Chapter 10

By Erik Brown

"So," Rei asked querulously, "Where did you get a gun?"

"Ain't telling."

"Come on, I'm curious?"

"Well why don't you tell me where you really come from?"

Rei clammed up, like he had before.

"That's what I thought. Y'see it don't make sense. You say you're from Kabe Town, and that would mean you never saw a gun before. And then you say that at Nogrias they didn't know what a gun was. Now that makes sense, what don't make sense is that you shouldn't know of guns, and thought that guns didn't exist. Do you understand what I'm saying?" The last part he directed at the guard outside, who did have a gun.

"Makes sense ta me."

Rei shot back at the guard, a short chinchilla with a big musket, "Butt out, who asked you!"

"Don't make me open up some guard brutality on you!"

Palcos started up again, "Look, Rei, you shouldn't know of guns, but you thought they didn't exist. Which means that you come from outside the Empire, and that makes everything about you questionable!"

Rei was trying to connect the dots now, but he wasn't going to waste his time with Palcos. Talking with the monkey was just pointless, and infuriating. These were the points he had; the Emperors influence ended at some point, possibly outside of this continent. Then he could guess that technology in the Empire was impeded, for reasons as yet unseen. And also that outside the Empire it was not restricted, and that outside of the Empire people thought differently, and possibly wanted to overthrow the Emperor.

Worryingly he looked at Palcos. Certainly there was some sort of plan going on in his head. Rei could see it. What he was going to do, Rei wasn't sure, but he felt that at the moment he shouldn't trust him. Since he couldn't take care of his problems with the world, and he couldn't learn of the guards and Palcos' weapons, he would think of himself.

"When's food coming?"

"You missed lunch, so yore gonna have ta wait for dinner."

"Not even a bit of broth, or a slice of sandwich."

"Nothing! Now quit bothering me, can't you see I'm reading!"

"What's the book called?"

"Shut up, none of yore business!"

"Okay, geez."

A moment of silence passed, as Rei tried to read over the guard's shoulder, "Quit looking over my shoulder!"

"Tell me when dinner is?"

"Coupla hours, but you won't get any if you keep buggin' me!"

Palcos tugged at Rei's shirt, "Leave him alone, here have this."

Looking at the piece of polka-dotted red yellow fruit in his hand, Rei asked, "What is this?"

"Just some hasa fruit, it's really good."

Rei took a cautious bite from the fruit. Then he realized that it was some of the best fruit he had ever tasted, "Hey this stuff is good!"

"Glad you like it, but keep it down. I'm sure the guard here hasn't eaten for awhile."

"Do you have anymore?" Rei in a starving asked.

"I still have some food left."

The guard heard Palcos, and for a brief moment Rei wondered if it might have been deliberate. "Hey! Wotcha got there?"

"Just a piece of fruit."

"Give that to me!"

"No it's mine!"

"Give it to me now, or it's into the mine with you!"

Palcos did know better, for the guard could not put a suspected Sieve member to work, before Kuja was told about him. With a feigned grudge, Palcos handed the fruit over to the guard. With a vicious appetite, the guard tore into the fruit, leaving a core behind in a few seconds.

Laughing, he handed the core to the sad-faced Palcos, "Thanks. I'll put in a good word for you with Kuja."

"I'm sure you will."

…

"Work faster! I'm sick to death of this godforsaken tower!"

Wiping the sweat away from his brow, the hunched over stoat mumbled to himself with a grasping sound. He wrote in small letters on a scrap of parchment in front of him. His paws were stained with charcoal, the clothes on him were dirty and thin, and he stunk to high heaven. Sitting in front of the huge stone tablet, he continued to translate the words.

The granite monolith had been painstakingly transported from the Great Desert, to the Blue Lake. He had been forced to come along, and that memory almost made him cry out in agonizing pain.

"Aren't you done?"

His own paw went up to his right temple, where the butt of a sword had hit him a week ago, and a nasty bruise lay under his fur. That was the last time he had said anything but good news. Time had passed, and he had ceased to feel emotional pain. For his family, for his mentor, even for himself! Physical pain still lingered here and there, wherever he had been kicked, punched, or gouged. If any emotion still remained, it was his own hatred for his own life, and that of Kuja's.

Garishly she wore a purple robe, with a black sash around her middle. There a sheath hung, decorated with jewels, and held a magnificent iron rapier. He hated her for that too, that she gorged herself with food in front of him, and wore wealthy garments, and gave him burlap. What a sadist!

She hovered over him, and it perplexed him why she pestered him, if she only wanted the work done. He had once told her that distractions kept him from finishing, and she just about threw him down the stairs. There were a lot of stairs! He wasn't about to say that again!

Turning away, she began to pace, like she always did. The carpet beneath her feet, which ended where the stoat's work area began, had lost it's feel and design to that fox woman's tireless paws.

"You work much too slow, Doctor, speed it up a bit, or I might be inclined to cut your hands off!"

Again he was confused, he was desperately needed, but she threatened him and beat him! If he were dead, then the work would never be done!

"Or cut out your knee caps."

No, his revenge was planned.

"Cut out your throat!"

The catalyst was being formed!

"Tie a rock around your neck, and throw you in the lake!"

Her downfall was about to come, and he would laugh when it happened!

"That windows up awfully high, would you like to see how high up we are?"

Yes, a great laugh to be had, at the death of Kuja!

"Drag you behind a dondis for a few hundred miles, that would speed you up!"

He knew the translation, and the correct incantations.

"I wrote the book on pain!"

She would be the one to speak her downfall!

"I should kill you now!"

Enough, it would end now! With a voice that pained him so, for he hadn't spoken for several long days, he told her, "I am finished."

She gripped his head, and forced him to see her smile, and to see all of her luxuriously white teeth, "Excellent."

…

Palcos stared angrily at Rei. He hated the bird, now more than ever. An idiotic, cross-eyed, wingless bird, and the monkey cringed as idiocy tinged words came out the bird's beak, "Gosh, that guard fell right to sleep. Almost like he took a sedative."

With narrowed eyes, Palcos asked Rei, "Are you so dumb?"

A bit insulted, the bird turned to face the monkey, as he looked up from the book he took from the guard, "You don't have to be rude."

Jumping off of his bunk, Palcos shuffled over bars, where the snoozing guard leaned against them. "You are really dumb! You're so stupid, you don't even know when to be drugged!"

"Eh?"

Roughly Palcos rolled the guard around with his arms, from behind the bars. He ripped the keys from the belt loop, and raised them to his eyes. While he inspected the keys, he told Rei, "That fruit you ate was indeed stuffed with sedatives. That guard should be asleep for hours, but you! You're still awake! Don't you feel sleepy at all?"

Rei checked himself, "I could stay up for hours."

Palcos clambered up the bars with all four hands, and then he reached through, and unlocked the cell door. Leaping down, he ran through the open door, and shut it behind him.

He shook his finger at Rei, "Now don't make a noise!"

Then with the cruelest intentions he laid the keys where he felt Rei would not be able to reach.

Rei silently watched the monkey jog up the stairs, and close the dungeon door behind him. Summing the monkey up in one word, "Jerk," Rei turned back to the book he was reading.

…

With a load of rocks on his back, the worker began to stumble. The guard saw this, and watched in anticipation as the slave fell, scattering the rocks on the ground. Happily he jumped up, and strode over to the fallen worker, hoping that he might get to beat him. The cat guard bent down, and shouted in the laborers ear, "Get up and work you mangy moron!"

To his surprise the fallen heap of creature began to laugh! Then the monkey on the ground stopped, and before the guard could move, had brained the cat with a rock. Palcos stood over the fallen guard, and threw the rock down, and wrung his aching hand. "I don't like being yelled at!"

He checked the guard's gun, a Winter model, old and still utterly useless to him, "Stupid inbred Winter louse! Ah well, got my revenge done for being shot at. Now to blow this place sky high!"

Making booming sounds and great waves of his hands, the workers merely watched him, scared that his insubordination might lead to their punishment. Palcos walked in anticipation towards a shed, hoping it would hold his gun, and enough explosives to level Blue Lake for a million years.

"They better give me a promotion for this!"

…

Rei put the book aside. Already he had grown bored with the tepid fiction. "Gosh, I've read better TV scripts." As he wondered which show he missed the most, he pondered his predicament, and realized if he didn't act soon he would surely miss dinner.

"Time to move." He looked at the keys beyond the bars, which had most likely supposed to be obnoxiously difficult to reach, but really weren't. Rei took the gun from the sleeping guard, and using the angle of the butt of the gun, dragged the keys to him. After opening the cell, and letting himself out, Rei thought about why Palcos might have not taken the gun.

"Not too bad." As he whirled it about, checking the weight and where the trigger was. Then he was up the stairs and on his way. Realizing that he would have to stay inconspicuous, Rei slowly made his way up the stairs.

Wondering if anyone was using the spiraling staircase, Rei also hoped that he might find Kuja at the top. What was he going to do anyway, dash in and shoot her? Or threaten her, and take her prisoner.

It would be like, "Stop you horrible thief, I've come to take you in."

And Kuja would be whole saying, "Oh no, the brave Rei has foiled my evil plans. I surrender."

Then he would get home, and the Mayor and people would shout, "There's the greatest hero of all time, we are forever in you debt. Here's some food!" And Chassy would tell him, "Oh Rei, you are so sexy, I love you forever."

With a dumb smile on his face, the bird ran into a door. Struggling to unstick his somewhat sharp beak from the door, he ended up making several loud noises instead. Now he had to dash in there and do something, or he would lose the sliver of surprise he might still have.

Inside the room, Kuja was for once, patient. At least she was, until Rei started banging on the door. "That's really starting to perturb me!"

The stoat doctor calmed her down, "Please ma'am, you must pay attention."

She shook her head, and hit the stoat across his snout with a mailed paw. He fell to the ground whimpering in pain. "Idiot, you've just been stalling me. I can pronounce all of the words now."

Gravely he replied from the ground at her feet, "Excellent, begin the verse now."

"Calm down, first I'm going to gut whoever is making that noise!"

Rei burst into the room, and aimed his gun at Kuja, "I'm taking you down Kuja." Then he thought about whether that was tough enough. Looking at the shocked expression on the guard's faces, and the sullen look on Kuja's, he began to worry if it was too under done.

Rei cocked the gun, "It's loaded, don't make me shoot you!"

"Who are you?"

"I'm the hero Rei, and I've come to stop you!"

"You're a bigger imbecile than this stoat here!" She nodded her head at the stoat to further prove her point.

"Would you mind surrendering?"

Kuja found the whole deal funny, and than objectively infuriating, "Surrender, do you have rocks for brains?"

"I'll shoot you!"

"You don't have the guts."

"I swear I will!"

She began to mock him, "I'll shoot you! Do it, shoot me! Do it!"

Rei began to shake. This was not going so well for him as he had hoped, "I'll do it!"

"Do it, do it, do it!"

The gun went click. For a moment the room was still, then Kuja burst out laughing. "Guards, hold him still and take his gun."

Beaten to near unconsciousness, Rei watched Kuja turn her back on him. That didn't go well at all! Now what was he going to do, surely she was going to kill him now.

"All of you watch and learn, of true power!"

The guard obediently watched, Rei couldn't help it, and the stoat doctor wouldn't miss it for the world.

Speaking just a bit too fast, Kuja spat out the incantations in a strange tongue. It took about a minute, and when she had finished, nothing happened. Tapping her foot on the stone floor, she exclaimed, "Well?"

Then it dawned on Rei, he had heard the very same incantations before! "No, the dragon's tongue! What have you done?"

The stoat doctor looked at Rei with wide eyes, "H-how did you know that was the dragon's language?"

"I've heard it once before!"

With a devilish smile the doctor asked Rei, "Then you know what it is?"

He looked back on when he had heard it, it had been spoken, slower and with more grace, and then the dragon had appeared. "I'm not entirely sure."

"An invocation spell!"

Kuja whirled the stoat, "What, that was supposed to be an empowering spell!"

"Not for the fox that killed my family! Any second now, a dragon shall appear and kill you!"

Kuja flung the doctor to the wall, then she smiled, "You idiot, I didn't finish the spell, there was still a line left!"

Shaking on the ground the doctor began to tear his fur, "That was the homing spell! Now the dragon shall appear, but it won't kill you! Damn my accursed fortune!"

"Now what will happen?"

Kuja stood in front of the stone tablet, as something in the room began to resonate. Then the tablet began to glow a fiery red, as something of a huge eyeball suddenly appeared above. It was sagging, and the emotions in it were anger and pain. A great gurgling growl filled the room.

"Who hath disturbed the Enlightened?"

Everyone was frozen with fear, including Kuja.

"Who doth request the aide of our abilities?"

Struck for a moment with fear, Kuja then realized the possibility for greatness. Plucking up her courage, the fox first asked, "Oh great Enlightened, where have the dragons gone?"

"You have called dragons to this world, but they have already made a pact with one. They are the last of the dragons, and cannot be commanded by any but the one they have made the pact with."

A saddened sob was heard from the stoat, as both he and Kuja knew that she was safe from danger. So Kuja asked, "Then I ask of your aide, oh Enlightened."

"What is your desire?"

"Power!"

"Mortals are ever so greedy, still, it shall be granted to thine. But rest assured, that we shall collect upon our investment."

"I accept all terms proposed to me, power is all I ask for!"

"Close your eyes, and receive our power."

With a smirk on her face, she tightly shut her eyes.

After a moment the stoat questioned the process, "I see nothing. She is just standing there."

Rei crawled over to the doctor, for the guards had fled for their lives. "Don't you see the energy that swirls around her? What of the demon eye, don't you see that?"

"For a brief moment the room flashed red, and I saw an eye above the tablet. Now I see nothing but an empty room, and her, standing there as if in trance."

"I see a demon giving her power."

"What kind of discernment do you have, that you can see into the spiritual plain?"

"I'm not sure, but it makes me uneasy."

"You two are breaking my concentration, be quiet!" Kuja looked at them with glowing eyes. The doctor saw that, for he whimpered like a child.

The demon's voice filled the room, "It is complete, and you have the power to vanquish all mortals who oppose you!" Rei watched as the red light faded, and the eye closed, and vanished. Kuja turned to face the two remaining in the room.

"Yes, I feel the power running through my veins. The world is mine for the taking! None can stand against me." Slowly she drew her sword, as it glowed with unseen power.

She waved it at the two threateningly. "Whom shall I kill first, you little birdie, or the brilliant doctor? Hah! Who am I kidding, I've wanted to kill you, doctor, for the longest time!"

"Oh my darling, I'm going to join you soon!" With barely a motion, Kuja stepped in front of the doctor, and cleaved him open from head to tail.

Feeling the tangling arms of madness and confusion gripping him, Rei struggled to back away from the halved corpse, and the insane fox. She sadistically followed him, as he inched backwards away from her. His backwards crawl was halted, by an unseen case. Kuja threateningly passed her sword along the tip of Rei's beak.

"This won't hurt a bit!"

Rei reached behind himself, and pulled a sword from the case, as Kuja raised her own sword above her head, and brought it down. The sound that the two blades caused shattered the mirrors in the room.

Kuja's mouth hung open, as she asked in a worried voice, "How? With this power, my blade can cut through mountains! Then how did you protect yourself, with that!"

"Eek!" Rei looked at the sword in his hand, it was about a yard long and hardly weighed anything. It was a practice sword, and it was made of wood. Even a sharp metal blade could have cut through that.

"Perhaps there are limitations? Wood?" Then she smiled one of her trademark devilish smiles, only made more devilish by the power she now had. "No matter, I'll just rip you apart with my bear paws!"

Before Rei could wittingly say, "But you're a fox, not a bear?" The entire tower then began to fall.

…

"Nice work, but don't you think that Kuja might be a bit angry?"

With a smile on his face, Palcos turned to the slave, "I hope so, and it took me about an hour to set all of those explosives!"

The scrappy slave, an old ocelot, looked down at his hands, "Always wondered why they never let us have candles. Never knew I was hauling explosive rock, would have been more careful."

"Well now you're free, go enjoy yourself!"

"Free and homeless ya freak!"

"Hey life's a dog!"

Then Palcos called to the rest of the people, "Hey everyone! You're all free, go somewhere nice! Have some fun!"

He was only met with grumbles and half-hearted 'Hip-hip hoorahs'.

"Ah, what a bunch of sticks. Go sit in some mud!"

Then a frightened otter shouted, "Look, there is Lady Kuja, she lives!"

"Wha'?"

"I see her too, she's climbing out of that window."

"She's dragging something in her hands."

A young mouse child in a frightened voice, called out, "She's glowing with red fire! She really is a demon!"

Palcos saw it too. After the tower had fallen, he had thought that no one had survived, but now it looked like at least Kuja had survived. "Dang, and that looks like that rube Rei!"

The monkey ran off, as the former slave ocelot called after him, "Hey ya dang idiot, where can I get some food?"

Stopping in his tracks, Palcos again called to everyone, "Listen, go to Marburg, and make sure you let everyone know, that this was all the fault of the town of Nogrias!" Then he continued his run towards the fallen tower.

…

Rei groaned, as the heartless Kuja tossed him into the lake. Unconscious, he began to sink. Down, and down into the depths of the lake. Into the heart of the blackness before him, he began to choke on the water. Hands seemed to appear form the dark pollution, and it felt like they were dragging him under.

To death he sank, and then life began to bubble out of him. As the bubbles come out of his nostrils and out his beak, he opened his eyes and watched them. He saw reflections in them, and saw the images of his own life there.

A carefree youth, with a great friend. Tragedy striking that same child, and then moving, time and time again. Deeper into the heart of the city, as he grew up on the move. He went to six High Schools, and yet didn't meet anyone. A wallflower, forever oblivious. Thankless jobs, heartless relationships. Soon he was on his own, and his mother, coming down with disease, was restricted to a bed.

Then he saw himself, stuck behind a desk, and always alone. And he saw that go by; in the next thousand bubbles he saw the image, for he had done that for several long years. One day a ray of light hit him, and he decided to cut ties and leave. And he did, and now he was dying.

He hit bottom, and the ichor around him began to swell, and grow. Until he was suddenly being rushed to the surface in invisible arms. The water spat him out onto the shore, and life took him back.

Sputtering, he coughed dark water out onto the gravelly ground. He hoped that he never did that again; the hopelessness would be too much to bear again.

Drunk on newfound life, he stood up, and looked into the distance. He saw a glowing red blur, choking the life out of a small shape. Kuja was choking Palcos to death. Looking around him, Rei saw a glimmer in the sun, and picked it up. It was a broken sword, but it would do.

Taking in a deep breath, Rei expelled his call, "Kuja!"

The demon fox turned, and looked at him, then she tossed Palcos to the ground, and began to head for Rei.

As she approached, she took out her own sword, "Ready to die yet, little bird?"

They came together, a clash of two forces. Having no previous training of how to use a sword, Rei was doing surprisingly well. He made cuts and jabs like a seasoned veteran, and he moved as if he had gone to the gym every day for his entire life. But he didn't think of that, all he could think of was defeating Kuja.

She lunged, he dodged, he slashed, she parried. Back and forth, the attacks and the blocks, the blocking and the attacking. He fought like a swordsmen, and she fought back like a demon.

"You've lost!"

"I'm not dead yet!"

"But you are!"

Kuja leapt back, raised her sword, and brought it down. Again she missed. Seeing a window for an attack, Rei slashed at her. Kuja blocked the attack with her paw, and then she went down, her left knee had been destroyed from underneath her.

They hadn't heard the shot, but there stood Palcos on a rock, not far off. His pistol in hand, and a ril in his mouth, "Shoulda killed me when you had the chance!"

Rei saw his chance, and he struck at Kuja with his broken sword. The jagged blade plunged into Kuja's side, and stuck into one of her bones. She reeled backwards, awash in pain.

"You fools, you cannot defeat one of the Enlightened!"

Palcos walked over to the bleeding Kuja, and raised his pistol to her head, "Hey, survival of the fittest!"

He pulled the trigger, and in a flash Kuja had grabbed the barrel, and twisted it shut. The shell exploded in the chamber, and the gun flew out of Palcos' hand. He made a hurt yell, and cursed at Kuja.

She was gone, in an instant she had vanished, fleeing the scene. A shattered sword lay on the rocks, the top half was soaked in blood.

Palcos' screeched at Rei, "Where is that cur, where did she go?"

Rei stammered, "I-I don't know. In the blink of an eye, she was gone? Poof, a flash of red, and nothing."

"Ugh, if I ever see her again… I will kill her if I get the chance!"

"Don't stress yourself out about it. The day was saved, and I'm a hero!" Rei turned and was ready to walk home.

Palcos' made a clicking noise, and raised his broken gun at Rei, "You're not going anywhere, and I'm bringing you into Sieve! The way you fought her! And with a broken sword! There's something, wrong with you!"

"Just the adrenaline rush of battle. Maybe I get it from my ancestors." Then he thought of his own father, and then about how he had fought a dragon himself as a child. "Yes, it runs in the family."

The monkey flopped down, and took out a screwdriver, and began to dismantle his gun, "Aw go on! Just leave would ya, I never want to see you again."

"That was my plan. Hey Nogrias is that way, right?"

Angrily Palcos pointed towards Nogrias, and then went back to his task. "Stupid bird!"

Rei left, and returned back to Nogrias. It took him a few hours, and he almost got lost. He got there just little bit after dinner. So he ate dinner cold, as he related his story to Chassy, who hung on every word he said. After that he went to sleep, tired from the work he had done, and oblivious to the events that were about to transpire.