Ok, this story is mine, but any Final Fantasy characters belong to Squaresoft…
Quina Meets Reality
Chapter 1
"So hungry…" Quina Quen stared at two stones on the ground, imagining them to be juicy frogs. Her mouth watered, but she resisted temptation and didn't try to devour the rocks. Instead, she stood up from the log and continued down the path.
After participating in the quest to save their planet, Quina had become restless. She had not achieved her goal; she knew there was much more out there for her to eat. So, as the other members of the gang had settled down, to live out their peaceful lives in their own ways, Quina had set off on her own.
Thanks to the vast amounts of experience and awesome weaponry she gained on her last quest, monsters were no longer a problem for her, even if she was alone. So, here she was, hungry and tired, walking along a path, dreaming of food…
"Ribbit." Quina stopped short at the sound. She knew that it could mean only one thing.
"Frog!" She grabbed her Gastro Fork and bounded off the path, sniffing the air and hot on the trail of what smelled like a nice juicy frog. She ran into the high grass, and past trees, careful not to trip in her pursuit. She could smell the frog somewhere close, but she couldn't seem to catch up to it. Suddenly, the grasses parted, and she spotted it. Quina dove and her hands closed in the slippery skin.
Unfortunately, as she fell, she noticed that the ground had disappeared. She fell past the ground and realized that she had jumped into a very large, very hidden hole… and, as it seemed, a very deep one at that. She STILL hadn't hit the ground, even after a good half-minute. Seeing no sense in wasting time, even if it was falling to her doom, she promptly devoured the frog.
After another ten minutes of falling, she realized she was extremely tired. Again, not one to waste time, Quina figured a nap couldn't hurt if she was going to die soon anyway. She closed her eyes and fell quickly into a heavy slumber, not noticing the way the walls of the whole became smooth and began to glow a slight bluish color. The glow began to intensify, but Quina still hadn't stirred from her sleep…
Quina awoke in darkness. She sat up slowly, rubbing her head. Looking around, she realized that she was somewhere very strange…
"Where that hole take me?" Quina stood up and made her first observation about her new surroundings: the air was dirty. Not Mist dirty, no: there was no magic power in this air. The air smelled like the airship hangars in Lindblum, only much less intense. The air reeked of machines.
Looking around, Quina noted that she was surrounded mostly by trees. Only, there was a long, black line near her feet. It reminded her of the roads in Lindblum, only this was totally black, and much more smooth. And, this one had two yellow lines in it's center.
"Hmm, new thing. It tasty?" Quina licked the black road and spat. "No, not tasty, not yummy at all!" Slightly perturbed, Quina proceeded to walk along the black road. Just as she had begun to wonder where she was, she stopped in front of a sign she hadn't noticed. Again, it seemed different from the usual signs she saw. The wood seemed sharper, the paint shinier, as if a person had used some tool more advanced than a saw or knife to do the handywork.
It said "Welcome to New Jersey"…
Quina stared at the sign for a good few minutes.
New Jersey, Quina though. I don't know where is this New Jersey. Maybe Zidane knows… Soon realizing she lacked any way of actually contacting Zidane, she stored the name on the sign away in her brain and continued on her way.
Quina walked for a long time. After a half-hour, she had passed many interesting things. At many points, where two black-roads intersected, she saw strange metal machines with lights that blinked red, yellow, and green at different times. She had yet to see a reason for this.
Soon she began to hear a strange noise. She heard a noise like one of the airship motors, only, again, less intense. Moving further away from the black-road and holding her Fork in a battle stance (just in case), she watched to see what approached.
At first, Quina thought she was seeing a large metal bug. It had shining eyes and a metal mouth. But soon she realized that it had to be some sort of cart that moved with engines, like the airships of Lindblum. She saw figures behind a pane of glass that seemed to protect the people inside from wind or something else. Putting away her fork, Quina approached the road slowly, hoping maybe for a ride, or even something to eat!
The mechanical cart (Quina started calling it a "mart") didn't slow down as Quina approached the side of the road. In fact, it sped up. Even as Quina ran into the middle of the road and waved to the people inside the mart, it kept going.
"Dang. Guess they didn't see me." And with that, she continued down the road.
Soon enough, Quina arrived at a house close to the side of the road. As she had done with Zidane a number of times, Quina went right up to the front door, opened it, and walked in. Instead of the usual acknowledging glance from its inhabitants as Quina started walking around looking for items or dropped Gil, she received a much different reaction.
"AIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!" A middle aged woman, who had been sitting with her young daughter, staring at a box with a pane of glass that appeared to have a moving picture on it, jumped up from her seat, grabbed her daughter, and ran into a different room. Quina heard the distinct sound of the woman escaping through the back door.
"…weird. Oh well." Quina headed into the next room, which turned out to be, luckily enough, the kitchen. She went through the cabinets and ate most of what she found, except the food that seemed to be stuck inside metal cans. She figured this food would not be very good, since someone had gone through the trouble of sealing it away. Noticing a large white box, making a slight whirring noise, Quina opened its door and saw even more food! Grabbing a chunk of cake, she realized all the food inside this box was cold.
"This New Jersey sure has many machines. These food machines make food cold… I like." Quina ransacked the CFB (cold-food-box, as she called it) and wandered through the rest of the house. No one else was home, and there were no potions or Gil around, to her disappointment. Quina returned to the room with the picture-box and sat down in a large, comfortable chair. Staring at the box, she watched the word Seinfeld appear and proceeded to stare at four people making jokes to each other for a few minutes.
"… … … … … … … I don't get it." Quina got up and headed for the front door. However, she noted a new noise in the background, and it didn't come from the picture-box.
Looking out the window, Quina saw half a dozen marts screech to a halt, emitting some loud, annoying sound and flashing red and blue lights.
"Somehow… me think this not good…"
To Be Continued…