Light of the Heart
Authors Note: All characters mentioned here in this story besides Lithan and her mom are Square's property. Thanks Square!! Final Fantasy VIII has always been my favorite Fantasy of the ten that are out, something about its story has just made in impact on me. I don't know what but I really enjoyed it and connected with the characters, I've heard a lot of argument over which is the better Fantasy VII or VIII. It doesn't really matter as long as you enjoyed it, right? So sit back, relax and read this little (perhaps not so little =P ) fic about the world of Final Fantasy 8. Enjoy =) *After reading Mintbaby's fic with Zell, I decided to keep his relationship with the Library Girl. Why change a good thing? Thanks Mint!*
- Daedalus
Chapter 1
Lithan woke up to the soft light coming through her bedroom window through the frost encrusted glass. She was loath to get up as she could already feel the biting cold of the day from beneath the her blankets. She forced herself to get up from her warm nest in bed and quickly jump into her sweatshirt and pants to keep off the chill, it did little good. Gathering up the clothes she wanted to wear Lithan hopped across the hall into the bathroom with dark thoughts of cold weather and colder houses.
She stepped from the shower and wiped the condensation from the mirror with the edge of her towel. She looked at herself as she combed her brown shoulder length hair which she usually wore in a pony tail. Her mother and friends said that she was stunningly beautiful, with her amber eyes, high cheek bones and softly rounded chin. Her well sculpted nose and eyebrows that accented her eyes made her a natural beauty. Combined with her supple, athletic body and natural grace, she was the desire of many a male mind. Her mother teased her about that. Dear, what will the boys think? and Why haven't you been asked out yet? Knowing full well that her daughter was an incredibly quiet and introspective girl, content with her horses and books of adventure.
Lithan sometimes wondered why people thought her so attractive. She thought she was normal and always quick to point out her flaws if someone remarked about her looks. But that wasn't what bothered her. People were always watching her. When ever she looked up from her books in school, at lunch, as she walked home. When she asked her friends or her mother all she ever got was an "I don't know, there is just something about you."
She dismissed that train of thought from her mind. Better not to dwell on thoughts that have no answer...
she thought to herself as she dressed and made her way downstairs. "Morning mom." she said as she sat down at one of the counter table stools.
"Good morning dear." Her mother replied with a warm smile.
Her mother looked as she did, but was much more open with people. Her father had died soon after she was born, but her mom always liked to reminisce about him, telling her daughter about her father. He was the quiet one, she would say , That's where you must get your shyness from. He was so kind, I loved to hear his laugh and watch the way his eyes would crinkle when he smiled... Her eyes would tear up and Lithan would leave and let her be alone.
They say down to breakfast together, her mother telling what had to be done with work today and that her horses needed to cared for and would she mind if she could check Sara to see how her foal is? Lithan half listened to her mom as she finished her toast and eggs, thinking about the things she had to do today.
"Ready to go, love?" Her mother inquired, realizing looking at her watch.
"Sure mom, just let me grab my bag..." Lithan said as she left the table, bringing her plate to the sink.
She walked to the front door and slid into her jacket, picking up her bookbag as she went. Her mother met her at the door and they walked through the gently falling show to her mother's sedan. They climbed in and the engine started. They pulled away from the house and started down the slick hill that led to where they lived.
"Road's really bad today..." Her mother commented as she slowly drove down towards the town nestled in the valley beneath their house.
The wind picked up, making the snow swirl around the car and block their view of the road. Her mother slowed to a crawl, unable to make out the road ahead. Lithan felt the car slide a little and her mother applied the breaks, quickly pumping them to prevent them from locking. It didn't help.
"Mom..." Lithan whispered, her heart going into her throat. She thought she glimpsed the cliff edge ahead of the faster sliding car.
"Its ok, honey...its ok..." Her mother trailed off as she saw what was ahead, or more accurately, what wasn't. "H-hold on to something!" Her mother half yelled.
The car left the ground and plunged down toward the forest below.
~
Chapter 2
"Lithan..." A voice said, echoing from a distance.
"Lithan..." It said again, closer now and vaguely female.
Lithan stirred and screamed at the biting pain, her body was on fire. She froze, trying not to move anything. She felt warm, sticky and it smelled like metal. She couldn't see, didn't want to see.
"Lithan..." The voice was right next to her ear, "I can help you...I can save you..."
"P-Please... help me..." Lithan whispered, holding back a sob.
"If I help you, you must help me..."
"Please, help us..." Lithan said again.
"Us?" Said the voice, "There is no other life around... Only a broken girl..."
Lithan didn't, couldn't believe what the voice implied. "Save my mom and I'll help you...please..." Lithan said, managing only a slight whisper.
The voice was silent. Lithan waited, growing weaker and more sleepy. Is this what its like to die? she wondered to herself.
"For me to save your mother would cost me dearly for she is already across the veil and I would still have my problem..."
"Please, I'll do anything to help you, just save us..."
Silence
"Alright, but if I do this, you will never be able to see this world again for I must take you from it in order for you to help me... Is this acceptable?"
"Yes..." Lithan said in a barely audible voice.
"It is done... Do not worry, time shall compress and your mothers death reversed." The voice intoned.
Lithan didn't know or care what the voice was saying, her mind was a fog she couldn't find a way out from.
"So lovely... You'll make a great sorceress... Do not worry little one, I shall send you to be among friends. You will be loved, cared for. Just remember your pact when the time comes." The voice said as it slowly drifted away from her.
Lithan felt a light gently illuminate her mind, filling her with a feeling of pins and needles before the fog moved in once more, smothering her in a gentle, peace filled sleep.
~
Chapter 3
A warm, almost tropical, wind blew against her face as Lithan slowly awoke. No pain... she thought to herself, But what about the cra-... MOM! The thought hit her instantly, she gasped and immediately tried to sit up.
"Oh no you don't!" Someone said, pushing her back down on to the bed. A good thing too, Lithan felt sick because of her sudden movements and allowed herself to be forced back onto the soft material. She cracked her eyes open and squinted at the blurry figure above her. She felt hands checking over her body. Lifting here, poking there. She tried not to wince at the pain that even those gentle touches caused but couldn't.
"Hurts does it? Well, lets see if we can't do something about that..." A female voice said. Lithan assumed she was a doctor of some kind and wasn't surprised to feel the prick of a needle. "Poor dear, you'll be alright soon enough..." The sound drifted away on another wave of sleep.
Lithan woke again to the wind. She knew better than to move, she hurt all over. Someone was moving around in the room with her. She opened her eyes and focused on the woman next to her.
"Back with us, are we m'dear?" She said, a small smile crinkling her face. "I must say, you are or were in very bad shape. But you should be alright now, can you say your name for me?"
"Lithan..." Lithan replied.
"A lovely name for a lovely girl." The woman said and moved away to pick up a tool of some kind. Lithan caught a look at herself in the glass of an adjacent rooms window. She looked the same as she always had, only much more thin and pale. I look dead... she though, she felt that way too. The woman came back and sat down on the edge of Lithan's medical bed.
"I'm Dr. Kadowaki, the medical head here at Balamb Garden. I just want to ask you a few questions, don't worry. Nothing and no one is going to hurt you here." Lithan nodded and Dr. Kadowaki continued. "Do you remember how you got hurt?"
"Yes, my mom and I were in a car accident." Lithan said quietly.
"Where is your mom?"
"I don't know..."
"Where do you live?"
"We live in Stowe, Vermont. We have a horse farm."
Dr. Kadowaki looked at her strangely before patting her cheek.
"Please, where am I?" Lithan said, starting to worry.
"I told you, the infirmary of Balamb Garden." Dr. Kadowaki replied slowly as she got up and headed for the door to Lithan's room.
"Wait! P-please, what's garden?" Lithan quickly said.
"Garden? Garden is an academy that trains people to become SeeD's." She replied.
"How did I get here? This place is too futuristic looking... Like some Sci-Fi movie..." Lithan said, her voice trailing off as the Doctor looked at her, a flash of sympathy crossing her features.
"That's the question isn't it? You appeared in a flash of light above Garden's central fountain. Everyone saw it, Commander Squall pulled you out of the water. You were dressed like nothing we've ever seen, so close to death, but... I don't know, you just seemed to... to glow somehow... I can't explain," Dr. Kadowaki said with a sigh, "But don't worry, you'll be out of here in no time. In fact, you'll be out of here if you say so, half of Garden's students have offered to escort you around. Some, seem quite taken with you, m'dear, for having only seen you a few minutes, and you not looking your best."
Lithan felt a faint blush color her cheeks and looked down. Dr. Kadowaki laughed gently. "Here, your well enough, to be in a wheel chair for a little while, going to the quad will do you some good, I think, your too pale. Let me see, who would be a good escort...Zell, he'll do." She left and Lithan was alone to study her battered body.
Her chest hurt with deep breaths and both legs were in bandages. She lifted the covers but she was in a gown of a soft material, softer than cotton but not as warm. Her head was wrapped in a bandage, but all her hair was there. It hurt to move at all. She didn't realize that she was crying until the tears fell onto her hand. I've lost everything, Mom, the horses, my world... She forced herself to stop the tears and wiped away any traces of them. Just in time She thought as she heard Dr. Kadowaki talking to someone outside her room. The hissed open and the doctor stepped in.
"Lithan? This is Zell Dincht." Dr. Kadowaki said and presented her with a young man. He had spiky, blond hair and a tattoo across the side of his face, also spiky. His blue eyes held a spark of humor and life that seemed to swallow everything he looked at. He looked older than her sixteen years, she guessed he was about seventeen or eighteen. He smiled at her gently and brought in a wheel chair.
"The Doc here says that you need a little fresh air, you up to it?" He asked. Lithan nodded and with Dr. Kadowaki's help, she was transferred into the chair.
"There ya go, nothin' to worry about." Zell said as he wheeled her out of the infirmary and down a airy, well lit hall toward Balamb Garden's main concourse. Lithan couldn't help staring at what she saw. Kids younger than she and older were relaxing on benches and little patios. The sun was bright and warm, a nice change from the cold of winter she thought before she remembered the crash. Zell was chatting with her happily as she tried to ignore the feeling of hopelessness that was welling up inside her. As they entered Garden proper she looked around and up... Way up, Garden was huge! Zell wheeled her around toward what he called the Quad. As they made their way there, Lithan noticed that Garden didn't have an actual floor. A lagoon like pool covered the entire base with the main fountain in the center of the structure, ascending towards the ceiling. Everyone walked on a raised walkway above the lagoon. Very nice. she thought in appreciation as the sound of water permeated the air. Lithan had always found the sound of rain and streams relaxing, the water was doing wonders for her nerves just now. There weren't any other people in the Quad when they got there, Zell explained that was because classes were in session on the second floor.
"Here we are." He said as he stopped under a large, shady tree. He sat down with a sigh on the bench next to Lithan's chair with a massive sigh, obviously happy to be outside.
"You said that there were classes in session on the second floor, is Garden a school?" Lithan asked Zell politely.
"Yeah, Balamb trains SeeD's to fight the sorceress. We also help out in the local governments problems, as a source of income. Classes should be over pretty soon, then we can get ya introduced around." He replied.
Lithan felt that when he mentioned the sorceress it was vaguely important but couldn't place the reason, then she caught the tail end of what he just said.
"Introduced around? No, that's alright, I'd rather not." She said quietly, not meeting his eyes when he searched her face.
"It'll be fine, don't worry, everyone's been asking about you. It's not everyday that a stunning girl appears out of no where to be rescued by Commander Squall and with your injuries... Sorry..." He trailed off realizing what he had said.
Lithan stayed silent, just listening to the sounds of a world unknown to her. The sun shown through the leaves, creating an almost ethereal world when mixed with the mist that was created by the falling water flowing through the Quad. Lithan bit her lower lip as she heard a tone sound inside Balamb.
"That would be the classes ending, right?" She asked Zell who had gotten up and seemed to be doing a warm up stretch as if he were going to do a heavy workout.
"Yup, its the end of classes for today, time to kick back." He replied sitting back down, taking up the whole bench.
Lithan heard the patter of many steps behind her and the merry laughs of kids her own age, relaxed and enjoying life. She tried to ignore them, pretending like they weren't there, but as they neared Zell and her they quieted, looking over at her. Most sent a small smile, a few stared. But no one stopped to say anything. They did, she noticed, gather close to where she was resting under the tree. At least I'm used to that. She thought to herself, remembering how people acted around her at her school. Former school... She corrected herself.
"You ok here?" Zell asked her.
She nodded, not realizing that he intended to leave her. He shot her an encouraging smile and walked off toward Balamb's main building. She stared stupidly after him. Lithan looked at her chair, she couldn't just push the wheels and go she saw, it was mechanical. She looked at the buttons on the hand rests but didn't have the faintest idea what to press to make the thing move and she really didn't want to end up in the waterfall. She sighed and sat back against the cushions of the chair, knowing it was futile to try anything until Zell came back to fetch her.
Zell came back shortly, a girl in tow. She had brown hair, in a pony tail and was taller than Lithan. She was very pretty in a quiet way. Lithan felt a flash of humor at the smile on Zell's face as he led the girl toward her.
"This is my girl, Meg!" He said proudly, presenting the girl. She hit him softly on the chest before studying Lithan.
"Actually its Sally, Sally Regal." She said, with a small nod and a smile.
"A pleasure." Lithan replied. Zell gently tugged on Sally's, Meg's, pony tail.
"Meg works in the library, I thought you might wanna check it out." Zell said.
Lithan perked up at the mention of a library and Zell didn't miss it. He smiled and whispered something to Sally that Lithan couldn't hear. Sally nodded and Zell left with a wave to them both.
"Would you care to see the library? Zell said that you like books, perhaps you could get a few while you rest in the infirmary." Sally said.
Lithan nodded her thanks and the two started toward the library in a comfortable silence. Lithan liked this quiet girl, she seemed to be like her and the mention of a library in Balamb considerably lifted her mood. Enough even to make the stares of the students seem like nothing.
~
Chapter 4
Well, this is it for now, tell me what you think and if I should continue. Well, I will continue, I kinda like the way its turning out. Please e-mail me with your thoughts.
- Daedalus (Daedalus1500@yahoo.com)