"Get back on the bus by 8 in the morning tomorrow, alright?" the bus driver warned everyone as they left to explore the small town of Kalm.
Multiple tourists were already taking pictures of seemingly nothing. The town was interesting in the slightest – at least in Verna's opinion. Sighing, she got off the bus and clutched her purse to her side. Yuffie stumbled off the bus after her. She looked back at the girl and smiled softly. Yuffie still looked pale. Why did she go on this bus if she had an issue with motion sickness?
"You feeling alright?" Verna crossed her arms to the young ninja.
"Just fine…" She sighed as she stomped her feet.
"Come on. Let's go get something to eat."
"I don't want to eat, now, though!"
"You're not on the bus and you need to eat to keep your strength up," Verna grabbed the ninja's arm and drug her to the local pub there. "I'll pay if it'll get you to eat."
"Won't reject free food," Yuffie now walked by herself in a rather cheerful manner. Verna had to roll her eyes; she was starting to regret offering her food. She had no idea what kind of appetite the girl had.
"You're only getting one serving of food and it better not be the most expensive thing on the menu," Verna warned the girl.
"I'll order what I want," Yuffie stuck her tongue out at her.
"If you order a reasonably priced meal and only one meal, I will go ahead and buy you a Materia."
Yuffie ran in front of her and stopped, "You better not be kidding!"
"Now why would I kid about something like that?" Verna smirked to herself. "I think I'm correct in that one Materia would be cheaper than spending money on food for you. Am I right?"
"You have a point! But I want some good Materia, not an All Materia! Something like Ice, or Lightning, oh!" She nodded swiftly, "Fire Materia! I want some Fire Materia!"
"Alright," Verna sighed. This girl was simply exhausting.
Her mind began to wander, as did her eyes, while Yuffie endlessly yapped. Her eyes landed on something dark moving in the shadows. She knitted her eyebrows together. She strayed from Yuffie's side and ran to where she saw the shadow. It was something large. Could it be?
"No way," Her excitement was growing. The shadow moved around a corner. Her feet moved faster as she swung around the corner, a wide grin was on her face.
The shadow was fast, but Verna kept her eyes on it. Her legs carried her fast as the shadow rounded another corner. Arriving at the corner, Verna stopped running as she walked into the alley way. Then, she frowned. There was no shadowy figure in the alley way. Her hand dropped from the purse she was clutching to her side. At best she was disappointed. Verna honestly thought she saw something in the alley way. No, she was positive she saw something.
Narrowing her eyes, the girl walked further into the alley way and glanced around. She didn't see anything, and she was at a dead end. There weren't any fire escapes to use to escape, so that possibility was out.
"Tch," Verna scoffed and turned around when she was at the end.
Her eyes widened as she froze in place. Blood was on the ground, blood that wasn't there before. She gulped and examined herself, she wasn't bleeding. Looking back up she clamped her mouth shut with her hand to keep her from screaming.
Some pale thing was in front of her. It appeared to be a humanoid, but it had no head. It was bleeding profusely. What was this thing? By the looks of it, it was a woman, but…Could it have been murdered!? No, it wasn't a human. At least it didn't look like one…She then noticed someone was holding onto the body.
Her eyes traveled up the arm and eventually a cloak. Her pupils grew larger as her adrenaline was pumping. They had to adjust for her to see in such a crucial moment. Then, her large pupils met that of slit ones. Her heart pounded. There was no denying who was in front of her.
"Sephiro—!" She was cut short by a free hand slamming her neck and forcing her into the wall.
She would have screamed, but her throat was being crushed. Verna's hands shot up to grab the man's one hand. She tried to force them off, but she had too little strength to do so. Weak sounds escaped from her lips. She couldn't breathe. Tears built up in her eyes. The salty drops of liquid blurred her vision. Though, this didn't stop her from looking at the man strangling her.
She could see under his cloak as he was looking up at her. His chin was firm and his skin pale. His eyebrows were bent downwards showing anger. Though, his eyes better illustrated his wrath. They glowed with fury, but there was something else hidden within them. Something sadder was locked up in the very pathway to the man's soul. Verna focused on that as she realized her hero was going to kill her.
"Hey!" A high pitched voice shouted as if it were looking for something. "Verna, where did you run off to!?"
"Yuffie…" Verna managed to say as the man's grip loosened on her throat, but it was far too quiet for her to hear.
Yuffie's voice sounded far away. She seemed irritated. No doubt the ninja was thinking that Verna ditched her so she wouldn't have to buy any food or Materia. Sephiroth backed off and dropped Verna to the ground. He couldn't risk being seen in this state, not when he had his Mother with him. Besides, this mere girl wasn't even worth his time. Quickly, he jumped up to the roof of a building.
Verna clutched her throat and glanced upwards at the seemingly impossible task. The sudden movement sent her into a coughing fit as her airways opened up. Tears were in her eyes, both out of pain and sorrow. Her heart seemed to be stabbed from the actions of her forgotten hero. Though, what was she expecting? It was rumored that Sephiroth killed the late president. Was she really expecting Sephiroth to just smile, give her an autograph and take a picture with her? Highly unlikely.
"Verna!" Yuffie's voice bounced off of the alley's walls. "What are you doing on the ground!?"
The ninja ran towards her, but stopped at the puddle of blood. She looked slightly dizzy at the sight, but continued towards the photojournalist. She bent down and checked for any wounds were bleeding, but the ninja found none.
"What happened?" Yuffie questioned as she helped Verna to her feet.
"It's nothing, just a little scuffle," Verna shook her head and averted her eyes to the ground. She couldn't tell her what actually happened. No, the girl was too young to be worrying about things like Sephiroth.
Verna walked out of the alley way – more like stumbled- and turned back to Yuffie, "Let's get that food and Materia I promised you."
A couple of hours later, Verna and Yuffie walked out of the Materia store. Exhaustion was evident on Verna's face. Yuffie took an hour and a half trying to decide which Materia she wanted. She finally went ahead with the fire Materia. For a moment or two, Verna was questioning buying some for herself. However, she hadn't the slightest idea on how to use it.
"Verna, why are you still dressed like a Turk?" Yuffie questioned the photojournalist.
"I had to leave Midgar right after I finished my investigation, I didn't have time to change."
"Do you have any clothes then?"
Verna sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "No. In fact I don't have anything…" The sudden thought caused her to freeze. "M-My baby…I left my baby at home!"
Yuffie's eyes widened, "You left your kid at home!?"
Verna fell to her knees and leaned against a random building's wall. Her shoulder shook as she began to dramatically sob. She kept muttering to herself. Yuffie watched her with a hesitant look. What was the ninja supposed to do to consult the girl a few years older than her?
"It'll be okay, I'm sure the kid will be fine," Yuffie tried to comfort the other girl.
Verna let out a light laugh as she began to calm down, "It's not a kid." She stood up and brushed off some dirt that managed to collect on her knees. "It's my laptop. Without it I can't work on the news stories."
"Really?" Yuffie looked at her as if she wanted to kill her.
"Um...Yeah," Verna gulped. She was rather immature at that moment. "Sorry…Anyways, I'm going to go and get some clothes." She glanced over at Yuffie. "Do you want to come with?"
Yuffie shook her head, "I need to get out of this town before they force me back onto the bus! Besides, I want to try out the Materia you bought me!"
"If you say so," Verna looked at the ninja, "It was nice to meet you."
"Yeah, same here!" Yuffie nodded. "Here!"
Verna looked at the out stretched hand in front of her. In it was some gil. Was Yuffie trying to pay her back for the food and the Materia? She tilted her head and looked at the ninja.
"It's some gil I stole from you!" Yuffie laughed and put it in her hand before sprinting away.
"Wait, what!?" Verna screamed after her. When did the girl steal her money!? She really must be a ninja. The little-!
Sighing, Verna turned the opposite direction and glanced at some of the shops. There wasn't all that much. The only thing that might have clothes is an armor shop. Shaking her head, she opened the door. A bell rung, signaling her entrance, causing the owner looked u. He seemed slightly hesitant.
"I'm not a Turk," Verna rolled her eyes reading the man's mind. At this new found knowledge the owner relaxed ever so slightly. "Do you have any clothes that won't make me look like a Turk?"
The owner raised an eyebrow and nodded, "We have some things. What exactly are you looking for?"
"Shoes, pants, shirt, jacket?" Verna shrugged not exactly sure what she wanted.
"Alright," The owner mumbled and went behind the counter checking through some boxes. Alas, he found nothing, "Let me check the back."
"Take your time," Verna nodded her head. As the man left, she wandered around the shop. There were all sorts of armor. Some of it actually looked like it could be some sort of jewelry. "What's this?" She lifted some sort of armlet.
At that moment the man came back, "That's a Mythril Armlet. It lets you hold two different Materias. It only costs 350 gil. You want it? Heck, I'll even throw it in for free if you buy the clothes."
Verna looked over to some clothes that were held in the man's arms, "How much for the clothes?"
"Well," The man scratched his chin as he laid them out. "The shirt," he motioned to a short sleeved turtle neck shirt, "Will cost 100 gil. As for the green pants, those will be another 100 gil. The jacket'll cost you 250 gil and the boots will cost 200 gil."
"Alright," Verna nodded as she counted out the gil that Yuffie stole from her, she could have sworn she had more. "I only have six hundred on me."
"I'll take your heels," The man motioned to the girl's shoes. "That should offset the cost. Besides, my kids been wanting some heels instead of the boots she has."
Verna's eye twitched, as she realized that the clothes she was getting were someone else's clothes. Still, it would be better than being called a Turk all the time. Sighing, she nodded and removed her shoes and placed them on the counter.
"You got a deal," The man took the heels and gil from Verna and handed her the slightly used clothes. "Thank you very much. Please come again!"
Verna held her things close to herself and muttered under her breath, "Highly unlikely."
Once out of the scam of a shop, she went straight to the inn. She wanted to just get a room and change into her new clothes. Upon opening the door she was met with a rather particular scene. A large man with a gun on his arm was at the front desk, hitting it multiple times. Verna narrowed her eyes, wasn't he the same guy that the bus past?
"I want a damn room! Make that two rooms with two beds each!" The man demanded.
"Y-yes sir," The front desk person typed away on her computer. Upon looking at the screen the front desk person paled, "I'm afraid we're all book out tonight, sir."
"Do I look like I care?!" The man demanded. "Just give us one room if that's all you have!"
"We don't even have a single room left."
"Then make a new room!"
"Sir, please step aside while I see what I can do."
"Excuse me," Verna approached the front desk person as the man stepped aside. "Do you by chance have a room reserved for a girl named Yuffie?" She figured that since Yuffie left then the man could use that one.
"Hang on," The front desk person typed away, "Yes, are you with the tourist group?"
"Unfortunately," Verna sighed. "I'm actually Verna Alm, but Yuffie left our group and she's no longer in Kalm, so the room shouldn't be in use."
"Is that so?" The front desk person checked for Verna's name to see if it was in the system. In fact it was. "It looks like we have a room that just opened up, then." She glanced over to the man who was glaring daggers at Verna. "Well," the front desk person quickly looked back to the computer and reached under the desk. "Here's your room key, Ms. Alm."
"Thanks," Verna took it and glanced at the man with the gun. "Got you a roo—Why are you glaring at me?"
"You with Shin-Ra?" The man narrowed his eyes.
"Are you a member of AVALANCHE?" Verna quirked an eyebrow. That would be why he seemed to already have such a strong disliking for her.
"Tch, what's a Turk like you doing here?" The man questioned in a rather demanding tone.
"I don't know, you'd have to actually ask a Turk, seeing as I'm not one," Verna smirked at the man. "Hope you enjoy your room."
With that the girl left the man standing there to steam in his own anger. Now, she just wanted to get some sleep.
-A/N—
You guys should see my notebook I have with plans for the story…I doodled a bus that was going to Kalm, then I have the Chocobo farm, the Midgar Zolom in the marsh and then Junon…I couldn't think of Junon's name while I was drawing the map, so I just called it "That Coastal City." _ Then I crammed in a bunch of different notes for chapter 4 to 7…Hopefully I remember it's actually there, haha. Anyways, I think the love interest will be Rufus Shinra. Since…I have a plot plan for that. _ I just hope I can keep him in character.
Also, if you want to see what Verna looks like here's a picture I drew of her: /d5xheot
Thanks to Cosara Peregringale for the review~!
Please review~!