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She wondered, as they
trudged through the trees, soles squishing in damp dirt, if she
could go the entire route to Mysidia without speaking to them again.
She was leading, as she knew which direction the settlement was in
and had a keener sense for the land and its varieties, and they were
following silently, without even any speech between themselves. It
felt strange, being so disconnected from comrades, and perhaps it
was only because she was spoiled from the first journey she had
taken. After all, the bond she still felt with her old companions
was strong and true, and not every battle regiment could thrive in
such a way.
Exhaustion was lingering in the back of her mind, and she could feel
it tugging at her eyelids and slowing her steps. She fought, for it
was a luxury she simply could not afford, not with potential
turncoat assassins as her only companions, and trudged onward. If
the Turks felt it as well, they gave no sign of it.
She was lost in her own thoughts when there was a horrid shriek from
the air in front of her, startling her back to reality. She was not
familiar with the monsters that dwelled within the Mysidian
continent's forests, and she cursed herself for allowing her mind to
wander so. It was a Zu, soaring across the pale moon to block the
sky, and she knew it was merely coming around for another pass. She
made to yell at the Turks, but then decided against it– after all,
they had heightened senses,and they should be well aware of the
danger they all faced should the Zu manage to call for backup before
they destroyed it. She cupped her hands and readied a spell. Her
muscles were screaming over lack of rest and the shock the dark
magic had already rocked through her form, but she pushed on,
because there was nothing else she could do.
Rude yelled something, to the others, and she couldn't tell what it
was due to the rush of the Fira spell screaming in her ears. It hit
the Zu well, but the bird's hide was tough, and it seemed to annoy
it more than actually hurt it. It screeched at her and dove low, and
the talons would have caught her back had she not ducked down and
flattened herself as low as possible to the ground. Her tunic was
covered in mud and grime, but it was the least of her worries.
She could hear the fire from Tseng's gun, and another shout she
couldn't decipher, and then the creature rocked back again, claws
outstretched for her. She rolled and dodged, but it gashed her arm,
and for a moment, the pain stung in her eyes and clouded her
thoughts. She looked up to see both Rude and Reno lunging for it as
it swooped low to the ground, and the bald Turk managed to grab its
back and stay on it as it rose back into the sky, flying in front of
the moon once more. Reno fell and rolled, back on his feet before
she even registered that he was down.
She pushed herself upwards, but her arm was bleeding badly, and she
couldn't bite back the cry of pain that accompanied the sudden heady
rush of her movement. There was a still moment of silence, and then
she heard the monster before she saw it, rolling once more. It was
swooping again, aiming for her– why was it continuing to target
her?– and then Rude cried out shortly and hit the dirt with a muted
thud. Rydia was vaguely impressed he'd been able to stay on the
creature's back for as long as he had. He groaned, but didn't seem
to be getting up again.
Tseng was shooting and Reno was aiming with his rod, and she reached
her good arm out to point at it. There wasn't much damage he could
do with just the mechanical stick– and she could feel the magic
tingling in her fingertips already.
"Swing on three!" she cried out, and then shot the Flare spell
straight into the metal he was holding. He seemed surprised when the
weapon grew hot and red in his hand, stemming from where his
fingertips gripped it, but he swung as directed, throwing his arm in
a wide arc. His aim was good; he caught the monster in its downward
swoop and it shrieked in pain as the superheated metal dug deep into
its flesh. Rydia hadn't counted on the monster's body falling,
however, and apparently neither had Reno– the Zu crumpled in
mid-swoop and crash landed directly on the red-haired man. As it
shuddered once, it gave out a dying, warbling cry.
It was the cry to alert others. They had little time before more of
the creatures arrived, and Reno was still pinned beneath the
monster's form. Rude was rising to his feet, slowly, and Rydia
finally managed to push herself upright, ignoring the sharp pang in
her forearm and the slight dizziness taking over her head from the
blood loss. Tseng had the same idea she did, it appeared, and he was
already pulling the giant bird off of Reno as best he could.
"Ow!" the red-haired man cried out, as they shifted the body of the
stinking monster. The exclamation was casual enough, but his face
was eerily pale in the moonlight, and Rydia could see one hand
clutching his side in obvious pain. "God dammit, ow!"
"Pull your hand away!" she demanded, kneeling next to his form. It
took him awhile to comply, and she could hear, in the distance, more
shrieks. The other monsters had heard the Zu's call, and it was only
a matter of minutes before they arrived to finish what it started.
Reno's arm was shaking when Rydia pried his fingers from his
abdomen– and his suit jacket was already sticky and wet.
"Shit," Tseng whispered from over her shoulder. "We have to move."
"I know," Rydia said, distracted. She put her fingers down to feel
the wound and almost jumped at the yelp Reno let out when she
touched the bleeding area. "There's something there."
"Yeah, my organs," Reno quipped, but it seemed weak. His face was
contorted in a grimace of pain. Rydia reached for his side again,
and he jerked away.
"It's one of the talons," she said. Her heart was pounding against
her ears. "The Zu carries poison there, it's how they immobilize
their prey. It's broken off in his side."
"What can you do?" Tseng asked, and then whipped his head backwards
to glare up at the sky, where the flapping of wings was evident.
They were getting closer, and Rydia was close to panicking. Reno was
starting to convulse, muscles spasming, and with the movement, she
couldn't get her hands in to grasp the shattered talon buried deep
in his side. She tried to keep him still, but he was jerking too
much, and she knew the poison was already embedding itself in his
veins. Each time she reached for the wound, he would jerk away from
her touch. She knew it was painful, but she had to get the talon
out.
"Stop moving!" she cried, though he seemed to be in too much pain to
really hear her. "I can't grab it!"
"They're coming!" Rude yelled from behind her.
They had only seconds to get moving, and he was going to die if they
left him there, and she couldn't hear anything other than the
pounding of her heartbeat and the thoughts screaming in her head.
They had to leave, they had to move– he killed people for a
living, people like your mother, just like–
She leaned forward and kissed him, hard. It worked as she had
anticipated– for a second, his jerking stopped and there was a
moment of stillness. His mouth was hot beneath hers, parted half in
shock and half in pain, and in the cloudy haze of confusion, she
reached down to his side and curled her fingers around the talon,
yanking it out in one quick motion.
"Fuck!" he exclaimed, wrenching his head away. "Fuck, ow!"
"Get him up!" she cried, pulling in vain at his right arm. "Get him
up, we have to go!"
Tseng and Rude did as she said, and they slung Reno's form between
their shoulders. The pain in Rydia's arm was pulsing with her
heartbeat, stretching down to her fingers, and as the group began to
move, she could hear multiple Zu cries from behind them, just over
the treeline. Rydia turned, suddenly overcome with the realization
that they were too late, the other creatures had arrived, and that
the odds of them surviving were slim to none in their collective
condition. As she stared backwards at the mass of approaching birds,
she tripped over an upturned root and fell to the ground. She caught
herself, but the pain that shot through her damaged arm was so
intense it blacked her vision for a moment, dots flying before her
eyes. She was going to die, they were all going to die–
There was a roar in her ears and tingles in her fingertips, and then
she could feel the energy curl and roll in front of her,
materializing from the air. She thought dimly that she hadn't even
known she'd been calling, and it shouldn't have worked, with the
Land gone, there was nothing there anymore, nothing to heed her
cries. And yet Leviathan gave a mighty roar, surging forward towards
the oncoming Zus with a liquid grace, and Rydia gasped, hot tears
stinging her cheeks, as she pushed herself upwards and scrambled to
her feet.
The Turks were in front of her, running still, and she followed them
until she could no longer hear Leviathan's roars behind her, or the
flapping of Zu wings, or anything save her own wheezing, labored
breathing, and she ran until Mysidia appeared on the horizon with
the first streaks of dawn in the sky.
--------
For a long time, she sat on the white linen of the healer's bed. The
White Mages fixed the gash in her arm, and wrapped it with clean
bandages. She sat, and sat, and let them work on her and around her,
and all the while she retained nothing of what they told her to do
for the cut, or what was going on in the beds next to her. She
stared at her hands, unable to think, unable to process, exhausted
far past the point of being able to slip into the confines of sleep.
When the Elder arrived, she had no concept of how much time had
passed. She only knew that there was something calming about his
robes and beard, of the aura held around him that churned with
magical energy. She thought she saw sympathy on his lined face when
he looked at her, though she was far too absent to be sure. He put a
hand on her non-injured arm, and there were ripples in his touch.
"My child," he said. His voice was low, gravelly, and soothing. "You
must tell me what happened."
She stared at him, uncomprehending, clenching and unclenching her
fingers. He did not seem in a hurry, and let her sit for a long time
in silence until her tongue no longer felt as if it were made of
cotton, and she could swallow slightly, hard, her throat tight.
"I– we were attacked," she said, lamely, unsure where to begin. "On
the mountain, and– there was a dark spell there, at the summit,
where Cecil's father was supposed to be. I– we left, and there was a
Zu, and– oh! Leviathan came..."
Her voice cracked, and she was vaguely aware of hot tears running
down her cheeks.
"He came," she sobbed, grasping for the Elder's hand. "He came, but
the Land is gone. It's gone! He came, and I don't know how, but the
Land is gone, it's all gone!"
Whatever she might have thought, it was swept away by the anguish.
It bubbled in her chest so high that she thought it might choke the
life from her entirely, and as she clutched at the Elder's robes as
if they were the last thing anchoring her to the world, she wept for
a very long time for all the things she had lost.
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