Hey, everyone! Sorry it took so long for me to update, I came down with some kind of stomach something, and I've just started feeling better. Here's for my reviewers:
NovMists: Wow, thanks! I'm glad you liked it! I was playing the game a day or so before writing last chapter, and I thought "Hmm... I'll make Chrono's mom the Queen of the Reptites!" And I have no idea why... I hope you like this chapter, too!
Bluedranzer77: Yep! Mr. Tinkles is what I would have named my cat if my brother didn't name him first... And you're welcome! I liked your fic, too!
NovaIce: Yeah, the idea, again, just randomly appeared in my mind. No clue why. Thanks for reading!
Eddo: Thanks for reading! I'm glad you're interested in reading more!
And now, a few words from the crew.
Lucca: Lady Vella's an idiot, and I am SO glad that she doesn't own us, or anything related to us.
Lady Vella: I'M NOT AN IDIOT!
Lucca: Sure you are. Why else would you write this stuff?
Marlee: She's obviously bored.
Chrono: My mommy's EVIL! She tried to KILL me!
Marlee: Well, we'll figure out what's wrong with her in the next couple of chapters.
Magus: Unless Lady Vella gets sidetracked again. Which I bet you twenty gold she will.
Marlee: I'm not taking you up on that offer, since I know she will.
Lady Vella: Shut up! I hate you all!
Chrono: See? Everyone hates me:Runs off, crying:
Lucca: Oh, look what you've done now, Lady Vella. You've made Chrono cry!
Lady Vella: It wasn't my fault! I was making a point!
Marlee: Please enjoy... no flames, please! Or, if you do, don't make Chrono cry anymore. He's really quite pathetic when he cries.
Chapter Four: Into the Maze.
The three friends reached the prehistoric time period, and started walking toward the Chief's hut. Chrono was still upset, Marlee was having a hard time trying to comfort him, and his sniffling was driving Lucca nuts.
"Oh for the love of-" She spun around. "Marlee, just kiss him. Maybe he'll shut up."
There was an awkward pause.
"You, er, want me to what now?" Marlee asked nervously.
"Kiss him. Smooch. French. ANYTHING to make him stop sniffing," Lucca said.
"WHAT?" Chrono yelled. "How DARE you suggest that she do anything of the sort!"
Marlee laughed weakly. "Well, erm, guess he's done sniffing. Heh." Then, to herself: 'Oh, poo. I was hoping I could... NO! STOP! Do NOT think that way, Marlee! He's a FRIEND, and nothing more!'
Lucca rolled her eyes, and they reached the hut.
Lucca poked her head into the hut and yelled "Oy! KINO? AYLA? You there?"
Two people came out of the hut next door.
"Lucca, Chrono, Marlee!" the woman said brightly. "You come to see Ayla!"
She grabbed Chrono, and gave him a rib-crushing hug.
"O...w... ri...bs... cr...ush...ed... air... supply... in...suf...fic...ien...t..." Chrono gasped.
Ayla seemed to realize that Chrono couldn't breathe, so she dropped him.
"Hi, Ayla, Kino," Marlee said, nodding at the two.
"What you do here?" Ayla asked, ushering them into the hut belonging to Kino and herself.
She plopped on the ground eagerly.
Marlee dropped Chrono on the ground near Ayla. "Well, er, it's a long story, really..."
Ayla looked at her. "What long story? Ayla want hear."
Marlee nudged Chrono in his ribs and he groaned. "Tell her, Chrono."
Chrono rubbed his ribs, took a deep breath, and proceeded to tell Ayla what had happened to them on the island back, or forward, he'd forgotten that time travel confused him, in the Dark Ages. Ayla listened carefully, and when he finished, she jmped up.
"Must kill Reptites. Then, go to Chrono's time and stop Chrono's mom from going in gate. Then, everyone happy!"
Lucca snapped her fingers. "Ayla, you're a genius!"
Ayla gave Lucca a strange look. "Ayla is what? You not make sense."
Lucca jumped up as well. "Don't you see? We have to kill the Reptites here, just because I'm bored, the author's bored, and she wants to fill up this chapter, then we have to alter Epoch enough to allow us to go to ANY point of time that we WANT! And, to do that, it means we have to go to Melchior's lab in the future, and do an analysis using his calculations! Then-"
"Melchior?" Marlee inturrupted. "Don't you mean Belthasar?"
Lucca frowned. "Oh yeah. I mix the two up. Anyway, after making modifications in his time period on Epoch, we can go to the point in time where Chrono's mom goes into the gate, and stop her from doing it so none of this ever happened! THANK YOU, Ayla!"
Ayla looked at Marlee. "Ayla have no idea what Lucca says."
Chrono shook his head. "Chrono has no idea what Lucca says, either."
"Well, let's go destroy the Reptites. But this will require impeccable timing. If we take too long, Chrono's mom could die."
"Gee, thanks," Chrono muttered. "You're so considerate. Let's not EVER say that again whilst I am present, shall we?"
Lucca shrugged. "Okay."
"Ayla and friends, go to Reptites' place! Kino come, too!"
"Okay, Ayla," Kino said.
And so they embarked on a little quest to the Reptites' lair. It took the better part of their afternoon, and while they were walking, Ayla and Kino discussed what was happening to the Ioka and Laruba villages since Azala's defeat.
"Cold, white stuff fall from sky," Ayla said. "hunting hard, no animals stay where it cold. No more food growing from ground. Only food left come from Hunting Range. Frogs smart, build homes. And yummy red things on trees. All left. No more trees and frogs, no more Ioka and Laruba, maybe. And we no know how keep warm."
"Have you made fire yet?" Lucca asked.
Kino and Ayla gave her blank stares.
"Lucca dummie!" Ayla said in exasperation after a minute. "Yes, we make fire! How else cook food?" She threw up her hands.
"You can use the fire to keep warm," Lucca said, frowning.
Ayla rolled her eyes. "Ioka and Laruba know! We out furs, no more keep warm when sleep! Warm animals gone! All Ioka and Laruba have one fur each! It get colder, more Ioka and Laruba want warm! But not enough furs for warm! Fire only warm Ioka and Laruba in day!"
Kino nodded vigorously. "And Lavos still alive! Kino thought Chrono kill Lavos?"
"It's hard to explain..." Lucca muttered, still disgruntled at being called a dummie by Ayla, of all people. "But Lavos won't bother you. We promise."
"We at maze!" Ayla declared.
They stared at the uninviting entrance.
"Well, let's go," Chrono muttered. "And remind me why we're doing this again?"
"Well, the first reason is that the author is trying to pass the time, she's bored, and she needed a new chapter," Lucca said. "Second, the Reptites are hunting all of the food, so the Laruba and Ioka villagers are starving and freezing because there're no more animals with fur and meat, only frogs, and you could hardly call that enough to sustain two entire villages."
"Alright, let's get this over with," Chrono muttered, walking in.
"Yay! Ayla get to kill Reptites!" Ayla said happily, following him quickly.
"She's scaring me," Marlee muttered to Kino.
Kino nodded. "She scare all Ioka. And Laruba."
Chrono stopped, turned around, and demanded grumpily, "What the hell is taking so long?"
"Chrono, look out!" Marlee shrieked, pointing at something behind him.
He whipped out his sword just in time, and decapitated the offender.
"Oh," Ayla said sadly. "Chrono kill Kilwala. Good food. Good furs."
Chrono sheathed Rainbow, his sword. "Well, what do we do with it?"
So they trudged back to the village, dumped the beheaded Kilwala at the traders' hut, and went back to the maze. By this time, night had fallen, and it was getting hard to pay attention to what was around them. The only light they had was from Lucca, who had lit the tip of a stick on fire, but it wasn't a very sufficient amount of light.
And the temperature was dropping fast.
"Um, m-m-maybe we sh-sh-should find a w-w-warm place t-t-to stay f-f-for the n-n-night," Marlee said, shivering violently.
Ayla looked back at the shivering girl. "Okay. Cave up here. Off path. Lucca make fire, we eat red stuff from trees."
So they walked off the path and into a low cave that was fortunately large enough for the five of them. Lucca lit a fire, and Ayla passed out some red fruit. "Eat," she said.
They ate the fruit, which was pleasantly sweet and juicy, and went to sleep.
.0.
They were awoken the next morning by a high pitched shriek.
An Marlee wasn't in the cave.
"Marlee?" Chrono yelled, bolting toward the cave entrance. "MARLEE!"
He saw unmistakable footprints leading from the cave, and he realized what had happened.
The Reptites had taken Marlee.
To be continued...
Well, I hope you enjoyed that somewhat short chapter. I would have written more, but my knees hurt, since I have no desk still, and I have to kneel on the ground to see my computer, which is propped on a box. Quite uncomfortable, really. But oh well. Please tell me if I did an okay job on Ayla's speech, since I have a difficult time writing without linking verbs and the like.
Please review!
Chrono: Yeah, review or I'll cry again.
Marlee: That's no reason not to review. How about this: if you DON'T review, then Chrono WON'T cry again.
Chrono: You people are horrible.
Lady Vella: Oh, shut up, you big baby.
Stay tuned for chapter five, which will (hopefully) be updated soon.