Standing on the porch, Lina gazed off into the distance where the winds were crashing a nearby house. This couldn't be normal. The trees were on the verge of being uprooted by the fierce winds that howled and hissed throughout the entire empire. Chichiri stood behind her; the two of them exchanged startled looks, but Lina looked away first. This would distract her from focusing on her personal problems; her distraught mind mixed with her apprehensiveness about these strange signs only weighed down upon her already distressed heart.
Lina pulled out of her pocket a cell phone, flipped it open, checked the time, and checked the date. She looked up at the winds once again with careful eyes, then at Chichiri who had his eyes focused on the disaster approaching. Lina wrinkled her brow, but ignored her distracting thoughts. This wasn't the time for that! Lina checked the time and date on her cell phone again and swallowed the knot in her throat. This was it.
"TORNADO!" Cross-dresser Nuriko rushed pass them and called out so that everyone in the palace would have a chance to save themselves. He and Tamahome were running down the side of the hall. "Take cover!" Tamahome tossed the two of them a long rope. Chichiri moved quickly as he saw the tornado coming from the other side of the palace, tearing down several trees and totally trashing the courtyard with split branches and pieces of shattered rock.
"I have to go," Lina called to Chichiri from over the noise of the winds. Chichiri's jaw dropped.
"What are you saying!?" he asked, as he ducked into his room and tied himself down to the pillars in the room. "That's a frikken tornado out there, Lina."
"I know, I'll see you soon!" Lina said, then rushed back out to the porch. She carefully climbed onto the railing and readied herself for what she was about to do. She could hear behind her Chichiri calling her name, desperate to get her to stop. He thought she was just being reckless. He thought she had no idea what she was getting herself into. Why did they always think that? Lina knew exactly what was going on and she wasn't going to let his helpless cries bother her. As the tornado approached, Lina jumped.
She felt the winds carry her up and around and up again and behind her, the tip of the tornado disappeared and faded into the clouds with her. Two minutes in, Lina lost consciousness.
Slowly, Lina opened her eyes. Green leaves were bundled around her face and she soon realized she landed somewhere face down in a bush. Of all things, really! It was more than uncomfortable, and so she struggled with herself to untangle herself from the plant. She wiggled around and muttered curse words under her breath, actually getting somewhere, but out of the corner of her eye, she noticed something shiny reflecting the sunlight into the corner of her eye. Lina recognized the familiar glimmer and jumped up immediately, break free of whatever tangling branches that were holding her down in an instant. In a split second, a bullet was fired at her, and just barely missed her leg.
Lina looked around as soon as she had gotten out of the bush--she was lucky she'd guessed the shiny item was a gun or else she might not be able to right then and there out of the bush and into the clear where she faced a girl with short light brown hair and different colored eyes.
"Who are you?" Lina asked her, rather cautiously however. The girl tightened her grip on the gun. She had on one of the strangest outfits Lina had ever seen: A white garment wrapped around her upper body with a metal design right in the middle to hold the cloth tightly around her. Her wrist bands were all the way up on her shoulders and there seemed to be a long mixed blue cloth, sewn together rather roughly hung off the side of her hip with tight black shorts underneath. Lina suddenly got the feeling that she wasn't anywhere in Animanga anymore...in fact...
"This," another girl jumped into the scene and gestured in the first girl's direction. "Is the high summoner. I suggest you learn some manners and bow to her immediately!"
"Paine! Is that really necessary!?" the first girl said and her grip on the guns lightened a little bit. Lina blinked and scratched her head a little bit. "Well, who are you!?" she demanded and the gun moved closer to Lina's head threateningly.
"Lina Heartilly. I was blown out here by a tornado," Lina explained rather calmly.
"Lina!?" yet anothget girl jumped out of the bushes and nearly scared the crap out of Lina. Lina didn't recognize her and she stared out of the corner of her eyes to try and get a better picture of her, but with however close the tip of the gun was to her head, it was difficult to move around. "It's me Rikku! Guys, chill out, this is the Lina, the first girl I ever stole from."
"Tried stealing from, thank you very much," Lina joked and Rikku went in and gave her a huge hug. It was then that Lina finally realized from where she'd seen those types of clothes. They were Al Bhed, Lina knew for sure now. "Rikku, I couldn't even recognize you! Your friends, heh. They uh...startled me." Rikk laughed whole-heartedly and just gave Lina another hug.
"Staying for a while?" Rikku asked excitedly and before Lina could even nod a yes, Rikku squealed. "Oh! How exciting, oh but those clothes. No, no. They won't do. We have to make you fit in!" Lina blinked, but had no time to protest because Rikku immediately began speaking again. "Look at you...what is that? You look like you came out of a Chinese soap opera or something, come on, we'll get you suited up. I'll see to your hair...Paine and Yuna will work on wardrobe. Now let's go!" Rikku pulled her away and into a humble little house just in the distance.