Fan Fiction ❯ The More Things Change... (An Endless Story) ❯ Endless Dreams ( Chapter 2 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 2 of my little 'fic already? Either I'm a quick worker, or I'm REALLY rushing it. Your choice which, pretty much. (Though for some reason I find that I just CAN'T take my time. I hate mid-chapter writer's block!)

Anyway, if any of you legal psychos want a disclaimer LOOK IN CHAPTER 1! I think I said all I needed to say there.

Note 1: I can hardly pronounce what the characters say when they cast spells, let alone SPELL it (at least Disaster's easy, since they more or less SAY Disaster, even in the game), so I'll just use the typical "state the name" routine, ie. (hypothetical situation) Ryu uses Soul Rend, so he SAYS "Soul Rend!" Capiche? (I don't think the translated names sound as cool, but since I can't reasonably expect to put what they say when they cast it and actually get it RIGHT...) Note that this is only for actual SPELLS, not TECHNIQUES. (Imagine Scias saying "Shining Blade" every time he uses it and try to tell me this is a bad idea!) For techniques, I might use a shout or something like that, but no announcing names!

Now then, I think I might have this dream be about Kaerlos's first SERIOUS fight against a fake Endless. (That means extreme deformation for the poor sap, for those of you not in the know.) BTW, by now Ryu's finished the dream he started at the beginning of last chapter, so he'll be joining in! (I just feel like it, okay?! Also, it doesn't state in the game if the dreamers have to be nearby or even have seen each other, so I don't really have a GOOD reason NOT to.)

Pairing recap (in case you didn't read it in Ch. 1)
Ryu-Ursula (favorite male and female characters that I see as "pairable")
Nina-Cray OR Nina-OC (still haven't quite decided yet... but if I regret, I'll try to think of an excuse to switch off)
More to come... (maybe)

Anyway, I'll be putting the key in every chap, so you don't have to go ALL THE WAY back to Ch. 1 to figure out what a particular symbol means when I use it. I may add more if I need them, too. Like this chap: I'll be adding a symbol for when I actually go into detail on one of an Endless' "prophetic" dreams.

Note 2: I RESERVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE SUMMARY CHAPTERS PERIODICALLY! (I may need them)

One last thing: I've decided to call Kaerlos's sword the "Imperial Sword." No particular reason, really... (I bet that in the game it'd just be called "Imperial.")

Now then...

*--------*: POV switch
[___]: Writing
*___*: Thoughts
"___": Speech (of course)
(___): Author's notes andor explanations
Italics : Dragon's Eye visions (detailed)

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Chapter 2:
Endless Dreams

Kaerlos, Ryu, and Ursula were walking through a clearing, Kaerlos still carrying his gigantic sword on his back, Ryu holding the sheathed Royal Sword, and who knew where Ursula was keeping all her guns. They were walking through an apparently empty forest; even monsters left the place alone. "Quiet," Ryu commented.

"Yeah. TOO quiet," Kaerlos answered. "What do you think, Ursula?"

Ursula nodded. "Definitely too quiet... I feel like I'm being watched."

After a short time, Kaerlos suddenly stopped and looked to one side. "What is it?" Ryu asked.

"I don't know... There's an aura..." Kaerlos began.

"An aura? Could it be another Endless?" Ryu asked.

"No... It's like ours, only... different... warped..." Kaerlos shuddered. "Almost... disfigured."

"Like in your dream?" Ursula suddenly asked.

"Yeah... Just like it..." Kaerlos mumbled as he drew his sword. "I don't think I'll like what's about to happen..."

Ryu drew his sword, too, shouting, "Come on out, whatever you are!" He quickly regretted it when some...THING with gigantic crab legs, a bird's wings sprouting from its back, and an oversized arm came into sight.

"What the hell is that?!" Ursula shouted.

"I am an Endless, created by Lord Yuna," the creature replied.

"Unless you're summoned to this world, you're not a true Endless!" Kaerlos shouted. "Tell us where Yuna is!"

"Lord Yuna is beyond your reach. He moves frequently..." the pseudo-Endless started before Kaerlos cut it off.

"I take it that means you don't know." He gripped his sword with both hands before finishing. "If you can't help us, then GET OUT OF OUR WAY!"

The monster started snickering, which shortly grew into full-fledged laughter. When it calmed down, it said, "You don't understand. I was sent to hunt you down and kill you... former Yorae Dragon."

Kaerlos didn't look away from the creature as he said, "So my dream was right... Ryu wasn't just an Endless, he was of the Yorae clan of Endless..."

"Clan?!" the beast exclaimed. "There's more than one?!"

"It's just a guess, but I think that there's one Yorae Endless of each type. Me..." Kaerlos paused before continuing, "It seems most of my power got sealed by my summoning, but it turns out I'm a summoner myself, possibly even a Yorae Summoner."

"You're crazy! There's no way you can be a Yorae!" the... amalgam burst out.

"To be honest, I kinda doubt it myself, but the possibility's there," Kaerlos answered. "After all, the Abbess of Chek told me that not all the Yorae were Dragons, but they somehow predicted that Ryu would be Yorae... and a Dragon."

"Besides, he is my brother, after a fashion," Ryu added. "It may be that Fou-lu came from a powerful family."

The creature blinked as a small man walked up. "So that large man is Endless... and the First Emperor's brother," he said. "Lord Yuna will want to hear this." So saying, he... disappeared.

"If this... thing is one of this Yuna's servants, I don't think I want to meet him in person," Kaerlos commented. "If he does things like this to ANYTHING, he deserves to die!"

"He's done this at least once before," Ursula informed him. "And it looks like he has to use an existing human as the base!"

"Ryu, is that true?"

"Yes. He turns humans into indescribable monsters," Ryu replied.

"Monsters?! YUNA'S the monster!" Kaerlos shouted. "Monsters are as monsters do, and Yuna's worse than anything I've ever seen! Let's do this thing a favor and put it out of its misery!"

"Right!" Ryu and Ursula said simultaneously, Ursula pulling out a pistol as she spoke.

As Ryu and Kaerlos charged, and Ursula took aim, the dream faded out...

Kaerlos sat up, panting. *That was one realistic dream!* he thought. *I actually FELT that... THING's aura! What's going on?*

"That was a weird dream..." Ursula said, startling Kaerlos.

"What was it about?" Kaerlos asked.

"You first."

"Okay, first off, you, me, and some blue-haired guy I've never met were walking through a forest..." Kaerlos started.

"Okay. And?" Ursula encouraged him.

"The blue-haired guy said it was quiet... then I said 'TOO quiet.'"

"Go on..." Ursula said.

"You said you felt like you were being watched... I looked to the side after a while, and the blue-haired guy asked why."

"Okay..." Ursula mumbled, looking slightly surprised in spite of herself.

"I said I stopped because of an aura I felt... he asked if it was like an Endless... I said it was..." he paused, then quoted himself from the dream: "'like ours, only... different... warped... Almost... disfigured.'"

"Ummm..." Ursula had started looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Then you asked if it was, and I quote, 'like in your dream.' I said it was identical..."

"Wait a minute, talking about dreams inside a dream? Ridiculous!" Ursula scoffed, not quite hiding her mounting shock.

"...then I said that I didn't think I'd like what was about to happen... then the guy said, 'Come out, whatever you are!' After that..."

"Let me guess: A crab-legged man with bird wings and a giant arm came out. Right?"

"Hey, how'd you know?" Kaerlos demanded.

"It seems we somehow had the same dream," Ursula informed him. "And that dream takes place after we go to Chek..."

"That's a real place?" Kaerlos asked, surprised.

Ursula nodded. "Yes, it is. Almost a ghost town now, though, ever since Captain Rasso got to it."

"So... was that blue-haired guy in my dream Ryu?" Ursula nodded again. "Okay, just wanted to know what to expect when we meet him."

*--------*

Ryu blinked himself awake. *I was walking through a forest... Ursula was with me, and so was... some guy...* His eyes widened as the part of him that was Fou-lu volunteered the name of the man in question. *Kaerlos... so that was a real person in my dream... Was that just a dream... or a vision?* While laying there, he considered some of the finer points of his dream. *Me... and Ursula? I know I'm only friends with all my former companions... aren't I?* Confused at the emotional fine points of his dream, he stood up, stretched, and blinked as he remembered something. *I'm almost out of food... I'll have to hunt for some more. That, or go to town and buy some.* He considered for a second, then said out loud, "I think I'll go to town. Food's more reliable there."

After he had packed up his tent and the meager supplies he had left, Ryu set off toward the remains of Chedo. About 1/4 of the way, though, he ran into Ursula, and... "Ryu? That you? Or do you prefer Fou-lu?" the big man from his dream asked, slightly nervously.

"Hey, Kaerlos. How ya doin', bro?" Ryu greeted his "brother," surprising both him and Ursula.

Ursula and Kaerlos looked at each other. "I thought you two were rivals?" Ursula asked.

"We were. Looks like Bro's personality was inverted," Kaerlos answered.

"Basically, it was," Ryu told them.

"Oh, yeah. We had a pretty weird dream last night, Bro," Kaerlos started.

"Walking through a forest, finding a fake Endless with crab legs and wings?" Ryu interrupted.

"You, too?" Kaerlos said, feeling slightly resigned.

"Yes," Ryu answered, carefully not looking at Ursula. It seemed that his feelings for the pretty ex-soldier would grow vastly in the near future...

Kaerlos, however, noticed Ryu's deliberate ignorance of Ursula's presence. "Heh. If there's anything of my brother left in you, it's that you're shy around girls you like," he teased.

"Huh?" Ursula asked, surprised.

"GAK!" Ryu said at the same time.

"Come on, I knew Bro for about 25 of our years," Kaerlos stated before becoming thoughtful. "Umm... what does that convert to around here?"

"I'd say about 2500 years," Ryu answered.

"2500 YEARS?! How long do you guys live where you come from?" Ursula demanded in shock. (Sure, I know she's OOC, but hey- it's a year later and she's been under a lot of stress. At least, that's my excuse.)

"Oh. Anyway, that's not counting all the time after he disappeared," Kaerlos finished, ignoring Ursula's question. "If there's ANYTHING in his personality that would survive being absorbed, it would be that."

Ryu decided to change the subject to something he was more comfortable with. "So how'd your summoning training go back home?"

*Evading the subject, huh? Ah, well, I'll humor him,* Kaerlos thought. Aloud, he said, "It went great. I was calling up things just from pictures by the time they considered my training done... sometimes even just my imagination." He paused a second, then said, "Seems my Endless powers revolve around those summoning abilities- back in town... er... what's left of it, I summoned something I've never seen before."

"What was it?" Ryu asked, curious.

"The shadow that was attacking me called it a Kolpum. You know what that is, right?"

Ryu nodded. "It's a samurai monster that's apparently native to the Imperial Palace."

Kaerlos shrugged. "Well, I was pretty desperate, so maybe my becoming an Endless upgraded my summoning abilities so I can summon anything from anywhere I've been when I'm desperate."

"Or maybe it downgraded them so you can ONLY summon when you're desperate," Ryu stated.

"True. Anyway, can you give me some swordplay lessons? That's what I wanted to see you for in the first place, after all," Kaerlos said.

"Heh, Fou-lu told you you'd need those swordplay lessons someday!" Ryu teased. "If you'd spent as much attention there as you did with axes, spears, and summoning, you might've been even better than I am!"

"Fine, rub it in," Kaerlos complained.

"I didn't mean it that way," Ryu told him.

"Okay, the first lesson I suggest is just how to HOLD the stupid thing!" Kaerlos said loudly.

"You don't have to get so worked up. Anyway, you remember how you held it in your dream?" Ryu asked.

"Yeah..." Kaerlos said cautiously.

"That's the proper way of holding it for a neutral stance."

"Okay, let me try right now and if I slip any, correct me, okay?" Kaerlos said before pulling his sword out and attempting to imitate the two-handed stance in his dream. "Sorta like this?"

"Hmmm... Right foot should be a little further forward, left foot a little out..." Ryu proceeded to throw himself into correcting any and all flaws he saw in his kinda-brother's stance. Eventually he was satisfied and said, "That's pretty much it."

"All right, give me a few days of practicing and I'll at least have the stance down." He then went into his dream's at-ease stance: sword held by right hip, blade almost touching the ground for the last foot or so. "This, at least, is more familiar."

"Hmm... That's good for when you're not fighting," Ursula commented.

"It wasn't intended for fighting. It was meant for when you want to keep your equipment ready but aren't in immediate combat." Kaerlos shrugged. "Anyway, I think I'll try a basic guarding stance now." He twisted slightly so he was facing in the same general direction he had been looking all through the lessons, held his sword out of the way in his right hand, and brought his left arm in front, as if to bring the bracer he wore on it in between himself and an attack. "How's this?"

Ryu scanned his stance with a close, and strict, eye before saying, "Not much I can see wrong except you're twisting your body too much... that's better." Kaerlos had untwisted slightly while still keeping his left arm in the same basic position. "You may not be able to reach your right side with the bracer, so..." Kaerlos flipped his sword around and braced it to his right, point stabbed into the ground to support that end. "I was about to suggest that."

"Okay, I think I can remember this stance fairly easily." Kaerlos straightened, then dropped back into the "guarding" stance he had just been in. When he saw Ryu nod, he said, "Okay, I don't think guarding will be a problem, and my at-rest stance is okay, but... I think the rest'll take a while."

"It's okay, take your time... I may not have forever to teach you anymore, but you've got forever to learn."

"I don't want forever!" Kaerlos complained.

"Funny... Don't meet many reluctant immortals," Ursula whispered to herself. Kaerlos heard, but did not comment. He was too busy trying to get his combat stance down, with many corrections.

*I'm gonna have to test my summoning when I'm calm, too... in case it WAS affected like Bro suggested,* Kaerlos thought as he kept trying to get his stance right without correction.

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Okay, I hate describing training, but I at least wanted to let the readers know about Kaerlos's basic stances this chapter. Anyway, next chapter's gonna skip a week or so, to when Ryu thinks it's time for Kaerlos to get a bit of field experience! (In other words, they go looking for a fight to test Kaerlos's progress.)

By the way, the alternate forms of Yorae, especially the Yorae Summoner, were MY IDEA! There is NO evidence to support their existence in the game, but since Ryu's a shapeshifter Endless and Deis is basically a mage grafted to a living suit of armor, I just suddenly thought something like "Hmmm... Why not a summoner?" Hence Kaerlos's occupation. Also, the pre-summoning training Ryu and Kaerlos (and probably also Deis) went through are my idea, too. I don't mind if you use my ideas as long as you don't use Kaerlos without permission.

Aaaaanyway... If you feel I had a bad idea feel free to go before what you see as my mistake and either rewrite what I wrote so it's more readable OR take the story in a COMPLETELY different direction! (So long as Ryu stays with Ursula- they're the reason I started this fic.) Now then, next chapter title... It'll be Endless Anger. (see a pattern yet?)