Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy: The Crystal Chronicles ❯ Harsh Acquaintance ( Chapter 7 )

After a long (and likely unwelcome) absence, I return to work on this piece. With the approach of summer comes the promise of many more chapters, as nights stretch longer and longer before me. As long as I stay near my computer, I'll probably be able to crank out more chapters, and maybe get this going. But I won't be writing any chapters detailing the characters' travels through the dungeons of the game. This is because: a, it would take far too long to write even one chapter about one dungeon, and b, they really aren't that interesting. I will be featuring chapters that involve these dungeons, but only to include events that don't occur in the game. Reason I say this is because this chapter skips over the journey through the River Belle Path, so it sets the precedent. Sorry, back to the fic.

 

Modified for a major slip-up in game-compliancy

 

~

 

Normally, a caravan's first drop of myrrh would have been a point of celebration for novice adventurers, usually celebrated with a generous helping of alcohol and meat, followed by an all-inclusive orgy, of which nothing was remembered due to the before-mentioned booze, which often had one, if not both, of the following results: straight-out accusations of rape and manipulation, and/or pregnancy. Needless to say, some families had started this way, Nadia and Kedan's being one of them. When, however, the caravanners had at last made it back to the wagon, all that happened was a spirited and altogether unappreciated argument between Kedan and Nikki.

 

“You left me with a bunch of moogles for the day! How the hell was I supposed to prove my worth?!”

 

“You weren't, dumbshit, just as you weren't supposed to come along, either!” It had persisted since they had retrieved him from the amicable residents of River Belle, past their return and dinner, and seemed to have no end in sight when sleep began to creep forward into their minds. While they had their argument, Nadia, Velius and Degio spent the time contemplating their spoils, and the return trip they'd have to make to drop Kedan off. As the evening wore on, the argument had finally degraded into simple name-calling, no more mature than had it been occurring amongst toddlers, but more varied and potent due to the extended vocabulary of its participants.

 

“Nympho Selkie! Your plucker gets so many cocks the chickenmonger looks lazy!”

 

“Shut it, sheep rapist. Be happy your sister sticks up for you, otherwise I'd spank you so hard your mother would be ashamed of how much she slacked off.” With Kedan temporarily without a response, Nikki used the lull in the argument to finish unearthing blankets from within the wagon. Having finished her task, she turned around and winked at Nadia and Velius before closing the doors. Turning to her victim, Nikki grinned at him, exposing as many teeth as she could. “Now, you are going to appreciate your sister's support and go to sleep like a good little bastard, okay?” Dragging him over to the campfire, she tossed him a blanket. Thinking her out of earshot, Kedan whispered his final comment.

 

“Like you haven't already had six of them, you whore.” Although Nikki had indeed heard him, she didn't have enough time to turn around before Kedan won a smack in the head from an unlikely source. A large stone had fallen off of a nearby rise and onto his head, coincidentally at the end of this sentence. The resulting wound set off more than a few alarm bells in his head, and he felt liquid warmth spurt across his scalp. Quickly grabbing for his head, he pulled it away when he felt the sudden sting of his hand touching the cut, and saw the blood that covered it.

 

“Ah, shit, I… I'm bleeding!” Kedan could feel the warmth drain from his face as he gazed at the blood on his hand. “Okay, that was way out-of-line, Nikki, but you didn't have to nail me `till I bled…”

 

“You deserved every ounce of energy, asshole!” But I didn't hit you. Thinking these words as the incident bounced around in her skull, Nikki looked at the top of the cliff, scanning it for the reason why that rock had fallen off it, wondering how it had been dislodged. All the loose stones are at the top. Did something hit it?

 

“Rather convenient, though, I have to say. Nature favors you, I guess.” Degio was already tending to the cut with an antibiotic salve as he said this, slapping Kedan's hand away when it moved to his head. While the substance stung when Degio applied it, Kedan didn't know otherwise what it was that was being slathered onto his head. “Now you have no choice, Kedan. You need to go to sleep. Only rest and time will heal that.”

Handing him a pillow, Degio crawled underneath his blanket and placed a cloth over his visor to keep out the firelight.

 

“Uh, Degio?”

 

“Yes, Kedan?”

 

“What was that stuff you put on my head? It smells kind of weird…” Kedan was tentatively sniffing his hand as he waited for an answer. It smells acrid…

 

“It's a Yukish formula concocted mainly from distilled Coeurl urine, with other antiseptic ingre…”

 

“You slathered my head with CAT PISS?!” Kedan's face blanched again when he heard his answer, and his body began trembling uncontrollably. Before he could fully collapse into shock and spasms, however, Nikki walked up and backhanded him across the face.

 

“Now pull it together, you pussy! Quit your whining and go to sleep. And if you try anything funny while I'm dozing, you're not going to be properly equipped to do it again, got it?” Lying down with a smile on her face as he stared back in horror and stupefaction, his attention drawn away from the substance covering his scalp, Nikki fell off into dreamland as well. Deciding there was nothing for him to do and no one for him to voice his dismay and disgust to, Kedan laid down as close as he could to the fire without getting burned, and lay shaking despite the warmth.

 

~

 

Looking through the slats in the windows, Nadia watched as everyone dropped off into slumber, and grinned in glee. She was already nude, and had been covering her entire body with a blanket in case anyone had looked in. Turning toward Velius, she saw him with glasses on, reading from a book on smithing techniques. `How odd, I never knew that somebody could need glasses for reading at our age.'

 

“What's with the glasses?” She asked, diverting his attention away from the book. Taking them off, Velius held them up in front of the lantern.

 

“It's a rare condition I have. My close-range vision is in fine condition; otherwise I couldn't be a smith. But whenever I try to read by any kind of light dimmer than the sun, my eyes can't differentiate between certain letters. B's look like C's and D's, and H can be K, or even sometimes L. Then there's always the problem with M's and N's, and… you get the point. When I have the glasses on, they come into focus, at least in the dim light. I've never had to put them on in the day, so few people have seen me with them on.” Holding them out to Nadia, she looked long and hard at them, then tried putting them on her face. This met with mild success, as they fit rather snugly, but they set her up for her comment.

 

“I was just looking at you, and seeing you with those glasses on reminded me of when my father used to read me stories as a child.” Silence. Nadia realized that bringing up family members, especially hers, was not a good reminder of their situation. She began to blush, although the faint glimmer of the lantern masked the rosy tinge. “Velius…”

 

“It's all right. I just… I don't understand them. They're our parents, infinitely wiser and more understanding than we can be while we are their children, and they are supposed to look out for our well-being. But if they found out, the only thing they'd do is fight, and blame each other, and split us up…” Taking off the glasses, she folded them up and laid them down atop a crate containing food from the farm in Tipa, and rubbed the back of his neck with her left hand.

 

“But that's just their distrust. They were raised to think it's an evil thing when a Lilty and a Clavat fall in love. They are just trying to look out for us how they can. And besides, the king married a Clavatian farmer. Maybe things will begin to change.”

 

“Or maybe they'll get worse.”

 

“Why are you so preoccupied with it? I'm sorry I brought it up, but you shouldn't be so gloomy. It's our first night all alone together. No more creaky floorboards or curious siblings. Just us and the night…” Taking out the vial Nikki had given to her the day before, Nadia drank the liquid until the amount left in it reached a black line she had put on it to mark the three-fourths point. Watching as she drank the strange substance, Velius wondered where she had gotten it, and why she was drinking it then.

 

“Now what's that?”

 

“Nikki gave this to me. It's supposed to keep me from getting pregnant.” Looking over to gauge his reaction, she saw him a bit stunned by the answer. “Pregnancy had never really been a problem before, so we never really needed to worry about it. But now that we're on the caravan, we have a lot more opportunities for… intimate moments…” she said, snaking one hand under his blankets as she spoke, “than we did before.”

 

“But you told Nikki…”

 

“And?”

 

“Well, I just never thought that you and her were really that close.”

 

“We aren't. Or, weren't.”

 

“Then why tell her?”

 

“Well, she was going to figure it out sometime. And besides, it gives us a lot more freedom. We won't have to hide it so much if she knows.” Suddenly realizing where her hand was going, his mind began to fog up with the pounding of his hormones, and he managed to utter one final question before succumbing to instincts.

 

“What about… Kedan…?”

 

“He won't find out. We'll just have to be quiet, just this once, and we're rid of him in the morning.”

 

“I'll accept that.” Finally giving in to the moment, Velius nudged himself closer to his lover, realizing her absence of clothing. “And how should we get this started?”

 

“How about a little… heavy petting…” Reaching to his left, Velius extinguished the lantern at his side before fully engaging himself. Silence had been drilled into their relationship from day one, and so they succeeded in satisfying each other without shaking the wagon. Too much.

 

~

 

A few hours later, Kedan woke up with a bad urge to pee.

 

“Dear gods, I wonder if the cat piss seeped into my bladder…” Moving to the edge of the chalice's barrier, he undid his pants to relieve himself. As he was finishing up, he saw a patch of clear night air, unclouded with miasma, hanging in the middle of space on top of the ledge that had dropped a rock on his skull.

 

“What the hell…?” Before trying to investigate, Kedan knelt down to pull his pants up. This timeless and instinctual act of man ultimately proved its worth, as a high whistle was the only proof of his close encounter with death.

 

“Holy shit!” Turning tail and running for the fire, three more arrows cut bloody lines down the length of his left arm as they whistled past, piercing deep enough to slice through the muscle. He failed to notice the pain. Survival and adrenaline had overridden conscious thought. He needed help, and that was all he could focus on.

 

“Nikki, Degio, we're under attack! Wake up, damn it!” His feet finally failed him, and he collapsed on Nikki, the sudden weight on her waking her up.

 

“Scheisze, what the hell did I say about any funny stuff, boy?!”

 

“We're under attack, damn it! Save your anger for the enemy!” Scrambling up, and nearly falling into the fire as a sudden jolt of pain caused his legs to seize up, he ran for the wagon. There was a faint thud behind him as something hit the ground. `It's the attacker.' Looking over his shoulder, he saw the assailant. It was dressed in a white and red uniform, and wore a mask crafted as the face of a dragon. Across its back was a large crossbow, and the scabbard for a thin, curved sword. The sword itself was in its right hand, swung into a striking position above its head.

 

“Lucky you for surviving thus far, but you're dead now.” Its voice couldn't be described as anything realistic. It was far too high. The voice resembled the screech of sword blades as they are dragged against one another, each opponent exerting exceptional force against the other.

 

“Hell, no!” Nikki came up swinging behind it, her racket flying through thin air as the lithe form seemed to flicker out of the way. “I gotta beat the shit out of that bastard for waking me up, so you can't lay a hand on him!” She was joined by Degio, who came in swinging his hammer for a blow to the head. With its strange, flickering movements, the attacker was able to avoid both their strikes, but was left unable to counter. As they tried to back it away, Kedan seized the handles of the doors, and rattled them in vain to try and open them. `Why are these locked?!' He thought, his mind a nervous frenzy and more than a little fuzzy from the fight and the sight of his own blood, and was barely able to understand that the doors were locked in the first place, much less the reason why. And all the while, his left arm spilled blood across the dense wood, slowly losing its strength as the liquid was drained from his body.

 

“Wake up, wake up! We're being attacked!”

 

~

 

Velius was dragging himself out of his haze as he heard Kedan smashing at the door. He had heard the first knock and had clumsily dressed himself in an undershirt and boxer shorts, ready to deal with what he thought would be a minor hassle. However, when he heard the sound of a blade smack against the wood of the caravan wall, his eyes shot open and his wits cleared almost instantly. Grabbing for his spear, he snapped the lock off the doors and flicked it, causing it to expand to its full length. Leaping out of the wagon, he didn't see Kedan before he caught movement at the corner of his eyes. He saw the assailant making its way toward him, and managed to parry the blow directed at his stomach, shoving the attacker away, grunting in surprise at the amount of energy required to move it. As he prepared for a counterstrike, he suddenly heard a piercing screech. His father had once dragged the tip of a blade down across a stone drawing board when he had been misbehaving. The sound it produced had left Velius crying for mercy, begging him to stop before he ears burst and emptied his brain of fluid. He was much older now, but the sound this thing produced couldn't have been softer than his father dragging five such tips down five such boards in an echoing room. He made a grab to shield his ears, and his eyes closed in the horrendous cacophony, afraid his brain would explode with the shrill vibrations piercing his skull. When the noise stopped, he opened them and looked around. Kedan was standing nearby to his left, a burning log from the fire on the dirt by his side. Nikki and Degio were to a little behind him, panting and walking slowly toward them.

 

“Where's Nadia?” Kedan had barely whispered out this sentence when he blacked out suddenly, falling to the ground in an unconscious heap.

 

“What the hell was that?” Asked Velius, lifting Kedan's head to check for wounds, and only finding the one given to him by the falling rock earlier that night. As he was putting his head down he noticed the arrow wounds on his arm. “Damn, these cuts are deep. How did he get these?” These look like arrow wounds, he thought. That means our attacker needed a bow and a hiding place. Were we being followed?

 

“What's goin'… oh my god, what happened to Kedan?!” Nadia came up to the small group huddled around, barely dressed in a baggy nightshirt, hardly more clad than she was earlier that night. Her eyes began to tear up almost immediately when she saw him, and she covered her face as she started to cry.

 

“We were attacked. He woke us up when it started, and he drove it away when he stabbed it with the burning end of a log. It seems he's gone into shock, though, and he's still bleeding.” Generously applying the antibiotic salve he had used earlier, Degio fished around in his pack for a clean cloth. “Nikki, I need rope. Get some of the lengths we used to restrain him earlier.” Unfolding the cloth with a flick of his wrist, he began to wipe away the excess blood, pressing into the inside of Kedan's elbow with a thumb, trying to slow his blood flow.

 

When she returned with the rope, he covered the wounds with the cloth and tied the rope just above the elbow. Once he had tightened the rope as much as he could, he searched in his pack for a roll of bandage cloth, then pulled it out and began wrapping it around the wounds, pulling away the blood-soaked rag as he progressed, until he had covered all three. He then began rewrapping his work as the bandages began to turn red with the blood that trickled from the gashes, starved of their main supply. The end product was finally pierced and sewn together with thread, and Degio shuffled back to gather his things. Looking over at the bandage, he deftly removed a bag of jerky from his bag before tying the knots that held the flap down. “Nikki, could you open that bag and feed the jerky to him?”

 

“What? Why me? He's Nadia's brother…” Looking over at Nadia, however, Nikki realized why Degio had chosen her. Nadia was some distance away from them, crying for her brother in his injury, with Velius trying to calm her down.

 

“Y…you've got to…” One side of Nikki's upper lip twitched as she opened the bag and removed a small piece. Just as she was trying to put it in his mouth, though, Degio made a ticking noise.

 

“I guess I should have told you. You need to chew the meat first.”

 

“Gah! No way, Armor-all, am I chewin' something then pulling it out to stuff down his throat. You're so eager for him to get some protein, do it yourself.” After throwing the jerky that she was holding at Degio, she stood up, walked over to her place by the fire, and lied down, her back turned away from the would-be doctor and her eyes closed.

 

“Nikki.”

 

“Yes, Armor-all?”

 

“I haven't got a mouth.” Nikki's eyes shot open again, the pupils tilted up to the crown of her head as though in prayer. Why me, dear gods? She thought, unwilling to baby-feed the stowaway yet feeling guilty for not helping him in something of a time of need. Standing up again, she returned to Kedan, and tentatively picked up the bag. Taking out another piece, she put it in her mouth and began to chew it. After several seconds of chewing, she reached into her mouth and pulled it out, a slight feeling of revulsion rising in her throat as she felt the sticky saliva covering it, and opened his mouth. Degio, meanwhile, lifted Kedan's head a little off the ground, watching as she put the gooey mass into his mouth. After she had dropped it in, Degio closed the boy's mouth and coaxed his throat into swallowing it.

 

Nikki repeated this process again and again as Degio insisted, the feeling of disgust ebbing away the more she did it. After doing this several times, Kedan sputtered as he was swallowing another piece, his eyes flickering open and his good hand flying to his throat. Upon witnessing his revival, Nikki suddenly jumped away, taking the bag of jerky with her. Thrusting him into a sitting position, Degio pounded his back, Kedan's eyes popping open each time. After the third hit, the meat finally dislodged from his throat, falling to the ground in a slimy heap. Coughing some more as he tried to breathe, his eyes darted around, as though unaware of his surroundings.

 

“Well, here's the man of the hour. How are you feeling?” Despite the fact that Degio wasn't speaking very loudly, Kedan's head still rung with the sound of his voice.

 

“I feel horrible. And my arm feels all numb and cold.” Looking down at his bandage, Kedan tried to move it, an action he halted almost immediately when he felt a sharp pain slice through his system straight to his brain, causing him to suddenly wince and drop it.

 

“That's something of a good sign. It means the blood flow to your arm has been cut off. I'll keep it there for a little longer and let the blood coagulate around your wounds.”

 

“What… happened to me?” Using his good hand, he traced the wounds with his fingers, edging away when he came across a particularly sore area.

 

“Your arm was sliced by three arrows during the fight, it seems. Fortunately, because it was the top side of your forearm, nothing serious was hit. However, they cut deep enough to go through muscle.”

 

“Kedan! Oh gods, Kedan, I'm… I… why? You could have…!” Nadia was still crying as she clutched at her brother, her fractured sentences the result of her sobs. Kedan himself was troubled that she had gotten so upset, and glanced around nervously when she wouldn't let go. Unexpectedly, Velius came to his rescue, prying her hands off of Kedan as he whispered to her reassuringly.

 

“Come on, Nadia, he's alright. He's fine. You don't need to worry, he's going to be fine.”

 

“I can't, lo… I don't wanna.”

 

“It's alright, sis, really. I, I feel fine. You don't have to hold me so tight.” Assisting his proxy savior in freeing himself from the vice-like grip of his sibling, Kedan finally managed to get her hands off him. Still aware of Kedan's gaze, Velius guided Nadia over to Nikki, though reluctantly releasing her hand when Nikki began to lead her toward her mat. Turning back toward Kedan, Velius decided that he might as well add insult to injury, feelings of vengeance causing him to grin slightly as they began to manifest themselves.

 

“It looks like your parents might just not kill you after all when we bring you back, Kedan.”

 

“Wh…what?! Not after what… ah, my head.”

 

“Now there's honestly no way for us to bring you, even if we wanted to. You need to go to a professional healer. I neither have the equipment nor the experience necessary to take care of you.” Degio said, packing away the roll of bandages he had used earlier.

 

“But you all would have been killed if I wasn't here!”

 

“Pure luck and coincidence. And I guarantee you that we aren't going to let this situation repeat itself. You're going back to Tipa, and there isn't any way you can prevent it.”

 

“But…!” Before he could finish his sentence, Kedan felt a hand pressing on his shoulder. Looking behind him in confusion, he saw his sister looking down at him, her eyes still puffy from crying.

 

“Kedan, he's right. I know how much you wanted to go with the caravan, but… it's not safe for you. We've all been in training ever since Ark and Madeen said they couldn't travel anymore.”

 

“But I… I did so well, even without training.” Despite his defiance, Kedan's enthusiasm was finally ebbing, the unfortunate circumstances of reality beginning to sink in.

 

 

“Then you went into shock and blacked out.” Velius said, the amusement in his voice earning him a sharp glare from his secret lover. Although he closed his mouth, Velius still smiled at Kedan, mocking him despite the unspoken warning.

 

“And you're so incredible, tiny man? What were you doing when that thing started screaming, huh?” Kedan stood up as he was talking, and walked over to Velius, leaning over him to emphasize their height difference.

 

“Clutching my ears, just as you probably were. Least I was able to defend myself when I was attacked. What happened to you?” Velius retorted, making a move to smack Kedan on his injured arm, who moved it out of harm's way.

 

“You would have just… snatched the arrows outta the air, wouldn't you've?” He asked, making small catching movements with one hand as he spoke.

 

“No combat situation only has a blind-luck factor when it comes to getting hurt, you irresponsible…”

 

“Velius!” Nadia's outburst stunned both of the boys, despite its being directed at only one of them. Behind Kedan's back, she mouthed the words `we will talk' as she approached, grabbing Kedan by the bandage and leading him back to the fire. Turning back to her sibling, she absentmindedly wiped at her cheeks, the wet trails there glistening for only moments. “Please, Kedan, I don't need this. You can't come with us. Just… agree with me on this, and don't argue. I'm saying this because I don't want you to get hurt any more than you already have. It's not safe for you, coming with us like this.” Pulling him in, Nadia gave her brother a hug, patting and rubbing his back as she did. “I love you, Kedan. I don't want any more to happen to you, at least not this year.”

 

“Alright, sis.”

 

“You'll go home, then?” Silence.

 

“Yes.”

 

“And you'll apologize to everyone back home?”

 

“Yes.” Releasing her sibling from her grasp, Nadia turned and headed back to the wagon, passing Velius without a glance. The Lilty felt the corner of his mouth twitch absently as she did so, and he felt anger edging its way into his brain. Turning his head to Kedan, he stabbed violently at Kedan with his left hand making a hand gesture, pressing the tips of his index and ring finger together while his middle finger pressed down on top. After this strange and seemingly inexplicable action, Velius turned to the wagon as well and began to walk after Nadia. Turning away from his aggressor, Kedan walked over to the fire. “What was that about?”

 

“Tribal gesture of the Lilties, usually reserved for the military when a soldier disobeys a superior officer.” Degio replied, who had begun reading a book after Nadia's outburst. “It started almost seven hundred years ago, when disobeying a superior officer was considered treason, which was usually punished by hanging the traitor by his arms and impaling them through the anus with a spear.” Upon hearing the extended explanation, Kedan felt the blood drain from his face again.

 

“He wants to…”

 

“Kill you by anal rape with his spear? Yes, he would very much like that. In a way, he was shamed tonight.”

 

“`Cause I called him on his weakness?! He needs to grow some thicker skin, then!”

 

“No, because you had been hurt.” Closing the book with a snap, Degio sat up and turned to face the bewildered boy. “The Liltian honor code dictates that civilian casualties are unacceptable, without exception. You were thrust into a situation you have neither been trained to handle nor equipped to handle, because of an error in his judgment. And Velius does not tolerate irresponsibility well.”

 

“And I was irresponsible for hitching a ride.”

 

“He feels that both you and he were irresponsible.” Finishing his sentence, Degio lied down again. “You may want to try going to sleep. We have a long hike back ahead of us.” Glancing over in Nikki's direction, Kedan suddenly saw a flash of brown, and barely managed to catch the object that had been thrown at him. Looking down into his right hand, he saw a small leather bag. Untying the knot that had been done at the neck, Kedan smelled salt and meat wafting into his nose. Inside the bag was jerky, and a small piece of paper. Looking back over at Nikki, he only saw her head, turned away from him, the rest of her body covered in a blanket. Taking out the paper, he unfolded it, but only saw rumples, as though it had been wet. As he was about to throw it into the fire, though, he began to recognize patterns in the rumples. Interestingly, they only occurred in the shape of letters, which, in turn, only occurred as incredibly abbreviated words, with one exception:

 

Snk on

prr lev

my trnk

fr bk

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