Underwater

I noticed that, when I was following Auron, all the people I encountered ran in the opposite direction. Why was he going that way? What was going on? What just happened, why was I doing this? My only hope was Auron, and he, well... he disappeared? I looked around, saw people running, and then I saw the little, cloaked boy from before again, standing in front of me. I was about to ask him what was going on. But then I noticed that something was odd. I mean, aside from the smoke and the destroyed city around me.



I turned around and saw that all the people had stopped in mid-run. No one moved an inch. Even in the distance, I could see that the smoke stood still. COnfused, I looked around me, but again my eyes settled on the boy. "It begins. Don't cry.", the told me, then I saw a white light before my eyes and time had continued to flow again.



Was I totally going crazy? Hallucinating, now of all times? Again, I forced myself to forget about it when I saw Aurons red cloak disappear in the distance. Desperate for any clue, I ran after him and finally, I caught up. "Hey, not this way!", I told him, totally out of breath.



He however, just stared at something in the distance and told me to "Look!".



I followed his gaze and gasped. I involuntarily took a few steps backwards at the sight. Over Zanarkand, there was floating something. It looked like the watersphere you play Blitzball in, but it was much, MUCH larger. And there was something moving in it.



"We called it [Sin].", Auron offered an explanation.



"[Sin]?", I asked, not comprehending anything. Back then, the name meant nothing to me.



He seemed like he wanted to say more, but just then, something shot out of the ball of water. It crashed into the side of nearby building, and I saw what it was: A huge tentacle of sorts. Gross. What was even worse was that it shot little shells from its tail. I only learned later that those were called "Sinspawns". But right then, I was pretty afraid when the crashed into the ground before me.



Before I knew what was happened, the shells opened and turned into larvae-like things that started to attack me. I tried to fend them off using my bare hands, but it wouldn't work. I fell flat on my butt as one of those beasts snapped its jaw at me. Just then, Auron held a red, hooked sword in front of me and simply ordered me "Take it!".



I took the handle that he still held and he pulled me up with it. I held the sword up for a moment before Auron released its grip on it. Then, its whole weight pulled it down and I could barely catch it with my hands before it clattered to the ground. "It's a gift from Jecht.", he too told me.



"My old man?", I asked incredelously. But... why... how? Nevermind, I told myself, not the first weird thing happening to you now. In fact, I was beginning to think that this WAS a dream anyway. "I hope you know how to use it.", he said. With Auron, I was never sure if something was a declarative statement or a question.



'Of course not!', I wanted to snap at him. But I only nodded. How hard could it be to swing this thing anyway, I wondered as I looked at the hatchlings in front of me.



Auron and I slashed our way through more and more of those... things. Well, Auron did most of it. With my shaking hands, I could barely hold the sword he gave me properly. But my confidence grew as one by one, these fiends sunk to the ground after my strike.



I was still puzzled as we made our way TOWARDS the monster in the background, but I followed Auron. I don't know why, but back then, all I could do was trust him. I was too scared and confused to piece together anything. So I rather trusted his guidance. Even when we were surrounded by more spawns and he told me to knock a machine off of the highway, I did so.



The machine exploded and took the nearest house down and it crashed right on the highway in front of it. On Aurons command, we jumped on the collapsing buildings side and ran towards the other end of it, hoping to get on the highway there. I just barely made it, gripping onto the edge of the highway. Auron stood above me, but what was worse, that [Sin]-thing was now above us as well.



I struggled to pull myself up and called out to him, but he only looked upwards and mumbled something. Then, he grabbed me at the collar of my blitzball shirt and pulled me up. I looked directly up into the glowing center of that Sin when Auron held me up there effortlessly. I did not know what was about to happen, but... I was scared. Afraid I would die there.



But Auron just said. "This is it. This is your story. It all begins here.".



Then, I remember screaming as I was sucked closer. I think I blacked out then, I saw a lot of weird images next. But even so, I thought about a lot of things. Like, where I was, what I'd got myself into. I started to feel light-headed... and then, sleepy.