This story is adapted from our RP, Red and Blue. Therefore, it's a joint project of many members. Hope you enjoy reading it! We sure had fun writing it! Read and Review!
To ask an Ivalice-ian about the hero Gaol would be like asking a honey bee whether it liked honey. Local legend tells of a biskmatar Gaol, one of the Aisen 13 and wielder of the Ayvuir blades, who travelled the world alongside his moogle companion, the famous Mog Knight Lini. They were a powerful combination, along with their clan, and Gaol's lover, the Moon Maiden Evelyn. Naturally, they made enemies left, right and centre due to their excessive power and fame. But the worst rival of all was the Salika keeplord, whom legend says wanted nothing except Evelyn's hand in marriage. When turned away, he became mad with grief and vengeance. He hatched out a plan to lure Gaol and Evelyn into his keep. He took Evelyn for himself and...the brave biskmatar died, brutally. Lini rushed to the scene, but it was too late. The three of them were only twenty years old. It was told that the Ayvuir blades turned scarlet with a mageknight's murder, and azure with the Moon Maiden's tears of grief. Greatly grieved, the loyal Mog Knight returned to his place of birth with the Ayvuirs red and blue to await the one worthy of his best friend's blessings. He was never seen or heard of again. This is the tale that has been passed on generation to generation. How true it is, no one knows, for the 13 have long moved on to the next life. Countless had embarked on the search for Gaol's swords. None succeeded. Some even dared to set foot in the sacred ruins of Eluut Sands, rumoured to be the legendary Lini's origin. But their attempts were futile. Eventually, it was concluded that Gaol was merely a myth created by ignorant villagers, and the Ayvuir blades never existed. Precious few held fast to their beliefs. Some never gave up their efforts in the search of the sacred swords. And this is where our story begins...
Eliana stared at the map in her hands, and then at the wide desert that was Jeraw Sands. She sighed, "What does a girl need to do to reach a town..." She trudged on in the blazing heat. "How can there be so much sand in one place? Not even a single tree or even a large rock to give shade!" She kicked the stones beneath her boots in annoyance. "Damn desert."
Eliana growled when she got a faceful of sand. To find her brother or not, she was never setting foot in a desert ever again. NEVER. Dunes, dunes and dunes, all made of sand. In fact, she never wanted to see sand again, either. She swore if she saw another cactus, she would unleash her fury on it, despite its thorns. Which was exactly what she did. The sharp spikes jutting out of the plant pierced through her gloves, and she glared viciously at the offending (or innocent) cactus. The jolt sent an old signboard tumbling onto the ground from the plant. Picking it up, Eliana could just make out some words.
"Welcome to Eluut Sands." Tossing the piece of wood aside, she grumbled. "Great. Just great..."
Shadow looked out over the desert from his position on a sand dune. He was lost... again.
"Now how did I wind up in the desert?"
He murmured to himself glaring at the map in his hands. A strong gust of wind blew the map away from him and he chased after it.
'I can't believe I ended up in a completely different desert than I was heading towards...' But then, all deserts seemed to look exactly the same. Sand, sand and more sand. She couldn't emphasize enough on the sheer amount of sand in this place. She tipped her canteen upside down to find that it was completely empty. Mateus.
Eliana was thinking that her day couldn't get any worse when a map slapped her right in the face. Peeling the annoying piece of paper off her face, she noticed a figure rushing down from a dune. She could yell at him, ask for water, or ask for directions. She chose to do none of those things. Noticing his Sage robes, she blurted out, "Can you make it snow or something?"
Shadow looked at the girl ahead of him and raised an eyebrow.
"No..." he said slowly as he approached her intent on retrieving his lost map.
Eliana blinked. "Oops. The heat must have gotten to my head. But seriously, blizzard won't work? This place is so hot, it's ridiculous. How can anyone stand this type of weather? I'll do anything if it means that I can get to Cyril faster..." She glanced at him, having momentarily forgotten his existence. "Oh, and is this your map?"
"Well... blizzard might work, but with my luck lately I'd probably end up freezing you in a block of ice rather than cooling you down. Oh, and yes that is my map," Shadow said after a moment of thought.
"I swear, the heat causes mood swings... I sounded so weird just now..." Eliana sweatdropped. "Here, your map. By the way, I'm Eliana. Could you tell me which way is to Cyril?"
"Well, I could if I knew where it was myself. My sense of direction is nonexistent," Shadow said glaring at the map. "I'm Shadow by the way," he added as an afterthought.
"That's bad... It'll be like the blind leading the blind! I somehow managed to walk all the way from Jeraw Sands to Eluuts Sands. Why do all deserts look exactly the same? I'll never reach Cyril at this rate." Eliana unleashed her frustrations on a cactus by kicking it violently. It collapsed in a cloud of sand. "Jeez..." She fanned at the sand rather futilely, directing an annoyed glare at the fallen plant.
"Um... I don't think the cactus is to blame," Shadow said taking a slow step away from Eliana.
Eliana sighed. "But it's so freakingly hot!" A memory flashed unbidden through her mind. Strangely, it was something that she didn't recall doing before.
"It's so freakingly hot!" Eliana yelled in a voice rather more mature than her own. An idea struck. "Sliprain!" A large blob of water fell on top of her, refreshing her thoroughly. But when she tried to catch up with the others, her feet weighed her down. Because they were literally stuck in the mud. Eliana took a moment to gape at the legs covered by a long green skirt that was slitted almost all the way up her thigh, before she was jerked back to the present.
"What was that?" she blinked.
"What are you talking about?" Shadow asked looking at her over the top of the map.
She blinked, having forgotten that he was there. "Uh, nothing. Just remembered something." Looking at the map in her hands, she sighed, "So what are we going to do now? Maybe we might find a village or something if we walk around... But knowing our luck, we might just stumble across Lini's tomb or something." Eliana felt a pang in her heart. It was most likely sympathy for the warrior who had lost his friends... Gaol... Evelyn...
Eliana shook her head violently to dispel the strange feeling of familiarity. "So, shall we travel together? If we get lost, we'll get lost together, at least..."
Shadow sighed. "We may as well. At least we'll have company."
"Alright, let's go!" As they headed out in a completely random direction, Eliana suddenly remembered. "Come to think of it, where do you want to go? We may have to split up after getting directions, since I'm going to Cyril."
"Well, to be completely honest, I gave up on planning where I was headed a looooooong time ago. Now I just kind of wander around," Shadow said walking beside Eliana.
"Okay... If you want, let's go to Cyril together! I'm looking for my brother, who apparently has joined a clan with Cyril as its base." She gave him a grin, but it soon faded. "Say... Do you smell smoke?" It was so different from the dry air of the desert that she detected it immediately.
Shadow paused. "Yeah, what do you think it is?"
"I don't know, but we'll just have to find out," she said, already running towards where she could vaguely see a plume of smoke rising up into the sky. A scream, muffled by distance, made her wince. She quickened her pace, not even bothering to make sure that Shadow was following.
Shadow quickly followed behind.
Behind them, the poor cactus lay on the ground, forgotten and well, fallen.