The Earth Key

The homes were made of large bricks and wood for roofs and were not very big. They had driveways made of concrete and the road Balthier walked upon had two faded yellow lines that ran directly along it's middle all the way up to a church in the center of the town. It towered above every other building even though it wasn't much larger than any of them.

Balthier walked into the church and almost choked on the dust inside it. An old Bible still sat closed on the podium that was set front and center. He found an area that was roped off and descended the stairs. At the foot of the stairs laid the twisted form of a skeleton. Probably some poor thief that tripped on the stairs and broken his neck. Or was pushed.

That thought made Balthier shiver as he headed past the heap of bones and headed down the dark cold tunnel. It led Balthier to another staircase that took him even deeper beneath the church. Not long after reaching the bottom of the staircase, a faint green glow began to appear. 'Well they sure didn't make it difficult to find' Balthier thought. That seemed rather odd since the stone was a treasure.

Balthier came into the room where the stone sat on a pedestal. But the stone was not what caught Balthier's attention at first. It was the walls. They were decorated with elabore paintings. The paintings showed people finding the stone and then taking it to the priest. The priest was pointing towards a picture of the church and the stone beneath it. "They feared it's power" Balthier muttered.

He looked down at the stone and felt mesmerized by it's flowing shades of green. He suddenly felt angry at the ones who had imprisoned it down here and realized that it must have been the stone taking it's revenge on the people that had made everyone disappear. But it hadn't made him disappear. He picked it up gently in his hands and ran his thumb gently across it's smooth surface before putting it into his coin purse.

--

Meanwhile, Marina returned with some more preserved foods, some cooking oil, and a few more things to drink. She packed it all into it's place and checked with the moogles to see if the circuit to the kitchen's power was replaced. They assured her it was and that the rest of the Strahl was fine. She paid them their fee plus some. Moogles were hard working and kind creatures.

Marina flew the ship to the same clearing where she had dropped Balthier off. As she was landing the ship she could see Balthier coming through the trees. She met him at the loading ramp with a hug and a kiss. "Only one left" she said as she closed the ramp.

Balthier nodded and sat down in his chair. "The wind key. But the only problem is, there isn't a planet completely made of wind" Balthier pointed out.

Marina sighed. "Knowing my luck it would be somewhere we've already been."

That phrase put Balthier's mind into motion. He sat up in his chair and began charging the hyperdrive. "Tantooine."

Marina thought about it as she set their course. Tantooine was constantly having sand storms because of all the strange wind coming out of Windmakers cave. Balthier reluctantly handed Marina the earth key so that she could put it with it's brothers in her room. Soon they would have the wind key and beat Cid to his target.

I decided to put this up today too to make up for me taking so long. )