Breath of Fire 2: The Destined Child
Chapter Nine: The Witch's Tower
New Haven – 10 am.
Nina's Perspective.
The following day, Ryu, Katt, Sten and I were prepared to head back to Captaina. This time, Rand joined us, he had done more than his share in helping rebuild Niro's home, and as much as he deserved some time to relax, he wanted to get away from there for a little bit. It would have been faster to take the boat back, but Katt insisted she hated travelling by sea. I found it a little odd since she didn't seem to have a problem with it the other day, but when I asked her, she just said it was because her mind was on other things, mainly what a jerk Ryu had been.
She seemed to not be thinking about that now though as we travelled along the path from Mount Fubi. By noon, we were nearly at the first bridge that led to Corsair. A rather large group of armed guards were inspecting people as they passed, and a wanted poster hung at the outpost with Bow's face drawn on in a mean looking grimace that I felt didn't suit the cheerful Grassrunner at all. A reward for his capture was listed at 50,000 Zenny, whoever wanted him captured meant business, the rich man I heard them talking about seemed eager to get what he lost, back.
One of the guards just held the picture up, looking at it, then each of our faces as we passed, to me it seemed obvious that none of us fit the appearance of the picture, but they seemed to be trying to match it. Finally we were past them after an hour's delay of asking if we knew where Bow was, where we were going and where we came from, all of which Ryu had answered easily, lying about us coming from Hometown though, but telling them we were going north. They didn't think about that much and we were beyond the outpost afterwards.
By nightfall we were at Corsair once again. I guessed the boat would be arriving back at Corsair within two days, and was sure Ryu would want to depart quickly so he could pick up the trail of the thief once more. We split apart again, Katt and I sharing a room, the three boys in another. For some reason my mind drifted to Mina, she had known where to find me before, but if we were crossing the ocean to go to the other continent, would I ever see her again? Maybe after a while, I'll find a way to contact her, with a home at New Haven, I'm sure we would go back there, and I could arrange a visit from her at some point.
The next morning we left early, a bridge covered the gap south of Windia so we didn't have to go near that town, much to my appreciation. Again, we passed the Monster Hunters on the way to Captaina, but this time they seemed in grim moods. Two of their group had vanished the other day, shortly after we passed them; they were working in the woods south investigating an unusual monster sighting, when something came out of the shadows and killed them without even showing itself. Ryu looked like he wanted to help, but before he could offer, they said they were waiting for reinforcements from the Rangers guild to arrive in the evening, and had it covered. Once more, it was evening by the time we reached Captaina, and we were again greeted by grateful villagers. They offered us free lodging at the inn, but Rand and Ryu went off to talk to a few people before they were ready to turn in. Sten was still with Katt and me but he seemed to be looking around the town.
"Missing something, Sten?" Katt asked him after she caught him checking out a pair of young women standing not too far off.
"Hmm? Yeah, I was just checking to see if maybe Sana's sister might be around here somewhere, but no one as hot as she was seems to be here anymore."
At that, Katt wacked him on the head with her staff and walked away in a huff. A silly grin was on his face when he was rubbing the bruise. "So, think she's warming up to me, Nina? Why else would she keep giving me those love taps?" He seemed to think Katt was hitting him out of affection, but I knew it was to keep him in line. A moment later I went off to find her, she was at the docks.
"We're really going across there, aren't we, Neen?" she asked me; though the nickname wasn't one I was fond of.
"Yes, that's why we're here after all Katt."
"Darn" replied after a moment. "I really don't like boats, isn't there some other way we can get across? How long do you think it'll take us?"
"Probably about a day, maybe a little less. Don't worry, Katt, it'll be over before you know it, I'll be here for you." She still looked unsure about the upcoming trip, but was less nervous now.
The next morning, we weren't the only ones getting ready for a big trip. Rand was telling me when they began looking for a carpenter to undertake the job of building New Haven; all three of them were excited to try their hand at a new project. Three men were commanding several others to load up a new ship and make the preparations to travel to our new home. It was exciting to think that the next time we made it back there, it would look even better, Hometown a distant home in my memory, here I wouldn't have to worry about moving to a town where they may not accept me, I would be among the first settlers there.
They were working in a very organized manner, and before I knew it, the ship was ready and sailing off into the distance. Just afterwards, when the carpenter's ship faded out of sight, another one was approaching from the west. Katt notice it too, and called out to our companions.
"It's come back she said. Ryu, the ship, it's returning."
The dock workers knowing we were in a bit of a rush had the supplies all ready to be loaded. The foreman assured us that it would only take an hour or so, and then we could be ready to go. I for one was excited, as were Rand and Sten, Katt had grown quiet, and I noticed Ryu standing off deep in thought. As I found him in Corsair, he was standing before a statue of the Dragon God again.
"Are you all right, Ryu?" I asked him as I approached. He replied with a simple nod, but I could tell he was hiding something from us. "Well, if you ever need to talk, I'm here for you, you know?"
"Thank you, Nina that means a lot. I'll keep that in mind." With that, I left him to his thoughts, whatever they were, and went back over to where Katt was waiting. She was watching them load up the ship, and with Rand's help they had gotten it done quicker, he was much stronger than any of them and was able to hoist some of the more massive crates onto the ship single-handily.
The ship was large enough for nearly a hundred people, yet only the five of us, the captain and a crew of ten were on it. They were transporting a great amount of supplies to a place called Namada, but agreed to drop us off at the port town just across the sea. The previous trip did bring a young woman fitting Ryu's description across and dropped her off there as well; she paid handsomely for an early departure, but kept to her room. It wasn't much, but it was a lead on where she had been, and Ryu seemed thankful for the news.
The Captain's Voyager – 5pm.
Ryu's perspective.
Three days, that was how long it would take us to cross to the western continent. The captain of the ship had called this vessel the Captain's Voyager, and had been in charge of it for over 20 years, travelling to and from the continents. He had seen the woman I was looking for, polite he described her, but solitary, she paid a lot to depart quickly and kept to herself during the trip, mainly staying in a cabin below.
I was still thinking about what happened with Sana, of all the friends, Nina was the only one who seemed to know that something had happened. Katt was angry for a while that I was led away by her, but seemed to be over it now when she found out that I was responsible for burning down their home. Rand, Sten and Bow were all just glad I had gotten an attractive woman to stay at the town now, and Sten asked several times if she had any sisters I could hook him up with.
Watching my companions, they didn't seem to have that train of thought, Nina looked pleased to be here, standing at the fore of the ship, or flying up to the crow's nest. It was the first time I noticed she didn't seem to be trying to hide her black wings, spreading them out to catch the air. The captain learned she was a skilled magician and she helped us along by summoning the wind to allow us to move faster during the times it had died down.
Rand said he came from the west when we met, but he never really got to go to this part of the continent, and was interested to see what lay here. Sten had never really been anywhere near here, telling me that Windia was the furthest he'd been from his hometown. Katt didn't talk to any of us during the trip really, she slept below at night, and during the day she stayed near the mast, holding on to it tightly. Nina told me it was because she really didn't like travelling by sea, obviously, because she was looking a little green. A few people tried to get her to eat something, but she refused after the first day because it just came back up on her.
A storm the second night only made things worse for the poor Woren. Heavy winds and lightning rocked the boat a lot more, and below the deck Katt was hiding out in the bathroom while the rest of us watched the storm through windows below the deck. It passed uneventfully and shortly after sunrise on the third day we reached land. Katt was the first off the ship kissing the ground happily for a few minutes. The rest of us followed moments later, we had been dropped off at a large beach that had a dock set up for ships, it was, the captain informed us, where he dropped off the mysterious woman we were looking for. As soon as we were off, they bid us farewell and the ship was on to its next destination.
After a few more minutes, Katt got up and reverted to her normal cheery self. We walked along the beach; just past it was a large forest full of swamps. Even being careful to climb around the large patches of muck, we soon found ourselves dirty and sweaty from the humidity. It reminded me of Tag Woods a little; every so often we came across a dead end and had to backtrack.
"We should have just stayed on the beach" Sten complained. I didn't know what he really had to complain about, he was sitting atop of Rand's shoulders far above the ground. Katt didn't seem to care much about getting muddy, but Nina eventually climbed on my back to avoid the swampy parts. Katt just glanced over every now and then, giving Nina a knowing smile, there was some secret between the two of them.
As we walked through this swampy area, more and more frogs began populating the area. We were almost out when our way was blocked by a massive swamp that we would have to walk through. It came up to my knees, Nina holding tightly on to me as I was the first to lead the way through. Rand followed with Sten on his shoulders and even Katt climbed on the big man as well, but moved as far away from Sten as he could when he gave her a flirtatious look.
"Pardon me, travellers" a voice around us said suddenly in a strange accent. Looking around I didn't see anyone here but the frogs that inhabited this area.
"Did you guys hear that?" Katt asked us as we were all trying to find the source of the voice. We didn't see anything, and a moment later I continued moving through the swamp.
"Excuse me, travellers" it said again. I looked around, and my eyes fell on a nearby frog.
"Are you talking to us?" I asked it.
"No, no, not over there, I am right here, sir" it said. Suddenly the ground beneath me started moving and I lost my balance falling into the swamp, Nina landing behind me. She was not pleased and glared at me as I helped her up, but then looked behind where I stood. Following her gaze, I was face to face with a much larger version of the frog I thought was talking to me. It stood about 6 feet wide and was about the height of Rand.
"Holy crap!" said Katt suddenly. "Is it a monster, Ryu?"
"No, no, I mean no harm, bonjour to you all. I was hoping I could have a moment of your time." It said politely.
"Alright..." I answered unsure what a large talking amphibian could want with us. "Can we help you with something?"
"Ah, how generous of you kind adventurers to offer to help one such as me. I have been here for a few weeks now, waiting for someone like you to pass through here, and voila, here you are!" he was excited. "I was visiting the beautiful witch to the west of here, she was down and I wanted to do something to cheer her up, and alas, she put a spell on moi. I was hoping that I could met some people such as yourself soon that may go there and ask if she could remove it for me. She is living in the tower over yonder, and I can no longer fit in there, would you be so kind as to do this for me, kind adventurers? I would be so grateful to have my normal form returned to moi."
"A witch cursed you to this form?" Nina asked the large frog "How awful."
"Oh, do not be upset with her, she is just a young witch who has fallen a little off her path. If you just asked her nicely she would probably undo the spell and then everyone would be happy again. It is not far from here, and I would like to be getting home soon. Thank you in advance kind travellers, I look forward to being back to normal. Oh, and where are my manners, my name is Jean, if you were to be helping moi, I believe we ought to be acquainted, do you not agree?"
Each of us introduced ourselves to the large frog, it was unusual as far as the greetings I've had up till this point are concerned, I never expected to be on a first name bases with a talking frog, but after we got the witch to release her curse on him, I supposed it wouldn't seem so strange.
"Very nice to meet you all, ze beautiful Nina, ze fiery beauty Katt, ze strong warrior Rand, ze brave Ryu and the wise Sten. Thank you for your assistance, and good luck, I hope to be able to repay you all soon."
With that, we left the swamp, and luckily for us, just beyond lay a lake we were able to wash up quickly in. If we were going to try and confront a witch that had the power to turn people into giant frogs, it would probably help to make a good first impression, and I could tell Nina was not happy having been dropped into the swamp, she had been covered in mud after I accidently fell. Soon we were on the way. It was not hard to spot the tower Jean spoke of; we could easily see it from where we exited the swamp, standing many stories high, it was a circular building that rose high above the tallest trees.
"Looks like we're in for quite a climb" Sten said to us as he glanced upwards. "Hope you know what we're getting into boss."
I didn't really think we could be asking for a lot of trouble, all we had been asked to do was go ask a witch to remove her curse on somebody, but as I thought that, it occurred to me that lately nothing had been a simple task, finding a thief, going to Corsair, even walking into Captaina proved to provide us with an unusual occurrence, and I'm sure the others felt the same. None the less, we now stood in front of a massive gate at the base of the tower.
Rand stepped forward to open the gate, but then a bolt of lightning struck down, he narrowly avoided it.
"Now now now, it's not that easy to enter my chambers. I'm looking for someone a little cuter than you big boy. Come back some other time."
Sten stepped forward. "I know I'm cuter than old Rand here is, let me give it a go, big guy. She sounds like my type, really cute." He said patting Rand aside and trying to open the gate."
"Tsk tsk, I said I wanted someone cuter, I don't like hairy boys, shoo, shoo monkey, shoo."
Katt ran forward and started pounding on the gate. "Let us in you witch, we have to talk to you about Jean. You can't just go around cursing people whenever you like!"
The witch didn't seem to be listening to her. "I don't like girls, go away, kitty cat."
Nina tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at an orb, she must have figured out that was how she was able to see down here. "Ryu, stand in front of the orb, I think...she'll think you're cute enough." Nina said to me turning away quickly. "Then we can go talk to her."
Katt glanced over and then grabbed me by the arm and dragged me in front of the gate. A moment later the female voice spoke again. "Mmm, very nice, I like this one you brought me, but are you just a pretty face I wonder? I'll have to test you a little to make sure you're worth my time, cutie."
The gate opened up and a large man with a pig snout and heavy armour came out brandishing an axe at me. I drew my sword. The guard she sent at me was slow and clumsy, and soon lay unconscious on the ground. "Impressive, I think I'll have fun with you, my boy. Come on in, I'll be waiting upstairs for you, don't disappoint me."
The gate now open, Katt was the first to walk past me. "Guess keeping you around is starting to have some benefits, Ryu. But, you had better not think of running off with this floozy, or I'll be really mad this time." Rand, Sten and then Nina followed leaving me to take up the last spot. Inside, we found ourselves in a large open room, a platform built at the back stood a young boy about fifteen or so standing between two statues. They looked to be of young men as well, but very lifelike. The boy in the middle almost seemed scared of something. Sten approached him, and he backed away.
"You shouldn't be here, it's not safe. If she isn't happy, she puts a spell on you, it's only a matter of time before she changes her mind and curses me..."
"Now now, I hope you're not telling my new toy anything bad about me, are you?" the witch's voice echoed around us. A moment later a beam of light surrounded the boy and seconds later he had turned into a statue.
"Oh no, Ryu, she really is a witch." Nina said. She touched the statue for a moment. "He's still warm; do you think these two were people as well, before she turned them to stone?"
I just nodded, it was obvious that despite Jeans assumption she may just be misunderstood, she seemed to think nothing of just doing what she wanted. Hopefully a short word with her would make her see the error of her ways, but would it be that easy?
The tower was a bit of a maze, winding paths eventually led us to the staircase leading up, but soon we began coming across puzzles blocking our way, a riddle had to be answered correctly or a large golem would not move out of our path, sometimes a lever opened one gate and closed another, it took a little experimenting, but soon we had passed that little obstacle as well. A few more of the strange pig men as we proceeded through the witch's home, they weren't very good fighters, and Sten said something about them just being here as servants for the beautiful witch.
"How do you know she's beautiful? She could be as ugly as that floozy Ryu brought home."
"Trust me, with a voice like that, there's no way she's not a ten. And besides, you're just mad she easily took your boyfriend's attention."
Sten jumped out of the way as Katt swung at him. "Ryu is not my boyfriend, shut up Sten, if you know what's good for you."
"Come on guys, now isn't the time to be bickering; we've got a job to do." Rand told them strictly. Katt stuck her tongue out at him causing Nina to laugh quietly, but accepted what he said.
I think we were at the top floor finally when Sten called out to us. "Hey, Ryu, over here a sec, boss." He was standing in front of a statue of a woman that looked familiar. "Think this girl looks like Sana? You don't think she came here too, do you?"
It did look a lot like Sana, but she was in New Haven, probably flirting with a few of the carpenters to get them building a fancy room for her, but I had to admit, it looked an awful lot like her. "It looks like her..." I said, avoiding both Katt and Nina's glare, "but, I think it's just a statue, she couldn't have followed us here."
Sten tapped on the statue's chest when Katt grabbed him and threw him forward. "Up front, monkey, we don't have time for you to ogle the manikins, keep going."
Sten was the first to enter the room, a large bed near a fire place, several more statues lined the wall of the room and red carpeting covered the floor. In the center standing by a large crystal orb on a golden stand was the witch. She was dressed similar to how Sana had been, tall black high heeled boots, a short skirt and tight top that revealed a lot of skin. She also wore pointed witch's hat and her long red hair hung down. Sten's mouth immediately hung open. "Oh, baby, told ya she was hot, Katt, told ya."
"Sten, shut up!"
The witch walked up to us, moving her hips as she walked, she seemed to enjoy causing men to stare at her, and for Sten it was working. She moved right past him, and stood in front of me. "Ah, you made it up here cutie, good; I was starting to get lonely up here all by my little self."
"Maybe that's because you're cursing everybody, witch!" Katt yelled to her, but the witch ignored her words.
"My name is Nimufu, I've been waiting for a big, strong handsome man to come up to my bedroom, none of the others made it up here before you, they weren't strong enough, but, you are, you cute boy." She placed her hand on the side of my face, the same way Sana had done, but I didn't feel like my mind was cloudy this time.
However, Katt stepped in between us, and I heard Nina tell her to back off. Pushing Nimufu back with a shove, she turned around and slapped me hard. "Get it together Ryu; what's with you and the trampy chicks...geez."
"I thought I told you I wasn't interested in girls, what are you doing in my tower, kitty, and you, Windian...this tower is only for me and the cute boys, not all you riff raff." Katt looked like she was going to punch her, but Nina stepped forward, putting her hand on Katt's shoulder.
"We're only here because what you're doing isn't right." Nina told her. "You cursed the man Jean and left him in the swamp, and how many people have you lured here and turned to stone? You have to turn them back to normal!"
"Oh, feisty little Windian girl aren't you, and why should I do that? What is in it for me? You don't have anything I want girly."
This wasn't going the way I expected. I had hoped she would be reasonable, if we asked her to remove the curse she placed on Jean then we'd be done, I should have known that it was never that simple. The next words out of Nina's mouth shocked me.
"Ryu." She stated simply. "I challenge you to a duel, if you win, Ryu will stay with you, if I win, you release Jean and everyone else here you put a curse on."
What? She was bargaining for me? This was crazy!
"Nina, what are you doing?" Katt asked surprised. "You like..." she paused looked at me. "You, are you sure you can beat her?"
Nina just nodded, "It's okay Katt, I know what I'm doing. It will be all right, we'll get everybody back to normal in no time."
The witch's viewing orb was moved off to the side, two circles appeared magically on the ground when Nimufu waved her hand lazily, she took the one closest to the fire place, and Nina stood in the center of the far one. Each of them drew a few runes within their circle, I didn't really understand what was happening, but Sten seemed to know.
"It's a magician's duel, the objective is to either knock the opponent out of the circle, or render them unconscious." He explained. "I've seen a few of them back home when people were training, each person can chose three schools of magic to use for it, Nina has chosen fire, lightning and wind, it looks like Nimufu has picked water, lightning and dark magic. It's always interesting to watch, but I hope Nina knows what she's getting into, the witch is older and probably has more experience, and with you being on the line...actually it's win-win for you, boss, either you go free, or you spend some time with a sexy witch most people would jump off this tower for."
"I think I'm rooting for Nina to win there, Sten, maybe she should have put you up on the bargain block here. Anyways, what else should I know about this duel?"
"Well, summoning isn't allowed, Nimufu seems like she enjoys using people to do her work for her, so that could have put her at a disadvantage, she might be a bit rusty, and Nina's a very advanced magician from what I saw. I assume she wouldn't have put up this bet if she didn't think she could win, well, we'll just have to watch and see."
Nimufu stood in her circle and a long black staff appeared in her hand, Nina summoned a blue rod the same way.
"It's not too late to just walk away, rookie" Nimufu told her "I understand if you're scared of facing me without your hero by your side."
"You wish!" Nina told her "Shall we begin?"
Nimufu didn't wait, she waved her staff and a ball of blackness surrounded Nina, but seconds later it was devoured by a shield of fire then what looked like blades of wind fired quickly at the witch. She held her staff in front of her and a wall of water appeared in front, the wind blades striking harmlessly against it, but before Nimufu could counter, three arms stretched from the nearby fireplace seeking to grab hold of her, burning her before she was able to douse the flames.
Nina looked confident, she was powerful, and it seemed Nimufu hadn't really exercised her power in a while. She summoned two bolt of lightning that streaked towards the Windian, but she drew them to the rod she held and threw it back at her with more power, three powerful bolts of lightning struck down on Nimufu and broke through her shield of water, giving her a fierce shock. A hurricane formed around the witch's circle, and as much as she struggled to counter, it soon swept her away tossing her hard onto her bed.
Nimufu screamed out in frustration. "Ahh, I'm so beautiful, and the only one who comes to meet me is that stupid FROG. Fine, you win, I'll keep my word," she snapped her fingers. "There, now everyone will be back to normal, now, please just leave me alone. You can change the frog back with a kiss from a girl; his spell was a bit more complicated."
She stood with her back to them after getting out of her bed. "Leave me in peace, please; I'm in no mood for company anymore. You can go out the way you came in."
It was clear the witch was disappointed with having lost, and slowly we departed her chambers. I thought I heard something about her really looking forward to playing with her new toy, but seeing as how the 'toy' she referred to was me, I couldn't feel too sorry she didn't get what she wanted.
The tower was a lot more active now, yet when we walked out of the witch's chamber, a wall appeared behind us. The first person we came across was the woman who had turned into a statue looking like Sana. Now that she no longer stone, it was obvious it wasn't her, but had looked very much like a twin, the only difference being this girl had blue hair, and dressed in a long blue dress and halter top, she revealed less of her body than her sister.
"Oh, thank you, I came to confront the witch a while ago, but she turned me to stone. You broke her spell, and just in time, I think Granny is calling me home."
"Are you and Sana sisters?" Sten asked her quickly.
"Oh, you've met Sana? Yes, we're sisters, we come from a big family, and there are six of us all together." Sten found this news great. "I got to get back to them or she'll be mad."
"They're staying with us now!" Sten told her, "Ryu here burned down your grandmother's home, and had to give her a new one, its south of Hometown."
"Oh, thank you, I would've been confused if I appeared in a new area and it wasn't my home. Well, I must be off, thanks again."
She began casting a spell, and Sten called to her "Can't wait to see you again," before she disappeared in a flash of light.
As we worked our way back down the tower, we encountered a few more of the people Nimufu had turned to stone, some were happy to be getting away from her, but some insisted she wasn't really that bad, and wanted to stay to comfort her now that they were free to move around. It had begun to rain by the time we were outside again, and the swamp had a darker appearance because of it. On the way there, Katt and Nina were arguing about who'd have to give him a kiss, both seemed reluctant to have to give a giant frog a little peck to break the spell, and resorted to flipping a coin.
"I'll take tails, because, I have one" said Katt
"Fine," replied Nina and pulled out a ten Zenny piece. Throwing it up in the air, each of the women held their breath to see what the outcome. When it landed, Katt shouted out her cheer, the tails side was up, she won, and Nina would be forced to kiss the frog.
"Ah, ze brave adventurers, did you not go talk to ze witch, I am still a frog, you see."
"We just came from there," Katt told him nudging Nina forward. "The way to break your curse is for one of us to give you a little kiss, and Nina here couldn't wait to do it."
"Ooh, ze beautiful Nina wishes to give me a kiss, well, I am here waiting, mon Cheri."
Nina stepped forward, then back nervously. "It's...it's to help someone right?" She had lost the bet to Katt, and now seemed to be really regretting it. "Okay...everybody, turn around, look the other way please."
We all turned around so we couldn't see Nina, but we could hear her still struggling. "Okay, it's to help somebody...anybody would do it since it's to help someone."
"I am waiting, mademoiselle. All it takes is a little kiss, and I shall be back to normal."
We waited. "Okay, here we go."
Sima Swamp – 6pm.
Nina's perspective.
I closed my eyes as I leaned forward. I would get Katt back for this, damn that Zenny piece, I really didn't want to kiss a frog, but I guess she won fair and square. His skin was not slimy, but scaly and didn't feel pleasant, but a second later it was over. I stepped back, and he began glowing very brightly. I had to turn away because the light was hurting my eyes, and suddenly everything in the swamp was foggy.
"Ah, thank you so much, my beautiful Nina, it is good to feel like myself once more. I don't know how I will ever repay you all, but I have an idea, I shall greet you to a delicious dinner at my castle."
We turned around slowly, he was a prince? This was interesting; the witch had turned away a prince that came seeking her company. When we finally got a look at him, I knew why.
"You're...you're a frog?" I stated.