(Two Years Later)
I still lived with my parents the day I turned twenty. This was the most special of all my previous birthdays because this was the day I would finally get what I've been longing and working for. The night before, I had finally earned enough money to buy my very own scythe. I had over one hundred thousand gil in my pouch the morning I walked into the weapon shop to buy it. For some reason, he kept all his scythes in assorted boxes in the back of the room behind the counter, as well as other weapons, like spears and ninja weapons. There were also things like Hairpins and Megaphones. I could never figure out why they would be in a weapon shop or why a weapon would just be in storage, but that's what he kept in those boxes. They were also the most expensive items in the store.
I had walked into that weapon shop many times before, and the shop owner always let me hold one of the scythes. After getting to know each of the scythes, there was one scythe in particular that I felt I just had to have. So I asked the shop owner to keep the box under the counter until I was able to buy it. The staff height of the scythe from the ground went up to my shoulder. The length of the blade was probably about two and a half feet. The part that held the blade was silver-plated and was designed to look like a mechanical hinge joint. It had six circular slots that were meant for special spheres called materia.
Materia is what people use for magical support. There are several different kinds of materias, including green Magic, blue Support, and red Summon. Magic materia is what we use to actually cast spells. This class of materia always comes in a green color. There's specific materias for specific forms of magic (like Fire materia for fire magic, and Cure materia for cure magic). Support materia adds special qualities to materias, and they always come in a bluish color. It basically makes magic do something special so it's not just plain casting, but only if the two slots are linked together. For example, an All materia linked to any magic materia makes it so a spell from that magic materia hits all targets. If linked to Fire Materia, it would make a Fire spell hit all the enemies, and if linked to a Cure Materia, it would make a Cure spell hit all allies. Summon materia basically explains itself. It summons huge creatures from another dimension. These creatures only stay long enough to perform one attack, and it's best not to try to get in their way. This class of materia can be seen in a sort of red coloring.
When materia is inserted into slots on a weapon or piece of armor, it enables the user to use the magic within the materia. I wasn't planning on getting any materia yet, but the scythe I wanted had six materia slots, three on each side of it. Two of the slots on each side were linked together, while the third on each side was an individual slot.
When I walked into the shop the shop owner wasn't there, so I just looked around for a little bit. I took this time as an opportunity to look at the variety of weapons that were available. There were buster swords, fighting gloves, gatling guns, and magic staves, just to name a few of the weapons. Most of them were simple beginner's weapons with only two unlinked materia slots and only worth about two hundred gil.
The materia shop next door to the weapons shop was literally just a counter away. There was no wall between the two shops because they were both in the same building, but they each had their own door and they each had their own piece of the counter that went on for the entire length of the room. The only thing dividing the two shops was a large pipe that hung a few feet overhead in the center of the room and went in a straight line as if there was actually a wall there.
I was looking at one of the rifles when the shop owner came back.
He was a little past middle-aged with a bald-spot so big his hair only consisted of a gray ring around his head. When he came in he leaned against the counter and looked at me.
"Come to look at the scythe again?" he asked as he walked in.
"Actually, I came to buy the scythe today."
"Really? Well let me pull it out of the box." He bent down, opened the box, and pulled out the scythe I intended to buy.
"So, ya finally got the money for it, eh?"
"Yes, I did. It took me what seemed like forever, but it's finally happened."
"Yes, patience is a powerful thing."
"That's what I hear," I said as I pulled out my pouch of gil. "So, how much do I owe you?"
"Well, since I almost never sell my boxed weapons, and since today's your birthday, I'll give you a discount. You can have it for sixty thousand gil."
I nearly lost my jaw due to how low it dropped. I was shocked he would give me such a deal, even if it WAS my birthday. I also wondered how he even KNEW it was my birthday. I'd never told him when my birthday was. Either way, I never liked to turn down a good offer. So I paid the man his money and took my scythe in my hand. It was heavy, of course, but that didn't matter to me. I had my scythe in my hand, and this time I was going to take it home with me.
I looked back at the shop owner, and he just stood there looking back at me with a jolly ol' smile on his face.
"Just out of curiosity," I said to the shop owner, "how did you know that today was my birthday?"
"A little chicobo told me," he answered, "Or should I say, his breeder."
"Will?" I wondered out loud.
"Yes, yes, I believe that was his name, but that's not important. You just go and celebrate your accomplishment or something."
"Uh, yea. I will." I turned around to leave. "Thanks."
"No problem."
As soon as I walked out of the shop, the first place I ran to was to the chocobo stable. I couldn't wait to show Will my new scythe. When I got there, I didn't see anyone there but the chocobos in their stables. I walked over to Jamie's stable and greeted him.
"Hey Jamie, look at this!" I raised the scythe up so he could see it. He made a happy "wark" sound, showing that he was happy for my accomplishment.
"Ya it finally happened. Now I can go to Midgar and start living my own life." I reached over and petted Jamie's head for a little bit.
"Hey there!" A voice behind me greeted cheerfully, "Can I help you with something?" I turned around to find, not Will, but some other old guy who apparently was working the stables today.
"Uh, yea. Where's Will, and who are you?"
"Well, I'm his substitute. My name's Willy, Will's cousin once removed. Will said he had somethin' Important to do at the Chocobo Ranch, so he asked me the favor of taking care the chocobos, especially the one called Jamie. Will thinks Jamie is a special chocobo just because he warms up to strangers quicker than all the others, but I think he's just friendly. In fact, it's rather rare to find a naturally friendly chocobo in these parts. They're usually…"
It seemed to me that Willy had a thing for running his mouth. He just wouldn't be quiet. He would keep talking and talking about chocobos from all over the world, and how difficult it is to catch chocobos in other parts of the world. He would go on and on about all his experiences in catching wild chocobos and about how they defended themselves by joining up with monsters and running away while the monsters distracted the chocobo catchers.
"Uh, yea. Do you know when Will will be back?'
"Well, it usually doesn't take him a long time to take care of something at the ranch. I'd say he'll be back sometime tonight. I don't think that nephew of his, Bill, ever knew what he's doing, because he was always asking Will to go help him with a sick chocobo or to help take care of an egg. Once little Billy took over, Will's been able to concentrate more on the chocobos here. All Bill's been doin' nowadays is rentin' out chocobo stables to passersby. I remember when Bill…"
There he went again. Going on and on and on about how good Billy was compared to his father Bill, who wasn't very good. I just stood there like an idiot for almost half an hour listening to the old fool as he later prattled on and on about what greens you should always give chocobos and which ones you should avoid.
"It's almost as if he never runs out of things to say about chocobos," I thought to myself, "Will he EVER shut up?"
When I couldn't take anymore, I took a step backward and said, "Hey, thanks for your help," as I turned around and began to walk out the door.
"Hey, wait!" He called out. I froze where I was and then slowly turned back around to face him.
"Yes?"
"You wouldn't happen to be Moira, would you?"
"Uh, yea that's me. Why?"
"Oh, Will talks so much about you. It's almost like he never runs out of things to say about you."
"How odd," I thought to myself, "I wonder where he got that from?"
"He says to me that you're like the granddaughter he never had."
"Really?" I replied.
"Yep, he drags on and on about how you have a good heart and a strong will. That you'll go the extra mile to get what you want. That sounds kinda like the one time there was this chocobo I had at my stable named Dusty. I named him that because that was the state I found 'im in, covered in dust. Well, anyway, Dusty really loved apples, especially the kind with big fat worms in 'em. And one time there was a pile of apples outside the stable taller than I am. Dusty somehow knew they were out there and somehow figured out a way to get out of his stable and over to the pile of apples. He stuck his head into the pile and scrounged around like he was lookin' for the one special apple. After a couple of hours of shuffling and muffled 'wark warks' he finally pulled his head out, holding in his beak the wormiest apple I ever did see. That apple had holes every which way and all of 'em had worms crawlin' in and out of 'em."
"Nice story, but what was the point," I thought and began to turn back around to leave. "Could you tell Will I stopped by?" I asked him the favor.
"Oh sure, no problem. Was a pleasure meeting you."
"Uh, likewise."
"Ya know, the rest of my family thinks I talk too much, but I don't think that's so. Do you?"
I so wanted to tell him "Yes! And you never SHUT UP!!!!" Unfortunately, I was raised better than that, and it would've been embarrassing to say something like that.
"Nah, I don't think so," I answered.
"I didn't think so either."
"Bye."
"Later."
"Bye Jamie," I waved to Jamie, and he warked back.
I left the stable about an hour after walking in and breathed a sigh of relief. I walked home, looking at my scythe the whole way. I walked through the front door and into the living room, where dad was lounged on the couch, watching TV. It was his day off that day, and he usually spent his days off on the couch. He noticed me walking into the house and greeted me.
"Hi there, Birthday Girl! What've you been up to?"
"Hey, dad! Look at this!" I said out loud as I proudly held the scythe up for him to see.
"Hey, you finally got it!" he replied with a proud tone in his voice. "Congratulations, pumpkin!"
I dropped my hand down, letting the scythe hang. The happy look on my face changed as I rolled my eyes and said, "Dad, I'm too old to be called that anymore."
"As long as you're my daughter, baby doll, I will call you whatever cute pet name I can come up with."
I didn't really feel like continuing the argument, so I began walking to my room.
"Leaving so soon?" Dad asked me with a pouty five-year-old tone in his voice.
"I'm gonna go hang this scythe on my wall, so I can stare at it until my eyes explode and I can't stare at it anymore."
"Oh, ok. Have fun. Happy Birthday." He turned his attention back to the TV, and I went right to my room.
I turned my attention to the wall I was going to hang the scythe on. It was an empty wall. In fact three of my four walls were empty my whole life, simply due to the fact that I never was much for collecting posters or paintings, and the posters I did have were all of different scythe designs and different uses for materia. They were all hung on the wall behind my bed, where I could see it as I walked in the door, but I wouldn't be distracted by it when I went to sleep. The wall I reserved for my scythe was right in front of my bed. I wasn't going to sleep tonight anyway, so I figured might as well hang my scythe where I could see it best.
I placed special weapon-holding pegs on the wall in such a way where I would see the scythe in just the position I wanted it to be. I checked all the pegs and made sure that they were all firm and tightly placed and none of them were loose or wobbly. When I was sure they were safe, I began to carefully place my scythe on the pegs. I could've just set it on the pegs, but then I thought to myself, "Where's the fun in that?" I made it into a very slow and precise art to make sure the scythe was on just right. It was like something out of those arts and crafts shows, but with an obsessed scythe owner instead of a talented craft artist. When I finally had the scythe right where I wanted it, I took a step back and sat down on the bed.
Just as I was about to begin my many hours of staring, my mom decided to enter the room. She saw the scythe that I proudly hung on the wall, but it didn't seem to faze her at all. It was almost as if she didn't care that it was up there.
"So, you finally got it?" my mom asked me as she just sort of stared at my scythe.
"Yes, I did."
"What are you going to do with your life now that you have the one thing you've been desiring your entire life in your possession?"
"I'm gonna go to Midgar."
"When do you plan on going?"
"Tonight." I answered.
"Really, tonight?"
"Yup."
"Any particular reason why you picked Midgar?"
"I heard that there's a training facility in Sector 3."
"And what will you do if there isn't a training facility?"
"I dunno. I guess I'll sign up for a spot in Shinra's security department or something. Either way, my future's in Midgar."
"Hmm…" She looked at me for a moment and smiled. "Well, good luck."
"Thanks, mom." I said as she walked out of the room. About two seconds later, she poked her head back in through my door.
"Oh, and by the way…" she started.
"Yea?"
"Whatever you end up doing with your life, be the best you can."
"Sure, mom. Thanks."
She paused for a moment and looked back up at my scythe. She looked back at me again and smiled.
"And Happy Birthday."
I smiled back. "Thanks, mom."
She left for real this time, and I looked at my scythe again. As I stared at the beautiful bladed weapon, my mind began to wander off into a daydream of battles and adventure, and I wondered what it was going to be like in Midgar. I'd never been anywhere other than Kalm and the empty, monster-infested land outside of it, so it was interesting trying to imagine life in such a big city.
******** ******** ********
Later that afternoon, I walked out of my room, through the dining room, and into the kitchen because I wanted a snack. I couldn't really find anything tempting, so I grabbed an apple and walked out of the kitchen. I was just passing the dining room, but then I noticed a large, white cake on the table with twenty candles on it. How I didn't notice this the first time I passed was beyond me, but I looked down at this cake that was here before me.
"A birthday party?" I thought to myself.
I was confused because I've never had a birthday party in my life. It was mostly because I never had anyone to invite. I looked at the decorations on the cake. It had little colorful frosting designs of streamers, bows, and balloons on the sides of it. On the top of it were the twenty candles, all in kind of a donut-shaped formation, leaving a nice big empty space in the center. Sitting in the center of the candles was a figurine of a little chicobo, a baby chocobo, made of chocolate. It had little gumdrop eyes and gummy feet.
I stepped back from the cake and saw something else on the table. It was a small box covered in happy little blue moogle-print wrapping paper and tied shut with a pink ribbon.
"A present too?" I thought as I reached to pick up the small box. Before I was able to touch it, I was halted by a very loud, "SURPRISE!!!"
I jumped about ten feet in the air and spun around to find that my parents had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
"Happy birthday, Moira!" My dad yelled out.
I just stood there staring at my parents as they sang the "Happy Birthday" song to me. I've never had a birthday party before, let alone a surprise party.
"I'll give you this much," I began, "You are the only thing that's ever been able to sneak up on me like that. Especially since I was distracted by this." I stepped aside to show the little birthday table.
"Don't you like it?" My mom asked sarcastically, "If you like, we can take back the gift and eat the cake ourselves."
"I never said I didn't like it. I was just saying that you scared the living crap out of me!"
"Well, don't just stand there, hon," my dad urged.
"Blow out the candles and make a wish."
"But don't say your wish out loud, though."
"Or it won't come true."
"That's right."
I didn't quite understand this custom of making a wish before blowing out the candles. I didn't really see anything magical about a bunch of sticks of wax that you stick on top of a sugary pastry. I played along with it anyway.
"Alrighty then." I leaned down toward the cake, all twenty of the candles flickering their little, tiny flames at me.
"Also," my dad decided to warn me, "be careful what you wish for because you just might get it."
"And you might regret it when you do," my mom added.
"Sure." I closed my eyes, made my wish, and blew out all twenty candles in one breath.
"Wow, that's great!" My dad cheered. "All in one blow!"
"Not bad for your very first birthday party."
I picked up the gift from the table and looked at it. There were little moogles printed all over it. Moogles are small, magical creatures with little wings on their backs and a poofy pom-pom dangling ontop of each of their heads. There was one sitting down, one was sleeping, and a couple of others were jump roping. As I was looking through all the moogles, I noticed a tag on the box that was half-hidden under the ribbon bow.
"What's this?" I asked as I pulled off the tag and read it out loud.
"To: Moira, From: Mom & Dad, P.S. Use it well."
I looked at my parents, wondering what this meant, and "What do you mean by 'Use it well?' What's in it?" I looked back at the box.
"Do you plan on opening it, or are you just going to look at the moogles on the wrapping paper?" my dad urged on.
"Uh…. Sure."
I quickly untied the ribbon and ripped off the wrapping paper. It revealed a velvety box that looked like it would hold a bracelet or something. I opened the box to find two glowing green spheres. One had a snowflake symbol inside, and the other had a lightning symbol inside. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what I was seeing in this small box.
"NO WAY!!!" I yelled out in excitement.
"Yes way," replied my dad.
"This right here, inside this box that I'm holding in my hands," I began with a tone of disbelief, "This is Magic Materia!"
I was more than satisfied having my very first scythe, but having my very first materia to put on it was much more than I'd hoped for.
"Lightning and Ice Materias, to be precise," mom pointed out with a smile.
"We figured this might help you on your path down life," dad said with a proud look on his face.
"This means a lot to me," I said to my parents as I put the box down on the table and gave them a hug. "Thank you so much."
"We love you, pumpkin," my dad replied.
"Don't ever forget that, ok?" mom added.
"Ok, mom." I let go and picked up the box again. "Well, now I'm gonna go see how these new materias look on my new scythe."
I left the dining room and went straight to my room. I pulled my scythe off of the wall where it was hung and put it down on my bed so I could work with it. Attaching materia to a weapon was a very simple process. One simply had to place the materia on the slot and press down so it snapped into place. I placed the Lightning Materia in one of the unlinked slots and the Ice Materia into one of the linked slots. I liked the look of it. I put the scythe back up on the wall and sat down on my bed so I could look at it. I also thought about what to pack for when I moved out, which was that very night.
My mom came in with a plate in each of her hands, each of which held a slice of the birthday cake and a fork. It turned out the cake was chocolate under the white frosting. One of the pieces had the centerpiece chocolate chicobo on top of it.
"Hey!" mom greeted and walked right in with the cake in her hands. "I thought you might want a piece of cake." She handed me the piece with the chicobo on it and sat down next to me on my bed. I began eating almost as soon as she handed it to me.
"Thanks, mom."
"You didn't even stay to slice your cake."
"Didn't know I was supposed to," I replied, "I never went to or had a birthday party, remember?"
"Yes, yes," my mom said with a sad tone. "I regret not being able to throw any birthday parties for you."
"You could've just made private family ones like this one."
"Well, I was thinking more down the lines of inviting children to a child's birthday party, but you didn't have any friends your age."
"Try not any friends at all," I corrected, "After I turned sixteen, Will became my only friend, and later Jamie came around."
"Jamie?"
"My chocobo."
"Yours?"
"Well, not mine exactly. Will caught him one morning and we became attached, so I named him. And he's been the one chocobo I always rented since then. We're all really good friends, Will and Jamie and me."
"Hmm. And it gets back to where I started, no friends your age." She smiled at me. I looked back at her while I was chewing a bit of cake. We laughed and I took another bit of cake on my fork and ate it.
"This is good cake," I commented, changing the subject.
"I'm glad you like it. I made it myself," she said as she took forked a bit of cake into her mouth, "I also made the little chicobo on top of it."
"Cool." I looked down at the little chocobo. "I think I'll save that for last."
"Ok. And I think I'll leave you alone with your cake and your scythe." She got up and left the room with her cake. I looked down at my plate and noticed that I only had the candy chicobo left. I looked up at my scythe and pondered about my day and what had happened.
When I blew out the candles, I'd wished for a long life of challenge, adventure, and excitement. I only wished it because it was something to wish for, but I never took into consideration just how far a wish could be taken.
******** ******** ********
By the time night fell on Kalm, I was packed and ready to move out of the little house I had called home for twenty years. I packed into my suitcase some clothes, food for the trip, and what was left of my money. It wasn't a very big suitcase, but it suited my needs. My scythe and my bo-staff were placed neatly in a special case designed to safely carry the both of them.
I looked at my scythe one more time before shutting the case. I picked up the my luggage and headed into the living room, where my parents were waiting for me, ready to say "good-bye." I walked up to them and put my bags down for a moment so I could give them both another hug before I left.
"I'll let you know when I get settled in Midgar, ok?"
"Be sure to write to us every day, ok? So we know you haven't forgotten us," mom asked the favor.
"Heh! Sure, mom," I laughed.
"Be careful, pumpkin," my dad said, "It's a long way from here to Midgar and there's bound to be lots of monsters on the way."
"Not really dad," I assured him, "I'll be going on chocobo, and they tend to avoid monsters, and Jamie's a pretty reliable chocobo when it comes to finding monsters and evading them."
I stepped back and picked up my bags again, and we all walked through the door together. My parents stopped right by the doorway while I kept going toward Will's place. After walking a couple of yards away from the house, I stopped and turned back to look at my parents again. They waved good-bye, and I waved back as best I could with my diminutive suitcase in my hand. I turned back around and started walking again, but then I stopped for a split second before breaking into a run. I was really excited. I couldn't wait to get to the chocobo stable, and I knew it was going to take me a while if I walked. So I decided to run the rest of the way. All that excitement and I hadn't even left the town yet.
When I finally got to Will's chocobo stable, Will was actually there. I was also exhausted from running most of the way, so I sat down on the ground as soon as I got there, panting and gasping for air.
"Gee, Moira, are you in THAT much of a hurry to leave Kalm?" Will asked as soon as I sat down.
"Nah…." I sighed and continued panting, "Just excited."
"Well, now you have to wait until you catch your breath before you go anywhere," he pointed out as he walked over someplace and filled a cup with some sort of liquid. He came back and handed me a cup of water. "Don't go killin' yourself before you start your independent life."
I drank up the water and caught my breath. I then got back up and gave the proper greeting. "Anyway, hey Will. Hey Jamie."
"Wark!" Jamie greeted back happily. I could tell he was also excited about the trip. He ruffled his feathers every so often.
"So you're finally leavin' the nest, Moira?" Will asked looking at my luggage.
"Yea, Will. Heading for Midgar."
"Mm-hmm. And I'm guessing that there's a scythe in that rather large weapon case."
"Yes, there most certainly is." I popped open the case and pulled out the scythe. He examined it carefully. "I wanted to show it to you the moment I got it, but you were off at the ranch and I was stuck here for hours listening to that cousin of yours."
"Yes, Big Mouth Willy. Sorry about that. He likes to hear himself talk."
"No kidding. I almost didn't get away."
"He was the closest living relative who could take care of chocobos, and I was in a hurry to get to the ranch as soon as possible."
"What happened at the ranch that was so important?"
"Chocobos. Some big shots were renting all the stables so they could park all their chocobos for a while."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"Well, the thing is they had so many chocobos that there weren't enough stables to hold them all."
"Oh," I replied, "So what did you do?"
"What we did was we fit all the chocobos we could into the stables and left the rest of 'em outside in the pen. I thought I saw a summon materia on one of the ones outside, but I didn't really have the time to look or ask about it."
"Wow," I responded. After hearing the story I looked down at my scythe and remembered that I was showing it to him. "Oh, yea. Do you like my scythe?"
"It's a beauty of a weapon," he commented, "but it seems to be missin' somethin'."
I looked at the scythe thinking, "What could possibly be missing?"
"Missing?" I asked out loud.
"Yup, there's definitely something missing," he said in a firm voice, "Wouldn't you agree Jamie?"
"Wark!" Jamie agreed.
That's when I suspected they were up to something, because I thought to myself "What would a chocobo know about weapons aside from their beaks and talons?"
"Ok, I give up. What's missing?"
Will looked over to Jamie, who just stood there in his stable looking back at Will. He dipped his head down and scuffled around a bit, as if trying to pick something up. When he lifted his head back up he pulled out a small white box that was tied shut with a string. Jamie held it by the string in his beak and gave out a happy "Wark wark!"
"Happy Birthday!" Will said looking back at me with a smile.
I held out my hand under the box. Jamie bit down with his beak to break the string and dropped the box into my hand. Taped to the box was a card with a little chicobo drawing on the front. I opened the card and read it out loud.
"From one good friend to another. Happy Birthday, Moira! From: Will"
"Look at the back," said Will.
I turned the card around so I could see the back. There was a message followed by an itty-bitty chocobo footprint.
"Wark Warrk, Wark!" I read out loud.
"Of course that's Jamie's little 'Happy Birthday' greeting to you," Will announced, "So the gift is from the both of us."
"Wark!" Jamie blurted out happily.
I opened the lid of the box to find a Magic Materia with a flame symbol inside.
"Allow me," Will said as he walked up to me and took the material out of the box. He placed it on the other side of the scythe from the two my parents gave me, in a linked slot.
"There ya go. A Fire Materia to go with the Ice and Lightning Materias on the other side of the scythe."
I held my scythe in my hand for a moment, looking at the three magic materias that adorned it.
"Thanks," I said to Will as I looked up at him and then at Jamie. I put my free hand on Jamie's beak.
"It was given to me by my brother, William. He liked combat a lot, and I guess he was trying to encourage me to try that kind of lifestyle. I thought many times of gettin' rid of it, but when you came around, I figured I'd keep it so I could give it to ya when the time was right. And now seems like a great time."
I started petting Jamie, "This has been the only Happy Birthday I've ever had."
"Well, be sure not to forget about us once you're a big important scythe-fighter in Midgar."
I looked back at Will as I continued petting Jamie. "I couldn't forget my two best friends in the whole wide world."
I stopped petting Jamie and walked over to the open case to put away my scythe. When I latched the case shut, Will walked over and picked up my suitcase.
"Well, we might as well get you ready to go," he said almost grunting as he carried my small (and I guess heavy) suitcase with both of his hands to the back door to be strapped onto a chocobo saddle.
******** ******** ********
I pressed my body close to Jamie's as he ran almost as fast as he could, head down, wings half-open. He was getting ready for take-off. Jamie was the only chocobo I ever knew that had the ability to fly. I discovered this one night when I was out training. I encountered a monster I'd never seen before and challenged it to a battle. Unfortunately, this monster's mouth was bigger than my body and took my challenge as an invitation to eat me. I ran off quickly, jumped onto Jamie, and told him to run as fast as he could. He saw the monster rushing towards us, and he didn't argue. Though he did run as fast as he could, A few moments later, Jamie suddenly jumped into the air and kept going up. I nearly fell off in the process, but once I managed to get a good grip on Jamie, I realized that we were flying. After that we practiced flying at least one night a week. That night we were flying to Midgar. The trip was going to be easy because I was told to just follow the bright light on the horizon, since Midgar was the only big city on this side of the continent.
Once Jamie was ready for take-off, I tapped the back of his neck, which was the signal for when I was ready. Jamie opened his wings completely and began flapping. A few moments later, we were off the ground. We went higher and higher until Kalm looked further away than it actually was. It looked like a toy town from where we were and still getting smaller as we stopped our ascent and kept moving further away.
Flying was an amazing thing. Everything looked different. The sky seemed so much closer; at least the clouds did anyway. It almost seemed like you could just go up and pluck a cloud out of the sky.
We flew for a few hours before landing to take a break. I gave Jamie some water and some Gysahl Greens, which I heard was a chocobo's favorite green. Then I also had some water. Once Jamie was finished we took off again.
After a few more hours, I finally saw some sort of structure to go with the light. I didn't know what to expect of Midgar, since I'd never seen it for myself. I'd only seen it on TV in documentaries. The city itself was all in one humungous structure. It was circular in shape and separated into eight equal-sized sectors. Each of these sectors was their own little community within Midgar. There were actually two separate communities to each sector in Midgar. There were the rich cities on the plates, which were held up by large pillars and the mako reactors that powered each sector. And there were the dirty, poorly put together slums on the ground below the plates. I figured if I flew I could get to the plate without having to go through the slums.
The man in charge of Midgar was President Shin-Ra, founder of the Shin-Ra Electric Company and Midgar. He wasn't really a very interesting man. His son, Rufus, was attractive though, but that was about it. Rufus Shin-Ra was the vice-president of the Shin-Ra Company and of Midgar. So if President Shin-Ra died, his son would take over. Midgar was really the only city I knew that used mako for power. Mako is magical energy. I wasn't sure where they got all the mako from, but it seemed to be the most efficient source of electric power in existence. The only other use for mako that I could think of at the time was to make materia by means of condensing the mako.
Flying over Midgar was incredible. The cities themselves only occupied half of each sector's plate. I could see the Shin-Ra building that stood tall and proud at the very center of Midgar. There were eight bursts of green glowing steam around the outside of the building, each at the point where the building bordered a sector. The reactors on the outer edge of the cities were massive. They had large holes on top that glowed a bright green color, which I assumed was the mako.
We found an empty corner of the plate to land in, far from any people. I got off Jamie and unstrapped my luggage. I put it down for a moment and looked up at Jamie, who was standing in front of me, face to face and nose to beak. I lifted my hand up and petted his beak. He pushed his head forward and nuzzled me.
"Bye Jamie," I said finally, "It's been great."
"Wark!" He agreed.
"Maybe we'll meet again someday."
"Wark!"
"Alrighty then." I patted the top of his head and picked up my bags. "See ya later then."
"Wark wark!" He turned around and took off. He was on his was back home to Kalm, and I was on my way to starting my own life in Midgar.