It's been ages since I've updated, I know. Partly because my inspiration died, and now I'm desperately trying to revive it. It might also be because BKO stole my soul and is now munching on it quite happily.
BKO: (-munch-)
Spork: Anyway, the next chapter. The timing's kinda weird, and it's neither particuarly good or inspired, but I get to move on now...
Disclaimer: I don't own Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean. Meh.
Chapter II: Cross The Divide
The first thing Takei realized was that he could not see anything. The second thing Takei realized was that he was very alone. The third and fourth thing he realized was that there was tape over his mouth, and he was in what felt like a sack. He found that he could not move his hands or feet, and there was something rough digging into his wrists and ankles. He writhed, but he might as well try to move the world with a crowbar. This was when he realized, what that he was freezing. He felt like he had been put inside a freezer. He shivered and instinctively curled up inside the sack to try to warm himself up with his own body heat. After what felt like an eternity inside the frozen sack, Takei heard a rustling like someone untying a knot. Then at the end of the sack, right by Takei's head blinding light poured inside like a shining cascade. Takei blinked in the light, and tried to focus on what was just outside the circle of light outside the sack. It looked a bit like a face…
"Oh dear gods!" said a voice in petrified horror, "Are you all right?"
"I'm not all right!" Takei tried to shout, but with the tape over his mouth the only noise he made was "Mhmnphmnph!"
"Oh no!" said the voice, "Don't worry! I'm going to get you out of there!" The circle of light expanded, and a pair of arms reached inside the sack and grabbed Takei firmly by the shoulders. After five minutes of struggling, Takei was outside the sack. A woman in her mid forties had been the one who had pulled him out. She was wearing five layers of warm clothing and looked down at Takei with concern on her face. She gently took the tape off of his mouth and started to untie the ropes that bound his wrists.
"Where am I?" asked Takei, shivering in the extreme cold.
"Cursa," said the woman, moving on to the rope at his ankles, "In Wazn. I just found you in a sack buried in the snow. I need to get you into something warm before you catch your death!"
Takei would have replied had enough of his brain been focused on the task. He was staring out at the city he was now in. Unfortunately, he could not get past the 'this is physically impossible' part of his mind. Absolutely everything from the roads to the buildings was made of sky blue ice. Snow lay in piles like sleeping arctic animals everywhere.
"Oh dear gods!" exclaimed Takei's rescuer as she looked inside the second sack, "There's someone in here too!" A couple minutes later the Cursan woman pulled Vivian out of the second sack. Vivian was still unconscious. "Can you help me please?" asked the woman, turning to Takei who was still absorbing the impossibilities around him.
"What?" he asked, rolling onto his side to look at the Cursan woman who was holding Vivian.
"Can you help me please?" she asked, "I can't lift her on my own. My house isn't very far from here, so you don't have to carry her far."
As if in a dream, Takei picked up Vivian by her feet, while the Cursan woman held her by her shoulders. Together they walked back to the Cursan woman's home. Takei only barely registered when his savior walked into a small bedroom, put Vivian down on a bed, made completely from ice, and piled seven blankets on the unconscious girl. Then the Cursan woman handed Takei another blanket, "Wrap yourself in this," she ordered sternly, "I'll see if I can find any coats that are your size."
Takei obeyed, wrapping the warm square of fabric around his shoulders. He sat on the ice bed when he was alone with Vivian. I should be panicking, he thought dully and in a sort of haze as if he were drunk, But I'm not. Maybe this is what happens what you're so terrified your mind can't take it. A minute later, the woman who had saved him returned with a dark red coat that could keep even water insulated at this temperature.
"Oh, how rude of me. I haven't told you my name yet!" she said, as she handed Takei the coat, "My name is Shina. What's your name?"
"Um…" started Takei as he put the coat on, "Well, she" he started pointing at the unconscious Vivian, "Her name is Vivian McLee. I'm Takei Mayers. It's… uh…. Good to meet you…" He trailed off when he noticed the look that Shina was giving him. He couldn't tell what it was trying to convey. Could it be awe?
"Mayers was it? Does that mean you're related to Allyr?" asked Shina, "Does she know you're here?"
"Well… what?" asked Takei thickly, "What are you talking about? How do you know my sister's name?"
"Oh! So you're her brother!" Shina exclaimed, "I didn't know she had any family! I should let her know you're here right away!"
"Wait!" said Takei as Shina turned to leave, "How do you know Allyr? Does this mean you know where she's been?"
"You make it sound like she's disappeared," said Shina, sounding puzzled, "And there isn't anyone who hasn't heard of Allyr and her companions. They saved the world! Didn't you know?" And with that, Shina bustled off. Takei stared into space while his brain rapidly tried to apply common sense to what was happening around him.
Okay, okay, he though, So what happened before I woke up here? Vivian and I were attacked by that dark lady back in the park! Yeah, that was it! Fenris led us there, I remember that. So… then I woke up here. So I must be in a coma or something! Yeah! And because this is my coma Vivian isn't awake, and because Allyr's my sister she just happens to be here! In my coma… yeah… that's it… It sounded weak, even inside Takei's head. Wait a minute… didn't Vivian say something about Allyr going off into some other world or something like that? To save Kalas or whatever his name was? So I could be in that other universe…? But that doesn't make sense! How could I have possibly ended up there?
Vivian groaned, bringing Takei out of his deeply confusing thoughts. "My head hurts…" moaned Vivian as she sat up, her blonde hair falling around her face. She looked around the room blearily, slowly taking in everything. "Where are we?" she asked the room in general.
"Um… I think Shina said we were in Cursa or something." Said Takei. "Oh, um… by Shina I mean the person who saved us," he said sheepishly when Vivian raised an inquiring eyebrow, "I woke up in a sack. And then she came along and got us out and brought us here." Takei shrugged, "I don't really know what's going on." The two sat in a thoughtful silence, until they heard running footsteps outside the room. Then a figure appeared in the doorway and stared at Takei and Vivian as if they had just sprouted horns.
"WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE?" shouted the figure angrily, brandishing a sword at Takei.
Takei gaped at the figure, while simultaneously staring at the sword with fascinated horror. "Um… please don't skin me alive…" he said meekly.
The figure looked down at the sword, "Oh… sorry," it said sheepishly, "I forgot I was holding that." The figure gently laid the sword down on the floor before turning back to Takei.
"…Long time no see Allyr?" said Vivian, deciding that trying to predict what would happen next in this world was an utter waste of time and energy.
"It has been a while hasn't it?" said Allyr, grinning. But then her stare went cold, "You still haven't answered my question yet," she said firmly, "What are you two doing here?"
"We could ask you the same thing!" retorted Takei, "You've been missing for five years! We thought you were dead! And look at you! You're waving a sword around, and you're wearing a tunic! You've gone native!"
"You haven't even been here long enough to know what native is!" snapped Allyr, "How can you possibly lecture me on the subject?"
"But you just disappeared!" protested Takei, "What where we supposed to expect? We were all worried sick you could have been dead for all we knew! And look at you now! You seem to be having a grand old time here!"
"You make it sound like I never tried to go back!" barked Allyr, "I've tried to go back more times than I can count! I didn't stay here by choice!" Allyr stopped mid rant as she could think of nothing else to throw at her brother.
"This is not a time for bickering," said Fenris, speaking for the first time since he, his partner, and Takei had arrived in this world, "Fighting amongst ourselves will get us nowhere."
Allyr stiffened immediately, like a rabbit spotting a nearby fox. "Who said that?" she asked the air.
"…Said what?" asked Takei, bemused.
"Oh… um…" started Vivian shyly, "That was Fenris… My Guardian…"
Allyr blinked, "You have a Guardian?" she said, absorbing this fact with a little difficulty. While Allyr believed Vivian, and trusted her, something about 'Vivian the spiriter' seemed... different. "Um… It's Fenris then, right? Um… good to meet you Fenris."
"And I you," said the Guardian politely, "If you do not mind my asking, you were once a Guardian, correct?"
Allyr nodded. "Yes," she confirmed, "I was a Spirit."
"I have never heard of a Spirit returning to the flesh before," lied Fenris, "Can you introduce me to your Guardian?"
"What Guardian?" said Allyr before memory caught up with her. "Oh!" she added quickly, "You mean Kalas right? Well… he's not a Guardian anymore. He's back to normal."
Takei contemplated this, "So… you brought him back from the dead?" he asked while desperately hoping the answer was 'no'. All he needed were more laws of physics to be torn to little despairing shreds.
"Yup," Allyr said, grinning, "He's doing just fine now."
Takei snorted, "You make it sound like he's just going through rehab or physical therapy and not actually coming back from the dead."
"Things are… different here," said Allyr, struggling to find the right words, "Coming back from the dead is a little more common than you'd expect."
Takei groaned, "I want to go home," he said childishly, "At least there nothing falls up."
"Nothing falls up here either," said Allyr, "And you can't go home, there's just no way to. Things aren't that bad here. Just… very... very different."
"If Allyr says there's no way back Takei, then there's no way back," said Vivian, looking down at her knees, "She's been trying to get back for five years. You'd think if there was a way back she would have found it by now."
Takei went very silent then. He hung his head and stared mutely at his feet. Allyr walked over to him and sat down next to her little brother. "Just because I haven't found a way back yet doesn't mean it doesn't exist," she said soothingly, "We'll find a way. But for right now you'll just have to trust me to look after you two. Okay?"
"Okay…" mumbled Takei without looking up.
"You don't like it here, do you?" asked Allyr.
"No… not really." Takei admitted glumly.
"That's okay," said Allyr, "We're going off to a different island tomorrow. You might like it a little more over there."
"Why do you think so?"
"Because it isn't all made of ice."
"Oh… that's nice."
"The buildings are all made of gold instead."
"WHAT?"
"Well," started Allyr hesitantly, realizing that she had said the wrong thing, "I'm not sure if they're actually made of gold, or if they're just gold plated or made of a metal that looks like gold." She shrugged. I'd better not mention the ice lamps to him if he's going to take it this way, poor guy, Allyr thought, Otherwise I'll have him muttering about thermodynamics all day.
"Don't tell me the world's flat too…" Takei moaned.
"We are getting nowhere, still," interrupted Fenris, "What we need Allyr, is a place to sleep for the night, and food to eat. Can you take us to your new home please?"
"Um… sure," said Allyr, "Follow me. Oh, and you can take the clothes with you. Shina, I think that was her name right? Anyway, she said you could keep those clothes, otherwise you'd freeze to death."
"Comforting thought," muttered Takei, following his sister like a dog after his master.
"Wow! A palace! This is amazing!" said Vivian excitedly a few minutes later as Allyr led her brother and friend to Kaffaljidhma. They were standing at the bottom landing of the great Staircase, staring up the length of the stairway with their eyes wide with amazement.
Allyr grinned, never missing a chance to show off, "You like it?" she asked cheerily, "I've been living in this place for the past five years. But right now I should probably be responsible and find you two a guestroom to stay the night. We're leaving for Alfard tomorrow morning." Allyr began to lead the others up the staircase while she mentally reviewed which guestrooms were currently vacant. The three only made it to the second landing before the two newcomers had yet another revelation dropped onto them.
"Auntie! Auntie!"
All three turned to look for the source of the voice, but only Allyr knew to look down. Takei and Vivian watched as a blue blur connected with Allyr's leg and held on tight. "You're happy today aren't you?" said Allyr grinning.
"Wait a minute… 'auntie'?" said Takei dully, "How's that work?"
The blue blur that had run into Allyr's leg had turned out to be a little girl of about five. Her dark blue dress fell down to her ankles, right above her bare feet. Her sapphire hair fell two inches past her small shoulders, and she looked up at Takei and Vivian with curious yellow eyes.
"Who are they auntie?" asked the little girl, sounding more curious than afraid.
"She," started Allyr, pointing at Vivian, "Is an old friend of mine. And this," said Allyr, poking Takei's shoulder, just a little harder than was absolutely necessary, "Is my little brother. Vivian and Takei, meet Tala here. Tala, meet Vivian and Takei."
The little girl, Tala, let go of Allyr's leg and waved energetically, "Hello!" she said happily with the enthusiasm appropriate for a five year old, "I didn't know auntie had a brother!" Tala cocked her head to one side, her face screwed up in thought, "If you're auntie's brother does that make you my uncle?" Before Takei got so much as an 'um' out Tala hugged Takei tightly and shouted, "Hello uncle Takei!"
Takei gave Allyr pleading look, clearly asking for help. "Okay Tala, you have to let go of him now," said Allyr in her best authoritative voice, but gently. "They need to get settled in first before anything else. This is all very new for them. Is that okay? We can play together later."
"Awww…" moaned Tala, sounding disappointed as she let him go. Then she waved at them enthusiastically. "Bye!" she chirped before running off.
"What an energetic child," said Fenris, amused, "She took the brush off really well for a five year old." He commented sounding curious.
"Her Mom's the queen, so she's got to deal with all the official business that goes with the job Fenris," said Allyr, adding the Guardian's name so Takei would know who she was talking to, "Tala's really good about going off when the adults are doing something else, but I think it's hard for her."
"Wait a minute… that girl was a princess?" said Takei bewildered, "Dang, you've fallen into some interesting company."
"Wait until you get to know the 'princess' better," said Allyr suppressing a grin, "She plays little pranks on everybody all the time. Sometimes it's just her, and sometimes she collaborates with some of the other kids in the palace for particularly elaborate jokes."
"Then this queen must be an interesting person then…" commented Takei.
Allyr sighed, "No, that she gets that from her father," she said, "I'd bet my arm on that."
"Isn't the queen, Xelha I think you said her name was… isn't she married to Kalas? Your old Guardian?" started Takei, as two and two started to come together, "So, if that little girl's the princess then that means…"
"Yup," said Allyr, "And the conclusion you're about to jump to is correct."
...Not a good ending, I know. Please don't rub it in. Right now I just want to move on.
The next chapter will be more interesting than this. I can guarantee that. And it will come faster.
So, please review.