This story belongs to me and my creative mind. However, most of the characters, names, and places all belong to their respective companies, so don't yell at me for copyright infringements! Remember, Italics represent a person's thoughts or the telling of past events.
Enjoy...
______________
:Faraway Dreams:
Chapter Twelve
"Oh God, oh God..." Ruthy repeated, gasping for breath. "This can't be real, it can't be."
"I'm sorry I never told you, Ruthy, but I didn't want you to know about him if I could avoid it."
"But...why?" She whimpered.
"He's just a pain in the ass, simple as that. He was always looking out for the benefit of the village elders because he thought he was part of it's divine heritage. He wouldn't have ever let us leave Ulura without a fight, and even now he's still trying to get us back home. From what he told us, I don't think he will let us stay here as long as he can help it."
Ruthy didn't respond to Illis' words, remaining against a wall with her arms wrapped around herself. The elder woman stepped around the table to her sister and embraced her, a lone tear sliding down her cheek. Ruthy broke down immediately, burying her face into Illis' shoulder and letting her sorrow out.
"It's gonna be okay, sis." Illis cooed, stroking her sister's hair. "Everything's gonna be okay."
"I've...we've been fighting our brother...all this time..."
"I'm sorry." Illis pleaded. "I never wanted it to come to this, believe me."
"What will we do now?"
"We'll have to tell the others, they need to know what they're up against."
"Tomorrow?" Ruthy asked, looking at her sister with teary eyes.
Illis nodded. "Sure. Whatever you want."
The following morning, Gerick and the other Regulators all stood around the Hall waiting for their resident sisters to arrive. The hours had passed by slowly, all of them wondering what was delaying the two from coming. Gordan was worried greatly, hoping that the Fire Bandit hadn't attacked them in his absence.
"Come on, she is almost two hours late than normal!" Gordan growled. "Something must have happened!"
"Give it a rest, Gordan, she's fine." Gerick insisted.
"How can you be so certain that she is? Just how many opportunities were there between the time we left her and now for that Bandit to get them!?"
"Gordan, please," Fedrich pleaded. "I'm sure that Illis and Ruthy are okay! There's no way that Elric could find their home in the middle of all the others, you know that!"
Gordan growled, clenching his fists. "I swore that I would never let-"
-"Let anyone harm me, that you'd defend me from any threat, and so on." A voice recited sarcastically.
Everyone looked towards the double doors of the Hall, seeing both Illis and Ruthy standing in the doorjamb. Gordan was immediately relieved, rushing towards Illis to grip her shoulders in a gentle embrace.
"Thank the heavens that you are uninjured!" He thanked.
Illis gave him a strange look along with the others present, and the nobleman blushed and stepped away, trying hopelessly to compose himself. Illis stepped by the onlookers, picked up a mug, and filled it with bitter coffee, taking a long drink before falling into a chair. Ruthy too walked to a chair and sat down, resting her head on her arms with a tired sigh.
"Is something wrong?" Gordan asked.
The sisters both flinched at the nobleman's question, but Illis was the only one to look up with an answer.
"Yes. There's a lot wrong."
"What do you mean?"
Illis sighed, taking another swig. "Where to start...what to say. I don't know how to break it to you..."
"Why not just tell them that Elric is our brother? It would be that simple." Ruthy muffled.
"What did you say!?" Fedrich blurted, first to hear the quiet words.
"I said that Elric is my brother, what's so tough about understanding that?" The redhead repeated with a frown.
The others all stood in mute surprise, Fedrich most shocked of all. Ruthy let her face sink into the crook of her arms, tears wetting her flesh as the pain of the revelation returned. The others looked to Illis who still sat with her coffee, trying her best to control her emotions. Gordan stepped forward, putting a hesitant hand across Illis' shoulder before speaking.
"We...I...I cannot express my sympathies, Illis...I am so sorry that we so eagerly hunted down your own flesh and blood."
"Don't you dare apologize for that!" Illis snapped. "As far as I'm concerned, I have no brother! No brother of mine would attack my friends and threaten me as he did."
"But you cannot simply-"
"Do not make me repeat myself! Elric is no brother of mine!"
Gordan restrained himself from saying anything else, the expression on Illis' face scaring him more than anything else he experienced. He knew Illis bore a nasty and stubborn attitude, but he didn't think it was possible for her to be so uncaring of the welfare of her own sibling.
"Well fer Gods sake, why didn't you tell us before!?" Gerick asked.
"Because I never wanted to accept that he was here, that he was again trying to ruin my plans for life!"
"But you could have tried to understand his motives and save us trouble before that defeat!" Gordan countered.
"It's been over ten years since I've seen him, how could have I possibly been able to understand him when he's changed so much?"
"Well, If he's your brother, then you'd know him better than anyone. Why doncha tell us what you know, Illis, everythin' that would help." Gerick insisted with a stern look.
Illis sighed. "I suppose I might as well give you all the generic life story, then.
"My hometown is a village named Ulura, located to the southeast of South Gate where its been in isolation for a long time. The people are close knit, and they all have a special trait that is considered rare to the rest of the world, the fact that we all instinctively know magic. Commonly people train to for a few years to master a certain element like Fire or Water, Earth or Wind, and a few rare people are able to learn White magic, my family line included. When I was twelve, I learned that the leaders of the Village were planning to marry me to a strong man to keep the line that knows White magic going, but it meant that I would never be able to leave and live how I wanted to. Once I knew that, I was determined to get away by any means possible, and I knew that I wasn't going to leave alone."
"You mean it!?" A small child asked. "We're gonna go outside the forest?"
"Of course we are, little sis. I'm going to take you with me and we'll travel the world! We'll see all sorts of things that we'd never see here!"
"Wow!" The small child chirped, smiling widely. "Is mama and papa gonna go with us?"
The other girl's expression fell slightly, but she put up a strong front. "No, we're going alone, just the two of us."
The child frowned. "But how're we gonna go? Papa and the others said it's scary outside, and we hafta stay in the village."
"Dear sister, you don't have to be scared, I'll be with you the whole time."
"But won't you be scared?"
The elder girl paused a moment, but nodded weakly. "We all get scared sometimes, but think of the fun we'll have once we go! Out in the plains, across rivers and mountains, we could even go to the ocean!"
Again the small child squealed with glee. "Yay! When are we gonna go!?"
"Tomorrow, but be sure to keep it a secret, okay?"
"Awright!"
"Promise?"
"I promise!"
"I'd been planning to escape from home for several weeks, getting durable clothes, food and water skins within my reach, medicines, and studying the few maps we had of the area to see where the closest village was. The next day my parents were at a meeting at the village hall, so I finally gathered all the things I needed and prepared to leave, but luck had to screw up my plans by allowing Elric to find me beforehand.
"Illis! What are you doing?" A stern male voice demanded.
Illis looked back and saw her younger brother a few steps away, red hair disheveled and his expression upset.
"I'm going outside the forest."
The redhead was stunned. "You've got to be kidding! The Elders forbid anyone from leaving! It's too dangerous!"
"I don't care. I want to see the world, not live here for my whole life."
"But what about mum and dad? They'll never let you go!"
"Which is why I didn't tell them."
Again the redhead was floored. "Y-you're nuts! Mad! Dad'll kill you if he hears about this!"
Illis stepped towards her brother, gripping his shoulders and giving him a glare full of threats. "You won't tell them about this, or anyone. If you mutter even one peep, I'll-"
"I'm ready, big sis!" Illis' little sister chirped.
The redhead looked behind Illis to see the little girl standing ready, and he immediately grew angered. Illis placed a hand over his mouth to stifle any words he would have yelled and again glared at him.
"Be quiet." Illis warned.
"Damn it, you aren't taking little Ruthy with you!" He whispered, voice strained.
"Yes I am! Don't think I'm unaware of her future here! She's coming with me so we can both live free!"
"I won't let you! I'll stop-"
The redhead was cut off as Illis punched him in his stomach for all her worth. He gasped heavily, then sunk to his knees in pain, slowly falling into unconsciousness from the shock. Ruthy stepped near her sister, holding her legs as she looked at her older brother with a worried face.
"What did you do?" Ruthy asked, her small voice deathly quiet.
Illis leaned down and gave the small girl a hug. "Don't worry, I just made him sleep for a while so we can go."
"Yay!" She squealed. "Let's go!"
Illis put a hand on the young girl's head, the two walking past the border of their village and into the darkening folds of the forest's canopy.
"We were lucky enough to be able to get out of the forest before Elric alerted the others. Using the sun and stars, I managed to find out which direction was west and we began walking, breaking free of the forest to reveal and endless open plains with tall mountains to the north. For the first two days the simple shock and wonder of the new landscape and it's beauty kept me from worrying, but after crossing a bridge and continuing on the third day of the treck I began to worry."
"Sis, I'm hungry..." Ruthy whined. "Can we eat?"
Illis looked down at her younger sister, the small girl covered in dirt and her hair in a tangled mess. The young woman began to fret about her decision to leave the village, already three days behind them. She heard that to the west was a massive plateau that a city was on, and they just recently crossed a mildly busy bridge by the Cebeel river delta. She was able to buy some produce and dried meat from a passing merchant, but couldn't convince them to give her a ride, only further directions to a place called 'Lindblum'.
"Okay, let's take a break." Illis smiled.
"Yay! I want the orange!" She asked.
Illis kept her smile, picking out some dried meat and putting it into Ruthy's hands. "Not this time, have some of the jerky instead."
"Aww, but it's all tough and salty!" The girl whined.
"Now now, it's good for you and tastes fine. We'll have an orange later today, okay?"
"Okay!" The girl beamed, chewing at the meat with her small teeth.
After a small break to rest their feet and to relieve themselves by a small scrub tree, the two began walking west once again. Illis thought about what they would do in the city. She knew that she was old enough to work most jobs, but she was primarily concerned about Ruthy. The little girl was overly curious about everything, and Illis wasn't sure if she could handle a job and watch her at the same time. Getting a watcher for her was out of the question, since the city would be a stranger to her.
"How much farther it is?" Ruthy asked, tugging Illis' pant leg. "When will we see a village?"
"Well, we passed by a bridge and some people, right?" Illis posed.
"Yeah..."
"So where do people go when they cross a bridge?"
Ruthy thought hard for a few seconds. "Home?"
"Right!" Illis smiled. "And their home will be close to a village, and we can start our adventure there!"
"Yay! We're gonna have lotsa fun, right?"
"Of course! I'll make sure you can do anything your little heart wants to do!"
Ruthy wrapped her arms around Illis' legs. "You're the bestest big sis I have!"
"And you're my best little sis ever." Illis replied with a grin, letting the worries of the day fade away.
"Despite being alone with just each other in the wild plains, we never were afraid of the dangers such a journey posed. I just kept leading the way to Lindblum, and Ruthy followed with the intent to be with her sister and to have a great adventure. We had a lucky break, however, when we finally saw the massive rise of the Lindblum Plateau on the horizon, and at the beginning of the fifth day, we ascended to the top on a large cable car, then walked for the afternoon and arrived at the very base of the city. Nothing prepared me for this, nothing could possible have, but Ruthy didn't care and expressed herself like I wished I could."
"Wow!!" Ruthy squealed, her head looking straight up at the monumental structure before them.
"By the Gods..." Illis gasped, looking up as well.
The two were standing at the base of the Hunter's Gate Staircase, straddling the base of the Lindblum Grand Castle. Illis stood still, almost at the verge of breaking down at the sight of such monumental human achievement.
"Sis! It's so big! It's bigger than even the village!"
"You got that right, Ruthy..." Illis whispered back.
"Are we gonna live in there?" The girl begged.
"Sure!" Illis said. "Whatever you want, I'll try to make it happen!"
The girl squealed happily and ran around, amusing the passerby's as she danced in excitement. Illis stepped to a large map of the city, and she quickly began memorizing locations and Districts. After a minute, Ruthy came bounding back and latched herself to Illis' leg.
"Come on, sis, let's go!" She pleaded.
"So we both went into Lindblum, but I didn't have a single clue about what to do. I knew I needed to get a job to get some Gil for a place to say, so I asked around at every shop, but they sent me away every time. I was about to give up for the day, but little Ruthy managed to find an old lady and wiggle her childish humor into her heart, and she let us stay at their home and help her at a bakery. For a number of months we stayed with her and worked at the bakery, saving our money and working as hard as we could, looking around the city for different jobs and better opportunities to make it.
"For five long years we stayed with the old lady until she became sick and couldn't work, so she trusted the bakery's operation to us. She died a year later, and a different man with lots of money bought the store and hired us with better pay. I used our savings to buy our home in the Theater District, and from then on I worked alone and Ruthy stayed at home to keep the house.
"That was how things were until two years ago when I heard about the Regulators, so I trained with a sword for a year and joined for the better pay, Ruthy joining two months later. After Ruthy joined, we gained a Burman member, and a few weeks later, Elric finally found us and began attacking people to draw us out so he could find us. He threatened us to force us to return, but we defied him, and he promised to get us home, even if he had to destroy all we did to make it happen. Ruthy and I and the Regulators planned to stop him, and the end results were...what we plan on today..."
The others remained silent in thought, taking in the vast history that they never knew of their moody and stubborn member. Illis looked around them, wondering how they would react to her involvement to the danger that they faced, that her actions brought about the threat the Fire Bandit represented. However, her observation of the Regulators brought her to see that Ruthy was missing.
"Where's Ruthy?" She wondered.
The others looked around, brought out of their thoughtful trance.
"I saw her leave while you were talking. I'll find her." Fedrich offered.
The Burman stood and left the Hall, leaving the others to continue thinking as Illis brooded on her past.
* * *
"Ruthy?" Fedrich announced.
Ruthy didn't respond from her position on the rails near the Square. Her gaze was locked onto the open expanse of the sky within Lindblum's walls, her mind drifting through her emotions, her intense self loathing for have being fighting her own brother without knowing.
"Ruthy?" Fedrich tried again, lightly putting a hand on her shoulder to get a response.
She still didn't answer, so he removed his hand and merely stood nearby, leaning on the rail to be with her. For a few minutes they remained in the same position, neither of them speaking, letting the situation settle in their minds. Slowly, Ruthy looked to her side to see Fedrich alongside her. The Burman looked to her and gave a light grin.
"Hey." He spoke. "You okay?"
She sniffed, feeling the onset of tears getting to her eyes as she let the situation overwhelm her. "I'm sorry. I just...I can't believe that we've been fighting my own brother."
"You shouldn't feel upset, you didn't know until now."
"But still...! I wished so many evil things to happen to him, cursed his name, prayed for his death...and now I know that I said those evil things to my own brother..."
Ruthy leaned forward and fell into Fedrich's chest, her emotions coming to surface and her tears escaping from her eyes to end up soaking into his fur. Sobs broke through her lips, and her arms circled across his back as she clung to his narrow frame. Fedrich was surprised at her falling apart, but he knew that the situation would have driven most anyone to tears. With a slow motion, he brought his arms around and held her to him, hands resting against her shoulders as her body quaked with each sob.
"It's okay, Ruthy." He cooed, trying to calm her.
Her sobbing lessened, but he still held her close so she wouldn't feel alone. Although determined to keep his friends safe, he then knew that he would be the one to make sure that she would be safe.
* ^ * ^ *
The Author Speaks!
Hey, everyone, never thought that I'd put something like this into the chapter, eh? Well, it's the first time I've inserted authors notes directly into a story if it wasn't the end. Rest assured, though, this isn't the end, not by a long shot. I decided to do this to bring you information, whether it be answers to some questions or the status of the story, you'll find it here.
First, to Robshi, I'll point you towards my website for information about Ulura and it's location. Next, for Lady-Artist1, I thank you for actually critiquing my writing, your tip makes a lot of sense! Lastly, I merely want to remind you that I have a growing archive of information in regards to the story at my website, freshly updated, where you can read up on information about the story, get some facts on the characters and learn where things are in the story. Just copy this to your browser and have fun!
Love and Peace, people.
