Chapter 16: Kara's Dreaded Story
"So what do we do now?" Gerald asks as he finishes wrapping a few bandages around his right leg. Never in his life has he felt so weak and wasted. He's had to fix the bridge of his glasses with thin strips of tape; miraculously his lenses weren't shattered in his fight with the cougar. He curses to himself silently, telling himself that he will never look at a cat the same way again. "There's no telling where the Elder's gone and it would be near impossible for us to find him now."
"We have to keep trying," urges Porom with a weary voice. She looks out the entrance to the cave, staring into the darkness of the night, listening to the evening music of the crickets in the brush. It's been many hours since she and the others awoke from unconsciousness, and none are in a position or condition to continue with their search for the Elder. She massages the back of her neck in an attempt to soothe the painful aches of their battle. The malicious cougar with the golden eyes left its mark on her in various places on her body—welts to her arms and back, bruised bones, and a splitting headache. "We can't just abandon him; leaving him to fight his battles alone; not after all he's done for us, for Mysidia, and for the world."
Porom looks down at the Elder's history book, the one given to Palom by the other members of the Holy Council. A magical light aids her, illuminating the pages of the book she's been reading for the past few hours. Her headache detracts from her ability to comprehend what she's reading, but she fights it with resiliency.
"At least our supplies are still in tact," Lyrca, sitting next to Palom, opens up her knapsack for some of the canned rations inside. "I can't believe we were able to survive that horrible creature."
"Indeed," Gerald agrees and turns his attention to the cloaked woman known as Kara. "We can't thank you enough for what you've done for us Kara."
Kara just nods, fixing her eyes on Porom and the book.
"What have you learned from that piece of history that lies in your hand?" Kara asks, still wrapped in her black cloak.
Porom strays from her reading to address Kara. Though the cloaked woman has kept to herself the entire time, leaving her story a complete mystery, Porom can't help but trust her. Not simply for the fact that she saved all their lives, but for something deeper, more illusive. To Porom, Kara exudes a sort of aura that is soothing, calming. Her eyes are a deep brown that seems as black as the cloak surrounding her, but in that darkness Porom can see a very distinct light, sparkling with a very pronounced essence of someone who is good, not evil. Palom, Lyrca, and Gerald, she knows, share that same feeling.
"So far from what I've read," Porom explains. "There was a great war that took place hundreds of years ago. There's a map on this page that shows what the world looked like back then. The makeup of the continents is vastly different, but I notice that most of the kingdoms and towns back then, were located where a lot of our societies live today.
"It's interesting how a lot of the things I'm reading seem to coincide with our world. The greatest kingdom in the land back then was a place called Corneria, which is located on the same continent and about the same location as Baron. And the Village of Mist stands in the same spot where a structure known as the Temple of Fiends used to be," Porom continues to sift through the pages as the others listen intently to her findings. "Another co-relation involves the airships. They actually had the technology back then to create one, but for reasons unknown, it was destroyed after the war was over, and another was never built for over two hundred years."
"I wonder why that was." Lyrca remarks.
"Maybe they all got airsick or something." Palom quips as he greedily eats from his own can of rations. He shares a silent laugh with himself, knowing full well that no one thought his remark was funny.
"According to this book," Porom continues. "There was a great evil plaguing the planet. An enormous creature known as Chaos—a devilish being born from the fires within the world itself—sought to rule all the lands. He employed various beings from across the globe, those who would do his bidding without question, and sent them off to wipe out entire civilizations."
"This guy's sounding a lot like Zeromus," Gerald reaches into his backpack for a ration of his own. "Or maybe Zeromus was like, 'Chaos part II'."
"During the madness, a group of men and women formed an alliance—a fellowship of sorts—with one simple goal. They traveled the entire world from the Crescent Lake to the Castle of Ordeals, from the Sea Shrine to the Mirage Tower, and even to a castle floating in the sky to combat this evil and turn away the powers of Chaos.
"Before they could reach this monster, they had to pass through several trials and battle through a band of enemies known as the Four Fiends, who represented the four elements—fire, water, earth, and air.
"Together, these band of brothers and sisters were known throughout the world as the Light Warriors—those who, in the end, would shatter the darkness of Chaos and bring peace and light back to the planet. That's just about the gist of it."
Porom closes the dusty, old book and lays it on the ground in front of her. A deafening silence ensues with only the grand, musical whims of the crickets to accompany it. A few droplets of rain can suddenly be heard falling upon the grassy plains outside the cave.
"So what does this mean? Why did the Elder give you this book?" Lyrca asks.
"Have you not figured it out yet?" Kara's voice is very distinct in its tone, like a teacher watching over a student who has spent too much time on a math problem.
"There's another war coming?" Gerald stops eating his rations while thinking the story through.
"More than that," Kara continues. "Chaos has returned."
"What?!" All four companions say in a surprised and shocked unison.
"He hasn't fully regenerated yet. His spirit and soul lives within another for now…but soon…very soon, he will become what he once was," Kara looks out the cave as the rain has turned into a downpour, dampening the grass quickly. "Unfortunately, it's hard to keep a being such as Chaos down permanently. As you have just heard from Porom's reading, Chaos was created from within the planet, from the molten fires of the world's very core. Its life force comes from the planet itself, feeding its insatiable appetite with power and will, and as long as a portion of Chaos exists in the world, he will eventually become whole again."
"How is this possible?" Palom stands dumbfounded by what he's hearing from the mysterious, young woman. "How can the planet make this thing and keep it chugging through all the centuries?"
"In the very beginning, this planet gave birth to everything that inhabits it—the trees, the fish in the ocean, dogs, pigs, humans—but not everything it creates is necessarily beautiful, or useful, or good natured. It's part of a balance, a circle of life if you will. When Chaos was supposedly destroyed, the Light Warriors thought nothing more of it. They came home to a hero's welcome, with flags of victory flown high atop the castle walls of the kingdom of Corneria. They were oblivious to the evil still living, as they relished in their hard won freedom, abounding to the tunes of the trumpets being played for them, and to the songs that would soon be written about their accomplishments.
"Chaos though, was still alive. His spirit, his soul entered the body of one—a Light Warrior. Unbeknownst to him, it resided, sleeping silently and waiting. Chaos' spirit passed on from generation to generation, like a gene through the family line, gestating and growing slowly in power, waiting for the right moment to arise once again."
A flash of light illuminates the heavens, followed by a roll of thunder that echoes throughout the bleakness of the night's sky. The trees sway violently as the strong winds become harsh and fierce, forcing the tree trunks to bend unwillingly. A tiny squirrel scurries through the entrance to the cave, shaking off droplets of rain from its brown bristles.
"Not to sound paranoid or nothing," Palom says. "But I think someone should check the eyes on that little rodent."
They all hunch over toward the squirrel and squint their eyes to try to get a good look at the unexpected visitor. The bushy-tailed rodent looks back at them curiously with its soft, brown eyes. A small sigh of relief echoes through the shallow cave.
"What was that animal anyway?" Gerald says with a mouth full of rations. "That cougar had to be the same cat that we saw just moments before right?"
"Its name is Drakhen," Kara explains. "A very marvelous creature…one of a kind actually."
"Marvelous?!" Lyrca exclaims. "You can't be serious!"
"That thing has a name?" Palom picks the history book up from the ground to sift through the pages—not really to read it as much as to keep him busy.
"Drakhen is actually a golden dragon from the far north, beyond the town of Toroia and through the Angoli Woods," Kara pulls back the hood of her cloak, releasing her raven hair from its embrace. Her long, black strands blow freely from the stormy winds. "Golden dragons are the most powerful of the species. They're able to use the combined abilities of every kind of dragon, not to mention the fact their sheer size makes them extremely formidable. This particular dragon is an enchanted creature, with the ability to morph into any animal it so desires; a cat for instance."
"If it's so powerful, why didn't it just attack us in its dragon form?" Porom asks.
"Given its immense weight and the fact that you were all riding atop a flock of chocobos at the time, Drakhen probably thought it best to transmogrify itself into something more suited for the chase."
"How did this big lizard get the ability to change in the first place?" Palom asks, looking up from the book in his hands.
"He was given the power by Zeromus."
"You're kidding!" Gerald exclaims.
"Not at all. You see Zeromus wanted someone to lead the attack on the world, and when he found out the whereabouts of Drakhen, he sent Cecil's brother Golbez to negotiate with it. After Drakhen was given the powers which now are bestowed upon it, it never entered the fray, deciding it was best to lay low and let things play out," Kara reaches into a tiny bag attached to a belt of deep red. She takes out a piece of bread, breaks it apart, and lays it on the ground for the damp, little squirrel to eat. "Zeromus would have punished Drakhen, but by the time he figured the dragon wasn't going to aid him, you, Cecil, and all the others were hot on his trail. Zeromus knew that he couldn't win the fight without a stronger partner at his side, and Golbez wasn't fulfilling his duties to Zeromus' desire. What Zeromus didn't know, was that Drakhen was waiting for something…or rather someone."
"What do you mean?" Asks Lyrca, listening intently to the story being told by the mysterious woman.
"Drakhen is very ancient—over five hundred years old as a matter of fact—living through the ages as nothing more than an observer, searching for the right time to take action. And now, it seems, it's found that time. Drakhen, like most dragons, is very intelligent, and it knows what it wants and when it wants it. Patience is a virtue when it comes to the species of dragons, and they use their time well."
Porom's brow creases as a hundred thoughts flow through her head, coming together in one realization.
"So you're saying that Drakhen was alive when Chaos began his reign over the world all those centuries ago, and now…"
"And now," Kara intercedes. "Drakhen has decided to enter the playing field, because Chaos has returned."
The downpour of rain continues, joined with the bright lights and sounds of the thunder and lightning overhead. The four companions can do nothing but stare at the woman named Kara, swimming through the story that she's just told them.
'Chaos has returned to the world' is a statement that echoes and toils in their minds, constantly picking their brains and piercing their hearts. Never did Palom and Porom think that they would face anything with greater power than the dreaded Zeromus; not in their lifetime. And now added to it—the cat, the cougar, the dragon—Drakhen.
What could they possibly do to fight this new menace? What they now know, is that they needed to notify Cecil and the others as soon as possible, forsaking the Elder to whatever task he's taken upon himself, and hoping that everything will be alright. If what the woman in black has told them is true, then there was no time to waste. As soon as the storm has said its peace, and left the cold monstrosity of Mt. Ordeals, they would be off toward Mysidia leaving the brown-eyed squirrel in the cave to eat his meal of small breadcrumbs.