Author's Note: Here's another chapter for all of you. Sorry it took so long to get these last two up. Second semester of college was...well...we won't go there. I plan on getting through quite a few chapter in the next couple weeks. This one is a bit shorter, but there's more coming, I promise. I wanted to let everyone know who's been following this that I DO plan on going through the game and beyond It's just a matter of when, I might get pretty far this summer. So don't worry, lots more Rydia on the way.


Part IV: The Quest for the Sandruby

The old couple put them up for the night. Cecil slept on the floor by Rosa's side, and Rydia curled up by the door to the room. The old man had said this was the "study", but she didn't understand what there was to "study" in it. The books on the shelves were filled with beautiful illustrations of dragons, griffons, and all kinds of creatures, but there weren't any words on the pages. There were only parallel straight lines with symbols marked in irregular patterns over them, covering all the pages where there weren't illustrations.

Cecil had already fallen asleep by the time she'd found them. She just couldn't sleep. She figured it was some form of ancient communication and flipped through the pages to see the pictures while Cecil slept.

There was only one candle still lit in the room, and it rested on a small table near the bed where Rosa lay. She tossed and turned now and then, but she seemed to be doing better now that Cecil was near. Rydia closed the last of the books and returned it to its place on the shelf.

Tomorrow they would cross the desert and go to the water caverns….She curled into her sleeping mat and stared at the candle flame flickering about in the dark. She needed to learn lightning if they were to go through. Lightning. How was she supposed to learn it so fast?

Rosa had started mumbling again in her sleep. Something about a man in dark armor, but Rydia didn't understand what she was saying. It could be any number of men. All the men she'd seen in the last few weeks had worn dark armor. Three were dead, one had retreated, and the other…the dragon head, had disappeared. Suddenly her eyes popped open wide. Where was he? He had been the one who'd said that the summoners were to be destroyed, and after the collapse of the mountains, he'd gone missing. Why hadn't Cecil said anything about him? Was he not concerned about it? Who was he anyway?

She resolved to ask Cecil about it in the morning, and forced her eyes shut. She needed all the sleep she could get with all the traveling they were going to do to find the sandruby. When she finally drifted off to sleep, all she could see were the dragons, griffons, and fairies dancing around strange black symbols in her dreams.

The following morning, Cecil pulled her upright and handed her a sack. Rydia lazily opened her eyes and rubbed them with the back of her hand.

"We're leaving already? Is it even morning yet?"

"It's dawn. These are the supplies for the journey that you'll need, and clothes for if it gets cold."

Rydia stared down at the sack in her lap. "Oh."

"I'll meet you outside when you're ready," he said and then quickly exited the room."

She sat on the floor for a few minutes, completely dizzy from not sleeping half the night, and slowly pried herself off of her sleeping mat. She threw on her tunic and strapped on the belt Cecil had bought her yesterday. Then she rolled up the sleeping mat, grabbed her bow and arrows and turned for the door to leave. Before she could step from the room, she looked back at Rosa who was still sleeping, now fitfully, on the bed.

Rydia walked towards her and stood beside the bed, unsure of what to say. She wished it was within her power to heal Rosa, but she knew her healing magic abilities were small and only the sandruby was the cure. She gathered herself up and finally said, "Don't worry, I'll help him as well as I can. Just hang in there, okay?"

Rosa turned onto her side and faded out again, while Rydia quickly scurried out of the room and down the hall to find Cecil.