Chapter Five: Dressphere Change
"Yuni, how much further? My legs are killing me and my boots are all dirty!"
"Rikku, if you whine one more time, I swear I will take all of your remaining respect points and then you'll finally see me lose it completely!"
The bickering between Rikku and Paine had lasted hours as the group of three trudged through foot deep mud with rain pouring down. They were in a small clearing that was surrounded by high spires of rock that reminded them of the lightening rods in the Thunder Plains. Water dripped down from them like lakes and turned the dirt they walked along to mud. Soon they would be swimming in the stuff if they didn't find dry ground again.
Yuna pointed this out to the other girls and Rikku yelped in surprise.
"Swimming? In this? Ewwww!"
Paine clenched her teeth, but fought back an angry retort.
Yuna smiled encouragingly. "Come on Rikku, your not afraid of a little mud are you? Think of it as sand."
A distant roar of thunder cut off Rikku's reply and she screamed out. Trembles racked her body and she slipped and fell forwards. Luckily for her Paine had fast reflexes and caught her around the middle seconds before she could kiss the mud.
"Are you alright?" Yuna asked her cousin, trying to hold back the laughter.
With a white face, Rikku nodded and thanked Paine as she was pushed back up onto her feet again.
"It's fine," Paine mumbled. "Just don't make me have to rescue you again next time or it'll cost points."
Rikku pouted. "How many?"
Paine smiled back. "Depends on how much effort I have to put in to save your ass."
In the distance that surrounded them it seemed there was just mountain of rock, but far ahead they could see a thin slither of orange. They had assumed that it was some sort of lava lake and tried to ignore the molten obstacle that they knew they would soon have to face. According to the map, they had to go straight through before heading away from North.
Mud had filled the boots of all three girls and the rising level left the bottoms of their stomachs covered in mud. Soon they were wading in the mess, and seeing the distance they still had to cover, they started to realise that they could drown before they even made it to the lake. As though finding the position the girls' were in, the rain came down harder.
"That's it," Rikku moaned. She had finally taken all she could, and with a quick flick of her wrist that she had clearly done millions of times, she pulled out her sphere grid from one of the many pockets that were attached to her belt.
Before Paine or Yuna could ask her what she was changing into, she picked a dressphere and activated the change. Bright lights surrounded her, changing to a sea blue, then blood red, then bright yellow, and finally a blinding white. She was lifted into the air, completely motionless, then her body completely disappeared.
Paine glanced over at Yuna. "What dressphere can possible help us out here? We don't have any with wings, we can't cast any magic that gets rid of mud, and we certainly don't have any that enable us to use gills…"
"Your guess is as good as mine," said Yuna, shrugging.
A moment later the flashes of light appeared again, each brighter than they were before. Rikku appeared in the centre of the beautiful sight, her blonde hair waving around her as though she were swimming deep beneath a surface of water and her eyes were firmly shut. Her black and purple clothes gave away immediately what she had chosen to become, and with a repulsive 'splat' she was deposited into the mud again.
Paine stared at the mage as she straightened up and pulled her rod free of the brown muck. "Okay, and what exactly are you planning to do with that?"
Rikku gave a disgusted look as she waved her rod in the air to rid it of the putrid brown globs that covered it. "You'll see," she said simply. How she loved leaving her friends guessing with her plans.
Once the rod was clean, light blue patterns appeared along the gold metal and twisted around to the very edge that Rikku held. They were unreadable, an alien language to the girls, but they shone with a certain significance. Droplets of water fell into he mud and a gentle wind blew around Rikku as she closed her eyes and prepared the spell. The rod seemed to pulse with life in her hand, and for a moment it seemed she had no control at all.
Seeing what she was about to do, Yuna rushed forward as fast as she could through the thick layers of sludge. "Rikku, don't!"
It was too late. Rikku uttered the word "Waterga," and waved of the rod in the air. Crystal clear liquid exploded in front of her. It mixed with the mud, turning it to a light brown, then rose up into a wave, roaring and building until it was as high as a tower in Spira.
"What's happening?" Rikku gasped as the spell rose into the air like an animal preparing to pounce. "Waterga had never done this before!"
"Idiot!" Paine yelled as she ran forwards and stepped in front of Rikku. "You'll drown all of us!" She glared at the younger girl from over her shoulder. "Don't you ever think?!"
There was silence for a moment as the wave hung in the air, a sickening mixture of muck, clumps of dirt, and water. Yuna held onto Rikku's arm and tried to pull her back as Paine glared up at the spell that had gone terribly wrong, bracing herself. She searched her mind quickly, trying to decide what to do, but it was too late to act.
The water began to fall as though in slow motion. Each drop that flung from the mass hung in the air for a moment, completely unnatural, before disappearing back into the heart of the wave as it plummeted into the three Gullwings. The sound of the wave was almost deafening, a deep roar as its wet jaws swallowed them whole, and then only the sound of bubbles exploding around them could be heard as the three girls were slammed through the surface of the water.
Yuna twisted madly around, tyring to straighten herself out so she could kick to the surface. Rikku floated motionless, seeming unconscious from the water's impact.
The first thing Paine realised as she came out of her daze was that she could no longer breathe. Fear clutched her, icy cold. Her heart pounded and she looked up to see that the surface was no longer visible from the mess of black and brown. She turned to see Yuna approaching, finally having located her friend, but Paine's heart skipped a beat when she saw Rikku, unmoving and pale, a few metres behind.
Immediately the warrior swam past a confused Yuna and reached the thief. She grasped her around the middle tightly, and then turned back to Yuna. Speaking with her body language, she jerked her head upwards, indicating that she meant to find the surface, and Yuna followed with a simple nod.
Unfortunately the spell was not entirely finished. Like a dying animal the water started to jerk and splash, then turned into rapids. Paine and Yuna were thrust down, falling through a tube of water that had formed around them. It was like a tornado, and refused to let them go. The power was unthinkable and the force enough to drive the remaining air from their lungs.
Struggling to find an air supply, Yuna tried to take a breath and was, of course, rewarded with nothing but water. It rushed into her mouth and down her throat where it clogged as she coughed wildly. Paine saw her struggling and grasped her arm with a free hand, then braced herself as she saw a blue rocky wall below.
It was like a long snake and stretched on for as far as she could see, but she only received a brief few seconds before colliding with the structure.
The impact was enough to cause her to cry out, but she silenced as soon as she hit the ground with a painful thud. Her head bounced up, and then hit the ground a second time and a terrible ache surged through her body as though every bone inside her had broken. Water followed after her rough landing, spilling on top of her and her friends like a jug had been tipped out over them. She was forced to wait another minute for air and feared for her life more than she had ever before, but something grasped her by the arm tightly with shaking fingers and pulled her out from under the rushing water.
Opening her eyes a crack, Paine saw a flash of metal that was unmistakably Yuna's guns, then she closed them again as she was hauled painfully up onto a thick slab of rock. She could feel the cold limp body of Rikku in her arms still, and only when she realised that she could not feel her stomach rising beneath her hands did she finally react.
Yuna stumbled forward at the sight of her cousin and reached out to unlatch her from Paine, but the warrior seemed to spasm to realisation and tried to pull herself up. Immediately, Yuna stepped back as Paine took charge and rolled Rikku completely onto her back.
"Shit," the warrior gasped at the sight of the white form that was Rikku. She placed two trembling fingers against her neck to feel for a pulse as her body shook from panic and cold. As soon as she found the right spot to find a pulsing heartbeat, Rikku coughed water into her face.
Yuna rushed forward as Paine jerked back, and started helping Rikku into a sitting position, pounding her on the back to empty her lungs of the water.
Slowly the youngest girl's green eyes opened and she stared back at Paine with a smile on her face. "Sorry about that Doctor P."
Paine shook her head to rid it of the water that had erupted from the girl. "Lucky thing you came back. I would have taken respect points if I had to give you CPR."
The steady drip of water became an infuriatingly constant sound. Rocks littered the ground, some reaching out to latch themselves to the slimy moss covered walls. There was nothing remotely attractive in the tunnel. Every slab of stone was a stormy grey with large flecks of black, and the only plant life that existed were clumps of brown grass that were metres tall and climbed the walls.
Surprisingly, Rikku didn't complain about the change from clumpy mud to mossy filth. In fact, she had been quiet ever since they had 'arrived' in the tunnel.
Paine pointed this out, and she simply shrugged.
"Just tired I guess," was her only excuse.
Now Yuna was curious. "Since when do you get tired Rikku?"
Sighing, the young thief turned to her cousin. "Everyone gets tired." Her voice sounded a little shaky and held a hint of unhappiness, a rare sound, and Paine realised that she would not meet her eyes. Everytime she was about to, her green irises would flick to another point in the tunnel and she would shy away completely, falling back a few steps and becoming a shadow in the group.
"I have never seen you like this," Paine pointed out, stopping in her tracks and grasping Rikku's arm. "Are you sure your okay? You were pretty messed up after coming through the ceiling of this place."
The thief struggled and tried to break free of Paine's grip, but she was strong.
Yuna appeared on the opposite side. "Maybe you took in too much water?" she suggested.
"Look," Rikku almost cried out. It sounded as though she were about to burst into tears as her voice broke, but she stayed calm as she turned to face Paine. "Back there in the mud lake you…" She paused and stared down at the ground as tears formed in her eyes.
Knowing that she was probably not going to be able to continue, Paine racked her brain with the information she had been given, and then it hit her. "Wait, is this about what I said? Calling you an idiot, and… and saying that you never think…" She bit her lip and tried to think of what to say.
Rikku looked up with sad eyes. "I just wanted to turn the mud to water so we could all swim out and…" She paused, and then anger flickered into her eyes. "Why can't you like me like Yuna? Aren't we friends?" She didn't even give Paine a chance to reply. She fled from them, finally breaking free of Paine's grip, and disappeared down the tunnel.
"Rikku!" both Yuna and Paine screamed in unison. They rushed after her, though she was out of sight. Moments later they heard an ear piercing scream, but it only made them run faster.
At the end of the tunnel was a shallow hole with foot deep water in which Rikku was sitting, staring up at her companions. In her lap was a small red sphere that glowed brightly, filling the fissure with light.
"Rikku, is that a sphere?" Yuna asked, completely dumbfounded.
With a smile, Rikku threw the sphere up to Yuna who caught it, and then she started trying to climb the wall.
Yuna started studying the blood red orb in her hand, turning it this way and that, but Rikku slipped halfway up the hole without her even noticing. Paine's hand shot out and gripped Rikku's wrist and with an easy tug she pulled her to up to the edge where she climbed out.
"Thanks," the thief muttered, averting Paine's gaze again.
With quick movements Paine lifted her face and grasped her wrist with the opposite hand. "Rikku, this is hard to say, but I do like you as a friend. I just-"
Rikku shook her head, cutting off the older girl. "Don't," she said, then smiled gently. "We have a sphere to try out… Talk about it later."
From the side, Yuna smiled at the pair. "Yeah, later. I don't think either of you want to stay down here much longer do you?"
Paine laughed, then snatched the sphere playfully from Yuna's hand. "Well I certainly don't, but lets at least see what this thing can do."
The lake above had not finished its toll of misfortune on the pair and started to become too much for the tunnel. Splits appeared on the walls and water poured out, soaking them. The cracks grew, stretching out across the rocky walls and allowing more muddy brown water in.
Instinctively, Paine grasped the wrists of Rikku and Yuna and started to run them down the tunnel. "Damn it!" she shouted, her voice echoing. "As soon as something good finally happens, something always finds a way to spoil it!"
"Stop complaining and run!" Yuna shouted through her hysteria as rocks collapsed behind them. They could feel the flecks of stone on their backs and were forced to race through at a faster pace.
"It's no use!" Rikku cried out as she started to lose her energy and fall behind. "We won't make it!"
Yuna yelled out in frustration. She knew it was true, but she couldn't face it. She didn't want to die there.
Fortunately, Paine had another idea, and she froze in her spot, slipping a little on the wet tunnel floor. Her companions stared at her in surprise, but she ignored them and glanced up at the roof of the tunnel as it started to collapse. As the rocks plummeted towards them she pulled her sword free from its sheath and sliced through the debris, then, still holding onto her friends, she launched herself up through the water that spilled out.
They were back in the lake where they had started. Below, the tunnel pressure was trying to suck them back in, but seconds before they could disappear back into the death-trap, it filled with water and they were thrown up through the muddy mess until they broke through the surface above.
Water erupted around them in an explosion of glistening droplets, then stilled as though nothing had happened at all.
"Yeah, we did it!" Rikku shouted out as she slammed her fist into the water, showering Paine and Yuna.
With a shrug, Paine finally released the pair as she realised she was still holding onto them. "Well now that that's over, we can find out what this sphere…" She froze as she realised that she no longer held the glistening red orb in her hand.
Yuna laughed at her fear. "It's okay, I caught it as soon as you dropped it. You were more focused on grabbing Rikku so you could get her to the surface along with me that you didn't even notice." She smiled at Rikku, then handed the sphere to Paine.
Rikku seemed dumbstruck, but she remained silent on that subject. Instead, she said, "Come on, let' get to land."
With a nod, Paine followed the youngest of the three, but she wondered what she would say to her. How could she think that she didn't care about her? She had saved her a million times.
As though sensing her agony, Yuna pat her on the back. "Don't worry, you'll think of that to say."
Paine bit her lip. "I hope I do. I don't want her getting distracted and falling in battle…" She swallowed and turned away, whispering, "I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for that…"