Search For Schala Part Three
A Name For The Mystics
By Taran
Magus and Ayla were trying to keep afloat in the river. They grabbed onto the root of a tree and climbed out. They were close to Ioka. They got out and Magus started to talk. “Where would the reptites go?” he asked Ayla.
“Probably go Mystic Mountains, only place near river. You go? Me come too. Ayla thankful for rescue. Mean Scar! Azala’s descendent. Bad boy.”
“No. I have to go find them myself. My friends will help. We’ll send Kino back.”
“OK. Send Kino back. Good luck.”
Magus crossed the bridge in Ioka and headed to the Mystic mountains. He started hiking up when he saw several reptites just laying around. They had been wounded. Further up the mountain he found Ozzie and Kino on the edge of a cliff. “Good, Magus come.” said Kino. “Reptites and Schala gone!”
“We destroyed all but two of them.” said Ozzie. “ They fell off this cliff when some porthole opened and they were swallowed up. What should we do?”
“That porthole was a gate. It took them to the future. We've got to go after them. Kino, go home. Ayla is waiting for you. We can take care of ourselves.” Kino nodded and left. “Come on.” Magus jumped off and pulled Ozzie with him. The gate swallowed them up and they were rushed into the blue and purple light.
They emerged in some small dark room. Magus was forced against a door when Ozzie came and the doors were opened. Magus fell onto the floor of a small hut that housed two mystics. One of the mystics looked at the other and asked “What is in that closet, first humans, then dinosaurs, now this. What’s next!?”
Magus questioned him. "Dinosaurs?” Did he mean reptites?
“Yeah, just a while ago. there were two of them, and a human girl. They left and to some other part of town I imagine.”
Ozzie came up and whispered to Magus as they left the house. “You said where in the future, right?” Magus nodded. “They didn’t even recognize me. How is this possible?”
“I told you Ozzie. The mystics of the future forgot about you when you and I were defeated. They now welcome peace with the humans, and apparently, reptites!” Magus looked around him. They were at the town square of Medina Village. Some mystics were gathered around the two reptites chatting but Schala was nowhere in site. Magus walked up to Scar, grabbed him by the shoulder, and turned him around. “Prepare to face my wrath.”
Some of the mystics separated the two. “Hey, are you trying to make trouble? Listen, these two have done nothing wrong. Now,“ he looked at Ozzie. “Ozzie VIII, did you bring him here?”
Ozzie looked at the little imp addressing him. “Ozzie VIII? Hey, I’m the original.”
“Yeah, whatever Ozzie VIII. Take your friend back. He’s a trouble maker.”
The two left the town square and watched as Scar mocked them in silence. Magus started to talk. “How are we going to find Schala if the mystics won’t let us near them?”
Ozzie wasn’t listening. He was muttering to himself but loud enough that anyone near him could hear. “Yeah, whatever.” he quoted the imp. ”If those were any of my troops they would have beat up those dinosaurs the instant they stepped through the dumb closet. They would have taken Schala captive themselves. Ooh! Who is this Ozzie VII!? How dare he let the authority be passed down to others. Just wait till I get my hands on him. I’d ring his neck if he had one!”
“Calm down Ozzie. We’ll find him, now shut up! Try not to draw attention to yourself.” They walked around. They questioned some people and figured out where Ozzie XIII lived. They headed to the elder’s house. They opened the door. Some little gargoyle greeted them and they went up stairs. There was Ozzie VIII, doing his chores.
“Wh, wh, who are you? You look just like me.”
Ozzie answered him. “I’m your great great great great great, great great great great great, grandfather. I’m Ozzie!”
“Ozzie!? Weren’t you the leader of the mystics? How come I’m stuck being a servant cleaning and dusting when I could have been in charge?”
“I believe I can answer that” said Magus. “When some heroes defeated Ozzie and destroyed the great name of the mystics, your people forgot about the great war and Ozzie's determination to become powerful. They changed to new and pitiful peaceful ways.”
“Is there anything you can do to stop that?” asked Ozzie VIII.
“Yeah, can we?” asked Ozzie.
“I believe there might be. Come on Ozzie, I’ve got a plan.” The two of them left the elder’s house and went to the edge of town. They went the newly constructed fairy and hopped aboard. “Next stop, Guardia.”
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In Truce Village Crono woke up and quickly got dressed. Today he was going on a date with Marle. He skipped his breakfast and went to Guardia Forest. He walked passed the many trees and came out to face the tall towers of Guardia Castle. The guard welcomed him and escorted him to the east wing. Crono went up the stairs and went to Marle’s door. He knocked, no reply. He knocked louder, still, no reply. He opened the door but no one was there! On the bed was a note. He read it.
“Dear Crono,
I guess you've found this note. Marle has been kidnaped. If you want to see her again come to the old cathedral four hundred years ago.
Signed,
Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Crono ran down the stairs and to Lucca’s house. He showed her the note. “What!? C’mon Crono we've got to save her! I’ll get Epoch ready.” They went into the back room of her house where she kept Epoch. She pulled a chain to open the roof. They hopped in and Lucca turned on the engine. They raised above the ground and she turned the dial to 600 AD. She hit the switch and they were off.
The land reappeared below them, but it was a tad different. Not everything was built yet and the old cathedral was still standing. They flew to it’s location and landed. They hopped out and saw another Epoch! “This is getting weird.” Lucca said. Crono nodded and they entered the cathedral. They went through the secret passage and down the hall. They went to Yakra’s old lair. No one was there. They went into the room with Magus’ statue. There were mystics lined up and down each wall. Ozzie was standing in front of the statue.
“Prepare to die. It’s time for Ozzie’s revenge!” Ozzie put up his barrier as soon as he could. Lucca shot her gun at him. “Mwa ha ha.” responded Ozzie. He blasted some fire at them. Crono jumped and slashed at him but Ozzie blasted him with ice. Crono fell back. Ozzie lifted his hands, out of nowhere two lightning bolts came down onto Crono and Lucca, and only their ashes remained! “Behold me, Ozzie! Champion of the mystics!” All the mystics cheered.
Outside in the field Crono and Lucca lay sprawled on the grass. Magus was leaning against a tree and Marle was lying down. Lucca got up.
“What happened?”
Marle looked at Magus and answered her question. “Magus sort of kidnapped me and brought me here. He wanted to change the future to save Schala. He thinks that if Ozzie becomes the mystic’s future hero that he’ll be able to save her. He didn’t hurt me or anything.”
“Well, what’s with the two Epochs?”
Marle answered her again. "We're not exactly sure. We were hoping that you could tell us. You’re the smart one, remember.”
“Well, hmmm, uhhh. OK. You know how Belthasar made Epoch right? Well I guess he was almost done when he was sent through time to the future. I guess he made a new one there. That would be the one we got. Magus’ must have been the original.”
“Wow. This is getting kind of confusing. Let’s go home, OK Crono.” Crono nodded and they jumped in Epoch and took off.
Ozzie came out of the cathedral. “Well Magus. Do you think we've changed the future?”
“Yes, I believe your right. But you're gonna have to stay here to ensure that everyone remembers you.”
“OK. It was a pleasure serving under you again. It was just like old times.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll see you later, now go back to the castle.” He jumped into his own Epoch and vanished from Ozzie’s sight. He came back to 1000 AD and flew to Medina village. He went and landed near the town square. He looked around. There was nothing in site except for the ruins of a fortress and a forest.
Magus went to the forest. He saw footprints, reptite footprints. The prints weren’t very old but they had been there for a while. The reptites could be anywhere in a radius of ten miles. There was no way he could find them. There were millions of places to hide in the forest and the reptites could be heading up either of the two mountains by now. There had to be another way.
Magus went back towards the Epoch. Where was Medina? What had happened to cause the Mystics to no longer exist? Magus wandered around hoping to find someone, anyone who could tell him what had happened. He saw a faint silhouette of a house in the distance. He walked towards it. It was built at the base of a mountain. It stood one story tall and had a oak door. Some swords were laying on racks. He went over to examine one. They looked exactly like the ones Melchior made.
Magus knocked on the door. An old man answered by opening it. The man was Melchior! He looked just like Magus remembered him when Melchior was the Guru of Life in Zeal and had tried to save Magus from Lavos.
“Who are you?” asked Melchior. He started again before Magus had a chance to answer. “Your hair, it looks just like Janus’ and Schala’s.
And your ears, they’re pointed, just like the royal line of Zeal! Are you? It can’t be, can it? Is that you, Janus?”
Magus nodded. “Yes, it is Janus. But they call me Magus now.”
“Well then Jan, or uh Magus. Come in and tell me what brings you here.” Magus and Melchior entered the house. They sat down and Magus began to talk.
“I need to know what happened to the mystics. Do you know?”
“Well, actually I do but why would you want to deal with them?”
Magus told Melchior of his journeys to Prehistoria and his search for Schala. He told him about Epoch and Ozzie and the pitiful mystics that once were. “And so if the Mystics were here, Schala would be here too.”
“Ahh, mistress Schala. I miss her. I will help you Magus. There are a couple of surviving mystics. They live in a cave to the north. They don’t come out much. They are not at peace with humans, but afraid of them. I don't know why though. They might.”
“Thank you Melchior. I’ll go talk to them.”
Melchior got up and walked with Magus to the door. “Come back and visit.” Magus nodded and left.
Magus headed north. As he approached the mountain he could see the cave. It was very dark inside. Magus broke a branch from a near by tree and set the end on fire with a spell. He walked with his torch into the utter darkness. He could see a light up ahead. He followed a little stream until he got closer. There were four mystics huddled around a bonfire. Magus approached them.
“Excuse me.” All the mystics looked at him and trembled. ”Don’t worry. I’m not here to harm you. I need your help. I need to know what happened to the other mystics.”
A large purple mystic stepped forward. It was Ozzie VIII. “I can tell you what you need to know. I am the keeper of the mystics tale. Right after Ozzie destroyed Crono, Marle, and Lucca he started building up an army. It got bigger and bigger and bigger until it was just as big as the one Magus had a year earlier. Ozzie waged war on the humans. They were doing great. They had taken Zenan bridge. One day the battle for Guardia castle came around. It was inevitable that it would happen and it finally did. The mystics were swarming the castle. Ozzie had climbed to the tallest tower and taken Leene hostage while he directed the battle. Glenn came to the rescue. No one saw what happened but the tower wall crumbled and Ozzie fell all the way to the bottom. The mystics ran with terror and with no leadership they went wild. A few dragged Ozzie to his fort where he died. The rest of the mystics were hunted by the humans. We were the only ones left. I am Ozzie's descendant.”
“I see.” said Magus. “In order to save the future, we have to save Ozzie.”
Ozzie VIII remarked. “Well, that’s obvious. We would have done that a long time ago if we could, but we can’t.”
“I can. I will need your help though. Ozzie VIII, come with me.” They left the cave and Magus showed him Epoch. They got in and Magus set the dial to Medieval Ages. They saw the purple light flash before their eyes and then they were 400 years in the past.
Opening the door to Epoch both Magus and Ozzie VII got out. “Where are we?” asked Ozzie VII.
“Not where, when. We are in 600 AD. Right about when Ozzie died. Now, come with me into the castle.” The two companions walked past all the mystics who saluted Magus when they recognized who he was. Entering the throne room, Magus saw Ozzie laying on the floor.
“Who goes there?” asked one of the large mystics surrounding Ozzie. Ozzie held up a hand to silence him. “It’s OK. He is a friend.” Ozzie coughed several times before he spoke again. “Magus, did it work? Are we strong in the future?”
“Well, I need to speak with you in private.” Ozzie nodded and the other mystics left the room. “If you die, the mystics will be worse off than before.”
“How is that...” he coughed, "possible?”
“The mystics need a leader. They won’t just follow anybody though, they need you.”
“Well,” cough, “As you can see...that’s not really going to work. I’m... dying.”
“I know. I've brought your descendent here. He will take your place, the others won’t know the difference.”
“But what about me!? What do I do?”
“I will take you with me and do the best I can to heal you.”
“Very well...”
Magus turned towards Ozzie VII. “From now on you are Ozzie. You, are in charge.” Ozzie VII nodded. Magus picked up Ozzie and they disappeared.
At the End of Time Ozzie lay on the floor and Magus stood over him.
“You can’t die! You can’t!”
“It’s... OK Magus. I have lived my life. There is... there is only one thing...”
“What is it? Anything, I’ll do it.”
“Please... Show me... the mystics.”
“Of course.” Magus took him to Epoch where they flew to Medina.
Looking around, Ozzie saw many strong mystics and not a single human. Talking to the village elder, Ozzie, the whole story was told of the undecided war against the humans. When Ozzie heard, he died. Magus stood facing the huge statue of Ozzie. He was next to the hole he had dug. Spekkio had come to witness first hand the death of a great warrior. Magus took Ozzie and laid him in the hole. Picking up a shovel to bury Ozzie, a single tear came from Magus’ eye and rolled half way down his cheek where it stopped. With one gloved hand he wiped it away.
Breaking the silence, Spekkio offered the best support he could as he tried to reach the trapped soul inside Magus’ body. “It’s OK to mourn. He was close to you.”
“Emotions cloud one’s thoughts. I did not cry when Crono died. I did not mourn for an instant when I helped kill my own mother. I probably won’t cry when you die either, so why do these emotions now come when I bury this friend.”
“He was more than a hero or a friend. He was a father to you Magus.”
Silence again came over the two as Magus finished covering their fallen comrade. They went back to Epoch and jumped on board. While piloting the ship through time, Magus pondered the turn of events.
During his life he had felt few emotions, the most of which had occurred during his most recent events. Why were these emotions present? He did not want them. He had never had use for them before and he didn’t now.
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The end of part three, A Name For The Mystics
Continued in part four, Long Live The Queen
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