We were flying over the blue pristine waters of the ocean. As the hours went by Lance and I started to talk. He told me about his childhood and how Shinra had destroyed everything by threatening him into submission. I told him about what I remembered from my past, even about what Hojo did to me. Finally both of us fell silent to digest the knowledge we had just gained. I stared out of the cockpit because I was in the gunners seat and didn't have anything to do. I watched the beautiful green waves of the sea roll beneath us. The sun was just beginning to set and its red rays seemed to intertwine with those of the fiery ball that loomed overhead. In the distance I saw a green line rise above the waves. "Land straight ahead," said Lance over the comm. link. "Shinra has a military position at the town up ahead. Its name is Costa del Sol and we're going to fly to the south of it and then up again to avoid being spotted."
With this the plane turned south and we began to fly parallel to the beach for many miles. It was very late and I began to nod as sleep overcame me. I turned my head and looked up at the sky at twilight. I realized that it would be a full moon that night. I put this thought aside and settled into my seat, trying to find the most comfortable position to sleep in. As I was falling asleep I heard someone yelling and could see lights flashes from beneath my closed eyelids. Lance was the one yelling over the intercom and the flashing lights turned out to be balls of energy flying around us. "Something in the water's firing at us" screamed Lance. I thought it was a boat and looked down to try and spot it. Instead I saw a massive green creature poking its head from out of the black ocean waters. It was shooting at us with weapons on the side of its body.
"What is that?!" I yelled to no one in particular.
"How should I know?" Lance yelled back. "All I know is that its aim is improving and we can't outrun it. I'm going to fly over land, if we fly north from here we should reach Cosmo Canyon, and we should be able to loose that monster over land." We turned off our main course and began to fly for land. Lance's idea worked, the sea monster didn't follow us onto the beach, but stayed and continued to shoot at us as we made our escape. Just as it looked like we had made it I felt a jolt in the back of the plane. "It nicked us in the rear but we should make it to Cosmo Canyon. Look!" he yelled, "there's the canyon up ahead."
In the light of the moon I could see a barren desert like region with several large canyons laid out across the area. In the corner of my eye I saw a beacon of green light. It was small but intense and in the darkness it shone with a heavenly glow. "Head towards the light Lance!" I called back to him.
"What are you crazy," he said. "That's in the middle of the canyon, we're going for the actual town up on that plateau."
"Head for the light," I ordered him once again, "and I thought we'd already established that I was crazy?"
"Alright, alright," he gave in, "but I'm warning you it's going to be a bumpy ride, our rear stabilizer took the brunt of that last hit." We flew in low and I could actually see individual rocks on the ground. Suddenly the earth dropped out below us and we were over the canyon. I grabbed hold of my seat as Lance lowered the planes engines for the vertical landing. The plane started to jerk back and forth violently as we descended. My head whacked the top of the canopy and for a moment I thought we would crash into the canyon wall. Just when I thought I was going to get shaken apart I felt a jolt go through the plane and the thud of the landing gear touching down. The canopy opened and I stumbled out. Both Lance and I fell down on our knees to let the dizziness pass. When we were both recovered we got up and looked around. "Hey Zack," he said, "That green light is coming from off in that direction." It was so we went to investigate. We climbed over a pile of rocks and slid down to a lower level of the canyon. The light was coming from a small alcove off to the side and we approached it with caution. We walked out from behind a section of broken rock and found ourselves staring at a figure obscured by shadows. I walked closer to get a good look while Lance stayed behind. As I approached the darkness seemed to lift from the stranger like a bird taking flight. There stood Aeris, smiling at me pleasantly. She opened up her hands, revealing the pulsing green light that had led us to this place. Her image began to fade almost immediately but she fought the pull long enough to say one thing, "Find him here." She pointed her hand over to the left of us, and then she was gone and only the mist remained. I turned around and walked back to Lance who had gone pure white and looked like he had just seen a ghost. I laughed at this and decided that technically he had.
"I'm guessing by the look on your face that you saw her," I said.
"Ya," he replied, "was that Aeris?"
"Yes it was," I said. "What did you think of her," I asked.
"Real strange man, that was just so weird, it looked like she was wearing that shadow like, like it was a jacket or something. Then she just melted away into smoke or mist or something." He seemed real shaken up. "What did she mean?" he asked.
"Mean by what?" I asked.
"By the 'find him here' thing," he replied.
"I think she was talking about the person we're supposed to find in this place," I said. "She pointed off in that direction so I'll go over and check it out. You go back and try to fix the plane Lance."
"Ha," he sniffed, "I'll have that plane fixed, you just be sure not to fall down some crevasse or onto a cactus."
I smiled and began to walk in the direction Aeris had pointed. It was not easy going. The canyon walls were steep and there were many boulders blocking the path. There were several caves along the trail but I did not dare to go into them for fear of the strange twisted figures I could see flitting around the entrances. I was finally lost, I had no idea which way I had turned last and all the paths began to look the same. I sat down and tried to think of a way out of this one. I looked up and saw the huge moon looming over the sky, its silvery rays outdoing the doom glow of the fireball. But within the white circle I saw a thin line, I stood up and looked closely at this marvel. It appeared to be a trail of smoke and it looked like its origin was close to where I was. I had nothing else to do but to try and find out where the smoke was coming from. I went down several twists and turns and through some very narrow tunnels until I stood in one of the wider gullies I had seen. The smoke was coming from what looked like a hut, which was carved directly into the rock face. A very narrow set of stairs led from the canyon floor up to the hut. I used these and was soon standing in front of the hut. It had been built of adobe brick and plaster and did not appear to be the home of anyone wealthy or anyone who wanted visitors.
Nevertheless I needed directions and this person might be able to help me so I got up my courage and knocked. There was some bustling on the inside and something that sounded like squeaks. Someone was mumbling and then I heard something crash. There was silence for a long time, so long that I thought about turning around and going back to try and find my own way. Before I could do this the door began to creak open and I saw what looked like a face peak out. It was wearing strange, tattered, but colorful clothes that had many beads and small bits of bone hanging off of them. The hood he wore obscured his face in shadow and only revealed his glowing red eyes. "What do you want?" it asked in a high squeaky voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
"Um, sir," I asked, "I need directions, well actually a guide and I was wondering if you could help."
"It says it wants help, it says it wants a guide," the creature appeared to be talking to itself, "but it is from the town and they be the enemies."
"Sir," I said, "I'm not from any town around here and I certainly don't want to be your enemy."
The creature growled, "how do we know if you aren't a townsfolk, the townsfolk hate us, they want to destroy us."
"I don't have any proof," I said. "My plane was shot down and I was looking for someone who could lead me through the canyon."
"Was it the town that shot you down?" it asked, suddenly very curious.
"I don't know what shot us down, whatever it was it attacked so fast I barely got a look at it," I replied.
"Sounds like townsfolk weapon, they are bad those townsfolk," it said. "You a victim of townsfolk and old floaty man. You come inside and Ger'adu will help you!" He quickly motioned me into his house and I accepted his invitation. We sat in the small one room house and he set a cup of strong smelling brown liquid in front of me. "Drink," he said, "drink and then we talk." I thanked him for his generosity and gulped the liquid down. It burned at the back of my throat and it left a very strange and tangy aftertaste but wasn't all that bad. I sat back and he filled my cup again. After three drinks I was completely relaxed and ready to ask for his help.
Before I could start the creature started talking, "You are friend so I will tell you story." I didn't want to offend it so I nodded and listened. "We, Ger'adu were not always this way. We once great warrior of the Gi Tribe. We attack town because great leader say that they were making the gods angry with their fire that always burns. So one of us, a spy, he put out the fire and dropped the protective spell the flames had for the town. We attacked but the canyon guardians, great red beasts that nearly tore poor Ger'adu in half, they stopped us before we could get into town. So great leader took some of us best warriors around the back through the caves to attack from below town. Then the champion guardian appeared. He kept Gi from getting through the pass and killed great leader." With this he grew very silent and I felt that I would like to know one of these canyon guardians. Then he brightened up and began to giggle like a little girl, "but when he killed great leader we killed him full of Gi poison arrows. Froze him solid we did, into stone we did so that he could never fight again. Then we take vengeance on the others for beating us. We kill the rest for we were strong and they were few. In the end," he said, "We were only survivor. Town still stood untouched and great leader was dead so we hid in canyon where they never find old Ger'adu!" He began to laugh again and I realized that this creature was not entirely sane.
"I see," I said and tried to act sincere, "You are strong, stronger than any canyon guardian." I could see that the flattery pleased him.
"You right!" it agreed. "Gi are strongest tribe in whole world. Since you see this we think you not that stupid so we decide to help."
"Good," I said, "I am looking for someone who lives around here but I got lost as you know and I thought you might help me."
He sat and scratched his head in confusion," no one live out here cept old Ger'adu."
Suddenly its eyes grew wide, "you don't mean Him do you?" it asked and could see that it was becoming nervous.
"Him who?" I asked but it seemed to have already made up its mind. It was pacing around the cabin and mumbling to itself. Finally it seemed to come to some decision and it approached me.
"You want us to take you to him," it said, "but that very dangerous and so we need pay."
"Fair enough," I replied, "just name your price."
"Ah," it said, "it thinks we just want money. No," it said, "we want you to buy something from us that has been a source of worry for long time."
"Alright," I said cautiously. It opened a box and pulled out a small sack.
"This," it said, "is very powerful medicine. I stole it from bad old man in town for it was us that was spy who put out fire. We stole this from old man as gift to great leader, but then great leader die and we left to take care of it. We are thinking that old man is searching for it even to this day. We can feel him looking for it and we knows that he won't stop at anything to find it. Old floaty man can't find old Ger'adu or we be killed. So you buy this from us and take it away and we take you to him."
"Wait, wait, wait," I stepped in, "just what is this medicine anyway?"
"Old man call it something..."it scratched its head again, "it called Mega-Soft."
"What does it do?" I asked, getting a little frustrated with this creature.
"Who knows," it replied, "not us, but we warn you, it not cheap!"
"Nothing ever seems to be," I replied and dropped a whopping hundred thousand gil on the table." The creature eyed the money hungrily and licked its lips with lust.
"Ok then," it gave me the sack, "we take you to see him."
I put the Mega-Soft in my bag and then we walked out the door into the night. The creature ran ahead of me in the darkness. The moon was still overhead and loomed over the entire valley. Several times I had to run to catch up with the creature for fear that it would leave me behind. Finally we began to walk up a slope and around a windy twisty path that was actually pretty clear of debris. The creature walked around a turn and halted. I walked up behind him and he bade me to keep silent. I could see that he was listening for something but I did not know for what. When he had satisfied himself we walked foreword out onto the top of a plateau. In front of us the ground dropped away into a deep chasm and on a rocky promontory at the edge of the cliff sat the largest, fiercest beast I had ever seen. I approached it but the guide would not come near it. It turned out that the beast was actually made out of stone. Then I remembered the creature's story, "is this the champion you talked about?" I asked. The thing seemed paralyzed with fear but it managed a nod. I looked closer for it was huge indeed. It's shoulder reached to my chest and it had a large mane that stuck out from the back of its neck. It was wearing some sort of headdress made out of feathers and it appeared that it had possessed many tattoos before it was frozen. I could see the twisting swirling lines on its body, as they were a darker color. I could also see the many arrows sticking out of him in many directions, they too had turned to stone the poison of the Gi had been so potent.
This was surly the other person spoken of by Aeris, I could hardly think of that disgusting Gi creature being of any help. Then I had a thought. I turned to the guide, "how strong was that medicine you gave me?" I asked.
"It be very strong," he said, "one of the strongest in the world. It very rare, you hold only one in world in your sack."
"And you're sure you don't know what a Mega-Soft does?" I asked again.
"No," it replied, "but we tell you that a normal Soft supposed to cure paralysis. They're many Softs sold northeast of here for there many creatures that live there that turn things to stone, and a few south of here too."
My spirits lightened, "turned to stone you say." I turned back to the statue as I made up my mind what to do. My guide wasn't stupid either and he figured out very quickly what I was planning to do.
"No!!!" he screamed, "you must not free him! He'll eat you he will! He almost kill us and he'll kill you for sure! You can't!"
I could see that his claws were very large and his teeth looked very sharp and I began to grow apprehensive. I could hear the creature screaming in the background and decided that if it didn't want me to do something than I better do it. I untied the bag of medicine and held it over the statue. With a last sigh of resignation I let the contents of the bag fall on the beast. A fine white powder trickled from the bag and onto the things back. At first it just sat there and I began to wonder if my plan might fail. Then I could see a faint glow. The glow grew brighter and more intense as the stone began to melt off the beast and a long mournful howl rent the air. I turned to look at my guide but the creature was long gone and all that I could hear were his panicked shrieks. I turned my attention back to the beast. When the last drop of molten slag had dropped off his body he shook his beautiful red fur coat and growled deeply with pleasure. He stretched and then stared at me and I at him. To my surprise he was the one to break the silence.
"Hello," he said.
"Um...hello," I replied quite surprised, "uhhh, you talk?"
"Of course I talk," he said, "I'm not some dumb animal."
"Of course not," I apologized.
"I suppose that I have you to thank for freeing me," he asked.
"Yes, I suppose," I replied.
"Thank you, thank you for saving me," he said. "I am the warrior Seto and as the code of my order states, you now own my soul until I can repay the life debt. By the way, what is your name?"
If I was surprised before I was dumbfounded now. I didn't know what to say, "Well Seto, I think we should head back to my plane first and see how my friend is doing. Then we can talk about all this life debt stuff and get everything sorted out, and my name is Zack"
He smiled at this, or at least it looked like a smile. "I suppose so Zack, where is your plane?" he asked.
"That's just the thing," I said, "my guide ran off when you were coming back and now I have no idea where I am."
Seto laughed at this, "I have lived in these canyons all my life and I know them like the back of my paw. Do not worry for I can smell the scent of machinery over in that direction. We should leave immediately, strange things rise from that crevasse at night." He motioned beyond to the fissure that he had stood above. And so we walked into the night with the warrior Seto leading the way.
With this the plane turned south and we began to fly parallel to the beach for many miles. It was very late and I began to nod as sleep overcame me. I turned my head and looked up at the sky at twilight. I realized that it would be a full moon that night. I put this thought aside and settled into my seat, trying to find the most comfortable position to sleep in. As I was falling asleep I heard someone yelling and could see lights flashes from beneath my closed eyelids. Lance was the one yelling over the intercom and the flashing lights turned out to be balls of energy flying around us. "Something in the water's firing at us" screamed Lance. I thought it was a boat and looked down to try and spot it. Instead I saw a massive green creature poking its head from out of the black ocean waters. It was shooting at us with weapons on the side of its body.
"What is that?!" I yelled to no one in particular.
"How should I know?" Lance yelled back. "All I know is that its aim is improving and we can't outrun it. I'm going to fly over land, if we fly north from here we should reach Cosmo Canyon, and we should be able to loose that monster over land." We turned off our main course and began to fly for land. Lance's idea worked, the sea monster didn't follow us onto the beach, but stayed and continued to shoot at us as we made our escape. Just as it looked like we had made it I felt a jolt in the back of the plane. "It nicked us in the rear but we should make it to Cosmo Canyon. Look!" he yelled, "there's the canyon up ahead."
In the light of the moon I could see a barren desert like region with several large canyons laid out across the area. In the corner of my eye I saw a beacon of green light. It was small but intense and in the darkness it shone with a heavenly glow. "Head towards the light Lance!" I called back to him.
"What are you crazy," he said. "That's in the middle of the canyon, we're going for the actual town up on that plateau."
"Head for the light," I ordered him once again, "and I thought we'd already established that I was crazy?"
"Alright, alright," he gave in, "but I'm warning you it's going to be a bumpy ride, our rear stabilizer took the brunt of that last hit." We flew in low and I could actually see individual rocks on the ground. Suddenly the earth dropped out below us and we were over the canyon. I grabbed hold of my seat as Lance lowered the planes engines for the vertical landing. The plane started to jerk back and forth violently as we descended. My head whacked the top of the canopy and for a moment I thought we would crash into the canyon wall. Just when I thought I was going to get shaken apart I felt a jolt go through the plane and the thud of the landing gear touching down. The canopy opened and I stumbled out. Both Lance and I fell down on our knees to let the dizziness pass. When we were both recovered we got up and looked around. "Hey Zack," he said, "That green light is coming from off in that direction." It was so we went to investigate. We climbed over a pile of rocks and slid down to a lower level of the canyon. The light was coming from a small alcove off to the side and we approached it with caution. We walked out from behind a section of broken rock and found ourselves staring at a figure obscured by shadows. I walked closer to get a good look while Lance stayed behind. As I approached the darkness seemed to lift from the stranger like a bird taking flight. There stood Aeris, smiling at me pleasantly. She opened up her hands, revealing the pulsing green light that had led us to this place. Her image began to fade almost immediately but she fought the pull long enough to say one thing, "Find him here." She pointed her hand over to the left of us, and then she was gone and only the mist remained. I turned around and walked back to Lance who had gone pure white and looked like he had just seen a ghost. I laughed at this and decided that technically he had.
"I'm guessing by the look on your face that you saw her," I said.
"Ya," he replied, "was that Aeris?"
"Yes it was," I said. "What did you think of her," I asked.
"Real strange man, that was just so weird, it looked like she was wearing that shadow like, like it was a jacket or something. Then she just melted away into smoke or mist or something." He seemed real shaken up. "What did she mean?" he asked.
"Mean by what?" I asked.
"By the 'find him here' thing," he replied.
"I think she was talking about the person we're supposed to find in this place," I said. "She pointed off in that direction so I'll go over and check it out. You go back and try to fix the plane Lance."
"Ha," he sniffed, "I'll have that plane fixed, you just be sure not to fall down some crevasse or onto a cactus."
I smiled and began to walk in the direction Aeris had pointed. It was not easy going. The canyon walls were steep and there were many boulders blocking the path. There were several caves along the trail but I did not dare to go into them for fear of the strange twisted figures I could see flitting around the entrances. I was finally lost, I had no idea which way I had turned last and all the paths began to look the same. I sat down and tried to think of a way out of this one. I looked up and saw the huge moon looming over the sky, its silvery rays outdoing the doom glow of the fireball. But within the white circle I saw a thin line, I stood up and looked closely at this marvel. It appeared to be a trail of smoke and it looked like its origin was close to where I was. I had nothing else to do but to try and find out where the smoke was coming from. I went down several twists and turns and through some very narrow tunnels until I stood in one of the wider gullies I had seen. The smoke was coming from what looked like a hut, which was carved directly into the rock face. A very narrow set of stairs led from the canyon floor up to the hut. I used these and was soon standing in front of the hut. It had been built of adobe brick and plaster and did not appear to be the home of anyone wealthy or anyone who wanted visitors.
Nevertheless I needed directions and this person might be able to help me so I got up my courage and knocked. There was some bustling on the inside and something that sounded like squeaks. Someone was mumbling and then I heard something crash. There was silence for a long time, so long that I thought about turning around and going back to try and find my own way. Before I could do this the door began to creak open and I saw what looked like a face peak out. It was wearing strange, tattered, but colorful clothes that had many beads and small bits of bone hanging off of them. The hood he wore obscured his face in shadow and only revealed his glowing red eyes. "What do you want?" it asked in a high squeaky voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
"Um, sir," I asked, "I need directions, well actually a guide and I was wondering if you could help."
"It says it wants help, it says it wants a guide," the creature appeared to be talking to itself, "but it is from the town and they be the enemies."
"Sir," I said, "I'm not from any town around here and I certainly don't want to be your enemy."
The creature growled, "how do we know if you aren't a townsfolk, the townsfolk hate us, they want to destroy us."
"I don't have any proof," I said. "My plane was shot down and I was looking for someone who could lead me through the canyon."
"Was it the town that shot you down?" it asked, suddenly very curious.
"I don't know what shot us down, whatever it was it attacked so fast I barely got a look at it," I replied.
"Sounds like townsfolk weapon, they are bad those townsfolk," it said. "You a victim of townsfolk and old floaty man. You come inside and Ger'adu will help you!" He quickly motioned me into his house and I accepted his invitation. We sat in the small one room house and he set a cup of strong smelling brown liquid in front of me. "Drink," he said, "drink and then we talk." I thanked him for his generosity and gulped the liquid down. It burned at the back of my throat and it left a very strange and tangy aftertaste but wasn't all that bad. I sat back and he filled my cup again. After three drinks I was completely relaxed and ready to ask for his help.
Before I could start the creature started talking, "You are friend so I will tell you story." I didn't want to offend it so I nodded and listened. "We, Ger'adu were not always this way. We once great warrior of the Gi Tribe. We attack town because great leader say that they were making the gods angry with their fire that always burns. So one of us, a spy, he put out the fire and dropped the protective spell the flames had for the town. We attacked but the canyon guardians, great red beasts that nearly tore poor Ger'adu in half, they stopped us before we could get into town. So great leader took some of us best warriors around the back through the caves to attack from below town. Then the champion guardian appeared. He kept Gi from getting through the pass and killed great leader." With this he grew very silent and I felt that I would like to know one of these canyon guardians. Then he brightened up and began to giggle like a little girl, "but when he killed great leader we killed him full of Gi poison arrows. Froze him solid we did, into stone we did so that he could never fight again. Then we take vengeance on the others for beating us. We kill the rest for we were strong and they were few. In the end," he said, "We were only survivor. Town still stood untouched and great leader was dead so we hid in canyon where they never find old Ger'adu!" He began to laugh again and I realized that this creature was not entirely sane.
"I see," I said and tried to act sincere, "You are strong, stronger than any canyon guardian." I could see that the flattery pleased him.
"You right!" it agreed. "Gi are strongest tribe in whole world. Since you see this we think you not that stupid so we decide to help."
"Good," I said, "I am looking for someone who lives around here but I got lost as you know and I thought you might help me."
He sat and scratched his head in confusion," no one live out here cept old Ger'adu."
Suddenly its eyes grew wide, "you don't mean Him do you?" it asked and could see that it was becoming nervous.
"Him who?" I asked but it seemed to have already made up its mind. It was pacing around the cabin and mumbling to itself. Finally it seemed to come to some decision and it approached me.
"You want us to take you to him," it said, "but that very dangerous and so we need pay."
"Fair enough," I replied, "just name your price."
"Ah," it said, "it thinks we just want money. No," it said, "we want you to buy something from us that has been a source of worry for long time."
"Alright," I said cautiously. It opened a box and pulled out a small sack.
"This," it said, "is very powerful medicine. I stole it from bad old man in town for it was us that was spy who put out fire. We stole this from old man as gift to great leader, but then great leader die and we left to take care of it. We are thinking that old man is searching for it even to this day. We can feel him looking for it and we knows that he won't stop at anything to find it. Old floaty man can't find old Ger'adu or we be killed. So you buy this from us and take it away and we take you to him."
"Wait, wait, wait," I stepped in, "just what is this medicine anyway?"
"Old man call it something..."it scratched its head again, "it called Mega-Soft."
"What does it do?" I asked, getting a little frustrated with this creature.
"Who knows," it replied, "not us, but we warn you, it not cheap!"
"Nothing ever seems to be," I replied and dropped a whopping hundred thousand gil on the table." The creature eyed the money hungrily and licked its lips with lust.
"Ok then," it gave me the sack, "we take you to see him."
I put the Mega-Soft in my bag and then we walked out the door into the night. The creature ran ahead of me in the darkness. The moon was still overhead and loomed over the entire valley. Several times I had to run to catch up with the creature for fear that it would leave me behind. Finally we began to walk up a slope and around a windy twisty path that was actually pretty clear of debris. The creature walked around a turn and halted. I walked up behind him and he bade me to keep silent. I could see that he was listening for something but I did not know for what. When he had satisfied himself we walked foreword out onto the top of a plateau. In front of us the ground dropped away into a deep chasm and on a rocky promontory at the edge of the cliff sat the largest, fiercest beast I had ever seen. I approached it but the guide would not come near it. It turned out that the beast was actually made out of stone. Then I remembered the creature's story, "is this the champion you talked about?" I asked. The thing seemed paralyzed with fear but it managed a nod. I looked closer for it was huge indeed. It's shoulder reached to my chest and it had a large mane that stuck out from the back of its neck. It was wearing some sort of headdress made out of feathers and it appeared that it had possessed many tattoos before it was frozen. I could see the twisting swirling lines on its body, as they were a darker color. I could also see the many arrows sticking out of him in many directions, they too had turned to stone the poison of the Gi had been so potent.
This was surly the other person spoken of by Aeris, I could hardly think of that disgusting Gi creature being of any help. Then I had a thought. I turned to the guide, "how strong was that medicine you gave me?" I asked.
"It be very strong," he said, "one of the strongest in the world. It very rare, you hold only one in world in your sack."
"And you're sure you don't know what a Mega-Soft does?" I asked again.
"No," it replied, "but we tell you that a normal Soft supposed to cure paralysis. They're many Softs sold northeast of here for there many creatures that live there that turn things to stone, and a few south of here too."
My spirits lightened, "turned to stone you say." I turned back to the statue as I made up my mind what to do. My guide wasn't stupid either and he figured out very quickly what I was planning to do.
"No!!!" he screamed, "you must not free him! He'll eat you he will! He almost kill us and he'll kill you for sure! You can't!"
I could see that his claws were very large and his teeth looked very sharp and I began to grow apprehensive. I could hear the creature screaming in the background and decided that if it didn't want me to do something than I better do it. I untied the bag of medicine and held it over the statue. With a last sigh of resignation I let the contents of the bag fall on the beast. A fine white powder trickled from the bag and onto the things back. At first it just sat there and I began to wonder if my plan might fail. Then I could see a faint glow. The glow grew brighter and more intense as the stone began to melt off the beast and a long mournful howl rent the air. I turned to look at my guide but the creature was long gone and all that I could hear were his panicked shrieks. I turned my attention back to the beast. When the last drop of molten slag had dropped off his body he shook his beautiful red fur coat and growled deeply with pleasure. He stretched and then stared at me and I at him. To my surprise he was the one to break the silence.
"Hello," he said.
"Um...hello," I replied quite surprised, "uhhh, you talk?"
"Of course I talk," he said, "I'm not some dumb animal."
"Of course not," I apologized.
"I suppose that I have you to thank for freeing me," he asked.
"Yes, I suppose," I replied.
"Thank you, thank you for saving me," he said. "I am the warrior Seto and as the code of my order states, you now own my soul until I can repay the life debt. By the way, what is your name?"
If I was surprised before I was dumbfounded now. I didn't know what to say, "Well Seto, I think we should head back to my plane first and see how my friend is doing. Then we can talk about all this life debt stuff and get everything sorted out, and my name is Zack"
He smiled at this, or at least it looked like a smile. "I suppose so Zack, where is your plane?" he asked.
"That's just the thing," I said, "my guide ran off when you were coming back and now I have no idea where I am."
Seto laughed at this, "I have lived in these canyons all my life and I know them like the back of my paw. Do not worry for I can smell the scent of machinery over in that direction. We should leave immediately, strange things rise from that crevasse at night." He motioned beyond to the fissure that he had stood above. And so we walked into the night with the warrior Seto leading the way.