AN: The problem with not writing for a while is that you forget the plot elements that were in the prior chapters. Oh, and I do intend to finish this story.
Chapter 11: Conde Petite Eiko
Conde Petite again.
The dwarves paced to and fro, going about their daily lives without any knowledge of the war a continent away, or the secrets hidden on their own continent. They were content, if not happy, with their safe and mundane daily lives. The permitted murder of people on different sides was plain foolish. There were not enough people as is.
"Rally ho!" greeted a mother dwarf as she passed by the four travelers. "Myshter Zidane," she added as an afterthought.
"Rally ho!" replied Zidane cheerfully. "And who is this?" He stooped down to examine the small recently ambulatory girl dwarfling. His light blue eyes were a stark contrast to the dark brown of the dwarfling's. The girl dwarfling stared back curiously. There was something about this Zidane that just seemed fun and happy.
Before the mother dwarf could reply, the human female companion interrupted. "Zidane! We're not here for sight seeing."
"Just Chill, Dagger. We'll get to the Sanctuary soon enough. I already know where it is."
The female companion, along with the strange little fellow with the pointy hat and the weird creature with a puffy white hat turned to look at him. "You already know where the Iifa tree is?"
Zidane gave them a 'well...duh' look. "I spend a better part of my childhood here, remember? I used to wander over to Iifa when I got bored."
Everyone peered at him oddly. Zidane was like that sometimes, brushing off incredible tasks as if they were nothing. Zidane seemed incapable of appreciating the great distance they had covered, and how improbable it was that a child would be allowed to wander so far away from home. Then again, Zidane was part of the ingenious plan to personally kidnap the princess of a powerful nation, depending on oglops to create a distraction; his sanity was easily in doubt.
"What about the Soul Cage?" Vivi perked up. "Didn't Mister Nima say something about it being inside the Iifa Tree?"
Zidane pursed his lips. "There's a lot of strange things about the Iifa Tree. There's caterpillar-looking monsters as large as houses, a bunch of weird-looking dragons, rotting moving things and let's not mention silver dragons that we know are nesting there. Soul Cage is probably just another monster, just more specialized."
"How far is it?" stated Dagger, looking into the gorge where the cliff-side road snaked into the other side.
"I say probably about two weeks," said Zidane thoughtfully. He absently patted the girl dwarfling's head. "I made it there in three days from here once, but I almost died."
Everyone groaned. They already had lost so much time since their escape from Lindblum.
"Awww...cheer up!" roused Zidane, staying optimistic despite the distractions and set backs. "We've been alright so far. We'll get there and find Kuja! I'm sure of it!"
They lingered around the central town of Conde Petite for half a day, gathering some more supplies, resting, and talking to some more dwarves. They needed to know what type of terrain was up ahead, and if there were any towns or any monsters they should watch out for. All in all, the dwarves were more cooperative than the black mages. Since it was faster to split up for the info gathering, they decided to reconvene at Goldpiler's Shop around noon.
Mr. Goldpiler was a green dwarf who looked like brain coral out of the sea. He was all wrinkled like a shriveled prune, with a thin tuft of orange combover hair. He was sitting right at the front counter, carving intricate vine-like designs into a hard wooden rod. It was his hobby; he worked with stout desert trees and precious Mythril to create simple, durable and effective weapons.
Vivi was there first, looking at the various staffs on display. The little Black Mage had forgotten to check the available concentration rods in the Black Mage Village so he hoped he could find a suitable staff that would replace the one he had now.
"Come back here ye brat!" someone screamed from behind the counter. "Tat Cocobo drumb steek not ye's!"
The little black mage turned his attention to Mr. Goldpiler who ran circles in the small space behind the counter.
The wrinkled dwarf looked somewhat scary, with his drooping face pulled at certain angles that made him look like a smirking mafia boss. He ran after a small thing with blue hair. A small moogle on the verge of panic chased after Mr. Goldpiler, whacking the dwarf on the shoulder with an ineffectual furry fist.
"Kupo!" The cute little moogle yelled in righteous anger. The moogle was too young to speak human languages so it only knew how to utter moogle sounds. "Kukukupo!!!" The little moogle yelled again, her bat wings fluttering faster than a honey bee.
Mr. Goldpiler brushed off the moogle's prodding. He grabbed a handy mug made from mud and sand, something not too heavy or sharp, and threw it at the sapphire haired thief.
The thief hopped up on the counter, avoiding the mug. Vivi saw that it was a little girl, probably no more than eight. She wore overly large yellow overalls and shoes a size too large for her. A sharp but cute little white horn peeked out in between her blue bangs, in the middle of her forehead.
"Kupo!!" cried the little moogle again, hands waving frantically to the left.
"No Mog! I can't run away! I can't leave you behind!" Eiko said urgently, looking at Mr. Goldpiler and the Harrow Pass where two dwarf watchmen stood blocking the way.
"KUPO!!!" yelled Mog in a surprise assault, her little furred paw dipping into a large barrel of seeds.
A hail of what looked like sesame seeds were thrown viciously against Mr. Goldpiler. The seeds went up the lumpy dwarf's nose and into his eyes, distracting him enough to allow both the thief and the moogle time to escape back into town.
"Dun jees stand ere!" shouted Mr. Goldpiler, his wrinkled face still looking like a smirking mafia boss. "Catch 'em!"
The two dwarf watchmen blinked stupidly at each other before scrambling to chase after the little thief.
A few minutes later, Eiko and her pet moogle were hiding in a lower shelf at the grocery store. She huddled into a ball, making herself as small as she could. Nestled against various potions, echo screens, and phoenix downs, Eiko stilled her breathing. She needed to hide and wait for the guards to give up pursuit. She could have summoned Fenrir, but that would have only made matters worse.
"Kupo..." whispered Eiko's trusty Mog. The little moogle curled up against the wall, more frightened than her master.
"Quiet Mog! They might hear us!" whispered Eiko back. "I don't think they saw us hiding here, but we have to make sure."
The two watchmen hurried past the grocery store, asking everyone in their path if they saw a demon rushing past here. Being the usual simple dwarves, the watchmen were pointed toward all directions, confused. The dwarves thought the demons were in reference to the group of strangers who stirred up their otherwise mundane lives. One of the watchmen pointed a lance at a weird creature that was twice his size.
"Give back the Chocobo drum steeks!" demanded the watchman.
Quina just gazed at the foolish dwarf and started salivating. The Qu imagined a large breaded smokey drum stick as large as a man's leg, the tender meat freed from the juicy center as it was slowly masticated, sucked on and then swallowed. "You bird stick?"
The watchman was confused, though he quickly realized he was being seen as food. He ran, which made the Qu run after him.
"Come back, yummy stick!" the Qu said enthusiastically, lumping after the watchman.
Eiko stayed there in the shelf until she and Mog felt safe enough to come out. By that time, it was around noon. The two pocketed some rare sand fruits and dried dates before sneaking out of the small grocery store. They were thieves, after all. Eking out an existence in Madain Sari was somewhat difficult and lonely at times. Coming to town provided food stuff and some non-moogle interaction. And each time Eiko visited Conde Petite, Mog was there.
Mog was Eiko's best friend for as long as she could remember. One of her earliest memories was playing hopscotch out in the sands with Mog. At nights, Mog would sleep with her, a small warm furry body to ward off the desert night chill. And out of the five moogles who lived with her, Mog was the cutest and smartest of them all. Mog had to be, since Mog was born on the same day as Eiko.
The two partners in crime ducked close to the ground, like two trench soldiers keeping low from enemy fire. The lunch time rush around the exit to the other side of Harrow Pass had many dwarves out and about. Eiko and Mog were lucky enough that they were smaller than the dwarves and could easily hide under feet. Once they were in front of Mr. Goldpiler's shop, they paused for the guardsman to allow a newlywed couple pass.
"Look Mog. Do you see that opening?" whispered Eiko, now hiding behind some large rainwater cisterns.
"...kupo..." muttered Mog uncertainly. There was something unusual near, and it was close enough to make the pompom dangling from the top of her head puff out more than usual.
Eiko kept on staring at Mr. Goldpiler's shop, waiting for the opportunity to escape. She was looking for the moment of distraction, the fraction of a second where Mr. Goldpiler and all his crony watchmen became preoccupied with shoppers, so that they would forget to look for a little thieving girl and her best friend.
Finally, a group of strangers, the same people that Eiko had passed by earlier, all gathered in front of Mr. Goldpiler's shop. There was that Black Mage that looked like a smaller sloppy copy of the other Black Mage whom Eiko had seen only recently. The Black Mages were odd, looking very much like a fading person in Eiko's Summoner's eyes. They were also terrified of humans, so it caught Eiko's attention that it the mage before her now was hanging around two humans.
Then there was the stout Qu creature that Eiko had seen only for the first time, and already she was scared that it might eat her. Eiko was about to examine the other two in more detail when her trusty moogle companion tugged her sleeves.
"Kupo!"
Eiko saw it. With all four strangers blocking Mr. Goldpiler's view and talking to the watchmen, Eiko and Mog could finally move. "There's our chance! Let's go!"
Accelerating suddenly, as fast as her little legs would carry her, Eiko bobbled over with Mog floating close behind her.
Now, Eiko would have been successful. She would have escaped detection and lived a perfectly normal isolated life as the last summoner in Madain Sari. But that blasted future rival of hers had turned her head.
Eiko had never in her life seen another woman prettier than her deceased mother. This one was flawless from one glance! From creamy white skin to black hair that glistened white in the sun and warm chocolate eyes that were a rarity among the summoner tribes. Her bust was also modest, all the way to her perfectly formed butt. Eiko was so taken away that she tripped on a harmless rock, calling attention from Mr. Goldpiler.
"You!!!" The wrinkled dwarf roared over the shop counters.
"Kupo Kupo Kupo!" cried Mog in three quick successions, panic overcoming the little moogle's system.
This time, the shock was greater as the young man turned, a confused look on his face.
Eiko took one good look at the blonde whose eyes were a cooler blue than glacier. Unwittingly, she looked through those two cool portals and was pulled straight into his soul.
She stood in a field of blue grass and red sky. The sky bled into the land, a land teeming with reanimated corpses, who watched her with black hollow eyes. They howled like a collective pack of hungry wolves, blood thirsty and angry. The sound was piercing, too high to be heard and yet still a dagger to the soul.
She saw an adolescent, one who looked close to an adult and yet still a child. Blood red sky blended with equally crimson hair, on his knees cradling something with his back against her. The air was filled with a nauseating stench of rotting and burning flesh.
"Eldest Brother?" Eiko seemed to hear from herself but the detached voice came out all wrong and not quite Gaian either. Her heart felt strangely hollow and her head so light that she was about to faint."Is that...Mother?"
"What is left of her physical shell," said the adolescent, in a perfectly even tone, despite the ear-splitting screeching surrounding them. Eiko could not see his face. "Her soul has gone mad, and she's burrowing through the Mist Skin of Terra. In time, she will penetrate the flesh and shatter Terra's Life Crystal."
"You cannot stop her?"
"Not for good. It's too much to purify, even if we combine our efforts. We have three futures: eaten, mad, or torn apart, along with all those others." He made a vague gesture at their surroundings. Like a rat caught in the trap of a cat, the shadowy spirits around them all retracted for a moment, then came back in full force. The man gave a negligent shrug as he observed this phenomenon and he turned his face to the side. Eiko could barely see anything because of the hair and cuts, but Eiko could tell that he was handsome. "They did say that having the soul ripped out is the most painful of experiences. Oh well. At least I had fun."
"Then let it," Eiko felt her lips move in this strange tongue. The impassiveness made her inwardly shudder.
A headshake. "That is...against one of our protocols as Callers. 'Thou shalt not kill oneself,' well, at least willingly."
"Better death than this...emptiness," Eiko heard herself say in a small boy's voice. "I can barely hear the voices anymore..."
"Say that about one cycle ago and you would have been directed to termination."
"All of Terra is technically terminated."
"Dead, yes. Terminated, no. Come. I have a solution to our current predicament. You're going to Gaia."
"What for? To kill more of them?" There was hate so pure in the voice that Eiko felt her gut wretch as if someone had punched her.
A light amused laughter from the other, like a pack of ravenous wolves. "I wish. No. We're going to stop Mother's Maddened Soul."
"How? You just said we can't purify her."
"Purifying is the end solution that we cannot hope for when she's at full power." The young man stood up, though still looking away from her. "We'll bind her to an Yggdrasil System. It'll be a temporary solution, but at least we can channel her hunger desire into something else, toward purifying the lesser Mads. Doing so should weaken her until she's manageable enough to purify. However long that might take."
Another long pause, thinking at a nauseating speed. Eiko saw the familiar Iifa Tree, though the coloring was metallic blue instead of woody green. There were images of chained and half-rotted humanoids, screaming in agony with their arms and legs stretched askew like mannequins. Symbols spun in her head with logic paths that Eiko could not even begin to discern. "Yggdrasil systems require a mist-rich and stable planet to even sprout. Binding Innetha will take a mature colossal Yggdrasil. The ones on Terra are either dead or full."
"Of course. That's why we'll use that inferior imitation on Gaia. I even have some seeds just in case that fails."
She looked down as a small black seed was placed in her hand, a little horrified that her own hand was cut in various places and caked in dried blood. She suddenly felt a raw pain, a persistent inner pain that had escaped her notice until now. Eiko had seen it in creatures that were tortured before becoming food. The struggle to resist was already long gone. Except this pain felt...surreal. Like the creature had accepted this excruciating existence without question.
"What are you going to do now, Big brother?" she felt herself asking in a soft voice. She looked up but did not see the face, only a mass of red hair that flickered constantly back to silver and gold.
"Well...We do need to capture it and it takes quite an enormous spirit to distract a Mad. That will have to be me."
A fear welled up in Eiko, much like the one she felt when Grandpa died, only more acute. "No! You've been weakened by Alexander! What would I do if...if..." the voice turned softer than a whisper. "you're gone..."
The elder chuckled. The sound was grating on the ears yet soothed the nerves. "Do not be so concerned. I am the Mortis Angeli, I always reward those who oppose me most appropriately. Besides..." The elder's face came into view and Eiko could only gasp. It was the handsomest face she had ever seen. "...you are the progeny of superior genomes. I have no doubt that you can survive on your own."
"But I'll be alone..." Eiko felt this another child hug himself, feeling the raw open flesh in his arms. "I will not be able to stand it and I will go Mad like everyone else."
Eiko felt another pair of arms around herself and felt a mixture of embarrassment and uneasiness. His face was directly in front of her, with that pair of cerulean eyes. "Though their flesh had perished, everyone is here with us," the elder tapped the younger's heart. "Our sisters, friends and I are eternal here. As long as YOU remember us, you will never be alone."
Though the words were encouraging, Eiko felt emptier than before. The words had a finality to them, a premonition of things to come.
Suddenly, the corpse moved, rising a broken forefinger accusingly at her. All around her, zombies crawled toward her, clawing at her. "Murderer!"
The elder smiled cruelly and suddenly burst into action. He brought out two blue blades that shimmered red as he darted toward another figure that looked like Grandpa, and plunged the dagger into the man's eye. Looking to the elder now, he was no longer a handsome man, but a prowling beast, coming towards her, salivation pouring over his lips.
Eiko screamed.
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Zidane blinked once, the whole entire episode of a screaming little girl barely registering in his mind. He was just looking at some interesting new daggers and accessories, his mind running through the layout of the Iifa Tree and how to get inside without getting killed. The entire place was no doubt booby trapped and full of poisonous monsters that could silence anything, except for the Dark Messenger. A person like him who was composed of raw power did not need to be as prepared, as long as he took appropriate rest. People like Dagger and Vivi who relied on magic that mitigated the hardship of traveling, however, would need to be smarter in preparation. Quina, Zidane had no idea what good Quina could be for other than an extra hand in battle and the holder of the most vital task; Quina kept the party fed and happy.
Then something else prickled in his mind, the image of a parched land of sand and broken statues. Acting on shear curiosity, he turned to see the fading back of a little summoner child with two watchmen on her heels. It took him moments to realize what had happened.
She saw my soul memories...Wait...That's a Madain Sari Summoner...What the hell...? They're still alive?
"What was THAT?" asked Vivi, bright yellow eyes wide and staring.
"Why does she have a horn?" asked Dagger, remembering skimming over some texts about a tribe of people who could call on spirits. That tribe of people were marked by the horn on their foreheads. That child she saw had a horn!
"Is she good to eat?" was Quina's question.
They all turned toward Zidane expecting an answer. They reasoned that since Zidane was originally from the Outer Continent, he should know something about the happenings here.
Zidane raised his arms in defense, giving his usual innocent face. "Don't look at me. I haven't been in the last few years."
"Well, you gotta know SOMETHING," demanded Dagger.
"Well..." Zidane trailed off, wondering how much he should talk about the Summoners. The history between the Summoners and Callers were so steeped in blood that many Terrans did not learn of it until they reached Maturity. Most of what Zidane knew was from the sparing conversation when Kuja bothered to talk about it, the rest being from books that were censored. "There used to be a Summoner Village west of here."
"Used to?" trailed Dagger, not liking Zidane's evasive tone.
"That summoner village, Madain Sari, was burned," said Zidane in a neutral tone. "They had a chief named Timothy who pissed off the wrong person at the wrong time. I guess someone survived."
Dagger's face was a reflection of righteous anger. "Why the hell did you not tell me?" The princess turned away, annoyed and sad at the same time. Slowly she started to realize how much of a miracle it was for her to survive. She remembered all those rare memory flashes of her and this other beautiful woman who was set adrift at sea. It must have been their desperate escape from the killer who burned their village. But who could have burned an entire village? From what they saw, maybe the Black Mages did it. However, many of the Black Mages were created only last year, so there was no way that they did it, unless..."Was it Kuja?"
Zidane's answer was strangely cold. "What does it matter? But I bet we'll find answers if we follow that little girl."
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Eiko had no idea what had happened. She had never felt so much raw anger against her before, she felt like a lamb with hundreds of starved wolves around her. Eiko never felt the need to run so much.
"Kupo!" trusty Mog cried and patted Eiko's hair, trying to calm her down.
So distracted by the images that she saw, she never realized that she had ran off the marked path and onto a beaten path. The well-traveled road became loose rocks that ended at a cliff.
"Ahh!!!" Eiko screamed, thinking that she was about to fall off to her doom only to feel something snag her at the cuffs. Her heart pounded, thinking that some monster was dangling her by their fingers.
When she opened her eyes, Mog was fluttering frantically around her, trying to think of a good way to get the small summoner down without hurting her.
"Mog!" Eiko was slightly relieved.
Then, without noticing, that guy she saw earlier was only a few yards away "Hey..."
"Kupopo!!!" urged Mog.
"Hurry, Mog! Before we get caught!" pleaded Eiko, trying her hardest not to try and and flee from Mog's grasp.
"Kupo!"
Now that statement had Eiko confused. Mog was usually nervous and always afraid, but Mog never sounded so freaked out.
"K-Kupo!!!' Mog, the perpetually nervous moogle suddenly had too much to handle. First it was her master's foolish attempt to steal Mr. Goldpiler's food, then it was the hiding out period, followed by the flight from the store, with guards chasing them down like rushing lava at their heels. Now it was these strangers and Mog's ability to cope with Eiko's adventures just shut down. She had to fly away.
"W-Wait!!!W-Wait!!! Don't leave me here!!!" Eiko, though a little panicked, felt annoyed by Mog's actions and sighed heavily, bemoaning his misfortune. "Stuck on a branch...Betrayed by my own trusted moogle... Is this how I meet my end?" She asked into the thin air. This was how most normal people talked according to many of the books she had read. Then her childish feeling for getting back at someone hit her. "Mog..." Eiko growled, thinking of a good way make sure Mog regretted leaving her. "I'm gonna haunt you if I die here!"
"Um...Miss? Are you alright?"
Eiko took another good look down. There was that same group of people she saw earlier, with that weird guy directly beneath her. They did not seem like the usual people who chased after her whenever she showed up in town. "Oh, am I hallucinating? That person has no horn. He has a tail, though. Huh!?" Eiko remembered something that Grandpa had warned her about, about the creatures with the monkey tails. "AHHH!!! Help!!! Don't eat me! I won't taste good! It's true! I taste awful!!!"
Zidane wanted to laugh. That was probably the oddest response he ever had from a summoner...well not counting Dagger but Dagger was a special case. "You heard her, Quina."
The Qu smiled wide, its cookie-shaped eyes growing even wider. "I see. Too bad. But moogle that ran away a very strange color. I go find and eat it."
Eiko froze. Mog! Her precious friend Mog was going to get eaten! "No, don't!" she pleaded. It would make her so mad and sad if Mog got hurt by that weird tub of lard. "Please! Don't eat Mog! Come back! Eat me instead!"
Quina leaped impossibly high into the air, its body wiggling like jello before landing heavily like an anvil. The earth shook in response to the impact, rattling Eiko loose and off the branch. She didn't even have the time to scream before she landed painlessly.
"Gotcha!" Zidane gave the girl a smile, his face greatly matching the guy from the strange dream Eiko had, only with a more pleasant air this time around.
For some inexplicable reason, Eiko felt her face go red. She had never seen another male human before nor been so close to one, at least one that was the age of all the melodramatic leading male characters she had read about. Staring at him some more, the little girl decided that this guy was rather handsome...if not a little unnerving. Eiko recalled that strange flash of daydream and that one guy's face was very similar to this young man's face. "Th-Thanks..."
Zidane gently placed the girl on solid ground while Dagger pacing closer to Eiko. "Are you okay?" Dagger asked with a concerned expression.
Eiko looked left and right, checking her limbs to see if everything was still working. "Yeah..." she mumbled, mentally assessing if these people were okay, unlike the ones from Conde Petite.
"You're not hurt?"
"I told you I'm okay!" blurted Eiko, feeling slightly annoyed and confused by the woman's concern. Eiko saw herself as a tough girl who required no one to look after her. It was not like this woman was related to her by blood or anything so why should she even pretend to care? "I'm not a child, like that kid in blue!"
"But... You don't look any older than me," Vivi protested.
Eiko glared, momentarily allowing her senses to feel out the soul. The small black mage looked and felt like a five year-old child. "Are you kidding me!?" Eiko demanded only to receive blank stares. Oh whatever! Grandpa did say everyone else on Gaia was dumber than the Summoners. "And I do have a name you know!" She stood up straight and puffed her chest, proud of who she was and wanting to prove it to the infantile black mage. "The name's Eiko! Shouldn't you introduce yourself before addressing a lady?"
Vivi looked completely dumbfounded. Every girl he had met to this point were less hyperactive, more lady-like, and less insane. "You introduced yourself first..."
"You got a problem with that!?"
"..."
The princess, trained with much more social grace, introduced herself. "I'm Dagger, and this is Vivi."
Eiko gave Dagger a cursory glance, trying to act nonchalant in the face of this woman. Inner prettiness is more important. Instead, the little girl turned to the monkey boy."So, what about you?"
"Me? I'm Zidane."
"Zidane," repeated Eiko, testing the name on her tongue. She smiled, deciding that she liked his looks and his name. And his aura was different from many. Everyone was either green or gold, but his was a pretty blue. "Alright!"
"So, Miss Eiko," inquired Zidane conversationally. "Why did you steal from the village?"
Eiko looked abashed. "I was hungry..."
Unexpectedly Zidane laughed. Hunger was usually the first reason why a thief stole. Zidane knew since he had seen many orphans of Lindblum driven to steal or starve. "You sound just like Quina," he commented. "Hey, did s/he really go chasing after that moogle?"
Immediate horror blossomed on Eiko's face. "Oh no... S/he's gonna eat Mog!"
Dagger gave Zidane a look that spoke volumes. She did not want to scare Eiko off when Eiko could offer so many clues about Dagger's heritage. "I don't think Quina would eat a moogle," said Dagger gently. She looked to Zidane for support.
"Yeah. Quina would never eat Mog!" declared Zidane.
At Zidane's assurance, Eiko looked visibly relaxed.
Mog is strong like me! reasoned Eiko. Ever since Eiko was born, Mog had been with her through thick and thin, through sadness and happiness. Though Mog was small and should be the one protected, Eiko somehow considered Mog her guardian angel.
"Do you live in Madain Sari, Eiko?" asked Dagger.
Eiko was jerked out of her thoughts. She had not heard anyone even mention her hometown since grandpa died. "Yeah, beyond this path. I'm sure Mog went home...How did you know?"
"I didn't. Zidane told me that there was a summoner village on this continent."
"Oh cool! You already know about Madain Sari!" squealed Eiko. No one ever knew about Madain Sari except the spirits and herself. "You should come! I'll show you my friends and treat you to dinner!"
"Of course we will," replied Dagger, thinking about what more she could discover about the Summoners if she met real summoners like herself. "Zidane, why don't we take her home?"
"Ha, why not. Anything you say."
They followed the twisted mountain path created by the penetrating burrowing action of a gigantic tree. The pace was relatively brisk with everyone adapted to covering long distances on foot. The weather was the same as it was the moment they exited Fossil Roo. Bright yellow sunlight beat down on everyone and sand grains filled every passing breath. And like usual, Zidane kept up his indomitable spirit and filled the silence with many of his outrageous stories of breaking and entering. Eiko joined him too, excited to tell her part of the story, adding her own creative touch to match Zidane's uniqueness. The talked about what colors they liked, what foods they liked, how long they slept and even about family.
"Oh. I'm all alone since Grandpa died a few years ago," said Eiko to herself. "Aren't I like a damsel in distress?"
"Very," agreed Zidane. "And you need a dashing knight in shining armor to come and whisk you away on never-ending adventures."
"Then, can you be my knight in shining armor?" asked Eiko without pretension.
"Oh no, not just me! I'll bring all my Lindblum buddies to be your knights and obey your every whim!" claimed Zidane.
"Oh really!?" squealed Eiko like a normally excited girl. She wanted to ask more, like Zidane's favorite type of girls and if he had any love interests, but he ran up to the pinnacle of the path where they all saw a complete view of the Iifa Tree.
"Look! That must be the Iifa tree!" Dagger pointed out.
The tree resembled a large mushroom in the distance, from its green crown that canopied almost a mile in radius to its cavernous root system. Silver dragons flew like fluttering snow flakes around the tree. There was an ominous silence broken every so often by a deep earth-rumbling howl that caused the loose rocks on the road to rattle. The lizards and scorpions that were sunning themselves out on the dried rocks, however, remained still as if nothing had happened.
Vivi could feel his gut wretch at the sound, as if the screaming monster was lamenting its entire existence. "What was that?" asked Vivi once the howling passed.
"Woah," said Zidane, rubbing his temples. He frowned as the cry echoed in the valley of roots, squinting his eyes shut. His heart pounded erratically, causing him to see spots. "Gahh, that's messing with my head."
"Well, I didn't hear anything," said Dagger matter-of-factly. She had observed the activity in the tree, but she did not physically hear anything. It puzzled her how Vivi and Zidane had immediate reactions and she herself did not. "Did you hear anything Eiko?"
Eiko nodded solemnly. "Very faintly. Grandpa says that's one of the most powerful guardian beasts Iinethalawyrpha, the untamable eidolon. He also said that it went mad a while back so they had to seal it."
Everyone perked up. "Mad?"
"Yeah," muttered Eiko. "Some eidolons just go crazy after a while. We don't know why that is, but when they do, watch out."
"What do they do when they go crazy?" asked Dagger. The subject of eidolons was close to Dagger's heart. She had yet to find out much about her real origins before plunging into this journey.
"I'm not really sure. Grandpa told me that when they first saw it, it went through the entire continent and ate everything that moved." Eiko's voice was still cheerfully bubbly. The history of the Summoners went back very far with many equally tragic and equally boring events. To a little girl like Eiko, crazy eidolons were just another dull detail. "But he said that happened a long long long time ago, before Grandpa's grandpa was born. Things like that don't happen anymore."
"But we saw one that went crazy a while ago," peeped Vivi. "It was a dragon though."
Eiko tilted her head. "One of those black and white ones that fly around all the time?"
"That sounds like what Mr. 288 talked about. What do you think Zidane?"
Zidane was no longer paying attention to them. The howling was sharper than he remember, critically resonating with his soul and digging deeper into the soul memory. He had never felt so nauseous since the Purge on Terra many years ago and the urge to puke whatever he just ate that morning was overwhelming. It made him wonder how in the world he ever managed to stay in Desert Palace if Iinetha's scream made him so ill now. "Um...you guys, I don't feel too well." For a dramatic affect, he rubbed his temples. "Eiko, is your place close? I need to lie down..." he paused, feeling an entirely different rumble than before. Drawing his twin daggers, he slid into a defensive position. "...incoming!"