The silence was perfect.
It lasted about ten seconds.
"Come back," Iyan said clearly to the horizon, tone making a demand out of a plea. No ships appeared.
"Oh, Hyne," Arin whispered, then repeated himself until his voice cracked. "Oh, Hyne Hyne Hyne Hyne Hyne-"
Eiada stayed perfectly silent, having her own little panic attack. Why had the ships left? Why hadn't they stayed to rescue the four of them? Was it possible no one saw the spider chase them back into town? (Get a grip. That spider was huge! Of course they saw us leave. They must have. So why did they leave so quickly? Hyne, oh, Hyne, we're going to die-)
Beside her, Roen took a deep breath. "They're not coming back."
(Shit-,) Eiada realized. (They think we're dead already.)
Arin spun away from the horizon to face the Squad Leader. "But- They'll realize we're missing, won't they? They'll come back."
"You think they don't know yet?" Iyan asked from a sitting position a foot and a half off the ground. Scorn and panic played equally in his voice. "Come on. You know why they left? They think we're dead!"
Somehow, hearing it aloud was ten times worse than thinking it to herself. Eiada made an extremely embarrassing little squeaking noise, covered her mouth with her hands. Three faces turned to her, and she blushed.
"Roen-" Arin whimpered, taking a hesitant step towards the older boy, looking almost like he wanted to tug on his uniform sleeve. "What are we going to do?"
Iyan cleared his throat, clearly shocked that Arin was looking to Roen for guidance.
Eiada saw Roen's eyes travel the group, assessing Iyan's leg, Arin's fear, and, probably, her own nervous silence. "We have to get to shelter," he finally said. "before someone finds us."
Eiada swallowed. Apparently Roen agreed with Iyan's assessment of the situation. (Shit.) She caught herself looking back at the horizon; storm clouds were rolling up to cover the ocean. The Squad Leader had a point.
"But-" she tried to calm down. "We have to get back to the Garden, right? I mean, we'll figure out some way, won't we?"
Roen nodded. "Sorry. We just have to- I think we should take one day at a time."
"So," Iyan said, looking at all of them. "back to Dollet?"
Frightened, reluctant nods circled the group.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"It's gotta be you, Roen," Eiada whispered tersely, staring up at the older trainee. "You're the only one they'll believe."
Standing next to some garbage cans, one eye on the downright grumpy looking sky, Roen didn't look convinced.
"Come on," Arin picked up the argument. "Iyan's broken, I'm too young, and Eiada looks like she went deep-sea fishing with no boat. You're clean, mostly, you're oldest, and you've got the money. Go forth and conquer!"
"Shut up!" Whispered Iyan, who was lying, mostly covered in newspaper, watching the road. Immediately, the other three ducked behind a group of trashcans. Seconds later, a squad of Glabadian soldiers sauntered by. Their arrogance was probably half bravado, half real swagger, Eiada wagered with herself. She'd be damn nervous to be the occupying force in a town that had been in open rebellion for three days.
Of course, being the liberating force wasn't so great either.
The four SeeD candidates had made it inside Dollet with minimal mishap- Eiada had taken a hard fall coming down from the cliffs and Iyan's leg was definitely still fractured, but they hadn't been seen by any Galbadians. (Yet,) Eiada reminded herself, having no desire to tempt fate. In an effort to remain undetected, they were hiding in an alley across from a rundown hotel, having decided to get a room and lay low for the night. Their funds came from the ever-useful AT packs, which held 1000 gil apiece; 100 in a really obvious 'hiding' place, 900 sewn under a false bottom in the pack. Eiada had always doubted the practicality of putting money in packs meant for student use, but apparently Garden was downright anal about logging all purchases and charging students when the need arose. Practicality be damned- she was grateful now.
"Please, Roen," she whispered when the Galbadians had passed. "That was probably the end of our luck."
"Okay, fine, waitaminute." Roen unbuckled his swordbelt from across his chest, bent down, pulled a knife from his boot. Slipping it open, he whispered: "Help me," and indicated the Balamb Garden insignia and embroidery across his shoulders, chest, and upper arms. Eiada took the knife, slit the stitches holding the patches to the uniform shirt. Taking the knife back, Roen pulled the fabric away from his chest and made a jagged cut down the front, barely following the zipper track already there. With the shirt butchered and chopped open and his undershirt showing through, it looked like he was following some obscure fashion from Esthar or Deling City- certainly nothing a little backwater like Dollet would have seen before.
"Nice touch," Arin said quietly. "Now move it!"
Pocketing the knife (and a fistful of gil), Roen peeked into the street. Nodding back at the others, he shoved his hands in his pockets and swaggered across the street. Eiada was impressed- he looked just like every jackass her age when she went back to Winhill for the winter.
A tense five minutes later, Roen was back, sauntering across the street like his only concern was whether or not he had enough gil left to catch a vid. "Room two-oh-nine," he said triumphantly.
The group made a communal sound of relief as the sky rumbled overhead and it began to rain.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Eiada stood under the water for a long time. She didn't know how long- it felt like hours. The room was filled with steam, every white tile glistening with its own sheen of sweat. The walls of the shower, thick marbled imitation glass, had been weeping silent streams of condensation for awhile.
Eiada stretched carefully, trying to release all the tension of the past hour under the onslaught of hot water. Getting everyone into the hotel room had been nearly as nerve-wracking as getting into Dollet itself. Roen had insisted they not show up in a group, to the aggravation of them all. He had given Eiada the key and she'd sauntered in after standing under a gutter for a few moments to get the seawater off herself. Suffering from what she was sure were the first stages of hypothermia, she made pleasant small talk with the desk clerk, who absolutely had to get her a warm mug of coffee before she let Eiada flee to her room in peace. She'd run up the stairs and down the hall, spent a panicked thirty seconds prying the ancient window open, and thrown the key down to Arin and Iyan, who had been waiting patiently for ten minutes in a rapidly growing puddle in the street. They had rushed in, Iyan wrapped in an oilcloth disguise, his 'age' excusing the limp. Roen had come up last, and without incident.
Damn, it had been a big day.
She stood awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, wanting only to fall asleep and wake up in her bed at Garden, wanting the heat and the steam and the scream of water in old pipes to wash her away, wanting.
Nothing. Oblivion.
She leaned forward, pressed her forehead against the cool white tile of the wall. The cold bit into her forehead, seeped into the ache that had settled in her skull a few hours ago. In her mind, she saw the SeeD scout boats pull against the current and vanish over the horizon. The headache flared up again. (Shit.) Closing her eyes, she tried to think of something else.
(Something else!) The panic festering in her mind screamed at the top of its tinny, nails-on-a-blackboard voice. (You're stuck on a foreign continent, in an occupied town, with soldiers of your national enemy looking for you and no idea how you're going to get home! What else is there to think about?!)
Her lips twisted up wryly. Panic had a point. (And I've been stewing in here long enough.) She twisted the faucet to the 'off' position, slid the mock-glass door open. The bathroom was filled with steam. She barely made out a pink figure emerging from the bathroom mirror when the swirls of steam obscured her vision.
Eiada groped her way over to the window, opened it a crack. Muffled Dollet night-sounds rolled through the room- cars, light rain, distant laughter. She took a deep breath of cool air, the scent of the sea and wet sidewalk filling her lungs. A lonely, quiet smell. She swallowed a wave of sadness- no, sharper. Grief, she decided. (God damn.) What did she have to mourn?
Suddenly aware she was standing naked next to a window, Eiada moved back to the mirror by the sink. The fog had cleared, and she stared back warily at herself. (Why?) An unfamiliar voice asked. (Who were you expecting to see?)
Her body looked the same- it was the skin that was different. Her limbs and torso were laced and lacerated with bruises of different colors. Blue, purple, green, black. even one of banana yellow with red dots all through. If she remembered correctly, she'd gotten that one slipping on her way down the rocky hills into Dollet. (That's gonna suck tomorrow morning.)
She sighed. She was sore enough already, but she knew it would only get worse from here. Her body was crossed with scratches and two genuines sword slashes, one on her left bicep and one across her thigh. She poked at the latter gingerly. It was swolled and soft pink with heat, but it was clean. Hopefully, it would heal neatly.
Grabbing a towel, Eiada scrubbed at her short black hair. Despite her rough wash in the gutter, it had been so full of sea salt and sweat it had been practically gray when they arrived at the hotel. Now it had regained its usual blue-black sheen. Besides her face, it was the only part of her body untouched by the day. Just out of habit, she reached up to scratch the scar hidden at the base of her hairline. (Thinking of you, Uncle Wage,) she thought automatically. She'd gained that scar the day her uncle had nearly been lost at sea.
(The sea was dark, irony blue-green. It mirrored the sky, which had been ushering lightening and thunder and mayhem towards the small fishing village all day. The winds plastered her waterproof rain slicker to her body as Eiada raced down the slippery dock. Her uncle was a tiny, fragile figure at the end, bent across the deck of one of the smallest boats. Her heart in her mouth, she could barely hear herself screaming over the rain as a huge wave towered up over the dock, sweeping Uncle Wage's prone form off the boat and into the sea.)
Caught up in memory, she stared blankly at the mirror until someone pounded at the door.
"Eiada! Soup's on!"
She jumped, snorted. "I bet." To save their (rather low) funds, they were eating ration bars from the AT packs. Someone must have gotten hungry and gone through the arduous task of unwrapping one, which inspired everyone else to eat as well. Of course, inviting Eiada to come eat with them was probably a subtle encouragement that she get out of the shower. (I'm not even hungry.)
Eiada toweled herself off, pulled on her underwear, and grabbed a thin white robe off the hook on the back of the door. Sinching it around her waist, she picked up her clothes, opened the door, and stepped out into the hotle room.
She'd expected it to be cold, but three bodies heated the air pretty well. Three faces turned to her, one with a ration bar poking out of his mouth. The silence, she realized, wasn't a happy one; Eiada was suddenly struck with the urge to lock herself back in the bathroom.
The silence lasted until Arin levered himself up from the floor where he'd been sitting, back braced against the bureau. He snatched a ration bar from the top of the dresser, offered it to her. "Want one?" he asked, mouth full.
Eiada took it hesitantly. Aware all eyes were on her. "Did I miss anything- ?"
Lying sprawled on the bed nearest the bathroom, Iyan wriggled around, trying to get comfortable. "We thought we might stay here another day."
Eiada did the math in her head. They had 3 AT packs with 1000 gil in each of them, and were staying in a 200 gil hotel. "Okay, why?"
"Iyan should be off his feet for at least another day." Arin said firmly. "He needs at least that to heal naturally, then I can Cure the bone again and we'll see if he can walk then. If he can, he'll need a brace and a crutch."
Iyan sighed, and Eiada smiled at him reluctantly. Sympathetic as she was to his injury, all she could think of was how difficult he would be to hide. (Even after tomorrow, he won't move very fast, either.) "So, tomorrow we just hang out here?"
Roen looked up from his place at the windowseat, a perch he hadn't left all night. Their eyes met and Eiada swallowed. He looked frayed, exhausted, pissed off. "We have to get rid of our unis."
Eiada clutched the Balamb Garden trainee uniform she held a little tighter. She bit her lower lip, trying to keep calm. Logically, she knew every article of Balamb G property she wore was an identifying tag in a hostile territory, and she should be rid of them as soon as possible. Emotionally, she didn't want to lose any reminder of home. She took a slow, deep breath. (Calm down and think.)
She stared back at him, nodded. "What, we throw these-" she hefted her uniform. "-away?"
Roen shook his head. "No, we-"
Iyan cut in. "We cut off the Balamb insignia, and sell them in junk shops. More money for us and we'll use it to buy civvies."
Eiada glanced at Roen, who nodded. He stood up, unfolding his lanky body from the windowseat. "Maybe we should turn in," he suggested. It carried the weight of a command. "We need to get an early start tomorrow."
It lasted about ten seconds.
"Come back," Iyan said clearly to the horizon, tone making a demand out of a plea. No ships appeared.
"Oh, Hyne," Arin whispered, then repeated himself until his voice cracked. "Oh, Hyne Hyne Hyne Hyne Hyne-"
Eiada stayed perfectly silent, having her own little panic attack. Why had the ships left? Why hadn't they stayed to rescue the four of them? Was it possible no one saw the spider chase them back into town? (Get a grip. That spider was huge! Of course they saw us leave. They must have. So why did they leave so quickly? Hyne, oh, Hyne, we're going to die-)
Beside her, Roen took a deep breath. "They're not coming back."
(Shit-,) Eiada realized. (They think we're dead already.)
Arin spun away from the horizon to face the Squad Leader. "But- They'll realize we're missing, won't they? They'll come back."
"You think they don't know yet?" Iyan asked from a sitting position a foot and a half off the ground. Scorn and panic played equally in his voice. "Come on. You know why they left? They think we're dead!"
Somehow, hearing it aloud was ten times worse than thinking it to herself. Eiada made an extremely embarrassing little squeaking noise, covered her mouth with her hands. Three faces turned to her, and she blushed.
"Roen-" Arin whimpered, taking a hesitant step towards the older boy, looking almost like he wanted to tug on his uniform sleeve. "What are we going to do?"
Iyan cleared his throat, clearly shocked that Arin was looking to Roen for guidance.
Eiada saw Roen's eyes travel the group, assessing Iyan's leg, Arin's fear, and, probably, her own nervous silence. "We have to get to shelter," he finally said. "before someone finds us."
Eiada swallowed. Apparently Roen agreed with Iyan's assessment of the situation. (Shit.) She caught herself looking back at the horizon; storm clouds were rolling up to cover the ocean. The Squad Leader had a point.
"But-" she tried to calm down. "We have to get back to the Garden, right? I mean, we'll figure out some way, won't we?"
Roen nodded. "Sorry. We just have to- I think we should take one day at a time."
"So," Iyan said, looking at all of them. "back to Dollet?"
Frightened, reluctant nods circled the group.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"It's gotta be you, Roen," Eiada whispered tersely, staring up at the older trainee. "You're the only one they'll believe."
Standing next to some garbage cans, one eye on the downright grumpy looking sky, Roen didn't look convinced.
"Come on," Arin picked up the argument. "Iyan's broken, I'm too young, and Eiada looks like she went deep-sea fishing with no boat. You're clean, mostly, you're oldest, and you've got the money. Go forth and conquer!"
"Shut up!" Whispered Iyan, who was lying, mostly covered in newspaper, watching the road. Immediately, the other three ducked behind a group of trashcans. Seconds later, a squad of Glabadian soldiers sauntered by. Their arrogance was probably half bravado, half real swagger, Eiada wagered with herself. She'd be damn nervous to be the occupying force in a town that had been in open rebellion for three days.
Of course, being the liberating force wasn't so great either.
The four SeeD candidates had made it inside Dollet with minimal mishap- Eiada had taken a hard fall coming down from the cliffs and Iyan's leg was definitely still fractured, but they hadn't been seen by any Galbadians. (Yet,) Eiada reminded herself, having no desire to tempt fate. In an effort to remain undetected, they were hiding in an alley across from a rundown hotel, having decided to get a room and lay low for the night. Their funds came from the ever-useful AT packs, which held 1000 gil apiece; 100 in a really obvious 'hiding' place, 900 sewn under a false bottom in the pack. Eiada had always doubted the practicality of putting money in packs meant for student use, but apparently Garden was downright anal about logging all purchases and charging students when the need arose. Practicality be damned- she was grateful now.
"Please, Roen," she whispered when the Galbadians had passed. "That was probably the end of our luck."
"Okay, fine, waitaminute." Roen unbuckled his swordbelt from across his chest, bent down, pulled a knife from his boot. Slipping it open, he whispered: "Help me," and indicated the Balamb Garden insignia and embroidery across his shoulders, chest, and upper arms. Eiada took the knife, slit the stitches holding the patches to the uniform shirt. Taking the knife back, Roen pulled the fabric away from his chest and made a jagged cut down the front, barely following the zipper track already there. With the shirt butchered and chopped open and his undershirt showing through, it looked like he was following some obscure fashion from Esthar or Deling City- certainly nothing a little backwater like Dollet would have seen before.
"Nice touch," Arin said quietly. "Now move it!"
Pocketing the knife (and a fistful of gil), Roen peeked into the street. Nodding back at the others, he shoved his hands in his pockets and swaggered across the street. Eiada was impressed- he looked just like every jackass her age when she went back to Winhill for the winter.
A tense five minutes later, Roen was back, sauntering across the street like his only concern was whether or not he had enough gil left to catch a vid. "Room two-oh-nine," he said triumphantly.
The group made a communal sound of relief as the sky rumbled overhead and it began to rain.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Eiada stood under the water for a long time. She didn't know how long- it felt like hours. The room was filled with steam, every white tile glistening with its own sheen of sweat. The walls of the shower, thick marbled imitation glass, had been weeping silent streams of condensation for awhile.
Eiada stretched carefully, trying to release all the tension of the past hour under the onslaught of hot water. Getting everyone into the hotel room had been nearly as nerve-wracking as getting into Dollet itself. Roen had insisted they not show up in a group, to the aggravation of them all. He had given Eiada the key and she'd sauntered in after standing under a gutter for a few moments to get the seawater off herself. Suffering from what she was sure were the first stages of hypothermia, she made pleasant small talk with the desk clerk, who absolutely had to get her a warm mug of coffee before she let Eiada flee to her room in peace. She'd run up the stairs and down the hall, spent a panicked thirty seconds prying the ancient window open, and thrown the key down to Arin and Iyan, who had been waiting patiently for ten minutes in a rapidly growing puddle in the street. They had rushed in, Iyan wrapped in an oilcloth disguise, his 'age' excusing the limp. Roen had come up last, and without incident.
Damn, it had been a big day.
She stood awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, wanting only to fall asleep and wake up in her bed at Garden, wanting the heat and the steam and the scream of water in old pipes to wash her away, wanting.
Nothing. Oblivion.
She leaned forward, pressed her forehead against the cool white tile of the wall. The cold bit into her forehead, seeped into the ache that had settled in her skull a few hours ago. In her mind, she saw the SeeD scout boats pull against the current and vanish over the horizon. The headache flared up again. (Shit.) Closing her eyes, she tried to think of something else.
(Something else!) The panic festering in her mind screamed at the top of its tinny, nails-on-a-blackboard voice. (You're stuck on a foreign continent, in an occupied town, with soldiers of your national enemy looking for you and no idea how you're going to get home! What else is there to think about?!)
Her lips twisted up wryly. Panic had a point. (And I've been stewing in here long enough.) She twisted the faucet to the 'off' position, slid the mock-glass door open. The bathroom was filled with steam. She barely made out a pink figure emerging from the bathroom mirror when the swirls of steam obscured her vision.
Eiada groped her way over to the window, opened it a crack. Muffled Dollet night-sounds rolled through the room- cars, light rain, distant laughter. She took a deep breath of cool air, the scent of the sea and wet sidewalk filling her lungs. A lonely, quiet smell. She swallowed a wave of sadness- no, sharper. Grief, she decided. (God damn.) What did she have to mourn?
Suddenly aware she was standing naked next to a window, Eiada moved back to the mirror by the sink. The fog had cleared, and she stared back warily at herself. (Why?) An unfamiliar voice asked. (Who were you expecting to see?)
Her body looked the same- it was the skin that was different. Her limbs and torso were laced and lacerated with bruises of different colors. Blue, purple, green, black. even one of banana yellow with red dots all through. If she remembered correctly, she'd gotten that one slipping on her way down the rocky hills into Dollet. (That's gonna suck tomorrow morning.)
She sighed. She was sore enough already, but she knew it would only get worse from here. Her body was crossed with scratches and two genuines sword slashes, one on her left bicep and one across her thigh. She poked at the latter gingerly. It was swolled and soft pink with heat, but it was clean. Hopefully, it would heal neatly.
Grabbing a towel, Eiada scrubbed at her short black hair. Despite her rough wash in the gutter, it had been so full of sea salt and sweat it had been practically gray when they arrived at the hotel. Now it had regained its usual blue-black sheen. Besides her face, it was the only part of her body untouched by the day. Just out of habit, she reached up to scratch the scar hidden at the base of her hairline. (Thinking of you, Uncle Wage,) she thought automatically. She'd gained that scar the day her uncle had nearly been lost at sea.
(The sea was dark, irony blue-green. It mirrored the sky, which had been ushering lightening and thunder and mayhem towards the small fishing village all day. The winds plastered her waterproof rain slicker to her body as Eiada raced down the slippery dock. Her uncle was a tiny, fragile figure at the end, bent across the deck of one of the smallest boats. Her heart in her mouth, she could barely hear herself screaming over the rain as a huge wave towered up over the dock, sweeping Uncle Wage's prone form off the boat and into the sea.)
Caught up in memory, she stared blankly at the mirror until someone pounded at the door.
"Eiada! Soup's on!"
She jumped, snorted. "I bet." To save their (rather low) funds, they were eating ration bars from the AT packs. Someone must have gotten hungry and gone through the arduous task of unwrapping one, which inspired everyone else to eat as well. Of course, inviting Eiada to come eat with them was probably a subtle encouragement that she get out of the shower. (I'm not even hungry.)
Eiada toweled herself off, pulled on her underwear, and grabbed a thin white robe off the hook on the back of the door. Sinching it around her waist, she picked up her clothes, opened the door, and stepped out into the hotle room.
She'd expected it to be cold, but three bodies heated the air pretty well. Three faces turned to her, one with a ration bar poking out of his mouth. The silence, she realized, wasn't a happy one; Eiada was suddenly struck with the urge to lock herself back in the bathroom.
The silence lasted until Arin levered himself up from the floor where he'd been sitting, back braced against the bureau. He snatched a ration bar from the top of the dresser, offered it to her. "Want one?" he asked, mouth full.
Eiada took it hesitantly. Aware all eyes were on her. "Did I miss anything- ?"
Lying sprawled on the bed nearest the bathroom, Iyan wriggled around, trying to get comfortable. "We thought we might stay here another day."
Eiada did the math in her head. They had 3 AT packs with 1000 gil in each of them, and were staying in a 200 gil hotel. "Okay, why?"
"Iyan should be off his feet for at least another day." Arin said firmly. "He needs at least that to heal naturally, then I can Cure the bone again and we'll see if he can walk then. If he can, he'll need a brace and a crutch."
Iyan sighed, and Eiada smiled at him reluctantly. Sympathetic as she was to his injury, all she could think of was how difficult he would be to hide. (Even after tomorrow, he won't move very fast, either.) "So, tomorrow we just hang out here?"
Roen looked up from his place at the windowseat, a perch he hadn't left all night. Their eyes met and Eiada swallowed. He looked frayed, exhausted, pissed off. "We have to get rid of our unis."
Eiada clutched the Balamb Garden trainee uniform she held a little tighter. She bit her lower lip, trying to keep calm. Logically, she knew every article of Balamb G property she wore was an identifying tag in a hostile territory, and she should be rid of them as soon as possible. Emotionally, she didn't want to lose any reminder of home. She took a slow, deep breath. (Calm down and think.)
She stared back at him, nodded. "What, we throw these-" she hefted her uniform. "-away?"
Roen shook his head. "No, we-"
Iyan cut in. "We cut off the Balamb insignia, and sell them in junk shops. More money for us and we'll use it to buy civvies."
Eiada glanced at Roen, who nodded. He stood up, unfolding his lanky body from the windowseat. "Maybe we should turn in," he suggested. It carried the weight of a command. "We need to get an early start tomorrow."