Can I even begin to apologize for taking so long?
I'm really so sorry. My life got flipped upside down and there's so much to deal with...
It has been a really long time...and I really hope I haven't lost any fans.
Note: The new character Dham is based off of my late grandfather. Real lovable guy.
Usual disclaimer.
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Fran's head was swimming. How long had she been out? She couldn't tell. She sat up slowly, but the pain that ignited in her head was so severe she had to lie back down. She opened her eyes and was staring up at a stone ceiling. Sand clung to her skin as she moved her hand to her stomach, but drew it back immediately as she saw the bruise that seemed to cover at least two-thirds of her midsection. She tried to move her other hand, the one with the broken wrist, but she could not. She touched it slightly but hissed as the searing pain returned.
Bringing her hand to her face, she felt the unevenness of her skin caked with dried blood. She scratched at it lightly, chipping it off until her face was clean. At least she no longer had the taste of blood in her mouth. Her vision was blurred, but she opened her eyes as she scanned the dark, sandy room for Balthier. Her eyes rested on a dark shape in the corner, and as her ears perked up she heard raspy breathing as his chest rose and fell. She couldn't reach him right now in the state she was in.
She looked down at her wrist and felt her heart sink to the bottom of her stomach. With her good hand, she clasped her broken wrist and hissed at the discomfort. She knew she had to do this or else her wrist would fuse like this permanently. Holding on tighter, she held her breath and pulled. She tried to silence her scream but could not, and tried to get the job done as quick as possible, moving her hand this way and that, and finally she felt it set into place. She closed her eyes tightly and tried to control her breathing as she rode out the pain. Finally, the throbbing ebbed, and she breathed a sigh of relief, fighting to sit up, leaning against the cold stone wall. How she wished for the crushed herbs so plentiful by the entrance to Eruyt that made pain non-existant for the day.
"I'm sorry," said a wheezy voice.
Fran turned her head. Balthier was on his side, facing her, eyes full of shame. Fran met his gaze. He struggled up to his knees and crawled towards her, collapsing next to her, their backs against the wall. He turned his head to face her. She said nothing.
"Fran..." he continued, but she shook her head, silencing him.
She stood up, and unsteadily walked out of the room. She couldn't let him see her so weak like this, she didn't want to cry in front of him. Not that she was crying. Not yet, anyway.
She made her way to the center of this...dungeon. She looked up to see the moon and scattered stars casting their light upon the other 'guests', sleeping in their spots. She looked at each inmate, quickly moving on when she caught the eye of a hungry, glaring Bangaa.
She lay her hand on the old wall of the underground dungeon and felt the sand trickle down her wrist and on to the ground. She needed to begin to search for a way out, and felt slightly guilty for walking out on Balthier. She wandered back slowly, but when she reached the room she had woken up in, Balthier was gone. Turning back around, she began again at a slightly quicker pace.
She wandered around the desolate, stony walkways, not really sure what she was looking for. Perhaps food, water...perhaps a way out.
She entered a small, dank room with an overpowering musky scent. Coughing, she turned to back out, but a small door in the center of the wall caught her eye. She walked toward it, limping slightly. She examined the old door. It was splintering and rotten in places, and the doorknob was dented and tarnished. With her good hand, she grasped it firmly, and twisted. Nothing. She tried the other way. Nothing. Finally, she just pulled, and the damned thing came straight off, and Fran followed it right to the ground, a puff of sandy dust rising up and clouding her vision. She heard a low, full cackle and whipped around as fast as her injured body could, startled.
"What do you want?" she uttered in an uncharacteristically weak voice.
"Bwah-ha-haaaah! Oh-ho-hoh, I'm sorry hun, you gave me quite a comedic show there," said the voice, coming from a dark corner. The voice was slow, low, and had a raspy quality to it. Fran crawled forward a bit, squinting into the darkness, and slowly, the form of a large, old Seeq formed in front of her. His bluish skin was dusty, rough, and wrinkled, and the crow's feet near his eyes turned into what seemed an entire tributary system when he laughed his deep laugh. Fran hadn't a clue whether to let herself feel safe or stay on guard.
"Why so scared, hunny?" the Seeq began again in his slow, low tone. "I'm not gonna hurt ya. An old Seeq like me can't even manage to stand up by his'self. But whatrya even doin' down here?" he gave her a smile. "They lock you up down here fer ya good looks?
At this, Fran pulled herself to her feet and started again towards the old door. She wasn't going to sit there and be hit on by an old, criminal Seeq.
"Now, now there!" he cried. "I didn't mean nothin' by it! Don't be offended, hun. Yer not gonna last too long if ya react at every lil' thing."
Fran, still not in the mood for friendly discussion, inspected the hole where the doorknob used to be for some way to open the door.
The Seeq sighed. "Don't bother, hun. Th' door's been shut fer gods know how long. It ain't gonna open. Yer gonna have to find another way out."
Fran met the old Seeq's eyes. "I never said I was attempting to flee."
The Seeq raised an eyebrow that didn't even seem to have the energy to move. "Ya don't see many a folk walkin' down here. They've all given up, an' rightly so. Nobody who can escape stays, an' everybody who can't escape gives up, plops down, and stays. And waits. An' they wait fer an awful long time. Till death takes 'em from their tired bodies."
Fran's ears perked a bit. "But people have escaped successfully?"
The old Seeq chuckled. "A lucky few brats, hunny, a lucky few brats. All do it differently." He paused for a moment, seeming to be deep in thought. As if suddenly remembering her presence, he acknowledged her again. "Ya never did answer old Dham. Why'rya down here anyway? Shouldn't you be up there finding yourself a nice boy or somethin?"
Of all the possible conversation topics! Fran did not feel like speaking to this old Seeq in the least, but she could sense his loneliness, and she felt sympathy for him, being trapped all alone in this small room in this dank dungeon for gods know how many years.
"It is not my top priority," she responded, walking towards him and kneeling next to him to sit on her heels.
"Now there's a smart girl. But now ya can't be all too smart, or ya wouldn'ta landed yerself down here! What'd they throw ya here for?"
Fran considered her answer. She couldn't really say sky pirating, but...
"Sky pirating."
"Bwah-ha-haaaaaah! Oh hunny you've gotta be kiddin' me! Who gotcha inta that mess?"
"...a nice boy."
"Ah, fair enough, darlin'. Fair enough. Now give old Dham a hand, here, would ya? No way I'm standin' up on my lonesome. And I gotta take ya somewhere, so ya might as well help an old fool up."
Refraining from steadying herself with her bad hand, Fran offered the Seeq her good one, planted a heel in the wall, and heaved as the Seeq rose to his feet.
"Thanks hunny. Now walk with me a little."
What else was there to do?
With the moonlight spilling in every now and then, Fran limped slightly and old Dham lumbered awkwardly through the dungeon, speaking of old Dham's old jewelry store he held in Nalbina, that was, of course, until he finally confronted the wrong man of stealing from him now and then and in the blink of an eye he lost the store and ended up in the Nalbina dungeon for gods know how long it has been.
And, eventually, something about the old Seeq's charm got Fran to open up, and for the first time in a while, she found herself speaking of her sisters and her old Home, and her new life outside the wood. And all the while old Dham listened and nodded and threw in his two gil where they were needed. It was a good thing they then arrived at there destination before Fran had to think of a way to avoid the topic of Balthier.
"Now, hunny, this may be you're esca-"
"There you are!"
Fran turned to see Balthier coming towards her, weapons in hand. Dham stepped back a bit, raising an eyebrow at Fran, who avoided the look.
Balthier dropped the weapons with a loud clang that Fran swore could have waken the dead.
"Easy there, boy! You'll wake the guards!" Dham said quickly. Balthier paid him no heed. He instead grasped Fran's hand, kissed it, and held it against his chest with both hands. Looking into her eyes with that same look of shame, he continued.
"I know this is all my fault, and I know I have no right to ask for your forgiveness, so I won't. I will help you out of here and you will never have to see me again. Just please understand that I never meant to hurt you."
Fran thought she heard metallic footsteps in the distance.
Balthier picked up a gun off the ground and holstered it properly, then gave Fran back her bow and quiver.
"I am so sorry."
"Well, boy, yer right on schedule!" Dham interjected.
"Pardon me?"
"Well correct me if I'm wrong (which I often am) but you wanna escape to, do ya not? Well listen. Look at this getup here."
Fran and Balthier observed what appeared to be an old well turned holding cell/torture device that reached up to the ceiling. Rather than a bucket the chain held a cage, and Fran assumed it was meant for submerging the unlucky resident.
"Now they tried to install this a whiles ago but it never functioned properly. Kept goin' haywire and movin' and down and all around and such. So they had to secure it with this."
Dham motioned to a bar shoved through chain links as Fran heard the metallic footsteps clanking nearer.
"Move this thing here the wrong way and one thing goes up, another goes down, and someone's gonna get hurt, you mark my words. Cage shoots straight up inta the ceiling! Wild stuff, wild stuff. But if ya wanna escape, it jus' might work."
The footsteps were so loud that even Dham could hear them now.
"Welp, no time to discuss safety. In ya get there, both of ya."
"Aren't you coming?" Fran asked, her heart speeding up from fear of being caught and her eagerness to escape, but also from worry for her new friend.
"You crazy, hunny? That thing may be crazy but it won't lift me. 'Sides, somebody's gotta let it go."
The footsteps drew nearer. Balthier stepped in the rickety cage.
"There's no time to waste," he said, offering Fran his hand. Fran took it and stepped in.
"Please come with us," she asked. For a stranger, he had shown her a kindness that was rare in the outside world.
Dham laughed. "Bwah-hah, I told you already, hunny. I wish I could but I can't."
And just then, the footsteps rounded the corner.
"Hurry now! Hold on!" Dham shouted as he grasped the bar that was shoved through the chain links.
"Dham! Wait!"
But just then, Dham pulled with all his strength and the bar came right out, releasing the chains, and sending the cage containing Balthier and Fran straight up towards the ceiling, and with a crash, it connected with the stone. Balthier climbed out on the outside of the cage and grasped the top of the ceiling through the area that let the moonlight in.
"We must go back for him!" Fran shouted, worried for her friend.
"That's nonsense, Fran! Grab my hand!"
And with that, Balthier looped Fran over the top and pulled himself up after her. Fran looked again over the edge, and her heart stopped.
"Deciding to be a hero, are we?" snarled a soldier as he cornered Dham. "Helping a friend escape, are we?! Now you'll pay!"
And with that, the soldier raised his gun and slammed it into the back of Dham's head.
And without a word of protest, Dham fell to the dusty ground, lifeless, and Fran's scream echoed throughout the dungeon.
