Breath of Fire Breath of Fire: Beliefs

Ahoy all. Well, this is my first Fic in a long while, and I gotta say this thing is by far the best thing i've ever written (at least, to me anyhow). When I wrote this fic I felt like I had finally gotten my writing talent. This thing has given me more self-confidence in writing than I ever thought i'd have, and it will no doubt always be one of my favorites. I hope you guys enjoy it, because I gave my all on it. :)  
  
  
  
Breath of Fire: Beliefs  
  
They were gone. The castle Cerl had fortified herself in had disappeared with herself and Alan inside. Without the key of time which she now held firmly in her hand, the castle had destabilized and ceased to exist. All that remained now was the cement foundation and the memories of those who so briefly knew them.  
  
Why? Why had this happened? Alan and Cerl were in love, nothing like that should have happened. True love always prevailed, didn't it?  
  
Nina closed her eyes solemnly and held the Time key close to her. She could feel the tears beginning to come and ebb at her eyelids. This wasn't right.  
  
Bo kneeled to the ground, running a hand over the hard cement slowly. "It's this damned war...the Dark Dragons are causing all of this."  
  
Yes, it was the dragon's fault. But did that really matter now? Lives had been lost. Love and people had been extinguished in a instant. It seemed so wrong. Things like this were never supposed to happen. It was so sudden, there was no chance for either of them to even behold the other one last time. The tower disappeared the moment Alan had entered.  
  
Nina had always believed that no matter what, the hero was always able to save the heroine. That the good always managed to save the day in the nick of time. Her grip around the key tightened and had it not been for the thin gloves on her hands anyone could have plainly seen her whitening knuckles.  
  
This was some kind of betrayal. Her beliefs had stabbed her in the back and she felt foolish to have believed in such a romantic view of the world. For as long as they had been on this journey, she should have realized the truth so much sooner. But then, they had always been able to save the day with expert grace....up until now. Maybe their success in so many other endeavors was what had reinforced those foolish beliefs in the first place. And it hurt now. She felt like falling to her knees and screaming at herself for being so naive.  
  
She jumped as a warm hand laid itself on her shoulder.  
  
"Nina. Are you ok?" It was Ryu. He looked into her teary eyes with a great deal of concern. His hand was comforting and made her feel a little more at ease.  
  
She looked back at him, trying find words but there were not to be found. She nodded her head in muddled confusion and turned from his gaze.  
  
Bleu slid forward of the group of eight and stopped. "Come on. We don't have time to mourn."  
  
Why? What did a few moments really matter? Nina held the sorceress in contempt for a few moments.  
  
"You know she's right." Came Nina's little vice of conscience.  
  
"But it doesn't feel right." She thought in response.  
  
She noticed the others walking ahead of her. Ryu turned to face her. "Nina...Bleu's right. We have to keep going." Then he turned back around slowly and continued on after the party.  
  
"You could lose him too you know." Came another voice from her mind.  
  
Her eyes widened at the realization of the word's truth.  
  
"You think that you all are the only ones exempt from death?" No, she thought. This voice continued on. "You could all die as quickly as those two did."  
  
Her hands trembled and she could feel the key slip through her hands and land with a soft clank on the ground. She had never really thought of it, but with what happened that day, she realized this quest could kill them all. Though the thought of her own possible death frightened her, as did the possible deaths of all her friends, one thought in particular plagued her mind. Ryu could die. she thought with a growing mixture of understanding and fear.  
  
She looked up to the group which was moving farther and farther away and she could see Ryu turn around to look at her.  
  
"Nina?" He he yelled out to her. "Is there something wrong?"  
  
"N-No!" She yelled back through a shaky voice. "I'll be right there!" She got to her feet and double timed her walk to the group.  
  
As the day waned on and they traveled from the valley where Cerl's castle had been, to the poisoned plains of Scande, Nina thought more and more of her self-realization. He could die. I could die. He might never know. The idea became more and more lucid as the day waned on. It was clear to her now that life wasn't like in the fairy tales she was brought up with in her isolated life in Windia castle. The heroes were never more than mortal in real life. They could bleed and die as easily as the next person. It made her understand something else too. True feelings were not always exposed at a seemingly romantic juncture, they had to be told as soon as a person could muster the courage to say them. There could be no waiting any longer for such things, or else you could lose the chance forever.  
  
The new lessons pounded into her mind the rest of the day and she slowly came to a decision.  
  
Through the dead, barren plains they traversed they at last came to a river colored a deep violet which stunk of putrid death and poison. The corpses of water dwelling creatures floated on the purple surface of the slowly flowing river and littered the shoreline.  
  
"There's no way across this." Ox said as he looked over the broken remnants of the bridge which lead across the river and into the heart of Scande.  
  
"Yeah, no kidding. Can't swim across, this lake is poison to the touch." Ryu said as he gazed over the dark purple waters.  
  
"We'll have to fly over then!" Mogu exclaimed happily as the only alternative came to him. He must have felt very clever for such a excited way of saying it.  
  
Most of the group turned to Nina. Their gaze was somewhat unnerving.  
  
"I'm....not feeling well right now. I don't think I can transform." She said in response to their stares while holding her stomach protectively. The stench turned her stomach and it was all she could do to keep from losing the food held within it.  
  
Bleu raised a speculative eyebrow and analyzed the Windian for a few moments. "We'll have to warp somewhere else until you get better then, now won't we?"  
  
Nina nodded slowly. "Can we go to Windia? I still need to tell my father about the whole....Time key thing."  
  
Bleu nodded in agreement and Nina could see the beginnings of a small smirk forming on Bleu's face as she cast her spell. There was a flash and then they were at the steps of Windia.  
  
It was already near dusk when they left the poisoned rivers, and darkness came quickly after they entered the castle of Windia.  
  
The soldiers had greeted Nina with both surprise and suspicion at the gates due to Nina's altered appearance, but after explaining things to her very shocked father, the king, they were each given separate guest rooms for the night.  
  
It was late now and Nina moved silently down the hallway, bypassing Karn's room and Mogu's room and coming to a stop as she reached Ryu's door..  
  
"This is it, Nina. It's time to tell him." She got a sick feeling in her stomach which pleaded with her not to say anything to him, but she was resolute and determined. She reached a hand to the door handle, turned it and slowly opened the door. She peered inside and found Ryu staring intently at his silent visitor.  
  
"Hi, Nina." He said with a friendly smile upon seeing her face.  
  
"Hi." She replied back to him softly. "Ryu....I need to talk to you about something." Her heart pounded and she could feel her face turning red and something inside her worried loudly and told her to say nothing of that which she came there to say.  
  
His expression changed to one of understanding and he nodded to her. "I know."  
  
Her eyes went wide and her mouth hung open slightly. "What..?"  
  
He moved to her as she stood at the doorway and placed his hands softly on her shoulders.  
  
"I know what you're going to say, Nina." His eyes looked into hers with a quiet blue glow. "Nina...". He paused for a moment and took in a relaxed breath. "There was nothing we could have done for them."  
  
Nina's eyes blinked a few times in surprise. "What?"  
  
"I could see how much you were hurting over Alan and Cerl, but, Nina, there was nothing we could have done for them. They...both made their choices. The moment Cerl gave us the key, she accepted her own fate, and the moment Alan went to Cerl, he accepted his too."  
  
What?!, She thought. It was true she had felt horrible over Alan and Cerl, but that was defiantly not what she was going to talk to him about. There were other things their lose had unlocked within her, and she knew they had to be said before such a fate could befall themselves. But, the word 'key' bugged her short term memory and called out to something she had overlooked.  
  
"Oh my god..." She whispered out. How could she have been so thoughtless?  
  
Ryu's brow creased in worry. "What is it?"  
  
"The key....I dropped it back at Cerl's castle!"  
  
Ryu recoiled in surprise. "What!? Inside the castle?"  
  
"No, after the castle disappeared. I can't believe I forgot something so important!"  
  
"No, no, it's ok. We can have Bleu warp us there, then we can go to the castle and-"  
  
Nina shook her head fiercely. "No. Ryu...I'll take us there. Just the two of us. I can fly us there."  
  
"But..."  
  
Nina looked down quietly. "Please, Ryu. I don't want the others to know my stupid mistake." She lied. I'll tell him when we get there, she thought. Nina could feel his questioning gaze bearing down on her.  
  
"Alright, Nina. Let's go then."  
  
She moved her gaze back to him and smiled.  
  
They snuck past the other rooms quietly and assuring the castle guards they would be back by morning and left the castle. Once outside Nina transformed into the Great Bird in a brilliant flash of magic. Ryu climbed onto her back and grabbed hold of her neck feathers as her giant white and pink wings beat down and took them into the sky.  
  
No doubt some would think that in such a animal form, thought would be a difficult fear. But she could think as freely as though she were in her normal form. She could feel Ryu shifting around on her back as the wind beat upon him.  
  
The night's sky was cloudless, the bluefish black sky seemed to hang low and bright white stars littered the heavens above. The moon was in a half crescent and spread shallow light upon the quickly passing ground far below. It was quiet, save for the sound of the billowing wind.  
  
She knew it must have been cold for Ryu in the dead of night, so she raised some neck feathers for Ryu to place his head under to keep warm. She felt him take the offering after a moment's hesitation.  
  
It took all night to reach the remains of Cerl's castle. Nina landed on the ground and lowered a wing to act as stairs for Ryu. When he didn't move from his position for a few moments, she turned her long neck around to her back and saw he had fallen asleep under her soft white feathers. She couldn't talk in this form to wake him up, nor was she willing to risk injuring him with her long sharp beak to awaken him. She thought of only one option, and acted on it. Her form turned a bright white and shrunk until she was returned to human form.  
  
She slumped to the ground as Ryu's weight bore down on her thin frame. She landed with a loud 'oof'. She winced as the air shot out of her, but quickly recovered.  
  
With Ryu laying on her halfway on her and his head laying comfortably on the small of her back, she felt a little embarrassed, but at the same time slightly agreeable with the situation. No, that's not right. Her inner voice told her. She agreed with it and tried to move round to squirm out from underneath him.  
  
Ryu stirred a little at the commotion.  
  
"Ryu. Are you awake?"  
  
She heard him give a sleepy groan and mumble "I don't wanna go to training today....".  
  
She managed to get out from under his girth. His head slumped to the ground lightly and his eyes slowly opened. He got up, yawned and stretched. "Are we there?" He asked in between a yawn.  
  
Nina got up and dusted blue outfit off and stretched her wings. Being the great bird was like being in a totally different body and as such her normal form always felt like it hadn't been moved for hours afterwards. "Yes." She responded.  
  
Ryu shook the sleepiness from him and noticed the slowly rising sun in the distance. He gave a surprised look but said nothing. Ten his gaze moved to the cement foundation of Cerl's former castle. "We'd better get the key. You said you dropped it over there?"  
  
"...Yes." She responded slowly. "But I have something important to tell you first Ryu." She sighed then took in a deep, relaxing breath to calm her flaring enviousness. "Ryu, ever since yesterday, i've been thinking." She paused for a moment and searched for words she had rehearsed hundreds of times over on the trip, but found nothing. "I never thought in my life....No...that's not right." She clenched her fists in frustration. This task was far more difficult than she ever thought possible. "Ryu, I....I.."  
  
"Nina." Ryu said.  
  
"No, Ryu, please just listen. I have to tell you this." She struggled for whatever words she could find within her head. She wanted something elaborate, something that was clever and he couldn't refuse listening to.  
  
"No, Nina, look!"  
  
Nina looked to Ryu and noticed he was pointing to something behind her. She turned and could only mutter the question 'What the...?' as she beheld a sight which left her speechless. There, standing in the middle of gray cement arena stood a young man and woman, holding each other in a loving embrace. It was difficult to tell at first, but the realization came as a clear view of their faces was possible. It was Alan and Cerl, younger in their faces, but still undoubtedly them.  
  
Nina looked to Ryu for some sign that he might know what was going on, but he looked just as dumbfounded as she. Unsure of what to do, but for some reason compelled, they both slowly advanced on the two young lovers.  
  
Nina called out to them as they got within reasonable distance. "Alan, Cerl?" She asked in quiet disbelief.  
  
The two looked at Nina and in a instant they faded into thin air, replaced by two small, innocent children. A little boy with straggly Orange hair and a little girl with long blonde hair.  
  
"Are you strangers?" The little boy asked as the small blonde girl hid behind him.  
  
"We came...looking for a key...." Ryu mumbled as his eyes darted around in thought.  
  
The little boy glanced down to something which shined on the ground where the rising sun was slowly marching across the ground. He looked back to Nina and Ryu, then to the object, then moved to it slowly and picked it up. He walked toward the two hesitantly with the object clutched in his hands. He gave it one last glance as he reached Ryu and offered it to him.  
  
Ryu blinked then took the key bewildered.  
  
The boy backed up and walked back to the little girl.  
  
"Are you bad people too?" The little girl asked softly to them.  
  
Nina shook her head slowly in the negative.  
  
"Bad people were trying to hurt Cerl, but I won't let them do anything to her!" The boy jutted out his chest proudly.  
  
Child Cerl pulled on boy Alan's sleeve lightly and motioned with her head for their departure into the yonder valley behind them. Alan nodded in understanding.  
  
"We're gonna go now. Bye." Alan said with a wave and the two ran off, disappearing into thin air once again, but nothing took their place this time.  
  
Ryu looked down to the shining key of time for a few moments then smiled. "I guess they'll be alright now. We never had to worry about them in the first place." He said to Nina.  
  
Nina looked back at him and could only find herself returning the same overjoyed smile. Maybe, she thought, love did conquer all things. Maybe everyone would make it fine after all. Yes, she was sure of it now. Her beliefs were right in the first place.  
  
He turned to her and said, "Nina, you said you needed to tell me something."  
  
She looked to the rising sun as it touched over the horizon and smiled. "No. Never mind, Ryu." Her wings stretched out as far outwards as they could go and she stood on her toes as a wind blew through the narrow valley and made her hair and feathers wave from it's gentle force. Then she turned to Ryu. "Let's go home." 


End file.

Breath of Fire, Romance, Tragedy