AN: A strangely inspired musing... *** encloses memories
Disclaimers: I don't own any ff8 characters, they are © Squaresoft, and I am making no money for this fic :( so don't bother suing me cause you ain't gonna get much...
Rated PG for suggestion
***
The first few soldiers came creeping cautiously up after their bullets fail to do any damage. They don't know what I am, have no idea to what lengths they would have to go, merely to inflict a wound. The Centra who captured me could have killed me, but they thought I would change. Fools.
After hours of quiet discussion, they finally make a decision. I am to be buried in the heart of a sleeping volcano that lies at the centre of the ocean. I suppress a smile. It would seem my old abode has resurfaced in time for me to return.
***
...So they buried me here. I feel the warmth of natural light begin to penetrate the cold earth around me. How should I get whoever is digging to release my final restraints?
I hear voices. Human. The language has not changed so much that I cannot understand it. They speak the gutter argot like it is their only language. Has so much time passed that Centra is forgotten? Do the daughters of Hyne no longer rule the three quarters of land between them?
I close my eyes and allow myself to appear dead, skeletal. As an afterthought I let the earth mould itself into the hollow shape of a warning, carved in wood. They will believe the earth has retained the shape long after the wood rotted. Now I appear a victim of a sorceress's wrath.
The first touch of light feels hot against my skin. I wait, patiently, for them to realise they have found something. Sudden shouts and exclamations indicate they have seen my 'skeletal' foot. I wait, ever patient, as they slowly uncover more and more of me. I've waited years, maybe even millennia, for this moment, I know a few more hours, even days won't kill me.
I'm glad, because it takes the diggers another five hours to uncover me. Fortunately they don't try to remove the 'bones' one by one. Finally they uncover the 'sign' in the earth. I hear gasps as they read it. So someone knows at least a little Centra.
"Poor thing." I hear one of them say. "Wonder what she did?" I can see them leaning over me, examining what they see. The stench of pity rolls over me in waves, and I fight the impulse to gag.
"Still chained after Hyne knows how long..." I hear one murmur.
"The least we can do is give her a decent burial." I hear mutters of assent. Good, they'll have to touch the remaining restraints to move me, and, given the stench I can smell, there's more than enough pity to ensure they crumble to dust.
Sure enough, I feel earth-stained fingers brush against me, and the wrist restraints spring open. I hear muttered oaths, and then feel the fine dust as the restraints crumble. There is more cursing as I change form before their eyes, a phoenix rising from its own ashes. I can see them, practical scientists, with dirty fingers, clutching the brushes with which they uncovered me.
Sweet, sweet fear now comes from them. They are fearful of what they have awoken. Upright now, I stretch. What do they see me as? I peer into their minds. One, the youngest, sees me as a giant black phoenix, wisps of black flame curling from outstretched wings, a cruel gleam in my eye. The other three see me as a sorceress, towering over them, veiled in dark robes, with only a faint glow of yellow eyes visible.
"What are you doing here?" I demand, speaking with ease in their language. We Centra were ever quick to learn. The elder three are too petrified to speak. It seems this era knows of sorceresses. Perhaps I will have competition when I make my return to the world. I fill their pathetic minds with fear and send them scurrying away. They will ensure that no one returns here. I have slept a long time, and must learn what history I have missed, as well as readjusting to my full powers.
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AN: What have scientists managed to wake now? Ever notice it's always scientists that are responsible for the majority of strange occurrences?