"Wow!  These walls seem to glow," Celes said as she walked along.  She and
Rydia must have been following the monsters for almost half a day now.

"This place looks... strangely familiar, as if I've been here before,"
Rydia said.

"Have you?"  Celes stopped, giving Rydia time to look around.

"Yes. I have, but I thought..." her voice trailed off. Suddenly, she fell
to the floor, crying out in pain.

"What?  What is it?!"  Celes grabbed Rydia by the shoulders.

"I feel such incredible power.  It must be acting as a conductor."

"What must be a conductor?  This place?"

"Yes.  I can feel them, I can feel them all somehow."

"Who?  What do you mean?"

Behind them, a sound...

Celes whirled.  It seemed like their first adversary was showing himself.
What a strange being.  It was brown, in the shape of a woman, but had
green hair.  "Like a tree..." Celes thought.

"You must be gone!  This place is ours now.  We must not let you have
access..." the being began.

"Access this!" Celes cried; she didn't know why, but she felt deeply in
danger by this being.  Drawing her scimitar and running at the monster,
she slashed twice, but both were easily dodged.

"From the land of the summoned monsters, I call Mist Dragon."  Mist
appeared in front of Rydia, and swelled into the Mist Dragon. It blew a
stream of gas at the monster.  It didn't seem to hurt it.  But it did stop
it.

"A caller!  But I thought you were all dead."

"Not all of us." said Rydia.  "Who are you?"

"I am Dryad, spirit of the Earth, at your service. You may call me
whenever you want," he said.

"Wait!  What are you doing here?  And what is your power?" Rydia said.

"I have been sent here by Cecil, high leader of Baron and the world, to
guard this place forever."

"Then this is the place I was thinking of.  This is the Tower of Bab-il!"

"THE MAGICAL ENTRANCE TO THE MOON?"  Celes cried.  "But I thought that
was only a fairy-tale."

Completely ignoring her, Rydia continued, "Why can I feel them Dryad?  I
can feel them all.  Why?"

"That is my power, Master.  I am the Earth.  I communicate with every
living thing.  It is because of me you can feel the presence of everyone
on Earth.  It is because of the tower that you can feel your friends on
the moon."

"So they're still alive.  Cecil, Edge, Golbez, FuSoYa... Rosa!"

"Yes.  You feel their presences, scattered around the two planets."

"Hey, we still have to find that guy's family you know."  Celes chirped
in.

"That's right.  Dryad, come.  You will help me find them."

*****

"I tell you, I can feel their presence.  They're right around this
corner."  They turned right.

And came face-to-face with more than 100 monsters.  "Tell me you sensed
them too and have some sort of trap here, right?"  Celes said, drawing her
blade again.

"I can't feel monsters, only humans."

"You should say these things before we bet our lives on it."

Rydia drew her whip, which she hadn't used yet in this century.  "Hope I'm
not too rusty."

*****

Every part of Celes' body hurt.  She was exhausted.  No matter how many
monsters she defeated, more always seemed to come.  A monster to her right
was attacking, now to her left.  One hit her right shoulder and made her
drop her sword.

Rydia, on the other hand, was fine.  She had been casting and calling left
and right and had defeated most of the monsters.  "My magic is almost
shot!" she called out, casting a fire spell in an Ice Wolf's direction.

"I don't have my sword.  Can you cut me a path to the hostages?  Then just
Warp us out of here." Celes called.

"Alright, get ready... I call Ifrit!" The huge fire-beast appeared right
in front of Celes, and plowed a path straight to the woman and child.

Celes ran as fast as she could.  It seemed like she had to consciously tell
her body what to do.  Left foot, right foot, left foot...

She grabbed the two, and noticed something sitting on a pedestal.  She
instinctively grabbed it.

"Get us out of here."

"WARP!"

*****

They hadn't stopped running ever since they had warped out of the cave.
Now Celes and Rydia, sitting outside the man's house, had time to catch
their breath and heal their wounds.

"Oh, thank you, thank you. Here's your reward." He handed them 35,000
gold, in a bag.  "I don't care if they come back, you two earned that
money."

"Thanks." Celes whispered. And finally looked down at what she had grabbed
on the way out of the cave.

An Orb.