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Unexpected
folder
Final Fantasy VIII › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
5
Views:
809
Reviews:
3
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Final Fantasy VIII › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
5
Views:
809
Reviews:
3
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Out Cold
Chapter 2: Out Cold
The small town seemed bigger than Almasy remembered, but the last visit had been under different circumstances; everything then compared to the world in total had meant little and his knighthood everything. “Snakes.” He stiffly spat to the side before eyeing the town again, grimacing before he motioned the man to proceed.
Snakes had shoulder-length and oddly cut tacky hair the color of grayish-yellow, and a long narrow face that had two wormy-shaped eyes that drooped at their exteriors. From his eyes to near his mouth protruded an eagle-beak nose. His limping gait matched his long rangy limbs and raggedy hunting clothes whilst he carried a ball-and-chain flail. “Where’s Rumi going to run off to the next time he screws himself in balls,” Snakes asked, smiling to bare missing and black-stained teeth.
The blond dismissed the comment and turned to the rest of the miscreants. “Alright bunch of losers. Gather up.” He waited as the group of at least fifteen men gathered around. “Listen up. I need ten men to find the little bitch—myself included because we all know most of you are worthless.” There was murmuring among the group before eight men eventually stepped out to separate them from the rest.
“Good. Now I know most of you haven’t seen her but I doubt any locals will be up at this time of night so she’s hard to miss.”
“Hey, heard she’s a looker.” someone said.
“Yeah, check the hips the doll got,” another added.
“Shut up! All of you,” the blond said to settle further commotion. “We’re going in so keep your traps shut and just focus on the woman,” his green eyes blazed.
~<>~
Symptoms of pneumonia finally settled in at twenty minutes outside.
“You know, you’re going to get sick the way you are now—if you keep it up….” The green-eyed woman glanced at him.
“….” The rain never eased and the town’s muddier areas were beginning to look like huge ponds converged into something that threatened flooding the whole town. you you okay?” he finally asked. He knew the exposure they had to the rain couldn’t be normal, above all for the woman. She looked like she hadn’t eaten for days yet her attitude said otherwise.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve noticed. But tell me this. Do I sound any less ill than what you must be feeling right now?
“….”
“And you do want to know why Mister…?” She waited for him to finish her sentence.
“....”
“Mister...?” she repeated, visibly still waiting.
“It’s Squall.” He didn’t know if he wanted to be annoyed or adjust his mood; the weather was enough especially now that the rain had turned ice cold. Out of sudden whim, he wished he’d had Shiva with him—if only to freeze out the meandering mouth he couldn’t wholly ignore.
“RiMistMister It’s-Squall,” she finished soberly, moving closer to him in order explain something she probably thought was worth yapping about. “Anyway, the reason why you’re so sick while I only look sick is because I have what is known as a Guardian Force. It keeps me from—”
He suddenly stopped in his tracks and focused on what he had begun concluding was a madwoman; he was tempted to think a GF had no relevance. “You have a GF?”
“GF?” She seemed to wonder for a moment before htirrtirring brain caught up. “Oh. Yes. I hav‘GF’‘GF’. It keeps me—”
“Who are you and where are from?” The woman had tried answering but he already knew the complications the new detail meant. Now he just wanted answers, knowing the more he knew the quicker things would be dealt with—rewarding him with the clear conscience he needed to return home.
In the darkness, her eyes flashed in delight. “Well now. So you’ve finally taken an interest. Well then I guess you already know what Guardian Forces are.” She smiled a strange smile before she turned to keep walking.
“Miss…”
~<>~
She thought she’d return his social graces until slight guilt got the best of her, and she answered more than a bit belatedly. “It’s Kera, thank you very much,” she yelled back, but a notion hit her. Yes it had been raining. The sound of falling rain with her footsteps had been as perceptible as things unknown to her, but now the smallest change in surrounding was louder than she cared admitting.
She turned around. “Sir?” The pretty man had disappeared, and only rain and darkness lay in his stead. “Sir? Mister Squall?” She couldn’t contain the sudden panic that sprang in her chest, and the dread eagerly pushed to get out; she began yelling. “Sir?! Where are you?! Mister Squall?!”
“He’s right here, lady.”
~<>~
“Boss!” Rumi jumped at the abrupt sight of his supposedder der standing a short distance behind the woman.
“So I see you’re not a complete lost cause. Who’ve you got there?” From too far, Almasy looked to his feet, where Rumi had dragged the careless man who’d been with the lady earlier but was now a pathetic unmoving lump, faced down and outright drenched on the flooded night ground.
Kera made to run.
“Na ah Missy. Leave and your friend here dies,” the blond teased, and just barely side brushed her when he walked past to where Rumi stood.
Hesitantly, Kera turned to face Almasy and Rumi. “He’s…he’s not my friend,” she claimed.
Almasy gave a knowing smile and lifted the hunk of metal he called Hyperion. “Then it’s okay if I stick him now?” the blond settled; he took a final step and twisted his head to look at the woman directly.
~<>~
She knew the blond wasn’t bluffing, and it was due to her flagrance that she wasn’t unfeeling. “Alright! Okay. You win…,” she claimed although she moved no closer to the blond. “I’ll...I’ll go with you. Please. Just leave him.”
During the exchange, however, both she and the blond never saw that the redhead had lowered himself, squatting next to the unconscious brunet.
“Ahhh!” the brunet howled in agony before his head plopped into the puddle again, his long dark hair covering his now deathly pale complexion.
Oddly, something overcame her, and before anything, she’d lost it. “You promised not to hurt him!” she screeched as she jealously stomher her way to the redhead, unthinking to any consequences. Silent lightening lit the sky and now the plentiful blood that easily seeped from the white fabric of the brunet’s t-shirt.
The falling rain seemed to have increased in volume to nearly deafening as voices rose.
“You fucking idiot! Why’d you do that?” the blond scalded, incredulous, as he gave the guilty man a good glimpse of Hyperion, towering and ominously dark in the shadowy night air.
“B-bhe she said—”
It seemed that the redhead had been so attuned to the blond he hadn’t noticed her when she jumpim—sim—scratching, pulling, and punching.
“Ah!” the redhead yelled as the blond tried ripping her off what was apparently someone he knew.
“Never mind what the fuck she said!” The blond had abandoned his weapon in his attempts at her, and the redhead the bloody dagger as the rain wash the evidence away. The redhead was helplessly shielding himself with his arms now. With a last hard wrench affording a bruising grip, she flew off her victim and joined her earlier companion in his mud bath.
“Get the fuck up. We’re leaving. Take the woman.” The heaving blond had decided it wasn’t worth it.
Kera gawked at the blond disbelieving. “You…you think I’ll go with you now that you’ve practically murdered him in cold blood?!” She was fuming yet still clammy and now muddied.
“Look Miss. So Rumi the fucking idiot thought wrong. It’s not like you really knew him in the time you’ve been here—now cooperate or join your friend. Which is it?”
The injured brunet was now moving, but sluggishly as he appeared to attempt getting up.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Kera challenged. “You need me.” She automatically felt strange at her own assumption, but the notion was an epiphany she graciously thanked when any trace of delight vanished from the blond’s face.
“You’re coming,” the blond sorely determined. He strode to Kera and roughly grabbed her arm.
“I’m not leaving until you let me heal him!”
“Why? So he can wake up and wake the town, too? I don’t think so honey.”
“Please,” she pleaded as she futilely resisted the blond’s grip. “He can’t do anything. He’s defenseless…—and he has a wife!” She seemed proud to remember the fact.
Rumi had disappeared as the blond fortunately stopped in his purpose and reflected her caution. “Fine,” he finally said. “But make it quick.”
~<>~
He would’ve shivered from the pure cold running through his body but a sudden pang shot through the left section of his deltoid, overriding any other senses. As awareness returned, he realized that someone had gently pressed their palm to the source of his pain.
“Shhh...It’s going to be alright. I’m terribly sorry for everything,” someone said and he instantly thought of the woman.
“What…?” he wheezed out, but suffered a tearing pressure in his chest.
“Shh—don’t speak; I think your left lung’s been wounded.”
“Hurry it up, Miss Yaever.” Someone else was there and it sounded male. Had they been caught? His mind was blank with only pain; the only thing that came to mind revealed….GFs and bits of nonsensical chatter.
Before long, a numbing kind of coolness spread upon his back and his fever dispersed, leaving him d-cad-caked soaked body from head to toe. He sat up.
“Are you okay Mister Squall” the woman said.
“What?” The response came from the back of her, and he turned to look.
End2
The small town seemed bigger than Almasy remembered, but the last visit had been under different circumstances; everything then compared to the world in total had meant little and his knighthood everything. “Snakes.” He stiffly spat to the side before eyeing the town again, grimacing before he motioned the man to proceed.
Snakes had shoulder-length and oddly cut tacky hair the color of grayish-yellow, and a long narrow face that had two wormy-shaped eyes that drooped at their exteriors. From his eyes to near his mouth protruded an eagle-beak nose. His limping gait matched his long rangy limbs and raggedy hunting clothes whilst he carried a ball-and-chain flail. “Where’s Rumi going to run off to the next time he screws himself in balls,” Snakes asked, smiling to bare missing and black-stained teeth.
The blond dismissed the comment and turned to the rest of the miscreants. “Alright bunch of losers. Gather up.” He waited as the group of at least fifteen men gathered around. “Listen up. I need ten men to find the little bitch—myself included because we all know most of you are worthless.” There was murmuring among the group before eight men eventually stepped out to separate them from the rest.
“Good. Now I know most of you haven’t seen her but I doubt any locals will be up at this time of night so she’s hard to miss.”
“Hey, heard she’s a looker.” someone said.
“Yeah, check the hips the doll got,” another added.
“Shut up! All of you,” the blond said to settle further commotion. “We’re going in so keep your traps shut and just focus on the woman,” his green eyes blazed.
~<>~
Symptoms of pneumonia finally settled in at twenty minutes outside.
“You know, you’re going to get sick the way you are now—if you keep it up….” The green-eyed woman glanced at him.
“….” The rain never eased and the town’s muddier areas were beginning to look like huge ponds converged into something that threatened flooding the whole town. you you okay?” he finally asked. He knew the exposure they had to the rain couldn’t be normal, above all for the woman. She looked like she hadn’t eaten for days yet her attitude said otherwise.
“Well, I’m glad you’ve noticed. But tell me this. Do I sound any less ill than what you must be feeling right now?
“….”
“And you do want to know why Mister…?” She waited for him to finish her sentence.
“....”
“Mister...?” she repeated, visibly still waiting.
“It’s Squall.” He didn’t know if he wanted to be annoyed or adjust his mood; the weather was enough especially now that the rain had turned ice cold. Out of sudden whim, he wished he’d had Shiva with him—if only to freeze out the meandering mouth he couldn’t wholly ignore.
“RiMistMister It’s-Squall,” she finished soberly, moving closer to him in order explain something she probably thought was worth yapping about. “Anyway, the reason why you’re so sick while I only look sick is because I have what is known as a Guardian Force. It keeps me from—”
He suddenly stopped in his tracks and focused on what he had begun concluding was a madwoman; he was tempted to think a GF had no relevance. “You have a GF?”
“GF?” She seemed to wonder for a moment before htirrtirring brain caught up. “Oh. Yes. I hav‘GF’‘GF’. It keeps me—”
“Who are you and where are from?” The woman had tried answering but he already knew the complications the new detail meant. Now he just wanted answers, knowing the more he knew the quicker things would be dealt with—rewarding him with the clear conscience he needed to return home.
In the darkness, her eyes flashed in delight. “Well now. So you’ve finally taken an interest. Well then I guess you already know what Guardian Forces are.” She smiled a strange smile before she turned to keep walking.
“Miss…”
~<>~
She thought she’d return his social graces until slight guilt got the best of her, and she answered more than a bit belatedly. “It’s Kera, thank you very much,” she yelled back, but a notion hit her. Yes it had been raining. The sound of falling rain with her footsteps had been as perceptible as things unknown to her, but now the smallest change in surrounding was louder than she cared admitting.
She turned around. “Sir?” The pretty man had disappeared, and only rain and darkness lay in his stead. “Sir? Mister Squall?” She couldn’t contain the sudden panic that sprang in her chest, and the dread eagerly pushed to get out; she began yelling. “Sir?! Where are you?! Mister Squall?!”
“He’s right here, lady.”
~<>~
“Boss!” Rumi jumped at the abrupt sight of his supposedder der standing a short distance behind the woman.
“So I see you’re not a complete lost cause. Who’ve you got there?” From too far, Almasy looked to his feet, where Rumi had dragged the careless man who’d been with the lady earlier but was now a pathetic unmoving lump, faced down and outright drenched on the flooded night ground.
Kera made to run.
“Na ah Missy. Leave and your friend here dies,” the blond teased, and just barely side brushed her when he walked past to where Rumi stood.
Hesitantly, Kera turned to face Almasy and Rumi. “He’s…he’s not my friend,” she claimed.
Almasy gave a knowing smile and lifted the hunk of metal he called Hyperion. “Then it’s okay if I stick him now?” the blond settled; he took a final step and twisted his head to look at the woman directly.
~<>~
She knew the blond wasn’t bluffing, and it was due to her flagrance that she wasn’t unfeeling. “Alright! Okay. You win…,” she claimed although she moved no closer to the blond. “I’ll...I’ll go with you. Please. Just leave him.”
During the exchange, however, both she and the blond never saw that the redhead had lowered himself, squatting next to the unconscious brunet.
“Ahhh!” the brunet howled in agony before his head plopped into the puddle again, his long dark hair covering his now deathly pale complexion.
Oddly, something overcame her, and before anything, she’d lost it. “You promised not to hurt him!” she screeched as she jealously stomher her way to the redhead, unthinking to any consequences. Silent lightening lit the sky and now the plentiful blood that easily seeped from the white fabric of the brunet’s t-shirt.
The falling rain seemed to have increased in volume to nearly deafening as voices rose.
“You fucking idiot! Why’d you do that?” the blond scalded, incredulous, as he gave the guilty man a good glimpse of Hyperion, towering and ominously dark in the shadowy night air.
“B-bhe she said—”
It seemed that the redhead had been so attuned to the blond he hadn’t noticed her when she jumpim—sim—scratching, pulling, and punching.
“Ah!” the redhead yelled as the blond tried ripping her off what was apparently someone he knew.
“Never mind what the fuck she said!” The blond had abandoned his weapon in his attempts at her, and the redhead the bloody dagger as the rain wash the evidence away. The redhead was helplessly shielding himself with his arms now. With a last hard wrench affording a bruising grip, she flew off her victim and joined her earlier companion in his mud bath.
“Get the fuck up. We’re leaving. Take the woman.” The heaving blond had decided it wasn’t worth it.
Kera gawked at the blond disbelieving. “You…you think I’ll go with you now that you’ve practically murdered him in cold blood?!” She was fuming yet still clammy and now muddied.
“Look Miss. So Rumi the fucking idiot thought wrong. It’s not like you really knew him in the time you’ve been here—now cooperate or join your friend. Which is it?”
The injured brunet was now moving, but sluggishly as he appeared to attempt getting up.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Kera challenged. “You need me.” She automatically felt strange at her own assumption, but the notion was an epiphany she graciously thanked when any trace of delight vanished from the blond’s face.
“You’re coming,” the blond sorely determined. He strode to Kera and roughly grabbed her arm.
“I’m not leaving until you let me heal him!”
“Why? So he can wake up and wake the town, too? I don’t think so honey.”
“Please,” she pleaded as she futilely resisted the blond’s grip. “He can’t do anything. He’s defenseless…—and he has a wife!” She seemed proud to remember the fact.
Rumi had disappeared as the blond fortunately stopped in his purpose and reflected her caution. “Fine,” he finally said. “But make it quick.”
~<>~
He would’ve shivered from the pure cold running through his body but a sudden pang shot through the left section of his deltoid, overriding any other senses. As awareness returned, he realized that someone had gently pressed their palm to the source of his pain.
“Shhh...It’s going to be alright. I’m terribly sorry for everything,” someone said and he instantly thought of the woman.
“What…?” he wheezed out, but suffered a tearing pressure in his chest.
“Shh—don’t speak; I think your left lung’s been wounded.”
“Hurry it up, Miss Yaever.” Someone else was there and it sounded male. Had they been caught? His mind was blank with only pain; the only thing that came to mind revealed….GFs and bits of nonsensical chatter.
Before long, a numbing kind of coolness spread upon his back and his fever dispersed, leaving him d-cad-caked soaked body from head to toe. He sat up.
“Are you okay Mister Squall” the woman said.
“What?” The response came from the back of her, and he turned to look.
End2