The Fruits of His Labor - A New Evil takes Root (Prologue)(closed RP)
It was like any other night, well, mostly anyway. This was one of the actual few nights Bartz actually decided to stay in an inn in town -more precisely the Phantom Village. The night was unusually dark this night - the moon was in its "New" phase, thus the dark of the woods was even darker. His nightmares always seemed worse on these particular nights as the darkness made him slightly paranoid and let him sleep even less than normal.
Regardless, his nightmares had stirred him from sleep once more. Despite his heavy breathing and pouring sweat, Bartz remained in bed, stubbornly trying to go back to sleep. He bemoaned his nightmares as he needed sleep to catch his lunch if he wasn't still in town (definitely dinner though).
At some point, he had finally nodded off again, but, this time, woke to the panicked shouting of the townspeople outside. Curious, he rose out of bed and wandered to the window, wondering what was wrong. However, it didn't take long for him to find out. Despite the townspeople all claiming it was morning, the sky was still as black as the night before. Even Bartz knew that this was the exact opposite of natural. And, as he came to know, if something unnatural was happening, the Crystals were probably involved and probably in danger.
"Calm yourself everyone," the probable mayor shouted to the townspeople, "I can most assuredly assure everyone we are not in the Void again."
"Then, where's the sun?" one panicked townsperson shouted, soon followed by a resounding "Yeah" from the crowd. "If you're so smart, you tell us where the sun is, and maybe we won't panic!"
Bartz could practically see the sweat pour from the mayor’s face. "Well... uh... the sun probably just... uh... overslept! Yeah, that's it! Overslept! The Fire Crystal can get kinda sleepy, right?".
Bartz rolled his eyes and prepared himself to leave. He had to see a certain mechanical genius duo about finding transportation to the Fire Crystal. While the Crystal’s new location down in the Trench was likely safer than it being in Karnak (as they are wont to abuse the power), it wasn’t exactly convenient. Bartz, while a pretty good swimmer, couldn’t swim that far down. He needed the Airship/Submarine, and that was being stored in the Catapult on the former-island of Crescent. Fortunately for him, the Phantom Village was fairly close by (assuming said village didn’t decide to phase out of existence again).
Now packed with supplies and ready to go, Bartz wasted no time getting to the outpost. While he needed to take the ship, he also felt he should converse with the resent experts on the Crystals to be certain of his next move. It did take him a day on foot to make it there (not that he could tell due to no sun and all), but the elder and his adopted son were pleased, if not concerned, to see him.
“Ah, Bartz, my boy!” Cid greeted. “So good to see you, especially after seeing the other three not that long ago.”
A momentary double-take from Bartz until he asked, “Wait, other three? Lenna, Faris, and Krile were here?”
“Yup!” the young Mid answered this time, dumping his oversized book on the near-by desk with a THWOMP. “They said they looked for you, but couldn’t find you. Said they all got a really weird feeling they had to go see the Crystals.” Mid began to recall more details as he used his fingers to help. “Let’s see, Faris took the Airship, for obvious reasons. Krile flew there on her Wind Drake, so Lenna borrowed our black chocobo.” A slight pause after he finished his recollection. “I find it strange that they haven’t come back yet.”
“As well as you taking so much longer than the others,” Cid added. “Did you not get the same feeling?” Bartz shook his head; Cid shrugged. “Could be nothing then, my boy.”
“Uuuuuuh… Not too sure about that,” Bartz countered. “Have you looked outside recently?” The two of them looked at him in confusion. “… You’ve been reading your books this whole time, haven’t you?” They both nod. “Of course,” he sighed. “Well, long story short, the sun isn’t shining.”
“Bartz, that’s called ‘nighttime’,” Mid scoffed. He had known Bartz to be a bit of an airhead, but this was something else.
Now rather exasperated, Bartz countered, “Yeah, I’d agree if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s been like this for the entire walk from the Phantom Village to here.”
The pair of engineers went pale. “Oh no…” They realized all too quickly what that meant. They didn’t get a sudden urge to see the Crystals for no reason. Something was definitely wrong.
“Bartz, you need to get to the Wind Crystal as soon-“ Cid cut himself off before he finished the sentence. “Oh, wait… Nuts.”
“What?” Seemed they knew something Bartz didn’t this time (not that it was that uncommon an occurrence).
“Leviathan destroyed the Big Bridge,” Mid explained.
A few seconds passed to process the information, followed by a sharp, “HE DID WHAT?!”
“Claimed it was to help protect the Crystal,” Mid shrugged. Even Bartz knew Leviathan did it just for fun as Leviathan was a bit of a jerk. The only reason he even agreed to be a Crystal Guardian in the first place was to prevent being sealed back up in the Water Tablet. And, since the Wind Drake, black chocobo, and Airship were otherwise occupied, this made getting to the now-isolated island more difficult than it needed to be.
Bartz pinched his brows. “I’m going to need a boat,” he concluded. It was like starting his adventure all over again. “Hopefully, he’ll let me through ‘his’ waters… the jerk. But, first…” A yawn was followed by a stretch and a scratch of his side. “I think I need some sleep. You guys mind if I crash here for a bit?”
“Help yourself,” the two answered in unison.
“And, when you wake up in the morning, you can probably tell me why you bleached your hair,” Mid added. Bartz tensed for a moment. “Was it for a girl?” Then, he froze.
He turned his head and gave a glare that seemed to put a wolf’s to shame. “Never. Ask me. That question. Again,” he warned. Mid and Cid could barely contain their composure – or their bladders. They got the message loud and clear. Bartz wasn’t much of a private man – he typically wore his emotions on his sleeve (or, gloves, as the case may be) and his past on his waist. So, to threaten rather close friends over something that was a touchy subject meant that it was something he really didn’t want to share. They could only guess it was about as bad as his “void-capades”.
The next morning, after an apology from his pervious actions, he had set out back above to see if he could commission a ship from Crescent with his meager gil. However, he did not expect to run into an old friend there…
