AN: I just spent the last thirty minutes messing around with copying and pasting this chapter because the font just isn't right, but this is as close as I could get it. I think I might send a message to the admins or moderators or support or whoever requesting that font and text size modifiers be added to the Copy-N-Paste part of creating a new document.
Anyways, to more important matters. Chapter eight is here! Time to party, yeah? No. No, it's not time to part, it's time to get your reading glasses. Duh. Anywho, this chapter was surprisingly easy to write. I mean, not that the other chapters were difficult, but this one just seemed to flow right away. I didn't have to sit and stare at the blinking cursor while I tried to think of the next word to use or how to set a scene. Okay, so I did in one part. Yeah, I'm a liar, but so is all fiction, so there.
It was a little difficult, trying to describe Besaid Village. I wanted Tidus to walk down to the ruined house and talk to the guy there, but I couldn't figure out a legitimate reason for him to go down there. I still plan on it, but I couldn't place it here. Also, the narration is still bugging me. In my word processor, there's an enter space between the normal story and the narration, but the space is waay too big when I type it in here so I leave it out. I feel like that's probably the best way to do it, but I'm still a bit iffy. All I know for sure is that I don't want to cut the narration out at all. I also wrote Gatta as a little bit cocky and distrustful, although it wasn't hard considering his dialogue. I know that he's not like that throughout the whole game, but I feel like it's a good way to introduce his character and emphasise how calm Luzzu is in comparison.
Please, if you have any suggestions about how I can better the story or about things to come in the story, don't hesitate to leave me some feedback. I only just remembered some of choices I have to make in the game and now I'm fretting a little, not sure of what to choose for this novelisation. I'm also still unsure about the narration and how I integrate it with the story, so if you have any suggestions, fire away. I realise that it can be a bit of a drag leaving feedback (I know that I avoid it a lot, which I probably shouldn't), but I'd really appreciate it if you could leave some of your thoughts for me to ponder over.
Now, I'd like to thank blackdragonhuntress for being a total babe and encouraging me to write this chapter. Also, I'd like to thank all of the people who read through these seven chapters over the past few weeks. Even if I'm not getting a lot of feedback, I've been watching the view count like a hawk and I feel absolutely awesome every single time it goes up. It's really nice to know that I'm not just feeding this story into the ether. It's nice to know you have an audience. I hope every single one of you enjoy this chapter, and I hope you look forward to the next chapter because I'm getting really excited just thinking about how the story is progressing.
If you're reading this, I hope that you find money in the gutter because that is awesome and you are awesome. Now run along, except don't, stay here and read. :)
8
As Tidus and Wakka neared the bottom of the hill, two strangely dressed men jogged out from the trees. Tidus was caught a little off-guard, and he surveyed them closely as they approached. One was tall with violent red hair, the other smaller in stature with much darker features. Both wore pauldrons on their shoulders, which made them look even more bizarre to Tidus. He'd only ever seen pauldrons in historical books.
The red-haired man looked Tidus over as well, surely making his own assumptions, before a look of understanding spread across his face.
"Ah, the one from the sea!" he greeted with a kind of musical voice.
His companion looked much more serious despite wearing ragged shorts suited for a boy underneath his unnecessary armour. "Be on guard," he declared in a voice that betrayed his youth. "There are fiends on the road today!"
Fiends? Do they mean monsters? Tidus looked around wildly, instinctively reaching for his sword. The hilt, however, wasn't where he expected it to be. In fact, it wasn't there at all. I must have lost it when I fell from the ship, he thought. Suddenly he felt a whole lot more vulnerable.
"After surviving your run-in with Sin, 'twould be a shame if something happened now," the man continued. With that, both strangers turned on heel and continued on down the path.
Tidus and Wakka watched after them for a while. "Who were they?" he asked when they were out of earshot.
"Luzzu and Gatta – Crusaders," Wakka said.
"Crews of what?"
Wakka frowned. "What, you forgot that, too?"
Tidus was shocked at Wakka's response. He was more aware of how out of place he was now than he had been on the Al Bhed ship. Feeling more alone than ever, he looked to his feet. Maybe he looked more pathetic than he thought, because Wakka was quick to apologise.
"Hey, sorry. Don't worry about it, I'll help you out."
"Cool," Tidus replied, feeling a little better. "In return, come tournament time, I'll make sure we take the cup!"
Wakka chuckled. "Cool. About the Crusaders, you can ask them yourself. They've got a lodge in the village," he explained.
With that, they moved on down the hill. Soon the path began to level out, and it wasn't long before they reached their destination.
"Besaid Village," Wakka declared proudly, slapping Tidus on the shoulder.
Tidus didn't think there was much to look at. The village seemed to be comprised of several one-room huts lining a dirty paved clearing. Beyond them loomed a large, grey stone building with domed pillars reaching out from the roof like insect legs.
"They got any food there?" Tidus whined, feeling weak under Wakka's heavy hand.
Wakka chuckled. "We'll get you something over there later," he said, pointing out a hut on the right. "Take a look around first."
Tidus looked at Wakka, hoping the pained expression on his face would bring 'later' a little closer. Wakka didn't seem to notice.
"Let's see..." He glanced around the village before pointing over to the largest of the huts. It looked much like a tent, with patterned blue canvas walls and a cloth draped over the doorway. "The Crusaders Lodge is over yonder. Luzzu and Gatta are usually there."
They must have been the guys on the road. A strange wooden carving rested atop the hut, with high ridges up its back and exaggerated pointy teeth. After a moment, Tidus realised that it was supposed to be a piranha.
Wakka began to walk off, but stopped after a few paces. He paused for a moment. "Oh, right," he muttered. He turned and walked back towards Tidus, whispering, "Over here!" as he passed by.
"Huh? What's up?" Tidus asked. He followed Wakka back out of the village and they ducked behind the wall that separated the huts from the jungle.
"You do remember the prayer, right?" Wakka asked Tidus, leaning in close. He spoke in a hushed voice, his dark eyes steady.
Tidus felt suddenly tiny under his gaze. Of course he didn't know the prayer. He'd only spoken with Wakka and the Al Bhed since arriving in Spira or whatever this world was called, and the Al Bhed didn't seem like the praying type. "I don't remember," he replied, his voice a little shaky.
I didn't know it in the first place, to tell the truth.
"Man, that's like the basics of the basics," Wakka said, raising his eyebrows. "Alright, I'll show you."
Wakka took two steps backwards to give himself room for the prayer. He began by bracing himself, one foot in front, one foot behind, and holding his arms out at his sides. With one smooth motion, he brought his arms up and around to meet at his chest, one above and one below as though he were holding an orb between them. He stood up straight as he did this, bringing his feet together, toes pointed forward, eyes straight ahead. Then, straight-faced, he bend his torso forward in a rigid bow, arms still steady before him.
Tidus waited for Wakka to look up with a goofy grin and apologise for the joke, because this had to be a joke. But no, when Wakka looked up his face was relaxed, no hint of mischief anywhere.
"Go ahead, you try," he said, smiling kindly.
Though he felt silly, Tidus complied. He held his arms straight on either side and took a step back before bringing it all forward, holding the imaginary ball between his hands and bowing to Wakka. He looked up at the islander expectantly, waiting for him to break out laughing.
"Hey, not bad," he said, nodding. Tidus stood up straight and stared at him, dumbfounded. Wakka walked around him, slapping his hand on Tidus' shoulder again. "Okay, now go present yourself to the temple summoner," he instructed, pointing to the foreboding building at the back of the village. With that, he walked off towards the huts, leaving Tidus standing with his imaginary ball and more questions than answers.
Any blitzball player would know that prayer. It was the blitzball sign for victory.
Tidus stared at his hands as he turned to the village. Could the blitzball victory sign really be a prayer here? It had been a thousand years since Zanarkand's prime, it was possible that the original meaning was lost. But still, Tidus felt strange. He shook off the weirdness and wandered into the village, determined to see this through. There was a hot meal waiting for him at the end of all this, and if he had to go and talk to some old guy in the temple, so be it.
First things first, Tidus headed over to the piranha-adorned tent that Wakka had referred to as the Crusaders Lodge. Those guys seemed like the type to have weapons nearby, considering the way they spoke about monsters before. He felt light without his sword by his side, and very unprotected.
As Tidus made his way out to the tent, he was almost bowled over by a little girl chasing after a dog. He chuckled as he watched her, determined to catch the dog, giggling as she raced around the town. Besaid seemed like a sleepy little village, but there was something charming about it. An elderly couple were strolling back from the temple, their wizened faces relaxed and content. It felt like nothing bad could happen here. Still, he would like a weapon, just in case.
He was a little nervous as he pushed aside the cloth door, but walked in all the same. Inside, the room was cluttered with crates and heavy sacks, though there was a clear walkway through the first room and into the second. To his left, there was a counter manned by a guy wearing pauldrons and a blue cowl. Behind it, a dozen spears rested in their rack. To his right, the men from the road sat at a table, pondering over a map.
Tidus stepped over to the table, wondering how to bring up the subject. The shorter one noticed him approach and turned around. His dark eyes were narrowed as he looked Tidus up and down.
"Hey, you!" he began. "You were attacked by Sin... right? Recently was it?"
Tidus shrugged. "I think so." It could have been yesterday. It could have been a week ago. Time passed differently while he was unconscious.
"So, Sin can't be far, right?" His eyes were now slits in his stern face. "You're not hiding anything, are you?"
"Why would I?" Tidus responded, offended by his gall. He looked the guy up and down, wondering whether it was the pauldrons or his height that made him so passive-aggressive.
The red-haired man was much calmer than his companion. His voice was smooth like silk and slightly apologetic as he spoke. This one must be Luzzu, Tidus decided. "If Sin's nearby, it'll attack the island for sure," he explained. "But it hasn't. I wonder why?"
Somehow, Tidus felt guilty for not knowing the answer. He thought of Zanarkand again, of the destruction that Sin had caused. This quiet little village wouldn't stand a chance against a force like that.
"I'm sorry. I really don't know anything." He looked at his feet, feeling a little ashamed. "To tell the truth, I don't even know what the Crusaders are."
Gatta's head snapped to Tidus. "You're kidding, right?" The note of disbelief in his voice was barely masked.
"Sin! The toxin!" Luzzu reminded. "Gatta, tell him who we are!"
"Yes sir!" Gatta stood up quickly, straightening his back as he brought his arm up and held it parallel to his chest in salute.
"The Crusaders are sworn to battle Sin!" he began, his voice almost mechanical as he recited the message. "We have chapters throughout Spira, accepting all who wish to join our struggle! The hero Mi'ihen formed the Crusaders eight hundred years ago as the Crimson Blades. Later, our ranks grew and we called ourselves the Crusaders. We've been fighting Sin ever since!"
Tidus frowned. "What, you've been fighting eight hundred years and you still haven't beaten it?" he asked incredulously.
Gatta opened his mouth to speak, but his response was nothing but a jumbled stutter as he tried to think of a reply.
"Well, we've steered Sin away from towns many times! And that's all we can do. Nobody's ever been able to defeat it," Luzzu informed him. "Our mission as Crusaders is to protect the temples, towns, villages, and people of Spira."
"So then whose job is it to defeat Sin?" Tidus asked, still surprised that they'd been fighting for this long without a victory.
Gatta shook his head. "Is Sin's toxin really this bad, sir?"
Luzzu sighed heavily. "It does seem rather bad..." When he looked up, he gave Tidus a gentle smile. "We could just tell you, but I think it better for you to try and remember. Go pray at the temple," he instructed. "Perhaps Yevon will help you regain your memory."
Tidus nodded and backed away from the table. The Crusaders resumed their discussion over the map and he left the tent. Once he was outside, he looked over at the temple. So Yevon is the name of their religion or whatever, he concluded. Praying couldn't do him any harm, he supposed, and so he wandered over to the temple. After all, no matter how pointless this was going to be, he'd still get a meal afterwards.
He climbed the temple steps and walked between the marble columns that held up the roof. The little girl and the dog rushed past him and in through the ajar temple doors. Before she went inside, she stopped to look back at Tidus. Her dark eyes sparkled as she giggled, and she turned to chase the dog once more. There was a ball of nerves in Tidus' stomach, slowly growing the closer he got to the door. He took a deep breath. If that little girl wasn't scared, then he shouldn't be either.
The first thing Tidus noticed was the singing coming from deep within the temple. Somewhere inside, a group of women were singing in some strange language. It sounded a little like the Al Bhed language, but that wasn't what caught his attention. The tune that they sang, it was strangely familiar. A song that he knew but just couldn't place.
Eventually, he followed the song and stepped through the doorway. The temple looked so much smaller from the outside. Inside, he felt dwarfed by the towering walls. He gazed up at the high domed ceiling and thought back to the flooded temple where Rikku's crew had captured him. The architecture was very similarly styled, he realised as he looked around the room.
The room was large and circular, with two dozen life-sized statues styled to look like what Tidus assumed were nuns and priests lining the walls. Straight ahead, four larger statues stood, each of a different man wearing either robes or armour. Between the middle two, a staircase led up to an ornate door. Tidus walked slowly, his shoes clicking on the paved floor. There were people in here praying to these statues. They all raised their arms and performed the blitzball victory sign as though it were holy. A small shiver ran down his spine as he watched.
After a moment, Tidus noticed two even larger statues standing nearly as tall as the ceiling. They stood behind the four unique statues, one either side of the room, styled as if they were leaning their backs against immense pillars that held up the roof. The one to the left was a woman, scantily clad with wild hair and thigh-high armoured boots. The other, a man wearing a large set of robes and a helmet, clenching his fists like a display of might. Behind them, tapestries of a deep red and pale blue decorated the room.
It was then, standing in that place. I began to realise how different this world was from my own.
Despite the light that radiated from the torches, it was dim in here. The air was heavy with incense and the sound of the song. So, I'm here now. Might as well get this over with. Where do I pray? Tidus walked over to one of the four statues on the other side of the room. The stone man stood almost three times his height, wearing long robes and a foreign-looking cloth headdress that looked quite odd to him.
"Ten years have passed since Lord Braska became high summoner," said a rough voice at Tidus' right. He jumped and turned to see an old man strolling towards him. He wore white, dark purple and burned yellow robes, with detailed embroidery on the sleeves and front. They were so clean and pressed that Tidus instantly knew he was a priest of this temple. All of the villagers he'd seen so far looked a little dusty, carefree, but this man seemed almost rigid.
"And finally we receive a statue for our temple," the man continued, gesturing the sculpture before them.
Tidus looked up at the stone Lord Braska, wondering what he did that was so great he needed to be immortalised like this. "What's a high summoner?" he asked the priest, tearing his eyes away from the statue's cold stare.
The priest's eyes widened and Tidus heard a few of the women nearby gasp at his words. Suddenly it wasn't the size of the room making him feel small anymore.
"I... I got too close to Sin's, uh, toxin," he said quickly, looking around at the confused faces of the villagers. His words were met with sympathetic nods and sighs, and the priest performed the prayer without delay. There were still uneasy murmurs throughout the temple, though, and Tidus felt every one of them.
It was funny hearing myself make the same excuse over and over. Funny, and a little sad.
"The summoners are practitioners of a sacred art, sworn to protect the people of Yevon," the priest told him. He nodded his head at the other tall statues. "Only a chosen few become summoners, who call forth entities of great power: the aeons. The aeons hear our prayers and come down to us. They are the blessings of Yevon." Tidus waited, but the priest didn't continue. Instead, he prayed to Lord Braska's statue once more.
So what he meant... was that we should respect some kinda great men or something like that... I figured.
"Pray hard," the priest said finally, "and the toxin will surely release its grip on you." With that, the old man moved on to another villager.
The temple gave Tidus a bad feeling, and he couldn't bring himself to 'pray' to any of these statues. How was that supposed to help him? With one last gaze around, Tidus left the temple. His stomach was still paining him, and it was about time Wakka made good on his promise.
Outside, the air was fresh and light, and Tidus took a deep breath as he left the dark temple behind him. He walked down to the huts, making a beeline for the one Wakka had pointed at. Much like the other huts, its walls were made of heavy woven fabric, colourful and charming to look at. The only difference that Tidus could really make out was that Wakka's hut had a delicious scent wafting through the open doorway.
With only a moment of hesitation, Tidus poked his head past the cloth door and peered inside. The walls of Wakka's hut were green, brown and white, the colours dancing together in squiggly patterns from ceiling to floor. Just left of the door, there was a little stove top with a few pots of some sort of soup or stew steaming away. Tidus felt his knees weaken as he inhaled the sweet scent of meat and vegetables boiling.
Wakka sat cross-legged in front of a small round table. A few apples and some tropical leaves were scattered atop a red and white tablecloth. Tidus walked over to Wakka eagerly, barely able to suppress his grin.
"Sorry, man," Wakka said, shrugging with a weak smile. "No time for lunch yet."
Tidus' stomach rumbled loudly in protest, which caused Wakka to laugh under his breath. When will there be time for lunch, huh? Tidus asked Wakka, though he didn't dare say the words out loud. This man was being very hospitable, and he'd been kind to him so far. Besides, perhaps the food wasn't done cooking yet. He'd waited this long, he could wait a little longer. Probably.
Wakka raised an eyebrow and Tidus realised he's been staring at the islander without speaking. He mumbled an apology, which made Wakka chuckle again. "Take a nap!" he said, gesturing the bed behind him with his thumb. "You look bushed."
After a moment, Tidus recognised the heavy feeling in his limbs and agreed. He thanked Wakka and sat on the bed, untying the laces of his shoes before kicking them off. For a moment, he wondered how long it had been since he'd taken those shoes off at all, but no unpleasant feet smell showed up so he left them off. Finally, Tidus lay back on the bed, stretching his arms and resting his head on his hands as he stared up at the ceiling.
It really wasn't long before he started to drift off. He closed his eyes, and though he heard footsteps approaching, there was no way he could force them open again.
"You could at least go see how they are doing," said a deep husky voice. Tidus recognised it from the temple. It must have been the priest.
"We can't interfere," Wakka replied. "It's a rule."
The voices were fading, and Tidus caught the priest saying, "But, it's been nearly..." before falling completely asleep. Those words still played in Tidus' mind, however, and carried over into his dreams.
Now, Tidus stood on the deck of his houseboat, though the people around were much taller than they were supposed to be. But, it's been nearly...
"It's been nearly a day already," said a man wearing a coast guard uniform. He was talking to Tidus' mother.
Over on the dock, Tidus could see a lot of people looking on. Some of them were crying. He didn't recognise any of their faces.
"Perhaps you could go look for us," Tidus' mother suggested to the coast guard. Her voice was trembling. She'd been crying a lot.
"People are searching for him now," the coast guard replied. He nodded once before turning and walking across the gangway to the dock.
In a quiet voice, Tidus' mother spoke to the coast guard's back. "Thank you," she said before she burst into tears once again.
Tidus remembered this day. He was seven years old and his father, Jecht, had gone missing while training. Zanarkand was full of people despairing over their beloved blitzball hero. Some were convinced he'd be found, others weren't so optimistic. At home, his mother was made of tears.
"Who cares whether he comes back or not?" Tidus asked his mother. He was a little surprised at how high pitched his voice was. He looked up into his mother's blue eyes and saw them glisten with tears once again.
"But he might die!" she said, walking towards him. She knelt down before Tidus and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
Tidus felt something dark and heavy inside his chest. "Fine, let him!" he exclaimed.
"Do you..." his mother began. She stopped to take a deep breath, brushing her brown hair out of her face and pushing it behind her ear. "Do you hate him so?"
"Tidus nodded, balling his hands into fists as he thought of Jecht's towering figure.
For a moment, his mother looked like she might cry again. Instead, she swallowed hard and looked Tidus right in the eyes. "If he dies, you'll never be able to tell him how much you hate him."
Those words burned in Tidus' mind long after the dream had faded away.
