-- Yuffie --
I sat down next to the pile of firewood and placed it carefully together into the shape of a pyramid. Strange way to arrange a fire, but it's the way I was taught as a child in Wutai.
I pulled a box of matches out of my backpack and lit one carefully and placed it at the bottom of the pile, causing it all to set alight slowly. The most annoying thing is that I put far too much firewood down than I was meant to… The fire came too quickly and rushed into a bigger cloud of smoke than I intended.
"Having a little trouble there?" I heard someone say from by the waterfall. I jumped up quickly and spun round.
"Oh, Melanie… It's you." I smiled. Melanie was sat on a rock next to the waterfall, swinging her legs back and forth.
"There's a bucket over by that big oak tree… Maybe you can use it to put out some of the fire?" She suggested tilting her head to one side. I nodded and walked over to a tall standing oak tree and looked behind to find a spade, bucket, rope and some other survival tools. I took the bucket and filled it with water from the waterfall.
"I and Alfie used to come out here all the time… Alfie, hes my brother, always used to take stuff from home like buckets, food, blankets, lots of stuff. But that's when there was a war… Our land was really marshy and disgusting, so I kept sinking in. Eventually, we just stayed here and prayed that we wouldn't get hit by bomber planes. And we were never hit… just safe. You see those trees up there?" Melanie pointed up to surrounding weeping willows. I stopped tipping water over the fire and looked up at the space where trees didn't cover the sky.
"The weeping willows somehow cover each other as if hugging or something like that…When it turns dark and every star is visible in the sky, they shelter here making sure no-one can get in or out. So, were safe here." She smiled.
I looked down from the evening sky and gazed back at the young girl. She obviously loved being here when she was alive.
"Hey Melanie… If you don't mind me asking, what did happen to Alfie?" I asked.
Melanie looked over to me, I could see in her eyes she felt hurt by me asking. She just looked away and sighed.
"Not every star was in the sky…" She said simply looking over at me, my eyes locking with hers. "Alfie walked back home to see if he could get some dinner or something. Our parents… They had already been evacuated. And Alfie didn't realise, but the planes had come overhead. They destroyed our home… Before then, it was only a small house. But it was the day before the war ended. That's when the oak trees changed to weeping willows as if they were weeping for Alfie." I watched her carefully as she stared up at the sky. "Anyway, I'm going to go now." She said simply before walking toward the parting in the trees. "Night Yuffie."
"Good-night Melanie… Sweet dreams. Oh and, Melanie?" I quickly said before she disappeared. Melanie turned to face me and stared.
"My mother taught me that every time someone close to you passes away, they go up to heaven and have their own special star… Whichever one shines brightest to you, that's Alfie. Looking down and watching over you." I smiled. Melanie just grinned happily and disappeared.
I resumed warming up by the fire and led down on the grass. I watched up at the sky, wondering what everyone was doing. If they were happy, if they were sad, if they even missed me… I didn't understand why I didn't really care whether they did or didn't. Its was as if a part of me had changed and just wasn't normal. I wasn't guilty for it though… I just, couldn't care less. And even I knew it wasn't normal.