A/N: Here's the third chapter. We'll go over Nematus' first hunt in this chapter, as well as having a chance meeting with our favorite Viera. No, not Stitches or Tall Ears.. Also, we're gonna find out why Nematus, spite his strange self, is the perfect wingman for Judgement. :D

Note: Spells and signature moves will be in bold when performed. Also, I'm aware I got some of the Viera names wrong, but I fixed that in this chapter. All of this to appease Zodiark's grammar OCD. :P


History of Nematus Draken Lazarus

Chapter 3 Nematus' First Hunt, Pwr lv. 58

Cifer's group had arrived a few days later at the small nomad village in the Giza Plains. They figured this would be a good spot to set up camp for a little bit before heading into the city of Rabanastre. Nematus had taken in all the new sights and unfamiliar animals and plants with great interest, spending his free time either sleeping, studying, or questioning the people of the camp about the land, its seasons, and animals. All those years of tutoring underneath his mother and father played a big part in his reasons. It had merely become a habit to learn about the area while he could.

Deciding now was better than none, Cifer decided to judge his newest member's strength and skill in a bout. The boy fearlessly stepped forth, excitement shining from the holes of his mask, and drew his twin Garif blades. The two were a nice distance away from the villagers, so their battle shouldn't disturb anyone. The boy's eyes showed eagerness, much more than Cifer thought was necessary. 'Let's see what the boy's got.'

Breaking the staring contest, Nematus ran and jumped towards the man and brought both his swords down. Cifer executed a flawless parry, but to his surprise, the ground cratered inwards a good two feet underneath him from the blow. He found his arms quivering from the strength and power this kid was using. ''Impressive.''

He used the pressure Nematus was using to slip underneath, throwing the Garif-hume off-balance. With the opening he was expecting, he went for a vertical slash down his opponent's back, but Nematus rolled to the side just in time. Regaining his footing, the young boy began gathering mist within his blades and arms, further surprising the hunters, both Cifer and their audience, that he had this much knowledge of mist at his age.

With a massive double-bladed swing, he smashed the ground, causing it to crack open in several lines towards him. He jumped into the air, than proceeded to use aerial recovery to reach higher. He was at about fifty feet when the attack made its way to where he was once standing and the ground caved in before dozens of rock spikes erupted from the earth. 'He had gathered his power and combined it with a quake spell? Clever.'

Nematus didn't know how Cifer had jumped that high into the sky. It looked like he was flying! "What technique is that?" he called out.

"It is simply called 'aerial recovery'. It's being able to regain your body in the air and jump again. It takes some effort to get it right, though. Most have to gather their mist into their legs to accomplish it. Didn't you do it to perform that jump just a while ago?"

He took that silence as a 'definitive no'. "So, you're performing those feats with just the strength in your legs alone? You're turning out to really be something else, kid." He raised his hand up and gathered a ball of fire in it. "Fira!"

The second level fire spell shot from his palm in seven different directions. They all went wide in an arc before convering on Nematus' position. The boy was unfamiliar with the spell since their usage was limited to very few in his village. The only ones he knew were Quake, Quake2, Bio, and Cure. The fira was obviously self-explanatory, so he did his best to avoid it. Jumping forward at the dirt, the explosion from the flames rolled him forward several yards before dying down. His back was in some pain. The heat from the fire had burnt any hair that was on his back, as well as charring the Garif warrior, sleevless vest he wore.

He staggered back to his feet just to nearly lose his head from a side-ways slash from the mark hunter. Thanks to his years of reflex training on the plains, he ducked underneath it far enough to even save his mask from any damage. Having lost one of his blades when he dodged that Fira spell, he swung his remaining blade upwards at the opening Cifer's missed swing made. To his joy, he drew blood, though the cut was only a shallow inch up the length of his chest.

The man jumped back and examined his wounds through the torn shirt that now exposed his body. He raised an eyebrow at the kid who he was sure was grinning. "Not bad, kid. Not bad at all. I think I've found some idea of your skills." He started a cura spell with his left hand that began closing the wound in seconds. "You've got brute strength, that much was obvious. You're also not just a musclehead, as you showed creativeness in combining spells with physical attacks. You have knowledge of spells, so you don't rely solely on your strength, which is good. Only a fool would think he could win everytime with the same method. You've got the knowledge and makings of a fine hunter in you, Nematus. You're parents really didn't leave anything out of the equation."

When he finished, his spell had completely healed the wound, showing no reason for the blood on his clothes. "We'll rest for the night before making our way into Rabanastre. You'll love it. It's a beautiful city. Hard to believe it had been nearly destroyed completely by the plague those many years ago."

So the two headed back to their make-shift camp and rested for the night. When morning came, they broke camp and walked the next hour to Rabanastre. Even from this great distance, Nematus could see the walls of the city. He couldn't believe something that big could be made by mortals. His eyes were wide with awe when they finally arrived at the south gate. He'd never seen anything like this city before.

After identifying who they were, they were permitted to enter the city by the friendly Dalmascan guards. Once inside, he was greeted with a large set of stairs. Much more eager then the others, he ran up them to view the rest of the city. When he got to the top, he wasn't disappointed. His senses were assaulted with a great multitude of different smells, sounds, and sights. His bare feet didn't approve of the cold, stone grounds, but he hardly noticed it.

He presence was met with strange stares from any who passed him. I mean, how often do you see a hume wearing a large bone mask and is only clothed with hide pants. You'd think the hume had turned into a caveman or something.

"Come on, boy. I know I told you that our base was in Nalbina, but that was three years ago. Things have gotten tense there as Archadia and Dalmasca haven't been getting along too well. It's not very far to our clan headquarters from here. There, we can get you some more appropriate clothes, if you'd like?" Cifer asked. At that moment, a pair of Viera women walked by wearing tops that only covered enough to hide their breasts, and skirts that were cut along the sides to allow for mobility.

"They're wearing less then me," Nematus shot back. Cifer gave a hearty laugh before breaking the bad news.

"Yes, they are. But they're attractive...you're not." The boy shoved the joking man's hands off of his shoulder. The Viera continued on their way, but they gave Nematus a curious stare, probably wondering what species he was suppose to be, or if he was just another crazy hume. However, they stopped when they saw the magicite necklace around his neck.

"Hello, young one," they greeted politely. "That necklace...where did you get it?" one of them asked.

"My friend, Jote, gave it to me before I left the Ozmone Plains."

Their brows rose when he spoke of Jote. Last they heard, she had just been working on getting a position of elder. They were good friends of her before they left the Wood. How would this hume know her, much less befriend her? Yet, he stands there with a necklace that Jote was well-known for making for ones she trusted. "How is Jote?"

"She is doing well. She was suspicious of me and my father at first when we asked for permission to travel through the Wood to train in the Feywood, but after so long, her and others soon trusted us and even became our friends."

Cifer couldn't help but envy the kid while in disbelief. He happened to be so strong at his young age, but that paled in comparison to his obvious talent of befriending Viera. Even the ones outside of the Wood were enigmas, not usually saying more than 'hello' before shutting out any attempt of conversations. Yet, here was this 14yr hume kid dressed as a Garif warrior getting their attention without even approaching. 'The boy has no idea how lucky he is.'

When they had finally stopped talking, he bidded them farewell in the some kind of way, which seemed to have pleased them much. Cifer placed an arm around the boy's shoulders. "I think I just found the perfect wingman."

Nematus ignored the question of what a 'wingman' was, and they continued on towards their hideout. When they arrived, there was a small sign on a door of a large building.

13 Swords Clan

Current master-Cifer Klaudias

Subtle, definately. The group entered the building and soon met with the rest of the clan members. The other nine began introducing themselves one by one. Some were open-minded to Nematus' entrance into the clan, while others weren't happy that a child was allowed.

Nematus was allowed to explore the city for the rest of the week to get familiar with it. He was guided by a bangaa, one of the members who were okay with Nematus' induction. They explored all the areas of the city that they could, from the lowest levels in the Garamsthye Waterway and Lowtown to the front of the royal palace. Everywhere he went, he got stares and questions from all: hume, seeq, a moogle, bangaa, and even more Viera. The guy giving him the tour couldn't believe how everyone became amazed with a human wearing a bone skull.

'Shouldn't people be running from him?'

Anyway, after that week of constant exploration, Cifer finally decided to let Nematus come with him and two others on a hunt. But, before the boy could even go fetch some of his things, Cifer held out a two-handed longsword to him. He was giving him a Save The Queen?

"This will do alot better than those Garif weapons of yours. With your strength, you should have no problems wielding it." Nematus took it with a single hand with some effort. He found some space and practiced an upward and downward combo. He noticed his swinging speed faster with both hands, but something about having to use two hands seemed to not sit well with him. He practice a few more swings, both vertical and horizontal, and than a couple of thrusts before he felt somewhat use to it.

Cifer watched amusingly as the obstinate boy refused to use it like it was meant. "That Save The Queen. She's one of the finest brands of great swords on the market. You better take care of it. It cost me 15000gil."

"Thank you. This means alot," Nematus said. A couple of seconds later, he shocked some of the members present by asking, "What's gil?" He received some groans of disbelief from his fellow comrades. Well, when one grows up living off the land, providing his own food, shelter, and clothing with his bare hands, what value is a gold coin? Maybe to be used as a replacement for a board game piece at the most.

"It's money," Cifer explained. "It's used to buy various things from food and shelter, to transportation and entertainment. Not everybody can handle the life of farming and hunting, Nematus. It's something that is very stressful if you aren't born into it. Understand?"

He received a nod in reply. With that, they made their way to the aerodrome. From there, they bought four tickets to Balfonheim Port. Nematus had never been on an airship before. To say he was curious was an understatement. Every third step he took, he asked another question. The bangaa and male hume hunters that were with them were banging their heads repeatedly on the cabin's walls after the tenth question.

'They're really strange,' he thought.

He didn't sleep at all on the first half of the ride. He visited the cabins and restuarants, both asking and answering questions. The thought of a hume child being raised by the Garif people fascinated the inquisitive people. Hearing his story, they were more than happy to help explain some of the things about the modernized world, mainly air travel and trading between long distances. Though they felt sad that he had spent just about his entire childhood training in some form or fashion, he told them that it was his choice and that there were no regrets. They thought it was adorable and funny that he had no idea what gil was till this morning when his clan master explained it to him.

They decided to give him a free small meal, as a sort of welcoming into 'their' world, which he was thankful for. When he started eating it from underneath his mask, they asked him about it, to which he explained that Garif live their entire lives with their mask on. Only to confirm his identity to the Viera wood-warders did he ever take it off. No matter how many times they asked if they could see his face, he politely declined the passengers' pleads.

He spent the rest of the trip gazing over the skies from atop the ship. There were a few people up here as well, but this time he just kept to himself and enjoyed the breath-taking view of the world underneath him. In about twelve hours and one unexpected nap ontop of the ship later, he woke up to the sound of seagulls. One had landed near his head and inspected him. Cocking its head to the side a couple of times, the bird started pecking his skull, which woke him up.

"What is this?" The hume and the bird just stared at each other with equal curiosity.

"Mine! Mine!" The bird sqawked and started pecking his skull mask some more.

"Hey, don't eat my mask, you little bird!" He swatted the annoying bird away and groggily got to his feet. Yawning and stretching his back, he looked at the rising sun and lavished himself in its radiance. "It's beautiful."

"Don't humes like to sleep during the mornings?" someone asked. By her sweet-as-honey, soft voice, he wasn't surprised that it belonged to a Viera. He looked over his shoulder and saw a bombshell of a woman walking up to him. She leaned onto the side of the railing, letting the sun's warmth wash over her dark-brown skin as well. She wore a black outfit, obviously Viera in origin and style. She was just a couple of inches taller than him, despite his large size for a 14yr old. She had a massive head of pure white hair and dark red eyes, clearly identifying her as the same type he was friends with.

"You're from the Golmore Jungle?" he asked. She nodded and asked about him. "I'm hume...that much I've discovered, but I was raised by my Garif parents, Supinelu and Tanyar."

She knew the story. She was in the background, sitting idle on a sofa while she overheard him explaining his upbringing to curious passengers. "Yes, I've heard. You've a unique past. So, you are friends with Jote?" she asked, her eyes looking at the magicite necklace around his neck, recognizing her sister's handiwork.

"Yes," he answered. "I became friends with her, Sytk, Mjrn, Ktjn, and many others throughout my travels through the Wood. Was she a friend of yours?"

The Viera chuckled before bobbing her head up and down. "Yes...you see, Mjrn and Jote are my sisters."

Nematus reeled back from the sudden declaration. He knew there was another sister, that much Jote had told him. Mjrn would only mention her name before becoming too emotional to continue, so he didn't really learn anything else from her. Apparently, she still hadn't fully recovered from the sudden loss of her sister. "So...you're Fran?"

She was surprised, yes, that he knew her name. Apparently, he had not exaggerated with the word 'friends'. "I'm surprised my sister befriended a hume so well, but..I can understand why she would make an exception. You are indeed not like the masses of other humes. You are much different."

"May I ask you something, Fran?" he asked hesitantly. He knew these subjects were usually touchy, so he approached with caution.

"What is it you want to ask, Nematus?" Yeah, she also knew his name as well, apparently. And she had a pretty good idea of what he wanted to ask.

"Why did you leave the Wood? I know Jote still thinks of you as her little sister...and Mjrn..she can't even say your name without getting sad. Why would you leave your family?" She felt her stomach knot up at his words. Was it true that they still thought of her as a sister? Normally, if a Viera left, they were no longer considered Viera. She was no exception.

The silence that followed was very eerie, but she answered after what felt like minutes. "Probably the same reason you left yours." That part hit pretty close to home for him. He knew he left because his parents wanted him to get strong and become the best that he could be. He understood that he could not do that if he spent the rest of his life in the Jahara village. "I left...because I sought to explore the world. I excelled at my duties in the village, but my life..it felt like no matter what I did, there was always this emptiness in my heart. I believed that I could find my true self somewhere out here, beyond the shelter of the Wood."

She turned to him, filled with some mixed feelings. "Could you do me a favor?" He waited expectingly for the request. What could she possibly have him do for her? Give a message or something? "Could you show me your face? I wish to see the face that my sisters have so much trust in."

Normally, he would've shot her down like he did for all the other ones, but...this wasn't just some curious hume being nosy; no, this was the runaway sister of two of his close friends. Understanding her reasons, he brought his hands to his mask and slowly lifted it up. Her blood-red eyes looked over his young face, finding it hard to believe he was merely a teenager. Her gaze was returned by a pair of burning, amber-gold eyes that brimmed with youth and energy.

Fran, personally, really appreciated the what he told her. She hadn't seen her sisters for a little over forty years. Yes, she's met other Viera, but none were recently exiled. She longed to know how her family was doing. She had finally found someone who knew both Jote and Mjrn well. To her astonishment, it was a hume boy, of all people.

She wouldn't have ever considered the possibility of it. Best of all, he'd told her that her sisters still missed her, despite the GreenWord saying she herself was no longer a Viera. She found much comfort and happiness in his words, despite her calm face, and for that, she was very grateful. Plus, for a 14yr old, he wasn't bad-looking..

"Thank you," she said. Before he could pull the mask down, she gently stopped him and leaned forward, planting a soft kiss on his lips. Though it would have seemed sorta pedaphile to anyone watching for her to kiss him on the lips, she felt no feelings like that. It was soft and brief, but she got her intended message across. Pulling back, she giggled at the look of pure confusion that was on his face.

"What was that?" he asked. The gesture she just performed was completely foreign to him. Garifs didn't do that to each other. What did it mean? And why did he like it...no, love it, so much?

"That..was a kiss. It is usually shared between family, or people who love each other," she answered. He didn't know why, but his cheeks felt really hot right now. 'What is going on? Wait, is she saying she loves me? Or is she considering me family?' "It can also be shared by one to show so much thanks when words are not enough. You have given me news that I've dreamed to hear. For that, I am forever grateful."

He was still in a stupor. Only she noticed that they had finally arrived at Balfonheim port. She turned to leave, but looked over her shoulder at the boy who still hadn't pulled his mask back on. "Do take care, Nematus. I'm sure it would upset my sisters greatly if something were to happen to you." With that, she entered the airship and disappeared from his life for the time being.

He didn't tell the others about what had happened that morning and soon found himself immersed in the completely new region. It was unlike the Ozmone Plains, the Golmore Jungle, the Giza Plains, or Rabanastre. The port city was humble in its appearance and maintained a peaceful atmosphere, yet it was so full of activity.

"Alright, everyone. Our mark is the Bull Wyrm that is located on the Cerobi Steppi. Our client is a man who owns and rents out chocobos. He's got a certain Shield Wyrm that is particularly more aggressive than the other ones, finding his chocobos and customers as tasty meals. Business has been bad, as well as publicity, so he's hired us to take care of it. Nematus, I'll explain everything you need to know about the Shield Wyrm race on the way there."

They made their way to the east end of the port, the hunters uninterested in most of the scenery while Nematus was trying to memorize every little detail: the people, the crates, the buildings, the smells of the food, the materials that made the buildings, two hume sailors playing a strange game that involved little cubes, wagers, and deception. His senses tried to catch everything as his brain worked into overdrive to decipher them. Before he even knew it, his group had already talked to the client and they were on their way through the Steppi.

The sudden gusts of salty wind hit his mask and traveled through to his nose. He took a deep breath and released to calmed his mind. His bare feet, now on natural ground, helped to relax him as he closed his eyes and used his skills taught by his father and some of his Viera friends to 'become a part' of the land. It helped him to quickly become more aware of his surroundings. It's saved his life several times in the past, so he trusted it to help him now.

Hearing all of the noises and picturing what sound went to which creature, he recognized some kind of avion creature similar to an aeroes, a small growl that sounded like a feline, another piercing yell that sounded like another large bird, and finally a deep roar. It sounded reptile in nature, like the enkelados. It wasn't far, probably a mile away.

"I know where it is," Nematus spoke up, accidentally interrupting Cifer's organizing of the search patterns they were going to do. Everyone looked at him with a 'Come again?' face. "I know where the shield wyrm is," he said. "I used a technique that my father and the Golmore Viera tought me on listening to the land and pointing out which beasts belong to each trait that my senses pick up and how far away they are."

The two hunters looked towards their leader with some doubt about Nematus' claims, but Cifer wasn't quick to judge. "Well, we don't have anything to lose but time. Alright Nematus, just point where."

Nematus pointed his finger towards the silhouettes of the nearest windmills. "Near the windmills. There's where I would bet my right arm that it's at." Having listened to the boy's answer to search for any doubt or fib and found none, Cifer nodded and started towards their new destination.

"Let's get to it, then. That shield wyrm isn't going to kill itself, now will it?" The rest quickly followed behind, though Nematus stayed beside their leader.

"Thank you for trusting me. I know most people would doubt my abilities, since I'm just a kid to them." Cifer understood how much his decision to follow the boy's instincts meant to him. If it were any other, besides a Viera itself, he would have voted against it.

However, this child had been raised by Garifs, who have superior hearing and smelling to humes, as well as been tought some skills by the Viera of the Golmore Jungles, who are said to know where each and every beast was always at, as well as know the exact moment when someone entered the Wood. By all rights, this kid had more tracking experience and skill than all of the hunters in his clan combined.

They traveled and fought against many beasts of each of the sounds he had detected. Much to his pleasure, his imaging of what each noise resembled was accurate to some extent. The feline noises matched the bandercoeurl that they fought by the packs. The two different avion calls were bellwyverns and the charybterixes. There were very heavy sounds coming from the windmill arears, but they didn't belong to their mark. The sounds belonged to the adamantitan, a massive tortoise that immediately attacked them with waterga spells.

We discovered its weakness being thunder elemental attacks, so Cifer showed off some of his wizardry and cast ten thundaga spells consecutively and in quick succession. Apparently, Nematus was the only one who thought roasted tortoise smelled delicious. He even offered to sever a portion of it off to take as a snack. The action only made the team's stomachs upset.

They soon came upon a large pack of silver lobos, which were just another variant of wolves. Everyone held their own well as the pack was dispatched. Nematus was enjoying the new animals, yet they weren't any stronger then the ones in the Feywood, which kinda disappointed him. After another twenty minutes of fighting their way through the Cerobi hills, they finally made it to the first set of windmills. They looked around the area and were immediately graced with the bull wyrm they'd been hunting. They were confident that this was the one, since it was a dark-purple skin color and about twice the size as all the other wyrms they've avoided.

"Well, kid, looks like you were dead on. You'll have to teach me how you do that when we got some free time," Cifer announced. Nematus would've responded, but they had to scatter to dodge the fireball from the beast. Cifer quickly casted silence, slow, and blind, effectively making the beast harmless, unless it hit you with its fire breath.

"Alright, everyone. Let's show this wyrm what happens when you mess with the 13 Swords Clan. Close-quarters fighters should stick to the sides, but be mindful of their tails and head. There blindspots are smaller than you think."

With that, the group surrounded the beast in a box perimeter. The two other hunters, a bangaa for heavy hitting and a hume for support role, moved in first. The hume casted bravery and protect on his reptilian friend, making the hunter into a dangerous killing machine. He jumped onto its back with slasher axe and started hacking away at the beast. Unfortunately, even with the bravery buff, the wyrm's hide was still holding up against the brutal beating.

Nematus ran forward at its head, despite Cifer's warning. Swinging his sword over his head, a loud CLANG pierced the air as the sword rattled in his hand. The beast staggered back a few steps from the blunt hit. Hoping that was just a fluke, the boy continued a relentless barrage of swings, each one pounding against the bull wyrm's head with a force great enough to crack rock.

"Shit. Cifer, we're probably going to have to use magics. This un's armor is too strong." The bangaa jumped clear of the beast as it attempted to crush him by rolling onto its back. Nematus had been trained to watch for possible weakpoints on beasts that were known to be resilient. He witnessed the bangaa's attempts of harming the dragon prove futile, as well as suffered the humiliation of his own attacks' uselessness. Despite all this, Nematus was fascinated by the beast.

Its body, its strength and toughness, it was a beautiful being in the eyes of a hunter/warrior such as himself. He almost didn't want to kill it, but then again, this beast has been attacking and killing innocent people. That couldn't go unpunished. He stepped back and grabbed hold of his Save The Queen with both hands this time.

The others saw him preparing to strike again and tried to talk him out of it, save for Cifer, who wanted to see what the boy discovered that they hadn't. He looked again at the wyrm and noticed that it was on his back, trying to roll over. 'That might work.' "Ethaniel," he called to the hume, "give our boy a bravery buff. Let him give another crack at it."

The support fighter, Ethaniel, did as told and shot a bravery buff at Nematus. The boy's muscles soon stretched his skin as he gave a loud roar, as if he himself was a beast. In reality, it was just his battle cry that he'd use to issue a challenge to a strong foe. Sprinting forward, he lunged into the air and swung the greatsword down onto the belly of the beast with both his arms. The sound of something akin to a plate shattering and a squishing sound followed.

To their relief, Nematus had ripped through the softer hide of the belly and stabbed the Save The Queen's point deep into the beast. It gave a monstrous cry of pain before going silent. 'No way', the hunters all thought. 'He killed a massive wyrm with a single blow.' Nematus even thought that himself, but unfortunately, the moment he pulled the sword out, the beast jerked its body upward, throwing him off to the side. With a great show of determination, the wyrm got back to its feet. Blood freely fell from the deep belly wound, but the beast hardly gave it any attention.

But, their moral didn't fade, especially for Nematus. Now there was a hole in its defense, albeit a hard to reach one. "Too bad that wound couldn't have been somewhere else. We'd have to crawl underneath that thing to get a clean hit on it," the bangaa said.

"Relax, Squisgar. We've already got someone who can hit it. Nematus, why don't you try that quake spell you used on me in the Giza Plains?" Nematus nodded and began charging up the mist inside of his body. The purplish mist soon engulfed his entire right arm and greatsword.

"QUAKE2!" he roared as his sword slammed into the ground. The earth began cracking like before, but this time splitting into half a dozen snaking fissures towards the beast. It roared in challenge against the unknown threat, but it couldn't see or react fast enough to help itself, since it had both blind and slow ailments.

The ground cratered all around the beast in a circle about twenty feet in diameter, bringing the beast with it. Before it even hit the ground, several massive, sharp spikes shot from below. All of them broke against its hide, save for one, and that was all that was needed. A single spike punctured the hole Nematus' Save The Queen had made and went straight into its spinal column. The blow instantly killed it, ending the beast's reign of terror over travelers for good.

The group gave some cheers for Nematus, the 14yr old boy who killed a massive shield wyrm on his first hunt. Accepting the gracious applause, Nematus went forth and slashed at the killing spike, releasing the carcass back to the ground. He took his greatsword and began hacking away at the death wound and cleaning out any organs that got in his way.

"Kid, I think you killed it already," Ethaniel said. Cifer, like the others, was clueless as to what his new hunter was up to.

"Mind telling me what you're doing there, Nematus?" he asked. The masked boy answered their questions when he finally pulled out a giant piece of meat, or muscle, or...something. "Is that...the heart?" he asked.

O.O-Ethanial and Squisgar.

o.O-Cifer.

"Yes," the boy replied like nothing was wrong with what he was doing. "It was a custom for warriors of the Garif to eat the heart of a beast they felt was very strong. They'd believed that the strength the beast had possessed in its life would transfer to the body of whoever ate the heart. It's now only a custom that is still upheld by the most veteran of our hunters and warriors."

O.O-Everyone. "You're joking, right?" Ethaniel asked. The bangaa's stomach was suddenly feeling queesy.

"No. Why would I joke about that?" Not even waiting for an answer, the boy lifted his mask just enough to expose his mouth and sink his teeth into the giant muscle.

8O-Ethanial and Cifer. Squisgar turned around and puked till his stomach was dry. Cifer held his hand to his mouth to hopefully persuade his stomach from doing the same thing. "That's messed up, kid."

Nematus ignored Ethaniel's insult to his customs and continued for about five minutes till there was nothing left. Cifer was thankful that it was finally over. "Yeah, you might as well cut out the liver too. Wyrm livers fetch as high price on the market. You could use that money to..oh, I don't know..buy some mouthwash or something."

Seeing that that made sense and, not knowing sarcasm, went to work further gutting the wyrm. Ethaniel's stomach finally gave and he puked till he fell to his knees. Having missed the conversation, Toki had just finished emptying his stomach's contents and turned around when he saw the boy going back in for what he presumed was seconds. "Oh, by the Gods!"

He tried to vomit some more, but there was nothing, so he sat on all fours dry-heaving till he could no more. 'This kid is insane!'

After he had cut out the liver and wrapped it, he climbed up out of the crater to rejoin his companions. He was mystified to see two of them making weird while laid on all fours. 'It sounds like the mating call of a hellhound.'

"Are they alright?" he asked. The incredulous look Cifer was giving him confused him as well. The man relented from his stare after several silent moments.

"Nothing..nothing at all. Come on, Toki. Ethaniel. That reward isn't gonna walk to us." He light kicked the bangaa in the butt, accidentally causing him to roll over in his own pool of barf.

"Agghh, Cifer!...what the hell?" The poor guy managed to get to his feet on his own, all the while deciding whether or not to accept Cifer's apology or hit him in the face. Ethaniel slowly got up as well, so with the gang together, with the two keeping a good distance away from Nematus, they all made their way back to the entrance of the port and collected their money. The chocobo rangler decided not to ask about the blood staining the lower portion of Nematus' mask.

Since they just arrived, Cifer decided to show Nematus the market. Along in the streets where various shops selling magicks and medicinal items and food. They stopped at a vendor name Quayside Magickery. Cifer convinced Nematus that learning various other elemental spells would be most beneficial and keep him prepared for more types of enemies. So, with his share of the reward money, along with the price he fetched for his Wyrm liver, he had 26700gil. He had a large sack tied around his waist to keep it in.

With that money, he was able to buy the incantations for Thundaga, Firaga, and Darkga, leaving him with just 900gil left. Once he read the incantations, they became imbedded into his mind to use at will, availability of sufficient MP pending. They were very powerful magicks, the third level of them. The strongest he had ever used was the second level. He'll have to do much practice to use them to their fullest potential.

After that, they spent a few more hours exploring the port's stores before finding an inn and bunkering down for the night.


A/N: That's the third chapter of our Nematus' crazy life. I know that heart eating scene seemed messed up, but honestly, there's not alot of info on the Garif to go off of. They live similar to the natives in the western U.S., though with abit more farming. I happened to watch Dances with Wolves the other day and decided to use the scene where the soldier (I'm killing myself for not being able to remember his name) kills the buffalo and eats its heart to hopefully gain its strength, despite the whole thing being forced upon him by the natives he was hunting with.

KEVIN COSTNER! That's who it was! Anyway, off-topic. Now, a little birdy thought that the Viera in the Golmore were too trusting, but he did go back and forth through the jungles for over a year, constantly running into their group, so he kinda grew on them. I don't know about you, but a 1.5yrs is a long time to get to know somebody. Also, so nobody bites me for this, the scene with Fran...yeah, she hasn't met Balthier yet, and is still traveling by herself. Doing this for over forty years would have anyone a little homesick and curious about their family, am I right?

P.S. Who caught the Finding Nemo reference?

Anyway, this author's note is way to damn long, so I'm ending it here. See ya!