Living Legacy

Chapter 3: Besaid and the Summoner

When I next came to, I was face down in a warm, sunny tropical water. I was face down in the sea, floating closer to shore. It was a good thing I literally couldn't drown, or else I would have been dead meat.

Just as I was getting acquainted with my surroundings, something hit me in the back of the head...something hard, and yet very familiar. I turned around and saw that it was a large blue and white blitzball, just floating there, happy as you like.

"Wh—Blitzball!" I exclaimed happily upon seeing it.

"Hey, you alright?" A guy with jet-black hair called from the shore. He was with what I could only assume was his team, since they were all wearing the same thing and were tossing blitzballs around. I don't know why, but I just got so excited at seeing something so familiar that I wanted to show off a little.

I dove underwater and positioned myself so the ball was directly over my head. I sprang out of the water, using my head to launch the ball into the air, then did a bicycle kick, shooting the ball back at the guys on the shore and nearly whacking the tall guy with black hair in the face. The ball caught the wind, and peeled away from his face just in time, revealing an utterly amazed expression.

"Hey Zack!" Someone not in a blitz uniform called out, drawing the guys attention away as I swam up to shore, where the rest of 'Zack's' team crowded around me.

Whoever the guys were that he was talking to walked off, and then he walked over with a cool smirk on his face.

"Hey so uh...you wanna try that move one more time?" He asked, and I nodded happily. Things were finally starting to look up. People who spoke my language, and who were fellow blitz players...I was in heaven.

I showed them how to do a Sphere Shot (the name of the move where you bicycle kick the ball while you shoot, giving you more momentum) and they all looked floored.

"You're no armature. Who do you play for?" Zack asked.

"The Zanarkand Abes." I spouted out proudly, forgetting everything that Sora had just told me. It just slipped out. I was excited, okay?

A bunch of the guys started whispering, and Zack crossed his arms, "What team did you say again?"

"Uh, I meant...Forget that!" I stuttered out, realizing my mistake. "I got too, uh...close to Sin, and my head's all foggy-like." I figured that was the best excuse I had. Hell, it was the only one I had. "So I don't know where this place is, or even where I came from."

"Sin's toxin got to you? Sucks man...but, you're still alive, right? Thank Yevon for that." They all bowed, then Zack turned back to face the rest of the team, "Alright you bums, back to practice." They all went back to what they were doing before, and Zack held a hand out for me, and formally introduced himself, "I'm Zack, coach and captain of the Besaid Aurochs."

"Besaid huh?" I said looking around at the white sandy beach and clear blue water. I could have really gotten used to this place. "I'm Ventus, but call me Ven."

"So Ven, do you—" He was interrupted by my stomach making whale sounds and gurgling. To be fair, even though my last memory was about Sora giving me food, I didn't know how long ago it was that I had eaten. My stomach on the other hand, decided that it was time for eating right now. "Hungry?" He smirked, "Come on, I'll get you something back at the village. Follow me."

He began to walk down a bath that lead away from the beach, and into a dirt road trail through some tropical looking forest. Before we got too far off the beach, I felt like I could trust this Zack, so I just had to ask.

"It's true Zanarkand was destroyed, right? 1000 years ago or something? So It's just a big pile of rubble now, isn't it?"

"A long time ago, there were a ton of cities in Spira. Big cities with lots of machina—machines—to run them. The people played all day, and let the machina do all the work. Then...well, take a look." He gestured up and around, where I could see ruins that look absolutely ancient...ancient and fairly similar in architecture to Zanarkand. "Sin came, and destroyed the machina cities, Zanarkand along with them. That was around a thousand years ago, just like you said. If you ask me, Sin's our punishment for letting things get out of hand...But what gets me is that we gotta suffer for what some goofballs did back then."