Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, creatures or locations from Final Fantasy 8 – they all belong to Squaresoft.
Aftermath
Chapter 7
Sunlight sparkled on the ever-moving surface of the ocean, causing the water to turn from green to gold and back again. A soft breeze favoured the shore with its lightest touch, bringing with it the tang of brine and the lonely, mewing cry of gulls. The tide was ebbing, leaving behind its gifts of driftwood and seaweed, but, like a reluctantly departing lover, it returned to caress the beach once more.
The sun was barely risen, but the haze which hung over the beach promised a warm day ahead. Behind the beach, a cliff arose, topped with bright green grass which was nibbled short by rabbits. Edea stretched her bare feet, wriggling her toes into the turf.
'Oooh!' she giggled, 'it's just like velvet, only spikier.'
'Velvet isn't spiky,' Cid pointed out, patiently.
Edea stuck her tongue out at him. 'I was speaking metaphorically,' she stated.
'Easy for you to say,' replied her husband. 'It's far too early in the morning for long words.'
With a laugh, Edea walked back to the little campsite on the cliff top, and sat down next to Cid, leaning her head on his shoulder.
'It's another beautiful day,' she said softly. 'Do you think it could be the day?'
Cid shrugged. 'Who knows? Any day could be the day. We just have to keep searching. One thing's for certain – we won't find anything sitting around here all day!'
Nodding regretfully, Edea stood and began packing away their few possessions. They had slept under canvas the night before, as the Spring nights were still chilly, even on the Centra continent. She was looking forward to the warmer weather, when they could sleep with nothing between them and the stars. Without thinking, she and Cid fell into a kind of ballet, each moving around the other, working together where they needed to, and separately where they didn't, never once falling out of step, until the campsite was cleared.
The familiarity which Cid so vividly remembered existing between his parents had crept up on him and Edea almost without them fully realising it. Performing the same actions almost every morning for months had left an indelible pattern on their brains. The intimacy which travelling together had created was endangered by the future they had planned. Living in a house would produce very different patterns of behaviour from living rough, whilst living with other people in the form of the orphans they hoped to help, threatened to prevent them from finding time for each other. There was a part of each of them that hoped that the day, in other words, the day on which they found the orphanage, never came.
And yet it was the goal which spurred them on each morning, the motivation they needed to break camp and travel onwards for another day, always searching, never ceasing. They had visited many possible buildings, some derelict and abandoned as a result of the War, others still occupied and homely. Yet none had satisfied them, none had fulfilled their unspoken criteria. What their perfect orphanage would look like, neither of them had any clear idea. All they could say for certain was that they would know it when they found it.
Mounting with the familiarity born of repetition, Cid and Edea prepared themselves for another day of questing. The sun, still only just risen behind them, cast long, spindly shadows, black against the green grass. The chocobos set off, their jerky stride covering the ground easily, yet they were never able to catch their shadows. Sometimes it felt to Cid that this whole expedition was an exercise in chasing after shadows, yet he said nothing to Edea. This was her dream, and even if it never became reality, he would gladly spend the rest of his life trying to make it so.
*********
Mid-day found them all sitting in the shade of a small copse, sharing a light lunch. The chocobos pecked delicately at their greens, warking gently to each other, and occasionally reaching over to preen one another's feathers. Edea nudged Cid with her elbow, and nodded towards the birds.
'They're nearly as bad as us!' she exclaimed. 'It looks as if we might be starting a chocobo farm in the near future, no matter what else happens.'
Cid returned her smile, running his hand through her long, silky hair. 'That might not be so bad, you know. Selling the birds would generate some additional income.'
'Hmmm – that's worth a thought. So, in addition to everything else, we now need some stables – or at least enough space to build them!'
'I don't think there is a place in the world that could match our wishlist,' laughed Cid.
'You're probably right about that, too!' replied Edea, also laughing. She stared out to sea for a few moments lost in thought. 'I know, let's go down on the beach this afternoon, and ride through the surf.'
Cid agreed to this plan, and a few minutes later they were hunting along the cliff top for a way down. The trail they eventually found was so narrow that getting to the beach was more of a scramble than a walk. They had to dismount and lead their chocobos down in single file. The birds warked nervously showing their alarm, but they trusted their riders, and the party made it to the sand without incident.
The tide was at its lowest point, and they had to ride quite a way out in order to follow Edea's suggestion. It was peaceful out there, with only the wind and the waves and each other for company. They rode for a while without speaking, simply enjoying the splash of the chocobos' feet, and the swish and swirl of the wavelets that ran up the beach. The sun was high overhead, shrinking their shadows so that they now travelled below them rather than ahead. The briny scent of the sea was all around them, and they knew that nothing could possibly burst this perfect bubble of happiness.
As they were some way from the cliff, they could see every bump and curve of the coast before them. The land swung round to the North West, so that, in following it, they were baring right. The sun, which had begun to get ahead of them, now fell across their left shoulders as it had earlier in the day. As the day wore on, and the tide turned, they were forced further and further inland.
An hour before sunset, they began to look for another path which would lead them back to the cliff top so that they could make camp for the night. Directly in front of them a low headland jutted out into the sea. At exactly the same moment they both spotted something which drew their whole attention.
'A path!' cried Cid.
'The orphanage…….' breathed Edea.
'What?' they asked together, turning to face each other.
'THAT!' they replied, also at the same time, and pointing ahead to indicate what they had seen.
Both turned slowly to reappraise the view in front of them. This time, Edea's eyes rested on the foot of the path which her husband had seen, and her gaze travelled slowly up it, to the building she had spotted. Cid's eyes travelled immediately to the cliff top. What he saw there made him catch his breath.
The sinking sun bathed the old, stone building in golden light. Elegant Grecian pillars stood at various points around it, some still standing straight and true, others leaning drunkenly. Still others lay on the ground, almost hidden by the tall grass and wildflowers of a meadow which surrounded the building. The stone walls were grey and weathered, showing on their scarred surfaces their endurance and their pain. A tower rose from the opposite side of the building, the shattered glass windows around its tip revealing the original purpose of the building.
'It's an old lighthouse,' commented Cid.
'It's our orphanage,' corrected Edea.
They gazed up at the building for a few seconds more, then suddenly each turned to face the other at the same moment, both of them grinning crazily.
'I knew today would be special!' exclaimed Edea.
'And I knew that the orphanage would appear when we least expected it,' replied Cid.
'So who do we talk to about buying it?' Edea enquired.
'Let's try him,' Cid responded, pointing to a tiny figure which appeared at that moment at the top of the cliff-path.
Edea laughed. 'Now I know it's our lucky day!' she cried, geeing up her chocobo and heading for the cliff.
*********
The negotiations took almost no time at all, and in less than a week Cid and Edea were the official owners of the old lighthouse. As Edea's magic was only effective when she was under attack, they had to use old-fashioned sweat and muscle to get the orphanage into a habitable condition – and also contractors for intricate jobs like the plumbing and electrics.
Edea kept Raine fully informed of progress, and Raine replied with equal joy at having a permanent address for her old friend at last. She was in raptures at the idea of the orphanage, and only the immanence of her confinement kept her from setting out straightaway. However, this did not prevent her from making detailed plans for the journey the Loire family would make once the baby was born.
'We are all just so excited!' she wrote. 'I'm praying that the baby will arrive early so that we can visit you all the sooner.'
Reading Raine's letters was still the best cure Edea knew for the moments when the dust and the paint fumes and the amount of work still to be done got too much for her.
'I just pray that your baby is born safely,' she replied. 'I want to see all of you, too – all of you, safe and sound.'
Why it was necessary to pray for this mother and child more than any other, Edea did not know. But pray she did, at every opportunity.
A/N – If you liked this chapter, or even if you didn't, please leave a review and let me know what you think of it.