Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Omega Destinies ❯ The Guardian of Brevar Temple ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter Two: Guardian of Brevar Temple

Meya. That name brought back memories of her mother's fairytales she heard as child. Not only that, her mother was an excellent artist and often painted pictures of Meya for her so she could see what it looked like. When she was a young child she loved hearing these stories and always believed her mother when she was told that one day she would be able to visit Meya and see if for her own eyes. As she grew older, they remained as fairy tales in her mind and lost the belief that she was ever going to the fantasyland. Now she was there.

For a moment she didn't recognize where she was, then it hit her. Her mother had called this very forest, Brevar Woods. It laid ten kilometres outside of the actual city of Brevar. It was a place where summons were practiced often because of the wide-open area.

"Hanna-Kallie?" Rhiannon's voice came softly. "Are you alright?"

Snapping back into reality, she nodded in reply. "What am I doing here?" Hanna repeated.

Pulling a card from the top of her deck, Rhiannon showed the confused girl. It was the card of destruction. "You were summoned here to destroy the Kintar."

"The Kintar?" she repeated.

Making a slow snapping motion, she revealed another card behind the one she was showing. This card had nothing but a black shadow and two red slits for eyes. "An evil force that is threatening Meya."

"Whoa there! I got to do what?" Ignoring her question, Rhiannon simply walked back to her seat quietly without any words. "Why is everyone ignoring me?" she pouted walking closer to the forest when suddenly she felt something clamp on to her arm.

"Where do you think you are going?" came an angry voice.

Hanna turned her head to see Ryen's face, annoyed as ever. "Well since no one wants to tell me anything, I better answer my questions myself," she snapped back.

"You are to stay in the campgrounds," he ordered pointing to the tents and campfires set up around where his sister was playing with her cards. Ripping away her arm, she tossed a lock of hair back and walked towards the campgrounds. Rolling his eyes he dismissed the other soldiers and told them to go back to Hiro Isle, the main headquarters of the Veroca Brotherhood. Soon there was only the five of them left. Exasperated, Ryen took a seat in front of his older sister.

If you first looked at them, you couldn't tell that they were twins. Rhiannon looked exactly like their mother, light complexion, hair and eyes. While Ryen looked like their father, darker hair and eyes than his sister who was born ten minutes before he was. They had no other siblings on by their mother, but their father had built himself a reputation of being quite a womanizer. They had known of five other kin by their father, if there was more they were not aware.

When Ryen had left home for Hiro Isle ten years ago, Rhiannon had gotten into a terrible accident that had left her almost bleeding to death. To save her life she had been given a blood transfusion from an Eliz warrior. When the poor girl finally became better and able to do things again, she had found that she had acquired some strange abilities. With these abilities she had convinced her mother to allow her to travel around Meya with Ryen to give him guidance. With much hesitation she was allowed and the two have been together ever since.

"Tired?" she asked as she watched her baby brother run his hand through his hair several times.

"More like aggravated," he replied letting out a frustrated breath. "There has to be a mistake somewhere. She isn't Hanakalie."

"Are you so sure?" Rhiannon asked pulling out several cards from her deck.

"Just look at her," Ryen commanded pointing out the lost girl as she plopped herself down on a log near a campfire. "Hanakalie is supposed to have silver hair and white eyes, this girl . . . is the complete opposite. She doesn't even look like she knows how to fight!"

Slowly, Rhiannon picked up the card with a mask and showed it again to her brother. "Remember Ryen, she is being deceptive. What you see isn't the real thing with this girl. You have to be patient with her."

"Me, be patient? She's the one that isn't being patient," he remarked glaring at the girl from the distance.

"She knows everything that the Eliz knows, and she even has what she needs to destroy the Kintar, and she knows it," she explained calmly. Ryen looked at her with confused eyes. "You have to help her open up. Hanna-Kallie is keeping them hidden from us."

"Why me?"

Picking up another card she paused for a brief moment. She first looked at Hanna by the fire, and then at her brother. "Because you are the only one who can make her stay in Meya," Rhiannon told him placing the card face down on the bottom card of her cross formation.

"What's that card?" he asked wondering why he hadn't showed her.

"There are things that you must not know yet, but it will be revealed in time," she assured him picking up all the cards and placing them back in her deck.

Somewhere nearby . . . . .

"What?" Makena exclaimed.

"I want to go with Hanna-Kallie and Ryen on their journey," Elena repeated her request calmly. "It is the only thing that I have asked since I came with you."

"Yes, that's true," the princess agreed. "But I doubt that Ryen is going to like the idea."

"You're probably right," she replied walking towards Hanna.

"Where are you going?" Makena hollered chasing after her trainee catching the group's attention. "Elena we came to insure that the summoning went well, our place isn't with them. Let it be!" she warned grabbing her arm.

Elena looked at Makena with determined eyes. "This is something I need to do."

"You need to do what?" Hanna asked rising from her seat.

"I want to accompany you and Ryen to the City of the Ancients," the blue-haired Eliz told her calmly.

"Elena!" Makena snapped in a nervous tone.

Hanna raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Who said I'm going to the City? And secondly who said I'm going what that nimrod?" she replied crossing her arms across her chest.

"What's going on here?" Ryen spoke walking up to the trio.

Suddenly Elena began saying something in a different language that neither Ryen nor Makena understood, but for some reason Hanna seemed interested. She stood quietly listening to what Elena was saying. "Elena and Makena are coming with us," Hanna told the young soldier all of a sudden.

"Excuse me?" he asked. Hanna repeated what she had told him, but this time more slowly and in a mocking type tone. "I know what you said!"

"Didn't seem like it," she shrugged.

"I meant," Ryen said trying to calm down. "You are not supposed to make these decisions without me."

"Bite me," Hanna snapped.

"What?" Mimicking the tone she used before she repeated her comment slowly. "Stop doing that!"

"Make me," she challenged with an evil glare.

Hesitating to answer, he took a deep breath from keeping himself from drawing his sword. "This is childish. I'm not going to argue like this."

"You started it," the black-haired girl mumbled under her breath.

Ignoring her last comment he tried again to try and continue the conversation without loosing his cool bickering with Hanna. "Elena has already gotten far in her journey, its unfair for her to put it on hold just because you happened to pop by Hanna," Ryen explained.

"But she offered, I didn't ask them to come."

He let out a big sigh, there didn't seem like there was a way out of this situation. Hanna was strong and she could probably keep up the conversation until he gave up.

Not liking the moment of silence, Hanna looked at the two trainers noticing a small bit of tension. "Am I missing something here?" she asked pointing her finger back and forth between Ryen and Makena.

"None of your business," Ryen said defensively walking away. "Get rested we leave in the morning."

Without word, the other two left her confused. "Why doesn't anyone answer me!!!!!!" she groaned.

The next morning . . ..

Finally the sun was beginning its travel to the other side of the sky. It was morning time and the woodland area was easier to see. The centre of the woods had been cleared in a circular shape, mainly only hard packed soil levelled the area. It made for great training grounds. Outside the circle were great trees that reached to the skies. The long grass made it a bit harder to walk in but also was useful for sneaking around.

As the sun peaked out from behind the far off mountains, it filled the area with light. Opening his eyes slowly, Ryen took his time in waking up. He hadn't taken the time to watch a sunrise since he was still training at Hiro Isle with Makena.

Makena van de Rosaro. <I>Princess</I> Makena van de Rosaro. If it were any other trainer, he would have no problem traveling with them. He would even welcome it, the more the merrier right? But no, it had to be her and Elena. It had been hard enough having them there at the summoning, and even harder when they witnessed his struggles trying to talk with Hanna. Usually he was never a hot-tempered man, he was known as being a gentleman to anyone, even to his enemies. Maybe because she was there, maybe that was what made him act like that. She was all he ever thought about lately. Ryen even lost sleep thinking about Makena.

But that was over, he had his mission now. He had to train Hanna-Kallie. There was no room for emotions now. Especially with Hanna-Kallie, who was obviously going to be a challenge to work with. Looking to where Hanna was resting, he noticed that she was missing.

"Hanna?" he called out for the strange girl. Rising to his feet he scanned the area as he called out her name repeatedly waking up the Elena and Makena.

"What's going on?" Makena asked shielding her eyes from the sunlight.

Grabbing his sword he started to search. "Hanna's gone."

Alarmed the two rose to their feet and began searching as well. "Elena, can you sense her anywhere?" Makena asked her trainee from across the field.

"I don't know her aura," she yelled back moving branches out of her way. "So I don't know what I'm looking for if I tried."

"Hanna!" Ryen called out again angrily as he climbed a small rocky hill that over looked a path below. There was something else he noticed about this spot; it had a great view of the sunrise. In the distance the city of Brevar could be seen. It wasn't a large one but still and important one. Inside the city laid the Temple of Mahae, the goddess that watched over the woods. That was the first place he needed to take Hanna-Kallie before they headed for Luzon but at the rate they were at, they were going nowhere fast.

Not seeing Hanna anywhere below he started to walk further into the forest when he heard a rustling in the bushes. Taking a closer look, he saw a mass of black hair walking towards the campgrounds.

Ryen tried calling Hanna's name again but the person just kept walking away. Frustrated he started running after her. He finally caught up to her a few feet away from where Rhiannon was sitting once again with her cards.

"Where were you?" Ryen asked Hanna grabbing her arm. Hanna looked at him with a confused expression. "You aren't supposed to leave camp!"

Suddenly Hanna's pulled several chords out from her ears. "I'm sorry what did you say?" she asked holding the chords in her free hand.

"Where were you?" he repeated trying not to get angry again. "We have been looking for you for at least twenty minutes!" Hanna pointed to a large tree right around the area the Ryen had seen her. "I was just there."

"I was in the tree," she stated. "I woke up early and wanted to watch the sunrise so I went up the tree to get a better look, the rest of the forest was blocking my view," Hanna explained seeing his confusion.

"We have been calling you all morning, why didn't you answer?"

Pressing a button on her Discman on her shorts, loud music began coming from the earphones she held in her hand.

"You aren't supposed to leave without anyone knowing!" he scolded her.

"Rhiannon knew."

Ryen who looked at his sister who was playing with her cards calmly at the small table. "Rhiannon, why didn't you tell me you knew where Hanna was?"

"You never asked," she replied flipping over a few more cards.

"Can I have my arm back now?" Hanna asked poking Ryen on the shoulder. Once he let go she replaced her earphones in her ears. As she walked towards the place where she had slept she took off the flannel button up shirt that she had on over her tank top and revealed a red bandana wrapped around her upper left arm.

"Hey you found her," Elena replied as she and Makena returned. "Where was she?"

"In a tree," he murmured getting ready his things.

The two girls looked at each other in confusion. Not wanting to ask more questions, they too began getting ready their things for their journey to Brevar City.

Later on . . ..

I am so glad I wore these boots, Hanna thought as she followed the others through the masses of branches and bushes. It was almost the afternoon now and she was told it was only an hour until they reached Brevar city.

"Be careful where you step," Ryen warned the group as they crossed a small river. There were stepping stones that they could use to get across but they were still slippery. Slowly each of the other travelers made it across and Hanna was left on the other side. "Hanna!"

Ignoring his call she looked carefully at each of the stones in the river. Following the flow of water she watched as the water trickled down a small waterfall. Taking one careful step at a time, Hanna placed her feet on certain stones leading down stream. It was very hard to hear but it seem like she was chanting something as she stepped on the stones.

When her feet had landed on the sixth stone, the stone shifted downwards catching everyone's attention. "Uh oh," Hanna whispered trying to catch her balance. "Aghhh!" she screamed as a large hole suddenly appeared under her feet.

"Hanna!" Ryen exclaimed as she disappeared underneath the shallow river. Forgetting about the stepping-stones, he with Elena and Makena rushed into the water. Unfortunately the hole had closed up completely. "What the hell just happened?"

Recognizing something about the area, Elena looked around in desperation. There was something that alarmed her about this area. Noticing a small flicker from a tree she ran over to the edge of the small river. Ripping off the vines she revealed a tarnished plaque carved in bronze.

"What is that?" Makena asked rushing over.

The plaque was engraved with many characters, ones that Ryen and Makena didn't recognize. Running her fingers over the carvings, Elena tried to remember the characters. She knew they were in Avrentar, the language of the Ancients. Being Eliz, she knew a bit from her leader Hanakalie when she was alive, but after so many years, it was hard to remember.

Suddenly a large roar shook the ground alarming the trio.

"What as that!" Ryen exclaimed.

Pulling a card from her deck, Rhiannon showed them the creature that created such a stir. "The guardian of Brevar Temple, Cerberus," she replied showing them the image of the three headed beast.

Underground . . ..

"Aghhh!" Hanna hollered as she fell down the long column of earth. Luckily she was able to land on her feet rather than face planting on the floor.

Rising to her feet she tried wiping the dirt off of her, luckily she had her shirt tied around her waist. Using it as a towel, she wiped the river water from her face. Squinting her eyes she tried to see where she was. It was really dark and barely any light was down there.

Using her hands as a guide she walked until she found a wall. As if she was using her instinct, she moved along the wall until she found a small groove. Keeping one hand in the groove, she reached into her right pocket and pulled out a small lighter. Carson had always lost the matches so she brought one just in case.

Being careful not to light herself on fire, she fiddled with the lighter until she was able to get a flame. Once she had gotten it into the groove flames flared upon torches that were above her. Looking forward she saw a large tunnel laid out in front of her.

"Guess momma was right," Hanna whispered recalling what her mother had told her. There was a song she used to sing to her that told her what stones to step on to enter the tunnel leading to Brevar temple. But there was another part of the song that hadn't come true yet. "Where's..." she started when she felt a chilling breath on the back of her neck.

Turning around she saw the creature.

"Cerberus," she said looking the large creature over. It must have been at least ten feet tall with three gruesome heads that reminded her of rottweilers. Carefully she backed away a few steps.

From where she was standing, she could see that Cerberus's eyes were not focused on her but on something behind her. She could feel something coming closer from behind and she couldn't move her feet.

Looking down she noticed that she had stepped in some type of slime that had cemented her feet to the tunnel floor. Bending down she tried to free her feet, but it was no use. To add to her bad luck she noticed that the slime was growing at a slow pace. Trying her hardest, she struggled to get her feet free but it wasn't working.

Turning her head she saw a pair of red eyes coming her way at an alarming rate. "Momma didn't tell me about this goop!" Hanna complained still trying to break free. As the strange creature came closer she closed her eyes waiting for it to come near her.

Suddenly she felt the ground vibrate as Cerberus raced in front of her and let out a tremendous roar that shook the earth above. Hanna covered her head as debris fell from the ceiling of the tunnel. When she opened them she saw Cerberus attacking the creature that had come after her. After throwing it against the wall, she cringed as she saw it eat the creature alive.

With nervous eyes she watched as the creature walked towards her slowly. It stopped several feet away from her. Its blood red eyes looked at the slime that had grown to her knees by now.

Hanna shook slightly hoping that he wasn't going to devour her as well, but something deep inside told her that it wasn't going to do that. She watched as its eyes began to glow green. Suddenly beams of green light shot from its eyes and struck the strange slime immediately disintegrating it.

Now able to move her feet she slowly approached the large beast remembering what her mother had told her when she was a small child when she first showed her a picture she painted of Cerberus.

Flashback . . . .

"Wha zat mamma," a young and cheerful 3 year-old Hanna-Kallie asked coming into her parent's room. Her father had gone to the store and she was alone with her mother and wanted a playmate. As usual, Hanakalie was in her room painting pictures again not expecting her daughter to be up so early.

"Oh you're up early," she replied covering the painting with a piece of white plastic the hung overtop of the easel. She had been trying to teach her daughter about her home, but perhaps this image was not appropriate for her age.

"Hanna wanna see!" she exclaimed jumping on the bed.

"Maybe when you're older sweetheart."

"Hanna see! Hanna see!" she repeated jumping higher and higher. When she gained enough height she jumped from the bed into her mother's arms. "Hanna wanna see mamma!" Hanna-Kallie demanded reaching for the plastic cover.

"But you might get nightmares sweetie. And momma would be really sad if her baby was scared," Hanakalie explained trying to hold her child away from the canvas.

"Hanna no scared! Hanna know if mun'sters come af'er Hanna, mamma and daddy will make it go bye bye," she announced proudly. "Right mamma?"

Hanakalie giggled and let out a small sigh. "That's right," she smiled holding Hanna-Kallie tight. "I'll never let anyone hurt my baby."

"Hanna wanna see the picket'ter!" she repeated reaching for the protector again.

Hesitantly, with help from Hanna, she removed the plastic from her current project. It was of Cerberus, the guardian of Brevar Temple, the last place that she and her husband visited in Meya. With its help they were able to come here, to this foreign place.

"Ohh! Puppy dog!" the child exclaimed happily as she looked at the three headed beast.

"You're not scared?"

Hanna shook her silver locks. "He cute! Hanna wanna a puppy like dat!"

Hanakalie laughed. "Well this is my friend Cerberus, he looks really scary but he is really gentle. He helped mamma and daddy come here so we can have Hanna."

"Yay for Ce'bus!" Hanna cheered rising a laugh from her mother. "Is Hanna gonna see Ce'bus when she go to M'ya?"

"Of course," she replied cheerfully. "But just remember not to be scared, or he might feel sad."

End flashback . . ..

Walking right up to the beast she began petting it softly. "I owe you my life again don't I Cerberus?" She became more comfortable with the large dog as it stayed calm. At times he let out a small purr letting her know that he was okay. "Can you help me go home?" she whispered sadly remembering what her mother had told her.

She missed her son, and was terrified of what was happening back home. She didn't know if he was still ok through that storm. But one thing did keep her mind at piece. Devin was with Eric, and she knew that he would never let anything happen to him. Still, she wanted to go home. The key was somewhere in the temple. The only thing was she didn't know where.

Sensing her sadness, Cerberus laid both front paws, allowing Hanna to climb onto its back. Realizing what it was doing, she climbed and held on as the beast raced through the tunnel. Hanna kept close to Cerberus's body trying to avoid the pieces of flying debris that came her way. After several minutes of running, Cerberus paused at a dead end.

"Oh no!" Hanna exclaimed at seeing their dilemma. Sliding off his back she tried to examine the walls for any type of escape. Suddenly a dark shadow fell over Hanna. When she looked up, Cerberus was hovering over her. Letting out a fearsome roar three orbs of red energy shot out from its mouths shattering the ceiling to bits.

The debris would have for sure crushed Hanna if it weren't for Cerberus protecting her. There was something that this creature knew, was it able to sense what she was thinking? Did he know what she wanted?

When the pieces of gravel and dirt ceased to float, Cerberus once again allowed Hanna to mount him. When she did he took a great leap that took him to the main room in Brevar temple. Hanna could feel the ground shake as he landed on the floor.

Waiting for Cerberus to let her down, she noticed the writing on the wall. It was all in Avrentar. Her mother told her it was the language of the Ancients, the race where she descended. With much ease she was able to read the writings.

The writings told her how to get home, the exact incantation that her mother and father used to go to her world. All she needed was the Halena Crystal that remained in the chest at the front of the temple. Scanning the area, she found it. All she needed was the crystal. Sliding down from Cerberus's back she rushed to the chest and opened it not hearing the doors crash open.

"Hanna!" Ryen exclaimed as the four stormed through the temple doors. They had run all the way from the river and heard the explosion coming from the temple. When he tried to run to her, the great beast stood in his way ready to attack if needed.

"Shh," Elena whispered holding a hand up to Cerberus calming it down. Walking up to the creature she gently stroked it like Hanna had done before.

"No," Hanna screamed after opening the chest. "No! Its gone!"