The wish fairy approacheth. I almost wrote something completely different called The Batsu Game involving sand worm slime, but… this was… better. Chu was never a child, she was just a smaller version of her adult self.
But she’s a child now, so… anyway! I’m sorry for how long and kind of overly in depth this got lOL
– Rikku Stands Guard –
“Are there really ghosts out here, Chu?” asked Taili.
“Yeah.” replied the dark haired girl, “Big ones.”
She leaned back one elbow, watching the smoke from a stolen cigarette in her other hand spiral lazily into the air. Isa would kill her when she got home.
The boy who addressed her paled slightly, hands gripping a beer bottle that was likely lifted from his dad’s cooler. They might have been between ten and twelve – approaching adulthood – but they hadn’t fully shaken off the shackles of their parents yet. Even Chuami, one of the oldest, had Isa to contend with. Rikku had it worst. She had joined this band on a whim – Cid was visiting from Home for some boring tribe leader reason, and his daughter had slipped away the second she heard the word “haunted”. Well… she’d slipped away the second her brother said she couldn’t, anyway. If any of them had hell to pay later, it was her.
They had stopped to rest only a couple of miles from the ruins. Chuami, the battle-scarred expedition leader, was confident there were no sand worms in the area. A couple of the boys still trembled at the slightest noise or imagined tremor and she threw empty bottles at them when it happened.
Rikku tittered in the background, tossing a ball into the air and catching it. Ghosts… there’s no such thing, right?! When people die… they go to the Farplane! Or… do they…?
The group dragged themselves to their feet. The ruins were visible now – Rikku thought she’d find out, one way or another.
They arrived as night began to fall. The broken-down ruins of some ancient city rose to impssible heights from the fine sand. Yevon only knew what it must have looked like here, long ago… when all those people lived here… Now it was just creepy. All those empty, sand blasted window frames staring down at her, lit by the moonlight and a few gas lamps they’d brought with them. Rikku shivered, and a pebble glanced off her shoulder.
“Hey, bnehlacc! Whatsa matter, you got sand in your panties? You can always turn back, you know…”
The rest of the group sniggered, eyeing Cid’s girl with faint distrust. Rikku stamped her foot and put her hands on her hips.
“I’m not scared! I’ll show you! It’s just cold now!”
The dark haired girl watched her with those strange, faded-violet eyes. “Hmph. You Homedwellers are all the same. So dainty.”
She turned her back and went with a handful of others to begin exploring in the darkness. Rikku waited until she was out of sight before she shivered again, then followed on behind.
The ruins didn’t hold much – they’d been looted and left empty many years ago. The lack of distinct rooms or dividing walls created gigantic, echoing spaces. A boy cried out at the echo of a far off fiend and Chuami smacked him across the back of his head.
“Shut up, stupid! You’ll bring all the ghosts here! We’re tryna see one, not get eaten!”
They moved around the ruins like shadows, but they found nothing. Eventually, Chuami ordered them to set up camp, and they did so in the centre of the ring of fallen buildings.
“Someone should take first watch duty,” remarked a boy in green goggles.
Chuami straightened, her tent now up. “Yeah. Good idea, Sacha. Make the Homedweller do it.”
Rikku frowned. “Hey!! I gotta name, y’know?!”
“Your name’s Homedweller here, kid.” Chuami grinned, “You earn your Sandcat status, got it?”
Rikku got it. She’d show these desert kids! She wasn’t scared! She took up her place at the edge of the camp, out of the warmth and light of the central fire. With her blanket wrapped around her shoulders, it wasn’t too cold – but she still felt prickles on the back of her neck as that darn fiend cried out again. Far off, but it might come closer. She better stay awake.
Some time later, her eyes began to close and she stood up and shook herself.
“Uh-uh! I’m not gonna fall asleep!”
She began to pace, taking even-spaced strides.
“Captain Rikku’s log…” she whispered to herself, “There’s been no sightings of the terrible ghost of Angra Mainyu… but it’s only a matter of time… mark my words… Captain Rikku will catch that pesky critter and take the bounty! Then I’ll move to a mansion! Ah-hahahaha!”
Something moved – she saw it in her peripheral vision, a movement in the shadows of one of the buildings, but by the time she span around it was gone. Or did she imagine it?
Heh. Ghosts… that’s silly.
If there were ghosts, they’d be all over the place! Everybody would have seen them!
If there were really ghosts, they wouldn’t just hole up in old buildings! That sucks!
If there were really ghosts, then sudran…
Chuami stared at the stars from the opening of her tent. A light breeze brought a sound that snapped her back to attention – a faint sobbing, female, like it was trying to be quiet… was it the ghost?!
She got to her feet, quietly, and crept toward the sound, following it through the mini-maze of tents. It was leading her in the direction of… that building! But it was getting too loud… was it closer than that?!
A short distance away, a tiny shadow sat in the sand.
“Hey, Homedweller. Whatcha crying for?”
Rikku sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “I’m not…!”
“Yeah, you are. I heard you.”
Chuami dropped onto the sand beside the other girl and pulled a silver flask from her inside pocket. It flashed in the moonlight, along with the glass beading in her hair, as she took a drink and offered it to Rikku, who took and held it.
“You wanna talk about it?”
Rikku eyed the stranger warily. Maybe… maybe it was okay to tell her. She didn’t seem like she’d laugh… and even if she did, Rikku would be gone tomorrow afternoon and she’d never need to see this girl again. She took a drink, gave the flask back and sighed.
“… So sudran… died when I was little…” she began. “I… don’t like thinking about what happens when you die.”
“Mine too.” Chuami replied, her voice too casual. “But there aren’t really ghosts here. I don’t think there’s such thing.”
“But– but you said–!”
Chuami’s face broke into another mischievous grin. “The hell I did!”
“I heard you! You said there were big ghosts here!”
“Aren’t there?” she replied, throwing her arms out. “Ghosts of old towns and temples…”
“You’re weird.” Rikku said, smiling through her slowing tears.
“You too.” Chuami nodded. “I’ll take the next shift. Go get some sleep. I’ll wake ya if the ghost of a snack appears or something.”
Rikku giggled. After a moments’ pause, she got up and dusted herself off. As she turned, Chuami reached out and caught her arm.
“Hey… Don’t think about stuff like that. Ouin sudran wouldn’t want you to, right? You’ve got good memories of her. That’s important. Just keep those, that’s all that matters. We’re not kids, but we shouldn’t be thinking about all death and stuff.”
Rikku nodded slowly.
Chuami let go of Rikku and stuck a hand in the bag she carried on one shoulder. She pulled out something mean-looking – a glove with claws, almost full sized knives on the knuckles.
“I made this, but you can have it. If ghosts are real, and one comes to get you tonight – or that fiend does – give ‘em hell. I’ll come.”
Rikku took it and turned it over in her hands.
“This is… thanks! This is pretty awesome! It’ll scare any fiend away!”
“Don’t mention it.” the older girl lit another cigarette and watched the smoke begin to curl upwards as Rikku’s footsteps faded away. “’Night, sandcat.”
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