Youth's And Their Mangos. [Voodoo, Open]

Besaid Island, one the nicest places in all of Spira. Who couldn't relax when here with the white sands, clear blue water and most of the time, nice weather. Avalon came here a lot to relax, it was one of the only places where she would let herself be seen not wearing something overly formal, mostly for the fact that she'd spend her time here swimming. The girl was located at the Besaid Falls, water fell down into a big lake/river that would eventually lead out into the sea. Trees surrounded the area and there were huge rocks everywhere. The water glistened under the sun, looking ever so inviting. The smell of trees and mistified water hung in the air.

Avalon came to this place with little amount of items on her, a bottle of water, a towel, some fruit, a bikini and a short blue dress. The girl had been there for awhile, all alone, she was already in her blue tye dyed bikini and ready to go swimming. Her long, straight hair had been left untied, falling past her hips, awkwardly, from behind it could have looked like she was wearing nothing, but no one was there to see that anyways.

Now, the girl was going to jump into the water, but, from the highest point she could possibly find that looked safe..ish. As she climbed the sideskirts of the waterfalls she spotted it, a tree that poked out across the water next to the top of the waterfall. Within moments she had reached the top of the waterfall, somehow, climbing was easy for Avalon so her speed just helped out. At the foot of the tree the girl fearlessly stepped across the trunk, reaching a distance far across enough to be able to land somewhere deep when she jumped.

She was there, at the highest point she could find to jump off into the water. The girl looked down, a smile on her face, she knew this wasn't safe, especially with the fact that she was the only one there, but, she just didn't care. Avalon could feel her heart start to pump a little faster, the adrenaline kicking in with what she was about to do. The girl grabbed her hair in a bunch and placed all to the left side of her chest. She turned around, to allow her to backflip off the tree, just for funs sake.

The youth took a deep breath then lifted her feet off the tree, flicking her legs back to let her body follow the momentum. With that first flip she looked straight down at the water whilst upside down then curled up into a ball, completing three backwards somersaults before extending her body out straight to complete a dive. Then, she hit the water, leaving a tiny splash behind her as her body quickly submerged. Avalon made it a good three meters before her angle began to change and she could resurface, the floor was at least another two meters below her.

Underwater. She dwelled there for a moment, swimming forward a little, looking around at the riverbed then straight forward where she could see quite far ahead of her, every rock that was under the water, a few fallen down trees and random fresh water fish, it was beautiful. Though, it couldn't last long, Avalon had to resurface to catch her breath, so, she did. She leant back a little to look at the tree she had just jumped off, it was quite high. Only then she thought of how much of a risk that was, but, it was dismissed, she just carried on to swim around the surface, enjoying the fresh water.

Once again, the lone gunner had found herself in yet another world.

The inter dimensional rift closed behind her, so fast in fact that it was gone before she could turn and see what colour it was. She couldn't help but sigh this time, she kept on finding herself on that train, and it kept taking her to the strangest of places. At least this time, she thought, it looks like somewhere I could get used to.

Looking around she could see blue skies from horizon to horizon, and her more immediate surroundings were as beautiful as anything she had seen in Ivalice. Up ahead she saw a village, which seemed like the best place to go to find out what the heck she was supposed to be doing here.

As Voodoo entered the village, she wasn't surprised to realise that everyone was giving her at least a questioning glance. She didn't fit in, and she thought that the village probably didn't get many visitors, judging by it's size. But it didn't matter, her hair had attracted many looks even at home, so she was used to it by now.

Looking around, she couldn't really see anyone that looked like they might need help, or anything that might have needed doing. She was beginning to doubt herself. Maybe all this random world hopping was really just that, random. But, for some reason or another, she couldn't wrap her head around that possibility. In her mind, everything happened for a reason. There must have been a reason for her being sucked out of her bed that night, and some reason for her ending up here now.

Then, turning to leave, Voodoo noticed a sign by the entrance to the village. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it was a poster looking for someone to eradicate a particularly vicious fiend, one that was roaming that island, but was often spotted by the Besaid Falls. Beneath the posted was a small map with directions to said falls, and, quickly making a mental note of which way to go, she set off.

The trip required her to trek through forests, and despite almost being killed by numerous fiends, she made it to the top of the falls. She had a good view of the whole area, scanning it to see if she could find the amphibious fiend that had been plaguing the island for months now. It was then that she saw it.

A hideous creature, looking more like something that should be in a crypt than in a forest. pale green and yellow in colour, it had powerful looking legs and a tail. It was streaming through the water, towards a girl who was swimming in the lake.

Voodoo immediately took action. Whether it was her training to be a soldier or simply human nature, she leapt from the top of the waterfall.

"LOOK OUT!" She yelled, as she fell, both warning the girl of herself falling from the sky and the insidious fiend behind her.

She landed feet first, sinking into the water and bringing the fiend back into her line of sight. Pulling her gun from it's place on her leg, she levelled it at the creature and fired. While she couldn't imagine that it had done much towards killing the thing, she at least thought that it would get the attention of the young girl already in the lake. Maybe she could help, or at least get out of harm's way.

It was ridiculous that Avalon hadn't noticed it, maybe it was her overly relaxed state of mind. It wasn't often that the teen would see many fiends after the death of sin but there were still some, to which Avalon in this case had not taken notice of the one coming after her. The girl heard a distressed voice, though with the distance not able to hear what she had said very well over the sound of crashing water, none the less she looked behind her to see the creature coming after her.

With haste Avalon swam as fast as she could to the side of the lake, she heard the sound of a gunshot, fired at the creature, though she didn't have time yet to see who it was shooting at the beast. The teen had to get to her gunblade so she could be of some help. Once Avalon could feel the rocks getting more and more shallow she dashed through the water, jumping up a few rocks to where her stuff was. With no time to waste, she picked up her gunblade and turned around to see the situation.

A girl was now in the water with the fiend, Avalon saw that being in the water wasn't going to make this an easy battle. With intense speed Avalon jumped down the rocks and back into the water, only staying in the shallows.

The girl held her weapon up with both hands and pointed it at the creature, firing three shots at it, it wouldn't seem to have much effect but if it meant that the fiend would come out of the water, it could be easier to slay it. Not to mention, Avalon's saviour of the moment could come to land where it would be easier for them to kill this beast.

Avalon had no idea what this girl must have been doing to find this place in time to warn Avalon but whatever it was the teen was thankful for. From here it was obvious that this girl wasn't from this world, it wasn't often Avalon got to see people from other worlds, so this was exciting even thought the situation was very tense and dangerous.

Voodoo had enough combat awareness to know that it was better that they fight this thing on land rather than in the water. The girl who had become her impromptu fighting partner must have realised this too, because as far as Voodoo could tell she was already out of the deep water. Surfacing from the water, the light hit the teen's face, leaving her disorientated for a moment. Pushing the moisture away from her eyes, Voodoo watched as the other girl fired three shots into the creature. The fiend was distracted, which meant it was Voodoo's chance to escape from the water. Swimming as fast as she could, she approached the water's edge, up to the point where it was shallow enough to stand. Retreating further still, she kept her eyes on the fiend and the other girl.

Aiming her weapon at the creature once more, Voodoo fired twice. But again, it seemed to do hardly anything. There must be something they could do, it seemed as though their gunshots were next to useless. Voodoo racked her brain for some distant memory that might help her think of a way to outsmart or outfight this beast.

Nothing.

Nothing.

She let out an audible cry of frustration, but for now, the beast was approaching her again, after snapping at her partner with it's powerful jaws. She wasn't at a good enough angle to tell whether or not the fiend's teeth had met their mark, but for now Voodoo just had to think of something, anything they could do short of running away.

The only thing she could think of was the eyes. It seemed like a common weak point in the fiends back home, and for now it was the only idea she had. She took aim, closing one eye and steadying her breathing. The beast was approaching quickly, if she didn't shoot soon...

BANG.

The bullet blitzed out of her gun with a crack and a flash of light. It met it's mark and the creature roared out with pain, blood splattering over Voodoo as it smacked at her with a giant claw. The impact sent the gunner flying into a nearby tree. Her plan had worked, but it wasn't over yet. The pain had seemed to spur the creature on, sending it into a frenzy and rushing towards her again.

As the fiend came after Avalon with it's fierce jaws the girl jumped back, only just evading it's attack and counter acted with a quick slash at it's snout, nose thingy. It didn't do much but it did manage to draw a little blood. Though, the creature was once again focused on getting an attack on Avalon's partner in battle. As it came at her, Avalon followed behind, enough so to keep out of the way of it's tail. With that Avalon heard then saw the bullet go straight into the fiend's eye, causing it to cry out and rage fiercely, in doing so sweeping Voodoo away.

That was it though, the girl had managed to find the fiends weakness and who knew, maybe a sword would make it a bit more effective than a bullet, or, [i]both[/]. Keeping clear of the fiends tail Avalon jumped onto it's back, running up it ever so swiftly as it swayed around making it hard for the teen to keep her balance.

As Avalon neared the head she let her blade fall down piercing the beasts skin as she ran up, leaving a long slash in it. Once she had reached the head Avalon gripped her gunblade ever so tightly and stabbed it into the fiend's other eye, even more blood spurted out all over Avalon who was now holding onto her blade as the creature threw it's head around. That was not the end of this attack though, Avalon reached for the trigger again, clicking it twice, sending two bullets through the beast from inside of it.

Hopefully those bullets went far enough to cause it some serious internal bleeding. After throwing it's head around in it's now blind rage, the fiend had managed to throw Avalon off of it's head, her taking the gunblade with her. Avalon's body skimmed across the water like a stone before hitting a rock before she sank into the shallow waters, her head only just above the water, her vision a bit out of focus due to the knock on her head.

All she could see was the beast coming through the water, it couldn't see so it must have heard where Avalon was now landed. Surely it was going to die soon, it had to, those two internally shot bullets had to do something. Avalon sat in the water for a bit, her frail body making the hit quite a strong one, she wasn't able to move quickly, so she sat there, silent as ever, hoping the beast couldn't hear her or sniff her out, the only blood coming off her mostly was the creatures blood, her head bled a little but it had time before it would drip down into the water.

Watching as the creature approached her partner, Voodoo knew she had to act quickly. The other girl had caused considerable damage to the amphibious beast, and now it was time for Voodoo to finish it off before it could return the favour. She levelled her gun once more, this time aiming for the incision left by the other youth. As the creature got closer and closer to it's target, Voodoo slowed her breathing and heart rate. She had learnt to control almost every basic bodily functioning, especially those that might impair her accuracy.

Taking one last deep breath, she squeezed in the trigger. The shot hit home, and as soon as it did the once-fiend erupted into a beautiful display of pyreflies. Voodoo was shocked, she had never seen anything like it. In her world, when creatures were killed they simply disappeared, there was never such theatrics as this. It was strangely beautiful, which she found slightly unsettling. Death was not supposed to be beautiful. Not where she was from.

Perhaps these other worlds had customs different to her own, maybe they did see death as something beautiful. But she could ponder that later, for now she had to stick to the situation at hand. Walking slowly over to her fighting partner, Voodoo smiled, despite the shooting pains in her back from where she had collided with the tree. She held her arm out for the girl to help herself up with, the only thing she could think of doing after killing a beast of such magnitude.

"I'm Voodoo." She said, somewhat hesitantly.
"Thanks for the help."

As the creature came closer and closer to Avalon, her partner fired that last killing shot which sent the fiend up into pyreflies. It really was a spectacular thing to see, small bits of light going up into the sky then disappearing. A lot of them were around before Yuna had defeated Sin years ago, during these times it wasn't so common. Avalon couldn't help but notice Voodoo's shocked expression at the beauty of the fiend's death, must not have been a common occurance in the other worlds.

Avalon smiled up at Voodoo, taking her arm in helping Avalon up. "Avalon" she paused as she managed to stand up, moving her hand to her head to look at the blood which would turn a part of her white hair a deep red. "Thanks for warning me about the fiend, it probably would have got me if you didn't yell out." With that she cupped her hands together to collect water to pour on her small wound on the back of her head, hoping the water would clear the blood out of her hair too. She then looked back up at Voodoo,

"So where are you from Voodoo?"

The youth smiled at her new acquaitance and began to walk back to where her stuff was. Her towel and clothes would be generally helpful at this time and the two could walk back to the village to see if they were in need of any medical help. Though Avalon had been trained to be able to help her and others out, her head just wasn't in that space to do so, also, she would have to pray in the temple over what had just happened.

Voodoo nodded at the girl when she was thanked, and made a quick mental note to remember Avalon's names. She was usually pretty terrible when it came to remembering things, but she would always at least try to make the effort.

She was initially taken aback by the girls question. It was as she feared, she stood out like a sore thumb. Already this girl had been able to place her as someone not from this world. She sighed, maybe she would need to learn to blend in, now that she had discovered these other worlds. She thought that was probably better to seem like she belonged, rather than to be questioned about where she was from everywhere she went.

"I'm, uh..." she hesitated. Was it wise to spill where she had come from? She didn't know the etiquette when it came to interwordly travel, but, she decided that Avalon felt like someone she could trust.

"I'm from Ivalice." She continued, watching as the white-haired teen went to father her stuff.
"Do you know it?"

She was dying to ask where exactly they were now, but decided it would be better not to bombard the girl with questions, they had only just met, after all.

Avalon picked up her towel and dried herself off while listening to Voodoo speak. Ivalice, it sounded familiar but Avalon had never been there, nor really knew where it was, maybe she had just heard of it, it obviously wasn't a part of Spira though. Avalon wasn't really paying attention to Voodoo's body language or anything due to the fact that she was pre-occupied with now drying her hair and wound. The youth stopped and looked up at Voodoo, pondering a second before speaking.

"Hmm... I may have heard of it before, probably met someone from there but I've never been there myself.. If you don't mind me asking, how did you wind up in Spira?"

The girl wandered whether she was asking too many questions, it had only been two questions so far, for one Avalon thought it'd be the other way round, her asking questions seeing as she was from another world, but maybe she had been here before, usually only the locals knew about this place.

After awhile Avalon slipped on her kind of short blue dress over her bikini. Luckily Avalon had a small place up near the village where she could get changed into something more respectable before going into the village and near the temple. With that the girl threw her towel over her shoulder and picked up her stuff to turn to Voodoo again to speak.

"Would you like to come up to my place to uh... freshen up and I'll show you around the village.. if you like?"

Voodoo nodded at the girl, it had quickly become apparent that Avalon was familiar with the concept of interworldly travel. Perhaps it was common knowledge in other worlds, maybe the same was to happen in Ivalice. After all, it wasn't exactly difficult for her to gather information about it there, and then to suddenly be pulled through the rift into that train station.

"I'm not too sure, to be honest." She said, in response to Avalon's question of how she had arrived.

"I don't fully understand this business of world travel, it's all still pretty new to me. But... I just have this feeling that I keep being transported around like I have been for a reason, y'know? Ah, I probably sound like an idiot. I can assure you I'm probably not as dumb as you think." She said, with a quick smile.

She waited patiently while her companion dressed, only then noting how she had been fighting the whole time in only a bikini. At the offer of being shown around the village, she nodded again. It would be worth while to get to know the place, she thought, because who knows how long she would be here before she got sucked back into that train station once again.

"Village is this way, right?" She said, facing towards a small path leading into the forest.

"I guess you better lead the way."

Avalon nodded, Voodoo wasn't the only one getting use to travelling to different worlds, Avalon had only done a bit herself so she too was fairly new to it. However, if Avalon could be any assistance to Voodoo she didn't mind, plus maybe others around the area knew of it, hopefully. The girl looked along the pathway then began to walk, the village wasn't too far away at all.

"That doesn't really sound dumb at all. I'm new to travel amongst the other worlds too, I've only ever been to like, two or three worlds."

The teen thought about what Voodoo was saying, about there being reasons for travelling to the other worlds, in Avalon's experience she kind of felt the same way now that it had been brought up. She had helped other people out in the other worlds and seen some sort of significant change in different things.

"I get what you're saying about going to these worlds for a reason, I get that feeling myself sometimes even though I haven't been around much.."

Avalon walked at a normal relaxed pace. Her body wasn't in top form after fighting that fiend but it was getting better, plus her small holiday house was even closer than the village.

Voodoo smiled slightly at the girl, Avalon seemed as though she was kind enough. It was good, she thought, that she had found someone who was in a sort of similar situation. Well, at least it sounded a little similar. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to talk through it as they walked, maybe Voodoo could find out a little more about what was going on with her life.

"So, do you know anything about this world travel?" She didn't want to seem annoying, but Voodoo had to push the subject. Naturally, it was about all that was on her mind at the moment. It was just so, indescribably strange. How could you leave one place in your sleep and wake up in another? No matter how often she thought about it, it always seemed as strange.

"I mean like... have you even seen that place with the trains?" She asked, remembering where she had first wound up after leaving Ivalice.

Avalon gave a small smile back, for friendly vibes and whatnot. The girl was in thought for a moment, she had been to the train station but only once really, Avalon had mostly travelled to other worlds on an airship, she didn't know much about those either but they got people places, in some cases to other worlds.

"Hmm.. Well I've been to that train station once, it's pretty big, I guess it must connect the worlds together or something. Most of my world travels have been on an airship to be honest."

As they walked on Avalon looked up at the sky, thinking more about the world travel, she could just do things the easy way and pay someone to find out these things for her but at this point, she wanted to have the experience of world travel too.

(I'm the man at posting.)