Here is chapter 3 of my Real Life/Records Of Lodoss War/BubbleGum Crisis
(way later)
crossover!   C&C at mgiroux@upc.qc.ca

PS- I am NOT on the FFML!  I'm just posting there!

Chapter 3: Awakening
< > means foreign language
* * means thoughts

    Donna slowly returned from unconsciousness, although she wasn't
sure she wanted to. She never _had_ been a morning person (unlike
her brother).  But when full awareness returned, memories returned
as well and her eyes snapped open.  As she got up, she noticed she was
in an unusual room: the walls and floor were completely made of stone
(as if she were in a castle or something), the furniture was sparse and
looked old-fashioned.  There was also a fireplace carved in one of the
walls.
    She absently put a hand to her head and noticed that not only did she
have a bandage wrapped around it, but her forehead felt a lot warmer
than usual.  It wasn't like a fever, quite the opposite: it felt wonderful.
But as she got to the top of her forehead, she felt a bump under the
bandage, a very solid bump.  However, she couldn't determine what it
was and decided to forget about it for the moment.
    *The last thing I remember is trying to stop that crazy guy's
lightning bolt with the ruby...  Wait a minute!?  Lightning bolt?* she
wondered in bewilderment. *I must have been hallucinating...  Yeah,
that's it!  I'm dreaming all of this!  All I have to do is pinch myself and
I'll wake up!*  Putting her theory to the test, she pinched herself hard
and yelped.
    She was still there.
    "Oh, no..."  She was cut off when someone entered the room.  He was
a young man, dressed in white robes of some kind, a purple cap on his
head and he carried a staff in his hand.  *Must be a priest of some
kind* she thought.  She got another surprise when she heard him
speak:
    <Oh!  You're awake!  How are you feeling?> queried Etoh.
    Puzzled, Donna answered back: "What did you say?"
    Etoh was startled by the language used by the young woman.  *I
wonder if Slayn can help with this.  I didn't expect her to speak a
different language*  Motioning the young woman to wait, he left the
room in search of the wizard.

    Slayn, Parn, Deedlit, King Kashue and Princess Fianna were in the
middle of a meeting in another part of the castle.
   "Deedlit and I are pretty sure that the Crystal we retrieved was the
last one left.  We assume the other Crystals were destroyed before we
got to the cave, which is a mixed blessing" said Slayn.
    "In what way?" asked Kashue
    "Based on the magical auras we detected around the people we
brought back to the castle, Deedlit and I are sure that they absorbed at
least part of the other Crystals' energy into their bodies through the
crystal shards," Slayn replied.
    "And that means?..." trailed Kashue inquisitively.
    "Unless they were already magic users, we'll be faced with four
four powerful elemental wizards who don't know the slightest thing
about magic.  And we're still not absolutely sure they're on our side"
said Deedlit.
    Slayn frowned at that statement and Kashue noticed it.  "Is something
bothering you, Slayn?" asked the king.
    "From what we can tell by the injuries, three of them were injured
by the explosions of elemental crystals but the fourth one, the youngest
girl, emanates something other than an elemental aura.  It resembles
one, but it isn't one.  I can't really explain it" replied Slayn with a
tinge of frutration in his voice.
    "Well, we know at least that they were enemies of Karla, that's for
sure or else we wouldn't have found them that way when we came in the
cave," added Parn.
    Princess Fianna spoke up: "We will treat them like guests and help
them in any way we can until we have reason to believe otherwise."
    Conversation died down when Etoh came in the room.
    "Princess Fianna, I think we have a problem with the visitors,"
said Etoh, sounding a bit puzzled.
    "They're awake?"
    "Only the older girl for the moment."
    "The one with the Fire aura," supplied Deedlit.
    "What is the problem, Etoh?" asked Kashue.
    "They don't seem speak the same language we do" said Etoh.  _That_
brought a round of raised eyebrows and surprised stares.
    "That's strange," mused Slayn.  "As far as I know, everyone speaks
roughly the same language in Lodoss.  Does that mean they come from
outside Lodoss?"
    "But no one knows how far away Lodoss is from any other body of
land!  No one's ever even really tried to leave Lodoss permanently
because of the nasty weather off shore" interjected Parn.
   Etoh turned to Slayn:  "Do you think you could come up with a spell
that could allow us to speak to them?"
    "Perhaps, but I'll need to consult my books."

    As soon as the young priest had left, Donna knew she definitely
wasn't back home.  *What is this?  A different universe?  Or maybe
we've gone back in time?* she wondered.  "Well, maybe it would
explain the blue thing that sucked us in.  Maybe it was a portal of some
kind..." she thought out loud.
    Getting out of bed, she noticed for the first time that she was dressed
in a white sleeping gown.  She looked around for her clothes and found
two piles near the bed on a chair.  Examining the two piles closer, she
noticed one pile was made up of her own clothes, which were
unfortunately bloodied and tattered.  *And I bought those last week...*
she thought sadly.  The second pile was made up of some kind of beige
pants, a light gray shirt some kind of red and a short-sleeved coat
which would proably go down to her mid-thighs.  Besides the clothes
were a pair of leather boots, a sturdy-looking belt and a pair of gloves.
    Neglecting the clothes for a while, Donna moved to a glassless
window and looked outside.  She saw what looked like a castle courtyard
with plenty of people milling around, dressed in armor and clothes
similar to what she had been given.  *Well, if we got back in time, then
this is probably the Middle Ages* she thought.
    She turned around and saw something that really interested her: a
mirror.  Moving toward it, she got a good look at herself and gave out a
sigh.  Her hair was in disarray and she had a small collection of
scrapes all over her face.  All of these things were topped by the big
bandage aroud her head.  Edging closer to the mirror, she started
fiddling with it, since it didn't seem to hurt and she wanted to know
what that solid bump on her forehead was.
    When she finally got the bandage off, she got yet another surprise.
    Embedded smack in the middle of her forehead was a thumb-thick
piece of red crystal.  *The big ruby I picked up...  Well, at least it
matches my hair color* she thought absently.  Touching the crystal
produced no noticeable effect, so she tried pulling it out.
   She was hit by a searing pain and imediately stopped all her efforts to
retrieve the crystal.  *God that hurt!* she thought, grabbing her
temples in agony.  Fortunately, the pain quickly dissipated.  She looked
at herself again and saw that the crystal shard was glowing slightly.
She turned around and realized that the fireplace was now lit with a
warm fire.  *How did the fireplace light up?* she wondered.
    Looking back at the mirror, she was staring at the crystal on her
forehead when another memory resurfaced.
    "Fanny..." she said with fear and anguish in her voice.  She had to
find Fanny and Terry as soon as possible!  Rushing back to the two piles
of clothes, she decided to put the new clothes on since she would look a
bit less conspicuous that way.  A few minutes later, she was buckling
the belt and was headed towards the door when it opened by itself and
revealed the same ypoung priest, but this time, accompanied by an
older, blond-haired man who was dressed in a brown, monk-like robe
carrying a long, crooked staff at his side and a third person she could
not yet see.

    Slayn had found a spell in one of his books that might be useful, so he
headed towards the young lady's room along with Etoh and Deedlit to
verify the theory.  As Etoh opened the door, they saw the young woman,
who now seemed to be quite awake, freeze and look at them with
uncertainty in her eyes.
    <Who are you people?  Where am I?> she asked, but none of them
understood of course.  Slayn was about to start reciting the language
spell when Deedlit came in the room.

    As soon as Deedlit entered, Donna's jaw dropped to the floor: the
woman who had just come in had the palest skin of all three and and also
had the longest and most pointed ears she had ever seen.  Surely she
wasn't human!  Well, that and the fact that she had one _weird_ outfit.
Slayn interpreted the expression on Donna's face as a signal to start the
language spell.
    Deedlit had come along to offer any assistance she could if the
strangers had no idea about how to use magic.  She found it a bit ironic
that a flame-haired girl should be endowed with the power of Fire.  As
she entered the room, she noticed the girls switching her attention
from Slayn and Etoh to her.  She found it both mildly embarassing and
irritating at the same time to be stared at liked that.  Hadn't that girl
ever seen an elf before?
    Donna stopped gawking at Deedlit when she noticed that Slayn's staff
was starting to glow.  When Slayn aimed the staff in her direction, he
started backing up a little, a worried expression on her face.  She
suddenly felt like her head was being stuffed to the limit with
something.
    Etoh watched with concern as the young woman fell to one knee, but
didn't intervene.  Slayn had said something like this might happen in
the course of the spell.  When the spell was finished Etoh rushed to the
young woman's side.  "Are you all right?" he asked.
    "Yeah, It'll pass..." said Donna, waving him away.  Then she realized
something: "Hey!  I can understand what you're saying!  How..."
    "Through a language spell I found in a book," interrupted Slayn.
"You can now understand, speak and, at a certain extent, write our
language."
    "A language _spell_?  As in magic?" she asked incredulously.
    "Of course!"
    Donna was about to retort that magic didn't exist when she
considered the facts: she was obviously in another world (or
dimension, for all she knew), had gotten blasted by lightning coming
from a guy's hands and she suddenly knew how to speak a different
language with no apparent effort at all.  Who knows?  Maybe magic
_did_ exist in this world.  Interrupting her train of thoughts, she
looked at the trio and sheepishly asked:  "Uhmm... Sorry if I seem rude,
but we haven't been introduced.  My name's Donna.  Who are you?"
     After the trio had identified themselves, Deedlit looked at Donna
intently and asked: "I saw the way you reacted when Slayn told you
about the spell.  You don't believe in magic, do you?"
    Donna took a couple of seconds before replying: "It's not that I don't
believe in magic, the evidence here seems to point at the contrary, but
where I come from, magic doesn't exist."  After a few seconds' pause,
she addded: "Excuse me if this is a rude question, but are you human?
You have the longest ears I have ever seen!"
    Deedlit was still a bit startled by the revelation that magic did not
exist wherever Donna came from, so it took a few moments for the
other question to sink in.  "Of course I'm not human: I'm an elf.  Is
there something wrong with that?" she asked if only a bit crossly.
    Donna quickly raised her hands in a warding gesture.  "No, no,
there's nothing wrong with that!" she assured.  "It's just that there
aren't any elves where we come from either."
    "No magic and no elves?  It would seem we have a lot to talk about...
Donna" said Deedlit ruefuelly.
    "If you don't mind my asking first, I have two questions: Where are
my brother, my sister and our friend, and why am I not dead from
having a stone imbedded in my forehead?" she said, pointing to the red
shard.
    This time, Etoh answered:  "Your siblings and your friend are
resting, but they are safe.  You need not worry about that.  As for the
crystal shard in your forehead, I'll let Slayn explain that part."
    Seeing Donna turn to him with a raised eyebrow he began his
explanation: "The crystal shard in your forehead is the last remaining
fragment of an elemental crystal.  A Fire Elemental Crystal, to be
exact.  We tried pulling it out once we realized what it was, but we
quickly found out that this action would very likely have killed you.
Deedlit and I believe that you somehow managed to absorb an unknown
amount of the Crystal's power through the shard."
    *Fire Crystal?... Well, I guess it explains why I've been feeling
warm...* she thought.  "So what does that mean for me?" asked Donna,
a little taken aback by the explanation.
    "It means you can very probably now use Elemental Fire Magic,"
said Deedlit.
    Glancing back at the fireplace, she asked a simple question: "How?"
Then quickly, she shook her head.  "Never mind that.  I'd like to see my
brother and my sister first, please."
   "All right.  Just come with us, then."

* * * * * * * * * *

----------------
Another Phoenix
----------------

Louis-Philippe Giroux
mgiroux@upc.qc.ca