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I got bored today and decided that for something to do I'd update my story. You may have noticed last chapter that I started giving chapters names, in the list thingy, not in the actual chapter...thingy. I'm so glad that I can write more expressively when it counts. Anyway, thanks for the reviews guys, all five of them, but I've had over a hundred hits on this story already. Come on people! If you read this then I'll presume that you've read at least one earlier chapter so please review, unless for some unapparent reason you just happened to type in a random url that brought you here (in which case you are not obliged to review, but feel free to). But no matter, all of that aside, here is...
Chapter 4
Mist stood up. She was in a dark place. She couldn’t see beyond a ring of nine tall pillars encircling her at a few meters distance. On each pillar were roughly carved images. Upon closer inspection they looked like the nine races of the world. She walked towards the one that had the images of Humans on it. She ran a finger along the line of an arm. It felt worn, very, very old.
She moved past a few more pillars and stopped at the one of her favourite race, Moogles. She had always wondered what having a pompom was like. She poked the pompom of the Moogle on the pillar playfully and remembered a time when she had done that to a real Moogle when she was five. That Moogle hadn’t seen what was so funny and she had run home crying, but it was funny now when she looked back. She walked on.
She continued around the circle a few times and eventually stopped at the pillar that must have been for Golems but she couldn’t work it out, the lines on it didn’t make sense. She began to wander around the pillar itself and realised that the whole pillar was designed to look like a Golem. She placed her hand on the pillars hand.
Suddenly the Human, Moogle and Golem pillars began glowing and three sparkling images came forth. Mist went back to the centre of the circle for a better look at them. They were very realistic images of a Human, a Moogle and a Golem.
The Human was a woman with long, wavy blond hair, bright blue eyes and pale skin. She was wearing what looked like a sorceress’ robe, long, dark blue velvet with wide sleeves at the wrists and a hood drawn back. The Moogle was a male with big yellow eyes, a blue pompom and tan fur. He was wearing a sorcerers robe like that of the Human but a whole lot smaller and a pair of small teal wings protruded from the back. The Golem was another male. He was very tall, almost three meters was Mist’s guess. He had a slightly ape-like appearance. The inner side of his very long arms were a pale cream but the rest of him that Mist could see, not concealed by his sorcerers robe, was olive green, including, she guessed, his big hunched back. His brown eyes blinked.
Mist gasped and fell on her butt.
“I’m sorry,” came a gentle rumble from the image, “Are you alright?”
“Do not be frightened, young one,” a soft, kindly voice told her. Mist turned her head and looked up at the woman, for the voice was feminine, “I am Eve,” the sparkling figure said, “And these are Fenrir,” she gestured to the Moogle, who nodded, pompom bouncing, “And Bahamut,” she gestured to the Golem who gave a short bow.
Mist began to right herself after her ungraceful fall. “I’m pleased to meet you all,” she said politely, thinking to herself that she must be mad talking to a bunch of floating illusions, “My name is Mist.”
“Mist,” Eve began “Your mind has taken you to the Hall of Sorcery,” and suddenly the room lit up with a warm light.
Mist could now see that she was in a long, wide room. The floor had resolved into alternating cream and red diamond shaped tiles in a chequered pattern. The walls were amber around huge arching windows that were framed by royal blue curtains held back with gold tassels. Candles lit the room from polished wooden tables all around the room; their random heights and shapes gave the room a magical theme. Mist looked up to see a magnificent chandelier with dozens of candles sparkling through twice as many crystals.
The Hall of Sorcery was said to be where the Nine Sorcerers had lived and trained. These Sorcerers had been so powerful that they had supposedly even created spells here.
“I thought this place was pure myth,” Mist said in awe of the amazing room.
“It is real, but no longer does it remain as you see here, kupo,” Fenrir said, “This is the image of what it was one thousand and one years ago.”
The Moogle flew, if you could call floating no more than three meters high while flapping his wings as hard as possible flying, to the top of his pillar and sat down. “You are here for a reason, Mist.” He said in his oddly-deep-for-something-that-small voice.
“Always to the point, Fenrir,” Eve told him, “She is our ally and a guest, be polite,” Eve’s voice had an airy sound as if she always spoke in a calm and slow manner, “I suppose explanations are in order. We, Mist, are speaking to you through your mind. You have a great potential with magic, which makes it possible for us to do so. Our bodies have turned to dust centuries ago but our minds and spirits were preserved in magic, for we knew this time would come. We have much to discuss.”
“What do you mean, ‘this time’? What has happened?” Mist asked, obviously very confused.
A chair formed behind Mist. It had the same sparkling appearance as the floating sorcerers. “Sit, please,” rumbled Bahamut with a calm smile.
Mist was unsure as to whether she could sit on it or fall right through, but she trusted these ‘people’. She couldn’t take many more surprises like this standing up anyway.
“Mist,” Eve started in her calm voice, “We are three of the Nine Sorcerers that lived in an age well known to those of your time. We are those who built the Temple in Andandrea, and the same ones that banished the evil and powerful creatures from the surface world. But we have bad news,” Eve bowed her head.
Mist knew all these things from history lessons. These Sorcerers were the most powerful people ever to walk this world. Their magic lived on in the nine races of the world for each of the Sorcerers was from a different race. The pillars were beginning to make more sense. But Mist was bothered; anything that these people considered bad would be considered a thousand times worse by any normal persons scale.
“The most menacing of creatures, known as Omega, has managed to escape his prison in the heart of the world and is seeking revenge,” Fenrir continued, “His rage may not have destroyed this world yet but if left unstopped it will.”
“Omega is a dragonoid. He was thrice the size of a regular dragon, capable of intelligent thought, very advanced at magic and his hide was nearly indestructible,” Bahamut added, “The only way we could defeat him was for all nine of us to seal him in the very heart of the world where his magic would be silenced, if not for good then at least so that he could not touch the world from his prison. He feeds on life energy, making it impossible for him to die of hunger or age in his prison since he could feed on the other creatures banished there.”
“His magic may yet be weak and there is still a chance that he can be destroyed this time,” Eve said.
“Hold on!” Mist yelled, her eyes bulging and widening as far as they could, “You’re not implying that you want me to defeat him, are you?”
“We are,” Eve said, still calm after Mist’s outburst, “You, Mist, have a power within you that very few people in the world have, the power of Summoning. You will discover it soon enough on your quest. You must find out how Omega escaped and destroy him, or at the very least seal him away once more.”
“No!” Mist shouted, standing up, “My friends and I are going to Sandros because we’re curious, then we’re going home. We just wanted to know why these weird things are happening, that’s all. We aren’t going on some epic quest. I can’t fight a dragon. Choose someone else, please!” she pleaded, too scared at the prospect of what Omega could do to her world to even think about having to face him.
As she shouted, the room around her faded slowly and swirled out of sight leaving darkness behind.
“But it is your destiny. And one that you must fulfil, for the sake of us all,” Eve’s voice echoed faintly in the emptiness as Mist began to fall though the darkness once more, “For the sake of us all.”
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Mist could feel a cold breeze all over her body. Her lips were warm though. Something brushed them. Someone was kissing her! She cracked one eye ever so slightly and managed to see Zan’s face. She began to blush and she knew that that would give her away so she sat up quickly.
“You’re alive!” Lani said and leapt at her friend. Mist was easily knocked down, feeling as weak as a kitten.
“Ouch!” was all she managed to say.
“Sorry,” Lani continued, “I’m just so relieved. We thought we’d lost you.” She knelt down next to Mist who had stayed lying down to save the little energy she still had.
Lani filled her in on what had happened. They were a fair way down stream, at a sharp turn in the river where Mist had washed up. Zan had resuscitated her and Lani had bandaged her wound. Wound?
Something finally clicked in Mist’s mind that she had noticed when she sat up. Her shirt was torn just above her navel and there was a bandage around her.
“Why didn’t you just use a potion?” she asked, since a potion should have fixed a wound like this.
“I used two,” Zan announced, “The first one didn’t heal it fully and the second one didn’t do anything. There must be an infection so we need to find a healer soon. There’s one in Sandros so I suggest we get going.”
“Mist, you should probably put on your spare clothes. These ones are soaked,” Lani told her as she squeezed a small flow of water from Mist’s collar.
Zan handed Mist her pack and walked off around a few trees to keep watch while Lani helped Mist get changed. She had a spare shirt that was like Lani’s, but plain white, and a pair of green tracksuit pants. Once Mist was changed Lani helped her up and they began to walk.
They had to keep moving as much as possible while they were in the Venomwood. Lani helped Mist stay upright with an arm around her shoulder and Zan carried his and Mist’s packs. The trio continued on their journey as Mist tried silently to puzzle out her weird dream.
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The shadowy figure stood by the wreckage of the rope bridge. Its earlier sabotage had done the job. It could not sense the girl, and so it turned to the forest and vanished to seek out its treasure. It would find the treasure. Regardless of how long it took, the figure would find it.
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Two men stood on the wooden dock in Andandrea. They were watching as their large, yellow birds were unloaded from the boat. The mayor had sent a messenger informing them of the mission to Sandros and they had gathered supplies for the journey.
The dock crew finished retrieving their mounts from the ships hold. “Here are your chocoboss, ssirss,” a Bangaa from the crew said as he handed the reigns to one of the men.
“Thank you, good man. Here, all of you, for your trouble,” the other said in a proud tone as he threw a small pouch of gil to the dock crew.
“You are very kind men. What are your names, sirs?” asked a human from the crew who picked up the pouch.
“Why we are…” said the men in unison, “Wedge and Biggs! The amazing Chocoknights!” As they spoke, they posed in mirror images of each other side-by-side. They bent forward and held their inner hand in a fist up close to their face and their other hand flat and pointed outwards in a heroic type manner.
They looked like they expected others to be impressed but they were met by silent, confused and almost frightened stares. Wedge and Biggs hurriedly gathered their belongings and mounted their chocobos then they headed towards the north gate of the city, and towards Sandros. They would reach the city by the trade routes that lead north and around the Venomwood. It would take them a few days, even by chocobo but they couldn’t take their chocobos through the forest. Sandros wasn’t going anywhere though, so they could take their time.
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