By Ktrenal
Chapter Five - Wilderness Adventuring
There were no electric street lights in this world, no greenish hued beacons of light to banish the shadows that clung to every building and object, down to the smallest stone. But for the lack of street lights, it was still easy to see, the coastal village lit with a light from above. A full moon, hovering large and round in the heavens, surrounded by a wash of faintly twinkling stars. It was this moonlight that lit the streets of Junon, even in the dead of night, this same moonlight that reflected on the almost still waters beyond the harbour. The faint lapping of water against the harbour walls was audible, yet a soft sound, almost peaceful, as was the more distant noise of gentle waves crashing meekly against the pebbles of the beach. There was a soft breeze coming in from offshore, cool and smelling faintly of salt, water, and distant shores, the strength of the wind barely enough to disrupt already ruffled hair.
Reno tilted his head upwards slightly, catching the breeze in his nose, reflecting it was a vast improvement on the stink of fish in the village during the day. A hint of the exotic was just about detectible, and his mind turned to the continent he knew lay out beyond the horizon, idly wondering if things would be so different over there as well. It seemed likely; Shinra'd had a powerful influence on the world he'd grown up in, and in comparison this place was so innocent and untouched.
His eyes widened slightly as his gaze fixed on the moon above. "Wow..." he murmured softly under his breath. He'd never realised what the sky would look like when unblemished by the brighter lights created by humans. Never realised how haunting a full moon could look. The feeling of mild mesmerisation were similar to those he'd felt the first time he'd ever seen the sky, the first time he'd ever gone up onto the Plates in Midgar, and looked up, and up, and up into the endless blue sky above him.
The effect wasn't as powerful this time, simply because he was used to the presence of the sky now. He'd grown used to the idea that most of the world wasn't in fact covered by huge metal structures cutting out the light and weather. Now rain had been a shock to him the first time he'd encountered that too. 'Water falling out of the sky? What the fuck is up with that?'
Besides, he didn't have time to be standing around gazing at the moon, and so shifting the weight of the backpack on his shoulders, he started walking, leaving Junon behind in a casual gait he used often for traveling long distances. Not that he'd ever spent vast quantities of walking, but he seriously doubted a helicopter would be a possibility here. Perhaps in Darton there would be the possibility of a car, but other than that it was down to walking. Almost a shame his collection of materia didn't include a Chocobo Lure.
All in all, the moonlight landscape was peaceful, and quiet, broken only by the sound of the waves against the shoreline and the whisper of the wind blowing through the grass. Reno's immediate response to this was the question of where all the monsters were, but of course, without Shinra, there were no monsters. Just quiet little fluffy animals that went about doing their thing. And butterflies! The red-head suppressed a grin at that thought.
Once he was clear of the outlying regions of Junon, he stopped, looking around to take his bearings. A sense of direction had never been his strong point when not in a city; naturally he'd always been able to navigate through Midgar with ease. But in the countryside, with all this open space around him, he didn't quite know which direction to take. In more ways than one in fact.
Firstly, there was the physical direction to take, guessing that he would need to find another settlement, preferably a larger one than Junon. Darton seemed like the obvious choice, although Reno already suspected it wouldn't be of much use. It was just going to be a glorified village, he could tell. What he needed was a city. What he needed was Midgar.
The reason for that was the second direction, a more metaphysical one. He was lost in time, and so he clearly needed to find a way home. He just wasn't sure how. There'd been some weird magic going on, although he wasn't sure if it was a new type of magic altogether, or simply two spells mixing in a bad way. His knowledge of the more obscure magic types was hazy to say the least. What he needed, and he hated to admit it, was some help.
But who would know about magic and time travel in these times, before any real technology existed, and evidently before the power of materia and Mako had been discovered? He was most likely to find someone that would be able to offer advise if he was in a city, and the biggest city he knew was Midgar. If it actually existed in these times. It had to, didn't it? Maybe not in the same scale he'd known, but there had to be some remnant of it.
Midgar was to the north of Junon, Reno knew, but there was a wall of nearly impassable cliffs and mountains separating the two; the more common route to the other half of the continent was taking a course to the south and east, going through the Mythril Mines. If those existed in this world. Too many uncertainties, far more than Reno would have considered acceptable had this been a mission.
Still, with an aim in mind, he shifted his backpack once again, this time to root around inside for the compass he'd picked up from Maggie's kitchen. Soon finding the device, he stared at it. He vaguely remembered the use of a compass had been covered in his training, but he'd never needed to use one since then. If he'd become lost, he'd typically just carried on going until he found somewhere he recognised, or else let Rude work out where they were. Perhaps, on the whole, he should have paid more attention to how his best friend had actually done that.
Well, he'd just have to think about this logically. The face of the compass had four points, labeled with letters, clearly indicating north, south, east and west. And since the spin-y point thing always faced north, then lining up that needle point with the letter 'N' would show him which direction north was. He did this, and then looked in the indicated direction. Pretty much back the way he'd come, towards Junon. Therefore, he'd been going roughly south to start with.
He wanted to go south east, and so he studied the compass a little longer, and then set off once again, this time heading away from the coast, towards distant mountains, and a slightly closer greyish green blur that seemed likely to be a forest of some description. A satisfied smirk crept across his face; this really wasn't so difficult after all. He was smart, he was well-trained, and he seriously kicked ass at this survival in the wilderness thing.
It was several hours later before the sun slowly rose over the eastern horizon, filling his eyes with brilliant orange glare set against the vibrant backdrop of a reddish sky and softly pink fluffy little clouds. He had to lower his gaze her, and shield his eyes with his hand; his sunglasses seemed to have become lost somewhere in the violent journey that had forced him into this time, something which mildly irritated him now. The first time in months that he'd actually had the problem of the sun shining in his eyes, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Still, he wasn't far away from the forest now, which had actually began to look like a forest now, rather than an amorphous blob of shadowed green on the horizon. And in the forest, at least he'd have some shade. Maybe he'd stop for breakfast, since he'd been walking for hours and felt he deserved a break.
And as he soon discovered, daylight in these places of grassland bordering on a marshy quagmire in places meant tiny little biting flies that very quickly added to his irritation. Now this was exactly why Shinra had been a good thing; Mako pollution had either killed or mutated all the wildlife, so that little biting flies either died or became big biting flies. At least big biting flies were easier to hit than these nasty little bastards. There was only one thing for it.
"Fire2! All! Yeah, bite on that! Not so tasty now am I?" It could be said that an isolated Reno was inclined towards actions he normally wouldn't have considered taking. He didn't enjoy being on his own for extended periods of time, not really. But then, likely as not he would have torched all the little midge thingies even if he'd been traveling with Rude and Elena, or anyone else for that matter. Being eaten was not something he was going to tolerate.
He laughed lightly at the now biting fly free environment around him, before continuing his course towards the quickly approaching forest. Of course, the flies only stayed away for a while, since there were far more of them than even a fairly powerful All materia could cope with. Naturally, it was an annoyed, irritated red-head that finally entered the forest, muttering obscenities under his breath about insects in general. At least they hadn't followed him into the forest though; the land was drier here, raised up onto a small foothill, the beginnings of the mountain range he was aiming for. Biting fly thingies didn't like places that weren't half swamp, it seemed.
The forest was an old one, with huge trees stretching up towards the sky. They were, Reno had to admit, rather impressive to say the least. This forest didn't exist in his time either; destroyed by Shinra, no doubt. Some of these trees had to be ancient though; he doubted he could stretch his arms the full way around the trunks of even the smallest of them.
There was short, bushy undergrowth around the trees and beneath his feet, enough to give the overall impression that this forest was most definitely alive, but not so overgrown as to make passage difficult. Scattered about there were even some oddly shaped rocks with little creeper plants growing on them. It was sort of pretty, in a very leafy, nature-filled kind of way.
Finding a small patch of clear ground by the side of one of the odd rocks, Reno dropped his backpack onto the bare earth, before stretching his arms out and arching his shoulders slightly, working a few kinks that had worked their way into the muscles from the hours of steady plodding towards his destination. He settled on the ground of his miniature campsite, and spilled the contents of his bag out onto the ground in front of him. It was time for breakfast.
A jar of some kind of minced fish and a few slices of a loaf of tough bread soon became the equivalent of a tuna sandwich. It was a good thing he'd taken those knives though, else he doubted he'd have ever cut through the bread. It was a loaf baked with the soul intention of never going off, so it would survive over a winter. It was rock solid, hard, and about as palatable as rubber. The fish, in turn, probably wasn't tuna, but something else entirely. Reno didn't want to know what. He ate the sandwich anyway. Beggars can't be choosers, or so they said. Not that he was a beggar, but he was hungry.
Even so, he found his mind wandering almost wistfully to the future, when he knew there'd be proper food to eat. Even Elena's attempt at toast was better than this, and Reno found himself genuinely missing having breakfast with one of his friends nearly every morning. He missed the idle banter he usually conducted on his own while Rude remained almost completely silent, and the somewhat petty arguments with Elena, who was so easy to argue with and wind up.
Reno was feeling very lonely, and very isolated, trapped here in a world he knew nothing about and not having anyone to talk to. He'd always relied on his friends to help him out in difficult times, since while he was capable of remaining optimistic for a good while, through things that would make others drown in depression and defeat, there were limits, and his innate optimism didn't hold up for long if he was lonely. Gregarious and social, the red-head genuinely hated prolonged isolation, and what was probably a full day was quite enough time to be on his own. He wanted his friends back now. He wanted his home. He wanted familiarity.
But that wasn't going to happen, not until he found a way back to his own time. He'd just have to deal with his own thoughts as best as he could, and concentrate on the immediate task at hand. Alright, so he might be feeling the effects of being isolated and alone, but moping about was not going to help him. The sooner he got his ass over to Midgar and found a way back into the future where he belonged, the sooner he'd be back with his friends. And he'd get all this done faster if he didn't just sink into depression.
With that in mind, he finished off his rubbery sandwich, and took the jar the fish had come from to a nearby stream, rinsing it clean, and then using it as a cup to take a much needed drink of water. He should have stolen a water bottle or flask or something similar from Maggie, he realised now. Even so, he thought he'd done well in terms of the preparation for this excursion. If simply forgetting something in which to carry water was the worst mistake he was going to make, he was probably going to do very well. After all, he was adaptable. He drank as much water as he wanted, and then filled the jar once again and replacing the lid, screwing it closed. The water bottle for the unprepared, yet adaptable Turk.
As he did this, something caught his eye, and he placed the jar down on the ground, before grinning at the thing in question. It was a butterfly, a fluttering brown and orange thing which was currently doing its usual fluttery thing in the bushes by the stream, before coming to land on a large flower. Reno crept towards it to get a better look; it was bigger than the butterflies in his own time, and although it was probably impossible to tell, he rather thought it looked happier too.
He moved one finger in front of the butterfly, watching as it crawled up onto it, moving its large wings back and forth. Lifting his hand once again, Reno brought the butterfly up to eye level and studied it, before smiling again. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me," he told it, watching as it took off and fluttered away.
And that was enough to improve his mood. He'd been annoyed when he'd entered the forest, 'breakfast' hadn't exactly helped matters any, as it had highlighted the fact that he really was a very long way away from home, and the fact that he was very much alone had really hit him for the first time. Naturally, any excuse to cheer up a little was readily taken, and Reno liked butterflies.
He'd been a butterfly in a previous life, or so he believed; he'd died when he'd bothered Tseng a little too much and gotten squashed. He'd been reborn with the sole purpose of coming back to drive his murderer insane. It had all made a lot of sense at the time, and these beliefs Reno had kept, developing them over time with the use of his overly active imagination.
Yes, he liked butterflies. They were silly and pointless, but it was all an act, he was certain. Butterflies would one day take over the world. Everyone needed a religion after all, including Reno. Elena thought it was silly, and had been in fits of giggles for hours after hearing about it. Rude had simply raised an eyebrow and made absolutely no comment, although Reno was sure his friend had looked slightly amused.
That memory was a good one, and Reno smiled at the thought of it. Remember the good times, stay happy, and get moving. The sooner he got home, the sooner he could tell his friends about this whole experience. They wouldn't believe him of course. Elena would probably accuse him of falling asleep at work and having an admittedly rather unusual dream. But even so, Reno would tell them, and they'd laugh, and he'd laugh, and then they'd go and have a drink. And everyone would be happy. This was a good thought.
He quickly packed his scant belongings, since they were technically now his property. There was no one to claim otherwise at least, and so they were his. His food, his knives, his box of matches and his compass, to go with his weapons and his materia. In a world where he was totally out of place, he needed to define what was actually his. He'd take the compass home with him if he could. Since his weapons and materia had come back in time with him, he should be able to take his compass forward in time. It would be proof of the fact that all this had actually happened too.
Once again Reno shouldered the backpack, wriggling a little to shift the weight until it was balanced comfortably on his back, before consulting the compass once again. A continued course to the south east seemed appropriate, at least until he was clear of the forest. Then he'd bear south along the mountains and hopefully find the Mythril Mines.
Then it was a very simple journey to Midgar from the other side of the mountains, although there was still the swamp to deal with. He wasn't sure if the Midgar Zolom counted as a monster or a natural animal. Some monsters, like the dragons, were completely natural and not the result of Shinra's use of Mako. There were other monsters too that were perfectly natural, things like griffins and bandersnatches and such. Maybe the Midgar Zolom was also a normal occurrence.
It wasn't as if it would be much of a problem if he had to fight a Zolom though, because he knew he was more than capable of doing so. What worried him more was that the Zoloms might not exist here, and he'd have to face something worse. Reno couldn't think of anything offhand that could be worse than a Midgar Zolom, but it could happen. Some natural creatures were more worrying than the unnatural ones; poison was far more of a problem for someone in the red-head's position than whatever magic an actual monster might use. Reno would rather face a Zolom's Beta attack than a poisoned bite. Beta hurt only once, and at the worst would be a quick death. Poison was slow, painful, and generally a much more unpleasant experience.
He pushed the problem from his mind; first he had to actually get there, and he'd always been one to improvise a situation rather than plan for every possibility in advance. Spending too much time planning meant that he'd get nothing done, and what he wanted more than anything at the moment was to get home in as short a space of time as possible. This meant acting quickly, not spending excessive amounts of time worrying about whether he'd have to fight a Midgar Zolom or not.
With this in mind, he pocketed the compass once again, and started walking in the direction it had confirmed was south east. The forest was peaceful, almost relaxing to walk through. There were more butterflies fluttering around, much to Reno's only barely concealed delight, and what he assumed were birds up in the trees, making innocent cheeps and somewhat pretty trills of song. Sunlight shone down through the leafy green canopy high above him, bathing the forest in shafts of green and gold light, and the air was almost completely motionless, barely the rustle of a single leaf. The whole experience was relaxing, and quite enjoyable; not for the first time, Reno considered the idea that maybe the world had been better before Shinra?
Soon, however, the forest thinned out, and the traveling Turk discovered what he could only assume was intended to be a road. It was a dirty, dusty trail, two very distinct grooves through the terrain with grass sprouting liberally from the raised centre. The kind of road that happened when heavy wheels contacted the same part of the ground every time.
It seemed likely this road lead somewhere, or in theory, two somewheres. There'd be one in each direction, and so it was just a matter of choice which way he took. There was no question of him not following this road, even though after consulting the compass he discovered that neither direction was quite right. The road stretched from the north east to the south west, when he really wanted to continue towards the south east.
There was, of course, only one response to this situation, considering the impossibility of knowing which way he should take. Reno stood in the middle of the road, on the raised bump between the two gouges running across the landscape. To the left was the road running north east, and to the right was the south westerly direction. With the mag-rod in his hand, Reno pointed the tip of the weapon to the left, and then began to speak. "Eenie, meenie, miny, mo, Catch a Zolom by its toe, If it bites you let it go, Eenie, meenie, miny, mo."
The mag-rod was now pointing to the right, after the waving back and forth in time with the rhyme, and so with that essential decision out of the way, he started walking once again, taking the road that lead to the south west, wondering as he walked what he'd find at the end, and how that rhyme actually made any sense, since Midgar Zoloms didn't have toes. They didn't even have legs, for that matter.
Disclaimer - Reno's not mine, he belongs to Square. However, I can claim the forest, and the Midgar Zolom rhyme. I can also claim this plot too, for that matter.
Author's Notes - I know it took me a little longer to update. I have a good reason. I hurt my hand on the day I posted the last chapter, and it hurt too much to even concentrate, let alone actually type. And then the day after I was drunk. And the same for the day after that actually.
But this chapter I'm feeling quite pleased with. I get the feeling my writing is better at the weekend and beginning of the week, and goes downhill towards the end of the week. I know not a lot really happened in this chapter, other than another look inside Reno's head. I was seriously toying with having someone see him leaving Junon and having a fight break out, but I decided against it. I'll be nice to Reno for a little while longer. The butterfly thing in this chapter refers to my story Spirituality And Butterflies, if you haven't read it. I really couldn't resist putting it in, although it did seem to work with what I was doing with the chapter.
Sabriel: In terms of word count, the last chapter was pretty similar in length to the others, excluding the first one of course, but I agree it did seem shorter, probably because not a vast amount actually happened. I managed to write nearly 4000 words on what equated to no more than maybe five actual actions. I think I will slow down a little with the chapters though. Well, I won't specifically aim to get one out every day. If it happens that way, then I will...
The Girl Next Door: Glad you're enjoying the story, and thanks for the review.
X-WorldWar-X: As with above, I'm glad you like it, and thank you for reviewing. As I'm sure every author here will tell you, writing is mostly a matter of practice and experience, so keep at it.
WrexSoul: I'm sure I've said it before, but I'm not going to confirm or deny any of my plans for this story. I think everyone will be surprised with some of the things I have in mind though. How about I agree to post if you agree to post too? Good deal?
Tijuana Pirate: Encouragement makes me post more. I might just have to go on strike if you didn't keep poking me. Although I still believe poking may be hazardous to my health. There'll probably be more of Reno using those Turk instincts of his too, in later chapters. I have plans. Mwahahaha.
Phoenix: Not getting a little full of yourself there are you? I appreciate the review anyway however.
Anyway, is it just me, or are my author's notes getting longer with every chapter? But this was a longer chapter than the others, except the first, so I can have long author's notes too.
Update - Spelling errors. Must kill. Must destroy. Must annihilate.