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From the Depths
by: Cedarleaf
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Chapter 1
The dream faded slowly from his mind just as the very first signs of dawn appeared on the horizon. The youth stirred, stretching lazily as he breathed in the crisp, not quite morning air. The dream had been a pleasant one, a memory from an era of simpler days gone by when the sky was the limit and nothing was impossible. But the memory was of the day that ushered in the beginning of the end of that era.
It was a memory of the day he discovered there was more to the ocean than meets the eye.
Everyone said he'd been hallucinating, but Roxas knew what he had seen. Two mermaids (a mermaid and a merboy, really) had saved him from an early, watery grave. Roxas could still recall with perfect clarity the warmth of the maid's hand on his back and sheer brilliance of the boy's smile.
Roxas was all too aware that boys his age weren't supposed to believe in such things as mermaids. It just wasn't considered "masculine". Maybe if he was some grungy old sailor who'd spent more years of his life at sea than on dry land, people would find him eccentric instead of just plain strange, but… That's why he preferred older people instead of kids his age.
His father hadn't believed him, dismissing what his young son experienced as just an illusion created by his panicked and water logged mind. His mother however, well, she never really told him what she thought about the whole thing, at least not quite. "The sea has many secrets, my son," she would always say, "perhaps one day you'll discover some of them."
His brother just thought, "Hey, he's five. Let the kid believe what he wants. He'll grow up soon enough." And in the end, Rufus' view won out. Roxas knew his brother could be a real jerk sometimes, but he did have his moments.
Nine years had passed since that day. And in all that time, he had never lost his absolute belief that merfolk did exist, though as he had grown older, he had needed to hide his beliefs from other people, especially his father. Lord Ansem was a powerful man and a great believer and practitioner of science. In his mind, everything in the universe could be rationalized by the laws of physics and chemistry.
Roxas disagreed. To him, there were things that existed beyond the scope of human senses and logic, things that simply were.
And he believed he had been touched by one of those great unknowns just as strongly as he believed they existed.
But he couldn't tell his father that. Roxas hated having to be so far removed from his own parent, especially since they were so close in everything else, but it was necessary for his own self preservation. He hated that even more.
He might have been able to tell his mother, for she had always encouraged his curiosity (though always coupled with a word of caution), no matter what it was.
But she had passed away several years ago. And with her passing, Roxas had lost not only a loving mother, but also the timber that fueled the fire of his desire to learn. With but a few encouraging words from her, he'd felt ready to conquer the world and all its secrets. The earth, the sea, all of it was his to explore, and no amount of hard work or drudgery was enough to slow him down, not with her standing behind him.
But then she was gone. And with her went all joy and hope and thrill of adventure.
For two years after her death, Roxas had felt as if all light had fled the universe. He didn't smile or laugh or go out and learn something just because he wanted to. For two years, he was frozen down to his very soul.
That all changed when he ran into an old friend again – literally.
He'd been walking home from school in a daze as usual and as such, he hadn't been paying attention when he crashed into someone causing both of them to fall to the ground…
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"Hey, watch where yer goin'!" the man yelled, obviously angry.
"I'm very sorry, sir," Roxas said sheepishly. As a further apology, Roxas helped pick up some parcels that had fallen out of the man's arms when they had collided and it was as Roxas was giving them back to him that the man recognized him. "Roxas Nomura?"
"Yes?" Surprised to hear his name, Roxas turned to look at the man, really look at him. It was none other than Cid, the scruffy but good humored sea captain who used to sail his father's research voyages. As a matter of fact, he'd been at the helm that fateful day Roxas had almost been lost at sea. "Captain Highwind?"
"Well I'll be damned, it is you! How've yeh been, boy? Ye've shot up like a weed since last I saw yeh."
They made small talk for a while, Roxas following Cid to the docks, as he'd been in the middle of delivering something and needed to get it to the recipient soon. Along the way, Roxas learned that since leaving his father's service four years ago, Cid had gone into the ship building business and was currently running his own shipyard, which was where they were headed.
Of course, once he was done talking about himself, Cid turned his attention to his young companion. At first, Roxas tried to speak of only trivial things like school and homework, but eventually, Cid inquired about his family, particularly his mother.
It was several moments before Roxas found the voice to tell him.
"I'm sorry, boy," Cid said, his eyes sympathetic. "'S a damn shame, that. Always a true lady, yer mother. I was lucky to know 'er.
"Yer a lot like her, yeh know," Cid told him after sometime of walking in silence. "She always had this feelin' about her, like she was somethin' special, y'know? You have it too, a little bit. More so than yer brother."
"I really miss her," Roxas admitted quietly. It had been two years, but he still rarely spoke of his beloved mother and now that he finally was, he felt a need to open up and thaw the part of his heart that had frozen with her passing.
"Yeh wouldn't be her son if yeh didn't, boy," the old sea captain told him.
"Does it ever go away?" the ten year old asked, his eyes too old for one so young.
"No," Cid replied, knowing all too well what exactly the boy was talking about. "The pain will heal with time, but as long as yeh love her, it will never truly be gone." He laid a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "And that's the way it should be."
They walked the rest of the way to the docks in silence, each lost in his own thoughts. For the first time in two years, Roxas found his thoughts focusing not on the pain of losing his mother, but on the woman herself. He remembered their adventures together and now much fun they used to have as a family. He remembered his delight at showing her his latest invention or discovery. He remembered how fiercely he had loved her. Cid was right, Roxas wouldn't have been his mother's son if he hadn't missed her. It meant he still loved her. The pain was still there, but after his talk with Cid, it wasn't quite as overwhelming as it had been.
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Back in the present, Roxas had already finished dressing for the day. Not a week after he'd first run into Cid again, he had gone down to the shipyard to see him again. While he'd felt better about his mother, Roxas was still very much lonely and so he'd sought out the only person with whom he felt understood. Cid had been surprised to see him but didn't seem to mind him being there, so long as he stayed out of the way. They even talked a little during breaks.
Watching Cid and his crew at work on a small schooner, Roxas had felt some of his old curiosity return to him and wanted to ask the man about what he was doing but didn't, lest Cid find him annoying. The seadog seemed to read his mind however and gave a short explanation anyway. Roxas had listened intently, even daring to pose a question. Far from finding him a nuisance, Cid seemed pleased to have such an attentive pseudo-pupil. By the end of the day, Roxas had had such a good time, he'd come back for an encore the week after.
So began a routine that lasted for the better part of four years. By the time he was twelve, Roxas was big enough and had learned enough to actually help out a bit, bringing tools, water, and other supplies to the crewmen when they needed it. He came to know almost every one of them by name. Roxas enjoyed being able to actually do something for a change instead of being told to stay out of the way like a child. He felt like he was growing up.
But what Roxas loved about working at Cid's most of all was listening to the old sailors' tales. The young men Cid employed were mostly just for muscle but the older crowd were old sea dogs who'd settled down and oversaw the crew as foremen of sorts. Almost every day during the lunch break, they would all sit down together and swap tales about their younger days on the high seas. Roxas could tell many of them were either completely made up or greatly exaggerated. Every once in a while though, there'd be a story that was a bit too real, a bit too impossible but plausible, the teller's eyes a bit too sane and his voice a bit too steady for his tale to be anything other than true. Roxas thrived on those stories. They reassured him that he wasn't alone in believing the fantastical.
Also right around that time, one of his father's private vessels was damaged in a storm and Cid was commissioned to fix it. Lord Ansem knew perfectly well about his son's activities and took the opportunity to inquire of the boy's progress. The old captain was nothing but praise and they agreed that Cid should make Roxas a member of his crew on a more official basis.
And thus his hobby turned into his first real job. He loved it. It was never much, just a few hours of various odd tasks that need to be done and it was only three days a week.
Two of those days were during the morning shift. It meant he had to get up earlier than usual on those days, before the sun rose even, but that was fine by him.
Today was one of those days. He was out the door and off to the docks just as the first beam of light broke over the horizon. There was something about being awake to witness the birth of a new day that was simply magnanimous, and it made getting up early to see it more than worth the effort.
There were few people in town as Roxas made his way to Cid's; most on the island were just waking up now. The few that were included the milkman, the paperboy, and Mrs. Gainsborough, the old lady who owned the bakery. Roxas sniffed as the scent of fresh baked bread reached his nose. But even if he didn't really know them, Roxas still felt a strange kind of companionship with them, as if they were keepers of a precious secret together.
By the time Roxas arrived at the shipyard, the sun had risen properly, and Cid and his crew were already hard at work building a brig some wealthy merchant had commissioned. He watched them hoist up the huge beams that would become the new ship's framework. It was not easy work, requiring great precision and manpower to haul the beams up by ropes. Roxas waited until the crew finished attaching the rib they were working on the talk to Cid about his duties for the day.
"Good morning, Cid!" he called.
"Mornin!" came the gruff reply. Roxas couldn't blame him. Here it was just barely after sunrise and already he'd shouted enough to last most people the entire day. "You need an extra hand?" he offered.
Cid wiped the sweat from his brow. "Nah," he declined. "We already got it covered. Got a bunch of errands for yeh today, anyhow. Shera's got the list in the office."
Shera was Cid's wife and she handled all the paperwork and financial aspects of the yard while Cid oversaw the actual construction and repair of the ships. They were the absolute oddest couple Roxas had ever met in his life. Shera was quiet and soft spoken while Cid was rash, rowdy, and a nut for all things nautical, but they somehow kept it together.
Roxas gave his thanks then made his way over to the office, which was back at the main entrance to the shipyard. It was a modest little two story building, but it was nice. It had been Cid's home back in the day but then he'd married Shera and they moved into her cottage on the quiet side of town. Cid swore up and down he never realized how much sleep he lost from telling people to shut up so he could get some sleep until he moved.
Shera was upstairs, sitting at her desk, running some numbers. She smiled warmly at him as he walked in the door. "Good morning, Roxas," she said, motioning to help himself to a plate of pastries he'd just spotted on the table. Which he did.
"Goo moin!" The words were somewhat garbled by the cranberry muffin in his mouth but Shera understood anyway. Roxas swallowed. "Cid said you had some stuff for me to do?"
"Mm hmm," she said, sipping her tea. Shera brandished a sheet of paper at him. Roxas took it from her and looked it over. It had all the usual stuff on it; some notification letters to be sent to the mainland, an order for supplies from both the carpenter and the blacksmith along with payments to both for last time, some local letters to deliver, and return a book Cid had rebound for Maechen. The usual.
Snatching another muffin, Roxas thanked Shera before heading back into town.
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His errands didn't take as long today as they usually did. If fact, he was done by twelve o'clock. Usually he'd go back to the shipyard and help out until around four or so even though he was off the clock at noon but today he didn't feel like it for some reason. Instead, he headed home, raided the icebox for some lunch then set out for the family's private dock just down the hill from the manor.
Bypassing all his father's vessels, Roxas climbed into his own little rowboat tied to the end of the pier. It wasn't much, just barely big enough to fit two people but at least it was his, a gift from Cid after his first year of work and not paid for with his father's money.
Whenever he wasn't working or attending to his studies, Roxas had a hobby of exploring all the little islets that dotted Besaid. Most of them were uninhabited, but the wildlife was beautiful. Roxas was sure he was the first person to set foot on most of them since the days Destiny Islands was originally discovered.
Today, however, he was going to his favorite. He called it the Isle, for lack of a better name, and it was one of the larger islets he visited, about fifty feet across, shaped like a crescent with the bay facing west and the open sea, hidden from the rest of Besaid's view by the island's awesome western cliffs. It was a bit far, but Roxas didn't mind. It was a better guarantee he'd have the place to himself.
Reaching the Isle, he dragged his boat up on the beach and tied it to a tree. Then he took out his lunch and took a seat on one of the boulders that marked the southern point to the crescent. Worn flat and smooth from centuries of salty ocean winds and partly shaded by the tall palm trees that grew on the island, the boulders were the perfect place to kick back and relax.
And that's exactly what he did.
Munching on the apple he'd swiped, Roxas watched as the clouds glided by and crabs scuttled across the sand. There were a few seagulls here and there but mostly it was just the sound of the waves and the wind through the trees.
His thoughts turned to the dream he'd had as he polished off his lunch, and wondered where his rescuers were.
Soothed by the wind and the waves and the sheer tranquility, Roxas fell asleep.
