From the Author: Ok guys. Sorry for the long break. But my computer
crashed. And well I was jumpstarting it for the next two weeks. Well I am
back. Please keep the reviews coming, also. I am planning to let you guys
choose the direction of the plot by letting you guys make major decisions
in the story. So just tell me whether you guys want that or not
(interactive fanfic). If I get enough reviews in favor of the interactive
fanfic, then I'll post further details as to how to go about it. Keep the
reviews flowing. And I ll keep the chapters flowing.
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Chapter 14
The sun was high in the sky and beads of sweat trickled down Sifan Leonhart's brow as he stood scratching his head in front of the Y-shaped chocobo tracks. He removed the Gysahl green from his pocket and put it on the tracks. Looking around, he saw a bush that was big enough to hide behind. Crouching behind the green bush, he waited impatiently for any warking sounds that might fill the air.
He absent-mindedly hummed the tune the garden band had played the previous night at the SeeD graduation ball. Somehow, it had found its way into his head. He rubbed his eyes and looked over the bush. There was still no sign of anything that looked like a chocobo. Grabbing a chocobo and getting to the port as fast as he could, was all he cared about. Lady luck, however seemed to have other incongruous ideas. As he lay waiting, a strange feeling sank into him making him feel that he was going to stay in his new world for a very long time to come.
[Somehow...I feel I may never get back to balamb.]
{It's called basic instinct. It's usually right.}
[Oh great, I am hallucinating again.]
Sifan sighed. The last two times, all Sifan had to do was just ignore the voice and it would go away. He was about to do the same when the voice spoke again.
{Don't try to get me out of your head, Sifan. Only I know you got here from balamb.]
[W-What? How? Who are you?]
{You can call me, Lyris}
[Okay, Lyris............WHAT are you?]
{A friend if trusted, a futile voice in the wind if ignored..}
[Trust some voice that starts chatting out of the blue?]
{Let's make a deal, then.}
[What kind of deal?]
{If I give you a chocobo now, will you listen to what I tell you tonight without doubt or distrust?}
[Yeah. That's fine with me. So give me my chocobo.]
{Look behind you, he's almost finished with your Gysahl green.}
"Wark!"
The chocobo seemed to be engrossed in the scrumptious Gysahl green just lying there under the tree, waiting to be eaten. He looked around a bit and pleased there weren't any competitors for his snack, moved closer to take a peck at it. But the instant he touched it, he heard a rustle of leaves in the tree above him. The next thing he knew, a human landed on his back with an excited cry.
"Heeeeeeeee-Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaw" Avatar screamed in delight as the chocobo ran at full speed, trying to shake off the human on its back. He ran around in circles but Avatar's grip only tightened around the bird's neck. Realizing, running in circles wasn't of any help, the chocobo took off in a straight direction, heading towards a small ravine.
"Whoa!" the young SeeD screamed as the bird headed straight to the opening "Hey! Watch out for that-"
It was too late. The chocobo was too irritated with the human on its back to see where it was going. Soon, there was a dusty avalanche of mud and dust as both the chocobo and its rider fell in to the ravine and went skidding down a slope, which led straight into a hole.
Avatar fell down with a thud out the other end of the hole into darkness. He got up and dusted himself. Sighing with frustration that it was too dark to see anything, he groped about aimlessly till his hands felt the soft feathers of his chocobo that had fallen in along with him.
"Great. Look what you got us into..." the SeeD muttered. The whole place smelt like damp mud. The ground was, however, hard as he walked on with his arms stretched out, still unable to see anything. The only sound that echoed was that of the chocobo following him.
"You know, if you had liked me a little while ago instead of now, we wouldn't have gotten here." he mumbled still seeing only obscurity in front of him.
"Ow!" Avatar cried as he tripped on something and fell down, his chin hitting the ground. Frustrated, he got up and kicked the object that had made him fall. He heard something move with a little creak when suddenly, the wall to his side moved with a grinding noise revealing a small, dim-lit chamber with bluish rays of sunlight seeping in through holes in the decomposed ceiling. Most of it was covered with moss and all sorts of plant life. He slowly walked in, the smell of the place making his head feel funny. The chocobo warked and followed him in to the chamber.
Avatar made his way to the middle of the room, breaking the cobwebs in his way, "Man, this place is ancient."
A small pedestal stood in front of him, twined by the green stems of climber plants. On its surface was a fissure the size of a small coin. Under the hole, were imprinted the words, "The penalty of fabricated Fenis rings is DEATH"
"F-Fenis..." Avatar gasped, "That's my father's name..."
He closed his eyes, "Nah. Just a co-incidence. I bet there are plenty of other Fenises in this world."
He saw a ray of sunlight fall on the ring on his left index finger. He swallowed hard. He knew he had it since his younger days, but he never knew how it had got there. He had always thought his father had given it to him. But then again, he never knew his father. His past had all the time been shadowy as far as his earliest days were concerned. But the only past Avatar cared about was his days with Sifan in balamb. Nothing else mattered.
A puzzled Avatar stood in front of the pedestal. He removed the ring from his finger and on its underside was an 'F' engraved on it, making it all the more apparent that he had a Fenis ring or something like it.
"Should I try something?" he wondered putting the ring back on his finger. His eyes widened further when he saw the fissure on the pedestal was of the same dimension as his ring.
He looked at his chocobo, which was pulling a plant growing in a corner, and sighed, "Ugh, you never know, if I have the REAL Fenis ring, maybe I can get outta here."
He brought his ring near the fissure, but before he could insert it, the inscription began to glow in a vivid green. All of a sudden, the wall at the side of the room shattered with a loud collapsing noise. Avatar spun around, his eyes falling on the outline of a darkened figure near the wall. It punched the remains of the semi-shattered wall to the ground, causing stones and dust to fly in Avatar's direction. The darkened figure leapt out and landed in front of Avatar. He was fully clad in pitch black. His face was wrapped in a black cloak and only his eyes were seen. Long locks of gray hair stretched down the sides of his face and his brow. He reached for his back and unsheathed a long sword, twice the size and length of Avatar's katana. The figure raised his blade to Avatar. His eyes began to glow red. Blood red.
"Er............." Avatar garbled, "I was just wondering if-"
"ENOUGH!" the shadowy figure shouted in a rumbling voice, "How long will you mortals try and steal the Fenis Guardians' power?"
Avatar was paralyzed with terror, "Ugh! I...........uh...........don't want any guardian-"
"SILENCE!" he thundered, "My purpose is to slay fools who bring their own false rings to try and summon the Fenis guardians."
"Hey, I-I am sure w-we could work this out. I crashed in here, and if you could j-just show me t-the way o-outta h-here, w-we can f-forget-"
"Your stories are of no avail." He said pointing his sword to a corner where a pile of human skulls lay, "Neither was theirs."
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sifan Leonhart leapt out from behind the bush, upsetting the chocobo that was peacefully enjoying its Gysahl green.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!"
[Uh-oh]
Soon, the aggravated, scared and angry chocobo was chasing Sifan Leonhart all across the green plains.
"Hey!" Sifan said, running as fast as his feet could carry him, "You guys are supposed to be nice and quiet."
The chocobo made another rampant wark, swinging its beak and missing Sifan by inches. Sifan then suddenly halted and spun around, drawing his gunblade, "You dim-witted bird! How dare you chase the almighty Sifan Leonhart!"
The chocobo was least intimidated by 'the almighty' Sifan or his gunblade. The Chocobo's stiff pecks on Sifan's head made him feel woozy, and he fell down on the ground, his head spinning. Happy that it had taught Sifan a lesson, the chocobo ran away looking for greener grass.
[Of all the chocobos in this world, why that one?]
{You scared him.}
[Miss. Lyris, Couldn't you have given me a nicer chocobo?]
{Hey, even the nicest ones get scared if you jumped in front of them like Tarzan or Conan the barbarian.]
[Watch it with the references.]
{Sifan Leonhart aka Mr. I-hate-the-opposite-sex aka the Zombie aka-"}
[Put a lid on it already. You're sounding like Phillona and Avatar rolled into one.]
{Phillona? Why did you bring her name up? Missing her already?}
[You're turning out to be more talkative than I thought.]
{You don't like it when I bring her name up, do you?}
[No, I don't.]
{You know the reason?}
[No. I don't want to know, either.]
{It's because, when you look in to those eyes, something inside starts stirring, doesn't it?}
[Leave me alone and go away.]
{Pull the right string and voila! You get the 'Leave me alone and go away' treatment.}
[You didn't pull anything. Now get lost.]
{Shout out you have no feelings for Phillona and I will go away.}
[I have no feelings for Phillona. There. Now scram.]
{I told you to shout it. Not think it.}
"I DON'T LIKE ANY GODDAMN FEMALE, ESPECIALLY PHILLONA- "Sifan shouted loudly when he heard Lyris' voice in his head snicker.
{Hee hee, look behind you, pretty boy.}
A very irate Phillona Strife sat on a chocobo with an upset look on her face.
[Oh crap.]
"So............" She said, giving it another Gysahl green, "I can see you've been spending your time expressing your dislike for me instead of catching a chocobo."
"Um...............I..........tried to c-catch one but uh............" Sifan stuttered.
"I caught one for you, and tied it to a tree a little far away from here while you were telling the mountains and the trees that you don't like me."
"Er..............thank you......." He said, doing his best not to look her in the eye.
"Just share this chocobo with me for a few minutes till we get to the other one, ok?" she said moving in front of Sifan with her Chocobo, "I know you can't stand me, but I promised Avatar I'd help. Even if certain individuals loathed me."
[I'll get Lyris for this.]
"Don't just stand there." Phillona said moving closer to the chocobo's neck, "Climb on."
Sifan sighed and climbed on to the chocobo's back and sat behind Phillona.
"Comfortable?"
"..............................."
"I guess that means 'yes' in zombie vocabulary."
"................................"
The chocobo started to slowly run forward when Phillona stroked it under the chest with her arm. Sifan almost fell backwards and to avoid falling, he grabbed its wings. The chocobo warked in pain and stopped on its tracks.
"Geez, Sifan. Don't kill the poor thing." Phillona said.
"Sorry." Sifan replied.
"You can............."
"I can what?"
"You can hold me if you want, so you don't fall off."
"......................"
"I am sorry, I should've know better than to tell YOU of all people to hold- "
She stopped when Sifan enfolded his arms around her, "Don't get any ideas. I don't want to fall and that's it. Nothing more."
She smiled to herself, and loosened his grip on her stomach; "Not so tight, handsome, I'll start getting ideas..............."
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Chapter 14
The sun was high in the sky and beads of sweat trickled down Sifan Leonhart's brow as he stood scratching his head in front of the Y-shaped chocobo tracks. He removed the Gysahl green from his pocket and put it on the tracks. Looking around, he saw a bush that was big enough to hide behind. Crouching behind the green bush, he waited impatiently for any warking sounds that might fill the air.
He absent-mindedly hummed the tune the garden band had played the previous night at the SeeD graduation ball. Somehow, it had found its way into his head. He rubbed his eyes and looked over the bush. There was still no sign of anything that looked like a chocobo. Grabbing a chocobo and getting to the port as fast as he could, was all he cared about. Lady luck, however seemed to have other incongruous ideas. As he lay waiting, a strange feeling sank into him making him feel that he was going to stay in his new world for a very long time to come.
[Somehow...I feel I may never get back to balamb.]
{It's called basic instinct. It's usually right.}
[Oh great, I am hallucinating again.]
Sifan sighed. The last two times, all Sifan had to do was just ignore the voice and it would go away. He was about to do the same when the voice spoke again.
{Don't try to get me out of your head, Sifan. Only I know you got here from balamb.]
[W-What? How? Who are you?]
{You can call me, Lyris}
[Okay, Lyris............WHAT are you?]
{A friend if trusted, a futile voice in the wind if ignored..}
[Trust some voice that starts chatting out of the blue?]
{Let's make a deal, then.}
[What kind of deal?]
{If I give you a chocobo now, will you listen to what I tell you tonight without doubt or distrust?}
[Yeah. That's fine with me. So give me my chocobo.]
{Look behind you, he's almost finished with your Gysahl green.}
"Wark!"
The chocobo seemed to be engrossed in the scrumptious Gysahl green just lying there under the tree, waiting to be eaten. He looked around a bit and pleased there weren't any competitors for his snack, moved closer to take a peck at it. But the instant he touched it, he heard a rustle of leaves in the tree above him. The next thing he knew, a human landed on his back with an excited cry.
"Heeeeeeeee-Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaw" Avatar screamed in delight as the chocobo ran at full speed, trying to shake off the human on its back. He ran around in circles but Avatar's grip only tightened around the bird's neck. Realizing, running in circles wasn't of any help, the chocobo took off in a straight direction, heading towards a small ravine.
"Whoa!" the young SeeD screamed as the bird headed straight to the opening "Hey! Watch out for that-"
It was too late. The chocobo was too irritated with the human on its back to see where it was going. Soon, there was a dusty avalanche of mud and dust as both the chocobo and its rider fell in to the ravine and went skidding down a slope, which led straight into a hole.
Avatar fell down with a thud out the other end of the hole into darkness. He got up and dusted himself. Sighing with frustration that it was too dark to see anything, he groped about aimlessly till his hands felt the soft feathers of his chocobo that had fallen in along with him.
"Great. Look what you got us into..." the SeeD muttered. The whole place smelt like damp mud. The ground was, however, hard as he walked on with his arms stretched out, still unable to see anything. The only sound that echoed was that of the chocobo following him.
"You know, if you had liked me a little while ago instead of now, we wouldn't have gotten here." he mumbled still seeing only obscurity in front of him.
"Ow!" Avatar cried as he tripped on something and fell down, his chin hitting the ground. Frustrated, he got up and kicked the object that had made him fall. He heard something move with a little creak when suddenly, the wall to his side moved with a grinding noise revealing a small, dim-lit chamber with bluish rays of sunlight seeping in through holes in the decomposed ceiling. Most of it was covered with moss and all sorts of plant life. He slowly walked in, the smell of the place making his head feel funny. The chocobo warked and followed him in to the chamber.
Avatar made his way to the middle of the room, breaking the cobwebs in his way, "Man, this place is ancient."
A small pedestal stood in front of him, twined by the green stems of climber plants. On its surface was a fissure the size of a small coin. Under the hole, were imprinted the words, "The penalty of fabricated Fenis rings is DEATH"
"F-Fenis..." Avatar gasped, "That's my father's name..."
He closed his eyes, "Nah. Just a co-incidence. I bet there are plenty of other Fenises in this world."
He saw a ray of sunlight fall on the ring on his left index finger. He swallowed hard. He knew he had it since his younger days, but he never knew how it had got there. He had always thought his father had given it to him. But then again, he never knew his father. His past had all the time been shadowy as far as his earliest days were concerned. But the only past Avatar cared about was his days with Sifan in balamb. Nothing else mattered.
A puzzled Avatar stood in front of the pedestal. He removed the ring from his finger and on its underside was an 'F' engraved on it, making it all the more apparent that he had a Fenis ring or something like it.
"Should I try something?" he wondered putting the ring back on his finger. His eyes widened further when he saw the fissure on the pedestal was of the same dimension as his ring.
He looked at his chocobo, which was pulling a plant growing in a corner, and sighed, "Ugh, you never know, if I have the REAL Fenis ring, maybe I can get outta here."
He brought his ring near the fissure, but before he could insert it, the inscription began to glow in a vivid green. All of a sudden, the wall at the side of the room shattered with a loud collapsing noise. Avatar spun around, his eyes falling on the outline of a darkened figure near the wall. It punched the remains of the semi-shattered wall to the ground, causing stones and dust to fly in Avatar's direction. The darkened figure leapt out and landed in front of Avatar. He was fully clad in pitch black. His face was wrapped in a black cloak and only his eyes were seen. Long locks of gray hair stretched down the sides of his face and his brow. He reached for his back and unsheathed a long sword, twice the size and length of Avatar's katana. The figure raised his blade to Avatar. His eyes began to glow red. Blood red.
"Er............." Avatar garbled, "I was just wondering if-"
"ENOUGH!" the shadowy figure shouted in a rumbling voice, "How long will you mortals try and steal the Fenis Guardians' power?"
Avatar was paralyzed with terror, "Ugh! I...........uh...........don't want any guardian-"
"SILENCE!" he thundered, "My purpose is to slay fools who bring their own false rings to try and summon the Fenis guardians."
"Hey, I-I am sure w-we could work this out. I crashed in here, and if you could j-just show me t-the way o-outta h-here, w-we can f-forget-"
"Your stories are of no avail." He said pointing his sword to a corner where a pile of human skulls lay, "Neither was theirs."
"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sifan Leonhart leapt out from behind the bush, upsetting the chocobo that was peacefully enjoying its Gysahl green.
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARK!"
[Uh-oh]
Soon, the aggravated, scared and angry chocobo was chasing Sifan Leonhart all across the green plains.
"Hey!" Sifan said, running as fast as his feet could carry him, "You guys are supposed to be nice and quiet."
The chocobo made another rampant wark, swinging its beak and missing Sifan by inches. Sifan then suddenly halted and spun around, drawing his gunblade, "You dim-witted bird! How dare you chase the almighty Sifan Leonhart!"
The chocobo was least intimidated by 'the almighty' Sifan or his gunblade. The Chocobo's stiff pecks on Sifan's head made him feel woozy, and he fell down on the ground, his head spinning. Happy that it had taught Sifan a lesson, the chocobo ran away looking for greener grass.
[Of all the chocobos in this world, why that one?]
{You scared him.}
[Miss. Lyris, Couldn't you have given me a nicer chocobo?]
{Hey, even the nicest ones get scared if you jumped in front of them like Tarzan or Conan the barbarian.]
[Watch it with the references.]
{Sifan Leonhart aka Mr. I-hate-the-opposite-sex aka the Zombie aka-"}
[Put a lid on it already. You're sounding like Phillona and Avatar rolled into one.]
{Phillona? Why did you bring her name up? Missing her already?}
[You're turning out to be more talkative than I thought.]
{You don't like it when I bring her name up, do you?}
[No, I don't.]
{You know the reason?}
[No. I don't want to know, either.]
{It's because, when you look in to those eyes, something inside starts stirring, doesn't it?}
[Leave me alone and go away.]
{Pull the right string and voila! You get the 'Leave me alone and go away' treatment.}
[You didn't pull anything. Now get lost.]
{Shout out you have no feelings for Phillona and I will go away.}
[I have no feelings for Phillona. There. Now scram.]
{I told you to shout it. Not think it.}
"I DON'T LIKE ANY GODDAMN FEMALE, ESPECIALLY PHILLONA- "Sifan shouted loudly when he heard Lyris' voice in his head snicker.
{Hee hee, look behind you, pretty boy.}
A very irate Phillona Strife sat on a chocobo with an upset look on her face.
[Oh crap.]
"So............" She said, giving it another Gysahl green, "I can see you've been spending your time expressing your dislike for me instead of catching a chocobo."
"Um...............I..........tried to c-catch one but uh............" Sifan stuttered.
"I caught one for you, and tied it to a tree a little far away from here while you were telling the mountains and the trees that you don't like me."
"Er..............thank you......." He said, doing his best not to look her in the eye.
"Just share this chocobo with me for a few minutes till we get to the other one, ok?" she said moving in front of Sifan with her Chocobo, "I know you can't stand me, but I promised Avatar I'd help. Even if certain individuals loathed me."
[I'll get Lyris for this.]
"Don't just stand there." Phillona said moving closer to the chocobo's neck, "Climb on."
Sifan sighed and climbed on to the chocobo's back and sat behind Phillona.
"Comfortable?"
"..............................."
"I guess that means 'yes' in zombie vocabulary."
"................................"
The chocobo started to slowly run forward when Phillona stroked it under the chest with her arm. Sifan almost fell backwards and to avoid falling, he grabbed its wings. The chocobo warked in pain and stopped on its tracks.
"Geez, Sifan. Don't kill the poor thing." Phillona said.
"Sorry." Sifan replied.
"You can............."
"I can what?"
"You can hold me if you want, so you don't fall off."
"......................"
"I am sorry, I should've know better than to tell YOU of all people to hold- "
She stopped when Sifan enfolded his arms around her, "Don't get any ideas. I don't want to fall and that's it. Nothing more."
She smiled to herself, and loosened his grip on her stomach; "Not so tight, handsome, I'll start getting ideas..............."