Frigid Rain
Squall stirred in his bed as a pounding noise disturbed his sleep. Rinoa had left him in his room about an hour ago for some time alone, and he had thought that he could finally get some rest ten minutes ago when a very loud banging could be heard from the walls of his apartment. Thinking that it was just some crazy student riding the side of the Garden with his hover- bike, he decided to go out to the balcony to give the kid a good scolding.
'Damn cadet. I'll give him a demerit for...oh shit!' he thought when he saw large, basketball-size hailstones dropping on the Garden's hull.
Squall's mouth gaped wide-open as huge balls of ice dented the strong hull of the mobile academy. The skies had darkened incredibly, and the hail, which seemed to grow larger by the minute, continued pouring down on the Garden. The smallest ones were about the size of basketballs, while the larger ones could have been mistaken as Volkswagen beetles. All around the snow, great chunks of frozen stone crashed and caused billowing clouds of dispersed ice to cloud Trabia's vast Bika fields. Squall looked down and suddenly heard a woman scream.
'Rinoa!' Squall screamed in his mind. He immediately went inside his apartment and operated the steel shutters to cover the doors and windows. Taking his communicator laying on the kitchen table, he attempted to contact the Garden's assistant supervisor, Xu.
"Xu! This is Commander Leonhart. Do you copy?" he said into the receiver as a crackling sound emerged from the sleek device. Static from the hailstorm seemed to have jammed the communication lines of the Garden. Irritated, Squall began banging his hand on it until Xu's voice came out of the speaker.
"Yes commander! This is Xu speaking! Sir, we have an emergency!"
Squall scratched his head in annoyance and replied, "Xu, I know that! The Garden is being bombarded by hailstones."
"Sir, what do you want me to do about it?" Xu called from the other side of the line.
"Xu, go down to the B1 level and go to the Norg pod. Esthar technicians have recently fixed the contraption to include a shielding device on the Garden." Squall grabbed his coat from the rack and put it on as he dashed out of his house.
About a minute later, Xu replied, "Sir, I'm in. How the heck do you operate this?"
Squall pushed the "Talk" button and said, "Xu, you will see three large buttons on the silver panel in the middle—blue, red, and green. Beside the blue one, you will see several knobs. Press the blue button once, and turn the first knob on its right about ninety degrees to the right."
Squall heard a switching sound on Xu's side of the communicator and heard her say, "Sir, what next?"
Squall tried to remember what the Estharian technicians had told him and said, "Push the green button twice and five buttons beside it will light up. Push them in this sequence: fourth, second, first, third, fifth. Are you done?" He ran to the elevator and pressed the first floor button.
"Yes sir!"
"Now the large red button isn't a button. It is a large knob that controls the Garden's shields. Give it a 360 degree turn and look to the panel to your right. When you find a blinking green light, push the red button beside it. That will activate the shields. Tell me when it says 'Shields Activated.'" When the elevator got to the first floor, he made a dash for the infirmary.
"Sir, shields activated! Anything else for me to do?" Xu asked the panicky commander.
Squall panted, "Announce to the students that they will have to turn on their windows' steel shutters to protect their rooms from falling hail. That's all Xu."
Xu said, "Roger sir!"
When Squall got to the infirmary, he saw Dr. Kadowaki tending to a few students with nasty head concussions.
"Squall, I am very busy right now. Some of these students were hit by hailstones so please make it quick," Dr. Kadowaki said quickly and urgently as she dabbed some disinfectant and iodine solution to a large gash on a male cadet's forehead.
"Doctor, have you seen Rinoa?" Squall asked, his eyes wide in fear.
"No Squall, but I think I heard that your friends went to the Quad," she answered.
Squall saluted the doctor and said, "Thank you Doctor. Announce on your P.A. to tell the uninjured cadets to bring the wounded ones here." With that, he ran out of the infirmary.
===============
Irvine stared at the huge boulder in amazement. "Damn! What is this thing?"
Quistis examined it and gave it a crack of her Save the Queen. Chunks of ice sprayed upon contact. "It's a large hailstone—an extremely large one," she said in monotone.
Zell scratched his head. "But how did a hailstone get this big?"
Rinoa approached the large boulder and used her powers to heat her hands up a bit. When her hand drew nearer to the surface, it began melting upon contact. With her other hand, she threw a Scan spell at the ice. Closing her eyes, she tried to sense hints of magic from the boulder.
"My suspicions seem to be right," Rinoa told the others. "This hailstone was produced by very powerful magic." When she was done examining the stone, the light faded and she turned to the others. "I think someone's trying to destroy Garden. Maybe a sorceress or some other magical force."
Quistis took a step forward and asked, "But Rinoa, aren't you the only living sorceress in this world?"
Rinoa shook her head. "I don't think so. If you remember the Black Eagle news incident, you would recall that a coven of sorceresses was slaughtered. What if there were other living sorceresses? Maybe they want to destroy Garden, especially after knowing that SeeDs were meant to destroy evil witches."
Quistis lowered her head and replied, "Maybe...but I hope you're not right. If this leads to Ultimecia's resurrection, who knows what may happen."
Meanwhile, Zell was examining a chunk of ice that fell off the boulder. "You know, something doesn't seem right. When hail forms, it looks very clear—much like ice. But this hail is cloudy."
Selphie was also looking at one of the fallen rocks, picking one up with her gloved hand. "So what does this mean Zell?"
Zell put the hailstone down on the ground and replied, "It means that this stone formed very quickly. Normally, it would take hours for water to condense into hailstones, much like it would take the same amount of time for water in a freezer to turn into ice. I think Rinoa's right when she said that magic formed a hailstone this large."
Irvine interrupted all of them, "Hey, I don't want to be rude and all but I think it would be safer if we all got inside. Staying in the balcony might get us hit, don't you think?" They all nodded their heads and went to the benches. "Well, I guess the shields are up already, so that's one thing less to worry about."
They all sat in silence until Zell asked Rinoa, "Rinoa, how do you think this hailstone was formed?"
Rinoa pondered on the question for a moment and answered, "Does anyone have Water and Blizzaga spells in their magic stock?"
Selphie raised her hand. "I have Water spells! But how is that going to answer Zell's question?"
Rinoa said, "Just watch. Selphie, can you cast a Water in the air?" Selphie nodded and screamed "Water!" A large ball of liquid appeared to hover in the air and Rinoa immediately flung a Blizzaga at it. It quickly formed a large, cloudy ball of ice similar to the one that almost crushed Rinoa earlier but stayed in the air when a Float spell was cast on it.
"Oh! So that's how it's done," Zell said, his eyes fixed on the floating hail boulder.
"However, to have the so much of those spells cast at the same time is simply impossible. I don't think..." Rinoa managed to say before she heard Squall calling her name.
"Rinoa!" Squall called out as he ran very quickly to his sorceress. He knelt down in front of her and embraced her tightly. "Are you alright?" Squall began caressing her hair as to comfort her, bringing his palms gently up and down her flowing black locks. Rinoa couldn't help but smile at his sudden gushing of affection. She pushed Squall back and kissed his lips lightly.
"I'm alright Squall, there's nothing to worry about," she said as she brought a hand to his cheek and caressed it as well.
Squall took her hand and nuzzled it, kissing her fingers while saying, "I thought you were hurt. I heard you scream earlier. I thought I had lost you."
Rinoa replied, "Squall, it's okay. Irvine was able to pull me back before the hailstone could even hit me." Squall hugged her back and assured her, "I don't want you to be hurt. It pains me if you are hurt. Please don't do that again." Squall kissed her hair as he hugged her deeply again. The couple didn't notice that everyone in the Quad was staring at them.
Zell said, "Geez Squall, what has she done to you?" Rinoa laughed out loud while Squall blushed and said, "Whatever. All of us should get out of here. Go to Cid's office upstairs and meet me there in a few, okay?"
Everyone nodded and began to leave except for Rinoa and Squall when the commander put his hand on Irvine's shoulder. The cowboy turned around to see Squall smiling at him.
"Thanks Irvine. You saved Rinoa's life," he said.
'Oh Hyne is he smiling? Didn't even know he could smile,' thought Irvine as he faced the commander.
"No problem. Always for the ladies, you know." Irvine tipped his hat in curtsy and left the couple alone in the Quad.
"Rinoa." Squall tenderly hugged his lover who sat beside him on the Quad bench. "Don't ever do that again. I don't know what I would do if I lost you." He nuzzled her cheek as she returned his embrace.
"Oh Squall, don't worry too much about me. I can protect myself better now. But thank you for being so sweet." Rinoa smelled the leather of his jacket, resting her cheek against the soft fur.
Squall pulled away and looked at Rinoa with much concern. "But Rinoa, that thing almost hit you. If it wasn't for Irvine..." Squall said and stopped when Rinoa silenced him with a kiss.
"Squall, shut up," Rinoa laughed when she saw the shocked look Squall had on his face. "You talk too much."
Squall raised one eyebrow and grinned. "And you're complaining?"
Rinoa shook her head and lowered her head on Squall's shoulder. "No. I like it like this. Promise me you won't hide anything from me, okay?"
Squall replied, "Okay." However, as he looked over his sorceress' shoulder, he was thinking about Storm.
'Should I tell her about Storm? He is after all the one disturbing my dreams. Being a sorceress and all, she could probably help me.'
"Rinoa, let's go meet the others upstairs." She looked up and nodded, and they both got up and went out of the Quad, oblivious to the hooded man who now crept on top of the icy boulder that had fallen on the Quad's railing minutes ago.
---------------
When the Garden had made its way safely outside the harsh Trabia continent, the shields automatically lowered and the mobile school was once again on its way to Esthar. Floating over the vast waters of the Northern Seas, the Garden's hull was dented and was going to need some repair time from Esthar's technicians, but that wasn't going to be a problem anyhow. In the Headmaster's office, the orphanage gang along with Seifer's posse, Cid, Edea, and Ouragan talked about the recent happenings that had literally rocked the Garden, so to speak.
"They were huge! I mean you should have seen one of the hailstones! It looked like a small car," said Zell as he spread his arms out wide to emphasize his point.
"Yeah! And there were so many of them! At least they didn't damage the Garden's windows," Selphie added.
"Well, we have an excellent commander who knows how to manage the Garden during times of crisis well," said Quistis as she gave Squall a friendly smile. "But I still wonder, how did this hailstorm come so fast? Magic could never have caused something this big."
Edea, who said nothing all this while, suddenly gave on of her wise answers. "Very powerful sorceresses in the past have had the ability to control the weather. It is my belief that a person with strong magic can cause something like this. However, to be honest, never in my years as a sorceress was I able to witness this power of this magnitude."
"Oh's" and "Ah's" were heard from the group when Edea gave her explanation of the situation.
"Uh, where's Fujin?" Irvine asked Seifer.
Seifer pointed to his head and gave a kind of hitting gesture. "She got hit on the head by a hailstone, but she'll be alright."
"I'm so sorry Seifer," said Quistis.
"Nah, it's okay. She'll be fine with the good Doctor. At least I know you're alright," he smirked at Quistis. Whether he noticed it or not, Quistis never saw the slight hint of pink that colored her cheeks.
"Going back to the sorceress thing, how do you think a sorceress whose great power was virtually unknown suddenly came out to try and destroy the Garden?" Rinoa asked the older sorceress.
"I really don't know Rinoa. I wish I could tap into other sorceresses' minds, but only Ultimecia had that kind of power," Edea replied to her question.
"So we don't have any way of tracking this sorceress? We can't detect the source of her magic, and we can't even tap into her mind? How do you suggest we find her?" Squall asked Edea.
Ouragan coughed quietly as if to catch their attention (and he did) and said, "Dr. Odine has a special device that tracks down sorceresses through power classification, but I'm strongly hoping that he didn't keep it in the lab that was recently burned down. As you might know, there is another laboratory of his in the Great Plains of Esthar. Hopefully, he stored that machine there."
"So that settles it then," Seifer said.
Everyone looked at him and he said, "What? I meant that we should go to Odine's desert lab."
Squall stood up and said, "Alright. Do we have any strong vehicles in the parking lot?"
Zell answered, "Yeah we do, but why do we need strong vehicles?"
Squall replied, "Because I don't want to encounter any Malboros in Esthar."
---------------
After their meeting in the Headmaster's office, Squall and Rinoa went down to the library to check out the new shipment of books that arrived from stores all over the world. He was about to inspect a parcel when Lara (pig- tailed girl) called his name.
"Commander."
"Yes Lara?"
"Um, I think I should ask for your permission before I do something this drastic," she sheepishly told Squall.
"Why? Is there something I should know?" he asked her.
"Well sir, a few years ago, a student named Ouragan had a book reserved, but never picked it up. According to library policy, books that are reserved for students remain that way until they request it from the librarian, but it has been years since he had that booked reserved. Will you give me the permission to remove it from the reserved books list sir?"
"Sure," said Squall. "But what is this book's title anyway?"
Lara started typing some letters into the keyboard, and the book's title came out. "It's called 'Prophecies of Ancient Magic' by Callista Deluna."
================
Whoo! That took me long enough. Thanks for the reviews guys, but please do give more. I hope you like the way the plot is going. Any guesses on how the story will come out? Well add that to your reviews and tell me what you want me to do to the story. Next Chapter: Ancestral Prophecies
Squall stirred in his bed as a pounding noise disturbed his sleep. Rinoa had left him in his room about an hour ago for some time alone, and he had thought that he could finally get some rest ten minutes ago when a very loud banging could be heard from the walls of his apartment. Thinking that it was just some crazy student riding the side of the Garden with his hover- bike, he decided to go out to the balcony to give the kid a good scolding.
'Damn cadet. I'll give him a demerit for...oh shit!' he thought when he saw large, basketball-size hailstones dropping on the Garden's hull.
Squall's mouth gaped wide-open as huge balls of ice dented the strong hull of the mobile academy. The skies had darkened incredibly, and the hail, which seemed to grow larger by the minute, continued pouring down on the Garden. The smallest ones were about the size of basketballs, while the larger ones could have been mistaken as Volkswagen beetles. All around the snow, great chunks of frozen stone crashed and caused billowing clouds of dispersed ice to cloud Trabia's vast Bika fields. Squall looked down and suddenly heard a woman scream.
'Rinoa!' Squall screamed in his mind. He immediately went inside his apartment and operated the steel shutters to cover the doors and windows. Taking his communicator laying on the kitchen table, he attempted to contact the Garden's assistant supervisor, Xu.
"Xu! This is Commander Leonhart. Do you copy?" he said into the receiver as a crackling sound emerged from the sleek device. Static from the hailstorm seemed to have jammed the communication lines of the Garden. Irritated, Squall began banging his hand on it until Xu's voice came out of the speaker.
"Yes commander! This is Xu speaking! Sir, we have an emergency!"
Squall scratched his head in annoyance and replied, "Xu, I know that! The Garden is being bombarded by hailstones."
"Sir, what do you want me to do about it?" Xu called from the other side of the line.
"Xu, go down to the B1 level and go to the Norg pod. Esthar technicians have recently fixed the contraption to include a shielding device on the Garden." Squall grabbed his coat from the rack and put it on as he dashed out of his house.
About a minute later, Xu replied, "Sir, I'm in. How the heck do you operate this?"
Squall pushed the "Talk" button and said, "Xu, you will see three large buttons on the silver panel in the middle—blue, red, and green. Beside the blue one, you will see several knobs. Press the blue button once, and turn the first knob on its right about ninety degrees to the right."
Squall heard a switching sound on Xu's side of the communicator and heard her say, "Sir, what next?"
Squall tried to remember what the Estharian technicians had told him and said, "Push the green button twice and five buttons beside it will light up. Push them in this sequence: fourth, second, first, third, fifth. Are you done?" He ran to the elevator and pressed the first floor button.
"Yes sir!"
"Now the large red button isn't a button. It is a large knob that controls the Garden's shields. Give it a 360 degree turn and look to the panel to your right. When you find a blinking green light, push the red button beside it. That will activate the shields. Tell me when it says 'Shields Activated.'" When the elevator got to the first floor, he made a dash for the infirmary.
"Sir, shields activated! Anything else for me to do?" Xu asked the panicky commander.
Squall panted, "Announce to the students that they will have to turn on their windows' steel shutters to protect their rooms from falling hail. That's all Xu."
Xu said, "Roger sir!"
When Squall got to the infirmary, he saw Dr. Kadowaki tending to a few students with nasty head concussions.
"Squall, I am very busy right now. Some of these students were hit by hailstones so please make it quick," Dr. Kadowaki said quickly and urgently as she dabbed some disinfectant and iodine solution to a large gash on a male cadet's forehead.
"Doctor, have you seen Rinoa?" Squall asked, his eyes wide in fear.
"No Squall, but I think I heard that your friends went to the Quad," she answered.
Squall saluted the doctor and said, "Thank you Doctor. Announce on your P.A. to tell the uninjured cadets to bring the wounded ones here." With that, he ran out of the infirmary.
===============
Irvine stared at the huge boulder in amazement. "Damn! What is this thing?"
Quistis examined it and gave it a crack of her Save the Queen. Chunks of ice sprayed upon contact. "It's a large hailstone—an extremely large one," she said in monotone.
Zell scratched his head. "But how did a hailstone get this big?"
Rinoa approached the large boulder and used her powers to heat her hands up a bit. When her hand drew nearer to the surface, it began melting upon contact. With her other hand, she threw a Scan spell at the ice. Closing her eyes, she tried to sense hints of magic from the boulder.
"My suspicions seem to be right," Rinoa told the others. "This hailstone was produced by very powerful magic." When she was done examining the stone, the light faded and she turned to the others. "I think someone's trying to destroy Garden. Maybe a sorceress or some other magical force."
Quistis took a step forward and asked, "But Rinoa, aren't you the only living sorceress in this world?"
Rinoa shook her head. "I don't think so. If you remember the Black Eagle news incident, you would recall that a coven of sorceresses was slaughtered. What if there were other living sorceresses? Maybe they want to destroy Garden, especially after knowing that SeeDs were meant to destroy evil witches."
Quistis lowered her head and replied, "Maybe...but I hope you're not right. If this leads to Ultimecia's resurrection, who knows what may happen."
Meanwhile, Zell was examining a chunk of ice that fell off the boulder. "You know, something doesn't seem right. When hail forms, it looks very clear—much like ice. But this hail is cloudy."
Selphie was also looking at one of the fallen rocks, picking one up with her gloved hand. "So what does this mean Zell?"
Zell put the hailstone down on the ground and replied, "It means that this stone formed very quickly. Normally, it would take hours for water to condense into hailstones, much like it would take the same amount of time for water in a freezer to turn into ice. I think Rinoa's right when she said that magic formed a hailstone this large."
Irvine interrupted all of them, "Hey, I don't want to be rude and all but I think it would be safer if we all got inside. Staying in the balcony might get us hit, don't you think?" They all nodded their heads and went to the benches. "Well, I guess the shields are up already, so that's one thing less to worry about."
They all sat in silence until Zell asked Rinoa, "Rinoa, how do you think this hailstone was formed?"
Rinoa pondered on the question for a moment and answered, "Does anyone have Water and Blizzaga spells in their magic stock?"
Selphie raised her hand. "I have Water spells! But how is that going to answer Zell's question?"
Rinoa said, "Just watch. Selphie, can you cast a Water in the air?" Selphie nodded and screamed "Water!" A large ball of liquid appeared to hover in the air and Rinoa immediately flung a Blizzaga at it. It quickly formed a large, cloudy ball of ice similar to the one that almost crushed Rinoa earlier but stayed in the air when a Float spell was cast on it.
"Oh! So that's how it's done," Zell said, his eyes fixed on the floating hail boulder.
"However, to have the so much of those spells cast at the same time is simply impossible. I don't think..." Rinoa managed to say before she heard Squall calling her name.
"Rinoa!" Squall called out as he ran very quickly to his sorceress. He knelt down in front of her and embraced her tightly. "Are you alright?" Squall began caressing her hair as to comfort her, bringing his palms gently up and down her flowing black locks. Rinoa couldn't help but smile at his sudden gushing of affection. She pushed Squall back and kissed his lips lightly.
"I'm alright Squall, there's nothing to worry about," she said as she brought a hand to his cheek and caressed it as well.
Squall took her hand and nuzzled it, kissing her fingers while saying, "I thought you were hurt. I heard you scream earlier. I thought I had lost you."
Rinoa replied, "Squall, it's okay. Irvine was able to pull me back before the hailstone could even hit me." Squall hugged her back and assured her, "I don't want you to be hurt. It pains me if you are hurt. Please don't do that again." Squall kissed her hair as he hugged her deeply again. The couple didn't notice that everyone in the Quad was staring at them.
Zell said, "Geez Squall, what has she done to you?" Rinoa laughed out loud while Squall blushed and said, "Whatever. All of us should get out of here. Go to Cid's office upstairs and meet me there in a few, okay?"
Everyone nodded and began to leave except for Rinoa and Squall when the commander put his hand on Irvine's shoulder. The cowboy turned around to see Squall smiling at him.
"Thanks Irvine. You saved Rinoa's life," he said.
'Oh Hyne is he smiling? Didn't even know he could smile,' thought Irvine as he faced the commander.
"No problem. Always for the ladies, you know." Irvine tipped his hat in curtsy and left the couple alone in the Quad.
"Rinoa." Squall tenderly hugged his lover who sat beside him on the Quad bench. "Don't ever do that again. I don't know what I would do if I lost you." He nuzzled her cheek as she returned his embrace.
"Oh Squall, don't worry too much about me. I can protect myself better now. But thank you for being so sweet." Rinoa smelled the leather of his jacket, resting her cheek against the soft fur.
Squall pulled away and looked at Rinoa with much concern. "But Rinoa, that thing almost hit you. If it wasn't for Irvine..." Squall said and stopped when Rinoa silenced him with a kiss.
"Squall, shut up," Rinoa laughed when she saw the shocked look Squall had on his face. "You talk too much."
Squall raised one eyebrow and grinned. "And you're complaining?"
Rinoa shook her head and lowered her head on Squall's shoulder. "No. I like it like this. Promise me you won't hide anything from me, okay?"
Squall replied, "Okay." However, as he looked over his sorceress' shoulder, he was thinking about Storm.
'Should I tell her about Storm? He is after all the one disturbing my dreams. Being a sorceress and all, she could probably help me.'
"Rinoa, let's go meet the others upstairs." She looked up and nodded, and they both got up and went out of the Quad, oblivious to the hooded man who now crept on top of the icy boulder that had fallen on the Quad's railing minutes ago.
---------------
When the Garden had made its way safely outside the harsh Trabia continent, the shields automatically lowered and the mobile school was once again on its way to Esthar. Floating over the vast waters of the Northern Seas, the Garden's hull was dented and was going to need some repair time from Esthar's technicians, but that wasn't going to be a problem anyhow. In the Headmaster's office, the orphanage gang along with Seifer's posse, Cid, Edea, and Ouragan talked about the recent happenings that had literally rocked the Garden, so to speak.
"They were huge! I mean you should have seen one of the hailstones! It looked like a small car," said Zell as he spread his arms out wide to emphasize his point.
"Yeah! And there were so many of them! At least they didn't damage the Garden's windows," Selphie added.
"Well, we have an excellent commander who knows how to manage the Garden during times of crisis well," said Quistis as she gave Squall a friendly smile. "But I still wonder, how did this hailstorm come so fast? Magic could never have caused something this big."
Edea, who said nothing all this while, suddenly gave on of her wise answers. "Very powerful sorceresses in the past have had the ability to control the weather. It is my belief that a person with strong magic can cause something like this. However, to be honest, never in my years as a sorceress was I able to witness this power of this magnitude."
"Oh's" and "Ah's" were heard from the group when Edea gave her explanation of the situation.
"Uh, where's Fujin?" Irvine asked Seifer.
Seifer pointed to his head and gave a kind of hitting gesture. "She got hit on the head by a hailstone, but she'll be alright."
"I'm so sorry Seifer," said Quistis.
"Nah, it's okay. She'll be fine with the good Doctor. At least I know you're alright," he smirked at Quistis. Whether he noticed it or not, Quistis never saw the slight hint of pink that colored her cheeks.
"Going back to the sorceress thing, how do you think a sorceress whose great power was virtually unknown suddenly came out to try and destroy the Garden?" Rinoa asked the older sorceress.
"I really don't know Rinoa. I wish I could tap into other sorceresses' minds, but only Ultimecia had that kind of power," Edea replied to her question.
"So we don't have any way of tracking this sorceress? We can't detect the source of her magic, and we can't even tap into her mind? How do you suggest we find her?" Squall asked Edea.
Ouragan coughed quietly as if to catch their attention (and he did) and said, "Dr. Odine has a special device that tracks down sorceresses through power classification, but I'm strongly hoping that he didn't keep it in the lab that was recently burned down. As you might know, there is another laboratory of his in the Great Plains of Esthar. Hopefully, he stored that machine there."
"So that settles it then," Seifer said.
Everyone looked at him and he said, "What? I meant that we should go to Odine's desert lab."
Squall stood up and said, "Alright. Do we have any strong vehicles in the parking lot?"
Zell answered, "Yeah we do, but why do we need strong vehicles?"
Squall replied, "Because I don't want to encounter any Malboros in Esthar."
---------------
After their meeting in the Headmaster's office, Squall and Rinoa went down to the library to check out the new shipment of books that arrived from stores all over the world. He was about to inspect a parcel when Lara (pig- tailed girl) called his name.
"Commander."
"Yes Lara?"
"Um, I think I should ask for your permission before I do something this drastic," she sheepishly told Squall.
"Why? Is there something I should know?" he asked her.
"Well sir, a few years ago, a student named Ouragan had a book reserved, but never picked it up. According to library policy, books that are reserved for students remain that way until they request it from the librarian, but it has been years since he had that booked reserved. Will you give me the permission to remove it from the reserved books list sir?"
"Sure," said Squall. "But what is this book's title anyway?"
Lara started typing some letters into the keyboard, and the book's title came out. "It's called 'Prophecies of Ancient Magic' by Callista Deluna."
================
Whoo! That took me long enough. Thanks for the reviews guys, but please do give more. I hope you like the way the plot is going. Any guesses on how the story will come out? Well add that to your reviews and tell me what you want me to do to the story. Next Chapter: Ancestral Prophecies