Free

The clouds rolled by lazily as I looked towards the bright blue sky.
It was still something unusual to not see the lights of a big city up there, like I was used to in Cocoon.

A small stream lapped next to me, the sound of the water soothing my mind.

I had always believed that Pulse was hell.
That's all the people of Cocoon had ever been told by the Sanctum and never once crossed the idea their minds that this might have been a lie.
Well, maybe I should say our minds, because I was one of those people too.

Pulse crawls with monsters, Pulse cracked our shell, Pulse is responsible for war.
Every time Pulse was mentioned it was always in this kind of context and me, being the naïve kid I was, believed them, as did my friends and many others.

"Hope, we are ready!" Vanille called me and waved me towards the group, even though I could see them clearly from the stone I was sitting on.

It was time for us to leave our base camp and make our way towards Oerba, Vanille's and Fang's hometown.
I gazed at my left hand where my yellow wristband was hiding my l'Cie brand and wondered if we would be able to find some answers there.

Silently I stood up and walked over to Vanille, Lightning, Snow, Sazh and Fang.
Ever since we reached Pulse we hadn't seen any other humans. Was it only the six of us?
Were we really the only humans to walk on the world below Cocoon ever since the War of Transgression ended?

"Were you daydreaming?" Vanille asked me with an amused smile.

"Um… yeah, I guess."
I got carried away with my thoughts and the bright sun and the sound of splashing water had only been supporting this.

We wandered off towards the Archylte Steppe.

"Say guys, how do you like it here?" Fang inquired after we had been walking around in silence for quite some time.

"Let's see… I fell off an airship when we arrived because a monster attacked us and we've been fighting nothing but behemoths, flans and goblins." I enumerated.

"And wyverns. Don't forget the wyverns." Sazh added.

"Yeah, Amphisbaenas, Svarogs, Zirnitras…" Lightning said calmly.

Oh, I really didn't want to remember our first encounters with them. Wyvern monsters were strong creatures – we found out the hard way. Fang and Vanille had warned us, but Snow didn't listen to them and had engaged one of them into a fight. The result was ugly, but luckily we had enough potions and Vanille's healing spells to patch him up.

Fang laughed. "So?"

"If you put all of that aside… I like it." I replied.

"Really?" Vanille's face lit up. "So you don't think of Gran Pulse as hell anymore?"

My answer seemed to be important to her and only then I remembered how I had repeatedly told her on Cocoon that I and everyone else thought that Pulse was hell.
I hadn't known that that was her home and who could blame me? No one could have ever imagined that two Pulsians had been amidst us, unbeknownst to the government.

I bet my words hurt her back then, even though she hadn't showed it.
"Nope." I smiled at her. "I could do without all the monsters, but everything else is nice."

"Agreed." Sazh said and next to him Lightning nodded in approval.

"What do you have against a few monsters?" Snow asked with a smirk and I couldn't tell if he was joking or really that competitive.

Lightning rolled her eyes, as if she wanted to say 'Fighting is okay, but know your limits. It would do us no good if you died on the spot'. She opted to stay silent though, so I could only make a guess.

Fang was amused. "Don't give us that look, Light. He is right!"

Lightning raised an eyebrow and Snow himself seemed to be surprised too.

"He is?"

"I am?"

"Yeah, of course. If you hate fighting, then you'll stay weak because you don't train and then the monsters will come and eat you." Fang explained, still smirking.

"I never said anything against honing one's skills, I just think it's a generally stupid idea to fight everything you see without knowing how strong it is."

This was so like her, to say that fighting was as important as keeping oneself alive. I knew she thought like that because she was an ex-soldier, but also because she wanted to see her sister again which would be impossible if she died out here.

The discussion went on with Snow disagreeing by saying that one 'can't find out until he tries' – a point which obviously stuck in Light's craw and with Fang trying to find a connection between their reasonings before Lightning got the urge to punch his face once again.

I let them argue and looked at the sky again, blinking because the sun shone bright.

Pulse was so much different from Cocoon.

The weather wasn't controlled by fal'Cie, the sun wasn't a being called Phoenix and not every little rain drop and gust of wind had been planned and caused by them.

This had disadvantages for us who were born on Cocoon though: Whereas the fal'Cie Phoenix had been our sun and always made sure that the temperature never got too hot, no one here assured us that. Rain and storms were unpredictable and it had happened more than once that our group got caught up between the forces of nature.

I had never noticed how dependent we were.

But being here on Pulse taught me many new things: Surviving on my own was one of them, but I admit that I got help with that.

One other thing was that the fal'Cie here were so unlike from Cocoon's, indifferent, one could say. They just didn't care about us humans, only about the cycle of nature which they supported when needed, to keep it going.
We weren't important, just a part of something really big. They didn't care for us.

The third thing that I learned was to appreciate my surroundings, courtesy of Vanille.

Whenever we had some free time she would always point out the things she loved in the wild: Flowers, trees, animals – everything. She taught me their names and in case of the flowers for what they could be used for.
She'd always have a special smile on her face when showing me.

I still didn't figure out why, but maybe because she remembered how she had learned all these things? Or maybe she was happy to finally share her love for the nature of her home with me?
Or maybe she just remembered the 'happier days' which she did ever so often.

Then, one day, she aimed with her forefinger towards Cocoon and said: "Our sky doesn't have a limit."

And these words genuinely struck me, because they were so true, just so… obvious, and I hadn't realized it until she actually said them out loud.

Right, Gran Pulse didn't posses a limit.
The land and the sky were endless.
I could look up and would not see the lights of another city which was so typical for Cocoon because of its spherical structure.
I would see endless blue, maybe some clouds – and a real sun. A sun that scorched us on afternoons, but also filled us with a special warmth when we watched it set in the evenings. A sun that couldn't stop the intensity of its light just to save our skin from harm.

And in the nights we would all watch the stars and the moon and Fang and Vanille would show us all the different constellations and tell us their names and the myths that came with them.

Sometimes I almost forgot why we were here in the first place. I would almost forget that we had people to save and a focus to fulfill if we didn't want turn into dreadful Cie'th.
But only almost.

"Okay, I got an idea. Who wants to play a game?" Fang suddenly suggested loudly.

I snapped out of my thoughts, not realizing that I must have daydreamt longer than I thought, because the argument between Snow and Lightning seemed to have been resolved a while ago.

"What kind of game?" As always, Lightning sounded skeptical, which was understandable, because Fang had at times ideas that were even crazier than Snow's.

"Just a simple race." Fang smirked. "With wyverns as our ride. Or our eidolons, you can choose freely."

"Oh, yay! I love that game!" Vanille made little jump in her excitement.

"What…?" I raised an eyebrow, not sure how to take that idea. Wasn't that dangerous?

Lightning exchanged glances with Sazh, Snow and me.
Snow punched his fists together with a grin, seemingly ready to start. I shrugged, not knowing how to take all of this and Sazh sighed while muttering "kids these days…".

As for Lightning, I swear I saw a challenging spark in her gaze when she turned to Fang.

"Count me in."

"Yes!" Fang and Vanille were very pleased with that answer.
"I suggest we split up by two to save some space and the stress of taming six wyverns, okay?" Fang continued.

"Alright. No eidolons, because we might need them later." Lightning agreed.

"Okay!" Snow looked expectantly around. "Who wants to be my partner?"

His eyes shot towards Lightning, but she just ignored his silent suggestion and put a hand on Sazh's shoulder.
"I'll take Sazh as my partner."

"What?" Sazh took an almost unnoticeable step back. "Oh, I know how you'll fly. No, nada. I'll die of a heart attack! And why me?"

I could understand his reaction. From what little we had seen when we departed from Bresha ruins, combined with her temper and fighting style, I could imagine just fine how she would fly a wyvern –especially if it was in a competition. And especially if that competition was against Fang.

"Because you are not Snow."

Vanille chuckled when she saw Snow's confused expression.
"Don't worry; I'll be your partner!" She said and waltzed next to him with an amused hum.

"That leaves the two of us, kiddo." Fang concluded and smiled at me.

Should I be worried?
I decided not to because she surely had the most experience from all of us in this so called 'game'.

"Okay, now let's get our rides!"

Getting a wyvern was way easier than I thought, because we had grown really strong since the last time we fought one.

The teams mounted their respective ride, Lightning taking the lead in her team, Snow in his and Fang in our.

It was fascinating how obedient the creatures were after we defeated them. Vanille explained to us that with beating them, we showed them that we were the stronger ones and that they better did what we said if they wanted to keep their lives.

It was some kind of variation from survival of the fittest where the strongest asserts and the weak either succumb or die.

It was a natural law, so old that it was encoded in their genes.

"I say we'll just make a quick fly towards Paddra and then return here, agreed?" Fang suggested.

Lightning and Snow nodded.
"Agreed."

"Ready, set, go!"

In the next moment we were already in the air and I held onto Fang for my dear life.

Ever since I fell off our airship when we got to Pulse I hadn't been too fond of flying. The weightless sensation in my stomach made me feel very unsafe, to say the least and Fang yelling "wo-hoo!" as if she had the time of her life didn't make it any less scary.

I then remembered that her eidolon was Bahamut and how she fought on his back when he changed forms and just in that moment I realized that she would definitely try some of the more reckless stunts, because that's what she always did.

Oh, dear, I should have protested and gone with Vanille or Snow instead.

The wind blew into my face and I kept my eyes shut since I feared that I would fall off if I saw below me.
That's when I felt the wyvern performing the first loop.
Ugh…
"Faaaaaaaaang!" I screamed.

"What? You scared?" She shouted back and yes, she sounded amused.

"A-actually…" I stuttered.
I bet she could literally feel my discomfort. She was a hunter, she knew what her prey thought before it actually thought it.

"Well, the best way to fight one's fears is to face them!" Fang announced and went in for another air stunt.

Flying headlong in the air wasn't as much fun as it seemed to be when you were still on the ground!

I yelped and I didn't care if she would make fun of me later for sounding like a girl.
"Good gracious, where did you find that game anyways!"

The wyvern slowed down and turned around and I felt myself sitting again in the right position: The head up and the feet down.

"Open your eyes, Hope." Fang said calmly.

I only cracked one eye open. "Is that one of your tricks again?" I asked, still clinging on her back.

"No tricks, I promise." She chuckled softly.

I believed her and fully opened my eyes.

The sight was breathtaking: We were flying above the dispersing clouds and it looked like I could see all of Pulse below and before me.
It really had no end, the land just expanded further until it escaped my eyes.
"Wow…"

The others were flying in a leisured tempo just ahead of us.

"I didn't think of this game on my own." Fang started to answer my question, which I had already forgotten after seeing the land around me.
"You see, the people of Gran Pulse had always been aware that they were gifted with a freedom that the people of Cocoon hadn't. So they started to try out just how far they could reach – where their limit was. This 'game' was just one of the many things they discovered on their way."

"I see…" I leaned my head on her back while I looked down on the earth. The wind felt great, now that it didn't forcefully blow in my face and from up here, even the great Adamantoises seemed like tiny ants.

I saw Vanille talking to Snow and motioning with her hands at the others. Maybe she just explained them the same as Fang did to me. She looked so comfortable on the winged creature's back, she even held on Snow with only one hand at his coat while the other pointed at the things below them.

At least Sazh held on as fast as he could too, but without getting too close to Lightning. I imagined that she would be really annoyed if someone got clingy. However, he certainly didn't look scared.
Sazh was a pilot after all; he from all the people wouldn't be scared to be so high above the ground.

"And did they ever find out what their limit was?" I asked curiously.
Suddenly I felt comfortable on the wyvern's back. The sight was so beautiful; I couldn't allow it to go to waste just because I was a bit uncomfortable with heights.

Fang shook her head.

"There is no limit." She simply replied. "This world is endless, as are our opportunities. We will reach our limit only when we restrict ourselves to certain thoughts and beliefs. We people of Gran Pulse learned to think outside the box, because we were free and had to take care of ourselves, unlike the Cocoon citizens who got everything they needed shoved up their ass without even wasting a second thought."

I remained silent. She was right with everything she said. I've had similar thoughts too at the beginning of the day after all.

We flew closer to the others.

"Okay, enough sightseeing, let's get this finished!"

"I won't lose!" Snow announced and immediately his wyvern accelerated and flew downwards again with Vanille excitedly yelling "aaaaahhhh!".

Lightning stuck to their heels and followed them.

Fang turned her head around and faced me with a devilish smile. "I think you are getting too comfortable here."

"N-not really…"
Whatever I would have said, I knew that I couldn't have changed what came next.

She forced the creature to fly downwards with high speed – and most importantly – in a spiral.

The trajectories of the three monsters intertwined and sometimes, when I felt that we came too close to the others, I yelled in fear that we would collide.
"Faaaaang! Let me out of here, you are a maniac!"

She only laughed and beside me I saw Lightning's, Sazh's, Snow's and Vanille's amused expressions.
They were all enjoying themselves – and it was the first time that I saw our whole group together, contended, without a care in the world.

Right now, no one thought about our focus, fal'Cie's or the things that should happen.

And this was only possible, I figured, because we were right here: On Gran Pulse, the endless Underworld with unlimited possibilities and not in our sheltered and restricted home called Cocoon.

My heart made a leap as we further descended and I felt how my emotions overwhelmed me when the wind blew in my face and I recognized the Yaschas Massif below us.

I couldn't say why, but for once I was just happy, so happy that I couldn't help but start laughing out loud.

I looked at my friends and knew that they felt just the same.

In that moment, I could have sworn that we were all free.