Hi! This is my first fanfiction. I got the idea when after playing ff8 and seeing the Rinoa's limit break, the existence of a character name Hyne in more than one series (even though, technically they are not the same person) and after reading Wayfarer Redemption by Sarah Douglass. I came up with a backstory that explains how the Sorceresses in FF8 have gotten the power. Hope you all enjoy.
P.S. I don't have a beta, so if anyone wants to offer...
Now on to the story.....
Chapter 1: The Star That Fell
Eyes fluttered open. They stared at the ceiling above.
Where was she?
Cold air grazed her cheek.
She tilted her head slowly towards the draft. A cloth flap swayed in a passing breeze. This was a tent.
Whose tent?
Another thought followed on the trail of that one. Her body felt like a chunk of ice. It was heavy and numb. A chill filled her heart as she struggled to raise her head. She needed to see her body. Slowly and with much difficulty, she raised her head.
All there. She closed and sighed. Relieved, she sagged back to the ground.
A strong wind blew her hair into her face. Soft rattling came from the flap of the tent. She leaned towards the tent opening just in time to see someone enter. Her eyes widened as she looked upon the....uh...person? In front of her eyes had appeared a walking skeleton. It grew larger and larger the closer It got. She tried to move but her body was frozen solid. Upon reaching her, It knelt down. A silent scream rang through her skull as the skeleton eyed her darkly.
"You've woken up. That's good," It spoke. "How are you feeling?"
She blinked. Her mouth hung upon.
It grinned at her toothily.
"Feeling a bit numb? Your body isn't responding?"
She stared at him as she nodded her head.
"Don't worry. This is alright. Natural body movement should be regained in a few days."
"But...how..." she whispered. Her voice was scratchy. "Should...be...dead?"
As she said the words, memories came flooding back to her. Her husband Wolfstar and herself talked together in the chamber of the StarGate. They had been discussing his experiments with life, death, and the Gate.
"Wolfstar, you need to stop this."
"I have so much to learn."
"People are starting to get nervous. There are too many deaths!" She grabbed him by the arm.
"If there weren't any deaths, how could I see if someone could come back?"
"Please, husband, stop this insanity." She begged as he pulled away from her. "Before our people take action."
He turned back towards, just looking at her. His eyes flare brightly.
"You're right, love. I should stop," he said with a gentle smile. "But after one more experiment."
WolfStar grabbed her, LaughingStar, by her arm and pulled her close. He whispered into her ear. "Come back to me."
Then, he wrapped his strong hands around her neck and crushed her throat.
He must have thrown her and the baby inside her through the Gate.
"Are you okay?" A voice interrupted her thought. LaughingStar regained focus on everything. She was in a tent, with a skeleton, alive. It was all too much. She dropped her head into the blanket underneath, tears leaking out.
******************************************************************************************
Days Later
It was good to be up, to be out. It was too hard to be sick and stuck in bed. LaughingStar stood facing the sun, head raised to taste the air. She spread her wings to feel her lost freedom.
"You're looking better," said a voice from behind her.
LaughingStar turned slowly around, her body screaming in pain with the movement. She saw the skeleton. He had said his name was Hyne. This skeleton claimed to be a powerful sorceror. But in the past few days, she had seen no evidence to support that. Hyne came across as nothing but a humbug. He even looked the part. Three feathers adorned the hat on his head. Two were bright red and the other was white. He wore a blue uniform with green and yellow layered shoulder pads. Orange and yellow silk cloths encircled his clothes. To top it off, he wore a long white cape. He looked and seem like nothing but a fop.
Except for the fact that she was alive when she should have been dead.
"I'm feeling much better," she said. Her hand unconsciously moved to her enlargened stomach.
He looked at her quizzically and then pointed at her wings. "Do they work?"
"Yes. But right now I'm still kind of weak."
"It must be quite a feeling, to fly," he said. "Anyway, dear lady, we will be moving soon."
LaughingStar and Hyne walked towards camp. On the way he regaled her with tales of the places he wanted to take her. He also spoke of things that they can do and they money they could make. All this she found was unbefitting for a sorceror to be doing.
Upon reaching camp, Hyne motioned for LaughingStar to sit. He walked into the tent and came back out with the blankets and couple of backpacks. The packs he sat down, but the blankets he handed to her.
"Dear Lady, if you could fold these, I can finish tearing down camp."
"Okay."
Hyne went to work taking apart the tent. First he turned it upside down. Then he pulled the support rods out from the tent. They collapesed into smaller segments. He laid these on to the tent material and rolled them up. This he put into the backpack. He looked up at LaughingStar.
"LaughingStar, could you tell me about your people?" He asked scooping up the other pack.
"What would you like to know?"
"What are they like?" He asked while packing the cooking gear.
"We are people that like music and drawn to mystery. We are said to be born of an Enchantress."
"Enchantress?" Hyne's hands stopped moving and his eyes glinted.
"Yes, we have enchanter abilities that we have supposed inherited from the Enchantress."
"What else did you...inherit?"
"Nothing else from the Enchantress. But supposedly a sparrow slept with her. We learned how to fly from him."
Hyne stood up up with a pack in one hand and headed back to Laughing star.
"Are you done with the blankets, my lady?"
"Yes. I have even put them in that bag over there."
"Then, I think its time for us to go.
The two walked off together. They talked about nothing important but maybe the weather. Both their minds were stewing. Hyne was thinking of the different ways he could use LaughingStar. LaughingStar was thinking of how all the gifts in life are balanced by a Curse.