A/N: Gotta love filler. I'm picking something up next chapter, but I just wanted to see how Nanaki was doing.
The Reign Game
2
Yuffie Kisaragi here, treasure hunter extraordinaire and hot chick of the century. Although, I could use a big breast or two. Damn Tifa and that rack of hers. When I talk with her, I swear I'm suddenly in orbit along with a few goggle-eyed drunks. In my journeys with the gang, I always wanted to ask how she could fight with those things. And, well, hell, how can she even bartend with those? I mean…
I wonder if she was a late bloomer. If so, there might be hope for me yet. But…as a shinobi queen, a body without the extra baggage is best. I have to be one with the wind and shadows. Breasts should be nothing to me! Bad as that sounds…
You know what… The Planet needs to conjure up some breast-enhancing materia. I'm looking straight at you, Gaia. Get off your ass and get a move on.
Heroine of Gaia, Yuffie. Bow down, peons, and worship my flat-chested ninja hotness.
Hey, don't cut over there-
---
There lived a race of mighty beasts, with minds and tongues of men, and souls and mane of everlasting fire. They roamed the great red valleys scorched by stars fallen from the dawn of time. Like the Ancient people of eons past, they coexisted with the soul of the earth; they communed with Mother Nature and found peace in her kind yet powerful arms. But like the Ancient Ones, sudden disaster would strike them down, in their most holy of worlds, to spare but a precious few in its wake.
The beasts maintained their furious strength in the following darkness. Holding the soulful flames of kin to their hearts, they marched onward into time. The survivors marched alight with hope that, one day, their kind would flourish once again.
---
Cosmo Candle flickered beautifully under the dusky moonlit sky; its towering flame whipped this way and crackled that by the silent canyon winds that smelled of home far and wide. It was a vision no sore eye regretted taking in, not for a minute, an hour, a whole evening, or well into the wee hours of the morning. The vision grew evermore soothing towards its lounging attendants as the lazy but regal flame bathed them in its red-orange glow. Gathered around the old guardian, the native people and pilgrims from countless distances sat and watched. Song, laughter and worldly chatter filled the evening air, coming together as the fine patchwork quilt of Cosmo Canyon at rest.
Nanaki never knew a better home.
This land of his birth, his life, his love. He knew. He knew that fifty, one hundred, or even a thousand years from now, home would never change in his heart. Cosmo Canyon would always be Cosmo Canyon, and he would fight all his life to keep it that way. That wasn't to say that he'd never welcome some change, some growth towards the future. It was merely…
He snorted listlessly, sitting curled against the light of the bonfire. One of Elder Bugah's nephews, a wild but ingenious toddler, reclined on his belly while holding a feathered net to the vision of Cosmo Candle. This particular boy made a mission out of being with and following Nanaki any way he possibly could, right down to the point of trotting around the village on all fours in hot pursuit. That sort of reverence was odd but pleasing. All children needed heroes, and considering all his exploits up until then, perhaps, just perhaps he deserved it.
"… helped me make this, Nanaki."
"Hum?" With his keen ears suddenly tuning in, the dark red beast lifted his head curiously. "What?"
"My dreamcatcher. Uncle Bugah helped me. Good?"
"Oh, of course," he said, nodding. "We're all very proud of you."
"I have to go to dinner now, Nanaki," announced the boy. His head sank like a stone into Nanaki's gut before he jumped up, causing him to grunt like an old man when he was, in fact, a young beast. I can't see how humans can live with such big heads, he thought to himself. But big heads sometimes meant like minds. And so, he forgave them and the anxious toddler as he turned to wave him good night, to which Nanaki gently bared his teeth in the way of a smile.
The child chirpily darted off into the darkness.
With his spot now all to himself, Nanaki curled his body tighter to Cosmo Candle's warmth. He sighed away a cloud of dirt, sleepily peering at the great orange flame. On a night like this, there wasn't much left to do in the village. On a night like this, his cherished people looked up to the stars and hoped they bade them all good slumber and strength for the coming day. The wandering philosophers chimed amongst each other what individual star reflected what message back down to earth. Nanaki had already done the same before his tiny follower paid him a visit. He'd have his strength for the morrow; he'd have his message to carry on with that strength to others.
Days were slow for a thing without thumbs. Although Nanaki made for an excellent beast of burden. For his own expanding village and smaller ones thriving on the fringes of the serpentine canyon, he traveled and he labored. He was a helping paw, a guardian angel, a bearer of tidings good or bad, but welcome all the same. He was anything he could be for his homeland. Because what would he be if not that?
And once this year and the next timed out, he'd be something a little more, as well.
Deneh's meditation would finally be over.
So now what? What could he do in the meantime? It was simple. He would work, like he had always done. For his friends, his people, his valley.
