The Monsters Prologue
By Serena Elisa
The End of Time - ???
“Is nobody else trying to save the world except us?” Lucca sighed, slumping on the floor, exhausted, at the End of Time.
“We have been chosen for some reason...We should feel proud...and...do our best...”
Marle’s voice trailed off. She too was very tired. Resurrecting friends is always a demanding task.
The princess looked around at the companions’ pale faces.
“Well, let’s rest here for a while...Then we’ll go back to work, OK? There won’t be any other surprises, right, Gaspar?”
The old man at the lamp-post suddenly awoke.
“Uh? Ah...Many paths lay open to you...You may use that Bucket. Or fly the Wings of Time to the day of Lavos...Or there’s Black Omen, which floats in the sky above your world...”
“Well, yes…” Marle observed, confused, “You’ve already told us this stuff, five minutes ago.”
“Twice!” Lucca added fretfully.
Gaspar gave no sign to having heard her.
“It’s up to you to decide when and where to fight Lavos. By now you must realize you are the only ones who stand a chance against him.”
“Great,” the newly revived Crono sighed, trying to interrupt Gaspar’s speech, “Look, we have underst---”
“However, you will not be alone. I have had glimpses of events that will empower you...In the Middle Ages, a woman’s sheer determination brings a forest back to life...a fugitive, Ozzie, maintains an evil hideout...”
Ayla, leaning against the wall besides the infamous Bucket, was already snoring. Magus had wrapped himself with his cloak and looked on the verge of following Ayla’s example.
“Yes, yes, Robo has taken note,” Marle added, encouraging.
But the Guru couldn’t stop.
“There’s a task to be done in the future. And there’s a very special stone that can shine its light on each generation...”
“What’s the matter with this guy?” Lucca whined, exhausted.
“I sense a malfunctioning in his system,” Robo said, managing to express a note of concern in his synthetic voice.
“There’s a ghost of a lofty knight who haunts the present. There’s an object in the Middle Ages that sparkles like a rainbow...One of you is close to someone who needs help...”
Crono and Marle had finally given up and were lying on the floor. Crono was fiddling with the hilt of his sabre and Marle was intently studying her fingernails.
Robo nudged Lucca.
“I ask permission to shut myself off.”
“Given,” she yawned.
“Just as you touch the lives of every life form you meet, so, too, will their energy strengthen you. Fail to live up you potential and you will never win...”
Glenn was still sitting diligently at Gaspar’s feet, trying hard to look as he was giving the Guru his full attention. He would have to be dead before deliberately being rude to an old man. But his eyelids weren’t obeying him anymore, his round frog eyes were slowly, but surely, closing by themselves...
The Guru sighed and concluded in a dreamy tone.
“I am sorry that I must simply witness the coming spectacle from my vantage point here...”
No one answered him. Only then he realized unconscious bodies surrounded him.
“Uh...ehm...hello?”