Fayth in Love - A Final Fantasy X Fanfiction.
Prologue.
Amina ran through the docks of Killika, each heavy plank beneath her feet creaked as they had done since she was a child. All around her, the villagers waved as she rushed past them, intent upon reaching her destination. Occasionally, a strand of her dusty brown hair would fly into her face, only to be brushed away again by her deft hands.
Within minutes, she had crossed the whole of the small port town and found herself on the path leading deep into the forest. She slowed to a walk now, and smiled cheerily at the crusaders milling about the bridge. Once out of their sight though, she continued her sprint along the beaten earth. Opting for the short path, she ducked into a patch of thick foliage and was only slightly deterred by the whipping of the leaves around her face. She thought excitedly of the news that was bringing her to the temple and felt her stomach tighten in anticipation.
That very morning, on her way to the inn where she cooked, Amina had found herself stopping to investigate the source of the heavy sound of wing beats. She surveyed the morning sky above her, and found nothing outlined in the early golden sunlight. Fearing sinspawn, she had been about to call out, when from the midst of the sparse, low clouds, flew an Aeon! It was a powerful looking bird with vicious talons and brightly hued armored wings beating at the air. It snapped its deadly beak at the air and an immense gleaming chain of metal loops hung at its side. He swooped low over the docks and came to rest upon the posting mast near the edge of the port.
Only ever having seen them in demonstrations by passing summoners, Amina balked and stumbled a few steps back. It took her a wide-eyed moment to register that within its great curved talons, it held a strip of parchment. She searched around from where she sat and finding no one up at the early time, looked back to the Aeon. It surveyed her cooly, and made a rich, low noise in its throat before shifting on its perch, which was bent under its massive bulk. It held out one of the impressive talons, grasping the parchment tightly, and inclined its head. Amina took it as a sign to retrieve the parchment and tentatively reached forward, grasping the heavy paper between her thumb and forefinger, and tugged it loose from the creatures grasp.
She broke the hard wax seal marked with the emblem of Besaid with her thumbnail and unfolded it carefully. While reading it through, she constantly stole glances back up at the powerful creature preening itself on the post.
A gasp of surprise emitted out from her lips when she had finished the brief note. All thoughts of her early shift work were driven from her mind and she immediately rushed from the dock to the house of the port elders. They took the note from her and after a terse council on the news, they returned to the spot where the Aeon still waited silently.
By now, a gaggle of awed children had formed a distant circle around it and were pointing excitedly while their equally curious mothers tried to usher them away. The elders carved a wide path in their wake as they approached the magnificent creature and one of them said something in a strange language Amina didn't understand that made the Aeon lift its talon once more, to take another sealed letter that the elder had produced from the folds of his robes.
Once in possession of the post, the Aeon reared its head and gave a shrill call into the early morning sky that caused the onlookers to jump back a few feet. The creature Spread its wide gleaming wings and, with a few initial heavy beats that caused wind and water to whip up around it, it rose into the air.
The onlookers watched as it soared swiftly off into the sparseness of clouds from which it came and its shadowy form disappeared into the horizon, leaving the elders with a buzzing crowd alive with curiosity awaiting the explanation for the morning's events. After they outlined the fabulous news that Amina had known since she opened the letter, the excited crowd milled off to spread the good news to their friends and neighbors.
Lahela, her boss, was annoyed at her tardiness but quickly forgot about it when she relayed the exciting story of that morning. No one at the inn talked of anything else that day, and the workers rushed through their tasks in anticipation of the following morning. When she was finally free to go for the day, amina wasted no time in rushing out of the inn and directly to the path that would lead her to Killika temple.
So she found herself sprinting through the underbrush, her heart soaring with the news that Yevon had blessed them with that day.
The breathlessness she felt didn't disturb her, nor did the bushes whipping at her face and bare arms. She had only one thing to focus on. One thing that was a blessing to her and all of Killika.
The daughter Of high Summoner Braska was coming to the Killika temple.