Fiction Fragment Fridays: Chrono Trigger Timeless (The Future)

I still haven’t had time to get back into my Final Fantasy novelization (I really need to get some organization up in this thing I call my life), so for the third week in a row, here’s a clip from my Chrono Trigger novelization. This one is from the scene when Chrono and the girls first discover that they have truly traveled to the future and that it has been destroyed because of the evil creature, Lavos.

Enjoy!

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net

“Lucca…” he whispered, “What year are we in?”

Lucca shook herself back to the moment, her eyes wide and mouth dry. She examined another console for a few moments before finding the answer. “We’re…” she stumbled, “We’re in the year 2300 A.D.”

Chrono could barely stand under the weight of the words. “2300…” he whispered, “That thing screwed up the world so much that the survivors couldn’t drag themselves out of it in 300 years?” He couldn’t help imagining it…that awful creature rampaging through the lands…all the survivors holed up in the domes, hiding and scared…slowly, over time, they would begin to run out of supplies. For a while they probably went out in search of new supplies, but the land wasn’t helpful and people began to die…soon there were only a handful of survivors in each dome, struggling just to keep moving forward.

“No!” Marle cried suddenly, “No way! I refuse to accept it!” She jumped to her feet, tears of anger streaming down her face. “This…this can’t be the way the world ends!”

Lucca looked at her with miserable eyes. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t figure out what to say.

“Marle…” Chrono sighed.

“Chrono!” she shouted back. She stomped up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. “There’s only one thing we can do! We must change history! Just like you did when you saved me!” Her eyes were so full of light and hope that Chrono couldn’t look away. “We have to figure out how this happened, and we have to change it!” She ran to Lucca and shook her. “Okay Lucca?!” she cried.

“I…” Lucca stumbled, “I…guess so…” She seemed uncomfortable and unsure of herself.

Marle ran back to Chrono and grabbed him by the face, forcing him to look directly into her eyes. “Chrono…” she said quietly, “Please…”

Lucca was starting to come into the idea. “We can’t just go back to our own world and live comfortably after seeing this…” she spoke to herself, “Especially since it’s going to happen in our time…really, it was a stroke of luck that the Gate sent us here…”

Chrono was still staring into Marle’s eyes. There were so many emotions there…fear, desperation, sorrow…and hope. Slowly, Chrono raised his arms and mirrored Marle’s stance, holding her face in his hands. “Let’s do it,” he whispered with a smile.

“Chrono!” Marle sobbed. She collapsed toward him in a huge hug before stepping back and swiping the tears away from her eyes. “Chrono, Lucca…” she said, “We can do this together…I’m sure of it!”

Lucca nodded, suddenly very sure of everything, and grinned. “There is absolutely no way we will fail!” she insisted, “We know about Gates now, and we have the Gate Key. All we have to do is find an era with answers about where that creature came from.”

Normally it would have sounded like an insane statement, but somehow Chrono knew they could do it. “Then we’d better get going!” he announced.

“Next stop, Proto Dome!” Lucca cried, pumping a fist into the air.

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Chrono Trigger Timeless (Execution)

Since I’m currently attempting to catch up on my Final Fantasy novelization, I thought I’d share another scene from the Chrono Trigger novelization this week. This scene pairs with the last one as the scene in which Chrono is dragged off to the guillotine. In the game I always preferred to ensure that Chrono was found guilty so that I could skip trying to escape the jail. 😛

Enjoy!

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net
—–

Chrono stared up at the ceiling of his tiny, windowless jail cell, wondering what time of day it was. How much time had passed? What was going on in the outside world? Did his mother know what had happened yet? What about Lucca? Did any of the people he’d lived his entire life with have any idea what had happened to him, or more importantly, what was soon to happen to him? How was Marle reacting? He wished he could see her again. The image of her tear-stained face being pulled away from him in the courtroom had haunted him since he’d been thrown in this light-free cell.

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Chrono Trigger Timeless (Trial)

During one National Novel Writing Month I decided to be a “rebel” and write fan fiction. That fan fiction was another novelization like my Final Fantasy piece, but this time based on another super-popular Square game: Chrono Trigger. I barely made it a third of the way through the storyline before NaNoWriMo was over and I moved back on to other things, but I fully intend on returning to this project once I’ve finished the Final Fantasy novels.

In the meantime, I thought I’d share a scene from what was always one of my favorite parts of the game: Chrono’s trial. Enjoy!

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net
—–

“Members of the court!” called out the judge with a strong voice, “We present to you the defendant, Chrono, who is charged with abducting Princess Nadia.”

The chancellor barely let the judge finish his sentence before stepping forward and approaching the jury. “What shall we do with him?” he asked casually, as though asking them what they would like to have for lunch, “Fire perhaps? Hang him upside-down for a few years? Or…shall we employ the guillotine?”

A Monday Miscellany

I thought that I’d take the opportunity of a Monday morning to mention a few random things that bear mentioning. Monday mornings are excellent for that sort of thing, I think.

First and foremost are the changes I’ve made to my blog. If you’re reading this post via my blog itself, rather than a WordPress reader of some kind, then you’ll see that I’ve changed the appearance. I think this theme looks a little neater, a little cleaner, and mostly just a little different. I found that my old theme was starting to stagnate at the back of my brain. In addition to the theme change I’ve changed the header image. The old image was a stock photo I found and wrote my blog’s name over top of. The new image is actually a photo of a couple of my notebooks laying on top of each other. I think it gives a more personal feel to the blog, knowing that those are my actual words in my actual handwriting. Plus, since the rest of the blog theme is pretty much just black and white, the little splash of different pen colors brightens the whole thing up a bit, am I right?

I also changed the little profile image on my blog from the little cartoon character I had to an actual photo of myself. This change comes from a bit of advice in Kristen Lamb’s Rise of the Machines: Human Authors in a Digital World. Basically what it boils down to is that a good picture is an important part of an author platform, and it makes something like a blog a lot more “real” because of the ability to see the face of the person “talking”. All in all, I think that it looks professional, even if it’s not the best picture in the world. One of these days I’ll take the time to get a good “author picture” taken, but for now this is what you get. 🙂

Finally, as far as the blog goes, I’ve added a “Linkables” page (yes, I know, linkables is not a word, but sue me for trying to be a bit whimsical) where I’ve listed a few of my favorite sites and blogs. Have a look! You might find something interesting.

In other news, I’ve been making a valiant effort to make contact with Square Enix recently, with the intent of discussing my novelization of one of their most beloved games, Final Fantasy III (VI in Japan). I’m neither confident nor foolish enough to hope that they might want to publish what will eventually be two rather involved books (though that would be truly amazing). My hope is that I can obtain legal permission from the gaming company to publish my work as two free e-books, that way I wouldn’t be infringing on their copyright, but I would be able to gain some publicity and share my books with lots of video game lovers who aren’t necessary fan fiction readers. At least, that’s the plan. Unfortunately I’ve had no luck contacting the company so far. They don’t seem to closely monitor their several Twitter accounts, and though their website has a very detailed page that explains the process for submitting unsolicited material, I’ve now been waiting a week just to hear back about the release form I’m supposed to be sent before being allowed to submit my request. I understand that these things can take time when dealing with huge companies, but I really did believe that the form would be fairly quick to come, even if the request itself took months to be replied to. Have I mentioned before that I’m not one for all this waiting nonsense?

Lastly, just because I can, I want to congratulate all the amazing Canadian athletes who have bagged medals at the Sochi Olympics so far, and I wish the best of luck to all those who have yet to compete. You’re an amazing group of people and I wish I had one hundredth of your ability and determination. Kudos!

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Returning Hope (Chapter 5 – Part 4)

Continuing on with Final Fantasy: Returning Hope!

Reminder: If you’re looking for the previously posted parts of the story, go to the “Categories” drop-down banner on the left banner of the site and choose “Final Fantasy: Returning Hope”.

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net

Terra sunk a little in her chair. Locke chuckled and gave her a quick pat on the shoulder.

The area with the long table was packed. There were at least three times as many Returners as Terra had originally estimated, and many of them were looking at her with interest as they chatted and waited for the meeting to begin.

“Alright!” Banon spoke above the crowd from his place at the head of the table. The crowd quieted and turned all their attention to him. “First, we all know that the Empire is using this strange Magitek power in battle. The question is, how has the Emperor created this man-made magic?” Here he paused and looked to Edgar, who stood and cleared his throat.

“I had heard a rumor,” he told the room, “That the Empire is forcing the world’s finest scholars to study espers and esper lore. Locke looked into it for me.”

“It seems to be true, although I haven’t been able to officially confirm it,” said Locke, who refused to stand when he spoke. “All the trouble in Narshe was over an esper too.”

Terra’s mind flashed to the strange, beautiful creature, encapsulated in ice, staring, eternal… “Do you mean,” she said quietly, “That there’s a connection between espers and the power that the Empire wields?”

Banon nodded gravely. He linked his fingers in front of his face and peered over them. “I can think of only one thing that would liken espers to machines that seem to use magical powers.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Terra noticed that Edgar’s face dropped in a strange way. His mouth opened a little and a half sentence escaped. “You can’t mean…?”

“Indeed,” Banon answered. He projected his voice to ensure everyone would hear. “The ancient War of the Magi.”

A gasp went throughout the crowd.

“No!” cried one woman.

“You can’t be serious!” exclaimed another.

Terra glanced around, bewildered at the shock and horror on the faces of the Returners. Gloriously ignorant, she asked, “What’s the War of the Magi?” No one seemed to hear her.

“My Grandma used to tell me stories about magical machines that existed long ago,” Locke told Edgar, eyes wide. “Could they have been true?”

“Could that ancient tragedy be playing out again?” Edgar responded in question.

“This is all just speculation,” Banon’s loud voice brought a bit of order back to the room. “But historical studies have provided a number of conflicting and frightening theories about the War. According to one of the more common theories, humans and machines were imbued with magical powers drained from espers.”

“And devastation was the result,” Edgar growled, “Since you can only fight magic enemies with magic weapons!”

Banon nodded. “But one way or another, the War ended. How is the missing link that may help us.” Here his eyes locked on Terra. “It may be risky, but that esper in Narshe reacted to Terra… If we have her ‘speak’ with it, it may just wake up and-”

“I wonder if that’s wise?” Edgar interrupted, frowning.

Banon shrugged, flicking his gaze to the young king. “Who’s to say?” he admitted. “But regardless, we aren’t particularly burdened with options. We need to try something, anything, if it will help us understand our situation and come up with a way to fight the Empire. And for that we need Terra’s help.”

Terra felt every eye on her and cringed. But she was also thinking about the esper again, about its piercing gaze. She vaguely remembered the scream as the second soldier vanished. But the esper hadn’t hurt her. She’d simply passed out. Perhaps it wouldn’t be dangerous at all. Perhaps the beautiful creature would be grateful to Terra for freeing it from its icy slumber. Perhaps it would give Terra some answers…tell her what she…

“I’ll do it!” she exclaimed. Several people jumped in surprise.

“What nonsense!” Sabin laughed, teasing. “You sound almost as if you’re enjoying this!”

Banon ignored the excited whispers and Sabin’s banter and gave Terra a warm smile. “Thank you,” he told her. “You have no idea how much we all appreci-”

The slam of a door and the clatter of several crates bouncing across the stone floor interrupted Banon’s moment of gratitude. Several people rose from their chairs and all heads turned to look as a young man stumbled into the room and fell to his knees. Terra recognized him as the young man who had led them into the hideout earlier. His dark hair was pasted to his slick forehead and he was gasping as though there wasn’t enough oxygen left on the planet to fill his lungs.

Banon rose from his seat. “What’s going on?” he demanded. “What’s happened?”

“S…South Figaro,” the young man struggled with every syllable. “Empire…t-took South F…Figaro…coming…this way!”

The panic was tangible. Terra swore she could feel each heart rate quicken, each breath shorten.

“But why?” Edgar exclaimed. “South Figaro is a peaceful fishing town! What use could the Empire possibly have for-”

“They’ve found us,” Banon groaned. “We haven’t a moment to lose!” Terra watched in confusion as the Returners’ leader began quickly doling out evacuation orders.

“Locke!” cried Edgar.

“I know,” replied Locke. “Someone has to sneak into South Figaro and slow the Empire down, right?”

“This is right up your alley,” said Edgar with a grim smile.

“No!” Terra cried, surprising both men. “You can’t go alone!”

Locke smiled that soft, infuriating smile, and placed a hand on Terra’s head. “Don’t you worry about me. This is what I do. I’ll be just fine.” Terra tried to argue, but Locke plowed on, not to be interrupted. “Wait for me in Narshe, and please, don’t let a lecherous young king, who shall remain nameless, anywhere near you!”

“Locke!” Edgar screamed, his face red. He grabbed madly at the other, but Locke had already run, howling with mad laughter, toward the exit. Terra watched him go with a frown on her face and a worried crease on her brow.

Sabin, who seemed to be immune to the concept of panic, was roaring at the rage on Edgar’s face. “Oh big brother,” he chuckled loudly. “Won’t you ever grow up?”

Banon had appeared behind them. “Everyone is heading out through the back tunnels,” he explained. “They’re going to scatter until further notice, but I think we four should head directly to Narshe.”

Edgar put aside his anger long enough to agree. “Yes, I want to see that esper for myself, and we really shouldn’t waste time. We can head down the Lete River.”

The men all agreed, but given the strange look on Banon’s face, Terra had a very bad feeling about the decision.

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Returning Hope (Chapter 5 – Part 1)

Continuing on with Final Fantasy: Returning Hope!

Reminder: If you’re looking for the previously posted parts of the story, go to the “Categories” drop-down banner on the left banner of the site and choose “Final Fantasy: Returning Hope”.

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net

Sabin knew the mountains like the back of his hand. Within only a little over four hours he’d led them down a back pathway, out into a green and flat ravine between ranges, and well on their way to the Sabil Mountains to the northeast. On the hike the brothers caught up with each other with help from Locke on the most recent events. Terra was concerned about the part of the story that revealed her abilities, but Sabin’s reaction to the news was one of calm interest.

“Magic, eh?” he said, smiling at her. “Master Duncan used to talk about how alike to magic some of his techniques are.”

Terra nodded enthusiastically, thinking of Vargas’ strange and powerful wind attack.

“Of course it’s not really magic,” he explained further. “The details are a closely-guarded secret, but the techniques I perform stem from a harnessing of physics, nature, and the power of illusion.”

“I…I don’t understand,” Terra admitted. Edgar and Locke also looked as though they were quietly struggling with this information.

“Well, for example,” Sabin said to Terra, “What sort of magic can you do?”

Without giving it a second thought, Terra lifted her palms and conjured a small flame between them.

Sabin smiled. “Now, there you have it,” he chuckled, impressed and amused. “See, you can pull fire out of the air. Where once there was nothing, now there is flame, using nothing other than your desire for it to be so.”

Terra nodded.

“But how is what you were taught different then?” Locke asked, thoroughly interested.

“If flame is already present, I can manipulated it.” As a demonstration, Sabin performed a strange movement with his hand that caused Terra’s flame to wiggle and dance. “But I cannot create.” He dropped his hand and Terra let the flame disappear. “Vargas commanded a very old technique that allowed him to guide the movement of air,” Sabin explained further. “But it only worked well in the mountains, where air currents are easily bounced off the rock.”

“It’s quite amazing, I must admit,” Edgar spoke up. “That move you did was…dizzying, to say the least.”

Sabin nodded soberly, his recollection more sobering than proud. “It’s more of an illusion than anything,” he modestly insisted. “The victim sees more punches than are actually being thrown, and thus doesn’t know which ones to block.”

Terra envisioned the rocket-fast punches she’d barely been able to keep track of and understood.

“What I do is the result of years of practice and dedication,” Sabin said, then turned to Terra with a grin. “But what you do…well, that’s something genuinely amazing.”

He seemed to be in such honest awe that Terra found herself quietly repeating his words in her head for the remainder of the hike.

5 Reasons You Should Be Writing Fan Fiction

As I mentioned yesterday in my accountability post, for the next little while I’m setting aside my work-in-progress and picking up my Final Fantasy III/VI novelization fan fiction. Now here’s the thing… There are a lot of writers (and readers) out there who think very poorly of fan fiction. They think its not “real” writing, or they associate it with a bunch of creepy, sweaty fanboys/girls sitting in a dark room, plucking out a wish fulfillment fantasy where a disturbingly perfect character who just so happens to have their exact name gets it on with Buffy or Edward Cullen, or one of the My Little Ponies (*wigged-out-shudder*). And yes, that stuff does exist, and there’s a special place for it far, far away from me, but there is also a lot of good fan fiction out there if you care to look for it, and I personally believe that fan fiction serves several very important purposes in the writing community.

1. It gives you a break and let’s you enjoy writing for a while.
Even those of us who love writing with all out heart and soul want to smash our computer against a wall and/or burn all our notebooks every now and then. Things happen (writer’s block, bad critiques, lost work that wasn’t backed up, etc) that enrage us and make us want to give up on writing forever. That’s where fan fiction can be helpful; it’s easy (because the world is already created for you), it’s fun (because you get to write your favorite characters), and it keeps you moving forward. You might even find, while writing fan fiction, that you come up with a great idea to continue that original fiction you so recently considered tossing off a cliff. Seriously, give it a try…you might find that writing a bit of fan fiction considerably lowers your writing-related stress.

2. It gives you practice and let’s you get the “bad” out.
Yes, I’ll admit it, a lot of the fan fiction out there is beyond awful. But have you ever heard that oft-repeated adage: “Practice makes perfect”? Lame, perhaps, but true. No one ever wrote a masterpiece on their very first try. With the vast, near limitless options to toy with, fan fiction offers you that ability to keep practicing and practicing and practicing, which can only help you become better. Scrawling fan fiction helps you to get down your bad writing, see that it’s bad, and then make it better. Any writing will do this, of course, but fan fiction makes it easier because instead of struggling with your one story over and over again, or constantly wracking your brain to come up with new ideas, you can just jump in someone else’s sandbox and play away.

3. You can just jump in someone else’s sandbox and play away.
Some people say that nothing worth doing is easy. I beg to differ. Yes, effort is a big deal and most things in life are going to be difficult, but sometimes, to keep ourselves from going mad, we have to find the easy out. Fan fiction is that in spades. This is a whole world that has already been created for you, with established characters who have already had tons of work put into them. All you have to do is think of something for them to be doing. That’s it. Play away. Have some fun! Explore! As children this is how we learn and grow, but as adults we forget the importance of real play. Take a page out of the book of babies and toddlers and learn via good old fun and exploration!

4. The community is extremely powerful.
There are lots of websites out there for sharing fan fiction, but the one in particular that I use is FanFiction.net. It’s a great site with a great community, and chances are if you share something there someone is going to find it, read it, and comment on it, and that is pure gold for a writer. We crave feedback, even if its not necessarily good feedback. We want to know, at the very least, that someone is reading. Fan fiction is wonderful for this because of the vast numbers of people who enjoy it. For example, years back I wrote a Harry Potter fan fiction featuring the Marauders. I finished that story years ago, and to this day I get the occasional review landing in my inbox. It might not sound like much, but a single review on a story you wrote ages ago can really mean a lot when you’re currently struggling with your current works. Community is important to keep a writer sane and moving forward, and the fan fiction community is a surprisingly strong one.

5. It keeps you writing.
When you’re a writer (or you aspire to be) actually writing is the most important thing to do. In this brave new world of writing conventions, social media, and author platforms, writers tend to forget that the real deal is putting words to paper. Fan fiction helps with this. Any kind of writing – even the creepy kind I mentioned earlier that I have a restraining order out against – is worth doing if it keeps you putting words to paper. There is no writer without the process of writing, so whatever you can write to keep that process moving forward is a good thing to write.

So now that I’ve thoroughly convinced you, what are you waiting for? Fan fiction could be just the thing you need! I know it’s what I need right now, so I’ll see you all on the other side of a new chapter of Returning Hope.

Accountability Tuesdays – Week 20

You know what I hate? Like, really, full-on, have-to-hold-myself-back-from-flying-into-a-rage hate? People at airports hocking credit cards. It’s not just the fact that I don’t like having crap hocked at me, or that I find it incredibly annoying when I’m rushing toward my gate and someone starts shouting interest rates at me, although those things are part of it. No, what I really hate is the insufferable persistence. Even if its not me they’re talking to, I loathe hearing a credit card salesperson continue spewing their spiel when the poor patron they’re annoying has already said “no thanks” half a dozen times. I know it’s their job, but it doesn’t stop me from thinking of them as the rudest pieces of crap in existence.

That’s why, today, when I noticed one of these people being particularly persistent and annoying with everyone who walked past, I happily walked close enough to be hailed and then proceeded to pretend I was deaf. Let me tell you, there is nothing quite so amusing as the look on a rude arsehole’s face when he realizes he can’t communicate with you. Made my travel day right there. Ha!

Anyway, I suppose I’ve got some accountability stuff to get out of the way? Okay, let’s do it.

Health and Body Image Goal
Okay, it’s a new week. I tend to eat a lot of salads while I’m out West and it looks like the weather is going to be great for jogging, so we’re on the right track for the follow days. What about last week, you ask? Don ask about last week. Last week was…decadent. Or maybe slovenly is a better word. Gimmi a break, I was busy with heavy trash pickup and Spring cleaning!

Editing Goal
I haven’t figured out a better method yet, but for the time being I’ve got a few dozen more pages printed out to work on. I glanced over them on one of the planes out here, so I’ve got an idea of where I’m headed. Again, if anyone has any ideas about how I can make editing a little easier than constantly dragging piles of printouts back and forth across the country with me, please share!

1,000,000 Word Goal
It wasn’t a great week due to the aforementioned heavy trash and Spring cleaning, but I did manage to squeak out 2287 words worth of blog entries. My plan for the coming weeks is I temporarily set aside my work-in-progress (on which I’ve been having a butt-load of writer’s block) and spend a little time concentrating on something easier and more fun: my Final Fantasy III/VI novelization, which I’ve been posting bits of during Fiction Fragment Fridays. So look forward to more of that!

And now, if you don’t mind, I have one 2-hour bus ride left before I land in camp and I plan to spend it reclined and listening to some classic rock (i.e. “ZZZzzzzzz…..”)

Fiction Fragment Fridays: Returning Hope (Chapter 1 – Part 4)

Trucking along, we have part 4 of Returning Hope, Chapter 1. Because of the way the points-of-view are divided this is technically parts 4, 5, and 6, but I didn’t think it necessary to divide the remainder of the chapter into so many separate smaller parts. This will therefore be the last part of Chapter 1.

Reminder: If you’re looking for the previously posted parts of the story, go to the “Categories” drop-down banner on the left banner of the site and choose “Final Fantasy: Returning Hope”.

*Spites via http://www.videogamesprites.net*

An evil chuckle. A foreboding sound that chilled her through to the bone. A voice that made her cringe internally.

“Uwee hee hee…my sweet little magic user…” he whispered, stroking her cheek with an icy cold finger. “With this slave crown I’ll practically own you.”

She felt the object being placed on her head and struggled, but the restraints held and she could scarcely move. And just like that she found that all control of her own mind and body was forfeit. She could see, and she could comprehend, but she could not control.

He took her to a field. Dozens of Magitek soldiers stood at command in their giant armors. At his command, she climbed into the armor he had readied for her and prepared for battle. Her hands and feet moved of their own accord, acquiescing to his every demand. She tried with all her might to close her eyes against the death before her, but even her eyelids would not accept this simple request.

“Yes!” he cried, his voice betraying his enjoyment of the slaughter, ” Kill them all! Burn them all up! Show me your power!”

Now they were at the head of a great fortress. Others stood with them, though she could not turn her head to examine them. She knew there was a beautiful woman with long, pale hair, and a tall man with a stout body. Before them was a strange old man in glamorous garb. This one spoke to the mass of soldiers who stood below, hanging on his every word.

“We stand on the brink of a major breakthrough!” he told them, “In the days to come, we will witness the total revival of Magic!” The soldiers cheered madly. “It is our destiny, mine and yours, to take this mystical force and use it to claim what is rightfully ours! With our new-found abilities, nothing can stand in our way!”

“Hurrah!” the soldiers cried, “Long live Emperor Gestahl! Long live Emperor Gestahl!”

Her heart ached. It was all wrong. All terribly, terribly wrong, and yet she could do nothing to change it. No one noticed amidst the excitement when a few solemn tears fell from her eyes.

---

The cheering of the soldiers in her nightmare gave way to a different set of noises. At first, Terra couldn’t tell if the clanging echoes were real or just in her head, which was pounding ceaselessly. Barely conscious, she opened her eyes part-way and glimpsed a mysterious sight. There was a young man in tattered pants and a tight blue shirt. His leather-booted feet were in a wide stance and a blue bandanna held back his scruffy brown hair. From her vantage point on the floor, Terra could not see his face, but he was holding a dagger that seemed to be dripping blood. Surrounding him on all sides were short, strange little creatures that she could not identify. They appeared to be small white bears, however from their backs sprouted tiny pink wings. Could she be seeing things?

“Back with you!” the young man yelled.

A voice came from beyond the crowd of little white creatures. “We want the girl, thief!”

The young man’s posture stiffened. “That’s treasure hunter, you bastard!

“Come on then you little punk!” another voice demanded.

Terra wondered if she was still dreaming, and before she could call out to the young man she found herself retreating back into a dead faint.

---

It may have been only a moment later, or it may have been hours; she didn’t know for sure. However, when she awoke for the third time that night she found yet another change of scenery. As she slowly regained consciousness, she found herself gazing into the bright blue eyes of the young man from earlier. At first she began to panic, but she found that looking into those friendly eyes made her feel safe and comforted.

“Back with us now?” he asked. His voice was playful and kind.

“Who…who are you?” Terra asked.

He raised her neck, helping her to sit up on the hard stone floor. “The name’s Locke Cole,” he introduced, “Arvis sent me along to help you out. Luckily I found you just before the miners did.”

She coughed and found that her ribs ached but nothing seemed broken. “You…saved me?”

“Save your thanks for the moogles,” Locke insisted, winking, “They really helped me out of a jam.”

Terra didn’t ask what he meant by the word “moogles”, but in her mind’s eye she saw the funny little white creatures from earlier.

The confusion on her face hinted Locke off to her ignorance. “Yeah…Arvis told me that you have amnesia…” Suddenly he jumped to his feet, putting his gloved hands on his hips and grinning like a maniac. Terra almost jumped back in surprise. “Well don’t worry!” he insisted loudly, “You’re safe with me! I give you my word as a man that I will not leave your side until your memory returns!”

Terra blinked a few times and her mouth dropped a little. “I…um, okay…” she stuttered, “I guess…thank you?”

Locked grinned and gave her two thumbs up. Terra couldn’t help but think that he was a bit off.

“Well, we’d better head off then,” he said, his demeanor suddenly turning all-business.

Terra stood slowly, taking in the aches in her body, but not finding any serious wounds. Looking around she saw that they were surrounded by rock walls on three sides, the fourth side being the route they’d obviously come down. “Head off where?” she inquired, raising an eyebrow.

Locke wagged a finger and winked at her again, then turned to the far wall. Running his hand along the stones, examining them carefully, he found a small circular stone that made him grin and pushed it firmly. The stone slid, almost mechanically, into the wall, and there was a deep rumbling as the wall itself split in two and grudgingly swung outward.

“A super-secret pathway into and out of town,” Locke explained, “We should be able to make it away without being seen.”

Cautiously following him outside into the cold and the dark, Terra saw the lights from the town a mile or so off. Grunting, Locke slid the secret door back into place.

“Where are we going?” Terra asked, shivering against the cold.

“South, to Figaro Castle,” Locke replied, dusting off his gloves, “The king there will give us shelter while we plan our next move.”

“And then, what is our next move?” Terra inquired, “I…I don’t understand what’s happening or why I’m involved in any of this. What is happening to me?”

Locke’s face was kind with concern. He smiled a gentle smile and reached up to wipe a tear from Terra’s eye. “I know,” he told her, “I’ll try and explain as much as I can on the way. It’s a bit of a hike.”

She looked up at him and didn’t know what to think, but didn’t think that refusing to go with him was reasonable.

“I’ll come then…” she agreed, “It’s got to be better than waiting here for people I don’t know to try and capture me for reasons I don’t understand.”

Locke grinned happily. “Alright then! Let’s head a little east first then. I’ve got a tent there with some extra clothes and you look frozen.”

“I’m Terra,” she said suddenly, remembering, “By the way…Terra Branford.”

“Nice to meet you Terra. I think we’re going to become good friends. You’ll see.”