Dream Walk (Open)

The dreams had guided him here. Those long single purposed dreams that kept John Greywolf ‘travelling’ as he slept had pulled him to this place, though for what reason he wasn’t sure anymore. He was at the Bone Village, a simple archeological dig and nothing much else really even with some of the artifacts that had been found in the ruins, yet there was something else hidden here. It was talking to the Shaman, pulling him along to a certain spot from the Dream World.

John passed the man trying to sell him all sorts of trinkets and what not from the door to a rundown shack. The man screamed at him that all his wares were top notched, but John moved on giving him little attention. He by-passed all the workers who asked, pleaded and begged to help him dig in the ruins for a few gil. The Shaman only smiled and informed them he needed no help. He wouldn’t even be digging here probably. The men didn’t care; they would do whatever labor the medicine man wanted in exchange for money. You need something carried sir one of the diggers screamed. I have strong muscles sir, I can carry a lot another wailed. John only nodded and moved on leaving the mass wanting something from him.

The Shaman walked past holes dug in ground with tip tops of ladders sticking up. He walked past a long wall to his left where someone had dug out a hole every five feet or so, like some giant Chocobo had pecked a hole then stepped to the left and done another. John wondered what that person was looking for. Was it the same as what he was looking for now?

He kept on walking among the many excavations and ruins using the images from his dreams till John finally found where he should stop. It was a small clearing, no holes or diggers nearby, just the flat land and a small building like a hut. The Shaman looked around noting the fact he should have been alone, but there was someone there…

Someone else who had been draw this spot.

What he saw was not, perhaps, what he expected.

Sitting on the ground near the cottage was a child. Well, caught on the younger end of the spectrum between childhood and maturity, the little girl was carefully building a smaller hut using twigs and leaves. She seemed to be some odd mix of feline and female, with cat ears on the top of her head that twitched back and forth like she was listening to the world around her, and a long tail that curled around her, lying on the ground, only the very tip twitching as she concentrated.

Oddest of all? Her hair was a strange blend of grain-golden blonde and a cotton-candy pink.

She must have heard him approach, or simply sensed his presence through some other method, because she looked up to see him and smiled wide in a welcoming grin. "Hello! I'm trying to make friends with a fairy! What are you doing?"

The little one was a surprise to John, but then everything about this trip was a surprise. The dreams had pulled him right to this spot and now there was a child who was obviously more than your normal child. He noted the ears and the color of her hair, but also the aura that surrounded her. It was full and vibrant, yellow and green swirling in bursts. She was a healer and a joyful one at that.

John walked up slowly and smiled from under his hat. "I'm looking for something. It keeps calling my name but nobody else can hear it...I think."

The girl didn't react to the news, or she had and didn't show it. John knelt down as he spoke picking up a nice piece of Amber crystal. The girl looked intrigued by the stone.

"My name is John. What fairy are you talking with little one?"

"Calling your name?" She looked up at him with odd, bicolored eyes, blue and purple, and tilted her head to the side curiously. "Maybe there's someone who wants to make friends with you?"

When he asked about the fairy, she giggled slightly. "I heard somewhere that fairies like to make friends with those they know can provide for them, so the first step is to make a house for the fairy. If the house is nice enough, then the fairy decides to move into it and make friends with you."

She looked around and then leaned over to whisper to John conspiratorially. "I heard several of them nearby. They're curious about the house, but none of them have come over to investigate it yet." She looked at the amber in his hand. "What are you going to use that for? Or is it a pretty you're going to keep 'cause it's pretty?"

John looked over with a raised eyebrow at the little girl. "I think something does want to be friends, only I don't know what that something is till I find it."

The girl nodded as John spoke on. "You know, I think that house will have a fairy move in before your through.'

Her expression changed as she gasped at the potential of having a fairy friend. The Shaman tucked away the Amber in his jacket pocket. A little shaping and a polishing and the perfect pendant would come from a lump crystal. The process was still amazing to him, a work of patience in turning the stone to a high-

Here...I am here...

The whisper was loud now and it broke into the medicine man's thoughts like a rock thrown through a glass window. He turned quickly in the direction of the call, to his right, and noticed there was nothing but the open field, not a soul in sight. The whisper was strong. He was close to whatever it was.

Then he turned back to the child and the look on her face made him wonder if she heard the whisper too.

The little girl tilted her head to the side as she watched John's attention be completely sidetracked by what he heard with non-physical ears. "Do you hear something? Sometimes I hear things, but there's nothing there, really. It's strange when it happens."

She paused and listened close for a time as she put the last twigs on the house and the whole of it shimmered with magic. She clapped her hands with delight. "Yay, the house is ready for the fairy!!"

She looked around and there was a rustling in the grasses as a small figure, the wingtips barely visible, inched closer to them, drawn by curiosity. Finally the wings fluttered up and the tiny female figure, with strawberry red-blonde hair and purple wings that faded to a translucent white pink. Her clothes were a hunter green with a yellow-gold belt.

The little fairy looked up at the little girl and waved shyly and then darted into the house. The child grinned happily and looked in one of the windows at her new fairy friend. "Hello, my name is Mairi. I'll be your friend, if you'll let me."

The little fairy grinned at her and waved, speaking in a piping voice that carried the sound of bells in the background. "Hello, Mairi! I'm Elanor Rosecloud! It's nice to meet you!" She turned to look at John. "Are you a friend of Mairi's too?"

"Well Elanor Rosecloud, I just met Mairi but you know what? I like her and I hope she'll be my friend." John spoke with a broad smile from under his hat.

All along the whisper called again to the medicine man and now that he was closer a sudden feeling of fear washed over him. It wasn't his own feelings or Mairi's or even little Elanor Rosecloud's. No, this was from whatever was calling to him. The energy of the object was complex and intelligent, a combination that could be good or bad but the only way to discover this was too find it and see if it would continue to communicate

Please here...I am here...

"Tell me Elanor Rosecloud, have you seen anything strange around here, besides me of course."

The little joke made the fairy and Mairi laugh, which was nice considering the feeling of fear was growing little by little with time.

Elanor looked up at John with a curious expression on her small face. "There's magic in this place. It's why I was here. But sometimes lots of magic calls more than just fairies." She fluttered her wings softly. "Why don't we find out what it is that's got you caught like a bramble bush?"

Mairi nodded. "Yeah, you're looking like there's something that you wanna look at, so why don't we find out what it is?" She grinned at little Elanor and the fairy flew out of her new house to perch on Mairi's shoulder as she carried the little cottage into the bigger cottage and set it down on a table.

Then the little cat-girl stepped back outside and pressed a button on the doorframe and the whole of the cottage shrunk down to the size of one of her hands and she put the tiny cottage into her belt pouch before looking back at John.

"You lead. We'll follow. This is your path to find."

John stood up and laughed a little at Mairi’s insistence, she wasn’t about to walk away, just like her aura had told the Shaman minutes before. So John nodded and held out his hand. “Well if you insist Mairi and Elanor. Let’s go find this thing that keeps calling me.”

Mairi nodded back and took the medicine ma’s hand with tight little grip. The pair started walking east as the sun was moving west, which helped both keep an eye out. They passed a few more dig sites as the whisper in John’s mind grew stronger. The feeling of fear also went up, hand in hand with the strength of the whisper it seemed. John made sure to keep them on a somewhat clear trail dodging workers and staring eyes. Soon a small sheen of sweat had broken across the Shaman’s neck as he approached another wall, only this looked worse than the last. The stones of the fortification which had probably held back enemies and predators for the village could no more hold back time than anything else. With the aid of a large tree which had grown up right between the stones the wall was now crumbling and falling apart in large chunks.

The whisper had grown to a shout now and John knew whatever was calling to him was here. He let go of Mairi’s hand and approached carefully under the branches more wary of falling hazards than an attack. He pulled Wakina from its scabbard and with an easy hand dug into a few broken stones pulling them down exposing more stones behind. He kept this up as the voice in his head begged him to come and find it. Mairi stood back watching intently with Elanor right on her shoulder.

Then, with a great crash of stone, a small alcove was exposed in the wall. The shade of the tree branches had cast such a deep shadow that for a minute Mairi couldn’t make out what John was doing. She watched him reach into the alcove and then suddenly he was walking back to her with his knife in one hand and long leather covered bundle in the other. She could feel the old magic emanating from the bundle as John slowly uncovered it being careful again not to damage the object.

And when he finished pulling back the wrap Elanor gasped because a six foot long staff made from wood sat in the middle of the remains of the old leather it had been protected in. Markings ran the length, ones that John couldn’t make out but Mairi had a small inclination to.

“I think we found it.” John remarked.

Mairi's eyes widened as she saw the staff in John's hands. "Oh wow! That's a really pretty stick!! Is that a stick for making magic bigger or is that a stick for hitting meanies upside the head so they see little chocobos running around?" She giggled. "I have a wok that I can use and it does both!"

Elanor sat on her shoulder and held herself steady with a hand closed around a lock of Mairi's pink-blonde hair. "Old magic... VERY old. Do you think it's as old as the Ancients? Their city is near here."

Mairi clapped her hands. "I know that city! That's the one that looks like it's made from giant seashells!!" She looked at John, her blue-purple eyes wide and questioning. "What do you think the staff does?"

The Shaman looked over to Mairi then back to the staff as the object kept talking.

Home…home…

“I’m not sure what the staff does Mairi. I don’t use this kind of magic, but it does feel very old to me too Elanor. Maybe I can find something out?” John whispered taking the long wooden pole in his right hand. He drew up his energy, from the earth beneath his feet and the air around him, inside his body right to the middle of his solar plexus. A small ball of energy that no one could see and with a chant of ‘wanagi’ John opened his third eye to read the staff.

((John Greywolf casts Spirit Touch – sight for 20 MP))

At first there was nothing, just the hard wood of the staff with the markings in the Shaman’s hand. Then all at once, like a flood, images flowed across his mind. He could see a man dressed like a priest or some important person holding the staff high. He could hear the man call out in a language that John had never heard. The words must have been magical in some way because the markings on the staff, the ones now buried into the flesh of the Shaman’s hand as his grip tightened, began to glow and the sky in the images began to grow dark with clouds. Thunder heads with lighting snapping between like arcs rolled in as the man chanted louder and even louder. Rain, drops as large as a small piece of fruit, began to fall and crash into the dry ground around the man but he ignored the strikes. He cried out to the sky in his language thrusting his staff high as the storm started to build…

And then it was gone, like always, with the images and sounds coming to an abrupt end. He took a breath, eased his hold on the staff and turned to Mairi and Elanor.

“I think you’re right about this belonging to the ancients Elanor. It seems to be some kind of natural magic, maybe Thunder or Lightning.” John smiled finally.

Home…please…home…

“Say Mairi, you know the way to this Ancients home?”

Mairi thought about it for a moment. "Uhm.. yeah, I think so... there's a path somewhere over that way..." She started wandering in the direction she'd pointed out and found a track going through a stand of trees. "Oh, here it is! We follow this path and it should take us to the City of the Ancients!"

She was half skipping-half running along the path, singing some strange song to herself as she did so, pausing every now and then for John to catch up with her.

After a while, the outline of the city could be seen through the trees and the ruined buildings truly did resemble nothing so much as giant seashells set down in the forest like some giant child had been playing on the beach and building cities.

Mairi giggled and ran forward, intending to lead John all the way into the main coliseum where, once upon a time, Cloud and his friends had used the Key of the Ancients to unravel ancient mysteries here.

John watched Mairi dance and skip down the trail with happy glee. She would sing, run ahead, and then stop and wait for him to catch up. It made his heart happy to see her happy, so much so he actually forgot about the staff and its calling. He even laughed as they walked along the trail among the ruined buildings that resembled giant shells. He smiled as the trio started to approach a large Coliseum and the sight brought back a story he had heard in Midgar, how a human named Cloud had used a key to open the secrets of the ones who used to live here.

“Come on John!” Elanor Redlcoud yelled to him.

The Shaman gave a wave just as the staff started to hum and come to life on its own. He stopped on the trail just outside the entrance to the Coliseum as the whisper from the staff picked up.

Home…Home…HOME!

“Mairi, I think we’ve gone as far as we need to go.” John told the girl.

The markings on the staff started to glow, come to life like in the images it showed him earlier. In the sky above clouds began to gather and roll in as the wind picked up. Dust devils swirled and pieces of old debris lifted off the ground and whirled past the trio. John covered his face and walked over to help Mairi against the rising storm. If there was a way to stop the magic that was growing John would have done it.

All he could do was hope the staff was in some control and all this would stop before Mairi or he were hurt.

Mairi watched as the skies darkened and the magic started to cause the wind to whirl around them madly. She wasn't afraid even though some part of her mind registered the thought that maybe she ought to be. She held the little fairy in her arms and let her shelter next to her neck, under her hair.

The wind was getting stronger, though, and Mairi looked up at John and patted his hand reassuringly. "It's gonna be okay. I promise. It'll be okay."

She didn't know how else to explain to him her absolute faith in her ability to survive, and if she survived, then surely he would to. Tiran would protect them, even if he was dead... in a manner of speaking.

The fact Mairi wasn't the least bit afraid of what was happening bothered John just a hair. What did she know that he didn't? Maybe she knew what magic the staff was calling on? Maybe she knew how to stop it?

A lot of maybe's there John the Shaman thought.

The storm kept building as the wind howled. John looked up watching the sky boil and lightning begin to dance across the massive black brume. Whatever was happening the Shaman was preparing to get himself and Mairi out of harms way if need be.

HOME! HOME! The staff chanted, screamed in John's mind.

With every demand from the magic object the storm grew in fury and from behind the protective hand he used to shield his eyes the Shaman saw someone or something walk toward them. Rain started to fall in great big blobs but John never looked away from the figure walking up, and neither did Mairi or Elanor.

When the trio could finally see the figure was a man, and that he was somehow dry from the deluge, the staff was in full control of the maelstrom. John stood still with little Mairi beside him as the man stopped just an arm's length from them. The rain fell in sheets, right through the man.

John noted he didn't look like the one from the images he had seen earlier.

The staff kept screaming HOME! which didn't sit well with the Shaman.

And Elanor only confirmed his suspicion when she yelled out from Mairi's arms. "He's not good! He's not good!"

Mairi saw the mysterious figure and she heard the cries of her fairy-friend and she huddled closer to John, one hand playing with a stone of lapis lazuli which she had pulled from a pocket. She wasn't certain what to do. She could use the stone... but would John understand?

Even holding it, though, she felt the comfort of a spirit caught somewhere on the shady side of the line between life and death. He was gone, and she didn't know of a way to bring him back from what he had become, but he could still protect her.

"John, what do you want to do?" She looked up at him with eyes which shone with absolute trust. It was one of her gifts, and luckily that trust had never been abused. She knew, somehow, that he would make his choice and that it would be the right one.

With a gentle touch John put his hand over Mairi's signaling for her to hold on using her special stone. He wasn't sure what it would do and he wasn't sure what the staff would do if she used it at the moment. He knew the magical object was controlling the storm making it grow in intensity and from what the Shaman could tell the closer the man got the harder the storm threw itself on them.

The strange man reached out, reaching for the staff, smiling and laughing.

HOME! HOME! HOME! The staff screamed in John's mind.

"Who Are You?" John yelled above the tempest.

The man made no other sound than his laugh.

He made no gesture but to reach for the staff.

And the storm, unbelievably, responded with a strong gust of wind.

The fairy's words came back to John's mind and a realization came to him. With a little help he finally understood what was happening here, what had happened so many years ago. He knew why Elanor had said this man was not good, and the staff knew it too.

Mairi nodded at the unspoken request and tucked the stone back into a pocket, though she still kept her hand near it for the comfort of the presence held within it. She would wait, in the hopes that it wouldn't be needed.

Still, the storm was growing stronger and the shadowy person that frightened Elanor so badly was reaching out for the staff, and the staff seemed to not want him to have it.

She knew that they were running out of time and she knew that whatever needed to happen here, that John needed to do it because the staff had been calling to him, had chosen him to be the instrument of its desires.

"John, you gotta do something, and you're the only one who can. The staff wanted you."

Mairi was right of course John thought. The staff had called to him for a reason and now the Shaman understood why. This figure suddenly appearing and reaching for it was the one who buried the magical object in the wall back in the village. New images appeared in John's mind, pictures of the staff being taken from a place of honor in a hut in the dead of night. He could see the one who took the staff, a younger version of the one who rightfully owned it and John had seen earlier. The old man was a Shaman too and he used the staff to save bring rain to the village and and its crops.

"No," The Shaman yelled at the figure, "the staff is not yours to have."

The figure's face suddenly contorted, as if pain had come from the denial of the staff by the medicine man. It's mouth opened and tried to say something but the howl of the wind made it impossible to hear.

"The staff is not yours, it never was yours..." John yelled holding it back from the figure.

The storm seemed to slack for a second. The rain continued at its pace and the wind didn't gust as hard. It was like the maelstrom was being told to settle, that it was safe to do so now. The Shaman watched as the figure jerked his arm toward the staff again, stabbing at the object it so desperately wanted. John though only kept the object out of its reach.

"You can't have the staff! I will not return it to the thief who took it from his shaman! You stole from your own father!

A crazed look took hold of the figure's face. It stabbed again and again with its hand for the staff but never did a ghostly finger touch it, never did the thief get the staff in his grasp.

"The staff was for the village, for its people, and your shaman...your father! Only he was the rightful one to use it for your people and you stole it in the night...you who were jealous of your own blood!

The figure's form began to fade, from the feet up it began to dissipate as did the storm. It had come from the other side to steal the staff again only to be foiled by a little girl and another Shaman. It could sense this now and it looked skyward as the storm continued to slow to a small rain.

"Go back and know your actions in this world condemned you in the next. Know you will never hold the staff again.

The figure looked down, past John and down the ground as it's body dissipated and flowed on the wind. With one last pained look it locked eyes with the three then he was gone, lost to this world once again. John waited a second as the storm died, water dripping form his hat, before turning to look down at Mairi.

"Wasn't expecting that when I came here. What about you?

Mairi grinned at John as he confronted the ghostly man and said the words that needed saying to reassure the staff and resolve the conflict without anyone getting hurt. She liked it when things were settled without people getting hurt.

She was a healer, yes, but she liked it a whole lot better when she was using her abilities to make cosmetic changes for fun and play than when she had to knit together a body broken by violence. She'd done it before, but it was never as much fun.

Elanor fluttered her wings, drying them with the swift movement so that she could fly up to sit on Mairi's head and clap her hands in honor and respect.

"Well done! Very well done!!"

Mairi giggled and rushed forward, causing Elanor to fall backwards off her head. The fairy caught herself in midair and flew over to join her friend as she hugged the shaman happily. "I'm so glad that you made it better!! I'm so glad that you found the path you needed to take!!" She giggled again. "Yeah, it's not what I expected, but nothing is ever really what you expected. Things always work out differently from what you think they'll will."

"Things do workout themselves out in the end. The questions is now what to do with the staff?"

John looked at the gnarled long piece of wood and the feeling of it wasn't like it was just minutes before. The symbols carved into the side no longer glowed and the voice it used to speak to him was silent. It was as if the staff, now protected from the thief, was satisfied to travel on its way to. The Shaman smiled and looked to Mairi.

"Are you hungry little ones? I have some food on my ship and I feel the need to get a little dry."

The staff, John thought, would make a nice addition to the other artifacts and such he had come across on his journeys in the middle world. Mairi might even be surprised at some of the old things he had found over the years.