Vast Sands of Motavia
A female Hunter stared at the desert from the town's entrance. She covered her breasts while the morning wind moved the sand grains to her side.
She needed some piece of mind, and so, she had walked to the gates, and stared at the giant vastness of sand ahead of her.
In a way, she already knew that staring alone at the sand would only bring trouble for her, because her mind would start working without her consent. But she needed a little "alone" time before leaving town.
And so, Huntress Alys Brangwin stared at the sand, thinking in many things she most probably would decide to leave under a beautiful carpet on her mind in the upcoming weeks. But right now, it was just the sand, her thoughts and herself…
A quaint company…
The sun was starting to shine brightly, bringing a brand new day with it. Lots of decisions waiting to be taken… infinite possibilities ahead
And, somehow, she always found choosing the same things for herself.
And a long trip back home, only to find no one waiting for her… she was the only one responsible of her decisions and her heart.
The wind moved the grains of sand, and it barely made an effect on the overall image. It seemed as if the dunes were there, frozen.
In a deep thought, it looked as if nothing mattered, that even if someone would get missing, nothing in the big picture would change. If a grain of sand was lost, a new one would appear from somewhere else, and the dune would stay in its place.
Her back shivered. It reminded her that, if she were to disappear, some other Hunter would take her place.
The sands, to her, seemed as lonely as her heart…
She sighed. Her thoughts weren't anything but trouble for her. Maybe that's why she kept on being a Hunter, to keep herself busy. Taking a job after the other, she became a legend at the Guild.
The novices stared at her with awe, as a role-model. Women loved her or hated her, and some even took her as a woman's rights icon, but everything came out of admiration. Men liked her, others hated her, too, as she surpassed them easily. And her looks made her quite popular, too. Even if it wasn't too frequent, many men had been caught peeping at the woman's changing room when they knew she was at the Guild.
But no one knew well why she acted the way she did.
A beaten heart lied under that strong woman, hidden from the rest, in a safe place. Her coldness wasn't a pre-thought attitude to look as a cool character, but to prevent others from hurting her.
Too many things had been taken away from her, like the small grains of sand are taken by the wind, in little time.
First, her parents' had been killed by highwaymen when they were returning from a holiday trip. She had no family left, so she had been taken by Galf, the Hunter who had found her all alone, hiding in some woods, near the place of the attack.
The poor guy, who had no family of his own, thought that it was better to raise her as a Huntress, rather than leaving her behind, to a much unknown fate.
If no one came for her, she would end up being a thug, or inclusive she would end up working in a strip bar.
He had stared at her, shivering, in panic, and his heart shrunk.
Alys had always been grateful for the new life that Galf had provided for her, but it had been quite traumatic at the beginning. She had been a girl used to a somewhat sheltered life, thrown into the scorching Motavian desert.
From playing games with other kids on the street, or with her parents at home, she found herself throwing a slicer at odd-looking monsters among the sand.
From wearing dresses or pastel-colored pieces of clothing, she found herself full of sand, from tip to toe, everyday.
And from carrying flowers to her mother, she started carrying lunchboxes to a shy and slightly clueless middle-aged man.
Luckily, they both got used to their new roles. Alys was a fast-learner, somehow, she seemed to be gifted for the use of weapons and fighting. Galf, on the other hand, got used to have an apprentice who hadn't touched a trace of weaponry before he decided to train her.
Some had looked at him suspiciously at the Guild when he came with the story of his new trainee, especially because she was a woman, and because there had been a long line of people hoping to become his trainees. Luckily, the rumors ceased quickly, and she was quite sure that Galf had arranged that, somehow.
More quickly than what they had ever expected, they developed a nice companionship. Alys became stronger with time, and Galf felt really proud of her.
And then… then it happened.
An odd-haired boy, not much older than her, appeared in their lives. He had been looking for the strongest Hunter around, because he needed to do a long, training journey. He used something that resembled a stick to fight –later, Alys would learn that the people in Dezoris used to fight with that thing, but at first she thought he had some trouble for walking- and had some nifty yet suspicious techniques that she had never seen.
Everything about him seemed mysterious and attractive.
Rune, the new guy, told that he came from a far away town, on an island. Something like that. It would only be some time further, when it proved impossible to hide it anymore, that he admitted coming from Dezoris, the ice planet. And by that time, it didn't even sound strange, because everything about him was different.
Or at least, it looked like that, and she hoped it hadn't been her teen crush the one talking and being indulging about that topic.
Whatever the case, maybe because they were around the same age, or because they were lonely, or because of their teenager hormones, it was obvious that they both had feelings for each other.
They spent most of their time together, or with Galf and whoever the client was at that time. They had met several people, including a real Motavian called Dorin, who almost had to pray for his life when Alys found him in her room, peeping at her and her clothes. Rune had to stop her from chasing the Motavian all around the Inn. That's how she got her nickname of "the eight stroke warrior", because Rune could stop her at the eight time she had tried to attack the Motavian dude. Someone at the Inn heard the story and started telling it all over Aiedo. Now, she laughed at it, but it had been quite embarrassing.
All in all, they were like family.
Until the day Galf got injured during a trip. There was no way of saving him, due to the deep wound he got from one of the monsters around.
Rune, even if he was from somewhere else and well-versed with techniques and other strange word, couldn't do anything for him.
And so, Galf died, and Rune left way too shortly after that, because Alys had to learn to cope with loneliness on her own. He disappeared from one day to the other, leaving her all alone, facing the vast sands of Motavia, clueless.
And so, the so dreaded loneliness arrived to stay. Galf had managed to kick it forward, without realizing. Or maybe he did realize it, and asked Rune to let her know it. Or maybe whatever he made the young man promise, it was just an odd and incorrect blabbering from a dying man.
When she could more or less understand where she was standing in her life, she took the decision to meet more people, and for that, she would have to work.
When she realized it, she was already covered by a mountain of work, and her mind managed to stay away from her. She met several people, and even met people she had already met before. But it wasn't the same as in the days when Galf and Rune were around.
She could understand and forgive Galf, but couldn't do the same with Rune. She had needed him badly. Not only she loved him, but she needed a shoulder to lie on. She didn't know what she would do if she were to meet him again.
Part of her would smash him into pieces, and the other part of her would tend to his wounds, most probably.
She barely stayed at home, and when there was no option left, she visited her neighbors. She needed to keep herself busy.
And even if she met tons of people, she still felt the loneliness within her.
And now, an assignment had taken her to the small city of Tiria. She was at the marketplace, studying her surroundings, when she noticed a brat trying to pickpocket from her.
Angered, she grabbed him from the wrist quickly and swiftly. So swiftly, that the boy couldn't understand what was really happening for a little while.
He may or may not have recognized the Hunter's Guild uniform, but he may have thought that she was too busy in something else, and wouldn't notice him working on her. After all, he was quite gifted for those issues, everyone at the group said so.
Alys was also shocked, because she had expected to meet with a teenager, or a slim adult, not with a brat.
There was that little boy, no more than ten years old, looking defiantly at her as she grabbed him tightly by the wrist.
The lad had thought that he was more intelligent than her and that he could pickpocket from her.
Too bad he didn't know who she was, and what her name meant.
Maybe it was that, the defiant attitude of the brat what touched Alys. Maybe it was her maternal instinct, which she had believed to be too dormant under levels and levels of self-imposing duties and lack of an appropriate partner.
Or maybe it was the fact that she knew that, if she didn't take the brat under her wing, he would end up in a worse situation in a not so distant future.
Evidently, he was used to the streets. No one would come for him. Either he "worked" on his own, or the group that he would be working for wouldn't show up to pick him up.
He was younger than what she had been, but it recalled her of the time she had met Galf. He was so needy of someone…
Then, she just knew what she had to do.
"Kid, you don't have parents, right?", she asked him, rather gently.
That puzzled him. He had expected her to be terrible angry at him, not to start questioning him. "No", he just said, suspiciously.
"I expected that", she said, sighing. "Would you like some other kind of thing for your life, or are you enjoying it as it is?"
He blinked, as if pushing away any hope he could have left. "There's no other way out, so it's not a thing of what I like or what not"
She bit her lip, thoughtfully. "I can help you to get out from this. It will be a road of heavy work, but I can assure you you'll enjoy it, in the end"
He stared at her once more, more and more confused. Could there be people who would help someone else without waiting for anything in return? That sounded like a fairy-tale for him, something that was too unreal. It was easier to believe in heroines dead a millennia ago, than in someone who could help someone else.
"Yeah… I'd like that", he finally admitted, more to say something, to not keep her waiting for an answer. Maybe that way, she would go away.
She smiled, and he felt that that smile was one of the best things he had seen on his life.
"Then, come with me. I'll get you a new set of clothes, and you'll have a good shower and sleep, and then, we'll talk about your future. But you have to promise me that you won't keep on robbing, either here or in some other town"
He stared at her with his big green eyes full of surprise. "I won't…"
She smiled once more. "That's what I wanted to hear. Now, let's get out from here, we've already made too much fuss for today"
At the following day, she managed to get someone who could watch after him, and completed her assignment. She didn't take the boy with her at that moment because she was fearful he would interfere, either because he would panic, or because his group of "friends" could be involved in her job.
Then, when her business in Tiria was finished, she decided it was time to return to Aiedo, and start the boy's real training.
It was then when she decided to take a look at the desert, and found herself thinking about so many odd things.
She rushed to the Inn, where their things were almost prepared to leave. She would think about herself later.
She stared at the blonde kid standing at her side. "So… Chaz, right?"
He moaned a reply, not too enthusiastically.
"Well, before starting our trip, I want to give you something", she said, looking for it in one of the bags she carried. "You know that I'm a Hunter… and you'll become my apprentice, so I wanted to give you your first practice sword"
As she said those words, she drew a package, and handed it to him. "It's nothing too great, but you have to start with something. Maybe it will come in handy during our trip, who knows?"
He stared at the sword, astonished. It was a short sword, probably a second-hand item, and it wasn't too shinny, but it was his. It had to be the first thing someone gave to him as a gift in a long, long time.
His eyes turned wet, but he was still too numbed to cry. After taking care of himself for so long, it was odd to see a good gesture.
And that lady had already gave him a new set of clothes and now a sword.
It was the closest thing to Santa that he had ever met. And she even wore red!
She smiled and embraced him, gently. "Let's go, Chaz, we have work waiting for us at Aiedo"
He nodded, and took the sword as if his soul lied on it. A bit uncomfortable with his own feelings, he walked slightly ahead of her.
Alys smiled, touched. "Galf, I'm sort of repeating our story… Watch over me, send me some tip if you are in the mood", she thought, staring at the clear blue sky.
A little breeze run past them.
Alys thought that maybe she was running away from her own problems, because she was about to get a heavy workload for the years ahead. She would think about that… later.
Her loneliness seemed to know no limits, much like the sands in front of her.
And the boy thought that maybe, that woman's heart was as vast as the desert ahead of them.
The End
Notes: Alys has to be one of my favorite characters ever, and I postponed writing a fic about her because I thought I wouldn't do her any justice. Finally, I got some courage, and this came to life. For Rune's side (of a part) of the story, take a look at "Thick Snow of Dezoris", its "companion" fic