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Final Fantasy 7. Tifa Lockhart: Journey to Midgar.	By : Nickamano Category: Final Fantasy VII > General Views: 7312 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 7 is created and owned by Squaresoft, now Square-Enix. Nothing here is owned by me. It was created for entertainment purposes, and I am not profiting financially from the creation and online presentation of this story.

Chapter List
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PART TWO – FOLLOWING YOUR HEART.
It was a beautiful brisk morning, the salty breeze of the Southern wind adding an extra dimension of chill, but Tifa found it refreshing and invigorating.

Though it proved much colder when she emerged from the forest and Tifa was glad of the pull-ups and long gloves, covering most of the skin of her arms and legs. There was a low mist rolling in off the sea to her South, but she could tell that with the brightness of the sun already blazing, it would be gone within the hour.

The lush deep fields south of the forest were still touched with morning frost and there were low clouds to the South over the ocean, visually at least, mixing in with the mist and forming an eyeline-filling grey blanket. However, Tifa was heading Northeast, where the sky was brighter and the clouds little more than wisps.

She should have felt either numb like yesterday or enveloped in a funk, and yet instead she was embraced by feelings of anticipation and excitement. She was looking forward to the journey, to seeing more of the world. And even more, she was looking forward to finding Zangan and telling him everything would be okay. And that despite what he thought, they could be together and they could be happy. She was excited and uplifted by the thought of her future.

She had begun by tracking his departure. It was easy at first, he had followed the partial trial from the cabin through the woods to the waist-deep grass of the Southern plain. And the long grasses always gave very obvious tracks to follow. However, she was intimately aware of Zangan’s trademarked leaping ability and sure enough, once she emerged onto the plains his tracks abruptly vanished. There were clusters of pale boulders nearby, in fact they were dotted all over the plains. And he could easily have leapt to any number of them from the edge of the forest then proceeding onwards, moving from one to another to conceal his trail.

She was in no hurry though. Their love was true and eternal and she had no doubts that she would find him and everything would be good again. He had a hundred and twenty-seven other students dotted around this entire world and she would find them, and they would put her onto his trail at some point.

She remembered him mentioning ‘Piran’, who lived and trained in the slums of Midgar. He would be her first port of call. She had checked the wall-painted world map carefully before she left. It was a long journey, crossing this continent to its Eastern most port town of Costa Del Sol, then crossing the ocean to the continent of Midgar, and then onto the Shin-Ra Capital City itself. But she had the time and the opportunity. It would be an adventure.

Walking fast to stave off the shivers instilled by the winter chill, she followed the plains Northward, keeping her own forest to her left and the distant Gongaga forest to her right. Part of her considered going to Gongaga and exploring the little village. It wasn’t impossible that Zangan had headed there himself. However, for reasons she couldn’t fathom, she preferred to continue North.

During the first hour, the layer of frost coating the plains grass had melted with the caress of the low winter sun, however, it was damp under her boots and the grass was waist high, wetting the treated leather of her pull-ups and the bare tops of her thighs.

The plains also proved more dangerous than she had first anticipated. There were animals in the vicinity, especially Grand Horns, that were rather well-camouflaged when they crouched within the tall grass. They tended to hunt either in pairs or alone, and when they crouched and remained still their lumpy greenish flesh backs looked like little more than a mossy boulder. And a number of times she had stumbled across them.

After a while she started to recognise the camouflaged Grand Horns and was able to sneak past, keeping her distance. Other times she wasn’t so lucky and had to run away from the large predatory creatures. Though once or twice, especially the first couple of times she came across them, she found herself caught unawares and had to fight them off. She did her best to hold back, managing to hurt them enough so that they ran or stunned them long enough so that she could run. Other times she was forced into a fight to the death. There was rarely any real threat to her life and she found herself victorious with little more than bruising and if she was really unlucky, a number of scratches and those were easily dealt with through the use of her Cure Materia.

However, she didn’t like fighting animals, it didn’t seem fair or a good use of her skills, so as often as she could, she ran or avoided them. When she couldn’t, she tried her best to stun them, and then ran.

A mile or so beyond Gongaga forest, the plains grass thinned out and another shorter, softer bladed grass became the proliferate vegetation, the walking became easier and drier and the animals she saw were easier to avoid. Though the short grass, still covering mostly flat, gently rolling plains, also made her much easier to spot too, and be mistaken for potential prey.

After another two- or three-hours’ leisurely walking, the forest to her left, she was no longer sure if it still constituted as ‘her’ forest anymore, started to sweep away from the direction she was following. So Tifa turned Northward and continued onwards across the grassy field.

She was just coming around to the idea of maybe stopping for lunch sometime soon, when she found herself growing slowly alert to a commotion, floating her way on the wind. It began as an unidentifiable sound, on the afternoon breeze, indecipherable and was snatched away far too quickly. However, before long it repeated, an echoing of distant shouts, possibly a scream, though any certainty was whipped away by a sudden change in the wind. There was also a single distinctive ‘wark’ of a Chocobo. And then some kind of screeching roar, then numerous screeching roars overlapping each other. And then a definite scream.

Tifa ran. She wasn’t completely sure of the right direction but trusting the feeling and general wind direction, that it was most probably directly ahead of her. There was a shallow rise on the plain up ahead and she heard another ‘wark’ as she hit its flattened peak. This time the Chocobo sounded different, either frightened or injured. She ran faster. And after thirty seconds or so, the downward slope on the far side of the low rise provided her a view of her upcoming journey. The short-grass plain sloped all the way down to a fast-flowing river, which must by carrying the rain flow collected up in the mountains and transporting it down into the sea. Still, the lush green plain carried as far as the eye could see in every direction, a copse of trees here and there, but mostly just grass. Though on the horizon to the North and West, the air was dancing visibly with a distant yet unmistakeable haze of heat.

Something glinting in the sun, something reflective, caught her attention, down by the river, ahead of her at the bottom of the slope. And she realised that she was witnessing the cause of the commotion, she ran down the slope, closing the distance as quickly as she could and as the distance melted away, she recognised what was going on.

It was a little convoy of Chocobo drawn vehicles. A convoy of two, a post chaise carriage, drawn by a single large Chocobo, with another smaller wain, a two wheeled cart with a flat canvass cover to protect its cargo, drawn by a smaller Chocobo. There were two people on the post chaise and a third driving the wain. And around them, snapping at the flanks of the Chocobo, two on the left and one on the right, were three large Spencers.

They were mid-sized, low to the ground, essentially flightless, dragon-winged lizard-like creatures. Maybe four feet long with a ten-foot wingspan. More than likely related to the Dragon species, maybe a distant cousin. These three were typical specimens, greenish bodies, blue wings - that allowed them to glide low to the ground across the plains, there were short greenish-gold coloured spiky horns, akin to antlers crowning the top of their heads and grey-white spines running down their backs and ending in two-pronged, Zolom-tongue tails.

In the wain the older male driver was trying to shoot the Spencer attacking his Chocobo with an old bolt-action rifle. But the plains-dragon was far too quick in its reflexive movements for the white haired old man to get a clean show, it darted left and right with lizard-like dexterity and speed and then lashed out with one of its super-sharp claw-tipped wings, slicing into one of the wide toed feet of the poor Chocobo, who screamed and reared, almost tipping the little cart over. The Spencer, sensing victory kicked up off the ground and whipped a wing attack at the driver. He fell right out of his seat, tumbled onto the grass on the opposite side of the little cart on his back, winded and now in mortal danger.

Inside the larger covered four-wheeled carriage, there were two humans, a woman and child. Tifa couldn’t tell the ages of either from the distance. However, the woman was bravely standing up on the bench-seat, reins gripped tightly in one hand and a long whip in the other. She was lashing at the Spencer on her left with the whip, trying to keep it at bay, while the other Spencer on the right was itself attacking the large yellow avian. The child, maybe five or six, screaming and crying was throwing small rocks at the, creature in utter panic and despair, trying to keep it off the Chocobo.

Tifa was almost there but the man was seconds from being opened up by the Spencer’s cruel looking wing tips. As it had scuttled around, darting insect-like underneath the cart and was running, a strange-looking unnerving dance of fast erratic movement, straight at the stunned old man, who was still on his back, laid out on the ground.

Tifa got to the wain at full sprint. launching herself up into the air, she landed on the back of the cart and kicked off again at once. Then she whipped herself into a forward mid-air somersault, her right leg extended. And the speed and momentum tied up in that powerful limb, coming out of the cartwheel upright, she dropped down onto the Spencer’s back, her heel ploughing into its horned skull with all the power of an artillery shell. Its head was instantly crushed by the impact, smashed skull bones forced through its small brain to meet and interact with the bones of its lower jaw. It went without saying that its forward motion and razor-sharp wingtip claws came to a halt just short of touching the old man.

Tifa had already kicked herself back into a sprint, throwing herself forward at the second Spencer that was hissing and darting left and right to avoid the child’s badly thrown rocks.

The sixteen-year-old girl used a double foot combination on the second creature, the first a standard kick to lift it up off the ground. It tried to take to the wing and avoid Tifa’s subsequent crashing knee, but her expertly timed and powerful stroke caught the creature in the mid torso from beneath, splattering its internal organs. She finished the creature off by bringing her elbow down, corresponding knee still uplifted, the tremendous energy pushing through the creature’s innards. The elbow created a rock and a hard place for the Spencer to get trapped and crushed between.

It was dead before it hit the ground and Tifa, was already using her forward momentum to carry her to the side of the post chaise. He used her right leg, which was straightening out of the knee strike, caught an edge of the wooden structure of the carriage and ran upwards sprinting across its top, relying on the arched wooden roof piece above the driver’s bench seat, to hold her meagre weight and then dropped down on the third Spencer from above. It zipped out of range at the last possible second and flew, running full pelt across the grass, until there was enough of a breeze that a shifting of the angle of its wings got it gliding rapidly off into the distance. Tifa watched it until it was out of sight. It probably would not think of trying again, not now it was alone. And there was almost certainly easier prey to try its hand at.

The woman with the whip was already off the bench seat and running backward to check on the old man. Tifa moved carefully over to the still rearing, frightened and injured Chocobo and calmed it before examining the deep wound and using her Cure Materia to heal it. The healed wound might still be weak and tender for a few hours yet, but at least the bleeding had stopped and the firm, wrinkled, leathery skin had healed over.

She was faintly aware that the child was standing on the Bench-seat and staring down at her, as though mesmerised. But she ignored him for the moment. The Chocobo was more important. Then she sensed movement behind her.

“Thank you miste… Holy crap…! Thank you, healthy young miss!” A gruff, slightly rheumy male voice sounded.
“Wow, look at you! Damn!” The voice continued wittering under its breath, though not quite quietly enough not to go unnoticed.
“Arthur!” Chided a female voice. “Behave yourself. This young lady just saved our lives.”

Happy with the healing of the Chocobo, Tifa finally turned and looked at the two adults standing side by side, facing her. And the child looking down at her from the post chaise’s seat.

“Everyone okay?”
“Hot damn girl? Where’d you come from?! Like some heaven-devil, no some heavenly-blessing! You’re as tough and badass as you are beautiful!” Arthur gushed.

His steel grey eyes, framed by thin yet bushy unkempt brows, and behind wireframed spectacles were out on stalks, looking her up and down with a crooked smile and flushed cheeks.

“Dad! Now stop that! This girl just saved our lives! Instead of ogling her, at least you could show her a little respect!” The woman snapped at him.

She was approaching middle age, long blonde hair in a high pony tail with long wisps framing her pleasant, angular face with a small upturned nose and a small mouth with thin lips. Her eyes were large and expressive and close to lilac in colour. She looked simultaneously embarrassed and relieved.

“I’m sorry about him miss. Has always been one for pretty girls. More of a handful than Maiki, he’s my son.”

She indicating the boy, who on closer look, reminded Tifa of Cloud when he was that age. The kid, no more than seven, was dressed in badly fitting shorts and a short-sleeved shirt, long unkempt blond hair in a pony tail. He also had similar pale purple eyes to his mother. And like his grandfather, his eyes were out on stalks as he stared down at Tifa, though he had an expression of barely contained amazement rather than lust.

“Oh my gosh lady! That was A-MAY-ZING!” The boy gushed at top volume. “The way you planted them monsters! How d’you do that?!”
“My master Zangan taught me everything I know!” Tifa said, grinning up at the boy.
“Zangan! I’ve heard’a him! What’s yer name beautiful?!” Arthur asked her.

Tifa smiled and tossed the grey haired, slightly built older man a playful wink.

“You can call me Heavenly Blessing, Gramps!” She teased. “But my name’s Tifa.”

“Pleasure to meet you Tifa. Thank you so much for coming to our aid. I don’t know what you would have done if you hadn’t shown up what you did.” The woman said.
“I’m Kaori. And the old pervert is Arthur.”
“Old pervert?! Don’t be cheeky, girl! Pleasure’s all mine ‘Miss Blessing’!” Arthur said, winking back at her, his cheeks flushing even more. “Best be careful, girl you’re gonna give me a heart attack!”

Tifa laughed.

“Where you guys headed?”
“Up to North Corel.” Kaori said. “I’m taking my son to see where his father was raised. He passed away a few years ago.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I lost my father just recently too.”
“Oh, you poor thing. I’m very sorry.”
“That why you’re out here all on your lonesome?” Arthur asked her, with a little more solemnity. “You going to live with relatives?”
“Arthur! It’s none of our business!” Kaori, aghast, turned to glare at her father.
“It’s fine, really.” Tifa said with a smile. “I don’t have any other family. Actually, I’m really chasing my heart… In a manner of speaking…”
“Ah, some young fella’s caught yer eye eh? Chasin’ after him to declare yer love are yer? Well he’d be a fool to turn down a stunner like Miss Blessing here!” Arthur gushed.

Tifa wondered if he’d been drinking. Though she liked him all the same. He reminded her of Meiday’s grandfather. Another of Nibelheim’s residents that she would never see again.

“Something like that.” She laughed, casting aside the little stab of melancholy.
“We could give you a lift if you’re heading our way.” Arthur said. “The trip to North Corel’ll be about a day with us, be three or four times that or more on foot, even for a healthy and robust little thing like yer lovely self, Miss Blessing.”
“Arthur, really!” Kaori groaned. “But really Miss Tifa, you’re more than welcome. There’s a shortcut path through the mountains from Corel, that leads you all the way to Costa Del Sol. Plus there’s The Gold Saucer. Where’s this sweetheart of yours gone?”
“Yeah! And what the hell is doing, being anywhere but at your side?! Lovely girl like you, an’ alone and grieving an all. Is he soft in the head, or somethin’?!”
“He might just be!” Tifa laughed. “Thank you both, I will join you as far as North Corel, then I’ll decide where to go next.”
“It’s decided then! Miss Blessing will ride back here with me and we can have a good chat.” Arthur gushed again.
“No, she will not!” Kaori snapped. “Maiki can ride with you and Miss Tifa can sit up with me.”
“No mom! I wanna ride with the lady with the big boobs!” The boy cried out.
“Maiki! You don’t say things like that! You apologise to Miss Tifa, at once.” Kaori blazed; her cheeks suddenly almost purple with embarrassment.

Arthur was laughing animatedly and Tifa though slightly embarrassed couldn’t help but laugh as well.

“It’s fine Kaori.” She said. “I’d be more than happy to ride with your father. I’ll make sure he behaves himself.”
“Absolutely I will! On my honour!” He gushed, suddenly as overexcited as a thirteen-year-old.
“If you wish Tifa.” Kaori said with a shrug, ignoring her son’s abrupt pout. “You see that you do, Arthur!”
“Are you kidding girl? We’ve all seen what she can do, if I tried anything untoward, she’d rip my head clean off!”

Tifa looked at Kaori with a little lopsided smile and raised eyebrows.

“I have a nice blanket you can wrap around you.” Arthur said as he steered Tifa to the rear of the convoy-of-two.
“Oh, I’m fine thank you. I’m not cold.”
“It ain’t for you girl, it’s to help me! Looking the way you do, if I can’t keep my eyes off you, we’re gonna end up going off a cliff!” He laughed.
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Final Fantasy 7. Tifa Lockhart: Journey to Midgar.