Soon, he thought, soon I'll be with Anna again. Chills ran through his spine. He feared that even if they made it past the creature, he may not be there in time. He pushed the worrying thought away. There was no point in thinking on it now - he needed to do his part.
On cue, a familiar screech reverberated throughout the hollow cave. He heard Rydia squeak and take a few steps back. Cecil moved forward, taking his sword and slicing against the red line in his armor alongside his left arm. He winced, and the purple aura appeared around him like steam coming off of his body. Blood dripped in a steady stream down his elbow. His dark blade also emitted a magical glow, imbued with wicked power. Tellah readied himself, preparing a Thunder spell and waiting for a tentacle to break the surface.
The octomammoth's head soon broke the surface along with two of his tentacles. It took each of them into account, its wide, square-pupiled eyes analyzing the three of them. It deemed Cecil as the biggest threat, and swung first at him. Cecil dodged the attack by ducking, the tentacle flying over his head. With all the grace of a warrior he swung his sword over his head, leaning forward and adding more power to his attack. Blood rained down on Cecil, bathing him into a dancing nightmare of black and red.
It shrieked in outrage, using its other tentacle to sweep at his feet and knocking him into the water. Tellah finished his spell and let it loose on the uninjured tentacle when it rose up again. The nauseating scent of seafood mixed with sulfur filled the air, and the monster shrieked again, this time aiming at Rydia with a third tentacle. Rydia screamed and dove into the water, but its tentacle swept underneath and threw her into the air. Tellah managed to catch her in time, and braced himself for another swing from its appendage, shutting his eyes and turning his back towards it to protect her from the brunt of the attack.
It never came as Cecil reached them in time to lunge his sword through the center of the fourth tentacle. The octomammoth growled, its sharp fine teeth glistening. Tellah shouted out a warning to Cecil. It fell on deaf ears; it's third tentacle managed to slam down on Cecil, and he fell on his knees, his head barely above water. Rydia cast Cure, and Cecil stood again, limping slightly from the residual pain.
Tellah's spell struck once more, and Cecil nearly detached the recoiling tentacle with a brutal swing of his re-enchanted blade. He'd used his dark knight powers once more, another slice on his other arm, and the toll was noticeable as Cecil took a longer time to recover. Four down, Tellah thought, four more to go. Tellah was exhausting his reserves. Even with the help he had, this was a difficult battle. Cecil was struck once again by another tentacle. He submerged completely and out of sight. The suction cups on the tentacle's underside adhered to Cecil's chest piece, bringing him up and slamming him down through the water to the cave floor. Tellah turned to look for Rydia. She should've finished casting by now, he thought. In a deeper nook along the side of the cavern walls, he spotted a vibrant green foreign to the cave. Rydia was crouched and covering her ears, eyes squeezed shut. Tellah cursed inside. He should've known this would be too much for a child, especially after it attacked her.
He cast Cure on Cecil, who was still underwater, only visible because of the crimson stain growing wider and wider in the water where he once stood, the stiff tentacle at its epicenter and bubbles of stolen air escaping to the surface. The octomammoth wrapped another tentacle around the old sorcerer, pulling him towards it and slapping him with yet another tentacle. Tellah felt the taste of copper explode in his mouth. He growled, blind instinct pulling out the forgotten words to more advanced magic, and a Thundara spell escaped his lips: a deafening crack and blue light filled the cave. Ozone hung in the air and Tellah gagged from the overwhelming mix of scents. It let him go, blood spilling past cracked, cauterized wounds along its tentacle in a vibrant polka dot fashion around its suction cups. Once Cecil was upright and able to draw the creature's attention away from Tellah, he took his chance and waded towards Rydia.
"Rydia!" She only shook her head, her wails growing louder. "I know it's scary, but we need you to stay calm. I need you to help us. Cecil needs you. You have to trust us, we will keep you safe but we need you helping us."
Rydia looked at him with tears streaming down his face, then at Cecil. Tellah's frustration grew immensely. He couldn't leave Cecil without support for long, but he needed Rydia to help him cast. He felt Gale's sharp words threatening to come out and bit them back.
"Look at him! He's doing everything he can to help us. It's only fair that we help him too, okay?" Tellah spouted. He heard Cecil shout in pain behind him. Rydia winced in response, her chest rising and falling rapidly with shallow breaths. A thought came to mind.
"Can you summon? Can one of your Eidolons help?" he asked. Rydia looked at him again. She was hiccuping.
"W-Whyt. He knows black magic," she said. Tellah nodded. He lifted her in his arms and waded towards a boulder tall enough to hide her.
"Summon him and stay hidden, okay? I'll be in charge of healing, and Whyt can help Cecil hurt the octomammoth. I will tell you if you need to let him go home, so don't come out of hiding," he said. She shut her eyes and started her chant, raising her hands above her head, palms pressed together tightly. An image of her formidable grandmother flashed into his mind. Tellah wanted to watch as the nostalgia hit him, a lost memory threatening to resurface, but Cecil needed him now, more than ever. He turned and jumped back into battle - and not a moment too soon. Cecil had managed to stay alive and barely managed to dodge another attack.
Tellah was mid-chant when he heard chirping beside him. A small, porcelain-like humanoid nearly danced with excitement. It was already casting magic, and began teleporting around the octomammoth, staying out of its line of sight long enough to avoid its ire.
The battle continued on like this, and with one last feeble cry from the creature, it succumbed to its wounds. They were defeated the octomammoth with very little energy to spare. Tellah let out a cry of relief, nearly falling to his knees, and Cecil lifted his visor as he put away his sword, catching his breath. The aura of his darkness snuffed out as he did so, and Whyt faded after a quick cheery chirp at his summoner, who waded out to them from her secure hiding space.
"We did it!" Rydia cheered, jumping up and down, fists raised in triumph.
"We did," Cecil responded, rustling her drying hair. "Thank you for helping us, Rydia. We couldn't have done it without you." She wrapped her arms around his waist, the side of her head flush against his stomach. Cecil froze in surprise, but recovered quickly enough to return the embrace.
"Anna? Can we talk?" Tellah asked her.
Anna was leaning against the wall, her red rimmed eyes refusing to meet his.
"I guess," she said, squeezing her arm with her hand. He knelt down, groaning a bit as he did so.
"Ah, I'm getting older. You need to get taller so I don't have to bend down like this anymore," he joked. She didn't react. Tellah grew concerned - she would normally at least roll her eyes at him.
"What happened today at school? You've spent all day here on the ground, and you haven't eaten your dinner," he said. She shrugged.
"It's nothing. I'm not hungry."
Tellah didn't like playing the guessing game, but every once in a while he needed to do so to prod it out of her.
"Did the teacher yell at you for something?"
No response. Tellah hoped the next question wouldn't be it.
"Is it a boy...?"
No response. He sighed in relief. That was a topic he wasn't ready to breach yet.
"Does it have to do with choir?"
Sniffles. Well, third time's the charm.
"What happened at choir?" he asked. Anna looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes.
"I didn't get the solo. The choir teacher said I couldn't have it because I wasn't the best."
Tellah rubbed her shoulder, a patient smile on his face.
"Ah, Anna, my dear: we can't all be the best at the things we love. It can happen, even when we try our hardest."
She slammed her fist on the ground. Tellah was going to reprimand her when she cut him off.
"Daddy, her niece can't even hit the high F! We have to rearrange the song to suit her!" she shrieked. Tellah blinked. He didn't know what that meant but it sounded bad. He had to take another guess and hope he was right.
"Are you saying that she can't even sing the song right, and she still got it over you? Because she's her niece?" Tellah said, his voice rising, too. Anna nodded vigorously, full sobs racking her body. She covered her face with her hands.
"It's unfair! I practiced so hard!" she cried. And she was right. Tellah had heard her singing the same song over and over the past few days. It was enough to drive anyone mad, even a man who willingly married a woman who would do the same thing years ago. And it was all for naught?
"That will not do!" Tellah said, rising to his feet and extending a hand to his crying child.
"What are we doing?" she asked as she took it, wiping her tears with the back of her other hand. Tellah dragged her out of the house and onto the road.
"We are going straight to her house and demanding a redo! No one hurts you and gets away with it! And if she-"
Tellah was going to say more but she cut him off with a tight hug, her embrace squeezing the rest of the air out of his lungs.
"Thank you," she said, her head buried deep under his robes.
Tellah smiled at Cecil. He gave a tentative smile back, as if afraid to ruin the moment were he to move or say anything.
Perhaps there's still a chance. I'm coming, Anna! Tellah thought, allowing himself to feel hope for the first time in a while.
A/N: I have no musical bone in my body! If you thought the bit about the high F sounded familiar, that's because it was shamelessly stolen from Glee lol. Also, the next chapter is the heavy one. I like to have buffers between chapter postings so while chapter 5 is in the final touches stage, I'm going to hold it close for a while longer, at least until I'm mostly done with 7 :) thanks for reading!
