I do not own any Disney characters named herein and am only borrowing them to tell a nonprofit tale meant for entertainment purposes only.
Kim Possible: Quest
By LJ58
2
Shalagon, the last survivor of the Sand Elves of Meadow-Song, sat cross-legged in her chamber, awaiting the new queen's waking.
She was not surprised the redhead was still sleeping. She had done a great deal in a very short time. She had crossed over from her world into the Realm of the Nine Lands. She had faced and fought a man who was considered unbeatable by many, at least by all local warriors. Then she had been determined to hear out those who had daringly brought complaints against the throne for the first time in many moons.
To their surprise, and Shalagon's delight, the first thing Scarlet had done was summon the old Council back from exile to help her settle many of the troubles that filled Meadow-Song, and the City of Light. She had even ordered the royal granaries to open to feed the people and ordered the soldiers to enforce only the usual legitimate laws meant for the protection of the people.
Before she finally went to her bed, she dispatched an envoy to Lord Silver-Blade in the north to inform the grand king of Barquez that Barack had been deposed, and Meadow-Song wished to return to the peace and earlier agreements between their lands.
Shalagon had little doubt that the news would soon spread beyond their two lands, and Scarlet's next challenger would be coming when it did.
First, however, she had to test Scarlet's deepest core.
Queen she might be, for now, but only the purist of heart could command the powers that she would need to follow the path Scarlet had unknowingly set herself upon from the moment she woke on the ancient Sand-Elves' altar.
To think, just one day had passed, and everything had already changed so radically in so short a time.
One moment, she had been praying to the gods of the sands to send help. To send them someone to deliver their land, and their people. One moment, she had been grieving over the loss of her own tribe, and then the next, the redhead had appeared, standing over her on the altar with the sword of prophecy in hand, and looking ready to attack her.
She had not quite told the redhead everything, though. She felt the Traveler was not ready for certain truths.
She could not tell her that fewer than half of those who crossed over from other worlds ever lived past the first moments of their arrival. Some just could not survive the crossing. Some didn't listen to the wisdom of their guides and died all the sooner. Then some did survive but found the trials before them too great for even their Otherworldly strength and skill.
Scarlet surprised her from the start.
When she told her she had to defeat a certain foe to earn the answers she desired, she had simply asked who. She tried to talk the barbarian into simply setting his sword aside, and when he laughed, she had not cowed. Even if her skills were not so great with the sword she had carried, she had not cringed from the fight.
When it seemed she was about to join the ranks of the dead, Shalagon suddenly had a vision. Her gods filled her mind with the image of a powerful crimson queen who stood before the whole of the Nine Lands as both champion and defender. She knew in that instant that the redhead had to live. She had to survive. So she risked showing herself to the very man who had personally led the slaughter of her people when her own Elders had refused to join Barack Kollar's growing armies.
Even as the woman lay dying, Shalagon had seen in her grass-green eyes the spark of defiance. The will to resist even that final fate. She had touched her, infusing her with the magics entrusted to her by her people, and their gods.
And she had felt that same power swell in the breast of the young woman who had crossed worlds to stand before her.
When the woman leaped up and simply charged the power-hungry tyrant with her bare hands, Shalagon had thought her yet doomed despite her vision. Until she somehow devastated the bigger man with but her bare hands.
And her very potently aimed knee.
The move seemed so careless, so unexpected, that Barack had not even tried to guard himself. And then he was downed, mewling like a child, and whining in pain as the Traveler had devastated him. The great Barack Kollar, who had mocked others as they died, had ended up curled up on the ground like a wounded babe, and couldn't even resist when Scarlet had finally lifted the sword of prophecy again, and set it to his groin.
Her almost ruthless comments had stunned Shalagon as much as they terrified the tyrant.
She had wanted to laugh aloud at his reaction. At his quick surrender.
After so long in shadow, the light had come once more to Meadow-Song, and Shalagon was more than pleased to be a guide to one who might just be greater than she had dared hope, or expected.
She allowed a faint smile now as she sat meditating, awaiting the queen's summons.
The city still cheered her.
The petitioners were now less hesitant to approach the palace, and even some of the soldiers were cheering the new queen. Not all, of course, but she did not deem the many mercenaries, or Barack's fellow barbarians as true citizens, or soldiers. For the moment, though, that sort was staying quiet. Likely waiting to see what came next.
She looked up at the soft knock on her door and called out.
"Enter," she invited.
A timid maid smiled nervously her way, and told her, "Queen Scarlet wishes to see you in her private parlor, Lady Shalagon," she called her.
The elf smiled back. She could not get the people to stop calling her a Lady. Never mind she was but an orphaned Child of the Sands. They deemed her a lady of her status as Queen Scarlet's Guide.
"Thank you, mistress, she told her, rising easily from the floor, and all but floating toward her, which made the young maid gape all the more at her casual grace. "If you will lead the way? I confess, I am a stranger to these stone walls, and easily lost at times."
"This way, Lady," the woman still called her.
Shalagon followed her, saying nothing to the nervous young girl.
"In here, Lady Shalagon," the maid curtsied to her as she paused before a door they finally reached.
The Elf smiled, and opened the door without knocking, and found Kim sitting in a brocade chair staring out a window that was opened to let the morning's light into the musty room.
"Good morning, Shalagon," Scarlet smiled. "Sorry, I was so late getting up….."
"You need not apologize to me," the young elf told her.
"Still, I'm usually not so late getting started. Back home, I…"
She trailed off and frowned.
"Is something wrong?"
"I….. I just keep thinking this is a dream, and I'll be waking up any second. Any second now," the young queen frowned.
"I understand. All of us tend to pray that certain trials are but dreams, or nightmares that we might escape simply by waking. Still, that does not denigrate the value of the experience. So, dream or not, you are here for a reason, Scarlet. Do you not think you should learn it before you pass?"
"Pass?"
"To whatever else awaits," the elf-child smiled as she approached her.
"Right. Right. So, you were going to tell me more about….."
She glanced at the silvered sword that now leaned against her chair.
Unlike yesterday, her simple, coarse clothing, strange as it had appeared, was gone now. She was dressed in a snug linen blouse of pale green, and a pair of men's breeches, wearing the heavy boots she had worn from the start. Shalagon did not have to guess to know that she must have given her maid fits when she chose to dress so. After all, she was queen now, even if she did currently look more like a street lass running wild in the countryside.
"As you wish, Queen Scarlet."
"About that queen business," she said uneasily. "How does getting bound to this kind of role help me…?"
"Who will more easily approach, and meet the trials yet before you, My Lady," Shalagon asked her patiently. "A nameless waif without even a clan of her own? Or a power in her own right who holds the throne of one of the Nine Lands?"
Kim found herself sighing again.
"Right," she sighed. "When you put it that way….."
"Still, your next challenge is likely to be the easiest."
"What about the explanation?"
"It comes with the challenge," Shalagon demurred.
"Naturally. Naturally," Scarlet sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"You are champion, and by that right, ruler of Meadow-Song since you defeated the tyrant," Shalagon went on, going to a nearby, and untouched tray, and pouring them both cups of dark liquid that reminded Kim somewhat of tea.
"And," she asked, knowing a disclaimer when she heard it.
"But," Shalagon smiled that weird smile of hers. "You do not have the true crown of Meadow-Song. Even the tyrant did not possess it, or the true power it might have granted him, because he feared the royal challenge."
"Which is?"
"In the deepest part of the palace, below even the lowest dungeon cell, is a place where the spirits of the past great monarchs and elders who led us rest. You must go down among them, and face whatever they demand, and if they deem you worthy, they will grant you the true crown. And all the power that comes with it."
The redhead resisted the urge to say, 'No big.'
So far, everything about this world has been unexpected. Twisted. Men were still carrying swords. Men still trying to seek power by force…..
Well, okay, that one wasn't so unusual. But this was still more like a bad fantasy film come to life than an alien world.
She nodded to Shalagon, and asked, "How do I start?"
"By drinking your shia'arz, and eating your morning meal," Shalagon said as she brought her the steaming cup poured for her. "Even the warrior chosen of the sword of prophecy cannot last long without all her strength."
"Chosen," she frowned.
"It is long believed by my kindred that when our world needs help most, the Sword of Prophecy will appear, bringing with it a warrior capable of facing those troubles."
"But…. You said that many of them die," Scarlet frowned.
"Even champions are but mortal men, or women," Shalagon told her. "Some are not great enough to survive the crossing, and the sword vanishes, leaving only the dead behind. Some are not great enough to face their trials and leave us to suffer until the next champion is chosen. Your unusual victory over the tyrant gives me hope, Lady Scarlet. I offer you the prayers of my ancestors that you survive this next trial as well," the young elf smiled.
Kim grimaced but took the steaming cup from her.
"Okay, so this is….shia'arz?"
"Yes, steamed leaves from a tree far to the west in the Land of Wyrrns."
"Wyrrns?"
"You have never seen a wyrrn?"
Shalagon looked around, nodded, and pointed at a colorful tapestry.
"There. A wyrrn," she pointed out, showing a massive, winged reptile bowing to a man on a horse that carried a glowing sword. A sword that looked suspiciously like the one that Kim now carried.
"We call them….dragons," Kim murmured, not even going to try to explain they weren't considered real in her world.
"Dragons? What a curious word. Still, it is said by some that the greatest of the wyrrn once forged the Sword of Prophecy when the world was in chaos, and he sent it out into the unknown worlds beyond to seek aid to restore balance to the Nine Lands. It is a very old legend," she shrugged as the new queen stared hard at the tapestry as she sipped her drink. "Still, it might have some truth. You might discover the truth for yourself if you ever face a wyrrn."
"Face one," Kim murmured, imagining the apparent size of the creature based on the tapestry, and the size of the creature that dwarfed what she took to be a knight, or something similar standing before it.
"That is not a fear you need to carry just now. Finish your morning meal," Shalagon suggested, gesturing to the nearby tray, "And I will show you to the palace dungeons. And the path beyond. You will have to go alone from there, though. Only the Chosen may undertake this trial. I am not worthy, even if I am to be your Guide."
"Chosen," she murmured, remembering someone screaming fitfully.
"No," a strangely familiar voice ranted in her mind as she recalled an instant in time from what seemed an eternity ago. She remember curiously blue hands tugging fitfully on the ancient, yet oddly glowing scabbard of a sheathed sword as Kim herself snatched for it in the same instant, and found herself wrapping her right hand around the hilt.
"Doc, look out," another vaguely familiar voice howled as lightning seemed to flash around them.
"Mine," the blue man howled. "I'm going to be the chosen one! The power was supposed to be mine!"
Then the memory was gone, and she frowned.
What did it mean? And why were her memories of that other world starting to fade and grow indistinct of late?
Trying to clear her mind, she took another single sip of the steaming drink Shalagon called shia'arz.
"It tastes like tea," she murmured. "Strong tea, but tea," she said, and took another drink.
"I do not know this tea. I only know shia'arz," Shalagon told her.
Kim finished the cup and suddenly found herself quite hungry when earlier she had been less than caring about her appetite.
"All right," she said, standing up to approach the now uncovered tray. "Let's do this. Before I start forgetting anything else," she complained.
"Forgetting," Shalagon frowned.
"Never mind," she muttered and reached for the bread, which was at least recognizable in any land. "Tell me more about this….sword and the trials I have to face before I can go home."
Shalagon smiled at her impatience.
"As you will, Queen Scarlet."
She only sighed.
KP
Scarlet remembered crawling through dark, metal tunnels. Creeping through stony caverns, and dark buildings filled with strange technology, and hidden dangers.
None of those places were as dark as the narrow tunnel she now traversed.
Were it not for the faint light of the oil lamp she carried, she would be in a true, stygian dark. A darkness that felt almost alive to her as she moved steadily deeper, and deeper into the very earth itself.
The dungeons had been disturbing enough. Filled with moaning, and battered prisoners. She had ordered them all released immediately, especially after learning most were the tyrant's political prisoners or even blatant hostages.
She had added that any that trespassed the true laws of the land would return if they were caught in the future, but that they were all being given a second chance. She suggested sternly that they not squander it.
Had they not been so weak, or devoid of any spirit, Kim suspected that some of them would have cheered her then and there.
Some of the soldiers frowned disapprovingly at her, but she simply glared and asked if they were thinking of challenging her.
That she was already there to seek the Cavern of Rulers as they called it, proved she was not frightened of any challenge. Not one of the men spoke up. They simply obeyed. Some, however, she could tell from their expressions, didn't expect to see her again.
"So, how many have tried this one," she had asked as Shalagon had led her from the dungeons beyond a steel door that was unlocked but took two men to pull open.
"Only one in all my memory," the young elf told her.
"And?"
"They returned, but without the crown. They lived out their life in gibbering madness," the young elf had admitted.
"Of course," Scarlet sighed and walked through the door after taking the lantern the girl had handed her.
The men were pushing the door closed even as she had taken her first steps into the dark hall.
A true queen, she had been told already, would be able to open any passage upon her return.
How long ago had that been?
How long ago had she been home? Her own, increasingly strange world, as something about this land seemed to be gradually taking her own life and memories from her, and leaving her only with puzzles, and confusing riddles to solve.
She felt her free hand reach for the hilt of the sword at her side, and gripped it, feeling a surge of unexpected energy. Even as it filled her, she remembered more of her own world in that same instant.
It was as if the sword itself now housed her memories.
She abruptly remembered her family again.
Her friends.
Her last fight with Drakken and Shego.
She frowned, and something nagged at the back of her mind, but she put it aside and focused on the passage before her.
"All right. So like they always say, the only way back, is forward," she murmured and kept moving, ignoring the now sloping passage that seemed to only be going deeper, and deeper into the living rock around her as she waited for whatever was going to try to challenge her this time.
Hopefully, it wasn't truly a bunch of ghosts. Even she wasn't sure how to handle that kind of drama!
To Be Continued…