Chapter Three
Dangruf Wadi was eerily quiet. The breeze that flushed through the small maze and the geyser was all that broke the silence. The silence was not a bad thing; Aonir had managed to fall asleep very fast because of it. Toku, on the other hand, found that the silence made him excessively paranoid. He twitched his long and slender ears, a bit more rounded off than an Elvaan's ears, to try and listen. He heard voices. It sounded like there were two people, possibly three, or maybe four, walking towards the camp.
He hopped to his feet and began to dig into his bag for a needle, grass thread, and grass cloth. If there were people coming, he would have to hurry and repair Aonir's armor even though she was still in it. He quickly made his way to her side and began to examine the damage. He saw a small tear on her left sleeve between the bands that held the shield she once had to her arm. That was easy to fix. He simply stitched it back together with the thread, making sure that the extra material was sewn inside the sleeve rather than outside.
He continued to look her over, hoping he did not have to wake Aonir to get the job done before those people arrived. Toku knew he did not have much time before the people would be here. He sat carefully on Aonir's stomach and grabbed a sheet of grass cloth and quickly began sewing it in place underneath the cut in Aonir's doublet. He hoped this would make the doublet hold better should Aonir be hit in the same location with a similar attack. Toku finished with the cloth and began to stitch the tear together like he had with her sleeve only he double stitched in an attempt to make it stronger.
"Phew," Toku whispered as he wiped his brow with his right sleeve, "I'd have to say thataru is the best job I've done so far. Armor still equipped on a person and still manage to make it look good as new."
Toku quickly, but quietly, rushed back to his bag to put up the grass cloth he had not used as well as his needle and thread. The voices were closer now and much more distinct. There had to be five people, Toku thought as he closed up his bag and moved them over by Aonir, he could only hear four voices now but there were more footsteps than four people could make. Toku fixed his eyes on the corner, knowing the group was going to be coming around it at any moment.
"Toku?" Aonir said in a weary tone as she opened her eyes to see him beside her.
"Shhh." Toku said softly.
Aonir sat up in confusion. "What's going on?"
"Shh. Listen."
Aonir did as she was told and began to listen even though she wanted to go back to sleep. She, too, heard the voices. She went to stand when she noticed her doublet had been fixed. She looked to Toku, who was still focusing on the corner, and smiled.
"Thank you for fixing it." She whispered as she rose to her feet and dusted off her back.
Just then, a group of people turned the corner and froze when they saw Aonir and Toku in the path. There were three men and two women in the group.
The first man was a Hume and had short black hair and wore what looked like brass armor. He had a medium sized metal shield on his left arm and had a thin bladed sword at his left side. The second man stood on the first man's right side and was also a Hume. He had shaggy blonde hair and wore the same outfit as Aonir but carried a shield on his left arm and a dagger on his hip. On his right hip hung a bow and on his back was a quiver of arrows that seemed almost empty. The third man stood back with the women and was a tall Elvaan with spiky white hair. He wore brass armor but had a great sword on his back. One of the women was a Mithra with blonde hair who wore a doublet made from cotton. She had a shield on her right arm and carried a wooden wand on her right hip. The other woman was an Elvaan with long black hair and wore a regular doublet while carrying a staff in her hands.
Toku stepped up, standing right beside Aonir. Everyone stood in silence. Aonir did not know what to do. If they were friendly they would not attack but if she guessed wrong and they were bandits, she would be in a lot of trouble. The first man's eyes lit up when he looked Aonir over.
"Hello, travelers." The first man spoke, stepping forward toward Aonir while his group stayed in place.
Toku tensed up, keeping his hands near his staff.
"Greetings." Aonir replied, still unsure what to think of them.
"Excuse my rudeness, I've failed to introduce myself. My name is Aurin Blakes. I am a paladin in training. You are?" The man said calmly.
"Aonir Kotet. I am a white mage seeking work. Nice to meet you, Aurin." Aonir replied as Toku loosened up a little. "Who are your friends?"
Aurin smiled and stepped to the side a bit. "This is Korin Torks, our thief." He said as he pointed to the Hume with blonde hair who took a bow. "This is Roberiost Loriban, our warrior." The Elvaan with the great sword bowed. "This is Dianira Loriban, our black mage." The Elvaan woman curtsied. "And she is our assisting white mage, Ojuh Mihahng." The Mithra curtsied.
"I'm Tokurio-Monzisan. I am a black mage looking for employment. Just call me Toku for short."
Aurin bowed. "It is nice to meet you both. Not many people come out to Dangruf Wadi. It gets very lonely here."
Aonir looked at him in shock. "Do you live out here?"
Aurin laughed. "You could say that." He looked back to the Mithra then back to Aonir. "Ojuh Mihahng is the only person that stays out here with me. She's been with me for a long time."
"Hey, Aurin. I gotta head back to Bastok and turn in my reports. I'll catch ya later if you're still around." Korin said loudly as the other group members agreed.
Aurin looked to them and smiled. "Ok. You know where to find me."
Korin walked past Aonir and Toku and bowed. "Nice to meet you."
The others followed him, bowing to Aonir as they made their way toward the exit. Before long, only the four of them remained. Aonir looked to Toku who had watched the others leave and he seemed to want to follow. He had done something Aonir recognized as a mission for Cid in Metalworks. Aonir sighed and then smiled at Toku.
"I'll wait here. Toku, you need to turn in that tab."
Toku looked at her in shock. "Are you sure? It's kind of scary outaru here alone."
Aonir continued to smile. "If Aurin and Miha will stay with me I won't be lonely."
Aurin nodded in agreement.
Toku looked to Aurin then to Aonir. "I'll hurry. Thank you."
Without any more to say, Toku grabbed his bag and rushed after the others. Aonir watched him until he turned the corner that led outside then she sighed and looked to Aurin.
"Have a seat?" Aonir offered.
"Thanks. My feet are killing me." Aurin said with a smile as he plopped down, his armor clinking. Miha sat beside Aurin, in silence.
"Why do you live out here?" Aonir asked.
"Don't have much choice. One of those feelings of duty, you know?" Aurin replied.
"We feel it to be our duty to stay here and protect other travelers." Miha stated, her voice seeming monotone and distant.
Aonir could not put her fingers on it but for some odd reason, she was beginning to feel cold. Her anxiety began to rise as well. She pressed her back against the cliff walls that made up the maze-like valley in hopes that the feeling would pass but it did not. Aurin seemed to have noticed her anxiety and his face grew scarily serious as he stared at her. She had not felt like this in years. Aonir did not know what was going on. The last time she felt like this was when she toured the mines and got lost. A nice miner helped her find her way but he vanished shortly after she recognized the way.
"What is the matter?" Aurin asked, his tone soft but cold at the same time.
"Something isn't right. I guess I'm just paranoid about being on my own." She said with a meager smile on her face. "Toku is my first friend. I hope he will be ok."
Aurin stood up. "That isn't what's bothering you, is it?"
Aonir stayed silent. She did not know what was bothering her so if she lied she would risk getting into serious trouble. Miha rose to her feet and stood next to Aurin.
"Aonir, follow me. I want to show you something." Aurin said.
Aonir gulped. She could feel her heart in her throat again. She rose to her feet and nodded. She could not risk getting into trouble. Aurin led her back on the path toward the geyser only, instead of following the north path like Toku had, Aurin led her south and then onto a northwest path were another geyser was. Aurin and Miha stood on the geyser together and waved Aonir on. She did not know how the geyser could pick up all three of them but she did as she was told and stood on the geyser with them.
The geyser's pressure exploded beneath them, sending them onto the ledge safely. Aonir nearly fell off the ledge but managed to grab the wall just before toppling over.
"This way." Aurin instructed as he led Aonir and Miha north, around a left turn, then followed the path west until they reached a split in the path. One path led north, the other south, just like many others in Dangruf. "We go north." Aurin stated quickly.
Aonir sighed, the sky was starting to grow brighter and here she was, in the middle of Dangruf Wadi, with two people she hardly knew leading her deeper into this place that she had not been inside of by herself before. She remembered some of it but only what Toku had done. She followed them north, around another left turn, then up through an open area that had giant lizards, the puppy-like goblins, and what looked like a ball of wet rubber that flopped around on the ground.
"We go into the tunnel and then I can show you."
Aonir looked down the tunnel as Aurin and Miha went in ahead of her. Aonir took a deep breath and followed them in. She was not afraid to admit she was scared out of her mind but she decided to keep it to herself. She tried to keep her mind on other things but found that by the time she could focus on something else, Aurin and Miha had stopped at a strange rock formation on the other side of the tunnel.
Aurin and Miha were silent as they encouraged Aonir to look at the formation. Aonir took a deep breath and walked around the boulder as she inspected it. It looked like a normal, everyday boulder that you could see in South Gustaburg. Aonir did not understand what made this rock any different from the others until she moved some of the moss from one side of it.
Aonir screamed. There in the rock, frozen in a moment of pure anguish and horror, was a face. She could tell from what little detail remained on the weathered rock that it was a man and he was a Hume. His garments were highly decorated and he wore a circlet upon his forehead. She continued to examine the boulder and found another person was with him. Parts of her were worn away by the weather and the pollution of Dangruf much like the man but she looked to be a Mithra also wearing decorative clothing. Aonir stared at the two figures encased in the rock with confusion then looked at Aurin and Miha who were kneeling.
"Why?" Aonir asked. "Why did you show me this?"
Aurin looked up, his eyes solemn. "We need your help."
"Um, if these two are petrified, I don't think I have the skills to restore them." Aonir said with a bit of fear in her voice.
"I told you not to trust every white mage you come across. Besides, the bodies inside the stone would have disintegrated by now. There is no possible way of returning," Miha said harshly.
"Mihahng!" Aurin shouted. "Stop."
"Why? She is one of the many you have dragged out here, and for what? Nothing. No one comes here with the skill to help. You trust everyone to have powers they have yet to earn." Miha continued.
"Mihahng, you are going to say too much. She has the ability. I can feel it. Did you not feel it when you saw her?" Aurin said in defense while Aonir stood in complete bewilderment.
"I felt a power within her but I do not believe she has the skill to use it. That Tarutaru was the same."
"I know. She has to help. She is the only one that I've felt having that power."
"Perhaps she is a half-mage. There is the chance she is one of those mages that learn the abilities of other mages and use them as if the skills were theirs all along? Perhaps she will never hold the skill we need."
"Um." Aonir said quietly trying to stop the argument.
"Impossible! If that were so, why did she not use those skills outside against all of those beastmen?" Aurin blurted out.
"How did you," Aonir began but was cut off.
"You've been watching people outside again. That is why we're stuck here. You keep pulling those stupid acts of yours. That is what got us here in the first place." Miha shouted.
"I'm sorry for not wanting to feel confined to this maze! I did not try and leave, I watched at the entrance. Only that Taru used offensive magic."
"How can you tell? Did you witness it?"
"No."
"Then what power is there in your defense of this white mage? She may have used that magic you felt."
"HOLD IT!" Aonir shouted, silencing the two. "I don't know what is going on here but I do know one thing and that is the two of you arguing isn't going to free these two." Aonir said as she gestured toward the two stone adventurers. "I am new. This is my first time out without my teacher. I have been taught just about everything he knows but I've not mastered it yet. That is why I don't know if I have the skill you need." Aonir said as she tried to calm herself down. "First, I want to know something." Aurin nodded. "Who are they?"
Aurin looked to Miha who only directed her eyes toward the ground. The two remained silent, which annoyed Aonir a bit more than she had been.
"Ok. Fine. If we're going to be a bunch of babies how about this as a proposition? If I can help you two, you both have to help me by getting me back to the entrance and fast." Aonir stated quickly.
"If you help, you must do it before the sun's rays hit the rock." Aurin said as he rose to his feet. "It is the only way."
Aonir nodded and turned to face the rock. Silently, Aonir knelt before the rock and began to pray to Altana for guidance. Aonir knew she did not have the power to help them but she felt compelled to try. Altana was the only one she could turn to.
"Altana's divine blessings bestowed upon me. Flesh to rock. Rock to flesh." Aonir whispered under her breath. "Please, grant me the power I need to help these fellow children of Vana'diel."
Aurin and Miha looked up to the brightening sky that was now a dark blue color. Miha sat down while Aurin gritted his teeth preparing for the worst.
Meanwhile, Toku had just returned from Bastok and found that Aonir and the two travelers were missing and that Aonir had left her bag. Stricken with panic, Toku threw his bag by Aonir's and rushed through the maze shouting her name at the top of his lungs. He knew he shouldn't have left her here with them. Something about them was not right. Toku kicked himself for allowing her to stay out with them, after all, the kindness may have been an act. What if they were practicing dark knights? Or even ninjas?
"AONIR!" Toku cried out, slipping across some slick rocks around the first geyser.
He would never live it down if anything bad happened to Aonir. He was her friend and they were a team. He had left her here against his better judgment and his master taught him that a white mage was a vital part of Vana'diel. If a white mage dies, a part of the land dies with him or her. Toku had little time to find her. He knew Aonir would have had nothing to do with the first geyser and quickly headed west.
At the site of the petrified adventurers, Aonir could feel strength beginning to leave her body. Her voice, as she pleaded for Altana's help, was growing more and more faint and the cold feeling she had earlier was even stronger. She felt herself falling.
Aurin watched as Aonir began to fall sideways, her body coated in a faint white aura. The aura grew in size lighting the entire area. Toku saw the light and rushed toward it, leaping up the ledge with the help of the geyser and then dashing down the paths and into the tunnel. The stone in front of Aonir began to chip and crack. The sky was starting to turn a lighter blue and the sun's rays were just piercing the top of the west wall. Time was running out.
Toku turned out of the tunnel to find Aonir laying on her right side in front of both Aurin and Miha. Toku pulled out his staff and rushed between Aonir and the two travelers.
"What have you done to her?"
The two seemed to have ignored him, their eyes resting upon the rock. Toku put his staff back and cupped his hands, not noticing the rock was beginning to glow.
"Talk!" He demanded.
Aurin and Miha were starting to glow as the rock pulsated. Toku was getting a bit frightened by this and he decided to check on Aonir instead of fight. She lay motionless on the ground, the aura gone. Toku rolled Aonir onto her back the best he could, his body shaking with both fear and rage. He did not want to lose his first and only friend. They had promised to have an adventure and they had not even left Bastok's backyard.
"Aonir, wake up. Please, wake up."
Suddenly, Toku's attention was torn from Aonir and directed at the rock that was now expanding. It was going to explode! Toku covered Aonir the best he could with is two-foot body, his eyes closed tightly expecting to be hit by a barrage of rocks. Aurin and Miha just stood there, staring at the boulder with smiles plastered upon their lips.
The rock made a loud whistling sound then exploded. Rock shards flew everywhere, one smacking Toku in the back. He let out a yelp of pain and then looked up to see two figures glowing before him. Aurin and Miha had not moved. Toku thought for sure they had been killed. When the dust began to settle, Toku saw that the exact opposite had happened.
There, standing where Aurin and Miha had been, was a man in bright white and highly ornate armor and a Mithra wearing red and white armor that held many decorations of its own. Toku rubbed his eyes in disbelief. The two before him looked like Aurin and Miha but they looked much older and the armor was a big difference.
The man smiled. "Thank you."
"We can finally rest." The Mithra added.
"A-Aurin and Miha? Is that you?" Toku asked in shock while hiding the pain that throbbed in his back.
The man nodded. "Yes. We've been trapped here for many years. We've tried everything to be freed."
"Is Aonir ok?" Toku quickly added.
"Yes." Miha answered as she moved into Aurin's arms.
Aurin kissed Miha gently then smiled at Toku. "She has very strong senses. She picked up that we were not as we appeared not long after you had left. I feared she would leave us."
"Thank her for us when she awakes. We thank you, for bringing her here." Miha said softly, her voice drifting.
"Wait! How did you guys end up like that?" Toku quickly said.
"I was attacked by a monster that does not belong in this region. He has left here by now, I'm sure of it." Aurin said firmly.
"I chased him here. I came too late but met the same fate as my love. I did not have time to restore him before I was placed in stone." Miha added.
"Farewell, Toku. Take care." Aurin said with a smile.
Toku waved, wincing in pain as he moved his arm. He watched Aurin kiss Miha once again and vanish into nothing. Toku felt useless. His back was throbbing, Aonir was unconscious, and he had no way of getting them to the entrance. Just when Toku could not feel any worse, the wind began to pick up. He gently sat down beside Aonir, using her as a prop to lessen the strain on his back, and waited for the storm clouds to roll in.
The clouds never came. Instead, Toku felt himself slowly lifting from the ground. He did not believe it until he decided that it would not hurt to look down and examine the ground. It was right when he realized that he and Aonir were afloat that a bright blue light engulfed the two of them only to set them down on the ground where Toku's bag sat.
"It's our campy-wampy! Aonir, we're back at," Toku began as he picked up his bag and looked back to Aonir who lay silent and his tone dropped, "camp."
Toku put his bag back down on the ground then sat by the wall, his back aching with every movement. He looked to Aonir and sighed heavily. They were back near the exit but he could not just leave her here to find help. His body, although racked with pain, was now beginning to fill with guilt. His mind buzzed with confusion. What went on in here while he was gone?
He stared at the bright blue sky and sighed, wishing that Aonir would wake up, not only so they could continue their adventure but also because he could really use some healing. Moments passed in what felt like hours. The hope that Toku held inside his heart was fleeting. With a heavy heart, Toku strained to his feet and began to gather his things.
"Aurin?" Aonir whispered in a weak voice.
Toku looked at her as a wave of relief washed over him. "You're alivey-wivey!"
Aonir pushed herself up into a sitting position, her head pounding with pain as she said, "Ouch. How many chocobos ran over my head?"
"None that I know of. You were knocked outaru by those strangers."
Aonir jumped to her feet. "Aurin and Miha!"
The rush of her jumping to her feet caused her to feel woozy and she staggered. She grabbed the wall to keep her balance while Toku moved over toward her.
"Um, how about a little help?" Toku asked. Aonir looked at him in confusion and watched as he pointed to his back.
"Oh! I'm sorry." Aonir said as she finally realized that he was in pain. "Altana's blessing."
A wave of violet washed over Toku, ridding him of his pains. Toku danced to demonstrate his health, making Aonir smile. The team was back together. Toku bowed to Aonir with a grin on his face, his blue hair shining in the light of the new day. They were going to begin their adventure for real this time.
"Grab our things and let's go, go, go! Today is the day our adventure blows wide openaru!" Toku said happily as he grabbed his bag.
Aonir grabbed her things, moving slowly to prevent another head rush from striking her down. Toku led the way down toward South Gustaburg by turning left and heading east through the valley. Aonir looked up to the blue sky and smiled. Something inside her felt relieved but she did not know why. She felt that Aurin and Miha were happy, which was enough to make her satisfied.
"Where to, Toku?" Aonir asked as the two entered South Gustaburg and made their way through the fumaroles heading north.
"Well, have you joined a guild yet?" Toku asked.
"Guild? You mean the one's in Bastok?"
"Well, I'm from Windurst and while I was there I joined the Weaver's Guild. Is there a particular tradearu you're into?"
Aonir thought for a moment then she nodded. "Yes, there is a tradear, er, trade I'm interested in."
Toku smiled. "Which?"
"Cooking. If I can excel at it, I can prove my master wrong." Aonir said with determination in her voice.
"OK. The Culinarian's Guild is in Windurst. We've got a longy-long way to go, but the triparu will be fun."
"All right then. I say we go. I want to join that guild." Aonir stated.
"You got it!" Toku answered.
Aonir had a feeling that she was finally going to show Plureague that she could take care of herself. She would join the guild and better her cooking skills and find a place outside the walls of Bastok as a white mage. Even though all of this was going against Plureague's wishes, Aonir felt that he would be filled with pride to see that his teachings were being taken to heart. Aonir smiled and looked up into the blue sky as Toku and herself entered North Gustaburg, happily wondering what would happen to her next.