Final Fantasy 7. Tifa Lockhart: Journey to Midgar.

1. Mount Nibel.

The track through the mountains towards Mount Nibel its highest peak, was a difficult traversal. The path itself was little more than an animal track, uneven, often sloping and, in more than a few places, slippery underfoot. However, Zangan spent half his life on his feet, moving quickly to maintain a healthily quickened heart-rate, and this experience had long since allowed his balance and agility to develop to a point far above that of the average human, so his navigation through the mountains was as smooth and fast as anyone could possibly manage. Plus, his leaping skill allowed him to engage a few short cuts, inaccessible to most, especially during ascents where the path became Zolom-like, zigzagging back and forth as it ascended. This allowed him to jump vertically from higher path to higher path, rather than taking the slower meandering trail that average humans were forced to use.

He knew his eventual destination would be Shin-Ra’s Mako reactor, which had been erected on a wind-worn and all but flattened concave scoop-out on Mount Nibel’s southern face. It had once been a rest-stop for climbers but Shin-Ra’s machines had levelled the ground and enlarged the space, until it was capable of accepting their reactor. It was located around two thirds of the way up toward the mountain's peak.

He saw evidence of scuffles along the winding path, and on a couple of occasions evidence of possible foul-play. A scrap of dark blue cloth, caught on one of a thousand jagged thorny bushes. The presence of which among the mountains seemed to complement the talon-like appearance of the strange growth-patterns of the granite and rhyolite rocks themselves. The scrap of cloth was a clue to where a villager, probably part of Tifa’s father’s mob, had gone off the edge – either slipped or forced. And a quick glance down the sheer cliff-face showed a tiny figure on the rocks two hundred feet below, if not further. A broken human in blood red and dark blue.

Zangan hurried on. And of course, he found more evidence on the way. This time it was far less open to interpretation. A man, very dead, slumped over on the edge of the path. He lay flat on his back, limbs lying awkwardly, face uplifted to the Nibelheim ‘heavens’. Lifeless eyes staring up into the night sky with pupils that were pitch black with his blood. There was what was unmistakably a sword-slash cutting deep into his flesh from left shoulder to right hip. Exposed sternum and ribs were broken right through. The internal pressure of his organs would have prized the already shattered ribs apart and his intestines had slithered forth to collect in Zolom-like coils across his stomach and groin.

The corpse would attract wildlife from miles around. Zangan thought about moving him away from the path, maybe depositing him over the cliff edge, there would almost certainly be no one left in the village to bury the body, after-all. However, he decided against it, partially because the animals up here had to eat too, and partially because of the hurry he was in.