Time and Tides Archives

He grinned to Rydia; she was too nice, even when it was obvious who would need it the most. He looked around inside the cavern, its frigid air encasing him. It felt like a nice winter day, and he hopped up onto a ledge to see into the upper areas of the cave. He peered around, noticing a few odd things inside, like a wall of ice with a shadow behind and open treasure chests...

Suddenly, as soon as Rydia had asked about voices, he could hear them too. They were faint, but distinguishable. If the whooshing misty colds continued, he and Rydia would have to blindly fall forward into, perhaps, enemies. But the puffing air died slowly, and it was silent enough to hear.

But Luneth just froze.

He knew that voice. Just knew it. Could it be her...? It seemed like he and Arc were here... and as unlikely as it seemed everyone he ever knew would suddenly just reappear, his hope was suddenly too high to deny it. He got excited and hopped down next to Rydia.

"Rydia, I know who that is! Come on, come on!!"

He took her hand and tried to drag her further into the cave. He would be very surprised if he was wrong.

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At Luneth's comment, a startled Rydia nodded and let him tug her along. If he was right, then at least their trek into the cavern had more purpose than curiosity or saving money on airship passage. She wondered briefly if the voice belonged to that Arc person Luneth had been talking to...but no, not quite. Overhearing earlier had gained her that much insight.

She perked up as the voices grew in volume and intensity, and then frowned. Oh, no. The girl had to be new; given the way that conversation was going. Why did this cavern attract so many new people? Was it Gaia's way of mocking them? Either way, she remained quiet until they came within sight of those to whom the voices belonged. A glance at Luneth, and she hung back to let him greet his friend first.

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At some point in that brief space of time that the others were approaching the makeshift camp, Refia had decided that she'd had enough and was starting to storm away. She was being hampered by the moogles, though, as three of them ran up to grab the red triangles on the border of her robe and dig their fuzzy little feet in. Considering all the ice, it wasn't really working all that well.

"Kupoooo, please don't do this!"

"I can and I will and-" At that point she spotted the approaching figures. Refia gasped, both hands coming up to cover her mouth, eyes widening - and then the moogles really had trouble staying attached as she took off running towards them, only one managing to hang on.

"Luneth!" Her own momentum and the ice made her smack into him harder than she'd intended, but she ignored that for the moment as she hugged him tight, so incredibly glad to see a familiar face. "Luneth, what's going on?! Did something happen with the crystals, is this really another world? Please tell me I'm dreaming."

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SMACK!

He almost toppled over as the ice let Refia almost fly into him.

"Haha, I knew it was you, Refia!"

Although painful, he hugged Refia back. He was grateful she was here, glad that she was safe, even if the Ice Cavern wasn't the best place to be. He held her back, trying to see if she was all right. He knew she would be; even with all the patronising he did, she was tough. Great mage, blacksmith's daughter.... what couldn't she do?

"I don't think it was the crystals, but we sure are in another world. I haven't even gotten very far..."

He rubbed his head embarrassedly, then remembered Rydia. He hadn't meant to forget her, and he promptly beckoned Rydia closer.

"I want you to meet someone, Refia."

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Watching the reunion, Rydia couldn't help but smile. Luneth had handled the bizarre situation of arriving in a new world -and in the fashion he had, no less- remarkably well, but she knew very well how disorienting the experience was, having gone through it herself. And though he had a friend waiting, speaking to one over the device couldn't really compare to seeing one in person.

Rydia stepped forward and flashed an understanding smile at Luneth. In all honesty, she would have been the same way, had one of her friends from home just arrived in the cavern. She smiled and nodded at Refia. "I'm Rydia of Mist. As he said, this is a different world...and I've been brought here from yet another. It's nice to meet you, though I'd suggest continuing as we talk. Unless you'd rather stay here...."

Yeah, didn't think so.

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She was fine, if a bit cold; it was ironic that her robes probably made her the warmest of of all of them, and she was still freezing! The moment she could be out of this place, she would be very happy. But for the moment she had to cover her mouth in shock again, because that wasn't the answer she wanted.

"We really are in another world? I thought I'd fallen asleep... Father will be so worried, is there no way we can go back?" Any battles she'd had with Takka were mostly resolved, excepting the few times two such strong personalities inevitably came to clashing; it wouldn't surprise her to learn that Ur could hear their shouting matches. But her disappearing would be terrible for him - they really did love each other like father and daughter. She didn't want him to suffer needlessly.

Fortunately she was distracted by another person - and fortunately for Luneth, he'd given the new person his coat, or she would have been berating him for being thick. As it was, she smiled at Rydia. "I think it will take me a little while to get used to this... But yes, let's go, please."

And she looked down at the moogle trying to keep its balance by clinging to her robes, once again looking exasperated. "Now can I go if I go with them?"

"Yes- ACK! Yes, just take me back first, kupo!"

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It hadn't even occurred to him that the people they knew would be greatly curious and rather upset. He thought of Elder Topapa and Nina, and how they would be even more worried about Arc and Luneth missing. He also thought that, if anything happened to Ingus, Princess Sara would be without a guardian. He rubbed his head in guilt — this was worse than he first thought. The other two invited to continue, and Luneth agreed.

Luneth just happened to notice that moogle, too, and grinned.

"And here I thought you had gotten bigger, Refia."

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Rydia raised an eyebrow at that. Granted, these two seemed as though they got along well and were probably used to teasing each other, but she hoped that any such behavior wouldn't impede her efforts to get them moving.

She turned her attention to the path ahead, to lead them onward. She was the one with the most knowledge about the place, moogles aside. "We were on our way to Dali, but...if we take this route, we'll emerge relatively close to the city of Alexandria. And at the moment, there is no way to return to our worlds. This isn't for lack of trying, but it's difficult to figure that out when we're not even quite sure how we arrived here. That won't stop me, though."

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And what Luneth said was innocuous enough to not - immediately - trigger her suspicions, as she bent to pick up the poor moogle. "I thought I'd grown some but it tur- Wait, was that a comment about my weight?!"

Of course they would get set off. At least she hadn't thought he was talking about her chest.

But the moogle clinging to her prevented her from doing more than sticking her tongue out at him and saying "You're horrible" for now as she turned to go back to the makeshift campsite. Once there, after setting down the relieved moogle (who immediately moved to firmer footing), another one shoved her neglected communicator into her hands.

"Use this, kupo! Just listen to us, for real! This will help you talk with other people in the world and find more of your friends!"

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Luneth snickered, victorious in his minour blip of a joke. As he watched Refia leave, he held out his hand to guide Rydia over to Refia's little moogle camp. The cute little moogles were huddled around, but he couldn't imagine anything even as fluffy as a moogle making much of a home in a place as harsh as the Ice Cavern.

"What do you think of this, Rydia?" Luneth asked her quietly, "Do you really think we'll never go back to where we came?"

As much as he treasured the likes of Rydia, and those he had "sort of" met over the Mooglenet using Rydia's device, his home was in Ur on the Floating Continent. And Rydia had a home to go to, as well.

"It's freezing. Hurry Refia!"

She probably wouldn't liked getting blamed for their speed, either.

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Rydia mulled over Luneth's question, wishing she could give solid answers to their dilemma. "I'm sure we will...it's just a matter of solving whatever issue brought us here. That might take some time, but I refuse to believe it's impossible. I've been through worse."

Before any further blame could be laid, Rydia looked over to Refia. "The moogle is right. It's a strange device, but it's pretty efficient, all the same. There's a map feature and means to transmit written or voice messages. Or those moving pictures which the moogles call videos. With all, finding any familiar faces is pretty easy. Luneth already did--Arc, was it?" She glanced to Luneth at that.

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"You're the red mage now, Luneth, you do something about it and cast fire spells!" This was clearly a routine for them, and poor Rydia for being exposed to it, but it also indicated some return to normalcy for them - Luneth would poke at her, and she'd get huffy. It would probably amuse before it would irritate. Hopefully, at least.

"Arc's here?!" And she smiled again, widely, clapping her hands together in happiness. "I haven't seen him in too long! All we'd need would be Ingus, then and we'd be all together and going on adventures once more."

It wasn't like she had a lot of equipment - mostly just the staff, the communicator, and a few small things the moogles insisted she put in the pockets of her robes, extra food and the like. It only took her a minute to gather it all. "All right, I'm ready."

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He nodded and smiled to Rydia.

"Right, Arc."

He didn't need to say it to get Refia excited. Rydia was pretty headstrong for someone who at first seemed shy. He admired that, and enjoyed Refia for the same reason. He procured a fire at Refia's retort, and watched in the glow as she danced in happiness over the prospect of Arc being closer in the strange world they were now in.

"Ready?" he asked, when Refia announced it. He turned to Rydia then, "Ready, Rydia? Let's get out of this ice cube!"

Then he looked to the moogles.

"Er... no offence. Hehe."

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Rydia didn't seem annoyed by their interaction. If anything, she looked somewhat amused. She could only imagine that this somewhat how her friends saw herself and Edge, though in her mind that was far worse, given how Edge tended to be. (And it was all his fault, of course.)

Ingus? Rydia filed away that name, just in case she ran into their friend upon arrival. She gazed at the fire Luneth produced for a moment, though nodded eagerly at the prospect of moving onward. "Right, onward. Hopefully we won't have too many interruptions along the way. Nothing in here is really that much of a threat, but all the ambushes can get annoying."

She glanced to her device for a moment to get her bearings, then headed back the way she and Luneth had entered. The cold was starting to seep into her despite the jacket, and that caused her stride to quicken. The sooner she was out of here, the better.

[ooc: Forget what she said about going to Alexandria directly. I don't know why I said that when Dali's still closer. *headdesk*]

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