FicWad

Chapter 2: RUN!

The group had been walking in silence for a good few minutes now without any mishaps. Rikku had been tempted to say 'So where's those fiends we alerted, eh Auron?' but the telling off she had previously gotten and coupled with the hesitation against breaking the silence kept her quiet. Being told off by Auron always made her feel inferior because of her attitude and age. It wasn't easy being the youngest in the group after all! At least a weight had been lifted off her shoulders when they confronted Yunalesca about the true nature of Sin. Yunie might live now! Though a new way to defeat Sin hadn't arose yet, she and Tidus were still thinking on it. In the meantime she'd make the most of everyone's company. After Sin, she dared herself to think, things will be different. She had no reason to think they'd all stay together afterwards. Just thinking about it made her feel slightly teary. She shook her head a bit as if trying to shake off her less than cheery thoughts, then realised she was falling behind slightly and began to walk a little faster.

This silence was beginning to drive her mad though the background noise from the cave freaked her out. Without the cheerful banter they usually had when travelling about Spira together, this cave seemed a whole lot creepier than it had been. She involuntarily shivered as some freezing water dripped from the ceiling of the tunnel onto her head while she rubbed her arms fiercely for warmth. Damn her stylish clothing to the farplane; it was designed for heat, sand dunes and flexibility not cold, damp, creepy caves filled with fiends, she thought dismally. Curiously, she wondered if she was the only one feeling cold. She thought not, after all Wakka, Lulu and Yuna had travelled all the way from Besaid; a small tropical island at the edge of Spira. Tidus sure hadn't crawled out of a cave somewhere either. Though throughout the journey he seemed pretty tolerant of whatever the elements threw at him.

She glanced about the group curiously; Wakka was hunched over slightly, hugging his blitzball into his chest- definitely feeling the cold. Lulu was walking steadily onwards, her dark midnight dress slithering across the ground as she moved. She seemed generally resistant to the cold, not surprising since she could call ice to her finger tips whenever she felt like it. Yuna seemed a little chilled too, though like Lulu it didn't show on her face; Yuna's face was a mask of unwavering determination that had more frequently shown it's self in recent times that it ever did during the pilgrimage. Kimarhi heading the group with Auron, was generally fine, though Rikku was sure the fur coat had something to do with it.

Finally, Auron was also completely indifferent to the cold, Rikku might have went as far to say he was indifferent to life... but that wasn't exactly a fair thing to say. She'd seen what had happened at Zanarkand, she seen what he once was like through the spheres, what in the end almost destroyed him and to be honest Rikku didn't know what to make of it. The pilgrimage and lulled them into its deceptive depths with promises of defeating Sin until after finally reaching the final destination; Zanarkand. It was like how she felt during Yuna's pilgrimage; it seemed that it could go on forever... until Zanarkand. Then the reality of what was happening struck all at once. This was it. No turning back. Only at that critical moment had Auron challenged Braska's decision, the teachings of Yevon in an attempt to save his friends from a potentially meaningless death. She wondered if that if things had worked out differently for Yuna, would she have said those same words Auron had said?

...Probably, though she had been saying them all along... But did that mean she and Auron were more similar than she thought...?
She shook her head once more, Auron was an enigma and the more she thought about him the bigger the headache she got. It's much easier to think of him as the grumpy old guardian who has an obsession with trying to hurry everyone up and be as cryptic as possible. Besides, she and Auron were two very different people.

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Rikku, who was focusing her thoughts more than walking soon managed to trip on virtually nothing a few moments later and land on her knees on the rough cavern floor. She groaned and hit her fist against the ground.

"Aw come on! Give me a break here!" She yelled at no one in particular while rubbing her now sore hand.

"Try and keep up Rikku." Auron said deadpanned, she looked up to see Auron's imposing form looking down at her and glanced around to see that the rest of the group had been a little startled by her outburst but otherwise kept moving. Turning her eyes back to Auron, she just glared at him and got up to her feet and rubbed her slightly raw knees.

"I can keep up! I've got this far haven't I? I'm not even tired anyways." She said indignantly.

"You fell." He stated with a little amusement. 'That's it! You really aren't anything other than a grumpy old guardian! You hear me?'

"Because I was thinking, duh! Very important thoughts too!" She lied. Her thoughts hadn't been that important, she just had a tendency to get distracted. If she told Auron that she had been distracted, she'd end up getting a lecture about being alert so she can guard Yuna better from fiends and she really didn't want a lecture at the moment. She wanted a warm bath, comfy clothes and a cup of warm tea.

"How to beat Sin?" He asked, knowing that it probably wasn't the case. He knew Rikku often daydreamed and no matter how much he admonished her for it, she continued to do it.

"Maybe." She lied again.

"...Just try not do it again. Fiends exploit all weaknesses." He said, noticing that the group had gone a little further ahead than he liked almost disappearing into the shadows of the cave.

"Right." She chirped and followed his gaze. 'Hey!' She thought. 'They've gone off without us. Those meanies! Leaving me here!'

"HEY! Forgetting something?" She yelled at the top of her lungs causing Auron to wince slightly. Her shouting had the desired effect, causing the group to stop in their tracks. Her voice carried through the cave echoing over a few times before going silent. Auron moved to return to the group, but Rikku stayed rooted to the spot and ran a hand through her blonde hair. Something was different.

"Rikku." Auron warned since he didn't hear any movement from the younger girl.

"Coming!" She automatically responded then waited as the cave went silent once more. She shivered as she followed Auron back to the others waiting for them. The cave was still far too cold for Rikku and had gone this eerie kind of quiet she didn't like one bit.

"Auron...?" She asked tentatively.

"What?"

"Do you think... its maybe, oh I don't know, a bit quiet perhaps?"

"You mean was."

"Funny. I'm not that noisy." Auron just chuckled at this. "Hey I'm serious! It's gotten creepily quiet all of a sudden." Rikku was beginning to get miffed that Auron wasn't taking her seriously.

"..." Auron was silent.

"You don't believe me?" He glanced about for a moment.

"I'm not familiar with this cave. I wouldn't know." The red cloaked guardian answered diplomatically.

"Well, my women's intuition tells me something isn't right." She said huffily.

"...You're fifteen." Auron stated.

"So?" 'It's like what my mum told me, every woman has their intuition.' Rikku thought. She glanced forwards at the others; they had continued walking while chatting quietly among themselves not too far up ahead. Rikku wondered what happened to the whole silence thing they had going, but then she preferred it this way.

"Too inexperienced for intuition." Rikku spun her head around to face him and glared at him, she didn't know if Auron was deliberately trying to wind her up or not but the point is; he was doing it.

"I'm more experienced than most other fifteen year olds in Spira!" She argued.

"I never said you weren't." He countered. Rikku was officially confused now and it was definitely showing on her face.

"Then-"

"Quiet." Auron suddenly growled at Rikku.

"Huh?"

"Listen." So she did.

She could definitely hear something. It was an unusual sound, a rhythmic screeching almost which was echoing down the tunnel. She strained her hearing even further to hear the dull thudding of whatever was making this sound. Though as the seconds flew by it got easier to hear, then it just suddenly stopped. She let out a breath that she hadn't known she was holding while Auron was perfectly still.

"What was that?" She asked quietly.

"Fiends of some kind." He stated neutrally.

"Do you think they're gone?" Rikku questioned apprehensively.

"Perhaps." Came the cryptic statement. A few more minutes passed and the two heard nothing more and began travelling back to the group once more.
Without warning the noise flared up again, worse than before. Dust was falling from the ceiling, small pebbles on the ground were vibrating wildly and Rikku swung her head around to see a pack of stampeding lizards screeching and scrambling towards them.

"RUN!" Rikku instinctively yelled hoping the others would hear her before she heeded her own advice with Auron close on her trail. Immediately she raked around in her belt for a few grenades and after discovering them she didn't hesitate to throw a few behind her in an attempt to slow down the fiends. 'Now,' She thought. 'I despise this cave.'