AH-HA! Look at this! I updated! Believe it or not! About time, too, isn't it? Aie. I really didn't mean it to get that late. Time sort of took off without me, and by the time I realized it, well... it was... four weeks? Goodness. I hadn't intended for that. I guess I just got busy. I'm feeling a lot better though however and this chapter just came off easily and was fun to write. Been watching AMVs to the point it's probably not healthy, and getting really inspired by some good FFX-2 ones. So you can expect a new chapter in about, a week or so, and yes, that's an offical promise. I have no intention of quitting this fic, and I just got a new dose of inspiration for it.
And wow! This chapter actually has plot. I hope you like it. From here on there will be only a few small 'breaks', but they'll all be plot concerned. I've been trying to balance it between plot and just character interaction, but I guess it's a bit less plot related then I had intended. Sorry about that. I'm not stuck or anything, I have the entire story outlined, just have this habit of getting carried away and sometimes forget I have to put in a plot too. Oops.
In reply to comments/reviews... Which I forgot to do last chapter.... (head-desk)
Delylah-
I'm glad you think the characters are really in character. I try very hard and I guess I'm rather critical about my own work and wish it could be perfect. Yeah, I'm too much of a perfectionist. Anyway, that was one of the things with this story, I tried to bring back a bit of the old Yuna, and make Tidus a little older, wiser, like he was near the end of FFX. I didn't want to write Yuna as she is exactly in FFX-2, which is too much like Rikku for me, personally, at some points anyway. So I'm glad it's coming off like that, because it's exactly what I wanted. Thanks for the comment, glad you like the story. :)
YuniX-2
I checked out that song that you linked to me, it was neat, though I don't ever remember hearing it before. I guess it was just one of those extra ones for FFX, that the girl who sang Suteki Da Ne did. In any case, thanks for showing it to me, I quite liked it. Rikku is getting a bit out of hand, isn't she? I do hope it isn't unbearable, I have a little difficultly writing her sometimes. You make AMVs? Might I ask which ones? I recently got into a mad AMV craze and I've been watching nearly anyone for FFX-FFX-2 I can find.
Okay, well, I think that's it... so carrying on...
And as usual, thank you EVERYONE for all your comments, honestly, they mean so much to me. Please keep commenting, I really love seeing how many people are reading this. I'm dearly sorry to have kept all of you waiting, again, for this chapter.
As usual, I don't own FFX or FFX-2 or anything about them.
Side note, I noticed that some people who e-mail me about the fic, I try to reply to, and my hotmail address won't send properly, due to the other address being Yahoo or something. To remedy this, if you want to e-mail me but don't want to send something to evil hotmail, I now have the yahoo address – - Feel free to e-mail me if you, for some reason, wish to.
And that's quite enough of my endless babbling. Onto the belated chapter. Hope it doesn't have any mistakes, it was kind of rush update, but I checked it over a few times.
-
- - - - - -
Chapter 19
- - - - - -
-
"We should see if they are okay." Brother muttered, perhaps for the third time.
"Why wouldn't they be okay?" Buddy sighed, not moving from his place in the hot springs. "We've only been here a hour. We checked for fiends, and we haven't heard any noise to suggest something's wrong."
"But..." Brother paused, looking annoyed and disappointed. "There could be!"
"No." Buddy shook his head, sighing.
"Why are you darn worried?" Cid snapped from the other wall, dunking down in the water and eyeing his son suspiciously.
"Uh..." The Al Bhed's voice faltered, and his face went into a flurry of expressions. It wasn't hard to see that he was trying to think of something to say that wasn't what he really meant.
Rolling his eyes, Tidus almost wished they'd all just be quiet like Barkeep.
It wasn't that he didn't mind the talking, sure, he'd heard pretty much the same kind of talk in all his years playing Blitzball with the guys... But this time it was different. It wasn't Zanarkand and he wasn't part of the Abes anymore, they weren't talking about sneaking into the girl's locker room. That was a part of the past now and he really didn't miss it.
Brother however, seemed almost an exact copy of some of the guys he'd known in the Abes. Not a bad guy, but he let his mind wander. It wouldn't have been a problem, if it wasn't for the fact it was about Yuna.
Sighing Tidus leaned back on the rocks and stared up at the ceiling. Far above he could see the snowflakes falling, gently down from the sky. It seemed that the storm had in fact stayed below as they'd thought.
"I'm just worried, that is all!" Brother finally demanded, crossing his arms.
'It's not jealousy...' Tidus thought quietly to himself as he watched the Al Bhed. 'I'm not angry at him. I can see why he'd love her. And why it's so hard for him to stop.' He frowned, thinking.
"Maybe if you worried less about Yuna and more about yourself, you'd actually get to accomplishing something in your life!" Cid snorted, shooting looks that were like daggers. "Yuna's good at taking care of herself."
Brother stared wordlessly at the water, torment in his face. A lot of pain.
'He knew he could never be with her, because she was his cousin. But it didn't stop him from looking up to her and loving her...' Tidus shifted uncomfortably. He didn't much care for the entire situation really, but there wasn't much he could do. Yuna had told Brother what she felt, about everything, about Tidus, but Brother seemed to be having trouble accepting it. Not that he blamed him.
'Probably just better to let him burn it out. He seems to have finally accepted me.'
Sitting up straight again Tidus swept his arms under water and dragged a hand over his face. The water was refreshingly warm and clean, probably cycling constantly from the waterfall nearby. Blinking the water out of his eyes he looked over to see Brother sitting silently in the corner, watching him.
Tidus watched him right back, their eyes locking for a long moment. There wasn't anything to be said, Tidus didn't want to ignite the situation, Brother looked tired of the whole thing. Finally it was Brother who turned away, looking sad but also a lot more accepting about something.
"You are right. They are... fine." Brother mumbled finally, not making eye contact with his father who shot him a somewhat pleased look.
"There! You see? That's the right attitude boy. Besides, even if there was something wrong, it wouldn't be right to storm in on them."
Tidus coughed lightly and stared down at the water, trying not to think about that too much.
"So do we have any idea where we're going next?" Buddy said finally, after nobody had said a thing for quite some time.
"We've looked all over the mountain." Cid sighed, shaking his head. "We didn't miss anything."
"And you're sure the tunnels are empty?" Buddy looked over to Tidus.
Shrugging, he flicked water out of his hair. "We checked all the ones we could. Didn't see anything that looked like a temple."
Buddy frowned. "Are you sure you checked them all?"
Tidus nodded. "Pretty sure."
Sighing, Buddy shook his head. "Pretty sure isn't going to work. We'll have to check them again tomorrow."
Tidus blinked, stopping himself before he frowned. "We checked them! We-"He stopped short, realizing he was starting to get annoyed. There wasn't any point in arguing, Buddy didn't seem to be convinced they'd checked them. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to look over them again. But...
"You...?" Buddy nodded his head a little, encouraging Tidus to continue. He seemed interested to hear what he was going to say.
'What's his problem?' Tidus cleared his throat and shook his head. "Forget it. We'll check them again tomorrow." He sighed to himself as Buddy seemed satisfied by the answer.
Leaning back on a rock, Tidus regarded the Al Bhed silently. He seemed a nice enough guy, but something about him just didn't agree with Tidus. Perhaps it was just a clash of character. That'd happened lots to him in the Abes. There'd been countless conflicts between him and other blitzers. Being the son of a famous blitzer had it's problems, and popularity was one of them. Now there was something he wasn't going to miss much, though it seemed he'd get it back quick enough in Luca.
Shrugging away the thoughts of the past, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath in of the warm air. It really was nice here. Absently he began to wonder if Yuna and the others were really alright, like Brother had been wondering. It was entirely possible that something could have happened... But he didn't dare say anything aloud, not with the mood Cid seemed to be in.
A muffled giggle rippled through the quiet air. A rather feminine giggle at that. Blinking Tidus looked around, seeing no one other then the guys. Maybe he imagined it?
"What was that?" He said aloud, frowning.
"What was what?" Brother snapped his head around to look over to Tidus, frowning right back at him.
"I heard-"Another giggle, this time louder. Brother's eyes widened and he began looking around the hot springs.
"Rikku?" Brother cried, standing up in the water.
"Rikku?!" Cid exploded, jumping up so fast water sprayed in all directions.
"Oh nuts."
Rikku's head popped out from behind the corner, peeking out with a silly grin plastered on her face. "I uh... we got lost!" Calli's head popped up below her, equally grinning though rather a strange shade of red.
"RIKKU!" Cid exploded a second time, waving his hands in the air. He seemed to get even madder as Rikku stepped from behind the corner and waved at them. It took Tidus a minute to realize it must have been because she was wearing a bathing suit, a bikini one at that.
Unlike the girls they'd decided to wear just their regular clothing. Tidus was used to it as a Blitzer, and so it seemed were the others. Rikku it seemed however, had decided bathing suits was the thing to do. Her father, did not seem pleased in the least.
"Whaaat?" Rikku cried, putting her hands on her hips. "We're just having a little fun!"
"Fun?" Buddy tilted his head. "Spying on us?"
Rikku looked aghast as she put her hand to her mouth. "No! Not spying! We were just..."
"Looking for stuff!" Calli chimed in.
Tidus rolled his eyes and snorted aloud in spite of himself.
Rikku shot a glare in his direction, though a quirky grin seemed to still be hovering on her face. Putting her hands on her hips, she shrugged.
"Yeah! We were just looking around to see if there were any Temple ruins."
Cid glowered at her, raising a hand to point towards where she had come.
"Go back over there and get dressed, missy! I won't have my daughter gallivanting around some hot springs in a bikini!"
"You obviously didn't see what she was gallivanting around Spira in for the past year." Buddy chuckled, shaking his head as he looked down at the water.
Cid spun around and looked at Buddy with a look of pure horror. "What was that?"
"Rikku, go back and leave us alone!" Brother shouted in place of his father, waving his hands at her as if he was trying to create a wind.
"But we need to check this area!" Rikku cried, pouting and letting her hands fall to her sides. "If you guys won't, we have to!"
"Alright, Rikku, just why did you have to go and ruin the peace?" Paine's voice crept from behind the corner as the warrior appeared directly behind Rikku. The Al Bhed thief shrieked and jumped into the air, startled out of her wits it seemed by the sudden appearance.
"Paine! Don't do that to me!" She gasped, spinning around and waggling her finger at the warrior. Paine stared at her with a gaze that held not even a glimmer of pity or remorse.
"This is quiet time, Rikku. We don't need any disasters right now."
"Disasters? How is this a disaster?" Rikku sniffed, turning back around to face the guys who were all looking over to Cid.
"Rikku! Get your hide back over there right now before I-"
"Before you what, pops?" Rikku placed her hands back on her hips, kicking the water with her foot. "Stop your lousy empty threats!"
"Rikku, would you-" Paine started, but was cut off as Yuna peeked around the corner and everyone went silent.
"Yuna?" Brother nearly squeaked, then seemed to remember something and spun around, staring at the rock face as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"Yuna!" Cid sputtered. "Rikku, this is the last straw! It's one thing to do this yourself, but dragging Yuna into-"
"I didn't do anything!" Rikku shrieked so loud it seemed to shake Cid out of his rant. "She came by herself!"
"Um..." Yuna blinked, looking from Rikku to Paine. "Maybe we should go?"
"Go!" Cid roared, throwing his hands up into the air. "We're all going! Enough is enough! I'm not having any more of this gallivanting while I'm around! The party's over!"
"You can't make me leave, pops! We just got here!" Rikku screeched, stomping over across the pool to stand a few inches away from him. Brother too, began to argue against it loudly, though he spilled into Al Bhed without seeming to even notice.
"Oh, for..." Paine shook her head, turning away and storming away from everyone back towards the entrance of the springs.
Tidus blinked and quietly began to edge away from Rikku, Cid, and Brother. The three of them had begun to shout at each other in Al Bhed, and it seemed none of them could actually hear the other over their own rant. That didn't seem to matter however, as they carried on waving their arms and pointing fingers just the same. Buddy seemed to be talking to Barkeep, and Calli was standing dumbly in between it all. The only one who seemed to be calm was Yuna, who was watching the whole drama with a little amusement on her face.
Walking over to her as quietly as he could, Tidus grinned a little sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Well, I guess we should have seen that coming." He said, nodding his head back towards the screeching argument.
"Yeah." She nodded, smiling a little more. "When Rikku said she was going over, I figured it was only a matter of time."
"So um..." Tidus blinked, trying not to think too hard on the fact that Yuna was wearing a bathing suit just like Rikku, "Everything alright?"
She tilted her head at him with a little bit of a grin. "Something wrong?"
"Uh, nope." He coughed, looking back over his shoulder at the Al Bhed who were seeming to finally calm down. "But I think we're going to be leaving in a minute."
"Yeah..." Yuna's voice lost the amused edge and she sighed faintly. "I wish we could have stayed longer."
"Hey, we'll come back." Tidus grinned, looking back to her. He wasn't surprised to see a familiar look on her face.
Her eyes seemed lost in a distant memory for a moment, filled with an immeasurable sadness. But it was gone as quickly as it had come, and she was starting to smile again. "Okay. Let's come back sometime."
"Okay, it's a promise." Tidus smiled, and for a moment there was peace again, a flicker of tranquility between them. Everything else seemed to melt away as their eyes met and he reached out with a hand to take hers.
"Let's go see everything again." He said quietly, after a silent moment had passed. She nodded once, and her eyes were answer enough.
"Alright, let's get going." Cid's voice broke the spell, and the tranquility disappeared. But he still held her hand, and he could still see the happiness in her eyes.
Rikku seemed subdued and sulky, as if she had lost a fight she couldn't have possibly won. Brother seemed almost scared as he fell behind his father and stared down at the water.
'Wow, looks like Cid actually won this round.' Tidus blinked, still holding Yuna's hand as the group began to slowly move towards the entrance. Some of them, however, were dragging their heels.
"I can't believe we're actually leaving..." Rikku muttered, sulkily kicking the water as Calli trailed behind her. "It's not fair."
"Rikku, if I hear one more complaint from you..." Cid's voice trailed off with a warning growl, his head turned towards her with a rather unpleasant scowl.
"Next time, let's leave the old windbags at home." She muttered, loud enough so he could hear. His face went a dark shade of red but he didn't say anything, instead turning away and increasing his pace. Water sprayed in all directions as he stormed through it, sending waves across the entire spring.
"But this is Yunie's rest time!" Rikku finally chirped, grasping at the last straw she had. "She's supposed to be enjoying herself! Don't spoil it for her!"
Cid skidded to a halt, as did everyone else for fear of colliding with him. He slowly turned around and regarded Rikku with a long glare. He knew perfectly well exactly why she'd said it, but he also knew there was a scrap of truth to it. With a long sigh, he looked over to Yuna.
Rikku's eyes darted from her father to Yuna, and for a moment held a look of horror. Yuna, like her, was wearing a bathing suit, but also happened to be standing right next to Tidus, and holding his hand.
Tidus saw the look of warning in Rikku's eyes, but ignored it. Still holding Yuna's hand he just smiled a bit and looked over to her.
"Yuna, did you want to stay longer?" Cid asked, after a long moment of uneasy silence had seeped over the group. He didn't seem angry at all, surprisingly. Considering how he had reacted earlier...
"No, it's okay." Yuna shook her head gently, wearing one of her somewhat forced smiles. Though Tidus doubted anyone else could see that.
Cid opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it. Shaking his head he resumed walking towards the entrance. Rikku stood rooted to the ground, staring at Yuna and Tidus as if it was some kind of miracle they were still alive.
"He didn't... get mad?" She whispered, blinking. Had it been Rikku who'd been holding hands with someone, the situation probably would have not gone as smoothly, or quietly, for that matter.
Tidus shrugged, and Yuna stared following her uncle.
'He knows he can't try and control her life, that she's an adult. He's glad to see her happy... He accepted me.' It was a little surprising, though in a good way. Cid had always liked Tidus, Rikku had said as much back when Sin was still around. But accepting him enough to realize what was between him and Yuna, and not say anything about it... Tidus couldn't help but be a little surprised. And happy.
Tidus looked over to Yuna, who was gazing forward with a far-off look on her face. He decided not to interrupt her thoughts and just continued to walk beside her, holding her hand.
"About time." Paine called from landing, already dressed in her warrior's garb and looking somewhat impatient. "Let's get out of here already, the storm is getting worse out there."
"Yeah yeah, keep your hair on." Rikku muttered darkly, splashing out of the water with a storming kind of gait. Grabbing her clothes and a towel she ducked behind one of the rocks and continued to mutter to herself, though in Al Bhed.
Wringing out his sleeves the best he could, but not really bothered much by the water, Tidus shook his hair dry and stretched. As Calli and Yuna disappeared behind other rocks to change, the guys gathered around near the entrance with Paine.
It had indeed, become quite stormy outside. The wind was howling and snow flakes were starting to flitter in the air. The water that remained on Tidus's skin began to cool, and he suddenly found himself greatly missing the warmth of the water.
"We have to go out in that?" Brother demanded, scowling, as if he had read Tidus's mind.
"What are you going to do? Stay here all night?" Paine raised an eyebrow, her arms crossed and her hair already half dry.
"No, but, how are we supposed to get back to the ship?" He muttered, crossing his arms.
"Well, Captain, one would think we'd walk there." Paine drawled rather sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Though she sounded as if she were fed up with the entire thing, Tidus saw what could have been a spark of amusement in her eyes. Maybe she was like Yuna in a way, he thought suddenly. Maybe she was hiding behind that demeanor of hers.
"I know that!" Brother roared, flinging his arms into the air with a leap. Paine stared at him levelly, her arms at her sides and a small smirk hovering on her face.
"Stop yer caterwauling! When we get to the ship, I'm going to have a nice long chat with you and that sister of yours." Cid snapped, crossing his arms and looking grim.
A shriek exploded from behind one of the nearby rocks.
"What did I do?!"
Cid snorted so loud it almost sounded as if he were choking. "Don't play dumb, missy! You know exactly what it is you did!"
"You're so over-reacting!" Came another high pitched shriek, one that made Tidus actually wince.
"Rikku, when we get back, I'm going to make you get to some honest, Al Bhed work! That'll straighten you out! You and that brother of yours!"
"WHAT?!" Came a duet of shrieks, as Rikku poked her head out from behind the rock and Brother jumped in seeming fright.
"You can't do that!" Rikku cried, frowning and looking as though she wanted to break into tears. "We're the Gullwings!"
"You're an Al Bhed! Gippal is off helping to rebuild Spira, and you're going around making a mess of things with your gang!"
"Gang?!" Brother cried, but he was cut off by Rikku before he could say another word.
"Gippal? Gippal! Why do you keep comparing me to Gippal?! And we just saved the world, for your information, pops! Unless you happened to forget!"
"Rikku, you're supposed to respect your elders! Gippal wouldn't-"
The argument abruptly switched to Al Bhed, when Rikku ran over her father verbally and began shrieking various things, with the name 'Gippal' clearly evident in the sentences.
Sighing, Tidus leaned against a nearby rock.
"It'll never end, you know." Paine said quietly, across from him. She nodded towards Rikku who had now come out from behind the rock, fully clothed, standing on tip toe to look her father in the eyes. Brother had joined in on the argument it seemed, chirping in agreements to his father nearly every time the name 'Gippal' was heard. This seemed to only make Rikku's temper worse, and her volume began to increase.
"Oh, I can't see it ending." Tidus had to stop himself from grinning, knowing if Rikku caught sight of him it'd probably be something of a disaster. Nearby Buddy was leaning against a wall and seemed to be half asleep, though it was impossible to tell with his goggles on.
"Hey!" Calli's voice cried out, though it was impossible to hear over the Al Bhed shrieking. Tidus barely heard it. Perking up he frowned and looked over to the rocks. Calli had come out behind them and was waving her arms frantically as if her life depended on it.
"What's going on?" Paine asked, quickly pushing off the wall and walking towards the young girl, past Rikku who was hopping up and down.
Tidus followed closely behind, seeing Yuna come out from another one of the rocks. She too, appeared to have heard Calli's cry. The three of them came to a stop in front of Calli, who's eyes were wider then Tidus would have thought possible.
"What's wrong, Calli?" Yuna asked softly, looking a little worried at the girl's condition.
"I just... I was just getting changed, behind that rock, and..." The girl's hand went to point behind her, indicating where she had been. "And I bumped into this rock, and... and..." Her voice completely trailed off, her head turning to look back to where she had come.
Paine strode forward, moving past Calli with a wary look. Drawing her sword she held it easily in front of her, stepping behind the rock. There was very little space to move about, Paine herself had to slide between the rocks, so Tidus remained behind. Yuna kneeled down and tried to talk to Calli again.
"What is, Calli? What happened?"
The girl's head fell, to look to the ground. "I don't know! I just bumped into this rock, and one of the rocks moved, and... It was so scary! This big hole in the wall opened up, and it was dark and scary and I think I heard something moving in there!" Her words tumbled out in a fast jumble, but Tidus managed to catch the gist of it.
Standing up quickly, Yuna looked to Tidus with a somewhat hopeful look. She didn't say anything, but they both knew what she wanted to say. But didn't dare to hope, quite yet.
"What did you find, Paine?" Yuna asked, after a moment, having lost sight of the warrior behind the rock. There was a pause, then a muffled reply came back.
"You better come see this, Yuna."
"Come see what? What's going on, Yunie?" By this time, the others had caught sight of what was going on and apparently ended their argument. Tidus had been so concerned about what was going on with Calli, he'd completely tuned the Al Bhed dialogue out.
"I'm not sure." Yuna said softly, but was already sliding past Calli to move between the rocks. Tidus followed quickly after, making sure not to lose sight of her.
"Hey, wait for us!" Rikku cried, dashing after.
Tidus barely squeezed past some of the rocks, but it wasn't very long before they began to widen again and eventually opened up to a small chamber. Yuna and Paine stood in front of him, and he could hear Rikku coming up behind him.
As Calli had said, a large hole gapped in the wall. It looked like just an ordinary cave, but had none of the glowing stones in the lower tunnels. It was simply a gaping, black hole into the side of the rock.
"What is that?" Rikku gasped, sliding past Tidus to come up beside Yuna and Paine.
"A hidden tunnel." Paine announced quietly, though her voice carried.
"What did you find?" Buddy called, his voice muffled. Rikku blinked and turned back to where they had come.
"We found a tunnel! It looks like it was hidden! We're going to go check it out, you guys stay there!" There was a brief silence, and voices were heard conferring with each other.
"We're going to go back to the airship. We're worried the storm might damage it if we don't get it out of here. We'll come back in a few hours when it dies down to pick you up. Okay?" Buddy's voice called out again, and after a brief, silent council between the four of them, Yuna nodded.
"Okay, we'll see you guys later." She called back, and looked back to the tunnel.
"Great! Another bold adventure for the Gullwings!" Rikku cried, punching the air.
"I thought you didn't like caves." Paine smiled a little, as she stepped closer to the gap.
"Er, well... I don't, but..." Rikku stood behind Paine and smiled sweetly. "You can go first, Paine!"
Paine sighed, and stepped into the tunnel. Yuna followed close behind, Tidus right behind her. Rikku seemed quite happy to bring up the rear.
"It's kind of dark." Rikku said, after they had all entered the tunnel and taken a few steps.
"Looks like it's dress-sphere time." Paine sighed, sounding not at all happy about it.
Though Tidus couldn't see a thing in the darkness of the tunnel, he heard the familiar sounds of the dress-spheres activating. After another extended moment, a ball of fire erupted in the darkness and nearly blinded him.
"Hey! Warn me next time!" He cried, covering his eyes.
"Sorry, blitzer-boy." Rikku giggled from behind him, twirling her Black Mage's staff in the air as a fireball hovered quietly beside her. In front of him, Paine was in similar garb, a second fireball hovering in front of her. Only Yuna was still in her Gunner's clothes.
"You're not changing, Yunie?" Rikku frowned, peering over at her cousin from behind Tidus.
"No, we might need another fighter if things get bad suddenly." Shaking her head, she motioned to the guns at her waist.
"You're right." Paine said, looking ahead of them into the gloom from under her floppy hat. "I don't like the smell in here. It reeks of fiends."
"Oh goody." Rikku sniffed, very quietly.
"Well, let's go." Yuna smiled a little, looking somewhat anxious about something. Tidus was about to ask what, when Paine started off on a brisk pace, Yuna following closely behind. Forced to dash after them, he wondered what she seemed to be sensing. She didn't look like her usual self at all.
The tunnel didn't seem to go up or down, it simply continued on a winding, level path. The walls of it were completely smooth and lacking of any kind of blemishes or rocks. The floor and ceiling looked as though they had been carved, which made Tidus begin to believe that, with the addition of it being hidden, it had been made by someone. Not the Ronso, he decided, the ceilings were far too low and no Ronso, save a very young one, would have been able to get through that pass.
So it had been carved out. But by who, and for what? He didn't dare hope.
"The tunnel's opening up." Paine called from ahead suddenly, and sure enough, the tunnel opened into a large chamber. Unlike the tunnel however, it was much, much different. In various holders, dim stones seemed to glow, emitting an eerie, multi-colored light across the chamber. Blue, red, green, yellow, purple, all the colors were there, on different rune covered holders. As the fireballs extinguished themselves, and the chamber cast it's own, natural light, Tidus realized what the runes were.
Fayth runes. The same runes he had seen in all the temples, in all the places of Spira, glowing dimly in the darkness. Hidden in the mountain, behind a wall of rocks, in the Ronso's sacred ground.
"What is this place?" Paine frowned, looking around at the far reaching ceiling and carvings in the walls. As Tidus slowly turned around to take it all in, it became more and more obvious.
Tidus knew, and he wasn't the only one.
"It's a temple." Yuna said breathlessly, a mix of excitement and relief in her voice. "It's a hidden temple."
