Authors Note: This is a re-worked version of Clandestine Hearts. It's going to be a long road of editing and such, but reviews and whatnot are appreciated. Opinions, and whatever else you'd like to voice as well, go ahead. Anywho, there isn't much to say other than this edited chapter goes a little more in depth as to what kind of child Fang was before disaster rocked her life, and just how this story is being uncovered with Lightning being curious and reading an old document that she had found in old Oerba. Enjoy!
i. In retrospect
Fang lay there, woken from sleep once again. She and her soldier had found each other once more, something Fang had never considered at any time to be possible. But for now, Lightning was alone, wandering the ruins of old Oerba in search of answers to questions that burned in her mind, but Fang seemed rather uncomfortable answering. Her steps were silent, she didn't want to wake the dormant Cie'th from slumber, especially not now. Slipping into an old building Fang had told her was the village elder's home she sat upon the dusty floor with a book. A book that she hoped would give her answers. She wanted to know:Who was Oerba Yun Fang?
As she flipped through the old leather bound book, pages were yellow with age, but the writing was still legible, and there were pictures. Lightning smiled. This was exactly what she had been looking for. The few brief pages spent on one particular citizen in Oerba all those years ago. The elder seemed to have tabs on every person who had been living as a permanent resident in the village, which was good considering the time frame in which Fang grew up in. She studied the first picture, a little girl anywhere between five and eight staring at the camera. No familiar smile, instead she looked hurt, bitter even. And so, Lightning began to read..
Fangs eyes opened to the world the first time, the viridian green eyes were a cerulean blue for now, a small infant that clung to her mother and fiestily babbled some incoherent words that only the small child could understand. Holding her was the person she would know as her mother, a beautiful woman with softer features, raven tresses of straight hair trailed down neck and a few strands tickled the infant's nose. A sneeze erupted from the small being as she then reached for the offending strand of hair and yanked. Giggling lightly as she now held the piece of hair in her hand, she looked to the man standing over her. Boy did he look ridiculous with those weird faces he was making and yet.. She couldn't resist smiling at them. These people were who the infant felt so comfortable with, and as the man now picked her up that same gentleness seemed to come from him as she yawned. She wouldn't mind sleeping at this particular moment.
In her sleep the infant Fang dreamed of all kinds of things, mostly colors flashed by her eyes, as she now was adjusting to this new place that she would call home. This infant was strong, even the doctor had said that.. What did strong mean anyway? For not the innocent infant had no worries in the world other than trying to see those smiling faces again.. Those faces made her happy, and suddenly within her dreams, the little girl saw those faces, the woman's whos soft features held affection within her jade eyes that would never be rivaled by anyone on this earth. An Elderly woman who's feral grin seemed to make her giggle in her dream, and the man who made the ridiculous faces that she seemed to really like. She didn't know what this place was, or where she was.. All she knew was that she was here, and wherever here was she wanted to stay.
When she left the place the other people referred to as a hospital, the girl babbled and often stared at the weird things that went up and never went down. The other people referred to them as birds.. Maybe she should call them birds too. Her dad however had something she was really interested in.. it was so red and sharp and curly and pointy… she had to touch it. The mother of the child was chatting as the new family walked home. What were they to call their daughter? The parents seemed to never be able to agree on a name until one night, the small child hadnt been sleeping well as she was teething. Both of them walked to the room with a small crib in it and saw their daughter's face light up when she saw them. A grin, she must have inherited from her father seemed to spread onto her features. A wide feral toothed grin that made them both say the same name. "Fang."Thus the girl named Fang had been brought into this world, a heart that was open and shown to the world. A playful and happy girl, that unbeknownst to her, her heart would end up cloaked in layers upon layers of masks. However that is for a later time in the story. As the girl smiled up at her parents, her father laughed, causing a giggle to erupt from Fang herself. From that night time passed, the infant grew into a toddler and from a toddler into a child.
The young child was playful, always curious. One such event that Fang can recall to this day was the first time she'd ever seen a behemoth. She was a few miles away from the village with her father. He was educating her on wild edibles and things she could use to render first aid if needed. Suddenly like an earthquake the ground around them rumbled. Her father was grinning as Fang took in the sight of a fully grown behemoth king. "D-Daddy! Wh-What's that?" She felt her father ruffle her hair and heard his laugh. A comfort around this huge creature who terrified even the meanest of the gorgonopsids.
"That my dear, is the Behemoth King. He rules the plains and is the spirit of our tribe. We like him are strong, and protect our home, we fight fiercely, and we never back down." Fang giggled and watched the Behemoth whom locked eyes with the child for a moment before making some sort of rumbling vocalization and padding off towards what Fang assumed to be the Behemoth's home.
Those seasons of her life shaped her into a huntress to be. The eight year old girl came walking home, her own wooden lance in tow with the first kill she ever made. Her father beside her proudly looking at her as they returned home with her kill. The feral grin the girl was known for had not grown out of her, it was as if that look was a part of her personality. A part that was shown so freely now-a-days. Even with the war against the vipers, such a real threat. However, that never hit the small girl as a threat until one night Fang's dreams were fitful, she couldn't figure out why she felt so sick to her stomach, why she felt as if she was going to throw up.. Yet she had none of the symptoms of a real sickness. Something was seriously wrong here.. Fang felt it in her body and yet she ignored it. However the young girl had failed to look out her window, and as she laid back down, she was unaware of the massacre she was about to witness.. The pillow felt so lumpy and uncomfortable tonight, the sheets were so scratchy and itchy, the bed was to hard.. No matter how she tried she couldn't sleep.
So, she resorted to her long time hobby of carving wood like her father. Her room was dimly lit, it was a grave mistake.. And as she sat there in her bed blissfully unaware, a threat like no other loomed closer and closer. That threat was a brigade of Cocoon l'Cie, hell-bent on eradicating all Pulsian life, women, children, men. It mattered little. Such were the casualties of war.
Since she was at least Five years old, Fang could remember when she became fascinated with flight, unfortunately she didn't remember her first true fascination came from the day her parents walked her home from the hospital, and she witnessed a bird for the first time in flight.
Fang had always been fascinated with everything that flew, how did it fly? Why did it fly? Where did it live? They were all questions her young mind pondered every day. Jade eyes that she had inherited from her mother stared at the little figurine. She carved a small dragon in the midst of taking off in flight. Her father told her stories of a great dragon king, how he soared across the skies of Gran Pulse his name was Bahamut. Her father told her of the obsidian scaled lord, and how his flames had engulfed all of Cocoons regiment once.
She prayed each night for the dragon lord's protection. Hoped that maybe one day she would be able to meet him, the lord of the dragons and ruler of the skies, Bahamut. Sleep now seemed to be immanent, she had lulled herself back to relaxation, and as the dragon figurine fell to the floor now forgotten as she lay down with her eyes now closed. Fang smiled in her dreams, they were now ruled by the dragon king. Images of the majestic beast flying overhead and swooping down to burn away the forces of the vipers in order to keep her home safe from harm. However that wasn't to be, in those hours of much more relaxed sleep were interrupted abruptly by her mother shaking her awake. The groggy eight year old looked at her mother, innocent curiosity splaying onto her features… "Mommy? What's going on?" her voice was meek now, afraid from the look in her mothers eyes that was urgent and fearful. Fang felt herself dragged out of her bed, her mother speaking in a rushed manner about the Vipers in their town and her father was holding them off in order to allow them time to get away. The child's heart pounded in her chest. The Vipers were here? Tears of fear began to prickle at the corner of her eyes as she looked out a window as they passed…
Houses of her friends, of family… they were burning and the people were lined up outside in the square.. Oh no.. why was this happening? Why to her home? Why to her family? Her mother led her to a small hatch in the back of the house. All of the homes came equipped with these hatches these days, a slide of sorts that slid one person to safety away from the village. Her mother urged her forward, murmuring gentle encouraging words to her, However the fear in the child's face tore the mother apart, and as she heard boot steps rushing up the stairs she thrust Fang through the hatch and then picked up the red lance that she had inherited from her own mother.
"Remember Fang, Remember who you are. You're my daughter, I'll love you forever, no matter where I am." These were the last words ever heard by Fang from her mother.
Celes, mother of the future Oerban heroine faced the five Cocoon soldiers. Fang could hear the gunshots echo through the home. She knew they were dead, her father, her mother, everyone she knew as family was dead, and as she escaped from the hatch she ran, as fast and as far as the plains born girl could. Only turning once to look at the inferno that was now her village..
She felt sick again, and without warning she finally collapsed in a den.. Only to see a pair of curious eyes look at her in the night light. A muzzle then brushed gently on her back, and a small cry.. Almost half roar echoed in the cave as a sudden new presence lumbered forward. A mother behemoth was taking interest in the terrified child.
The behemoth sniffed Fang, and nudged her farther within the cave, where the girl ended up asleep beside a litter of four young behemoths which sniffed at her and pawed at her sleepily. In front of the five younger presences the mother behemoth slept, and Fang knew at least until daybreak she was safe. When daybreak did hit, she was greeted with curious and playful squeals from the young behemoth pups. Often being sniffed by the mother behemoth, as if she was one of her children.
Fang recalled what her father had told her, her tribe was represented by the Behemoth. She smiled, almost honored that her tribe's patron creature had taken her in as one of the little ones that needed care. This behavior was normally uncharacteristic for a behemoth mother. Normally she would have chased a human away, but the mother had to have sensed that Fang was different, that she needed protecting like her own children did. Besides, it seemed that Fang was becoming good friends with the pups.
Fang reached out to the behemoth… shyly, almost fearful. The hulking creature did nothing as she edged closer and rested the palm of her hand upon the great beast's snout. Fang looked into the amber eyes of the mother and found herself at ease as she gently pet the elder beast as if it was a domesticated animal or a chocobo. The mother rumbled in appreciation as Fang grew more confident in her movements, stroking the large animal's neck. It was as if the man and beast's most pure bond was shown, and their eyes met once more. Fang remembered.. This was the same Behemoth she had seen as a child. It nuzzled her, rumbling once again as a sign of happiness. Then the young girl turned to the mouth of the cave where light from the morning sun filtered in.
Finally exiting the cave, it seemed hunger was driving her actions. As now the young girl was to go out on a hunting expedition, she needed to get something in her stomach. The mother accompanied her on this expedition, curious about what this strange creature was going to do. Fortunately Fang was smart, she knew the wild edibles out in the plains like the back of her hand. So, she collected a few plants and had herself a small meal when the Behemoth seemingly laughed.. A low vibrating noise that rumbled the ground around her. Behemoths were the king predators here on the Plains, nobody hunted them but they hunted humans when they needed to.
When the mother dragged back a kill that could easily feed an army Fang gawked, the mother called her offspring to the kill as well. Taking a sharp stone she found Fang cut a slab of meat from the kill and then clambered up high where even the mother couldn't reach the slab on her hind legs and let it sit there to dry.
Then with a nod to the mother, she ran towards the burned remains of her home. Since the accident she wanted to see her home.. Hoping there was an off chance that her parents were alive she would return. The mile run home wasn't to bad, however she didn't notice how badly her body ached until then, when all she was greeted with was a flattened black place. At the front of the village.. Was the most horrific sight of all. In front of her were the piles of bodies from her village. To the present day she damned her keen vision, as she picked out the mutilated faces of her mother and father..
The child got sick right there her body expelling everything she had eaten, her home was no place to be referred to as a home. However, the girl went through the blackened ruins where her house once stood, and from those ruins two gravestones were constructed. She carved the names of her Parent's names in each one. Zeik, and Celes. It was at this moment, that the first cloak went over her heart. It was at this time that Fang was not the innocent child anymore, Fang was not a kid, and so from there she ran back to the behemoth's den and grabbed the meat which had dried in the sun and she ran, and ran northward towards the mountains towards what she would call her home again.. If she dared refer to any place as home again.
While she was at the ruins she had found her mother's old lance. Dragging the large metal weapon behind her, Fang kept going. She wouldn't stop until she was in another village where she could tell someone about what had happened. What the vipers had done to her, and her true home. She raced through the steppe, dodging possible enemies and hitching rides with Chocobos whenever possible. The large yellow birds ran much faster than her and could outrun most predators with ease. Not to mention they packed a serious wallop when they kicked. She had learned that the hard way already, and she managed to force a chuckle. When night had arrived, she had reached the foot of the mountains where only the hardiest of beasts could reside. Against her common sense she trudged along alone in the night to wherever she was going to end up.
Hours passed and up and up the trail she went until she reached the gates of somewhere known as Oerba. Where Fang had come from, this village was fabled for its warriors and its great artists, known for its mercantile way of life. However as she walked Fang never knew what was coming. Stalking her all the way up the mountain was a predator known as the blood of pulse. That was all people called it, a large feline creature, its tail burning with a flame that seemingly never died. It pounced and went in for the kill, however a hunter had been nearby and caught sight of the tail and immediately stepped in front of the attack. Fang fell to the ground harshly and she had only enough time to turn and look at the man who stopped to only give her a grin before throwing the beast back, stunning it enough to run her into the village.
"W-Who are you?" She asked, her voice was hoarse and strained, Fang herself looked frail and ill. Her normally vibrant green eyes were dulled and her normally glossy shining hair was nowhere near healthy looking. The man who scooped her up and picked up her lance was around her father's age, he gave her a rough grin and chuckled.
"My name is Oerba Yun Kai. This is my village." she looked at him and then the village which had come to life with the ruckus outside its gate. As Kai walked in with the frail girl he looked to his wife whom hurried to get the village shaman and he continued walking towards and elderly looking woman, whom was the matron of the orphanage. "Another orphan from the war" he said. The man knew exactly where these stray children were coming from. Such were the casualties of war, parents were lost and they left behind their children, a living legacy.. If you will. Inside the orphanage Fang felt herself laid down on a cot where a man walked in and began to check her vital signs and other various health related things.
"It seems to me, shes suffering mostly from shock. She has a few cuts and bruises on her legs, and chest areas, however what worries me most is the fact that shes quite thin. She must not have eaten well in the last few days. Which was true, When she set off away from the behemoth's den, it took her nearly six days to reach Oerba, in which she was living off of the jerky she had made from the behemoth's kill. "What I recommend is to get these wounds cleaned out, and get her a good meal. Then tomorrow we'll talk more…" Everything happened fast, it all felt like a blur. Time passed but she didn't seem to be to aware of it.
When the Shaman, Matron and the man known as Kai returned, she tried to tell them everything that had happened. Starting from when she was uneasy for no reason, and couldn't sleep, to when she was woken with a start by her mother whom owned that Lance Kai now had in his possession. How Cocoon's forces had killed everyone in her village and burned her home to the ground. The three of them nodded and took in her story as if they were listening to the words, but not listening to her. As the child fought back tears recalling finding the corpses of her people thrown carelessly into a pile at the front of her village, she felt sick again.. And that's where the matron intervened.
"Let her be now. Its obviously quite disturbing to remember this" her voice sounded harsh to the two men as they nodded and left. Fang herself stood up and locked herself quietly within her room. Where she found little solace, and the lance now sitting in the corner was a cold reminder of the blood spilled down on the plains. It was the first of many cuts to her being that she would end up suffering until she declared war on an entire world above her.
But for now, she lay on the cot, noting someone had brought her a few pieces of wood and one rather large piece that was taller than her to carve things from. She started with the smallest piece, carving slowly a small rose, from the block. Her mother had always loved roses, always had a small vase of prairie
roses in the house, and so from the next block of wood, a dragon, long and serpentine wound its way through those unforgettable roses. And from the third she carved a lance, her own lance, something that was exactly her size.
She was Fang, daughter of Celes and Zeik. She would make them proud.