You never see the big changes coming. You always think the idyllic times will last forever, and you're never prepared for it when they end.

So of course, the day everything changed for me was a day like any other. My name is Riza; I'm sixteen, and up to that day I'd lived all my life on Besaid Island. I'd snuck off to the beach by myself again, just like my parents kept telling me not to. My feet propelled me through the beautiful blue depths, and around me was nothing but vast, peaceful serenity.

The sea has always been something of an escape for me; I was practically born a celebrity, as the daughter of the High Summoner who saved the world. People from all over Spira have always been flocking to our island to meet my mother, or to meet me. "What's it like being the daughter of Lady Yuna?" people have always asked me. It's enough to drive a girl crazy. As much as I love the village I grew up in and the people in it, once in a while it helps to slip off into the peace of the sea with no one around.

Almost as soon as my head breached the surface and I let out the breath I'd been holding, I heard the call: "Heads up!" I spun around just in time to see the blitzball flying at my head. I had seconds to react, but that's always been more than enough for me. I ducked down under the water, and then shot upwards, butting the ball in its path with my head, and then twirled around in the air to give it a quick kick before I splashed back down. My head surfaced again in time to see Vidina catch the projectile I'd kicked back at him just as it struck him square in the gut.

I didn't even realize how hard I'd kicked that ball until I swam back to shore and saw Vidina still trying to get his breath back. "Wow, Riza girl, you been practicing without me?"

"Maybe," I said, giving him a lopsided grin. "Maybe I'm just naturally good."

"We all better hope so," said a third person. I turned my head to the voice, noticing for the first time that Farru was on the beach too, carrying that long wooden staff he always seemed to have with him. I shouldn't have been surprised, though; unlike me, Vidina had never been rebellious enough to go down to the beach alone. "We're gonna need to be good once the season starts."

The start of the blitzball season was not far away, and Vidina, Farru and I had been practicing in hopes that Vidina's father would let us play on the Besaid Aurochs. There wasn't much doubt in my mind that Vidina and I would be let on the team; after all, Vidina was Wakka's son, and I was just good, not that I mean to brag. Farru I wasn't so sure about; his heart wasn't in it quite as much, and he was still having some difficulty.

"So, you boys missed me so much you had to come down here to find me?" I asked.

"Well, actually…" Farru began, but was cut off when somebody suddenly grabbed me from behind and pulled me to him.

"Actually, I was the one who wanted to find you."

I sighed. "Oh. Hi, Daddy."

"Riza, haven't I told thousands of times not to go wandering off alone?"

"Daddy, come on, nobody's seen any fiends on this island in years!"

"They could always come back, you know," Vidina said. "Spira's in no danger of runnin' out."

"Personally, I wouldn't mind if they did come back," Farru said, waving his staff about as if warding off fiends. "I'm still not getting any better at hitting a blitzball, so I could use something else I could hit."

"Please," I muttered. "If a fiend showed up, you'd run like a little girl. But I'd like to see how a fiend would deal with me!" I was really only teasing Farru; I knew he was no coward.

"Come on, hero girl," my father said, patting my back. "Let's get back to the village before your mother sends another search party after you."

I shrugged and nodded, and we began our trek along the path through the lush and beautiful green of the island back to the village. Farru and Vidina walked in front, chatting about the coming season. Farru was expressing his doubts, saying he thought maybe he should give up trying to be a blitzer when he wasn't one. He'd really only started practicing with us in the first place because he was our friend and didn't want to be left out, but he was now starting to get the feeling that the sport just wasn't his calling. I would never have said it out loud, but I couldn't help but think he was right.

Vidina apparently didn't think the same way. "Hey, don't give up yet. There's still time before the season starts, you know. You can do it, ya?"

I just smiled and quietly chuckled to myself, thankful that the two of them weren't looking back at me. Suddenly dad put a hand on my shoulder and whispered to me, "I saw that kick you did. I think we're going to have a pretty successful season this year."

I stopped, and then gave a happy little squeak and threw my arms around his midsection. "Thank you Daddy!"

Farru and Vidina stopped and were staring at me now. "What'd we miss?" Vidina asked.

"Nothing," I grinned, still holding my dad in a death grip. "Everything's fine."

None of us started walking again until I let go of him. Then Farru and Vidina shrugged and kept on going. I resumed walking with a big smile on my face. I hadn't had much doubt that someone would want me to play for the Aurochs, but hearing someone actually say it, even if he was my dad, was enough to get me excited.

"You know," my dad said, "that was the way I met Vidina's dad."

"What was?"

"It was just like what you did back there. I was swimming out off shore after being thrown off a boat, someone threw a blitzball my way and I kicked it back, and then Wakka asked me to play on his team. Seeing you kick that ball like that really took me back."

My father had been a blitzer since before he was my age, and the Aurochs had won several championships because of him. In fact, people often told me that before he came to Besaid the Aurochs were the worst team in Spira. So being complimented on your skills by someone like that was not something to sniff at.

Farru took a few steps ahead to practice what looked like combat moves with his staff as he walked, as he often did. I didn't know why he bothered, really; it had been over five years since any fiends had been seen on Besaid. When we were little, we had always needed an escort to get from the village to the beach and back to protect us from fiends, but over the years they started fading out until there were none left. Everybody said it was my mother's doing; that the Eternal Calm she brought about was really taking hold, and Spira was finally becoming a true place of peace.

We were soon to find out how wrong they were.

Vidina stopped suddenly, looking up to the sky. "You guys hear that?"

We all stopped, straining to hear… and then we heard it: the distant humming of a giant machina. Like an airship. We turned our heads in the direction of the noise, and saw the bright red airship making its approach. "Is that the Celsius?" I said.

"I think it is!" Vidina said. "Looks like Paine's come to visit!"

We broke into a run. When we reached the altar at the edge of the cliff where the path to the village forked, we saw the Celsius lowering down for a landing, and just as it began to settle we saw its bay doors opening, and two figures emerged. Paine had not come alone.

We were all excited at first to see that Rikku had come for a visit too, but as we bounded up to greet them, we slowed to a stop when we noticed the looks on their faces. Rikku's face had the streaks of someone who had been crying a lot, and while Paine was not exactly known for being cheery, even she looked unusually somber. In an instant we had gone from delight at receiving our visitors to an impending feeling of doom and gloom.

"Rikku? Paine?" my father asked.

"Tidus!" Rikku sobbed, throwing her arms around him.

"Hey, hey! What's wrong?"

"I'm sorry we have to visit you under these circumstances," Paine said.

"Under what circumstances?" I asked.

"We should get to the village," was her answer. "Yuna and the others will want to hear this." Paine stepped past us and continued along the path, and we all began following after her at a steady pace. I was torn now, agonizingly curious as to what had brought them here, but not sure I wanted to find out.

We arrived at the village to find a small crowd had gathered to greet the visitors, including Vidina's parents. "Mom, Dad, look who dropped by!"

"Hey, you two! How ya…" Wakka left his greeting unfinished, the answer to the question he was about to ask evident enough on their faces.

"Hello, Wakka, Lulu," Paine said in a low drawl. "Where's Yuna?"

"I'm right here." All our eyes turned to the flap of my family's tent, where my mother was emerging. My mother, the High Summoner Yuna who destroyed the endless evil that was Sin; the most famous living person in Spira; the person hundreds of people came to Besaid each year to see. "Hi Rikku, Paine," she said as she approached. "It's so good to see—"

"Oh Yunie!" Rikku cried, running to my mother and enveloping her in a sobbing embrace.

"Rikku?" My mom put her hands on Rikku's back. They held each other a moment, and then Mom pulled Rikku away and look straight at me. "I'll get to you later," she warned. I would have been more fazed by that were it not for the dark cloud our visitors had carried with them.

"I'm afraid we have to be the bearers of bad news," Paine said.

"What's happened?" my mom said.

"It's Kimahri," said Paine, and then paused as she mustered the strength to say the next two words. "…He's dead."

The murmuring crowd fell to a dead hush, the only sound being my mother's gasp as her hands came up to her open mouth. "Kimahri," said Wakka solemnly.

"No," Lulu said.

I was actually ashamed that I didn't feel as sad about this as most of the crowd seemed to be. I knew who Kimahri was; I'd met him once when my mother performed at a concert in Luca when I was ten, and the Ronso elder showed up to watch her. When she first introduced me to him, initially I shrunk back in fear of the big blue beast, until he knelt down in front of me and said, "Kimahri happy to meet daughter of Yuna. Riza pretty girl. Riza grow into strong woman, like mother. Of this Kimahri sure."

And now that proud Ronso was gone. I was definitely sorry about it, but having only met him once I didn't know him well enough to shed any tears. Not like the ones that were trickling down my mother's face. "How did it happen?" my dad asked.

"The Ronso who showed up in Luca to tell me didn't give me that detail," Paine said. "I took the Celsius to fetch Rikku from Bikanel as soon as I found out, and then came here to tell you. The Ronso are holding a memorial for him tomorrow on Mt. Gagazet. I thought you'd like to be there."

"Oh, we'll be there, ya!" Wakka said. "Don't nobody say we won't!"

"Of course we'll be there," my mother said.

"Yeah, we owe it to the big guy," said my dad.

The crowd was starting to break apart, and everyone old enough to remember the time Kimahri had lived on Besaid was talking about him. Both Vidina's parents and mine moved off, talking with Rikku and Paine for a moment, before they started looking in our direction, and Lulu stepped away from them and approached her son.

"Vidina," she said, "It's alright with us if you don't want to accompany us. I know Kimahri didn't mean to you what he did to us, and you're old enough to make your own decisions."

"It's okay, Ma, I'll go," Vidina said.

"Yeah, me too," I said, stepping up to Vidina's side. I could see my parents were happy about that.

"Well, I guess I might as well go too," Farru said.

"You sure?" Vidina asked. "I mean you never met the guy."

"Hey, what am I gonna do without you guys around here?" Farru shrugged. Vidina and I looked at each other and grinned.

"We'll be leaving for Mt. Gagazet tomorrow morning," Paine announced. "Anyone who's planning on going should be ready then." We all nodded.

"Don't think you're off the hook, young lady," my mother said suddenly, pointing a finger at me. "You and I are still going to have a talk later."

"Yes, Mom," I muttered.

With that my mom and dad turned back to our tent, and I rolled my eyes and slumped my shoulders. Vidina put a hand on my shoulder. "Look at it this way: whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger. And after the number of times you've been through this, I'd say you're already pretty strong, ya?"

I smiled at him. "Thanks, Vidina."

"So this Kimahri," Farru said, stepping up to my side, "he was supposed to be one of your mom's guardians back when she was a summoner, right?"

"Yep, just like my parents were," Vidina said.

"And my dad," I added.

"I wonder what that must have been like, to travel all across Spira, fighting off fiends left and right," Farru said wistfully, brandishing his staff again. Then he noticed the way Vidina and I were looking at him. "What?"

"Farru, am I mistaken, or are you bored here?" Vidina asked.

"Is that why you're going to Gagazet with us?" I asked. "Because you're hoping to run into fiends you can fight?"

"No, no! I seriously just want to pay my respects to this guy who braved all the dangers of Spira… okay, I guess I am getting a little antsy around here. It's just this island has been too quiet all these years; I need some excitement! That's why I was happy when you guys said you wanted to play blitzball, and why I tried to get into it with you, but it's not working for me, you know?"

"You know," I said after a moment's pause, "maybe he's right. Maybe we could use a little excitement."

"The blitzball season coming up doesn't excite you enough?" Vidina said. "I've been waiting for the chance to play on the Aurochs my whole life!"

"Hey, I'm looking forward to playing blitzball as much as you are," I said. "But maybe after that, we can ask Paine to take us on the Celsius. We could become sphere hunters or something, like my mom used to be. Go around, get in adventures, have fun?"

"Now that sounds like a plan!" Farru grinned. "In fact, why do we even have to wait until blitzball season? It's not as though being on an airship is going to keep us from getting to Luca when the season starts!"

"Yeah, you're right!" I beamed at him. "What do you say we ask Paine about it tomorrow after Kimahri's service? Maybe it can be our way of honoring Kimahri's memory; we can start by looking for spheres that we can share with the Ronso, you know, ones that might mean something to them, and then see where it goes from there."

We turned our eyes to Vidina, who had yet to express interest in what we were proposing. It all hinged on him now. He hesitated, and then shrugged and said "Sure, why not."

"Yes!" I cheered, holding out a fist. The three of us knocked our fists together. We all knew at that moment that things were about change for us. We had no idea just how much they were about to change. We thought we were about seize control of our fates; as it would turn out, our fates were about to seize us.