Confrontations: Guado vs. Ronso
Zephyr had been silent for quite some time, and during the trip to Besaid, she had been fiddling with her gun; dismantling a barrel here, greasing some odd little secondary trigger there. She felt quite at home on the ferry, as she was used to a rather utilitarian environment. Steel. Crisp ocean air. Salt water. Ah, but salt was a troublesome thing . . . the wrong electrical charge and you'd be breathing chlorine gas, swallowing poisonous sodium. Zephyr had been a studious child, and knew the laws of chemistry well.
As the boat pulled into the docks, she clipped her gun to her belt once more and glanced out at the shore. On land stood a Ronso, a species of which Zephyr hadn't had the severe displeasure of seeing for years. Sure, the young ones were sometimes open-minded, and the elders were sometimes wise . . . but that was the case with every species, and she knew that the Ronso had an unquenchable hatred for the Guado.
She smiled, in spite of this. It wasn't the Guado who had destroyed the Ronso, in any case. It was him. And he wasn't a Guado . . . he was a half Guado, just like she was.
Oh, they had no idea. Just like she was.
With this thought, she stepped onto the railing of the ferry and leapt onto the docks, hiking boots clanking heavily against the wooden surface. She made her way to the place where the Ronso stood - apparently being accused of knocking out several innocent men. Typical. Bloody slow dolts . . .
…
Calix walked to the end of the dock as the ferry arrived at the docks, shifting his weight as the grand moving structure bumped into the small wooden structure that was unbelievably meant to hold the ship...
As he waited for the ferry to set out for where ever it was going, he moved to sit at the edge of the dock, but was knocked over by a spunky half Guado girl. With the force of the girl Calix fell flat onto his back, but was on his feet in less than a few moments, and following the young woman.
…
A young woman had stepped off of the ferry rather quickly and was approaching Lhinx, almost reminding her of the behemoth she had to fight.
(Uh oh...) Lhinx thought.
Lhinx eyed the girl, noting her features looked almost Guado. The Ronso's hair on the back of her neck stood up a bit out of instinct.
(She doesn't look too scary, but then again that smell coming from her...it reminds me of hunters...)
"Yes?" Lhinx asked, or rather demanded of the girl, making sure her teeth could be seen just enough but not noticeably.
…
"It's been a while," Zephyr said softly, noticing the Ronso's gesture of visible fangs. As a similar gesture, she allowed her hand to hover over her gun.
"Tell me," she continued in a distant yet somehow dangerous tone, left hand on her hip, "was it your father that killed my mother's family, in the time of Vegnagun?" The half-Guado's voice rose steadily as she continued, becoming more intense, more frightening. "Was it your mother that drove the summoners away, wishing every Guado to become a fiend, to walk the earth in anger and in jealousy!?" She clenched her right fist over the trigger lock of her gigantic firearm, glaring furiously at the Ronso she had never met before, awaiting her reply.
Zephyr was, as always, a good actress. Her mother, Risa, was an only child. Risa's parents had died on the raid on the Al Bhed Home, in years gone by, fighting in valiant service of he, their lord and protector, the honorable Maester Seymour Guado. They never knew that their Maester exterminated the Ronso.
In truth, her thought processes were much simpler than the complex web of filial love and revenge. There must have been a reason why he wanted them exterminated. There was a reason he wanted them gone, and Zephyr would complete the noble deed of the only lord she would ever answer to, the only man ever to exist that could even begin to comprehend who she was. He knew her pain and pangs of insanity. He had lived through them too.
…
(Great...now I'm gonna start a scene...awe well...)
"If you are angry for Guado and Ronso injustices and wish for fight, I will defend honor of Ronso." Lhinx brought out her lance and stared down at the half Guado.
(Elder forgive me.)
"My father did kill Guado. Elder Kimahri taught me this was wrong. But Lhinx will not back down from fight."
Lhinx bore her teeth and the pupils of her eyes thinned into paper-thin angry black lines. "Guado anger and jealousy not brought on by Ronso, but by Guado hatred," Lhinx said.
…
Calix had been walking behind the Guado mix, but backed off as the two taunted and bore threats towards each other. He didn't want the Ronso to take on the Guado, but he couldn't let down his spirits and stop a well matched fight...As he though about the fact of it being a fair fight he noticed that the Guado had a gun, and that was not at all fair. Even though he knew that it wasn't fair, he couldn't do what he wanted to so he just watched, hoping he would get the chance to make it fair.
…
Zephyr narrowed her eyes. Well, she shouldn't really be surprised that this beast wasn't much for verbal conflict . . . immediately pulling out the weapon. So like them, she thought. So like those simple creatures. Destroy it. It's what your lord would want.
At the very same instant, however, the half-Guado knew that she couldn't kill the Ronso. Not now. Not around Lucine. After she had gained the prestige she would achieve from finding the lost Gullwings . . . after that, she would start her lord's revolution again.
Zephyr knew how to twist the odds in her favor, how to make Lucine see her as more of a victim, more of a . . . hah . . . trustworthy, honest, noble person . . .
And so it was that, apparently not thinking straight, the slight form of a halfling literally charged that of a gigantic Ronso youth. However determined the sprint was, it packed little momentum with it.
…
Calix looked at the two in their mortal stand off, neither doing anything at the moment. Time seemed to move half as fast, as if the planet was cast with Slowga. By the time Calix had morphed his staff into a cane form, so it was easier to rest upon whilst waiting.
…
(She's kidding me...)
Lhinx moved her hand forward and stopped the Guado with a simple, but effective push. The halfling was small and springy, like a Guado and it should've been faster then it was and able to put up more of a fight.
"Get up." Lhinx demanded.
(This is pathetic...She has a gun, why won't she use it? What does she have planned? A knife perhaps?)
"Why pick fight when Guado halfling not even use weapon?" Lhinx asked.
"Because it's stupid to kill people," Zephyr answered, glaring up at Lhinx. Her words were truthful, for once. She stumbled to her feet awkwardly, clenching and unclenching her fists. "Really stupid. I want to make you understand how senseless the deaths of my people were, I want to make you understand while you can still hear me screaming for my grandparents back!" Alright, so the last part was embellished a little. It was all in the interest of good drama.
With that, Zephyr whipped out her gun, loaded it faster than the eye could follow, and shot Lhinx once, twice, three times. The ammunition consisted of bomb fragments, burning hot slices of fiends driven to suicide . . .
…
(Oh my-)
Lhinx let out a semi-loud roar of pain clenching the part of her body where the three shots had been fired.
(It burns...stinking Guado...)
"Guado halfling foolish." Lhinx said as she looked at her opponent. "Lhinx grandparents die at hands of Guado Maester Seymour. Guado halfling fool if think that Lhinx not understand death wrong."
Lhinx swung her poleaxe at the girl, her strength hindered by the intense pain of the fire.
…
As soon as he heard the first shot go off Calix's right arm was up, and the cane extended, knocking the gun out of the woman's hands, not allowing her to cause senseless death. After she was disarmed, Calix was atop her, the staff into cane size and across her chest. His knees were holding her arms down and his face close to hers. "Calm down...." he started then was stopped as he realized the image of the lady he had so swiftly secured, and his cheeks turned rosy red as he blushed. His more shy side of him took over his body now and his grip on her loosened.
…
"Human!" Lhinx roared. "Leave Guado and Ronso business alone!"
Lhinx lifted the human boy by the back of the shirt and with a painful thrust threw him aside. (Man. It hurts...its like Hell...)
Lhinx was breathing harder now, each slight movement hurting.
…
"Someone has an over-inflated sense of justice," Zephyr remarked tersely. She smirked in spite of herself, throwing a sideways glance to her gun before looking back up to the sunglasses of the man on top of her. "If I may know to whom I owe the pleasure?"
…
(Humans...) Lhinx thought in frustration.
Zephyr leapt to her feet and snatched her gun from the dock where it lay, glancing at the interfere a few feet away. "Save it for later," she called with a grin. She was into it now.
"I would thank the human, were I you," she snarled, having turned back to Lhinx. "Your heart is so cold that you can't take a little bit of heat . . ." In spite of her talk, she clipped her gun to her belt. "Be wiser in choosing your battles in the future, Ronso. I could kill you, and that would be a loss for you and I both . . ."
Zephyr turned around and watched the boat for her companions, hand still resting uneasily on her gun. Just in case.
…
Landing onto the sturdy wood that he knew so well as home, the man let out a silent gasp as the wind was knocked out of him. Calix was soon back onto his feet, thinking and looking back and forth between the two who were just in the heat of battle What a day… he thought as he wondered about his near future, which he figured were going to end up with the strangers off the ship.
…
(She's good...I am at her mercy and a shot to my pride is way better then actually killing me...Why didn't I see it?)
"Lhinx only grateful Elder not here to see shame..." Lhinx said, hanging her head sadly.
(Wait...what does she mean loss for both of us?)
Lhinx still felt the pangs of the heat and knew well that another two or three shots would do her in. Her breathing was hard and the humiliation did not help.
…
Zephyr glanced back around at the human.
"Your kind doesn't understand ours," she stated simply. "They call me Zephyr," she continued, a strong breeze whipping up at the word, "for I have the strength and drive of a tempest, but am capricious as a tornado . . . owing to my heritage, doubtless."
She pulled her hair down from its sloppy bun. It fell more or less straight, and ridiculously streaked, down to the small of her back. It blew into her eyes in the wind, but she didn't seem to mind. After a moment's thought, she smirked and tugged a lock of hair at the human and the Ronso.
"It's been lovely meeting you both," she said in an oddly sweet voice, the sweet of the nectar of a flytrap or pitcher flower, just waiting for something to get too close . . .
…
Lhinx growled low out of anger, her teeth showing.
(How could I fall for that first trick?)
Lhinx held back the urge to pounce at the girl from behind.
(No, that would be disgraceful. No Ronso attacks from behind. I've already given the Ronso a bad name by fighting her and I can't afford to challenge her again too soon anyways...Wait.... She came from Luca...maybe she...no, I've disgraced my father enough by losing to her. Asking her for assistance would be too hard for him. Father forgive me...)
Lhinx stood up straight and looked down at the human male.
"Thank you." Lhinx said.
…
Calix looked to the Ronso as it addressed him, he nodded and looked oddly at the Guado, talking a few quick steps towards the ship, which he would need to be boarding so he could continue his search for the missing trio. Well I'm glad I never lost my glasses in that, it might have turned out worse than it is... much worse...
…
Lhinx looked about, meeting the occasional glance of those who had witnessed the scuffle. Lhinx watched the Guado halfling walk off.
(I know it is wrong to hold the Guado accountable for their past transgressions, but this one...this one's making me wish to change my mind...)
…
Zephyr spoke softly to Calix as he passed by. "We return no grudge that isn't held against us, spiral eyes. Your glasses don't fool me." She said nothing more than that.
…
(What is it now?) Lhinx watched the two beings, hearing the statement but not really seeing its relevance to her own job.
(Right then, on to Luca. I almost forgot why I was here.)
Lhinx walked toward the dock.
…
Calix stopped suddenly as she said this to him " Of all things Guado, of all things in my life of insult. That is the first time I have been called spiral eyes...." The almost charming man stated with the sheer enthusiasm to beat the Guado to the ground.
…
Shocked at Calix's reaction to what Zephyr thought was a harmless phrase, Zephyr looked at him wide-eyed. "You misunderstood me, I only meant to say . . . I meant . . ."
Under the gaze she knew was hiding beneath those glasses, she stumbled backwards and shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "I didn't mean to offend."
Here was a race that didn't hold a short-term grudge, or any grudge at all. They were hated because of what made them great, their intellectual curiosity, and their machines. For their greatness, they were despised. The injustice of the Al Bhed situation hit Zephyr like a ton of bricks, and she found herself incapable of looking Calix in the eye.