Chapter 2

Later that night when they returned home, their parents were very suspicious as to why the three of them wanted to go to Sandros. Mist’s mother was not opposed to the idea but she saw right through the lies.

“You went to the temple, didn’t you?” she asked Mist in a tone more sad than angry. She had a very plain beauty about her; wavy brown hair, bright blue eyes and soft, plain skin that had creased slightly to betray a deeper worry.

“Don’t worry so much about me, mom. I’ll be fine. We’re travelling together.” Mist told her mother, trying to comfort her. Her mother got worried over the slightest things sometimes. She didn’t have to answer about the temple; her mother already knew that she was right.

“I guess there’s no reason you can’t go, just be careful Mist.” Her father added. “You know that you’re our only child and that we don’t want to lose you. So watch out for each other out there and come back to us in one piece, alright?” He was a kind man, with short brown hair, the same colour as his short, bristly beard. His eyes were green like Mist’s but older and a little less bright.

Mist went to pack what she could for the next day. The three friends had agreed what each of them would bring, as though their parents had already given them the OK. Then she went to bed to get some rest for the day ahead.

Lani’s mother was more interested in the previous nights activities.

“You told me that you were stargazing south of the city. I am very disappointed that you lied to me like that.” Her mother told her. She was a tall woman, her Viera fur was almost halfway between white and brown; her eyes were like a pair of sapphires, blue, bright and sharp. She always seemed to get answers if she looked at someone the right way, just intimidating enough to cause them unease but not enough to scare them away. Lani wasn’t about to escape this argument.

“We only wanted to know what’s going on. Nothing bad happened, and I’m going to find out what’s happening in Sandros.” Lani told her mother forcefully. She rarely stood up to her mother like that but she was too excited about the idea of seeing more of the world and travelling with her friends to be stopped here. She looked at her mother expectantly, growing redder in the cheeks as what she said began to hit her.

The three friends had agreed to say that they had heard ‘something’ about Sandros but not mention specifics or they might scare their parents. Her mother rolled her eyes and turned away. “Fine. Anyway, I don’t want you hanging around here sulking that your friends got to go on an adventure and you didn’t.” she told Lani, who leaped up and hugged her around the neck before going to pack her things, then she too got some rest for the next day’s travel.

Lani’s mother stood in their kitchen where the conversation had taken place and thought to herself that Lani and her friends would be able to take care of themselves. But she still had to convince herself that it was true. She was always overprotective of Lani and now she just had to accept that Lani was old enough to look after herself.

Zan’s parents were more reasonable about what was going on.

“I didn’t think that you’d give up on going to the temple so easily.” His father said. “I suppose you want to go with the girls to Sandros now?” His father was handsome like Zan, with similar but more mature features and brown hair.

“Yes. We all want to leave tomorrow morning so that we can reach our old campsite by evening.” Zan told his parents.

His mother had pure ivory skin, as many elfin women did, with hazel eyes and long, emerald hair. “I don’t see why we shouldn’t let you go since you let us know about this instead of just running off like you did tonight. Don’t think that we’ll forget about that. I know that you’ll be responsible since you always are. But have fun and be careful.” His mother told him.

“Thanks. I will.” Zan told her. He was a very mature young man and his parents were trusting of his judgement and choices. He went to gather what he would need for the journey and, just like the others, he went straight to bed to get a good night’s sleep.

The next day, in the twilight glow before dawn, the friends went to a shop on the north side of the city so that they could stock up on supplies. The gulls hadn’t woken yet and the only sounds to be heard were the crash of waves on the shore and the creaking of ships at the dock. The ferries wouldn’t be leaving on their daily routes for at least an hour yet.

They would need to buy potions and ethers, and due to the area that they were travelling in, antidotes as well. The forests on the continent of Cyndaria were known for their venomous creatures. Once they had their provisions they checked one last time that they had everything that they needed.

Each had their pack and their pouch of gil for the trip as well as their own belongings. Mist had her short sword, her buckler and their map. Lani had her horn bow, her ever-present quiver, her bracer and their compass. Zan had his rapier, his armguard and their bedrolls.

That was it. They were ready for the journey to Sandros. They would leave that morning, before the sun was too far above the horizon. Dawn had just shone the first warm, golden rays of sunlight over the city walls.

The three of them had often camped in the area northeast of the city, at a spot near but not too near the forests. The first day would be like all those other times, afterwards would be an entirely new experience. Mist had never been to another city before. Lani and Zan had come from the city where their races originated but were too young when they left to remember very much. This would be entirely new for them all.

They said a final farewell to their parents who saw them off as the friends set out through the north gate into the wilderness of Cyndaria.

After 10 minutes of walking, the adventurers reached a hill where they had often played when they were very young and stopped to remember some of the fun adventures that they had had on that tiny mound of grass.

“Remember when we thought that we’d found a pile of gold?” asked Lani in a cheerful giggle. She sat down on the top of the hill, her legs nearly reaching the bottom.

Mist thought back to those days. She remembered them very well; the carefree attitude, the cute clothes that they had worn and the hours of fun. “Yeah, and it turned out to be just clay. I wish it had been gold though. Do you guys remember all of the things we were going to buy?” Mist responded, drifting back into reminiscence.

“Yes. You wanted to buy the temple for your home,” replied Zan in a blunt yet obviously amused tone. He nearly started laughing, but that wouldn’t have been very nice, considering that he had thought of some strange things to buy then too.

“We were young. Not a care in the world. I wish we could have that time again.” Mist seemed not to care about the attempted criticism of her childish dreams.

The hill was tall in comparison to its width of less than two meters. It had a small stone cave in the back where the children had hidden when they didn’t want to leave. Their parents couldn’t reach far enough in to pull them out but they always found a way to make them come out. The trio had never wanted to leave, but this time they weren’t there to play; they had to move along. That was all in the past and they were too old to be thinking like little children. That and they couldn’t fit in the cave anymore. They were off on their own now, alone in the wild.

It was getting late before they found their old campsite. It was a cleared patch near a small thicket of trees just south of the forest border. There was a blackened patch surrounded by stones, which had always been used by campers for fires. But what they hadn’t expected was a pair of lupine hounds to be resting there. They heard the trio approaching and got up to defend their territory. This presented an opportunity to the friends that they had considered earlier. Combat practice. They dropped their packs and drew their weapons.

The lupines looked like normal dogs but much more vicious. The most noticeable difference was that their tongues always stuck out a few inches below their jaws, constantly dripping drool. Their eyes were focussed on anything that came close, anything that they could hunt. There were many different types of lupine too. These ones were the Viper Hound variety, called so because of their poisonous bite.

The hounds began to approach slowly, splitting up to come from either side. Mist and Zan took up defensive stances and Lani, who stood between them, nocked an arrow. The lupines came around to stop on opposite sides, ready to pounce. But Lani struck first, loosing her arrow at the one on her left, Zan’s side. The arrow struck it in the upper leg but it didn’t seem to notice very much. It leapt right at Zan who held his rapier out to spike it. The hound went right towards the sword but merely scratched its face and glanced off to reassess its prey. On Mist’s side, the hound crawled in closer and once it was in her range she took an aimed swipe at it. The lupine ducked and just took a nick to its ear. Then it leapt at Mist’s leg while she was open, only to be struck in the shoulder by an arrow as Lani spun, nocked an arrow and almost immediately fired. The arrow whooshed past Mist’s waist and had it been an inch to the right it would have hit her.

“That was too close for comfort!” Mist shouted at Lani over the deep growls of the lupines.

“So. I hit it, didn’t I?” She retorted.

The hounds drew around to the front again, guessing that they had better odds together. Lani nocked another arrow and Zan held his rapier in a ready position but Mist sheathed her sword.

“What are you doing?” Zan asked in a confused and concerned tone.

“Practicing my magic.” Mist replied as she held her hand out straight. She pointed her index finger and middle finger up, with her palm down and curled the other fingers in.

“Thunder!” She called as she flicked her extended fingers down. Momentarily a rumble and flash occurred in the air above the hounds and then a bright bolt of lightning struck them. It appeared to come from nowhere, but it was from the same spot as the flash and sound.

The hounds were hurt and obviously confused because they turned to see where the attack had come from, leaving their backs exposed. Lani fired at the back of the one on her right, scoring a hit to its neck, killing it instantly. The other turned back but not fast enough to stop Zan from stabbing it through the heart.

The dead forms slumped to the ground and just as they stopped moving they turned into dark shadows of their former bodies and began to dissipate into smoke. Where the creatures had fallen, there was now a small pile of items. Firstly were a few gil; there were also a couple of fangs on a string, which was a pendant that could protect against poison. There was a potion as well that would be helpful. A potion was a small green ball of magical fluid, when injured you could press the surface to break the ball and release the fluid to pour on the injury or to drink if you aren’t externally injured. Potions tasted like most medicines, a good incentive not to get injured, particularly not internally.

Once they were done the group gathered their belongings and set up for the night. The warm, orange glow of sunset shone out west above the distant hills of the surrounding plains so they needed to get a fire started soon.

“No problem. All we need is some wood and I can use magic from there,” suggested Lani. So the trio found some broken branches and leaves and built a small pile in the fireplace. Lani concentrated and held out her hand.

“Fire!” she called and a fireball leapt immediately from her hand to the wood in front of her. The flames began crackling and smoking and settled into a regular fire.

“Alright, now we can eat!” said Mist almost drooling as she looked at Lani’s pack. Lani had been trusted with the food because she wouldn’t sneak little snacks like the other two would.

“OK, just remember that we have to ration the food we have to last us the whole trip. I couldn’t carry too much and if you wanted snacks then you should have packed them yourself,” Lani told her.

They had a dinner of cooked vegetables that Lani had packed for the first night, knowing that they wouldn’t last too long. The rest of the rations were mainly dried meat and fruits, bread and rice. Zan was carrying six bottles of water for the same reason as Lani having the food. She didn’t eat very much, ever, and his body required water less often and he wouldn’t sneak a drink every now and then. Mist was carrying the non-perishables; tools, pots, bowls, cups, spoons and most of the Items, but they each had a few Items of their own.

Zan laid out the bedrolls near the light and warmth of the fire. Of course he wouldn’t be using his for a while yet. Since they had found two lupines in the campsite they would have to have a sentry and because of his better low-light vision and because of his natural ability to go for longer periods with little sleep, Zan hastily volunteered. He felt it his duty to protect his friends where he was better able to do so. He had a natural feeling of responsibility.

Mist and Lani lay near the fire, still too excited about their new adventure to sleep.

“Tomorrow we have to go through the Venomwood, so have you practiced that Esuna spell that I showed you?” Lani asked Mist with a slight pride in her voice, knowing that she was teaching someone. She had never really liked school since she was always being told what to do.

“I’ve tried but I still can’t get the motions right,” she replied.

Magic required three parts: capacity, motions and focus. The capacity was obvious; it was the required magical energy for the spell. The focus is simple; you merely need to think of an image or object that was specifically for that spell. Each spell had its own focus that was passed on from each generation of spell caster to the next. Finally, the motions were a series of waves of the casters arm and hand. Moving fingers and hands perfectly was the key to casting spells at their full power.

It was said that magic was split this way so that unlearned or dangerous people couldn’t cast powerful magic without knowing it. One or even two parts were useless without the other or others. Humanoid magic usually worked by having the caster say the name of the spell as well, but there were exceptions to that so that was not considered a requirement for casting magic.

“It’s simple. All you have to do is move your fingers like this.” Lani told her and began to wave her right hand. Her index and middle finger were pointed upwards with the others curled up. She moved her fingers in a simple clockwise spiral and once they reached the centre, she tilted her hand so that her fingertips were in the same place but her palm pointed almost straight down. She then gently lifted her hand straight up and put it back by her side.

“See, simple!” she said happily. Without using the focus it also meant that the motion of a spell could be practiced without actually casting the spell.

“I guess,” Mist said meekly. She was still unsure, but that spell would prove invaluable in curing a poison if one of them got hurt in the days to come. She lay back to sleep. Zan would come to wake her in a few hours to take over watch so she needed to get some rest.

I still don't own Final Fantasy or any part of it.