Trapped in the world of Final Fantasy 8

Chapter 1 – Not more dragons…

Mark stepped through the portal of swirling energy and found himself in the middle of a dark canyon, the stars were few and disconnected points of light throughout the sky, casting a faint light upon the canyon, refracting, creating a shimmer of the rocks and stones.

"Where Home, that foolish sorceress, while trying to help herself, she help me" crowed the voice happily, before fading away, though Mark could feel its barely suppressed excitement.

'Whoa!' gasped Mark, looking around. '…This place looks kinda familiar; I have a bad feeling about this.' He was in the Crimson canyon where the Ruby dragons dwell, 35 miles north of the techno city, Esther. These vicious red scaled dragons were repudiated to be among the strongest of fiends on Gaia.

He slowly made his way through the top of the canyon, being careful not to make any noise, if this was the FF8 world then there were probably monsters around here, best to be careful.

He saw at least a dozen of them sleeping a few meters to his left and right. He had seen these fiends plenty of times on his game but seeing them in the flesh was another. One of these things could rip him to shreds in seconds.

'Well at least Ruby dragons aren't nocturnal creatures' mused Mark quietly as he climbed a silently and as quickly as possible.

"Be careful, they are quite powerful…"

'I know my characters always lose to them.'

"The game is one thing, but real life is another"

Mark had to admit they were very physically impressive, they were HUGE! They were each at least the size of a double Decker bus and the wings had to be at 50ft long and even in the dim light their fist sized scales glistened like jewels.

'WAKE UP YOU OVER SIZED LIZARDS!' roared a gurgling voice from above them. Mark's face shot up and he saw a misshapen old man with a large hump on his back and monkey like arms, he appeared to be from Esther but with his deformities it was kinda hard to tell.

'WE'VE GOT OURSELFS A TASTY YOUNG HUMAN HERE! SO WAKE UP!' Shouted the dwarfed man again, jumping up and down in anticipation. Mark's face paled and his spine tingled as six of them awoke with a start and eyed Mark hungrily. The stranger laughed croakily and ran off to find a place to hide and watch the melee unfold.

"Mark fight them! Destroy them!"

What?! Are you nuts!? I only know a little magic"

'Oh shit!' muttered Mark as he turned and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Moments later he heard the dragon's roars and the sound of their claws scrapping and cracking the dirt and rock as they followed. The chase had begun.

Two took to the skies as the other four Ruby dragons followed Mark on foot. Mark hurtled down the almost vertical face, his legs seeming to blur and Mark's muscles burned as though aflame.

"Quit running! FIGHT! FIGHT!"

'Yen-toh tenge: Enforce spell!' yelled Mark as he stumbled, using a low level spell to strengthen his muscles and increase his agility and stamina, so at least now he might have a hope of escaping, and at that moment the closest of the dragons snorted a small burst of flame that caught Mark on his wrist, burning it slightly, but to Mark's shock it healed almost instantly.

"You owe me there kid, healing your injuries that quick takes a lot of KI"

He hurtled around a small patch of rocks as the surrounding grasslands were torched by the dragons flame; they had taken to the sky. He hid by a huge rock as the ruby dragons flew overhead.

'Damn their getting rid of the hiding places, smart little buggers' thought Mark, closing his eyes he gathered a little KI and calmed his mind and heartbeat, instead of his usual blue KI, a brief aura of dark energy appeared around him, then slowly flickered away like an oxygen starved candle.

He thought briefly about what he could do. If he went south he could get to Esther if he was lucky. The dragons wouldn't follow him there, hopefully; however there were a lot of poisonous fiends around there. One hit and he was as good as gone. But he had no choice. This was his only chance. Dying wasn't high on Mark's agenda

"Foolish! In this world you're practically invincible!"

"I'm not taking them on if I can help it."

'Rinoa if I live though this…I'm gonna kick your face in' muttered Mark, keeping low and moving fast. He was safe for now. He was shaded by the pinnacle of rock and from their sight.

Mark took a deep breath and rushed out into the plain and immediately the dragons fell from the air and gave chase again.

Mark ran and ran across the burning plains as the dragons swooped and gave birth to fire that narrowly missed Mark's skin but grilled his clothes and hair slightly.

He swerved around another pinnacle and the youngest dragon crashed head first into it, the pinnacle landed on top of it and crushed it into nothingness.

'Nice!' laughed Mark as he grabbed the items that the dragon had left behind.

See these creatures die so easily…Destroy them then we can continue our mission…

'At least I have some fire magic now' said Mark to himself as he pocketed the items and absorbed the fire magic into his being. He ran again, his body and dark clothing smoking slightly.

Mark's legs burned with exhaustion and his heart and lungs pounded inside his chest like a jack hammer, even with the enforcement spell his body was pushing its limits. The veil of the night was falling and the sun was rising.

'Well at least I'll be able to see better' thought Mark as he ran. While the five dragons swooped and let loose their flame.Which came closer and closer each moment.

For at least an hour Mark ran on the grass plains while the dragons swooped and struck at him with their claws and blasted at him with their fire. He was nearing the end of the southern grass plains. To the edge of the cliffs. Mark turned briefly, gathering his will and focus and casted one of his draw fire spells at the Ruby dragons.

Though the spell did little damage, no creature can ignore a blast of fire to the eyes. The dragons clawed and shrieked in the air. Mark used his time to get some greater distance between him and the flying predators

That's it! Show those little lizards!"

Mark saw the cliff edge that hovered to the south-west of Esther. This was it. He'd have to jump. Mark spun and leapt off the cliff edge. Suddenly one of the dragons cast a Firaga spell and Mark attempted to block it with his own fire spell. But the dragon's magic was too strong!

Mark felt the fire coating and burning his body and slowly destroying him. There was nothing but pain now, let death come. Mark fell on to the side of the cliffs slope and tumbled and rolled down the cliff. Small sharp rocks cut cuts and gashes in his skin all over his body.

No! I won't let things end like this!

The mission…I have a mission to complete…

A haze of distorted energy surrounded him as he fell, the worst of the burns vanished, as did the deeper cuts from the fall. Unfortunately Mark was still hurt. It hurt like hell.

Mark finally reached the bottom, barely conscious he looked up and saw several people dressed in weird blue tech uniforms with blue gas masks. Mark half rose, then sunk into unconsciousness.

"Let the darkness grow…"

'What the hell was that?!' exclaimed one of the Esther Guards, as he picked up the injured youth. He was of course referring to the haze that encased Mark as he fell.

'We'll find out later, Harold-san, but we should get this kid to the hospital' said the elder guard, who wore silver plating on his guard uniform.

'Yes sir!' saluted the younger guard called Harold. The two guards and another who had remained silent returned to Esther. The kid would get patched up at the hospital and then maybe they could find out what that haze was…

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Hey guys I decided to update everyone of my chapters, I hope you like the changes, if any of you want me to make changes to the plot, now's your chance!

Please review, I never get enough!

Next chapter 2 – New Beginnings