Dawn to Dusk: A Kid’s Story Chapter 3
Ryuuro
By Mikau A. Kaiousei
1008 A.D.
Third Moon, Second Day
Lucca and Quanta hurried up the staircases to where Crono was sleeping. Lucca barely stopped to knock before barging in.
Crono jerked awake, already focusing his energies into his palm, ready to release a spell. The light that gave off, however, showed him Lucca and Quanta. He hurriedly released the power into his bedside lamp, shutting down his connection to his magic source.
“What is it?” he asked, mind already working, despite the sleep in his eyes. “Quanta and I both received a psychic message just a few minutes ago,” Lucca said. “I think it was from Schala; you remember her?” Waiting a few seconds for Crono’s nod, and getting it, she continued. “The thing was, it sounded like Lavos talking, too.” Crono’s eyebrows knit together. “Somehow, someway, either Schala is controlling a Lavos Spawn—which I doubt—or a Lavos Spawn is controlling her—much more likely.”
“But didn’t we kill all the Lavos Spawns?” Crono asked.
Quanta jumped in. “Hardly. How many children do flies have? Hundreds. Why do you think Lavos would be different? I’m sure he created far more than four. Perhaps not hundreds—the Multiverse would be completely barren, if that were true—but more than four. You encountered one in the Black Omen, did you not? How many years are there between 12,000 B.C. and 2300 A.D.? Lavos almost definitely produced more, and one of them survived, through the Princess of Zeal.”
Since the vision, Lucca had been debating something to herself, and now decided to let it out. “Crono, I didn’t want to tell you this—tell anybody this—but I know something about Schala that you don’t. She did combine with a Spawn, when she teleported us out of the Ocean Palace, and since her power is so great, the combination formed into a creature…he’s hideously powerful, and…and…” She broke off, her voice choking. “Kid…Kid is an integral part of it. She’s Schala. A clone of the Princess of Zeal. That’s why she has magic. And she’s gonna be kidnapped, and we’ll never see her again, and…” She sat down hard on one of the chairs in the room.
“How do you know?” Crono demanded.
Quanta answered. Lucca had told him on the trip up to the tower room all she knew about Kid. “When she found Kid, and got the idea for the orphanage, she saw Doreen. You know, that sprite from the Kingdom of Zeal.” Crono nodded, and Quanta continued. “Doreen told her that Kid would go through a lot of pain, be kidnapped, never see Lucca again, that sort of thing. She also made sure Lucca realized that Kid had to be kidnapped, to save the Multiverse from being devoured by this mutation. Kid’s gonna be the one to save Schala, along with a boy named Serge. But we don’t know any more.”
“So…basically, Kid’s in danger, and the Porrian army is the most likely threat?” Crono interpreted.
“Yeah.”
Crono looked at Lucca. “Lucca, we’re gonna need more help. The three…four…no, three…of us aren’t enough to fight against this army, a new Lavos, and protect Kid…even if we could.”
Lucca nodded. “I’ll..get Robo. He’ll help. And Frog, and Magus, and Ayla…”
“Magus won’t come. Don’t bother asking him,” Crono snapped. Lucca started trembling. “Oh, Lucca, I’m sorry. You know I am. But be sensible. Magus barely helped us in the first place. And Ayla…well, she and Kino were already close last time…” Lucca’s cheeks glowed a color to match her best spells. “And Frog. He’s a good idea.”
“No, no, forget I said it!” Lucca said, remembering her nightmare. “I don’t want him to come!”
Crono frowned. “I thought you were over that thing about being scared of frogs.”
“I’m not scared of frogs!” she protested. “I just don’t like them! And I don’t think Frog will come!” She stood up. “Crono, just trust me! I’ll get Robo!” With that, she left.
Crono shot a puzzled glance at Quanta. “What was that?”
Quanta sighed. “She had a dream about Frog dying. She thinks it’s prophetic, and I agree with her, seeing as how I had the same dream.”
Crono nodded slowly. “All right. Then we’ll let Frog be. Go see if you can find Kid.”
Quanta nodded, and left. He was already working out how the little girl would be taken.
Darkness, all around. Deep, thick, syrupy blackness. Moving his arm took
more effort than it should.
Globular eyes blinked, straining to see anything than the infinite, cursed darkness. But no light reached them.
Fingers stretched, trying to find purchase, to prove that they really existed. His nose, less sensitive than it used to be, quested for anything, even the feel of a breeze. His tongue probed around his enlarged mouth, but even that felt meaningless. His ears, now only vaguely receptive to indirect sound, scanned everything for the rustle of clothing, the whisper of the wind.
But nothing. Nothing proved to his senses that he was real, that he actually existed. Purple washed over his vision, but that only showed him that his eyes were trying to pierce the darkness that resisted his every move. Which should have told him that he was real, his brain was functioning properly, but he was too immersed in panic to notice.
Above him, outside of his plane of perception, a white-clad figure laughed at his pitiable condition, and went about his business of ruling the world.
Lucca ran downstairs, fighting the concept that Frog was dead, that she might
start crying, that Crono didn’t trust her…everything in the world
seemed to hate her, and want to destroy her.
But she wouldn’t let them. She was Lucca the Great, after all! She could take down any old shadows!
The Epoch was kept in a hidden area under the castle. She had installed a security system that was quite impressive, at least to her. A visitor from the future wouldn’t be impressed, most likely, but she was limited to the materials of the eleventh century.
Reaching the hidden doorway, which was behind the luminous Rainbow Shell, she opened the false brick that hid the keypad. She entered a series of numbers, and watched smugly as the wall opened up. She walked in, confident as ever.
And completely unaware of her shadow, which threw a small, silver pellet at the base of her skull, knocking her out quite effectively.
Kid was in her room, making small noises to herself as she pretended to fight
a battle, throwing imaginary spells and swinging invisible weapons at false
adversaries – like the chair, her bed, things like that.
“Hey, Kid!” Quanta said, coming into her room. She turned, and immediately pretended he hadn’t caught her threatening the mirror quite violently.
“What did the mirror do to you, eh?” he asked, shattering her pretense. She scowled at him.
“Sorry, Kiddo!” he said, holding up his hands. “Didn’t mean to be mean. Just wanted to check on you, that’s all.”
Kid turned her back on him. Her amulet was beginning to warm. She dismissed the fact; the same thing had happened when she had met Quanta for the first time.
“Hey, what did you do while we were off at war?” he asked her, sitting down. “Oh, excuse me.” He leapt to his feet. “May I sit, madam?” he asked, making a flowery bow.
“Oh, go ahead,” Kid said, losing her ability to hold onto a single expression for more than a few moments. She flopped onto the bed.
Odd, her amulet was burning. Quanta’s voice was becoming hard to hear, all echo-y like.
“Oh, no…Kid, you’re disappearing!” he said, panic written all over his face. “Kid, stop it! Do something!”
She scrabbled to find a hold on her surroundings, some kind of force that was stronger than the power wrapped within her small, purple necklace.
Cool light flowed into her head, gently surrounding her with a layer of softness. The scene before her sharpened, losing the dullness that came with disassociation from the timestream.
“Thank G-goodness,” Quanta said, quickly changing the epithet in front of the small girl. “I thought I-we were going to lose you.”
Kid looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Are you forgetting how to talk?” she asked him.
“No, no…I’m just kind of out of it. Really tired…a lot has happened lately, you know.” He smiled at her. “Don’t worry about me.”
Kid grinned back, a wide, toothy smile. She didn’t feel the shield he slid between her and the Winds; she only felt the shock that went through her system as Quanta triggered a spell that sent yellow electricty dancing around her, forcing her into the oblivion of unconsciousness.
“The revelation, the outpouring of light burned as
it showed him the true path.”