Chapter 4:

A/N

Okay,so the beginning of this chapter is pretty slow. Sorry about that. Kaji is finally reflecting on the stuff that has happened to him in the last few days. It picks up though, and gets pretty hectic. I just hope you all enjoy!

Kaji woke in the night after the unease of being watched roused him. Why he felt like he was being watched, he couldn't be sure. The moon was a little over half full and offered enough light to see by, and there was nobody in sight beyond the border of the camp. Try as he might, Kaji was unable to dismiss the feeling long enough to make it back to sleep.

He spent the remaining hours of the night watching the moon's progress across the sky and thinking about the sudden turn his life had taken. He hated the fact that he would need to leave his home. The very thought made his eyes water, leading him to furiously blink them away. He wouldn't cry, not over this. Kaji liked his home, but so did Rattan, and Rattan had given it all up for his best friend. How could Kaji not do the same after such an example had been set.

Another thing that kept coming to his mind was guilt over Rattan's actions. Kaji had not asked his friend to do everything that he had done, but the fact that Rattan had done them for his sake was no less difficult to deal with. Kaji's only hope for atonement was to set things straight and clear Rattan's name. He thought several plans over, but scrapped each one in turn until he finally chose the most simple of the batch.

I'll write a letter. Only, he would need a scribe, and anybody in the village would raise the alarm the moment he asked them to.

His eyes strayed to Arisa's sleeping form. She had said that she would run away from the village if Rattan had been left to die... but would she help clear Rattan's name while letting the real criminal go free? After everything that had passed through his mouth yesterday – all of the lies that had come so easily to his lips – Kaji had his doubts.

He would rather be caught by Arisa than anybody else, though. At least she would listen to him, and maybe even believe him too. Kaji sighed inwardly. Was that why Rattan had done everything he had? If so, Kaji hated the fact that he would go free after soiling his best friend's name, even if his best friend had thrown the dirt on himself.

Those thoughts had cycled through his head at least ten times before the first colours of daybreak began to fill the sky, and by then Kaji felt horrible. It wouldn't be long though. He would leave tomorrow night while finding some way to clear Rattan's name. That affirmation made him feel at least slightly better, well enough to rise and face the task of helping with breakfast.

There was little variety in the meals that his tribe ate. The ostrich was their main source of food – less pungent and more flavorful than chocobo – and almost every meal consisted of something to do with the animal. The meal on this morning consisted of strips of ostrich meat, ostrich eggs and hardtack. Cooking wasn't something that Kaji did with particular relish, but it was something to keep him busy and far away from the thoughts that had plagued him at night.

Arisa was awake by the time Kaji returned with two plates. Hers was modest while his was meager; his stomach still felt full after the previous night's meal.

Kaji handed Arisa her plate and took a spot beside her. She looked at him for a moment before stating, "You look like you were run over by the herd. Did you get ANY sleep last night?"

Did he really look that bad? "I... I don't really know. I woke up last night and couldn't get back to sleep." The moon was high when he woke, so he didn't get that much sleep at all.

"What kept you awake?" Arisa asked around a mouthful of food.

Telling her about the guilt would be as good as confessing, and mentioning the other feeling felt like a bad idea, so he lied. "That dream again. It woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep." The lies were coming so easily now. He justified them by telling himself that they were for his own protection; that without those lies he would be left for the lions.

"There's something about that dream, Kaji – something that just doesn't feel right about it. I mean, why would you have the same dream over and over again if it didn't mean something?"

"I'm beginning to feel the same way, Arisa," Kaji spoke in a haunted tone. He hadn't given much thought to any real meaning behind the dreams, but the more Arisa said that they meant something, the more Kaji was beginning to believe it. "What do you think it means?"

"I don't know. That's usually not how this sort of thing works. Normally it's the person who has the dreams that is supposed to pick out the meanings locked in their dreams." She smiled at him, "I would help you if I could, but I don't know the way your mind works." She winked, "I don't think anybody could understand it." She took another mouthful of food, then asked: "What do you think it means?"