Over hills and valleys the two riders passed, sharing the same mount; travelling from Bervenia to Goug, of which they have not yet reached. Reis was beginning to lose her patience. She could scarcely wait to see the machine that Mustadio and Besrodio had dug up in the machine mines of Goug. It was not often that one finds a machine specifically for the benefit of another person; let alone one that strangely matched their needs.
The roar of a waterfall could be heard ahead; the road changing from a smooth paved surface to a craggy rock path, worn and frayed by the ravages of time. The soil was moist, almost muddy, as though of a swamp. A bridge of half-rotten planks spanned the foam-filled ravine, suspended by a weather-beaten rope. Moss grew upon its posts, a mark of how old it was.
This could be no other than Zirekile Falls…my, how long has it been since I gazed upon this place. I haven't visited this place since I've been cursed into a dragon some time ago.
A hooded wizard stood in the middle of the bridge, cloaked in the darkest shade of midnight black. His face remained in the shadows, covered by the broad brim of his straw hat.
'Pardon me, but could you please move? You're blocking the road,' Mustadio asked the wizard, reining back the chocobo.
'I shall not,' the wizard replied; a steely tone within his voice struck a note in Reis' mind. She had heard that somewhere before…a long time before.
That dark, chilling tone that still haunts the darkest corners of my mind…could that be…
Advancing on the chocobo, the black mage leered towards Reis; the gleam of his grey eyes unlike any other wizard, a long, hooked nose visible in the sun.
"Buremonda!" she hissed loudly, contempt distorting her fine features, 'You're still alive! After all those years, I thought you'd be dead, your conspiracy against me and my noble fiancé discovered; I guess I'm wrong. Your wrongs against me have still remained clear in my mind; you, who have thrown me into twelve years of solitude; twelve years of suffering and pain, dare come in my way, an impudent fool, weak as you ever were, or perhaps even weaker. I suggest you should move—now, or be slain without regard,'
"Calm down, Reis," he spoke slowly, "I will end your suffering now,"
A black shadow was gathering within the gilded hook of the dark priest's staff; pulses of evil streaming forth from the vortex of darkness, echoing the very scream he uttered as his spirit bound itself with the Lucavi. Distorted, misshapen, he became the very embodiment of evil; hordes of flies flew about his head, skeletal and skinless.
The dark priest had become Beelzebub, the lord of chaos.
'Your life will end here, as it will for those that protect you!' he shouted, a foul odour spreading thickly across the ground; it was of carrion and rotten flesh, 'This time, your fiancé will not be here to protect you, as he did years ago; had he not interfered, your soul should be mine, mine alone, mine to keep and love!'
'What do you know about love?' Reis asked, her voice shaking in rage, her hands balled into fists as she dismounted the chocobo, 'You've never loved me; it was for you—and your own greed and self-satisfaction that you wanted me—if you truly loved me, then you should have been happy that I was happy…and not only yourself, as you are now,'
'Silence!' Buremonda shrieked, raising a pallid, rotting finger, 'You've occupied my attention since you've arrived at Lionel's cathedral to study under Cardinal Draclau; distracted me from my studies of greater magic, even stealing his favour from me! I! I, the one who was once his favourite, his greatest student, intended to be the next leader of the Murond Glabados Church; I discarded that for your hand, which you've never given to me; instead proffering it to a lowly commander of the Lionel Temple Knights. What have I not given for you? I've sacrificed my ambition, my mind and my time for you; not one favour have I received back,'
'You're wrong,' Reis growled, 'Beowulf isn't the lowly commander you think he is. And you haven't given everything you have for me; and I don't need it either. Leave. Now,'
'Oh, so you're content to be the wife of a whore, an unranked officer in the Lionel army?'
That did it. He's insulted me enough, and he's insulted Beowulf enough. He may be in another place, but that doesn't mean he can insult his memory freely!
Rage welled up within Reis' flesh, mind and body, coursing through the blood pounding through her veins; surrounded by a fierce silver glow, her arms and legs lengthened, her golden sheets of hair transformed into a fiery golden mane. Pale skin turned to silver scale as she transformed a dragon. Breathing a frozen flame, she rounded up on Buremonda.
'You shall see,' Reis roared, 'What vengeance I have for you, what vengeance my Beowulf has for you, and what destruction awaits you,'
In her fury, Reis swiped one furious claw across his arm, severing it completely; the rotting flesh lay on the edge of the bridge, balanced precariously before falling into the white foam beneath. Embers and sparks flew from her nostrils, a precursor to a fiery wave of heat and smoke, incinerating in an instant her opponent; a charred, blackened carcass remained behind, light wisps of smoke rising from the cracks of his burned skin.
Tossing the corpse into the river, Reis spat on the bridge, watching the river swallow her nemesis in jagged teeth of stone and wildly swirling water. Reis, suddenly realising that she was again on four feet, quickly ran off towards the water.
There she was, reflected in the glossy surface of the flowing river. A silver dragon, bearing a golden mane. She could not believe it. After all this time, she had to become a dragon again? No…this cannot be, she thought. I must not remain a dragon for eternity again.
As she thought of that very thought, not becoming a dragon, she was once again enveloped in silver light, shrinking, standing up straight. She was once again Reis—at least the human Reis.
Quickly switching between the two forms of herself a couple of times, Reis finally realized the gift that had been given to her: she could now transform at will.
Dashing over to Mustadio, she told him the gift that had been given to her. Mustadio smiled, though he flushed bright red in the cheeks. Perplexed, Reis asked him, "Why are you blushing?"
Mustadio replied softly, "Miss Reis, you have nary a single piece of clothing on,"
She looked down herself. Indeed, in her rapid transformations, she had overlooked the fact that dragons are bigger than humans. Blushing bright scarlet, she quickly hid behind the chocobo's wings, which seemed to understand Reis's embarrassment.
Mustadio sprinted for Zaland, purchasing a set of linen robes for Reis, and run back again. By evening, he had arrived back, holding out the clothes for Reis and panting loudly, perspiration dripping on his face.
Quickly dressing herself, she noticed a gleaming crystal on the patch of ground near the charred remains of Buremonda. Putting her arm through a sleeve, she picked up the stone with the free hand.
It was a zodiac stone, one marked with Cancer, the crab. She pocketed it, thinking that even if it were just a stone with no use now, it may be a treasure for others later.