Dissidia Final Fantasy: Unus Mundus

Chapter Five ~ A New Enemy (Bartz)

The light of the two moons reflected off the surface of the ocean as a ship cut through the waves slowly. A beautiful woman with long, purple hair stood at the bow. She was the captain of that ship, Captain Faris. "The wind feels different," she whispered. "It  started earlier today. Does Bartz know about this...?" Faris turned around to look at her crew of pirates scattered about the deck. "Attention!" she shouted. The pirates all jumped, startled by her loud voice, and turned her way as she began to speak. "Take us to the closest shore. I need to talk to Bartz." 

"But Cap'n!" one of the vessel's pirates exclaimed. "How'd ya know Bartz is gonna be at whatever shore we go to?"

"He, of all people, should've picked up on the change in the wind." Faris looked around whist standing atop the prow of the ship. "Bartz travels everywhere. I'd imagine he'd be near." She grabbed her pendant, tucked under her shirt, and looked at it. The mysterious glow that used to surround it was gone. The Crystals... she thought to herself. I can feel it too. Almost like their magic was stolen somehow!

The pirates pulled the ship aside to an unknown shore. "We've arrived, Cap'n!" one of them exlclaimed. "Wan' us to wait here?"

"Aye," Faris said solemnly. She jumped off the ship and landed on her feet with perfect form. She unsheathed a scimitar that hung at her side as she started looking around the unfamiliar place. It didn't look like any location she had traveled to with Bartz, but she could sense that he was near. The air was silent. It was almost like the ocean had stopped, or time itself had frozen in place. Faris could only hear her own breath in the stillness. She looked around silently to survey the strange place. It was a grassland, presumably an island of some sort, but the further Faris walked in, the trees grew larger in numbers until it was akin to a forest. 

"Cure!"

That familiar voice came from further in the forest, and as soon as Faris heard it, her heart dropped with worry. "Bartz!" she gasped, and started running towards it. She slashed away any hanging branches in her path until she could hear a small fire crackling. Behind the last set of trees in her path, she saw a man on the ground, holding a bleeding Chocobo in his arms. It was one of Faris's closest friends, Bartz Klauser. 

"Cure!" Bartz shouted again, but it was in vain. Nothing happened. "Come on, Boko..." Bartz whispered, nearly in tears. "I can't lose you...!" Faris sheathed her scimitar and walked slowly towards them. Bartz looked up at her alarmed, and when he noticed it was only her, he sighed with relief. "Faris? How did you find me here?"

"Call it intuition," Faris chuckled. She knelt down beside Bartz and placed a hand on the Chocobo, Boko. "What happened?"

"We were attacked," Bartz replied. "I sensed that something happened to the Crystals, so Boko and I were going to investigate. But some guy with a really, really long sword attacked us at speeds I had never seen a man fight at. I don't know if he was trying to prevent us from checking out the Crystals or what, but we tried to escape, and that's when this happened." Bartz lifted a hand off of a large, open wound on Boko's side. Boko cried out weakly, and immediately, Bartz put his hand back on the wound in an attempt to stop the blood, almost ready to cry. "I can't lose him, Faris..." Faris looked at Boko with sorrowful eyes. 

"Just a sec." She turned around and reached into a small pouch she carried. In it was a small, glass vile with a green liquid. "At least I still have these. Here." Faris lifted Bartz's hand off of Boko's wound, and she poured the liquid into it. Boko cried out again, but the liquid started repairing the wound incredibly fast. "Thank the gods for Elixirs, huh?" Faris chukled. Bartz laughed and embraced Faris thankfully.

"Thank you so much!" he exclaimed. Boko quickly hopped up. His cry was back to normal, and his energy was back. Bartz stood up with Boko and looked to the horizon. "You felt it too, right?" he asked Faris. "The change in the wind? Something happened to the Crystals."

"That's why I wanted to find you," said Faris. "I knew you would've sensed it, and I didn't want to look into it until I found you." Bartz nodded and put a hand on Boko's back.

"Well, with Boko all healed up, I think we should go take a look." He looked at Faris. "You think you could give us a ride?"

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

Hey, people reading this. Sorry to leave this note at the end of a chapter, but I wasn't quite sure how else to talk to you guys. If you've been following this story, you probably know that the chapters are very spread out. I'd like to apologize for that. I've been quite busy with other projects, and also, I do work full time, so that's a major factor. I'm so, so sorry it took me so long to get this chapter written. I had it started almost a month ago, I think, but I never had the time to write it, as I'm writing three other novels, two musicals, and I'm composing the soundtrack for a game I'm also developing, so I've got quite a few projects. I promise, though, that I will see this project to completion for you guys. If you ever want updates as far as where it is, or why I haven't made progress, I'm always updating things like that on Twitter—to catch those updates, you could follow me at LordChrom7, or not. 'Tis your call, friends. In any case, have a wonderful day! Hopefully, Chapter Six will be done sooner!