Title: Tamers of the Colossus

Song:The Mystic's Dream, by Loreena McKennitt

Author: UltimatePalmTree

Pairing: Possible OC/OC. Don't know yet for sure.

Fandom: Shadow of the Colossus

Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy

Warnings: Violence, death/dying/killing, possible torture, but nothing graphic.

Distribution: No. Nothing. You cannot distribute it without my say-so. I'm sorry, but I like to know where my crap ends up.

Summary: Possible AU Pre-Game Before Wander, there were sixteen others who came and went to the Cursed and Forbidden Lands. Not to kill them, mind you, but to tame the beasts.

Authoress' Notes: Most of the time, this will be centered on Phaedra, Hydrus and Avion's tamers (my three favorite Colossi ever). Inspired by playing the game for three hours straight and questioning who Dormin and the Colossi are. 'Nuff said, methinks. Most of the time, this will be centered on Phaedra, Hydrus and Avion's tamers (my three favorite Colossi ever). Don't own Shadow of the Colossus.

Chapter Four

The Lizard, the Knight and the Bull

Thus is the normal day for many of these tamers. They fight, they eat, and they find new ways to survive. They've been doing this for a year now, as previously stated. However, the normal routine feeling would soon change. It began with Candor's actions against Avis and Grandis' actions against Recanto, and wouldn't stop for an extremely long time… Thus began the start of a war no one has ever heard of. A war between both human and colossi.

Recanto opened his eyes a slit before assessing everything was right with the world. He yawned, revealing unnaturally sharp teeth (especially for the tamer of the tortoise colossus) and propped himself up on his elbows. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and then stood up. Refreshed from last night's rain, the world shimmered in dew. Recanto went to check over himself in the pool of water in front of him. Surprisingly, the wound had already closed shut, the thick blood congealing. He touched the blood gingerly, wincing as his finger made contact with it. Other than that, everything looked absolutely fine. He felt alright, except for the hole in his head and the dull, throbbing headache that ensued.

He turned away from his reflection; the knife still stuck out of the ground. He shrugged and got up, plucked it out of the dirt, and went back to the pond to wash it off. As he slathered the water over the knife's bloodied blade, the same prickling feeling came back to the back of his neck. Without thinking, he turned around and flung the knife as hard as he possibly could.

The knife went sailing a few feet over the person's head. Upon further examination, Recanto saw it wasn't the person he hoped he would've gotten. Standing behind him was a lean, unhealthily pale boy. His grey-white face was a shock under his black hair, and his eyes blazed with inhuman energy. If he was one of the tamers, he had no colossus following him. Maybe it's a ways back…? Recanto thought, not taking his eyes from the boy's deadly serious expression. "Well?" he finally said, "What do you want?"

There was a moment of semi-awkward silence before Recanto wished he had better aim. Even if the target was right in front of him, he usually wasted about five or six arrows on it. Don't even get him started on the golden hawks…

Suddenly, something wrapped around Recanto's wrist securely, like an octopus's tentacle. It felt neither cold nor hot, and it felt as if he had somehow managed to make his arm fall asleep. He looked down at his lower forearm, where a small, pale black tendril was curving around his middle finger, across his palm, and around his wrist. It disappeared up his shirt sleeve, but Recanto could definitely feel it slithering up his arm towards his ribcage. He jerked backwards with a yelp; upon further examination, there appeared to be no plausible reason for it even being there.

Except…

Recanto dove for his bow and arrows, taking one out and stringing the bow as he fell. Naturally, the impact jarred his aim from doing anything, but he regained himself and attempted another shot at the intruder. The arrow whizzed through the air—right on target for the first time. However, this feeling of joy wouldn't be felt for long; the intruder leapt into the air, grasping for a branch to hang on to. "The one time it was on target and I miss it! DAMMIT!" yelled Recanto. In anger, he took another arrow from the lizard-skin sling and restrung it. Again, he fired a shot.

It would've missed any way, even if the boy hadn't leapt out of the tree and proceed to race away. Recanto wished he had one of the two small colossi as he tore after the boy, trying to restring his bow while tearing across the plains. He fired arrow after arrow, sometimes coming a little short of its target, sometimes sailing over the target's head. By the time he had run out of arrows, he had created a long line of them. Recanto stopped running once he figured out he had none, dropping to his knees and breathing deeply.

He looked back to the short line of arrows, each tipped with either a white dove's feather or a golden hawk's feather. Sighing, he got back up and plucked each one out of the ground, angrily muttering to himself. He retraced his steps back to where the knife rested, this time flat on the ground. "Stupid… All of them…" Recanto hissed, picking up the knife and proceeding to wash it again.

A mere shadow of what he once was, just like his name. Umbra sat in the small grassy center of the coliseum, his massive black lizard colossus plastered to the wall. He stared at the grass in front of him, legs slightly apart and hands flat on the ground between them. His black hair twisted in the wind that blew from the opening in the ceiling of the coliseum. Wrapped around his one wrist was a small, blackish-violet vine of… what, exactly? The best way to describe it would be a shadow, but that was impossible. Shadows were just the opposite of light, an intangible object that one couldn't touch or control, especially getting it to wrap around anyone's wrists. The black vine cut a twisting grey scar through the boy's flesh, something he seemed to be unaware of.

He also seemed to be unaware that three pairs of eyes were watching him from a great distance.

"You can't be serious, Grandis," a blonde-haired girl stated. "That's not Umbra; I'd know Umbra if I saw him,"

Grandis shook his head and with a flick of his wrist, the crystalline ball dropped to the stone floor of the ruins. It shattered a few feet in front of the girl and her friend: a lean boy with a mass of chaotic black hair and a serious expression. "How typical of you, Magnus," Grandis sighed, turning away from the two companions. "You always try and take the past and masquerade it as the present and future,"

The boy's grip tightened on the hilt of the broad sword he held in his right hand. "Are you sure you're showing us what is true?" he growled.

Grandis turned around, genuinely surprised. "Veritas, you know that's beyond my abilities. To take something and represent it as truth when it is fiction. I only know basic magic,"

"Amplified by those bracelets," Veritas pointed out, gesturing slightly with his sword.

"Yes. That's true," Grandis agreed.

"Well, what do you recommend we do?" Magnus interjected.

"There's nothing we can do," Grandis shrugged. "We've done all that was possible; I suspect Umbra will die in another few weeks or months,"

Magnus made an odd strangled whimper before saying, "Isn't there something we can do to help him?"

Grandis was very obviously losing is temper. "No, and I'm not going to repeat it," he said through clenched teeth. Magnus knew she had to stop now; she shrunk backwards. Veritas, however, was not paying attention to her reaction.

"Are you sure?" Veritas asked. "Because you know how Magnus will feel if he dies. After all, she was one of his friends,"

Grandis nodded thoughtfully. "I guess we can try and see if there's anything we can do to help him. Maybe get him some food or something… Make him feel better."

"You'll do that, Grandis?" Magnus asked, taking a few tentative steps forward. The sorcerer turned his head to face her and nodded. "Thank you so much!" She said, racing forward to hug him. "Thank you so freaking much,"

Author's Notes

I am so sorry about the long wait on this chapter. I really am. In the meantime, however, I did write some RoaDorchette shounen-ai, called A Dog for Roa and Property of for you FMA fans to enjoy (some of you may not even know Fullmetal Alchemist, but you might read it anyway). So, anyhoo, it's now REVIEWER THANK-YOU NOTE TIME!

Mr. Grae: So, I surprised you on the murder thing, eh? Well, I got the desired effect, so that's good. It worked. I like how the third chapter turned out, even if it was really short. Reading back on it, you were right about the tone of the whole chapter. Definitely.

Specter Von Baren: Good point about the turtle; it does have a very impressive attack. I feel very honored receiving a review from a selective reviewer. You can probably guess who the lizard and the knight are.

Crepusculum Flos: Wow, awesome pen name. Anyways, thank you for reviewing. I know you have a busy schedule, so it means a lot to me. Yah, it think Grandis'll be the bad guy (Grandis: HEY!), but it all depends on whose side you're on. If you're on the one side, he's the antagonist, but if you're on Grandis' side, you consider him the good side… Hope that makes sense…

Yup, so here's chapter four. It turned out to be the hardest chapter so far. My writer's block comes back irregularly, and it starts to piss me off. But finally, I managed to dash off something before going to school. (We had a delayed opening today, so no big deal.) Chapter five'll be up soon, I suspect, if my writer's block doesn't come back. I swear, it's like the oil stain that never goes away no matter how many times you wash your pants… Um… yah. 'Twas random, but… Onwards and forwards through Tamers!