Final Fantasy 4 Redemption Chapter 1: The Dark Warrior - Showdown In Mist Cave
"Come on, girl! You're too slow!" Folken cried
back to Rydia.
"I'm trying my hardest, you
know! But when you're sprinting ahead faster than I can run, I'm not going to
have an easy time keeping up!" Rydia cried back. She finally covered the
distance to where Folken was standing.
Why
did I have to get stuck babysitting?, Folken thought to himself as Rydia ran
up. The mouth of a cave loomed before
them.
"Mist Cave..." Rydia stated. Her mind had
wandered back into the past, to when she lived in Mist Village. "Protected from
outsiders by a Mist Dragon...My mother's Mist
Dragon..."
Folken glanced at her. "I don't
think there's anyting major in it now, though. Come on, we'd better get through
quickly. We have to get to Kaipo!"
"Sorry; it's
just...been a while since I had to pass through this cave. Usually I go with
Rosa on airship..."
But Folken was way ahead of
her. "Come on, let's go!" he cried
back.
~~~~~~~~~
The cave was eerily
quiet...Too quiet, Folken thought.
"I'd
suggest being on your guard. There's something...wrong here...," he informed
Rydia behind him.
"Like what? I don't feel
anything...," Rydia responded.
"If I knew what
it was, I wouldn't be so worried!" Folken practically screamed at
her.
"Sorry!" Rydia screamed, half
sarcastically. She was getting really sick of this guy and his "I know
everything" attitude, treating her like a
child.
Folken took a few careful steps forward,
and he was rewarded with a dark voice. "GO BACK!" it cried
out.
Rydia's eyes widened. "It can't
be..."
Folken glanced back at her. "Well, come
on! We'll have to figure this out later!"
Rydia
ran up, thinking to herself. That sounded just like my mother's Mist
Dragon...but it can't be
her...
~~~~~~~~~
"Look! There's the
exit! Finally out of this confounded mist!" Folken
stated.
Rydia smiled. "Finally! I was getting
sick of being unable to see
anything..."
"STOP!" the dark voice cried
out.
Rydia started shaking, but Folken wasn't
afraid. "What do you want?"
"YOU CANNOT PASS!
NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO PASS THROUGH THIS
CAVE!"
"Well, we're passing through! Just try
and stop us!" Folken cried. He charged towards the exit, but was propelled
backwards by what appeared to be an invisible
wall.
"What the hell?" Folken cried, pulling
himself to his feet.
Suddenly, the mist began
to gather. "No!" Rydia cried. "The guardian...he's
coming!"
The mist formed into a gigantic Mist
Dragon. "NO ONE MAY PASS!" it cried out.
Rydia
just stared at it. "M..Mother?" she
cried.
Folken, however, was not phazed. Pulling
out his sword, he quickly slashed at the dragon, trying to disable it. However,
no wounds appeared.
This dragon isn't
real...Rocalon! This must be one of his illusions, trying to make us turn
back! Folken suddenly realized.
Then Folken
spotted Rydia walking towards the dragon. "Mother!" she cried at
it.
"Rydia, no! This is a trick by Rocalon!
It's not REAL!" Folken cried out, but Rydia didn't
listen.
"Mother, why? Why won't you let me
through? It's me, Rydia...your daughter!" Rydia cried at the dragon. The
dragon's head bowed down and stared her right in the
eyes.
Rydia's eyes widened. "You're not my
mother!" Visibly angered, Rydia pulled her whip off her belt and struck the Mist
Dragon with a painful blow.
"You fake! How dare
you impersonate my mother!" Rydia cried, and struck down the dragon again. It
shuddered once, and faded away into the
mist.
Rydia, somewhat exhausted, took a few
minutes to catch her breath. "I wonder what exactly that
was..."
"It was an illusion by Rocalon. He
reads people's minds and figures out how best to hurt them mentally. In your
case, attacking you with the vision of your mother," Folken responded, coming up
behind her. "But you beat his illusion."
"Her
eyes...they weren't the eyes of my mother. They were the eyes of a demon..."
Rydia stated. "I used to live with the Summoned Monsters, and no monster there
had eyes like that..."
Folken smiled at her.
"Well, we'd better be moving on. Something tells me this means Rocalon knows
we're coming..."
Rydia nodded, and walked out
of the cave behind Folken. A small part of the mist floated behind her, and
attached to the back of her outfit; but Rydia didn't notice
it.
~~~~~~~~~
"Damn!" Rocalon cried. "They
beat my illusion! I guess that girl is stronger than I thought she was. Bah, I
have more traps in store for them..."
A few
people stared at Rocalon strangely when he uttered that statement. "What are you
looking at?" he asked them ignorantly, and gave them a really nasty look. The
people quickly moved on.
"Oh, well. Come to me,
Folken! I'm waiting for you here!" Rocalon cried. "And I will destroy you, in
the name of Master Darkheart and the allmighty god Zemus! You just
wait!"
And with that, Rocalon began to laugh at
the sky. Dark, hollow laughter, that seemed to mock everybody and everything
around him...