A Cold Winter's Night
I don't own Final Fantasy 8, or Irvine. But I do keep my promises.
The cold twinkle of the midnight star shimmered in the frigid night air and Irvine shivered with the cold. He was lying on his back, facing the eastern night sky and watching the stars twinkle in their heavens. He had always loved watching stars, but as he had gotten older the stars had been replaced with beautiful women. He had his pick of beauties at Balamb, including Selphie, but right now he was alone. Selphie and Quistis had decided to spend the Winter Night Festival in Timber with Squall and Rinoa, leaving Irvine and Zell to mind the store. But with no major military action imminent, Irvine had decided to bail, leaving Zell to the night watch at Balamb. The school itself was nestled snuggly into the cove outside Balamb Township and anyone who wanted to, had gone into town for evening meal and partying. But Irvine had a meeting that night, a rendezvous that he swore he would always keep, no matter where he was in the world.
He couldn't have been maybe five years old the first time he had kept the rendezvous. He had been alone then too, except for the foster mother who took care of him. It was before he had gone to the orphanage and met the others that would be his friends in Balamb; his parents had been dead for nearly a year and a kindly woman in the small farming village out of Dehling City had volunteered to take him in. That first winter had been difficult with the previous harvest failure and the renewed conflicts visited by the Galbadian army and the Estharians. No one in the farm village cared about what they were fighting over, but it effected them nonetheless when able bodied men were taken into the army and women and children were left to bring in the withering harvest. Irvine's parents had struggled for years on their little farm and had refused to give in to the Galbadian demands; their reward was death, leaving their young son to fend for himself. But Irvine was a tough little boy, if a bit sensitive, and the neighbors all tried their best to keep him sheltered until someone could take him in. That first winter, with ice riming the canyon walls, Irvine and his foster mother had climbed up the canyon and, with blankets in hand, had settled down for the night.
She told him the story that first time, in breath that fogged in the freezing air. The story she told him then seemed full of magic and mystery and now, fourteen years later, he could still hear her voice quavering as she filled his mind with magic.
"She came to us on a night such as this," his foster mother said, indicating the icy crest of the plateau they had climbed earlier. "On a night of icy cold she came from the stars and stepped onto our world from the frozen waste lands that inhabit the darkness." She pointed up to a shimmering twinkle in the star strewn sky. "That one right there; that one is her star. Always it shines, to remind us of her, of her coming to save us and her promise to always be here when we need her."
"Who, Momma Alyse? Who is she? Why did she come here?"
"Hush boy. I'm telling you what I was told myself. She stepped out of the dark night and put foot to our soil in a time of great drought. She promised to ease our suffering if we would worship her. Of course, in those days, we would have. Now ..." she shrugged, but Irvine did not see. His eyes were focused on the distant star, tears forming in the cold air.
"Anyway, she promised us relief and we gave her our promise. She saved our people; bringing a reprieve from the drought. And then she went back up into the sky. But she reminds us of our promise every winter, when snows fall and the air so cold you cannot breathe."
Irvine waited then for his foster mother to continue but she didn't, instead she let the silence of the winter night finish the story for him. And now, all those years later, after going to the orphanage and meeting the other children, after growing up and saving the world from a wicked sorceress - now he was back up in the heights again, his back pressed to the cold stones and watching the night sky for that one star. The one that shined only on midwinter night; the one that reminded them of her and their promise.
At close to midnight Irvine saw the tiniest twinkle begin in the east; he watched as the pulse grew and grew, becoming a beacon in the darkness. And the words of his foster mother's promise came back to him. "...always be here when we need her ... worship her ..."
"I'd worship you if you asked me," he said, the fog of his breath rising from his lips. "I'd do it just 'cuz you asked." His breaths lie heavy in the cold air, caressing his cheek and he felt cold tendrils running down his neck like fingers. A breath of air passed over him, frigid from over the northern mountain range and wrapped him in an algid caress. He shivered but then felt warmer as the frozen air fondled him, and icy lips kissed him. He felt her touch, felt her caress like ice and knew she had come at his promise of worship. Irvine opened his arms to embrace the ice-blue lady and offer her worship.
As dawn rose in pale imitation of the day, Irvine descended the heights. Sometime in the night he had removed his coat and clothing and awoke naked to the frozen air; but he felt fine; better in fact than he ever had. Perhaps it was his junction that allowed him to sleep nude in the icy winter air, but he doubted it. He thought it more likely his promise. He smiled as he approached the gate to Balamb Garden. He had made a similar promise lo those many winters ago, a secret promise in his heart. And now, with a smile on his lips and a spring in his step, he entered Balamb Garden, knowing that at least one person on this world had kept the promise.