Believe

Chapter Three- Beginning of the Travels

Author's Notes- Thanks again, everyone. And to the person who mentioned Valefor is a woman, well, I'm afraid you'll all have to put up with my guessing at the genders of the fayth. You see, I have the American version, so there's no dark aeon part in the story. Sorry about that. ^^; I hope it doesn't throw you off and prevent you from reading further!

Oh, and to you who told me I should play FFX-2; I got it three days ago. I love it! I'm on level 3. (Blinks) I have 45 percent completion. Do you know if that's good or not?

Please enjoy!

Where we left off- Hey ladies and gentlemen! Mostly ladies. ^_^ This is Darian. Last time Sin's 'spawn' showed up and wreaked havoc on our village, but thankfully Rynna stopped him! Whoa, but with an aeon? So she's a real summoner?! Anyway, now my job's for real, and we're going to have to go on a real pilgrimage to stop this thing, apparently… hopefully it'll go well…

~*~

"Are you sure we should just up and leave like this?" Darian whispered quietly.

"You don't have to come," Rynna whispered back.

"Bull. I'm your friend and your guardian now. Of course I'm coming!" he said. "But… leaving at first light?"

Amie yawned, trying in vain to stifle it. "It makes sense, it prevents long good-byes," she commented.

"Brand approves decision," the Ronso said.

"Oi, fine! Side with the summoner, see if I care!" Darian pouted.

Alex rolled his eyes. "Do shut up."

"You first."

"Boys, boys," Rynna cautioned. "Now, I know we're supposed to go on the ship they gave us tickets for, but Kilika's only a few hours away. I think we'll be able to manage it on our own."

"I can cast Haste on the boat and us," Amie suggested as they reached the beach. "That way we'll get there even faster."

"Great, then we'll be there in time for breakfast!" Rynna turned to look at the faint sunrise on the horizon. "Come on, the priest will be waking soon."

The group made their way over to the dock, and looked at their choices. The main one, of course, was the ship they were supposed to take later on. It was two floors, obviously the biggest ship on Besaid at the moment. The others were mostly battered fishing boats, barely fit for one or two people to use at a time.

Rynna frowned, then turned to look at the others. "Okay, who here knows anything about boats or ships or docks?" she asked, exasperated.

"You live on an island, yet you have no idea?" Alex asked, obviously surprised.

"Shut up, Alex."

He grinned. "Okay, okay." He turned and squinted at the boats. "Looks like we'll have to split up into two groups."

"I'm with Ryn," Darian announced.

"Me, too," Amie murmured.

"Okay, so that leaves me and Brand in the other group, then," Alex decided.

"Uh-huh," Rynna said.

Alex carefully inspected a few of the fishing boats, and eventually chose two rowing boats that were in the best condition. "We can take most of our luggage," he told Rynna as she picked up her travelling bag. "We've got less people."

"Ronsos weigh a lot," Darian objected. "Er, no offense, Brand. I know it's all muscle and I'd rather not have you demonstrate on me."

Brand bared his teeth in the Ronso equivalent of a smile before replying, "Brand understands." He turned and climbed into his boat. Then he began to pull in his and Alex's bags nonchalantly, ignoring the boat's rocking back and forth.

Rynna carefully climbed into her seat, setting her bag underneath. Amie sat in the middle on the bottom of the boat, curling up to catch up on some sleep. Darian finally entered, taking his place and paddles in stride.

"Amie?" Rynna asked. "Wait a sec 'fore you go to sleep, okay?"

"Hmm?" she murmured.

"Cast Haste on me, Darian and the boat. Please?"

"Oh, right…" Amie lifted a hand, gesturing.

A moment later, Rynna found it near impossible to stop fidgeting in her seat. "Thanks," she said through gritted teeth. "And on the other boat, too."

Amie did as told, then used Rynna's bag as a pillow, falling asleep instantly.

Rynna smiled. "She's not very energetic, is she?"

"Nope, but I am," Darian said. He grinned at Alex. "Race you to Kilika!"

"You're on!"

With that, the two boats pulled out of the dock, taking off.

"Er… Darian?" Rynna asked.

"What?"

She pulled out her map and waved it at him. "Don't you need to know which way Kilika is first?"

He paused. "Oh. Right."

"Of course I'm right."

"Just shut up and show me the map."

~*~

"Uh, Ryn?"

"What?"

"I think we're lost."

"…."

"Hey, it's not my fault! Honest!"

"Why didn't you just follow Brand and Alex?"

"I thought they were following us!"

"Oh, dear," Amie murmured.

It was now well past midday, and Kilika was still nowhere in sight. Nor were the other guardians in the group; Rynna had lost sight of them and assumed they were just too far ahead. Now, the trio sat in the midst of the sea, without a clue as to where to go.

"Okay, okay, don't panic," Rynna said, pulling out her map. "Let's see… It's afternoon, right?"

"What a genius," Darian remarked.

"Do you want to shut up now?"

"Not particularly, no."

"Amie, kick him."

"Okay, don't get excited." He folded his arms across his chest and looked at the sky. "The sun rises in the east, right? So it should be west by now…"

"Okay, and we were headed…" Rynna considered the map. "Kilika's sort of north of Besaid, right?"

"Give or take, yeah."

"Okay. Then there's the mainland. I think if we keep heading north, then we'll run into land eventually. Then we can head to Kilika and reunite with the others. I may even pick up an aeon or two on the way, right?"

"Maybe…" Darian still looked dubious. He looked away for a moment. Then his eyes widened.

"It's my turn to row, so let's… um…" Rynna frowned at her friend. "Darian, what are you looking at?"

Darian didn't answer.

But an odd, rumbling noise behind Rynna did.

Slowly, she turned.

"Gaah! Fiend!" she shouted, pointing at it. It snarled in response, nearly biting her finger off. With a yelp, she pulled back from the edge of the boat.

"Very good, now let's GO!" Darian shouted.

Without question, Amie cast Haste on Darian, who began to row like crazy away from the monster. Rynna pulled out her favorite weapon, a gun that channeled one's own energy and used it for bullets, and began to fire upon the water fiend.

"Darian! It's following us!" she shouted.

"I noticed!" he panted.

"Amie, cast Haste or something on me, will you?!" Rynna said.

Amie shook her head. "This will work better." She quickly cast Slow.

The fiend slowed, giving the boat more headway. Then it gave up, and disappeared back into the water.

Darian continued to row like a madman for a few more minutes, then collapsed on his seat, nearly letting the paddles drift off on their own. Seeing this, Amie pulled him into the bottom of the boat, cast Cure on him, and took his place at the oars. She took them in hand gingerly, shaking her long braid out of her face. "I think he should rest," she said. "Haste makes you go faster, but it also drains your energy to do it."

Rynna looked at her friend worriedly, then set her energy gun in her lap and nodded. "Yeah." Then she looked around. "Aw, man, now where are we?"

"Actually, I think we're approaching land of some sort," Amie noted, pointing at some nearby driftwood. "Do you think Darian went north as we escaped that fiend?"

"Maybe," Rynna said, shrugging. "Man, other than… Sin, I've never been so close to a fiend before. It's always been twenty feet away when I killed it. It was only like two feet away back there!" She shuddered. "That was not fun. Can we not do that again?"

Amie smiled. "I wish." She squinted into the distance, then began to row towards the area where the driftwood had come from.

The trio was silent as they slowly reached the land Amie had spotted. At one point, the girls switched places so Rynna could take a second shift. Fortunately, they didn't have to run from any more fiends, though they did spot one or two in the waters around them.

After a while, they ran into more driftwood and old stone pillars in the water, and they could see that a large stone building was not too far off in the distance.

"Thank goodness," Rynna breathed. "I thought we'd never get to land by sunset!" She glanced meaningfully at the setting sun.

"Yes, we'll have enough time to get in shelter and make a fire, I think," Amie replied.

"Thank the powers that be we brought our stuff with us," Rynna said. "I've got some bread from last night and cold chicken."

"That's something," Amie noted.

They finally reached a set of stone steps, and Amie reached out to grab onto one of the stones. "Okay, get out," Amie said.

Rynna nudged Darian awake with her foot, then looked at Amie uncertainly. "Are you sure? I think I should hold on too and get Darian out first."

"Hey, I've got better balance than you," the redhead protested sleepily, catching the end of the conversation. "Get out now, Amie will follow, and then me."

Rynna sighed. "Fine, just don't lose the boat or your balance." She looked around. "Stone's not a great conductor of heat, you know."

"Yeah, yeah."

Rynna climbed out, followed by a protesting Amie and Darian. The last got out some rope and tied one end to the boat, and another end to a sturdy stone sticking out of the steps, going so far as to partially pull said fishing boat out of the water. Finally, satisfied, Darian turned to observe his surroundings.

"This place looks so old and run down," he said.

"Yeah," Rynna said.

"It looks like a temple of some sort," Amie said softly. The other two looked at her, and she blushed. "It's just… well, look. It kind of resembles the dome on your temple, doesn't it?" she asked, pointing at it.

Rynna squinted. "I can't really see the similarities, but you might be right," she conceded. "There's a legend of an unknown, abused aeon that was trapped in an ancient, secret temple. Maybe we found it?"

"If so, you'll get an aeon no one's seen in centuries!" Darian said, grinning.

Rynna raised an eyebrow. "Darian, no one's seen a single aeon period for two hundred years. I don't think anyone will be able to tell the difference."

He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh."

"Still, you're right," she said. "It would be neat to have a rare aeon, if you get my meaning." She laughed. "Listen to me, talking about aeons. Three days ago I would think I sound like an idiot."

"Yeah…" Darian's grin faded. "I know."

The group stood awkwardly on the steps for a moment. Then, Rynna said, "The sun's almost down. Let's get inside and make camp. We'll go exploring tomorrow."

"Aye, aye, summoner," Darian said, saluting.

Amie giggled into her hand as Rynna marched up towards a set of doors. Then the guardians followed their summoner.

Rynna frowned when she reached the doors and tested their strength. "I think it's locked," she said.

"No way," Darian groaned. "Typical."

"Does it have any switches, maybe?" Amie suggested.

"Don't think so- hey! Maybe…"

Rynna gave the door a bow, and waited.

Nothing happened.

"Well, damn," she said, disappointed. "Should we look for another way in?"

"Maybe we're better off out here," Darian said. "There may be more fiends in there. You never know, since it looks like it's been abandoned for so long… it's amazing it's still standing."

"You want to freeze your ass off out here?"

"We can make a fire, like we planned," Darian said.

Rynna frowned, but nodded. "Fine. We'll try to take a look inside tomorrow, too," she said. "Hey, Amie, are there any protection spells you can cast for us?"

Amie considered it. Then, she slowly shook her head. "I can cast Protect on each of us, but I can't really project it around all of us like a wall," she said.

"Hmm. Hey, maybe we can make a circle of stones, and you could cast Protect on them?" Darian said.

Amie shook her head. "It would only be cast on the separate stones."

"Darn."

"We'll have to take watches," Rynna decided. "We are in the wilderness, after all. Building or no friggin' building."

"I'll take first," Darian said. "I slept half the day."

"I'll take second," Amie said.

"Okay, I'll take third," Rynna said. She winked at Darian. "I don't mind getting up early anyway."

"Getting up before midday is against my religion," he protested.

"Yeah, I noticed that this morning. Let's get a fire going," Rynna said.

The trio soon settled down, huddling under part of the roof where it extended slightly out, towards the water. They spread out blankets in a fairly dry area, and made a fire out of materials they themselves had brought. Time passed; the fire was crackling in minutes, and dinner was eaten quickly.

Rynna paused at one point when she heard a nearby splashing noise. "Hey, what do you think that was?" she asked Darian.

"What what was?" he asked.

"That splash."

"Splash? Didn't hear anything… but it might be a fiend." He gently blew on the fire to keep it going. "I'll keep an eye out."

Rynna nodded and continued to eat.

~*~

Huh? Where am I?

Lots of water. A fading sun in the distance.

Ack, seawater. I hate swallowing seawater.

Stone nearby. Lots of stone. Surprisingly, there were very few fiends, and many were weak.

Wait, how do I know that?

It wasn't knowledge from a lot of observation- rather, it was just a feeling.

Ah, hell. I'll think about it when I get some air.

~*~

Splash!

Rynna started, then turned towards the nearby steps. "There it was again," she whispered, pulling out her gun.

Darian pulled out his blitzball. "I heard it, too," he replied.

"Mm," Amie said, nodding. "I wonder… is that a fiend? I hope it's not… well, you know who I mean," she said, swallowing a little at the thought of Sin showing up.

"I hope not, too," Darian said.

The group listened to another series of splashes. Then they blinked at the sound of muttered curses from the water.

"Can fiends talk now?" Darian whispered incredulously.

Rynna shook her head slightly. "Dunno….."

They heard more mutterings about something having to do with seawater and sunlight. Then, they saw a figure come towards the steps. Rynna's grip tightened on her gun.

"That looks human!" Rynna whispered.

The figure started, pulling a sword seemingly out of nowhere. "Who's there?" a voice demanded. "Show yourself!"

"You first, buddy," Darian called. "We're the ones with the fire. You come over here nice and slow, and no one gets hurt."

They heard a muttered, "Yeah, right." Then, louder, the figure said, "Okay, I'm coming. Don't get too excited."

The group waited as the figure stepped out from the shadows and edged its way into the firelight. Rynna realized immediately that it was a young male, perhaps her age, maybe a bit older. He had oddly tended hair, short and sticking out slightly at the edges. His clothing somewhat resembled Alex's ceremony outfit, actually…

The young man, she realized, had been staring at her with the same intensity and bewilderment.

"Who are you?" Darian asked.

The young man ignored him, staring at Rynna. She scooted back slightly when he took a step forward.

"Y…" He swallowed. "Yuna?" he whispered. "Is that you?"

What the hell…?!

~*~