Spheres of Influence

[Umbrasquall]

A little history: Once upon a time there was a section of the DVs forums called the Adventurer's Hall... It was where bored people gathered to write and role-play in silly stories for fun. When I joined, the forum was not very active. I decided to jot down a random idea and see if anyone would be interested in sketching out a more serious thread. Soon, 1, then 2 and then 4 people were involved. With Spheres of Influence and other stories, we managed to preserve the life of the Adventurer's Hall for close to another two years.

EDIT (8/02/05): Since Adventuer's Hall will be deleted, I have moved some of the more important posts like character bios, etc. from the two other threads.

There IS magic and magic users. They are born with the innate talent. One specializes in specific types etc. the usual.

My character Squall can use Sword-based magic. (Elements don't have to be limited to standard fire, water, etc. Be creative!)

-----

Well, this is a brief discription of my character.

Name::Tidus Forenter
Class::Warrior
Race:: Human
Skills:
-Swordsmanship
-Survival(able to live off the land)
-slight healing abilities
-adept at water magic
-staff melee(combat with a staff)
Weapon(s) of choice:
-Longsword
-uninchanted staff
-water magic
Background:
Tidus was born in a peasant family who lived in a small cabin off in the backwoods.He has never had many possesions to call his own and is unselfish by nature.He was homeschooled by his mother and was taught the ways of melee by his father.He recently turned 17.
Apearence:
He has black hair and blue eyes, and has a relatively well built structure.He carries a longsword upon his back.

Name::Cloud Vanguard
Class::Heavy Swordsman
Race:: Human
Skills:
-Swordsmanship
-Adept at fire magic and abilities
-High Strength

Weapon(s) of choice:
-Heavy Black Steel Sword
-Fire Magic
Background:
Cloud was born into a poor family in the lowest shell, his parents died while he was young and he has lived at an orphanage since the age of 10. He is a loner by nature and has little tolerance for the ignorance of others towards him and the lower shell classes.

Apearence:
He has blonde hair, blue eyes, he wears a thick black cloak with silver buckles and straps on it. He also wears large boots and he usually carries his black sword over his shoulder while he walks.

Forgot to do this myself.

Name: Squall Evergreen

Class: Sword-skill Adept

Race: Mostly human, some trace of elven ancestry

Apperance: Spiked black hair with a tint of red. Usually dresses in a simple brown tunic for quick movement. Wears his father's weapon on his back as it is a hinderance to carry it in front. The distingushing feature is his eyes. Due to genetic mixing, Squall sports a green left eye and a hazel right. Most people upon this as a sign of blessing.

Skills:
Blade Adept: Able to use many forms of swords
Bow Adept: Hunting from a early age as well as natural talent passed down from his elven ansestors allow Squall to use bow and arrow with precision.
Signiture skill: Elemental Blade: Able to harness elemental powers from the physical manifestations of. Example, can charge sword with fire energy for a short period if his sword comes into contact with fire.

Weapon(s) of Choice:
Father's Sword (Engraved hilt with plain scabbard, the sword itself is the length of a normal long sword, it is however a bit wider than normal), Squall holds it in high regard

Background:
Born and raised in a small village outside of Lancaster on the 4th shell, Squall was raised as a soldier by his father, especially after he recognized his son as having special qualities with sword play. When he was young he was curious about everything nature had to present, he examined everything from how the flames from campfires fluttered to how the water smoothly moved in the creeks. He was tested as positive for magical abilities during a trip to Lancaster when he was 10, and had secretly trained since then in the backwoods of his small village. Now that he has turned 17, Squall returns for a second time to Lancaster to begin a new life.

Name::Etherans

age:: 120 (about in his twenties for an elf)

Class::Driud

Race:: Drow/lychan

Skills:
-druidic magics
-adept with bow
-dark vision
-tiger abilities in hybrid form
-a crapload of other technical stuff cause this is a d&d character

Weapon(s) of choice:
-scyth
-Mighty composite longbow
-water magic

Apearence:
6' 11"
280lbs
really really built
green eyes
white fur with black stripes
and dark skin while in humanoid form

EDITS: Changed the position of his weapon holsters, adjusted his race and added an R in his last name.(It just sounds better)

Name: Raifer Var'Jargedas

Class: Theif

Race: Lelakon

Apperance: Shoulder length white hair, bright green eyes, a long black coat with the left arm of it missing, crimson vest, black pants, Anatis daggers holstered in holders at the base of his back, two large belts with pouches and storage packs attatched.

Skills:
Thievery: Able to steal many kinds of items.
Nimble: Unnaturally fast reflexes.
Dagger Skills: Extremely adept with daggers, he uses them with great speed to inflict large amounts of damage.

Signiture skill: Inanimate re-animation
This skill gives Raifer the ability to reactivate broken machinery, or bring inanimate objects to life and have them fight along side him, and attack his opponents.

Weapon(s) of Choice:
Magic: He is well skilled in magical Pyrotechnics, used as diversionary tactics. Also has an in-depth knowledge of other magics.
Daggers: A pair of daggers, handed down his tribe from generation to generation. They once belonged to Anatis, the greatest theif to have ever lived. These powerful daggers are supposed to bring luck to their user. He inherited these daggers as he is believed to be the direct descendant of Anatis.

Items: Raifer carries several pouches full of useful and precious items that he has stolen from monsters and merchants.

Background:
Born and raised in the nomadic village of the Lelakon tribe, who are classified as a group of theives by the higher shells. Moving from shell-to-shell, Raifer was raised as a theif by his carer, after he was shown to have incredibly fast, cat-like movements. When he was very young, he tried to learn everything he could about the flora and fauna of the shells he visited, meanwhile becoming more skilled in the ways of theivery. He was found to have magical abilities during a visit to the 2nd shell when during a confrontation with a merchant, he destroyed his stall. After that, he was trained to use the Anatis Daggers, also to use his pyrotechnic magic as a diversion.

Name: Akia Lovelace

http://img40.exs.cx/img40/6475/Akia.jpg

Class: Theif

Race: Lelakon

Apperance: Tall, petite physique, light brown hair, bright green eyes, white thigh high stockings(thief style), a satchel slung over her right shoulder. tank top, short shorts, large dagger holstered to her right arm, several pouches strapped to her arms and legs.

Skills:
Thievery: Able to steal many kinds of items.
Nimble: Very fast reflexes.
Distract: Turns enemy attention from her allies toward her.

Signiture skill: Time Warp
This gives Akia the ability to slow down time for a small while, rendering enemies effectively defenceless. Allowing her to execute extremely fast and devastating attacks on opponents.

Weapon(s) of Choice:
Dagger: A large dagger she uses with surprising speed. This type of dagger is one of the kinds used in Lelakon theivery training.

Magic: Akia specialises in status magicks. Using magic she can inflict ailments on her enemies. Examples are effects such as paralysing or poisoning her foes.

Items: In several pouches, Akia carries gold and semi-precious items collected during her thievery training.

Background:
Born and raised in the nomadic village of the Lelakon tribe, who are classified as a group of theives by the higher shells. Having lived mostly on the 6th shell, she is being trained as a theif by her carers. She has been friends with Raifer since she was very young. She came to the 4th shell for her theiving test, which determines wether or not she is fit to become a full fledged Lelakon theif.

-----

I have noticed several inconsistencies which take away at the integrity of the story. I feel like there should be some clarifications. Currently I only have a note about the currency system in the world of SoI. (I realized we already messed up the system a few times, but from now on it'll be helpful to follow this guide.)

There are different types of money. Through out the shells including the 4th (current) coins are used. However, several unique forms of money appear on the lower worlds.

Here are types of coins, paired with an object in order to compare the value.
Stone - (Rarely used, old fashioned and outdated type, 1/10 of a copper)
Copper - (Most widely used currency, 3 coppers will buy a small loaf of fresh, seasoned bread (good quality bread), 1-2 will get you a beer at a bar)
Bronze - (Higher value then copper, 5 bronze will nab a medium quality dagger)
Silver - (2 silvers will get you a good room in an inn, 3 will get a decent weapon such as a sword)
Gold - (1 gold is enough to buy a horse, enough said)
Platinum - (Extremely rare, worth 15 gold)

There's not much inflation here heh? Anyone else have a consistency guide to add?

-----

Yea I know 1k already. :P

If you guys think of some guides to add feel free.

Two more things.

The first is an initiative system. Like when we want the next person to expand on some subject with a clue. To make it clear change the color of the text that includes the clue.

[quote]So did you have ‘fun’?’ Tidus smiled wider than ever now.

‘Shut up you. She wasn’t my type.’ Squall grinned back. ‘So what have you guys been up to?

Second we need to decide what the landscape of the other shells are. So far I'm planning to make the 5th shell almost all covered by an ocean. I can't think of a good name for the shell however, so far it's Oceania but that sounds stupid. For the 6th shell that's Raifer's homeland. Lomebririon if you want to tell us what it's like that'll be great.

The first shell - Celestial
Second - Undecided
Third - Ditto
Fourth - Woodlands
Fifth - Oceania
Sixth - No-man's Land
Seventh - Hell (unofficial)

***

EDIT (5/23/04): Well this story has actually lasted quite a quite and is going strong. Thanks to all participating!

1. Read the plotline/proposal thread for character bios.

2. Change of policy, this story is NO LONGER OPEN. No more new players will be accepted. However if you really wish to join, pm me and I'll consider it.

3. The plot/characters/etc. belong to me and the other players. Though the names of several of the characters resemble that of Final Fantasy, they are entirely separate from their Square counterparts.

***

Ok I don't know if you guys have started anything yet since I haven't been here in a while. It does look like there is a lack of real role-playing in this forum so I'll try to give it a boost.

Oh and sorry if this doesn't seem too refined I'm making this up as I go.

The Setting:

The planet Equivalean is divided into 7 land shells, stacked upon each other and each one rotating independent of the others around the planet's core. Despite the name, the peoples of the lands are not equal in welfare. Over the ages the peoples of the upper shells have shunned the lesser privileged ones in the lower shells, calling them the 'barbarians of below' and sometimes even refering to the 7th core shell as 'hell', though not entirely without justification, the constant temperatures of the last and closest shell due to its immediate vicinity to the core has plagued the lands with deserts and unstable volcanos.

After First Great War, the Council of the Sages was formed to keep peace among the lands, and the peoples of the planet eventually settled down in their respective shells with reluctance, as decreed by the council.

Transport and communications between the shells exists through a single, magical light shaft built by the ancients, this shaft is currently also under the control of the Council of Sages.

The Conflict:

Every one thousand years the plates complete one rotation, and for every one thousand years, there is 24 hours when the light from the stars shines directly onto the core as the shells align themselves. During this 24 hours, the hibernating powers of the core are released. This enourmous amount of power, if harnessed, can bring an age of prosperity, or an age of darkness, to the peoples of every shell for the next millenium...


EDIT: Wow I'm such a noob at this
---------------------------------------

[Umbrasquall]

The Story
-------------------
Alkiah stumbled into the dusty library, almost knocking over a large pile of books in front of the entrance. Coughing, he started to brush the dust off his robes, though he was soon distracted. Looking up in amazement his jaw dropped.

There must be centuries upon centuries of historical accAounts here! Books lined the two wall shelves, each of which were at least six-seven stories tall, and dusty scrolls of knowledge were piled in every corner of the room.

Alkiah moved among the pieces with increasing excitement. He had never seen so much of what he loved in one place! Being a scholar who had loved reading since he was just a small child, he'd graduated with high honors from the Lancasters College, the most widely revered school of the Fourth Shell.

Now Alkiah was among his element. He grabbed the first thick volume of information he saw, and plopped down on top of some scrolls against the east wall. And, with the brilliant morning sunlight streaming through the somewhat dirty windows, he settled down for a read, and he did not look up for a long time.

[Umbrasquall]

The Recorded Events of My Life, by Squall Evergreen (lol my character)

The Year 999 of the Third Age of Prosperity
The Woodland (4th shell)

“Squall!”
I murmured sleepily, still deep in my dreams.
“Squall! Wake up! You’re late for the entrance exams!”
What? What exams? Oh ****! The exams are today!

Squall jumped up from his bed and frantically looked around for his clothes. It was a good thing he had prepared the night before. Quickly scrambling into his clothes, and slinging his aged short sword over his back, he pulled open his drawer in such a hurry that it practically flew out of the dresser. Oops, will have to fix that later. He peered into the empty space and reached into the hole which the drawer had vacated and fished out a small leather pouch. Securely attaching it to the inside of his shirt, he sprinted into the kitchen.

“Now Squall, here’s your lunch” said a women standing at the stove, she tossed him a deer skin pouch. “Remember to be careful!”
“Thanks mom!” Squall said while looking around, “where’s dad?’
“I’m right here.” A middle aged man wearing a tunic stepped into the room carrying a sheathed sword and belt. Still powerful looking, there was only a trace of gray among the rich black hair.
“Squall” He spoke in a powerful voice “I guess it’s time for me to give this to you’ he handed the sword and the belt to the boy. ‘This was my old weapon when I was in the city guard, heh, can’t say it saw much action though. Besides a few practice fights that is.’ The man chuckled a bit more ‘But you don’t have to worry, its still very sharp, and it will protect you if you need it’

Squall accepted the sword, he had been expecting it, but still, feeling the weight of the weapon in his hands is still completely different. He unclipped his own worn practice blade from his back and replaced it with the new one, hefting his shoulders to check the fit, it was perfect. ‘Thanks Dad” he whispered.

“Sure son, take good care of it ok? Oh, and you better start off before you miss the registration”

“Oh right, bye mom! Bye Dad!” With that Squall opened the front door and stepped over the threshold into the sun.

The fresh air quickly wakened him from his stupor of receiving the new weapon and reminded him the tests he had up coming. It was standard for anyone wishing to become a guardian, that is, a member of the city guard protecting the region, to take the entrance exams at the age of 17. Squall had hit that age a week ago. Growing up in the woodland village of Deer Pines, he became familiar with nature as a small child. He was skilled in hunting. And he knew enough to survive and even live a good life in the forestlands around Lancaster. But it was not enough for him, he wanted to be something bigger, which eventually lead him to make the decision to become a guardian and live in the city, and maybe move on to better things. He’s dad was a soldier in the army of Lancaster for the earlier part of his life and took his sons ambitions seriously. Since the age of 8, whenever the he had free time, he would take his son to the forest clearing, and the two would train with the sword. Squall remembered, when at his 11th birthday he was given his first real sword. Smiling at those fond memories and also at the housewives of his village, starting their daily journey to the creek to wash garments, he continued on his way.

It took him a little less then an hour to reach the city gates. From there he entered Lancaster for the second time in his life. Immediately after he’d passed the walls, the sounds of birds and the wind vanished, replaced by the chatter of hundreds of merchants, bargaining their prices, and equally numerous shoppers, haggling with the sellers.

Squall took his time, the trip had not taken as long as he had thought, so he had around 20 minutes before the registration began. Slowly wandering towards the center of the city, he satisfied his curiosity of the city by stopping now and then at street stands selling a variety of trinkets, books, and food. At last he bought a large piece of seasoned fresh bread from the bakery for 3 coppers, carefully replacing his money pouch to his inner pocket afterwards. He hadn’t had breakfast, after all.

A while later, still chewing on the last bit of bread he arrived at his destination. The military academy was a fairly large building at the center of the city, it was made out of solid stone, and had several imposing columns of granite in the front. Squall could see that a few people had already lined up for registration. Strange though, he thought. There seems to be only a few other people there, I thought testing were supposed to accommodate a lot more people?

Shaking the thought away, he walked up the stairs in front of the building and joined the band of young people by the main doors.

Sorry for the spelling mistakes. Anyways if anyone wants to join in now would be the time. The other testers can all be roleplayed.

[ffx-dreamz]

The Recorded Events of My Life, by Tidus Forenter

The Year 999 of the Third Age of Prosperity
The Woodland (4th shell)

It was early morning, about 6:00am when I had woken up.
I decided to get off to an early start so I wouldn't be late for my Entrance Exams.I got dressed, ate a brief breakfast of oatmeal and milk, left a note on the table telling my parents I had left, and went on my way.

There was a slight breeze blowing, and the feel of the cool air brushing across my face was wonderful.I walked for two hours enjoying nature, until I came across the city gates.What a view it was!I had never been to the city before.

I entered lancaster and stopped by a few merchant shops admiring the wonderful items they were selling.I then headed towards the military academy.It was fairly easy to find considering its size so I got there with no trouble.

When I got there it was quite a spectacular sight!I walked through the giant doors and walked towards the short line of people ahead of me.I looked around me and noticed a person chewing on a piece of bread approaching the line...

(sorry my story telling is so bad, but im normally not to good at this kind of stuff. :P )

[Umbrasquall]

No problem mate, I'm new at this too. :)
--------------------------
As Squall reached the top of the stairs he looked up to take in the stone structure in front of him. It seem to reach up and touch the wisps of clouds in the blue sky. Beautiful, he thought.

He looked down towards the huddle of people waiting at the main entrance, he noticed a teenager about his age looking towards him. Deciding to start his new life by making a friend, Squall walked up to the him.

'Hi, my name is Squall Evergreen, I guess you are here for the exam?'
--------------------------

'Master Ronin, Masteress Eriss is here.'
'Let her in'

A tall women dressed in flowing purple robes entered the chamber as the messenger opened the oaken doors.

'Master Ronin' The woman addressed in a cool tone. ‘They have arrived.’

‘You mean the testers?’ The man answered, and stood up swiftly. He was dressed in equally dark, purple robes. He had a silver five-pointed star pinned to his chest, symbolizing his rank within the Council of Sages.

‘Yes, they are outside of the building waiting for registration as we speak.’

‘I assume they are still not aware of new examination procedures?’

‘No I don’t think so, however I don’t think they will be too surprised, you know it is a delicate time for the Council as well as inter-shell relations, councilor.’

‘Good then’ Master Ronin said ‘Eriss will you please greet them and tell them about the proceedings.’

Then with a pause he added ‘I have a feeling that this group is a special one…’

[ffx-dreamz]

"Yes"I replied.I then proceded to tell my new found friend my name.

Soon after A woman in purple robes came to greet us all.
"Welcome to the exams everyone!"She said.
She then proceded with roll calling.
"Im glad to see that you all made it here on time.A rather small group if I do say so myself."

"Well, we are changing things up this year, so I need to go over the new procedures with you all."

(I'll let you take it from here squall, not sure what to type)

[Aphius]

The Recorded Events of My Life, by Cloud Vanguard

The Year 999 of the Third Age of Prosperity
Hell (7th shell)

The trip upwards from the lower shell to the 4th where the examination of Guardian candidates was held was a long and tedious one. A man in his teens was riding the shaft upwards to take part in the entrance exams. His hair blew slightly as the people near him looked at him as if he were about to mug them or something.

"What?" he asked them in a raspy voice, over the large collar of his thick heat resistant cloak. They all looked away from him as he shifted his heavy black steel sword over his shoulder.

"Hmph" He muttered as they reached Shell 4. Upon exiting the shaft onto the platform he looked up and was greeted by the bright light that shone down from the sky, filled with wisps of cloud.

"Its too bright here..." he thought to himself as he walked towards the enormous stone structure that lay in the distance. Looking around as he walked, he saw a plethora of small stands with curiously dressed merchants selling things he knew he would have absolutely no need for.

He continued on past the stalls selling foods he thought smelled vaguely enticing. Putting his stomach aside for now he wandered towards the entrance of the Military academy drawing stares from merchants and customers alike.

When he reached the top of the stone steps past several columns of granite, he saw several applicants greet a woman in a dress coloured in a curiously dark shade of purple. He watched other students talk amongst themselves, as answered his name as it was called on the roll.
__________________________________________________ __

I hope this is ok, this RP sounds pretty good. :P

[Lomebririon]

Hey, nobody move the story past the roll call yet, I want to play too. But I can't introduce myself right now.

[Umbrasquall]

[Sure we can stall for a bit you’re welcome to take the position of any of the testers you’d like. Next time could you post non-story related messages in the other thread? Thanks, I want to keep this one story only.]
[ffx, sorry I'm going to extend the conversation that you recorded a bit and introduce a new problem to buy some time, hope you don't mind]

A tall woman with deep purple robes had stepped out of the main entrance to the building, the purple symbolized her occupation in the Council, Squall knew however, that nowadays it was judged as a display more of royalty and wealth rather then its original intent of honest integrity. She had shoulder length blond hair and dark blue eyes that seem to match the robes. Behind her followed a young man dressed in white, a messenger, Squall conjectured. Most of the chatter died away as woman stepped up to stand at the head of the group. Though Squall noticed that two testers kept in deep conversation.

While the woman spoke Squall realized that she was rather pretty, and more surprisingly quite young, for a Council Member that is. They usually don't inaugurate Councilors until they are well past middle age. Hmm weird, but then again Squall threw this thought aside, its just one of the few new experiences that he has already had.

It was the woman's voice that jolted him back to reality. With a clear-cut, commanding tone, and a subtle hint of the power she vested she addressed the group:

‘I am Eriss, Council organizer for exams and induction into the royal guard. Welcome to the exams everyone! Or I hope you are all here for the examinations to become part of the dedicated guardians of Lancaster?’

There was a general nodding of heads and murmur of assent.

‘Good then! Well let’s get this started. Let me check who’s here and then we’ll step inside after I get Koren here to collect your entrance fee of 2 gold pieces.’

As she talked Squall looked around at the other testers, one particularly caught his eye. He was dressed in a thick midnight black cloak, clasped at the front with a silver buckle. Blond hair rose from the collar of the tester in spikes. What really surprised him was the enormous, also black sword, slung over his shoulder. ‘Black metal?’ Squall thought to himself… ‘Why, you can only forge that kind of sword down on the 7th shell…’
The mysterious cloaked young man did not seem to pay much attention to Eriss’s words, but passed the time by gazing around at each of the other testers. Squall met his eye for an instant before the other looked away…

‘What!? An entrance fee?’ Squall looked back at Eriss at these words. Almost instinctively his hand reached towards his money pouch by his left breast. His life savings… He had worked practically 14 years of his life for the small pile of coins he had in his pouch. There wasn’t much opportunity to make money to say the truth, running errands for neighbors at an early age, and helping with physical work in the village later on were his general source of extra income. The one big gain had been when he was 15 years old. He’d won a hunting contest that had awarded him with the largest single amount of money in his life… an entire gold piece. Squall shook the meager pouch now through his tunic. 5 gold 5 silvers, and 8 coppers he had, now this lady wanted 2 of the gold. Thinking a bit, he’s resolve came back, he nodded his head. Yes, it didn’t matter now, there would be much more money to be earned later on.

He took out two gold, and, feeling their familiar weight one last time, he deposited it to the young man in white as his name was called.

Turning back, he judged the expressions on his fellow testers. Some of them didn’t look two surprised, and by the way they were dressed, Squall did not think they would have as much trouble surrendering the money as he did. However, a few, Squall saw, were in the same position he was, silently debating with themselves about the surprising turn of events. One in fact, looked desperate.

'Well,' Eriss continued 'We are changing things up this year, so I need to go over the new procedures with you all.'

[ffx-dreamz]

"I..I can't afford that!" I yelled.
"I only have 1 gold 5 coppers and a silver"said I.
This did not seem fair to me at the time, I had worked throughout my life to get what I had and it wasn't even enough to pay the entrance fee.
All my life I had been looking forward to this moment..the moment I got to excel in my life, and money, of all things, kept me from it...
I thought to myself what I was going to do, but there was no solution..I might have to go home...

[Umbrasquall]

Originally posted by ffx-dreamz
\"I..I can't afford that!\" I yelled.

I walked over to Tidus at these words.

'There's no reason why someone else shouldn't get the same chance everyone deserves.' I dropped my voice, 'It's stupid how they are now asking for 'entrance fees', just another plan to get richer I think'

Tidus looked broken, I could fathom how hopeless he must feel. To reach this stage of this dreams and be turned back. I had to help him.

'Don't worry man,' I pulled out another gold coin from my quickly lightening pouch. 'Here, I'll cover for you.' I smiled and handed the coin to him. 'Don't forget, you owe me!'

[ffx-dreamz]

I was taken aback at the kindness my new friend showed me.It was a wonderful feeling to know that someone was there to help me.
"Th..thank you!"I exclaimed.
I smiled and he smiled back.
I suddenly realized that this person, my friend, was alot like me.

Eriss went through the procedures with us.
"You are to go into the lobby and have your id checked, then you will head towards Master Ronin's office on the lefthand side of the room, you will fill out the papers and then procede back to the lobby until further notified.I hope we all understand."

From there she began roll call.
Then Eriss called my name.
I took the gold coin out of my pouch and the one in my hand and reluctanly gave Koren the coins..

I then went back over to Squall and thanked him once again.
I noticed a person with spiky blonde hair and a black metal sword waiting for his name to be called.He looked like an interesting person, and I wanted to make as many friends as possible, so I made a mental note to go and meet him after he was called up.

(im starting way to many sentences with I..)

[ffx-dreamz]

In the meantime, me and squall proceded into the building.It was spectacular!The cealings were at least 30 feet high, and there were four giant chandeleirs(sp?) hung in a straight line providing the main source of lighting.All around were decorative lamps and there was a main desk in the center of the room.

Squall and I approached the main desk, where an older lady in green robes asked us for our id cards.I gave mine to her and she looked over it carefully.She then gave it back, and told me to head to the door on the left side of the building.Squall followed suit.

(anyone who wants to join in still can, but you must do it soon.)

[Aphius]

Looking around at the announcement that there was to be an entrace fee, Cloud saw that some students were taken aback whilst others he noticed, didn't even flinch at the mention of this. One of the guys he saw earlier seemed to be in a bit of trouble concerning his entrance fee or lack therof. However the other guy he had seen talking to him earlier gave him the required amount of money that allowed him to go and enroll in the academy.

Taking his sword off his shoulder, he reached into his coat and pulled out a small dark pouch fashioned out of dragon skin with a tooth hanging from it. Looking inside he rummaged through clumps of ash and dirt to find two dirtied gold coins.

Hearing his name called he walked over to the two representatives and stopped in front of them.

"A shame" He said as he dumped the coins and all the ash and dirt he could find in his pouch into Korens hand. He nodded his head at them as he walked past laughing quietly to himself. The sound of Korens grumbling and the ruffle of robes being fluttered behind him almost justified the two coin fee.

Entering the main hall he was surprised at how extravagant his surroundings were.

With extremely high ceilings and a row of chandeliers in the middle of the room, he was admiring his surroundings as he walked towards the desk in the centre of the hall surrounded by decorative lamps.

An older woman in green robes greeted him and proceeded to ask him for his ID card. Handing it to her she examined it closely. After taking down something in a book on the counter she handed it back to him and told him to proceed through the door on the left of the hall.

[Lomebririon]

The Recorded Events of My Life, by Raifer Var'Jagedas

The Year 999 of the Third Age of Prosperity
No-mans Land (6th Shell) *Let me know if this shell has a name*

Stepping out of the Shaft at the entrance to the 4th shell, a man in his teens squinted as his eyes adjusted to the sunlight. "Wow!"the youth said loudly to himself in a bright, happy voice. "They said it was bright here, but I had no idea it was like this!" He smiled as he stepped onto the soft grass and was bathed in the warm glow of the sun. The crowd of people who were riding the elevator with him pushed their way out past him rather inconsiderately and made their way to the market down the road.

"So inconsiderate!" He huffed. "Oh well, I have the last laugh!"

He laughed quietly to himself as he produced a large pile of trinkets and coins taken from the people in the elevator. "Not much of a haul, but it might be enough for a nice sandwich." He walked toward the marketplace with a spring in his step, his pouches and daggers swinging carelessly. He moved around like a small child experiencing everything for the first time.

He was mesmirised by all the colours, shapes and noises that surrounded him. He stopped at a food stall and used the small items he had aquired to purchase himself a large sandwich. He was making his way to the large registration building when something caught his eye. He turned and stared at a stall that was full of colourful hats. A large, beautiful Mages hat grabbed his atention.

He stared left. Then he stared right. He raised his hand towards a small spot in the road and focused. A large explosion of smoke and sparks rang out. He smiled as he was enveloped in smoke. There were cries of fear and frustration from the crowd. "It's just pyrotechnic magic!" someone called out. When the smoke cleared, no one was hurt, however, the youth and the mages hat were nowhere to be found.

Raifer ran up the steps of the large building laughing. He peered under his mages hat and looked at the building. "Where is everyone?" He wondered. Realization struck him like a fireball to the back of the head. "Oh Heck! I'm late!" He raced up the large flight of stairs as fast as he could. He ran through the large doors into the giant entrance hall and toward the registry desk.

"Am I too late?" He said to the woman in green robes at the desk between panting and puffing.

"You're in luck, you just made it." She said.

"Woohoo!" He chirped. She took his name down, and checked his ID card. She told him of the entrance fee and he gave her the coins frivolously.

He adjusted his new hat and walked over towards the other applicants while unwrapping his sandwich.

[ffx-dreamz]

(switching from 1st person to 3rd person perspective)

Tidus walked through the door on the left along with squall, behind them came the guy with the black metal sword.They all were told to line up single file, and wait your turn to enter the oaken doors.Tidus walked through first, he was not suprised by what he saw, it was a small, grey room with many plaques hanging on the wall with a solitary desk in the middle.Behind the desk stood a member of the Council of sages.He wore purple robes and had a 5 point star pinned to his chest.

"Sit down"he said.
Tidus sat down in a chair in front of the desk.
"You are Tidus, am I correct?"he asked.
"Y..yes sir"Tidus stammered.
"Good, I am glad you came"he said.
"My name is Master Ronin."Said the sage.
He then proceded to stand up and asked Tidus do the same.
They shook hands.
"I need you to fill out these enrollment papers, and I will then send you back outside where you are to wait until further notice."
"Ok sir"said Tidus
Tidus was handed a pen and the papers.
He filled them out, shook hands once again and proceded outside.
Then squall entered the office.
(Everyone can still join, because everyone has to go through the office to.Wow, I can add to the story and stall.)

[Aphius]

As Cloud watched Tidus exit the office and Squall enter, he noticed a bright looking guy wearing a large mages hat come running in the door at top speeds. Cloud recognised the hat he was wearing from one of the stalls outside in the market place.

As he skidded to a halt near the group of people waiting, he spilled some of the contents of a rather large sandwich he was holding onto Cloud's boot. Looking at the stuff on his boot, then at the guy who was holding the sandwich Cloud noticed he still had a price tag attached to the back of his hat.

"Woo! Just made it!" exclaimed the newcomer between gasps.

Scraping the stuff off his boot with his sword and then wiping it into the shag of a rather large rug that covered most of the floor, he started to eye the guy who just came in. He looked a bit more cheery and light than everyone else here who seemed rather nervous and anxious about this whole thing.

Then he laid eyes on that sandwich that he was holding and his stomach started to grumble and gurgle. Remembering how hungry the trip here had made him, he tried to occupy his mind with other things and wait for his turn to enter the office.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Well it can’t be that hard Squall thought Tidus was only in there for about a minute.

Squall stepped into the small room, passing Tidus by the doors. Looking around the room, he saw several plaques hanging on the walls. The room was lit only by the sunlight pouring in from the large windows facing the east.

A round desk sat in the center of the room and a purple robed, late middle-aged man sat behind it.

Squall read the stone plate sitting upright on the man’s desk.
‘Master Ronin, Head of the Council Department of Safety, Lancaster’

‘Squall Evergreen?’ The man addressed him.

‘Yea that’s me.’

‘You’re the sword elementalist aren’t you?’

‘Wha?’ Squall looked shocked. ‘How did you know about my alignment?’

The man chuckled, ‘Well is not everyday you see a sword elementalist. When you came to the city 7 years ago you drew quite a bit of attention, whether you knew of it or not.’

Really... No wonder father was eager to leave the city after the alignment check. Squall remembered the surprised look on the young apprentice’s face as he brought in his master to confirm Squall’s alignment.

‘Well Squall, here’ Ronin handed him some papers. ‘You just have to fill out these last pieces of documentation before you start the testing.’ Ronin lean back in his chair. ‘I think you will like the new exams Squall.’

Squall quickly filled out all the papers. Liability release forms and all the good stuff he had been prepared to see. Finally something he had expected.

As Squall stepped out he heard Eriss say: 'Cloud, your turn' The tester with the large black sword walked in, looking disgruntled about something. Squall noticed a change in the atmosphere in the hall. The apprehensiveness that had filled the air before now all but disappeared. Squall noticed a newcomer in the midst. He had curious white hair and a red vest complete with a coat with one sleeve missing. At the bottom of the vest, an assortment of objects and pouches were attached.
He reminds me of what my dad once told me, what was it? Oh yea, a pirate
On top of his head was a funny looking mage’s hat that completely clashed with the rest of his attire. To make it even more tacky, a price tag was still dangling from the edge of it.

Munching on a sandwich. The cheerful young man was engaged in conversation with Tidus. Who was apparently laughing at a remark of some kind. Squall walked towards them and almost tripped himself when he noticed a large stain on the rug. That wasn’t there before…

Cloud stepped out of the doors to the office and started towards them, warily looking at the new tester in the funny hat.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

The four testers had made acquaintance. Raifer was a very charismatic guy, Squall observed. Tidus was already good friends with him and even Cloud’s seemly natural closed countenance opened up a bit after a while. Cloud told about his growing up in the seventh shell. Squall was fascinated with Cloud’s sword, and asked him a few questions concerning it.

‘Ahem’
Eriss had stepped up to the group.
‘I see that you four have already made friends. This is good, as the new tests require an extended amount of teamwork to pass. What do you think? Do you guys want to be in a group for this test?’

Squall nodded his head, sure why not? Tidus seemed to be ok with it. Raifer was still cheerful, gladly accepting the situation. Cloud shrugged.

‘Alright then. Follow me you four, I’ll explain the details as we go.’

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Eriss continued: ‘This year the testing procedures have been changed from a partially written exam. Now testing will be completely physical experience and survival.’ She paused. ‘However this does not mean that knowledge will not be useful.

‘The reasonable quick speed that you four have made acquaintance suggests that you guys will have a good chance of passing this exam. Teamwork is of the most importance.’

‘The exam will take place in the forest of Terrace. You will be teleported to the far edge of the Lancaster region and are to make your way through the forest to the village of Bran. Once there, a council appointee will greet you and help you back here.’

‘Terrace?’ Squall wondered out loud. ‘I know those woods! I been there many times when I was young. Those woods don’t contain anything dangerous.’

‘Times are changing Squall’ Eriss replied ‘Trust me, you will have plenty hard time getting through the exam.’

They had arrived in large room decorated with purple light waves. The waves were swirling about in different patterns. A halo of light streamed from the ground at the center of the floor.

‘If you have no more questions. That portal will take you to the starting point. I wish you good luck.’

[ffx-dreamz]

Squall

A flash of light and they were there. Squall faintly remembered the location they were at. Just on the edge of Lancaster kingdom.

The forest of Terrace loomed before them, the shadows of the trees hiding its inner regions. Squall gazed at the group.

"Well, lets get this over with."
-----------------------
Tidus
"I say we stick close at all times, do not stray from the group."said Tidus.
"We are all in unfimilar territory but Squall."
"I hope you can lead us through here, can you squall?"asked Cloud.
"Yes, I know where we are, but I sense an unwelcoming feeling of hostility so be on the lookout."said Squall.
"We are not alone, I can sense it to" said Tidus.
"Everyone keep your weapons at hand, we don't want to not be prepared when attacked"said Raifer.
Cloud took his black metal sword out of his sheathe, and everyone followed suit.

[ffx-dreamz]

Squall
Squall stepped silently among the fallen leaves. He had expected to feel at home here, deep in the folds of the leaves, his home environment surrounding him.

However, something felt… off. No matter how hard he tried, he could not make himself comfortable, something that always came naturally to him when among the trees.

Looking up at the canopy. He judged a ray of light that penetrated through to him.

‘It’s almost noon!’ Squall relaxed a little, smiling. ‘Anyone feel like lunch?’
-------------------
Tidus
Tidus was glad that Squall broke the silence.
They all let off there guard and sat down to eat.
Luckily they all had brought lunches from home.
They sat down at that spot and got their lunches out of their packs.

It was a beautiful place, with birds singing, and tall evergreens spread all about.It was sunny in the spot they chose to eat at, and at the time nothing seemed hostile at all.

But then, the birds stopped chirping.
And all was quiet.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

A rustling sounded through the leaves and broke the silence. Squall silently stood up. The others followed suit.

A crack of someone breaking a branch made everyone jump. Holding up his sword, Squall crept towards the treeline at the edge of the clearing.

Then all havoc broke loose.

Thundering through the trees came 3 monsters. With a great deal of noise and moderate speed they charged the group.

The creatures seemed to be covered in dried tree branchs and caked with mud. Not thinking, Squall sidestepped the first one and thrust out his sword to the right.

A clean cut.

There was almost no resistance at all as the sword slid effortlessly through the monster, seperating the top from bottom. Squall twisted turned around with a look of satisfaction, which soon turned into one of confusion.

The monster was still standing. As Squall continued staring, the cut leaked some water, then sealed itself, as the mud dried again.

Made completely out of branches and mud huh?

We might have a problem...

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Still a bit disoriented as to what these new creatures are, Squall turned to the other members of the party to see how they were faring.

A mudman had taken a liking to Cloud, who, wielding his gigantic black sword was swiftly cutting away at his opponent. However, Squall could sense his frustration as the creature continued to advance, shrugging off all physical attacks to its body.

Tidus was dealing with the other mudman. He was doing no better, and as Squall watched. Raifer silently sneaked up behind the mudman while it was distracted with Tidus and dealt it a spectacular blow in the neck with a sharp dagger. However, as the old head rolled away towards the trees, the creature simply grew a new one, and, fresh mud dripping from its latest head, continued it’s assault.

This examination took only two seconds, and Squall barely turned back to his mudman in time to block a powerful blow aimed at his skull with his sword. This was no good, the party is being forced to fight on the defensive, and they probably won’t last long at this rate.

Then something occurred to him. Back in Lancaster this morning… Cloud was telling him about the black sword… and he mentioned something about his magical alignment…

Squall glanced back at the severed head of the mudman… dried mud and wood…

It clicked.

‘Cloud!!!’ Squall tried to get the attention of Cloud over the sounds of crashes of battle. ‘Cloud! They are flammable!’ Cloud seemed to be in a trance however, deeply involved in his personal battle with his mudman, and didn’t meet Squall’s eyes.

‘Oomph!!!’ The mudman had dealt Squall a blow to the face which took him off his feet. Squall flew backwards into a tree.

Those ****** are strong.
He thought as he tried to shake away the stars in his head. He hoped Cloud got the message.

[Aphius]

Cloud, hearing what Squall had said decided it was time to end this. He rushed the mudman and pinned it to a tree with his sword. Seeing the touble the party was having he quickly stepped into the middle of the space where everyone was fighting and proceeded to summon a massive swirl of flame.

"Hrraaah!" Cloud shouted as his feet lifted slightly off the ground and he was engulfed by flame. A massive blast of heat and fire knocked everyone to the ground as everything in the immediate area was flamed.

Touching back down as if it was no big deal, Cloud looked around and saw that all the trees around him were burnt and everone was shaking off bits of ash and monster.

Walking over to the motionless dried mudman pinned to the tree he wrenched his sword out of its chest shattering it.

"Shall we continue?" Cloud asked everyone calmly.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Squall had just shaken the stars away and was standing back up when he was knocked down again by a huge wave of fire.

'Arrrrrgh!!!' He shouted, as he was pushed onto his back again.

When he could see, he groaned and stood up to examine the damage. The mud-things where all fried to crisps. Unfortunately everyone was sporting burns on their bodies. Everyone but Cloud, that is.

'Shall we continue?'
He slung his black sword, the color of the new surroundings, back on his back and stood there calmly while everyone got back their sights and other senses. Tidus's hair was smoking.

'Uh... very nice.' Squall shook some ash out of his own hair. 'But didn't you... overdo it a little?' He looked around at the blackened trees, still issuing smoke from the blast. As if on que, a large tree branch crashed to the ground from above, cinders smoldering.

'Heheh, but that was a nice bit of magic.' Squall turned back towards the center of the clearing, where several small but conspicous black lumps were still on fire. Conspicious at least, because it had been their lunches.

'Well no problem, we can find something else to eat. Tidus we can help recognize some wild berries that are edible or something.' Squall looked back at the group smiling again.

Cloud scratched his head.

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
Tidus's hair was still smoking.
"Thanks alot Cloud..."Said Tidus.
"Ehh..sorry about that Tidus.."said cloud.
"Well, at least you saved us, so I can't be too mad.Thanks..."Tidus said.

They all left the burnt area of land and found some berry bushes shortly after.
"Well, me and squall will go take a look at those, you guys can go sit down and rest for a bit"said Tidus.
"Look at these, they look like lotenberries.Those taste great!"said squall.
Tidus looked down to examine the yellow berries squall pointed out.
"Im afraid not, look at them closer, they got a small red dot on the bottom of them,they are definately not lotenberries,and won't taste near as good, but they are edible.They are Yortlotberries,we should gather as many as possible"Tidus said.
The two of them gathered a lot up and put them in their leather pouches.
They then went and informed Cloud and Raifer which berries to gather up.
Then they all sat down and ate.
"Yuk!"exclaimed Raifer.
"Yes, I agree that don't taste great, but in the long run they are a lot more healthy thaqn any other berry in the forest.So eat up everyone."Tidus said.
"Well this is just great.."said Raifer.
Tidus and Squall gathered

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

Raifer thought to himself "These berries suck." He then remembered he still had half of his large sandwich. After their quick meal of berries, they sat for a while to rest.

While pondering what has been happening, a thought crossed his mind.

"I'll be back in a minute!" he told them. Before anyone else could get a word in, he shot off back in the direction of their battle.

The group sat for a good ten minutes before Raifer came bursting in, slightly dirt covered and looking happy.

"Hey guys!" He called to them. He held his hand up and showed them what he had found, a couple of small, blue crystals.

"Check it out!" he chirped.

"What are they?" Cloud asked.

"I pulled these from our mud men back there. In my trade, these are referred to as Animation Crystals." Turning to face the group he said "Meaning those monsters were artificial." He placed the Crystals in a pouch on his belt. "These crystals are nifty little things, they explode when thrown." They're also pretty valuable. "Definitely going to come in handy."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slow down with the posts guys! Especially Squall and ffx-dreams. The story isn't going to be as good if you're rushing though it. :?

I can hardly get a post in without another one cropping up! I have to rush in fear of someone going over my head

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Everyone was a bit excited still from the battle, and starving too. Having found a clearing that was still green, the berries disappeared quickly, despite their unappealing taste. Still a bit hungry but satiated for now, the group talked amongst themselves.

After a while Raifer stood up and said. "I'll be back in a minute!" and ran off.

‘That was a really powerful spell.’ Squall said to Cloud. ‘It must drain you a lot.’

[Aphius]

"No not really" said Cloud. "In the 7th shell its hot all the time and you become accustomed to heat, fire and fire energy. So after a while, if you work on it you can use immense fire spells with little effort"

"Really? Cool" said Squall.

As Cloud ate another berry he looked around and thought about how different this place looked from where he grew up. There weren't trees like these in the 7th shell, the trees there were spindly and thin canopied.

"You wouldn't get food like this from trees in my home" He pulled something out of his pocket and showed it to them.

"See this?" he asked.

In his hand he held a pear shaped object the size of his fist. It was all covered in small rounded protruding spikes and had a texture that reminded them of stone.

"You brought a rock with you?" Sarcastically asked Tidus.

Cloud laughed quietly. "Mo"

"Mo?" asked Squall.

"Yes. This is a Mo fruit" answered Cloud.

"Why haven't you eaten IT insted of these God awful berries?" asked Squall between forced chews.

"I'll show you why..." said Cloud getting up. He walked over to the middle of the charred clearing and sat the fruit on a rock, then he backed up several metres and put his sword down. "Fire Bomb!" Cloud shouted. As the two looked on they saw a huge fire ball fly from Clouds hands and slam into the fruit. A wave of dust flew outwards, and when the dust and ash had settled they saw the fruit was gone and all that was left was a charred rock.

"Great..." sighed Tidus. "He just blew up the only decent looking piece of fruit we had..."

"Ha ha ha!" Cloud laughed.

"Whats that sound?" asked Squall as the group started to hear something that sounded like the noise a bomb makes when its falling. "Take cover!" Shouted Squall as they dived out of the way just before something crashed like a meteor where they were.

After the dirt settled Cloud walked up to the crater where the object hit, and pulled out the Mo fruit totally intact.

"THAT is why you cant eat it..... You need some serious tools to eat this thing, however the pulp inside is extremely nutritious and tasty. Also being as rare as it is the inside sells for at least 30 gold coins..."

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
"Wow, 30 coins!"Exclaimed Tidus.
"That is enough to buy almsot anything you want."He said.
"Yes, but there is no use in trying to open it now."Said Cloud.
"Wait, what about water?Could that be used to open it?"asked Tidus.
"I don't know, but what does it matter, we don't have any around here."answered Cloud.
"Oh yes we do!"said Tidus.

Tidus placed the fruit in the side of a tree,(an owl's nest) and told everyone to stand back.Next he took his hands and pointed them straight at the fruit.Suddenly a rush of water came shooting out of his hands.When it was all over the tree was drenched.Everyone went over to check the fruit.They all gasp in amazement at what had happened.The fruit had cracked open.

"Wow, I had never thought of using water, and apparently hardly anyone else did either, water is scare down on the 7th shell."said Cloud.
"Cloud, your rich now!I hope you enjoy it."said Tidus.
"No, I do not wish to be rich, I just wish to have something good to eat."Said Cloud.
Cloud divided the fruit among the others, who among other things, enjoyed the best meal they had in ages.

"Well, we best be going now, my guess is we have about 4 hours to go, and if we want to be there before dark we need to hurry."Said Squall.

The group hastily left and started heading towards their destination.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

The fruit tasted unlike anything Squall had eaten before. An indescribable medley of rich tastes filled his mouth as he bit into the plup. His piece was quickly gone, as it was no bigger then the size of one of the Yortlotberries. But his stomach felt filled.

Incredible how something that nourishing can grow down in the sweltering dry heat of the 7th shell. Squall reaffirmed his previous notion to visit the seventh shell sometime himself, a thought that he had originally developed when first talking to Cloud.

The group continued on their journey through the woods of Terrace, the sweet tastes of Cloud's fruit still in their mouths. They mainly kept their voices low and their guards up. The encounter with the mudmen had convinced Squall that the forest was indeed very much different then when he had last visited it two years ago.

As he pondered on a possibility of a source of monsters in Terrace, the sky began to darken.

‘What?’ Cloud looked up to the sky. ‘Is it that late already?’

Looking up too Squall replied: ‘No, sundown doesn’t come for quite a while yet. It’s a shell eclipse, I think that’s the continent of Britannia of the second shell passing over us. It’ll be there for a hour or two, it’s quite a large landmass.’

‘Oh.’ Cloud examined the rocky underside of Britannia that was now directly over them. ‘Shell eclipses don’t usually make that much of a difference in lighting down in the seventh.’

Moving in darkness now the group became more alert as the birds, fooled by the eclipse, fell into silence.

Squall turned his mind back to his thoughts. Something occurred to him.

‘Raifer, you said those mud things were artificial?’

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

"Yeah." He replied while walking cheerily. "There could be many reasons for it though. This could be part of our exam and they were just a test."

A thought crossed his mind and he stopped walking. "But they could have been the minions for Pirates or other bad guys that live in this forest. They may have been trained to kill us, eat us and spit out our bones and valuables."

He stood there for a couple of seconds before quickly looking worried and turning his head to the left and right nervously. However he quickly regained resolve.

"Whatever it is, we can take it!" He said with determination.

There was a yell of agreement from the troupe, as they continued on their way.

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
They proceded through the thick woods for nearly 3 and 1/2 hours.
"We are nearing our destination"said squall.
"good!" replied everyone else.
This news put everyone in a cheery mood.

The group started chatting away discussing where they grew up ect, unaware that once again everything was silent, no birds chirping or any other woodland sound.

"Crap!"exclaimed Tidus as he looked up at the canopy.The biggest bird he had ever seen was swooping through the trees.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

"We are nearing our destination" Squall was finally feeling a bit less oppressed. The eclipse was over, leaving the sun free to shine through the trees again. And to top it off, they were almost through the forest.

That was quite easy. Squall thought. Only one encounter.

'Crap!' Tidus shouted, pointing upwards.

Crap, Squall echoed silently, knowing that he spoke too soon.

A condor was flying towards them, screaming at the top of its lungs. The party dived out of its way and made for some bushes.

Squall had only seen one of these gigantic birds before, and knew they can grow to a quite large size. But it had been from quite a distance away. The bird looked now almost half the size of his house.

Squall shouted 'Anyone have any ideas?' as the bird made another pass at them. Ducking he then added, 'If I could have some moving air current or wind we might be able to mess up it's flight.'

Unlikely, Squall thought to himself. We are in the middle of the woods. He looked at his friends to try to make a plan.

[Aphius]

As the bird made another pass at the party Cloud tried to think of something, but nothing really came to him. Making a rash descision he started running towards it as it was coming for them.

"Get back here Cloud!" Shouted Rafier.

"I have a plan!" Cloud shouted back to him. As the bird came in for another go at them. As it was about to hit him, he jumped up, just skimming its beak and grabbed some feathers on the side of its neck.

The bird let out an ear ringing screech and started to fly higher, whilst trying to get at Cloud as he swung from the huge feathers. As he was about to swing up onto the bird it managed to get its beak into his arm holding his sword.

"Aaarg!" Souted Cloud in pain as he dropped his sword into the trees about twenty metres from the others. Swinging himself up onto the bird with blood trickling down his arm, he got a hold on the feathers at the back of its neck and yanked them as hard as he could.

"SKWOOOAAARR!" Roared the bird (*The best bird roaring noise Aphius could pull off*) in pain as it started to wobble and twist. Pushing its head downwards he sent the bird into a downwards direction towards the group.

"Attack now!" Shouted Cloud.

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus

"I see"muttered Tidus under his breath.
"Everybody move out of the way!"
Tidus stood right under the bird, longsword ready.
The bird came down onto the longsword and was killed instantly.
The dead bird toppled over onto Tidus.

"Tidus!!"everyone yelled.
They all ran towards the condor and worked together to get it off Tidus.
"He is unconcious!" yelled squall.
"He will be ok, just let him rest and recover" said Raifer.

Cloud, Squall, and Raifer gathered up two small logs and many strong twigs to create a makeshift cot.
They were unhappy about their burden but were glad that it did not kill Tidus.

A while later Tidus awoke.
"That hurt.." he said
Suddenly a blue auora surrounded Tidus.
After that everyone was quite amazed to see him jump off the cot and act as if nothing had hurt him.
"How did you do that?"asked cloud.
"I have some healing abilities that I got from my mother.She was a priestest."replied Tidus.
"It looks like you could use a bit of help yourself."said Tidus.
Tidus spread his arms out and then a blue auora,much like Tidus's had been, appeared.

When it was over no trace of Cloud's wound could be found.

[Aphius]

"Hrmph... Now I gotta go find my sword..." Grumbled Cloud walking off into the bushes to look for it.

"Well thats dissapointing..." Said Squall. "I didn't even get a shot at that bird..."

"We're still alright aren't we?" asked Tidus.

"Yeah, but.... I didn't get a go at the bird..." he sighed again. Hearing some ruffling noises, everyone looked over and saw Rafier rummaging through the feathers of the dead bird.

"I'm looking for some more of those Animation crystals, but there's a lot of bird here... could take some time" he said.

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

As raifer searched the bird's remains, the niggling thought in the back of his head kept telling him just how gross he should actually feel about this.

He examined the wound on the bird's underside looking to see if he could see anything. "Found anything yet?" Squall called out.

"Not yet!" He called back. "But I think I can see inside it's stomach! Nice work Tidus!" They then cringed as he took of his hat, rolled up his sleeve and shoved his arm inside the bird, then proceeded to have a rummage around inside.

As he was searching, he said to Squall and Tidus "Is it just me, or has this exam been a little too easy?" He stopped talking to move his hand around with a sickening wet noise. "I mean, it may just be me, but all we've done is walk, fight a little and find some food. If this is the BIG test, the test I paid good gold for, this shell is gonna be training some pretty crappy people to defend it's city."

He unsheathed a dagger with his left hand and started to cut into the enormous animal some more. Squall looked horrified and tidus looked slightly ill. A glint of something caught his eye. "What's that?" He asked himself. Rafier opened a pouch on his side and pulled out a small orb, he knocked it against his dagger and the orb began to illuminate. He opened the monster up a little and held the orb in. He put his head in slightly and looked closer.

Tidus and Squall were jolted with fright as Rafier gave a yell of surprise. He jumped back and fell down, then shuffled back a little.

"What is it!?" Tidus asked him.

"There's a dead guy in there!" He yelled.

"Did I hear someone say there was a dead guy?" Cloud called, coming out of the bushes, sword in hand. He came over to the Bird looking interested and peeked inside. "Yep, he's definitely dead." He added.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Yea, it's got me worried too. Squall thought. This exam is almost too easy.

Out loud he said. 'You're right, I think it's the adjustment phase right now. There hasn't been any conflict in these lands for a very long time. So the guardians have become little more than symbols of protection than actual warriors.'

'They are trying to change things though. Sending us here, away from controlled facilities is one thing...'

Squall was cut off as he noticed something in the bird's stomach.

"There's a dead guy in there!" Raifer jumped back in suprise from the dead condor. The orb he had been illumnating its innards with bounced and rolled a little ways off into some branches felled earlier by the bird.

Cloud sauntered over with his sword and peered in.

"Yep, he's definitely dead."

'Well no crap. Heh...' Tidus nervously laughed.

There was silence for a while.

'Well condors aren't known to eat people. They'll attack though when their nest is threatened.' Squall enlightened the group.

'Umm I guess we should do something about this poor guy.' Raifer pulled and tugged the man out. He still was whole, probably hadn't been dead for a few hours. 'I'll check him for identification.' and with knowledgeable experience, he searched the possible locations for the man's belongings.

Pulling up a leather pouch from the deceased's shirt, Raifer untied the string that held it closed and turned it upsidedown.

An assortment of items fell out. Among which were 2 silver, 4 coppers, a flintstone, a small bag spilling its contents as some form of smoking tobacco, and a piece of paper with writing on it.

Squall reached for the paper while Raifer oggled the money. Smoothing it out on the ground, Squall read aloud:

'Moe to Rhemus, 10 ounces of limpidweed, for 2 coppers. Bran, 2/7, 999'

'Sound's like a receipt for our guy buying some smoke at Bran.' Squall finished.

'Heeeeyyy!' Raifer pulled out some official looking documents out of another pocket.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

As Raifer sifted through the documents, the rest of the group turned to check out the rest of the body. The man was around 30 years of age, and his limp form was dressed in travel worn clothes. The material seemed to be made out of a different type of cloth then Squall was used to seeing around the kingdom, so the man must be a foreigner.

‘Hey look,’ Tidus was pulling some feathers from the bird, these feathers must be more than a foot long!’

Interested, Squall and Cloud looked on as Tidus pulled more wing feathers from the giant bird.

Raifer had been silent for quite a while now, and finally spoke up. ‘Guys you have to listen to this, and read something out from the page he was holding.’

To the Council of Sages,
Council Headquarters, Celestial, First World Shell.

We people of the land of Legador refuse to submit to the Council’s incessant and illogical demands of submission. We will remain independent from the Council’s control.

The unprovoked assault by Council controlled soldiers onto our lands and the taking of one of our neutral towns for a council base will not be tolerated. We advise the council to withdraw immediately and not make any more advances.

Also, be aware that the peoples of Legador have been in perpetual conflict with the increasing amount of orcs in the continent adjacent to ours for their barbaric plundering of our villages, and the council’s further negotiations with them will not be tolerated.

This message is our last attempt to solve the problem with lawfulness, and we will resort to force if need be.

Ruling council of Legador,
NML (No Man’s Land), Sixth World Shell

Squall’s eyes narrowed. ‘Welllll…ahem, I honestly don’t know what to say to that. Do you think it’s likely that this document is… um, real? If it is, the council has gone way beyond its proper limitations. It’s definitely not allowed to force others to remain in it’s rule after the decree for respect of sovereignty.’

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus

"Well, what buisness of ours is it to worry about such things?"asked Tidus.
"As far as I know there is nothing we can do about it."

"Your wrong!"exclaimed Squall.
"There is something we can do, we can rebel."

"Rebel against the Council of Sages?"asked Cloud.
"That can't be done, its sucide!"

Then Raifer spoke up.
"The council seems to be taking hostile actions towards the sixth shell, my shell..."
"We must do something."

The group realized at that moment that over the short period of time they had know each other that they had become great friends.

"Im in"Said Cloud and Tidus, one after another.
"If one of my friend's homeland is under siege we must help to retaliate."
Said Cloud.

Yes..but the dangers are imense.-thought Tidus.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Squall calmed himself from the shock of hearing the letter.

‘Hold on, lets not get too hasty.’ He spoke up, rethinking. ‘True I known all my life that the Council wasn’t a very righteous institute but that doesn’t give us the right to assume something based on a piece of paper.’

‘We need to confirm this.’ Squall held up the document, 'If it is true, there's no doubt any of us wouldn't help Raifer.

He then looked at the bird and the man, lying side by side. ‘I think we need to give these two a proper burial. Condors are usually honorable birds, we wrongly invaded upon this one’s property. And as for the man, we should keep his belongings and try our best to return them to his family.’

Looking back at the group Squall continued. ‘There’s nothing we can do now about the Council deal until we get to Bran first. I think we’ll have to ask the representative that’s waiting for us there about this.’

As the group set about their task, the sun had begun to set, coloring the green of the forest rosy orange. Squall couldn’t help but wonder. Well this is a peculiar day, I never would have guessed the outcome to be this.

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus

It was shortly after sundown that they made it to the village of Bran.They entered through the East gates and headed towards the village square.

"Lets not confront the council appointee about the note until tommorow, I want a peaceful night as im sure all of you do."said Tidus.
They met the Council appointee at the village centre, and he said that he was going to find lodging for them for tonight and they would leave first thing tommorow morning.

He told us that for now we were free to explore the town, but had an 8:00 curfew, in which we would report back to the centre and go with him to the lodge of his choice.

"Here you guys, have a few gold coins"said Raifer.
He then proceded to give everyone of his friends two gold coins.
"What?How did you get that much money?"Tidus asked Raifer.
"I got my sources" he said as he showed off the council appointee's wallet to everyone.
Tidus almost died laughing.
"surely you left something for him to buy us lodging with."Tidus asked after he finally quit laughing.
"of course, I only took his wallet, not the coins in it."answered Raifer.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Squall grinned as he flipped the two gold coins around in his hand. ‘Wow Raifer, how did you do that? Ha, you know what that means... We just took the tests for free! Take that council!’

--------------

Bran was quite the town to wander around in. Being one of the larger border village in the kingdom, and a pit-stop for traders from all over heading for Lancaster itself, it was filled with some quite interesting characters. Squall looked around the square with admiration. The streets were surprisingly clean for such a busy town, and there were some children playing around at by the well at the center of the plaza, which was now lit by numerous oil lamps around its perimeter.

Relaxing his tense muscles, Squall noticed a cute girl carrying a bucket of water that was too heavy for her. Time to take action heh heh.

Turning to the group he said, ‘Hey guys I’m going to do some umm business, you know, check out the town, gather some info, that kinda stuff. Lets meet at the inn ‘Climbing Rose’ across the square at 8 then?’ And, before anyone could answer, Squall spun off.

--------------

‘Hey can I help you with that?’ Squall asked.
The girl looked up in surprise, some tendrils of brown hair falling into her face as she did so. She had large dark eyes, which were surprised at the moment. ‘Oh! Ummm thanks!’
Squall took the bucket from her, and transferred it into a comfortable position with his right arm. He grinned ‘I’m Squall, nice to meet you. So where we headed?’
‘I’m Karen,’ She smiled, brushing the hair away from her eyes. ‘If it’s not too much trouble my house is a few blocks away.’

--------------

Squall hadn’t intended to talk with Karen for so long. She had shown him around the town and told him of some news regarding it. Squall found out that, contrary to his guesses, Bran was actually quite tranquil until recently, when the Council closed passage through the previous transit stop, the city of Crosstimbers. In fact, the Council had been doing some really strange business lately. On further inquiry, Squall found out that for some reason representatives from the Council were making deals with some really unscrupulous groups, like the barbaric people of the northern areas, who only lived for power. Karen didn’t want to talk much about the subject, so Squall didn’t push her. Karen’s eyes misted over as she recounted all her days she had enjoyed in the woods before Bran became the designated pit stop for merchants. Squall was more interested in the reason why the Council had shut down Crosstimbers. As time drew on, Squall excused himself to keep his promise with his friends. He ran, for he was late.

--------------

As he stepped into the tavern of the Climbing Rose at 15 past 8, Squall was hailed by his party of friends, who motioned for him to sit down at their table, a few feet away from the north wall of the room.

As he sat down he noticed Tidus was grinning madly.

‘What?’ Squall looked at him.

‘So did you have ‘fun’?’ Tidus smiled wider than ever now.

‘Shut up you. She wasn’t my type.’ Squall grinned back. ‘So what have you guys been up to? And where’s that Council representative?’

'Probably still looking for his wallet...' Raifer laughed as he took a swig from the bottle in front of him.

[ffx-dreamz]

"Well, lets go talk to the innkepper about a room"said Tidus.
The group pushed there way through the heavily crowed inn and finally got to the bar where the innkeeper was serving drinks.
"Excuse me"Said Tidus.
"We would like to get a room for the night."
"Eh..well there are no vacancies left except for the master suite, and judging by the looks of you, your in no condition to rent a room like that."
"We'll take it!"Raifer said as he took out the wallet and placed three gold coins on the bar.
"Alright then, upstairs 4th door to your right."said the innkeeper as he gave them the key.
The group signed the guest book and proceded to there room.
What luck that we go the last room availble-thought Tidus.
The group had decided to go look for the council appointee and show him to the room.

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

"Maybe I should stop flashing the Council's money around so much." He said to the group.

They all stopped walking, looked at each other and all echoed "Nah."

"Hey Raifer." Cloud said. "Where's your hat?"
"My hat?" He replied. "Oh! That hat! I gave it to a girl I know."
"A girl eh?" He said with peaked interest.

"Yeah, well i'll start from the beginning. It was just after Squall started chasing that fine piece of...."

Raifer's experience on the town: Where's your hat?

He watched as Squall followed the young beauty, carrying her bucket and his raging hormones.

He turned to Tidus and Cloud, licked his finger and touched his hip while making a sound like escaping steam. Everyone burst out laughing. Rafier bid farewell to his friends as he went to see what the town had to offer. He browsed the many shops and merchant carts, buying useful items and using his skills to aquire items out of his price range.

The sun had just gone down about an hour ago. He realised he was tired, so he decided to rest under a tree. He sat and watched the people passing by under the strings of lights illuminating the marketplace. It was a nice, comfortably warm night. He saw some fireflies, they seemed to dancing to the music coming from several of the stalls.

"Pretty." He thought. All of a sudden, his eyelids got heavy, he really felt like taking a nap. He started to drift off...

Several minutes later he was woken up by an almighty crash. He shot up and saw where it had come from:

A strangely dressed girl, looking quite panicked was running through the Marketplace followed by several angry looking Merchants.

He could swear he knew her. Not being one to leave a girl in distress, especially one he thought he knew, he leapt down to the marketplace, grabbed the girl and leapt onto a rooftop, but not before throwing down a smoke bomb. The merchants coughed and cursed as they fumbled blindly in the smoke, trying to regain some composure, while Raifer and the girl jumped off of the rooftop and ran into an alley.

They both slumped down on the ground, the girl obviously puffed from running and slightly confused. He looked at her again and realised that he knew that pretty face.

"Akia!" He exclaimed. "I knew it was you!"

"Raifer!?!" She replied, looking confused "What are you doing here?! And why are you wearing that hat?"

He stared at her, she was a few years younger than him, but had the same positive aura to her that he seemed to posess.

"Me? I'm in the middle of the Guardian exam. What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pass the Lelakon theiving test." She told him.

He remembered that test. It was a test that all fledgling theives were required to take to prove that they were ready to be accepted into tribe society as full fledged theives. You are sent out to a shell wearing nothing but undergarments, and in a limited amount of time are supposed to return fully clothed and with many valuables.

Akia was a competent theif, but drew too much attention to herself.
"How's the test going?" He asked "You're almost fully clothed, that's good. But I don't see any valuables."

"That's what that scene back there was, I had a haul that would of made even you, the descendant of Anatis jealous. But I was found by those merchants, they ripped all my pouches off and I lost it all on the way here."

He creased his brow in concern. She suddenly looked worried. "I only have 20 minutes left!"

Her eyes started to look teary. "I'm supposed to meet the Tester at the East edge of town to show what i've found! I can't recover it all in that much time! What am I gonna do?!?"

He thought for a moment. He couldn't just let her fail the test, she would be punished.

"Here" He said. He unhooked several of his numerous pouches and handed them to her. She looked in them and saw the extremely valuable contents. "Those ought to make them happy."

"You're really giving me these?" She asked him.

"Absolutely. Anything to help out a friend. I can't stand to see someone unhappy. Besides, I see you're circumstances as extinuating."

She looked at him in such a happy way it made his skin tingle.

"Thank you!" She said. "I won't forget it!"

She began to run off, when he told her to wait. He took his ornate looking hat and placed it on her head.

"Perfect!" He said. "Now you look the part too!"

"Bye!" She called from down the road to him.
He smiled as he saw her turn the corner. He thought to himself "Gee, she's gotten pretty. Phew! Now I need a drink!"

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
After Squall took off after that girl, Tidus decided that he had a fair amount of money and needed to have fun with it.
Alright,he thought to himself,if I were a pretty girl where would I be?Of course!The pub!
Tidus took off running towards the pub, soon though, he realized he didn't know where it was."Well, this is a setback.."
He decided he would ask for directions.He walked up to this girl and tapped her on the back, only to find the most beautiful woman he ever saw, and she might have been single to.
Hey, maybe I won't be going to the pub afterall..-He thought mischiviously.
"Excuse me Mrs.----""Oh call me Ms., im single."she interupted."Well excuse me, but do you know where the pub is by any chance?"asked Tidus.
"Well, I don't believe there is one, but I have a place you might be interested in."she said seducingly.
Tidus nearly passed out.Was this really happening?How could that blonde haired, blue eyed, long legged girl be hitting on him.
"Well..Ok, lets go! said Tidus.
She told Tidus to follow her, and he did so accordingly.A few minutes they arrived at a small house just on the edge of the city.
"They walked in, and she said"Ok, it'll cost you 1 gold piece."
"What?"Tidus said shocked.
He actually didn't have sex on his mind, but to make small talk and get to know her.He had planned on an evening with a wonderful person, not a whore.
"Forget it!Yelled Tidus.
"I thought you liked me, but all you like is money..."
Tidus stomped out the door looking disgusted.The girl didn't even try to chase after him, she just watched and felt bad about not gaining any profit.

It wasn't long before Tidus's mood had changed, because this town was full of things to do.He walked along the streets, hands in his pockets admiring all the things that were offered in a city such as itself.There were many live-action theatres and dances to go and watch.Many places to eat ,and all types of food.Tidus soon got hungry and went to a restraunt which served steak.He loved steak!The meal cost him one silver, dessert and all.

After that he headed back, acting his normal cheerful self and waited for the others to arrive.

Raifer came first, looking slightly drunk, and had a bottle in hand.Tidus was busy telling Raifer about where he had been when when Cloud came along.

"Hey cloud!"said Raifer.
"Welcome back Cloud" said Tidus.

The group of three started walking around the outside of the inn waiting for Squall when Raifer took the Council appointee's wallet out.
"Maybe I should stop flashing the Council's money around so much."Raifer said to the group.

They all stopped walking, looked at each other and all echoed "Nah."

That laughed and continued on walking when Cloud brought up Raifer's hat.Tidus hadn't noticed that it was missing, he didn't really pay to much attention to hats.Raifer began to recall what he did while we were all gone off into town.
After he was done, Squall walked over.

‘So did you have ‘fun’?’ Tidus asked, grinning from ear to ear.
------------------------------
Later that night, they went to look for the Council appointee.They found him drunk in the pub that 'supposedly' didn't exist.
They then showed the way to the inn.

[ffx-dreamz]

The group,including the appointee,made it to the inn, and decided that it was time to go to bed for the night.All of them made there way to the room, and were suprised by the expensive looking material the sheets were made of, and the many oil lamps scattered across the room.There were six beds, and they all chose one, got in and dozed off for the night.The next morning, the friends arose before the appointee, and went down to the tavern to get some breakfast.

[Umbrasquall]

Lol I seem to have started a trend... :P

Squall

The representative was walking towards them, his hair still disheveled from the night. Squall suppressed a grin. His eyes wandered around the tavern, it already had quite a few people occupying it, despite the early hour. Good business here.

‘Heeeeeeeeeyyy!’ An already drunk guy was sitting at one of the notched wooden tables. He was yelling to a few people sitting across from him, probably mates of his. ‘I’m w-winning the marathon! Hic. You guys’d better piiick up the pace!’

Squall motioned to the others, and whispered quietly. ‘I’ll ask him the questions; you guys stand on guard and be alert. If it gets out of hand I want someone to knock him out. Ok?’ The others nodded.

‘Good.’ Then, raising his voice again, Squall said to the representative, ‘Do you mind if we go up to the room? It’s too crowded down here.’

Squall and the others talked the Council representative up the stairs and into their room where it was more private. The man, whose name they learned was Kent was seemed still upset over the loss of his wallet, though he had recovered quite a bit. Shows how stinking rich the Council is. Even a mere representative gets paid enough as not to flinch much over the loss of that much gold.

‘Ah yes, this is better.’ Kent said as Squall closed the door to the room, shutting the noise of the early drinkers in the tavern out. ‘Well then, lets talk about the testing and get this over with.’

‘Sure, we would like to, but we have a few questions first.’ Squall walked towards Kent.

It he was surprised Kent didn’t show it. ‘Alright, what do you want to ask?’

‘We came across some information while crossing the forest Kent. What do you know about the Council’s plans for Legador, down on the 6th shell?’

Kent seemed to snap to focus immediately, he was only half listening before. ‘What about it? The council has already maintained good relationships with the peoples of that kingdom.’

Seeing that he had disrupted Kent’s composure, Squall motioned to Raifer, who handed him a piece of paper. It was the letter from the dead man.

‘Then what do you make of this?’ Squall handed the letter to Kent.

The representative’s eyes slid rapidly down the message, his eyes narrowed and looked up. ‘You should have stuck to your own business, punks! The Council can’t have anyone interfering with their plans!’ His hand made a sudden movement for his belt.

Squall couldn’t risk the time to see if it was a weapon. ‘NOW!’ He shouted.

Cloud was already ready, having slipped his black sword out when Kent’s voice rose. He swung the blade, and twisted it before it made contact. Twack! The flat of the blade slammed squarely into the representative’s temple. There was a dull thud as Kent collapsed to the ground, his hand had still been fumbling towards his belt.

Cloud sheathed his sword the poked Kent’s ribs with his boot in distaste. ‘What do we do with him?’

‘Tie him up and leave him I say.’ Tidus suggested.

‘Good idea. Even though he doesn’t deserve to live, we can’t just kill him. Lets try to get away from this place quick’ Raifer agreed.

Squall nodded.

-----------------

Five minutes later, Kent, even more disheveled now, was leaning slump against one of the bedposts on the hard wood floor. His hands and feet were tied together with lengths of strong cord that Tidus had gone and found on top some barrels in the backyard of the inn.

‘Wait a moment.’ Squall said as the others made for the door. He searched the clothes of the representative and in a small while came up with a small leather pouch. He turned the contents into his hand. It was four small, circular, metal pieces painted red and purple. The colors of the Council.

‘I thought he might have these on him.’ Squall passed one out to each of the others and watched them examine their pieces with curiosity, ‘They’re council certified badges that signifies the wearer as a member of their army.’ Squall laughed quietly. ‘These might come in quite handy.’ He stowed his away.

In a few minutes the group had reached the outskirts Bran. The wooden walls of the city loomed up in front of them, spiked at the top. Seconds after, they were among the trees again, heading west towards Lancaster.

‘Anyone got a plan on our next action?’ Squall asked.

‘We need to get to the 6th shell,’ Raifer observed, and then hastily added. ‘This is, if you are all still willing to come.’
‘Of course!’ It was Tidus. ‘We already promised. We wouldn’t desert you now!’

‘Plus we can’t really go anywhere else.’ Squall smiled, not bitter though. ‘We’re probably on the Council’s ‘To Kill’ list now.’ Squall laughed aloud, ‘Hahahah! I’d love to see those guys try and kill us.’

Cloud spoke up for the first time since they left the room of the Climbing Rose. ‘Kent will surely wake up soon and report us to his superiors after he gets rid of his binds.’ He observed, ‘We will have to act swiftly.’

‘True.’ Squall was serious again. ‘The shaft is in Lancaster though… We might not be able to use it if they up the security. Not to mention it’s a two day journey to get back to the capitol. Damn. This will take some thinking.’ Squall looked at Tidus. And Tidus and I will need to talk to our families.

Squall frowned; this is going to be harder than he thought.

[Aphius]

"First Tidus and I must visit our familes and inform them of what has happened..." Squall told the group.

"That sounds like a good idea..." Tidus added.

"Talking to your families will accomplish nothing, it is best that we keep moving..." said Cloud coldly.

"Our families have the right to know where we are and whats going on!" Squall said to Cloud in an angry tone.

"What difference will it make? It won't matter if they know whats going on or not. But if we don't get to the shaft soon we might not get there at all." replied Cloud growing impatient.

"We should tell them!" Tidus told Cloud in an agitated voice.

"Grrr! Who cares! What good will it do? They don't matter!" Cloud told them coldly. Squall grabbed Cloud by the front of his coat and pulled his face close to his.

"We... are... going!" He growled at him. "You're coming too! Even if I have to drag you myself!" he added, letting him go.

"Ha Ha Ha!" Cloud laughed quietly. He slapped Squall on the back in a friendly way. "Very well. If it truly means that much to you, we shall go..." Cloud said calmly to Squall as he started walking. "Better hurry though... It won't be a pleasure criuse. If we are to reach your families we must first pass through the Dark Zytch Jungle. I'm sure you all know of the kinds of things that lurk in those trees and marshes..." He added walking off towards the town exit.

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

"Alright then fellas, we're going through the Dark Zytch jungle." He chirped while doing a small jig on the spot. "We talk to your parents, then we go kick some Council butt!"

They started to make their way towards the jungle entrance. Squall and Tidus wondering what they were going to tell their families, Cloud thinking how dumb this was and Raifer wondering what was going on at his home in the 6th shell.

They came to the entrance of the jungle, he peered inside. The trees seemed to be completely shrouded in darkness as if the sun itself feared to be in this place.

"Spooky." He said while shivering slightly.
"I suppose we have to go through. We have places to be." Squall commented.
"Alright ladies let's go." Cloud said in a brash tone as he moved past them and entered the forest.
"Okay, just a tad bit rude!" Raifer shouted into the forest as Cloud dissapeared into the dark. As he did, hundreds of bats, disturbed by the noise, flew out of the forest canopy and into the sky.

The rest of the group entered the forest with reservation, however they walked quickly to catch up with Cloud.

[|)347|-|]

(Hi I wanted to join in i hope its ok post my char later)

A large feline man with white and black stripes wearing a cloak aproaches the party from out of the jungle. He carries a composite bow and a troubled look. "where are you off to," he asked, blocking the path in front of the group. He stood there waiting for a reply.


(ps please do not rp the reply of my char i want to introduce him to the group in my next post)

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

"That's not really your business!" Raifer replied to the tall, slightly scary looking Feline man.

He looked at the Feline man and saw he looked troubled.

He made a huffing noise and said "If you must know, we are heading to the woodland on the 4th shell."

After several moments of silence, due to his chronic lack of hesitance and cheery attitude, Raifer put any niggling thoughts to the back of his head and walked up to him and extended his hand. "I'm Raifer Var'Jagedas, nice to meet you!"

[Umbrasquall]

Meanwhile...

"Counsilor!" The clerk was panting hard.

"Counsilor Eriss has important news about the contested group of testers." The messenger said in between deep breaths, his hands braced on his white robed knees. "She said she needs to see you immediately."

The purple robed man was quiet. Aknowleding the message with a nod, he turned and walked briskly past the clerk and through the threshold of a set of double wooden paneled doors that had been flung open. The flash of a silver star glinted on his chest.

---------------

Ronin entered the room. There was crystals and orbs or different assortments placed in random positions on the wall shelves on either side on the room. Eriss was already stepping towards him.

"Master Ronin, there's a problem with the group of testers."

"The group?" Ronin inquired.

"Yes, we lost contact with the representative sent to give them their medals this morning. He has just come back in touch, and it seems as if they know about the operation down in NML."

"What? How?"

"We're not sure, but supposedly they came across one of the messengers from Legador who had a letter for the Counsel president."

"The president has already recieved the last letter from Legador a few days ago. The messenger was executed."

"Right, but that probably isn't the only one that was sent."

Eriss paused.

"There's a possiblity that they are heading for the 6th shell right now. I have already increased security of the shaft."

"Good work, send out someone to try to convince them that the letter is fake. We can't have them on the side of our enemies."

Eriss nodded, and nervously fingered a silver necklace she had around her neck.

[|)347|-|]

Originally posted by Lomebririon
Raifer

\"That's not really your business!\" Raifer replied to the tall, slightly scary looking Feline man.

He looked at the Feline man and saw he looked troubled.

He made a huffing noise and said \"If you must know, we are heading to the woodland on the 4th shell.\"

After several moments of silence, due to his chronic lack of hesitance and cheery attitude, Raifer put any niggling thoughts to the back of his head and walked up to him and extended his hand. \"I'm Raifer Var'Jagedas, nice to meet you!\"

the cat man extends his hand as well and replies in a low grumble "Etheran's" he looks at the group of traverers "Traveling to the woodland without a druid?" he pauses and takes out a pipe "I must join you" with that he lights his pipe and waits for the group to continue moving

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Squall extended his hand too, "I'm actually part elven myself. But you are welcome to travel with us through these woods. We are in need of a guide."

After introductions have been made, the group continued to advance west. Glimpses of sunlight occasionally caught the forms of the five travelers shaded by the leaves.

------------------

Eriss closed the doors behind the departing Ronin. Sighing heavily she slumped down on the comfortable velvet chair behind her desk.

She'll have to do a lot of work to trance down those brats.

A flash caught her eye. It was one of the many colorful crystals that adorned her desk.

Examining it closely, a small grin emerged from the corners of her mouth.

Hmmm, it looks like it won't be too hard to find them after all...

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
It was 12:00 noon, and everyone was getting pretty hungry.
They stopped at a clearing that was decently bright, much like the spot they had stopped at in the Forest of Terrace.

Everyone had sat down and got out whatever they had brought from Bran.
"Haha! I got Deer Jerky, bread, and butter for my lunch!"Tidus said jokingly as he took out his pack.

The group had started to eat and were begginging to engage in some smalltalk.
"So, how much longer do we have till we reach Lancaster?"Tidus asked.
"Well, we are currently about two days away from it."said Etheran(Im assuming thats your name.Not sure.)
"Judging by the fact that I live about one and a half hours away from Lancaster, I would have to say these woods are pretty damn big!"said Tidus.
"Yes,they are"Squall spoke up.
"I have never been quite this far out from my house in these woods, I always took the road, but judging by how far I have been out, these woods extend very far.
"It is ashame we had to go through these woods, the road is such a wonderful way to go.But we have a high bounty on our heads Im sure"Said Tidus.
"Why do you have a bounty on your heads?"asked Etheran.

Tidus got silent and discussed wether or not he should tale what circumstances they were in away from Etheran.
The group decided it was best not to tell him for now.
"We..we can't tell you as of now but we may be able to later."

Then, they continued there lunch as if nothing had been said.
Suddenly there was a loud crash, and chaos ensued about 100 yards behind the spot where squall was sitting.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Squall had bought a sandwich and a bottle of roseberry meade off of one of the street stalls during their rushed leave of Bran.

He sat down now in the bright clearing, swigging out of the bottle to quench his thirst. Hey this is actually pretty good. He hadn't had this kind of drink before; it did actually taste like roses.

Carefully unwrapping his sandwich he told the others about their position. They were apparently in the same woods that his town shared with Bran. A huge stretch of intermixed pines, other evergreens, and a medley of broad-leaved deciduous trees between the two towns.

Just as he bit into his sandwich, there was a loud crash from behind him.

Squall sighed… This was the second time in two days that lunch got interrupted; he definitely wasn’t going to lose his meal this time. Standing up and picking up his sword that lay on the ground by his side, he turned and faced the commotion.

[Lomebririon]

((Ooh, I dunno. If you do join CT, don't complicate things too much.))

Raifer

Raifer picked a nice spot in the centre of the clearing and sat down. He then proceeded to take his lunch out of one of his larger pockets. In his hand he held half of a delicious looking foot long submarine sandwich. He then produced from his pocket, a bottle of Varitis' Doublau, a rather expensive champagne. "It's funny what rich people just leave lying about." he thought to himself. He smiled as he opened the bottle and took a large drink from it.

"It tastes better when it's free." He said to Cloud as he offered him some.

He began to eat his sandwich when he heard an almighty crash and saw some commotion coming from behind Squall.

"Awww, not again!" he said dissapointedly as he quickly put his lunch down and unsheathed both of his large daggers.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Awww great, what the hell is this. That's the gayest thing I ever seen! Squall observed as what looked like a large, purple, walking flower lumbered towards him. Ivy tentacles slapping at the foliage in its way.

Squall glanced at the others, they were wearing equally puzzled expressions on their faces. The group watched as the creature came still closer. A sour-sweet smell wafted towards them.

As the thing neared Squall noticed that three of the ivy branches had stopped flailing aimlessly. Curious, Squall watched as the tips of the mossy green tentacles opened up like a flower. There was something long in there. Sharp too. Hmmmm...

"Oh shit!" Raifer yelled as with a "ffftt!" the three holstered limbs of the plant thing shot out it's innards. All the members of the party jumped for cover.

There was three separate thwacks as hard needle-sharp thorns, each at least a foot long, embedded themselves into the trunks of some trees.

Squall had jumped for the ground behind the closest tree and inadvertently swallowed some dirt. Sputtering some bits of dead bark and leaves he raised his head back up to find a long thorn buried halfway at a tilted angle, a few inches from his hand. The thorn had small barbs along its length that were pointing backwards, perfect for catching onto flesh. ‘Aww man’ Squall whispered.

More tentacles were now becoming rigid and firing the nasty looking projectiles. It didn’t look like it was about to run out soon either.

Turning his head about, he spotted his sword in the clearing a few feet away where he had dropped it a second ago.

“Hey guys!” He called out, “Is everyone still there?”

Hollers came back to him. Everyone was unhurt. But they are going to have problems with the thing. The ground next to the tree line now had dozens of needle thorns littered about it, and a few trees were starting to resemble woody pincushions.

There was a pause in the thwacks of thorns. Squall sneaked a peek around his tree. The flower thing was turning towards one of the trees on the other side of the clearing. Taking the opening, Squall jumped out toward his sword.

Halfway into the jump Squall saw that he had screwed himself. The monster apparently had really good senses or had eyes on the back of its bushy purple head, as one tentacle took aim at his body.

Uh oh…

Reacting quickly, Squall hit the ground in a roll, grabbing his sword during the fall and raising it up. Just in time too. As a resounding “Ping!” echoed around as the hard wooden spike ricocheted off of the smooth metal of his sword. Squall was knocked back by the force, and managed a less than graceful dive into a clump of bushes. He knew he looked ridiculous, as he half bent and half crawled into cover.

Rolling away just in time as more foot-long spikes made short work of the hiding space, Squall made it to the cover of a large oak.

“OK!” He called out, “It looks like it can see behind it too!” Squall’s ears picked up some muffled laughter from around the third tree to his right.

“I heard that Tidus! Shut up! I’d like to see you not chicken out against those flying death spikes from hell!” Squall wanted to deck him one, but the monster did a good job for him by spamming spikes in the direction of Tidus’s muffled laughter and making him yelp in surprise. Heheheh, how do you like that? Squall thought, smiling to himself.

“Anyone got any ideas?” Squall continued as spikes thudded into Tidus’s tree. “We could use magic but we’ll need a distra--”

“Blast it?” Came Cloud’s suggestion from the left.

“Uh Cloud.” Squall added as an afterthought, “I don’t think it’ll be good policy to torch every forest we go into! By the way, it’s probably not safe to set fire to the places that is directly connected to my house…”

“Slice it?” Came a suggestion from the right. Squall could barely make out Tidus through the green leaves and tree trunks.

“I guess that could work.” Squall replied. “We’ll need some kind of distraction though…”

“Hey? Where’s Raifer?” He inquired.

“Dunno.” The other two answered.

As the trio watched, the tentacle monster moved around the clearing until it came to stop to where the lunches were.

“Oh no you better not f-ing…” Squall shouted as a tentacle dived into his container of roseberry meade. Great it’s eating our lunch!

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus

"Shit!!!"Tidus yelled in horror."If that thing touches my beef jerky I'll show it what it feels like to be sliced in half!"
The thing continued to shoot spikes at Tidus's tree and was moving slowly towards the lunches.Tidus heard Squall mumble something when it stopped at the lunches.
The thing bent over and picked up Tidus's lunch.

"You BASTARD!!!"Tidus screamed as he unsheathed his sword and began running towards it.Completely unaware of his surroundings, his mind set on dodging the spikes and killing the beast he jumped up right before he reached the beast and came down on it right through the middle.He killed it off right then and there.

Thank god I still have my beef jerky..Tidus thought.

[Umbrasquall]

Woah not so fast Ffx we need to make our battles longer

Squall

"Nice one Tidus." Squall examined the corpse of the plant. Prodding it with his sword.

"Mmmff Phanks!" Tidus mumbled through his mouthful of jerky, apperantly stuffing the thing before anyone else could steal his precious lunch.

Uh oh... The tentacles were still moving.

"Shoot!" Squall grabbed Tidus's unaware shirt and hurled him bodily into the foilage and dived in himself. Whirling tentacles barely missing him.

Cloud was waiting calmly for them, having never left the shelter of the woods.

"Hello." Cloud addressed them non-chanlantly as they caught their breath. Tidus was choking on his bit of jerky.

[Aphius]

"You really should be more careful" Cloud bluntly told them as he watched the two halves of the monster pull themselves back together. "We need some kind of proper plan... We..." Cloud stopped to look over at tidus who had interrupted him with constant coughing and spluttering. Handing him his water bottle Tidus took a large swig from it.

"Thanks! That Jerky just didn't seem to want to go down the right pipe!" Tidus exclaimed as Cloud looked back into the clearing.
"It was like it had a mind of its own! It probably thought if I\'m going down I\'m taking you with me! Then it leapt up my esophagus and forced its way down my windpipe! Then it started punching me in the lungs!" Cloud could hear in the background, it was Tidus trying to justify his choking.

"Maybe I could blast it just a little...?" Cloud asked the group.

"Erm... No, I don't think so. We know what your definition of "a little" is." Squall reasoned with Cloud.

[Lomebririon]

Nooooo! :o My beautiful RP! Sinking to the lower area of the forum! Don't worry! I'll save you!

Raifer

He crouched behind a tree a small distance away from his fellow travellers, waiting for the shower of thorns to stop so he could rejoin them.

"Bad day! Bad day!" He thought to himself as he moved his head to the right just as some thorns collided with the tree, sending splinters everywhere. The thorns stopped coming. The creature had lost sight of the group and was waiting for any hint of movement. A short time later, munching noises could be heard as the flower monster promptly resumed eating the group's exposed lunches.

Raifer, taking this opportunity to rejoin his friends, began to run full speed and leapt over to their area of the woods. Milliseconds later a large blast of thorns went soaring into the woodlands.

"Hi guys!" he said cheerily to his companions. "So, what's the plan?"

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
"Hehe!At least he didn't get my lunch!"Tidus said aloud.
"Oh shit.."
The monster had heard him and sent thorns there way.
"Alright guys, this is it.What do you guys say about me sprayin him down?"
"Sounds good"they all agreed.
"And it doesn't sound near as destructive as Aphius's way."

Tidus moved silently behind some brush and was directly in front of the monster.
Well, here goes!-thought Tidus
Tidus motioned his hands into a ball and a beautiful clear bluish tented sphere formed in the middle of the of the ball.
In one swift motion Tidus stood up and yelled Sphere of Influence!At the same time he also sent a huge sphere of acidic water hurling towards the monster.

The monster had melted away upon impact.

[Umbrasquall]

Hmm nice, acidic water. :P

Squall

The group watched as the monster flailed around.

"Nice one Tidus!"

Tidus turned back towards them with a gigantic smile and thumbs up. An instant later he crumpled to the floor as one of the thrashing tentacles nailed him in the head.

The monster slowly stopped it movements and the group ran forward to check on Tidus. There was still a big smile on his face and Squall burst out laughing.

"Bwhahahaha! What a idiot!"

Dragging the fallen Tidus to the nearest tree and propping him up against it. The other two went back to examine the damages done to their meal.

Squall thought a bit, then went over to the dead plant monster and dragged the still mass over to the tree. Taking a few tenticles, he wrapped them lovingly around Tidus's shoulders and put the 'face' of the monster right in front of Tidus's face.

Then, smirking, Squall went to join the others.

Shaking his empty canteen bottle with disappointment, Squall turned to his sandwich. Unwrapping it, he took a big bite.

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

"Aww man!" Raifer yelled sadly. "It drank my champagne!"

Cloud stared at him uncaringly.

"You know how expensive this stuff is?" Raifer said responding to Cloud's look.

"Why do you care?" Cloud replied. "It's not like you paid for it or anything."

"That's beside the point. I was enjoying it.At least it didn't get the other half of my sandwich!" He chirped. Smiling he took the other half of his large sandwich out of one of his pockets and began eating it.

It did not take long for the group to salvage what was left of their lunch. They sat in the clearing, waiting for the moment that one of them would let everyone else know that it was time to continue.

Raifer sat and pondered the events of late. He stared over at Tidus and the large pile of monster that would greet him when he awoke. He could hear the ear peircing yell that would eventuate in his mind already. As he stared at the monster, he remembered the mudmen, the condor and the council representative. Each trying to kill him and his friends. He realised that he was actually in real danger here, that there was a very real chance of dieing on this endeavour, no one he knew would know what happened to him.

Staring into the darkness of the forest, he took another bite of his sandwich as he was absorbed back into his thoughts. As he was he thought of his friends. He wondered what had happened to Akia, wether or not she passed the test. He also thought of his family down in the 6th shell, how they were doing.

He suddenly awoke from his thoughts with a jolt. His body felt as if it hadn't moved for a while.

Cloud and Squall stared at him. "You ok man?" Squall asked.

"Whoah. Yeah". He replied, surprised. "Just a moment of deep self contemplation there. Where did that come from?"

[|)347|-|]

Etherans apeared from the edge of the dark forest caring a wolf by the scruff of its neck with one huge hand. The wolf looked humiliated, by being caught by a cat, and hung rather placidly from his grip. "Sorry for drifting off there, I had to go get a wolf." he sat down and light up his pipe.

[Lomebririon]

[i][b]Come on people! Get back into the swing of things! The Adventurer's hall is looking like a ghost town! :?

Take the initiative!

[Umbrasquall]

Sorry I was gone for a while. :P But I’m back now!

Squall

Nodding at the interesting character, Squall was jolted to the weirdness of the situation. Here was this guy, Etherans, leaning back and smoking a pipe like the wolf next him didn’t exist. The animal itself looked scared out of its wits, apparently too afraid to make any sudden moves now that it was unrestricted.

The birds were chirping cheerfully again, as if nothing had disturbed them moments earlier. Squall again heard the babbling of the creek nearby and considered to refill his now empty canteen.

Turning back to search for his equipment Squall noticed something on the recently pummeled earth. “Awww man.” Squall groaned as he examined his leather pouch. It held, or rather, used to hold his personal belongings. Now a giant foot-long barbed spike pierced the worn material, pinning it into the ground.

He had been pulling food from pouch and had hastily dropped it when the monster showed up. He grunted as he yanked the stiff post out, careful not to further ruin his precious bag. “I hope nothing’s damaged.”

The spike had managed to puncture a few of the berries that he saved from the earlier testing trek. He had forgotten about them in the excitement of their recent discovery. Now purple juice was leaking out of the hole in the side of the bag. Squall grimaced, the detached berries have aged and now appeared to have taken on a darker shade; all of his stuff must be stained purple now.

On the other side of the small clearing, Cloud and Raifer, who had both finished their meals and cast apprehensive shadowy looks at the man smoking the pipe, were noisily debating on their next course of action. Tidus’s soft snores rumbled towards Squall from behind. Squall smirked.

Shuffling through his remaining items, he removed a small vial of green liquid, a piece of charcoal, and a flint: all intact, from his bag. He frowned as his fingers brushed a rough piece of Agnolia paper, and pulled it out. It was his map. All his years of gathering knowledge of the surrounding area had resulted in a precise diagram of his home continent. Since it had been folded up, the spike had managed to push through several successive layers of the yielding material, resulting in a number of large holes. Purple stains covered a portion of the yellowing material.

Great, just great Squall thought of the irony of the situation. The map had survived being dropped into a fireplace when he was seven, and later washed for half a mile down a creek, and now it was almost destroyed by a freaking-tentacled, spike-spitting plant, and has Yortlotberries guts all over it, but it still survived. Squall laughed at its resilience.

He tried to smooth out the holes and managed to get it flat enough to at least be able to folded it up again. There were smudged areas were he had hastily added in charcoal. Most of it had been done in ink. The edges were frayed and flaked, roughened from years of use. There were deep creased lines where it had been folded up over and over again. It would be necessary to transfer to a new leaf. The current one was too damaged to last much longer.

Sighing, Squall thoughtfully sweeped away a few damaged items and dropped the survivors into his shirt, by his money. The broken pouch went around his belt. He might have a change to get it fixed.

The trees were silent again. The chirping died out as a cloud passed overhead, dimming the clearing. Squall leaned back on his left hand and brushed back a few strands of dark hair that had fallen over his eyes with his right. He hardly saw clouds this close to the ground in his life, the ones he were familiar with were usually further up. This one seemed to brush the treetops with its lingering white foams.

Tidus’s girlish screams broke the peace.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT THE HELL!?!”

Hint hint, ffx make a post. :)
Sorry about the long description of the map, just wanted to fill up some space with a little fluff. Who knows, it might become important later on. ;-)

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
"Ahhhhhh!!What the hell????"Tidus screamed as he woke up from his slumber.
Tidus took out his pocketknife and started slashing the 'thing' all the while thinking it was trying to kill him.
Then, Tidus heard the fit of laughs that was coming from behind the creature.
He figured out what happened and through the thing off him.
"You think thats funny????"asked Tidus angrily.
The group stopped laughing and looked at Tidus.
"Yeah!"answered Squall sending the group into more fits of laughter.
"You just wait, I'll have my day!"said Tidus half angry and half laughing at his own stupidity.

Everyone gathered their belongings still sniggering off and on.
Tidus' pack was at his side, in good condition, infact, he still had some beef jerky left.

When the group was ready, they headed out towards Squall's house.

[|)347|-|]

Originally posted by ffx-dreamz
Tidus
\"Ahhhhhh!!What the hell????\"Tidus screamed as he woke up from his slumber.
Tidus took out his pocketknife and started slashing the 'thing' all the while thinking it was trying to kill him.
Then, Tidus heard the fit of laughs that was coming from behind the creature.
He figured out what happened and through the thing off him.
\"You think thats funny????\"asked Tidus angrily.
The group stopped laughing and looked at Tidus.
\"Yeah!\"answered Squall sending the group into more fits of laughter.
\"You just wait, I'll have my day!\"said Tidus half angry and half laughing at his own stupidity.

Everyone gathered their belongings still sniggering off and on.
Tidus' pack was at his side, in good condition, infact, he still had some beef jerky left.

When the group was ready, they headed out towards Squall's house.

obviously not being part of the group Etherans wasn't laughing, in fact he was focusing on a spell. His fur rippled as a wind picked through the trees, and then his spell was done. "I don't think it is whise to ridicule your companion for his basic instincts." he said while picking up the wolf by the scruff of its neck. "It is hard to break a being of its habbits" he said looking the wolf in the eyes. he then muttered something in its ear dropped it to the ground and as he walked towards the trail it padded allong by his side.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

They were making good progress. Squall glanced upwards towards the leafy canopies that shielded the sun from view. They would make their schedule and arrive at the outskirts of the forest at around evening of the second day.

Looking around he saw that he was not the only of the group that was meditative. Cloud seemed to be deep in thought about something, the collar of his cloak shielding his face from interpretation. On Squall’s left, Raifer’s eyes barely registered the trees to avoid them. At the beginning of the journey, the man with the wolf had taken the lead with his pet and distanced himself from the rest of the group. Squall could catch glimpses of the duo through the foliage every hour or two. Tidus seemed to be a little more carefree. He had found some more berries during their 4-hour walk and was now attempting to hum a tune while munching on them, nonchalantly swinging his leather bag with his free hand.

“Hey Squall!” Tidus noticed his friend looking in his direction. “Want some of these? They’re pretty sweet, not like those other ones we found yesterday.”

Squall was about to shake his head. But, amused by the trickle of crimson juice now currently dripping from Tidus’s fingers and mouth, and thinking what his reactions might have been under different circumstances, decided to try some out.

He received a few of the rotund spheres and bit into one. It was pretty good. He wondered about the fact why there were no pits when he noticed tiny seeds embedded on the surface of the fruit. Hmmm kinda like strawberries.

Aloud he asked, “What are these called Tidus? I’ve never seen them before.”

“I don’t know either.” Tidus replied, popping another red sphere into his mouth and swallowing it. “They remind me of strawberries though.”

Squall had been about to spit out the unknown innards of the berry when he’d heard that Tidus didn’t know what they were when he realized that there probably wasn’t any danger from eating them. Squall decided to trust Tidus’s instincts. After all, Tidus’s had grown up eating more wild vegetation then he had.

Chuckling at his unnecessary insecurities he finished off the rest of the berries. He then pulled out his map from his pocket. Checking it he confirmed their destination, a small, unlabeled dot in between two splotches of purple.

Deciding to snap the rest of the group out of their stupor, Squall cleared his throat loudly, “Hey guys, we’ll be arriving at a small town in a while where we can spend the night. It’s halfway between Bran and Lancaster.”

“Hmmm…” Cloud commented, while Raifer scratched his head while nodding. He yawned like he had just awoke. Squall replaced his map safely among the folds of his tunic.

The mood soon lightened. Small talk pervaded the void of the previous silence. Squall was glad for the change in the atmosphere. Two hours of hearing nothing but birds and the incessant crunch of the leaves were becoming tiring.

The four made fun of the Council as they walked.

“I hope you didn’t kill that representative.” Raifer remarked. “That was a pretty hard hit, and I don’t think that guy had much combat training.”

Cloud grunted curtly, “He deserved it.” But a trace of a smile appeared on his stern countenance. “Though you are probably right Raifer, he didn’t lean away to soften the blow any. In fact I thought I saw him lean into the blade.”

Their footsteps rustled among the fallen leaves as the sky darkened.

--------------

“Are you sure Etheran?” Squall asked again. They had reached the small town just after sundown. The man had been waiting for them at the edge of the woods, saying that he opted to spend the night with the trees.

After a few more exchanges, the four left the leafy covers and made for the small wooden dwellings of the forest-bound village while the fifth person headed turned back towards the dark shadows of the canopy, a panting wolf at his side.

“I don’t know about that guy.” Tidus cast an uncertain look towards the disappearing pair.

“Come on,” Squall replied, also glancing towards the treeline and lowering his voice. “He hasn’t done anything that tells me that he intends to hurt our cause. If he wants to guide us through these woods then its fine, we need all the eyes we can get. I don’t doubt that he might want to leave us after we reach Lancaster.”

Patting Tidus on the back, Squall hefted his sword-bearing shoulders and turned back to the village. He was uncomfortable. He had never before needed to travel such a large distance while armed.

As they progressed among the ten or so dwellings that comprised the town, Squall noticed several watch towers situated on the perimeters of the village. Another nagging feeling was confirmed when Cloud casually observed: “There’s no inn.”

After wandering around for a while, the group increasingly grew disconcerted at the staring looks they attracted. Finally, a middle-aged man approached them.

“Greetings travelers. What brings you here to our small town?”

Seeing that the others looked towards him for a response. Squall spoke. “We are mercenaries hired by the government of Lancaster for the protection of the city. We are currently on our way towards the great city and are looking for a place to spend the night.” Squall pulled out the small metal badge inscribed with the Council insignia and showed it to the man.

The group was glad to see that the villagers around them relaxed and went back to their business. The man facing them smiled and nodded. “I see, there should be no problems for you to stay here for the night. In fact my own son left for the testing for Lancaster Guard just three days ago.”

Squall stiffened a little but the man didn’t take notice. “He’s room is unoccupied at the moment, all of you are welcome to stay in it.”

The group thanked the generous man and followed him towards a wooden house in the middle of the town. Squall looked around and spotted several similar buildings around in a circle formation. A mossy stone well stood in the middle of the clearing. Some type of tiled stone covered the ground they were trending on.

“Yes, I see that you have noticed our well. I would have the moss removed but the others of the town, including my wife see it in a different light. They think it’s artistic.” The man smiled again.

They reached the house and the man opened the door. Beckoning the young men to follow him when he noticed their apprehensiveness. The five stepped in and the door shut behind them.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

As Squall stepped over the threshold he cast his eyes around the homey surroundings. The room they had entered appeared to be a comfy den, which struck a sharp contrast with the darkened streets outside. A small fireplace protected a blaze of flickering flames. There were several intricate landscape woodcarvings that hung from various positions. A pair of them framed a window, which’s smooth glass panes revealed a darkening cobbled town square on the other side. The walls inside were covered with a pleasant tan-colored wallpaper, which seemed to absorb the dancing light from the fire, glowing with a rosy hue.

The furniture consisted of a large vacant couch along the side of the room opposite the fireplace. A dark wooded rocking chair stood in the furthest corner from the doorway. The latter was occupied.

A woman in her late thirties sat knitting. Her shoulder length dark hair amber in the firelight. A slumbering white cat with black spots was curled up at her feet. As the group stepped into the room and the man closed the door behind them, the clicking of needles stopped as the woman looked up. Her expression did little to conceal her surprise at the five men who had just strode into her house.

“I’m sorry,” The man began, chuckling and scratching his head. “We haven’t made the proper introductions yet. I’m Patrick and this is my wife Elizabeth.”

The woman had overcome her initial reaction and now stood, nodding at the four strangers. “Hello travelers.” Squall guessed she had drawn the conclusion from the worn clothing that the group wore. “What brings you young warriors to this town?” Her eyes flickered over Cloud, Tidus, and finally settling on Squall. (Raifer I believe your weapons are concealed at the moment? I might have remembered wrong) Squall shrank a little under her gaze. She reminded him of his mother.

“They’re soldiers Liz,” Patrick corrected his wife. “The Council hired them to be part of Lancaster’s guard. They were passing through this town and couldn’t find a place to stay so I invited them here for the night. I hope you don’t mind?”

The woman’s eyes softened. “Oh! The Council? That’s fine. Of course they are welcome to stay.” She turned back to them. “You guys must be hungry from traveling through the forest, I was just about start cooking and it looks like we’ll be having guests for dinner then. We hadn’t had visitors in quite a while.” She smiled and turned towards her husband. “Can you make sure May gets to bed early for me? She’s going to need to be up early tomorrow.” The man nodded.

The group thanked the couple profusely as the woman turned and left the room through a hallway opening. Squall turned to his friends, in time to see Raifer relax his face from the most disarming smile he could manage. They thanked Patrick again but he waved them off. “Lets find you guys a place to sleep, follow me.”

The others fell in step around him. Squall was stunned that they were allowed to carry their weapons further into the house, but didn’t comment. The man led them through the room, and then through the short hallway, turning left at the end into a doorway. The opening gave way to a small room with a staircase to the right, with which they ascended to the second floor.

The wooden ceiling of the ground floor creaked below them as they stepped into a medium sized bedroom. Patrick lit an oil-lamp that rested on a counter by a twin-sized bed.

“This was our son’s room. We still haven’t gotten it cleaned out yet even though he’ll be living in the city now.” The man enlightened them. “You guys can stay here. I’ll leave you guys to settle in, dinner should be ready soon.”

After Patrick had left the room, the four were silent for a moment while they examined their surroundings and relieved their bags from their bodies. The three sword-bearers slipped off their bulky weaponry, uncomfortable already at been allowed to bring the arms upstairs.

Leaning his blade against the closet door. Squall turned to see Tidus hopping across the room. “The bed’s mine!” Tidus yelled, jumping onto it with a smack, making the springs groan under the unfamiliar weight.

Raifer smiled evilly at Tidus. “Are you sure you want to sleep in that bed?”

Tidus frowned, “Why not?”

“Cause if you do... something… ahh, unfavorable might happen tonight. You better let me sleep on the bed so I can deal with it.”

Tidus caught on. “Oh hell no! I haven’t gotten to sleep on a soft bed like this for ages! Back off, I claimed it first! The bed’s mine!”

“I haven’t slept on such a nice bed for six months!” Raifer rebutted. “That’s way longer than you left your home. Three days ago in fact!”

“So? That doesn’t mean that you deserve it more!”

“Oh come on Tidus! This bed is so much better than you! I bet you won’t even get laid…”

“Don’t bring my sex life into this!”

“What sex life? You’re special humping tree?”

“Aww you little…”

The two bickered back and forth throwing threats and insults at each other, until, to Squall’s relief, Cloud interrupted. “Neither of you will have it tonight.” Then with a smirk, he added: “The bed’s mine.”

Silence.

“I never slept in a real bed before.”

The other threes’ jaws dropped. Then Raifer laughed out loud. “Oh jeez you serious?” Cloud nodded. “FINE! Haha, Cloud should have it then.” Raifer finished, a bit edgy. The others nodded, still in a bit of a shock.

“Well Tidus? You heard it! Get you dirty little ass off of that bed!” Raifer sneered at his friend. Tidus sent back an icy glare and moved his stuff to the floor. Cloud started to settle down in the vacancy, a smug expression on his face.

“Don’t get too comfy.” Squall spoke, grinning. “We got to go downstairs for dinner soon.”

“Oh yeah!” Tidus piped up, forgetting the bed incident in an instant. “I’m hungry!”

Raifer raised an eyebrow at Squall at Tidus’s sudden change of demeanor. Tidus interpreted it differently. “What? That beef jerky I had for lunch wasn’t too filling!”

[Umbrasquall]

Two robed figures sat silently conversing in a darkened room. Besides the moombeams pouring into the room from the several large windows on the eastern wall of the room, the only source of light was flickering torch.

The left figure, a woman, spoke, "Ronin they are going to be arriving at the city in another day. We should make more preparations." The woman looked at a glowing green crystal.

Ronin nodded. He rung a bell to call a messenger. A white robed apprentice stumbled in. Sleepy looking.

Ronin slipped an order from his stack and wrote something onto it. He handed the paper to the messenger.

The white-robed apprentice couldn't help looking down at the order. He gaped. "Master Ronin... Are you..."

"It isn't your place to question my orders."

"Of course! Sir!" The messenger hurriedly left.

But... he thought to himself, as he passed the threshold into the main hall. Was the Crucible really necessary to be called onto a couple of escaped criminals?

[Umbrasquall]

Meanwhile…

Squall

Squall looked out the window. In the early moonlight he saw a few smaller cottages scattered around in the space in between Patrick and Elizabeth’s house and the edge of the treeline, which currently looked dark and foreboding. Several rough cobblestone paths crisscrossed around the small town.

Why are the people of this town so trusting and nice? They seem to respect the Council a lot. If they only knew what that no good institution was up to. Trying to seize the homes of innocent people just like them because they are of a lower shell…

After the four had settled down and claimed their respective places to sleep on the floor, with the exception of Cloud, they left the room. As they headed towards the staircase, a small figure flew out of an adjacent doorway and smacked into Tidus’s surprised form. Upon impact the girl fell down with a small shriek. Tidus immediately crouched down to help the child up.

“I’m so sorry! Are you ok?” Tidus asked as he gave her his hand.

The dazed girl, who looked about seven or eight, shook her head and looked up at a concerned Tidus. “I… I think I’m ok.” Tidus looked relieved.

The girl brushed off her plain dress and looked up at them with wide eyes. Squall had a sudden feeling of déjà vu as he realized that a very similar pair had examined him a while earlier in the den. “Hi! My name is May! Daddy said that we would be having guests today. Are you our guests? He said you all worked for the Council! Do you know Zak? He’s very nice!”

Laughing Raifer bent down and addressed the eager child. “Yes, yes we are. No I’m sorry, we haven’t met your brother” Raifer guessed that was who this ‘Zak’ was. “And your mom and dad are very nice people May! We’ve even been invited to have dinner! Right Cloud?” Raifer looked up at the cloaked warrior, who was standing the closest to him.

Cloud grunted. “Yeah. You got nice parents kid.”

The child gave an excited cheer and ran off downstairs.

The group themselves, chuckling and their mood considerably lightened, continued downstairs after the girl. They met Patrick in the den. He had a large piece of flat wood resting on his legs and was carving patterns onto the smoothed out surface with a small craft knife.

“Patrick can you tell us where can we clean up? We kind of have been traveling the entire day.” Squall asked politely, the rest of the group nodded.

“Oh sure, of course. There’s a tank of water around the back, you’re free to use it.” Patrick replied, looking up momentarily from his work.

The group went out the front door and circled around the back. The town beadle was hurrying around the various lanterns hanging around and lighting them, giving illumination to the people that were still out. Squall noticed that there were lights flickering from the posts of all of the guard towers around the settlement. They must have noticed the increase in monsters around here lately too.

The tank turned out to be made out of wood, corked at various places by black pit and wood slices to prevent leaks. It had an open top that was surrounded by long pieces of curved wood leading up to the roof of the house, which acted like rough gutters, allowing the rain to drain into the container. One gutter-free side allowed for access.

The four took turns using a large gourd scoop to obtain water and washed their hands and faces. The water was still a little warm from the afternoon sun, though it would probably cool down considerably as the nightly chill set in.

Refreshed a great deal, they headed back to the front of the house conversing quietly. As they rounded the last corner and left the alley in between the two houses they heard a hoarse yell. The noise was coming from a man in the center of a gathering crowd of agitated people.

Curious, they stepped toward the commotion. Squall frowned as he noticed the man at the hub of the attention was swaggering wildly and shouting obscenities. Passersby sped up their walk towards home and did not meet the wild man’s eyes.

“What’s going on?” Squall tapped one among the nervous audience. The man turned and answered: “It’s old Riley, he’s gone and gotten hammered again.” The man sighed and shook his head.

“Again?”

“Yea, it’s a habit of his. Every so often he’d get so drunk that he won’t know the difference between a pig and his wife, and stir up some trouble in town. It’s been like this ever since he lost his son.”

“Oh… His son died?”

“Yeah, it’s sad story really. The young man was sent as part of a peace-keeping army down to the sixth shell to hold down a barbarian offensive. And he never came back. The council sent a letter to Riley about a month back giving their condolences but his son had died on the battlefield. Under the service of the Council.”

Squall swallowed. He guessed what the fighting was about but kept his mouth shut. He looked around and found the others also solemn.

“Heeeyyyyyyy! ****! Who are you?”

Sorry have to eat dinner now be right back.

[Umbrasquall]

“Heeyyyyy hot sttuffff!”

Squall saw Tidus grimace in disgust. An expression that soon turned to one of horror as he realized that Riley was looking directly at him.

As Riley advanced with surprising speed (and arms outstretched) toward Tidus, Tidus gave a yelp of fright and backed away. It wasn’t until Riley was almost upon him until Tidus realized that the man wasn’t going to stop. (Bwhahaha! Sorry ffx this was too funny to resist ;))

“Hey back the **** off!” Tidus gave the man a shove, causing him to stagger back in surprise.

“Why not honey? You donn’t liike what you seee?”

Tidus shuddered in disgust as the 40-ish man blew some wet kisses in his direction. “Oh shit! What a freak! Hey bastard! I’m not gay! You got that? I…am…not…GAY!” He paused as he noticed the silence.

Tidus turned towards his friends only to find them struggling to hold back their laughter. Soon it was a lost cause, as not only the other three but also half of the crowd started to laugh uproariously. Tidus’s face turned a shade of red and purple.

“Hey come on Tidus! The man obviously likes you! You aren’t gonna hurt his feelings are you?” Raifer teased. “Don’t worry! You don’t have to stay with us tonight! We won’t miss you! Hahahaha…”

“SHUT UP!” Fumed Tidus.

Riley, who had been surprised by the sudden noise around him, had forgotten about the whole incident already, and was ahem… looking around for fresh meat.

His second choice was perhaps a little too fresh, as his eyes settled on little May (Hey he’s a drunken pervert), who had just tugged shyly on Raifer’s coat. “Mommy says dinner is ready.”

Squall noticed the slob’s overactive eyes at work and immediately exploded. He ran up before anyone could stop him and, lacking a better weapon, drew back his fist and hit Riley in the face. A collective gasp went up as Tidus, with some dignity and sense left in him, quickly shielded May’s eyes from the scene.

Riley’s bleeding face hit the cobblestones with an audible thud.

Squall looked down in contempt. A hand rested on his shoulder as Cloud’s voice came from behind. “Wow, that I wasn’t expecting that from you. Though I have to admit, that was a nice hit.”

Squall looked back and saw Cloud’s amused expression, and relaxed. He turned around and saw everyone looking at him. “I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

“That’s quite alright boy.” The man Squall had been talking to earlier spoke. “Riley would have been trouble anyways in this state. Perhaps this was for the best.”

The crowd had begun to disperse as several villagers helped carry the unconscious Riley back to his home. The four friends themselves led May back into the house for dinner.

[Lomebririon]

Nicely done Squall!

I'll try and add a bit pretty soon.

[Umbrasquall]

Lol thanks Lomebririon. :P

“Oh really?” Patrick’s eyes danced in amusement, as the group related their recent encounter over the dinner table. They had come back in to find a table set for seven in a simple dining room.

“I doubt there would have been much trouble anyhow. Riley’s well known as a pacifist, all talk and no action. He wouldn’t have done anything to hurt other people even if he was drunk.”

“Yes,” Elizabeth said from across the table from Squall. “I remember he had a huge argument with his son Henry when Henry told him he wanted to join the Lancasterian army.”

An uneasy silence settled over the table as Squall examined his food. They were eating a delicious soup filled with various herbs, mushrooms, and spices. Squall reached for a piece of bread as he broke the hush.

“This is really good Elizabeth.” Squall smiled at the beaming hostess.

“Thank you!” She replied. “But please, call me Liz.”

“So what do you do for a living Patrick?” Raifer asked.

“Oh I’m a carpenter!” Patrick answered, a hint of pride in his voice. “I make practically all of the wooden furniture and accessories in the town.”

“Yes, Patrick is really good.” Elizabeth added. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed but he designed all the houses in this town.”

“Oh that’s why I thought they had similar features.” Raifer commented.

“Yes, he also made all these carvings hanging around our house.” Elizabeth gestured around with her hand.

Squall looked up from his food. Indeed, several intricate wooden panels hung from the walls. Their designs depicted various types of food, including one that showed a realistic looking bowl of fruit.

“Its just a hobby.” Patrick admitted. There was a moment of silence as everyone dug into his or her food.

“Well they are very nice!” Tidus mumbled as he tried to speak almost incoherently with his mouth full of bread soaked in soup.

“Mommy says you shouldn’t speak with your mouth full!” May spoke up in an adorable voice. “Or else the Crucible will be sent after you!”

“Quiet young girl! That’s no way to speak to a guest!” Elizabeth scolded.

“Mmmph that’s fine!” Tidus, in his hurry to reply, had forgotten the food still in his mouth.

“The Crucible?” Cloud spoke up for the first time. “That sounds somewhat familiar, what is it?”

Everyone looked at the usually silent Cloud. Patrick answered him.

“It’s a legend, or I should say children’s tale. The Crucible was believed to be a secret organization of elite assassins who work for the Council. No one has ever seen them so there’s no proof that it isn’t just some made up entity to intimidate people. Many parents use it as a sort of threat to young children when they misbehave.”

“Oh,” Cloud’s expression was cloudy (heh a pun :)). “Its nothing, I thought I heard of such a tale before.”

Before their hosts could get curious and start wondering where Cloud was from Squall quickly changed the subject. “So…how long have you guys been living here?”

Better not let explanations get too complicated for now. He thought to himself.

Heh heh heh. The plot thickens :)

[Umbrasquall]

Squall gazed up at the starlight sky through the window of the bedroom. Behind him he could hear Cloud and Raifer joking around with Tidus about his male magnetism. Squall smiled, he was glad the four could get along well together. Sighing, he realized that it was a long way they have to go to reach their destination. All their hopes rested on an unguarded shaft when they got back to Lancaster.

Turning away from the window, he joined the others. Raifer’s jokes about Tidus’s experiences from the previous hour or two depleted, much to the relief of a harassed Tidus. Though it was apparent he wasn’t really bothered by all the jokes about him. They began to discuss their plans for the next day.

“Ok so by tomorrow evening we’ll be here.” Squall indicated an area in towards the outskirts of Lancaster city boundaries on his map. “We’ll split up here. Tidus and me will go and visit our families and tell them what’s going on. Raifer and Cloud, you guys scope out the city, see if anything’s out of the ordinary. We’ll meet again early next morning at a specified location to catch an early elevator.”

If nothing goes wrong. Squall thought. As the others nodded he wondered if it was necessary to go over plans this early. He finally decided it made him more comfortable for everyone to think over it and see if they could find anything wrong with the arrangement.

As the others settled to their respective locations on the floor (Cloud on his bed) to think, sleep, and to attend to their own business. Tidus had taken to absenmindedly scratching the cat, who had roamed into their room. Squall pulled a chair up against a study desk against the wall between the window and door.

He had asked for a bottle of ink, a quill, and a piece of paper earlier. The ink and quill had been easily obtained for him. However, Patrick told him that they didn’t have a piece of paper the size he was looking for. When Squall had shown him what he intended to do with the items, Patrick had brightened and went to get a large section of tough sheep hide for Squall.

It was the hide that Squall stretched out on top of the table alongside his old map now. Dipping the tip of the quill into the ink, he started working.

-----------------

Squall opened his eyes to total blackness. No, not total, as there was a faint splash of red light to his right. He stood up and followed the glimmer. His footsteps seemed to echo on the hard stone underneath him as he broke into a run. The red light was getting closer…

-----------------

The next morning Squall awoke early. For a moment he tried to remember where he was as eyes unblurred from sleep. The sky had just begun to turn a rosy pink outside the window. Groaning, he stood up as he stretched his joints. The hardwood floor seemed even harder then sleeping on bare earth.

It didn’t take long for the others to awaken also. All of them were used to traveling and were only a bit tired after yesterday’s events. Squall noticed some commotion from the rest of the house and guessed that the family must be awake too.

Raifer shook his head at Cloud’s clumsy attempts to try to make the bed. In the end, despite his amusement at watching Cloud’s pitiful struggles, Raifer helped Cloud to finish.

Tidus looked on with a sleepy smirk as Raifer tucked the sheets down and replaced the pillows to their rightful locations.

The sun was already above the horizon as they walked out of their room, bearing all their equipment. In the hallway a small blur dressed in a powdery blue nightgown streaked toward them. As they reacted in surprise at May’s sudden appearance they saw Elizabeth behind May as she made for the girl.

“Have a goodnight’s sleep?” She asked. She was dressed in a similar, but larger, emerald green gown. Her dark hair, somewhat tangled from slumber, framed her cheerful face.

“Yes, thank you m’am.” Cloud answered.

Elizabeth smiled at them and took her daughter’s hand. “That’s good, there’s food down in the kitchen, Pat’s down there eating already.”

“I’m gonna be having my first lesson today!” A small voice chirped.

“Going to, dear,” Elizabeth corrected with a smile, then turned back to the group. “May is old enough now to start her schooling. I’m about to give her the first lesson.”

The energetic young child began to drag her mother away by the arm. “Lets start mommy! Lets start!”

“Ok haha” The mother laughed as she was guided away by her daughter into another room.

Squall noticed Raifer was absent. Curious, he turned back into their room to look for him. He found Raifer laying out two gold pieces on top the desk in Zak’s room.

“Ahem.” Squall cleared his throat, making Raifer jump. “I thought thieves were supposed to take money, not give it away?” Squall raised an eyebrow.

“Well I… I thought…” Raifer stuttered uncharacteristically. “Ok fine. The reason is that I overheard Patrick and Elizabeth talk yesterday in their room about moving to Bran so they can raise May in a better environment. I thought that we could repay them for being so kind to us. This should be more than enough to get them settled there.” Raifer finished and defiantly stared at Squall, almost daring him to disagree.

A stunned Squall, who had been pointing to the two coins and had just been about to mention the unnecessity of giving away such a large amount of money immediately dropped his hand and argument.

Smiling, Squall remarked, “So you have a conscience after all huh?”

“Of course!” Raifer seemed offended. “Thieves aren’t just heartless thugs without honor!”

“Besides, its not like that we really need money.” Raifer added, “Which wasn’t ours in the first place. The donation should be considered a gift from the caring Council.” He grinned.

Laughing, Squall assured Raifer he had not meant anything by the comment and the two left the room.

[Umbrasquall]

They met Patrick downstairs in the kitchen, which they discovered across from the dining room. The man was buttering some toast when they entered, and greeted him morning. While Squall and Tidus went outside to wash for breakfast the other two shrugged and grabbed some toast.

“Are you all leaving today?” Patrick asked them.

“Yes, right after breakfast” Raifer answered while Cloud nodded. “Sorry we have to go so soon but we are running a kind of a tight schedule. Thank you and your wife so much for letting us stay the night.”

“Sure, no problem, it was our pleasure. It’s not often we get visitors and the house’s been kind of quiet ever since Zak left. We were glad to have some company.”

Tidus and Squall entered again and helped themselves to breakfast. After some light conversation among the five men, Elizabeth and May entered.

“You are not leaving so soon are you?” She motioned towards their equipment.

“They have to keep the Council’s schedule Liz dear.” Patrick answered for the group.

“Of course,” Elizabeth conceded. She was distracted by May who had run up to the four. There was moisture in her big eyes as she looked up at them. “Don’t leave! Please!” The child had become attached to them ever since she was ‘saved’ from Riley the previous night.

Cloud answered, “Sorry kid, we have business to attend to.” But seeing that he had made the girl more teary, he hastily added. “But we’ll come back to visit.”

“Re…really?” She sniffed.

“Of course!” Raifer and Tidus chimed in.

Patrick had left the room and now returned bearing a wooden carving. “Look May! I made this for you!”

May’s eyes brightened a little as she scampered over to her father to see the new carving. Squall saw that it was an extremely realistic carving of a stallion, rearing up toward the heavens.

“Pony!” May giggled.

The group quickly finished their meal and started for the door. The family followed them outside. The sky was completely light now, and there was not a cloud to be seen. Far towards the western atmosphere Squall could see the rocky bottom of a drifting continent.

“Well, bye.” Squall said hesitantly.

“See ya.” Tidus chirped.

“Good bye.” Cloud said. “Thank you again.”

Raifer was bent down; he fumbled with his leather pouch until he came up with a small silver-colored necklace, a prism dangled at its front.

“Here this is for you.” Raifer said kindly as he held out the necklace to May. The girl gasped as the shimmering metal reflected from her bright eyes. She was suddenly shy again, but Raifer put the necklace around her neck. He ruffled her hair and stood back up.

“May! What do you say to the nice young man?” Elizabeth admonished.

“Thank you!”

“Well… ok then, we’re off.” Squall spoke. The group started away from the house. Other people of the town looking curiously at the group.

“Bye bye!” Raifer yelled cheerfully, as he waved to the three figures standing at the front of the house. Two large and one considerably smaller, he could see that May was still inspecting her new necklace with awe.

In another few minutes the group had entered into the shades of the forest again, the bright morning sun shining upon their backs.

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus
What nice people!-Tidus thought as he looked back towards the small village.
"Well Squall, where are we headed?"asked Tidus.
"About 20 miles northeast of here is where my house lies."answered Squall.
He got out his newly made map and showed Tidus the small dot where his house is.
"And I beleive that your house lies here."Squall said as he pointed to another dot slightly too the West of Squall's house.
"Yeah, thats it, just to the East of Sacharan lake."said Tidus.
"Imagine, we lived so close together and never met each other once.Its ashame really.."said Squall.
"Yeah it is, we could have made great friends."Tidus replied.
"Well, we'll visit my house first and then head over to your home, after that its to the shaft..."Squall told Tidus in a slightly solemn voice.
It may be the last time we ever see our parents...-thought Tidus.


----------------------------
Meanwhile...

Elizabeth, Patrick, and May had gone back inside.
"Wow!"exclaimed Elizabeth as she looked at May's necklace.
"Do you think its real?"she asked as she looked at the gold and silver colored necklace.
"I don't know, it certainly appears to be"answered Patrick.
"Mommy, when are they coming back?"asked a heartbroken May.
"Im not sure if they can"answered Elizabeth.
Elizabeth had saw a poster about 4 rebels from the council, and she was positive that they were them.But, she didn't seem to care.
They showed a lot of kindness...-she thought They must have a good reason for their rebellion.

With that thought in mind, she went upstairs to the room where the men had slept so she could clean up the mess.
Suddenly Patrick heard a deafening scream from upstairs and spilled the coffee he was drinking all over him.
"Ahhh!!" he yelled as he got up from the table and ran upstairs.
"Look!!"Elizabeth exclaimed.
There were 2 gold pieces and a note on the Zak's desk.
Patrick took the note and read it.

A token of our appreciation..We hope this can help you with any expenses or debts that need to be taken care of.
Sincerely,
Tidus,Squall, Raifer, and Cloud.
Patrick layed the folded piece of paper back down and hugged his wife while jumping up and down.
"Were rich!"they both chanted in sycronison.

[Aphius]

Cloud

As the four of them walked away from the villiage Cloud was thinking to himself. 'I wonder what it will be like in their hometowns...' Cloud contemplated this as he walked alongside the rest of the party. Looking around up at the trees they walked Cloud noticed that they swayed slowly in the breeze, their branches clacking together and their leaves rusling softly.

Shifting the weight of his sword as he walked he glanced over at Squall and Tidus as they walked. They both really wanted to see their parents. They didn't let it show on their faces but Cloud could see it in their eyes. At the mention of family in conversation a gloom seemed to descend upon them, so Cloud tried to avoid mentioning it.

They had to walk 20 miles to get to Squall's house and he was beginning to wonder what would happen to them on the way there. Would they run into more council thugs? He thought that perhaps it be best not to worry about it until it happened.

[size=9]Short and sweet. Just gettin' back into the swing of things. :P

[Umbrasquall]

This was kinda rushed so sorry.

Squall

The day passed by quickly for the group. Trekking through the shady landscape they made good progress. Etheran had joined them shortly after they reentered the woods and had walked beside them for a while, and then left again mysteriously, they had not seen him since. It was towards nightfall when they arrived.

“Look, the city.” Raifer slowed his pace. The group followed Raifer’s gesture. Through some low-hanging branches they could spot the black silhouettes of the gigantic stone towers of Lancaster set against the fiery evening horizon.

“Ok guys.” Squall stopped and addressed the others. “My village is just a short walk north of here, lets set up a temporary camp further back into the woods.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. They backtracked to the south for a short time until they came upon a small clearing boxed between two groves of pine that they had passed through earlier.

Dropping their equipment on the soft earth, they each set about different tasks. Tidus and Squall wandered into the woods to find some fuel to build a fire, while Cloud and Raifer cleared some space and set out the spot with some thick greens. Around five minutes later Squall returned with an armful of fallen timber. Dumping the batch unceremoniously on the ground he threw a few branches onto the cleared spot. He pulled out a flint box and looked around hopefully for some dry grass or such with which he could make the starter flame with. However, the only vegetation around besides the trees were some scattered patches of grayish moss.

Squall jumped a little as a wave of heat washed by him, the timber burst into flames. He turned to see Cloud leaning casually against a tree with one arm held out.

“Jeez Cloud, you’re gonna have to stop randomly blasting fire around without prior warning.” Raifer quipped.

“Yeah, that one almost set my head on fire.” Squall laughed, throwing more wood into the flames until a merry blaze settled.

A crash through the woods signaled Tidus’s return. He was holding some dry branches under one arm and a dead rabbit with his free left hand.

“Thought we could add this to our menu.” Tidus set down what he was carrying before slumping against a tree. Squall wasn’t used to Tidus not being cheerful, and he had been like this the whole day.

While Raifer and Cloud prepared the meal Squall sat down against a tree next to Tidus.

"How's it going?" He asked.

"Not bad."

"Don't **** with me I know what you are thinking."

Tidus looked up suprised, his eyes were glazed. "Really?"

"I'm in the same position remember. We both are worrying about our families."

“I’m afraid the council will try to hurt them…”

-------------------

They were all silent during dinner. Cloud and Raifer seemed to sense the dreary atmosphere and kept their mouthes shut.

Tidus left first, his house was further away. Squall watched his form disappear among the leaves before turning to the other two.

“The city guard will be alert. You’ll meet trouble. Don’t get yourselves killed. Check out what’s going on and get back to the woods immediately. We’ll meet here in the morning."

The two nodded and left the clearing. Taking one last look around Squall extinguished what was left of the fire and vanished into the trees.

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

Squall made directly for Deer Pines. He was worried about his parents. The forest was alerted of the young man quickly passing through it by the occasional breaking of a dry branch.

Squall had given Tidus his map when they separated. He had told Tidus to meet at the edge of the woods a little before dawn so they can go back to the planned clearing together. Squall momentarily remembered that Tidus was in the same position as he, and wished his friend good luck.

A fifteen-minute walk later, he arrived at the outer fringes of his small town. Squall made the conclusion by the amount of tree stumps dotting the fairly open landscape, their main trunks had chopped for logging and firewood. Further residues of activity appeared in the flakes of timber that littered the area. He recognized several large oaks that he used to climb as a child.

Progressing further he found the town like he had left it a few days ago. He breathed a sigh of relief when he reached his house.

It was still there, that was a good sign. A candle flickered inside, casting brief flashes of light on the darkened ground outside the window. It was probably his mother finishing up some daily work.

Calming himself, he reached for the doorknob. Upon opening, the door gave a loud creak. Squall smiled and relaxed a little, his father had been meaning to fix the rusty hinges but hadn't gotten around to it. It felt good to be home.

In another two minutes Squall, his father, and his mother had taken seat in the living room. Squall was handed a mug of something hot.

"Hey son," His dad asked warily, seeing Squall's expression.

Squall's smile had faded and now it was easy to spot the fatigue and worry on his face.

"Hey dad, mom." Squall replied after a small hesitation. "I have something to tell you, I don't have much time, so hear me out." Squall sipped his drink, it was soup.

His parents exchanged glances. His mother worried, and his father nodded towards him to continue.

Squall told all about his testing: the 3 people he went with, the monsters, the condor, the man, the letter, the representative, the plans to go to the sixth shell.

After he had finished he judged his parents reactions. To his surprise, they were quite serious.

"Don't worry, I believe you Squall." His father spoke. "I'd known that the council legitimacy was decreasing. When I left the guard that Ronin guy had just risen to master. He's as bad as they get."

"You knew Ronin?" Squall asked in further surprise.

"Yes, I never told you, but Ronin was one of the reasons why I quit. He did some very immoral things to get that office he has right now."

Squall's head spun with this new revelation. He stood up.

"You say you sent friends to the city? There's no doubt they'll meet trouble. Ronin's a wily one, he will definitely have preparations."

"I... I have to warn Cloud and Raifer." Squall stumbled for the door.

"No!"

Squall paused.

"Listen Squall honey, you are tired. You need rest. It'll just be more trouble and unnecessary attention if you go." His mother spoke for the first time.

Squall admired his mother. She had always been caring and there for him, even during the times when his father punished him. She was also very intelligent.

"Yes, listen to your mother. You need to rest before you can do any more."

--------------

A figure lay on the bed in the small dark bedroom. Squall's chest rose and fell smoothly in even intervals. The moon had rose high outside, casting the shadows of trees down onto the earth forming eerie shadows. Squall murmured in his sleep...

--------------

He was standing on stone, cold and hard. A red light flickered. He began walking towards it, eager to see what made the light. Faster and faster he walked until he broke into a run. The light was getting brighter, closer...

--------------

Squall awoke. He had the dream again. What was it supposed to mean? Never before in his life had he had such a mysterious night vision. He shuddered as he remembered the darkness of that stony surrounding.

It was still dark outside. Squall judged it to be around 3 or 4 am. He got up sighing, and padded over to the window.

Leaning against the windowsill he gazed out from the second floor perspective at the moonlit town. Squall appreciated how peaceful it looked. The shadows of the trees were not as dark now, as the brightness of the heavens shone across the entire village. There was nothing wrong with the scene, it was breathtakingly beautiful.

As Squall shifted his weight a little more to his right side, he caught a dash of movement under the foliage by his neighbor's home.

He held his breath. Was he just imagining things? His heart began to beat faster. After another minute he was about to think that he had been mistaken when he saw another flash of movement among some bushes, this time to his left. His heartbeat soared again.

Squall slowly backed away from the window and stepped toward his bed. His fingers had just closed around the hilt of his sword when he heard a door creak...

He knew he didn't have much time. He crept out of his room with his weapon held low. He made for his parent's room silently and swiftly.

Upon entering he ran to the bed and practically shook the occupants awake.

"Mmmmph... What?" Squall's mother mumbled.

"Mom, Dad! There are people entering into the house and I don't think they're friendly."

His father was already up and reaching for something on top of the cloth cabinet. His mom woke fully, eyes wide.

"Shhhh..." Squall's dad put a finger to his lips and leaned against the bedroom door, holding a large broadsword.

A single pair of footsteps knocked against the wooden hall floor outside. It paused outside the bedroom with the three family members.

"Hide." Squall's father mouthed one word to his wife, who was getting out of bed as quietly as she could.

Without another pause, Squall and his father kicked the door, hard.

The wooden panel slammed open with a loud BANG! Hitting whomever that had been behind it. Squall caught a flash of a man dressed completely in dark colors before barreling into him from the side.

"Squall! Outside!"

He understood. The man had recovered exceptionally fast and was already swinging a flashing saber toward him. Squall dodged just in time, and ran for the stairs.

They burst through the front door a minute later, the dark attired man behind him. The attacker had not made a single noise, not even when the door and Squall had slammed him.

Squall was glad for his father's advice. He could finally raise his large sword. It had been useless before in the narrow halls of his house.

A clash of metal sounded to his right and he saw with a little terror that another black dressed saber wielder had attacked his father from the bushes.

He turned back to his opponent and almost wished he hadn't given his full attention back. The man was grinning silently like he was mad. His teeth were chipped, and blacker then even his clothes. The expression sent shivers down Squall's spine.

Then it was a whirl of attacks, parries, and more attacks as the man advanced and Squall was forced onto defense.

He noted that the man did not rely on brute strength of the weapon, but actually knew how to use the saber. The man wielded his weapon with speed and deadly precision. Squall could barely react and defend himself with his bulky weapon.

A slash to the left, Squall swung his weapon to block. The saber bounced off with a ping sound, but already was being reflourished for a thrust at Squall's exposed right. Squall struggled to block and barely made it. Again the saber rebounded, the momentum carried it into another attack.

Squall couldn't keep this up. He spied his father out of the corner of his eye. The older man had more experience, and along with a smaller weapon was holding up well against the assassin.

Then something happened.

Squall's mother appeared around the corner of the house, she had probably left through the backdoor. The dark man in front of Squall spotted her and gestured a signal toward a tree.

Before he knew it a third man had jumped out of the branches flying directly at his mother.

Squall froze. "MOM!!! Watch out!!!"

His father turned and saw what was happening. "Kate! NO! Stop you..."

Before he had finished the sentence, two things happened.

The assassin reached Squall's mother.

Then, a sword blocked the blow from the saber aimed at the woman.

Squall blinked. "Wha..."

Tidus stood between the woman on the ground and the glaring assassin. His sword held by the hilt and broad side of the blade in a block. It was his friend's eyes that caught Squall's attention, they were full of pure, cold fury, entirely devoid of any other emotion.

"Tidus? But I thought you were with..."

With a feral roar Tidus attacked the assassin viciously. Blows rained down on the flashing saber of the opponent with such speed that Squall could see the smaller blade bend under the pressure. The assassin slowly backed away from the hits. Squall was amazed. He had never seen Tidus fight like this. It was like his whole being was focused on it. Just as Squall's own opponent silently advanced to try to score a hit on the distracted teen Squall saw something that alarmed him deeply. Tidus was crying.

Squall re-engaged his opponent with confusion. What was going on? He chanced another look. The tears of hate and anger continued to fall from the warriors face as he fought with all his strength and passion.

"Argh!" Squall snapped around to see his father with a saber thrust through his shoulder. The man had turned his back to the assassin to run to the aid of his wife and the enemy had taken no hesitation to stab him. Blood splattered onto the soft earth as the strong man fell.

"Noooo!!!" Squall yelled. His expression soon changed to anger.

"AHHHH!" The teen gave out a hoarse cry as he charged towards the dark figure standing over the still form of his father, sword dragging the ground after him.

"ELEMENTAL BLADE!" Squall dug his sword into the soft dirt and swung it through the earth before having it fly up out of the ground into the air. Huge rocks came soaring up in a flash of light along with the weapon, which ripped right through the surprised assassin. * The flying rocks shredded what was left of the man's limp body.

Squall spun around immediately and braced his sword, which was now glowing a dull orange. His original opponent froze slightly. Squall charged. The assassin moved to block, but the glowing blade snapped the saber in half with its force, slashing the dark clothing on the man's left arm.

Squall could tell that he had injured his opponent, as the blackness of the assassin's clothes was now shinier under the moonlight.

"Who are you? Why are you here? Tell me!" Squall yelled holding his sword ready for another attack.

The man held what was left of his saber in his one good hand, and stared back at Squall. Then, before Squall could stop him, he forcefully stabbed the broken weapon into himself, and fell to the ground noiselessly.

Squall was surprised for a instant, then sighed. Remembering his parents he ran for his father. Tidus was already on the ground next to the fallen man, a blue aura surrounding them. Squall could see the last assassin's body, and head, which was separate, lying beyond on the bloodstained battlefield.

He reached the pair just as his mother came out of the house again with some towels and a basin of water. His father's wound was sealing itself shut as Squall looked on in amazement.

"Thanks Tidus." Squall breathed a sigh of relief.

Tidus looked up, a blank expression on his face. He was much more composed now that the assassins were dead. "No problem."

In a little while Tidus stood back up. He motioned for Squall to help him carry his father into the house. They picked up the limp form and stepped through the front door.

After they had settled Squall's dad on his bed Squall's mother took over. Squall looked at Tidus.

"Tidus I need to talk to you."

Tidus nodded. The two went back down and outside.

Leaning against a tree, Squall watched Tidus's moonlit face. It bore a hard, stoic countenance.

"Ok what happened."

"How did you do that Squall?"

"Do what?"

"That move, and also when you broke the saber." Squall noticed Tidus avoided mentioning the assassin directly.

"That was my blade when it’s infused with the element Earth." Squall explained. "It allowed me to perform the technique as well as giving my sword rock-hard endurance..." Squall paused.

"...Tidus don't change the subject, you are supposed to be with your family, tell me what happened."

* (Picture Squall's limit the 'Rough Divide' in FFVIII)

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus


Tidus took off in a run, he was eager to meet his parents and at the same time slightly sad

that it could be his last visit with them..ever.

After nearly a half hour he came to the small secluded cottage that was his home.
There were candles burning brightly in the windows so Tidus presumed they were awake.He

walked over to the big oak door and knocked on it.There was no answer.


Well, I guess I'll let myself in.-Thought Tidus.

He opened the door and stepped into the hallway leading to the living room.When he walked

into the living room he was surprised to see books, papers, and misc. objects strewn across

the floor in a mess.Tidus dismissed it as his parents being a bit to lazy to pick up at the

time.He then proceded to go into the kitchen where he assumed he would find his mother doing

the dishes or cleaning up.She wasn't there.

By this time Tidus became a bit worried.
"Mother, Father, Im home!"Tidus called out in vain.
Not a soul replied.
He ran into his parents room and stared in disbelief at what lie before him.
No...no..its not true..its not real..-thought Tidus
What he was looking at was the bodies of his parents...accompanying blood stains on the

carpet.

Tidus broke down in tears.
His parents were ruthlessly murdered all because of him..because he got to involved in things

that were none of his buisness..they were murdered because he knew the truth.

"Those bastards will pay!"Tidus yelled aloud as streams of tears were rolling down his

cheeks.
Tidus looked at the lifeless bodies on the floor..the now empty shells were once filled with

love.
Tidus sat down beside them and cried for a long time...When he finally stopped he came to his

senses and realized that they at least needed a proper burial.
He walked outside and grabbed a shovel from the shed.
Under his parents favorite tree he dug 2 holes all the while blocking out what he was digging

them for and simply focusing on getting the hole done.
When he finished he went back and carried their bodies outside placing them each in a hole.He

covered them up and placed two rocks with their names carved in it.
"Goodbye"he said nealing down in front of there graves.
At that time an owl flew from his perch and over the head of Tidus..he saw it as a

sign...that they were happy wherever they were.

Tidus's sadness soon turned to rage...he had to warn Squall..his family might be next.
He checked the map and rushed off into the forest heading for Squall's house tears streaming

down his face and a fire burning within like never before..he would get his revenge....soon.

He went inside the house, grabbed what little money that was left, and he took some

Jerky...the kind his mother made.

He took off for Squall's house at the fastest pace he could manage...he had to get there

fast..Squall's life and his parent's life depended on it.He was too late for his, but he

wouldn't make the same mistake twice.

[Aphius]

Maybe we should all just stop posting in the Story Thread. :|

Perhaps even get non-story posts cleaned out. :P

------------------------------------------------------------------

Cloud

The two travellers stepped into the forest, as they walked through the brush they heard the sounds of a fire being extiguished and another figure enter the trees in their opposite direction.

Cloud was contemplating what the city would look like when they got there as he walked along, ducking under branches and stepping over logs that obscured his path. He could hear Raifer behind him following closely making his way through the bushes in the path Cloud was leaving. Looking up he saw that the trees were swaying in the breeze and their leaves were brushing against each other. He looked back down at the ground and noticed that he couldn't see much of the ground he was walking on besides the large logs and branches he was stepping over.

"Hey Raifer?" Cloud asked.
"What?" He replied in a gruff voice, on account of almost tripping on a large branch.
"What do you think of all thats happened so far?" Cloud asked him in a serious voice.
"I don't really know..." He said slightly confused. "I haven't really thought about it... I just want to get down to my family"
"I suppose you're right..." Cloud replied.

They continued walking in silence except for the odd grunt from either of them due to stubbed toes and tree scratches. They came to a part of the forest where the trees were thinner than they were usually.
"I think the forest is thinning out..." Raifer said looking around cautiously.
"We must be getting close to the city..." Cloud said, looking around the trees as well.

As Cloud looked at the ground he felt a breeze flow past them. It wasn't a normal gust of wind either. It was akin to the one he felt when they fought the Condor. "Raifer..." Cloud said.
"I felt it too..." He replied readying himself. Looking around neither of them could see anything, however as they started to think it might have actually been the wind a shadow flew over them with the shape of a rather large bird, though not as large as the condor they had fought. They both whipped their heads up to look for what it was but it had already passed by.

"What the heck was that?" Raifer asked.
"I'm not sure..." Cloud replied.
"Cllloooooouud..." a eerie female voice echoed through the air.
"Gha!" Raifer exclaimed in surprise. "Who said that?!" Clouds eyes widened. He recognised that voice from somewhere.
"Cloouud... I know you're theeeere. Bha ha ha ha!" laughed the strange voice.
"Wait a minute... I know that voice!" Cloud exclaimed as something swooped and dug its talons into his shoulder and lifted him high into the the air as it flew back up. "Aaagh!" Cloud shouted in pain as the bird-like feet tightened their grip on his shoulder, digging the claws in deeper.

"Cloud!" Raifer shouted as he watched cloud get taken into the air by something with a massive wingspan and clawed talons on its legs. Watching the bird-like creature fly upwards with Cloud flailing in its talons Raifer noticed that it had started to circle back around. Raifer saw cloud trying to hit it with his sword in his free arm, but to no avail. Cloud couldn't hit it from the position he was in.

In the air, Cloud was swinging from the winged creature, his shoulder stinging from the pain that the creatures talons were inflicting on him. "Here we go!" his captor shouted as the two of them started to descend at massive speed towards the ground and Raifer.

Rafer watched as the two of them came closer and closer. Backing up slightly he realised that they weren't slowing down. "Goodbye Cloud!" The female voice said to him as she released her grip on him and pulled sharply back into the air.
"Wooaoaoah!" Raifer was yelling as he scrambled out of the way of Cloud who went flying through several trees, snapping throught them on impact and rolling to rest at least twenty metres from where he origionally hit.
"Cloud!" Raifer called out to his still laying comrade. Raifer looked up and saw that whatever had thrown Cloud was coming back down and was slowing it's descent as it dropped into the trees several hundred feet away from them. Raifer reached behind his back and unholstered his two daggers and held them at the ready, waiting for whatever it was to come and try to finish the two of them.

Raifer's eyes scanned the darkness for their attacker, yet it was too dark to see much of anything, and he couldn't hear Cloud moving at all. He was alone, "What'll I do?" He thought. "I cant see anything in this darkness... and this bird or whatever it is is much quicker than that condor... If only there was something I could do to find this thing..."
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. He heard the footsteps of something coming closer through the trees. "Wait!" He thought, remembering the Animation crystals he had picked from the dried Mud mosters. Putting both his daggers back in their holsters and reaching into his pouch, he pulled one out and clutched it in his hand. He made out the shape of a tall form coming through the trees and stopping as it came closer to him.

He thought that it was now or never. He raised his arm to throw the crystal and blow the thing up, however as the crystal raised above his head and he was about to pitch it at the thing, he felt a cold, rough, clawed hand wrap around his wrist preventing him from throwing it. He looked up and the hand and saw that it was bird-like in appearance, yet still looked human. The hand belonged to the winged attacker. She had rushed him and grabbed his hand before he'd thrown the crystal at her.
"Do you think I don't know what this is?!?" She angrily yelled at him as she wrenched the crystal from his hand and whipped him around and threw him in Cloud's direction. Raifer landed with a thump on the ground in front of Cloud. He looked around to see the attacker looking at the Animation crystal intensely, the glow illuminating the face and body of their attacker.

He looked her down as she was illumnated. She was rather tall, with black hair that went down to her shoulders in clumps, she had a longer neck than an average woman and as his eyes reached below her shoulders he was shocked at what he beheld. The woman was like a cross between a bird and a human, she had huge wings on her back and she was covered in feathers except for her stomach, face, neck and legs. Her legs were exactly like those of a bird. She turned her head away from the crystal towards him and said "The council has taken a keen interest in you two... You should consider yourselves lucky to still be alive, however the one who brings you dead or alive to the offices of the council will be heavily rewarded!" Raifer quickly surveyed his surroundings in the darknes to see if there was anything he could distract her with, but to no avail. She walked over to the stunned Raifer, flipping the crystal in her hand and she said in a taunting voice "Sorry about this, but I don't have any other choice." She made a fist with her other hand and then her claws grew sharp.

As she filpped the crystal into the air again it suddenly exploded with an almighty roar as a thin concentrated arrow of fire shot a hole through the centre of it. Raifer saw the bird-woman go flying backwards as the whole surrounding area illuminated for a few seconds with a blue glow from the crystal explosion. Raifer whipped his head around and saw Cloud standing shakily leaning on his sword with his arm out and fire receeding into it. "Hrragh!" She screamed at him.
"You've changed Mei..." Cloud laughed while coughing slightly. She stood up but looked like she had been winded by the force of the explosion and had to lean against a tree to hold herself up. "Why Mei? What have you done to yourself? You've reduced yourself to being a council lackey?! Why did you become a harpy!?!" She looked up at him and started laughing. She picked herself up off the tree, as Cloud started to stand up on his own as well.
"My reasons are my own. However YOU are wanted by the council for treasonous crimes! You aren't the person I once knew either! It's now my duty to bring you to justice and take you to the council office back in Hell!" Mei shouted as she and Cloud lunged for each other.

The two of them locked arms and were each pushing against each other in a bid to topple the other. Raifer heard a rustling in the trees as this was going on. Turning around he looked for what the noise was. As he was looking he heard a whooshing noise, then he saw a large Ninja star heading for all of them. It suddenly flew out of the tree-line from the darkness as Raifer tackled the two of them to the ground. The star hit the tree behind where they were previously fighting with a loud crack. Looking up Cloud could make out the shape of a man perched in the branches of a tree in the direction the star came from.

"Ha ha ha! You're done for now!" Mei chortled as she jumped back from the two travellers.

[ffx-dreamz]

Tidus

"...Tidus don't change the subject, you are supposed to be with your family, tell me what happened."Squall said softly.

"My parents...the're dead.."Tidus said in a solemn tone."Both of them..the council got to them first, I came here as fast as I could manage."

Squall suddenly realized why Tidus had remained silent, it was a tough subject and he felt horrible for bringing it up.
"Im..Im sorry to hear that Tidus.."
"The council will pay for what they have done...mark my words."Squall said Sternly.

"You can count on that!"said Tidus wiping away a tear and becoming his normal cheery self.
"But...we can plot about this tommorow, Im dead tired."Said Tidus with a laugh.

How did he do that?-Thought Squall

The truth was, Tidus still felt saddened..and hatred, he just decided that he wasn't going to cry any longer because it wasn't going to solve a thing...but he knew that he was going to get his revenge, because his parents were not dying alone.

"You can sleep in my bed."Said Squall, "I'll take the floor.

And with that, they both got settled and went off into a deep sleep.


(Yea, it was a short post, I know..but I wanted to at least give it a little life, its not going to die like the Belantof!!)

[Lomebririon]

I'm finished!!! It's no splintered soul, but it's a lot longer than what I usually write.

Raifer

Raifer and Cloud drew their weapons, readying themselves for an attack from the man in the tree. The man in the tree was staring at them and laughing to himself, as if he thought of them as a trivial waste of time. The man reached for a small satchel on his back and withdrew several throwing knives. Raifer tensed as the man reared back and hurled the knives with incredible speed.

Cloud and Raifer raised their weapons to block the knives.

The sound of metal piercing skin and bone could be heard as the knives collided with their target.

After the noises had subsided, the two travellers cautiously lowered their weapons and looked themselves over. They had not been hit by the knives, not even scratched. "What happened?" Cloud asked. From behind them they heard soft whimpers of pain, followed by the sound of someone gurgling slightly. The two travellers whipped around to see... Mei, with a complete look of shock and horror on her face, she looked down to see that she was the one who was hit by the daggers.

"Sorry there harpy lady." the man said with a look of delight on his face.

"Why?" She replied, clutching her wounds while struggling to stay standing.

The man jumped to a closer tree, hanging from it and smiling like some kind of sadistic monkey.

"It's orders." he replied. "Our important friends at the most prestigious Council can't be known to be working with unworthy creatures such as Harpys. You served your purpose and led us to the target. And what better way to 'hide' the evidence of the partnership than to kill you." He then started chuckling to himself.

She took several painful steps forward with her arm outstretched as if trying to grab him before yelling "You traitorous dog!" and collapsing on the ground in a heap.

"Mei!" Cloud yelled and began running toward her. He was stopped by Raifer. "Wait!" he said to him. "Get him first!" He pointed to the man in the tree. Cloud nodded and raised his sword to the man.

"Come on ugly!" Cloud yelled.

"You fools have no idea who you're dealing with!" The man yelled at them before drawing a sword.

"Neither do you!" Raifer called back raising his daggers. The man leapt out of the tree down toward the two travellers and the three of them were locked in a furious battle. The figure attacked with a flurry of hard hitting attacks. The two fighters were surprised at the force behind his blows, they were knocked backwards, cloud almost off of his feet and Raifer, who was caught slightly off guard and tumbled backwards, landing hard on the forest floor. He could not stay there long, as the figure was hurling towards him to land on him with his knee. He was only able to avoid the figure's blow by inches, the assailant then quickly whipping around to clash with Cloud's sword. Cloud rapidly swung his enormous sword at his opponent with a surprising amount of skill and speed, their swords collided, sparking after every blow. The figure jumped backwards and Cloud ran after him, sword at the ready. Moving quickly, the man drew several knives and threw them at Cloud. Cloud raised his sword, blocking the knives while barely even slowing his pace. He threw his sword behind him, readying himself for a swinging blow. As the figure raised his blade in defence, Cloud brought his sword down with such a force it shattered his enemies sword into many pieces. As Cloud brought his sword back up after the attack, the figure punched him several times quickly and kicked him backwards onto the forest floor. The figure jumped toward Coud with a knife drawn ready to strike when a large flash went off in his face. He was then catapulted backwards as he caught the edge of a dagger to his jaw. Landing hard on the ground, the figure turned quickly to see Raifer running at him, both daggers drawn.

The figure raised his arms in defence and was pushed back as Raifer's daggers hit his armguards. He yelled as Raifer exposed him to a quick attack of slashes and stabs. The figure reacted by hastily grabbing Raifer's arm and hitting him with a powerful punch. Reeling backwards, The lelakon theif was caught off guard as the smiling attacker whirled around with his knife, slashing Raifer across his arm. He yelled out in pain, only to be caught in the head by an exremely forceful roundhouse kick. The man in black turned to face his disorientated opponent only to catch a powerful blast of fire in the chest. Staggering backwards in surprise the man saw Cloud running towards him, sword in one hand, flinging fireballs with the other. "You're going to die for that!" he yelled to Cloud. The man in black readied himself to retaliate when he yelled out in agony. On the ground was Raifer was laying there, with his dagger stabbed hard through the man's foot. As he reached for Raifer, the injured Lelaokn theif released a powerful pyrotechnic blast and yanked his dagger out of the man's foot. The man stumbled back clutching his eyes. The man in black struggled to regain composure, blinking and staggering. He opened his eyes to see Cloud running at him with his sword at the ready. He had no time to react. Cloud ran up to the figure and stabbed him while running, fiercely impaling him on his sword. Cloud then put his foot on his opponent and kicked him off of his sword. The figure stumbled and came to a stadstill. He looked at Cloud and Raifer with a look of surprise and horror as he clutched his wound, struggling to stay on his feet. The man turned and fled into the woods.

Cloud quickly turned to the forest, but then looked back at where the injured harpy lay, as if torn between caring for a friend and chasing their attacker. Raifer saw his dilemma and said "Stay here! I'll get him!" Cloud nodded and with that, Raifer leapt into the woods. It was not hard to follow the man as there was a distinct trail of blood leading in his direction. Raifer picked up speed as he followed the trail. Leaping through the branches of trees Raifer came to an abrupt halt. The trail had stopped. Standing on a high branch, Raifer scratched his head in thought. He looked around in all directions and saw nothing. Then he looked down. There was the figure, lying on the forest floor, dead. He climbed down from the tree to get a closer look. The man had obviously died from blood loss. Raifer checked his person for any clues as to his Origin and maybe some valuables. He found a hefty bag of gold, a stock of throwing daggers and a map of the shell with several houses marked on it. As he stood up he noticed something in the distance. A glow several hundred metres in the distance. It looked like a campfire and was probably where the man in black was headed. Suddenly, Raifer heard a rustling in the foliage behind him. He turned around to see Cloud, with the harpy Mei slumped over his shoulder. "I just followed the trail of blood here." he said.
"I think I know where he was headed." Raifer commented, then pointed to the amber glow in the distance.

"Let's check it out." Cloud suggested.

Raifer and Cloud made their way slowly toward the camp where the men in black were situated, they could make out shapes illuminated in the light of a campfire, dancing on the trees and rocks. As he moved closer, Raifer was able to make out individual figures and could hear what they were saying. There were 3 of them, he could only see two of them, but he could hear a third out of sight making noises. The two in sight were discussing trivial things, such as the weather, foods and their favourite shells. "They're just shooting the breeze." Cloud said. "If we move quietly, we may catch them by surprise."

Raifer was ready to agree with him when he heard something. He heard low moans coming from the direction of the third person.

"Is that bastard still complaining?" The first man said to the third.

"Yeah." The third man replied. "Friggin' Lelakon scum! Stay quiet!" The sound of a hard kick was heard and a yelp of pain rang out through the forest.

Raifer heard that it was one of his people who needed help and readied for action. He started to leap but was pulled back down by Cloud. "You can't just rush in there!" He whispered harshly. "These aren't dumb inexperienced villagers! These guys are killers! They'd see you coming a mile off and you'd be dead or captured, just like that guy!"

"Well, what would you have me do?!?" He retaliated. Cloud looked at him, then over to the camp.

"Let's move in and get a closer look then" He concluded. "If we know what we're up against we could make this a hell of a lot easier on ourselves." Raifer nodded and they moved quietly through the thick foliage over to behind the ruins of a small, very old building. They could almost see the third man of the group. He was pushing a figure lying curled up on the ground around with his foot while laughing to himself.

"Bring him over here!" The first man bellowed. The silhouette of the third man grabbed the person on the ground and began to drag them over to the others. He threw the person into the light of the fire, Cloud and Raifer had a good view of the captee.

"Oh for the love of Anatis!" Raifer whispered in surprise, turning away and crouching behind a nearby rock.

"Who is it?" Cloud asked.

"It's Nimal!"

"Who?"

"Nimal, he's the Lelakon theiving tester. But what the hell is he doing here?!?"

Raifer turned back to get another look at the events unfold around the glowing campfire. The third man threw Nimal at the feet of the first man in black. The first man leaned down and was face to face with the tester. He grinned in an extremely evil manner, then leaned back up and put his boot under Nimal's chin. He thrust his foot forward with such a force it pushed Nimal to his feet. As he saw him standing there, struggling to stay on his feet, Raifer could not help but be filled with an almost uncontrollable rage, a rage that threatened to overtake him and push him to do something stupid.

The first man, who appeared to be the leader stood up from where he was sitting and walked over to the injured Lelakon tribesman and grabbed him by the neck with his hand. The dark figure moved Nimal closer to his face and said to him in a low tone "I don't think we need any hostages."

He turned in the direction of his comrades and said "Whaddya think fellas?!?"

"Nope." They replied calmly. The one other man that was visible was smiling like a jackal.

The leader grinned and took a step back. In the blink of an eye he drew his sword and with a flash of steel, the tester fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. He was dead. Raifer recoiled in shock of what just happened. He went for his daggers and jumped. He was pulled down by Cloud again. Raifer struggled to free himself. "Calm down!" he whispered harshly "You'll be killed running in there in a fury!" They continued to struggle until the figure that was out of view said "What should we do with the other one?"

They both stopped and looked.

"Bring her here." The leader replied.

The silhouette of the third man hidden from view began dragging what looked like a young girl and walked into the light of the campfire. He and Cloud saw the third man. He was wearing a hat. A large beautiful mages hat. Suddenly it dawned on Raifer. He now knew why the tester was here, why there were Lelakon on this shell and why they were in this forest. He gasped in a mixture of shock and realisation.

"What!?!" Cloud asked.

"They've got Akia!" He replied in a voice filled with horror.

"Akia? You mean the girl you met in Bran?"

"Yes! She and Nimal were here for her theiving test! They must have been heading for the Elevator to get back to the 6th shell when they were jumped by those wierdos!"

They watched as the third man dragged the girl into the light and dropped her at the feet of their leader. There was no doubt now, it was Raifer's friend Akia. However she looked a sight. She was badly injured, her clothes were ragged and torn, she was bruised, beaten and her arm looked broken. She looked like she was having trouble breathing. The man leaned down to her and said "This is your final minute on this world." Her eyes widened in fear.

"If he makes a move toward her we attack." Cloud said.

"Agreed." Raifer replied.

He grabbed her by the jaw and spoke to her. "However, seeing as what you are, i'm going to tell you a secret before we kill you."

He spoke softly in her ear, almost inaudibly. "You must be what 15, 16 years old? Remember when you were very young. You remember that most horrible thing that happened to your kind don't you? Remember it."

Tears began to run down her cheeks as she stared at him. Raifer had become as pale as a ghost. He knew what the man was talking about.

"Guess what." He said as he spoke softly to her. Raifer leaned forward as not to miss what he said.

"It's going to happen again."

Akia began to scream and cry fiercely, shaking her head in disbelief. Raifer was hunched over, it appeared like he was going to be sick, tears were running down his face and he looked like he wanted to scream.

As the man stood up and drew his sword. "As soon as we take care of you and those traitors, we are going down there to help them do it."

Suddenly, Raifer began to shake. Cloud looked over at him as he stood up, he began eminating enormous amounts of energy. Electricity began to course all around him. He appeared to be consumed with rage. "Not again." he said.

"what?" Cloud asked.

"NOT AGAIN!!" He yelled furiously as he sent out a shockwave of energy that no doubt alerted the men in black.

"What the hell was that?!?" One of the men yelled.

Raifer looked at his surroundings and his eyes settled on a large pile of rubble from the decrepid building near where they were hiding. As Raifer raised his hand towards the pile of twisted metal and stone, it began to shake and move. He clenched his teeth into an almost inhuman scowl and focused on the rumbling mass and yelled at the top of his lungs "INANIMATE REANIMATION!!!!"

Suddenly, the mass of rubble roared to life. It's hulking mass of shifted into an unearthly shape. standing on two powerful minataur like legs, it developed a pair of enormous arms and slammed the large crushing fists attatched to them into the earth with a force that shook the whole forest. The creature blinked to life as two sockets in a newly formed beast-like head flared with an unholy red glow. The reanimated creature threw it's head to the sky and let out an ear-peircing roar.

Cloud stared with a mix of awe and horror as these events unfolded. Raifer stood there in front of his newly created beast, eminating immense energy, he said in an almost calm voice "Destroy them."

The beast roared and bolted towards the men in black.

They looked scared out of their minds as the enormous pile of debris came barreling down upon them at insane speeds, it's crushing arms outstretched. Two of the men jumped out of the way just as the monster ran into the last man with the brute force of a train. It moved around quickly to face the other two men, crushing the other man's body with it's foot as it turned. The two men threw several dozen daggers at it in the blink of an eye. The monster did not even stop running as it approached the two figures, unfazed by the attempts to stop it's progress. It set it's sights on the man wearing the hat given to Akia by Raifer. It made a grab for him and he jumped on to it's head in an agile move. He drew his dagger and stabbed the monster with it. The monster made a grab for him, but he did a backflip behind it. Looking pleased with himself, the man landed softly on the ground, he looked up just when an enormous hand made of stone and twisted metal slammed itself around his neck, lifting him off of the ground and holding him up.

"It's quicker to turn than it looks!" Cloud said to himself in awe.

The monster tightened it's grip around the struggling man's neck, audible cracking noises could be heard until there was a sickening snap. The creature dropped the now lifless body with a dull thud, the mages hat falling to the ground softly next to it. The last man was staring at the pile of debris with a mixture of fear and amazement. It began advancing towards him. The man drew his sword and ran towards it. The monster made a grab for him, he ducked and slashed it repeatedly. It made another grab for him and he slashed it again. The man made a stab for the monster's eye socket, it raised it's arm to block the attack and then punched the man with one of it's boulder like fists. The man flew back into a large rock wall. He stood ther dazed for a moment, then looked up to see the monster barreling down upon him. He had no time to react as the beast raised it's arm and slammed it into him, pinning him there with it's large hand. It stared at the man, it then roared at him and raised it's other arm to deliver the final strike. It moved to attack him when the word "Stop." was called out by Raifer. Obediently, the monster stayed it's attack, however not releasing it's grip of the man.

As if running out of steam, Raifer's electrical aura subsided.He stepped backward and fell onto his backside. "Boy." he said, resuming his normal behaviour, "It's never good to do that when you're angry."

He shook his head as if to clear it and then called "Akia!" and ran over to her. He skidded over to her and kneeled down, he lifted her partly off of the ground into his arms. "Hey Akia." he said. She looked at him with a fatigued sense of happiness, then her eyes widened and she said in a panicked voice wracked with pain "That man! Raifer, that man was talking about the massacres!"

"I know, I know, I heard him." Raifer said, trying to calm her. "Don't you worry about that right now, save your strength."

He picked her up gently and carried her over to a stone slab near the encampment and laid her carefully on it. He turned to face his flabbergasted companion.

"What the hell was that!?!" Cloud asked him.

"What?"

"That!" Cloud said, then pointed at the enormous creature, currently pinning a man to a wall.

"Oh!" Raifer replied, not realising the full extent of what he had done. "That's a special ability of mine, ironically called "inanimate reanimation".

He turned back to Akia. Reaching into one of his pouches he retrieved a roll of bandages, antiseptic liquid and a bottle of mild sedative. He then proceeded to bandage her wounds and clean her up.

Cloud brought the harpy mei over near Raifer and laid her on the ground near the stone slab. Raifer passed him a roll of bandages and some disinfectant.

Cloud turned to him and asked "So this ability of yours lets you turn a pile of rocks into a killing machine?"

"i can make a pile of rocks do whatever I want. However it's not an ability to be used frivolously, 'cause when you do, things go wrong."

"How wrong are we talkin' here?"

"Turn around and tread on you wrong."

"Ah. That kind of wrong."

They worked on fixing their friends in silence for a few minutes. Then they heard the man still pinned to the wall by the monster yell to them "Hey! Get this friggin' monstrosity off me and fight like men!"

"Intersting words coming from a man who murders young girls and the helpless." Cloud replied. The man looked very angry. "Why didn't you let it kill him?" He asked Raifer.

"That man has information." He told him. "Information about something that affects my whole race. I want it."

"What was he talking about before? What happened to your people that was so horrible?"

"I don't suppose you've heard of the Lelakon Massacres have you?" He asked Cloud.

"No. Should I have?" He replied.

"I didn't think you would have. It's a long story though, I might wait to tell you until after we meet back up with Tidus and Squall so you all can hear it."

"Whatever." Cloud responded. "So how are you gonna get the information?"

"Hmmm..." Raifer mumbled. "I'm gonna give him an ultimatum. He looks like the kind of guy who would like to keep his life."

Cloud pondered this for a moment and then answered "Fair enough. Something very persuasive I hope."

They walked up to the man being held by the monster. "If you tell us what we want to know, we'll tie you up, take you to the edge of town and dump you there. No fuss, no mess. Otherwise the monster here..." he looked over at the monster, it proceeded to punch a tree in half. He looked back at him, "will crush your chest and then stomp on your corpse like a smouldering campfire."

The man stared at them, then the creature. "Deal." he said cooly to them.

"Really?" Raifer asked.

"Yeah, i'm not dying for the Council." He replied. "That bunch of old farts and 'nobles' as they like to be called can rot, they should be here at the front lines if they want their plans kept secret. Let them be pinned to a rock and killed by a god forsaken monster. I GOT my fee already."

Cloud and Raifer looked at each other. "Quite a sensible descision if you ask me." Raifer responded.

"In the style of a true backstabber." Cloud added.

"Let's tie him up, get the girls and head back into town, we've gotta meet back up with Squall and Tidus."

The two tied the man up and slung him onto the back of the monster. Raifer had it outstretch it's arms and they lay Mei on one arm and Akia on the other. They proceeded to make their way back into town, the lumbering mass following them.

"Tell us what you know..." Raifer requested.


As I promised, i'm going to give you guys a little something extra:

Reanimated debris (http://www.deviantart.com/view/8659294/)

Raifer's gift to Akia (http://www.deviantart.com/view/8628926/)

[Umbrasquall]

Hallo! I decided to post it in two parts. I guess I’m too used to writing Splintered Soul so this is reeeeeaaallly long. I’m going to a doctor’s appointment in a bit so this is the first half. Enjoy :)

Oh and I purposely didn't add what the guy will tell you (and won't write about you guys releasing him at the edge of the town, plus the reanimation thing's power faded so that's why he's not there when they meet up with Squall, it's all assumed and can be included in a flashback later :)), Lome can add the details when the group gets the chance to sit down and listen to him, since I don't really know what to write about what the man knows.

(Sorry I don't want to set a bad example either, we should keep the posts readable in one sitting.)

-----------------------------------

Raifer and Cloud returned at dawn. Squall was still outside leaning against a tree when he heard the rustling of footsteps on the leaves. Alarmed, he jumped up and raised the sword that he had been clutching.

He relaxed a little when he saw his two friends. As they saw him and made their way towards the edge of the woods, Squall noticed that Cloud had a tall, feathery body thrown over his shoulder. The curious part was that wasn’t in the shape of any bird Squall knew, it looked like a human. A third person appeared behind them. It was a young girl, she had been hurt and bandages were wrapped around her head and arms. The girl most likely knew Raifer, for she was moved in the same flowing fashion as the Lelakon thief.

Squall lowered his weapon as Cloud paused, silently looking beyond towards the houses.

“What in Anatis’s name happened here?” Raifer’s mouth dropped open. The girl gave a small gasp. Squall didn’t bother to turn around. He knew Raifer was referring to the blood splashed across the ground in front of his house.

Squall gritted his teeth and muttered one word. “Crucible.”

“How many.” Cloud finally spoke in a dry, monotonic voice, hardly like a question at all. He slowly lowered the feathery being and leaned her against the tree. It came as a shock to Squall when he realized that it was actually undeniably female. He was curious about who she was but decided to ask later.

He sighed, “Three, they came in the middle of the night. They went for Tidus’s family too.”

Raifer looked back at Squall from scanning the tree line. "Tidus? Where is he?"

"He's ok; I think he's around the back." Squall nodded towards his house. "He made it back in time to help me here. But his family... Listen, don't mention the subject to him. He's already in pretty bad shape."

“Damn it.”

After a small pause, Raifer scratched his head, thinking, and then realized newcomers in the midst. "Oh sorry, Squall, this is Akia. I told you about her before, I met her in Bran. She was here on the Lelakon thieving test and ran into some Council cronies. We happened to meet her on the way here and help her escape.” He didn’t go into details.

"Geez they're everywhere aren't they?" Tidus stepped out from around the side of Squall's small house drying his sword with a rag. He'd washed up at the creek behind the trees and now looked much better then the wreck Squall had seen him as a few hours ago. The morning sun gleamed on the surface of the blade as Tidus resheathed it.

Squall nodded. "I'm afraid so. The Woodlands is the second most Council controlled shell in the world, probably because the library as well as the active trading that goes on here."

Tidus froze when he saw the two new females.

“Who’s that?” Tidus pointed to the half-bird half-woman.

Cloud grunted. “Her name is Mei, my… friend from the seventh shell; we come from the same home region. It’s a long story. But if you could please…”

Tidus nodded, understanding Cloud’s gesture, and moved to kneel down by the tree. “She’s in bad shape, I’ll try my best.”

Squall watched Tidus for a moment as Tidus concentrated. A blue aura surrounded Mei; it started to flow in wavelike patterns that made it seem like Mei’s body was bathed in a pool of crystal clear, azure water. The healing started to sink in and the wounds started to close.

No wonder Tidus can heal, that almost looks like he’s just using his water power, Squall thought. He turned back to the others. "Okay we need to figure out what to do from here on. Now that we know how serious they are about killing us, there's no way we can take the elevator. But my dad’s offered a suggestion."

"Oh?" Cloud raised an eyebrow. "Another way for inter-shell travel other then the elevator? This'll be interesting."

Squall started to say something but jumped when he realized Tidus was on the brink of collapse. The blue aura was a feeble flicker around the body of Mei. “Tidus!”

Tidus panted heavily. “It’s ok I’m fine, just… used too much power I think.” He used the tree to straighten back up. “Sorry,” He said to Akia, noticing her wounds. “Just give me a second and I’ll help you out.”

Raifer shook his head, “No, you take a break. She’s in a better state then you.”

Both physically and emotionally. Squall finished to himself.

The girl, Akia, spoke, "As long as we’re not jumping straight down and killing ourselves, I'll try it. I have to get back to the sixth shell." She exchanged a dark glance with Raifer. Then she shuddered, seemingly remembering something horrible. Squall examined her; she looked young, too young to be up in a different shell, a different world, by herself.

"We're going too." Raifer patted her arm. "That's where we're headed anyways, back to our home shell."

Tidus had slowly walked to the gathering. Squall could see he was struggling not to stumble in exhaustion. The entire assembly made for the front door of the Evergreen house. Tidus continued for Squall. His voice was still a little shaky, but Squall let him talk, it would probably be for the best, to calm him.

"Squall's father used to be in the Lancasterian Army. Back then there was a man by the name of Bronys who was sort of an equipment designer and supplier. He made new types of weapons and armor styles for the army.” They reached the tree in front of the house and stopped.

Tidus leaned against tree, closing his eyes. He went on.

“Bronys was sort of an inventor on the side, and Squall’s father used to go to his shop and look around. They were good friends. One day, Bronys let out a secret. He had been building devices, some kind of air-sailing apparatus, which will allow elite Council soldiers to travel to other shells swiftly without the elevator.”

Raifer couldn’t contain himself any longer, looking excited. “Air sailing? Amazing! Where do we find these gadgets?”

Squall answered to give Tidus a break. “The devices were workable but were never released for Council use because they thought the sails were impractical. So Bronys kept them in his shop. My dad thinks that they may still work and Bronys would lend us some.”

“Great! Let’s get going then!” Raifer said. “Where’s this Bronys guy’s shop at?”

Tidus opened his eyes warily, a tight smile on his hardened face. “Lancaster.” Raifer looked a little crestfallen.

Squall added, “But on the edge of it. Since Bronys hadn’t been making too many contributions for the Council they’ve moved him further and further away from the center of the city. We should make it alright if we’re careful.”

-------------------------------------

It was actually early afternoon by the time they set out for Lancaster. Mrs. Evergreen had insisted on packing them all dinners while Tidus rested in Squall’s room.

“You never know when you’ll get another good meal on this kind of journey.” She had said to Squall while slicing sandwiches in the Evergreen’s small kitchen, as a bubbling pot of stew simmered over the stove. Squall breathed in the delicious smells of the concoction as they wafted throughout the small house.

“I remember when your father did the same.” Mrs. Evergreen sighed wistfully as she recalled something in the past; her eyes were focused on the ceiling, upstairs where Squall’s father was lying on the bed, still recuperating. She must have seen the surprised in her son’s eyes and added, “It never was for long mind you. The most was only four weeks. He was only on a trip as part of some peace-keeping task force sent to the second shell.”

As his mother continued to prepare the food Squall watched her, taking in every detail of her face. She looked tired and hassled, and her hair had lost some of its glossiness, though she was still beautiful.

She doesn’t deserve to be involved in this. Squall thought, she’s hiding it but I know she’s worried beyond belief. He felt horrible. It’s all my fault, if I hadn’t decided to become a guardian this would have never happened.

But Squall knew there was nothing that could be done to reverse what had happened now. He had to be alert, like his father always taught him to be.

When Squall finally could find his voice again, it was calm and composed.

-----------------------------------------------

Squall turned around to look once more at his house. His father had finally been completely healed by Tidus’s magic. He was taking Squall’s mother to her sister’s place, far to the isolated western continent of the Woodlands. The goodbyes were brief. Squall was glad for it, a quick hug with his mom and a confident pat on the back from his father; he would have broken down if it had been drawn out. His father said that the council probably had sent more of the Crucible after them, so they had to hurry.

Walking in the valley through knee-tall grass Squall was a bit cheered despite the conditions. The sun shined down on them, past its zenith. They were taking an inconspicuous route to the city. It was slow going, but the city wall guards would not be able to spot them coming from their elevated positions.

Squall glanced behind him. Raifer and Akia were swishing through the grass silently. There was something missing from the usually cheerful Raifer, he looked almost … depressed, a word that Squall never would have thought to use to describe the Lelakon thief.

Cloud was bringing up the rear behind him; he on the contrary didn’t seem his usual stoic self. Squall glanced up to the sky, spotting a small dot that might be Mei, the harpy. When she had awoken, healed, Cloud had tried to approach to talk to her. But before he uttered a word, she had told him that she needed some time to think, and took off.

Tidus, who dropped back a few paces to match Squall’s steps, tapped Squall’s shoulder.

“So how much of a chance do you think that we’ll get to the 5th shell in one piece?” He asked conversationally.

“One in ten.” Squall answered.

Cloud overheard them. “I’d say closer to one in a hundred.”

“You’re quite the optimist you know that Cloud?” Tidus said as they waited for Cloud to catch up with them.

Cloud shrugged, “My guess is more practical.”

“Well I’d like to keep my body whole. It would be good for my health you know.”

Squall grinned. “None of us would want you to lose any of your precious body parts either Tidus.”

“Damn straight.” Tidus nodded fervently.

“Actually…” Cloud started with a musing expression. “The Kangrocks have a very profitable body trade going on down on the seventh shell. I’d say Tidus would fetch a good price. Around oh… 50 gold pieces. They pay extra for softies from the upper shells.”

Tidus turned a light shade a green after hearing his body being prized. “Bod… body trade? What kind of weird freaks sell dead people? Wait, they are dead right?”

Cloud sighed, though he was still amused by Tidus’s nervousness. “Of course they are dead. They don’t sell them whole; they cut them up and sell pieces to the highest bidder. I never was very agreeable with the Kangrock lot. They’re wily. Some people say when they see a good body they won’t wait for the person to die of natural purposes. I don’t know if that’s all true, but… with my experiences in dealing with them, I don’t doubt that they’ll cut up their own families for some extra gold.”

“Eugh!” Tidus exclaimed, almost tripping over a large rock sticking up from the dirt. His movements stirred a cloud of dust into the air. “Hold on, but why are there people wanting to buy organs and crap from dead people in the first place???” Tidus asked.

“Most of their customers are researchers, though some…”

“Shh.” Squall put a finger up. “We’re getting close to the city.”

The gray stones of the Lancaster wall loomed in front of them. Soaring up to a hundred feet high in some places and almost ten miles long, the ten-foot thick barrier is the largest man-made structure on the shell. It had taken almost twenty years to construct and was built during the first age of prosperity. Several areas were slightly newer, where there had been repairs.

“Alright, we take the main entrance to the city. Too many people use it so we’ll be hard to pick out and we can blend in with them. Tidus and I will go first, the rest of you go in a group of three, and we’ll meet up at Bronys place. And we’ll see if those sails really work as well as my father said.”

When the plans were settled, Squall led the way to the city’s main gates. As it was getting to the late afternoon there was a steady flow of people moving into the city to seek shelter for the night, and only a trickle going out, probably returning to close by villages.

There were two guards leaning against the gatehouse, laughing about something and not paying attention to the people passing. Squall breathed easier. He and Tidus quickly moved past them.

Inside the city Squall again was hit by the barrage of sounds and smells. In the afternoon, some of the fresh foods had begun to go bad under the sun, and slightly putrid odors mixed with the regular scents of the city. As they continued to navigate the crowded streets, Squall thought he could detect the aromas of the bakery where he’d bought some seasoned bread days ago.

Bronys’s shop was located on a quieter, less busy street. The small building was built like most houses out of reddish sandstone. A faded wooden sign that read “Bronys’s Adventurer Equipments” hung over the entrance on a support beam. Squall and Tidus slowed their steps as they approached, finally stopping just beyond the threshold.

Squall squinted into the shaded interiors of the shop through the open door. “I don’t think the others are here yet.”

“Let’s go in and wait then.” Tidus said. “It’s hot as hell out here.”

The two stepped with relief into the cooler indoor environment of the shop. As Squall passed the first shelf he tripped over a light string that was laid low across the floor.

“What the!” Squall yelled. He had missed the string before, and now a bell-like device went off on top of one of the shelves.

“Ahh! Kill it!” Tidus laughed and went into a mock fighting stance, pretending to draw his sword. “That bell must work for the Council!”

“Shut up.” Squall said. “I just got startled.”

A moment later, a shuffling noise signaled the arrival of a late-middle aged man through a blanketed doorway towards the back.

“Customers? Welcome! I am Bronys at your service.” He said, looking at the two.

Tidus shifted, “Uh actually, we were sent here by Mr. Evergreen, he used to be a friend of yours.”

“Evergreen? Ignites Evergreen? From the army? Why I haven’t seen him in years!”

Squall was surprised to hear his father’s rank, as his father had never told Squall about it. An Ignites was one of the top positions in the army. They would be the ones that commanded small divisions of men in battles. Squall cleared his throat, “Actually I’m his son. My name is Squall, and this is my friend Tidus. We’d like to ask a favor of you, and we’re in a bit of a hurry.”

Bronys paused, looking hard at Squall. “Ah yes, I can see. Your eyes are just like your fathers. Unique combination. But continue, and step back here.” He led them through the covered doorway to a dining room with a rectangular table and several chairs arranged around it. “Have a seat.”

Squall picked a chair on the far corner, facing the entrance that led to the shop.

As the two explained what they needed to Bronys, the man nodded. Finally, he stood up.

“A decade ago I would have sent you straight to the authorities.” He chuckled, “Now I won’t, I would never work for the Council again. The sails you’ve asked me about, I still have them in the warehouse. And of course I will let you have them, it’s the least I could do for the many times your father have helped me in the past.”

As Bronys left Tidus sighed in relief. “That wasn’t too hard then huh? After seeing his expression when you told him about the Crucible I’d thought he wanted to kill us too.”

A bell rang in the other room. Tidus jumped a little and then tried to relax. “I’m too tense.” Squall waved open the curtain of blankets a little, then stepped through to the outer room.

Raifer, Cloud, and Akia were standing in the middle of the shop, looking around. Squall saw the two thieves eyes dart around the shelves with practiced experience.

“No stealing.” Squall said with a grin. “Bronys has agreed to help us.”

Cloud was distracted. “He has? That’s good. Listen Squall, I think we’ve been recognized coming through the gates.” He turned to look uneasily at Tidus, who appeared from behind the curtain. “Those two guards at the guardhouse gave us too long of a look to be just plain curiosity. We might have been reported.”

“Damn!” Squall swore. “We have to go then, now!” He made for the door when a figure appeared on the other side, silhouetted by the sun.

“Bronys!” Tidus ran to the man, who was hoisting what looked like six bags with straps on them on both of his shoulders. “Are these the sails?”

“Nice to meet you sir.” Cloud addressed the man. “But sorry to be so blunt, we think we been recognized by the guards and they might be sending soldiers to detain us right now.”

Bronys sweating face changed to a serious demeanor quickly. “Looks like we don’t have much time. Here.” He handed a bag to each of them, with one left over. “Put the straps over your shoulders, when in the air, pull open these buckles, the sails are inside and will slow your fall enough for you to drift safely. Umm… lets see… Oh, I haven’t implemented a steering device because I haven’t figured out how to…” He paused. “Maybe that’s why the Council rejected it.”

Cloud stuck his head out the door into the street. “Hate to break up the reminiscing here, but I do believe that there are guards after us.” Shouts could be heard in the distance.

“Right.” Bronys quickly continued. “You’ll have to use your bodies and arms to try to steer, don’t try to use anything else or the wind might rip the cords from the force. With some luck you’ll make it. You’ll have to jump at the Legalanci Opening, you know of it Squall?”

Squall nodded. “It’s only a mile or two from the city. Southwest.”

“Right, there’s a stable down the street and to the right.” Bronys pointed. “Get some horses there, hurry now. And may Zephyr carry you quickly.”

Squall took his bag and nodded. “Thank you for everything, I hope to see you again.” The group said their quick goodbyes to the man and ran out of the store throwing the odd lumpy bags over their backs. Looking back, Squall could see Bronys standing against the doorframe of his shop, watching them go with a smile of pride, probably imagining his contraption’s first real journey. Funny they were being used against the very people they had originally been intended for.

I hope his invention works.

They flew into the stable, scaring half of the horses to death. Squall found the caretaker. “We need horses! NOW!”

However the young man narrowed his eyes and asked, “Why? What’s the hurry?”

Squall held out two gold pieces. “This should be more then enough.”

The man ignored the coins. “You are the ones the guards are after aren’t you? Yes. I heard it from one of the passersby. Well then I’m afraid you won’t be going anywh…” He flew backwards against one of the wooden stable doors as Squall rammed him full force with his shoulder blade.

“Too bad. We’re taking your horses anyways.” Ignoring the gasping caretaker on the ground. The group led out four horses and mounted them. Akia rode with Raifer since she didn’t know how to handle a rein.

In a few seconds, the bustling main streets of Lancaster was an explosion of screams and crashes as four horses came bounding through the street shops.

“Well they’ll definitely find us now!” Raifer yelled over the pandemonium. “Woah hey!” A piece of jewelry had slapped him in the face and wrapped around his neck, flashing and shimmering against the breeze. “Must be my lucky day!” He pocketed it.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the gate. There weren’t many guards gathered there yet.

“Close your eyes.” Raifer announced to everyone as he raised his hand. There was a brilliant flash that blinded everyone even when their eyes were tightly shut. Then they were out of the city.

Squall blinked spots out of his eyes and turned his horse to lead the others towards the southwest. Back at the gates, five guards screamed on the ground as they grabbed at their eyes.

Leaning against the horse’s mane to urge it to go faster, Squall made his ride blaze a trail through the wafting grass, the others close behind.

Tidus leaned back and yelled happily. “We made it! We screwed the Council over yet again! Woo!”

“We’re not clear yet.” Cloud said over the howling wind. “We still need to get down to at least Oceania before we’re safe.”

“Oceania? Is that the fifth shell?” Tidus asked.

“Yes it is, and it’s become almost completely free from the Council over the past years. The seas offer an excellent inter-shell trading medium, so they don’t need the Council to offer them trading transports and goods. If we can make it there, the Council should have an extra hard time of tracking us down. The Kronos are proud; they won’t deal with the Council, even in common exchanges. They believe all the Council controlled shells are corrupt.”

“They’re right too.” Tidus said, then asked. “Why are they called the Kronos and not the Oceanians anyways?”

“Oceania is a word coined by the Council, so is Oceanian. So they have their own ways of referring to themselves.”

“Wow, sounds like they’ve got a bad case of seclusion.”

“Not necessary bad in practice. They’re also rich. Far richer then the Council, which is probably why the Council is jealous. Not openly of course, they couldn’t dare that and seem insecure to the people, but I know they got their grudges against the Kronos.

They finally reached the Leglanci Opening. It was a five hundred acre hole cut into the plate of the shell. Seemingly blasted through when a giant spear punctured the earth from the heavens.

They dismounted. Akia did so without any help from Raifer, landing softly despite the height. Squall tied his horse to an aged, fractured wooden post provided for sightseers. Then, as an afterthought, cut the reins with his knife, and patted the horse, urging it so that it galloped away towards some woods to the west.

Raifer slowed, and inched to the precipice until he was looking down through the gigantic gap. “Well, looks inviting, what say we go then?”

Tidus laughed nervously. “So this is the only way then ya?”

Squall peered over the edge and tried not to blanch from the sight of the sheer drop. A puff of cloud could be seen right under the hole, beyond it, more then thirty miles beyond it, were the faint blue shimmers of an ocean. He had been here when he was a small child with his father, and had looked over the edge then, with his father telling him stories about the people who lived below. He wasn’t scared then. Of course, he hadn’t planned to freaking hop down back then like it was a field trip either. He swallowed hard, and nodded, “Yeah, this is the only way, this or the elevator.”

Cloud was looking disinterestedly at the water far below, seemingly undisturbed by the height. “Lets go.”

Then, without another word, he stepped over the cliff into the abyss.

“WHAT THE F…!” Tidus yelled, running and leaning over the edge. He saw Cloud, already a tiny dot in the background of blue.

“Sorry Tidus.” Squall muttered under his breath. “But you’ll thank me later for helping you get it over with.” With that, he gave Tidus a hard shove in the back.

“Wo..ah!” Tidus shouted as he swayed, arms swinging madly, and slowly, almost leisurely, tipped over like a rocking chair. Expect he didn’t come back up again.

As Tidus’s frantic screams faded, Squall turned to Raifer and Akia, Raifer with an amused smirk on his face, and Akia looking slightly green. “K, see ya!” And he backed off the edge, bending backwards as he did so.

Wind pushed against his face as Squall leaned into an arrow shape for more speed. He was catching up with Tidus. Squall wanted to laugh; Tidus was still waving his arms, as if trying to fly back up to the hole. Squall focused on falling, it was actually pretty fun, moving your body to plummet in different directions like that. He waved as he passed by Tidus, whose eyes widened as he saw Squall zoom by. Squall continued down, eyes watery from the wind, trying to pick out Cloud from the background of sea below.

----------------------------------------

Up top Raifer stepped towards the edge. “See you down on Oceania then Akia! Later!” He pulled one foot up as if getting ready to take a stroll on air.

But before he could actually walk over the side of the rock hole. Akia grabbed his arm.

“Woah!” Raifer lost his balance and fell over, unintentionally dragging a screaming Akia with him.

----------------------------------------

Cloud had his eyes closed, it was a long fall, and the speed was starting to bother him. It was close to releasing the sail. He suddenly started as he felt someone tapping his shoulder.

What the… He opened his eyes wondering who the hell it could be twenty miles above ground. He saw a feathery figure, wings folded, diving alongside of him.

“So you decided to take up flying I see.” Mei was obviously delighted about it.

“Mei!” Cloud tried to say, but all he got was wind in his mouth.

Mei casually turned in midair, now facing the other way. “Don’t worry Cloudie,” She laughed at the name. “You don’t have to talk. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry for earlier, it was my fault for even thinking of dealing with those no-good backstabbers.” Her eyes narrowed to flash in anger, but then the fire dissipated. “And thank your friend for helping me. I want to tell you something, find me on the roof of the inn you stay in tonight, in Holyeon City.” She pointed to the west. Cloud squinted against the sun’s slanting rays and saw land, and a port city at the edge of the green terrain.

She pulled away, “Bye Cloud.” And braked her fall by spreading her wide wings.

Cloud continued falling alone for another minute before he realized that he’d better use the sail before it was too late. Struggling to keep his eyes open for a while longer, he found the buckles and snapped them open. A pair of white cloths broke out of their confines and cracked in the air, instantly slowing his fall. Cloud bent over, almost choking from the sudden pressure. He hoped he hadn’t broken his spine or something.

------------------------------------------------------

Squall frowned. Where the hell was Cloud? It had been way too long a fall for the sail not to be used. His own white contraption was fluttering in the breeze above him, causing him to drift at a slow pace. Then a small white poof appeared far under him.

There he is, why didn’t he use the sail sooner? Squall shook his head; maybe Cloud just got carried away with the fall and forgot. Seeing that Cloud was steering towards the land to the west, which Squall had spotted before, he made to do the same, gesturing to let Tidus, about a hundred feet above him, know.

------------------------------------------------------

“You can let go now you know.” Raifer said to the form clutching to his middle. Akia had her legs wrapped around Raifer’s and was holding on hard enough to make him grimace.

Akia opened one eye, then the other. They were suspended, or it seemed, over the sky. Raifer’s sail snapped above them in the wind, holding both their weights.

Raifer managed to choke out a laugh when he finally could. “It’s a good thing you don’t weigh much. You know that you have your own sail right?”

Akia looked at Raifer with reproachful eyes. “What the hell were you doing? You could have killed both of us! Dragging me down with you like that!”

“Wha…” Raifer started. “You grabbed me!” He shook his head. Women.

-----------------------------------------------------

I’ll do the rest later; it’ll be up soon. =P

EDIT: Lol it's so long I got a new page for my post. :D

EDIT2: Wow takes hella long to edit and submit too. :)

[Umbrasquall]

Squall

The dark haired teen stood on the edge of the beach and watched as the waters lapped at the white sand. The clear, sparkling sea spread all around in front of him, as far as he can see. In the far distance, a tri-fold sail of a large ship could be seen hovering near the horizon.

Squall pushed back his hair and breathed in the salty air as it blew across his face. He had never seen the ocean before, not right up against it like this. It’s glory, beauty, and cerulean vastness matched the emerald lush forests of his home shell. The sun was setting behind them, but Squall would bet anything that a sunrise here on this secluded beach would be spectacular.

Another black-haired young man stood beside Squall, there was a similar expression of awe and excitement on his face. His blue eyes, which matched the color of the sea, flashed in a way that only a foreigner could bestow upon an ocean like this one.

Behind them a young girl sat in the soft sand, tracing patterns with her finger, using the tiny granules of worn pebbles as a painting canvas. A small sigh escaped her lips as she brushed away the designs with the palm of her hand. A few feet to her left were two other young men, quietly conversing to each other; they faced to the north, where there was the visible outline of a vast city and port.

“What do you think Cloud? Only a mile or so away yeah?” The one with white hair and bright crimson vest said as he judged the distance between them and the city.

“Yep, we’ll make it there ok, probably before it gets completely dark. In city like that though, I doubt it ever gets dark.” The second speaker was tall, and had blonde hair. A collar shielded much of his face in shadows, and across his back was slung a gigantic sword, smithed from pure blackness.

“You guys ready yet?” Raifer asked Squall and Tidus, who were still gazing across the water. “We want to get to a place to stay before midnight you know.”

Squall reluctantly turned and walked away from the shoreline. “Yeah, lets go.”

The group set out, each of them had a canvas bag on their backs, in which they had all packed their air-sails. Tidus scrambled up the cliff facing the sea first, there was some small woods at the top, which they filed into.

The trees were small, nothing like the huge vegetation of the Woodlands, yet Squall felt more comfortable knowing that the two worlds had similarities. Though, he was still shocked by the dramatic change in environment, many times multiplied and intensified by the presence of an entire ocean.

Soon they emerged from the sparse trees into a massive prairie. In the distance they could see the walls of the city that Cloud had informed them to be Holyeon City. Squall could see the wall torches that were already lit, making the tops of areas of the stonewall flicker orange in the arriving dimness of night.

They made quickly for the road, from which they could travel faster and make it to the gates before nightfall.

“We made it then huh mates?” Tidus announced, most of the cheerfulness back in his voice. The change of setting had done a lot to help him leave behind the world above him.

“I suppose so.” Cloud answered, “The Council won’t expect us to be in Oceania at all. They’d still think we’re in the Woodlands.”

“What’s our plan now?” Tidus turned to Squall.

“I don’t know this shell at all. I grew up entirely on the fourth. I’d suppose we’ll have to ask someone in the city where the nearest opening is. We’ll need make another jump to get to the sixth shell and Raifer and Akia’s homeland.”

“Whatever,” Akia yawned. “I’m really tired, lets just worry about finding a good place eat and rest for the night.”

“Agreed.” Raifer smiled.

-------------------------------------

“WHAT?” Tidus yelled. “You’re kidding me! One silver for a lousy piece of bread?!?”

The impeccably dressed baker frowned at Tidus, and waved his hand. “If you cannot even afford half-priced bread that was baked this morning, I’d suggest you starve here in this city. And do please stop yelling, you will disturb the other customers.”

Raifer laid a hand on Tidus’s shoulder. “Forget it man, this place has crap food anyways.”

The baker’s eye twitched.

Raifer led his angry friend away before more trouble could surface and directed him toward a nearby fountain, where Squall, Cloud, and Akia were lounging.

The sun had just disappeared behind the fortress-like walls of the enormous city, but as Cloud had guessed, it wasn’t dark at all. The streets were lit with hundreds of oil lamps, lanterns, and other artificial light sources, which all made the stones of the streets and buildings glow with a warm cozy feeling.

It was a busy street, even at nighttime, people bustled and flowed around the fountain, some pushing carts, others carrying bags and pouches of purchased goods. Squall leaned against the edge of the stone steps leading up to the splashing water pool, looking toward the western city walls over the tops of several structures.

Akia lay sprawled over the rim of the fountain, humming quietly to herself, twirling with the strands of her hair. Cloud was alternating between looking in the crowds and glancing at the sky, as if looking for someone.

Raifer let go of Tidus when they reached the fountain. “This place is whack! A gold piece here will probably get you half a cracker.”

Akia closed one eye as if winking, and laughed, “More then that surely.”

Raifer hung his head, relenting. “Fine, half a salted cracker.” He grinned.

“Where we going now?” Tidus asked, straightening his clothes where Raifer had dragged him by.

Cloud moved over to the group, he pointed to a large piece of advertisement tarred to the side of one of the stores. “I’ve asked a shopkeeper here. The nearest opening on the Cobalt Plateau… four thousand miles west of here.”

Tidus, who had bent to take a drink from the fountain, choked and spewed water all over Akia. The girl had closed her eyes, and now yelped as the cold water splashed onto her. When she spotted Tidus gagging, she looked annoyed.

Tidus jumped back to keep his distance from the angry Akia and managed to croak, “Four thousand miles?! We’ll never travel that far, it’ll take months!”

Cloud shrugged. “That’s why we’ll be needing those.” He pointed to the advertisement again.

Squall examined it.

“Truckles for rent! Guide included! Please see Truckle Express Headquarters in Holyeon City, Sunset Street, for details about rentals. General pricing range from 10-15 gold per day. Cheap discount!”

“Truc-kle?” Squall repeated out loud.

“Truckles are large herd animals used for land transportation in Oceania.” Cloud explained. “They can cover the distance to the opening in less then a week.”

“Well that’s great and all but I think you’re missing one little detail…” Tidus walked over to the ad and made empathic gestures with his arms, underlining the words “10-15 gold” in inky print. “WE ---- ARE ---- BROKE!”

Several of the passersby gave Tidus strange looks as he continued to frantically wave his arms under the prices. When he noticed that he stopped, scratching his head. “And a few hours ago I’d thought we’d be set for life money-wise. Damn this inflated country!” He kicked at the ground.

Akia was fiddling with one of her bags, checking its contents. “Normally I’d say leave it to me and Raifer, but even I doubt that we could come up with that much gold in a short time. I could try the bank…”

“You’re not thinking of stealing that much money?” Squall asked. “I don’t think that would be right, these people haven’t done anything to you.”

“Yes they have.” Raifer answered Squall’s question with seriousness, “They’re taunting me by flashing all that wealth. You can’t just show a first-class Lelakon master thief all that gold and not expect him to steal it.”

“We could let them try.” Cloud interjected. “I have to warn you, Raifer and Akia, that the authoritarian force here in Kronos is much, much more effective then a Council controlled shell. I have heard of the death penalty been used to deal with thieves.”

Akia jumped up from her sitting position on the edge of the fountain, pushing the four guys apart. “That can wait, can we please just find a place to stay for the night and have dinner?”

---------------------------------

They asked for directions to the cheapest inn in the city. The people that answered them did quickly and eyed them with distaste before walking briskly away.

“You’d think they believe that they’ll get poorer if they hang around us too much.” Tidus commented dryly.

Cloud laughed, “Money is like the Kronon religion, they worship wealth.” He considered a moment before saying, “Actually that wouldn’t be too far off. If I remember correctly from my last time on this shell, their main deity is a god of gold.”

Tidus shook his head, and spoke in a bitter voice. “I don’t understand why everything has to be about money in the first place back home. Now we get here…”

“You seem to know a lot about Oceania Cloud.” Squall observed.

“Yeah, I had my share of years here…” Cloud answered, somewhat distantly.

They were walking through a less populated part of the city, Squall saw that the people here were dressed shabbier then the clean, white clothed merchants of the main streets. Squall counted his money. He had three gold and five silver. It wouldn’t last a day.

A shrill scream rang out across the air. Squall’s head snapped up from examining his money pouch. Quickly stuffing it into his tunic, Squall ran towards the sound. Cloud, Tidus, and Raifer followed in pursuit.

Akia stood rooted to the spot for a moment, confused, then sighed. “So… hungry… Hey! HEY! Wait up!” She ran around the corner after the group.

Squall froze when he saw what had caused the commotion. They had chased the screams to a deserted backstore alleyway in one of the darkest areas of the city. There, in a pool of dark liquid, huddled a small girl, head pressed to her knees. A woman lay immobile on the cobbled stone alley road, a long dark gash on her side.

“Hey what’s going on… Oh shit…” Tidus stopped next to Squall, panting and staring at the blood on the ground, and the body of the woman. The others arrived a short moment later. Raifer and Cloud paused, at a loss of what to make of the scene.

“What is it?” Akia’s voice drifted from behind them. “I can’t see! Let me through!” No one took notice of her.

Squall moved slowly forward, his shadow fell across the small form of the girl. There was a tiny gasp followed by a series of sobs.

Trying his best to sound soothing, Squall knelt down and said. “It’s ok, I’m here to help.” The woman was dead; he knew that without a doubt, so he wasn’t really sure exactly what he could do to help. “Here take my hand, I’ll make sure you’re safe.”

The girl lifted her head. She was barely six or seven years old. Tears ran down her face, mixed with bits of dirt and soot. She looked at Squall, suddenly even tenser.

Squall blinked. He hoped the darkness would cover up his irises, being unique and strange was the least thing he wanted the girl to think about him at the moment. But slowly, the girl extended a small hand, which Squall gently took.

He sighed in relief. Helping the girl up, he made sure to keep her clear of the growing pool of blood on the ground. His mouth was dry. What had happened here? As he led the child away, he saw the woman’s face and his stomach turned. The features were almost indistinguishable, every inch of skin, including the eyes, had been slashed and stabbed. It was a mass of red, ripped flesh. Squall quickly looked away and resisted the urge to throw up.

Quickly walking back to the entrance of the alley that led to the streets, he saw that Akia had advantage of his vacated opening and now stood mouth open, looking like she wished she hadn’t.

“Where the hell are the authorities? Those screams were loud enough to be heard by the entire fucking district!” Squall yelled at Cloud, as if everything was his fault. The girl clutched harder to his leg. She was whimpering something. Akia snapped out of her horrified trance and kneeled, slowly coxing the girl towards her.

Cloud didn’t answer, instead, he just looked at the crying girl in Akia’s arms, a funny look in his eyes.

Soon they heard footsteps moving rapidly their way. A man dressed in a crisp blue-green uniform and black boots reached them. “All right. What’s going on here? What’s all this yelling I heard?”

Tidus and Raifer parted to let the officer see the dead body in the alley. The man took one glance and quickly looked away. “Ugh, not another one. This is getting annoying.”

“What do you mean another one?” Tidus asked, upset by the casual way the officer addressed the situation.

The man waved his hand. “This is the fifth euichanoi this month. It’s getting to be routine.”

“What?” Tidus was taken aback. “The fifth? Aren’t you people doing anything about it?”

The officer sniffed and looked Tidus up and down. “You are poulenci? Please do not question our customs, everyone knows the euichanoi aren’t worth anything.” With that he started to walk briskly away. “I’ll send for a cleaning crew, enjoy Holyeon City.”

“Wait!” Tidus yelled after him. “What is this? A killer can just wander around here slaughtering innocents without worry of persecution? What kind of legal system is this?”

The man started to retort, then paused. “You misunderstand Muo, we will hang the murderer without doubt, just not for killing euichanoi. He has murdered others as well. There is a reward of five hundred gold pieces for him. Do not worry, the city is still quite safe, there is no danger for poulenci.”

“We don’t care about that!” Tidus fumed.

But the man didn’t answer, instead he saw the girl. “Is that the euichanoi woman’s child? You’d better let me have her.” He moved forward and held out a hand gruffly.

“Back off.” Akia said defensively as the girl clutched tighter to her.

The man stopped. “Mui…”

“Akia.” She answered, eyes still narrowed.

“Mui Akia, it is fine if you want to take her to a relative. I do not need to be bothered with a euichanoi child in any case.”

The man turned to leave again. Tidus started, but Cloud pulled him back. “Don’t question further Tidus, it’s their custom.”

Tidus regained his footing. “What, to let murders be treated like they didn’t happen?”

“Yes and no,” Cloud said. “The Kronos function on caste systems allocated by their wealth. The levels get back the city’s service by the amount of money they contribute to the system. The euichanoi are at the very bottom, thus they do not receive attention from the government. If anything happens to an euichanoi, it is considered no big deal. Then there’s the fact that cities on this shell depend on their good reputations for trade. If word gets out that a murderer is on the loose the city’s reputation will decrease, and less merchants will want to trade here. Understand? That’s why they don’t want to make a big deal out of anything unhealthy like a serial killer. Usually they set a reward to mercenaries to capture the criminal and leave it at that.”

“So euichanoi just aren’t even considered people?” Tidus, who had grown angrier over the course of Cloud’s lecture, said.

Akia, who had been making progress in getting the girl to talk to her, said, “Guys it’s getting late, and I think little Jade here is still in shock. We really need to get to a inn or somewhere warm soon.”

Squall, who had said nothing in a while, nodded. “Good idea. We’ll look for her relatives in the morning. Does she have a father?”

Akia shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

Cloud shifted in an uneasy way.

The group left the area, Akia carrying Jade. Squall took one last look at the alley, shuddered, and tried to forget the image.

--------------------------------------

“We need to kill that murderer.” Tidus announced to the group at large. They were seated at a dented circular table in the noisy pub of the inn they had checked in at. Akia had taken Jade upstairs after dinner to help her take a bath and put her to bed. The inn was crowded, but clean, and it turned out that at 9 silver pieces a night, this was something they could afford for a while.

“That will get us the money for the Truckles, for sure.” Raifer said, rolling his drink between his hands.

“I don’t care about the money.” Tidus snapped, eyes flashing. “Someone needs to do something about this killer. There can’t be anymore little girls left motherless.”

Raifer shrugged. “There are some things in the world that are unfair. We need to be realistic, helping everyone isn’t. I think we need to figure out what to do with our situation first, like how to get to that opening.”

Suddenly Cloud jumped up grabbing Raifer’s collar and dragging him to his feet. “Listen to yourself.” He said hoarsely. “And your tribe call themselves with honorable? I know that you know exactly what it feels like to watch hundreds of children be orphaned in front of your own eyes. Unless you’ve forgotten what happened a decade ago.”

Raifer’s eyes were wide, and then he threw Cloud off of him. “What? How do you know? The Council had all rumors of it suppressed! How do you know!?” He yelled.

Cloud turned away, almost as if unable to face Raifer. (Dun dun dun! The plot thickens) “You can’t say you don’t care for these people getting slaughtered by this freak.”

Raifer paused for a long moment, then said. “Okay you win. You’re right; I can’t pretend to ignore what happened today. I was just too anxious to get back to help my people. I’m sorry.” He slumped down into his chair, all energy seemly sapped from his body by the apology.

Cloud stood a moment longer, then left the pub slowly, climbing the stairs that led to the rooms.

Squall and Tidus had watched the entire exchange with silent shock.

--------------------------------------

That’s it! I meant it to be longer but then was like screw it, so this is what you get. :D Someone take over from here. (Aphius remember Cloud’s supposed to meet with Mei on the roof sometime during the night to talk. I set it up for ya buddy ;))

[Lomebririon]

Raifer

The group sat in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes, each person not sure what to say to the other. Their stalemate was broken by the sudden appearance of Akia, descending the stairs in an almost silent motion. She walked over to the table and pulled up a chair next to Raifer. "So, Jade is asleep huh?" Squall inquired.
"Yep!" She chirped in a joyful manner, her spirits appearing to have lifted since the events that had transpired that day. Looking around the table, she noticed the air of melancholy hanging in the region of Raifer and his comrades. "What's goin' on guys?"She asked.

She recieved a mixed group of mumbles and sighs in response. Turning to look at Raifer, now absorbed in thought; she saw the look on his face. A look of ambivalence he only had when he was thinking about the tradgedy that had befallen him and the Lelakons many years ago.
"Raifer?" She said to him softly.

"Hm? What?" He replied, her inquisition snapping him out of his train of thought.
"Were you thinking about the Lelakon massacres?"
"Yes." He replied
"You're worried aren't you?"
"Yes."

She looked at him for a moment, appearing to be about to console him. She then turned and punched him in the arm so hard he yelled out in pain.

"Aaugh!" he yelped. "What did you do that for?!?"
"That's for worrying!" She yelled at him. "Worrying doesn't help anybody! It won't bring you any closer to a solution! It'll just mess you up!" She then grabbed his drink from the table in front of him and said in a fed up tone "God, you can be such a girl sometimes!" She then took a swig of his drink. He clutched his arm while staring at her, she was petite, but she could hit extremely hard.

As they sat there, Tidus began laughing. He said between laughs "Dude, she kicked your ass!" Akia leaned over and punched him in the shoulder.
"It's not funny! All this stuff has got him really screwed up!" she exclaimed

Raifer looked at Tidus, the look on his face told him that he was as surprised as he was at Akia's strength. He glanced in Squall's direction, he saw Squall was trying to keep a straight face, looking like he'd sussed out that the girl was stronger than she appeared. He knew what would happen if he laughed.

Looking at Akia, Raifer smiled and said "Thanks Akia. You're right, worrying won't help."

Appearing to be re-energised, Raifer turned to his two comrades and spoke "Alright guys, you want to know what that stuff with Cloud was about, i'll tell you. I'll give you an overview of the Lelakon Massacres." Raifer told his companions.

He cleared his throat and spoke. "Alright, as you know, for the longest of times the Council and it's affiliates have seen the Lelakon race as a less than trustworthy bunch. Well, we could hardly blame them, before a few centuries ago, we were the kind of people who would attack your village, burn it down and take your women and valuables."

Akia gave a soft, slightly nervous laugh.

"Well" he continued "One day, after our race had suffered another defeat in a long line of recent failed attempts to seize land and gold from other shells. The leaders of the Lelakon tribes got together, albeit slightly apprehensively, to discuss our current way of life. They assesed the current condition of the Lelakon race and they realised that their current way of life was harsh and unnecessarily difficult, costing many lives. They had recently learned through the discovery of archaic artifacts that their ancient ancestors had been noble warriors, who had lived lives of honour and prosperity. They made a unanimous decision that day, that our race should return to their former magnificence, to reclaim our place as a highly respected society. So, the Lelakon race entered what was to be called the Innocent Era of the Tome.

We underwent a period of 'Self discovery' if you will. We educated ouselves, we wrote books and poetry. The several tribes, who were spread out over the sixth shell, formed a network of communications as to coordinate events and strengthen inter-tribe relationships. Together, they created a new set of Laws to govern our new moral code. Not laws of restriction like the ones written by the Council, but laws that would allow us peaceful freedom. We practised new kinds of theivery, elegant styles, with emphasis on stealth and no need for unnecessary bloodshed. We also started inventing things. Advancements in herbology and farming allowed us to grow crops on dry or barren soil. We had also been experimenting with machinery for land travel and flight."

The two travellers stared at Raifer with a slight look of shocked disbelief. "Really?" They said in unison.

"Absolute truth!" He exclaimed, raising one hand in the air. "We started building relations with other shells, we had more recently struck a trade deal with Oceania, who were happy to negotiate with us, considering our lack of affiliation with the Council and our potentially prosperous undertakings that could improve their already comfortable lifestyle.

Some of our representatives and negotioators were making friends with some affiliates of the Council.

Safe to say, the Council did not take favourably to our new, peaceful image. They liked things just the way they were. Imagine what would happen if our "cut throat race of savages" would become intertwined with council matters and undertakings."

"It'd upset the Council's 'delicate' order of things." Squall added. "You were turning into a forceful adversary."

"Exactly their thoughts." Akia replied. "They were afraid that if we got any stronger, we might get big ideas and set ourselves up as a governing power."

Raifer nodded at her statement and continued. "So, they decided to stop our technological and social development dead in it's tracks. Unfortunately for us, that meant..." He raised a finger to his throat and drew it across his neck while making a sick slashing noise. "The council sent hundreds of their best soldiers, and most advanced weaponry down to the 6th shell to take care of business. Their orders were to destroy all of our technology and kill all those who resist and pose a potential threat in the future."

He looked at Akia and spoke "You should tell the beginning Akia, you could explain it bettter."

"Alright." She replied. Taking another drink from Raifer's cup, she began "The battle began at the Coastal town of Love Haven, my home town. It started very early on an unusually cold morning. The sun was just coming over the mountains into a partly cloudy day. Farmers and tradesmen were starting their duties, shops were opening their doors for morning commuters. It looked to be a routine type of day. But it was far from it.

We had no Idea they were coming in such numbers with such great a force, so naturally it was a bloodbath. They practically destroyed the whole town, killing most of the villagers. I was very young back then, but what I could see, hear and smell will stay with me. As soon as they realised what had happened, my father hid my mother and me in a secret basement area of our house and went to defend our town. We could hear the soldiers battling the villagers. Due to the surprise attack, we had no chance to organise weapons or form strategies. You could hear the screams of men, women and children falling to the might of the Council's army. It wasn't 'till later, those of us still alive realised that they had outnumbered us five to one. After a while, my mother told me to stay where I was and to stay very quiet, she was going to our line of communication between the other tribes to try and warn them of the Council's attack. She was an extremely agile and stealthy thief I'm told, apparently she managed to get the word out to the other tribes. However, she wasn't able to avoid the attention of the soldiers. She battled with them for a long time before she was stopped I heard, but no one seems to know what happened to her after that. Some say she was killed, others said she was captured and taken to one of the Council governed shells as a slave, because through the gathering of bits of information, it was rumoured that the strongest warriors that weren't killed, were taken and made to serve the Council."

"Whoa!" Tidus exclaimed. "This is some pretty heavy stuff!"

"You're telling me." She replied, while giving a look of wide-eyed eloquence. "Well, after my mother left me in the basement, all I could hear was the sound of explosions, swords clashing and yells of pain and fury. I waited for my mother and father to come back and get me, but they never came. Eventually, the noise died down, and the fighting stopped. All that could be heard then, was the footsteps of soldiers searching through the rubble and buildings. As the hours passed, the noise grew less, until there was nothing but a frightening silence. My mother and father had not come back for me. I decided to go out and look for them. I pushed the door to the house open with a great deal of effort. I saw that my house was partly destroyed." She looked around as if visualliing it. "I ran outside to see what was happening." Akia paused for a moment.

"What did you see?" Squall asked

"Bodies. Yeah, I saw a lot of bodies. A lot of blood too." She spoke while tears formed in the corner of her eyes. "I looked around for my mother and father for what seemed like hours. I eventually found my father. Well, what was left of him. He was on the beach, where the largest of the fights had happened. I tried to wake him but, you know. By now, the few surviving villagers had come out of hiding. We were all in shock, how could they do that to us? What did we do to them?"

The four companions sat in silence for a few moments. Akia wiped the tears from her eyes and stared at Raifer. He put an arm around her shoulders in a comforting manner, he then continued the story from where she left off. "After the attack on Love Haven, several other towns were attacked. Those of us who were still to be attacked were now prepared, despite the lack of time to conceive a strategy. We weren't a pushover like the Council expected, we had the power to fight them, and my oath did we use it.

The battle against the council was fought all over the sixth shell, many smaller tribes spread out across the land made it more difficult for them to coordinate their attacks against us. The Lelakon race had also invented vehicles for transportation before the Council had arrived, meaning they could travel fast to head off Council forces that were moving toward smaller villages with no real defences. Our defensive and offencive advantage with those vehicles was hindered because of the Counci destroying all of the technology they could find.

Lots of small battles were fought. However, there were several great battles, deciding the outcome of the invasion. The largest, bloodiest battles of all were fought at several places. These were Berserker's Province, Castle of Hazards, Large Giant's Wood - later renamed to Woods of the ghosts, the Great Cross wilderness and Infernal Soul's Cavern. It all ended with a battle between each army's remaining forces and greatest technological advancements at the Fort of graves. We had brought all of our greatest weapons there to put a stop to them. Vehicles, projectiles and even our experimental flying machine. The battle was long and fierce, we had superior firepower, but the Council had greater numbers. In the end, we had destroyed most of the council's forces, but at the cost of most of our technology and many of our own warriors. The remaining soldiers fled the sixth shell, even though they had lost the battle, they had done what they had come to do.

We were victims of our own success. Due to the amount of soldiers that were killed, to the Council, it was easy to cover up the fact that they had been scared of a bunch of "theives". It was just a matter of killing the few soldiers that escaped the sixth shell, the affiliates and representetives and telling their families that they all died winning a victory for the Council, they didn't need to know how or where. The council slung some gold their way as compensation and they accepted it. Everyone went back to their daily lives. The Council's attack had crippled our technological and developmental capabilities. Not to mention left hundreds of people injured, thousands dead and many widowed and orphaned. Akia and I included. All that was left of our previous life was only relics and methods of transportation that litter the great open fields of No Man's land."

Raifer paused to drink the last of the contents of his mug. He then cleared his throat. "That's about it." He concluded. "There are a few other things, but i'll tell you more about it another time. It's getting late and we're gonna need our sleep if we're going to be looking for ways to get some money tomorrow."

----------------------------

Phew! I'm glad that's over. I'd have written more about what happened in the forest and about after the Lelakon massacres, but I've run out of ideas for now.

P.S - I think it would be cool if we all took a boat ride later.

[Umbrasquall]

Considering 2 posts in about 9 months is unhealthly. I'm adding a short one to kickstart it again. (Hopefully, come on lazy people :))

“Madam Eriss!” The messenger huffed, clutching at a handful of white robe at his side. He got a stitch from running to the summons.

Eriss turned from looking out her office window at the night beyond and waved her hand at a chair. “Sit down, catch your breath.” She fingered crystal with a glowing green bottom on her desk.

The messenger gave an audible sigh of relief as he careful sat down on the purple cushion of the seat. “What are your orders Councilor? It is a late hour.”

Eriss turned again toward the window. “We have a lead on the escaped criminals. It appears that they are on the next shell down.”

The messenger tugged at his collar as he absorbed the information. He licked his lips nervously. “Do you want to send a Crucible unit after then?”

“No.” Eriss replied. “I want you to let Ronin and the Crucible units know to leave them alone for now. It will be too dangerous to pursue them while they are on the Fifth Shell. They’re destination is the Sixth, we will meet them when they arrive there.”

The messenger bowed and left the room quickly. He was eager to get back to his quarters after running the errand, so he can enjoy some sleep for the rest of the night.

After the messenger left, Eriss stood up, stretching her graceful figure. She took the glowing crystal off her desk and replaced it among the many stones she had on a shelf.

It was only a matter of time before they would be caught.