Alaia Skyhawk: And going and going and going and going and going...
I don't own Tales of Symphonia so please don't sue me. I do however own Krishka, Dallinius (Dalli), Aluran, the Alurannai and any OCs, except Sanaro and Annule, who belong to Mr.Who2123, and Mika and Fiuras, who belong to WingedWithFieryMana, so please don't steal them...
Enjoy
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Chapter 25: Memories
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The wind... I've always liked the wind... It moves freely over the land, and if diverted it never stops. Just finds another way...
She sat there eyes closed, high above the camp where her squad rested, just feeling the brush of the flowing air on her face. They were past the plains of Asgard, nearing the City of Asgard itself. The journey had been difficult, with the constant pressure of Desian patrols searching for them after the convoy had been discovered destroyed. They'd found this small canyon, barricading and disguising the entrance to buy themselves a reprieve. Outside of it no less than three large patrols of Desians had passed by, fooled by the apparent rockslide that looked as though it filled the entire space beyond. That space wasn't large, not for thirty-seven men and women, some of which were injured. They just had to make do, and pending going crazy from lack of peace, she'd found a spot on the cliff where she could sit in the wind, yet still remain hidden from view.
I wonder... I wonder how things are back home...
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"Mika! Hanamori Mika, you haven't finished your chores! Young lady, put that ocarina down and get the water from the well that I told you to get an hour ago."
The little girl blinked wide blue eyes at the dark haired woman at the woodstove. Hastily putting the instrument on a shelf by her bed, she darted to the edge of the raised wooden platform to where her wooden sandals waited on the packed earth that floored half of the room. Slipping them on, she raced out the door.
"Sorry, Mom."
The sunshine outside made her squint after the dim light within the house. Stumbling a little until her eyes adjusted, she grabbed the pair of buckets at the corner of the wall and set off at a run towards the centre of the village.
The village was Mizuho, and lay in a secluded mountain valley far from any trade route, protected by the rather ominous Gaorrachia Forest. The valley entrance could only be reached through that forest, meaning that no one had ever found it, for to reach the hidden path one had to move far from the only known safe route through those lands, something none who valued their lives would ever risk. None of this worried Mika, she was still too young to be told much of the outside world. For her the world was this village and the crystal blue river just down the valley at the very edge of the settlement. She'd never been more that a few fields away from her home and right now never wanted to be. She was happy here, in this place of simple earth walled houses and thatched roofs. Of small wooden bridges that crossed the sparkling streams that ran through it. Of Mountain pines that grew scattered within the village, gradually growing thicker the further you went from it towards the mountain slopes themselves.
Water, pine, and earth... The smell of home.
Watching the little girl's rush through the village, Chief Iggaguri smiled sadly and sighed, catching the attention of the young man next to him.
"She grows more with every passing day it seems, and but for her blue eyes you would never know her father was not of the village. Tiga, if only people would see her for the bright young child she is, rather than look past her as soon as they learn what she is."
Tiga regarded the chief solemnly with brown eyes that were the norm for those born here.
"Are they pressuring you to name a successor from among their 'candidates' again?"
Iggaguri nodded, his expression disappointed.
"I will not marry again. Losing Kari in childbirth is pain enough. When I pass on my sister will become Chieftain as is her right... and Mika after her. I will not take that from them just because my niece is a half-elf... Threat from Tethe'alla, or no threat, the day we take from our own to pacify them, is the day we lose all honour..."
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"Hyah, gotcha!" Bright blue eyes above a wide smile shone out from among the mass of charcoal coloured hair. They were fixed on the youth at the girl's feet, wooden practice blade pointed at his throat in an unwavering grip. Still smiling, she lowered it and offered him a hand up. "Here, I knocked you down, so allow me to help you back up. It's only right to help one's comrades."
Glancing at Mika's hand, the boy refused it and pushed himself to his feet.
"I don't need your help. A samurai that depends on others is a samurai that relies on them like a crutch. I look after myself."
Mika shrugged and lowered her hand, her face impassive as she replied.
"And a samurai that can't accept that sometimes one must depend on others is one that will fall in times when all must work as one to succeed."
The boy flushed as she repeated the lesson they had had drummed into them since they were eight. Now twelve they both knew how important that lesson was. He glared at her, and then brushed past making her stumble.
Mika watched him go, face calm, yet inside she wanted to cry. She knew he'd only challenged her to a sparring session because he wanted to humiliate her, to prove she wasn't good enough.
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"It's not fair, Fiuras. Why can't they accept me? Everything was fine before Tethe'alla began asking around for assassins. It didn't matter to anyone that I'm a half-elf."
The red tailed hawk nuzzled her ear as he perched on her shoulder, watching as she cried into her hands.
"They're afraid, Mika. They're afraid that if the King of Tethe'alla finds out they'd willingly accept a half-elf as their leader, he'd hunt them down and have the village put to the sword. I've heard them talking, they just want to keep the village safe."
Mika brought her hands up and clung to the spirit, tears now soaking into his feathers.
"But why do they have to take it out on me? It's not my fault I was born this way. All I want is to be treated the same as everyone else, but they just keep pushing me away."
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The rain battered down upon the thatched roofs, turning day to grey twilight. She sat there in the lamp light, Fiuras perched on a beam above her, clenching her hands on her knees as the tears fell from her eyes to land in her lap. The house was empty, she was alone but for the spirit... and she would always be alone. Her mother wouldn't be walking in though that door again, smiles and laughter. Her mother was dead, dead of the fever that had struck the village, taking young and old wherever it willed. It had taken her mother, and torn her world apart.
Why? Why did this have to happen?
She bit her lip as it trembled, fighting to stop the tears. She knew why, because unthinking things like disease didn't care who they took, it just happened.
I'm only fourteen. I can't stay in this house alone, not all alone... Uncle... Uncle will know what to do.
She got up, slipping on her wooden sandals as she had done so many times before. Stopping by the door, she pulled on a rain cape and drew up the deep hood to hold the rain off her face. Leaving the house, she walked through the village to her uncle's home, crossing the little wooden bridge as the rain fell around her, dripping from the edges of her cape. As she neared the house she heard raised voices, and seeing the crowd outside it she ducked into the shadow beneath a nearby pine. Listening carefully she heard what were saying.
"Chief, you can't be serious! If you name her your successor you'll doom us all!"
"The King has deployed his mage trackers. They know we have a mage here and every day she remains in the village they get closer! She must leave!"
Iggaguri raised his hands, trying to bring order to the mob.
"You would have me strip my niece of her right of succession simply because the King of Tethe'alla would demand it! We are autonomous, he has no say over our village! Have you lost all honour that you would condemn a girl who is little more than a child, for the simple reason that those fools cannot accept those that are different?"
Still watching, she brought a hand to her mouth, bewilderment setting in.
Why?
The mob surged renewed as a man shouted.
"Where is the honour in choosing to condemn this village for the sake of one girl?!"
She bit her lip, starting to back up as her uncle continued to try and get them to see reason.
Why me? Why should this be happening to me?
Tiga was forced to step forward, holding back a woman who was screaming at her uncle. Iggaguri was clearly struggling, he couldn't seem to find anything to say to their accusations.
Mika lowered her hand, her expression bleak as she turned and walked away.
You don't deserve this, Uncle. I can't let them make you suffer like this...
She returned to her house, resolved that if she couldn't change things by being here, she would change them by going somewhere she could. Her bag filled, she walked over to the shelf by her bed and gathered up the shards of the ocarina she'd dropped when the message had come that her mother was dead. Putting them safely into a pouch, she hung it around her neck, gathered her bag, and opened the door.
"Let's go, Fiuras..."
Walking into the rain, away over the fields, she didn't look back as her world faded into the distance behind her...
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A tear slid down her cheek as she opened her eyes, looking out on the windswept rocks around her.
Uncle... With me gone you'll have no choice but to pick one of the others... For the village, Uncle, and for you... It's better this way...
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Alaia Skyhawk: That was so sad to write... WingedWithFieryMana, I hope you like the back story I've made for you OC.