I think it's safe to say that this story will do in 10 chapters what "Between
the Lines" took 20 to do. In other words, "Death of a Fairy Tale" is now
officially my most popular story! Yei! *does a little party dance* So instead
of complaining about the director from hell, we'll celebrate with a little
interview with the voted "most popular character," Tabito!
Tabito: Don't I get enough screen time already?
T. S. E.: Screen time? This is a written story.
Tabito: Yeah? And what are they reading it off of?
T. S. E.: ......
Tabito: Ahhh, I got you there.
T. S. E.: Um, yeah. Well, looks like you had five votes there.
Tabito: Mm. *scans reviews*
T. S. E.: You have any comment on that?
Tabito: Yes. "he seems so perfect it's intimidating"? What the hell is that supposed to mean?!
T. S. E.: -__- Erm... Why don't you come away from there?
Tabito: Mm. "Nifty ninja"? That was a lovely ring to it... n__n
T. S. E.: n__n Yeah. Why don't-
Tabito: Bitter? I'm bitter? ~.~ Where did you get that idea?!
T. S. E.: *sweatdropped* Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
Tabito: 9___9 I was your idea.
T. S. E.: ... *bops him on the head*
Tabito: x.x Oro...
T. S. E.: Stop impersonating Kenshin!
Tabito: *sulks* It's not fair. You like Kenshin...
T. S. E.: So? n__n
Tabito: You even gave me his eyes! @_@
T. S. E.: That's not why you have violet eyes, baka!
Tabito: (she called me "baka" -__-) I know that! It's because-Mph!
T. S. E.: *gagging him* Don't give it away! I've only alluded to it at this point!
Tabito: Mph...
T. S. E.: n__n Okay, then. On with the story!
Tabito: Yes, let them read it, that we should. n__n
T. S. E.: -_ Oi, what did I tell you?
Tabito: But you like Kenshin....
T. S. E.: *patronizingly* Oh, Tabi, Tabi... I like you just the way you are!
Tabito: *unconvinced* Riiight...
~Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kiri fukashi nani yobariau oka to fune
{[In] the dense fog, what is [that] being called [between] the hill and the boat?}
(a haiku by Kitô, translated by myself)
Ten minutes. Cat-like, chocolate eyes turned up to the cloudless sky, he whispered one last prayer into the heavens for his brother. Then, closing his eyes and clasping both hands against his forehead, he focused his attention to his horn, his connection to the Otherworld.
"Come to me, Boco…"
~~~~~
Tabito had been planning to retreat to the shadows when the Neptune had landed, but apparently, the enemy had seen that it was activated. Luckily he had noticed the three scouts before the floating statue had taken him directly into their hands. He back-flipped off of the transport and, landing well away from the assailants, pulled the mythril bo staff out of its place in the leather strap against his back. Calmly, he watched the three men charge him, and as the fastest approached with his sword raised the crown prince of Alexandria swiftly thrust the six-foot pole straight into his chin. As the first fell backwards into the water, the second wavered. Tabito, however, did not miss a beat. He quickly struck the inside of this one's knee, causing him to fall right into the second strike up into his groin. And as the second fell with a high pitched whimper, Tabito shot his attentions to the third one, who was backing up with his sword pointed at him.
"Defecting never saved anyone, your highness," the remaining scout shouted boldly as he looked to get reinforcements.
"Was that a threat?" Tabito asked, crouching into an offensive stance. The scout took a defensive stance as he continued to back up, obviously unsure of how to fight a stick. Tabito, completely not interested in taking more time than he needed, step-leapt forward into the air and slammed his bo staff on the other's head. Then as the final one fell with his eyes rolled back in his head, Tabito quickly slipped the strap back over his head and shoulder. Pausing to glance about for more attackers, he then dashed for the corner beside the exit into the harbor. Taking as silent a breath as he could, he peered around the doorway. One of the ships was docked below, while the other four seemed to be on stand-by just inside the harbor itself. He froze when he saw two more scouts walking towards him. Just swords… he noted, and looked past them towards the rocky cliff-face that was about ten feet from the railing. If I can just get far enough away… Gritting his teeth, he awaited the arrival of the new threat.
"What are those clowns up to?" one wondered annoyed to the other. He yelped in surprise when Tabito flung himself from the top of the doorway, feet first into his face. Grabbing the end of his staff above his shoulder, he caught the other in the stomach with the other end of it and dashed forward. The two behind him were more stunned than injured and were soon up and giving chase, swords drawn. Without looking back, he sprang onto the railing and launched himself forward. He grunted as his arms caught the weight of his body on the rocks. He took a second to slide his bare feet into some decent footholds, and then he was climbing as easily as a squirrel.
"Go after him, Harry!" one of the two scouts, who had now come to the railing, told the other.
"Yeah, right," the one called Harry replied with a snort.
"Well, then…go get an archer or something!"
"Hey, give a suffering guy a break," Tabito impulsively called over his shoulder. This seemed to at least stall them, so he continued to climb as fast as he could. At last, he came upon a decent cleft in the cliff that he quickly sheltered himself in. He panted awhile, listening intently for any signs of activity below. Hearing none, he decided it was now or never.
Tabito was a poor summoner. There was but one of the great beasts that he could call forth, which took an incredibly large amount of time and energy to do, and the eidolon that he finally managed to summon would not do anything but hang around for a couple of months before spontaneously disappearing. Eiko had decided that he had enough tie to the eidolon that it would respond to him, and that he had enough skill to bring it to this existence, but that he couldn't give it the energy it needed to formulate an attack. However, Tabito was very attached to his eidolon. Maybe he was even friends with it. He closed his eyes as he leaned back against the rocks, concentrating as he had been taught.
"Come to me, Marital…"
~~~~~
"Hey, come on!" Roy shouted angrily at the guards as they shoved him out of the city gates.
"Look you," one of them shouted back, clearly nearing the end of his rope, "the only reason we're not arresting you is because you are a citizen of Treno. Don't push it."
"Dammit, you can't just evict me from the city!"
"You were the one causing trouble," the guard shrugged. "Now get moving."
"Geez, so I kicked some soldier's ass," Roy muttered, folding his arms over his chest. "Okay, several soldiers' asses. But they were all asking for it!" But the guards were no longer paying attention to him.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" one saluted.
"Everyone is called to the castle immediately," he addressed them. "Alexandria is under attack."
"What?!" exclaimed one.
"By who?!" asked the other.
"That is unknown," the lieutenant answered, and they all ran towards the castle.
"Alexandria is under attack?" Roy repeated out loud. Hm, if I can't save Raven myself, he thought, maybe I can impress her by saving her country. His mind made up, Roy Coral took off at a brisk march toward the South Gate.
~~~~~
Darkness has a suffocating effect on one whose senses are alert for danger. Lance has no idea how long it had been since his torch had burnt out. The dungeons below the city were impossibly expansive, or at least too expansive to be completely abandoned. Yet, it was. And Lance was lost. Do not panic, he told himself. A knight does not panic. The princess has to be somewhere around here. He felt his way along the musty wall, feeling more and more trapped by the second. I can't die here, he suddenly found himself thinking. No, I must die bravely like father! Suddenly, he tripped over something. When he fell, he realized that it was a set of stairs. Joyously, he scrambled to his feet and clambered up the stairs. A door: this was the way he had come in! Sliding his hands along the door, he found the knob and twisted. It was locked.
~~~~~
"Come to me, Boco," Chizitsu murmured. A blast of air from behind him nearly knocked him over. He lifted his eyes to behold the giant, yellow bird before him. Boco cocked his head in the chocobo manner.
The danger is real this time, young master, the eidolon told him.
I know, the summoner answered in his mind.
What is your plan?
I understand that you might be employed to create a barrier around the castle to protect us, which I would ask, but I don't know how, Chizitsu hung his head, ashamed that he had somewhat lied to his brother.
That'll work, the ever-patient Boco replied, leaving the sense of a smile on his young master's mind before shooting up towards the sky in a beam of bright light. The boy shielded his eyes against the brilliance, but still tried to watch. I knew Boco wouldn't be a stickler for ritual, he thought to himself. We'll be all right. Boco came to rest for a moment in the sky directly above him. By and by, he began to glow white hot, and then slowly disintegrated into streams of light that arced and spilled down to become a globe that enclosed the castle and much of the city. Like fingers, the light stretched out over the battlefield leaving gaps that the Alexandrians might run through, then sealing itself. For two seconds, a white sphere covered the Castle of Alexandria, and then it was as if nothing had happened. Chizitsu blinked the light out of his eyes as he feverishly hoped that his venture had not been in vain.
~~~~~
Somewhere in the distance, Tabito knew, the sky would split open and the eidolon would plummet through the crack down to earth and then come as fast as sound itself across the surface of the planet, half running, half flying. He could tell from the screams of fear and confusion below that this had happened, and then, Marital, the Terran flying horse was in front of him. He was pure white in body and carried a gentle forest glow. His eyes were like liquid metal of a deep gray, and yet somehow soft. But his most impressive feature was his wings, each half again as big as he was, and covered in feathers of a semi-transparent crystal blue. He stood there much like a goat with all four hooves on one rock and with one ear cocked in his summoner's direction as he regarded the pathetic humans below.
"Come here, Marital," Tabito called. "I need you to take me to New Bran Bal." The eidolon looked his way, but did nothing. Tabito sighed. The two of them had the hardest time communicating for Tabito had no horn and spoke only Gaian and a little Terran, while Marital spoke nothing and only understood some forgotten ancient dialect of the latter. Normally, Tabito would use his hands to explicate, much like Marital used his ears, but right now his hands were full of holding himself on the cliff. "I need a ride?" he tried again. Marital closed his eyes and drew back his head, exhaling contentedly. He understood. He nodded his head three times consecutively, and Tabito recognized it as a countdown. On the beat after the third nod, the eidolon took off from his perch. Directly afterward, the prince leapt from his hiding place to land on his summon's back, and the two of them plummeted down toward the docks. Tabito curled his fingers into the white mane and hung on for dear life as Marital flared his wings and skimmed across the surface of the water. Ocean spray caught in Tabito's face and hair as they shot past the warships and into the open seas, at which point they began to gain altitude. Well, that was exciting, the prince thought, breathing a sigh of relief. Marital turned a questioning ear backwards towards him.
"New Bran Bal, I said," he sighed. "You know Mikoto? Terran people place… um, with these?" He grabbed his own tail and held it out so that the eidolon could see. The horse summon's back quivered when he saw this and several little snorts carried into Tabito's ears. Apparently, he found his master's antics quite amusing. But he bowed his head and spiraled up for more altitude before setting course for the Outer Continent. He had understood again. "Thank you, old friend," the Crown Prince of Alexandria breathed in a second sigh of relief. The ears flicked in an expression that clearly read, "No problem." Tabito laughed softly and tried to settle onto the eidolon's back, the wind stroking his hair off his head, the sky ringing in his ears. He tried to settle back into that wonderful feeling of flying that he had so enjoyed when he was younger. But he simply had to shut his eyes against the endless expanse of horizon. His mind was too troubled.
~~~~~
Chizitsu stared intently at the border of his new barrier as the enemy drew close to it. He let out a whoop of celebration when he saw the first few touch it and get repelled. Below him, the Alexandrians also fell into celebration. The terror was over now. Reinforcements would arrive from Lindblum and New Bran Bal and everything would be over. They'd find his mother, and Raven's name would be cleared, and Eiko would teach him how to get Boco back to normal… He turned his attention back to the enemy lines as two figures came to fore. One was large and masked, while the other was obviously a nobleman. Chizitsu watched them converse and poke at the barrier for a while, and began to wonder if the masked man was the mage. This quickly ceased when a third man came forward, this one of average height, pale complexion, and red clothes.
This one too poked at the barrier and then conversed with the others. But simply looking at him made Chizitsu's skin crawl. That man was probably the most powerful mage to be born in centuries. But he used black magic, so he cannot have a horn, Chizitsu reminded himself as he tried to calm his own disheveled nerves. Suddenly, all the remaining army stepped back, leaving the mage alone next to the barrier. What's he trying to do? Chizitsu's nerves wouldn't be calmed. No magic can break through an eidolon barrier…
The red clad mage bent his head. Suddenly, the grass next to him began to glow and out of it materialized glowing dust. The dust gathered together to form an eidolon… Unicorn?! Chizitsu nearly jumped out of his skin, but merely jumped backwards instead. Unicorn? That eidolon's been lost for seven centuries! Where on earth could he have gotten it?! And why would he summon a healing eidolon now?! Chizitsu was trembling so hard that he could feel his teeth rattling in his mouth. He could feel it in his bones: he had lost the battle.
Right before his eyes, Unicorn stepped up to the barrier. Not even an eidolon could break an eidolon barrier, but Unicorn merely touched his horn against the barrier. The mage stepped forward and grabbed the horn in his hand.
"No way," Chizitsu pleaded as yet another nightmare unfolded before his eyes. But there was no stopping it. A blink of light, and the barrier was gone. As Unicorn disappeared back to the Otherworld, the mage bent down to pick something up off the ground. The prince knew it was a chocobo feather. Frantic tears pouring down his face, he suddenly screamed out:
"I summon thee, Titan! Rip the ground out from beneath their feet!" As bided, the man of dirt broke out from the ground before the enemy mage and made the rocks to crumble, sending enemy soldiers running screaming in all directions. But when the dust had cleared, the mage was merely floating above the mess. And he was looking straight at Chizitsu. Pounding his fist against the balcony wall in frustration, the young prince then attempted to bring up an eidolon that could not be avoided so easily.
"I summon thee, Cy—" the words were pulled right out of his voice box. No! I'm immune to Silence! he pleaded in his mind. Please! No one can silence from this distance, please say that it is not so! Chizitsu could not speak. Another extraordinarily strong fire spell cursed the Alexandrian soil beneath, filling the air with more screams of death. And Chizitsu was powerless to do anything. He fell to his knees and heaved twice before losing his breakfast all over the balcony floor and then was reduced to tears. Somebody help me… he mouthed the words as he thought them, but nothing came out. He was all alone. Tabi… Chizitsu climbed to his feet and tried to recover his composure. He had sent his brother away. All he could do now was hope that he was indeed now safe. He would not be so selfish as to wish him back here. Tabi, help me...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oi. What an awful place to end this. Just think of it this way: it means that there is more! Okay... shutting up.
Tabito: Don't I get enough screen time already?
T. S. E.: Screen time? This is a written story.
Tabito: Yeah? And what are they reading it off of?
T. S. E.: ......
Tabito: Ahhh, I got you there.
T. S. E.: Um, yeah. Well, looks like you had five votes there.
Tabito: Mm. *scans reviews*
T. S. E.: You have any comment on that?
Tabito: Yes. "he seems so perfect it's intimidating"? What the hell is that supposed to mean?!
T. S. E.: -__- Erm... Why don't you come away from there?
Tabito: Mm. "Nifty ninja"? That was a lovely ring to it... n__n
T. S. E.: n__n Yeah. Why don't-
Tabito: Bitter? I'm bitter? ~.~ Where did you get that idea?!
T. S. E.: *sweatdropped* Maybe this wasn't such a good idea...
Tabito: 9___9 I was your idea.
T. S. E.: ... *bops him on the head*
Tabito: x.x Oro...
T. S. E.: Stop impersonating Kenshin!
Tabito: *sulks* It's not fair. You like Kenshin...
T. S. E.: So? n__n
Tabito: You even gave me his eyes! @_@
T. S. E.: That's not why you have violet eyes, baka!
Tabito: (she called me "baka" -__-) I know that! It's because-Mph!
T. S. E.: *gagging him* Don't give it away! I've only alluded to it at this point!
Tabito: Mph...
T. S. E.: n__n Okay, then. On with the story!
Tabito: Yes, let them read it, that we should. n__n
T. S. E.: -_ Oi, what did I tell you?
Tabito: But you like Kenshin....
T. S. E.: *patronizingly* Oh, Tabi, Tabi... I like you just the way you are!
Tabito: *unconvinced* Riiight...
~Enjoy!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kiri fukashi nani yobariau oka to fune
{[In] the dense fog, what is [that] being called [between] the hill and the boat?}
(a haiku by Kitô, translated by myself)
Ten minutes. Cat-like, chocolate eyes turned up to the cloudless sky, he whispered one last prayer into the heavens for his brother. Then, closing his eyes and clasping both hands against his forehead, he focused his attention to his horn, his connection to the Otherworld.
"Come to me, Boco…"
Tabito had been planning to retreat to the shadows when the Neptune had landed, but apparently, the enemy had seen that it was activated. Luckily he had noticed the three scouts before the floating statue had taken him directly into their hands. He back-flipped off of the transport and, landing well away from the assailants, pulled the mythril bo staff out of its place in the leather strap against his back. Calmly, he watched the three men charge him, and as the fastest approached with his sword raised the crown prince of Alexandria swiftly thrust the six-foot pole straight into his chin. As the first fell backwards into the water, the second wavered. Tabito, however, did not miss a beat. He quickly struck the inside of this one's knee, causing him to fall right into the second strike up into his groin. And as the second fell with a high pitched whimper, Tabito shot his attentions to the third one, who was backing up with his sword pointed at him.
"Defecting never saved anyone, your highness," the remaining scout shouted boldly as he looked to get reinforcements.
"Was that a threat?" Tabito asked, crouching into an offensive stance. The scout took a defensive stance as he continued to back up, obviously unsure of how to fight a stick. Tabito, completely not interested in taking more time than he needed, step-leapt forward into the air and slammed his bo staff on the other's head. Then as the final one fell with his eyes rolled back in his head, Tabito quickly slipped the strap back over his head and shoulder. Pausing to glance about for more attackers, he then dashed for the corner beside the exit into the harbor. Taking as silent a breath as he could, he peered around the doorway. One of the ships was docked below, while the other four seemed to be on stand-by just inside the harbor itself. He froze when he saw two more scouts walking towards him. Just swords… he noted, and looked past them towards the rocky cliff-face that was about ten feet from the railing. If I can just get far enough away… Gritting his teeth, he awaited the arrival of the new threat.
"What are those clowns up to?" one wondered annoyed to the other. He yelped in surprise when Tabito flung himself from the top of the doorway, feet first into his face. Grabbing the end of his staff above his shoulder, he caught the other in the stomach with the other end of it and dashed forward. The two behind him were more stunned than injured and were soon up and giving chase, swords drawn. Without looking back, he sprang onto the railing and launched himself forward. He grunted as his arms caught the weight of his body on the rocks. He took a second to slide his bare feet into some decent footholds, and then he was climbing as easily as a squirrel.
"Go after him, Harry!" one of the two scouts, who had now come to the railing, told the other.
"Yeah, right," the one called Harry replied with a snort.
"Well, then…go get an archer or something!"
"Hey, give a suffering guy a break," Tabito impulsively called over his shoulder. This seemed to at least stall them, so he continued to climb as fast as he could. At last, he came upon a decent cleft in the cliff that he quickly sheltered himself in. He panted awhile, listening intently for any signs of activity below. Hearing none, he decided it was now or never.
Tabito was a poor summoner. There was but one of the great beasts that he could call forth, which took an incredibly large amount of time and energy to do, and the eidolon that he finally managed to summon would not do anything but hang around for a couple of months before spontaneously disappearing. Eiko had decided that he had enough tie to the eidolon that it would respond to him, and that he had enough skill to bring it to this existence, but that he couldn't give it the energy it needed to formulate an attack. However, Tabito was very attached to his eidolon. Maybe he was even friends with it. He closed his eyes as he leaned back against the rocks, concentrating as he had been taught.
"Come to me, Marital…"
"Hey, come on!" Roy shouted angrily at the guards as they shoved him out of the city gates.
"Look you," one of them shouted back, clearly nearing the end of his rope, "the only reason we're not arresting you is because you are a citizen of Treno. Don't push it."
"Dammit, you can't just evict me from the city!"
"You were the one causing trouble," the guard shrugged. "Now get moving."
"Geez, so I kicked some soldier's ass," Roy muttered, folding his arms over his chest. "Okay, several soldiers' asses. But they were all asking for it!" But the guards were no longer paying attention to him.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" one saluted.
"Everyone is called to the castle immediately," he addressed them. "Alexandria is under attack."
"What?!" exclaimed one.
"By who?!" asked the other.
"That is unknown," the lieutenant answered, and they all ran towards the castle.
"Alexandria is under attack?" Roy repeated out loud. Hm, if I can't save Raven myself, he thought, maybe I can impress her by saving her country. His mind made up, Roy Coral took off at a brisk march toward the South Gate.
Darkness has a suffocating effect on one whose senses are alert for danger. Lance has no idea how long it had been since his torch had burnt out. The dungeons below the city were impossibly expansive, or at least too expansive to be completely abandoned. Yet, it was. And Lance was lost. Do not panic, he told himself. A knight does not panic. The princess has to be somewhere around here. He felt his way along the musty wall, feeling more and more trapped by the second. I can't die here, he suddenly found himself thinking. No, I must die bravely like father! Suddenly, he tripped over something. When he fell, he realized that it was a set of stairs. Joyously, he scrambled to his feet and clambered up the stairs. A door: this was the way he had come in! Sliding his hands along the door, he found the knob and twisted. It was locked.
"Come to me, Boco," Chizitsu murmured. A blast of air from behind him nearly knocked him over. He lifted his eyes to behold the giant, yellow bird before him. Boco cocked his head in the chocobo manner.
The danger is real this time, young master, the eidolon told him.
I know, the summoner answered in his mind.
What is your plan?
I understand that you might be employed to create a barrier around the castle to protect us, which I would ask, but I don't know how, Chizitsu hung his head, ashamed that he had somewhat lied to his brother.
That'll work, the ever-patient Boco replied, leaving the sense of a smile on his young master's mind before shooting up towards the sky in a beam of bright light. The boy shielded his eyes against the brilliance, but still tried to watch. I knew Boco wouldn't be a stickler for ritual, he thought to himself. We'll be all right. Boco came to rest for a moment in the sky directly above him. By and by, he began to glow white hot, and then slowly disintegrated into streams of light that arced and spilled down to become a globe that enclosed the castle and much of the city. Like fingers, the light stretched out over the battlefield leaving gaps that the Alexandrians might run through, then sealing itself. For two seconds, a white sphere covered the Castle of Alexandria, and then it was as if nothing had happened. Chizitsu blinked the light out of his eyes as he feverishly hoped that his venture had not been in vain.
Somewhere in the distance, Tabito knew, the sky would split open and the eidolon would plummet through the crack down to earth and then come as fast as sound itself across the surface of the planet, half running, half flying. He could tell from the screams of fear and confusion below that this had happened, and then, Marital, the Terran flying horse was in front of him. He was pure white in body and carried a gentle forest glow. His eyes were like liquid metal of a deep gray, and yet somehow soft. But his most impressive feature was his wings, each half again as big as he was, and covered in feathers of a semi-transparent crystal blue. He stood there much like a goat with all four hooves on one rock and with one ear cocked in his summoner's direction as he regarded the pathetic humans below.
"Come here, Marital," Tabito called. "I need you to take me to New Bran Bal." The eidolon looked his way, but did nothing. Tabito sighed. The two of them had the hardest time communicating for Tabito had no horn and spoke only Gaian and a little Terran, while Marital spoke nothing and only understood some forgotten ancient dialect of the latter. Normally, Tabito would use his hands to explicate, much like Marital used his ears, but right now his hands were full of holding himself on the cliff. "I need a ride?" he tried again. Marital closed his eyes and drew back his head, exhaling contentedly. He understood. He nodded his head three times consecutively, and Tabito recognized it as a countdown. On the beat after the third nod, the eidolon took off from his perch. Directly afterward, the prince leapt from his hiding place to land on his summon's back, and the two of them plummeted down toward the docks. Tabito curled his fingers into the white mane and hung on for dear life as Marital flared his wings and skimmed across the surface of the water. Ocean spray caught in Tabito's face and hair as they shot past the warships and into the open seas, at which point they began to gain altitude. Well, that was exciting, the prince thought, breathing a sigh of relief. Marital turned a questioning ear backwards towards him.
"New Bran Bal, I said," he sighed. "You know Mikoto? Terran people place… um, with these?" He grabbed his own tail and held it out so that the eidolon could see. The horse summon's back quivered when he saw this and several little snorts carried into Tabito's ears. Apparently, he found his master's antics quite amusing. But he bowed his head and spiraled up for more altitude before setting course for the Outer Continent. He had understood again. "Thank you, old friend," the Crown Prince of Alexandria breathed in a second sigh of relief. The ears flicked in an expression that clearly read, "No problem." Tabito laughed softly and tried to settle onto the eidolon's back, the wind stroking his hair off his head, the sky ringing in his ears. He tried to settle back into that wonderful feeling of flying that he had so enjoyed when he was younger. But he simply had to shut his eyes against the endless expanse of horizon. His mind was too troubled.
Chizitsu stared intently at the border of his new barrier as the enemy drew close to it. He let out a whoop of celebration when he saw the first few touch it and get repelled. Below him, the Alexandrians also fell into celebration. The terror was over now. Reinforcements would arrive from Lindblum and New Bran Bal and everything would be over. They'd find his mother, and Raven's name would be cleared, and Eiko would teach him how to get Boco back to normal… He turned his attention back to the enemy lines as two figures came to fore. One was large and masked, while the other was obviously a nobleman. Chizitsu watched them converse and poke at the barrier for a while, and began to wonder if the masked man was the mage. This quickly ceased when a third man came forward, this one of average height, pale complexion, and red clothes.
This one too poked at the barrier and then conversed with the others. But simply looking at him made Chizitsu's skin crawl. That man was probably the most powerful mage to be born in centuries. But he used black magic, so he cannot have a horn, Chizitsu reminded himself as he tried to calm his own disheveled nerves. Suddenly, all the remaining army stepped back, leaving the mage alone next to the barrier. What's he trying to do? Chizitsu's nerves wouldn't be calmed. No magic can break through an eidolon barrier…
The red clad mage bent his head. Suddenly, the grass next to him began to glow and out of it materialized glowing dust. The dust gathered together to form an eidolon… Unicorn?! Chizitsu nearly jumped out of his skin, but merely jumped backwards instead. Unicorn? That eidolon's been lost for seven centuries! Where on earth could he have gotten it?! And why would he summon a healing eidolon now?! Chizitsu was trembling so hard that he could feel his teeth rattling in his mouth. He could feel it in his bones: he had lost the battle.
Right before his eyes, Unicorn stepped up to the barrier. Not even an eidolon could break an eidolon barrier, but Unicorn merely touched his horn against the barrier. The mage stepped forward and grabbed the horn in his hand.
"No way," Chizitsu pleaded as yet another nightmare unfolded before his eyes. But there was no stopping it. A blink of light, and the barrier was gone. As Unicorn disappeared back to the Otherworld, the mage bent down to pick something up off the ground. The prince knew it was a chocobo feather. Frantic tears pouring down his face, he suddenly screamed out:
"I summon thee, Titan! Rip the ground out from beneath their feet!" As bided, the man of dirt broke out from the ground before the enemy mage and made the rocks to crumble, sending enemy soldiers running screaming in all directions. But when the dust had cleared, the mage was merely floating above the mess. And he was looking straight at Chizitsu. Pounding his fist against the balcony wall in frustration, the young prince then attempted to bring up an eidolon that could not be avoided so easily.
"I summon thee, Cy—" the words were pulled right out of his voice box. No! I'm immune to Silence! he pleaded in his mind. Please! No one can silence from this distance, please say that it is not so! Chizitsu could not speak. Another extraordinarily strong fire spell cursed the Alexandrian soil beneath, filling the air with more screams of death. And Chizitsu was powerless to do anything. He fell to his knees and heaved twice before losing his breakfast all over the balcony floor and then was reduced to tears. Somebody help me… he mouthed the words as he thought them, but nothing came out. He was all alone. Tabi… Chizitsu climbed to his feet and tried to recover his composure. He had sent his brother away. All he could do now was hope that he was indeed now safe. He would not be so selfish as to wish him back here. Tabi, help me...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oi. What an awful place to end this. Just think of it this way: it means that there is more! Okay... shutting up.