"A fire spell would sure come in handy right about now."  Celes found
herself talking to herself.  Of course, there wasn't much else to do down
here.  She had been walking for hours, having left at sunrise; it was
probably past lunch time in South Figaro.  She managed to use a Tincture
bottle to stand her torch up in.  "Not much else to use it for now..."

She opened the pack she was carrying.  She took out a prepared sandwich.
Not bad; a little dry with nothing to drink, but not bad.  She took a few
more bites, and washed it down with some tonic.  "Increases strength and
quenches thirst.  Kill two monsters with one arrow." She smiled to
herself.

Presently she picked up her sword, packed everything away, and started
walking again.  But she had barely gone another quarter-mile when she
heard a voice.  "Go back!"

She must have jumped a mile high, but when she recovered she called
out, "Where... Who are you?"

"Return to your town.  This place is not of your concern anymore.  You
humans must not interfere."

She walked on further, calling out every once in a while.  She had to admit
to herself she was scared when she finally got an answer.

"Do not come any further, or I will be forced to destroy you."  Suddenly a
White Dragon appeared in front of her.  Impossible; they had destroyed it.
She had seen Edgar kill it with his own spear.

Then she realized that it was this dragon that had been calling out to
her.  "An intelligent monster?"

"If that is what you wish to call me, but I cannot let you pass. You cannot
harm my master!"

"I... I don't want to harm anyone, not if you're intelligent.  Let me talk
to your master."

"SILENCE!  NEITHER YOU NOR ANYONE ELSE WILL SPEAK TO MY MASTER!  YOU WILL
TURN AND LEAVE NOW OR YOU WILL BE DESTROYED!"

"I have to see what's behind you.  If fighting is the only way to do it,
then so be it."

The dragon simply flung its head toward Celes.  She was thrown back fifty
feet easily.  "Wow!  I've never seen anything so powerful before."

"Yes.  I am powerful.  I do not want to destroy you, so turn and go."

"I can't.  I have to see what is behind you."

She jumped up and charged at the creature.  She swung her hardest, right at
the monster's torso, and fell to the floor.  "What the...?"

"Hahahahaha!  Foolish mortal.  You swing at nothing and expect to hit
something."

The monster disappeared.  In fact, the walls disappeared too.  She was
caught in mist.  She dashed back in the direction she came, out of the
mist.

"An intelligent dragon that can turn itself to mist?  A Mist Dragon?"

"CORRECT!  AND YOU WILL LEAVE NOW OR DIE!"

The mist reformed into the dragon. Celes closed her eyes, visualizing the
dragon.  "Eye of the Eagle," she thought.  Suddenly, it became clear, two
unguarded spots on the dragon.  All she had to do was use them to her
advantage.  But would it work on this thing?

She charged at the left side of the monster, then dodged to the right,
attacking it just under its right arm.  As it was rearing back its head in
pain, she stabbed at its neck.  She didn't want to kill it, so she didn't
strike hard.  But the blow was enough to knock the dragon down.

She ran past it.  Into a bigger cavern leading off in different
directions.  She took the far right tunnel.  That was where the light was
coming from.

She rounded a corner and had to shield her eyes from the light.  She
managed to adjust to it, and saw an amazing thing.  Another strange
machine. This one held someone in it.

"TERRA!"... No, wait, it couldn't be her.  The person inside this
"capsule" had green hair, but was probably a few years older Terra, and
definitely wasn't her.  Who could it be?

She looked around the room.  Monsters, men, they all seemed to look very
mad about this intrusion.  Then the Mist Dragon appeared in-between
herself and the machine.  "Protect our Master with your lives!"

"Wait!  I don't want to fight."

"Then you must leave." A man, looking surprisingly like Odin - of the Odin
magicite - said.

"No, please, I just want to look... to talk.  Why is that girl here?"

The Mist Dragon shrank itself a little so that Celes could see.

"This person is our Master.  Master Rydia.  She put herself in this
comatose state so that she may live to see the day when humans and
summoned monsters may live freely in peace.  You humans are not ready for
this yet."

"Summoned monsters?"

"Yes. We are summoned monsters.  Master Rydia may call us whenever she
pleases.  We have dedicated our lives to her."

"Why?"

"There was a time, many thousands of years ago, when the world was in
peril.  Master Rydia and her friends defeated an evil that would have
crushed this world."

"Sorry, I didn't take much history.  What happened?"

"Rydia and her friends saved the world from the fate of Zeromus, an evil
power bent on destroying all that is.  Master Rydia, with our help,
defeated Zeromus and saved the world."

"So she just put herself in this state?"

"Yes. And before she did, she wished that we would bury this capsule and
defend it until the appointed time.  And we have made it so."

"So she is the only one left?"

"If you mean the only caller left, then yes, she is.  But she is not the
only human from her time in this world."

"You mean there are more?"

"Yes."

Suddenly, the monsters all stopped moving.  "What's going on?" Celes said.
They seemed to take no notice.  They suddenly they all went into motion at
once, pushing and pulling levers with their hoofs, hands, and snouts.

Then the capsule depressurized, and Rydia stepped out.

"Hello. My name is Rydia.  I am a caller of the village of Mist.  And who
might you be?"