Redeo ~ Return

By Tempest Break

It’s a tree-lined avenue, with a carpet of sunlight laid out over it

I absolutely want to walk here with you someday, always

I call this never-withering affection “love”

Like this evergreen

Look, now, the greenery is perking up in the spring breeze

Underneath the new leaves, let’s make a promise

Always, always, let’s walk together... and

Even if the seasons change, our unfading love

It’s true love, will be here

Aiming for the same future, this love’s EVER GREEN

Even if we didn’t meet at that time

I think that we would have surely met some day, why’s that?

Any other person is absolutely wrong

This is a vast world, but...

Look, now, they’re applauding in the rhythm of the gentle breeze

In front of all the trees, I vow

Always, always, I’ll be gazing at you

In the frozen winter wind, my never-giving-up heart,

It’s true love, will be here

Wanting to protect that kind of heart, this love’s EVER GREEN

This feeling that wants to be even more than lovers

Although it’s a little embarrassing to tell you about this...

Look, now, the greenery is perking up in the spring breeze

Underneath the new leaves, let’s make a promise

Always, always, let’s walk together... and

Even if the seasons change, our unfading love,

It’s true love, will be here

Aiming for the same future, this love’s EVER GREEN

“Ever Green” from Angelique

Sung by Hayashi Nobutoshi

Chapter One

Nicola sighed as she took one last glance at her room. Her suitcases were all packed. She was leaving her house and going away, because she was finally eighteen. She couldn’t forget what had happened five years ago, though. When she had entered Terreno, and met a boy her own age, thirteen then, named Landon. The only way to enter that world again was through the rip in the worlds’ barrier, which was positioned right in the doorway to her bedroom. Now, since she was leaving the house, the probability that she would ever return to Terreno was minimal. And since she was going so far away, to college in Germany, there would probably be few visits.

She and Landon had talked sometimes, using the gifts they had received from Sera and Clavis: a mirror and a sword. Nicola’s ivory mirror was held by her side at the moment.

There was no denying that she had changed from when she was thirteen years old. She was taller, of course, about 5'6" now. Her red hair was worn differently, curling outwards at the bottom, and she wore an old newsboy’s hat. But her brown eyes were still the same, and she still wore the feather necklace that she had gotten in Terreno.

“I wonder what he’s doing?” Nicola said aloud, looking down at the mirror Sera had given her. “And Michael and Katie... I wish I could see them all, just once more.” She sighed again, and turned to leave her room. She passed through her doorway, as she had done so many times before, hoping somehow that she would magically reappear in Terreno. But, just like before, nothing happened. She stared bleakly at her suitcases.

“Nicola!” her mother called. “Come on! We’re driving you to the airport!”

“I’m coming!” she replied. She gazed back at her room. “Just one more time,” she said to herself. She walked back through her doorway, grasping the ivory mirror tightly.

And suddenly her footsteps made crunching sounds as she stepped forward. She looked down and saw that she was walking on charred, broken wood, and the sky above was a blanket of lead-gray clouds. In the dark country that Nicola had entered, there were dilapidated, blackened wood buildings. Their walls were falling down and the roofs were caving in.

“What the heck...?” Nicola wondered aloud, continuing forward. She clutched the ivory mirror to her chest protectively. She picked her way among the fallen wood of the burned town. “Where is this place? It’s not Terreno...”

She tripped on a piece of a building and fell down. As she picked herself up again, she noticed something green on the ground. She pulled it away from the debris and studied it. It was a green flag. “A green flag!” Nicola exclaimed, remembering from the very beginning of her journey in Terreno. “This is Thyst!” She tucked the flag into her pocket and continued through Thyst, looking for a way out of the burned-down town.

After a while, she reached the old training arena where Landon and Michael used to practice with swords. Rain had just begun to fall, and the dirt of the arena was turning dark. Her tennis shoes trod across the arena to the far side, where the buildings disappeared and miserable hills began.

“What’s gone so wrong with Terreno?” she asked no one.

The beats of horses’ hooves could be heard close by. Nicola whirled around, not sure what she should do. She caught sight of a brown horse speeding towards her, its rider hunkered low over the saddle. Nicola got out of the way, but the horse skidded to a halt right next to her.

The rider was a young boy–younger than Nicola by a few years, at least–with scruffy blond hair and milky blue eyes. His brown tunic was torn in several places. He carried a small longbow and a quiver of arrows over his back. He extended his hand. “Well, come on!” he said.

Nicola glanced the way the boy had come. She could make out black shapes through the rain headed quickly toward them.

“Don’t just stand there!” said the boy hurriedly. “Take my hand and jump on!”

With a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed the boy’s hand and he swung her into the saddle with surprising strength. He spurred the horse onward and Nicola held on tightly to his waist.

“Not so tight!” he complained, and she loosened her hold.

“Where are we going?” she asked him, nearly yelling so he could hear her–the wind was against her.

“Where do you think we’re going? To the Den, of course! We’ve got to get away from these Maashira!” he called over his shoulder.

“What?” she said, not comprehending. But the boy said nothing back, not even to tell her his name, and they galloped on in silence. The hoofbeats pounded on the ground in quick succession, and Nicola watched the dirt and dry grass–they had escaped into the awful-looking hills surrounding Thyst–speed by under the horse.

They came to an abrupt halt and the boy swung off. They were by a small stream that ran through the hills. The banks were muddy and dirtied the boy’s tunic even more as he knelt to wash the sweat from his face.

Nicola too dismounted and went to stand by the boy. “So, who are you?” she asked him.

“Well, who are you?” he said right back. “I think I oughta ask who I saved from the dirty Maashira. I can tell you’re not of Maashir yourself, with the way you were standing there. So where are you from, anyway?”

“Um...” Nicola bit her lip. “I don’t know quite how to explain it, but I’m from the other world.”

“Oh, I see,” said the boy, filling up his canteen with water. “So you just showed up in Maashir territory? Tough. Good thing I was there to save you.”

She nodded reluctantly. “What is your name?”

“Willy,” he answered. “Originally from Zircon, but now I’m not a citizen of any place. I’m only in the party of the Free Knight, and that’s good enough for me. You?”

“Nicola,” she said, watching as Willy led the horse over to drink from the stream. “I’ve been to Terreno before, but I’ve never heard of Maashir or anything you’re talking about.”

“Terreno?” Willy echoed. “I haven’t heard anyone call it that in the longest time. It’s not Terreno anymore. Everyone calls it the Land of Five Countries. No one wants to be united at all. How long ago were you here?”

“Five years,” she said.

“Hm,” he said. “Well, I suppose, then, that directly after you left the Land of Five Countries, it split up. Everything is different now than it was then. There are, as you may have guessed, five countries–Maashir, Skal, Laro, Azha, and Ereves. Maashir is the country we are in now. The people here are evil, plain and simple. They came here by many ships five years ago, from a land far to the west. When they came, they burned this whole countryside and enslaved the people who didn’t escape. They claimed it as their own. These people are called the Maashira, and they were who were after me.

“Azha is the largest country, to the south of Maashir. Its king is hotheaded and hates the Maashira–and well he should. Azha and Maashir have been in outright war since the Maashira came and destroyed the country. Skal and Laro are smaller countries to the north and east respectively, and they each have no part in the war. But there has been some thought that one of them will ally with either Azha or Maashir. Ereves is the country of the elves, and nobody knows exactly where it is, but some say that it is between Skal and Laro, and everyone says that it is in a forest.”

“And what about you?” Nicola said. “You said something about the Free Knight.”

Willy grinned. He patted the horse’s neck and said, “The party of the Free Knight. Nothing compares to being one of the Free Knight’s friends, because you are not obligated to any one country. You can help a country for some period of time–perhaps if they pay you–and then when that time is done, turn around and help another. But the Free Knight doesn’t let a lot of people come with him, only those who he feels are worthy, and I’m one of them!”

“How old is the Free Knight?” Nicola asked.

“No one really knows,” said Willy, “but he’s probably not yet twenty. That’s a nice mirror you have there. Where’s it from?”

Nicola looked down and saw she still carried Sera’s mirror. “Oh, um... It’s from a friend,” she told him evasively.

“I see.” He swung himself up into the saddle again and helped Nicola to mount. “Well, now we’re off to the Den, and we’re not gonna stop until we get there. Hya!” He kicked the horse into a gallop again and they were off.

It was night when they reached a forest and Willy slowed the horse down to a walk. “It’s not far to the Den now,” he said.

“Good,” she said. She wondered what had happened to Landon and Michael and Katie in the five years she had gone. Many things had changed in Terreno, or the Land of Five Countries, in the time she hadn’t been there. If they weren’t in Thyst, then where could they be? Now that there were five countries, Clavis’s world seemed even bigger than it had before, and the prospect of finding her friends even bleaker.

The horse shivered under her, and Willy murmured something reassuring to it. “He’s afraid of the dark,” he explained.

“Do you think the Free Knight might help me find my friends?” Nicola asked. “I haven’t seen them in five years, and I was wondering where they went.”

Willy shrugged. “He’ll probably help you,” he said. “He’s quite nice sometimes. But he gets in these moods, and no one can approach him at all. He’s been in one for about a day, now.”

Suddenly something whizzed through the air and embedded itself in the ground in front of the horse. The horse whinnied shrilly and tried to bolt, but Willy reined him in. “Oh, come on! You know it’s me!” he called.

A dark figure dropped out of the trees and retrieved its knife. In the darkness, Nicola couldn’t tell whether it was a boy or a girl, but it was slender and clothed completely in black. “Who is that with you?” said a cold feminine voice.

“It’s just this girl I rescued,” he said evasively.

“You always rescue people,” answered the dark girl.

“You always chuck knives at people in the party,” Willy said.

The girl didn’t reply, but melted back into the shadows.

Willy sighed and shook his head. “She’s in the party of the Free Knight, too,” he said. “Gives me the creeps, I swear, with all her knives... But the Den isn’t far at all.”

The horse skittered on through the forest, until they came to a small clearing. There was a cave there, cut out of a huge boulder in the ground. But the cave was small, and Nicola didn’t see how so many people would be able to fit into it.

They dismounted and Willy took the horse out of Nicola’s sight. She decided that he must have put it away, because when he came back, it was nowhere to be found.

“Well, come on,” he said, “into the Den. It’s freezing out here.” He headed over to the cave, Nicola following him. She saw then, that it wasn’t the cave itself that was the Den, but what was under the cave. A ladder was propped up leading from the mouth of the cave downwards. Willy climbed down it, Nicola after him. A dim, orange light came from the underground Den and as her feet touched the dirt floor, she saw that it opened up into a cavern. Several smokeless torches lit it, and logs had been made into chairs and tables, where the people of the party of the Free Knight sat.

There weren’t many people there, but the people that were there were completely different from each other. Nicola recognized one of them as the dark girl that had met her and Willy. The girl’s features were revealed in the flickering light. She was pale, with short, curly, dark-brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a midnight-black tunic, and black leather was all around her waist and across her chest. Knives were strapped to the leather. The girl glanced up at Nicola for a moment, and then returned to polishing a knife in her hand.

Sitting at a table playing cards were two completely different people, and next to each other like they were, they looked like a giant and a dwarf. One was a tremendously tall man, with broad shoulders and huge muscles. He had scars in every place imaginable. The cards he was holding were about as big as his short fingernails.

His opposite sat across from him. She was a small, slight girl with light-brown hair and freckles. She wore a forest-green dress with a soft-leather belt around her waist. The belt had several pouches attached to it.

“Hey, Willy,” greeted the short girl. “You’re finally back.”

“Yeah,” he said. “I had some unexpected company. This is Nicola, everyone. Nicola, this is Poison Ivy,”–he pointed to the dark girl–“Sarah,”–the short one–“and Rand.” All the people greeted her in their own way, be it a nod or a wave or a glance.

“Like the torches?” Willy asked. “They’re smokeless so we don’t suffocate. All thanks to our resident mage.”

Sarah blushed. “It was easy; nothing to it.” She smiled. “Nice to meet you, Nicola,” she said.

“You, too,” she answered. She looked at Rand, the large man playing poker against Sarah. “I think I’ve met you before. You used to work in Thyst as a blacksmith, didn’t you?”

Rand nodded silently.

“I’m glad to see you’re okay,” she told him.

“And I you,” he replied.

Willy removed his bow and quiver and set them against the Den wall. “So, how is he?”

“Still in a bad mood,” said Sarah. “But I think he would be in an even worse mood if you didn’t introduce him to Nicola, and he only met her in the morning.”

He nodded. “Okay, I’ll take her in,” he said. “C’mon. Let’s go see the Free Knight.”

Nicola followed him across the large cavern to where a ragged blanket hung from a rod and set apart another room. Willy pushed aside the “door”, and held it open for Nicola to walk through. After a short hallway, the new room opened up into a smaller cavern, where a hammock was set up. In the hammock, a young man sat, polishing a sword. He glanced up as Willy entered, then back down quickly at his work. “What is it?” he asked coldly.

“I found this girl while I was coming back here from Azha,” said Willy. “I thought you might want to meet her, since she’ll probably be staying with us for a while. Her name’s Nicola–”

The Free Knight’s head shot up, his brown eyes intense. “What?” he croaked. His eyes met hers and shock was written all over his face. “Nicola...?” He stood up, his sword clanging to the ground. “Oh my God, it’s you!” He crossed the room in a few quick strides and wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. “I thought I’d never see you again,” he whispered over her head–he was a full head taller than she was, now.

“Landon?” she inquired.

He stepped back. “Don’t you recognize me?” he said. “Well, I guess you look different to me, too. But I’d know your red hair anywhere!” He smiled.

Nicola had to strain her eyes in the dim light, but she could make out the familiar tan features, the short brown hair, lean frame, and his brown eyes–which, like hers, hadn’t changed a bit. He was taller now, and Nicola was unused to looking up to meet his gaze.

“I guess it’s you, after all!” she laughed, and he grinned lopsidedly.

Willy cleared his throat. “So, uhm... I guess you two know each other,” he said uncomfortably. “I’ll just... leave you here.” And he left.

It was silent in the room for a minute, until Landon said, “I missed you too much.”

“I told you I would come back,” she said. “Although, I almost didn’t.” Her eyes saddened.

“Why not?”

“I was going away from home, and from the rip in the barrier,” she answered. “Far away. So there would probably be very little chance to see you or Michael or Katie ever again.”

Landon’s features were contradicting–he looked happy and sorrowful at once. Happy that she had come back after all, but sad that she might not have. Then his face completely brightened. “You wanna see Russ?” he asked excitedly. He went over to one wall, where there was a small nook next to a chair.

“Russ?” she echoed.

He poked something that was in the nook, saying, “C’mon, wake up. Look who’s here!”

A slim, orange cat jumped down from the nook to the chair and sat there, cleaning himself. His yellow-green eyes glanced at Nicola once, but then ignored her.

“Is that the kitten?” she inquired, smiling.

Landon nodded. “Yeah. The one you gave me. He’s a cat now–Russell. We all call him Russ.” He scratched Russ’s head fondly. “I named him after my dad, ’cause he’s always looking after me. I’d swear he’s my owner sometimes and not the other way around.” Russ gave him a reproachful look for interrupting his cleaning session, and started all over again.

“What happened to–”

“Michael and Katie?” Landon finished for her. “Michael’s a knight of Skal, now. I wish he had stayed and become a Free Knight with me, but the lady Chelsea is kind of domineering, and she made him become a Skal Knight. He’s a rather prestigious knight, at that. His input means a lot to Skal’s King. I rarely see Michael, but I think we might arrange for a meeting, since you’ve come back. I think he would like to see you.”

“What about Katie?” she asked.

He sighed, running a hand through his brown hair. “I don’t really know,” he said. “Shortly after you went home, she left us. I don’t know why, but she did. Only Michael knows, and he never feels like talking about it. And neither of us knows where she went.”

Nicola frowned lightly, wondering what might have happened with Katie. “I remember she was upset about Chelsea,” she said.

“Yes, I thought of that, too,” he agreed, nodding. “But, like I said, Michael won’t speak of it.” He smiled then. “But I’m glad you’re back, Nicola. I’ll tell everyone we’re heading to Skal in the morning.”

“I’m glad to be back,” she said.

“You should go to bed,” he told her. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight.” And she exited the room of Landon, the Free Knight.

~~**~~

Tempest: Well, there it is! The excellent sequel, dude. It was most triumphant if I do say so myself. ^_^ Sorry, there. I’ve been watching “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. I got it for my birthday. I love it! They’re so stupid! Hee hee. Anyway, to the story. Please, please, PLEASE review. I love them sooooo much. I especially love ones where you talk about couples and who they should be, etc. There are a few couplings in this story that aren’t as obvious as Nicola/Landon. Also... What has happened to Michael and Katie in the five years Nicola has been gone? Michael’s become a Knight of Skal, but how has he been doing? What happened between him and Katie to make her go away? Where did she go? Will I ever stop asking questions like this? Yes, I have one more thing to say.

There are strange things afoot at the Circle K.

Words to live by, Ted.