Chapter 4
The two leaders burst into the area where Gippal had supposedly emptied his bladder. (Little did they know...) They saw Baralai huddled against the trunk of a tree, knees clenched protectively to his body.
"The forest..." he stuttered. "The forest... Came alive..."
Baralai began to sob uncontrollably as the other campers entered the clearing. While all of them were standing, looking at Baralai cry, Wakka noticed a great red smear on the other side of the small area, leading into the woods.
"That's one crazy piss, ya? ...It's red, mon!"
Jecht moved to examine the crimson liquid.
"Blood," he muttered under his breath.
"Blood?" Wakka exclaimed in disbelief. "What was Gippal doing?"
Auron shook his head and grasped Baralai by the shoulders, while Braska calmly and quietly explained the situation to Wakka.
"Tell me exactly what happened!1111one1111" Auron spat (literally) at Baralai.
Baralai screamed, "I told u! The forest came alive... I think it was... It was... A... A n... N..."
"A noun!" Tidus asked.
Baralai ignored Tidus' comment and continued to cry. "It was... ...A new... thing. Unlike anything I've ever seen before... The forest swallowed Gippal up and took him away."
"Such is the punishment for ignoring the buddy system," Yaibal lamented, shaking his head grimly. Far away, a bugle sounded.
"Braska, cut that out!" Seymour shouted, a hint of fear residing in his voice. The trumpeting ceased immediately.
Jecht moved towards their camp.
"Come on, boys. If we stay here, we're only endangering ourselves."
The campers trudged solemnly back to their camp, terrified by the site that awaited them when they arrived. The camp was a mess; tents were overturned, many items were missing (including all s'more rations), all compasses had disappeared, and the pages from Tidus' diary lay strewn about, too ripped to read.
The campers muddled through the wreckage, searching for lost belongings. On the ouskirts of the camp site, the three leaders conversed on the situation at hand.
"The loss of young Gippal is very upsetting," Braska sighed. "However, we cannot dwell on the past, we must ensure the safety of the other boys, and leave the forest ASAP," said Braska, attempting to make things more clear for Auron and Jecht by using their army lingo.
"Yeah... That sounds good," Auron grunted.
He sounded very gruff.
"Sir!" Yaibal interrupted. "We cannot find the compasses! And the flight suit and the glider– Stolen!"
Jecht scratched his head and blinked.
"Pardon?"
"Oh..." Yaibal said. "Sorry... Wrong situation."
Yaibal hung his head and walked away.
Across the disaster-stricken clearing, Tidus picked up the last page of his diary that was still intact.
His air came in short, ragged breaths as he fought back tears. Despite his efforts, two ran down his cheeks, splashing quietly onto the paper. Magic powers taking hold, the diary responded.
I'm sorry, Tidus. I couldn't see who it was. I tried to stop him...
Tidus sighed, tears flowing freely.
"I know..."
His words caught on the wind, lost forever, only heard by the torn pages of his beloved diary.
The page holding Tidus' last interaction with Diary was taken by an updraft, fluttering from his hand, and out of the clearing.
The page soared, riding the wind deep into the forest. Somewhere, it's path was cut short as it collided with an invisible palm, clenched in a clawed hand, unseen by anyone nearby. Five fingers curled tightly around it, crumpling it to a ball, no longer a flyer, prone to the earth's gravity. It fell to the ground, ink tears running down it's surface.