Konnichiwa! I'm SO SORRY I haven't written in such a long time! Especially when I left it on such a cliffhanger like that... GOMEN NASAI, MINNA-SAN! It's just that with all the tests and presentations and projects and HOMEWORK that we've been getting, I hadn't been able to find enough time to write a draft of this chapter, let alone put it up. Add the fact that my comp has been acting screwy and it can't access and I have a very good excuse why I haven't been writing.

Well, here's chapter six, even though it is late. Avi finally found a chance (at 12:30 AM) to wake me up and prod me to start writing, so here it is!

Oh yeah...I have to put a disclaimer...I don't own RW, some very lucky people do. I DO however own all the new ideas! Hilaris and Halicyon are mine! The armors of Fauna and Flora are mine! Kionden and Inokian, and their respective armors, are mine! Serusin is mine! Acitis is mine! Basically, I own everything new, which in this chapter is quite a lot. Got it?

Enjoy!

Stuff in ( ) are Author's Notes.

Fur and Field
By Windsong
Chapter Six: Legends and Tales
Written March 2000

The silence in the car pressed upon the group. They could practically hear what each one was thinking. Finally, the long, tense car ride ended, and they filed out of the car and into the living room. They sat/stood around the two women. Rowen looked at Halicyon. "Talk."

"Well, I may as well start from the beginning..." Halicyon sighed, and began.

"If nothing else, we didn't lie about our names. Our real names are Hilaris Monoceros and Halicyon Pericolas. However, we don't come from Rankalia, as I'm sure you figured out." She looked at Rowen.

He nodded. "I looked up Rankalia on the map. It doesn't exist. You made it up, right?"

"Bingo. We really come from a land called Serusin."

"Where's that?"

"It's not anywhere on your map. In fact, it's not anywhere in your universe. Serusin is another world."

Six- no, wait, that's seven, Byakuen counts- blank looks greeted this piece of information. "Nani?" Sai finally asked.

"We come from Serusin, it's another world that's sort of similar to yours but not really. You know how the Dynasty has another world? Well, it's the same thing for us. We're from another world... I guess you could call it another dimension, but that's not really right." Hilaris tried to explain.

"Oh, so that's what Grandfather meant! He kept hinting that there were other worlds!" Mia exclaimed.

"So what are you doing here? Why aren't you at your world?" Ryo asked.

"Because it was taken over by the Dynasty."

More stares greeted this news.

"Okay, Hilaris is better to tell this story—she's the one who's really into legends." Halicyon looked at Hilaris, giving her the stage.

Hilaris began speaking. "All right. Serusin was a prospering world, thriving mainly because from Serusin, there are links to every other world. Serusin also has a very strong warrior background, which means that we have some of the best artisans of all the worlds. In fact, The legendary armors were made in Serusin, out of a mythical metal called Sunsteel, a metal that is marvelously light, yet one of the strongest metals that ever existed. Sunsteel also has the ability to hold in elemental powers, which is why each armor was blessed with power over a different element.

"Now, the legends say that there were eleven armors made. The nine that you know of, Wildfire, Halo, Torrent, Strata, Hard Rock, Illusion, Cruelty, Darkness and Venom were made to work together. They are called the Base Armors. However, two other armors, the armors of Fauna and Flora, were made to assist the eleven originals lest anything go wrong. These two were made to work in a pair, and were named the Reserve Armors.

"Then the nine base armors were given to nine well respected mage families that had sworn to follow good. Each family was given an armor that matched their power, for example a family which could control the wind and clouds was given the armor of Strata to guard. Eventually, five of those families—your families—came to earth. However, the families chosen to keep the Reserved Armors were ordered to never use them except in times of extreme desperation, and to never leave Serusin.

"Now, getting back to the Dynasty. The Dynasty was created about 1,000 years ago on a world called Acitis by a group of five people. Those five eventually took over all of Acitis, and resolved to take over all the worlds. Did you know that Talpa isn't a name, but a rank? (I KNOW it isn't, but I already told you this story was A/U so now it is.) The first leader, a man named Gradinu, eventually died, and his second-in-command took over the title of Talpa. So the Dynasty has been ruled throughout the centuries.

"Eventually, however, the worlds were able to stop the Dynasty from taking over everything and confine it to Acitis, using elemental and psychic powers to hold it in. As a final precaution, the four families that remained on Serusin sent the bearers of the armors of Darkness, Cruelty, Venom and Illusion to guard Acitis.

"Naturally, the Dynasty broke free of the powers that held it. The four armor-bearers tried to fight them, but eventually they were overpowered and their minds were tainted so that they worked for the Dynasty. Free of all its restraints, the Dynasty tried to take over once more. Powered by the four Base armors, they took over hundreds of worlds quite easily. Eventually, the Dynasty turned its eyes towards Serusin.

"And so started what we call The Last War. The Dynasty was cunning in how it took over us, first finding people who would go willingly and inviting them to join their army, enticing them with promises of power and riches. Many fell to these temptations." Hilaris looked down for a moment before looking back up again, her eyes full of bitter, deep, sorrowful anger. "My father was one of them."

"Your Father joined the Dynasty?" Kento asked incredulously.

Hilaris nodded, and continued. "So, once they gathered all the willing people, they tried to take Serusin by force. We fought back of course, and gave them a run for their money..." Hilaris smiled, remembering. "But eventually, their sheer numbers wore us out. So, I was told that I and Halicyon were the armor bearers of the Reserved Armors, and that for the sake of all the worlds we had to don our armors and fight for Serusin." She looked over at Halicyon. "So that's what we did. Even with us fighting, however, our world was slowly but surely taken over. We suffered loss after loss." Her eyes filled with an aching sorrow that time had not healed. "My brother was killed, run through by an uncaring dynasty soldier. My own mother was murdered, right before my very eyes, and I could do nothing. Eventually, we were two out of a handful of people who were alive, and the rest of them didn't see the point of fighting anymore and surrendered to the Dynasty. What happened to them, I do not know.

"We, however, did not surrender to the Dynasty — we had heard of the four tainted Basics. After the last ones surrrendered, we knew that even we, with our armors, could not stand against them. So we left one final thing to slow down the dynasty, and we fled to Earth."

"What was the last thing you did to them?" Asked Sai.

Halicyon grinned mischeviously. "We called upon our mage-powers and destroyed as many of the World Gates as we could. Those we couldn't destroy, we blocked off."

"You guys are mages?" Asked Sage, amazed.

"You are too, you know," Hilaris cut in with some amusement, her smile widening as everyone turned to stare at her.

"Well, yes," Halicyon continued, glaring at Hilaris for interrupting, "but our Mage-powers tie into our armors. Yours too, since Hil brought that up at the worst possible time," she muttered under her breath, glaring again at her friend, who smiled without a shred of repentance. "Hilaris can talk to animals, and command them. However, since she can talk to animals, she can also speak any language—humans are animals as well, you know. I have power over plants. We basically had plants and animals tear down the portals. The only two we couldn't destroy were the ones that led to Acitis and Earth, so we asked our charges to protect them so that they couldn't go through. I suppose they were able to get through Earth's portal anyway..."

"So what happened after that?" asked Kento.

"Basically, we came here, became students at the college, and met Mia in one of our classes. Then we met you at that party, and the rest you know."

There was a small silence. "Well, what else about you guys? I mean, you told us a lot of background, and how you got here, but what about your childhoods?" Sai asked.

"Well," Halicyon began, "Hilaris and I are both from noble houses, but no one bothers with that anyway. And before you interrupt again," Halicyon raised a warning hand, and Hilaris shut her mouth and smiled at her, "Your families are too, back on Serusin. Anyway, Hilaris and I have known each other since we were babies, and we've grown up together. We both went to the same school, and we trained together. That's another thing. You know our weapons?" Nods all around. "My weapon, it's sort of a mixture of three weapons, so its name is a mixture of all those weapons. My weapon's called the Dagmitaff." Silence reigned for a second before people started nodding. Halicyon continued. "From the second we could pick up a miniature version of our weapons, we've been trained in them. Our school was made for mages, called the Pencanan school—Pencana in our language means "Magically gifted".

Halicyon stopped talking for a moment and looked around the group. there was silence and some thoughtful looks as people digested the information. "So, have all your questions been answered?"

Nods from everyone.

"Okay. Well, if you'll excuse me, I have to go study—there's a quiz in geography tomorrow." Halicyon headed upstairs.

Kento paled. "Hey, Hali! Wait up! I need to study with you!"

Hilaris got up and stretched. "Well, I'm dead tired so I'm going to take a shower, and them I'm going to sleep. G'night." She yawned and headed upstairs as well.

Silence reigned for a second before they all got up and went their seperate ways.

There! Chapter six is all done! -grins and dusts off hands- I REALLY needed to write that section, I really wanted people to know the whole background that I'd brewed up in my head for this story. Well, ja ne! I'll get back to the fighting and the plot twists next chapter!

Windsong - windsong 137 at gmail dot com