PLEASE READ: there is a warning for the chapter because a certain part is slightly graphic. Can you guess where Rikku is? ^_^

Well, here is chapter 2!

The Lost

She could still hear her heart beat. It steadily quickened as her mind told her to panic. What had just happened? Rikku pushed herself into an upright position with one arm and wiped her face with the other. Her vision was too blurry to recognize the landscape. She could feel long dead grass beneath her fingers. Maybe she was at the Calm Lands, or Farplane? She could make out some hills, which meant she was wrong. There were large scattered rocks with tall grass in patches. It wasn't hot out, but the sun still beat down without mercy and there was no shade in which to hide.

Cautiously she got to her feet and looked around. There was nothing. The panic returned. She had no food, no shelter, not even anything to make a fire with! As far as she could see, there was no civilization for miles. Rikku picked up her twin blades from the ground, noticing something she had failed to before. Instead of her normal thief attire, she wore brown breeches that clung to her legs with her usual belt and black, lace-up boots which came to her knee. On top she wore a dark brown vest with buckle straps over a black long sleeve shirt, as well as the sleeves from the thief dressphere.

'Maybe it malfunctioned?' she tried to convince herself. She could figure it out later; she needed to focus on staying alive first. Unsure of where to go, she began walking in the direction she was facing and started out. Her first steps where clumsy and unbalanced, but returned to normal eventually. The wind whipped like a river in between the hills and huge rocks, blowing the mass of hair and beads on top of her head to tangle. What if she couldn't get out of this? Of course she had done this before, but then she had supplies and wasn't alone. Her nerves where building.

She had been walking for five hours straight. She saw nothing but rocks and hills in the distance. The sun was starting to set over the rolling hills in the distance. Streaks of pink, yellow, and blue spilled across the sky in layers. Rikku was staring off into the horizon when a certain black dot caught her attention. She would have started bounce on her feet like she did when she excited, but she was beyond exhausted. She would have to wait to discover if it was a town or not tomorrow.

X.x.X

The sun had risen only just above the horizon line when she woke up. She could still see the black dot in the distance. Her legs were sore and heavy from yesterday as well as her back from sleeping on the ground.

'I would kill for a chocobo right now,' she thought. Her clothes were covered in dirt and her hair looked like one huge knot. Not to mention her stomach was making strange noises from not having eaten in Shivra knows when.

A hint of meat cooking lingered in the area. There was some smoke coming from the north, most likely the source of the food. She followed a trail to the smoke to find a descent-sized camp. There was a large bonfire in the center with spikes and a pile of something in the far corner of the camp. She was about close enough to make out the people in the camp. They looked deformed almost; their faces different shapes, with sculls, bones, and spikes adorning their armor. Each of them had a white handprint on their chest, face, or both. Her mind told her not to judge and ask for help, considering they may be like the Ronso, but even then they seemed more peaceful. Her gut was telling her to run away as fast as possible and not look back. Taking careful steps forward she hid behind a large pile of rocks and peaked through the cracks. It looked like they were leaving now, heading back southeast. Rikku had to stop herself from screaming at what she saw next. The pile in the corner was filled with dead bodies and the spears around it held the heads of the bodies, one on top of the other. The creatures where now running away from their camp at a fast pace.

As soon as the beasts were far enough away Rikku broke out into a sprint in what she thought was a village, praying she never had to see those monsters again. Something told her she wasn't in Spira anymore, or even close to it. The sun was almost in its highest point in the sky and she didn't know how many more days she could continue like this. Thoughts of her father, Yuna, and Gippal flashed in her mind. Rikku shook her head. She couldn't think about that, she had to focus on surviving first.

x.X.x

The sun had once again fallen behind the hills by the time Rikku reached the (thank god!) Village. She was fading fast. The hunger pangs where becoming stronger and more frequent. Not to mention she had been running all day.

"This place better not be filled with those crazy fiends again," she thought to herself.

"Halt! What is your business here?" Rikku jumped at the sound of the random voice with no owner. She looked to the side of the gate leading into the town and found a man in leather armor with his hand on the hilt of a sword.

"I just need a place to stay for the nigh-" she tried to reply but passed out before she could finish. She curled into a happy ball on the dirt road, already in a deep sleep. The guard, however, was not amused. He looked for wounds, finding none; he labeled her as drunk, street trash, even if she was a woman. Dumping her over his shoulder, he walked into the town and knocked on the door of a small shack.

Okay, I know, it's short, but I felt bad about not updating! I'm working on the next chappie as we speak! I'll try to put up the next chapter ASAP. I start tennis practices this week and then there's tornaments and blah, blah, blah… so I'll try and get it done when I can.

Thank you StrawberriCat for reviewing! I thought it was about time some one made a crossover with FFX-2 and LOTR too! Hopefully someone else will copy and write one!

xxPepperLovexxx