The Rare Red Rock

The air was hot and humid, Chrono noted, as they left the covering of the forest. Now he wished he were the one going shirtless. In addition, the air felt somehow strange. Chrono didn't know why, or what exactly was different, but it didn't feel like the air he had breathed in Truce, past or present. It smelled fresher, newer, like it had yet to be sucked into anyone's nostrils. Unadulterated – that described it better, Chrono thought. Pure. It gave strength to his muscles, and though Ayla tore away at a remarkable speed, he found he had no trouble keeping up. Neither did the others, who stayed hot on his heels. He wasn't even winded.

Presently they came to a clearing, and Ayla slowed a little. Along the plain were several unadorned tents, shaped like large cones. The girl immediately went to one of them, walking normally now, and the others fell in step behind her.

Once inside, Chrono had to blink a few times to adjust to the sudden low light. The thick material of the tent allowed no light in except the light that came through the entryway. Soon he was able to make out a few other shapes in the tent. There was an older man in the center of the tent, sitting on an unearthed stump, leaning against the center post of the tent. He wore a headdress of bright feathers of red, white, and green. His long white beard flowed ragged to his chest. Also in the room was an older woman, wearing a thin fur garment like a robe that covered from her shoulders and spilled into a pool of fur on the floor. She stood next to the man, and Chrono guessed her to be his wife, or mate, or whatever these primitive peoples called their women. There were more in the tent, but they stayed back, out of the way.

Ayla went right up to the old man on the stump and started chattering at him at amazing speed. The man just held up a hand to silence her and then turned toward Chrono and the others. "Aeyrtet?" was all he said.

When he got no response, he spoke again. "You understand?"

"Yes," Chrono replied.

"You speak the language of the stars," the old man said mysteriously.

"Weirdo alert," Lucca whispered in Chrono's ear. He shushed her.

The old man continued. "You wear strange garments. Where are you from?" Unlike the girl, this man spoke clearly, with only a hint of an accent. "My daughter thinks you are from Laruba."

"No, sir. We are not from here at all," Chrono said.

"Tell me, then, where are you from?"

Chrono looked at Lucca. This was her cue. "We are from many days after tomorrow."

Everyone just looked at her for a moment. Then, breaking the silence, the old man laughed once – a harsh blast of sound that seemed to shake the walls of the tent. The other people in the tent followed suit, not sure what had been said but assuming that, if their leader thought it was funny, they should too.

"Tomorrow is not. How can you be from a place that has yet to happen?" Lucca balked. Chrono knew she was thinking the same thing he was: How could a primitive people understand what she was talking about? The old man continued. "So, travelers from Tomorrow-land, how have you come to this village?"

Chrono stepped forward now. "Uh, well, we're just here looking for Dream... I mean, a red rock."

If the old man had glasses he would be looking over them at the time-travelers. "There are many rocks in Ioka. There are many red rocks. Tell me, are you sent from the heavens?"

"What? No, I don't think so. We did fall out of the sky. We aren't angelic beings, if that's what you mean. What do you mean?"

"It is just that we have been expecting something from the sky for many, many years. A prophecy. Do not mind. I was hoping you would be those things from the sky – you are harmless."

"I don't know about that," Lucca muttered under her breath.

"Very well, all is said. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Ioka himself."

Ioka spent the rest of his day showing Chrono and the others around his village. Quickly they learned that very few people spoke their language. Ioka did, his wife did, and he was teaching his daughter; but to the people in Ioka and elsewhere, it was a learned language, requiring much study. "It is the language of the stars and the planets; the language of the beings in the heavens," Ioka said with that mysterious air that fit well with the image of the old wise man. "They come down to us to speak, but only those who speak their language understand." His face fell as if remembering something. "Last time they came, they told of a red star which would come down from the heavens. It was a vision that caused me great fear, and I have searched the sky for many years and have seen no red star. But – prophecy has never been wrong."

As far as clothing, Ioka saw no trouble with the garments the people wore – some were covered, and others wore as little as Ayla. Neither age nor gender mattered in who wore what. Nadia tried to explain that wearing nothing but a loincloth was considered improper, but the old man looked as if she were speaking gibberish. "What is 'improper'?"

"All I'm saying is that, where we come from, people wear more clothing. It's just the way things are! Men and women remain covered, especially their... um, torsos."

"Why is this?"

"It's just... so. Well, it's embarrassing, walking around half-naked. And where we come from, you could get in trouble. You could be arrested for public indecency."

"You come from a strange world."

"And we haven't even covered the issues of relations... well, private relations..." her face was beginning to redden, and Chrono and Lucca stifled a laugh. "And the matter of temptations... it's just unbelievable."

"What my friend is trying to say is that the fashion is distracting," Robo added helpfully. "Chrono's attention has been particularly disturbed by the women of your village."

"Shut up! Just shut up!" Chrono shouted, shaking a little. "It's none of your business. Jeez! Can we just get inside and be alone or something? I can't take this anymore. I don't know how you people do it!" He stormed back into the Ioka tent, more than a little embarrassed, and flopped down on an animal skin. The Ioka apparently used the skins as beds – some skins were very comfortable and plush, but this one was not. Whatever this creature had been and done, it certainly was never groomed.

He tossed and turned as the time passed. It's not fair! Now we're stuck in this place 'till we find the Dreamstone, and as long as these half-naked tribal people are here Nadia and Lucca are going to hate me! At one point he tried to sleep, but he was too nervous. Other times he would sit up and try to formulate a plan of action, but his thoughts were too scattered.

Some time later his friends came back. "Guess what?" Lucca asked, plopping down next to him. "Turns out nobody has a clue what Dreamstone is. But they say there's plenty of red rocks around if we want to go out looking. Tonight, though, is their annual harvest feast, and we're invited. I wasn't able to say no. Sorry." For once, she looked like she meant it.

The feast began after the sun went down. It was still warm – almost as warm as it had been during the day, Chrono noted, tugging at the collar of his tunic. He was sitting with Lucca and Nadia in the middle of a clearing while Robo stood behind him. They just stared at the revelry before them:

In the center of the clearing was a basic firepit, ringed by huge stones, and the people gathered around it in a great circle. They danced a strange and mystical dance, reaching and calling as if to draw out the powers of earth itself. Each of them wore a simplistic garment of leaves and flowers and a wreath of lilies on his or her head. Chrono felt bad watching, as if he were peering into something private, or something which he was not good enough to look at; but at the same time he just could not look away.

He had deduced a few things in the hours leading up to the ceremony. First, that they had arrived in a time before embarrassment. Sure, he had yet to come across anyone completely naked, but no one seemed to mind stripping down to a single loincloth. There was no worship of the body, but also no fear of it. It just was. Whether the natives wore nothing or were covered in robes, they paid no attention to the body. Robo figured it out first – the garments were merely a class symbol. Those who had robes were the chief and his family and the leaders of the village. The rest of the natives wore the most basic of robes, and the slaves and servants wore the least of all. The only reason Ayla had been out wearing so little was because the Ioka people customarily hunted with as little unnecessary covering as possible to avoid heat exhaustion (the weather, they also heard, was consistently hot and humid, year round).

The second thing Chrono deduced was that, though these people lacked common knowledge, they did not lack brainpower. The Ioka had no written language, and had no education system. When Chrono mentioned something about bacteria in the water they drank, they had only stared at him strangely. Not only had they no ability to see creatures that small, but they had no conception of how diseases worked in the first place. Yet, when Chrono explained the existence of bacteria, they had no trouble believing the science behind it.

The third thing crossed Chrono's mind after his bacteria discussion. He had asked if they were concerned about getting sick, but no one seemed to care. Sickness was rare in Ioka, despite the prevalence of germs and the lack of sanitary conditions. Lucca and Robo theorized that the atmosphere had a healing effect on the people, and Robo analyzed the air to find it was far cleaner than the air in Guardia. That answer didn't entirely satisfy Chrono, but without any substantial evidence in any other direction, he figured it would have to do for now.

"It's just sick," Nadia said, breaking the awkward silence. Her face registered nothing but shock. "These people obviously have no morals, no culture."

"Now, Nadia, we don't know that," Chrono said. "At least, I haven't seen anything. And they've been very kind to put us up like this."

"Yes, be nice," Lucca added. "These people have no science behind them. They can't help it if their morals are backward."

"Since when are science and morals the same?" Nadia sneered.

"I do not think we are in any position to judge," Robo said. "Ioka seems to have as much potential for intelligence as you are, Miss Lucca. He is trying to discover how we have come from the future and he came up with his own idiom to describe it. He says that time is a river and we have found a way to swim upstream. He also thought that because time is a river, it would be easier and take less energy to travel forward than to travel backward."

"But time isn't a river," Lucca said. "That's just a poetic way to describe it so simpletons can understand."

"Sorry. I do not mean to imply that Ioka has knowledge equal to mine. But for a people who have no previous knowledge of mathematics, science, or history, they are capable of great knowledge."

"Like children," Chrono said. The others just looked at him. "They're like a bunch of children. This must be something close to the beginning of man – well, men and women. Like they've just evolved or something. You know how children, when they're just born, don't know anything but can learn really fast? The people here are like that."

"I would hardly consider this display childlike," Nadia said.

"Well, I would," Chrono countered. "They don't know what they are. They don't think of their bodies the way adults do. You know how children like to run around naked, right?"

"No they don't." Nadia said, arms folded across her chest. Lucca just shook her head.

"What, am I the only one?"

"Let's stop talking about this right now, okay," Lucca said, holding up her hands in surrender.

Just then Ayla left the ring of dancers to join them sitting on the fringe. "Come!" she shouted to them, running up to Chrono. "Come!" Chrono was just glad she had a good amount of clothing on.

"No, Ayla," he said, his voice pitched higher – as if I were talking to a child, he noted – "We're not interested. We're just here to find the Dreamstone." At this point he was talking mostly to himself. "You know, the red rock."

"Red rock?" Ayla parroted. "Many reds rocks in Ioka!"

Lucca was ready. "Could you show us one?"

"You come?" she pointed to the ring of dancers.

"You want me to dance?" Chrono asked.

"Dance?"

"You know, dance." Chrono shook his hips a bit.

"Ohhhh, dance. You dance."

Chrono sighed and stood up. He may as well – what else was there to do? Nadia had retreated further into herself than ever, Lucca had shut out any experience that didn't fit her preconceived ideas, and Robo was hardly his idea of good company. Ayla took his hand before he knew it. Lucca and Nadia started to follow, but the girl held out her other hand to stop them. "Chrono dance."

"Ooooh, she likes you," Lucca teased. Chrono felt his face starting to redden, so he turned away and ran to the firepit, Ayla right behind.

What could he say? The dance was fun. Nearby, a few musicians beat on some hollowed out logs for rhythm, and the people swayed back and forth, repeating some sort of mantra. Eventually he figured out the steps – a complicated mess of crossing legs and arms and rolling heads. But once he got into the beat, he felt his spirit being tugged along by some unseen force until he lost track of all his other senses.

And as quickly as it started, the dance was over. "Thanks," he said to Ayla, extending a hand. She looked at it with curiosity. Oh – they don't do handshakes here. Suddenly she jumped at him and held him in a tight hug. "Chrono dance!" she exulted. He left the circle after that, feeling very self-conscious.

The next thing he knew, someone was in his face. This boy did not look happy. He stood a little taller than Chrono, his wild blonde hair sticking out in many directions. His piercing gray eyes showed little intelligence but much fervor. If this boy wanted to hurt Chrono, it was obvious there would be no stopping him. The boy's features were hard and strong, and he wore only one fur, draped over one shoulder and hanging down to his knees. Chrono could see his muscular chest and stomach through holes in the fabric.

The boy stared at him for what seemed a full five minutes. Chrono did not dare to move or even blink. A shout from his left broke the awkward silence. It was Ayla – she shouted some string of incomprehensible chatter at the boy, who just bowed his head to her and left, but not before giving Chrono one last stare down.

"Kino no like you," Ayla said slowly, forming the words carefully.

"Who is Kino?" Chrono asked.

"Kino... my..."

"What? Kino is your what?"

"I... I... Yedges?" she just shrugged. Chrono guessed she just didn't know the word for it.

"Brother? Uncle? Friend?"

"No..."

"Never mind. Forget Kino. Just tell me where you keep your rocks. You know, the red rocks?"

Ayla started, as if awakened from a daydream. "Ohhhhh, I give reds rocks."

Chrono's ears pricked. "Really? Now?"

"Now? I give reds rocks. Come." She grabbed his hand and dragged him away.

"Where are we going?" Chrono asked. They were crawling through some undergrowth now, having left the clearing. Low-hanging branches scraped his head and his free arm, which he held up to protect his face. "Lucca?" he shouted. "Nadia? Robo?" The trees swallowed up the sound of his voice.

Eventually they came to a stop by a large tree. "Stay," Ayla commanded, while she dug around the roots of the tree. "Stay, stay, stay."

As she dug, the others joined Chrono. "We were following," Lucca whispered. "I don't trust this girl."

Ayla didn't seem to care that there were suddenly three other people there. "You... only?" she asked, pointing to them.

"No one followed us," Chrono responded. "At least, I think that's what you're asking."

Ayla sat down at the base of the tree. In her hands she held two crude cups and a large bottle. "Sit." Chrono sat across from her as she handed him one of the cups. "You stay awake, I give red rock."

"What?"

"Chrono, it's a drinking game," Lucca butted in. "It's got to be. Why else would she have dragged you away from her parents?" Nadia just clicked her tongue and turned away.

"I'll do it."

"Are you out of your mind?" Nadia practically shrieked.

"Shh, do you want them to hear us?" Lucca said.

"Why do you care?"

"Guys," Chrono said, putting his hands on their shoulders. "If I do it, she'll give me the red rock."

"You don't know that," Lucca said. "And you don't know if the red rock is Dreamstone."

"Why not try? She's the only one that's offered it at all so far. It's not like I've never had a glass of wine."

Ayla had already poured both their drinks. "One," she said, downing hers instantly.

Chrono took a sip and nearly coughed up a lung. "Newbie," Lucca laughed, and he shot her a death look. He slowly finished his drink – it tasted like pure alcohol with a hint of a peachy taste. He never really drank alcohol before. Maybe once or twice when he had been to someone's home for dinner, he had sampled some wine or beer. But this was too much. The taste alone was enough to convince him he had made a stupid decision.

But if it meant he could get Dreamstone, it was worth it. "Two," Ayla said, pouring another drink. This one was easier for Chrono to stomach. The third and fourth were also easier – the taste wasn't as strong, but he also noticed his other senses had been dulled as well.

Ayla went digging again to get another bottle, and Chrono saw her stumbling around to look for it. Good. She was just as tipsy as he was. But there was one thing she hadn't counted on: Chrono was much larger and heavier than her, and also male. He remembered something his mother had told him – something about how men could hold their liquor better than women. But the thought was muddled in his mind. The next thing he knew, his glass was full again.

Soon Chrono had lost track of how many drinks he had downed (Robo said the next day it was eleven). He was beginning to feel sick. Dreamstone or not, no prize was worth this. But before he could give up, he felt he was being dragged to his feet. "Chrono, Chrono, are you all right?" It sounded like Lucca's voice, but it came from so far away... "Chrono, she's totally knocked out. You win."

"Getoffame!" He yelled. Strange – he couldn't form the words. His tongue wasn't working right, and his words got slurred. "I'm okay," he said, but it sounded more like "Ahmoggay."

"No you're not – you're totally wasted!"

"No!" Chrono pushed Lucca away and stumbled a bit before using the tree to steady himself.

"Watch out, you're going to step on Ayla!"

Chrono looked down. Oh yeah, there was a girl down there. She was sprawled out over the roots, limbs splayed in every direction. She looked uncomfortable.

Suddenly Chrono felt hot. Without thinking he pulled off his tunic and tossed it to the ground.

"Chrono! What are you doing? Put your shirt back on right now."

"No one wants to see that. Come on."

"No, you come on!" Chrono heard himself saying. "It's not like they care or anything." He stumbled toward Nadia. "C'mere, let me lean on you."

"What? No, you're drunk. Stay away from me."

"I don't wanna do anything funny, I..." Shoot, what do I want to do? But he didn't get any farther before he bent over double and threw up. The others just watched with pained expressions as he stood up again, sighed, then quickly tipped over and heaved again.

"Gross. Come on, let's get you out of here."

Chrono suddenly couldn't see anything. He just felt his body hitting the ground, and he was out.

A/N: Boy, I'm looking over the old stuff and I see I need to do some major editing.

Anyway - some things:

1. If you are curious, Ayla is speaking a real language. If you know it, keep it to yourself because I am murdering this language due to being a newbie. Also, I am spelling everything phonetically, so putting it in Google Translate won't help. Just know that these are real words and sentences. No, I will not provide a translation. Don't ask. If you really want to know, look it up yourself.

2. If you are wondering why I changed around the Prehistoric Era, I'll try to explain. There are actually many, many reasons for it, but I'll list three reasons for specific changes. First, as soon as Ayla wears the clothing she does in the game, I acknowledge that the Ioka people have modern sensibilities. CT may not be entirely realistic, but I'm trying to make it as plausible as possible. Second, the conditions of the atmosphere are so in order to reflect the extreme contrast of this era to the next (if you for some reason don't know the story, I won't spoil WHY the atmospheres are different). I gave the atmosphere some "healing" properties because let's face it - the Ioka would be a whole lot more sad cat living in tents in the middle of nowhere without it. Third and finally, I gave the Ioka some brainpower because of the language barrier. If the Ioka speak English (or my "common language" in this story), then they would either speak it well, which would mean the language doesn't evolve over thousands of years, or they speak broken English, which would indicate they are still making up the language. But if they were inventing language, then broken English would logically be the smartest thing they are capable of, which won't serve where I'm going with this. So they speak a different language, which accounts for the broken English without turning everyone into a dummy.

(tl;dr)

Anyway, that should answer some basic questions so you don't have to ask in the reviews. If you already have - sorry, I haven't looked there for a little while. Consider those questions answered.