The rest of the day had been hard and difficult. That kind of destruction was something completely new, something that Spira had never seen before. Auron and Jecht had searched for survivors while Braska had performed the sending for the dead. Their mission to save even someone had been in vain because they were alone in that wiped-out city. They had met other people only when a cargo ship had arrived, and that ship had departed many hours ago. The ship's crew would tell about the horrifying events to other people and by tomorrow everybody in southern Spira (where the ship came from) would know about Sin's latest attack. But right now Jecht, Auron and Braska were worn-out from all the work they had done and ready to leave the ruined city.
"Yevon, hear my prayer. If there is anybody - ANYBODY - in this city who is alive, please give us a sign so we can save him."
"Ahoy!"
It was almost as Braska's prayer had been answered. A little ship had arrived without them noticing. The crew got its feet wet while descending from there because there was no harbor left. That crew looked familiar and they didn't need to come very close when Braska already recognized them.
"Caccet!"
The leader of the Lacyan Lions walked through the depris-filled street with two teammates, Shalin and Tren. They couldn't believe their eyes when they looked at the destroyed city, couldn't believe their ears when Braska told them the whole story and couldn't believe that their worst fear had come true in the most cruel, shocking and unfair way. And when they finally accepted the truth that their homes, families and most teammates were dead, all they had left were tears.
Their journey continued in silence with their new companions, Caccet, Shalin and Tren. It was already dark when they left. They had so much grief and hatred against Sin in their hearts that they failed to be afraid of fiends that stocked their prey expecially at nighttime. Still, they had no trouble during their long walk to the nearest village, M'Oongaha, where an inn was still open. They payed for one night and before heading for bed they decided to have a pint of beer in a pub that was in the same building (Jecht drank juice). It was friday and the pub was almost full. Caccet with his teammates occupied a table and Braska with his guardians did the same.
"Hey, are you coming from Lacya?" a slightly drunken man asked.
"...yes."
"Oh really? Yesterday two guys came from there... said they were going to Guadosalam... a little mage and a huge man... were they your friends?"
"No. Not friends."
Auron wasn't in the mood to answer the guy's questions. And he definately didn't want to talk about Fedeen and Rigg.
"Hrrmph... so, how was the big city?"
Auron didn't want to do it, but it would be better if everyone knew at once what had happened, instead of everyone just asking the same question separately. If he had told the guy that Lacya was destroyed, he would've passed the information forwards and everyone would've wanted a confirmation from him. So he rose up and asked loudly for everyone's attention.
"This morning Sin attacked the city of Lacya. The city was completely destroyed and the three of us survived because of Braska's summoning abilities, and they over there survived because they were fishing on a boat away from the city while this happened. Everyone else died."
People had different reactions to Auron's announcement. Some were shocked, some were questioning his sanity and some were just too drunk to say anything. Auron left the pub and was soon followed by the rest of the crowd.
AUTHOR: I'm kind of surprised because the hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans & other places at the same time while I was writing about Sin's attack. Lacya's fate resembles a bit of New Orleans's fate. I hope all the best to anyone who was affected by Katrina.
I hope it doesn't matter that I write so seldom nowadays. It's just that I've been planning a lot of stuff, and when I've got enough money I'll go travelling so there will be a little period (week, two weeks) when I don't write at all, unless I finish this before I've got the money, which is very possible because I don't have any kind of job right now.