A Winding Path Outline
By Nico Turner
characters:
Crono Trieste
Nadia (Marle) Guardia
Ben (new king) "Guardia" (took Nadia's last name)
Lucca (last name) **Itashi**
(evil king - need name) - **Revick**
Shari ("amazon" queen) (mountain "amazon" tribe)
Jaina Guardia (first daughter)
***removed*** Trini Guardia (second daughter)(?)***removed***
Draco (dragon)
***added*** Trini (second in command of "amazons")***added***
***added*** Kris Towneshead (farmers daughter) ***added***
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Marle in study - Crono - discuss reasons no marriage
Crono leaves for Choras - Marle secretly gives her his pendant to remind him of her
*5 (10?) years later* - Crono is back - war in west against Guardia (usurper to the throne)- Nadia is queen with new king
Crono meets Lucca in Leene square
Marle gallops past to building (Star - white horse -powerful -jumps up stairs)- follow
captain of the guard runs out - explains that the line is broken - explosions to west
King of guardia (ben) and Nadia/Marle come out - arguing - Nadia saying she needs to leave because they are after her - King says too dangerous
***revised slightly***Lucca and crono volunteer to guard her - she says no***revised slightly*** - wins argument (king reluctant) - Crono and lucca volunteer to help guard Truce
As she is leaving marle tells Crono to be careful - he knows she noticed him
(fill in after Marle leaves)
(cut to Marle) picking her way through guardia forest (excellent white horse picking her way silently through the brush)- must get to mountain path - crossbow knocks her out of saddle - yells at horse (Star) to run - horse takes off - Nadia captured
(cut to crono lucca) Line has fallen - crono and lucca ok - Ben disappeared
*few days later* - revick drags mutilated Nadia onto stage in Leene square - blinded her - tossed her into crowd - crono rescues her and brings her home (still has her pendant)
*weeks later* - marle is better and learning to cope with blindness - getting annoyed at "mother crono" - too independent
*over time* -Marle gains full strength and is fully competent with blindness - learned braille - kicks cronos butt with Quarterstaff - ***revised slightly***getting edgy for reasons she wont tell crono***revised slightly***
***revised***- Marle disappears for a few weeks - crono goes insane with worry - she shows up later and wont tell him where she was. This pattern continues every couple of months.***revised***
*sometime later* - ***revised slightly***in the market at Leene square revick sees Marle and Crono and heckles them ***revised slightly***- Marle has no laws which apply to her according to him - hints that he could murder her and not have to worry - crono concerned - marle thinks he wouldn't dare since the people still like her
*later* - ***revised***at a gathering while revick gives a lecture on how wonderful he is and excuses the fact all the treasury is emptying on his army and the people are starving, one of his henchmen ***revised*** shoot Marle with a crossbow bolt - Mortally wounded, but she takes the pendant crono gave back to her and calls "the dragon" which comes and covers her with it's wings and gives speech on his origin (eons ago a member of the guardia family died helping him. He saw the heart of the family was good and helped put them on the throne - in return they put him on their crest despite the fact he was returning a favor already so he offered them one favor to call on him at any time of great need (the pendant)) - disappears with Marle - revick laughs it off but looks scared
-Crono is devastated but can't bring himself to think she's dead but doesnt know what to do now
-kingdom falls deeper into chaos and ruin - people starving and crime
*one year after dragon* - kingdom is about to crumble - people planning a revolt
***used but revised***(Option: marle's daughter comes back now and tries to reclaim throne)***used but revised***
- Marle reappears, whole (not blind) and strong. (Dragon healed her and trained her in the arts which her family had forgotten, using the elements like magic. The guardia family were all tuned with certain elements (fire water etc like spekkio) but Nadia is tuned to Nature itself which means she can use all of them and blended, but not to the same degree as specializing in one, and she has the ability to talk to animals (to a degree) and turn into animals she understands well (this point, cat, wolf and horse) but animagus changing takes lots of energy (except for cat form) and changing back from animal form to human form transfers all exertion to your human body (galloping 10 miles as a horse and changing back to a human would probably kill you)) - shes very rusty with her new powers though
***removed***(- lead attack on revick - (events to follow) - fail first attempt because of huge army)(?)***removed***
***partially revised***- Marle decides she needs more REAL fighters and lets crono in on the secret of where she went. She knew revick was coming and knew he would attempt to kill any heirs to the throne so she hid her daughter (and then her second daughter) in a mountain tribe which was thought to be wiped out ages ago. (The tribes people are primarily women with amazon qualities (archery) speak a foreign tongue that Marle has mastered. Marle stumbled on them once when she ran away from the castle before she even met crono. She got lost and they saved her. Thats why she took up archery (and quarterstaff), she promised never to tell anyone about their existence (except Ben later) which is why she was reluctant to tell crono. But she can convince them that crono is trustworthy)***partially revised***
***partially removed***- Marle asks an eagle to look for Ben, Eagle finds him. He has been telling trade countries to pretend to cooperate with revick but slowly cut him off of trade to "starve" him.***partially removed***
***changed***- marle and crono go to mountain tribe (marle whistles for Star) and convince them crono is ok, meet her daughters, get help from amazons - Draco reappears and says he wants to help too***changed***
***sightly revised***- amazon attack is successful, no brute force, cause dissention among troops, Revick is captured after his troops desert him***slightly revised***
- what to do with Revick? - the people want him executed but Marle won't do it. ***revised***Torn between locking him in the dungeon forever***revised*** or branding and exiling him (Draco is impressed with her kindness toward such a jerk and offers her family line the eternal ability to call him when in need... not just one)
- Marle and crono back to the "oh darn I can't marry you" thing again but Jaina sees how much they love each other and offers to take the throne so they can marry as long as Marle helps her do it until she's learned it all.
- happy ending etc etc....
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