Chapter Fourteen: The Second Rule of Pirates; they run and they don't look back

A/N: I would just like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed this story. All your interest and kind words are hugely appreciated and I love to hear your thoughts on how this story is going!

Fran watched the surf lap at the beach, rolling inwards almost to where she stood on a sandy bluff before the tide dragged the ocean back again.

Balthier, cured of the worst of his injuries and sober, though he had repeatedly complained in the last few moments of a pounding head, was sat at her feet, examining a seashell with his blunt Hume fingers.

'We should not stay here it is unsafe.'

' Hmm?'

Balthier was barely listening, his attention diverted by the children of some of the hunters from the Camp who were playing tag on the sands.

Fran settled herself down next to him, ' We should make ourselves scarce, it will bode ill for the Hunters Camp if the pirates find us here.'

Balthier blinked at her, once, twice, three times. She watched him focus his thoughts.

' Very well.'

He said with little conviction, turning back to the small hill of wet sand he was mounding like a child building sandcastles.

'You are troubled?'

He looked up and summoned a dull smile, ' Merely hung-over, Fran.'

' Is there a place nearby where we may make repairs to the Strahl?'

Fran watched him curiously, Balthier had created a mote for his lumpy sand mound and pushed small mollusc shells into the mound at strategic places to represent windows.

' We would be better served abandoning the Strahl somewhere in the Tchita Uplands, she is too conspicuous a target.'

The bland indifference in his tone was less affected than usual, it spoke of an apathy that had not seemed a part of his character until now; though Fran acknowledged that she knew him barely at all.

' I had thought the Strahl was part and parcel of your bid for freedom?'

Balthier shrugged, ' I am a practical sort of chap, Fran, possessions can be replaced, lives can't.'

Despite his brisk tone Fran noticed the pained look he granted the Strahl where she sprawled, much as a beached whale, further down the coastline.

Despite herself Fran felt her own hand reach out and brush his shoulder as he sat beside her,

' I was once told by a Hume I deemed wise that men should strive for something greater than mere survival, as to lose that which gives a man his faith is to lose something irredeemable.'

She met Balthier's eyes as she looked down on him, feeling the warmth of his skin under the fine material of his shirt through her hand.

For just a moment she saw something spark deep in his eyes, in the place where the real Balthier resided insulated by, and from, his affectations. Then he laughed.

' Wise words indeed, Fran, alas I fear it's too late for me. I am, for sure, quite a faithless and irredeemable cad.'

His usual bright and brittle good cheer restored, Balthier jumped to his feet and started off towards the stricken Strahl.

Fran followed behind, wondering what had possessed her to speak the words of a man she had once held dear and precious to Balthier, another Hume male.

' There are a number of watery caverns along the Phon Coast, if we secret the Strahl in one, there is good chance she will be safe.'

Balthier called to her as he entered the craft.

Fran clambered aboard after him. Finding him pulling travelling packs from the storage compartments and moving with a controlled, purposeful efficiency.

' You have a plan, Balthier?'

He turned and flashed her a bright smirk,

' I have a myriad of schemes, plans and plots inside my grey matter at any given moment, Fran.'

She quirked an eyebrow at the evasion but did not press, he was clearly working to some plan at the moment, better this than building castles out of sand as their enemies drew close.

Nono, they left in the Hunters encampment, the Moogle had found a small contingent of Moogle travelling merchants on their way to Archades and was busily attempting to persuade them to give up commerce all together.

They powered the Strahl a little way out from the shore line and scouted for one of the caverns Balthier had mentioned.

It took time to find one that was sufficiently secluded, large and wide enough to house the Strahl and far enough inland that the ship wouldn't become completely submerged by water.

'Tis an odd ship for a pirate to use. I wonder what purpose it served for Remus.'

Fran had been wondering about the Strahl since she first laid eyes on the craft.

Beautiful though she was, the Strahl lacked much armament, her cannons rusted from disuse; she had not the durability of other airships and was rather too small to hold much crew or loot.

' It was his love gift to Ruthy, retrieved when she betrayed him and used only for such times when a larger, more battle ready vessel would be a liability and not an advantage.'

Balthier slid his hand, lovingly, over the paint work in farewell and benediction, before they made ready to obscure the cave entrance and depart.

Fran studied Balthier,' Odd that you should be so attached to the vessel.'

Balthier chuckled, ' Ah, but Fran, is she not the finest craft you ever saw?'

' She is fine workmanship.'

Fran had grown used to his evasions when it came to anything even close to a personal question.

She had started to speculate that his unwillingness to answer was less to do with inherent secretiveness and more like that he simply made too many, quick, snap decisions without much forethought or reflection.

'Plus, I have always thought that a sky pirate who depends on force of arms alone is not worthy of the name. Give me a ship with speed, style and class any day.'

' Yet you choose to hide such a ship away in a cave?'

Fran pointed out dryly.

She was learning much about this Hume she was now attached to, yet still found it necessary to pepper him with questions.

There was method to his madness she was certain, she simply failed to fathom it.

Balthier studied her, ' Tis but a temporary measure. A matter of prudence, we are being hounded by the pirates of sea and sky, therefore prudence and common sense dictate we travel by land and on foot to avoid our pursuers.'

Fran shifted her weight from left to right foot, impatiently.

' What is our destination?'

Balthier shrugged, grinning, ' Anywhere but here.'

'Archades? It is the nearest populated area and pirates are not looked upon well there, we would be safe enough.'

Balthier's unguarded expression was a complicated twist of pain, fear and something almost wistful before he visibly regained control of his feelings.

'Very well, what I should have said was anywhere but here and Archades. I plan never to return there, save in a silk lined cedar casket.'

' Then you would have us run blind without a destination or a ship and hope to avoid capture?'

Again she was answered by that all encompassing smirk that, had she not been Fran with the patience and collectedness of the Viera, she would find more than a trifle irritating.

' I am, after all, a sky pirate, Fran. It's what we do; we run and we fly.'