A/N: This is all Pierson's fault. I wrote this while crazed by caffiene, sugar, and Hilary McKay books, and when I realised what I had written I wanted to stash it at the back of my stories folder and forget about it. But I showed it to Pierson...and *he* showed it to some friends...and apparently they liked it. So now I'm obligated to post it here. Ah well.
I don't own any of the characters and locations in this story. If I did, I wouldn't need to write fanfics about them, would I? I do own the 'translations' of Tidus, Yuna, and Yunalesca's names-you are welcome to use them, but please ask me first.
I am not sure if 'rammel' is a real word, but it sounds nice.
________________
isn't it a bit surprising
how our fortunes ebb and flow?
and only to the enterprising
does the magic fortune cookie go
believe it!
-the time of your life, a bug's life
________________
Dolphin Luck
_____________
While Auron, Jecht and Braska were walking through the forests of Besaid, towards the village and therefore the temple, they were accosted by a stranger. Since 'accosted' is a difficult word, I will explain it; there were a few rustling noises above them, and before anyone could do anything about it a man fell out of the canopy and onto the trail in front of them.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Jecht shouted.
"Do you know this person?" Braska inquired, pointing at the stranger, who picked himself up, leaned on his sword, and grinned the grin of the truly insane at them.
"Know him!" Jecht exclaimed, "he's…"
The stranger looked sharply at Jecht, who suddenly got the feeling that he was in the wrong chapter. For some reason. That person with the sword…he was SURE he'd seen him before…but every time he tried to remember where, his thoughts abruptly turned into a dancing chocobo.
Braska gave Jecht an odd look. Auron hefted his katana, convinced that this conversation was going nowhere good. He was right, but not in the way he expected.
"Did you know," demanded the stranger, "that the Temple of Yevon in Besaid has turned blue?"
"Blue?" Braska repeated lamely. He got the feeling that he and his party were being very slowly wound up.
"Bright blue," confirmed the stranger. He gave a smile that would send sane men scampering off into the trees. "With pink spots."
Auron's none-too-large patience snapped, and he swung his katana round to point at the stranger's throat. At least, that was his intention. But somehow before the weapon was in position, the stranger had disappeared.
("He must have cast Haste on himself and run off," Auron said later.
"He couldn't have, not that fast."
"But what else could it have been?)
The trio soon dismissed the incident as a drunken prank(thereby proving the extraordinary ability of the human mind to ignore the impossible)and carried on normally, if rather shaken.
When they reached the temple, however, they found that it had, indeed, turned bright blue.
"With pink spots!" howled an apoplectic priest. "And heathen graffiti all over the walls!"
This was true. Large, lemon-yellow letters in the Al Bhed alphabet had been scrawled liberally over the temple's walls and columns.
"We're clearly dealing with a twisted mind," Braska agreed, his face a careful blank. From what he knew of Al Bhed, the lettering read TIDE LOVES DOVE FOREVER TRUE.
By the time that Braska had acquired the aeon Valefor, the graffiti had disappeared, the temple's colouring was back to normal, and the priests were coronaries waiting to happen.
When some time later a high-ranking deacon from St. Bevelle came to inspect the matter, he wouldn't believe a word of it.
* * *
It was two or three weeks after the defeat of Yu Yevon that the rammel heap appeared on one Besaid beach.
High Summoner Yuna was not having fun. Since she was the first ever High Summoner to survive *becoming* a High Summoner, no-one knew what she was supposed to do. They just knew that she was meant to do something important. Add to that the fact that the Maester-run government system had very recently collapsed, and the Yevonite groups that held onto their dogma like limpets even in the face of recent events, and you may begin to see how large a problem the half-Al Bhed had.
So, being a clear-minded, reasonable person, she took every opportunity to escape. Either to her home in what had been the Besaid Temple of Yevon, or into the jungle, or onto the beach, usually in the company of her Guardians. They too were becoming heartily sick of fame.
On one such escape, Rikku found the rammel heap. It was simply a collection of random objects piled up on the beach, a little way above the tideline. Everyone crowded round to investigate.
"Phoenix downs," said Rikku, rummaging through it, "lint, gil, Al Bhed primers with doodles in the margins, music spheres, video spheres, potions…"
"A bracer," Lulu butted in, holding it up.
Rikku blinked, then examined the object. "Auto-protect, extra endurance…you guys! This is just like Auron's bracer!"
Kimahri picked the item up in one huge paw, and sniffed it. "Same one. Have Auron's scent."
"I found his katana," Yuna offered, crouching down by the heap and scrabbling through it.
Kimahri hefted the blade, watched as the clouds of icestrike condensed around it. "These Auron's belongings. Fell from sky at sending. All he held then, here. Tidus too."
"He's right, you know," Rikku remarked. "I've just found those one of those spheres, you know, the ones his dad left all over the place."
"Where's his sword then?" Lulu asked, ever-practical. "I can't see Brotherhood in that."
A hasty search turned up his Tetra Shield, but nothing remotely resembling Brotherhood. Wakka began to laugh.
"I don't see what's so funny," Rikku sniffed.
The enthusiastic blitzer banged her on the back. "He's got the dolphin sword! He's gonna be back, just wait and see!"
Yuna looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "That isn't very funny, Wakka!"
Wakka shook his head. "Don't ya see? He's got the lucky dolphin sword! Didn't ya ever hear of dolphin luck, ya?"
Ronso, black mage, white mage and Al Bhed looked at each other in confusion. Wakka sighed and sat down.
"The story of the lucky dolphin sword starts like this. Long ago, before the fayth, before Sin, in the time of the ancient machina city Zanarkand, a man called Orion set out to see his family across the ocean. But the boat he was travelling in was attacked by pirates! They slaughtered the crew, stole the cargo, and then turned on Orion."
"Did they try to make him walk the plank?" interjected Rikku, interested.
"Who's telling this story, ya?" Wakka frowned. "But yea, they made him walk the plank all right. Orion thought he was gonna die! But just as he was gonna be made to fall into the water, Orion heard a voice in his head. The voice said, 'Just jump. I'll catch you. Don't be afraid!"
"Is this where the dolphin comes in?" Lulu asked.
Wakka nodded. "Yea, cause when Orion fell, he landed on the back of a dolphin. And the dolphin carried him to the shore. Then, when he was safe on the beach, the dolphin spoke to him in his head again. It said 'Dig deep into the sand, and you'll find my magic sword. I'm giving it to you so I won't have to rescue you again!' So Orion dug deep, and he found a sword. It was made of crystal, with water flowing inside, and the hilt was blue and gold and shaped like a dragon-"
"Brotherhood!" everybody yelled.
Wakka grinned. "Ya, but it wasn't called Brotherhood then. Orion kept the sword with him his whole life, and when he died he gave it to his son. It was passed down like that for generations, until 'bout a hundred years ago it was lost in the waters off a tropical island. Then one day, when we were kids practising blitzball in the bay, me and Chappu found it stuck in some coral. I knew it was the dolphin sword, but Chappu didn't believe in the old story. So we called it Brotherhood, cause we found it together."
"How come Chappu got the sword if you were the one that believed the legend?" Rikku wanted to know.
"And how does all this prove that Tidus will come back?" Yuna added.
Wakka shrugged. "Chappu knew how to use a sword. I didn't. Go figure." He leaned closer, as if about to share a secret. "And as for proving Tidus will come back…the dolphin sword is a magic, lucky sword. If you have it with you, everything will always turn out okay. It's even been known to grant wishes. This magic is called Dolphin Luck. It's a sword of good fortune, ya?"
"The only time that anything ever went wrong for Chappu," Lulu whispered, gazing at the sky, "was when he didn't have the dolphin sword with him…"
Wakka suddenly looked older, and crumpled. "Yea."
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
"But the sword must work, even if you don't believe in it's powers or don't know that what you've got is the dolphin sword," commented Rikku, breaking it. "After all, the dolphin luck worked for Chappu…
"…and if it worked for Chappu," continued Yuna, getting excited, "it'll work for Tidus!"
"Worked for him." Kimahri pointed Auron's katana at something written in the sand. "Look."
They looked.
They argued.
A few of them almost had heart attacks.
Then Kimahri pointed out the footprints that led from the message, up along the beach, and out of sight, and they all charged off following them and yelling.
Once they were out of mortal sight and earshot, Tidus came out from his hiding place behind one of the molecules on the beach, leaned on the hilt of the dolphin sword, surveyed his message, and laughed his head off.
The message read;
Dear Yuna and everybody,
I'm not dead, and I've not disappeared.
I just woke up.
Reality is a dream, and dreams are reality.
If they want to be, that is, and for a given value of 'teapot'.
This means I can see Yuna naked whenever I want to.
Really.
From Tidus.
After his laughter had subsided, Tidus added a bit on the end..
P.S. You'll never find me, no matter how hard you look.
This done, Tidus wiped the sand off the dolphin sword and hid behind his molecule again. Being a woken dream had several perks; he could see and hear his friends perfectly. They were having a flaming row over the false trail he'd left, which stopped suddenly as though the person who had left it had vanished into thin air.
Near-divine knowledge was another perk. For example, Tidus knew what all others had forgotten; that the name 'Yuna' was actually a word in an ancient language meaning 'dove'. 'Yuna l'esca' meant 'dove of the moon'. His own name meant 'of the tides' but then, *that* was not a dead language. He had always known *that*.
Yet another perk was time travel. Tidus took one look back at his arguing former companions, smiled, and calmly trotted several years into the past. He had a sudden wish to drop in on a certain few people and startle them…and The Temple of Yevon, he decided, would look a lot better blue.
Perhaps with pink spots as well.
I don't own any of the characters and locations in this story. If I did, I wouldn't need to write fanfics about them, would I? I do own the 'translations' of Tidus, Yuna, and Yunalesca's names-you are welcome to use them, but please ask me first.
I am not sure if 'rammel' is a real word, but it sounds nice.
________________
isn't it a bit surprising
how our fortunes ebb and flow?
and only to the enterprising
does the magic fortune cookie go
believe it!
-the time of your life, a bug's life
________________
Dolphin Luck
_____________
While Auron, Jecht and Braska were walking through the forests of Besaid, towards the village and therefore the temple, they were accosted by a stranger. Since 'accosted' is a difficult word, I will explain it; there were a few rustling noises above them, and before anyone could do anything about it a man fell out of the canopy and onto the trail in front of them.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Jecht shouted.
"Do you know this person?" Braska inquired, pointing at the stranger, who picked himself up, leaned on his sword, and grinned the grin of the truly insane at them.
"Know him!" Jecht exclaimed, "he's…"
The stranger looked sharply at Jecht, who suddenly got the feeling that he was in the wrong chapter. For some reason. That person with the sword…he was SURE he'd seen him before…but every time he tried to remember where, his thoughts abruptly turned into a dancing chocobo.
Braska gave Jecht an odd look. Auron hefted his katana, convinced that this conversation was going nowhere good. He was right, but not in the way he expected.
"Did you know," demanded the stranger, "that the Temple of Yevon in Besaid has turned blue?"
"Blue?" Braska repeated lamely. He got the feeling that he and his party were being very slowly wound up.
"Bright blue," confirmed the stranger. He gave a smile that would send sane men scampering off into the trees. "With pink spots."
Auron's none-too-large patience snapped, and he swung his katana round to point at the stranger's throat. At least, that was his intention. But somehow before the weapon was in position, the stranger had disappeared.
("He must have cast Haste on himself and run off," Auron said later.
"He couldn't have, not that fast."
"But what else could it have been?)
The trio soon dismissed the incident as a drunken prank(thereby proving the extraordinary ability of the human mind to ignore the impossible)and carried on normally, if rather shaken.
When they reached the temple, however, they found that it had, indeed, turned bright blue.
"With pink spots!" howled an apoplectic priest. "And heathen graffiti all over the walls!"
This was true. Large, lemon-yellow letters in the Al Bhed alphabet had been scrawled liberally over the temple's walls and columns.
"We're clearly dealing with a twisted mind," Braska agreed, his face a careful blank. From what he knew of Al Bhed, the lettering read TIDE LOVES DOVE FOREVER TRUE.
By the time that Braska had acquired the aeon Valefor, the graffiti had disappeared, the temple's colouring was back to normal, and the priests were coronaries waiting to happen.
When some time later a high-ranking deacon from St. Bevelle came to inspect the matter, he wouldn't believe a word of it.
* * *
It was two or three weeks after the defeat of Yu Yevon that the rammel heap appeared on one Besaid beach.
High Summoner Yuna was not having fun. Since she was the first ever High Summoner to survive *becoming* a High Summoner, no-one knew what she was supposed to do. They just knew that she was meant to do something important. Add to that the fact that the Maester-run government system had very recently collapsed, and the Yevonite groups that held onto their dogma like limpets even in the face of recent events, and you may begin to see how large a problem the half-Al Bhed had.
So, being a clear-minded, reasonable person, she took every opportunity to escape. Either to her home in what had been the Besaid Temple of Yevon, or into the jungle, or onto the beach, usually in the company of her Guardians. They too were becoming heartily sick of fame.
On one such escape, Rikku found the rammel heap. It was simply a collection of random objects piled up on the beach, a little way above the tideline. Everyone crowded round to investigate.
"Phoenix downs," said Rikku, rummaging through it, "lint, gil, Al Bhed primers with doodles in the margins, music spheres, video spheres, potions…"
"A bracer," Lulu butted in, holding it up.
Rikku blinked, then examined the object. "Auto-protect, extra endurance…you guys! This is just like Auron's bracer!"
Kimahri picked the item up in one huge paw, and sniffed it. "Same one. Have Auron's scent."
"I found his katana," Yuna offered, crouching down by the heap and scrabbling through it.
Kimahri hefted the blade, watched as the clouds of icestrike condensed around it. "These Auron's belongings. Fell from sky at sending. All he held then, here. Tidus too."
"He's right, you know," Rikku remarked. "I've just found those one of those spheres, you know, the ones his dad left all over the place."
"Where's his sword then?" Lulu asked, ever-practical. "I can't see Brotherhood in that."
A hasty search turned up his Tetra Shield, but nothing remotely resembling Brotherhood. Wakka began to laugh.
"I don't see what's so funny," Rikku sniffed.
The enthusiastic blitzer banged her on the back. "He's got the dolphin sword! He's gonna be back, just wait and see!"
Yuna looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "That isn't very funny, Wakka!"
Wakka shook his head. "Don't ya see? He's got the lucky dolphin sword! Didn't ya ever hear of dolphin luck, ya?"
Ronso, black mage, white mage and Al Bhed looked at each other in confusion. Wakka sighed and sat down.
"The story of the lucky dolphin sword starts like this. Long ago, before the fayth, before Sin, in the time of the ancient machina city Zanarkand, a man called Orion set out to see his family across the ocean. But the boat he was travelling in was attacked by pirates! They slaughtered the crew, stole the cargo, and then turned on Orion."
"Did they try to make him walk the plank?" interjected Rikku, interested.
"Who's telling this story, ya?" Wakka frowned. "But yea, they made him walk the plank all right. Orion thought he was gonna die! But just as he was gonna be made to fall into the water, Orion heard a voice in his head. The voice said, 'Just jump. I'll catch you. Don't be afraid!"
"Is this where the dolphin comes in?" Lulu asked.
Wakka nodded. "Yea, cause when Orion fell, he landed on the back of a dolphin. And the dolphin carried him to the shore. Then, when he was safe on the beach, the dolphin spoke to him in his head again. It said 'Dig deep into the sand, and you'll find my magic sword. I'm giving it to you so I won't have to rescue you again!' So Orion dug deep, and he found a sword. It was made of crystal, with water flowing inside, and the hilt was blue and gold and shaped like a dragon-"
"Brotherhood!" everybody yelled.
Wakka grinned. "Ya, but it wasn't called Brotherhood then. Orion kept the sword with him his whole life, and when he died he gave it to his son. It was passed down like that for generations, until 'bout a hundred years ago it was lost in the waters off a tropical island. Then one day, when we were kids practising blitzball in the bay, me and Chappu found it stuck in some coral. I knew it was the dolphin sword, but Chappu didn't believe in the old story. So we called it Brotherhood, cause we found it together."
"How come Chappu got the sword if you were the one that believed the legend?" Rikku wanted to know.
"And how does all this prove that Tidus will come back?" Yuna added.
Wakka shrugged. "Chappu knew how to use a sword. I didn't. Go figure." He leaned closer, as if about to share a secret. "And as for proving Tidus will come back…the dolphin sword is a magic, lucky sword. If you have it with you, everything will always turn out okay. It's even been known to grant wishes. This magic is called Dolphin Luck. It's a sword of good fortune, ya?"
"The only time that anything ever went wrong for Chappu," Lulu whispered, gazing at the sky, "was when he didn't have the dolphin sword with him…"
Wakka suddenly looked older, and crumpled. "Yea."
Everyone was quiet for a moment.
"But the sword must work, even if you don't believe in it's powers or don't know that what you've got is the dolphin sword," commented Rikku, breaking it. "After all, the dolphin luck worked for Chappu…
"…and if it worked for Chappu," continued Yuna, getting excited, "it'll work for Tidus!"
"Worked for him." Kimahri pointed Auron's katana at something written in the sand. "Look."
They looked.
They argued.
A few of them almost had heart attacks.
Then Kimahri pointed out the footprints that led from the message, up along the beach, and out of sight, and they all charged off following them and yelling.
Once they were out of mortal sight and earshot, Tidus came out from his hiding place behind one of the molecules on the beach, leaned on the hilt of the dolphin sword, surveyed his message, and laughed his head off.
The message read;
Dear Yuna and everybody,
I'm not dead, and I've not disappeared.
I just woke up.
Reality is a dream, and dreams are reality.
If they want to be, that is, and for a given value of 'teapot'.
This means I can see Yuna naked whenever I want to.
Really.
From Tidus.
After his laughter had subsided, Tidus added a bit on the end..
P.S. You'll never find me, no matter how hard you look.
This done, Tidus wiped the sand off the dolphin sword and hid behind his molecule again. Being a woken dream had several perks; he could see and hear his friends perfectly. They were having a flaming row over the false trail he'd left, which stopped suddenly as though the person who had left it had vanished into thin air.
Near-divine knowledge was another perk. For example, Tidus knew what all others had forgotten; that the name 'Yuna' was actually a word in an ancient language meaning 'dove'. 'Yuna l'esca' meant 'dove of the moon'. His own name meant 'of the tides' but then, *that* was not a dead language. He had always known *that*.
Yet another perk was time travel. Tidus took one look back at his arguing former companions, smiled, and calmly trotted several years into the past. He had a sudden wish to drop in on a certain few people and startle them…and The Temple of Yevon, he decided, would look a lot better blue.
Perhaps with pink spots as well.