Writings of an Owlmoose

These are the stories I wrote for the Trick or Treat Battle 2007, hosted by bottle_of_shine.

• FFX
  • Auron, Jecht (prompt: swords)
• FFX-2
  • Paine (prompt: running)
  • Baralai/Gippal (prompt: comfort)
  • Paine/Nooj, (prompt: desert nights)
  • Baralai, Gippal (prompt: pirates)

-x-x-x-

“Help him choose a weapon,” Lord Braska had said, and so now here they were, wandering through the Bevelle marketplace. Auron fingered the purse hanging from his belt and hoped that it held enough to buy a decent sword. Perhaps with enough left over for some shoes, he thought with a disgusted glance over his shoulder.

Jecht didn’t seem to notice the glare as they stepped inside the smithy Auron visited whenever he didn’t want to deal with the temple armory. “This one looks pretty sweet,” he said, reaching for a huge two-handed blade as tall and broad as a small child.

“And you know how to use it?” Auron raised his eyebrows.

Jecht shrugged. “How hard can it be?”

Auron turned aside with a snort but did not otherwise dignify the comment with a response. Instead, he scanned the shop for something more appropriate for a beginner. “Here.” He walked across the room and reached for the blade that had caught his eye. Lifting it off the hooks on the wall, he turned and handed it to Jecht.

“Pretty lightweight, don’cha think?” Jecht grasped the hilt and cocked his head to the side, studying his reflection in the reddish steel of the blade.

“All the better for speed.” Auron motioned Jecht to the practice ring where customers could try out weapons before purchasing them. “You claim to be an athlete; speed should be your best advantage. Give it a try.”

Jecht took a few swings, first in the air and then against the wooden practice dummy. His cuts were broad, his footwork sloppy, and Auron winced. It would be weeks of training and hard fighting before Jecht could even defend himself properly, much less serve as an effective guardian. For the thousandth time, he wondered what on earth Lord Braska was thinking; then he bowed his head in yet another prayer for patience. He looked back up in just in time to see Jecht bury the sword in the dummy’s shoulder.

“Well?”

“Yeah, it’ll do for now.” Jecht yanked the sword free, and Auron winced again. He could just see it now — every night, they’d be sitting in front of the campfire with a whetstone. Well, Jecht could just carry that himself. Jecht turned to Auron with a grin. “Well, what’re you waiting for? Pay the man, and let’s get this show on the road.”

Auron suppressed a sharp retort, then made his way toward the shopkeeper with a silent sigh. This was going to be a long trip.

-x-x-x-

Paine had been running for an hour, all pretense at recording or anything other than escape abandoned, when she remembered, the thought stopping her short by the side of the road. Her hand flew up and over her shoulder to the place where her sword hilt belonged, but she found only empty air.

“Dammit!” No one had been allowed weapons in the cave. That included recorders. She had left her sword at camp, and now it was gone.

With a furtive glance over her shoulder, she slipped behind a nearby bush, then bent over, resting her arms on her knees and her head in her hands, panting with breath and frustration. No way to return for it — they’d kill her on sight. Or, even worse, use her as a hostage to lure the guys back. But could she keep on running, alone and unarmed?

She straightened, slowly, and grabbed her canteen for a quick splash of water. “All right, don’t panic,” she muttered. Another sip, another deep breath, then she put the water away and, after checking that the coast was clear, she began to run once again. There was nothing for it; she’d have to go on. Catching the others as soon as possible was her only hope. Once she found them again, she’d be safe.

-x-x-x-

The roaring of an engine woke him, and Baralai opened his eyes to a sky gone fully dark, streaked with clouds and moonlight. A stiff breeze tore at is cheeks, and his shoulder throbbed. Everything was moving strangely and much too fast — when he tried to lift his head to take in his surroundings, he was assaulted by a sudden sense of vertigo. He dropped his head back to the cushion and stifled a groan.

“You awake?” The words came from above him, and Baralai risked twisting his head around to look up. What he saw confirmed his initial guess: he was on an Al Bhed hover, strapped lying down to a stretcher, which explained the odd angle at which the world was flying by.

Somehow, he managed a nod. “What happened?” And before he finished asking the question, he remembered the answer: the cave, running from Yevon, finding everyone at the Travel Agency. Saying his farewells to Paine, then Nooj, Gippal’s hand warm on his back as the two of them turned for Luca, and then…. which was the worst part? The sound of the shot, the shock of the bullet tearing through his back, Gippal’s cry of pain? Or was it the agony of realizing that Nooj had pulled the trigger?

Baralai closed his eyes, barely even hearing the pilot’s attempt to explain. Every jolt of the hover sent another fiery arrow of pain through the wound, and he wondered whether Gippal was all right. He missed Gippal, the feel of his hands, the warmth of his chuckle. Baralai reached for the memories, comfortable and familiar. If only Gippal were here — he would crack a joke, or give him water, or do something to make everything all right…

Or would he? What if Gippal and Nooj– but no, Nooj had attacked them both. But suddenly Baralai’s mind was racing with unpleasant possibilities, and there was no more comfort to be had. Unable to lie still a moment longer, he struggled to sit up against the belts that held him in place despite the fresh pain in his shoulder. “Where are you taking me?”

The pilot shouted something to a passenger at the front of the hover. She turned around and clambered over the machina, then took a seat next to him. “Relax, you are safe. We are going to Djose,” she said. “You are priest, yes? Temple is safe for you.”

Baralai shook his head. “I need to stay away from the temples for now.” Had Gippal not told his countrymen about their troubles with Yevon? Or was Gippal… every likely explanation was worse than the last, and he pushed all thoughts of Gippal and the others far from his mind. With that, he realized where his only possible refuge lay. “I need to get to Guadosalam.”

The woman nodded. “Moonflow close enough?”

“It is. I thank you.” And Baralai leaned back and closed his eyes, willing himself not to plot or to remember, but only to escape into sleep.

-x-x-x-

Paine crouched down by the fire as the desert wind whipped over her head. First she held out her hands, warming them on the flames, and then she hugged herself, running her hands quickly over her arms. The activity warmed her, and she relaxed enough to glance up at the sky, the last light of sunset fading in the west as the first distant stars glimmered.

She heard footsteps shuffling in the sand behind her, but it was still a shock to feel an icy metal hand land on her bare shoulder, and she gasped.

“Sorry.” Nooj dropped the hand to her hip, then brought his other arm around her and pulled her back against his solid, warm body. “Shall I get you a blanket?”

“It’s all right,” she replied, leaning into his chest, shifting to avoid pressing against the machina leg. “We’ll be out of the wind soon enough. But I still don’t understand why you wanted to come to Bikanel. I can think of a dozen more comfortable campsites that would have gotten you this far away from League headquarters.”

Nooj chuckled. “True. In part, I brought you here because the Machine Faction found something interesting on a dig, and Gippal wants us both to see it. We’ll be meeting up with him in a couple of days. But that’s not the main reason.” He turned her around and tipped her face up to his as he traced the line of her jaw with a finger. “This desert is where we first found each other, two years ago. What better place to rediscover everything we thought we’d lost?”

She grinned up at him. “Who knew you were so sentimental?”

“Only for you.” His answering smile never faded as he dropped his head, the cold of the desert banished by the heat of his kiss and the promise of many more to come.