Author's note: This is a collaboration between Ceara Ivory and myself! We don't own Final Fantasy IX!
Disc 1: Part 2
Ice Cavern
Alex was the first to wake and giggled softly to see Steiner standing guard, sound asleep. "Some sentry." She got up and stepped on the smoldering fire. If they were going to leave soon, she wanted to be sure they didn't leave any chance for the countryside to catch fire. Her stomach growled. She put her hand on it. She was hungry? Had she ever felt hungry in a dream before?
A pair of arms rose high in the air as Zidane stretched behind her. "Are you feeling better?"
Alex nodded. "Yeah, much better." Her stomach growled again and the thief laughed. "Okay, I'm a little hungry."
Zidane rummaged through his pack and pulled out some dried meat. "It's not much but it'll satisfy."
Alex accepted a few pieces of the meat. "Oh I love beef jerky." She chewed on the tip of one of the pieces.
Zidane scratched his butt. "Jerky?"
"Um yeah, that's what this is called where I come from," Alex explained. "Where do we go from here?" She asked.
Zidane looked around the surrounding area. "Well, you're a seer. Do you know where to go?"
Alex thought about what she had said the night before. "Well my seer powers aren't THAT defined yet. I'm still in training. I know there's a cavern near here that might take us above the mist. But…" She thought about her feet and her clothing. "There might be something else important past it."
Airlia groaned as she awoke from slumber. She had been dreaming a terrible nightmare, one where her princess had been in terrible danger. Shaking her head, she cleared the cobwebs. It had to be simply because of the situation that they were now in. She didn't recognize where it was, though it could have easily been the castle because of the unfriendly changes to the queen.
Garnet groaned. Every bone in her body seemed to ache. She looked around. For a moment, her mind forgot about the night before. "Where am I? Where's Mother?"
Stiffly, Steiner groaned awake as well. Both Alex and Zidane laughed at the man. "How does one fall asleep standing?" Alex asked.
"You talk a lot for a woman," Steiner snapped. "You'll do well to remember that a lady only speaks when it's necessary."
Alex laughed lightly, mockingly. "Oh Steiner. Poor behind-the-times Steiner."
Steiner growled as he snapped his neck back and forth and side to side. "Impudent female."
"Misogynistic male," Alex fired back. She hated men who thought women shouldn't speak.
Zidane rolled up the tent. "Okay you two. We have a long walk ahead of us. Alex, you suggested we go past the nearby caverns first and where exactly?"
Alex pointed, ignoring Steiner's indignant "it's impolite to point" comment, and replied. "I just feel it's to the East of our position. If we keep the mountain to our left and the river to our right, we should find it."
Airlia nodded, "If it's that important, we should go." So Steiner woke Vivi gently, explaining that because of the Mist they had to keep moving. So following the directions, they came to a tall gate where dozens of footprints could be found. The brunette frowned as her blue-grey eyes focused on the direction they were heading. "What the… That's Burmecia's direction. But we haven't had anyone come to visit… and they are all heading in that direction…"
Zidane frowned, "They're deep too… It's soldiers!"
Alex stroked her chin. "The question is, whose soldiers? Alexandria's? That would make the most sense."
Steiner stomped his feet. "Nonsense! The Queen would never do this! Our Queen is kind and loving."
Alex rolled her eyes at the man. "Then who went through this area. The footprints are only going away, not coming."
Vivi had gone on ahead just slightly to open a pair of boxes in the field. "I found these. A Potion and a Phoenix Down." He announced, interrupting their spat.
Zidane took the items and put them in their particular compartments in the pack. "Good work kid. Come on. Let's go find that cavern that will take us above the mist."
Alex cringed. "If we backtrack and hug the mountain we'll find it." She hung her head almost in resignation. She fought with her skirt, to keep it from flapping about too much.
The trek back was slow, Alex's trepidation was palpable and yet when she was confronted by it, she merely shook it off. "Sorry, just trying to enjoy travelling with you all. It's not every day I get to travel with a princess after all."
Airlia nodded as she kept shifting her eyes, the feeling from the dream just wouldn't leave her. As they approached the ice cavern, a terrible gust whooshed through the cave from the other end. Shivers ripped through all even as Steiner tried to mask it. Airlia turned to her princess, "Stay close Garnet. It's cold, and we don't have cloaks." Airlia saw poor Alex trying to warm her arms. "Come close Alex. The three of us can stay warm if we stay together. Vivi, are you bothered by the cold?"
Vivi shivered. "Just a little...Grandpa told me about this place. He said it went up and it was very, very cold. This must be the cave."
Zidane trembled with cold. "Well, if we just stand here, we'll be even colder. We need to keep moving."
The group stepped into the Ice Cave and despite everything Alex had to admit. "It's so pretty. Like the Ice Palace!" She went to take another step but hit a patch of ice. "Whoa!" Her silver heel went sliding and she fell head over heels onto her back. Her feet in the air now revealed the kind of shoes she was wearing. "Owwww..."
Airlia gently chided herself for not thinking of what kind of shoes the young woman had to be wearing. "Alex, you should have mentioned that. I'm sure I have another pair of leather shoes in here. It may not be much, but it should keep you warm and keep you from slipping quite so much." She took out a pair of brown leather shoes, which were more like ankle boots without the heels. Garnet offered a hand up to the fallen brunette who blushed vividly.
Alex accepted the shoes and the hand up. "Sorry, I had hoped it wouldn't interfere too much. I wasn't really thinking about clothes when I had my vision. I was more interested in preventing them."
Zidane scratched his butt, again, and asked. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah," Alex assured him as she put on the shoes. "Come on, let's get through this cold place as fast as we can. Before we all catch pneumonia."
Together the group trekked through the cave. Alex tried her best to stay upbeat, trying to keep her mind off the biting cold. "Let it go...let it go...turn my back...and slam the door…"
Airlia heard the strange melody but said nothing. She could understand the urge to try and tune out the terrible cold as she focused on her feet, one step in front of the other as the three women tried to keep the cold away from each other.
Steiner stared at the girl. "Why are you singing?" He was unable to keep his irritation in as cold as he was. "And what kind of song is that?"
Alex stuck her tongue out at the knight and just continued singing her favorite song from the movie. She sang the whole way through the cave, with no other way that she could think of to force herself to continue.
Finally it got to a point where she couldn't even sing one more note, nor could she move one more step. She huddled desperate for warmth. She saw she wasn't the only one when Vivi passed out beside her, as cold as he was.
"Vivi!" She grabbed the small boy and worked to try and warm him up. This place was a lot colder than her game even suggested. Steiner stumbled past her and fell unconscious over a small drop. "Rusty! Airlia, any ideas?"
Airlia frowned. This is bad! Airlia turned to Zidane. "Do you have any cloaks in your bag Zidane?" After he shook his head, she frowned deeper. "I can support Vivi on my back. Zidane, can you help Steiner with Alex? Garnet, stay close to us. We're going to need to run to get out of here. It may also warm us up."
Zidane nodded as he hoisted Steiner up, cursing under his breath about the man's weight. With Alex on the other side, they were able to continue trekking as Airlia supported Vivi on her back. They ran the short distance to the other side, where the warmth of the sun shown down on them. The handmaiden groaned as they relaxed the two unconscious members of their group just on the edge of the cave.
Alex heaved a large breath of relief as they finally made it out into the sunlight. They hadn't faced the Black Waltz 1 or his pet Sea Lion. She didn't care. "Thank Sweet Jesus! We're out."
They laid their parcels down on the ground outside the cliffs surround the cave. "I hope they don't have hypothermia."
"What's that?" Zidane asked.
"Hypothermia is a condition that occurs when your body temperature drops below 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The most common signs of hypothermia include: excessive shivering, slowed breathing and speech, clumsiness, stumbling, confusion, excessive fatigue, weak pulse, and unconsciousness," Alex explained. "And while I'm sure Sir Rust-A-Lot here is indeed clumsy and confused, I'm guessing falling unconscious is not normal for him." She looked at Airlia. "Or is it?"
Airlia frowned, "I don't think so. Unless it comes to Beatrix." She giggled. She couldn't help the unbidden jab at Steiner. She just wished he would merely tell the lady knight his feelings.
Alex laughed. "We need to get that armor off of him. That's metal and will keep him colder because metal absorbs the extreme temperatures. Zidane, you need to build us a fire if you can." She began working to remove the metal armor from the unconscious knight.
Zidane hurried to get firewood and began building a fire. Alex managed to get Steiner down to his
boxers, letting the fire and warm sun warm his body back to normal.
Vivi slowly came to consciousness. "It's warmer out here." He said. "Is everyone alright?"
Alex nodded. "Everyone seems to be. Except Steiner. He might take a little while to wake up." She looked at the knight who was still a little blue. She stood up and accidently stepped on the hem of her dress. "Damn it!" She looked at Zidane. "Do you have a knife I can borrow?"
Zidane handed her his dagger, though concerned with what she might do with it. "What is that?" Garnet asked.
"It's a dagger," Zidane explained. "Unlike a knife, a dagger is sharp on both sides. Whereas a knife has a flat and blunt on one side."
Garnet seemed to be thinking while she watched Alex take the dagger to her dress, cutting off everything below the knee. "Whew, that's much better. Now maybe I can walk without fucking killing myself."
Airlia frowned while everyone gaped at the much now exposed Alex. "What's the matter Princess? Aside from Alex exposing her legs. I saw you going into thought before all of this."
Garnet nodded, "I can't go by my name right now while we travel. His weapon of choice gave me inspiration for what I should go by… My name while abroad, is going to be 'Dagger.'"
Airlia nodded. "That's a wise idea … Dagger. It may help if I, too, change my name. Call me Yepa. At least until we're in the clear. No, not everyone pays attention to the handmaiden of the princess, but if they suspect you and hear my name, they may put one and one together."
Steiner finally began regaining color in his skin and began breathing normally as he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was a very good view up Alexandra's now very short skirt. Not only could he see her legs, but… "What do you think you're doing!" He blew up as he shot up into a sitting position. He looked down at his own state of undress. "What kind of woman are you! Where is my armor! And how can you just...have you no shame?"
Airlia frowned. "Steiner, we had to remove your armor to get you warm.
The ice sent you into what she called hypothermia. It was life or death! So be quiet. Now second, Garnet and I are going by different names to keep us safe from actual bad people. She is Dagger, and I will be Yepa. It's for our own safety."
Steiner gaped. "Okay, I can believe removing my armor was to...save me or whatever. But changing your names? And…" he gestured to the other girl's clothing. "No girl shows her legs unless she's some sort of harlot."
Alex stomped over and slapped him. "Shut up! You try hiking in an evening gown. And yes, Garnet and Airlia changing their names is a GOOD idea."
Zidane looked over the bold young woman. "You are a spitfire. Thank you for hitting him. If you hadn't, I might have."
"As for my clothes," Alex stated. "Steiner unless you have a pair of pants in my size stuffed up your anus, shut it! Now, I think there's a town nearby. There we can find a place to sleep, hot soup, and I can get a pair of pants."
Airlia nodded, "The village's name is Dali. It should be just over the mountain side if memory serves me right. Just follow the path down to the mainland and it should be right there. Is that not right Dagger?"
The princess nodded as Steiner took his armor and quickly threw it back on. However she found herself wondering back to what she saw over at the arch. Why were soldiers heading towards Burmecia?
AN: Why were soldiers heading towards Burmecia? Will Steiner ever be able to accept the out-of-the-ordinary Alexandra? Will Alex be able to find pants? Will Airlia and Garnet ever get to Lindblum? What awaits them in Dali? And wait...didn't we forget something? Find out next time on Distant Memory.
