Hello again! Some of this chapter may be a bit drama-ish... Um... huh. I forgot what else I was going to say... happens a lot... curse my short term memory... Well, enjoy! -
Chapter 2- The Search For Schala
Chrono parked Epoch near the water, still muttering how much he wanted to kill Lucca for harping on about his kitty.
Magus jumped out. "Hmmm... appears deserted."
Marlee looked around. "I could have SWORN I saw something..."
The island was much larger than it had looked from the air. For starters, the forest, which had seemed so small from the sky, was really quite large. As were the trees in the forest. Another small thing Chrono noticed was that there was something large protruding from the trees... But he couldn't tell what it was.
"What's that?" he asked, pointing at whatever it was.
Lucca squinted. "A... building, maybe?"
Magus shook his head. "Impossible... no buildings survived the Ocean Palace disaster..."
"Let's check it out, shall we?" Marlee asked cheerfully, already headed toward the forest entrance.
"Wait!" Lucca blurted. "We don't know what's in the forest! It could be a trap!"
Marlee snorted. "Uh huh. And if there was a trap, it would only prove that there's something good in the forest... or at least something secret..."
Her eyes glittered.
Chrono sighed. He knew Marlee was right...but if it was a trap, who was expecting them?
More importantly, why?
Marlee tripped over something.
Magus walked over and helped her up. "What happened?"
Marlee brushed the snow off her butt. "I dunno... That footprint, maybe."
She pointed at a small footprint that was in the snow.
"You couldn't trip on a footprint in the-" Lucca stopped. "Wait... FOOTPRINT?"
Lucca ran over and looked at it. "Oh no... this looks unpleasantly familiar..."
Chrono walked over and looked at it. "Oh... yeah, it does..."
"Reptites..." Marlee whispered.
Meanwhile...
The queen of the reptites sat in her throne, bored. It had been ten long years since she had arrived in this time period, but she couldn't remember what had happened prior to her being chosen Queen.
"Yoh Madisty," one of her guards said, bowing low. "Id appease dat thum ehps heve avived in yoh fuhrest..."
Translation: Your majesty, it appears that some apes have arrived in your forest...
This news made the queen sit up, rigid. "What?"
"Ehps... ehn yoh fuhrest..." the guard repeated.
The queen bit her lip. Apes? In her forest? No, that can't be... Apes all lived together, on a different continent... and some of them could use magic... what if... some of these "Enlightened" apes had found her palace? The strange, purple haired woman had already foundthis island...What if others like her had come to save her? If so, then her reign as queen would be over, since these apes would kill all of the remaining reptites..
"Yoh madisty?" the guard pressed.
The queen shook her head. "Um, go and bring these apes to me. Be careful, though, they might use magic... Go put on the special armor."
"Do yoh went dee ehpes ehyive?"
"Yes, I would like them alive," the queen snapped. "They are of no use to me dead. And send back a guard to tell me what these apes are like before you bring them to me. I would like to be able to know how to interrogate them before they reach me."
The guard bowed, snapped something at another guard, and they left the palace.
The queen sat back in her throne. "Well, Thor..." she murmured, rubbing her small yellow companion, "it is just us for a while..."
Thor nodded.
Back to the forest entrance...
"But this is preposterous!" Lucca said exasperately. "The reptites have been extinct for six million, nine hundred eighty eight thousand years!"
"Approximately," Marlee added.
Chrono scratched his head. "And how can you do all this math in your head, Lucca?"
"That's not the point!" Lucca exploded. "How are they HERE if they are no longer in existence?"
"Well, obviously they ARE in existence if their footprints are," Chrono said, standing up. "And
I for one want to find Scha-"
"She is here..." Magus inturrupted suddenly, his eyes on something near the forest's entrance.
"What?" Marlee asked.
"My sis- Schala! Schala is here!"
The other three stared, confused, as Magus ran over to the forest entrance.
'At last...' Magus thought, picking something up. 'I have found you, Schala...'
Lucca walked over to him. "What did you find?"
Magus held it up.
It was a small, deep purple pendant set on a fine silver chain.
"Schala's pendant...?" Marlee mused. "Then- she must be here..."
Chrono pointed toward the forest. "What are we waiting for? Let's go find her."
One hour later...
"These reptites are morons," Marlee muttered after they had followed the footprints in endless circles for about an hour. "Do they even know where they're going?"
Lucca plopped against a tree. "Oh, I don't know... probably not..."
"The question I want answered," Chrono said, "is how they survived the explosion after Lavos crashed the Tyrano Lair."
Magus, who hadn't said anything the whole time they'd been wandering around, finally spoke. "I never visited that time span... perhaps, after Lavos was defeated, the Lair remained unchanged, and the reptites lived?"
Lucca shook her head. "No. Nothing we did, since we defeated Lavos in 1999 A.D., changed anything that Lavos did to any time period prior to that. That has been proven, given the general state of things in this time period. If history had been changed in the prehistoric times, and Lavos had never destroyed Tyrano Lair, having never existed in that time span, since we detroyed him, the island continents would still exist, and this time period would go back to the former glory it once was in. Does that make sense?"
"Nope," Chrono said truthfully.
"Yeah, I'm going to have to go with Chrono on that one," Magus said, scratching his head.
Lucca sighed. "Nothing we did in any time period before 1999 AD has been changed by our defeating Lavos. The only time period that has been changed by Lavos' defeat is the time period after 1999 AD. How about that? Did that make sense?"
Marlee nodded. "Yes, much better. You'll have to remember that Chrono isn't very smart."
"Hey now," Chrono growled. "I'm plenty smart."
They started walking again.
"Yeah, right," Lucca said tolerantly. "If you're so smart, then why did you name your cat Mr. Tinkle?"
"I WAS TEN WHEN I GOT HIM, OKAY?" Chrono yelled.
"Why'd you name him Mr. Tinkle?" Lucca repeated, grinning.
"That wasn't his original name," Chrono snapped.
"What was his original name?" Marlee asked.
"God of Thunder," Chrono grunted.
"Why'd you change his name?" Magus asked.
"Because he kept making 'rainclouds in the corner', as my mom said," Chrono muttered.
Lucca burst out laughing, Magus chuckled, and Marlee supressed a giggle.
Chrono rounded on them. "WHY ARE YOU PICKING ON MY KITTY?"
"That's just extremely amusing..." Magus responded, trying hard to keep a straight face, but failing miserably.
Lucca stopped laughing, contented wih just a smile at this point.
Then, she noticed something. Something that wiped the smile right off her face.
"The footprints end... by the... THE TREES! THE REPTITES ARE IN THE TREES!"
Her warning came too late. Before the four of them could react, the reptites flew from the trees and knocked them out.
Two hours later...
Chrono moaned as he tried to sit up. What had happened? He was sore all over...
"Hey," he muttered, nudging Marlee.
Groggily, she sat up as well.
"What the... Where are we?" Marlee muttered.
"Hell if I know..." Chrono responded, taking into account their surroundings.
They were in a primitively built room of some sort. The walls were lined with a shiny, rainbow colored material. The ceiling was quite low. Maybe two meters high. The crudely made door was made out of bones, and two reptites were guarding it.
'This is not good...' Chrono thought. 'We gotta get outta here!'
Meanwhile...
The guard had described the apes to the Queen.
'A male ape with red, pointed hair?' she thought. 'A girl ape with yellow hair, and a girl ape with strange round objects on her eyes? A male ape with an appearance similar to that of the female ape with the purple hair that they had found earlier? What does this mean...?' These descriptions rang a bell in her mind... but she couldn't remember what it was about these apes that was striking her memory... She shook her head.
"The new apes must be here for the ape we captured earlier, which means that they can use 'magic'. Be careful, and bring them to me immediately."
She sat back in her throne, troubled. Why did the apes sound so familiar...? She couldn't figure it out...
'I must see them for myself,' she decided.
Meanwhile, back in the strange room...
"Hello, Chrono," a soft voice said from the wall behind Chrono.
He turned around. "Wha- Schala!"
Schala nodded, staring at Magus and Lucca, both still unconscious, with a sad experssion.
"How'd you get here?" Marlee asked. "How'd you survive the Ocean Palace incident?"
Schala sighed.
FLASHBACK
The walls were shaking around Schala, Magus, Marlee and Lucca. The Mammon Machine was emitting far too much dangerous energy... Schala knew what had to be done.
"I am going to send you back with my pendant's last remaining energy..." Schala said. "I am sorry... I know you can't forgive her, but... Please don't hate Mother, or our kingdom..."
"Schala-" Magus began.
Schala shook her head. "Good-bye... I feel certain that our paths will cross again..."
The pendant glowed, and Magus, Marlee, and Lucca disappeared.
Schala fell to her knees. "Chrono... I am so sorry..."
She felt certain that Chrono's death was her fault. It was... Wasn't it? After all, it had been her pendant, and not her mother, that had given the Mammon Machine the power it needed to draw Lavos to them... Yes, it was her fault... Everything was...
Tears slid down her face as she struggled to find a way to escape the pain.
Her pendant was just that now- a pendant. It had no more power... and even if she tried to power it up using the Mammon Machine, the resulting energy burst could kill her...
"Hello, Schala," a voice said.
Schala looked up. "What? W-Who's there?"
"She doesn't recognize us, big brother..." the voice said sadly.
"No, maybe we should speak to her, face to face," another voice said.
Two figures appeared before her.
"Masa...?" Schala whispered. "Mune?"
"See? She remembered us!" Masa said.
"How- what- where-" Schala stammered, unable to create a coherent sentence.
Masa sighed. "How did we get here, what are we doing here, and where did we come from?"
Schala nodded, cringing as the Mammon Machine shot sparks everywhere.
"We're magic, duh! But that's not important," Mune chided. "The important thing is that we have to get you outta here, ASAP."
Schala shook her head. "Everything is my fault... I listened to my mother, even though... I knew..."
"Even though you knew it would destroy all of humanity in the end, wiping out everything humans had worked so hard to build, and leaving those few survivors to fend for themselves without any food?" Mune piped up.
Schala burst into tears.
Masa glared at him. "Now that was a bit rude."
"Yeah, maybe it was..." Mune muttered.
"Let's get you outta here..." Masa said, picking up Schala.
The Mammon Machine exploded...
End Flashback
"I'm so surprised to see you alive..." Schala said, looking at Chrono throgh blurry eyes. "It was Gaspar's time egg... wasn't it?"
Chrono nodded. "Yes."
Magus stirred. "What..."
He sat up, and saw Schala sitting against the wall.
"Schala!" he exclaimed, running over to her, his head scraping the low ceiling.
"Hello, Janus," Schala said, smiling.
"Jan-"
Magus stopped.
"Yes, Prophet, I figured it out..." Schala said.
"But... how?" Magus stammered.
"Your cat was the first hint," Schala said. "Alfador only followed Janus around... and when you showed up, he followed you around, too."
"Alfador..." Magus whispered. "My... cat..."
"Secondly," Schala continued, "you kept referring to a 'black wind' when addressing Queen Zeal. Only Janus and I ever mentioned a 'black wind'."
Before Magus could respond, the guards opened the door.
"Our queen wishes to see you..." the only guard with an understandable voice said, holding a spear.
"What for?" Chrono demanded, reaching for his sword... but it wasn't there.
"Looking for your weapons, Ape?" the guard sneered.
"You-" Chrono began.
Lucca cast a Fire spell at the guard.
The guard merely laughed as the fire bounced harmlessly off his rainbow colored armor.
"Nice try, Ape," the guard said. "Now the queen will really enjoy meeting you..."
He escorted them to the queen's room.
Chrono looked at the queen...
And gasped.
To be continued...
Heehee! Yay! I have finally finished chapter two! I hope more people review this one, or I won't write chapter three... I'm not writing this for my health, y'know... In fact, it's bad for my knees, since I don't have a computer desk, and my monitor's propped up on a box, so I have to kneel to do anything with my computer.
But that's unimportant.
Please review, again! And read chapter three when I get it up!
Hmm, maybe I should go buy a computer desk... my legs fell asleep...
O.o