Chapter 3

4 years passed and I turned 14. Its been awhile since I've joined the Freedom Fighters. It was better then I thought. I can live with training some more and learning new techniques. The guys I live with like Silver Rook and Grey Wolf are extremely good at what they do. They can really kick some major ass at anytime. But thats what happens when you've been fighting since you were young. And for me, I am the oddest of the few Freedom Fighters. I'm the only Mithra in there that is not a girl. Actually, I am the only Mithra period. We have 2 Hume's, 1 Galka, 2 Elvaans, and 1 Mithra here. Not a big group but a few powerful fighters not to be messed with. I don't even want to piss on anybodies shoes and try to get away with it. The days goes by and I still have nightmares everyday. It's sickening. I feel though at times I get used of these dreams. I guess they will never leave me alone until my rage side gets its satisfaction. Satisfaction in killing the overlord.

I was tending to my unused sword like usual, edging out the blade with a carving knife meant to sharpen a blade once it gets dull. The boss calls me in afterwards. The one who picked me up off the street that day. He likes to be called Boss.

"Fox! Can I please speak with you for one moment?" He asked me.

"Yeah, sure Boss." I walked over to his small room. His personal room which had a very expensive looking piece of armor hanging on his wall and acouple of heavy weight swords meant for the Warriors of Vana'diel. "You need something Boss?" I closed the door behind me.

"Yes, you have proven yourself these past 4 years that your able to be one of us. I guess I was right when I picked you off the street that day." What he was telling me startled me. But I kept listening. "You young Fox have shown me what very few male Mithra can do. Your male side isn't meant for fighting or wielding a sword. Only the female bunch of Mithra's can do the Adventurer job. You cannot. Reason why many hate you and despise you is because your father wanted to be what he couldn't be. Leaving you in a position where from the moment you were born into this world, you were meant to be hated with or without reason."

"I already know that Boss... You don't have to remind me." I said with a stutter.

"I know how you must feel. You have us. We have begun to raise you like one of our own brethren. We take you as our responsibility and we don't mind. But you must follow what we do as well and that's to fight for Vana'diel. Regardless of race, even your own Mithra who despise you so much." He grew silent for a hot minute. "Now I must ask you to ready your blade for combat again."

"What?" I asked in utter astonishment.

"I need you to go on your first mission. Its not an easy one and it's well suited to your talents. I also believe that you will do what I think you would do. An excellent job."

"My first mission huh?"

"Yes. The republic of Jeuno has been on my back recently begging me to exterminate this big problem. To them it's a big problem since they sit in their lush looking homes of theirs with their thumbs up their ass. We of course has to do the dirty work that of course, no one else will do but us." He got up and took one of his maps out of his drawers in the back of the room. "Here. You must go to Pashhow Marshlands and find the route to Beadeaux. In there around the many Quadav in the area, there should be what they describe as a huge venomous snake."

"A snake? How big?"

"Bigger then your house."

"I don't have a house."

"Did you?"

"Hmmm... Good question. They probably burned it down when I left and put a sign up saying 'Good fucking bye and hope to never see you again!'." The boss busted out laughing once I said that. "Well, at least you can find humor in that."

"Well, you've always been a funny kid. Anyway, this venomous snake has been said to grow larger and larger. If it gets any bigger it can worm its way out of Beadeaux and travel its way to the Rolanberry Fields and attack the Republic of Jeuno very easily. So your job is to kill it."

"Lucky me. So why is it getting bigger and bigger constantly?" I asked.

"It is devouring the Quadav in the area."

"Heh... I wonder how the snake shits out the shell..." The Boss laughed some more.

"Again Fox you caught me off guard. So to get to Beadeaux you have to go and rent a Chocobo." He reaches into his desk and takes out some gil. "Here, take 2,000 gil and keep the rest of it after the mission."

"Thanks Boss." I said with a smile. After taking the gil Silver Rook busts in the door very angry and outraged.

"Boss! Your not going to believe this! Those damn government bastards wants each and every single resident in Vana'diel to carry an Official Air Pass to board the Airships now! We have no access to the Airships anymore!" Silver Rook said furiously. "I swear I'm gonna..." Boss interrupts Silver.

"Silver that's enough. Thank you for pointing this out for me..." The Boss looks down at his desk and gives out a big sigh. "Air pass? What the hell are they thinking? Dammit, now we no longer have fast access to the Republics of Windurst, San d'oria, or Bastok no more. Great... Silver, how much do they want for these Air passes?"

"They want 500,000 gil for the air pass. 500,000 for both the normal pass for Windurst, San d'oria, and bastok. Also for the Air Pass for Kazahm.

"That's a Million gil! What the hell are they thinking!?" The boss shouts.
"Shit, those greedy bastards... I need to talk to the head of Jeuno about this matter. If you can excuse me." The boss looks infuriated. He looks at me for one moment. "Fox go and take care of your mission and good luck."

"Thank you Boss." I say to him and get up. The boss rushes out the room and leaves the base. Silver Rook sighs and looks at me.

"So brother, first mission?" He asks me.

"Yeah. I'm gonna get ready as soon as I get something to eat."

"Here." He hands me some pocket money. "Go and get yourself something to eat on the street. I know the boss gave you money already but I like to pay for your meals."

"Thanks rook! Your the best." I gave him a pound and he did the same in return.

"Fox! You be careful out there. This is your first mission. We don't need any death tolls in our name."

"Got ya Rook." And with that I took my leave. I walked up the stairs to the narrow alleyway out into the streets of Lower Jeuno. Busy as always. But this time it wasn't the positive busy. This was more of a angry crowd of people who are a little angry about the change in the Airship system. Who wants to bust their ass and pay 500,000 gil just so they can go somewhere? No one wants to risk themselves and walk through the infested beastmen fields outside the walls of Jeuno just to pay a visit to windurst or any other country for that matter. Any beastman will just attack you just because they feel like stabbing something that's not theirs. Only because they can't forget about the war that happened years ago.

I got to the Chocobo stables in Lower Jeuno, shown my License, paid the big amount of money to ride a chocobo, and rode off to Rolandberry fields. The ride took me hours. On the way I saw birds chirping, beastmen walking about with their weapons ready to stab the next thing they saw, other adventurers fighting the beastmen, and of course other Chocobo riders with a really annoyed face. I guess they were angry that they had to ride a Chocobo rather then take the Airship. Honestly, my butt started to hurt on the seat.

I made it to Pashhow Marshlands. It was raining hard and thunder storming when I got there. The weather startled my Chocobo a little bit. But of course he kept on running in the direction I wanted to go in. I stopped to look at the map a few times. But because of the hellish rain I couldn't look at it long since the rain would blob and mess up my map. So I put it away quickly after looking at it.

"My god this rain in annoying!" Still continuing in the rain I saw a small open path out from the rest of the field. I looked at the map one last time and followed the path. On the way through the path I made a right at the fork. I kept going forward along that fork and made it to Beadeaux. Once I entered the ground started to shake. I couldn't see much in the air since the rain blocked my view with all the fog in my face.

"What the hell is that thumping?" My Chocobo threw me off and I went into the wall.

"Hey!!!! Come back here!" The Chocobo didn't listen and ran like hell. I turned around and the Quadav were all dead. They were torn in half, even their shell was split into pieces. I couldn't believe that a bite can be so powerful. I unsheathed my sword and tried to see some damn image in the thick fog and evil weather. This thunder storm wasn't helping me one bit. I ran forward ducking for cover as the lightning strikes started to hit the ground. "Shit!" I screamed. I was going to have to dodge these lightning strikes if I wanted to kill this snake and get the hell out of here. I kept moving forward with this lightning snapping at my ass. Then I tripped on something. But I don't usually trip. It felt like it was moving. Next thing I know a big head appears right in front of me.

"Holy..." It was the snakes big freakin' head right in front of me. He hissed and blew me backwards, smacking me into the wall behind me. I got up and the snake lunged at me at full force. I jumped out the way. I dragged my blade on the muddy floor and swung upward towards the snakes neck. Direct hit! But it only cut so much of his skin. The snake looked really pissed and instead of hissing like most snakes do, it roars. Blocking the roar, trying to maintain my balance in the mud, I ran to the left and jumped up the wall. This rain was not helping at all as it kept smacking me in the face, blinding me half the time. I stared at it from the cliff edge I was standing on. The snake rose up and started to open its mouth. It charged a purple blast at me.

"Damn!" I jumped out the blasts way. "So you like shooting purple shit at me? Taste this you freak!" I was still in the air after his blast. I charged one of my own. I put both my hands near my left hip and started to charge a Ki Blast that I learned recently from my training. A blue light formed in my hands and I said the words. "Chaos Blast!" I shot a huge wave of energy at the snake and hit him dead in his mouth. The rain added to the color as it made heavy impact and caused the snakes head to explode. The snakes body wormed in the air for a good 10 seconds and finally made a huge and earth shattering crash on the plains of Beadeaux.

"And stay down." I looked at it for a couple of minutes. "Fuck I'm cold!" I started walking out of Beadeaux and thought of how long this walk would be. But my luck served me. The Chocobo I had rented waited for me in the field. Then I got back on the Chocobo and rode back to Jeuno.

To Be Continued