(Authors Note: Since Tidus's tales will closely follow what was done in the game, I am going to have some fun with Kymaera's journeys in Spira. Enjoy. )

Chapter 3: Out of the Moonflow- Kymaera

Tidus: On that ship I wondered what was going to happen to me, what had happened to Zanarkand, where I was now... but I wasn't going to get an answer yet. Every time I tried to get a chance to talk try to strike up a long conversation with Rikku, she ended up being called away. I couldn't tell if it was dumb luck or the fact the other people on that ship didn't want her talking to me. Well I'm going to stop for a moment and hand this story over to Kymaera. She had a more exciting time over the next week than I did. Believe me having to clean a deck over twice and be a gopher was not fun.

Kymaera: Yeah I don't think it would be fun at all. But in any case back to my own story. Tidus already told you what happened to him when Sin spit him out. Well here's what happened to me when I was in Sin.

* * *

Kymaera's eyes fluttered open as she then felt herself able to move again but as she looked around she saw she was still in Zanarkand... except she was floating.

"What the...!" she muttered as she wondered how this could be even possible. She then looked around again for the man that had saved her from falling. "Auron! Where are you!" However no one responded to her. "... well I'm not going to get anywhere just floating around her... man that sounded so corny." Kymaera shook her head as she started moving forward trying to find someone, anyone at all. Finally she felt something. _What... what's this feeling I am getting?_

She floated over to the center of the city where she saw two figures together. Both were in shadows and were walking away.

"Wait!" Kymaera cried as she tried to move faster but light was starting to blind her light. One of the figures was turning towards here while the other was still moving one. Before her vision was totally gone she saw the face of the one that was looking at her.

She couldn't believe it.

"Mom?" Kymaera breathed.

Kymaera: I had no explanation or reason for why my mother was for absolutely no reason inside the thing that destroyed my home. The whole event was so surreal I thought it was a dream. As I felt myself drifting away I thought everything had been just a very bad dream. Sin, Zanarkand in ashes, my friends and teammates dead. When I woke up I thought I would be in my bed ready to practice for the Championship game and then kick Tidus's ass.

Kymaera: What I got was a very rude wake up call.

"YAH!!!" Kymaera jerked back and fell back against something when she heard that sound. When she heard it again she had to cover her ears since it was so loud. "What is that!"

"Ez lady okay?"

Kymaera looked around for the voice but saw no one. "Hello? Is someone here?"

"Down here."

Kymaera saw that she was in some sort of carriage and then decided to look down.

She then realized three things:
1) She was moving across a grey colored river.
2) She was on top of a giant blue-green elephant.
3) There was a blue skinned humanoid creature that was a cross between a frog and a lizard riding the said elephant.

After realizing fact number three, her brain promptly shut down and she fell unconscious.

"Ya thinksh she nebuer shee Shoopuf before." the driver shook his head.

Kymaera: Looking back on it I find it was rather reasonable that I fainted that first time I saw a Hypello or a Shoopuf. In Zanarkand the only animals I ever saw were stray cats, dogs, seagulls and that one hawk that I saw. Any other animals I read about in school. I had never seen anything other than human beings in my life. Still something told me that I would be going through a lot of surprises. And you know what. I was right.

"Are you alright?" a female voice spoke

"Uh..." Kymaera groaned as she opened her eyes. She found herself on a makeshift cot, looking up at a woman dressed in some sort of military garb wearing a helmet with goggle-like glasses. "Who are you?"

"I'm Miyu. The Shoopuf driver says he found you in river face down and were starting to sink. you should be grateful our resident Hypello was doing his routine walk for the Shoopuf or you might have drowned." the woman said. "He's already left to ferry people back over to the south end of the river."

Kymaera just blinked as this woman seemed to speak as if this was all a matter of course. "Um... wild guess. The Shoopuf was the giant green elephant and a Hypello was that blue skinned frog-lizard I saw."

"I take it you must not have ever seen a Shoopuf or a Hypello before." Miyu chuckled.

"Never even heard of them." Kymaera said as she started to get up. "Where am I anyway?"

"On the north end of the Moonflow of course." Miyu said.

"The Moonflow?" Kymaera asked.

"... you must have hit your head or something before the driver found you." Miyu reasoned. "The Moonflow was the river that you were fished out of."

"Okay. So tell me how close I am to Zanarkand?" Kymaera asked. _Zanarkand is my home. I just have to find out what happened. If there any survivors at all._

"Zanarkand? Why would you want to go there? Are you on a Pilgrimage?" Miyu asked curiously.

"Pilgrimage..." Kymaera muttered. _I really don't time to be playing twenty questions right now. I need to get to Zanarkand._ "Oh you mean I'm on a journey. Yes I am on a journey to Zanarkand."

"Really. Then where are your Guardians?" Miyu asked.

"Guardians? I don't need anyone to baby sit me. I'm able to take care of myself very well." Kymaera replied. "Look my minds is a bit messed up from the fall in the water so I don't remember everything right now. Can you tell me how to get back on the road to Zanarkand?"

_She sure doesn't look like a Summoner on a Pilgrimage, but she's got a strong will to go to Zanarkand and Summoners always have to have such a will._ Making her decision, Miyu answered Kymaera's question. "Take the road leading west ward out of this dock and then follow it straight until you reach Guadosalam. From there you will have to cross the Thunder Plains and continue north always. It will take you months to get to Zanarkand."

"Months!" Kymaera shouted. _That giant sphere of water sent me to a place that is going to take me months to get back to Zanarkand not to mention a primitive place. I mean there's no signs of technology at all! No way I could find a hover ship to get me back there fast in this place!_

"You seem surprised." Miyu said.

"... its nothing. I've just had a very bad day." Kymaera said. "Guadosalam you said would be the place I had to go to get to the Thunder Plains?" Miyu nodded. "Okay. Thanks. I'm off."

"Wait!" Miyu called out Kymaera as she was walking away. "Are you sure you should be traveling so soon?"

"If I don't start moving toward Zanarkand I am going to go stir crazy. Thanks for the help and give my thanks to that Hypello guy." Kymaera said to Miyu before turning around and walking on the path that she had been told about.

When she finally reached the end of the line she turned north and just let her jaw drop at what she saw.

"A forest..." Kymaera breathed.

Kymaera: Perhaps forests aren't such a big thing to you people of Spira but personally I think there are those of you that take nature for granted. In Zanarkand there are no forests. No real wide open spaces where you could see squirrels coming down trees and gathering acorns that had fallen from the ground. No trees that were taller than some of the buildings I saw back home. In Zanarkand everything is technological. Though the air is clean one can not notice that the city doesn't have an feeling of life other than human. There is no natural beauty. Only the beauty that was created by our machines. I am not insulting my own people, but I do think that as my ancestors worked on their machines, the lost touch with nature. Hence the reason why there were so few animals at all in Zanarkand. All of the parks in Zanarkand were synthetic. Nothing was real. Not the trees or the animals there were there just for show. And that's what it was. A show for children.

Kymaera: Seeing that forest that was between Moonflow and Guadosalam was my first pleasurable experience in this new world I found myself in.

Kymaera just walked slowly on the path and took in the time to observe all of the sights before her. She felt a kid taking as many sweets as she wanted. The flowers that were growing here were real and they had a smell...a fragrance that synthetic roses just didn't seem to give off. The air now that she took the time breath it in felt different from Zanarkand. It felt more alive. More real than the purified air that the people breathed. "This place definitely feels nice. Sounds like a nice place to visit if you wanted to get away from Zanarkand for a while. Quiet and peaceful."

Kymaera: Ever hear of the expression never take anything at face value. That what I did initially with this forest. I thought it was peaceful. No chance of any disruption. What disrupt me you might ask?... The sounds of people dying.

"What the?" Kymaera's head jerked up when she heard the screams. _I've already seen enough death already in my life. I better find out who's in trouble and from what_ Unholstering her Pulse Magnum she checked her ammo count. _Only five shots left and then this thing is a piece of junk until it recharges. Better make them count._ she decided as she started to run in the direction that she heard the screams come from.

She got there she just stopped in front of two corpses. There were three more further away from her and then she could see two others still alive holding off what looked like a giant living purple flower and a blue skinned beast that had the head of a bull, eagle, lion and a snake for a tail.

Seeing these creatures were already enough to make her stare in disbelief but when she looked at the dead she saw something that gave her an even bigger surprise.

They weren't human. That much could be seen by their long pointed ears and their hair.

_What the... what... what are these... people?_ Kymaera stepped back for a moment but then realized there were still people in danger. Snapping back to the present, she saw there were two of them, one an old man with green hair and a beard and wearing robes of a priest it seemed to her and the other was a young woman with silver colored hair wearing a greenish-black body suit.

_I better help them out while they are still alive._ She decided as she then took aim at the blue beast and fired at one of its heads. The blast hit the eagle head of the creature and the eagle dropped its head as if it were lifeless.

The creature roared in anger, its previous prey forgotten (even though they had just saw what had happened) it then charged Kymaera.

"Not good..." Kymaera groaned as she fired another shot at the creature's chest however it only made it stagger back a little before it continued to charge her. "Definitely not good!" She then started move and barely managed to dodge a swing by the creature as she then fired off another round at it, this time right where the bull head was and at point blank range.

The flash of light that came from the gun shot the creature backwards ten feet. However as it got up Kymaera realized it wasn't dead yet.

"Oh man I take out two of its heads and its still able to fight!" Kymaera cried in disbelief. She was getting ready to fire again when she heard the screams of something dying however it didn't sound like a human voice but rather inhuman. She saw now that the giant plant being burned down. Only problem is that the fire just came out of nowhere. However one of the people she was trying to save, the young woman, had thrown her hand down and then the fire came again.

However before Kymaera could think of anything else, the beast she had been fighting before had grabbed her now and was starting to squeeze her to death.

"AHHHHHH!!!" Kymaera screamed out in pain.

Just as she thought her number was up though something struck the creature from behind in one of its remaining heads. It was the only other person left alive. The old man had thrown a rock at the creature. It wasn't much but it did get the creature to loosen its grip in Kymaera.

Just enough to get her gun into place and set it to total unload.

"Hey!" Kymaera shouted knowing the creature would turn its head back to her and roar she then took her chance and put her gun into its open mouth. "Say 'AH'!" she then fired the trigger and both of her last two shots were fired off as one blowing the head off of the creature. Once its head was blown off, it then disintegrated into energy and evaporated.

Unfortunately, Kymaera was in the creatures grip at the time. She fell head first into the ground.

Darkness came over her.

Kymaera: In the span of less than three hours since I woke up from when Sin sent me to this world, I've seen a lot of things that aren't even human and that just surprised me because I wasn't used to it. I mean stuff like this you could only see if you were watching a Sci-Fi Vid. And that freakish beast... man did it hurt me. Still as I was unconscious I could only wonder what else I was going to be finding in this strange world that I now found myself in. I only didn't know how much of a shock I would be in for.

Kymaera's eyes started to flutter open as she put her hand on her forehead. "...I could use an aspirin right about now." She then looked down at her right hand and saw it was wrapped up in a bandage as was her chest. She touched her ribs and immediately regretted it. "One... two ribs... maybe more... cracked not broken... if they were... I'd feel a hell of a lot worse." She then looked around and saw that she was in a bed. A rather elegant bed. The room that she was in was also very elegant and beautiful. "... where am I?"

It was then that the door to the room opened and the young woman that she had helped before came in. "She's awake Maester Jyscal."

The old man, who Kymaera assumed was this Jyscal, entered the room. "Please wait outside Kartia, I wish to speak to our guest alone."

The young woman, Kartia, nodded. "As you wish."

After Kartia closed the door, Kymaera looked at Jyscal. "Um... don't take this the wrong way... but you and the woman aren't exactly human are you?"

Jyscal gave her a strange look. "You have not heard of the Guado before or have you never seen one before?"

"I um..." _Think of something quick! I don't think you can exactly tell him you're from Zanarkand!_ Kymaera thought quickly. "I don't remember much. Just my name, basic knowledge, and the first thing I remember is waking up on a Shoopuf after being fished out of the water."

"You were found in the Moonflow. There were reports that Sin was near by." Jyscal said.

"'Sin'?" Kymaera blinked.

Jyscal sighed. "That settles it then."

"Huh? What does?" Kymaera asked.

"Your memory loss seems to fit the pattern of those that have been affected by Sin's toxin act. Those that have been affected by its toxins will lose their memories if not careful." Jyscal explained.

"I... see..." Kymaera nodded. _Well now I have an excuse for not knowing anything. If I sound like an idiot when I should know something I'll just say I got affected by Sin's toxin and that will take care of it. Still though I really don't like the idea of having to make that excuse for myself when I really don't have any memory loss. Just a lack of information._ Just then she remember Miyu's directions from earlier. "Wait if you're Guado then I must be in Guadosalam."

"That is correct." Jyscal replied. "I would like to thank you for helping us out. An Ochu we could have expected but a Chimera was something we didn't think of at all. They usually don't come around to this region."

Kymaera just let a small chuckle escape her lips. "What irony. I was nearly killed by a beast that sounds like my name. Luckily I am not that ugly."

Jyscal shared a small laugh with her. "No you are most certainly not."

"My name is Kymaera. Um I don't suppose you could tell me how much farther it would be to get to Zanarkand from here?"

Jyscal shook his head. "I seriously doubt you would survive the journey to the ruins of Zanarkand alone."

It took Kymaera a couple of moments to be able to speak. "... ruins... Zanarkand... is ruins...?" her voice barely even a whisper.

Jyscal wasn't exactly sure on why she was reacting like this but he merely nodded his head. "Yes. It has been nothing but ruins for a thousand years ever since it was destroyed by Sin."

_Destroyed... by Sin..._ Kymaera blinked. She then looked up at Jyscal. "... I'm feeling kind of tired right now... if I could..."

Jyscal nodded. "Of course. I will Kartia check on you later." with that said he then left Kymaera alone.

Once she was sure that there was no one at the door or around she just let herself do something she hadn't done since her mother died.

She wept.

_It can't be! It can't be! Zanarkand can't be all gone! That water sphere that sucked me in... it must be this Sin that Jyscal mentioned..._ Kymaera sobbed to herself but then sat ramrod up as an even more disturbing thought entered her mind.

If the Water Sphere that attacked Zanarkand was Sin and destroyed Zanarkand over a thousand years ago... then why by all that was holy did she see her own mother's image in such a beast.

_Mom... she... she can't be a part of that thing... can she?_ Kymaera shook her head. _No. She isn't! I only saw her! I didn't feel anything from what I saw... So why did I even see her to begin with!_

Finding more questions with every passing moment but no answers, Kymaera simply cried herself to sleep. Weeping in the sorrows of the loss and pain she had now found.

And prayed that when she woke up that tomorrow would be a much better day.

To Be Continued...