A/N: I've had plenty of sleep and I'm ready to type again. Ch.13 was really short, but this might be a little longer. Well, go on, read it! And please review!
Chapter Fourteen:
I sat in the infirmary of Galbadia Garden, in a chair by Seifer's bed. He'd be awake soon, and I had to find some way to talk to him without tearing his head off.
I wasn't particularly mad at him. It was the confusion, the frustration and the fear that just made me feel like punching something, no matter who or what. That's why everyone else had either gone to the cafeteria or was sleeping in a large room the Headmaster had set up especially for Balamb's survivors.
I held Kyonae's falcon necklace in my hand. It was very detailed for such a small figurine. Its eyes had been amazingly shaped to make it look silently furious, its wings outstretched. On its back were small ancient Osirian hieroglyphs that I couldn't understand. In my hand, it felt warm, as if it were alive. This was all I had of my daughter.
I remembered fresh in my mind that letter I'd received that day during the SeeD exam. I remembered every damn word of it:
Dear Sir, it has come to the attention of our orphanage that we used to care for your son, and we are happy that you've found him. But these next words may come as quite a shock: Squall had a twin sister who was also cared for by this orphanage. We received the information from a midwife who lives in Winhill, if you wish to ask her questions, her address…
I looked at the falcon again. That fury in its eyes, I thought, looked exactly like what Kyonae must feel like every damned day of her life.
I was out in the playground, on the swing. Suddenly someone came up from behind and pushed me off. I fell to the dirt ground.
"My turn, Seifer!" Zell said, hopping onto the swing, his blue eyes sparkling with impatience. "You always hog the swing!"
I stood up and patted the dust off my blue shirt. My bare knees stung with scrapes, but I ignored it. Glaring at the annoying little six-year-old, I walked away to the monkey bars, where Squall, Selphie, Quistis, Irvine, and Rinoa were playing. I began to climb when Rinoa came up in front of me, her short black pigtails hanging limply as she was hanging upside. "Whaddya think you're doing?" she asked churlishly.
"I-I wanna play on the monkey bars," I stuttered.
Selphie came up beside her; her face screwed up in temper tantrum. "Well, you can't!"
"Why not?"
"Because you're a stupid boy!"
"Irvine and Squall are up there, and they're stupid boys too," I retorted.
"Yeah, well-they're different! We like Irvine and Squall. We don't like you at all!"
Irvine looked my direction and pointed his index finger like a gun. "BANG! BANG! You're dead!"
"Irvine, stop that!" Quistis cried. She liked everybody to get along.
"See? No one likes you, so there!" she blew a raspberry in my face and climbed back up, giggling.
Rejected, I walked away. I could easily have told Matron on them, but that would only make them hate me more.
I sat down under a tree, tears running down my face. I just wanted to be like the others. I wanted to play with them. But they wouldn't let me. They thought I was a stupid, strange little boy.
It wasn't fair.
I was jarred from my depressed thoughts by an apple hitting me on the head, then giggling coming up from above. "Huh?"
Another apple came down and hit me. "Ow!" More giggling.
More apples came and hit me, until finally I lost it, picked one up, and hurled it back into the tree where it had come from.
"Whoa-" the kid responsible for the apple throwing lost her balance and fell right on top of me. We went flying to the ground in a heap.
She pinned me to the ground, laughing. She was my age, with long brown hair in two thin braids and spiky bangs, pale blue gray eyes and a wide smile. Her face was tan and full of happiness. "I got you!"
She rolled off me and shot nimbly to her feet. "Did you see that? Huh? Wow, you should've seen your face when…" she drifted off, her smile fading as she saw my tear stained face clearly. She hung her head guiltily. "I'm sorry. I didn't think I was hitting you that hard…I won't do it again, honest…"
"No, it's not you," I said, wiping them away with my sleeve. "Those guys over there wouldn't let me play with them. That's why I came over here."
"Oh…well, I'll beat em' up later. You wanna play with me?"
"Really? Sure!"
"Okay! You…" She looked around briefly, then, picking up a long stick, gave it to me. "You can be my loyal knight who protects me from the evil stuff while we go on adventures."
"What are you?"
She giggled, climbing back up into the tree and coming down with a flower crown she'd obviously been making. "I'm a sorceress, silly! Now come on!" She skipped off into the woods, and I followed her.
We came to a river with stepping stones lodged in it. She easily jumped over them. "Come on, knight! We gotta save the world from total destruction!"
I obeyed, going over them very carefully, and slipped. But before I fell into the water, she jumped back onto the stones and grabbed my arm. She giggled. "Some knight you are! You're supposed to be protecting me, not the other way around!"
I laughed with her as she guided me onto the bank. Then we ran some more, until we came to an ugly looking, short tree with no leaves. She stopped and gasped. "Knight, protect me!"
"Huh? What? I don't see anything. It's just a tree."
"Oh, knight, its magical powers have confounded your mind! Can't you see it's a great black dragon with scales like armor and eyes as red as blood? Can't you see the fire it breathes?"
I squinted hard, tilting my head. Its twisted black shape did kind of resemble a dragon's, and the two red mushrooms sticking out of it did look like eyes…the rays of sun glaring down on it really looked like fire. I finally nodded. "I see it!"
"Then help me defeat it! Blizzard!" she cried, holding out her hands and making a swooshing sound by blowing air through her teeth.
Joining the fight against the imaginary creature, I ran forward and sliced the tree harmlessly a couple of times with my stick. When the battle was over one of its branches broke off, and we considered the dragon dead.
"Good job, knight! Let's keep going till we reach the ocean!" She pointed onward. "Aren't you coming, knight?"
"Um…" I looked back toward the orphanage. Would the other kids notice I was gone?
I shook my head mentally. Screw the other kids.
I had a friend now.
We traveled through the forest, meeting many sorts of adventures. The girl, who I called Sorceress because I didn't know her real name, made any mundane thing seem alive and exciting. She claimed an ordinary rock to be the Great Orb of Greatness, whatever that was. We indeed went as far as the ocean, where she became ecstatic over a simple strand of seaweed.
"Mermaid hair!" she cried, holding the slimy piece of sea plant in her fingers. "This has been a good day, huh, Knight? We've fought dragons, giant snakes (which had really been vines), found the Great Orb of Greatness, an underground world filled with furry people (it had been a particularly large rabbit hole), and now mermaid hair!"
I allowed myself to believe in everything she said. "It's fascinating. It must've been a balding mermaid!" I laughed.
She was laughing, but suddenly stopped. "Knight-your knees!"
I looked down. I'd forgotten all about the scrapes on my knees, and had allowed them to bleed, making them even more vulnerable to thorny bushes and the like. They were scratched and bloody, and seeing them now suddenly made them sting. Tears welled up in my eyes in sudden pain.
"Sit down," she said gently. "You don't hide terrible wounds like these, Knight- you have to tell someone." As I sat down on a log, she pressed her palms against my shins. "Now stay still…"
It was quick and sudden as a bright light flashed under her palms, but it left a lingering icy feeling on my legs. When I looked at my knees again, there wasn't the slightest scratch on them. "Wow…how'd you do that?"
Sorceress thought for a moment, and shrugged. "I've always been able to do that. Maybe it's 'cause I'm a sorceress!" she giggled, sitting down beside me. "Let's rest for a minute. Being a sorceress and a knight isn't easy."
"Sorceress…"I had to ask. "What's your real name?"
Her smile faded again, into a distant look. "I don't know if I should tell you or not."
"Why not?"
"'Cause every time I do, I get sent away to another orphanage. They keep saying, 'It's all for your own good', but I don't understand why." She looked at me. "And I don't want to know your name either, 'cause if I get sent away again, I don't wanna remember you as Robert or Jason or anything like that. 'Knight' is fine for me."
She gave me a kiss on my cheek. Like her healing power it felt cold against my warm skin, as if she'd just stepped out of a freezer. Afterwards she blushed deeply. "Come on, Knight, we'd better be getting back."
"Okay, Sorceress."
It was a quiet walk, and soon we saw the orphanage ahead. Everyone else had gone inside. We ran through the empty playground, going for the doors…
Sorceress stopped. We both heard weeping behind us. Turning, we saw a woman sitting in the swing, her head in her hands. We hadn't noticed her before.
With me right behind her, Sorceress approached the woman. "Um…hello? What's wrong? W-Why are you crying?"
The woman looked up, her somber yellow eyes studying Sorceress with a far-off look. "'Tis nothing you should be concerned of, my dear. Go and play."
"No," she said stubbornly. "You're crying. Tell me."
The woman allowed herself a false laugh. "Strong willed, I see. Very well, then. Two months ago my only daughter died of sickness, and now I am alone. I am a mother without a child to care for."
"How old was she?"
"Not a year over six."
"Was she pretty?"
"Only the most beautiful little girl in the world."
"Was she nice?"
"She had the biggest of hearts."
Sorceress looked back at me strangely, than to the woman again. "Well…" she started slowly, "I'm six years old. I might not be pretty, but people say I'm very nice. And…" she looked away shyly. "I'm a child without a mother to care for me."
The childless mother looked up at the motherless child, in a whole new light. "You would like to come with me?"
"Uh-huh. I don't like to see people cry."
"Oh…dear child…" She swept Sorceress up into her arms. "You look so much like her, too! You must come with me…you must come with me to Osiria…you will happy there…we'll both be happy…what is your name?"
Sorceress whispered her real name in the woman's ear. I could not hear it. "My name is Maika. But you may call me Mother if you wish."
I frowned. Something about this wasn't right. "Sorceress…"
The woman's head snapped upward toward me, glaring at me in a cold way. "Who is this?"
"That's Knight. He's my friend. Can he come too?"
I quailed under the woman's stare, until she gazed away to Sorceress. "No…he cannot. I'm sorry, but you must never see him again. He is no good. Now come along, dear."
"Wait! Can't I say goodbye?" The woman had grasped her hand and was pulling her away. "Can't I say goodbye?"
"No, my dear, we must go. Come along."
Finally Sorceress ceased to struggle, and looked back at me one last time. "Bye-bye, Knight," she mouthed, but I could hear her voice in my head. She followed the woman down the road.
"Sorceress-" I started to run after them.
A gentle hand laid itself on my shoulder, holding me back. It was Matron. "Let them go, Seifer," she said softly. "There is nothing we can do."
"But Matron-"
"Let them go." Matron looked at the retreating pair, her eyes locked on the woman. There was a glint in her eye. Was it hate?
I sighed, following Matron back inside, looking once more at my friend, who was almost out of sight.
(Bye-bye, Sorceress…)
***
I woke with a start, sitting up instantly and so suddenly that it took Laguna, who had been dozing off in the chair next to me, by surprise. He stared at me questioningly. I must've looked like a madman, but I didn't care.
"Kyonae's in Dratilia," I said. "Sorceress Maika took her back."
