Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Love Beyond Eons ❯ Macalania ( Chapter 6 )

* I'm back again! I thought I would send this chapter later, but I decided to post it along with the others. Enjoy the story! ^^ *

Chapter 6

Macalania

After passing through the Thunder Plains and dragging Rikku forcefully through it, they made it to Macalania Forest. It was still around midnight and the forest was alive with vagabonds and animals. Colorful butterflies swirled around exotic flowers and plants, while birds sang their hearts out. Rikku had come back after running to Lake Macalania to inform her father to meet them in the Calm Lands.

Everyone was getting settled down for the night, except for Yuna who had trouble sleeping. She was afraid to sleep this night. All that time they traveled on foot, the sword at her side became heavier, its sharp point dragging, leaving its mark on the soft earth.

An hour later she looked at the sleeping forms of her guardians, satisfied she quietly snuck out of their camp. She left Brotherhood in her sleeping mat, knowing it would slow her down. She knew where she wanted to go, the pond…

When she arrived, not a soul could be found and she stared at the calm waters. Watching shimmer bugs fly above it's surface and the vegetation around. She stripped her clothes off and stepped into the cold waters. Biting hard on her lip, she swam around and waited for her body to adapt. She dived deeper into the water and stopped somewhere in the middle letting her body slowly rise upward. She had a smile on her face as she slowly floated upward remembering a long ago kiss she shared in these waters. As she broke the surface, she inhaled the crisp yet humid air around her. Yuna flipped her hair backward and swam on her back watching the stars above. She was thankful for the cool waters, for it managed to keep her awake. She felt her body growing cold, but she pushed that feeling away, vowing to stay as long as possible, breathing in the scent of lost love.

Not far stood Kael, watching the beauty swim. He knew it was wrong to watch, but he couldn't help following when he saw Lady Yuna leave the campsite. He on the other hand was sent to watch over Rikku on Cid's orders, when he saw Lady Yuna go off on her own. Curious as a cat he followed the breath-taking woman and nearly fell over with embarrassment when he saw her nude wading into the pond. Yet he watched and looked at the smooth creamy figure and he knew he had really fallen for her. Thinking that he had enough for the night, he slowly jumped out of the canopy and landed softly onto the ground. Well he wasn't quiet enough when he fell over an uprooted tree root.

Yuna heard the groan and quickly shot upward, only her neck emerging from the surface. When she didn't hear anything else she slowly got out and grabbed her clothes putting them on as quickly as possible. After shivering in her partially wet clothes waiting for someone or something to come into view, she sighed and looked back at the pond. She would remember this night too. She felt like this was the last time she would see everything…

Yuna began to move back when she herself tripped over something. She rubbed her ankle and looked at the object behind her. She gasped when she saw Brotherhood, halfway submerged into the moist earth. Yuna groaned and took the blade out of its resting place and attached it to her wet sash at her waist. Slowly she managed to walk back to the campsite, not knowing she was being followed by the ever quiet, well almost quiet Kael.

* * *

Lulu was already up and early when Wakka and Rikku managed to get up.

"Rikku, go wake up Yuna?" Lulu asked as she tended to breakfast.

"Sure thing Lulu!" Rikku replied and walked over to the still sleeping form of her cousin. She knelt beside the brown haired woman and whispered into her ear, "Waky waky Yuna…" Rikku said, but when she got no reply, she touched her cousin's shoulder and snatched her hand back. Yunie was colder then ice!

"Yuna!" Rikku said louder and turned her over, revealing a shivering, pale face with blue lips.

"Lulu! Wakka! Yuna's sick!" Both guardians rushed over to Rikku's side and were surprised to see Yuna half awake and shivering.

"Yuna?" asked Wakka quietly.

"I'm so sorry…Tidus…leave me be…" Yuna muttered incoherently.

"She's delirious. Build a fire Wakka and Rikku get me extra blankets." Rikku rushed over to their pack and took two large blankets from within. She gave them to Lulu and helped Wakka out with the fire.

Above in the trees, Kael awoke to the smell of fire and smoke. Suddenly alert he looked below to find Rikku and Wakka building a bonfire, curious as to what they were doing he leaped out of the tree and scared the hell out of the two.

"What da hell did you come from?!" Wakka exclaimed.

"Kael! Where did you come from? What are you an earth creature? You're too damn quiet!" Rikku accused.

"I smelled the fire, why are you building a fire? You should already be on your way to the Calm Lands by now." Kael asked in his feint accent.

"Yunie's sick and delirious, so we gotta warm her up before she dies from hypothermia. Her clothes were all wet and stuff…I hope lulu knows what she's doing." Rikku concluded.

"Don't worry `bout my Lulu, she knows what to do." Wakka defended. Kael left the two and walked over to where Lulu was tending to his beautiful lady. She must have caught the fever from her swim in the cold pond…he looked into the green and blue eyes and knew that she was in serious trouble. His adoptive mother, a natural healer, had taught him the ways of the earth. So he already was flipping through the pages of his mind, thinking what type of plant or herb he could find in this forest. Just then his eye's lit up and knew that this forest held a type of vine, called Angel's Spread. It grew only in the northern part of the forest and he would have to travel quickly to reach it in time.

"I'll be right back." He said, but Lulu wasn't paying attention to him. He raced to the southern entrance and ran up the sparkling pathway, open only to those who had traveled the whole entire forest. He past several golden orbs and winded his way downward to the northern entrance. He searched through the brush and canopies and found some. But they were all dead and shriveled.

"Shit!" Kael cursed and ran in search of more, but everywhere he found some, they were dead. It was strange for such plants to be dying this early in the season. It was only then that he came up to a man, spraying the plants with a blue liquid. One second the Angel's Spread was alive and the next it dried out! What was the damn person doing?! He jumped out of a tree and landed in front of the startled man.

"What in Bahamut's name are you doing?!" he quipped.

"Get out of my way, you Al Bhed heathen! I don't have to explain anything to you!" Kael grabbed the man by the collar and slammed him against the tree's broad bark.

"You are destroying a rare herb!"

"They are weeds! They grow only to take up soil!" the man shouted back.

"That plant is Angel's Spread! That is a herb that instantly cures fevers and colds!" Kael explained. The other man's face changed and he felt a bit guilty.

"If I catch you again killing any plant in the forest again, I'll gouge your eyes out." Kael lied, while his hand slipped to his daggers at his side. The man shocked from Kael's statement ran off screaming, but he didn't mind the damn soul. He walked over to the half shriveled vines and cut a small piece that held a white lily flower. That flower was also a good herb for sound sleeping, while the body recovered. He quickly raced back south, hoping he would make it before Yuna got any worse.

* * *

Lulu cursed as everything she tried, didn't affect Yuna's condition. She held Yuna's head on her lap, wiping the sweat off Yuna's brow. A few minutes earlier they had moved her closer toward the fire and they waited hoping that she would make it through.

"I wonder where Kael rushed off to?" Rikku questioned. Wakka shrugged and stared into the fire's core. After twenty minutes, Kael appeared.

"Here." Kael stated.

"What is it?" inquired Lulu.

"It's Angel's Spread, a type of herb the cures fever and cold. Take the green and burn it in a pot or pan, then a green sap should emerge from the hard outer shell. Once that is done, heat some water up and make a tea out of it. As for the flower, crush it and mix it with cold water only. It will help her sleep through it." he explained.

"Sleep through what?" Rikku asked.

"The pain. That herb is highly toxic when green, but when burned and placed into a sick body, it takes a form eating and soothing away the sickness, It's the eating, that's painful." Kael cringed.

"That's what da flowers for?" Kael nodded to Wakka's question and Lulu got to work. Kael helped out, while the other two kept Yuna warm.

* * *

* Hmm…Yuna is sick…Kael's in love with her and deeply! Wondering what will happen next? Maybe I'll add another chapter….who knows? ^^ *grins* R/R *