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Journeys of Time 1: The War painted in Dark Blood

This story is copyrighted to SashaWS/ArtisticEastern, containing characters owned by various people used with permission.

Any usage or posting of this story under the claim of being your own is not approved and you will be requested to remove it or face charges.

The sun stood high in the sky, the last drops of rain fell from above to catch the sun's rays in them and for just a short moment became drops of rainbow until the light finally couldn't reach them and then splattered onto the wet soil. A few of the drops landed on top of the roof of the castle of Morgova, where the monarch was sitting at her throne and parts of her family sat at a long table in front of the stairs leading up to her throne, watching the phoenix standing at the end of it. As the silence had taken a bit too long, Sasha broke it, "So what is this talk about that you tore open temporal anomalies, great Trinity?"

Trinity was bowing, "Well, you see. I saw that many of you wanted to prevent certain events and as a way to neutralize the fact that someone didn't return a very important part to the chamber of time, I distorted the fabric of time to balance it out for a while until we can block it off again." Tenchi stood up and smashed a hand into the table, "By distorting the fabric of time, you mean to say that we are able to go back to events and change them as we please?" Trinity nodded, "Yes, but altering too much can change the past events you experienced, perhaps even make the battles you have been in completely non-existing. So be careful."

Izae looked at Tenchi, "What are you planning? I know that face anywhere." Tenchi looked at Izae with a smile, "Nothing at all. I was just thinking about all the possibilities." She then turned her focus to Trinity, "Is there a limit to what we can go back to?" Trinity nodded as a reply before pointing to a map over the planet, "Yes, there are certain locations resonating with your family and the locations have lit up a bit more than the rest. I had a small flight around and one specific location that resonated strongly was the fields of Havarach." Janch and Chaldoa went silent as they knew. They knew what this location meant, "The location of the great betrayal during The Great Huan War."

The throne room was once again silent, for only briefly as Tenchi took word again, "Then lets go back and make a brighter future for the tribe!" Janch grabbed Tenchi's shoulder softly, "You stay here. You should not see the war painted in dark blood like this. Please, for your own sanity." Tenchi merely brushed off Janch's hand and looked at her, "Your concern is appreciated, Janch, but ultimately disregarded. My mind is already made up." Janch was about to object, but soon found her own shoulder being the resting place for a hand as Chaldoa spoke up, "Sister, drop the thinking that she is mentally weak. She is already expressing confidence that she can take whatever comes her way. Honor her by allowing her to do as she pleases." Janch hated to admit it, but Chaldoa had always been the one who could talk her down from a rouse of bloodlust. Simply nodding to her sibling, she focused more of the attention at Trinity who was marking out locations on the map, "There, all the sightings of events have now been marked. I would advice against doing too many of them."

Sasha took the map and checked it over before counting up all the places, "Fields of Havarach, the Great Huan War. Starshadow Lake, the Ritual of Frost. Rywigo's Valley, the Burial of Chaldoa. Ruins of Castle Rieaz, the Creation of the ancient weapon Lichbreaker. B..." Sasha was interrupted by Tenchi, "Please, as much as I would love to hear them all, I wanna go to the fields of Havarach and fix the past." Sasha simply put the map down on the table again before nodding, "Very well. Chaldoa, Janch, Vana and Tenchi. I think you four can handle this." Peridot stood up and slammed her open palms into the table, "I am going too, mother!" Sasha turned to look at Peridot with a chilly glare, "It is too dangerous and you are no..." Sasha was silenced as Peridot quickly had flung her chain whip around her throat and managed to lock it in place, "I am more than capable, mother." Sasha looked at the chain before grabbing it and had it unlocked from her throat in less two seconds, "Listen to me, Peridot. Just because you legally a queen in your own right now does not mean that you have the authority to go against your mother, the queen of the dead."

Peridot was taken back by Sasha's words before watching as Sasha removed her royal robe and exposed her waistline for her, "If you are so determined to really go, then show me that you can actually protect yourself. Give me your best shot." Peridot was not sure what to do about it until she felt a hand grab her throat from behind and Sasha nodded, "You are not ready. You hesitate when given an open moment to attack. If this had been a battle, you would already been dead." Peridot dropped to her knees, feeling her own pride being broken before Tenchi patted her on the shoulder, "Just practice a bit more, Peri. And then one day you will show her that you are stronger than you look."

Looking at Sasha, Tenchi was nodding, "Very well. Just point me in the direction and I will bring back tales of glory." Sasha nodded and simply lifted a hand to point at a light that soon shifted from yellowish to green, "That is the location." Like as if on command, the throne room's balcony was soon the parking spot for two wyverns that seemed rather eager to fly, something that Vana and Janch giggled about, "Aww, they wanna go so badly now." Sasha just waved to them, "Go you all, and make sure you are not away for too long."

After having stepped out to the wyverns, Chaldoa and Janch were quickly on Gane's back and ready to take to the air while Peridot was giving Tenchi a warm hug, "Please return again, Ten-Ten." Tenchi simply smiled and gave Peridot a kiss on her cheek, "I am not going to die so easily, Peri." Peridot held closer to Tenchi and whimpered, "I do not wanna let you go." Tenchi sighed and took Peridot's arms gently, "Listen, remember how you once told me that you wanted another kid and even teased me with it? If you are a good girl and wait for me to return, I will grant you that wish." Peridot's eyes widened before Tenchi nodded, "Yes, I mean it." Peridot's eyes beamed and she soon nodded, "Okay, I will behave and be good." Tenchi kissed Peridot softly, "That is my wife that I love." Vana coughed, "I hate to interrupt your little love moment, but we need to go now." Peridot let Tenchi go before kissing her a final time, watching Tenchi climb onto Rywigo's back before the two wyverns took to the skies, Peridot looking worried after her. "Be safe."

As they approached the fields by air, Vana pointed to the ground below, "That is the holy wyvern graveyard. See those bones? That is Rywigo when he was at his biggest." Tenchi looked down and her eyes widened. The entire wyvern skeleton that was being used as the holy graveyard was the size of two castles, "How could he become that huge?" Vana simply replied, "Free growth and loss of sanity." Tenchi knew better than pushing the topic further and soon noticed that they were dropping in altitude before touching the ground where a powerful green light was beaming out of a rock's crack, a mace laying in the opening of the crack. Stepping off the wyverns, Tenchi was the first to walk over to it and looking closer, "What is this?" Janch joined her and looked confused, "Never seen something like that before." Tenchi nodded, "It is a mace, I know the history of it on Earth, but why is one here?" Chaldoa quickly answered, "Because that is not a mace, it is a small rod used for rituals. It might look similar to this mace you speak of." Tenchi was amazed how little she still knew about the cultures of the planet. Reaching over to grab the rod, she was soon gasping as it began to glow, the others grabbing it too and the wyverns quickly bit onto the tails before they were gone completely.

As Tenchi opened her eyes, she gave her head a rub and grunted, "Wow, did someone take the measurements on that wyvern just now?" Noticing the others being silent, Tenchi sat up and looked forward, her eyes widening at the gruesome scene in front of her. Watching from a ditch, a bit away, she witnessed a dragon skewering a male wolf right through his left chest before throwing him back at his allies while in the sky, wyverns flew around and from time to time dove down and brought many screams of death as they came back up again. Tenchi crawled away from the scene and after getting away behind a tree, she was trying to keep her food down. Vana was quickly by her side and rubbed along her back, "Are you sure you can stand this?" Tenchi just nodded and sighed, "Yes, just give me a second." Janch was watching all of this and soon stood up and was about to charge into battle, but was stopped by Chaldoa who pulled her back down, "We are not here to battle."

Tenchi giggled before standing up straight again before Vana asked, "So, what is the plan?" As Chaldoa and Janch joined them, Tenchi went into thinking, "First off, lets assess the moment. We are currently at the moment of the great betrayal, which means we could stop it from happening. But in doing so, we might prevent the hostility between the tribes and I cannot get to kick Hauga's behind. We do not wanna prevent that from happening." Janch thought for once too and looked into the sky, "Their death came due to starvation leading to sacrifice for their wyverns. We could put a barrier on some of them to prevent more causalities and maybe help them with a good harvest." Tenchi nodded, "That is a good idea." Vana looked up into the sky and noticed how a few of the dragons on the ground had turned to look at the wyvern riders in the sky. Quickly putting a hand behind her back, she soon watched the beams of dark energy erupt from the hands of the spellcasters and quickly her own spell was active as she created ice mirrors so some of the energy went right back to the spellcasters and drained them while some of her tribe was drained too, but less causalities overall. Vana looked at Tenchi, "Okay, now we must head to Glacial Gardens." Whistling to her wyvern, it was not long before they were all in the air again, quickly escaping the field of battle and heading for the former home of the Frostclaw Tribe.

Taking the time of the flight to study the ground below, Tenchi got an understanding how much had changed over the years. The change of scenery was remarkable to say the least, but her attention was soon brought back to looking forward as she gasped from the view of a gigantic farm with many wyverns and fields as far as her eyes could reach, "This is... making our home look tiny." Janch smiled, "Many generations can make so much. We only began anew after all." It was true what Janch said and soon Chaldoa jumped off Gane's back and when forming two wings of light on her back, she glided over the farmlands and beamed out light for the plants to grow and Vana took the wyverns down for landing so they could witness Chaldoa flying across the many fields of farmland to beam down light upon them, but soon flying over to a wyvern pen and a few growls later, she had taken to air on a wyvern and in front of the eyes of everyone, she was soon roaring out with it and a monsoon began, covering the whole farm in water. Tenchi giggled as Janch grunted and so did Gane, "What's the matter, Jancholine? Got a bit rusty?"

After what seemed to be a hour of hard work, Chaldoa finally returned the last wyvern to its pen before she walked over to the others, "Wow, that brings back good days. So, shall we leave befor..." Suddenly the sound of a door opening could be heard and they froze as a young dragoness walked out with what seemed like a short javelin, "What are you doing on our grounds?" Vana quickly covered her face and Chaldoa climbed onto the back of Gane as Janch replied, "We just got lost and ended up here. We saw the farmlands were a bit dry, so we could not stop ourselves from helping out. At least you will have food now." The dragoness aimed the javelin at Janch, "I do not trust you." Janch simply looked at the javelin and touched the tip before bending it a bit, "Did you make this? I would suggest that you fold the metal to create more layers. It is still too weak to puncture my scales." The dragoness moved backwards and looked at the javelin, "My mom will not be happy when I show her this javelin now." Janch smiles, "No worries, kid. Never let a simple flaw dampen your warrior spirit. You stood up against a stranger even when you knew your weapon was not as strong as you wanted it to look. Your mother will be proud of you no matter what." Vana quickly had Rywigo take to the air before Janch had Gane follow them, leaving the dragoness behind.

Heading back to the field of battle, they just returned at the right time to see Hildegaard plunging the polearm through the chest of a general, making the invading soldiers run away in fear, just as the temporal distortion opened up and Vana quickly headed for it when the others following tightly, "We cannot let them see it! Lets go!" With the wyverns running to their fullest, Vana tried to avoid any gazes from the soldiers, but before Gane could take cover, Hildegaard turned to face the sound and noticed Janch sitting on Gane's back, "Mother?" Janch cursed softly as Gane tried to run as fast as he could, Hildegaard's voice calling out again, "Mother?" The sound of metallic wings came closer and soon Hildegaard called out a final time, "Wait, mother!" Janch turned to look at her daughter before disappearing into the distortion and back home, the temporal anomaly closing behind her just in time for Hildegaard to hit the ground and look where they had disappeared at, confusion filling her mind.

As the anomaly closed behind them back in their own time, Janch lowered her head and let a tear fall from her right eye, "I am sorry, Hildegaard." The others looked at Janch as Chaldoa gave her a hug, "You did good, sister. If she had caught up to us, who knows what might have happened." Janch barely nodded before looking forward at Gane that growled softly to her before taking to the air, heading back home with them as Tenchi looked at Janch as she flew away, Vana's voice soon snapping her back to normal, "Janch was always unable to forgive herself for not being there when Hildegaard won the war. So for her to witness that moment of her daughter's victory has lifted some regret off her chest. The only one that can mend the last broken part is herself." Tenchi merely nodded before Vana had Rywigo taking to the air again.

What none of them knew was that the alteration of this timeline had brought the corpses of the fallen Shadowtail Tribe to the graveyard island, the resting place for those that still had been granted a honorable death, or been forcefully relocated for an evil purpose. As by the current situation, it was for an evil purpose as the island was soon shrouded in a light fog of darkness, shutting it off from the rest of the world, like the curtain calling for the end of an act of a tale. Now it was only the wait for said curtain to open to reveal what awaited next.

The End.