Destiny: Memories of Water Chapter 1
The Dragon in the Tides
By IceWolf645
He spoke to me, if what he did you can call speaking. His mouth never moved an inch from the dangerous grin he held on his lizard-like face. His arms were crossed and he was looking down at me with such a human expression on his face that I couldn’t believe that he truly was a dragon, and not some giant knight in a dragon helm, but the tail swishing back and forth from his rear end proved it. He looked proud, and somewhat noble, standing there in the water with the waves gently lapping at his feet. He stood before me and spoke, his voice flowing into my mind like the waves that surrounded my body. I can’t remember ever being taught to swim, but I floundered there in front of the dragon helplessly. He guarded the beach, and I was afraid of him.
(Why do you fear me, child?)
I wanted to answer him, to tell him how magnificent he was and how tiny I felt compared to him, but my voice wouldn’t come.
(Are you going to run?)
I thought about how stupid a question that was. Where was I to run to? I was surrounded on all sides. Surrounded on all sides by the sea.
(Do you fear the waters?)
I found my voice finally. “No.”
(Then swim to me!)
And so I did. I still feared him, but I felt that if I went to him I might feel safer. As I swam I saw people on the beach, though I couldn’t see them very well. They were covered with a gray haze that shrouded everything into a veil except the dragon. I finally stopped about a foot away from the monstrous creature, and realized that I was trembling.
And for some reason, I was crying.
(What do you wish to ask me?)
The question caught me off guard. I realized that I wanted to ask him so many things, so I asked what I wanted to know most. “Who am I?”
(You are Destiny.)
“Destiny,” I murmured, absorbing the name into my soul.
(Yes. You are Destiny.)
“What is going to happen to me? Why do I feel so sad?”
(Those questions you must answer for yourself. Fate has chosen your path, and so you must follow it.)
“But.. why don’t I know anything? Do I have a past at all?” I asked, confused. I looked at the people on the beach. They looked so happy, and I couldn’t remember ever feeling happy, or ever having another person by my side.
(Everything has a past.)
“Then where has mine gone?” I asked, looking into the dragon’s solemn eyes.
(It has been lost. You will find it again, in time.)
“Will you help me?” I murmured, wanting the monster to stay there with me. I hoped that he would not leave me alone again. He paused, as if unsure how to answer my question.
(I will help you. My power will be yours.)
The dragon looked down at me and started to fade. “No! Please don’t leave me!”
(I’m not leaving you. Call my name if you are ever in dire need of help, remember, I am Bahamut. I cannot help you find your past, but I can help you be strong. You will need the strength.)
Bahamut disappeared completely, and I started to feel weak. My knees buckled and I fell down into the water, and black clouds started to cover up everything in sight and I wanted to throw up. I felt my face fall forward into the ocean, and then everything went black.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Hey! Hey wake up, kid!”
I opened my eyes slowly. There was sand beneath my back and I could see through my half-opened lids the blurry form of a man and two young girls. I blinked to clear my eyes a bit, and moaned.
“You okay?” the man asked. He had reddish-orange hair that was sticking up in a tidal wave-like fashion. His skin was incredibly tan and he was holding under his arm a blue ball. I nodded.
“We were worried you’d died out there or somethin’,” the youngest looking girl said. She had shoulder-length, light blonde hair and emerald green eyes. She looked a bit worried, contrary with the look on the older girl’s face.
“Yeah! We been callin’ to ya for about fifteen minutes, ya know?” the older looking girl said with a grin. She looked a lot like the man in the face, but her hair was dark black and it was about as long as her face. She had a blue headband around her forehead, and a silver necklace with a dolphin charm around her neck.
The man helped me stand. “So, kid, what’s your name, eh?”
Bahamut’s words echoed in my head. “Destiny,” I replied, a bit unsure of myself. The man was looking at me strange.
“Destiny, eh? Well, where ya from?” the older girl asked. She looked like she was constantly hyper or something. She radiated with a perpetual energy and was fidgeting a bit.
I bit my lip. “I.. I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” the blonde girl said. She scratched her head. “That’s not good.”
“Do ya remember anythin’ at all?” the man asked with a concerned frown.
“I.. uh.. remember a dragon standing in front of the beach.. and.. yeah..” I stammered, realizing how stupid I must sound.
The older girl started giggling. “I think you were dreamin’, ya?”
I smiled a bit. Maybe I was just dreaming. The man smiled to himself and shook his head. “Ah, well we better take ya to da village. You look a bit sick. My name’s Wakka, and this is my daughter Sanya and her friend Ruka.”
He said all of it with a grin, but I couldn’t help but feel that my appearance had disturbed him, and made a mental note to ask him about it later on.
Sanya and Ruka walked beside me with grins on their faces, pelting me with questions to see if I could remember anything at all.
“Do ya remember blitzball?”
“What ball?”
“Man! We gotta take you to Luca and let ya see a game or somethin’.”
“Oh! Oh! Do you know about summoners? Aeons? Lady Yuna?”
“What, what, and who?”
“Oh boy.. whatever got to you got to you bad.”
“Aww, c’mon! You gotta know about somethin’ other than your name.”
“Not really.”
It continued in that way until we reached the village, which Wakka told me was called Besaid.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Besaid was a small village. The biggest building in it was a large stone one, behind a bunch of small huts. It looked very quaint, and I felt sort of at home there. I caught my reflection in a bucket of water outside the hut Wakka called his own. My long, pony-tailed blonde hair was messy, and my clothes were a bit torn. My azure eyes stared back at me. My light skinned face was covered with scratches and I looked like I hadn’t bathed in weeks. I sighed unhappily, hoping I could wash soon. I sure was something to look at in my state. I bit my lip as I passed the bucket. I was aware that I hadn’t even known what I’d looked like until that point. I felt the same as I had when first setting eyes on Bahamut.
Wakka pulled the flap of his hut open and flashed a grin at me as the four of us entered. The hut looked nice enough. There were three beds and a hammock in it, and I marveled at they fit into the hut. A pile of the ‘blitzballs’ sat in the corner and a portrait of the family leaned against the wall. Wakka was there, along with a dark-haired woman with reddish eyes and his hyperactive daughter Sanya. Another portrait sat behind it, and I could barely make out a red-haired boy. I wondered if it was a younger Wakka, but decided against questioning about it.
“I know it’s a bit crowded, but we’re movin’ ya see?” Wakka said. He pushed some dolls off of the hammock. I bent down to look at one, and Wakka gripped my shoulder. “Best not touch them, ya? Those are magical dolls. Use the things wrong and you could end up fryin’ your hair off,” he warned. I promptly stood up and cautiously stepped away from them. Sanya laughed and kicked one into a box as a demonstration. Yellow lightning struck the box abruptly. I jumped.
Wakka, Sanya, and Ruka doubled over with laughter. I couldn’t see what was funny, but I laughed along with them. Wakka stopped and said between chuckles, “You can sleep on the hammock tonight, ya? Ruka’s stayin’ over too.”
Ruka nodded. “I live in Kilika. I came to visit Sanya ‘cause my mom, her mom, and Lady Yuna are on vacation.”
“You mentioned Lady Yuna earlier. Who is she?” I asked.
Wakka took my hand. “To answer that question we’ll take ya to the temple.. err.. at least we will after ya wash up.”
Everyone started chuckling again. I started giggling myself. I did look a bit too ridiculous to present myself anywhere. I smiled at the three of them, feeling in my heart that I’d made my first three friends.
But the look Wakka had given me when I’d woken up still filled my mind. I couldn’t help but wonder why my appearance had affected only him in that way.