I only had a few things for my journey; A cloak, a lantern, a sack for my food and drink, and a small dagger to defend myself. I could hear the wind howling harshly outside of my shelter, occasionally hearing it grow louder. Life up in these mountains is not forgiving, especially for the other numerous beasts that inhabit here. We tonberries grow up in this kind of environment to help strengthen our bodies for the numerous trips we each take.

As of now, I'm readying to take the trip to meet several kin, to head further up the mountains to meet some of our elders. Those who travel to the furthest north and into the mountain crater will have a star over their head, showing that they are among the strongest. Offering a prayer to the spirits above for safe travels, I gathered my belongings and started walking out, pulling the hood over my head.

Just the first step and the snow was bearing down on my small body. Tonberries such as me are only – as humans have described us thanks to one brethren who could understand them – only two and a half feet in size at most. Bundling up a bit more, I continued on, my feet thankfully immune to the cold snow underneath. It's because of me taking walks every so often through here that my feet got used to such, allowing me to go on unburdened.

Time went by as I walked, holding my lantern out as the limited light there was from the great light above was starting to fade, limiting my own greatly to where I had to depend on my lantern. Another hour went by and I could no longer see further than five tonberries ahead of me. However, a bit of hope came to me when I started seeing other lantern lights ahead. Smiling a bit, I ran ahead and was delighted to see the familiar robe of fellow kin.

“Brethren!” I called out, seeing them turn to me.

“Que'lan!” one of them responded, running to me and hugging me, whom I was able to recognize as Shel'zun.

“I'm glad you managed to make it, Que.”

“Same could be said for me, Shel.” I replied, letting go of the hug.

Tonberries are extremely careful with their daggers. I heard elders say that they were made from the very first tonberries to walk on this world, made to fell the largest beast with a simple jab. Withdrawing the hug with a smile, I looked at the rest of the kin, whom largely remain silent, turning to one direction, while Shel and I did the same. We all started walking, a pack of at least eight, continuing our trek to the northern crater.

“Que…” I heard Shel say quietly to me, but in a saddened tone.

I glanced back to her, a bit concerned of the tone. “What's wrong?” I asked her.

“There…have been disappearances lately…” she answered back.

“Disappearances? Of what creature?” I asked again.

“…fellow tonberries.”

I nearly stopped in my tracks after hearing such, but managed to keep myself in motion. Tonberries? Missing? Most of the creatures here wouldn't bother with our kind, but to hear of some going missing? Almost unheard of.

“Hold.” I heard the group leader call out, having all of us come to a stop.

I tried to look to see what made us stop, seeing the leader walk a bit further. I didn't try to question, seeing him kneel down to what looked like a lump in the snow. He set his lantern down, reaching into the pile. Shortly after though, he pulled out a small blade…a tonberry one.

“Hmmn…” was what came from him, a bit of a glare coming from him. “No beast can be able to kill a tonberry…” Looking back down to the pile, he dug through it, soon finding the corpse of a fallen brethren, a large, clean wound on its back. “And certainly not one can inflict a wound like that.” he finished, getting up and grabbed his lantern, facing us. “Stay alert, there could be an armed human around.”

Most of us nodded, the leader turning around and continued on, stepping around the corpse. I looked at it when it came to me passing it, wincing at the sight of of the large wound before continuing on. We continued on through the blizzard, but my mind was wondering on what was able to kill one of us. I was soon brought out of my thought from a rather strong gust, forcing us to stop. I tried to dig in, but ended up sliding from the powerful wind.

A yell escaped from me, though it was muted by the howl of the wind. I soon felt nothing but air beneath me, my eyes widening in horror at the frightening fact. Only turning around, I saw that I was plummeting downwards. A loud, long cry sounded out from me, losing my grip on my lantern and dagger as I fell, uncertain how far down it was or how long I would be alive now. It felt like an eternity, but I landed on a surface, instantly blacking out, thinking that I had perished.

-0-

I…I slowly woke up, seeing gray around me. My body was cold as well, but…my heart was still beating. Shifting in my spot, I tried to find out where I was, seeing a white, cold powder wherever I reached. Finding out that I was buried under snow, I quickly started pushing myself up, trying to get out of my 'grave'. After a minute, I was able to break out, gasping at fresh air, breathing heavily as well.

When I recovered, I fully pulled myself out, tumbling and rolling onto my back, sliding down a bit as well. My body was weak and I was having difficulty breathing, but I willed myself to try and carry on, slowly standing back up. Swaying a bit, I looked around, trying to find out where I was at. I saw that I was in a form of ice cave, trying to walk. My legs were able to respond, allowing me to get around. First things on my mind were to try and find my dagger and lantern, which I was well aware that I was defenseless at the moment.

After a bit of looking, I soon saw the handle of a dagger sticking out, rushing to it as fast as I could. When I reached it, I pulled the blade out, smiling as it had a marking I scratched into the side, glad to have my weapon back. Looking around a bit more, I soon saw my lantern, though one side of the glass was shattered, the materia inside cracked, knowing that I had to find a replacement for light. Despite such, I grabbed the lantern and looked around again, trying to find a way out.

“Ugh, another tonberry?” I heard someone speak out, making me jump in my spot.

Looking around a bit more, I tried to find the source of the voice, not recognizing it as brethren. After a bit, I soon saw some being that was certainly not a creature around here. It only stood on two legs like me, but they were much longer than me, having the being easily twice my height. There was an odd purple-colored cloth covering it, rings of metal around its arms, close to five claws. Behind the beings back was a very large dagger, one that I could never be able to lift.

“How many do I have to off before they take the hint?” it spoke, swinging the dagger with ease, holding the blade in front of it.

“Wait, 'off'?” I asked, trying to find out what the creature meant.

Instead of an answer, the being ran towards me, swinging the blade over its head towards me. A yelp escaped from me, quickly getting out of the way just as the blade crashed into the ground. I stumbled from the dodge, looking at the creature.

“What are you doing?!” I yelled to it, pointing my dagger shakily at it

“Dodgy one then.” the creature said, lifting the blade up. “Well, guess you'll be a more interesting one than the rest of those tonberries.”

“Wait, what…?” I questioned, my eyes widening a small bit, lowering my dagger.

“Guess you'll listen to me then. I keep trying to find others that are around here, but your kind just keep popping up like weeds, trying to jab me with those daggers. Each one of them I encountered, I had to put down.”

I was in shock of what I heard, know knowing that I was confronting the killer of that one brethren that I saw last night. A growl came from my throat, clutching my dagger with rage, all weakness from my body fading. I wanted to avenge those that were murdered by this…this monster…! With a small war cry, I ran to the monster, intent on killing it. However, this proved my undoing.

The beast dodged my blow, leaving me defenseless. I had no time to dodge the blow that was coming, not only crashing into me and sending me flying, but slicing from my right shoulder all the way down to my left leg. My flight came to an abrupt end when I crashed into an icy wall, flopping onto the ground on the gaping wound. A weak cry came from me, the exhaustion coming back almost tenfold.

Darkness started to creep into my vision from my wounds, blood pouring out of them as I glared with all I could at the spike-haired swordsman. I saw him approaching me, blade resting on his shoulder. I wanted to get away from him as I saw him raising that monstrous blade up

“I…I hope th…at the an…ces…tors st-strike you do–”

-0-0-0-0-

Just a rather spur-of-the-moment one-shot, regarding Final Fantasy VII's Tonberry monsters. When I first encountered one, I felt that the creature was very out of place or category, seeing that it looked a lot like a wandering nomad of its species. In honesty, I kind of felt bad killing them, seeing that they could have been relatively innocent based on the way they walked and such. Combined with the area that I first encountered them, in snowy mountains, as well as a blizzard going on, and the lanterns and tiny daggers they wielded...yeah, just little guys trying to get by, including the 'elite' versions of them.

The reason for the tonberry to label Cloud's blade (kudos if you managed to figure it out from the sh***y description of him) as a dagger is because I wanted it to be like it never exactly saw an actual sword.

And the abrupt end is to show that the story died with this particular tonberry.