Wyrmglow

by Evelos

A snap of teeth, the flow of blood, beware the warmth of autumn's glow. A hunter rides to face the wyrm, the scourge of lands, a beast of legend, the change of seasons be damned. Within the blinding snow, by teeth and claws of rime and hoarfrost... The dragon, she awaits.

25. Thundersong

The rain pattered on outside the house, drumming along down the wooden thatches of the roof.

"And then, once I got into the middle of the thing-"

Lightning saw the shadows of the crackling fire, and she watched them flicker along the walls. She listened to those strange, yet friendly voices that passed back and forth, trying to see if she could catch any familiar words.

"It was... Like as soon as the air hit her skin, she just woke up." Fang leaned forward from where she was sitting upon a tall wooden chair, busily slicing up a pile of green onion stalks against the counter. "She just woke up, from solid crystal."

Fang's father was sitting down as well, cutting up what looked like a large yellow pepper. "Solid... Crystal."

Fang nodded. "I know how crazy it sounds." She glanced over at Lightning, who seemed to be quite busy with watching how the rain trickled down across the windowpanes. "But after the weekend, I'll get her over to see the seers, try to figure this out."

Fang's father just kept cutting up the yellow pepper, and a long silence filled the room.

"She doesn't talk much." Fang went back to dicing up the long green onion stalks. "And the only word we have in common, it's her own name... At least as far as I know."

Lightning slowly looked back at Fang. She was also sitting upon one of the tall kitchen chairs, just as silent as a ghost.

"Unless there's other words we haven't found yet." Fang pushed a pile of the chopped onion stalks off to the side, before she reached for a big fresh pepper, one that held a bright red hue. "She seems friendly enough, though... At least now that the shock's worn off."

From the corner of his gaze, Fang's father carefully eyed the strange weapon at Lightning's belt, but he said nothing to indicate that he would rather it be away from the kitchen table.

"And she drew a picture in the dirt, it almost looked like a house." Fang glanced down at her own reflection on the edge of the cutting knife, before she began to slice up the red pepper. "Then she just kept pointing at the sky."

A long, solid silence filled the room, only punctuated by the sound of sharp knives and rhythmic chopping.

"So... Is it alright with you if she stays in one of the spare rooms?" Fang looked up at her father again. "Just until I figure out how to get her back home."

"She doesn't seem destructive." Her father kept his gaze upon his work. "But we also don't seem to know if it will stay that way."

"Yeah, but, Dad, if-" Fang shot Lightning an almost apologetic glance. "She's not a wild animal, okay? She's... Listen, even if she's not really human, she's still a person."

"Looks can be deceiving." Her father picked up the pile of chopped onion stalks, carrying them over towards the bright heat of the wood-fire stove. "But we can at least give her the benefit of the doubt."

Fang glanced away for a moment.

"Would you mind starting on the rest of this?" Her father gently stirred at a big pot of rice. "There's a beef flank still in the basket."

Fang nodded. "Yeah, just a moment." She started to cut up the rest of red pepper, before she pushed the sliced pieces over to pile up with the rest of them. "So... Did anything happen while I was out today?"

"Nothing unusual." Fang's father soon held up a cast-iron lid to cover the pot of rice. "There was a bit of a scuffle, though..."

Fang's eyebrows quirked at the sound of that. "Really?" She stood up to retrieve a rather flat package from the basket, one that was wrapped in thick parchment paper. "What sort of scuffle?"

Her father just stood there for a while, likely lost in thought. "Well, a rancher's prize horse apparently broke loose, then it ate a rather large amount of another man's crops... Needless to say, neither of them were very pleased."

Fang unwrapped the package to reveal the slightly marbled surface of the flank steak. "Must've been a fence we didn't see today..." She glanced over at Lightning. "I showed Light a few of the horse paddocks, some of the goats."

Lightning glanced up at the sound of familiar words.

"That's it..." Fang began to cut up the beef flank. "See, she's learning this real quick."

After a moment of silence, Lightning leaned back slightly, resting her right arm against the countertop.

"See this, Light?" Fang pointed at the flat piece of beef. "Meat."

Lightning tilted her head to examine it.

"And this sort of meat, it's perfect for stir-fry." Fang kept slicing off long strips of the flank, rather skillful with the end of a knife. "Dad's favorite, isn't it?"

Fang's father started to cut up a large white onion bulb right beside the stove. "I suppose so."

Preparing the beef strips turned out to be rather quick work, and it wasn't very long before both Fang and her father were able to start cooking them within a well-oiled pan, along with the chopped white onion slices.

Lightning examined the process just as closely as she could, but whenever Fang paused to look back and speak to her, she tried her best to look a bit more disinterested, yet still polite.

Next came both hues of the bright pepper slices, which were left to cook alongside the meat until they were almost soft, and then the small green onion stalks sizzled down beside all the rest of the colorful food. Fang's father reached up into the cupboards for a few small bottles of strange spices, though the bottle of salt was the only thing that Lightning could recognize. It was soon sprinkled down over the rest of the food, before a thick, dark sauce hissed right out into the mixture, changing the whole scent of the room.

Lightning listened to the brief conversations between her newfound friend and the very quiet man, and after a moment or two, she began to remember a certain something, the people who weren't quite as strange, the people who didn't have round ears or live on the ground. The people who looked like her, lived like her, spoke her native language so fluently... She watched as the warm, pale steam rose up over the stove, utterly lost in both thought and memory, at least up until a wide dish was suddenly set down in front of her.

"Watch the heat..." Fang's father pointed down at the stir-fry, gesturing at the wide plumes of steam. "Does she understand not to burn herself?"

Lightning didn't move towards the food, though, and she merely nodded in thanks to the host of such a strange wooden house, one that stood so very firm against the hammering rain.

Fang tried not to roll her eyes, carrying her own dish back towards the counter. "She's not a kid, dad... She can tell when it's too hot."

Fang's father set his own plate down as well, and he pulled up one of the tall chairs. "I seem to remember a certain someone always being far too eager at dinnertime..."

Fang nearly scoffed. "I could handle it-"

And then, a very small smile, one that she hadn't seen for far longer than she could remember.

Her father poked the end of a fork against his plate. "You're very lucky your poor tongue still even works."

Fang stared at that sudden look, at the quiet glimmer in his gentle eyes, but it so quickly slipped away, vanishing within only a mere second or two, before her father, he was utterly back to business again. It tugged so sharply at her heart, weighing down to what felt like the lowest hollow of her stomach, so much that the food on her plate didn't seem so appetizing anymore.

Lightning glanced between the pair of them, from Fang to the quiet man, the one who looked like he was definitely related to Fang by blood. What could have happened there, just a moment before? The man had been smiling, and Fang looked almost shocked, but as the moments passed by, she was just staring down at the wooden counter again, drained of something quite crucial.

Slowly, Fang picked up the fork beside her plate. "Yeah." After a moment or two, her eyes flickered over to look at Lightning. "See, you just blow on it to make it cool." She held up a bit of cooked beef with the tines of the fork. "Like this."

Lightning watched that sudden, silent breath, the way the steam swiftly fluttered away, before she glanced over at the man who was silently eating a bite of his rice, as if he had no other thoughts in the world.

---

The rain grew even louder as the night drew on, and by the time each of their plates were clear, those sudden, bright flashes from the windowpanes shone even faster than before.

Fang leaned against the sink, cleaning off one of the dishes with a thick, soapy rag. "You'll be out tomorrow, right?"

"Yes." Her father was scrubbing down part of the countertop, the wide, flat stone that had been built into the wood for food preparation purposes. "Until the afternoon, maybe longer."

Fang turned to look at where Lightning was standing beside her, holding one of the plates in her hands. "Here, I'll get it-" But when Fang tried to take the dish away, Lightning's fingers only tightened against it. "Hey, Light..?"

Lightning quickly stepped forward to copy what Fang had done with the dishrag, soaping it all up and moving her plate beneath the water faucet.

Fang glanced over her shoulder. "See, dad? She's already house-trained."

Fang's father looked up from the counter. "What happened to her not being a 'wild animal'?"

After a slight pause, Fang cleared her throat, before her eyes darted back to peer at Lightning's ears. "Yeah... About that-"

It took far longer than she thought, just to make it sound convincing, even to herself; a lost, foreign shapeshifter, fallen from the sky, locked within a solid crystal, like a page torn right out from a storybook and given a life of its own.

Fang's father didn't speak for a very long while, still silently cleaning the counters, and it was only when Lightning was finished with washing her own plate, only then did he address her directly. "My daughter isn't one to make up tall-tales or fables... If you really are what she claims, then the same rules apply to you as they do for any other guest." His gaze slid back over to look at Fang. "You said you were planning on having her see the seers?"

Fang nodded.

"I'll have a word tomorrow with your uncle." Fang's father leaned back, lifting the cloth away from the countertop. "If she's injured and... So different, then there's really no point in parading her out through so many people."

Fang smiled when Lightning handed over a clean plate. "A house visit?"

"You know how some folks can be." Fang's father tried not to sigh, and he carried the damp cleaning rag over towards the sink. "Nice folks, of course... But they can be very set in their ways." He squeezed out the cloth, washing it down with warm water from the metal tap, which was a convenience afforded only to those who could maintain an underground boiler. He soon stepped away to dry his hands on a different cloth. "An ill omen from the spirits, they might claim."

Fang narrowed her eyes a bit. "Sure, the spirits."

"Their words, Fang..." Her father reached out to ruffle Fang's hair, earning him only a slightest hint of a scowl. "I've seen stranger things branded as heresy." He glanced over at Lightning, at the distant look in her eyes. "Try and find a way to explain it to her."

Lightning glanced up when she felt a gaze hone in on herself, and she almost flinched when Fang's father gently patted the top of her head as well, even if it was merely a welcoming gesture. Those wounds were just too fresh, even if they'd been inflicted before she'd gone into stasis, before those many, many years; any touch brought back the visions of such sharp talons, of people scorned, ripping down into her skin even when she brought out her own claws to fight back.

"Alright." Fang rolled her eyes when her father basically disappeared somewhere into the hallway, utterly reclusive yet again. "Now... Let's get that blood out of your hair, shall we?"

Lightning tried not to flinch when Fang reached up to touch those soft pink spikes of hair, the part that draped down near the edge of her face.

"It's alright." Fang kept her hand where it was, well within Lightning's range of vision. "I'm not going to hurt you, you hear me?"

Lightning stared up at Fang's fingertips.

"Blood." Fang tapped at the dark, dried bits of fluid. "Not a good idea to leave it on there..."

And Lightning soon found herself swept away to yet another part of the house, past the front room where Bahamut was fast asleep on his perch, through the thin halls that echoed with the sound of rain, even the occasional crack of thunder.

Fang glanced at the sudden flash of brightness on the walls, but she just kept walking further. "It'll rinse right off."

Lightning suddenly realized that Fang was holding one of her hands, guiding her on through the hallway.

"Here." Gently, Fang kicked a nearby door open with her foot, before she led Lightning inside to point at a very small bench. "Just wait a minute."

Lightning took a slow step forward, looking around at all of the shelves with such strange concoctions inside, though the room itself had an entirely pleasant scent. She could smell both wildflowers and herbs, a deep, earthy tone, and even the stray aroma of honey lingered off in the background. She took another careful step, walking towards where Fang had told her to go, before she sat down as quietly as she could.

Fang was using one of those primitive faucets again, just long, metal tubes that were likely connected to a pressurized water source, almost definitely without magical aid.

Lightning glanced down at her own two feet. There she was, invited right into a stranger's home, given food and shelter from the rain, and all she could think about was how simple their technology was..? She silently scolded herself, scowling ever so slightly.

Fang just kept rummaging through one of the cabinets, perhaps in search of medicinal aid.

Lightning took a moment to gaze at all of the bandages on her arms, before she squeezed her eyes shut. The memories kept slipping away from her mind like raindrops on the glass, but she still recalled that sudden pain, the droplets of blood that slowly floated out into the non-gravity air, round and perfect and so utterly terrible all at once. She wouldn't even shed a tear for them, no, there was simply too much pride left for that, swelling right up in her veins wherever they might be lacking.

"Here, in case it hurts." Fang pointed at the bandages on Lightning's arms, and then at a tiny bundle of herbs from her own palm, all wrapped up in what looked like edible material. "Medicine."

Lightning's feathered ears drooped slightly, but she soon accepted the offered gift, waiting for Fang to tell her what to do with it.

"Eat." Fang gestured at her own mouth and made a chewing motion. "Won't taste too great, but it'll dull the pain."

Lightning did as Fang asked, placing it against her tongue, for it surely wasn't dangerous; if these people truly intended to harm her, they already would have poisoned her meal when she wasn't looking... When had her thoughts grown so morbid? When had she forgotten how to trust? Lightning silently scolded herself again, before she swallowed the little packet of herbs in a single attempt.

"Huh." Fang tried not to frown in sympathy when Lightning nearly gagged, choking upon the utterly bitter aftertaste. "That's what this is for."

Lightning almost refused the next object, but when she caught wind of that sweet honey scent, she slowly reached out to examine it.

Fang pointed at her own mouth again. "Eat."

It was a tiny bar, almost like the strange little treat they'd eaten earlier; it was pale and square, and coated in a waxy, dried layer of honey. Slowly, Lightning bit down on the corner of it, and she realized that it wasn't nearly as unpalatable as it might look, for the texture wasn't really like beeswax, not at all. No, it was more like a hard jelly candy with crumbly bread inside, sweet and tasty all at the same time.

"Good, huh?" Fang picked out her own share of the treat from a small wooden box, before she stowed it back inside the cupboard. "Back when I was a kid, whenever I'd get a cold or something, have to take such awful medicine... Mom always kept these up here so I wouldn't just try to hide under the bed." She took a bite of her own honey treat, and she sat down upon the edge of a large wooden bathtub, one that also had metal plumbing as well. "It's the little things, you know?"

Lightning finished the snack rather quickly, before she slightly dipped her head down in what Fang could only assume was a show of thanks.

"No problem." Fang munched at her own honey snack. "Now, your hair..."

After a moment or two, Lightning found herself getting dabbed at with a warm square of cloth, dampened by water from the sink.

"Hey, don't give me that look..." Fang tapped at the edge of one of Lightning's feathery ears. "I'm supposed to be a good host, right? And a good host would make sure you're well taken care of, at least until we figure out where you're going." She chuckled when that very same ear flicked back and forth. "Cute little bugger, aren't you?"

Lightning just sat there with a bit of a scowl on her face, barely tolerating the way Fang tried to clean out every last bit of blood from her hair, even if it involved scrubbing down near the part of her head right next to the cut.

"Right... There we go." Fang soon held up the cloth to wash the blood away, rinsing it down into the sink. "Getting pretty late, isn't it?"

After a moment of silence, Lightning yawned.

"Might be good for you to get some early sleep, get some of that strength back." Fang frowned at the memory of just how hard Lightning had been panting before, so exhausted beneath the heat of the sun. "Is it weird to care this much about a stranger? I just saw how bad you got scuffed up, there, how angry you looked when I got you out of that crystal..." She squeezed the cloth out, before she hung it back up against a rack on the wall. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that."

Lightning's gaze flicked up when she caught the quiet sound in Fang's tone.

Fang stared at the round mirror on the wall, bracing her hands upon the stone surface of the sink. "I, uh... I don't have a whole lot of friends these days, except for Vanille." She glanced down at where Lightning was sitting, before she looked back at that slim reflection in the edge of the mirror, suddenly so different than before. "...You think we could maybe try to be friends?"

Talons suddenly clicked against the tile floor, so quiet against the patterned stone.

"Hell, I'm better with birds than with humans, aren't I?" Fang turned around to kneel beside the counter, and when she slowly sank down against the floor, rather exhausted from the whole day's ordeal as well, she suddenly felt a soft, light warmth moving upon her lap.

Lightning tucked her head down beside one of her wings, all curled up on herself.

Fang's mouth twitched into a tiny smile. "Sleepy, huh?" She didn't reach to touch Lightning's ears, not even when the massive falcon looked back up at her with a gentle sort of gaze, staring at the one who'd sheltered her from the storm. "We should get you to one of the spare beds."

Lightning just examined the look on Fang's face, before she lowered her feathery head to nudge at Fang's nearest hand, letting her long, fluffy ears brush against the curve of her palm.

"Not gonna flinch anymore?" Fang finally stroked at those soft white feathers, though she didn't push far enough to move beneath them. "Who hurt you, Light..?"

Lightning didn't make a sound. She simply rested there with her talons quite slack, while her sharp beak seemed more than unwilling to strike at such a friendly new acquaintance.

Fang gently began to try and lift the weight of the huge falcon, though Lightning refused to be carried, for she simply stepped back down to the floor so she could turn back, to reform within a subtle glimmer of light. And then, she merely sat there, rather the same size within a human form, slim and swift, yet still so drained all the same. Lightning's eyes had such dusky shadows beneath them, and she couldn't quite stop her eyelids from drooping anymore.

"It's bedtime for you, missy..." Fang stood up again, gesturing for Lightning to follow. "We'll figure this out later on." She picked up a small candle from a table outside of the bathroom, and she carried it on down the hall.

Lightning tried to stifle yet another yawn, all while she trailed on after Fang, but when she soon found herself staring out at a mostly empty room, one that was only lit by the light of the glimmering candle, it was all she could do just to keep herself upright.

"Here, it's not too dusty." Fang stepped over to pat at the pillow of the bed. "Get some rest, alright?"

Yet Lightning hesitated, even then, not until Fang slowly moved to sit down on a nearby armchair, still carrying the metal base of the candlestick.

Only then, when Fang relaxed and closed her eyes a bit, only then did Lightning venture towards the soft, fuzzy blankets, those sheets that smelled so much like dried flowers, gently pushing them away to tuck herself in.

"You'll be okay here, right?" Fang listened to a sharp echo of thunder, and she watched the sudden flash of brightness on the windowpane. "Just come and find me if you need anything."

Lightning stared at Fang, gazing out from where she'd crept down beneath the sheets, curled up and almost dozing off already, before she suddenly spoke something, just a soft, almost silent sound, one that lingered upon the edge of her tongue. "Fang." She breathed in, held that breath, and then exhaled it in a whisper. "...Safe."

"Yeah." Fang slowly rose up from the chair, and she carried the little candle towards the doorway, standing there in silence for a while. "You're safe, Lightning... We won't let anything hurt you." She gently leaned back against the doorframe. "You, me, Vanille and dad, we'll all figure this out."

Lightning's gaze, that sharp blue color, it shone when the next flash hit them, so very bright and piercing, even in the dark.

"Rest up, feathers..." Fang smiled in a soft, gentle way, waiting until Lightning's eyes had finally slipped shut. "See you in the morning."

---

The storm kept on outside the house.

Fang slumbered within her own room, deep beneath her own soft layers of sheets. She'd fallen asleep against the edge of a book that had once belonged to her mother, which would likely leave a red mark upon her cheek by the time she woke up. But on such a warm, lazy summer morning, even with the rain, there was very little that could get her out of bed besides a true emergency, or perhaps the scent of bacon.

But before the sun even had fully risen, just a hint of yellow light upon the cloudy horizon, she heard a sound. Not any ordinary sound, like the gentle rain that still pattered down, or even the distant thunder that had since grown rather calm, no, it was something much softer, a higher pitch, yet it somehow didn't sound out of place at all.

Fang's eyelids twitched, yet she still didn't yet wake for a long, drowsy while, not until it suddenly grew louder.

A longer note, testing the boundaries placed upon it, the limit that it could achieve, before it finally grew loud enough to rouse Fang from sleep.

Muffled mumbles, muttering, and the bed creaked with a sudden shift in weight. After a moment, Fang sat somewhat upright, ears perked, even if her eyes were still halfway shut.

The sound paused, just a moment, then a quick readjustment, before it kept on.

Fang slowly narrowed her eyes.

With a hunter's grace, silent feet and a swift pace, searching the house for whatever might be making such wonderful sounds. Her ears were keen enough to seek it, to find it there, right within a place she'd been standing in just the night before, one that had a door propped open slightly, just in case her guest might need her.

But there she was, sitting upon the floor beside the bed with an elegant object in her hands, one that Fang knew must have been resting up there on a shelf for years by that point. Lightning kept the bow so perfectly steady; the strings were still taut and primed, as if their previous wielder had never even left them, still ready to perform once again.

Then that music came once more, the gentle song within the sound of a storm, for Lightning had her eyes shut while she played, testing the strange new instrument that was somehow so much alike to one she'd owned back home, only it was made of curved, hollow wood instead of metal.

The notes echoed inside Fang's head, so far above the rain, above the long peals of thunder, above the sound of her own thoughts, consuming her entire mind into a haze of sharp strings and gentle plucking that all blended in to make such a strong, solid sound.

There was no pity, no sorrow to the tune, no regret, only that long, boundless drive of sheer determination, all up until Lightning realized that she was being watched.

Fang tried to smile from where she was standing beneath the doorway. "Good morning, feathers."

Lightning had the instrument, one that almost resembled a fiddle, called a rebec; she had it propped up against herself, with a unmoving bow held steadily between her fingertips.

"You don't have to stop." Fang sat down as well, slowly leaning back against the doorframe. "It's okay, Light... You can play it as much as you want."

Lightning blinked once, before she carefully set the instrument down upon her lap.

"They've got music where you're from, don't they? They'd have to, if you're that good..." Fang stared deep into the early morning light, and even if it was still so clouded up with all of that constant, drumming rain, she could still see the pale glow of the sun, how it danced against that soft pink hair. "It's alright, you can keep playing."

At the gentle tone of Fang's voice, Lightning lifted the rebec again, before the world was soon taken back into the realm of sound.

Fang closed her eyes. She could almost feel each of the little twinges and creaks of the strings, the gentle breath at Lightning's mouth, keeping time with each swift stroke of the bow, within the deep, steady song that could aid the march of an army just as well as a brief summer storm.

An army? Fang's eyes began to drift open again. Why did the tune sound so much like one of those old traditional songs, the ballad of a mere foot solider within a great war? It seemed as if it was just a single figure within a sea of thousands, yet it was always alone, carrying on and on, all up until the gentle voice of the violin died down, lost in the shadows yet again, just as silent as the world beyond the rain.

And then, the last trick of it all, a second hand, tapping, thrumming upon the hollow wood, just to shock the life right back into the music, the voice that had once grown so weary.

Fang stared at the bandaged wounds on Lightning's face, upon all her arms and legs, and she felt her heartstrings fray just as deeply as the low, steady song.

---

The ocean waves sounded off beneath the gentle snowfall. A thin bit of sunlight peered in through the clouds, but it was just as patchy as a woven quilt, only allowing a ray or two to touch the earth below.

Fang woke in a cold sweat yet again, quite breathless, suddenly reeling from a memory so strong, so vibrant within her mind.

And again, she felt the burning urge to check Lightning for new wounds, for more injuries than the healed cut on her arm, or even the light bruises upon the back of her head. It was enough to make Fang jolt upright from where she'd been resting, gazing down at that soft, slumbering form, almost oblivious to the worlds beyond their own.

"Light." Fang inhaled, before her throat almost let out a deep whine, and she tried as hard as she possibly could to make that sharp sense of worry just fade away. "It's good... She's good-" Clutching at the pulse of her own heart, the beat of a living drum, Fang slowly leaned down to press her forehead against Lightning's hair. "You're safe."

Lightning just kept sleeping, but her nose twitched slightly, gently tickled by a lock of Fang's long hair.

"You're safe, no cuts... No flinching." Fang felt that primal force again, the inner urge to just sweep Lightning up into her arms and snarl at whatever might try to harm her, for she couldn't lose her, not so soon, not anytime, not until something finally bested them both. "...You're safe, Light."

The sunlight broke through the cloud cover for a just a moment or two, before it suddenly flickered away again, hidden back beneath the dark.

Fang rose up to her knees, feeling the chill breeze in her hair, on her face, on the eyes that stared out at the island, at the memory of a slim, feathered form, the woman who haunted her dreams. "Why..?"

But there was no answer on the wind, nor in the crashing of the waves, or even the grass upon the earth, whispering as it was.

"Why?" Fang reached up to clutch at her own head for a moment, as if that would somehow let the answer spill forth like water, just to trickle down between her fingertips. "Why this one? Why so vivid?"

And yet, there was no answer.

A snarl, so silent on her lips, curled and primed, a dragon within human flesh. "Why?" She knew the answer would never simply appear, that the gods wouldn't take pity on her, not then of all times, not when she had finally gained more than just a scrap of hope to get by on. Not when had someone there of her own heart, her chosen companion, her love... And yet Fang craved for the truth of the matter, for why she was dreaming of such things.

Her shoulders stiffened at a high sound on the wind, a mere sparrow in the grass, warbling away into the morning light. Teeth, sharp teeth, sharper than any human's, Fang nearly chuckled at the sudden shift, the change in her physical form that only ever occurred when the lines truly blurred, when the dragon took far greater hold.

It was a beast who knelt above the maiden, guarding the slumbering hunter, the one she'd almost slain. Those wild ones, such a pair, a dragon and her unlikely partner.

Eyes with narrow pupils, fingernails that curled out into claws, but she knew it was not time, not the place to breathe out her fire in frustration, even if it couldn't quite harm the one she loved. She forced those eyes to slip shut again, called the talons back into herself, into her soul, back into that raw fire, formless and tame.

Fang slowly leaned away, before she accidentally bumped into Lightning's backpack. Human eyes glanced down at the pale leather pack, likely made of the same wolf hide as that sturdy coat.

Yet it wasn't curiosity that drove her through that morning, even while it still burned so brightly. No, she simply held onto the slim, wooden instrument, carrying it out towards the sea.

Fang stood at the very edge of the water, and she could feel the cold, foamy waves as they lapped against her feet. She looked down at the image of a narrow horse, circling all around the width of the flute, over and under the little holes in the wood, which had been painted in the color of pure, whirling air.

Beneath the warmth of the blankets, Lightning woke to a sound, but it was no ordinary sound.

The breeze played and spun within the thin patches of sunlight, blustering all across the driftwood and the sand, past the steady, traveling feet that drew nearer and nearer towards the shore, down to the woman who sat and played that song, a soldier's song, a wanderer's song, a dragon's song, nearly lost to the whims of the wind.

Lightning paused, standing silently. She held the long, patterned blanket, those flowers all around her, of orchids and small daisies, the soft thistles and peonies, then a lone lotus and all of the lilies woven around it, even the sharp thorns of pale, thorny roses, guarding the entire garden from outside harm.

Fang's eyes were shut, but her ears perked at the soft sound of fabric upon the sand, of a body leaning there, right beside her own, resting so gently against her shoulder.

"Fang." Lightning's voice was still very soft from sleep. "Why do I know that song?"

The last few notes trailed off into the wind, out over the waves, the white crests of water and brine, before Fang slowly set the flute down upon her lap. "Why do you know my voice?"

Lightning yawned almost silently. "Don't be a smartass."

Fang smiled, both crooked and calm. "Because it's ours."

"Ours?" Lightning closed her eyes for a moment, and she leaned further, resting herself against Fang's arm. "I don't remember ever having a song."

"You might." Fang turned the little flute over in her hands, and she looked down at the winged helm near the mouthpiece, far above the horse's head. "You might remember... It just takes time."

Lightning nodded with a rather drowsy look on her face, and it was still there in her eyes when she opened them again, gazing out into the sunlight. "I had a weird dream last night."

Fang moved to lean against Lightning's body as well, hair against hair, mind against mind. "Yeah?"

Lightning smiled at the change in warmth. "There was... At least, I think it was a dragon."

Fang's small grin almost faltered. "Anyone you know?"

Lightning shook her head, just enough not to jostle them both. "No, and it wasn't really like any dragon I've ever met."

Fang glanced down at the sand. "What do you mean?"

"It was... It had metal instead of scales." Lightning narrowed her eyes ever so slightly, trying her best to recall. "It was twisted up on itself, all different parts, and almost... Grotesque, but it didn't really see it, I just knew it was there, even when I was walking around."

"Walking around?" Fang slowly leaned away, before she turned to face Lightning directly. "Details, Light; try and tell me exactly what this place looked like."

Lightning kept very quiet for a moment. "...Why are you acting like this?" She reached for Fang's hand before she could even reply, feeling the inner pulse that suddenly raced like wildfire. "Fang, it was just-"

"Lightning." Fang's voice rang with such fire, a steel of her own, yet it was only just enough to catch her full attention. "You've never... You've never actually seen a fal'Cie, have you?"

In the pale light of the morning skies, within the salty wind of the sea, Lightning's eyes suddenly went very, very wide.

---

"So... It was a garden?"

Lightning tried not to scowl at her own lack of memory. She had her winter coat back on, though she kept her gloves off to more easily slice the russet potato in her hands, adding it to the pile of chopped up sections. "Yes, it looked like a public garden, fountains and benches... The whole place seemed right out of a storybook."

Fang leaned back against the blankets, deep within her own thoughts. "What did the rest of it look like?"

Lightning picked up another potato, and she started to slice it up as well. "Depressing, actually."

Fang's breath went very shallow. "...How so?"

"Well, it wasn't just a dump, you know... Very stately, and there were these beautiful old buildings and stone canals." Lightning looked down at where she'd set down another dish of butter near the fire to melt, right next to where she'd boiled up the lake water to kill off any bacteria. "But it almost felt like everything there had been dipped in gray, hardly any sun, always a lot of clouds."

Fang snorted to herself. "Yeah, 'divine city of light'..." She leaned forward again, moving in to help with the potatoes. "Yeah, maybe next time don't build it over a rainforest, not if you don't want constant rain."

The edge of Lightning's knife paused in the middle of a potato. "You know this place?"

Fang nodded. "Yup, and I think that you, Light, you just had your first vision of the future... Possible future, of course, nothing's ever set in stone." She sliced up one of potatoes rather swiftly, though she was careful to make each piece turn out around the same size. "Luxerion, city of the gods."

After a long moment of silence, Lightning returned to the task at hand. "I must've been mistaken... There's no way a fal'Cie could be inside a city like that."

"Yeah, it's always possible." Fang inched a bit closer to where Lightning was sitting. "Visions like these, they're sometimes full of stuff you'll never see, stuff that just doesn't ever happen... But sometimes-"

Lightning narrowed her eyes at the potato in her grasp. "Fal'Cie make things, living things into l'Cie, so if there really was one hiding inside a major city like this, you think that anyone would stick around?" She shook her head at the thought. "It was a dream, Fang... Just a dream."

"I'm not saying it wasn't." Fang reached over to pat Lightning's shoulder, trying to ease away that rigid tension. "It does sound unlikely, but just because it felt like there was a fal'Cie around... It could've been miles away, and still felt close in a dream."

Lightning's arms went slightly slack, before she slowly began to cut up the last potato. "I just wish it didn't feel so real."

Fang's mind swept back to the sight of pale white feathers, to the woman on the plains, and to all of those bleeding cuts upon her skin, so swollen and red. "...I know the feeling."

Lightning picked up a small piece of garlic, one that she'd taken out from the supplies in Fang's satchel. "There was a cathedral outside the garden."

"Oh?" Fang looked down at the campfire, at the long strips of leftover venison that were sizzling upon the griddle. "What did it look like?"

"A cathedral." Lightning rolled her eyes, swiftly chopping up the garlic. "I don't know, tall and stony? It was a dream, Fang, I didn't get a very good look."

"No need to get snippy with me." Fang smiled a little, and she picked up one of the small onions that was resting near the chopped potatoes. "But from what you've described, it really does sound like Luxerion."

Lightning picked up the bits of potato to drop them down against the surface of the skillet, before she sprinkled the diced garlic in, waiting for Fang to finish with the onions.

"Well, you'll see it soon enough." Fang chopped up the onions in almost the same way that Lightning had sliced the garlic, rather fast and precise, though the narrow chunks were almost just as long as the potato pieces. "We should probably get some shopping done there, restock some of the stuff we've used."

Lightning held out the skillet for Fang to put the onions in.

"You okay, Light..?" Fang tried to catch her gaze, but Lightning only started to pour in a bit of olive oil against the pan, along with the melted butter and a pinch of salt, and then even some of the more unusual spices that they'd never used before. "Light?"

Lightning picked up a wooden spoon to stir it all together. "I'm fine."

"That tone doesn't say 'fine'..." Fang kept her distance for a while, but she still kept searching Lightning's gaze, just to lock back with those eyes again. "Tell me what's wrong?"

Lightning began to cover up the pan with the glass lid, before she pushed it all down beneath the griddle, among the pale white embers, which would bake all of the contents within such a sweltering heat. "It's not important."

Fang kept quiet for a long moment, listening to those thin red strips of venison crackle and hiss, before Lightning moved to turn them over with a different utensil.

The sun had risen far up above the sea, shining out through the clouds and a rather thin flurry of snow. And Fang just sat there with the warmth on her shoulders, the heat of the sun, watching the way that Lightning picked up a strip of meat from the fire to glaze it within a shallow bowl, coating it in some sort of spice and liquid marinade, before she set each piece down upon a clear plate, just to rest the flavor for a while.

"Hey, love." Fang kept her voice very soft. "Come here for a moment?"

Lightning stared out with that thick layer of frost, the sharp ice in her eyes, just to hide away the fragile light, bracing the solid shield before such fear.

Fang whispered into the wind. "Please."

It was very gradual, just a bit of movement and slight leaning, and within the time that it took for the potatoes to start changing into a rich, golden brown, Lightning found herself near Fang's lap again, gazing down at the campfire.

From right beside her, Fang's gentle voice rumbled at her ear. "Now, what's got you so spooked?"

Lightning stared deep into the flames, into the warmth of the swiftly flickering glow. "Nothing." That memory of a distant dream, of red leaves, a season of brilliance and death, the final hour before the dull, numbing cold, when a lone figure would suddenly collapse against the earth, taken back into the darkness once again, it all flashed so brightly within her mind. "Nothing, not just yet."

"Funny." Fang leaned in even further to whisper against her cheek. "It's also funny just how often you forget to hide your thoughts..."

Lightning hissed, though the sound was quickly stifled by a sudden shiver and a great, encompassing warmth, feeling the sharp kiss of those teeth, so gentle upon her skin, the way Fang's mind suddenly took hold of the entire world around them, branching right out from where one of her hands held on so tightly to that pale, ungloved wrist.

You're not gonna die. I won't let it happen.

Lightning's eyes fell shut almost against her own will; she swore that she was back within those strong, solid claws again, the talons that kept safe her from the shadows below, holding her just as gently as they could.

I told you, you don't have to lie to me... I already understand. You hear me, Light?

Lightning saw that face again, saw those eyes in the dark, sharp and verdant green, the black scales that kept then both so very warm. ...I hear you.

Fang slowly began to relax. Lightning could feel it, back their own world, the way her breath gradually went so slow again, how her inner fire started to wane just slightly, not quite as ravenous as before, and then, the world grew steadily bright.

Lightning blinked against the sudden sun, and she slowly reached over to hold Fang's hand. "It's just a basic fear, Fang... I don't think anyone can face death without it."

"Yeah, but you aren't facing it." Fang tried to stifle a somewhat low, almost contented growl, but Lightning had the feeling that her temper was still high, ruffled by the mere subject of loss. "Light, you're... You're alive, you're healing, and I won't let anything hurt you."

Lightning looked down at the sleeve of her coat, imagining the long cut from a talon that hadn't quite scarred, yet she could still remember it, all the same.

"We're together, and that means we're a team." Fang squeezed at Lightning's hand, and with the touch, she could see right into that mind, a mind that didn't always hide behind those thorns, an honest mind, so sharp and utterly blunt at the very same time. "And that team, those partners... They don't just let the other one down."

Lightning felt her mouth twitch slightly, just a small hint of how bright such words made her feel.

"You aren't gonna die, and I'm not, either..." Fang pressed another soft, gentle kiss against her cheek. "Because I've got you."

Lightning's heart kept beating so steadily, and she felt Fang's warm pulse at her hands, that second voice, the nurturing sound, the other life that brought her up to such heights, such places she'd never been before, that she had never known existed. She might have just been content to rest there, gently leaning against Fang's forehead, but the scent of breakfast slowly drew her back to the present, in order to not let it overcook.

She moved to the side, reaching for the strips of venison that smelled so different in the glaze, before she used a cloth rag to pull the skillet out from beneath the griddle, lifting the glass cover to drop the meat inside.

And Fang watched. She watched the way hat Lightning spread out a bit of oil on the griddle again, and then cracked an egg against the edge of it, dropping the thick liquid down against the great heat. "Can I try one?" Fang moved over towards the fire, back at Lightning's side. "If I mess it up-"

Lightning suddenly took Fang's hand in her own, gently placing one of the eggs between her fingertips. "Move with me."

Fang smiled, and she nodded.

It was just as simple as reading the way that Lightning walked, or ran, or even swung her sword down against a target, just a single flick of her wrist against the curved, solid surface, and the egg cracked down along the side, fractured almost perfectly in half.

Fang stared at how Lightning moved in closer to show her how to split it, to quickly pinch at the sides and pull them apart, letting the pale liquid and the yellow yolk drop down against the griddle, cooking away within the fiery heat.

"Now try one on your own." Lightning took her hand away from Fang's wrist. "Same as before."

Fang felt a small swell of confidence, for it was far easier than it first looked, after all. She swung another egg against the cooler part of the griddle again, tugging the shell apart with her fingertips.

"Good, keep practicing." Lightning began to use the tines of a spare fork to pick out the tiny bits of egg shell from the newest one, because even though it was a very good try, Fang's technique just wasn't quite perfect yet. "One or two more, though... Don't want to drown it in eggs."

Fang cracked another egg, one that held less of those small fractures than the previous attempt, more of a single split down the center. "These are going separate from the potatoes, right?"

Lightning's mouth just quirked again, not quite a smile, at least for most anyone else, but that glint of amusement in her eyes, Fang knew it well.

"They go... With the potatoes?" Fang broke apart one last egg, and she let it drop right down against the griddle. "Next to the potatoes? Help me out, here."

"You'll see." Lightning leaned down to check the various contents of the skillet, before she slowly moved back again. "Potato hash can include a lot of things... If we had some bacon, or even cured pork-"

"Light." Fang's voice almost sounded on the verge of pain, though just barely. "You're going to make me faint on the spot with that sort of talk."

"You like bacon, do you?" Lightning looked over at where the juice of the venison glaze was trickling down over the potatoes, letting the rich flavor seep inside. "It's a little expensive back home."

Fang grumbled a bit. "Can't put a price on perfection..."

"How about pork chops?" Lightning pulled the skillet back, and when she lifted the cover up, the steam spilled out into the air. "A couple of chops in the oven, apple glaze, mashed potatoes..."

"You're trying to kidnap me." Fang leaned against Lightning's shoulder again, so lazy and warm, closing her eyes for only a moment. "You just want to lure me back to your place with the promise of food like that-"

"And why not?" Lightning poked at one of the eggs with a spatula. "I'll give you a job there... You can do chores, help out with things, and in return, we can eat whatever the hell we want." She waited a moment or two, before she sprinkled a tiny bit of salt and pepper upon each of the steadily cooking eggs. "Back there, you said it was 'our' song." Lightning closed her eyes for just a brief moment. "So it can be... Our home, too."

"Home." Fang smiled when Lightning began to push some of the potato hash down onto a plate, before she lifted a few of the cooked eggs to put on top. "Never had much of a home in this life, not a permanent one."

Lightning dished up another filled plate, setting the bright white eggs down over the colorful mix of food, even when she swore that her ears were ringing with her own implication, a promise for the two of them, for Fang. The feeling swelled, almost like a harsh, flooding river, as if only to sweep her away in the rushing tide. But then Fang, like she always was, such a warm, steady force to grab onto, the mighty island out at sea, those talons in the dark, the deadly teeth, always ready to smite their enemies. And then, the fire, it was always there too, so very bright and steady, even if it sometimes seemed to wane.

As soon as she managed to drag herself out of her own thoughts, Lightning bit down on rather a lovey piece of breakfast, and she realized that she might never have to eat alone again, to endure the guarantee of silence; even if they usually ate so quietly, it was more than enough, more than she'd ever need. And if she was to be perfectly honest with herself, it shook her right down to the core, unleashing that very same storm inside, even if her face didn't move at all, kept so calm, always so still and solid.

But she knew that Fang knew. She knew very well of that same fear, of the primal things that always lurked there within the shadows, deep within the past.

"Light, you've outdone yourself, here..." Fang's voice drifted above the scents of vegetables and eggs, of the creature who'd faced that same darkness, an animal who'd once walked beneath the trees, the one to grant them a final gift of life and energy, if only for just another day. "Now I'll really have to dish out for some bacon, won't I?"

Lightning tried to draw herself away from her thoughts again, nodding at her own plate. "If you want to."

And Fang knew, she knew of the way those dark things could crawl right beneath her skin and linger there, the guilt of taking something, anything away, whether it was an unexpected gift, or a whole other life, the subject didn't matter. It was when Lightning truly felt those doubts, the deep part of herself that she'd once tried so hard to extinguish and remove, whenever it grew back again to such great degrees, that was when no amount of logic mattered anymore.

Fang knew that it was when Lightning wasn't sure if it all even mattered enough just to take another step, to wake up for yet another day and move on, to face such things again when nearly all of her daily life had grown so very calm, so much that she just didn't know, couldn't be sure that anyone truly needed her anymore, and only then did the doubt truly take root so deep within.

Those bitter weeds were choking her. They were stealing the life away from the parts of Lightning that truly mattered, and the thought of it, it simply made Fang's blood boil. But she still couldn't burn away the doubt, couldn't bite it and make it bleed, couldn't rip those things out from Lightning's soul and heal her back again, to nurture the grove that was so ingrained against her thoughts, deep within the garden of her mind.

So Fang did the only thing she could do.

"Fang?" Lightning's arm almost seemed to hover between them, held gently, yet so firm within Fang's grasp. "What are you doing?"

Even if it would hurt, even if it burned, Fang would let her see it, let her witness just how much she was needed.

Lightning's eyes suddenly went so blank, and the fork in her fingertips clattered down against her plate, swept off into the distance as she was stolen away, brought to another world, a world where she'd once been lain down upon the dust, bleeding beneath the utter light of a massive tower.

Someone shouted in a language she'd never heard, dragging at both of her arms, tugging her away from the bright, gathering beam.

"Lightning!"

She felt her jaw go slack, felt the blood on her tongue, so warm, and she knew it was her own.

The world went utterly white, then, it bloomed without sound, even though her ears were ringing.

"Lightning..."

She felt fingertips on her cheek. How long had she slept? How long had it been since her whole world had been scorched away, since her family had been lost?

She wanted to open her eyes, but even the act of thinking that made her whole body sting, and it made the voice at her side go very quiet again.

"Light."

She could hear the steady rain outside, and she felt the chill of it on her skin. When she finally forced opened her eyes, she could see the one who was checking the wooden splint upon her leg, gently touching around the new wounds.

Fang, a different Fang, one with a fur jacket slung across her shoulders and a strange weapon at her hip.

Slowly, Lightning looked down at her own limbs, at the bone that she somehow knew had only just started to heal.

"Light-" Fang paused, before she turned around to rummage through a small pile of supplies, for a little book with rather worn pages. She leafed through the index, past the middle, but it was a very long time before she spoke again. "Weather..." She said something in the other language, something that sounded like a curse. "Bad rain, low water."

Lightning almost choked on the thick scent of dust. "Low... Water?"

Fang held up a metal canteen. "Rain." She pointed at the broad, hazy greens of a forest, at the clear rain that fell upon the leaves, before she turned to find another translation from the book. "Toxic."

Lightning closed her eyes again, and the voice that suddenly left her lips, it was from the one who'd truly lived there before, had been so lost within that past life, fully aware of how little they had left to turn to. "Then we're done."

Fang narrowed her eyes at Lightning's tone. "No."

"Finished." Lightning still felt the steady pain in her leg, she felt as it sweltered and jolted down within her muscle tissue, almost as if it was killing away all of her other nerves. "We're done." She didn't move when Fang grabbed the collar of her jacket, didn't react when those eyes, that fire in her gaze, when it suddenly bore down into her own.

"No." Fang stared at those hollow blue eyes, the spirit stolen away by a sharp loss, by the sudden beam of a monolith. "Not yet."

And it was only much later, out within a field of tall, golden wheat, carried there in Fang's arms, even though she'd protested almost the entire way through the woods, only then did Lightning start to feel again.

There were so many bright wildflowers off in the distance, and a wide plume of smoke rose up from where a village once stood. She could feel the steady sound of Fang's heartbeat with each step she took.

"Not toxic..." Fang tried to remember the right phrases. "It's better here."

"Out of range?" Lightning's voice was rather soft, but it almost seemed to crack with each word. "...Where are we going, Fang?" She stared down at her pale broken leg. "There's nowhere else... It'll always find us."

Fang just kept marching on, holding onto Lightning's waist and back just a bit tighter than before. "Somewhere."

Lightning bit back a low snarl. "Nowhere."

But Fang ignored her. She still walked onward, through the long, narrow path that led down between the crumbled buildings, the splintered wood that already held host to a wide amount of fungal growth, some of which could have even been edible.

"Fang..." Lightning tried to stifle the fact that she hadn't eaten anything in at least three days. "Look."

Fang merely glanced at the mushrooms, and she shook her head at the sight of them. "Poison."

So Lightning simply closed her eyes again, waiting for either the heat of the sun, the hollow feeling in her stomach, or even the loss of blood to just take her, to let her finally leave such a place and find Serah again, to search for her in wherever lost souls go.

But when she woke up again, not yet dead, only far more drowsy than she'd ever felt before, and when Fang suddenly held up a rabbit with a lone arrow through its neck, Lightning knew that it would be some time yet before she could leave.

There's no giving up, Light... Not even when it looks like there's no other option.

Lightning's voice, the part of her that was still back in her own world, viewing it through Fang's mind, she felt herself prickle with a retort. Even if I was already dying?

But you weren't. Fang's inner voice almost sounded amused, though rather weary in a way. Yeah, your leg was pretty busted up for a while, but it wasn't enough to kill you.

The world drifted on towards an old ruin by the sea, one that stood far out of the range of those massive, watchful things, the roaming towers of unknown origin. Fang was kneeling down beside a pile of leaves, helping her companion to finally stand up again, still wobbly upon that one leg.

Almost anything can heal. Fang's presence grew even stronger, so much closer to Lightning's point of view. You just have to help it along.

The other Fang, the young woman who stood there on the sand, she suddenly laughed when Lightning took a single step of her own, a firm, steady step. "It really is getting better..."

Lightning snorted quietly. "So is your grammar."

Fang gave her a wry sort of smirk. "Oh? Then let's see you learn my language."

"I don't think so..." Lightning took another small, shaky step, still being held up with Fang's help, with those long, strong arms that gripped beneath her own. "You're the one who insisted in the first place."

Fang's eyes almost seemed to flicker, wandering back to the time when she'd been searching through a recently lost city, careful to only take supplies that had been stored beneath metal or hard packaging, for anything else would surely still be coated in toxin. She remembered the time when she'd been munching away at a tin of cookies, salvaged from a ransacked building, when she'd suddenly caught sight of a broken limb, one that was pinned down beneath a beam of steel... And then the silent, watchful eyes that stared back at her from within the dark.

"I thought you might lose the foot, honestly..." Fang almost smiled when Lightning's toes twitched in disagreement. "You were hurt; I had to get you out of there."

Lightning closed her eyes for a moment. "I was ready to stay... To leave."

Fang paused, gripping her arms just a bit tighter than before. "You were ready to die."

Lightning shrugged. "At least you aren't calling it 'giving up' anymore."

Fang looked away. Her mind swept back to the moment when Lightning lashed out one night, finally fed up with being prodded on to just keep traveling, not to give in; she'd called at the top of her lungs, shouting that she'd lost everything in that attack, the sudden beam of energy that had tainted the air, the ground, it killed almost everyone upon contact... All but the fraction of lives who survived.

Fang earned the only injury Lightning would ever give her, at least in that life, that sudden sharp sting in her jaw when she finally struck, finally snapped at such a blind assumption, a boundary far overstepped.

It was all just a mistake... Her past life had snarled it so low, at the very bottom of her voice, glaring down at the wooden splint on her leg. I should have gone with them all, died with her.

Fang left her for a brief while, likely to just let her companion cool down, to sleep off the sheer amount of rage in her body. And when the morning light drifted into the cave that they'd been using as shelter, she finally returned. Her words were still simple, untrained in the language she was trying to use, but her meaning came out loud and clear.

She'd lost someone, too.

And then, so many months later, Lightning finally walked again, careful to step gently against the ground. "...There just wasn't anything left to live for."

Fang looked away again, but when she felt Lightning's gaze upon her eyes, she slowly turned back to face her.

"Wasn't." Lightning felt the coarse sand beneath her feet, felt the silent wind in her hair, felt the way Fang's hands were still holding her upright. "There wasn't anything, but now... You're my friend, Fang."

Fang's heart twinged at the sound of it.

I'll live for you.

They soon sat beneath the shelter of a low, seaside cave, just listening to the rain. Fang rested her head on Lightning's shoulder, and when a low peal of thunder sounded throughout the earth, she slowly opened her eyes.

Lightning stared out at the deep black sea, and at the sudden flash of white on the far horizon. It was the power she loved enough to take for her very own name, just yet another reason to live on.

It began as a hum, a tiny little thing in the back of Fang's throat, just something to pass the time. And yet it grew, like a small fleck within the deep soil, a seedling that suddenly felt the touch of rain, and it soon changed, growing into an actual tune, enough that she lifted her head up to sing it.

Lightning listened for a long while, just waiting the night away, but when another flash suddenly lit up the entire horizon, she began to join in as well.

The rain pattered down against the sand, and within a brief moment of light and utter clarity, it was gone.

She was back again, sitting there beneath a more familiar sky, upon the sand of an island beach. Lightning paused, and she looked down at where Fang's hand had been holding her wrist just a moment ago.

"There's a whole lot in this world..." Fang took another bite of her breakfast, which was still very warm upon the plate. "A whole lot to live for, even if you can't always see it." She finished chewing on a small strip of venison before she spoke. "And you're needed, Light... We need you, like always."

Lightning glanced down at her own meal, and she slowly picked up her fork again.

"I don't blame you for your doubts." Fang almost swore that she could feel the earth rotating beneath them, that she could feel the light of a different sky again. "Hell, I could start a whole collection of my own-"

"I'm not giving into it, Fang." Lightning nearly thought that she could hear the rain again, or feel the pain of a broken limb. "Sometimes it just... Builds up, that's all."

"I know." Fang closed her eyes, but when she opened them again, there was no toxic haze in the air, one that she was somehow quite resistant to, no beams of energy flaring out through the sky, no pressing reason for them to keep running, all except for the troubles of their own world. Yet it was a far kinder world, at least in retrospect, a world that had gone so very long without the true taste of war. "...And I'll be here. I'll help you through it."

Lightning's mouth twitched, a genuine smile, warm, safe and pleasant. "I know you will."

---

The waves rolled on into the early noon. Far above the ocean surface, deep within the low mist that hung like a veil of silk, Fang only had to flap her wings occasionally to keep gliding against the breeze.

Lightning stared down at the sea. How far away had they flown since packing up yet again? She glanced back over her own shoulder, past the spiny frill on Fang's back and the curve of her tail, which was slowly drifting along in the wind, but Lightning couldn't see any hint of the island they had just visited.

Fang flapped her wings again, soaring higher and higher upon a gust of warm air, though the chill never left her, still thick within the wind.

Lightning slipped down into her normal routine of daydreaming, and then of thinking of nothing at all, or even the occasional nap against the curve of Fang's lower neck, even if doing so left a soft imprint of scales upon her cheek. But as the day went on and on, and while they flew further and further across the sea, simple activities like counting clouds or the distant ice floes, it took up most of Lightning's time.

Fang was rather silent, for Lightning had pulled her gloves on because of the cold, and it still seemed that their physical connection just couldn't reach through such a thick hide. But the lack of speech, out loud or otherwise, it granted them more than enough time to recuperate from the more stressful types of social interaction, or even the depths of the bond they'd shared the previous night. It was a time when both the mind and body could rest, and then later on, once Fang's wings were tired again, her thoughts would have since gathered themselves back up to a much better degree.

Lightning yawned softly, gazing down at where she gripped Fang's satchel strap. The breeze was rushing over her clothes, though the thin fabric mask that kept her mouth and nose free from stray snowflakes, while her hood kept the frost out from her hair, just as long as it wasn't blown back in the wind.

And in that moment, when her mind was floating in an utterly blank state, for just a mere instant, Lightning saw the pale light upon her palm again. If it had been any other moment, when she was thinking about more than nothing at all, perhaps she might've felt a bit of a shock at the sight, yet as it was, a sense of quiet curiosity crept out into her mind instead. She found herself wondering why it looked so solid and rectangular, almost like a few sheets of paper that rustled in the wind, but it was a very long moment before she truly recognized it.

That clever tree, had it ever even intended for her to take the objects from that hidden stash? Or had it simply held far greater plans, the inkling to teach her even more, even from such a great distance? She looked down at the fluttering image of light, at the outline of words she couldn't understand, couldn't read, but then, she slowly felt her vision grow dark.

There was a figure sitting in the corner of her gaze, someone scrawling with a tip of a quill, jotting down notes upon the pages of a nearly blank notepad. But when Lightning turned to face the desk that the person sat beside, she realized just how long ago it must have been. Candlelight danced against the walls, and the old king just kept writing down the ingredients to something unknown to her, punctuated every so often by a deep, heavy cough, which he was polite enough not to direct at the paper.

But what sort of ruler could he be? Lightning moved forward, unseen, wandering along in the place beyond sight, beyond her own body, where her presence was less than a mere breath on the wind, a whisper lost within the shadows. Was this strange man, was he one of the ancient emperors of such grand cities, fated to be utterly lost?

He coughed yet again, almost doubling over upon himself, and Lightning realized that the old king was as thin as a man half his age, and just as withered as a plucked flower, left to die beyond the earth. His robe looked far thicker than his own limbs, a coat of rare furs and colored hues, with a grand crown atop his head, golden and utterly encrusted with gemstones.

And yet, he clutched at the notes, the parchment of so little worth, ignoring the rest of his lavish quarters. He gazed down at the list of components as if they were all that had ever existed, all that could ever be.

Lightning felt as the vision began to shift, and she felt herself slip briefly back towards her own body, which was luckily still seated on Fang's back, not toppling down into the sea somewhere.

And then there was a handshake, and a man in a bright green tunic, an adventurer out to collect the requested items on the pages, even if they were quite rare indeed.

She watched as a mighty ship sailed out across the sea, and she listened to the wooden gangplank creak down to meet a different shore, saw the man in bright green venture out into the deep, tropical wilds, returning with the severed head of what looked like a massive, serpentine creature.

Then the crew sailed on, and the next harbor they docked upon was in a much grander place, a city that almost looked as if it could scrape the very top of the sky. The man in green searched for weeks, hunting for an entirely different sort of quarry, but when he finally happened upon a small, dimly lit shop, he found himself lingering there for far longer than he'd planned.

Weeks passed by, and he finally set sail again, carrying the cargo of a rather rare species of dried herb, along with a thin, pearly locket, not to mention the feeling of phantom kisses upon his cheek and the promise to return with his fortune.

Lightning almost wanted to wrinkle her nose at the thought of it, such a saccharine love story, but to her relief, the vision just kept turning and whirling, long past the time when the adventurer slew a massive beast out on the sea, a monster with great teeth and wide, crushing limbs. His sword had struck true, but a blow from the creature sent him reeling away, injured and bleeding upon the deck of the ship.

The months rolled on into years, throughout the entire long list of unusual things, all up until the final gift, just a single feather plucked from the tail of a roc, the very last thing on the notepad. The adventurer, gray and wizened, in a tunic of dark green, aged beyond his youth... He made his way up the empty stairwell of a great palace, knocking against the wide, hollow door.

All that answered was a young voice, a loitering child who sat tall upon the stone banister. "Nobody home?"

The entire vision blurred with all the rare things, the injuries the man had suffered, those many long years out at sea, before the image of the adventurer himself, it all finally paused upon his final gift to a child of his own.

"I do not care what you do with it..." He was laying back upon the sheets, deep within his last throes of life. "But may it bring you more luck than it has to me."

The crate passed through many, many hands, so many lives throughout the years, lost to the sidelines of pawnshops and auctions, and then eventually gifted to one such individual, a young man of great curiosity.

"What things it must have seen..." He peered into the contents of the box, taking the more valuable objects to pay for his own necessities, food and shelter, but he left all the rest, admiring the great age that they must have originated from. "I'll keep it safe."

Yet that very same man soon fell to his fate at the edge of an alleyway dagger, and the box was abandoned once more, for years, until a traveling group of mercenaries came upon it in an unusual auction, one that boasted sealed 'mystery crates' of varying value. The group hadn't had time to inspect the contents before their charter ship set sail again, and the sheer disappointment of only finding a few old books, tarnished metal and mere papers, it was more then enough for them to loudly complain about over a bottle of rum, loitering upon the next island that they came across.

Yet when one of them suddenly let out a giggling snort, when he claimed that their newfound 'treasure' would be much better left beneath the beach than merely tossed into the waves, the rest of them crowed with raucous, drunken laughter, before they all began to dig down with their bare hands into the sand.

And then, a rather observant tree, one who'd been watching the intoxicated men in silent distaste, it kept that certain memory away for later use.

Lightning's vision swam into a blurry haze, drifting back to the world above the sea, back into her own body again, and she looked down to see the full image of a ghostly notepad upon her palm.

Fang kept flying on over the sea, but she blinked when Lightning's hand, a bare, gloveless hand, touched down against her scales.

Hey, Fang?

Fang released a gentle yawn, breathing deeply against the brisk, chilly breeze. Yeah?

Lightning kept quiet for a very long moment, but then, a wry sort of thought left her mind. I think that old tree might've just taught me something else entirely...

---

The snow whirled out into the late evening, when the sun was just sinking down beneath the horizon.

Fang flew forward, up and over the rising waves, but when the last bit of light finally winked away beneath the sea, she lifted her drowsy head against the wind.

The ocean stretched on before them, wide and boundless and so very deep, almost as if it never ended. Fang looked down at all of the many ice floes that drifted south, and she began to fly even further for quite a while, at least an hour more. But when her wings began to ache, and her vision grew rather fuzzy, she let out a loud yawn, puffing out a thin bit of fire to light up the night, if only for a moment.

Fang blinked, before she watched how the tiny embers trickled down into the wind. No land in sight.

Lightning mumbled something from where she was dozing away.

You've still got something to eat from what we bought back there, right? Fang craned her neck around to look at Lightning. Hey, love, wake up.

Lightning's eyelids slowly fluttered open, gazing out into the dark. Tired.

I know, but like you said before, you shouldn't skip dinner. Fang slowly angled her wings down to glide over the frigid wind, closer and closer to the black abyss of the northern sea. I already caught a fish today, you know.

Lightning winced slightly when they finally touched down again, splashing and hitting against the water with a rather sharp smack, but she inwardly praised the way that Fang didn't immediately sink, able to quickly paddle with her hind legs to keep them both afloat.

"There..." Fang spoke out loud, for while the waves still rose and crashed all around her, it was finally quiet enough for them both to speak. "Come on, Light, get some food."

Lightning just grumbled against the back of Fang's neck.

"Want me to look around for fish?" Fang swam forward a bit, pushing her wings down beneath the surface of the sea. "Not a whole lot out here, not this far north..."

Lightning slowly sat upright again, and she reached up to rub away the sleep from her eyes. "I'll find something, Fang."

Fang drew to a slow halt, still kicking with her hind legs to tread against the salty water. "I'll keep a lookout, just in case."

Lightning turned around to rummage through Fang's rucksack, and she found some of the carrots that were still left there from their first night of cooking, along with the thick paper carton of milk, almost half-empty from the day when they made griddlecakes.

Fang twisted her neck around to look as well. "Milk and carrots, that's all?"

Lightning gently pushed Fang's snout away. "I don't have any hardtack or jerky left, so... Yeah."

"And the potatoes aren't good raw." Fang looked back out at the sea. "Damn... Wish we'd bought some crackers."

"Maybe in Luxerion." Lightning pulled her own backpack down to get out a knife, one to peel the carrots with. "I'll be fine, Fang; I've survived with less."

Fang's next low mumble or two didn't quite seem to be in agreement, and when she suddenly ducked her head down into the icy water to search for fish, Lightning knew for sure that there was nothing she could say to change her mind.

But then a certain thought occurred, while Fang was looking around for any hint of sea life, for Lightning caught sight of the little plush deer off in the corner of the satchel. Ever since the tree had taught her to look beyond herself, and if she could touch a simple notebook and learn almost all of its secrets, could the same be said for different objects?

Slowly, and very carefully, just so she didn't disturb the little plush from where it was resting, Lightning set her hand down against that soft, well-worn fabric, likely victim to several hugs from certain visions, from the curse of a dragon's great sight. And like before, nothing visible happened when she touched it, but Lightning had a feeling that if she was to try learning about the item's past at a later time, that it might just work in the same way as the little book of notes.

Fang soon lifted her head to breathe again, and she snorted out the water from her nostrils in long, misty jets of hot steam. "Damn things are too far down..."

"It's fine, Fang." Lightning got to work on peeling one of the carrots. "I'm not the one flying around all day."

Fang leaned back again to gently snuffle Lightning's hair, before she leaned in to sniff at the carrot peels. "Hey, toss those over?"

Lightning looked down at the sea. "You really think the fish will go after them?"

Fang looked down as well. "Worth a try."

With a shrug, Lightning picked up the pile of peels, before she chucked them away into the waves, watching how they drifted around near the surface. "You'd better stay very still so they don't swim away."

And Fang did just that. She listened to the sounds of wind on the water, and of Lightning crunching a raw carrot between her teeth, but it was only long after she'd finished eating, only then did the first signs of a fish make itself clear.

The little thing was just swimming around beneath the dark, icy surface, and it took only a moment to examine the carrot peels before it started to nibble one, sealing its own fate between a whole different set of hungry jaws, even though those jaws much preferred to give their quarry away, instead.

As soon as the fish stopped wriggling around, Fang focused on her inner fire, on the essence of control that the thaumaturgy book had preached to her. She tried to make her own heat burn down at a similar rate to that of a campfire, slowly cooking the fish between her teeth.

Lightning sipped at the carton of milk, but she looked up when Fang suddenly turned around, holding a steamed fish in her mouth, one that was quite illuminated by the light of the moon.

"Here." Fang's voice was a bit muffled by the fish. "Better than carrots."

Lightning reached up to accept the gift by the end of its tail. "...Thank you."

Fang glanced back at the carrot peels. "No problem."

So Lightning waited for a while, letting the hot fish cool off in the chilly air of the sea, while Fang continued to watch for any more creatures that might dare to wander up towards the surface. She'd occasionally snap back down to grab one up in her teeth, swiftly cooking it with her fire in order to eat it for herself, before she waited for yet another one find its way up there as well.

But the night stretched on, and the school of fish grew much more wise to just how low their numbers had fallen, so the carrot peels were soon ignored again, though both Lightning and Fang had already eaten their fill.

The moon sank down, lowering beneath those gentle waves, and the unlikely pair drifted off as well, deep into the realm of sleep.

---

"Alright, feathers... This is how you make breakfast right."

Lightning blinked at the warm firelight beneath the stove.

"Just watch this." Fang held up a pan with several strips of thin meat slices on the surface, before she moved it right above the heat of the flames. "Now some people like it a bit more floppy, but I say crispy is the far better choice."

Lightning stared at the way that Fang was looking down at the stove, still a bit sleepy at such an early hour, yet she seemed rather determined to cook the food to perfection.

"You just have to make sure there isn't too much grease." Fang yawned softly. Her hair almost seemed much more luminous in the morning light. "Smells good, though, doesn't it?"

Lightning just kept sitting there on the chair that Fang had put next to the stove, watching the way that each strip of bacon slowly began to sizzle and pop.

"I wonder if you have stuff like this, back where you're from." Fang looked at Lightning from the corner of her gaze. "What sort of place it is..."

Lightning's eyes flickered away from her, for the sound of Fang's voice told her of that bright curiosity inside, the prying sort of desire to learn something new. While she didn't entirely mind it, as it was natural, after all, to want to learn more about something foreign, Lightning just wasn't sure how she could possibly explain anything to Fang.

But as the minutes stretched on, off into the moment when Fang handed her a plate of rather crispy bacon, still hot from the stove, it almost seemed as if she might not press the issue of learning anything more about her. Indeed, Fang just picked up her own plate and sat down on a nearby chair, wolfing each strip of meat down in an astoundingly clean way; she must have been very well practiced not to get any grease upon her nightshirt while still digging into her meal at such a rapid pace.

Lightning slowly turned one the strange strips of meat over with her fork, tasting it a bit slower than Fang did. She wanted to savor the experience of something so new, something a bit too greasy for her own liking, but still overall quite delicious. And it was only once breakfast was over, when they had wandered outside to sit down in the grass while Bahamut began to hunt for his own morning meal, only then did Fang speak up again.

"You know, it's strange, but that song you were playing..." Fang trailed off for a moment, staring at all of the thick wildflowers that grew out towards the plains, for her father's house sat upon the very outskirts of town, all the better to get an early lookout on encroaching wild creatures. "It almost feels like I've heard it before."

Beneath the gentle, foggy rain, Lightning flipped over a tiny strand of grass between her fingertips, something so very familiar within such a strange new world, just enough to keep her grounded there.

"Maybe you could play it again sometime." Fang slowly leaned back to look up at the clouds, and at all of the long rays of sunlight that traveled across the grasslands, shining down from so far above.

Lightning watched as the thin blade of grass began to curl.

Fang didn't quite know when it first happened, perhaps it was just the sudden scent of ozone, or even the way Lightning's face went so very still, so honed in upon the energy within her fingertips, but when a short, sudden snap sounded off, when a sharp flicker of energy briefly jumped against the misty air, and when the small blade of grass suddenly burned away into dust...

"That's... New." Fang almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. "Your name makes a little more sense now."

Lightning watched as the slight bit of electricity danced along her fingernails, soft and almost silent, just a quiet hiss of static, before she slowly called it back down to rest within her blood. Fang stared at the way the those little flashes of light still pulsed from within Lightning's fingertips, gradually fading away until they weren't so visible at all.

"Fang." Lightning slowly curled each of her slim fingertips against her palm. "Safe."

"...If you say so." Fang stretched her arms out beneath the thin drizzle of rain. "I'll take your word for it; you're really an odd one, Light, but the stranger things in life are always much more interesting."

Lightning almost smiled at the calm, easy tone in Fang's voice.

"Nothing better than a good mystery." Fang smiled when Bahamut suddenly flew over towards a small stump in the yard, holding the limp form of a mouse within his powerful beak. "Just as long as you're still friendly, Light... Don't go proving me wrong about this, you hear me?"

Lightning closed her eyes, and she listened to that distant peal of thunder, slowly echoing out across the plains.

---

The sea lulled on in the early light, still swaying back and forth, before it gently woke the one who swam within it. Fang yawned with a numerous amount of teeth, long, pointy and sharp, but when she closed her mouth with a low, quiet mumble, it was as if any and all ferocity had simply left her in the dust. And she was gentle, still, even when she craned her neck around to slowly nudge Lightning awake, nuzzling at the side of her face.

Lightning hissed in her sleep, and she nearly whacked at Fang's nose, though her accuracy was severely hindered when her eyes were still sealed shut.

"Hey." Fang nudged at Lightning's shoulder. "Time to fly, sleepyhead."

Lightning murmured in a slightly sharper tone, before she reached out to grab at Fang's snout. "Time to sleep."

"It's already morning." Fang yawned again, and the movement caused Lightning's hand to lose her grip. "Come on, we'll probably hit land today... Real land, not just islands."

Lightning finally opened her eyes, blinking so blearily against the low sunlight. "Fine."

"We can find breakfast out there." Fang almost sighed at the thought of her own brief dream, of the wonderful smell that had nearly filled up the entire house. "...You ready?"

Lightning moved to grip at the satchel strap again. "Ready."

It took longer to get herself airborne, for the waves had been so much more high and lively in her previous times within the ocean, but before long, Fang found herself flapping against the wind again, flying far up above the surface of the sea. She felt Lightning move to rest against the back of her neck, and the mere thought of it made Fang smile in that crooked, dragon grin.

The ice floes below, they soon grew more and more numerous, all bobbing and flowing along within the strong ocean currents, and as the minutes grew on into hours, the surface of the water began to look much more white than blue.

Fang's keen vision was the first to catch the slight glimmer of tall ice, of the pale, rising pillar off in the distance, the only hint of land that stood out on the horizon above. Lightning, look...

But Lightning had already pulled her gloves back on hours ago, just to protect herself from the cold, and it was only when Fang called out into the air, that long, keening roar that echoed for what felt like miles, only then did she look up to see.

The glaciers shifted so very slowly, so much that neither of them could truly see it from so far away, but every so often, another chunk of ice would fall, silently toppling from the top of the tall, distant cliffs, deep down into the frigid, arctic waters that would eventually start to carry it south.

Lightning tugged one of her gloves off, before she pressed her hand down against the warmth of Fang's dark scales. Look at that...

I see it. Fang flew on throughout the windy air, flapping her wings against the strong winter winds, closer and closer to shore. Listen, there's a place we'll probably stumble across today; I used to catch food there whenever I'd try traveling to get inside the vestige again.

Inside the vestige... Lightning closed her eyes for just a moment. She could still feel the chill winds on her face, whipping along at the fuzzy hood on her back, through each strand of her soft pink hair. You said it needs two people?

Fang nodded. Yeah, I just couldn't get the damn thing open again, not without Vanille... I tried clawing at it, burning it down, biting it apart, but nothing worked. She let out a deep, yet silent sigh. The fal'Cie... Nobody really knows much about them, other than how they're supposedly 'children of the gods', or something like that, but if anything, they've gone rogue.

Lightning's mind flickered back to what the wise old pine tree had once said upon the nature of fal'Cie.

Rogue enough to want Vanille to go out and kill one of its buddies... Or rival siblings, whatever the hell it thinks. Fang snarled against the wind. It just shouldn't have left me unbranded.

Lightning furrowed her brow at the thought of that. Why wouldn't it brand both of you?

I've been asking myself that very same thing all this time, Light... Fang let out another sigh. It's just not rational, and I really don't care about the reason anymore; all I know is that it won't have much time left to regret it.

After a moment or two, Lightning looked up to suddenly see the grand wall of ice again, to witness the mighty glacier that rose so high up into the air, far taller than the height that Fang was flying.

You ready to see the northlands? Fang's inner voice grew a bit less weary, much more eager to see the sight of wide land again. You've never been out here, right?

Right... Lightning gripped down on the satchel strap when Fang suddenly began to rise up, flapping harder against the wind. I've read books about it, though.

Oh, you're in for a sight. Fang's wings worked at the frigid air beneath them, flying higher and higher, rising almost straight up beside a huge pillar of ice, until she was nearing the edge of that massive, towering glacier. Nearly there.

Lightning felt her stomach drop at the way Fang's body tilted back, nearly vertical as she rose up even further, so high above sea level that it became just a bit harder to breathe, before the ice suddenly disappeared in a flash of long, ashen green.

For those grand, sweeping plains, the snowy tundra that spread out beneath them, covered in both frost and low, stubborn grass, clinging to life even in the great cold, it all seemed almost endlessly wide.

Fang almost began to hover within the frigid, whirling air, but it was only for a mere moment of time. Yeah... Welcome to the north.

Lightning's heart felt as if it was rapidly fluttering, and she squeezed her eyes shut tight when Fang suddenly dove down to glide, soaring off over that strange new continent, a world that almost seemed untouched by human hands.

---

A thin metal pillar rose up above the crumbling ruin, likely an old flagpole, yet it was bare of any lord's symbol or crest.

Fang stepped silently over the sharp, broken stones, out into the courtyard that nearly teemed with winter wildlife, with pale, hardy flowers and moss, and then, when a small creature suddenly wandered out into the pathway, it only had time to lock eyes with her own.

Lightning listened to that sharp snap of teeth, and then the crunching of both muscle and bone, but she was far too absorbed in her own activities to pay Fang's success much mind. She was sitting there, out in one of the stone pavilions, examining a dusty tablet upon the wall.

But from what era could such a place be dated back to? Lightning reached over to pick up an old metal tool, one that had likely once been used to dig up weeds from the front gardens, a place that had since become practically exclusive to them. The great age of the rusty handle, that much suggested that it had been crafted long before her own time, yet when Lightning brushed her fingertips over the surface of the tool, she nearly jumped when it suddenly crumbled away into chunks of dust, far too ancient to stand up against such things.

"Sorry." Lightning mumbled under her breath, much too quiet for Fang to hear, especially when she was ripping down into her breakfast with such great vigor. "Didn't mean to break it."

The stone pavilion had no reply to give her, nothing but the gentle sounds of the wind.

Lightning tipped her head back to look at the strange carvings upon the ceiling, of the great lords who once rode throughout the plains on horseback, or up upon the shoulders of massive, towering mammoths, a species that she was actually quite eager to see. Even the huge creatures back on Gran Pulse were rather lackluster compared to the sheer giants of the north, the beasts that likely stood just as tall as Fang, or even taller, though without the gift of flight, she'd have a considerably sizable advantage against them.

After a moment or two, Lightning pulled her pale white cloak a bit closer around herself, and she tried not to shiver at the frigid air. It was more than enough for her to pull her mask back up again, and each of her gentle breaths came out a bit less evenly than before.

Yet she was drawn to explore the rest of the withered gardens, past where Fang was busily crunching up and rending a huge wild goat to the bones, where even those bits were consumed for their nutrients as well.

Lightning merely patted at Fang's neck while she walked by, though she made no attempt to distract her from the meal, even when Fang purred so softly at her presence.

The front pathway led on towards the front halls, grand and domed, with stained glass windows that still somehow had their color even after so many years, though it was faded to the point of frail, washed out hues, as if each pane had been melted down somewhat beneath the years of sunlight.

Lightning stared at the wide front doors, which stood almost as tall as Fang at her full height. She realized that she had no way to push or pry them open, not on her own, so she merely walked off to the side again, towards the more wild areas of the gardens, to a massive hedge maze that had since grown out into a veritable forest. The old wooden framework still stood far above, a structure that had once been home to many delicate flowering vines, but it had since been choked with thick, leafy growth, barely allowing more than a few thin rays of sunlight to pass through.

But it was just enough, more than enough for such practiced eyes, for a woman who could hunt beneath mere moonlight, a predator in the dark. Lightning peered around at the dry, crackled earth beneath her boots, at all of the cobblestones that stood unattended and so very covered in dust, and she felt a sudden sense of peace washing over her in great waves. Such a place was truly forgotten, truly left alone in utter solitude, something that nearly made her heart sing.

For it hadn't all gone rotten, and though most of the walls might have crumbled down a bit, the palace was still tall and proud and wild, claimed by the growth of the more natural world. Lightning almost felt the urge to stay there, to remain in that place for more than a short bit of rest, to let Fang eat whatever else she could catch and regain her strength for flying.

Suddenly, a pale, tiny mouse scuttled around in the fallen leaves, and Lightning paused. She watched the frail little thing as it nosed around for any hints of food, before it scurried away again, disappearing beneath one of the tall, leafy hedges of the labyrinth.

Lightning walked on. She stared up at the wild vines that clung so tightly to the bushy shrubs, and she thought back to an old story she'd once heard, that of a terrible beast with the hateful head of a bull, one who'd been locked away, deep within rather a similar maze. The creature was much too frightful to look upon for most souls, too terrifying of a monster to face, and that wasn't even to speak of the horrors of the nigh-inescapable maze, a place where very few humans ever returned from. And even then, all they would speak of was that low, terrible sound, a deep bellow that shook the very walls of the cave, as if it might make the entire structure collapse at any moment.

Though many brave hunters had ventured inside to test their strength and luck, almost none of them were ever seen again, none but a very young man, a shepherd's son, a man who wielded only his own two hands, a sharp wit, and a single cord of string.

Lightning smiled at the thought of slaying such a beast, of returning with the severed head of a cruel, slavering bull-creature, one with such a fearsome reputation. Would Serah be so eager to do the same, to navigate the shadows and then fire her own arrows into the massive creature, helping Lightning from afar? And Fang, she would simply lock horns with the beast, if she could even fit inside the labyrinth, otherwise she would merely charge at it with that beautiful spear, crafted from her own spirit, her own flame.

The maze stretched on and on, further and further into the darkness, over the long, thick vines that grew against the ground itself, rising up to block the way forward at some points. Lightning glanced around at the shadowed tunnels, at the leafy walls that kept her path cloaked in shadow, but when a soft, distant noise suddenly broke the silence, she felt herself go very, very still.

Was she truly alone in there? Fang couldn't possibly have made a sound like that, and even if she could, there was no way for her to have gotten inside the maze while in her dragon form, not without making a louder, crashing noise, unless there was a secret entrance somewhere. But the little sound, an almost pitiful sort of cry, Lightning knew that it certainly wasn't Fang's voice. She knelt down to slowly creep through the thick tangle of vines, even when the edges scratched against her clothes, and she followed after that tiny little sound, further and further into the maze.

The pathway led in against itself, doubling back again, and then curling inward once more, towards a spiraling shape that grew so much more narrow than the outer paths, until finally, she caught sight of the actual center. It was a rounded room, an open chamber with rusted benches and old, stony statues, one of which looked rather like the bull creature from the old story, likely an homage to the fabled beast of yore. And there, beneath what looked like a fractured metal structure, one that had collapsed from such great age, there it was, the source of the noise.

Lightning froze in place, gazing down at what was still crying out, at the whimpering sound that was soon joined with the rather frantic sound of tiny hooves pattering against the stone, and then a cry that only a young child could make, a lost sort of sound, desperate and high.

A little face suddenly stared back at her from beneath the rubble, pinned down and utterly helpless beneath the heavy pillars of metal, yet beneath that face, the human body that wore a thick leather tunic, it suddenly ended, joining somehow, fused there with the distinctive outline of a foal.

Lightning's voice barely left her lips. "Centaur..."

The little foal cried out again, whimpering, pawing at the earth with her hooves.

Lightning moved forward before she could even think, and before she truly realized what she was doing, she'd hauled up some of the metal into her arms, dragging it away from the helpless child. "It's alright-"

The foal stared rather breathlessly at the human who stood far above, but when one of the metal bars that had been crushing down against her foot, when the pressure was suddenly, finally relieved, she stopped crying at once, growing very still and silent while her rescuer kept working away.

"Are you okay?" Lightning almost winced at the way that one of the foal's hooves looked, at how the ankle above it was so very swollen and bloody, likely unable to move without great pain. "Just keep holding still."

The little foal lifted her head a bit to look down at her hooves, before she began to speak in a foreign language, one that Lightning couldn't understand a single word of.

"Just my luck." Lightning grunted as she kept pulling at the twisted pile of rust, the metal bars of some unknown design. "I'll get you out, just hold on."

It took several minutes, and the little foal almost started to cry again, but when she looked up at the sheer determination in Lightning's eyes, she swiftly grew silent once more.

The last bit of scrap was rather pointed and quite rusty, so Lightning was careful not to cut her gloves upon the edge, but when it was finally tossed away, freeing the tiny centaur from her prison, Lightning was rewarded with a nervous sort of sound, almost a laugh, and then an odd, stumbly sort of embrace.

She'd been kneeling down to put the metal away, but when the little foal suddenly bumbled right into her to try and hug so tightly, Lightning fell flat on her back with a dull thud, gazing up from within the tall, dry grass. "Yes, okay..." She couldn't help but smile at the way the young centaur simply flopped against her, hugging around her neck. "You're welcome."

The foal kept very quiet, gazing down at the small bit of shiny silver that had fallen against Lightning's throat.

"You're just a baby, aren't you?" Lightning slowly sat up again, and the foal tumbled gently into her lap, rather content just to have someone so close again, a friendly presence after such a very dire situation. "Where are your parents?"

The centaur had soft, pointed ears, rather like a horse in fact, but her little face was entirely human, like that of a child no older than four. She stared up at Lightning, before she flicked her ears back and forth.

"Can you walk, then?" Lightning tried to stand up again, but all she received was another hug, even tighter than before. "Guess that's a no."

And as she finally managed to rise up, carrying the young centaur in her arms, she had to support the horse half with both arms, while the human half just kept hugging around her neck, shivering slightly in the cold.

"You've got to live somewhere around here, right?" Lightning made her way back towards the entrance of the room, out into the maze, where she tried to mentally recall the way that she'd gone before. "Those clothes are too well-made for someone your age; you have to have someone looking after you."

The little centaur just buried her face down into the crook of Lightning's neck.

"Let's see if Fang can help us find your parents." Lightning glanced down at the dark brown hide of the horse half, at how the young centaur had a big white splotch upon her back, one that had spots of the same deep brown against it. "Appaloosa, huh?"

Without any other name, Lightning's mind wandered back to the way her own steed, how Odin loved apples more than any other food in the world, and she quickly decided to call the little foal 'Apple', at least until her true name could be discovered.

Lightning's boots scuffed slightly against the dusty ground, and by the time she'd finally navigated the twisted, gnarling vines and found her way back out towards the front of the maze, Apple was chattering near her ear, talking along in that same strange language without a care in the world, even if her ankle was still so swollen.

"We should find your parents before anything else." Lightning frowned at the injured limb. "They'll probably have more medical supplies than I do..." It was only then that she looked up to see the hazy sunlight again, and all of the gentle snowflakes that fluttered around in the gardens. "Now, where's Fang?"

Apple glanced around at the courtyard while Lightning carried her even further, but the little foal almost exclaimed at the sudden sight of a massive, dozing beast, so much that she swiftly hugged onto her rescuer even tighter.

"It's okay." Lightning patted along Apple's short brown mane of hair, the human part, just to calm her back down. "Fang's a friend."

"Hmm?" Fang slowly opened her eyes from where she was resting, but they widened considerably at the sight such a small centaur. "Woah..."

Lightning knelt down beside Fang's snout, and she reached out to pat along her scaled forehead, showing Apple that it was indeed safe to do so. "I found her under some rubble, had to haul it off... She must've been caught under there for a while, now." Lightning peered down at just how swollen Apple's little ankle was. "Do you think-"

Apple suddenly started to speak out loud, gesturing all around at the courtyard, and Fang leaned in slightly to listen.

"Ah." Fang nodded to herself, before she spoke something in return, and then, when Apple responded, a deep, draconic sort of laugh rumbled right through Fang's chest. "She's a curious one."

"You can talk to her..?" Lightning almost smiled in disbelief when Apple began to hobble away from her arms, only to stumble right down against Fang's snout. "What did she say?"

Fang lifted her head a bit, and Apple giggled at how she was lifted along with it, all sprawled out against Fang's muzzle. "She just wanted to know if 'the pink one with two legs' was friends with 'the dragon'."

Lightning watched while Fang moved back down again, before Apple stumbled back to her arms. "Can you ask her what her name is?"

Fang spoke something again, but a rather knowing look soon crossed her gaze. "From what I've heard about certain centaur tribes, they don't earn their right to chose a name until adolescence." Another flicker filled her eyes, but it was much more tense than understanding. "And Light... Centaurs are crazy protective over their territory and their young; if they see us even within a few feet of this one-"

"We still have to get her back home." Lightning's face was stern and resolute. "What exactly do you think they can do to a dragon? If we just carry her back there and put her down-"

"And then get shot up with a million barbed arrows, and then poked at with bladed spears?" Fang shook her head back and forth. "No, you can't just show up to them looking like a threat... Trust me, I know from experience."

Lightning didn't react when the little foal started to reach up and play with the longer locks of her pink hair, braiding them down loosely beside her hood. "Then how do we get her back home?"

"We try to get her foot back in walking condition..." With a quick glimmer of light, Fang suddenly reappeared in her human form. "And then we send her out on her way."

Lightning frowned ever so slightly.

"Light, it's all part of nature." Fang reached over to pat the little foal upon her head. "You did a good thing, a human thing, but it's just not worth our lives to keep her out of trouble for any longer."

It was that same deep feeling, the way she'd once sheltered her own kin from the dangers of the world, always kept her within sight, out of harm; the instinct just took hold so deeply, rooted there in the very base of her heart. Lightning tried to force it away, she tried to simply detach herself from the little child who was hugging her yet again, but the pain of it was just far too great.

Fang knelt down as well, and she spoke in that foreign language again, before she laughed quietly at Apple's response, leaning away. "You want to know what she said?"

Lightning nodded.

"She said to thank you for getting her out of there..." Fang sat herself down against the stony pathway. "And that she should really get back home before her mother starts to worry."

Lightning glanced at the swollen injury again. "Ask her if she can walk."

Fang did as Lightning said, but Apple only frowned, and her ears drooped low against her head.

"No, huh..?" Lightning spoke in just a whisper. "You think she could tell her mother not to attack us if we carry her back home?"

Fang almost seemed as if she was about to protest the very idea, but when she looked down at the foal's dewy little eyes, lost and so filled with fright, it was all she could do just to translate the question, waiting for a response.

The centaur language was coarse and consonant heavy, but her practiced ears could understand it quite well: "I will! Mother knows someone just like Pink... With weird legs, so she'll be nice to you, too."

Fang smiled at the chosen moniker. "Her name's Lightning, actually..." She started to translate the words back to Lightning herself, before she translated the name 'Apple' over to the little foal, asking if that was a good thing to call her.

Apple nodded rather vigorously, still sitting upon Lightning's lap.

Fang stood up to glance around at the old, crumbling courtyard. "Alright then, we'll get you back home... Just as long as you promise to tell your family to be nice about it, you hear?"

"I will!" Apple flicked her little tail back and forth when Lightning rose up to her feet as well, carrying the tiny foal on down the pathway. "I was just looking at the funny plants, but then it got too dark, and... I got stuck." Her pointy little ears drooped again. "It was scary."

"It must've been." Fang walked on alongside Lightning, traveling down the wide, snowy path. "I'll bet you were brave when Light got you out, though."

Apple's cheeks went pink with pride, and she swiftly nodded again. "Like mother and father, they're always real brave!"

Fang looked out over the front walls of the crumbled ruin, towards the sweeping plains that stretched on for miles on end. "I'd bet they're out looking for you right now."

"Yeah." Apple turned to look at the huge metal gate that led out to the snowy grasslands. "I snuck in under a hole in the wall... I just wanted to see what was inside."

Fang gave her a rather knowing smile. "And were you supposed to try and get here..? Maybe your mother or father said not to?"

Apple frowned, and she quickly tried to hide her face against Lightning's neck, out from Fang's sight.

"I see." Fang looked over at Lightning to translate what they'd said to each other. "Adventurous little thing, isn't she?"

After a moment of walking, Lightning kicked at the rusty front gate as gently as she could, but it didn't even budge. "Very."

Fang soon reached out towards the massive locking mechanism, and as she focused inwardly, her hand grew so very hot that the metal surface itself began to melt, dripping and distorting until she could simply push the whole thing open with the toe of her boot. "Listen, Light, if this turns out worse than we're hoping for-"

"Just change back and fly; I'll keep them off of you until you can circle around and pick me up." Lightning spared a quick glance at the sword on her belt. "Pray for the best, prepare for the worst, that's what they say..."

"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that." Fang turned back towards the little foal, who seemed to have all but forgotten her previous embarrassment of disobeying her parents. "Hey, kiddo."

Apple smiled at Fang. "Hey!"

"You have any idea where your folks might be?" Fang gestured at the plains, stepping down over a short incline that led into the grass. "Any general direction?"

Apple's smile faltered slightly. "We move around a lot... But maybe up by the lake?" She pointed in a certain direction, one that led north, towards the distant range of snowcapped mountainsides. "We always stop near water."

"Alright." Fang translated for Lightning again, before they made their way out towards the grassy hills, though the pale drifts of snow that crunched so softly beneath their boots. "Hey, Apple... How does a little thing like you walk around in so much snow, anyway?"

Apple pointed at her long, dainty legs. "I hop!"

"Ah." Fang smiled again. "Does your mother help you, too?"

"She used to, but then I got taller!" Apple shivered a little, though her thick leather tunic warded most of the chill away, and then the fuzzy undershirt just beneath it, it kept most of her skin from facing the cold. "My baby brother always needs help, though."

Fang nodded. "Do you help him out, too?"

"Sometimes..." Apple frowned, pouting ever so slightly. "But he's so boring! He doesn't like running around or looking at anything; all even he does is let mother carry him around!"

"Give him some time." Fang looked out along the steep, endless hills, and she listened very closely to the sounds of the whistling wind. "Things always change before too long."

Apple sighed, before she tucked her chin back on top of Lightning's shoulder. "It feels like everything's changing..."

"Just growing pains." Fang smiled to herself, but the warm expression faded when she caught wind of a sound, a very different sound, far from the crackle of snow beneath their feet, or even the whispering breeze. "...Light!"

No, it was a massive sound, a thunderous sound, echoing deep within the hills and the grass, and before either Fang or Lightning could even react for more than a moment, a herd with more centaurs than they could ever count came galloping down from beyond the next incline.