So here is Chapter 3, I had originally intended to have this up a few days ago, but life took hold. Anyway, I hope you are enjoying it so far and please please review.. Its a joy reading your comments!
Destiny's Whisper
Paladin
Claire was standing in the castle hall, it still shaking ferociously. The feather and flower head had now been absorbed into the altars and from them sprung forth a small black orb each.
The orbs met at the middle of the hall, directly in front of Claire.
The joined, fusing into one bigger version of the orb. It was like dark matter.
Once joined, the orb began shrinking, and shrinking until it was so small it was virtually invisible.
Claire braced herself and placed one hand on her sword hilt.
When the black orb had disappeared, it emitted a shockwave which caused Claire to cover her eyes and stagger back one step.
Upon opening her eyes once again she saw a pale white horse standing there still, and a man, covered in what seemed to be white armour. He had long silver hair, dark crimson eyes and he appeared to be unarmed.
He said no words, but took steps towards Claire.
She braced herself once more and steadied her weapon in front of her.
The man stopped at the threat and stood still. He pushed his right arm out and a flurry of white feathers garnered around his hand.
Appearing out of the feathers and essentially out of nowhere was a long sword, matching that of his armour. It was long, slender and looked exquisite.
The fight was on.
The mysterious man rushed forward, running at speed. Claire dodged, sidestepping quickly.
He turned quickly to counter the dodge, and swung his sword with his movement.
Claire thrust her sword upwards in a parry; the two were locked for the moment.
She looked deep into his eyes. They weren't menacing as she first thought they would be, they appeared to be of a gentle nature.
Upon thinking this, she realised that she was locked in mortal combat with those gentle eyes.
With her one free hand she placed her hand on his armoured chest and pushed away, jumping backwards and landing on her feet after a mid-air somersault.
He rushed once more at Claire, but this time she was ready.
The man slashed once, but Claire countered quickly and swung once with her sword, pushing the man into a defensive position, then swung at him again, and again and once more for a fourth time.
The armoured man was almost pinned down to a kneeling stance by her forceful strikes.
She took a step back and jumped onto his sword, somersaulting over him, and while in mid-air she flicked her sword and it revealed a barrel chamber.
Squeezing the trigger Claire found that the sword fired a bullet, and the recoil in mid-air was substantial.
She landed awkwardly from the surprise of the gunfire and stumbled backwards.
But she looked over at her opponent and realised that once he was on his knees, now he was slumped to the floor.
He was not getting up.
She cautiously went over to him, and placed her sword at his neck.
Kicking his sword away she looked into his crimson eyes once more.
They were not begging for life, but embracing death, calmly accepting it.
The man uttered a few words with his last breath;
"I am Odin, your Eidolon personified. You have bested me in battle once again Claire Farron and now I shall no longer serve you, I shall become a part of you."
She didn't know what to make of this statement, for she had never heard the words 'Odin' and 'Eidolon' before, although they did sound familiar to her ears.
The man died before her, and there was no sound made apart from the pale horse; which had largely been forgotten by her who neighed at the passing of its master.
The man, whose name was Odin burst into a thousand shards of crystal, and those shards orbited Claire Farron, as if she were the Sun.
All at once they moved rapidly into her, encasing her in a crystal shell from head to toe.
She stood like a statue, unable to move. Yet she heard a crack, and another and one more which tore at the crystals.
They burst off her skin and in a flash of white light which blinded her, the crystal shards were gone.
Standing alone, in a castle she had been transported to mysteriously was just a girl who had little memory, yet who had been forced to fight both shadow monsters and a mysterious man.
She felt heavier, burdened by something.
Looking at her hands initially she saw vambraces and gauntlets covering them, exactly like what the man had on; silvery-white with golden patterns emblazoned onto them.
Exploring the rest of her body she noticed most of it was covered in armour like the man had on, although a more feminine version.
Her old sword was gone, replaced by a circular shield on her left arm. She had no other weapon, yet noted how the man summoned his.
She held out her right arm, and in a flash of feathers the exact same sword appeared clutched in her grasp.
She had truly merged with this man, this Eidolon, named Odin.
She was no longer a girl, nor a simple soldier; she had now ascended into a Paladin.
The little house in Bodhum was being kissed goodnight by the sun before it set, two Guardian Corps soldiers were guarding the entrance, as per their promise to a fallen comrade, even if she was now a L'Cie, sworn enemy of Cocoon.
Inside was the clear crystal coffin of Lightning, hardened soldier, cold leader but soft and sincere lover of Vanille.
Two brands were present on her body, her L'Cie black, sprawling mark on her chest and the other, numbered tattoo on her wrist.
The latter could be clearly seen inside the coffin, for all the crystal did in fact stem from it.
It started to glow, at first a soft glow with only a small radiance but quickly it had grown to illuminate the entire room.
The light burst out of the windows of the small house, so much so that the guards outside noticed and rushed in to see what were going on.
They were too slow, for when they entered the house they couldn't see a thing. The light from the coffin was too bright.
A loud crack could be heard, ripping down the crystal from head to toe.
A few moments later the crack subsided and was replaced with a shattering sound.
She grabbed a lock of her hair that was dangling in front of her face and she started to twist it round her finger.
Her hair became even curlier than it already was.
Vanille was sitting in her usual place again, watching Fang's hips sway as she paced up and down.
Today was different; today Vanille was curling her hair out of frustration, a frustration for that particular primal instinct which she had missed for over a year now.
Today she was going to act.
Every morning after Fang had paced up and down she retired to her tent for personal meditation, which no one was allowed to interrupt.
Vanille had carefully studied the daily patterns of her friend and knew exactly where she would be, and when.
To ambush her, Vanille crept into Fang's tent ten minutes before she was due to meditate and lay down, waiting for her to enter.
Fang did as Vanille expected, entering her tent exactly ten minutes after she did.
Fang was startled to see Vanille in her own personal space.
"Oh, hey Vanille. I didn't expect to see you in here. What do you want?"
"I just thought we could…um talk a bit. We haven't done that in a while. Come sit down"
Fang did as she was told, sitting down with her back straight and legs straight out in front of her.
Vanille saw that Fang was uncomfortable, so she ran her fingers softly along the thigh of her friend, yet this did not ease Fang's awkwardness. She just tightened up more.
"Fang, you're looking pretty tense, you need to relax girl. Why don't I give you a massage? That'll help you. Come on, lie down!"
Fang couldn't think about what was going on, so she just followed Vanille's orders and lay down on her front.
Vanille sat on her knees, hovering slightly over Fang's waist and began to remove the necessary sashes to gain access to her back.
Fang kept quiet, trusting Vanille's intentions, yet they were misplaced intentions.
Vanille started to move her hands up and down along Fang's back, massaging everywhere from her lower back right up to her shoulders.
Fang had to bite her lower lip to stop her from letting out a little moan of pleasure.
Although no noise was made, Vanille could sense that her massage was having the desired effect on her the woman resting between her legs.
She knelt up, and asked Fang to roll onto her back, so she could massage the front.
Fang was amicable putty by this moment; she would do anything anybody asked her.
Vanille knew this, and took full advantage.
She ran her hands along her friend's stomach, following the contours of the body with her fingers. Eventually Vanille approached the subject of Fang's chest, and she did this with no words, just action.
Vanille ran her fingers at first along the sides of Fang's chest, then she pretended to lose her balance and 'slipped' on top of Fang, holding out two hands and purposefully cupping her friend's breasts.
Fang did not say anything, yet she bit her lip once again; she had not been touched like this in a very long while and so was not about to stop now, even if it was her friend touching her.
She knew it was wrong, yet she desired to be wanted once more, even if it was out of a rebound, pure grief, pure loss, pure animal lust that Vanille was feeling, Fang did not care, and she wanted to be loved.
Vanille had her hands firmly planted, yet this wasn't her real intention; she nudged ever so slightly upwards, and placed her strawberry-laced lips upon Fang's soft, nervous, yet almost virginal lips.
Fang didn't want to make any kind of move, but she found her tongue piercing out of her mouth involuntarily, past her own lips and into Vanille's.
The red-haired girl was shocked at such a bold move, yet she fed off impulse and brushed her own tongue against Fang's, massaging the two together while lips parted, before the two kissed once more.
This cycle went on for seemingly hours; no one stopped them, and neither felt the need to go further than locking lips for now, for they were both so in the moment.
Snow was alone, something that he had not experienced since Lake Bresha.
In the year that they had all been here, wandering aimlessly with no purpose while Lightning was in her crystal coffin Snow had set up a training dummy, otherwise his own sanity would have been lost.
Snow had pulled on his gloves and begun to frantically work away at the dummy, punching it in increasingly harder blows. He was all but lost in his workout when he heard a loud, repetitive beeping, like a ring.
He was startled, as it had been so long since the comms device had been dialled. But Snow picked it up, and pressed the button.
A crackling sound whirred for a moment, before a clear voice sprung out.
"Hello, Snow Villiers do you copy? This is Major Powell here, a member of the Guardian Corps and one of the soldiers tasked with protecting Miss Farron's body."
Snow took a moment to gather his thoughts on the subject. The soldiers had never called him or Fang, they barely even said hello during their visits.
"This is Snow Villiers, I read you loud and clear Major Powell. What's up? Has something happened at Bodhum?"
"I'm afraid to say Sir that something indeed has happened. A strange white light was reported in Miss Farron's house, and a loud cracking sound. Upon further inspection the crystal stasis which held Miss Farron has been broken…"
At this news Snow pumped his fist into the air and shouted a loud, joyous 'Yeah' into the atmosphere.
"That's awesome news Major. So is she awake? Can we come pick her up?"
"Sir, err no I'm afraid you can't. The crystal stasis has been broken, that's correct – but I'm afraid to report that Miss Farron's body is gone."
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN GONE?"
Snow shouted angrily into the comms device. His anger alerts Sazh and Hope to his location, and a few minutes later both Fang and Vanille come out of Fang's tent, looking a little dishevelled.
No one had time to make euphemistic quips about what exactly the two girls were up to as all their attention was focused on the comms device.
"Where is she?"
"We're not sure Sir, one moment she was in crystal stasis, the next she had vanished. We're sorry"
"Whatever"
Snow de-pressed the button and stood there, comms device slipping out of his hand.
He did not care about anything right now; he had no motivation, no energy.
He had already lost one Farron sister, his beloved Serah to the L'Cie curse and now the older Farron sister had suddenly vanished.
He could not take much more of this.
He muttered under his breath;
"Where is she?"