Final Fantasy X: The Novel (ON HOLD)

Chapter Three: Besaid Island

I started spitting out water. I was in the water again. This was really getting old. I suddenly remembered everything.

“Rikku!” I looked around and saw only tropical trees. The water was super clear as well. I was then hit in the head. I looked at what it could have been. “Blitzball!”

“Hey, you ok?” I heard a voice from where the ball came from. I looked over and saw a man with spikey red hair. He had a bandana tied around his head. He looked like a blitzball player. There were others with him. They must have been a team.

“Hey!” I shouted out to them. I swam under the ball. I was a blitzball player too. I bumped it up into the air and kicked it back to the beach people.

I swam toward the beach. It wasn’t a far swim. The water was warm. The sky was clear. It was a good day.

When I reached the beach the team surrounded me. They wore orange uniforms. They also looked friendly. They stared at me in awe.

“Hiya,” I scratched the back of my head.

“You wanna try that move one more time?” he asked me like a little kid looking up at the master.

Finally, things were starting to look up. I kicked the ball out into the sea. It skimmed the top of the water flying out into the deep water. I turned and looked at the team, their faces had amazed looks upon them.

“You’re no amateur. Who you play for?” the red haired teammate asked me.

“The Zanarkand Abes,” I said proudly.

The team looked around as if I said a bad word. They game me award glances.

“What team you say again?” the red haired man eyed me closely.

“Uh, I meant… Forget that. I got too, uh… close to Sin, and my head’s all foggy-like,” the team’s expression turned from surprised to sorrow. They felt sorry, “so I don’t know where this place. Or even where I came from.”

“Sin’s toxin got to you, but you are still alive. Praise be to Yevon,” the red haired man said. He turned to his teammates. “Alright, back to practice,” the team started doing what they were told.

“I’m Wakka, coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs, brudda,” he smiled at me and shook my hand.

When I grabbed it, my stomach made its hungry noise. This Wakka fellow heard it as well.

“What? You hungry?” he nodded his head, “Okay, back to the village. I’ll get you somethin’.”

He started walking to the opening that led deeper into this island. There were ruins along on the hills and lots of vegetation was around.

I felt like I could trust this Wakka, so I just had to ask, “It’s true Zanarkand was destroyed, right? A thousand years ago? So it’s just a big pile of rubble now, isn’t it?”

“Long time ago, there were whole lot of cities in Spira, big cities with machina, machines, to run ‘em. People played all day and let the machine do all the work. And then, well, take a look,” he gestured toward the ruins that sprouted up with the trees, “Sin came, and destroyed the machina cities. Zanarkand along with ‘em. Yeah, that was about a thousand years ago, just like you said. If you ask me, Sin’s our punishment for letting things get out of hand,” he looked up at the sky, “What gets me though, is we gotta suffer. ‘Cause what some goofballs did way back when. ‘Course, we must always repent for our sins. That’s important. It’s just that, it’s hard to keep at it sometimes, you know?”

It was just as Rikku said. Wakka and Rikku couldn’t both be lying, Why would they?

Wakka suddenly started laughing, “But you from the Zanarkand Abes, that was a good one!” he put his arm around me. He was being friendly but I just wanted to be alone. I was alone anyways. I didn’t know this land. “Hey, I’m not saying the team never existed, ya? But you gotta figure a team livin’ in luxury like that’d be pretty soft, eh?”