Lulu sat on her favorite box on the ship's deck again, the wind still bludgeoning the side of her face. She wore her favorite buttoned cloak over her dress. The silk hugged her body tightly, particularly through the bust, and judging how the sailors still always gawked at her, the garment wasn't unflattering. Lulu pretended not to notice them, and watched the grey clouds fade slowly as the ship gradually sailed east.
Last night she dug out her old cactuar doll from its hiding space in storage and had attempted re-learning her spells. Of course, slinging fire and ice still came naturally to her, even after more than a few years retired from guardianship. No mistakes could happen when protecting Yuna, so she took great care in keeping the group disciplined and prepared. Before, Auron had been the senior guardian and taken that responsibility. Now, Yuna was experienced, but too timid and polite to take command. Tidus and Wakka were not leaders by any stretch of the imagination, and Paine was still often quiet and mysterious. It has to be me.
However, the farewell to her son had been the largest burden on her. Lulu had eventually planned to journey Spira once more in her life with her family, to show Vidina the same path she took with Yuna seven years ago during the pilgrimage. Currently, though, he was just too young, and this was too dangerous. Lulu could not afford the distraction. It was a painful choice to make, but her friends and the fate of Spira required Lulu's attention once again. Vidina hadn't seemed unhappy about his parents' departure, albeit not knowing the gravity of their situation, so he was in good hands with her friends in Besaid. And Lulu was not without her loyal Wakka, of course.
Wakka was on the opposite end of the deck, near the stern, talking to Tidus and Paine. Probably about blitzball; Paine was sitting with them, but spaced out of their conversation. Wakka and Tidus were chuckling. When he noticed his wife was watching him, Wakka gave her a little salute—she had no idea why he had started doing that—and went back to his entertaining conversation.
The chill out on the sea was unnatural. The captain had said that far to the south some were saying the ocean was freezing. She'd only ever seen snow and ice in Gagazet, the highest point at the northern end of Spira. How could the ocean freeze that far south? How incredible. Perhaps there was much truth in Paine's story after all. The sudden mass of oddities was not coincidence. Lulu was convinced some strange magic was at play, but she hoped it was something misunderstood and hopefully quickly resolved. Yet, with politicians in Bevelle, nothing was ever quickly resolved.
The scout atop the rigging let out a shout. Lulu squinted in the direction he pointed. They were within sight of Spira's mainland, nearly sailing parallel to it. The plan was to dock at Luca late at night. For speed, they'd resisted docking at Kilika, and they couldn't sail directly to Bevelle due to the smear of darkness over the western waters—the storm Paine had told about.
The lookout had spotted something in the waves just north of the ship, a collection of bobbing shapes that at first appeared to be a cluster of large logs. No, they were much larger than that, and wider. Lulu stood, squinting, as the cluster drew close to the ship—it turned out to be five large jagged fins, each roughly the length of two rowboats. As they passed by, the fins came up alongside the ship and ran parallel to it. They rose out of the water vertically, towering over the hull of the ship and splashing everyone on the top deck.
A geosgaeno! Preparing for a fight, Lulu observed its behavior carefully; Tidus and Wakka leaned out over the rail, looking up while the sailors jabbered excitedly. Yuna and the crew members from below joined up to get a view of the creature. Geosgaeno were not only dangerous for obvious reasons, but often reclusive fiends that didn't show themselves on the surface of open water. Lulu expected that if it wanted to, it could grasp at their boat and tip it over with ease.
"Can't tell if you guys are bringing me good or bad luck," the captain yelled. "I don't like fiends, but why's it just sitting next to us? I'm not eager to take a gander at those claws!"
"What do we do?" Paine asked.
"We'll take care of this one before it does anything to the boat!" Wakka exclaimed, readying his World Champion blitzball.
"Wait!" Lulu replied. "Its acting strange—we need to see what it does first." Waters hid most of the monster's body from view, all they saw was a shadow of a gargantuan fiend lurking the depths.
"It will tip us over first, thats what!" Tidus shouted.
"Look!" Paine said, pointing to the ship's stern.
The fiend's immense claw rose to the surface and rushed through the water behind them. It made contact with the rear end of the hull and there was a great shake, causing everyone not holding on to a rail to lose their footing. Their ship picked up great speed then, absorbing the force from the claw's massive strength. The geosgaeno was pushing the boat across the unfavorable current toward the mainland.
"Amazing," Lulu said as she held onto the railings. What in Yevon's name is going on?
"The big guy is helping us?" shouted Tidus. "I thought these guys only saw us as breakfast! Somebody help me figure this out here!"
Wakka's clutched tightly onto the railing, moving up to the middle of the deck trying to get a closer look at the main body of the fiend. "Man, here I thought I'd seen everything!"
The sea-beast didn't appear to be actively hostile but it was so odd that Lulu still found herself trembling, awestruck by the experience. This fiend was doing everything it was not expected to do.
Yuna, still without her sea-legs, clawed and stumbled her way across the wetness of the deck to a spot halfway between Lulu and Tidus and peered over the railing into the shimmering blue water's surface. Everyone was rather confused or unsettled, but Yuna stopped stumbling then and watched the creature with a serene, studious gaze. And then she started singing.
She stood confidently on top of the rail, which caused Lulu to gasp. While she and Tidus both reached right away to pull her down to safety, Yuna pulled her arms away and remained standing.
Yuna's serenade was hypnotizing—she was humming her version of the hymn of the fayth, and her voice seemed suddenly ancient and powerful. She extended her palms out over the ocean, watching the massive creature beside them pushing them along with grace.
Tidus raised an eyebrow at her, as if to show this was something he'd never seen Yuna ever do. Wakka and Paine watched with similar astonishment, and Lulu focused on Yuna intently. Yuna hadn't chanted the hymn in seven years, yet still she carried the harmony with great confidence and grace.
When Yuna was finished with the hymn, Tidus wrapped his arms around her to reign her back in to safety and they collapsed together. The boat slowed, and the fiend emitted a deep, loud bellow underwater. The claw and the fins withdrew under the surface with massive splashes, and the ship was in sight of Luca, perfectly on course to dock.
Lulu peered out over the water right away. Where is the beast? Where did it go?
Yuna picked herself up and shook the saltwater off of her long hair, splashing her guardians around her, though everyone was already soaked and cold. The crewman all around them gave her applause, looking at one another and mumbling, not sure what they had just witnessed. Lulu felt the same—she wasn't sure what she just saw, but whatever Yuna did was beautiful, and powerful. "High summoner Yuna!" They clamoured and clapped. "This is the power that saved Spira!"
"That was amazing," Paine said.
With her wrists crossed at her waist Yuna looked around at everyone solemnly—almost apologetically. Her face and hair still dripping wet, Tidus' took her hand suddenly. They parted the crewman as he led her down the hatch to the middle deck toward their cabin.
Wakka shrugged and Paine shook her head when Lulu looked at them. There seemed to be much more Yuna was hiding from them, and too many strange things were happening at once to be accidental. I will get to the bottom of things, no matter how long it takes.
The port at Luca was now directly in front of them.