Disclamer: I own nothing of any series appearing within this fanfic. I only claim the Shard that Yuffie finds and the fanfic itself. From this chapter I also clame Xion Mae, Son Mae, Daughter Tide, and the Realmwolven race. It's a long story about these characters.
The Shard: A piece of Magicite that Yuffie found in a cave near Wutai. It is called Elrias, and is a Lost Esper. He allows her to teleport from world to world, but this power is random. It allows her to use Elemental Magic(earth/fire/wind/water) as well as some Healing and Status Magic(Curaga, Reflect, Esuna).
First Blood, the Druidland Tribe
Yuffie had a strange falling sensation, she could hear the rush of wind in her ears. She cries out, landing hard on the ground. Opening her eyes, she can see a large forest around her. 'Huh? Trees? Wasnt I just in a cave...' she thinks to herself. Sitting up, she puts her left hand to her forehead, the top of the Shard pressing against her forehead. "Huh? So this thing was real." she says, lowering her hand to look at the thing. Now that she was out in the light, she got a better look at it. The thing was about the size of her fist, and the two longer edges were jagged. Looking very closely at the Shard, she could see a red, vaguely human-shaped gem-like thing within it's green exterior. "What a weird piece of Magic Materia." she says, laying back onto her back and holding the Shard above her head. "Man, I've GOT to get back home!" Yuffie determines, tightening her grip on the Shard, surprised that the thing cut so easily into her flesh. "Oh, GAWD! It's going to take forever to get the blood out!" She whines, a few drops of the blood falling onto her shirt.
After a good half hour of bitching at herself, the Shard, and Vincent too for good measure since he was the one that told her of the materia, Yuffie climbs to her feet to take a look around her. The trees seemed to streach for miles in any direction. Huge, lush, green redwoods. The trees were much differant than the ones back in Wutai, even differant than the ones near Junon. They were much thicker. Heaving a great sigh she starts out, just walking. If nothing else, she wanted to get out of the forest. She'd spent way too much time there before meeting Cloud and the others. "Well, this can't get much worse, I guess." she sighs, then stops dead in her tracks. She looks around, hopig she'd just left it laying on the ground. But, after backtracking to where she'd laded, Yuffie determined she'd lost it. "My Throwing Star!" she falls to her knees, tears in her eyes. "Awww MAAAAN! Where is it?" she whines. All her materia'd been on it as well. "Stupid materia!" she curses the one in her hand, throwing it away. When her hand returned to rest on her shorts, she discovers it was still there. "What the?" this was a complete surprise. Lifting her hand and opening it, she releases a few drops of blood onto the ground, but not the Shard itself. Whining more, she slams her fists into the ground, the jagged jewel cutting deeper into her hands. Her crying out and the scent of blood wasn't going unnoticed by the wildes surrounding her. Just as she stopped screaming, three large wolf-looking creatures catch the scent of Yuffie's human blood.
The largest of the cloaked creatures whips it's head about, catching the girl's scent first. "Father! Why do we always have to wear these? Humans never come onto our lands!" the middle-sized one complains. He was only six feet tall, but that was the average size for humans much older than himself.
"They don't, do they Son Mae? Smell the winds. There's an injured female not too far." the largest says. Obediantly, the smaller creatures sniff at the wind, gasping in surprise. The largest was, of course, the leader. He stood seven and a half feet tall, much taller than most humans grow to be.
"But... I haven't smelled anything like that near here. Where'd the human come from?" the smallest asks the others. She was just a bit smaller than her brother, but her form was much trimmer. Even under the cloak it was easy to tell this.
"Simple, Daughter Tide. She teleported here." the largest grins under his cloak, golden orbs glinting at the two. "Go slowly, we will meet the human together. His children nod, the daughter had a small smile played across her lips. The three start towards the scent, the largest shifting something small in his arms.
Yuffie had continued to whine, not paying much attention to her surroundings like she should've been. Within seconds the three creatures are around her, all towering and looking menacing, golden orbs peering at her from the three hoods. "Ahhhh!" she cries out in surprise, falling backwards hard.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" the middle-sized one, Mae, demands, only to recieve a swat on the back of his head by the largest.
"Forgive my son, Miss. He is still learning." the largest bows to Yuffie.
"Umm... I guess I could..." she says uneasily.
"Your clothes are rather... odd. And you smell strange." Tide states.
"I could say the same about your choice of clothes." the ninja girl smirks.
"Blame him, not us." Mae jerks his head to his father, recieving another swat to the back of his head. "HEY! What'd I do?" another swat.
"Mae, shut it!" the smalles snaps at him. Yuffie found it funny, the one called Mae making some offending comment, recieving a swat from the largest one.
"So, I know his name. Who're you two?" Yuffie asks, looking at the two exstremes.
"I am called Xion Mae. These are my children, Mae and Tide." the largest says. He made some strange point to keep one arm cradled against his stomach and chest at all times. Yuffie found this very strange.
"I'm Yuffie." she'd started to give her last name, but wasn't sure if she should. Xion Mae nods, reaching up and pulling back his hood, revealing a very furry face and head. The man's mouth was elongated a bit, being mostly human but it reminded her of her friend Nanaki. Only this guy's fur was a silvery-brown. "Y-you... you're a wolf." she stammers.
"Realmwolven." Mae corrects, yet another swat at his head.
"At least she knows we're not lycanthropes, Mae." Tide says. At the word 'lycanthrope', a loud whining-cry starts from Xion Mae's arm, and Yuffie realizes what it was that he's holding.
"Tide, you and Mae take Dawn and go back to your mother. I'll deal with the girl." Xion Mae orders, shifting the crying mound from his arms to the smallest one's. Mae drops to all fours and runs off, Tide following on her hind feet. Once the two are gone, Xion Mae turns back to Yuffie.
"Umm... I think I should be going now..." Yuffie starts, trying to slip away from the large wolven man.
"And where would you go, Miss Yuffie? To the south? West? East? It's nothing but snow for several miles outside this forest. Your best bet is to come with me." he says, not making a move to stop her, but his voice tempting her like an incubi to a virgin.
"What do you mean, 'best bet'?" she asks.
"Come, and I will show you what that could be in your hand." He says, dropping to all fours and starting to follow his children. Casting a backwards glance to her, Yuffie finally descides to follow.
A week passes, Yuffie and Xion Mae are in a small underground room. Three large tomes sit between the two, each holding one of the set of five. "So, have you found anything yet, Xion?" Yuffie asks him, not looking up from her tome.
"Some rather interesting things, yes. This volume here states that a woman named 'Jenova'..." As soon as that last word was from his muzzle, the Shard begins glowing. It seemed to recognize the name.
"Ahhh, Xion..." she says uneasily, her body pulsating with a strange greenish-blue light. As the wolven man looks up, Yuffie's body fades away, leaving barely a trace of the ninja girl.
Reviewer Response: RinoaWings-Well, if you're hoping for constant updates, it'll be a fair while. I'm working on getting a long Star Ocean: The Second Story fic typed along with this one. I'll take a look at your fic when I can. Probly won't edit this until I'm getting ready to post the chapter, so I don't know if you'll see this part or not... And I THINK the accepted term for Yuffie/Vincent is Yuffientine, or something like that.
CONTEST!- I'll be needing ideas for the differant worlds she goes to. After all, she's gone for 3 years! Sumbit your ideas in either a review or an email directly to me! Prefferably games, but not opposed to movies or books. I won't, however, try my hand at something I've never seen/read/played. Like, I might do a Warcraft Trilogy world, but not a World of Warcraft or Everquest world. So far I know I'm going to do a Legend of Mana world and near the end'll be a FF6 world. Other than that, lemme know where you think she should go!