Man, Fan Fic of the Week... Thank you guys for being such a strong support of this fic! I'd like to thank everyone again for reading and enjoying this story. I'd be happy to share more of it with you.
After I opened my eyes once again, I had the feeling like everything that had happened really never took place, like it was all one wild dream. It wasn?t until I had touched the stone cold tiled floor with my hand, and I realized I was once again lying on the floor of the temple. After I looked at my hand, I then remembered everything that happened, including my hideous battle with Arronsal as well as everything that happened after.
As I was lying flat on my stomach, I put both of my hands on the tiled floor and pushed myself upward off the floor, and then quickly got to my feet. Everything had seemed smaller now that I was nearly four feet taller than I was before. I then turned to my sides, and easily saw the massive butterfly wings that were attached to my back. But even now, they were folded up so they wouldn?t be dragged along the floor. All over me, there was this constant look and feel that made me almost think I never once was a human.
And still, it felt far from reality though. To have come all this way only to be whacked once with becoming a Lilyara, and then again with this was just not making any sense. Considering all this ?destiny? crap that Arronsal was mentioning earlier, it almost seemed like someone was expecting me to come here. And I certainly wasn?t the kind to believe in fate either?
When I approached the center of the ledge that Arronsal had once stood upon, I had found a small bronze plaque with a small pink and green gem implanted in the grove that was in the center. After I bent down to look at it, I realized what it was. It was a small circular green gem with the image of a flower with pink petals and a yellow center. After I wrapped my hand around it, I pulled it out of the groove in the plaque. I then looked over the transparent gem in my hand, and I realized this was the flower gem I had gone through so many nightmares to obtain. Regardless, with this in my hands, I didn?t need to spend another minute in Springside. Now, it was on to Wintershire, where hopefully it wouldn?t be long until I rejoined Kenneth and Eric.
Then, I quickly felt another presence come to my side, and when I looked to see what it was, I realized it was Umbreon, who had been out this whole time. He seemed a bit concerned when I looked into his eyes.
?Man, I had almost begun to think you would never get up?? Umbreon had told me, looking up into my eyes, ?You?ve been asleep for five days. I almost thought you died until I realized you were still breathing??
?I thought it wasn?t true?? I told Umbreon, looking away a bit, ?He said? I would be the one? but it? just? doesn?t make sense.?
?Look, I really don?t care?? Umbreon responded, not caring about the way I looked, ?You?re still Chris to me.?
I guess the name was still there, but a lot had changed to almost feel like even that wasn?t there anymore. I simply nodded slowly, but I still felt strange about it. I didn?t understand how the whole thing happened, or even why it happened. And then again, another side of me didn?t care what happened. I had what I wanted, so there was no reason for me to stay here. And there was no way I wanted to stay here after all the crap that happened?
I had returned Umbreon to his Pok?ball, since there really wasn?t anything that he could do now. But still, the fact that he told me it had been five days since I last was awake was freaking me out. I could immediately picture Kenneth and Eric already waiting at the Wintershire temple and here I was without any clue where the place was. Still, the part that was even worse was knowing they might not even recognize me at first. And then again, considering how much Kenneth had changed in only a few days after becoming a Draco, I might have trouble recognizing him after all this time?
Only a few days ago, I had been thinking there would be some way of getting Kenneth back to normal before we would reach home. Now, it wasn?t him I was more concerned about. It was me. After what Tek and Arronsal had told me, the position of Rainbow Butterfly Guardian didn?t seem like something that could just be kicked aside and said to heck with. At the moment, the role seemed so important that it could never disappear. Still, I didn?t care. The same thing happened to Kenneth and was probably going to happen to Eric if it hadn?t happened already. There was no guarantee that Kenneth would ever become human again either, and it seemed like time only made it grow worse?
Regardless, I headed outside, and left the temple of Springside behind. There was nothing in Springside for me anymore. The fields were barren, the cities were useless and I already had what I needed. Plus, everyone I met here treated me like crap, everyone except for Tek. I was more than happy to say good riddance to this place after all that had happened.
When I finally threw aside the doors of the temple, I stepped outside, and walked into the fields of flowers under the morning sun. Then, when I stepped into the sunlight, the world around me was surrounded by a rainbow-colored aura, as if everything beneath and near me was smothered in bright and eye-catching colors. I had looked behind me, and saw that it was caused all from just a little sunlight. It seemed like at that moment I would never again leave a shadow in my wake, but instead an intense presence of bright color wherever I went where there was light. Even with the slightest movement, the bright colors changed continuously, and I wasn?t sure if it was magic or a reflection off of my wings or something else that I couldn?t explain.
As I stood there watching the sky, I knew the entire army of Symarix would be after us now. Not only did I kill off Arronsal and take the flower gem that he had fought to the death for, but I stole his position and decided to rebel against the very army the original Rainbow Butterfly Guardian had defended with his life. Even if Kenneth could turn into a dragon and I could be a powerful arch-mage, we would be fighting entire armies that we didn?t know were capable of. And even then, we still were against the Khans and whatever contraptions they had created. No matter who was on the Emerald Alliance, we were still going to have to fight some pretty nasty battles?
Since Wintershire was many miles away to the south, I had decided to fly there, if I could even figure out how to do it. I started by unfolding the wings, and letting them touch the ground. It felt really strange having the wings on my back and being able to control them like they were an extra arm or leg that I had just been neglecting to use all my life. I tried fluttering them, and when going slow didn?t seem to help, I tried doing it faster. After many pathetic and embarrassing attempts of flapping my wings like a maniac, jumping off the ground and landing right on my chest again, I finally got it right. I was just glad there wasn?t a soul around to watch my pitiable display?
I realized the only time when I really needed to flap my wings like crazy was when flying in place. Flying backward only needed to be in the air and pushing as much air in front as possible, pushing the air forward and the flyer backward. Meanwhile, the only thing that flying forward needed was just to keeping pushing the air around downward which pushed the flyer upward. In a sense, it was pretty similar to swimming with a few obvious differences?
I then tried flying south toward Wintershire, which went faster and faster as I got better at this whole flying thing. And it was so much faster than walking through masses of flora. Even after flying for many miles over the fields of Springside, I still could keep going. When I had arrived at the river, I didn?t need a bridge anymore, all I had to do was fly over it. Never once did I think I would able to one day soar through the air, but for once I got that chance, and to say the least it was pretty awesome.
Soon after the river, I flew over the Delsara Forest, the same forest I had struggled for many hours to walk through. This time, all it took were a few good flaps of my rainbow-colored butterfly wings and I sailed right over the whole thing, no long needing to shamble through the flower-carpeted floor of the forest. I would have had to say, being a butterfly did beat the stuffing out of being a Lilyara.
And then, I had arrived at the border of Wintershire. All the trees that made up the Delsara forest on the Wintershire side were covered by ice the seemed to glint in different colors from the setting sun. Meanwhile, the flowers were completely gone, replaced by a layer of deep, bleach white snow. As I entered into Wintershire, the warm comfortable weather of Springside was gone in an instant, and replaced by the chilling wind and snow of Wintershire. And then, as I looked upon the snowy ground, I saw the rainbow aura that was around me cast upon the snow, and I couldn?t deny even I was captivated by the sight. As much as I didn?t want to be called ?beautiful? or ?awe-inspiring? like I know some people would say upon seeing that, there wasn?t exactly much I could do to disprove it.
As the forest of ice-covered trees slowly turned into a mountain range, the weather only got colder. Not to mention that the one robe I was wearing wasn?t really that much protection against the cold. Also, I knew that the middle of winter wasn?t exactly the best time for a butterfly to be around. I had to surround myself with a fiery Phoenix Defense Matrix just to fight off the harsh cold. Honestly, I really wasn?t too thrilled with this place?
And to say the least, trying to keep a low frame while wearing two brightly colored butterfly wings and surrounding everything around you with a million bright colors was essentially impossible. As I traveled above the forest while seeing the sun set slowly in the distance, I saw a few black silhouettes appear in the distance. They drew closer and closer, and when I got a good look of them, I could see three incoming figures that looked like humans with large feathery wings. I thought about flying away to avoid them but trying to hide from whatever they were was nearly impossible.
When they came closer, I could see the three of them had light blue skin, long dark blue hair and plenty of hard, white armor. All three of them looked much like females, with sharp black eyes as they wore seemingly straight expressions while they carried long, and slender bows carved and painted to appear they were made out of ice and snow, which they obviously weren?t. As I got a good look at them, they looked very similar to harpies, only with snowy colors and camouflage to blend in with their surroundings. The one in the center had approached me, and spoke with a soft and melancholy voice.
?Interesting seeing you here at the cold plains of Wintershire, Arronsal.? The female harpy had spoken, ?What brings you here??
I knew that trying to act like Arronsal was out of the question, since not only did he sound different from me, but he acted a whole lot different as well. Still, there was no way on the planet I was going to openly admit that I was the one who destroyed him and had intentions of fighting the Symarix army. Since I wasn?t half bad with lying, I tried a different approach?
?Remorse with me my dear sister, for our great protector has perished?? I told her, trying to fake a sorrowful expression by looking down and away, ?His life was taken from him as he attempted to protect the gem.?
Yet little did they know that I was the one still holding it, and even worse, that I was the one that ended Arronsal?s life and took his position. However, no one actually knew about that except me.
?So you?re the one who took his place?? She had told me, seeming even more drenched in sorrow, ?Word has been spreading that someone from the Emerald Alliance is trying to collect the four gems of Symarix to unleash Darzaras from his stone prison.?
Well, that wasn?t so great hearing that they already knew we were here. Obviously Kenneth and Eric were having their own bit of fun while I was having mine?
?But why?? I asked her, seemingly questioning my own mission, ?Don?t they realize their war will never end? I for one don?t believe there is such as thing as the Vault of Supremacy, and that they?re fighting over a fable that doesn?t exist??
Yeah, I was pretty much going against everything Jocasta had ever told me, but I needed to see what was going on from a different perspective. They didn?t know me, and I really didn?t know them, but the difference was that I knew they were part of the Symarix force while I wasn?t, even though they weren?t aware of that.
?Yes, Arronsal often thought the same things?? The harpy had told me, ?The far reaches of the world have been seen by all, and there is no sight of the Vault anywhere. If such a thing did exist, all would have known about its location.?
I had thought freeing Darzaras would be a return favor after what he gave us back at the stone wall where he was imprisoned. Heck, I really didn?t care much about the Vault to tell the truth. The whole reason for my siding with the Emerald Alliance in the first place was the feeling that with them, I would probably have the best chances of ever getting back home. Vaults, power and whatever really didn?t mean that much to me, or at least not anymore.
?But I wonder?? I told the harpy, looking at the setting sun just past them, ?Who are they, and where do they come from? No one has been after the stones in such a long time??
