ONE
It must have been that very morning when I first opened my eyes that I realized that my life would never be the same again. Lying on my back on that cot, I think I knew that I could never go back to being just me, just another normal man living out his dreams as a Crusader.
I never thought about all of the people I would meet or all of the lives that I would change. I just thought about that one person that I hadn't met yet. That one individual that would change my life and my outlook forever.
"…captain…"
But I never knew that our stories would be so complicated…
As he opened his eyes with the light of the early morning sun, he quickly yawned and stretched in his comfortable position on the cot and sighed, scratching his bare muscular chest as he sat up to look around the lodge. Some of his fellow soldiers were still asleep while others were gone, more than likely taking their shift on scouting the roads of Luca.
Taking his hands to his eyes, he wiped the remainder of sleep from them and stepped out of bed, stretching his muscled arms above his head before finally bending over to swipe his lime green tunic and breastplate from the floor beside his cot.
Placing the piece of armor over his chest first, his hand reached behind him and snapped the straps together, tightening them securely to his frame. Then the tunic went over his head and covered his torso, the cotton material feeling soft against his weathered skin.
Walking to the foot of the cot, he observed an old, dirty white duffel bag lying on the floor, packed with his few personal belongings. On top was a crinkled piece of paper with rushed writing pinned to the bag.
The man's handsome features cracked into a smile and he took the note off and put it into a pocket in his canvas material pants.
Slipping on a pair of old leather boots, he made his way toward the entryway of the lodge, the thump of the steel-toed boots the only noise inside his otherwise quiet surroundings.
He stopped just at the doorway and turned to look at the soldiers lying in their cots snoring softly. Nodding his head slowly in prayer, he finally turned back around and stepped outside.
"Good morning, Captain," one of the sentries, a young woman with dark-brown skin and even darker hair said, "Currently, ten of our people are doing a clearing of any and all fiends that may have entered the city over night. The streets should be cleaned up before the morning rush begins."
"Good," the man said and brushed a hand through his red-spiked hair, "and Ivan, how is he?"
"Oh…um, better, sir. Considering that he was attacked by such a horde of fiends makes me pray to Yevon everyday that he is doing all right," the woman responded.
"That's even better. I don't want to lose anyone on my watch."
"Yes, sir. I understand, sir," the woman replied.
"Thank you for your time. As you were," the man said and began to walk away.
"Captain Luzzu?" the woman called out rather suddenly, forcing the red-haired man to stop in his tracks, "Is…this not the day that you leave us…that you leave Luca for Besaid?"
Luzzu turned and smiled, his arms crossed over his chest. "Yes it is," he responded rather quickly, "I kind of hoped that you wouldn't bring it up, but…"
"Oh, I'm sorry, sir…" the woman said.
"No…it's not your fault," Luzzu replied, "It's just that…I guess I didn't want to accept it
until right when I left. But I guess I have to face it sometime, huh?"
"Captain, why can't they just find someone else to replace the fallen commander in Besaid? You're already needed here. You've done such a wonderful job and…well, I…I, um…" but before the woman could finish, Luzzu shook his head and chuckled.
"You of all people should know by now that I'm…"
"Yes, I know, sir. I…know that I never had a chance, but…well, that doesn't mean that my feelings have gone away."
"Yes…I know. All the more reason it will be best if I leave for Besaid. Maybe there, I can do even more than I've accomplished here."
The woman nodded and gave Luzzu the widely known Crusader salute. He responded in similar fashion and walked away, the bag slung over his shoulder.
When the time came for me to leave, I didn't want to go yet I realized that it was the best thing for me to do. I was feeling rather restless in Luca. It was as if there was nothing more I could do in the already well-guarded city and my presence there was more or less used as an excuse for my fellow soldiers to keep me around. But I knew that it was time for me to move on.
Being in Luca for so long, I had forgotten what it was like to live a life knowing that Sin may attack at any given moment.
I had to get out of there. I had to travel someplace where that feeling existed so that I could do everything in my power to eliminate it.
Besaid was that place.
"Honorable Crusader, we will be arriving in Besaid shortly. Please prepare yourself for any disturbances that may occur on account of Sin and its spawn. The demon has been known to attack ships here frequently."
Luzzu nodded at the young seaman as he gave him a swift bow and walked off toward the lower deck's entryway. Luzzu turned around and sighed, staring off into the distance at the fluffy white clouds that streamed across the blue horizon lazily.
With the sun out and the sounds of gulls cawing and waves crashing the only disturbances, Luzzu did not want to believe that Sin could just come and destroy such a serene moment.
For a moment, however, he thought he saw a dark figure under the water swimming unbelievably fast across the front of the ship. He was relieved to find that it was nothing more than a mass of dolphins jetting across the waters.
Luzzu sighed and turned away from the waters, his eyes closed just thinking about what could happen at any moment. But then, sighing with resignation, he opened his eyes and chuckled, knowing that whatever happened, happened.
"SIN!!"
Luzzu gasped and looked up to find a huge fin protruding from the surface of the waters, slicing through the sea froth like a blade through flesh.
"Crusader!" the young soldier cried, "Please aid us in protecting the passengers!!" The young man threw a steel-pointed spear in the man's direction.
Luzzu nodded quickly just as he caught the weapon and began running to where he heard the most screaming. As he approached the area, he found a woman crouching over two others, apparently children, as four fierce Sinscales slashed relentlessly at her back.
The woman screamed in horrified pain as her children cried for her to move out of the way.
"I'm coming!" Luzzu cried and in one quick move threw up his spear into the underside of one of the attacking Sinscales, ripping it almost in half, causing it's blackened entrails to spill onto the deck floor in a puddle of crimson blood.
Their attention drawn, the other three Sinscales began to attack Luzzu, but the man was a world faster than either monster and in two smooth movements cut the three of them in half, their lower halves falling limply to the deck floor as their bloodied torsos flung to another region of the deck.
"Mother!"
Luzzu turned and realized that the woman had fallen to the floor, face first. It became painfully aware to him that her back was torn apart. The bloodied and tattered material that was once her pale blue tunic now hung off her back, generously dyed in the dark red fluid.
"Mother, please…please wake up!" the little girl cried, shaking her mother desperately.
Luzzu noticed the other child, a boy a bit older than the young girl, shaking uncontrollably with sobs. He immediately looked into Luzzu's stare.
"Take your sister and get below deck, now!" Luzzu commanded.
The boy looked at his savior and nodded quickly, knowing almost immediately THIS man was a Crusader. Taking his sister's hand despite her desperate pleas to get their mother as well he led the way, running to the nearest entrance to safety below.
"No, please!!"
Luzzu turned to face the sea and noticed that the gigantic fin had distanced itself from the ship but he could still hear the eerie cries of the dead, the trademark roar of Sin as if it were still close by.
"AAAH!!" the soldier cried but just as soon as Luzzu could make his way toward the other side, the ship rattled with a frighteningly huge jolt, causing the Crusader to fall to the floor beside the dead woman whose children she had sacrificed her life for.
And then there was the screaming of men as a wave of ripping noises echoed from the other end of the ship. A loud roar indicated what must have been and then a loud thud that rocked the entire ferryboat ended the chaos as the ship returned to a more stable condition.
Luzzu sat up and ran to the other side of the deck to find the twitching body of a minimum sized Sinspawn on the deck floor surrounded by the bloodied and torn bodies of fallen soldiers including the young seaman that had loaned him the spear only moments earlier.
The young man's face and broad chest were slashed beyond recognition, causing Luzzu to shut his eyes in an attempt to block the gruesome image out. Turning his head away and reopening his eyes, he saw that only two out of the ten men that were guarding the ship had survived but not without serious injury. The rest had either fallen overboard or were now staring at the heavens or the earth, lying in their own respective pool of crimson essence.
One of the surviving men held his profusely bleeding left arm, or what was left of it, sobbing as he stared at another man who was not so lucky, lying face down, a pool of blood forming from underneath him.
The other survivor was on the floor propped against the railing of the ship's deck, his right leg missing and a gaping hole in his abdomen. The pale complexion on his youthful features indicated that his life, too, would soon be extinguished.
The captain's first mate ran out from the doorway of the bridge and gasped, stopping in his tracks as he saw the carnage left by Sin.
"Captain…we've got three out here that have survived."
"Out of eleven? My gods…" Luzzu heard the captain say.
The young man looked at Luzzu who was leaning against the wooden plank wall of the outside of the bridge. "Sir…are there no more survivors amongst you brave warriors?"
Luzzu only looked out to the approaching isle of Besaid. "The ship's passengers are safe…that's all that matters now."
It was about two or three months since I had last encountered Sin. Even when I did encounter that monster during the Djose coastal defense patrol all of those months earlier, it wasn't half as bad as what I experienced that morning on the ferry ride from Kilika...or what I would experience in the years to come.
That day, in particular, was probably a wake up call for me.
I had gotten used to the peace. I had become set in the naïve belief that nothing was going to happen during my trip to Besaid and that everyone would be safe…
I never allowed myself to think so foolishly ever again…or at least I tried.