Chapter 4- Circumstances of the Water

The building had fallen into a derelict state and had sunk into the water. The brown stone walkways and walls were crumbling and falling apart. It had been so long since the building had seen anyone that plants were growing in the water between statues of men and pillars all of which were completely submerged. Fish swam about between the fallen, algae covered rocks. A little silvery fish swam towards a yellow colored stone in the water, then flitted away quickly as the rock, or rather the shoe, was pulled up out of the water by the person wearing it.

Tidus raised his head expecting to find himself in the ruins of Zanarkand. Instead, his eyes were treated to the sight of the abandoned walls and walkways leading up to what looked like some sort of temple. Getting to his feet, he shivered and watched his breath for a minute. It would kill him to stay for too long. Jogging to try and get warm, he began toward the sunken temple. It was so quiet he could hear the water dripping around him. "Anybody here?" He didn't really expect an answer, but would have gladly accepted one. It occurred to him that Auron was missing. "Auron! Heeey! Auron! Where are you?!" Nothing. Not a soul moved except for the occasional little fish beneath him in the depths. Sighing he continued on towards the temple along a raised narrow path which stretched out over the water. Halfway across to the temple, the path stopped. Looking around, he saw other dead ends around him, but nothing leading straight ahead. Turning to walk back and think of something else, he took one step. Instantly, he was thrown into the water as the stone path collapsed unexpectedly. The water swirled up around him. Wishing for better luck, he began to breaststroke toward what looked like doors under the water.

Tidus wondered if Lady Luck were ignoring him today as he spotted three green blurs in the distance approaching quickly underwater. Dipping under the water, he realized that all along he'd been carrying the sword from his father. Maybe his luck wasn't it at its worst. The three fishlike creatures approached and spread their four sets of fins out. They had red and yellow skin on the tips of their fins, gaping red mouths full of sharp teeth, and glaring yellow eyes. Tidus gulped back his fear of fighting alone as he swam slashing at the nearest one. As his sword passed through the first one, a second one circled behind him trying to catch him off guard. Whirling around his blade passed cleanly through it making it burst into little rainbow lights like the first one had done. Tidus felt confidence and power build up in himself as he began to chase the third one. A rushing sound stopped him.

Looking over his shoulder, he caught sigh of a giant fish with its mouth wide open. Dodging out of the way in time, the fish shot past him and in two bites swallowed the green fish monster. Tidus prepared as the fish approached him. Once it neared, he swam up and out of the way while bringing his sword down on the fiend's back. It gave out an intense growl and flipped around back toward him swimming faster than before. Tidus felt his skin crawl realizing this fish could easily out-swim him. Turning tail, he began to wildly make his way through the water. The fish closed in every second. An opening in the wall was just ahead. Attempting to put on a burst of speed Tidus felt the fish's mouth closing down on him. Trying to hold back a scream, he was shot forward as the fish collided with the wall sending a rush of water and Tidus himself into the darkness. Behind him, he could hear rocks crashing down on the entrance and, he hoped, on the fish's head, too.

"Out of the frying pan, into the freezer," he thought glumly as he climbed a set of stairs out of the water. He considered the possibility that he might die here.

The top of the stairs opened out into an open ceiling room. Pillars at least a hundred feet tall towered above with arches connecting the tops of them. Water was pouring over the edges of the walls that lay just outside the ring of pillars. Tidus could see his breath again and cursed the people who had designed this place. Arched doorways were visible at various points throughout the room. Pieced of rock had fallen in front of some of them. Ugly statues of men dotted the round room as well.

Tidus talked to himself to try and keep his senses and give himself some comfort in the sound of the rain. Walking to the middle of the pillars, he found the remains of a fire. The wood was hardly damp at all. "Cold… Need…. Fire…"

Jogging to the closest doorway, he entered and opened a drawer in a wooden, rotting desk. Nothing, but soaked papers. Drawer after drawer revealed nothing, water, or soaked items. Finally, ripping out the last desk drawer, he found pieces of flint. Wondering if he could use the papers as fire, he picked up some that he'd thrown across the floor. They practically disintegrated in his hands from being wet for so long. Tidus wondered if he'd find anything dry in this place. Jogging to the next archway door, he found another desk, also rotted and wet, but this time holding nothing. Tidus really began to think that he should prepare to starve or freeze to death in this nasty forgotten place. He felt like giving up, but then wondered what the harm was of trying anyways. The next archway opened to a set of stairs. At the top was a dead end blocked by tons of fallen rocks. He eyed the red cloth tapestry on the wall, but it was sopping wet and ice cold. Making his way back down the stairs, his eye caught something yellow he hadn't noticed on the way up. It was a bouquet of withered flowers. Reaching out, he expected them to be wet. His hand touched them and they crinkled with brittle dryness. Feeling like jumping for joy, he raced back downstairs to the logs in the middle. Striking the flint on the logs and bouquet he slowly got a fire started. He huddled as close to the fire as he dared while gallons of water poured down around him in almost darkness. Things were warmer, but not much better.

Once he'd warmed up and partially dried off, Tidus relaxed. "I need food," he told himself aloud. Suddenly weakness overcame him and he drifted into a dreamlike stupor. Looking around he saw the inside of his house. The door opened behind him. Auron entered. "It was a bad call," he said to Tidus. "Your team lost because of you." Tidus remembered this time well. He wasn't sure why this memory was the one that chose to come floating to him.

"You came to say THAT?"

"It been," Auron began, "ten years. I thought you'd be crying."

Tidus replied, "Who me?"

Between him and Auron, the purple hooded boy appeared with little lights swirling around him. The lights were the kind that appeared at the defeat of a fiend. "You cried," he said to Tidus.

Waking up a little, Tidus realized he was falling asleep by the fire. Its flames were barely clinging to life. Shock shot over him as he jumped up. "Hey! Wait! Don't go out on me," he begged. "Just hold on. I'll get some more wood." He had no idea where he would find more, but he would try. Looking up, he saw something move on the wall. Squinting to try and see better, he saw it was a red and brown fiend like a giant preying mantis. It looked back at him for a second, then it began to race across the wall effortlessly. As the fiend jumped down to attack Tidus, the large metal doors to his right blew open. A group of people wearing multicolored body suits and goggles burst in with different weapons. Tidus hoped they were guns packing super fire power. Out of the clearing smoke stepped a slimmer smaller figure. It looked like a teenage girl wearing a red and orange suit with goggles and puffy blonde hair back in a ponytail.

Tidus turned back to the fiend. The girl came up to his side without saying a word. Tidus broke the silence by saying, "You on my side? Cool!"

The girl opened a pouch on her side and tossed something out at the fiend. It exploded on impact sending the fiend flying backwards. As it tumbled, Tidus ran forward and cut it with his sword. It fell dead, then exploded into lights.

"Whew! That was close, "he said, smiling to the girl. One of the armed men came up and grabbed Tidus by the hair. "Hey! Lemme go!" He struggled, but felt like his scalp was going to be taken off.

"Fryd ec drec?"

Tidus looked at the man who'd spoken to the girl. He gave them both a baffled look and stopped fighting. These people probably couldn't understand a word he was saying. The girl understood her own native language, however. The man had asked, "What is this?" "A fiend in human disguise," said a second of the men. "Yes, it is so!" a third told her. The fourth man spoke to the girl, " We kill it?"

The girl looked at Tidus whose face was pathetically confused and pleading. He obviously had no idea what they were saying. "Wait! What if it's human?" she said to the men in her language.

The fourth man scoffed. "They are the same in death."

The girl put her hands on her hips. With an air of authority, she said, "No! I forbid it. We bring it with us. Walking up to Tidus, she whispered, "Cunno," which meant "Sorry." As she stepped away from him, she drove a punch into his stomach knocking the wind out him. The man dropped Tidus who fell to the ground gasping for air. The room began to swim as he saw the four men lean over him closely. Looking at the doorway, he saw the girl leave and wondered if he was being helped or killed.