Author Notes: Thanks for reading this far! This is another one of my many undertakings that I hope you will enjoy. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and I hope you have as much fun reading it and guessing what's gonna happen next. I'd greatly appreciate a review if you have the time to spare. Thanks again.

Chapter One

Pleasant Periods and Panoramas

Wind is the sweetest of sirens, singing along on its merry way in no precise direction. It bellowed its deepest songs across rolling hills, where it whipped at the grass blades. It was the storyteller of the olden days, transcending time itself. It brought both joyful and devious things across the lands, even over to the now proclaimed nation of Thamasa. Just west a bit from the capital city, also known as Thamasa, and slightly north of a new village was a virtually untouched spot of land. It was Relm's favorite place to go.

She was the youngest of the heroes that conquered Kefka at the end of his reign over the entire planet. She had been ten at that time and now blossomed well as a young woman, two weeks before her eighteenth birthday. Her hair would have been rustled about by the high winds on those plains, but her pirate-gypsy like bandana kept it steady. She always wore that old rugged cloth around her head. She deemed it lucky since she wore it when they beat Kefka.

The young lady would go to this place and draw pictures of inanimate things. Art was a part of her, always present at her fingers. Bottling up such talents would make her explode in unpaintable colors, so she made sure not to let that happen. However, she was too good, too accurate. There was no explanation other than she was born in a family of magic users to the power she beheld: her paintings came to life. The theory was questioned when her powers persisted after The Day of Sovereignty, when magic was presumed destroyed. This made her a powerful child indeed. But…on her sixteenth birthday, she drew a monster that turned on her, drawing a scar on her face permanently. After that, she stuck with drawing inanimate things that would not come to life.

The plains of Eboshi were a good place to draw such things. She spent her days there, drawing hillsides and sunsets. She was tempted to draw some strapping, young man and see if he would be her lover, but she just didn't trust her own power anymore. She did feel awfully lonely those days. Finding someone for her would be…difficult. She wasn't exactly 'normal'. She was a well-known hero who had saved the world when she was only ten years old, an age that can be so easily influenced. No one even bothered to sit and talk with her about what all her young mind had seen, except for her grumpy grandfather, Strago. The old man would stop to talk with her from time to time, when he wasn't complaining about something. Nonetheless, she was marked as if she was of a different race and her power wasn't helping her normality.

So she painted. Sometimes it was gentle strokes when she felt sentimental and feminine, sometimes it was dark colors to express her loneliness and often it was harsh, hard, contrasting colors to vent out her anger and disgust for the world. Her paint had become her words for she did not talk much more. She used to be very headstrong and ramble about nonsense until she was given an inevitable 'ssssh'ing in which she usually didn't stop. All the rambling was now in her head and in her drawings, as the sky would turn to orange sherbet bringing on another starry night.

Sometimes she lay on her back and watched the stars peak through the outer atmosphere and she'd pretend to dot the sky with her brush, knowing well where they'd appear. It was all she could do to keep the supernatural espers and morbid memories from dancing in her little head. It would get cold at night from the nearby sea breeze, but she had felt the sting of various chilling spells and a breeze now was just that…a breeze. In fact, she now wore an odd purple and white button up shirt that she'd only button below her breast, allowing her midriff to show. It matched well with her bandana and her fuzzy, tattered grey pants. So most of the young and beautiful woman's skin showed and she was like a milk drop amongst the vast fields, wandering when something would happen.

One after noon, when she was painting a cloud that she thought looked like King Edgar; a man came riding up on an animal you wouldn't see very often. Yes, chocobos were quite common, but not pure white chocobos. The rider himself was particularly interesting, his polished armor gleaming ridiculously bright. She watched as the shining white duo crossed the fields and expected nothing else but a strange passerby. But…The man was riding straight to her and not turning. He came all but ten feet in front of her when he 'whoa'd the chocobo to a stop.

"Fine day for painting, isn't it, my lady?" The young man spoke firmly but gently, holding his head up high.

She was beginning to blush and by golly, Relm Arrowny was not so easily taken by such men! "Would you mind, your blocking my view."

The man patted the chocobos head, earning a small 'kweh' from the magnificent creature, and then he got off it. "I beg your pardon, I didn't mean to intrude."

"Just whaddya think your doing, huh?" she said, continuing her front.

This time it worked, the man was stumped by her quickness. "I-I do apologize. I'm looking for the capital, Thamasa."

"Oh," Relm said, stirring her paint brush frantically, "keep going east."

"Thank you. Would you happen to know where the man Strago is?"

She stopped stirring and stared coldly at the man, and then started stirring again, slowly. "What business do you have with such a legendary figure?"

"Oh, please forgive me. I haven't even properly introduced myself. I am Lloyn Heartache, High Consulate of the Freedom Riders."

The Freedom Riders. This was Cyan's little project, started years ago when a family went missing and was later found burnt to death. Cyan, being one of the legendary heroes, had suffered much loss from Kefka's endeavors and had many sad memories to dwell on. Hearing of the family, Cyan found purpose in creating the Freedom Riders who sought peace on all islands and were under his order. Unfortunately, the murdered family's killer was never found.

"Freedom Riders, eh?"

"Yes, Lord Cyan has sent me on high urgency to meet with Lore Strago."

Relm put down her painting utensils and walked up to the knightly figure, cocking her head slightly and smirking as well. "Two things wrong with your story, Mr. Lloyn. First off, Lord Cyan would never allow such a young man to take place as a High Consulate on his board. Two, Heartache is the worst last name I've ever heard of…it is obviously made up."

"You are correct, my lady…on the last part that is. Lord Cyan has no restrictions on age for positions as long as we can prove ourselves, in which I proudly state I have acquired his trust. And, my last name…is made up because I don't know what it is. You see, I…"

"Lloyn…" Relm said, pondering hard on the name and ignoring most of what he had just said. "That is a Doman name…"

"Yes, I am a true, 100 Doman. However, after Kefka poisoned my country, I was left as an orphan and I repressed a lot of horrific memories. My last name got sucked into the repression so I dubbed myself a fitting name…Heartache."

"That is…really sad."

"Yes…it was. But now I can serve this world justice as a Freedom Rider and I only continue to wear the name to remind me of my past."

"I see… This is a magnificent creature you have," she said, walking up beside the frozen-still chocobo, watching her every move.

"Yes, she is my pride and joy. Just say her name and she'll ease up to you. She is called, 'Schala.'"

"Hello, 'Schala'," Relm said gently, her original front against the man completely gone.

When she said the name, it seemed like each feather on the large bird moved freely and the chocobo's eyes started blinking again. Relm started to scratch under its long neck, which made it purr like a kitten.

"She is the most graceful and brightest chocobo in all of the world." He stated and the chocobo kweh'd again as if it understood his every word. "But, she can tear any enemy to pieces without a second thought."

A billion pictures ran through Relm's mind as she petted the currently loving animal. She wanted to paint white knights riding across cotton clouds and white knights running over crashing waves of the sea. Strangely, they involved more of knights than chocobos. She started to blush again.

"Forgive me; this helm is rather hot in midday." He said, taking his helmet off and he shook his head to reset his hair.

She turned to see his face, totally unobstructed at this point. His fine, dark black hair rested well on his white face, barely hiding his thick black eyebrows. His thin lips curled into a smile on a dimple-less face. She turned back to the chocobo immediately, her face bright red now.

"Your paintings…" he said, leaning down to look at some of her work. "They're beautiful. Perfect even."

"Thank you," she giggled slightly, stroking the backside of Schala.

"Wait…are you…how could I have not seen this? You are…Relm Arrowny, aren't you?"

She turned and smiled, nodding slowly. "I am she."

The knight immediately fell to one knee and lowered his head. 'Well, it was fun while it lasted,' she thought, knowing her cover was gone.

"Please forgive me for my indiscretion," he formally spoke, keeping his head down. "I did not know that it was you, a foolish and careless mistake."

Relm shifted her weight onto one hip and sighed. "Such a shift in words for the same person that still stands in front of you."

Lloyn raised his head like a whipped puppy, looking deeply into her eyes to see just how much trouble he was in.

Relm sighed again. "Okay, get up now."

He stood up, keeping his eyes on her and he straightened like Edgar's fancy drill device. He kept quiet, expressing that he would not speak again until told so.

She stared at him and hoped that she could think of something to recreate the nonchalant banter that they were spouting off only a few moments before. Unfortunately, nothing came to mind now that he knew way more about her than she knew about him. "I believe you were headed to my Grand Father. There's a road just over that hill that'll lead you straight to Thamasa."

She nodded him away and walked over to her paintings, readying herself for the rest of the day. She noticed Lloyn bowed, but then he hesitated before he went to Schala.

"Is there something wrong?" she asked.

Lloyn hopped onto his chocobo and grabbed the restraints, looking frantically at the ground as he mouthed something under his breath.

"Mr. Heartache," she said, stepping over to him. "Is there something you want to say?"

Lloyn looked back at her and started to scratch the back of his head. "I've already made a fool of myself…"

"Stop avoiding my questions!" she said a little more like her youthful self as she stomped the ground.

This time, he looked at her and smiled, his expression calm and dashing. "I was going to ask for your company to an evening outing."

"You mean like a…date?"

Lloyn put the helmet back on his head and made the chocobo step a few paces back. "I should have known that someone so beautiful would be someone legendary."

And he rode off towards Thamasa, leaving a perplexed Relm with her paintings and thoughts alongside the windy, hilly plains of Eboshi.