The Goddess and Her Warrior: Chapter 2

And you thought your day was bad.

Mine started out with having to explain to the King and Queen of Cornelia that their precious daughter, heiress presumptive, was the prisoner of a madman. This same madman had me in his thrall, his personal slave to commit whatever unspeakable acts he so whimsically choose. My first act fortunately was not evil, but most assuredly suicide as I was expected to slay a High God.

I was thrown out of the kingdom, damned by all for my failure to protect her, and sent on a journey to accomplish the impossible.

I awoke to the sound of a high-pitched squeal after having felt something hard slam against my arm. I was at the wheel of the airship I'd flown all through the night, seated at the contraption made for such a purpose. Glancing around I noticed that Kupo had a bowl on his head and a most sour expression on his face.

It was then that I realized that when I'd awoke I must have knocked the bowl out of his hands.

"My apologies, good creature," I said as I took the bowl off and set it on the table next to my helmet. "It is already dawn?"

It grumbled something and wandered off.

I glanced at the bowl bemusedly. That was probably breakfast the kind creature had made for me out of the meager supplies I'd managed to hurriedly collect in the town before I was chased away. I'd fired up the engines of the airship and sped off, planning on finding the Flying Fortress before dawn appeared in the skies.

Apparently I'd missed that timeline, as I peered at the glow of dawn's bright cadence fading into the mountains. I was probably at least a day away from the floating castle even with the vessel flying at maximum speeds. With a sigh I dropped back down into the seat, impatient for what only could be described as my imminent and bloody death.

After a time Kupo deigned to appear above deck again with another bowl of stew. This time he gingerly offered it to me and I gratefully took it. Though I was in no mood to eat I forced the food down realizing that without nourishment my task was even more impossible, if something already impossible could become even more impossible.

Once I'd finished the moogle took the pottery away and went about trying to look useful. I had not intended to take the creature with me but it had stowed away and I could spare no time to return him. Besides where was I to return him to? Cornelia would not bear my face long enough to receive him and I knew not where my companions from the last voyage were. We'd separated months ago; they could be anywhere by now.

"You should not have come, Master Kupo," I admonished the creature for the dozenth time since I'd discovered him in a barrel in storage. "This will only end in your death."

Again that laughter from Kupo. Until faced with actual danger (like his encounter with Sephiroth) the creature could be quite irrepressible. I wasn't sure what to do with him when I reached my destination. I could leave him aboard the airship I supposed but as I was unlikely to return from my quest I could not ensure his safety.

My eyes narrowed as I caught sight of something flying towards us. It was not a dark cloud, shaped too much like a serpent to be the idle convergence of the stratosphere. As it drew nearer I realized it was a serpent, or more specifically, a dragon. And one that was eerily familiar.

"Get below, Master Kupo!" I commanded, taking up my sword in one hand and steering the wheel with the other. It became quite apparent to me that the dragon meant to ram into the airship and such a blow could send her plummeting to the earth. With a twist of my wrist and the vessel took a sharp turn to starboard, harrowingly missing the flying serpent as it soared past.

Without a breath's span of time to lose I hurried across the planks of ship. Then I hurled myself onto the dragon flying below as she appeared out from underneath the prow. It was a reckless even dangerous move but one not uncommon for me; I'd mounted the infamous Tiamat in such a fashion before.

Thus it was with utter shock that I realized that this very creature was Tiamat.

"Foolish knight!" she screamed, twisting her head behind her, maw belching great flames. As I was clutching her spiked tail in a death grip they floated right over my head. As the heat burned my face I noted that I'd forgotten my helmet. Banishing that thought and any other, I hopped up on her tail, careful not to impale myself on her spikes. With amazing agility I reached her neck, swirling my sword to cut off one of her heads.

The scream that Tiamat gave felt as if it shattered my eardrums. I could not help it; I threw up my fists to my head. Obviously there was more than one benefit to having headgear. The dragon flew in semi-circles attempting to dislodge me. At one point she slid towards the ship, slamming her back against the deck. I had to dodge to keep from becoming a messy, bloody blot on the wood.

The winds played with my cape, tattered from my many adventures. "How is it that you've returned?" I demanded of the creature. At the speeds we were flying I could not be certain she'd even heard.

Apparently she did. "It was not an absolute death you've delivered to me, you lowly soldier, but transient. My mate Shinryu brought me back to do away with you...and so I shall!"

"Your mate?" I said, but the dragon was already flying higher and higher, past the very heavens it seemed. The air froze in my lungs and my teeth chattered. I dare not let go of my sword for I had four more heads to cut off her but my very grip on the scales became dangerously unstable. Any higher and...

Then that grip failed and I was spinning down, faster than even my heart beat and that was swift indeed.

The mast of the ship loomed into my vision and I could see Master Kupo grasping at the wheel, nudging the ship under me as I fell. It could be a life-saving gesture were it not for the fact that I would be splattered on the floorboards if I hit them at the speeds I was tumbling down. Hauling out my parrying knife I dug it into the flag as I fell past, mercifully slowing my descent and holding me aloft for a moment.

Then I dropped to the deck, harrowingly missing the creature. Had I collapsed onto it Master Kupo would have been crushed beneath my plate mail armor.

He stood there and extended my helmet to me. Two red wings flapped anxiously.

"Thank you, good creature," I said, donning the headgear. "And now I bid you to go beneath deck as I must go back to do battle with the beast."

As the moogle pointed most empathetically to the port side I saw what caught his attention. Tiamat was nearly upon us, intend on succeeding at the collision this time. I dropped my sword immediately and grabbed the wheel, turning it with every ounce of strength in my body. The vessel was shifting much too slowly to avoid the hit.

"Brace for impact!" came the scream tearing from my throat and I leaped back at the creature. Throwing my body over its own, I glanced aside long enough to see the body of Tiamat striking that of the ship.

A great quake shook the ship. She'd hit the engine I realized. We were going down.

The last thing I heard was my own cry, and the word was the two syllables of my beloved's name.

-break-

It was through a foggy haze that I viewed the moogle at my side. My mind pieced together the last few minutes of the battle: the flight on the dragon, the fall, Tiamat colliding with the ship...The ship! I tried to rise but a sickening crunch could be heard throughout my left arm and I fell back against the pallet, agonized. I had felt much pain in my life and to have survived the vessel's crash was a miracle itself, still I had no desire to worsen whatever wounds I'd inevitably garnered.

The moogle had kindly taken it upon himself to make another meal for me so I wolfed it down. Afterwards I felt sleepy and while I had no intention to fall back unconscious again the state of my wounds were such I could not resist the sweet folds of rest.

Whatever happened to Tiamat I knew not, could only hope her foolish attack was her own demise.

-break-

When I awoke later on she was there.

Sarah. Or not Sarah. Cos...mos? Cosmos? The Goddess? She was here?

She was real? Did that mean that other of my memories were similarly true?

Her hand lightly graced my chest plate, long golden hair so much like my sweetheart's that my breath choked in my throat at the sight of it. Her eyes, bright blue also akin to the princess's, softened, a smile in them that was not on her lips. There was something in them that sent a shiver through my blood, both of excitement and of fear.

"I'm here, gentle knight. This is no dream." She had read my mind, it seemed. I was thinking that exact thing-a dream. Not an unwelcome dream, but I had pressing matters to attend to. Namely the rescue of my beloved. I would have risen but the hand became more insistent, pressured applied that wouldn't be near enough to keep me bed-ridden but enough to give me pause.

This also reaffirmed what I believed...that my memories contained some grain of truth. There was a goddess, one I had served however long ago. Was there a connection with the princess? Until I knew it for truth one way or the other I must assume that such a thought was but conjecture and my mission remained.

And so my lack of confirmed identity must also remain an open question.

"Goddess, what is your command?" l licked my lips, suddenly and inexplicably anxious for my sword. It was nowhere to be found in this wretched wreck of the ship. "I have need to be elsewhere. The princess of Cornelia is in danger, I must go to her!"

In a move that completely dumbfounded me, the beautiful deity climbed on top of me, one hand lightly stroking my cheek. "I know, honorable warrior. But do not fear for she is safe."

"How could you know such a thing?" This state of circumstances made me distinctly uncomfortable. It was far too intimate for a man who was but a servant of such a goddess and the would-be bridegroom of an heir to a throne. What would Sarah think if she were to find her warrior in such a compromising position? Nothing good, I imagined, and couldn't fault her.

"We must leave and find this out for certain. I will not rest until I see her secure with my own eyes."

"Stay awhile." The Goddess's eyes held a meaning in them that was far too obvious to be misread. Her hand trailed down to my neck and the edge of my chest plate. "I will bring you to her after."

"After...what?" I meant to ask but couldn't manage that as her lips were on my own, demanding, passionate...thoughts crashed in my head and images, of Sarah, of Cornelia, of the Flying Fortress, of a statue that could easily been engraved in my own image. Something felt entirely too personal to be merely a kiss, but I couldn't gather what was happening until my gaze fell on the hand that was taking off my chest plate.

One of the fingers was missing.

One of Tiamat's heads was lost when I cleaved it clean from her body.

"Tiamat!" I cried out, meaning to stand but suddenly all the passionate pressure was crushing, imprisoning.

"Seems you found me out, you're more clever than I gave you credit for, lowly knight." The lovely face elongated, becoming a maw and snout and two crimson eyes. Right before my own eyes she expanded, clothes falling off her to become a scaly wyrm, a tail sprouting from her back along with two massive wings. The transformation made a mess of the already chaotic space, ceiling boards crashing around.

Tiamat did not seem to mind. Her intent was but one thing: my death.

The hand that had been sensual and gentle became a clawed talon ripping the chest plate off.

I was armor less and weaponless, and severely wounded. And I faced the strongest of the Four.

But I did have one advantage: Master Kupo.

Tiamat paid no heed to the creature as it cowered and only became aware of its presence when the moogle made a squeak to get my attention. When he had it, a sword flew from Master Kupo's paws and into my hands. Were it not for the creature's bravery I dare say the dragon would have had its way...whatever way it so wished.

A shudder coursed through my muscles and I stood to face the flying serpent. "Begone, evil creature or I shall smite thee!"

A roar bellowed from her maw and she burst into flight, crashing through the already mangled ceiling and flying into the sky. I could see the puffs of smoke wafting from her nostrils and realized what her plan was; she would incinerate the remnants of the airship and I and the moogle with it.

"Take cover, Master Kupo." I said and rushed out of the airship, sword in hand. I could see at the edge of my vision the dragon hovering over the ship, drawing in more breath. I hadn't a second to lose. Climbing the nearest tree that looked capable of sustaining my weight, I waited until Tiamat banked low enough for my tastes.

Just a bit closer...closer...closer...

I knew I tempted a very dangerous game, for as she drew nearer the risk of her expelling the flames grew that much more likely. But I needed her as close as possible for my plan to have even the slightest chance of succeeding.

I aligned the sword in front and above me, one eye slit like the edge of a coin. She was quite near, but unless even closer this would fail. I could see her cheeks expanding and contracting, more smoke floating out of her nose and it was with horrified realization that I had miscalculated the time by the sheer second of the breath leaving my lips.

My sword flew through the air, piercing right through her heart. That, however, did not stop the column of fire spewing from her teeth.

And I was in the path of it.

Throwing my cape over my face I waited as the flames surged at me...harmlessly.

Aside from a few sparks in my hair and the sputtering of smoke on my cloak I was completely unscathed. Something glowed from a drawstring pouch at my hip and I lifted the object out of it. My lips parted to see the amulet, shining as sapphire as the sky above, such a tiny thing to have so much power.

If only Sarah had kept it, she might be safe right now. We might not be in this predicament.

Who am I to be ungrateful for this fortune? I could see Tiamat plunge to her death amidst the trees, taking them to her belly like a hundred spears. The amount of blood a dragon can spew was astonishing I thought as I descended the tree, as was the amount of blood my arm had gushing from it. Dizziness assailed me but I fought it off long enough to review the remains of the ship.

There wasn't any, at least none to really speak of.

"Master Kupo? Master Kupo!" I cried, thrusting aside the smoldering embers. Had I failed to protect another life? Is that what this has come down to? Constantly seeing my friends perish around me, the noble knight that cannot save anyone?

Then from behind a moss-covered boulder crawled out the moogle, fur singed but otherwise without a single wound. I gasped, relieved and pulled the little creature into a hug, emotional beyond all reason. Or perhaps with every reason, for if there was but even a tiny speck of hope, then I had every reason to have any hope.

Even against a High God. Even against the impossible.

This still wasn't the best fairytale, but was getting better at least.