Eika - Sounds like we do have a lot in common! I appreciate the compliment,
and feel free to e-mail me ANYTIME if you feel lonely ^^ It's always nice
to make a new friend. . .
Vincent:. . .Idiot. Now she's going to be really creeped out by you.
giggle: Who ~you~ calling creepy? *kicks him in the shins*
Jensui - Teehee, weeeeell, I've kinda written all of this stuff in advance. . .but anywho, I've pretty much sniffled out the cold now. Lets see. . .it IS exaggerated! Thanks a bunch ^^
Now off to the show!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The wind blew thin tendrils escaping and flowing wildly about her face. And once thoughts of brushing it back out AFTER the wind stopped were completely (though never quite) out of her mind, she found the sensation oddly calming.
Maiaza had temporarily abandoned the bulky skirts she had originally purchased for something that was in her opinion, much more practical. A day or two after lift-off was when she discovered the uncomfortable predicament, and that was the exact time rumors had begun circling the ship about a thief in the laundry room, but Maiaza knew (by evidence of her sly smile) that she wouldn't have to worry about it.
/Honestly, if any of those idiots need these more than I do, I'll eat my shoe./
She abandoned her previous wardrobe in favor of her current one after the simple realization of a simple fact. Wool skirts, while not particularly uncommon around the lofty mountaintops of Lindblum, were plainly NOT FUN to stand around in, in the middle of a desert. The silk shirt (complete with decorative ribbons, to disguise herself from their original owners), and baggy yet thin training pants were much more suited for the weather she found herself in, as they entered the Northern Continent.
After she had made the change, she had noticed a considerable amount from the other girls her age around the ship, and she was perfectly content with being on the opposite side of that emotion. At first, she was somewhat startled, but then she saw their red, sweaty faces despite the white powder most of them sported for looks. They all radiated the same feeling; ~" you should be suffering just as much as the rest of us."~
But the girls around her, were not friendly in the first place, so she didn't mind the fact that she had bested them on her easily come solution. Maiaza was never much of a beauty queen, though she hadn't really had a chance to anyway.
Another thought had crossed her mind; if she really wanted to be completely inconspicuous, why was she bringing so much attention to herself? Simple. It just wasn't worth it!
She let out a long sigh, and shifted her position, leaning on the long wooden rail of the top deck. Maiaza noted the fact that she had been sighing a lot lately, but at least it was better then the tears that she was accustomed to. . .
She quickly changed her thoughts' subject. It was vacation after all.
But, it had never ~once~ crossed her mind that perfection could be so boring!
In a last angry attempt of fulfillment, she abruptly stood, and stomped on the wooden boards under her in frustration. Tonight, just like all of the others, there was a gigantic, charming party in honor of. . .absolutely nothing. Maiaza felt rather misplaced in the midst of these queer social events (after the time she had eaten everything she could reach the first night, but eventually coming to the conclusion of regret after it just all came back up again), so she had chosen independence on the top deck, trying only to ~relax~.
However, despite the blissful imaginings, this was absolutely horrible, and nothing like what she had in mind. The heat was still the same, and mingled with the sickly scent of waxy candles, caused her to feel constantly sticky. Tiny flies were droning buzzes around her, and the echoes of chatter, clanking forks and fake outbursts of amusement, Mai decided, were bad enough to drive ~anyone~ insane!
She surveyed the rest of the scene around her for any evidence of human life. No one. Good.
Maiaza jumped over the railing to the deck below, making sure to land gently in case someone unexpected was near enough to hear. This was a much more efficient way of navigating through the ship, but she had a diffident nagging feeling that the crew wouldn't appreciate the tactic.
She continued down, effectively keeping her presence a secret. It wasn't too long until the very last jump came into view. Maiaza swiped a bit of cheese and bread from the open kitchen counter, casually striding by.
/I need to get off this ship!/ Her mind screamed. If only for a few hours, her plan should work. She had seen a massive tree in the distance that looked like a lovely setting for an evening picnic, and that was precisely where she was going to go!
With a running leap, her feet connected with real ground for the first time in days. The people running the ship didn't want anyone to get off, just in case someone somehow managed to lose themselves in unused surroundings. But Maiaza immediately disregarded the warning with a snort, as she recalled. Seriously. She had lived her entire life in the largest metropolis in Gaia, surely, she could find her way back to an overgrown airship.
Fuming, she stalked deeper into the darkness.
~*~*~*~
/Wow. This is bigger than I thought./ Her jaw grew slack and dropped at the closer inspection of the "pleasant" tree. Maiaza shivered despite the still- warm air.
Over the course of her life, she had never heard, or come across anything connected to this place, but Maiaza had an increasingly tense stomach to testify that it was to be respected. /Silly. Come on, respect a ~tree~?/ Large, thick roots surrounded the trunk in about a mile radius. They looked sturdy enough, but that wasn't the main cause of her doubts; it was the mist.
In general, the northern continent seemed almost completely devoid of the hurtful fog, but here, it seemed as thick as it always was around Dragon Gate, if not more. Maiaza had heard the rumors, just like anyone else on the planet. The rumors about the mist. . .
/Aw hell, I've dealt with it before!/ She rolled her eyes. This was ~her~ life now, so she wasn't readily going to immediately fall for a few far- fetched rumors. Sure, mist ~was~ unnerving looking, but the worst thing to come out of its depths were a few monsters, and any child living in Lindblum under any sort of not-so-good circumstances would know how to take down a few pesky monsters!
She stomped forward in irritated determination, with her lips pursed, and her eyes narrowed.
The roots twisted and turned every which way, but Mai managed to keep her direction forward. In the gradually dense mist, it almost sounded like howls haunting her every footstep. Without even realizing it for a while longer, her agitation was shining through by way of pale pace, trembling and widening eyes.
/Come ~on~ Mai!/ her mind screamed. /This is ridiculous! There's nothing to be afr--/
~*Creak*~
/What was that?!/ she stopped dead on the swaying vine. Wait a second. . .SWINGING?!
"Oh damn." It was the only thing she had a chance to say before
~*Snap*~
Maiaza screamed as she felt herself fall down into the misty abyss.
She fainted before she hit the ground.
~*~*~*~
~laaaa la la la. . .la la la la la~
/Who's singing?/
~laa la la la la. . .l-la la la laaaa~
/So pretty. . ./
~la la, la laaaa la la la~
/Where have I heard this before?/
~la la la la laaa, la la la la laaaa~
/No one. . .ever sang for me. . ./
~Forever and Beyond. . .~
~*~*~*~
"Oh ~ow~."
Everything ached. She couldn't see anything around her, and she didn't know how to get out.
/Not good./
Maiaza rubbed her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting a little quicker. Her entire body and clothes ensemble were covered in years' worth of dust and a few random twigs. She found herself plucking a few of them off absently, contemplating her situation, so she finally looked up in an attempt to estimate her odds of escape. The distance and focusing on it made her head spin, and she knew at once that ~that~ tactic would be entirely unreasonable. It was way too far to climb. . .
She rubbed her nose and sniffed. /I may die here, but this isn't any time to cry. To let my emotions show means even more pain./
She didn't even notice that she was clearly quite and utterly alone.
But instead, she dropped her head to her bent knees in despair, and instinctively numbed her mind in hopelessness.
How long she stayed in that peculiar state of shock, Maiaza had no idea, but once the initial mental-pains had long since been drugged out of her mind in fear of losing all she had, it seemed even darker down there than before. But she could make out something different than before, one of those things that only darkness betrayed; a strangely gentle emerald glow from around a corner, that was otherwise bathed in ominous shadows.
Curiosity doubled with the careless and hopeless feeling form before, gave her the strength to rise from her almost certain early grave. The caked-on gray dust, toppled over her in dull waves, and she coughed violently from the feeling of dry particles floating down her throat. Her throat contracted, finally swallowing the last bit of grime, as she began stumbling on her way, in the search of the light's source.
Maiaza's eyes began to water from the unexpected pain of her bruised legs. She didn't seem to be making ~any~ progress, based off of the effort she was applying, but she finally managed to stumble over to the corner without much trouble.
She grimaced to the open sky, and took a small break. It was truly pathetic how she could barely walk twenty feet without breathing hard.
Her legs managed to take one step around the corner before she collapsed again, with a faint sound of pain. The light appeared much brighter here, than in the other "room", but incredibly enough, all she could see was a tiny, but evident, splotch in the gloom.
Small sticks and rocks grinded and snapped under her hands as she crawled forward. Something seemed to be overwhelmingly curious about that cleared splotch, only about one foot in diameter.
The chocolate of her eyes squinted as she moved forward, until her pointed nose was only inches from it.
It pulsed. Like it was a heart beating, or a lung breathing. Either way, for some reason, it seemed ~alive~.
As she inspected it even closer, the light flickered and changed its position a bit. Realization dawned on her /It's liquid!/. Her eyes widened and her fingers gently brushed its surface; cold, smooth and very brightly lit. Maiaza was startled by a shadow on the other side, slowly drifting towards her, but, somehow she wasn't afraid. On the contrary, it was as if something was comforting her considerably about the increasing shadow in the emerald depths, in her own soul. Like an addictive drug.
/Hey, that kinda looks like a hand. . ./
~*BANG*~
A deep, loud sound rattled her eardrums, and before she understood what was happening, a large explosion sent her flying backward.
/Bad day./
~*~*~*~
"You called?"
"Of course I did you idiot! You have had yet to report back to me on your mission."
"It was successful."
"Is that all you have to say for yourself?"
"Your agents were successfully annihilated."
"And the girl?"
"The girl was gone."
"WHAT?!"
"My lord, she will not survive for long. She has no place to go, and the streets of Lindblum have always been deadly for those who do not understand its secrets. I suspect that she will be dead within the next couple of days."
"You better be right, I have no intention of keeping. . .~failures~ within my inner circle."
"Of course not my lord."
"What of the 'Rose'?"
"He has been properly dispatched at the Iifa tree, just as you have planned."
"Good. If the boy is not captured, our plan will completely dissolve. You know?"
"Yes. Now, my lord?"
"What now?!"
"If you don't mind me asking; why didn't you just send one of us? Our skills are far superior to those of the Rose Alliance, and there has been. . .'trouble' with one of them in the past."
"Pft. The NIGHT Rose. That is not a valid point at all."
"You haven't answered my question."
". . .I don't trust you."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sheesh. That didn't take TOO long, now did it? I've a roll going now! The only thing is. . .I've probably just confused the hell out of you again. ^^ Please don't hurt meeee! *ducks*
Alright, only one more week until winter break, and the Two Towers is coming out on Friday! Heh heh, my Christmas list has turned out unusually long. . .
Well, you know the drill I suppose. PLEASE REVIEW! And don't forget, constructive criticism is VERY much appreciated. It makes my writing better!
Until next time, my fello fanfic freaks!
giggleplex
Vincent:. . .Idiot. Now she's going to be really creeped out by you.
giggle: Who ~you~ calling creepy? *kicks him in the shins*
Jensui - Teehee, weeeeell, I've kinda written all of this stuff in advance. . .but anywho, I've pretty much sniffled out the cold now. Lets see. . .it IS exaggerated! Thanks a bunch ^^
Now off to the show!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The wind blew thin tendrils escaping and flowing wildly about her face. And once thoughts of brushing it back out AFTER the wind stopped were completely (though never quite) out of her mind, she found the sensation oddly calming.
Maiaza had temporarily abandoned the bulky skirts she had originally purchased for something that was in her opinion, much more practical. A day or two after lift-off was when she discovered the uncomfortable predicament, and that was the exact time rumors had begun circling the ship about a thief in the laundry room, but Maiaza knew (by evidence of her sly smile) that she wouldn't have to worry about it.
/Honestly, if any of those idiots need these more than I do, I'll eat my shoe./
She abandoned her previous wardrobe in favor of her current one after the simple realization of a simple fact. Wool skirts, while not particularly uncommon around the lofty mountaintops of Lindblum, were plainly NOT FUN to stand around in, in the middle of a desert. The silk shirt (complete with decorative ribbons, to disguise herself from their original owners), and baggy yet thin training pants were much more suited for the weather she found herself in, as they entered the Northern Continent.
After she had made the change, she had noticed a considerable amount from the other girls her age around the ship, and she was perfectly content with being on the opposite side of that emotion. At first, she was somewhat startled, but then she saw their red, sweaty faces despite the white powder most of them sported for looks. They all radiated the same feeling; ~" you should be suffering just as much as the rest of us."~
But the girls around her, were not friendly in the first place, so she didn't mind the fact that she had bested them on her easily come solution. Maiaza was never much of a beauty queen, though she hadn't really had a chance to anyway.
Another thought had crossed her mind; if she really wanted to be completely inconspicuous, why was she bringing so much attention to herself? Simple. It just wasn't worth it!
She let out a long sigh, and shifted her position, leaning on the long wooden rail of the top deck. Maiaza noted the fact that she had been sighing a lot lately, but at least it was better then the tears that she was accustomed to. . .
She quickly changed her thoughts' subject. It was vacation after all.
But, it had never ~once~ crossed her mind that perfection could be so boring!
In a last angry attempt of fulfillment, she abruptly stood, and stomped on the wooden boards under her in frustration. Tonight, just like all of the others, there was a gigantic, charming party in honor of. . .absolutely nothing. Maiaza felt rather misplaced in the midst of these queer social events (after the time she had eaten everything she could reach the first night, but eventually coming to the conclusion of regret after it just all came back up again), so she had chosen independence on the top deck, trying only to ~relax~.
However, despite the blissful imaginings, this was absolutely horrible, and nothing like what she had in mind. The heat was still the same, and mingled with the sickly scent of waxy candles, caused her to feel constantly sticky. Tiny flies were droning buzzes around her, and the echoes of chatter, clanking forks and fake outbursts of amusement, Mai decided, were bad enough to drive ~anyone~ insane!
She surveyed the rest of the scene around her for any evidence of human life. No one. Good.
Maiaza jumped over the railing to the deck below, making sure to land gently in case someone unexpected was near enough to hear. This was a much more efficient way of navigating through the ship, but she had a diffident nagging feeling that the crew wouldn't appreciate the tactic.
She continued down, effectively keeping her presence a secret. It wasn't too long until the very last jump came into view. Maiaza swiped a bit of cheese and bread from the open kitchen counter, casually striding by.
/I need to get off this ship!/ Her mind screamed. If only for a few hours, her plan should work. She had seen a massive tree in the distance that looked like a lovely setting for an evening picnic, and that was precisely where she was going to go!
With a running leap, her feet connected with real ground for the first time in days. The people running the ship didn't want anyone to get off, just in case someone somehow managed to lose themselves in unused surroundings. But Maiaza immediately disregarded the warning with a snort, as she recalled. Seriously. She had lived her entire life in the largest metropolis in Gaia, surely, she could find her way back to an overgrown airship.
Fuming, she stalked deeper into the darkness.
~*~*~*~
/Wow. This is bigger than I thought./ Her jaw grew slack and dropped at the closer inspection of the "pleasant" tree. Maiaza shivered despite the still- warm air.
Over the course of her life, she had never heard, or come across anything connected to this place, but Maiaza had an increasingly tense stomach to testify that it was to be respected. /Silly. Come on, respect a ~tree~?/ Large, thick roots surrounded the trunk in about a mile radius. They looked sturdy enough, but that wasn't the main cause of her doubts; it was the mist.
In general, the northern continent seemed almost completely devoid of the hurtful fog, but here, it seemed as thick as it always was around Dragon Gate, if not more. Maiaza had heard the rumors, just like anyone else on the planet. The rumors about the mist. . .
/Aw hell, I've dealt with it before!/ She rolled her eyes. This was ~her~ life now, so she wasn't readily going to immediately fall for a few far- fetched rumors. Sure, mist ~was~ unnerving looking, but the worst thing to come out of its depths were a few monsters, and any child living in Lindblum under any sort of not-so-good circumstances would know how to take down a few pesky monsters!
She stomped forward in irritated determination, with her lips pursed, and her eyes narrowed.
The roots twisted and turned every which way, but Mai managed to keep her direction forward. In the gradually dense mist, it almost sounded like howls haunting her every footstep. Without even realizing it for a while longer, her agitation was shining through by way of pale pace, trembling and widening eyes.
/Come ~on~ Mai!/ her mind screamed. /This is ridiculous! There's nothing to be afr--/
~*Creak*~
/What was that?!/ she stopped dead on the swaying vine. Wait a second. . .SWINGING?!
"Oh damn." It was the only thing she had a chance to say before
~*Snap*~
Maiaza screamed as she felt herself fall down into the misty abyss.
She fainted before she hit the ground.
~*~*~*~
~laaaa la la la. . .la la la la la~
/Who's singing?/
~laa la la la la. . .l-la la la laaaa~
/So pretty. . ./
~la la, la laaaa la la la~
/Where have I heard this before?/
~la la la la laaa, la la la la laaaa~
/No one. . .ever sang for me. . ./
~Forever and Beyond. . .~
~*~*~*~
"Oh ~ow~."
Everything ached. She couldn't see anything around her, and she didn't know how to get out.
/Not good./
Maiaza rubbed her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting a little quicker. Her entire body and clothes ensemble were covered in years' worth of dust and a few random twigs. She found herself plucking a few of them off absently, contemplating her situation, so she finally looked up in an attempt to estimate her odds of escape. The distance and focusing on it made her head spin, and she knew at once that ~that~ tactic would be entirely unreasonable. It was way too far to climb. . .
She rubbed her nose and sniffed. /I may die here, but this isn't any time to cry. To let my emotions show means even more pain./
She didn't even notice that she was clearly quite and utterly alone.
But instead, she dropped her head to her bent knees in despair, and instinctively numbed her mind in hopelessness.
How long she stayed in that peculiar state of shock, Maiaza had no idea, but once the initial mental-pains had long since been drugged out of her mind in fear of losing all she had, it seemed even darker down there than before. But she could make out something different than before, one of those things that only darkness betrayed; a strangely gentle emerald glow from around a corner, that was otherwise bathed in ominous shadows.
Curiosity doubled with the careless and hopeless feeling form before, gave her the strength to rise from her almost certain early grave. The caked-on gray dust, toppled over her in dull waves, and she coughed violently from the feeling of dry particles floating down her throat. Her throat contracted, finally swallowing the last bit of grime, as she began stumbling on her way, in the search of the light's source.
Maiaza's eyes began to water from the unexpected pain of her bruised legs. She didn't seem to be making ~any~ progress, based off of the effort she was applying, but she finally managed to stumble over to the corner without much trouble.
She grimaced to the open sky, and took a small break. It was truly pathetic how she could barely walk twenty feet without breathing hard.
Her legs managed to take one step around the corner before she collapsed again, with a faint sound of pain. The light appeared much brighter here, than in the other "room", but incredibly enough, all she could see was a tiny, but evident, splotch in the gloom.
Small sticks and rocks grinded and snapped under her hands as she crawled forward. Something seemed to be overwhelmingly curious about that cleared splotch, only about one foot in diameter.
The chocolate of her eyes squinted as she moved forward, until her pointed nose was only inches from it.
It pulsed. Like it was a heart beating, or a lung breathing. Either way, for some reason, it seemed ~alive~.
As she inspected it even closer, the light flickered and changed its position a bit. Realization dawned on her /It's liquid!/. Her eyes widened and her fingers gently brushed its surface; cold, smooth and very brightly lit. Maiaza was startled by a shadow on the other side, slowly drifting towards her, but, somehow she wasn't afraid. On the contrary, it was as if something was comforting her considerably about the increasing shadow in the emerald depths, in her own soul. Like an addictive drug.
/Hey, that kinda looks like a hand. . ./
~*BANG*~
A deep, loud sound rattled her eardrums, and before she understood what was happening, a large explosion sent her flying backward.
/Bad day./
~*~*~*~
"You called?"
"Of course I did you idiot! You have had yet to report back to me on your mission."
"It was successful."
"Is that all you have to say for yourself?"
"Your agents were successfully annihilated."
"And the girl?"
"The girl was gone."
"WHAT?!"
"My lord, she will not survive for long. She has no place to go, and the streets of Lindblum have always been deadly for those who do not understand its secrets. I suspect that she will be dead within the next couple of days."
"You better be right, I have no intention of keeping. . .~failures~ within my inner circle."
"Of course not my lord."
"What of the 'Rose'?"
"He has been properly dispatched at the Iifa tree, just as you have planned."
"Good. If the boy is not captured, our plan will completely dissolve. You know?"
"Yes. Now, my lord?"
"What now?!"
"If you don't mind me asking; why didn't you just send one of us? Our skills are far superior to those of the Rose Alliance, and there has been. . .'trouble' with one of them in the past."
"Pft. The NIGHT Rose. That is not a valid point at all."
"You haven't answered my question."
". . .I don't trust you."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sheesh. That didn't take TOO long, now did it? I've a roll going now! The only thing is. . .I've probably just confused the hell out of you again. ^^ Please don't hurt meeee! *ducks*
Alright, only one more week until winter break, and the Two Towers is coming out on Friday! Heh heh, my Christmas list has turned out unusually long. . .
Well, you know the drill I suppose. PLEASE REVIEW! And don't forget, constructive criticism is VERY much appreciated. It makes my writing better!
Until next time, my fello fanfic freaks!
giggleplex