Disclaimer: I don't own Final fantasy 8. Shame really.
A/N: ok, well I know I have other stories on the go, but I wanted to post the first chapter of this to see how the response goes. Plus don't worry I will not be neglecting any of them, they will all get updated regularly.
Well okay, I didn't give the best of summaries, so here is a bit of a better one . This is supposed to be set in kind of medieval times. Rinoa is a princess and Squall works in her castle as a guard of sorts. And well this is all about them and what happens between the two of them (which is a little predictable, because hey it's Squinoa) and the consequences of their secrets.. Would love feedback on this chapter, let me know if your interested in reading more, thanks xx
All right it starts a little randomly, it starts with a scene and then the main part of the story is told kind of as a flashback, as a reflection on how it reached the point it is at in the first few lines, then later it carries on from there. I made it sound more confusing than it is! But don't worry about all that just read and enjoy xx thanks guys : ) xx
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He was to be hung at sunset. And it was almost sunset.
The sinking sun was casting an uneasy orange glow through the bars across the window of the tiny dank cell. The young raven haired girl occupying the cell sat huddled in the corner against the wall, tears stinging at her eyes and her sobs echoing against the empty stone walls. Her dress, although originally luxurious was now grubby and torn and her pale skin was dirty. She wiped at her tears with the velvet sleeves as she rocked back and forwards, teardrops splashing on the cold, hard floor.
"Why?" she whispered to herself "why did it turn out this way? It is not fair. Squall…why cant I be with you?"
She didn't belong in that cell and she knew it. And he didn't deserve to be hung, he had done nothing wrong. Love wasn't a crime, and yet he was being punished like it was the most criminal of all offences on earth. Love was something that could not be restrained, could not be held back and could not be controlled. Neither of them had planned to fall in love. But like so many things, the changing of the seasons and the night passing into day, it had just happened….
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There was a loud knocking at the door
"permission to enter?" a voice called from one side of it
"of course" answered the young woman sitting in the lavishly decorated room on the other side "please come in".
The door opened and four men walked in, each behind the other in a neat line. When they were a certain distance from the young woman they spread into a perfectly formed horizontal line and in unison they bowed. After this, one of the young men stepped from the line.
"Good morning Princess Rinoa, I trust all is well?", said the tall, broad shouldered blonde.
"yes, thank you Sir Almasy. Everything is fine. Have you anything to report to me?"
"Not yet, it is early. But as usual, we shall report to you each hour."
"I do not see that to be necessary, could not you just report to me if there is an occurrence worth reporting upon?". The young Princess asked. One of the things Rinoa hated most was guards coming every hour to tell her that nothing was happening. She did not entirely see the point
"No. you know that not only are we reporting to you, we are checking your well being. You know it is your fathers wish that we keep a close eye on you"
Sir Seifer Almasy was a close friend of Rinoas father, King Caraway and thus had been appointed as the head of the Guard at Rinoas small castle. The Princess was not particularly fond of Seifer, he seemed only to treat her with the absolute minimum respect necessary and he treated the guards he commanded with much, much less. As the head of the guards, Seifers duty was to gather reports from the other guards and then report to Rinoa. However -in what Rinoa perceived to be his arrogance- he could rarely be bothered and usually sent one of the lesser guards to do it for him.
"Very well" Rinoa sighed.
Seifer nodded, then turned to the other guards and dismissed them before leaving himself.
Rinoa watched them leave and sat silently for a moment. Her life was very lonely. Her father, the King of Galbadia, owned numerous large estates and Rinoa lived in one of them. It was a large, grand castle-like house with well over 30 rooms, yet very few people lived there. There was of course Rinoa, two ladies maids, a few cleaners and cooks and then the four Guards and that was all.
Rinoa saw her ladies maids a few hours each evening-as during the day she allowed them to go out to the town to spend time with there real families. She thought this was much fairer, and it benefited her too. Being in hollow company was not Rinoas favourite thing and that was clearly all it was. These two women, though kindly, did not really know Rinoa, or care for her as a person, only as a princess. So aside form those few hours each evening and a fleeting visit from a guard every hour, Rinoa spent majority of her time alone and felt her days to be rather pointless.
Occasionally she would take lessons in Singing and Art when the teacher from the local school would visit but other than that, and sometimes riding her horse around the castle grounds, she did nothing. Being 18 her education was complete-hence the absence of tutors and governesses from the house-and yet her father was relatively young and still had many years in power, so Rinoa had no duties and her title was merely that, a title.
Glancing around the room, her eyes settling on her desk, she decided to pen a letter to her best friend Selphie. Selphie had been a childhood friend, the daughter of a wealthy Baron. A year or so ago she had married and moved to the small kingdom of Trabia, leaving Rinoa feeling isolated and lonely.
Sitting down at the small wooden desk Rinoa took a few sheets of parchment and dipped her quill into the ink and began to write
My dear friend Selphie,
I do so hope all is well with you. I would say it has been a while since my last letter, but I am not sure what time it has been. The days of my lonely life seem to blur into one lately. I feel tired beyond the hours I wake and old beyond my years. I fear sometimes that this lonely existence is draining me of my youthfulness. I often think back to the days when you were still here, and we would have all kinds of fun…
Rinoa began to think back on those days a few years ago and she became lost in her own memories. She was only roused when she realised tears were falling onto the letter and smudging the ink. Wiping away the tears, she continued writing…
…it makes me both joyous and sad to think back on those days, the sadness being in the difference between my life then and now. It is rare I have any reason to smile anymore…But enough of that matter. I hope that soon we may meet up to reacquaint ourselves, and please bring your husband for you have said such wonderful things of him that I simply must meet him. Well I hope you receive this letter and I look forward to your response my friend.
All the kindest wishes
Rinoa
No sooner had Rinoa finished the letter, there was a knock at the door.
"Enter" she called out. The door opened and in walked one of her guards. He was a tall, young man with chestnut brown hair which fell mostly over his eyes. He had a definitive scar tracking across the top of his nose, and icy blue eyes. Rinoa knew this guard only by what she had heard him referred to by Seifer, which was Leonhart. She assumed this to be his last name and not his first. She knew very little about this man for he was the newest of the guards.He had appeared about a month or so ago to replace one of Rinoa's guards who had died in a tragic accident. Rinoa found it strange how they had just emotionlessly replaced the guard with no apparent care that human life had been lost. However she though this 'Leonhart' was an improvement on the previous guard, as he was much younger-she guessed he could only be a year or two older than her-, and she also couldn't deny to herself that he was certainly not bad to look at. Although it was un-princess like to comment on such things.
The young man stared at Rinoa for a few seconds before saying "Are you okay Princess?"
It was then that Rinoa realised she still had a few tears lingering on her cheeks. She wiped at them with her velvet sleeves. "thank you. I am fine"
"Very well. Then shall I deliver my report Princess?"
"Yes, please do."
"Everything is as it should be. Is there anything you need?"
"There is an errand you could do for me."
"Yes your highness?"
Rinoa wrote and address on the envelope, carefully folded the letter, stamped it with a seal and then handed it to the young man "Please take this to the post master at the nearest village"
The young guard took the letter and bowed before leaving the room, and once again Rinoa was left alone.
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Everyday of the week seemed the same to Rinoa. She often lost track of which day was which, as nothing of distinction happened on any of them. As glamorous of a job as being a Princess may have seemed to many, Rinoa hated it. She was too protected to really live her life. She was usually instructed to stay inside the castle grounds, and even then she had to be accompanied by a Guard, as she did if she wished to go to the towns and villages just beyond her castle. These rules, set down by her father, were supposedly for protection, but to Rinoa they felt like punishments.
It was somewhat of a contradiction to Rinoa that she felt so incredibly lonely and yet wished to be able to go out and explore by herself. She thought it was perhaps more to do with the surroundings that made her lonely. Out in the towns and villages with real people was a real world whereas her castle was like a separate bubble were she was all alone. Mostly Rinoa stayed inside her castle as her guards were often too busy to accompany her anywhere.
There was only one thing that Rinoa found the tiniest sense of freedom in and that was her painting. Rinoa seemed to have natural talent for painting. Flowers, people, landscapes-she would paint anything and when she did, she would allow herself to escape into the world of whatever she had painted.
These paintings, these designed, crafted worlds made Rinoas dreams. She dreamt of happiness, freedom and Love, everything she lacked in her life. She rarely felt happy and she thought she had all the freedom of a caged bird. And as for love, that was just a fantasy for Rinoa. She didn't even have friendship or care in her life. Everyone she knew, everyone she came into contact with, knew her only for her title. People cared about her well being because it was their jobs, not because they truly cared about her as a person.
It was late afternoon, the winter sun starting to set. Rinoa stared out of her window into the field just beyond her grounds. There was a gentle frost on the fields, the grass looking crisp and fresh. Rinoa wondered what it would be like to walk on the grass just once, and hear the fallen leaves crunch beneath her feet. Tired of her boredom, she decided she would do just that. She headed over to the closet, took out her large cloak and wrapped it around herself.
As she did so there came the familiar sound of a knocking on the door.
"Come in" she called as she secured the velvet cloak around her neck. Through the opening door walked Rinoas guard, the one she knew as Leonhart. For the past week or so every hourly report of every day had been delivered by this young man. Rinoa was seeing him more and more and every time she did she became more and more intrigued by him. He had a strange air of mystery about him. He never seemed to speak more than necessary and had a sort of restraint of coldness , but when he did speak, he did so with more genuine respect than her other of her guards-particularly Sir Almasy-did. But she knew nothing of this man. Not his first name, his background or how he ended up working for her.
He was always polite in his capacity in guard and sometimes, when she was at her loneliest, she thought of him as a potential friend. She would have liked to know more of this man as she found it to be a little silly that someone she saw around 7 times a day was someone she knew nothing about.
She thought perhaps if she knew one person a little better she wouldn't feel as lonely. But of course, she never went about putting these thoughts into action.
The guard observed Rinoas outfit "are you cold princess?" he asked noticing the cloak.
"No" Rinoa said ""but I am going outside and I suspect that I may be"
"Princess, it is starting to darken outside, I would not advise walking the grounds at this hour"
" I will not be walking the grounds, I wish to go out, to the field beyond"
"I can not allow you to do so, I would be endangering you. It would not be good practice to allow you to wander outside alone in such light. Please stay inside"
" I am tired of staying inside" Rinoa said pulling gloves onto her delicate hands "if you do not wish it that I walk alone then perhaps you had best accompany me"
The young man straightened his posture and cleared his throat "well if you insist on going out Princess, then I have no choice…"
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Tada and that's the introduction. I swear it gets better. So like I said, if I get reviews I shall continue it, if everyone hates it, and noone reviews then I will not. Well let me know what you think. Thanks guys xx
