"Father? Father, I-I-I can't do this!", the little girl began to weep. Her father was immediately by her side consoling her. He hugged her gently and let her bury her face in his chest. Lulling her he stroked her hair and whispered loving encouraging words in her ear.

"Sure you can my dearest Yuna. Have faith in yourself and listen very closely to your teacher's", her father said. He was always so caring and loved her more than anything in this world. On many occasions he made it known to her and she always cherished her father. She had only known her mother for a short period of time and so she never really knew much about her, save for a few scattered memories she had in the far corners of her mind. She used to cry about it when she was 4 years old but that was when she saw everyone else had someone to call "mommy". She used to get so jealous of them and tell her father how much she hated everyone else for having one and yet Yevon took hers away. In those moments he would hold her and tell her that Yevon thought that it was better for her to watch over them from where she is now than where she was when she was with us, and that she should NEVER hate others for the blessing they had unless she wished to have more taken away from her.

"Father! I don't want to lose you... I-I-I've already lost a mother, i don't want to lose my father too!"

"Yo, Braska! We REALLY need to go, the ship ain't gonna wait forever you know?", said his new guardian, Jecht. He wasn't anything like the other guardians and everyone thought he was crazy. He said he came from some other land not from here and that he was looking for a way home. He would tell her WONDERFUL tales of this place he called home, and about his family, and this thing called a "city" with "electricity", whatever that was, and they even had blitzball there too. She desperately wanted to see it some day and wanted more than anything for him to take her there, but he would always say, "Sorry kid, there's only room for one on that trip". He could be a real meanie head sometimes.

"Braska, I hate to agree with this cretin but he is right. If we are going we need to go now", and THAT was his other guardian, Auron. He was very serious about everything. Yuna had known him since she was 3, she couldn't be sure because she couldn't remember that far back really but that's what he always told her. He was like her uncle in a way, but he never really smiled and that scared her. He treated her kind though so that was good. She knew that her father was safe in his hands, and she liked Jecht so she hoped everything would work out.

"Coming," he called out to them, " Yuna, one day you'll understand all of this and why I HAVE to go. Yuna, know that I will ALWAYS love you and that I will be with you even if I'm not here. Do you understand?", Braska told her while clutching her tight. She cried as she nodded her head to show she did understand, even though she didn't. She gripped him tight, somewhere inside she knew this was the last time she would ever get the chance to again.

"Now cheer up, Yuna. I've left Kimahri to watch over you. You LOVE Kimahri.", it was true. She truly did love the blue Ronso that always made her feel safe. He never spoke much but when he did it just felt like a mountain of strength had been given to her. Braska wiped her tears and said, "Your eight years old. I pray that I can give you the peace that will help you make your own decisions, darling. I do this for everyone, but I do this so YOU won't have to. So YOU can choose whatever path you want to in life. So SIN doesn't take YOUR dreams away", just the mention of SIN made her tingle with fear and frustration. Their curse for times way before she could fathom, SIN was a reincarnated monster that came back over and over again to destroy everything they worked so hard to create and build in their lives. SIN was the constant reminder that EVERYTHING could be taken away and so EVERYTHING must be cherished while you still had it.

Braska stood up and looked down at his daughter, Yuna. His head blocked the sun making an ominous halo of light around it and shading out his face, a sight that Yuna would come to always remember, and then he said, "I love you Yuna, be strong and remember me well". He turned away and walked away with his guardians. Yuna wanted to scream, wanted this all to be a dream, she wanted to run after him, but all she could do was stay on her knees and start to cry. The Ronso named Kimahri held her and let her cry on his shoulder as he picked her up.

"There there Yu-na. Kimahri won't let any-thing happen to Yu-na", he told her. She cried more. If she had been looking she would have seen her father look back and take a second to wipe his eyes as he cried watching his life end and his daughter cry, something HE NEVER wanted to be the cause of. She would have seen him pray for her and for all of Spira, and she would have seen him blow her a kiss and wave at what he knew he would never see again. She didn't see any of this however, and so she had her last memory be crying in the Ronso's shoulder through the night until she had no more tears and then passing out from the emotional day she had been through.

A WEEK LATER...

The sun hit Yuna hard. She hadn't been out of her home since her father left. She didn't ever really feel like doing anything except crying. This was the first time that she actually decided to go out and do something. As she stepped out of her home she heard "WATCH OUT" as a blitzball hit her in the head. She had never seen one before as she picked it up, she observed how the ball had lumps all around it... that must be how it traveled so well underwater. As she was inspecting it a guy of around 19 years old came up to her. "Sorry about that, you okay?"

She snapped out of her inspecting and handed the ball over apologizing over and over, though she had no idea why. He laughed and waved his hand dismissing the sorries saying, "I should be apologizing, you took a pretty hard hit to the head. I gotta say you got a head of lead to take such a hit and be fine from it. I apologize miss...?"

"Yuna. My name is Y-y-yuna", she said a bit fluster as she looked at his face and realized she had butterflies in her stomach. This boy was REALLY cute and she felt her face reddening. She suddenly wished to be held in his arms, just as a big gust of wind picked up. She looked back to see another guy and a girl running towards her. The guy was waving frantically and looking nervous, the girl was dressed in a beautiful white gown and seemed just as irritated as the orange haired guy seemed nervous. She suddenly panicked and thought they were going to pounce on her or something so she tried to run but tripped and fell right into the guy's arms. Her heart skipped a beat and she blushed even more saying a thousand more apologies in the span of a minute, as she quickly detached herself from his strong hold that she wanted to be in for a bit longer.

"'Atta boy Chappu. Hit her in the head wit' a blitzball and then make her yours wit' your charm. Smooth move brudda", said the approaching boy that looked to be about 14 or 15. He grinned ear to ear as he drew nearer. "Sorry bout the bump on the head, ya? We sometimes don't know our own strength, 'specially dat brudda of mine, Chappu. He likes to show off a lil' bit too much, ain't dat right brudda?"

"Wakka, YOU'RE the one that tried to kick it right at ma head. If i hadn't of kicked it somewhere it woulda hit Lulu. As ALWAYS i da one havin to save ya ass", said Chappu. Things looked like they were gettin heated and Yuna desperately wanted to get back in her room. She looked around for an escape route and noticed that the girl in the white gown was looking at her amused. She felt that she was going to cry again if she didn't get out of here soon. Then the girl spoke up.

"Don't you think we should be more concerned about the girl, and NOT your sibling rivalry. Are you okay, dear? My name is Lulu. I usually try to keep these boys in line but you KNOW how little boys can be when they have to play around and get rough", she said with an air of sophistication at the end of it, and an amusing smile on her face. Yuna couldn't help but giggle a little bit as Wakka exclaimed, "WHO YOU CALLIN 'LITTLE' LULU? YOU'RE ONLY 2 YEARS OLDER THAN ME, YA?", they all started laughing at Wakka at this point. He just scratched his head and said "Aw jeez, always gotta be the butt of a joke".

Yuna started spending time with these three more and more often. When she wasn't in school she was with them. She enjoyed their presence very much, it helped her keep her mind off of her father who was out there somewhere. At night she would find herself alone and would cry herself to sleep. Soon though, that changed as Lulu, Wakka, and Chappu started staying the nights to make sure she got to sleep okay. She appreciated them and their kindness with all of her heart. She had never known of another to treat her as well as her father, but she thanked Yevon EVERY night for her new friends. She hoped one day, SHE could be as strong as they were... maybe.

fin