(Haha, yes, Silver is based off a lot of different people, isn't he? Ah well, that's what makes him cool, ne? Hai, Zephyr's an awesome name. Too bad we lose some people later on…but it gets really good! I'm sure you'll all like it! Thanks for the comment, Desertman!)
Return to the Place Where We First Met
The boat was close enough to Luca for Lhinx to hear the crowds within the sphere stadium.
(So this is Luca. Wow, Elder Kimahri was right, this is a rather noisy place.)
Zephyr smirked. "Well, here we are again," she said. The halfling turned to Silver. "We don't have enough people in our group to make up a blitz team, do we? I don't remember how many players there are on each side. . ."
"Six on each side. One keeper, two defensive, two central and one lead on the attack. And there are seven of us, so we got one reserve," Silver looked at Lhinx. "As a Ronso I bet you can keep your breath for a real long time, just like we Demons do. So maybe you could be our keeper... I am then good central or attacker, as long as I'm no defensive... I get too rude then."
Silver laughed a little. "I heard Kai is good, and... Tallulah is a pretty good defensive player herself. That makes four of us..." He kind of blushed a little when he mentioned Tallulah, but then smiled again and hugged Serenity tighter.
"Oh, Kai is good. Great even. He's usually always away from the island playing blitzball for some odd team…" Serenity trailed off, and focused her attention on the stadium as the boat came closer to the dock instead of how little she's been with her own brother growing up. "I think…I'll take the reserve. We do want to win, after all, don't we?" Serenity giggled.
"Lhinx not play blitzball in long time. Slow underwater, so Lhinx happy to be keeper." Lhinx then looked down toward Serenity. "You do fine. Serenity father good, so Serenity must be good. Must try to find out."
(We get to play? I hope I'm not too rusty...) The Ronso youth thought.
Zephyr shrugged. "I'm a quick swimmer and I've got a good arm from lugging my gun around and throwing grenades," she said offhandedly. Briefly, the mischievous halfling pondered the tossing of some waterproof grenades in the blitz sphere. "I wonder how Lucine is at blitz?" she added, hoping no one caught that funny glint in her eye that she was told existed when she was thinking innovative (some called them insane) thoughts.
The boat pulled to a slow glide down toward a soft halt. Lhinx looked toward the other docks where she could barely make out 6 gray masses on one of the docks.
(It's the Ronso Fangs!) Lhinx's tail swished around in anticipation. (Larit, Junpei, Zeik, Brun, Olea and Toru!)
"Then you could be our central, or even our attacker," Silver told Zephyr, then looked at Serenity. "And you play even if I have to warm the bench, eh? It's not that hard to play blitzball and I'm not letting you leave Luca until you play."
Serenity laughed nervously. She was really glad that her friends were supporting her and wanted her to play but…she was certain that Kai had gotten most of Tidus' blitzball playing abilities, if not all. And she wasn't ready to try it out in front of people and prove herself right. "Well, if you guys insist…" Serenity said a bit uncertainly.
Serenity looked over the other docks as their boat finally pulled in. She stretched her hands in front of her. "I am so glad that we didn't get attacked this time around. Let's get off this boat before anything does happen."
"At your command, m'lady," Silver said, lifting the freezer pack and the bags again, along with his beloved blitzball. Then he remembered…Tallulah was still downstairs. He wanted to go and tell her they've got to Luca, but he knew that he and Serenity were the least persons she wanted to see. "Lhinx, may I ask you a favor? Can you go downstairs tell Tallulah we're already here?" Silver smiled at her and took Serenity's hand, nodding at the Ronso and walked off the boat.
"Tiger here!" someone shouted in a happy voice and soon they were surrounded by Ronsos. The Ronso Fangs...Silver's very first team.
Lhinx fought the urge to go greet her fellow Ronso, but followed through with her favor to Silver.
(There'll be plenty of time to talk to them later...) Lhinx thought.
She made her way towards the cabin and entered the door. There she went down the stairs and looked around, sniffing the air for any traces of the songstress' scent.
(There she is!) Lhinx thought and walked in.
"Tallulah? We in Luca already. Time to go." Lhinx said, approaching slowly the songstress.
(Has she been...crying?) Lhinx wondered.
"Tallulah...okay?" Lhinx asked, concern noted in her tone.
Tallulah sat up and saw Lhinx standing there. She was taken aback by her huge size at first, but then she was hit by reality. "Yeah, I'm ok" Tallulah lied, brushing the tears off her eyes "I just got a little seasick." Of course, that wasn't true either, since she loved the sea. But she was lovesick... to such an extreme she wished Serenity was an unsent or something and she could get rid of her somehow. But she knew that wasn't possible. Revenge would come... but not something like killing her, it was better to hurt her soul and not her body.
"We in Luca already? That was fast," she said while jumping off bed and taking her bag and her staff. Tallulah looked up at the Ronso and faked a smile "Lhinx, I need your help. Can you please walk just right in front of me until we get off the boat? I'm not feeling like having people all around me asking for an autograph or something."
Serenity smiled uncertainly as Silver spoke with the Ronso that had come and surrounded them to talk to Silver. They were all quite tall and Serenity felt out of place, especially since she didn't know any of them. Serenity took all the bags that she could carry from Silver, feeling it was best he have a good one-to-one chat with them. "I'll just…put these in the locker room…or something…" Serenity said softly, and bowed out of the group, which was hard to do properly with the bags, and made her way down the length of the dock towards the stadium.
"Tiger been ok?" one of the Ronso asked him, the one he could recognize as Brun, the main attacker.
"It's been a long time, pals," Silver said, laughing, almost embarrassed by the attention of his former teammates. "What you all doing here? It's not Blitz season just yet."
"Brun and others came for favor. Elder Kimahri not happy lately, no Ronso happy if Elder isn't. We come for training. Brun wins cup for Gagazet and make Elder Kimahri happy," Brun said, looking down at Silver, who even when he was almost as tall as Lhinx was still too short next to him or any of the other Ronso Fangs.
"Hey, that's nice!" Silver said. "We are planning on playing some blitzball, maybe you could be our opponents... oh, sorry," Silver looked back at Serenity and smiled kindly at her, but a little worried she went all by herself.
"Tiger's woman?" Another Ronso, Toru, asked with a strange grin as he pointed his finger at Serenity fading in the distance. Silver just blushed a lot and looked down at his feet. "You could say so."
"Hey, I'll play center,"Zephyr offered with a shrug. "I mean, all I have to do is catch the ball and throw it to you, right?" The halfling chuckled, and patted Silver on the back. "Take it easy, 'Tiger'," she advised, using the name the Ronso had called him by.
Zephyr smirked and stepped off the boat, strolling down the wooden dock with a relaxed gait. She wondered - was this the place where he stepped, so long ago, addressing the masses gathered for the great game? Probably not, she knew, because Yevon had controlled a different dock then and New Yevon controlled selfsame now. It was a shame, but no matter. It wasn't that important, she realized, to be like Lord Seymour; it was important for people to understand him, though. And no one understood him like Raphaela Guado, alias Zephyr.
Once she was about halfway down the dock, she turned on her heel and waited for her group. They always seemed to take so long...but she could see they were positively occupied, speaking with the Fangs. She wondered if a single member of that team would ever look her in the eye. Their condensed gene pool, born from the few Ronso that survived Seymour's attack, had produced even stronger beings. And beautiful; at least, Zephyr thought so. They were so many things that she would never be.
Silver smiled at Zephyr and nodded as she past by. Then his attention was once again on the Ronso Fangs. All of them where looking at Zephyr with some... hard feelings, but he could not smell hatred coming from them. "Hey, guys, what's with the grim faces? Last time I saw you we had a joyfully party, remember? Well, come on and tell me how is life back in Gagazet." He tried to make them forget about Zephyr and the race she was fro a while, at least until he had time to introduce them properly.
"I'm traveling with a Ronso, you know. Lhinx Ronso, she is pretty strong and kind, and even attractive in the Ronso way" Silver laughed as he smirked and the Fangs once again smiled.
"Woman with emerald and sapphire eyes, she just like High Summoner Yuna... she something of High Summoner?" Toru asked and Silver couldn't help but nod.
"Yes, she is Lady Yuna's daughter. Her name is Serenity. We are all traveling together. An Al-Bhed girl called Lucine, Lhinx, that Guado girl you just saw... Lady Tallulah Moonlight..." When Silver mentioned her, it kind of triggered the attention of all the Fangs "... Serenity's brother called Kai and me."
"So Tiger with daughter of High Summoner? Tiger just the same as Brun remembers." The Ronso kind of laughed when saying this and made Silver blush the most. "But Tiger was with Lady Tallulah, Tiger left Lady Tallulah?"
"That's ancient history, pal. I don't wanna talk about it. Let's wait here till my friends get off the ship and I'll introduce you, then we can go join Serenity at the Stadium." He looked up at Brun and pat his stone-solid chest with the back of his hand. "So you wanna win the cup this year, huh? Well, the tournament is still a long way ahead, if I'm back from my journey before it starts I might help you win again."
The Ronso Fangs laughed in the way only Ronso could, with that deep, mighty voices. "Tiger as cocky as ever," Brun said, and for the way he pronounce 'cocky' it was obvious he still wasn't used of talking that way, even when Silver had tried to teach them several years ago, "He makes us win cup for Elder this time and Ronso build make a big party. Why Tiger always traveling?"
Silver laughed. "This time is not a pleasure trip, you know. But I think we can save that for later."
Serenity plopped down the bags on top of one of the benches in a spare locker room, and then fell upon the bench herself. She may have carried the lightest stuff, but to carry them all at once made the load quite heavy. Serenity then smiled inwardly and lied back on the bench amongst the bags. She was finally first going somewhere and now she could take the time waiting of the others to relax and unwind.
Though with the loud cheering coming from the stadium from the unclosed locker room door, that proved to be quite a challenge, but it didn't bother her too much. Serenity sat up and bent her head down, lifting her hair up and waving her hand behind her neck as a primitive fan. The noise made her unable to think clearly and that was just wanted she wanted and needed at the moment. "Just breathe," Serenity whispered to herself, and let her hair drop down, shaking her head.
Lhinx nodded to Tallulah and preceded to walk in front of the songstress.
(She was lying about her tears. I could smell. I guess its best not to push the issue too much though.)
"We play blitzball soon." Lhinx said to Tallulah as the came onto the deck. "That sound fun?"
Tallulah walked with her hands resting on Lhinx's back, so close to her that her breast was actually touching the back of her hands. She tried to move like the Ronso's shadow as they got off the boat. "Sounds like fun to me...Silver is a good teacher when it comes to either fighting, history lessons or Blitzball" she lowered her head and brushed her tears away once again. "You wanna greet your fellow Ronso?"
Lhinx nodded to Tallulah and approached the Fangs.
"Little Lhinx!" Olea, the female right defender of the Ronso Fangs, ran up to Lhinx and hugged her tightly. "Little Lhinx not as little now."
"Olea still bigger though." Lhinx said with a grin.
Olea laughed.
"You travel with Tiger, where going to?" Olea asked with Zeik coming up behind her.
"Favor for Elder Kimahri. Looking for Lady Yuna." Lhinx said, looking up at both of the older Ronso.
"Biran worried about Lhinx." Zeik said with a worried expression.
Lhinx's head sunk a bit, her ears drooping with a bit of depression now.
"Biran big Ronso, will be okay." Olea said, patting Lhinx hard on the back.
"Fan give Zeik item when come here." Zeik said, quickly changing the subject.
"What item?" Lhinx asked curiously.
"It ancient charm, not know where come from, but it got strong magic." Zeik paused, looking around, then to Olea, who nodded. He then bent his head down to Lhinx's ear and whispered. "It can make Ronso look human."
Lhinx's eyes widened.
Zeik stood back up straight, looking wearily toward Zephyr who stood off waiting for the group.
"You travel with half-Guado." Zeik said with obvious disapproval in his voice.
"What your point?" Lhinx asked, feeling a bit of anger.
"Be careful, little Lhinx. This all we saying." Olea said with concern in her eyes. "Ronso not only side with grudge."
"Zephyr is Lhinx friend. Not have to be careful with Zephyr, she is important part of group." Lhinx replied.
"Lhinx better pray Biran not find out." said another Ronso female, Larit, who held the left attack position on the blitzball team. She had walked up to the little group.
"Lhinx not have to answer to Biran!" Lhinx raised her voice this time.
"Lhinx telling us or herself?" Larit asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
Olea shook her head and placed her hand on Lhinx's shoulder.
"Lhinx still young. Will make up mind on own and make right decision." Olea said with a smile to the young Ronso.
"Oh, so you know each other pretty well," Silver said, standing next to Lhinx. Ronsos all around here, maybe if he was somebody else, most likely a human, he would feel just too intimidated to say anything near so many huge creatures. But he liked Ronsos, even could have a crush on one if he found any that was his tall. But all of them where bigger and broader than poor Silver Fang.
"Yes, Olea like big sister to Lhinx. Zeik cousin to Lhinx, and Larit teach Lhinx how to swim," Lhinx said with pride.
"Knew Lhinx sense she was pup. She good Ronso and will be excellent warrior when older." Zeik said, ruffling Lhinx's white hair playfully.
"Until then, she still little Lhinx, but big problem." Olea said while poking Lhinx's rib in a tickling gesture.
"Lhinx be big before she know it." Larit said with a small smile.
Lhinx looked to Larit. The older Ronso female gave her one of those older sibling kind of looks that said "You better do what's right if you know what's good for you."
(Why can't she just leave me alone about Biran?) Lhinx thought with a bit of anger.
Silver looked at the female Ronso talking to each other and listened carefully. Something about Lhinx traveling with Zephyr wasn't right for them.
The old battle Seymour started...
"Hey, girls calm down. We haven't seen each other in a long time, let's just go play some blitzball and have some drinks after that. Serenity must be waiting for us at the Lockers," Silver said, smiling at the all of them and waiting to see Lucine and Kai walk down the boat.
Lucine stepped off the boat, glad to be back on dry land. The ocean was great...for a while. But after even a few hours, everything started to look the same. She walked past Silver, Tallulah and Lhinx who were talking to some other Ronsos. She hovered around them for a few seconds, but decided she better move on. She had no idea what the were talking about. "I guess I should've gotten off of the boat sooner..." She said quietly, looking around for someone else to talk to. and since Serenity was nowhere to be found, the only person left was Zephyr.
She walked a ways down the dock and came upon Zephyr. Lucine set her bags down and stood beside her, hands behind her back. She took a quick glance at Zephyr, then looked back down at the ground. Should I say something to her...? Lucine thought. Zephyr wasn't always the easiest person to start up a conversation with. "So...Zephyr...did you enjoy the boat ride?"
"Yes, Fangs should go to locker room now. Will see you and team later, Tiger, Lhinx." Brun said to his teammates.
"Good luck." Olea said as she left with the other Ronso. As the Ronso Fangs left, Lhinx looked to her friends.
"Lhinx hope not have to play Ronso Fangs." Lhinx said with about the same tone as she usually had. She then looked behind her to Tallulah.
"Tallulah can come out now." Lhinx said.
"Why not play with them? I know they are pretty good but we can do better. You have the former star of their team standing right in front of you," Silver joked and made a hero-like pose with the his blitzball, same that he broke when he saw Tallulah coming from behind Lhinx. "How much longer were you planning to hide behind Lhinx? You know your lavender perfume betrays you" Silver said, smiling kindly.
She is mad at you...
But why? I have the right to be with whomever I want...
She gave herself to you...
And I to her, and she betrayed me and went after that Yevonite jerk...
But she has changed...
So have I, and I love Serenity...
You'll lose Tallulah, then?
The only way for me to be with her is as her friend, nothing more...
"So only Kai is still on the ship, eh?" Silver asked and put thumb and index finger into his mouth to whistle real loud, calling for him.
Tallulah came out from behind Lhinx with her staff tight in her hands. She was a little nervous for some reason, but she still glared at Silver. How could he be smiling at her, or talking to her like that after he'd done. He was now with another woman, and Tallulah really wished she could hate him... but she couldn't.
"I'm not feeling like signing autographs right now" she said, explaining herself. "So, are we going to play blitzball?"
The halfling grinned and gave Lucine a playful shove, which begged the question: who was this girl and what had she done with Zephyr Guado?
"You must have been below decks when I played lookout," she said, smoothing her hair back out of her eyes and returning it to its sloppy bun. The sea breeze that had been in effect ever since they arrived suddenly died down, the wind only returning occasionally to blow Zephyr's bangs out of place in protest. "I climbed up the flagpole. The seas were remarkably calm on our trip. . . a run of good luck, maybe," she added, mostly to herself.
"You any good at blitzball, Lucine? I'm playing center, Silver's attacking and Lhinx is the goalie. I think Tallulah's playing either attack or defense, and Tiger over there will drag Serenity into the sphere if it kills him." Zephyr smirked. "I'd rather play Sphere Break, personally. I hardly need a physical workout, but my brain is growing lazier and lazier these days." She spoke cheerfully and easily, a pleasant change from her usually taciturn self.
"...eh..?" Lucine said as she stumbled to the side, being totally un-prepared for Zephyr's shove. She stood up straight and looked at Zephyr, eyes wide. She's kinda scary when she's nice...Lucine thought, still staring at her. Then Zephyr's question brought her out of it.
"You any good at blitzball, Lucine? I'm playing center, Silver's attacking and Lhinx is the goalie. I think Tallulah's playing either attack or defense, and Tiger over there will drag Serenity into the sphere if it kills him." Zephyr smirked.
Returning to normal, Lucine was prepared to answer. "Well...I've played before, but..." she looked out into the Ocean, thinking. "I'm small, so I wouldn't be much help on defense, so maybe offense? I'm pretty fast."
"Should get to locker rooms and sign up desk first." Lhinx said. "Can Silver get team in?"
Serenity sat up on the bench, propping her elbows behind her as a support. She figured she could take a look around the stadium since she didn't really have time to the last time she was there. So with that, Serenity sat up and walked out of the locker room, keeping the door slightly ajar as she left. The main part of the stadium seemed to be clearing out, for the last blitzball game had ended, and it was being prepared for the next one, the game they were most likely going to play. Leaning against a nearby railing, Serenity looked about. This was where her father played blitzball...where her mother had her first concert. Serenity stared and hoped that her memories of the place would be just as good.
"Will do, just have to find my cousin. Let's all go to the Stadium and meet Serenity" he whistled again for Kai "Hey, Kai, we are going to the Stadium! Leave that blonde cutie you are making out with and come here!" Silver joked and went towards Lucine and Zephyr. "Ready, m'ladies?" he offered both his arms for the girls to take.
As Lucine was talking to Zephyr, she saw Silver approach.
"Ready, m'ladies?" Silver said, offering his arms.
"Are you sure, silver?" Lucine said with a joking smile. "I don't think Serenity would be too happy about it." She giggled, and took his arm anyway. She was sure Serenity wouldn't mind. "So, are we going to play a game of Blitzball now?"
Zephyr smirked, and passed on Silver's arm. "Blame it on independent woman syndrome," she explained in brief. She walked ahead of the group towards the locker rooms. "I envision this being a very strange blitzball game," she muttered under her breath. "I'll have to wear a wetsuit, all of this clothing will weigh me down in the sphere. . ." The half-Guado allowed herself to sink into thought, planning on asking one of the Guado Glories to borrow their wetsuit and goggles. It wasn't as if she carried them around in her pocket, or something. Although with all the junk in her pockets, it wasn't entirely beyond the bounds of the imagination.
Lhinx hadn't even thought about her clothing and getting wet. Upon hearing part of what Zephyr had said, the Ronso youth's thoughts began to go towards the subject.
(Of course, I'll be underwater, so naturally I'll get wet. I'll have to take off my vest and armor so I'll be able to move around a little better, but I don't want the rest of my clothes getting wet. I suppose I'll have to tough it out.)
As she followed behind the group, Lhinx recalled what Zeik had said about Biran.
(Why is he so worried? He's got his own problems and I can take care of myself.) She crossed her arms over her chest. (Zeik better not get any ideas during the game, or he'll have problems.)
Silver laughed as he let Lucine take his arm and made a weird face when Zephyr refused it. He shook his head, smiling a little and offered it to either Lhinx or even Tallulah to take it, for he didn't want her to think he was mad at her or something. He wasn't the kind that kept hard feelings... unless somebody dared to hurt a beloved one of his.
"A wetsuit... whoa! I think it'll take all of me to not distract myself with that" Silver joked "I'll just wear what I have. It's designed for blitz and shall dry soon, and my mask is as good as goggles." He adjusted the freezer pack on his back with a slight movement of his spine and continue walking. "Now all we have to do is find my cousin... good old Dabion I'm sure he will let us have a few rounds inside the Sphere."
"Don't make that face, Silver," Zephyr said with a smile. "You have plenty of beautiful women to call upon, so why clutter your image with a gawky halfling girl?" Although she was tall and erred on the side of skinny, Zephyr was by no means gawky, as she was all muscle. The image of her in a wetsuit was, as Silver had suggested in jest, difficult to clear from one's mind.
Lhinx waved off Silver's arm politely.
"Thank you, but Ronso independent too." Lhinx said. "Lhinx too scary for escort."
The Ronso had never really worried about being attractive before. The issue was never much of a concern, especially with all of the slimmer, smaller Ronso females around for the males to enjoy and her own chores to complete. Lhinx was used to fighting/playing with males and had gained a reputation for being a strong female. However, being attractive was never something she felt she was good at or worth any of her time.
Tallulah made a slight grumpy face but then changed it into a smile and took Silver's arm. It may be her first step on her way to get him back. "I'm playing; I'll be defense. But I'll need a bikini or something, my sarong I can't wear and I won't swim in underpants."
Hearing everybody talk about wetsuits made Lucine look down at what she was wearing. Boots, a skirt, a small tank top and some gloves. Not exactly what you would wear into the Sphere. And she did have a bathing suit underneath, but it was a bikini...with all that movement inside the Sphere...something might...slip. "Eh...I think I might try and find a wetsuit somewhere. If the Al Bhed Psyches are playing, they might loan me one. My friend Keppel is playing on the team this year."
"Don't you worry; there are wetsuits to borrow at the Locker Rooms. We are no official team so you can just borrow them. I don't think there are any teams besides the Ronso Fangs, it isn't time for the Tournament yet." Silver suddenly went into shock, with a shiver crawling up his spine. "Wait a second! Lady Yuna is the one in charge of the opening of the blitz season! That means... we better find her like real soon or there can't be any games! She is like a leader for Spira even when she is retired, I don't think anyone would like the Tournament to be started by any Yevonites... nor Youth League... darn it!"