Lost Within Blood and Tears Already known characters belong to Squaresoft Chapter 6- Journey "Home is behind, the world ahead, And there are many paths to tread Through shadows to the edge of Night, Until the stars are all alight" -Lord of the Rings "Now what Capt?" Irvine asked light heartedly. "Through the fence." Rinoa said simply looking up at the fence and craning her neck to see the top. "Not through it. It's impossible." Zell said returning from a thorough examination of the fence. "There are no holes anywhere." Zell strode up to the thick chainlink and wiped his hands on his pants before grabbing onto the fence. "Only one way to go," He pointed a finger towards the sky,"up." "Are you kidding me?!!!!!" Irvine exclaimed clearly taken aback by this proposition. "It must be 40 feet high! You can't just climb over a 40 foot high fence! Squall-" Irvine siad throwing his hands up into the air and beseeching their leader. "No other way." The man replied simply. Squall grabbed hold of the chainlinks. "This is crazy!" Irvine muttered walking slowly up to the fence. He looked up and winced. "Oh come on Irvine!" Selphie said exasperated as she grabbed his hand and pushed him at the inscaleable fence. It was long, tedious, and utterly exhausting work but they made their way inch by greuling inch towards the top. "Now comes the hard part." Zell said. "Just whatever you do don't look down. It will be the worst thing you could posiibly do. Just hold on tight and swing one leg at a time onto the other side of this here fence. Then only down. Piece of cake." Easier said than done the martial artist thought to himself as he began rounding the giant fence. Oh shit he thoguht as he felt his sore, ripped hands slip on the hard metal from the crude mixture of rust, blood, and sweat oozing from his lacerated plams. He set his teeth attempting to ignore the pain as he pulled himself onto the other side. He would be glad when he was back on the ground. I swear I will never leave the ground again he swore to himself as he climbed steadily down. The rest of the crew rounded the top in the same fashion with more or less difficulty. (Selphie had gotten her dress caught on a stray metal spike and had to fiddle around for several minutes to free herself.) One by one they climbed over the top; then it was Irvine's turn. "You know guys this probably is a bad time to tell you this but I'm afraid of heights." He said from his position paralyzed with fear at the pinnical of the fence. "Whatever." Squall siad and continued climbing down towards the ground. "Let's go Irvie!" Selphie yeled encouragingly up at him. "Only on way to go and that's down. Unless you want to stay up there for the rest of your life" "I think I might just stay up here." He called down to her gulping. "You do and I'll be very angry with you. Now get over that top!" Being yelled at Irvine closed his eyes and gritted his teeth. He painstakingly planted his hands and swung one leg and then the other over the top. " That's a good boy" Selphie yelled up from the ground. Now that he was over the top and on the other side he was still frozen in terror. He refused to move. Selphie began shouting rather derogatory and embarassing things at him. He sat there clinging to the fence taking the abuse from his girlfriend until his anger snapped. He scurried down the fence in a fluster and rushed blindly at Selphie as soon as his feet had touched the ground. Selphie threw her arms around his neck. "Sorry. So sorry but I just had to get you down." Irvine could feel his anger as well as the urge to slap her drifting away as he listened to her words. "Well it worked." he said swinging the girl around in his arms hugging her tight. " Well then Capt I ask again where to next?" Irvine asked recovering as he placed Selphie down on her feet. A mischieveous smile played across his lips. "Don't know." Squall announced. "This is the puzzle part. Listen to this: An Amber Fire doth autum bring Hints of frost will never touch. Between light and fire, sunrise and set is the land thats bathed in light. Where the sun first kissed the land Can the path be seen at the end of days. Monerabi forever dwells on. "Beautiful." Rinoa announced breathtaken. Selphie and Quistis had the same dreamy eyed expressions on their faces as Rinoa had. The boys however were not as taken with poetry. "So what does it mean?" Zell questioned quizically. "If we knew what it meant we wouldn't be standing here now." Squall retorted cynically. "It was a rhitorical question." "Whatever." "We have to go east." Quitis said stepping up. "What?" The two bickering men exclaimed taken aback. "We have to go east." She repeated calmly and evenly to the blank expressions that beheld her. She pushed some blonde hair out of her eyes and pointed east. "At the coast we go North." "But how do you know that?" Zell asked flabbergasted at the new information given to him. "The poem." Quistis responded quietly. Thinking. "It says, ' Where the sun first kissed the land.' Well where does the sun rise?" Quistis asked patiently. Rinoa picked it up immediately."In the East. The most Eastern part of the world must be-" "Farther north." Selphie finnished as all three girls stared at each other, their eyes wide with revelation. The boys stood in dumbfounded confusion as they attempted the grasp the ephifany that had over taken the women. "Just follow us." Rinoa said to the dumbfounded men as the girls began walking. They were left with no choice but to follow. For hours upon end the six compainions walked on through the dense forest. Night came and went faithfully as they kept walking stopping only for sleeping and eating breaks. "This sucks." Zell announced on the third day of journeying in such a manner. "I need a break." Selphie whimpered crashing to her knees from exhaustion. "Come on Sefie." Irvine said picking her up and carrying her in his arms. Rinoa hung back a little walking slowly with Squall watching the others struggle slowly on in front of them. "Im tired Squall. Really tired." She said stumbling. "Me too." He agreed and pulled her closer to him. He slipped an arm around her waist, half to keep her from falling and half to be as close to her as possible. She leaned her head into the crook between his shoulder and neck resting it there. "Squall..." "Yeah" "How did she do it?" "Who?" Squall askd although he already knew the answer. "Malli. How did she do this? All alone. No one to help her Fighting all alone." Rinoa was now talking more to herself then to Squall and he knew it. "She was strong. Stronger than you or I can even imagine." He said soothingly trying to calm her thoughts. He tenderly placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "Not strong enough." She whispered. He now instantly knew what was bothering her. "Hey Rinoa" he said stopping turning her to face him. "Hey look at me," he said lifting her chin with his fingers so that she was forced to look into his eyes, the intense blue ones she knew so well. "Hey nothing is going to happen to you. You'll never be alone. I won't let it happen. You may be physically alone but I'll always be there. Always." He held her tightly. "I'll be here..." He began. "Why?..." she asked through her silent tears. " I'll be 'waiting'... here..." "For what?" She continued reliving the expirience that had touched her so deeply. "I'll be waiting... for you... so ... If you come here...You'll find me. I promise." He finished, holding her all the more tightly. I promise Rinoa he swore to himself and to her so long ago. He would keep that promise no matter what he vowed. I owe it to her and to me. I love her. "Lets catch up to the others." He said breaking the embrace. "Okay." She whispered back to him. "Yeah" He said encircling her with his strong arms and lifting her off her feet. "Shhh you need some rest." He scolded her as she attempted to get out of his arms. "Sleep." He gently bid her as he laid her head upon his chest. He walked off to find the others. ***** "We can't keep going tonight Squall!" Quistis pleaded to the man who was pacing up and down thoughtfully in front of the burning embers of what should be a fire. "We have to go on." He replied firmly ignoring her disheartening request. "What other choice do we have?" Squall began shouting as she protested loudly." We're out of supplies and our only chance to even remotely survive is to keep going! Let's get moving." He said more calmly and gazed up at the sparkling stars shrouded by the surrounding trees. " God help us" he whispered to the heavens as he stood transfixed by the mute hope of the moon. "Squall's right." Rinoa sighed drearily and pushed her tired aching body to her worn out feet. She stumbled over to Quitsis and jerked her softly up from the log she was sitting on. She shot a glare at Zell who was loungingagainst a stump resting his bruised and blistered feet. Taking the hint he ungracefully jumped to his own feet and motioned for both Irvine and Selphie to follow his lead. "Come on let's go!" Squall shouted a little more harshly than he had meant to when he saw them all just standing there looking like half-hearted zombies. He satlked away. "Oh just go to Hell Squall!" Rinoa muttered under her breath as she stumbled foreward her arm around Quistis'. And so the party moved on. And on... and on. Hours upon hours seeped by them painfully as they trudged on in their semi-concious state. For the last couple of days they had been traveling along the coasat always North and always keeping the water within sight. It was now the fifth day of walking and the fifth night of stumbling along and they had now reached it; the most eastern part of the world. "Damn!" Zell shouted wildly braeking the silence unpleasantly. "How could we have missed it!?" "Missed what?" Irvine shouted back irritably. All of them were well beyond the farthest regions of exhaustion with no rest and practically no food. And so Zell's abrupt outburst was not very well recieved. "This!" Zell said facing the water and waving his hands around wildly. "So he's finally cracked." Irvine stated in disgust and turned away. "No you idiot that is the most eastern part of the world!" Zell yelled and gestured at the water. "And how the hell owuld you know that?" Irvine bellowed at the frantic man. "Because that is the Island Closest to Heaven you dumbass!" "Holy shit..." Squall whispered as realization hit him. "Zell's right!" his voice grew in excitement and relief. "How could we have missed it! All of this time the thing we were searching for was the Island Closest to Heaven!" Squall was now screaming and jumping around for joy at the smae time. He ran over to Rinoa and picked he up and twirled her in circles while kissing her passionately. Everyone was staring at him for his public display of affection. They were all to amazed at how un-Squall-like of him this was to actually let the words sink in. They continued to satre at him dumbfounded but hell he didn't care. He was too relieved that their journey was almopst over to care. Irvine found his voice first." Umm hate to interrupt you guy's fun," he looked at Zell who was now jumping around for joy too, " but we still don't know what the second half of the poem means." "Read it again Squall." Selphie said enthusiasctically and shoved Irvine for being in such a bad mood. "Fine here it goes..." Squall began again. Once the reading was over they were found sitting cricle fashion on the coarse sand of the small beach they had found. "What do you think Quistis?" Squall asked the pensive woman. "Don't know but we should get onto that island don't you think?" "Island it is." He affirmed. "Ummm Squall... how exactly do you plan on getting over there?" Rinoa asked shyly pointing over her shoulder to the small speck of green in the distance. An uncomfortable pause passed between all present. Squall cursed at himself for not picking up on the fact that it was the Island Closest to Heaven earlier. If he had then they would at least of had Ragnorok he thought vehemently. " A boat." Zell said quietly. "Do you see a boat Zell!" Squall yelled snapping. Everyone's temper was on edge. "Hear me out! God just chill man!" Zell bellowed back and jumped to his feet like Squall had done at his boat proposal. Squall stepped menacingly foreward closing the gap and thickening the tension between the two. "Whatever." Squall said turning his back on Zell as Rinoa grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the martial artist opening the space once again. "Listen okay? We make a boat." Zell said with a michevious smile. "How?" Rinoa asked doubtfully. "Wood, those reeds in the water over there, seaweed, spit, sand, and shoelaces." Zell said confidently. "What!" was the common explaination. There was even a "What are you smoking?" from Selphie which Zell just brushed off. "Just go and help me get the stuff." Zell instructed his dubious friends while trying to keep from laughing his head off at their dumbfounded expressions. "Okay you heard the man. Now let's move out!" Irvine cried out still baffled about how to make a boat from spit, sand and shoelaces. Quistis went down to the water and began grabbing all the seaweed she could find, dry and wet alike. Irvine and Selphie ransacked the nearly empty packs for anything they could salvage. Rinoa nad Squall got branches and logs from the forest while Zell went to work pulling out reeds for the boat. These reeds Zell soon found out were a lot toougher than they looked for he was sent sprawling over onto his back multiple times. "What's he planning?" Rinoa asked her beau as they lifted the heavy logs and the smaller branches back to the beach. "Who knows. It's Zell we're talking about." Squall answered with a shrug of his shoulders. When they had regrouped Zell took inventory. "Enough wood- check, seaweed- check, reeds- double check, sand- yup, spit- hope so, shoelaces- could use more than two but okay, we got some rope, backpacks, pocket knife, blanket, matches, weapons if need be, and-" he paused taking a good look at the item in front of him, "umm... Bubblelicious Bubble Gum? Oh well we'll find some use for that. You ready gang?" he posed the question to the group brightly. "ummm...." was the reply. "Good lets get to work. Squall help me place these logs about 5 inches apart. Irvine tightly pack the reeds in between the logs. Quitsis put damp seaweed over the reeds. Selphie take the shoelaces and the blanket use some sticks and make a makeshift sail. Rinoa grab one of those sacks. Get some sand, dry seaweed and you see those leaves over there? The big ones? Good get them and crush them and add them into the sack with the sand and the seaweed. Then get some water in your mouth and spit it out into the bag. Lots of spit. Mix it and plaster it onto the bottom of the raft and all the cracks okay? Good everyone you got your assignments lets go." Despite a few 'minor' setbacks the boat ( or makeshift raft more approbriately names) was ready to sail in about a couple of hours. "Let's set sail me maties." Zell said cheerfully clearly proud of his workmanship skills. The sparkling gap of water was swiftly crossed with only one casualty, Selphie was thrown overboard by a rogue wave. Otherwize the going was pretty good A lot better than it had been for the last couple of days. "Well here we are and onto the last peice of the puzzle." Selphie said concideringly. She plopped down on the grass grass sticking to her still wet dress. "Only there can the path be seen at the end of days" Rinoa repeated the tricky lines of the poem. "What can it mean? She asked herself bting her lip and fingering her necklace. Minutes passed in silence . Fright, pain, hunger, exhaustion, thirst all forgotten as they sat in perplexity. "End of days" Rinoa repeated again now pacing back and forth. "End of days, end of days, end of days..." she murmered over and over again almost chanting. "What the hell does it mean?" She asked herslf again in fustration. She stopped pacing and gazed into the sky with some shred of hope that in their desperation it would provide the answer for her. "I got it!" She shouted suddenly forcing everyone to jerk their heads up and look at her as if she were an escaped mental patient. "End of days" she yelled, " The sunset! It's the end of the day!" She cried pointing to the orange disk of the sun dipping below the cliffs on the continent they had just left behind. "Okay Rin if you say so but then where is it?" Squall aked looking around. "Over there" Quistis cried out and gasped in amazement. The light from the sun which was dipping behind the cliffs had angled down casting rays onto the island. The sun hit the water in sparkling water at an angle in which a rockledge was revealed under the water. The ledge inpossible to see except for the angle of the glowing sun. The sun made the water shine a bright orange so tangeble like liquid fire running down to unimaginable fathoms. In the midst of this orange fire lay a narrow strip still sparkling blue because of the rock underneath the water. "This is just too wierd." Zell said shaking his head. "Oh well. Lets just get this thing over with." Squall muttered taking a deep breath. Squall walked out onto the blue forst, testing it for all the others who would follow his first footsteps. "Safe." He yelled back to them when he had walked a few feet. The water felt good and cool to them as it pooled around their feet and ankles. The water was at most a foot deep in parts making the journeyy easy yet treacherous with the slippery algea. "No wonder no one has ever found it." Zell said "Hidden away enough isn't it?" "Yeah" Squall said looking ahead at the cliffs looming in front of them; maybe their destination or maybe just another obstacal to be conquered. A strange feeling began creeping into his stomach. Not one of warning or even foreboding. More like some invisable force was drawing him in. There was power here, unimaginable power as well as something really important for them to find. He could feel it. They had crossed yet another stretch of water. The sun had now set completely eaving them to the velvety blackness of night. The thick tangable darkness gradually enveloped them as the waded through the cool water to what would await them. Guided by the scattered and fragmented light of stars and the not yet risen moon they were forced on. All felt relief as their feet touched bare stone notr slipperly algea coated rocks. The water ebbed slowly away from their feet as they walked alone a narrow strip of stone at the base of the cliffs. Water cascaded to their right as a tremedous waterfall spilled over the cliffs coating them with the spray. "Hey guys there is only one way off this little slab of rock besides the way we came on." Zell bellowed over the roar of the water. "What is it" Squall yelled back but the sound of the rushing water was blotting out almost everything. Zell attempted to yell his reply but it became unintellagable by the sound of water frilling their ears. Instead he raised his hand and beckoned for them to follow. Squall greabbed Rinoa's hand holding it tightly as he led her in the direction Zell had taken. The others took their lead and followed closely as the pressednearer and nearer to the thundering falls. They were blinded by the stinging spray and pelted by the falling sheets of heavy rain from the falling water. Zell led them along the base of the cliff to the very end of the rock wall where it met the falls. It was a dead end. They were all by this point holding hands tightly for fear of being swept away by the water and also for limited sight. Through the dense water Irvine could make out the sheer rock face through the blinding sheets of spray and tried to turn back only to be yanked back by Zell's pull on the entire line. He had no choice but to follow blindly. Zell forced aside some tangeled and thick growing vines along the face of the wall revealing a cavern within it's depts. He led them into the safety of the tunnel and away from the sharp stinging pain of the pelting water. It took a few minutes for their eyes to painfully adjust to the dim light of the cave. As they became accoustomed to the near pitch blackness they gazed around them to realize that the vines through which they had passed had grown so thick and tangeled as to pass for a mossy green wall. Amazingly those vines seemed to block out all sound of the rushing water that cascaded hundreds of feet right outside. "Over there." Rinoa said pointing ahead into the deep darkness of the tunnel. Her voice echoed eearily through the small space richocetting and reverberating off of the enclosed walls of the surprisingly dry and warm tunnel. They looked in the direction she was pointing following the path she was indicating silently with their eyes until they saw it; a faint glowing in the distance, a pinprick in the fabric of unsurmountable blackness. From somewhere in the depts a faint breeze played about them in teasing little whiffs. "Looks like that must be the place." Irvine stated plainly and began to walk. The rest just shrugged their shoulders and walked off to that faint candle of hope in the hopelessness that surrounded them, the dark that consumed them. Their footsteps echoed and resonated off the dark walls making them feel like they were being followed by an army of hundreds instead of the meagar six individuals that they were. The sound of their passing was loud even with the growth of lichens and mosses upon the bare ground. The breeze that had first teased them was now growing stronger to caress their skin as their little window of light grew larger. "Look I can see the way out!" Selphie yelled rather loudly in her excitement. "Owww Selph" Irvine whimpered as the sound of her voice echoed every which direction off the walls and back to them hurting their ears with the concentrated volume of it. "Ooppps! Sorry!" She whispered her apology to them. "Well found the way out." "We know." "Ohh..." "Let's just go and finish this thing." Squall said moving into the lead with Rinoa in tow. They went swiftly through the last few hundred feet of the tunnel emerging into the bright moonlight. "Oh hyne" Rinoa gasped moving her hand towards her mouth. "Beautiful" was the word that had escaped Irvine's mouth as they all looked for the first time on the lost land of Monerabi. As far as the eye could see stretched lnad more fair than any ever seen before. Rolling hills were dotted by massive forests of lush green with sparkling silver brak of which the like was never before seen. Lakes speckled the landscape as mighty rivers ran through it making ribbons of lace underneath the myraids of stars. None of them could speak. No words could ever do this place justice as they stood gazing wide-eyed in wonderment on the legendary Monerabi laid out before them. "It's beautiful." Zell managed to croak out in a tight whisper. "Beauty is often lethal." A cold menacing voice came from behind them. Author's note: So this is the end of Chapter 6 and also pretty much the end of all the happy stuff for a little while. Hope you're liking it and that you'll keep reading it if you got this far. Any question or comment e-mail me at CrazESchmamE@aol.com BYE!!!!