The Fantasy Games (Final Fantasy Fanfiction)

Chapter Five: The Parade

Yuna sat nervously in Lulu's room as the woman busied herself in finding fabrics and hair equipment strewn across the shelves. Paine sat comfortably in an armchair across from the young white mage, occasionally making small conversation with Lulu about town gossip, fashion ideas or Shelinda's fake nose.

Yuna felt like she should be joining in however she simply let her mind wander to her list of worries which had suddenly escalated dramatically in less than a few hours. She had to keep her promise to her cousin, earn Auron's respect, learn how to fight and survive, maintain her friendship with Tidus, find a suitable outfit to get thousands of people to like her and not mess up a live interview with a charming talk show host.

And then she simply had to win the Fantasy Games.

Yuna shook her head in a futile attempt to rid herself of her thoughts. For once in her life, she really felt the pressure looming on her shoulders like a great weight trying to squash her soul out of existence. Her aeons remained quiet and gave her no comforting words of advice or knowledge. Probably because they knew none would help her survive in the upcoming weeks.

Now that was a bad sign.

"You're thinking about this too much," Paine shook Yuna from her thoughts with her deadpanned voice.

Yuna looked up to the woman in front of her as she felt her brows furrow with confusion and slight frustration. Was she really that obvious with her emotions?

"When you enter those games you'll run, find water, food and shelter and hide until you're one of the last tributes," Paine made it sound so simple and so easy that Yuna felt her brow un-crease and a small weight being lifted off of her shoulders. "Auron and I will get you sponsors and we'll send in whatever weapon you need to help you win then it'll be up to you."

"Was that your plan when you entered the games?" Yuna asked curiously.

"No, I ran for a sword and supplies at the start and got caught in the opening bloodbath," she replied after a moment's hesitation. "That's irrelevant though, you won't be doing that if you wish to survive."

Yuna nodded wondering if Paine had killed any other tributes in the opening bloodbath. She probably would've had to, Yuna had seen some of the bloodbaths and she knew how deadly they were. Panicked teens running for food and weapons, not knowing what to do despite their weeks of training and as soon as one drop of blood was spilled their instincts took over and they became animals. Their primeval sides were unleashed; they became aggressive, violent and did anything or took down anyone who got in the way of their one goal. Survival.

"Sponsors are going to be a key factor in your survival," Paine continued on. "That's why you need to appeal to the crowd, make them believe you're worth sponsoring, that you're capable of winning."

Yuna nodded in understanding. Of course the Capitol wouldn't sponsor someone incapable of winning the Games, that would be a loss of money and simply foolish, but could she really win the Games? Could she really kill another human being for her own survival? Could she ever live with herself if she did?

And then there was Tidus... her childhood friend and ally. They'd grown up together, did mostly everything together, they'd never fallen apart, only over little matters but Yuna would simply apologise straight away in fear of losing her best friend and life would go on. But now... they'd enter the games together, but only one would exit.

"The games are three weeks away," Lulu remarked as she placed a bundle of fabrics in a chair and took the measuring tape from around her neck. "You needn't worry about them just yet, what you need to worry about is attracting sponsors."

"But I'm not sure how to do that exactly," Yuna replied timidly.

"You need to drop the shy priestess attitude," Lulu intoned, signalling for Yuna to stand on the platform to be measured, which Yuna obeyed to, unmoving as Lulu wrapped the tape around her hips, "I know that you may have been taught to be loyal and obedient by the priests in the Temple but they are not here to scold you right now and changing your attitude may just save your life in the Games."