A young woman, just barely nineteen, trudged along the edge of a heavily wooded road, somewhere between Lucis and Tenebrae. It had been the roughest few days of her life since the attack, trying to make it out there alone in the middle of nowhere with nothing but her brother's dagger strapped to her leg and her bow and quiver slung across her back.
She cursed her father for not considering her wishes in the first place. She had never even met the man she was supposed to marry. 'Make the best of it' he had told her callously before entrusting her eldest brother Erik to deliver her safely to Altissia. She kicked at a rock, frustrated. Erik had always been his favorite, always so ready to please their viscount father. She had rarely been seen as anything but a token with which to barter the most beneficial marriage contract. She had little interest in learning to play music and move gracefully and sit around beautifying a room while her brothers were trained in the art of war, to be generals of armies for their king.
And so she had read books, and practiced in secret with the masterful bow gifted to her by her mother before she died. It was her most prized possession, its elegant curves decorated in carved vines and gold leaf. Rubbing her thumb pensively over the leather-wrapped handle, her ears perked up upon hearing the low hum of an approaching engine. She whipped around and saw a shiny black convertible heading in the same direction she had been walking. Her heart leapt in her throat at the thought of not having to walk for a while as she flagged the car down. She was exhausted, having barely slept the last few days out there alone. As it pulled over just ahead of her, she watched the driver and three other young men in their early twenties exit the vehicle.
"Are you alright?" the driver asked, a tall, slim man with glasses and near vertical dirty blonde hair. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm okay… for the most part," she answered.
"What are you doing out here?" the biggest one with darker features wondered. "The nearest settlement is fifty miles from here."
She looked at the ground, kicking at the dirt. "I was...My brother and I were on our way to Altissia to meet my betrothed," she said, sneering at the word, "when we were attacked a few nights ago by this huge monster. I only just escaped. Erik… Erik didn't make it." Her voice had cracked a little.
"I'm sorry," the golden-haired one said sullenly.
The four boys shared a look. "You're not from around here, are you," another said, brushing the charcoal hair from his eyes.
"Is it that obvious?" she asked.
"Yeah. Everyone around here knows not to travel at night when the daemons come out," the tallest of them answered.
She sighed, and said with a hint of sarcasm, "Maybe a sign or something would've been helpful... But yeah, I'm from Vanaheim."
"The tiny little province on the eastern side of the continent?" the blonde one asked enthusiastically. She nodded at him, unable to hold back a smirk at his excitement. "I've never met anyone from Vanaheim. They don't have much in the way of magitek there, do they?"
"Not really, no. We're...sort of old fashioned," she said begrudgingly.
He extended his hand. "I'm Prompto Argentum. What's your name?"
She shook his hand, smiling at him. "Astrid Vinter, but my friends call me Asti."
"Nice to meet you, Asti. This is Ignis Scientia, and Noctis Lucis Caelum," Prompto said, introducing each of his group. "And this big guy here is Gladiolus Amicitia."
Her eyes paused on Noctis. "Why is your name so familiar?" she asked him curiously.
He seemed to shift uncomfortably, rubbing the back of his neck. Ignis cleared his throat and spoke for him. "This is Prince Noctis of Lucis."
"Oh!" she said, curtsying. "Sorry, Your Highness. I'm not great at foreign politics and whatnot. My bad."
"It's okay. Don't sweat it," he said dismissively, waving his hand. "It's just Noctis."
"Got it...Noctis." She smiled at him.
"Well, now that the proper introductions are over, we should be on our way…" Ignis began in his refined accent.
"We can't leave her here, guys," Prompto interrupted him.
"The thought never crossed my mind," Ignis said coolly. His shorter blonde friend looked relieved. "We can certainly give you a lift. We too are headed ultimately for Altissia."
"Whoa, hold it Iggy," Gladiolus said in his deep voice. "We're not just joyriding here. We're under constant threat from daemons and Imperials alike. It's not really safe for someone like her. Shouldn't we just drop her off in the first town we come to? She can get a ride from there."
"Come on, Gladio!" Prompto protested on her behalf. "She's got a bow, though, look! I'm sure she can take care of herself. She's been out here for days, alone. That's gotta be proof enough right there." She was happy to find he was on her side.
"He does have a point," Noctis agreed, Ignis shrugging along with him.
Gladio grumbled, then looked down at her. "What about it, girl? Can you shoot that old thing?"
She smirked and flipped the bow from her back, not taking her eyes off Gladiolus. "See that squirrel over there with the acorn?" He glanced down the road at the critter she'd mentioned, seeing him sitting on a tree stump fifty paces away.
"Yeah," he grunted.
"No, don't shoot the squirrel!" Prompto said, inferring her intent.
She turned and smiled sweetly at him, admiring his concern. "It's okay, I wouldn't hurt him. Trust me." His eyes lingered on hers a moment until he eventually nodded and stood back. In a flash of movement, she flipped out an arrow from her quiver, nocked it, and released. The squirrel let out a surprised squeak and disappeared from sight. Prompto and Gladio exchanged a glance as she sprinted to retrieve her arrow, the squirrel chattering angrily at her from an overhead branch.
When she returned, she handed it to Gladio, the acorn lodged deeply on its tip. The rest of them clustered around to see for themselves. Noctis and Ignis chuckled with approval, and Prompto laughed heartily and backhanded his taller friend's bicep. "There's your answer right there, Gladdy!" he grinned and grabbed the arrow from him, pulling her over with him in front of Gladiolus. "Smile!" he said, snapping a picture of all of them as he held up her arrow in the frame.
"What's your favorite color?" Prompto asked her, as she sat cross-legged in the middle next to him and Noctis. They had been at it for a while now.
"Hm, yellow. You?" Astrid returned the question.
"Orange. Your turn."
"Okay...What's your favorite food?"
"Hm. Hamburgers and fries. What's yours?"
"Uh...pizza. Or fried chicken. No, pizza. But it's close."
"Mmhmm, mhmm...Both good choices," he agreed, nodding like he was some kind of food critic. She giggled at him.
"Your question, Blondie," she said, smiling coyly at him. "Better make it a good one…"
"Why, they haven't been good enough?" he asked, feigning offense with a hand to his heart.
"I think you can do better…"
"Oh, oh I see," he played along, then took a deep breath. "Okay then… From the way you talked about it earlier, it seems like you're not too happy about meeting up with your fiancé. Have you never met him?"
So he had guts after all, she thought. "Hmpf. No. And to be honest, I don't want to. I would just run away from it all, but I haven't really anywhere else to go. Can't go back home, they'll just send me back and try again. And we know what waits for me in Altissia, so… I'm kind of just stuck anyway you look at it. Plus… I kinda promised Erik I'd go through with it. He always watched out for me, so...I guess I owe it to him." He gave her a sympathetic expression.
"I understand. I wouldn't want to marry anyone I hadn't met either. Noct here, he's at least met his future wife." He motioned to his best friend beside her.
"You've got that in your favor. Do you like her?" She had turned to face Noctis.
"Yeah," he shrugged. "Known her since I was a kid."
"That's good. Wish I was as lucky." She decided she'd had enough of this subject of conversation. "So what do you guys like to do for fun?"
"Are you saying this isn't fun?" Prompto teased her, taking note of her desire to change topics. She grinned and playfully narrowed her eyes at him. "I like photography," he finally answered. "Documenting everything I see that catches my eye. You know, that kind of thing. And video games, but I'm not into it nearly as much as Noct."
"You play games?" she asked, turning back to the prince.
"Yeah, you do too?" he replied, surprised and suddenly interested in chatting. "Which ones?"
"Oh, not another one," Gladio muttered from the front seat.
The cool evening air whipping by made her shiver as she slept lightly, her head unconsciously drifting closer to Prompto's sleeveless shoulder. Astrid had curled up between him and Gladiolus in the back seat of the Regalia as the sun went down, its warmth along with it. Yet despite the falling darkness and the terrors it brings with it, this was the first night in a long time she had felt completely safe.
"Gladio!" Prompto whispered, his blue eyes wide with apprehension, "What do I do? She's cold! See? Look, she's shivering."
His much larger companion rolled his eyes. "Seriously?"
"What?" Prompto asked innocently.
Gladio sighed. "Make a move, idiot." Prompto made a face at him, then looked nervously at the pretty girl asleep on his shoulder. He had never been good at interacting with the opposite sex, especially when they were attractive. This one was the first that actually seemed to regard him the same as she did Noctis. Usually they just went all doe-eyed at the mere mention of the prince riding shotgun in front of him. But he wasn't sure if it was proper, since they were supposed to be delivering her to her fiancé.
He took a deep breath, let it out slowly, and cautiously put his arm around her. Gladio grunted beside him. She stirred and opened her unusually big greenish brown eyes. "Prompto?"
He tensed, ready for a letdown. "Uhh...yeah?"
"I'm cold. Can I have some of your warm?" Astrid asked sleepily.
"Heh, as much as you want," he replied cheerfully, relaxing his muscles. She smiled faintly, cozying up against his side, while he adjusted his arm around her shoulders.
"Thanks Prompto," she said softly, closing her eyes and resting her hand on his chest. "You're the best. I'm glad you guys found me," she said, her voice trailing off as she fell asleep again.
"Me too," he said, glancing up at Gladiolus, who was giving him a raised eyebrow and sideways grin while nodding approvingly. Prompto shot him a warning look, but then noticed Noctis turned around in his seat with a similar grin. The blonde could feel his normally very fair skin getting red from embarrassment. He even caught Ignis chuckling quietly to himself in the driver's seat. They wouldn't let him live this down for a while. He took a deep breath to calm himself, inadvertently catching the flowery scent of her hair. He let it linger in his mind for a moment before deciding this was worth whatever ribbing his friends would come up with in the next few days.