Final Fantasy VIII: Scarlet Eyes
Author's rants: Well, hope you all liked the first chapter. Scarlet is so cool, I loved writing about her. Oh, Final Fantasy VIII doesn't belong to me (Sadly), it belongs to Squaresoft. However, this story belongs to me so don't steal it.
Chapter 2: New Arrival.
The flow of blue energy had nearly reached the vessel. Scarlet was taken by surprise. That Guardian's attack was meant to be 'Tsunami', not some energy wave. She was getting too distracted, she resumed her 'En Guard' position. She waved her Dra'Kan blade round in a circle. A red aura followed the tip of the blade and it formed a circle. The circle started glowing a ferocious shade of crimson.
"Reflect!" She yelled.
The massive beam of energy hit the crimson spell. The beam was split into two and each of these smaller beams were directed away from the vessel and into the water by the spell. The blue energy disappeared into the water. The Levithan roared. Scarlet saw something pierce through the water. The beast's tail flicked at her, she moved aside quickly. The stinger on the end of it scraped all the way down the side of the vessel, before the tail swiftly went underwater. The rain was unforgiving to Scarlet. It beat down harder than before, further impairing her vision, it would be hard to see if the tail was moving. Without warning the G.F lunged it's head forward at Scarlet. She held her blade out in front of her, preparing to block, but she wasn't sure if the blade would hold. Just before it hit the sword, it stopped dead and begun it's mind speak with Scarlet.
: Your are a fearless warrior, young one. You are worthy of my protection. :
The Leviathan's body shot underwater. The rain stopped and Scarlet wiped off the droplets from her face. The sun shone down her, its rays were pleasant to her. Just then a small blue sphere, no bigger than a marble, shot out of the water and hovered in front of Scarlet. She peered down into this small marvel. It looked like there was something moving inside it, the G.F? She reached out to it touch and the sphere flew into her palm and sank into skin, leaving her with a tingling sensation.
The other passengers and the hysterical crewman came up to the deck.
"Well, did you see the Dragon young lady?" They asked.
She decided it was better left unknown to these people.
"What 'Dragon', that guy must've been drunk." She lied.
"No I swear, it was there."
Scarlet pushed passed the other passengers and resumed her seat in the lower deck. Her thoughts were exited. Her first Guardian, Leviathan. But what was all that about 'chosen'? And 'worthy of protection?
"And why did you change your attack?" She said out loud, unintentionally.
: Because I have the power to do so. :
"You can speak?"
It gave no answer then, nor during the rest of the vessel trip. She arrived at Balamb port on time, despite the earlier incident. Her father had told her that Squall would meet her at the port. Did he even know what she looked like? She sat on a bench for about an hour. Then, a man in black approached her.
"You must be Scarlet." Said Squall.
She gave him a nod. She gathered her three cases containing her belongings and Squall lead her to the car. She loaded her bags into the trunk. Squall sat in the drivers seat and Scarlet sat in the back.
"Ya know, you can sit in the front." He said sweetly
"No thank you, here is sufficient." She replied coldly
Squall was a little hurt by this, but decided that maybe she was just a little nervous from being away from home. It was only a two minute drive from the port to the Leonhart residence. During this trip nothing was said between Squal and Scarlet. They pulled up in the drive and Squall carried her things into the house. They were greeted first my Angelo, who licked Scarlets's hand. In contrary to what Squall thought she would have done (Give the dog a kick.)she bent down and started petting him.
"His name's Angelo, he's really friendly." Said a female voice.
Scarlet looked up to see a female figure standing before her. She wore a blue V cut dress with a black vest underneath. Her hair was shoulder length. Scarlet thought she was really pretty.
"Hi, Rinoa Leonhart, pleased to meet ya."
"Scarlet Loi-, Leonhart."
Squall saw that she nearly gave her away to Rinoa. Although Rinoa knew of this whole arrangement, if that had been someone else however, the consequences might have been greater.
"You'll have to be careful." Squall said. "Only Rinoa and I know who you really are."
"And your son, Tyranis, isn't it?" She asked inquisitively.
"Yes Tyranis. He doesn't know who you are, we've told him his cousin will be staying with us, we thought it would be easier than saying his aunt." Squall replied.
"Very true. And the Garden, when will I start?"
"Tomorrow, you'll only miss the first day, nothing much." Rinoa replied, a little surprised at her enthusiasm.
Scarlet frowned at this, she had just got here and already she was missing out on important training, unacceptable.
"One more thing, where will I sleep?"
Squall led Scarlet up the stairs into the spare room, which was across the hall from Tyranis'. The room had: a bed, a set of drawers, a desk and chair and wardrobe. The walls were a blue color that Scarlet didn't like. That was the first thing that had to go. Squall showed her around the rest of the house, telling her all the important things; what time meals were served ect. He then lead her back to the room.
"This is your room now, so feel free to move things around however you want."
"Thank you. I will." She nodded respectfully.
Squall sensed she may need some time on her own, he knew how that felt. He left the room and shut the door behind him. Now Scarlet could unpack. She opened the first suitcase, it was her clothes, all black or some other dark colour. She layed out a set of clothes for tomorrow and put the rest in her wardrobe. Next case, her various potions and supplies. She put all of these things in the drawers. She had about twenty potions, five pheonix downs and a megelixer, plus her Gil, which came to about 1200, alright for someone who was only level 16. Final case, her beloved books. Art of Chocobo raising, White magic, Weapon master's guide to Weapon maintainence and Combatants Guide to fighting were just a few of the titles in her vast collection. She put these in the drawers in her desk. All that was left now in the last case was her spare weapons. A dagger, some arrows, a bow and a pair of spiked gloves. She found some pins and hung these and her Dra'Kan blade on the wall. Looks like that was her done.
She jumped onto her new bed, nice and soft. She lay there for a while until she heard a knock at the door.
"May I come in?" Rinoa's voice whispered. Scarlet has hesitant to answer.
"Eh, sure."
Rinoa walked in holding a book of some sort. She gazed over to the weapons dangling off her lovely blue walls and then gazed back over to Scarlet.
"Love what you've done with the place." Rinoa joked. Scarlet gave no response. "Erm, well I saw how unhappy you were when Squall told you you'd miss the first day, so I brought you this."
Rinoa walked across the room and laid the book down on Scarlet's bed. Scarlet gazed over at the title of the book. "Introduction to Balamb Garden". At last, something useful. Scarlet smiled and then snatched the book and began reading. She looked over the page to Rinoa.
"Thank you Rinoa." said Scarlet, sincerely.
"No problem, i'll leave you alone now, dinners at six. Oh and Tyranis will be home in about two hours."
Rinoa left the room and closed the door. Scarlet scanned through the first page, committing all the information to memory.
***
Tyranis and Zell had reached the entrance to the Fire Cavern. The grass surrounding the caves entrance was charred and bore the smell of hot ash. The actual entrance itself was just a hole in the cave, rimmed with jagged rock that gave the impression of the opened jaw of a fanged beast. They stood outside waiting for the Garden Faculty members to arrive and debrief them. Zell leant against the wall while Tyranis planted himself down on the floor and pulled out a magazine from his bag.
'Weapons Monthly Magazine'. He had them all, this was the latest issue. They don't sell then in Balamb anymore so he has to have them mailed from Timber, where they are produced. He flicked through the pages until he found what he was looking for, Shear Trigger Gunblade. This updated model of the revolver would be useful. Dam, it requires four screws and a steel pipe. Tyranis rummaged through his bag, only two screws, no pipe, he'd have to kill some monsters on the way back. Two Garden Faculty members approached, Tyranis put the magazine away and stood to attention as did Zell.
"State your name and status." One of the robed figures said to Zell, at least it looked like he was speaking to Zell, it was hard to tell because of the large hast that covered their faces.
"Instructor Dincht, ID 81296481." Zell spoke after some hesitation. "I'm his backup" Tyranis stood forward.
"Tyranis Leonhart, Student ID 097832291." He sounded off.
"Indeed." The other figure replied, uninterested. "Now hear the rules: you enter the cavern here." He gestured at the jagged entrance. "Navigate through the cave until you reach the end of the course then come back here, you have exactly thirty minutes to get there and back. Instructor Dincht will grade your performance, if you do not return to this point before your time expires, you will fail." The faculty member over emphasized the final three words, which made Tyranis uneasy. Tyranis gave an uncertain nod and he and his instructor entered the cave.
Inside the cavern, the ceiling wasn't visible, the only light came from the lava that ran along either side of a single pathway that seemed to go forever. This gave the effect of runway, Tyranis wondered what would be landing at the other side. They began running.
As they got further down the cavern it became harder to breathe, fumes from the molten rock that surrounded them clogged in Tyranis' lungs and caused him to chocked on several. He caught sight of two small figures coming closer. He drew his Gunblade and got ready. As they got closer the subdued light from the lava illuminated their faces. They were small rounded balls of flame, they had defined faces that bore little red and orange fangs. Zell stood forward.
"Bombs. They feed on fire use –"
"Way ahead of you." Tyranis boasted.
He held his blade in front of him and focused hard. A block of clear ice took for over one of the crimson creatures.
"Blizzard."
The chunk of ice dropped unto the bomb, extinguishing its flames and leaving it flattened against the ground. Tyranis span round and prepared for a second Blizzard spell, but the second Bomb was already gone. It lay extinguished and bruised on the ground. Beside it stood Zell, crunching his knuckles. One hit K.O, he must be really strong. Tyranis had picked up a fire spell from his defeated monster, nothing special, but a spell never the less.
They moved on, killing Bombs and the move vicious Red Bats that inhabited the Fire Cavern. The path reached its end, there was a small round circle of hardened rock on the ground. This used to be a pool of lava. Tyranis looked over to his Instructor.
"Is that where -"
"Yeah, your dad told me about it, Ifrit came up from in there and attacked your dad and Instructor Trepe." Zell still felt weird calling Quistis 'Instructor' after all they'd been through. "Come on, you've got ten minutes left, the path should be clearer this time."
They turned round a ran back down the long path. Unbeknownst to them, cracks started forming in the hardened pool. A red claw burst through the rock, allowing lava to flow around the pool. Its claw had three bone white nails that dripped lava to the ground, melting it. Another claw came through the rock. The beast pulled itself up from the boiling liquid. It raised to snout to the air and took long sniffs. Human scent.
Further along the cavern Zell and Tyranis could see the light of the entrance and the two faculty members in the distance. A welcome sight compared to the cave. Tyranis' breathing eased a little as he felt the fresher air enter his lungs. He heard something move behind him, it was running, he heard its feet smash off the ground. Then the noise ceased. A scarlet shadow leaped over their head and obstructed the light from the entrance. The light that escaped over the beast's figure defined its arched back and out spread wings. Its back carried large black spikes that's tips twinkled in the free light. It growled at the to humans. Zell looked at the creature attentively.
"What the hell is it?" Tyranis shouted.
"This is your exam, find out yourself." Zell replied.
"Oh, right." Tyranis thought for a moment. "Scan."
Thoughts flooded into his head. Turned to shapes and these shapes turned to words. 'Crimson Raptor. Winged Beast. Weak Vs. Ice. Strong Vs. Fire. Hp. 5000.'
This was by far the strongest monster that Tyranis had come across. He drew his blade and stood En guard. The Raptor shot a single ball of flame from its mouth. Tyranis hit with the blunt side of his Gunblade. The fire ball bouced off his blade and flew up to the ceiling, illuminating the jagged rocks that were there. The flame disappeared and there was a great rumble. Pointed spears fell from the ceiling and smashed against the ground. Tyranis darted between the falling spears, the Raptor wasn't so lucky. The falling rocks had pierced its wings and were pinning it the ground. The rumbling ceased. Tyranis looked on to his fallen pray. It was trying to chew its own wings of but its feeble head couldn't reach. It would be cruel to let it lay here like this. It ceased its frantic wriggling and lay still. Tyranis knew the other monsters would eat it alive if they saw it was weakened. It looked up at him with its scarlet eyes, begging for release. He held his blade high in the air and struck the monster. No more pain.
"Well done Tyranis." Zell spoke for the first time in a while. "Come on we're not done yet."
They walked out of the Fire cavern. The Garden Faculty members gave what meager congratulations they could muster. Zell had to leave with the Faculty members, leaving Tyranis to make his way back to the Garden alone.
He still had an hour before next class. He walked along the paved path that lead back to the Garden. A small grey lizard, bout knee high approached him from the grass, Geezard. He flicked it away with his blade cutting it in half. It drop some screws and a potion.
That kill felt different for Tyranis, the Geezard had been the aggressor. But the Raptor just lay there while he took its life. Was he right to kill it? Who was he to decide what is worth living? Who can decide these things?
Tyranis Leonhart had found his flaw as a fighter. He thought too much about the morality of the kill instead of just embracing the kill. Was he the only one who thought like this?
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What do you think? I'm trying to give the characters more personality by showing there thoughts about themselves. Next chapter on its way, officially I will update every Monday unless I finish a chapter before then. Thanks for reading and please review!
Dark Eva.