melodiesoflife | Searching for Friends: Eastern Lost Continent

Characters: Duster, Tazendra, Lust, Minato, NPCs
Where: Village of Santa Claus, Mythril Mines
When: Starting March 5th
Summary: The four wake up in the World of Ruins. They catch up on what happened and explore the area they've ended up in

The last thing Duster saw was the ground falling away from his feet - no, he was pulled away. The battlefield blurred, and only the large imposing figure of Chaos remained distinct from the rest of the room. He heard Rialynn and Sparks screaming. Then darkness.

There was nothing.

He was dead, he had to be. This void wasn't caused by being transported to another world. His friends remained behind, finishing what he could not. In time, he could lose consciousness...

"Gather your strength...you must be strong to face Kalki...!"

That voice...he heard it before...

"I'm sorry...I couldn't find a better way to save you...."

Duster closed his eyes. It was cold. Duster opened his eyes. It was white.

No, that was snow. He layed on his back in a snowdrift. The wind howled around his ears, which did not help considering he was only wearing a light coat when he stepped into Pandaemonium. There were three other people in the snow nearby, which was better than waking up alone. Only...

"What happened?"

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When Minato awoke, the first thing he recognized was the freezing cold. The next was that his hair had grown much, inexplicably longer. But the loose ponytail reminded him of... something. The vision that was given to them by The Sage? He had worn his hair like this then. His long fringe was all over his face now even worse than it normally was, he'd have to messily cut it when he's next able as there were better things to worry about than a neat haircut.

Minato's eyes widened at the sight of Duster, hurrying his picking himself up in relief, even wearing a rare smile, echoing Tazendra. "Duster-san! You're alright!"

If by any definition, being stranded in the middle of the snow was alright.

Duster's legs were freezing, but he alive and - judging by the reactions of the other two - things were alright. He pushed himself to a standing position and brushed off the snow off the back of his pants. Judging by the extreme change in scenery, he had missed a lot of the fight.

"Did you beat Garland? How long was I gone?" He eyed Minato, his face falling at the realization that hair did not grow that long in a matter of days. "Did I...was I a crystal?"

That would explain the voice, that familiar woman who told him to wake up a year ago.

"Ah... well. We did, but Kalki finished it, as a fake Hero among us. She wasn't dead after all. And she possessed Ramza-san's body, afterward." Minato shook his head following his skeletal explanation, brows furrowed.

"Everything afterwards is a blur. We got on the airship to escape as the ground crumbled and Kalki got away, I don't know how we got here." Or what's with his hair.

"I am certain we were attacked on the return trip, though we no longer seem to be in the desert," Tazendra glanced around to affirm that this was not the desert near Roalie. "As for how we arrived here, or the manner of our stasis, I haven't the least idea. It can't have been too long, however."

Of course, Tazendra's definition of 'too long' was a bit skewed by her long lifespan. She frowned.

"Though 'too long' may weigh on what that villain Kalki is planning."

"But then..." He switched between looking at the shorter boy and the tall woman before him. Both hadn't really answered the question of what happened; if anything, it muddied up the story. If they were in the desert, why show up here?

"At least...that explains why the voice told us to fight Kalki..." Last time, it told him to wake up. Perhaps it wasn't a figment of his imagination.

"... The voice?" Minato blinked. "Did you hear something when you fell?"

They had all been worried they had just... up and died, that was not a friendly looking abyss. Curious. But before Duster could reply, looking at the horizon of white around them a shiver was finally beginning to register to the core of Minato's bones as a breeze had picked up. He's never been the healthiest kid, falling ill now would be in poor form.

"We can't stay out here. Let's find shelter as we figure out where we are."

"An excellent plan," Tazendra said. "If we have been left here, it was a shame we were not given cloaks."

"No, the voice that I heard when I first came here. The one that told me to wake up?" He paused, worried that no one else experienced that. "Did that happen to you?"

With Tazendra giving the okay to move, Duster thankfully hugged himself and nodded. He never could get used to the cold weather, considering he grew up in a warm oceanside town, and this could have been the worst place to wake up.

In the dim weather, Duster peered through the snow in search of a landmark. To the southeast was a large structure. House or not, it was shelter. "Do you see that?" He pointed in the direction where the Mines lay, though he wasn't aware of what they were. "We can keep on talking there."

To Duster's question, Minato only shook his head initially. But... later on, he processed. "First came here, isn't that supposed to be the Queen?"

"... Let's hope it's not some giant rock. Or ice whale." Very helpful cynicism, Minato. Or maybe he's making a joke. As always, it's hard to tell, but he had to try to lighten the mood, never mind if he fails.

Huddling his robe over his bare hands, he briefly considered if summoning Ifrit just to warm themselves up was a bad idea. Maybe not until they figure out if there are monsters about. He'd totally do it.

There was a dark figure moving through the sheets and swirls of snow. Moving fast by the looks of it, too. Whatever it was, it was at least humanoid in shape, and it wasn't making any savage grunting or snarling sounds.

On the plus side, they'd gained another Hero of Light for their party! On the negative side, it was Lust.

Her usually perfect ivory skin was flushed from the cold, her breath rolling from her dark lips in small puffs of mist. She'd seen their vague figures in the distance and had hastened toward them in hopes of finding a certain familiar face. The expression of hope, shortly followed by disappointment, was a foreign expression the homunculus did not usually wear. The cool disdain that came next was perfectly normal, however, for while she at least knew Duster and Tazendra, it was probably obvious that she held not real affection for anyone standing there.

"So there are others," she remarked, not yet sheathing the black blade she held in her hand. Her gaze fell to their feet, then to the craters they'd left behind in the snow with their slogging steps, tracking the direction they'd come and following it ahead to the same place she'd been eyeing since her awakening as well.

Lust's shoulders hitched with a small sigh.

"I don't suppose you've seen anyone else," she remarked, more a statement than a question. "We may as well travel together, then, since we seem to have the same destination in mind." Turning in place, she moved ahead at a more casual pace, the white snow crunching beneath her heeled boots. It was fortunate that she'd kept her Black Mage job equipped, since it would take little effort on her part to start a fire.

"Getting hypothermia is a good bonding activity. Particularly when you get frostbite hand in hand."

...

"Was that too much? Sorry."

Minato probably should stop now. But with a more serious shake of his head at Lust's statement, he went back to the task at hand without another word. It wasn't really so much any embarrassment over the jokes, and more conservation of energy. Trying to stop the chattering of his teeth was proving a difficult quest.

"I was not aware ice whales were a possibility." Tazendra clearly sounded more cheerful at this idea. It would be new, exciting and was less frustrating than Kalki's possession of Ramza, escape and whatever had dumped them into the snow. "Let us move onward, then."

Duster's face fell. "I can't fight a whale with frostbite." He folded his arms over his shoulders an shivered. "We have to go. Maybe we can find something in there."

He took one step out of the deep snow back and slowly hovered his foot over the snow, unsure whether he'd fall in the instant he put it down.

Searching for Friends: Eastern Lost Continent

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