Welcome to chapter 11. I hope you are enjoying everything so far, cause I know I am. I'm not so good with action chapters, but I needed one so here it is. Let me know how it is, ya?
Disclaimor: I do not own FFX, but I wish I did.
Chapter 11: Lumina
The crunching of twigs and brush being snapped underfoot made me wake up with a start. I didn't remember how I got back to the tent, but I felt like a million bucks right now. Yesterday felt like a dream, I didn't hurt anymore which was awesome. I wonder how a summoner … summons something. I didn't know, that's for sure.
I sat up, Auron still asleep. It wasn't like him, but he prolly went all macho and stayed awake worried for a long time like a stupid head. It made me feel good to know he did, but I mean, its not like I could run away without him knowing or something. I figured I'd have to talk to him about it today, and he would most definitely not be pleased.
I dressed in a long pair of pants and a knit sweater, tying my hair up and exiting the tent. I looked around for what had made the noises earlier, but I couldn't see it anywhere, whatever it was. I stretched, a big yawn escaping me and a smile crossing my face as I looked out at the sun coming up. The smile disappeared as a gust of wind chilled me to the bone. We had to get off this mountain like yesterday, that was for sure.
"Kelvin!" I said kind of quietly, I think, and the birds head popped up a little ways off. He must have made the noises looking for some greens. He must be hungry from us being stuck way up on this dumb mountain for so long.
The bird trotted up to me as I pet the side of his face. He made a noise kind of like a cat purring but a lot less quiet, which I assumed meant he was happy at least.
"We get to leave this dumb mountain today! Or start to, anyways. I know you want it to be warm too, right?" I asked him. Not that he responded at all, but he sure was a good listener. As I sat and petted the bird, I heard the crunching noise again. My head whipped around, but I couldn't see anything.
Kelvin warked a couple of times, standing out in front of me looking around. I looked for my sword and shield but I didn't see them, who knew where that dumb guy put them. I heard Kelvin start warking frantically and looked to see him running towards the tent. He kicked it a bunch, trying to wake Auron up I think.
"Kelvin stop, he's slee… holy yev… on," I said, noticing a giant leg step from around the corner of the temple. It was a ways off and still looked huge.
"Auron, hey Auron. We may have a small, teeny tiny little problem," I said as loud as I could, staring at the leg, waiting for the rest to appear.
The creature took another step and a giant behemoth stood on all fours not far off. And I don't think it was alone, either. Panic began to rise in my throat as I tried to figure out what to do. All I remember of these things is running away from them for the most part, not to be messed with.
"Auron! Stop being worthless and wake up," I said, trying to open the flap on the tent while screaming in his general direction. "You are sooooo going to die later mister," I said, the zipper jamming, only making me angrier and more panicked.
The behemoth was closing in too fast for me, though its not like it was sprinting. And by 'behemoth', I meant the group of behemoths. All three of them. Like a Murder of behemoths, or a gaggle. Or something. Group wasn't a word for something that scary.
Kelvin lifted one clawed foot and ripped the tent open down the side and stuck his head into the tent. I couldn't see what he was doing, and my head kept flipping from looking at what Kelvin was doing and how long before we were the International House of Behomoth food.
"GOD DAMN BIRD!" I heard Auron yell out as Kelvin dragged Auron's coat out, him holding onto the other end.
"Auron SHUT THE HELL UP! We have much bigger problems, three much bigger ones!" I said hurriedly, pointing at the approaching murder of behemoths.
He looked once at them, once at me, once at Kelvin, and then was a flurry of action. Kelvin let go of his coat as Auron put it on and cinched the waist. He grabbed both his and my sword, tossing me mine, and then my shield. Reaching back in, he slung his jug of nog over his shoulder, put on his sunglasses, and then put on his shoes. He took so long to get ready, oh my sweet shoopufs.
I strapped on my shield, and looked for something I should do. I reached into the pouches on my belts, not really finding exactly what I needed. Nothing that would make a big enough boom, anyways. I looked at Auron, panicking to the point of hysteria. There was no way in Spira we could take three behemoths by ourselves. Even if the gang were all here, we couldn't take on three at once. This was stupid. Beyond stupid, like stupid as Tidus stupid.
"Get the bag together, just what's in there, don't bother with the rest," Auron said, and whistled for Kelvin. Kelvin ran over to him as Auron hopped onto his back, then the two of them shot across the snow covered ground directly at the behemoths.
"What ARE you doing, stupid men," I grumbled as I did what I was told, reaching into the slash that Kelvin had made in the tent, grabbing the one big bag that had the books, the food, and most of our clothing. I looked back over towards Auron, well the yellow speck that I knew was him, and sighed before going back to work.
I didn't know how these three had snuck up without me hearing. Obviously they weren't graceful, silent creatures. Rather than that, they were loud and vicious, and would tear us apart if we didn't get away.
I lifted my sword as I sped along the ground aboard Kelvin. I turned him to the left and slowed down a bit before jumping off, landing on the ground and sliding a little ways.
"Back to her, Kelvin!" I yelled, sword raised, the lead behemoth a mere hundred or so in front of me. The bird warked and took off, running like his life was on the line, which it really was. Behemoths would gore you if they could get a hold of you, and if they couldn't, a couple of spells would finish you off anyways.
The behemoth roared, acknowledging my existence. Travelling this far from the caverns and Zanarkand was really strange, not like it mattered how they had gotten here. I sprinted towards the behemoth, my speed the only advantage I held over the hulking creature.
The behemoth raised a leg in preparation to kick me, and I ran into a slide, sliding underneath the leg to stand up beneath it. I swung my sword in a broad arc in the direction of where the leg was, and I felt it cut into the flesh of the beast. A roar of pain followed, and it kicked backwards to where I was standing. I rolled to my left, swinging my sword again in a broad arc, hitting near the same spot again.
It was angry, now. An annoyance had turned into pain, and it was very, very upset. Trying to stomp on me now, its front legs rose and fell quickly again and again, it slowly moving backwards. I rolled from stomp after stomp, avoiding what would be death. Without realizing it, it had moved back far enough where I was no longer in front of it, and it quickly spun around. Its meaty tail moving quickly on where I stood.
I took off in a sprint towards the tail, at the last moment planting the end of my sword into the snow, pole vaulting over the blur of a tail. I came down swinging my sword downwards in a powerful chop, cutting deeply into the upper hindquarters of its leg. It screamed again in pain, trying to swing its tail again. I swung as hard as I could, attempting to hamstring the creature. My sword bit into its ankle, and the behemoth faltered. It's leg crumpled down on itself, and I tried to pull the sword from it and failed. The crumpling had pinched the sword to the point where I couldn't pull it out. In my pulling on my sword, I hadn't noticed the tail moving again without the body moving.
It hit me right in the side, throwing me twenty or thirty feet into the snow. I felt the bones snap in my side before I heard it, all before I bounced off the ground. I stood up, if not a little shaky, ignoring the pain like I always had before. I broken rib or five wouldn't stop me at this point.
The behemoth, thinking I was done with it, was attempting to stand up. I ran, albeit much slower than before, towards my sword. I pulled it from the leg it had been stuck in and ran underneath its sagging stomach. I got into a squat, pointed the sword skyward, and thrust up with all the power I had.
"Dragon Fang," I muttered, and the energy dispersed into the innards of the behemoth. The power unleashed had thrown me and the sword well clear of the collapsing behemoth, gallons of blood and large chunks of meat falling from the dying behemoth. I fell to one knee, using the sword to keep me up. It had taken almost all of my strength reserves to do just that. The other two behemoths were quickly approaching; I had a minute or two at most before they were upon its dying brother.
The behemoth screamed in agony as it slowly died, and I could feel power welling up. Behemoths did not go down without a bang, unfortunately. I saw the black cloud above me appear and I knew the meteors were coming. A smile crossed my face, it had been a long time since a challenge like this had appeared, I couldn't help but smile.
Kelvin ran up to me and warked like crazy as I fished around in the bag for something I had packed before leaving, a communicator Pops said I always had to have on me. I finally found it as Kelvin was threatening me with its beak.
"Just a sec bird," I said loudly, opening the communicator and hitting the big blue button.
"Rikku, long time…" Cid started before Rikku cut her off.
"No time to chat, pops. Track me using the communicator, get here as fast as you can. Faster than that!" I yelled. I could hear him start to say something else as I hit the red button, turning it off. The tracking coordinates still being broadcast, I shoved it back into the bag and threw it around Kelvin's neck. I heard one of the behemoths scream in pain and allowed myself to smile as I jumped onto the bird. It took off, back in the direction of Auron.
As I flew towards the battle, I noticed the behemoth laying on the ground, red seeping into the snow all the way around it. Auron had beat the crap out of it! And then I noticed the other two not far off, and we didn't have much time before they were here.
I saw Auron's red coat billowing in the breeze, and Kelvin ran towards him. And then I saw the black cloud start to appear above him. Would I get there before he was blown to smithereens? I spurred the chocobo on, faster and faster. I would beat the meteors, come hell or high water.
I yelled at the top of my lungs and Auron turned to see me, surprise crossing his face. I tightened my legs around Kelvin as tight as I could as we slowed down a little bit. I wrapped one arm around the chocobo's neck, and held out my other hand. I felt Auron's slap it and I gripped it for dear life, feeling the socket in my shoulder strain to the point of giving out.
Auron used the momentum of the bird and my arm to sling himself onto Kelvin, seated right behind me, his sword in the other hand.
"Nice timing, princess," Auron said and laughed. He always got weird when the odds were stacked up against us. I remember his devilish laugh with Yunalesca, with Sin, with anything that was hard.
"Shut up, dummy!" I said, steering Kelvin around the corpse of the behemoth before darting off in the direction opposite the two approaching, lumbering behemoths.
Auron's breathing sounded extremely ragged, like more from a workout ragged.
"Are you hurt?" I asked quickly, trying to guide the bird around the rocks and snow drifts. Kelvin had a mind of his own, though, hopping over some of them and taking really sharp turns around others.
"I think I broke a few ribs, maybe," Auron said and laughed again. 'Stupid men' was all I could think.
"I hate you SO much, right now!" I yelled back at him, managing to look behind us for a moment. The behemoths had already passed their brethren's corpse, and were running at full speed for us. They had a lot longer steps than Kelvin did, and it felt like they were gaining on us.
"I got a hold of Pops, he could be here soon," I said back to Auron.
"What is soon?" Auron asked quickly, noticing the behemoths for himself.
"If he was in Bevelle? A half hour-ish. If he was on Bikanel? Two or three hours, four or five if he was in Besaid," I said quickly. I wish I had asked where he was. And then it clicked, I had an idea. Not a good one, mind you, and Auron would complain. But I wouldn't give him time to do that.
I found the tent we had used, and slowed Kelvin down to a walk. I picked up the bag around Kelvin's neck and threw it onto the ground.
"What are you doing?" Auron asked, surprised. But not as surprised as he was when I pushed him off of Kelvin.
"The communicator is in the bag. Hit the blue button. Find out how long Pops will be," I said and spurred Kelvin back into a sprint.
"Rikku!" he yelled at me, but I ignored him. I was fumbling with the chemicals and items in my pouches, making grenades of all flavors as fast as I could. It wouldn't so much as put a dent in them, but it would sure piss em off. I just had to buy some time until the Celsius got here with its missiles, if it was loaded with them. I could hope, right?
"Rikku!" I yelled, but she ignored me as her and the bird took off at full bore. I turned to the bag and fumbled around opening it up, finding the communicator on the top.
I tried opening it, failing a couple of times until it finally opened. I hit the blue button and heard Cid. A very, very angry Cid.
"What the hell are you doing, kiddo?" Cid boomed into the communicator.
"It's Auron, Cid. Behemoths showed up, three of them. We have one down, but there are two more. We need help, now," I said as fast but calmly as I could.
"Well what in the hell are you doing? I'm above Remiem right now, you are lucky I was in Bevelle and ready to go. I should be there in about fifteen minutes to a half hour. You are just going to have to hold out till then," Cid said, and I heard the beeps of a computer in the background.
"We can try. Are you loaded with missiles?" I asked, and Cid groaned.
"Not really, I got enough firepower onboard to help, though," Cid said and I couldn't help but smile. Some of our guardians were with him, apparently.
"Alright, I'm going to help Rikku, be quick," I said, and I heard him scream at me about Rikku not being with me. He could get angry later, but we needed help now.
I heard a couple of booms, and saw Rikku dart out from beneath one behemoth's legs, sword raised high and the smoke rising. At least she wasn't trying to take them in a straight fight, I shouldn't have done that either. I grabbed my sword from the snow and ran after her as fast as I could.
"Yeah!" I yelled as I rode Kelvin out from underneath a behemoth, the smoke cloud rising behind me. I had blinded both of the behemoths with my grenades, and they were thoroughly ticked off at me. I could tell Kelvin was getting tired, though, he was slowing down a little bit at a time.
It was exhilarating, though, fighting from chocobo back. Being a Chocobo knight would have been absolutely amazing I thought as Kelvin turned around so we could start another salvo. I saw a red coat in the distance approaching, hopefully Auron was alright and had talked to Pops.
I looked forward now, as both behemoths charged towards me. They may have been blinded, but it didn't mean they couldn't know where I was. I felt it before I saw it, the lightning spell bearing down on me. I raised my shield, deflecting it off into the ground where a cloud of rocks and water shot out of the ground. Of course, avoiding lightning had been the first priority I had given the shield when I had received it.
"Stupid purple things!" I yelled at the behemoth, ducking underneath the pair of horns the behemoth had lowered. I raised my sword, a shallow cut appearing along the length of the beast's stomach. It roared in pain as I shot out from underneath it and I chucked a grenade as hard as I could behind me.
It exploded near enough the beasts for them to turn around to see me moving the other way. They wouldn't even see Auron hit them, hopefully. I reached down into my pouch, and found myself out of everything. I had two empty flasks, a potion, and a couple of corks. I groaned to myself, I couldn't even do anything with that if I wanted to.
I tried to figure out what I could do now, looking down at the sword before looking ahead again as we wheeled around again. Kelvin was breathing raggedly, and the behemoths were catching up to me faster every time. Another half-baked plan appeared in my head, and I just smiled to myself. Auron was SO gonna be mad later, but that was okay. If we lived, that was. I didn't want to end up part of a behemoth's meal.
"Kelvin, get ready for this!" I yelled, excitement lacing my voice as I aimed Kelvin to shoot through the behemoth's legs again. Auron was still a ways off, but that didn't matter as much, he would have to clean up the mess I was about to create.
My breath was coming in ragged gasps, but I still ran as fast as I could. The pain had turned into a thousand daggers, but I did my best to ignore it and keep running. Rikku needed my help, and we had about ten minutes left until Cid got here, if he was as fast as he said.
I saw her wheel around again, charging head first at the behemoths like she was a bullet. Again she shot underneath the legs of the nearest one, and what happened next caused me to run even faster and swear under my breath.
As I was about to shoot from underneath the behemoth, I turned around on the chocobo, stood up shakily, and jumped towards the behemoth. I caught his tail with one arm and wrapped my legs around it, and quickly climbed up to the top of it despite only having one arm to work with, the other holding my sword.
I think the behemoth noticed I was there, as it began to swing its tail around visciously trying to shake me off.
"Whoa, big fella!" I yelled, trying to get onto its back before I was thrown to the ground. I kind of got into a crouch and hopped upwards, bringing the sword down and stabbing into its back, which actually saved me from slipping.
The beast roared in pain as I hung on for dear life, the sword acting as a pylon in a Cliffside. I used both hands and hauled myself up into a crouch. I tugged a couple times and pulled the sword from the back of the creature. I fountain of red blood shot out of it, covering me in warmth.
"Oh that's just nasty, you meany!" I yelled at it, moving forward as fast as I could along its back, leaving steaming foot prints. So, so, so, so gross. I am gonna need at least five showers. At least five, maybe ten, to wash this out. I ignored how unbelievably gross I felt and came up to where its back met its neck.
I guess I never realized how big a behemoth was until you are riding one like a bucking chocobo, but they are absolutely HUGE! I tried to figure out what I should do next, I wish I had thought this plan out all the way. I mean it had worked, kind of. The behemoth I was on had completely ignored everything around it, trying its hardest to shake me off. I deflected several lightning bolts into the creatures hide, but that just seemed to make it more angry.
I decided to just stab it a bunch, because that's all I really could do. With each thrust of my sword I got a roar in return, as well as a bunch of shaking moves. If I hadn't been holding onto the handle of the sword for dear life, I would have been tossed off a long time ago. I stabbed again and again, but it didn't really seem to do anything besides cover me in more warm red sticky stuff and piss the behemoth off.
I thrust one last time, and it felt like I hit something, so I leaned into the sword with all my weight, and felt something give way, and the behemoth collapsed. I hit my chest on the hilt of the sword, knocking the wind out of me, and as I fell towards the collapsed behemoth I was gasping for air. I bounced off of the creatures back, and rolled downwards onto the ground, landing in the snow. It would have really, really hurt if that hadn't been there.
My breathing returned slowly as I looked to see that Auron had angered the other behemoth enough that it had turned around to meet a charging red bullet.
I saw the other behemoth collapse to the ground and felt a surge of pride as I ran towards the last remaining, roaring behemoth. I didn't know what she had done, but it had worked somehow. She never thought her plans all the way through, for as long as I had known her. I allowed myself to smile again as I charged the behemoth.
My side was screaming in agony, but there wasn't much I could do about it. We had a lot of time still to wait, and Rikku couldn't do this on her own. It attempted to gore me with its horns, but I ducked underneath them to swing hard up at its face, but I missed as well. My actions weren't nearly as fast as they usually were, and with each swing I could feel my side scream in protest.
The beast roared as it lowered its horns again and I went to deflect them in an attempt to make my swing connect. The horns collided much harder than I thought, and my right arm buckled. Instead of deflecting the collision, the behemoth ended up tossing me into the air. I landed on the ground ten feet away, struggling to get back up. I had done something besides just break ribs. My breathing was screwed up worse than before, and it hurt just to breath.
I saw Rikku running towards me, distinctly without a sword. I faced up the behemoth again, and raised my sword defensively just in time to deflect the horns again, and this time I had taken the full power of the horns. I wasn't so much tossed as I was thrown tens of feet into the air.
"AURON!" I heard Rikku yell, and then I hit the ground. I heard bones crunch, and as I tried to stand back up, I found my right arm dangling uselessly at my side, a bone noticeably visible in a place it shouldn't be.
My vision was swimming in front of me, but I steeled my determination, I couldn't afford to lose consciousness right now. I finally got to my knees and looked over at Rikku, still running in between me and the beast.
I saw Auron flying through the air as I ran, get back up, and get thrown much, much higher.
"AURON!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Panic and fear were now primary emotions, rather than being thrilled and excited like I was before. We had run out of tricks, we got two of them, and even that was a feat. But the third one was going to tear us apart.
I kept running, determined to do something to pull the beast off of Auron and onto myself. He was badly hurt, he couldn't do anything here anymore. It was all up to me, mano y mano with the beast.
I saw the beast bear down on Auron and something broke inside of me, power coursed through me, and shimmering runes appeared beneath, above, and before me. I did the only thing that seemed right.
"Lumina!" I screamed, and time seemed to slow down. The runes flared to life, turning from a black to a vibrant red, and expanded. They rose into the sky, turning it red as a sunset. The entire area we were in seemed to be bathed in an unnatural light, almost like flames. I felt so much more powerful than I had only moments ago, and that's really the only way I could explain it. I no longer felt tired or worn, or panicked or fear. Determination and anger replaced all of those. I didn't even turn to look at Auron, it was like it didn't matter anymore.
I heard the call before I saw it, the shriek of a bird of prey, and then it came into view. An absolutely huge bird, bathed in what seemed to be flames descended down to where I was, floating off the ground with ease. The behemoth noticed it and roared in surprise.
"Go, Lumina!" I roared, my voice louder than I ever remember it being. I didn't care, though. The power I had, taking over who I was, didn't care. I was swimming in this new warmth, this new glow, and when I thought about before, it seemed so dull, so utterly… inconvenient.
I watched the runes appear and expand, the land become wreathed in a flame like light, and I saw the bird descend. I didn't know where it came from and what it was doing, but I looked at Rikku, and it seemed like she had… changed.
Maybe it was from the pain I was feeling, but she looked different. She stood tall, her back to me, never glancing back. She yelled something but I didn't understand it, but it sounded so much fuller than what she had been moments before. She was covered in something red, blood most likely I thought. It must be freezing to her in this kind of cold on the mountain, but she didn't seem to notice.
"Rikku!" I yelled and got no response, and when I tried to stand up again, I fell back down to my knees. My body had given out, it wasn't like when I was just pyreflies anymore, I had physical limitations again, and I had obviously run into the wall.
I scanned the skies, looking for the Celsius, but didn't see it. I looked back to Rikku and the large fiery bird in front of her locked in battle with the behemoth, watched for a little while, and looked back up.
I saw the Celsius coming in fast, descending from the clouds to where we were, and smiled. We had made it, I though as I fell backwards, no longer able to support my body or mind.
The behemoth was no match for the glowing bird, it was near death already. I had started walking towards it slowly, not noticing uneven ground or even the cold from the liquid slowly freezing onto to me, and freezing me along with it.
"Lumina, finish this rabble off," I said, the voice not even sounding like me. I don't think I would have said something like that, either.
The bird screeched in acknowledgement. It rose in the air, the redness of our surroundings bleeding back to white and black like it had been before. The bird seemed to glow brighter and brighter, and all at once it loosed the gathered energy.
A river of red energy moving faster than an eye could track flew from the bird to the behemoth, and one last roar came out of the behemoth before it simply… disappeared. The bird disappeared as well, leaving me alone. The power I had been swimming in before disappeared as well, and reality hit me like a ton of bricks.
I was absolutely freezing, my arms and legs, even my ears felt numb. I fell to my knees, trying to get back up but failing.
"Kel… Kelvin!" I choked out, the bird appearing from behind some rocks, approaching me apprehensively, like it didn't know who I was.
"Kelvin, help me!" I yelled again, and he trotted to me. With some effort, I climbed onto the bird, half sitting, half laying, and just kept saying the same thing over and over. "Go to Auron, Kelvin, to Auron. To Auron, to Auron."
I was mumbling, shivering, freezing in the cold and drained of all energy. Kelvin was tired too, I could tell even through my own suffering. We picked our way over to where Auron was laying on his back in the snow, unmoving.
"Auron!" I croaked, the chocobo letting me down next to him. "Auron wake up!" I yelled, pounding on his chest. He was breathing, but not responding or moving.
I was so frantic that I hadn't noticed the Celsius come in or land, or the team of people on hovers riding out quickly towards us. I was too cold, too worried about Auron, too tired to notice.
"Rikku, Rikku, are you okay?" a familiar voice I heard asked. I had closed my eyes for a second, and couldn't open them back up. I didn't really feel like it either, I was finally warming back up.
"Yeah, I'm okie dokie whoever you are. It's warm again, finally," I mumbled, trying to go back to sleep.
So there you have it, the mighty action chapter. I think it came out rather well, you can only do so much with words to describe this stuff. Let me know how it is. I already have two more chapters written, but proof reading won't happen today, I have a 16 hour workday starting in ten minutes. So R&R, and check back tomorrow :)