Chapter 3 - Besaid Island

It was a relatively short and quiet voyage to the Isle of Besaid. Tara had left the cabin below decks to find Gian staring out at the water, and she found herself curious as to what was bothering her guardian.

"Something on your mind?" she asked.

"The pilgrimage. You know what happens at the end, right?"

"Yes," Tara replied, looking downward toward the deck.

"I'm not going to let that happen," Gian was resolute. "There has to be a way to defeat Sin, and not lose you in doing so. I don't know how yet, but there has to be a way. I'll find it. I promise you this."

Tara walked into Gian's arms and laid her head upon his shoulder, and the two of them spent the next several moments enjoying the ocean's tranquility.

Tara took a look around as their boat arrived at the dock in Besaid a few hours later.

"Besaid Island. It's as beautiful as I remember it."

Gian took a look at the beach and saw a couple of boats moored to the dock, along with a rack with several pairs of oars and other boating equipment resting upon it. He also saw several small children passing and kicking a blitzball amongst each other.

As the pair made their way towards the beach, Gian noticed that one of the children had misdirected his kick, and the blitzball flew straight toward Tara.

"It's okay, Gian, I got this." Tara caught the ball and whipped it back towards the children.

One member of the group ran toward the summoner. He appeared to be the leader of the group, a tanned child with a spike of orange hair just above his forehead.

"Nice pass, ya!" the child remarked. "Where you learn to do that?"

"I'm from Kilika," the summoner replied, smiling at the child. "There's not much to do there."

"I'm Wakka! What's your name?"

"I'm Tara, and this is Gian. It's nice to meet you, Wakka."

One of the other children threw the ball towards Gian, who caught it and passed it back towards the group.

"Gian, come on. Let's go practice some Blitzball!" Tara was clearly in a playful mood.

"Do we really have time for this?" the guardian questioned.

"We're on a pilgrimage, I know," replied the summoner. "But there's no reason we can't have some fun along the way, right?"

Gian thought about it, and smiled. "You're right. Let's do it!"

For the next half hour or so, Tara and Gian practiced different blitzball techniques with the children, and Tara even offered a few pointers here and there as the children soaked up all of the information. One of the other children walked up to Tara.

"I'm Chappu! You're pretty good. You ever play on a team?" Tara appreciated the compliment.

"No, I'm not really that good. I just like to exercise a lot, and blitzball is a pretty fun game. I leave the actual competition to the real players."

The pair continued their practice with the children when they heard a scream coming from somewhere just up the road leading toward the village.

"Gian, did you hear that?" Tara asked, concerned. "Let's go see what's wrong."

The pair discovered a little girl who had somehow managed to get her foot stuck in between several mid-sized rocks that had fallen from higher up the mountain face. Advancing on the child was a large ant-like creature. The guardian prepared for action.

"Tara, take care of the girl. I'll take care of ugly."

The guardian drew his sword and stepped forward to execute a textbook diagonal upward slash which split the creature in two, causing it to disappear into a cloud of pyreflies. The girl was in a great deal of pain as Tara offered comfort.

"Everything is going to be okay, sweetie. Don't you worry."

"What happened?" Gian asked as he began to remove the rocks that were surrounding the girl's foot.

The child whimpered, "I… I wandered out here by myself. I know I'm not supposed to. I slipped and fell, and got my foot stuck. And then…that…wanted to get me!"

"You're right. You shouldn't have wandered out here by yourself." Gian replied. "It can be dangerous and fiends love pretty little girls."

The guardian finished removing the rocks, freeing the little girl's foot, and then Tara examined it, making sure nothing was broken.

"Don't you worry, we can fix this, right Gian?" The guardian nodded. "What's your name, sweetie?" Tara asked as she gently wrapped her arms around the child.

"Rayann" came the response as the girl clung to the summoner.

"Nothing appears to be broken," Gian noted. He placed his hands around the girl's foot and ankle, and began to concentrate. Finally, he spoke.

"Cure."

A green aura emanated from the guardian's hands and flowed into the child's foot and ankle. A few moments later, Rayann was smiling, no longer in pain.

"You didn't break anything, but you did twist that ankle pretty well. It'll be okay until we return to the village. We'll need to cure it again, and you'll need to stay off it for a while, okay?" The girl nodded.

The summoner introduced herself to the girl. "My name is Tara, and this is Gian."

Rayann noticed the bow on Tara's top – the special bow that all summoners wore. "Wow, are you a... summoner?" The child spoke that last word with a certain reverence.

"I sure am, sweetie!"

Tara noticed the unmistakable look of hope on Rayann's face, as the girl continued, "Are you gonna bring us the Calm?" Rayann was referring to the period after Sin's defeat. A period of peace that lasts an undetermined amount of time before Sin's re-emergence.

Tara gazed at the child - such a beautiful little girl with big grey eyes and long blonde hair. She wanted nothing more for this child than to be able to grow up and live her life never again experiencing the terror of Sin.

"Yes. I will. You can count on it."

Rayann threw herself into a big hug with the summoner as Gian stood, surveying the road leading to Besaid Village.

"We should get on back to the village. Can you walk now, Rayann?"

Rayann stood up and gingerly put weight onto her ankle and foot, seeing if everything was okay.

"I… I think so…"

The trio began to make their way back to Besaid Village when another large ant-like creature appeared and blocked their path.

"You've seen this kind before," Tara said, confidently. "He's pretty easy to deal with. Right, Gian?"

With another sword slash, another fiend was dispatched. Rayann grinned as the guardian shot her a wink. The trio did not make it very far when the next attacker presented itself. It was a jiggly blue Water Flan. This time, Gian spoke.

"My sword will be useless against this guy. But there's always more than one way to get the job done." The guardian sheathed his sword and handed Rayann a lightning gem. "I want you to toss this so it lands right in front of Jiggly, there."

Rayann giggled at Gian's nickname for the fiend. She tossed the lightning gem and it landed just an inch or two in front of the creature. A bolt of lightning struck the fiend. It jiggled violently and exploded into pyreflies.

"Wow…that was awesome!" Rayann remarked, having never seen fiends dealt with so easily before.

The three had almost made it to the village when they were again attacked, this time by what appeared to be a wolf-like creature.

"This one's mine," Tara stated.

She stepped forward to cast a fire spell which sent the creature running away, howling the entire time – much to the delight of the giggling Rayann.

The sky had grown dark because of a gigantic bird that had swooped down above them. Rayann became very nervous.

"Uh oh… Gian, can you beat that?" She pointed toward the gruesome flying creature, with a worried look on her face.

"Well, I could," offered the guardian, "but let's see what Tara can really do!"

Tara performed the summoning ritual once more. And once more, the ground shook and Ifrit appeared. She patted the creature's cheek and pointed her staff toward the flying beast. Ifrit sprang into action. He dug up a portion of the ground and flung it skyward. He then jumped high into the air to meet the debris. The aeon pounded the rocks straight into the fiend, causing it to explode into pyreflies. Rayann was jumping and cheering the whole time. Tara was about to dismiss her aeon when she heard Rayann's voice.

"Can I touch him?" Surprisingly, the girl was not afraid of the aeon at all.

The summoner looked at her aeon. "Ifrit?"

The aeon rumbled softly, hunching down low onto all fours, so the little girl could pet him. She turned toward Tara with a huge grin as Ifrit disappeared. The trio finally made their way to Besaid village where Rayann's mother hurriedly ran to her child. Rayann hugged her mother, and softly spoke.

"I'm sorry for wandering off. I won't do it any more, I promise. These nice people helped me!" Rayann's mother held her child tightly, relieved that she was safe.

Tara emerged from Besaid Temple's Chamber of the Fayth a couple of hours later, after having made her way through the trials with Gian's help. She was still dizzy and exhausted, but this time she needed no help making it down the stairs. She walked straight into her guardian's arm and laid her head upon his shoulder.

"I must be getting better at this…" the summoner mused aloud before losing consciousness.

After a short rest, the pair made their way toward the village's center square, where Tara summoned the shining silver, bird-like aeon Valefor, to the delight of the villagers – including Rayann. As Tara greeted the villagers, Rayann's mother spoke with Gian.

"I'd like to thank you for helping my daughter. She likes to run off a lot, but I think she's learned her lesson this time."

"She's a great kid," the guardian remarked. "Tara and I want nothing more than for her to be able to grow up in a world that no longer has to live in fear of Sin. And we are going to do everything we can to make that happen."

"Good luck to you both!" Rayann's mother exclaimed as she hugged the guardian.

Tara took one long last look at the village. She then turned to Gian.

"Well, where shall we go next?"

"Luca," came the guardian's reply. "We have all of Spira to see, and we don't want to miss anything."