Start Date: August 9, 2023

Windwillow

Final Fantasy V: War of the Crystals

Chapter Six: The Catapult

Crescent Island which was shaped, as you'd expect, a crescent was a full week's voyage away from Karnak. Given that there wasn't much to do during the trip Lenna and Faris had bought a few books, while Bartz and Galuf resorted to playing checkers and blackjack ad nauseam. Eventually the Fire-Powered Ship moored in Crescent and the Warriors of Light hurried to depart. Unfortunately, the ship sank into a whirlpool and words were said that could never be printed here. With nothing else to do they split up.

Bartz ended up in the pub, where he jammed on a piano and sucked so badly that he was booed out of the establishment. Galuf headed straight to the Inn for a good night's rest, and while he was preparing for bed he overheard the Item Shop salesman arguing with his supplier. The supplier had promised a large importation, but had failed to provide when the trade ships fell into the ocean. Although it would take a while, salvage operations were underway that had discovered sunken ruins, something that Galuf found quite interesting. The other pair, Lenna and Faris, took to speaking with the townspeople and learned a rumor that a rare Black Chocobo had nested in the southern forest. When the party reunited they shared the information they'd acquired, save Bartz of course.

"Submerged ruins... Do you think that sounds promising?" asked Galuf. True enough, they were searching for ruins... but they needed to find something above ground. With an exasperated sigh, Galuf dropped back in bed and shut his eyes tight, frustrated. "Nah... Dammit... We'd need a submarine or something, right?" he muttered. Faris also discounted the idea, but she did have a potential lead.

"There might be a Black Chocobo here in Crescent. That's something noteworthy!" insisted Faris.

"What's so different about a Black Chocobo? Does it lay chocolate eggs or something?" muttered Bartz, totally missing the point. True enough, though, he'd never heard of a Black Chocobo. With an exasperated sigh, Faris laid a hand to her face and choked out a few nasty words in Bartz's direction.

"Black Chocobos fly, you moron. We can use it to leave the island!" groaned Faris. She dropped into her seat, slung her shoulder over the arm of the chair, and snatched up her drink. It wasn't the best booze, but it would have to do. "We'll leave tomorrow for the southern forest. Get some good sleep!" she said cheerfully. She turned her eye to Bartz, with a look that chilled his soul. "And you stay in your room. If I catch you snooping, I'll make sure you live to regret it..." she snarled, something that immediately scared Bartz straight.

Scene One

Autumn nights in Crescent were warm, tropical. The heat simply made Bartz toss and turn, and Lenna shifted uncomfortably, but Faris was unable to sleep and decided to head to the coast in the expectation of watching the moonlight reflect against the sea. She found, to her surprise, that Galuf was already situated on the beach, gripping a bottle of liquor that he'd stolen from the Item Shop because it was too expensive for him to buy normally. Seeing the discontent in his eyes Faris shuffled up next to her companion, cracked open a beer, and stared out into the shimmering ocean waters. It really was beautiful. The more she looked the clearer Faris saw where Galuf was staring: where the whirlpool that swallowed up the Fire-Powered Ship had formed. With a shrug, she took a swig of her drink and patted Galuf on the back.

"What made your memory come back, then?" pondered Faris. "Seems like an odd time to remember that you're an off-worlder and came over hauling evil incarnate... that you dropped in our laps, thank you very much. What triggered it?" she asked softly. Galuf silently stared out into the shining white sea and gripped his bottle tighter. "Did it have something to do with Mid... and the girl you saw back in the Ship Graveyard, perhaps?" Faris prodded.

"He called the old fart a dummy. I remember a girl who always called me that. I wish I could remember her name... but I don't. All I can see is her smiling face... as I punched my fist through it..." snarled Galuf. As Galuf popped open the bottle and began to chug it, Faris clapped a hand on his shoulder and startled him enough that he nearly choked on his drink. "Are you going to tell me it's all alright? 'Cause if you are, stuff it. You don't know what it feels like to punch your own flesh and blood in the nose..." he growled.

"If it weren't for you doing that, we'd all have been taking by the sea spirit and hauled off to God-knows-where. You would've been taken in just the same as we were. It isn't a sin to fight back in self-defense. Even if you beat yourself up about it, it won't change anything. It ain't alright to attack someone you love... but you didn't do that. You hit a mirage that would have swallowed your soul along with all of ours. Consider it balancing the scales for every time the little runt whaled on you," said Faris smilingly.

"You make a horrible therapist," grinned Galuf. He stared deeply at the bottle, looked out into the lovely, moonlit ocean, and took another chug of it. Hitting his own granddaughter was always going to be a sin. Whether he remembered her name or not, it wasn't something he could just dismiss. Even so, he had a single overriding thought: he wanted to see more of that girl's beaming face, and get to know her again.

Scene Two

The sun rose on a new day that morning, one where Galuf's worries were drowned in the liquor he'd shared with Faris. They'd talked for a lot longer than he thought they would that night, talked about the memories they had and the ones they wished they had. Knowing that Faris had her own secrets made him feel at least a little less guilty, a little less alone. In the morning the four Warriors of Light departed Crescent and made haste to the southern forest, which they found deserted and void of any significant life. A.K.A., there weren't any chocobos there, black or otherwise.

"Maybe this is all just one big wild goose chase? That would piss me off..." Faris said darkly, laying her back against a tree and running a hand down its branch. Bartz nodded in agreement, certain that she was right and that there wasn't a chocobo to be found. It was when a Black Chocobo peeked its head out from behind a tree, and when Bartz darted off towards it, that Faris stood up and took notice. "Then the little buggers are here?!" she gasped.

Bartz dove into the bushes in pursuit of the chocobo. The Black Chocobo's head popped up from one bush, Bartz's popped up from another, and the two played whack-a-mole for quite some time before Bartz managed to pin the beast to the ground. Even so, he knew that they couldn't fit all four of them on a single chocobo. Tired and dejected he lifted his head to find that Lenna and Faris had already mounted a Black Chocobo of their own. His eye twitched, his mouth cracked, and then Bartz angrily popped up from his seat, dragging the poor chocobo by the neck.

"How the flipping hell did you do that?!" choked Bartz. Lenna laid a gentle hand on the chocobo's head and stroked it, prompting a sweet cooing sound from it. She then produced a handful of what looked to be either herbs or leafy greens, which the Black Chocobo took hold of and began to munch on. "What the heck is that?!" he gasped.

"Gysahl Greens. I bought some in Crescent so I could tame the chocobos... They love Gysahl Greens!" tittered Lenna.

"You should have told me that before I chased after the little bugger!" Bartz screeched. When Lenna simply shrugged and his two companions stared back in apathy, Bartz angrily put his Black Chocobo in a head lock and angrily began to strangle it before Faris smacked him and directed that he mount the chocobo. He did so, although angrily and indignantly.

Scene Three

Having tamed the two Black Chocobos, the four travelers hopped up on their backs and took flight. The ride was far from gentle, given that two people were weighing down each of the chocobos and making it difficult for them to fly. By the grace of God they managed to ride the chocobos over the open water and, in a forced march, reached the Library of the Ancients in a little over a day. They were received by the scholars and given both holy water and a place to rest before they consulted with Cid and Mid, who conveyed the rumor that a man dressed as a dragoon had been seen crossing the Desert of Shifting Sands to the west, something that greatly excited Lenna.

"Then we have to go immediately!" Lenna said cheerfully, but was held back by Cid's hard grip. "What are you doing?! We have to hurry!" she insisted. Cid shook his head and informed her that they would need to cross the vast desert first. To do so they'd need to prepare carefully, and bring a healthy amount of water and other sundries to last them through the journey. That, however, wasn't the only problem.

"Not only would we need supplies, we'd have to deal with the quicksand that comprises the Desert of Shifting Sands. They call it Shifting Sands for a good reason. If you try and take one step into the sand, you'll never see the light of day again. Add to that the fact that there are dangerous monsters! The Sandworm is a beast so massive that it could cross the nasty desert quicksand that we have to deal with in just a few minutes!" explained Cid. Although Lenna's face dropped, Cid slyly produced a white whistle and gave her a wink. "We have a solution, though!" he boasted.

Once they'd gathered their supplies and reached the desert, having done so with both Cid and Mid in tow, the party ended up in front of a pool of shifting quicksand that, as Cid had said, would be impossible to cross. Although Bartz voiced his anger, Mid cheerfully blew into the whistle and an eerie silence fell upon the desert. The emptiness of the shifting sands was deafening, though it was soon broken by a tremendous rumbling noise. The source of that noise, a massive, monstrous Sandworm, began to slither through the quicksand directly towards them, its titanic frame protruding from the sand below.

"You are kidding me! You couldn't warn us before you did that?!" Bartz screeched. As he drew his sword, Faris did as well and soon the rumbling ended. He stared out into the empty abyss, anger peaking, before something emerged from the sands. Huge and hulking, it seemed more like a tunnel of living sand armed with a rotating set of fangs on its face. The beast was nearly a meter long and almost half a meter thick, its titanic frame bursting out from the shifting sands with its fangs drawn and dripping acid that burned the sand beneath it into puddles of sandy liquid. "Oh, son of a..." he choked, unsure of what to do next. One bite from the Sandworm and he'd be missing a head, arms, and torso.

The Sandworm loomed high above him before it roared and darted straight towards him. As Bartz flinched, expecting to lose his head in half a millisecond, nothing came and his head remained intact. Slowly he inched open his eyes and found, to his amazement, that the Sandworm had slowed to a crawl. He turned his eye to his left and found that Faris had her arm extended at the beast, her entire forearm coated in light and clearly strained. Bartz took the opportunity and slashed the Sandworm's head in half, allowing its remains to fall limply into the quicksand. Although they should have sunk, the sheer size of the monster's halves kept them afloat. Faris lowered her arm and grabbed her shoulder, wracked with pain, and Lenna quickly went about healing her.

"That... was... what, now?" whimpered Bartz. As her strength slowly returned, Faris reached for a bottle of water and took in a deep chug, then returned her cutlass to its sheath.

"Time Magic," said Faris plainly. "The opposite of a Haste spell is a Slow spell. It's still hell on my arm, though..." she moaned weakly. Faris turned to Cid and Mid, who stared in mute amazement at the scene before them. "What are you still doing here? Do you have a problem with us?" Faris asked. Cid nodded his head and asked to borrow the Black Chocobos. Seeing nothing wrong, Faris shrugged and waved them away to return to the Library of the Ancients and continue their studies.

Scene Four

Crossing the desert took a full day and night, along with a healthy amount of water. Even if they were tired, however, as morning dawned their resolve continued to burn once they arrived at the ruins of a strange, ancient settlement. Its buildings were indeed in disrepair, with chunks of stone missing from several homes and a dreary sense of emptiness that hung in the air. As they explored, Lenna caught sight of a familiar figure and darted after its shadow with the others close behind. After chasing a number of such shadows they found themselves inside of a ruined home, staring at the King of Tycoon standing in the back of the room. Trembling, Faris withdrew her pendant and stepped closer to the king, her entire body quaking.

"Papa?" Faris croaked, shocking her friends. She slowly continued to approach him, seemingly in a drunken stupor. She may have had her doubts at the Wind Shrine, but now she had none. "Do you remember me, Papa...?" breathed Faris, continuing to stumble towards the king. When the king took no action and showed no emotion Faris frantically broke away from her friends and ran towards King Tycoon, soon after joined by the other Warriors of Light, and they promptly fell straight into a massive hole in the floor, leaving King Tycoon alone to shed a single tear. He knew well who Faris was, but in the grip of the devil he was unable to even speak her name.

The party fell deep into the abyss, the darkness coating their surroundings, until finally they hit solid ground. Although they all struggled to rise, Faris was the last to stagger to her feet when Lenna grappled her hand with both her own and tightened her grip. Faris lifted her head to meet Lenna's gaze, eyes dripping with tears. She knew.

"You are my sister!" gasped Lenna. Faris removed Lenna's hands from her arm and, after a bit of thought, threw her arms around the princess and embraced her tightly, like family does. "You said at the castle that you weren't..." she croaked. Faris shook her head and smiled.

"I had an inkling back at the Wind Shrine, but here I got my answer: he's my Papa! When I was young I was lost in a sailing accident and picked up by a band of pirates. Since all I could say was a bastardization of my name - Farfa - they called me Faris. They raised me as a pirate, taught me to fight, but the way they looked at me made me sick; they treated my like I was a second-class citizen, a doll. I broke away with Syldra, formed my own crew... and then we met each other. It has to have been fate..." said Faris breathlessly.

"Uh... guys? Is it me or is the room starting to shake...?" Bartz asked shakily. Indeed, first a tiny crumb fell and then the entire chamber began to quake and roil, prompting the four of them to hurry through the only door available. Once inside they found what could be either their salvation or their final resting place: a tile of pulsing, rotating energy like they'd found inside the meteorite. Bartz quickly attempted to move towards it but Lenna grabbed hold of him and pulled him off. "Do you honestly think we have another option?!" Bartz hacked.

"We don't. Jump in and pray for the best, kiddos!" shouted Galuf, diving into the tile and disappearing. Faris quickly joined him, and though Lenna again hesitated to her shock and displeasure Bartz scooped her up in both arms and leapt inside the warp just as the room completely fell apart.

They landed in a new chamber, looking much like the room they'd escaped from. It was littered with gears and cogs, large wheels of metal that turned like hands on a clock. It took a while for the three of them to awaken, and Bartz quickly realized that Galuf was missing. He lifted his head to find Lenna staring at him, fuming mad, and she slapped him hard in the face. As he reeled, a smile formed on his face. She could hit him all she liked; at least she was still alive.

"Looks like we lost Galuf... Damn shame, I liked the old codger..." Bartz muttered idly. He staggered to his feet and turned around, meeting Galuf's ashen face staring back at him and he screamed out in terror before Galuf smacked him in the head. "What'd you do that for?!" he croaked.

"Take a guess. Next time you give me up for dead, at least say a prayer over my corpse!" Galuf snarled.

"Uh... yeah... I guess... that's fair..." Bartz moaned sheepishly.

Once everyone had gotten their bearings and Bartz's wounds were healed, the four of them took to exploring their surroundings. They found that they were in some sort of ancient temple complex, and discovered that the Fire-Powered Ship had somehow landed inside the ruins. They also found a complete living area, complete with beds and a bathroom, so they decided to call it a night and rest up. The next morning they continued to explore and found a strange, alluring lever that Bartz yanked on against Lenna's warnings. The end result was Cid and Mid dropping straight onto his head and nearly knocking him out cold. While Bartz slowly recovered, Cid and Mid climbed over his body and examined their surroundings.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Faris snarled.

"We were exploring some ruins on Crescent Island... and a hole opened up that we fell through and ended up here. The Black Chocobos are still up top waiting for us, presumably..." explained Mid. Bartz feebly managed to stagger to his feet and shook off the pain, then turned to Cid and Mid with a grumpy expression. That was not what he wanted to happen when he pulled the lever.

"Since we're all under Crescent... I guess that it shouldn't be surprising that the Fire-Powered Ship ended up here..." Bartz groaned. Cid and Mid immediately shared a sharp glance and rushed off out of the room, leaving the Warriors of Light to wonder what had just happened. "Did I say something funny...?" wondered Bartz dumbly. The four explorers hurried off to where the Fire-Powered Ship reposed, and found Cid and Mid examining another ship that was adjacent to the Fire-Powered Ship. It was strange; oddly shaped furniture and several propellers of all things. "What is this?" gasped Bartz. Cid took the helm and flashed him a grin.

"Allow me to demonstrate!" Cid cackled. He pulled a lever at the helm and the chamber began to rumble, then a massive hole opened up above and, to the shock of everyone but Mid, the ship's propellers began to turn and the entire ship lifted off from where it rested. By the time it had stopped moving, it had lifted up high into the sky. Once he was satisfied, Cid again pulled the lever and the airship dropped back down to dock with the Catapult once more. Unfortunately the landing was rough, and the vessel was damaged in several places. "Oh, fudge... Didn't mean to do that..." muttered Cid. He quickly took off from the helm and skittered past the party, desperate to do something.

The Warriors of Light followed him back into where the beds had been, and found him in an adjacent room with a fantastic library, one that he and Mid had already begun to digest. They eagerly scanned and pored over tome after tome as if they had gone through the desert and desperately desired water, then Mid turned to the four of them with a wide, almost creepy smile on his face.

"This is breathtaking! I just found out some fantastic things! To the far northwest in a place called Istory, there's an Eidolon living in the forest! And I found the location of the Earth Crystal: It's in the ruins that you all fell from!" tittered Mid excitedly. "And we can go wherever we want with the airship... uh... when we use parts from the Fire-Powered Ship to repair it, that is..." he muttered. Bartz quickly grasped the implications and both decided on a name and a destination.

"We'll call it the Enterprise! And we can go to my home town now! Then we can get that Eidolon! And... Oh, I guess we'd better go get the Earth Crystal... fudge, I wanted to go home..." Bartz moaned.

"We can go once we secure the Earth Crystal," said a smiling Lenna, much to Bartz's excitement. She too wanted to see Bartz's home town, to see where her friend had grown up. Lenna quietly sat down in one of the chairs in the library and laid her head on the desk with a sigh of satisfaction. "Now, we can find Father..." she breathed, low enough that no one else could hear her.

Author's Notes

Oddly enough, I can't really find anything to comment about...