Stranded
Chapter 3
"Why not come back to Eblan with me?
"…"
"You'd love it, I know you would…" He twirled her around in an elegant waltz.
"Edge…" She looked deep in his eyes.
"Why not? Where will you go after the wedding? Not back to that terrible cave, I hope. Such a beautiful women shouldn't hide in that cave." He gently stroked her cheek.
"…I suppose I shouldn't, should I?"
He lifted his head, extremely pleased with himself.
She had no idea what would come of the situation.
"No…" she muttered, rolling on her side.
"No…" Rydia jerked awake, breathing heavily and starting to sweat. That dream…it was always that dream. After the wedding, Edge took Rydia to Eblan with him. The dreams of her nights there were painful to remember. She looked outside the cave. Not a soul was to be found.
This island was the cause of the mess. She muttered a simple fire spell- she could feel the magic power draining from her, but no flame appeared. This island- it would have to lie somewhere between Eblan and Baron, but where? As Rydia remembered, there weren't any islands lying between them.
She never remembered ever getting attacked by anything while in the air, either. There weren't many zus…never any that rogue before, either. What had provoked the attack? Was anyone looking for them? The monsters hadn't come back for them after they landed. Rydia's head was riddled with unanswered questions. She sat on the sand, trying desperately to remember what happened in their final moments in the air
"What the…"
"What was that?"
"I'll go check…"
"But…what on earth…"
(Muffled scratching…loud screech…)
"What…Kain! Where is he?"
"He must have jumped…coward…"
(Hard jerk… shake…screech…)
"Edge! What's going on!"
"Zus! They're tearing apart the front deck! Rydia, get out here and help!"
(Harsh jerk…screech…sound of wood tearing…burning…)
"Rydia! Put out the fire!"
"I can't! I can't summon anything!"
"You have to do something!"
"What happened to Kain? Leviathan! LEVIATHAN!"
(Burning… screeching…the airship rolls…jerks back…)
"Rydia! We're going to fall!"
"What about Kain?"
"Leave the traitor! Come here! We're going down!"
(Burning… terror… fire… terror…)
Rydia went over the events in her head. No questions were answered…they just made her more confused. She found herself in the heart of the island, surrounded by trees taller than she could see. It was an odd island, indeed… she never really got a good look at it before, but now she could see. She was in the middle of a giant jungle in the middle. To her south was the beach where the cave was, and to the north seemed to be a rugged mountain range. The east held some plains and a river in it, and the west was laden with rocky cliffs.
"Where in the world are we?" she muttered. No island in the world was this diverse. No island was this adapted for human life. She walked around the trees a bit. Just realizing how hungry she was, she started crawling around, looking for anything resembling food.
Rydia laughed at her primitive instincts taking over. She stood up, looking up the trees, checking for something edible. Laughing at her incapability to find what she needed in the wild.
Then she found it. Etched into the bark of the tree was a symbol unlike any Rydia had ever seen. It was an upside down triangle, with a sickle shape running from the bottom and curving near the middle. At each of the 2 top corners were a dot, and a small dot in the center of the sickle's curve.
Rydia stared at the design. Never in all her years of magical study had she seen anything even remotely close to it, and never etched into anything. Nothing she saw was ever etched into anything. She picked her fingers up to touch it.
A strong arm wrapped around Rydia's waist. A hand grasped her outstretched arm. She fought. She couldn't free herself. She was wrenched away from the design, and behind the brush.
She felt herself being lifted into the air, and she spun around while the grip was loosened.
"Kain!" Rydia was dumbfounded.
"You shouldn't have come into the jungle, Rydia," was all he said. He looked at her with an unreadable look. Rydia started to lose it.
"First you abandon us on the airship! Then while Edge is out looking for me, you're trying to save your precious possessions! Now you just about kidnap me, and won't explain anything to me!"
"You don't want things explained to you. It would only make you worry." Kain landed on a cliff overlooking the beach where they had landed.
"Why don't you make any sense? What could be bad enough that you can't tell me?"
"I was instructed not to tell anyone until you arrived in Baron."
"Ah. I see. Now you wish to be loyal. Now you wish to be on the side of good. But by being on the good side, you can be secretive and idiotic and not have to explain why things happen!"
"Rydia."
"What."
"Listen to me. Now. No one is supposed to know about this island. No one is supposed to be on this island. The farther we stray from the beach, the more danger we're putting the rest of the world in. You need to stay on the beach, and out of my way."
"Why are you in charge? Why am I supposed to be a good girl and sit on the beach while you men take care of everything?"
"Because I know what this is all about! I know why we landed on the isle. I know why we can't use magic, I know the meaning of those symbols. And for the record, Edge knows nothing of this. Don't tell him. If he finds out, with his arrogance, he'll need to be in the middle of it."
Rydia stared at him.
"Why did you grab me."
"Because you can't touch those symbols."
"What happens if I do."
Kain scoffed.
"Don't make me tie you to a rock on the beach. Haven't I told you anything? No one is supposed to know. To a certain extent, Cecil and Rosa aren't even supposed to know about it. But they found out. And now we have to deal with it. Just do as I say."
Rydia was never one to take orders, but his words were firm, and she couldn't bring herself to want to disobey that much. She slid down the rocks, and back onto the beach, where Edge was waiting.
"Hello, love."
Rydia looked behind her. Kain had gone back into the island, and she was alone with the ninja again. She sat down next to him. He took her hand.
"Come look at this. Found it while I was out exploring."
On the far side of the beach was a cliff. The ninja brought out his katanas, and started to scale the wall, digging the sword into the rock.
"Come on precious. Hold onto me."
Rydia swallowed a lump in her throat, and wrapped her arms around him. He scaled the wall quickly, and she found herself on a grassy ledge overlooking to water. To one side were bushed of berries. To her other side was a tree of bamboo and vines. In the ground were shoots of bamboo, and the grass was soft and comfortable.
Rydia sat and pulled the berries off the bush, popping them into her mouth, savoring the taste. Edge sat next to her.
"Thank you. For everything. Saving me, this food…"
Edge wore a blank expression for a second, then shook his head and smiled, wrapping his arms around Rydia. Rydia's eyes widened, but the ninja just continued on, bringing her into a deep kiss, that with any other person would have been most enjoyable. The ninja pulled her closer, but Rydia pulled away before it got out of hand. Edge raised and eyebrow, and hopped down the ledge and back to the cave.
Rydia sat on the grassy ledge of the cliff, staring into the ocean, until she fell into an uneasy slumber.
Author's notes: Would you look at that! 1400 words! Sound the trumpets! Woo-hoo! Glory, Glory Hallelujah! Okay. Done. Sorry for the EXTREMELY late update. I finished chapter 4, then had a serious case of writer's block that I still haven't broken through, and I still have absolutely no clue what's going to happen. I know that flashback scene was a bit confusing (okay, really confusing) but I think that telling you who said what kinda brings away from the feeling of it, so I'll let you make up who said what. Kinda turning into more of an adventure than plain romance, but I promise I'll bring Kain and Rydia together (a bit) in the next chapter. Promise. But I like how it's turning out. I really do.
The Magnifique