Disclaimer- I do not own nothing. (grins suspiciously)
Note- Thanks for the great reviews from Auron's Fan, Raya (!), Kuro V. Hiragashi, Sydon (Hey there! n.n), Reiko S. Yoshihiro, and too sexy! I love you all, and this chapter is dedicated to Auron's Fan, and very sexy friend and the beta-er of some elements of this chapter, and a muse of mine, Darian. Enjoy!
Destiny of a Not-So Final Fantasy
Chapter 15: Dream On
Darius grasped Dyrnsyn tightly in his hand, staring at the looming figure. As it grew nearer, he realized its shape; he gawked at it incredulously.
The figure before him was a shadow of himself. Eerily enough, it even carried a shadow of Dyrnsyn in its right hand.
"Uh...hi?" he said nervously, waving.
The shadow blinked. "Who the hell are you?"
When Darius did not reply, but instead merely raised his eyebrows as if saying "EXCUSE you?", the shadow smirked and muttered, "Well, they call me...Xodan."
"Lady Brynna…. Will you marry me?"
Yuna gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth, Rikku's jaw dropped through the floor, and Tidus just fell over dead. Brynna stared at the half-Guado, amazed at what she was hearing. Me…?! But, what about… With widened eyes, she looked down at the glistening ring he had slipped onto her finger. "I..."
" 'Tis for the good of Spira, m'lady." Seymour smiled hopefully up at her, revealing two daddy longlegs and a tarantula crawling across his teeth.
"I... I..."
"If you accept, all of Spira will rejooiiice," he said in a singsong voice, attempting to talk her into jumping up with glee, making out with him, chaining him to the wall, and merrily accepting the proposal.
"I... I..."
"The world will love you!"
"I... I..."
"You'll have fame and glory!"
"I... I..."
"Auron will strip!"
"I... I..."
"I will strip!"
"...eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww..."
"... Alright, now you're just being stupid." Seymour arose from his knees. "I'll ask you again: Lady Brynna, will you marry me?"
She looked down at the glistening ring on her finger. "Maester Seymour, I... don't know what to say..."
There was a pause.
"...EXCEPT HELL TO THE NO!"
She snatched the ring off her finger. "You thought I wouldn't notice?" She flung it at him. "THIS IS NOT REAL JEWELRY! IT'S A RING POP! IT'S CANDY!"
"Oh, I, uh... Well, it was on sale, and that O'aka idiot was selling them... Besides—"
But he cut himself off as Rikku tapped her foot impatiently, Tidus glared at him, and Yuna raised her eyebrows in a rather amused manner.
"I'll give you a while to think on the answer; you may sleep on it. Please, in the morning before you leave, let me know your answer, Lady Brynna." And saying nothing more, the maester swept back into his room and when he thought no one was listening, he yelled, "DAMN IT, TROMELL! I TOLD YOU SHE'D NOTICE!"
"So, you're Xodan, eh?" Dar folded his arms amusedly. "Didn't you take over my body before? Nyllia explained that you were another part of my soul. Have you any clue how damn CREEPY that is?"
"Do I care?" Xodan narrowed his eyes, and his mouth curled into a nasty grin. "While you are unconscious, I am going to take over your body—again—and find someone else other than that damned Seer Jade who can answer my questions about The Son and my purpose in the world."
"I won't allow you to do that," Darius smirked. "After all, if you did that...it wouldn't be very polite." He gripped Dyrnsyn even harder in his hand and adopted a fighting stance. "Did no one ever teach you any manners?"
Everyone he's ever known... is dead. Lulu looked sadly at the young boy in Wakka's arms. What an interesting plot device!
The powerful mage remembered the various and warnings Sir Auron had
made so long ago. I should've... She swallowed. ...should've paid attention...
-
"S- Sir Auron..." Yuna had looked up at the worn out man. "Please forgive me, but... h-how did you get so badly wounded? Who..." She extended her hand and brushed it lightly against the area surrounding his permanently closed eye. "...did this to you?"
She was still innocent, ignorant of the true world in which she lived. Still, Lulu had noticed that even at such a young age there was a surprising glint in her eye, as if the seven-year-old was inwardly enraged at the idea of someone brutally attacking the only man left from her father's pilgrimage.
The black mage looked from her to Auron before stepping in apologetically. "Yuna! It is impolite to ask such—"
But the Legendary Guardian held up a hand to silence her. "It's fine."
He stepped closer to the future summoner, whose legs had begun to wobble uncontrollably and had finally given way, causing her to collapse helplessly onto her knees. She was grasping two handfuls of sand and slowly letting them seep out of her closed fists and back onto the ground of the Besaid Beach, and her normally pretty face had suddenly contorted into one drenched in tears.
"He's... not coming back, is he?" Yuna held her face in her hands, but Lulu could still see her sobbing face: the girl's eyebrows were wrinkled horribly, her thin mouth had formed into an enormous grimace, and she was still struggling to control the moisture in her eyes and the multiple streams of tears flowing down her cheeks and onto the ground. "He's dead, isn't he? He's gone..." she bawled, between enormous snivels.
"Yuna..." Lulu could only watch sadly. "I'm so sorry..."
Auron approached the child but did not do anything to comfort her; he stood towering directly in front of her for a long time, patiently waiting for her to calm herself. After a long moment the man finally opened his mouth.
"Get up."
She glanced up at him, dried tears showing all over her face. She sniffed loudly, attempting to arise, but didn't seem to be able to find the strength.
Lulu rushed forward to help, but the Guardian stretched out his hand to stop her. "Please, don't."
The black mage stared incredulously at him, surprised as air of seemingly cold authority, but she did not move. The two adults waited for a while until Yuna was properly standing and was tentatively looking up at her late father's guardian.
"I'm sorry, Yuna," he said in a deep, distinct voice. "Braska won't be returning." When Yuna's face contorted once again and she began looking away as if she was ready to begin crying all over again, he quickly put his finger under her chin and directed her gaze back up at him. "But you knew before the pilgrimage began that he wouldn't be coming back if he succeeded.
"Your father...he wanted me to tell you not to cry. It may be important...for you to do so when you need to to—but it solves nothing." His eye darted back and forth between Yuna's left and right eyes.
"But..."
He cut her off. "He sacrificed himself so you and all of Spira could finally rejoice. You have something to be proud of."
Yuna only looked downward, at the ground, suddenly interested in studying the sand. "I- I know... It's just..." She paused. "No, it's nothing. ...Thank you, Sir Auron."
Auron watched her for a while and then muttered, "Remember this conversation." He turned on his heel to leave, but stopped when he reached Lulu.
Keeping his voice low, the man mumbled something audible enough for only her to hear. "A decade from now, a young man named Xodan will arrive, accompanied with Jecht's son." Ignoring Lulu's strange look, he continued, "Allow them to accompany you for a while." He cleared his throat. "Please lead the party to Luca. I will meet you there."
"But Sir Auron! How would you know something like that?"
He looked at her meaningfully. "A Goddess once told me... 'You must choose between life or death. Truth or lies. Fate or misery. Love or hate.'" He was silent for a moment. "'...your fate will not come to you,' she concluded. Her name...was Nyllia."
'But what does that have to do with...' Lulu looked at him strangely and said, "Sir, I'm afraid I don't understand."
"Not today." He only chuckled and began to stride away. "I leave."
-
Lulu shook off the memory. There was no time for that.
After all, she, Wakka, and Auron had more important business: Darius had gone unconscious, and it was for a horribly surprising reason. They just had to get to the Guadosalam mansion to tell the others!
But unfortunately for him, they were in the middle of a Go Fish game. He would have to wait.
"Got any threes?" Wakka said, narrowing his eyes at Auron, who shook his head simply.
"Go fish." Wakka rolled his eyes unsexily, before snatching a card from the top of the pile, looking suspiciously at the other two, and placing it silently in his hand.
"Have you any sevens?" Lulu inquired sophisticatedly, eyeing Wakka with a smirk. Pissed, he reluctantly handed over a seven.
"Hmm... I feel like we've forgotten to do something..." Lulu said thoughtfully, placing Wakka's card in her hand. The three of them all looked at Darius sprawled out on the ground. "And I have a feeling it has something to do with him being unconscious and maybe even dead..."
There was a pause. Then...
"...Nah!"
Another pause.
"Hey, you guys wanna play Egyptian Ratscrew?" Wakka asked.
"Sure!" Lulu shrugged.
Auron nodded. "You deal out the cards, I'm going to get a soda. You want some?"
"Eh, why not?" Wakka lifted one shoulder. "Get me a Diet Sprite. What about you, Lu?"
"Water is fine."
"All right, I'll be back," Auron said.
"All right. Oh, and don't get any ice with those sodas; they trick you that way."
"Eh, sure. Want me to get us some fries too?"
"Yeah, what kind are they?"
"Oh, I believe they're..."
"Idiot." Xodan did not bother going into a fighting stance and he did not bother preparing himself. "Have you even been taught how to fight at all? Maybe I should give you some tips." He unsheathed his own sword. "First rule: Don't pick fights with people who are, without exaggerating, thirty times more powerful than you."
"Dream on. You're about as powerful as that ant I ate the other night, BASTARD." Dar thrust himself forward and slashed at his shadow, who calmly stepped to the side to easily evade the attack.
"Second rule: Don't swing a sword blindly at an enemy." Xodan raised his own katana-shaped weapon and dematerialized into thin air.
'What the hell?' Dar looked behind his shoulder and on either side of him, but saw nothing. 'Where did he...?'
A hand sprang out from beneath the ground and grabbed his ankle. "Third Rule," came Xodan's dark voice from beneath him, "learn to quickly analyze your opponent's strengths and weaknesses."
"LET GO!" Darius snatched his foot away, and waited until his opponent had materialized back aboveground. "Bastard..." Springing forward, he quickly swung Dyrnsyn and flicked his wrist at the last moment to allow the blade of the sword to protrude into his opponent's skin with more effectiveness.
But Xodan blinked, caught the blade with his free hand, and—snapped it in two.
"Fourth rule..." he snarled.
"Know what the fuck you are doing."
Rikku, Tidus, and Yuna all stared blankly at the small girl before them, who beamed and waved back. Then, Tidus spoke up. "Would someone like to tell me why a middle-aged man would propose to an eleven-year-old?"
Brynna blinked when they all continued to stare at her, as if expecting her to know; she merely shrugged.
"Erm... Question," Yuna said, holding up a finger. "You are 11 years old, correct?"
"Um..." was the little girl's only reply.
Rikku raised both her eyebrows. "Then, is this Seymour guy a pedophile or something? Or am I just crazy?"
"I don't think pedophiles are eligible to be maesters..." Yuna put in.
"...but if he were one," she continued, "he wouldn't have proposed to her; he merely would have kidnapped her and tried to..." She froze.
Tidus gasped audibly and said, "But he DID kidnap her!"
"We... we can't be sure of that. Besides, I have a feeling...that there was a much more important reason."
Brynna, who had not contributed to the conversation at all, finally spoke up. "Um... Guys? Maybe we should tell the others about this..."
She was eyeballed.
However, the three of them cheerfully "skippity skippity skip"-ed out of the building, where they found Auron, Wakka, and Lulu playing a game of cards. To catch their attention, Brynna cleared her throat and got straight to the point: "Seymour...wants to marry me."
Auron gawked.
Lulu gawked.
Wakka gawked.
The cards gawked.
After a long and tiresome explanation of what had occurred in Seymour's mansion (which came from the "mystical" Tidus, who could indeed wrap his arms around his own shoulders), Lulu shook her head incredulously. "Peculiar... A maester, marrying a lowly brat off the streets? It's...unheard of!" And at the look on Brynna's face, she shrugged and added, "No offense."
Tidus frowned. What's the point, why is it such a big deal? Can't she just tell him no? He looked at the disgusted expression on the girl's features. Do they even like each other at all?!
Auron narrowed his eyes, thinking deeply. I don't see why he would be interested in Brynna; unlike Yuna, she is seemingly of no political, magical, or physical value. What does he want of her?
It simply didn't make sense. I mean, let's think about this:
Brynna is eleven.
Brynna is flat.
Brynna has no force. (And I DON'T mean the force from Star Wars, either.)
Brynna has no sexual inclinations with old, musty, long-nailed men.
No old musty, long-nailed men have any sexual inclinations with Brynna.
Quite a simple concept, ne?
Therefore, Seymour's reasoning for proposing to such a girl was either stupid, nonexistent, or pedophilistic. I for one, vote the latter.
And interestingly, those were the exact thoughts of every single one of Yuna's guardians at this particular moment. Still, the whole idea of marrying a maester was not particularly soothing to poor little Brynna. Hence, she held her finger into the air importantly and announced, "It doesn't matter. I'm not marrying him."
At this point, Auron was wondering just what the maester would do if she turned him down. Certainly the man would not merely sit and watch while Yuna and her guardians all continued the pilgrimage, right?
"Are you certain?" he asked quietly.
Brynna nodded, but a certain ex-blitzball captain jumped into the middle of the group frantically, as if he had lost his mind.
"Of course she's not!" he shouted. "No Spiran may ever deny a maester, no matter what he asks!! She must accept the proposal! Denying a maester is sinful, wrong, and unethical, ya?! Plus, maesters can easily kick small girls' asses if they reject them! AND, Maester Seymour might never again invite them over! Not to mention the fact that in an alternate universe Seymour could really be an albino, rabid bunny from FFXII—one of the "neutral" ones that scream and run in circles when you attack—and he could therefore cut them up, serve them on a bun, and munch on them like Michael Jackson munching on the little boy from Home Alone!!!"
The entire group fell over.
Brynna quickly recovered, and walked forward. "God?" she called, looking up to the sky. "Why? WHY?! WHY DID YOU DAMN US TO ACCOMPANY THAT IDIOT FOR FIFTEEN CHAPTERS?"
And in response, God's authoritative, booming voice thundered down from the Heavens:
(1) "There's just something about you that pisses me off..."
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
She paused and took in a deep breath.
"...AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
She paused and took in a deep breath.
"...AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
She paused and took in a deep breath.
"...AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Lulu glared at her. "Rikku? Are you quite finished, or am I going to have to Thundaga your frisky ass?"
Rikku inhaled dramatically. Then...
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH—"
ZAP.
As the poor girl sizzled and fizzed, Tidus exchanged looks with Wakka and mouthed the words, 'Can't you control her?' Wakka merely shrugged hopelessly and shook his head as if pitying himself. "Rikku, can't you calm down at all?" Tidus asked calmly. "It's only—"
But she couldn't hear him; she was crouched over, frightened, covering her ears desperately with the palms of her hands.
Lulu snatched them and threw them down. "Rikku, I like you, I believe you are a pleasant person, and you seem to be well-qualified as Yuna's guardian...so I very much hope I won't have to kill you. Therefore, please stop screaming every time you hear a roll of thunder, or I'm afraid I am going to have to properly kick your rowdy behind."
Rikku glared at her. " 'Roll' of thunder?!" she argued loudly. "These are not just ROLLS, they are BOOMS and CRACKLES!"
Needless to say, five seconds later Rikku's rowdy behind had been properly kicked.
As they proceeded farther into the Thunder Plains—which, as Lulu had explained when they first entered, was forever undergoing a rather disruptive thunderstorm—a few members of the party began to whistle contently, and a certain member of the party continued to scream rowdily and consequentially get zapped.
Brynna contented herself with cart-wheeling up the Thunder Plains instead of just walking. Wakka contented himself with bouncing up the Thunder Plains on his blitzball. Auron contented himself with rolling his eyes at a few of the others while traveling through the Thunder Plains. Yuna, who was apparently too high and mighty to actually journey on two feet like everyone else, decided to summon Valefor and fly up the Thunder Plains. Rikku, annoyingly, hid herself under Auron's coat. Only Lulu walked up the Plains like a proper human being.
Darius, who was still unconscious, was being dragged up the Plains by the ankles by Tidus.
However, all of this inappropriateness quickly came to a halt the moment the party sighted a fork in the road up ahead.
"Should we split up?" Yuna asked, dismounting from her immense bird, who flew off into the distance. "I mean... up until now we've managed to stay close together..."
"Spl- Split up?!" Rikku repeated, momentarily emerging from the coat of Auron. "But if we don't stick together, I'll...be even more frightened!"
"Oh please." Lulu irritably stepped forward to take authority. "We're splitting into two groups: the men will take the left path, and the women will take the right path. We'll meet back up at Rin's Travel Agency Slash Motel at the edge of the plains. Understood?"
"But...what about me?" Wakka asked. "Which group do I go in?"
"I suppose you can go with the men," Lulu sighed, "seeing has how you don't really belong in either group."
The females giggled.
The males smirked.
Wakka broke into song.
Thus, it was decided: Wakka, Tidus, Auron, and the unconscious Darius—who was now being carried by Auron again (no one had dared to ask what had happened to him)—shuffled to the left while Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, and Brynna shuffled to the right.
Back in Guadosalam, the store clerk smiled kindly. "Your summoner must really like you to trust you enough to buy everyone's weapons. You are truly lucky."
Kimahri Ronso nodded proudly, carefully placing all of the weapons and items in his imaginary back pocket. "Yes," he said simply. "Summoner Yuna love Kimahri very much; Kimahri and Yuna very close. Yuna will never forget Kimahri!"
With that, he turned on his heel and left the weapon shop—then froze. Neither Yuna nor her guardians were anywhere to be seen. He checked in the Farplane, down his pants, between a random Guado's cheeks (and I DON'T mean the ones on his face), in the trash can, inside a boiled egg, and even in Seymour's mansion.
"YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"Did you hear that?" Yuna said suddenly, stopping.
"Hear what?"
She thought for a moment. "Nothing, it's probably just my imagination." The girl continued walking through the plains with her other female guardians while Brynna, a few feet up ahead, took the liberty of either killing or scaring off all the fiends for the group. "It's just... I have a feeling that we've forgotten someone..." Yuna said.
"Y- You think, Yunie?" Rikku looked up at the summoner, after jumping and screaming at a flash of lightning.
"No, nevermind," she said, shrugging it off. "I'm probably just...imagining things to get my mind off of Maester Seymour's proposal..." She still couldn't believe it. "And I guess I shouldn't even bother asking what's wrong with Darius..."
"No, you shouldn't," Lulu said firmly. "And that proposal...was as much of a shock to you at it is to the rest of us."
"HEY!" Brynna whipped around and waited for them to catch up. "I'M the one in danger here! What's he going to do when he realizes we just up and left like that?! COME AFTER US, THAT'S WHAT!"
"He's a good man, though, he just..." Yuna sighed, unable to think of any excuse for him. "It'll be all right, don't worry, Brynna." She beamed at her friend, but Brynna only scowled in response.
"Let's hurry up so we can still meet up with the men on time, even if this is a longer route," Lulu suggested, now beginning to power-walk.
There was a long moment consisting of nothing but scaring/killing off fiends and walking at a brisk pace before someone spoke up again.
"You... don't like them very much, do you, Lulu?"
It was Rikku who had said it.
"What do you mean?"
"Well..." Looking around as if to make sure no lightning was going to occur while she spoke, she continued. "I've only just joined you guys, but I've noticed that you never seem to... smile when you're around them. It's as if you...can't stand Darius or Tidus, or...even Wakka..." Rikku looked at the mage with what looked like both worry and sympathy. "I- In fact, you never seem to smile...around anyone..."
Lulu was not moving any longer.
She had froze, staring at the newest member to the party as if she had just said something overwhelmingly startling. The woman lowered her gaze and soon found herself looking at the ground.
"Is that... what you think? I'm not...content around them?" She shook her head sadly, and smiled in a bitter manner. "I've known Wakka all my life, but Darius and Tidus... I know each of them well; I just have a problem with trusting men."
It seemed like the woman was having a vastly difficult time explaining this; Rikku stopped walking and listened, as did the others. "A... a problem with...?"
"With trusting men," Lulu repeated quietly. "Why did you think I separated us into these particular groups? Chappu was someone I...cared for. Deeply. But, he's gone now, and he took both my heart and my trust with him. Tidus, the one who claims to be from Zanarkand—he looks just like him. When I see Tidus...I see Chappu."
"Lulu..." Yuna murmured. She's...never talked like this before...
"And the one who calls himself Darius? He has Chappu's personality," the woman continued. "They both remind me of him, as does Wakka, and so I suppose I'm... protective of all of them, and at the same time...I can't trust them." She looked up at Yuna, who stared back, astonished. "But they're your guardians, Yuna. They are risking their lives for you, so..." She cleared her throat, and looked into the sky. "...I respect them greatly." The mage glanced at Rikku and Brynna and said, "You too."
"Awwww! Group hug!" Brynna cried, glomping all three of them.
"Um... Pardon me," a voice suddenly uttered. "I don't mean to interrupt this rather interesting-looking orgy moment, however..." Yuna quickly arose and took a closer look at the woman speaking: She immediately recognized her as Belgemine. "...I was wondering if your aeons have improved at all, Summoner."
"Erm... I suppose they have, a bit, maybe... But I don't think this is a good time to—"
"Perfect! Let the battle between our aeons...begin!"
"But I don't want to—"
"It's beginning, and that's THAT."
Walking. Walking. Walking. Walking. Walking. Walking. Walking. Walk-
... You get the point.
"How boring," Tidus commented, kicking up dust with his feet. "I've enjoyed steaks better that this."
"Better that this, brudda?" Wakka quirked a brow. "You mean better than this."
"Oh, a typo? I suppose Shadray was too damn lazy to press the Backspace button," said Tidus, smiling sheepishly. "So," Tidus said, "do I even wanna know about why Dar's been knocked out?" He was looking at Auron, for the he obviously did not expect a lowlife like Wakka to know the answer.
"He..." Auron harrumphed. "He passed out when he saw his family and friends in the Farplane."
"What?! But that means..."
Both Auron and Wakka nodded.
Tidus's eyes widened dramatically. But if he saw them in the Farplane, it means... Acting casual, the young man placed his hands on his head and leaned his head back, staring at the ominous clouds towering above him. "But then... I don't get it..."
"It's SIMPLE, brudda!" Wakka exclaimed. "It just means..."
"...that everyone from Zanarkand really has died?" Tidus finished, staring at the ground ominously. I can't believe it... "Damn it..." he muttered. "Sin. It's his fault!"
"No—" Auron started, but he was interrupted.
"SHUT UP FOR ONCE! HE DESTROYED ZANARKAND!" He had stopped moving, and was now on the ground on all fours, clutching the soil beneath his hands angrily. "My old man... He destroyed his own—"
"Tidus!"
The tone of Auron's voice had been fierce, abruptly shutting up the 17-year-old. "Did he once say he was from Zanarkand?" he snapped, grabbing Tidus by his apparel and throwing him to his feet. "When you first introduced yourself to Wakka and you told him you were of the 'Zanarkand Abes,' did Darius once tell anyone he was from Zanarkand too?" The old man's expression was the most serious Tidus had seen it in a long time.
"W- Wait... how do you know...about how I introduced myself to Wakka? You weren't there!"
Auron "hmph"-ed and continued walking.
"Hey! I'm talkin' to you!"
"Hey, calm down, brudda! That amount of stress can't be good, ya?"
"Oh shut up, Wak—" But he stopped, after noticing that the unconscious Darius sprawled out over Auron's shoulder was sweating like mad, and was grunting and struggling as if he were having quite a horrid dream. "Au- Auron, is he all right?"
Darius gulped. Hard.
Xodan was looming closer and closer, grinning horribly and raising his sword into the air. He didn't see how he would be able to fight a 30-times-stronger version of himself...without Dyrnsyn.
'Damn that bastard... Snapping Dyrnsyn in half like that... I've got to stop him from taking over my body again, or...' He gulped again. 'I'LL KILL HIM!' Blindly, the boy charged forward, intending to ram into his enemy, but Xodan side-stepped him and dodged. Darius fell to the ground face-first.
Xodan grabbed him by the collar and threw him to his feet, now face to face with him. "And the last rule," he sneered, "is to never—ever—mess with me." He grinned. "Now, would you like to discuss this more before or after I take over the body?"
Auron, Wakka, and Tidus all stared at the unconscious Darius, who apparently was currently undergoing a dreadful nightmare.
Or was it a nightmare? Perhaps it was...real?
They shook their heads. "Nah."
Wakkak shrugged. "Still, I'm more worried about Brynna, ya? And even you too, brudda!" He playfully ruffled Tidus's hair. "We still gotta find a way to get you back to Zanar..."
He froze.
A seemingly 20-foot-tall canine fiend was growling menacingly in front of them, ready to attack. Its eyes shined a crimson color, flames emerged from its nose each time it exhaled, and its black, huge exterior left no room for any humorous jokes to be made on the matter. Tidus stared up at it, shocked, as the enormous black dog foamed at the mouth and glared down at him.
"What...the hell is that?" he said, fear showing in his voice.
Auron whipped out his sword without hesitation.
"It's a Hell Hound." He narrowed his eyes at it, as if wondering what it was doing in the Thunder Plains. "They come from the Farplane."
"From the WHAT?" Wakka boomed.
"Someone must have dispatched it," Auron concluded. He nodded toward the demonic creature. "Come. We fight."
Note- (1) A quote from a novel by Steven King.
Please, review if you've made it this far into the story. I thank you all, love you all, and shall happily slurp you all in the 16th chapter! Until later,
"->-"
(Shadray's signature)