The Outlaw of Madain Sari
------Adventures of Fenrir------
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Yay! Another FFIX fanfic!
Hey. Sorry it took so long. I had written like four chapters and decided I wanted to go in a different direction. Instead of Goro being her name, it's now Fenrir Lorac. You'll see why later, but I think it's a bit obvious. haha. I like this chapter much more than the one I had originally. It goes at the same angle but I don't tell you as much about what happened during the three years. I like it better that way. Hope you enjoy Chapter II of The Outlaw of Madain Sari; Adventures of Fenrir. By the way, the chapter before says adventures of Goro. Ignore it, it's Fenrir now.
~~~ Animic (Egg) ~~~
II
Fenrir Lorac
Three years later…
Eiko had been hiking for miles. She was tired and she was dirty. To be totally honest, she didn't know where she was going, only that she had to get there as fast as she could. She was in so much danger.
She was originally going to go towards her father, but she just couldn't do it. There was no way she could get herself to face him. It's been three years. She's eighteen now. Eiko scarcely remembered him. It was a long time ago and to come back now seemed almost shameful.
She'd been climbing around the world map for nearly ages. Eiko was running away from someone. Someone who was out to get here and she couldn't bear to be so far away with contact. Eiko had decided to encase herself within the walls of Lindblum. She felt safe there. If anything went wrong, she could always try and get in contact with her father. That didn't mean she would want to be a princess again, but he could potentially provide her safety. That's only if something went wrong, and Eiko wasn't planning on that to happen.
She was taking extra precautions though. She would begin that process today. Eiko sat aside a near river, a dagger in her hand. She started making drastic chops at her hair. Her long purple hair that had grown out over the years was now flowing carelessly along the river.
Eiko was planning to disguise herself as the boy. People would recognize her as Princess Eiko otherwise. Not many people had purple long flowing hair, a horn, and wings. She was taking care of those changes.
Her hair was eventually cut into a boys cut and she let the last strands of her hair gently slip out of her fingers. Eiko watched the long purple hair float with the wind. Now came the hard part.
Eiko held out the dagger. She fingered its sharp blade and felt it's jagged pierces. She wasn't too thrilled about this idea, but it had to be done. The horn had to go.
She took her horn in her left hand and raised her right. She placed the knife as close as she could to the root of the horn that wouldn't pierce her skin. Without even a second thought, she cut fiercely into the horn.
As suspected, it was very painful. Doctor Tot said that Dagger was screaming bloody murder when they removed hers. Eiko was doing the same. It was agony. She felt as if it was barrowing needles through her skull. Her forehead was now bleeding badly.
Eiko looked at her left hand. It now held what remained of her horn. She decided she wanted to keep it. After all, it was in her heritage. It was sort of disgusting, but she did want to keep it.
She made a grab for her backpack, placing the horn inside one of the pockets. Not before rinsing it off in the river of course.
Trembling, she still felt the torture that the amputation of her horn left on her. It was literally the same feeling as cutting off an arm, she would suspect. That painful.
However, she was determined to make it to Lindblum. Maintaining a new image was necessary to her survival. She wouldn't last very long as people discovered her as the princess. Just wouldn't work.
Slowly, Eiko trudged towards Lindblum. It was in sights distance. If only she could reach it. She had lost a tremendous amount of blood from the horn. Something she should have suspected but was too weak to. At her rate, there was no way she could pay for medical attention. She didn't have any money. If she died, she died.
Finally the effects of the cut finally took over her. Eiko fell to the ground. Her face impaled the grass and she passed out, her blood a pool aside her face.
Eiko woke up, surprisingly. She totally expected that the next time she woke up, she would be in heaven. Or hell. Whichever she was placed in. Or reincarnated. Anything but alive. But she wasn't dead. Eiko was alive. As she opened her eyes further for a better look, she realized she was in a room. Only one window and a pretty run-down place, in fact. Dusty and old.
She was in a bed, immersed under a blanket. Eiko was confused. Where was she?
"Oh, you're up," she heard from behind her. Eiko jumped and looked to see a boy standing at her bedside. He wasn't looking at her. He had his arms folded and was looking more at the ground. His stance was very relaxed, as if he had not a care in the world.
"Where….where am I?" Eiko asked, a bit afraid. Was she captured?
"The Tantalus Theatre ship," he told her.
Eiko recognized that name. Tantalus. Zidane was a part of Tantalus. A moment of realization came towards her. Tantalus made birth at Lindblum and it's airship was often parked near the Hilda Garde 3. Baku. The leader of Tantalus. Of course. Cid was friends with him. Very good friends.
"Nngh," she mumbled as she suddenly realized the throbbing pain in her forehead. She raised her palms to her forehead, wishing the pain would go away.
"We saw you passed out right outside Lindblum," the boy said. Eiko nodded. "What happened?" he asked.
Eiko's eyes widened. She could not tell the truth. That was for sure. Cutting off a horn sounded pretty suspicious. Even if they didn't know that the princess had a horn. She didn't have much time to make up a lie, but, hey, she was a kid once. In the past, she was tremendous at this. She just had to access her inner independent Eiko.
"Monster," she said as calmly as she could. It was clearly a lie. The boy seemed to see through it, too.
"You don't have to come up with a lie. Just say you don't want to talk about it," he said matter-of-factly. Eiko widened her eyes slightly and then hunched a bit.
"Okay. I don't to say, then," she told him. The boy didn't pressure her into what happened. He seemed to understand that it was none of his business.
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. The boy seemed to straighten up as it opened. Eiko recognized the man as Baku. He was certainly older than the last time she had seen him, and even seemed a little thinner. But there was no mistake. It was Baku.
"Hey, boy," Baku said, addressing Eiko and nodded at her. At least they still thought she was a boy and didn't question it. Lucky for Eiko, she didn't have that large of boobs. She took that to her advantage. She didn't want large breasts. "Time to get 'im off the ship, Blank."
The boy named Blank made a T simple with his arms and Baku left the room. Blank looked down at Eiko.
"Are you well enough to walk?" he asked, rather bored. Eiko frowned slightly.
"My feet aren't injured," Eiko replied rather harshly. Blank made a grunting noise, indicating that he didn't care all too much whatever else she said.
Eiko got up from the bed, getting a bit dizzy already. But she forced herself up. Blank eyed her cautiously, expecting her to fall any second. To Blank, Eiko seemed like just a kid. A boy that didn't know any better.
Blank led her to the exit of the ship and got off onto the Airship dock. A place she hadn't seen in years. She pursed her lips together slightly. Standing far away from her, but easy enough to spot, was her father. Cid. The Regent. He was talking with some pilots. Not even noticing that his own daughter was walking right past him. Thank god for that.
"Ever been to Lindblum?" Blank asked.
"Many times," Eiko said.
"What's your name, kid?" he asked.
Eiko widened her eyes. She couldn't say her actual name. Eiko. She'd be captured right at the scene and taken into her old boring princess life. She came up with the first sound that came out of her mouth.
"F-fenrir," she replied. Fenrir. Of course she would come up with that name off the top of her head. Fenrir was her first summon. The summon that she learned on her own. It was a bit of a suspicious name but it wouldn't put up as much alarm as Eiko would.
Blank eyed her strangely. "Unusual name."
Eiko nodded, rather uncomfortably at that.
When they reached the Air Cat, Eiko sat down in one of the seats, rather uncomfortably. She wasn't sure where she was going, why she was here, or what she was planning to do. For now, she was just hiding from her past. The past three years were not the best years of her life. She was certainly free, but only in a matter of speaking.
"Do you have a place to stay?" Blank asked.
"Yes," she said, her voice shaking.
"You don't have to lie," he told her, harshly once again. "Do you have a place to stay?" His voice was demanding. This kid could see right through her.
Eiko dropped her head. She felt so weak. "No," she admitted.
Blank nodded. "That's what I thought. Baku has invited you to our hide-out. If you'll accept."
Eiko widened her eyes. The Tantalus hide-out. She remembered hearing about it from Zidane. It was apparently a dump. It was completely trashed whenever Lindblum was attacked so many years ago. It was most likely fixed up by now, though.
Eiko sighed. She felt like such a weakling. She must sound so stupid to him.
"I guess," Eiko said. She was still in very much pain. Her forehead was aching badly.
"Your head alright?" he asked.
"What do you care?" Eiko snapped. Clearly, the pain was affecting her mood. That, and the fact that she was being babied by some stupid Tantalus member.
Blank took her to the Theatre District where the hideout was. It seemed like forever until the got there but it was probably only about a minute. Eiko was exhausted. The hike here wore her out. Honestly, she can't remember much about how she even managed to get here. She ran to Lindblum all the way from Madain Sari. It was quite a trip. She travelled from town to town, through tunnels and cave. Nearly on the brink of death half the time. She hadn't had a proper bath in weeks and she wore the same clothes she has been wearing ever since she left Madain Sari.
When they finally reached the hideout, Eiko was about ready to pass out again. Her headache was getting worse. Turns out, cutting off that horn wasn't the smartest thing she's ever done. At least there was purpose behind it, though.
The door opened and she realized that the Tantalus hide out was, in fact, a dump. It was better than the last time she saw it, though, thankfully. A little shinier and homier, she supposed, but much smaller. Then again, not as bad as Madain Sari. Sand everywhere.
Many eyes looked at the two as they walked in. Eiko was already overwhelmed. Why were these people being so kind to her? It didn't make sense. It can't have been just because they wanted to.
Blank made the T sign once more as he spotted his boss, Baku. Baku made his way towards Eiko.
"What's his name?" Baku asked Blank.
"Fenrir, boss," he said.
"Fenrir?" Baku asked, sort of chuckling. "Fenrir what? What's your last name, kid?"
Eiko was terrified. Last name. She went with her gut. What's her original last name? Carol. Spelled backwards. "Lorac."
"Fenrir Lorac?" Baku said, a bit confused.
Eiko nodded at Baku. She looked around a bit, glancing a look at all the Tantalus members. All looked semi-familiar to her, though she could never for the life her remember their names.
"Why have you taken me here?" she asked, suspicious. Right now, she didn't trust them. Did they know of her true identity? That she was the princess? Or were they hired by Gilgamesh to capture her again.
"Relax. We're not gonna hurt you, kid," Baku said.
Eiko suddenly remembered that she didn't have her things with her. Her weapons. Her backpack. She felt around for her dagger hilt, but found nothing.
"And calm down. We have your weapons and pack," he said.
There was all of her stuff. She found her flute, her dagger, her sword that she stole from Treno when she visited, and her backpack. There was also something there that she'd rather they not have seen. A crystal with a chain around it. Her pendant. The pendant that everyone connected to royalty. She quickly grabbed it and put it in her back.
"We had to take that off so you wouldn't choke or somethin'," Baku said. Eiko examined all of them. "Where'd you get all that stuff anyway? You can't say you paid for it."
"U-uhm. Well...do you want the truth or the lie?" she asked.
"You steal 'em?" Blank asked. He was leaning against the wall, a smirk on his face.
Eiko widened her eyes. Wow, he was smart. Most of the stuff she had stolen. Like the dagger and the sword. Many of the items in her backpack were stolen except for a few items. The flute was her angel flute. Her summoning flute. The one that she got when she was about 7. The best flute you could get for summoning. The pendant was the only thing she took with her when she ran away from the castle.
"How did you know?" Eiko asked, amazed. Blank chuckled.
"Get the sword from Treno?" he asked. Again, Eiko nodded. She was about to ask how he knew it but he answered for her. "Tantalus is a group of thieves. I can tell when something is stolen and when it's bought."
"Well, fine," she muttered, a small smile on her face.
"That's a nice sword," one of the other Tantalus members said. "How'd you manage to get it?"
"I learned how to be a thief since I was a kid. It's how I survived," she told them. That was true. One of the only true things she'd told them all day. When she lived at Madain Sari all by herself, the only way she got food was from stealing from Conde Petite. She started that up again when she returned three years ago. "And I studied under a very stealth thief."
She then realized she said too much. Her master. Gilgamesh. Eiko didn't think she should have mentioned that. It brought back many bad memories.
"Who?" one of them asked.
"'m afraid that's confidential," she told them matter-of-factly. They let it go, actually, which is something most people wouldn't be able to do. Tantalus didn't go into her boundaries any more than she'd agree to. She liked that a bit.
"Well, seeing as you don't seem you have any place to live, how 'bout you join us?" Baku said. "You'd fit well here. What do ya say?" he asked.
Eiko widened her eyes. Join Tantalus. She couldn't think of a better thing to do. She would have a place to stay that would protect her.
"Sure," she told them. Inside, she was excited. Tantalus was such a famous band of thieves. She couldn't believe she would be accepted.
Hey, hope you liked it! Review??
Do you like the new Eiko?
I might have gone a bit out of character but I don't know MUCH about the personalities of Baku and Blank so I just tried to remain as true as what I knew about them. Hope it's alright.