The following morning, The sun had shone. He slept rather comfortably in one of the bedrooms in Isara's house. Light entered the room through the window and the birds chirped sweetly. His satchel lay flat on the ground while his left hand held on to the straps. On the doorway, Isara was peeking to check on Noctis to see if he had risen up from bed. A slight smile emanated on Isara's face as she looked at the sleeping man. She quietly closed the door and left to allow him to continue his sleep.
On another side…
A man with brown hair looked unconscious. With him was a woman of 17. Her face lied on his belly and was also unconscious. The man didn't have a satchel with him and especially his gunblade. His bomber jacket was also gone and probably went loose during his travel within the portal. The two were on an empty field near an old farmhouse. A few yards away, two people, one man and one woman were walking on the road from a nearby village holding their rifles. The two were dressed up in a militia-like uniforms and blue helmets except for the woman wearing a red and white bandana.
"Hey, There's two here!" Shouted a town watchman.
The watchmen went on the two and looked at them. Their clothing was unusual and rather different from what they wore. The woman snuck up on the two while the other pointed his rifle. The woman patted the man's cheeks with the barrel of her rifle. The man didn't respond. For a second time, She patted the man's cheeks again with the same object. This time, the man woke up with a barrel of a rifle pointed on his face.
"Freeze!" She ordered.
The man froze on sight. He shook his colleague sleeping on his belly and woke her up. When she did, She met a rifle's barrel.
"Get up and put your hands around your head."
The two get up their feet and did what the woman had said. The two knew that she doesn't hesitate to pull the trigger on both of them.
"Umm, Can we help you?" The man asked.
"Hey! Did I order you to speak? Who are you?"
"Um.. Squall Leonhart and this is Rinoa Heartilly. And what of you?" He said.
"BTW as in Bruhl Town Watch you cheeky man. Alicia Melchiott. You're under arrest."
"For what, mate?" He asked.
"Imperial spies are in the area, mate!" She said, imitating his accent in a scornful way.
Squall raised a brow. "Spies? What the hell are you talking about? We're not even from here!"
"Exactly, That's why the Imperials sent you to spy on us."
"No! I mean it. Just allow me to ex-" But Squall was cut-off in mid-sentence and the two were restrained by another 2 Town Watchmen who recently arrived.
"Oh, Don't you know that there's war going on? Tell it to the judge. You'll explain later in the station. Take them away."
"Tch.. Whatever." He uttered.
Just then, two townsmen arrived with 4 more restrained people. Like them, They had the same clothing as Squall and Rinoa's. The two looked at them to see that it was 4 of their friends. Squall was shocked.
"Zell, Irvine, Quistis and Selphie too." He uttered in thought.
"Alicia, We got 4 of these guys. One of them said that they're from a faraway place called Bolamb, Easthar, err-.. That's all from what I heard." Said a woman, who was also a watchman like Alicia but with a pink bow tied to her hair.
"Good job, Susie. They'll do hard time back in the station."
Soon, They were on the way back to Bruhl. Upon returning back, News reached Alicia from another Town Watchman and made a report after his probable scout in the area.
"Ms. Melchiott. We captured another group of people. There's many of them. One with long hair, another with yellow spike hair along with 5 more. They also have a rather unusual clothing than ours."
"I see that. We also got 6 here and one say they're from a place faraway. But even I'm not fooled into thinking that it's true. Good man. Carry on." She said.
The watchman saluted and left to return back to Bruhl. Alicia then thought to herself about the phenomena that is happening. 13 people have been scouted so far and the report was the same. She started to wonder if what the man she spoke with was telling the truth.
On the other hand, Squall hears of what Alicia and a townsman were talking about.
"Damn! That must be Cloud and the others. I hope they're alright." He thought with a hint of worry.
On another side…
A few moments later, a party of 5 were walking on the countryside by the road. A black-haired woman started to lose consciousness and looked like she was going to die of thirst. They were looking for a place to go on. They didn't have anything with them. No money, food and water and they have been walking for the past 9 hours. Suddenly, The woman fell to the ground and started to lose consciousness. They had to do something.
To the blonde's side, He saw an abandoned campfire and there was an empty canister. He took it and cleaned it with water flowing from a nearby river. Once cleaned, He scooped up water with the canister and gave it to his thirsty colleague.
"Here Lulu. Drink up." He said.
After she drank the water, She still wasn't getting any better.
"Damn! It's not working." A female blonde said.
"That's all we've got. We need help." Says a brunette.
"I'll call for help. Keep her comfortable." The blonde male said.
He immediately left to run for help. It didn't go that far to call for help. Along the way, He saw 2 town watchmen and they had rifles with them. The blonde knew that they may be able to help.
"Hey!" He shouted.
The Town Watchmen caught his attention and pointed their rifles on him. The blonde immediately froze on spot as the watchmen came. The two recently came from the town and were going to continue scouting the area until the blonde came.
"Freeze!" The Watchwoman said.
"Whoah! Easy!"
"Identify yourself." She said, pointing the blonde at his chest.
"Umm… I'm Tidus and I need help."
"Wha-?" She was startled by what the blonde had said. "What for?"
"A friend of mine is about to get dehydrated. If we don't do something, She may be lost."
She hesitated and remembered what Alicia had said not to trust unfamiliar faces but she didn't find anything wrong with helping someone in need, especially at the current situation.
"Can I trust you that you won't turn your back?"
"Sure and I will. I'm not even from here."
She agreed and Tidus lead the two to where the dehydrated Lulu was. Little did the two knew that they didn't like losing lives and would do anything to save that person's life. They ran as fast as they can until they got to where Lulu was lying with their colleagues.
"Step aside." She said.
She went to her knees and inspected Lulu. She was pale and was badly needed water. The further dehydrated she was, The closer she is going to die. The watchwoman remembered that there was a first aid station back in Bruhl and she told them what they could do.
"Can you get her up? There's a first aid station in Bruhl. If we could get there, We may save her life."
"Bruhl?"
"I'll tell you later. Go support her." She instructed.
They followed the blonde watchwoman's instructions and carried their dehydrated friend to Bruhl. They moved a little faster to keep up with the watchmen leading the way. Wakka comforted her with his own words as they got closer and closer to Bruhl.
"Stay with us, Lulu. The aid's not far." He said.
As the party got nearer and nearer to Bruhl, The chances of Lulu being saved was getting higher and higher. The party didn't stop nor rest as Lulu's life was hanging by a thread. Along the way, They met Alicia.
She noticed the party and saw that they also wore an unusual clothing like the 2 previous group arrests. But unlike the previous two, She saw that this party was carrying a person. Her hand was sticking out. Alicia felt sorrow if that person was to die. She hoped that whoever that person is gets to live another day.
On another side…
A man was walking by the river. He looked to his left to see that the windmill still is up and running. On the way, There were trucks and a few people moving out of the place as if they were leaving Bruhl but none of them mattered to this young man who wasn't aware of what's going to happen.
"I haven't been in this road in years. It hasn't changed much."
On the way, he stopped and looked to the creek to his left. There, There were fishes in the water, a sort of 3.
"Whoah! Already?"
He ran to the bank of the creek to check out his discovery.
"Hey there guys. You're beautiful. Starting early this year? You're heading upstream, huh? How's the water?" He referred to the fishes.
He puts down his satchel and took out his sketchpad and starts sketching. Unknown to him, There was a female town watch guard behind him. She hears the cock of the rifle and turns around to find the barrel pointed at his face.
"Freeze! Put your hands in the air, slowly."
The man did as what the town watchwoman had said.
"Haven't seen you before? What's your name?"
"Um… Uh… My name is Welkin. And you are?"
"The one with the gun. We're with the Bruhl Town Watch. I'm Alicia, Alicia Melchiott. So, I'm wondering what you've been writing in that little book you've got there. Imperial spies are in the area."
Welkin tried to reason out. "Ah.. This book is nothing really. I was just sketching the fish, and you know…"
She gave a scornful smile on Welkin.
"Yes, oh, I know. And you know there's a war on, don't you? Alright then, Mr. Artist. We'll talk about fish sketching down at the station. Take him away." Alicia ordered.
And Welkin was restrained by two town watchmen. He sighed with a hint of frustration.
"Thanks a lot, Fish."
As they walked along, Alicia peeked on the young man's sketchpad. She expected that it was going to be full of maps, places and locations. Instead, She didn't find what she was looking for. It was instead a sketchpad filled with all things related to nature. From plants and animals, She was rather impressed.
"Flowers, bugs, and fish. You're not bad with a pen, are you? I have to say, they're really very good." She complimented.
"Thank you. So, As you can see, I was just sketching."
"Or…Maybe this could be some kind of secret code, and I intend to take my time finding out for sure." She answered back.
"Heh, Great!" He sighed.
Just then, a voice greeted the group. It was a rather pleasing sound for Welkin to hear.
"Welks? Is that you?"
"Isara! Your timing is perfect." He said.
"It is? And What trouble have you gotten yourself into now, Welkin?"
Alicia paused for a moment as she was familiar with the girl.
"Wait… Don't you live at the old general's house?"
Isara punctuated. "That's right. I'm General Gunther's daughter, Isara."
"You do know that everyone is supposed to evacuate, right?"
"Yes, I'm aware of that. My brother's here to help me move to the capital, but that may be difficult...I mean, unless you're willing to let him go, that is."
With Isara's saving grace, Welkin smirked at Alicia, who had a surprised look on her face, thinking that he was the son of the old general. She immediately ordered him to be set free and apologized for her error into thinking he was a spy.
"I apologize. But I was just doing my job, you know. I saw you with the notebook and thought you were a spy. Again, I'm really sorry about that." She said, handing Welkin back his sketchpad.
"Thanks, don't worry about it. I can see how I might have looked a little suspicious." He replied, rubbing his arms.
"Welks has a real passion for observing nature. that's why he's studying it at the university, right?" His sister said.
"Guilty as charged. I get so into it sometimes where I am. I got to be careful though, Somebody may be watching me." He said in a teasingly way, referring to that 'somebody' as Alicia.
"And by the way, We have a visitor." Isara added.
Welkin looked startled. "Visitor?"
"Yes. Though I forgot to tell him that my brother is coming today. I found him last night right over there. He was sleeping in a campfire with some kind of coat as a blanket."
"And you consider a stranger to be a visitor of your own? Did you take his name?" Alicia asked. "I sense that something's strange about that person."
"He said it to me… He was uhh…. Um… Noel? No wait…. Nora?, No!"
Finally, Isara's bulb lighted and She finally remembered who the person was.
"Noctis! Noctis was his name! and He's a good person too."
"Noctis? Quite unusual for a person's name to be like that." Alicia said.
"Well, I guess… Whoever he is, I have to see him."
"He's sleeping on one of the old bedrooms. Come, Let's go see him right now."
Suddenly, an Imperial squad approaches the evacuating family and guns them down. The other tossed a grenade and destroyed the whole truck. The screams were turned into deaths. They saw this and Alicia was shellshocked by this violence.
On the bedroom of the old general's house, The sleeping young man's eyes shot open as the grenade exploded on the other side of the village.