Chapter 4: The Incoming Gatherings of Good and Evil/Way More Questions than Answers:
–Part 1–
'Falling downwards in a brilliant light-ray shower of stars, the forces of light and darkness each are marching onward into a separate world unknown to their cycled and war-torn own. The Sacred and the Sinful are crossing over into a world that will again mark the set battlefield for full control, bitter vengeance, and the true power within one's self.'
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Ahh, the peaceful early morning hours. The sprawling metropolis capital city of Cetia City, on the island country of Gleadane, was as busy as it can be with each brand new passing day located there.
The high towering mostly reinforced-steel-made towers rose to the clear skies above like well-structured skyscrapers should as the bright sun beamed off the various color-tinted and designed window panes. The many, various bustling shops, drive-thru diners, other restaurants, and fast food diner chains throughout the city’s many areas were all preparing for a new wave of customers that would be arriving at any moment’s notice for their businesses.
And just as the common populace walked up and down the sidewalks on both sides of the busy roads, all unaware of what was about to transpire in their usual, daily uneventful, everyday city life they lived in. For it has only been a few days now since the vast star showers of bright white lights and translucent snow flurries happened just the other night and day.
All as a small-formed group of seven, strangely dressed-up-looking travelers, who all walked together as one with little to no efforts of blending right in with anything else around them, and which mattered little right now to them.
The head main leader and first of the seven there was a brave, composed, and valiant knight, clad in fully-suited armor of vividly rich-royal-blue, which gleamed, with many design details of gold, some silver, and white, all etched into the metal from his booted legs’ grieves going all the way up to his straight upwards golden horned helmet onto his head. A shimmering light golden yellow to an almost an off white silky-like fabric cape was fastened securely around the knight’s lower neck and shoulders area, all thanks to a pair of metallic turquoise-aquamarine clasps near the shoulder guards’ lower inner ends.
From underneath the knight’s armored helmet, he had wavy curly-ended at-shoulder-lengthened foggy-blue silvery-ish-grey toned hair, and confident, radiant, true-aqua-blue-hued eyes. He currently did not have either his sun-themed sword, backup sword, or blue shield out with him in hand while walking forward. He was also just slightly ahead of the others who were there with him too.
The second of the group was a calm-minded, more collected, trustworthy, and reliable type of wizard, garbed in various shades of red clothing with yellow/white trimmings around the shoulders, maroon brown clothed pants, and coffee brown knee-high-short-heeled boots. A red cape was wrapped around the shoulders neatly, held securely in place by a golden crescent-shaped, jeweled encrusted clasp near the center looped ties. A second cloak in a shiny silky brown-sage-green color was hidden underneath the first cloaked cape, as part of his overall attire’s looks. His red hat was like a cowboy’s with two white to yellow tipped feathers sticking out of the brim’s band’s side of the hat. A pair of pearly white satin gloves were worn on his hands, with one of them having sewn-in twin elemental changing gemstones on the top part. He had straighter, naturally Pale-silvery-white, longer hair, calm Metallic-Eco-green eyes, and slightly pointed ears. At his sides with ease were both of his sheathed-up mythical rapier/long swords.
The third member of the group was another type of wizard, often very vocal and somewhat stern, and short in stature, garbed in an open blue robe with thin, richer yellow-trimmed ends. With thick striped multi-colored pants, a ‘cat’s claw-like’ bladed dagger hanging from his waist, brown short-heeled boots, and a large, wide, fair yellow curly-tipped hat. His face was covered by a magical smokey black veil, revealing only his lit-up Lemon yellow glowing eyes from behind its facade. In his right hand, he carried a wooden, blunt metal-fortified-ended staff with red-to-yellow, duo-feathered, beaded tassels at the top curve, which he was currently using as a walking stick. The fourth of the group was yet another type of wizard, being a deeply caring, truly pure-hearted, yet, still an easily excitable type of individual by nature. Fully garbed in a blessed, long white velveteen-silks made-robe with equally spaced out double-hued red triangular designs on the robe’s edges and long cloak both. She also wore a double-wrapped-up, firmly tied, sendaled-reds-toned striped sash around her robe’s mid-waist section’s area, too.
Along with a just-past-the-wrist-length pair of lotus pink fingerless gloves, and black, browns, and red below-knee-high boots. From just underneath the hood, the wizard had fluffied-out bob-cut, vividly-Fair-blonde, very short-styled hair with two-toned light pink highlighted streaks, and unique strikingly vibrantly-Reddish-colored agleam eyes. And a shimmering golden ringed-formed headband, choker, and spherical true jade earrings. Angelic-sweet-pink glossy lipstick was on her round lips. Her upper-glass-oval, four-ringed-topped long staff, which was currently shrunken down in its size, was at her hip’s right side as a holy-bladed sword was strapped down upon her mid-back.
The fifth of the group was the tallest of them, and he had the most muscular, well-trained, built-toned body type of the whole group as well. Being ever patient by nature, a top master monk, wearing a three-toned-shaded blue-purple-ish vest and matching loose pants. Lighter grey wrapping gauze was wrapped tightly around his upper and lower arms, and even around his mostly still bare feet. He also wore a multi-colored and layered plain sash around his waist. He had Rustic-brown eyes, and his sandy-brown hair pulled back into a low-type but tight held ponytail, and had a slightly thick beard as some facial hair. He bore no weapons at all upon him that were known of at present.
The sixth of the group was a rogue type of thief but was also skilled in the arts of some varying ninjutsu, well known to be charismatic with near boundless charms, dressed in an apple green colored vest over a white-ish medium long-sleeved shirt with a dingy cardinal red-brown scarf just around his neck. Even more apple green and deep teal striped tied multi-colored bandana, moss green pants, and dirt brown lightly armored, flat-calf-high boots. His medium-long hair was blond with the ends fading into a more naturally sky blue, with clearer Light Metallic-blue eyes and bore big pointed elven ears, with a pair of double sets of earrings of differing sizes/styles. A brown roped belt and four different styled decorative sashes were wrapped loosely around his waist. A clothed-up dagger and a backup smaller knife were kept in his side pockets.
Lastly, the seventh and final member of the group was a sweetly, and just as pure-hearted kind and tender, soft-ever-seafoam-green-haired beautiful woman whose hair ends were fading into fair-strawberry-pink hue held together in two double-styled sided, low-kept pairs of circular braided rounded buns. She wore a golden crown on the top of her head centered with large red ruby and blue sapphire gemstones in it and a lovely pearl white satin, well the past knee length yellow trimmed, and seas teal sided gowned dress. A lightly made weighted blue-silvery armored chest plate was worn for protection over her bust. She had gentle, lovely baby blue eyes, and wore vivid blue, rose pink, silver, and golden open-toed, and half-medium-heeled thinly strapped-up sandals on her feet. She was gracefully and gently carrying a very special lute in her arms. Then, after a short while, she was more towards the center of the group with the other five now all around her, as if carefully guarding her.
After a while of walking around, the Light blessed ‘White Wizard’, soon turned towards the knight curiously; and then asked him more directly, "Hey, Stan Cid Hi— uhhh, Warrior— Do please wait a moment. But why? Why have we returned here once again, to Cetia? For haven’t we already banished this city of Chaos’s influences before, from the last time before this renewed cycle began once more? Isn’t it safe here now for everyone? Or is this about our new mission?"
“Yes. That is all correct. And yet, according to Cosmos herself, Priscilla Mikoto, the Seven Chosen we need are all here somewhere within this vast city itself. We need to find them, and soon. And so are Chaos’s as well. We must find them all before Chaos does, or all of existence will be lost to True Discord, if we don’t win. We must also try to prevent Chaos from finding his Chosen, to protect them from his twisted evil power. We must not, cannot, let this all happen to them. It is indeed a good thing that Kalea and her group got here much earlier than each of us did. As they have already started looking around for them before any of us did. And hopefully, they are faring well right now compared to us I hope,” replied the knight, who for now is simply revealed as ‘Warrior’. ‘Priscilla Mikoto’ gives a soft nod, fully agreeing with the knight’s statements. The wizard in several red shades then said calmly in return, “Hmmm… Do you think we can truly defeat the vile evil forces of Discord this time around and finally end this war for good, and meaning permanently?”
“That is all up to ‘him’ and Cosmos herself, to decide about, Callen Geruda, my close and trusted friend. But I do believe so. I just hope that ‘she’ isn’t among the Chosen Seven Ones we are seeking out currently within this. I just really hope she isn’t. Please, oh please, truly anyone else but her. May the light guide us all and give us the strength through this long quest and war to bring true victory for Harmony!!” said ‘Warrior’ once more with a much-welcomed eagerness. In response, the short-height, blue-open-robed Dwarf Wizard said, “And I’m sure that she’ll be fine. Please don’t worry, my dear friend.” “I pray so, too, Blare Zuza. As I wouldn’t dare wish for this upon anyone else of this world’s actuality,” said ‘Warrior’ in a solemn prayer, just as ‘Blare Zuza’ nodded, all while he and the taller Master Monk both pat the Warrior’s back gently, understanding his real struggle and situation going on with him in totality. Just as ‘Callen Geruda’ nods firmly in agreement with him before looking over to the far northwest in his lone silent thoughts on the matter. With that all settled upon, the group continued their journey in their quest to obtain victory for pure Light and Harmony, a true ending to the endless cycles of war. And together as one, they marched onwards, still searching around as they went along on their way.
Much, much further away from the first group, near a flower shop selling freshly bloomed roses outside put on display, a group of seven walked down the sidewalk at their own pace. The first of the group, their leader, was a youthful, twenty-one-year-old male weapons specialist. And despite the weight of his weapons that he carried upon himself, he still walked on with ease, which were reflected in his Purple sun-orange-Brown toned eyes; and carrying altogether up to eight weapons, from a long sword to a longbow, and even identical crescent-shaped-topped, short-bladed, twin daggers. He wore fit-formed, light-crafted armor, armbands, rings, and long legged, plated-armored pants and boots in dark greys with six tones of metallic blue hues. An orange and light blue long cape was fastened around his shoulders, and even a multi-colored bandana of yellow, orange, tinted white, darker grey, and black shades, centered with a small red ruby stone and various beads on top of his head. His silvery-white long hair was pulled-back into a low ponytail with a red-brown tied band.
The second of the group was a woman with mostly, curly, yet more purple-violet-blue-tinged long hair, and purple eyes, dressed in a right-sided, mostly exposed purple fitting halter-like-top body piece. Even her leggings, golden flat-heeled and trimmed topped revealing boots with a rounded buckle near the top halves, and bracers on her wrists, were also all in several varying purple shades. With the aid of the green-yellow gemmed brooch and necklace on her neck, and both leather and sheer pink fabric-made straps, the right side of the halter-like-top body piece was easily held up. Also held up by the straps, somehow, was a golden-made cup chest plate, placed to the left side to cover up her left breast just ever so perfectly. A small green jewel ornamental-made shoulder guard was worn on her upper left shoulder. Her dark pink-ish belt was covered by a half darker-blue-hued sash, all held together by metallic bands. Her weapon was a red and silver crafted longbow with a hip built-in holster quiver on the back side.
The third of the group was a bigger muscular man with bark brown short kempt hair, and tannish brown eyes, wearing a shoulder pad-less, pastel metallic green/blue and silver light crafted chest plate armor. Blues/off-whites armored pants and boots and a plum purple cape attached to his armor itself by two golden clasps. On his upper sides were an ax and sword each. The fourth walking on behind the group was a naturally tan-skinned man with dark brown short-cut hair, and wise chocolate brown eyes, garbed up in soft white mostly half-fashioned robes. A layered turban centered with a red ruby stone, and light leather styled, deep gold trimmed armor, exposing his stomach area underneath. A soft white fabric covered his lower face as if it were just like a ninja’s mask. Held in his right hand was a large-sized, royal blue and golden trimmed shield, decorated with white edges surrounded by red markings.
The fifth of the group, who followed close behind the others, was a man with tightly pulled back blond hair, and ocean-blue eyes. Dressed in a yellow and poppy red faded tunic shirt. He also wore a bronze leather-made armored chest plate and similar styled boots, and green pants. A purple headband was worn around his forehead, centered with a blue sapphire gem. A blue-violet cape was held securely by a pair of two, yellow metallic crystalline clasps. The sixth amongst them was a hot pink-red long-haired woman with sea silvery-pink eyes, and wore a pair of decorative golden chained light-amethyst-sugilite jeweled earrings. She wore a draconic winged melon lime green circlet around her head and matching layered pauldrons covering her shoulders and upper back area for protection, all holding a pastel blue-white cape in its place. She also wore a pink-purple armored suited leotard with a shiny silky white semi-sheer long midi-skirt around her waist, held in place with a light blue belt and nearly matching sky-blue sashed half cape. Matching pink-purple armguard bands were worn snuggly around her wrists and matching armored thigh-high heeled boots were securely worn on her feet.
Then, the last of the group was a lavender-blue messy, wavy-styled-haired woman with lighter violet indigo eyes, wearing a multi-colored bandanna in pink, white, blue, and purple shades. In a grapefruit purple-colored styled bikini fashioned outfit set. With a pair of white belts and light purple, golden yellow, and lighter blue multi-colored sashes, and metallic gold with two-toned blue-ish purple past the ankle-high stockings and metal-made type shoes. As they continued on their chosen path, the youthful, silvery-white long-haired man soon looked over towards the display cases outside in front of the shop, spotting a freshly newer bouquet of different colored roses propped front and center for all there to see.
He soon stops to look at the flowers there, just as the others continue without notice for a moment. 'All the roses look just as beautiful as they did the last time we searched around here. I sure hope Karin is having better luck than we are right now in this city. Because right now we are not,' the man thought to himself. “Hey, Firion!!!!” He turns over and quickly catches up with his group, noticing that they are all now waiting for him. “Ah, sorry about that, everyone!!” ‘Firion’ said sheepishly. With the group reunited, they continued along their way as their search continued for the Chosen Seven.
Just near an empty alleyway behind a favorite and beloved local seafood-themed restaurant close by the flower shop Firion and his group were just at before. A group consisting of six out of eight youthful teenagers was making their rounds together as they searched around for something important at hand to find around there by themselves. The first two of the group wore similar knight-designed, special armored sets, but the first and youngest teen wore a more vibrant red-shaded hues outfit with darker red armor platings attached and a long, pale white flowing cape.
He had golden-blond tied-back far much longer lengthened hair with colorful oval beads, and lime-green eyes. The second of the two was shorter than the red-dressed leader was, yet older by a year, wearing a true sky blue version of the leader’s armor with different wider-legged ended shorts, more unique aqua-colored gloves, and calf-length largely white knee-high boots, and a shorter lengthened lighter cape instead when compared to his friend’s own’s hue. He physically bore naturally tanned skin, steeped-tea-brown messy-unkempt, and yet, shorter-styled length hair, and his eyes were a more Minty-Teal hue in their tone, as he looked around.
The other four teenage orphans of the group, one of whom was a female with a ranged temper at times, wore a newer but less armored, much more cloth and various leather-made versions of the first two’s attires, but still had some individual uniqueness to each one of them in their own theme colors, additional other details, and even preferred hairstyles. One was in muted purple hues, the next was in bright greens, the female was in much lighter blues, and the last was in a deeper set of red tones, when compared to the leader himself that is, even being the oldest one amongst them all when together out of six of them there in that moment.
Just as soon as the six stopped near an ice cream parlor shop’s outside, newly coated iron fenced surrounded, strawberry-topped designed parasols, and teal-azure clothed tables area, with some young adult people sitting there spotting them all close by to their view within the area there. The middle-centered, shorter ponytail-styled, pure silver-haired teened youth with purple eyes among them spoke out to their main leader first, “Hmmm. I guess we’re not having very much luck in finding the Chosen Seven, aren’t we guys? Huh? Oh? And by the way… Where are Starr Brightly and Luka both at now? I don’t see them here with us anymore. They were just right behind us earlier…,” the youth said to the group’s main leader just further up ahead of them as he looked back.
“No. It doesn’t look like it, Luneth. Although, they’ve got to be around here somewhere. I sure hope that Desch, Aria, and the others are having better luck than we are over here. Oh, that’s right. Yeah. She’s back out looking around over at where the actual main base is located for our HQ while here. And while Luka’s out by the river over there as well. I told them it was okay to go and look elsewhere,” The leader of the group said back in response. “Well, Keimaii Kidoeuii… Do you really think they’re even in this big city?” The oldest, much-shorter-styled light-blond-haired, and blue-eyed youth there said to the younger leader, named ‘Keimaii Kidoeuii’.
“Yes, I am pretty sure they’re in this city, Ingus. Since… So far, we’ve searched this small spot from head to toe and we still haven’t found them yet while over here. If we keep on looking, we’ll eventually find them in time. I’m sure of it,” Keimaii replied with a strong hope in his heart. ‘Ingus’ immediately gives out a calm nod in response as he folds his arms over his decently-protected chest. “Agreed, Keimaii. We just need to look elsewhere, way beyond here,” said the messy short tea-brown-haired youth, standing by Keimaii. “Soda Colaa, that’s a good idea. If we spread out and look in other areas than just around here, then we’ll surely find them before Chaos does for his own Chosen Seven. Good thinking,” said ‘Luneth’ with pure confidence, while grinning wide. ‘Soda Colaa’ nods back in agreement with Luneth.
“I really do hope so too, Luneth,” the Auburn-brown-haired, eyed, and soft-freckled youth said shyly to his close companion and long-time best friend. “Oh, I am sure we will, Arc!!” Luneth said, then smiled ever lightly at his childhood best friend, as ‘Arc’ slowly nodded back. “I hope so too as well, Arc, I really do. So, what now everyone?” the softly Ginger-orange-headed young female member of the group said to the other boys, her red-orange-colored eyes wondering curiously within. “Ok. So Refia, here’s what we’ll do next. We’ll each fan out even farther and continue our search in sets of———” Before Keimaii could finish speaking, clear sets of different footsteps soon caught the group’s attention as they turned to face the source of the encroaching footsteps. The first to arrive on the scene was a young and graceful fifteen-year-old girl with straight, yet partly braided-up styled, blonde waist-long hair, and watery-blue eyes. Wearing a very simple sleeveless, frilly, layered foam white dress, more plain-looking pale blue sandals, and bright royal blue velvet tied bows in her hair.
Right behind her was a man with eggplant-purple eyes, and Aruba-toned combed hair, pulled back into a mid-height long ponytail. He physically looked around twenty-five, dressed in a matching blueberry-colored long jacket top and pants, metallic white gloves, and boots with silver designs and crystalline stones on the boots. A left-side slate grey/silver/gold designed pauldron with a big marine blue gemstone, and a pair of large-sized lemon yellow rhombus-shaped earrings. A chained-linked black sheathed sword was at his lower back. The third of the group right next to the Aruba-toned-haired man to the left was a very elderly woman with white waist-long hair, wearing a matching tangerine-colored tall hat and medium square purse. A faded purple shirt-type dress with a silvery-white patterned skirt below her ankles with striped pants, and a pair of basic cloth brown shoes.
She carried with her a curved-topped wooden walking stick in her right hand and a fruit-red toned bird on her shoulder. To the elderly woman’s right was a taller, equally elderly man dressed in a hooded layered red to orange robes with golden yellow ends and a yellow scarf/half-cape, donning a grey mustache to reflect his far older age. Both his eyes and hair were hidden away underneath the red-to-orange and darker red designed hood. A special, decorative, made key was displayed on the top middle center of his robes’ chest around his neck.
“Hey, you’re all alright! Oh good.” Keimaii called out, “So any luck finding the Chosen Seven, Desch?” “No, unfortunately not. We searched all over that area over there and there's no sign of them anywhere so far,” the Aruba-toned-haired man, named ‘Desch’, said in response as he pointed over towards the area his group just came over from to the south. “Any luck over here, Luneth?” the longer blonde-haired woman asked sweetly. “No. We haven’t been having any luck here either, Aria. We’re so sorry about it,” Luneth said to the blonde-haired woman, named ‘Aria’. She soon, lightly disappointedly shook her head.
“Oh! Hey. So, Desch wasn’t causing you any trouble, was he, Aria?” ‘Refia’ said, as she glared over at Desch with her typical suspicion towards him. “What? No, no, no! Why would you even ask such a thing like that?” Desch clamored out in slight fear. “No. He wasn’t, Refia. Not one bit, at least this time around,” Aria replied to Refia with a soft smile of good reassurances.
“Don’t worry; Desch was on his absolute best behavior for once. Unei and I have been keeping a good eye on him here. All is going differently from the last time,” the elderly man said in a teasing manner as a hearty chuckle escaped past his lips. His companion to Desch’s right, ‘Unei’, giggled a bit as she lowered her head for a small moment and then fed her bird some seeds. “Doga, you darn old whacky… Aughs,” Desch sighed in a defeated breath towards the elder man of the group, ‘Doga’. Soda just laughs a bit at his dramatic antics.
“Well, just because Salina’s not here with us during these eternal long cycles of war doesn’t mean that you have the right to charm every girl you see within this city’s huge borders. All right now?” Refia said sternly towards the Aruba-toned-haired man. “Well I mean, she’s got a point there… In a way,” Arc said, starting to get a little shy again, backing up some.
“Guys… Just take it easy, will ya?” Desch said to the group as they began to giggle at him a bit more. “Calm down, young man. We’re just messing with you. Not sure if Refia was too, but she does have a point about all this, knowing you as we do,” Unei said to Desch, calming him from the minor grouped teasing.
“Well hey now, I am a lot older than I appear to look physically. And this already you know,” Desch chuckled out smoothly. “And we’re both far older than you are together, young Ancient. Much older than you can think of, despite our appearances. Because after all, Unei and I were once two of Great Magus Noah’s top three students. Such a good thing we got here before… Xande did. What fortunate timing. Don’t you think so?” Doga said to Desch.
“Good timing, indeed. Yeah. Especially before… That ‘Void Witch’ too, as well. Fully agreed,” gratefully said Desch. “Yup. And alright then. We have to keep on looking around some more. The seven are out there somewhere and until we find them, we are not going to stop looking for them. So let’s go, everyone!! Now, together!!!” said Keimaii with more relaxed ease. Soda claps enthusiastically with a slightly cheerful grin shown. The rest of the group immediately agreed and went back to their searching around again, just as Desch’s black sheathed sword swayed in his body’s movements, making some soft sounds as he walked by some service payphones just past the parlor shop’s area. All the young adult people still at the ice cream shop seemed very confused by what they each just witnessed with the oddly dressed-up group that was led by teenagers passing by them just now.
Also sitting down at one of the tables, the one closest to the newly coated iron fence, was a velvety and leathers fashioned-dressed, Deepened-black-haired older Goth woman with Neon-Ocean-blues dye within her at-shoulder-length straight-cut hair, watching the group leaving the area as she drank a fresh sugar-free medium-sized fruit mixed blended smoothie. She wondered why they all looked so vaguely familiar to her, like perhaps, from something she’d seen before many years ago, when she was much, much younger, from a long time ago. But she couldn’t fully recall when or why, but wondered about them even long after they were gone.
Far away, within the cool shaded shadows of another closed-off back alleyway just a few blocks down, a larger group of fifteen all together were discussing the results of their most recently completed search. The leader of the group was a man in a darkened-black-colored somewhat demonic-fashioned, spiky and styled-looking, heavily armored gear set. While carrying two swords and a dagger, keeping one on his mid-back and one on his right hip with the dagger on the left side hip. His horned helmet currently had the visor part of it up, so only his Classic-blue green-fluxed toned eyes were visible of his physical appearance underneath it all. The second of the group to the dark black armored man’s right was a beautiful, Light-Misty-Strawberry-blonde, almost well past, upper-back-lengthened, sleek long-haired woman, with her hair pulled back into a high, tight, semi-bun-oval half updo ponytail combo-style held up by a decorative, heart-shaped-metal pinned purple binder, and she had endearing Sweet-Ruby-red eyes.
She wore a bright colored, segmented leotard in semi-opaque misty sandy florals-white, pastel magentas pinks patterns, and rogue pinks-rose-purples. Transparently sheer-patterned-made tights were worn underneath it. Plum purple hues/grey hues calf-high length boots, with a dagger on the right side hip, a quiver on the left back hip, and four, distinctly colorful paisley-themed sashes under a brown leather belt all at the waist. She had similar long gloves on her upper arms, an elegant two-layered cape, one made of transparently sheer white to silvery blue, and one more embroidered designed, solid golden toned, with short-horned, shiny white gold, white and gold pauldrons on her shoulders. Upon her forehead was a decorative circlet with a nearly clear-opaque-ish ruby gem and similar earrings. Glossy, lovely hot pink lipstick was on her delicate lips.
To the woman’s right was a Light-golden-blond almost waist-lengthened, pulled back up into a thick-held ponytail long-haired man at forty years old with calm Amber-bronze lavender-mist-blue fluxed eyes. He was garbed in heavy draconic scales mail armor in various lighter blue shades, and white, and had on a serenely-sky blue to iris purple torn-like cape. His shoulders’ pauldrons had two dragon wings each on them, his hands had short metallic-blue claws on the gloves, while on his legs had segmented-type armored high boots with a single dragon wing on the calves’ upper top backs. On his forehead was a headpiece that had more dragon-shaped wings on the upper top sides. He also wore long beaded earrings. Strapped to his back was a slightly radiant, partially glowing, duo-forked bladed lance.
Standing somewhat away from the first three was a young woman, who had softer lavender purple eyes, and short Golden-spun-blonde hair that was swept up fashioned over on one side of her head in its style. She wore a river blue leotard with weightless-like-designed crafted body armor over the top of it. Her breastplate, double-layered pauldrons, belt, and knee guards were in all blues-purples, as were the rims of her arm guards themselves. The tassets on her upper thighs’ sides and belt buckle were in ceres pinks each and her arm guards and the greaves on her calves were in seas blue while her boots were a lighter blue by comparison instead. She also wore a single fabric-layered corn yellow cape and a transparent, sheer, paler blue folded material piece over her mid-upper-arms area. Her weapons were: a shortbow with various arrows, very sharp elemental claws, and a large magic shield all from her world.
Standing with his bare back against the rough brick wall in a leaning position to the older golden-blond-haired man’s left was a shirtless, tall, muscular-built man who was mostly bald, with the remaining of his blond-brown-ish-colored hair all left, styled into a tight braid, and he had well-disciplined mocha brown beige fluxed eyes. Strong stern ones that were currently looking forward to or at everything else around there, keeping watch of all around them making sure that they weren’t noticed by any bystanders outside of their area’s vicinity. He had a groomed kempt mustache, dangling earrings, and a sun tattoo on his left shoulder. Around his forearms, he wore a pair of red and gold metal bracers. On his waist and legs, he wore baggy red tied-ended pants with a green pattern waistband and yellow sash. On his feet were light grey socks and earthen-brown pointy-toed, flat, yet sturdy metal-soled shoes.
Joining him to the near right side was another forty-five-year-old man with shorter spiky, unkempt Steel grey hair and an old scar over his right eye. He had Steel Blue-grey eyes, and was dressed in a dark navy blue ninja-like fit styled top and puffy pants with armor on the shoulders and waist, including a jeweled rope around the waist armor, and over his shoulders was a familiar fire-red-hued long cloak. On his hands were fingerless gloves in the same color as his clothes with black bands. He wore knee-high, flames-designed brown and yellow-orange boots. On his forehead, he wore a much darker-blue-colored, magenta gem-centered headband and a light blue scarf mask fully covering up the lower half of his face.
Standing right beside the spiky Steel grey-haired older male ninja, was a ninja attire-styled woman with Smokey Brown-Black long lower back-lengthened hair with rich light caramel brown ends and streaked highlights, pulled back into a high ponytail with a simple gold metal banded Hanfu Hairpin, and sharp ocean blue eyes. A pair of golden, plate-shaped earrings with interlinking orbs were worn on each ear. She wore a female-styled version of a traditional ninja’s garb in various shades of blues, consisting of a navy cobalt blue open top robe with slightly dark violet blueberry trims, an elegantly patterned sky blue ribbon tied obi around her waist on top of a gold metal-made belt, and a deep ocean blue uniformed bodysuit with bronze brass trims and matching neck guard choker centered with a round ruby crimson gemstone. Dark blue fingerless light leather gloves were worn on her hands, fit for a ninja, or kunoichi, for one of her caliber and status, and matching colored boots with off-creamy yellow-white edges on them.
Standing next to the ‘Dark Knight’ to his left, was a youthful, younger woman, with downy, more wildly unevenly/side-swept up/curly, naturally Metallic Emerald green long hair, and Sapphire-blue-greener-ish eyes. In her hair was a gemstones decorative hair clip-pieced ornament, with a large softer teal and purple striped feather attached, and differently-sized purely golden stars. She wore an apple green hues leotard with small star-shaped covered straps with streams of fabrics attached to them near the upper middle. With a starlight-yellow sash, another more sheer blue sash underneath that one, and a golden pearled and beaded chain around her slim waistline.
Her arms were covered in even more greens, golden ringed long draperies adorned in many, tiny vibrant colored stars, and her vibrant forest green-gold tall thigh-high, yet medium-heeled boots, were kept neatly on her feet. On her plump lips were much brighter-colored aqua lipstick and glittery, lighter-shaded powdery eyeshadow. Just near the misty-strawberry-blonde updo-haired woman to her left, standing right next to the same brick wall was a small group of four mages: a sixty-one-year-old man with wild, evenly-middle-parted, grey-white short hair and a long bristly, bushy thick beard, a pair of twins who both looked about twenty-four in their age, each catching up on some other things while another finely dainty dressed female mage stood by them idly listening in.
The older man was dressed in an open red-violet-pink striped coated long robe with a regal purple shirt. An off-white dot spotted scarf at the neck collar, and a roped sash at the waist over his light purple pumpkin-styled pants. He had no gloves on, but on his feet were a pair of brown and yellow curled ankle-high short boots. Seen over Steel-blue-like eyes he wore light-brass-metal-rimmed glasses with tinted lenses. In his hand was an old wooden staff-formed, caned-shaped crooked rod. The first of the twins was a youthful female with vivid Berry pink-toned hair held into a very high-up long ponytail that came way down to her shoulder blades. She wore a short, transparently sheer, opal white fabric-made mini-dress with a neutral pink strapless leotard seen underneath it, and a peridot green amulet at the chest’s center held within a silver-made metal rimmed-type piece.
Right above that, over the shoulders was a white to pink hues ankle-long cloak with a darker pink feathery pauldron on her left shoulder, and around her neck was a similar colored choker to match it. On her arms were also bracers that matched the choker, and worn over the legs and feet were pinks-peachy-orange-ish striped thigh-length stockings and tied-up ribbon-wide-made soled sandals. The second twin was male, and he had thick braided-fashioned brown and silvery streaked, almost thigh-long hair held with yellow bands. His eyes, like his sister’s own, were brown blue fluxed-like in their hue’s varying colors.
He had looked slightly annoyed, standing there, dressed in his storm blue and coal black long coat with a green and white striped loose collared top underneath. On his neck was a similar fashioned, ruby red centered amulet. Over his right shoulder, he had shoulder armor in smoothened sky blues and silver-white with varying beads attached on its trimmed rim. His pants matched with the shirt’s collar, and he had on light brown low calf high, strapped up buckled, leather boots. On his head, he wore a white and yellow stoned headpiece right over his upper left brow. Nonchalantly balancing within his left elbow was a simple, silver and gold mixed-made, fully circular round lapis gem orb-topped longstaff. He just scoffed a little bit as his sister lightly whacked his head with her right hand’s palm before just sighing at him.
Happily laughing at the still silly, can-be-distracting antics of the grown-up adult twins was a young twenty-six-year-old woman with past the shoulders to back-length, Wheat-blonde with Cotton-Frosty-pink ended tips hair, and Indigo-blue-colored eyes. In her hair were fancy, multi-colored beaded decorations at the mid-upper sides. She wore over her whole body a long flowing, high-up-collared, lace-ended robe in whites, blues/mints, and pale green-yellow with a designed purple to grey and leafy green fabric piece over the front side half of it. On her mostly fully-covered hands, she wore gifted, simple ringlets in a pink-white and her covered footwear was not visible in view from underneath it all. On her head was a tall formed pale blue cap or hat of sorts. In turn, she patted the male twin’s back in an earnest apology. Just a little farther away from the mages was a gentle-hearted man who looked like an old-fashioned, ancient medieval-dressed minstrel.
He was dressed up in a long, folded wide-sleeved green tunic-styled shirt with a red and yellow laced vest over it and a belted purples fashioned sash at the waist. Over his shoulders were golden armor guards and a soft red and white lined stitched cape, with orange stripes going down the back right side. His pants were a burgundy red, and he had on mud brown and tan-topped leather medium-heeled boots. On top of his straight silken blond long hair was a hat that matched his pants with a white pink-tipped feather in its brim’s rim, and his eyes were a mossy green tone. Attached to his belt on the lower left side rested an ancient mystical harp.
The next member of the group was a much larger, body-built-sized older man. All that was seen of his face from underneath a blue-red-yellow pilot’s/hard worker’s cap and the big, protective goggles he wore, were his nose and mouth, which were almost hidden by his big dark scruffy, wiry, thick beard, and had shorter hair underneath that too. He wore on his well-maintained muscular, yet, plump framed build was a black muscle fit top with a design on the back and near identical colored pants. On his hands and feet, he wore red, white, and yellow gloves and boots with a thick brown hard leather belt at his waist. Attached to the belt was a tiny wrench, a magnifying glass, and even a large hammer, with the head made of unknown foreign mixed-together metals.
And lastly, to the silken blond-haired man’s far-right calmly levitating in deep concentration with his arms and legs folded over across each other, was an elderly-looking man with big long pointy ears. He had purely white to powdery silvery blue naturally ended very long hair, but was bald on top of his head with an equally long beard, mustache, and hugely bushy eyebrows. He wore a single liatris purple to light blue gradient-colored floor-length robe, a darker toned vest to match, all of which had covered up his mauve booted flat soled feet, with white-yellow stars and silver crescent moons etched into the fabric’s bottom hems. Wrapped around his waist was a sash in baby blue with white circular and teal triangular designs.
On his wrists were bracelets, one in true silver with two cyan-mint blue gems and the other in pure gold with two yellow red gems, and a special stylized, dangling yellow topaz earring was worn on his right earlobe’s middle section. His skin tone was in a very lighter tinge of a blue color, with his lips and ear tips being slightly darker, but still looked normal in certain lightings to humans, and his eyes once opened were in a Green-Aquamarine-cloudy-blues shaded mixed-hues with the pupils being just slightly darker than the irises were by comparison, as he looked up towards the sky above them as if sensing of something very familiar from afar. With everyone there now fully present, the new meeting can finally begin at long last.
Then the male Dark Knight leader there spoke up first, “Well okay then. Now everyone… Have any one of us been able to find any of the Chosen Seven so far?” The group gave out varied murmurs in remorse, shaking their heads, indicating that their search around here was fruitless once again. The silken blond-haired man then spoke up afterward.
“No. No, Cecil… We haven’t found any of the Chosen Seven yet. FuSoYa, Cid, and I have searched within and by a local library building and a few other larger office building complexes, but they are still nowhere to be found as of yet,” the silken blond-haired man said to the leader of the group, named ‘Cecil’, with remorse in himself. “It’s alright then, Edward. You and your group did everything you could while looking for them, I very well understand that fact,” Cecil said to the silken blond-haired man, named ‘Edward’. Edward slowly nodded.
“We weren’t able to find the seven either. Palom, Porom, Leonora, and I have searched around a few common parks a couple of times already. Wherever we could search with a lot of people around at… We tried to find them amongst the many crowds. We couldn’t find them anywhere. I wonder if they are possibly in hiding somehow,” the elderly man said as he held onto his staff more firmly. The older twins, Porom and Palom, nodded in slight remorse. Leonora looked timid as she fumbled with her covered-up hands through the long sleeves. “Edge, Izayoi, Yang, Phoebe, and I didn’t have very much luck either. All going up and down the streets, going through a few crowds here and there… And yet, still nothing at all,” the emerald green-haired woman said to Cecil, “But we are not giving up here! They’re in this city somewhere, I am highly sure of it. I know that I am.”
“And Rydia’s right, everyone. We are not giving up on locating the Chosen Seven we need to win this. They are out there somewhere, and it’s only a matter of time till we find them all,” the shorter Steel grey-haired man said in response, named ‘Edge’. “Yes, that’s correct. We will find them. For that I have faith in our efforts and that we will succeed in doing so,” responded ‘Izayoi’, just shortly after him. ‘Rydia’, she nodded, being grateful to have the encouragement from her older allies. “Yeah, that is right. Indeed it is.” said the golden-spun blonde, named ‘Phoebe’, in some high preppy confidence with a nod and a huge beaming grin. “I’m sure you guys were, maybe, having much better luck than we all are, right?” the larger bearded man, hopeful filled that he was, said to Cecil, named ‘Cid’.
“Sadly no… Unfortunately not, Cid. Kain, Rosa, and I haven’t been having any luck locating the chosen ones at all here either. What if they’re not in this city and we’re just wasting our time looking in all the wrong places around here?” Cecil said in response as if he was now doubtful and questioning himself. “Cosmos told all of us before being sent here that they were in this city before our arrival the other day. And if Cosmos says that they are here; then they are here, all without any questions against otherwise. We will find them, somehow, one way or another,” the lighter-blue-toned elderly man with Cid and Edward said reassuringly to Cecil, named ‘FuSoYa’. “Plus, the others are looking for them too. It’s only a matter of time till we find them, maybe somehow safely together even,” the light-golden blond-haired man said to Cecil, named ‘Kain’.
“And, remember we all also got here before Chaos’s forces did too. So this gives us the advantage we need to find the chosen ones before they all arrive to halt our progress or find their own set first before we find ours. And that is something we have going for us,” the light-strawberry blonde-haired woman said to Cecil in more reassurances, named ‘Rosa’. “Yes, there is nothing to worry about,” Izayoi spoke calmly. “Yeah, definitely true right there. We will all find them in time. I am positive of this fact,” Phoebe speaks out after with more enthusiasm. Cecil gave out a soft sigh and nodded back, but his worries weren’t fully cured as many things began to run through his head at the moment.
“I guess then, that I’m worrying too much over nothing. We need to find the Chosen Seven first and fast. Who knows when Chaos’s forces will get here to destroy them before we can even try to find them for Cosmos,” Cecil said to the group. “Let’s spread out further and keep searching for the seven needed for our side’s victory,” Edge called out to the group. The Dark Knight agreed with him, and the meeting was now fully adjourned.
However, just as the rest of the group, including FuSoYa, as he lowered down to the ground to walk with the others that went on ahead of Cecil and Rosa; it was the White Mage Archer right next to the Dark Knight that stopped him for a second then. She could immediately tell that there was something else still bothering him.
“Cecil. Is everything alright, my love?” Rosa asked the Dark Knight with pure concern. “I’m not sure… If… If Cosmos had told all of us that they are in fact in this city, then why haven’t we found them yet? What if any of Chaos’s forces somehow managed to sneak into the city without our knowledge and had badly harmed them already or even worse?” Cecil responded with a few questions of his own.
“We all got here first before Discord’s forces did. I don't sense any of them right now. Even if this is just a small advantage that Cosmos herself has given to us, we will use this opportunity to seek out the seven before Chaos’s warriors arrive to stop us all. Everything will be alright dear. And after all, you’re supposed to be a ‘Paladin’, not a Dark Knight, and the honorable King of Baron, a proud, beloved father. Remember? The quicker this Divine great war ends, the sooner we can go back home to little Ceodore and my likely ever-doting, but still worrying mother, too,” Rosa said to Cecil as she tried to ease his mind. “I can switch between those two job classes willingly during this war, but you are right about me not being a true Dark Knight anymore. Mmmmm, yes. Agreed. I hope they are both fairing well currently back home, and kingdom along with them,” Cecil said in a soft response.
“We will find them, Cecil. One way or another, we will find them all. Just as I believe this to be sincerely true wholeheartedly,” Rosa said to the Dark Knight once more. Cecil looked out towards the other buildings in the near distance, and then said, “I’m sure we are running out of time. We probably really are this time around. I can feel it in my blood. Just maybe… We are already out of time right now in fact.”
“It is never too late now, Cecil. And it’s not too late to save ‘him’ too either, your ‘older brother’. Once ZeMus is defeated, or I guess healed by Kalea somehow, possibly, for some reason she has decided upon. We’ll again break his hold on Golbez. So do not worry here, my love,” Rosa said to reassure Cecil further. “I hope so… After all, he didn’t fully or willingly choose the side he’s on now,” Cecil replied with hope beginning to steadily refill within his heart once again. Just as the Dark Knight was about to say something else again to her alone, FuSoYa returned, wondering what was transpiring back over here amongst the two bonded, royal-crowned lovers.
“What is going on back here you two? Is everything okay between you?” FuSoYa asked the two, slightly startling them a bit. “Ohhs… You just scared us, Uncle FuSoYa,” Rosa said as she slightly jumped from a slight unexpected fright. “Sorry to startle you, Rosa. Some of the others were wondering where you two were, so I, myself, volunteered to see what was going on and noticed you were both standing back here still by yourselves,” FuSoYa apologized and smiled back.
“It’s quite alright. I guess it seems we’ve been holding the others up for far too long. Well then, come on, let’s depart,” Cecil said with a light chuckle. As if by strong psychic means, FuSoYa already knew what was going on. “We will free Golbez from ZeMus’s control and Kalea says ZeMus too can be saved. Just not sure of why though. But, she has faith in him it seems for some reason or another. Yet right now, we have to find the chosen ones of Harmony first and foremost. Once the Chosen Seven are found, then we’ll focus our attention on the next objectives at hand after that is done,” FuSoYa advised Cecil. Both the Dark Knight/Paladin King and the White Mage Archer Queen looked at one another; then Rosa turned to the elderly man and said, “What would we all ever do without you here in this mess, Uncle FuSo?” FuSoYa, or ‘FuSo/Fu’ for short, gave out a nod in knowing acceptance, his eyes gleamed a bit with a light visible glow.
“Well all right, we better get on going now. The others have waited long enough as it is already,” said Cecil again. The trio prepared to leave, allowing Fu to leave last as Cecil and Rosa first left before him. He looked up again and gave a silent inner prayer, hoping it’d be heard despite everything. With everyone reunited again. The fourth group continued on their own trek ahead, as they walked together up a steep uphill road.
For a few more minutes longer, they searched around for a bit more till they had to split up again into their own groups of around three once more… But then they received a much-welcome surprise when they bumped into Firion’s group soon after that, making their way down the sidewalk towards them. “Well well well, what a nice sudden surprise this is,” Cecil called out to group two as they approached the scene, “So Firion, any luck?”
“No, nothing so far. We haven’t found any of them yet either,” Firion responded back as he pointed towards the direction they had come from, “But with that said, don’t waste your time looking up there. We did and nothing turned up for us over there.” “Thanks for the heads up. But we’ll look over there anyway just to be thoroughly sure,” said Cecil calmly.
“Ahhh, alright then,” ‘Gordon’ replied in response. Firion and ‘Maria’ both nodded in agreement with them. The two groups crossed paths for only a few more minutes longer, then traded places as Cecil’s group went to where Firion’s group had just searched and Firion’s group went to where Cecil’s group had searched before as well, wishing each other all the much-needed hope and good luck they could need while searching around for even longer.
Nearby a common, yet popular, regular fast food diner situated near a large hillside river bank view as the sun rose higher into the sky, a shale-brown-shaded brunet trimmed-short-haired man with grey-hazel eyes searched around the area riding on top a hide saddled backed, large sunny yellow feathered, ostrich-like bird, called a ‘chocobo’ in their reality’s worlds back home. And this one had big cheery and friendly blue eyes. The rider himself wore a sleeveless, strapped shirt-formed top in light powdery blue shades, grey-lavender-white striped pants, bright sky blue and lighter toned, fringed, double half-style-capes, and a golden yellow metal winged pauldron on his left shoulder decorated with some sapphire blue gems that had a chain or two holding it still in its place.
Multi-colored layered sashes were worn around his waist, held in place by a golden and white belt. His short gloves and boots were in the same matching colors of blue as his shirt was in. “Ahhhh, still no sign of them anyway that we’ve seen. Awwww man. What have we gotten ourselves into, huh Boko, old buddy?” the traveler asked the chocobo. ‘Boko’ gives out a light ‘Kweh’ in response back, lightly nuzzling his rider in soft comfort on his right arm.
“They have got to be here somewhere. Cosmos did say that they were here in this larger town, err, city. I wonder if the other guys are having any better luck than we are. But yet, I have a feeling that you’re getting hungry now, huh?” the traveler asked the chocobo. Boko gave out a quick chirp, nodding in agreement. “I knew it. Ok, we’re almost there, just a little further up. And I made sure to bring plenty of Gyshal Greens for ya, too. Oh wow, it looks like the others have beaten us here already. Heh, it wasn’t a race though,” the traveler said in response.
On the other side of the riverside diner’s back tables, a group of eight sat around on the fresh grassy hill as they rested from their recent searches, eating their share of food and drinks. In a small group of three more near the diner itself, about an around sixty-year-old white-haired man with a tiny ponytail and honey-brown eyes chatted a bit with two others in his group: a fully armored male Lupine or werewolf like humanoid, and a jasmine-blond-haired, bearded man in full armor in blues, greens, and white with a side horned helmet and cape.
The ponytail white-toned-haired man among the group wore a custard yellow shirt with purple sleeves and an open green vest, purple and reddish tied-off belted sashes fastened securely around his waist, sun yellow pants, and purple, blue, browns-mixed boots worn on his feet, and a chained held sword at his waist. To the man’s right was his Lupine companion with three-toned cool-grey fur with brown at his ears and tail tip, and sepia-brown-hued eyes, even his nose was a darker brown color in its shade. Dressed in a spring green armor set, with a flowing sunglow yellow cape, off-white pants, and reinforced navy blue boots. A thick pair of cardinal red shoulder armor rested upon his shoulders and a classic yellow belt was fastened securely around his waist.
To the man’s left was the jasmine-blond-haired man with darker brown eyes with a kempt cut mustache and beard, wearing a full suit of armor from his side horned helm to strong reinforced boots, and long cape at the back in different blues, seafoam greens, golds, and white/silvers altogether. A much lighter sky blue sash was worn around his waist, held in place by a sand brown belt with a golden buckle. Much moreover, by the riverside, a group of three differently aged girls sat near the shoreline as they ate their customized sandwiches in serene peace together.
The first of the three together was a thick bob-cut-styled sugar-pink-haired young woman with kelly-green eyes. Wearing an open-chested pumpkin orange, light yellow, and soft blue short traveling mini-tunic-topped dress, with a golden necklace as the collar’s top piece. All secured with a brighter royal blue trimmed belt around her waist, including a sheer pinks-purple sash and yellow shorts underneath. Plain golden wristbands were worn on her wrists. A pair of snow-white knee-high, heeled boots with three leather crisscrossing chestnut brown straps were worn on her feet. To the right of the sugar-pink-haired young woman was another with rich fuchsia-purple waist-length long hair and aqua-green eyes.
She was dressed in a long cobalt blue coat, a lighter blue tunic shirt, and light tan trouser pants. Around her waist was a jeweled-studded leather metaled belt and brown/white metal boots on her feet with strapped buckles. Her hair was held back a little with a wide big blue headband. Sitting to the pink-haired woman’s left was a sunflower-blonde-haired younger, teenage, and short height, little girl with her hair pulled back into a mid-high ponytail with a tight, sparkly watermelon-pink-colored bowed ribbon, and she had sweet blue eyes. She was dressed up in a wild purple blueberry dress, a light sweet yellow shirt-like-top with short fingerless cuffed cherry pink colored gloves. A pure green small sash was worn around her waist with a gemstone golden chain, and a pair of low knee and long high leather boots in dark blues, lavenders, and metallic golds.
Much closer by the shoreline eating a medium order of unsalted french fries, a kiwi green turtle sat in peace, nestled securely within its light carrot yellow-orange tinged shell. As it took another bite, another creature’s head poked out from underneath the water’s deeper surface. Being a generous creature, the turtle shares a fry or two or more with the sea creature, knowing that it wants some of the fries as well. Within the river was a long-necked purple lilac sea dragon-like creature with tipped finned ears, a light sky blue underbelly, and light cloud blue fins as its feet and on its large body. Specks of poppy red were speckled all over the back of its neck to its much lower backside and tail’s tipped end. Its rounded big friendly eyes were a yellow-tinted color.
Right over beside them, the next one was a maces, swords, daggers, knives, kunais, and long pole-arms weapons wielding warrior, garbed in a crimson red horned hood with a long central tassel. Most of his outfit was also in crimson red with other colors of yellows, blacks, silver, greens, and even light pinks to purples, too. His pants were of a lighter cool grey with soft red dots on them. The warrior’s medium-plated boots were both red, golden yellow, and black. His face was almost as white as his whole entire eyes were, marked with truer red face paint like a Kabuki stage performer during the Edo Era period of Ancient Japanese culture. His very own hands were the brightest shade of white, much brighter than his face, with even more truer red markings seen upon them. He was sitting there quietly eating a swiss and mozzarella cheeseburger and had chips instead of french fries.
And as the group continued eating their meals in peace, the sugar-pink-haired woman spotted the chocobo and its rider heading their way from just a few feet away right as the sunny yellow feathered chocobo, Boko, gave out a clear hearty chirp in seeming gleeful at them all. “Guys! Guys, look, Bartz has finally arrived here!!” the sugar-pink-haired woman called out to the others as they turned to face the traveling rider incoming. “What do you mean by ‘finally’ Lenna? We both were still searching around just as you guys were earlier, and you very well know that,” the rider replied, revealed by his name to be ‘Bartz’.
“All right. Simmer down over there. We just thought that you wandered off or something, like usual for you is all. Alright, Bartz,” the Lupine werewolf said in response as he began to chuckle. The others joined in as well. “Ha-ha-ha. Very funny, you guys. Very funny. Oh man, am I starving, eh? I better go get something to eat now,” Bartz replied as he got off of the chocobo, turning around to go get something to eat for himself and his companion right away.
“Hey. Nice one, Kelger,” the jasmine-blond mustache/bearded man said to the Lupine with a laugh, revealing his name as ‘Kelger’ as he gave him a slight nudge to his lower shoulder. “Ha-ha-ha-ha. I’ve got plenty more jokes where that came from, Xezat,” Kelger said to his companion, named ‘Xezat’. With everything all situated, Bartz returned, and the chocobo, Boko, and he both joined the others as they sat with the group near the shoreline to eat their own freshly made meals he bought.
“So did you find anything important out there on your long travels, Klauser?” the white-toned-haired man asked the traveler as the shale brunet took a bite of his double fish sandwich. After giving a small, light swallow, the shale brunet revealed his answer. “No. I didn’t find anything or anyone myself, Galuf. No matter where we looked, the Chosen Ones just weren’t there. They’ve got to be here somewhere though. But, it’s sure a good thing that Koko and her chicks are safe and sound back at base with Yuj watching over them at least,” said Bartz calmly.
“She’s going to be a mother again soon. That’s why. Plus they’ll be safer there momentarily while here, so Koko doesn’t end up in harm’s way for now. Right, Faris?” the sugar-pink-haired young woman, named ‘Lenna’ said to the rich fuchsia-purple-haired woman now across from her. “I couldn’t agree more myself too, Lenna, it is a good thing indeed,” the rich fuchsia-purple-haired woman said in response, named ‘Faris’. Lenna gave out a quick nod and then turned to face Bartz again and spoke.
“And she wanted to come along with us, but I had to convince her to stay at the base with her chicks. I know she wanted to help us out, but I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her and the new, other, still-developing chicks, after all.” Lenna said. “But, hey, we can definitely use all the help we can get, right?” Bartz said defensively, trying to calm the group. “Are you sure?” the sunflower-blonde-haired young, teenage little girl asked Bartz with a slight tease back.
“Okay, Krile. I think we’ve all been messing with Bartz enough now as it is already,” Galuf said to the young teenage girl, named ‘Krile’. “Right, right. And okay, yes, Grandpa,” Krile replied innocently. “And the jokes aside, are any of you guys having any luck finding the Chosen Seven?” Bartz asked the others as he took another bite of his double fish sandwich.
“Unfortunately, no. Syldra and I haven’t been having any luck finding them either. I wonder where they could be located out there?” the green turtle said in response, just as the sea dragon, ‘Syldra’, gave out a low growl and whined in disappointment. This meant that it was sad not to find what the group was supposed to find yet. “We haven’t had any luck either, Ghido. But they have to be here somewhere in the city,” Kelger said back to the turtle, ‘Ghido’, in genuine understanding with him.
“Are you all sure we’re even in the right city? Maybe Cosmos got it mixed up with another city of the same name elsewhere or something and we just ended up in the wrong one?” Bartz asked in confusion. “Cosmos would not have made that mistake on purpose, she’s more clear-headed than Kalea can be known to be. She did not doubt that the Chosen are here and we’re just not looking in the right places to find them. Plus, Kalea reaffirmed her words too, though. Now do have faith here, and we will find them each soon enough. Remember everything takes time,” Ghido said to the group, blessing them with his wisdom as he tried to raise everyone’s spirits higher.
“Why such a wise turtle you are, Ghido,” Krile said to Ghido, patting him lightly. The group each gave out a slight chuckle as they finished their meals, preparing to head out to seek out the Chosen Seven once more. With their garbage thrown away, they each got up and prepared for another round of searching around the area once more. Faris hopped onto Syldra’s back, just as the sea dragon rose to the surface to expose its thinly finned back. “Ok. Syldra and I will head out first and go check on Koko to make sure she’s alright and also see if Yuj needs any help. She’s going to be a mother again, after all, so gotta be cautious,” Faris said to the group as she prepared to head back out.
“Yeah, a good idea there, Faris. I guess our search continues, huh Boko, old buddy?” Bartz replied with a question to Boko the chocobo, who gave out a few happy soft ‘Kwehs’ as Syldra swam gently down the river’s deeper center as the pair made their way back to the hideout’s area. “And hey, don’t you all worry! We’ll rejoin in the search, so don’t worry. And be back shortly!!” Faris called out, accompanied by Syldra’s mid-high-pitched roar as the sea dragon agreed with its companion. With that said, they swam up the river to another location before flying off into the air up above, just as the others prepared to continue their searches again. The other onlookers still eating at the riverside diner were all in total shock at the sight they just witnessed.
“We better keep looking for them all. The Seven are out there somewhere and we can’t afford to waste another second longer here. Let’s move out everyone!” Galuf said to the group, assuring them that the Chosen Seven would be found. With the small rested mini-meeting over, the group, one at a time, left the area as they spread out to seek out the Seven they were so desperately looking for. Just then Bartz noticed ‘Gilgamesh’ was still sitting there by the river’s shoreline. “Oh. Hey Gilgamesh, are you okay over there buddy?” he asked his newer recently joined fellow Cosmos-Warrior-in-arms, “Huh? Oh yeah. I am. I was just thinking about how we’re gonna save Enkidu from their twisted grasps, that’s all, Bartz.” Gilgamesh responded with a low vocal tone. “I'm sure we, together, can save him, right Boko?” Boko gives out a hearty chirp in agreement with his rider’s words. Gilgamesh nodded and knew he was right, they will save Enkidu from their enemies on Chaos’s forces’ side. They have too, this hope he believes in with all his heart and soul. Because after all, Enkidu was his dear friend. “Bartz, thank you for the short pep talk! Ok. Now let’s go find those Chosen for Cosmos, old chum!!” Then, just right after that, he was off running ahead to search around with the rest.
Bartz then got back onto the hardened leather saddle on Boko’s back, preparing to ride out with the others. Before he and the chocobo went out to continue their search; the adventurer looked out towards the horizon, wondering in lone thoughts if the others from the other groups were having much better luck than he and his group were at the moment then.
'I hope… That all the others out there are having much better luck than we are at finding the Chosen Seven for our side’s victory,' Bartz thought to himself, looking up toward the light blue sky above, 'I also sure hope Lorena’s doing okay too. I wonder if she’s found them already with her group.' After a few more minutes of waiting, Boko interrupts the shale brunet’s thoughts by lightly pecking at his left kneecap. “Oh, hey. What’s the big idea, huh?” Bartz teased with Boko. The chocobo gave out a good chirp, in some way telling Bartz that they should get going in his unique way. “Right, right. We better get a move on now, huh? And the sooner the better,” Bartz replied as if understanding the chocobo’s chirps. ‘Kweh!!’ was Boko’s response with a light flap of his wings. With that done; the pair headed off on their way as the search continued, riding down the sidewalk, knowing full well that Koko and her chicks would be just alright back at the base.
Near the beautifully pristine beaches of Lake Garuda, the most immense sized lake of all of Cetia’s four greater lakes there; a group of fifteen walked along the coast together on a mission to seek out the ‘Destined Chosen Seven’ that were somewhere in the vast city grounds. The very first of the group was a naturally wavy-curly minty-green-haired young woman with her long hair pulled back into an up high-styled tight ponytail with a band and several colorful-sized ribbons. Her eyes were in a fine-lilac-periwinkle shade of color, and vividly cherry red shaded lipstick was on her petite lips.
She wore a short-lengthened mini, bright poppy red hued floral-patterned banded/trimmed lacy-topped-ended styled dress. With various wrapped colorful sashes, different-sized beads, and a dagger around the waist, and of which underneath all that were slightly white florally-patterned tights. On her feet and arms, she had on pointy-tipped bright poppy red boots, and gloves that also had pink near the hands’ wrists’ areas. Over her shoulders were some double purple shoulder pads and a yellow to pink to purple blended-gradient faded florally long cloak, and she also wore some varying jewelry as well upon her.
Walking alongside the naturally wavy, minty-green-haired young woman to her left was a man with lighter-blond-silvery cut hair that was at neck-length. Placed over most of his forehead and hair, he wore a multi-hued yet mostly blue and yellow-colored tied bandana, his eyes were coffee brown in tone. On his upper body, he wore a normal plain white shirt with a navy blue short-sleeved vest over it, and on his hands, he had brown fingerless gloves with a small wristband on his right wrist. Around his neck was an old worn, yet, simple designed necklace. On his lower body was a pair of pants in the same blue as his vest with a brown belt and green sash over the top. On his feet, he wore brown tied-up boots with metallic-bronze soles.
As he walked, he put his hands behind his neck, looking more relaxed. To the naturally wavy, minty-green-haired woman’s right was a slender-bodied woman with vanilla-blonde longer hair with an ornate oval hair clip-on in the back, and she had baby blue eyes. She wore a deep green armored-formed leotard with a lemon-yellow-to-orange cropped vest and belt-sashed split-sided pants in the same color on over the waist. Worn on her shoulders were thick metal platinum-blue-silver shoulder pads. A bit lower on her arms were detached poofy-sleeved topped gloves that matched her vest with lighter metal blue wrist armor at the ends. On her feet were blue and silver sheer-white golden-yellow laced-up thin-heeled boots. She looked like a well-trained soldier ready for combat.
Trailing along behind the trained vanilla-blonde-haired woman was a much younger little girl with kind, large blue eyes, who was currently drawing in the air with a brush as she walked about. Her blonde hair was very curly and sticking out a little from underneath a big pink and red feathered hatted cap upon her head, and a large wrapped ribbon underneath. She was dressed in a black and pale blue lined skinny-halter top with pink wide puffy styled red/banana starburst yellow pants and around her neck a long scarf-like wrapped cloth piece of fabric. On her lower arms were a couple of varying wristbands, and on her feet were white, red, and blue boots at ankle length.
Following right behind the blond-silvery-haired man was another taller, more buff man in his build with a bit of a scruffy face, messy daisy-yellow-blond short hair pulled back into a really small ponytail, and royal blue eyes. His skin was sun-tanned. He wore a crafted purple muscle shirt, baggy white pants with a muted plant green waistband, and the leg ends with orange/red tassels attached. On his wrists were blue and gold bracers and then coral-topped brown boots.
A clustered-up group of four men and a dog followed just close behind the vanilla-blonde-haired woman in search of something very important. The first of the four was a small-statured older man with balding but messy cloud-grey-white hair like a mohawk in its style, a large white beard and mustache, and stone-grey eyes. He wore a scarlet red cloak with a sunburst yellow striped high collar and white trim, a jet black top shirt, and true yellow pants with duller apple green boots. A pair of pure blue wristbands were worn on his wrists and a loosely tied light yellow sash was around his waist. Far behind the older man was another more mysterious man who wore a molten-grey to dusk-black-ish ninja-fashioned outfit consisting of spikes on the thin shoulder pads, a dark green and purple sash on his waist, a belt, and a cowl that conceals his face except for his eyes, which appeared tough and blue toned in their color within.
He wears an armored band tied around his cowl with a purple to red crest above his eyes’ brow, and two spikes emerging from the same sides. Some details of the outfit, such as the color of his shoulder pads themselves, head crest, and the top of boots, are colored as a more brown-copper shade. While his gloves, boots, and spikes were all dark blue in color. His main weapon was a medium shuriken type of design. At his side was a male dog that was likely akin to a Doberman Pinscher and Beauceron mixed breed in appearance with black and lighter brown fur colors, the inside of his ears were closer to an almost tan, and its nose was a deeper black and had dark light blue eyes.
The third of the trio to the elderly man’s right was a lightly tan-skinned man with mid-back-lengthened daisy-blond long hair pulled back with five smaller blue ribbons and royal blue eyes. He wore a bright blue, lime green, tulip pink, and purple-ish armor set, and a navy blue and black long-sleeved shirt. Suit blue and golden pants, a multi-colored sash was worn around his waist, along with a lavender purple belt, a classic light blue cape, and deeper green armored leather boots.
The fourth to the elderly man’s left was an older man with darker-brown-to-blackened also mid-back-lengthened hair pulled back, with a long desert yellow ribbon, a trimmed mustache, and violet-blue eyes. He wore bronze, blue, grey-blue, and black armor, dark cobalt grey and abyssal blue clothes underneath, and brown and plated golden yellow boots. A brown light leather belt was worn around his waist as a sheathed katana rested by his side’s hip, preparing to strike out at its owner’s commands’ swings should he draw out his blade to attack any threats towards them all.
A bit further away near the lake’s shoreline was a younger youth with lower-mid-back-lengthened wild dirty-blond hair stained even greener from the grass, leaves, and debris, pulled back into a low ponytail with a red band, and rustic brown eyes. He wore a spotted short fur-made tunic top with an animal head-designed clasp, and wide vibrant green sun-themed designed shorts with red-brown, and yellow waistbands each. Red-orange and gold arm and ankle type bands were worn around his wrists and ankles and faded red tied straps wrapped around his bare feet. His uncut nails appeared like sharp claws, sharp enough to scratch anyone or anything when feeling threatened similar to what animals would do. He walked with a slightly hunched posture, but otherwise normal by any regular person’s standards at a distanced glance. As he moved about, he made some noises in pure excitement over something.
Another pair of men further away near an open and run chain of souvenir shops and more fast food diner shacks, not far from the main group as they searched the beach area around far and wide. The first of the pair was a mid-back to an almost-at-hip-lengthened silvery-white-haired man with royally purple eyes. A series of old scars were well noticeable on the man’s yet still handsome face. He wore a long, open smokey black duster coat with tri-patterned canary yellow and golden yellow trimmed linings, matching onyx black ruffled shirt, and pants. And a pair of metallic golden yellow tipped/topped rich white and red gem-centered boots. A silky light orchid purple ascot with yellow and periwinkle-blue polka dots was worn around his neck, held by a metallic golden choker centered with a big red gemstone. A black belt with golden details was worn around his waist, centered with a circular-shaped colored buckle.
The second of the pair was a naturally dusty brown skin-toned man with sun-corn yellow blond flat cut and almost buzzed-like styled hair, and deep brown eyes. He wore a high-collared electric green military-related jacket with yellow trim, dandelion yellow coated pauldrons, matching electric green pants, and dark bronze brown and orange boots with red-purple gemstones. A yellow blazing red-orange belt was worn around his waist, holding a sheathed long sword in place as his amethyst-purple circular buckle shone in the sun’s radiant light. An identical pair of golden metallic swirl-shaped earrings were worn on his ears.
Right as the locals and tourists enjoyed a day under the warm sun as it was now noon, a pair of eyes were watching them from a distance away underneath the surface of the lake. Peeking up from the water was a purple octopus with scarlet red eyes with white-tinged-faded markings around them at the sides, and a row of sharp dull-yellow fangs in the form of a huge goofy grin. Its eight tentacles swayed in random directions underwater, as if keeping the creature from sinking to the bottom of the lake’s depths below it.
But within just a few seconds, a type of roar was soon heard aloud, followed by a large gust of wind that somehow was powerful enough to fling a normal-sized adult like a cannonball through the fine soft sand. Another man then flies out towards the open cold waters, just as screams of utter terror fill the air shortly after. The octopus turns to look as the man splashes down into the water below, then swims back quickly toward the shore and it gives out a soft chuckle. Floating towards the shoreline was a massive pinkish-purple creature bearing two heads, brandishing its sharp white fangs in some sort of wide grin.
Its sharp white claws were well prepared to scratch into anything if it desired so. Its cool grey-like eyes shone under the sunlight with a silent sense of victory. In a good-sounding mighty roar, it only said one thing: ‘Fungahhh!!!’, as it continued floating lightly, and almost seemingly laughing in gesture. The others of the group sighed in exasperated disbelief just as they still walked along the coast of the lake searching around. This now would be a very long afternoon for them all, and for that they knew was a simple fact.
From within the metropolis’s many tall skyscraper buildings throughout the expansive cityscape, another group is keeping their vigil from both high up above and far below on the ground level. Flying within a pure jet black steel metal triple fortified military-styled helicopter was a picked out group of five, keeping their eyes open, searching from above as they peered down to the streets far below. One of the two pilots, currently flying, was a man with light crimson red unkempt hair pulled back into a ponytail and turquoise blue eyes. He wore a black unbuttoned suit jacket and an untucked white dress shirt, and even matching black pants and shoes. Red scar-like tattoo markings were adorned below his eyes and a pair of black oval goggles was worn around his forehead. He wore a mic headset like any well-experienced pilot normally does during flights.
The second pilot was a light brown-tan-skinned man with a fully shaved bald head, a light beard, and hazelnut eyes. He was dressed in a more formal version of a black suit jacket and tucked in a white buttoned dress shirt, a matching black dress tie, gloves with metal knuckles, dress pants, socks, and shoes. A few sets of chains were attached to his silver metal buckled belt. A pair of black shades were worn over his eyes to block out the sun’s intense glare from his vision. Set pairs of silver hooped earrings were worn on his ears, just hidden away underneath the same headset as the first pilot wore.
Riding along within the hangar of the chopper with his eyes on the ground was a black fine shoulder-length long-haired man with dark cocoa-brown eyes. He too wore a formal black suit, matching shoes, and a similar white dress shirt, just like the other two before him. A tilak was shown on his forehead’s mid-center. Also keeping their eyes towards the ground from the hanger was a pair of women who both wore the same attire as the men did. The first of the pair was a bit shorter with at-neck-length light-yellow-blonde hair and chestnut brown eyes. The second had shoulder-lengthened soft naturally wavy longer mahogany red hair and henna-brown eyes. As the chopper group flew around more keeping on a sharp lookout, the others that they knew of did the same.
On one of the blocked-off rooftops’ centers, a Canary yellow blond spiky-haired man with brightly glowing cerulean blue eyes was peering out towards the sky up above him. He was dressed in a fully matching dark licorice purple sleeveless turtleneck shirt and pants, a small white pack over his mid-back, a rich chestnut brown belt with dark blue trims and a silvery insignia in the center, and a string of beads to the left side, and a pair of white, blue, and copper calf-length boots. A pair of chestnut brown and black gauntlet gloves were worn on his hands and a metallic dark grey pauldron on his left shoulder, held in place by a single brown leather strap.
Just to the left of the spiky blond, a wildly spiky ebony black-haired man with sky blue eyes laced with green was also peering out towards the horizon. He wore a similar dark navy blue colored sleeveless shirt and baggy pants, brown and grey ankle-high boots with sterling metal zippers, and a pair of dark brown gloves. A trio of dark brown belts was worn around his waist with the top larger belt emblemed with a block-like insignia in the buckle’s center. A pair of dark brown straps were attached to the top belt, holding his dark silver shoulder guards in place. A silver stud earring was worn on his left ear only. A small ‘x’ shaped scar was shown on his left side cheek.
“Man, I sure hope the others are doing alright, right, Cloud?” the ebony black-haired man asked the spiky blond. “I hope so too. So far… There’s no sign of the Seven Cosmos brought up before. I just hope Sephiroth somehow didn’t get to them first,” answered ‘Cloud’. Just before the ebony black-haired man was about to speak again, they soon heard a single flap from a wing from right behind them. The pair quickly turned around to face the source of the noise made, spotting a man with two fused-together cloudy white wings on his upper right side. He had slicked top-back-lengthened coal black hair and stormy grey eyes. He wore the same matching outfit as the ebony-black spiky-haired man before him, except for his boots that were in a much darker brown tone by comparison.
“Phew. Don’t do that, Angeal. Because man, we almost thought you were that former hero,” the first black-haired man said. “Jumpy as always. But in this case, there is a good reason for that. Anything yet, Zack, and Cloud?” said ‘Angeal’ back. “No. Nothing yet so far, Angeal… I hope the Turks and the others out there are having better luck than us,” replied ‘Zack’ to him. Angeal nodded firmly in agreement.
Descending downwards from flying around high in the brightly lit sky, the cool clouds parted away, revealing a male demon in some red shades, black, and dull gold ensembled form. Its large red-black hole-torn, webbed bat-shaped wings were now folded from its long flight. It bore a metallic red horned crown, golden lunar eyes, a pale metallic-looking skinned face, and a glowing light emitting from the upper left side of its chest area. Quickly, a dark shadowy energy orb surrounded the demonic figure. Just as the shadowy orb slowly faded away like smoke being blown adrift by powerful winds, a male human stood in place of where the winged demon originally was just moments ago, a man with wildly-fashioned-raven-black, unevenly long hair. Dressed in a large red headband and tattered-up long trench coat fashioned caped cloak with grey clasps, a black undershirt, and pants, a right-hand brown fingerless glove, a golden clawed left arm elbow lengthened gauntlet, and brown and gold knee-high boots. A special tri-barreled gun was kept at his side.
His red-toned, glowy-yellow ‘center ringed’ pupils eyes looked creepily eerie as the remaining shadows continued to clear away from his regularly revealed form as he walked forward. Looking over at the man with excitement in her own dark-brown eyes and a big smile on her face as she waved was a young girl with short-length-kempt black hair who wore a white headband with a second longer black band tied tight right over it. She also wore a black tank top with a white-flowered design underneath an open sleeveless dark grey cropped vest, light dirt brown short-shorts, and a black bell sleeve cloth that starts just below her left elbow and covers her left hand with a white wristband on the right side. She had on a pair of knee-high light-creamy-colored knotted-up laced boots. She soon enthusiastically ran over toward the wildly-raven-haired man right before her view cheering at seeing him.
Watching the distant scene in sheer silence was a younger woman with dark red short hair with bangs that framed her petite face, pale skin, and vibrant light blue ‘mako colored eyes’. She wore a void blue and light grey folded turtleneck ‘Deepground uniform’ styled suit with gloves, belt, boots, and a breastplate bearing the engraved Deepground insignia on it. A pair of containers were attached to the back of her legs on the upper thighs to hold her weapon of choice: a pair of ‘E.M. Sabers’ linked together with a cord similar to nunchakus in their design. Although, somehow, her small-statured appearance was like that of a small nine-year-old girl in looks, she was truly nineteen years old in her real biological age, and was very skilled with various kinds of technologies.
Patrolling the ground level underneath the towering skyscrapers’ main entrance areas was a dark-brown-length-haired beauty, whose super long hair was tied up and split near the end like a dolphin’s tail with a red banded tie, and she had reddish-toned eyes. On her left ear, she wore a white dangling earring. She was dressed in a thick white and black sports bra layered top and tight black miniskirt, with a grey belt and brown suspenders going over the shoulders surrounding her big bust. She donned a pair of red and black gloves that extended to her elbows, red boots with loose dark grey socks underneath the boots, and a silver metal guard on her left elbow with a red-brown strap securing it in place.
The woman passed by a few shops during her search until one grabbed her attention with a strong sense of remembrance. She walks over to the shop and begins to look at all the displays within, crossing her hands behind her lower back as a feeling of nostalgia floods through her body… As if remembering the shops she had seen many times before back in her home town.
Standing near one of the alleyways searching around them was a lovely woman with thick twisted plaited lightly brown long hair with a large pink ribbon at the top and a smaller red one at the bottom end as something was hidden within the larger one, her kind emerald eyes looking upward towards the sky. Her attire consisted of a shin-length light pink dress that buttons up the front with a tiny ribbon at the stomach area and a short inferno red zippered bolero jacket over the dress. She wore metallic bracelets on her wrists and a pair of brown boots. Around her neck was a black string flowered centered tied necklace. She soon continued with her search throughout her location.
Walking out of a common medical drugs store with as many medical supplies as they could carry inside six huge olive green duffel bags were two women appearing to be some scientists. The first of the pair had chestnut brown long hair pulled back into a high ponytail that draped down with a light yellow ribbon, and had brown eyes. Her only attire was a lab coat with a blue ruffled-wavy materials blouse in light blue, an overlapping asymmetrical dark grey blue outlined skirt underneath the top, and red high heels. A silver necklace was worn around her neck, along with an anklet on her left ankle, also in silver.
The second of the pair had long red hair, with some of it pulled up into a high ponytail, while her bangs perfectly framed around her face and its lower sections. Even though her left eye was damaged and permanently closed, her remaining eye was in a blue tone from underneath her oval glasses. She too wore a lab coat, but with the sleeves empty and worn over her shoulders. She wore a burgundy purple, blue, and black two-piece attire of a cropped vest with a few straps crossing over her chest and a thigh-lengthened mini skirt, along with a diagonal burgundy purple section held in place by blue criss-crossed straps around her thighs in the front. She bore a left mechanical arm of which begins just below her shoulder and concludes into a gloved hand, and was capable of adapting into something more useful when needed at her beck and call. And it also acts as her body’s life support system. A pair of t-strapped royal blue high heels was worn securely on her feet, even while in these high-traffic areas. They then carefully headed back to the base with everything held in their arms and hands, undetected by anyone else around them.
Walking down the sidewalk towards a nearby smoke shop on the right side was a man with short, slightly spiky, yet neatly cut blond hair, and aero blue eyes with stubble on his face. He wore a light blue-grey short-sleeved muscle shirt, and dark green cargo pants with a light cocoa brown bomber jacket wrapped around his waist with a belt underneath. A pair of mid-arm long dark grey leather worker gloves with sterling metal buckled straps at the wrists and coffee brown boots. A pair of steel dog tags were worn around his neck and a charcoal grey framed pair of goggles was worn around his forehead’s upper brow. He soon after went inside the shop with some cash still left in hand and came back out about sixteen minutes later grumbling, clearly disappointed by whatever he was told.
Leaning with his back into a storage building’s old brick wall next door to a bar was a dark taupe-brown skin-toned man with short hi-top fade-styled cut black hair, a thick beard, and seemingly rough chocolate brown eyes. He wore a sleeveless brown vest over a pure black tank top shirt, myrtle green pants, and russet brown hard leather boots. Several bands of sturdy cold metal were worn around his waist and left lower arm with a dark brown fingerless glove. His right lower arm, or where it was supposed to be, was a mechanical prosthetic weapon called a ‘gun arm’ in its place. As two stone grey pouches were fastened securely around his mid-thighs, while the third was fastened to his belt with pale grey buckled straps. A silver hoop earring was worn on his left ear and a pair of dog tags around his neck. A tattoo of a flaming skull was inked into his lower left shoulder. He soon decided to move on into another area as he looked around further ahead in his kept vigil.
Searching around a local council building’s area was a man with a slicked, black top-back lengthened long hair, mustache, and chinstrap-like beard with medium bronze-brown-hued eyes. Accompanied by a dark red to deeply light orange furred wolf-lion-like creature with some other feline-type characteristics and an anthropomorphic remote-controlled toy cat with soft ebony black and white short fur, and was wearing a crimson red cape, white gloves, and a small pure metallic golden crown on its head with closed eyes, at his sides. The man himself wore a long, dark indigo blue long-sleeved coat with rich yellow trims and a silver metal zipper and matching pants, a clean grey-white dress shirt, and polished fancy onyx black dress shoes.
The wolf-lion-like creature had true golden braces, some faded black patterns, and brands on its legs, including the Roman Numeral for ‘XIII’ just higher up. A pair of red striped markings were shown near the creature’s yellow eyes. A few multi-colored beads, feathers, and various earrings were adorned around its light red-brown maned head. A small flame burned at the tip of its tail as if the wolf-lion-like creature was able to control it naturally. The anthropomorphic toy cat rode on top of a robot-modeled machine that appeared like a type of larger ‘mole-bat’ creature, maybe acting as a way to fight when the feline ‘himself’ could not physically do so. The small formed mini-group continued onwards as they looked around their area some more as needed until they left for another section elsewhere to do the same.
Leading the search through the first half of a junkyard area was an unruly-styled cut-short brown-haired young man with a scar on his face’s nose’s ridge with a ‘Gunblade’, a half sword/gun hybrid modeled weapon, well just one of several he had that he brought with him, leaned up against his shoulder, and he had clear light-blue eyes. He wore a black leather bomber-style jacket over a medium-grey white deep v-neck t-shirt which parts down some at the middle of his chest, black pants, and white fur trimmings along at the collar and top sides of his pants, including black gloves and shoes. He wore a ‘Griever’ pendant-ended long necklace and a similar Griever belt-centered buckle. A matching colored sash partially covers his right leg’s outer thigh. Walking alongside him was a black, with noticeable caramel streaks, a mid-upper back-lengthened-haired woman with dark brown eyes.
All dressed in blue and black clothes that together consisted of a long sleeveless snapped up, sky blue duster sweater with a pair of white angel wing designs on the upper back and a black tank top underneath it. She wore matching arm warmers, along with a black ribbon on her left arm, a denim leopard printed button-up mini skirt, and thigh-length long black cycling shorts with zippers going down the front with a pair of silver-buckled black boots. Her chained necklace featured two rings on it as possible centerpieces hanging there. By the woman’s side was a well-trained medium-sized longer-coated female Australian Shepherd-like dog with darker brown tan accented fur and white belly, folded ears, and cute brown-toned eyes. Unlike most dogs, this one seemingly didn’t have a tail, but in reality, it was just naturally very short.
Walking ahead a bit was a slightly older woman who gave off the vibes of being an instructor of some kind, predominantly wearing a salmon pink zipped vest, with a silver rimmed folded up high collar that was zipped just below the mid ribcage, well exposing her midriff area. She wore red-brown arm warmers and black leather gloves, a long matching salmon pink skirt with a silver chained plate waistband, black pants, a dark brown belt, and black shoes.
She had lovely deep blue eyes and wore her golden-blonde long hair tied-up, held in place with a pure silver comb-designed type accessory, and had two longer fringed bangs framing her beautiful face. At her waist was a type of rolled-up long whip. Right by the golden-blonde was a younger woman with curly-styled more mocha brown short hair, and jadeite green eyes, holding an overly massive magically charged white nunchaku that was moon and star-themed in design, as she moved about nearby.
She wore a true yellow mini-overalls dress hybrid type outfit with a frontal clip-topped zipper that travels the full length of the dress and two large-sized back pockets. She had on a long silver pendant, a blue strap on her left wrist, and brown boots that reached up to her mid-calf in length. She then skipped a bit as she moved along with the others by her side. Trailing behind the small group was a young man with spiked-up desert blond short hair, and blue eyes, adorned with a black tribal-styled tattoo on the left side of his face. He was dressed in an ink-black vest with crimson red decor along the zipper, a deeper brown top, and padded black beater-styled gloves. Designs of ultra-blue flames were displayed on the shoulders of the vest itself. He also wore baggy-based denim blue shorts and a pair of black and red tennis shoes.
From about five blocks away up ahead, the other half of the group patrolled through the second half of the junkyard area towards an open, and currently non-busy, paved side road. The first of the four was a man with shoulder-length cloudy natural-black hair combed over to the right, and light emerald green eyes. He wore a blue jacket with metal decor and half-rolled sleeves over a pale white t-shirt and redwood brown cargo pants with a large belt with a square metal buckle. He also wore soot black fingerless gloves, boots, and a pair of old metal dog tags around his neck. A single silver cuffed earring was worn on his left ear. He carried with him a charcoal metal-fashioned machine gun, loaded and ready for a fight if needed, just in case.
The second of the group was a naturally darker-skinned man with ebony eyes, and tightly pulled back richer cocoa brown hair, kept as dreadlocks in style, and adorned with varying sets of sage green and yellow beads with soft green fabric wrappings. A yellow teardrop motif earring with a tassel was worn on both of his ears. He wore a red rosewood and black bodysuit underneath the daisy yellow bronze metal armor, golden wrist guards, leather metal buckled straps around his lower legs, and black boots.
The third of the group was the tallest of the four, a man wearing an ocean blues toned bandana, and he had equally vibrant true blue eyes. A prominent and noticeable scar was shown on the left side of his face and bore stubble as some light facial hair. He wore a typical white tank top, deep grass green overalls, and a pair of muddy brown army-fashioned boots. Dark black wristbands were worn around his lower arms near his wrists. And he, too, wore some dog tags.
The last of the group was a younger man who wore his brown-ish ginger long hair in a low ponytail with double metal bands, and also had blue eyes. He wore a black studded cowboy hat, a purple vest, and a long khaki-colored fur collar-ended jacket over it. He also wore black fingerless gloves and light brown chaps over black trousers with short-length black boots. He wore sterling silver earrings, and a stringed red beaded and golden-rimmed necklace with a brass medallion centerpiece. He was armed with a simple shotgun in his hands while looking around with the other men with him searching. The four then pressed further ahead unceasingly, continuing onwards even further into the area.
Deep inside of the Garudia National Park, the most popular and biggest park in Cetia, a group of eight out of eleven searched through the forested area on foot; while their leader traveled through the varying high treetops up ahead. Leading one of the two split-up search parties of the group in the area on foot was a young teenage eighteen-year-old woman who had brown-black longer hair in a low ponytail with a big blue-teal and gold clip. Her brown eyes kept looking forward as she walked on. She casually wore a white long bell-sleeved blouse under a skin-tight, sleeveless orange jumpsuit with corset lacings on the front and back, and large white buckled straps around the mid-thighs. She wore a pair of red leather-made gloves and ankle boots, a black choker, and a rather large crystal pendant suspended from a long silver chain around her neck.
Walking right beside her was a tall yet stocky-built man wearing steel knight-like armor and ash-grey shorts. Sterling-grey metal chain mail was worn under the armored plates as a second set of armor. His white and steel gloves and boots were also armored with the same metals. His knight-fashioned helm held the hood of the chain mail in place, topped with a soft, old white feather. The only thing of his dark very short-styled hair that was seen were his eyebrows. His eyes, too, were dark-colored-hued. A big brown leather strap with a silver buckle was fastened securely diagonally across his chest as a broadsword rested within its sheath at his back’s middle section.
Scanning around through the berry bushes and on the other dirt path trails there was a little girl who had green eyes, a small horn visible on her forehead, and blue-ish-hair cropped above her shoulders with a ribbon tied into a large bow on top like a hairband is usually worn. She wore a puffy red turtleneck and pink bodysuit, and loose yellow pants that gathered up at the ankles. She also wore a yellow chest plate piece connected to a belt around her waist as part of the small ornamental white wings she wears on her upper mid-back center. Pretty purple socks and wide white ankle boots were worn on her feet. And she too also bore a special crystalline earring on her left ear.
Leading the other half of the group on foot was a younger teenage girl with a long orange-ish, yellowy-tinted furry tail dressed in a pinks-shaded and white, gold clasped centered crop top over a longer-sleeved void black one. She wore a pink and white patterned thigh-high slanted mini skirt, brown and metal-plated frilled fingerless gloves, and short-length boots of the same colors as the gloves. Her hair was a Honey-blonde, just barely at her shoulders in its length, with cylinder gemstone clips in her longer side bangs, and a similar type ring on her tail. She had lettuce-green eyes and she looked similar to the leader of the group as a whole, but her expression was nearly emotionless in comparison to others all around her.
Just walking alongside the others ahead was a tall, female anthropomorphic rat with pale skin who wore a metallic red pointed hat with decorative silvery-white equally metallic side wings. That which, when combined with her paler-blonde hair, mostly obscures much of her face, and her spring-green eyes from view. In her hand was a trident-like lanced weapon. She wore a long flower red coat with a split going up the middle back half, having buckles and metal on the upper arms roping around the sleeves there, with a large escutcheon bearing the ‘Burmecian’ coat of arms, her kingdom home’s showy-formed crest, on her torso area. A pale pastel blue cravat was worn at the upper collar’s neck, at-knee-length orange-toned trousers, and a pair of tanned leather gaiters. A small light orange ribbon was tied onto her tail about halfway down its total length.
Traveling alongside the pale female anthropomorphic rat was another woman who was tall, slender, and curvier with upper-back-lengthened light-chestnut-brown long hair. She wore a silver metal eye patch over her right eye and forehead with the left one being a purple/reddish color in its tone. She tosses back her hair a bit with one of her hands. She was wearing a red and white sleeveless folded collared duster top with a rose embroidered on the back over a pair of white and reddish-brown tight leggings tucked within a pair of armored boots. With armored gloved gauntlets and additional armor on her right arm, her attire allowed her to be more agile in combat. A large belt is secured around her waist at a slanted angle, holding her sheathed high-royal forged sword she has on her, held close to her waist.
Still traveling in the many treetops above the others, an eighteen-year-old young man with layered Yellow-blond hair tied back into a short ponytail with a fancy green ribbon, still scanned around for any signs of his needed and wanted query. He had medium-blue-teal eyes and a long furry orange-ish-yellowy-tinted, prehensile, monkey-like long tail. He was garbed in a white sleeveless shirt top underneath a short teal vest topped with brown leather accents at the shoulders’ edges and back, while the front had a lacy real white jabot topped with a golden chained ornamental necklace with beads at his collar. The rest of his attire consisted of a pair of vivid ocean blue cargo pants and pale brown layered belts, sporting a dark brown sheath on his left hip for the smaller third extra dagger he carried around upon him for personal reasons. He had on grey-green gloves with large-size frilled blue cuffs and smaller-heeled three-toned grey and white boots.
Walking below after the male eighteen-year-old on foot was a more child-sized mage of sorts. He was differentiated from humans by having a deep black endless aura surrounding the visible outer skinned areas of his whole body’s form, and brightly glowing pure-yellow eyes, similar to the dwarf-heightened wizard from group one, but still much different than him, too. He wore an old, large wheat tan yellow tone, pointy yet bent hat, a sky blue trench coat jacket with white cuffs, and hill green, and white striped baggy pumpkin trousers with a huge red-brown belt. He also wore reddish gloves and short brown boots with golden-tan soles. He readjusted his hat again as he walked further ahead to catch up, being very mindful to not trip on anything around him this time while walking.
Back over at Lake Garuda, the bright poppy red colorfully dressed woman stared out towards the flowing water before her. As she stared out into the distance, the minty-green-haired young woman spotted a grouping of two large boats heading towards the lake’s docks to port with a smaller third one being pulled from behind the first boat. She looked further on, spotting someone standing on one of the boats’ decks, waving at her. As soon as the boats were close enough, she recognized who that person was and smiled.
“Oh hey!! Hey, Celes!! Locke!! Relm!! Sabin!! Edgar!! Look, look!! Tidus, Yuna, and their whole group are all coming in by boat!!” shouted out the minty-green-haired woman. “They are, Terra? Oh! I can see them much better now. Yeah. Yeah, they are,” answered ‘Celes’. “This is great!” ‘Terra’ beamed. “Awesome!!” ‘Locke’ and ‘Sabin’ said with some cheers. Standing on one of the closest boats, a spiky, cropped-length, Muddy-blond dyed short-haired youth with lake grey-blue eyes and light sunny-tan skin was standing up straight on the bow’s edge of the boat, waving out towards Terra and the others at the shoreline.
“Yo! Ahoy, everyone!!!” ‘Tidus’ called out with a big wide smirk on his face. Now he wore a chopped light pineapple yellow, torn white hooded, kept open shirt and half-cropped jacket with the left sleeve side well covered up, jet black zipped trousers overalls combo, a navy blue pauldron, and gloved gauntlet on the left arm with fishnet red-type wrappings, and only a black padded glove and silver bracelet on his right hand. A silver chain necklace was worn around his neck, depicting a ‘T/J’ combo emblem as its centerpiece. Even his silver-made left ear’s earring bore the same emblem, along with a fire orange-yellow outlined insignia-formed version on the trouser’s longer right-legged side, as the left side was much shorter. A pair of darker blue shoes were worn on his feet with deeper black laces and similar colored socks. “We’ll be docking very soon!!!” He said cheerfully to those on the shoreline.
Standing right next to the Muddy-blond dyed young man, identified as Tidus, looking out towards the cool water below was a more muscled sun tan-skinned man with brown eyes, and reddish-orange long hair styled into a curled coif and girted up with a blue fish imprinted head cloth scarf, and had scruff on his rounded face. He still wore the uniform of his ‘blitzball team’: a yellow open vest top cut away at the stomach area, a pale yellow shoulder pad on his left shoulder, and blue and yellow baggy trousers gathered above the ankles. Brown wristbands with a blue, yellow, and brown arm guard were worn over the left arm and opened up toed sandals. He wore a plain pale blue dolphin-centered necklace and a silver round stud earring on his left ear. He looked to be very relaxed as he continued gazing down.
Steering the boat carefully with only one gloved hand was a man with blackened grey light-silvery mixed hair pulled back into a long ponytail with yellow-orange bands holding it tight. A prominent scar was visible through his right eye, making him unable to see through it as his left umber brown eye remained intact behind a pair of black tinted sunglasses’ lenses. He wore a pure black shirt with a French-grey high collar with espresso brown straps, a crimson red haori held closed by a black and blue strap and brown belts, similar pure black pants, and shoes with steel metal-made triangular designed platings.
A shoulder pad was displayed on his left shoulder in milk chocolate brown decorated with intricate goldenrod metal patterns and a beaded ornament of pastel green, light yellow, and ocean blue beads dangling from the lower rim’s end. His bare left arm was tucked inside his haori, acting as if it was in a sling due to an injury but it wasn’t truly injured at all, it was just easier this way for him. A medium-corked bone white-sized jug was held securely on the right side of his waist, via the same beaded-style string holding it.
Looking out over towards the surrounding land with his arms crossed was a tall, muscular anthropomorphic lion with lightened midnight blue fur, silver-white hair held back into a half-updo ponytail with rolled side braids, and bright yellow eyes. He wore sets of volcanic black leather straps, holding the blue arm guards and skull-like modified light golden centered chest piece in its place. He also wore a crimson red tied-up roped sash around a rich black-brown tasset with etchings in golden yellow and ankle guards, a frontal tribal-styled loincloth in sea green, blacks, and more golden yellows. A soft grey half-broken horn was sticking out in his forehead’s upper center. A pair of silvery and true golden earrings were worn on his ears. Iron steel ringed shoulder guards were worn on this Mountain ‘Ronso’ warrior’s shoulders, bearing attached tufts of creamy yellow fur and feathers. Due to his kind’s much thicker areas of fur, there was no need to wear any regular human clothing for warmth when in the cold.
Meanwhile, a group of five women occupied the second boat just a few yards away from the first going a bit slower paced, led by a medium-length brunette with a seemingly choppy-layered cut-styled but was actually wrapped up, long-haired twenty-one-year-old woman with heterochromia eyes of one green and one blue in their two colors. This brunette woman was ‘Yuna’, as mentioned by Terra just earlier. Around her neck, she wore a true silver-made hibiscus-shaped necklace, and a woven-type styled sea blues beaded dangling long triple earring set on her right ear. She donned a white modified low-v-neck halter-like top with a familiarly unique black symbol across the open centered chest, a yellow-blue beaded string/cord hanging off of its side, and a hot pink hood.
She wore yellow laced-up armbands over her biceps, a single black leather bracelet band on her left wrist, and denim-fashioned short-shorts. She carries a pouched satchel on her hip over an ankle-length foggy blue and white fabric piece half-layered skirt and wears black laced-up knee-high boots. While the group sailed onwards to the port ahead, her eyes wandered about, keeping vigil over the lake’s distant shoreline in her view.
Right behind Yuna was another woman who looked physically similar to her in appearance, but they were not related at all. Leaning against the metal railings, the ‘near-look-alike’ woman also had tamed, loosely kept, brunette long hair but hers only came up to her upper-back and was much straighter in its overall style. Her big brown eyes watched the water’s waves move about in the light wind as it gently rustled her hair. She wore light violet lipstick on her lips and similar eyeshadow. She wore an absolutely blue top with white-ish frills/ruffles extending to her knees on the left side, a short opaquely sheer black lace-designed mini skirt and shorts with a simple sea blue belt, and knee-high multi-browns leather boots. She had black ribbons on her upper arms; bubbly blue glovelets held on by tight black stringed straps, and multiple pairs of long dangling colorful beaded earrings on her ears. She lets out a small sigh before seeing a green and yellow fish swim quickly by the boat’s side.
Over across the boat from the two young brunettes sitting down was a woman who had her naturally wavy black hair braided up in cornrows that led into a tight knotted bun with golden ornamented pins and trailing tipped-ended beaded long braids from underneath that, except for her forelocks over her brow. She wore many jeweled accessories, and she used thick, pretty purple makeup and nail polish. Her deep-red eyes looked over at Yuna calmly while smiling softly, with her hands in her lap. She had on a low-cut darkened-soot and ash black dress that well displayed her huge cleavage, with two crossed-over belts on the upper mid part of each sleeve. The decolletage was trimmed in fur, and the hem and sleeves had ornate lace edges. The lower front middle half of her gown was made of a collection of many interlaced connected belts, which were way too numerous to count. She wore a corset and tinted lace-trimmed topped stockings. Her distinctive styled, obsidian-black strapped, closed-toed high heeled shoes were not visible from underneath it all.
Excitedly running around on the boat’s main deck was a much younger woman who wore her Sunny-blonde, longer hair loosely and braided, all lightly tied atop her head adorned with several colorful beads held up by a large blue bandana. Her kiwi-green spiraled pupil eyes shone brightly in the stark mid-daylight’s shine as she grinned widely. She wore a yellow-orange g-string-based bikini set, and an olive green mini skirt with pockets, carrying two pouches at her waist’s belt and wearing white-yellow bow-ruffled layered sleeves. On her half-gloved hands, her fingernails were yellow painted in color. A long yellow, orange, and red gradient scarf hung wrapped loosely around her neck, and her boots were colored blue and white with ribbons at the top upper backs. And on her hips, she bore two rounded red dagger-like sharp-bladed gear-themed designed weapons.
The last member of the group was a twenty-year-old young woman with serious Cardinal red eyes and a grey-silvery stylized-short hairstyle. She looked slightly annoyed as she steered the boat around to not hit the others, carefully trying her best to not lose patience with the running hyper Sunny-blonde of the group right behind her. Her silver circular studs shone a bit in the sunlight with a light glint. She wore a black and red leathery ensemble complete with mid-calf length thick high-heeled boots, elbow-length gloves, and a folded, studded-up, crop top. Around her neck was a silver pendant threaded with a barbed wire chain and a black spiked choker. Over her stomach were a few belts with a skull motif, upon one of which was at the belt buckle of her overall ensemble’s center’s own waistline as well.
Just as Tidus in the first boat continued to watch the boats now slowly approach the shoreline’s docks, a sole thought soon entered his mind. 'I deeply hope Trinity is doing alright back at the base we have. I’m sure she is. Plus, Koko and her chicks are there, too, with her. And Yuj is also watching over them all too. It’s good that Trinity isn’t there all by herself. She got sent here before all of us did just the other day,' he thought to himself quietly. Not long after that thought, the boats were soon docked safely and securely at the port as everyone got off and on to land. Tidus and his group soon began their inland search for the chosen ones they all sought after within Cetia.
Now with the eleventh group, the leader for the first half of the group was steadily making her way towards a much less busy looking and local diner, searching for something very important to find for Harmony. She was of a short, stoutly bodied, yet longer-eared race called a ‘Tarutaru’. Her light-blonde pigtails swayed as she moved about while laughing, and her chestnut brown eyes gleamed in the reflection seen on the diner’s jade-green-tinted glass doors as she drew closer to them. Her outfit was a collared coated robe with deep dark-green-black and greyish-white-cream stripes and tan-gold-ish linings. She bore two gemmed gauntlets, short flat-heeled boots, and on her back was a long, pellucid-ruby-hued tipped staff with gold around the spherical gemstone as it seemingly glowed slightly behind her, sorta as if levitating.
The second member of the group was a taller, naturally tanned-skinned young woman with Elf-like ears, called an ‘Elvaan’ back home, who had periwinkles-lavenders-tinted colored, thickly long hair pulled back into a very low ponytail with a red band. Her blue eyes lit up with great excitement as she charged straight ahead towards the doors. She wore a cropped short-sleeved black jacket held closed with an unevenly tied red ribbon and a blue amulet brooch over a long, high-collared black and white ruffled top with criss-crossing stitching up the sides and long violet frilly-ended bell sleeves. Her patterned black shorts stopped just above her knees, and she had on light brown short-heeled boots that folded over at the tops, with some small silver/golden design patterns on her clothing from the trimmings of her jacket to the small black peineta-comb hat on top of her head. She lets out a clear loud sound of pure joy.
Walking alongside the periwinkles-lavenders-colored-haired Elvaan was a young ‘Hume’ woman with very dark brown, long parted hair tied back into a low ponytail, as well as light brown eyes. She was dressed in a matching pure white closed-off robe and top piece with scarlet red and golden embroidered trims, obsidian black chest plate, pants, and matching colored fingerless gloves on her hands. Crimson red and earth-brown, plus gold etched samurai style armored plates were securely worn on her shoulders, arms, hands, and legs all down to her heeled boots etched in the same matching designs. A cherry red goldenrod yellow designed feathered headband was worn across her forehead, decorated with rustic red feathers tipped in golden to faded yellow. Upon her back was her very own Asian-fashioned spear-looking crafted weapon.
The fourth of the group right behind the stout mage was a spunky wildly back-length red-haired woman who wore a blue/white lined headband, some earrings, and a light yellow leather choker. While she looked like a normal human, she was also actually called a Hume to the others of her group, holding one of the doors open for the others as they walked in. What she wore was a yellow and brown/orange type ensemble that consisted of a banana yellow short, tight top with straps/suspenders connected to an orange part section, a similar yellow and earth-brown thigh length stitched mini skirt, and a blue strap with a dark red sheathed basic dagger on the upper left thigh. Her hands had on more orange and brown gloves/wrist bands, soft feathered armbands, and the same shade of brown and metal sole-short-heeled boots on her feet.
The fifth right behind the running taller young woman was a young girl with golden-corn-blonde crown braided-up hair, and serene ocean blue eyes. She was dressed up in a short white golden yellow embroidered jacket with oriental cloudy white puffy trousers and a hard leathered gold embroidered ornate belt with a rich sea green gemstone. She wore white to golden yellow designed fingerless gloves on her hands, a low-cut brown black embroidered under the top, and a pair of white to gold designed shoes with upturned pointed-toe ends. A pair of golden yellow diamond earrings were worn on her ears. Simple, clear skin-tone colored makeup was present on her face.
As the five ladies together so far walked into the diner’s doors, the sixth red short-cut-haired member who was with them stretched out her arms and gave out a small huff. She was a born half-Hume and Elvaan mixed woman dressed up as a dancer in the profession’s arts. She wore a low-cut, yet open short-sleeved deep umber brown and red laced dancer’s top, large fishnet gloves on her hands underneath golden yellow bracelets, a frilly styled short ‘waist skirt’ with rich burnt red-orange edges and trim to it.
She also wore dark laced ended above knee-length pants with unique burnt orange designs stitched up on the sides, and a pair of crimson red, strapped-wrapped-heeled shoes with bows near the toes centered with a golden yellow heart and more black laces. A green, gold buckled leather belt was worn around her waist, and a black dancer’s gold studded choker centered with a golden yellow metal diamond shape. A tiny pair of chocolate brown and gold edge-detailed shoulder pads were worn on her shoulders’ sleeves. Three white to vivid classic blue tipped-ended feathers hairpin clip was worn on the left side of her head.
Just right as the doors closed shut behind them, an experienced, but young female adventurer, with shoulder-length tinged Metallic-Muted-grey-blues hued hair with shiny Indigo-purples highlights and two eye colors of glistening Hunter Green and Greener-yellow each with clear vibrantly sky blue limbal rings briskly walked her way towards the diner’s green glass doors, as she enjoyed her long walk there. She had dragon-lizard-like features in light cream-puff yellow from the scales on her face, to her arms, and lower legs, to even her curled-up horns and short-length lizard-ended-looking tail. The dragon-lizard-like young woman was actually a “Raen Au Ra”, a race from another, far distant world, but she was born in the same world as the group’s main leader, due to strange and mysterious unknown circumstances that happened to her biological parents many years ago. She was dressed in an otter’s faded red open shoulder, but light armor-scales-topped dress with a pure white skirt with dark brown criss-crossing stitchings, white-grey trim at the top part, small-sized iron pauldrons at the micro-short-sleeves, and similarly fashioned shorts hidden underneath the skirt. A leather braided belt was worn around her waist with a metal-smokey-grey belt buckle adorned with more sepia brown criss-cross-styled stitchings, and red and white beaded white-green tipped feathers attached.
A skinny leather wristband was worn around her right wrist and a soft leatherskin opened-up gauntlet glove was worn on her left lower forearm. She also wore Far Eastern-styled-like opened-up-toed flat-soled sandal boots decorated with more serene silvery white feathers on them. She soon went inside the diner and joined up with the others already sitting down at a large corner big round booth table and sighed as the periwinkles-lavenders-haired woman was now eating a plate of like seventy fully loaded double stacked spicy tacos, so she slowly pulled out her sapphire-blue cotton coin purse-pouch-bag, in turn, to help the others pay for the meals as she sweetly giggled softly at her comrade’s actions over the food.
Just a few minutes after this, coming up into the diner next was an older adventurer with sunny copper-tanned skin, who’s naturally a merciful, protective, and yet strong-willed “Hellsguard Roegadyn” woman. And while she was from another world, unlike her allies before her, she still chose to help them look around here in this area while those from her world looked elsewhere. She had light Rich-Grass-Viridian green and Neon Sky blue mid-back-length hair, all-styled in a mid-way, mid-right side-down half-do/half-up look, complemented by a platinum-silver, uniquely made hairpin. While on her mid-left side, just a bit higher up, was a half butterfly-shaped hair clip in pure pewter and cyan blue. Her ever-calm, heterochromia Sea-green eyes shimmered under the sunlight’s touch, as if they were like the water itself. A unique indigo marking was well displayed on the very top ridge line of her nose, and three beauty marks were evenly placed; one above her left eyebrow, below her right eye, and near the bottom left corner of her lips. She wore a sleeveless, vibrant turquoise green top and matching shorts with sheer, but still soft-shaded, green-brown tights. Three hard leather, medium blue-green-grey, metallic silver metal buckled belts were worn securely around her waist on top of a long and tattered-ended, dark ocean blue sash.
An asymmetrical pair of metallic white golds studded-hooped, yellow and aqua topped-ended earrings were well-adorned on her ears, and a bark woodland brown choker was worn around her neck. Two orchard browns gloves were worn on her hands, and matching orchard browns mid-thigh high flat soled boots on her feet, along with a hard leather mocha brown set of straps holding a cork tan sheathed dagger. Twin regal-lavender-blue fabric armbands were well displayed on her buff upper arms, and twin brass honey-yellow and neon green-yellow long medium-bladed swords were held in place on her back, with the aid of a dark blue-green-grey strap adorned with a silver-platinum buckle and brass metals for each. She soon joined with the others over at the large booth table patiently waiting for the others to arrive at any time thereafter.
And meanwhile, just a few miles away and far upwards. Within, around, and way above the below and upper ground levels at/near the train/subway station sections of the city, was the other half of the stout staffed mage’s group, the “former” Scions of the Seventh Dawn as they’re known back home, and were all exploring the train way tunnel systems looking for the chosen set they needed to win the long war for their allied forces of Harmony’s side while there.
The first of the little group for the second half was an older, yet, ever handsome-faced man with ash-white platinum-silver ‘styled-cut’ short hair who dressed in a black fitted armor-designed shirt top piece and a wide-collared chalk white long jacket with black straps over it, all attached to the left side was a thick holder strap filled with unique cartridges and a pouch. A ‘woolen-like’ choker was worn around his neck, along with identical tattoos on either side above that. His black pants and belt looked faded from the thighs down, and his metallic boots were also in black, and on his hands to elbows were similar fingerless-made gloves. On his back was his own Gunblade, and while he looked human, he was actually called a ‘Hyur’, or specifically a ‘Midlander Hyur’. He walked on forward and slowly stopped to look back. His lightly Almond brown eyes narrowed as he sighed, putting his right hand up to his forehead and through his hair before he spoke up to his fellow comrade with him.
“Hey, G'raha Tia. Where’s Alphinaud and Alisaie gone off to? Do you know? And Hazele Seaskelp, she’s already gone off with the others, correct? Hmmm… Wait Raha, are you okay over there? You look slightly paler than usual, my friend…” He asked the small-kept, yet, medium-length short-braided red-haired, and eyed cat-like man behind him, known as a “Seeker of the Sun Miqo'te” in their world, who stopped, then also looked back and then upwards at the ceiling above them. “Ah, yes. Right. They, together, both went up to the highest level far above us to look around outside, Thancred. While Y'shtola, Lyse, and Una are over in the next station that is just ahead of us. And yes… Yes, she’s with Shanttoto, Prishe, Iroha, and the others, also above us. Oh. I am doing fine. I’m just feeling a bit tired from walking around here, is all. I’ll be okay, so please don’t worry.” He replied, while ‘Thancred Waters’ nodded as they continued walking forward to meet up with the other three members he just mentioned. But for Thancred, something about the way G’raha was acting just now and him being pale like that so suddenly, it all didn’t sit right with him; something was off here, but it’s something that’ll have to get figured out later with some help from any of the others, as right now the Chosen Seven were first and foremost their main priority.
‘G'raha Tia’, or ‘Raha’, as he’s now been revealed, wore an off-white hued-colored designed shirt with a red and blackened cloth-leather layered vest on top of it, a green-grey and metallic golden yellow tassels-ended scarf wrapped around his neck, all along with some several necklaces. He too had identical tattoos, a black decorative sashed cloth of slightly different lengths was at the waist’s lower front and back sides’ views. On his arms were brown arm-guarded gloves, his ‘dark slate greys’ tied ribboned, styled pants were layered, and his short boots were also tied up securely. Held down onto his mid-back was a thick-rounded bright and glowy blue hues, crystalline pointy-topped rodded black long staff.
In the station stop just ahead were three women, with two of whom were also both Miqo'te like the red-haired man before them, and while the other with them was also a Hyur like the white coat dressed man with the other. Both Miqo'tes were also powerful mages respectively, but of two different role types altogether.
The first of the three women there, named ‘Lyse Hext’, was a fair-skinned ‘Highlander Hyur’, fair-vanilla-blonde mid-back-lengthened, long-haired woman with strong sky blue eyes, and her hair was held up into an mid-upper formed, thick flowing ponytail, held in place by a uniquely designed gold metal hairpin decorated with a small ruby gemstone. Dressed in a matching cream stone white short-cropped shirt and side-split short-shorts with an open warm cherry red vest with a light leather belt at the ends with gold yellow buckles, and matching belts around her waist. Rich tin-bronze, mocha brown metal-enforced, snugly light leather fingerless gloves were tightly worn on her hands, and a pair of mid-thigh high rich, warm, crimson red and golden yellow trimmed grieves with short, flat metal fortified heels. An aquamarine cyan crystal and griffin feathered tassels-centered necklace was worn securely around her neck, and within her ears are dangling hooped gold, ruby, and aquamarine teal gemstone earrings.
‘Lyse’ could see the two other ladies with her just a bit ahead of herself, while she was near a dimly lit tunnel entrance. It had been a very long time since she was last traveling around with any of them for anything this big and noteworthy. Let alone being in another world’s reality entirely. And it still felt odd. Just so odd, being a warrior for a foreign pure goddess like this, and knowing that an ally she knew so well was one too. “I still can not believe all of this is happening. It feels surreal…” Lyse mutters to herself, not really expecting to be heard by either of the others. One of the others before her, the one who seemed to be akin to a black mage in her role, had responded to her, “But is it, Lyse. And it’s indeed a marvel to me, all these remarkable continuous cycles of war we’re all fighting in. I wonder how it truly functions in its design and actual nature?” She wonders to herself in amazement. Lyse just shrugs, interested but it’s also not important to know right now, before she continues looking down towards the tunnel she saw.
The second woman of the two mage-classed women ahead of her was known as ‘Y'shtola Rhul’ by name to her allies, she had slightly sun-tanned skin and wore clothing of dark greys, and blacks, both multi-layered robe-like flared dress with an open furred collar at the neckline’s bust area, she too had tattoos as well. She had a wrist glove on one hand, a single, sharp-clawed ring set on the other, and long thigh-high boots that matched well with everything else. Within her white-ish colored chopped-styled hair was a teals-greens-blues feathery paired set headdress. Her role was actually that of a powerful sorceress akin to a great high black mage, or rather wizard. Her lovely, pale Silvery-like-colored eyes, while staring ahead of her at the other woman there with them both, were truly blind and her special way of seeing anything was by using the very ‘Aether’ around herself. She soon smiled lightly, getting closer, and then spoke out to the other woman before her sight, getting her attention.
“It feels extraordinary still to you doesn’t it now, being alive once more? And all because of her, Una?” Y'shtola asked the other woman as she got even closer to her right side. ‘Una’ then looked at her slowly and dryly replied with, “O’ course it does, Shtola. I should be nine feet under back in Eastern Thanalan just some ways from Camp Drybone’s location, if remembered right, an’ yet I am not. Not anymore. I truly am very grateful t’ her an’ all that, yes. Ermm… But, it’s hard gettin’ used t’ you know?” Una fidgets with her hands a bit, still apprehensively unsure of how to feel about being alive again after being not only dead for literal years to them all but also once trapped by an undead and literally foreign necromancer’s powerful dark spells in the thick forest of the Black Shroud there near Quarrymill’s area, “An’ since me mind’s still sortin’ it all outs after all. Just… Being this… Now a ‘Watcher’ as she had called it, ’though temporary as it is. This newly be-gifted role an’ titled position I hold, much like he does before me.”
The younger, now immortal, well for the time being, twenty-nine-year-old woman, named ‘Una Tayuun’, was of the more pure healer’s role for higher white magics and is still greatly unnerved at this moment she’s experiencing right now herself. She was dressed in a personally crafted and custom, yet left open, large hooded, intricate and small stitched designed, lengthened half-robe in a more vibrant grape purple colored tone. Right underneath it was a pleated, mid-longer-sleeved cashmere paper white top, and a few brown belts at the waist’s center. Three tiny corked vials of Colibri-pink-purple liquids were attached to a large bag, a small leatherskin sheathed “Mythril Dagger” was at her waist, and her Cedar wooden-made, Jade gemstone staffed crook was on her back. Her vanilla-yellow knee-guarded long breeches were slightly hidden from view in her current angle, and her lightly sandy tan tail swayed quickly, just as her metallic turquoise green glade booted feet moved slowly as she did so.
The short, fingerless cotton half-gloves on her hands matched well with the boots’ colors nicely. Upon her head was a big-sized pointy, yet half-bent, folded-over hat with a buckle that matched her robe in its color. Her cat ears poked through the fabric a bit, and a shining ruby jeweled choker was worn around her neck. Still restlessly, as she spoke more, her small fangs were easily seen. Her top-mid-back-lengthened low pigtails matched her fur, while her Paler-yellow-green slitted eyes showed a great frightful expression deep within them with a softly seen inner glow, on the right side of her upper cheek she bore an old small scar, one she’s had since she originally died from during the massacre upon the Waking Sands itself.
She then looked over at another tunnel entrance nearby them on the opposite side from Lyse’s location, one that was barely lit up. Just being in the subways reminded her of the gods’ dreaded ‘Palace’ and while she admittedly didn’t like it, they were all searching around here for a very good reason. “Ahhs… Maybe… Maybe we each should head back up with the rest o’ our group by now. T’ get some fresh air, ayes, Lyse, an’ Shtola, right?” She spoke up again, clearly anxiously spooked by her inner thoughts just now. “Aye. That we shall. Come then. Lyse. Una. I can hear them getting near us at this exact moment in fact,” Y'shtola said, as she turned back the other way to the two men not far from them, she soon noticed. She did not like being reminded of the hells-shattered past she had as it recently only made her feel distraught, confused, scared, sad, and more lonely compared to before when Kalea and her group went to fight Titan. However long that was now. But Una was beaming, truly glad that they were all leaving the train tunnel systems finally behind them, well, at least for now that is, yet they could have to come here again later. Oh, maybe she will look elsewhere instead if they do come back later on. And that’s the funny thing about time, is that it’s always moving, even when seemingly slow. So count down those seconds, just as we all do and hold onto any truths and hope.
On a very high up monorail trains’ tracks were two Elf-like twins just known as ‘Elezens’ by their allies down below. Although they looked nearly identical in their appearances, one was a male and the other female. The male currently chased down after his more explorative sister, trying to once again catch up to her, but it wasn’t easy, as per usual.
“Alisaie, please slow down some or you’ll fall off from here!” He shouts at her. “Ha! And still you’re not keeping up quickly enough, dear brother!!” She laughs as she jumps up onto a higher-up trackway to the right. “Great. She’s having too much fun here, even at my own expense. Despite the assigned task at hand by Cosmos herself.” He sighs calmly, trying still to go after her either way.
The young male was known as ‘Alphinaud Leveilleur’ and just like Una before him, he too was a healer-type but vastly different from her in function as one, his cloudy-white tied-up semi-braided long hair was blown by the winds as he moved onwards, pulling out four brightly glowy laser-like pointed-tipped objects from behind himself, called ‘Nouliths’, as he tried to get up even higher more quickly. Then his medium Marine-blue eyes showed a mix of relief and joy in them as he saw his sister had finally stopped jumping about before him.
He wore a longer-sleeved buttoned white shirt-top with an ultra-blue jacket coat that split-off at the ends with intricate decorations and a belt-strap type on it. Around his neck was a bright gemstone-centered necklace that went down to his mid-chest area. His cuffed half-wrist chain-linked gloves were white and silver, his darker pants almost matched the jacket in color, and his top-folded knee-high-heeled boots were similar to the gloves. On his left ear was a silver pearl mixed delta piece designed earring.
As he had finally caught up to her at last, the female twin, ‘Alisaie’ as he had called her, had stood still, breathless, on a long outstretched, currently empty platform with thin double-sided railings on either side. Her hair, eyes, and earring matched equally to her brother’s own, only with her earring, was on her right ear instead. She wore a white and gold snapped-down-buttoned, small-ish low-collared, “about nearly sleeveless” cropped thigh-high, body-shaped-like one-pieced attired set with a scarlet red mid-half-cut, long-sleeved jacket, and similar connected double belts over it.
Upon the jacket were very darker brown straps and silver-metaled shoulder protectors. Her fingerless wrist-length cut gloves were just slightly darker than her jacket was colored-in. Whilst her thigh, thick-platform high-heeled boots matched the main body piece itself, but also had metaled areas upon them. At her hips’ sides was a long crystalized-bladed light-mauve-to-pink rapier-type-formed sword that had a matching paired attachment item with it, both faintly gleaming in the afternoon’s nicely warm sunlight shining down upon her from above.
“Oh hey! Alphinaud, look, look!! From all the way up here, I think I can surely see Kalea’s group in the hugely-sized woods below!!” She speaks in awe at the far-off distant sights the height offered for a good view from up there. “I daresay sister, I honestly now doubt that. They’re all malms away from us, hidden by the wide canopy’s shade it currently has at this time of year because of the early autumn season,” He spoke clearly out of breath as he huffed exhausted, “Oh sure, yeah. Say whatever you will. But now it’s time to get back down. I see Thancred, Y'shtola, Lyse, and them heading towards Shantotto and Hazele at a diner’s front glass entrance. In fact they’re already inside even. So let’s go immediately!!!” She chimes in as she jumps off the platform all the way back down in one swift move effortlessly without any injuries to herself. He stumbles over a bit, slightly stunned, but follows after her in her wake. He was not surprised she did that just then. As she learned that from their ally after all. They both soon rejoined with the rest of the group, going inside to join the rest at the big boothed table. All while some people sitting down together there—each wearing different colored t-shirts with a certain video game franchise’s uniquely designed logos on them—had all noticed their physical appearances upon entering. And then, while they all gathered around together to discuss the things at hand, the other sanctified grouped forces of Harmony continued on in their searches for the much-needed Chosen Seven of Fate.
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