Chapter 8 - Confession
Tara and Gian headed back towards the Djose Highroad, and then made their way towards the side route that led to the Moonflow. It was a quiet and peaceful walk. Tara looked over at her guardian.
"We sure have come quite a ways, haven't we?"
Gian thought for a moment. "Yeah, I suppose we have. We have quite a ways to go though. We're not even halfway there."
"Really? What lies ahead?"
"Well, we have to reach Guadosalam. That's where the Guado live. Then there's the Thunder Plains, the Macalania Woods, Bevelle, and the Calm Lands. Beyond that, I'm really not sure. We'll just have to figure that out when we get there."
"Wow, that's a lot..." she remarked, realizing just how involved the pilgrimage really was.
"Yes, but first, we get to see the Moonflow. The Moonflow is really beautiful and I can't wait for you to see it."
"Really? What's it like? Tell me about it!"
Gian was happy to see Tara excited again. He knew that the summoner had seen more in the past few weeks than she had seen in most of her life. He also knew that the events of Mushroom Rock Road had taken a particularly heavy toll upon her.
"I'm not really sure I can explain it. You'll just have to see it for yourself. But I know you're gonna love it!"
Tara smiled, having learned to trust Gian's judgment. Any time Gian told her she was going to love something, he was usually correct. They continued their peaceful walk until they rounded the corner in the road, and were greeted by several Al Bhed, who were accompanied by another large machina robot.
The leader of the group stepped forward and addressed the guardian.
"Stand down, Sir Gian. We don't want to fight you. We just want the summoner."
Gian could sense that Tara was beginning the summoning ritual behind him, so he knew that his job was to distract the Al Bhed as long as possible. He looked at the Al Bhed leader and laughed.
"You're out of your mind. There's no way you're getting her without going through me."
"Sir Gian, unless I've miscounted, there are five of us, and only one of you," the Al Bhed leader replied, glancing at his troops behind him.
"Agreed, those aren't good odds. I suppose it would be the smart thing for me to do - to just hand her over. The thing is, though, nobody ever accused me of being smart."
"Sir Gian, you really should rethink this. You're hopelessly outnumbered. We will get the summoner. You won't be able to stop all of us. Surely you must realize that."
"Oh, I do realize that, and I'm certainly not invincible," the guardian admitted, "but I'm gonna just take a guess here and say that I'll manage to cut down at least two of you before you defeat me. Think about that - two of you won't be returning." The guardian smiled and drew his sword. "Who wants to be one of those two?"
That was all the time that Tara needed. A blinding flash of light appeared behind the summoner and from inside the anomaly, a large, gleaming, silver-white unicorn-like aeon appeared and charged the Al Bhed. The aeon reared up on its hind legs and let forth a devastatingly powerful wave of lightning bolts - sending the Al Bhed into retreat, destroying the machina robot in the process.
"Nice one, Tara!" the guardian exclaimed as he walked up and admired the aeon, lightly stroking its mane. The aeon gazed curiously at the guardian, but did not seem to mind. Tara walked up and patted the aeon's long neck.
"Thank you for your help, Ixion. I dismiss you." Ixion trotted off and disappeared in a flash of light. "You think they'll be back?" she asked.
"Count on it."
The pair continued down the road, finally reaching the Moonflow. They saw an incredibly beautiful lake with many moonlilies buzzing about. Tara stood and gazed at the water.
"Gian, this is beautiful!"
"You should see it at night. The whole lake glows because of the moonlilies. But truthfully, the view is much better from the other side. You get a better view of the entire Moonflow."
"Gian, when this is all over with, we just have to come back here! Can we?"
The guardian was still uneasy with any conversation having to do with the pilgrimage being completed. He still had not figured out a way to prevent Tara from dying after confronting Sin. He decided to put it out of his mind.
"It would be nice, I think. Even better to get a boat out there."
"Oooh, that's a great idea!"
"Guess what we get to do now, Tara? We get to ride the shoopuf to the other side."
They made their way to the Moonflow's South Wharf where the giant elephant-like shoopuf was waiting, with a passenger car strapped to its back. Tara stopped in her tracks upon seeing the gigantic creature.
"That's a shoopuf? It's huge!"
The guardian laughed. "Yes it's big. But it's also very gentle. Look at its long trunk. Once, when I was a kid, I accidentally fell out of the passenger car, into the water. The shoopuf scooped me up with its long trunk and put me back into the car."
"I would have loved to have seen that," the summoner replied, giggling.
"Yeah, my mother wasn't quite so amused. She was even less amused when I jumped back into the water a couple more times just for fun."
"Shame on you, Gian! Tormenting your mother like that," the summoner playfully teased.
"What could I do? It was fun. Boys will be boys, you know."
"Ride ze shoopuf?" a small blue creature asked.
"We'd love to!" the summoner exclaimed as Gian paid the shoopuf fare.
"Thank you," the creature replied. "All aboardsh!"
The pair walked towards a large crane and stepped onto the platform attached to it. The crane lifted them high up into the air, edging closer and closer to the shoopuf passenger car, where they were able to step into it.
After they were settled in, the shoopuf began walking towards the water and it slowly and gently began to swim towards the Moonflow's North Wharf.
"Shoopuf launching!" the small blue creature announced.
The pair enjoyed a nice and quiet, albeit slow, ride from the South Wharf to the North Wharf. They looked out at the lake, and they saw the entire expanse of the Moonflow. Tara tried to imagine what the entire lake would look like at night, glowing with moonlilies.
"Isn't this wonderful, Gian?" she remarked.
"Indeed," the guardian replied. "The shoopuf can just take its sweet time. Sometimes there's nothing better than relaxing and just enjoying some peace and quiet."
They were sitting in the seats facing each other. Tara started to get up, so she could sit next to him, when an arm reached up from outside the passenger car, pulling her over the edge and into the water.
"Tara!" the guardian screamed. He wasted no time jumping into the water after her. He swam around the vicinity, looking for her and saw something familiar - another large machina weapon, with a clear sphere for a head, with Tara trapped inside. Where do they keep getting these damn things? He knew that fire gems would not work under water, so he would need to devise a new strategy to defeat the weapon.
He swam to the side to avoid the machina's pincers. This one must have gotten an upgrade. He was shocked to see the entire machina charging at him. He quickly swam between the machina's legs, as it crashed against the underwater rock face. He dodged a couple more pincer attacks, and then he was struck with an idea. He took his sword and wedged it into the rock face. He then turned to face the machina, which had once again began to charge at him. He waited as long as he possibly could, then swam out of the way at the last instant, as the machina slammed itself into the rock face, impaling itself upon his sword. He saw the machine shaking and convulsing, and he knew the machina was short-circuiting. Finally, the machina went inert and started to sink to the bottom of the lake - snapping the guardian's sword in half in the process. The sphere bubble disintegrated, as he hurriedly swam to reach the summoner. After catching up to her, he swam to the surface as fast as he could. Reaching the surface, he pulled Tara up so she could breathe.
They were floating in the water at almost the middle point of the lake. He wondered if he could swim the distance back to the South Wharf holding Tara when he felt the shoopuf's trunk wrapping around her. He watched as the shoopuf plucked her from the water, placing her back into the passenger car. After Tara was safely aboard, the shoopuf then reached for him.
Back in the passenger car, both sat on the floor area. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly - neither saying anything. The shoopuf resumed its journey toward the North Wharf.
After arriving at the North Wharf, the pair departed the shoopuf launching ramp. They walked over towards the secluded coast line that overlooked the lake. Tara had tried to talk to Gian a couple of times, but he remained silent. Gian took a seat upon a log section, and was staring out at the water.
"Gian?" the summoner spoke as she stood behind him with her arms draped over his shoulders and chest. "Are you okay? Please talk to me."
"Some guardian I am..." he muttered, dropping his face into his hands.
"Huh?"
"Tara, maybe you'd be better off finding another guardian - one that could actually protect you..."
The summoner began rubbing and massaging the guardian's neck and shoulders. "I don't want another guardian. I want you."
"I failed you. I'm sorry, Tara..."
"Gian, that's so not true! You didn't fail me at all!" Tara walked around the log, and knelt down in front of Gian so she could look up into his eyes.
"Look at me." She pulled his hands away from his face. "Gian, look at me. The Al Bhed got the drop on us both. Nobody could have seen it coming. And I'm not blaming you for anything either, so please... please don't beat yourself up over this. It wasn't your fault. Besides, you saved me. Twice! That should count for something too, right?"
"I don't deserve you..."
"Well, sorry…you're stuck with me." The guardian looked up to see one of Tara's trademark smirks.
They looked into each other's eyes for a couple of moments, and burst into laughter. At this point, Tara knew Gian well enough to know that if she ever needed a sure-fire method of getting through to him, humor was that method.
Gian stood and helped Tara to her feet. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly.
"Mmmmmmmm, what was that for?" she pleasantly sighed, as she wrapped her arms around him in return.
"I'm just relieved and happy…happy that you're okay. If anything ever happened to you, I don't know what I'd do…"
The guardian spent a few moments gazing Tara's big brown eyes - saying nothing, just gazing. Her smile was easily the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
"So, what are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about telling you something," the guardian nervously replied. "Something I've kept inside, something I've kept to myself."
She continued to smile. "I'm listening."
The guardian took a deep breath. "When I came to Kilika, all I wanted was a nice, simple, quiet life. I actually had that for a while. And then you came into my life and everything changed. And now, when I look back on it all, I wouldn't trade it for anything. I can't imagine that simple life anymore. I wouldn't want to go back to it. I know what I want now. I also know what I don't want, and I don't want a life that you're not a part of.
Still smiling, she moved in as close as she could and wrapped her arms around his neck. "What are you trying to tell me, Gian?"
"I can't hide anything from you, can I?" he chuckled softly. "I'm trying to tell you that I love you. I've been in love with you since... basically, the beginning. I kept it to myself because I didn't want to complicate things. But I can't hide it anymore. I love you, Tara."
She reached up to gently caress his face. "You never were good at hiding things. I could tell. Could you tell that I love you too?"
Tara and Gian shared their first kiss underneath the beautiful sunset of the Moonflow, remaining in each other's arms - completely oblivious to anything else happening in Spira.
"You know," the summoner softly spoke, "Sin's job just got a whole lot harder."
"How's that?"
"Now, Sin has to face a summoner and guardian who love each other, and who would fight and die for each other."
"We would have done that anyway." the guardian replied.
"Yes, but love makes it just that much more powerful!"
"Hmm, you know... I don't think I'm gonna argue that one." He smiled and continued to hold Tara tightly, sharing another kiss.
Still gazing into Gian's eyes, she began to speak. "You know, Gian, I may not be as well-traveled or worldly as you, but there are some things that I know. The pilgrimage is dangerous, and things could happen to either of us at any time. We both knew this going into it. We're in this together, and what we do, we do together with no regrets. And everything we face, we'll face together. This isn't just you fighting to protect me. I will fight for you too. Agreed?"
"Agreed." The guardian stood tall, his previous self-doubt erased.
"That's the Gian I know." She smiled at him. "And the Gian I love." He returned her smile.
"Well, what should we do now? We could head towards Guadosalam. Or... we could just stay here and enjoy the Moonflow."
The summoner looked out towards the lake that was now glowing from coast to coast with moonlilies.
"I'm not in any hurry. Are you?"
"Nope!" came the guardian's reply.
They awoke the next morning and made their preparations to head to Guadosalam. Neither said anything – nothing needed to be said. Their smiles said everything.
As the pair set out towards Guadosalam, the guardian quipped "You think they've got any coffee over there? They looked at each other, and burst into laughter once more. "I hope they have a weapon shop over there. I need a new sword, you know."
"I'm sure you'll find one in Guadosalam. For now, you just use that magic of yours and keep us healed up. I have some new spells I've been dying to try out." Gian looked over at his summoner again. He had just become the recipient of yet another trademark Tara smirk.
"Yes ma'am!" the guardian playfully teased.
They shared another laugh, joined hands, and began to make their way towards Guadosalam.
Author's Note: This is one of my favorite chapters in the entire story =)