Chapter 19: Magdalene Forest: Red XIII and Cids' Passage
"Only level 3 and already able to perform the dimensional pull spell. It has been too long EON. Way too long." Judgement pulled his long, wiry hair off of his breastplate. EON had evolved again. The room was no longer a blue hazy stone room, but a living structure. EON had grown around the asteroid. Judgement was walking on a floor made out of iron and blood. Muscles and bones were the walls, steel and titanium were the roofs. In the middle of the asteroid, a cocoon hung from the roof, in its center was a red eye. The roots were no longer visible, because they were outside the asteroid. Even though EON covered all of the inside and outside of the asteroid, it still was below the water surface. EON was about the size of ¼ of Junon.
"You are growing strong, EON, but these WEAPONs are still stronger, as of now. With my puppets gone and your lack of an immune system as of now, It is up to me." Judgement strode towards a large blood vessel. "In the mean time, I shall kill some 'insects' to create more life energy for you. At its present rate, this planet does not have enough life force for your complete evolution." Judgement entered the blood vessel and walked in the gloom.
** *
"There it is!" Cait Sith shouted. The others climbed the small hill after him. Below them was an incredible valley. A valley that stretched as far as the eye could see. And all of it was trees. One huge forest, spanning an eighth of the continent. They all stood in awe.
"This must be the Magdalene Forest." Vincent said.
"According to the Conde Petie dwarves, the 'Pyntie Hats' live so deep in this forest that there are no owls." Red XIII exclaimed.
"O.K. I'll be sure to watch out for a sign that says 'Where there are no owls.'" Yuffie said sarcastically.
"Hey! An airship!" Barret pointed to the sky.
"The call that hunk of junk an airship?! It looks like a flying boat!" Cid lit his cigarette.
"Flying boat or not, that's what we need. Let's go!" Cloud said.
"Why don't we spilt up? That we can get through these woods faster." Tifa suggested.
"Good idea. Tifa, you go with Barret. Red, you go with Cid, Vincent, you go with Yuffie. And I guess I'll go with Cait Sith." Cloud said. The pairs thought this was a really stupid match up, but decided not to speak.
"Meet you at the village! It's straight north." Tifa said as she and Barret sped off down the hill and into the forest. The others nodded and split up.
** *
Red XIII and Cid Highwind were walking through the forest. It was your typical deciduous forest, filled with tall elms, birch, dogwood, and juniper. Orange and red leaves covered the fertile soil below them. Birds chirped as insects buzzed about. The light came down in streams where there were no branches to block it. Small animals, such as rabbits and squirrels, hopped all over the place. There was the occasional grunt of the Zaghnol or the cry of a griffin. It was truly peaceful, but peace was not a thing in Mr. Highwinds' mind.
"Cid, it's probably best if you didn't smoke. The ground is rather dry and if you drop that, you could easily start a forest fire." Red XIII eyed Cid.
"I keep these in my mouth till not a thing is left, so don't worry about this. What was that god damn punk thinking when he put us two together?" Cid moaned.
"We have been walking for hours, I wonder how long this forest goes on?" Red XIII wondered.
"Probably forever…"
Sensing that Cid didn't want to talk about the trees, he moved on to a different topic. "…Did you see that airship?"
"That thing?! That wasn't an airship, that was a #$%^ing boat! A boat with propellers and wings! I've seen air cabs that looked better!" Cid started to rant.
"It seems the people of this world haven't advanced to our level of technology…or they just like the idea of flying boats." Red said. He blinked his only operable eye.
"If these numbskulls like flying boats, they should see the Highwind. It's in for repairs now. It should be finished and back to it's old self soon. The Highwind makes these things look like pansies." Cid continued his rant.
"…Cloud sure cannot tell jokes." Red looked at their surroundings. In the distance, huge redwoods grew.
"I'll say. Ol' spiky ass can't tell a joke worth shit! He put me to sleep with his dumb ass self." Cid also looked around. Something didn't feel right. "…Red?"
"…Yes, I know. Something doesn't' feel right…"
They both looked around and stopped. There was no more bird calls, no more furry animals, no more sign of peace. Leaves continued to fall. Red sniffed the air.
"One of those Zaghnols is around." Red said calmly.
"…Shit. I knew we weren't going to get through here without an encounter."
"I don't see him though."
"That's because you only have one eye, dumb ass. But I don't see the bastard either."
"We should probably start moving."
"…Yea."
Cid and Red XIII started to move again, at Cid's first step, he stepped on a dry leaf, making a crunching noise. To them it seemed so loud that it could be heard for miles. Both of them stopped to look around. Nothing.
"Shit. There's no way we're going to get through here without making any noise…" Cid stated.
"…Let's just keep going. It was probably only that loud in our minds." Red replied.
The duo continued walking down the dry, leafy path. The sun still shone through the trees. The tree's still looked like they did earlier. But it was the signs of peace that vanished. The little animals, the friendly footprints, the singing of birds. Instead there was this empty silence and dreadful ominous feeling. The two came up to a fallen tree that obstructed the path.
"Perhaps we should sit down and gather our strength." Red sat down on the log. Looking around Cid sat down.
"Damn this place is freaky." Cid said.
"It's almost like one of those survival horror games that have zombies and the like." Red said. They both heard a snapping noise. Both whirled around at light speed to see a leaf fall from a tree.
"Damn, I am so jumpy." Cid said as he readied his spear. Red thought he saw something below the leaves. He removed the leaves with his paw.
"Uh…Cid?"
"Yea?" Cid turned around to look at what Red had found. Behind the long and partly buried under the leaves where the bleached remains of a large bird skull, one of those griffins. Accompanying it was the skull of a human, still decaying, and a whole mess of other bones. "Holy %^&*in' Hell!"
"It appears that our suspicion is correct. That Zaghnol is a man-eater. It's best we start moving." Red hopped over the bones and started running.
"Like hell you're leaving me here!" Cid did his infamous back bent over run and tried to catching up to the Cosmo Lion. As they grew smaller in the distance, a massive hoofed foot crushed the griffin skull.
** *
"You think. * Huff* we lost * wheeze* it?" Cid stopped to catch his breath. All those years of smoking did not help him run.
Red stopped to sniff the air. "It's still around."
"Ahh * cough* shit." Cid muttered.
Red XIII looked around. The trees were somewhat dead, like that of an autumn forest. The gold, orange, red, and yellow leaves scattered the dark soil. Blood was on the tree trunks. Bark was ripped off and thrown on the ground. Skeletons and decaying flesh lined the path. "I think we just walked into the lion's den."
Cid looked around between gasps for air. "$%^&. I am not going to die out in the middle of no where by some bastard pig."
"I suppose if we run for the redwoods, the beast won't persue." Red started jogging.
"Why the hell wouldn't it?!"
"A big creature like that would get stuck trying to run through." Red and Cid started sprinting. They heard a large crash from behind. Red XIII looked over his shoulder to see the Zaghnol break through the trees after them. It stared charging; it's heavy pink bulk swaying from side to side as it ran. Red XIII stopped.
"Cid! You continue running! I'll hold it off!" Red XIII roared. Cid nodded and continued running.
The Zaghnol continued charging towards Nanaki. It's tremendous weight breaking the bones it stepped on.
"Grrrrrrrrrr! ICE 3!" Red XIII roared. His Ice materia shimmered in his comb. The ground around the running Zaghnol froze over and a large spike of ice broke out of the ground at unimaginable speeds. The enormous thorn of ice pierced through the giant pigs body, first through the underbelly, and exposing it's frozen bloody tip above its' back. The Zaghnol squealed in pain. It then let loose low grunts as it started to die. It's blood flowed down the frozen icicle and onto the ground, joining the blood of its' victims. Its' eyes finally glazed over and foam appeared on its' jaw. The spike of ice than broke into chunks.
Red stood there. "That's not how Ice3 looked before. This world must have changed the spell." After a moment of thought, he then turned and ran at top speed, quickly disappearing into the redwoods. Several moments after, a large squawking was heard and a griffin landed in the forest and started eating the cold Zaghnol flesh. After it ripped out a chunk of meat, it raised its' bald head to the forest canopy and screeched.
Red soon met up with Cid at a clearing through the forest, a crude path. In the middle of the path was a sign, indicating a fork in the road. It read "Where there are owls", pointing to the left, and "where there are no owls", pointing to the right.
"What happened back there?" Cid sat on a log.
"I took care of it." Red said calmly. "The beast is now lying with its' victims."
"The damn bastard got what it deserved. Them green dwarfs said that the 'Pyntie hats' live where there are owls."
"No. I believe they said they said they lived where there are no owls."
"Look! I know what I'm told and they told us that they lived down that %^&*ing path! I'll prove it!"
"I will just sit here and watch."
"…Fine. I'll see you at the Black Mage Village."
Cid then walked down the left path. After a few minutes he reappeared where they had originally entered the fork. Red looked pleased with himself.
"How the hell?" Cid scratched his head.
"This place is magical. Now I suggest we proceed down the right path." Red got off the log and started walking down the right path. Cid ran to keep up with him. They spotted huts in the distance, followed by lively music.