In a mood to update this story as often as possible- especially since it's been on hiatus way too long.
Disclaimer: Still own nothing but my own character. Moving on!
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After exiting the temple, the group saw that it was getting dark out. "So, what should we do? Sleep early, or get a head start on finding Turmoil Terrain?" Mr. Drippy asked.
"I vote sleep- this day has been long enough as it is," Swaine muttered.
"I'm with Swaine- after those tests, I don't think I'll be able to stay awake during the next catastrophe," Zeke added, stifling a yawn.
"I'm out of magicka, anyway. Let's rest tonight, then leave first thing in the morning," Vincent suggested.
"Sounds good. So, are we camping out, or booking another hotel?" Zippy asked while stretching.
"Let's camp out- if we keep sleeping in hotels, we'll fall short on money," Tracker said.
"Unless we find a cheap hotel," Zeke stated, turning to Oliver. "It doesn't cost much to stay at the Inn at Ding Dong Dell, right?"
"Right- gosh, you guys must have learned a lot about this world!" Oliver stated.
"…more than they're letting on," Swaine scoffed.
"Swaine…" Esther said in a warning tone.
"I'll open a portal there," Zeke said, doing so. Everyone stepped through, coming to the gates of the cat-kingdom. "Here we are—the Court of the Cat…. OH MY GOSH!" he ran over to a random pot. "Their pots have kitty-ears and faces! …I should find one for my apartment!"
Zippy groaned, face-palming. "God help us if we end up meeting King Tom…" she commented under her breath.
"C'mon, lets book some rooms and get some sleep," Liz stated, as they walked over to the Inn (Zippy dragging Zeke, before he could go running around the kingdom in awe).
"Welcome to the Cat's Cradle! How may I help you?" The Purrprioter asked.
"We'd like some rooms for the night, please." Vincent replied.
"Of course…" The Purrprioter turned to the wall where keys were hung, giving a short gasp. She turned to the group. "I'm afraid we only have 3 rooms available. I hope that won't be a purroblem,"
"Nah, we don't mind sharing rooms," Zeke answered with a shrug.
Receiving keys, everyone looked at one another. "Okay, so who bunks with who this time?" Drippy asked.
"I think I'll share with Zippy, this time." Vincent said, putting an arm around his girlfriend. "What do you think, sweetie?"
"Sounds good," Zippy replied, giving him a smile. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Swaine pretending to gag.
"I'll share with Liz again," Esther said. "I can help you work with your familiar, if you want."
"Works for me," Liz agreed.
"I guess that leaves the rest of us sharing a room," Zeke said, looking at Oliver, Swaine, and Drippy.
"Just as long as we can get some sleep," Swaine sighed.
With the arrangements made, everyone went up to their rooms.
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Cobayne looked at the image in the mist, watching as the group went to bed. "Rest well, Alchemist… You will need your strength for the trials that await you…" he said to himself.
The mist disappeared, as Phiroseth entered the caves. "Our contact is beginning to grow impatient, Cobayne. When will our foes be here?" he demanded.
"Soon, my lord. They shall leave tomorrow, and arrive at mid-day… If they manage to survive the struggles of the terrain, they will arrive in the village by nightfall."
"Inform me of their arrival… I wish to increase their struggle, and see just how determined they are," He then began to have another hacking fit.
"Master… your condition-"
"*hack* *choke* …Yes… *wheeze* I know, it is getting worse… I must perform the ritual again." He turned to Cobayne. "…You are certain we will have the immortal one for our ceremony in due time? *hack*"
"I am certain, master. …Hurry, before you croak!"
"*cough* Shut up, fool- I know my own health!" Coughing and hacking, Phiroseth walked down another tunnel.
Cobayne walked to the mouth of the cave, looking up at the clouded sky. It was always clouded on the Terrain.
Until the day when the prophesy will be fulfilled, that is.
"Tell me, Alchemist… Are you prepared for your fate?" he asked, as if Vincent could hear him.
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"When the last Arch Angel shines its light
"And the Dark Mountain falls to the sea,
"As the Unikron leads its brethren across the plains,
"So shall the light be seen."
Zeke looked around, seeing he was in a wide open field, seeing nothing but a hill in the distance. On the hill stood a single tree, where a woman with long black hair, bright blue eyes, wearing a white gothic dress sat.
'Huh? Where am I? Who is this woman…' he wondered, seeing a creek beside him… and his reflection. 'And why am I seven, again?!'
"I wrote that poem after having the vision." The woman spoke, turning to Zeke and smiling. "…I suppose it just runs in the family, ne?"
Zeke arched an eyebrow, walking up the hill to the woman. "Y… You're psychic, too?"
"That's right," She looked up at the sky- it was clear blue, with only a couple clouds to be seen. Across the field, there was a tall rocky structure with a path leading up to its flat top- as if it were a cliff that got carved right out of a mountain. "Tell me, Zeke, can you see the top of that mountain?"
"Huh? N-No… why? And how do you know my name? Who are you?" he asked. He then noticed this woman seemed oddly familiar- her features looking identical to someone else's.
The woman only smiled. "Do not worry. You will see the top of it, someday." She rested her hand on his face. "I remember when you were this young… before…" she winced.
"Before… what? How do you know me?"
She looked at him, giving a sad smile this time. "So your memory is gone… Do not worry, you will get it back. …But promise me this, Ezekiel- no matter what happens, keep fighting… no matter how much you long for death. Okay?"
Zeke just looked at her. So many theories came to his mind. Perhaps this woman was his mother? …But, she only looked to be 15. Perhaps a sister he once had? Maybe an old friend from his past?
Her face was so familiar… yet he couldn't understand why. "What's your name…?" he asked.
Before he received an answer, the brightness of the sun seemed to increase, engulfing everything in a white light… he heard someone calling his name…
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"Zeke! Oi, are you going to get up, or what? Youe're burnin' daylight!"
"H-Huh…?" Zeke groaned, sitting up and seeing Mr. Drippy standing right beside him. "W-What time is it…?"
"Time for us to head out, mun! …Crikey, even ol' Thief-Face managed to get up before ya! What kept ye in such deep slumber, mun? Havin' too good a dream to wake up?"
Zeke thought back to the dream. "I… I don't know. I had this weird dream- I was seven again, and this woman seemed to know me, but I didn't know who she was. …She was also a psychic like me, claiming she wrote that poem on that slab we found,"
"Ah, so I take it ye got a bit o' info about our trip from her, like?"
"N-Not really… Actually, I ended up waking up before she could even tell me her name," As he said this, he gave Mr. Drippy an annoyed glance.
The fairy rubbed the back of his neck. "Oi, sorry mun- if I knew what ye were dreamin', I would've given ye another five minutes. …Ah well! Maybe next time youe'll get some answers! Right now, we're heading out- so get up, get dressed, get a bite, so we can get goin'!"
Mr. Drippy then left the room, and Zeke sighed heavily, rubbing his face. Hopefully he'd see the mysterious woman again…
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The group was flying through the air on Tengri's back by the time the sun was only an inch above the horizon. Following the directions from memory, Oliver steered the dragon to fly far across the ocean. "We may be encountering some stormy weather, Tengri, so be ready!" the wizard informed the dragon as they flew.
"Kyaah!" Tengri replied, as if a bit of weather didn't bother him one bit.
Zeke kept his eyes shut, trying to keep his mind off getting air-sick. Instead, he kept thinking about his dream, wishing he had some sort of memory to search through to find an identity to match hers. He let out a heavy sigh, after failing to find a single clue.
The oddest thing about the dream was how he appeared at age 7. Despite his poor memory, that was the only age of his life he could recall- basically only a memory about getting hit by a truck at that age, thus is when he learned he was immortal.
The rest of his powers didn't come to his realization until he was 13- when he woke up with no memory of his life, outside of his name, age, what day his birthday was on, and that he was ageless.
Only that he had been a seven-year-old who didn't die.
He rubbed his head- trying to figure out the mystery of his past always gave him a migraine. You're in the world of Ni No Kuni now, kid- enjoy this moment and save yourself the headache! He told himself.
"Zeke, are you alright?" Esther asked, sitting next to him. "If you're getting nauseas, we can find somewhere to land…"
"I-I'm fine," Zeke answered, giving a smile. "I'm starting to get used to flying on a dragon." He looked around the clouds in the sky, and the sparkling sea below. "It's actually really cool."
"Really cool? It's frickin' AWESOME!" Zippy exclaimed, sitting up front with Oliver. "This is awesome! …Can you make him do a barrel-roll, Oliver?"
"Zippy- Quest first, dangerous stunts later!" Liz snapped, sitting by Swaine. "Seriously, you need to keep your adrenaline rushes under control…"
"If she jumps off the dragon like she did off the cliffs, we're leaving her behind," Swaine added.
Liz looked at Zippy, shocked. "You jumped off a CLIFF?!"
"Relax! I had my hang-glider," Zippy patted her backpack. "I never leave home unprepared!"
"…I'm afraid to ask what all she keeps in that bag," Drippy commented to the others.
"You and the rest of us," Zeke added.
Vincent scanned the skies, then pointed eastward. "Oliver, over there! I think that may be it!" he said, pointing over to where the skies seemed dark.
"Let's check it out," Oliver said, steering Tengri over to the area. As they flew, the sky became as dark as night, and the seas began to churn as rain began to fall. It reminded the young wizard of the Eye of the Storm…
"Everyone hang on! The wind's picking up!" Vincent cried, as the stormy skies seemed to grow worse.
Tengri was beginning to struggle with the winds. "T-Tengri- fly up above the clouds!" Liz advised.
"Kyaaah!" The dragon tried with all his might, but the winds were growing too strong for him to fight against.
Everyone gripped on, trying not to be blown off; Mr. Drippy nearly slipped off, but was caught by Vincent. "We can't fly straight through this! We have to go back and find another route!" Swaine called over the wind.
"What did you- WHOA!" Zippy began to reply, until she ended up slipping off the dragon and falling.
"ZIPPY!" Zeke cried, trying to open a portal, but the skies and sea were so dark he couldn't tell where she was falling.
Tengri tried to dive down after her- but in his attempt, a large wind caught his wings, causing him to 'roll' through the air!
"WHOA-OA-OA-OAHHHH!" everyone screamed.
The dragon was stuck in a nose-dive, heading towards the sea.
*Whoosh!* Something flew beneath his snout, knocking his head upwards and helping him to swerve side-ways until he was back in a steady position; he managed to get out of the bad weather.
Everyone looked down, seeing Zippy back on her hang-glider. She steered upwards, flying around them as the dragon hovered in the air. "Woo! What a rush! Let's do that again!" she exclaimed.
"NO." Swaine responded.
"We have to find a way through these storm-clouds… but I don't see the top to them!" Oliver stated, looking up at the thick clouds.
"If there's a top at all," Drippy added. "An' unless Tengri manages to see two feet through this fog, we en't gonna be findin' that terrain anytime soon!"
"I've got an idea!" Zippy exclaimed, grabbing Mr. Drippy as she swerved by on her glider.
"AUGH! WHAT TH' FLIPPIN' HECK!?"
Zippy threw Drippy on top of her glider, where the fairy gripped on for dear life. "Keep your lantern's light bright, Drippy! …Oliver, have Tengri follow the light through the fog!"
Everyone looked at each other. "It's worth a shot…" Oliver said with a shrug, and steered Tengri into the clouds, following Zippy as she and Drippy's lantern led the way.
The clouds were thick, but thankfully Tengri- as well as the others- kept sight on Drippy's light. When the wind began to pick up, Zippy soared higher, the dragon following.
Everyone looked around the clouds. Liz rubbed her arms… She couldn't help but have a bad feeling, as if any moment some other monster would be shooting out of the clouds in an ambush.
"WHOA! PULL UP!"
Oliver would have crashed into the side of the mountain if it weren't for Zippy's warning, as the daredevil herself ended up bumping into a cliff-edge, landing on the narrow out-crop while Drippy rolled off the top and landed in her lap.
The young wizard looked upward, seeing the edge of the mountain-top. "Hop on!" He called to Zippy and Drippy; the daredevil put her hang-glider back into her pack, as if it were bottomless, while the fairy hurriedly scrambled onto the dragon's back.
"Oi, next time ye volunteer my services, ASK FIRST!" Drippy snapped at Zippy.
"…This coming from the fairy who persuaded a kid into saving the world," Zippy remarked under her breath.
"Tengri, fly upwards!" Oliver ordered, pointing to the top of the cliffs. "Try to find a spot to land up there!"
Tengri flew upwards until they were above the mountain.
Despite being out of the stormy weather, dark clouds still surrounded the land. The surrounding mountains were jagged and rough; within the valley there was nothing but tall thick trees that went on for miles…
…and a pit of lava, filled with large bones. Tengri soared over here, landing on a path that lead into the mountains.
"Right by a lava pit. Good choice, Tengri!" Swaine remarked in sarcasm. "Seriously, was there no other place to land?"
"Dude, look around… It's obvious why this is the only spot a dragon could land," Zeke said after looking around at the bones. "This is the Dragon Graveyard…"
"Kyaaah…" Tengri responded, suddenly seeming shaken up.
"He said he can't go farther than here. …There's a dark force too strong for him to handle," Vincent translated.
Esther stroked Tengri's snout. "Don't worry, Tengri. You've gotten us quite far!" she assured him.
"Right- go fly to a sunny beach or something… maybe check on your egg and see how its doing!" Zeke added, remembering the egg the dragon kept in his pouch.
"You think he can make it through this cloud cover, alright?" Liz asked in concern.
Tengri lifted his head, as if scanning the skies. He then took off by instinct in one direction, soaring into the clouds. A moment later, he let out an enthusiastic roar.
"He made it!" Vincent sighed with relief.
"Yup… now it's our turn," Zippy said, looking down the path that lead into the mountains- which is when the group realized how tall the rocky structures truly were.
It made Zeke think about the mountain in his dream…
"Well… ladies first." Drippy commented, hopping on Zippy's shoulder.
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The trek down the path seemed to last over an hour. So far there were no signs of any danger… but that only made the group more on-edge. Zippy kept her hand on her sword, as if expecting an ambush any second.
"Why do I get a bad feeling about all this?" Swaine asked, after noticing how quiet everything was.
"Because you get a bad feeling about everything, you coward." Esther retorted.
"…But he's right," Liz stated, keeping her arms wrapped around herself. "I have a bad feeling, too... I keep trying to turn into Tracker, but she claims something dark is messing with her senses,"
"Ha! See?!" Swaine stated to Esther.
"Oh, hush. …So there's a reason to be cautious- at least no one else is bringing up having the chills about it," Esther huffed.
"I can scout ahead," Zippy volunteered, seeing that the path began going uphill. "I'll be up-and-back in a minute or less,"
"Just be careful, Zee." Vincent said- only using Zippy's front name when he was serious. "I don't like the looks of any of this…"
Zippy nodded, running ahead. Everyone decided to stop for a break.
"By the way, I finished your gun," Swaine told Liz, handing her back her rifle; in turn, she handed him back his pistol. "I adjusted it to shoot the same kind of bullets as my guns- it should get good range, too."
"Wow, you work fast!" Liz said, looking around. "Sure wish I could test it out on something…"
"I volunteer my target-services!" Zeke exclaimed, standing off to the side.
Liz cringed. "Ah, Zeke, you know I couldn't shoot you…"
"Don't worry, sis- bullets don't bother me! Just a couple shots,"
Liz sighed, then took aim. "Ya'll better not bellyache about this later…" she then took aim. "Ready… Aim… FIRE!"
*BANG!*
"YEOW-WOO!" Zeke cried, the impact sending him falling behind a large rock behind him. "…What a shot!"
"…Sis?" Swaine questioned, looking at Liz.
Liz gave a shrug. "He and ZIP adopted me as a big sister a long time ago. Since their bio-sis gave 'em so much grief, they needed an older sibling they could trust," she looked over at the rock. "You alright, Zeke?"
"Yeah- I think I found something, too!" Zeke stepped out of the rock. There were bloodstains on his shirt from where the bullets hit, but his wound quickly healed; in his hand, he carried something long and pointed. "It's a horn!"
"I've never seen a horn like that, before!" Esther gasped, examining the horn.
"I wonder if it comes off those Unikron creatures Sir Anime Shun told us about," Oliver stated in intrigue.
Zippy came running up just then. "Is everything alright? I heard gunfire!" she exclaimed, having her sword drawn.
"Liz was just using your brother for shooting practice," Vincent answered. "Did you see anything up ahead?"
"No… well, except for one problem,"
"And that would be…?"
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"…Oh."
Over the hill, the path went on… but in three different directions.
Particularly, within tunnels.
Dark tunnels.
"So… do we flip a coin, or do eenie-meenie-miney-moe?" Zeke asked.
"We'll have to check out each path to find out where it leads," Esther claimed.
"But we don't have time to wander down every single path! Chances are, they might split up into more!" Swaine protested.
"Such as why we're going to split up into pairs and check each one," Vincent said.
Swaine looked at him. "Are you crazy?! We can't split up in a place like this!"
"What choice do we have? Besides, we won't go too far- we'll meet back here in an hour. That should give us enough time to figure out where each path leads," Zippy said. She then held up a handful of straws. "…Anyone care to draw straws for partners?"
The thief scoffed, crossing his arms. "…Like I'm drawing straws with you again. I still don't agree to this idea,"
"I'll go with you, Swaine- that way, if there's any sign of trouble, I can use myself as a decoy while you open a portal to get the others," Zeke offered, handing Swaine his amulet. "…But no ditching, alright?"
"I'll tag along-" Zippy began to state… until she looked at Vincent, who was giving her a look. "…with Esther! Yeah. Esther."
"And I'll go with you- my beloved girlfriend," Vincent added, putting an arm around Zippy, sounding as if he wanted to make sure she got the message clear.
"…Gag me," Swaine muttered under his breath.
"I guess that leaves you wit' me an' Ollie-Boy, Lizzie!" Mr. Drippy exclaimed.
"Alright, let's hurry- I don't want to be stuck in this place at night," Liz stated, feeling a chill.
"…as if it didn't already feel like night," Zippy quipped, looking up at the dark clouds in the sky.
Picking a different path, everyone set off to find the right path out of the mountains and hopefully to the Purcroser.
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A/N: So we've got some extra mystery, a touch of suspense, and once again Swaine escapes my grasp- I mean, Liz got her rifle back, yay! *ahem*
Next chapter- more suspense!
Please review, but don't flame or you can be target-practice next!