Destiny: Memories of Water Chapter 4
A Crusader and a Blitzball
By IceWolf645
Fayths.. I’d heard the word before. They were the spirits of those who’d died in the war between Zanarkand and Bevelle a thousand or so years ago. They had the ability to grant a summoner with Aeons like Bahamut. I still remembered his majestic form, so powerful and yet so gentle, a knight in shining draconian armor. He was the dragon who had invaded so many of my dreams.
Yet he wasn’t the dragon I’d seen last. The dragon who had slain the serpent wasn’t black with multi-colored, feathery wings. He was golden like the sun, and his eyes were like pools of deep water. He reminded me of something, or someone. Maybe that’s why I’d fainted when I’d laid eyes on the creature, because I knew that my dream couldn’t have been real.
Dream away..
I closed my eyes, and felt a sort of rushing feeling.
You don’t belong here..
Water was all around me. The pressure was almost unbearable..
I should have killed you when I had the chance..
I couldn’t breathe. I was suffocating.
Should have annihilated your body and soul..
Voices were calling to me. I couldn’t move. I wanted to go towards them.
I thought that you were gone!
Whistling..
Stop haunting me!
Awakening..
~*~*~*~*~*~
I blinked my eyes to remove the sleep from them and sat up. I’d dozed off. The sun was high in the sky, smiling down on the village smugly, as if it knew about the events that had occurred the day before. I squinted and turned my eyes away. Yuna was talking to a group of people next to the remainders of a hut. Wakka, Lulu, and Sanya were salvaging what they could from their home, and Rikku and Ruka were sitting by Kimahri, who was still sleeping as far as I could tell.
I stood up, or at least I tried. As soon as I did I lost my balance and toppled over. I heard someone chuckling and turned. A man was standing behind me, leaning against a tree with his arms crossed. He had long, pony-tailed, black hair and serious brown eyes. A large sword rested in a hilt that was strapped across his armored back. He looked a few years older than me, maybe twenty. I put both of my hands on my hips and glared at the amused look on his face. He glared back, as if challenging me silently to do something about it.
“Oooh.. scary..” I commented before standing up again. I swayed once, but I kept my bare feet rooted to the ground. “And you are?” I asked.
“Oryon,” he said shortly. “I’m a Crusader.” His brown eyes never moved from staring into my own blue ones as he spoke.
“My name’s Destiny,” I said.
“I know,” he replied, smirking slightly. “You’re the one who summoned the Dragon, right?” He chuckled to himself and shook his head. “You must be quite powerful, to be able to summon. And here’s everyone thinking that Aeons were things of the past.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How do you know that I did it? Is it because I was so near the serpent when it appeared?”
He smiled. “I wouldn’t know, I never saw it. Everyone else is talking about it though.”
“Oh,” I said. I noticed that he was very muscular. I wouldn’t have liked to be on the other side of a fight with him, to honestly tell you the truth. He looked like he’d been fighting ever since he was a little kid. I wasn’t afraid of him, though. He reminded me of something.. something, probably, from my lost past. I figured that maybe I’d met him before. I sighed as I thought and looked up into the sky and racked my brain for a sign of a memory.
“Something wrong?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh! Uhm, no.. it’s nothing,” I said and blushed at the quizzical look he gave me. I was still getting an awkward feeling that I knew him, but I didn’t say anything else, even though I didn’t like the silence. It made me feel weird, plus Oryon was staring at me with those piercing russet eyes like he was taking me apart piece by piece. I had a strange feeling that he could read my mind. I shuddered mentally. It wasn’t a very nice feeling.
“You should meet our top man, Lady Yuna. He’s our number one young Crusader, and we just recruited him last year,” a man stated, pushing me rudely out of the way. I crossed my arms. I had the sudden urge to give him a black eye. “His name’s Oryon Deltinger, from Bevelle,” the man said, leading Yuna forward by the hand. Oryon rolled his eyes at the man when he had his back turned, and I started giggling. Oryon smirked as well, but restored his face to its serious self when the man turned around.
Yuna bowed. “It’s nice to meet you, Sir,” she said gently. I could see a bit of distraction in her eyes, though. It was like she was thinking the exact same thing that I had been. She looked as if she knew this man.
“Likewise,” Oryon said with a small chuckle at the man, who I had grabbed by the collar and thrust behind me, just to get back at him. He cringed and stayed there. He was a wimp in wolf’s clothing, you could say. Anyone could go around with a sword calling themselves a ‘Crusader’.
Yuna shook her head at me and put a hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter. She knew it was bad manners, but you have to admit, a girl grabbing a big, strong, muscular guy by the collar and throwing him off to the side like a rag doll would be pretty funny. The man sighed in despair and wandered off, kicking at a few pebbles on the ground angrily.
“Oh! Destiny, that was mean,” she chortled. I shrugged.
“Hey! He pushed ME first. I have the right to defend myself,” I said with a grin.
Yuna smiled. “I guess you’re right. I wouldn’t have liked it, either, if someone had pushed me. Though I’m not sure I would’ve done THAT, but..” she stopped and turned back to Oryon. “We’re sorry sir.”
“It’s fine,” he said gruffly. “That was.. amusing.”
I felt the strange feeling again and excused myself. I didn’t feel like trying to rack my brain for memories at that moment. I wandered around the village for a bit and sat on the temple steps to watch some kids playing with a blitzball for a while, listening to their conversation.
“When I grow up, I’m going to be the best blitzball player on Spira!” a little girl with short brown hair and emerald green eyes said. “It’s what Daddy would’ve wanted..” she said, tears springing to her eyes quickly.
Her friend, a boy with curly black hair and turquoise eyes ran over to her. “Don’t cry Shia! Daddy’s in the Farplane now. He’s with Grandma and Papa. I bet he’s really happy there too!” He gave his ‘sister’ a hug and kissed her on the forehead.
“B-b-but I didn’t want Daddy to leave.. I-I told him to s-stay with us in t-the temple, but he didn’t listen!” she sobbed, hugging her little brother back. I bit my lip. Her ‘Daddy’ had probably been killed by the serpent. I wondered briefly about my own father. What he’d been like, what his name had been, whether or not he’d looked like me, you know, that kind of stuff. After a while of thinking a fuzzy image popped into my head, but I couldn’t make it out. I sighed and rubbed my forehead. Trying to remember things like that made me feel funny. It also lead to me wondering about my mother. What had she been like?
I don’t know how long I sat there trying to remember my family, but when I’d come back to reality, the two children were gone. The blitzball, however, still sat in the dust. I walked over to it and kicked it lightly. The blitzball brought back a brief memory. It was very wet and bright lights were shining everywhere. Other people were around me, and a large crowd was surrounding me. I felt like I was the center of attention. The crowd was cheering wildly, whistling, and waving banners in their hands happily. A buzzer sounded and half of the crowd gave a great rumbling shout of joy, while the other half stayed silent. Before I knew it the memory had passed, and I just stood there, dumbfounded, staring at the little blue and white-striped ball. What had I just remembered? Was that blitzball?
I kicked the ball again, a bit harder than I’d meant to. It sailed through the air towards the temple, just barely missing an old man who was coming from its doors. He shook a fist at me angrily, and I shouted a quick apology before hurrying away.
“Destiny, c’mere,” someone shouted. I turned to the side, and saw Sanya waving at me from the pile of ashes that had once been a hut. “We could use some help, ya?”
“Okay!” I shouted back, hurrying over to them. I would do anything to get my mind away from the past.