The Return

by Nathan Bounds

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Chapter 1	Chapter 2	Chapters 3 - 7	Chapters 8 - 10
Chapters 11 - 12	Chapter 13	Chapters 14 - 16	Chapters 17 - 20
Chapters 21 - 22	Chapters 23 - 25	Chapters 26 - 28	Chapters 29 - 31

Chapter 11

Cyan made a mad dash in the direction of the blood splatters. He could hear the clank of swords and armor up ahead. He rounded a city corner. When he saw an entire squad of Kefkanians, he turned back around the corner. He then peeked cautiously around and saw Lola, bound and gagged, being carried away by the Kefkanians. She was unconscious. Cyan was glad that she was alive. They wouldn't have her gagged if she were dead.

Cyan followed them covertly, hiding just around the corners from where they were the whole way through. Finally, they exited Maranda and came out due north of the desert. They proceeded onward into the desert.

Eventually, the crowd came across something. Cyan couldn't see it from where he was, so he moved closer. After looking around a bit, he saw a funny little green thing who seemed to be bundling up something.

A cactrot! Cyan realized. The thing was bundling up needles to throw at people. Someone swiped a sword at it and missed. More tried it, but all missed. A rumble of confusion started to grow. Cyan knew what was going on. The cactrot was using the illusionary qualities of the desert plus its own ability to alter the light around it to make it seem that it was somewhere that it was not.

What the cactrot did next was strange. It stopped bundling up needles. It put one of the bags in which it kept the needles and put it to its mouth. When it took the bag away, its mouth was full, but the bag was empty. After looking around for a suitable target, it settled on a Kefkanian with a spear. Suddenly, it let fly the needles in its mouth. Four years earlier the man would have been dead, but people had gotten stronger since before the Kefkan takeover. The man fell to the ground, seriously injured but not dead. He was bleeding severely from the blow fish attack.

Several Kefkanians rushed to the man's aid while others tried to kill it.

Eventually the strange creature had killed or wounded everyone except for those who had run off. Unfortunately, some of the ones who had run off had taken Lola with them.

Chapter 12

Leo awoke in a dark room. His hands were bound behind him to the back of the chair he was in. He couldn't move at all, so he screamed to his captors. "Let me out of here!"

His outburst prompted some voices. They were not hostile, however. They were simply realizing for the first time that they weren't alone.

One of the voices spoke above the rest. "I am Terra Branford. Do-"

She was cut off by recognizing voices.

"Gau here!"

"It's me! Mog! I'm here!"

"Umaro here. Others here. Good."

Everyone seemed to know each other. Leo remained silent, working his way out of his binds. He was soon free.

Leo moved around the dark room. He found the door when someone realized that someone was free.

"That you, Gau?"

Leo opened the door and ran out. For a moment he thought he was doomed. There were dozens of floors straight below him. It seemed that he was at the top of the tallest building in the world. Which of course, he was.

Fortunately, there was railing. It wasn't very high, but it was enough to keep Leo from falling uncountable distances to the ground.

From above, a droning noise came within earshot. Leo looked for its source and saw an airship coming steadily towards the tower.

Leo started down the stairs. When he was about a third of the way down, the airship landed below him.

With his 20/20 vision he saw a man dressed in a more elaborate version of the regular Kefkanian cloaks, followed by prisoners.

Suddenly, he remembered the events leading up to his captivity, and a familiar shape. The familiar shape had been a Kefkanian.

Leo saw the elaborately dressed Kefkanian look up, as if hearing something. Then, without warning, Leo's legs lifted from the ground.