Please let me know if you think that young Rydia is out of character in this chapter. I'm not entirely sure how that girl should act since the few scenes of her from the game were rather...erratic as far as her behavior goes.
As always, comments and constructive criticism are welcomed. Flames will be laughed at.
Chapter 3
"Cecil," Kain said as they came to the end of the desert around Kaipo, "Remind me to never take a vacation to Damcyan again."
"No problem," his friend said, "Just remember to keep that traveling cloak in case we ever have to come back here on a mission."
"Speaking of which, you never told me where you got those. When you headed off into the desert again, I thought that we'd die from the heat."
Cecil opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a quiet voice coming from behind the two knights.
"He bought those white things while I got new clothes," Rydia told Kain.
"Umm...right," Kain said hurriedly before whispering to Cecil, "This feels weird. It's like having a kid tagging along during a mission."
Cecil either didn't hear or chose to ignore Kain's observation.
"Alright, we should find the underpass to Damcyan around here somewhere. Keep close since there'll probably be more monsters around now that we're not in the desert," Cecil said to his two companions.
"Right," Kain grunted.
"Okay," Rydia said.
The three travelers continued their journey, this time across the plain that stretched out from the edge of the South Damcyan Desert to the mountain range that separated the two desert regions that composed the territory of the Kingdom of Damcyan. As they approached the mountains, the near-wasteland with but a few patches of grass that they had seen on the edge of the desert gradually transformed into an emerald plain. There were now real trees to provide shade from the unrelenting sun, and the few cacti from the desert were now but a distant memory. It was Rydia who commented on this phenomenon first.
"There's more plants now. And none of them are covered in needles," the young girl said out of the blue.
"That's probably because there's water out here," the dragoon said before a sudden thought hit him, "I just hope this cave we're trying to find isn't flooded."
"Why would it be flooded?" asked the nearby dark knight.
"Well, it's green out here, but there's no river in sight. That means that the river must be underground," Kain replied.
"Hmm...we'll see when we get there, I suppose," Cecil said, concluding the conversation.
A half hour later, the group finally found the cave that they were looking for. It wasn't quite what they were expecting, though. Instead of being a large cave with a wide mouth for caravans to get through, the cave had an opening about five and a half feet high and three feet across. The faint sound of flowing water could be heard coming from within, though little could actually be seen from the outside due to the darkened interior.
"Looks like we're going to need torches," Cecil said.
"Yeah. Don't suppose you got one for the kid back in Kaipo, though?" Kain asked as he started preparing his own.
Before Cecil could answer, though, Kain heard a whimper coming from somewhere. Looking down, he found Rydia staring up at them with terror filled eyes.
"Torches?" she squeaked.
"Yeah, torches. You know, light a stick on fire?" Kain replied.
"Fire!?" the girl said, her voice falling to a near whisper before crying out, "No! I don't want to go in there!"
"Eh?" Cecil said, looking at the panicking child in puzzlement, "Why not?"
"I HATE FIRE!!!" the young girl screamed at the two puzzled knights.
"Hate...fire...?" Kain said.
"Of course!" Cecil exclaimed as he had an epiphany, "Her village burned down right in front of her eyes. Of course she'd hate fire!"
Rydia's only reply to this was a faint whimper as memories of her hometown in flames flashed before her eyes.
"But we need torches to see in there!" Kain protested, "Wait, unless..."
Kain walked over to the young girl who was now sitting on the ground hugging her knees, and kneeled down in front of her.
"Rydia," he said in a voice that he hoped wasn't too gruff, "We don't need the torches if you can cast a spell to make light for us."
The young girl's eyes grew to the size of saucers, and she wordlessly nodded her head before closing her eyes and concentrating on something.
"Light!" she cried out, and a sphere of radiant white light appeared above her, illuminating the entire area.
Rydia looked over at the two knights and said with a strange combination of hope and pleading, "We don't need torches now, right? No fire?"
"Um...that's right, no fire," Kain said.
"Yay!" the summoner girl squealed with far too much excitement.
"Right..." Cecil said, obviously disturbed by girl's mood swing, "Let's get going then."
The three travelers stepped into the cave, and found themselves confronted by a rather spectacular sight. The interior of the cavern was immense. The ceiling of the cave was ten feet above them, and covered in stalactites. Rushing water flowed far beneath them. Looking over the edge of the ledge, Kain saw that the underground river was at least ten feet below them. Looking around, he saw that the road that they would most likely have to take was a series of ledges between the walls of the cave and the steep drop into the waters below. The two knights of Baron and the young summoner carefully walked along these ledges, proceeding further into the cavern that would eventually bring them to Damcyan.
All too soon, however, they found their path blocked. The barrier was not a cave in or a steep drop off, but rather an old man standing in the middle of the path they were taking. He wore some faded green robes that were fashionable for wizards about thirty years ago, and was leaning on a long wooden staff like the ones white wizards carried. A thick pair of spectacles and the thick white hair and beard topped off the costume, giving the codger the appearance of a magically-trained Rip Van Winkle.
"Excuse me..." Cecil began to say to the old man.
The old man, hearing this noise, turned around and examined the three newcomers. The first thing he noticed was the full sets of armor that Cecil and Kain wore. Then he noticed their choice of weaponry.
"Those weapons you carry...a dark sword and a lance? Could it be? A dark knight and a dragoon!? Please, good knights, I need your assistance!" the man said to Cecil and Kain.
"What's wrong?" Cecil asked the old man.
"I must get to Damcyan at once. A wicked bard came to my village, seduced my daughter and took her away with him to the castle! I must hurry and reclaim her! To make matters worse, I've been sensing evil omens as of late, and by the time I get there it could already be too late!" the old man said, gradually falling into hysteria as he told them of his plight.
'I've heard this story,' Kain thought, 'But where...? That's it!'
"You must be Tellah the Sage!" Kain said as he connected the old man's story to the sad tale of Tellah that he had heard in Kaipo.
"Indeed I am, Sir Dragoon," the sage replied.
At about this time, Rydia slowly crept out from behind Cecil. She looked up at the strange codger fearfully at first, but then relaxed as she realized that the overexcited old man meant them no harm. As she relaxed, the ball of light that she had conjured caught Tellah's eye.
"That girl! Is she a white wizard in training?" Tellah said to himself as he cast a spell to analyze Rydia's magical abilities, "No, wait...a summoner! Perfect! You can all help me out, it seems. A giant monster recently appeared in the underground lake ahead of here, and it seems to resist even my magic. But with a dark knight, a dragoon, and a summoner, I think we might just be able to take it down. Then I can get to Damcyan, flay that evil minstrel, and rescue my daughter!"
"Umm...Cecil, do you think it's really a good idea to help this lunatic?" Kain whispered to the dark knight standing beside him.
"I don't know," Cecil whispered back, "But we need to go that way too. Might as well get his help in taking down that monster."
Turning to Sage Tellah, Cecil said, "We're headed to Damcyan as well. Why don't you join us until then?"
"Absolutely," the sage answered.
"Very well," the dark knight answered, "My name is Cecil. The dragoon is Kain, and the little girl is Rydia."
"I'm Tellah, as you already know. Honored to make your acquaintance," the sage said, "Now let's go. Quickly, before the future evil I'm sensing comes to pass."
The group moved on. Cecil and Kain took the lead, watching for anything that might attack them, while Tellah and Rydia took the rear. As they walked along, Tellah took the time to teach Rydia a few of the spells that he still remembered, including a spell that conjured lightning. As they crawled deeper into the cavern they disturbed more and more creatures. The bats that they were constantly running into were the least of their worries. These would merely startle little Rydia and fly off to hide somewhere else. The other things, however, were much worse.
Somehow, a wide variety of aquatic monsters had come to live in this tunnel, and the group seemed to be getting ambushed by hungry creatures at every turn. Most of these...things...were easily dispatched by a simple lightning spell from Tellah or Rydia. The two knights concentrated mostly on keeping the monsters away from the two wizards either by attracting the monsters' attention or by acting as human shields.
As they continued through the cave, they also found that about every twenty minutes or so the light spell would extinguish, delaying the group's progress as they stopped to wait for either Tellah or Rydia to cast a new light spell. Occasionally, some monsters would attack them as the light went out, but a light source of some kind was usually available rather soon - whether it was a fire spell from Tellah or Cecil releasing a wave of life energy in the general direction of the monsters. After what felt like hours of walking through these never-ending tunnels, the travelers found themselves in a very odd room.
This place was accessible from the tunnels only through an opening at either end of the room. In the center of the room, a stone slab with strange symbols was embedded into the floor. Eight posts engraved with more runes were arranged in a circle around this slab. Cecil and Kain, neither of whom were particularly adept with magic, looked at the odd room with confusion. Young Rydia didn't know what it was either. The sage in their midst, however, knew exactly what it was due to the journeys he had taken earlier in his lifetime. He walked into the middle of the room without fear, and then beckoned the others to follow.
"We can rest here. These stones create a magical field which repels monsters and other evil entities, so we should be safe here," the old man said.
"Riiight..." Kain said to this, "There just happens to be a magical field that keeps monsters away in the middle of a cave."
"Young man," Tellah said with a snort, "I don't know what you're trying to insinuate, but what I said is true. Rooms containing fields like this are constructed all the time in caves that are frequently traveled to keep travelers safe. They're even added to almost all buildings outside the walls of a city to keep the workmen safe from marauding monsters. Besides, I built this field myself in my younger years."
"I'll take your word for it," Kain said dryly, not saying more since he didn't want to anger the old man further. After all, he had seen the codger fry quite a few monsters by casting random spells that he barely remembered the procedure for.
"Alright, we'll rest here for the night and hopefully make it to Damcyan sometime tomorrow," Cecil said quickly, trying to defuse any potential arguments that could arise between the old wizard and the dragoon.
While the dragoon and the dark knight worked at setting up camp for the night, the old sage worked on starting a campfire on top of the stone slab in the center of the room. Rydia helped out Cecil and Kain, mainly because she didn't want to get too close to the flame. The two knights pulled out bedrolls, took of their armor, and set about cleaning up before bed. Rydia imitated the two adults and worked on getting ready for bed herself, though Cecil had to help her with things a few times. When the fire was finally started, Kain took a little from everyone's rations and cooked up a stew. Food seemed to appease the sage, who was still a bit grumpy from Kain's earlier comments. After dinner, Cecil put Rydia to bed while the adults stayed up a bit later to talk.
"Fast asleep," the sage said, looking at the young girl, "She must have been exhausted. Poor girl. Where's her home?"
"Mist Village," Kain replied.
"She seems very gifted," the old man told the two, "With proper training she could probably master any branch of magic she wanted. She reminds me so much of Anna when she was young..."
"Anna," Cecil said, pausing briefly to think, "She's your daughter, correct?"
"Yes," the old man said with a sad sigh, "She eloped with a bard who lives at Castle Damcyan because I refused to allow them to marry. Why are you three heading to Damcyan?"
"A friend of ours has a bad case of desert fever," Cecil told the sage, "The girl is with us because Kain and I are serving as her guardians for now. Her village...burned down...mother died..."
"I see," said Tellah as Cecil's voice trailed off, "You are honorable gentlemen indeed to be taking care of a young girl who was orphaned like that."
"Ah, yes...tell us about this monster that we're going to fight tomorrow," Cecil said, trying to change the subject so that he wouldn't have to think about the crimes he was made to commit in the name of duty to the king.
"It's a vicious beast that lives in the water. It has eight enormous tentacles and is resistant to all magic except for lightning," Tellah said before sighing and continuing, "I just hope we can kill it and get to Damcyan in time. I'm sensing a tremendous evil approaching in the near future, and I fear for my daughter..."
"I'm sure we can do it," Kain told the two, speaking up for the first time since making those snide remarks earlier, "But we'll need to be well rested in order to do it. Let's get to bed now."
"Agreed," Cecil and Tellah replied before heading to sleep themselves.
The next morning, the group of four set out early, hoping to make good enough time to reach Damcyan before nightfall. As they journeyed further into the caves, they found monsters that were not aquatic in nature. These were more readily disposed of by Cecil and Kain for the most part, though the undead were mostly unaffected by Cecil's dark sword. About two hours after breaking camp, they came across the exit to the tunnel.
"Ah, I never thought I'd be so happy to see the sun again!" Kain exclaimed as they left the tunnel.
"I know what you mean. Especially after the desert," Cecil said.
"Don't get your hopes too high," Tellah told them, putting a damper on their newly found good moods, "This is just a small valley in the mountains. We go into another cave from here, the one with an underground lake at the bottom."
The group continued onward, and found the next cave after ten minutes walk. Into the second cave they went, and to their surprise it had even more water in it than the one they were just in. Just inside the entrance to this second cave they found something like an immense waterfall. Before them was a large slope that the ever-present water flowed down to reach the lake below. In the center of this slope was a partially submerged staircase that led down to the lake. Tellah stepped forward and pointed at the staircase.
"We go down the steps here. At the bottom is the lake where the monster I told you about lives," the sage told the group.
"Looks steep and slippery," Cecil said, "I'll head down first and carry Rydia. Tellah, you follow me. Kain, bring up the rear and make sure Tellah doesn't hurt himself on the stairs."
"Just what do you mean by that, young man?" a now irate sage snapped at the dark knight.
Cecil ignored this comment. Carefully picking up Rydia, the dark knight slowly descended the stairs, taking care not to slip. A few steps was all it took, however, and down he went. As he fell, the knight held a shrieking Rydia tightly and braced his body for the coming impact. With a large splash, the lake broke the dark knight's fall. He slowly got up in the relatively shallow water, and examined Rydia to make sure she wasn't hurt. A few seconds later, he heard two more splashes behind him. Tellah and Kain had arrived.
"Anyone hurt?" Cecil asked the group.
"I've had worse in my years," Tellah replied.
"Just sore," the dragoon told them.
"I'm okay," the young girl told Cecil.
"Got it. If anyone feels hurt later, I'm sure Tellah or Rydia can use a healing spell to help."
The travelers made their way to the shore of the lake as quickly as they could and dried off before continuing on into the cavern. Kain wandered off to scout out the area, but returned before long with a strange look on his face.
"Cecil," he began, "There's something over here I think you should see."
The dark knight excused himself and followed Kain along the shore of the lake. A short while later, Kain and Cecil stumbled across a skeleton with a suit of dark grey armor off of it. A shredded tunic with the twin insignias of the Royal Guard of Baron and the Order of the Dark Knights on it could be seen under the armor.
"This armor, and this sword..." Cecil said with a great deal of sadness in his voice, "So this is what happened to Captain Bain..."
"Yeah, the man who trained us when we were still recruits," said Kain, "The ghouls must have got him."
"I think some of this armor is salvageable, and the sword appears to be in good condition..." Cecil's mumbled while looking over the skeleton.
"Cecil! What are you thinking!?" Kain shouted at his friend, "Taking the armor is like desecrating his grave or something!"
"I know," the dark knight told Kain, "But the two of us are at war with Baron now, and we need all the help we can get. This equipment is better made than what I have, and it might just give us an edge."
"Fine, do whatever you want," the dragoon grumbled before returning to the others.
When Cecil returned, he was wearing a new set of gauntlets, and bore a new sword and shield. The old sage and Rydia looked at him in surprise. Kain was surprised for another reason.
"Cecil, why didn't you take the helmet and armor as well?" the dragoon asked.
"Couldn't get it off. Besides, it just didn't feel right..." Cecil answered, "Anyway, let's get going."
This cave was larger than the last one, seeing as it had an underground lake inside, but took less time to navigate since they were following the shoreline. After an hour of walking around the vast body of water, they came across a waterfall on the wall of the cave.
"There it is," Tellah whispered to his fellow travelers, "The monster lives at the base of that waterfall. Be ready."
The group walked into the water toward the waterfall, staying in the shallows and making as little noise as they could. No sooner did they approach the waterfall, however, when a massive beast that vaguely resembling a giant octopus struck at Cecil from behind with its tentacles.
"There it is!" Tellah shouted, "The Octomammoth! Let's kill it!"
The knights sprang into action. Cecil charged in and attacked the beast head-on, channeling a small amount of his life force into the blade of his sword and releasing these localized waves of energy just before his sword would strike the body of the monster. Kain, on the other hand, took to the air, attempting to stab the monster from above while it concentrated on Cecil. Tellah and Rydia both stayed back, just out of the tentacles' reach, and prepared their spells.
"Let's see...how did that spell go..." Tellah muttered as he tried desperately to remember a certain spell.
"Chocobo!" Rydia called out after channeling her magic into the summon.
A yellow bird that was as tall as a man materialized in front of the little girl and looked at her for a moment, awaiting orders.
"Hurt that meanie!" Rydia told the bird, pointing at the Octomammoth.
"Wark!" The bird squawked before running over and kicking the beast repeatedly and pecking at its eyes.
"Yes, I suppose that would work," the sage said as he watched the display of summoning magic, "But so would...this!"
A cloud of poison gas engulfed the monster as well as Cecil who happened to be standing a tad too close. When the spell cleared away, the beast was just where it was before, apparently unhurt. Cecil, on the other hand, was coughing heavily as he tried to expel the mild poison from his lungs.
"Whoops," Tellah whispered to himself as he tossed Cecil an antidote for that particular magical poison, "Wrong spell."
Cecil and Kain continued to hack at the monster. They were getting pummeled by the tentacles, but were also giving back as well as they took the hits. Kain had managed to skewer one of the monster's eyes, which served to slow it down nicely and mess up its aim. Cecil, on the other hand, was pouring a tiny amount of life force into each swing of his blade, allowing it to cut through the tentacles with ease.
"It's working," Cecil yelled as he cut through yet another tentacle.
"I know, almost done!" Kain called back.
Then, to the dread of the two knights, a loud voice called out "I remember now! Thundaga!"
Large bolts of lightning rained down, striking the monster as well as anything close to it. Cecil and Kain managed to get out of range without getting hit too many times, but the monster was not so lucky. Bolt after bolt of heavenly rage struck the beast, frying it. As the spell dissipated, all that could be seen was the charred body of what was once a horrible monster. Kain was the first to speak after the initial shock wore off.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?" the enraged dragoon roared at Tellah.
"No need to get mad, young man, just taking care of the monster," the overly calm sage replied.
"It was almost dead, though, and you almost killed Cecil and I in the process!"
"It worked, though, didn't it?" came the retort.
"Haven't you ever heard of overkill!?" a still furious Kain shouted.
"Erm...Let's get going everyone," Cecil said, breaking up the argument, "Got to get to Damcyan and all."
"Quite right," the sage replied, "Let's go."
Tellah walked through the waterfall and disappeared. The other three watched his exit before following him. Behind the waterfall was a short tunnel just large for a man to stand in. Beyond this was the exit.
As the group exited the cave and stepped out onto the grassy plain, they were again relieved to see the sun and feel its warmth. Looking around, Cecil realized that they had gotten out of that cavern in fairly good condition considering all the monsters that had attacked them along the way. He was about to suggest that they head for Damcyan when he caught a glimpse of red out of the corner of his eye. Turning to see what was there, the dark knight was soon gaping in horror at the sight of three magnificent red airships flying their way.
"Everyone hide! The Red Wings are here after us!" Cecil shouted to his companions.
"Just why is Baron's air force after you people?" Tellah yelled back.
"No wait, Cecil, look. They're heading away from us now," Kain told Cecil as he pointed at the sky, trying to calm his friend.
"But what's in that direc..." Cecil said before was cut off by a hysterical sage.
"Damcyan!" the old man screamed.
As he said that, the report of several explosions was heard in the distance, from the direction that Damcyan Castle should lay. Horror filled the faces of Cecil, Kain and Tellah. Rydia merely screamed in terror at the explosions. Just one word was heard then, hanging in the air for what seemed to be all eternity.
"ANNA!!!"