Onigetsu
A Final Fantasy Story
Chapter 1
Revelation
Paul ducked underneath the massive club of the huge ogre. The creature was a good 8 feet tall. Its hulking build was monstrous. No man could possibly be this large.
"Where the heck did you come from!" Paul exclaimed as he jumped over a low sweep of the dopey monster's studded club. The strike barely nicked Paul's black tabi boots.
"I thought Father said you guys didn't exist anymore!"
Paul, son of Pavel was just as proficient, if not more-so as his father in the art of thievery. He even stepped it up a notch. Where his father failed, Paul excelled. That said, he made distance with the gargantuan monster and unsheathed a pair of kodachi; eastern short swords. Held with the blade extending underneath the hand, these swords were straight and curved at their ends. Their simplicity, though traditional, didn't really strike the ogre as intimidating, however.
The ogre let out a vicious cry and started running at Paul.
'Keep focused,' Paul thought to himself.
The ogre leaped forward and brought down his large club that would perhaps hammer Paul into the ground where he stood. The hit seemed to connect. The ogre felt a slight resistance before its club split the dirt. However it wasn't so. What resisted the ogre's club was a dummy, now a mass of straw and wood. Paul found himself behind the ogre. He jumped up, grabbed a handful of the ogre's dirty brown hair, and ran one of his blades along his exposed throat. A satisfying spray of purple blood sprayed from its open gullet.
"Damn… I'm glad that's taken care of," Paul said with relief.
"What took you?" Pavel asked with slight disappointment.
Paul shut the door to the small hut, heaving in a large basket of rice.
"Dad," Pavel called warmly, "Remember when you told me the story about 6 years ago as a child how Emperor Leon and 3 other people saved the world from the monsters spawned from Jade Passage?"
"Of course," Pavel responded, however he was sort of quizzical as to why Paul asked such a random question.
"Well," Paul paused. He didn't really know how to bring about this revelation.
"I ran into a monster on my way to the rice fields," the little thief decided to bring out flatly.
After thorough explanation, Pavel sighed as he stroked his white beard. "Well, I suppose it is best that you go make an appointment with the Emperor,"he suggested.
"Sure thing dad," Paul answered as he started preparing a few rice balls for the trip.
Their home was now at a small inlet between Palamecia and Fynn. "Be sure not to leave Boko anywhere unattended!" Pavel called out. Boko was Pavel's mellow chocobo. Typically he was not any special breed, but he still got the transportation job done.
Paul looked back after jumping onto the bird's back.
"What about Queen Hilda?" Paul asked.
"I'll send a carrier pigeon to inform her," Pavel explained, "Remember, we're closer to her than we are to the Emperor. Watch yourself. His men aren't as laid-back and friendly as the Queen's."
"I will," Paul responded as he took off on Boko, "I'll be back within the week."