Yes, yes, late again. Shoot me. No, no, not literally! Aah! I've been a bit
busy with other things, like a stupid project I should have been doing
weeks ago. _ Sorry. The chapter was supposed to be longer, but I didn't
want to have to make you wait any longer.
Fun Fact #2: you remember how I said this story was named after a line in a song? I was listening to the song when I realized the CD it was on is called Ten Summoners Tales. I think the universe is toying with me.
Chapter Six
Clouds and Stars
The storm raged all through that day and into the night-either we weren't moving at all, which was pretty unlikely, or the storm was moving with us. None of us slept much that night-every time we closed our eyes, a wave would jar the boat and wake us up. It was pretty quiet; I think we were the only passengers, and the crew stayed in their cabin.
I opened my eyes after a brief fit of sleep to see a brighter light shining through the door. What is that? I wondered. Torches couldn't be used in a boat, for obvious reasons, so shipbuilders had made a tenuous peace with the Al Bhed for electric lighting. I'd always wished to see an Al Bhed in person-Mom said it was easy to tell they were heathens, the bottom level of humanity, and I'd like to see how you could tell. Think about the lights, Rai, I told myself sternly. Even electric light wasn't this bright-it must have been morning, and the storm had passed!
I stood up and shook Sky's shoulder (she had woken up sometime after midnight to fall into real sleep). She sat up, looked at the door, and nodded to me. Standing up, she walked out of the room, and I followed.
Outside, I had to shade my eyes against the brightness of the sunlight. Of course, even the water seemed to shine after my eyes were so adjusted to darkness. The storm was definitely past.
Sky walked over to a crew member checking over a large sail for damages. The man stood up and bowed, then shook his head and shrugged apologetically. Sky bowed in thanks and returned to the cabin door.
"He says he has no idea where we are," she said, a tad disgruntled. "The crew is busy with fixing whatever the storm broke, and we must have been blown a long ways. Oh, well, the captain will probably come to a decision about where to go soon."
I nodded. "Let's go wake up-"
As I was talking, Sakura dashed up the stairs. "The storm's gone! And it's morning!" Both of us laughed as Sakura grinned. "They'll be up in a minute," she said, jerking her head towards our cabin. "Nyk's not a morning person."
We walked over to the bow of the ship. I shaded my eyes and peered over, but saw nothing but the ocean. I hoped we hadn't been blown too far off course.
"Wonder where we are?" Sakura mused.
"The captain will tell us soon," Sky said firmly. "There's no point in worrying, we are where we are."
We ate breakfast an hour later, downstairs in a large room with most of the crew. Rolls and scrambled chocobo eggs-which we had to coax Liya to eat (she thought chocobos were cute)-might not seem like much, but it was a feast compared to what we'd eaten yesterday. One by one we laid down our forks, and when the last men were just finishing up, the captain stood from his place at the head of the table.
"Good morning, everyone. As you all know, yesterday was a rough day and we were blown pretty far off course. However-" he held out a map of Spira- "Wherever we are, and we are most likely somewhere around-" he circled with his finger the ocean around Kilika, Luca, and the mess of small islands to the east of them-"here, if we go north and slightly east, we will hit land within a day." Everyone applauded, probably glad we weren't up north by Djose.
We dispersed, and our small party went to the deck above the main one. "Well, at least we aren't too far away from land," Nyk commented.
Sakura laid on her back and stared at the sky. "It's nice to be outside again."
"Mm-hmm," I commented. The heat was making me drowsy...
"I swear!" I woke up to the sound of Sakura's indignant voice.
"How can you see the exact same cloud again?"
"I dunno. But, see, there's the house...and its tail is that long piece."
"It's possible." Sky joined in with Sakura and Nyk's friendly bickering. "I mean, a shoopuf with a house on its back is a shapeless blob...there are a lot of clouds that look like shapeless blobs."
I sat up and laughed. Sakura sighed in defeat. "Three against one, that's not fair!"
Liya came over and patted her shoulder. "Don' worry, Sasa. I see it. That one, up there?" She pointed.
Sakura buried her face in her hands. "That's the legless chocobo!" Everyone burst into laughter, even her.
"Rai, you're awake," Sky commented. "You were asleep for three hours."
"Really?" I said, yawning.
"Mm-hmm."
"Look!" Liya pointed to the north. For a moment I thought she had seen Sin, but no. This blot was dark green and spread across the horizon.
"Land!" Sakura cried, jumping up. "Woo-hoo!"
We disembarked right there, despite the sailors saying they would be glad to take us all the way to Luca. However, we were all tired of ships, and politely refused. The captain gave us his map, pointing out where we were.
"See here, " he said, pointing to the map, "You're about three days from Luca. Now-" he took out a pen-"There's a pass through the mountains here, makes them easier to cross. There's some nasty fiends here-" he circled a forest-"So you might want to skirt that." Sky bowed and thanked him. "No trouble. Our ship'd be sunk without you driving Sin back. 'Sides, we've got extra maps."
The ship set sail, and we set off along the coast. After a few minutes of debate, we decided to travel inland-there were no fiends on the beach, but the sand was hard to walk in. We hadn't been moving for ten minutes when we encountered our first group of fiends.
The group was small, just a rock-like creature and something that looked like a small flame. Nyk stayed behind us with Liya, to keep her from getting hurt, as we all took out our weapons. I slashed at the rock-fiend, to find that it really was like rock-it didn't seem to be hurt at all. Sakura probably figured that she wouldn't be able to hurt it either, and instead shot an arrow at the flame-fiend.
The arrow did some damage, but the flame grew larger. Eyeing it suspiciously, Sakura said, "I don't think we should let it get any bigger." Sky pondered, then looked behind her and motioned to Nyk. He ran forward, and she stepped back with Liya. Smart-Sky didn't have any offensive magic, and physical attacks didn't seem to be the way to go.
The rock-fiend then ran-well, waddled-forward, to slam into me. I saw stars as I was knocked to the ground. However, I really only had a few bruises, and quickly stood up again to see Nyk cast a Blizzard spell on the flame- fiend. This seemed to hurt it more then normal attacks, but it didn't die- only swelled larger.
Sakura aimed an arrow carefully and shot, hitting the rock-fiend in an almost invisible crack in its armor. She jerked her head at me, but the flame-fiend attacked first.
It cast a Fire spell on Nyk, who winced and took out a potion. The burns on his hands and arms faded away as he drank it. Finally getting a chance to attack, I dashed forward, pausing for a second first to aim; I slashed the rock-fiend between its armor. It roared and collapsed, dissolving into brightly colored pyreflies.
I felt pretty proud of myself, but then Sakura shot the flame-fiend. It inflated a third time-now it was as big as me. Sky, seeing what was going to happen, ran forward and cast a Shell spell on Sakura, right before the flame exploded over her head and dissolved into pyreflies.
Sakura was knocked down by the particularly vicious attack. Nyk and I trotted over, and she sat up. "That was exciting," she commented, and coughed smoke. I sighed, glad that the Shell had cut down on the damage. Nyk waved his staff in the air, and Sakura was briefly outlined in blue-the Cure spell.
"You know white magic, too?" I asked, surprised.
"Not really," he replied. "Only the cure and antidote type spells."
Sky walked over to us, trailing Liya. Sakura stood up and grinned, fully healed. "Let's get going, then!"
The next few fights were much quicker, now that we knew what to do. Sky seemed to have picked up a handy spell sometime in the last fight-how, I don't know, magic is peculiar that way-that nullified fire spells, which was extremely helpful. We were able to make it to a nice spot to eat lunch without getting too damaged.
Nyk had some food packed in his suitcase, and the ship's captain had also given us some of their rolls. We ate quickly-who would want to stay out there very long? By the time the sun said half past twelve, we were on our way again.
"This looks like a nice spot to sleep," Sky said much later that day. We had come upon a large rock, wide enough on top to fit twenty people. No fiends would bother us up there. Sure, it might be more comfortable down on the ground, but would you want to be woken up in the middle of the night by a monster nibbling on your leg?
There was a forest nearby, so we could find plenty of wood for a campfire. There was some debate about whether this would attract fiends rather then drive them off, but we agreed one person would keep watch.
I had the first watch. A half hour into it, Sakura started talking. "This rock's too hard. I don't mind sleeping on the ground."
"You're forgetting about the fiends," I muttered, not wanting to wake the others up. "You wouldn't survive the night."
"Hmph." Apparently she dropped off to sleep soon afterwards.
I looked up at the stars, trying to find shapes in them. The village elders had told me about them-they would take us children out on the docks on a cloudless night and point out Ifrit, Shiva, and the other Aeons, as well as more everyday objects, like ladles. The other children would ooh and aah, and amuse themselves with making up their own. Sighing, I looked back down at the ground and thought, I wonder if I was the only one who could never see the pictures in the stars?
Fun Fact #2: you remember how I said this story was named after a line in a song? I was listening to the song when I realized the CD it was on is called Ten Summoners Tales. I think the universe is toying with me.
Chapter Six
Clouds and Stars
The storm raged all through that day and into the night-either we weren't moving at all, which was pretty unlikely, or the storm was moving with us. None of us slept much that night-every time we closed our eyes, a wave would jar the boat and wake us up. It was pretty quiet; I think we were the only passengers, and the crew stayed in their cabin.
I opened my eyes after a brief fit of sleep to see a brighter light shining through the door. What is that? I wondered. Torches couldn't be used in a boat, for obvious reasons, so shipbuilders had made a tenuous peace with the Al Bhed for electric lighting. I'd always wished to see an Al Bhed in person-Mom said it was easy to tell they were heathens, the bottom level of humanity, and I'd like to see how you could tell. Think about the lights, Rai, I told myself sternly. Even electric light wasn't this bright-it must have been morning, and the storm had passed!
I stood up and shook Sky's shoulder (she had woken up sometime after midnight to fall into real sleep). She sat up, looked at the door, and nodded to me. Standing up, she walked out of the room, and I followed.
Outside, I had to shade my eyes against the brightness of the sunlight. Of course, even the water seemed to shine after my eyes were so adjusted to darkness. The storm was definitely past.
Sky walked over to a crew member checking over a large sail for damages. The man stood up and bowed, then shook his head and shrugged apologetically. Sky bowed in thanks and returned to the cabin door.
"He says he has no idea where we are," she said, a tad disgruntled. "The crew is busy with fixing whatever the storm broke, and we must have been blown a long ways. Oh, well, the captain will probably come to a decision about where to go soon."
I nodded. "Let's go wake up-"
As I was talking, Sakura dashed up the stairs. "The storm's gone! And it's morning!" Both of us laughed as Sakura grinned. "They'll be up in a minute," she said, jerking her head towards our cabin. "Nyk's not a morning person."
We walked over to the bow of the ship. I shaded my eyes and peered over, but saw nothing but the ocean. I hoped we hadn't been blown too far off course.
"Wonder where we are?" Sakura mused.
"The captain will tell us soon," Sky said firmly. "There's no point in worrying, we are where we are."
We ate breakfast an hour later, downstairs in a large room with most of the crew. Rolls and scrambled chocobo eggs-which we had to coax Liya to eat (she thought chocobos were cute)-might not seem like much, but it was a feast compared to what we'd eaten yesterday. One by one we laid down our forks, and when the last men were just finishing up, the captain stood from his place at the head of the table.
"Good morning, everyone. As you all know, yesterday was a rough day and we were blown pretty far off course. However-" he held out a map of Spira- "Wherever we are, and we are most likely somewhere around-" he circled with his finger the ocean around Kilika, Luca, and the mess of small islands to the east of them-"here, if we go north and slightly east, we will hit land within a day." Everyone applauded, probably glad we weren't up north by Djose.
We dispersed, and our small party went to the deck above the main one. "Well, at least we aren't too far away from land," Nyk commented.
Sakura laid on her back and stared at the sky. "It's nice to be outside again."
"Mm-hmm," I commented. The heat was making me drowsy...
"I swear!" I woke up to the sound of Sakura's indignant voice.
"How can you see the exact same cloud again?"
"I dunno. But, see, there's the house...and its tail is that long piece."
"It's possible." Sky joined in with Sakura and Nyk's friendly bickering. "I mean, a shoopuf with a house on its back is a shapeless blob...there are a lot of clouds that look like shapeless blobs."
I sat up and laughed. Sakura sighed in defeat. "Three against one, that's not fair!"
Liya came over and patted her shoulder. "Don' worry, Sasa. I see it. That one, up there?" She pointed.
Sakura buried her face in her hands. "That's the legless chocobo!" Everyone burst into laughter, even her.
"Rai, you're awake," Sky commented. "You were asleep for three hours."
"Really?" I said, yawning.
"Mm-hmm."
"Look!" Liya pointed to the north. For a moment I thought she had seen Sin, but no. This blot was dark green and spread across the horizon.
"Land!" Sakura cried, jumping up. "Woo-hoo!"
We disembarked right there, despite the sailors saying they would be glad to take us all the way to Luca. However, we were all tired of ships, and politely refused. The captain gave us his map, pointing out where we were.
"See here, " he said, pointing to the map, "You're about three days from Luca. Now-" he took out a pen-"There's a pass through the mountains here, makes them easier to cross. There's some nasty fiends here-" he circled a forest-"So you might want to skirt that." Sky bowed and thanked him. "No trouble. Our ship'd be sunk without you driving Sin back. 'Sides, we've got extra maps."
The ship set sail, and we set off along the coast. After a few minutes of debate, we decided to travel inland-there were no fiends on the beach, but the sand was hard to walk in. We hadn't been moving for ten minutes when we encountered our first group of fiends.
The group was small, just a rock-like creature and something that looked like a small flame. Nyk stayed behind us with Liya, to keep her from getting hurt, as we all took out our weapons. I slashed at the rock-fiend, to find that it really was like rock-it didn't seem to be hurt at all. Sakura probably figured that she wouldn't be able to hurt it either, and instead shot an arrow at the flame-fiend.
The arrow did some damage, but the flame grew larger. Eyeing it suspiciously, Sakura said, "I don't think we should let it get any bigger." Sky pondered, then looked behind her and motioned to Nyk. He ran forward, and she stepped back with Liya. Smart-Sky didn't have any offensive magic, and physical attacks didn't seem to be the way to go.
The rock-fiend then ran-well, waddled-forward, to slam into me. I saw stars as I was knocked to the ground. However, I really only had a few bruises, and quickly stood up again to see Nyk cast a Blizzard spell on the flame- fiend. This seemed to hurt it more then normal attacks, but it didn't die- only swelled larger.
Sakura aimed an arrow carefully and shot, hitting the rock-fiend in an almost invisible crack in its armor. She jerked her head at me, but the flame-fiend attacked first.
It cast a Fire spell on Nyk, who winced and took out a potion. The burns on his hands and arms faded away as he drank it. Finally getting a chance to attack, I dashed forward, pausing for a second first to aim; I slashed the rock-fiend between its armor. It roared and collapsed, dissolving into brightly colored pyreflies.
I felt pretty proud of myself, but then Sakura shot the flame-fiend. It inflated a third time-now it was as big as me. Sky, seeing what was going to happen, ran forward and cast a Shell spell on Sakura, right before the flame exploded over her head and dissolved into pyreflies.
Sakura was knocked down by the particularly vicious attack. Nyk and I trotted over, and she sat up. "That was exciting," she commented, and coughed smoke. I sighed, glad that the Shell had cut down on the damage. Nyk waved his staff in the air, and Sakura was briefly outlined in blue-the Cure spell.
"You know white magic, too?" I asked, surprised.
"Not really," he replied. "Only the cure and antidote type spells."
Sky walked over to us, trailing Liya. Sakura stood up and grinned, fully healed. "Let's get going, then!"
The next few fights were much quicker, now that we knew what to do. Sky seemed to have picked up a handy spell sometime in the last fight-how, I don't know, magic is peculiar that way-that nullified fire spells, which was extremely helpful. We were able to make it to a nice spot to eat lunch without getting too damaged.
Nyk had some food packed in his suitcase, and the ship's captain had also given us some of their rolls. We ate quickly-who would want to stay out there very long? By the time the sun said half past twelve, we were on our way again.
"This looks like a nice spot to sleep," Sky said much later that day. We had come upon a large rock, wide enough on top to fit twenty people. No fiends would bother us up there. Sure, it might be more comfortable down on the ground, but would you want to be woken up in the middle of the night by a monster nibbling on your leg?
There was a forest nearby, so we could find plenty of wood for a campfire. There was some debate about whether this would attract fiends rather then drive them off, but we agreed one person would keep watch.
I had the first watch. A half hour into it, Sakura started talking. "This rock's too hard. I don't mind sleeping on the ground."
"You're forgetting about the fiends," I muttered, not wanting to wake the others up. "You wouldn't survive the night."
"Hmph." Apparently she dropped off to sleep soon afterwards.
I looked up at the stars, trying to find shapes in them. The village elders had told me about them-they would take us children out on the docks on a cloudless night and point out Ifrit, Shiva, and the other Aeons, as well as more everyday objects, like ladles. The other children would ooh and aah, and amuse themselves with making up their own. Sighing, I looked back down at the ground and thought, I wonder if I was the only one who could never see the pictures in the stars?
