Problems Arise Chapter 1
An Outbreak
By Shadowangel
Frog was sitting in his hole in the Cursed Woods. It was five years after the defeat of the infamous Lavos. Gradually everyone had stopped going back and forth between eras to talk to each other. It wasted too much energy. Even Keyra, the seventeen-year-old girl that they had met on one of the smaller adventures, had stopped coming. She was full of energy and was thin. Her hair was a silvery black, and she had deep, shining gray-blue eyes. Keyra was one of the taller people in the group, almost as tall as Magus. She had visited Frog, Ayla, Robo, and even Magus, until he got tired of her and she accidentally blew up half his castle when they were in an argument. Frog smiled at this. He would have loved to see his enemy’s face when he no longer had a full castle.
“Twould be nice to see everyone…” Frog said sadly. He was sitting there, wallowing in his self-pity, when there was a soft knock at his wooden door.
“Frog? Hey, where are you?” A girl’s voice called down.
“Come in, friend Keyra, come in!” Frog called to her. She jumped down the ten- foot hole leading to his home. She checked her speed with her silvery wings. Keyra landed softly on the packed dirt floor.
“What brings thee here?” Asked Frog, trying to look calm. He was quite glad that he finally could talk to one of his friends. He could have even talked to Magus and enjoyed it. But, he liked Keyra better.
“There’s been an outbreak of some virus in 1005 AD. It’s in the Barracks, so we don’t think that it’s gotten to the main population. We need another person to heal. Could you help us? That is, if you’re not too busy,” Keyra said, almost happily. She had a tendency to do that.
“Of course I shall come! If thou would wait, I could prepare a bit before we depart,” Frog quickly motioned for her to come and help him get some of his supply of mid-tonics and ethers.
“Uh, sure,” Keyra said, looking a bit lost. She shuddered slightly, but Frog dismissed it without a thought. Once they had prepared sufficiently they left in the Epoch. Keyra sat in front and set the course.
“Got everything?” She called over to him.
“I do,” Frog answered.
“Good. You’re not gonna be back for a while,” Keyra smiled back at him a little strangely. Frog took note of this, but it was soon put out of his mind.
***
They were soon back at Lucca’s house in 1005 AD. People were being taken in and out of her home. Keyra landed the Epoch out of their way. She didn’t want to crush anyone, after all. Lucca came out of her house and ran up to them.
“Hey! I wondered when you’d be back. We have a huge outbreak, and the only thing that helps is curative magic,” Lucca explained. “Most of the people are soldiers and knights, but some of the maids got it too.” Frog and Keyra jumped out of Epoch.
They started to go into Lucca’s home, but she stopped them.
“We already have Marle and Ayla here. Go up to the castle. They have a bunch more than we do,” Lucca told them, sounding more than slightly tired.
“You heard her. Let’s go!” Cried Keyra. She opened her bright wings.
“Thou art not going to fly me over, art thou?” Frog asked nervously. He hated heights with a passion.
“It’s the fastest way. Now just suck it up and don’t let go,” Keyra snapped irritably. That was a bit odd for her. She was normally calm, and didn’t snap at people like that. She must have seen the slight confusion on his face, because she said more gently:
“We’ve gotta get there soon. It’s not like I’m going to drop you!” Frog was suddenly jerked upward as Keyra took flight. She had him by the wrists, and his shoulders smarted painfully.
“Ouch! Please, canst thou be more careful? My arms are going to fall off!” Frog shouted over the wind.
“We’re almost there! Just hang on!” She said through gritted teeth.
Hmmm. Frog thought. How odd. A little flight shouldn’t get her so tired. Unless I’ve gained some weight. But even then she shouldn’t be this tired. He was suddenly set down just before the castle steps. They quickly ran up the steps and into the hospital wing. All the beds were filled with sick people. It seemed that one person had something different than the next. One man had red spots all over his face. Another had a high fever and a swelled throat. Still others had chills. Without saying a word, Keyra whispered quietly to the attendant. The girl whispered something back to her. Keyra nodded gravely.
I wonder what’s going on. There seems to be many different plagues here. Frog thought. He jerked when a cold voice behind him spoke.
“Well, Frog-Man, what brings you here?” Frog spun around. He didn’t need to see who it was. It was Magus.
“I twas about to ask thee the same, Magus. What purpose art thou here for?” Frog spat back at him.
“Tisk, tisk. Perhaps we should work on our temper, now shouldn’t we?” Magus sneered. “My purpose here is none of your concern. Be sure, though, that I’m not here for this stupid plague that’s going around.”
“Then thou should come some other time, so that thou doesn’t get in the way.” Frog countered. Magus didn’t say anything, because Keyra came back. He just glared at her, and started to leave.
“You’re still mad at me for that stupid castle thing, aren’t you?” She called after him.
“If you must know, yes. You BLEW UP half of my CASTLE!!” He almost screamed at her.
“Well, you could at least be civilized about it. Besides, that castle needed a remodeling job anyway.” She snapped back. He left and she had to struggle to just refrain from lashing out with her katana.
“One of these days I’m gonna lose it, kill him, and love every second of it…” Keyra murmured darkly.
“What? I missed that,” Frog said.
“Nothing. Just…nothing,” She replied cheerfully. Then, she shuddered. Frog just stared at her, wondering what was wrong. Something was definitely wrong, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Something is clearly wrong here. What could Keyra be hiding? Frog
doesn’t know it then, but something big is about to happen. Will he,
Crono, Marle, everyone else and especially Magus be able to handle her if
something does go terribly wrong? You’ll just have to wait and
see…