Alright. First things first. I apologize as deeply as I can to all the people who liked this story and have read it, reviewed or not. I, for some reason unknowingly, tried to kind of re-prioritize things. And failed. This is kind of my way of venting, thinking happy thoughts, and all that stuff. So again I apologize, I swear upon whichever book you want me to that this won't happen again. I mean, I said before Holloween for jeebuz sake! If you don't like me anymore and don't want to read or review, I totally understand :)
Anyways, the real AN starts now! I liked that last review I got, really in depth. Kinda what I need! If there are any complaints or advices (SP? Advices? Advicees? I give up lol) just let me know so I can work on it, or explain something like how I see it. Thanks a lot for waiting folks, it means a lot if any of you still read this :)
This chapter's dedication is split between two folks, bhfirewife for the words of encouragement (i know that was a while ago lol) and Silver Charm, for the encouragement and the reminder that I have something to work on :)
Note: No, I don't own it. But yes, you can pay me for royalties :p
Chapter 7: Fleeing the Scene
The next few days passed like a breeze, Rikku, Kelvin, and I laughing and enjoying ourselves while Rikku got back to her normal self. Her appetite had returned, as had her energy. I had finally opened up those books for some reading, not discovering much else that would help too much. We knew the general direction we were heading in, and that was good enough, for now.
We had to get all of our supplies together, food, a new tent, and winter clothing. Rin always kept a stock at his northern Agencies for winter travel for people like us, who hadn't thought in advance. Who knew if it would fit well, but it's better to be warm than for it to fit right on us.
"Ahhh, good afternoon Sir Auron, Little Rikku," Rin said, sweeping down the stairs with a flourish only the Al Bhed man knew. He always had that swagger to his step, the foreign way of speech and mannerisms that somehow always had women swooning over him. It had proven advantageous to him when getting girls back to the barracks all those years ago.
"Morning Rin," I nodded, and he just smiled.
"Getting supplies then, and heading out so soon?" Rin asked, and Rikku nodded like her head was going to flow off.
"I'm feelin' good as new! Thanks a lot Rin!" Rikku said and the man smiled. He did that a lot, too.
"Good to hear. I'll show you to the supply of winter clothes we have, I don't know if any of it will fit the two of you, but we'll try," Rin said, and motioned for us to follow him outside and into another building.
We walked inside, and it was a supply warehouse of sorts. Anything he would need to sell was here, along with some machina in the back to tinker on when he had free time, I suppose. If he had any free time, being the biggest merchant in Spira certainly had its draw backs.
"Search through the boxes and take what you need. I'll be back in the other building, a large party is coming this way, I need to be in the agency when they arrive," Rin drawled, and took his leave.
Rikku and I pulled box after box down, trying to find things to keep warm. My coat would help me considerably, but a thicker pair of gloves would be in order and maybe some warmer long underwear as well.
Rikku's pile was growing slowly, and I had found nothing. I wasn't picky about it, never had been, but I was looking for very specific things too. After an hour of searching through several boxes, I had found a good pair of Chocobo down gloves and a couple pairs of good thick socks. I had always thought that I looked ridiculous wearing a hat, but Rikku had insisted on me taking one, just in case.
"I think I'm done," Rikku said, staring at her pile of clothing. With that much stuff, we would have to leave behind all we had in the bag already. Rin would take care of it, I already knew that. We would be in the North for a while, so maybe that was a good thing. I had a pair of gloves, a hat, and socks. Enough for me, at least. I already had a coat too.
"Me too, let's get these boxes back in place and go talk to Rin," I said. We carefully refolded the tops of the boxes closed and put them back on the shelves we had pulled them from. I grabbed my things, and most of Rikku's, and we headed out of the building.
It was a beautiful day, the leaves in the trees flashing any number of colors and a slight breeze. I don't think I'll ever understand how Rikku wasn't cold right now, it couldn't have been more than sixty degrees out, but she didn't complain. In two weeks, it would be less than forty on a day like today. The Calm Lands were prone to severe winds in the winter, and we would need all the thick clothing we could get to stay warm.
We didn't see the group of people Rin had talked about, so we walked up to our room, and laid all the clothing out on the bed. It would all fit in the bag, barely. But it would work out.
"I'll take care of this!" Rikku said excitedly, and in about thirty seconds the bag was empty and the room was trashed. I just smiled and sighed, and sat down in the chair.
"Well, I'm going to go get us some other supplies, have fun," I said and she just smiled.
"Alright, I'll be here," Rikku said, and I walked back down stairs to look for Rin.
I didn't see him anywhere, so I walked outside and looked for him there. Still nowhere to be seen, so I walked back into the warehouse to see if I could find the things I needed for myself. I walked between shelves, searching for the things I needed. I quickly found the section of food labeled 'travel rations'.
'Travel rations' consist of dried meat, hard bread, and fruit. Fruit kept longer than vegetables usually, and the rest was self explanatory. I grabbed a nearby bag and filled it to the brim with food, I didn't know how long it would be until we had a chance to restock. And…fiend stew just didn't sound very good anymore, after that last pilgrimage and the many failed cooking attempts. But Tidus wasn't cooking this time. I sealed the bag, and threw it over my shoulder and kept moving. I still needed to find a new tent.
A half hour later and after a frustrated sigh or two, I found the tents on the bottom shelf of a large shelf in the back. I just grabbed one based on the size of the bag it was in, a medium one, and headed out. I had got what I came back for, but as I passed a shelf on my way out something caught my eye.
Rin had never been fond of fighting, or weapons in general, but there was a fairly large rack of weapons against one wall. I remembered that I had left Rikku's claw and targe behind, and she would need something for the rest of the journey.
I set the tent and the bag down, and looked over them. With a trained eye and hand, I hefted a half dozen and looked over even more before I settled on one. A long, slender blade; all silver with black engraving and hints of black everywhere else. It would be light enough for her, she wasn't the strongest person in the world, and it would work well. I would just have to teach her how to use it. Rin didn't exactly cater to the 'Rikku' type of fighters.
I grabbed a plain shield, something Rikku could work with. She had the knack for working on arms, and increasing their usefulness, and it would give her something to do when we were on break for the day. I picked up everything again and carried it again into the agency. Rin was still gone, which seemed strange, but I just hauled it all up into the room.
I walked in and Rikku was just zipping up the bulging bag, having just finished packing everything into it. I set the stuff down on the bed next to the bag. She raised her eyebrow at the sword though.
"I'll teach you to use it, your claw and targe are still back in the forest," I said, and she nodded.
"No better teacher, right?" Rikku said, nudging me. I could tell something was wrong though, she seemed nervous. I could read her like a book if I needed to.
"What's wrong?" I asked, and she looked truly afraid.
"You know how Rin said he had a group to meet? Yeah…about that…its pops. I guess he's lookin' for me," she said, and I just smiled.
"How do you feel?" I asked, and she just stared at me. Like I had just ignored terrible news.
"Wha…? I feel fine, 100%" she said, and I smiled.
"Then let's just get out of here before he gets here, if you are that worried," I smirked, and she just laughed.
"You are starting to think like me! Let's go!" she said, rapidly putting all of our other belongings in a neat stack on the folded bed. She had been busy while I was gone, it seemed. She opened the bag back up and peeled 10,000 gil off of it and laid it on top. She ran around trying to find a pad of paper and scrawled a hasty note to put underneath the money, and then she turned to me.
She threw her arms around me, her almost standing on her tippy toes.
"I love you," she said, and I bent down to kiss her.
"I love you too," I said, and she smiled.
"Then let's blow this joint!" she almost yelled and laughed. We grabbed the bag, the bag of food, and everything else, and almost sauntered out of the Agency to the stables.
"Kelvin!" I yelled, and the bird appeared out of nowhere. Good thing he could hop those fences. As Rikku started setting Kelvin up and talking to him, I ran back into the storage shed, searching furiously for a needle and thread. I totally forgot about it, and I would need to make loops so Rikku's sword wasn't just out in the open the whole time, and in case some of our clothing got torn up. I found it far faster than I found the tent and I ran back to the Chocobo and Rikku. She was sitting aboard, the two of them waiting for me.
"We should really get gooooing!" Rikku said, pointing in the distance. I could see something that resembled an apple on a man's body, presumably Cid's face in anger. I laughed to myself, and climbed aboard Kelvin.
I turned back and I could make out a little more, like the image of Cid dragging Rin by what looked like the neck towards us. He was definitely not a happy camper at the moment. I slapped Kelvin's hind quarters, and he took off towards the Calm Lands. Cid and the rest of them grew into smaller and smaller black specks, until Kelvin turned and they disappeared.
"We got away," I whispered into her ear, and she slumped against me. Cid would definitely not be happy with me the next time we met. But that wasn't today, so it wasn't meant to be worried about.
Rin had come in and told me Pops was coming when Auron was gone. I was like a madwomen, cleaning and packing in a hurry. Pops would just complicate things, and I didn't want that. And here we are, riding by Chocobo back, working our way across the Calm Lands. I was still wearing my skimpy clothes, and the biting wind was very evident. Tomorrow I would pack these away, pulling out my more decent cold weather clothing.
I held the sword in my lap, with no other place to put it. It really was beautiful; black and silver, really slender. It wasn't heavy by any means, that's for sure. The shield was nondescript, something I could work on in the nights I had nothing to do. It was gonna take a while to get wherever we were going.
Kelvin trotted happily, his same jogging pace bringing us ever closer to our destination, if we ever found it.
We took a couple of breaks throughout the day, the sun shining brightly on us in the Calm Lands. They were huge, and it would take at least a week to cross the whole thing probably, depending on when we took breaks and things like that. It was boring, really. We didn't talk at all, and the Calm Lands were the furthest thing from interesting it could be. All big and flat and boring. Even sand is more exciting than this. I had only gone across it a few times, each with a sadness. Not now,
The sun began its slow decent again towards Gagazet, and Auron stopped Kelvin. The Chocobo almost seemed surprised, he just wanted to keep going. I didn't realize that my entire lower half was numb until Auron helped me down, and my knees went all rubbery. I fell flat on my face, but I could feel that.
"The ground is…really hard," I managed to mumble. I couldn't even get up, my legs were numb!
"That it is," was all Auron said and he picked up a couple bags off of Kelvin so the Chocobo could go run around or something.
"You big meanie!" I yelled at him, and he just laughed at me and started putting our new tent together. He was way better at putting this one together, I think. He wasn't cursing at least.
The feeling in my legs slowly returned until it got to the point where it was all tingly if my legs moved an inch, kinda like pins and needles. I always hated that feeling, and all I could do about it was laugh.
By the time I had gotten myself off the ground, the tent was up and our stuff was inside. Auron was still laughing to himself, and I punched him as I went to stand next to him. He looked rather proud of himself for putting the tent up. He was a guy, after all. He still couldn't touch my mechanical skills, he would make an Al Bhed man ashamed with his lack of machina knowledge. But that's okay, that's what I was here for.
"So what are we gonna do for fire?" I asked, realizing that the Calm Lands didn't have any wood. Or trees, or anything but knee high grass and boring.
He just smiled, and threw the black sword at me. I caught it by the handle somehow and glared at him with my much practiced 'freeze-where-you-stand' look I got from my mother. And he had the guts to just laugh again. Men were so infuriating sometimes, I just wanted to tackle him and put him in his place. And what place is that? Underneath me, me on top? I quickly shut off that train of thoughts.
Auron slowly took off his coat and laid it on the ground outside of the tent. His bracer shone in the fading sunlight, the one I had made for him on the pilgrimage. He tossed me the shield, and I slipped it on without a problem. It felt too large though, I was used to the targes, smaller and lighter. But it wasn't that big of a deal.
"So…what now?" I asked, slightly confused. Fighting Auron was like…playing tennis against a wall. You can't win, not ever.
"Try and hit me," he said and grinned. Gods, his grinning made me angry. So happy, so confident. I would show him!
I swung the sword clumsily; it felt unnatural for some reason. I mean I had used one of these a few times before back in Home, but it had been a long time. I hadn't wanted to try and hit Auron with it, either.
"Haha, is that all you got?" Auron chuckled, and I swung again. And again, and again. He never seemed to move, his arms flicking his blade up to parry at the last possible moment. It just made me more and more angry, and I swung harder and faster than I even thought possible. The longer we went, the more mad I got.
I never got any closer to hitting him, either. At one point, he just threw his Masamune aside, and used his bracer to block everything. Stabs, slashes, anything I tried he just deftly blocked, grinned, and I tried again. Kelvin had long since returned from his forages, and just lay down in the grass by the tent, watching and staring at us intently.
I was getting tired fast too; my arms were both tired, along with the rest of my body. There was a lot more motion and balance involved with a sword as compared to a claw, and it showed I wasn't used to this kind of thing. Auron must have sensed this somehow, because on one swing where I tried just a little too hard, he just stepped out of the way like it was no big deal and threw his arm over my shoulder.
"I think we are done for the day," he said and grinned. I dropped the sword and socked him a good one in the side, and that infuriatingly happy laugh permeated my anger.
"Fine," I said, and stomped off, leaving the sword and shield for Auron to pick up, and entering the tent. The activity had made me stay warm and even sweat a bit, but now that I stopped moving it was freezing cold. Time to pull out the winter clothes.
I hated wearing winter clothes. Felt restricting and binding. But better to be covered, then have frostbite claim everything I have I suppose. I slipped on a nice sweater filled with Chocobo down and a pair of pants, and went to leave the tent.
"Mind if I join you?" Auron asked and smiled, handing me a bunch of food. The tent was larger than our last one by a pretty large margin, and we had all of our stuff on one side, our sleeping area on the other, and room enough to sit in the middle without bothering that stuff.
"Fine," I said, and mowed through my food faster than a starving Chocobo eater in a room full of birds. I was hungry and tired, and it felt well deserved, after what that big meanie put me through.
We ate in silence, or rather he did at least. My food was already gone, and I just rolled back to lay on the floor of our tent, patting my belly in satisfaction. I remembered our last trip through the calm lands. Fiend stew would never be the same, not after Tidus got a hold of it. I shuddered at the thought, and closed my eyes.
I sat there on the tent floor, finishing up the little bit of food I had given myself. We weren't going to be able to get more for some time, so I could ration myself better than she could, so I figured I would take the short end of the stick on the rations. I didn't mind, I still wasn't fully used to eating yet anyways.
The next few days I planned on shorter days with more sword play, and then after that press into the mountains. We would be to Remiem in three or so days, and then we would pick up the pace. At least that's what I got out of those books, they just happened to be written in the most obscure way possible. It can't just give a map and directions, noooooo, it had to be written in prose by some hopeless romantic five hundred years ago. Such luck, who would have guessed.
"How you feeling, sunshine?" I asked of Rikku, and she opened her eyes to look up at me and smile.
"Pretty good, actually. I'm real tired though," Rikku said lightly, already dreamy. The Sun was falling pretty rapidly, winter days being pretty short unless you got up at around five thirty, which was daybreak.
"Well go to sleep then, Rikku, I'll be in after a while," I said, and she nodded.
"I love you Auron," she said sleepily, turning her back to me and changing quickly. She crawled under the covers, and was asleep as her head hit the pillow.
"I love you too, Sunshine," I said quietly as not to wake her, and exited the tent.
I stood alone several yards from the entrance to the tent, the Masamune resting point down with the hilt in my hands. I stared towards Gagazet and beyond, at peace in the silence, save the rustling of grasses in the brisk wind. I realized I actually was at peace for once. All the times I had crossed this sea of grass had been with grim consequences, the weight of the world on my mind. But now, I had peace, and it was wonderful.
The Sun sank behind the mountains quickly, the crimson fire spreading and retreating as fast as it had appeared. Darkness spread quickly as well, starting at the base of Mt. Gagazet, quickly approaching where we were located and beyond. One peak, however, stayed lit for a time longer than any other place. This mountain top was still faintly illuminated until the darkness was encompassing everything, then it blinked out like a light was shut off.
I thought about it, why would one mountain stay lit over the others? For some reason I thought of the temples I was supposed to be visiting. I reached my hand into the tent and pulled out the old leather bound volume that I had read about this temple in before, to see if there was anything else I could get out of it.
I read aloud "The Temple of Alpha, which is the temple of Light, is located to the East. It resides in the Southern portion of the Gagazet Mountains known simply as The Beginning. To reach it most easily, simply go almost directly East-North-East of Remiem Temple, which is located on the Eastern side of the Calm Lands. The path is no longer well groomed, but it was accessible when I traveled there to write of it in this book."
Nothing new there, it was just as how I read it before. I flipped to the next page, and read through the temple of dark or whatever, and something at the end stuck out as different. The handwriting was a bit different, like it was a different kind of pen or something. I hadn't read through this far into this temple before, but I continued on.
"An easy way to find your way to the Temples of Alpha and Omega is to watch the Gagazet Mountains. The Highest peak in the East will be the first to shine in the morning, the last to lose its luster in the evening. The highest peak in the West will be just the opposite, darkening first in the evening, and staying dark until the end in the morning. I found this out after I had traveled to both of these temples, and it would have helped greatly in my search of them in the first place."
My jaw crinkled into a broad grin. Luck favors the observant, or so they say. I'll have to tell Rikku in the morning, she'll be excited. I grabbed her sword and shield, and my Masamune, and brought them to the tent. The dark brought out fiends, and some fiends just wanted to take shiny things with them, not actually kill or hurt. Better to be safe than sorry, I suppose.
Kelvin had already curled up next to the tent, sitting or laying on the ground, whatever birds did with their legs folded underneath them. I entered the tent, laid the weapons off to the far side where no one could roll into them, and stripped down for bed. I laid my coat over the weapons, and left my pants and shirt near the same place.
It was damn chilly, without clothes. Guess I didn't realize it, or something. I started crawling into the bed I had made up, and ran into Rikku parts wherever I went. She was sprawled out everywhere, arms and legs taking up every inch of possible space. I slowly moved one leg over, then an arm, hoping not to wake her up.
"Auron, nnoooooooooo…" she mumbled quietly.
"Rikku you have to move over so I can get in the bed," I said quietly, and she slowly moved over, gathering her limbs into a little curled ball on her side. I crawled into the bed and slid up behind her. I wrapped my arms around her protectively as she snuggled into me as tightly as she could.
She felt kind of cold, her body almost shivering at being pressed against me. I couldn't tell if that meant she was getting warm or if I was cold, but the shivering stopped and she tried to snuggle closer, even though there wasn't any room to get any closer. I laid my head down on the pillow next to hers and closed my eyes. She still smelled like flowers, lilac or lavender or something like that, something beautiful.
For another consecutive night, I fell to sleep with a smile on my face. I was getting used to this now, and I never would want anything else again.
Alright, I hope you enjoyed it, cuz this mushy lovey dovey stuff won't be going on much longer. *insert evil laugh* Anyways, sorry again for the wait, and you can know that it won't ever take 29 days ever again, I promise. K, I'm out, R&R if you want, peace!