It
was August before Irvine and Selphie could travel to Trabia. She
was nearly five months pregnant and was clearly showing by then, her swollen
stomach sticking out in shocking contrast to her rail thin arms and legs. It
was as if the growing child within her stole away from the strength of
her limbs. But for some reason it
seemed to Irvine that she was happier now then she had been in months. Maybe
somehow Selphie though that her mood while pregnant would affect the disposition
of their unborn child. Or maybe she
was genuinely happy to be who she was and in the position that she was
in. Irvine really couldn't tell
anymore neither could he tell how sick she really was as Selphie constantly
brushed off all of his worries with a carefree smile.
It
was this fear for her safety and well being that made Irvine wrap his arm
tighter around her waist as they entered the grounds of Trabia Garden together. The
crumbled ruins of a year past were no longer in evidence. Instead
the grounds had been well restored and were even more beautiful then Galbadia
and Balamb Gardens in their current states were. Students
and faculty began running up when they saw Selphie and Irvine reluctantly
loosened his hold on her so she could hug them. He
watched the reunions feeling out of place as Selphie used each of their
names in turn and they all jostled to hug her and touch her burgeoning
stomach. Irvine sat down on a bench
along the walkway to wait, letting his cowboy hat droop lazily over his
eyes.
What
must have been only a few moments later although it seemed like an eternity,
he felt Selphie come over and take his hands, "C'mon Irvine! Let's go! They
want us to go to the cafeteria. They've
got food in there for us.
Selphie
dragged him inside and down the brightly lit halls into a large airy cafeteria. There
was already a long line of people waiting for food and most of them turned
around and giddily greeted Selphie with cheerful hellos and waves and some
people ran out of line to give her more hugs. Irvine
noticed that most of the people acted like he was invisible even though
Selphie tried numerous times to introduce him. Irvine
didn't recognize some of the Trabian delicacies that were sitting on the
counters but he took whatever the cafeteria workers offered him in order
not to seem rude.
He
followed Selphie to a table where they were joined by more of Selphie's
Trabian friends than Irvine thought he could possibly count. He
attempted to eat most of the food out of politeness although secretly he
found much of the fare to be quite unpalatable. Selphie
on the other hand ate with more relish and vigor then she had in a long
time and it gave Irvine renewed hope for the future. Maybe
she would beat this thing after all and live to be a mother to their child. Irvine
could only wish deep in his heart.
They
were led to an empty classroom after they'd eaten. Five
students came in and introduced themselves simply as the 'Committee to
Help Selphie.' They were eager to exhibit their findings to her.
One
freckled boy went to the chalkboards and pulled down a map of Trabia, "Here
Selphie is Trabia Garden. And here
we find a road that leads deep into this mountain range here."
A
girl with blonde curls nodded, "Until now we'd been taught in class that
this mountain road was abandoned but as you know many of the things we've
been taught in school were either lies or simply glossed over truths. Timmy
and I did some research and found that during the Sorceress Wars many people
were recruited from places in Trabia. They were from towns like Calbett,
Windside and Northpoint. We gleaned
these names from draft records we'd found on the computer database. We'd
never heard of such places but in our findings we found some old maps and
sure enough these towns were listed on them. We
were surprised and excited."
Timmy
who was tall and gangly spoke up, "Yeah we were kind of wishing we could
go and find these places. Some of
us might have had family from there too but unfortunately we have school
to worry about. We never could find
the name Tilmitt in any of our searches but there are five mining towns
of people who don't keep good records up in those mountains so you never
know."
Freckled
boy chimed in, "Besides the three towns Gemma named there are also the
mining communities of Snow Valley and Coal Park. Most
of these towns mined coal but others mined precious gems such as energy
crystals and dynamo stones. A few
even mined the rare and valuable star fragments. We
don't know much else except that most of these towns are poor because Esthar
soldiers who Adel had sent swindled them out of their money. Adel
used the money taken from the miners to build her empire in Esthar. I
doubt President Laguna knows though as we've been told he is a nice generous
man who wouldn't stand for that kind of crap."
Irvine interrupted them, "How do we get to these towns? Can we rent a car?"
