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The FFML Refugee List
Admist the thousand legends of El-Hazard, the tale of the Sleeping Guardian
is often recounted; not on its own, but as an ending to a long epic of love
and hatred, retribution and redemption. The Sleeping Guardian exists,
forever unchanging, reminding all of heroes long dead and places that are
dust.
The Sleeping Guardian waits, ready to battle any threat to all El-Hazard.
Anyone, from venerable king to peasant child, can Awaken the Guardian, but
only at a terrible risk. Of the five times it has been Awakened, twice has
it destroyed those foolish enough to call without sufficient reason. This
ensures that it is approached only in truly dire peril, which is what the
Sleeping Guardian prefers.
You see, she would much rather live in her dreams, her memories, and the
world she has created within them, than deal with the pain of the
present...
EL-HAZARD
THE FINAL NIGHT
WORLD OF ENDINGS PROMISED
Prologue
"Grandmother?"
Something, some note, some quaver in my adoptive granddaughter's voice
tells me what memory I am in now. I struggle, fight, try my hardest to rip
free, but to no avail: Like all my true memories that come when I'm
Dreaming, I am constrained to live it as it happened. And this is the one
memory tht I refuse to remove, no mattter how horrible it is.
Already I feel the memory taking over, dragging me along...
"Yes?" I said cheerily. Distracted by the final stages of planning for
tonight's state dinner, I didn't look up from my list of names and
placesettings until Maki sat down in the chair next from mine.
When I did look up, I saw the tears streaking down her face. I reached out
and took her in my arms. "What's wrong?"
Maki wrapped her arms around me, and for one unconfortable second I was
reminded of Alliele, her genetic grandmother. That comparison washed away
in the wake of her words. "It's Fujisawa-sensei, Grandmother. He's come
back. And he's dying."
For a second I sat, unbelieving, then my tears mingled with hers.
****
The young woman stood outside the entrance to the cave, working up the
courage to enter. She had no doubt that the Sleeping Guardian would think
the invasion a threat to all El-Hazard, and yet...
The Safiry Dragon had been the reason for her last Awakening. After taking
one look, the Guardian had destroyed her Awakener and said four words: "Not
worth my time." The Guardian had gone back to sleep, and the Dragon had
went on to ravage a whole province before being killed.
The second time she'd been Awakened, she'd killed a king and all his
advisors for daring to bring her into a war between two states. Her words
then were: "I care not for anything but all El-Hazard."
The young woman tried to remember the details of the three times that the
Guardian had saved El-Hazard - when the Phantom Tribe had tried to conquer
the surface world and almost succeeded, when Tritoch, the being for which
the Guardian was only a prototype, had appeared, and when the Worldeaters
had come - but somehow, looking into the mouth of a cave where Death slept,
it was hard to remember all the good that Death really does.
The young woman shook her head. "I've come this far," she declared, "I'm
_not_ gonna back down now." With that, she pulled on her Earthshaker
Gauntlet (she knew it wouldn't do her a lick of good if the Guardian so
much as got cranky, much less tried to kill her, but Elmesi warriors never
die without a fight) and resolutely strode into the cavern.
After a few steps, her eyes adapted to the luminescence shed by the wall
carvings. It was all done in the ancient style, which befit the Guardian's
origins, but somehow she'd been expecting the walls to be decorated in the
Old Floristican style, because that was when so many of the Guardian's
tales took place.
AS the carvings picked up her body heat, they began to glow brighter,
until the young woman could actually read what was written on the walls.
AFter glancing over a few words, she shrugged. It was only a retelling of
the Wanderer's Tale, but probably more accurate than any version she'd
heard. She was a historian only by hobby, though, so she stopped reading
reluctantly and continued on.
After wandering through the geometric corridors for perhaps half an hour,
she came to a simple door set into the wall. The young woman read the
inscription on it aloud while tracing it with one finger. "Behind this door
sleeps the Demon God Ifurita. Open at your own risk."
Swallowing one final time, she reached out one hand to the door. _This is
it._ The door swung silently open at her prompt.
The room behind it smelled of the century that had passed since the door
had last been opened. The young woman stepped through, walking up the
slight rise until she reached the top of the rounded floor. Despite
expecting it, she still almost fell into the hole at the very top. She
looked down as she caught herself and gasped. There lay the Guardian.
Having only seen ancient pictures and artist's renditions, the young woman
was unprepared for the Guardian's porcelain beauty. Gray curls lay in
disarray across a face the young woman could easily belong to a Demon God:
Cold and dispassionate, who could kill humans with no more qualms than
stomping ants.
The young woman pledged to herself that she'd never stomp an ant again.
The Guardian held her legendary staff in a loose grip. The young woman was
about to reach down and pull it forth, to begin the ritual, when movement
drew her eyes back to that face. It was scrunching up, giving the Guardian
a pained expression, and... tears were trickling down her cheeks?
The young woman's heart went out to the Guardian for the first time. Not
all the legends about the Guardian's origins, not all the illustrations of
her tragic fate, could convey the grief that watching someone cry in their
sleep could.
Moving quickly, the young woman removed the staff gently from the
Guardian's hands and inserted it into the socket at the head of the
Guardian's resting place. She wound it three times, just as the ritual
proscribed. Each time, the Key turned with greater and greater difficulty.
Finally, after the third turn, the key almost sprang from her hands and the
entire room came alive, the air crackling with energy.
The young jumped back as the Guardian levitated from horizontal to
vertical. As her feet touched the ground, her eyes opened and she staggered
slightly. The young woman looked into the Guardian's eyes and was shocked
to see recognition in them. The Guardian stepped forward and said softly,
"Shayla-Shayla?"
The young woman was careful to move slowly as she pointed to herself. "My
name is Karylis, Ifurita." Again making no sudden movements, Karylis
offered the Key. "Do you wish to have your staff?"
Ifurita, after staring at it for a moment, stretched out her hand and
grasped the offered weapon. Electricity leapt one final time around the
contact point and in the globes of the staff, then died down. She nodded.
"What have I been awakened for?"
"Guardian," Karylis intoned formally, "El-Hazard has need of you."
AUTHOR'S LITTLE BLURB
Just wondering if anyone is interested in prereading for this thing,
y'know? If you are, please reply to my Hotmail account, 'cause my other
accounts are for the various mailing lists...
Don't worry about writing this affecting my other projects, I write
whenever I can. Which ain't often, but still often enough that I _may_ have
another chapter of another story done by next week.
Aaron Bergman
iamfanboy@hotmail.com
"Writing is the most fun you can have
by yourself."
-Terry Pratchett