Chapter Three.

CHAPTER THREE.

THE AGE OF TAY_ _ _|

Yeesha merrily hummed a tune as she pulled Tomoki down the hallway back to the book room, having obtained permission from her mother to let the bahro stay with them.

However, this tune (and her rather chipper pace down the hall) came to a halt as she watched a form wearing the "Rebel" Clothes from the Days on Riven- before she was born- link through the Green book that had been requested by Daisuke, the explorer.

Yeesha immediately lets go of Tomoki's arm, in favor of running down the hallway in search of Cathrine. "MOM! MOM!"

Tomoki sighs before dusting himself off and climbing to his feet. "Well. That was strange."

SOME TIME LATER_ _ _| EDER GIRA_ _ _| JUNGLE SWAMPS_ _ _|

The village elders looked up from their duties as a patroller enters the room, dragging a human with a bag over his head behind her.

An Elder stands up, anger resonating in his voice. "What is the meaning of this?"

"My Lord Seekers of Knowledge." The patroller bows respectfully. "We found this one altering the pressure valves to access the fishing area."

Another elder rises to her feet. "The fishing area? Hasn't that been abandoned by the visitors for thirty years already?"

"What is their sudden interest in our lands?" a third elder inquires, deciding to remain in his seat. "Surely there must be a reason!"

A fourth elder nods her head. "revive him. We shall inquire of his intents."

The patroller nods her head and takes a specially marked dart out of a pocket before jabbing it into the explorer's arm.

He groans as the anti-toxin works its way through his system.

The first elder signals for the Patroller to remove the bag over his head.

"Welcome to our village." The third elder starts out. "I apologize for your..."

Village Elder Number Two cuts her off. "You are the first Outsider to arrive in Thirty years!"

The first intelligent thing the explorer says is "What?"

"Who are you!?" Elder Number One inquires.

"What!?"

"Are you an Idiot or something?!" The Fourth elder suddenly interjects into the conversation. "Answer them!"

"WHAT!!?"

The patroller can't help but to laugh as she thinks to her self, "Wow, does he have a limited vocabulary or what?!"

AGE OF TAY_ _ _|

One "Rebel" Costume, female, sized for a girl of sixteen; one week's worth of bread and assorted food stuffs; one week's supply of Ytram dart poison, Forty-Two of said darts, plus one dart launcher, crossbow style; and finally, one linking book back to Tay.

These were the items that were stolen by the girl who had linked through the book to Eder Kemo.

It didn't take an age writer to figure out who had linked after Daisuke, Yeesha thought. After all, it was Kaiyumi's dart launcher that was missing, Kaiyumi was the last one to have access to the Book room, and once you add in the costume, Yeesha already knew who had stolen everything.

But it seemed no-one around Yeesha could put two and two together as to who the thief was. Maybe it was the fact that Kaiyumi was always a tad...adventurous in the things she did that caused people not to think about her.

...Or perhaps it was the fact that Yeesha had neglected to mention that it was Kaiyumi's launcher that was missing.

Yeah, that probably didn't help things at all.

EDER GIRA_ _ _|

Kaiyumi sighed as she pulled off the mask that was part of the rebel outfit. It was so humid in this jungle (how did the Moitay Rebels ever manage to get around in such dark clothing?)!

Regardless, it was her own fault for running off in the heat of the moment (hah. Bad joke), but for once, her instincts paid off. She had been not a few minutes behind the Explorer when she saw him being carted off by the natives of the age. Since it had been night time, she had been able to follow them easily. But now that it was day time...

Kaiyumi grimaced as she heard one of the natives dragging the explorer out of the main hut, talking to him in hushed tones in some language she had never head, but Daisuke clearly had, as he was replying to the native in an apparent attempt to earn sympathy.

When the Warrior jabbed one of the poison darts into his neck to silence him, Kaiyumi knew it wasn't working. She had no clue what was going on here, the natives seemed frightened of something, but were confident that the boy was the source of their problems for some reason, and were glad to see him go.

Kaiyumi had been following the group for about five minutes before they arrived at a pool of some sort, leaving the explorer tied up to a tree, before waking him up and leaving the area as quickly as possible. She waited to make sure the natives were nowhere near the explorer before climbing down out of the trees and walking over to him.

"Daisuke!" she whispers in a raised tone.

He looked up suddenly. "Well. Now I didn't see this coming." The explorer frowns at the girl and notes dryly. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."

"Yeah, well..." Kaiyumi began searching for the knot on the rope that was binding him to the tree. "I just had a gut feeling that I should've been following you, and look where you've ended up!"

"I seem to get into these situations allot." he sighed, then turned his head towards the Rivenese girl. "What are you doing anyways?"

"Trying to get you out of here and back to Tay!" She continues her search. "I can't find the knot on this rope though!"

"Well, As much as I appreciate the effort." Daisuke notes. "Would you please stop?"

"Why?" She glared at him. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Look, there's something in this jungle." He starts. "it's been taking all their children with mysterious intent."

"Mister what?" She blinks.

"Ugh. Right. Surface term." Daisuke mutters to himself. "Look, I'm curious as to what this thing is, and I‘m..."

"...And you're bait?" Kaiyumi finishes. "Yeah, sure. Just go ahead and feed yourself to the Whark why don't cha?"

Daisuke narrowed his eyes. "Okay, that's the second time today that the language barrier has glitched up on me."

"What in the world are you...?" Kaiyumi trails off as a rather strange sound fills the air. "What's that?"

It sounded like several million bug wings flapping at once. Or better yet...

"Like a broken TV set..." Daisuke muses.

"A broken what?" Kaiyumi asks.

"Again, Surface thing." He makes a 'shush' sound and glances around for the source of the Static like noise.

Then, he saw it.

And that "it" WAS static. Literally, an entire face of some strange, exotic animal made up of nothing but STATIC.

"And whatever captures the image of an angel..." He thought to himself sourly, then jumped inwardly at his own thoughts. Where'd that come from?

"Okay...Kaiyumi?" He looks over at her, warily keeping an eye on the static image. "I want you to cut me loose now." There was a cautious tone in his voice now. One that said "Don't panic. But things are about to go south."

"First you say not to cut you loose, then you want me TO cut you loose...would you make up your mind already!?" She angrily pulled a knife out of a pocket and cut the ropes at a random spot; there was a second, more concerned undertone that asked "What's wrong?" in her voice.

Daisuke turned his head back to the static thing. Indeed, it was still there, except for the fact that he could see bones underneath the static skin as it now moved slowly towards them. "Say...Did you happen to notice if there were any bones in the back area? By the waterfalls?"

"No, There weren't any, why?" Kaiyumi replies, now looking where he was, and too seeing the now-walking skeleton that was coated in static.

Then, the static-beast opened it's jaws, and roared. "ROOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!"

"Okay. That's a new one." Daisuke noted as a seemingly nonexistent wind rushed past them from the monster's mouth. "I mean, wow! That was SO Night At---!"

"I say we Run!!!" Kaiyumi ordered before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him away from the Static-ized Dinosaur.

It let loose another static overlaid Roar before giving chase.

"I don't think this thing took their kids!" Daisuke rationalized as they ran. "from what the elders described, the kids were taken suddenly, almost as if they never existed!"

"SO?!" Kaiyumi asks before jumping up onto a rock and over into a tree.

"So!" Daisuke continued as he follows her up into the tree. "That means that if this thing were the thing that took their kids, we would've been with them before we even saw it!"

The Static beast roars as it rushes past them, not even noticing that it's prey had gone above it.

"Okay, I get that!" Kaiyumi nods as she tries to catch her breath. "But then what is that thing!?"

Daisuke looked at the beast as it storms around the jungle, searching for it's lost prey. "Well..."

It seemed to be alive, but at the same time, it seemed dead. Then there was the static. Almost as if two conflicting images were trying to fight for prevalence. Two Broken signals. Something almost like a corrupted Slow Scan TV signal.

"...It's broken." He replied, having no good explanation. "Broken, like an imager."

"Oh! A Broken imager!" She nods. "I get that. But why is it broken?"

"Something... Something that happened that shouldn't have. It's almost like it's split into two signals. One it's alive, one it's dead." He frowned. "Something caused the timeline to diverge. Something... Something..."

Suddenly, the static beast turned it's massive, one horned head at their tree and looked up.

It's eyes. It's eyes were like burning stars. A burning, dieing soul. Tortured, in pain, somehow alive despite it's impossible nature. Static, Stars, Skeleton. The most impossible combination. And yet there it was. Something so... So... Vastly impossible that the only word to describe it WAS 'impossible!'

This analysis took place in a split second, and the beast charged at the tree.

"RUN!" was the word almost on Daisuke's tongue when the beast suddenly just RAN through the tree, not even leaving a mark!

The creature seemed just as confused by this, and repeated the process again, but this time, it's quarry had already left the tree as the beast plowed through it, tearing the poor wooden trunk to pieces. This confused the beast and it's prey even more. It's body structure had no where NEAR enough mass to destroy the tree in such a manner, and then yet another layer to the static image was added.

Now it was shape shifting between different structures: Four legs, two legs and two arms, a living creature, a skeletal mishmash of bones. This creature, whatever it originally was, was now nothing more than a writhing, impossible, completely totally impossible mass of static and internal organs and bones, and skin, and burning stars and-- “ENOUGH!”

Daisuke was falling. Not to the ground. NO! He had jumped onto the beast, as crazy and impossible as it was! "WOAH!!" He grimaced as the beast- now some sort of strange tiger shaped Tyrannosaurus- began thrashing about like a bucking bronco! "What in the world is this thing!?" He thought in amazement. "Sis' would have a field day with this!"

Meanwhile, Kaiyumi watched from the trees, having been long forgotten by the beast, now trying to get the explorer off it's back. "What in the...?"

"WAHOO! Ride 'Em Cowboy!" Daisuke cheered to himself as he tried to find some sort of weakness on the monster. "Let's see...The Skin's translucent enough with all this static that I can see the internal organs... Now if I can just time this right....!" He suddenly threw his hand into the shifting ribcage of the static monster, and pulled out a Quab of all things! "Wha...?" He blinked at the kicking Quab in his hand. "Okay. This is just getting silly."

Not two seconds passed before Kaiyumi joined him on the cowboy impression. "WAAAH!" She cried out in surprise at the sudden change from falling to thrashing.

"Just Hold On!" Daisuke dug the side of his boot into the static monster's ribcage, sending it into a furious rage. It charged through the jungle, furiously trying every trick in the book to get it's unwanted passengers off.

"Well! What do you think, Kaiyumi-Chan?" He asked with a grin.

"I think..." She said in-between gasps for air. "That You... ARE CRAZY!"

"Thanks Kaiyumi-Chan!" He smiled back.

"And What is with the sudden nickname!?" She added next. "What does the 'Chan' even MEAN!?"

"I'll tell you--!" Daisuke ducks his head as the beast's height suddenly changes 'channels' and a tree branch nearly whacks the explorer in the face. "--Later Okay!?"

Kaiyumi grumbled something along the lines of "No, it's not okay!" but otherwise said nothing.

A thirty second burst of trees rushing past them occurred in relative silence. Then, the strange static monster ground it's forward legs to a halt, while it's back legs continued forward, perfectly throwing it's two unwanted riders off in a sudden toss.

"Waaa---"

The beast blinked in confusion as Daisuke and Kaiyumi vanished into thin air.

A RANDOM CAVE ELSEWHERE_ _ _|

"---aaaaahh!!!"

The children and teenagers of the Eder Gira jungle village blinked in confusion as Daisuke and Kaiyumi suddenly appeared out of thin air, crashing to a sudden, abrupt halt into a murky pond.

SPLOOOSH!

The boy, Jal, and the Girl, Kalhm, (from earlier) rush to help the two out of the water.

"Are you two all right?" Kalhm asks.

Kaiyumi blinks. "Wha...?"

"Yare yare..." Daisuke groans as he shakes his head out. "Kaiyumi-Chan, Please do not tell me that they sound like they're speaking perfect Rivenese."

"Rivenese?" Jal echoes. "Never heard of it."

Daisuke narrows his eyes. "Says the boy speaking perfect English."

"English?" Kalhm blinks. "What's that?"

"Okay, I know for SURE that those elders weren't speaking this language before." Kaiyumi looks to the explorer, and eyebrow raised. "What's going on here?"

Despite all the strange looks that the future inhabitants of the village were giving them, Daisuke turned to the nearest Villager and asked one question. "Let me guess, we're speaking your language fluently?"

The villager nodded.

"Allrighty then!" Daisuke got to his feet, seemingly unfazed by the rough entry into the strange cave with no seeming entrance or exit. "Kaiyumi-Chan! follow me!"

"Again with the 'Chan' suffix." She sighs, then gets up as well, "What's going on?"

"Let's see now..." Daisuke started as he walked towards the wall. "We're in a pitch black cave with no seeming exit that we can easily see!" He paused and turned towards Kaiyumi. "What's wrong with this cave?"

"Um...Well..." Kaiyumi looked at his face then around the pitch black cave.

"Hey! Wait!" Kalhm started running after them, dragging Jal by the arm. "Who are you!?"

"Me? I'm The Time Traveler!" Daisuke grinned, suddenly sporting a goofy accent, as he pressed his hands against the cave wall, and started feeling where it was as he walked along. "She's my companion!"

("I am no such thing!" Kaiyumi replied, only slightly annoyed.)

Daisuke continued on uninterrupted. "What we have here is something that shouldn't possibly exist!" He then stopped walking as his hands were suddenly pressed onto something invisible, and yet at the same time solid. The wall had suddenly curved away into the air and yet was still solid. All this was clearly visible to him. Or rather..."Ah! Invisible! An Invisible wall..."

"We've already figured that out, by now." Jal interrupted. "We've been at this a lot longer than you have."

"I see." Daisuke shrugged the comment off as he started to dig around in his pockets for something.

"What makes you think you can get us out of here anyways?" Kalhm asks, trying to keep her voice down. "As much as we'd like the hope and all, but there's no way out of here!"

"I kind of have to agree here..." Kaiyumi stepped in. "How are we going to get out?"

Daisuke looked at her with a grin on his face, and he was still sporting that goofy accent. "I've got pockets!"

"What do your pockets have to do with anything?" Kaiyumi narrowed her eyes. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"

"What do you keep in pockets?" he asked back, that grin still on his face.

"Stuff, I guess?" Kalhm cut in.

"Not Exactly that!" He paused as he found what he was looking for, then asked. "What's one thing you never want to loose?"

With that said, Daisuke pulled a small, round object from his pocket. It had a faint blue tint to it's surface.

"Your Marbles!"

-----

A few minutes passed before Daisuke could get everyone's attention focused on him.

"Tell me, what is the one thing you need in the dark?" Daisuke asked- finally talking normally again- after making sure everyone was looking.

A villager raised his hand. "A light source?"

"Exactly!" Daisuke nodded. "Now tell me, what is the one thing that we don't have in this room?"

"A Light source!" was the immediate response from another villager.

"Exactly, now tell me, raise of hands, how many of you can see what's wrong with this cave?"

There was a shared murmur in the dark cave but nobody said anything, nor raised their hands.

"It's that we can see that's what's wrong!" Daisuke continued. "It's pitch black in here, and yet we can still see each other as if we were outside!"

Now that this fact was pointed out, it was astounding that nobody (Not even this author!) had seen it before.

"With that said, I think it's pretty obvious what we need here." Daisuke grinned as he held up the blue marble. "A little light!"

He gave the marble a squeeze, then threw it into the air with a light toss.

Instantly, a bright blue light emitted from the fire marble as it now floated. No. It wasn't floating. It was CAUGHT by something.

They weren't inside a cave, no, not at all. The sudden light making device, now imbedded into the supposed "cave roof," made something groan, and then, the "cave" split open at the seems- No.

A row of sharpened, jagged teeth attached to something's jaw that was now opening.

The Invisible wall was suddenly revealed to be a metallic wall, A wall that was keeping the villagers from being swallowed down something's THROAT.

Looking out into the world beyond, one could clearly see where they were.

Inside yet another Strange, Impossible static monster's mouth. Only, this wasn't a ground dwelling creature.

No.

It was a Sky Beast. A Bird. A Dragon. Call it what you will, but this creature itself was also impossible. But yet it wasn't flying through the sky. No.

Impossibly, it was soaring through the ground. UNDER the Ground.

"Whaaa!?!" The village in habitants were looking around worriedly as their "cave floor" Started moving about. The beast's tongue was trying to dislodge the fire marble from the roof of it's mouth.

Daisuke looked to Kaiyumi, and she looked back.

Then, they looked out, towards the world they were somehow under.

They screamed as one.

"WHAT!!?"

END CHAPTER THREE.