Little Lioness
A Final Fantasy VIII fanfic by Kate Holden (Darth Mongoose)

Oh yeah, locations and characters are all property of Squaresoft....Is property the right word? Anyway, basically most of these characters weren't my idea.

Chapter 1: Balamb Garden.

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"Ellone Leonhart, are you even listening to me?"
"Yes instructor."
"Sometimes I wonder, if talking to you is more, or less beneficial than speaking to a wall."

Ellone didn't speak. She waited for the instructor to continue. She had found that if you stood around long enough they would tire of trying to make you listen and give up.

"At least give me some sign that we're on the same planet!"
"Instuctor Trepe. I am listening."

Quistis sighed and sat on her desk. The girl was impossible. Utterly impossible. She was as cold and reticent as Squall and gifted with his intelligence, but had her mother's stubborness and that same rebellious streak. More annoyingly she was technically the best student in the whole Garden, at just fourteen she was skillful enough to become a SeeD. But Quistis wasn't sending her for her exam, not yet. Not until the girl had some grasp of how to treat other people.
It was difficult to make eye contact with Ellone, she rarely bothered to look at people, but when she did she seemed to study them thoughroughly, her eyes were sharp and blue like her father's and she shared his straight nose and hawk brow, but with Rinoa's soft mouth, when she was younger and had smiled often she had been a pretty little girl. Quistis wondered what had gone wrong. Was it having famous parents that bothered her?

She looked at the girl, wishing that she could see what was going on in the head behind that thick dark brown mop of hair, which was generally all she saw of Ellone, who was small in stature like her mother. Are you all alone?

('Great. My instructor has gone into a trance. And there I was thinking she'd just give me a quick lecture...')

"Instructor?"

Quistis shook her head and blinked, coming out of her reverie.

"Oh. Ellone, I'm sorry... I expect you need to go now don't you?"

"Yes." Said Ellone simply. And began to walk towards the door.

"Ellone."

('What does she want now?')

"If you're lonely, you can always talk to somebody."

('Like that's gonna help.')

"And Ellone...Please, wear your uniform."

"Yes Instructor."

Quistis watched the door slide open. She knew that the girl wouldn't wear her uniform. She never did. She dressed in anything black and baggy, she hated attention, and more than anything hated to be called pretty. Quistis could guess why. If somebody said Ellone was pretty, it was normally followed up by "just like your mother." A statement that summed up everything the young cadet hated about living in her parents' shadow.

On the other side of the door, Ellone, not looking where she was going, almost crashed into somebody. Somebody who had been waiting for her.

"Hmm. That's a new record for instructor Trepe. Kept you in the room for seven and a half minutes. Was it the usual?"

"Wear my uniform." Growled Ellone, stepping backwards and looking up. The figure was tall, slender and femenine, slightly better developed than most fourteen year olds, and well above average height. An onlooker would have thought her much older than her small, bony companion, but looking into her face, there was a childish innocence about her large green eyes and wide smile that showed her fourteen years. Sylvie Kinneas had famous parents too. Famous for the same reason as Ellone's, though not quite so well known. Sylvie was quietly confident, optimistic, intellegent and always enthusiastic, sometimes overly so.

"Well, maybe you should wear your uniform for once. Just as a favour for instructor Trepe?"

"I'm no Trepie. And I'm not wearing that stupid little dress." Ellone began to stalk down the corridor, with Sylvie in tow.

"But you'd look so cute!" Sylvie giggled and tried to plait the smaller Cadet's thick dark hair, but was shaken off.

"I don't want to look "cute," I want to be a SeeD."

"And you'll never be one with an attitude like that." Sylvie hopped into the lift next to Ellone. "Instructor Trepe knows you're ready for the exam. All you need to do is show her that you can cope with people."

"I can cope with people, so long as they don't get in my way."

"By 'getting in the way' do you mean talking about your parents?"

Ellone stared at the doors as they opened and walked out of the lift.

"I have the same problem you know?" She added.

"...I know."

"But I still don't think I understand you. Is it what you're expected to be that worries you?"

"I'm not 'worried' about anything. I'm concerned that I may spend my entire life being called 'Squall Leonhart's Daughter' I'm even named after the famous sorceress Ellone. I want people to appreciate me without always associating me with my family." She paused and fingered the hilt of her Shear Trigger gunblade. "Sometimes I wish there was a war on. Then I could prove myself."

"Be careful what you wish for Ella. Besides, there's still Timber's independence to sort out."

"Like that's ever going to happen. My mother has spent the past fifteen years trying to sort that out. Galbadia just won't let go."

Sylvie smiled, it was strange, for them diplomatic negotiations, wars and the press were always close. They weren't like normal children, pretending to be Squall Leonhart, they knew him so well that it was difficult to see him as a legend, he was a small, fine boned man with neat brown hair and a soft pink scar across the bridge of his nose. And quiet, there was nothing harsh, wild or frightening there, and he never shouted. But there was a strange power in his well muscled arms and bright eyes that reminded her of just what he was capable of.

Ellone looked at the decorations strewn around the main hall. She never said it aloud, but she really loved the Garden Festival, everybody forgot about training and rank for a week, and there were presents and music, and the little ones put on a play of "Squall and the sorceresses" which was always amusing. The Garden Festival was a time of such happiness and general goodwill, and Ellone knew that only her favourite instructor could have come up with such a great idea. Instructor Kinneas was the 'Kinder Garden' teacher, and Sylvie's mother. She was the sort of instructor who on sunny days would throw away the training syllabus and take the kids out on a picnic. What five year old wanted to learn advanced espionage tactics? Finger painting and singing songs were much more fun.

She grinned to herself on spotting the small woman up a stepladder arranging banners, dressed in dungarees and a bright yellow t-shirt.

"Irvy! Is this banner straight?"

"As straight as Squall's head my love!" Replied Mister Kinneas. Selphie laughed and nudged his head with her foot. "Well it is!"

"There! ....Well, I guess it's straight enough." She sighed. The banner was the tiniest bit crooked, not really noticable at all, but Selphie was a perfectionist. She stared at it for a moment, then gave in and unfolded the ladder again.

"Mum! Let me do it!" Sylvie strode over to the banner and straightened it. "You should have told me you were doing decorations already, you wouldn't need to get those ladders out."

"Hmm. Well, I thought your father could help me do it, but he just can't get things straight!" She folded the ladder again and stood up.

"Ella! I've been looking for you!"

"Oh?"

"Yes, we're short on actors for the play this year."

Ellone's brow furrowed as she counted off the parts needed.

"There are enough children in the Kinder Garden. I'm sure of it."

"Oh no! Not for that one! The older kids are doing a play too this year!"

"Really? What of?"

"We're doing the story of the second sorceress war, but a proper version."

"Proper Version?" Questionned Ellone. She had always thought that the one she saw every year was the the proper version.

"Well, you see, "Squall and the Sorceresses" was a play written by Julian Skirk, who never actually witnessed any of the events that happened...So I wrote my own version using excerpts from my journal, all the conversations are quoted verbatum. Here's the script. Read it through, we really need a good Rinoa."

Ellone scowled. Normally the sort of girls who played Rinoa in the play were bossy, forceful and thought they were more beautiful than they really were, and threw themselves at the role with melodramatic fervor. Sylvie could tell just by looking that Ellone was thinking of refusal. But then, she also knew that her mother was probably the only person in Garden who could convince her to do anything.

"......I'll have a look at the script." Said Ellone with a nod, and sauntered off towards the dorms.

"Mum? I want to know your secret. And I think you should tell Instructor Trepe too." Said Sylvie.