katie-mode'.
"AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Carolyn screamed sprinting forward. "GET IT OFFA ME! GET IT OFFA ME!"
"GIDDIYUP! WHEEEE!" Katie cheered as Carolyn sprinted down the hall and out of sight. "I'M FLYING!"
"That was just disturbing…" Cedric said staring after them in confusion.
"Not to me," Cronos said calmly, "I've known Katie for three years, I've gotten used to it by now. Carolyn will run to Caitlin and they'll pull the munchkin off, no harm done. But that's all besides the point."
"And what is the point?" Cedric growled angrily, "Tell me what you've got to say and then leave. I'm in a mood to crack some skulls right now, and you don't want to get on my bad side."
"Alright, listen." Cronos said suddenly becoming serious, "Do you know what it means to suffer? To have everyone you ever loved, die all around you, until you're completely and totally alone, with only your goals to keep you going?"
"Story of my life." Cedric grumbled.
"Story of MY life." Cronos butted in, surprising Cedric. "About 200 years ago, my mother abandoned me in an orphanage when I was two. I was enrolled in the army when I was five years old. I had NO ONE. And then Aiden started looking out for me. He was a top human solider, in his late thirties about, and he looked upon me like I was his only son. He even LOOKED a lot like me."
"Wait..." Cedric said frowning, "200 years ago? How could this have happened 200 years ago? You're 19!"
"I'm getting to that." Cronos said calmly. "Anyway, Aiden taught me everything he knew. How to fight, how to survive, for the first time in my life, I had a father. And then, it all came screeching to a halt. There was a battle outside the city. You see, I lived in a city above the clouds called 'Faerie City'. Back then, humans were looked down upon as vermin by the faeries. And since I was half-faerie, I had to live with discrimination and hatred my whole childhood. Nowadays, humans are seen as equals and can visit the city freely without having to worry about discrimination. But half-faeries are still looked down on by some people."
"What about this battle you were talking about?" Cedric pressed on. This story was beginning to intrigue him.
"A small army of raiders were trying to break into the city. Our unit had been sent out there to stop them. It was my first real battle, so Aiden warned me to stay near him. But my desire for battle got the best of me and I wandered off to fight on my own." He chuckled. "Only thirteen and I was looking for some shit. But I got into a scuffle with one particularly nasty bandit. Back then, I wasn't the skilled warrior I am today, so he knocked me down easily. Well, just as he rose his sword to make an end of me, Aiden came up behind him and punched him aside. The guy was mowed down to the left and we were sure his neck was broken, because of the way he landed."
Cronos took a swig of water and continued speaking. "But as Aiden knelt down to help me to my feet, the bandit got up, and before anyone could do anything, he swung his sword and took Aiden's head off with one clean swing." Cronos clenched his fist in anger. "There were no dramatic dying words like what you see in the movies. There were no last bits of encouragement from my dad. One second he was alive, and the next he wasn't. After Aiden's head rolled to the ground, the bandit raised his sword again to finish me off too. He didn't care. Aiden was just another solider that got in his way. He didn't care that Aiden was the closest thing to a father I'd ever had. And that thought infuriated me. I felt power...more power than I'd ever felt in my life, boil up inside me, I let in all out in one scream, and suddenly my spirit energy was all over the place. It ripped all the bandits to pieces in fury, but it left the people from my unit unharmed. I looked around and realized something, I HAD SINGLE-HANDEDLY WON A BATTLE. And that thought terrified me. I was afraid of myself..."
Cedric didn't know what to say. He could only stare at Cronos in shock, as he continued his story.
"After Aiden died, I sort of withdrew from life. I focused only on training as hard as I possibly could. I learned how to focus my powers, so I could wield my spirit energy as if it were a weapon. Eventually, war broke out in Faerie City. Soon after Aiden died, the queen, Fiona, had created a relic known as the Chosen One's Jewel. She used its power to bring about a golden age in her kingdom. It was the most powerful, magical item in the universe, so her sister, the Dark Faerie Jhudica, wanted it for herself. It eventually lead to the worst war my world has ever known, The War of Light and Darkness."
Cronos laughed suddenly. "It's been 200 years..." He smirked, "And no one's thought of a better name than The War of Light and Darkness. Now THAT'S stupidity if I ever saw it!"
"Continue the story Cronos," Cedric broke in, "This queen...did she win...or lose?"
