The Trinity Chapter 4

Invincibility

By Blue Dragon X

When we reached the border of Macalania Forest, we all stopped. It was a pretty sudden change in appearance, from mild Tundra to a warm and dark crystal forest. Huge beautiful spheres glowed and winked and crystals hung down from the high tops of trees. Through the thick branches you could see hints of the bright sky, that also dramatically changed, but the sun was blocked out.

“We sure are seeing some incredible places.” Jecht’s eyes scanned the surroundings. “You ought to get something for little Yuna.”

“Maybe so . . . “Braska was holding a sphere to record Jecht and I.

“Auron, stand next to Jecht for a second.” I did so, but not very happily.

“We don’t have time for this!” I reminded him.

“Come on, what’s the hurry?” he asked while walking into the forest with Braska.

“I’ll tell you what the hurry is . . . “I answered, following him as Braska turned off the sphere.

“While we sit here enjoying ourselves Sin is killing people.”

The three of us noticed that the path ahead of us was shrouded in shadows, making the forest even darker, but still glowing due to the crystals. The path itself branched in three ways and we were wondering which path to take next.

“Stop! Leave me alone!” He burst from the bushes and ran past us, down the left path.

“Was that an Al Bhed?” Jecht asked in surprise, noticing the goggles.

“I actually think so . . . many Al Bhed hide their eyes to avoid recognition.“Braska was about to follow him, but three monks burst from the bushes and chased after him.

“I’ve heard that that is a dead end, let us help him!” Braska ran down after the mobile melee.

I sighed as Jecht followed. Wasn’t it bad enough that we were all further from home than we had ever been? I stormed after them, knowing they were bound to get themselves into trouble.

I jumped over a few sticks and branches, past the bushes, and finally under a broken branch into a small enclosed clearing to find Jecht and Braska staring at a young Al Bhed child with blonde hair and a nervous look upon his tanned face.

“Listen, you aren’t stealing from us again!”

“I swear Mr. Monkey—“

“Monk!”

“I wasn’t stealing, I just wanted to look at the prices. I wanted to learn to run my own store some day and—“

“You’re going to be behind bars. Who’ll believe some Al Bhed runt?”

“But Mr. Monkey I—“

“Monk! You’re coming with us!”

Jecht was the first to step forward. “Hey, the kid said he wasn’t stealing. Why won’t you let him go?”

“His father was a thief and so is he! Now stay out of this!”

Jecht stepped forward a bit closer. “You need to step down, baldies. He’s innocent until proven guilty.”

The three monks stared at the kid and then back to Jecht. “A little kid isn’t worth it. We’ll be back if you look too suspicious.” One monk warned as he dropped him and walked off, still giving him suspicious stares.

Braska made his way up to the young child.

“What is your name?” He asked, looking down at him. The child appeared very grateful, and then looked at Braska as if he had recognized him from somewhere.

“T-Thank you so much! I thought they would put me in jail!”

“You’re welcome kid. I just don’t like to see people pushed around.” Jecht nodded.

The child looked up at Braska. “My name is Rin. I just really liked business and shops . . . and thought that Spira could use more of them for travelers and summoners. There are only one or two agencies, and I wanted to make my own and put them all around Spira. So I started scouting them out and—“

“You don’t have to explain yourself to us.” I told him.

He nodded to me, and then began to leave. “I’ll repay you somehow, I promise. I almost have enough to start putting my stores up all over the place.”

“How do you plan on keeping them running?” Braska asked.

He smiled. “Its all part of my master plan. See you around!” And that was the last we saw of him for a while.

For a second, the three of us stood an embraced the quiet; the tranquility. It wasn’t something that we very often had the chance to have.

“I’m sensing that feeling again . . . “I muttered.

“What is it?” Braska asked me.

“Silence before the storm. We enjoy tranquility like this, only to discover the storm. It’s an awful feeling. I can never enjoy myself because of it.”

Braska rolled his eyes and held my shoulder.

“You’re such a stiff, man.” Jecht noticed. “You’re so negative all the time. Why don’t you focus on the positive, for a change?”

I breathed out.

“For some reason, I’ve never really been able to concentrate on that . . . “Another few moments of silence. Maybe we just wanted to embrace the tranquility; maybe we didn’t want to get to the ‘storm’. Or maybe Jecht just had the biggest mouth of all of us, because he didn’t wait to break the silence that we enjoyed so much. Amazing what you can appreciate when in scarce.

“Well, we got a ways to go, lets get moving.”

“Hold on, I know a place here, excellent for recording spheres.” Braska called to Jecht as he began backtracking.

“Oh yeah? Why would I want to go there?”

“. . . In the off chance that your boy ever comes here, you can leave spheres all around. Maybe I should leave some for Yuna; you never know.”

Jecht sighed deeply.

“Alright then, I’ll leave one.” I didn’t ever find out; but I am sure his exasperation came at the thought of him never going back to Zanarkand; rather than the thought of having to make another stop.

The three of us assumed formation and made our way directly across the main path towards a more watery path. It was as if an invisible barrier protected us from the crystal waters below as we advanced on a huge crystal. I tossed Braska a sphere to record Jecht on.

The dark-skinned man stopped in the middle of the floating pool and turned.

“Hey, kid . . . ya listenin’ to me? If you’re here . . . it means that you’re stuck . . . like me. And you had better NOT be crying! I wanted you to know that . . . that . . . aw never mind, I’m no good at this. Braska, turn it off.”

“Come on, I know you have a bit more than that.”

I began to tap my foot impatiently.

“What I wanted to say . . . son . . . is that I’m proud of you, remember that. Okay, can you turn it off now?”

Braska turned it off and smiled quickly. “Don’t be so worried. There’s a low chance he’s ever going to actually see it.”

“Yeah sure . . . lets go.”

I led the way back and to the left; down the main path that was mostly a mild labyrinth of what appeared to be tree branches.

The three of us made our way down one path; the glowing crystals lighting our way, our footsteps echoing in the serenity that we were growing used to. And then our hopes were shattered. The silence broke.

Three Blue Elements screeched and flew out of the nearby crystals, chased by what appeared to be a Xiphos.

“Aw dammit.” Jecht flipped out his sword as the odd group took one look at us and charged over to our location, the pointed feet of the Xiphos hitting the ground like pointed pistons of a primitive engine.

“Spread out!” I commanded, swinging my katana over my shoulder and towards the first blue element. To my dismay, it was barely effective and the fiend countered with a water spell. I let out a yell as I was thrown off balance by the pure hydraulic force and hanging helplessly off of the end of the branch.

“I gotcha!” Jecht slid over, and before he could offer his hand was charged in the rump by the snarling Xiphos.

“Braska!” We both yelled. The man was already a bit busy casting lighting spells, one of which slowed down the Xiphos; two more turning a couple of Blue Elements into nothing but pyreflies. I flipped myself up and landed in a slash upon the Xiphos, not quite piercing it but still damaging it.

“Come on! You all can do better than that!” Jecht yelled as he took another swing at the Xiphos. I can’t explain it, but I felt stronger from hearing the encouraging words and took a mighty swing at the last blue element, almost finishing it off. Braska finally finished the job with another thunder spell and Jecht turned the Xiphos into nothing.

“Can’t . . . touch . . . this!” Jecht sheathed his sword and tried to take a step, only to limp noticeably and cry out a bit.

“Are you alright?” Braska walked over to examine the wound.

“Not really . . . “

I tossed him a spare potion that he didn’t hesitate to drink and stand up straight.

“We don’t want to exhaust our summoner.” I told him as the three of us took a few breaths of relief. Naturally; we didn’t rest long.

We were about halfway through the labyrinth before two fiends resembling large lizards ran visibly from the end of the path, and we ran to meet them.

Jecht ran towards the closest fiend, flipping and pulling out his sword at the same time, and finally landing in a vertical slash that quickly tore the fiend in half. Braska renewed Jecht’s strength with a quick Cure spell, and I followed up with a running slash, my muscles aching from the power running through them. The fiend’s body flew back into a tree and didn’t hit the ground as it was occupied with its disappearance to only a few lone pyreflies that eventually left the world of the living themselves.

We said nothing as we continued on our way, feeling stronger, and perhaps the slightest bit angrier. All of our assumptions were correct; the tranquility was always quickly shattered. There was almost always a strong Silence Before the Storm.

Still without words and silent fury the three of us started jogging, and this time Jecht was careful not to run. The anger at every fiend in existence fueled us; until of course we heard the sound of people talking in the distance. Braska grew angrier by the minute; the obnoxious men from Bevelle.

“Ignore them, Braska.” I warned. It was Jecht, of course, that had needed the warning.

”You guys lost or something?” He asked, noticing they seemed to be wandering around, exchanging atrocious jokes and looking for trouble.

One man looked him up and down like he was some sort of barbarian; not to say that I blamed him.

“What is it to you? You seem to be the lost one.”

“Just tryin’ to be helpful . . . “He turned to us. “Let’s go.”

We continued our jog, but not before Braska locked eyes with the group.

Down at the end of the labyrinth, a lone guado stared at us as if we were demons from hell, and halted us with a hand.

The three of us briskly and impatiently stopped in front of the young guado, waiting for whatever reason he had stopped us.

“A woman told me to give this to you . . . “The guado handed Braska the note and ran off on his way. Braska read the note and his face softened.

“My wife . . . in about two weeks she’s sailing to see her brother.”

“Finally talking to you two again?” I asked.

“Wait, what?” Jecht was clueless, as usual.

“Loverboy here went down to the Al Bhed home. He wanted his people to unite with the Al Bhed. He met with Meilinna there and ran off with her into the desert—“

“That’s not exactly how it happe—“

“And.” I cut him off. “Not only that, but he even took her down to Bevelle and before you know it, the two are married and she’s about to have his child. You can imagine how enraged her brother Cid was, especially in light of the hatred between the common man and the Al Bhed.”

Braska looked down in resignation. “He’s right . . . but everything is going smoothly now. I just hope an Al Bhed in Bevelle doesn’t face too much adversity . . . “

We were silent, and then again continued on our way. I could already see the lighting in the distance . . .

::::::::::::

For once, my mind actually stopped going back to Zanarkand. Back to my son, my wife, my career . . . and blitzball. I missed them all, really. I had learned by then that the more you try not to think about something the more you think about it, so naturally I had to just forget about it all together.

“Zanarkand . . . is it really nothing but ruins?” Damn my homesickness, but I couldn’t help it.

They both sighed. Maybe they finally conceded to believe I was from Zanarkand . . . or maybe they were just fed up with me.

“Nothing but ruins, Jecht. I’m sorry.” Braska’s words, of course.

The three of us saw the glowing light of the save sphere in the distance, and it was then that I cursed myself again. Not for thinking about Zanarkand, but because I had gotten too used to that quiet. And before quiet there’s always another fight; and I should have known that it was coming. But I didn’t understand until it came, and when it came it truly came.

We all predicted it, and it was the time that Braska prepared to summon Shiva. The Chimera jumped for the trees, staring at us with those bloodied eyes, screaming that horrid scream and hissing at us with the snake of a tail.

Auron rolled his eyes; nothing seemed to shake this guy!

“Come on! I’ve fought old ladies tougher than you!”

Three white beams hit the ground, and as the beast roared in front of the sphere as a figure outlined itself while three huge blocks of ice fell before it. Its face became clear; a beautiful aeon; an ice goddess that calmed us simply with her presence. She dropped down towards us and landed swiftly, and then she tossed her blanket of ice. Braska grabbed it as Auron and I ran to safety, and the Chimera charged.

“Give it a piece of heaven.” Braska suggested. The aeon nodded and lifted her hands, and as if heaven itself was answering, a chunk of ice that made me cold just staring at it dropped from nowhere and crushed the beast, severely delaying it but not halting it.

Shiva elegantly dodged the beast as it ran for her.

“Anger of the unsent turns to hatred—“Auron yelled to me as Shiva cast a blizzaga spell at the unsuspecting creature that countered with a thundara.

“And then that hatred becomes fuel for a fiend. The greater the hatred, the stronger the fiend!” Auron finished as he watched Shiva place a perfect axe kick into the beasts head.

There was a sickening crack as it fell.

“Thank you.” Braska bowed his head slightly and the aeon silently nodded, before jumping into the dark sky and leaving our sight.

The three of us nodded to each other, and finally continued to the save sphere.

Braska touched the sphere slowly and our bodies felt rejuvenated. It recorded the records of our travels and stopped glowing.

“. . . Where to now?” I asked slowly.

“We’re headed through the thunder plains, and then Guadosalam. I haven’t talked to the guado in a while.” Braska thought aloud.

“Why are they called the thunder plains?” I asked. I saw the flash of lighting and then the sound of it; a place where the lighting’s strike always exceeded the sound of the thunder.

“You’ll find out.” Auron replied grimly.

We still had a ways to go out of Macalania forest, but for the first time, I really did feel invincible.


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