Chapter 7: The Cave
"Why do you keep callin' me that?!?!" Zell jumped up and glared down at Seifer, who was sitting on the other side of their little, but effective, campfire.
Seifer looked up from the flames to meet Zell's stare, "Well, let's see......you're a chicken........and you're a wuss....."
Zell fumed, "I'm ten times the man you are!! You're just a washed up, good-for-nothing, who likes to make up stupid nicknames about people he doesn't even really know!! You're so low, you're lower than low....you're rat scum.......after spending the last few days with you, I can tell why your parents left you in the orphanage! Who in their right mind would want a bastard child like yourself?!"
Seifer's smile vanished from his face at the mention of the orphanage. "Are you forgetting that your parents abandoned you, too?"
"My parent's, my real parent's, died in a explosion at the plant they worked at! You're the only one who was just left because no one wanted you, and who could blame them? I was even adopted, while Matron couldn't even get a family to look at you!" Zell spat out the words in a blind rage, not even aware of what he was saying. "Squall hates you, Cid hates you, everyone at SeeD hates you, the people of Balamb hate you, and I hate you! The only ones who like you are morons, like Raijin and Fujin, or people who just feel so sorry for you, like Ellone, but she probably doesn't even really like you either! It's just a pity thing she has!"
Seifer's mouth hung open and he gasped as if Zell had hit him. Zell had hit a nerve, Seifer's weak spot. He wouldn't, he couldn't put up with some idiot saying thing like that about Ellone!
"You're dead," Seifer proclaimed in a raspy voice as he stood up to face his opponent.
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It was dawn, and rays of light just began to streak the horizon. The storm that had not even a day ago pounded the Serpent Islands was no more than a memory. Trees were down, tides were up, but the birds were singing again. Recovery was to begin, and as Ellone looked out across the vast blue ocean, she shivered at the thought of the power of nature. It was a funny arrangement. Nature could make the most beautiful things, and it could just as easily destroy them.
"Am I talking to myself?" Quistis asked as she touched Ellone's shoulder to get her attention.
"Huh?" Ellone jumped and as she realized that she hadn't been listening to what Quistis was saying, her face turned an embarrassed bright red. "Sorry, Quisty, it was just the ocean. I've always been fascinated by it......so big......so full of life."
Quistis sighed, "Yeah, it is a wonder. But we have to stay focused. We can't stare ideally out into nothingness...."
Ellone lowered her head at the rebuff. "You're right."
"Hey," Quistis smiled as she put her arm over Ellone's shoulders, "it's okay. So I guess my plan wasn't that good, eh?"
"Umm..," Ellone hesitated. "It's just that over the last few hours, we've made up so many plans. They're all getting mashed together and I just can't keep them straight."
Quistis laughed, "I know. How about something easy, then?"
They both stopped in their tracks. They had been strolling down the beach of Naoki Island as they talked, but in front of them, not even ten feet away, there was some sort of metal sticking out of the sand.
"Wha...." Quistis began, but Ellone was already kneeing on the beach next to the strange artifact.
Ellone began to push away the sand, revealing more and more of the shiny metal until it finally clicked. It was some sort of sword! She dug and dug as Quistis leaned over her shoulder, watching her every move. Then, just as Ellone had suspected, she found the "sword's" handle. Gripping it with two hands, Ellone stood up and began to pull.
"It's....a...sword," Ellone panted as she continued to pull at the buried object.
"Do you think it's," Quistis inquired softly, "Seifer's gunblade?"
But Ellone didn't have a chance to answer because with that last pull, the "sword" came flying out of the ground. Ellone tumbled to the floor, exhausted and tired. In her hands lay the handle of a cross weapon molded after two individual things, or as Squall might say, a gunblade.
"Oh my god," Quistis gasped, "That's definitely Seifer's"
Ellone frowned as she turned it over in her hands. "So he's here.....somewhere."
"Yeah," Quistis nodded. "If his gunblade is on Naoki Island, he's got to be close by."
"So, what are we waiting for?" Ellone leaped up, gunblade in hand.
"Hold on," Quistis raised her eyebrows, "I hate to say it, but we need a plan."
"Ugh," Ellone rolled her eyes as she dropped back down to the ground.
Quistis laughed, "Okay, okay. I've got it. I'll go on down the beach to see if I can find any more wreckage, items or footprints. Squall, I'm sure, would kill me for letting you do this, but I've done my research and there's nothing really dangerous on this island so you can take that very nice looking weapon that I'm sure Seifer would kill me if I touched, and go in the forest to see if you can find any trace of anybody, whether it be Seifer or Raijin, or even Zell."
Quistis took off her backpack and handed Ellone a first aid kit, "Take this in case you find them."
"Got it," Ellone jumped up again and grabbed the box from her friend. "And you can contact Irvine and Selphie to tell them that we found a clue, well, a sort of clue."
"Alright," Quistis answered. "And we'll meet back here in...."
"Three hours," Ellone finished as she made a beeline for the trees. "See ya later!"
Ellone heard Quistis yell something in reply, but she was too far away, sheltered by trees, to be able to make out Quisty's exact words.
"Be careful," Ellone whispered to herself as she rattled off what she imagined her friend had said. "Remember, three hours..."
Ellone chuckled and then mumbled to herself, "Alright, time to get started."
Ellone walked cautiously through the tall grass and exotic plants that hid the forest floor as if they were a kind of carpet. She tried to look for footprints, but she could barely find an inch of dirt on the ground. Then, Ellone concentrated on seeing blood. She went deeper and deeper into the foliage, and the further she went, the more red colored plants there was. False alarm after false alarm brought doubt and weariness. Soon, two hours had past and Ellone decided that she had better head back. She turned around but quickly discovered that she didn't remember coming that way.
"Oh dear," Ellone sighed as she sat down on a large rock to try and figure out the way to the beach.
"This way is wrong," Ellone began to point and mumble to herself, "and this way leads there. That way can't be right."
"What am I going to do?" She remarked to herself as she stood up.
But as quickly as she had stood up, she froze. Ellone walked slowly forward towards a small yew tree. After touching its trunk, she looked at the red liquid that had rubbed off on her hand. Blood. Someone was here, someone had come this way. Ellone began to follow the trail of trampled leaves and blood, hoping that she was not too late and the first aid kit she carried would soon be in use.
The trail went on and on for about ten minutes, and then, finally Ellone arrive at a bluff. The footprints that she had found led right past a huge fallen tree that laid right up against the a wall of rock.
"Yeah, this is good," Ellone stated sarcastically as she stared at what seemed to be a hard rock wall. "Maybe they climbed it?"
Ellone tightened her backpack's straps and gripped the gunblade firmly in her hands. She approached the tree that was directly blocking her from her goal and examined it closely. It had fallen recently and was covered in vines. Ellone threw the gunblade over the tree and grabbed a vine. She began to pull herself over the trunk and when she reached the top, she jumped down the rest of the way. Then she realized that the wall wasn't solid rock. In front of her was a cave into which her trail continued.
"Ah aha." She sighed in relief and picked up the weapon that, in truth, was much too big for her.
"Seifer! Zell!" Ellone called into the dark and mysterious cave. "I guess I've got to go in there."
With that Ellone raised the gunblade and walked cautiously into the tunnel. She was alert to every sound, the squeak of a bat and the drip of water. She squinted her eyes and groped her way blindly through the long passageway. At the very end of this long tunnel, there was a soft glow like a fire.
"Seifer! Zell!" Ellone called out as she began to run towards the far off light. "Sei-fer! Ze-ll!"
As she got closer, she realized that she was not the only one calling out. Seifer, she was sure it was him, was yelling something incoherent and Zell was groaning and calling out in pain. They were in trouble.
"Please," Ellone chanted over and over again, "don't let anything happen to them before I get there, please
She ran as fast as she could, guided by the sound of her friend's horror stricken voices. Cramps seized her body, but she didn't slow down. Instead she pushed herself to quicken her pace. She needed to get there, she wanted to get there, wanted to see them. Being so close just made her more nervous. Finally, she was ten feet away from the fire lit room, ten feet away from her friends. Ellone pushed herself the last inch and darted into the strange chamber.
"Stop!" She yelled with every ounce of strength she had left.
Seifer, who was holding Zell in a headlock and punching him in the face, froze.
Zell wiggled free and stood staring at the out-of-breath Ellone.
"Ellone?!" Zell exclaimed as he rushed forward, squeezing her in a big hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you, but what are you doing here?"
"I came to rescue you and Seifer and, umm, Raijin, of course," Ellone responded casually as she walked over to Seifer and kissed him gently on his cheek. "So I've found two, but where's Raijin?"
"Raijin went out to look for something that could have washed up on the shore," answered Zell.
"Does he look as good as you two do, because if he does, he may have bleed to death before even coming within sight of the ocean," commented Ellone as she raised her eyebrows.
Zell and Seifer both chuckled loudly.
"I think for what we've been through, we're not looking THAT bad," Seifer remarked and then added under his breath, "but at least I don't look as bad as Zell."
"Hey, I heard that!" Zell said, cuffing Seifer across the side of his head.
"Zell! Be nice." Ellone warned as she pushed her way in between the two men.
"Sorry, Seif," Zell sneered as he back slowly away. "Don't know what came over me."
Seifer nodded sarcastically and turn away. Suddenly, he saw something shiny flicker though the side of his eye. He turns to find a gunblade lying by the entranceway to the chamber!
"Oh god, almighty," Seifer cried out as he ran and picked up his long lost weapon. "I had given up on ever seeing it again!"
"Yeah," Ellone smiled, "I just sort of came across it on the beach."
"Oh joy," Zell exclaimed, "now he has a weapon. A lunatic with a weapon in a confined space.....geez, it doesn't get any worse."
"Shut up, Chickenwuss." Seifer swung his gunblade in Zell's direction.
"Now, Seifer," Ellone began, but her attempt to calm him was a waste.
"Come on, Zell," Seifer teased as he walked closer towards his enemy. "Let's have a little fun."
With that, Seifer charged forward, swinging his gunblade this way and that way.
"Seifer!" Zell yelled as he dogged the sharp edge of the deadly weapon. "This isn't funny."
Seifer smiled and placed his gunblade down on the ground. "So, you don't want to play anymore, Chickenwuss?"
Then, Seifer turned to Ellone, "I wouldn't hurt someone half my size, Elle. Don't look so worried. It was just a joke."
"Not a very amusing one," Ellone replied.
Zell, breathing heavily, came out from behind a stalagmite and walked to the ring of fire. The light lit up the right side of his face with an orange-tinted glow, and cast a dark shadow on his left side. Together with his dilated eyes, clenched teeth, bruises, and bleeding cuts, Zell took on an almost eerily devilish appearance.
"Umm, Seifer?" Zell called in an oddly soft, but shaking voice.
Seifer, who was sitting by the fire with Ellone, lifted his head to meet Zell's eyes.
Zell bent down and picked up Seifer's gunblade. He pointed it directly at Seifer and caulked the gun, ready to fire.
"Now, Zell," Seifer stood up, looking a little paler and a bit panic-stricken. "Put that down, you don't know how to handle it."
Zell laughed, "You just pull the trigger."
With that, the room lit up in a bright reddish-orange glow. Zell had been thrown backwards from the impact, hitting the far wall and crumbling into darkness. Seifer had grabbed Ellone and jumped into a little cove that opened up from the main chamber to shelter themselves from the blast and falling rocks.
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