Journey to Oerba

—

"Come on, Fang!" Vanille called, skipping ahead. "Catch up!"

Fang smiled and trotted after her. The girl had paused on a grassy rise a little further down the trail and was looking out over the plain. The breeze stirred her curly pigtails and the sun shone in her russetcolored hair like fire. Fang stepped up beside her and Vanille turned to her smiling. "It's just as beautiful as it always was, isn't it?"

Fang put her hands on her hips and looked out over the meadow. Grass grew greenly as far as you could see and there were hills and ponds and crystal clear streams that wove among the groves and the sky above was a beautiful light blue. The morning sun was big and yellow and flocks of birds were crossing overhead singing softly and in the distance the peaks of mountains broke through a carpet of white cloud and sat floating in midair like islands in the sky. She looked out over this Gran Pulse paradise and sighed. The wind moved through her black hair. "It sure is," she said.

Vanille giggled and started backing away. "Come on," she said. "We'd better hurry if we're gonna get there by dark."

They started off down the trail. Vanille smiling, chatting, looking about, Fang at her side, smiling at everything she said. They followed the trail as it wound around the hill and thinned out into tall grass and they continued on through a field, two figures skipping through the sunshine, pausing to drink at a stream, to pick some wildberries at a bush. Moving on again, following the grassy bank of the creek with the berries cupped in their hands like birds, smiling, laughing, playfully poking fun at each other and their friends back at the camp.

"You know," Vanille said, grinning widely, as they strolled along the creekbank. "Me and Hope went exploring the other day."

Fang smirked. "You and Hope, huh?"

Vanille rolled her eyes at the tone. "Yes, me and Hope. We found this bluff that looked out over the steppe and were sitting on the edge, looking up at the Cocoon. It looked so peaceful, up there in all that blue."

Now Fang rolled her eyes.

Vanille glanced at her and smiled. "Actually, Hope had some strange things to say to me that day."

"Like what?"

Vanille blushed a bit. "He said it makes him happy when I smile."

"Pfft," Fang snorted. "So what? You make everybody happy when you smile."

"Hey, don't spoil it. It was one of the sweetest things a guy's ever said to me."

"You know, you oughta just marry the kid and get it over with."

Vanille gasped maidenly.

Fang grinned, sensing a new avenue of teasing. "We could even have a little ceremony back at camp," she said. "You'd have to be the groom, since Hope would be so much cuter in a dress, and I'd be your best man and Sazh could be the minister. It wouldn't be official, of course, but you could always pretend."

"Stop it, Fang," Vanille said, red faced. "It's not funny."

"You know what would be funny? Lightning catching the bouquet."

Vanille burst out giggling. "You're horrible, Fang."

"Yeah," Fang said, smiling, kicking the ground. She looked up at Vanille. "But do you like him though?"

Vanille went all shy. "I don't know."

"He's a cute kid."

Vanille strolled along, smiling, fiddling with her hands. "He is, isn't he?"

Fang glanced at her softly, keeping pace beside. Vanille went to speak and their eyes met. She closed her mouth then opened it again.

"It's probably just a crush," she said. "I've never really been in love before and like you said; he is kinda cute. Anyway, he's just a kid. He'd still be in school if he wasn't down here with us."

Fang gave a small shrug. "Age shouldn't matter in love."

"I know," Vanille said. "But I don't love him."

"You sure about that?"

Vanille smiled. "Mmhm," she said. "Positive."

Fang gave her a sideways look of womanish cunning. Vanille flapped a hand casually.

"Besides," she said. "Who needs a boyfriend when I got you?"

Fang chuckled, a suppressed glow settling over her face. "Yeah," she said. "I suppose so."

They went on, the stream leading them into a high pine forest, birds singing in the branches, insects chirping in the shrubbery. The forest floor was damp and dark and sunlight twinkled in the thick canopy overhead and they went on, shuffling through the pine needles in their boots, weaving among the trees, hopping over rocks and windfall branches, nimble as does. Holding hands for balance they crossed a crystal clear stream that trickled over the stones and hand in hand they went on, through the beautiful gloom, where moss grew on the trees and toadstools bloomed a poisonous purple. Where small animals peeped from hollowed treetrunks. A silence descended on them and they listened to the birds sing. They went on and by and by their way lead them through a section of the forest that was completely overgrown with bluebells, a lavenderblue carpet of bellshaped blossoms that sparkled with dew in the trunks of sunlight that fell through the trees, and they went on, holding hands through this indigo garden with a retinue of butterflies fluttering along behind them like fairies.

By noon they had stopped to rest at a clearwater pond where waterlilies swayed on elegant green stems. Vanille sat on the grassy bank, trailing a hand in the cool water, and Fang sat on a rock with her legs crossed watching her. The trees thinned by the pool and Vanille was sitting in sunlight, her orange hair afire. There were lillipads floating in the pool and a pale rainbow glowed in the vapor that rose from the water and there seemed to be a poetry about the girl on the bank. Sitting in the sun with her legs tucked, gazing out at the shimmering water with eyes that were big and green and beautiful, humming to herself. Fang watched her with sisterly affection, a curious clenching feeling in her chest. There were trout in the pond and one of them stood on a wimply fin and studied the girl sitting there with an expression of fishy perplexion. Vanille giggled at it and it swam away. She turned and smiled at Fang and Fang smiled back. Then she tossed her chin at the pond.

"Wanna go in the water?" she asked.

Vanille giggled. "What am I, six?"

"Come on, it'll be fun."

Vanille scrunched up her face and thought about it cutely. She narrowed an eye on Fang. "Will you go in too?"

"Sure."

"Really?"

"Of course." Fang uncrossed her legs and kicked off from the rock. "Come on, let's do it. It'll be fun."

Vanille sighed and hopped to her feet. "Okay," she said, swiping at the seat of her skirt. "I just hope it isn't cold."

They undressed in the sun on the bank. Fang's sari falling in a navyblue pool at her feet, Vanille wriggling out of her frilly miniskirt. The rainbow in the pond glimmering behind them. They'd set their boots aside and when they were naked Vanille dipped a toe into the water daintily and Fang stepped past her and waded into the pool.

"How's the water?" Vanille asked, watching her.

Fang turned with a gentle trickling sound, the water coming just to her hips. "It's nice," she said. "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

Vanille hesitated, smiling. Then she stepped in delicately, elbows tucked, hands out, mud squelching between her toes. Nipples like tulipbuds and her navel just a slit in her flat little tummy. The floating lillipads rippled in the wake of her steps and the lilistems swayed.

"See," Fang said. "It's nice, right?"

Vanille giggled and shook her head. "I guess."

Fang studied her. "Okay," she said. "What's the matter, Vanille? You're not shy, are you?"

"Of course not."

"Then what's wrong? You're acting weird."

Vanille shook her head, grinning. Swaying in the cold water.

"Vanille," Fang said, mock sternly. "What's the matter?"

Vanille turned aside, blushing. "Well if you must know," she said. "I'm jealous."

Fang almost laughed. "Jealous?" she grinned. "Of what, me?"

"Yes, you."

"Oh come on, that's ridiculous."

"No it isn't," Vanille insisted. "I remember when we were kids, you looked like a little boy. Now look at you. It's depressing."

Fang sighed, standing in the water on a tilted hip. A tall woman with rampant black hair. Tanned and toned, long legs, trim waist, big breasts. Standing in this shimmering pool among the slender stalks of lilies like another kind of flower, dark and lovely and savage with sexiness.

"You're being silly, Vanille."

Vanille snorted and folded her arms, but Fang only shook her head. She moved off through the standing stalks to where the pond washed up against a shelf of rock, and there she lowered herself into the cold calm water, the lillipads shifting in the wake. She sat with her legs before her on the stones, one crossed over the other, and leaned back against the rock, her breasts floating. Vanille was watching her and Fang gave a toss of her head. "Come over here and relax," she said. "And stop being silly."

Vanille pouted and came over. "Fine," she said, and lowered herself carefully into the water. "I guess you can't help how sexy you are."

Fang smirked. "Wouldn't help it if I could."

Vanille poked her tongue out at her.

And then they were sitting in silence. Side by side against the rock, Fang with her arms propped up on the mossy shelf behind her, Vanille with her hands in her lap under the water. Silence in the glen but for the songs of birds and a light trickling. Fang tilted her head back and looked up at the sky through the part in the canopy. Where tuffs of cloud passed lazily before a brilliant sun and the sky was a perfect pale blue. Vanille was weaving patterns in the water with her fingers and soon her eyes had drifted to the woman beside her. She smiled softly, taking a moment to admire her friend's beauty. The sun on her tanned face, her sensual lips. Those dark and slanted eyes. Blueblack her hair and her breasts ebbing among the lillipads, lounging on the rocks like a siren or a mermaid. Some aquatic dreamcreature drifted upland from an icegreen sea, where she used recline among the coral clad in a seashell bikinibra and a woven skirt of phosphorant seaweed. Where she used to tempt the sailors with sideways smiles. With smoky eyes and a beckoning finger. Vanille blinked slowly, staring. Fang turned to her and smiled. "Hey," she said.

Vanille gave a little giggle. "Hey."

Fang looked at her oddly and the girl continued to stare with a coy sort of boldness, snuggling back against the rock, blinking languidly her huge elf eyes. A sultry expression crossed the older woman's face and she raised a dripping arm and lowered it around the girl's soft and bare shoulders. Vanille's mouth fell open in breathlessness. Fang smirked and pulled the girl closer so they were touching. "What are you staring at?" she asked smiling. "Hm?" Under the water she bought her other arm around the girl's waist as if to ensnare her. "See something you like?"

Vanille was almost inaudible from shyness. Her face was flaming and her heart racing. She shook her head slowly, her eyes not moving from Fang's. "No," she whispered.

Fang grinned. "No, huh?"

A dreamy smile settled over the Vanille's face. She bit her lip. "Well…"

Fang giggled, an actual giggle, and then pulled her onto her lap. A girlish gasp as their breasts grazed. They sat in each other's arms and touched their forehead together. They gazed into each other's eyes but they couldn't say it in words. Finally their eyelids fell slowly shut and they leaned and touched together their lips. Two pairs of perfectly round breasts bundled softly between them as they kissed. The water moved and the lillipads shifted in the wake, the lilies swaying to and fro on their slender green stems. A secret softness in the forest.

When they emerged from the pool they arranged themselves on the banks to dry, basking in the grass like sunning dolphin. Then they dressed and went on, holding hands through sunsparkled corridors of oak and evergreens, moss on the trunks, birds cheeping among the leaves. Strolling dreamily with their clasped hands penduluming, their lips pink and swollen and curved into smiles that just wouldn't go away. By and by they noticed chocobo tracks on the ground, talon marks in the dirt like the prints of an ostrich or a giant chicken, and they altered their course to follow them, quietly now, creeping through the leaves. They found the big yellow bird in a clearing to the north, grazing in the grass with the sun shining like gold on it's head and tailfeathers.

They paused at the treeline, watching the thing peck at the ground.

"Look Fang," Vanille whispered, peeping around a treetrunk. "Isn't he cute?"

It must've heard. It raised up with a certain weariness, it's beak moving as if it were chewing. It was a big one, taller than them, and it gazed across the clearing at these smiling interlopers with a fowlish contempt.

"Yeah," Fang said, a hunter's glint to her eyes. "Cute and crafty. Defiantly a wild one."

"Think we can catch him?"

"We're gonna give it a try."

They came into the clearing, slowly, smiling, and started to circle the bird. The chocobo chewed, none too alarmed. Vanille made a feint at him and he warned her back with a squawk, ruffling his flightless wings, and the girl backpedaled giggling. The bird glared at her and Fang rushed the thing from behind while he was preoccupied. She leapt at him and got her arms around it's neck and it flared with a great shriek.

"Gotcha!" she grinned.

"Yay!" Vanille cheered. "Get him, Fang!"

The chocobo panicked and started trotting in circles, piping thinly, Fang dangling from it's neck. Finally she managed to wrap both her legs around the bird's knobby knee and trip him up and they went to the grass in a tumble of limbs and feathers. Vanille was jumping in excitement, clapping her hands. "Come on, Fang! You almost got him!"

Fang was the first up. She swung a leg over the struggling bird and took a good handful of it's neckfeathers and it raised up with the woman straddling it's back. At first it tried bucking in panic, trying to throw the rider off, but she only grinned and jostled and clenched with her knees until it tired. She bent her body across it's neck and spoke into it's ear, whispering that she wasn't going to hurt him and that she and her friend only wanted to ride him for a while. Finally the bird started to calm. Vanille stepped up smiling and petted it's soft and downy plumage. She touched it's smooth hard beak until it's big black eyes started to warm and then she smiled up at Fang.

"Think he'll be okay?" she asked.

"I think so," Fang said, jostling gently on the bird's back, stroking his neck. She swung one of her legs over the side and crossed them, perched there sidesaddle, and then she offered a hand down to Vanille. "Come on," she said. "Let's go for a ride."

Vanille smiled and placed her hand in Fang's. Fang pulled her up and Vanille too sat sidesaddle, in the dip between her friend and the bird's long slender neck. One of Fang's arms was snaked securely around her middle and the other held a handful of soft yellow feathers.

"You ready?"

Vanille nodded at her, hands in her lap daintily. "Mmhm."

"Then let's go."

Fang touched her heel to the bird's ribs and it gave a little squawk and started stepping sideways. Vanille giggled and Fang tapped her heel harder and off they went, trotting through the treeline and into the forest. Past rows of frogs squatting on logs, gaining speed, and soon they were flying through the woods, perched on the back of this big yellow bird. Weaving among the gnarled trunks, leaping windfall logs. Wind in their hair and laughter in the glen. They turned off into a creek and went splashing though the teacolored water, droplets on their faces and legs and Vanille shrieking with giggles and Fang laughing and holding her tight.

The went on and by and by the trees began to thin and they emerged from the forest onto a rise that overlooked a great field of flowers. Hundreds and thousands of varied small blooms, daisies and morning-glories and sunflowers as tall as people, rose bushes with big red blooms. Blue flowers and yellow flowers and purple ones and pink ones, all colors of the rainbow and all of them rustling and swaying gently in a warm sweet breeze. They sat the chocobo with flushed faces and wide smiles, looking out over this little piece of heaven. They glanced at each other and grinned. Fang put her heel to the bird's ribs and Vanille giggled and off they went down the grassy slope.

They came pounding into the field on their yellow mount, sending up a great flare of bees and butterflies and hummingbirds from the flowers. Pollen hung in the air like a golden haze and the wind was redolent with a sweet scent and they were galloping, trotting, cantering about the wildflowers. Fang at the reins and Vanille in her arms, like some ladyknight in a fairytale bearing away her princess to where an enchanted castle waits in the distance. Where they might live happily ever after. They came about and circled back, slowing their pace.

"I'm so glad this place is still here," Vanille said, smiling. "We used to come here all the time to pick flowers, do you remember?"

Fang halted the chocobo and smiled. "How could I forget?"

They dismounted, Fang first and turning to help Vanille down by the waist. Vanille giggling. The chocobo shook its head and trotted off, pausing to examine a stand of sunflowers with some suspicion, and trotting on again. The two women were still looking about and then Fang watched Vanille walk off slowly. The girl strolled a short distance and spread her arms and spun on the spot, giggling, knee-deep in wildflowers, her miniskirt flaring about her thighs and her pigtails swinging. She bent and plucked up some random bloom—something pink and pretty—and threaded it behind her ear. Doves called from the woods and she closed her eyes and inhaled. When she opened them she saw Fang watching her.

There was hardly a place on the planet more beautiful and yet when their eyes met neither seemed willing to look away. They smiled. Finally Vanille tilted her hip and touched the flower at her ear coyly. "What do you think?" she asked. "Is it cute?"

Fang chuckled, toeing the ground. Perhaps it was her friend's sudden shyness, or perhaps it was something in her eyes, but for some reason it was like she was seeing her for the first time. Standing there with the sun in her hair, a blush trembling on her cheeks. The flower at her ear. Bathed in a haze of golden pollen, a halo of butterflies about her pretty head. Here in this garden there seemed to be an almost mythic aspect to the girl's cuteness, an elf perhaps, or a gingertresseled nymph wandered from some sundappled forest where she used to frolic in clothes of amber autumn leaves. Attended by birds and small animals. A girlish giggling in the garden. Fang lowered her eyes and looked up again. From the point of her chin, to the curve of her smile, to the flutter of her eyelashes, there wasn't one feature with which she wasn't completely enamored. A cuteness to make your eyes water. To make your heart throb with want. She smiled at her.

"You look beautiful, Vanille," she said.

Something in Fang's voice seem to take Vanille aback. She straightened up, blinking, blushing. Her eyes darted and the quickening of her heart was evident even in her face. "Oh," she said quietly, still touching the flower. "Thanks, Fang"

Fang came forward, still smiling. "Then again," she added, "you always look beautiful."

"Oh," Vanille giggled. She swatted Fang's shoulder playfully. "Now you're just teasing."

"No, seriously," Fang said. She met her eyes, she spoke sincerely. "You're the prettiest girl I've ever seen in my life."

Of a sudden Vanille seemed to melt even further. She blinked her welling eyes. "Fang…"

Fang's eyes went shiny and she smiled and shook her head, as if to clear it of some silliness. "Look Vanille," she said. "While we're having a moment here, I just want you to know that I love you, okay? That no matter what happens I'll always love you. And that I'll always be here for you, and … and I'll never let anyone hurt you." Fang shook her head again and sniffed. She was getting misty. She dabbed at an eye with a knuckle and gave a watery chuckle. "Okay?"

Vanille nodded quickly, her own tears falling. "Okay," she said. "And Fang?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you too," she said. "More than you realize." Then she smiled aside and added almost to herself: "More than even I realized."

—

They spent the afternoon picking flowers and arranging bouquets and afterwards they rode the chocobo up into the mountains. By now both women had flowers perched behind each ear and many more on their clothes, Fang with dual bouquets slung in her belt like strange firearms, Vanille with a crown of woven daisies. Beyond the western hills the sun was sinking and they rode up the switchbacks with their shadows long in the dust behind them. They came to a cliff that overlooked a certain plain and here they dismounted. A city on the lake, shimmering in the distance. They stepped to the edge, not smiling anymore, and looked out long over the prairie. The crimson clouds bleeding away into the valley and the first of the night's stars winking in the void beyond. Their hometown lay down there, on the shore of that black lake. Beset by a steady rain of crystal dust that twinkled redly in the deepening dusk. They stood at the edge the cliff looking out sadly and the chocobo stood at their side watching too.

It had been five hundred years. Since then. Five hundred years and everybody they had ever known or loved or cared about was gone. Lost and gone. Tears came to Vanille's eyes and after a while she turned to Fang and asked:

"How long do you think before we get there?"

Fang sighed, dusting her hands on her sari. "If it was just me and you, we could be there tomorrow," she said. "But dragging the other's along, maybe three days."

Vanille nodded. She was trying to be brave but her lip was trembling. "I can't believe everyone's gone," she whispered.

"Hey," Fang said softly, turning to her. With a fingertip she touched the girl's chin and lifted her face. "You still got me."

Vanille looked up with her welling eyes and Fang smiled.

"You'll always have me."

Vanille forced a smile and wiped at her face with her hands. "I know," she said. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Fang said. She opened her arms. "Now come here and give me a hug."

Vanille sobbed and all but fell into Fang's arms. They held each other tightly and Fang rocked her from side to side and Vanille laid her head on her shoulder. Silhouetted against the sunset on this scenic cliffside they seemed suffused with a greater sort of romance, like two who shared the same heart. Friends, sisters, soulmates. Something spiritual and wholly beautiful. The chocobo glanced at them and away again. Vanille had her eyes closed but Fang's were open. They were shiny and red and she was looking out over the girl's shoulder, out there over the darkening plain. Where somewhere in the wilderness there was a magnolia tree in which two girls had carved a loveheart. Just outside of Oerba. And inside the loveheart there were two names. Fang and Vanille.

Bestfriends forever.