Of Chalices, Trees and S'mores

[shurikenfemale.livejournal.com]

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?"

Comments

[nogoodpeople.livejournal.com]

The shriek of the wounded dragon was music to Tseng's ears, and he barely need to be told what to do next. Now was the time to push the advantage, and he fully intended to make good use of the moment.

Mere seconds later the thunder of repeated gunfire split the air as Tseng emptied every bullet he had into the dragon's head, being careful to place them n the places that would do the most damage. There wasn't any sense to simple letting the ricochet off of the hollow bones of its skull. Forunately, its cries of pain made offered it's mouth as a convenient secondary target.

One way or another he would get to the creature's brain.

[fairesthero.livejournal.com]

Zack took just a moment to relax after his work, watching the dragon rear on its, literally, last feet. Zack needed to get up there to its neck, but how the hell was he going to jump that high when he had no High Jump?

But Reno grabbed his attention and he knew that not only was it important to get to the throat, but to knock the dragon over. Of course, then it became the question of how to do that. To topple a leaning structure, it was easiest to strike at the weak bottom.

Or, if the foundation were weak, knock over the top with force.

Zack stared at the dragon and its thicker hind legs. It was never easy. Quickly, Zack pulled out a couple potions and doused his sword, the liquid destroying the blood that still resided there with a hissing noise. He took a deep breath, and sloshed as quickly as he could through the muck, sword held tightly.

Once he was close enough, Zack jumped as high as he humanly could and aimed his sword at the dragon's chest, the tip of the blade stabbing into the flesh. The potion began to eat away at the flesh there and Zack knew that he had to act quickly before all of the skin disappeared.

But that gave him another idea. If he could get up to the throat and douse that with a potion, that might just do the job. He fished out another bottle with one hand and stuck it in his mouth before fisting his hands into the dragon. It would be hard, but he had to climb up the damn thing.

[shurikenfemale.livejournal.com]

Cissnei watched, fearful of what would happen next. She could easily throw Rekka at the open wound or some other weak point, but there were now two things holding her back: her wound (which she could easily deal with later) and her comrades performing very brave stunts (who she could very easily harm). Instead of using her weapon, she decided that throwing a hi-potion could potentially work. At least if it missed it would help someone out, right? Win-win situation.

Yet soon enough she decided against it as she saw Zack starting to make his way up the nasty thing. Boy were they reckless right now but she really couldn't do much else and have them potentially get very badly wounded. She stood in place, arms crossed, chewing her bottom lip and eyebrows deeply furrowed. All of this for a stupid chalice. Potentially important, but stupid nonetheless. This better be over soon, she thought.

[turks-reno.livejournal.com]

It was an all-out blitz on that dragon. The faster they all acted, and the harder they hit, the better chance they had of dealing a killing blow. He knew it wasn't going to be his own - his EMR wasn't powerful enough to deal such a blow to a creature like this one. But it COULD stun, and it could hurt...

And electricity could cause muscles to bunch up involuntarily. As Zack moved up the monster, Reno darted back and behind to send a whopping jolt up the back of its hind legs, forcing the muscles to clench, and sending the reared dragon further backward.

Combined with Tseng's hits, not being able to see, not being able to regulate its balance with its wings, and both Zack and Reno's physical attacks, it was inevitable. The monster tipped --- right toward the redhead.

He cussed up a storm as he dodged the falling beast, throwing another handful of potions at it. The last potions he'd dare spare, since he knew they'd need some to heal up later. "HELL YES!" he screamed as he came barreling out from nearly getting squished into the mud by fetid flanks. "Kill this sucker, Zack, and let's get out of this damned swamp!"

[nogoodpeople.livejournal.com]

'Get out of the swamp'. Now there was a sentiment he could agree with. He'd need a moment to reload, so everything was on Zack. The last final push and Leviathan be willing it would be enough.

If it wasn't, he wasn't quite sure what he was going to do. Too much longer, and they would be bound to run out of potions for themselves afterwards and that wasn't at all a pleasing prospect.

[fairesthero.livejournal.com]

Zack wasn't sure how it happened, but he felt the dragon start to tip backward. This was good news, that's really all that mattered. Zack clung to the rank flesh and hung on until it finally hit the ground, the footless front legs flailing uselessly.

Now was the time to end it, like Reno insinuated. Zack crawled the remaining distance toward the dragon's throat and uncorked the potion with his teeth, quickly dousing the creature's exposed weakness. The flesh hissed again, though the dragon's cries of pain drowned it out immediately after. His plan was working.

But Zack wouldn't trust just one potion. It worked quickly, but not fast enough. Backtracking, he ripped his sword from its chest and swung the blade toward the decaying neck, easily slicing the jugular. Thick, black blood spurted out and Zack jumped from the dying creature as its limbs slowly stopped moving.

Gods, he smelled like death. Literally.

[shurikenfemale.livejournal.com]

"Finally!" she exclaimed, running towards Reno and Zack. She held back from nearly tackling the boys for defeating the dragon (Tseng, she figured, wouldn't really take too well to that kind of behavior). "Drinks on me when we get back," she said with a grin. Cissnei got so used to the smell she didn't even notice it at this point. She passed the potions and hi-potions that Reno had dumped on her to everyone.

As she pulled the Chalice of her black pack, she said, "Well let's finish this." Guess who wasn't ever coming back to this swamp again? This Turk.

[turks-reno.livejournal.com]

He couldn't help it. He gave a rather enthusiastic whoop when Zack's blade and Tseng's shots nailed them the life (or unlife, as it were) of the dragon, and as Cissnei ran toward them jubilantly, he greeted her with a matching grin, ruffling her hair playfully as she passed out potions. "And dinner's on me. Goodness knows we'll have the gil and then some once we sell that ore of ours," he insisted. Ore? Oh, yeah, Zack wasn't there for THAT. Nor was Tseng.

"We got some orichalcum off that beastie that gave us so much trouble before this dragon. We figured earlier that it'll be enough to treat everyone to dinner, drinks...Just our way of saying 'thanks for helping save our rear ends'." And replenish their diminished supply funds after Rufus bought that damned mansion, not that Reno was complaining about that. It was nice not having to worry about a bird crapping on your head while you slept due to a hole in the roof.

"Which reminds me..." he wandered off, downing two hi-potions as he headed back toward the dragon. "Gimmie a sec before we get that myrrh. I gotta check..." He bent down in the mud to look, then bounced back up triumphantly with something long and sharp in his hands.

"Zack! Got a present for you!" he laughed, slurpy-jogging through the muck back to the group and depositing a dragon fang in Zack's hands. "That's gotta be worth some decent gil in the markets, and since you were the one to deal that finishing blow..." he grinned, then gently clapped Cissnei on the shoulder.

"Let's get your myrrh and get the hell out of here. I want to be clean, with a campfire, and some smores in an hour."

[nogoodpeople.livejournal.com]

At the mention of orichalcum, Tseng's eyebrow rose. That would certainly go a long way in helping make up for the horrors of this particular outing. The light at the end of the metaphorical tunnel, so to speak.

"Good to know that the trip wasn't an entire waste," he answered with a slight nod. He wasn't about to pin the entirety of their success on something he was entirely unfamiliar with. This myrrh wasn't anything he'd heard of, and so far his (rather precursory) attempt to find out anything of interest hadn't helped. He'd need to look further when they got back.

"For once, I believe I could agree with that."

[fairesthero.livejournal.com]

After the hug from Cissnei, and thanks the gods, she seemed to be in a lot better shape now, Zack accepted the spoils of their fight. He stored the potions away and gave Reno a small smile when he was given the dragon fang. He didn't want to come off as smug for dealing the final blow, and holding the prize didn't help matters.

Quietly, he stored it away, as well. "I'll make sure to give you guys a share." And that was that. He watched the Turks go on with their conversation, and how they fell into their familiar role. Zack had always had a shaky relationship with the Turks, but now that he had taken a step back and was able to witness them, and see them happy, he realized they were really close. They really were a family.

He gave them space and smiled gently, feeling his adrenaline start to wear off, but his previously wounded arm started to twinge in discomfort. It was healed for the most part, but now that the excitement was over, that internal pain was coming back in full force. He simply held it with his free hand, not wanting to bring attention to himself.

[shurikenfemale.livejournal.com]

Cissnei shook her head when Zack mentioned splitting the prize. "It's yours, Zack, we have our prize." She took the Chalice out of the black pack, carefully holding it in both hands. "Time to collect some myrrh."

She led the way towards the tree, skirting dead monsters and jumping over little tufts of mud and swamp. When she approached the tree, she noticed a huge slab of stone set just in front of it, right below where two of the points met. The slab had a small insertion, just the right size for a Chalice to fit in. "Cross your fingers," she called out when she placed the Chalice on the slab.

In moments, both the tree and the Chalice began to glow. Beams of light began to shoot around in a net-like pattern as if it were energizing. Cissnei's jaw dropped at the scene, as it looked very much like "...The Lifestream." She didn't mean to say it out loud, but she did. The tips that met began to glow and shift into a bright white color. One single, shining drop fell into the small crystal that hovered above the Chalice. The Crystal Chalice was filled a third of the way up when Cissnei removed it from the slab.

"I think it's time we called it a day, don't you think?"