Chapter 6

Ice Cavern

Following Selphie's direction, it took Rhodry two hours to reach the base of the heavily snow-capped mountain containing the Ice Cavern. The Trabian stood before the immense opening, peering through to the frozen downward slope beyond. He tethered the chocobo to a nearby tree and draped it in a thick blanket from the saddlebag, taking his bow and quiver.

Notching an arrow to the already strung bow, he made his way through the snow and beyond the entrance. His snow boots gained good purchase on what would have been a slippery path as he entered, the para-magic keeping him feeling even warmer. The ice covering every surface of the chamber seemed to radiate a light blue glow, enabling him to see perfectly.

Rhodry was a little anxious, despite his experience. He had passed part of his SeeD initiation at the Fire Cavern of Balamb at sixteen years old. But he had been accompanied by the veteran SeeD, Xu. He had never entered somewhere like this alone.

The slope in front of him was a few yards wide, cambered so the edges sloped toward sharp falls on either side. After descending steadily for a few minutes, he encountered some glacial eyes. These were floating, blue monsters with turquoise exoskeletons and yellow-tipped pectoral fins. Their spiked tails were also yellow at the end, and they had three glowing eyes.

They came at the SeeD from the left side of the path, soundlessly levitating into view and approaching through the air. Rhodry loosed an arrow to the nearest and his aim was true, the shaft sailing between the turquoise bones and striking its centremost eye. Before the first arrow struck, he was reaching for a second, then a third.

Rhodry had been one of the finest archers in Garden, not to mention renowned for his swordsmanship, never bested in sparring once he had come of age. He pressed on, stopping only long enough to retrieve the arrows, meeting no more resistance before the end of the chamber.

The next area was much wider, the path no longer cambered or descending but opening out to cover a whole chamber. The surrounding walls were eroded with many alcoves, paintings from prehistoric eras barely visible behind the sheet of frost that blanketed them.

Along the floor were many simmering, light blue discs. Rhodry knew these were ice flans. The jelly-like beings would shapeshift into something more menacing after sighting prey and would be resistant to conventional sword or arrow. Some of the flans rose as he reached the middle of the chamber, red eyes and gaping mouths forming.

They were slow, and the Trabian trained an arrow on the nearest one. Concentrating deeply, Rhodry pictured the arrowhead aflame as he willed para-magic into it. Within a second, it was. He loosed the shaft between the flan's menacing eyes and the jelly immediately began to bubble around it. The flan emitted a nasty wail as it stopped its sliding advance.

The one to its right met the same fate, and Rhodry leaped over their bubbling tops, leaving a third in his wake. He ran for the opening at the far end, some of the shifting flans becoming more solid and trying to follow.

Only one could hope to reach him. Seemingly realising it would not be able to cut him off, it extended a pair of 'arms' toward him. Rhodry stopped. He was holding an arrow in his right hand, and instantly drove it into the newly formed appendage flailing in front of him. Predictably, this had no effect, and the arrow began to be absorbed.

Still holding his bow in his left hand, the SeeD drew his longsword and stepped back a couple of paces. Within a second, the steel was ablaze with a furious flame. He lopped off the flan's arms, swinging over and under. The flan shrieked as Rhodry swiftly pressed on to the next chamber.

Ahead of him were two great snow lions. They were brutish beings with ice-blue spikes down woolly backs and giant tusks protruding from wide mouths already containing dagger-length teeth. One was smaller than the other; Rhodry guessed that one was female.

The snow lions were resting on a raised passageway above but stirred at the sound of his running steps. To their right was a ledge above a wider chamber, foreboding icicles dangling threateningly from the cavern roof above. When the snow lions slid along the path, it was steadily, like the flans behind him.

Rhodry threw a glance over his shoulder as he sheathed his sword. The flans were still approaching. Taking a calming breath, he notched another flaming arrow and sent it into the larger snow lion's eye. With a deafening bellow, it halted. Blue mist began to spout from its mouth towards Rhodry. He dived to the side, rolling on his shoulder, and going over the edge of the path. He tried to grip the edge but could not get a purchase, and this only served to slow his fall to an outcrop five feet below.

Gaining his balance, the SeeD briskly lowered himself down to the chamber below, running clear from the ledge. Above him, the larger snow lion was holding its blubbery forepaws to its face. In front of it, its icy breath had closed the opening to the previous chamber, where a couple of flans were pressed against it. Behind it, the smaller snow lion dropped from the ledge with an almighty crash and pulled itself toward Rhodry with unexpected speed.

Shouldering his bow as he swerved aside, Rhodry drew his sword again and set it ablaze, but not before the snow lion laboriously spun its large form to face him, snarling with saliva dropping down its chin. Rhodry sliced into the blubbery skin of its neck in naught but a flesh wound, albeit cauterising the flesh around it. Then he darted around its flank with a drawing slash to inflict a long, smouldering cut.

For all their size, snow lions were cumbersome and lacked intelligence. It spun to face him again, as Rhodry ran a full half-circle around it and stopped a few paces away. The snow lion groaned in what might have pain, but otherwise seemed unimpeded.

Rhodry looked to one of big icicles hanging between them, walking backward as he extended a palm toward it. A second later, a ball of fire appeared six feet from its tip. The shaft of ice shot down, impaling the back of the great beast. Roaring in its death throes, the snow lion fired its icy breath at Rhodry, but he ran in another circle to avoid it before it petered out.

Behind the dying beast, Rhodry scaled the wall, looking to its mate and the impeded flans to his left. Satisfied that they were no longer a threat, he ran along the ascending path and into the greatest chamber of them all.

It looked to have been a mountain spring in ages past, frozen over with a great, motionless waterfall at the back of the cavern. Adorning the chamber's edges were many plants and flowers that seemed stuck in time. In the middle of the spring was the translucent form of Shiva, standing within a crystalline pillar of ice extending from the lake to the roof.

Rhodry approached the Glacial Empress, bolstered by the adrenaline that was still rampant from the fight with the flans and snow lions. He stopped a few paces from the GF and heard an unwavering female voice in his mind.

You wish to junction with me, Rhodry?

'I'm a SeeD, my lady. Formerly of Trabia Garden, born in Adaryn,' he said carefully. 'I have come at the behest of Sorceress Selphie, the Guardian of Trabia. She and her Knight have been among your former vessels, and I fought with them during Trabia Garden's fall. Esthar now marches on the north, and the accursed Sorceress Reina seeks to take Selphie's power for her own. White SeeD has informed me that Reina plans to subjugate all of the Guardian Forces, too. Forgive me for speaking bluntly, my lady, but we need your aid to repel the invasion, and you must join with us lest you become enslaved!'

Shiva was silent for a few moments.

Then prepare yourself, SeeD!

The pillar of ice became incorporeal, then vanished. Shiva slowly descended from her animated state unto the floor.

The GF was mostly naked with pale blue skin, her intimate region and considerable breasts only minimally covered with darker blue icicles. She had hair-like appendages protruding from her head, turquoise on top and yellow underneath. Two lighter, yellow feelers came down to her knees, the white tips pointing at Rhodry. Shiva's elfin ears were pointed, and her ageless face was beautiful.

Rhodry took a stance as fashioned a crystalline sword from a light of raw energy. He estimated he had about half of his para-magic remaining and would have to use it wisely.

Shiva came at him, her speed and strength equal to his own for the purposes of his trial. Rhodry knew her to be one of the more powerful GFs. She had remained loyal to Griever and Eden during their civil war of legend, and her power had not been split like some of the others. If she had deemed Rhodry to be hostile, he would already be dead.

She struck at him an even ten times, each time the edge of her ice sword meeting the flat of his own, as she pressed him back to the edge of the frozen spring. As soon as there was a pause in her offence, the SeeD counter-attacked with just as many blows. But no matter how innovative he was, Shiva effortlessly kept his blade at bay.

Suddenly, she leapt a great distance behind her, her sword changing into a javelin. Rhodry willed his para-magic into a rectangular shield of flame which appeared on his left arm just in time to block Shiva's throw. The javelin struck the flames and disappeared with a hiss of smoke. Thrice more the javelins came at him, only to meet the same end, then she flew at him.

The Trabian planted his feet as the GF struck the fire shield like a humanoid missile, and though it halted her, his momentary belief that the shield was weakened made it vanish. Rhodry set his longsword aflame and renewed his attack.

Shiva did not summon a weapon to counterattack but moved as lithely as a ballerina to dodge each strike, weaving from side to side as his fiery blade hissed through the air. Rhodry tried pressing her toward the side of the chamber, to corner her between two of the sizeable frozen plants, although he knew she would be able to fly away at will.

When he had her in position, Rhodry thrust for her chest, but Shiva simply threw both her arms out. A miniature, biting blizzard knocked him off from his feet and sent him flying across the chamber. Rhodry broke his fall as best he could, smacking both arms out into the ground as he struck, but losing his blade in the process.

His legs in the air, the SeeD swung them down and was instantly on his feet, his dagger drawn. Shiva came towards him, her crystal-like sword back in her right hand as she moved to cleave his head.

Rhodry shot forward, throwing his left arm up to prevent the blow, his palm meeting Shiva's slender forearm in its downward arc. With his right hand, he made to thrust his dagger into Shiva's abdomen. He would have stopped the thrust before it made contact, but Shiva's free hand was there to stop it anyway.

For several seconds they remained in this position, their eyes boring into each other. Shiva spoke from her lips for the first time, letting go of him first.

'Well fought, mortal. I shall join you.'

Relieved, Rhodry placed his dagger back into his boot.

'Thank you, Shiva. We need to make haste! Let's get back to Selphie as soon as possible!'

As he moved to pick up his fallen sword, Shiva's body disappeared, replaced by a pale blue mist. It enveloped Rhodry then disappeared within him. He had never been junctioned with a GF before, so had not been sure what to expect, but understood that he could communicate with Shiva within his mind, draw on her superior speed and strength, or summon her to fight alongside him.

Then his longsword began to change. The blade retained its size, but the colour went from silver to a pale blue. The cross guard altered to become five-pointed, one point aligned with the blade. Along the fuller was the crystalline matter much like the pillar Shiva had been slumbering in. It was the same sword that Shiva had used against him.

I call it Icefall, she said. Now let us go to the Sorceress!

With Shiva's speed, he silently obliged, bolting the way he had come into the previous chamber. The wounded snow lion had moved from the ledge, down to its deceased mate. As Rhodry reached the blocked entrance, the ice dissipated before him, and he was back into the chamber with the flans. Presumably because of Shiva, the flans paid him no mind, and he reached the entrance to the Ice Cavern in a fraction of the time it had taken him to reach Shiva.

Rhodry looked at the chocobo, patting its feathered face before placing his bow and arrows back in the saddlebag. He kept Icefall sheathed behind his back. Ready, he rode for Selphie's cabin.