View Guestbook
Before the Black Wind Howls: Ch. 2
By Janis
Author's Note: About my pen name, Janis. Before I played CT Janis was my nick name and pen name.
I doubt it was his or my fault things got worst. How would I know in years later that this would be me wandering the cities? He came out of nowhere. A tall, broad-shouldered man who was always cloaked in black and had a refusal to speak to anyone for the longest time. I had seen him once or twice, and I do remember talking to him once. I relived the speech again, but it was different as the child.
* * *
"Hey!"
The tall figure ignored Janus' cries as he wandered away from the small child. The boy frowned and pressed his pale lips together. He *hated* it when some stuck-up asshole ignored him. He followed the figure, who strode among the city of Kajar.
Janus didn't like it very much, the people rushing about and questioning about where magic came from. He knew these people didn't care where magic came from. As long as they had the power, who gave a damn?
Janus did. Perhaps why he cared where magic came from was that he couldn't use the power himself. Not that he really wanted to, it was something he wondered about.
The man in dark robes walked down the halls of Kajar as the child in lavender followed him. "Where the hell are you from?" he cried.
The man answered with silence.
"Come on! Don't tell me you're mute!"
The man turned slowly. "Go away." His voice was clam and yet angry and had an edge of darkness to it.
"No! Why are you hanging around here, anyway?"
"What business of yours gives me the right for you to question where I go?"
Janus scowled. "I don't want you near my sister!"
"I go where I please, Prince Janus."
"Hey! How do you know my name? How did you know I was prince?"
"I have my ways..." he answered. Then with one smooth motion, he picked up the child at the collar and raised the boy to his dark red eyes, the only things that were focused on the man's face. "...you little maggot. Mess with me again and I swear to the Gods I shall rip you in half."
"Go ahead," Janus dared. He had no fear of death. He didn't welcome the reaper, yet if it was his time, then it was his time.
"I'm sorry," he said in a fearful tone. He couldn't let this creep hurt Schala. The boy squirmed for a moment, then the man dropped the boy on his feet. He glared at the man, too scared about Schala as he walked away.
* * *
One of the more interesting times of my life, I must say. When the Prophet came, Melchior had vanished. Belthasar and Gasper had escaped to an island before Zeal could get her hands on them. Strange how all of them were Gurus, and yet so different. Gasper certainly didn't act like one when I spoke to him. He was quiet and didn't like to talk and loved to sleep. I rarely spoke to him.
Bethasar, I only saw once. He was too busy working on his inventions to speak to anyone. He rushed here and there, not knowing until it was too late that he was working on projects that would spell Doom for our world. If you rush around and don't take the time to see where you are going, then perhaps you'll be writing the death of the
world.
Melchior was the compassionate one. It wasn't until I grew older before I understood Melchior's title. He was the one who cared about people and their problems. I think he was more worried about the Earth Bounders than with himself when he was on Woe Mountain. Strange how some people can think about others and forget themselves in times of need. In those times, people should worry about themselves more.
What I cannot understand is why people who have been lustful, greedy and selfish all their lives are called "heroes" when they suddenly get off their lazy asses and do something good for once in their lives. However, when a truly good person, who has given to the poor and worked their asses off, chickens out for once, they are called cowards, while the weak are celebrated as heroes.
I became more lost and alone when Melchior was captured and Schala grew weak and thin. She lost weight and her ivory skin turned even whiter and sickly. It was almost as pale as my skin, not quite as pale, but close. I began to hate my mother and Zeal Kingdom. I knew Zeal would fall very soon. It was a feeling buried deep inside of me.
********
I was wandering around Enhasa when I met a boy, a girl, and a frog. The boy was normal-sized, with wild red hair and a light build. The girl had golden hair and light green eyes, and a crossbow was slung on her back. The frog didn't scarce me. After all, with creatures like Doreen and her brothers Masa and Mune, a race of creatures who were sometimes called Children of the Dreamstone who ran around Zeal all the
time. The Dreamstone Children had long lives but few children, and reproduction wasn't the Dreamstone Children's main worry. The frog was nothing compared to them.
Doreen liked dreams more than her brothers, Masa and Mune. For a while I didn't blame her, but now I think how foolish she was. Doreen escaped from the painful world she was into her Dream World in Enhasa. During the last months of Zeal, I wanted to go with her into that world. Now I know it was best for me to stay in the world of pain, and become strong from it. The weak submit to dreams that cannot come true. Masa and Mune were stronger than Doreen. Though Mune had a child's mind, it was stronger than Doreen's. That meant something.
I glared at the boy, then the girl, then the frog. I felt the cold wind that shivered up my spine and then looked solemnly at the boy.
He would die.
Shortly.
"The black wind howls..." I muttered to myself more than to the people, and I walked down the stairs. "One of you shall shortly die."
It was a fair warning. I walked always from them and cries of protest towards Castle Zeal. In the castle, there was a rush about Zeal going to the Ocean Palace. I was extremely worried about Schala. I ran toward her room, scared that Zeal took her.
Schala was gone. "Schala?" I wailed out. I heard her voice answer from my room.
I took off running toward my room and saw Schala waiting for me. Her face was sad and white, but her green eyes shone with hope, as always. "There you are, Janus."
"Schala, I am scared. I feel the black wind."
"You feel it too?"
I nodded. She frowned and reached in her pocket and pulled out a amulet, a black stone encrusted in sliver. It was very beautiful to me. I could sense strong magic coming from it.
Like an idiot I asked, "What is this?"
My sister smiled and put the amulet around my neck. "Good luck charm. It will protect you. Janus..." She paused for a moment. "I wish I could stay here and protect you. But mother has other plans..."
Her eyes where batting away tears, and I heard the whimper in her voice. She knew our mother better than I. Perhaps I am jealous of her. She knew Zeal as a mother, the most important person in your life, warm and loving. The Zeal whom Schala knew and the Zeal whom I knew were not the same. The Zeal I knew was a cold-hearted bitch who strove for power, forgetting her daughter and son and perhaps life itself. So I answered my sister. "She isn't our mother. She looks like our mother...but she changed."
"Janus..."
"Miss Schala! Miss Schala!"
A servant broke up our Kodak moment. A phrase I picked up from the girl, Lucca. As she left I looked at the amulet and fell asleep until Schala woke me up. I had a dream...
It was a young woman walking in the grass. I had never seen this woman before, and yet I knew her. A snake came up to her, looked at her with innocent black eyes and asked for her to carry it. The woman agreed, and she picked the snake up, knowing its nature. After a while the woman felt comfortable with the snake in her purse...then it bit her. It was venomous and the young woman died.
An old story. The woman was the Kingdom of Zeal, the snake was Lavos' power. I had just seen the fall of Zeal. My first step into my world of darkness...
Then Schala awakened me and told about the strangers who had come to Zeal Kingdom. She also told about Dalton's failed attempt to capture them, and so Queen Zeal had captured these people and placed them in the dungeon of Zeal Castle.
Gentle Schala wanted to save the strangers. At this time they had no cause, so why bother saving them? I thought. Yet Schala wanted to help them, so I agreed to help my sister. I was worried Zeal would find out and hurt Schala.
Zeal seemed to forget about her little son, Janus.
Schala had brought the strangers (who happened to be the wild-haired boy, the blond girl, and the frog) from her the magical barrier to the floor when the Prophet came in. The man was cold as always, yet I noticed how much he "softened" up to Schala and I when we begged him to keep from killing the strangers.
I swore I heard something break down within him. He made the strangers take him to where they came from. By then I had lost interest and went to my room. Only hours later, Schala and I decided to visit the Earth Bounders again. We had heard that the strangers had come. We got this news from a new batch of slaves. Again, we headed toward the hell hole called Terra Cave. We found Melchior and the strangers.
I was disgusted at how the cave had become. Terra Cave was bad, but now it had become cold, dark and damp. Schala talked to Mechior, the wild-haired boy called Crono, the girl with the blond hair in a ponytail named Marle, and a young woman with huge glasses known as Lucca. I wondered where the frog was at.
For a while I listened. Then the flop came, Dalton. I attacked him, but I wasn't much and he easily knocked me back with one single swipe of his hand. The Elder of the Earth Bounders and Melchior tended my wounds as the strangers rested from the Mountain of Woe rescue. I was sore, but my anger was stronger, and I slipped out during the night. At the castle I thought, "Why would Zeal keep her lovely castle and Lavos unguarded?"
I, until then, had never used anyone in my life. But soon, almost everyone in my life, next to Schala, I would use for my purpose and to make my life easier for myself. I knew the strangers would follow Dalton, so I waited for them and followed them into the Ocean Palace. It was filled with odd creatures and such. A weak child that knew no magic had no chance of fighting the Scouts or the mages.
I thought I was in the clear. Then, just before they reached Mammon Machine room, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I quickly spun around to see Melchior and two other men, Gasper and Belthasar, behind him. "What the hell are you doing here?" I snapped.
"I'd ask you the same thing, boy."
"To save Schala, you twit! God! *You're* a Guru? Damn, are you stupid!"
"You are too young to come here!"
"If I cared about that, I wouldn't be here, would I? Look, save the nagging after we get Schala."
A huge flash of light projected from the Mammon room, and the Gurus rushed off, leaving me. Again I was almost forgotten. I rushed forward, following the Gurus into the Mammon room and gasped.
Zeal was standing and laughing, saying how cowardly the Gurus were. Schala's face was twisted in pain, and tears ran down my sister's cheeks. Her green eyes looked at Zeal, begging her mother to stop.
Her mother was dead.
Zeal was in her place.
I watched my sister and cried, "Schala!"
She looked up and called back to me as I felt a great force under me. I glanced down, and instead of seeing smooth tile, I saw a portal, black as my soul, gaping under me. I began to fall and I screamed out for Schala one more time as I fell.
All went black.
Janus died then.
Magus was born when I woke up.
Send the author, Janis, your comments! She also says, "I also love flames so go ahead and flame me!"
Go to my fanfic links page, my main fanfic page, my Final Fantasy Page, or my main page
Send little ole me your comments! I'm big on typos, too, so if you spot one, e-mail me!