Chronicles of Time: Memories of the Past(The Continuation)

[Merlin]

((OOC: HA! The music works! Way to go cloud!))

He couldn't stand it any longer, sitting there waiting on a huge Aeon to suddenly decide to return. Tyrbane stood up, grabbed his belongings and headed north.. straight to the burning forest.

Within an hour he had reached the outskirts of the forest. In the distance he could hear the sound of metal clashing.

"What on earth? Who would be fighting in the middle of a burning forest?"

Tyrbane quickly rushed towards the sound to discover an elf surrounded by eight men. They all wore a strange white hand insignia on their armor, which puzzled Tyrbane.

"Odd, " Tyrbane thought, "Who are they and what do they want with him?"

Tyrbane unsheathed his sword from behind his back, the flames in the distance making it glow a brilliant fiery red. Approaching the men, he said "In the name of Tantalus I implore you to stop this behavior!"

They all quickly turned towards the newcomer, staring at him with disgust. The men began laughing hideously, as if the name Tantalus was a joke.

"Tantalus! TANTALUS! Don't make me laugh, FOOL. That pathetic clan was destroyed a year ago. Their leaders all disapeared and we slaughtered the rest in their absense!"

Tyrbane was only momentarily confused.. then he remembered. This was not his time. He ran up to the one who spoke, his sword held high. The blade quickly fell upon the victim's neck, severing it from its owner. The others rushed in to make a quick kill, but their attacks were easily avoided.

"This is becoming tiresome." The men began to surround Tyrbane, making escape almost impossible. He scanned the surroundings for an opening, a weakness in his opponents. His observance paid off. The man towards his left had an obvious limp in his walk. Taking the obvious advantage, Tyrbane hurled himself at the man, using the fool's bent leg as a ramp. Within seconds, the man was face-down on the ground and Tyrbane was airborne.

The men stared upward in complete awe and wonder as Tyrbane's sword began to glow with intense energy. The flames from the surrounding forest seemed to be drawn to the sword, being quickly absorbed. With a resounding yell, Tyrbane pointed the sword downward, the energy hurtling towards its targets. The men stood their ground, not realizing what was about to happen. They watched as the energy completely missed them, going directly into the ground instead.

"Is that ALL you've got? You can't even aim!" The men once again began laughing hysterically as Tyrbane landed on the ground nearby. Suddenly, the air was filled with the shattering noise of rock exploding. The defenseless men were shot upward into the air as the ground around them liquified from the intense heat. Within seconds they crashed back onto the ground.

Tyrbane once again viewed his surroundings. The men were all dead or dying. About ten yards away he could see the elf trying to stand up. Tyrbane walked over to the individual and was shocked at his discovery.

"Teclis? But.. I thought that.. But this is..."

"Tyrbane! You almost killed me there!"

"I am sorry, I got a bit carried away. Anyways, how on earth did you get here?"

"I could ask you the same. You are supposed to be north of here, yet you just came from the south." Teclis replied, finally able to get to his feet.

Tyrbane comments, "I suppose I should explain that, but now is not the time." As he spoke, the surrounding scenery suddenly changed. Confused, he looked around. The entire forest was caked in a heavy layer of ice. Teclis was standing next to him, frozen solid. "Dear God..."

RUN!!!

The scenery quickly switched to its previous state."We need to get out of here and fast. Something is about to happen and I don't want to be around when it does!"

Teclis began searching around, as if looking for something. He stopped suddenly and with a depressed look on his face. "Tyrbane! You killed my horse!"

"Well if we don't hurry, we'll both be dead and you wont have to worry about it!"

With that, Tyrbane began running towards the south. Not arguing, Teclis quickly followed. As the two exited the forest, they were greeted by the site of Bahamut.

You have poor listening skills, M'lord. But I see you found someone. I also found someone, that you might be interested to see...

"Who? Where?" Tyrbane asked.

You will see in a moment. She is currently busy, M'lord.

The dragon looked towards the west, letting out a fierce roar. He was signaling someone, but Tyrbane was clueless as to who it was. Within moments, the sky changed from a fiery red, to an icy blue. In the distance, Teclis and Tyrbane could see a woman walking towards the forest. She was strikingly beautiful, but totally blue! It appeared that she was wearing nothing, but in fact her clothes were made of ice.

"SHIVA!" Teclis exclaimed, pointing at the woman. It was no mere woman they were looking at, it was the Aeon of Ice, Shiva.

"But who summoned her? I did not. Bahamut? No.. Aeons can't summon each other!"

Shiva stopped at the outskirts of the forest. Lifting her hand towards her mouth, she blew a kiss towards the burning hellfire. A gust of extreme cold rushed through the forest, turning everything in its path into ice. The fires themselves somehow became ice.

"No... the people of Quel'thalas! You can't!"

Shiva could not hear him, or chose not to. With a snap of her fingers, the entire icy forest shattered into a billion pieces.

M'lord. They were already dead. Those soldiers you fought... they killed them all.

"But the forest! Its gone! Their homes, everything!"

T'was the only way. The fire was unnatural... Only Shiva could stop that kind of flame. The fire would have spread throughout the lands.

"You must answer me one thing. How did I get here? Hell, how did Teclis get here?"

I cannot answer that, M'lord.

"Dammit! Tell me something! Anything! What the hell do you know! Where's Rowin?!? If Teclis came here, he probably did too! You know SOMETHING and you won't tell me!"

Truelly I say to you, I do not know.

"Well why don't you just unsummon your ass and leave me alone."

You cannot unsummon me, because you are not the one who summoned me.

"Oh! Aren't you a bag of suprises?" Tyrbane turned towards Teclis, who was just standing there, not saying a word. "Teclis, tell me, do you know anything about what is going on, or did you end up here like me? One minute you're there, the next, you're here...wherever HERE is..."

Tyrbane sat down on the ground, weary from the strange events unfolding. He was completely lost.. unsure of himself. He had always known what to do next, what his goal was. But in this strange land, he had no idea what he was supposed to do.

((OOC: Holy cow! I didnt realize I wrote that much. I was having too much fun.. lol))

[cloud711]

A low pitched groan came from a nearby bush, and Tyrbane and Teclis both pitched their heads to the side to see a wounded Rowin rolling out of the bush, blood painting the lush grass a cold crimson. He grasped his side as his two companions raced over to his aid.

"Rest easy, my friend," assured Tyrbane as he tightly wrapped a cloth around Rowins abdomen, putting pressure on the wound. "This is not a fatal wound, you'll be allright."

"Well, thats good to hear," muttered Rowin as he leaned on his friends' shoulders and made his way to his feet. When he regained his balance he looked around him in complete awe at was was in front of him. For miles, all he could see was a wasteland, and he couldn't control his emotions when he looked to where Quel'Thalas should be standing.

"Oh my God, what the hell has happened here! I get knocked out, surrounded by flames, and then the next thing I know, I wake up surrounded by nothing but shattered ice."

All that remained of the city was billions of pieces of shattered ice. As he turned and faced the icy Aeon, he understood what had happened.

"Only Shiva could have caused this kind of chaos, but why!? All the people in that city, there had to have been a way we could have saved them. You should have given us more time damnit!"

With an intense rage Rowin rushed towards Bahamut, slamming his fist onto the mighty dragons chest. Bahamut didn't seem to notice, or was ignoring Rowin all together.

"Why, you bastard, why!?"

"I doubt he will answer you," said Tyrbane, trying to comfort his friend. "He won't even tell me anything. The one thing he did tell me though, is that the people of Quel'Thalas hava all already met their untimely ends, by a strange group of warriors with the symbol of a white hand on their armor."

Rowin walked over to the edge of the icy destruction. Sticking out was the hilt of his sword, and as he clasped the hilt and lifted it off the ground, he noticed that half of the blade had been caught in shiva's wake, and it shattered off as he slammed it into the ground. He turned back to his companions, and began speaking in a lower, calmer tone.

"So, what the hell do we do now? Hell, I don't even know what the hell is going on around here. One minute I pass out in a forest grove, trying to find the princess, and the next, I wake up out here, and the whole forest has been destroyed, along with the city we fought so hard to save. Now that its destroyed, what are we supposed to do, hmm? What the hell are we supposed to do..."

[psychosyd]

Teclis breathes deeply, then winces, from a sharp pain in his chest, a rib bruised, possibly broken... oh well, not to worry about that now, his armour would hold it in place, for the time being... wiping the blood from a cut on the corner of his mouth, he looks at the desolation... his mind abuzz

"I do not fear for the people... I think they got away... the question is what are we going to do about this new threat... iv'e seen this symbol somewhere before though... thats the odd part... somewhere... but I cannot quite place it, its almost as if it were eluding itself from my memory..."

Looking at the frozen tracks before him, he turns back to the others, his mind filled with questions...

"Where do we go from here... this new threat needs to be stopped, I say we go back to the main camp... and try and reorganize as soon as possible, and find any survivors as well"

[Merlin]

Tyrbane quickly walked over to the large dragon, determined to find some answers.

"Tell me, Bahamut, do you happen to know any thing about this 'White Hand' symbol we all saw in the forest?"

You should know, M'lord.

Tyrbane stared intensely at Bahamut, his eyes burned with rage at hearing yet another cryptic remark. "Damn you! You know what is going on and won't tell me a thing!"

It is not for me to say.

The air suddenly grew intensely cold as Shiva turned towards the others. Tyrbane continued to stare at the black dragon, unaware of the icy glaze quickly covering his garments. His eyes were locked with that of the dragon's, neither letting go of their stubborn desire to win the argument.

With a loud snort and a burst of laughter, Bahamut broke the gaze. The steaming-hot breath hit Tyrbane like a speeding bullet, causing him to collapse to the ground in astonishment. The glaze quickly melted from his clothing, but just as quickly reformed anew, locking him in his fallen stance.

Teclis and Rowin stood nearby, watching as their comrade was frozen and unfrozen multiple times, unable to do anything about it.

"Stop it! You're going to kill him!", Teclis yelled, drawing his sword in anger.

Tyrbane fought to stay concious as the world around him faded to a pale grey. The intense temperature change was taking its toll on his weakened body. Within moments, he was gone, a heap of pale flesh on the ground.

Rowin and Teclis ran over to the lifeless body as the two Aeons quickly departed.

"Bastards!," Rowin screamed at the ascending beasts, "What have you done!"

"We need to find help, but the nearest town is across the river..." Teclis said as he looked at his unconsious companion.

[Merlin]

****
"Wake up!"

"Tyrbane! Wake up silly! She didn't stun you THAT bad."

Tyrbane's eyes slowly opened, taking in the area around him. Although blurred, he could see a form above him, blocking out the piercing-bright sunlight. He felt the soft touch of a hand against his forehead. It seemed almost familiar, as if he had been in this position before.

"I have so much to tell you. You know how hard it is trying to keep up with a giant dragon? Then almost getting turned into an icecube... and the forest shattering around me... thank the heavens she stunned you so I could catch up!"

"Who...", Tyrbane muttered, not really understanding what the apparently feminine voice was telling him.

"Don't speak. Just listen!"

"But.."

"As I was saying, I had Shiva stun you so I could catch up. Ingenious, isn't it? I thought so. As for that stupid dragon, I don't know who summoned him."

Tyrbane slowly regained his vision and saw that it was none other than Gwinnyn sitting by his side.

"I saw your friends run off a few minutes ago," she said with a puzzled look on her face, "I guess they were in a hurry to go somewhere."

Tyrbane stared at Gwinnyn, completely lost as to what was going on. "Gwinnyn, what is happening? Where are we?"

"Its my fault, all my fault," Gwinnyn cried, "I did it! I was trying to save the forest and I ended up sending us to some bloody alternate dimension! On top of that, we are both dead! I've made such a mess..."

"The forest..." Tyrbane mumbled.

Gwinnyn wiped the tears from her face and replied, "Once again, my fault. I thought this was our world. It would have worked! But this Shiva.. she's so powerful! She wiped out the whole forest! I've killed all of my people..."

Tyrbane grasped her arm tightly, "No! it wasn't you! They were dead before Shiva ruined the forest. Some group of mercenaries."

"Oh my.."

"In any case, we must find the others and catch these mercenaries. THEN you're going to figure out how to get us the hell off of this HellHole."

The two jumped to their feet and headed towards the river, hoping to catch up with their friends.