Final Fantasy VII: Lifestream - Book 2: Aftermath

THIRTY-FOUR

"Nice shootin', Red," Barret chuckled. "Turned its own damn attack against it. I kinda like the sounda that."

I nodded. "Now we know that materia works."

Aerith smiled as she tended to us with a healing wind. "Sure does! That spell oughta come in pretty handy."

"No doubt," I agreed. "And from what I can sense, there's still room for the materia to hold more skills. I doubt every enemy we encounter will have one we can learn, however."

"But some will, so stay alert," Cloud told me.

We moved on, heading back to the truck and getting underway. As we drove off, I pondered the battle that we'd just fought. From my time in Hojo's lab, I knew that monsters possessed a variety of abilities, both offensive and defensive. Some for attack, others to heal or protect. The latter would be more difficult to acquire, as it was unlikely our enemies would willingly use such skills on us. However, there might be a way to force them to do so, if the rumors I'd heard circulating amongst the lab staff were true about another useful materia.

I had no idea where to find it, however, so I put the matter aside as we continued driving through the badlands. We encountered no other machines during the rest of our journey, fortunately. Shinra had mechs patrolling the region, and bandits were also said to lurk out here in the rocks as well, prowlers that fell upon solitary and unwary travelers. But with as well-armed as we were, they no doubt had decided we were not suitable targets and had left us alone.

We finally arrived in Kalm early in the afteroon. Although it wasn't nearly as large as Midgar, which loomed behind us in the distance even from here, it was still sizable in its own right. A bustling city full of the two-legged humans. The roads were all of patterned blue cobblestones, and the buildings were all white walls framed by thick, brown wooden beams under slanted, pointed roofs of blue shingles. A high stone wall surrounded the town on all sides as well.

Rows of modest homes and shops lined the many streets as people went to and fro about their business, and here and there a car or truck drove down the road, but it was still much quieter than in Midgar. For a human town, it wasn't so bad. And there was a real sky overhead, full of clouds. It felt good to be under it again.

We stopped next to a large inn near the edge of town. It was larger than most of the other buildings. Two stories tall, it featured a number of windows that looked out onto the street before us, and over the door hung a handcrafted wooden sign engraved with a detailed carving of a dragon with wide, outstretched wings. And above it, in thin, sweeping letters, was inn's name—the Silver Dragon.

"Awright, looks like we here," Barret said as we got out of the truck. "So what next? You got a plan, Spike?"

Cloud nodded. "Yeah. We'll get a couple rooms here first. Two, one for us and one for the girls. Then we'll go somewhere and grab us some lunch—it was a long drive to get here, and we aren't gonna accomplish very much on an empty stomach."

"Sounds good to me," Tifa said. "I'm starving."

Aerith raised her hand. "Seconded!"

"We could all use a chance to refuel," Cloud agreed. "So we will. As soon as we're done, though, we'll get to work. We've gotta find out what we can about Sephiroth and which way he's heading. Somebody here in town might know, or they might've seen something. So we'll split up to gather as much information as we can."

It was a sensible and logical course of action. "Understood, Cloud. Are we to each go alone, then?"

He shook his head. "No. You and Barret go together, and the girls'll pair up. I'll stay by myself. We'll meet back here in about five hours and talk about what we've found over dinner. Assuming we get a lead, we'll leave early tomorrow morning to follow it."