8 Of Fiends and Pyreflies
Almost as soon as I woke from my dream filled slumber, I got out of bed. I felt mostly refreshed, my body felt strong, though my heart was troubled from the dreams that had plagued my mind all through the night. They had felt so real.
After straightening my already worn, blood-stained, disheveled Summoner's outfit, I left the room. The lobby and hall were as empty as they had been the night before, when I went out to get some fresh air. I stepped out onto the dock, gazing towards the sunrise, squinting from the brightness. The sun had just barely risen out of the sea from the north, the direction of Zanarkand, my final destination.
The village was already bustling with people, repairing things, and a group of men was headed towards the jungle, probably to gather food. I stretched and went back into the inn. We needed to leave as soon as possible; the faster we got to the surrounding villages the better. I knocked on Lulu's door, and she called from within the room, "What?"
"It's Yuna." "Enter."I opened the door, stepping inside the untidy room. It was in even worse shape than my room had been, reflecting the destruction out around the village. Lulu sat on the side of her bed, braiding her long, black, hip-length hair. It was wet. She paused, looking up at me, eyebrows slightly raised.
"I'm feeling stronger. I think we should head into the jungle today." She nodded, finishing the braid and tying it off with a beaded strand of twine. "We should get Wakka and the others. The blitzball team will be staying in the village waiting for us." She paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, as if what she was about to say scared her. "Yuna. Are you going to stop at the other villages…or are you going to go right to the temple?" I closed my eyes for a second before answering.
"I'm going to stop at the villages. I won't leave this island until I've healed and sent everyone who needs it." Lulu nodded, and I didn't know what her feelings on it were. I couldn't tell would she had hoped for me to say, and she didn't say anything else, so I slowly left the room and went to wake Kimahri up. I looked up and down the hallway, realizing that I didn't actually know which room he was in. I decided that I didn't want to risk the chance of walking in on someone who wasn't Kimahri, so I went back into Lulu's room.
"Um, where are the others? I don't know which room they're in…" She had been standing by her window, and now I noticed that there actually wasn't any glass there except for broken shards around the edges, Destroyed from the force of the tidal wave, or maybe from the debris floating through the water. She turned to me, and then quietly walked out of the room and down the hall a few doors to the right of her own. She knocked on the door, calling Wakka's name.
"Wakka. Yuna's ready to go. We're going to go to all the other villages." "Kay, Lu! Just give me a minute!" There was some shuffling noises, and soon, Wakka stepped out of the room, absentmindedly trying to straighten his tall, bright red cowlick, though his efforts were futile. His face was drawn from fatigue, and his expression gave off no emotion except sorrow. Lulu then went to another room nearer to the lobby, saying over her shoulder.
"Wakka, please wake up the boy." I flinched a bit, wishing that she might begin to accept him, but I knew that she was still just as wary of him as she had been before, perhaps even more so now…
Wakka knocked on the door I had seen Tidus go into the evening before, his voice as tired and sad sounding as his face looked. "Tidus! Time ta get up, ya?" A sleepy groan came from the room.
"Ohhh…kay…" There were a few thumps, and then the door swung open revealing a very dirty, scruffy looking Tidus. He looked at Wakka with his eyes half closed, saying, "The shower doesn't work."
Wakka let out a sound that was almost a laugh, but not quite. "Ya. I noticed." Lulu arrived with Kimahri, who was stood silently with his arms crossed over his chest.
She looked the three males over, taking in their terribly filthy states. She waved her hand over her nose, showing that she also noticed the stench that they were giving off. "I washed earlier this morning. You all need to wash before we continue, while you're doing that, I will get some fruit from the supply house. There are some basins that you can use right outside of the inn." She walked away, and we all followed her outside. There was a stack of large basins, along with several small buckets sitting by the side of the building. Lulu turned and walked in one direction, and Wakka clapped his hands once, and then grabbed one of the basins. He handed it to me, and then picked up another. He gestured with his shoulder at the stack.
"Tidus, you get one, and we'll use em in our rooms. We'll have to get water with the buckets from the sea."Tidus nodded and grabbed one of the basins, walking back into the inn. We then began a process of carrying two buckets of water at a time to the basins. After several trips, all the basins were full, and we parted ways, and each bathed and washed our clothes. Kimahri had nothing to do with this, he hates water. For as long as I've known him, ten years, he has always washed himself like a cat. I've always thought this was yucky, but it's the way all Ronso do it, I think.
After about half an hour, we all met in the lobby, soaking wet and cold. Both of them had dark bloodstains on their clothes, Tidus' once-yellow shirt was now more of a sickening orange color. Lulu was also there, holding a large basket of fruit. We ate all the contents of the basket, all of us hungry and exhausted from the lack of food and sleep. When we had finished, Wakka slapped his legs, standing up and heading for the door.
"Well, we'd better hit the road. We gotta long way ta go."
Lulu stood up, but didn't follow after him."No. We must let our food settle. If we don't," She eyed him accusingly, and then switched her gaze to Tidus.
"those of us who ate too much might get stomach aches, and we will have to wait, or they will get sick." Wakka stopped in his tracks, reversing in course, walking back to the couch and plopping down.
"Yes, ma'am."
If the whole situation of life hadn't been so serious, it might have been funny, but none of us laughed. No one spoke a word after that, until it had been about half an hour. We just stared into our laps. After some time, Lulu stood, and began to walk from the room, and we followed. When she got to the door, she stopped, waiting for me to take the lead.
"It has been long enough." She said. Again, no one spoke, we simply walked somberly through the village, towards the jungle. As we were walking, we saw a few of the Aurochs, and Wakka waved at them. "Hey, boys! We'll be back in some time. We'll be a while, cause we're gonna go to all the villages, and then the temple. The blitz tournament 'll just have to wait for us." The blitzers nodded tiredly at their captain, and then we continued. I didn't have the strength, or a reason to speak, and it seemed that we were all equally lost in our thoughts. As we entered the jungle, Wakka finally broke the long silence.
"Be on your guard. Some of the people who were in the jungle during the attack probably turned into fiends. We'll be runnin' into a lot of em today." Though he wasn't looking at me, I nodded, out of habit.
Lulu looked back at me while walking. "Where are we headed?"
I nodded towards a lightly worn, weeded-over path to the right. "That way, I think."Without another word, we all headed in that direction, Wakka and Lulu ahead, Tidus and I in middle, and Kimahri bringing up the rear. After several more minutes of walking, Tidus finally said something.
"Yuna…what is a sending? What are fiends?" He sounded almost afraid to ask, and I was almost afraid to answer. It was easier to live with the pain if I didn't have to talk about it, but, he had to know sometime… Wakka gave us a quick glance, and Lulu let out a quiet snort, but neither said anything.
"A sending…when a person dies of unnatural causes, their soul is still locked inside their body, because they weren't ready to die…when a summoner performs a sending, it's through deep prayer and concentration, and then Yevon is able to unlock their bodies, releasing their souls, and they go to the farplane. When a summoner…doesn't get there in time…when people aren't sent soon enough, the peoples' souls twist, when they're trying to escape their dead bodies. Eventually, they are able to break out, but without a proper sending, the part of their heart which had love and care in it is left behind, and the only thing left in the soul is hatred and pain. They have no memories, and are only there to kill…and they do…that's why I have guardians. When a fiend is killed, its pyreflies cannot go to the farplane, and it will forever wander Spira, with no where to go, and no purpose. Mostly, crusaders keep the fiend population down, but guardians just protect the summoner from any that the crusaders miss. They protect me from fiends and Sin's spawn. They protect me…until the end…" I broke off, not wanting to explain any further.
"The…end? What's the end?" He was looking sideways at me, seeming astonished by the whole thing, and probably confused about my sudden silence. Lulu stopped, spinning dramatically around, her voice sharp, almost angry.
"When she defeats Sin."
I held my breath, hoping that she wouldn't go on, and I was relieved when she spun back around, and walked forward, back stiff, hands held by her side, her fingers splayed out. Each finger had a small flame on its tip, just like they were the first day I told her I was going to become a summoner.
Wakka's shoulders sagged, but I couldn't see his expression, because I was walking behind him. I glanced at Tidus, trying to hide my pained expression, but it was so hard. The corners of my lips turned downward into a frown, no matter how hard I tried to stop them. Tidus was looking at me, confusion, maybe even a little fear, was on his face. He didn't speak again.
After several more minutes of walking, I heard a roar, and looked up, just in time for a group of fiends to attack us. Tidus stepped in front of me, shielding me with his body, but he didn't move to attack. Kimahri gave a replying roar, leaping at the largest of the three fiends. Wakka hurriedly extended his blitzball to Lulu, and she placed her hands on it, whispering something. Then Wakka reeled back, delivering a powerful throw, hitting a small but vicious looking bird fiend square in the head. When the ball hit, there was an explosion of ice shards, some of them flying in my direction, but most of them hit Tidus, instead of me. I got a few cuts in my arms, but nothing too bad. Tidus hardly seemed phased by it, so I figured that he wasn't injured. While Wakka threw the ball, Lulu extended her hands towards a bright red gelatinous creature which had risen from the dirt. Before she had a chance to attack, it shook itself, part of its body flinging towards Wakka. He let out an angered shout as the burning substance ate into his shoulder, and then Lulu shot the creature with a stream of ice as I moved forward to heal Wakka, Tidus still keeping himself between me and the only still living creature, the large, wolf like being which Kimahri was trading attacks with. I placed my hand directly on Wakka's wound, and the burning acid-fire started to eat into my palms. I hadn't thought to expect the pain before I started praying, and I jerked my hands back, before quickly replacing them, and praying. It was hard to concentrate because of the acid, but soon I felt a searing pain in my shoulder, and then it quickly faded, Wakka sighing in relief. By this time, Lulu had helped Kimahri finish off the wolf creature, and we all relaxed as we watched its pyreflies disappear above the treetops. I raised my hands up, looking at the raw welts left on my palms. Tidus leaned over my shoulder, letting out a groan of sympathy, seeing the wounds. "Can you heal yourself?" I was a little surprised by his question, it was a well known fact in Spira that healers can only heal others. It was rare that someone would learn to heal, because it was a skill only very few people were ever able to acquire. No one knew why, it was simply a skill that mostly only summoners were able to do, and sometimes, even summoners weren't able to. I snapped out of my thoughts, hearing Lulu's voice, sounding slightly winded.
"No. You would do well to keep your questions to yourself. Everyone knows that healers cannot heal themselves. We will continue now." She stalked off, head held high. Wakka took his place beside her, Kimahri went silently back to guard the rear, and I gave Tidus an apologetic glance before following Lulu and Wakka. He fell into step beside me, and seemed a bit sullen. I glanced at his face to catch his expression, and he was glaring at the back of Lulu's head. I wished she would just leave him alone. I knew that she missed Chappu, but resenting him for something he can't help doesn't make any sense...
We walked on for a few hours, the heat of the jungle pressing in on us, our clothes had dried long ago, sweat now ran freely down our faces. We encountered several more groups of fiends before I saw a young man lying in the bushes. I was startled at first, letting out a small cry, before running towards him. I knelt down, placing my hand on his neck, feeling for a pulse. There was none. I slowly rose to my feet, wondering if I had not slept almost all day yesterday, if I could have gotten to him in time to heal him, before he died.
"I-I need to send him." Kimahri stepped forward, and scooped him up like a doll. The man was about a third of the size of my huge, blue guardian.
"Kimahri carry." I returned to the path in the direction we had been going, my guardians following me. "We need to hurry. We don't want him to become a fiend."We'd traveled far inland, cutting across a peninsula to get the village on the other side, so we were far from the sea, our only hope was that we could arrive at a pool of water soon, or that we would reach the village before the man broke free.
We walked a bit more quickly, but I knew that we should walk at a pace that we could keep up all day, that we wouldn't be out of breath when fiends attacked, because being too tired would spell our deaths.
After about half an hour, a group of four wolves leapt at us from the bushes, and Kimahri dumped the man unceremoniously onto the ground, drawing his spear, and attacking the closest one. Lulu and Wakka did their same routine, Lulu placing an element on his blitzball, and then bombarding the creatures with the same element, whichever one they looked most vulnerable to. Tidus seemed a bit reluctant, but he saw that they were outnumbered, so he left my side, reaching out his right hand, Chappu's sword materializing in it. He rushed into the fray, stabbing at the wolf. It was so large that its shoulders were nearly parallel with his, I could smell its putrid, smoky breath. Tidus alternated between slashing at it, and jumping back to avoid its angry attacks. He swung his sword, but missed, the creature lashed out at him with a large paw, and he leapt back, but was a little to late. It caught him across the leg, though not cutting deeply. He grunted, wobbling a little, but quickly recovering, stabbing forward, right through the monster's head. It instantly burst into pyreflies, just as Wakka's did the same. Wakka and Lulu teamed up on Lulu's and quickly overpowered it. Kimahri also won his fight. I ran forward, placing my hand on the long, shallow gash on Tidus's lower calf, and he flinched, but didn't make a sound. I prayed, and could feel the gash as if it was on my own leg. I clenched my jaw, waiting for the feeling to subside, and breathing out with relief when it did. I removed my hand, wiping it along the grass, cleaning off most of the blood. He smiled, sliding his hand across the now repaired smooth skin, only a slight scar remained.
"Thanks."
I blinked, and then stood up, continuing along the path. We all fell back into our usual places, Kimahri picking up the man's body before following. I felt my stomach telling me that it was long past due for the midday meal; the afternoon was already cooling into evening, but I knew that even a little time wasted might mean the difference between the man's being sent to the farplane, or becoming a fiend, dying a second time, and having his pyreflies forever wander Spira in loneliness. As darkness fell, we saw fewer and fewer fiends, as most aren't nocturnal, since they were once people. Tidus was walking a bit crouched over, obviously hungry. We were all hungry. I felt guilty pressing them to continue, and I decided that I should give them a break, no matter how I wanted to go on.
"Stop. We may have to travel a lot farther before we reach a village or pool, I do not know how large Kilika is…should we take time to find food, and eat?"
I was slightly surprised when Tidus spoke up before anyone else could. His voice was a little scratchy from lack of water, and from not talking for so long. Among all of us, we'd hardly said a word all day, since Lulu told Tidus to keep his questions to himself.
"No! As long as this man has a chance, we should keep going!" I caught Lulu giving him a curious glance, and Wakka slowly nodded in agreement. Kimahri rarely ate, it seems that he can survive eating an entire animal, only once every week or so, so he was fine with it. "Good, it's decided then. We'll continue."
We walked on, the air cooling, and darkness covering the forest in a blanket of gloom. Occasionally, the quiet was broken by a bird's cry, somewhere off in the treetops, or the sound of a stomach complaining for the lack of food, but other than that and the sound of our footsteps, the night was silent. We met up with no fiends, and we took advantage of the cooler temperature, bumping up the speed some. When it had been several hours of darkness, my body was swaying back and forth as I walked, my eyes drooping shut, yawns constantly trying to force their way from my mouth. My guardians were no better off, though I was surprised to see that Tidus was still going strong.
People in Spira generally did not stay up long past nightfall, most preferring to wake early, sometimes hours before sunrise, rather than stay up late. I knew that in Zanarkand they had blitzball games at night, so Tidus was probably used to staying up late.
After a couple more hours, I stumbled, falling to the path below me. I watched the ground rush up towards my face, unable to react from exhaustion. As I fell, someone caught my hand, though it didn't stop my fall completely, it kept my body upright, only my knees hit the ground. I was slowly lowered, keeping my tired body from being hurt, and my eyes drooped shut, sleep coming over me, I couldn't fight it.
TidusxYuna Always
