This is my first 'serious' attempt at writing fanfiction, so keep that in mind eh? A simple onshot, I do feel I took some liberty with the characters. So I apologize if you feel they are kind of OOC. :s
Well, enjoy!
Night has long since fallen, and the daytime wildlife of Gran Pulse was replaced by more sinister and darker beasts. The weary band of L'Cie now rested within a hidden nook among the many cliff-faces, huddled around a rather small fire. An impermeable silence hung over the rag-tag group, each lost in their own thoughts. Their first foray into the untamable lands of Gran Pulse was certainly not lacking in thrills and excitement, much to the Cocoonian natives' dismay. Snow let out another huff and grumble of pain as he shifted position for what must be the twentieth time in the past five minutes. This incited another round of various vocal displeasure from the other two male members; Hope massaging his aching feet and Sazh muttering under his breath as one hand held his woebegone back.
Lightning bit back another annoyed growl, not from any physical discomfort mind you, but rather distaste towards the quiet complaints coming from the "men". She continued flexing her fingers; Hope was just a kid, a pampered Cocoonian who barely walked even a mile a day so Lightning could cut him slack. She could also understand that Sazh was either forty or bordering it, an age not agreeable with the rough and tumble life they now were in. Snow however, was her age, and quite active if his frolicing as NORA was to be taken in account. Her eyes narrowed as they flicked over to give the blond another withering glare. HE had no excuses, and she was sick of hearing his bitching.
As if on cue, Snow let out another groan, rubbing his shoulder. Lightning's fist clenched. A low chuckle drew her and the rest attention to the brunette in charge of the fire. Fang glanced up, seeing everyone's eyes on her, and let out another chuckle. Lightning raised one brow, questioning. Fang gave another jab at the fire, shooting a glance at Snow,
"With all this moanin' and groaning, it's sorta starting to sound... questionable." Her smooth easy voice joked, her smirk growing. Lighting then let out an exasperated sigh, massaging the bridge of her nose. As expected, Snow let out an alarmingly loud and bewildered 'huh?', his brows furrowing as he examined the Pulsian. The perky red-head let out a slightly scandalized giggle, covering her mouth as she elbowed her older companion,
"Fang! Sheesh!"
"Just saying the truth!" Fang defended, "I think Soldier Girl would agree with me, with all her glaring and fist clenching." She waggled the unofficial fire-poker in the direction of Lightning, who gritted her teeth in response. Lightning most certainly did not have a good day, and the last thing she needed was provoking. Half of the merry band of L'Cie was most ill-quipped to handle the beasts of Gran Pulse, requiring Lightning, Fang and Vanille to exert more to cover their asses. Snow and his charming bravado however never got the message and lead the group more than once into a compromising situation which always guaranteed some sort of pain for Lightning.
Scowling, she flexed her fingers again. Her hand still tingled fiercely despite the generous amount of curas from Hope and Vanille. Having the all living Maker stomped out of her hand was not in her agenda for her first day on Gran Pulse, Lightning could assure you that.
'Stupid Snow.' She let out another irritated sigh. Only Snow would look at a Oretoise and think it could be taken down easily. If it wasn't for Lightning's bodycheck, they would be burying a Snow pancake. Instead Lighting's own hand fell victim, each bone pulverised in an instant. Blinded by agony, Lightning was flung over Fang's shoulder and the group quickly fled from the confused Oretoise. They hid themselves amonst the giant boulders dotted along the landscape as the two medics worked on the mulched up hand of Lightning's; which was fine and dandy until a pack of Gorgonopsids decided to try for some L'Cie for lunch. Stuck within a tight crevice, the battle was drawn out and incredibly awkward. Fang barely had room to fully twirl her lance and with Snow and Sazh ducking back and forth unpredictably, the Pulsian could barely fight to her full abilities.
Even in the haze of pain, Lightning could barely bring herself to watch them. It was something that belonged in those terrible sitcom shows that played on T.V, the kind that Serah loved for some inexplictable reason. There was a lot of things that Serah liked that Lightning found baffling. The ex-soldier ran her good hand through the straight locks of her bangs.
'Maker, I thought I had bad days until this.' When the final gorgonopsid was slayed, Fang decided that they should probably find a place to rest for the night. Lightning thought that was the first good idea anyone had all day. Saying she was in a foul mood would be an understatement.
"I dunno about you guys, but I am starving." Sazh finally spoke up, breaking the second spell of silence. Hope nodded in agreement, his stomach letting out a comical growl. Lightning blinked, stunned for a moment.
"Did anyone by any slimmest chance remember to grab the canvas bag from the 'ship?" She dared to ask, brilliant blue eyes cutting to each person to only see shakes of their heads. She couldn't believe it. They forgot the bag containing all of their rations on the now smoldering airship. Joining the league of groaners, Lightning ran her hand down her face.
"Just great." Fang and Vanille shared a bemused glance at their new traveling companions' misery. Vanille wiggled her butt,
"Gee, you guys. What do you think we do for food here on ol' Gran Pulse?" She let out a light laugh, which was met by blank stares. Hope frowned, glancing out to the vast plains partially hidden from view,
"I don't remember seeing anything that could be a market let alone a cultivator..."
"Of course not, silly!" Vanille retorted, rolling her eyes in amusement, "We get food the natural way." The blank stares remained. Lightning tilted her head slightly. She remembered her cadet courses mentioning something about how Pulsians would gather food from the land and beasts, but the datalog didn't go into any further detail. Lightning understood the land part but never the beast part.
"Maker, I know you all are sheltered and all, but you guys are starting to scare me." Fang muttered and stood up, brushing dirt from her sari, "C'mon Vanille, let's get dinner." Vanille let out an excited squeak, rushing over to the only exit in a blur. The crooked grin grew on Fang's face as she handed the fire-poker over to Hope,
"You kiddies just sit tight and keep the fire nice and big." Snow hurriedly got up, grunting loudly at his protesting muscles,
"Woah woah woah, hang on now, what are you doing?" He held up his hands as if it would stop Fang.
"What do you think? We're going hunting!" Vanille chirped, slapping a hand violently on Snow's shoulder. Lightning let out a loud snort, standing up too. This got everyone's attention, not that it ever was a challenge for the quiet soldier,
"Hunting? I don't recall seeing any bushes or plants that could even be considered edible." She folded her arms in front of her chest, cocking an eyebrow. The roles then reversed, Pulsians stared incredulously while the Cocoonians nodded in confidence.
"Plants?" Fang let out a violent snort, waving her hand as she chuckled lowly, "Etro above Soldier Girl, what do they teach you in soldier training?" She turned to be face to face with the grouchy ex-soldier. Lightning's glare grew more venomous at the jab,
"They taught us which plants and fruits are edible on Hell. I did not see anything of the sort." Lightning knew it was incredibly childish to fall into Fang's goading games, but she had enough of this horrible day and just wanted a nice safe ration for dinner then sleep. Fang then returned the glare, but her damnable smirk still remained.
"Oh is that so? Well, allow me to show you something far more better that you can find only on HELL." With that, she whirled around and slipped through the fissure before anyone else could hold her up. Vanille watched Fang's retreating back for a moment, turned to the confused (and one angry) stares of her newest family before giving a half-hearted shrug and followed after Fang. Lightning rolled her eyes in exasperation and sat back down on the highly uncomfortable rock, glaring out at the vast plains. Hope and Sazh exchanged worried glances. Hope gave a shrug at the unvoiced question that hung over them, poking the rather pathetically small fire.
'What sort of horrors will the two bring back?'
Snow cracked his knuckles loudly as he sat back down, oblivious to the sudden and violent clenching of Lightning's fist. There was nothing she hated more than people cracking their joints. She suffered enough of it from her fellow soldiers during the times she had to stay at the bunkers. She flinched again as more of the ghastly poppings interrupted her thoughts. Looking over she muttered an angry prayer to the heavens for strength, the big buffoon decided his toes needed to be cracked.
"Stop it." She snapped, feeling almost pleased with herself when the blond froze instantly. He slowly pulled his hands away from his feet, careful not to move too fast. Lightning was highly unpredictable on a good day, and Snow knew well enough today was not a good day. He remained tense until the icy glare from his "sister" shifted away. He looked over to Sazh next to him, the man's eyebrows was pulled up so high they were in danger of being lost in his 'fro.
'Worst. Day. Ever.' Was all Lightning could think at the moment. Her hand was still tingling rather painfully, her stomach was clenching and growling for food, Snow was in a rare form of idiocy, and Fang seemed to be amping up her desire to torment her. Lightning suspected it was fuelled by her good mood caused by her reunion with Vanille and Gran Pulse. The ex-soldier let out a long suffering sigh, massaging her forehead as a headache started to pound painfully. It certainly was not like her to bitch and moan but she was feeling the stress of everything pile up on her shoulder, which was heavy enough when they were in Cocoon, but now they were on Gran Pulse. The highly unpredictable and dangerous hell they all grew up fearing.
"Hey... Light, you okay?" The soft, careful voice of Hope drew her out of her musings, she looked over to see the silver-haired boy moved over to sit beside her. She gave him a half hearted smile, which was just a twitch of her lips.
"I'll be fine." She lowered her hand from her forehead. Hope frowned, tilting his head in a manner that reminded Lightning of a puppy. She watched the young teen squirm for a moment, her amusement momentarily letting her forget her griefs.
"Umm... how's your hand? I saw you clenching it a lot." He said sheepishly, pointing to her affected hand. She looked down to it, releasing the fist it was in.
"It had better days, but otherwise doing okay." She attempted to lighten the mood a bit, for Hope's sake. The kid reminded Lightning of Serah in many ways. He went through a lot of traumatizing situations in the past few days; watching his mother die, becoming an L'Cie and being ostracized from his only home is a lot to take in. It felt only natural for her to extend her protectiveness towards him.
Hope nodded, allowing a small smile to creep onto his face. It didn't reach his eyes though. Lightning felt a small twing of remorse and sympathy. Hope also reminded her of herself all too much. She turned away to gaze at the fire, noting it grew into a more respectable size under the kid's care. She allowed the small bubble of amusement from that observation linger.
"Ha ha!" A loud, victorious crow from the entrance to the nook shattered the peace that finally settled over the camp, electing everyone to leap out of their skins. A heartbeat later Fang appeared, a wicked grin plastered on her face, "Prepare your tastebuds, buckos and buckettes!" Lightning stared at the lump of... something in Fang's arms. It was furry and seemed to be leaking something dark down her hands. Vanille skipped in right behind her, going around the fire once before settling next to Hope.
"Uhh... what are you holding, Fang?" Sazh spoke up, eyeing the lump in the same manner as Lightning.
"Oh this?" Fang walked up and dropped her burden beside the fire with a disturbing splat, "This is what's going to rock your world." She then proceeded to cut at the lump with a small knife, taking the small pieces and spearing them onto sticks before handing them off to Vanille. The red-head in turn propped the sticks against the rocks surrounding the fire, making sure the mystery substance was within the flames. Lightning watched in silence, her eyes narrowed at the sight of the fur. Now that it was closer to the light of the fire, she could make out a tell-tale pattern.
"Fang... is that... a gorgonopsid...?" She hesitantly asked, involuntarily moving away from the Pulsians. Sharp inhales of shock was heard from Snow, Sazh and Hope as they all zoomed in on the fur too. Fang looked up from her work to catch Lightning's eyes, and winked.
"Sure is, Lightbug. One beautiful haunch of 'nopsid!" She wiggled a piece of the flesh, delighting in the disgusted reactions of her sheltered companions. Hope and Sazh seemed the most affected at the idea of eating something that once was living.
"You think we are going to eat that?" Sazh jabbed a finger at the offending pieces of meat cooking in the fire, wrinkling his nose at the smell, "No way! That is way into taboo territory, sister!" Snow and Hope nodded in agreement, their faces screwed up in disgust. Lightning agreed whole-heartedly with Sazh's statement, but she remained still, watching in quiet horror as Fang resumed making short work of the flesh. Never in her wildest imagination she would have thought this was what they meant when they said beasts.
'Eating flesh? Maker save me!' She thought to herself, resisting the urge to pinch her nose to block the smell of the burning meat.
"Oh stop being a bunch of babies. You wanna starve?" Fang chided, now finished with slicing the haunch and was wiping the blade of the knife on a patch of grass, "This is called survival of the fittest. Eat or be eaten." Vanille shuffled her feet uneasily, a feat considering she was still crouched next to the fire. The repulsed looks on their faces was not reasurring, Etro, Hope's face was turning green.
"Umm... couldn't we just... pick berries or something?" Hope said quietly, giving a soft gag before covering his mouth and nose. Snow finally spoke up,
"Yeeeeahhhh, I'm with Hope here. I'm all for trying new stuff, but this is too far guys." Fang decided not to respond, instead she plucked one of the first sticks that was set, examining the meat. Satisfied that it was cooked enough, she handed it to Snow's direction, motioning for him to grab it.
"Come on, at least give it a try!" She insisted upon seeing the blond shake his head in violent refusal. Letting an exasperated sigh escape through her nose, Fang turned to Sazh. The senior of the group moved back in alarm, holding his hands up. She was about to turn to Hope when the stick was suddenly snatched from her hand. Fang blinked in surprise as she saw it was Lightning. The pink-haired woman was holding the offending object delicately, as if the meat was about to spring back to life and bite her.
"If anyone's going to be trying this, it's going to be me." Lightning growled, still eyeing the meat suspiciously. Fang broke out into a smile again, victorious,
"Well we don't got all night, Lightbug!" She gestured rather enthusiasticly for her to take a bite. Lightning ignored the shuddering gasps of her fellow Cocoonian natives and her own increasingly persistant gag reflex as she drew the meat closer to her mouth. She stopped when it was half a foot away, observing the still sizzling flesh. It reeked, the greasy burnt scent laid thick in her nose, spurring her stomach to churn in nausea.
'Here goes nothing. As if this day could get any worst.' She thought to herself, steeling her nerves and closed the gap, taking a small bite. Hope let out a small groan of disgust, turning his head away while Snow and Sazh leaned in closer from across the fire. Lightning held the piece in her mouth for a moment before slowly chewing. It took all of her strength to resist spitting the strange texture back out. The flavour... was indescribable. The first thing Lightning noticed was the char, a taste she was all too familiar with. Next was this odd, savoury sensation that reminded her of the wild. It was strangely spicy and incredibly juicy for a chunk of something's flesh. The texture however, was something she couldn't get over. Stringy and tough with fibers completely alien to her.
A pregnant silence was thick in the air as the group awaited for the brave voyageur's response. Fang and Vanille leaned in closer when they saw Lightning finally swallowing the morsel, their excitement almost tangible in the air. The ex-soldier sat there, feeling her stomach clench and fold over what was given to it. Her mouth still felt rather violated, she grunted reaching for the canteen. Fang quickly and in Lightning's opinion foolishly grabbed it out of her reach.
"So? How is it?" The brunette ignored the death glare. Lightning glanced at the rest of the meat remaining on the stick. To her surprise it wasn't as terrible as she thought it was. It was disgusting and alien to her, but she had worst in the past.
"Tolerable at best." She replied before moving to take the canteen out of the annoying woman's hands. Just as she moved however, her stomach gave a violent heave. Lightning froze.
'Oh... shit. Not good.' The last time Lightning felt that sensation was after Serah managed to convince her to celebrate her promotion with some booze she snagged from Lebreau's. They had fun for a while, recklessly drinking and shouting at each other loudly from across the apartment, but later that night the Farron sisters found themselves re-experiencing everything they so happened to eat that day. When they woke up in the morning with massive hang overs they made a vow to never make such a mistake ever again.
Lightning dropped the stick and bolted to the nearest patch of vegetation, emptying her stomach. She could hear everyone call her name in alarm but ignored them, too distracted with the nausea roiling through her body. Fang and Vanille frowned, not expecting such a reaction. Vanille plucked another skewer of meat from the fire and took a nibble from it. She grinned instantly, it was as savoury and delicious as she remembered.
"Mmmmm! Nothing wrong here!" She declared before stuffing her face. Fang tilted her head, picking up Lightning's abandoned share. If there was nothing wrong with the meat, then...
"Huh, no way. You guys can't digest meat?" The Pulsian warrior remarked before laughing out loud. "Wow that kind of sucks. This is going to complicate things a lot."
"You think?" A shaky, weak voice snarled from the edges of the campfire light. Lightning finally regained some control over her protesting stomach. She moved away from the now defiled bush to collapse onto a rather thick patch of grass. Staring up at the brilliant starry sky above, she could hear the males conversing to themselves about the horrors of the meat, Vanille's delighted hums as she ate said meat and the rustling of Fang's sari. Soft footsteps walked up, stopping a foot away from her. Lightning let out a deep sigh and braced herself for more teasing as Fang leaned over to stare down at her.
They maintained eye contact for what seemed like minutes before Fang crouched down. Light resumed gazing at the stars. Why Fang was here, silently staring at her, Lightning had no clue. Why the warrior was being quiet was an even bigger mystery. She decided the best tactic was just to play dead, not that being dead was any real challenge at the moment. Her whole body was numb and in some form of pain.
Then Fang finally spoke up, her voice barely heard over the fire, "Sorry 'bout that." Lightning arched her eyebrows up, slowly turning to look at the Pulsian. She couldn't see her expression however, since the fire was at Fang's back.
"Don't worry about it. You didn't know." She muttered, watching the visible relief overcome the other woman. She felt a rough pat on her shoulder, sparking irritation at being touched.
"True, true. You Cocoonians sure are something." A low huff of amusement and Fang moved to get up, "Stay right there, Soldier Girl, I'll set up your bed for you. You had a rough day." But as the warrior regained verticalness she uncharacteristically stumbled. Lightning watched in dazed horror as Fang's foot suddenly jerked over. Right onto her poor battle worn hand. A loud bellow of agony shattered the somewhat peaceful night, followed by vigorous apologies.
'Yep. Worst. Day. Ever. I really should get a trophy or something.'