Chapter 2

Ashe watched her escort as he stood nearby, patting a big yellow bird on its head. He seemed to be feeding it with some leaves and the creature seemed as happy as it could be. She tried to get closer yet the bird noticed her and got intimidated somehow. It was only when Basch gave it another round of whatever he was feeding it, that the bird calmed down once more.

"Good Morning Highness," he greeted as he patted the huge bird on the head, "I am glad that you found me, I was going to bring this fellow to our campsite."

"A… Choco…uh…"

"A chocobo," he finished for her, "I saw it wandering around a while ago."

"Oh I see," Ashe said as she tentatively patted the yellow creature. The chocobo made a small "kweh" and she suddenly felt like grinning.

Basch noticed her amusement with the bird and quickly gave her some of the gyshal greens. "I think it likes you," he said, earning a quick smile from Ashe. Suddenly, she seemed absorbed in her own thoughts as she continued to stroke its thick yellow feathers.

"When I was a child… My eldest brother gave me a chocobo…"she said reluctantly, as if in a trance, "Its name was … Sunshine?"

"You often took her to Giza…where it played with the cockatrices?" Basch suggested, suddenly remembering it for himself.

"Giza… you're… you're right!" Ashe exclaimed, "How did you know?"

Basch chuckled then, as his liege suddenly looked like that young adolescent once more. She was often full of joy and her brothers adored her. She would have the weirdest requests and would play games with her beloved pet. And he would always be there to accommodate her whims as much as he could. With him being younger than all the other knights, he was often tasked to guard her whenever he was in Dalmasca and not sent to missions somewhere else. To say that they had been playmates couldn't have been that far from the truth.

"Let's just say… this chocobo told me,"

Hearing those words from him seemed quite odd yet she grinned nonetheless. Although she barely remembered him, she somehow knew that it was something she'd never hear him say. "What happened to Sunshine anyway? I cannot seem to remember anything beyond what you said…"

Basch was quiet for a while as he smiled bitterly. He was suddenly back in his own shoes again several years ago, when he was told of the news that it was accidentally freed and dispatched by one of the soldiers during a surprise attack. The chocobo was never seen alive again … and he knew it was something a little girl who just lost two of her brothers with the other four missing, could not accept easily.

"She's probably there… somewhere… having a brood of her own…" He told her the same story he said years ago and the comfortable lie suited both of them once again. He knew, as Ashe nodded pensively with a bittersweet smile in her face.

She patted the yellow chocobo then and laid her cheek on its soft feathers, "At least… she had earned her freedom."

Basch nodded as he got the bags that were on the floor, "Well, if you are ready, get on. I am sure this fellow wouldn't mind giving you a ride."

She was done freshening up, and she truly was ready to depart, yet at Basch's words, something didn't feel quite right...

She rode the chocobo as she had been instructed yet when Basch started to walk off with the chocobo following in tow, she suddenly felt like calling out to him. She rode (as he walked) in silence for a while until she saw several monsters in a junction ahead.

"Basch, isn't it that if you ride a chocobo, the fiends would not bother running after you?" she asked as she watched him dodge one of the fiends that suddenly attacked.

"You…are… right,"

"Then what are you walking there for?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I think this chocobo's legs are strong enough," she patted its head once more, "I think it wouldn't mind having another passenger."

Basch sheathed his sword and looked up confusedly, "I could not possibly…" yet the glare she gave him made him withdraw whatever objection he had. He sighed and sat on the chocobo, just behind her as he was told.

"Isn't that much better?" Ashe said knowingly as she fed the bird yet another peck of gyshal greens.

"Yes, your highness."

"I thought I told you not to…"

"I… please forgive my laxity."

Basch sat up stiffly behind her and she was seated with her back straight as well, yet when the chocobo increased its pace to successfully go up a hill, Ashe was forced to lean back on him. The two kept quiet for the remainder of their journey until she finally decided to speak.

"During that time…when we went around Ivalice to get the dusk shard… and the sword of kings… and ultimately bringing an end to the war… we were together weren't we?"

"Aye"

"And when my father was still alive, you and Vossler were there to protect me and stay by my side…"

"Yes your maje… Ashe,"

"Then why?"

"Why?" Basch repeated the question, not fully knowing what was being asked in the first place.

"Why do you seem so uncomfortable with me Basch?"

"I…" he really did not know how to answer such a question. He truly had spent most of his life serving Dalmasca and being a loyal knight yet now that he was asked, "I do not think I am uncomfortable. I certainly do not feel that way… but, forgive me if I made you feel as such…"

She sighed as she realized that he was doing it once more, "Vaan and Penelo seem to act truly like… my friends. However you Basch seem to be a bit different…"

"Different?"

"You seem to be more withdrawn. In fact, you are anything but lax. It is as if you are more reticent."

He really did not know how to react to that. In fact it never occurred to him that the queen could ever feel that way. After all, it was not too long ago that she despised him to the core. He couldn't forget the anger and the hatred he felt emanating from her the moment she saw he was still living. And yet even after all that happened… the closeness they had… as her knight and as his liege, was never completely rekindled although he felt that it was fine. It was fine as long as she was safe, as long as he could continue to watch her from afar. What right did he have, a disgraced man, to be with the likes of her, to be by her side, anyway?

"I…"

"It is a silly question, forgive me, just…"

"But I am here if you need me. I would always be here to serve you,"

"Out of duty?"

"Out of loyalty…" and something else… He shook his heads as he pushed away the silly illusions in his head.

She was quiet for a while and Basch didn't know if he had offended her or displeased her. He was about to apologize when suddenly she laughed, a rich and comforting laugh, that somehow warmed his heart.

"I guess you truly are the honest to goodness stick-in-the-mud Penelo said you were."

"S…stick-in-the mud!" the man stuttered, astonished, but unable to keep himself from smiling as well.

"That is what she said," she tried to catch her breath, "Now it is up to you to live up to your reputation."

"I…shall take note of that," he mumbled, suddenly earning an uncharacteristic grunt from the princess.

Soon she started to see the sun's rays lightening up the path and the trees became more abundant. The chocobo slowed down and finally stopped altogether and refused to push forward. It was a sign that they reached the end of the highwaste and it was time to dismount. Ashe gave the bird one last pat on the head and shortly afterwards, it happily ran off.

Basch was busy securing his duffel bag behind his back when he heard swishing sounds nearby. He looked up to see the princess wielding her sword awkwardly, as if she were testing it. He hesitated, seeing the focused look in her face, yet when the sword suddenly flew out of her hands he took his chance and intercepted her before she could reclaim it.

"Your Highness, I don't think it's proper for you to be handling a sword right now…"

She looked at him sharply, hoping to reprimand him for calling her inappropriately once more yet she merely sighed and sat on a nearby tree stump. "I must admit that it is one of the things I have forgotten, but if Vaan and Penelo were telling me the truth, that I was quite skilled in swordsmanship before I got… sick, I suppose it would gradually come back to me if I start using it."

He walked closer to her and offered the sword back from its hilt and she timidly took it back. "Although I know that you are very eager to regain your memory, I think it would be best if … well… if you just left the fighting to me." He regretted the words once he uttered it, knowing fully well that his liege would take offense. He knew she was one who would not let herself seem too vulnerable. She would rather get wounded and bleed to death than to be told to rely on someone else.

She looked at her hands and saw the calluses that were there as proof of her forgotten skills, yet as she thought back and remembered her helplessness and the trouble she had caused her escort thus far, she realized that it would be futile to resist. "I suppose you are right, Basch," she said sadly, unaware of the surprise her words caused the knight. "Very well then, I leave my safety up to your capable hands."

"I thank you, your highness,"

There he goes again, she thought, as she looked at his form, almost ready to salute at one command. She knew about her helplessness yet somehow, a comparable change of image seemed appealing in her mind. "Basch, couldn't you at least say it as if you were protecting …say a common village girl?" Ashe stood up from her seat and started walking idly in the mossy ground. "I am seriously considering … or rather re-considering your mental health Basch Fon Ronsenberg."

He had the sudden urge to scratch his head as he got completely lost in what the princess was telling him.

"I was told that I lost my memory… but it is you who keeps on forgetting Basch!"

"Oh… please forgive my inattentiveness… I am sorry for repeatedly …"

"You're doing it again Basch," she said flatly and he seriously thought that she was really angry at that point. She looked up slightly, as if in thought, and suddenly she spoke up once more, "You said you are comfortable with me, correct?"

He nodded.

"And you said that you would always be there for me, correct?"

He nodded once more.

"And I suppose… you have been there for me since a long time ago, correct?"

"Aye, all you have said is correct."

"Well then, I am more than just your liege, am I not?"

Basch suddenly felt his heart thumping erratically in his chest as her words echoed in his mind. More than just his liege… of course she was more than that! He had vowed to serve her, to protect her, to be there for her… to give her more than…

"Maybe you could see me as your friend," Ashe was suddenly right in front of him that he instinctively leaned back. "Basch, could I not have been a royal, and could you not have been a knight… and we've been together like we had. I suppose we could have been just that."

"I am very honored… and I … personally think you to be more than just … my liege."

"Then what if," she had that that twinkle in her eyes once more – the same twinkle he used to see as he took her to Giza plains, as he told her stories during long journeys, as he taught her how to use the sword, "What if, I just pretend to be someone else… and you pretend as well."

"I… I beg your pardon?"

"Charades, Basch, charades." She walked away from him and sat on the tree stump once more. Vaan and Penelo kept on trying to make her remember her greatness… her strength as a leader, as a fighter, as a monarch. Yet now that she seemed so weak… "I do not remember most things about my past anyway… and no one is supposed to know who we are."

That had been Larsa's plan. It was his duty to take her away from Rabanastre, keep her safe until she regained her memory. He did not know what the young Archadian lord and their other friends have done and what part they are currently playing on this plan.

"What do you think Basch?"

He looked at her bright hopeful eyes and could not help but smile. The princess had always liked scheming and planning and getting her way… "That is a sound plan, highness."

"Ashe" she said, impulsively correcting him, and then she suddenly frowned when she realized something, "oh that's right. I would need a new name."

"What about Amalia," he suggested, noting how quickly her face brightened up once more.

"Amalia… it's a familiar name… I've heard it before."

"You have used it as your alias for a while"

"Oh I see." She somehow felt as if there was more behind that name that she had forgotten. Somehow…. Somehow there is a meaning behind it that she could not quite recall… "Amalia it is then," she finally said, pushing her thoughts temporarily away. "What about you Basch? What would you want your name to be?"

"Me?" Names. He now had too many of them. Could another name make him live another life… just like what his brother had done? "I … could not seem to think of a name."

Gabranth. That was his brother's name wasn't it? She vaguely remembered that it was the same name he was called in the palace. If he had been living his brother's life before they left… before all of this had happened… then that must mean…

"Basch… Basch is fine I suppose."

He smiled then, as he heard her say his given name once more, his disgraced name that had been cursed and spat on enough to make it something taboo. Ashe herself refused to call him by name for a while yet now that she said it, over and over, now that they conversed casually as if nothing was done to soil his forsaken name; he suddenly had a warm feeling in his heart.

"So then, as of now I am Amalia," she said as she started walking once more. "I am Amalia, a simple girl from Rabanastre."

Seeing her walking leisurely in the mossy ground, he realized that she was probably absorbed in her thoughts. He picked up his pace to be by her side.

Ashe smiled as she saw him beside her, unlike before when she saw nothing but his back or merely heard his faint footsteps behind her. Maybe as Amalia, he would have fewer reasons to stay as awkward as he was, "I guess I would have to figure out my identity. Let's see… I grew up in a…"

"Palace?"

"Oh Basch, have you no imagination at all?" she mumbled as gave him a pointy glare, "Amalia, think of Amalia." Ashe saw his lopsided grin and realized he had been teasing her.

"Maybe Amalia lived in the palace as her highness had,"

"Oh, all right," she sighed at her companion's apparent lack in creativity, "what would I be doing in the palace?"

"Maybe your mother was one of the governesses that facilitated the education of the royal children," he chuckled, seeming almost proud of himself, "that was a mouthful."

"I think you outdid yourself this time Basch. I think we are making progress."

They spent most of the time conversing as they passed through the Salikawood. By the third junction, the timid knight started talking in more than three sentences at once.

"So what did the palace guards do?" Ashe asked attentively, obviously hooked on Basch's story about a (mis)adventure he had as a young squire in Dalmasca.

It took him a while to reply, as he took down two Marlboro overkings before he spoke, "Well, the guards did not really bother trying to apprehend me, the supposed trespasser," he blushed slightly, remembering the embarrassing incident, "They were actually busy looking for a mischievous little princess at that time."

"You don't say!" Ashe gasped, as the knight's suppressed smile betrayed the seriousness in his voice. "Whoever that little princess was, I am sure of her innocence."

"Well… the little one took a game of hide and seek too far. All of the maids and guards around the palace were so worried that they did not know where she ran off to," Basch saw the image in his head then, that clumsy-looking little girl Ashe used to be, with dirt in her cheeks and her gown slightly torn and filthy. He supposed he was no different at that time, with his awkward build – tall yet thin for his age.

"Then what happened?"

"Of course, I was busy trying to escape the wrath of that maid I somehow… offended… and I accidentally fell on a small burrow in the palace gardens," he then cast her a sideward glance, "that's where I saw the imp for a princess."

"An i…imp for a princess?" she sputtered incredulously, a bit indignant yet overjoyed at the same time for having such a conversation with the stiff Basch Fon Rosenburg.

He grinned slightly until he finally regained his composure, "I'm sorry, I got carried away,"

"I would not forgive you if you do not finish your story," she threatened lightheartedly, hoping to bring him back on the mood.

"Oh, there's nothing much left to it," he said, looking up slightly, hoping to get her to leave the topic at hand.

"Did you get caught?" she asked him insistently, quickly noting the faint blush in the pale man's cheeks.

"Suffice to say… I later on found out… that the lady was actually one of the princess's maids."

Ashe laughed heartily then, almost waking the sleeping monsters nearby, "poor you, I suppose you were subjected to some form of torture after that."

"Well… I couldn't walk freely for a while, for anywhere I went, people were whispering about. Some have even confronted me."

"I couldn't blame them," she said in between laughs, "after you barged into her room like that while she was changing!"

"I was young and naïve…" he sighed, smiling bashfully, "and out of place in such a huge palace. After that incident, I made sure that I never get lost again."

"Oh… so that's why we managed to get by, without you looking at your map even once," she said when she finally calmed down and suppressed the tail of her laughter.

"Speaking of which, we have reached the end of the Salikawood," Basch said as he led her through a narrow rusty gate.

Sure enough, she felt sand in her boots once more and she was slightly disappointed, after she had been used to walking on solid ground. Yet as she looked around, she noticed the birds flying gaily in the air and the sea side not so far away. It looked like… it looked like paradise.

"We're now in the Phon Coast," he breathed in deeply and enjoyed the cool breeze. Truly it was a fine day for traveling. And somehow, deep in his heart, he wished that their journey was still far from its end.

What he didn't know was that his companion felt exactly the same way. Ashe was still mesmerized by the scenery that she stayed on the spot where she stood as she looked around her. Ivalice truly was a wondrous place and for her to have forgotten it was such a shame. She was glad to have the opportunity to relive it once more… with Basch at her side. Speaking of which… she looked around and realized she was alone…

"Amalia!" she heard his deep voice, calling loudly. "Amalia!" she looked down and saw him several feet away from her. Warm, inviting hands extended towards her direction. "Amalia? Are you ready to go?"

She nodded as she smiled brightly, picking up her pace to be by her companion's side once more.