InsaneJournal

After the elders were not more than a speck in the distance, Tifa looks down into the ravine and then up towards the cliff face that would lead them home, “Damn. Hey, Cloud?”

“Hmm?”

The slightly younger girl chews thoughtfully on her lips, “...Do you think you could fly us up there? Or are we going to have to find some other way back home?”

The blond looks up, both at the sky and the cliffs, then down at the rock faces below them in the ravine. He eyes faint trails in the rocks and tries to figure out if they would hold them. He really didn't want to deal with any more elders today, and if the rocks broke under him, he would have to. Then he licks his finger and holds it up to get the wind current, and his eyes widen. “I'm not good enough to fly in winds that are blowing through such a narrow space. Plus,” he narrows his eyes as he takes another look at the sky, “I think that there's a squall coming in, there.” The blue eyed boy points towards the dark clouds quickly gathering in the south end of the ravine, opposite from where the elders went.

“Oh bugger,” Tifa swears mildly, then her eyes gain a glint. “There were other caves back there, right?”

The boy thinks about it, “Yeeeesss, I think so.”

“Do you think one might lead up to a higher point on the cliffs? And if so, could you glide us over with that higher spot?”

“Maybe, so long as we don't get lost in the caves. That would not be good, especially since we need food and water.” Then his eyes scrunch and he whacks his head, “Of course, Zangen and mom taught us how to use the local plant and animal life to survive at least a couple of days up here. So all we have to worry about are the dragons and Nibel wolves.” Cloud sounds a bit brighter, once he realized it wouldn't be quite as tough as he thought. “Let's get deeper in the caves before the squall hits, it looks to be one of the worser ones.”

She nods while keeping a wary eye on the sky, “I think there might be a spring deeper in the cavern that isn't tainted by the mako. You found a Fire, right? I don't remember a lesson on materia, but did your mother give you one?” She asks as they turn and walk back into the cave to mark each of the tunnels with a different symbol. Ms. Strife and Master Zangan had given them lessons on some of the other languages, including some of the Wutaiin symbols and Ancient Cetran cuneiform. If they marked each of the caves with separate symbols, they could keep track of which cave system they were in.

“Yeah, mom thought it'd be a good idea, partly because she felt I would put too much power into it. Something about her bloodline being too compatible with casting from materia and occasionally sucking in certain types if they weren't being careful. Especially the ones that boost your statuses that I've never exactly seen, but have heard of, like the HP plus ones.”

Tifa blinks at her friend, “Well, that's gotta suck if you want to sell it back at a later point. And what happens when the sucked in one is mastered?”

“Ummmm...” Cloud thinks as they walk through the caves, “I don't think that was mentioned by mom. It hasn't occurred recently, but she'd heard it mentioned once or twice... That would be both cool, because of the boost in health, but sucky for getting money and maybe new materia out of it...”

The two talk and bicker through the caves for the next few days, catching and cooking some of the critters and avoiding the places where the dragons nested out of old habit. They find the cave they want the second day, but the squall at that point is in full fury and would have been suicidal to try and fly to the other ledge that they could barely see through the rain. After two more days, one of which is spent by Cloud teaching Tifa about the materia and casting, the storm clears and the winds die down. With his shirt so much scrap and had been burnt as firestarters, he could release his wings without creating more of a wardrobe deficiency. Once the wings were fully spread and he had an idea as to the direction of the light wind, he gently grasps Tifa about the waist. He flaps his wings and glides them over to where the bridge had been anchored on the town side. After putting them away the two continue towards town and run into a search party... One that was only looking for Tifa's body, not two live and nearly unharmed youngsters. Needless to say, the villagers were mostly pleasantly surprised, and formed an escort to lead the two back to the village as the girl tells them a heavily edited version of what had happened over the four and a half days they'd been missing.

AN: Would have been out sooner if the muses cooperated, but I was getting the next three chapters and not this one. Ending could be better, but I was getting annoyed with my Tifa and Cloud, so kinda half-assed it.  They've also given me meeting Zack and escaping from the labs, which is why I was getting annoyed with this chapter.