Strange Encouters at Balamb Garden
Chapter One – Introduction
There used to be a story going around among the elderly in Gaia. For thirty days from he eighth day of August, the gates of the Underworld would open. Cerberus the Underworld Dog would be led to sleep. Those dead and still waiting for reincarnation or judgment would be free to roam the world. But even as they roam, they could not appear in a physical form. At least, not the physical form they had died in.
They had to appear as a moth or butterfly with only black and white patterns for its wings. It was said to avoid confusion when the gates closed on the thirtieth day, and any lingering spirits were rounded up to be confined in their dark prison again.
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Flap flap…
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Once a Trepie, always a Trepie…
The student and SeeD population in Balamb Garden was abuzz with commotion. The source of this commotion was a weird message that had been posted in the forums this morning… or to be exact, at midnight.
Quistis accidentally found out about the message by accident. She had been lecturing in her GF Junctioning class, and found many of her students' attention several miles away from her… cyberspace miles that is. Even her Trepies weren't looking at her with the same degree of adoration as was normal.
"…strange who posted it?" She overheard one of the female students sitting at the front row whispering.
"No idea…is this a joke?" Her neighbour whispered back, unaware of the shapely shadow that had fallen across their terminals.
"What is so interesting that you have to discuss on my lessons?" The edge in Quistis tone could've been used to slice through a Marlboro's tentacles with ease.
The first student gave a little start and looked up guiltily.
"Sorry, Instructor Trepe." She said, trying at the same time to close the window she had been looking at, but Quistis stopped her.
"No, let me see it." Quistis glanced sternly at the girl, who cringed under her scrutiny.
To: Everyone in Balamb Garden
The purpose of this memo is to protect and warn anyone from what I and a group of friends suffered last year. There have never been anything so serious and of such magnitude… and we suspect it would worsen this year. Trust us… it's better to be safe than sorry. From now on to the next thirty days, please adhere to the following. (We've done our research.)
DO NOT CHASE AWAY THE BLACK MOTHS AND BUTTERFLIES. YOU WILL REGRET IT. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE. Go to sleep early. Even if you're bored or have insomnia it's better not to stay up in the wee hours of the morning. You might invite the worst kind of company. If in the middle of the night you hear someone call you from behind, don't turn back. Try to stay in groups if you HAVE to wander around at night. You're supposed to be in the dorms anyway. Read the Garden rules. If you're in the Training Centre and hear lots of noise from the animals and insects, exit immediately. Animals have the best kind of instinct.That's it for now. If we come across anything new we will post it here, keep your eyes out for them!
Praying for your safety,
Anonymous.
Quistis raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of rubbish is this?" She said, frowning while sweeping her glance across at all her students. "Class, this is obviously a prank, do not waste your time on such gibberish. Especially not your lesson time."
She pursed her lips.
"Since you all appear to be so confident of your knowledge that you can ignore my class for grapevine rubbish, then I trust you will all be ready on the quiz tomorrow. It will be on all that has been taught from the beginning of the semester to this lesson."
The students groaned collectively, but in a stifled manner for they were afraid of aggravating the Instructor further, which would result in more homework or worst, difficult tests that if they failed, would land them in hot T-Rex bone stock. A price they were most reluctant to pay, to say the least.
The bell rang then. Quistis dismissed the class, swiveled on her feet, and left the classroom huffily.
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Flap flap...
Instrutor Trepe…
I
Flap…… flap...
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"Quistis have you read it?" Selphie asked excitedly the moment Quistis' butt touched the chair. Their gang was having lunch together on one of the rare occasions that everyone was free from missions.
Quistis threw her a puzzled look.
"You know, the memo that was posted this morning?" Selphie said with a hint of impatience. "Everyone's talking about it!"
"Oh that." The ends of Quistis' pink lips curved up in contempt. "I caught my students reading it at class."
"SO? WHAT DO YOU THINK?" The pitch of Selphie's voice raised in proportion to her excitement.
"It's just a prank." Quistis replied firmly. "I don't know what is their aim but the disciplinary committee will see to it that they are duly punished."
"But…" Selphie protested, but stopped to glare at Irvine when she felt his elbow against her side. "What, Irvine?"
Irvine shook his head, stuffing a spring roll into her mouth.
"Eat, it's yummeh."
He grinned at her puffed-up face as she chewed at the roll.
"Oh yeah! I have an idea for the next Garden Festival!" Selphie exclaimed, her attention span no longer on the cryptic message.
"Great, just don't ask us to be your coolies." Zell opened his mouth wide, shoving a hot dog whole into his mouth before swallowing it.
"Haha don't worry Zell. She won't ask you…not after that disastrous painting job…"
"Rinoa! It was not disastrous, just… creative!" Zell declared, only inducing more giggles and guffaws from his friends.
Quistis ate in silence. She never believed in superstitions.
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She said at her desk, pulling her glasses out and kneading on the bridge of her nose, before putting them back on. She glanced at the pile of papers still left unmarked. As the marked papers piled up she grew wearier, mentally questioning if she should give her students a tuition lesson from hell that covered all the topics they had learnt from day 1 to now.
She glanced at the clock on her desk. Its electronic numbers stared gravely back at her. Leaning back from her desk, she tilted her face upward while covering her forehead with a hand.
Two thirty in the morning and I am marking papers instead of sleeping. Even if there's any reason to be up at this time it shouldn't be this.
She looked at her bed. It didn't look inviting at all. It looked bare. Maybe that was why she tortured herself by marking papers. It wasn't that much different than if she was sleeping anyway.
She heard a small noise that she couldn't identify, something like the flipping of pages, yet softer. Looking down, she saw a black moth resting on one of the papers.
"What?" She stared at it. Yet she didn't move to wave it away. Not because of the message she had read earlier, but she seemed fascinated at the way it was flapping its wings…. As if it was trying to communicate something to her.
Flap…flap. Flapflapflapflap…
"What do you want, little…moth?" She asked it, and immediately felt ridiculous. It wasn't as if it would understand what she was saying.
But yet again, as if trying to communicate, it flew up to her shoulder, flapping in that curious way, before hovering up in front of her face, as if studying her.
She could've sworn that its eyes had a strange sheen of… admiration?
Impossible, Trepe. You're just tired and imagining things.
flap…flap…flapflapflap…
The sound attracted her attention again. She started to follow the moth with her eyes, as if hypnotized. It flew circles in front of her desk, before landing on… a paper origami crane she had always displayed.
This was a present from one of her favorite "normal" students, aside from Squall. This student was a girl Trepie, very shy yet always excelling in any tests, even the surprise ones. Quistis had high hopes of her passing the SeeD exam.
But then this student never did. She had been killed in the Second Sorceress War.
She could still remember that moment. She always did... when she looked at that origami crane.
"Instructor Trepe… I don't want to die." The girl had stared up at her, her eyes rapidly losing their colour and brightness, and gradually gaining a glassy sheen.
"Shh…" Quistis cradled the girl's head in her lap, trying unsuccessfully to cure her. She had been pierced through from the back to the front by a very long piece of shrapnel. There was simply nothing that could be done. "You'll be fine…"
"I'm not…" The girl tried to smile despite her pain. "But… I'll always be your Trepie Instructor Trepe."
Her eye still remained open no matter how many times Quistis tried to close them.
flap…flap…flapflapflap…
Quistis blinked out of her reverie.
The moth was now 'running' circles around the paper origami, while gazing at Quistis.
"What…?" Quistis asked softly, trying to make a sense of what it was doing, what it was implying. The back of her mind seemed to suggest something, but she just wouldn't acknowledge it.
BZZZZZZZZZ! BZZZZZZZZ!
The doorbell suddenly rang out, protruding its ugly presence amidst the strange atmosphere in the room, breaking the 'link' of some sorts she seemed to be sharing with the moth.
She headed for the door, opening it with not a little annoyance. Who could it be, ringing on her bell at such an hour?
"Hey, Instructor." A familiar voice sang out, the sarcastic tone making his identity crystal clear.
"Seifer, what's the big idea?" Quistis shot him a look that said "this had better be important or I'll use your skin for a shawl."
"Nothing, just dropping by to confirm my suspicions that you're still awake. Haha workaholic!"
"Seifer Almasy!" Her temper exploded like Trabia Garden did under missile attack. "You rang my doorbell to spout such nonsense?"
"Hey calm down it's the middle of the night. People need to sleep." He winked at her. "And you know tempers would make those little laugh lines around your eyes even more visible." He smirked, to remind her that what his most annoying expression was. "I'm off!" He turned, walking in the swagger that never failed to announce the bloated-ness of his ego.
Quistis shut the door, slapping on the button with such fury it was plain she substituted the mechanism for Seifer's face.
She turned back, trying to calm her breathing, involuntarily landing her gaze on the origami crane.
The moth was gone.
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FLAPFLAPFLAPFLAPFLAPFLAPFLAP!
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Okay that's it for this chapter. It's a rather new… concept I'm toying with. Of course the stuff in the memo, in the opening paragraph about hell gates opening and the moth are superstitions on Earth, I'm just incorporating it in the FF8 world, which I've named Gaia.
Constructive Criticisms and Reviews are welcome.
Disclaimer: All original characters from FF8 are not owned by me but by Square. I'm sure everyone knows that.
Lily