Welcome to Tears of the World, the second book in my True Gaia series! I apologize for taking so long in getting this out, as I've been quite distracted for a long while. Anyway, enjoy this short chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Final Fantasy series. That honor goes to Square Enix or whatever they're calling themselves now. You know who, if you're reading this. It ain't me.
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Tears of the World
Chapter 1: Memories and Discoveries
"Settle down!" The buzz of chatter in the room faded as the instructor entered. Kole barely blinked, jotting down some ideas from his head in his little notebook before closing it and looking up. The girls a few seats away from him didn't seem to even notice the man's words, however, still laughing and chattering away. "Miss Pip, Miss Carson, and Miss Dana! Class has begun!" The three girls turned as they heard their names called, and the leader of the two smiled apologetically to her friends before darting over to her seat, right next to Kole.
"Today, we will be discussing names." Kole blinked at this, already leaning his face on his hand, elbow planted firmly on the desk before him. The teacher wrote a series of names on the blackboard, making the class wince whenever the chalk decided to squeak. They all were wishing that the man would switch to using a whiteboard, like the rest of the educators had.
The tanned boy sighed as the teacher lectured on how the meaning of one's name affected how they thought of themselves, and glanced over at the girl sitting next to him. Taking notes, how typical of a prep. He happened to pride himself on being able to listen to a lecture and understanding it without having to take notes.
"Split up into pairs and start deciphering your names! If there isn't someone you want to do this with, turn to the person next to you!" Kole groaned slightly and closed his eyes for a moment. He had really crappy luck today. The only friend he had in this class hadn't come in today, because he'd gotten sick with the flu. Which meant he got stuck with someone else as a partner.
"You mind if we team up?" Kole blinked at the girl sitting next to him, bright hazel eyes on him. "My friends generally pair up by themselves." The brunette waved her hands towards the other two girls who were already leaning over a piece of paper together.
"Sure. Since Geoff isn't here today." The girl started to shuffle for a piece of paper in her messenger bag backpack, whereas Kole simply grabbed a folder and plucked a blank sheet out. "Here." The girl blinked at him, and then smiled slightly.
"Thanks." The girl then pulled out a book that confused Kole. It literally was a book on names. "I usually carry this around for my stories. But I think we can use it for this assignment, if I put down which information we got from it."
Kole wrote down his full name under the girl's, blinking at it for a moment. It was about as strange as his own. "Your middle name's Igraine?" The girl blushed slightly. "I'm not saying it's bad or anything, I've just never met anyone with that name." The girl looked aside.
"It was my grandmother's name. I swear that my ancestors loved the Arthurian legends." Kole smirked slightly.
"Well, if you could choose your name, what would it be?" The brunette tilted her head to the side, thinking. Kole patiently waited for her response, glaring at his own name.
"I never really thought about it...But I think I would choose Eireann." Kole lifted an eyebrow at the choice as the girl quickly wrote it down. "It means 'Ireland'. The land of my ancestors." Kole hummed thoughtfully about that, looking at the name. "What about you?" Kole smirked slightly. He already knew what name he would have, if he could choose. "Your middle name's pretty interesting as well. Wolfe...Named after the majestic animal, perhaps?" Kole rolled his eyes.
"Granpa was named Wolfgang. Dad decided to name me after him, but be nice and shorten it." The girl was flipping through the name book as he was talking.
"Well, your first name makes sense, at least." Kole blinked at her. "'From a surname which was originally derived from the Old English nickname 'Cola', or charcoal, denoting a person with dark features.' You certainly have dark features. Very tan with dark hair." The girl giggled slightly, as Kole gaped at her.
"That's not the point of the assignment," he groaned, as he let his head hit his desk with a soft thunk. The girl giggled slightly.
"Well, at least it's more favorable than Cassandra. I'd really rather not be named after a seer that was never believed and was eventually killed." Kole blinked at her. That was right. Cassandra from Greek myth was a rather tragic character. "Anyway. If you could choose your name, what would it be?" Kole smirked again.
"Drake." Cassandra blinked at the speedy answer. "I rather like dragons, so if I could I would want to be named after them. After all, they are one of the most powerful totem animals a person could have." The girl's eyes gained a fascinated gleam.
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"Drake! Hey, wake up!"
"Zidane, move back." Drake felt his head being lifted up, and liquid being poured between his lips.
"Is he gonna be alright?" The archer grimaced slightly as the taste of the liquid reached his mind, and he coughed slightly.
"He'll be just fine." A sense of dizziness started to make itself known as Drake started to pry his eyes open, squinting up at the friends that were blocking out the rain. "You see?"
"Someone tell the world to stop spinning," the archer croaked, making his friends laugh. The man managed to make himself sit up, and lifted his bare left hand to his forehead, grimacing. "Talk about a headache." Drake's eyes then widened as he realized something.
The dream he'd had...It hadn't been a dream. It had been a memory, and one that he had forgotten! It was of when he and Cassandra had first spoken. They hadn't hit if off right away, like most stereotypical romances did, but they had worked decently well enough together.
"Drake?" The archer lifted his head as he realized his name had been called. "What's wrong, you look a little shaken." The man chuckled as he stood, wobbling and having to be supported by the thief to his right.
"I'm fine. I just realized I could remember my name. My birth name." The look of happy surprise on Zidane's face made the archer carefully shake his head. "Kind of a weird name, though. Kole Wolfe Cassius." Freya tilted her head to the side.
"I've met a man named Kole before, but never have I heard those other two names." Drake smiled slightly, and accepted the pieces that he'd taken off to fight from Vivi, who had gathered them up. Only when he had everything on did he notice something missing.
"Dammit, I was hoping that had just been me being delusional." The rest looked to the frowning archer, wondering what he was talking about. "That...woman," Drake twisted the word to make it sound like he'd meant it as an insult, "took the ribbon I had tied around my right arm." Zidane frowned.
"Can't you just get another one, Dra-I mean Kole?" Drake frowned. Yes, he could, but that ribbon had already been worn down enough that it was comfortable.
"Just call me Drake, Zidane. I'm used to that name by now. And I could, but...It wouldn't be the same. My old ribbon was worn down a bit, and a new one would chafe." Zidane nodded to Drake's request as Freya tilted her head down a little.
"Regardless, we need to get going. Is everyone feeling up to traveling?" Drake paused a moment to do a mental check of himself. His lungs still felt odd, like ice cubes had been chucked into his chest and were slowly melting, and he was still feeling pretty disoriented, and his skin stung from the rain hitting the cuts that had yet to fully heal...but he was good to go.
"I'm alright." Freya looked at him skeptically. "I'm a ranged fighter, remember. I can handle more aches and pains than a melee fighter can. I just have to worry more about the lack of distance between me and the enemy." Freya rolled her eyes at the slight joke before nodding to Zidane, showing that she was ready to go as well.
"I-I'm alright, too." Vivi stood up from where he had been sitting, and Quina nodded to show that it was fine as well.
"Alright. Everyone good with heading to Cleyra?" Drake nodded, soon mimicked by Vivi and Quina.
"Um...Do you think we'll learn more about those black mages if we go to Cleyra?" Drake looked to Vivi. The kid was pretty strong already, magically. And he'd developed a lot since the archer had first met him.
"Yeah, I'd say we'll learn a lot about them as long as we follow Brahne and that Kuja guy." Drake noticed Zidane glancing at him. "You sure you're alright, though, Drake? I mean...we had to fight your girl..." Drake shook his head, an angry look in his eyes.
"Anastasia is not, and never was, my girl. She merely looked like her, and I was unable to separate the two in my head. Once I realized what she is really like, I discovered I could fight her." All of the others looked at Drake, surprised at the vehemence and poison in his words. "And I will fight her without holding back the next I meet her." Zidane nodded solemnly to Drake as the archer started to calm himself down.
"Oh! What about the princess?" Drake mentally thanked the little black mage for changing the subject to something Zidane would pay more attention to.
"Dagger? I'd never forget about her! She might not be here in Burmecia, but I know we'll find her soon." Drake brushed some water from his face as he adjusted the yellow fabric on his head, his eyes slightly sad. Zidane had no idea what Dagger would be like the next time he saw her. "Well, let's move out!"
"Some say it lies in the desert west of Burmecia, but I know not whether we can enter the town itself." Freya crossed her arms, bowing her head to look down. Zidane growled under his breath, seeming a little aggravated at their pessimism.
"Brighten up a little! We'll figure it out when we get there!" With that, they started off, backtracking the way they had come, back to the entrance of Burmecia.
Drake checked his bow for splintering as he followed the others out of the city. It wasn't in direct danger of breaking, but it was starting to show its use, unfortunately. He was going to have to replace it soon enough. Perhaps they had some kind of bow that he could buy in Cleyra, because he was really going to need it by then.
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Drake groaned as he looked up at the cloudless sky above them. He was sweating like crazy, and the turban wasn't doing as much as he had hoped it would. The sand was getting everywhere, too. He was pretty sure he was going to need to empty his quivers of sand once they got out of this desert. And to add to the misery, there was a huge twister of sand that they were walking towards.
In the game, he had figured out that it was just a pair of textures turning around and around to make it seem like a twister. When it was right in front of him, though, it was most definitely sand. Sand that could grind skin away at a moment's notice. Sand that could lodge in one's hair and heat up uncomfortably. Sand that could ruin the finish on his bow.
As they trudged closer to the storm, though, the twister seemed to be getting weaker and weaker, until it was bearable. That wasn't to say that the sand getting whipped into his face didn't sting, though.
"The tempest subsides...by the gods!" Freya certainly hadn't been expecting the sands to not blast away their skin. Drake was simply grateful for little things like that. Now, what he'd be even more grateful would be for an elevator to take them all the way to the top so that he could rest. Those spells he had been hit by in Burmecia were still affecting him. His arms were covered with small scabs from where the ice had sliced his skin up nicely.
"C'mon, let's go while we can!" Drake nodded to Zidane, though he was sure the thief didn't see. The archer was lagging more towards the back of the group, after all.
"Indeed. Let us press on." Vivi had a hand to his hat, trying to keep it from being blown away. Drake's makeshift turban was securely tied to his head, thankfully, though he was starting to wish that he had put it over his ears, to keep sand from getting in there.
'One extreme to the next, it seems. Next thing I know, we'll be at Mount Gulug.' Drake sighed through his nose as the rest started to run, and he started to as well, the movements taking far more energy from him than he would have liked. He had a feeling he would force the group to stop far too soon.
The archer started to daze as he walked, the heat taking its toll on him. Freya was constantly glancing over her shoulder at him to make sure that he was still with them and hadn't fallen unconscious.
"Drake! Watch out!" The archer blinked at the sudden call, and yelped in pain as something hit his back, sending him to the sandy floor. An extra wave of heat, courtesy of Vivi's Fire spell, made him wince, and he stayed down until he heard the sound of two light things falling to the sand. "Are you alright?" Drake winced as he pushed himself up, the motion taking far too much effort.
"No. No, he isn't." Rather strong arms helped the archer to stand, and Drake blinked slightly at Zidane. "You saw how that bitch was targeting him in Burmecia. He got hurt worse than the rest of us. Come on, we're gonna rest for a bit." Drake frowned slightly, considering lying to Zidane and telling him that he was perfectly able to continue on.
Unfortunately for Drake, the door led outside, and the winds started to beat on him again. A dark form went past them, and Drake considered it for a moment. That had looked like a Zuu. Definitely not a good sign for them. Zidane had already disappeared to trigger the next sequence, and Freya suddenly dragged Drake out of the way as a stream of sand started to pour out of the door they had just exited.
"So much for staying in there for a little while." Zidane had walked back down the steep path he had gone up, and looked up at the vine leading to a second opening in the trunk, this one not pouring sand. "Think you've got it in you for a climb, Drake?" The archer mentally checked his already low energy levels.
"I think so. After that, though..." Zidane nodded, showing that he understood. Freya climbed up the vine first, and then Vivi and Quina, the gourmand surprisingly helping the mage to not fall. Zidane looked to Drake, and nodded, showing that he was to go next.
The archer sighed and started the climb, feeling his muscles complain with each movement. He was wrong about his energy, it seemed, but it wasn't like he could back down now. His pride was keeping him going.
A couple of yells of panic made Drake start to turn his head to see what they saw, but something hard and unforgiving clenched around his middle, pulling him off of the vine. Drake finally got a glimpse of what it was as he was pulled away from the tree. His eyes widened as he saw black feathers. A Zuu.
"Let go of him!" Drake whipped his head back around to see Vivi calling up a fireball as adrenaline started to surge through his system, seeming to slow down time. Freya was crouching to jump, and Zidane was looking on despairingly, holding the archer's bow.
Time sped up again, and Drake yelped as he was tossed up into the air by the Zuu in preparation to being swallowed. The fireball exploded as he was grabbed by something decidedly softer than the Zuu's beak, and dragged along with back to the trunk. Drake stared up at the sand-blasted wood above him, trying to decipher what had just happened.
Freya had saved him. At the same time as Vivi's magic attack, she had used her powerful legs to reach the Zuu and bounce off of it, using that impact to not only knock the bird away from them, but also to get to Drake and get back to the tree safely.
"Freya! Drake! Are you two alright?" Drake turned his head to look at his thief friend, still lying on the ground. He forced himself to lift a hand and give his friend a thumbs-up before the adrenaline in him faded, taking him with it.
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To say that Zidane panicked when Drake passed out was an understatement. Freya had to punch him in order to get him to pay attention to what she was saying, and Vivi was staring at them, also worried for the friendly archer.
"Zidane, he'll be fine. He's just worn out from that scare. You saw how he was struggling to keep up before. The encounter with that bird took the rest of his energy." Zidane, rubbing his abused cheek, had to agree with her. The thief hadn't been sure the archer would be able to get up the vine, anyway. He'd seen how his friend had been struggling with it.
"My, my! I'm certainly glad that you all managed to get away from the Zuu unharmed!" All of those who were still conscious jumped at the feminine voice that came from behind them, Freya and Zidane both reaching for their weapons. "Ah, please, I mean you no harm. I merely wish to help the one my sister found so charming." Zidane narrowed his eyes at the strange woman.
Her hair was the same yellow-green as the leaves high above on the tree, and her skin was the same odd blue-brown as the trunk was in the shadows. Indeed, as they watched, she stepped out of the tree itself, her foot a formless blob before the toes became defined and the foot touched the ground. Sand swept up her form, creating flowing garments that hid her more...personal features. Had Drake been conscious, he would have been stricken by how similar her garb was to the dancers atop the tree.
"And you are?" The woman smiled at Freya's question, and swept a bow towards them, as graceful as the wind itself. Zidane was a little shocked at the woman, or perhaps the fact that he had seen of her something that most women did not openly show.
"I am the spirit of this tree. I am Cleyra." Freya paused for a moment, her eyes resting on the woman, though not as suspiciously as before.
"You are...a Constellato?" The dryad smiled at the Dragon Knight, and knelt to gently touch Drake's forehead. A couple of whispered words, and the archer's eyes flickered open, though it was apparent that he wasn't fully awake.
"Rise, Chosen of my sister Maria. This place is not safe for resting." Drake sat up and grumbled incoherently, and was helped up by a bemused Freya. "He shall not remember this after he's rested properly. There is a moogle nearby. He will give you a place to stay for the night." The Constellato gently patted Drake's face before smiling at those he had been traveling with and stepping back into the wood, her clothing dissolving back into sand as her form merged with the tree once again.
"...That was...unexpected." Zidane handed Drake's bow to Vivi, and tossed the archer's arm over his shoulder, his other hand gripping his belt. He and Freya together helped to get the semi-conscious man across the now sand-filled room, hoping that they would reach the moogle without incident.
Unfortunately, that didn't happen.
Vivi yelped as he tripped over a red crystal half-buried in the sand. Drake's bow flew from his grasp to land near the exit. Zidane and Freya turned around to look at the little mage, who was slowly getting to his feet. The sand behind the black mage moved and shifted on its own, making the Dragon Knight reach for her spear, her eyes on the suspicious mass.
The sand suddenly surged up to tower over poor Vivi, the red crystal the boy had tripped over resting in the sand golem's chest. Zidane started to put Drake down as Freya started to ready for a lunge.
However, a form emerged from the wooden wall next to them, sand rushing up to cover her as she stepped forth. The Constellato Cleyra glared at the sand golem for a moment before lifting her arms and starting to dance, turning in place slowly at first, and then faster and faster.
Vivi scurried over to cower behind Quina as the wind started to kick up. It carried away the sand that made up the core's puppet, and, once all the sand was gone, kept the crystal floating in the air. Cleyra spun far faster than any human could stand to do so, and the winds around the crystal intensified, causing cracks to spiderweb across the strange substance's surface.
Cleyra stopped suddenly, and the creature she had been attacking fell apart, landing in many pieces on the sandy ground. The Constellato sighed slightly and ran a hand across her blue-brown forehead before smiling at the group of travelers she had just protected.
"It's been a while since I fought last. That took a little longer than I'd hoped it would. Go on, the moogle isn't far now." The Constellato waved them on as she stood in the center of the room, a wide smile on her face and her hands on her hips.
The adventurers exchanged looks before continuing up the wooden tunnel that the Constellato had gestured towards. Zidane noticed that Drake was pretty much asleep again, even though he was moving his feet to keep walking.
Freya helped the thief drag the archer up the shifting slope of sand up to where a moogle was watching them. Vivi was the first one there, surprisingly, and filled in the confused creature as Quina tested the leaves nearby to see if they were edible.
"Kupo! My, he's really bad off! Here, in here." The moogle led Zidane and Freya into its little abode, though surprisingly, it was larger than they had expected. "I'm the one that Miss Cleyra will visit the most often, so occasionally I'll get the priests from up above coming down to talk to me. Here now, let's see what exactly is wrong with this man here, kupo." The moogle gestured towards a normal-sized bed sitting off to the side of his little home, and Zidane helped Drake to lay down there.
The moogle immediately started to hop around the unconscious archer, 'kupo'ing to himself from time to time. Zidane sat against the wall, watching, as Freya went outside, likely to stretch. Vivi was sitting not too far from the thief, also watching, and Quina had yet to come up the sand slope.
"Hm. Well, there really isn't much wrong with him, kupo. He's just exhausted, mentally and physically. Can he cast some kind of magic?" Zidane blinked at the moogle's words, and thought a little. It used to be that Drake would just shoot an arrow off, but recently, whenever he took his time and aimed, his arrows did something that they weren't physically able to do.
"I...I think so. Why, did he use too much of it in too short a period of time?" The moogle nodded, looking to the archer again. Zidane frowned and crossed his arms against his chest. Here he had thought that Drake was sensible enough to not push himself to exhaustion, and he does exactly that.
"He should be alright by nightfall, kupo. He doesn't seem to have terribly much mana. Were he a full blown mage and in this state, it would take him a month to fully recover." Zidane's eyes widened. "With how much mana he has, though, I think even a Fire spell would put him out, kupo."
That announcement made Zidane calm a little faster. His friend wasn't able to use too much magic anyway. He had thought that maybe the archer had enough to last a while, but it seemed he didn't. Even Vivi seemed a bit startled at how little mana Drake had.
"B-but he got so much use out of it...And he doesn't even really seem to know what he does, half the time." Zidane looked at Vivi, wondering what he was talking about. The thief didn't know the first thing about magic, but at least there was someone in the group that did.
"Cleyra's told me that some people use magic subconsciously, kupo. Those are usually the ones that the Constellato choose to favor. Your friend uses his magic with his weapon, right? That doesn't take nearly as much mana as it does to form a spell in the air, kupo." Zidane stared at the moogle as it explained to him. He had known nothing of magic before. And, actually, it sounded sort of like what he did when he was in Trance...only he wasn't taking the energy from inside of him, but from around him...from the Mist.
For some reason, the Mist never seemed to feel malevolent to him. It was just like walking through steam, only not as warm. There was no extra presence like he'd heard others mention. Except for when he Tranced. And then it was more like the air around him was alive.
The thief shivered slightly at the thought, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead. His eyes were focused on his feet, just a couple of feet in front of him. His tail was twitching nervously to his side, and his hands were loosely grasping his ankles.
"Are you alright, kupo?" Zidane lifted his eyes from his feet, his eyes taking a few seconds to focus. "You look like you have a fever. Here." A wet cloth was offered to the monkey-tailed man, who blinked at it for a moment before taking it and placing it on the back of his neck, tilting his head down with a relieved sigh. The moogle was right. He was getting a fever. He could feel it. He knew it'd be gone by morning, though. He never stayed sick long.
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And that's that! Hopefully I'll be able to get out the next chapter before too long. Again, I apologize for taking to long. Read and reveiw, please!