Of Lies and Fantasies

Chapter 8: The Grass is Much Greener on The Other Side

-Blake-

It had been quite a while since we passed the Prison Cage area and recently we were attacked by a few Fangs. Only two of them sprang up from behind of the bushes, which I now conclude is where they lay their nests and use for cover for surprise attacks. Steiner and Alyssa eagerly took care of the two beasts while Zidane, Vivi and I stood back. I told them that we should just let a pair of us alternate between taking care of any attacking beasts in our way, to which they agreed.

And to think they were going to leave me behind that ruined airship.

"Don't pat yourself on the back yet, Blake." Alyssa commented, probably seeing the smirk I had on my face. Whatever. I could also see a grin on your face, Alyssa, while you were fighting so don't be a hypocrite.

We moved through the path in the forest briskly, encountering a few monsters here and there that was no problem to us, well them since it still wasn't my turn, and basically trying to stay alive. So far, nobody has received any major injury in the fights. That's good. Plus, all we've been encountering were Goblins and Fangs, easy kills for the others.

As we moved through the forest, I noticed that it got quieter and quieter. Perhaps anything that made nuance noise wanted to be far away from the Plant Brain as much as possible. It's very hard to be near something so big without thinking that you'll probably get killed.

And speaking of things that want to get killed, a duo combination of a Fang and a Goblin stopped in front of us, snarling and drawing its weapon at us respectively.

"Okay, Blake and Steiner, you're up." Zidane called to us. Steiner nodded and brandished his sword at the two.

"Do I really have to?" I asked Alyssa in a low voice. She looked at me reassuringly.

"They're easy. Don't worry about it." I roll my eyes and decided that if I'm forced to fight I have to think it through before rushing in like some people in this party. I sighed and pulled out my weapon and stood beside the knight after I handed Zidane the bag I was carrying.

With Steiner charging towards the Fang, I was left to my own devices against the Goblin. "Have at thee!" I confidently called out to the beast, even though my experience in fighting was squat. It was the first to move, trying to stab me directly. I jumped to the side clumsily and made it miss.

"Is that the best you got?" I taunted it. The Goblin didn't hesitate on trying to close the distance that I was making between us upon hearing what I had said. Okay, for someone who doesn't want to fight, I sure as heck want to start one.

It lunged at me with its large knife as it constantly attempted to cut me. There were a lot of close calls as I ducked and dived away from each attack, but it managed to nick me right in the shoulder. I was so busy paying attention to where its knife was going that I failed to notice its other hand come up and clock me on the side of the face with a Goblin Punch. It sent me a few yards back until I collided with something metal.

The captain was actually busy fending off the Fang, going on the offensive and never letting it have an opportunity to attack until I ended up hitting him. The force of impact sent him stumbling a few steps, making him vulnerable to the Fang. It jumped on him and tried to bite a piece of his neck off. I saw this happen while I was down and since I was near him I decided to help by stabbing the Fang in its side. He can thank me later. I looked behind me and saw the approaching Goblin with its knife raised to strike me down. I put my own knife up to parry the blow.

It was pushing against my knife with strength I didn't even know it had in those twig-like arms that I was barely managing even with two hands supporting it. "How strong is this thing!?" I wondered out loud.

I moved both of my legs underneath its gut and kicked as hard as I can, enabling an escape to the struggle. I scrambled to my feet towards a tree as the Goblin followed. With a yell, it lunged with both hands on the knife with me in its sights. At the last second, I side stepped the attack much to its surprise and instead stabbing the tree behind me. While it was occupied, I looked over to the knight and saw that he had just dispatched the Fang with relative ease.

"Some assistance would be nice." I say over to him, gesturing to the stuck Goblin. Steiner frowned at me and pointed at my knife before shouting.

"You have a weapon! Use it!" Well, that was helpful.

I turn back to the Goblin, and with a sigh, ran up behind it and stabbed it as hard as I could in the back. It cried out instinctively, and with the sudden jolt of pain was able to pull out his weapon from the trunk of the tree. It easily shook me off, leaving me without a weapon as it was still impaled on its back. Fantastic…

"Okay, I believe we started out on the wrong foot." I said, backing up as it advanced. "How about we start over? Hi, I'm Blake R. Skylark. What's your name?" The Goblin didn't answer my question as it swung its knife at me. I ducked and jumped to the side to dodge him, not wanting it to get even close to me this time.

This whole dodging thing was tiring me out. I could feel my lungs ready to collapse. As I backed up, it was readying a lunge with its knife leading, aimed at my chest. Weaponless and fatigued, I was unable to jump out of the way and could only raise my arms up to defend.

But the hit didn't land after a few seconds of anticipation. I lowered my arms and saw the Goblin frozen in its tracks with half of a broadsword sticking out of its chest and its owner standing behind it. A second later, Steiner pulled out the sword, making the dead Goblin fall face first on the ground. Out of instinct, I kicked the late Goblin's head twice before taking my knife from its back.

"Thanks…Steiner." I breathed heavily. I'm not in the best shape of my life to be even fighting.

The captain only looked over his shoulder and I saw him looking a bit contemptuous. "You are beginning to show how useless you are in this rescue. If it weren't for my intentions of sending the lot of you in prison, I would have not helped you."

Useless? He just called me useless! I am not useless! If it weren't for me you would have gotten infected with that plant virus! The nerve of the guy. How ungrateful! Is that how they teach respect in Alexandria!?

I wasn't able to voice out those thoughts as he just went on ahead. Zidane patted me in the back and handed me the bag. "Don't let him get to you. He's just worried about the princess." Worried my ass! He's being a giant rusty douche! Alyssa came up to me with a look of concern.

"Did you just double-tap that Goblin?" The girl asked. I merely nodded, making her say something else. "That's a bit unnecessary."

"It could have…gotten up." I tried to say in between gasps of air. I was bent on my knees, a bit tired and slightly wounded from the fight. "I just…made sure it wasn't…getting up." That may have been a quick fight, but I was still spent as if I ran a marathon. Fighting is not really my style, but if I want to stay with the others I might as well get used to it.

"Ah…are you…" Vivi looked at me with those yellow eyes of his and was trying to say something. He pointed to my shoulder, where I could see a streak of red forming.

"Don't worry." I straightened up and sheathed my knife. "It's just a flesh wound. I'll get better."

Alyssa chuckled as she patted me on the other shoulder. "Come on, let's get going."

We continued down the path Zidane was leading us through when we were done chit-chatting. Thankfully my turn in fighting was over. There was still a bit to cover before we get to the boss and I am hoping that I don't get another turn. We maintained formation once again as we progressed. I looked around and noticed that we were nearing what looks like a river with a fallen tree over it, conveniently acting as a bridge.

Alyssa suggested to Zidane that we follow the river as it goes into the forest. Her explanation for this was that since a forest with deadly plants roaming around harming other creatures is possible to have a bigger plant acting as its center. A big plant would need nutrients, and a big plant can get a lot of nutrients from a running river. Due to this, Zidane changed directions and followed the river closely.

I would congratulate her for at least pointing our leader to the right direction, but I was still a bit miffed about the whole 'accessory' thing earlier and the fact that I was going to say something like that.

…Not exactly the same thing, per say. But something in the lines of 'How about we follow this and hope we get to the boss' kind of statement.

Eventually, we came upon the spring in a large hollow tree stump that has magical healing properties. Zidane decided that we could rest here for a while since the coast was clear. As I sat down with my back against the large stump, I saw Alyssa looking around for something. It wasn't hard to reach the conclusion to what was bugging her. She was looking for the moogle hiding in a much smaller hollow stump. There was no moogle hiding in a smaller hollow stump, much to her dismay.

I put my hand under the running water from the stump behind me and took a sip. It tasted like purified water from back home, which made me take more sips. I felt a lot better after I was done as I saw my shoulder wound close up. "Anyone else want to drink this?"

Alyssa took a sip from the spring and looked enlightened. "Wow. This thing tastes wonderful. Take a taste, Vivi."

The black mage walked up to Alyssa and held out his gloved hand to the running water. When he was done, he nodded in agreement to Alyssa. "I feel a bit less tired." He said.

Steiner followed and took a swig. "It's revitalizing. Maybe it has magical properties that heal whoever drinks from it," concluded the knight. Indeed it does, Steiner. Alyssa just shrugged and sat right beside me.

"Too bad we don't have a container we can use to get some. I bet this would sell for a lot of gil." I wondered. When Zidane was done drinking from the spring, he leaned on the sat on the edges of the smaller stump as Steiner stayed on guard. Vivi simply sat down and adjusted his hat.

"I've been wondering," Zidane spoke up with a hand on his chin. "Why were the two of you on the airship?" He pointed a gloved finger to the two of us.

"Hmm…?" I was too busy verifying the contents of the bag I was carrying to understand the thief's question. And yes, it did contain a tent. There was also a violet bottle stored in the corner of the bag. Perhaps it was the seed remover antidote Blank made specifically for the ones poisoned.

"Oh that…" Alyssa chuckled embarrassingly. There was a hint of nervousness in that chuckle. "I was there by accident."

"How about you?" He then turned to me as I was closing the bag. Odd how that answer quickly satisfied him. True, Alyssa's statement wasn't a lie, but that would at least warrant an explanation.

"Me? It's a long story actually." I replied with a shrug. "I don't want to tell an excruciatingly long story when we have a princess to save." The last thing I wanted was someone getting suspicious. Steiner was about to concede when the condition of the princess was brought up, but Zidane's curiosity was piqued.

"No, wait. Let's hear it." Zidane insisted.

"The princess's life is still in danger!" Steiner said, his voice was loud enough to make Vivi flinch.

"Okay, I'll humor you." I stood up and brushed off the dirt on my pants. "Long story short, some Alexandrian soldiers were chasing me and I thought it would be nice to catch a ride on an airship that was about to leave." I walked past the knight as I responded, using my hands to gesture a chase as I told my piece. I swear Steiner's forehead creased a bit as I talked. Here's hoping that Steiner does not remember that I almost murdered that one soldier. "Now I believe there's a princess we have to rescue."

"Right. Let's go."

-FFIX FFIX FFIX-

THWACK!

"Hey!" I exclaimed as I nursed the cheek the branch hit with my cast.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry!" That was the second tree branch to slap me across the face. The first was Zidane's fault when he was guiding us under some low branches and this time Alyssa was the culprit. Curse my luck.

The five of us were nearing the lair of the Plant Brain faster than I imagined. There wasn't as much opposition from the beasts in the vicinity unlike earlier. Sure we're glad that we were making progress like this, but I felt that there was something missing. What I noted was that one plant enemy hasn't attacked us yet. You really can't miss a large floating flower in a forest like this.

Then a buzzing sound started filling the air. It came in intervals like it was a large bird flapping its enormous wings. Alyssa looked up and pointed behind us.

"Look at that!" We all turned to the thing she was pointing at in the air and saw what it was. That's what was missing. The Dendrobium, a flying plant monster. It was around the size of three people standing side by side with their hands extended and had six red petals, six maroon colored lower petals and two pink limbs. I didn't know flying plant monsters made buzzing sounds.

Curse me. I did not expect it to just pop out of nowhere, not when it's the size of that.

"Scatter!" Zidane ordered, but it wasn't followed as Dendrobium forced us to do so with a Wind attack, sending us flying throughout the area. We got back up and drew all of our respective weapons as the floating flower descended. Zidane and Steiner charged, hoping that they would hit it, but it easily evaded them by floating a bit higher.

Can't they just stay back and think about this for a second and not just rush in? Thankfully Alyssa knows that she can't do anything on this thing, unless she can jump higher than any live human being. Okay, now think. Floating enemy, made of flowers, easily flammable. Vivi's obviously the man for the job.

"Vivi, you can beat this thing singlehandedly." I say to the black mage. His eyes widen in surprise.

"M…Me?" He asked, pointing to himself in disbelief. I nodded and pointed to the Dendrobium.

"Look, that thing is a flower and most flowers are weak against anything. Problem is, normal attacks can't reach it at the height its flying. Your Fire spell is the best thing we have on range and power. Think you can do it?"

Vivi looked back to the plant, seeing Steiner yelling at the plant to come down while Zidane somewhat had the right idea to use the trees to reach the enemy. Apparently, Zidane knows a bit of parkour. But that little tidbit did not help them as Dendrobium blew Pollen into their faces, blinding both of its attackers.

Without further suggestion, Vivi nodded and stepped forward. He gripped his staff with both hands and looked like he was focusing his power in it. After a while, he pointed the staff to Dendrobium and shouted the spell.

"FIRE!" A small burst of fire exploded at the hovering plant's center. The fire immediately spread and burnt the plant easily like a piece of paper. It gave out one last light buzzing sound before it crashed down to the ground.

"Good work, Vivi." Alyssa said with a thumbs up. "Blake, there's some Eye Drops in the pocket on the side of the bag. Get some for Steiner and Zidane."

I held up a hand with a smile sand said, "Wait. Watch this. Hey Steiner!" The knight straightened up as he struggled with the dust in his eyes. "There's a Goblin behind you! I think you can knock it out with a punch."

It just so happens that Zidane was behind him trying to get a feeling of where he was. Steiner took my word for it, turned a whole 180 degrees and flat out socked Zidane with a punch. "Hey! What the hell was that for, Rusty!?"

"I was merely defending myself. What were you doing back there?" Steiner answered indignantly. I, on the other hand, was having quite a laugh; a hearty, bellowing laugh, as the two argued in front of us. Vivi tilted his head while Alyssa gave an impatient sigh. She elbowed me on the side hard enough to push me two steps to the left.

"Fine, fine. I'll get the eye drops." I groaned as soon as my laughter died down. "Admit it, Alyssa. That was funny."

"That was cruel." She simply stated with her hand on her hips. I only shook my head as I dug into the side of the bag, grabbing the eye drops and walked up to the blinded duo. She just does not get comedy. That was called slapstick, one of the basic forms of said genre.

When Zidane and Steiner were done applying the eye drops, and after Alyssa apologized for my part in that whole punch thing – which I did not want to apologize for, but she insisted – we moved on. We eventually got to the part of the path where the ground no longer composed of pebbles and dirt, but vines and roots. Both were present so much that we came across an arch made of vines and roots.

I was going to make a sarcastic comment about the architecture and that we should adapt this very style so that we can revolutionize the entire world of architecture, when we heard a loud screech that stopped us in our paths. Above us, the birds nested in the numerous branches in the trees flew and fled as the screech echoed far beyond the reaches of the forest, perhaps alerting or scaring –or both – the other inhabitants.

I think I just broke an eardrum.

Zidane ran inside the archway when the screeching was done followed by Steiner and Vivi. Alyssa nodded towards me and went in with me in tow. "There it is!" Vivi shouted. He was pointing to the monstrosity in the middle of a vine-infested –or rather vine-decorated and vine-furnished– room.

Sitting in a pedestal constructed by thorns the size of USB cords with the thickness of five wi-fi modems stacked on top of each other: the seed that fell far from the fruit, the head plant, the petal with all the power, the root of all evil, the Plant Brain. Wow, that was a lot of plant-related puns. Anyway, the Plant Brain menacingly swayed it thick, hollow stems as we stared it down.

"There! The princess!" Zidane pointed past the standing mother plant to where the unconscious Garnet was found. She was placed high above the Plant Brain with a few branches and vines being used as a makeshift hammock. From the looks of it she looked pretty comfortable up there with her being all unconscious and stuff.

"So, this is the master." Vivi audibly mumbled.

"Princess!" Steiner shouted, hoping to get a response from her in return, but alas, Garnet was heavily under the influence of the seed poison in her system. "You stay out of this!" He pointed to me and Zidane.

"Me? What did I ever do to you?" I asked, feeling insulted by his treatment right now.

"Alexandria would be disgraced if a terrible murderer and a mere bandit should rescue the princess." He pointed out as he drew out his broadsword. Crap, he remembered. I think I said a little bit too much earlier.

"You think you can handle him on your own?" The leading thief inquired.

"…" Steiner was silent for a bit. The Plant Brain had enough of our rambling and screeched at us once again, this time a lot quieter than before.

"Let's get him, guys." Zidane looked over to Vivi, Alyssa and me as he unsheathed his Mage Mashers. All of us readied our respective weapons and stayed in formation. "Vivi, pepper that thing with your fire spells, Steiner and I are going to distract it. Maybe we can cut it down with force."

"We'll protect Vivi." Alyssa volunteered us and stood beside the black mage. No, I am not protecting anyone aside from myself. This dream is not going to end with me playing hero.

Zidane nodded and looked around this part of the forest. "Try looking for a spot that it won't reach." He said to us. He turned to Steiner and ran in towards the Plant Brain, both ducking under the attempted swipe from its crusty stems.

Alyssa gestured to me and Vivi to follow as we went to the side of the Plant Brain while it was busy with the welcoming committee. From where we currently were, it was obvious that the two are having difficulties with a monster the size of a small motel. Steiner and Zidane cut away at the Plain Brain's thorny base with the monster growling with irritation. How could I tell that it was irritation? How would you feel about small insects biting down on your feet, huh? Pretty much the same thing in this situation.

Because of its hulking size, its tentacles could merely attempt to grab the two attackers since it looked like it wasn't that flexible. Zidane expected this to happen and jumped over it, trying to cut the tentacle off with a slice. Only the tip came off from his attempt. Steiner wasn't that quick in his reaction as one of its left tentacles grabbed him around the torso. The knight improved on his reaction by using his sword to hack away at the tentacle as Zidane climbed onto its tentacle, ran towards the center of the plant and slashed away.

"This should be safe." Alyssa guessed as she looked around. We were standing in front of a large tree that was probably old enough to be a grandpa tree, yet stood so high and looked so healthy like one of those aged triathlon competitors. We were right somewhere behind its left where we could see what was happening in the front. "What do we do now?"

"We start holding down the fort." I told her. "Vivi, start focusing your power, but don't attack yet." I said to Vivi. Alyssa gave me a puzzled look, but Vivi understood it without question and started concentrating.

"What do you mean 'don't attack yet'?" Alyssa pulled me to the side where Vivi was out of earshot.

"I've played through this part numerous times. You've played it only three times. I know what's going to happen here." I answered, irritated that this girl dares question what I'm doing. "This fight will be going nowhere as it begins. Plant Brain here won't get affected by the attacks early on. We need Zidane to be in critical condition in order to make the fight move on to its second phase."

The brunette hesitated for a moment as an idea formed in her head. "You mean Zidane needs to suffer enough damage so that Blank can come in and save the day?"

"Not save the day, but help us out." I corrected her.

"That's cruel!"

"Cruel it may be, but that is how this fight goes."

Steiner and Zidane had managed to go without a scratch in the fight as they fought off the tentacles with their weapons. Plant Brain changed that right now as it waved its tentacles in the air. Zidane and Steiner thought that it was going to bring those down on them with a sweep, so they prepared their weapons to block the incoming attack. That was where they were wrong. It wasn't a physical attack it was going to do, but a magical one with a thunder spell. It connected with the two in one single flash from above, electrocuting the duo and stunning them long enough to get clobbered with a tentacle sweep.

"Blake, these are real people you're fighting with. Zidane doesn't need to be in a dire condition for the fight to start going in our favor."

"That's how this fight goes and what I say is final. Now I suggest you drop this conversation right now before you attract the Plant Brain's attention." I demanded to the girl.

"You can't use people just because the game is programmed to follow a scenario! What's happening to us right now is real, and a fact that comes along being real is that everything is unpredictable, meaning this whole event is unpredictable." Alyssa tried to reason, but my mind is already set. She saw it with how I turned my back on her. That was when she decided to go against my order. "Vivi, give it all you got right now!"

I turned to the black mage and saw him nod to the girl. I was about to yell at him to not listen to Alyssa, but it was too late. Vivi unleashed the concentrated power in his staff on the Plant Brain as it was about to smash Zidane and Steiner together, saving both men with a powerful blast of flame. Plant Brain let out a pained screech as the fire burned on its maroon petals, shaking the area with powerful strikes to the ground with its tentacles.

Then in just a full second, the thorny pedestal it was on began to shift and turn towards our direction. Now we have its attention. That was not part of my plan.

"Book it!" I pushed past the overalls wearing brunette and ran away with my knife drawn out. She grabbed Vivi by the hand and bolted the other way, with the black mage holding on to his hat and the hand dragging him along. Zidane and Steiner were just recovering from the shock they received from the plant as I passed them.

The Plant Brain let out a growl-like sound towards the direction of the running duo as it waved its tentacles around for another round of thunder spells. The two continued running as a number of thunder strikes came from above on their previous locations, just barely missing the two. I heard Zidane wonder aloud about the fact that plants can use magic.

Curses. I wouldn't be running around trying to dodge this thing's attacks if that girl just followed what I told her. The game's plot is definite and final; nothing changes that even if we tried. We just need to follow it to the end without making any attempts to change it.

It didn't bother with the yellow-tailed thief as it only focused on its now running targets: me, Alyssa and Vivi. It aimed one of its tentacles towards me and made it stretch towards me at an alarming speed while Alyssa and Vivi continued dodging thunder. I dived out of the tentacle's way before it could arrive to its target (read: me). But I wasn't out of the woods yet metaphorically speaking as Alyssa and Vivi tripped over my recovering form.

"Gah!" Alyssa yelled out when she fell onto the ground, quickly followed by Vivi. I groaned in pain, hugging my side which Alyssa clearly kicked before she went down. The three of us noticed that neither thunder nor tentacle had hit us while we were down. We looked up at the plant and saw that its form was rearing back. With a snap of its upper body, the Plant Brain started to blow Pollen towards our direction.

I climbed on top of Alyssa and ducked behind her with my eyes closed as tight as possible. She shrieked in surprise as the pollen-induced wind blew against us felt like we were standing in a low pressure area. When it was done, I waited a few more seconds before opening my eyes and freeing Alyssa from my grasp. I didn't feel anything on my eyes, so that was good. What I felt was Alyssa pushing me away from her.

"What the hell, Blake!?" She shouted as she rubbed her eyes, trying to see past the pollen in her eyes. "You used me as a shield!"

"At least I'm okay." I responded calmly, dusting myself off as I got off the ground. I took out a bottle of Eye Drops from the bag and gave to her. "Here, this might help." I looked over to the black mage and pointed to the Plant Brain. "Vivi, begin concentrating on ano—" Then I see him waving his hands around like a blind per – crap, I forgot to cover Vivi.

No matter, I have some eye drops in the bag – hey!

Before I knew it, a thorny vine grabbed hold of my left hand and forced me down to the ground, making me relinquish hold of my knife. It was gripping my arm tightly, the thorns digging into my skin. Crap, it hurts! One more vine came from the ground and secured me against the dirt. Great, more dirt on my vest and shirt. The guy who's going to clean my clothes is seriously going to have a bad time.

Hey, this didn't happen in the game! This is not fair! I demand proper game mechanic etiquette so I can take advantage of it!

Another vine took hold of Alyssa and Vivi and kept the two in place by their feet while another swatted away both their weapons. The vines didn't budge from its place despite how hard the two tried to force their limbs to move. Zidane and Steiner were sent flying towards our direction by a thunderous whack of a tentacle. The two groaned as they struggled to back on their feet.

"This isn't looking good." Zidane stated, sounding fatigued.

"We must persevere! The princess must be rescued!" Steiner was bent over his sword as he tried to stand up.

We were under the mercy of the Plant Brain, which had one of its petals burnt because of Vivi's attack and I'm pretty sure it didn't like that at all. I was trying to think of a way on how I could get us out of this mess, but that required me to have my knife, which was lying somewhere beside me. The vine did not allow much movement, making it impossible for me to reach the knife. At the same time, images of how the Plant Brain was going to finish us formed in my mind: Pollen-induced torture, squashed by its large tentacles, fed to its plant babies, electrocute us to death, wrap us in vines like mummies, or plant its seed poison in our system were the prominent ones.

Damn it, I don't want any of those to happen to me. I have so much to live for. Do it to them first so at least I have a chance of escaping!

It was apparent that the Plant Brain had now decided on how to eliminate us. The vines raised me, Alyssa and Vivi into the air in an upright position with our legs dangling and swinging around for the ground. Zidane and Steiner evaded the Plant Brain's attempt of grabbing them with its tentacles, but they were already spent and it was only a matter of time that they get caught.

They were hit by a thunder spell, stopping them in their tracks long enough for the Plant Brain to wraps is rough dark orange tentacle. The tentacle moved the two so that they were right beside the three of us. What the hell is it trying to do, hang us with vines?

My question was answered when a group of rotting flowers sprouted from the ground. It was trying to plant seeds into our nervous system, just like what Prison Cage did. Alyssa looked over to me, as if hoping that I would have a plan out of this. No, I don't have a plan out of this. This would have not happened if you did not mess up my previous plan. Now we're going to be plant chow and it's all your fault!

I close my eyes and held my breath as I prepared for what would be my last lungful of air. Well, if this is going to be the end, at least let me outlive these four even if it were only a matter of seconds. If only Blank was quick enough to act as our cavalry—

"Hiyah!" Someone yelled out and I heard something fall to the ground. I just hope it isn't one of the party members. I opened my eyes slowly, hoping for the worst when I saw a crouched figure in front of us. I looked to the right and saw its arm extended with a sword held in its hand. That was when all of us knew we were saved.

"Blank!" Zidane exclaimed sounding surprised and amazed. Even the Plant Brain was apparently surprised as it drew back the tentacle holding Zidane and Steiner.

"Whew! I made it just in time." Blank faced us as he said this, putting his sword on his shoulder and put a grin across his face

"You sure took your fucking time!" I shouted at him. The grin on his face soured.

"I was held back by a few flying flowers," said the thief as he cut down the vines holding the three of us in the air. We landed on out backsides, except for Vivi who managed to land face first. "Stand aside. I'll take care of this."

With the rest of us freed, we managed get back on groove with the fight. After Alyssa applied the Eye Drops to her own eyes, she tossed aside the bottle, glared at me momentarily before joining the frontline with Zidane and Steiner. What was that for?

The bandana wearing thief ran towards Plant Brain with his sword ready cut down the monster. He rolled underneath an incoming tentacle and slashed at another as it was coming down to attack him. Blank darted towards where Zidane and Steiner was hanging around, only to be stopped by a thunder spell that almost hit him if didn't jump back. Plant Brain used a combination of thunder spells and tentacle attacks with the hope of bringing down him down and almost succeeded if Alyssa didn't run in to save him.

She handed him a potion vial, which healed the wounds he sustained from the barrage of attacks. The two went back in while Vivi began casting Fire spells at the botanic monstrosity. With two attackers charging and evading its attacks plus a black mage throwing fire spells at it, it was only a matter of time until it was brought down. Vivi weakened the tentacle holding the blond thief and the captain of the Pluto Knights with a fire spell and was cut off by Blank's sword. The duo landed on the ground with a thud, but at least they were free.

"Master Vivi!" Steiner yelled out to the black mage. This vocal signal proved to be the turning point as Vivi stopped casting spells and focused. Steiner readied his blade as Alyssa, Blank and Zidane cut away the attacking tentacles. Plant Brain tried to even out the odds by using its Pollen attack at the trio. Alyssa and Zidane saw it coming and dived to the side, only to leave Blank in the middle of a Pollen spray.

When it ended, Blank stood with an arm covering his face. Then we heard him chuckle. "It's a good thing I wear this bandana on my face." He remarked. It was pretty much common sense, but I really did not expect that to happen. In the game, even if he had that thing on his face all game long, it didn't have any effect and would still suffer when he gets attacked by a Pollen attack.

He continued attacking the Plant Brain, but the monster had enough. It used the surrounding vines once again and trapped the trio in their places. Oddly enough, Zidane was facing towards us when this happened. He sheathed his daggers and whistled, attracting the attention of Steiner. The two nodded at each other and Zidane placed his hands together, cupping the one on top.

Ah! I figured out what he was trying to do when I see Steiner running towards him, his blade having a red radiant glow right on the tip. When he was near enough to the tailed leader, he jumped on Zidane's hand and used it to propel himself towards the face – or where the face should be located – of Plant Brain. It screeched as it tried to stop Steiner with a thunder spell, but that didn't hinder him as he implanted the sword right on its center. A millisecond later, the same area combusted with a red light and consumed the surface where it was cut, burning the plant in that intense burst of fire. Good thing Steiner managed to jump away to safety as it happened.

Plant Brain flayed and swung its tentacles around as the fire consumed it. Shortly after, the tentacles fell down to the ground as the giant plant began to droop down into the dirt until it was motionless.

"I…Is it over?" Vivi spoke up as soon as everyone went silent. He looked at me, hoping I had an answer, but the answer was as evident as the monster in front of us.

"Yes, it's over." I said. I saw Alyssa fall back on her butt and gave a sigh of relief. Zidane cheered with a victorious stance as Blank high-fived him. We were still missing one more detail. "Steiner, look!" I shouted over to the knight. High above the defeated plant, the branches that were holding the princess in place started to decompose.

"Princess!" Steiner ran as he saw one of the branches fall off. A few seconds later, every single branch gave away, making the princess fall down towards the ground. Everyone gasped as they saw Garnet fall while Steiner jumped into the air. In what seemed like slow-motion, Steiner managed to catch the princess just before she hit the ground, making everyone give out a relieved breath. Now Steiner was trying to wake up sleeping beauty by shaking her senseless.

Blank turned to me and pointed to the bag. "Give her the stuff." He says. I opened the bag and grabbed the purple bottle filled with the seed remover medicine he made. I gave it to Zidane, who knelt beside the unconscious princess and gently poured the medicine into her mouth. When the bottle was emptied, Garnet coughed a few times before settling down in the knight's arms.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Vivi asked. Zidane was about to answer his question when the ground started to shake. The remains of Plant Brain started to be absorbed into the earth as a giant hole opened up where it was. Everyone backed away from the hole as the shaking stopped.

Then something crawled out of the black pit, something spider-like with a red upper body like a corrupted rose and six green vine-like pointed tentacles for legs. It was the Plant Spider, offspring of the Plant Brain. Another one crawled up behind it and hissed at us. We were going to back up towards the way we came in when we heard a different set of hisses. There was another group of Plant Spiders entering through the entrance.

I saw the horrified look of the people around me. We were virtually surrounded.

"Let's get out of here!" Zidane told everyone and nobody disagreed.

"No sudden movements." I advised them. I raised up my hands as if I was surrendering after sheathing my knife and slowly made my way to a path to the right that led deep into the forest and eventually the way out. Zidane followed with Steiner close by. Vivi and Alyssa gently trailed behind them with Blank bringing up the rear ever so slowly, making Zidane shout at him.

The Plant Spiders all turned to our direction and menacingly approached us with its tentacles ready to attack. "Okay, this is the part where we run for our respective lives," I say to the others in a calm manner. I looked behind me and saw an open path leading downwards. "I SAID RUN!" I yelled at them, making them jump and bolt down the path.

Steiner (with Garnet in his arms) led the running troupe of airship emergency crash landing survivors with me, Alyssa, Vivi, Blank and Zidane following him in that very specific order. Our path stayed straight with a slight angle going downwards for most of the time, which I was thankful because my feet were about to give out and the fact that I could be devoured or implanted with a seed virus was the only thing that kept me going.

I looked behind me and saw everyone running and the Plant Spiders rushing excitedly to get its vines on our fresh human nervous systems. Suddenly, I collided with Steiner's armor and almost sent him tumbling down to the ground if it wasn't for Alyssa holding onto his armor until he balanced himself again. He stopped because the path was terribly misshapen, but the continuation was a feet or so down below. The three of us climbed down with Alyssa helping Steiner out with the princess's body. I was the first to reach the ground below and I regretted that achievement when a pair of Plant Spiders jumped down wherever it came from.

I just realized that Plant Spiders are almost bigger than us. Cue the wide eyes I did when it tried to attack me.

"Hold the princess for me, will you?" Alyssa said as she dumped Garnet onto my arms. She and Steiner quickly took their swords and sliced the Plant Spiders into pieces while the others proceeded to descend. And did I mention that Garnet was heavy. Dear lord, I felt my arms shake the longer I was carrying her and with enough shaking I could possibly re-break my right arm. Here I was with a messenger bag containing a tent, some vials of potions, eye drops and ethers that had been digging into my shoulders throughout this whole ordeal now straddled with the responsibility of carrying royalty. Curse my luck.

"The path is clear." Steiner picked the princess up from my arms and continued running. I'll complain about this later. Now I just want to get out of this forest.

Behind us I could hear Blank shouting at Zidane for stopping and making the correct observation that the forest is alive, like it was coming after us. He was going to hand the responsibility of taking care of everyone to Blank, which he did not want to have, in case something happened to him. He was trying to apologize to him in case he did something unnecessarily heroic, the idiot.

As we continued down the path that curved to the right with the trees beginning to thin out and widen out the path, we figured that fighting the Plant Spiders was slowing us down, so we all universally agreed to just run around, jump or evade the Plant Spiders. Somehow, Zidane managed to take the lead from Steiner. Far into what seemed like a never-ending horizon of trees I saw a clearing, a meadow with a tall, angled rock. That was it, the end of the forest.

"I can see the ending!" Alyssa gasped as she pointed straight ahead. With that, I channeled all the reserved energy I had through all of the times I was lazy into my legs to reach that clearing. All of us overtook Zidane as we neared the exit, except for Blank.

I didn't dare look back as we neared the last of the trees and finally, finally exited that demented woodland with a diabolical species of plants. Finally…

"Finally…" I managed in a breath as I collapsed onto the grass, fatigued, sweating and still alive. That was good enough for me.

I looked over to the edge of the forest and saw Zidane approaching as fast as he can with the vines just close by. It tried to get him with various swiped and overtakes, almost decapitating him once, but he proved to be too agile for the forest to handle. With just a few feet left between him and freedom, the blond member of Tantalus jumped out, successfully evading the grasp of the Evil Forest.

The vines of the forest, probably a bit unhappy that they didn't make their quota of petrifying people, sealed off the way out we had just used and proceeded to turn to stone too, surprising the three main protagonists at this turn of events. That made Zidane go a bit crazy, seeing as to what his friend's fate implied.

I managed to get to my feet with the help of Alyssa, who then tried to help Zidane calm down afterwards. Steiner and Vivi looked on with different reactions to this, but overall they were both tired. I was tired too. Hell, I was even more tired than all four of them combined if that even made sense.

Before I could even cool down and relax, I felt an increasing pain in my chest. I breathed out in surprise as the pain made it difficult to breathe. I felt dizzy as I struggled to breathe, but throughout that moment of dizziness I noticed that none of them has seen me having what I think was a heart attack. Not a heart attack per say, but I felt like I was having one.

It eventually subsided, making me gasp sharply. My sudden intake of air made some of the oxygen down the wrong pipe, making me cough loud enough to elicit some attention from the others.

"Are you okay?" I hear Vivi ask as he came up to me and patted my back.

"Y-Yeah." I shakily replied. "Fatigued, y-you know. I just need rest." And an oxygen tank, though I doubt they have a functioning one in hand.

What the hell was that!? What just happened? Did I just seriously almost die because of oxygen deprivation? What the hell…

If this is a sign of some almighty being telling me that I should improve my cardio then I'll admit that God does exist and I would happily oblige in a diet and an exercise regiment to do so. But I seriously doubt that is actually the case.

We have other things to worry about, other MAJOR things like following the plot and surviving. I can't just add my health problem all willy-nilly because of a little difficulty with breathing. I just hope that it's a one-time thing. I hope it is.


A/N: There's another update for you guys and girls. Chapter 10 might need to be reworked a bit so you won't see that in a bit. Still haven't gotten to Burmecia at the time of this upload. Need to work on that. Some critiques and reviews would be nice. See you people in the next upload!