The Makings Of A SeeD

By Bhamv

Chapter 9 – The Caves of Esthar

Author's note: Wow! An update! Someone go check if the seas are boiling over and if a blood red moon is hovering in the sky.

"Rinoa, where are we heading?" Squall asked the girl riding beside him. For the past few hours Rinoa had led the train of Chocobos southward on the bleak plains of Esthar, insisting that she had a good idea of where to go. Squall had never heard her mention she had ever been to this area, and since Rinoa shared everything with Squall he was fairly certain this meant she had never been to this particular part of the continent before. But Rinoa had been insistent that they try her way, if just for a while, so the team of SeeDs had obediently followed along. But Squall was growing impatient with Rinoa's secrecy, and wanted to know where she was leading them.

"I told you, I'll let you guys know as soon as I find what I'm looking for!" Rinoa said, repeated the same answer she'd offered the last six times she'd been asked.

"Yes, but what are you looking for?" Squall asked again through gritted teeth. He loved the girl, but there were times when her stubbornness would test the patience of Hyne herself.

Rinoa said nothing for a moment, riding along while looking to and fro, seemingly searching for something. Suddenly she gave a whoop of triumph and pointed excitedly at a stone formation nearby. "There it is! It really exists! The Caves of Esthar!" Halting her Chocobo, she waited for the rest of the SeeDs to catch up, all the while grinning broadly.

"The Caves of Esthar? What's that?" Zell asked as he pulled up beside Rinoa. "Is it some way into Esthar?"

"All right, remember before we fought Ultimecia, I stayed at Balamb Garden for a while? I spent a lot of time in the library, didn't I?" Rinoa said in a rapid, excited voice; the SeeDs around her nodded in confirmation. "I remember this book I found there, called 'Legends of Esthar' which talked about a few of the rumors that existed about this place. See, Esthar's always been mysterious and no one really knew anything about it, but there've always been rumors, only no one knew if they were true or not. One of the things that the book mentioned was the color-changing panels that Esthar used to hide their city..."

"And when you saw the panels for yourself in Esthar and on their troops, you realized that the book might be true?" Squall asked, catching on to what Rinoa was saying.

"Yes! Maybe not all of the book is accurate, but at least some of it is! Another thing it mentioned was the original gateway into Esthar. You see, Esthar hadn't always been high-tech, a few thousand years ago it was primitive too. The walls built of panels we saw before used to be just made of stone. A mountain with a network of caves through it became the gateway in and out. As Esthar became more advanced and isolated, the Caves of Esthar stopped being used, and were eventually sealed up."

"Sealed up? How are we supposed to use them to get in then?" Irvine pointed out.

"I'm not completely sure. The book said that no one entered the caves after they were shut, so any information about them is at least a few thousand years old, passed down by word of mouth." Rinoa explained. "There was a map in the book, though, built up from the various descriptions given through the years, and I think I might be able to remember enough of it to get us through... assuming it's accurate."

"Are you sure those are the caves though?" Seifer asked, squinting into the distance. "Just looks like a mountain to me. Actually, it's too small to be a mountain, it just looks like a chunk of cliff to me."

"Look," Rinoa said, and pointed at the brown wall of stone, where midway up the side of the formation an indentation could be seen. It was weatherworn, and faint, but the SeeDs could make out the shape of a two-sectioned torso and eight long legs, the shape of...

"A spider." Selphie breathed, "There's a spider carved into that mountain."

"The spider used to be the symbol of Esthar. Even Esthar City, which was built on the foundations of earlier cities, is shaped like a giant spider." Rinoa explained. "The steep cliff face used to be surrounded by stone walls, creating a natural defensive formation. I wouldn't be surprised if the walls have been replaced by the color-changing panels now, but obviously the cliff and the caves are still around."

Squall nodded, then pointed his Chocobo at the cliff. Obediently, the huge bird began trotting towards its rider's intended destination, followed closely by the remainder of the mounted SeeDs.

It turned out that Rinoa had been right, the cliff was sandwiched between banks of color-changing panels that mimicked the patterns of the earth and sky behind them. Squall nearly ran into them, but his Chocobo had cleverly stopped just in time. At the base of the cliff there was a discolored section of stone, grey in shade, rectangular in shape and approximately the size of a wide door.

"Gosh, is this it? This is the doorway into the great nation of Esthar?" Quistis asked, peering sceptically at the cliff face.

"A natural defensive formation..." Pondered Squall, "If an enemy attacked, their forces would only be able to enter two or three at a time, giving Esthar's army a chance to pick them off inside."

"How do we get in then? It looks shut up pretty good." Zell said, helpfully slamming his fist into the stone. Neither fist nor cliff budged.

"It wouldn't make sense for the Estharians to seal the door without some way of opening it again, since they might need to use this entrance in an emergency." Irvine ventured, "So we should look for some sort of trigger, or switch..."

Rinoa said, "The book mentioned something called a 'Sand-stone' or 'Hole-stone' being the trigger to the door. But explorers have examined this cliff for years without finding it."

Seifer, who had been peering intently and wordlessly at the cliff face, suddenly said, "That's because they're not SeeDs."

"What are you talking about?" Zell asked. In reply, Seifer drew his gunblade and slashed at the stone next to the rectangular doorway. There was a loud clang and a burst of sparks, but for a moment nothing happened. Then with a dull snap, a piece of stone split from the cliff wall, and a rapid stream of grey sand began to pour out of the hole. A soft cracking sound, which gradually grew louder, emanated from sand-spouting hole until it seemed to be coming from inside the cliff itself. The discolored section of the cliff then abruptly crumbled into sand, filling the air with swirling motes that had the SeeDs scrambling to cover their faces.

"The seal... it was built from compressed sand?" Squall marvelled from behind his gloved hand.

"That's what I figured. But I knew they couldn't have packed the sand around the door as well as they did the sand in the doorway itself." Seifer concurred, "That's why I could break it down while Chicken Wuss there couldn't even dent it."

"WILL YOU STOP CALLING ME..."

"Zell, enough." Squall snapped. Glancing into the dark cavernous cave that now gaped from the cliff face like some ominous mouth, Squall made a quick decision.

"I'll go first, Rinoa behind me, then the rest of you guys follow."

The cave passage twisted back and forth for several hundred paces immediately beyond the cliff entrance. A fungal organism clinging to the walls of the cliff emitted a soft turquoise glow, as if reacting in joy to the sudden inrush of fresh air. Without warning the passageway widened into a huge cavern, which was brilliantly lit by the cerulean light from fungi, refracted and intensified by what seemed like millions of crystals scattered over the ground, ceiling and walls. Stalactites and stalagmites joined to form gargantuan natural pillars, each covered with crystals and glittering eerily like shimmering spouts of ice. In the center of the room was an enormous blue pyramidal crystal, its four sides glowing as if it emitted light from its own core. It was as if the SeeDs had been plunged into a frozen scene under the surface of the sea, a breathtaking scene of tranquillity and natural beauty.

"Oh my goodness... it's... it's beautiful!" Rinoa breathed, her voice little more than an awed whisper. Squall, a few paces in front of her, agreed wholeheartedly. One by one, the SeeDs filed into the cavern and marvelled at the sight.

"What's this place called, Rinoa? Do you know?" Selphie whispered, as if she was afraid of disturbing the stillness of the room.

"The book mentioned that the largest chamber in the cavern system was named 'Headdrop Cavern', maybe this is it." Rinoa replied with an equally soft undertone.

"Why is it called Headdrop Cavern?' Irvine asked as he craned his neck to stare up the nearest column of crystals. His cowboy hat suddenly backwards off his head and landed on the ground with a soft poof. "Well... maybe 'Hatdrop Cavern' might be appropriate..."

Rinoa suddenly tensed and looked around nervously, "It was named Headdrop Cavern after the guardian of the Gates of Esthar, a creature called the Headdrop. It's said to live in here."

"But it couldn't possibly still be alive after all this time..." Quistis began, but never got to finish her sentence. A scraping rumble, like the sound of glass rubbing against stone, filled the air and echoed through the cave. The crystals that lined the surface of the walls began to resonate with the rumbling sound, amplifying and intensifying it. The sound doubled in loudness, then tripled, and kept increasing until it was a thunderous reverberation that seemed to want to shake the bones of the SeeDs apart.

Squall didn't need to clap his hands over his ears quite yet, and didn't want to if he didn't need to; he wanted his hands available to fight. But he knew if the noise got any louder he'd have to protect his ears or risk damage to his hearing. The sound pounding through his brain was disorienting him, making him feel faint and dizzy. He then noticed that the giant blue crystal had turned crimson, and appeared to be rising out of the ground.

And then the next thing Squall noticed was that he could feel his junction-enhanced strength fading. Checking his GFs he was shocked to find they'd been disjunctioned without his input. He could no longer feel their symbiotic connection in his mind. They were there, they just weren't providing him with enhanced strength any more; like a sword confined to its scabbard, his Guardian Forces were useless.

"Squall! My GFs!" Selphie cried, off to one side, her voice barely audible over the din. Startled exclamations from the other SeeDs confirmed that they, too, had been stripped of their junctioned magicks. Squall drew his Lionheart gunblade, which felt unusually heavy without his normally boosted strength, and glanced nervously around the crystalline cavern. His gaze was once again drawn to the pulsing red crystal, a massive angry form in the middle of the cave.

As suddenly as it began, the noise stopped. All was still, but for the ringing in Squall's ears. He paused for a brief moment before it occurred to him to try to rejunction his Guardian Forces; furrowing his brow and concentrating, he tried to re-establish the psychic link between his mind and his GFs. A thundering boom filled the air, shocking Squall out of his reverie, and he peered around in alarm. It wasn't hard to find the source of the sound; the giant crystal pyramid had somehow climbed out of the ground, and was now standing on a pair of shimmering crystalline legs while swinging two long arms that also appeared to be made of crystal.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?" Zell yelled, his eyes bulging at the sudden monster. Quistis was already one step ahead of him, activating a Scan spell and analyzing the creature.

"Name, Headdrop. The guardian of the Caves of Esthar. Watch out for its crystal projectiles." Quistis recited as the energies of the spell inspected the enemy and reported back to her. The grating hum began once again, and Quistis's eyes widened in surprise as she found her GFs disjunctioned once again. She opened her mouth to say more, but was cut off by a loud roar from the pyramidal monster, who lowered its pointed head like a bull and suddenly charged with alarming speed at the SeeDs. Scrambling clumsily to one side, the seven young fighters barely managed to avoid the attack. The Headdrop's momentum brought it crashing against the wall of the cavern, where it impacted with a loud boom. A tinkling sound echoed through the cave as broken fragments of crystal fell off the wall and landed on the hard ground.

Squall readied his gunblade and prepared to attack the vulnerable backside of the Headdrop, but before he could move the creature had spun around and faced the SeeDs once again. Raising its long transparent arms, it suddenly hurled them forward with a whoosh of air. Two shards of crystal broke off the ends of the appendages and spun through the air, forming two deadly serrated fragments of crystal that flew mercilessly at Squall. Bringing his gunblade to his chest in a defensive posture, Squall grunted out loud as the crystals impacted against the side of his blade with loud clangs. His weapon flew out of his hands and spun across the cavern, skidding along the hard stone ground. Cursing under his breath and shaking his jolted hands, Squall dived behind a stone pillar and tried to plan his next move.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Squall noticed a figure dressed in blue step towards the creature. Whirling around in alarm, he called out desperately, "Rinoa! What are you doing? Get back!" But Rinoa ignored him, taking another slow step towards the massive, deadly monster.

"It's as if she can't hear me..." Squall muttered under his breath. Then he noticed Rinoa's eyes had become blank and unfocused, and he realized the truth. "She can't hear me! She's the Sorceress! She can use magic without junctions!" With every step, Rinoa seemed to glow brighter with energy, until a set of angelic white wings seemed to sprout from her back. Her eyes burned with an otherworldly light as the magical forces within her threatened to burst out like water escaping from a broken dam.

The Headdrop had now paused, seemingly observing the small, impudent critter that dared to stand in its way. It then raised both its crystalline arms and brought them crashing down upon Rinoa. Slowly, as if in a trance, Rinoa raised her hand and a globe of blue light enveloped her body. The log-like arms of the Headdrop bounced harmlessly off the azure glow, the Protect spell shielding Rinoa against the attack, keeping her untouched. Then she raised her hand again, and a blast of orange energy shot out of her palm and impacted against the surface of the pyramid; a corresponding burst of flame erupted from the inside of the Headdrop as Rinoa's Firaga spell, enhanced a hundredfold by her Sorceress powers, burned the creature alive. Then silence fell over the cavern, the echoing hum finally disappearing, and the gargantuan pyramid collapsed to the ground, where it shattered with a loud cracking of crystal.

Rinoa shuddered, then came out of her reverie. Looking around her, she waved at her team mates as they cautiously emerged from behind their pillars. "It's all right, it's safe now."

"Rinoa... that was... that was..." Zell stammered, his face paper-white behind the black tattoo on his cheek.

"That was what I had to do. We'll all need to what we can for this mission." Rinoa replied. She turned to Squall, without a trace of fear in her eyes. "I'm not afraid any more, Squall. I'm not afraid to fight alone, and I'm not afraid to be a Sorceress. You taught me how to be a SeeD, Squall."

Squall, for once, was involuntarily speechless.

So I found myself going through this horrible spell of writer's block, see. Managed to produce this chapter, but I don't think it's anywhere as good as I can make it. Maybe someday I'll rewrite it, but for now please review and tell me what you think! -Bhamv

By the way, it appears seems to change some of the formatting when I upload my stories. Sorry about that, I'll try to figure something out for my next update. Which will be very soon! I promise!