Chapter 7: By Myself
I opened my eyes and saw white all around me. I blinked and, feeling stiff in the joints, attempted to get up and stretch. I looked around and saw that I was still on top of a freaking mountain. Yep, still here.
But why? I was supposed to be knocked out by the sound of the bell. I looked around and saw my companions in the snow, probably freezing and getting closer to death every second they were sleeping. I had to do something about it. It was then that I realised that I was alone. There was no Zidane to back me up.
Crap!
Seeing that Garnet, Vivi and even Steiner wouldn't last very long unattended, I resolved to move ahead and beat the fuck out of the Black Mage.
I walked as quickly as I could toward where the bastard would be. I still wasn't cold, but the wind was strong, pushing against me. I just followed the chiming of the bell.
I didn't really know how far I walked, but it must've been a few minutes before I felt a change in the air. I felt like growling at the feeling that was overwhelming the place, and influencing the torrents of wind. The air was filled with something strange. It felt too similar to the cold itself, too… manifested.
"What! How are you still awake?!" I looked straight up, and pinpointed the one who was behind it all. Man, I thought he would look cool looking, despite how pissed off I felt. I was very wrong. Purple and blue stitched clothing? Poofy gloves and pants, and boots that looked to be torn into rags? And that hat… He looked like a large third-hand plushy toy who had too many encounters of the fourth kind. Like some strange freak show. If I wasn't going to beat the snot out of him, I would have felt sorry for him… maybe… no.
"Sorry to disappoint, asshole!" I roared over the wind. I drew Kuroshikon in one hand and started to walk menacingly toward him.
As expected, he jumped down, landing on the ground with little impact. It seems that the cushioning in his legs was more than enough to soften the fall. He scoffed at me, waving the bell before him. I felt disgusted by the change in the atmosphere as he began to guffaw loudly and rudely. I felt the magic try to enter my mind, but I imagined a thick Shellga spell between my mind and the advancing magic. It seemed to do the trick.
"Nice try asswipe," I said grinning, before picking up speed and running toward the aforementioned asswipe. I swung Kuroshikon around to cleave him across the chest. But the Black Waltz no.3 jumped back before I could connect.
"Could you, pretty please, quit this fucking snowstorm? Otherwise I will beat the black stuffing out of you," I said in a sickeningly sweet voice.
"Do you think I'd listen to a stupid human? Allow me to educate you, you sack of meat. I am the great Black Waltz! One of a kind, and the original who shall defeat you!"
I blinked. "Uhh… you just contradicted yourself," I replied while pointing at it.
The Black Waltz stopped. "What?" it said intelligently.
"Well you said that you're one of a kind, but then you said you're an original. Make up your mind jackass," I explained, shaking my head pitifully at it.
"Quiet you meat bag! You've crossed the line with that tongue of yours!" yelled the Black Waltz no.3.
"Yeah, yeah; whatever you say jackass. Let's just get this on eh?" I asked in a lazy tone while I raised Kuroshikon high in the air and jumped at him. Again he dodged but I was closer to getting him. He seemed to realise cause he thrust the bell before him, and I winced as its rupturing chimes rang throughout the area. "Sealion! I beckon thee, rise from Hell to aid your master!"
The bell suddenly stilled itself, no longer swinging back and forth on its hinges. I froze as I felt something change instantly. And I had noticed its eerie stillness. It was as if it had been frozen, as if an invisible hand had taken hold of it. But as soon as I thought that, it rang loudly, its ring reverberating throughout the room.
And soon, a roar, a disgusting grunt of a roar echoed in the room, causing it to shake from the amount of power behind it.
"Oh crap!" I felt my knees buckle slightly as something materialized out of pure air, and slowly began to form.
"Daaiiiiiiiiimn…" was all I could say at the monstrosity in front of me.
Simple description: A creature that god used as bubblegum before upchucking it into the ocean where it was crushed by several kilometres of water, then removed and rolled back up into a ball before forming into something so hideous that even Satan would scream like a school girl on a horror movie date. Yep, it was that messed up. And I thought the plant monster was ugly.
Proper description: It was just a mutated sea walrus with thick blubbery skin. The colour of its skin was a natural bruise colour, and the speckles all over its body made it look like a spotted bruise. The flippers it possessed looked too thin and fragile to possibly hold it up in the air. However they were practically slicing into the walls of the cavern like a hot knife in warm butter, causing little fragments of the ice to fall to the cavern floor. The walrus itself had blood shot eyes which were wide and monstously ugly, and its whiskers were thick and coarse. And within the centre of its chest was a single orb of flowing sapphire, pulsating with the rhythm of a heartbeat.
The Black Waltz shot its pudgy arm forward, the bell ringing carelessly as it swung back and forth in the being's hand. "Sealion! Attack that man!"
The huge… thing rumbled towards me. I started to run towards the side, glaring at the Black Waltz. It looked too damn smug to even be considered powerful. It was practically leaving its whole body open to any sort of attack. Yep, it was definitely too damn f-in' smug to even notice my approach.
The thing's permanent loss then.
I summoned my wings, turned toward the Black Waltz and shot towards it until I was streaking over the snow. I soared up and I saw its eyes widen before I swung across its throat with the intention of cutting its head off. This time it did connect and one loud rip later, its head flew off and sailed away, the shocked expression still plastered in its eyes. However it seemed it wasn't dead yet.
"DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU! SEALION!" the head shrieked before imploding on itself. The bell went silent and the blizzard calmed down until the howling wind was just a small breeze. The body that was left over stiffened before toppling over and landing in the snow, unmoving.
I breathed a sigh of relief before I realised that the 'sin against nature' was still around. And it was currently looking pissed.
"O-oh… I don't suppose you can forget that I just killed your master?" I asked Selion with a nervous smile before all of a sudden a feeling of energy washed over me. I had felt this before.
"Trance!" I said before the feeling changed. Last time I had Trance I felt energy flowing through me before I felt calm and gentle, followed by white energy shooting out of me. However this wasn't what I felt. After the energy of my Trance made itself known, I suddenly felt empty, apathetic. Like there was no emotion inside me. No anger, no joy, no sadness… absolutely nothing. Then there was a sense of sharpness, like all my battle stats maxed out to 255. Looking around I saw black energy waft around me in the shape of many black feathers. Looking down I saw the second kanji symbol on my sword pulse with silver energy before my sword morphed into a very long, silver nodachi. My hair also changed, growing longer, much longer, and turning silver. One of my wings dissapeared as my clothes changed into a suit of black leather and metal. I knew then, that this transformation was for a different purpose.
Without waiting to ponder this new feeling, I launched into the air and started zipping around at high speeds. I slashed, cut, swiped and stabbed for 20 seconds in this supersonic state before flying back to where I was before. Several seconds passed before the Sealion just fell apart. The monster had literally been sliced and diced to bits. The many neat cubes of flesh fell to the ground before fading into black mist and dissolved away.
After a few seconds after the monster had disappeared I felt my Trance leaving me again. As the last few wisps of power left me, I sunk to the ground and almost blacked out. But fear for my new friends in the snow, out cold, kept me from slipping into unconscious. I staggered to my feet and walked over to where the Black Waltz lay. I searched his pockets and discovered a large bag of Gil.
"Cha-Ching!" I grinned. Happy with my find I then began to trudge back to where my friends were.
As I was walking back I thought back to the times I had evoked Trance. Both forms had been familiar, especially the recent one. I could've sworn that I turned into Sephiroth to kick ass to the demonic seal. I figured that I would need to see it once more, in a different form, to get a better understanding of it.
When I arrived back where I left my friends, nothing had changed. Garnet, Vivi and Steiner was still face up in the snow. But now that the wind had died down to a whisper of what it was before; they would last much longer. I bent down and wrapped Vivi up under one arm. I then wrapped my other arm around Garnet and made sure both were secure. Then I walked awkwardly over to Steiner and grasped him with both hands. Finally I summoned my wings and began to slowly rise through the icy pass and into the warm, calm lands above it.
As soon as I had cleared the cavern I set the three down on the ground. The sky was almost completely dark. I decided that we would spend the night here and quickly got to work on the tent.
After an hour of getting the campsite ready and lighting the fire, I heard some shuffling around in the tent, indicating that someone was awake.
After a few moments, Garnet's head poked through the tent flaps and looked around the campsite. She caught sight of me and looked a little confused.
"Hey there! Good to see you awake," I said.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Can you wait til Vivi and Steiner wake up? I'm too tired to repeat myself at the moment," I explained. "In the meantime, why don't you warm yourself up next to the fire."
Garnet nodded and stepped out of the tent. She walked over to the fire and sat down next to me. We stayed like that for several minutes before she spoke up.
"Do you think the Tantalus group has escaped from the forest?" she asked.
"Probably. They'll most likely be making their way to Lindblum but since they're thieves by profession, they'll be sneaking through South Gate instead of trekking the same path we are," I answered, punctured by a yawn.
"I see," she said before going silent. Half an hour later the other two were up.
"Ok, after the three of you fell unconscious from the cold I too was knocked out. At least for a while. For some reason I don't know, I awoke again. The three of you were under some sort of spell so I tried to find the source. I did find it. It was a Black Mage." At this point Vivi gasped a little. I looked at him. "No Vivi, he wasn't like you. This one was evil. He called himself a Black Waltz, and that he was sent to recapture the princess." I took a deep breath. "I fought him and defeated him. I then came back and, seeing that you hadn't woken up yet, I carried you out to here."
"I see," said Garnet.
"Princess, you cannot trust the words of a brigand like him!" raved Steiner.
"Really? Brigand? That's the best you can come up with?" I asked Steiner, not impressed at his limited vocabulary of name calling. "Well it's up to you if you believe me or not. Apart from that the town of Dali is about a six hour walk from here. We'll set out tomorrow, but feel free to sleep in if you wish. You guys were very cold when I carried you out. Best to recover as much as you can, when you can. Any questions?" I looked around but no-one asked anything. That night everyone slept peacefully, even me since I was allowed to sleep in the tent now. I made sure that Vivi was in the middle of me and the princess just in case I rolled over and ended up in a compromising position with the hot raven haired beauty.
The morning came quickly, however we were still wiped out from the trek through the snow and cold. I still felt the effects of my Trance. So we didn't get moving till just before midday. Soon we were packed up and approaching Dali. We crossed over a crest of a hill and saw the small village below us. I turned around to face everyone.
"Well, this is Dali. A little quiet for my taste but perfect for country dwellers or people looking to get away from the busy life in the city," I introduced the town.
"Looks nice," said Vivi.
"It sounds like you've been everywhere, Josh." There was a trace of envy in Garnet's voice, but for the most part, she seemed exhilarated to be outside in the sunshine and fresh air. "The only other worlds I've visited are in books."
"Books are a good way to learn but nothing compares to looking, feeling and smelling it for the first time," I said while smiling at the princess. "Even the manure dumped on the farms to fertilize them is invigorating," I added sarcastically. This brought a giggle from both Garnet and Vivi.
"Well, let us be off then!" said Steiner, seemingly wanting to hurry up.
"Hold your chocobos, guys!" I said before wincing, cursing at the fact that I just quoted Wakka from FFX. And it wasn't even a good quote. "The Alexandrian knights won't be looking for you, me and Vivi but the Princess is definitely on the top of their to-do list." I then turned my attention on to the young woman. "I think you need an alias name to go under." She glanced up at me sharply, surprised by my suggestion. At the same time, heavy, clanking metal rattled angrily from behind. I spun around just in time to witness Steiner charging towards me.
"Insolent fool!" The knight tried to cuff me in the shoulder, but I dodged to the side at the last instant, making him stumble slightly. He straightened up before giving me a verbal lashing. "Her highness need not sneak around! Besides, we're heading back to the castle! Either you leave her alone or you address her by her title as befits a silly peasant such as yourself!"
"Uh... no," I said simply. "Maybe you should be asking what she wants rather than try to step around her to try and get her home."
"Josh is correct. I do not intend to return to the castle," Garnet said firmly. I smirked at the sight of a big man like the Pluto Knight slumping forward in defeat. Evidently, Garnet won that round and she looked resplendent. She certainly was pretty when she was angry – especially when she was angry at Steiner. My mind then began to drive off the road and into the proverbial gutter, again, when she turned to me. "Do you have any suggestions?" she asked, bringing me back to the cruel reality where I wasn't doing certain MA rated things to her that should never be in a PG rated game.
"Uhh... let me think," I replied before searching through all the names I could think of. I finally settled on one I really liked.
"Dawn. Whacha think?" I asked, hoping she would like it. She smiled and nodded. "It is very acceptable."
I smiled back before I got serious again. "You also need to change your speech." She looked a little lost so I clarified. "The way you speak is too royal, too refined. You need to speak like the commoners, which can often be rough around the edges."
The princess nodded. "I understand."
I smiled amusedly at her. "We're not signing a treaty between nations here Dawn. Instead say OK or 'yeah'. Try it."
Dawn hesitated. "O-okay,"
"Good," I grinned. "I have a feeling you'll be a fast learner." I then turned back to the town. "OK! Let's go." And with that, I placed my hands on Dawn's shoulders and began to steer her towards the village. I turned toward the other two travellers but relaxed when Vivi walked in front of Steiner. He would have to either push Vivi off the mountain pass that we were on or crush him against the wall. He would do neither and I was happy. I didn't want the killjoy to kill the joy I was getting from my closeness from the newly named Dawn. I then sped up so I was walking side by side with her.
"Ok! Listen closely my young pupil. Commoner speech is an ancient and sacred art. We like to cut corners in speaking. Instead of saying 'I will,' just say 'I'll.' And sometimes it's okay to be a little rude to get the message through. Instead of suggesting 'we make haste', no one's gonna mind an order or two. 'Hurry up!' or 'Move your ass!' That's perfectly acceptable in our world. And when saying hello to a group of friends, instead of saying 'Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone' say 'Hi guys!' Even if there are some girls in the group, it don't matter," I said all the while grinning at her.
