Chapter 20: Cleyra: Ascending the Trunk
It took us a few hours, but we finally managed to reach the desert. I noticed the huge sandstorm that protected Cleyra in the distance. It was the biggest dust devil I had ever seen. I turned and looked at Freya.
"You expect us to get through that mess?" I asked, indicating the sandstorm in front of us.
She nodded "it's the only way…now come on. We've wasted enough time." We walked towards the sandstorm.
As we approached the sandstorm the wind seemed to die down. We could enter the sandstorm now since the winds weren't as strong. Freya walked up in front of me. "The tempest subsides" she said, unbelievingly. She knelt down "…by the gods."
Zidane came up beside me. "C'mon, let's go while we can!" I nodded in agreement, trying my best to keep sand out of my eyes.
Frey stood up and turned to Zidane "Indeed. Let us press on."
I noticed Quina nodding her head enthusiastically. "Must hurry. Must find yummy-yummies" she said, licking her face.
I looked at her and gave her an odd look. A smile crossed my face and I began to shake my head in mild amusement. Zidane looked at us "come on. Let's go." We all nodded and ran through the weakened sandstorm.
After a few seconds we emerged from the sandstorm. I gazed upon Cleyra. The tree was enormous. I had never seen such a big tree before. I wondered how it was possible for a tree to grow to such a height, especially in a desert. 'Must be the magic in this world, either that or the water under the tree' I thought, intrigued. I was shaken from my thoughts as I saw the others moving on. I quickly caught up to them.
We began ascending the tree trunk to reach the city of Cleyra which was up in the branches. We had to press a lot of switches and do some back tracking, but we were making progress. We had reached a large, cavernous room when we felt that something was near us. We slowed our pace and readied our weapons; listening for any sound.
That's when we heard it; a small buzzing sound. The sound was coming closer, and there seemed to be more than one. We looked to where the sound was coming from, and noticed five Dragonflies coming right at us. They were a grayish white color and had scythe like forelegs. I unsheathed my normal sword. It was battle time.
The Dragonflies advanced on us and we each picked one. I chose the one that was farthest from the right. I moved to strike the Dragonfly. I lashed out at it with an upward-vertical slash, but it flew away from my attack. Before I could recover it began to do some strange dance in the air. I watched it closely, looking for an opening.
Suddenly it stopped moving and unleashed a small swarm of bugs at me. I opened my eyes in shock. I knew what it was doing now; it was using its 'buzz' attack. I turned and ran from the swarm. I knew I had to do something and fast. A thought suddenly occurred to me. I turned around and faced the swarm. I raised my sword into the air, shouted "Do Ryu Sen," and brought my sword down on the ground.
The attack sent a large cloud of sand at the swarm. The sand hit the swarm and knocked them out of the air. As soon as the cloud of sand settled I could see that the Dragonfly was preparing another attack.
Deciding not to give him another opportunity I quickly ran at the creature. I jumped into the air, shouted "Ryu Tsui Sen," and brought my sword down on the Dragonfly's neck. My blade, surprisingly, didn't cut into the Dragonfly's neck that much. Its head was still attached.
I landed on the ground and looked up at it. That's when I realized what was wrong. 'Of course, its body has a thick exoskeleton. I treated it like it was normal flesh. Now, I know how to deal with it' I thought. I quickly rolled away from the Dragonfly as it tried to strike me with its scythe like forelegs. I ran underneath the Dragonfly, shouted "Zantatsu," and swung my sword upward, horizontally. My attack succeeded and the Dragonfly was cut in half, width-wise. The two halves fell in front of and behind me…and I ended up getting covered in bug blood.
I looked around to see how the others were doing. I saw Zidane stab his double-bladed sword into the Dragonfly's eyes. 'Why didn't I think of that' I thought. I turned from him and saw that Freya had pierced her Dragonfly in the thorax and had it pinned to the ground; it slowly died.
I turned to see that Vivi had already taken care of his Dragonfly with his new Fira spell. There wasn't much left of it but a pile of ashes. Finally, I turned to Quina; she had most of the Dragonfly's upper body in her mouth. She quickly spit the Dragonfly out, proclaimed "yuck! Taste bad!" and began rubbing her tongue to get the taste out. The Dragonfly was dead though, having been half eaten. We had won the battle.
After the battle, we moved on to another room. This room had three sand whirlpools in it. We had to get to the other side. We began to shimmy along the walls to avoid falling into the whirlpools. We had successfully avoided two of the three whirlpools and were working on number three. We almost made it…until Freya's left foot slipped on some loose sand and she fell into the whirlpool.
My eyes widened in fear as I saw her get pulled into the whirlpool. Thinking quickly, I took off my battle robe and held it out for Freya "Freya, grab on!" She grabbed on and I began to pull her in.
That's when I saw something emerge from the center of the whirlpool; it was a Sand Scorpion. It was moving towards Freya. I quickly looked at Vivi "Vivi, blast that thing!" I said, nodding my head towards the scorpion. Vivi immediately took aim and cast his new Blizzara spell. The spell hit the scorpion and it retreated back under the sand.
I finally succeeded in pulling Freya out. She looked at Vivi and then at me "Vivi, Michael…thanks."
I smiled at her. "No problem. Just returning the favor" I said, remembering Gizamaluke's Grotto. She nodded at me.
Zidane spoke. "Are you guys okay?" All three of us nodded. He sighed in relief. "Good…let's get going." We all nodded and continued our way up the tree.
We eventually made it into another cavern. I was really getting sick of this place. We had been walking for hours and we still weren't at the top. 'This went a lot faster in the game' I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice.
"MICHAEL, LOOK OUT!"
I looked up and noticed that it was Zidane who had yelled. Seeing that he was looking to my left I quickly turned in that direction…only to see a big, sandy, fist heading straight for my face.
I didn't have time to dodge or block. The fist made contact with my face. I was sent flying backwards and hit the opposite wall. I hit the wall and fell to the ground. My eyes were stinging tremendously due to the sand that was now in them. I was yelling in pain. Instinctively, I tried to rub the sand out of my eyes, but it only made the pain worse.
I could hear the sounds of battle going on in front of me, but I couldn't open my eyes. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a bottle of eye drops. I put the eye drops in both my eyes, and it quickly began to dissolve the sand. I opened my eyes and saw that the others were fighting a Sand Golem; a creature made entirely of sand with a red creature- like thing in the center of its chest.
I quickly got up and unsheathed my normal sword. I charged to my friend's aid as they were fighting the Golem. As soon as I arrived, however, I noticed Freya jump into the air and saw her throw her lance at the creature's heart. The red creature like thing shattered and the Golem slowly sank back into the ground from whence it came.
I sheathed my sword 'I guess they had it covered. Too bad, I really wanted to kill that thing myself after what it did' I thought.
Zidane turned and looked at me. "Are you alright, Michael?" I nodded my head. He smiled "good…I thought you said you would never let your guard down again."
I rolled my eyes at this. "Oh, shut up."
Zidane started to laugh; I walked up to him and punched him, lightly, in the arm. He still laughed, but then grabbed his arm and massaged the place I had hit him "ow."
I smiled. "Well, if we're through here let's get going." Everyone nodded and we continued our ascent.
We, eventually, made it outside to a pathway that I knew would take us to Cleyra. 'We're almost there' I thought, relieved. That was when I heard a familiar buzzing sound. I turned around and noticed a Dragonfly flying towards us. I sighed in irritation 'it's always something' I thought, unsheathing my normal sword. The others readied their weapons as well.
Before we did anything, however, I heard a loud screech to my right. I looked out and saw a Zuu flying toward our position. The Zuu was a big black bird with a large yellow beak. It swooped down, opened its mouth, and devoured the Dragonfly we were going to fight. I was surprised 'well…I guess that's one less battle we have to worry about' I thought. I sheathed my sword. We turned and continued on our way. We didn't get far when we heard the same screech again.
I turned around and saw that the Zuu was flying back towards us. Everyone else turned to look at the Zuu. I cursed 'I guess we're going to have a fight after all' I thought, unsheathing my normal sword, again. The Zuu swooped down, opened its mouth, and swallowed Vivi whole.
My eyes widened in shock, fear, and, above all, anger. I started to see red. "YOU FEATHERED BASTARD, SPIT HIM OUT!" I bellowed. The others turned to look at me, surprised at my reaction. I ignored them and charged at the Zuu before it could get away. I jumped at the Zuu, shouted "Ryu Sho Sen!" and decapitated it. The Zuu's head fell off the cliff and down the tree.
I turned my attention back to the Zuu's body and quickly worked my way around to its stomach. I thrust my sword into its stomach, being careful that I didn't stab Vivi by mistake, and cut its stomach open. Gastric juice and whatever the Zuu had eaten previously spilled out from the wound. This included a bunch of Dragonfly remains, including the one it had previously eaten, but no Vivi. I cut the stomach open further and discovered that Vivi wasn't in there. I was bewildered. 'Where is he?' I thought.
That's when I decided to get a closer look at its neck. I walked over to its neck and noticed a bulge in its neck as if it had swallowed something. I quickly cut its neck open and Vivi fell out of the wound. He was covered in saliva and what I assumed was mucus, but he seemed unharmed.
I helped him back up to his feet "are you okay, Vivi?" I asked.
He looked at me, shaking slightly. "I-I'm f-fine" he said.
I knelt down and placed my hand on his shoulder. "It's alright, Vivi. The thing's dead. I promised you that I would protect you, didn't I?" I said.
He stopped shaking. "Thanks, Michael" he said.
Zidane looked at Vivi. "looks like we need to get you some new clothes." he said, motioning at Vivi's cloths.
Vivi's eyes widened. "No! I like my clothes" he said, holding onto his clothes tightly.
I smiled at this. "Well, they're at least going to need to be washed considering where they've been."
Vivi looked at me now. "O-okay we can wash them, but I don't want to get rid of them."
I nodded. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure we're close to Cleyra by now."
Zidane spoke. "Let's get going." We all nodded, except Quina. Zidane looked at Quina. "What is it Quina?" he asked, surprised that she wasn't agreeing.
She looked at the Zuu's body. "Can I eat it?" she asked, indicating the Zuu's body. I was revolted by the idea, but Zidane decided to agree.
"Sure, Quina, just be quick about it, okay." Quina nodded her head enthusiastically and walked over to the Zuu's body.
I turned my head from the sight not wanting to see her eat it. The others turned their heads as well. After a while, we all heard a loud, satisfied belch and looked over at Quina. The Zuu's body was gone. Quina looked over at us. "Taste good" she said. I shook my head in disgust.
Zidane spoke. "Okay…let's go" he said. We all nodded this time and proceeded onward.
We eventually found a ladder that led up to the branches of the tree. We each climbed up one at a time; first Zidane, then Freya, then Vivi, then me, and then Quina. When I got up there I noticed a sign that read 'Cleyra' and pointed to my right. That's when I saw the city of Cleyra. 'We finally made it' I thought, relieved.
