[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 24] The Red Stone and the Missing Key
For the first three bowls, Crono thought he might actually win.
The Ioka stew was rich and spicy, but it tasted good. Ayla was the problem. No matter how many bowls vanished, she kept eating at exactly the same pace she had started with. By the fourth, Crono was chewing noticeably more slowly.
Marle shouted from behind him.
"Don't stop! If you stop, you'll feel even fuller! Keep going!"
Lucca turned to her.
"What is that based on?"
"Cheering doesn't need evidence!"
Before long, Lucca was analyzing the contest too.
"Ayla's bite size never changes. Smaller bites. Same rhythm."
The advice worked. By the sixth bowl, Crono had begun to catch up again, and the Ioka crowd split into two camps. When the ninth was finished, both contestants patted their stomachs for the first time.
They emptied the tenth almost simultaneously.
When the last drop of broth fell, the villagers looked from one face to the other.
A draw.
"One more bowl?" Lucca suggested.
Crono slowly turned his head toward her.
She immediately revised the proposal.
"Or we could use another method."
Ayla threw back her head and laughed.
"Enough!"
She rose and grabbed Crono by the shoulder. Crono reflexively braced himself, but the movement shifted his stomach and his face went rigid.
Ayla laughed even harder.
"Crono doesn't lose. Ayla doesn't lose. Then both strong."
Marle pointed toward the chief's hut.
"And the stone?"
Ayla walked away.
A moment later she returned carrying the large red stone in both hands.
Firelight moved across its rough surface, waking the crimson layers within. Its color looked deeper than it had the night before. The laughter around the fire quieted somewhat.
Ayla did not hand it over immediately. She turned to the people of the village.
"Ioka stone. Give to guests."
Some faces tightened. Ayla did not avoid them.
"These people fix broken sword. Find out about strong enemy. Nothing comes back to Ioka now."
For a moment no one spoke.
Then Ayla struck her chest with one fist.
"Still give. Ioka strength not only in stone. If friend needs and we don't give, when Ioka needs, who gives to us?"
The older man who sharpened stone knives nodded.
"Chief decides. Chief carries the answer."
"Yes. Ayla carries it."
Only then did she offer the Dreamstone to Crono.
He received it with both hands.
It was heavier than he expected.
And warm.
That might have been because it had sat beside the fire, or warmth might have belonged to the stone itself. A faint vibration traveled into his palms—not the same sensation as a Gate, nor the quiet presence he had felt from the Masamune, but something deeper, like heat pressed beneath the earth for an immeasurable length of time.
Lucca exhaled beside him.
"This should be enough."
Marle looked at Ayla.
"Thank you."
Ayla shrugged.
"Fix sword, show Ayla."
"If we can."
"Make can."
It sounded less like an order than a request.
The feast continued long afterward. The forest was dangerous at night, and for a while Crono was in no condition to walk anywhere anyway.
Marle teased him about it until Ayla asked, "Magus bad man?"
Her expression changed.
Lucca answered that Magus was an enemy at war with Guardia. Ayla asked another question.
"Before fight, you know why he fights?"
Marle watched the fire.
"This time, we're going to find out."
Ayla nodded.
"Strong enemy sometimes has strong reason too."
As the night deepened, people began lying down around the fire. Some returned to their huts, but most simply spread hides on the ground and slept where they were. Children talked about Crono's sword and Lucca's goggles until their voices faded into sleep. Someone continued humming a low song long after most of the village had gone quiet.
Lucca took the Gate Key from her bag and checked it.
"No problems."
She deliberately looked at Marle.
"Inside compartment. Double-tied. Beside my head."
Marle laughed.
"Why are you reporting to me?"
"Because someone promised we weren't going to lose our way home."
"Fine. I'm your witness."
Crono wrapped the Dreamstone in hide and kept it beside him. Ayla told him he could put it in the chief's hut, but he shook his head.
The moment they accepted the stone, it became their responsibility.
The fire sank lower.
Crono did not fall asleep easily.
Not only because he had eaten too much.
The sky was too unfamiliar.
The stars were not where he knew them to be. He could find none of the constellations he recognized, and low on one side of the night sky hung a single red point brighter than all the rest. It seemed motionless, but if he watched long enough, he thought he could see it shift by the smallest degree.
He stared at it for a while.
Then someone passed beyond the firelight with careful footsteps.
Crono turned his head.
A human silhouette stood in the dark. One of the villagers. Not tall. Hair falling below the shoulders. The figure looked toward where Ayla slept, then toward Crono.
Their eyes seemed to meet.
But the other person withdrew almost immediately and vanished into the darkness.
Crono started to sit up, then stopped.
This was the middle of the village. There was nothing strange about one person keeping watch. Especially on the night their chief had given a sacred stone to strangers.
He lay back down.
The last thing he checked before sleep was the Dreamstone wrapped in hide.
His fingers touched it.
The next thing he remembered was morning sunlight.
Morning in Ioka was not quiet.
Huge animals called across the plains in place of birdsong, and fires were already being lit between the huts. Marle sat up and pulled leaves from her hair. Ayla, without even opening her eyes, reached first for the nearest water bowl.
Lucca did not move for several seconds.
One hand rested on her open, empty bag.
Crono sat up.
Lucca turned the bag upside down.
Tools spilled across the ground.
Wire. Pliers. A small hammer. Parts pouches. A spare power cell for her gun.
The Gate Key was gone.
Sleep vanished from Marle's face.
"Last night, you definitely—"
"Put it in the inside compartment."
Lucca's voice was low.
"And tied the strap."
She inspected the bag. Nothing had been cut. The knot had been opened and then retied badly.
Someone had used their hands.
Crono checked the Dreamstone.
It was still there.
Marle released a breath, then stiffened again.
"They left the stone and took only the Key."
"They didn't steal it because they knew its value," Lucca said. "If they wanted something shiny, they would've taken the Dreamstone. If they chose the Key, they saw me using it yesterday."
Ayla sat up.
She squinted one eye, perhaps from the previous night's drink, but it did not take her long to understand the problem.
"Who took?"
"We're trying to find that out."
Crono remembered the figure from the night before.
He gestured the person's height and the length of the hair.
Ayla's face hardened.
"Kino."
She ran at once to a hut on the far side of the clearing.
The flap came up. The hut was empty.
There was an impression on the sleeping hide and mud on the floor. The rear covering hung open.
Ayla went outside and crouched.
Footprints marked the wet earth.
One person's tracks led south.
Other prints lay over them.
Three-toed.
Reptites.
Lucca crouched beside the trail.
"The human tracks came first. Reptites followed later."
Ayla was already ready to run.
Marle caught her arm.
"Wait. Who is Kino?"
"Ioka person."
"I know that. What is he to you?"
Ayla paused.
"Person who may be chief after Ayla."
"Family?"
"Not family. Grew together. Kino likes Ayla."
Understanding reached Marle's face.
"He was jealous of Crono?"
Ayla tilted her head.
"Jealous?"
Lucca explained briefly.
"Angry because the person you like seems to care more about someone else."
Ayla thought about it, then frowned.
"Then stupid."
"Usually," Lucca said.
Ayla started after the tracks.
Crono stepped in front of her and pointed to the Dreamstone.
"This?"
The stone was too large and heavy to carry while chasing Reptites. More importantly, losing it would also mean losing their chance to repair the Masamune.
Marle took the Dreamstone into her arms.
"I'll stay."
Lucca looked at her.
"You sure?"
"Ayla knows the land. You understand the Key. Crono can fight in front of both of you."
Marle hugged the wrapped stone to her chest.
"I'll guard this. And if the Reptites circle back toward the village, I can help here."
Ayla nodded.
"Marle good with water. Good with wounds too. Strong even if stay here."
Marle smiled.
"You didn't say my grip was weak this time."
"Still weak."
"Take it back."
The laugh lasted only a moment.
Then Crono, Lucca, and Ayla ran south.
Reptite tracks overlapped Kino's trail.
At the forest entrance they found blood. Ayla started forward, but Crono stopped her. There was not much of it, and a human handprint was followed by signs of someone running again.
"Alive."
Ayla let out one short breath.
Inside the forest, the tracks split in several directions. Lucca pulled out a narrow metal rod she had built to detect the crystal response of the Gate Key. Its tip trembled faintly toward the left-hand trail.
They followed it over fallen trees and through thorn thickets.
Lucca was soon breathing hard.
"Does this era not have the concept of roads?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"We make one now."
After a long while, a human voice sounded ahead.
"Ayla!"
Ayla did not answer. She simply ran.
Kino sat in a small clearing between exposed tree roots.
Scratches covered one arm, and he held one ankle. Relief and fear appeared on his face at the same time when Ayla reached him.
"Ayla, Kino—"
Her palm landed first.
Ayla struck him hard on the head.
"Ow!"
"Stupid!"
There was no second blow.
Instead, she checked his shoulders, arms, and legs quickly. Only after making sure there were no serious wounds did she become angry again.
"Why steal?"
Kino glanced at Crono and looked away.
"Ayla likes that man."
"Yes. Strong. Friend."
"More than Kino?"
Ayla's eyes widened as though she could not understand the question.
"Why make line?"
Kino closed his mouth.
Lucca stepped in.
"The Key?"
His expression darkened further.
"Kino took. Shiny thing. Thought Crono's."
"It's mine."
Lucca's voice was cold.
Kino shrank a little.
"Sorry. Didn't want throw away. Wanted hide. Then Reptites came."
"They took it?"
Kino nodded.
"Kino fought. Many came. Took Key. Went south."
Lucca closed her eyes.
There was someone directly in front of her to be angry with, but the Key was already somewhere else.
Ayla crouched in front of Kino.
"Crono strong doesn't make Kino weak."
Kino lowered his head.
"Ayla smiles at someone else doesn't make Kino disappear."
She pressed his ankle once. Kino winced.
"Can walk?"
"Can."
"Go village."
"Kino goes too."
"No."
"Kino lost it."
Ayla's gaze hardened.
"So go back alive and say what did wrong. Run away, get hurt again, then two wrongs."
Kino had no answer.
Crono thought of Frog.
A man who, after failing once, had removed himself from the battlefield. Paying for a mistake did not always mean throwing yourself into the same danger again. Ayla said it as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
Lucca pointed to the ground.
The Reptite tracks continued deeper into the forest.
The metal rod trembled weakly in the same direction.
"The Key is that way."
Ayla stood.
"Reptite lair."
"Where Azala is?"
"Azala comes sometimes. Big beast there too."
Lucca checked her gun.
"Fine. We get the Key and leave."
Ayla looked at her.
"If meet Reptites?"
"If possible, we don't fight."
"If meet?"
Crono drew his sword and inspected the edge.
Lucca sighed.
"Then we figure it out."
Behind them, Kino called out.
"Ayla."
She looked back.
"Sorry."
This time there was no excuse and no comparison attached.
Ayla watched him for a moment, then nodded.
"Go back. Tell Marle too."
Kino limped away along the path they had come.
The three continued in the opposite direction.
The forest grew darker.
Sharp claw marks multiplied across the trunks. The tracks in the mud no longer belonged to a small scouting party. Dozens of Reptites had traveled the same route again and again.
From far ahead came the regular sound of stone striking stone.
Once. Twice. A pause. Then three times.
Not an animal cry.
A signal.
Ayla lowered her body.
"From here, Reptite land."
Lucca checked the Gate Key detector.
The metal rod now trembled unmistakably.
Crono looked into the darkness beyond the trees.
They had obtained the Dreamstone.
They had lost the key that opened the road home.
And to get it back, they would have to enter the territory of another people who had already been fighting humanity for this land long before history had a name.
댓글
댓글 쓰기