timeandtides_backup | Of Chalices, Trees and S'mores

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Of Chalices, Trees and S'mores

Characters: Cissnei, Reno, Zack, Tseng
Progress: Closed; follow-up post here
Summary: The Turks are out and about, investigating Cissnei's Crystal Chalice
Location: Qu's Marsh and the routes in-between
Date: September 30, 1804
Warnings: Reno cussing, Cissnei being somewhat emotional, violence and monster killing

After Reno helped Sephiroth to settle in at the mansion in Lindblum, the two began to trek to Qu's Marsh. According to amassed information, there was a strange tree at the Marsh. Maybe it's a Myrrh tree like the ones the Selkies spoke of? They wouldn't know until they got there. The Chalice had been such a mystery to Cissnei, and now that a total of three people had a Chalice, there surely had to be a reason why they all found one.

They walked across terrains, talking of nothing and everything, sometimes staying silent for the sake of Cissnei, who sometimes truly could not handle Reno's confusing motormouth. It was turning late, a little too late, but luckily they managed to get most of the way to the Marsh. Both decide that it was a good time to stop and rest and finish the rest of the trip the next morning.

Cissnei starts to set out her sleeping bag underneath a large tree they came across. "Hey, Reno... Um..." She pauses and tries to figure out how to word her question without offending him. Rufus seemed quite flat about what he told her. "Rufus... Rufus told me that Veld's daughter was behind AVALANCHE. When? Why?"

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He caught the ore easily, pocketing it for safe keeping, and as Cissnei pulled her weapon out, Reno checked his own, making sure that all was well. Of course, when the challenge came out, he flashed a wicked smile.

"Too old? Never. Though I have to ask - you don't find our lovely location worth of lounging about in?" He winked, then stood up straight. "Only rule is that if we run into anything behemoth-like or worse, the game ends and we go back to some real teamwork. Deal?" Of course, if Cissnei was in trouble, of course he'd help her. And he knew the opposite would be true, as well.

"Yes, clearly it's the lap of luxury here." She stretched and popped her neck, rolling up the sleeves of her blazer because it was getting progressively hotter and more humid.

"Deal. Hope you can keep up!" Cissnei called out as she shot off full speed, flinging Rekka at three oncoming mus. She frowned when one of the mus managed to dodge the hit and jumped at her. She planted herself firmly into the ground, or well as firmly as it would allow at least, and shifted her weight away from the mu. Which is exactly when she got hit by a fire spell from a dark bomb and caused Cissnei to shriek mildly in pain. She glared at it and sent Rekka flying, knowing that one hit wasn't going to be enough. She flung it once more and cracked open an newly acquired potion, throwing the empty bottle at the bomb for good measure.

He snorted. Keep up? "You'll be scrambling to keep up with ME pretty soon, little lady!" he jested, hopping up and heading out to do some real damage. Nothing like the sounds and smells of battle in the morning to get the blood pumping, right?

Right.

Sahagins. Not exactly the easiest or the hardest creatures in the world... but perfect to rack up a good tally. And he'd just finished smacking one to smithereens when he heard the cry from Cissnei. Damn. He was going to lose this wager, if only because he had too much loyalty to his fellow Turks. Hearing any of them in pain wasn't exactly fun for him, and his instinct was to help. He hesitated, eying his own targets at the same time paying close attention to Cissnei, and only when she was healed again (and nearly laughed at the flinging of that bottle...) did he give his full regard to the enemies around him.

Which gave THEM ample opportunity to get HIM. As soon as he turned fully to face them, one had raked its claws along his arm, slicing through the jacket at one spot and leaving Reno hissing to keep from yelling out. A potion was taken, the bottle discarded, and his EMR crackled to life as it hit the side of the slimy creature, sending it to an early death. "Screw you and your cheap tricks," he muttered at it before taking on the next.

And so it would go for a couple of hours. Monsters fell, some landing hits on Reno and others not quite so lucky. Some requiring him to down another potion, others too easily taken down. His count was somewhere in the twenties before he finally waved to Cissnei, pointing out to a blurry, darkish blob in the distance. "Is that... Zack?" He wasn't sure - whatever or whoever it was appeared too far away to make out details, but it could be...

She whipped around when she heard Reno ask if it was Zack. She had a pair of hawk eyes, true, sharp enough to make her a deadly marksman with Rekka, but the blob was still too far for her to tell. "I don't know," she said between breaths, stabbing a sahagin in the stomach and tearing it open so she wouldn't lose time in trying to pry it out. Cissnei collected the dropped items and downed a potion, quickly discarding it. Some of the mu bites stung, but it wasn't something she couldn't deal with, and the burns from the dark bombs were mostly healed by now. Her count was somewhere in the mid-twenties, roughly, when Reno paused to ask about the distant figure.

Using a dead mu's pelt, she cleaned off the blood as she walked over to Reno. "You think it's him?" She spat a little clot of blood aside, trying to make out if it really was Zack or not. She pursed her lips for a moment. Well, this was embarrassing. Zack had seen her in her perfect uniform and in a swimsuit, but never like this. Between being half-naked on a beach and looking and smelling like yesterday's trash, this was the more embarrassing of the two. Gross. Bath salts, she told herself mentally. Lots of them.

"Get anything worthwhile? I got a few of these," Cissnei informed, holding out several items similar to the crank she used before, but smaller and probably with weaker magical powers.

Reno gave a small nod, offering an antidote - just in case. He'd never heard of mu bites or scratches causing problems, but one never knew. He drained a potion, then pulled out the good stuff.

"Got a few bomb fragments, like yours. Nothing else that's combative, though. Just some more hi-potions and antidotes. Which will probably come in handy... and yeah! That is Zack!" He hopped up and gave a loud whoop to gain the other man's attention, hoping he didn't gain the attention of anything unwanted in the process. "Zack!" Now that the SOLDIER was there? They could try to proceed further into the muck, and head for that blasted, troublesome tree.

The Turks. Always the damn Turks. They were nothing but trouble.

And this marsh was disgusting. They hadn't been lying about that, that was for sure. Zack may have been from the country, but Shiva. This was gonna take a while to wade through. And as he realized the Buster sword was getting dragged through all of that, too, he apologized profusely to Angeal, even if his mentor couldn't hear him.

While he trudged, he had to dispatch some little monsters, regrettably not gaining too many items. But then he saw some battles up ahead and two heads of red hair. Yep, definitely the troublesome Turks.

And a few minutes later he was recognized. He raised a hand in greeting and finally waded up to the others, now suitably disgusting, too.

"You guys look cute." The teasing was heavy in his voice.

Finally, Cissnei was able to see him person in this Gaia. The downside? They were in a marsh. On a mission. Looking like... this. Almost like old times. "You look dashing yourself," she teased back. "Thanks for coming, I..." she caught herself and swiftly changed her comment to "we really appreciate it." She tossed Zack a potion, seeing that he had a couple of cuts and wounds on his arms.

"We're trying to get close to that tree," she began as if she was debriefing him. This was still a mission, Zack or no Zack. "It's a myrrh tree and a chalice in my pack should collect the myrrh it produces. We're thinking it only gets worse from here on out."

Reno, unlike his fellow Turk Cissnei, was without any pomp or circumstance once Zack arrived. He chuckled at the girl's attempt at formality, shaking it off and lunging forward to carefully clap the man in a playful and grateful hug.

"Good to see you, man. And don't you know? Mud's the latest fashion. All the rage with the ladies. Right Ciss?" He winked at the woman at his side, then nodded to the tree.

"We're hoping, despite what Cissnei's said, that calling you out here is going to just be a nice, happy reunion of sorts. But since that behemoth showed up..." He trailed off, figuring Zack could figure out that it was better safe than sorry in this case. "Be prepared for anything. Make sure your equipment's up to snuff - we want to come out of this hellhole alive and laughing about it." He cast Zack a bit of a grin, arching a brow in question.

"Between two Turks and a 1st Class SOLDIER, I think we can whoop a little ass, right?"

Famous last words, Reno? He hoped not.

He had just drank the potion and tossed the empty bottle away when he was suddenly in a hug. With Reno.

Okay, so he had been through weirder, but...this was just odd to him. Awkwardly, he patted Reno's shoulder and pulled away to look at this tree they kept going on about. So it was a special tree that was more than likely well protected.

Awesome.

He turned to Cissnei, trusting her opinion more than Reno's. "So I'm here for the muscle. We got a plan?" He doubted it, but even a semblance of an idea of some sort of general strategy would be preferred to running in like barbarians.

She shot Reno a millisecond-long death glare; She would deal with Reno one she finished answering Zack's question. "Go straight, attack anything nasty from behind. Most of all, don't get killed." That was her grand plan: Don't get killed. Even she couldn't come up with a good, logical plan if they didn't know what exactly they were going to go up against. "Mind the bushes and the reeds, mus could be hiding behind there."

Cissnei held Rekka out at her side, making sure the pack full of potions, hi-potions and all other goodies was in reach. "Hope you're ready." She made a mental note to personally thank Zack and Reno for going through all this trouble. Well, Reno had something of an obligation, but he had stuck with her and this chalice thing since the start. If she got lucky and found another really valuable item, she was going to use the gil on them two.

Reno chuckled. "Don't get killed's pretty much it. That and... well.. I doubt it's just a behemoth we'll be facing when we get closer to that tree." He cast Cissnei a little 'look', with an upturned twist of his lips. "Can't be worse than that thing we faced in the Hunt, right?"

Gah, you're going to jinx the whole thing, aren't you, Reno? But he shrugged and held out a few potions to Zack. "We have a bit more - the little things around the area are dropping them like they're hot. Same with hi-potions. "Keep your strength up, too - don't let yourself get worn down. I don't want to have to report in to Tseng that I lost you a second time..." A second time? Lost Zack? To what, pray tell, was Reno referring? Wouldn't Zack love to know. But now wasn't the time for it. "Watch each others' backs, and kill as many of the little guys as you can as we go - what they drop will likely come in handy."

Right. Running in like barbarians. He really shouldn't have been surprised.

"And people wonder why SOLDIER and the Turks don't work so hot together." He sighed. "All right. I'll take point since I've got the most raw strength right now and you two back me up."

Though he had to look at Reno with a confused expression when he mentioned "losing" him. What Tseng had to do with anything was news to him.

He pulled the Buster sword off his back and looked at the blade, and the memories ingrained in the blade. "Sound good?"

"Fair enough," Cissnei agreed. SOLDIER was friendly enough and all, but taking orders from Zack wasn't really what she was used to. Beggars can't be choosers right now, she told herself. "And don't even try to take anything out alone when you can't, got it?" She fixed her fingerless gloves and popped her knuckles, knowing this was going to be one interesting situation.

"Ready when you are."

Taking point? It grated on him just a little, but Zack was right that he could take a number more lumps than either of the Turks could. If someone was going to get pounced on by a big, bad nasty creature, and Zack was volunteering for the gig, then who was he to question it?

"Sure thing, but like Ciss said - we'll keep up with you, but if we say 'hold your ass up, we're checking something out', we mean it. Don't lose us."

And Reno would make sure he didn't lose Zack. It'd been hard enough to lose him the first time, when it'd been such an important mission. He wasn't about to let it happen again.

"After this, I'm taking you both out for dinner and drinks. So stay alive or your steak is mine." He snickered, then gestured to the tree. "Let's get that myrrh and get the hell out of here."

He waved their warnings off with his free hand. "I got it, I got it, I'll be a good little puppy." Nothing like a little bit of self-deprecating humor right about now.

"But Reno?" He fixed a look toward the brighter redhead. "You eat my food and I'll become your personal poltergeist." A second later he grinned and set out, his eyes immediately scanning the area for any nasties.

The trio pressed on, slaying some mus and sahagins while smartly avoiding behemoths. They couldn't afford to battle more of them at this point. Cissnei had managed to stockpile several healing items and a few bomb fragments from the smaller battles against the creatures that guarded the tree. She had decided it was her job to take out any easy targets that were coming in from afar and leave the closer enemies to Zack and Reno.

"We made it," Cissnei said with a happy sigh. "Let's get this over with."

Boom. Boom. Something loud was nearby, very loud. It shook the marsh below their feet and caused the water to ripple rhythmically. There it was again. She stopped dead in her tracks as the sound got closer and closer. "Holy shit," she gaped. In front of them was now a huge dragon with two sets of wings and the color of raw flesh. It bared its crooked, twisted teeth at them, crawling and snapping at random while protecting the tree.

Mus. Sahagins. Bombs. They all fell under the trio's force as they hacked their way through to reach that oddly pretty tree. Hack, slash and thwack!

Until they actually reached the tree. Just thirty feet to go - it was close enough that Reno could taste it. And the smores that he'd be making that night in celebration!

And oh so quickly, all that relief and jubilant emotion drained from him. A dragon. A freaking dragon. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

Of course, the stunned expression lasted just a moment before he darted back and away from the sharp teeth trying to crunch and munch his bones. "Shit, man! Why the hell is it always -something-? Nothing's easy, nothing's quick. Damnit!" He cussed, then got himself ready to attack something much, much worse than a behemoth. "Hope we're all ready for this."

And with that? He launched himself toward the creature, cracking his EMR against its sickening, rotting flesh before darting away. Delicious.

...Well, shit. He knew they were having trouble, but Zack really hadn't planned on that kind. And Shiva, it was rank! They would be lucky not to pass out from the stench first.

Cissnei's myrrh better be worth it.

Mentally, Zack readied his Firaga and reached out his hand toward the dragon when Reno had retreated. But nothing happened.

Oh, right. He had been cursed to lose his materia. Damnit! Growling, he gripped the Buster sword and swung at the dragon's leg, putting a good amount of strength into the motion. The flat end of the blade hit hard but, naturally, didn't seem to do much damage. Still, a hit was a hit and Zack fell back when his move was out of oomph.

Cissnei was biting her lower lip in thought, desperately searching for a weak spot to no avail. Where in the world was she going to attack? If Zack's sword couldn't get a decent hit, surely her shuriken wasn't even going to scratch the dragon.

So where was the Turk going to land a blow? The one place the boys couldn't get a good hit without accepting suicide: its wings. With a good amount of strength, Cissnei flung Rekka at the thinner wing on the dragon in hopes of ripping it and possibly stunting any aerial movement.

She backed off between Zack and Reno, catching Rekka with one hand. "Any bright ideas?"

Reno held back when Zack barreled toward the beast to try and cut it, frowning when the attack seemed to be unnoticed by the beast. Oh, it hit. It cut the thing. But the dragon barely flinched. Apparently, they needed a new method of attacking.

Cissnei, bless her, found a good one. Rekka flew from her hands, and Reno gave a whoop to see that thing tear through the membrane that webbed between the dragon's bones to form wings. "HELL yes!" He couldn't help the shout, even as the girl caught her weapon.

But then the question came as to whether or not they had any ideas, and Reno gave a nod, fishing in his pockets for... yup.

A bomb fragment. "Kill it with fire. That good enough an idea for you?" he asked as he flung the small item at their target, grinning wickedly when the creature howled, scorched nicely. "Dragon flambe. Mmm... ohshit!"

He'd been rather proud of himself to have hurt the thing - that's what they needed, and perhaps now Zack's sword could do more damage, if the blade could find scorched areas to hit. But his celebratory mood was cut off as the thing let loose a very putrid, foul looking gas from its mouth. "Get back..." he insisted, but it was too late. The gas enveloped their area, and Reno groaned when he inhaled, feeling his stomach lurch. "Poison..." Thank goodness they had antidotes! But only seconds after he managed to fish them out of his pocket and hand them to everyone to take, the dragon was on the move again, lunging straight at them with a feral roar.

He jumped to the side to avoid the direct attack (downing his antidote a second later), and realized that this... this would give them the perfect opportunity to smack the living crap out of the thing - it was breathing heavily after it's motion, and would likely be stuck there for a few moments while it mustered up the energy to slither back. "GIVE IT ALL YOU'VE GOT!" he shouted, flinging another bomb fragment at the creature at much closer range.

Edited 2010-10-24 12:56 (UTC)

Zack didn't want to take the antidote right away, hoping the mako in his system would take care of most of the poison. But then he had been warned not to let his strength wane. He took it and threw the bottle away.

As for his next move, Zack flipped his sword so he would attack with the sharp edge of the blade this time, against his usual plan of action. Taking a deep breath, despite the stench, he ran toward the dragon and swung once, twice, a series of times, satisfied when the blade sunk into the rotting flesh of the dragon's leg.

Finally, they were starting to get somewhere.

Cissnei drank the antidote and threw it aside. Finally! A hit! "Keep to the legs and the face, I'll take out the wings!" she shouted. Once again, she let Rekka fly at the same wing, shredding the thin membrane further apart and slicing through another wing, though not nearly as bad as the first go round.

The dragon roared and screeched in pain but it was still unable to retaliate just yet. She hoped that they could get enough damage in before it could move once more. If that was the case, Cissnei had already planned to use a bomb core on its wings and back or its face, which ever would suit the moment. Someone had to have a semblance of a plan, right?

They were in this for a very long haul. Just judging by the dragon's reactions to their hits, he knew it. Oh, it roared and flinched, but it showed no sign of actually slowing down with those hits. Only the act of moving itself seemed to slow it - and then only temporarily.

"The wounds - aim for wounds!" he insisted in addition to Cissnei's insistance to go after the sensitive areas - the head and legs. Anywhere that was already damaged would aggrivate the monster further, and hopefully land some truly critical blows.

His EMR went straight for that cranium, striking hard on a scorched spot and letting the powerful zap rip through the creature's head. He dodged the first snap of jaws that came in retaliation, but the second knicked him as he jumped away, leaving him to grunt as he half-rolled/half-sloshed away upon striking (more like sinking into) the ground. "Shit..." the mutter came as a potion was taken out - and another antidote. The whole creature was one big blob of putrid, stinking mess with claws and fangs. Wonderful.

"I hope Tseng actually can get here...."

Edited 2010-10-25 19:45 (UTC)

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Of Chalices, Trees and S'mores

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