Specter of the Past Chapter 10
By KrossRodes
"Glenn..." Lucca said as she lightly tapped on the ladder that descended into his house.
"Alas! Visitors!" Frog said as he looked up from the hole above him. "What brings thee to thine home?"
"We need your help, Frog," Marle said. "Quickly gather your equipment and we'll fill you in on the way to pick up Ayla."
"Where there is trouble, there am I. One moment, we shall depart shortly," Frog said as he began to collect his equipment.
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Soon the party was together and all six of them were on their way to Neo-Zeal.
"What are we going to do when we get there?" Robo asked. "Have you formulated any strategy?"
"Well," Lucca responded, "first we are going to check with Akria and her family to see if there are any new developments. Then, we are going to have to find a way into Schala's castle. I have a feeling many questions will be answered there."
"Ayla mad," said the hyped cave-woman in the back. "We fight Schala, then Ayla return to Kino."
Marle had to laugh. She had missed Ayla's colorful personality and strange speech. Then she said, "Ayla, we all want to return to our families. Let's just think that we're fighting for them."
"Ayla understand," said Ayla as she nodded.
"Are you guys ready for the time jump?" Crono asked as he began to set the dials in the Epoch.
"Affirmative," replied Robo, "we're all strapped in back here!"
"Then everyone had better hang on because here we go!" Crono pushed the warp button and soon they were gone.
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As the Epoch kicked up dust on the surface of New-Zeal, Lucca noticed that it had gotten darker. There was even a fierce storm brewing in the distance, off in the direction of Schala's castle.
When they exited the Epoch they took a look around. The place had the aura of a war-zone, except no battle had been taking place and there was no damage to the surrounding area. They began their walk to Akria's house in Serenity as lighting flashed in the distance. The only thing missing from the storm was rain, but everyone knew that the tempest was not a result of nature.
When they reached Akria's house, Nova greeted them at the door.
"We've been expecting your return," he said as he turned.
Inside, Akria and Gaia were seated at the table. Nova went and sat down at the far end as Crono and his group each took an empty seat in the room, some at the table and others on the sofa.
"I see you've brought your company," said Gaia, seated to the left of Lucca.
"We want to help," Lucca said to Gaia. "We want to save your world and our friend, Magus. Has anything else happened lately?"
Everyone turned to look at Akria as she said, "Thing have only gotten worse. The skies are getting darker, the storm is brewing bigger, and our people are dieing. We sent our strongest mages to try to break the seal on the castle, but they couldn't do it. There was one key element missing from the spell."
"Mithril," added Gaia. "There was plenty of it in Zeal, but it would take millions of years for it to form here. Some of us have little mithril trinkets from our old world, but the mages need a large amount of it. The Pyramid of Light used to hold a big chunk of mithril, which we called the 'Dragon's Egg,' but it fell into the ocean along with the rest of Zeal."
"Crono," Marle asked, "wasn't that what Toma was searching for?"
"Yeah, I think so," Crono replied. "He may have found it already! I think we should go to find him and see if he has it!"
As Lucca stood she said, "Glenn, Ayla, and Robo can stay here and protect this house while Marle, Crono, and I go look for Toma. Besides, I think we'll need the extra room in the cockpit of the Epoch."
"Than you must leave right now!" Nova said. "And hurry back as soon as possible!"
With those words Marle, Lucca, and Crono hurried out of the house and began running toward the Epoch. The wind howled more furious than ever before as the bare trees flailed in the wind, trying to hold their ground.
As soon as they reached the Epoch, they unlocked it and hastily got in. They all buckled their safety straps as Crono set the time gauges. When everything was ready, Crono immediately ignited the Epoch and took off on their search to find Toma.
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