Final Fantasy Gunblade

Chapter 3: Garuda Citidom - Act. 1 - 4

Chapter 3

Act 1.

Garuda Citidom, the citidom nearest to the capital, and also home to Bass and the Freedom-for-Hire mercenary group. Many of its citizens believe that the place the citidom was established had been the nesting ground of the giant bird-like sentient being and protector of the sky called Garuda, thus became the citidoms official name. The length of their journey had been longer than usual for Lox, Bass, and Universe but they finally got to their destination. Unlike in Corona, the citidoms security is much lax hence getting inside didn't become an obstacle for them to pass. They wandered around the place, astonished by its remarkable features even for Corona standards. Its streets are always filled with busy people walking around back and forth while the roads are crowded by different kinds of automobiles causing traffic. The stores and malls are always busy that such feature had, unfortunately, put Lox's citidom to shame.

The three were heading straight to the central plaza first before deciding their next move. As they slowly walked towards the area, there stands the mighty statue of Garuda that would serve as an attraction to the tourist and locals alike. Like all citidoms, it is being governed by a Precider or Precidress. Such one was Allister Lemonte, the Precider of Garuda. Allister Lemonte was known to be a great market strategist and is the cause of the citidom's aggressive prosperity. Commercialism and export-import of goods became the main reason why the central market was established at this citidom.

Lox tells his comrades that he will be heading for the royal dwelling to speak with the precider, seeing that he is a me-reet and the next precider of Corona, he had the advantage to investigate inside exclusive and prominent places. He also added that he will be gathering information relating to the whereabouts of the Moogle statue as well, and so Lox left the two and headed towards the royal dwelling. Universe and Bass decided to walk around the citidom for awhile as they try to gather information on random people walking on the streets. Failed to get any answers from them, Universe decided to once again planned on visiting the archive network. Bass tells the soldier-knight that he'll be visiting the Freedom-for-Hire's hideout for a while, after that they both went on each other's way. Moments passed, Universe had finally located the citidom's archive network, and Bass has reached the eastern part of the citidom, planning to meet with the group's intelligence unit, Cid Quezacotl. Little did Bass knew that Cid was already expecting his arrival and has his agenda with the young mercenary leader himself.

Despite its reputation, the citidoms have some of its demerits, and one of these is the rising poverty within Garuda's east gate. Bountiful rewards gained by the citidom didn't come without sacrifices and such was the fate of the citizens living on the east gate. The area became the official dumping ground of trash and leftovers that people living within the central and other gates tend to avoid the place. This became an advantage for the Freedom-for-Hire group to conceal their base. The hideouts location was around a junk shop, within the eastern gates, right at the back of an abandoned casino, just beside a small restaurant. Bass was no stranger to its slums and most of the members of the group are locals of the area themselves. The young leader grabbed some wildflowers that grew near the area and bought some meat buns from a small bakery along the way. He finally arrived at an open field and was welcomed by the junior cadets who were a bunch of children that are happened to be orphans who --after the orphanage got burned down to the ground by a bunch of extremists-- were left with no place to go. The culprits were long caught and punished by the Freedom-for-Hire along with their leader Bass, and the children found themselves a new place to call home within the group. As he slowly approached them, he then gave them each a meat bun, however, there was one little girl who was just sitting on a bench, alone while holding a small cane. The young mercenary slowly walked towards the child, and as he came close to her, she immediately called his name "Bass! You're.....you're back!". Acknowledging that he is, the young girl immediately stood up afterward using her cane, she tries to --even with difficulty-- walk towards his voice. Bass placed his right palm on her head, which served as her guide towards the young leader. The young girl hugs the mercenary leader as she welcomes her, to which he replied, "Hello Stina". He then smiled and kneeled to face her as he grabbed her left hand, and gently place the flowers on it, Stina just smiled not knowing what's in front of her. The young girl had a disability, her eyes were underdeveloped when she was born, causing her to be permanently blind. Her mother died after giving birth to her and her father went crazy from such loss that he thought that she was a cursed child and so he abandoned her while she was still a baby in front of the orphanage and soon became one of the children adopted by the group. Bass suddenly remembered his other reason for taking such an outrageous job from Lox and Universe. He also recalled Cid explaining to him before that he knew somebody that could fix her eyes but it would cost him greatly, and so came to his decision to accept the young me-reets contract who offered a great reward for the group.