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The Scarierst Person She Ever Met; A FFE Short Story
Topic Started: Apr 22 2008, 10:18 PM (795 Views)
The Golux
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Part Magician, Part Logician, Part Idiot

When she had time, in between breathing, Dani looked incredulously at the pale-maned amazon running beside her. She was trying, very hard, not to look back - the bellowing and pounding of hooves behind them were too close to be able to afford it. Besides, the other woman was gaining on her.

Dani took a few longer strides, enough to once more bring her abreast of the taller woman. “This,” she panted, “From ‘just give me a second, there’s something I need to try?’”

“Yeah,” the other flashed a toothy grin. “Isn’t it fun?” The two rushed through a small group of people who were scrambling to get out of the way, then through a small arch in a tall stone wall.

“No,” Dani gasped, “Being chased by Dual Horns,” she huffed, “through a busy city,” she puffed, “is not what I would call fun!”

“Don’t be silly,” said the taller woman, whose name was Gladys Osrail. “The Dual Horns aren’t chasing us.”

“What?”

“They’re running from what’s chasing us!” Indeed, the beasts, now given an open space rather than cluttered streets, were overtaking them, and seemed to have other things on their minds than attack.

“Then what..?” Dani didn’t even get a chance to finish asking before her question was answered – with a roar and crunching of rock, the arch found itself forcibly expanded. This time Dani did look back, and saw a massive, purple, horned, bipedal monstrosity making its way steadily forward. “A Behemoth?” she asked, incredulous, increasing her pace again.

Dani saw now why there was an empty space here – the gate had led into a courtyard, that opened onto a wide flight of steps, which she now rushed up. The map of the city was still fairly fresh in her mind, so even before she reached the top, she knew what she’d find.

The Cathedral of Palamekia was one of the largest and most famous temples of Mateus in the world, and they were now running up its front steps. The taller woman broke out in a flat run to the main door as she hit the top of the stairs, and Dani followed, the sound of the Behemoth roaring behind her more than enough to make her not question the direction. They ran inside, past a few stunned guards, and into the main sanctum, thankfully empty at this time of day.

“Glad!” Dani whispered, harshly, the word still echoing around the room of worship. “What the hell were you thinking?” The taller woman had slowed down, apparently scanning the room for something.

“No time. If we wait here, we’ll have trouble with the monsters and the guards.” As If summoned by her words, a small group of Dual Horns broke into the room; most of them had apparently taken different turns somewhere. But the Behemoth howled, and it didn’t sound too far off.

“That’s exactly what I mean!” She followed Gladys as she stalked quickly into a side passage. “I mean, where did those monsters even come from?”

“Did you know that if you attack a Behemoth but don’t finish it off, it’ll remember you and come after you in a rage if it sees you again?” The passage led to a narrow spiral staircase, which the large monsters couldn’t climb.

“I did not know that,” Dani said, “And it still doesn’t explain how it happened to see you again right here!” There were loud squeals from the direction of the sanctum, where the Behemoth had apparently caught up with the Dual Horns. The building shook slightly with its angry movements.

“Oh, that’s easy,” The blonde replied. “Warp spell.”

“..You brought it into the city on purpose?

“Yeah.” Gladys turned and flashed another grin. “How else was I going to get it near the Cathedral? The Dual Horns were already here, though, in a Corral. Livestock, I think.”

Dani looked at her, flabbergasted. “You’ve been planning this.”

“I plan a lot of things” The staircase opened into another hallway, mirroring the one they’d come down, but they were now at the level that matched the top of the sanctum’s vaulted roof.

“You have to stop this, Glad. It’s insane, even for you...” They were looking out of a balcony, above the Behemoth’s head-level; they could see it flailing around, crushing pews and decorative pillars as the cathedral’s guards tried in vain to subdue it.

The tall woman pouted. “Now?” she asked. “Can’t we wait just a few more minutes to see what it does?”

One of the guards was backhanded by the beast, smacking into and denting the stone wall. “No,” Dani said. “Now.”

Gladys gave an exasperated sigh. “All right,” she said, holding out her hand as she chanted under her breath. The splayed fingers glowed, and she turned her hand slightly as if grasping and twisting doorknob. At the same time, parts of the behemoth distorted, some twisting in one direction while others twisted in the opposite. Dani turned away; she’d seen Gladys do this trick before, and the end results were never pretty. Sure enough, there was a wet ripping sound as the dimensional distortion finally twisted the beast’s flesh beyond the breaking point, and it fell with a thud to the floor.

The rabble of the guards’s surprise picked up quickly, as Dani peeked over the handrail again. “Glad,” she said, “That spell is seriously gross.”

“You’re just jealous that I can bend space and time to my will, and you can’t,” the Time Mage replied with a grin. “Yoohoo, Boys!” She added, in a much louder voice that reached the ground. “I’m Gladys Osrail! Make sure I get the credit and the blame!” she waved to them, making sure they got a good view of her. “Unless you want some too?” She turned to Dani, who simply pulled the brim of her hat down to over her eyes, and shrugged her shoulders to bring the cloak’s collar up over her mouth.

A group of guards, ordered by the apparent leader, tromped off down the hallway that led to the staircase. “Let’s just get out of here,” Dani said, “so I can pretend that this never happened... or at least that I was nowhere near here at the time.”

Gladys grinned. “Someday, you’ll look back on this as a treasured memory,” she said. Heading along the narrow balcony. “Or maybe not.”

--- --- ---

It took them nearly ten minutes of careful evasion to get out of the cathedral unseen, during which time they saw that the Dual Horns, while not expelled, had been pacified. Another fifteen minutes, and they were out of the city, riding on chocobos that Gladys claimed she had paid for; Dani planned to leave some gil in the saddlebags anyway, when they released the birds to return home. “So,” she said, as they rode, “you never did say why the hell you planned that.”

Gladys grinned, pulling a scroll out of a pocket in her long coat. She handed it to Dani, who unrolled it.

Gladys’s picture was prominently displayed on the page; at least, a caricature of her that was fairly accurate, but exaggerated her manic qualities. Below that was a list; some entries that caught her eye were “For Creating a Nuisance,” “For Reckless Driving,” and “For Opening the Portal that Sucked the Town of Koyne into the Void.” The top read “WANTED,” and there was a number at the bottom that had a lot of zeroes. “Your wanted poster?” Dani asked.

Gladys’s smile grew. “How many people do you think have ‘Creating a stampede through the Cathedral of Palamekia’ on their permanent records?” she asked. “I wonder how much they’ll add for this...”

“I’m not even sure they’ll even believe it,” Dani said. “I know I wouldn’t, if I hadn’t been there...”

“They will,” Gladys said, “if only ‘cuz of the mess. Heh, you might get one too.”

“...I hope not...”
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