Notes: OOC (out of character) for Zechs and Noin
Part 2
Chapter 1
Living in a Land of Darkness
Zechs awoke feeling stiff and sore. That wasn't surprising seeing as he had slept on the ground for several weeks. He lifted his head slowly and looked around him with sleep blurred eyes. Realizing that it was day he dropped his head back onto the solid ground. The impact jolted him awake but he rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.
"Wake up you," called Noin in a teasing voice. "I know you're awake." A muffled groan escaped Zechs's lips. He lifted himself onto his hands and knees and then began to brush the dirt off his face and spit it out of his mouth.
"You know, if you keep snoring like you do all you'll ever eat is dirt," Noin replied to his splutters. "Hurry and wake up. I can't stand it when you're too tired to think. It makes me feel as though I'm talking to myself."
Zechs smiled to himself. Her last comment came as somewhat of a joke to both of them because they both knew that they hardly ever talked and usually if they did talk it was Zechs who carried the conversation. He stood up briskly to show that he was indeed awake and turned toward the stream. He slid down the path that led to the water and gratefully splashed the refreshing water over his face. He scrubbed his face with his hands trying to rid himself of the layer of dust that had accumulated there over the weeks.
After he felt as though he had scrubbed the skin as well from his face he stood up from the water's edge. He looked into the rippling reflection of himself and saw a tall wiry young man looking back. Zechs thought of himself as handsome but recently the worry and fatigue he felt showed in his face making him appear older than the scant nineteen years he had under his belt. He turned from this worried reflection and scrambled back up the path to see if Noin had finished packing their meager possessions. One of Noin's comments though had brought another worry to his mind. Soon he would in fact have only dirt to eat because their food supply was desperately low. He needed to find a town to stop in. He only hoped that if they found a town that it would be friendly. An unfriendly town was worse than going hungry for a while.
He and Noin had found this out not too long ago in a small secluded town. They had arrived there in the middle of the night, tired, cold and hungry only to be confronted be the leader of the town. He was forcing all that entered his town to pass a test before they were allowed in. This test was to see if the travelers possessed "the gift" or not. This was what Zechs had been afraid of. He and Noin did not pass the test and so had to run for their lives from the townsfolk. Zechs wondered why everyone in the world seemed so crazy those days. There was hardly a town to be found that was friendly to the gifted people. Zechs sighed. They did have cause though. They were afraid. Ever since the darkness had come over most of the world Terans were in a state of utter panic. They all knew that evil was returning. Zechs looked up at the dark forbidding sky that constantly covered the sun with its swirling clouds. Why though people hated those that had before been their friends he didn't know.
Noin had finished packing their things into the travel bags they had bought in the last town they had entered. Noin looked at Zechs's cleaner appearance, nodded, and headed up the path they had been following for the past several days. Zechs grabbed up his bag and trotted after her.
The day passed quickly for the two travelers. They hiked over varied terrain stopping every few hours to catch their breath or eat some of their dwindling food supply. They walked in silence for the most part to conserve energy and also because they had to be constantly on the alert. The thunderstorms would come up suddenly without much warning and anyone out in the open would eventually be drenched in fetid rainwater that destroyed crops across the country. The lighting also was extremely dangerous because it struck without warning or pattern. Personally Zechs was terrified when the red forks of death came streaking across the sky whether he was outside or in, but he would never tell Noin this. Noin was always calm and composed.
Zechs couldn't remember a time when he had not known Noin. He supposed that it was about the time he had found out he had the gift, but that seemed like an eternity ago. Noin had always put up with those that would recoil in horror when they found that she had the gift with gracefulness and poise. Zechs envied her this. He also thought it strange that no matter what she was called or how badly she was treated because she was different, she remained calm. Zechs was different. He deeply resented being different. He resented the fact that he was an outcast for something he had no control over. For this reason he hardly ever used the gift. Noin had trouble remembering the last time he had used it. She felt that he shouldn't be so ashamed of it and hide it from everyone. True, when he did use it wasn't very strong, but at certain times it could come in handy.
Noin's mind strayed to a time when she clearly remembered him using his gift. It had been when they were younger and had just started traveling. He had been in a touchy mood all day and what had happened next pushed him over the edge. They had entered a town and had requested to stay in the small inn that was situated there. The manager had taken one look at them and kicked them out into the street. Zechs became very upset by this and went up to the closed and locked door they had just been kicked through. He turned and then suddenly there was no longer a door, only bright yellow flames. This was the most energy Zechs had ever used. He stumbled back with a very surprised expression on his face and then fainted clean away in the street.
Thinking of this memory a small smile came to Noin's face because this too had been when she had most significantly used her gift. Terrified that Zechs had been hurt somehow she rushed forward and placed her hands on his chest to see if he was still alive. She had suddenly felt very weak, but noticed that Zechs was stirring and coming out of his faint. She suspected that the weakness had come when she had felt what had ailed Zechs. She had healed cuts and scrapes before and when she healed them she would experience a fraction of the pain that had caused the wound. She thought that her gift was very strange because the few others she had met who were outcasts had power similar to that of Zechs's. She had not known at the time that she possessed a very different sort of gift, one that had not been seen in someone for almost one hundred years; the gift of instant healing. It was only a woman who had this and it was the most rare form of the gift next to the deadly power held by the evil sorcerers that held their world captive and the one that would set it free, the holder of Isis.
Noin stopped suddenly from the brisk pace she had set and stared up into the sky. Zechs looked up too. A small shudder passed through his body. Now was not the time for a storm to come up. They had to reach a town and they didn't have time to wait out a storm. The roiling black clouds stayed the same though and the storm didn't come. Zechs let out a sigh of relief. It was hard to tell when a storm was coming until it was almost too late to find shelter. One could always tell when a storm had come though because the red lightning would start flickering out from the sky to touch down on ground, lighting fires and wiping out areas of the already desolated land. Then the rain would come, but the rain wasn't cooling or refreshing. It would only intensify the fires and kill everything else that the fire hadn't ravaged. The only way to survive such a storm was to find shelter. Zechs feared that they were still miles away from such safety and night was already starting. They would have to sleep outside again and post watch to keep a lookout for the storms.
They found a small clearing off to the side of the path and set down their light packs. Noin set out their cooking utensils and Zechs trooped off through the high grass that surrounded their camp to find wood for the fire. He returned shortly with an armload of dry wood and set it down be the small pit Noin and dug. Methodically she piled the wood into the fire pit and started a fire with her flint and belt knife. Zechs sat down and stared into the hypnotic flames. Noin then removed the last of their food from her bag and set in by the fire to warm it.
After they had eaten their meager meal Zechs scooted over to Noin's side. It was as he looked at her in the light of the fire that she seemed so mysterious. The firelight flickered over her olive-skinned face. Zechs looked over and saw Noin smiling. She had a faraway look in her eyes. He reached out and held her hand. She looked at him a bit surprised but then gave him a warm smile and squeezed his hand. She turned to him then as if she wanted to say something, but instead looked up at the ugly cloud darkened sky. Zechs put an arm around her bare shoulders and looked up into the depressing night, glad that he at least had someone to share his darkened life with.