Here are parts 2 and 3 of my fanfic. My two valid e-mail addresses are now
Phoenix@upc.qc.ca and phoenix@cmq.qc.ca
Chapter 2: Elemental Mess
< > means foreign language
* * means thoughts
Terry felt like his molecules were being taken apart at the seams. It
was very painful, so he unfortunately wasn't able to enjoy the impressive
light show that was going on inside the portal.
He stumbled flat on his face in the Crystal room. He was about to get
up when Donna landed on him rather abruptly. He managed to roll her
off him and was starting to get up again when this time, both Chang and
Fanny landed on him. Trying to shake them off, he swallowed a curse
and desperately croaked "Get off me! I can't breathe!".
Still dazed and his arms around Fanny's waist, Chang obeyed without
really thinking. Fanny had been knocked out, but she was already
moaning her way back to consciousness. *Well, at least she's alive,*
thought Chang with relief. Gathering his wits, he looked around the
room and saw three crystals on the ground that were emitting
something that looked to him like electricity. Confident that his boots
would be enough to stop electrical current, he seperated the three crystals
with a small tap of his foot. Separated, the crystals stopped glowing.
Terry and Donna were coming about and were looking all around
them. "Where are we?" wondered Donna out loud.
"I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto..." said Terry just
before being bonked by Donna.
"It's not funny!" said Donna, annoyed by the classic quote.
"Hey, over here!", they heard Chang's voice. Looking around, they
found him near a seemingly unconscious Fanny while ogling several
weapons the were lying on the floor. "Look at these weapons!"
Donna rather wanted to make sure Fanny was all right, so she
immediately rushed to her little sister's side while Terry, seeing
Fanny was in good hands, went to see what Chang had found. On his way
there, he nearly stepped on the Crystals that were on the ground.
"Stupid rocks, laying around like that..." he mumbled while stepping over
them. "So what'd you find?" he asked Chang.
"Look at these things! This place is an armory!" They were both
looking at various weapons and pieces of armor lying around.
"Whoooaa! Look at those two!" Chang said, pointing towards the Holy
Sword and Soul Crusher.
"Yeah, big swords are very nice, but it still doesn't explain where we
are or how the hell we got here" Terry interrupted him.
"Yeah. We got to find a way back home, quickly" answered Donna,
who joined them with a now-awake Stephany, who was staring at a
beautiful yellow crystal on a pedestal...
"Well, count the door out, `cause it's locked." came Chang's reply as
he was shaking the door handle.
"Maybe we could break it down using the weapons here?" suggested
Terry.
"Hey, what are those?" asked Donna, pointing to the three Crystals on
the floor.
"Dunno, but they were glowing when we got here." said Chang.
"They stopped when I kicked them apart."
"They're beautiful!" she said in an awed voice and they each picked
one up. Chang picked up the transparent one, Donna picked up the red
one and Terry picked up the brown-gray one. "It's kinda warm" she
said, while stroking the Crystal of Fire. "Do you think it's a ruby?"
"Looks like it. But mine doesn't feel warm: it's dead cold and it feels
almost like it's vibrating somehow," Terry said.
"Mine doesn't vibrate, but it sure is light for a rock: it barely
weighs more than a feather!" Chang countered.
They were interrupted when a pale-skinned man with a big hawk-
like nose and a circlet on his head staggered through the door. He
seemed in pain, and angry. Fanny started to whimper. <Put those
Crystals down, now!>, he said in a broken voice. Of course, Chang was the
only one who understood Karla's rumbling, and even then, he still didn't
know perfect Japanese.
"What'd he say?", asked Donna, not really expecting an answer.
"I _think_ he wants us to put the stones down" Chang said in an
unsure voice.
"How would you know that?" asked Terry.
"Because I think he just spoke Japanese" Chang answered with a
nervous shrug.
While Terry and Donna were looking at Chang a little strangely,
Karla turned towards Fanny who was holding the Yellow Crystal. <You!
Put that back!> he snapped. Shaken out of her stupor, Fanny dropped
the Crystal on the ground.
The Crystal broke into little itty bitty pieces.
In the process of apologizing, she bent down to pick up the pieces
when she tripped and fell flat on her face. Straight on one of the bigger
Crystal shards.
Karla's cool exterior broke into itty bitty pieces like said Crystal.
Donna, seeing what had happened, rushed to Fanny's side to see if she
was all right. Karla, on the other hand, was _really_ pissed off at
losing one of the Crystals and decided to remove at least one interloper
from the scene by launching a lightning bolt towards Donna. Donna saw
the bolt coming and tried to parry with the Red Crystal.
It didn't work. The Red Crystal of Fire blew up in her face.
When he saw Donna sprawled on the floor and bleeding from the head,
Terry tossed the Brown Crystal on a table beside him and rushed at
Karla with the nearest weapon available, which happened to be Soul
Crusher. He didn't care whether the guy spoke Japanese or Zulu, he
just wanted to kill the guy. "You hurt my sister you bastard!" he
yelled and tried to impale Karla. She answered by blasting him back to
the table with a force bolt, Terry unable to bring the Demon Sword to bear
in time.
He started getting up almost immediately, both to Chang and Karla's
surprise. Karla, not wanting to duel with someone who was wielding
the Demon Sword (which was starting to glow red by now), tried to
blast him again. Fortunately for Karla, she didn't hit the Brown
Crystal; she hit a jar that was sitting next to the Brown Crystal.
Unfortunately for Karla, the liquid in that jar happened to be very
flammable and explosive, not unlike liquid nitroglycerin.
Terry barely had time to protect his face with his hands before the
jar and the Brown Crystal of Earth both exploded. He collapsed besides
the table with bleeding hands and arms.
The explosion shook the Water Crystal off its pedestal and it fell on
the ground, but miraculously, it didn't break.
Chang was panicking. *This wasn't what I had in mind when Ms.
Stratson asked me to babysit tonight!* a small corner of his mind told
itself.
Karla was going over the edge. Losing three Crytals in less than five
minutes did not do wonders for her already-fragile sanity. *Those
worms, destroying 250 years' worth of work! I'll make them pay!!!*
Recovering a shred of calmness, she thought: *But I may not have to:
they all seem to be dead, except for this one with strange eyes who's
holding the White Crystal.*
Chang was looking at the strange man in front of him and quickly
came to two conclusions: he was pissed and he was powerful. He spared
a glance around him and saw that the shards from the broken Crystals
were slowly dissolving and turning to smoke. Mentally playing back
the scene and analyzing how the man had acted, a momentarily rational
corner of his mind deduced that whatever these crystals were, they
were important to the man.
Karla, not wanting to destroy the Crystal of Wind with another spell,
took out a long knife and started advancing towards Chang. Chang saw
this and stepped backwards. Karla lunged for Chang, but he deflected
the blow with the Crystal. The knife left a scratch on the surface and
the Crystal started to glow threatningly. They were both distracted
when a shout came from just outside the room's door.
* * * * * * * * * *
Parn, Deedlit, Slayn and Etoh appeared relatively near the cave.
While Slayn directed the party, he explained a few things to Parn:
"While on my trip, I came across interesting rumors about the Gray
Witch, Karla."
Parn unconsciously grabbed the hilt of his sword and squeezed. Any
thoughts of Karla immediately made him think of Ghim's death and the
feeling of helplessness he'd felt then. Combined with that was the fact
that she had managed to capture Woodchuck's body for her own, it was
all Parn could do not to start sprouting curses on the spot. Deedlit saw
his reaction and put a delicate hand on his arm. Parn turned around,
saw Deedlit's condescending face and relaxed. A little.
Slayn, unaware of Parn's reaction, continued to speak. "The rumors
said that she was developing new magical artifacts, stones or crystals,
probably. After further investigation, I found out hints that she'd been
developing these artifacts for a long time now and that these artifacts -
he spared a glance at Deedlit- have something to do with elemental
magic."
Deedlit gasped: elemental magic was not the kind to be used
carelessly. She was very careful when she used it herself and if Slayn
was right, Karla had tried to contain elemental energies within
inanimate objects and _that_ was not recommended because said object
would most likely be quite unstable. Besides, everyone knew only elves
could correctly use elemental magic. Humans who tried to use it almost
inevitably ended up creating disasters. Karla had probably taken an elf as
a host to create the Crystals.
Slayn continued: "I see Deedlit shares my concerns. If that insane
witch is tampering with elemental artifacts, there's no telling what
might happen to Lodoss. That's why I came back to Valis: I had to warn
you as soon as possible. The problem was, I didn't know where her
hideout was." A grim smile formed his face: "But I think that question
was answered a few minutes ago." After a small pause, he added: "I
saw your friends Shiris and Orson on my way to Valis. They may come to
Valis in the near future."
"All right" said Parn. "But we mustn't let Karla escape this time.
We have to free Woodchuck!"
"We're here" announced Slayn. They were standing near the
entrance of a cave that seemed to have been dug into the mountainside.
It was very well placed: it was cleverly hidden behind trees and it
wasn't near any major road.
"Where exactly _are_ we?" asked Etoh.
Slayn thought about that for a second. "To my surprise, we may
actually be closer to Valis than I had first thought, which makes sense
in a way..."
"Build your fortress where the enemy least expects and..." was
saying Deedlit in a dry voice when she was interrupted by a rather loud
explosion. Both she and Slayn winced, but Deedlit reacted first. "That
felt like an Earth Elemental! And an extremely powerful one at that!"
That was all Parn needed to know. With a loud yell, he rushed inside
the cave. "Parn! Wait!" shouted Deedlit behind him, but he paid her
no heed. Sighing loudly, the elf followed Parn into the cave, followed by
Slayn and Etoh.
* * * * * * * * * *
Inside the cave, Karla and Chang witnessed the sudden (and quite
audible) entrance of Parn. Even though she was stunned to see this new
sword-swinging arrival, Karla managed to fire a streak of blue flames
towards Parn. Chang seeing the man was busy holding the young man at
bay, decided to rush Karla with the first weapon he found: the Holy
Sword. Turning back in the nick of time, Karla barely managed to
dodge his swing and let his momentum carry him to her right, while
slashing him on the back when he passed near her. Chang was unable to
stop his momentum and crashed in a wall. The problem is, he had
desperately tried to cushion the impact with the damaged Crystal, but
to no avail.
After an impressive show of pyrotechnics, The White Crystal of Air
was no more and Chang had been blasted backwards and collapsed at the
table's feet, near Terry. The Holy Sword went flying behind the table,
but for some reason, Parn had not noticed the Sword at all.
Karla lost it. Not only was she mad, but she was also nearly drained.
She had to get out, and fast.
In a desperate effort, she tried to grab the Crystal of Water, the only
crystal left intact by the battle inside the cave, but Parn saw her move
and immediately tried to tackle her. The tackle was only partially
successful: Karla didn't make it to the Crystal, but Parn didn't manage
to get a good hold of her.
Karla got up was about to incinerate Parn with a fireball when a
moderately sized ball of light nearly hit her in the back. Turning
around, she saw Slayn, Etoh and Deedlit standing in the doorway,
Slayn's staff glowing menacingly. Reluctantly deciding she was
outclassed, she used the last of her reserves to teleport out of the cave.
"NOOOOO! Woodchuck!" shouted Parn as he saw Karla escape once
more. *Not again,* he thought, *I can't let her escape again!*
Unfortunately, his prayers went unheeded and Karla escaped silently.
"Damn!" he said, swinging his sword against the wall. "She got
away!"
"We'll get her at an other time." said Deedlit calmly while coming
over to Parn. "What happened? While we were coming after you,
Slayn and I were hit by what felt like an explosion of elemental energy.
Wind, it would seem."
Etoh, who had been surveying the room, saw four people sprawled on
the floor with wounds all over them. "Slayn, help me! These people
are hurt!" he said, rushing to Donna's side, who seemed to be bleeding
profusely from the head. "I can stabilize them here, but we need to get
them back to Valis quickly! There are more healers there."
"Who are they?", asked Deedlit, who was looking at them and at the
strange clothes they wore.
"I don't know," said Parn, "but I do know that this one," he said
while pointing to Chang, "tried to fight Karla as well. He was holding a
white crystal that blew up in his hands when he tried to stop himself
from hitting the wall with it."
Slayn and Deedlit exchanged a meaningful glance. "Fortunately",
said Slayn while turning to Etoh, " there is more than enough residual
elemental energy here to go back to Valis the same way we came. I only
need to take this to help me" he added, taking the Water Crystal.
"Good! Then let's go!" said Etoh. And so, the group was soon back to
Valis, unknowingly leaving behind the Opposing Swords.
* * * * * * * * * *
In a forest somewhere, Karla came out of her teleportation spell.
*I'm completely exhausted,* she thought. *It will take me days to be
able to teleport again.* Before collapsing unconscious on the ground,
her last thoughts were: *I will have my revenge...*
* * * * * * * * * *
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
(like 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 potentially very powerful _human_ elemental wizards who don't
know the slightest thing about using magic properly. 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 to 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, 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 sperked her interest: 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 efforts to
pull out 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 understood what you said! How..."
"Through a language spell I found in a book," interrupted Slayn.
"You can now understand, speak and, to a certain extent, write our
language."
"A language _spell_? As in magic?" she asked incredulously.
"Of course!"
Donna frowned and 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 some 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 introduced 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,
somewhat taken aback by the explanation.
"It means you can very probably now use Elemental Fire Magic," said
Deedlit. She looked nervous for some reason.
Glancing back at the fireplace, she asked a simple question: "How?"
Then quickly, she shook her head. "Nevermind that. I'd like to see my
brother and my sister first, please."
"All right. Just come with us, then."
* * * * * * * * * *