Fortune 15-Fragile Friendships

Star sat hugging her legs to her chest as she watched Blai attempting to start a fire. A strange, uncomfortable silence had once against stretched over them as they waited for their third companion to wake, after all, it would be much too much of a hassle to carry the oldest of them half-way around Gaea and back. The boy sat back as the fire sparked to life and his eyes watched its flickering flames. Pleased with himself though he was, he could not so much as bring himself to give an accomplished smile. The reason…well: Chid. Said reason moaned softly and stirred. His blue eyes fluttered open and Chid sat up slowly, holding his head in his hands.

"What happened?" he asked miserably.

"You were knocked out," Star answered bluntly before Blai could say anything. She had a feeling that if any words were going to come out of the boy's mouth, they would be nothing less than scathing. The girl popped a few berries in her mouth and pointed to a large leaf on which lay similar berries and what looked like a burnt pile of mud.

Chid stared at it with a look of obvious disgust, "What is this?" he asked, sounding afraid of what possible answer he may receive.

"Dinner," Chid grimaced when his long-time friend replied. That was just what he had been afraid of. "I couldn't figure out how to cook a bird, but I tried…" Obviously, he had failed miserably.

"And there is a very good reason I didn't have any," Star said sarcastically, though it was clear that she did not need to point that fact out. "Believe it or not, the kid's makes a worse cook than I do," Blai glared at the young woman who merely ignored him and popped a few more berries into her mouth.

Tentatively, the blond man nibbled on the burnt…thing. Did it qualify as food? Immediately he dropped it back on the leaf and threw some of the berries into his mouth, hoping they would help to wash down the taste…Definitely worse than it looked, if that was possible. "So, do you have any news of the EscaFlowne?" he asked, changing the subject at the hurt look on his friend's face. How could he tell the boy that it sucked? No, Chid wasn't that sort of person.

"Yeah, actually…"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Blai asked angrily. Why would she have?

The girl leaned back on her hands and closed her eyes as she lifted her face towards the dark, moonless sky. "I didn't think it mattered, you're blindly blundering after me anyway…" True though it was it was also blunt and cruel. Not that it wasn't the kind of answer Blai wasn't expecting of her, but still…

"I do not!" the young, dark-haired prince yelled angrily. Liar…

"So what are they, my dear?" Chid asked politely.

Star noticeably grimaced and replied, "It's somewhere east of us, I can hear it." She casually lay down with her hands clasped behind her head. Once again she closed her eyes, as if listening to something that only she could hear, "It isn't very far. But I think it's trying to warn me about something…something that's waiting there for me…" Warning or not, that was not about to stop her from finding it. The girl couldn't quite understand why finding the EscaFlowne was suddenly so important to her.

"It's pretty amazing that you could figure all that out," Blai asked, quite impressed despite himself.

The girl shrugged, which looked quite odd considering the position she was in, "Thanks to these." She pulled out her tarot deck and brandished it in front of her two companions. And, as she had already explained, the Melef was loud.

"Oh," the teenage boy sounded amazed, "so that's what you were doing. My dad once told me that Hitomi could tell the future with visions and by reading messages in cards…" But he hadn't actually believed the stories…he hadn't actually believed in Hitomi's existence at all, nothing more than a fairy tale.

The girl rolled over onto her side, "Get some sleep," she said sternly, "you guys seem pretty worn out," not as worn out as she, "'Night." She closed her eyes and to all appearances fell asleep.

The two boys sat in an uncomfortable silence. Well, only one party saw it as such, the other remained blissfully unaware of the strangeness that had fallen over them. It was strange how much time had changed the two of them. Long ago, they had been best friends…almost brothers. But now, well, all of that was changing because of one strange girl, one very strange girl, from the Mystic Moon. Was it really cursed? Was it because of the curse that the two boys were drifting apart, or was it something else?

"Chid," Blai began nervously, cutting through the silence as if with a knife, "do you remember my mother?" The young prince hugged his knees to his chest; it sounded childish, that he knew. But with that one question the awkwardness boys dissolved and they were thrown back in time to when they were both much younger, sitting by the lake near the castle in Freid under a moonless night sky similar to the one under which they found themselves now. It was as if time had stopped and things had never changed between them.

The duke of Freid laughed softly, not a cruel laugh, but not a happy one. "That's like asking me if I knew my own mother. Yeah, I remember her," he said, on a more serious vein, "she was a magnificent woman. You haven't asked me that question in a long time," he ruffled his friend's hair briefly.

"Ten years…"

"I can't believe you remember that..."

"What was she like?" an age-old question, one that Chid had heard countless times before.

The blond boy smiled at his friend, "We certainly have plenty of time…" he leaned back and looked at the sky as he tried to remember everything he could about the woman for the sake of his friend, so that they could share the memories of someone who was dear to them both.