"Ahh, a break at last." Crono said with a sigh as he set down his pack and leaned his wooden practice sword and the Rainbow against a tree. "Running back and forth taking care of minor monster and outlaw problems has given me no time to practice."
Then he bent over and picked up the wooden practice sword and began practicing his katana techniques. Hours later, Crono let the tip of the wooden blade touch the ground as he wiped the sweat from his face and looked towards the fading light in the sky. "Hmm starting to get dark, I’d better get some firewood.
Picking up the Rainbow, Crono headed towards a clearing where a newly fallen tree littered the ground. "Alright, that was easy," Crono thought. Walking over to the tree, Crono raised the Rainbow, and in a blur of swipes, cut the tree into manageable firewood.
After sheathing his sword, Crono picked up an armful of logs and some smaller twigs to use as starter. Humming to himself, Crono made his way back to his campsite and set the logs next to the fire pit he had used so many times while growing up.
Sitting there, Crono reflected on the many memories he had of this place. Memories that ranged from the first time he found this place, to the first time he brought Marle here, right after their encounter with Lavos.
"Good times, good times…" Crono said. Then with another long sigh, Crono placed the starter in the bottom of the pit, and set one of the logs on top of it. "Now to get it to start," Crono mumbled as he fumbled through his pack. "Dang, sure did get dark fast," Crono said as he pulled a long piece of metal and a piece of flint from his pack. "Oh well." Crono shrugged and began striking the two objects together, causing a small spark to form.
Soon, a small glow appeared from the starter and when Crono noticed it he quit striking the flint and steel together and began to lightly blow on the ember, causing it to grow in size and warmth.
"There we go," Crono said. "Now to get something to eat and back to work." Leaning over again, Crono reached into his pack and pulled out a small drawstring bag. Uniting the string, Crono pulled out a strip of jerky, some of the good stuff from the Snail Stop in Porre. Smelling the jerky Crono smiled, "It’s not mom’s home cooking but it’s the best thing for a camping trip."
After finishing his jerky, he re-tied the bag and took a swig of water from the canteen in his pack. Wiping his mouth he said, "Back to work."
"Lu…" Crono said concentrating as a small ball of blue-green energy formed, "min….aire!" The ball shot off his outstretched palms and into a nearby dead tree. The explosion that followed totally disintegrated the dead tree and several others that were near it.
"Oops, better work on that, oh well I have all night and tomorrow to practice."
The next evening, the fire was barely smoldering because of the fact that Crono had run out of logs to throw on the fire. Picking up his wooden sword, Crono put it in his pack along with his remaining jerky and his flint and steel.
The he picked up the Rainbow from its resting place and sheathed it. Walking over to the fire pit, Crono took out his canteen and dumped the remaining water on the smoldering fire. With a hiss and a puff of smoke the fire extinguished, but just to be certain, Crono stamped the ashes into the ground and kicked a bit of dirt on top of them.
"That should do it." Crono said with a yawn. "Now to get home and get some rest." So he started off towards Truce and his house.
When he arrived at the front of his house, he stopped and looked up towards the window from his mother’s room. Seeing the light off Crono decided not to check in with his mom until the next morning. Quietly opening the door and sneaking through, Crono set his pack down to the left of the doorway, next to his mom’s boots.
Next he removed his boots and set them next to the pack. Shutting the door, Crono head up to his room. The stairs creaked as he climbed up them and with each creak came a wince from Crono. Entering his room at the top of the stairs, Crono took off his tunic and shirt and threw them onto the table by the window. Then he removed his socks and belt and tossed them to the same place.
Walking a few steps to his bed, Crono picked up the blankets and slid under them. Resting his head on his pillow, Crono thought of all the progress he’d made over the past two days and drifted to sleep.
"No, don’t!…stay away from her!" Crono yelled. "Your business is with me, leave them alone!" They’re everywhere, monsters of every size and shape. And they were all around…around mother and, and Marle too. "Stop it!" Crono screamed in rage, but before he could do anything they tore the two women to shreds and began to devour them. And then…then they turned on him. NOOooooooo!" Crono screamed. Suddenly sitting up, Crono looked around him to see he was in his room, drenched in a cold sweat. And there beside him, was his mother, and by the look of her she was scared witless.
"Mom?" Crono whispered. His mother nodded and replied.
"You, had the dream again didn’t you Crono?" Crono sadly nodded.
"It was worse this time."
"I know, I didn’t even know you were home, but then I heard your screams and I rushed up here. I tried to wake you, but I couldn’t." Then Crono’s mother broke down and began crying.
"It’s okay, they’re just dreams, and I’ll go see Lucca today, maybe she has something to make me sleep better or maybe we can figure out why I’m have these dreams and stop them…Trust me I’ll be fine." He said, finishing with a smile.
"Okay, but how about some breakfast first?"
"Sounds good!" Crono exclaimed. "I’m starved."
After Crono’s mom left the room, Crono slipped out of bed and walked over towards the dresser that sat next to his desk. Pulling the top drawer open, Crono pulled out a clean belt and new socks and then set them atop his desk. Then he closed the drawer and opened the lower one and pulled out a clean pair of pants and clean shirt.
After throwing his clothes on, Crono ran to the stairs and slid down the handrail to the bottom of the steps. Then Crono walked around the corner and to the sink where he washed his hands and then dried them. Grinning, Crono sat down at the table and grabbed a plate and silverware from the stack in the middle.
Mmm smells good mom, what are you making?"
"Jerky, eggs, and toast."
"Mm sounds great…how long till it’s done?"
"Just a couple minutes dear." A couple minutes later, though it seemed an eternity to Crono, breakfast was served and Crono’s fork dug into the food as he shoveled it onto his plate with one hand and then just as fast shoveled it from his plate into his mouth with the other hand.
After all the food was gone, Crono grabbed a napkin and wiped his mouth. "Thanks mom, that was great!" Crono said as he stood up and headed for the door. Stopping at the door, Crono leaned over and grabbed his boots. Slipping them on, he picked up his pack and took his wooden practice sword out of it, hanging it across the three pegs above the row of boots next to the door.
"See ya later mom!" Crono yelled.
"Goodbye Crono, have fun." With a grunt, Crono shut the door behind him and headed towards Lucca’s.
"Better stop at the shop before I head to Lucca’s," Crono thought. As he did so he changed direction and soon arrived at the door of the shop. Looking into his pack, Crono found his wallet and took it out, opening it to examine the contents. "Hmm, 2,500 gold." Crono said. "Should be enough."
When Crono opened the door, a bell rang and the merchant came to the front and said, "Hello, what can I do for you?"
"Umm, I need five tonics and three ethers please."
"That’ll be 2,100 gold please." The merchant said. Crono nodded and handed the money to him.
"Thank you." Crono nodded and smiled, opening the door and started running towards Lucca’s house. When he got to the bridge connecting the mainland with the island that housed Lucca and her family, Crono saw a red flash, followed by two gigantic icebergs crashing near Lucca’s house.
"Hmm, must be sparring." Crono thought. Then all of a sudden the sky went black and hundreds of gigantic white lightning bolts started streaking towards the ground. "What the…!?" Crono though as he picked up the pace. Sprinting around the house, Crono skidded to a stop and what he saw shocked and baffled him at the same time. "A Golem? But I thought we got rid of the last of them when we defeated Dalton."
Then realizing the danger, Crono drew the Rainbow and fell into a battle stance. "Ha ha ha!" the monster mocked, "You cannot defeat me, I am no ordinary Golem. I am a Nightmare Golem, feel my wrath as your friends did." He finished, motioning towards the bodies of Marle and Lucca, which lay limp on the ground. Then the monster growled and swung his arms towards the sky, "Lightning 3!"
The sky then got black and two yellow lightning bolts shot off of the Golem’s hands and hit the black in the sky. There was a loud rumble followed by hundreds of white lightning bolts that fell from the sky towards Crono.
Crono raised the Rainbow over his head in an attempt to save himself from some of the energy. Then a bolt crashed near Crono and another hit the Rainbow, sending the sword flying one way, and the bolt of lightning flying towards the Golem. The bolt impacted the Golem, setting it off balance, and Crono saw his chance.
"Luminaire!" The green ball of energy formed in front of Crono’s palms and then shot off them, impacting the Golem, and causing a gigantic explosion of energy. But before the splash energy could destroy anything, Crono yelled and clenched his fist, causing the energy to then implode on the monster.
The monster screamed in pain, meanwhile Crono dashed to the Rainbow and then ran towards the monster, and used his confuse technique to slash the monster four times. When he finished his assault with the Rainbow, he sent a large bolt of Lightning towards the monster.
When the bolt hit, four golden lines showed in the Golem’s hide and then it exploded, ending the battle.
"Life!" Crono said. Then a pillar of holy light shone through the clouds and shone upon Marle’s body. Soon after, the spirit of Marle re-entered her body.
"Huh? What happened? Oh the Golem!" she exclaimed grabbing her crossbow and pulling it to a firing position.
"Woah! Calm down Marle, It’s just me, Crono."
"But…but…"
"Don’t worry I took care of the Golem. Why don’t you revive Lucca while I look around the house to make sure nothing else is running wild here." Marle nodded as Crono turned towards the house.
Stepping up to the front door, Crono cautiously opened the door and made his way in. A couple minutes later, he returned to where Marle and now Lucca were "Your parents are gone Lucca. The only thing I found was this." He said, handing Lucca a small piece of paper that read:
"…family if you want them back…"
"What?" Crono exclaimed, "That doesn’t make any sense at…." Then Marle shoved another piece of paper in front of Crono’s face that read:
"I have your…"
"Huh? Where’d you get…"
"My father was kidnapped Crono." Marle said quietly. "Nobody but us and the people in the castle know right now. We didn’t want the people to go into a panic so we started a secret search for him, and I came here to get Lucca’s help because I knew you weren’t in town, but when I got here, the Golem attacked and some other monsters went into the house."
Then Crono sniffed the air. Then he did it again. "Crono! What are you doing?" Marle yelled.
"Do you smell that?" he replied. "Smells like….smoke!?" "But what could be…" Lucca replied. Crono stiffened and turned towards Truce, then he yelled,
"MOM!" And then took off as fast as he could go, throwing off his pack so not to have the extra weight. When he got to his house it was no more than a pile of ash, and standing on the rubble were five monsters that looked like humans but had pale blue skin and two spikes that came out of their backs.
"Let me go right this instant!" a voice said.
"Mom?" Crono asked, sure enough the two monsters in the back held his mother. "You let her go, your business is with me, not her."
"Heh," one of the monsters closest to Crono mocked. "Our business is with you, but our masters’ is with the woman. Get out of here you two, he said to the back two. We’ll take care of the brat." The back two monsters nodded and disappeared, Crono’s mom along with them. Crono raised the Rainbow and growled, "You’ll pay…"
"We’ll see kid…we’ll see." The monster replied as he pulled the two spikes out of his back, creating two large swords. "I’ll take him myself." He ordered. "If for some reason I fail, take him at the same time."
"Right boss."
"Alright, let’s see what you got then kid." Crono smiled and charged, and the monster warrior did the same. The warrior attacked, raising his right sword, and slashing with his left. Crono stopped and blocked the slash with the Rainbow, causing the sword to break in half. "What?"
Crono smiled, "The Rainbow is made from an alloy of two of the three strongest materials in the world. So your primitive swords are no match for it. So now you’ll pay!" he yelled jumping straight up and then he came down hard with the Rainbow leading, slicing the monster in half.
The other two monsters’ jaws dropped as they slowly drew the swords from their backs. Crono smiled. "You’re next." Then, Crono sheathed his sword. "This’ll only take a minute. Luminaire!" The ball of energy shot in between the two monsters and then exploded, disintegrating both on contact.
Then Crono looked up towards a starry night sky to see a piece of paper materialize. He grabbed it and read it.
"…come to the ruins of an old place of evil, where war used to rage throughout the world."
When Crono tried to turn around, he bumped into Marle, "Oh, how long have you been there?"
"Long enough Crono…long enough." She replied as she rested her head against his chest and began to sob. Crono placed his hand on the back of her head in attempt to soothe her, but to no avail.
"It’ll be a long night," Crono thought. "For all of us."