Stirring of Darkness (IV)

"You guys, we should do that one day. Sit by the fire and drink hot cocoa together. It would be so fun." Agnis's eyes sparkled with excitement. She looked upon both of them with pleading eyes.

"Why?" Zero did not understand why she wanted to be cooped up in a cabin in a blizzard.

"Because I've never done that before."

"That doesn't sound fun, though…" Zero voice trailed off as he noticed Agnis's smile drooping to a frown. He could not go any further with his conversation.

"Sure, why not, Agnis. If it ever happens, we will go and try that out." Zeraph gave her a soft smile of reassurance.

"Thanks, Zeraph. You're a great friend."

Zero silently watched. Why are girls so difficult to deal with? He shook his head and continued forward.

Rows upon rows of large marble naked humanoid sculptures stood on both sides of the hallway, each of the sculptures in a sequential animated pose. It was so quiet that they could hear their own breathing. A lump of brown dreadlock-looking fur stood between the statues. It was wearing a loose purple butler suit. A soft tapping sound could be heard.

"What is that sound?" Zeraph looked around.

"Hmmmm," an unknown voice mumbled. "Hmmmm." The lump of dreadlocks moved to the side.

"What is that?" Agnis stopped to look upon the odd lump of brown fur. "It just moved. Did you see that?" She moved back with unease.

"Yeah…excuse me?" Zero approached slowly, perplexed at what the dreadlock-looking thing was doing.

"Hmmm…yes?" The lump of fur did not move to face them.

"May I ask what are you doing?"

"Inspecting. I'm doing something very important. These statues are in a sequential pose which resembles their animated motion. This specific statue seems like it is a couple of inches off. It's bugging me that it's not in the right position," said the lump of brown dreadlock fur in annoyance.

"I see. Well, do you know where Ren is by any chance?"

"Yeah? What do you need?" The lump of brown dreadlock fur turned around towards Zero.

Zero stepped back in surprise. It was actually a rabbit underneath the heavy layers of matted hair that reminded him of a specific dog, a Komondor: a Hungarian breed of livestock guardian dogs with a long-haired fur coat. "Um. How could we help you?"

"Help? Do you think I need help? Hm…" Ren was deep in thought, drumming his fingers against his chin.

Zero could barely even see his eyes underneath the dreadlocks.

"He looks like a mop," said Zeraph quietly. He chuckled under his breath.

Agnis elbowed him in the ribs. "Shhh." She gave him a glare.

Zeraph shrugged it off as if it was nothing.

"So do you need any help?" Zero said it loudly to catch Ren's attention.

"Help. Ah. Yes. Yes. Yes. Can you move this statue a bit? Please don't break it. I worked hard to get all of them aligned correctly. I can barely lift anything up right now." Ren showed him his palms, crossed with angry red calluses.

"It shouldn't be too hard to move it. Give me a moment." Zero walked up to the statue and positioned himself to move it. "Which way would you like it to be turned?" he asked.

"To the left about an inch would do."

Placing his hands firmly against the statue, Zero pushed hard. A loud grinding sound of stone against wood echoed in the hallway. Zero groaned with the strain as he heaved with heavy breaths.

"Keep going…Keep going…okay. Stop! That's perfect." Ren clapped his sore hands in glee. Zero fell down, exhausted. He hadn't expected it to be so heavy.

"You did wonderfully. Finally the motions are perfectly inlined." Ren admired his handiwork.

"Ren. Garrett told me you know something about how to record history." Zero watched Ren move from side to side, inspecting the handiwork. He even saw Ren delicately lick the statue. Zero winced at his odd behavior.

"Hello?" asked Zero. He could not believe what he was seeing. This was going a little too far for his taste.

"Is that rabbit okay?" Agnis peered over worriedly.

"He's insane. I can't believe we are dealing with another one." Zeraph stared at him and crossed his arms.

They all watched as Ren started to rummage through his pockets. He pulled out his hands and they noticed a marble-sized crystal ball with two circular patterned designs spaced out evenly on opposite ends.

"What? Is that a smoke bomb?" Zeraph asked as he strained to look at what Ren was holding.

"I don't know but I don't like this." Agnis stood on tip toe to watch the action.

"The statues that are in an animated pose have been completed. With the statue in place I am able to move forward to the next phase." Ren had begun to walk from statue to statue as he held up the small crystal ball in front of him. It glistened radiantly underneath the fire lights.

"Is he talking to himself?" Zero looked upon Ren, stupefied.

"What the hell? He's ignoring us. Give me a second while I go and give him a piece of my mind." Zeraph went forward.

"Hey. We were talking to you." Zeraph looked upon Ren with disdain. He reached over to pull Ren over to face him. In a blink of an eye, Ren snatched Zeraph's hands out of the air and pulled him down to his level. Ren stared Zeraph dead in the eye.

"I heard you," growled Ren as he squeezed Zeraph's hand hard.

Zeraph's eyes widened. Ren let go without a blink and Zeraph snatched his hand back. Ren turned back to what he was doing. Both Zero and Agnis stood speechless. Zero didn't expect Ren would be able to move so fast, nor had the guts to snatch Zeraph of all people. For a second there, Zero thought he saw Zeraph ready to snatch Ren off the ground.

"Now, as you can see the wonders of motion in effect, you should understand the beauty of it." Ren pointed it out towards the group. He waved his hands in an arc, accentuating his words.

"Um, I do not understand what you are talking about. They're just statues." Zero cautiously approached Ren. He did not want any other strange occurrences with Ren.

"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Young bucks these days don't appreciate nor understand the meaning of motion pictures." Ren shook his head. He rummaged through his pockets once again.

"You see this in my hand?" Three small marbles glistened under the light as swirls of green and red mixed harmoniously with one another. "This is what you use to record motions with."

Zero inspected them closely with interest. Small silhouettes and figures moved inside the glass marble ball. From hopping rabbits to galloping stallions, the silhouettes shifted quickly to different images.

"Is that it?" Zero asked, perplexed by the purpose of the glass marble balls.

Ren grinned widely. He stood back and crushed one of the glass marble balls in his hands.

"Start."

Wisps of white smoke appeared before them and crept along the ground. Shimmers of light danced with magic as a life size black stallion stood in front of him. Its majestic coat glistened with sweat as it reared back, thrashing its hooves towards Zero. Large sublime muscles rippled with power as its black mane swayed side to side. A sharp piercing scream of the wild stallion's voice echoed throughout the hallway.

Zeraph pulled out his sword, ready to strike forward. Agnis jumped back as she pulled out her wooden bow. Zero fell backward in startled as he dodged out of harm's way from the thrashing hooves. As the black stallion's hooves landed on the ground, lush green grass erupted outward around all of them. A beautiful scenic view of the meadows lay out in front of them all.

"Isn't this wonderful?" Ren exclaimed with joy. He laughed with excitement.

"What? How?" Zero was so stupefied that he had difficulty putting words.

A blue butterfly fluttered around Zero. He reached up towards the butterfly, waiting for it to land on his hand, but it passed through his hands as if he was not there.

"I don't get it. Is this a hologram?" asked Zero in awe.

"Hologram? I am not sure what that is. This is a special type of magic that records events in real time and can be replayed in front of you at any given time." Ren excitedly pointed out his surroundings with a wave of his arms to Zero. "Recording could be done anyplace, anytime, and anywhere. With the right tools and magic one could learn this art."

Whickering voices of distant echoes of other horses could be heard galloping towards them. A dust storm trailed behind the group of horses. The black stallion settled down back onto the ground and neighed back at his group of horses.

"It's so beautiful," said Agnis. She smiled at the recording in front of her as she put away her weapon. Zeraph calmed down and brushed it off as if it was nothing.

The scene before them faded back into a shimmer of light and disappeared. Shattered glass reanimated back into perfect marble-size glass ball.

"This is known as an Oculus-Morpheus or O.M. It is made with the ingredients from different monster eyes."

"From an eye?" Agnis cringed back with a bit of disgust. "Does it have to be made with an eye?"

"Yes. The eye is the window that lets us see and capture the pictures in front of us. I have developed and refined this magic." Ren preciously held the Oculus-Morpheus in his hands. He lovingly caressed it. Zeraph looked upon Ren as if he was completely nuts.

"An eye…" Zero gulped as he pushed back the rising bile that was about to leave his stomach. He was not sure if he would enjoy collecting the eyes of different monsters to create those precious glass marble balls.

"Isn't this beautiful?" Ren lovingly held it up to the light, where it sparkled like diamonds.

"May I see it?" Zero asked, though he felt uneasy. He wasn't so sure he wanted to hold onto the O.M. but his curiosity got the better of him. Ren placed it gently into Zero's hands.

"Please be careful with these. Once it is completely broken without activating it, you can never ever get it back," Ren said with worry. Zero nodded.

As Zero cupped his hands around the O.M., a flash of bright golden light erupted in his palm. The book of Historia appeared and magically levitated in front of him. A gust of magical wind blew towards the book as it flipped open. Hundreds of blank pages sped by until it stopped through it half way.

From the book of Historia, long tendrils of white webs shot out towards the O.M. and wrapped around it tightly. With a pull, it yanked the orb out of his hands and swallowed it into the pages of Historia.

"What did you do!" gasped Ren as he rushed towards Zero. He tried to grab the book of Historia, but his fingers passed through it like water.

"My darlings!" Ren cried out in horror. "Your book swallowed my darlings!" Ren darted forward wildly grasping onto the book but fell through.

Zero stopped Ren from getting too close to him. "Wait! It's not my fault. I don't know how this book of Historia works."

Ren stopped just before he slugged Zero in anger. "Did you say Historia? Why didn't you say so sooner?" He patted Zero hard on the shoulder.

"That explains why I could not touch the magical book." Ren grinned from ear to ear as his hands gripped Zero's shoulders. Agnis and Zeraph relaxed from the tension.

"You truly are a lucky guy."

"What do you mean?" asked Zero. He was not sure how he was lucky in getting neither the book of Historia nor the situation at this moment.

"Don't you know that it is the largest collections of stories that could be watched? It is the epitome of all motion pictures," exclaimed Ren. He continued to blabber on.

"So you're saying that I could literally sit down and watch millions of different stories that could be played right in my lap?"

"Yep." Ren nodded.

"But the pages are blank."

Ren's face fell from shock. "Wh-wh-what?" he stuttered. "How-w-w can this be?"

"You tell me. The words just disappeared and wiped clean off the pages. What's the point of having clean pages anyways? Does it want me to write my own story or something like a diary?" Zero scoffed at the idea of writing.

"This is unheard of. How do Historia's pages of stories just disappear like that? This is truly peculiar." Ren paced back and forth. "So tell me…what exactly happened?" He stopped in front of Zero.

"Well, I just touched the book and the history of the past Record Keepers of Historia were played before me. It was truly fascinating. I didn't know there were so many."

"And what else?"

"It knew I was a Drezo Regalia."

"Drezo Regalia? I'm not sure what that is. Is it some kind of food? I would love to eat some celery right now." Ren wiped his mouth clean from the drool that was coming down.

"Nevermind." Zero shook his head.

"I see." Ren pulled back his long hair that covered his face. Zero was surprised that there were actually large eyes underneath the furry dreads.

Zero stepped forward. "I would like to learn the arts of motion pictures." He knew that when his book swallowed the O.M. it could be the answer to solving the mystery of Historia.

"Oh?" Ren glanced at Zero with happiness. "You would truly want to learn the arts?" he asked excitedly.

Zero could not say no. He needed to learn this skill to progress forward in his quest.

"Yes. Please."

Ren smacked him hard on the back. Zero stumbled forward.

"You don't say." Ren said with a booming voice. He excitedly whistled a tune of glee. "Follow me. I'll show you what you need to learn. You have a long way to go."

Zero followed closely behind. "Guys. This might take a bit of time. Why don't you go ahead and do something else while you wait?"

"Nah, I'll stick around with you," Zeraph answered. "This is getting too interesting to not stand behind and watch." He smirked.

"Same," replied Agnis.

A loud bell like sound rang out as Zero received a new message.

Apprenticeship under Ren has been initiated.

Quest History of Drezo Regalia has been updated.

As the guardian of the Historia, you have been given the task to find out who and what you truly are before you can become the True Guardian of Historia. You must find the lost history of your race and record it into the book of Historia.Apprenticeship under Ren has begun in order to learn the arts of a Record Keeper.

Difficulty: C