The Trinity Chapter 2

Beginnings

By Blue Dragon X

I had only been to the Calm Lands a few times to train with the warrior monks, and I knew Braska had been here numerous times, but the big open area of the Calm Lands had been something to impress Jecht.

"It's a field! A big flat field! There must be acres!"

If you don't already know, the Calm Lands are just a wide open space full of nothing but grass, a rock here and there, and a couple of measly Al Bhed shops with chocobo dealers.

"Hey, can you explain to me exactly what all this is? And what's going on?"

"It'd be like telling things to a child with no knowledge whatsoever" Braska thought aloud.

"Except children learn things gradually, and Jecht here wants to learn all at once."

"Then teach me like a child . . . " Jecht suggested subtly as he walked out in front of us and down a slight slope, continuing near the edge of the bottom of a high cliff. The path he was taking lead to a small Al Bhed shop and a chocobo dealer, and that was where it would be best to go.

"Sin is an entity born from Yevon, a god that governs us all. Sin was born because 990 years ago humans allowed the technology that they built to get too out of hand and ravaged the land with war. The land ravagers were known as machina-machines. Sin destroyed all the machina and continued causing chaos as punishment. When humans finally atone for their sins, Sin will be gone." Braska explained as he jogged up beside Jecht.

"But what are we doing if we just have to atone?"

"Yevon is generous enough to give us means to defeat Sin. Summoners travel from around Spira to obtain all aeons by praying at every temple, and then obtaining the final aeon at Zanarkand, who has the power to defeat Sin."

"I don't understand! You've been trying for all this time to defeat Sin and you can't do it?"

"Sin is defeated, but is reborn after ten years. The period where the world is free from Sin is called a calm."

" . . . Oh. So Auron and I are protecting you from harm as you gather aeons, right?"

"That's right."

"Jecht, Braska, ready your weapons!" I called from behind the two.

Braska trusted my instincts, but Jecht looked around like an idiot questioning my judgment.

In a few seconds, two Basilisks slithered from behind a couple of boulders bordering the side of the bottom of the high cliff and hissed violently. Their long, snake-like bodies moved practically silently across the grass, and were trademarked by the four tentacles that stuck from the front and back of their body.

"What the hell!?"

It was obvious that Jecht had never seen a fiend before.

"What are those things?"

"Fiends. These are called Basilisks, but we're lucky we didn't run into a couple of Anacondours. Jecht, you and Auron take them, I'll aid from behind."

Of course that was always the plan, Braska could fight but he was usually too busy with healing, and maybe a summon if things got hectic.

"Why don't you just summon Bahamut all the time!?"

Jecht asked, not following me as I charged forward.

"It's exhausting, now help Auron!"

Jecht finally followed and the two of us charged the left Basilisk, and it reared up for a slam.

Jecht froze in fear but I kept going and sliced the thing in half, causing its entrails to fall from its stomach. They didn't hit the ground because it dissipated into a mass of pyreflies, in a way a reward for beating a fiend. Seeing those brightly colored spheres of light followed by the blue and purplish smoke was always a wonderful sight, almost commendation of defeating a fiend. The second one got Jecht twice in the arm as he helplessly slashed with his sword, slicing the side, but not enough to kill it.

Jecht cried out as his abdomen was sliced across, but was immediately healed by a cure spell from Braska. When Jecht turned around to yell thanks, he was horrified to see him turned to stone by the Basilisk.

The air around me grew hot and I charged forward, jumping and raising my sword so that the top of it was facing the ground, and stabbed it into the ground when I came down, causing a shockwave that didn't harm Jecht, but pained the Basilisk enough to disappear into nothing but pyreflies.

I took my huge katana from my shoulder, balanced the top on the ground, and used my free hand to push back one of the strands of my hair.

"That's how it's done!" I bragged.

Jecht was pale faced.

"Braska's a statue!"

Braska, who was turned to stone, broke into a million pieces, and Jecht cried out.

"He's gone! Auron, Braska's dead, don't you even care!?"

I laughed.

"Yevon has blessed the Spirans to be indestructible by such means."

I pulled a vial out of my coat, walked up to the shattered Braska, and sprinkled some of the fluid, after which the statue reassembled. I sprinkled more and then Braska was turned back into the living human he was.

"Thanks Auron, I was falling apart!"

We started laughing like maniacs and Jecht was just staring.

"You guys are damn sick. I couldn't even hurt those things! It was you two that did all the work."

"Don't say that!" Braska comforted, putting away his staff.

"You did wonderful for a first-timer." He continued as he put down the bag of our belongings.

"Besides, that second Basilisk wouldn't have gone down so easily had you not weakened him."

" . . . I know you're just trying to make me feel better" he plopped down on the ground and put his head on his elbow.

"And we have to fight varieties of those things?"

Braska began to explain.

"I know black magic, and can damage the elemental creatures, you can attack the swift and flying creatures, and Auron will handle the slow, tough, and heavy ones. We make a great team, you just need a few pointers."

"Like what?"

Braska removed a sphere grid from his bag.

"You see this?"

Jecht stared at the three by three foot stone grid, full of tiny holes and that were connected, all of the paths of connection forming circles, spirals, lines, and intricate designs.

"This is me." Braska pointed to one of the glowing spheres.

"This grid has registered the three of us, being blessed by Yevon. It can hold up to fifteen people. We can become even stronger and learn things using it depending on the power of the fiends we kill."

The glowing sphere on the grid that represented Braska lighted two more spaces of a path, causing two more spheres to glow, and Braska temporarily glowed.

"I feel a bit stronger and better at magic now . . . "

The sphere that represented me followed a small circular path and three more lighted up.

"I think I learned how to Armor Break, and I feel a bit stronger" I commented.

Jecht touched the grid, and quickly took away his hand.

"That felt weird!"

One sphere in the middle glowed once, then twice, and then stayed glowing. Jecht himself glowed and shivered.

"I feel faster somehow . . . "

"Good, you did some work after all. Jecht, your paths on the grid will be lighted yellow, mine will be lighted white, and Auron's orange."

He was right, that was the color of the paths that we lighted up.

"This is gonna look damn pretty if we make it through that whole grid" Jecht muttered.

"There's more" Braska continued. "When we are pushed hard enough in battle, usually by excessive pain or will to live, we experience great physical excellence and are able to surpass our usual limits. For this reason, it's nicknamed "Overdrive". We don't know much about utilizing it, but I can summon aeons more often in that position, and Auron can execute moves, so far only one, from a code called "Bushido". The one he just did he calls . . . "

"Dragon fang" I explained.

"Right. Name your style and your move."

"Why?"

"For kicks, Jecht."

Jecht shrugged.

"I can't think of one."

Suddenly, we heard two women shrieking and saw a man off in the distance drawing a harpoon and fighting off one of the wasp-like fiends.

"Hey, we should help him!" Jecht quickly stood up and Braska put away the sphere gird.

"He looks like he can take care of himself." I observed.

Jecht only shrugged.

"It's the right thing to do."

He ran with his sword and I followed just in case, and Braska stayed at a distance.

Jecht was an impressive runner, and closed the distance fast. (I was even more surprised that he could run in bare feet)

He leapt up at the large wasp to the surprise of the man with the harpoon, who had been on the verge of being cornered in a mid-sized crevice.

        ***

I brought down my sword, did a cartwheel and into a front-flip, and then a somersault that ended with me bringing down my sword, killing that damn wasp, as it dissipated.

The man moved his hands in the blitzball sign for victory and bowed, and so did the women behind him.

"Thank you, I appreciate the help."

"Don't mention it." I said, rubbing the back of my head as the group went on their way to Bevelle.

Auron and Jecht came behind me.

"That looked good." Auron commented.

"I felt tougher than usual when I did it." I observed, I didn't notice I had said it aloud.

"It is likely that was an overdrive move. Do you have a name?"

"Thunder slicer!"

Auron stifled a laugh.

"Less corny."

"Slice."

Braska shook his head.

"Flashier."

"Spiral cut?"

Auron made the universal "it's okay . . . " sign with his hand.

"What do you call the overdrive style?"

"Swordplay."

"I get it, you play blitzball, and are skilled with a sword." Auron observed.

I never noticed that, but took credit for it anyway.

I could have sworn my biceps grew a little bigger.

"I think I got stronger" I announced.

"That's the sphere grid for you" Auron said, walking past me with Braska. I put away my sword and followed them, and we turned away from the bottom of the cliff and started walking down the right middle to the Al Bhed shop.

"Why're we goin' there?" I asked.

"Because, I salvaged some gil from those Basilisks and we might be able to buy a few more weapons and use the save sphere." Auron explained to me.

"Save sphere?"

"They record your travels, a universal database for people to access. Sin's toxin must be really bad."

"Sure . . . but do we really want everyone in our business?"

Braska shrugged as he picked up the pace, probably worried about running into more fiends.

"It isn't as if we have to do it, but it gives the people something to do and it allows us to look back on everything we've done. The sphere doesn't record anything truly private that the user wouldn't want, and it heals everyone around. Not only that, but they can transport you to set locations and can be means of teleportation to blitzball arenas."

I perked up.

"There's blitzball here!? When!? Where!?"

Auron took a small drink of his whiskey from his jug and put it back on his belt.

"In Luca there are large blitzball arenas, the games are being held soon. We'll probably make it in time to watch the games."

I thought that was a little weird.

"Watch and play blitzball with that Sin guy running amuck? Is this really the time?"

They didn't respond.

After half a minute of walking, Braska was at the counter of the shop buying some weapons, Auron was using the save sphere, and they gave me some gil to buy a few potions, softs, and couple of phoenix downs.

They had given me some extra money, and I secretly used some to buy a few bottles of beer and sneak it into Braska's bag.

When I turned around, I nearly jumped out of my shorts when I saw Braska, holding a sword out to me. This one was a bit longer, heavier, and greenish.

"It's called the Tri-Steel. It can attack with fire, ice, and lighting. When we run out of space to carry weapons you can store some in the spheres around Spira."

I took my original sword, walked over to the save sphere, and dangled it around, surprised when it turned blue and disappeared in a flurry of black smoke.

"I warn you, not everyone can bring out the full potential of this sword, not even Auron can." Braska handed me the Tri-Steel, and I cautiously grabbed the hilt.

Suddenly, electricity crackled around the sword, then fire swam around it, and then freezing mist rose off of it. Braska's eyes widened.

"You will be a fine swordsman if you can do that." He tried touching the blade, and immediately recoiled when he got shocked, burned, and frostbitten all at once.

It touched the blade and it didn't affect me.

"Auron! You have to see this! Auron?"

Braska turned around, and then ran over to the back of the shop, and I followed.

"Hey, wait up!"

When we rounded the corner, we saw Auron being cornered slowly by two fire flans and one of those wasp fiends.

Light surrounded Auron, and a fire spell blazed over him.

I charged in, jumped five feet, and stabbed the Tri-Steel into the fire flan, the ice immediately having an effect and turning it into nothin' but pyreflies!

Auron couldn't hit the wasp at all, it was too agile.

"Braska!" he called.

A thunder spell struck the fiend and it fell to the ground, curled up its legs, and disappeared.

Fire flans had shown up in Zanarkand every once in a while, it had always been a big deal and everyone would run scared until someone had the guts to shoot it or throw a rock. Now I was being burned by one . . . burned!?

My leg was on fire, and I started screaming and rolling as the flan followed me, and Auron stabbed it downwards twice, and Braska finally finished it off with a blizzard spell, killing it as well. Then he put out the fire on my leg with a water spell, and I was drenched.

I gotten up and started mumbling about my charred leg, walking past Braska to his bag that he had left in front of the shop.

"You're welcome" he said after me sarcastically.

I drank a few drops of a potion bottle and my burns disappeared, and then I tucked the bottle into my pocket.

Auron walked up to me and pointed to the save sphere.

"You could have just used that, you know."

"So many of those things! Are we going to have to deal with this bullshit the whole time!?"

Auron shrugged.

"Part of being a guardian. This is hard on Braska too, you know. We haven't even made it to Macalania and he's already getting exhausted form magic casting."

"True." Braska joined the conversation and picked up his bag.

"I never expected I'd need to cast so much magic. You all always getting hurt and-"

"Of course we're always getting hurt with all these fiends around! And you gotta cast magic on top of that, and what do we have to show for it?"

Braska held out a handful of gil.

"I salvaged this from the fiends. You and Auron take a fair portion, I already took mine."

Auron grabbed half and I took what was left and put it in a cargo pocket of my shorts.

"Can we rest?" I complained.

Auron and Braska started laughing.

"Rest? Sin doesn't rest, he could be destroying a city right now. We can't have a long rest until at least eighteen hours of undisturbed travel." Auron explained.

"Eighteen hours!"

"You'll get used to it. Now lets get going." Braska walked off with Auron, and as usual I followed behind them, this time having my Tri-Steel out and ready.

        ***

Auron looked back at Jecht as we walked.

"Jecht, you got that Tri-Steel to work. You'll probably become quite the swordsman."

"Correction, I AM quite the swordsman."

"I doubt you're a match for me."

"Whatever. I'd destroy you."

"As much as I'd like to test that claim, we must hurry. How about we pick up the pace, Braska?"

I nodded, and started jogging with Auron beside me.

"You can run in all those garments!?" Jecht was in disbelief.

"It might not look like it, but these are made especially for fast movement, and don't get overheated easily."

Jecht was panting heavily.

"We just had a big fight! How can you run like that!?"

"I thought you were a star blitzball player from a star team. You claim all that and you're out of shape?" I asked.

"Screw that! If we were in the water I'd beat you all! What's the point of running if we're just gonna get tired?"

Auron jerked a thumb behind Jecht, and he turned his head while running to see the Basilisk chasing us, and watched as it tuned the grass next to him into stone.

"Ahhh!" that got him moving, he ran faster than us and blazed across the open field, and Auron shook his head in pity.

"Think we should tell him he's going the wrong way?"

"No, let him get tired."

The Basilisk stopped chasing us and went around its business, and we found Jecht hiding behind a rock, but he wasn't hiding very well because his heavy breathing made it obvious where he was.

I walked over to him and leaned on the rock.

"Now what have we learned today?"

"Don't overexert yourself . . . "

"Precisely. That's why we jog and not go into full-out sprints."

"Well, at least we're closer!"

I shook my head.

"Not really. You ran the wrong way."

"Ahh! Dammit! I hate this guardian stuff!"

Auron shrugged and pointed to the right.

"That's where we have to go, near the edge of the cliff, and then back up a slope. At the top of that slope is the entrance to Macalania. Now how about we jog this time?"

The three of us jogged, Jecht still carrying his sword.

We got closer to the edge of the cliff, and Auron warned us.

"Withdraw your weapons."

I pulled out my staff, and this time, Jecht listened as well.

A large Chimaera dropped out of nowhere.

"What the hell!?" Jecht screamed.

I could understand. The lower body was that of a Faun, the upper had two clawed arms, the head of a bull with another head of a lion and a hawk head, and at the back a tail that was a snake. It was this tail that would cast the magic.

"We don't have time for this." I muttered.

I twirled my staff, and out of the sky Bahamut came, ripping grass out of its roots as he flew low across the ground, and stopping beside me throwing nearby boulders into the air. He let out a mighty roar and looked at me for directions.

I simply pointed to the Chimaera, and Jecht ran out of the way.

I jumped on Bahamut's back and he got down on all fours, opened his mouth, roared, and let out a Mega-Flare attack that sent the Chimaera eighty feet into the distance, clear over the cliff, and off into the horizon.

I dismissed Bahamut and walked to the edge of the cliff, my guardians following me. Over the horizon I saw a beautiful view of nothing but endless planes and forests, highlighted by the high sun, and even the edge of the continent.

Jecht was in awe.

"Look at all that land! There must not be a city for hundreds of miles!"

"The cities drastically reduced in size and number since Sin came. Sin is attracted to large crowds, and more cities just instigate the use of machina. Spira has been like this for almost 1000 years." I explained as I turned and began walking up the slope that led to Macalania Forest.

My legs were hurting a bit, and I bet my guardians' were, too.

"What are we gonna do again?" Jecht asked.

"Braska is going to Macalania Temple, not too far from here, to obtain another aeon."

Auron and I both stopped.

"Why'd you two stop?"

I looked at Jecht's bare feet and chest, and then came to my senses.

"Sorry about that, I was worried that you'd get cold in Macalania, but it's actually quite warm." I remembered as I went back to walking. We were now halfway up the slope.

"We should have rented some chocobos . . . " I muttered.

"Why'd you think I'd get cold?"

"The ice and snow." Auron explained.

"Ice and snow!?"

"Don't worry, it's just a phenomenon caused by the fayth there. The cold of such places doesn't physically affect humans."

"Another blessing of Yevon" Auron added.

Soon we were at the top of the slope overlooking the plains that we had just crossed. Behind us was the entrance to Macalania Forest.

I took one last look at Bevelle in the distance. I would be seeing it again, but still . . . "

"Let's go." I said, walking in the forest.

A few seconds later, I heard Jecht.

"Whoa!"

I didn't understand, and then chuckled to myself. It was like a child seeing everything for the first time.

"I suppose if Sin's toxin wiped out your memory ----" Auron began.

"I'm from Zanarkand" Jecht corrected.

" . . . Sure. But I guess you don't remem-I mean, have seen these woods."

The woods were high and the trees very common, blocking out all light and making the whole place dark and blue, but not at all eerie. The numerous crystals and starry shining path made places bright, and it was very enchanting overall.

"Do we get to take the crystal path?"

"Not yet, that leads to the Thunder Plains. We have to go to Macalania Temple first." I explained.

Auron and I passed by the path and walked down the normal path, and we were immediately by the side path that led to the right, taking us to Macalania.

This was a good thing, we didn't' have to fight any fiends, and I felt we had had to fight enough.

Now all we had to do was make it to Macalania intact, and everything would be that simple; or so I thought.

The three of us crossed the barrier of the forest and went into the ice and snow, the many icy cliffs in the distance, the white-clouded skies, and the howling winds. Only the power of an aeon could make a scene change so dramatically. Fortunately it wasn't the least bit cold.

Jecht cautiously stepped on the snow, glad that he wasn't frostbitten immediately.

"Lets go!" he yelled triumphantly.

        ***

Not too far away from us was a travel industry of a sprawling businessman, Rin. Rin was very young, so it was impressive that he already had agencies worldwide, regardless of the fact that he was Al Bhed and most of his employees were, as well.

"The Al Bhed travel agency, do you think they're selling Al Bhed Primers?" I asked Braska. He shook his head.

"Even if they are, I already know the language, which is "heli" for "oui" all."

Of course Jecht and I had no idea what he was talking about.

At that moment Rin walked from behind the travel agency, holding a pile of what must have been Al Bhed Primers, and immediately greeted Braska. The two must have known each other, they got into a long conversation that was all in Al Bhed, and then later said goodbye.

"What was that all about?" Jecht asked.

"He was only warning me about some of the fiends ahead, they said there was a Wendigo running around."

We continued on our way and as we walked over the snowy slope Jecht got bored.

"So, how are your parents?"

I shrugged.

"Yours may still be alive in a world where there is no Sin, but my father is dead for sure, I buried him myself. I don't even know who or where my mother is, or if she is still alive."

Braska shrugged as well.

"I don't even know where I was born, but grew up in a Bevelle orphanage since I was two months old. The people there said that my parents were nowhere to be found amidst the ruins of a part of Bevelle destroyed by Sin."

Jecht looked down.

"All this because of Sin? Jeez, sorry, I didn't mean to bring up a touchy subject."

"Don't worry, it was a long time ago." I said as I began to descend the snowy slope that we were previously ascending. Suddenly, my senses clicked.

"Ready your weapons!" I commanded.

Out of the sky dropped two snow flans, and a blue element with them. The blue elements were just assortments of blue stones surrounded by an aura of water, but they were still dangerous fiends.

"A blue element must have wandered from Macalania Forest" Braska speculated.

"Jecht, Tri-Steel the left one!" I commanded as I charged the right snow flan.

Braska was drenched by the blue element and started sputtering water. Water summoned by magic is more dangerous than normal water.

I slammed my blade down on the snow flan, but it was surprisingly hard. I began hacking away at it as I tried to dodge its frequent blizzard spells. Jecht began dodging as well, but soon defeated his snow flan. However, it was hard for him to help me without getting hit by the frequent spells of the other.

Braska immediately struck down the blue element with a thunder spell, and tossed a potion to Jecht after he was hit with a blizzard spell.

Finally, my hacking and slashing paid off and the snow flan went down.

I muttered about there being no hard-shelled fiends for me to take care of, and we were on our way.

The rest of the trip went by quietly, and we entered a valley between two steep snowy cliffs. Not too far ahead we could see the entrance to the main area of Macalania temple, and a save sphere.

We could also hear the sound of the fayth singing the hymn.

"Hey, who's singin' the hymn?" Jecht asked, looking around.

"That would be the fayth here" I explained.

"What exactly . . . are fayth?"

"I see the fayth when I pray in temples for aeons. Fayth are just people who gave their lives for Yevon, immortalized in temples. The pyreflies make their dreams of entities, the aeons, come to life. When I pray to the fayth they entrust me with their aeon."

After a few more minutes of walking, we saw fiends on the other side of a deep recess but they didn't bother trying to attack, and then we heard a roar that sounded far off.

"What the heck is that?" Jecht asked.

"Lets not stick around to find out." I said as Braska opened to door to the entrance. I touched the save sphere, then followed Braska and Jecht down the stairs, and at the bottom we saw a petite looking Al Bhed (obvious because of the outfit and goggles) sitting at the steps.

"An Al Bhed?" Braska asked aloud.

"How can you tell?" Jecht, of course.

"The goggles, it used to be to avoid recognition, but now it's just a sort of trademark." I said casually, walking a bit ahead and stopping at the beginning of the final curving snowy path suspended over a deep recess, the path leading to the entrance to Macalania temple itself.

Braska began carrying an Al Bhed conversation with the girl, and after a short while nodded and walked off.

"What's up?" Jecht asked him as we started down the curving snowy path.

"She said they wouldn't let her in because she was Al Bhed, she's cold, and has to wait here for a few hours for her gang to pick her up. I said I would bring her a blanket."

"I thought people didn't get cold here."

Braska turned to him.

"It is highly mythed that Yevon does not put his protection over the Al Bhed, but many people believe it is because their bodies don't have a certain insulator that most Spirans do, it's highly controversial."

"What's so bad about the Al Bhed?"

"They . . . aren't always strict followers of Yevon, but that is a generalization. People consider them heathens and most people, especially holy men, don't like them at all. It's really no surprise that she wasn't aloud to warm up in the temple."

I nodded my head in agreement.

There was another long silence as we walked up to the entrance of Macalania Temple; it was the first time there for all three of us.

"This is it . . . Braska said to himself as he entered."

There was a roar again, this time not so far off. I was starting to get worried.

"Sir." I addressed one of the holy men standing in front of the temple.

"I fear a dangerous fiend is nearing, couldn't you please allow that Al Bhed girl in?"

He shook his head vigorously.

"We cannot let an Al Bhed in unless it means our lives!"

"What if it means the life of another? I understand that you don't like the Al Bhed, but could you throw in a temporary truce, just to possibly keep her safe? I'm sure you wouldn't want a girl barely in her late teens to die, you know how cold it can be for the Al Bhed."

The holy man looked at the others, looked down, and then sighed.

"Call her in."

I waved over to the girl, and she bolted up and started sprinting to the door, nodding her head in what must have been immense gratitude.

I followed Jecht in, and entered the circular foyer of the temple just in time to see the door close behind Braska. He had gone through the entrance of the Cloister of Trials, at the top of the staircase located in the middle-back of the circular foyer.

Jecht sat down on one of the side platforms at the edge of the foyer, looking around. The interior was impressive; it was my first time seeing it. There was a circle of clear plastic that took up the entire floor of the room, a strange blue mist floating under it. For some reason, the fayth wasn't singing as loudly as usual.

The black-haired Al Bhed girl rushed in and rubbed the cold off of her, then looked around with a look that I had rarely seen: the search for someone warm. The first person she saw was who must have been a young monk apprentice, because she immediately wrapped herself around him, and the apprentice began looking around nervously. The other monks chuckled and backed away, the two becoming the centers of attention.

Which is what brings me to thinking that the Al Bhed are still people, and it was times like these that people would really notice it.

        ***

I wasn't really clear on what it was like in the Cloister of Trials or what it was supposed to be, but that didn't matter. Now that I was sitting around and not on the move, I couldn't help but think about my wife and kid back in Zanarkand.

Were people looking for me? Were they missing me? I wasn't sure that I had quite accepted I was 1000 years in the future, but it was all pretty convincing.

If Sin had been the link to this world, then could it also be the link from it? Back to Zanarkand? It was then that I decided I would have to follow Braska and Auron, if not to help them then to find Sin, then to use it to get back to my home.

I looked up and saw a little boy with no shoes and a hood on his head staring at me, and then I noticed he was transparent, and then he disappeared completely.

"I'm hallucinating again . . . I need to quit drinking."

As I sat there waiting for nothing, a group of people decked out in blitzball uniform marched in. There were six of them, so I assumed that they were a team. Of course in Zanarkand the entire blitzball division consisted of teams from divisions of Zanarkand sectors, but now that I was in Spira I could bet that most small villages or cities had their own teams.

"Let's hear it for the Luca Goers!" A monk cheered, right before everyone broke out into applause.

"Aw screw it!" I said, laying back.

Who must've been the captain of the team strode over to me.

"You got something to say, shirtless?"

"You bet your ass. I'm going be the one to take the championship title this year."

"Really, and what team might you play for?"

"The Zanarkand Abes!"

The whole room was quiet, and it was just then that I had noticed Auron making the universal death symbol at me.

Then the room broke into a fit of laughs, and the captain almost lost his footing.

"If your team is as sturdy as that city you represent, then you probably won't do very well at all! I doubt you even HAVE a team!"

"I-I'll get one!" I stammered.

The commotion cleared and the blitzers went to one of the statues of what must have been some high summoner and started praying.

"Hey Auron-" I started.

"I don't play blitzball, and I wouldn't be part of a team that represented a ruined city." He immediately said.

"Not that. Do you think that Braska will be able to defeat Sin?"

Before Auron could answer, I heard the familiar roar, much louder, and much closer, and some human screams to go along with it. Auron and I looked at each other, nodded, and with a couple of warrior monks, ran out of the temple.


Chapter 3

Blue Dragon X's Fanfiction