Time Warps: The Appearances Chapter 3
By The Man
The next morning, we were all greeted by an unwelcome surprise. We had all stayed at the castle, so that if anything happened, we could tell the others. I was eating breakfast with Flea when I heard a yell. I looked out the window, only to see a boy hanging from a nearby tree. Flea and me ran outside to help the poor boy down, for he was hanging from his shirt and he was way up in the tree. He looked sixteen, had violet hair, and a red cape. Flea was more nimble than me so it was decided she should get the boy. It took her a while to reach him and she tried to unhook the boy’s tunic from the twig, but he was stuck tight. Suddenly, the twig suspending the kid snapped. The kid fell on Flea and since Flea was not as strong as me, she couldn’t support the kid and toppled backward. They fell, one holding the other, both plummeting towards certain doom. I knew right then that they would die. I was not physically strong enough to catch them both, but I was going to try anyway, even if they crushed me. I held out my arms to catch them. They were ten feet away. I shut my eyes and prepared for impact. But it never came. I opened my eyes only to see Ayla holding both the boy and Flea. She set them both on the ground, gently. She smiled sweetly at me and said; "We hear screams. Ayla see people fall. Game of "Catch!" Much fun!" I had to smile, and said thanks. Then I turned back to the boy and Flea. They seemed undamaged, and I noticed that I was way off in the age department for the kid. He looked close to 13, but I couldn’t be sure. I also noticed that this boy just happened to be Tata
"Wow!" exclaimed Tata. "What a rush! But, where am I?"
"You’re in Guardia Forest." I said and then smiled and said; "1000 A.D"
"Ouch! That was some trip!" he exclaimed.
***
Later that morning, Tata was making great company. He was very polite, and told us all about how he got here. Like many of us guessed, it was because another wild time gate. Apparently, his father had died, and now he was under the care of some other folks. He was just standing near a big oak in Guardia Forest, when a gate just swallowed him up. The reason that he landed up in a tree was that were he was standing in 600 A.D, there was a tree in our time. But he didn’t seem to mind being here. In fact, he really wanted to stay and help us deal with the meteor. I knew someday I would have to break to him the truth about his family, but not now. This wasn’t the time.
Later that day, we were testing out the force field. At the moment, it was set around Crono. I was supposed to try and penetrate the field. I performed a Dark Bomb, but to no avail. I did Dark Matter on him. When I looked at Crono he just smiled.
"I just hope all this means something to the meteor." I said, wearily.
We felt ready. We all felt confident that we could take out these hunks of rock any day. I went to sleep tonight thinking happy thoughts.
I awoke in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke. The thing was, I was no longer in the castle. I now looked out at a demolished landscape. There was literally nothing left but rubble. I got up, but was then forced to cover my ears as an ear-splitting scream of a Lavos spawn erupted all around. Once it was over, I walked around a little bit and as I did, I found the remains of my friends. I found Crono, holding on to a decapitated hand. He must have died of smoke inhalation, because he only had a few scratches on him. I found Lucca, leaning against one of the castle pillars. Only thing was, she was leaning against the pointed part of it: she had been impaled. Robo and Atropos were in the worst shape: their parts were strewn ever. I couldn’t even find Robo’s head. I found Glenn, who was burned so badly I couldn’t recognize him. I knew it was because he still held the gleaming Masamune sword tightly in his hand. I found Marle, who was missing her right hand. The same hand that Crono was holding on to so tightly. She had been crushed under a large rock. I found Ayla, who had been buried underneath the rubble. I could only see her hand emerging from the ground. I found Tata. He must of had his sword out when the disaster happened, because he had accidentally stabbed himself straight through his throat.
By now, I was crying. The meteor had struck early and there had been a Lavos spawn on it. I felt miserable. But then, I saw movement out of the corner of my. I turned around and saw Flea. Relief washed over me. But the relief turned to pure terror when all of Flea’s skin melted off of her. Once the transformation was done, all was left was a bloody, black skeleton. The skeleton opened its mouth and screamed a high-pitched scream of pure agony.
It was then that I awoke, screaming bloody murder. I couldn’t stop. Then Flea burst into the room.
"Magus!" she said as she grabbed hold of my arms. "Magus! Calm down! You’re O.K!"
I finally stopped screaming and looked at her. I felt her arms. Yes, she still had skin. The meteor had not hit yet. "What time is it?" I asked.
"5:00 AM." She said. "You might as well get up now. I’ve been awake for an hour. Care to join me for breakfast?"
"Sure." I said. "Just give me a minute."
She kissed me on the forehead. She was still alive. Everyone was. I quickly headed downstairs to the dining room, ready for a bagel.
.
It was the day before the meteors would hit. We were all having breakfast in the dining hall. I told the others all about my dream. Don’t ask me why. I’m usually not very open about my personal problems. But I somehow knew they had to know about it. It turned out that I wasn’t the only one.
"Yeah." Said Crono, in response to my tale about my dream. "I had a dream similar to that. All I saw was death. Everyone was dead. Suddenly, I started choking. Then I died."
Everyone was silent for a while. Then, Flea said; "I find it more than a coincidence that we all had similar dreams."
"I think that there is a creature on that meteor. He has sent us a message through our dreams." I stated. "He wants us to know that he’s going to win, and that there is no way we can stop him."
"But his opinions should not be confused with the facts." Said Lucca. "The fact is that we do stand a chance. Lavos was tough, but we’re tougher!" We all approved.
.
Lucca was right. We did stand a chance. And I would fight for our right to life until my own life was over. Sorry, Shala, I said in my head. But I won’t be joining you yet.
An hour later, we were at Lucca’s house. She had out another invention of hers. Actually, it was a gift from Robo from the future. It was called a ‘telescope’ and it was used in the future to look at the stars. Frankly, I couldn’t see anything more useless than that, but we needed it now. At the moment, Lucca was fiddling with numerous knobs on the device, while the rest of us waited patiently. Then, she peered into the telescope. After about a minute of looking, she pulled her head back and shook it in dismay.
"There’s a Lavos spawn on that thing, all right. And it looks big." She said, obviously depressed. There was a heavy sigh around the table. Lavos had been hard to get rid of. Even his spawns from the future had been tough. Another Lavos was more than any one of us could bear.
"Well," I said. "we should prepare for the events to come." We agreed.
.
The force field was toned up more by Robo. Glenn was preparing his water magic, in case a fire started. Lucca was bringing us up to speed on the meteors’ flight. Marle had designed a subterranean cave for villagers in the area could hide from the meteor, though, I doubted it would help. I simply waited. The best thing I could do to build up my power was to be non-active. But a piece of my mind was hoping we would fail, that the meteor would sweep me away to the sweet oblivion that my sister was confronted by so many years ago. NO! I had to stop thinking like that, or we would never win. Tomorrow was the day that they would come. We were prepared. But that night, 24 hours until impact, I was hit by a dark feeling. I was staring out at the ocean when it hit me like a tidal wave. It was a windy night already, but the Black Wind is colder than any natural wind, so I felt it hard. It stung me like ice. It howled like a demon. There would be much death tomorrow.
End of Chapter 3