He realized he had been here for more than a day and not many greater joys had ever reached his heart. Auron lifted his face to the sunlight, this time only holding his red overcoat draped across his arm from the warmth.
The very first time he squinted and noticed the way these bright streaks cast spots on all the rooftops and tree canopies of Besaid Island was when he, High Summoner Braska, and their friend Jecht stood here surveying the village. Like adolescent men, they laughed and talked together in such a way that it was impossible for all life to someday come to an end. It was twelve years ago and Auron was too young to value the pain in the sweetness of pleasant memories.
Now that he was on Besaid Island for the first time without a mission, he didn't know what to do. Waiting on young friends to come back from a spherehunting adventure was the last on the list of things he expected if he should come back to this place. The truth of the matter was that although not necessarily unwelcome, he had no place being here anymore. It would be so easy to sigh in relief that he had another life to live, but the point of it that kept harping on his brain was the confusion of where or how in all the world to start.
'This,' he told himself, 'is much harder.' He was thinking of all that he spent his life doing, which consisted mostly of slaying miscreants that threatened the peace of the nation, and guarding the High Summoner that was to put an end to Spira's suffering.
Auron was standing on deteriorated cobblestone centered between two rows of tents and tiny huts that lined up before an ancient temple of a dead religion. Resting his left hand over his katana, a breath of fresh island air stung his throat and chest. Stepping forward, the shadow of his boot was huge and doubled the impression of what a difference he was to the world again.
'Without dispute, one footstep is always the beginning to something.'
Within seconds he heard a loud whirring noise coming from somewhere in the sky, and an exasperated high-pitched voice from a man yelling orders in the language of the Al Bhed. A faint smirk spread across Auron's sagacious, but not worn, face. Kids were still kids, and even after saving the planet, often still needed direction. He figured that was the place to start: once a guardian, always a guardian after all.
"Yes, yes, YES!!!" rang an incredulously loud young voice coming from the top of the slope. Young and chipper, that ever-familiar, hyper little blonde nymphette came skipping down with her arm extended and facing the clouds. Daylight bounced off her bronze helmet and armor in such a way that could have blinded him, and glimmered onto something that made it seem that she held a smaller sun in her hand. Even across such a vast distance between the stone walk and the hill, Auron could hear the scraping sound of a fine, heavy custom-made katana being dragged through the soil.
'Someone could use a little practice in swordsmanship,' he thought, swinging his own over his shoulder naturally after so many years of experience, adjusting those same sunglasses on the bridge of his nose and approaching the girl with her group behind her.
Two taller females followed in similar dark chivalric armor and bearing swords. One of them lagged behind slower, talking animatedly to a golden-haired young man in stylish punk-athlete wear. Paine, Yuna, and Tidus all smiled agreeably to each other, and Auron knew that this was just another ordinary victory out of an endless chain of them for their spherehunting team.
"Check this out!" exclaimed the blonde Al Bhed, Rikku. She jumped high and proudly, holding out her tiny hand to reveal a heavy glass orb, azure and crystal-clear as the midmorning sky. "And we got it before the Leblanc Syndicate did. As usual!"
"Although it's not much more than just a Macalania Sphere from the old Cloister of Trials," explained the statuesque woman who had followed closer behind. She shook her head once to move silver-chestnut bangs out of her crimson-wine eyes and grinned. "But how are you, Sir Auron?" Paine's voice, unlike Rikku's, was rather deep for a woman but still serious and richly-toned.
"Just... watching," Auron said with a slight grumble. "It is a fine day today."
The girls nodded agreeably, taking note of the simplicity that could only reflect deep wisdom and endless, insightful words that went unsaid.
"Hey!!!" shouted the young man, running up to them hand-in-hand with a pretty young woman. His feathery blond hair and her flared, fringed brown locks flew behind them in the tickling breeze like swaying petals. Together they rushed toward the village as a black, gold, blue, pink, and white blur against softer mint-teal trees and island shrubs.
"Sorry we took so long to get back," Tidus said, his gloved hands on his knees as he panted. "What time is it, anyway? Almost eleven already?"
"Nearly," Auron replied stiffly. "And how are you, Yuna?" he asked the girl.
At not even twenty, the high summoner stood taller and prouder than she was when he first met her two years ago. Now that her green and blue mismatched eyes had seen so much more, she had an air of daring brevity and adventure. No longer restricted by a religion that once held Spira together only in madness, Yuna showed a little more of her beautiful skin in an outfit made for much more movement.
"Oh, wonderful! I'm glad you asked," she wheezed dreamily. "And I hope you're in a good mood, too. There's something I've been wanting to tell everybody."