Chapter Thirteen

We set out the next morning after a good breakfast of those filling flannel cakes and more fine tea and coffee. Vincent and Yuffie were also kind enough to give us some extra supplies and there was a gleam in mother's eyes that had me feeling that she'd managed to wrangle the recipe for those lovely flannel cakes out of Vincent.

We also said our goodbyes to the bear cubs. There were some sad moments then, even for father who'd come to like the bear cubs pretty decently, even if he hadn't been too fond of them at the start, at least not nearly as much as mother and Lightning. Mother actually cried a little when she was handing them over, but it soothed her plenty to see Yuffie take such a liking to them. As for Lightning, her cub hung on tight for near on fifteen minutes and it looked and sounded something pitiful when it realised that no matter how it tried, there was no way it would be coming with us. For her part, Lightning didn't show too much emotion, at least on her face, but her eyes lingered on the cub and her hands were slow and gentle as they smoothed through the cub's fur for the last time. The little thing only cheered up when Vincent bent down to pick it up and cradle it awkwardly in his arms. It was a funny sight, all right, seeing that tall man holding that little cub, but there was something fitting about Lightning's cub taking a liking to him.

The whole time though, I was afraid that Vincent might have told Lightning that he'd seen me listening in on them. But he didn't say anything about it and Lightning seemed normal enough, so I figured he must have kept it to himself. I had no idea why he'd done that, but I was mighty grateful just the same. Just before we set off, Vincent and Lightning spoke again, off to the side and by themselves, and I had a feeling that they were probably talking about the same things they talked about last night.

"I'm glad Lightning came up this way."

I turned and there was Yuffie standing just behind me, her grey eyes kind of misty as she watched Lightning and Vincent, although I wasn't game to point that out.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Kid, there are some burdens that people are meant to bear alone, but there are others that are better off shared." Yuffie was all serious now, and it was strange, and maybe even a little frightening to hear her like that. "People like Vincent and Lightning are strong, real strong, and so most times they like to just bear all their burdens alone, but sometimes it doesn't matter how strong you are. Some burdens are too big for anyone."

That I could understand. "Is that why you're helping Vincent?"

She grinned. "You're pretty sharp, kid. Fact is, I'm the only one who can put up with Vinnie for long spells." Then her expression turned serious again. "But you and your folks are doing just fine by Lightning. She won't show she's glad for it, and she definitely won't say it, but I think you are helping her."

"But how?" I wondered out loud. "We're not doing anything. She's the one leading us around."

"Maybe, but you've trusted her enough to let her lead you and kid, that's not nothing." Yuffie's eyes were a little sad, even though she was smiling again. "Trust is a funny thing. It doesn't really mean much until you lose it and once you do lose it, it's all sorts of hard to get back. That's why you and your folks giving her a chance means so much to her, even if it doesn't look like much to you."

"I guess." I couldn't say that I rightly understood just what Yuffie meant, but I could tell that it was real important.

Yuffie laughed and ruffled my hair. "I guess you're still a kid after all." She pushed me toward my folks. "Now get going there and look after everyone. I have a feeling you'll be a decent man someday."

And just like that we were back on the trail, heading deeper into the mountains.

The next few days, I spent most of my time puzzling over what Yuffie had said, but I still couldn't get things to fit just right in my mind. But whatever Lighting and Vincent had talked about just before we left, it must sure have been something, because a real change came over Lightning. When mother cried again about the cubs not being around, Lightning didn't make fun of her, but rather than just sitting by, she actually chatted with mother a little. It was plain to see that the chatting didn't come easy, but Lightning did try, bringing up some of the funny doings that the cubs had gotten up to, like the time one of them tried to pick a fight with father's hat.

It was odd to see mother cry, to be honest, because even when things got rough, she never cried or even really complained. But she had a soft spot for animals, especially one's she'd taken in. That was probably why father didn't want us to have pets. Pets didn't usually do too good out West and if we got some and they died, mother would be distraught. And neither father nor I could stand to see mother cry.

Lightning also made an effort with father and me, as well. She was more involved in teaching me to handle a gun now, and rather than just showing me what to do, she also explained a fair bit of the details about why things ought to be done this way or that. She even gave me a few stories about other people she'd seen doing things wrong and what had happened to them. I came to really love those moments when with just a few words, she'd paint a scene for me, her voice quiet and clipped, but each word chosen just right. She could have been a storyteller, I thought, except she seemed more the type to feature in stories rather than just tell them.

Lightning also talked with father about the land he had. Turns out, she'd been thereabouts before, even knew a couple of the neighbours that we were likely to have, although neighbours was an odd way to put things when the nearest one was about half a day's ride from our place out West.

And so a week rolled by. Lightning was definitely warmer to us now, although by almost any other person's standards she'd still be judged fair aloof and pretty stand-offish. All the same though, we'd gotten used to her enough to know the difference and we were grateful for it. At the same time, the inner steel inside her was ever present, that lethal force and power always ready to meet any threat. Once a bear came up on us, but Lightning was there to meet it with sabre and pistol. When it was all over and the bear was dead, she looked it over carefully, and I could have sworn she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that it was male. From what she'd told me, I figured it was because females usually raised the cubs, and while we'd left behind the cubs, we hadn't left behind our memories of them.

At the end of the week, we came up to Icicle Mountain. It was easy to see where the mountain got its name from. It was like a huge icicle stabbing right up into the guts of the sky and it was easily the biggest mountain that I'd ever seen. Its sides were all jagged and sharp, and almost all of it was covered with ice and snow. The only smooth parts were the places where great rivers of icy water had carved deep gouges into the granite-hard rock. Just looking at it made me feel a little ill and I was glad that we were only going to be going around it rather than over it.

"That's the path around the mountain," Lightning said when we stopped for a bit of a breather. The path wasn't too narrow, but that wasn't the problem.

"There are a some rivers cutting across it," father said and his face was pale as he said it. "Do you think we can make it across?"

Lightning's look was grim. "That's true, Bart, but the path isn't flooded out, at least. Those rivers might look bad, but they shouldn't be too deep. So long as we don't try anything fancy, we should be able to make it across."

We made pretty quick time along the path until we hit the first river. We stopped just in front of it and I think my stomach did flip flops just looking at the rushing water. It didn't help either that the wind was cold and fierce and that the combination of the wind and water set up a spray of icy mist that chilled me deeper than the bone. Lightning went up to the river and looked it over, gauging its depth and its speed. Finally, she came back to us and told us how we'd make it across.

She was the first one to go across on Velo and even with all her skill and toughness, it was pretty clear that the river wouldn't just let her across, she'd have to fight it every step of the way. The water came right up to Velo's flanks and when the speed of its flow brought it up against the chocobo, it splashed up onto her and only her iron will could have kept her from shivering, because that water had to have been close to freezing. She did this with a rope trailing behind her, tied to a rock on our side of the river, and when she reached the other side, she tied the other end of the rope to another rock. The purpose of the rope was to keep us from being swept off the side of the mountain if the river got us, and each of us had a loop of rope tied around it.

When it came time for us to cross, rather than ride on Goldie or Brownie, I rode up alongside mother on the wagon. That first crossing was something I'll never forget. The water pounded against the wagon and it was only the wagon's great weight that kept it steady as the chocobos, terrified, but loyal, plodded forward across the current. Each splash of water that curled up and splashed us had me clutching at mother like a little boy and from the look on father's face as he crossed, I could tell that he was as shaken up as me. After we made it across, we rested up a while and then moved onto the next river, repeating the whole thing.

The rivers were all pretty close together and Lightning said that it would be best to get through all in one day, rather than try to do things over two days. I agreed with her, even though mother thought some sleep might help. The problem was, the ice and snow above us didn't look too stable and I had a feeling they might give way at any moment. Nor did I think that we'd actually get much sleep, not if we knew we had more of those rivers to cross the next day.

Still, each crossing took its toll on all of us, and especially Lightning, who always took the worst of it. After the third, she was sagging a little in the saddle and shivering a bit, but never once did she complain. Instead, she pressed on grimly, her eyes blue steel as she dragged the rest of us along through sheer force of will. It was on the fourth, and final crossing that things went wrong.

We were about halfway across when there was a huge crash. For a moment, I could only look at the sky in bewilderment, for it sounded just like a great, pealing clap of thunder. Only there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it wasn't thunder. It was the sound of the bank of ice and snow above us giving way. I stared up in horror as it rushed down, the ice and snow mixing with the water until it was a wave of white death rumbling down toward us.

It hit and suddenly the whole world was whiteness and cold and pain. A piece of ice gashed me across the forehead and I cried out, only to half-drown as water rushed into my open mouth. Blindly, I turned away and looked for something, anything to hold on to as the thunder of the avalanche swallowed me whole. Somehow, I managed to catch a hold on the frame of the wagon as the whole of the wagon lurched to one side and then stopped, caught on the rope that Lightning had tied between the two sides of the river. Then there was a snap as the rope broke and the wagon began to lose ground. Through the haze of ice and snow and water, I realised that mother was gone.

"Mother!" I screamed, clawing the whiteness out of my way only to find that father was screaming for her too. Desperately, I looked around for something, anything that could tell me where she was, but there was nothing. Finally, I caught a flash of colour amidst all the ice and snow and water. It was mother and she was being pushed toward the edge of the mountain, to where the river plummeted for hundreds of feet to the next set of water-cut canyons.

Father moved to go after her, but he could hardly move, hardly even breathe really, and I wasn't much better.

"Don't, Bart!" Lightning yelled, voice powerful over the roar of the river. Father shot her a furious look and I saw him struggle even harder, but then I saw him stop and stare as a sudden change swept over Lightning.

The weariness that had been beaten into her by hours of pounding water and freezing wind seemed to melt away as she dug deep into the inexhaustible store of will that defined her. As always it answered and I could almost see the great, pulsing waves of power surge through her as her iron discipline and steely resolve forced her limbs to move again, her eyes to regain their lethal alertness and her wits to clear.

She looked first at father and me and then at mother to gauge the distance. There was still some rope not far from her, and she gathered it up quickly and tossed it in my direction. It took me a moment to understand why she'd thrown it to me and not to father. Simply put, there wasn't enough rope to reach him and still get to mother. It would have to be me. As quickly as I could, I started to get the rope tied around the frame of the wagon and though my fingers were almost frozen off, I forced them to obey. After all, it was mother and Lightning out there and I'd be dead and buried before I let them down in a fix like this.

With a final look at me, Lightning leapt into the maelstrom of ice and water. She was knocked about from side to side, from block of ice to block of ice, but somehow she managed to angle herself toward mother and just before the flow would have swept mother off the side of the mountain, Lightning got to her. The rope jerked taut as Lightning wrapped her arms around mother and the two of them hung there, just a few feet from a fall fit to kill anyone.

Most of the ice was gone now, but there were still some big chunks of it rushing through with the water. There was no way to dodge them, so Lightning turned so that she was in front of mother to take the worst of it. It was a terrible thing to watch. For almost ten minutes, Lightning took a beating as blocks of ice smashed into her and the freezing water rushed by. Finally, the river was almost back to normal and I gathered all the strength I had to pull the rope as Lightning staggered forward against the current back to the wagon. My hands were bleeding pretty fiercely by the end of it, but I didn't care so long as they were safe. When they got to the wagon, Lightning pushed mother up and then crawled up beside her.

"Go," Lightning croaked. "We still need to get across." And then more faintly, "You did good, Hope."

When we got across the river, father rushed over to us and pulled mother into a tight embrace. She was shivering awfully and it was clear we needed to get her out of her wet clothes and into something warm and dry. That went for all of us, actually, but for mother and Lightning most of all.

"Are you all right, Nora?" Lightning asked as she hopped off the wagon and staggered over to Velo to check that he was fine. She managed to reach the chocobo, but it was clear, as she leaned against him, that she wasn't really standing on her own strength anymore.

Mother just sort of gaped at Lightning. "I… I think so." Her teeth chattered and she groaned in pain as father looked her over for injuries, but really, she only had eyes for Lightning. "But, Lightning, what about you?"

Lightning turned from Vello and sort of swayed, but her jaw was set and she caught herself. "I'll be fine." But as she took a step forward, I saw the light, the brilliant blue fire that meant defiance to the very last, dim from her eyes and then she was falling. It was I who caught her just before she hit the ground.

X X X

Author's Notes

As always, I neither own Final Fantasy, nor am I making any money off this.

This chapter was one that I quite enjoyed writing. To be honest, I don't have many comments about this chapter other than that. Perhaps, you might consider the change in Lightning trite, but I think meeting Vincent and Yuffie was pivotal to that, and more than that, her warming up to the Estheims has been something that's been going on for the start. Quite often, it's easy to miss all the little changes until they add up to something big.

As always, I appreciate feedback. Reviews and comments are welcome.