Title: Tamers of the Colossi
Song:The Mystic's Dream, by Loreena McKennitt
Author: UltimatePalmTree
Pairing: Possible OC/OC. Don't know yet for sure.
Fandom: Shadow of the Colossus
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Warnings: Violence, death/dying/killing, possible torture, but nothing graphic.
Distribution: No. Nothing. You cannot distribute it without my say-so. I'm sorry, but I like to know where my crap ends up.
Summary: Possible AUPre-Game Before Wander, there were sixteen others who came and went to the Cursed and Forbidden Lands. Not to kill them, mind you, but to tame the beasts.
Authoress' Notes: Inspired by playing the game for three hours straight and questioning who Dormin and the Colossi are. 'Nuff said, methinks. Don't own Shadow of the Colossus.
Chapter Seven
Ta Fa Ched
Recanto awoke with a dull, throbbing pain in his head. It was similar to the one he received the day after Grandis had stabbed him. He opened his eyes a slit; his vision was clouded slightly and he couldn't make out if anyone was in the room with him. It felt cold and drafty, wherever he was. He could tell he was lying on a hard surface (stone?). He figured it was just another side effect of the drug…
The drug! Recanto's eyelids—the only muscles on him that seemed to be working at this point—snapped open, his pupils dilating and contracting and trying to focus on the world around him. He blinked rapidly, each time he opened his eyes the clouds seemed to ebb a little. When it was clear that he wasn't blind, he tried to move. He managed to get his arm to move a little bit, but not that much. Not a lot of control over his body.
He waited for something—anything—to happen. Impatiently, he tried to move again, this time trying to inch himself forwards a little bit. His body seemed to be working a bit better than before, since he managed to pull his torso off of the ground. He was weak, sure, but he had assessed that he wasn't paralyzed either. He twisted around to see his body. Nothing was missing; everything was perfectly fine. He tried moving his legs, which seemed to be reluctant to obey. Every muscle in his body burned as if he had been scalded from the inside out. Either than that, he seemed fine and alive.
"Well, where are we?" Recanto turned his head to the left slightly, catching something jumping up and down in his peripheral vision. Two other people, a girl and a boy, were standing just outside the columned shelter Recanto was recovering in, looking around at the massive underground room. Do I know them? Recanto thought blearily, and started to try and stand up. Tentatively, he took a step forwards, like a baby trying to walk for the first time. When he saw his legs didn't buckle, he started towards them, taking care not to trip over himself or anything else.
He approached the girl, who turned around. "Recanto!" she yelled and threw herself at him in a massive hug. The two of them collided, the girl smashing Recanto to the floor and making his headache about five times worse. She didn't seem to mind; she was hanging onto his neck like there was no tomorrow and no one else was in the room with them. "Oh, bless the Allfather!" she yelled happily. Joy, Velivolus… Recanto thought bitterly, finally remembering her name. "We thought you were dead!"
"I'm sure he'd appreciate it if you let go of him, Velivolus," the boy said. Both of them looked up to see him staring at them. "Yes, it is nice to see you join the living," Harena. He remembered his name, too. He knew them; they were his friends. Recanto focused his attention at Velivolus, who was still situated with her arms around his neck and straddling his stomach.
"Get off me," he growled angrily, and grasped Velivolus anywhere he could hold. It was a particularly… awkward spot where he chose to push her off him. She quickly let go, and stood up, straightening her bangs as she did. "Right. Back to the whole issue of where we are," she said, suddenly all business-like.
"Well," Harena said, turning around, "I could be wrong, but it looks like some sort of irrigation system. You know, like the ones I had back at home? See, there'd be drains," He pointed to the floor, where there was a drain. "Primitive filtration system," He pointed at the iron bars situated in the three walls. "It fits everything that would make it a filtration system,"
"And how do we get out?" Recanto asked.
Harena paused in thought before saying slowly, "I… have no idea…"
Suddenly, there was a low, reverberating growl broke the silence. Velivolus' hand went, almost instinctively, to her waist. This was where she kept the stone knife. She made like she had it, but Recanto saw her hands clamp down on nothing. Upon further examination, the usual brown belt of lizard skin (really, what else was there to use?) was gone entirely. She started cursing in another language when two Colossi, no bigger than a horse but daunting nonetheless, leapt out at them. The three of them dodged the creatures; a motion Recanto's still unresponsive body didn't appreciate.
The two Colossi circled menacingly. If they could move their tails, they would have been switching back and forth like a cat's tail. Both of the creatures had long claws, and what appeared to be almost draconic armor covering their backs. One had a stone mane splaying out from the back of their head, and creating the illusion it was bigger than it really was. Nevertheless, they were scared senseless.
"Ignis, Candor, what'd I tell you? You keep those beasts locked up," a deceptively gentle voice came from the upper left hand side. The three of them wrenched their gazes from the two creatures that were circling them and looked up. Standing on one of the ledges lining the place was a familiar dark-haired young man.
"Grandis!" Both Velivolus and Recanto yelled.
"Haven't forgotten about me, have you?" he grinned, bearing his teeth in a sadistic grin. "No, I didn't think you did. After all, I did leave quite a nasty mark on your forehead, didn't I?" He turned to Recanto before sitting down, legs dangling from the ledge. "Sooo… how're all you today? Did you have a nice sleep?"
"You!" Velivolus hissed. "You're the one who did that?"
Grandis extended his arms in a very 'yeah, it was me' gesture before saying, "Who'd you expect it to be? Your Allfather?"
"Don't you dare use the Allfather's name like that!" Velivolus yelled, instinctively crouching into her attack stance. "And while we were drugged, you took our weapons!"
"What'd you expect me to do? Once you gained control over your body, we figured it'd be a bad idea to leave dangerous toys around you four,"
Harena looked around quickly before glaring back up at Grandis. "There's only three of us,"
Grandis' eyes widened in mock surprise. "You sure? I could've sworn there were four,"
Velivolus' eyes widened once she realized what he had said and what he meant. "What'd you do to Avis?"
"I didn't kill him if that's what's bugging you," Grandis said in a mocking tone, getting up and starting to languidly walk along the length of the ledge. "I didn't do anything. I just didn't think it'd be a good idea to put him in the same room as you," He then turned to his left and yelled, "Ignis! Candor! Get your two idiot Colossi out of here!"
Two relatively small teenage boys, one with dark hair and one with fair hair, appeared from the shadows on each side of Grandis to stand next to him. As they did, the creatures circling them backed off into the shadows respectfully. "I should introduce you to my team, shouldn't I? It'd only be right. Ignis and Candor," He pointed to the dark-haired one first and then the fair-haired one. "Permagnis," He gestured to a corner of the room, where a black-haired girl waved back. "Magnus and Veritas," He nodded to two others: a girl with a nervous look on her face and a boy with a long thin sword clutched in his hands. "Umbra,"
Umbra? Recanto thought confused. Hanging near the hole in the ceiling was the massive lizard they had fought before and the shadow boy. "Of course, my followers are loyal, even in death," Grandis commented at their confused looks. "And, last but definitely not least,"
He paused for effect, and glanced around the room carefully. "Bellator," he said with finality. A thin, horse-like boy with brown hair stood near the sconce at the other end of the room, an uncertain expression on his face. "He was the one who dragged Avis back to me,"
"Bellator!" a voice yelled down. The three thoroughly confused Tamers looked up at the ceiling, where Avis was (oddly enough) suspended from the ceiling. It would've been quite funny where it not for three things: this was a life and death situation, the rope looked unaccustomed for holding Avis' weight up, and he was suspended from his ankles.
The Warrior Horse Tamer shied away to the shadows, barely visible as Avis started yelling down curses in his native language. "So, this is my team. I'd say we're pretty effective. We managed to get four tamers in one shot, so there's proof right there,"
"Can we really put them through Hell?" Ignis said, grinning even more sadistically (if that was possible) than Grandis.
"Nah. I'm gonna be a nice person and let 'em go," Grandis said.
Ignis' expression turned quizzical. "What?" he spat. "Let them go? Sir…"
"Do not question my motives," Grandis growled back with a snarl resembling a wolf. "Just get them up the wall and out into the desert. From there, they can get their colossi and we can go on with our busy little lives,"
"You're going to do something, aren't you?" Velivolus said suspiciously.
Grandis cocked an eyebrow at her. "Don't deny me," Velivolus growled. "I know it,"
The Sixteenth Tamer leapt off of the ledge and slowly approached Velivolus. He wasn't afraid of her now, Recanto guessed, if she didn't have her knife. He wasn't afraid of her unless she had a weapon. That's how he worked, he guessed. If he had all the power and knives he wanted and/or needed, he considered himself a god. If it was the other way, he might run.
Might.
Grandis stood in front of the Thirteenth Tamer, a very pleased grin on his face. Recanto didn't like that grin. Not at all. Grandis placed a hand on her chin, tilting her head up towards the light. She struggled away, but stopped as soon as Grandis placed his other hand on her throat, putting some pressure on it as he did. He proceeded to examine her with a slow, obviously practiced eye, Velivolus with a disgusted expression on her face all the while. "No, baby, now. Don't deny me," He took both hands off her and turned away. He paused in walking and turned to face her once more. "And don't be afraid,"
"Well?" Grandis asked. "Free them,"
Suddenly, Recanto felt his body being yanked up towards the ceiling and thrown into the air. The massive tiger known as Celosia was just underneath him. From that height, those back plates and claws looked pretty dang painful. Celosia reared up as Recanto started falling down towards his claws. He abruptly stopped falling as the tiger caught him on his back in an almost gentle sort of way before crashing down onto all fours.
At that, Celosia leapt towards the other side of the room, clambered up the ridged sides before dispensing him at the top. The tiger repeated the process with Velivolus and Harena, leaving all three of them to go. They could see Grandis waving with the blood red bracelet arm all the way at the bottom. Without a second thought, they left the coliseum.
"Sir?"
"Yes?" Grandis turned to face Candor.
"What do we do with Avis?"
"Set him free as well,"
"And… what about the ones you let go? Won't they tell everyone else?"
Grandis smiled. "That's if we don't kill them first,"
Author's Notes:
Characters So Far
Quadratus (bull): Magnus (female)
Gaius (knight): Veritas (male)
Phaedra (horse): Bellator (male)
Avion (bird): Avis (male)
Hydrus (eel): Marinus (male)
Kuromori (lizard): Umbra (male)
Dirge (sand snake): Harena (male)
Phalanx (dragon): Velivolus (female)
Cenobia (lion): Candor (male)
Malus (sorcerer): Grandis (male)
Pelagia (island): Permagnis (female)
Basaran (tortoise): Recanto (male)
Yup. That, my friends, was chapter seven. I hope you enjoyed it. Slightly shorter than the last, but it gets the point across, doesn't it? Nothin' much to really say here. (Now watch. I'm gonna end up typing five pages of Author's Notes… Watch.)
Review time!
Specter Von Baren: I liked the knight as well; once I figured out I needed to shatter his armor. The lizard was also pretty cool as well, and I loved battling the tortoise. I haven't defeated the island one yet. I got up to him and having so much problems defeating him. Read: I get very lazy in the middle of the battle and shut the console off… I know, I'm insane… XD
Mr. Grae: Thanks for the compliment! I hoped I'd play with your heads for a while when you tried to figure out the guy in the mask's identity. Who'd you think it was, just out of curiosity? Two questions on the Stephen King thing. Well, alright. A question and a statement. First things first: I never thought of it that way. And that is quite true. I mean, unless you stop in the middle of the book (which I can never seem to do when sampling King's stuff), you always have a chapter/page to read in like two seconds. So I never thought of it like that. And about your pen name. Did you get 'Mr. Grae' from the novel Dreamcatcher? My dad said something about a character being named Mr. Gray, but he forgot what book it was, so it might be said book.
jjaxis: Kuromori rocks. Definitely. He scared the crap out of me the first time I actually saw the thing, but other than that, he earned my respect. Plus, that whole 'breathing-poisonous-gas' attack is just neat. Nice reference to dragons, methinks… Plus, I learned a lot about target practice from him. Yeah. Two hours worth… XD
Just one other thing. Did anyone else catch the song reference in this chapter? I did put one in there… So, have fun trying to guess what it is. I'll reveal it in the next chapter… I like putting in various references… Hee… 'Tis fun!
Alright, people. This wraps it up… for this chapter at least! Keep watchin' this story, and keep watchin' my profile. I write one-shots as well, and I've just started an FMA crackfic known as Tabula Rasa. Yuppers. That's pretty much it. So, I'll see you in the eighth chapter. (I didn't think I'd get this far along in the story; I really didn't. Once again, thanks to the reviewers!) PS, the title means 'be afraid'. Another reference to a song…