A Birthday Gone Wrong Part 5
A Gate?
By Dave Church
Glenn and Leene were tired. Leene was limping even worse than she was before, and Glenn's pace had slowed noticeably. The heat was getting to them.
"If it is this hot, why is there snow on the ground?" Leene asked. She still had trouble believing what Glenn had said about being in a different time period, but after seeing all the snow, she was convinced.
Glenn's response was, "This time period was in an ice age not long ago. It's not suprising that there would still be snow around." They had walked for a little over an hour with not much success at finding anything.
Leene mentioned, "That snake bite is hurting," she said. Then, without warning, she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Glenn turned around to see what the noise was, and cursed silently when he saw the unmoving figure of Leene on the ground. He went back, put her on his smallish frog shoulders, and struggled on.
He went for a while, and then even he became affected by the heat. He thought he saw a house of some sort at the edge of his vision. Am I dreaming? Glenn thought. Then, he saw a figure in a cloak emerge from the house.
Then, with Leene's weight pressing on his shoulder, and the heat tiring him faster than he expected, he collapsed to the ground.
The last thing Glenn saw was the cloaked figure drawing near to him before he became unconscious.
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The four of them- Crono, Marle, Magus, and Robo- couldn't believe what they saw before them.
"We did not observe this before," Robo stated. Magus nodded in agreement.
The group had made their way to where the Epoch was parked when they had left it.
To their surprise, they discovered a gate in the spot where the Epoch was. And it was open.
Marle was the first to speak. "I'm guessing that this will lead us to where we'll find Epoch," she said.
"And Glenn and the queen," Crono added. "Let's go through."
Crono, Marle, Robo, and Magus all went in.
The portal had no trouble closing behind them, as it had when they last tried to get 4 people through.
After coming through the blue emptiness that they called time, they landed at the End of Time.
They were standing in a blue beam of light. There was another blue beam of light beside them.
"4 people going through the gate. I should have known we'd come here." Crono said, shaking his head.
"It didn't seem to have any trouble closing," Robo mentioned.
Marle nodded in consent. "Like it did the last time we took 4 people through."
"Let us confer with Gaspar," Magus said, floating over to the lightpost.
The trio followed Magus to where Gaspar was. Gaspar suddenly awakened.
"Hello. What do you need?"
"Glenn and Queen Leene have gone missing. Would you know where they are?"
Marle asked.
Gaspar nodded. "You will find them in 12 000 BC."
Crono was surprised. "That's it? It's that simple?"
Gaspar shrugged. "They can't all be gems." He fiddled with his cane.
Magus turned around to leave. "That suits me. I've gone as far as I will go." He started walking toward the pillars of light.
Gaspar responded by saying, "Hold on a minute. You may like what you find if you go with them."
Magus stopped and turned. "All right," he mumbled grudgingly.
Gaspar addressed the other three. "Spekkio has found a couple more types of magic. Do you have anyone whom he could bestow them on to?"
Marle and Crono immediately thought of someone. They both resolved silently to bring that person to the End of Time after they were done finding Glenn.
"Ok. I think we can go." Crono said. He started toward the pillar of light which would take them to 12 000 BC. Magus went in first, and Crono, Marle, and Robo followed him.
After they made the transit, they landed in what they thought to be a jungle area. They all felt a cool sensation under their feet, and looked down to see that there was snow under them.
"Hasn't melted yet," Crono observed. He looked around.
"Given the length of the ice age, It would be quite some time before all snow and ice would melt," Robo stated.
Marle suddenly pointed to her left. "Look! It's Epoch!"
The group made their way toward the crashed ship. Robo immediately went around the ship, checking to see if it was ok.
"Is it damaged?" Crono asked. The exterior of the Epoch just had a few scratch marks.
Nothing Lucca couldn't fix…
Robo beeped. "It appears that the engine suffered minor damage in the takeoff, but nothing irreparable. It will take me a few hours, though.
"We should use this time to locate the others," Magus suggested. He pointed to a set of tracks in the snow. "I suspect that these will lead us to him."
He started to follow the tracks, and turned as Crono and Marle just stared at him. "What are you looking at? Let's get going!"
Crono and Marle exchanged glances, and followed Magus after the tracks in the snow…
Glenn awoke to a sound of a baby crying. He could hear it wailing nearby, and barely heard someone saying "Shh, It's all right," but he couldn't recognize the voice. He got up off the couch he was sleeping on, and took in the scenery of the room he was in. The architecture reminded him a lot of Zeal, with the fancy tapestries, the lights, and the bright colours.
He looked and saw Queen Leene resting on a bed nearby. Her ankle had swollen even more, and had taken a yellowish colour. He worried about what that could mean(But he figured that her ankle swelling and becoming yellow was a bad thing). Suddenly, the baby he heard earlier stopped wailing. After a moment, he heard the creaking of a door, and turned to see a cloaked figure enter a room.
The cloaked person just stood there, as if waiting for something. Glenn took the initiative.
"Greetings. Many thanks for putting us up in this humble abode. Mine name is Glenn. Who art thou?" Glenn inquired of the stranger.
The stranger seemed to buy it, responding, "I thought I'd recognized you from somewhere." Then, the person threw off the hood, revealing who it was.
Glenn could not believe his eyes. If frogs could turn pale, he most likely would have.
The stranger smiled, and Glenn opened his mouth to ask something, but the cloaked figure put out a hand, stopping him. "It's all right. Your questions will be answered, in due time."
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End of Part 5
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