Awakening: Final Fantasy XIV
The Fire was coming.
Dalamud made its descent from the heavens, and unleashed the mighty King of Dragons?Bahamut. The battle that had been raging between the Great Companies of Eorzea and the invading Garlean Empire came to an abrupt halt. Friend and foe alike stopped fighting to witness the destruction Bahamut rained down on the battlefield in the destruction of his prison.
Nanamiko Surakaya, newly come to the Immortal Flames, had never once in her twenty-one summers imagined a battle this size. Nothing she had ever done had prepared the young Gladiator for the horrors she had found here, of losing friends and comrades to the onslaught. There was a part of her that wanted to run, to get as far away as she could before the enemy could figure out that she was one of the weaker links in the chain. Certainly she was no match for the meanest Paladin or Warrior out here, and there were probably White Mages in the neighborhood that could give her a run for her money in a stand-up fight.
She wasn't here for any of that. She'd been drawn into the fight when the man she loved most in the world had been sent to the Front by Leadership, and she had been relegated to processing supplies in Ul'dah, hundreds of malms behind to the south. She had taken advantage of her position to secret herself in with the supplies?only to tell the teamsters that she was with the frontline quartermasters when discovered. They weren't with the Grand Companies, and had had no reason to suspect her. By the time they'd reached the Front, the battle was already well underway. Someone spotted the sword and shield she bore, and ordered her into the fray.
"Hear… Feel… Think."
The familiar words echoed in her skull three days later, in the same voice that had haunted her right before the gobbue had broken loose in Ul'dah two years earlier. As she had that day, she raised her sword, just in time to fend off a blow from an opportunistic Garlean trying to take advantage of the destruction to garner a little more glory for himself. His axe bore her to the ground, and she rolled away just in time. A massive spike shot from the disintegrating moon, throwing dirt yalms away, and driving him deep below the surface. Nanamiko covered her head with her shield, scrambling away from the point of impact, lest she be taken as he had. She heard the roar of the great Dragon above, saw it rear its head. Again she brought up her thin metal shield, watching helplessly as a tendril of fire cast off by the dragon lanced unerringly towards her. She backed against the nearby cliff, drawn in by the chanting of an old man somewhere above her. A shield sprang into being surrounding the bluff, covering not only herself from the dragon's flame, but a group of adventurers a mere handful of yalms ahead. As the fire washed over, the magic shield-dome, wavered, failed, and was reborn in an instant. She huddled under her own from the paralyzing fear. This was an enemy that would take Hydaelyn in its infinite maw, and crush it like a grape. Nothing she could add would make a difference?she could only try to survive.
A blinding white flash, warm and hopeful. She peeked out to see the place where Bahamut had been only moments before engulfed in a white ball of light very much like Dalamud had been. She stood, and watched in awe as the Twelve appeared in a ring around it to imprison him once more.
Another flash, angry and red seared the heavens as Bahamut cast off the very Gods and scattered the magic used to bind him. Again he turned to the cliffside rearing back to breathe flaming death upon them. The old man above said a sharp word, and Nanamiko saw a soft light envelop the confused-looking party as they winked out of existence one by one. Then, it was her turn. She saw the symbol of Althyk flash before her eyes as the light took her away.
Fresh grass.
Nanamiko had always loved the earthy smell of new-cut grass after a harvest. She felt the sun on her face, as light and warmth slowly returned to her limbs. She groaned, and sat up painfully, working out the kinks in her neck. She shook her head, and took a look around.
A forest glen greeted her rising, her half-melted shield still strapped to her right arm. Her sword was stuck in the grass a short distance away, roughly where she would have lost it, if this place could have been anywhere near the bloody battlefield she had last seen. The trees here towered over her slight form. This was old-growth forest, near the outer edges of the South Shroud, unless she missed her guess. Of the party that had disappeared before her, there was no sign. Just as well, she thought. Explaining that would have been an adventure in and of itself.
"Hear… Feel… Think."
Nanamiko clambered to her feet, and collected her blade from the mossy grass. "Can't possibly be done with me yet, can you?"
"I daresay I could nae be done wi'ye yet, lass, as I hannae started with ye yet."
She whirled on one foot, dropping into the easy combat stance learned in innumerable bouts on the sands of Ul'dah's Arena, her useless shield scattering light around the clearing.
The old Elezen man's smiling face gave way to shock . "'Ang on there, lass. I doan' mean you no 'arm." He put both his hands in the air above his head, "Ah've nae a snowball's chance in the seven 'ells tae take on the likes of you."
"Maybe make a little noise beforehand so I know you're coming," she grumped,
sheathing her weapon. "Sorry, the battle got to me."
"What battle be that, then? What do ye remember?"
Nanamiko clenched her eyes shut, calling the carnage to mind "Bahamut broke free from Dalamud… Fire, and light, the cliff, and then nothing. I woke up here, just a moment ago."
The old man frowned. "Lass, tha' was fie year ago, and far from 'here."
"It was ten minutes ago," she insisted. My sword was right there, where I lost it. In a fight with a Garlean that wound up under a huge glowing column."
"Aye, lass. Tha' battle was fie year ago, upon this very day. We lost a great many good men and women that day, and those who survived had a mark, like the one you bear now. All tae same, and they all mean the same. Ye've been to the 'ells and back, and lived to tell the tale. It also explains why this useless lump o' feathers wanted to come down here so damned bad." He pointed across the clearing.
"Wark!"
Nanamiko blinked as the creature stepped from the trees to inspect her. It stood easily five feet at the shoulder, with a long, graceful neck, covered in bright yellow feathers that faded to black at the tips. Dark steel armor covered various tender bits, as well as a saddle designed to ride. It bore no Great Company symbol?the only marking besides the feather pattern was several red splotches on its bead and forehead. She'd seen many a chocobo in her day, but never one as beautiful as this. The two stared at one another for a long moment, Hyur and bird locked in a bond the Elezen man could not fathom.
He tentatively reached for the bird's bridle, to bring it to heel, only to watch the bird canter sideways to avoid the unwanted contact.
"Kweh," it pronounced, and gave the man a level look. It returned its attention to Nanamiko, nudging her around to get at her pack. She shrugged it off, and reached in to retrieve the small bundle of Gyshal greens that she'd been feeding to injured birds on that battlefield so long ago.
"So that's what you want, is it? Go on, it should be safe." The bird took the greens gently in her massive beak and tossed her head back, swallowing them in a single gulp.
"You don't want to taste those at all, do you," she asked the beast as she reached out to stroke its neck. The old man shook his head sadly. "Tha' bird be cursed, lass. Hatched the very night the fire rained down on Gridania. She's thrown ev'ry rider to attempt 'er, make no mistake. She's taken a shine to ye, not doubt of tha', but you'll sooner die than ride, mark my words."
She gave the bird an appraising look. "Somehow, I don't think so," she replied guardedly. "Sometimes animals will work for whom they please, and all others be damned."
"Aye, it's happened before," he admitted with a shrug. "'Tis your life, lass, and ye're free tae spend it as ye wish, but t'would be an ignoble end tae a hero if this thrice-damned waste o' good greens was what did ye in."
She took the reins, and brought the bird alongside, vaulting into the saddle easily. The bird skittered for a moment before settling under her, she felt the powerful muscles tense, and waved to the man. "Farewell, neighbor! I'll see you on the other side," she exclaimed as her mount sped southwards towards the deserts of Thanalan.
The man stood there a moment, as woman and beast headed for the hills. "Well, I'll be damned. 'Twas a good day after all." He shook his head, and made his way back into the Twelveswood, much bemused by both the girl and his good fortune. The bird could have fetched him a fortune in the markets in Ul'dah for its feathers alone, but this was a good enough result for him.
Nanamiko reveled in the wind whipping through her long hair as her chocobo took to the sands, leaving all manner of obnoxious creature snarling in frustration as the two sped by. No easy meal for them today. As the hours drifted by, she thought about what waited for her in Ul'dah. She had willfully disobeyed orders, and put herself and everyone around her on the battlefield in danger, never mind the people that had been counting on her to process the supplies that had been her charge. No Paladin was she, but an easy mark that had stuck her neck out for nothing. That mark the old man had seen would not save her from her fate, nor would her wonderful steed. Only a gibbet would await her there.
Worse, she hadn't even found what she'd gone out there after. For all she knew, he'd died in the battle against the Garlean host before she'd even arrived. She gave a melancholy sigh as her chocobo skidded to a stop just a few malms from the city. She ruffled the bird's feathers, and dismounted, digging through her the saddlebags for a brush. "So, then. Before I go down there to get my head taken off, I I should probably introduce myself. My name's Nanamiko. Nanamiko Surakaya. What's yours?"
The dusty yellow bird rolled one of its eyes back in askance as her rider started to brush her. "Wark!"
"Well, I can't very well call you that," Nanamiko said mildly. "I'd never hear the end of it. How about Chocina?"
"Kweh."
"Mocobo?"
The bird tilted her head back in askance of the Twelve.
"Charba?"
The bird considered that for a moment, and nodded assent. "Wark…"
The woman beamed. "Charba it is, then. Your feathers are at least presentable, Your Highness. Shall we be off to our doom?"
"Hear… Feel… Think." The words echoed in her mind for the third time today. The looked into the deepening desert twilight, and back at Charba. "Or… Maybe not. The Echo isn't quite done with me yet, it seems."