Chapter 1

A place to belong

The golden autumn sun shone warmly, bathing the courtyard of the massive castle Baron into a warm light. Rydia, the green-haired young caller was sitting on her cloak under a tree, surrounded by fallen leaves. Her eyes were closed and except for a little stir now and then, she was completely motionless. Slowly, her lips curved into a smile.

"Surprise! Surprise!" a male voice shouted suddenly from behind her, followed by two hands laid on her eyes.

"IEEE!" Rydia screamed and jumped to her feet at once, throwing her "attacker" to the ground.

"EDGE! Are you mad?" the girl spun around furiously and faced the young, boyish King of Eblan who sat on the ground and was rubbing various parts of his body due to the fall.

He looked up at her with a mischievous grin: "Yep - I am mad, dear Rydia, mad for..."

As he saw Rydia frowning, he decided to skip the rest of the sentence. "Uh - I just wanted to see how you were doing - since your arrival here at Baron Castle two weeks ago, you seem to avoid me. Even now you don't seem to be very happy to see me..." He sounded hurt and looked at her reproachfully.

Rydia wasn't impressed in the least. "Well no wonder, Edge! You are really a big oaf! I was just about to get in contact with Queen Asura - you know that the connection to the Land of the Summoned Monsters is difficult these days due to the magic fluctuations in the air. It took me two hours to get this far and then you come and break my concentration! I haven't spoken to any of my friends from the Underwold for nearly a week, now..." She looked to the ground and shoved some leaves with her foot aside in a way a stubborn child would do.

"My - she's so sweet..." mumbled Edge, as he took a step towards her and carefully touched her shoulder.

"Well, seems that a certain, very talented and beautiful green-haired caller is homesick, ain't I right?" He bent his knees a bit so that he could look into Rydia's down-turned face from below. "How can you feel lonely when not only your normal friends, but your best friend as well are with you? And now: SMILE!" He grinned broadly, his blue-gray eyes sparkling as always when he praised himself.

Rydia watched him sulkily at first, but soon had to laugh. "You jerk! You're making fun of me!" She gave him a little push which sent the young man to the muddy ground, again.

"OUCH! No need to do this twice!"

"Serves you right - I was really looking forward to speaking with the Queen." Rydia looked sad, again. "You know, Edge - it really was a shock for me to hear that the entrance to the Underworld got buried during the earthquake at Agart..." She leaned against the tree, her big green eyes staring into the morning sky.

Edge sprang to his feet and cleared his throat - he wasn't used very much to "this kind" of serious conversation. Still, he could try. He leaned against the tree beside her and started to stare in the sky, too, wondering what Rydia could see, what he could not.

"Don't get so depressed! I am sure we will find a way to open the entrance up, again! Besides..." He searched for words "Besides... your place is here - here on the upper world, with us! Why did you had to leave one year ago, anyway?"

The ninja became silent at once, as he noticed that his words had sounded more accusingly than encouraging. For a moment there was an icy silence. Finally Rydia pushed herself away from the tree and faced him.

"Why I left here? Well, my village was destroyed and all the women were killed - except for me! I am the only caller left... What should I do here? Teaching kids magic they won't be able to use ever?" Her voice was still calm, but already had a dangerous quiver in it.

"It is great Edge, that YOU of all people know where my place is - I surely do not know!"

"So... sorry, Rydia..." stammered Edge - making apologies was hard for him. "I didn't want to hurt you..." He carefully laid his arms around her - the caller did not protest, and only turned her head away a bit.

"Yep- this is going fine!" the ninja thought happily and stepped a bit closer, tightening his embrace.

Rydia started to sob quietly.

"Err..." Edge gave a help searching look to his surroundings - as much as he enjoyed holding Rydia in his arms as much the situation irritated him - he somehow had to comfort her...

"Well, look, Rydia," he started, trying to sound as encouraging as possible, "I know that you have endured much hardship, but life goes on... And really - such a pretty and intelligent girl as you are should start to have some fun! Like wearing nice dresses, going dancing and so on instead of living in a dark hole in the midst of people who have three eyes and a spiky tail..."

Rydia sobbed again. "They have what?"

Edge became more agitated. "What I mean is that they are not normal! It's nice of them to help us out in a fight once in a while, but that should be enough! They live in another world - they are not human - they are monsters!"

Rydia's sobbing ceased at once. With a violent motion she tore herself away from Edge.

"They are monsters? "They" are my friends! If they are monsters and not normal, am I a monster, too?" she hissed, eyes flashing furiously, cheeks red.

The ninja king watched her baffled. "Well - no... I didn't mean it that wa--"

"You didn't mean it - didn't mean it? You, you--" the caller was snapping for air and for words, "you childish excuse for a king! You're the greatest monster of all! Leave me alone at once, or you can meet one of my monster friends!" She started to move her arms as if preparing a spell.

Edge backed away at immediately - he knew about Rydia's temper. "Alright, alright- I am going..." With a boyish grin he added: "But you know- I do like it when you are angry! You look really cute then..."

He started to run as sparks of flame emerged from Rydia's fingertips.

"Wow! She's really hot!"

As Edge entered the castle he nearly ran into his friend, the Paladin Cecil.

"Edge, why are you in such a hurry?"

"Fleeing from Rydia- she's in a bad mood today... Be careful!"

The Paladin's lips curved in amusement. "You don't happen to have angered her again, have you?" he asked, slightly reproachful.

Edge turned around and held his hands up in a gesture of innocence, smiling broadly. "Cecil, as if would I ever..." Still grinning, he walked away.

The white haired paladin sighed. The caller had been in a good mood at her arrival some weeks ago, but since then, she had become more and more sad day by day. Cecil didn't really know why, but he suspected that everything, including the buried entrance to the Underworld, was a bit too much to handle for her.

Leaving the castle, he started to look for Rydia and found her near her most beloved tree in the courtyard, sitting against the trunk, knees clasped in her arms. As he approached her, she didn't look up. Slightly frowning, Cecil sat down next to her and laid an arm around her slender shoulders.

"He went too far again, am I right?" he asked softly.

Rydia nodded solemnly and leaned against him.

Cecil squeezed her supportively. "Don't take it too serious. You know how he is... And he really likes you."

Rydia knew pretty well that the ninja liked, possibly loved her, although she herself was unsure of her feelings. Love - she didn't really know what that meant, having had no time in her life to grow up normally. In fact she didn't grow up at all - the magic from the underworld had changed her from an eight year old girl to one of 18 - on the outside. That Rydia still seemed quite grown-up was due to the hard experiences she'd made early in her life and the company of her older friends. She felt friendship for Edge - nothing really more... The person closest to loving was - or had been probably Cecil in whom she saw an older brother.

"He surely wanted only to cheer you up, but he got it all wrong as usual," Cecil continued and then laughed softly. "Yesterday he went into the wine cellar and locked himself into it, as he'd lost the keys. He pounded on the door for more than one hour and would have broken it, if a maid hadn't rescued him. He told her that it had been really worse to see all these bottles without being able to open them properly..."

"What a jerk..." Rydia mumbled, but suddenly had to laugh to. She raised her head, her eyes still full of tears, although she was smiling again.

"See - no need to cry, at least you are laughing again..." The Paladin started to wipe the tears with the folds of Rydia's silken green cape. The girl watched him with big eyes.

"Cecil?" she asked meekly.

"Yeah?"

"Will I ever get back?"

The young king of Baron stopped cleaning her face and studied her fearful expressions for a moment, thoughtfully. "You're missing the others...Aren't you?" Rydia just nodded.

"I understand - things here on the upper world are different from the world below, I guess... But although both are different they are part of your life - deciding living in one or the other can be hard..." He took up theend of her cape again.

"Yes. That's it... How do you know?" Rydia sighed.

The Paladin had to smile. "I've often wondered what would happen if I had lived part of my live on the moon. As I've spent my whole life here, I would never question "where" I belong or where I would want to be, as there was no necessarily choice to make. Your situation is difficult, though,as your bonds lay in different worlds. I guess if my broth... if Golbez would ever come back, he would have similar problems... And I could get some, too..." He had finished wiping the tears away by now.

Rydia's expression had brightened upconsiderably. "Thank you Cecil," she said. "When I am talking with you I really have the feeling that you understand how I feel!"

"Well - I am doing the best I can..."

"It's right - I am missing my friends down there once in a while..." Rydia said, only to add, quickly: "Although I like being here with you all, too... Even Edge... I guess the problem at the moment is just that I couldn't go back even if I wanted to..."

"Don't worry about it... I am sure we will find a way!" the Paladin exclaimed confidently and stood up.

"Thanks Cecil- you have always time for me. You sure have enough own problems... Are things alright again between Rosa and you?"

The Paladin felt himself blushing a bit. "Yeah... Couldn't be better..." Cecil knew that the quarrel between his wife and him and his overhasty trip to Mt. Ordeals had worried his friend greatly. "Kain is worrying us a bit, though..."

Rydia shrugged her shoulders. She didn't care much for the Dragoon.

"I guess she blames him more than me for the death of her mother..." Cecil frowned. "She looks so sad again..." Suddenly he remembered why he had left the castle.

"By the way - I guess a little distraction would do you good... We have decided in a conference this morning to visit the site of the earthquake at Agart. We want to see how everyone is doing and examine the buried crater. Care to join us?"

Rydia frowned. "Ah - I don't know... is Edge coming, too?"

"Do you want him to come?"

"I don't know... Can you deter him from coming?"

Cecilreflected for a moment, a slight grin spreading over his face. "No... It's settled then, right?"

Rydia laughed. "Alright! See you later. I have to tell Diane about what Edge did yesterday!" She jumped to her feet and hurried away.

Cecil watched her go with a smile. Diane, Cid's daughter, and the young caller had met each other just some days ago and had already become good friends. Diane's calm and friendly person was a good addition to Rydia's lively but also capricious one. They would often take long walks or sit giggling in a corner, laughing about Edge, Cid or anything else funny. Cecil and Rosa were very happy about it - as the events at the moment with the coming of the moon, the destroyed shrine of Mt. Ordeals and the earthquake at Agart were dire enough, they didn't have much time for their friend. Rydia was in her heart still a bit of a child and took things personally very fast - Cecil was happy for every distraction his dear friend could get -- it was enough if he was worried about the current situation.With a sigh, his smile changing to a tired one, he set out to find the others.