Destiny: Memories of Water Chapter 3
The Soul Guardian
By IceWolf645
I couldn’t help but feel a bit out of place among these people. No one but Kimahri had even noticed my presence, so I sort of shrunk back from them. It was a while before anyone noticed or remembered that I was standing there.
“Oh! Hey everyone! This is Destiny, our new friend, ya?” Sanya said, grabbing my hand and dragging me forward. I smiled meekly and uttered a small hello.
Yuna bowed. “It’s nice to meet you, Destiny,” she said with her face bearing the petite smile that suited her. “My name is Yuna.”
The dark haired woman from Wakka’s family portrait examined me completely with her red eyes before introducing herself. “My name is Lulu,” she said shortly. Her voice was slightly cold, and almost emotionless. “I see that you’ve already met my husband Wakka and daughter Sanya.” I nodded, and she smiled a bit. I could tell that even such a half smile was rare of her by her attitude, and returned it.
“I’m Rikku,” the third woman said. She had a cheerful smile and an equally cheerful voice. She seemed to be the exact opposite of the icy Lulu. “I’m Ruka’s mother.” I grinned at her. I had a feeling she would be easy to get along with, like her daughter. Wakka and Sanya seemed to be that way as well.
Kimahri turned to me. I couldn’t read the emotion on his face. “Kimahri,” he said, before walking past me, like it didn’t matter to him whether I was there or not, but I could still feel a bit of uneasiness coming from him. His tail swished as he walked. He was heading in the direction of Besaid.
“Kimahri’s got a good idea, eh? The villagers’ll wanna see ya, Yuna,” Wakka said. Yuna nodded.
“It’s nice to be home,” she said with a warm smile. She turned to Cid. “Are you coming to Besaid with us for a while? It would be nice to have you, Uncle.”
“Nah, I gotta get goin’. I’ll see ya’ll later,” the man said. He turned to his airship and ascended the metal stairs.
Rikku waved. “Bye Dad!”
Ruka copied her mother, “Bye bye Grandpa!” She hugged him quickly and then returned to stand by her mother’s side, waving energetically and standing on her tiptoes. She continued this until the airship had disappeared into beautiful blue sky, and then ran to catch up with the retreating Sanya. I followed slowly still watching the spot where the massive flying machine had vanished.
Sanya was walking in between her mother and father, blabbering away happily, Lady Yuna was walking next to Kimahri slowly, observing the scenery around her, and Ruka and Rikku were conversing about the vacation the latter had just returned from.
“Did you have a good time, mother?” Ruka asked, with a face of mock seriousness, like the vacation was the most somber topic in the world at the time, and being talked about in hushed whispers all over Spira. Rikku giggled and began telling her daughter every detail of their trip in an equally solemn tone, but one could tell that the two of them were suppressing laughter the whole time.
We were walking quite slowly, in contrast to the race Sanya and Ruka had started to get to the beach, but I didn’t mind. Besaid was a very calm and pretty place, and I was trying to get the lay of the land. I wasn’t sure how long I’d be on the island.
Kimahri stopped. He stared into the sky at a thin wisp of black smoke that had begun to rise over the native trees. Yuna stopped and put a hand on his arm. “What is it, Kimahri?”
“Fire,” Kimahri said pointing a clawed finger up at the smoke.
“It’s coming from Besaid!” Ruka said as she looked at it with one hand shielding her eyes from the bright sunlight. Yuna gasped and began to run towards the village with her Ronso guardian right behind her. Wakka and Lulu ran after them.
“What do we do?” Sanya asked, her normally cheerful disposition vanishing and leaving behind a bit of timidity.
“We’ve gotta help! C’mon you two!” Ruka said, running forward a few steps and then beckoning to Sanya and I. We followed her, our feet pounding into the ground to catch up with the adults.
A screech blasted through the air, it was like a primal roar escaping from the mouth of some great prehistoric beast. As we neared the village our opponent became clear. An enormous leviathan was reducing the huts to cinders as it spewed blue embers upon them. It’s fins left scars in the dirt and it was thrashing violently. It was like an overblown snake with a fin upon its back and two webbed hands.
Lulu was trying desperately to stop the fires, but the snake’s flames didn’t even flinch under the water she was creating. The use for her magical dolls became apparent as they danced to summon the liquid. Wakka, Kimahri, and Rikku were battering at the monster desperately, Wakka with his blitzball, Rikku with her fists and the occasional magical weapon she threw at the beast, and Kimahri with his long spear. A few brave citizens attacked the beast as well, and some armored warriors who appeared to be Crusaders, the guardians of Spira whom Wakka had told me about during Lady Yuna’s tale. Lady Yuna herself was helping people out of the blazing huts and performing her own spells on them to heal them.
“What is it?” I asked Ruka, who was shaking with fear.
“It’s a water fiend, but how it got here I’m not sure! It must be mad, or ill, because water creatures never come to the village, and the land monsters around here aren’t strong at all!” she said. She started into the fiery battlefield, trying to keep her cool as best she could under the conditions. Sanya and I followed.
“How are we supposed to help them, eh?” Sanya asked. Her voice sounded panicky.
“Let’s try and put the fires out with Lulu! You know a Water spell right? Destiny and I can throw some Water Gems at the huts and you can help your mom out with the spells,” Ruka said, handing me some blue diamond as she spoke. Sanya swallowed heavily and nodded before running to her mother’s side. “C’mon,” Ruka said to me. I nodded and followed her.
We began to throw the Water Gems at the houses, but it was all in vain. The serpent’s flames wouldn’t be tamed by any force, and it appeared to be winning the battle against the people attacking it. Kimahri rushed at it with his spear pointed at its fleshy underbelly, but it was too fast for the Ronso. It sank its dagger-like teeth around his abdomen and threw him into the wall of the only building in Besaid that wasn’t alight with sapphire flames, which was the temple. Kimahri collapsed instantly. Ruka screamed as she saw this, and Yuna rushed forward to help her guardian. I felt tears flowing from my eyes as I desperately threw the last Water Gem at Wakka’s home. It had no effect.
With hot tears blinding my charred face I staggered towards the snake, wanting to help in battle if I could not calm the fires. The snake’s crimson eyes fell upon me as I walked towards it. I didn’t want to see anyone die under the claws of this beast, especially since they’d been so kind to me. The snake backed away from its prey of the gray-blue beast man and the woman who knelt beside his fallen body summoning white magic down upon him, and it launched at me with it’s deadly teeth glittering blue as they reflected the flames around it. I screamed out of fury. It was not only for the snake, but also for the feelings that were welling up inside me. I didn’t understand why I felt the way I did, but I knew that I wanted the monster dead.
I felt for a split second as if a part of me had disappeared. I saw for that second a golden-skinned dragon towering above all, with a sword raised in one clawed hand, and I saw the snake turn its head to the new threat that had appeared, I saw the fiend look into cerulean eyes, and then I saw darkness.
~*~*~*~*~*~
I woke up and felt pain coursing through every limb of my body. I groaned and tried to sit up. The world appeared to swim before my eyes as I tried to focus them. I was on a soft bed of some sort, and people around me were speaking in hushed voices.
“Kimahri, are you sure you’ll be okay?” I heard Yuna’s voice ask. She sounded extremely concerned.
The Ronso’s voice replied, still sounding strong but wavering slightly. “Kimahri fine.”
I could barely make out the forms of the people surrounding me. I felt like I’d been hit with one of the columns of the temple. My mind was as fuzzy as my vision. I felt as if I was halfway remembering something, but in an instant the feeling had dissipated and I was left with my normal confusion. I could remember nothing of the battle besides what I had seen in those few seconds, and I was almost completely sure that that had been naught but a passing vision. With this though in mind I tried to force myself into slumber once more. I wanted the pain to pass.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Yes! You are the one!” the snake hissed at my body as it lay on the ground. He didn’t notice me, the golden dragon, towering above him, ready to cleave his hideous form in two with the giant sword I held in my clawed hands. He noticed too late, as the shadow of my blade fell over my small form on the ground. He hissed out in anguish as sudden death fell upon him and he fell to the ground. Multi-colored lights unraveled from his slowly vanishing form, but he took the time to utter out a single threat before he was gone. “You don’t belong here! You have changed the fates forever! Leave our world, and never return. Let the powers of nature do the deciding,” he breathed. He writhed around on the ground, as if gripping to life, before he faded into nothing.
I stood there with tears in my eyes as I overlooked what the leviathan had done to Besaid. No hut was left standing. ‘Kimahri may die!’ I thought as I looked at the destruction. The blue flames had faded with their master, but had left behind nothing but cinders and ashes, and the weeping people who’d called this peaceful place home. I looked at my claws. They were disappearing slowly, as was my whole body. I roared once in a voice that made the ground tremble before feeling my mind slip into unconsciousness.
And I awoke still on the soft bed I’d been lying on when I’d fallen asleep. All was quiet and dark, aside from a few murmuring voices. I could again see clearly, and could make out the shapes of Wakka, Lulu, and Yuna sitting around a calm fire next to the remainders of the village. I felt my head begin to swim again as I tried to ponder the dream I had been given, the fantasy of being a golden dragon. I could hear them talk, even though they tried to keep it quiet.
“Could she be a summoner?” Lulu asked, resting her chin on her hands. She looked distressed; the cold feeling was entirely gone from her.
“Maybe,” Yuna said quietly. She looked very distant, like she wasn’t listening at all, but answering so to seem polite.
Wakka sighed. “I got a weird feelin’ from that girl the moment I saw her. There’s somethin’ fishy goin’ on, ya?”
Yuna nodded. She was looking straight past Wakka and Lulu, into the forest. I had a feeling that she wasn’t really seeing or hearing anything. She was staring at the spot where the snake had fallen in my dreams. “But how?” she murmured aloud. Wakka and Lulu turned their heads toward her. “How could she summon an aeon that’s never even existed before? There are no fayths left on Spira, there can’t be.”