Sirius: Two chapters in one day, Cor?
What? I got an unexpected day off from both work and class.
Harry: But you never write this much on a weekend.
So?
Harry and Sirius: *sigh* Nevermind.
Cloud and Tifa led the group along a dirt trail that ran to the north from town; it soon turned rocky and began to slope upward. Pretty soon, Harry, Aeris, and Cait Sith were panting heavily as they trudged up the ever-steeper path. At some points the path was so steep they had to climb up - literally. It wasn't ever more than a few feet above their heads (Red easily leapt up these short heights), but it often leaned outward at the top, requiring some finesse in rock climbing skill to get up and over without aid (Cloud and Tifa did this easily - everyone had to help pull Barret up, though, because of his size). They also had to stop every so often to fight off monsters, but their combined strength sufficed easily. It wasn't until dusk when before the path leveled out, and by then, even Cloud was breathing slightly heavier than normal.
On the plus side, Tifa felt an accomplishment: she'd reached the third tier of Limit Breaks, as evidenced when she delivered a massive uppercut to a beast, leaving it seeing dolphins. Harry privately thought that he had heard the echo of a dolphin or two, as well as the sound of rushing water, when the bartender's fist connected, but he didn't say anything about it.
The next day, almost immediately after setting off, the group encountered the rickety rope bridge Cloud mentioned during his flashback. "Hey, Cloud?" Harry called. "Isn't this thing...I dunno...about to collapse?"
"Again?" Red XIII agreed. Cait Sith looked somewhat confused - not that it was easy to tell, what with Cait being an animated stuff cat and all.
"It'll be fine," Cloud replied. "It's not gonna break."
Harry groaned theatrically. "Now you've gone and jinxed us."
"You're being superstitious, Harry," Aeris giggled.
Naturally, when the group made it half-way across the bridge, the ropes snapped, plunging them down onto the ledge below. "'It's not gonna break,'" Harry repeated sarcastically, mocking the merc and the flower girl. "'You're being superstitious, Harry'." Switching back to his normal tone, he added, "Who's being superstitious now?"
"We get it, we get it!" Cloud and Aeris snapped at him. Everyone else chuckled.
Harry grinned. "That felt good...payback for all your teasing back in Costa de Sol." He ignored the grumbling of the two and stood up, stretching. "Tifa, you know the way from here, right? Better than Cloud?"
The bartender nodded. "Yeah. Follow me!"
The trip through the caves was slow, since it was packed (not quite literally, but close) with monsters that the group was forced to fight their way through, stopping every few steps. Everyone save Harry had reached the third tier of Limit Breaks...well, except for Cait Sith, who, being an animated stuffed toy, didn't have any. His 'moogle' (as he called it) was awfully good at bludgeoning enemies with its giant hands, though.
They stopped for lunch at the now-almost dried Mako fountain. It seemed that the inhabitants of the mountain didn't like the feeling in that particular chamber, so they felt safe enough for a bite to eat and quick rest. They pressed on shortly afterwards, and comparatively quickly reached the old Mako reactor sitting on the mountaintop. Cloud took the lead, here. "There's a path behind the Reactor that leads down the north side of the mountain range and to the plains beyond."
Unfortunately for them, said path was blocked by a massive, insect-like creature whose eyes glowed a sinister, if sickly-looking yellow. "Get outta our way!" Cait Sith wailed, pulling out a grenade and throwing it. The hand-held bomb flew through the air, bouncing to a stop just before the beast. It exploded a second later, blowing a leg off and hindering its mobility.
Harry blinked. "Not bad, Cait." The stuffed cat purred in pleasure.
Barret let loose with his standard hail of gunfire. Red and Aeris both let loose with magic, pinning the monster down further. Tifa cast Thundara once, but when it seemed to have healed the creature, she resorted to her fists. Cloud stepped in and swung his sword several times after another, leaving a number of cuts all over.
The creature roared in pain and fury, glowing for a second before releasing its stored power. A triangle of yellow light, filled with looked like electrical sparks, surrounded them and leaving them stunned, face-down in the dirt. Harry and Cloud were the first to get up, following shortly by Red and Barret. Tifa and Aeris were right behind them, and Cait hissed as his moogle-steed climbed to its feet. "Alright, guys...I'm gonna call Shiva," Harry announced. They stepped back as Harry touched the Red Materia on his armlet. For a few seconds, he was surrounded in green light as glowing orbs marked with runes floated up out of the ground and flew away in a spiral. Unnoticed by Harry, the air got colder, and soon, Shiva, Fairy of the Frozen North, appeared. She gave Harry a brief, warm smile before turning to face the injured insect. She threw several bolts of ice, surrounding the overgrown bug with white ice and freezing it in place. She then reached forward with one hand and, with a simple SNAP of her fingers, the ice cracked, shattered, and dove into the monster's flanks. Harry nodded his thanks to the Ice Queen as she faded from view, the temperature returning to normal and his comrades rejoining him. "That was cool," Harry quipped, causing everyone (including the monster, it appeared) to groan at the pun.
"Harry," Nanaki whined. "Don't ever do that again. Our ears can't take that kind of torture!" Harry laughed in response, stopping to duck a swipe from the beast. Cloud jumped forward and smashed his sword in a downstroke, pretty much cleaving the monster in two.
"Next time you make a joke like that, kid, and that'll be you," Cloud warned. Harry grinned and waved, not at all worried.
After rounding themselves up (and gathering the spoils of the battle, which included a hefty amount of gil that was split between them, and a new bangle that was enchanted for double the Materia growth but only held two unlinked Materia slots), the group set off once more. They reached the plains by sunset. The next morning, they set off, walking west to go 'round a tail of small mountains, before heading north, towards a towering figure in the distance. It wasn't until they neared the structure that Harry recognized it as a rocket, similar to the old-style Muggle spacerockets.
It seemed that a town had sprung up around the old, rusting rocketship. A man at the edge of town greeted them. "Welcome to Rocket Town!"
Well, that was a short chapter. Next chapter, and Harry finally meets the mainstay of all Final Fantasies, after the very first one. Enter Cid!
Sirius: What's he like?
You'll see in the next chapter. Hate to spoil it, you know.
Harry: That didn't stop you from telling Sirius I would be spending three chapters disguised as a girl, Cor!
Oh yeah, forgot about that.
Sirius: Yeah, that was great, that.
Harry: Grr!
Sirius: Cor, I think we'd better run.
Agreed. *Cor and Sirius run away, Harry chasing them intent on giving them a Very Bad Beating.*