Diaghileb Godeye

I had been a wandering journeyman for years, travelling across Ivalice for work and food. I never had a good solid home.

Often times I had saw these cute little children scramble in and out of homes oh so blissfully, and I had wondered, why didn't I have a home like them?

But I was too hungry and tired to care too much. But as I spread my reputation as a superior Alchemist across the land, I came to have more free time inbetween jobs, because I didn't have to serve part-time and random waiters and clerks for pieces of moldy bread. There was one day that changed my life forever.

Before the third of Madmoon that year, a great life to me was decent slightly-stale bread in my stomach and a coat with less than three patches.My wealth grew from a seed of determination and endurance to the rose of triumph... But triumph gives you eyes, a vision, a sight. And that was what costed me my life until I came home.

As usual, after a hard day in a rented lab, I took a walk down the lane, preferably to a park or some green location.But this day was different.

She was a little viera, I recall, no more than three years, and she was lost- hopelessly lost in the roads. She was lost and alone, and naturally, and prayed helped from the first creature she came across, which was me.

So not knowing what to do, I picked her up and carried her on my back to a location she muttered about, the place she whispered about through her childish tears.

Her mother was terrified when she had been gone for five whole minutes. They had one happy reunion. I was glad that the little viera had found her way home. But a thought hit me as I continued back to the lab-

Why don't I have a home?

Not a coat, not a hotel room, but a home where, if I were lost, I could ask someone for directions.

I played with that idea of having a good solid home.

One day, I'd be lost, and I'd come across someone else, like a Hunter that knew the terrain well. He'd say, "Are you lost?" And I'd admit I was. He'd ask me where I needed to go, and instead of saying "A rented lab," I'd say, "I need to go home." And when he'd ask me where home was, I'd describe a little house, not very big or fancy, but home enough for me. He'd give me directions, I'd thank him, and we'd both go on our ways, him to the Ranger station, and me to my home.

It took many, many years before I found a home. I had wandered everywhere, but no one seemed to know any houses that needed selling. I came across the old nu mou one day.

We were both drinking in the pub, and he was scribbling something down on a paper, crossing it out, and throwing the paper away. He was muttering, muttering like a crazed beast. I made out the murmurings to be about him not finding anyone to buy his house and how badly he wanted to go home.

I interuppted him about it, and we negotiated a good price. He tossed the deed in my hands, saddled his chocobo, and raced out to his other house with all his family.

And I raced to Lutia Pass.

The house was no grand old thing. It was just a little cabin with a large laboratory underneath. Not much and barely liveable, but I could not afford a whole team of renovators. So I took upon the task myself.

I could not work in the lab until I finished the repairs, fixing the roof (which was about to collapse), repairing the walls, making the water run again...It was hard labor, and I was often hurt in the doing. But it was the labor of love, and those cuts and broken bones and sprained ankles had the same effect as wisps of dust blowing on your head.

Winter that year was cold and harsh. The wind would shriek and whip the snow into my face. I slept cold at night, and nearly froze to death a few times. But I continued.

As winter glowed to spring, the house was finished. For the first time in my entire life, I belonged somewhere. There was somewhere I could go to.I was someone!

I lived out my life in that house for ten years. It was not an easy life, as I had to work hard during the gathering and growing days, but I was happy.

And when Marche came to take me away from my beloved home and set me in this false home, I never forgot my house. I'm going back someday.