Chapter 8
Pulse
When your entire body is encased in crystal, there really isn't much to do. To pass the endless amount of time they had, Fang and Vanille would often watch over those they cared about. It was hard no longer being a part of their lives. Watching the lives of their friends continue helped them feel a bit connected.
Today, the two girls sat in a grassy field while Hope scavenged around bushes for food. The sun was shining brightly and Fang could tell by the glistening sweat on Hope's forehead that it was hot.
"Do you think he'll find her?" Vanille asked, looking over at Fang who sat in the grass across from her.
Fang shrugged. "If he has Lady Luck on his side, maybe," she said, looking over at Hope as he searched through their foliage. "It sure would be a shame if he didn't though. He's worked so hard to find her."
"He never gives up once he sets his mind on something," Vanille added, smiling at him. "I just wish he were happier is all. He's gone through so much. I mean, he already lost his mother, us, and now Lightning too. That's too much for the poor guy," Vanille said as she hopped to her feet. She walked over and patted Hope gently on the back, even though she knew that he wouldn't be able to feel it.
"Not much we can do about it. Fate works out in strange ways. All we can do is hope for the best," Fang mused and ran her fingers through her tousled brown hair.
"It's just hard watching everyone going through so much pain. Lightning did it all for us too," Vanille said and started pacing back and forth in front of Fang. "Sometimes I feel like we're watching a bad play being preformed right in front of our very eyes. Like we're the audience and they're the actors."
Fang sighed. "That's honestly a pretty good analogy of our situation. The audience isn't allowed to interact with the actors. If they did, it would mess up the whole play. All we can do is sit back…and watch," she said, doing just that as Hope walked over in their direction. He walked right through Fang and over towards his chocobo.
"Wake up, Quin!" he said, giving the bird a light shove. "I found some berries for us!" he exclaimed, holding up his prized find and dangling them in front of the bird's face. Quin took one look at the berries that reflected in his almond eyes and vigorously shook his head back and forth. "Alright then, more for me," Hope said, pulling four bright red berries off the vine.
Fang's eyes widened in alarm and she quickly rose to her feet. "Vanille, do those berries look familiar to you?"
"Hm?" Vanille looked over at Hope and let out a gasp. "Hope, don't!" she shouted, forgetting for a moment that he wouldn't be able to hear her.
It was too late though. Hope popped the berries into his mouth. He chewed them for a few seconds and quickly swallowed as his face scrunched up in disgust. He took a look at the remaining berries in his hand and threw them to back into the bushes where he found them.
"You weren't missing out on anything," he grumbled to Quincy and hoisted himself on the bird's back.
"Oh no…" Vanille said, covering her mouth with her hands.
"Do you remember what happened to the last person in our tribe to eat those berries? Remember how they showed them to us and made us promise to never eat them?" Fang asked, walking over to Vanille's side.
She nodded. "Yup. He was dead the next day. They said the poison got to him. What are we going to do, Fang?" Vanille asked, looking between Hope and Fang for answers.
"I don't know. He didn't eat that many. Maybe he'll be okay," Fang said tentatively. "We'll just have to keep an eye on him."
"That's what we always do!" Vanille protested.
"Do you have any better ideas?" Fang snapped and Vanille hung her head. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. I'm just as worried as you are," she apologized. She walked over to Vanille and stroked the back of her head in an attempt to comfort her. "We'll figure something out if we have to."
"What is the matter with you?"
The two girls looked up to see Hope kicking at Quincy's side, urging the bird to move forward. Instead, he was staring directly at Fang and Vanille.
"Can he…see us?" Vanille asked as she walked up to the bird who took two steps back. "Woah!" she exclaimed, surprised by Quincy's retreat.
"I guess he can. We've had animals react to our presence before, but never so directly. What a smart bird," Fang praised, stepping from side to side and watching as the bird followed her with his eyes. "This could work to our advantage."
Hope let out a loud sigh which was followed closely by a cough. He reached up and placed his hands on both sides of his throat, gently feeling his glands. "Let's get going, Quin. I'm not feeling well," he said, giving the bird a final kick to the side that finally made him move forward.
"I guess we should follow them then?" Vanille suggested.
"Yes, lets," Fang agreed and the two girls followed closely behind.
Hope felt as if acid were eating away at the walls of his stomach. About ten minutes into riding, he had already thrown up twice. The lining of his throat burned and he could feel it swelling. It was getting even harder for him to breath and he could barely swallow his own saliva.
He wanted nothing more than to take a drink of water but he was too weak to make Quincy stop. The thirst was unbearable. All he could think about was water cooling off the fire in his throat.
What was it? Was it the berries? I only ate a few though. How could four little berries affect me this badly? What am I going to-dammit.
He leaned over to the side of Quincy and gripped his feathers as he violently vomited into the grass. Quincy made a loud squawk of discontentment and slowed his walk.
"No, it's alright, Quin. Keep going. I'll be fine. We can't stop," he choked out. He tried to lift his legs to kick Quincy's sides but found he couldn't even do that. The rancid smell of vomit that permeated the air only made him hurl again.
Hope could feel his temperature rising as the poison continued to spread throughout his body. His abdominal muscles clenched and he doubled over in pain. He wrapped his arms tightly around Quincy's neck and the bird shook his head in protest.
"This…cannot be happening," he stammered and retched once more. This time he could see it was mixed with blood. "I am not going to let berries be the death of me," he moaned, clutching his stomach.
He clenched his eyes shut and when he opened them he let out a choking noise of surprise. Standing before him were Fang and Vanille and he saw the panicked expressions on their faces. That was the last thing he saw though; he passed out before he could get another look.
"Ooooh. This is bad!" Vanille whined, looking at Hope's limp figure. "He's a disaster. We've got to do something before he dies," she said, gripping onto her pigtails and shaking her head back and forth.
Fang paused for a moment, a finger pressed to her lips in contemplation. She had an idea. Granted, it was a crazy idea…just crazy enough to possibly work.
"I've got an idea," Fang said. "I'm not sure how it's going to work out or if it's even a good idea but it's the only chance we have right now at saving Hope. Vanille, do you know where we are right now?" Fang asked her panicked partner. Vanille looked around her surroundings and nodded her head. "Do you know where the closest civilization is?" Fang added and Vanille's mouth dropped.
"That's an excellent idea, Fang! Let's take him there! How though?" she asked and stared at Hope, her eyes full with concern. "We can't carry him ourselves."
"That's what the bird's for. We already established that he can see us. Let's try to get him to follow us. You go hop on his back, Vanille. I'll lead," Fang said and walked in front of Quincy. Vanille climbed up onto his back behind Hope and Quincy turned around to look at the girl he could see but couldn't feel. She nodded her head to let Fang know she was ready.
"Alright," Fang said and looked up at Quincy who stared back at her with a steadfast gaze. "I don't know you and you don't know me but as you can probably tell, your rider is in trouble. We are friends of him. We need you to follow us so we can get him help," she said, feeling a little foolish talking to the chocobo. She figured it was worth a shot though.
Fang took a slow step backwards followed by another. Her heart leapt when she saw Quincy lift his talons and take a step forward. She took another step back and he took one more forward. She couldn't believe that he had understood her. Well, maybe he didn't understand completely, but Fang knew that he was aware of the dire situation Hope was in.
"It worked!" Vanille exclaimed, patting Quincy's side.
"Yes," Fang said triumphantly. "Let's get him to safety."
Sometimes, the grass on her exposed skin really itched. Lightning readjusted her position and scratched her leg, leaving long red marks on her pale skin. She felt a whole lot better after itching it though.
Lightning was busy dropping beads onto string. She was making a friendship necklace for Melissa, as pathetic as that sounded. It was a tradition to exchange jewelry with those you were close with in Yampeir, or maybe it was just a Pulsian tradition in general. Lightning wasn't really close with anyone aside from Aaina and Melissa…and maybe Kobi on a good day. Maybe. She wasn't about to make jewelry for him though.
She held up the necklace to admire her work. It was made of mostly turquoise beads with the occasionally red scattered about. It wasn't the most beautiful necklace ever, but she figured that Melissa would appreciate the work she put in it anyway. It would be a good memento to remember her by too.
"You seem to be in a good mood lately," Melissa said, dropping a bead onto her own string. "Something happen?"
Lightning shook her head. "Nothing really. I just worked out some things from the past. I guess you could say that I'm happy to be walking on my own two feet again. That crutch was getting old," Lightning admitted and stretched her legs out. If it was one thing Lightning hated, it was being weak. She hated having to rely on something to function. Now if only her arm would heal completely, she'd be perfect.
"You looked pretty beat up when you first arrived. Your cuts are healing nicely too. You'll probably have some nice scars though," Melissa said, looking at a deep gash on Lightning's arm in particular. Lightning shrugged. She didn't care about scarring.
"Hey! What's that?" a nearby child asked, pointing off towards the horizon.
Lightning and Melissa stood up and looked in the direction the child was pointing in. In the distance they could see a small yellow dot.
"Is it a beast?" a man asked, grabbing a bow and arrow at his side.
"Should we kill it?"
"Wait…" Lightning said as the yellow dot began to increase in size. The whole village began to emerge from the homes and walked over to where Melissa and Lightning stood to get a better look. The children eagerly pushed each other and begged their parents to lift them up.
"It can't be," Melissa said, covering her mouth with her hand in shock. "How could a chocobo have gotten all the way out here?"
Lightning dropped her necklace and ran as fast as she could out into the field and towards the chocobo. Her mind was racing as she ran barefoot through the tall grass, her heart pounding in her chest so rapidly that she could hear it.
For a moment, time stood still as she saw silver hair swaying in the wind. It would have been fine if the hair was up right and tall. Instead, she felt every muscle in the body tense and her breathing halt as her eyes locked onto Hope's limp body that hung over the back of the chocobo.
No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
She ran over to the chocobo who stopped in front of her. He sat down and allowed Lightning to pull Hope into her lap with her good arm. She raised her hand and brought two fingers up to his badly swollen neck. There was a pulse, but it was weak.
But there was a pulse.
"Somebody get the apothecary!"
AN: Not going to say much here about this chapter other than I had this planned pretty early on and made some minor adjustments. I apologize for the multiple perspective shifts. I'm not a huge fan of them, but this chapter called for it. I sure did love writing as Fang and Vanille. As much as Vanille annoys me, I find her tolerable around Fang.
Thank you all for the reviews. You guys are so incredibly awesome. :) I hope to have chapter 9 out soon!
