Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ My Immortal ❯ Ancient Path ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6: Ancient Path

What I've felt,

What I've known,

Sick and tired of being alone.

Could you be there?

'Cause I'm the one who waits for you.

© Metallica, The Unforgiven II

It was now late afternoon; Garnet had been travelling all day. She took a deep yawn and kept her eyes pealed for Qu's Marsh. She stopped the Chocobo and got off. She petted his beak and he soon ran off. Garnet watched him fade into the distance and turned over and saw the foggy marshes. She didn't like Qu's that much but couldn't avoid this.

As she walked across an old wooden bridge that has slush and mud underneath it, she had thought about a lot of things.

Zidane, please be at the Iifa Tree…I've been waiting too long. She begged in her head. Soon, she found herself at an opening. There were two moogles sitting on a dock, fishing. Garnet hesitantly walked up to them.

"Uh…excuse me?" She asked quietly. The moogles seemed to have not heard her. She cleared her throat and went closer to them. "Excuse me?!" She said louder. This startled the smaller moogle and he jumped into the pond. The bigger moogle stood up and put his hands on his hips as he glared at Garnet.

"What's the big idea, kupo?!" The small white critter asked, sounding angry. Moogles were fluffy white creatures that had small purple wings behind them and big circular red noses.

"Uhh…do you know where the entrance to Fossil Roo is?" Garnet asked. The moogle tilted his head and pondered.

"Sorry, kupo. I can't help, kupo… I haven't used the ancient path in centuries, kupo. No reason to…" The moogle replied. The smaller moogle climbed back out of the water and plopped on his butt and threw his fishing rod back into the water. The bigger moogle sat down and joined his little brother.

"Well can you tell me where Quina is? Is she still here?" Garnet asked.

"Quina catching frogs, kupo." The smaller moogle announced. Garnet smiled and thanked them. She should've known where her big friend would've been. She soon came to another opening.

There was another pond here with frogs jumping all over the place. She could hear the ribbits of the frogs. There was a bridge that crossed the pond and headed to another area of the marsh. She scanned the area and soon saw a big blob with a huge tongue hanging out, chasing frogs. It was her old friend Quina, and she was as big as ever. She smiled and walked up to her.

"Hey Quina…" She said. The Qu looked up and suddenly grinned.

"GARNET! YOU COME SEE QUINA?!" She yelled happily, as she ran up to Garnet and gave her a big hug. "Let me cook you food." She insisted.

"Thank you for your hospitality, my friend." Garnet said thankfully. "But I am in a bit of a hurry…Zidane hasn't been back yet." Quina was silent. "Quina….have you seen him at all over the past two years? I thought he might have come back through Fossil Roo, since he was on the Lost Continent…and that's the only way to get from there to hear…unless you're taking and airship or boat of course."

Quinastayed silent, and looked sadly at the water.

"Me sorry, Garnet…Me no see Zidane for long time. Zidane good guy. He take me around world…" Quina said sadly as she remembered the memories of her Genome friend. Garnet looked away, as tears slowly began to form behind her eyes. Quina looked back at her.

"Maybe he come back other way?" She recommended. Garnet let out a sad smile.

"Maybe, Quina…maybe." She looked at her sadly, with a very small glimmer of hope in her eyes. "…Can you take me to the entrance of Fossil Roo? I want to go to the Lost Continent and see if there's any clues there as to where he is." Quina nodded.

"Me come with you! Is dangerous in Fossil Roo!!" Quina offered.

"No Quina…It's alright." Garnet replied. "I need to do this on my own…As Zidane said 'This is my moment…'."

"But Fossil Roo dangerous!! And strong monsters on Lost Continent." Quina reminded. Garnet smiled.

"I'll be fine…I made it this far already, right?" Garnet dictated. Quina nodded her head, understanding.

"I take you to entrance." She said. "Follow me!" Quina said, running into the tall grass. Garnet quickly followed after her, making sure not to lose her.

After winding through the grass, and stomping in the mud, they soon appeared in front of a huge stone gate. There was a small case of stone stairs that led up to it. The place looked worn and abandoned, which is exactly how she remembered it two years ago. She slowly turned to Quina.

"Thank you, my friend." She smiled. "Your heart is great."

"No worry, make sure you bring Zidane back!" Quina demanded. Garnet smiled again and put her cloak over her long dark brown hair. She then ran off into the stone gate. She found herself going down a long set of stairs and then into a dark cavern. She was finally in Fossil Roo. There were torches on the walls from miners and travelers. It was still dark in there, but there was enough light to see.

The sound of fire burning ran through Garnet's ears. She slowly walked down the wide cave path and further into the ancient cavern. She soon came across a long stone bridge. Her stomach turned as she remembered this bridge. Ahead of her, there were five axes connected to wooden postes swinging horizontally. There were large gaps between each of them, but she was still nervous.

She took a deep breath and headed towards the first swinging axe. She stood right in front of it, the wind blowing right on her face from the sharp, moving object. Once it was far enough over, she ran across. A sigh of relief came out of her mouth as she closed her eyes.

One down, four to go… She thought in her head. Then, she heard a rumbling sound from behind her. She turned around to see a huge stone boulder rolling down the path straight towards her. Her eyes immediately grew. "You've got to be kidding!" She thought out loud. She started running a few steps to the next swinging axe. She waited for it to be far enough away, then she ran through. The boulder was gaining on her and she had no time to stop.

She ran through the third one, not waiting this time. It skinned the air behind Garnet's back. She felt goose bumps on her back but didn't stop.

Two more. She thought. Then she arrived at the second last one. She stopped for a second, hearing the rumbling of the boulder move vastly towards her. She then ran through the area while the axe was far away. She only had one more, but this time there was a huge gap of nothing afterwards. She'd have to make a jump to land on the other side. The boulder would fall through the gap into the blackness of nothing. She took a deep breath and ran. This axe was the fasted swinging one so far, and she couldn't wait anymore. She jumped across, and a deep cut went in her leg. She screamed in pain as she barely made it to the other side. She grabbed onto the ledge of the other side and tried pulling herself up.

The boulder that was right behind her rolled off the bridge and into the gap. Garnet couldn't even hear a crash at the bottom. Her leg was bleeding greatly and she tried with all her strength to pull herself up. Soon she was up, and she rolled over onto her back and passed out.

Author's Note: Hey everybody. I updated! This one's longer than the last one, definitely. Hope you liked it and I still have another week of Spring break so I might update again, I'm not sure. My goal now is to update at least once a week on this story…Since I haven't been working on it much because of my other stories im working on. So I'll really try to update once a week on this at the least. Well c ya at the next chapter, thanks for reading and please review!