Balthier: Hm? Where did the young lady go?
Yuko: Don't look at me! I don't know where she went.
Balthier: Well…who is going to declare the bizarre sayings?
Fuu: I'M HERE!!
Yuko: Fuu-chan, where were you?
Fuu: I was running laps!
Yuko: For…what?
Fuu: Marching band is in two months, and I am already pumped up!!
Balthier: Say, isn't your ninth grade year almost over as well?
Fuu: Yeah, in less than a month, we'll be free from the hellish ways of education! That means MORE FINAL FANTASY XII PLAYING!! YAYNESS!
Mjrn: Ahem. Fuu does not own Final Fantasy XII, including its plots, settings, and characters. Nevertheless, she owns herself, Yuko, Fini, and Misa.
Fuu: Enjoy chapter fifteen!
Going Into Ivalice
Chapter 15: Baby Got Back
After traveling through the Ozmone Plains and once more trudging through the hell-ness of Golmore Jungle, we arrived back at Eruyt Village…Mjrn now back home. As we walked past an enormous crowd of staring Viera, we reached Jote again. She gave me a slightly irritated look, as if she now believed that I was Raithwall's Told Legend.
"I heard the Wood's whispers," Jote said as she walked up to me, handing me a small charm. "Take it."
I looked in my hand to see a glowing greenish-blue stone. It was quite pretty.
"That is Lente's Tear," Jote explained. "It is a permission to pass through the barriers blocking passages in the Jungle. Pass through the Wood and leave. To other places go."
"Great!" I said. "Let's go, guys! We need to go to Mt. Bur-Omisace faster than two shakes and a Persian kitten's whiskers!" (Okay, I know that line sounded pretty gay…it was from a Saturday Night Live skit!)
I turned my body around and was marching happily past the group…
"That cannot be all!" Mjrn suddenly shouted. I stopped my tracks. "I saw that Ivalice is changing! How can the Viera just stand around and do nothing at all?"
"Ivalice is for Humes. The Wood is for us." Jote replied.
"But that is wrong!" Mjrn cried. "How can we just hide here when all the world outside is on the move? I, like Fran, wish to leave this Wood!"
There was a small pause as we all stared at Mjrn. Fran broke that silence.
"Do not do this." She said calmly. Mjrn turned towards Fran. "You must remain away from the Humes, meaning that you must stay here. Live together with the Wood. This is your way of life."
"But, sister!" Mjrn stammered.
"I am no longer of you."
There was another silence. We all exchanged looks as Fran kept her eyes upon Mjrn.
"I have discarded the Wood and village. I have won my freedom. Yet my past had been cut away forever. No longer can my ears hear the Green Word. This solitude…is it what you truly want, Mjrn?"
"Sister—," Mjrn somberly whispered. Fran shook her head.
"No. Only one sister remains to you now." Fran looked at Jote. "You must forget my existence."
Mjrn looked devastated…she glanced around, shaking her head, before she ran off.
I felt sorry for Mjrn…her own sister saying to her face "Forget that I am alive"…it must be a horrible thing for Mjrn to endure.
"I am sorry to make you do this." Jote stated. Fran shook her head lightly.
"I have a request: listen to the Wood's voice for me. I fear She hates." Fran sighed.
Jote nodded her head lightly, closing her eyes and lifting her head up…winds lightly surrounding her. She inhaled the wind a bit and opened her eyes slowly, facing Fran.
"The Wood longs for you. For the child from under Her boughs." Jote finally said the response. Fran chuckled.
"A pleasant lie that was."
Fran turned around as we were NOW going to continue our merry way out of Eruyt…
"Be cautious," Jote said. I groaned loudly as I sulked. Couldn't we just leave the place now? "The Wood is jealous of the Humes who have taken you."
"I am as them now. Am I not?" Fran exclaimed. She gave Jote one last glance. "Good-bye sister."
We were NOW, fo sho, most definitely leaving the place now…
We went up to the save crystal and replenished ourselves before we left the village. Fran said her final farewells before we got out of there for good. As we were now back in Golmore, I went up to Fran.
"You okay?" I asked her. She looked at me with a small look of surprise. It was rather rare to start up a conversation with her.
"No need to worry. I am all right." Fran replied.
"You know…I have a sister, too. Except she's back at home…with my mom and dad and kitty cat." I stated. I looked down at my shoes. I never realized until now…what were my parents and family thinking now? Did they begin to worry about my absence too much? Did they think a kidnapper took me away to some faraway destination?
"You never mentioned a sister of yours before." Fran said…wait a moment…WAS FRAN ACTUALLY CONTINUING A CONVERSATION? I could've sworn I heard the faint tune of the Hallelujah chorus ringing through my brain when I noticed this true fact.
"Yeah. She's a couple years older than me." I said. "Her name's Hikaru."
"Do you…get along?"
"Yup."
Fran began to chuckle. "I guess even people from different worlds have the same relationships they have towards siblings."
"Hmm…I guess they do." I stated.
It felt fantastic to now officially be friends with Fran.
We went through the first barrier that was blocking our way before, with the help of Lente's Tear. We were walking through the new paths of the Jungle, where I took out my cell phone to check the time.
4:39 PM
"Shoot," I muttered. "This thing is gonna die any minute now."
"Hey." Fini said to me. "Try to cast 'Raise' on it. The battery may be fully charged again."
"Pfft!" I began to laugh. "That's the stupidest thing since the creation of stupidest things!"
"Just give it a shot!" Fini growled.
"Okay, okay, Miss Pissy!" I raised my hand up in the air and began casting the White Magick spell, Raise. Now, for those of you who don't know too well, Raise is intended to bring your party members back to life if they die in battles…I am 99 percent certain that the Magick had nothing to do with charging cell phones or other electronic devices. As the Magick came down upon my phone, I immediately saw the bars fill up the tiny battery space!! Fini wasn't kidding around!!!
"OH MY ICE CREAM CAKE!! IT WORKS! IT REALLY WORKS!!" I suddenly shouted. When you were so shocked and stunned for Magicks working to revive your cell phone, you would shout the craziest things, too. Don't judge me.
"Told you so." Fini gave me a grin. Before I thanked Fini, I noticed that everyone was staring at me like I had lollipops stuck to my hair. Before I would give them an excuse to my random outburst, a sudden shaking startled us all. As we looked ahead, we noticed what-we-suspected-to-be-some-sort-of-log-or-rock-thing-covered-in-assorted-plants-and-flowers came to life…to be the Elder Wyrm! CRUD!
"WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH OUR LIVES?" I loudly asked the Elder Wyrm. Yes, for some strange reason, I was very hyper as this battle began.
"Fuu, don't act like such an idiot, please!" Fini scolded me. I nodded my head as I was getting my ninja sword out from my backpack…until we were all interrupted by a tune…the tune of "Baby Got Back".
"What's…that music?" Ashe asked. I glanced around, first thinking to myself 'HEY! Coolness! I didn't know that song existed in Ivalice, too!'…Until I realized that it was my cell phone's ring tone. How embarrassing…everyone stared at me oddly as I got out my cell phone…even the Elder Wyrm looked utterly confused at what had just happened.
"Why is John calling me?" I looked at my phone. John was one of my best guy friends at school…and his timing of calling me was not a very good one. As stupid as I was, though, I answered. "Hello?"
"Fuu! You answered! Where the hell are you?"
"John, this isn't the best time!" I said as the Elder Wyrm let out a vicious roar.
"Okay, what was that?" John asked, startled by the roars of the Elder Wyrm.
"Um…I'm watching Jurassic Park!" I lied as the Elder Wyrm charged towards Vaan, who screamed like a little girl (Again, why is it always Vaan that gets beat up?).
"I honestly don't remember the roar being like that in the movie…"
"Nevermind that! Can you just call me back later and I'll explain everything! I swear!" I said as I backed away from the Elder Wyrm, who spotted me.
"No, no, no! I need to know where you are now! There's news spreading around everywhere about you being missing!"
My whole body froze up.
"Oh my God." I whispered. "I really am gone."
"What? What? Fuu, I can't hear you!"
I didn't even have the time to respond…I turned off my phone and stuffed it in my backpack.
"Fuu-chan?" Yuko looked at me with question. I stood there, slowly collapsing to my knees.
"My…my family and friends…they think I'm missing…" I muttered in horror. Yuko gave me a long stare with a combination of 'Come on we have to fight this frickin thing' and 'Are you serious?' Vaan running into us then interrupted us.
"Fuu! Get up!" Vaan shouted at me. I was too shocked to even think about what was currently happening in my surroundings. I was lost.
"Fuu-chan!" Yuko kept calling out to me, lightly shaking me. Vaan then thought it would be a perfect solution for him to slap me across the face…and as I finally came back to my senses, I immediately slapped him back.
"Sorry," I apologized to Vaan, who was rubbing his cheek in pain. "I got carried away there."
"We should seriously quit standing around!" Misa scolded us. I nodded my head in accord and prepared my ninja sword. Yuko also took out Soapy and put another pad on it. As it got all deadly with its many lethal bubbles, we all charged towards the Elder Wyrm. It spotted us out of the corner of its eye and immediately cast a spell on us. I felt this weakness go upon me every once in a while, pain would appear and I would get even weaker.
"Fini, what's happened?" I asked my trusty game guardian, who has hovering right above my left shoulder.
"It seems like the Elder Wyrm has cast poison on you, Vaan, and Yuko!" Fini replied.
"Poison, huh? That means we need an antidote to cure that." I said, rummaging through my backpack to find a few antidotes to heal us. As I found three, I healed everyone…but the Elder Wyrm casted another spell…
"He just casted poison on you again." Fini sighed.
"GOD DAMMIT!" I growled in annoyance. I was about to grab a few more antidotes until the Elder Wyrm stomped on the ground, completely catching me off balance. I landed on my back…noticing that the Elder Wyrm was now casting some sort of spell on me to drag me over to the creature…where he would obliterate me…perfect. Besides the fact that my back was probably completely drenched in dirt and grass, I was doing my best to struggle out of the spell, but it was no use. No matter how much I turned to the side to get out of it, it only made it worse. I was now feet closer to the Elder Wyrm, and as I was about to kiss the world goodbye, four or five arrows shot into the Elder Wyrm, effusively halting the spell. Fran saved my life.
"Thanks, Fran. You're quite good at saving people's butts, you know." I sighed in relief as I stood up. The Elder Wyrm recovered from his injuries from Fran's perfect aim and charged towards us again. We ran out of the way right on time as the creature ran into a wall…hahaha…stupid him.
"Fuu-chan, are you all right?" Yuko ran over to me. I nodded my head.
"Just feel like my back was dunked in a garbage dump, that's all." I stated, the feeling of the damp dirt smeared across my back from all that dragging giving me a horrible chill down my spine.
"You do look like an atrocious mess." Fini said.
"Thanks Fini. You're too kind." I sarcastically mumbled to my game guardian.
"He comes." Fran pointed to the Elder Wyrm, again recovering from his epic fails. Once more, the Elder Wyrm attempted to charge at us, but we moved out of the way, where he ran into someone else…who was now pinned against the wall, the massive weight of the Elder Wyrm probably crushing the person…
"Penelo!" Vaan shouted. I glanced closer at the figure that was pinned…and it was Penelo indeed!
"Oh, no! We have to help her!" I shrieked, hastily running towards where Penelo was. Her arm and face were the only things I saw. She opened her eyes and saw me.
"F-Fuu…h-help me…" She said feebly. I grabbed her arm and tried to pull her out, but it was no use.
"Someone help!!" I screamed. The Elder Wyrm spotted me and immediately ran over to me, letting Penelo free from her painful prison. She collapsed onto the ground in no time. The Elder Wyrm was now walking slowly up to me, ready to strike. I was walking backwards slowly, not noticing a jagged stone directly behind my heel…and it was that rock's fault that I fell backwards and onto the ground. I put up my ninja sword for my defense as the Elder Wyrm struck…sparks flying off of my weapon.
"Hang on, Fuu!" Misa was flying towards me. She went into my backpack (which was lying on the battlefield nearby) and was rummaging through. "Do you have an fire motes?"
"I don't know!" I shouted back.
"We need to cast fire magicks to take him down." Misa said.
"All right!" I stood up and began thinking about a large fire. As I opened my eyes, the fire came upon the Elder Wyrm, burning him good. "BURN BABY BURN! DA WYRM IS ON FIRE! BURN BABY BURN!" I began singing.
The Elder Wyrm collapsed onto the ground…then it faded back to a log. We won the battle!
But we all ran towards Penelo, as I was very worried about her injuries.
"Penelo!" Vaan called out to her, lightly shaking her shoulders. After a brief moment, she finally opened her eyes.
"Thank God." I sighed in relief.
"I don't think anything's broken," Penelo stood up, wiping dirt off of her jumpsuit. "I just feel a little sore, that's all."
"Let's be thankful," Larsa said. "Now, shall we continue to Mt. Bur-Omisace?"
"A little hasty there." I stated. He turned to me.
"Haste is quite important."
"But…she was nearly crushed by a ginormous stone…log…moss-covered…thingy." I said in some state of shock.
"I'm seriously all right, Fuu. Don't overreact on it." Penelo said to me.
"All right," I exhaled. "But don't come crying to me if you suddenly fall over in the middle of whatever the heck we're doing." I said as I walked away to the path leading out of the jungle…but I turned around, because I took the wrong path. This time, I was going through the right path as everyone else followed me.
………………………
We were almost out of Golmore Jungle…and I knew that because the temperature was decreasing. The humidity was fading as a cold breeze blew right through me. And a short while after the concise breeze, I saw snowflakes gently falling.
"Look, Larsa! There's snow up ahead!" Yuko pointed forwards, her other hand holding onto her older brother's.
"Yes. We never experienced much snow back then, correct?"
"Right! I mean, I see snow all the time in my world now, but, it seems to be a lot prettier in Ivalice!" Yuko ran up past me, letting the snowflakes fall on her. She spun around in many circles until she fell over into a huge pile of snow. I had to chuckle because of how adorable she was acting right now. So, what did I do? I joined in! With all my energy, I dashed into the pile of snow, which was freezing cold, but I didn't give a crap.
As we were ready to have a miniature snowball fight, though, I suddenly remembered what happened early in the battle with the Elder Wyrm…the news I had received from someone back at home…
There's news spreading around everywhere about you being missing.
Missing? Just that single word made me feel horrid.
"Fuu-chan?" Yuko asked me worriedly.
"I'm fine…" I said softly. "I was just thinking, that's all…"
"Okay." Yuko got up from the pile of snow and returned to her older sibling, clutching onto his hand once more. My butt was beginning to turn into a block of ice, so I decided to get out of the snow, too. Fini flew over to me.
"Fuu…something is troubling you."
"I just told you it was nothing." I hissed.
"People back on Earth are wondering where you are…and you think that they think that you were abducted." Fini stated sternly. I froze up a bit, but nodded my head sadly.
"I just want to tell them 'I'm here in Ivalice! Over half of you probably don't know what this, but I'm here! Don't worry! I'll be back in a little while!' but I don't think that's possible!"
"It isn't."
"Well, obviously."
"But," Fini said. "I can do something for you."
"What?"
"I can show you what people back on Earth are currently doing right at this moment."
"Really? You can do that?" I asked excitedly.
"Yes. Just close your eyes and I'll do the work." Fini told me. I nodded my head and did as I was told. I felt a small gust of wind go by me…warmer than the cold temperatures we were heading in before… "Open your eyes now."
I opened them slowly…to see my mother and father in my kitchen.
"Mom! Dad!" I called out.
"They can't hear you." Fini said.
"How come?" I asked.
"Because you're not technically there. You're pretty much just a ghost." She replied. I glanced at her, then back at my parents.
"I'm scared." My mom said; a tear trickled down her cheek.
"We all are." My dad comforted my mother. I couldn't help but walk up to them and try to hug them…but the scene changed…to in front of my high school. Although it was before my freshman year of high school would begin, there were all sorts of people in my school holding up signs. They mostly said things like: FIND FUU with some other catchy slogans and crap. I saw my best friend, Madi, looking pale, crying.
"Oh my God, where is she? I've never felt so lonely before! My life will never be the same without my best friend!!" Madi sobbed.
"Please…call me back…" John whispered. "We must know where you are. If we don't, we might not ever even see you again."
"I'm here!! I'm right here!!!!" I called out.
"Fuu, they can't—,"
"I know they can't hear me, but I really want them to!" I snapped. Fini bit her lip…the scene changing once more. This time…I saw a big white room filled with people. A large picture of me was shown, bouquets surrounding it.
"Continue the searches," A constable said. "We won't give up on a life." The group of people nodded their heads…
"My God! They are seriously being melodramatic with me being gone!" I exclaimed.
"But they miss you…the ones you love." Fini spoke up.
"I guess I'll be surrounded by a crap load of hugs and kisses when I come back, huh?" I asked. Fini didn't reply, however. "Uh…hello?"
"Uh…sure." Fini closed her eyes…where the breeze came back again. The warmth surrounding me faded away as I was now back with my party.
"C'mon. Let's keep moving." I said to everyone, heading to Mt. Bur-Omisace.
To be continued in chapter sixteen!!
I tried my best to make this chapter more interesting, but I think I failed XD oh well…at least this is updated again!!!
Please drop in a positive review for me!! THANKS!!!!!!!!!
-da Panda