Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Another Titleless Fic ❯ Day one...lost... ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Chapter 2.
Day one...lost...
Cloud scratched his head and looked from side to side. "You're sure that this is south?" he finally muttered aloud.
Quistis looked at him as though he was stupid for questioning her abilities of reading a compass. "Look. If you don't believe me, see, the arrow pointing north is behind us. That means, we're heading south." her instructor voice had automatically returned and he eyed her in disgust.
"What do they expect us to do anyway? Find a city and then what? What are we supposed to do there?" he snapped irritably. The events from the past days had finally gotten to him and he was not very happy about it.
She seemed the same way. "Who cares about that now? We still need to get there. Then we'll think about that. We'd better worry about our own safety at the moment."
They both went silent as the walked on the flat ground. There were many trees around them, but it made the place seem all the more peaceful. The sun was out and the temperature where they were was almost perfect. Quistis felt slightly grateful that she had not had to go in the opposite direction, where there seemed to be bare ground without any vegetation and no trees for miles around. Still, maybe it had not been a good idea to travel with this other blonde stranger.
Cloud was thinking almost the same exact thing. Both were doubting each other's abilities and strengths then, since neither knew each other very well.
It was when they came to a small brook when they heard the noises. Small, yet audible scratching sounds coming from behind the trees; possibly from the bushes. Quistis paused and she found that the more she listened for the sounds, the less audible they became. She assumed that it was just animals and the two continued on.
After another while, Cloud stopped dead in his tracks, then pulled out his sword. Quistis eyed him warily, hearing only those scratching sounds and sensing no danger. The former took one step towards a tree, then another, until the scratching slowed and then stopped. With a quick thrust, he slammed the sword down into the bush next to the tree.
Like a signal, painted faces appeared from all sides. They gradually formed bodies and then arms and legs. Quistis put a hand to her whip and took a step behind, so the two would be back-to-back with each other. "Trouble?" she whispered towards him and he nodded his reply.
"Vincent said something about these people. Well, they're not exactly people...they're ghosts...well, that's not important. What's important is that they're fast. Be careful."
As soon as he stopped speaking, the two split apart from each other, Cloud taking one half of the circle that had been forming around them and Quistis taking the other.
One painted figure went down as the sword struck it, but almost as soon as it fell, it got back up as though nothing had happened. Cloud cursed aloud and tried for another slash while the half circle formed a small mini-circle around him, leaving his back unguarded. The other half was trying to do the same with Quistis, who had taken her time to think and thus was not focused on one painted figure or the other. They were all the same to her. If she could only figure out what their weakness was...
She took a few steps back, paused and took another. There it was! One of the few places where magic could be used. As one figure crept up behind her, she hit it as hard as she could manage in the gut with her free hand and before it could recover, leapt on top of it and cast 'Float' on herself. Although it wasn't a strong magic, she was able to get away from the group enough to back herself up against a cliff side, thus saving her the trouble of having back attacks. And if need be, she could hoist herself up if the group closed in too much. She landed lightly on her feet as she stepped out of the broken barrier.
With a strong swing of the whip, she was able to knock a few of the painted figures down. They didn't seem to have much trouble getting back up as usual, but she notice that one of them was slightly groggy.
"Aim for the neck!" she called out towards Cloud, hoping that he could hear her.
"If you say so." the man said from his spot. He had been spending his time on swinging at each figure equally and his strength was running out. He needed a place to rest up, or at least a place where he would be guarded.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Quistis backing herself against the stone cliff and he suddenly got his own idea. It would take most of his remaining strength, he knew, but he had nothing else to do.
With a sudden burst of speed, he broke through the circle around him and one by one, swung at the painted figures. Sure enough, he learned quickly, the harder he hit the figure's neck, the slower it became. As soon as he was done with the group, he skidded to a halt, breathing heavily. The figures were lying as a heap on the ground, each trying their best to stand back up.
He felt relieved that he had a chance to recover, however short the time would be. There, he stole a glance towards the woman, who seemed to be faring about as well as he. The group around her had dispersed as well, a few knocked unconscious at her feet. She was smiling triumphantly and waving her whip around at the one remaining standing figure, which seemed more than a little bit afraid.
Cloud chuckled to himself. He had been underestimating her. As soon as the groggy looking painted figures wobbled to their feet, they immediately swerved off back into the trees until their images were mere shadows.
***
Zell and Yuffie had been heading east as Squall had said, both arguing amongst each other about who was right about what and who was wrong. Trivial matters. After a few hours of doing so, Yuffie stopped in her tracks and just sat down where she was. Zell looked annoyed as he stopped as well and glared at her. "Come on!" he grumbled. "We're wasting time!"
"Well, I'm tired." she said loudly, lying down on the grass. He shook his head and continued to walk.
"Well, if you're gonna stay there, I'm leaving without you."
"Hey, that's not fair~!" she whined.
"Then hurry up and get your @$$ over here!" he paused then continued, "You coming or not?"
She stood up wearily and wiped off the grass from her clothes. "You don't have to be so bossy." she said. Then she stopped mid step as he glared from afar. When she didn't move for a while, he stomped his foot impatiently.
"What's wrong!?"
She pointed out something behind him and when he turned, he saw something which when asked to describe, he would have said was the ugliest thing he had ever seen in his life up until then.

It was a...monster with a bulging stomach and its tongue was sticking out almost up to its feet. Its eyes were shaped like stars. It was hopping around in search of something. The oddest thing was that it was wearing clothes. Possibly a chef's clothing; it had on a chef hat at the very least.
Yuffie exchanged confused glances with Zell and then she finally announced, "I'm goingta follow it."
Zell's only reply was, "Oh man..." as he slumped his shoulders.
***
Selphie was bounding alongside Vincent then, almost like a puppy following its master. Though he seemed like he did not like the puppy. She was idly chatting about unimportant things when he stopped and she skidded straight into him.
"What?" she asked with a curious look. He signaled for her to be quiet and nodded towards the brook that he had stopped in front of. She glanced down at the brook with disinterest. "What?" she repeated, after seeing no importance of it.
He looked at her as though she was a complete idiot. She felt like she was after she was scrutinized by those eyes.
"Stay away from these brooks." he finally spoke slowly. "This is where the 'painted ghosts' live. This is their territory. Step in past the brooks and you won't survive for very long. We're going to have to avoid this place."
"Awwww." she said with a sigh. "But that means we have to walk all the way around! That'll be wasting more time than if we just went straight through."
"Rather waste time than not have any more time to waste." he muttered under his breath. In normal speaking tone, he curtly said, "If you'd like, go on ahead. I'm not stopping you. I'm just warning you." with that, he turned aside from the stream and started away.
She was immediately back at his side. "Fine, fine, I won't go then."
He paused and then turned to face her. She blinked towards him. "What?"
"Nothing." he finally said, starting to trudge on again.
Selphie looked more than confused. She also wasn't one who liked to be left in the dark. "What? What?? Did you want something?" she asked, hopping up and down and trying to catch his attention. He grumbled something that she didn't understand and continued on.
She figured out that how ever much she bugged him, he would not speak of things he didn't want to. She gave up as soon as she found this out.
It was almost nighttime when she spoke again. "Um...Vincent, sir...where are we going to sleep?"
"On the ground." he said, with a tone of impatience.
"I know that! I mean, are we going to sleep around here? I'm getting sort of tired and--"
Red eyes glanced towards her. "Don't complain." he muttered. "You'll catch up on your sleep later on. We have to get past a certain spot before we rest. Or else you will regret it."
She gave up on trying to understand what his words meant and shruggingly followed him, hoping that wherever they were heading for was somewhere close by. Even though she had gotten a good nights rest, all of the walking was making her tired. She frowned when she thought of not even getting to take a shower for a few days.
::If I didn't make a mistake and--:: she discarded the thought away before it was finished. ::There's no point in regretting anymore. I just haveta make sure I do everything right now so that I don't regret what I'm doing now, later.::
With the second thought firmly planted in her head, she started off with renewed strength.
It was then when she saw the lights. It was dark, so it was easy to see the glowing orbs that were floating slowly towards her. She saw Vincent hesitate then and he swung the small lamp he was holding, away from him, into the grass, until it slowly extinguished itself. She wondered why it did not just make a bigger fire.
But now, because of this, it was completely dark, save for the small orbs heading their way. She felt herself being pushed into the grass and heard the man hiss, "Don't make a noise. There's someone coming. Can you see at all?"
Selphie debated on whether to speak after he had told her not to make a noise but finally murmured, "Barely."
"Good." she heard him say in a small whisper, "I want you to go around those brighter lights over there. The blue ones. Until you're as far away from them as we are from them right now. I'm going to go around the other way. Do you have a watch?"
"Mm-hmm."
"If I'm not there in fifteen minutes, go on without me. There should be a small shack around here. Rest there if you need to. Make sure to put up a barrier. You can use magic there."
"What do you mean, go on without you? Squall said that we should always stick together." she argued softly.
"I don't have the time to explain. Just get going and don't ask any more questions."
Selphie felt herself being pushed once more and with aid of the moonlight, saw his dark shadow going opposite the way she was. "I don't exactly know what's going on, but I sure hope he knows what he's doing." she mumbled under her breath as she crawled through the grass on her hands and feet. The grass tickled at her face and she sneezed. As soon as she did so, she covered her mouth and glanced over towards the orbs. She was still too far to be noticed.
Vincent, on the other hand, was taking a quicker route, swiftly moving through the shadows in a way so that the moonlight would not reach him. He wondered if Selphie would be smart enough to maneuver herself away from the eager hunters who were awaiting their prey. He had forgotten how they were plentiful here, and had almost forgotten the many that he had killed on his way out of the land. Although before, it had been easier. Magic was the best thing to use against these hunters, and without the aid of it, Vincent knew that they would be much more formidable opponents. The best thing was to get away from the hunters before they knew that someone or something was around. Once they knew there was prey about, they would not stop hunting until either the prey or they were dead.
He cringed slightly when he remembered a past experience with them. He had seen one of the eager hunters rip one of his allies' arms and legs off and eating them whole. That ally had been sent off as a target for the hunters in order to save everyone else's life. Something Vincent risked at the moment. He knew that if Selphie was found, he would be in bigger trouble than if he was the one caught. If she made a move, he would have to cover for her.
He saw one of the blue orbs swing around towards the direction Selphie was in, and then quickly go back to its place. Vincent stopped in front of a tree, leaning against it and catching his breath. It was going to take him considerably longer than he had expected to get past the hunter's lights. They were moving slow, as always, making sure that they were not losing any sight of prey around them. It was a good thing that they did not rely on smell, for then there would be no way of escaping them.
The man scooted into another shadow; he was close enough to hear the hunter's voices now. They spoke in broken english, with extended syllables and added words at times. Maybe, their speech could have been considered funny because of that. Unfortunately, there was no time to laugh when one heard them. Still, they were understandable once one grew used to their speech.
Usually, by that time, that person would be dead.
Barely anyone got past the hunters.
"I-a hear shumansh-a..." one of the hunters said in its grunting voice.
Another grumbled its reply. "I-a no hear no such a thing."
Vincent sighed. Selphie had probably not passed by the hunters yet, because even at his speed, he had not encountered them. Well, so he thought. That was when he saw a small shadow quickly making its way through the grass behind the hunters. He raised an eyebrow, was she faster than he expected? Or was he taking longer than he usually would?
Not taking his chances, he stood and awaited the hunters in the shadow of the tree he was leaning against. He was ready now, his breathing relaxed and normal paced and his muscles tensed, prepared to launch him into the next available area when the time was right.
Selphie, at that time, had actually been that small shadow, for she had been cramming horrendous ideas into her head about how these figures with the orbs would kill her and eat her piece by piece, starting with plucking her eyes out and ending with the eating of her guts and maybe her brain as well. Savoring all of the blood that ran in smooth rivulets all over her dead body. With each and every thought, her pace quickened and she was hurrying away from the hunters as fast as her hands and feet could take her. Therefore, she had reached the area that Vincent had told her to go to with a few minutes to spare. She glanced at her watch impatiently, barely able to see the numbers by the moonlight. Although her eyes were adjusting to the dark, being in the grass was not making it any easier for her to see.
Suddenly, she heard gunshots and the orbs disappearing towards the opposite side of where she was. Alarmed, she sat up, so she could see above the tall grass.
More gunshots. Then finally silence.
The clock ticked away and it reached the fifteen minute mark. She saw no sign of Vincent. She sat and waited impatiently for a few more minutes. Impatience turned to worry and then to anxiousness. ::What's going on!?:: she wondered to herself, then stood up. The orbs were nowhere to be found. As fast as her legs could take her, she went off in search for the shack.
***
Starting their walk, Irvine had taken his time flirting with Tifa, who was uninterested. She was still worried about Cloud's safety and this cowboy was just annoying her. After she told him of this, he went silent.
They hadn't gone very far when they had reached a small cave, which was odd to see at such a place, for there was hardly any rock formations around. Tifa peered into the cave and pulled out a flashlight to shine into it. It was dark inside, as most caves were, and it had many sharp looking rocks within, as well. It seemed to lead to a very dark, far place. After she glanced around where she was, she found that there was no other way to go, unless they wanted to climb the giant rock that was in front of them and then walk on top of it. Then again, there was no way to tell what was in either place. There might even been a dead end. Or maybe a steep cliff where the top of the rock ended. Tifa regretted not bringing a rope.
She finally turned towards Irvine to ask his advice.
"You choose." was the answer she got. She shrugged and pointed into the cave and after a while of silence, she pushed the man in ahead of her and gave him the flashlight.
"Make yourself useful, examine it first." she ordered. "Make sure it's safe, okay? I'll be right behind you."
***
"Where are we heading?" Barret asked. He and Squall had been walking in no particular direction for a while by the time he asked this. It was late afternoon.
Squall turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "I thought that you'd know."
"WHAT?!"

"Well, we're heading where we're walking, that's for one. I don't know anything about this place, remember? Vincent was the only one who's been here. We'll get somewhere sometime."
"You're saying something that Cloud would say!" Barret said, exasperated.
"...whatever." Squall muttered as he continued on. "You have any better ideas? If so, it better not have anything to do with turning back, because I'm not going to do that."
Barret grumbled something, and then stopped suddenly. The other man turned to glance at him. "Something wrong?" Squall questioned.
"Uh...yeah."
"What is it?"
"Well...whaddya know." Barret said in a calm tone.
"Huh?"
The calm tone disappeared and was replaced by a tone of both annoyance and fear mixed in together. "There's freakin' QUICKSAND here! Help me outta here, will ya!?"

"What do you expect me to do?"
"Awright, enough with the stupidity! You coulda at least warned me!" he snapped as he flailed his arms around. Eventually, he was able to remove his foot from the quicksand by himself.
"I didn't see it either." Squall said matter-of-factly. "You should have watched out." with that, he shrugged and motioned for the other man to continue on.
Barret grumbled something about not liking a particular new partner of his but followed the order anyway, for lack of a better idea.
***
"Could you please quit smoking?" Rinoa asked with annoyance, turning to look at Cid, who was directly behind her. Nanaki was in front, sniffing the air in disgust himself.
"Come on, let the old man do whatever he wants." Cid said dryly, putting his pipe away. "It's not my fault that the wind wants to be facing that direction. Why don't I lead instead?"
Nanaki stood on his hind legs at that moment and Rinoa stepped aside so Cid wouldn't crash into her. "What's going on?" Cid grumbled to himself.
"I smell fruit." Nanaki announced. "I'm getting hungry. Why don't we stop by and eat a few?"
"Do you know which ones are poisonous, at least?"
"Nope."
Cid rolled his eyes heavenward and cursed under his breath. Rinoa shielded her eyes from the bright sunlight. The sun was setting, but it just made the place brighter. She squinted to see the plants with fruits on them. There, she saw fruits that she had never before seen in her life. She also saw a few monsters roaming around that she had never seen before, either.
She pointed one out, one that was bluish green and almost flat looking. Nanaki wrinkled his face in disgust. Cid looked equally disgusted.
"It's called a parasite or something." Nanaki explained. He exchanged glances with Cid. "I didn't know they existed anywhere besides the...place before we fought Sephiroth..."
"Sephiroth?" Rinoa asked, baffled.
"No one you want to know about." Cid said with impatience. "Just stay away from them. I'd think they'd be dead after being outside so long. Then again, this place is unlike anywhere else..."
The three of them stopped as soon as they heard a big growl. Out of the trees emerged a humongous red dragon with two heads. Cid and Nanaki both stepped back and the former pulled out his spear.
"Isn't that what we killed before?" Nanaki asked in amazement.
"I'm guessing the one we killed before came from here. I hope we don't encounter too many of them." Cid muttered. "Though I don't think it will be as strong. It can't use magic here."
"Hopefully." Nanaki agreed, getting ready for the battle.
Rinoa, not knowing anything better to do, got out her own weapon and went into battle stance. Nanaki immediately turned and said, "I'll take the other side." with that said, he ran around to the back of the two headed dragon, while avoiding a dangerous swipe of its tail.
"I would give you some advice about this guy," Cid was saying to the woman, "But now that we can't use magic, I don't think it'll be of any help." at almost the same time as Nanaki, he charged forward and attacked one side of the head. It bit at the spear and got it wedged into its mouth. With a curse, Cid leapt away from it as the second head reached over for another bite. Nanaki crashed into that one and the dragon lurched forward from impact.
With a startled cry, Rinoa took a step back. She aimed at the wounded dragon and hit it square in the left forehead. Both heads came forward to give a quick swipe at her with their teeth. One missed and the other hit, making her fall backwards. Nanaki took this time to attack once more and unhook the spear from the dragon's teeth. Cid caught the weapon quickly and then made a face. "Disgusting!" he commented.
Rinoa was standing up by then and dusting herself off, after checking quickly to make sure that she had not gotten too much damage from the blow. Besides a ripped piece of her shirt, she could see no visible damage. She felt slightly bad for not being able to help the two out as much as she supposed she should, but her strength lay mostly in magic, which was not accessible to her. She aimed and struck at the dragon head once more. This time, she was quick to move back to avoid the two heads snapping at her again. Still, they came pretty close and she could see the smoke coming out of one of the jaws and icy steam from the other. It was then that she noticed that it would be able to use magic, because it was built within it and not from an outer source. Before she could warn the others, though, one of the heads spit a burst of fire towards Nanaki and the other, ice towards Cid. Cid leapt away and Nanaki stood still, a satisfied smirk on his face. The fire seemed to be nullified when it touched him.
Without questioning, Rinoa moved over to aim once more. Where she was, though, was the perfect target for the dragon's tail. She leapt backward as soon as she saw the tail heading for her and avoided a full attack. Still, she got hit by the tip, and the impact of the heavy dragon sent her into a nearby tree. She gasped as she felt the air knocked out of her and when she sank down to her knees, she struggled to breathe. With watery eyes she watched as Cid gave one half of the dragon the finishing blow.
To her complete horror, when the dragon's half seemingly died, the whole area became illuminated with an eerie sparkling light, which was what she recognized as lightning. "What?!" she exclaimed, then choked, for she hadn't gained her breath back quite yet. After an agonizing few more seconds of breathlessness, she stood up and rubbed her eyes, trying to see through the damage.
The dragon was still standing in the middle of the two others and Cid had an unmistakable scowl plastered on his face. One of the dragon's heads were sagging, obviously dead. To her surprise, the two from her group were still standing as though nothing had happened. As soon as she ran over to them, Cid pulled something out of his pocket and handed it to her. It was an armlet.
"Don't ask about it, we'll explain later." Cid muttered. "Just put it on. You'll be safe from the lightning."
"It's a bolt armlet!" Nanaki was saying from afar. She blinked her confusion and then decided to just take their advice and wait for explanations later.
Almost as if to make up for what she hadn't done before, she immediately took a step forward and aimed at the dragon's stomach, hitting it on the mark. In annoyance, the side of the dragon that still was alive breathed fire towards her. She ducked away from it and Cid leapt in to hit the top of its head. Nanaki was the one to finally finish the dragon off, jumping over and biting its neck. The same lightning filled the area around them and Rinoa once again shielded her eyes. When the smoke cleared, the dragon was gone and she could barely believe that anything had happened.
"What was that?" she asked.
"A dragon." Nanaki said matter-of-factly.
"I know that! I mean, the lightning! And why is it that this," she pointed at the armlet, "stopped the lightning from hurting me?"
Cid sighed and shut his eyes, pulling out his pipe. He sat down. This time, when he began to puff the smoke, Rinoa said nothing.
"It's called a bolt armlet." he explained. "Whoever wears it will be immune to lightning or 'bolt' attacks. We got it from weapon shops around our place. I guess you guys don't have stuff like that."
"No, we don't."
"You're missing out on stuff, then." he said simply. "I think it's just about time for us to call it a day." he turned to look for Nanaki, but he was out of sight, for he was busily picking fruit.
***
While Selphie was awaiting him, Vincent had still anxiously been looking up at the moon and towards the floating orbs. He was listening for any noise that he could hear, the hunter's voices, their footsteps, bugs that were around him, crickets, mostly.
"I-a swear athat there is a is-a shumansh-a around here." he could hear one of the hunters say.
"Let us take look-a then may beh." another said.
Vincent immediately took flight then, zipping to the nearest shadow he could find that was both far away from the hunters and from the direction that he had told Selphie to go to. There, he fired a few gunshots. Just as he expected, the orbs began hurrying towards him.
He smirked to himself, his deep red eyes narrowing. He flipped his gun quickly and reloaded. When he heard the hunters come closer, he dropped down to the grass and lay there silently for a while. ::Stupid things.:: he thought to himself as he fired a few more shots.
He heard a hunter curse and he knew that he had hit one. Although he had not been aiming towards them, he felt a small bit of satisfaction grow inside of himself. Hitting a hunter would mean that the rest of the hunters would go after him and definitely try and kill the person who had wounded one of them. Even if there was any other prey around. They would ignore that peaceful prey and go straight after the one who had placed harm on any of their kind. At the very least, Selphie would be safe.
Vincent stood up then, looking around warily. He saw nothing, even though he could hear and sense the hunters. They must have taken the orbs out of their lamps in order to hide themselves as well. He cursed inwardly. He knew that the hunters were almost as quick, if not as quick as he was and they would advance within a few minutes.
He took a step to the right and then immediately regretted the movement. He had stepped into one of the small traps that the hunters had set up. His eyesight blurred and he could barely hear anything other than ringing in his ears. The only way he could tell if a hunter was coming now was by sensing. Even that ability of his was getting slightly hazy. He shook his head to try and clear his senses and then stepped slowly back out of the trap. His head hurt and the world seemed like it was spinning around in a circle.
The man held his head in his hands, annoyed at himself for falling into such a simple trick. This was what had happened the last time he had been around this land...he hoped that Selphie had not had the misfortune to encounter one of the same. He reached for his gun and tried to steady himself, reloading. His eyesight was returning, but slowly. So was his sense of hearing.
By that time, though, he had noticed that he was surrounded. An eager hunter was pointing out at him, talking in a language that seemed to be only blurs to Vincent. Slowly, he raised his gun and steadied it.
Immediately afterward, he felt the sharp point of a spear pressing against his back. With his limited hearing, he could tell that the hunters were trying to order him to drop his weapon. He obeyed, with only slight hesitation, for the spear was insistent.
If he had been in normal condition, he might have been able to escape such a simple encounter with these hunters, but their trap had given them a huge advantage. The man cringed to himself; he expected this to be one of the most dishonorable deaths he could ever face.
The hunter's spear moved from his back to his neck. Vincent could feel the cold metal on him and struggled to think and cast away the horrible ringing sound in his ears. By the time he had, the spear had pierced through his flesh, but only slightly. The hunters relished killing. They would not let it go to waste by having their prey die a simple, quick, painless death.
They wanted blood.
And they planned on getting it.
Vincent, on the other hand, was not planning on standing still for this very much longer. Still, he knew that he was in a tough position, with the spear so close to his neck and maybe five or so hunters surrounding him. He had not taken the time to count them before and now he could not see the ones behind. He couldn't even sense them anymore.
"Vincent!" he heard a familiar voice call out after what seemed to be an eternity of the dripping of his blood. There was a big stain of it leaking onto his dark clothes. "Get down!"

Quick as lightning, he followed the order, sinking down to his knees. He heard the spear being flung aside and grabbed his gun, flipping it back into his hand and shooting at the two fairly surprised hunters in front of him.
Selphie was standing behind him then, her weapon held in her hands. She was having what looked like as the time of her life whacking at one of the hunters who was already on the floor and beaten on harshly. Vincent ignored her and went on shooting at the rest of the standing hunters.
One of the unharmed hunters had the same speed as he did, and was quick to avoid all of his gunshots. He muttered something under his breath and gave a rapid glance around. There were still some hunters which were standing, and some were advancing towards Selphie, who had her back to them.
But before he could open his mouth to warn her, he saw a blue staff knock one of them on the head and swing at the other. Not bothering to check for its owner, the man decided to take his chances on the remaining, what seemed to be the head, hunter.
His gun wasn't going to work on it. He had nothing left. Except for...
The hunter swept in towards him right as soon as he had picked up the spear laying on the ground. He turned at the exact moment the hunter was in range.

It was the first time he had ever seen one of the hunters look frightened. The spear pierced it in the stomach and it furiously wailed and flapped its arms. Vincent shot between its eyes. The hunter was still alive, but not well at all. It ran off into the woods, still flapping its arms like a chicken trying to fly. Its agonized screams could still be heard when it was out of sight.
As soon as he saw that all of the hunters seemed to have either died or run away, he fell to the floor in exhaustion. Selphie turned and looked at him, wide-eyed. She took a step forward and frowned, seeing the small but deep wound on his neck. "Vincent? Are you okay?" she called over.
She saw him raise his head tiredly and nod. When she breathed a sigh of relief, she saw that although he had been ready to put his head back down onto the ground, something had stopped him. His mouth was slightly open in what seemed like amazement. She noticed then that the red cloth around his neck had been torn off, it was now being used to try and stop the blood flow from his wound. After a moment of silence and unmovement, Selphie turned to look at what was so interesting.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, remembering. "This woman helped me find you." she gestured behind her and gave the newcomer a broad smile.
Vincent rubbed his eyes once and then looked back up at the figure. Sure enough, what he had seen was not just an image. Green eyes locked with red. "Aeris..." he whispered into the air.
The woman smiled. "Long time no see, Vincent."
***
"Didn't we come here already?" Irvine asked impatiently, shining his flashlight through the cave.
"How should I know?" Tifa snapped. "You're the one who's leading!"
"Well, so~rry."
Tifa sighed and sat down on a rock. "Why don't we take a break now. We haven't encountered anything here, so I doubt that there's any monsters in this cave. Too bad we can't even use magic here."
"Yep. It's a pretty thorough barrier that this certain person put up." the man nodded his agreement and sat down as well. "And it's probably getting late, too."
"I sure hope so. I feels as though we've been walking here forever."
"I doubt it. Well, I sure wouldn't mind walking forever if it was with you." he added in finally, trying to charm her again. She rolled her eyes.
"I think I'm going to get a bit of sleep. Goodnight." she said curtly, curling up into a ball and using the rock as a very hard pillow.
Irvine shrugged and stood up. "Okay. I'm going to go investigate. Call if you need me."
"Like I would." she muttered.
The man started off in the direction that they were heading, and after only a few minutes of walking, wandered into a small opening in the cave. There, he stood for a moment, surveying his surroundings with a cautious eye. The thing he found the most odd about this new place was the flat wall which was ahead of him.
He took a step forward into the small opening to find himself inside of a room. The ceiling was very high, and the sides slanted outward. Although he had an uneasy feeling about the place, he continued on, shining the flashlight towards the wall.
Once fully inside, he saw that there was writing on the bottom of a wall. He bent down to examine it. The whole place became illuminated at once, blinding him for a few seconds. He put a hand to his eyes and glanced up to see what had happened.
As soon as he did so, he felt the ground shake. He automatically put a hand out towards the wall so it would support him. "What's going on around here?" he asked aloud to the empty room. His words echoed off of all of the walls as the room shook around him.
As if in reply to his unanswered question, a towering shadow appeared from seemingly inside of the wall. Irvine watched in horrified amazement as something that looked almost like a prehistoric dinosaur emerged.
"Oh d***." he said softly, stepping away. "Now what did I do?" he pulled out his gun and made sure to load it with the strongest ammunition he had taken with him. AP ammo.
He was still inching away towards the door when the monster took another step toward him. Just by the impact, he felt himself toppling over. Once on the ground, he rolled and shot towards the monster. It did no more than flinch as though a gnat had tried to bite it. ::I have a feeling that this isn't going to be very easy.:: Irvine thought to himself. He stood back up and smiled, putting the gun in front of him. "Well, I guess you'll do well as my shooting practice." he said coolly, and with that said, he pressed the trigger.
The monster still didn't seem hurt very much by the bullets, but it seemed to get more annoyed with each shot. It growled and took a few steps forwards. Irvine could tell that it was the reason the room was so misshapen. It probably wore out its sides after a long time of trying to cram into a tiny spot. Now that it was here, though, it had enough room to put up a fight. A hard fight.
The tail of the monster lashed forward and on instinct he shot at it, leaping away from it when it got too close. That seemed to annoy the monster even further. It tried again in frustration. It missed...but it was able to swipe close enough to the man's hat that he breathed a sigh of relief when it failed.
Irvine seemed to be having way much more fun than he should be, up until then. But as soon the monster came so close, he knew that this fight would be another that would probably risk his life. There was no time to show off. It was either to kill or to be killed. He preferred the former.
The tail lashed out again. He noticed too late that it could grow a few spikes. As soon as he learned this, he had stepped forward. Still, the tail spike clipped at his back and tore off a few strands of hair along with the rubber band that had been holding it together. He muttered a curse as his long hair whipped in front of him. It would be in the way.
Pushing his red hair aside, he took a giant leap forward and landed on the tail, preventing it from its next attempt at a swing. Just like he had expected, the spikes began to appear once more, from the end to the top but they missed, for he was too fast for them. As soon as he had gotten to the top of the tail, he flipped over and landed on its snout.
"Sorry, babe, but I don't have time to mess around with you." he said with a small smirk as he raised a foot. Before it could smack him off of the snout, he slammed his foot into the creature's eye, making green slime drip all over him. He spun backward then, landing on his feet with a thud and a painful look that he tried to conceal.
The monster still seemed to be willing to fight. It lurched forward and swiped at him; a claw snagged onto his shirt and he flew up into the air as it lifted its paw. The monster looked as though it was going to eat him. With determination, Irvine aimed his gun toward the unharmed eye and shot.
He found that, like in most other monsters, the eye was left unguarded and weak. The paw that had him captive was now thrashing around in pain and in intent to destroy him along with itself. It finally calmed down, but not before Irvine had gotten a few bruises here and there. He was not very happy at all. It was then that the paw tried to squeeze him to death. He also found that being strangled to death was not the type of death he preferred.
He wasn't about to be killed by some measly old monster.
He tugged at the paw for a while and seeing how that didn't work and just wasted precious energy, he decided to rely on his gun once more. Only a few shots at the brute were enough to make it shake him away.
The man fell to the floor and began to choke, trying to regain the air he had lost. He knew to breathe slowly in order to not pass out, but it was hard doing so and he clutched at the wall in order to steady and calm himself.
"D***." he said between gasping breaths, "You're a lot tougher than I thought."
The monster was unable to see how his mouth twisted up then to form something close to a sinister smile. "Too bad you're not going to live to see another day in that condition."
As soon as the words were uttered, the monster fell and was released from its agony. It also disappeared back into the rock wall. Its loud dying shriek bounced off of the walls for a few minutes more.
Irvine stayed in his spot for a moment longer, then looked about him. He was dead tired. He stood up slowly, deciding to go back to where Tifa was, when he heard her voice exclaim:
"Irvine! What the heck happened to you!"
He turned and gave her a slow, tired smile, which nevertheless kept the special touch he used on the girls when flirting and drawled, "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all."
"What do you mean 'nothing'!?" Tifa asked with a glower in his direction. "You're a big mess. And I heard something coming from this direction!" she squatted down besides him. "And you tell me that there's nothing wrong!"
"Don't worry about it. Well, all I found out by this is that there seems to be guardians around here in the cave. Maybe that's why there's no monsters lurking around everywhere else. This place is a dead end. There's a few more ways to go, though."
Tifa wasn't exactly paying much attention to his words, just at the thick blood dripping from his forehead. As soon as he saw this, he sighed and wiped some away.
"I'm okay. I've been through worse." ::Oh, much worse.:: he added in his thoughts, wincing at the memory.
Again, she was not paying any attention to his words. She shut her eyes, like Quistis had told her to, and tried to sense the barrier that was blocking out the magic. After a moment, she found that she could sense a small area where it was broken. She stood up and pulled the man up onto his feet.
"Come on. We're going to get you patched up." she said, leading him over to the broken part of the barrier. Irvine looked more than a bit confused.
"Eh?" he asked aloud.
"We can use magic in that little section," she pointed, "Over there. I knew that there would be somewhere like that in a place like this!"
He knew better than to argue. As he leaned lightly against Tifa's shoulder, the man pressed a hand to his forehead. He wondered when he had gotten the cut, and then remembered the incident where he had kicked the creature's eye. With a quick glance, he noticed that it was steaming where the green slime had touched him. The liquid must have been acid. He had been too busy regaining his breath to notice.
Tifa stopped suddenly and pushed him aside. "Here we are. Now you stand there.
"Cure 2!"
***
"...may I ask what you are doing here?" Vincent finally questioned, getting back up onto his feet with a small grunt. "I mean, I thought you were..."
Aeris was smiling at him from afar, her green eyes twinkling. The light from the lantern she held in her hand illuminated her to make her look almost saintly, but definitely anything but normal. "Dead?" she finished off the statement. He nodded weakly.
Selphie looked from one to the other. "What? You guys know each other? What do you mean she's dead? She's right here!"
Vincent gave her a quick glare and that shut her up for the time being.
"Well, I guess I was, for quite a while." Aeris spoke, the haunting smile still on her face. "But now I'm back. Where is Cloud?"
"That didn't give much of an explanation." the man argued, for he had been there where Cloud had let her sink into the waters where they had first encountered Sephiroth.
"I think you would agree with me when I say that there is no time to spend on discussing this now." she said softly, turning aside to look towards Selphie. "Didn't you want to rest up in the shack?"
"Oh no! Not really!" Selphie said, lying slightly. "Vincent just told me to go over there."
"Ah." Aeris said with a nod of her head, "But you look tired anyway. Come on, let's go there..at least it's safer than this place. That I found out by experience." she added with a broad smile. Vincent arched an eyebrow at the comment.
"But before that," she continued, "I think we should at least be in good condition." she stepped over in front of the man. "Close your eyes." He obeyed without much hesitation.
"Healing Wind..!" she murmured and Selphie could see a green-blue light envelop him. She blinked her eyes and when she did, the light was gone. So were his wounds.
"Wow!" Selphie exclaimed then, grinning. "I wish I could do that!"
Aeris' eyes glanced down quickly and then back up. "Well, should we head over there or.."
The man gestured towards Selphie after the other woman had spoken and started over in the general direction of the shack. Aeris pulled him aside as soon as Selphie began hopping in front of the two. In a soft whisper, she asked, "Why are you two together, anyway? Are you her bodyguard like Cloud was mine?" there was a small twinkle in her eyes. Vincent shrugged it aside.
"We got in an...accident. The plane crashed. We, as in Cloud and the group, met up with the people from the other plane and formed groups to--" his eyes widened and he took hold of her wrist, yanking her back when she started walking quicker than him. "You shouldn't come with us," he hissed. "It's going to be dangerous. There might be someone around here that wants revenge on one of us. That's why there's a barrier around here."
"Who is this person who wants revenge?" she asked teasingly, after shaking his hand away. "Someone you know?"
"That's the problem. We don't know."
"I thought you were more sensible than that!" the woman said with a laugh. Selphie turned then, noticing that she was being left out of a conversation. She skidded to a halt and waved for the others to hurry.
"What do you mean by that?" he snapped impatiently. He had been trying to warn her ahead of time and she wouldn't even respect his ideas? ...see if he cared. "Well, you might as well come. You'd be in as much danger with us as without us." he said after a while of consideration.
Aeris laughed lightly again. "Don't worry about me, I'm not afraid of getting hurt or killed anymore. If I was, I wouldn't have come back here again." with that, she ran forward towards Selphie and called out, "Race you there!"
Selphie squealed in delight and took off towards the shack, the other woman following. Vincent trailed behind, wondering if it was an appropriate time for the two to be playing games. His hand tightened around his gun and he wrapped his normal red cloth around his neck up until it covered his mouth like usual.
His thoughts were racing in his head, and it took most of his strength and concentration not to pull the gun closer to him and shoot himself instead. Things were getting more and more confusing as the day went by. First were the hunters, then this...what would be next? The painted figures that he didn't want to see ever again in his lifetime?
Vincent sighed as he finally reached the shack where the two women were still panting and grinning at each other, looking as though they shared some deep dark secret. They were, for all he knew. For all he cared. Even after the healing, he was feeling something close to exhaustion. He sat down on the floor of the shack, in the corner, his back against the wall. Aeris cast a concerned look his way. "Are you okay?" she finally murmured in her light voice.
"Fine. Fine as ever." he muttered, shutting his eyes and leaning against the other side of the wall. "I'm going to get some sleep."
Through half-closed eyes, he could see the two women glance at each other. Aeris stood from her seat and walked into small area of the room with a bed in it and smoothed its sheets. The next thing Vincent knew was that she was squatting down besides him, her face peering at his. Her scrutinizing was getting him edgy.
"What?" he finally asked.
"Okay. Go ahead." she said softly, reaching for his hand. "You're going to sleep in the bed. We'll be fine for a day without it. You look exhausted."

"You'll be fine? I'll be fine." he muttered sleepily. "Goodnight."
Then, Selphie was next to him, tugging at his cloak. "Come on! We're offering you a chance at the bed! How often do women offer a man the bed in place for themselves?!" she giggled. "Go on! We insist!"
Vincent wished that they would just leave him alone and be quiet. He then figured out that the only way they would do so was if he agreed with them.
Yes, it surely was an eventful day. But would it be more so than the days to come?