Here are parts 4 and 5 of my fanfic.  My two valid e-mail addresses are now
Phoenix@upc.qc.ca and phoenix@cmq.qc.ca.  C&C appreciated

Chapter 4:  More questions

    On the way to the other room, Donna kept fingering the shard on her
forehead, lost in thought.  She didn't notice the curious looks she got from a
few servants that were passing by (face it: you'd get weird looks too if you
were walking around with a big red crystal imbedded in your face).
    Startled out of her reverie, Donna realized Etoh had just asked her a
question.
    "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.  What did you say?"
    "I was commenting on how much more you and your brother look alike
than you and your younger sister."
    "Of course we look alike!  We're twins, after all."
    "Twins?"  That came from Deedlit.  "What does that mean?"
    "It means that we were born at the same time."  Noticing her confused
look, she continued: "It doesn't happen among... elves, does it?"  She still
had a little trouble accepting the fact that Deedlit was from a different
species.
    "Not that I've ever heard.  Does it happen often on your world?"
    "No, it's very rare."
    "We're here." interrupted Slayn, stopping in front of a big woodden
door.
    Donna opened the door slowly, for she didn't want to wake up Stephany
just yet.  To her surprise, she saw not only her younger sister in a bed,
but also Chang and Terry sleeping in their own beds besides Fanny.  She
walked over to her younger sister and saw that like herself, she had a
bandage around her head.
    She also appeared to have a bump on her forehead.  *The shards she fell
on!* remembered Donna, suddenly anguished.  She turned around and asked
in a small voice: "Is my sister all right?"
    "Right now, she is in the same condition as you were this morning,
which is to say she's fine and resting," said Etoh with a smile.
    "But what about her head?  What kind of injury did she have?" asked
Donna plaintively.
    "She has a shard embedded in her forehead like you, but although we can
say for certain that she _did_ absorb magical energy, we have found out
that there is a great part of the magic which is unknown to us.."
    "How old is your sister, Donna?" asked Slayn.
    "Ten years old.  Why?"
    "Because it just occured to me we may have to train the youngest
sorceress in existence."
    "What are you talking about?"
    "We can't in good conscience let you go without giving you at least a
minimum of training in your magical abilities.  From what you told me,
none of you are magic users: you could cause a disaster if you don't
eventually learn control."
    "What does that have to do with Fanny?"
    "Most magic users develop their talents in their early twenties.  I've
never heard of any kind of wizard or magician who discovered their ability
younger than at sixteen years of age."
    "Fanny's a mature girl for her age.  I'm sure there won't be any
problems.  Besides, she'll probably be thrilled to learn she can use
magic."
    "I hope you're right." said Slayn. 
    Deedlit looked as if she was going to say something to Slayn, but stopped
at the last second.  She settled the issue by glaring at him, but Slayn
ignored it.
    "Well, at least Terry and Chang didn't get hit," said Donna, turning back
towards the two other beds.
    "Err, not quite.  They also gained magic," said Etoh a bit sheepishly.
    "What?"  Donna looked at Terry again, but found no trace of either a
yellow or a red crystal shard.  "But I don't see anything on their faces."
    "That's because they weren't hit in the head like you and your sister. 
They absorbed the shards on different places."
    The inevitable question followed.  "Where _were_ they hit, then?"
    Lifting the bed covers so she could see for herself, Etoh said: "Your
brother absorbed some shards in his hands and your other friend..."
    "His name is Chang" Donna interrupted.
    "And... Chang... got hit in the chest" Etoh concluded.  "He tried to use a
Crystal to stop himself from running into a wall.  He didn't quite succeed."
    "Do they also have this... supposed Fire Magic, then?"
    "No, not Fire Magic," interrupted Deedlit.  "They absorbed different
magical energies.  Your brother probably now has Earth Magic and Chang
will probably be able to use Wind Magic."  She threw another small glare
at Slayn who noticed it this time
    Donna was slowly digesting this latest tidbit when she heard Stephany
moaning.

    Parn was mindlessly pacing in a room elsewhere in the castle, when a
familiar voice shook him out of his routine.
    "Parn!  How's it going?"
    Parn turned around to see his friend Shiris smiling at him, Orson close
behind her as usual.  "Shiris!  It's good to see you again!  Slayn told me you
might come."
    "Where is he, anyway?  He told us there was some information he might
want us to hear."
    "That's an understatement..." Parn mumbled.  And he set out to explain
what had happened in the last two days.

    Half an hour later, Parn had finished explaining the situation to Shiris
and Orson.
    After a pause, he frowned and added: "I keep repeating the fight in my
head, but I can't shake the feeling that the sword the the last guy used to
strike at Karla seemed familiar for some reason.  I didn't pay attention
back in the cave.  I'll have to ask Slayn if he can take us back to the cave
so
I can verify this."
    "A 500 year old witch and Elemental Crytals?  You do live an
interesting life, Parn", said Shiris while shaking her head.  "By the way,
where _are_ Deedlit, Slayn and Etoh?"
    "They went to try to settle a certain language problems with the folks
we brought back from the cave.  It would appear that our guests do not
speak the same language we do."
    Siris and Orson raised an eyebrow each.  It was the last gesture they had
time to do before the floor started shaking.
    
<A minute earlier>

    In the now crowded room where Donna, Slayn, Etoh and Deedlit were
talking, Stephany started moaning.  Donna immediately turned around and
rushed to her little sister's side.
    "Fanny?" she asked in a small voice.  "You okay?"
    Stephany moaned louder and started shaking her head.
    *Maybe she's having a nightmare,* Donna thought.  She then saw a
golden yellow glow coming from under her sister's bandage.  "Slayn!  My
sister's crystal is glowing!"
   The wizard immediately rushed to the other side of the bed and put his
staff over Stephany's head while closing his eyes.
    "What are you doing?" whispered a frantic Donna.
    "I'm trying to determine what kind of magic she's using.  Now keep quiet
please.  I need all my concentration"
    Donna was about to give him a piece of her mind when she saw his eyes
open wide in shock and stare past her shoulders  Donna was about to ask
him what the problem was when the ground started shaking. 
    "An earthquake!?" asked Donna in a worried voice.
    Slayn and Deedlit knew better than that.  Being experienced with magical
energies, they knew exactly where the surge came from.
    "Not an earthquake!  Your brother!" said Slayn, snapping out of it.
    Donna turned around and saw a threathning glow coming from her
brother's hands, through the bandages.
    Deedlit turned to Slayn: "How can he possibly use elemental magic at a
level like this while he's asleep?"
    Slayn was about to answer when Stephany woke up with a shriek, the
earthquake stopped and Terry's hands turned back to normal.  Donna
immediately grabbed Fanny in her arms and started soothing her.  "Easy,
Fanny... It's all right.  You just had a nightmare, that's all.  I'm here,
don't
worry."
    "I dreamed I was stuck in an earthquake!" wailed the younger sibling
between sobs.
    Not quite sure how to explain it, she said instinctively: "It's Terry's
fault.  He did it."  And this time, it was true in a way.
    "I'm afraid your brother was not the cause of the tremors" said Slayn
in a grave voice.  "I've just discovered an aspect of your sister's magical
abilities."
    "What are you talking about, Slayn?" she said, while stroking her
sobbing sister's head.  "You saw the glow coming from my brother's hands
and Deedlit said he has Earth Magic."
    "Yes, his magic generated the earthquake, but it wasn't his fault. 
Donna, when your sister imagined she was in an earthquake, her magic
unconsciously reached out to your brother and _she_ used _his_ abilities
to generate the same earthquake as in her dreams.  We're lucky she didn't
tap your brother's full power."  Slayn looked pensive.  "If what I could
tell of her magic is accurate, she can, among other things, tap and use
certain other people's magic."
    "Whose?" asked Donna.
    "Your brother's, Chang's and yours among others..." *and one other
source I won't mention right now* added Slayn silently, thinking about a
certain Blue Crystal he kept safely stored away.
    "Then I guess it's a good thing she didn't dream she was in a burning
house, eh?" said Donna nervously.
    "I don't think that would've been a problem," said Slayn.  "The only
reason this worked was because your brother was unconscious.  Had he
been awake like you, he would have been able to resist your sister's magic. 
It would have taken an effort on his part, but he could have resisted."
    "What are you saying, Donna?" piped up Fanny, who was now paying
attention.  "You speak funny, just like Chang in his lessons.  And where are
we, anyway?" she added while looking all around her.  
    Realizing she was speaking in the other language, Donna switched back to
English: "It's the language they speak, Fanny.  Slayn here," she said while
pointing to Slayn "taught me his entire language with a magic spell."
    "Magic?..."  Fanny looked as if she was about to start asking a whole lot
of questions.
     Before things could get too messy, Donna turned to Slayn: "Could you
cast the laguage spell for my sister as well as for my brother and Chang?  I
have a feeling they'll have a lot of questions when they wake up."
    "Of course."  A few seconds later, the spell was cast.
    "Hey, Donna!  Can you tell me where we are and why you're dressed all
funny?" said Fanny with a giggle at the end.  She rubbed her eyes.  "And
why do you have a stone in your forehead?"
    "I'd like to know the same things," added yet another voice.  Heads were
turned to see Chang staring at the merry group in the room.  "I would also
like to know why I suddenly understand every word of Japanese that has
been spoken when I barely understood a few words yesterday."
    Donna heaved a long sigh.  Japanese?  "This is going to take a while to
explain.  I'll explain what I can once I've woken up Terry."  Staring at her
brother's unconscious for form, she mused out loud: "How can he still be
asleep after all the noise in here?  He's usually a light sleeper."
    "Maybe it has something to do with how he got knocked out?" supplied
Chang.
    "What are you talking about?" asked Donna, getting worried.
    "When you got blasted by the weird guy, Terry went nuts and tried to
hack the guy to pieces with a sword.  He got blasted back to a table and then,
the guy shot some kind of blast that made a jar near Terry explode.  He
caught the brunt of the explosion with his hands and arms."  After a
second's silence, he added: "I got knocked out myself a few moments later,
shortly after _they_ barged in," pointing towards the Lodoss natives. 
"How _was_ that guy, anyway?"
    Donna became more worried for a moment and ignored the last question. 
She took a nearby pitcher of water, she emptied it over Terry's head and
prayed.  That got the desired results.  A sputtering Terry was now looking
around in surprise.
    "Fanny! Donna!  You're okay!" he shouted when he saw his sisters.  "Or
maybe not." he added, uncertain, when he finally took notice of the Crystal
shards his sisters were now sporting.  "Where are we, anyway?" he added
a bit confused, looking at the surroundings.
    "That's what I'd like to know," said Chang.
    Donna let out yet another sigh.  This was going to take a _very_ long
time to explain...

* * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 5: Discoveries 

    Slayn, Etoh and Deedlit (who had created quite a sensation, especially
with Fanny) left the room and promised to answer all the questions the
young people had once they would be refreshed.  On the way out the trio
bumped into another trio headed their way.
    "Slayn!  Is everything all right?" asked Parn.  "There was some kind of
tremor throughout the castle a few minutes ago!"
    "Just a slight accident.  I expect our guests to have several questions
when they finish refreshing themselves.  Princess Fianna and King Kashue
may be interested in asking some questions themselves, so there will
probably be an audience."
    "Where are they from, anyway?" asked Shiris.
    "We haven't found out.  But wherever they come from, it would appear
that magic and elves do not exist there," said Deedlit wryly.
    "No magic?  Must be dull," Shiris said with a grin.

    Half an hour later, Donna finally got a breather from all the questions. 
As it stood now, Terry, Chang and Fanny knew about as much as she did
about their present situation, which is to say, not nearly enough.
    "So," said Terry in an attempt to recapitulate, "we still don't know
where we are or who that guy who attacked us was, right?"
    "Right," said Donna.  "I think we're in a different world, especially
because of Deedlit.  There haven't ever been any elves or magic on Earth."
    "How about getting back home?" asked Chang, while absently rubbing
his chest.  While he had a fist-sized piece of crystal buried in his chest, it
didn't cause him any trouble for breathing, although it did feel a little
strange.
    "That's one of the questions we'll have to ask Slayn when we see him
again.  I just hope mom and dad aren't too worried about our
disappearance."
    "Well, it's not as if we can do anything about that right now Donna, so
let's move to the next item you told us about: magic."  After a heavy pause,
Terry continued.  "Although I'm not the first to believe in magic, the
evidence seems to point to the contrary: how I got blasted in the cave and
the language spell Slayn used _are_ rather convincing examples.  I never
thought I'd learn Japanese while I was asleep..."
    "There's also the fact that Fanny and you created a small earthquake
while you were sleeping," added Donna.
   "What?" came a trio of incredulous voices.
    "A little after when I first came into the room, Stephany started
moaning because she was having a nightmare in which she was caught in an
earthquake.  Barely seconds after that, Terry's hands started glowing and a
small earthquake occured."
    "I don't understand," said Terry.  "If Fanny's the one who dreamt the
earthquake, why am _I_ the one who created it?"
    "According to Slayn, Fanny's Crystal allowed her to tap into _your_
magical abilities in order to create an earthquake.  He's still a bit confused
by what kind of magic Fanny used.  He says it's like ours, but not like
ours."
    "Isn't that a contradiction?" asked Terry.  
    Donna shrugged.
    "Slayn and Deedlit say we can use elemental magic beacause of the
shards we absorbed," said Chang.  "Did he say how we're supposed to use
it?"
    "Not yet.  He said he'd give us basic lessons a little later."  Turning
her
head towards Fanny, she added with a smile: "Slayn also said you would
probably be the youngest sorceress their world has ever seen."
    "Really?  Me, a sorceress?" she squealed happily.  "I can't wait to show
mom and dad when we get back!"
    The other three wisely decided not to crush her hopes just yet.
    After a pause, Donna added: "Well, Slayn told to freshen up and then he's
answer the rest of our questions, so the sooner we do that, the sooner we'll
have our answers."

    Half an hour later, Etoh was escorting a nervous group of young people
to the Great Hall for an audience with Princess Fianna and King Kashue. 
They had been briefed on proper etiquette so they wouldn't make fools of
themselves.
    "This is so cool!  I'm gonna meet a king!" crowed Stephany in an awed
voice.  The other three merely rolled their eyes.  They had quickly found
out that Fanny seemed the best among them to cope with the situation. 
After all, this was still some sort of fantasy to her.
    They soon reached a huge door and they heard someone on the other side
announce them in.  Following Etoh, they stepped in the Great Hall, and
stared.
    They expected something big (they were in a castle, after all) and they
weren't disappointed.  The Great Hall's size was well within that of the
inside of a large cathedral.  Large paintings adorned the walls and great
stone columns lined the central alley.  At the far end was a throne with a
young woman sitting on it, with a tall man garbed in what looked like a
arabian desert getup besides her.  The quatuor noticed several people
staring at them when they started to go down the alley (Slayn, Deedlit Parn
and the two mercenaries among them), but they didn't let that bother them
too much, for they expected attention.  When they got to a reasonable
distance, they bowed to the princess, as they had been instructed to do.
    Pricess Fianna considered the four people in front of her:  A young
auburn-haired man desssed in a standard set of brown clothes, his sister,
dressed in red and who looked very much like him, their younger sister,
black-haired and sporting a smaller, beige version of her sister's oufit
and another young man who had short, black hair, strange eyes.  He stood
half a head shorter than the twins and wore a grey outfit.  The two girls
each sported a Crystal on their foreheads while the the short-haired twin
brother had a multitude of small fragments on his hands and arms where a
few bandages still remained.  The other young man had no visible injuries,
but the princess had been told the shard he had absorbed was imbedded in
his chest.
    Overall, they looked like four harmless kids.  However, they were
actually kids who had the potential to become extremely powerful wizards,
if properly trained.
    "Welcome to the Royal City of Valis," Princess Fianna intoned.  "I am
Princess Fianna and this is King Kashue of the Desert Kingdom of Flaim,"
she said, gesturing towards Kashue, who was standing besides her.
    The nervous quatuor then introduced themselves, their family names
causing a few eyebrows to raise.  Family names seemed nonexistent in
Lodoss.
    "I have been told you were all found in a cave belonging our enemy, the
Gray Witch Karla.  May I enquire as to how you came to be there?"
    The party of four looked at each other a little oddly.  A Gray _Witch_? 
The only person they had seen there was a man, not a woman.  "Err, your
Highness," began Terry a bit nervously, "All we know is that my twin
sister and I were about to leave home to see some friends when some kind of
blue vortex thing appeared out of nowhere and drew us in before we could
react.  When we came out of the vortex, we found ourselves in some kind of
armory or laboratory, I'm not sure.  A bit later, a weird guy wearing a
circlet came in the room, tried to talk to us and then, well... err... all
hell
broke loose" he finished with an audible sigh.
    "Did you notice anything that could explain how you got in the armory?"
Fianna asked.
    This time, Chang answered.  "Well, when I started coming to my senses
after coming through the vortex, I noticed there were three crystals lying
on the floor and they were emitting something that looked to me like
electricity, so I kicked the crystals apart with my boot."  Out of the corner
of his eye, he saw Slayn and Deedlit wince.  "I'm sorry, okay?" he said
plaintively, turning to them.  "I didn't know what the Crystals were at the
time!"  After that, he turned back to Fianna and concluded: "I think that
might be what brought us here."
    There was a small pause, Donna spoke up: "Your Highness, you said we
ended up in the secret lair of the _Gray Witch_.  We didn't se any witch;
the only person we came across was the man who tried to kill us and he
certainly wasn't a woman."
    "Parn?" the Princess inquired.  "Would you explain to them what Karla
really is?"
    "Yes, your Highness," said the young man.  Facing the party, he said:
"Briefly, Karla is a 500-year old witch whose entire essence, soul and
magic, is contained within the circlet which was sitting on the head of the
man you saw.  She has been switching host bodies for a very long time.  The
person who wears the circlet has very little, if no control over his or her
actions.  We nearly defeated her the last time we met, but although we
freed her host, she managed to kill one of our friends and take another as a
new host.  He is the current host and his name is Woodchuck.  That is why
we call the entity Karla, even if the host is a man."
    "If that witch is just a circlet, then how did she manage to kidnap your
friend?"
    "We think the circlet hypnotized him."
    "Oh..."
     This time, Kashue spoke up: "Etoh informed us that when Donna awoke,
she was speaking an unknown language.  Thanks to Slayn, we can
understand each other now, but I would like to know where exactly you
come from.  Nearly everyone on Lodoss speaks the same language and from
what I was told, there is no magic on your world."
    There were soft gasps from the various magic users in the assistance.  A
land without magic?  That was hard to believe.
    Donna spoke in return:  "We come from a world called Earth.  Based on
what I've seen so far, Lodoss technologically resembles what our world
looked like several hundred, if not a thousand years ago.  But the
resemblance stops there.  On our world, magic, elves and other concepts
exist only in mythology, right along dragons, goblins and werewolves..."
    "Strange that you should speak of these creatures, for they all exist
here, too," Kashue interrupted.
    After gaping for a couple of seconds (*Oh boy, we're in trouble...*),
Donna pulled herself together and concluded a bit shakily: "Well... all this
makes me believe we may have crossed dimensions or even realities
because of this vortex."
    Fianna looked stunned and Kashue was close behind.  "Is what she says
possible, Slayn?" asked an incredulous Desert King.
    Slayn, considered the question for several moments.  "It _is_ possible,
since the Crystals were extremely powerful before they were shattered."
    The dimensionally-displaced troop all looked sheepish at that last
comment.
    "Can you send us back?" asked Terry, worry creeping into his voice.
    "No."
   "You say you can't, but is there someone who can?" Terry asked
hopefully.
    "_I_ won't ever be able to send you back, but maybe in time, _you'll_
be be able to send yourselves back," said Slayn.
    "How?"
    "From what I've been able to determine with Chang's observations, the
portal that brought you here was a product of the three Crystals that were
destroyed.  You still have part of the Crystals' energies.  If you can manage
to hone you powers to a proper level, you could possibly recreate the
portal and go back home."
    "In other words, we're stuck here until we learn how to use our magic
properly?" Terry stated, not so much as a question but as a fact.
    "I'm afraid that it is so."
    "And how much time would that be likely to take?"
    "From a few months to a few years, there's no way of knowing.  That
will depend on how fast you learn."  Slayn managed to shrug off another
Glare of Death from Deedlit, although Chang noticed it.  He decided to ask
what it was about later.
    "Is there anyway to cut that time down?  In a few weeks, we might very
well be considered _dead_ in our world!" Terry nearly shouted.
    "Not that I know of," came the calm reply.
    The four young magic users went numb with those news...

    After seeing their reaction, Fianna ended the audience to allow the young
travelers to adjust to the shocking news.
    Meanwhile, Deedlit caught up with Slayn and put herself square in his
path.  "What do you think you're doing!?" she nearly yelled at him.
    "What are you talking about?"
    "You know very well what I'm talking about!  You spoke of training them
in elemental magic.  You know very well humans cannot control elemental
energy very well.  Even if they were exceptional learners, they would
never master their powers at a sufficient enough level to reopen another
portal.  Only elves can truly master elemental energy and I'm not sure
even a squad of elven mages would have enough power to accomplish what
they need."
    "Is that why you have been glaring at me all this time for?  I didn't
think telling them this particular aspect of their powers just yet would
lift their spirits."
    Deedlit relented.  Just a little.  "All right.  I can accept that, but
you'll
need to tell them sooner or later before they unwittingly cause a disater." 
She heaved a sigh.  "And I suppose _I'm_ the one who will have to teach
them, since you can't use elemental magic."
    "Not all of them.  I can teach the youngest one, since part of her power
is
different from the others'."
    "When will you tell them the truth?"
    "Not now.  It would serve no purpose, except distressing them further. 
I will tell them when the time is right."
    Deedlit looked at Slayn: "This won't be easy, you know."
    Slayn sighed.  "I know."

* * * * * * * * * *

a smaller, beige version of her sister's oufit