This was not how she expected to wake up...at the mercy of a strange looking four legged beast, canine in origin but damn if she had any clue as to what it actually was. She scurried backwards trying to get to her feet as the beast lunged at her. She cried out in fear, using her arms to shield her face as she closed her eyes, but then nothing happened.
She opened her eyes and lowered her hands from their defensive position to see a boy with blonde hair and the strangest looking clothes she had ever seen. His ensemble was ridiculous; sleeveless top, a sash around the waist, and metal fucking boots! It was scorching hot out here and this idiot was wearing metal boots! How were his feet not baked potatoes by now?!
She was brought back to the present when the creature howled before falling over dead, it's body dissolving into some kind yellow-gold mist. What the fuck...what the holy living fuck has she gotten herself into and where the fuck was she?
Her breathing accelerated and she started wheezing. Fuck! Now was not the time to be having a fucking panic attack! She needed to calm down but her mind was racing, thoughts crashing into each other at warp speed.
*SLAP*
All thoughts ceased as her hand came up automatically and touched the cheek that the boy had just slapped. A few moments went by then...click.
"What the fuck, dude?! You do not just hit a girl like that! What the fuck is the matter with you, you fucking bastard?!" She screeched not giving a damn about all the "F bombs" she was dropping as she stood up.
Seriously?! Why the hell would he slap her like that?! Her entire being was radiating fury to the nth degree and he was fucking lucky as hell that her unofficially adopted sister wasn't here or he would be on the bullet train to a world of hurt.
"Calm down! You're gonna get us killed with you shouting like that." The boy answered, hands slightly raised in a somewhat appeasing manner but this just served to piss her off me.
She turned on her heel and stormed away from little irritating brat and not being quiet at all which landed her into even more trouble...with huge fucking snakes! They were unlike anything she had ever seen before though there was this niggling sensation at the back of her mind that said otherwise but she couldn't really focus on that right now.
The nest of snakes began to coil around her and she had a brief flashback to the animated Disney film called Aladdin where Jafar had turned himself into a giant snake and was trying to squeeze the life out of Aladdin. Oh good grief, she was about to die any second yet her sister's habit of comparing just about everything in life to something fictional; movies, books, tv shows, manga, cartoons, heck even music, had apparently rubbed off on her more than she had once believed.
She let out an unladylike squawk of indignity as the snakes coiling around her suddenly vanished and she landed firmly on her ass and from the feels of it, she had landed on some kind of rock. Definitely gonna have a bruise there later. Her attention shifted to the other snakes which were no longer paying her any mind, but focusing solely on the blond haired youth from before.
She watched him fight off each snake but she could tell that, although he had some experience, he wasn't going to last much longer. He fell one of the snakes and as it dissolved into that weird mist, it left behind a bow and a quiver of odd looking arrows. Hey, she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
She thanked God aka Chuck to all the Supernatural fans that her sister was a tiny bit obsessed with everything medieval related; customs, architecture, weapons, forms of combat, etc. You name it, she knows about it. Although her sister favored a pair of short swords, she had a natural gift with archery and thus taught her hyperactive, puppy eyed sister that was just dying to learn.
For once that skill and all those months of practicing were about to pay off. She grabbed the bow and slung the quiver into place. She took up a knelt position to give her the steadiest shot she could do, notched an arrow, aimed at her target and fired. It hit the snake and it exploded...apparently the quiver contained a special kind of arrow. She couldn't focus on that because the other snakes were now quite pissed off and she barely had time to roll out of the way when the one closest to her lunged.
She kept on rolling to avoid multiple lunges until she got stuck between a tree and a boulder. Shit! Out of thin air appears the boy that slashed the snakes away from her. Huh...well how about that? She'd actually forgotten about him. She returned to her feet and notched two arrows at two different angles then shifted the bow from a vertical position to a horizontal position. She let fly the arrows and just like their predecessor, they exploded on contact with their targets then the snakes melted away into that funky misty stuff.
That left them with only one snake left but the boy managed to take it out himself. She took in his appearance once more and realized that the battle really wore him out. She thought for sure that he would have a greater stamina level than her own. He was a guy after all and she was the overweight...her mind trailed off as she just realized something. She was thin...a few seconds later.
"What the holy living fuck?!" She exclaimed.
The blond haired boy tried to shush her again, warning her that there were much stronger monsters in the Giza Plains. Wait...what? What did he just say?
"Did you just say that this," She started gesturing around them, "is the Giza Plains?"
"Yeah. Why?" He answered obviously perplexed by her query.
Giza Plains, that was where the chapter called Path of the Sun from her sister's story, Dawn of Twilight, took place. If this was the Giza Plains then that meant that she was no longer in America, hell on Earth!
"Ivalice, I'm in Ivalice." She breathed in a shocked whisper.
"You make it sound like you're from another planet or something. Anyway, the name's Vaan and I gotta say that you're pretty good with that bow, but why were you in the Plains without a weapon or at least some armor?" The boy now identified as Vaan responded clearly curious.
"Anna, my name is Anna. I have other names though, mainly for my sister's stories but Anna is my nickname because my first name is way too posh and a bit of a mouthful, Anastasia. As for my proficiency with the bow, I begged my sister to teach me. Talk about a slave driver.
She didn't let up until I had fully mastered it up to the expert level and said that if I truly wanted to master the bow in its entirety that it would have to be on my own because everyone has their own style, no two people are alike. The same applies to the different styles of fighting.
Um...not to get distracted but could you describe my physical appearance? An odd question I know, but I'll explain afterwards." She replied rambling a bit since her brain was still trying to wrap around the fact that she was in Ivalice of all places.
Her mouth fell open after he described her; brown hair, purple eyes, thin but had some muscle, and about 5'7".
"Ya know, you're kind of pretty...when you're not shouting your head off and trying to get us killed." Vaan stated smiling at her.
"Thanks." She replied her voice dripping in sarcasm.
He made a compliment into a double insult and all in one sentence. This brat clearly had no experience in regards to women, heck the female species! Her brain came to a screeching halt when the boy's name finally sank into her caffeine deprived synapses...Vaan.
"Vaan Ratsbane." She spoke watching his reaction closely.
His posture along with his facial expression shifted to surprise which then changed to confusion and finally landed on curiosity. Now that was a mental state she could spot from a mile away because of her sister's quizzical nature, so many questions...about everything.
"You know who I am? Wait hold up, you were shocked that you were in Ivalice so how do you...ugh...oh just tell me why you wanted me to tell you what you looked like?" He rambled, rubbing his forehead like a headache was coming on.
"The answer to the first is sort of. My sister would know more about you and Ivalice than I would. For question number two, I am from a parallel world...think of it like a raindrop hitting the surface of a perfectly still pond...the center is this world but the ripples are worlds that exist alongside this one.
And before you ask, travel between worlds should be pretty much impossible for both my world and yours; neither technology or magick are powerful enough or versatile enough to make a stable bridge which does beg the question of how I got here in the first place and why the Giza Plains of all places?
Anyways, for your final question. It has to do with me traversing from one realm to another because my body type has most definitely changed. In my world, I was overweight and shorter but that in no way impeded my speed and efficiency. The way you described my physical appearance…" She answered pausing briefly as her eyes softened in remembrance,
"...it was how she described me in her stories; beautiful chocolate brown hair and eyes of the purest amethyst with no impurities staining their brilliant vibrant hue. To those who merely glance at me, I would appear ordinary, plain even and they simply pass me by, but dare they look again, they become ensnared by the hypnotic majestic purple eyes that challenged all to overcome my ironclad will."
"Wow...that is...kind of awesome! Your sister really described you like that?!" He exclaimed and it was her turn to shush him, making him rub his neck in a sheepish manner, "Sorry, it's just...I've never heard anyone talk like that before and it caught me off guard."
The amethyst eyed woman chuckled softly, amusement dancing in her eyes and making them sparkle in the light. Vaan could only stare at the sight...her sister was right. Those eyes did draw a person in really easily. Oh boy, he actually pitied her future boyfriend...he would be lost in those eyes forever.
"You're not the only one, Vaan. I was completely blind sided when I read one of her stories. I was immersed in that world to the point that I screeched when I ran out of chapters to read, but it was that incredible imagination of hers that brought us together and kept us together. Oh, I didn't tell you. She and I aren't actual sisters, basically sisters in all but blood. Not like that's ever slowed us down or got in our way. We're a force to be reckoned with." She replied becoming crestfallen, her eyes filling with dejection and sadness,
"She should be here instead of me. She deserves a fresh start in a world that she has always wanted to explore. Oh wow, that just hit me. She's alone now. I'm not there anymore. Her loneliness made her kind but left her with nothing but a forlorn hope. I'm not certain what will happen now because we were so much a part of each other's lives that separation seemed absolutely impossible.
It would be one thing if she was here in Ivalice and on her own because she would build a new life here, a life that she knew that I would be proud of, but to be alone in our world is a fate worse than death. I was barely able to save her the first time, but I'm not there anymore...I'm…"
*SLAP*
Anna rubbed her sore cheek, her eyes widening when she felt the trail of tears that she didn't know she was shedding in front of a total stranger. She wanted to tear his throat out for slapping her again, but the look on his face stopped her, her ire evaporating. Grief...his eyes shimmered slightly like he was holding back tears of his own. Reks, Vaan's elder brother, by two years, was killed when the Empire invaded some fortress whose name she couldn't remember.
She sighed heavily as she dried her tears and then she smirked, deciding to get a little revenge Artz style. Confusion flickered across the boy's briefly but then he yelped as she slapped him in the back of the head like Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs from NCIS. He rubbed his head but was smiling nonetheless, appreciation flashing briefly through his eyes.
"So...where ya headed, Vaan?" Anna asked thinking it best to remain with the blond haired youth for the time being.
"Oh yeah, that's right! I was heading to the nomad camp to get a Sun Stone!" He answered in a rush before glancing at her briefly with indecision.
She chuckled slightly, shaking her head a bit as she placed her fist on her hip in a sassy manner.
"You might as well tell me because as of now, you won't be getting rid of me. Like I said before, my sister knows more about this world than I do. In fact, I only remember a fraction of what my sister does. I have no clue about the culture and customs of this world nor do I have any idea what is of value and what's worthless junk.
Heck, I don't even remember the name of the damn currency used in this fucking world...something to do with fish because my sister always had this funny expression on her face when she said still sounds fishy to her!" She stated calmly before rapidly falling into frustration at her own ignorance.
"Whoa, whoa! It's okay! You can come with me and I'll answer all the questions that I can. Oh and our money is called gil." Vaan placated snapping the brunette out of her spiral towards another panic attack.
"Gil! Duh, I am so stupid." She complained actually smacking herself in the face with her hand.
"Well it's not your fault that you don't know. How were you supposed to know that you'd just pop up here one day? Though your sister could have told you more…" He started only to end up pinned to a tree by a very pissed off brunette.
"It's one thing to insult me or calling me out on my own stupidity, but don't you ever say a bad word about my sister because the only reason we're alive right now is because my sister taught me how to be an archer. She has been through far worse things than you can possibly imagine. Hell she almost fell into the abyss of insanity and by the strength of her will alone, she managed to pull herself back together and create a whole new person that dared to believe in the unbelievable...the woman that does the impossible. So don't you ever say anything bad about her, not ever...you understand?" Anna hissed tears of rage in her eyes.
"I wish I had a sister like you." Vaan stated bluntly.
He completely took her off guard, her grip on his vest releasing as a result. She just stared at him, unsure of what to say to that. They had only just met, so why did he say that? Seeing her confusion, he hastily replied.
"She's really lucky to have you, to have someone believe in her so much that the moment someone tries to bad mouth her, you react violently and passionately. I just wish that I had someone like that, that would go that far for me." He elaborated his eyes dropping to the ground but his aura practically screamed loneliness.
She understood now why she had appeared in the Giza Plains...because he needed her. She had a feeling that things would not happen like her sister had seen in the game and it didn't help that this blond haired idiot reminded her of her precious sister. Her eyes became determined as they filled with resolve. She was going to do what she did for Artz...she was going to be his truest believer