Final Fantasy VI: Embracing Ice

Chapter 1: Terra


"So Locke what's our mission this time?"

Locke glanced at his companion and grinned. "We're heading to Narshe, Caz; our contact Arvis sent a message saying he needed us there urgently. Sounded pretty serious so we need to get there fast."

Caz ran his hand through his short light brown hair, lingering on the one strand of hair that was pure white, just over his right eye. One year had passed since he'd been given that feature in a battle, been rescued by Locke and joined the Returners. Locke had taken Caz to meet the Returner leader Banon. Banon had approved of Caz joining the Returners and had Locke take care of training Caz. Locke found Caz a fast learner and skilled swordsman and the past year they worked well together. Normally for Locke one man stealth jobs was his specialty but Caz made them easier. While Locke preferred daggers and flails for fighting, Caz had an affinity for swords and while Locke was better at picking locks Caz wasn't too far behind him. Caz also had exceptional agility and could keep up with Locke which made them a great pair for the more mobile and stealth missions.

The wind howled as the temperature started to drop. Locke and Caz were getting close to Narshe which had a windy and cold temperament due to being up in the mountains and being a major exporter of coal to most nations with their advanced mining. Narshe was also known to being neutral in all conflicts and while they did have a town militia they rarely used force except to defend themselves.

Locke spoke first. "Looks like we're nearly there Caz…and looks like something big is going on."

Caz looked in Narshe's Direction as they approached the gates, Narshe militiamen were running all around the town with Lobo's and even an occasional Vommamoth. The other disconcerting thing was the town gates; down and locked standing in their way.

"Looks like we're not getting in through the front door Locke."

"Ah, well, this will make things fun then." Locke winked as he said that.

"Well do you know of a secret entrance or something?"

"Nope, I don't so we have to do this the fun way."

Caz raised an eyebrow quizzically, "And what's the fun way?"

Locke pointed to the Inn that was just outside the gates.

"Pretty handy of them to make the roof the same height as the gate, don't you think Caz?"

"Yeah that is handy; however how do we get up there and through without being spotted?"

"Silly question my young protégé, if you'll notice the gates are shut because the guards are looking for something inside the city, if you look they have no one watching the outside."

Caz marveled at Locke's reasoning and observance.

Well he's been doing this a lot longer than I have; I guess it takes time to notice those things.

Locke reached into his pack and took out a grappling hook, he and Caz went to the far side of the Inn and Locke threw the grappling hook onto the roof of the inn. It clanged, failed to catch anything and came hurtling back down as Caz and Locke sidestepped to avoid the metal hook.

Caz smirked and Locke just shook his head and said "That didn't happen. You saw nothing."

Locke wound up again and threw the hook. This time the hook did catch on the roof and Locke tested the rope to see if it would hold and the rope held fast. Locke quickly started hauling himself up the rope, Caz just behind him. Slowly they made their way up and finally were on the roof of the inn. Locke wound up his hook and put it back in his bag and the two rogue's dashed across the roof and leapt off the roof, grabbing hold of the top of the gated wall a few feet away. They pulled themselves up and then starting climbing down the wall on the other side. The cracks in the mortar along the brick walls of the gate gave them enough of a foothold and handhold to climb down unaided jumping down when they were a few feet of the ground and rolling to their feet.

Locke gestured to Caz, "Come on, Arvis house is this way."

The two did a light jog through the town; not sprinting otherwise they might look suspicious; passing guards and militiamen as they ran around town as if searching for something. After a time Caz and Locke arrived at Arvis house, Locke led Caz around the back and then knocked 3 times on the door to let Arvis know it was them and then he opened the door and Caz and Locke went inside.

As they made their way to the foyer they were met by a man with thinning gray hair in about his mid 50's.

"Yo Locke, how goes the robbin' and plunderin' trade?"

Caz started snickering as Arvis comment riled up Locke, who glared at Arvis and the snickering Caz.

"IT'S CALLED TREASURE HUNTING!"

"Same thing" dismissed Arvis with a wave of his hand.

"THERE'S A HUGE DIFFERENCE!"

"Pfffff, it's all semantic nonsense. Anyways I'm glad to see you, the reason I brought you here is there's a young woman I would like you to meet."

Locke got a serious look on his face. "This wouldn't have anything to do with that Magitek-riding imperial witch. I heard she fried 50 imperial soldiers in less than 3 minutes."

Arvis nodded. "The very same woman. Apparently she was under the control of a slave crown which robbed her of conscious thought, I found her in the mines when she and a couple other soldiers came through Narshe. The crown was already broken so I brought her back and nursed her to health. However the Narshe guards figured out she was here and they pursue her as we speak."

Caz frowned, "That's troubling, so where is she running?"

Arvis gestured back out his backdoor. "I told her to run into the mines and try to escape the city, based on the guard's movements she's probably still in there and possibly in danger, but she needs to see our side. I think she could be persuaded to join the Returners."

Caz looked at his partner. "Well Locke should we go rescue her, if what Arvis said is true, I think it's worth the risks."

Locke mulled it over for a minute then sighed. "Why not, very well Arvis, we'll find this girl and then…..hmmm…..oh I know we'll take her to Figaro and meet up with Edgar and then we'll take her to Banon."

Arvis nodded. "Sounds good, go quickly before the guards find her."

"Will do, let's go Caz!"

Caz and Locke dashed out the back door of Arvis house and sprinted towards the Narshe mines. Caz lit up a torch as he and Locke dashed through the mines looking for the girl Arvis had talked about. Luckily the ground was semi-soft and they could see footprints in the ground and Locke using his skills as a tracker was able to follow them quite easily. Soon the footprints ended right at a hole in the ground where it looked like the ground had collapsed. Other sets of footprints were also around the hole and leading to and away from both sides. Caz and Locke looked at each other and nodded in unison. They gathered around the hole and looked down. The bottom appeared about 10 feet below and they could see a limp form on the ground just on the outskirts of their vision. Locke went first, jumping down the hole and coming to a rolling crouch to cushion the fall. Caz followed suit and they both checked on the body. It was definitely a girl, possibly Caz's age. She had bright green hair, was wearing a red and green dress with a purple sash around her waist. Locke checked her vitals and found her to be alive.

"She's alive; looks like the fall knocked her out, no bleeding though so we got lucky."

Just then Locke and Caz heard a commotion coming from in front of them. They both ventured further and grimaced at what they saw. The cave opened up to a larger cavern with stalagmites dotting the cavern to make paths around the room. What else they saw were about 20 Narshe guards with Lobo's heading their way.

"Well Caz, looks like we're in for a fight, this could get rough." Locke drew his dirk and Caz drew his Mithril blade.

"Two against 20" Caz murmured. "They should have brought a few more guys to make it a fair fight."

Locke laughed quietly but they both knew it would be a hard battle and they would be lucky to get out of this in good shape. Suddenly a sound from behind them made them both jump slightly.

"Kupo!"

Caz and Locke whirled around the see a group of little white fluffy creatures, with furry cheeks, pink tails and little red orbs above their heads. One of them stepped forward and started gesturing to them.

"Kupo, Kupo, Kuuuu-ppo, Kupo."

Locke looked slightly relieved. "Are you saying you want to help us little moogles?"

The leading moogle nodded and grabbed a spear and spoke to his comrades.

"Kupo, Kupoooooooo, Kupo".

The other moogles all shouted "Kupo!" in agreement and brought out various weapons, swords, boomerangs, spears, and flails.

Locke pointed to the lead moogle. "Ok buddy, we'll divide into three groups, you lead one group, I'll lead one, and Caz you lead the 3rd group. Don't let the guards or the Lobo's get through and protect this woman at all costs.

Caz and the lead moogle nodded and spoke to his furry comrades. 3 moogles waddled over to Caz, two of them had boomerangs and the last one had a spear.

"Ok, Locke you take the center, I'll take the right side, other moogles you guys guard the left."

The 3 groups positioned themselves and started creeping towards the Narshe soldiers. As they neared the soldiers they heard the Field Marshall call out to his soldiers. "Looks like the girl has some protectors take them out and capture that girl alive!"

The soldiers all yelled their affirmation and charged, releasing their Lobo's from their leashes. The Lobo's dashed around the stalagmites on the cave floor and came at the groups. Caz dashed forward and as a Lobo leapt at him and slashed its open belly, sidestepping the body as it gave a death howl and was silent forever. Caz saw one of his moogles impale another Lobo through the throat with its spear as the other 2 took out a 3rd Lobo with their boomerangs. The Narshe guards were now in reach as well and Caz engaged the first guard that came at him whipping his flail through the air at Caz. Caz dodged the heavy ball at the end and dashing forward grabbing hold of the chain connecting the ball to the handle with his free hand, pulled the guard towards him. The guard gave a cry in surprise as he lurched forward and found his chest impaled on Caz's blade. Caz withdrew the blade and let the body drop to the floor and deflected a sword blow as another guard took a stab at him. Caz got past the guard's defenses and got in melee range. He elbowed the guard in the stomach and then as the guard doubled over Caz kicked out and swept the guard's feet out from under him. As the guard hit the floor the moogle with the spear stood over the guard and plunged it into the guard's stomach. The guard's scream choking into a gurgle as Caz slit his throat and put him out of his misery.

The sounds of fighting seemed to have quieted down so Caz took a quick survey of the situation. Locke and the other moogle's group had both defeated the soldiers attacking them as well and all that remained was the Narshe Field Marshall. Caz and Locke both stepped forward towards the Marshall. The Marshall realizing his force had been annihilated, stumbled backwards as he turned around and sprinted away as fast as he could to save his own hide.

"Whew that was fun."

Caz grinned as he and Locke cleaned their blades and returned them to their holsters. They walked back to the unconscious imperial woman with the moogles. As Locke and Caz checked on the girl the moogles waved goodbye and headed back to wherever their home is. Locke spoke up before they disappeared.

"Thank you moogles, we're in your debt."

"Kupo." Nodded the head moogle and then they were gone.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh" a soft voice murmured.

"Looks like our guest is waking up" Caz observed.

The girl's eyes fluttered a few times before slowly opening. She slowly sat up and when she did so clutched her head.

"Ow, my head hurts."

Locke withdrew a tonic from his pack and offered it to the girl.

"Here, this will help you feel better."

The girl accepted and sipped it slowly.

"Thank you."

Once she looked like she was able to recognize her surroundings Caz spoke up.

"So, do you have a name miss?"

"Name? Um…My name is….Terra."

"Alright Terra, I'm Caz and the roguish scoundrel over there is Locke."

Locke scowled at Caz and made an offensive hand gesture; Caz just stuck his tongue out and winked.

"Ok, Caz and Locke. Thank you for saving me from the guards that were after me I guess."

"Save your thanks for the moogles," Locke spoke up. "They were the real heroes here. So your name is Terra. Is there anything else you remember?"

Terra shook her head sadly. "No…I can't remember a thing. All I know is my name."

Locke was shocked. "You have amnesia?!"

Caz interjected, "Maybe it's a side effect from the slave crown."

"Hmmm, that could be, either way we'll have to wait until she recovers her memories; who knows maybe Banon could help with that."

Locke got down to one knee and looked Terra in the eye.

"Terra we know someone, who might be able to help you. Would you come with us to meet him?"

Terra was looking somewhat shy and slightly suspicious of our offer.

"We promise no harm will come to you Terra, you can trust Locke and I. We give you our word."

At Caz's words Terra did look a little more relieved.

"I guess I really have no choice until I regain my memories so I'll put my faith in you two."

"Ok we're set, Terra, you and Caz follow me, I know a way out."

Locke took off into the mines with Caz and Terra following behind.

Caz glanced over and noticed Terra was looking at him.

"Something the matter?"

Terra blushed, "Oh I'm sorry. I just noticed your hair is a little funny."

Caz ran a hand over the odd white strand of hair. "Great, just great, someone with bright green hair finds MY hair funny." Caz smirked as he said that, Terra on the other hand just huffed and ended the conversation. The two picked up their pace and caught up to Locke who had been slightly ahead of them. Soon they came to their destination…..a wall.

"Way to go Locke, you've gotten us lost."

"Don't bet on it Caz."

Locke started touching along the wall. "I believe, there's a switch here somewhere…"

Suddenly an outcropping of rock pushed in and the rock wall that was really a hidden door swung open. Locke gestured for Terra and Caz to go through. As they exited Caz saw they were out of the mines and just out past the Narshe gates.

"You mean, instead of scaling the walls and almost killing ourselves; we could have just walked through here?!"

Locke just chuckled. "Well it's good to teach you different methods of doing things Caz, besides the other way was shorter and it was more fun."

Caz just rolled his eyes but he chuckled as well.

"That said, Caz and Terra, remember where this is, you never know when you might need it again."

Caz and Terra both nodded.

"Alright, let's head out for Figaro Castle!"


Author's note: Oh god….2 chapters in less than a week…this almost never happens. You guys are lucky so far XD. Anyways hope you liked this chapter as well. In case you're wondering I will try to follow the FFVI script pretty well but if I do things slightly different it's ok because I do have an OC so some dialogue will be changed a little. Also if you were wondering on the names Vammamoth and Lobo; some of you might be used to the android or GBA versions of FFVI but I was raised on the SNES version so I will use that as my reference so if some things are named differently than what you're used to, no need to freak out. (and if you thought a building just outside of Narshe's gates was convenient If you look in-game where that training facility or whatever is...it's before the gates and goes right to the wall only difference is I changed it to an inn.) Well hope you all enjoyed and I wish you luck in your life. Until the next update; see you around.