Chapter 3, Poisoned
Rydia was just rubbing her face to get rid of the salty water when she felt something different in the way that the waves moved past her. Blinking, she looked up and gasped in unpleasant surprise as she saw a giant shadow moving towards her below the surface.
Her mind screamed as it found the memory of her early travels at Cecil's side. She knew that creature! It was an octomammoth, and it was hunting.
Rydia spun around and desperately tried to swim away. A monster that belonged in water was weak to lightning-spells, but if she tried to use such magic while she was in the liquid herself, her spell could be lead back and shock her as well. Fire couldn't touch the octomammoth as long as it was below the surface, and ice wouldn't harm it. Anyhow, Rydia was pretty sure that she couldn't chant and swim at the same time, if she didn't make it to the beach…
A cold, slimy tentacle wrapped itself around her waist and dragged her below the surface, squeezing all air out of her lunges.
'Don't panic, don't panic!' she tried to tell herself.
But it was no use. Her chest was on fire, and she almost broke all her nails trying to get free from the tentacle. Air… it hurt, her instincts told her to try to take a breath, but there was only water… one try and she would be lost, she knew that. But her lunges felt like twisting snakes inside of her, she had to…
The grip suddenly ceased with a screech from the beast's mouth, and she broke free, desperately swimming upwards. As she broke through the surface, her violent inhalation sounded almost like a scream.
"Hang on, Rydia!" a familiar voice shouted from the beach.
She tried to blink the water away from her eyes. Edge stood with water up to his knees and a towel tied around his waist over his clothes. In his left hand was a stone, but not for long. He sent it dashing through the air, and there was another enraged screech behind Rydia. She hurriedly swam a few more feet forwards, after what felt like an eternity reaching shallow water where she could stand up.
"Use you magic, for all the god's sake!" Edge shouted.
Another dripping stone flew over Rydia's head as she spun around, raising her hands. But the sight of the octomammoth startled her, and the chanting halted for half a second.
This giant octopus was darkly grey, but the one that she, Cecil and Tellah had fought had been crazily red with bright spots of different colors. That meant that the octomammoth before her was a female. She had read something about those in the land of Espers, female octomammoths were dangerous… there was something they had that the males didn't, what was it again? She had no time to remember, she had to chant!
"Powers of Fire, I bid…"
One more stone hit the monster's pointy head, and the screech was more of a roar this time. One of the tentacles rose above the surface, the end of it pointing at…
Poison! The female ones were poisonous!
"Edge! Duck!" Rydia shouted and threw herself down.
She turned her head as she fell. Suddenly, the whole world seemed to slow down. Several small spikes flew from the octomammoth's tentacle, aiming for Edge. He tried to jump aside, but the fact that he stood in water made him slow. The spikes hit and penetrated his shirt. Groaning in pain, he fell to his knees.
"Edge!" Rydia shouted.
"I'm alright!" he yelled back, "teach it some manners!"
She straightened up, growling in anger. Edge had come to help her, and this monster had hurt him. Rydia's chest and mind boiled with rage.
"Powers of Fire! I bid of thee to lend me thy powers!" she called out and pointed, turning her anger into a strength her mind could harness.
A massive wave of fire left her hands and forced the octomammoth a few yards backwards. It growled in surprise and made an attempt to attack again, but Rydia gave a second proof of her powers. The pain was too much for the monster. It fled back into the ocean.
Rydia took a deep, relieved breath. Then she remembered Edge.
"Don't move, I'm coming!" she called and swam over to even shallower water as fast as she could.
Edge straightened up with her help, but he was grimacing and pressing his left arm over his chest.
"I've been into worse… ouch!" he muttered and pulled a face.
"Come on, we have to get those spikes out," Rydia said, forcing herself to keep calm.
Edge tried to walk by himself, but stumbled.
"What the…?" he said and touched his left knee in confusion.
"It's poison, but it'll be alright," Rydia explained and hoped that she was right about the last thing.
She took Edge's arm and wrapped it around her neck to give him support standing.
"It's not ordinary poison, is it…?" Edge muttered.
"No, and I can't remember…" the caller said, unable to hide her anxiety anymore, "I have to ask Asura or the sprites to help you. But first I have to take care of the spikes."
They managed to stumble over to the shadow of the cliff. Rydia's long, dark swim-vest was pasted against her body and legs, and it was turning cold fast in the winds. But she didn't care at all. Edge managed to untie the towel he had around his waist, and Rydia placed it under his head as he lay down in the shadow. Her clothes and own towel laid a few feet away behind a rock, but there was no time for drying herself and dress up properly.
"Feel so numb…" Edge muttered as he tried to loosen the buttons of his shirt.
Rydia's stomach turned colder than ice. Good gods… it couldn't be the poison of an octomammoth that… that… no, it couldn't be!
It couldn't!
Good gods…
Edge noticed her eyes.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
Rydia cleared her throat and shook her head.
"Look, I'll help you," she said, trying to shake off the unease.
He caught her hands as she reached for the buttons of his shirt and looked her straight in the eyes, frowning.
"Rydia, what's happening?" he asked, "what is this poison?"
She bit her lower lip.
"I'm sure that there's a cure," she said in a low voice, "but if we don't get it in time, you might… turn lame."
"Good grief…" Edge muttered.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault…"
"Your fault?"
He forced himself to smile a bit.
"Hey, sweetcheeks, it's not like you called me like one of your pets. I just happened to be around."
The weak smile faded away.
"Look, about yesterday, I was…" he began.
Rydia shook her head.
"No, you don't have to say anything," she softly said, "it's alright. I know it was a joke."
"It was stupid of me."
"That doesn't matter now, we have to take care of the poison."
Edge released her hands so that Rydia could loosen the buttons and remove the cloth from his muscular torso, experiencing a strange trembling in her chest as she did so.
There were only five spikes, and they weren't very deeply buried. However, there was quite some blood despite the fact that the wounds were small. Rydia found that her fingers were shaking slightly as she carefully put her hands on Edge's skin to pick the spikes out, and she somehow wished that she could have blamed it on the blood. But she had never been nervous about wounds this small ever before. It wasn't the blood, and she knew it. It was Edge; she had to admit that even though she didn't fully understand. He was a friend… nothing more.
'A friend?' some hidden part of her mind scornfully said, 'just a friend, is that really all? How long are you going to pretend that you don't care more about him than anyone else of your friends?'
Rydia was almost startled by the sudden thought.
'He's a good friend,' she told herself, 'we share the same pain…'
'What would you know about it?' the hidden part snorted, 'do you have any own experience of love? No, you have only seen Rosa with Cecil, and Asura with Leviathan. You don't know anything about it yourself.'
'Now cut it out!' Rydia furiously told herself, 'I am not in love with Edge!'
'What? Is it some kind of crime? You're just afraid.'
'Afraid? What should I be afraid of?'
'Beats me. What are you afraid of?'
"You okay?" Edge asked, startling her.
"Yes, I'm fine," Rydia said after a second of pulling herself together.
"You were frowning pretty badly. Are you sure you're alright?"
She looked down at his concerned face. Did he care that much for her? Rydia's heart made a sudden twirl at the thought, making her even more confused.
"Don't worry about me, Edge," she said, and her voice was a lot softer than she had planned.
He tried to smile a little, but it didn't work very well.
Rydia removed the last spike and then turned away, putting her hands together and closing her eyes.
"I call you, Asura, queen of all espers," she chanted.
Transparent, green orbs danced around her, and a soft note announced that the queen had heed the call of her young friend. As Rydia opened her eyes, the female many-headed esper stood in the sand with a concerned look in her several eyes.
"What's wrong, Rydia?" Asura kindly asked.
"An octomammoth poisoned Edge, can you help him?" Rydia worriedly asked.
"Oh, dear…" the queen said, "I know that I have an antidote, but I can't bring it to you when I'm called. Don't worry, though, I'll ask Leviathan to swim to you with it."
"How long time do we have?" Rydia asked, a lot more relieved but not to the fullest.
"If the antidote is taken within ten hours there's nothing to worry about," Asura calmed both the caller and the king, "and it'll only take Leviathan about one or two hours to swim all the way. You might turn a bit numb, Edge, but you'll recover."
"Thank God…" Edge and Rydia mumbled simultaneously.
"However, there's a risk that you might get high fever as the antidote works, but if that should happen, I believe you're strong enough to take it."
Asura gave an encouraging smile.
"Just wait for Leviathan," she said, "the only thing that you can do is to wash the wounds and make sure that Edge doesn't fall asleep before he has taken the antidote, Rydia. Then everything will be fine."
"Thank you…" Rydia said with a small smile.
"I agree with her, Your Majesty," Edge mumbled.
"Don't worry, my friends. Good bye for now."
And with that, Asura faded out of sight. Rydia and Edge exchanged relieved glances.
"Let's see, clean water…" the caller said and put her hands together again.
"Take it easy," Edge said, "don't overstrain yourself just for me."
"Oh, don't be so stupid. I can't use the saltwater."
Rydia smiled at him and then closed her eyes.
"Powers of Water, I bid of thee to lend me thy powers… send me bubbles…"
As she held out her left hand small balls of water, bouncing but keeping in shape, appeared in her palm.
"This'll probably sting," Rydia warned and dropped half of her small water orbs over his chest.
Edge hissed as the liquid touched his wounds. It felt as if it was fire, not water, that softly hit his flesh. He had experienced greater wounds but the poison had already infected the small holes in his body, making the slightest touch send arrows through him.
Rydia rubbed her clean towel against Edge's chest as careful as possible, concernedly noting his grimaces and the angrily red areas around the wounds.
"I'm sorry, I can't make it more careful than this…" she said.
"A ninja like me shouldn't have any troubles… ouch… surviving this," Edge muttered and pulled another face.
It was long ago that Rydia had wished that she could use white magic instead of black, in fact this was probably the first time. But she had pushed her healing powers away in order to be strong enough to help the world. Now that seemed like a foolish decision. Edge needed powers she had gotten rid of, and now she couldn't help him.
She placed the last bubbles on his chest and commanded them to break into droplets with as much caution as possible. Still Edge's eyebrows painfully crawled together below a forehead that brought the thoughts to an earthquake. He took a few deep breaths and slowly relaxed as the water reached his temperature and became less intruding.
As the ninja let out a sigh and gave a slight nod to signal that he was alright, Rydia stood up and went to fetch her clothes. Edge watched her as she walked away and back again, returning for a double-check just in case. The deeply blue, long vest she wore was stuck against her body by the water, so well that it looked like a second skin. If he hadn't been slightly dizzy because of the poison, the sight might have made him bit through his lips. Rydia raised her eyebrows as she came walking back, noticing that he looked her. He managed a small, friendly sneer.
"Seeing something you like?" Rydia teased.
It surprised Edge a bit. It was always he who made such jokes, and she snapped back at them every time.
"Indeed a lot," he answered and winked with one eye, "changing our ritual, sweetcheeks?"
"I should keep you awake, shouldn't I?" she replied as she sat down, seeing that the talk could take a little while. She wasn't one to back off from a challenge, especially not one she had ignited herself.
"My, my…"
"Oh, no. No strange ideas, your majesty. You're not in a condition when you'd survive a storm of icicles and lightning bolts," Rydia said.
"I'm poisoned and you're still mean to me. It's not fair…"
They grinned at each other.
"Thanks for helping me with the octomammoth, by the way," Rydia smiled, a lot softer than before.
"Don't mention it," Edge said and tried to smile, "we're used to save each other's lives, aren't we?"
"Yeah, I guess…"
Rydia smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Incredible what you get me to say when facing certain doom. Like when we fought Zeromus."
"I'm glad you haven't forget about it," Edge smirked, "my poor heart would have been totally broken."
"But remember that I only said you were handsome in compare to him," Rydia pointed out.
"Doesn't matter, those words has kept me alive since then…"
His voice had become harsher and harsher for every word the last two times he had spoken. Rydia pressed a finger against her lips.
"Don't try to speak for a while, alright? Wait, what am I saying?"
They exchanged glances and smiled. A chilling wind from the ocean made the caller shiver a bit.
"I'm just going to change into my clothes," she said and stood up, "don't even consider peeking, you hear?"
Edge chuckled and closed his eyes as she walked away. He listened to her soft footsteps over the whispering sand, guessing that she went behind one of the big rocks that laid around close to the cliffs to dress up. He tried to think about icebergs, without much success.
As Rydia came back, now wearing her green outfit with its hanging sleeves and short skirts, she was still rubbing her hair with the towel in order to get rid of the water.
"Nice hairdo," Edge smirked as she sat down.
"Don't push me," Rydia warned, but smiled.
Her green hair was pretty messed up by the quick drying. Edge had wondered about the color of it as they had first met, but he had come to the conclusion that it was because she had grown up with magic constantly around.
She looked up at the edge of the cliffs, frowning.
"I wish I could send for help," she thoughtfully said, "but a chocobo wouldn't make it all the way up, and I can't keep the other espers in this world for long enough… and their spirits can't move that far from me. We'll just have to wait for our friends to start wondering where we are."
"I give you nothing but trouble, do I?" Edge sighed.
"Shh…" Rydia softly whispered and put a finger by his lips, before considering it.
The two young humans froze, both of them highly surprised. Their eyes met.
'Does she care a little bit more?' Edge hesitantly thought, almost fearing to hope, 'just a little?'
'Why did I do that?' Rydia thought, slightly panicking, 'what if he thinks… believes… something?'
That hidden part of her mind sighed deeply.
'Oh, stop it,' it said, 'don't be so stubborn. Don't you like him?'
'Like him? Of course I do, he's my friend!' Rydia thought.
'Is he your friend just like Cecil is?'
'I… no.'
Cecil and Edge couldn't be compared in friendship. Nobody could. She didn't know Cecil as she knew Edward, Rosa, Yang or Kain either.
Cecil had always been like a big brother to her, he had sacrificed his old life at Baron as he choose to protect her. Just as Kain, even though he hadn't made it through as smooth as the paladin. He had always been quiet and a bit depressed, bitter because of his feeling of guilt. Yet, he had been able to smile a little now and then. Edward… weak at first, broken and scared after Anna's death, he had been like a younger brother though several years older than Rydia back then. But he had found courage, and straightened up. And Rosa… a big sister, always there. At first, when Rydia still had been a kid, the white magician maybe had played the role of a kind step mum. Yang, he was a rock, impossible to budge. A father.
Not to forget Tellah. Rydia hadn't known him for long, but he was still kept in her memory as a grave yet kind grandpa. Oh yes, Cid was also one of those, but eccentric instead of serious all the time.
That was what her human friends was; her family. She didn't have any other, except the espers.
But Edge?
He couldn't possibly be similar to an older brother, and definitely not a father. It didn't suit him at all. He was simply Edge; smiling, joking, flirting and teasing. And Rydia liked him in his own special way. All about him… his light, soft hair, his laughter and those silly, half-hidden smiles behind the cloth he wore when he expected battle, his deep, gray-blue eyes…
Rydia suddenly remembered that she still kept her finger at his lips, touching them as light as a breath. She carefully removed her touch, for half a second feeling an urge to caress Edge's cheek, stroke it with the back of her hand.
They looked at each other.
'Will I ever even dare to breath that I like her a lot more than a friend?' Edge thought, holding back a wish to carefully take her hand in his and kiss her fingertips.
He wouldn't risk something like that. What if she'd snarl and violently pull her hand free? But it was hard to keep from doing it as he looked up in her eyes, where a small sparkle of confusion could be spotted.
'What does she feel about me?' he wondered, 'anything even close to what I feel for her? I can only wish…'
He wanted to tell her that she kept him awake through the nights with her absence, that he dreamed of her as soon as he closed his eyes. But he was afraid that she would laugh or snort, thinking it was just another chapter in his game of flirting badly.
Once again, his thoughts drifted away to his need for a queen. If possible, it made him feel even more troubled than it usually did.
'I don't want any of them!' he thought, 'they don't interest me the least… but Rydia…'
He couldn't stop himself from sighing.
"Does it hurt?" Rydia carefully asked.
Edge slowly shook his head.
"Nah, I'm fine," he lied.
"You sure?" she asked, smiling hesitantly as she used his words, "you were frowning pretty badly."
No, I'm not fine at all, he wanted to say.
I missed you so much after all the battling was over that I could scream.
Every time I look at you, I feel warm at heart.
Won't you come with me to Eblan? I don't want to go back without you.
I have no idea what I would have done if the octomammoth had harmed you.
I love you.
"No problem," he said and somehow forced a small smile to his lips.
"Alright, if you say so."
Rydia smiled a little and began to work on the mess of her hair, with only her fingers as a comb. Edge watched her.
I love you.
The words laid like a piece of red hot coal in his mind. But he couldn't drag them over to his lips no matter how much he wanted to. And speaking of his lips, they still burned with the memory of her gentle touch. She had probably moved before thinking, but… yet…
I love you, Rydia.
She looked down and smiled encouraging.
"Don't worry, Leviathan will show up soon enough," she smiled, misunderstanding the bothered flicker in his eyes.
"Oh, that's nothing," Edge mumbled, "I'm enjoying your company so much that I forget about the poison."
"Aww, you flirt you…"
'I wish you'd believe me instead…' Edge bitterly thought.
He fought another sigh back. Instead it turned to a yawn, and he blinked.
"What is it now then…?" he muttered, managing to reach up and rub his eyes with the back of his hand.
Suddenly he felt so terribly tired. No, not now! Not when he was alone with Rydia for the first time, maybe even the only time ever! He couldn't fall asleep!
"Hey, don't leave me now," Rydia said and carefully slapped his cheek, not so much that it hurt, just to help him stay awake, "remember what Asura said. And you never fell asleep when we fought Zeromus, did you?"
He had to smile at that.
"No, then you would have killed me yourself, wouldn't you?" he mumbled, "but that wasn't half as exciting as this, on the other hand."
"What, you found Zeromus boring?" Rydia smiled.
"In compare to this? Of course…"
He yawned again.
"You bigmouth, stay awake!" Rydia demanded, "forget what I said earlier, keep talking."
"How I wish women could hold onto an opinion…" Edge drowsily smiled.
She pinched his nose.
"Keep your eyes open, ya hear?" she said, "why don't you tell me how Eblan is doing?"
"Well, recovering. And I have my hands full of keeping the members of my council from killing each other. They seem to think it's funnier to curse everyone else then to actually discuss how we're going to proceed with the rebuilding. Did Leviathan ever have those kind of problems?"
Rydia gave a short laugh, and Edge's heart made a little twirl.
"Yes, he actually had. But he sent a tsunami at his advisors every time they began throwing lightning bolts and big swords around. Made them calm down at once, at least they were calmer when they awoke."
She looked down at him and raised her eyebrows.
"Why don't you just use your magic when they get too violent?" she asked.
"I don't want to hurt anyone," Edge said and rolled his eyes, "I don't have as perfect control of my powers as you do, you know. Ninja magic is a lot clumsier than regular black."
"You should really get some kind of prize by admitting that truth, your majesty," Rydia smiled.
"Oh, that's too obvious to hide for long… especially for a smart girl like you."
Edge reached up and touched the tip of her nose with a finger. That much did he dare; it was harmless. Rydia smiled a little.
"Come on, that can't be all that's happening over by your place," she said.
"Well, I suppose that the next big thing that everyone will talk about is 'king Edge get beaten up by caller Rydia while lying poisoned on a beach'. Sounds like a really tasty piece of gossip, doesn't it?"
"It'll make your poor ninjas drop their hammers," Rydia nodded with a grin.
Edge widened his eyes in a really silly way.
"You got me there," he whispered and blinked with one eye, "but please don't allow it to be commonly known that I force my troops to work as carpenters."
"Your secret's safe with me," Rydia said and blinked back, "hey, you said 'the next big thing'. So what is everyone talking about now?"
His tongue moved without the permission of his brain.
"They keep going on about me finding a suitable queen…"
It was too late when he realized what he just had said.