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Much Ado About Baham

By Adam L.
LordDemise@aol.com

It was a nice rookery, or so Ba-haa thought. Yes . . . Sadly, only

one egg was in the entire rookery, which in itself was a miracle. Vicious

monsters from the Dawn of Time had come and stolen most of the eggs, either

eating them on the spot or carrying them with them to save for other uses.

It was a nice rookery, but it was a very poorly guarded one.

Ba-haa and his mate Myutt stood at the entrance to the dank rookery,

gazing sadly at their last egg.

I am doubtful of the egg's survival, said Ba-haa to his mate

telepathically. Neither dragon had much in the ways of speech, and even if

they had, neither wanted to reveal anything about their egg.

But if it does, what shall we name it? asked Myutt.

It's too early for that, replied Ba-haa. Wait until it hatches.

I would like to call it Ba-haamyutt, after us.

Yes, replied Ba-haa, if it is a boy. If it is a girl, we shall call

her Tiamat, after our queen.

Or if not Ba-haamyutt, Kingo or Draco, after our Kings.

Yes, nodded Ba-haa. But for now, we must wait until it hatches.

So Ba-haa and Myutt waited patiently for their lone egg to hatch.

Their patience was not in vain, for no robberers or predators came for weeks,

and by the time they did, the egg had hatched and the drageen was born. True

to their word, the mother and father named their child Ba-haamyutt, but soon

changed it to Bahamut after a month of mispronouncing the name.

Bahamut grew quickly and by the time he was four dragon years old

(eight in human), Bahamut could fend for himself in the wilderness. He grew

out of the rookery soon after he turned four and started to venture out on

his own.

When Bahamut turned six, his parents left him to completely fend for

himself, as all dragons did. Bahamut let them go easier than most drageens

had and began to fly off on his own. Fortunate that his parents left him

when they did, for soon, a great demon came upon the old rookery and killed

everything it saw, including Bahamut's parents. It took two grueling hours

of battle and four sloppy bites to eat the two, and the demon went on for

other things.

Bahamut soon learned about this, and wanted to destroy the demon.

But, in his quest to find the demon, Bahamut made a horrible realization:

the demon was half-dragon!

Bahamut became grief-stricken when he discovered the identity of the

dragon. The Great Laws stated that dragon cannot kill dragon, and also

stated that dragon could not kill half-dragon either. However, half-dragon

could kill dragon, which enraged Bahamut even more. However, he could do

absolutely nothing about it, since the King of dragons still lived and

reigned.

A month after his horrible realization, Bahamut became an adult.

Dragons tended to live at least a thousand years in his day, so Bahamut had

lots of life left to live. When he came of age, the old dragon king died,

and the next in line would succeed him. Imagine Bahamut's surprise when he

found out that the old king was his own mother's father! With his parents

dead and his birthright staked out, Bahamut received the throne in his

parent's stead and became King. However, he could not change that one Great

Law even then, and for another month he plotted on how he would avenge his

parents.

One day, word of four children claiming to be the Light Warriors of

prophecy came upon Bahamut's kingdom. Bahamut was faintly surprised; most

humans tended to stay away from dragons. He sensed from the four that the

children matched the prophecy, yet did not believe he had seen the Light

Warriors yet.

"A test!" Bahamut proclaimed aloud to his servants. "These warrior

children need a test!"

How about the badge of courage in the Castle Ordeals? asked a servant.

"Ha, indeed!" he roared. "If you warriors can bring me a certain

Badge of Courage from yonder Castle Ordeals, then you shall be rewarded!"

The four immediately left to find the badge, leaving Bahamut to scheme.

Humans could slay dragons and half-dragons. That was not prohibited in the

Great Laws. If those four had truly been the Light Warriors, then they may

stand a chance!, thought the dragon king.

Bahamut waited an hour before the children returned with the badge.

It was a lowly rat's tail, hardly worth keeping. But it was guarded well,

and thus the warriors returned. Bahamut grinned when he saw them arrive, and

rewarded them with true warrior status.

"Light Warriors--revive this planet!" Bahamut said to them as they

left.

And they did. The evil half-dragon--CHAOS--had been completely

defeated by the four. Bahamut's parents were avenged, and the world was at

peace.

But still Bahamut was not content. He needed assurance than peace

would be kept. So, using his powers as King, Bahamut created a brand of

monsters on his own, and gave them abilities to answer the summons of the

pure of heart. For the woods he created Chocobos, for the fog he made Mist

Dragons. For the fires he made Jinn, for the skies he made Indra, for the

ice he made Shiva, for the earth he made Titan. For the pure he made Sylphs,

for the noble he made Odin. And to rule over the monsters he made Asura the

queen and Leviatan the king, himself being creator and judge over all

monsters.

For a period, Bahamut stayed on the Earth, but went to the moon once

a living plane for his monsters was made. There he took human form, and

brought his servants with him, who also took human form. Between the time

that CHAOS died and the time he arrived on the moon, forty years had passed.

The Light Warriors still lived, but had went their separate ways after a

time: the Knight became King of the country of Baron, the Ninja became King

of Eblan, the Black Belt Master became King of Fabul, the Red Wizard became

king of Damcyan. The Black Wizard became Elder of Mysidia and the White

Wizard settled down in Baron, raising a daughter named Rosa.

In those times, a new evil arose from the shadows. He was Zemus,

evil incarnate. Bahamut knew of Zemus and knew of his power, but could do

little to help stop him. In fact, Bahamut did nothing at all until a skilled

caller named Rydia came to him.

"So you have defeated Leviatan," he observed, looking into Rydia's

eyes. He could tell easily that the caller could control Leviatan and Asura

now. "But it could have been done without the power of Light," he continued.

And it could, really. So he decided to test the caller in battle. It was a

short one, and a very even one at that. Needless to say, the test was

unnecessary. The caller proved to be worthy, and her friends as well. So,

Bahamut gave his power to her in hopes of thwarting Zemus and saving the

worlds.

In time, Bahamut grew older, wiser, and much more powerful. He also

grew more careless. On Earth, a war was going on and Bahamut decided to

help. When he arrived, his worst fear came true: the stone goddesses,

creators of magic and writers of the Great Laws, were fighting amongst

themselves and transforming helpless humans into their pawns in the battle.

Humans fought themselves over these pawns, and fought the pawns themselves.

Many pawns (Espers, thought Bahamut. Espers was the dragon word for "Pawn of

the Gods") died in the battle, and many evils were created from the pawns and

the goddesses. Bahamut recognized many as evil dragons, while others were

ancestors of the summoned monsters. There was Phumbaba (dragon for "Evil

Monster"), Doom Gaze (because the creature came from the Doom goddess), and

many other evils. The battle was so fierce at the time that Bahamut didn't

notice Doom Gaze as he charged him, until it was too late. Immediately, Doom

Gaze began shredding Bahamut with his long claws.

"Halt! Cease, in the name of Bahamut the King!" he shouted. But the

creature screeched in reply and kept attacking, for it was a dumb monster and

could not understand the dragon. Under the heavy attack of Doom Gaze,

Bahamut decided to destroy himself in hopes of destroying the monster with

him. So in a flash of light, Bahamut prepared to destroy himself. But

before he could, a stray blast from the goddesses struck Bahamut, and turned

him into a shard of Magicite! Doom Gaze ate the shard, yet even then Bahamut

refused to give up, and paralyzed the creature with his power. Doom Gaze

fell into a deep ravine that the goddesses had made in their campaign, and

did not come out for a thousand years.

During those thousand years, Bahamut split his spirit into three

dragons, and each one escaped Doom Gaze's mouth, all except for the Esper

part of Bahamut. That remained inside, waiting to be freed.

During another war, the Esper part of Bahamut was freed from Doom

Gaze, and helped fight a little in that particular war. However, once magic

vanished from the world, the Esper Bahamut was gone forever. Only his three

spirits remained, but even they were not invincible to the purge of magic.

So, drawing out energy from the Planet, they transformed themselves into

orbs, and lied in stasis along different parts of the planet, until the purge

was over.

Eons later, the orb with Bahamut spirit 1 was found in an Ancient

Temple, and was used in a war for the life of the Planet. Then, on a distant

windy crater, Bahamut's second spirit, Neo-Bahamut, was found and used in the

same war. Finally, on a sacred canyon, Bahamut's third spirit, Bahamut Zero,

was found and used in the war. When the long war finally ended, all three

Bahamut orbs fused as one, absorbing power from "Lifestream" that was pouring

out from the planet. In a flash, Bahamut was reborn. Rising high in the

sky, Bahamut began to contemplate his past, and his future.

"I have seen Light Warriors avenge my parents. I have seen humans

summon me to save other people. I have seen defeat, and victory. I have

even seen things from three different perspectives," said he, "but I wonder

what I shall see next?"

Only Final Fantasy 8, and time, will tell . . .

THE

END