Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, locations or creatures from Final Fantasy 8 – they all belong to Squaresoft.

Aftermath

Chapter 2

'From Raine Leonhart, Winhill Pub

'To Edea Kramer, Galbadian Army Camp, Monterosa Plateau

'Greetings.'

*****************

In the quiet gloom of her tent, Edea held Raine's letter close to her heart. She remembered her most recent stay in Winhill as one of the happiest times of her life, and that was due in large part to Raine. The younger woman had stood by Edea, making a point of asking the Sorceress to care for her father in his last illness in the face of increasingly hostile opposition from the townsfolk.

When things had really turned ugly, it had been Raine who aided her escape from the town. Without Raine, Edea might just have made it out of her house alive, but she would not have got far before the townspeople ran her down, or one particularly bloodthirsty farmer simply shot her. But of course, she did not just owe her physical existence to Raine.

In arranging Edea's escape, Raine had also managed to thrust her into the company of a quiet, thoughtful young man called Cid. Cid had spent the summer in Winhill earning enough money for lodging and the odd pint of beer by doing casual work for the local farmers. Stricken by Edea's plight, he had willingly helped Raine to help Edea flee the town. In the process of that journey, Cid and Edea had fallen in love.

Over the years, Raine and Edea had maintained as constant a correspondence as the war would allow. Edea, for security reasons, could say very little about her day to day experiences with the army, but she had found great comfort in the reports from Winhill. Sometimes, it took several weeks for the letters to catch up with her as the army travelled about, and recently she had received a bundle of five or six in one go. Since they had been camped on the Monterosa Plateau, only a short distance from the village of the last Sorcerer, for over a month, the postal service had become more reliable. Raine wrote regularly once a week, and now the letters arrived regularly, too.

With eager fingers, Edea spread the letter out on her knee and prepared to enjoy the normal, almost humdrum, news of a place she still thought of as home.

*****************

'Well,' wrote Raine, 'I'm writing my weekly epistle, so it must be Wednesday. I've been completely run off my feet the last few days. All the babies that were started the last time the menfolk were on leave decided to arrive within the same forty-eight hours. It's just a mercy you were able to pass on some of your skills to me and I was able to help old Rebeh, the midwife from the next town. She said she's never seen so many babies so eager to share a birthday. She was really grateful for my assistance, too; kept telling people I was her apprentice. I decided not to mention that I have enough to do with a pub to run.

'Then she started on the inevitable "You'll be looking for a man yourself, soon, Deary, so as to have your own bundle of joy". Well, Edea, we both know babies are cute enough, but the thought of nappies and midnight feeds gives me the shakes. And, of course, Ellone takes up so much time.

'Oh, by the way, she says "Thanks" for the lovely scarf you sent her for her birthday, last week. I'm sure it was very expensive. I've made her put it away in an old chest we found in the attic. She's started going round telling everyone she has a 'hope chest'! I've said she can take it out and wear it on VERY special occasions, until she is grown up. Unfortunately, when you are only four, waiting until you are grown up sounds like waiting forever, and she isn't the most patient child at the best of times.

'Old Mrs Horran at the grocer's died on Friday. It wasn't a surprise, but still a shock. She never got over the death of her youngest last winter in the Seige of Deling, you know. I know you and I were never keen on her, or more accurately she never accepted you, but I know you will offer up a prayer for her and the family she leaves behind.

'I'm so glad to hear news of your progress in ending the war. I know you can't say much at the moment, but what you did say has lifted everybody's spirits. I don't think people round here have quite realised that the Sorceress who is leading our brave troops is the same one they wanted to shoot as a witch seven years ago.

'I don't know if you've had time to think about this, but tomorrow's the seventh anniversary of Dad dying. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and I'm convinced I can hear him clearing the tables downstairs, or manhandling one of the old barrels. Then I realise it can't be Dad, it's just my mind playing tricks. I haven't mentioned this to anyone else; you know what they're like round here – they'd be chasing me off next, landlady or no!

'Oh, Edea, I'm going to have to stop writing for a bit. I've just received news that a young Galbadian soldier has been found wandering around the fields. He's alive, but only just, they say. Anyway, I'm off to see what other skills you taught me, and whether I can use them well enough to save him. I shall finish this when I can.

'Bye for now.'

*****************

Edea frowned at the letter in her hand. What was a Galbadian soldier doing wandering around the fields outside Winhill? There were no troops posted within a hundred miles of the town, and no special missions in that area either. To all intents and purposes, Winhill was just a sleepy little town, which nobody cared about unless they, well, cared about it. It was certainly of no military importance.

At first, she thought about finding Cid, and seeing if he knew of any operations in that area. Finally, she decided to read on, and see if the soldier had survived and if so, what his name was, and what his orders had been.

*****************

'Hi, Edea, I'm back! It's very late on Wednesday, no, sorry, I've just checked my clock – it's actually very early on Thursday. But I couldn't go to bed without telling you all about our visitor.

'He's a soldier as I said, or more accurately a Sergeant, in the Galbadian army. We found that out from his uniform, as he collapsed into unconsciousness just after they found him. In fact, he only regained consciousness about half an hour ago, and then I gave him a sleeping draft to help him get some proper sleep tonight.

'Sorry, Edea, I'm telling this story very badly. Let me start at the beginning. He was found about a mile from the town, sitting under a tree with the most awful wound on his head. Jem's lads found him; they've taken on the running of the farm while their father's away, you know. Anyway, he was barely conscious when they discovered him, and I hate to think what would have happened if they hadn't.

'They bundled him up onto their cart, and trotted down here as quickly as they could. They were all for laying him on one of the tables in the pub, if you'll believe it, but I got them to move him into your old house. They weren't very comfortable about it, but I'm sure there's still a healing aura over the place. So, I dug out some spare bedding, and made up the bed upstairs. I found Ellone's toy piano in there – I'll have to ask her how it got there.

'Well, I did what every medic does in those situations – sent people off for hot water and clean cloths, and when they were all gone, got down to work. It isn't hard to guess the cause of his unconsciousness – there was a deep gash across his forehead. The funny thing about it, though, is that it wasn't a recent wound. It was well scabbed over; I'd say it was at least a couple of days old. Maybe he'll be able to tell us more about it in the morning.

'I sterilised a needle in the flame of a candle and stitched the wound as best I could. I'll have to keep an eye on it to check it doesn't get infected, but I washed it out well with your patented disinfecting solution. It raised some eyebrows (my "helpers" had returned by now, armed with enough hot water and clean cloths to start a hospital) and it's a really good thing the poor lad was out cold.

'Once I'd attended to his head wound, I got a couple of the men to help me undress him. He had lots of cuts and scrapes all over his body, but nothing as serious as the head injury. So I just washed them all with the disinfectant, and applied some salve.

'By this time, all of the onlookers were getting a bit bored. I mean, this exciting and interesting stranger was just lying there, not even bleeding. So, it didn't take too much work to shoo them all out. I got a couple of people to promise to help me watch him through the night, but I wanted to take the first watch myself, in case he woke up.

'As I said, eventually he did awaken for a few minutes. He told me his name, and the names of the men he was with. He seemed very anxious about them. As far as I could make out, they got separated somewhere out at sea. I didn't know the Galbadian army had a naval division? Perhaps Cid can shed some light on this?

'I calmed him down as much as I could, and got him to drink his medicine like a good boy (listen to me – I'll be Nurse Leonhart next) and then he drifted off to sleep as quiet as anything. I got my relief to take over, and then came home.

'Oh, well, I really have to go to bed now – I can hardly keep my eyes open.

'I've just read the letter over and realised I still haven't told you the soldier's name; it's Loire, Laguna Loire.

'Well, I'm really off to bed now – write soon.'

*****************

Edea sat staring at the letter for a long time, before setting off in search of Cid.

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