Categories > Games > Final Fantasy X > Memories of a Guardian
Day 39, Year 8 of Braska's Calm: Mushroom Rocks
0 reviewsSettling into the routine of pilgrimage and battle.
0Unrated
Step by step, Besaid recedes, and I settle into a Guardian's shoes.
The true test hasn't yet come, of course. The Crusaders keep the Highroad well-guarded. Lady Ginnem believes the patrols taper off between Djose and Bevelle, so hopefully we should get in some practice before the Calm Lands. I do not want to venture there less than fully-prepared.
The nights are long and cold, since we seldom risk a fire despite the frequent foot patrols. We won't have that luxury in the Calm Lands. Valefor keeps watch for part of the night so that I can rest. We'll use Ifrit on Mt. Gagazet, where he's less likely to set the foliage on fire. We will probably need his warmth. For now, we are learning the less glamorous parts of the pilgrimage: walking, walking, and more walking, probably more distance than I have ever travelled in my twenty years on Besaid. Also, we must be sparing and cautious of magic, supplies, and rations, for the Al Bhed Inns are few and far between, and our funds are limited.
The stars are clear and bright as fresh pyreflies -- no sea fog to shroud them. The birds, the cries in the underbrush, the plants and scents, and the very soil are different from anything I have known. We are camped now in a forbidding valley of pillared stone and twisted formations where little but lichen grows. I wonder what the Fiends feast on besides unwary pilgrims? The wind howls through the rocky spires, and I keep imagining I hear surf. I miss the sea. There has never been a moment in my life when I have not heard its distant sigh.
Ah. There was one creature today that I will have to look up when we reach the temple. The elementals are beginning to shrivel before my magic, but this entity seemed to delight in turning my own lightning against me. Its magic was enough to let it float effortlessly; it seemed to gather power from the very air with ribbon-like gills. The shape was almost manlike, but obscene, grotesque, with a second face where its genitals should be. It was /sentient/, of that I'm certain. Ginnem calls them "ganderewa" and doesn't trouble herself about what they are, since she's grown up in the region. But I'm unsettled. What - who - are they? Is this some other race twisted by Sin, banished from the blessing of Yevon?
Whatever they are, they do not like Summoners. Lady Ginnem keeps assuring me that I don't have to fight the battles for her, just with her, but it's teeth-jarring every time one of them manages to land a bolt on her before I can drown it. I suppose that's what White Magic is for, but I still don't like it. Ginnem seems to enjoy battle as much as I do, however. She says it's a refreshing change from coddling priests.
I don't like the thought of Yuna in battle. She'll have to kill more than Sin, if she comes this way.
IMAGE (be sure to look at this one):
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i181/auronlu/originalPhotomanips/gandarewa.jpg
The true test hasn't yet come, of course. The Crusaders keep the Highroad well-guarded. Lady Ginnem believes the patrols taper off between Djose and Bevelle, so hopefully we should get in some practice before the Calm Lands. I do not want to venture there less than fully-prepared.
The nights are long and cold, since we seldom risk a fire despite the frequent foot patrols. We won't have that luxury in the Calm Lands. Valefor keeps watch for part of the night so that I can rest. We'll use Ifrit on Mt. Gagazet, where he's less likely to set the foliage on fire. We will probably need his warmth. For now, we are learning the less glamorous parts of the pilgrimage: walking, walking, and more walking, probably more distance than I have ever travelled in my twenty years on Besaid. Also, we must be sparing and cautious of magic, supplies, and rations, for the Al Bhed Inns are few and far between, and our funds are limited.
The stars are clear and bright as fresh pyreflies -- no sea fog to shroud them. The birds, the cries in the underbrush, the plants and scents, and the very soil are different from anything I have known. We are camped now in a forbidding valley of pillared stone and twisted formations where little but lichen grows. I wonder what the Fiends feast on besides unwary pilgrims? The wind howls through the rocky spires, and I keep imagining I hear surf. I miss the sea. There has never been a moment in my life when I have not heard its distant sigh.
Ah. There was one creature today that I will have to look up when we reach the temple. The elementals are beginning to shrivel before my magic, but this entity seemed to delight in turning my own lightning against me. Its magic was enough to let it float effortlessly; it seemed to gather power from the very air with ribbon-like gills. The shape was almost manlike, but obscene, grotesque, with a second face where its genitals should be. It was /sentient/, of that I'm certain. Ginnem calls them "ganderewa" and doesn't trouble herself about what they are, since she's grown up in the region. But I'm unsettled. What - who - are they? Is this some other race twisted by Sin, banished from the blessing of Yevon?
Whatever they are, they do not like Summoners. Lady Ginnem keeps assuring me that I don't have to fight the battles for her, just with her, but it's teeth-jarring every time one of them manages to land a bolt on her before I can drown it. I suppose that's what White Magic is for, but I still don't like it. Ginnem seems to enjoy battle as much as I do, however. She says it's a refreshing change from coddling priests.
I don't like the thought of Yuna in battle. She'll have to kill more than Sin, if she comes this way.
IMAGE (be sure to look at this one):
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i181/auronlu/originalPhotomanips/gandarewa.jpg
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