Hunted By The Shadows
Chapter Five
As the population of the world grew over the centuries, the five followers of Hyne noticed that a farmer had a special connection with the Earth in his blood, which could only be noticed by those who were immortal. Ifrit was the first to see this, so he went to see Hyne, worried at what was happening.
Hyne simply told Ifrit that every being has some connection with the Earth, but some were stronger than others causing them to have unknown powers. Although Ifrit still wasn't convinced at what was Hyne had told him, he left and went to tell the other four followers his findings. Ifrit didn't like the idea of a non-believer having some powers. Just as Hyne had said, the others told him not to worry and that it didn't mean anything.
So the five followers went back to their work for another few centuries until Shiva started to notice that there were more people with the same sort of connection with the Earth. She told Ifrit and the five of them went to see Hyne to tell him what was happening. Like before, Hyne told them that it was simply natural and nothing bad could come of it. Like before, each of the five followers left and carried on with their duties.
That night as Ifrit was watching down on the world he saw a boy playing on the field under the evening sun. The young boy was laughing and running. He ran in circles with his arms in the air, like young care free children do, until from out of nowhere came a fireball from the young boy. He stood there shocked unaware that Ifrit was watching him, angry with envy because he has the same powers as himself.
The townspeople began coming out of their homes to see the small fire in the field from the young boys powers. They began applauding and cheering at this miracle. This made Ifrit even angrier. No one had ever applauded him when he had given them fire.
He glared down at the happy people, and then began to take control of the fire the boy had made. He made it grow out of control until it reached the townspeople's homes and burnt everything. He never let the fire stop until the young boy was dead. He made sure the death was of the boy's own creation.
Ifrit, now happy at what he had done decided to meet the other four followers. He told them about the boy making the fireball and how the townspeople had applauded him. The other followers listened and agreed with his concerns. After some persuasion, they all decided that this wasn't right and if Hyne wouldn't do anything about it, they would. Non-believers shouldn't be able to do such things.
So all of the followers set off in search for people in the world who could 'connect' and killed them. This went on for some time before Hyne realised that the people on his world were living in fear. He went to see why by finding the five followers. It was then he saw a human being tortured by Ifrit, with Shiva standing closely behind him, smiling.
Hyne was furious at what he saw and ordered them to stop. When they continued to torture a villager he tried explaining to them how doing this would destroy the Earth, as it shared energy with those who could 'connect' and in return of their energy they sometimes got a small amount of the Earth's elements.
Hyne watched the five followers he once trusted with his world. He noticed how they had all grown cold since he had last seen them, now gaining pleasure from torturing any mortal who could connect. He began to grow angry at his decisions. He took away their souls, locking them in darkness where they would stay for eternity and would pay for their mistakes.
Squall closed the book he had been reading, and placed it down on the table in the library. He looked down at the black leather bound book on the table. He didn't know why, something kept bringing him back to that story of Hyne, although he wasn't yet sure if this had anything to do with any of this. There was just something about the name Ifrit, something seemed familiar about it, but he wasn't sure what.
Sighing to himself he picked the book up and was about to put it back on the bookshelf when a figure stepped in front of him. He looked down to see the blonde man from the other day smiling at him. What did he say his name was? Zell...?
"Did you find that book useful which I gave to you the other day?" he said eyeing the book in Squall's hand. He leaned back casually on the bookcase with his arms crossed, a smile fixed upon his features.
"I guess" Squall said slowly, placing the book back on the shelf and then turning to walk away. He really wasn't in any mood to be bothered by other people today.
"Hey, Squall man," Zell said calling after the quiet man "wait!" He watched as he saw Squall stop in his tracks and turn to face Zell again. The look on his face did not look happy. Zell suddenly felt uncomfortable and rubbed the back of his neck feeling nervous. "I just wanted to ask you for some advice. You know, man to man talk"
"Man to man talk?" Squall questioned raising an eyebrow slightly, he wasn't sure if he liked where this conversation was going. Sighing in defeat his looked at Zell hoping this would be over quickly, and he would leave him alone after this.
Zell smiled to himself as he saw Squall stood there listening to him, he took a slight step closer to his companion and lowered his voice a little. "I dunno, there's this ball happening in a few days." He pointed his face in the direction to the library reception desk to where Squall saw a young woman with long dark hair tied back loosely, he turned his attention back to Zell who had a smile fixed on his face. "Her name's Amy"
"You want to ask her to go with you?" Squall asked understanding where this conversation was leading.
"You think she'll go with me?" he asked the man in front of him. "We've been dating for a while now and everything but this is a ball... that's serious stuff, different from going to a Café."
Squall sighed looking at the blonde man, why did he have to be in this situation? He cursed himself secretly for not walking away when he had the chance. "I guess you'll never know unless you ask her," he answered slowly, hoping that would shut Zell up.
Zell smiled again punching the air in excitement "Thanks man!" He said back to his usually happy tone of voice "Oh, and you can come along as well if you want. Amy has this really cute friend, I'm sure you'll get on well with her, she's good looking." He said with a wink.
"Why don't you go with them both if you think that much of them?" he said quietly under his breath.
"Hey good idea" Zell said, his eyes widening. Squall suddenly felt an idiot, his comment wasn't meant to be heard by anyone, it especially wasn't meant to be taken seriously. Zell stroked his chin with his finger in thought "Although I'm not sure Amy would appreciate it, and it might ruin my chances. I think it might be better if you take her" he said looking back towards Squall.
"I don't know" was all Squall could manage to say. He wasn't one for going to social events, and he certainly wasn't one for getting dates. His thoughts were distracted when he felt Zell pushing him towards the front of the library. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"I want you to meet your future date," he said quietly with a wink as they approached two girls at the reception. Squall stood uncomfortably as Zell waved at the two girls. He looked at the girl Zell had been talking about earlier as Zell made his way next to her looking a little uncomfortable. He guessed it was about asking her to the ball. "Squall, this is Rinoa," he said pointing behind to where Squall was stood.
He turned around to come face to face with the raven-haired girl. He studies the features on her face, deep coffee brown eyes starred back at him. He couldn't help feeling that he'd seen them somewhere before, an even bigger feeling was telling him that Zell was right about Rinoa. He suddenly cursed himself for thinking such things; a thought came to his mind that talking to Zell wasn't good for him.
"I'll leave you two kids alone" a voice said behind him. Squall looked over his shoulder to see Zell giving Squall a wink before walking away with Amy.
Rolling his eyes he turned back to see Rinoa starring at him, her head resting on her hands as she leaned against the desk. He couldn't help a nervous feeling growing inside of him as he saw her looking at him. "Hi" she said in a soft voice.
"Hi" was the only words that could come out of his mouth. He couldn't help the strange feelings that were running through his body. Why did he always get himself in these difficult situations?
"You look familiar" Rinoa said slowly taking her head out of her hands and took a step closer eyeing him suspiciously. "I don't know why, I just feel like I've seen you somewhere before" she said slowly.
Squall studied her for a moment, she did look familiar. Her face, he was sure he'd seen that face before. It was then he remembered that night a few days ago. "You ran into me in the Galbadia Hotel" he said realising.
"Oh," was all she said before turning her attention to her feet in embarrassment "Sorry about that. I guess I should learn to look where I'm going next time," she said with a smile.
"It's okay" Squall said slowly "I guess it's my fault as well, as I didn't see you running towards me either." He watched her intensely as he saw her smile and nod her head slowly.
Squall's eyes suddenly caught site of something lying on the reception. Where she had been stood before, there was a piece of paper on the desk. His eyes widened as he saw a sketch. The sketch was in the shape of an eye, and inside the eye was a cross with a line looking like a trail of smoke. Something inside him tightened and he felt it difficult to breath. That symbol. He'd seen it many times before. Why had someone drawn it? A fear suddenly took control of his body.
"Are you alright?" he heard Rinoa ask. She couldn't help noticing the distant and pale look in his face. "Squall..?" she asked again beginning to get worried.
He looked up to see her face "I'm fine" he said quietly and began making his way out of the library. He stopped in his tracks as he felt a hand grab his arm to stop him. His turned back to see Rinoa.
"Where are you going?" she asked feeling confused at his sudden movements. "What's wrong?"
"I've just got to go somewhere," he said pulling his arm out of her grasp and exiting the library.
Rinoa stood as she watched the door close feeling confused. Had she said something wrong? She went through the past few minutes in her mind trying to figure out what was wrong with him. Why leave so suddenly? She turned around facing the desk again with a sigh. Why was she so worried, she had only just met him. She looked down as she felt a texture under her fingers. A white piece of paper sat on the table with a sketch on an eye on it, which she had drawn without realising? She had been stood there with a pen in her hand. The eye looked back at her as if taunting her. It was the same symbol that was on the short sword. The same short sword that the figure held in her dreams.
She tore the paper into as many pieces as possible, then threw it in a nearby bin.
Authors note: Okay, I promise, next chapter things should start to come together and make a bit more sense. Thank you for those who have reviewed... well for the one review. Thank you to Dark Angels, this chapter is dedicated to you for reading our story so far and having patience with us. Ummm... please review?