Chapter XXXIV: Arrival of Opposites -Lich

The day was moving on, and the sun grew higher in the sky. Storm clouds had gathered, but were fortunately moving away from a lone orange lizard-like figure, naked save a pair of thongs, a PLT, zinc cream and a belt, clutching a gunk-covered fishing rod in one hand and the other wrapped around the Boomerang of Light in its belt. Lich walked through the fallen forest, sweat weaving its way through his spikes and down his back. Some trees had managed to survive the onslaught of whatever had torn the forest down, and provided brief moments of shade as Lich passed under them; brief moments of relief from the heat, but not enough to spare him from the sun's ever present stare.
It must have been for an hour walking along the twisting trail, which darted between tree stumps, before Lich crested a hill and looked down upon another forest. He gazed at a small lake located centrally in it, and then his eyes followed a narrow line of trees, generally different from the rest in the forest winding away from the lake, and recognised it to be a stream. He decided that a swim would do him a world of good, and opted for the stream, as he would be out in the open at the small lake, and easily spotted by anything overhead and around it. He then followed the trail as it zigzagged down, off what appeared to be a plateau, then continued into the other forest. The trees nearly blotted out the sky entirely, and instantly he felt cooler, but still hot after walking through the sun.

Eventually, the trail forded the small stream. Lich removed his thongs, and held them in his hand as he walked through, his feet comfortable on the sandy bottom, the water, at its deepest, reaching only up to his thighs. He looked downstream and saw that it turned, conveniently becoming out of sight from anyone at the ford. After crossing, Lich turned and weaved his way through the tightly packed trees, staying parallel to the stream for some time, until there was a small, sandy shore. It was at a steep angle, alerting him to deep water. Lich looked back upstream, and was unable to see the ford. With that in mind, he unclasped the PLT from around his neck, and unstrapped his belt. He placed them on the shore and entered the cool water. Noticing he still held Ark's rod, he stared into the distance for a moment, and it disappeared from his hand as he placed it in Mana storage. He was unable to touch the bottom only a metre from the bank, so he leaned back and floated lazily. The current was sluggishly slow, so he was in no danger of being swept downstream in a hurry. Only his face and bulbous nose, as well as the claws on his feet were above the water.
Lich shut his eyes as he relaxed in the cool water. In his childhood, on a hot summer's day, he and Ark would swim in the stream, outside of Kippo; just them. It was their own, private swimming hole. The other children in Kippo, all human, were somewhat fearful and discriminatory of them as Yoshies were not common in Kippo, and it was off the tourist route. Their area was tabooed by the human children, mainly by childish ideas such as the place being filled with germs that only humans could catch, but they couldn't. There, the two of them could be themselves, without fear or reprimand from the other children. Lich remembered the swimming hole, and smiled as happy memories filled his head.

A snap of a twig brought his memories to a sudden end as he opened his eyes and saw a silver haired, yet young woman standing by the shore, dressed in green with brown leather pants and boots. Lich instinctively reached to his side to grab the Boomerang, but found nothing but his skin, and remembered it sat on the shore, practically beneath the woman's feet. The woman was now staring at him with her purple eyes, but her gaze did not appear to be threatening. Lich decided that the woman was probably friendly, so he tried communication.
"Glugl," he said in his throat, Yoshian for "Hello."
The woman cocked her head.
He tried Pandoran: "Parano!", and still the woman looked confused. He then ran through some of the languages he knew how to say hello in.
"Matango? Puupu? Krakat? Grrite? Takaranibo?"
The woman looked even more confused. Lich then tried the language from the Mushroom Kingdom on Yamauchi, identical to English on Earth.
"Hello?"
Suddenly the confusion changed to surprise. "Hello," she said.
The woman appeared to be shy. Lich was reasonably shy himself. He started to swim over to the shore where he left his belongings, and stood when he could finally reach the bottom. He looked at her, and saw that she had a quiver and a bow slung over her back, and a belt with a sheathed sword and a few pouches made from a soft leather dangling from it. A bulge in one of her boots alerted him to something there, possibly a dagger. The woman was a near trademark resident of a forest.
"Do you live here?" Lich asked.
The woman nodded, but Lich noticed some doubt in her eyes. She then opened her mouth and asked, "What are you?"
"A Yoshi," Lich replied, obviously used to the question, and smiled as he said: "A talking, upright, tongue-slinging lizard too proud to call himself one."
The woman also smiled at Lich's remark as he walked up onto the bank, then was taken aback by Lich's apparent nudity. Lich knew what her alarm was about, and said: "Many Yoshies are like this."
"I thought you would have..." she started.
"Retractable under my tail." Lich said quickly, ending the subject markedly. He then reached down and picked up the PLT, and clasped it around his neck.
"Do you have a name?" she asked.
Lich nodded. "Dyluck Thanatos Yoshi von Kippo, though everyone calls me Lich for short. And you?" he said, offering his hand.
"Artemis Evangelina, though the creatures of the forest call me Yatina," Artemis introduced herself, and accepted his hand shake. Some symbols are known all over the universe.
"Can you talk to animals?" Lich asked, surprised.
"Yes. I am the guardian of the creatures in this forest. But I cannot understand all those words you spoke. Do you know many languages?"
"Yes. Yoshian, Pandoran, Koopan, Moogle, Yamamushroom and Manamushroom are my specialties."
"These names sound foreign to me...talking mushrooms?"
"Yes, where I live."
"Where is that?"
"I live on the planet Yamauchi, though I was born on the planet Fa'Diel, also known as the Manaworld. I was dragged onto this planet through a portal."
"So you're not from here either. The entire forest, the animals, and myself were also dragged here, by a man with evil intentions."
"Ah. Sir Pseudo Havering. He brought me here too, he told me, so that two people can ask me 'why?' But all I want to do is go home. I told my friends that if I was not back in three months, I was to be presumed dead."
Lich slipped into his thongs and started to put on his belt, the Pokéballs attracting her attention.
"What are they for?" she said, pointing to them.
"Pokéballs. Inside each is a special animal, called a Pokémon. They help me, and can also fight."
"May I see them?" Artemis asked.
"Certainly..." Lich started, then stopped, sensing something. The Mana in the area was being dragged away, and was clumping some distance downstream.

"The Mana is shifting..." Lich said, going deep into concentration. "It is a reasonably large force, and..."
Lich felt three smaller blobs of accumulated Mana shoot out from the larger clump and head upstream. Although he did not know the spell, he knew its signature.
"Fireballs!" Lich yelled. It was a spell of Salamando, the Fire Elemental, and the fireballs were like homing missiles, never missing their mark, and were hurtling towards them rapidly. They could hear the fizzle as they approached. The three fireballs sped around a bend downstream, and were racing towards the two of them. Lich grabbed Artemis by the arm and pulled her into the water.
"Get under!" he yelled, and the two of them dived. The water turned orange-yellow around them as the fireballs impacted the surface of the water. The water grew warm for a moment as bubbles reached down and surrounded them, then returned to the surface. After the third hit, Lich took Artemis to the surface.
"What did you do that for?" she yelled.
"Do you want to be roasted?" Lich yelled in return. "Let's get out of here!"
Lich dived under the water, and Artemis followed. They swam underwater to the shore and surfaced by the bank. They half ran up onto the shore, then Lich felt the large clump of Mana directly behind them, stopped, and turned around.
Before them, floating above the water, was a demon. It seemed to be a half mixture of skeleton and ghost, although not transparent. It had no legs, but in its place was something like a tattered navy blue sheet covered with stars and moon crescents. Above that was its torso. It wore a pinky-purple cloak, extending the full length of its bony arms.
Hanging from around its neck was a green stole, with what appeared to be gory and terrifying scenes etched in gold. Its body was a ribcage, and inside it was a very dark blue-grey heart, beating, and filling the rest of the ribcage was darkness. Atop its bony neck was a skull with a pointy chin, and a large plume of green hair extending from the back of it. On its forehead were horns, and where they met was a red jewel. And between mouth and horns were red eyes, flashing with anger.
"You! Yoshi! How dare you take my name!" it yelled, its voice echoing and re-echoing.
Lich's eyes filled with fear as he recognised the being, and started quaking. Here, floating above the water before his eyes, was his feared namesake. This being had resided in the body of Thanatos, at the time of the Resurrection of the Mana Fortress, 200 years before now, and on the Fortress stole the body of Dyluck, the hero of Kippo Village, after breaking down barriers of despised defence, directed at this very being, The Dark Lich.

Across oceans and in a realm with an eternal night, Sir Pseudo Havering stared into his crystal ball and scried on the ongoing scene between Lich Yoshi and his namesake.
"Why do you take my name? Speak, lizard!" he saw The Dark Lich yell.
Good, Havering thought, he's fulfilled the first person asking 'Why?'. I'm glad I brought him here, the lizard will have fun. And what's this? The woman of the forest too? This shall be interesting...

Artemis, too, was afraid of Dark. Although she did not know who he was, she yelled: "Be gone, foul creature!"
"Quiet, forest woman!" Dark yelled at her, his red eyes flashing. Suddenly, Artemis was lifted a metre off the ground as grey balls of energy spun around her. She then disappeared, relocated to another place.
"Do not worry, she is safe for now. As for you, speak!"
Lich had only one reason why he was named Dyluck Thanatos. His parents had no idea of Manaworld history, and just picked those two names from a list of influential figures of the Resurrection. And as for Lich, it was his nickname, granted to him by the other children because of having the name of Thanatos in the town whos hero was Dyluck.
"Because...I am," Lich murmured.
Dark roared, and from the jewel on his forehead, discharged an energy beam towards him, too fast for Lich to react by dodging or reaching for the Boomerang and spinning at near-light speed, creating a shield. Lich was hit, and slowly, starting from his feet, his skin and his belongings started to harden, all changing colour to grey, all turning into stone. His thongs, his Pokéballs, even the Boomerang. A look of shock filled Lich's face as his head greyed and hardened.
The Dark Lich bellowed a laugh, echoing and re-echoing across the surrounding landscape, satisfied with this victory. And laughing too, far, far away, was Sir Pseudo Havering.