Chapter 1: Strange Creatures
Something was blowing into his mouth. What was it? The wind of death, maybe... Does death claims lives from the mouth?
Wait! How could he feel wind if he was dead? Through his mouth none the least! And it was warm... He slowly opened his mouth to claim more air and then the wind into his mouth stopped. He sat up to claim more and more air. He caughed as if he didn't breath for a while. A hand gently tapped his back as he caught his breath.
"You okay?" a female voice asked.
When he stopped caughing, he laid back down. He closed his eyes and took deep slow breathes.
"Yeah..." he whispered with a hoarse voice.
He turned his head and saw a girl crouched down by him... naked.
"Whoa!!" he exclaimed as he sat up.
He placed a hand over his mouth. She... kissed him? He blushed and looked away.
"What's wrong?" the girl asked giggling.
Squall couldn't say a word. The shock of awakening close to a girl in birthday suit was overtaking him.
"I think people normally do not walk around undressed, Maureen," a voice said.
Squall looked around. He was in a cave, dark. The voice was coming from deeper in the shadows.
"Oh, well..." the girl said with what sounded like a deceived tone.
She got up and walked into the shadows to the voice's way.
"Who...? Where am I?"
"I can tell thou hast many questions which need answers, young Loire."
That voice was nothing like the girl's. She had a soft voice, calm, but strange like it wasn't used very often. But this voice was beyond human. Male, but really low and calming.
But then it hit him. Loire?
"How do you know my father?" he exclaimed getting up.
He suddenly felt weak and nearly collapsed. The girl came back in a flash wrapped in a cloak. She held him so he could sit down.
"Take it easy. You nearly drowned you know?"
"Drown? Oh that's right: I fell in the water and I couldn't move."
He turned his head to the girl.
"You gave me mouth to mouth, didn't you?"
The girl nodded with a wide smile. Squall arched an eyebrow. She was very childish for her age. Squall could guess she was a teenager from her shape. Then he blushed again.
"You're so cute!"
"Stop embarassing him, Maureen."
"Sorry."
Squall turned to the way the voice was coming from.
"Who are you?"
He could only see a large shadow in the back of the cave. It moved his way, loud steps, making the cave tremble.
"I was called many names in the past, but right now I am what thy kind call a Guardian Force."
"A.. GF?!"
The creature came out of the dark. It was incredible. It looked like a dragon, but his wings looked more like fins. Some kind of underwater monster but it was neither scary or ugly. It had a long tail moving slowly, hypnotizingly. It's face was kind and just looking at it, you could tell it was wise through age. Probably older than anything in the world!
"Yes. So I guessed right young Loire?"
"Loire... Laguna Loire is my father... how come you know him?"
"I saved his life in the past. He fell from a cliff on the centra continent. I found him drifting and I took him close to a city called Winhill."
"You were the one to take him there?! That would mean... that my birth is your work?!"
"I think thou couldst say it that way."
"You speak funny..."
"Oh! Sorry. I tend to forget that with time, people gave up that mode of speaking."
"You must have a name. What is it?"
"The name my creator gave me was Akuma."
"The 'devil'? Why?"
"Because I was the first GF Hyne allowed to move around. She said I wouldn't be liked or tamed like the others would. I was helping her to instore this world. The other GFs came much later, just before she left this world."
"Did you say Hyne?!" Squall exclaimed.
He couldn't believe it. The first Sorceress, creator of this world, the Great Hyne?
"Of course! She placed us GFs to take care of humans."
"Then what are you doing here? And who is she?" he asked pointing at the girl.
She was kneeling behind him, touching his head.
"Ow! Hey watch it, it hurts!"
He reached for the back of his head and felt a bump. He probably got that when he hit the wall as he fell from Garden.
"My name is Maureen. Just like Akuma, I'm a reject."
"A reject?"
She took her cloak off. Squall widened his eyes then looked away. Maureen walked to a spring not far from where Squall was sitting. Then she jumped in. A few seconds past then she surfaced again.
"No way!"
It wasn't the same girl at all. Her eyes earlier pale blue were now an emerald glowing green. She had scales on her cheeks, her forhead, her arms, fins on her elbows, scales covering her breasts... She pulled herself out the water with her arms and Squall saw... not what he was expecting at least. Instead of her womanhood, she had scales! From her waist... to her toes! Or what it was switched for: a tail! She was a mermaid! Her scales were a glowing mix of green and blue. Her hair earlier black was green.
"That's why I'm a reject. Anytime I touch water, I turn into this."
She just sat not to close to Squall in case he would be upset by her appearence.
"At first I was mad. I thought it wasn't fair...why me? My parents abandonned me when they realized I just had to be splashed to turn into this... thing! One day, I came upon Akuma who was hurt and I treated him so he said I could stay with him. He was the only one not offended by the monster I was..."
Squall went to her and stopped a few inches away in case she would be offended.
"You're not a monster... You're pretty and pure... Look at my hands... They're of a warrior, I killed many monsters in the past but I wouldn't want to kill you."
The girl's face lightened up as if it was the first time she received a compliment before.
"Thank you. This means a lot."
Squall turned to Akuma.
"How did you end down here? Because we're underwater aren't we?"
"That's right young Loire. This spring there is the only entrance to this cave. Except for you, not a single human ever entered here. We were both chased down here. It was the only safe place left for us. Since humans were not sure if I was monster or GF, they just hunted me down."
"That's awful. Why did you save me?"
"Because I felt like it. You have an important role to play in this world so it was not yet the time for you to die."
"A role?"
"I already said to much..."
Squall looked at Maureen. Her scales were beginning to fade as she was drying up.
"Does it... hurt?" Squall asked.
"What... when I'm changing? No. The first few years, I was always scared to see the scales appear but after few decades.."
"Decades?! How old are you??!!"
"In your time, you would say I'm close to... three centuries. But you wouldn't say how old Akuma is. He's been here before humans."
Three centuries... And he tought she looked like a teenager. He was just a baby for her!!
She laughed at his confused face.
"Since I look different, I age differently too. It even occured to me that I could be immortal. But Akuma said I'm not. I might live longer than the human race, but I will age. (Sigh) All these years to live alone..."
Squall understood she was talking about being with her kind. He felt sorry for her. She would probably never know what it means to love.
He got up, brushing the dust off his clothes.
"Well thanks for saving me and all, but my friends must be worried about me. I should go back."
But he collapsed after a single step. Maureen hurried to catch him.
"Fool! You haven't recovered yet! You got a real nasty bump on your head and you nearly drowned if I may remind you!"
"But I must tell them..."
"Let me do it. If they are looking for you underwater, I can tell someone you're here, doing fine and that you'll go home soon."
"You would?"
She gave a wide smile.
"Of course! You were the only human I ever spoke to since I accepted my life as a mermaid. And the first one to say I'm pretty. I just hope they're not scared of me when they see me."
"I'm sure they won't."
She jumped in the water and disappeared.
Squall turned to Akuma.
"So... You really were created by Hyne?"
"So were you."
"But... you actually saw her? How was she? Some say she was an evil god, others that she was a Sorceress, some even say it was a man."
"She was female. Of undescribable beauty. She was very strict and she had incredible powers. After she finished with this world, she said she needed rest, long rest. So she split her powers accross the world, saying she wouldn't be able to sleep with them. That's how Sorceresses were born."
Squall just listened to him as if he was a kid being told a bed time story.
"We were placed to watch over you. Some were tamed, others wild, and there was me. I lived through generations. I saw the Centra civilization be born and destroyed. Then I saw their structures being dug out to be called Garden. With time, I also developped special abilities."
"Like what."
"Power to see the future."
"So what did you see?"
"It's not clear, future can't be predicted. It will be as you make it. But I tell you you have an important role to play. It can be good or bad depending how you play it. I can't tell you anymore. I don't personally like watching the future. Life wouldn't be fun if I would know everything that's gonna happen."
"I see..."
Squall just laid down and looked at the inner cavern. Wet rocks, dark, reflects coming from the water surface. He sighed.
"You're upset, aren't you?"
"It is... beacuse of the role I'll play you saved my father?"
"Yes, and no. I didn't know what would happen. I just had a feeling I had to save this man. I happened to be there and he was badly hurt so I had to take him for treatment fast. Maureen helped me a lot."
"She seems nice."
"She is. Unfortunately, your kind tend to look a little too much at the outer looks of one being. Her heart is bigger and warmer than a human's but she will never have a chance to share it unless humanity changes."
Unfortunately, Akuma was right. Humans were always scared of what they didn't know. Like for Ultimecia. Most people never saw her but they were scared of her just knowing what she could or would do. Squall was scared too but he went after her and defeated her. It happened sometimes that he wondered why... Why him? Because it was his fate? But then it was coming to him that he was not alone in this. There was Rinoa, Zell, Selphie, Irvine, Quistis... and now Coran and Seifer.
They must be looking for me. Probably Coran and Rinoa are going wild about it. But they wouldn't give up. The strong bond he was sharing with his twin would prove to her he was still alive so she would keep looking until she's exhausted. He missed them all. Seifer was probably feeling responsible.
"What's taking Maureen so long?"
"Be patient Squall. This place is quite far from the place Balamb Garden is standing."
Squall turned to Akuma and widened his eyes with surprise.
"Hey! I never told you my name! You kept calling me 'young Loire'!"
"I told you I know a lot," the GF said with what looked like a smile.
A splashing sound was heard. Squall turned his head to the spring to see Maureen brake the surface. She looked terrified so Squall gave up asking if she found anyone.
"What's wrong?" he asked getting a bad feeling.
She pulled herself out of the water.
"You want to tell them you're alright, forget it! We have to save their lives!"