right then. this was supposed to go up last night, but tiredness intervened. so, here it is. enjoy!
Chapter 18
When he stumbled into the City of the Ancients, Vincent couldn't believe that he and the Galian Beast had managed to come so far down the mountain. It was true that he had been traveling for untold hours, only stopping when he had to eat or when he couldn't make his feet move another step further, but he hadn't realized that they had managed to come so far.
He was grateful that he had, however. The ammunition for his sidearm was long gone, and he and the Beast were both weary from melee combat with the monsters that had attacked them. The collapsed buildings would provide them with some shelter, and the dead trees would provide him with wood to make a fire to keep them warm. He might also be able to get a full night's sleep, since the ruined city seemed to have some sort of repelling effect on the monsters surrounding it.
Wearily, Vincent stumbled into the nearest building—the ruins of someone's home—and slumped to the floor, his exhaustion making itself firmly known. The Galian Beast followed him inside, but sat near the doorway so that he was looking outside. He reminded the ex-Turk of the guards that watched over Wutai's mythical gods, and Vincent found himself wondering where the creature had come from. That, inevitably, led him to thoughts of Chaos.
What happened to him? He was just supposed to have gone scouting and brought back food, if he could find any. Surely he didn't just desert us.
But he is a demon. It's not impossible. And it's been days. I'll have to assume that something went wrong and focus on getting out of here. I can come back to look for him later, if I must.
I pray he's not dead. The intensity of that though surprised him; he hadn't prayed since before he'd become a Turk. He chose not to dwell on it.
Wearily, he began surveying the contents of the room—forcibly turning his thoughts away from Chaos and focusing on his own survival and looking for possible supplies. They had, after all, found an odd assortment of usable items and gear in the ruins when they'd come through before. Since they hadn't explored every building in the city, it stood to reason that he might find something useful, even if it was only a potion or two.
The room contained an ancient rocking chair near an end table, a low coffee table near what might have once been a couch, and a short stack of crates in one corner.
"Looks like someone was moving out," he said, more to hear a voice than through any real need to voice the opinion. Things were far too quiet with only the Galian Beast for company. He missed Yuffie and Chaos' incessant chatter.
Vincent levered himself off the floor with an aching protest from his weary body. It was warmer now that they weren't on the summit of the mountain anymore, but it was still too cold to sit too long without moving, or allow himself to fall asleep. He walked across the room and examined the crates for a moment. Like the city, they were in a process of slow decay, but they were largely intact.
He took the lid off the top crate cautiously, lest the whole pile of crates crumble to dust at his feet. Inside, he found cloth, too far decayed to be identified as anything, let alone something useful. Setting that aside, he looked inside the second crate. It contained books, which he did not touch for fear of damaging them.
Perhaps Nanaki will know of some way of restoring those and using them at Cosmo Canyon. He would like that, I think.
Taking more care with the second crate than he had with the first, he set that one aside as well. The third—and final—crate in the stack contained the kind of trinkets that a girl might collect through her youth and adolescence. Tucked inside what appeared to be a jewelry box, Vincent found four green materia. Briefly, he wondered why an Ancient would have processed materia, but he was glad that she had.
He examined each of them in turn, not daring to hope for too much. The first was Blizzard, the second Thunder and the third Heal. The fourth materia made him want to weep with joy.
It was Fire.
Quickly, he moved the table from the center of the room and moved the crate of clothes and the crate of trinkets into its place. Then, taking the Fire materia in hand, he muttered a brief request for forgiveness and lit the crates on fire. He didn't think that the girl would mind that he had just used her belongings as a source of warmth, but he would rather be sure than attacked by vengeful spirits.
He watched over the fire for a few minutes, warming himself, until he was sure it wasn't going to jump from the crates to the books or the chair and tables. Then he turned to the Galian Beast.
"Come, Beast. Let's see if we can find something to scavenge for food." He was still exhausted, but being warm was giving him the extra energy he needed to go search out food and supplies.
The Galian Beast didn't seem too happy to be moving away from the fire, but he followed Vincent into the ruins.
They found a few potions in the ruins, but noting else of any real value. The gunslinger broke down a few branches from a dying tree on their way back to their shelter and resigned himself to a hungry night.
But better hungry than freezing, he told himself.
When they returned to the shelter, Vincent built the fire back up from the smoldering ashes it had become. Then, using his backpack as a pillow, he laid down and went to sleep. Sighing heavily, the Galian Beast laid down near Vincent, facing the door, and went to sleep as well.
Neither of them heard the whine of the airship engines over head a few minutes later.
