Little pets, little dinners, and little kids.
The first time, Gabranth saw the kid on the living world. If the battlefield where they had been summoned could even be called a world, of course.
He heard him talking to someone, but as Gabranth approached, the child seemed to be alone.
"It's all your fault," he complained, and sat down on the grass with his back against a tree. "And now the others will be angry with me for being late, you lazy thing."
Despite his size, childish clothes, and the fact that he couldn't be older than fourteen; the kid still carried around him the halo of harmonic power that signaled him as a warrior of Cosmos.
The child looked at where Gabranth hid.
"Who's there?" he shouted, jumping to his feeth and drawing his sword. Gabranth saw in his other hand he carried a baby chocobo. A chikabo too round for it's size. It looked like it could roll around, rather than walk.
Gabranth stepped away from his hinging place among the foliage.
"Is your goddess desperate or merciless, for having summoned you here, small warrior?" he asked. The child took a battle stance, but Gabranth refused to do the same.
"Don't you badmouth Cosmos, you Chaos scum!"
"Put down your sword, little warrior. I do not work for the god of Chaos, and I don't intend to fight you."
The kid growled.
"Don't underestimate me!"
Gabranth sighed, and approached the child, who seemed to calm down when he saw Gabranth was unarmed. The chikabo in the child's hand peeped. For the first time, it made Gabranth smile.
"I'll make sure not to."
The child lowered his weapon.
"Is it true you don't work for Chaos? Who are you? Who do you fight for?"
Gabranth fell silent for a moment. What was such a child asking doing there, in a world made from and for war? Asking him, Judge Magister Gabranth, who he fought for. This world disgusted him more and more.
"I fight for no one. I am Judge Gabranth. I judge the souls of those fallen in battle, to see if they are worthy of a new life."
"So, you…revive people?"
"Well…"
"That means you make zombies!"
Gabranth blinked, realized the kid had really said that; and laughed. Laughed hard. The kid pouted at him, and he stopped.
"Zombies. No, of course not. I merely judge them. Anything else, is left to the mercy of the gods."
Looking down at the kid, those words felt more cynical than ever.
"Oh. I see…" he said, trying to sound smart.
"And what are you doing here all alone? It's a dangerous place, even for an older…more experienced warrior." He added the last bit at the boy's glare.
"Peep jumped out and I had to stay and search for him," he said, and showed Gabranth the fat chikabo. "I just found him and was going back to Cosmos' shrine."
"Why is it so fat?"
"Peep's not fat! He's just…a bit big for his age. He's got big bones."
"That's fat."
"You're so mean!"
"I'm not being mean. You feed it too much."
"He'll grow up really big, just you see."
"Yes. Big, that's about right."
The kid kicked him in the shin and stuck his tongue at him. Gabranth barely felt it because of his armor.
"I'm leaving now, Mr. Judge," said the child, and walked away slowly, bending a little to the left. Gabranth looked closer and saw a dark stain in his red clothes. He walked to him and pulled his left arm. "L-let me go!"
There is was, a gash that showed the kid had been stabbed. Looking closer, Gabranth noticed many other small gashes and stains in the clothes.
"You were attacked. Where are your friends?"
"Let go, I'm leaving!"
"You're not going to get far like that."
The kid smiled in a way that made him look much older.
"I still have a couple potions with me. I can take the pain of these wounds for a while longer. I have to keep in mind the possibility of another attack at any moment. I'd rather take the pain now and make my potion reserves last a little longer until I'm in safer ground." He pulled his arm away from Gabranth's grasp. "I'm smart."
Gabranth fell silent for a moment.
The kid took a few steps away, but Gabranth caught up with him and pulled him up.
"W-what are you doing?"
"You won't make it very far like that. Let me take you to Neutral ground. It will be easier for you."
"I don't need your help, you iron covered bastard!"
"Such a mouth you have."
They traveled in silence. Many times Gabranth could sense the forces of Chaos wandering about around them, but they wouldn't dare approach a Judge. The kid noticed it too, and in the end stopped complaining, to the point of falling asleep in Gabranth's arms.
Night fell before they'd reached neutral ground, and the child's temperature seemed to be dropping alarmingly. Gabranth woke him up and set him down against a tree.
"W-what…?"
"Your condition worsens. You should take one of the potions."
"Nah…'m fine…"
"No, you're not." Gabranth gave up and offered him a potion of his own. "Here, have this one if you want to keep yours for later."
The kid extended a hand towards the potion, but took it back almost immediately. Gabranth saw in those eyes a wariness unbecoming for his age.
"No. I can't take it. If you're not with Cosmos, I don't want to owe you any favors. And I'm not counting you carryin' me here as a favor 'cos I didn't want you to in the first place, eh"
Gabranth sat next to him.
"There is more complexity to this world and this war than just the good and the bad."
"It works for me like this now. It's already complicated enough," he took the chikabo from his cap and petted it.
Gabranth turned away and started a fire, hoping that the child's eyes would look less tired in the light of the flames. He wished he could do something, but knew that the tiredness he saw in those eyes was brought about not by the body, but by a war he could not end nor escape. A war that would go on with or without him. A war that hated him.
He decided to make dinner.
There was no escape to this world, not even in death. But he knew that, for short moments if something felt normal enough, you could forget about it, and that was almost enough.
The kid said nothing until the scent of warm food filled the air and he edged closer to Gabranth.
"That, uhm, looks like a lot of food."
"Indeed."
"You going to eat it all?"
"I don't know. But you want no favors from me, do you?"
The kid pouted.
"Well…If there's anything left over, and uh, you're not going to eat it…"
"I won't say anything, and come dawn, we can pretend like nothing happened."
The kid looked down, and nodded.
Throughout dinner, Gabranth knew this was not normal. This was not in any way like his past life, or like anything he had done ever before. But just having dinner with the kid, warmed by the fire…It did make him forget.
Dawn came. He said nothing, and neither did the kid when they parted ways.
The next time Gabranth saw the kid, he was dead.
There was a deep gash in his red clothes where he had been stabbed.
"Judge Gabranth?" asked the kid, and Gabranth realized he had never asked for the child's name. For once, he was unsure if now, that would be for the best.
"I am here o judge whether or not you're worthy of going back to the service of the gods."
"I…you don't remember me?"
Gabranth wished he didn't so he wouldn't be so harsh on him.
But if he could free this child from the war.
Would existence in this hell be better?
A/N: Not sure about this one. I was going to leave it unfinished, but then Railenthe and me started talking and I told her I would finish it :/ Still, not sure if it's any good. A little cute, in a way. I kind of like it.