Tidus looked up from the fire and realized that the sky was becoming lighter with dawn's approach. Quickly he stood up and began kicking dirt over the flames, stifling their brightness.
With a full stomach and having had a few hours of sleep, the young man's mood had improved considerably. He even hummed a song under his breath as he extinguished the fire. It was easy to almost completely forget the gravity of the situation he had been sucked into.
Indeed, he had missed the bright lights and the noisy atmosphere of city life, but he was relieved to have left it, not only because of their pursuers but also because he had grown accustomed to the quiet peace of the countryside. He found himself missing the tropical warmth of Besaid, the feel of the heated sand beneath his bare feet, or the cool ocean against his skin. He missed the good-natured laughter of the fishermen in the harbour, or the sounds of children playing in the streets. He missed the sight of new priests and priestesses in training make their first excursions outside the temple, or the old housewives hanging their laundry out to dry while chasing away curious stray dogs.
A sudden sound cut into his thoughts, but it was so sharp and quick that Tidus almost didn't catch it. He then realized that Yuna was out in the forest bathing, and after a moment of thought, it dawned on him that he had just heard a scream.
With lightening-fast speed, the young man whipped out his azure blade and dashed into the forest, ignoring the twigs and branches that snapped in his face.
He could already hear the sound of running water where the stream was, and he was certain he had seen Yuna walk in this direction.
"Yuna?" he called, ducking his head as a particularly large branch loomed up in his path. "Yuna!"
His eyes detected a flash of pale skin, the glimmer of brown hair. He quickened his pace and emerged seconds later at the stream's edge. Yuna, who was just buttoning up the red dress he'd given her, whirled around to stare at him with startled eyes.
"Tidus, what is it?" she asked, holding still as he rushed over to her.
"Why did you scream? Are you okay? Did something hurt you?" he demanded, dropping his sword and grabbing her by the shoulders. She blinked at him as understanding slowly came to her.
"Oh, that . . . uh, an animal just startled me, that's all," she said, embarrassed. Tidus stared at her as the words sank in. His hands dropped back to his sides and he sighed heavily, letting his head fall back.
"I see," he said tonelessly. Yuna began to giggle softly. He glanced at her sharply. "What's so funny?"
"Nothing, it's just . . . it was so brave of you to come rushing to my rescue like that," she said, amused. "If I'm ever in any real peril, I know I'll be able to count on you."
Tidus narrowed his eyes at her as picked up his sword, sheathing it firmly into the scabbard on his back.
"Well, I am your guardian, aren't I? It's part of the code," he said grumpily.
"The code?" Yuna asked as they began heading back to their camp.
"The Guardian's Code," he replied, holding a branch back to keep it out of her way. "Always protect the one you are guarding, even at the cost of one's life. Always come running with your weapon at the ready when the one you are guarding is in danger. Always be there to help the one your guarding when they encounter any obstacle. Never betray the safety of the one you are guarding. Your life is secondary to that of the one you are guarding."
He had memorized it so quickly, that he could recite it off by heart without even trying. "Part of the Yevonite Warrior training is to qualify as a guardian if you can't carry out your duties to the temple."
Yuna stared at him in amazement.
"Do you think your life is secondary to mine, Tidus?" she asked quietly. Tidus hesitated in thought.
"If the time comes . . . I will always put your life before mine," he told her. His sense of responsibility was engraved so deeply in his nature that he would never wilfully sacrifice someone's life over his own. Besides that, his instincts were telling him that Yuna had an important task to carry out, a task that had everything to do with the temple's deceit. He knew somehow that she was going to be the one to uncover the truth. He could see it in her eyes, the quiet fierce determination burning inside. It occurred to him that he would never entrust anything so vital to someone else.
His words sobered her.
"I'm sad to hear it," she said softly. "I never want to see you get hurt because of me."
"We may not have a choice, Yuna," he said gently, as the two of them returned to their campsite. "We're in deep water right now. Whatever happens, we'll have to face it head on."
She nodded in agreement, but her eyes were still dark with worry. He could tell she wanted to thank him again for helping her, but he was glad she chose to remain silent. She had thanked him enough already, and as time went by, he found himself sinking further into his dutiful nature. It was no longer a matter of being forced into danger. It was now a matter of saving the followers of Yevon from a terrible fate. If Seymour found a way to resurrect Sin, with or without her, the world would fall into darkness.
Tidus felt a surge of anger. How could his mother have been chosen? She had never harmed anyone. She had been a kind-hearted healer, a talented white mage. Everyone had loved and trusted her. What had she done to deserve such a thing?
"Yuna," he asked suddenly, an idea hitting him as he mounted the horse. "How advanced are your magic skills?"
Yuna's expression faltered. She dropped her eyes. "Not very good, I'm afraid."
"How can that be? You are the daughter of the famous High Summoner Braska!"
"I don't know," she replied, somewhat stiffly. "I suppose I just didn't inherit his aptitude for it. My trainer told me that I would only ever be able to do basic white magic. Why do you want to know?"
"Well, think about it. Every year for the last millennia, a powerful white mage has been chosen to be sacrificed for Sin, somehow benefiting the Maesters. If this were true, then why this year would they choose someone of minimal ability? Why would they pick you if you didn't have advanced powers?"
"I wish I could tell you," Yuna shrugged. "All I know is that I was kept under lock and key so that no one could see how weak my magic really was. It would put shame to my father's legacy."
Tidus winced inwardly with sympathy as he helped her up onto the mare behind him. It must have been hard for Yuna, growing up with a powerful summoner father while being hardly gifted at all in the same field of magic.
"I can't shake it," he told her. "I really think the temple had you marked for a big event."
"We'll figure all that out when we get to Bevelle," Yuna said decidedly, gripping his waist tightly as he urged the mare into an easy canter.
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As the morning progressed, Tidus noticed that Yuna had fallen asleep against him, her head nestled between his shoulder blades, breathing softly as her arms hung loosely around his middle. He slowed the mare down to a smoother pace so as not to disturb her.
They were on a narrow winding trail through the Kueki forest, a relatively unused path that most people avoided except for hunters or royalty traveling in secret. It was a peaceful place, and the woods were so dense that Tidus could barely see beyond the first line of tall dark trees. A bird was singing softly nearby, and the mare's hooves made soft clopping noises in the dirt, but otherwise the world felt completely silent.
Tidus was jerked roughly out of his serenity by the horse's abrupt halt. She snorted and pawed the dirt trail anxiously, swishing her tail in agitation.
"Whoa, whoa," he said soothingly. Yuna came awake behind him, jostled into awareness by the horse's behaviour. The creature would not be calmed.
"Come on, girl," Tidus sighed, dismounting and moving to stand in front of her. She began taking nervous steps back, snorting and tossing her head. Yuna slid down from her back and stood next to Tidus, resting her hand gently on the animal's face to comfort her.
"What on Spira is the matter with her?" Yuna questioned, frowning up at the uneasy mare.
"Something's spooked her, I think," Tidus grunted, straining with the effort of holding her halter to keep her from jerking her head back. The horse flared her nostrils and whinnied shrilly, her eyes rolling in sudden fear.
Tidus frowned as he heard a faintly distinct whistling noise. He was about to turn his head when something narrow and bright flashed past his ear and embedded itself into the wood of a low-hanging branch just above the horse's ears. The creature reared up in terror, neighing frantically while lashing out with her hooves. Yuna leapt as high as she could and snatched the shiny object from the wood.
"It looks like a needle," she commented, astonished and confused. It was almost a foot long, stiff but somewhat bendable, and it almost appeared to be made out of metal, but it looked organic. Tidus lost his grip on the mare's reins and watched helplessly as she galloped away through the trees. It was only when he heard Yuna scream next to him that he realized there was a real threat. He felt Yuna's hand press down on his shoulder and he immediately dropped to the ground next to her, hearing a loud swarm of several dozen hissing missiles fly over them, landing in the dirt a short distance away from them. He stared in amazement at the long spiny needles entrenched into the ground, glinting unassumingly. Instantly he jumped up to his feet and hefted Yuna up as well.
He whirled around to face the danger with his sword out, for it was the first thing his instincts told him to do. Yuna was backing away slowly, her eyes round and her jaw hanging open.
"Spirits preserve us," Tidus hissed through clenched teeth, feeling a cold sweat break out over his skin.
Standing no more than twenty feet away from them was the largest fiend he had ever seen in his life. It stood at about eighteen feet tall, though Tidus could not have guessed what it's accurate height was. It was so wide that its stone-coloured body was almost squeezed between the tree lines on either side, and it was covered in thick body armour lined with small shiny needles that glimmered dangerously in the sunlight. At its small evil mouth, two large pincers protruded, clacking together ominously. A long tail swished out behind, decked with even larger pins than the ones on the creature's body armour. To top it all off, each of its four arms and two hind legs were spiked with long curved claws, each lethally sharp.
Yuna gripped onto Tidus from behind, trembling violently, as if completely unaware of the two daggers in her possession. Tidus' sword was shaking in his hand, but he refused to take his cerulean eyes away from the fiend.
The creature was hissing grotesquely, so that foamy saliva coated its clicking pincers. It regarded the two humans through four small unblinking eyes. Then, faster than either of them could have believed, its tail whipped out over its head like a scorpion's, and a shower of needles came flying through the air directly at them.
Tidus shoved Yuna off to the side into the ditch and threw himself in the opposite direction, avoiding the needles by an inch. Now that there were so many of them gathered nearby, he could smell something strange in the air, a pungent odour that filled his nostrils like an unwelcome guest.
"Yuna," he gasped, "don't let the needles hit you. They're poisonous!"
Yuna gaped at him for a moment, and then nodded in understanding, pulling her twin daggers out with as much courage as she could muster. Tidus, keeping low to the ground, glanced back at the fiend, surprised to see that it had not moved. It was obviously not going to waste much energy in killing them to devour them or carry out whatever grim plans it had in mind. Perhaps it was simply trying to amuse itself with their deaths.
"Go around the other side," Tidus whispered across to Yuna, gesturing with his eyes to the trees behind her. She nodded again and did as he ordered, while he turned and went in the opposite direction through the trees on his side of the path. Perhaps the creature would be confused by their separation and not know what to do. Perhaps it would be distracted long enough to lose interest, or perhaps expose a weak spot for Tidus to take advantage of.
The fiend stood still as the two figures slowly made their way around it. Its tail swished back and forward methodically, and Tidus swallowed nervously at the sight of those dangerous needles.
Without warning, the beast gave a loud nightmarish shriek and lunged towards the forest, directly where Yuna was creeping along.
"NO!" Tidus shouted, leaping forward, blade held out. "Over here, demon! Take me!"
Confused by the noise, the fiend hesitated and turned its giant head around to inspect this bold human. Dimly Tidus could see Yuna's pale face, staring back at him in terror. He swung the blue sword threateningly, watching as the sunlight caught its hue and cast a reflective light in the fiend's eyes. The beast hissed at Tidus as it towered over him, and swung his heavily armoured claw at his head. The motion was too sluggish and predictable, though, fortunately for the young warrior. Tidus rolled to the side and scrambled to his feet again, backing down the path to lure the beast away from Yuna's location. This time one of the secondary arms lashed out, faster than Tidus had expected. He dodged it, but only just. He could feel the wind of its heaviness ruffle his hair.
"Tidus, look out!" Yuna screamed, running out onto the path behind the fiend. Tidus stood up just in time to feel four enormous claws drive their sharp tips into his stomach. Unknown to him, the creature had prepared another strike with its front right arm.
He dropped the sword, barely hearing it thud against the ground. Slowly, almost carefully, he took a few staggering steps back, stunned by the pain seeping through him. The claws were poisonous, all of them. He could already by the feel of the heat of the venom traveling through his body . . . there was no stopping it.
He fell to his knees clumsily, strangely indifferent to the fact that the creature was pacing around behind him. The fiend itself seemed to have lost interest in its little game. It had killed one human, and it had been great fun, but now it was weary and impatient with the slowness of the human's death. Carelessly it headed off into the forest, knocking trees over effortlessly, uncaring of the dismay it had caused.
Dimly, Tidus could hear Yuna's footsteps race towards him. She fell to his side just as he collapsed onto his back, stiff and board-like. Why was it so hard to hear and see? Why could he not feel Yuna's hands on him, or see her panicked tears streaming down her lovely and anguished face?
He felt the tears hit his forehead, but so faintly.
"Are you crying Yuna?" he asked, his mind confused. His voice came out like a cough, for his throat was feeling very tight and constricted.
"Tidus, don't die! Let me help you . . . please stay with me . . ." she sobbed. Her voice sounded so distant and dream-like.
"I won't leave you," he promised her. Why would he leave her? They had a mission to carry out. It was an important one too. Oh, she's beautiful, so very beautiful. 'Is this death? Am I dying now? I'm not supposed to leave her . . . not just yet.'
The pain was starting to slack off now . . . all he could feel was a growing wave of warm numbness. His heartbeat was slowing.
"Let me rest for a minute," he muttered, finding it difficult to breathe. "We can move on when I wake up."
And then the world was dark.