[Chrono Trigger Novel - Episode 50] Three Shadows Before the Chain
The cavern widened toward its far end. Fallen rock lay heaped in the middle, with tracks worn by beasts on either side. Crono waited at the rubble while Lucca moved the lamplight across it. Before he entered either narrow path, he needed a gap through which he could see the other side.
Rough breathing came from the right. Two beasts sat pressed together. Crono held up two fingers, then pointed left. Marle nodded and turned her shoulder to keep her bow from striking the rock.
They had almost passed when a long hand reached over the stones.
It belonged to the same kind of beast they had fought before. Crono deflected the descending arm with the back of his blade and retreated. As the second creature followed, Lucca sent fire between the rocks. Marle froze the floor beyond the flames. The first beast lost its footing and fell sideways into the one behind it. While they were tangled together, Crono closed in, using short thrusts instead of broad swings.
The fallen body blocked the narrow path. The surviving beast tried to climb over it but could not get a foothold. Seeing Lucca gather fire again, Crono slipped behind a boulder. Even after the flames died, none of them moved for a while. They waited until the hand resting on the rock went slack before crossing.
Crono stopped as he wiped his blade. Heat gathered beneath the tightly wound bandages. He could not tell whether a wound had reopened or whether it was only sweat. Marle looked at him. He pressed a hand over his clothes, then showed her there was no blood on it. She offered him the waterskin anyway.
A draft came from farther inside. The clammy air thinned, carrying a much colder, drier smell. Lucca lowered the lamp, and a gray light appeared ahead. There was an opening, with a long stretch of iron beneath it.
Only when he drew closer did Crono recognize a single immense chain. Each link was large enough for a person to stand on with their feet apart. Anchored in the rock, the chain ran out of the cavern and slanted upward into cloud. Far above, a dark underside of stone appeared and vanished through the whiteness.
A mountain hung in the sky.
As he looked up, a pebble rolled near the foot of the chain. A red beast lifted its head. It was larger than the creatures in the nest, with dense fur running from shoulder to back like wet iron filings. On the other side, a blue beast rose and swayed low to the ground. Between them, a small imp with mud-colored skin crouched on a rock.
The imp grinned at Crono. It raised one short arm to point at the chain, then drew a finger across its throat.
“Seems to understand us, at least,” Lucca said.
Marle took half a step forward.
“We've come to see the man up there. Let us through and we don't have to fight.”
Before she finished, the imp leaped from its perch. A stone sprang up beneath the fingers it planted on the ground and flew at Crono's face. He dodged, hearing it shatter behind him. The red beast charged into the opening.
Crono slipped aside and cut along the inside of its arm. The resistance against the blade was much greater this time. The beast did not stop. It twisted and drove its shoulder into him. As he slid across the wet floor, Lucca's fire rose between them.
Flames caught in the red fur and sank away. There was no smell of burning. The wound near the beast's shoulder narrowed. Crono saw the blood still clinging to the fur over flesh that had closed again, and thrust a hand toward Lucca.
Her hand stopped as she gathered a second flame.
The blue beast rushed her. Marle sent cold to catch its feet, but the white ice forming over them sank into the fur. The creature only quickened. Lucca set down the lamp and threw herself aside. Claws tore the outside of her bag, scattering small tools across the floor.
Rather than cross between the beasts, Crono circled the rocks. The blue one's eyes followed him. While Marle pulled Lucca up by the arm, the imp darted into the gap. A stone flew low and struck Crono's knee. He staggered, and the imp bared its teeth again.
This time he did not retreat. Keeping low, he swept the sword sideways. The blade struck the imp squarely in the flank, yet rebounded as if it had hit stone. The jolt ran up his wrist. The imp rubbed a finger over the pale mark on its skin and withdrew behind the beasts, untroubled.
“We can't take the little one first!” Lucca called.
She set the recovered lamp on a low rock and pointed Crono toward the open ground along the cavern's left side. The three of them fell back, spreading out instead of bunching together in front of their escape route.
Marle looked from one beast to the other. Heat still shimmered over the red one's fur; a faint trace of her cold lingered at the blue one's feet.
“Let's switch.”
Lucca gave a quick nod. This time Marle threw cold at the red beast's chest. Its charging body lurched sideways. Ice clung to its fur, and it scraped at its chest to dislodge it. Lucca's fire struck the blue beast with a different result as well. The moment the flames touched its skin, it shrieked and backed away.
Crono moved toward the red one. But the imp chopped a hand downward from its rock, and the beast abandoned him to rush Marle. Before he could follow, the blue one blocked his path.
Marle raised her bow, then lowered it. From where he stood, Crono could see her reaching toward the oncoming creature's chest. She sent a rush of cold and dodged right, but her heel caught a stone. She twisted as she fell, protecting her left arm, and did not get up at once.
Crono did not try to force the blue beast aside. He feinted with his left foot, drawing its eyes, then slipped past on the other side. Lucca's flames checked the blue body long enough for him to reach Marle. Just before the red beast's arm came down, he cut across the outside of its wrist, turning the blow. A chip from the stone floor grazed his cheek.
Marle got up behind him. He was too close to the beast to extend his arm. Instead of raising a mass of ice, she concentrated the cold around its ankle. While it strained to twist the stiffening joint, Crono broke free.
They stood side by side, gasping. The cut along the beast's arm was already bleeding less. Behind it, the imp's hand slowly descended.
“It's healing them,” Marle said.
Crono looked at the small figure on the rock. If he went after it, his sword would bounce off again. In the meantime, both beasts would close on Marle and Lucca. The imp held its ground in front of the chain as though it knew that perfectly well.
Lucca retreated to join them. Mud spattered one lens of her glasses. She wiped it with her sleeve and pointed to the red beast.
“One at a time. I'll keep the blue one busy.”
Marle looked at Crono. He held the sword low at his waist rather than lifting it over his shoulder. He meant to go in when the beast reached forward. Marle's gaze shifted from the blade to its forefoot. Crono nodded once.
Lucca's fire fell in front of the blue beast. It stopped, then circled outward. She moved with it, drawing it away from the red one. The imp, which had been directing the fight from its perch, began darting between them.
As the red beast crouched toward Crono, Marle sent cold beneath its chest. The first ice broke at the tips of the fur. He waited. She gathered her hands again. The creature took a step, and white crystals spread along the inside of its arm.
Only then did Crono move. He drove the sword beneath the arm that could no longer bend. The beast lowered its shoulder to crush him, but instead of stopping to pull the blade free, he turned his whole body and slipped sideways. Marle sent more cold at the exposed neck. White breath burst from the creature's jaws as it threw back its head.
The imp raised a hand.
Marle nocked an arrow. Crono caught the movement of her bow at the edge of his vision. Its lowered tip lifted a fraction and the string sang. The arrow struck the imp's shoulder and glanced off. It drew no blood, but the raised hand dropped.
In that brief opening, Crono drove his sword deep into the red beast. It balanced on one leg, groping ahead, then buckled at the knees. Crono rolled away from the falling weight. Behind him, the fire went out and Lucca called his name.
The blue beast was coming back.
Crono tried to rise and had to brace himself on one knee again. Instead of standing over him, Marle ran to the side, snatched up a stone, and threw it. The beast turned its head toward her. Lucca's fire followed through the space that opened behind it.
This time she left it nowhere to turn. She cast in separate bursts, following its movements. The first fire engulfed its shoulder; a second rose in front of it as it wheeled away. Hemmed in, the beast clawed at the floor. Lucca's arm sagged and rose again. Crono straightened his leg and shifted his grip on the sword.
Marle left the remaining arrow untouched. As the imp ran forward toward the blue beast, she froze the ground beneath it. While it skidded, flailing both arms, Crono reached the beast's flank.
He tried to time his approach to the dying flames, but went a fraction too soon. Fire caught his cuff. He shook his arm and stepped back as Lucca extinguished the flames through clenched teeth. The beast thrust out its head. Crono slipped aside and stabbed into the back of its neck. This time he bore down on the hilt with both hands. It dragged him several steps before stopping.
While he pulled the sword free, Lucca ran to him. She beat out the last of the fire on his sleeve and rolled it up. The skin beneath the heated cloth was red but mostly unbroken. When he tried to lower his arm, she tightened her grip, asking him without words to hold still a moment longer.
Marle looked toward the chain. Between the two fallen beasts, only the imp remained. It brought its hands together and a faint glow wrapped its body. Marle's cold washed over it. This time the skin of its shoulder stiffened and it gave a thin scream. Its eyes widened as it backed away.
When Crono rose and approached, it made as if to flee toward the chain. Then it dived into a narrow crack beneath a boulder. Its trailing feet kicked up dirt, and the scratching rapidly receded.
Crono stopped at the opening. It was too small for him to enter. Lucca spoke behind him.
“Leave it. We don't know where that goes.”
He lowered his sword. With the fight over, he could hear the wind outside again. Marle searched where her arrow had fallen. The head she drew from between the stones was bent to one side. Rather than risk breaking it by forcing it straight, she tucked it into a strap on the outside of her quiver. Inside, one usable arrow remained.
Lucca gathered the tools from the floor. One small piece was missing, and she spent a while crouched with the lamp, searching beneath the rocks. Crono sat down to help. When he handed her the screwdriver he found wedged in a crack, she stowed it deep in her bag. A long breath escaped before she could thank him.
Marle walked to the rock at the foot of the chain and rested her hand on a link. Crono looked up too. Melchior was somewhere above them. If they kept going, perhaps they could still reach him today. But beside him, Lucca was attempting to fasten the same strap for the third time. Her fingers seemed to have lost their strength.
As Crono approached, Marle started to speak, then stopped. He nudged a stone out from beneath the chain with his foot. After placing it where they would recognize the path on their return, he turned.
“Let's go back.”
Marle took her hand off the iron. Crono waited instead of setting off without her. She looked up for a moment longer, then went to Lucca and fastened the loose strap.
No beasts appeared on the way back. They passed the places blocked by fallen bodies one at a time; at each wet ledge, whoever crossed first offered a hand to the next. When the lights of Algetty came into view, Marle quickened her pace, then slowed again. Crono saw her glance back and raised a hand, asking for another moment.
The man with the spear let them through. Seeing that they had returned without Melchior, the elder asked whether they had reached the chain. Lucca nodded and told him the beasts no longer blocked the way. He looked down the passage for a long time, then called someone to go and inspect it.
The woman who had given them a place to sleep set her pot over the fire again. She noticed the rope tied at Marle's waist but did not ask for it back. While the water heated, Marle sat in a corner, cradling her left arm in her right hand.
Crono sat near the entrance. He thought he could still hear the chain crying in the distance. He laid down his sword and began by untying his shoes. Next time, he would have to set foot on those links. For now, that meant accepting a place to stretch out his aching legs.
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