Scenario Dreams 2, Part 3: The Shrouded Past

 

As I traveled through the space between the RPs I wondered about what Bremen would do while he was with me on this trip. The thought hit me suddenly that I had let him go into the vortex first, thus he would arrive in the reality plane before me. I waited a few moments in panic and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the end of the travel space, which looked like a starry sky as it would be seen through the forest. Very similar to the view that DJ, or as he liked to be called now, Ninjay, had as his roof setting. I entered it and held my breath hoping Bremen hadn’t caused too much trouble while I was gone.

            “Ahhh! What is that thing” I heard a faintly familiar voice say.

            There was a pause and I heard the voice of Bremen reply, “Oh, me? Umm… I’m a krawk from a different planet, what are you?”

            Without wasting time I flew over to the scene to see Bremen talking to a very shocked looking boy that was wearing a green tunic and Kokirish style boots. Looking closer I noticed his ears were pointed and his face looked remarkably like a younger version of Link, whom I had met the last time I was here. “Hey, hold on a second Bremen. Don’t be talking to strangers.” I said with a bit of an annoyed tone in my voice, gliding over and setting down between the two.

            “Hey, you look very familiar.” The boy said as he put a little blue instrument on the back of his small horse, getting down and walking over afterwards. Walking around me he observed me closely, seemingly trying to remember something. “Hey, I know who you look like! Are you the shape-shifting shoyru warrior from far away named Jay?”

            “Yes, that’s me. But… hey, you wouldn’t happen be Link would you?” I said, a bit confused.

            Link nodded his head, “I’m not sure how you too traveled back in time but I’m the same link that you helped to defeat Ganondorf and Gannon. After it was all over Navi and I split paths for a while and I am trying to find her now. Have you seen her?”

            I shook my head and noticed something in the bushes. Link and Bremen looked the same direction. What looked like a kid made out of straw jumped out and onto Eponia grabbing Link’s ocarina. Two faeries followed him, one a dark ball of light the other a white ball of light.

            “Yay! Someone left a horse here for me to ride. This instrument looks pretty cool too.” The figure said as he rode off into the woods.

            “Hey! That’s mine!” Link yelled as he started running after the thief.

            “Don’t worry Link,” Bremen said with a heroic tone of voice, “I’ll get the horse back.” This said Bremen curled up into a ball and started rolling at an extremely high speed in the direction the thief went.

            “Wow,” Link said to me, slowing down to a stop, “that technique your friend just pulled off mimics the goron’s roll perfectly.”

            “We better not let them get away!” I said, honestly not the least bit surprised that Bremen had a completely random ability like rolling like a goron. I picked Link up and we flew speedily toward the two others.

            After chasing the crook for a while I noticed Bremen suddenly stop rolling and stand in front of a hollow tree confusedly. Stopping, I put Link down and asked what had happened.

            “I think that that person went in there…” Bremen said.

            “I’ve got to go and save Eponia!” Link replied, cutting Bremen off. He drew his sword and ran in as fast as he could. Within a few seconds he let out a yelp and cried out, fading away as he spoke, “There’s a hole here!!!”

            Bremen cleared his throat and glared fiercely at the tree, “As I was trying to say before I was rudely interrupted, I think the person went in there but it sounded like he jumped into a hole as soon as he got in. Do you think we should follow him?”

            I slapped my forehead at Bremen’s obliviousness. Grabbing him and running toward the tree I said, “We don’t have any time to lose, there is no way I’m going to just abandon Link like that.” Bremen seemed very confused at what I meant when I said ‘abandon’ but didn’t struggle at all as I jumped into the hole. He even cheered in delight as we plunged through the eerie abyss.

            When we landed I saw a stone door in front of us close and the white faerie try to get through. I looked slightly to my left and noticed a Deku Scrub wearing the same outfit that link was.

            “Jay?” the Deku said looking at me in wonder, “I can’t believe you followed me, look what the thief did.”

            “Hey, that thief is my friend, the skull kid!” the faerie said in a very annoyed tone as she flew up to us.

            “Ooooooh…” Bremen gasped in awe as he noticed the faerie, “It’s a prettyful shiny firefly. I want to catch the firefly.” With that he started chasing the faerie around the room as Deku Link and I just stood there watching the two.

            “Stop!” The faerie cried out, “Hey, you, Deku Boy.” She said while flying around Link’s head, Bremen right behind her, “I know a lot about this place and the one who took your horse and instrument. If you get this guy off of me and agree to help me find my brother then I’ll help you in any way I can.”

            Link seemed to agree to this and almost immediately said, “Okay, Bremen, that’s enough. Be nice.”

            Bremen stopped dead in his tracks and Navi accidentally ran into the back of his head. He turned around and greeted the faerie, still having a playful tone in his voice, “Hello Mr. Firefly! My name is Bremen.”

            The faerie seemed really annoyed by this and started shaking up and down in flight as she talked, “Excuse me? I am NOT Mr. Firefly. No, I’m MISS Firefly to you!” She stopped to a dead halt and paused for a moment in speech. Then she started swaying back and forth in the air, seemingly embarrassed, “Oh, no I’m not a firefly at all,” she chuckled, “My name is Tatl. The skull kid seemed to have forgotten about me and left with my brother Tael. Could you help me get him? Of course you will, you already agreed to. What are your names anyways?”

            Link and I introduced ourselves to this quirky faerie and we all started toward the exit. After a few rooms of Link trying out his new abilities as a Deku we went through a very strange hallway that took us to what looked like the inside of a huge wooden structure. After climbing a few stairs we saw a set of large wooden doors and started heading for it.

            “It seems you are in a bit of a spot, masked ones.” A voice said from behind us. We all turned around at the same time to see a skinny Hylian in purple clothing wearing a massive backpack on his back, the outside decorated with various masks. He seemed to be a merchant.

            “Masked ones?” I said to the mask salesman, “That statement describes Bremen here with his little Halloween mask of bone but what about Link and I?”

            The salesman looked angry for a second, “Are you calling me a novice? I can tell when someone isn’t in their true form.” He calmed down and continued speaking with us. “I can help you change back to your true forms if you can recover the item which was stolen from you. I am a very busy man though and must leave here in three days. Also you must get that mask that the skull kid had on. If Majora remains free there is no telling what havoc he will cause.”

            We nodded in agreement and left the building. Upon exiting we found out that we had been inside a giant clock tower. “He probably hasn’t left town,” I said to the others, “Lets search here.”

            We looked around town a while until we came upon a kid shooting darts at a big blue balloon.

            “Hey, Watch this!” Bremen said to us as he ran up and bounced off a wall high into the air, pulling out his sword and landing a perfect slice on the top of the balloon, making it burst into many colors before disappearing completely. Bremen seemed surprised at the burst of colors and landed not so gracefully on the ground.

            “Wow! That was cool.” The kid said lowering his blowgun, “Would you three like to play a game? If you win we will give you the password to our secret hideout.

            We agreed, having no idea where else to look and he called four others with him. Each of them hid at different places around town and we spent the next couple of hours finding them. To tell the truth it was really fun just taking a break from my task for a while. I kinda could see a reason for Bremen’s behavior while I myself was playing. After it was all done and we had found everyone they lined up and congratulated us. The one that we had spoken to earlier apparently was the leader of the group. He looked at us very formally and said, “Okay, listen carefully because I am only going to tell you once. The password is 12345.”

            “A bit of a simple password, don’t you think?” I said.

            “It’s actually a great idea for a password,” Bremen interjected, “it is so simple that no one would ever think of it. Strangely I found logic in that which he had just said. We made our way to where they told us to look and said the password to the guard, who didn’t look but 5 years old. The inside was a lot more impressive than we were expecting. After passing through a few flooded rooms we arrived at a multi-colored observatory.

            “Visitors?” I heard an old but benevolent sounding voice say, “Come in, come in. It’s good to see that people still take time to play with the children.” We arrived all the way up to the stairs and walked onto the pad where the source of the voice was standing, right next to the telescope. Very strangely Bremen was behaving himself perfectly in this place, it seemed to relax him. “Ah, so you aren’t really people at all it seems. Lets see you I am sure are a Deku boy.” He turned to Bremen who was looking at a blue stone on a pedestal, “and you look like a very small green dodongo wearing a Halloween costume. And you…” he said, looking at me, “I don’t believe I have ever seen anything that looks even close to you. You will have to tell me later. Would you like to look through my telescope? You can get a great view of Clock Town from here.”

            That set me back in task. Perhaps I could locate Majora from here and we could fulfill the mask salesman’s request. “I would if you don’t mind, thanks.” I said before looking into the eyepiece. From this location I could see the entire roofline of the town where we had just been in, which I now knew as Clock Town. On top of the clock tower I noticed the skull kid dancing around. I relayed this information instantly to the kindly old man.

            “On top of the clock tower, eh?” he said, “I thought that only opened on the day of the festival. If you want to see him you probably need to stay here a couple of days, it will be open then.

            The next two days were spent talking with the townspeople and becoming familiar with the entire area in the town. When the night of the final day finally came Link, Bremen, Tatl, and I rushed to the clock tower and ran up the stairs, seeing a floating skull kid meeting us at the top. The black faerie named Tael was there too. He warned us that the skull kid had begun to act differently and wasn’t being very friendly anymore. Majora didn’t like this one bit and he hit Tael away.

            “Hey, that’s not very nice!” Bremen cried out as he ran and jumped toward Majora, completely missing him. Majora laughed at this foolery and turned to face us.

            “Don’t be so foolish as to fight, look above you.” He said in a snide voice. Looking up I saw what was rumored all over town. The moon was indeed falling and it was very close to destroying the clock tower we were on. As I was looking at this Majora yelped as he was hit by surprise from behind by a flaming sword. Something blue dropped from his hand to the ground. Apparently Bremen had intended to miss and had back flipped as soon as he hit the floor, preparing a complete surprise attack. Deku Link ran up and grabbed the ocarina off the floor and went into a kind of trance.

            “What are you doing Link?” Tatl screamed at him. She sighed and mused to herself “I wish we had more time…”

            Deku Link snapped out of his trance and put the ocarina to his mouth. The ocarina transformed into some kind of system wooden pipes in order to be able to be played by him in this form. Very slowly and with no panic at all, Link played a strange tune on the pipes. Suddenly Bremen, Tatl, Link and I all fell into a strange environment. It reminded me greatly of the space between reality planes and I could sense a form of four-dimentional travel back in time, but something was preventing us from moving fifth-dimensionally and creating an alternate timeline. It was true and unaltered time travel to the past.

            We appeared upstairs in the clock tower and saw the mask salesman behind us. Link held the ocarina in his hand and the rest of us just stared at it.

            “Good job, you found the item that was stolen from you, now I will fulfill my end of the bargain.” The mask salesman said, moving back to the back wall and hitting a hidden button. Immediately a large organ emerged from the wall and the salesman set his pack down, sitting comfortably in the chair and stretched. He then started playing an enchanting and somewhat haunting melody.

            I started to feel dizzy and the world around me spun around and shrank. I felt my fingers un-meld and form normal hands. I felt my ears reform and become pointed. I felt the clothing I wore as Guardian re-appear. A small thud could be heard to my left and I looked over. Young link stood there with a Deku mask at his feet. He seemed really happy to be back in his Hylian form. The music continued to play and Link looked in horror behind me at Bremen. I turned around quickly and saw Bremen shaking his head violently and groaning in pain. Suddenly he fell down face first, his krawk mask flying off his face onto the floor. His mask now off he began to transform. His green skin started to turn very dark. His tail grew longer and small spikes appeared along it. Wings sprouted from his back and he turned completely into a fire draik. He groaned softly as he lay cringed on the floor, apparently in agonizing pain. I noticed that the fire markings on him here completely colorless.

            “I wonder… what’s wrong with him…” Tatl said sympathetically.

            The krawk mask that had fallen on the floor in front of this new form of Bremen started to levitate in the air. Fire energy radiated without spare from both Bremen and the mask and reversed itself, all being absorbed into the bone mask. Right before our eyes fire started to fill the eyeholes of the mask, and a fiery spirit resembling a krawk formed under it. The spirit looked at Bremen and bowed his head in sadness.

            “I am separate from Bremen now… I can do nothing to contain the curse by myself any longer.” The spirit said. Bremen moved slightly and his sword fell from its sheathe, clattering onto the floor. The sword burned very dimly with a colorless fire, the flame glowing slightly dimmer by the second. The fiery spirit looked at me with its sad yet intense eyes and seemed to perk up for a second. “Jay! You can cure Bremen. I know it! Please, you have to trust me; your friend is in grave danger.”

            I was a bit wary of this apparition but hearing Bremen groan again I knew that I had to do everything I could. “What do we have to do?” I asked, saddened and panicked all in the same emotion.

            “First I will need an orb of non-elemental energy.” He said.

            I was a bit confused by this but then I thought of the different attacks I could do with my staff. I touched the back of my right hand and grasped the staff that appeared. Immediately I made a vortex orb attack, making sure it was stable enough to hold and not hurt anyone. The specter took the orb and distributed its energy over Bremen in an odd manner. Suddenly a large creature could be seen on Bremen’s back. The creature looked a bit like a mosquito sucking life out of Bremen, but it was much, much more horrifying in appearance.

            “Don’t touch it with your hands.” The masked spirit said, “Touch it with the very end of your staff and use an energy attack to try to destroy it. I have weakened it and made it visible and vulnerable with that orb you just gave me, if your strongest attack can’t destroy it now then I am afraid there is no chance for our friend.”

            Saying nothing I concentrated my thoughts, transforming the tip of my staff into a portion of the sword of the RP’s, my ultimate weapon. Charging the tip with a high amount of green and blue energy I thrust it into the heart of the creature that was tormenting my friend. Letting out an ear splitting shriek the creature fell off of Bremen, stopping its slow drain. Writhing on the floor this mosquito like thing little by little started to dissipate into nothing. I looked happily at Bremen, who had stopped groaning. He seemed peaceful.

            “Jay!!!” The apparition shouted at me, “ Look at his sword, he is almost gone!” I looked at Bremen’s sword and noticed that only a few small sparks of colorless fire remained, and even those were very slowly dying out.

“Please…” I said to the air, “this has to work, I don’t know what I would tell Lonely if I couldn’t save Bremen.” Concentrating all of my energy I placed my staff on his back where the mosquito had been. The entire room seemed to stand still in suspense. Energy flowed from me through the staff into Bremen. His entire body glowed green and blue as the energy ran into him. A blinding flash filled the room. When my eyes cleared I saw standing in front of me a draik with green and blue fire markings on his wings and tail.

“Ooooooh!” the draik said, “This is cool, I feel really different. Hey, why is everyone looking at me like that?” He said bouncing around. There was no doubt about it; this was Bremen. Suddenly I started to feel very dizzy. The effects of the energy transfer I had performed were starting to appear. Without a word I sat down and passed out.

My sleep was simple, with few dreams, but I did hear one voice speak to me, “You have done a very good deed, Guardian. Bremen’s condition was of dire consequence if left untreated. When you finish there I will show you and the others what exactly happened to him that would cause such an emergency. It seems you have been asleep for quite some time now, you better wake up now.”

“Hey! He’s starting to come around.” I heard the voice of Link say.

I sat up and opened my eyes, still feeling drained. In front of me I saw Link, who seemed very shocked to see me up, and Bremen, who was simply flying around in circles as a draik. On the floor in the corner lay the bone krawk mask, the spirit now gone, and Bremen’s sword, now sheathed. “What exactly happened? How long have I been asleep?” I asked groggily.

Bremen landed and sat down next to me, “You’ve been asleep for two and a half days now. The fiery spirit told me you saved my life. I guess I should really thank you. I have been using these past few days to learn how to fly. It’s really fun, and cool when I end up scaring someone.”

I shook my head to shake off some of my sleepiness, “I don’t doubt at all that you would do that.” I sighed to myself and asked rhetorically “Was I really asleep for two days? It feels like I’ve been sleeping that long.” I looked over at the mask on the ground, “Do you have any idea who that fire ghost was anyways, I couldn’t have saved you if it weren’t for him.”

“He gave me a really confusing answer when I asked him.” Bremen said, “He told me he was the Bremen of Fire… but I thought my full name was Bremen_of_Fire. Oh well, after talking with him a while he dissipated, part of the energy going into the mask and the rest flowing into me.” He paused for a moment and looked around, “Oh, I almost forgot, I want to show you something.” Bremen said as he jumped up and rushed to grab his sword and the mask, “Check this out.” He unsheathed the sword completely and it started to burn with green and blue fire, just like the markings on his wings and tail. “The fire Bremen said that this is actually the sword that he used in ancient times. Its flame reflects the condition of its owner. Back when I was really mean and didn’t understand friendship it blazed in blackfire. When I died once from Nazgul’s deadly bane poison attack Lonely said that the flames went out completely. I was really lucky on that day that Lonely happened to have been carrying one of Norvil’s special potions that would revive one that hadn’t been dead more than 30 minutes. Now since I have been infused with your energy the sword burns with this green and blue fire. Hey, that reminds me, the mask.” Bremen put the mask in his hand on his face. As swiftly as he had transformed into a draik he appeared as his old, krawk self. The sword in his hand changed to standard fire. “Cool, huh? I can change back and forth however much I want… Though it seems that Link wants us to head out right now.” I turned and saw Link coughing and kicking the ground as a not so subtle reminder that we had to be on our way. Realizing I was still in my Guardian form I transformed to shoyru and stood up.

“Okay, lets go.” I said as I made my way to the door. When I stepped outside it was dark and the moon looked like it would hit the tower within a few hours.

The clock tower above us struck its bell twelve times as fireworks started to fill the sky. The clock tower changed shape and became accessible to ascend, just as had happened last time. Bremen removed his krawk mask again and placed it on the sheathe of his sword, strangely it fit perfectly well and didn’t show any signs of budging, much less falling off. Bremen and I both grabbed link by the arm and flew up to the top of the clock tower where Majora was watching his work of making the moon of this odd world fall. Tael was there and gave us the same warning that he had told us the last time we were here, but this time without Bremen trying to get the ocarina back we heard him say something else that he hadn’t said before, “Swamp, Mountain, Ocean, Canyon, the four who are there, bring them here.”

“What are you talking about?” I yelled up at Tael.

Bremen answered my question immediately, “When you were asleep I walked into the inn and saw an old lady there. She thought I was her son, Tortus. She told me a story of four giants who were once protectors of this land. One day they decided to protect from afar and each went to his own area, one to the swamp to the south, one to the mountains to the north, one to the ocean to the west, and one to the canyon to the east. I think Tael is saying that the legend is true… but how can we call them.”

“We’ve no time” Tatl said, “Link, do you think you can play that strange song again?”

“It’s worth a try.” Link said. He brought out his ocarina and played the song that he had played the last time we were up here. Again we all fell into the strange place that this song created and I sensed us travel back in time without making an alternate timeline.

We appeared in the clock tower and saw the mask salesman. “Such an amazing thing has happened again,” He said, “I was about to pack up and leave this place but then suddenly I had three days left before my departure.”

“Link played a song that did that, isn’t that cool?” Bremen said as he looked around the back wall, apparently trying to find the organ. Link seemed a bit annoyed at Bremen’s comment.

“Yes, very… cool,” the salesman said, “Well I have no problem with getting more time so keep doing that as much as you like, as long as I get Majora’s mask back soon.

We exited the clock tower and left clock town for the first time. Heading south we eventually came to a swamp. The waters were purple in color and smelled terrible.

“The water would be dangerous to cross, we have to get over it some other way…” Link said. After thinking a minute he seemed to get an idea. He took out his Deku mask and put it on, transforming to Deku Link in the same manner as Bremen had become Krawk. In this form he ran up to the swamp’s edge and actually skipped on top of the water, never sinking in because of his wooden body. Bremen and I shrugged and followed by flight. We eventually got to a small house on top of a large tree. We passed it by but Bremen wanted to check it out personally. It was about an hour before we realized that he wasn’t with us, and by that time we had almost gotten to the Deku palace, where we were planning on inquiring about the giant.

“Hey! Bremen’s gone!” I said to Link.

“You probably best go back and get him, I’ll stick around here at the palace and see if I can get any information.” Deku link said as he hopped onto solid ground.

I doubled back and flew full speed toward the house, knowing that would be the most probable location for Bremen to go. When I arrived I stopped outside and listened. I could hear the sound of Bremen calmly talking with someone inside. The voice of the other person seemed very familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it exactly.

I stepped in to see Bremen sitting down and talking with none other than Koume! I immediately called out my Tazzalor’s cutlass and stepped back ready for battle.

“Hey, Jay!” Bremen said, noticing me, “This is Koume, she makes potions, just like Norvil.” He paused for a minute, “Why do you look so tense, is something wrong?”

“Please don’t be intimidated by my looks,” Koume said calmly, “I know I probably look frightening, but I am just a shopkeeper. I find it very peaceful out here in the swamp. My sister, Kotake, is out in the woods behind the swamp trying to get some ingredients.”

I lowered my sword and dissipated it. It was obvious that this wasn’t the same Koume that I had battled earlier. The reason I hadn’t recognized her voice completely was because it lacked the tone if ill will. “Sorry about that then.” I said, trying to act as casual as I possibly could to this nice version of Koume. I turned to Bremen and motioned that we had to be on our way. He jumped up and said goodbye before we left.

Upon arrival to the palace we saw Link waiting by the water patiently. He explained that the water here was usually perfectly clean but for some reason poison started to flow from a temple farther down in the swamp. He said that we should probably check it out.

We made our way to the location that Deku Link described and sat down upon a large pedestal of a log in front of an island. Link took out his ocarina and it transformed into the Deku pipes again. Playing a short series of notes on it, the entire area began to shake. The island in front of us slowly rose up out of the water to reveal that it was, in actuality, the Woodfall Temple. Bremen and I picked up Link and we made our way inside.

I will spare you the details of the journey inside the temple but I will tell about the events that occurred when we had finally made it to the innermost room. We entered into a large circular room with a ceiling so high that you almost couldn’t see it.

“Something’s coming…” I heard Bremen say as he unsheathed his sword and got ready for battle. Link and I did likewise as a large tribal figure holding a sword descended from the roof and started chanting as it charged toward us. Bremen jumped forward and deflected his attack as Link and I jumped to the side and prepared to counter attack. Bremen’s behavior was very peculiar. He started growling and attacked with fury, driving the figure back some. His mask detached from the sheathe of his sword and started to float in the air as fire energy radiated from the both of them. The energy doubled back to its source, half infusing with Bremen and half infusing with the mask. Under the mask again formed the fiery spirit that I had seen earlier. A much different thing was happening to the draik Bremen. The green and blue fire markings on him became standard fire and started to move and radiate, as if they were real fire. His dark skin darkened even further and became pitch black. His eyes started blazing like the spirit’s eyes had. Upon looking at the spirit I saw that he no longer had eyes as those but regular krawk eyes. Bremen’s sword grew in size until it became a claymore, flaming with standard fire so intensely that we could feel the heat from where we were standing.

“I was afraid this would happen…” The spirit said backing up and standing next to us as we watched Bremen exchange blow for blow with the huge monster.

“What… happened?” I asked hesitantly to the Bremen of Fire.

“He is filled with my battle spirit right now, making him as powerful a warrior as I once was. Unfortunately he wasn’t wearing my mask when he did so, if he had then there would be no problem.”

“Well what problem could there be?” Link asked, “If he is so strong then the creature that was attacking us doesn’t have a chance.”

“The problem is that I am here talking to you. Bremen has all of my battle spirit but none of my rational side. He will be in an uncontrollable battle fury until there is nothing left to destroy… including us.”

“Fire Haunt” I heard the raged Bremen say. Looking over I saw a blazing spirit of flames emerge from the ground and consume the monster. He chanted one last time and fell to the ground, a blue portal with a mask in it appearing in the center of the room. Ignoring this Bremen turned straight toward us and charged, growling the entire time.

“This… isn’t good, right?” Link said as he stood there, petrified in fear.

“You have to get my mask back on him, I can calm him from there.” The spirit said. With that he dissipated into the bone mask and clattered on the floor. I picked it up and stood my ground, ready to try my best to get it on him. Bremen stopped and looked at us. His eyes and sword were blazing more than ever.

“Fury of the Headless Horseman” He said, using one of the Bremen’s fire abilities again. It appeared to me that when the Bremen of Fire was alive one of his battle tactics was to intimidate his opponent with terrifying maneuvers. It was working with us, that was for sure. Two flaming jack-o-lanterns appeared in the air and flew at us. Link quickly ran to the blue portal, grabbed the mask, and disappeared, causing the attack to fail. I however hadn’t such an option so I jumped out of the way into the air. The attack followed me so I spread my wings and took flight out of panic, trying to get away. The jack-o-lantern exploded behind me, sending me into a wall and knocking the breath out of me as I flopped onto the ground. I felt I had only one chance to get this. I took the bone mask in my hand and threw it at Bremen with all my strength. It missed its target by a great amount.

A golden vortex opened up and a dark figure emerged, catching the mask. It disappeared and the mask seemed to fly around on it’s own accord. The mask then jumped locations to right above the impeding Bremen and was set on his face.

The Bremen of Fire apparently set right to work causing his battle spirit to become dormant. Bremen transformed into a krawk and soon after his sword went back to normal, gazing around with a look of confusion in his eyes. I searched around the room as got back on my feet to see Ninjay emerge from his invisibility.

“The Ellimist said you might want some help, you okay?” He said.

“Yeah. I’ll have to remind Bremen not to do that again though” I replied.

“I’ll let you continue on with what you were doing. I was in the middle of resigning from my job. Apparently after the RB Katana came to me I don’t have the brute strength to lift ships anymore, though I do have some neat new abilities. Goodbye.” He said as he drew his katana and opened another portal, disappearing into it.

I spent a bit of time telling Bremen what had happened before he assumed his draik form and we both flew to Deku Palace where we met Link.

“That’s it for here,” He said, “Apparently the four giants are imprisoned in the masks in each of the four temples. We released the one here so let’s head on to the mountains.”

We all left the swamp and walked with a steady pace toward the icy mountains in the north. Just as if nothing at all had happened Bremen was bouncing around and doing stunts the entire way. I couldn’t help but wonder to myself how one with as random a personality as his could have such a complex background. I really couldn’t wait to get all this over with so the Ellimist would tell us who exactly Bremen was.

We arrived in the mountains by evening. It was very cold about and Bremen and I were starting to get a bit tired. Link noticed our expressions and chucked a bit to himself.

“Don’t tell me on top of looking either like clowns or monsters your kind requires sleep every night.” He said with a grin.

I stared at him, “You’re telling me that Hylians don’t sleep?”

“Well, sleep is good… though it doesn’t hurt us too much to miss a few days of rest. I myself went weeks on end without sleeping when I was on that adventure you helped me with last time we met. Most people however sleep at night simply because it’s dark out. Besides, it does give you more energy, and some people are just too lazy to stay up.”

Link’s explanation of Hylian sleep patterns intrigued me, to think that he could use the 72 hours before the moon crashed to their fullest.

“There’s a cave right over there by the pond. If you want to you can rest for the night in there. I’ll explore the area and see if I cant get some information on the giant here. I’ll see you in the morning, just please don’t tell me that you have to sleep for more than eight hours. I can’t wait around for you to wake up so if you aren’t up by the crack of dawn don’t be surprised if a jar full of icy water is thrown on you.”

I laughed nervously at this, hoping that the sun would be alarm clock enough for me. Link then parted company with us and Bremen and I went to the cave to sleep for the night. Before going in Bremen saw the lake and suddenly got a huge grin on his face. Reaching back he grabbed his mask and put it on, assuming krawk form. He jumped into the icy lake and started to swim around at high speeds. He only got one lap around the lake before he jumped out onto the shore and started shivering.

“That water’s COLD!” he exclaimed, running to the cave to get out of the frigid mountain breeze. I had to feel a bit sorry for him. Icy water and below freezing temperatures don’t really mix.

I walked into the cave and sat in a corner. Bremen had taken off his mask and put it back on his sheathe. He sat a few feet away to my side drying himself off with his natural draik fire breath. The sun set completely and we both drifted off to sleep.

Hours passed into the night. A small scurrying sound on the floor awoke me. The cave was dimly lit by the light of a full moon, a moon which would crash down on us in only two days. The floor seemed devoid of anything but snow… that is until I noticed two little black eyes looking at me from one patch. Another set of eyes became visible, then another. Soon I could see that the floor was covered by dozens of white boes, little snow creatures that attacked in groups. All the eyes started at me, ready to pounce.

I heard a loud sneeze to my side and the entire cave filled with fire, melting all the snow on the ground. Many of the white boes melted from this blast but the ones that were still frozen escaped into the icy terrain outside. They didn’t come back to bother us. “Let me sleep just five more minutes” I heard Bremen say from the direction the attack had come from. He sneezed again, a bit softer this time, and small plume of fire escaped his mouth. I figured we wouldn’t have any more trouble; the white boes that had escaped would warm anything else not to come too close hopefully. I went to sleep again, dreaming of the events that had taken place today.

I woke up with a start. It was cold, very cold. No freezing cold, cold and wet. I shook the icy water off my face and looked up at Link, who was laughing at my reaction.

“I can’t say I didn’t warn you.” He said.

A little more than slightly annoyed I tried to dry myself off with shoyru fire, like I had seen Bremen do. The only thing I could think of was to use the shoyru inferno technique. The result wasn’t very good at all. I was lucky to have managed to get my arm out of the way before the fireball hit it. I looked down at the smoking crater at my feet, “Umm… I think I best not try that again. Oh well, I can handle the cold till I dry off.”

I exited the cave and saw Bremen walking around in the snow shivering slightly. He looked at me and said in a slightly congested voice, “Hey, I think I got a cold from that swim I had yesterday. I’ll be fine but just wanted to let you know.” He sniffled slightly then sneezed loudly, right in my direction. All I could see was a wall of fire approaching. For a second or two I was engulfed in this surge of fire. After it was over I was happily dry, though I did have a few small burns. “Oh, sorry about that, I’ll be careful to sneeze away next time.”

I was a little perturbed at this last happening but I simply called out a jade scorchstone to heal up and we followed Link to Snowhead Temple. Along the way we came to an area that had many cliffs and ramps. I was about to offer to carry Link to the other end of this stretch of road but he shook his head and took out a mask I hadn’t seen him use before. He put the mask on and transformed into a full sized Goron, towering over my small stature.

“Hey Bremen!” Goron Link called out, “Now you’re not the only one who can perform the goron roll.” With that he rolled up into a ball and sped toward one of the ramps, jumping it and keeping on going.

“Oh boy, that looks like fun!” Bremen said, seeming to get more of his usual energy back. He landed down on the ground and tried to roll, but his wings and mask got in the way and he ended up flopping flat on the snow. Pondering this for a moment Bremen grabbed his mask and put it on, immediately afterward rolling over the ramp in the same manner that link had. I shrugged to myself at this display and flew alongside them, ready to catch one of them if they fell. Neither of them did and we soon reached the temple.

The rest of the morning was spent exploring the temple and solving puzzles. Bremen’s sneezing actually came in very handy a good part of the time, though quite often it would cause us to have to go back and redo things. Eventually we made out way to the innermost room. It was dark inside, lit only by lanterns lining the walls. Embedded in one of the walls was a giant machine that resembled a bull with a man’s face. It sat there, trapped in a block of ice. Bremen walked over to it and looked at the raw size of the thing.

“Wow, I wonder how this thing got trapped. Perhaps it went swimming in an icy lake like I did and forgot to dry off.” Bremen said as he tapped the ice. He sniffled slightly and before Link or I could stop him he let out a tremendous sneeze. The flames from his breath penetrated the ice and the giant mechanical creature started to come to life, shaking off the rest of the ice. The bull charged, breaking through the thin wall in front of him and revealing this room to actually be a circuit, lined with torches. Bremen backed out of the way as quickly as he could. Link jumped immediately into action, donning his goron mask and rolling in pursuit of the bull. As he gained speed spikes emerged from his goron body, giving him more traction and making him a rolling weapon. Bremen followed suit by donning his krawk mask and rolling after them. Now more than ever Bremen’s ability seemed odd to me. The monster ran past the entrance again, followed immediately by Link and then a few yards behind by Bremen.

“Please try to slow him down” I heard one of them say. I couldn’t really tell which one because the rolling made their voices sound different. Slowly I walked out into the middle of the lane nervously waiting for a monstrous bull to come rampaging straight for me. The ground below me shook as the behemoth became visible in the darkness. I held out my hand as if giving a signal for the creature to stop. Being in shoyru form my hand appeared to be in Spock position. The monster came closer. Suddenly a flash of memory came to me. I saw the events of the morning that all this had started. It was strange to think so, but at that moment this mechanical beast looked no different to me than an irritated goat. Just before the creature hit me I jumped up into the air and grabbed it by the horns, turning them to the side, as I would do to try to knock a goat off balance. The creature didn’t fall immediately due to this but I had slowed it down enough that Goron Link was able to zoom up to it and knock it’s legs out from under it. I pinned its head face down to the ground and Link slowed from his roll. The monster tried to get up but I would not let it. Within a few seconds Bremen came rolling down the path. I expected him to stop when he saw us but instead he veered to the far wall, rolling up the semicircular corridor. He bounced off and hit the wall closest to us; hitting it in such a way that he flew high into the air practically touching the ceiling. He drew his sword and held it downward, falling without slow until he hit the monster, cutting it in two with this tremendous blow. Sparks flew everywhere and the deadly machine lost all power.

“Hey, I did good didn’t I?” Bremen said as a blue portal containing a mask opened between him and Link. Instinctively Link walked into the portal and grabbed the mask. Right before he disappeared Bremen jumped beside him and said, “I want to go too this time.” Before I could stop them they were both gone.

Calmly I made my way to the exit and went to the cave by the lake. It didn’t take long for the others to find me.

“Hey, Jay! I saw the giant, he talked really strange.” Bremen said, now a draik again. It sounded as if after that trip all signs of his cold were gone. I was extremely glad for this fact, though I decided not to show it, I wouldn’t want Bremen to mock a sneeze and scorch me. We all ate some lunch and descended from the mountain into Termina field.

“Lets go to the ocean next” Link said. Bremen jumped for joy and donned his krawk mask. It was obvious that he was anxious to swim somewhere other than a freezing lake.

“I think I’ll let you two handle this one.” I said.

“Why?” was the question I heard them asked simultaneously.

To be quite honest I hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before and wanted a bit more rest and some time to think to myself, but I wasn’t about to tell them that so I sufficed with a simple answer of, “I’m not really sure I could swim that well as a shoyru. I’d probably slow you down.

After a little bit of convincing the other two departed to the eastern beach and I found a nice tree to climb into and rest. Sleep came easily to me and I rested for the remainder of the afternoon.

Evening came and I was pretty well awake. As I was sitting in the tree guessing what the Ellimist would say about Bremen I thought I saw a small flash of red in the distance. Discarding it as nothing I continued on with my train of thought. After a while the figure of krawk Bremen walked up in the dark. I could tell easily that it was him because the light of the moon shone very brightly, as there was only one day left before impact. I jumped down and greeted him, but stopped in mid sentence. Something about him felt very wrong. It felt as if I was standing there facing a creature of pure darkness. Surely this couldn’t be Bremen… could it? I looked directly at him. Physically in every detail he looked like my friend, but his eyes were cold and sunken and he didn’t have Bremen’s classic grin.

“My master has been watching you Guardian.” This Bremen said, “You are starting to interfere with his plans and he has sent me, one of his most loyal warriors, to stop this problem in it’s tracks.” His tone was sinister, and in the darkness he looked as frightful as any krawk ever could. He wasn’t frightful in the same way that the Bremen of Fire’s battle spirit had been, that was a fright that peaked quickly and disappeared immediately after the battle was over. This was much slower, almost terrifying. It took me a few seconds to pull myself together and I backed up a few steps. I kept on reminding myself that I had faced much more terrifying enemies. The only reason this struck me so badly was that I was looking into the eyes of a friend and seeing pure, unrestrained evil. Bremen drew his sword, which immediately blazed in intense flames of blackfire, radiating shadows onto the ground around him. He charged.

“Snap out of it!” I yelled at Bremen as I dodged the strike, reminding myself immediately of the similar situation that had happened with DJ, now Ninjay. I called out a large metal shield and a jeweled scarab; I really didn’t want to hurt Bremen, even if he was trying to kill me. This skirmish went on for a good half an hour. Bremen was showing no signs of fatigue and I was running out of ideas.

“You are weaker than I expected. Why don’t you fight back” the figure questioned me snidely, “I’m tired of wasting my time. You see this sword I hold. It was a most gracious gift from my master.” He said backing off a bit and holding his sword up in front of him. That last statement confused me greatly, the sword he held looked in every aspect except for the fire like the sword he usually used. Even the sheathe was the same. “The blackfire that burns on it is what makes it so special. You see, if the fire is absorbed into my victim then it will take a life of it’s own, slowly burning him alive from the inside out. Truly it is most entertaining for me to watch enemies of my master slowly char to a crisp before my eyes. It is time that you provide me with some amusement.” He said as he pointed his sword toward me, saying in an eerie voice, “Blackfire Infection” black fire shot from the tip of his sword aimed directly at me. I stood there petrified, almost numbed by the statement I had just heard.

“Ember shield” I heard a familiar voice coming from the beach say. Just before the blackfire reached my body a crimson barrier of energy formed in front of me and completely dissipated the attack. Bremen and I both turned to look at the source of the voice. There I saw in the moonlight another krawk that looked like Bremen, except this one was grinning slightly and holding a sword blazing with flames of standard fire. Beside him ran a zora that was wearing a green tunic and had a faerie flying around it.

“Hey! What are you doing trying to attack my friend,” the real Bremen yelled out.

“You!” the blackfire Bremen said, “I never thought I would see you again.” His tone was furious.

Zora Link and Bremen ran up beside me. Link stared down at the dark Bremen and squinted his eyes. A field of electricity formed around his body and shot toward the imposter. Caught off guard by seeing himself the dark Bremen took the full weight of the blast, falling to one knee with his sword stuck in the ground. He looked up at us, hatred burning in his eyes. “You may have won this battle, but the next time you see me I will be fighting alongside my master, you wont have even a slight chance of defeating the both of us.” With that a dark red vortex opened up below him and he disappeared. I seriously didn’t like the color of that vortex; I remembered all too well the one that had control of them.

“Hey… You okay Jay” Link asked me as he took off his zora mask, transforming back to his true self. Bremen followed suit by removing his own krawk mask.

“I’m a bit shaken but I’m fine.” I replied, slowly gaining back my strength. I looked curiously over at Bremen, “Have you met that guy before?”

Bremen stood there and seemed to be trying to remember something, “I think so… once. I was out near Norvil’s place with Lonely and Exo when they were trapped as Lupes for a week. The other two I think were heading down to the small village at the base of the path when I saw myself over near a hill. Needless to say I had to go over there and say hello to myself when he attacked me and blindfolded me, stuffing me in a closet somewhere. All I remember after that were the sounds of a battle and someone letting me out of the closet. The guy that looked exactly like me was gone. I never saw him after that until now.” Bremen paused for a minute in his explanation, “He tried to kill you. Does that mean that he’s a bad guy? I don’t want to be a bad guy, you’re my friend.”

“You’re not a bad guy, Bremen.” I said sympathetically. I could tell that Bremen was really worried that the event that had just happened would make me not like him any more, “No, whoever that was is not really you.”

Link put a bit of a stopper in our conversation by blurting in, “Lets sleep for the night now. We have all day tomorrow and only one more giant to save. I might as well get some rest myself. I have a feeling that I’ll need it once we face Majora.”

Bremen thought that was a good idea and immediately quit worrying, bouncing over under the tree. It amazed me sometimes how impossible it seemed for any issue to make Bremen sad for more than five minutes or so. It was almost as if he was immune to stress. I silently wished that I could do that as I flew up to rest in the branches of the tree again. Link walked over and sat under a tree a ways away from us. Somehow he didn’t seem tired at all. Slowly I began to get tired again and fell asleep to the sound of Bremen’s snoring below me.

The second night went by peacefully, without any mysterious characters or white boes bothering us. I woke pretty early the next morning and jumped down from my tree, waking Bremen in the process. He rubbed his eyes and stood up calmly, looking around.

“Where’s Link?” He asked me.

I looked around a bit and noticed that indeed there was no sign of Link anywhere. I looked down at the ground and noticed a piece of paper. Picking it up I read the writing out loud, “Dear Jay and Bremen, when we were at the ocean I got some information on where my horse may have been taken to. I have left you two here to sleep while I go and get her. Thank you so much for helping me free the last three giants, but I would like to get the last one on my own. Please do not follow me; I will be back in time for the clock tower to open. If for some reason I need your help I will send Tatl to get you. I have left you with a few of the rupees that I have stashed. Have fun. Signed Link.” I looked down behind the tree that I had slept in and noticed a brown leather bag. Inside there was a large stash of red crystals, or rupees, the currency of Hyrule.

“Yay!” Bremen shouted out, “I want to play at the training center.” With this said he flipped into the air and took off towards the city. Without wasting time I jumped up and sped off after him.

We spent the entire day playing games in the city. Bremen and I particularly had fun at the training center. Basically what it consisted of was a small room with ten holes in the ground. After we had paid one of us would go out in the center of the room and logs of wood would come up out of those holes. We would then try to cut them in half with our swords. If we succeeded then the log would fall to the ground and mysteriously disappear. I asked the man there how it worked but he wouldn’t say a word about the mechanics of his dojo. After a while it started getting a bit late and he closed his shop. We still had a bit of time before Link would return so we went and played with the troupe of kids again. After we had found all the kids again we said goodbye and went to wait in front of the clock tower. Within about a half hour Link arrived grinning widely.

“I got the last one, everything is going to work out great now.” Link said to us. Almost as if on cue the clock tower started ringing out and it changed shape. Feeling in very light spirits we all ran to the top.

Everything went as it had the two times before. Right after Tael told us to call the four who are to the south, north, west, and east Link took out his ocarina and started playing a tune. The ground shook and everyone on the tower started looking around. From each of the four directions arose giant, long legged figures.  Slowly they approached Clock Town and started to try to slow the decent of the falling moon. Anticipation burned in everyone’s hearts, both those here on the tower and those watching the scene from the city below. Slowly the moon decreased speed until the strength of all the figures held it at a dead stop. Majora looked at us furiously and fell out from behind his mask, clattering on the ground.

“I have no use for this puppet anymore” The mask said. Tatl and Tael rushed to the body to the skull kid that had fallen. Slowly the skull kid sat up and looked around curiously. Without the mask on he looked harmless, almost benevolent even. Fury crackled in the air above us, the real Majora losing all temper. Bremen, Link, and I gathered side by side and faced the hovering mask, ready to destroy it. Tatl flew up and hovered beside Link saying that she would help too.

A loud voice rang out, “I…I shall consume. Consume… consume everything.” Without warning I felt myself being lifted up by the wind and hurled towards the moon above us. Everything around me disappeared and seemed to reform as I entered inside.

I found myself sitting in a field of grass. There was white all around and no sky. A small piece away I saw a lone child sitting under a tree. The other three were with me. Bremen for once seemed serious and battle ready, taking in all the information around him calmly. Link checked to make sure Tatl was still with him and started to walk toward the tree. Without a word Bremen and I followed. We arrived shortly at the tree and looked down at the kid sitting at the base of it. Slowly the kid got up, his face covered by Majora’s mask.

“Are you going to play with me?” he asked. Knowing nothing different we nodded. The kid disappeared and the world around us faded again, this time being replaced by a large, dimly lit multicolored room. Hovering in the middle of the room was Majora’s mask. Bremen started growling fiercely at the opponent and I reminded him that he should probably put his mask on, just to be on the safe side. He nodded and donned his mask, becoming a krawk. Link got out a bow and arrow and took aim, directly hitting the mask in the air. The mask seemed to come to life and started moving all around the room, shooting beams of fire at us. The three of us worked together to try to subdue the possessed object, Bremen and I distracting it while Link pummeled arrows into it. We went along in this manner for a long while before Bremen backed of slightly and started emitting fire energy, which immediately doubled back and filled him. The bones on his suit started flaming and his eyes faded away, being replaced by nothing but an intense fire. His sword again grew until it was a fiercely flaming claymore. Dashing forward he delivered a solid blow to the mask sending it spiraling to the ground. Immediately after this he turned and faced me, his eyes blazing.

“Don’t worry, Jay” Bremen said, “I am controlling my battle spirit so it won’t try to hurt you.”

That was a relief. I looked down at the mask on the ground and waited to see if we had really defeated it. The mask didn’t float back up but instead started to grow scrawny arms and legs and a tiny rectangular head. The new Majora got up off the ground and started running around the room quickly, delivering a hard hit to Link when he passed him. I started to chase him but was never actually got close enough to hit him. Link got up and started shooting more arrows. Majora’s Incarnation never slowed down, even after being hit by one or two arrows. It was at this point that the enigma of one of Bremen’s strangest abilities was finally answered. The hilt of Bremen's sword shifted to the middle of the blade, making what looked like a really sharp martial arts staff. He then rolled into a ball and started rolling around the room picking up speed, his sword pointing out from either side of him. I jumped out of the way as he targeted in on Majora.

“Flaming Spin” He shouted out. While Bremen rolling with his sword was already formidable to face, the next happening made me especially glad he was on my side. His entire body started to glow red and he sped up slightly. Within seconds the red glow lit up brightly and Bremen sped forward so fast I could barely see him. His appearance was like that of a flaming meteor with flashes of metal protruding from either side. Majora didn’t have a chance to outrun this maneuver and was sent flying against the wall. Assuming the battle to be over Bremen somehow calmed from his battle form and re-sheathed his sword.

“Yay!” Bremen exclaimed, “I beat him.” He jumped up and bounced over to Link, watching me to see if I would come over and celebrate too. Something didn’t seem right to me though, the form was still there stuck to the wall.

Slowly the form got off of the wall and turned to face Bremen and Link, who had not yet noticed the movement. The scrawny arms and legs started to pump up and seemed to become more powerful. Majora’s head grew and reformed until it was humanoid in shape but terrifying in appearance. He looked straight at the two celebrating figures and lashed out a long razor sharp whip. Wasting no time I switched to my Guardian form and called out my staff. Link and Bremen would have no time to react to this surprise attack. I ran forward and shouted out, “Time Manipulation!” My staff glowed and the attack Majora had just sent out started to go at a snails pace and I saw Link and Bremen start to turn around in super slow motion. I ran forward with all my speed and deflected the whip, quickly doubling back and started taking many swings at Majora with my staff. His movements were extremely slow and he had no time to react to my barrage of attacks. After about ten solid blows I jumped up into the air and pointed my staff down at the monstrous figure. “Bolt of Ages!” Everyone’s movements went back to normal and a bolt of green energy erupted from the tip of my staff, striking downward to Majora. When it hit him he froze completely, smaller bolts of blue striking from all sides. He unfroze just in time for gravity to take effect on me and I was sent downward, air kicking him into the wall again during my decent. This time he did not move. Majora slowly fell down off of the side of this room onto the floor. Gradually his body withered away until all that remained was an inanimate mask.

“Wow,” Bremen said, now fully turned around, “How did you move that fast? I could barely see your attacks.”

It puzzled me slightly as well. I had no idea that I had the capability to do that. All the time that I was attacking I felt like I was advancing more slowly in the timeline than I should have been. “I guess there are some things about this staff that we have yet to figure out.” I said.

Link walked over and picked up the mask, smiling widely. “Its all over, since we defeated the one that was calling the moon down it should start to go back into the sky now. Thank you.”

I smiled, but then a thought struck me; I had been all over this place but had not found the out of place thing that was causing such a mess with the Ellimist. As if an answer to my question I heard Bremen exclaim, “Wow, look at that thing! I wonder how it got here.”

I looked in the direction Bremen was facing and saw a little spot of pink on the ground. It squirmed a bit closer and looked up at us with its big eyes. Right below me was nothing other than a pink slorg. “You have got to be joking.” I said to the air. “I just went through three days of battle and this is what is causing such a mess?”

“I think so. Lets make it go back where it belongs.” Bremen said.

Dumbfoundedly I agreed and opened a small green vortex directed at Ninjay. “Umm… I think we found the problem here, you think you could come take care of it?”

“No problem,” I heard, “I’ll be there in just a second.” I closed the communications vortex and waited. Within a minute a golden vortex opened up beside me and Ninjay jumped out, seemingly tense and anticipant for a major battle. “Where’s it at, I'm ready for him.” Without saying a word I pointed down at the slorg on the ground, which was staring at us confusedly. Ninjay looked down and his jaw dropped, “That? Are you sure?” he looked at me in the eye to try to tell if I was joking.

“I know it’s odd but I guess this makes it a bit easier on us.” I said with a half smile.

“If you say so,” He said as he walked a bit closer to the petpet. “Umm… go back where you are supposed to be.” He said as he lightly tapped his Realitybreaker on the slorg’s head. The slorg glowed golden and disappeared. Almost immediately a blue vortex appeared in front of us.

“Good job.” The Ellimist’s voice said through the vortex, “It seems you have now finished there. Get Bremen and come on back, Ninjay can come too if he wants.”

Without a moment to lose krawk Bremen, bounded over and jumped into the vortex. “Do you want to come and meet everyone?” I asked Ninjay. He nodded and we said goodbye to Link. Ninjay sheathed his sword and flew into the vortex. I likewise reassumed my shoyru form and jumped in as well.

The path back to the garden seemed simple, I was starting to get used to this again. When I emerged I saw Ninjay introducing himself to everybody and Bremen just looking around idly.

“Are you ready for me to explain what happened to Bremen now?” The Ellimist said as he walked up, looking at us with his deep eyes.

“What do you mean what happened to him?” Lonely asked, “He looks the same as he always has.”

“Oh yeah!” Bremen exclaimed, “I forgot to show you. Check this out.” Bremen took off his mask and transformed into his green and blue fire draik self. As everyone in the room except for The Ellimist, Ninjay and I stepped back in shock he attached the mask to his sheathe.

“Is that really you?” Lonely asked him directly.

“What you see before you is what Bremen truly is. I could explain it to you all at once but I feel it would be better to show you.” The temple around us faded as the Ellimist started his explanation of Bremen’s past. Before us we saw a small village. Many draiks young and old roamed the streets as they moved from house to house. In one corner of the village there was a cave guarded by two strong looking sentries. “Thousands of years ago there was a tribe of Draiks which guarded the mask of Bremen, an ancient battle spirit which lay dormant. As guardians of the artifact this tribe was blessed with extreme longevity. The mask of Bremen was under constant surveillance of the townspeople and was kept next to the elder’s hut. Many times the people had to defend its town from invaders seeking to find the key to their longevity. Every time a new invasion party would form the elder of this town would go to the cave where the mask was kept and put it on. With the mask on he would assume the physical form of the Bremen of Fire, gaining a small portion of his strength. This would work for no one in the village except the elder and his family. The mask remained safe until just a few centuries ago when the elder went out for a walk…”

The scene before us changed again and we saw a stretch of field. A fire draik came into view. His appearance was like that of an older Bremen. As he was walking a shadow ixi emerged from the bushes and caught the attention of the draik.

“Hello Bremen.” She said. The draik walked over, a serious look in his eyes. “I can see that you sense my intentions already, I admire that to a degree.”

“Who are you? What do you want?” the Draik asked sternly.

The ixi scowled, “There isn’t any need to be brutish, if you do what I say then none of your people will be hurt. My name is Xeyu, master sorceress of the dark arts. You know perfectly well what I want. Give me the mask.”

The draik growled and drew his sword, “You too know perfectly well that I cannot do that. I have defeated greater threats than you. Go away and forget that you ever wanted out tribe’s treasure.”

Slowly the ixi backed away, hatred burning in her eyes. “Know this,” she said, “The decision you have just made has caused the death of the one you love the most.” With this Xeyu slinked away.

“That night Xeyu worked her witchcraft, casting a horrible curse on the elder’s young son, Bremen the third. Because of the curse a deadly parasite from another realm was called to attach to the young Bremen. The child’s cries of agony woke his parents. In an extremely slow and extremely painful process this creature was draining the life from Bremen. The elder was greatly grieved and could only think of one thing that might save his son. He ran to the cave and grabbed the mask that both is father and grandfather had died protecting and placed it on his son’s face. The child’s cries lessened as he took the form of a juvenile krawk. The spirit of the mask, though dormant, was protecting Bremen from the effects of the curse. The elder knew that this mask could never come off of his son and cast one of the few spells he knew to permanently attach the mask. Xeyu found out about this and was furious, vowing to destroy the entire village.”

The scene before us changed again. It was looked to be morning and the residents were just coming out of their cabins. The draiks near the elder’s hut seemed a bit more tense than the other townsfolk, who were oblivious that anything was wrong. Xeyu looked down at the village from a nearby cliff and scowled. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you fool,” she said as she looked over toward the rising sun. Over the horizon a shadow seemed to fall. After seconds it was apparent that an army was marching forward. It was made up of hundreds of various neopet zombies, eyes sunken in their head and not showing any thoughts other than desire to destroy the town. We saw the people of the village back off and dozens of draik warriors step forward, though greatly outnumbered. The elder was in the front lines. On the opposite side of the village we saw a small krawk crawl up to the river that ran near the town and jump in, swimming away.

“ Without the help of the mask the village fell, but somehow Bremen escaped into the Haunted Woods nearby. Over the centuries the elder’s son, drawn by the invisible force of his mask, discovered the resting place of the Bremen of Fire’s lost sword. About 500 years passed without much trouble until a few of the zombies that had attacked the village sensed his presence and rose again to complete their task and perhaps finally be able to rest in peace. Unguided, Bremen almost fell to his father’s murderer that day, but out of a stroke of luck Lonely happened to be passing through the woods to the desert. Taking pity on the krawk he saved him. Bremen, knowing nothing better thanked Lonely by making him his master and not letting anyone near him.”

“That was an interesting time.” Lonely commented, “It took a while for him to get over that.”

“True, but before he did you brought him to us. The essence of the temple saw the great history of this individual and awoke the spirit of the Bremen of Fire. The temple said that it had granted Bremen fire abilities, a halfway true statement. The rational side of Bremen was bogged down with trying to keep the curse dormant so whenever Bremen called him out into what everyone thought to be his ‘fire form’ he only received the Bremen’s battle spirit, making him a raging monster more or less. Just a little while ago when Bremen went to the Hyrule RP he heard the song of healing, which would return anyone to their true form and remove masks. It was another stroke of luck that the Guardian was with him at that time. With the Bremen’s help the Guardian was able to break the curse and revive him. Bremen appears before you with green and blue fire because the Guardian used his own energy to replace that which was lost.” The Ellimist paused for a moment to let all that information soak in, “Have you any questions to ask?”

Norvil stepped up and in his usual inquisitive tone asked, “Does that mean that Bremen is over 500 years old, how is that possible?”

The Ellimist smiled knowingly, “Actually he will be 527 years old this coming May. As I said before Bremen’s tribe was gifted with extreme longevity, making Bremen actually close to the same age Lonely is right now. There are no more that remain from his tribe, Bremen is the last…”

Malee had a question of his own, “Why didn’t he tell us before? Didn’t he know that he was originally a Draik?”

The Ellimist let out a slight laugh, “It’s strange, Malee, that you would be the one to ask this. Can you tell me through all your exposure to the lab ray what species you were when you were born?”

Malee backed off slightly, looking to the side, “I… I don’t know... As far back as I can remember I had been using the lab. I know I was a flotsam for a long time when I was taking a short break from it. Was I a flotsam?”

The Ellimist sadly shook his head, “You see how hard it is to remember. Five centuries of life wears down a bit on memory of the past, just the same as overexposure to the lab. I could tell you what you were, but I think I’ll let you find that out on your own.”

Malee seemed a bit disappointed from this answer. I felt a bit sorry for him, not only had the lab caused him to be given conflicting forces within himself but it had also stolen away his past. Malee slowly walked to the corner of this large room, dropping onto the ground and closing his eyes. Somehow at this point he looked very much like a warrior. Perhaps it was because of the battle scar that was clearly visible on his face as he rested.

After a slight pause the Ellimist looked at the rest of us, “Anyone else have a question?”

Bremen raised his hand, “Who was the bad me that tried to kill Jay?”

“Ah yes. He is you from the alternate Neopia, a world full of darkness and grief. In that place Lonely never took that stroll through the woods, but you instead devoted yourself to the dark cleric, Nazgul As a token of your servitude you gave him the Bremen’s sword. A bit of time passed and Nazgul found another blade to use that he liked better called the Muramasa. He gave the sword back and you graciously accepted it, considering it an extreme gift. In that place you were re-named Scatha, which means ‘the witherer’”

After this explanation was done everyone rested for a bit. Ninjay had quite a time talking with Lonely, though he seemed somewhat intimidated by seeing another neopet aside from me. He asked quite a few questions about what Neopia was like. I decided to let everyone get to know each other better; there was no real need for me to take anyone with me on my next trip. I silently walked over away from everyone and changed to my guardian form. Holding out my hand and creating a vortex directed toward the Middle Earth RP, my next destination. Making no time to change back to shoyru I jumped in.