Bittersweet

Being Rescued by a Girl

The fire had finally begun to die out. Sleeping soundly next to it, Tidus was dreaming about a warm bed, a nice log fire and possibly some gorgeous girl keeping him warm. Even in his dreams, he was freezing.

He suddenly jerked awake, his body unable to sleep any longer in the sheer cold surrounding him. That was when he noticed his small, pitiful fire was pretty much all but extinguished.

"Hey, wait! Wait! Don't go out on me!" He desperately tried to resuscitate the dying fire by blowing on it. But it didn't really help much.

"Gahh... Just hold on! I'll go get some more wood!" As he stood up to find anything flammable he could throw on the fire, he suddenly realised he wasn't alone. He could sense it, like as though there was something watching him.

Suddenly, he spotted it. A creature near the ceiling, it's eyes glowing at him, with an almost hungry look in them. It had four, spider-like legs, and a long, thin tail, with a protruding head that was glaring at him. It started to run, circling the domed ceiling. He followed it round, making sure not to dizzy himself trying to keep up with its pace.

The creature stopped it's run, suddenly jumping from the wall onto the ground about a metre away from him. Pulling out his sword, Tidus growled angrily. Sod the fire, this would warm him up nicely.

The creature swiped at him. Now that it was closer, Tidus could see that it had sharp talon-like extensions which it used as support. They looked sharp, so if he mistimed a dodge or a block, his head would start to roll.
A block from another talon, dodging another, countering with a well aimed slash, only to be blocked by the monster. It was a stalemate, trading blows until one of them ran out of steam.

Then suddenly, the door behind him exploded in a flash of violent light. The fight stopped momentarily as the shockwave knocked his senses off balance. Through the light, he could see a bunch of armed men wearing goggles. In the centre of the men was a smaller, slightly more petite frame he guessed could be a girl. She had blond hair, tied up in a ponytail that spread the hair from the crown of her head forward towards the fringe. He couldn't make out any other details though, as her face was hidden by goggles and a face guard. She didn't seem to be armed, only wearing a knuckleduster-type weapon with claws on it. Nodding towards him, the girl walked over to him and stood next to him, taking up a fighting stance.

"You on my side? Cool." He turned back to the monster, who seemed to have recovered. He noticed that the other men didn't seem to be helping them, that it was just the two of them up against the big, scary monster. Turning his head slightly, he saw the girl pulling out what looked like a grenade from her belt.

"...hell?" It was all he could say before another explosion rocked the hall they were in. How many girls carry grenades around like that?

As she was pulling out another one, Tidus turned around to the monster. It was wobbling around, making a strange, high-pitched wailing sound. It looked like this fight wouldn't last much longer.

He was definitely not in Zanarkand anymore. The girls in Zanarkand didn't carry around grenades, and monsters the size of small airships didn't attack you. Well, not at least till the last few moments he was in Zanarkand, when it got attacked.

As a second explosion illuminated the grimy walls of the hall, he watched as he saw the girl speed up to the monster, swiping a strange material from it.. Jumping back to her position, she nodded at him as it to say it was his turn to take over. Turning back to the monster, he started running towards it. Somersaulting forwards, he built up momentum with a series of forward somersaults, before finally bringing down his sword with almighty force, slicing right through the body of the weakened monster. Split in half, the monster slowly evaporated away into a small cloud of rainbow-coloured pyreflies.