Chapter 8

Missing

When I started to come back to consciousness, I was freezing cold and in pain. Each breath sent liquid fire coursing through my chest, causing me even more agony. I was afraid to move at all, afraid that I had broken everything when I –

Wait… What happened?

I stayed behind to talk with Cainen then left. What happened after that?

I vaguely remembered something darting out of the trees, an animal maybe? My throat convulsed as I remembered the crash, remembered flying through the air and crashing into the trees then nothing. My heart started to race in my panic and I was helpless to stop it. My fingers began blindly raking the ground like they were looking for something and I suddenly remembered my cell phone.

I went to reach for it, but both my front pockets were empty. I knew that it wouldn't be in either of my back pockets. I never carried my phone there when I drove. I frantically searched the pockets of my riding jacket, but it wasn't there either.

My panic rose up into my throat and threatened to choke me. I didn't know how badly I was hurt and I didn't know where my cell phone was. My heart nearly stopped when I thought about my friends. Yuna was going to be calling me when she got home and I wasn't going to be able to answer her.

I have to find that phone. That thought blazed through my brain and propelled me into action.

I carefully removed my helmet and thanked Shiva I had been wearing it; I would probably be dead without it. After tossing my helmet to the side, I once again started searching around my body for my phone. It was pitch black around me so I couldn't make anything out. The branches above me cut off the small amount of light the moon was giving off.

My panic started to rear its ugly head again when I couldn't find any trace of my phone. I cautiously lifted my head to look around and was extremely relieved that I could do that much. At least now I knew my neck wasn't broken. I tried squinting my eyes, but I still could see nothing but the inky darkness around me.

Then I made the extremely foolish decision of trying to roll over onto my stomach.

The pain I felt when I had woken up came screaming back to life and flared even hotter than before. The pain took my breath away and I immediately flopped onto my back and laid there gasping for breath, praying for a reprieve. That's when I blacked out.

When I came back around, I had no way of knowing how much time had passed. The night was still an inky black around me and I was shivering so bad my whole body was quivering. Tears began to burn in the corners of my eyes as the thought of being stranded out here went through my mind. If I couldn't crawl towards the highway then the chances of anyone finding me was practically next to none.

What am I going to do now? I thought with disdain.

A couple tears fell down my face and I angrily wiped them away. I would not break down and cry! Crying wouldn't help my situation at all. The only thing that would help me right now is finding my phone.

So, with renewed vigor, I lifted my head off the ground to determine which direction I wanted to go. I thought I could barely make out my motorcycle if I squinted hard enough. If I could only flip over on my stomach and turn around, I was sure I'd be able to crawl towards it.

I let my head fall back onto the ground and took a couple deep breaths, preparing myself for the pain I knew was going to come when I rolled over. I flexed my hands into fists, sucked in a deep breath and rolled. I valiantly tried to bite off my scream, but it fought and clawed its way out of my throat. I heard a sickening series of cracks and came to the realization a tad too late that I had broken some of my ribs during the crash. My vision swam and, try as I might to fight it off, I couldn't prevent myself from passing out again.

When I came to I was shivering and sweating at the same time. My whole body was quivering, but whether it was from the cold or the pain I wasn't sure. My eyes were refusing to work correctly. Every time I tried to focus on something small dots of color would dance in my vision and make my head swim. More tears formed in the corners of my eyes the moment I knew I wouldn't be able to make it to my motorcycle.

I'm going to be stuck out here for who knows how long. I might even die out here. Lovely thought…

I couldn't stop all the possibilities that flew through my mind of all the different ways I would meet my end. I buried my face into the damp grass and sobbed. I briefly looked on the bright side; I would finally see my parents again.

Boy, will they be surprised to see me, I thought with ire.

I heard silent footsteps approaching me and I began to shake with joy. Someone had found me! I wasn't going to die after all! I slowly lifted my head, a smile on my face, but what I saw immediately made dread start bubbling in the pit of my stomach.

Enormous blue fur covered paws with claws the size of my fingers were so close to me that I could smell the musky scent of the forest permeating from them. The exuberant thoughts from a few moments ago were completely wiped from my mind. I knew I was staring at the feet of the creature that would bring my death. My fingers dug into the soft ground and I squeezed my eyes shut, preferring not to look my killer in the eye.

After an agonizingly long time, the creature had remained still in front of me. I quickly deduced that whatever this creature was it wasn't here to kill me or it would have done so already. I quickly swallowed the fear that threatened to claw its way back up my throat and looked up.

At first, I wasn't sure if my eyes were working correctly yet. I blinked rapidly to make sure this wasn't some specter of my pain filled mind and was thunderstruck to discover what I was seeing was real.

The creature before me was a Ronso, a tall, lion-like humanoid that lives on the snowy peaks of Mt. Gagazet.

I racked my brain, trying to remember all the things I had learned about Ronsos when I was younger, but as I stared into the bright yellow eyes of the Ronso standing over me I couldn't remember a damn thing.

My vision started to turn black around the edges and I knew it wouldn't be long until I passed out again. If this Ronso wasn't here to kill me then maybe he could help me. "Please," I croaked, my voice foreign to my ears. "Help me." Those last words before consciousness once again slipped from my grasp were whispered so quietly that I would be impressed if the Ronso even heard them.

For a while I was flitting in and out of consciousness. Every time I opened my eyes it was like I was looking at the world through a wall of water. I could feel myself moving, but I couldn't tell which direction I was going. I was wondering where the Ronso was bringing me and hoping that he got wherever he was going quick.

All the while, in the back of my mind, I was thinking about my friends. I knew by now that they were going nuts trying to figure out what happened to me. I couldn't even begin to imagine what they were thinking. The only thing I could do was wish for a way to contact them.

What felt like only a few minutes later, muffled voices brought me to the surface of consciousness. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but their tone sounded frantic. When I opened my eyes I was momentarily shocked to find myself inside a make shift hut, staring up at the ceiling. I must have been sleeping for much longer than I thought. And I was warm. The inside of the hut was dim, but I could see a large animal skin blanket covering me. I smiled in spite of my situation. I may be hurt, but it was a whole lot better than being cold and hurt at the same time.

I accidentally took a bigger breath than I should have and gasped as a hot flash of pain ricocheted around in my chest. I bit down on my bottom lip as I waited for the fire in my rib cage to turn into a simmer.

When I turned my head to get a better look at my surroundings the sight of two Ronsos staring down at me made me jump in fright and cry out as I aggravated my broken ribs. The Ronsos jumped as well, surprised by my outburst, then stepped all the way inside the hut. They kneeled beside me and gazed at me for many long, silent moments. Eventually I couldn't handle the silence any longer.

"Where am I?" My throat and mouth were parched, making speaking difficult.

Instead of answering me, the Ronso closest to me – I was guessing it was a female because of the absence of a horn – picked up a stone cup off the floor and gently lifted my head, placing the cup against my lips so I could take a drink. The water was ice cold, but very satisfying. I drank all the water down before I knew it.

"You in Ronso Village," she said, placing the cup back on the floor. "You badly injured."

I stared at the Ronso female dumbly for a few moments, more surprised that they could form coherent sentences than the fact that I could understand them. "I need to get home." I had spoken before I even realized what I wanted to say.

Sadness seeped into the Ronso's eyes as she shook her head. "Your injuries too severe. Need to heal first."

The knot in my stomach got larger at the Ronso's words. My friends would hold my funeral before I healed. "I need to find some way to contact my friends in Luca. They probably think I'm dead."

She looked at the Ronso sitting by her side and seemed to have a conversation with him using only her eyes. After a few seconds, she nodded her head and brought her intense gaze back to me. "This Kimarhi Ronso. He leads hunting party. Speak with him. He help you get message to friends."

I thanked her as she walked out. Kimarhi scooted closer to me, remaining silent as he inspected me. I narrowed my eyes at him, getting the feeling that those big yellow eyes of his were somehow familiar to me. That's when it hit me. "You're the one that found me. You saved my life." I'm not exactly sure how I knew. Pretty much every Ronso's eyes looked the same. It was just this gut feeling I had.

He nodded once, never saying a word.

"Do you think you could deliver a message to my friends for me?" I asked, wondering only for a moment if he could really understand me.

He nodded again.

"Okay," I began, not very confident in his communication skills. "I'll need something to write on then."

He stared at me for a few more seconds before getting up and briefly leaving the hut. He returned moments later, holding an ancient piece of parchment and a stick of charcoal. As I held the piece of charcoal in my hand, I pondered about what I would write and, most importantly, who I would address it to. One of the thoughts that kept popping into my head was the fact that I had one chance to get this right so I better not screw it up.

Kimarhi stared at me the entire time I was composing my letter; I had decided to send it to Yuna. She would be the most worried about me I knew. I was strangely at peace with Kimarhi watching me so closely. It was almost like he was protecting me and it was extremely comforting.

Once my letter was complete, I handed it to him. "When can you deliver it?"

"One week," he grunted, rising from his seat. I was surprised that he had actually spoken. I also had a feeling that he wasn't even close to finished with surprising me.

"Why so long?"

"Ronso leave mountain only to hunt. Kimarhi make special trip to Luca for you." Kimarhi got up and looked down at me. "Rest now. Healer will visit soon."

I sighed as I watched him leave, wishing there was some other way to let my friends know I was okay. This was going to be a long week.

(Yuna)

"What do you mean you don't know where she is?" Baralai asked me, panic beginning to well up in his eyes.

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, trying to keep my own panic from rearing its head. It was Monday morning and Paine still hadn't come home. "I tried calling her all day yesterday, but it went straight to her voicemail every time. I called Cainen to see if she was with him, but he said he watched her leave. Rikku and I drove by her house this morning, but no one was there."

"Did you call the police?" Gippal asked.

"They said she won't be missing until twenty-four hours has gone by. If I haven't heard from her by the time school is over, I'm calling them back."

Baralai ran his hand through his hair, stress painted all over his face. "Has this ever happened before?"

I shook my head, wishing that Baralai would calm down. "Never. This is the first time she's stayed to talk to Cainen."

"Do you know what she was going to talk to him about?" he asked, pacing back and forth in front of my car.

"No, she didn't tell me. I could tell by the way she was acting that it was important though." I wasn't so sure if I should be telling Baralai anything about Paine and Cainen's relationship. I knew she wouldn't be happy about it.

"Then maybe it's relevant. Maybe the reason why she's missing is because of what they talked about."

I pursed my lips and squeezed the bridge of my nose. I knew what they had talked about. Cainen had told me when I called him. "No, their conversation wasn't relevant." I knew that answer wouldn't satisfy Baralai. I already knew what his next question would be.

Baralai narrowed his eyes and stopped pacing, leveling me with an intense stare. "You know what they talked about." He didn't state his remark as a question because he already knew that I knew.

I bit the inside of my cheek and looked at my cousin. The small blonde Al Bhed was staring down at the ground, concern and worry creasing her forehead. I wouldn't be getting any help from her this time. I breathed in deeply once more and met his gaze unwaveringly. "You. She talked to him about you."

Baralai's eyes widened and his mouth opened only slightly. I could tell that my news had been an extremely unexpected piece of information. I'm pretty sure the amount of questions occupying his mind just doubled, but the bell rang before he could ask me anything else.

He remained silent while we walked towards our first class.

Rikku stopped me before I walked into my classroom and the look in her eyes told me that I needed to listen to her. We still had a few minutes before the final bell so I turned all my attention to my cousin. "What is it, Rikku?" I asked, wrapping my hand around her wrist reassuringly.

"What if she crashed?" she mumbled, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "What if she's lying out there hurt? We need to go look for her, Yunie."

I pulled her into a tight hug, attempting to help her calm down before any of our other friends noticed her distress. I hadn't even thought of the possibility that she had crashed. "We'll go look for her after school. I'll call the police back if we don't find her," I whispered into her ear.

She nodded as she pulled away from my embrace, wiping the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater, the same exact sweater that Paine had borrowed just a few days ago, and scurried across the hall. I walked into my first period class room just as the last bell began ringing. I sighed heavily as I sat down in my desk and pulled the homework that was due out of my folder, wishing the day was over already.

I couldn't have been happier when the final bell rang. I rushed to the parking lot, not surprised that Rikku and Tidus were already waiting for me. I sighed as Tidus enveloped me in his strong arms and I buried my face in his shirt, breathing in his cologne to help calm me.

"Are you sure it's okay with your coach that you miss practice?" I asked, looking up into his gentle blue eyes.

He nodded. "Already talked to him. I explained everything and he doesn't have a problem with me missing out today. The only one that's going to be angry is my old man."

I closed my eyes and rolled them beneath their lids so Tidus wouldn't see. I really did love Jecht, but, in my opinion, he expected too much from his son when it came to Blitzball. He may have been a professional Blitzer for over ten years, but he didn't need to hold his son to the same standards he himself practiced.

"I hope he doesn't find out then," I replied, popping open my trunk so we could put our books inside it.

I was about to ask Rikku how her day had been when I noticed she was leaning up against the passenger door of my car with a heartbroken look on her face. I approached her slowly, feeling the sting of tears when I saw her trying desperately to keep from crying, but failing miserably. "Yunie," she whimpered, her emerald eyes filled with turmoil. "what if…what if we find her and she's –"

"No, Rikku, stop!" I shouted, cutting her off so she couldn't finish her sentence. "That's not going to happen. Don't even think about that, okay?"

She nodded and wiped her eyes, sniffling loudly. I unlocked the front passenger door so she could sit down. Once Rikku was safely inside, I closed the door behind her and turned back to Tidus. He sent me a reassuring smile and stroked my cheek. I smiled back at him then gazed across the busy parking lot in search of our remaining two friends. I sighed in relief when I saw Gippal and Baralai making their way towards us. Both of them looked like they were walking across the lot towards their deaths.

Please be alright, Paine. Don't leave us like this.

Ten minutes later we were speeding down the highway towards Bevelle. Everyone, except myself, had their faces plastered against the car windows, scanning the landscape for any sign of Paine or her motorcycle. The closer we got to Bevelle, the slower I went. In fact, I had to turn my hazard lights on so I wouldn't get hit. We were only about an hour outside of Bevelle and still we had found nothing. I was beginning to grow more and more distressed. If she hadn't crashed then –

"Yunie, stop! There! Over there!" Rikku exclaimed, bouncing in her seat. "I see her motorcycle! Oh no!"

I slammed my foot on the break and pulled over onto the shoulder. Rikku jumped out of my car before it was completely stopped and sprinted back toward where she saw Paine's motorcycle. I threw my car into park and quickly followed her. Both of us were screaming Paine's name before we even reached the sight of the crash. I heard the guys following close behind, yelling just as loud as I was.

I was so scared of what we would find. Would we find her…dead? Barely alive?

When I reached the crash site, Rikku was already searching the wreckage. My heart plummeted into my stomach when I saw the state of Paine's motorcycle. Pieces of it were lying all over the place; the front wheel had been completely broken off and the rest of it was merely a pile of useless, twisted metal. I ran by Rikku and began to frantically search the bushes for any sign of her, praying that I would find her.

"I found her phone!" Rikku exclaimed.

I rushed back where Rikku was standing, clutching Paine's broken phone in her hands. I gasped when I saw it. It was broken completely in half and the screen was cracked. "That's why our calls kept going to her voice mail."

Gippal, Baralai and Tidus joined us, disappointment on their faces. "There's no sign of her. We found some pretty big animal tracks leading off toward the Calm Lands though," Tidus remarked.

Rikku dropped Paine's broken phone like it had suddenly become scalding hot and gasped, covering her mouth with her hands. "Oh, Yunie!" she exclaimed. "An animal got her! She's dead!" She fell on me and buried her head into my shoulder, totally losing her composure.

I clamped my teeth down on the inside of my cheek as my legs gave out from underneath me. Rikku and I sank to the ground as I looked toward Tidus for some more reassurance, but he was looking down at the ground as well. For some reason my eyes found their way to Baralai and I had to bury my face in Rikku's thick blonde hair as the tears I had been holding back fell down my face.

Baralai's reaction, not Rikku's, broke my heart. I hadn't seen such an expression on anyone's face since my father's after my mother passed away. It was pure anguish and I couldn't stand to look at him. He had his hand firmly clamped over his mouth with his eyes tightly squeezed shut, but even then tears were still able to leak out from beneath his lids. His unoccupied hand was wrapped around his hip, gripping it so tightly that his tan knuckles were bone white.

As I sobbed into Rikku's hair, I didn't want to believe that Paine was dead. I just couldn't accept it. How could something like this happen to someone like her? I didn't understand…