The Lost Valentine.

Chapter 1.

I have often wondered what direction my life would take. It was a source of concern for my mother. For my older brother, it wasn't anything of interest. He went off to join the army, but in the end he wrote articles about different places he'd visited. As far as I can tell, it really amused him. He liked to play with words, make people think. That really used to make me laugh, because he often got things wrong. Use the wrong phrase, or use the wrong words to say what he wanted.

He was never worried about it though, unlike me. I wanted to be in the army, once. However, that didn't last long. I remember totally changing my mind because of a dog. It's strange really; I'm usually fine with the smell of blood. In science class, in school, I was the only one who would lean right over frog heart, or bandersnatch liver, or whatever else we were studying. But this happened when I was 17. I was leaving school early, for a doctor's appointment. I got really bad nosebleeds in those days, so my mother had made an appointment for me. I was half way there, just crossing a road when I heard the tires screech – not a nice sound to start with, it makes my heart jump. But, then I heard a yelp. I can remember seeing this poor creature, limping away to side grass by the side of the road, one leg hanging on by a thread. I couldn't see in the windows of the car, but whoever it was just left. They didn't get out, or even look back. Just drove off.

It had upset me, to see something alive in such pain, to hear its pain as I ran to the nearest house and banged loudly on the door. The woman there had allowed me to ring a vet, though she clearly wasn't too impressed. I had gone home that night, thinking of the poor dog and the cold-heartedness of those involved. When I got home, my father had questioned where I'd been, and why I was covered in blood. That had been embarrassing! I'd ended up in tears. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was my mother I was talking to, but my father was distinctly unimpressed. He had looked at me with mild disgust and made a comment – I can't remember the exact words – about how I'd never follow my older brother, Laguna, into the army if I acted like a little girl over an animal.

In my bed later on, I came to a decision; I should study to be a vet. I got top marks consistently in the sciences, and even though I had a large interest in world religions, I knew that a job where I could help others, not destroy them, was where I should be.

I fell asleep with a feeling of contentment that night.

I often wonder if anyone knows where they will truly be in a year's time. I know I didn't. However, 3 months after I finished school, top marks in most my subjects (I'll never get far with art or music) I received an offer from Shin-Ra, to join a research visit to Macalania, the capital of Northern Continent. It was an old city; the population equalled that of Midgar's sectors 4 and 5. This was probably due to the frozen wastelands surrounding it. The city itself was beautiful to behold – its architecture was filled with arches; its buildings flowed, curving in an almost organic manner inside the city walls. In the centre of the city was a fairly large building, it was surrounded by statues of scholars, authors and philosophers. I was pretty much in heaven – the books were old, some clearly older than the building.

As I explored, I found some old storage areas. It was very strange, the complete opposite of Midgar, where there were locks on everything, and security guards to check the locks, and push off suspicious characters. Here, the passages were silent. No one was around, and none of the doors were shut properly – some areas didn't even have doors.

I came across some old texts; the pictures on them were amazing. I sat for a long time just staring, the leather bound book heavy in my hands. I didn't understand the language, but hoped that maybe I could find a librarian who did.

In the back of my mind, though, I was panicking. At home, I'd never be able to just wander into a room with no one looking at take a book. I was waiting for someone to shout my name, "Grimoire! Put that back at once! You shouldn't touch what doesn't belong to you!" – Or something along those lines.

I was just standing up, preparing to leave when I saw some loose sheets of paper. It wasn't that they were lying there that caught my attention, there were piles of loose sheets all around; It was that these had in the bottom left corner something that resembled Shin-Ra's logo, minus the red background. I picked these up, and stuffed them into my satchel. Surely no one would miss a few sheets of paper in a language not commonly spoken. (I spoke, and could read and write, several main languages, including Wutanese and some Macalanian, and I knew this didn't match any of them.)

It was time to find out what language this was in, so that I could discover exactly what this book was about. I was fairly certain the summon gods had something to do with it, as one section appeared to have depictions of Ifrit, in various forms.

There, not overly amazing... But regardless, I tried. I'm sorry for any mistakes, I did make serious attempts to correct anything, but ms word was being my beta so... yeah...

Anyway, I've finally started my story on Grimoire Valentine. Vincent will be in it, but not for a while.

Please review and let me know what you think. Reviews speed me up greatly, and boost confidence (Unless they are flames XP)