As a young Viera, Fran had been taught that the outside world wanted only to corrupt them. The Humes lived in a world where power leads to infinite destruction, and their nethicite was on the path to destroy them.
But in their perfect little world of The Wood, all was in peaceful harmony. They could live out their lives without conflict, without destruction. Eruyt Village was so cut off from the rest of the world that anyone barely knew they existed, and the Elders did it that way on purpose.
It was a suffocating situation, meant to damper spirits and snap strands of dreams. Fran knew this all too well. When she used to dream about leaving the comfort of the village, it was the biggest scandal they had seen in centuries. Everyone scolded her with a fierce fury. Leaving The Wood was the uttermost of taboos.
But Fran snuck out of the village to watch the Hume, and occasional Seeq and Bangaa, explorers cut through Golmore. They fascinated her, the way they did as they pleased, went wherever they wanted.
She had heard some account of the outside world from certain Viera who had left, never to be spoken of again, and scorned when they came back--as most usually did at least once. They never let themselves into the village, and so Fran had to leave to speak with them. They told her that the rest of Ivalice was a cruel place. People stared, because to them Viera were the most beautiful and strangest things that they had ever seen.
But Fran didn't understand. She couldn't comprehend how the Humes could find them beautiful. The beaten, broken, sheltered Viera--beautiful? Freedom was beautiful. Travel, and free will was beautiful.
She could just run, she told herself. No one would stop her, no one could ever hold her back as she shed everything that had bound her to her meaningless existence. When she ran it felt that nothing could her slow her down. She felt almost as if she could just take flight and drift above all else, completely detached from The Wood. The Wood was angry at her, and wanted her never to return.
Flying was the ultimate form of freedom. To be free of the ground, The Wood. She she headed to Balfonhiem, intent of finding a Sky Pirate. Whether to gain employment or commender the ship, she wasn't sure yet.
People gawked after her as she strutted down the street, and Fran was trying her hardest to ignore them, as her fellow Wood outcasts warned her to do. She knew that a plopulas place wasn't somewhere for her to be, but Fran was so curious...
She ended up socking him in the face in the middle of the bar for being rude. But he was so...casual about it all. Somehow, through the pirate grapvine, he knew that she wanted a ship to fly. And he was looking for a co-pilot.
The sky was more beautiful, more free than she imagined. But, sitting bext to her, was a man named Balthier, and he was more free and beautiful then all of the Ivalice sky.
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This is the first thing written on my new computer, whose name is Alfred Hunshanks III. I love him.
Balfran makes me happy, and there is a definite lack of it on this site...sadness.
There is slight reference to my other Balfran, Lessons, in how Fran and Balthier meet. You don't need to read it to understand anything, but I'm not going to say that I don't want you to.
So review, whether it be to confess your undying love or throw things at me, and I'll reply--because you people deserve a thanks.
