Unfortunately, that night, I had a dream. It started off fine, if a little vague. I was standing on a pier with Yuna. We were... running away? She asked me if I would take her to Zanarkand, and I agreed... but then suddenly Lulu was there too.
"You said you would take me to Zanarkand. Didn't I tell you not to get any ideas?" Lulu glared at me.
"You did?" Yuna asked in confusion and then looked out across the water blankly.
"I did. So she's going with me." Lulu grabbed my arm, and then Yuna huffed and grabbed my other. Before I could even think to mediate, I was... hit in the back of the head with a ball...
"Hey, quit dreaming!" Suddenly, both Yuna and Lulu were gone and as I turned around to look at the beach I saw... my father...
"What are you thinking!? You, with a woman? As if!" And then everything around me seemed to grow... or, actually, it seemed like I shrunk, as I looked down to see the clothes that I had been wearing the day they told me that my dad was missing. "Aw, what, are you gonna cry again? Cry, cry, cry, that's the only thing you're ever good for anyway." The dream version of my father taunted, prompting the tears to flow from my eyes without my consent.
"I hate you..." I whimpered to the man.
"Huh, what's that?" He asked and I looked up to see Lulu and Yuna both standing behind him.
"You have to speak loudly." Yuna encouraged.
"Stand up for yourself, or no one else will do it for you." Lulu prompted.
"I HATE YOU!" I yelled at the man.
"Much better." Lulu's smirk was almost gentle with approval.
Anywhere
"I HATE YOU!" Light was just beginning to shine into the tent when I awoke to the sound of my own yelling.
"If you could refrain from shouting, that would be much appreciated." Lulu, who was sitting at a small table writing, told me without even looking up.
"Sorry, I muttered, burying my face in my hand as I tried to dispel the dream from my mind.
"So then, who is it that you hate so much?" She asked, as if she were inquiring about something as menial as the weather.
"No one, just... My old man." I sighed, "But it doesn't matter. He's just a drunken asshole, and I haven't seen him in almost ten years anyway, so I don't know why I even just thought about him. Must be something to do with stirring up old memories. Assuming that's actually what happened and even my memory of my father isn't something concocted by sin's toxin's screwing with my head."
"I see." She didn't seem to care overly much from her tone, "Unfortunate circumstances in many ways. However, there is little sense in dwelling on it, especially if, as you say, it may even be nothing more of a story fed to you by sin, so you may as well put it out of your mind. Now, come, it's almost time for us to leave to board the ship." Somehow, I'm pretty sure that that's as close as I'm getting to sympathy from Lulu, especially for the time being.
Wakka met us at the center of the village and Tidus walked out only a few minutes later.
"Hey, sleepyhead, c'mere!" Her motioned my brother over to us and, as he got closer, he held out the handle of a sword which shimmered with a bluish glow and seemed to be almost made out of water itself. "I got something for you."
"Woah, thank!" Tidus grinned and took the sword, giving it a good few swings to test it out.
"That's the sword you gave Chappu." Lulu stated, her tone blank.
"Yeah, well he never used it." Wakka shrugged.
"Who's Chappu?" I asked.
"He was my brother." Wakka glanced over at Lulu as he said this, "Where's Yuna?"
"Isn't she taking the same boat?" Tidus asked, "Why do we have to wait here?"
"Yuna came here ten years ago, when the last Calm started. Ever since then, she's been like a little sister to me and Lu. But she had the gift, so she became an apprentice, and now, ten years later, she leaves as a fully fledged summoner."
"This is our journey, we should leave together." Lulu piped in, tone actually warm for once as a clatter from the temple stairs distracted us and we turned to see Yuna picking up a startlingly large suitcase. "You know you really don't need all that luggage."
"They're not really my things," Yuna blushed and stuttered, "They're gifts for the temples that we'll be visiting."
"This isn't a vacation Yuna." Wakka chidded gently.
"I guess... I guess you're right." Her hand dropped from the suitcase and she made her way towards us. Without another word, we left...
Well, another word, until we were immediately attacked by fiends on the road.
"Hey, why don't you try out that sword I gave you." Wakka prompted.
"Hell yeah!" Tidus cheered enthusiastically, and with a single fiend, nearly split the creature in half.
"No issues there. Now, what about you, Dragon, can you fight like your brother?" Wakka asked me as another fiend prowled around us.
"Not... so much... I was never taught and I don't really have anything to fight with anyway." I sighed, thinking back to when Auron had led us through Zanarkand as it was being destroyed. He had given Tidus that sword from our father and then turned to me and point blank said that he had no heirloom for me from Jecht.
"Your father's Spiran legacy is in your blood, not in any material object." Tidus repeated the older man's words to me under his breath, but either I was the only one to hear it or everyone chose to ignore it anyway.
"Well... That's not exactly a good foundation in Spira... but hey, your brother hasn't been at it too long and he's picking it up pretty quick, so you'll probably do the same once we find something that works for you. We can work on it on the boat ride to Luka, there'll probably be a merchant on there with equipment, it'll just be a matter of trying, yeah?" Wakka patted me on the shoulder consolingly as we continued walking, and after felling a final fiend in the trio that had attacked us, we continued on.
Then, further down the path, we were attacked by another pair of fiends, yellow and blob-like, that wriggle and jiggled like jelly. Tidus, of course, immediately took a swing at one of the things, and found that anywhere he hit, the creature just bounced back and even the parts that did get sliced immediately sealed back together.
"Told ya," Wakka chided, "Things like that, you can't just hack at 'em like other fiends. You gotta use magic if you wanna take 'em down, and it's gotta be magic of an element you don't like."
"Magic?" Tidus asked incredulously.
"Elements?" I followed up.
"Let's have our own black mage show you how it's done. Lu, you got this one?"
"Clueless, aren't you?" Lulu tsked as she turned towards the jiggling fiend, "Good thing I'm here."
"These are lightning fiends." Lulu began to explain, "There are four elements: Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Water. Fire and Ice are opposed, and because of that, fire magic works well against ice fiends, and vice versa."
"Alright, I get that, but what about lightning and water?" I asked, actually interested in this aspect of combat.
"They're opposed just like Fire and Ice. Given that these are lightning fiends..."
"Water would take them down?" I finished curiously. She nodded in faint approval then turned towards the closest creature. Then, in a gesture that I was unexpectedly familiar with, she held her hand towards her lips, muttered something under her breath, raised her arm, and brought it down, as if to strike the creature that was well beyond her reach. On top of the creature's head, a viscious wall of water struck the creature, simultaneously crushing and drowning it.
"Hey, isn't that-" Tidus turned towards me as I looked at him, both of us looking for confirmation.
"I think so." I replied and then grinned, "Hey, Lulu, can I just try something before you take care of this other one?"
"I don't see why not." She raised and elegant eyebrow at my sudden urgency, "Just as long as you don't get yourself killed, or make us miss the boat."
"Nah, I won't be doing either. Now, let me just..." I took a breath, turned towards the second fiend and mimicked her previous movements, as I had done many times before back in Zanarkand. Water struck the creature and it flinched back away from it, partially deforming in places. However, mine was nothing like her's and the creature was merely injured, not killed.
"Oh." I muttered in disappointment, "I guess I was wrong, it's not the same thing." I shrugged taking a step back to let her do her thing.
"No," The black mage stopped me, seeming completely unimpressed, though whether she was unimpressed with my performance or my giving up, I couldn't decide, "It was. That was water magic, however, it was much, much weaker than mine." Without any visible effort, she repeated the spell on the creature, killing it immediately.
"Wait, so then, what's the difference?" I asked, sulking just a little.
"Intention." She said simply, "I had the intent and the force of will to kill the creature on the first time, because that was was I intended to do. That was all that I was thinking about. Where did you learn how to do that spell from?"
"Back in Zanarkand," I glanced at Yuna, who was quietly watching the exchange, "Or, I guess wherever I came from, we, uh, some of us were taught that so that we could fill our own blitz arenas, or even make them if they weren't already available." I had taken to it easily, but Tidus could never quite figure out how to do it.
"If you were thinking about a game while attacking a fiend, did you really expect to kill it?" I felt oddly contrite at the mage's unexpected scolding, "However, it does show that you may not be completely useless in combat. Do you know any other magic?"
"Not that I know of." I mumbled, staring at the ground as the woman, who had to have been less than five years older than me, made me feel as if I had done something horrible.
"Well, that's not so terrible," Yuna spoke up, "After all, even with just one spell, you're more help in combat than I was a week ago, and more than I would be now without the aid of an Aeon. And you've got talent for it, so you can learn. I know more about healing spells than combat magic, but I'll be happy to help you with what I can while we're still together, and I'm sure Lulu would be willing to help you with the rest, right Lulu?" The summoner gave the mage a look that could only be described as "puppy-eyes" as she waited for the mage's answer.
The mage in turn gave me a look that, no doubt, could only mean Thank you oh so very much for putting me in this situation before sighing and agreeing to Yuna's request, and was rewarded with that brilliant smile that made you feel as if you had just heroically rescued her kittens from a fire or something.
"Hey!" Tidus' yell of surprise immediately dragged my attention away from the girl, however, despite her good looks. In front of my brother stood a growling creature, another fiend I had assumed, until he stood up. It was the cat-man from before, and he was staring at my brother with a strange fury in his eyes that I could not find the source of. Quickly, he swung at my brother with his spear, and Tidus barely had time to block that strike before another came, and then another and another after that. I looked at each of my companions and found that they seemed quite content to watch as this man attempted to slaughter my brother, but I had no intention of letting that happen.
Quickly, I focused on attacker. I took a deep breath in and let it out slowly as I thought through what Lulu had said. I had to focus on him. I had to intend to do harm to actually do anything. This was more that just filling a blitz arena. Then, I brought my hand to my lips, raised my arm, and brought it down. The amount of water... increased... Perhaps there might have been more force behind it, I couldn't tell, but it wasn't enough to cause any major damage to the man. However, the creature was drenched with water, which, I knew from experience, was more than a little cold, and it yowled in fury and shock and leapt away from both of us, giving Tidus breathing room momentarily. The yellow eyes locked on me and he returned to his previous stance, apparently intending to take us both on at once.
"That's enough." Wakka called and, to my surpise, the blue-furred fellow obeyed, straightening up and turning away, losing interest in us immediately as he turned to walk away.
"Hey, what gives?" My brother asked incredulously as he glared at the man, rubbing a bruise that was already forming on his arm.
"He is Kimahri Ronso, of the Ronso tribe. He's learned the fiends' way of fighting." Lulu answered as if that explained anything.
"That is not what I meant." Tidus crossed his arms.
"He's another of Yuna's guardians." Wakka answered, and would probably have continued had he not been interrupted by Yuna's laugh.
"Sometimes we don't understand him either. Kimahri doesn't talk much anyway..." She giggled as she gazed after the blue-furred Ronso, who was already wandering far ahead of us, "But he has protected me since I was just a child."
"Don't see why he thought he needed to attack us then..." I grumbled.
"Perhaps he wanted to test you. See if you would be a hindrance or a helping hand as long as you are around. Though I don't know why he would care, considering you shouldn't be in our company for too much longer anyway." Once again, Lulu wasn't exactly welcoming in our tagging along.
"Who knows. Kimahri tends to have a sixth sense for these kinds of things, and I don't think any real harm was done, right?" Yuna looked questioningly at the bruise on Tidus' arm.
"Nah, it'll go away pretty quickly. No harm done, I guess." Tidus waved it off. And once again, all was well and uninterrupted until...
Oh wow, that things big.
"A Flyer! That's your department, right?" Tidus gestured to Wakka, who scratched the back of his head nervously.
"Yeah, but, uh... How about we let our summoner handle this one?" And I could see why. This... Scaly bird lizard thing was kind of massive. "Come one Yuna. It's your first real battle, let's see some style!"
"Do your best and show us what all your training has taught your Yuna." Lulu calmly instructed the summoner, who nodded hesitantly. The second time seeing the Aeon was no less impressive than the first despite the fact that I had already seen it before. It still exuded the same air of calm benevolence, and yet at the same time it managed to tear apart the fiend with ease. Yet even watching it do something like that, I never felt an inkling of fear or doubt of my own safety. I was secure around the Aeon, I assume because Yuna liked me. It was really nice, considering all of the warnings of how unsafe Spira is compared to my Zanarkand, how any moment could be my last without being anywhere relatively unsafe. I expected the feeling to disappear as soon as the Aeon was unsummoned, but, surprisingly, it remained even as we continued to battle our way through fiends to get to our boat.
End
You guys have no idea how much trouble I have not writing Vaan every single freaking time I talk about Tidus. Literally, it's real bad guys.
But, other than that, I hope you all enjoyed. As always, thanks for reading, feedback would be much appreciated should you feel so inclined, and otherwise, I hope to see you and another update. See you soon!