Chapter I
She Said She Got Your Back
When all your clan mates had either just been immobilized by an arrow shot on their knees or disabled from using their own weapons thanks to a searing pain inflicted by an arm-shot and you yourself were tending a slowly killing poison as you tried to keep distance as far away as possible from ruthless lizard-like sword-wielding gladiators and a well-hidden viera sniper by seeking shelter on top of a cliff without anyone noticing, you would start to think why you joined a clan in the first place. At least that was what I was thinking right now, aside from thinking of a strategy to get through this whole mess and be back to the city of Graszton, drinking at a pub.
"Alright, sssissy hume!" hissed the crocodile-skin bangaa from down below. "Just give up on this hide-and-ssseek and make thisss quick!"
In my view just behind a dying bush, I could see him down in the direction of a pond in the north of the flatland where my friends were cornered and bound. Wrong direction, you brute, I thought. Behind you!
"You can't hide from ussss!" he snarled as he breathed out fire on an innocent tree, probably thinking I was dumb enough to have climbed there.
I never liked being called a sissy. Who would want to, anyway? But even back when I was a tiny five-year-old hume I already realized that I had a much greater dislike of physical pain than silly name-calls. I had experienced enough torture in my short hume lifespan living with real monsters to know that pain could lead to irreparable damages to a person of hume race, or to any race in that matter.
"What isss the matter now, arrowhead? Can't handle our sssniper?" shouted the bangaa to the trees, still not knowing where to exactly face. He strode back to face my white-furred friend and placed the burning tip of his blade on top of the moogle's head. "Tell me, thief. Do you really think your ridiculousssly insssignificant jobs are enough to form a full-pledge clan?"
"Oh, they could, Javet," answered another bangaa—this one a female—as she pinned down on the flat ground an already beaten up pig-face seeq. "Hunting yellow chocobosss, that isss!" she added with a smirk.
"At-t-t least we don't k-k-kill them, kupo!" said my moogle friend, barely enduring the burning pain on his head.
"Kill them?" said the one called Javet. "A moogle? A three feet tall moogle with a dangling pom-pom, killing?" Addressing his partner, he said, "Can you believe them, Imana? A moogle thief, a fat dim-witted ranger ssseeq, and a sissy hume hunter dreaming of killing…what? A wyrm?"
"You're—the dim-witted—ack!" protested my seeq friend, interrupted by a kick to his back by the one called Imana. "Who the heck said—something—about—ack!—argh!-about freakin' killin' them! Arggg! Dam—ack! Stop—freakin' kickin' my pelvis you stupid lizar-ack! Ouch! Arggg!"
"You dare such insssolence, you porcine fatty hog! Die!" snarled the bangaa Imana as she repeated kicked his behind.
As she tried to knock him out in the most excruciating way, every single doubt as for my joining this clan dissolved and rage took control of my bow, swiftly launching an arrow fueled with fury, piercing through poorly protected back of the female bangaa and hitting a vital organ. The lizard-kind crashed to the barren land just beside my seeq friend, leaving the male one named Javet momentarily shocked and the viera sniper shooting multiple arrows in the direction of the cliff. One of them hit me badly in my right arm—my bow-arm—causing me to retreat and hide back behind the dying bush. Now that wasn't expected, I thought. I had never hit a person that hard, almost knocking her out. But at the same time, I was never hit right at my bow-arm-and this viera sniper effortlessly did it. This I expect, I thought, examining my wound and dreading about my uselessness in battle without the use of my bow-arm. If only I were born a viera, I thought, instantly dismissing it. I've never seen a male viera in my life!
The viera instantly vanished after that, which made me more scared than I already was. I was assured she was moving from one treetop to another with such grace that only the people of the wood possess, thinking about which part of my body she would first shoot and what her killing shot would be. Killing me was not what scared me more. It was the twisted feeling of looking forward to this event, when viera sniper would treat me as her equal, though the ultimate end would probably be 'death'. I was scared of my recklessness, my emotion betraying me and allowing this to happen.
"Vitor! Wake up, kupo!" shouted my moogle friend. I immediately turned and saw the male bangaa wildly charging to my porcine friend.
Vitor was too weak and still immobilized by the arrow on his left knee. Even a single blow would surely knock him out. Knowing this, I tried to pull my bowstring to at least postpone his imminent doom but my own injuries and the poison inflicted in my bloodstream made me utterly useless.
As I collapsed at the peak of the cliff I heard a screeching cry of pain distinctly of lizard-kind and saw that the bangaa Javet got caught on one of Vitor's traps. Massive needles coming from the ground next to Vitor impaled the bangaa, abruptly stopping his charge. He was heavily wounded, but had still enough strength to stab Vitor and instantly knock him out. Drawing his sword, the bangaa swiftly recited a spell which would be his killing blow.
As if by instinct, I got up and launched another arrow, wishing the same effect it did the last time, but even before my arrow got the chance to release itself, two arrowheads had already pierced through my hard leather vest, the impact pushing me to the endpoint of the cliff and causing me to fall.
Everything turned hazy after that given the burning sensation of pain caused by all the shots I received—from a viera sniper, no less—and the flying sensation of falling. So this is what it feels like to fall. Like I'm flying. Like…I'm flying…flying, I thought, before realizing the truth. "Holy Heaven! I'm really flying! Ha! Ha! Ha! Screw you gria!" I cried, happily, of course.