Ok, so I know I said I wouldn't leave such a long time between updates again, but things got the better of me. I wish I could use "I've been busy with work" as an excuse and keep a straight face, but I haven't been spending much of my spare time actually working. I did for a lot of this past year, though. In fact, I finished a diploma in games development and later this year I'm hoping to start work on my very own game. Still haven't worked out the details yet, but if anything worthwhile comes out of it I'll post links in my profile page. For now, let's celebrate the 5th anniversary of Final Fantasy Omega with…
Chapter 26
The sound of gulls and the early morning bustle floated just outside Mist's window. The sun was still below the horizon but she forced herself to get up and gather her belongings as she had the last time she left home. Packing her things again brought back memories of that day.
"Are you sure you have everything you need?" her mother asked, "Won't you be needing more food and water?"
"Zan and Lani are taking care of that," she replied. Mist stood by the door with her bag, ready to leave at any time yet hesitation still held her. She looked to her parents, standing together in front of her, and felt a sudden wash of emotion. She rushed to her parents and held her arms around them both.
"I'll miss you," she whispered.
"We'll miss you too, dear," her mother replied, "Just take care of yourself and we'll see you again soon."
Today she would control herself. She had left and returned home once already, and although she understood the dangers she faced much clearer now than she had the first time, she didn't want her parents to see that. She didn't want them to worry that their daughter was leaving to face a creature that was, by all rights, a demigod, and if she weren't strong enough when the time came then she would most likely die.
With everything packed and ready, Mist gathered her bag and walked down to the kitchen. Once again, her parents had prepared her a farewell breakfast and were waiting for her at the table.
"We know you need to get going," said her father, looking up from his untouched plate, "But we couldn't let you go without a good meal."
Mist smiled, glad that they seemed happy to let her go as easily as the first time. Maybe she could at least make it through breakfast without crying.
Down by the docks, Mist waited for Zan with Lani, who had been there waiting for her when she arrived. Lani was almost bouncing with excitement about leaving. While waiting, she'd been going on and on about seeing the Blitzball tournament, even the possibility of meeting her cousin, who attended the tournament every year to cheer on the team from Troinia. Lani's cousin was a bit of a celebrity in the Blitzball world, being the striker from the five-time championship winning team from Troinia a few years back. No other team had ever managed such a streak.
"Have we spotted Guiness and the others yet?" Zan asked as he approached the girls.
"Mornin', sleepy head," Lani replied, "You're awfully late for, well, you."
"Not yet," Mist answered, "But they should be around here somewhere. Guiness is probably finding a ship for us to take."
The trio wandered towards the moored ships, looking for signs of their companions. The harbour was as busy as ever, with ships pulling in from overnight voyages and pulling out to start their daily fishing trips. Most vessels still sat moored to the many piers stretching out from the main dock and were preparing for their journey or simply waiting for passengers and cargo. Mist was walking just ahead of the other two when she heard something from the ship beside her.
"Well lookie who we have 'ere," called the familiar voice.
Mist looked up and saw the scruffy face of captain Cid staring down at the group, in somewhat cleaner looking clothes than the last time she recalled meeting the man. Instead of his weathered leather overcoat, he wore a neat, dark grey jacket left open to reveal a stained white shirt, which was probably the only one he owned. His plain leather tricorne hat was the same one she remembered from the first day she and her friends had met the captain at the tavern in Duntarine.
The Highwind, on the other hand, looked nothing like the dishevelled mess they had taken to Loxdue Island. Mist was in disbelief that Cid could have fixed the ship up so much in such a short time. The railings were all neat and polished, the sails looked new and the mast was taller than she thought it had been, the wood even looked smoother and less worn than before. It was unbelievable…
"Is that the Nightwind?" Zan asked from beside her.
"Not 'nymore," Cid replied, "Bought 'er after ya left. I made a mint with all them needles ya gave me."
Mist was a little embarrassed to have mistaken the ship for Cid's older vessel. The metallic letters of "Highwind" didn't all match. The "High" were the original letters from the Highwind, but the "wind" was left behind from the ship's previous name.
"I figured the least I could do was help ya out again. Free o' charge, too." Cid gestured along the side of the ship to the area of the pier where a crane was slowly lifting a cart onto the Highwind's deck. But not just any cart.
"G'morning kidss!" Guiness called to Mist and the others, "Apparently the captain is a friend of yours. Perfect timing catching him here thiss morning, if you ask me."
Mist, Lani, and Zan walked down the length of the somewhat larger ship and greeted their companions, who were busily making use of another new feature of Cid's vessel: a crew. Two human girls, a human man, an elf man, a young Bangaa, and an older Dwarven man were all carrying things onto the ship, tying and untying ropes, shifting planks and beams of wood, and generally running around quite fast with the occasional glance toward their captain.
The cart was now being swung sideways over the rails of the ship and onto the deck. Guiness had already made his way up to the deck while Mist and Lani were being given stern advice for future situations where they might find valuable medical supplies. Meranim had apparently learned about how Cid had acquired the Cactuar needles to pay for the ship and appeared less-than-pleased about not getting as many as a simple boat captain.
Zan, Kerta, and Rigby were simply standing by the ship, admiring the quality of the vessel compared to many of the others in port. The Highwind was only slightly smaller than the standard ferries that operated between most of the major ports, yet it had two sets of sails instead of a single massive one that the ferries had. The decks of the ferries were wider, mostly as a way to fit more cargo and passengers aboard, but also to stabilize the vessel with so much extra weight aboard. The Highwind, on the other hand, was narrower and probably a fair bit faster under decent sailing weather.
"C'mon!" Cid called to Mist and her friends, waving his arm as though he was sweeping them up the gangplank, "Get aboard!"
As Meranim moved to board the vessel, finally leaving the younger girls to recover, Mist shot a quick glance toward Zan. With his arms across his chest, the warm glow of the morning sun on his face, a look that Mist thought of as calm confidence, and a gentle sea breeze wafting in his hair, he looked like a hero from an epic tale, ready to head off on adventures across the sea. Perhaps, in a sense, he was. Mist's gaze lingered a little too long, and he caught her eye before she quickly turned back to Lani and, with only a little difficulty, gathered her friend to board the ship.
"I still don't know how neither of you has ever brought it up," Lani whispered.
"Shut up," Mist whispered back, cautiously looking over her shoulder at the three men following the girls onto the ship.
Once aboard, Mist took in the vast difference between this ship and the Highwind they had embarked on from Duntarine. The firmness of the deck under her feet made her realize how worried she should have been at the state of the older ship, and the neatness of it all was a huge contrast.
"We set sail as soon as the cargo's aboard!" Cid shouted across the deck, and was immediately met with a cry of, "Aye, cap'n!" from the crew.
The crane was finished lowering the cart into the cargo hold through a large open grate on the deck, and Storm and Thunder were being lead aboard by the two human crew-girls Mist had seen earlier. The rest of the crew seemed to be at the front of the vessel dealing with ropes or shouting to people on the dock. In all of the bustle, Mist eventually realized that she'd been standing in the same place just next to the gangplank since she walked aboard and hadn't even noticed where all her companions had gone.
After a quick scan of the deck, she soon spotted Lani waving to her from near a door at the stern of the ship that lead to what looked like a staircase. Dodging past the girls with the chocobos, Mist made her way over to Lani.
"Daydreaming, were we?" Lani asked in a mocking tone, bearing a sly grin.
"You know," Mist began, "Maybe my meekness has something to do with you always being mean to me," She finished by poking out her tongue, just to emphasize her point.
"Nah," Lani replied plainly, "You were adorably meek the day I met you, and you haven't changed."
Mist cocked her head and sighed, "You're right," she said eventually, "But blaming you makes me feel better about it."
Lani let out a brief laugh, "Blame away. You know I can take it," she replied with a wink.
The ocean was an amazing thing to behold, no signs of land in any direction and only the sound of feet running on deck, the wind, and the waves. Mist stood against the railings on the main deck, taking a break from the cramped space below. The new Highwind was a large ship and the passenger rooms were by no means small, but with Meranim teaching her, Lani, and Zan for a few hours, Guiness and Kerta using their room for blitzball strategizing, and the crew rushing in and out of storerooms to secure cargo containers, Mist needed a little space to just relax.
At the bow of the ship there was a long, empty space up a couple of steps from the rest of the deck. The sun was shining on it from only an hour or two above the horizon ahead and left a warm orange tint on everything it touched. The sea breeze flicked gently at Mist's hair but she barely noticed. Mist had rarely left the shores of Cyndaria, but she was looking forward to finally seeing the cerulean sphere of the blitzball stadium. The technology to create a blitzball sphere was ancient and lost since the time shortly after the Nine Sorcerers. As such, the only one still in operation was in Costa Porti. Teams from every city had to practice in deep pools instead, even the team from Costa Porti itself so as not to give them an unfair advantage. Ruins of an old blitzball stadium stood just east of Andandrea but many of the working parts needed to create the sphere of water were completely destroyed by age and disrepair. Only enough was known at all about how the machines worked to keep the one in Costa Porti in working condition.
Mist had never seen a real blitzball game before but sometimes, friendly matches would be held in the training pool in Andandrea and she and her friends had seen a few there. She'd been told that the experience was completely different at the real stadium, so Mist was rather excited to finally be going.
Zan stood at the back of the lower deck, resting against the wall beside the stairs leading to the helm. Cid was at the wheel, and although Zan's position didn't allow him to see what the captain was doing, he could hear quite clearly that crew members were still being ordered about for one insignificant thing or another. Cid had liked keeping himself busy with the operation of the old Highwind when he was operating it all by himself. Now that he had a crew, he seemed to delight in both handing out orders and making sure that they all kept busy with the little things he used to do himself. Zan imagined that some of the orders were not things that needed to be handled as often as the captain had requested them, but he stood out of the crew's way as they rushed past to check ropes, fasten knots, resecure cargo that had been secured in port, and other minor tasks.
At the bow of the ship he could see Mist leaning against the railing and staring off into the distance. From where Zan was standing, the setting sun sat just behind her head making her appear to glow as light flicked through her hair as it whipped in the breeze. She looked beautiful.
"Something on your mind?" Lani asked, wandering around the stairs from the other side of the ship.
"Just contemplating what we may find in Costa Porti," he replied.
"Like what? You think something crazy's going to happen there like in Sandros or Loxdue?" Lani winced as she said it.
"That would seem likely, given our luck," Zan answered, "If you expect the worst then any surprises won't be unpleasant ones."
"Unless it's the unpleasant surprise that your idea of the worst situation isn't as bad as things really could be," Lani quipped.
Zan tilted his head down and allowed a slight grin to crack his calmly serious exterior, "Ahh Lani," he laughed, "Always able to think of a way that things could be worse."
Lani smirked back at him, "It's a gift," she replied, "So, Meranim wants us back in the room for more lessons. Have you seen Mist?"
Zan began to walk past her towards the stairs leading down to their room below deck, "At the bow," he said over his shoulder, pointing towards the front of the ship without looking.
Lani followed his finger to Mist at the bow, then over to where Zan had been standing and back towards Mist again. She let out a small sigh and her smile gently faded as she wandered over to bring her friend back to their room.
Night had fallen early in the voyage as the ferry to Costa Porti made its way across the featureless ocean. The moon was almost full and shone brightly overhead while the two Chocoknights stood on deck finishing the last of their evening meal.
"We're not going to be there on time, are we?" Wedge asked his companion.
"At this rate, no," Biggs replied, "We'll do what we can when we get there. We should still be there in time for the opening match."
"It's a shame we won't get to see it," Wedge continued, "It's been a long time since I saw a blitzball match. And security detail just seems like a lame job for experienced Chocoknights."
"Well," Biggs mumbled, "We haven't been showing much of that experience lately."
The two men sighed and leaned heavily against the ship's railing.
Biggs looked over at his partner, "Guess we should get some sleep."
A small vessel arrived at the docks of Costa Porti in the dead of night. A large cloud covering the moon made the large torches lining the harbour the only sources of light. Shadows flickered across the deck where a hooded man stood waiting for the boat to reach the pier. A handful of men ran to cast lines to the vessel from the docks while 2 crew members leapt from the shadows of the boat to catch the ropes and tie them off. As soon as the small ship docked the hooded man disembarked and wandered away from the docks.
"Hold it!" a dockworker shouted, "You can't leave till you've registered your vessel."
The hooded figure stopped and turned, reaching inside his robe with a concealed hand and pulling it back out, still seemingly empty. He approached the dockworker and held his hand out. The dockworker, somewhat confused, offered out his hand to accept whatever the man was handing him. From the shadowy end of the man's sleeve fell a small pouch, heavy with coins.
"I trust this should cover the expense," the man spoke in a hushed, cold voice.
"Uhh, of course," the dockworker replied, pocketing the pouch cautiously, "Thank you, sir."
The hooded figure walked off into the dark city streets, still shrouded in his plain brown robe. His master wanted the search to be subtle. The sailors that brought him to this city would be gone by sunrise, and he had left no trace of his arrival. None must learn of what he searched for. Especially not those children.
. . .
Not a lot going on there, I know, but I'm getting back into the swing of things and for the time being I have a heap of free time, so I'm going to bunker down over the next week or two and see just how much I can write so you can definitely expect a few more chapters in the very near future. I've missed this story! It's good to be back. I still don't own Final Fantasy.
On an unrelated note, apparently a lot of my formatting has been removed and I have no idea why, so I've gone back and replaced every chapter with a properly formatted version. -_- It's given me an appreciation for the number of times I've apologized for not updating more frequently though. I shall try to learn from my mistakes, but I don't want to make another promise I may not keep.