Tragedy of the Raven Part 2, Chapter 4
By Prince Nightmare
The next morning Raven tried to convey to Lucca what he had heard the previous night. She watched with interest as he pointed to his small wolf carving and then to his ear, then to her.
“Hmm... do you mean you... heard a wolf? Raven, there aren’t any wolves left in Guardia, you know that.”
He scowled and raised a brow. Getting frustrated he grabbed her shirt and tugged her outside. Raven picked up a small stick and began to write in the dirt. Lucca had tried to teach him sign language but the boy hated to use it. He thought it looked stupid to wave his hands around someone’s face. Besides, the only ones he cared to ever talk to were Lucca and Glenn anyway, and they could usually understand what he meant just by the look on his face.
Lucca watched him, sighing as the young boy scribbled his message in the sand. It said. “I know there aren’t any left but I heard one last night. And I wasn’t dreaming either. I wanted to know if you had heard it.”
Lucca shook her head. “No, I didn’t hear anything Raven. But who knows, maybe there is still one or two wolves hiding in the forest and just no one ever sees them. If there are wolves, stay away from them. They can be dangerous if they get scared or feel threatened.”
Raven nodded but still felt like Lucca was just saying that to amuse his fancy. Raven knew he had heard that wolf... and yet...
“Hey! You know what I am going today Raven? I’m going to go get Aria for a visit!! Crono and Marle are going on a long trip and they asked me to watch her for a week! Isn’t that great Raven?”
Raven shook his head and sneered. He couldn’t stand Marle and Crono’s young daughter Aria. She was a whining, hyper little brat in his opinion. She had Marle’s hair and Crono’s bright eyes, and the combined personality of them both... which Raven would have described as totally obnoxious. She always tried to tag along with him wherever he went and cried and the littlest things, like a skinned knee. Glenn and Lucca adored her pretty, doll like face and spoiled her every time she came to visit. Raven felt a headache coming on already.. a week long one.
“Oh don’t frown like that! Aria worships you like you are a big brother. Try to be nice to her Raven. I know you aren’t much into playing dolls but humor her a bit.” Lucca tried hard to contain her smirk as she watched the boy roll his eyes and shrug. “You are so much like you’re father sometimes it scares me Raven. Do you want to hear more about him?”
Raven nodded. He always wanted to hear more about Magus, who was his father. Glenn didn’t like to talk of him much, but Lucca didn’t seem to mind at all. He noticed that Lucca always called him “Janus” and Glenn always called him “Magus”, which was his wizard name. He wondered why.
“Well come and help me get the Epoch ready and I’ll tell you some more.”
The Epoch needed a quick tune up, Lucca decided, so while Raven handed her the gadgets she called for, she told him more about his reclusive father that many still feared and hated.
“He didn’t really like Marle... I remember that. She pitied him and Janus couldn’t stand to be pitied. After we found him up on the Northern Point, half dead from exhaustion, it was Marle who confronted him. She figured out that he had been the young boy in the Palace of Zeal and started going on about how sorry she was for him. Janus threatened to cut off her head, I remember, though he was so weak he could barely walk. Frog... err... Glenn that is, got so mad that I thought we’d have a major fight on our hands, but Janus just ignored him. Finally, he said he was coming with us because he owed it to Schala... hand me that tri-plug please.. yep that one with the three prongs on it... thanks.” Lucca wiped off the tri-plug and fitted it back into place. She smiled over at Raven who was waiting for her to go on.
“ Traveling with Janus was no walk in the park. If you couldn’t keep up with him he was apt to just leave you behind... and he traveled fast! I swear I never once saw that man sleep, though I know he must have sometime. Sometimes he would wander off for hours and hours at a time. The first time he did that we thought he had abandoned us and really we were a bit relieved because we were all still a little afraid of him. At the same time, we knew he was the only one that knew how to work the Chrono Trigger that would revive Crono... Janus always wandered back though. He’d follow behind us and we wouldn’t even know he was there until we turned around and saw him.”
Lucca powered up the fuel cells and tested them for leaks with a device she had invented. The tester read that the time machine had no fuel leaks. Satisfied that the Epoch was in good order, she sat down on the ground next to Raven and continued her tale.
“ Your father was really the craziest fighter I ever saw. He didn’t even wait for us to help him. It was like he was daring Death to come and claim him, really... like he thought he had nothing to live for and wasn’t at all afraid of dying... Glenn would scream at him for being so reckless and endangering us all, but Janus would always do everything his own way no matter what anyone else said. I am sad to admit your father and Glenn didn’t get along too well, probably because they were both so stubborn and hard-headed... and of course there was what had happened with Cyrus...”
Raven nodded. Lucca had told him all about that too. It seemed to him sometimes his father was either a very bad person or a very good one. From Lucca’s stories of him, she described him doing very heroic things, like saving them all from Ozzie. And then sometimes, Lucca said, he did very terrible things, like killing Cyrus and turning Glenn into a frog for so many years. Lucca said she didn’t know why Janus had killed Cyrus. She said Glenn knew but Raven must not ever push him to talk about it because it hurt Glenn a lot when it had happened.
“Glenn didn’t want to admit that he and Magus fought the same inner demon. When I met Glenn, all he could think about was revenge for Cyrus. All Magus could think about was revenge on his mother and Lavos for what they did to he and Schala. It was sad, really. I think that if things had been just a little different they would have been good friends. But Glenn was too proud and Janus too aloof. I think that’s part of the reason why Glenn wanted to take you in and help you so much... the years had made him think about his bloody feud with Janus and how meaningless it all really was.”
Lucca put a hand on Raven’s shoulder and studied the boy’s face. She could tell that he didn’t know whether to love or hate his father he’d never known. “Life is too short to waste on hate Raven. I wish I could have made your father see that so he could be here for you now. I hope you understand that your father was a good man who did some very bad things because he had been hurt too many times Deep inside he was a kind man. I saw it many times though Janus would have rather died than admit it. Even though he disliked Marle it was Janus who carried her the last few miles up the mountain so we could revive Crono. She had been hurt fighting one of the spawn of Lavos. Janus would have died for Schala, his older sister. He saved all of us from Ozzie and received a near fatal blow in doing so. That’s when we took him to a young healer from Lenstahn. The villagers warned us that she was a witch, but I liked her as soon as I saw her. Her name was Desmona, and she was your mother.”
Raven nodded. Lucca had told him this story before, but he liked to hear it anyway. It made him feel like a part of his mother was still alive. He knew she must have been very beautiful and kind just from the way Lucca talked about her.
“ She had long black hair and bright blue eyes. You get your eye and hair color from her, no doubt. Your father was near death, bleeding internally from Ozzie’s brutal attacks, and we had no choice but to leave him in Desmona’s care until we came back. She saw him lying there and nearly cried... she had a few wounded animals she was healing too. I don’t think she could stand to see anyone or anything in pain... Janus got mad when he saw her crying over him and told us he was going to travel with us, but he would have died if he went on. He insisted so firmly that we had to drug him with sleeping medicine to get him to stay. We came back a few weeks later with the Rainbow Shell to find Janus healed. We thanked Desmona and thought nothing of it... though that night I went outside to get water from the well and heard her and Janus talking to each other. All I really heard was Janus say ‘ I’ll come back as soon as I find...’ That’s when they saw me and stopped talking. I really didn’t think much of it... it really was none of my business and decided they were agreeing to exchange magic or something of that nature. I had no idea they had fallen in love...”
Lucca let her voice trail off, for Raven knew the rest. It made him a little sad to think of it, but then again he was glad he knew something about his parents. And it wasn’t many who could claim their father had been a wizard who had come from an ancient kingdom a thousand times more advanced than Guardia! Lucca fidgeted with her glasses and glanced at her watch.
“I’ve got to get going! Crono and Marle are expecting me any minute! Well, I’ll be seeing you in a bit... I think Glenn wanted some help building that new wagon... he’ll need you there to show him what to do!”
Raven smiled and rolled his eyes. Glenn was a great fighter but couldn’t tie two sticks together. No doubt the wagon project was a mess by now. Raven darted out the barn and waved to Lucca as she climbed aboard the Epoch. She fired it up and slowly drove it out the barn. The metal time machine glittered in the sun as it rose slowly into the air. There was a particular humming sound and then a great flash of light. Raven covered his eyes for a moment until the flash passed, and then grinned up where the Epoch had just been. Lucca had promised him on their next five year visit they would all take a trip into the future where Crono and Marle lived. He could hardly wait.
“Hey!” Glenn called from the front yard, standing in front of a jumble of boards on wheels that Raven assumed was the wagon. He had a sheepish look on his face. “Uh... having a bit of trouble here with this wagon. Perhaps you could help me for a while on it?”
Raven could hardly contain a giggle as one of the wheels fell off, causing the whole “wagon” to come down in a crash.
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