Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction / Fan Fiction ❯ Akirame Norwen ❯ Canyon of the Cosmos ( Chapter 33 )

Chapter 33: Canyon of the Cosmos

Akira woke from her sleep with a start. Such a bizarre dream... she had been having lots of strange dreams lately, she reminded herself as she ran her fingers through her hair, amazed that every single braid, including the eagle feather, had survived her fitful sleep completely intact. She rubbed her thumb over her blurred eyes, and instantly withdrew her hand, fearing she might have smeared the facial paint Loki had applied last night. She checked her fingers, but saw that none of it had come off. She looked out the window and saw that it was still night. The room was dark, as the fire must have died sometime during the night. Loki lay curled up on the rug on the floor below her, sleeping soundly. She bit her lip and pulled her legs up against her chest, wanting more than anything to be with Riku. She had been away from him for only a day, yet she didn't feel that she could remain sane without him for another single minute. She had to find out if he had lived, when he would be better, to tell him everything that had happened... she had to wrap her arms around him tightly and never let go, no matter what. Because she had no guarantee that he would be there forever.

Taking a deep, shaky breath she stood up and quietly padded across the room to the door, and peeked outside. If she was going to see Riku, she would have to sneak out and try and figure out where he was. Better now than never. She stepped out into the hallway and half-expected the ground to creak with her steps as if they were made of wood. She silently wandered down the dark hall, guessing at random where to go. After only fifteen minutes she was already hopelessly lost. Biting her lip, she offered a small prayer, hoping for guidance of any kind. She looked up when she heard something scurrying along the hallway- a Moomba. Smiling and deciding to take it as a sign, she silently followed it from a distance as it took a long path deeper into the rock city. She had a hard time keeping her eyes on it as it moved about rather quickly, and she groaned in frustration as she lost it around a corner. The hallway forked here. She could either take the stairs up to the left, or follow the others down to the right. She closed her eyes and tried to clear her mind, and she felt something pulling on her to go to the right. She yielded to her instincts and climbed down the stairs, and found that she had come to exactly the right spot. She was in a room with several beds, and sleeping soundly in them were her friends, slowly becoming more visible as the sun rose outside, bringing a faint light in through the window. She quietly walked by them, silently saying their names as she passed them. Sora, Jerdania, Irvine... Where were Erik and Kairi? Was this some sort of hospital ward? Her heart leapt for joy when she spotted Riku laying in the bed at the end of the room. He looked amazingly well, despite all he had been through. She knelt beside the bed and leaned on her arms, happy to be close to him again. "Hey Riku." She quietly whispered, joyous when his long, dark eyelashes parted and his eyes flashed in the dark as he looked up at her.

"Akira? What happened to your face?" he asked as he tried to sit up, hissing as he did so.

"Carnival was in town and I decided to check out the face-painting booth." She sarcastically replied, making him give her a grin.

"Well, I can see you've fared pretty well. What time is it any--" he stopped short, cut off when she suddenly wrapped her arms around him, almost cutting off his air supply.

"Riku, I am so happy to know that you're okay." She said, choking on her tears. "I almost went crazy yesterday, having no idea where you were or if you were okay or not..."

Riku smiled and pulled her onto the bed next to him. "I'm fine... guy who patched me up said that I'd be perfectly fine. Or he could have been telling me that I needed to get my foot soaked in hash browns, he was speaking some crazy language I've never heard before."

Akira chuckled and gave him another bear hug, not even caring when Sora woke up in the bed next to them and gave a loud cry and covered his eyes, shrieking, "My eyes! My eyes! I see purple!"

Riku threw his pillow, basically a rabbit pelt full of feathers and sown into a box shape, at his friend in retaliation. "What the heck is purple supposed to mean?"

Sora grinned and caught the pillow as it flew at his head. "Boys are blue and girls are pink. When the two mix you get... purple!" He laughed, chucking the pillow back across the room.

"Shut up, Sora, you're going to wake up the others." Akira groaned, her moment now perfectly spoiled.

"Hey, you two are the ones who decided to glomp and get all mushy."

"Go back to sleep already, lest we ruin your innocent eyes." Riku growled, raising his pillow and threatening to throw it again.

"Fine.. fine... just wait at least until I'm *snoring*, okay?" he implored, laying back down.

That didn't take long. The brunette was soon shaking the room with his thunderous snores within mere minutes. "Reminds me of someone..." Akira said, trailing off in thought.

Riku gave a loud yawn and lazily rest his head on Akira's shoulder, and wrapped his arms around her waist. "I'm sorry that I couldn't be there for you... I tried my best, but I guess it wasn't good enough." He softly said.

Akira smiled and leaned her head against his. "It was good enough for me." She softly reassured him. "When you collapsed out there, it made me realize something... life is so short, you know? And... the human body is just so fragile... and you can die at any given moment. What if you died, and I never got to tell you something? I'd have to live with it for the rest of my life... knowing that I never told you and wondering what would have happened if I did..."

Riku sat up and looked at her, bewildered. "Hey, calm down. I think you've been thinking too much, and you're starting to scare me."

Akira sighed and caught her breath. "Sorry... I've been under a lot of stress lately. You must think I've really gone off the deep end, coming up with all this life-is-short garbage."

"No, it's not garbage... it's true. Life *is* short... but its something I really don't like thinking about. If you start worrying about those things too much, it ruins your life and makes it that much shorter."

Akira took his words to heart and looked out the window to see that the sun was already over the horizon. "Well.. I should probably go now. I had to sneak out past Loki to find you."

"Who's Loki?"

"He's..... never mind, Red XIII is going to explain everything to us later. What matters is that I know where you're at now. I'm going to go now... I'll see you soon, okay?"

Riku nodded and gently kissed her cheek before she set off. Glowing, Akirame all but cart-wheeled back up the stairs, rushing so quickly to get back that she barely noticed as Loki ran right past her, worry all over his face. Apparently he had woken up a few minutes earlier and had been looking for her. Shrugging and making her best attempt to apologize, Akira endured his chastising, even though she couldn't understand him she still had a good idea of what he was saying. She couldn't understand why he kept addressing her as "Waleila", though. A nickname? Or did it mean "outsider" in his language?

Sighing, he took her hand and quickly led her back to the room, evidently just as frustrated as she was. She couldn't wait until Red XIII called them together. Maybe she could have him translate so she could at least get a faint idea of what exactly Loki kept trying to tell her. Perhaps it would even give her a chance to have a decent conversation. She tried her hardest not to laugh as a picture of her and Loki sitting together in some coffee shop together, talking over their cappuccinos while Red XIII sat on a stool next to them, translating while thumbing through the menu.

They both looked up simultaneously when Nameless Man poked his head in and nodded, signaling that Red XIII had called the meeting. At last, she would be getting some answers. They walked out into the hall to see that the rest of her friends were rallied together, all looking refreshed and energetic. Akira and Erik both paused for a minute to look each other over, both of them having been "prettied up" by their new local friend. "You look good." Akira commented on Erik's facial stripes.

"Not bad yourself. So, who's he?" he replied, pointing to Loki.

"The guy who's been watching me since I got here. Is this some sort of house arrest or what? I mean, you got someone following you around too, right?" She asked.

Erik nodded and pointed to the shy girl standing behind her. "That's Milani. She's been a great host."

Finally together, the group ascended the stone stairs to the top of the cliff and walked across the flat mesa towards the observatory. The canyon looked significantly different in daylight, but one felt that they could quickly loose themselves staring up at the endless expanse of open sky. They clanged up the metal staircase and walked into the observatory, where Red XIII was already waiting for them, engaged in conversation with Red the dragon. "Good, you are all finally here. At last I can finally impart some wisdom to you, and hopefully put your questioning minds at ease." Red XIII gracefully said, padding across the metal floor towards them.

Loki and Milani bowed their heads before sitting cross legged on the floor, gesturing for the others to follow suit. As she sat down she could feel the floor humming from an electric current. All eyes turned to Red XIII as he began to speak to them, like children expecting a story. "So, you have heard the legend of Itami from Cloud, I assume. ` Two children with different fathers, born of a great Summoner... one has eyes but does not use them to see the present, the other fated to save the world from transgression...A marked man will find his match... Jenova and Guado meet and will attempt to raise their love of old'," he reviewed. "And the rest is missing."

"Wait, did you say Guado? I thought it was golem." Jerdania asked, being the only one who really remembered the legend.

Red XIII shook his head, making the beads in his hair jangle. "A mistranslation, noted only as of late. There may be many more that we do not know of yet. The legend itself is a riddle, making understanding twice as hard. However, we already have half the answer to this puzzle. The marked man." He stated, letting his golden eyes rest upon Riku.

Riku sighed shakily. "I've.... figured out some of it. Jenova must be Sephiroth. He's been following us lately, and he wants to get his hands on me for some reason. And I know it sounds stupid but.... there's this voice in my head, and its been guiding me this whole time. And now... I think she might be the one who `has eyes but does not use them to see the present'."

Red XIII nodded approvingly. "If what you say is true, that may be. Has this voice told you anything recently?"

Riku sat in thought. "Something.. really vague. Something about a temple..."

"Temple of the Ancients?"

"Yeah, that's it. I thought they were nothing but ruins."

"They were.... something quite out of the ordinary has been taking place. Ghosts from the past have returned, and places that were once nothing but rubble now are completely intact. The Ancient forest and the inhabitants in it have become extremely distressed about all this."

"The Ancient forest? You've been there?" Kairi asked, her voice soft with awe.

Red XIII nodded. "Red has been there also, I believe. The Guados live there, same as always. I'm quite certain they have something to do with the legend as well. You are welcome to stay here in Cosmo Canyon for as long as you please, but if you do depart, I suggest you head there."

The group exchanged glances with each other, and it was evident that no one was in much of a hurry to leave. After a moment, Red XIII nodded their dismissal. As Akira and Erik rose to leave, he suddenly stopped them. "Oh, by the way," he casually said, "Congratulations."

"Congratulations for what?" Erik slowly asked, exchanging a look with Akira.

"On your engagement."

"OUR WHAT?!" Erik and Akira both shouted out simultaneously, and everyone quickly turned to see what was going on.