Shades of Wings (FINALLY! A title!)
Chapter 2: Black Wings
Okay people! Here's the second chapter (no cast list, took up too much room) but here it is! Enjoy!
"I'm afraid that we don't have enough rooms for everyone," Adrian spoke as the group walked through the halls of the Bevelle temple, nuns and priests bowing to Yevon. "You'll have to partner up for the rooms." Almost immediately, Adrian moved to Ashnigh. Typical, she had been stuck to her like glue since the minute they had started walking. Tiffa moved to Leena, who giggled and Briu moved over to Spiler. Kevi shrugged at Tai and of course Juka was left all alone.
"Uhh..." she raised her hand, "What about me?"
Adrian turned her head coldly, "Well, we don't have enough rooms, so you can sleep in the hall if you'd like..."
"The hall?!" Juka shivered, "But it's cold out here! I don't wanna sleep in the hall!"
"Well you can sleep in one of the boy's rooms I guess," Adrian smirked and Juka blushed.
"AS IF! FINE, I'LL SLEEP IN THE STUPID HALL!" Juka stomped off towards the aisles of rooms where she immediately sat herself down and felt the floor, seeing which spot was the softest for sleeping on.
"Adrian..." Ashnigh whispered, but Adrian ignored her.
"Get some sleep everyone," she told them and walked off towards the first room, "Tomorrow we head to the Cloister of the Fayth where I'll get my first aeon."
"Bet you can't handle it..." Juka stuck out her tongue, "Bahamut's no push-over!"
"We'll see who can "handle" it," Adrian coldly responded as she turned to knob on her door, "After all, tomorrow starts your job too..."
Juka gulped and remembered that there were fiends in the Trials that the Guardians would have to fend off... She had never fought a real fiend before, but if Miss Prissy Boots wanted her to do it, she had too...
Everyone adjourned to their separate rooms, and Juka softened her spot on the floor. She laid down, trying to use her hair as a pillow, and tried desperately to go to sleep.
"So...you're Kevi right?" Tai asked Kevi once inside their room. Kevi had already discarded his axe and thrown himself down on his bed, even with his goggles on.
"Uh huh..." he nodded in response.
"I'm Tai," Tai told him.
"I know," Kevin turned over, not facing the boy.
"That's a really big axe!" Tai rushed over to Kevi's axe and started to touch it, "Can I touch it? Thanks! Woah! How do you hold this thing anyway? It must weigh a thousand pounds or something! I wouldn't even be able to--"
A hand closed over Tai's wrist and he pulled back from the axe. "Okay kid," Kevi spoke up, "Rule one. Don't. Touch. The. Merchandise."
"Yevon, I'm sorry!" Tai gruffly threw himself inside his own bed. There was silence for a few moments, then Tai spoke again, "Hey, why did you wanna become a guardian anyway?"
"The same reason everyone else does," Kevi sighed, "To beat Sin of course. That's what the teachings of Yevon say anyway."
"Oh." Silence filled the room once again, that is until Kevi sighed to hear Tai's faint snoring. He looked around the bright room and sighed.
"I think I'm gonna take a walk."
"Hahahahahahaha!" Meanwhile, in Luna and Tiffa's room, Luna was again laughing her head off and Tiffa was having trouble comprehending why.
"What's so funny?!" she asked, "I just said, "Where's my toothpaste?!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Luna kept laughing, then finally dried her teary eyes. "Sorry..."
"You're so weird," Tiffa sighed and tucked herself into her bed, "That's why I try not to communicate with mages often."
"Hey," Luna crawled onto Tiffa's bed to Tiffa's extreme annoyance, "Why are your eyes all spirally?"
"None of your business," Tiffa sat up, trying to hide her green spiral eyes, "Now, GET OFF MY BED!"
"HAHHAAHAHA!"
"AND STOP LAUGHING!"
"Sorry!" Luna jumped up and down on the bed, "It's just they're sooo funny looking!"
"I'm TRYING to go to sleep, could you PLEASE be quiet?!"
"Okay..." Luna sat down, cross-legged on the bed, looking around the room for a minute, being absolutely silent. She started to rock on the bed, back and forth, back and forth. Then, she started to hum. "Hmm...mmm...mmm...mmm...mmm....la...la...la la la la!"
Tiffa stuffed her head under her pillow, desperately trying to drown out the noises of Luna and her singing. But Luna grew louder, "Oh, la la la la! Dum dum, dum dum, doo doo dum dum dum!" she started screaming at the top of her lungs, and Tiffa desperately searched around her bedside table for her guns, "LALALALALALA!"
"SHUT UP!" Tiffa threw herself off the bed, "WILL YOU PLEASE JUST SHUT UP?!"
"Want me to sing you sleep?!" Luna asked, teary eyed, "Hahahaha!"
"NO! GO TO SLEEP!"
"Okay," Luna threw herself into bed, almost instantly and soon her snoring filled the room. Tiffa breathed a sigh of relief.
"Finally..." she closed her eyes and was about to fall asleep when...
"Loo loo luna la..."
"SHUT THE HELL UP!"
"Hey, do you hear screaming?" Spiler asked Briu as he finished his 100th juggle with the blitzball. Briu sat on his bed, polishing his spear.
"No. Must have been your imagination," Briu insisted as he wrapped up his spear and set it against the wall.
"I guess," Spiler walked Briu put his spear away and the Blitzball dropped, "Ahh dangit."
"Hey, 110 times ain't bad," Briu pointed out.
"Well yeah, but if I'm gonna make the front lines for the Kilika Beasts then I've gotta get to at least 200."
"Blitzball eh?"
"Yeah," Spiler picked up the ball again and started to juggle once more, "The tournament is coming up soon ya know? A couple of weeks actually, we're stopping in Luca for me to see it."
"You're not going to play?" Briu asked him.
"Nah, not good enough yet, I have to work harder if I want to make the front team," he told him.
"I've always wanted to try Blitzball," Briu noted.
"Yeah, you Guado are pretty fast," Spiler nodded, almost dropping the ball, "Unlike those Ronso..."
"Heh," Briu smiled, "Well, I'm turning in."
"Hey no fair," Spiler pointed out, "I spilled my heart and soul to you, where's my confession?"
"Well," Briu thought for a second, "I am pretty weird around town, not many Guado become guardians you know."
"I know, you were the only one at the choosing."
"But Maester Seymour, he's awesome, he looks out for me and stuff," Briu smirked, "Even lets me in on some premium drink ya know!"
"Hey, aren't you a little young?"
"Nope, just turned 21, and proud of it!" he laughed, "I can drink the night away if I'd like! In fact, I'm in the mood for some right now!"
"Hey, hey, hey, don't drink just because you can," Spiler pointed out, "Drink because you need to!"
"Well I NEED to," Briu pulled out a bottle from his bag, "And anyway, this is my last one left anyway...I can stop any time I want." He quickly chugged the entire bottle. "See?" A loud hiccup escaped his lips, "No...problem..." With that, he gracefully fainted onto his pillow and his drunken snores filled the room.
"Ooo, not good to be a guardian with hangover," Spiler winced, but tucked his ball under his bed and went to sleep himself.
"Stupid Adrian...stupid floor, stupid SWORD!" Juka desperately tried to move her sword out of the way, but always it seemed to get in the way of her sleeping. Well, her anger at Adrian and the hard floor didn't help either. She shivered as another breeze went through the hall. "It's...so cold...but there is NO way I'm asking HER for a blanket!"
"Here." A blue blanket fell over Juka's head and she quickly threw it off to tell who had given it to her. She saw Kevi's goggled eyes staring back at her. "Can't have you freeze to death now can we?"
"Hey!" She scowled, "I don't need no sympathy!"
"Well I'm giving it to you," he sat down, "After all, we don't want you catching pneumonia in the morning now do we?"
"I guess not..." Juka sighed and put the blanket around her arms, "Thanks..."
"No problem."
"So...Mr. Sora..."
"Call me Kevi, I hate formalities..."
"Okay Kevi, you can call me Juka."
"Already planned on it."
"So..." Juka continued warily, "Why do you think Adrian picked you so suddenly, anyway?"
"Well..." Kevi yawned slightly, "I dunno really...I kind of have a reputation...I've been a guardian to four summoners now...all of them gave up though...half way about."
"Oh...how long have you been a guardian for, Kevi?"
"About 5 years now..."
"That's a lot..." Juka sighed, "This is just my first pilgrimage..."
"Hey...doesn't matter how much experience you have...you don't need that to hack at fiends."
"I guess not," Juka sighed.
"OH MY GOD!" Tiffa's voice came from above Juka's head as she saw her come out, pillow still on her head, "WILL SOMEONE GIVE ME SOME TRANQUILIZERS OR SOMETHNG?! I cannot shut Luna up!"
"Sorry Miss Tiffa," Juka sighed, "Tough night huh?"
"Ain't it for all of us," she sighed and sat down, "I can't believe I'm having this much trouble already, and it's only the first night..."
Kevi looked at her closely, studying her tired looking eyes. She turned and noticed he was staring at her, "What?!" she asked, taken aback, "Hasn't anyone ever told you it's rude to stare at a lady?!"
"It's also rude to tell fibs..." Kevi told her, "After all...you're not really from Ki--"
"I'm leaving!" she shouted, "I never asked for your comments! It's better sleeping with the singing freak then listening to you!" with that, she stormed up and slammed the door.
"Ahh, well looks like I blew that one," he sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
"What fib did Miss Tiffa tell, Kevi?" Juka asked him, only to be interrupted by a voice.
"Umm...Miss Juka?" Juka looked up to see that the voice that was calling her name belonged to Ashnigh, looking at her worriedly.
"I guess that's my cue to leave," Kevi stood up, "See you in the morning ladies..." he bowed to Ashnigh and nodded to Juka who nodded back. Ashnigh sat down as Kevi walked back into his room.
"I...I want to apologize...for Adrian's behavior..." Ashnigh continued, "Since I know she won't apologize herself... She...she just doesn't like admitting that she might be wrong about something."
"It's not your place to be apologizing," Juka scowled, "It's stupid Adrian's...she really should be here apologizing, not you..."
"But she won't. You know that." Juka nodded to Ashnigh and Ashnigh sighed, "Ever since I've known her she's been like that. I'm like her big sister you see, and she's very...proud...she hasn't had a very happy past you see... I'm practically the only person who understands her..."
"I could tell...But...what happened in the past?" Juka asked and Ashnigh was silent for a few moments.
"Well..."
"Ashnigh." Juka almost screamed as a voice came from Ashnigh's door. She looked up to see that it was none other than her favorite person in the world, Adrian. "I think I remember saying that you and I were staying in the same Adrian...sorry if I woke you up," Ashnigh bowed to me and I bowed my head back. She walked into her room and Adrian gave Juka a cold look.
"I'm not deaf you know... Stupid am I? I believe that YOU'RE the stupid one here," she shut the door carefully, "Not I."
"Adrian..." Ashnigh sighed once Adrian had shut the door, "Why don't you invite Miss Juka to sleep with us?"
"Because I don't want to," she said nonchalantly and tucked herself into bed.
"Why did you choose her as a guardian?" Ashnigh asked her, as she herself started to fall asleep.
"Some questions are best left unanswered," Adrian whispered and felt her eyes drooping as she drifted into sleep.
The next morning, Juka estimated that she had gotten a grand total of twenty-five minutes of sleep. Even with Kevi's blanket, the hall was still cold and her "bed" was far from satisfactory. Briu walked around looking as though he had a migraine, and Tiffa looked in the same state as Juka. Luna looked positively chipper though as the entire group came into the room. Adrian and Ashnigh were the last to enter. Adrian turned to face the group, "Shall we go then? The Cloister of Trials is waiting..."
WOOOHOOOO! Complete Oo;;; Oh well...time to start working on Chapter 3! More complaints on Characters welcome! ;;; J/K!