A blue glint in the sunlight seemed to blink with each passing cloud, high on the mountains surrounding Mist. A passing glance would pass it off as a trick of the light's reflection on the mountains' tops, but a closer look would reveal a very slight silhouette of a man. The shadow the onlooker could barely make out would speak of a tall, well-built man, but not a mere human. Webbed horns jutted out from the sides of his head, and spikes protruded from his shoulders. In his hand, supporting his weight slightly with it, he gripped a long, wicked looking spear that curved savagely at the very tip. He was truly a monster to behold.
This was only an initial impression, however. Had the path been closer to that particular mountain-top, one could clearly make out the skillfully crafted armor, adorned with detailed designs of blue and green and gold. His helmet, hiding any expression from a curious passerby, was just as carefully made as the rest of his armor, made to resemble that of a dragon, mouth gaping and eyes flashing a ruby-red.
Kain the dragoon was master of all he surveyed, here; no one else had dared scale these mountains since that fatal downfall a year ago. He had been placed here to make sure no one would cross these mountains into the land surrounding Baron. No one would be getting any assistance from the world's great power. A small smirk played across his lips at this muse.
"Not so great anymore, are we...?" he whispered to himself, followed by a dry chuckle.
After a moment of observing the path below, as he did every day and nearly all day if he wasn't fighting for the pure hellishness of it, he slipped off into his thoughts of the downfall of all the world's nations. He tried to, anyway. For some reason, he didn't remember actually witnessing anything being massacred. Kain knew it had happened, as he had had the entire event explained to him by his new superiors.
Superiors What a joke. Kain didn't even like any of his commanding officers, and to be quite honest, he wasn't scared of them, either. He was scared of their Overlord, though. He scared him right down to his very bone, just being on the same side as him. Just knowing he existed, and might be watching him at any second, was enough to keep Kain frightened.
He would take on anyone and anything to avoid the Overlord's wrath. Anything.
· · · ~ ¤ » ‡ « ¤ ~ · · ·
Somewhere in the midsts of Kain's idle thoughts, a small party was passing on the mountain road he was supposed to be watching. At the lead was a black-clad ninja, leading a yellow-plumed chocobo being ridden by a spunky looking green-haired girl, and two brown-haired and caped children in tow, squabbling amongst each other.
"See? See?" Edge crowed in a sing-song voice. "Didn't I tell you there'd be no trouble at all?"
Rydia continued to absently stroke the chocobo's feathers, giving Edge nothing more than a slightly aggravated look. "We're not even halfway there, Edge. Could you put a lid on the bragging until something productive comes of all this?"
"Palom, I really think you should let me ride the chocobo next..." Porom cried softly.
"No, way, dude! That bird is mine!" Palom retorted.
"Palom, honestly...! Haven't you ever heard of the term 'ladies first'?"
"Yeah! That's why Rydia's ridin' it now, and you are gonna ride last!"
"Why you disrespectful...! Miss Rydia! Could you please talk some sense into my brother?"
Rydia looked over her shoulder to face the twins, and was about to administer some words of wisdom when Edge's voice cut through the air.
"Kid, when it comes to women, just tell them what they wanna hear! Tell her she can ride next then wait 'till she's not looking and bogart th--"
Edge's lesson in bad morals was interrupted as one of the books Rydia had packed from the Elder's possessions connected with a clean crack on the back of the ninja's skull.
"Ow! Lord oh mighty, Rydia!" Edge rubbed the back of his head. "I guess I can never accuse you of throwing like a girl!"
The only reply he received was a deathly glare from Rydia that could have peeled paint off of a wall. Edge grinned nervously, and turned back around to face the road. It was going to be impossible to get her to warm up to him as much as he would like to, as far as he was currently concerned, but as they say, the fun is in the chase! Or, in this case, the being chased off.
"Oh, Edge!"
Edge quickly turned around at the oddly anxious tone in Rydia's voice. "Yes, my darling?"
His hopes sunk as he saw she wasn't even looking at him, but was looking off the path a bit and pointing to some bushes. He apathetically glanced to the road-side chaparral to see what could be so interesting. His eyes met with two large, blue orbs surrounded by scattered shrubbery, shining in a mixture of fear and maybe a little sadness. It ruffled a few feathers, and let out a mournful "Kweh!" at all the eyes suddenly upon it.
"Mmm. A baby chocobo." Edge uttered the obvious, only half-interested.
"It's so cute!" gushed Rydia, hopping off the chocobo she had been riding in one deft movement. She rushed over to the scared little bundle of yellow feathers, and kneeled calmly. "Edge, look! Isn't it cute? I've never seen anything so cute!"
The chocobo looked cautiously at Rydia, shaking with fear that Rydia was a predator ready to gobble it up while its parents weren't there to protect it. Porom tip-toed over to Rydia, and both of them began to whisper sweet nothings to the tiny bird as Palom and Edge stared on in disgust. The boys exchanged knowing glances, and folded their arms and leaned back to wait out the "oh-it's-so-cute" phase.
"Awww... we're not gonna hurt you, little baby..." Rydia slowly and steadily put out one hand to the baby choc, praying she wouldn't scare it. "Where's your mommy...? Huh...? Aw, are you all alone, little baby? Poor little bab-eeee..."
"It's so cuuuuuuute...!" Porom cried gleefully.
For a second, the chocobo looked with a fearful expression at Rydia's outstretched hand, but after a moment, it edged towards her fingertips. Rydia took this opportunity to lightly touch the top of the baby's head, eliciting a frightened shudder from the touch.
"I'm not going to hurt you..." she whispered quietly. She began to lightly pet the top of the chocobo's head, and it happily closed its eyes, glad it had apparently met up with someone who wasn't a predator. Rydia smiled, and after a moment of silent introductions, she gently scooped the baby up into her arms, met with a half-reluctant 'kweh!'
"'Kweh?' Did it just say 'kweh'? Chocobos say 'wark'..." Rydia looked uncertainly over her shoulder at Edge. "It said 'kweh', Edge, do you think it's okay?"
Edge scoffed, and strode over to see this kweh-ing baby chocobo. He bent over a bit to get eye-level with the golden bundle. It blinked, and after getting a good look at Edge in return, chirped a cheerful "Kweh!"
Oh, you're cute all right. Edge thought blandly to himself. But you're moving in on my time with Rydia.
"Maybe it's sick," he suggested boredly.
Rydia gasped and hugged the chocobo. "That's awful! Does it look sick?"
Porom gasped in time with Rydia. "Oh no! Maybe I can cure it..! Do you think I could cure it...?"
"Throw it back in the bushes and let's get outta here!" Palom suggested insensitively, not moving from the center of the road with their one-chocobo caravan.
"You're terrible!" cried the girls in unison.
"Well if it is sick, we've got nothing to help it out with," Edge groaned. He laid a hand on Rydia's shoulder lightly. "We should leave it here and let nature take its course. It's parents are obviously nowhere and something out there is going to think it'll make a great dinner, y'know."
Rydia's eyes went wide and she shook Edge's hand off her shoulder. "Y-you're absolutely despicable!" She 'harrumphed' and then firmly planted her bare feet on the ground. "Edge Geraldine, I'm not moving from this spot until you agree we can take this poor little thing with us!"
Edge stared blankly.
"I'm serious! I won't move!"
Porom looked between the stubborn caller and the unimpressed ninja. "I won't move, either!" she echoed. "Not unless we can take the poor baby with us. She needs us, you know...!"
Palom rolled his eyes. "It's a 'she' now, huh? How do you know?"
Porom glowered at her younger brother. "I just think she's female!"
Rydia, in the meantime, stayed her ground, not budging and it almost seemed not even breathing.
Edge groaned and put one hand on the back of his neck. "I don't want to drag you, Rydia."
"Ha!"
Edge folded his arms and gave Rydia an indignant stare. "I'm serious. I'll drag you out of these mountains if I have to, for your own good."
Rydia's eyes flashed. "My own good? My own good?! Since when should you know anything about my own good?!"
"Since I came all the way out here to rescue you - that's when!"
"You weren't even coming out here for me!! You were trying to find civilization and thanks to your infinite supply of dumb luck you happened to come across Mist!"
Edge bit his tongue. He wasn't going to push this any further, and no matter what she said, he just couldn't find himself mad enough to keep up an argument with her, anyway. She was far too attractive when mad to maintain an angry attitude. She didn't seem to think he was cute when he was going to abandon a defenseless baby chocobo, though.
"You're absolutely mad if you think I'm just going to go 'Oh, yes, Edge, you're right - we'll leave this adorable little chocobo out here to just die because we have to go save our own butts!' Well! You thought wrong if that's what you were thinking! There's no way in heck I'm going to just let this poor baby birdy be left alone with no mommy, no daddy, no nothing and get slaughtered by the monsters that live up here, and if you think otherwise you can go su--"
Rydia's passionate speech was interrupted by a scream from Porom and a yell from Palom. Edge spun around on his heel and on reflex flipped both Masamune and Murasame out of their sheaths. He was just in time to see a figure blotted out by the midday sun sail through the air with a point of a spear clearing his way through the mountain air. Whoever he was, he was headed right for Palom.
· · · ~ ¤ » ‡ « ¤ ~ · · ·
Kain didn't recognize the boy before him, or the shrieky little girl for that matter, but he remembered the Ninja King and the Caller. He didn't want any interference while dispensing of them, as they would be quite formidable. He shifted his weight in mid-air, forcing himself upon the back of the spear and beginning to pile drive down towards the fear-stricken little boy. He prepared to meet the crunch of spear meeting skull, but just as that second before arrived, he felt his momentum shift, as if something had sent a blasting wind beneath him and sent him into a three-hundred and sixty degree spin, his surroundings blurring. The next thing he saw clearly was a view of the cloudless sky above him, and a slight cloud of dust from his rough landing.
Kain gasped, trying to get the air back into his lungs, as he flipped to his feet, and spun to face Edge. The ninja had (at the very last minute) slashed horizontally at the incoming spear as hard as possible, causing Kain to rotate several times in the air before crashing on his back against the ground. Despite the mask, the dragoon knew the young king was grinning. He wouldn't be grinning once he recognized his old friend-in-arms.
"Edge, the ever-arrogant ninja," Kain chuckled. "Fancy meeting you here."
Edge seemed to choke on that grin he had been show-casing. "K-Kain? What in the.." Edge trailed off in shock, but Edge was always quick to convert shock to anger. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! You were going to kill him!"
Kain spun his spear effortlessly, glad it hadn't flown from his hand during the fall. "I didn't want to have any one butting in during our little fight... I guess I'll have to bear the nuisance of it, anyway."
Edge was ready to ask a year's worth more questions, but Kain leapt towards the still confused king, extending his arm with the spear in it, hoping for a quick kill. Edge was ready, and swiftly jumped aside the incoming point, using his left blade Murasame to deflect the spear to one side. He used the momentum to spin to the side. Kain skid past him, and spun once again to face his slippery opponent.
Edge smirked and raised his eyebrows in the popular gesture of arrogance. "Olé."
He didn't have time for any witty commentary, as Kain once again lunged for him with the spear in several quick motions, Edge deflecting and evading all of them. He had his hunches as to why Kain might be trying to kill them, remembering clearly Kain and his many wavering loyalties. Unfortunately, there was no way to sort things out at the moment, and the best Edge could hope for was maybe a way to knock the dragoon out cold and wait till he cooled off a little.
Rydia in the meantime, had ideas of her own, and set down the little chocobo - which was by now half frightened out of its feathers - in the brush beside her. She shut her eyes and began to skim through her mind, chants and charms speeding through her consciousness until she found the spell she was looking for.
In the middle of his barrage of spear strokes against Edge, Kain suddenly stopped, and easily flipped backwards away from Edge. He caught the ninja by surprise, and knowing Edge wasn't looking to injure him, he wasn't expecting a return-fire. He turned his head towards Rydia, as he felt his mind begin to swirl. He saw different words and incantations flash through his mind until it landed upon a "Sleep" spell. Edge, in the meantime, felt his temper building considerably. Just what in the seven hells did Kain think he was looking at?!
Kain shifted his weight once again, and this time he launched himself towards an unexpecting Rydia.
"Rydia, look out!" cried Porom, pointing at the incoming danger.
Rydia lost hold of her spell, and looking up she saw Kain coming towards her at lightning speed. Rydia was not a physical fighter, and had no idea how to dodge, and as there was just not a second's time left, she braced herself for the impact. He used the broad end of his spear to knock Rydia to the side, the dull thump masked by Porom's scream, watching her sprawl a few feet off into the high grass. He walked over casually, and raised the spear above his head to deliver a final blow. There was no way he was waiting until she could interfere with all her extremely damaging summons.
However, as he was about to bring the spear down, a flash of yellow stopped him. Kain stared very blankly at a pint-size chocobo standing solidly in front of Rydia. His wings were all ruffled and puffed out, and for all the world, he looked like a cranky goose-down pillow. His shiny blue eyes were narrowed and he was emitting a high growling noise, briefly broken by an angry "Kweh!" The sight was, to be blunt, extremely comical.
Kain laughed scornfully, and once again prepared to bring down the spear. This time, however, there was quite another flash, and it was that of finely-crafted steel. Edge, ever the quick fighter, had dashed in at that moment, and brought up the Masamune in a defensive block. Kain found himself oddly amused by the pure amount of rage in the ninja king's eyes, even though it really shouldn't have been amusing.
In a burst of adrenaline, Edge was able to break the stand-off between spear and kitana, and leapt back, away from his attacker. He dared only take a second to check if Rydia was all right over his shoulder, before he heard Kain dart at him from the front. He once again deflected the spear with Murasame, and then Masamune as the strangely light-footed dragoon charged at him another time. He executed a backflip up onto a nearby rock, and then crouched there in a defensive stance, giving Kain a look like he was either enraged as all hell, scared as a newborn lamb or showcasing a mixture of both.
Kain then crouched low to the ground, and barely even a second later launched himself high up into the air in a graceful arc. The young king stood up while maintaining a stance that said "okay, I'm ready to run at the drop of a pin". Edge was doubtlessly the most boastful of all that had gone to the moon, but most of what he showed was a tremendous amount of bravado; he knew Kain was a deadly opponent with his brute strength and sure-footedness, and Edge wanted to fight him about as much as he wanted someone to tear him a new you-know-what.
Just as Edge had finished rising to his feet, Kain thrust himself down towards him, spear at the ready. Crap... Edge thought bitterly to himself. His mind raced, crouching a bit on his heel, and when he felt the second could not get any closer, he flipped off the back of the rock. As he reached one-hundred eighty degrees, he saw an upside-down view of the spear crashing into the rock perch, splintering it as if it were a rotting old plank, sending rubble and rock shards flying. Double crap.. he thought, even more bitterly, if possible.
He landed, and decided it was time to take on the offensive. He charged through still-flying rocks towards the brown cloud of debris that concealed Kain, and took a small jump into the air, putting Masamune forward first as he felt it was the stronger sword. He was a little shocked to find he met with Kain's spear, and another stalemate as he landed on his feet and began to faulter to overpower the dragoon. Edge had never really thought of the big oaf as a scary guy until now, but as the smoke began to clear and he could see the grin plastered on his face, his opinion shifted. He felt his feet began to slide back against the pressure - the lucky bastard could hold his spear with two hands, afterall - and decided a different course of action was needed. Something... trickier.
As his feet slid forever backward, he started to recite a Blitz spell in what he had left of his sane mind, but he knew if he just sprung it on Kain he'd see it coming. What he needed as a distraction! He tried to grip for some form of concentration as he summoned up from the depths of his mind an old ninja trick he had learned when he was seven-years-old or so. His eyes lit up when he remembered; at least it would buy him some time!
He widened his eyes in mock horror and pointed his free hand in an overly-elaborate gesture behind Kain. "It's Fran Drescher with a really big stick!!"
Kain gasped and turned around. "Where?!? - I'll kill her!!"
Edge grinned to himself, as he quickly finished off his mental recitation. Suuuuckeeeer!
He took a small jump back, and then raised one hand up into the air as several bolts of blue and purple lightning exploded around Kain in an array of bright fireworks. He heard Kain cry out somewhere among the carnage, and without thinking, launched himself into a Flame spell. Kain recovered quickly from his initial shock, and came out of the smoke mad as a hornet. He launched himself in an overzealous plunge towards Edge, who was all too-ready for the dragoon. Edge put one hand forward with what Kain could have sworn was a cocky smirk, and the next thing he saw was red cascading from the ninja's gloved palm. The wave of heat washed over him and sent him spiraling backwards, his feet skidding across the dirt and waste. Kain never had time to react after that. Edge had always been the fast one of the group, and the next thing Kain knew he was being bombarded with sword slashes and jabs. The masterfully-crafted swords were sharp and strong enough to even put some generous chinks in his armor, but even though he felt his body tossed around from the rough handling he hadn't been worried till one blow landed to his upper-thigh, which was unprotected. A small cry of pain escaped him as the steel tore through the thin fabric of his pants and his bare skin. Even though he felt the blade leave his now-cleaved leg after only a second, Edge flicked his wrist around to painfully slice the wound a little wider, and then crash the decorative hilt down across the cut and leave a nice dent in the already open flesh.
In what one might have called an act of mercy, Edge stopped his attack, knowing he had wounded Kain better than he ever could have on any other circumstance, and moved back a bit. He regretted doing so as soon as he took a look up at his opponent, who had already regained his bearings and was heading straight towards him with looks that could kill. No time to raise his swords, no time to move. What else could Edge do?! He moved as much as he could to the side, and grabbing a hold of Kain's shoulder pads he thrust himself backwards, and as he felt himself hit ground, he made his best God-given attempt to use the momentum to kick-launch Kain right over him.
The Gods smiled on Edge that day, as Kain sailed right over him and down the hillside, rolling and careening like a tumbleweed down to the rocky bottom. All Edge got out of it for the moment was a really badly-cramped leg and a very shaky feeling in his gut, but as he stood up and collected himself, he not only felt extremely self-satisfied and cocky, but also...
...extremely pissed off that Kain attacked Rydia and was about to kill a poor little chocobo! Er. Scratch that. He was extremely pissed that Kain attacked Rydia. Who cared about the little bird? ...certainly not him, no way.
After a moment of self-gloating that he had been able to launch a man possibly over 200 pounds over a cliff-like area, he turned to Rydia to see if she was okay.
"My hero!" she cooed, as he began to turn about.
Edge grinned broadly. My hero! All right! "Well, Rydia, it was nothing... he wasn't so tough, anywa--"
"Edge, who are you talking to?" Rydia gave Edge an absent gaze. After he stared dumbfounded a moment, she huggled the chocobo and kissed it on its beak. "You little hero! You saved me, yes you did! Yeeees you did!"
"...oh, Lord oh mighty..." Edge slapped himself on the forehead. "Upstaged by a bird..."
As Edge swirled off into his own personal hell, Rydia stood up, carrying her "hero" and walked over to Edge. She leaned up and kissed him lightly on the cheek, over his mask, causing his eyes to blink open. She smiled brightly.
"You, too, Edge," she laughed, and turned to go see if Palom and Porom were all right and re-pack their caravan.
Edge momentarily lapsed out of euphoria and swerved his gaze towards Rydia. "Wait! Wait! One more time! Without the mask! Please!"
All he got in reply was a laugh and a shake of Rydia's head.
· · · ~ ¤ » ‡ « ¤ ~ · · ·
While Rydia, Palom and Porom had started reorganizing their supplies (and made sure there was someplace to cart around the new addition to the party) Edge had trekked down the side of the mountain to see what had become of Kain. He had told Rydia he felt awful for throwing their old comrade down the side of the mountain, but he had just been so pissed off to see him toss her around like that that he had lost control of his emotions and had to protect her. This was a half-truth, though. He hadn't felt bad even one tiny bit for throwing that son of a bitch off the mountain after all the crap he had put them through before. Edge had never liked Kain. Kain had never liked Edge. As far as Edge was concerned, it wasn't his fault Kain was a fork-tongued back-stabber of a half-ass wannabe Baronian Dragoon Knight who was too double-crossing and weak-willed to pick a side and stay there. Edge didn't know that as far as Kain was concerned, it wasn't Edge's fault that he was a way-too-arrogant overly-flamboyant nonsensical under-trained poor excuse for an Eblanite Ninja who was too high on his own personal pedistol to realize there were people out there with more brains than him. C'est la vie.
Back at the roadside, Rydia had decided there wasn't enough daylight left to wait for Edge, and it was necessary to take a chance and make camp. She had set up a small campfire and laid out blankets for everyone, and after eating a meager dinner, they all got to discussing the little chocobo.
"So!" Rydia kneeled by the campfire, and the little chocobo warbled over to her to curl up in her lap. She laughed and began to pet the small bird. "We have to give him a name."
"It's a boy?" Porom asked, with a hint of disappointment.
"Er... yes," Rydia answered with a nervous smile. "I kinda checked." Met with an ewwwww! as expected.
"Name him Killer!" suggested Palom with a mischevious grin.
Porom gave her brother a generous smack to the head. "Heavens no! We should name him... Benjamin! What do you think of Benjamin?"
Rydia paused. "I always liked the name Roland, myself."
Porom seemed to taste out the name. "Roland..."
Another pause.
"Hey!" Porom smiled brightly, obviously experiencing a brainstorm. "What about Roland Benjamin? Like, putting them together?"
Rydia snapped her fingers. "Brilliant! It sounds so dignified, too!" Rydia stopped, and picked up the newly christened Roland Benjamin.
"What do you think, little guy? Roland Benjamin?"
RB gave an enthusiastic "Kweh!" followed by a ruffling of his wings, inspiring a chorus of laughter from the three.
· · · ~ ¤ » ‡ « ¤ ~ · · ·
It was extremely late at night, and Rydia was attempting to dream sweet things from her overabundance of blankets and currently un-used capes, but she was awakened by a sound of shuffling. She blinked a few times, and rubbed her eyes, trying to home in on the noise. She reluctantly peeked out from under her bedding and saw Edge crouched over some large heap of...
...what was that?
"Edge...what are you doing?" Rydia whispered from her cove of blankets.
Edge grinned in her direction. "Go back to sleep, Rydia." He quickly turned back to his work.
"...are you...?" Rydia took a closer look at the ninja's late night activities. He had... something... all tied and bound in the rope they had scrounged up. Maybe he was resecuring their supplies?
Edge looked back at Rydia. "Rydia... go back to sleep, it's okay. Nothing's wrong - not with me here to guard ya."
Rydia's eyelids went flat as she gained recognition of that something all tied up. "Edge. Please tell me you're not tying Kain up."
Silence.
Rydia crawled out from under her blankets to investigate closer. When she got within correct viewing range, she could see it was not as bad as she had thought. It was much worse. Edge had hog-tied Kain with their remaining rope, and then left plenty of slack so he could attach it at about a six foot distance to their chocobo's saddle.
"Edge! You--"
"You don't need to tell me Rydia..." Edge giggled with a tint of insanity. "I know I'm an evil genius..."
Rydia laughed lightly at that. Edge loved her laugh. It wasn't one of those phony high-pitched whinnies or deep, throaty guffaws some girls had a habit of belting out there. Hers was light and had a jingle-bell quality that made you want to tell some infinitely funny joke to get more of it. He felt really stupid whenever that thought crossed his mind; imagine, a lady's man like himself turning to mush over a laugh. What was he coming to?
"Edge... please untie Kain..."
"Lemme think..." Edge looked at Rydia with a very solemn expression, then cracked a goofy grin. "No way."
"Very mature... Would you want me to tie you up like that?"
Edge raised his eyebrows. "If you're into that stuff."
Rydia socked him in the shoulder, and stood up to head back to her make-shift bed. "So immature..."
Edge chuckled under his breath and went back to his work (which Rydia had thankfully not stopped him from doing). "Yeah... you know you want me."
Rydia made a disgusted noise and traipsed back to her bed, crawling back into her cozy haven. She hadn't forgotten about what Edge was doing to Kain, but she knew even Edge had more sense than that. Give the guy a little credit, she thought to herself as she settled back down to sleep.
Rydia felt extremely bad the next morning when a very grumpy Kain got dragged down the mountain road, much to her protest.
