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dagas_isaTitle: Dry Grasses
Fandom: Final Fantasy X
Characters: Kimahri, Auron
Prompt: 094 Independence
Word Count: 704
Rating: G
Summary: Kimahri's now on the other side, but things don't necessarily look better.
Author's Notes: Mild spoilers. Don't own. Don't care to own.
There's a human saying Kimahri remembered from the wandering summoners. "The grass is greener on the other side." Life from the outside looked fresher, sweeter than the life lived on the inside. Kimahri hadn't seen much of grass, just the few scraggly patches that lay at the base of the mountains, the meaning of the saying though remained clear.
All Ronso knew the principle, though they used different expression. Life outside the clan seemed less restrictive, less harsh, but Ronso needed to band together to survive. How long could one last alone and away from the mountain, especially the Hornless.
Kimahri thought of these chances, especially when the only thing he carried was a spear for a weapon and a dying man as a burden. The guardian, Auron, didn't say much as Kimahri emerged from the mountain tunnel into the northern sunlight for the first time in his short life.
A slight breeze. A wind chilled but did not freeze the skin under his fur. Bridges leading into a narrow crevice His first steps away from the mountain were unremarkable, but he couldn't help look at the new details. The land seemed flat to him except where deep scars carved the landscape. Nowhere, though, did Kimahri see any green.
Before his duel with Biran, Kimahri thought a little bit of what life could be like outside the clan. There'd be no rules, no one taunting him about being a runt, but now, when he was Hornless and forced to be outside his people, independence seemed like a dreadful consequence.
He enjoyed the sunlight though as he walked with his burden. His life spent in the shadow of his mother, the warmth of the bright star countering the breeze served as a pleasant, and new contrast.
Where the world widened even further, Chocobos wandered and played, pecking at each other and the hands of a timid trainer. Kimahri laughed when a particularly hostile bird began to chase the poor woman across the flat plain, and he swore he felt a slight shudder of amusement from the man he carried across his back.
Auron. Yuna. Promises. His illusion of freedom vanished as he became more aware of the man on his back. Kimahri might be alone and on his own, but actual independence was a dream, the isolated patches of green in an otherwise dried field. Even now, before he reached Bevelle and searched out the girl Yuna, Kimahri had another responsibility towards this man who had inadvertently saved his life and given him a place to go.
So while he could stay and enjoy his journey, this time where Kimahri was Kimahri and not a Hornless, he felt another he owed Auron something else, death among his own kind, with his own rituals. The man's life faded with Kimahri's every step, and the Ronso doubt he could even fulfill this one little self-imposed duty.
Rumbles like the tremors of a giant fiend's footsteps rolled through the land, and Kimahri worried that something might be about to attack him, perhaps at the recognition that one was about to join their numbers. What arrived instead was a human, on something that moved like an animal or a fiend, but did not seem to live.
"May I help you?" The human's bright eyes and hair immediately caught Kimahri's attention, so different from the summoners and guardians who usually passed through Gagazet. Human though. Not Ronso, and that made enough of a similarity to show this new human Auron's unconscious body.
"Man dying here, need shelter. Kimahri asks if man have shelter."
The man searched Kimahri's eyes, his own swirled green pupils betraying a shrewdness that his otherwise easy expression took care to conceal. "That is Sir Auron. Yes, I believe we have room at the Agency for him. You will come with me?" He gestured to the animal-but-not-living thing and Kimahri climbed on.
"No no. You must secure him like this first. We might be able to save him."
Kimahri nodded dumbly, unsure of what he should do here on the other side, in a world with rules different from the ones outside. So he just watched, listened, and obeyed.
So much for independence.
Title: Among his Own Kind
Fandom: Final Fantasy X
Characters: Kimahri, Auron, Rin
Prompt: Death
Word Count: 1088
Rating: PG
Summary: Kimahri wants Auron to be with his own kind, so why does he take the guardian to an Al Bhed in.
Author's Notes: Spoilers, and a continuation from the above.
Among his Own Kind
If there's something any person deserves, it's to die with their own.
The ride to the "Agency" as the man with the beast had called it was rough, but much faster that even Kimahri could have run unladen. Auron's condition had not improved during the ride, but the small outpost perched among the vast scarred earth gave Kimahri at least some hope that somehow the dying man could pull through.
No. Kimahri's inner sense felt the certainty of death in Auron's visage. If the man held on now, it was only to finish things somehow.
"Master Rin! You're back. We weren't expecting you so soon. And where are the goods from the Ronso?"
"Plans changed." Rin gestured to where Auron slept confined in the grasp of the moving-thing. "Set up a bed for him. It might be too late for him, but we can spare a couple of potions for his comfort. You. Ronso. You can help us by carrying Sir Auron until we can get him someplace to rest."
"Kimahri will help." The humans were too weak to carry one of their own, so Kimahri understood his place. His hands fumbled with the fastenings that secured Auron, but soon he had freed his companion and slung Auron like a supply pack over his shoulders.
As much as Kimahri had heard of some of the wonderful structures humans built, Rin's particular agency didn't count among them. Just a small booth with supplies, and a larger awning covered area tucked into a small niche made the area, and Auron's bed-- or more accurately bedroll-- lay underneath the awning area.
The worker brought a lantern and some vials of vivid green liquid. Under the watchful supervision of Rin, she tipped two of them into Auron's mouth. The darker man sputtered and cough, and then his eyes opened a bit.
Once, twice, Auron tried to slide into a sitting position only to be defeated by his weakened body. Rin motioned for him to stop. "Please Sir Auron, we do not wish for you to be uncomfortable."
"Comfort is the admission of defeat of the body over the mind. I need no such thing." Despite the words, he remained lying down.
"Don't be foolish. You are in no condition to do anything. I'll have one of the retired priests here take you to Bevelle in the morning." Rin said a lot of things in those words, Kimahri noticed, but the unsaid drowned out the noise in his sensitive ears. The human knew as well as the Ronso that Auron could not possibly live much longer. Did Auron know?
Auron coughed and some of the half-healing wounds opened anew. The worker did her best to stop the damage again, like using a pebble to stop an avalanche.
"Don't involve Bevelle. They don't need to know that I'm in this condition." His head turned slightly towards Kimahri. "You brought me here?"
"When Ronso goes to die, all Ronso gather around and watch the dying Ronso. Elders say it is because everyone deserves to go surrounded by people they call their own. Kimahri thinks human deserves same honor."
Kimahri smelled rather than saw the awkward glances passing from human to human to human. He worried that might have offended then somehow before Rin spoke up.
"I knew Sir Braska and his guardians Sir Auron and Sir Jecht, and I consider them my friends. But there are many others who will tell you that we Al Bhed are not the same kind as Sir Auron."
Another amused cough from Auron. "Don't be stupid, my kind is anyone who hates Sin and wishes him gone forever. And anyone who's ever done something rash for a good purpose. Any other distinctions are meaningless."
"Sir Auron--" the worker got up to protest speaking so much. "You shouldn't exert..."
"My life has been decided. I will say what needs saying, and you will all listen to the ramblings of a crazy man on the verge of dying. I've lived my life and done more than anyone has a right to, and now my only regret is that I will leave promises unfulfilled."
"What are these promises?" Rin stepped in and continued the conversation.
"Take Yuna to Besaid. Braska thought new scenery would help her. The Ronso promised...to help me with that." Auron's breath grew ragged. "The other...Jecht's son...I vowed that I would look after him and bring him here... I don't know....I'll find a way." Auron's voice cracked out, having finally soaked up all the medicine from the potions, and the warrior fell unconscious again.
Three people sat vigil that night underneath the star-specked sky of the Calm Lands. A lantern glowed like a firefly shading pale illumination on a man who's breath grew painstakingly hard. One by one though, they all drifted into a shallow sleep.
Kimahri, last to sleep, woke first to the pale pinks and grays of a false dawn. Rin and the woman who worked for him lay propped up against a natural wall, but Auron's bedroll had been deserted. He fought off the urge to run and chase the dying man until the puzzle finally came together.
If he'd had tear ducts, Kimahri might have shed a few tears for the who had given him purpose, but his heart knew the truth. Death happened to everything in Spira, and if it had not greeted him in the safety of the Travel Agency, a fiend would be more than happy to introduce the two.
"I'll find a way." Auron's last words stuck in his head. The guardian had spoken as if he had more time, that he could last as long as there was something he had to do."
Images of human believes, told to him by the Ronso elder rose in Kimahri's head. Death robbed humans of their bodies, but their souls remained until sent to the Farplane by a summoner. Those left unsent turned into fiends. If someone had the resolve...could they control what made the fiends and use them? Did Auron think of doing that somehow.
Kimahri waved goodbye to the sleeping Al Bhed and looked out to the Calm Lands. Suddenly it became much more important that he find this Yuna and fulfill one of Auron's last promises. In the Ronso salute, he curled his paw to his fist and raise it to his chest, saluting a man he had known less than two days, but had somehow become a friend and a reason.
Title: The Horn
Fandom: Final Fantasy X.
Characters: Kimahri, Biran
Prompt: 071 - Broken
Word Count: 622
Rating: PG
Summary: Kimahri refuses to surrender, and thus must lose the most important Ronso symbol.
Biran presses Kimahri against the rock, closing the distance between him so Kimahri cannot use his spear. The smaller Ronso has already been beaten, and the sideline taunts from Biran's cronie Yenke do nothing to encourage Kimahri. He's worn now, his natural speed not compensating for Biran's superior strength and stamina.
"Kimahri surrender."
He cannot give them his surrender yet. Kimahri will refuse that at least. Biran's Ronso pride stepped forward into undue arrogance, and Kimahri's surrender will only move that dangerous trait to a further extreme. Not to mention, Kimahri has his own Ronso pride. Surrendering to someone so crude simply because he was pinned to a rock was his own admission of failure.
The pinned Ronso shakes his head slowly. There will be no surrender tonight, just the logical conclusion taken to extremes. What will happen next will hurt no doubt, as the mother will witness her cries as a child of hers falls to grace.
"Kimahri surrender!" Biran's voice growls in desperation. Kimahri knows that even as much as Biran enjoys fighting, taunting, and humiliating, what comes next is something even he despises to do, but will, for Ronso pride.
The spear pressed against his head does a bit to taint Kimahri's resolve. Before this, he's never thought about life without his horn, the symbol of all Ronso courage and power, now it seems like he will have to. Yet the other Ronso's spear trembles; Biran is more afraid of committing this act than Kimahri is of receiving it.
That is his own hollow victory, Kimahri thinks as he stares into Biran's yellow eyes, forcing the superior Ronso to choose his actions. Biran could surrender now, realize that Kimahri's will surpasses his own, and the fight will resume another day with neither of them winning or losing.
"Kimahri, surrender now!"
Biran gives the last warning, and Kimahri sees something of pain and difficulty in the other Ronso's eyes. He shakes his head, knowing that he's lost this last gamble. The spear edge slices through bits of keratin, little by little as Biran does his subtle work. He switches to a knife soon, being very deliberate in where and how he cuts.
"Kimahri will pay. Biran beat Kimahri fair and square, yet Kimahri refuse to surrender. Kimahri not follow order; Kimahri will become hornless."
Biran finishes his work, leaving only a strip of horn connected. It's not enough to grow back, just enough to make Kimahri have to finish the punishment of his own will.
***
Kimahri awoke with a start. While he traveled with Auron there had been no dreams, no reliving of his last act as a full Ronso. Now instinct drove his hand to move to his forehead, seeing if that bit of horn still remained connected.
It didn't. Somehow during the journey it must have fallen and escaped Kimahri's notice. Or perhaps a chocobo had stolen it while Kimahri slept. Maybe he ripped it off of his own accord and blocked the memory behind a stone. The how stopped mattering, only the result, a hornless Kimahri, held any importance.
What did Kimahri do without a horn. The Ronso knew that the horn was the source of Ronso courage, of strength. Even with training, and strength of body, a Ronso without a horn did not have the inner power, could not focus as intensely as the others. They became lifeless, things good only for serving others, or dying.
Kimahri though, did not feel this. The will inside hornless Kimahri was the same will--no stronger-- than the will of the Kimahri who lost the battle against Biran. If Kimahri kept telling himself, repeating in his heart over and over, he could believe it to be true eventually.
Eventually.
In other news 10% done with my Kimahri claims. OMG. o.o
Fandom: Final Fantasy X
Characters: Kimahri, Auron
Prompt: 094 Independence
Word Count: 704
Rating: G
Summary: Kimahri's now on the other side, but things don't necessarily look better.
Author's Notes: Mild spoilers. Don't own. Don't care to own.
There's a human saying Kimahri remembered from the wandering summoners. "The grass is greener on the other side." Life from the outside looked fresher, sweeter than the life lived on the inside. Kimahri hadn't seen much of grass, just the few scraggly patches that lay at the base of the mountains, the meaning of the saying though remained clear.
All Ronso knew the principle, though they used different expression. Life outside the clan seemed less restrictive, less harsh, but Ronso needed to band together to survive. How long could one last alone and away from the mountain, especially the Hornless.
Kimahri thought of these chances, especially when the only thing he carried was a spear for a weapon and a dying man as a burden. The guardian, Auron, didn't say much as Kimahri emerged from the mountain tunnel into the northern sunlight for the first time in his short life.
A slight breeze. A wind chilled but did not freeze the skin under his fur. Bridges leading into a narrow crevice His first steps away from the mountain were unremarkable, but he couldn't help look at the new details. The land seemed flat to him except where deep scars carved the landscape. Nowhere, though, did Kimahri see any green.
Before his duel with Biran, Kimahri thought a little bit of what life could be like outside the clan. There'd be no rules, no one taunting him about being a runt, but now, when he was Hornless and forced to be outside his people, independence seemed like a dreadful consequence.
He enjoyed the sunlight though as he walked with his burden. His life spent in the shadow of his mother, the warmth of the bright star countering the breeze served as a pleasant, and new contrast.
Where the world widened even further, Chocobos wandered and played, pecking at each other and the hands of a timid trainer. Kimahri laughed when a particularly hostile bird began to chase the poor woman across the flat plain, and he swore he felt a slight shudder of amusement from the man he carried across his back.
Auron. Yuna. Promises. His illusion of freedom vanished as he became more aware of the man on his back. Kimahri might be alone and on his own, but actual independence was a dream, the isolated patches of green in an otherwise dried field. Even now, before he reached Bevelle and searched out the girl Yuna, Kimahri had another responsibility towards this man who had inadvertently saved his life and given him a place to go.
So while he could stay and enjoy his journey, this time where Kimahri was Kimahri and not a Hornless, he felt another he owed Auron something else, death among his own kind, with his own rituals. The man's life faded with Kimahri's every step, and the Ronso doubt he could even fulfill this one little self-imposed duty.
Rumbles like the tremors of a giant fiend's footsteps rolled through the land, and Kimahri worried that something might be about to attack him, perhaps at the recognition that one was about to join their numbers. What arrived instead was a human, on something that moved like an animal or a fiend, but did not seem to live.
"May I help you?" The human's bright eyes and hair immediately caught Kimahri's attention, so different from the summoners and guardians who usually passed through Gagazet. Human though. Not Ronso, and that made enough of a similarity to show this new human Auron's unconscious body.
"Man dying here, need shelter. Kimahri asks if man have shelter."
The man searched Kimahri's eyes, his own swirled green pupils betraying a shrewdness that his otherwise easy expression took care to conceal. "That is Sir Auron. Yes, I believe we have room at the Agency for him. You will come with me?" He gestured to the animal-but-not-living thing and Kimahri climbed on.
"No no. You must secure him like this first. We might be able to save him."
Kimahri nodded dumbly, unsure of what he should do here on the other side, in a world with rules different from the ones outside. So he just watched, listened, and obeyed.
So much for independence.
Title: Among his Own Kind
Fandom: Final Fantasy X
Characters: Kimahri, Auron, Rin
Prompt: Death
Word Count: 1088
Rating: PG
Summary: Kimahri wants Auron to be with his own kind, so why does he take the guardian to an Al Bhed in.
Author's Notes: Spoilers, and a continuation from the above.
Among his Own Kind
If there's something any person deserves, it's to die with their own.
The ride to the "Agency" as the man with the beast had called it was rough, but much faster that even Kimahri could have run unladen. Auron's condition had not improved during the ride, but the small outpost perched among the vast scarred earth gave Kimahri at least some hope that somehow the dying man could pull through.
No. Kimahri's inner sense felt the certainty of death in Auron's visage. If the man held on now, it was only to finish things somehow.
"Master Rin! You're back. We weren't expecting you so soon. And where are the goods from the Ronso?"
"Plans changed." Rin gestured to where Auron slept confined in the grasp of the moving-thing. "Set up a bed for him. It might be too late for him, but we can spare a couple of potions for his comfort. You. Ronso. You can help us by carrying Sir Auron until we can get him someplace to rest."
"Kimahri will help." The humans were too weak to carry one of their own, so Kimahri understood his place. His hands fumbled with the fastenings that secured Auron, but soon he had freed his companion and slung Auron like a supply pack over his shoulders.
As much as Kimahri had heard of some of the wonderful structures humans built, Rin's particular agency didn't count among them. Just a small booth with supplies, and a larger awning covered area tucked into a small niche made the area, and Auron's bed-- or more accurately bedroll-- lay underneath the awning area.
The worker brought a lantern and some vials of vivid green liquid. Under the watchful supervision of Rin, she tipped two of them into Auron's mouth. The darker man sputtered and cough, and then his eyes opened a bit.
Once, twice, Auron tried to slide into a sitting position only to be defeated by his weakened body. Rin motioned for him to stop. "Please Sir Auron, we do not wish for you to be uncomfortable."
"Comfort is the admission of defeat of the body over the mind. I need no such thing." Despite the words, he remained lying down.
"Don't be foolish. You are in no condition to do anything. I'll have one of the retired priests here take you to Bevelle in the morning." Rin said a lot of things in those words, Kimahri noticed, but the unsaid drowned out the noise in his sensitive ears. The human knew as well as the Ronso that Auron could not possibly live much longer. Did Auron know?
Auron coughed and some of the half-healing wounds opened anew. The worker did her best to stop the damage again, like using a pebble to stop an avalanche.
"Don't involve Bevelle. They don't need to know that I'm in this condition." His head turned slightly towards Kimahri. "You brought me here?"
"When Ronso goes to die, all Ronso gather around and watch the dying Ronso. Elders say it is because everyone deserves to go surrounded by people they call their own. Kimahri thinks human deserves same honor."
Kimahri smelled rather than saw the awkward glances passing from human to human to human. He worried that might have offended then somehow before Rin spoke up.
"I knew Sir Braska and his guardians Sir Auron and Sir Jecht, and I consider them my friends. But there are many others who will tell you that we Al Bhed are not the same kind as Sir Auron."
Another amused cough from Auron. "Don't be stupid, my kind is anyone who hates Sin and wishes him gone forever. And anyone who's ever done something rash for a good purpose. Any other distinctions are meaningless."
"Sir Auron--" the worker got up to protest speaking so much. "You shouldn't exert..."
"My life has been decided. I will say what needs saying, and you will all listen to the ramblings of a crazy man on the verge of dying. I've lived my life and done more than anyone has a right to, and now my only regret is that I will leave promises unfulfilled."
"What are these promises?" Rin stepped in and continued the conversation.
"Take Yuna to Besaid. Braska thought new scenery would help her. The Ronso promised...to help me with that." Auron's breath grew ragged. "The other...Jecht's son...I vowed that I would look after him and bring him here... I don't know....I'll find a way." Auron's voice cracked out, having finally soaked up all the medicine from the potions, and the warrior fell unconscious again.
Three people sat vigil that night underneath the star-specked sky of the Calm Lands. A lantern glowed like a firefly shading pale illumination on a man who's breath grew painstakingly hard. One by one though, they all drifted into a shallow sleep.
Kimahri, last to sleep, woke first to the pale pinks and grays of a false dawn. Rin and the woman who worked for him lay propped up against a natural wall, but Auron's bedroll had been deserted. He fought off the urge to run and chase the dying man until the puzzle finally came together.
If he'd had tear ducts, Kimahri might have shed a few tears for the who had given him purpose, but his heart knew the truth. Death happened to everything in Spira, and if it had not greeted him in the safety of the Travel Agency, a fiend would be more than happy to introduce the two.
"I'll find a way." Auron's last words stuck in his head. The guardian had spoken as if he had more time, that he could last as long as there was something he had to do."
Images of human believes, told to him by the Ronso elder rose in Kimahri's head. Death robbed humans of their bodies, but their souls remained until sent to the Farplane by a summoner. Those left unsent turned into fiends. If someone had the resolve...could they control what made the fiends and use them? Did Auron think of doing that somehow.
Kimahri waved goodbye to the sleeping Al Bhed and looked out to the Calm Lands. Suddenly it became much more important that he find this Yuna and fulfill one of Auron's last promises. In the Ronso salute, he curled his paw to his fist and raise it to his chest, saluting a man he had known less than two days, but had somehow become a friend and a reason.
Title: The Horn
Fandom: Final Fantasy X.
Characters: Kimahri, Biran
Prompt: 071 - Broken
Word Count: 622
Rating: PG
Summary: Kimahri refuses to surrender, and thus must lose the most important Ronso symbol.
Biran presses Kimahri against the rock, closing the distance between him so Kimahri cannot use his spear. The smaller Ronso has already been beaten, and the sideline taunts from Biran's cronie Yenke do nothing to encourage Kimahri. He's worn now, his natural speed not compensating for Biran's superior strength and stamina.
"Kimahri surrender."
He cannot give them his surrender yet. Kimahri will refuse that at least. Biran's Ronso pride stepped forward into undue arrogance, and Kimahri's surrender will only move that dangerous trait to a further extreme. Not to mention, Kimahri has his own Ronso pride. Surrendering to someone so crude simply because he was pinned to a rock was his own admission of failure.
The pinned Ronso shakes his head slowly. There will be no surrender tonight, just the logical conclusion taken to extremes. What will happen next will hurt no doubt, as the mother will witness her cries as a child of hers falls to grace.
"Kimahri surrender!" Biran's voice growls in desperation. Kimahri knows that even as much as Biran enjoys fighting, taunting, and humiliating, what comes next is something even he despises to do, but will, for Ronso pride.
The spear pressed against his head does a bit to taint Kimahri's resolve. Before this, he's never thought about life without his horn, the symbol of all Ronso courage and power, now it seems like he will have to. Yet the other Ronso's spear trembles; Biran is more afraid of committing this act than Kimahri is of receiving it.
That is his own hollow victory, Kimahri thinks as he stares into Biran's yellow eyes, forcing the superior Ronso to choose his actions. Biran could surrender now, realize that Kimahri's will surpasses his own, and the fight will resume another day with neither of them winning or losing.
"Kimahri, surrender now!"
Biran gives the last warning, and Kimahri sees something of pain and difficulty in the other Ronso's eyes. He shakes his head, knowing that he's lost this last gamble. The spear edge slices through bits of keratin, little by little as Biran does his subtle work. He switches to a knife soon, being very deliberate in where and how he cuts.
"Kimahri will pay. Biran beat Kimahri fair and square, yet Kimahri refuse to surrender. Kimahri not follow order; Kimahri will become hornless."
Biran finishes his work, leaving only a strip of horn connected. It's not enough to grow back, just enough to make Kimahri have to finish the punishment of his own will.
***
Kimahri awoke with a start. While he traveled with Auron there had been no dreams, no reliving of his last act as a full Ronso. Now instinct drove his hand to move to his forehead, seeing if that bit of horn still remained connected.
It didn't. Somehow during the journey it must have fallen and escaped Kimahri's notice. Or perhaps a chocobo had stolen it while Kimahri slept. Maybe he ripped it off of his own accord and blocked the memory behind a stone. The how stopped mattering, only the result, a hornless Kimahri, held any importance.
What did Kimahri do without a horn. The Ronso knew that the horn was the source of Ronso courage, of strength. Even with training, and strength of body, a Ronso without a horn did not have the inner power, could not focus as intensely as the others. They became lifeless, things good only for serving others, or dying.
Kimahri though, did not feel this. The will inside hornless Kimahri was the same will--no stronger-- than the will of the Kimahri who lost the battle against Biran. If Kimahri kept telling himself, repeating in his heart over and over, he could believe it to be true eventually.
Eventually.
In other news 10% done with my Kimahri claims. OMG. o.o
