Fratley landed from his jump and continued to hurry away from the cathedral. He couldn't stay with her, not now. The guilt was unbearable; having to watch the heartbroken Freya break down in front of him was too much for him. As he continued to run back into the city, the same annoying young voice called out to him.
"Fratley! Wait!" Puck shouted, running up behind Fratley. The Dragon Knight turned to see what Puck wanted. The young prince stopped in front of Fratley and caught his breath, before starting a rant. "Fratley, you big dope! What was that all about! Why did ya run off like that?"
"I couldn't stay...she looked so upset about me, I couldn't keep watching her like that..." Fratley explained himself, feeling rather awkward with himself.
"Yeah, but it isn't safe out here! The black mages are still attacking the city!" Puck replied, showing very little sympathy. "Just where are ya going anyway?"
"I'm leaving..." Fratley answered. "We are grossly outnumbered by those black mages, and I can't slay them all by myself."
"But you can't just run away! What about the citizens?" Puck protested. "What about your duty as a Dragon Knight?"
"They should be safe in the cathedral, they have warriors to protect them. I have done all I can." Fratley stated, before he realised something. "Puck, does it seem to you like there are fewer mages in the city?"
"Huh? Yeah...I can't hear as many of them..." Puck responded, noticing Fratley's observation. "Maybe the Alexandrian forces are weakening..."
"No, something is wrong..." Fratley said, a worried expression appearing on his face. "Come on Puck, we have to leave!"
"What's the matter?" Puck asked, curious as to Fratley's sudden change in expression.
"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling..." Fratley answered, as he grabbed Puck's hand and began to run towards the city entrance. "But I know that we need to get out of here..."
"Shouldn't we go and warn the citizens at the cathedral?" Puck asked, having trouble keeping up with Fratley's pace and nearly being dragged along.
"No, there are still black mages in the city, and it would cost more lives than it would be worth." Fratley replied, still looking uneasy.
Puck didn't feel it was a good idea to leave the Cleyran's stuck in the cathedral. The black mages could still get to them, but they did have Freya and her group of friends to guard them.
"Yeah, let's just get out of here." Puck said, before following Fratley as they ran toward the city entrance. The two Burmecians tried to avoid contact with any of the mages, and Fratley quickly felled any mage they couldn't avoid. Fratley then decided to lift up the Burmecian prince and jump across the buildings and get a quicker escape route.
The two Burmecians were out of the settlement in a matter of moments, and Fratley wasted no time in leaping down the tree trunk. They were gaining ground quickly, and would soon be out of the sandy city. As Fratley leapt down the tree, he noticed a Cleyran Oracle running down the tree as well. Somehow the Cleyran had sneaked past the Alexandrians and mages and was also trying to flee from the city.
"Hey!" Fratley called out to the Cleyran, as he landed behind her.
The Cleyran squeaked with terror and turned around instantly. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was a Burmecian who had seen her.
"Come with us." Fratley asked the Cleyran. "We need to get out of here."
The Cleyran quickly followed Fratley and Prince Puck, who was wriggling in Fratley's grip, desperately wanting to be put down. Fratley continued to leap down the tree, with the Cleyran priest struggling to keep up with Fratley's leaps and bounds. As the group of Burmecians were nearing the base of the trunk, something strange happened.
Darkness appeared in the sky above them, with a strange orange beam of light glowing from the dark. Fratley noticed this unnatural phenomenon and quickened his pace to get out of the city. From the darkness came forth a warrior on horseback. The dark eidolon warrior Odin charged down from the sky and threw his legendary Zantesuken blade at the Cleyran tree. The attack destroyed the entire city with a raging tempest of intense flames before the entire tree was annihilated with a gigantic explosion.
Fratley, Puck and the Cleyran were all thrown forward by the explosion, just managing to get out of the city in time. They landed rather painfully in the desert sands. Fratley struggled back up onto his feet, still feeling rather shaken up from the impact. Puck also got onto his feet, and was happy that he was free from Fratley's grasp.
"Yeow! What was that?" Puck exclaimed as he stood back up. As he turned to look at what he thought was Cleyra, his jaw dropped as his eyes widened with shock.
There was a brief silence, as the three Burmecians took in what had just happened. The silence was broken by the sobs and cries of the Cleyran, who broke down at the loss of her home and friends.
"Freya..." Fratley said mournfully. "No..."
"Dad...Vivi..." Puck said in a similar fashion, whilst fighting back tears. "Damn you Alexandrians! Go to hell already!" Puck screamed angrily as a tear ran down his cheek.
It was a grim moment as the three mourned over the ashes that were once Cleyra. After a few moments, Fratley went over and tried to comfort the Cleyran, and Puck looked around to see if there were any other survivors. Apparently, two of the shrine maidens had escaped, along with a strange creature with a big tongue.
"Aiya! That was huge explosion! I nearly become pot roast!" The strange creature said, before waddling up to Puck and Fratley. The creature pointed at Puck before speaking again. "I remember you! I helped rescue you from Antlion in Cleyra! I Quina, what your name?"
"I'm Puck..." The young prince stammered. He then gestured towards Fratley "This is Fratley. How did you survive?"
"I made powerful shield with blue magic..." Quina responded simply. "I also shielded these people who followed me." Quina moved its hand to point at the two shrine maidens, who Puck had seen in the cathedral.
Both of the shrine maidens: Shannon and Sharon were crying over the destruction of their city, just like the other Cleyran Oracle had. Fratley went and comforted them as well. Fratley went back to the centre and talked to Puck, and everyone introduced themselves. It turned out the Cleyran that escaped with Fratley and Puck was called Kildea.
"Come on everyone, we'd better set off back to Burmecia. We need to find some shelter before sunset." Fratley told the entire group, before leading them towards Burmecia.
"I can't believe Freya and Vivi are gone..." Puck said grimly to himself as they marched towards Burmecia.
"They still alive!" Quina spoke up, hearing Puck's words. "They follow black mages through these weird blue bubbles. I no like heights, so I no follow them."
"Really!" Puck said, feeling brighter with these words. Quina replied by nodding, causing its large tongue to flap up and down. "You hear that Fratley? Freya's still alive!"
Fratley gave a little smile, he felt easier now that he knew the woman had survived. There was so much he needed to know from her. Puck also looked happier, the fact that Vivi survived was a strong thought, which helped ease the pain of the destruction of Cleyra. Fratley also pondered the possibility of other citizens escaping Cleyra's destruction by teleporting with the mages as he walked with the other survivors back to Burmecia.
The reconstruction of Burmecia was making good progress, but Frato knew it would be a long time before the city looked as glorious as it was before the attack. He and the other Burmecians succeeded in finishing off the monsters in the city and building work was already taking place.
Frato had taken charge of supervising the reconstruction effort, and he was glad to see everyone making a great effort to restore their home. After he felt everyone had a suitable job to busy themselves with, he decided to go into the western mountains to obtain some of the minerals they needing for the building work. There was another reason as to why Frato had chosen this task; he had been residing in Redwind's cave, which was located conveniently nearby. Although Frato sometimes slept with the Burmecians in the city and occasionally had to take up guard duty for the night shift, he didn't want to leave the red dragon for too long.
During the periods of time where he had to rest from his work in the reconstruction of the rainy city, Frato stayed in the mountains and spent his time training with the red dragon. Frato knew that this was not going to be last war Burmecia would have, and he wanted to make sure he could protect the city from falling into ruin a second time. With this in mind, Frato trained fiercely with his dragon companion.
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 9. Surely you know this by now? You must be pretty ignorant if you don't know already.
Author's Notes: Well that concludes this story. Sorry for the long update, although none of you seem to care. Why is no-one reading this story? Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.