Hope is Lost (and so am I)-open-

[Penelo]

Penelo folded her legs beneath her and her purple Save the Queen sword clambered to the ground next to her; that two handed sword was just so heavy. The hot sun caused her to squint her eyes and her jumper was sticking to her something awful. She let out a long breath and glanced around again. These giant wasps and wolf-things kept attacking her and she was running low on her magic and patience. Today hadn't been the best day, and yesterday wasn't a good one either. She rubbed her temples, feeling the beading sweat roll down her face. "I need to just..calm down and think. I've been lost before, and this time is no different. I have nothing with me but a bag of..." She trailed off as she murmured to herself and inspected in her bag. She had a few wolf pelts from back home, a few Earth Stones and some other Loot that wasn't really worth much. A handful of Potions and three Ethers. No map, no compass; no answers.

She pulled the drawstring on the bag and sat back up. "Ok, so I really don't have that much...but I'm not hurt. And maybe if I could find someone, then maybe I could get some help and repair my ship! Yeah! That's the plan. I just...gotta...find..." She looked around the great expanse of green, "someone." She rolled from her bottom onto her feet, tossed the bag over her shoulder, placed her sword back on her back and finally started walking again. Her red pants were really getting hot and she would absolutely love to go swimming right about now. The gold metal of her shirt was also heating up. She took a few more steps, which brought her up a little higher, and gave her a bit more to look at. One of the things she saw was a tent. "People!" She exclaimed with a point, as if the grass around her would cheer in delight at her discovery.

Never mind the grass, she took off towards the tent. About ten steps from the top of the hill this giant serpent started coming at her with a glowing jewel above its head. The bag slid from her shoulder and she looked exasperated. "Really?" She couldn't help but ask what ever God was up there throwing obstacles at her. She drew in a deep breath and started to take her sword from her back, her eyes narrowing at the creature. She really would love it if it left her alone, because she certainly wasn't going to attack it. She was, however, far to tired to run from it. So fight it, she had to do.

[Cloud Strife]

Cloud swung the massive Buster Sword in a long swipe, slicing through a few tall reeds on the outside of where he had set up camp. The Calm Lands always was the best place to be at peace and think. He thought about Tifa as he finished creating the clearing so he would see any monsters or wolves before they attacked. Tifa should know where I am. She knows what I went through to get supplies to her and the others. She knew I needed a break.

Cloud opened the tent flap and slipped inside. The grass had been patted down earlier to make a soft spot to sit on. He put the sword off to one side and sat down. He crossed his legs and relaxed, closing his eyes. An instant calm came over him as he listened to the sounds of the wild. He could hear birds singing in the trees, water from a nearby stream, wind making the leaves whisper, and the occasional creaking of a tree. 

He was just getting relaxed when all of the birds stopped singing. His eyes snapped open and he heard a faint hissing noise. That can't be good. he thought as he grabbed the Buster Sword and put it on his back, tip pointing into the ground with the hilt coming up over his right shoulder. He opened the flap to find a giant serpent hissing at a woman about his age. She looked as if she was going to try to take the serpent on her own. Cloud sprinted up the hill from behind the snake as it prepared to strike. "Hey ugly!" he yelled at the serpent, "Pick on someone your own size!" Cloud launched himself into the air, pulling his sword from his back, right at the serpent. It turned and struck at Cloud, getting a mouthful of Buster Sword. It opened it's mouth, letting go of the blade, sending Cloud in the direction of the girl. 

He landed near her, sword still gripped in his hand. "Thanks for helping." he said in a slightly sarcastic tone. The serpent had recovered enough to face them and was weaving back and forth. He looked at the girl, hoping that she could use the sword she held in her hand. 

[Penelo]

"Hey ugly!"

Was it sad that her first thought that it was rude to call anyone names?

Her second thought was then that help was on the way so she didn't just have to kill this thing herself...not that she didn't doubt she could, she just didn't want to. "Pick on someone your own size!" She glanced at him, and almost wanted to point out that the two of them were about the same size, not him and the serpent...though this blonde's sword was actually pretty large in both girth and length. She watched him attack it and also saw the serpent bite the sword. She gulped a little and started to look at the serpent as someone with a strategic mind would. Like Basch or Balthier. Yeah..what would they do? Well actually, Balthier would just shoot it from afar and then yell things for them to do.

Basch on the other hand, would probably do his best to immobilize it. How do you do that to a snake, though? Uhm, quickly Penelo, the clock is ticking. "I got it!" She said without realizing it. She jumped and rolled to the side as the snake was momentarily focused on the man. She quickly pulled the sword again from her back and drove it as deeply into the tail of the beast as she could and then started to back up, the twitching tail caught her body and she rolled a few feet to the side. Now that she definitely had the beasts attention she started to cast a Firaga spell to send at it, her eyes glanced to the man, because now he definitely had a chance to attack.

The almost glassy looking thing above the snake's eyes started to glow and she found her eyes being drawn to it. It was about to cast something, but what?

[Cloud Strife]

Cloud watched as the girl pinned the serpent's tail to the ground and began to collect energy for an attack. That's when the jewel on the serpent began to glow. Shit! That can't be good. He thought as he looked at the woman. He couldn't attack and save her. 

He began to think of his past plans. One came to mind quickly. Save the person and use the sword to block the attack. He had only used it once before while protecting some members of Avalanche and it had worked. He sprinted in front of the girl and raised his sword just as a red bolt of death shot right at them. His sword came up automatically and the bolt deflected off of the slightly tilted surface. "Fire whatever energy you have now!" he yelled as the jewel began to glow again. 

[Penelo]

Ohcrap, Ohcrap, Ohcrap. Her concentration of her spell was broken by the snakes new attack, so she had to start all over, conjuring it up. She closed her fist in front of her face, the magical energy swirled around her, ruffling her hair a bit. She felt she had concentrated enough energy when the man ran towards her, putting himself between her and the snake. Not only did it break her concentration again but it also broke her line of sight. She watched as the deflected whatever from the creature shot off of his sword. She would have to remember to thank him later, after she gave him a piece of her mind for getting in the way like that again. She might could have set him on fire!

"Fire whatever energy you have now!" He yelled at her, when they were only about four feet apart, at the most. He must really be into this fighting--and Penelo should probably be more serious about it. She focused, trying to think of something that would stop the creature from attacking..."Blind!" She yelled it triumphantly and steeled her spine, she closed her eyes for extra focus and when she began to bring the magic to her, she fixated the serpent in her line of sight, making it her target, and then let the magic build.

When she knew she was ready, she moved her hand towards the serpent, sending the spell there as fast as she could. "Blind!" She repeated it for more finality, and in hopes that it stuck. It was obvious when the spell struck, because the creature's head pitched backwards, and when it straightened back up, it's face was veiled by murky black fog. "Now would be the time to attack it!" She advised the man while she made a run for her own sword that was still wedged into the creature's tail. She made a grab for it but as soon as her fingers closed around it and she started to pull, the creature's tail whipped her away from it. She landed with an oof and started to build up a spell.

"I'm not really for sure if that attack was magic or not, so just because it can't see doesn't mean it can't still hurt us." She continued to offer him this advisement, she didn't know how decorated of a fighter he was, or even if he had fought this serpent-thing before. Thought of course, the serpents she knew of back home didn't have any clawed hands...

[Cloud Strife]

Cloud looked at the woman as she let the magic flow out at the snake. The energy collided with the head and a black veil obscured the serpents vision. Blind spell. That will have to do. The serpent was randomly charging the jewel and firing in random directions. One landed very near to Cloud, the smell of singed hair was enough for him to move in. 

He ran towards the serpent, sword pulled back for an attack. He could feel energy coursing through him as he neared the serpent. Cloud leapt into the air as another bolt was shot at him. He had enough charge to complete one of his better magic moves. He released the energy, giving him speed and strength. He was at the serpent in seconds and began to do a magic fueled move. 

The cherry blossom was meant to be followed by a finishing move, but this was against a lightly armored monster. With great speed, Cloud sliced at the serpent, aiming for the claws and the jewel. He sliced off some of the claws before he hit the stone. When the sword impacted the stone, a small explosion blew both Cloud and the serpent away from each other. That was definetley magic. he thought as he began to recover. He felt blood on the left side of his face as he stood and retrieved his sword.

[Penelo]

Penelo picked herself up off the ground, and didn't go for her sword again. It would only result in further injury and crashing to the ground. However, she did have other spells in her arsenal that would help them. She watched as the blond haired man ran at the snake and did some sort of combo attack. She watched as the explosion sent them both in separate directions. Instead of attacking the snake, she built up a semi-powerful Cura spell and when it was ready she cast it towards the man.

Turning her attention back to the serpent, she saw that it was struggling to pick itself off of the ground. She almost felt bad for it--however she had to remind herself that it had attacked her. She drew in a deep breath as she started to cast the Firaga spell. She targeted the blind and injured snake and released the spell when it was ready, "Firaga!" She shouted, more to help fuel the power of the spell than anything. The fire erupted around the serpent like a condensed explosion, she winced from the heat of the flames and watched as the carcass faded from white, to transluecent with a rainbow tent then explode into weird little balls of light that went towards the sky. She watched them rise for a moment before she went to retrieve her sword that had fallen over when the carcass it was wedged in disappeared.

After she wiped the sword off from the grass she walked to where the man was located. Sweat clung to her own brow and she was panting a little. "Thank you for helping me." She said first, a small laugh escaped her throat as she remembered her earlier decision to give him a piece of her mind. She decided to wait a little for that. "Are you alright?" She asked while she started to prepare to cast another healing spell. Her magical reserve was running low, but hopefully it would replenish itself before another monster showed up. "I am Penelo."

[Cloud Strife]

Cloud looked up at the small motes of light that were floating into the sky when she heard the woman's voice nearby. "Thank you for helping me. Are you alright?" she said. He looked up and found her next to him. He gave a small nod of his head. The first spell she had cast on him had been enough to patch him up. "My name is Penelo." she said as he re-sheathed the massive buster sword. 

He looked around the battlefield before he gave his name. "My name is Cloud. You got lucky that I was nearby to help you." His eyes stopped where the snake had been last, a red glow was being emitted from the place. He walked over causiously, motioning for Penelo to follow. 

He soon found himself looking at the very jewel that had caused him literal pain. He picked it up in his hand and turned it. It had a glassy surface that was extremely smooth. It ws about 5 in. in diameter and glowed an eerie red. He looked at Penelo and showed her the jewel. "Have you seen anything like this before?" he asked her. 

[Penelo]

"Nice to meet you, Cloud." She smiled and chose not to say that he was the one that got hurt, because he kept trying to protect her instead of just taking care of the vehicle. She may be blond and small, but Penelo didn't save her world twice by just letting other people stand in front of her the entire time. She chose to omit all of this because really, what would that do? It would probably hurt his feelings and Penelo didn't want him to think she was ungrateful, because she was grateful for his help because she was pretty tired from the long trek down the mountain, even with the help of the odd mountain locals; the Ronso. Scary people, but with big hearts.

She followed his eyes over to the red glowing thing, and started moving towards it before he motioned for her to follow him. He picked it up and she tried to figure out what it was, exactly. At her world, often times when you hunted a creature in the wild, it left behind things like pelts, body parts, and sometimes stones. These stones didn't really do anything helpful except be sold for money, however, they also didn't glow. Sunstones, back home, did glow, as well as nethecite (Penelo prayed this stone wasn't the later), though there wasn't really a way to tell if that was a Sunstone, because she didn't see any of it's larger glowing counterparts nearby. As he held it up for her to look at, she leaned in closer to it, feeling a magical signature within it.

"May I?" She asked before she carefully took it from his hands and held it with both of hers. It was warm to the touch. "I think we should keep it, just in case. Maybe someone will know what it is, and maybe we could Loot it and get gil. At least I hope that is the currency system here; it's all I have. Speaking of..." Penelo told him as she carefully cradled the gem in her hand and against her chest like a baby while she reached around behind her and into her bag. She pulled out one of the wolf pelts she had with her and wrapped up the gem with covered up it's pulsing glow and magical signature. Now, hopefully, it wouldn't draw anything to them. She then replaced it inside her bag carefully and then turned towards Cloud.

"Are you from here? Well not really here, here, but this world? Yasee, I just crashed here from a place called Ivalice. You heard of it? Anyway, I'd really like to get back there because I need to see if my friends are alright." Penelo tried to not look too hopeful as he asked all those questions. But even if he couldn't tell her about this place, at least she wasn't alone anymore.

[Cloud Strife]

Cloud watched as the girl wrapped the stone in a wolfskin. The glow dissapeared and the girl asked him if he was from the area. "I visit this area every once and a while to get away from it all." He gestured down at his tent showing what he meant. There was almost no cell service out here and he only had enough gas in "Fenrir" to make a trip here and back. 

He looked at the woman again and sighed. "I do know that there is a village only an hours walk from here. They might know about getting you transportation and they might know about the stone." Cloud didn't want to admit that he already knew what the stone was, being a veteran of fighting monsters. A voice inside him said not to trust this woman with the information. Many had tried to cope with it and had met untimedly demises. Cloud stayed cool and controlled as he waited for the girl to say something. 

[Penelo]

She smiled happily and then successfully squashed the urge to clap her hands because he said he knew the area. She was even happier when he said that there was a town an hour away. That wasn't so long, after all. She'd walked for longer. "Great! Would you mind if I rested for a little. That thing wasn't the first thing I fought today, and I just need a short break, then I'll not bother you." She asked as her arms folded in front of her. This guy didn't really seem to open up much, so she was pretty sure he would say 'no.' But at least she tried. She could walk another hour if she had to, but she would really feel comfortable if she recuperated first.

Penelo was something of a veteran fighting monsters herself, both the illusionary Yahri and the native creatures of Ivalice, and like she had reflected before, she had seen something like this stone before, but her world was a lot different than this one. She got the vibe from Cloud that he was keeping something from her, and maybe didn't even trust her...it was some sort of tension in the air, anyway. With her hands still folded in front of her, she looked over Cloud with a faint smile, just glad of his presence. "So, what's this place like?" She asked him, always one to want to keep a conversation going. She also wanted to familiarize herself with the area, in case she needed to run from something, she didn't want to get lost in the process.