CHAPTER 1
The heat was particularly oppressive this afternoon. Despite the heat, however, several small figures were making their way along a broken, unstable trail that twisted its way around the mountains. No one knew what was beyond the mountains any more, not really. The trail itself was far too dangerous to take in all but the most desperate of circumstances, and ever since the mako reactor was built there were always various monsters just waiting to snack on any unsuspecting creature. It was far too time consuming to go around the mountains.
On by one, the group of small humans thinned, until only two were left, one walking boldly ahead, one lagging badly behind, but catching up rapidly. If you look at them a bit closer though, you could tell that the one walking ahead was a brunette, and the one behind was a blond.
Suddenly, a small gust of wind, completely out of place in the oppressive afternoon heat, whispered passed the underside of the path, dislodging a few small grains of dirt.
The brunette human stepped boldly onto that section of the path, unaware of the potential danger, and those few grains suddenly became a few grains too many. The path began to rapidly crumble and disintegrate, prompting a frightened scream from the person that had stepped on it.
Further down the trail, the blonde heard the sound and ran toward it, heedless of his own safety.
By chance, the blonde saw a branch in the middle of the path that would have tripped him under normal circumstances. Instead of slipping on the piece of wood, losing his balance and falling as fate had clearly intended, the blonde completely avoided the potential stumbling block. Just as the brunette human began to fall, he arrived. Reaching out, he grabbed her on to her wrist, saving her from a fall that would have caused severe injury, if not death.
With a great deal of effort, the slight blonde pulled the brunette back up onto the path, then collapsed back on his bottom, panting heavily.
The brunette was panting, as well, though more from fear instead of effort. She turned towards the blonde, her eyes wide. "Cloud...you saved me." She whispered.