Squall's Shadow
2 years after Ultimecia's defeat
I took one last look around me, at the home I had grown to love. Then I turned around and left it forever.
I had grown up in and around Winhill. My mother had died a few months after I was born, and my father had disappeared before I had even been born. No one knew whether he was alive or dead.
For the first seven years of my life, I had been raised by a pack of wolves. Then some people from the nearby town of Winhill had discovered me.
Before my mother died, she had named me Ellone Loire, Ellone after the little girl she had adopted years ago, even before my older brother was born. But the name the wolves had given me was what I was used to, and so I refused to answer to anything but Shadow. Finally, they changed Ellone to my middle name, and I was Shadow from then on.
For eight years, ever since I was seven, I had lived in Winhill. Now I was fifteen, and I was going to Balamb to find my father and brother. Also, to become a SeeD. I knew my brother lived in Balamb Garden. He was nineteen, four years older than me. He was a SeeD, and a commander. His name was Squall Leonhart.
I headed toward the woods, my Shuriken in its usual spot tied with rope just behind my right shoulder. The few things I owned were already in Balamb Garden, where Headmaster Cid was expecting me. Now the only problem was how to get there...
I stepped into the forest. "Brokefang?" I called in the tongue of the Winhill forest. All the forests had different tongues, as well as one universal tongue that all animals were born knowing. I knew both the universal, and the language of this forest.
"Shadow? Is that you?" The enormous pack leader stepped out of the shadows with his mate, Rattail at his side.
"Yes." I had come to visit the wolves several times after I had left to Winhill. They were the closest thing to family I had ever had.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Well, you know I'm leaving, and I need someone to take me to Deling City. Will you?"
"Of course." I was slender, but even though, a normal wolf would never have been able to carry me. However, Brokefang was so large, he could have easily carried twice my weight.
I climbed onto his back, and after getting back down to hug Rattail, we were off.
It took us two days to get to Deling City, only stopping to sleep and eat. Brokefang caught and killed a rabbit for me. He went and got something else, I know.
When we reached Deling City, I bought a train ticket and headed to Balamb.
I got there a couple of hours later, and found the hotel and rented a room with the last of my Gil.
Exhausted, I fell onto the bed, asleep before my head hit the pillow.
The next morning I awoke, and took a shower. Looking in the mirror, I swore. The gashes on my back were open again. The medicine Brokefang had taught me how to make only worked for a week. I had forgotten to ask him to put it on before I left.
When I was four years old, an enemy wolf had shredded my back. The cuts had never healed.
It was a prophecy, a wolf prophecy. A very dangerous one. Only Rattail and Brokefang knew about it, because I would have been in a lot of danger.
This was how it translated out:
when a child of our kind, but born of human blood,
is unhealably wounded by the evil of our kind,
she holds in her hands the power to change,
or destroy the world,
and everything in it.
So, if it was true, then someday I would have so much power, I could destroy the entire world!
So I couldn't let anyone see the marks on my back, because then I'd have to explain, and then people would do one of two things:
Lock me up,
or be really scared and avoid me.
I didn't want either.
So I grabbed the medicine and put it on as best as I could.
I finished dressing, and grabbed my Shuriken. I could use it very well, and I had deadly aim.
I tied the rope around the edge and strapped it around my shoulder as usual. I gathered up the few things Brokefang had given me before leaving, and left the hotel and town.
I followed the path from the town to Balamb Garden.
When I walked in, it was full of activity. I headed straight for the headmaster's office.
"Ahh, Shadow. come in, please."
I walked in. Headmaster Cid was sitting at his desk, and a young man was standing up, watching me.
I was wearing black pants that came down almost to my ankles, and they had colorful flower embroidery on the bottom. I was wearing a white tank top with black straps and glitter- touched bamboo on it. My long, dark red- gold hair was pulled back in a pastel green headband that brought out the deeper tones of my hair, and my sapphire eyes.
I had really nice hair. In the dark, or under artificial light, it was just a regular dark brown, but when I stepped into the sun. It lit up as if on fire, a dark red fire.
My blue eyes, I noticed, were the same shade as the young man who was standing in the corner of the room's eyes. I looked down at the floor, and then looked up at him shyly. I then turned to Headmaster Cid.
"Shadow Ellone Loire. This is Squall Leonhart, who is in all reality Squall Loire. Your brother."
He looked at me again, and then pulled a picture out of his pocket.
He reached out and handed it to me. I looked at it.
"This is..our mother." I said.
"You look like her." He stated.
I nodded.
"Squall, I will leave you to show Shadow where she needs to be." Headmaster Cid smiled.
"Yeah. Shadow, come with me."
We walked outside, into the hall. Instantly, he grabbed me and hugged me tightly.
"I can't believe it! A long- lost sister I never knew I had!"
"Yeah. It's kind of hard for me to believe too." I winced as he brushed against my back. Just then another new voice came on the scene.
"Another woman, Squall? Wait 'till I tell Rinoa!" I saw a beautiful blonde woman standing there.
"Oh, hi Quistis. This is my sister, Shadow. Shadow, this is Quistis Trepe, one of your instructors.
"Hello, Shadow."
"Hi," I said shyly.
"well, I have to go. I am supposed to be helping Selphie with something. I'll see you tomorrow." She left.
"Oh, yeah. You don't have any classes today. You start tomorrow."
"Cool!" I said, grinning.
"So, where do you want to go?"
"Well, I'm kind of hungry."
"Okay, then, let's go to the cafeteria."
I followed him down to the cafeteria, and we walked in. The first thing I saw was three people standing near the entrance. A cute blonde guy, a really buff dark- skinned guy a few years older than me, and a girl. She had red eyes and gray hair, and I could tell she was an albino.
She was dressed in blue, and the thing that drew me to her, was that she also had a Shuriken around her shoulder.
We walked by, and the blond yelled out," Hey, Squall, new girlfriend?"
"No," he said, walking up to him. "Seifer, this is my sister Shadow."
"Hi," I said.
"Hey." he said.
The girl was watching me. I smiled at her.
"Hi." I said.
"HELLO."
"What's your name?"
"FUJIN"
"Do you wanna get something to eat, sit down somewhere and talk?"
"AFFIRMATIVE"she smiled.
"Squall? I'm gonna go eat with Fujin. You can leave, if you want. I'll be fine."
I left.
"Wow!" Seifer said. "Fujin actually made a friend? She is SO shy!"
"Shadow seems nice, y'know?"
"Yeah." Squall said. "I thought she would be really shy, and just kind of like cling to me, but her first day, she made friends with the shyest girl in Balamb Garden!!"
Well, that's all for now. I have to go do all my backed- up homework. More next week!
(comments would be greatly appreciated!!)
Fujin Ellone