Please note that none of the characters/locations/creatures are mine; they all belong to Squaresoft.
Chapter 6
They travelled in single file with Cid in the lead. He led the way unhesitatingly, occasionally glancing up at the stars to check their direction. He was glad that he had something to do, something that he was comfortable about doing. Their journey might take longer now, but he was as confident as before that he could get them to the oasis.
Edea was far from confident in his abilities. She was dimly aware that this view was unreasonable. After all, he was moving ahead confidently enough. When he looked up at the sky, he rarely made any adjustment to their direction. But still, somehow, she held him responsible for their situation.
She could not rid herself of the feeling that she would have got on a lot better by herself. She was a loner by nature, retreating into her own world when the real one became too stressful. She had travelled the world, always alone. Since her parents had died, she had never felt the need for human companionship.
And now this man had been thrust upon her. Perhaps Raine had had her reasons, but it seemed unlikely that she would ever be able to ask her about them now. All she could do for the present was place one foot in front of the other, and follow where Cid led.
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The sand was soft, making walking difficult. They either sank into it, or found their feet slipping from under them. This added to the misery brought on by losing the chocobos.
They travelled as quickly as they could, however, seeking to cover as much ground as possible before the sun rose. The cool night air did nothing to thaw Edea's frosty mood, and Cid wisely held his tongue.
He couldn't understand why she had taken against him so completely. He hadn't asked to join her as a travelling companion; Raine had thrust him into that role. And he could hardly be held responsible for the appearance of the abyss worm. They were desert animals, after all.
As they journeyed on, the feeling that he was being unfairly treated ate away at him. All he had tried to do, even before they left Winhill, was to help her. Raine had provided the means for him to do just that. Now he wished he had left Edea to her fate, if she couldn't be more grateful for his efforts on her behalf.
Which direction would she have taken away from Winhill if he hadn't been there? If she had attempted the desert alone, there was little chance she would have survived, as she had no previous knowledge of the existence of the oasis, let alone how to find it. Any other direction would have taken her to the sea, with little chance of travelling over it.
He wondered in passing how Edea had got to Winhill in the first place, but since he was determined not to speak to her, there seemed little chance of him ever finding out.
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And so they travelled, each wrapped up in their own thoughts, each determined not to speak to the other. The night was as cold as the previous one, but their cloaks and the exercise kept them warm enough.
Both were silently glad that their packs had started off so light. If they had packed in advance for a full-scale expedition, they would never have been able to carry all their equipment without the chocobos. As it was, they had only their bedding and the travelling rations from Raine, two empty water bottles, and the one which still contained water.
Edea also had the knapsack she had packed in such haste in her house. This contained some cooking gear, and a package of rare healing herbs and other plants, as well as a change of clothes. She had managed to fit her share of their belongings in as well. They had fashioned a kind of bag from one of the chocobos' packs for Cid to carry.
They drank as little water as possible, moistening their lips rather than taking mouthfuls. Cid was unwilling to put any kind of estimate on how long their journey would be now, and they had still the heat of the day to survive. Edea just marked the loss of one full water bottle silently against Cid's account, but said nothing.
Around the middle of the night, they stopped to eat. They rummaged for their own rations in silence, carefully avoiding eye contact as they ate. They managed to speak long enough to agree to two full swallows of water each, in order to wash down the dry travellers' bread.
Cid began to feel the ridiculousness of the situation, but didn't dare suggest to Edea that her behaviour was in anyway amusing; he had seen how she dealt with the abyss worm. However, he knew that if their journey was to become a fireside tale, it would be the type with a moral to it; something about pettiness and holding grudges.
Edea, for her part continued to seethe inwardly. She would never have considered that her anger towards Cid was unjustified. In normal circumstances, she was a perfectly reasonable person. However, the strain of the flight from Winhill, plus the journey across the desert and finally the loss of the chocobos had taken a toll on her equilibrium.
She felt dependent on Cid, a feeling she was unused to. She had relied on her own instincts and abilities for so long, that giving her safety over to another was unthinkable. And the issue of safety added to her mental strain. Cid was OK; if his body gave up, he could just die. But if her body was unable to carry on, she would be trapped within it; the Power would not allow her to fully die until it had another to possess. And who knew when another person would ever pass this way again. She might lie there for eternity, no longer fully alive, but equally not yet dead. The thought filled her with dread.
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With the dawn, they halted again to eat, and to have two swallows of water. Cid mentioned cheerfully that they still had more than half the bottle of water left. Edea merely gave him a withering glance, before turning away.
They resumed their journey, each once more locked in their own thoughts. To their right, the sun climbed slowly up the sky. Edea felt as if she had always been on this journey, as if the rest of her life had been merely a dream. It did not seem possible that this was only the third day since they had left Winhill.
As the sun climbed higher, Cid gathered his courage together and called a halt. They both sank down onto the sand, which was already warm, and had a sip of water. Then Cid revealed the real reason for the halt. It was time to take a decision.
'We have two options,' he told Edea. 'Either we stop here for the day, and continue again tonight. Or we can keep on moving through the day. What do you think?'
At one level, Edea was grateful that Cid had finally included her in a decision about what they were going to do. But she was also aware that he was really offering little in the way of a choice. If they stayed put, they would be able to avoid the full force of the sun by sheltering under their cloaks as they had the day before. However, they would still need to drink, and they would resume their journey with far less water than they had at present. On the other hand, if they carried on, they stood some chance of making it to the oasis. Even if they didn't make it, it was better to walk towards death, than to sit around and wait for it.
She turned her large dark eyes to Cid. He could see, and flinched from, the pain in them. She didn't speak, didn't tell him the decision making process she had gone through. He could guess most of the arguments which had run around her head, anyway; he had rehearsed them himself ever since the sun rose. She simply stood, and waved him ahead of her with a motion of her hand, and their journey resumed.
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They kept moving for as long as they could, only halting when exhaustion threatened. They forced themselves to eat, to maintain their strength. They drank as sparingly as they could, but even so, the water seemed to go too quickly.
Edea moved automatically. She felt as if she were in a kind of trance, her eyes fixed on Cid's feet just ahead of her. Each step of her own became a miniature triumph, she felt a sense of accomplishment each time her foot hit the sand. It seemed many hours since their last stop, but a glance at the position of the sun told her it was less than two.
The sun was now almost directly overhead. It beat down on their heads from the sky, and reflected up from the sand to dazzle and blind them. Both now walked with their heads down, their eyes scrunched almost completely shut.
Suddenly, Edea found herself walking into Cid, who had come to an abrupt halt. She had neither the energy nor the moisture in her throat to berate him, but had to satisfy herself with a look that might have melted steel.
Then, she realised that he was pointing ahead, and raised her head to see what had gripped his attention. Ahead, shimmering in the heat haze was the last thing she had expected, but the one thing she had wished for all day. It was a patch of green against the endless grey-brown of the desert sand, still so far away that she could have blocked it out with her hand.
They were within sight of the oasis, at last.