Story Title: Blood of Despair, Shine of Hope
Author: Alicia Jewel
Summary: A mysterious poem found in the diary of a caravan. (Warning: Kind of morbid. Okay, REALLY morbid.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles or any of its characters, places, or events. No profit is made from the writing and posting of this fiction.

Copyright: I do, however, own the poem/story itself as well as the unnamed characters at the end. This may only be posted by Alicia Jewel on Fanfiction dot net unless given express written permission from the author.

By night the village peacefully slept
Safe and sound in their dreams
But meanwhile monsters prowled about
Plotting their villainous schemes

In light children played without a care
While their parents watched from afar
The monsters, however, did different things
Performed rituals so bizarre

The world was young and barely touched
Pure air cut the skies
The people knew nothing of turmoil and hate
And there were no such things as lies

But one day a crystal shattered the stars
And left a scar in the earth
Its radiance, its beauty was a sight to see
One would think it was filled with mirth

That night, however, something occurred
That altered the line of history
A mysterious gas covered the skies
Its presence and use a mystery

It was then that the monsters showed themselves
And tore through the village gate
The people fought back with all their might
But the beasts had sealed their fate

Crimson red stained the once perfect dirt
The children screamed in fear
As they were backed into the wall
Knowing the end was near

The very few who survived the night
Felt a sudden change in the air
What they breathed in was suddenly poisonous
They screamed out in despair

"Somebody help us, please, oh, please!
Before we die where we stand!"
But nobody could hear their terrible screams
It became more than they could withstand

When a party finally did arrive
After a long, gruesome week
They found that they had arrived much too late
The disaster had reached its peak

Many wondered how they survived
When the village had died from the air
The party revealed their life-saving source:
"A piece of the crystal," they were said to declare

"It pushed away that terrible poison
And protected all those nearby!"
And sure enough, as many discovered
It was their savior from the sky

"But I fear that its power is not unlimited
Something must be done
So that it may regain its incredible luster
Before its power becomes none!"

People spent months searching the land
For something to power the shine
Lo and behold, the crystal responded
To liquid from a regular pine

This formed into a ritual
And now, every year
In order to rid the world of this miasma
For crystal caravans we volunteer

I am a warrior of this time
Where the poison lurks so near
That we cannot go anywhere without a chalice
To hold our crystal so dear

We brave the darkest dungeons we find
For at the end are the trees of our goal
A few drops of myrrh is all we need
To save many a soul

And now the people can live in peace
As we protect their home
From the beasts and the poison of miasma
And all the evil that dares to roam

But my greatest hope is that one day soon
The air will be clean again
The children can run and play all day
And finally be free of pain


This poem was found in the diary of a caravan that was found dead near Rebena Te Ra. This was their last entry, and the only other entry said "We are soldiers striving for peace." Nobody could identify their bodies, nor did anybody report a missing caravan. They were buried near the location in which they had died. The author of this poem is still unknown, but it has become famous across the world. An unknown person eventually titled it "Blood of Despair, Shine of Hope."

The End

If you guys think I should try to make a story out of this (which might be kind of hard since I'm already working on my other FFCC story, Pen and Paper), go ahead and say so. If this poem sucks and should burn, feel free to say that, too! It took a while to write, but I'm not totally proud of it. Just don't flame. If you want it to burn, say so in the nicest way possible.

Also, if I misspelled anything, please alert me of such! I used a crappy word processor to write this.