On Grisly Wings

 

“Raytehk ehdu dra cduns huf. Fedr yho milg fa'mm pa ypma du caa fryd'c rybbahehk eh drana, vydran.” Rikku shouted through her headset as the airship she was currently on top of pushed through the hurricane in defiance. When her father had called her away from Yuna’s side she had been confused at the urgency in his voice. Now that she had come this far she knew exactly why it had been so important. This storm, this hurricane, that they had been flying through was abnormal. So far they had tracked it’s progress for most of the month; or should she say lack of progress. That was what had finally gotten Cid to call her in, a normal storm would have been mobile and certainly ended by now. Everyone present was worried it might be the birthplace of Sin. Rikku herself passed that off as silly; how could something more than a month off the coast of Spira have anything to do with Sin?

“Ymm nekrd, Rikku. Zicd nasaspan du gaab yh aoa uid. Fa tuh'd ajah ghuf fryd'c lyicehk drec cduns. Oui syo ryja du vekrd, pid tuh'd funno. Ev ed lusac du dryd fa'mm pylg oui ib.” Cid’s voice broke through the sound of the wind as it tore by, the rain it carried stung as it hit the unprotected skin on her face.

“Fryd fuimt oui tu fedruid sa?” Rikku muttered to herself as she kept her eyes scanning the horizon for any sign of movement. It had been at least an hour since they’d entered the storm and it only seemed to be intensifying. “Caa yhodrehk uh dra cbrana?” She asked after a few more minutes.

“Hudrehk. Drana ec hudrehk uid rana! Fa cruimt rayt pylg pavuna yh ahkeha pmufc vnus dra cdnyeh!” Brother’s voice crackled to life in her ear as the storm started to interfere with her headset. He sounded almost scared, it wasn’t like him.

“Lyms tufh. Ev E's zitkehk nekrd fa cruimt pa ymsucd du dra—” Rikku let her sentence drop as she noticed movement in the water ahead. No, that can’t be right! She thought desperately, Sin is dead! We killed it ourselves! “Brother! Fa'ja kud sujasahd cay-ceta!” She shouted into her headset as it crackled wildly as they closed the distance between them and whatever was in the water.

“Tysh! E ghaf fa cruimth'd ryja paah uid rana!” Brother cursed as he through the ship hard into its breaks.

“Fydlr ed! Yna oui dnoehk du ghulg sa uvv dra creb?!” Rikku shouted as the ship rapidly slowed beneath her, knocking her hard into the ornament on its nose. She knew she’d have a bruise from the impact later, but now wasn’t the time to worry about such things. “Lyh fa kad y lmayn jeciym uh ed fedr y cbrana?” She was hoping that they could hear her, something was seriously wrong with her headset.

“Fa k.. ……. … … kuehk du …. .. … . …iym ….camv! F.’.. …. .puid pmeht e. .ana!” Brother’s response was broken by the static that Rikku was having trouble ignoring. It was so strange, not even Sin itself had caused issues with the machina before! It was about then that the strange movements finally broke the surface.

Rikku was stunned to say the least, the thing before her eyes looked like a large snake of some sort. What looked like it’s head was sharply pointed and it’s long body looped in and out of the water behind it. She could swear it looked at her before it tilted it’s head back to let out a high pitched shriek that caused her already malfunctioning headset to fry, scalding her ear as she cried out. Quickly tossing the useless headset from her head Rikku knelt on the deck of the airship whimpering. She could still hear the beast raging in the waters below them as Cid opened fire on it and wondered what would happen to them. Was this really another Sin? How did it do that to her headset? All she had were questions and no answers…