DISCLAIMER: You know the story… not mine, all Square's… using them for entertainment purpose ONLY… so… DON'T SUE!
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Thanks to all the people out there who have been reading my works and, specially, to those who have been supporting it and reviewing it! I know it's no news but… YOU GUYS ARE TOPS!!! ^_^ (I really do love to do that…)
PART ONE: THE MISTS WITHIN CHAPTER FIVE: A KNIGHT'S ILLUSIONEmptiness.
Absolute and complete vastness of cold an unpleasant emptiness.
He could sense it, even if he could not open his eyes and testify the blinding darkness by himself.
He almost felt like he was in a strange vacuum, devoid of scent or sound… an odd coma – as if his organism held him by suspended animation in an attempt to keep his frail body alive, shutting all his systems down in the process, and leaving his soul to drift aimlessly in the mysterious limbo, oblivious to the fact that that may have been it's last stay within the boy's small shell…
::Come home, little one…:: Honeyed voices pleaded, their whispered tones echoing endlessly in the abysm. ::Come… Come with us……… Return to the protection of your mother's womb…………… Don't you want to be loved…?::
"Whe-where am I? Why am I here?" He asked dizzily, slipping further into the darkness. "There was something I was searching for, but I can't remember what…"
::Love… you were searching for love…:: The voices replied more sweetly. ::Come with us… Live no more in fear… You'll be safe and warm with us… Your search has ended… We'll love you…" They continued. " Search no more, fiery one… Come to us… Love has been found… Come…::
The boy felt his energies slowly withdrawing as the voices lulled his spirit into a dream-like state of unawareness, his questions barely audible amid the confusing whimpers. "What is this place? Is this a place at all?"
::Sleep eternally, small one……… Rest has been found… Come…… Love awaits you in forever's lap… Come…… Have no fears…… Your fight is over… Surrender……… Come to us…::
A muffled sound seemed to be heard in the darkness – a voice different from all the others – but yet so similar – though his spirit paid to it no heed.
"Sur…render………?" The boy's spirit asked uncertainly, waking up the slightest bit at the spoken words. "You mean… Defeat………?"
::Yes, little one…… Abandon this life… it had never a meaning to you……::
Again a blur of words echoed in the pitch-black depths.
"But--"
::Come……… Come to us…:: The voices urged.
"NO!!!!!!! DYRE!!!!!" A high soprano scream tore through the darkness and died abruptly into the depths, its words swallowed by the vacuum that surrounded him.
::………Come…:: The voices indulged him, seducing him. ::You'll be safe and loved… Don't you want to be loved…?::
At that, the voices silenced - as if waiting - and their echoes faded and ceased in the limbo's depths.
After a minute's silence, the boy's spirit grinned, defiantly.
"I… won't… surrender…" He stated. "…I won't be defeated… Shiri…" he pleaded. "I'm falling…… No. It's worse than falling…… I'm sinking……… where ar--"
In a sudden twirl, he found himself jerking upwards, sitting in nowhere to be seen, amid a glowing bubble of light; his spirit pulled by an unseen force to it's rightful place.
Bringing his hands to his face, he found himself washed by renewed sensations, stormy blue eyes opening to allow him to peek through the spaces between his fingers.
He was alive and breathing - he was sure of that.
How?, he had no idea…
::Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi…::
He spun around, looking suspiciously at the light enveloping him, searching for some kind of justification for the unexpected change of scenario.
From the walls, as "it" had any walls at all, came fine shaped blue-skinned women, dressed in seaweed-like purplish robes, their cold features fading into view.
He paralysed on the spot as the feminine figures closed up on him, circling him as hungry predators would do to their prey.
"Who are you?" The small boy inquired, brusquely.
The creatures did not answer him in any way, loathe evident in their misty eyes.
Slowly, one of them sealed the distance, which parted the ethereal females from his frozen body, standing silently some scarce cold inches away from him.
The visible proximity was more than enough for him to realise that he was becoming comfortingly hot against the freeziness of all that surrounded him.
The woman smiled evilly at him, her pearly white teeth showing as the others soon join her, forming a suffocating circle.
For the second time that day, he felt scared.
The bluish females continued their insistent stares, feeding a poisonous silence and it wasn't long before his impulsive nature gave up on waiting for the womanly figures to speak.
"Where am I?" He demanded fiercely.
Staring intensely at him, none of them made a move whatsoever to answer him. However in their eyes burned the anticipation to grace him with severe words of disdain.
As one was about to do so, she stopped and all creatures looked above, beyond the blanket of whiteness that surrounded him.
Sceptically, the small blonde boy also raised his eyes to the constant wallpaper of those strange domains, wondering briefly over whatever had taken the nymphs' attention away from him.
After drawn moments, the women lowered their eyes and looked straight at him, in nerving and inhuman synchronisation.
The woman who had firstly approach him, smiled devilishly, lifting the boy's chin with one frozen finger. ::We must thank you, fiery one…:: She said through closed lips. ::Without your precious help, she would never have accepted it.::
"What are you talking about?" He demanded.
Ignoring his question, the nymph continued. ::So, what is it like to be - once again - the source of all her future pain, pathetic one?:: She asked in a hiss, gesturing smoothly above.
"What--?!!!" He exclaimed furiously.
::Hush,:: She urged seductively. :: we won't disturb you any further.::
Then, with intoxicating vengeful triumph, she grinned. ::Our mistress seeks our aid.::
His eyes widened and, he was about to protest, when she cut in.
::This conversation never took place.::
In a flash, she waved her hand and, once again, he was thrown and torn, the night seeming endless to his mortal eyes, echoes of unspoken thoughts from both parts floating in his mind…
Little boy, what do you think of yourself?
All of these years…
In your heart, when you think of you,
…have I been deceiving myself?
Is there an empty void or a darkest thought?
These thoughts and these emotions…
Behold, there is nothing here for you
…I feel them every time I'm with them…
Little boy, you labour under an illusion…
"What--?"
Realise the unpleasant truth, foolish boy
Are they true?
The world seems so different from the way it really is.
Or have I been wrong all along?
"What? Did I just saw--??"
Have no illusions about this:
Maybe within myself,
You were wrong. Always wrong.
Way deep inside my heart,
So, now you see… Your ideals weren't that strong.
I have always known that all this was an illusion…
"An illusion?"
Little boy, you live under an illusion.
But I have no illusions about this…
Your illusion.
…I'm in love with you.
"???"
Welcoming the cold sensation of the salty liquid against her body up to her belly, the blonde girl, in a fluid movement, dove her slender arms into the sea and reached for the object of her pursuit. Her expectant hands were quick to touch his soft skin, her fingertips registering the sensations the small contact had caused before carefully sliding around his form.
"The hel-- Hyne!!! He's-- hot?!" Gently circling the boy's waist – at least the maximum her tiny arms allowed her too – the blonde girl wondered over the reason for the strange warmth his body irradiated – even more! – maintained while in contact with the iciness of the water. "How can this be? He must have been in the ocean for hours!?!! It's--"
A voice in her mind echoed over her doubts and ceaseless questions, cutting her previous line of thought. ::--wait.:: It said simply. ::Save the boy now and ask questions later.::
Quistis quietly obligated, for once not stopping to feel the advice creating roots in her most reliable instincts, and therefore dismissing the unconscious knowledge it often provided.
"Uh-hum… he's--" Gingerly, she tried to push her catch out of the water and, as she mumbled curses under her breath, his unexpected weight pulled her underneath the water's thin sheet.
SPLASH!!!!
Bubbles fluttered all around her face, tickling her cheeks and blinding her vision, her short hair floating gentle in the water. As soon as the small balloons of air escaped from view, Quistis began to blink furiously, in an attempt to focus her vision.
And then she saw him.
Not the soaked golden island of hair that had been floating aimlessly at the surface of the ocean, supported only by his arm that had been resting, abandoned, over the board she had kicked afar.
No, now she could really see him.
Clinging tightly to his waist, Quistis spend scarce moments beholding the content of her hold.
A sleeveless navy blue shirt with a white cross-shaped design embroidered in it covered, what she felt, a strong large-shouldered chest, and that left bare his slightly muscled sun-burnt arms; his dark pants hiding the power of his legs as his golden short blonde hair waved in a way similar to her own, creating a beautiful halo of white light around his promising handsome features.
"The way the sunlight hits his hair… it's like a white fire and he's so warm…… I-I almost feel-- I almost feel like I know him… Like somewhen before, we…" Quistis felt herself gasp, water entering her parted lips, her mind shifting to matters more at hand. "The surface…!"
Jerking herself out of the water, strength renewed, Quistis half-pushed, half-swam the blonde boy in the shore's direction, kicking the water almost desperately, since she couldn't handle the boy's weight.
"You know what? You're heavy!" Quistis spat at the unconscious boy, grabbing him clumsily like a potato sac, gripping the material of his clothes with all the fierceness she possessed - the only way of fighting his eventual fall.
Quistis'eyes widened fearfully as she began to merge from the waters, her sensitive fingertips informing her of the growing change taking place on the boy's skin. "His temperature? It's lowering?!! How--?!!"
Gingerly, she placed the boy on the wet sand. Applying her wet fingers on his neck, she checked his pulse, just before she carefully lowered her small blonde head on the boy's chest, verifying if he was breathing. "Well, you seem well enough… your pulse is regular and your breathing is strong… I really loved to know how you managed--" Her mind froze.
Raising her blonde crown of hair, the girl searched for the indistinct menace of she-didn't-know what. Scanning diligently every inch of her surroundings, she was surprised to notice that she had never been this few meters near this side of the beach.
Goosebumps came up her spine as she acknowledged, in a cold sweat, that she must be far beyond Matron's barrier. Her attentive hears caught the sound of a light groan and, unfortunately for the young girl, it did not seem as if it had come from the boy.
"It's okay, it's alright…" She repeated to herself. "That was just an Adamatoise waking up to pick the loose wrecks of the storm-- like…*gulp* him…?" Bad line of thought, her mind warned as she shifted a fearful gaze to the blonde boy lying on the sand.
Shaking her head, the blonde girl tried to dismiss those thoughts. "Focus! FOCUS!" She ordered herself, silently. "Don't let fear overcome you! Analyse the situation!" Obediently, Quistis pulled from the back of her memory all that could be of use to her at the moment. "The Adamatoises are very much blind out of the water; they won't see us and our smell is well dissimulated with the scent of the sea water. I'll just have to get us beyond the barrier... that is if I can find where it is…"
Edea Kramer, the Matron of the Lighthouse Orphanage, had erected an enormous globular barrier around the house with the help of a bottled GF: Diablos. The barrier had strong purple coloured definitions, which enabled the children to walk freely, without being disturbed by any monsters. All children knew to avoid the area beyond the purplish walls, had Edea, anyway, put a spell to both warn her and the children if they had crossed its frontiers. The barrier was, however, invisible from the outside so as to better shelter the children from the curious.
"Now, I really loved to know how I managed to get through the barrier without noticing…" Quistis wondered. "Oh, well, no harm done…"
Quistis closed her eyes, allowing her magic aura to expand and touch the many magical signatures that flooded the place. Diligently, the blonde girl searched in between the hank of magical threads, the presence of the spell-crafted barrier.
Breaking her light trance, the blonde girl opened her ocean-blue eyes, content with the success of her little investigation. She had found not only the barrier, but also the presence of two large Adamantoises lurking in her direction. "It's just a coincidence, though. They could never have detect us here. In either ways, I should get moving…"
The five-years-old blonde girl sighted and was assaulted by a scent she should have identified long ago, and that, now, compromised their unnoticed escape.
"Oh, Hyne! No, please! Not the smell of--"
Lifting the boy's limp body, Quistis saw her fears confirmed…
There, at the back of his navy blue shirt and gradually forming a fire-red stain…
"…Blood… Why didn't I smell it before? Even with the heavy smell of the sea, I should have noticed!!! Oh, now what?!"
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I know, I know… Confusing, isn't it? ^_^; Well, it will get better…………. eventually… (I hope…) .
