~Chapter three~
It was a fortnight before news hit Balamb of Squall's missing daughter. The buzz of
gossip was everywhere; spreading rumours that got wilder and wilder. Some of
them, Fureya found humorous like the one that claimed she'd run away to live with
the President of Esthar. (Which was another fact unbeknownst to her, she had no
clue that Laguna Loire was her Grandfather. Since Rinoa's death Squall had gone
into lock down and kept things from his children.) There was one particular rumour
though; it squeezed at her heart every time she heard it. Some unknowing person
had claimed that Squall had gone crazy and killed his daughter, because people
seemed to believe he blamed Fureya for Rinoa's death. They say if Squall hadn't
been pulling her out of the car, he could of got Rinoa out.
Rumours are rumours and Fureya was determined to let them fade out and become
yesterday's news. Above all, she was worried about the attention. She had no
desire to be found out, she loved it here, even if Almasy made it hard.
Speaking of Keladryie, the somewhat evil Weapons Mistress Kumara had assigned
them to be partners in combat. Mistress Kumara was a firm believer in opposite sex
partners and hard work. Her motto was literally 'work harder' and she drove the
cadets to breaking point and back. But at the end of the day, they were better
fighters for it.
After her stint with the Weapons Mistress, Fureya had been deemed fit to carry a
Naginata or a sword. After thought, Fureya chose to arm herself with the Naginata
as her primary weapon but also armed herself with a short sword and a handful of
small daggers.
Mistress Kumara told her she would supply a Naginata but not the other weapons.
After closely inspecting the weapon offered, Fureya declined it smugly and
proclaimed she had a weapon of finer quality and in better condition. Mistress
Kumara took this as personal offence and demanded that she herself inspect the
weapon. Fureya agreed and raced off, grinning smugly to herself knowing full well
the Weapons Mistress would find no fault with her weapon.
Fureya trotted back her weapon on presentation.
It was a five foot long oak staff with its foot shod in iron. The eighteen inch long
blade was broadly curved with blue ripples under its brightly polished surface, a
sign of quality steel.
The Weapons Mistress could hardly keep the admiration off of her face, even if
she did wonder how a boy could have such a fine weapon.
"It'll do." She said gruffly and thrust it back at him. "Leave it in your locker, I wont
have weapons out of the training ground." Fureya bowed, her hand wrapped
around the stout wood.
"Yes, Weapons Mistress." She murmured obediently and left.
~*~
A few days later at weapons class the class was split into pairs for some freestyle
fighting. Fureya and Keladryie faced each other and bowed politely, it was a
custom the Kumara enforced before each fight.
Fureya gripped the shaft of the oak weapon with hands that were wrapped with
bandaging. In her years with the Naginata, she'd found the binding had improved
her grip, but she wasn't sure why. Thrust in her belt was her short sword, which
was made of similar steel to her Naginata. (Thanks to her brother's love of
weapons, Fureya had been able to steal a small amount of finely made weapons.)
Across from her stood a poised Keladryie with a Hyperion model gun blade that
shone brightly, showing signs of polishing and care. Also thrust in her belt was
weighted throwing blades.
"Guard." They murmured in unison before Keladryie skipped forward, thrusting her
blade towards Fureya's midsection who swung her glaive in an arc bringing the
bladed end down to defer the gunblade, sending it off to the side. Adjusting her
feet, Fureya quickly assumed the stance to prepare to attack Keladryie with a
move named furiage-kote-uchi. Fureya swung the Naginata over her head and
brought it down at an angle so it sliced down towards Keladryie's wrist, forcing her
to take a step backwards in order to fend off the attack. Fureya quickly assumed
the hasso-no-kamae stance with the glaive held upright and at a slight diagonal.
Keladryie gritted her teeth and advanced on Fureya, darting forward and pulling a
weighted blade from her belt and thrusting it up to block the downswing of the
Naginata as the point of her gunblade snaked up to press against the base of her
throat.
Fureya grimaced as Keladryie smugly withdrew her weapon, obviously gloating over
her victory. Fureya sighed and lowered her weapon and bowed stiffly at her
opponent.
"Very well fought." She muttered as Keladryie bowed in return, whilst thrusting her
weighted blade back into her belt.
"Very good, the pair of you." Mistress Kumara drawled, coming up to the pair. "A
foolish slip up Master Hanover. You should always be aware of what your
opponents' hands are doing at all times. You would have seen her grasping her
blade and been able to manoeuvre around it." Pausing as she turned to face
Keladryie. "Miss Almasy, you should know better than to thrust from a distance
when your opponent possesses a weapon with a longer range. It's chancy and
most of the time will be knocked aside." Without another word, she walked over to
another pair and blandly pointed out their flaws.
The class continued with everyone working on different pattern dances performed
with the primary weapons. After demonstrating her own perfectly, the gruff
teacher began to teach her a more complex one.
By the end of the day, Fureya's arms were aching and she was exhausted.
Plodding monotonously towards the cafeteria, her mind was far away going
through the afternoon's classes. She was replaying the fight with Keladryie,
picking it to pieces as she walked.
She was rudely interrupted when she smacked into something warm and solid.
"Oof." Grunted the tall guy she'd bumped into. Looking up at him, she grinned and
shrugged.
"Sorry mate." She growled in a gruff tone. He just shrugged and ran a hand
through his black locks that reached half way down his neck. Staring at her for a
moment, recognition glinted in his dark green eyes.
"I know you. You're Will's friend, Furei?" At her nod, he continued. "I'm Garret
Dalmasso." He grinned as they line up for food.
"What!" Rang out a shrill male voice. "There are no hot dogs left? What is the
meaning of this! " Fureya blinked and stared a the blond youth that stormed out of
the cafeteria.
"That's Dincht. His father, Zell was the same." Garret said as they picked up their
trays of food and went and sat down.
Quickly wolfing down their food, they left the cafeteria to go to Garret's dorm so
he could show Fureya some wicked cool video game he had.
~*~
Weeks passed quickly with the cadets taking in their lessons and slowly getting
better at each subject. There was roughly six months before the task, which
would either make them SeeD members or give them another year of study. For
some it was make it or break it, Garden By-laws stated that if you hadn't made
SeeD by age of twenty, you were excluded from the program.
In weapons class, Keladryie and Fureya had been split up after their battle and
hadn't fought since.
It was Sunday, which meant a day off for the hard working students. Fureya,
Willard, Garret and Zell Dincht's son, Macen piled into one of the Garden's cars and
headed for Balamb town. Willard had got his mother to agree to lend them a car
under the pretence they needed to buy more civilian clothing. A somewhat
sceptical Quistis had reluctantly agreed and off they set.
In the car, Fureya was seated next to Willard, close enough to feel the warmth
radiating off of his body. Suddenly shy and at a loss for words, she turned her
grey eyes to the window. An ocean met her gaze, spreading out for miles and
sparkling under the sunlight.
"That's the ocean that killed the last sorceress." Macen spoke up softly, causing
everyone to look at the ocean and then him questioningly. Clearing his throat
gently, he spoke up again.
"That ocean took Rinoa Heartily-Leonharts life. Back when Squall was in charge of
Balamb, him, his wife and his daughter went into town to pick up Kaddar. But on
the way, a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle and drove them off the road.
They then careened over the field and ended up teetering over a cliff edge. Squall
and his daughter got out, but Rinoa's leg was broken. She was driving you see. So
before Squall could get her out, the car slid over the edge and into the ocean."
Fureya stared at him for a long moment before turning to look at the calm ocean
once more.
"That's awful." She rasped, gulping as she tore her gaze away from the thing that
ripped her mother from her.
"Did you know Rinoa?" Willard queried softly, noting the pained look on her face.
Fureya stared at him for a moment before shaking her head.
"No."
~*~
Keladryie tapped the end of her pen against her workbook and let out a frustrated
sigh. Plonking her pen down on her book, she stood up and stretched lazily. This
work was boring and Sunday was boring. Not to mention the training facilities were
shut down for some reason. The stupid headmistress didn't even give a reason.
That meant Keladryie was forced to do left over homework instead of physical
training.
"I'm going for a walk." Kella murmured to a sleepy looking Vivienne. Vivienne perked
up, rousing herself slightly.
"Let me come to. It's dead boring here." Kella nodded in response and the pair set
out to prowl the Garden for something to do.
Peeking into the library, they got caught by the librarian who eagerly volunteered
them to sort through newspaper clippings and put them in alphabetical order.
Sighing heavily, the pair went to it, deciding there wasn't anything else to do
anyway. To their surprise, the found it to be interesting and picked up titbits of all
gossip.
Vivienne picked up a slightly yellowing clipping.
"Hey, this is Kaddar Leonhart." She murmured and peered closely at the picture as
Keladryie rolled her eyes in a 'who cares' gesture. "You know." Started Vivienne
slowly, catching Kella's wandering attention.
"What?" She asked, glancing over at the clipping.
"Kaddar is the same age as Furei in this picture and there's a hell of a likeness.
Take a look." Vivienne passed the picture to Keladryie who studied it and shrugged
before putting it in the correct pile.
"Probably just a bastard son of Squall after he slept around." She grumbled and
picked up another clipping. "Hey look." She drawled and thrust it at Vivi. "It's your
father." Vivienne stared at it.
"How unsurprising." She winked at Kella and placed it in its rightful pile.
"Yeah, yeah I know." Keladryie retorted. Vivienne's father was the mayor of Deling
City, so he was always out and about. Even though Vivienne's father was anti –
Seifer, the pair had struck up a tight bond. They weren't exactly close, but they
were friends and that was good enough for them. Seeing as Keladryie wasn't the
easiest person to share a dorm with, Vivienne had always been her dorm partner.
Kella had forced many out, with her strange ways that came off hostile. Of course,
a lot of people looked down on her for being an Almasy, which was never a good
thing. But things were okay now. And for that, Headmistress Trepe had let the
troublesome girl remain at Balamb. Of course, Kella wasn't that troublesome, just
merely different.
It was a fortnight before news hit Balamb of Squall's missing daughter. The buzz of
gossip was everywhere; spreading rumours that got wilder and wilder. Some of
them, Fureya found humorous like the one that claimed she'd run away to live with
the President of Esthar. (Which was another fact unbeknownst to her, she had no
clue that Laguna Loire was her Grandfather. Since Rinoa's death Squall had gone
into lock down and kept things from his children.) There was one particular rumour
though; it squeezed at her heart every time she heard it. Some unknowing person
had claimed that Squall had gone crazy and killed his daughter, because people
seemed to believe he blamed Fureya for Rinoa's death. They say if Squall hadn't
been pulling her out of the car, he could of got Rinoa out.
Rumours are rumours and Fureya was determined to let them fade out and become
yesterday's news. Above all, she was worried about the attention. She had no
desire to be found out, she loved it here, even if Almasy made it hard.
Speaking of Keladryie, the somewhat evil Weapons Mistress Kumara had assigned
them to be partners in combat. Mistress Kumara was a firm believer in opposite sex
partners and hard work. Her motto was literally 'work harder' and she drove the
cadets to breaking point and back. But at the end of the day, they were better
fighters for it.
After her stint with the Weapons Mistress, Fureya had been deemed fit to carry a
Naginata or a sword. After thought, Fureya chose to arm herself with the Naginata
as her primary weapon but also armed herself with a short sword and a handful of
small daggers.
Mistress Kumara told her she would supply a Naginata but not the other weapons.
After closely inspecting the weapon offered, Fureya declined it smugly and
proclaimed she had a weapon of finer quality and in better condition. Mistress
Kumara took this as personal offence and demanded that she herself inspect the
weapon. Fureya agreed and raced off, grinning smugly to herself knowing full well
the Weapons Mistress would find no fault with her weapon.
Fureya trotted back her weapon on presentation.
It was a five foot long oak staff with its foot shod in iron. The eighteen inch long
blade was broadly curved with blue ripples under its brightly polished surface, a
sign of quality steel.
The Weapons Mistress could hardly keep the admiration off of her face, even if
she did wonder how a boy could have such a fine weapon.
"It'll do." She said gruffly and thrust it back at him. "Leave it in your locker, I wont
have weapons out of the training ground." Fureya bowed, her hand wrapped
around the stout wood.
"Yes, Weapons Mistress." She murmured obediently and left.
~*~
A few days later at weapons class the class was split into pairs for some freestyle
fighting. Fureya and Keladryie faced each other and bowed politely, it was a
custom the Kumara enforced before each fight.
Fureya gripped the shaft of the oak weapon with hands that were wrapped with
bandaging. In her years with the Naginata, she'd found the binding had improved
her grip, but she wasn't sure why. Thrust in her belt was her short sword, which
was made of similar steel to her Naginata. (Thanks to her brother's love of
weapons, Fureya had been able to steal a small amount of finely made weapons.)
Across from her stood a poised Keladryie with a Hyperion model gun blade that
shone brightly, showing signs of polishing and care. Also thrust in her belt was
weighted throwing blades.
"Guard." They murmured in unison before Keladryie skipped forward, thrusting her
blade towards Fureya's midsection who swung her glaive in an arc bringing the
bladed end down to defer the gunblade, sending it off to the side. Adjusting her
feet, Fureya quickly assumed the stance to prepare to attack Keladryie with a
move named furiage-kote-uchi. Fureya swung the Naginata over her head and
brought it down at an angle so it sliced down towards Keladryie's wrist, forcing her
to take a step backwards in order to fend off the attack. Fureya quickly assumed
the hasso-no-kamae stance with the glaive held upright and at a slight diagonal.
Keladryie gritted her teeth and advanced on Fureya, darting forward and pulling a
weighted blade from her belt and thrusting it up to block the downswing of the
Naginata as the point of her gunblade snaked up to press against the base of her
throat.
Fureya grimaced as Keladryie smugly withdrew her weapon, obviously gloating over
her victory. Fureya sighed and lowered her weapon and bowed stiffly at her
opponent.
"Very well fought." She muttered as Keladryie bowed in return, whilst thrusting her
weighted blade back into her belt.
"Very good, the pair of you." Mistress Kumara drawled, coming up to the pair. "A
foolish slip up Master Hanover. You should always be aware of what your
opponents' hands are doing at all times. You would have seen her grasping her
blade and been able to manoeuvre around it." Pausing as she turned to face
Keladryie. "Miss Almasy, you should know better than to thrust from a distance
when your opponent possesses a weapon with a longer range. It's chancy and
most of the time will be knocked aside." Without another word, she walked over to
another pair and blandly pointed out their flaws.
The class continued with everyone working on different pattern dances performed
with the primary weapons. After demonstrating her own perfectly, the gruff
teacher began to teach her a more complex one.
By the end of the day, Fureya's arms were aching and she was exhausted.
Plodding monotonously towards the cafeteria, her mind was far away going
through the afternoon's classes. She was replaying the fight with Keladryie,
picking it to pieces as she walked.
She was rudely interrupted when she smacked into something warm and solid.
"Oof." Grunted the tall guy she'd bumped into. Looking up at him, she grinned and
shrugged.
"Sorry mate." She growled in a gruff tone. He just shrugged and ran a hand
through his black locks that reached half way down his neck. Staring at her for a
moment, recognition glinted in his dark green eyes.
"I know you. You're Will's friend, Furei?" At her nod, he continued. "I'm Garret
Dalmasso." He grinned as they line up for food.
"What!" Rang out a shrill male voice. "There are no hot dogs left? What is the
meaning of this! " Fureya blinked and stared a the blond youth that stormed out of
the cafeteria.
"That's Dincht. His father, Zell was the same." Garret said as they picked up their
trays of food and went and sat down.
Quickly wolfing down their food, they left the cafeteria to go to Garret's dorm so
he could show Fureya some wicked cool video game he had.
~*~
Weeks passed quickly with the cadets taking in their lessons and slowly getting
better at each subject. There was roughly six months before the task, which
would either make them SeeD members or give them another year of study. For
some it was make it or break it, Garden By-laws stated that if you hadn't made
SeeD by age of twenty, you were excluded from the program.
In weapons class, Keladryie and Fureya had been split up after their battle and
hadn't fought since.
It was Sunday, which meant a day off for the hard working students. Fureya,
Willard, Garret and Zell Dincht's son, Macen piled into one of the Garden's cars and
headed for Balamb town. Willard had got his mother to agree to lend them a car
under the pretence they needed to buy more civilian clothing. A somewhat
sceptical Quistis had reluctantly agreed and off they set.
In the car, Fureya was seated next to Willard, close enough to feel the warmth
radiating off of his body. Suddenly shy and at a loss for words, she turned her
grey eyes to the window. An ocean met her gaze, spreading out for miles and
sparkling under the sunlight.
"That's the ocean that killed the last sorceress." Macen spoke up softly, causing
everyone to look at the ocean and then him questioningly. Clearing his throat
gently, he spoke up again.
"That ocean took Rinoa Heartily-Leonharts life. Back when Squall was in charge of
Balamb, him, his wife and his daughter went into town to pick up Kaddar. But on
the way, a drunk driver lost control of his vehicle and drove them off the road.
They then careened over the field and ended up teetering over a cliff edge. Squall
and his daughter got out, but Rinoa's leg was broken. She was driving you see. So
before Squall could get her out, the car slid over the edge and into the ocean."
Fureya stared at him for a long moment before turning to look at the calm ocean
once more.
"That's awful." She rasped, gulping as she tore her gaze away from the thing that
ripped her mother from her.
"Did you know Rinoa?" Willard queried softly, noting the pained look on her face.
Fureya stared at him for a moment before shaking her head.
"No."
~*~
Keladryie tapped the end of her pen against her workbook and let out a frustrated
sigh. Plonking her pen down on her book, she stood up and stretched lazily. This
work was boring and Sunday was boring. Not to mention the training facilities were
shut down for some reason. The stupid headmistress didn't even give a reason.
That meant Keladryie was forced to do left over homework instead of physical
training.
"I'm going for a walk." Kella murmured to a sleepy looking Vivienne. Vivienne perked
up, rousing herself slightly.
"Let me come to. It's dead boring here." Kella nodded in response and the pair set
out to prowl the Garden for something to do.
Peeking into the library, they got caught by the librarian who eagerly volunteered
them to sort through newspaper clippings and put them in alphabetical order.
Sighing heavily, the pair went to it, deciding there wasn't anything else to do
anyway. To their surprise, the found it to be interesting and picked up titbits of all
gossip.
Vivienne picked up a slightly yellowing clipping.
"Hey, this is Kaddar Leonhart." She murmured and peered closely at the picture as
Keladryie rolled her eyes in a 'who cares' gesture. "You know." Started Vivienne
slowly, catching Kella's wandering attention.
"What?" She asked, glancing over at the clipping.
"Kaddar is the same age as Furei in this picture and there's a hell of a likeness.
Take a look." Vivienne passed the picture to Keladryie who studied it and shrugged
before putting it in the correct pile.
"Probably just a bastard son of Squall after he slept around." She grumbled and
picked up another clipping. "Hey look." She drawled and thrust it at Vivi. "It's your
father." Vivienne stared at it.
"How unsurprising." She winked at Kella and placed it in its rightful pile.
"Yeah, yeah I know." Keladryie retorted. Vivienne's father was the mayor of Deling
City, so he was always out and about. Even though Vivienne's father was anti –
Seifer, the pair had struck up a tight bond. They weren't exactly close, but they
were friends and that was good enough for them. Seeing as Keladryie wasn't the
easiest person to share a dorm with, Vivienne had always been her dorm partner.
Kella had forced many out, with her strange ways that came off hostile. Of course,
a lot of people looked down on her for being an Almasy, which was never a good
thing. But things were okay now. And for that, Headmistress Trepe had let the
troublesome girl remain at Balamb. Of course, Kella wasn't that troublesome, just
merely different.