(3,913 words) It has been exactly one year since I caught the full sized Hylian Loach on my brothers file on OOT! Nya! I'm so happy. For those who know what the hell that is, yes I'm crazy, but the Hylian loach is my precious and I adore it. It means very much to me, so now apparently I must update now so I can remember the day. Nyan! Also my brother's file is very important, it is my childhood. So I felt honoured that the first time I caught it full sized was on that file of all of them.

Now on to more important and relevant things, after this things will start happen finally. So the coming chapters should be good unless my writing fails. That's a good thing. I apologise in advance if there is any mistakes, I can't remember if I've gone through this. I'm pretty sure I have, and I know my sister/beta has. But there may be a few mistakes that she's overlooked or added in after not understanding something if I have not gone through.

I would've updated this a week ago but I completely forgot this existed. Some people may wonder what the hell as this is my most popular story, well to be perfectly honest it's not even in the top five for me, so it's quite possible. Also I've been having trouble with other stories and have ended up with three unfinished chapters. I have a draft of one and are currently finishing another I should've finished three weeks ago.

Well, anyway, hope you enjoy, reviews shall be much appreciated.

Dance against the wind

Chapter 14: Gust of wind

Early in the morning, Jane was wandering around the house aimlessly. There wasn't a single thing she could do today, she needn't go out and fetch anything since they had all they needed. And she couldn't clean either since she had practically scrubbed the house all over in the days past; she'd even gotten Fang to help her since the woman had even less to do. She'd go mad eventually if things kept up as they were, the woman was too social for her own good, she needed things to do and people with which she could talk to. The first she didn't have at all and the later was a pitiful lot. Jane had begun to recommend she try to socialise with the other woman in North Bodhum, an idea she rejected each time. She couldn't stand the women she'd seen here, even a whore would be better than them. And the Pulsian woman was more than aware of the view that would be created if she did in fact befriend one, people would go about saying she was one herself, or that she was once one.

As she strolled along the long hall, Jane begun to wonder if she should just give up on encouraging Fang to speak with the women of this town. She had no chance in convincing her, this she knew. She sighed and stopped, thinking deeper. Maybe it really was useless, she had hoped that there was a chance she would succeed, but now she saw after all her trying that it was unlikely she would ever be successful.

Before she could continue on her way, she overheard an intriguing sound coming from the closest room. It wasn't a human making the sound vocally, she could easily tell that it was the sound of something being moved around, what that was she was unsure, and also the reason behind it was beyond her. Knowing immediately that it would be silly to continue pondering about it when she could just open the door and she would know right away, she stepped over to the room in which it was coming from and twisted the doorknob. Inside she found Fang on the floor surrounded by sheets of paper, which she was looking through with haste. A frown had found its way onto her features, and she was beginning to look tired, showing that she had been doing this task for quite some time.

"Um, Fang? What on earth are you doing? If it's okay with me asking." Jane questioned as she entered the room. She headed towards the woman, mindful of the paper scattered messily about.

"Blame this on my father going and getting himself killed." Fang said fast, so fast it was barely audible. She continued her searching.

"I don't understand, what does paper have to do with your father's death?" Jane squatted next to Fang, for there was no room to sit down with all the paper.

"Everything." She answered as she inspected a specific sheet, but then threw it away when it was not what she was looking for. "A bunch of his stupid crap now belongs to Cid, because of me of course but that's not what matter at the moment."

"And what does?" The younger of the two asked with a tilt of her head.

"Well this should also mean that I can get Vanille out of that stupid place. My first problem is there are some papers I need to find, they have the information I need. Now it's not like I ever asked my father what they were all about and Cid doesn't even know that much about them of course, so don't go asking me why because I haven't any idea either, I just know I need to find them."

"But how are you going to find them if you don't know anything about them? Have you even seen them before? There's a real big hole in your plan Fang if you haven't noticed." Jane pointed out.

Fang smirked at her for a moment before diving back into the papers. "Ah, but that's where you're wrong. I think there's about two or three but what I do know is that in the top corner they all have the name of the asylum written on them. So I'm looking for them using that."

"Well that's a good idea yes, but if you don't know exactly how many there are then maybe you shouldn't make such a big mess of things, it'll be easy to miss one."

"You're wrong there too! See here's the pile I've already gone through." Fang pointed with both hands at a mountain of paper on her left, "And here's the pile I'm yet to go through." She pointed to a mountain of paper on her right, where to her centre merged with the pile she alleged she had already gone through.

Jane looked quizzically at her; the piles were not even remotely separate as she so claimed. Maybe her belief that Fang would slowly go mad was not overboard at all but perhaps right on the mark; and perhaps she'd already gone mad.

"So do you want to help? I could do with some assistance, I've been here forever and I'm still not done."

"Well I do know the alphabet but I haven't any idea how to spell Asylum. I don't think I'll be much help."

"Oh don't worry; I didn't know either, until-" Fang twisted around and reached over to a single piece of paper placed far away from the others. ""I found this." She pointed to the paper, "It's the first sheet. I found it pretty early on so it did trick me into thinking this would be easy, evil paper." She held it out to Jane for her to take.

She knew what each letter was, but didn't know what each word was, so she took her time sounding them out. Fang grinned and offered her some help.

"It says Nautilus Asylum for the mentally insane. The first one's a funny looking word so I won't blame you for not being able to say it. First time I saw it I argued with someone that it wasn't really spelt that way."

Jane gave her a funny look. "But it looks like Nautilus would be spelt that way, why on earth did you go as far as to argue with someone over it?"

"I've always wondered that myself, I reckon I was just being an idiot trying to annoy my tutor in the end."

"What a strange child you must've been." Jane muttered as she begun to assist Fang in finding the remaining sheets.

With the assistance Fang managed to find the other two in no time, the only problem was that when they were finished Fang chose the most perfect time to announce. "And now we have to put this all back into a neat pile."

Jane groaned but despite being against it she did the polite thing which was to help Fang fix up the pieces of paper. It would have been simple enough if not for the fact that there were, similarly to the sheets they had searched for, sheets that went together and had to be put together. At first this was as difficult as their search, but as time went on and the mountain of paper shrunk and each piece became far easier to find.

As they finished up, Jane couldn't help but ask, "Hey Fang, you wouldn't mind going for a walk tomorrow would you?"

"Not at all, why you asking?"

"Just so we can get out of the house before you go absolutely mad."

Fang laughed at her words, "Good idea."

As promised soon after breakfast had been eaten the duo left the house to go for a walk. Jane held in her arms a small basket with slices of bread inside in case they got hungry whilst they were out, as they intended this to be a long walk. They had agreed to make it an hour or two. The sun was in the centre of the sky as they set out, and barely a cloud in the sky. A cool breeze swished about, sweeping away the heat of the sun above. They started out in silence, Jane was fine with watching the path before her feet, and Fang was more interested with the oddly different shades of green and brown littered about from all the plants. Silly as it was, it was one of the things she was having most trouble getting used to, she'd never seen trees with such vibrant leaves, and the same went for the plants. Still, it didn't surprise her that the first time she mentioned how it annoyed her, she was laughed at.

After a little while of walking, Jane finally popped up with a question. Her voice was quiet and unsteady, "Have you ever found it odd? What is between Cid and my brother?"

"Hmm?" Fang took her attention away from her surroundings and returned it to the girl besides her. "That'd be mighty rude of me to tell you the truth. There's no why I'd allow myself. Besides, Cid's been my friend since I was young, nothing about him can weird me out. Frankly I was more bothered that Rygdea knew everything from the get go without us ever having to tell him anything."

Jane smiled crookedly. "Oh yeah, Ben said you were the same too, I remember now. Don't worry; I won't think any less of you."

"I wouldn't expect you to; you're too nice a girl to let that one fact bother you aren't you? Besides, sure I don't like guys but there's never actually been anyone I've liked. Girls are pretty and all but they can have the worst of personalities sometimes."

Jane let out a short giggle, "You've made that apparent." She sighed. "I think it did bother me a little when big brother first told me he had feelings for another man. But then I reminded myself that this is my brother we're talking about here. I've known him forever, and this doesn't change anything. It's up to him who he loves, not society."

"That's a pretty damn good mindset. I just wish the rest of us could think like that. Then maybe I would've chased after that girl instead of letting her go." She mumbled the last part, but Jane caught it and with a quizzical expression questioned,

"But I thought you said you'd never liked anyone? Who's this girl?"

Scratching the nape of her neck, Fang averted her eyes in a near embarrassed reaction and with an outwards sigh admitted, "Look, I'm not saying I liked her or nothing, didn't know her well enough, but there was this one girl I saw that really caught my eye. It was the crazy Farron woman's daughter I think, the older one I'd say. I recall that those two girls' had the oddest hair colour ever and I doubt it couldn't be any other than one of them that I saw. She was rushing around for some reason, and bumped into to me. She didn't notice, or if she did she didn't show it. I swear I've never seen someone that pretty before, but I only saw her for a moment, and then she was gone. I kinda really regretted not chasing after her. I'll probably never see her again now that I'm on Cocoon." She frowned sadly, then her eyes widened as she remembered something else.

"Oh what if her house was one of the one's that were attacked? She could be dead even!"

Quickly Jane placed a hand on the taller woman's shoulder and in a comforting voice said, "I'm sure she's fine. You shouldn't worry so much."

Forcing out a smile, Fang replied. "Thanks Ja-" And it was then that a young child ran into her and almost knocked her over.

"Wha!?" She exclaimed, as she hastily steadied herself. When she looked down she was surprised to see a small brunette boy clinging to the lilac folds of her dress. He was in a black sailor style outfit with a tiny hat on his head. He had pudgy cheeks and bright green eyes. He couldn't be more than four.

"Eh? Where'd you come from little guy?" Fang asked when she got over her shock of the sudden arrival.

In complete silence he pointed over to a trio of woman heading towards them. The woman closest was a chubby woman with the same curly brown hair and equally as bright blue eyes. Her brown dress only assisted in making her weight appear more than it was. One of the women following behind her was of a similar weight, only wearing a blue dress that didn't look so horrendous on her. The third took Fang by surprise as she was a far younger woman, or at least by appearance, with white hair and brilliant emerald eyes. To add to the surprise, the style of her jade dress was clearly Pulsian.

"Robert, how dare you run off like that!? Mamma won't be able to keep up if you do it again." The chubby brunette did not sound angry at all, but her tone was certainly reprimanding. The toddler, Robert as Fang now knew his name to be, ran over to his mother and allowed her to pick him up. He was perpetually silent. The two woman following behind caught up as the child was returned to his mother

"I'm sorry about that; I don't know what's wrong with him some days." The woman apologised in place was her quiet son.

"Oh it's alright, doesn't bother me at all." Fang replied with a grin.

The other woman nodded with a smile, before with a curious expression inquired, "Hey, I don't believe I've seen your face here before. Who are you if I may ask? My name is Mary Foxx."

"Oh it's Oe-"She bit her tongue before she called herself by her maiden name accidentally. Just another thing she had to get used to, her different name. "Fang Raines. Me and my husband moved up here shortly after our marriage. It hasn't been much more than a month and I haven't really gone out either."

"Don't know anyone I assume?" Mary chuckled.

Fang painted on a smile. This Mary woman appeared to be the type of woman she would always go out of her way to avoid. "Ah, yes. I'm not very good at befriending people. It's never been a strong point for me."

"It didn't appear to be either; otherwise I doubt you'd be using your maid as a companion." She said it with such disdain that it sickened Fang. Why the hell would you sacrifice lives in a war when it would come out with no results? Whether slavery was legal or not, dark skinned people would be treated like crap.

"Oh, it doesn't bother me that much. Jane has made for good conversations. It may surprise you but they've been far more interesting than with my friends back home in Oerba. More broader subjects I suppose." She grinned; to shove it in their face she'd rather her maid's company than them any day. Mary scowled, and so did the other brunette to her left. The younger woman on their right however smirked and came very close to laughing, but covered her mouth before any sound came out. Fang decided she like her then.

The atmosphere around them darkened, and to lighten it the brunette woman who had previously stayed silent outstretched her hand and introduced herself. "I'm Tiffany Louise. I'm sure if you get to know us you'll see that we make much better company than that of a maid."

Fang shook her hand and responded with. "Oh I'm sure you will." She was being sarcastic, and did nothing to hide it.

Mary scowled, and with a huff begun walking away, or storming away to put it correctly. She called back, "Tiffany, Nora, we're leaving now." She turned her head just a mite and side, "Hopefully we'll be seeing each other again Mrs Raines."

"I'm looking forward to it." Fang rolled her eyes, but the only one who noticed was the white haired woman as the others were already leaving.

She chuckled and sighed, shaking her head. "I'm sorry, but those two are like that. I don't think your youth has assisted you here, they'll think you are insolent."

"You're not much older than me are you?" Fang questioned, curious.

"Well if it makes the difference obvious. From the sounds of things, you are a newlywed, and I have a son who shall be twelve in the coming months."

Fang laughed, "So you don't have much of an age gap to those hags? That just doesn't seem right."

"I'm aware. I'm Nora Estheim by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs Raines, and I'm quite sure your maid is far better company than Mary and Tiffany." She waved and started on her way to catch up with the other two.

"Call me Fang by the way; that name just feels wrong."

"Fang it is then. I'll be seeing you later Fang." She waved goodbye and that was that.

"I'll be looking forward to it." She said this to herself, but unlike before, she was being serious. This Nora woman seemed fun, much better than all her other choices that's for sure.

Sometime after Fang's little conversation with the trio of woman, she and Jane had rested on a patch of grass near what Fang had decided had to be the town's largest house. In comparison, her house was about two-fifths the size. It was a magnificent structure painted snow white with blue dotted about here and there. It was vacant, so neither had a problem being so close to it. But it made Fang wonder, so many people here would long for a place such as this, so why was it empty?

After deciding it was probably too expensive for most the town's inhabitants, Fang left her thoughts alone and begun to chew the slice of bread Jane had given her. They took the time to rest after Jane had begun to complain of sore feet, Fang was having similar pain, but didn't care to admit to it. Still the rest was nice. The cool breeze that had been sweeping about when they'd left the house was still around, and Fang found it rather refreshing. With the fewer trees around, the sun felt hotter than it had before, but the wind helped make it bearable. She wished they'd been more days like this back in Oerba, but that could not have been so for unfortunately for them, as Oerba was one of the hotter places on Pulse.

Jane laid on her back and looked up at the blue sky, watching as the tiny clumps of clouds moved across her sight. "It's peaceful here; since it's further away from town not as many people pass by. You know I only counted seven since we left the house. Not including that child but still."

"If you went into the town you wouldn't be able to count them all, hey?" Fang said as she laid back in the same manner as Jane.

"I'd say so; quite a few people live in North Bodhum. Most live in the town don't they? Only a couple rich folk live on the outskirts."

Fang hummed in agreement, before diverting her attention to the clouds. As time went by the sky was turning a beautiful shade of gold. They'd have to head back soon enough, but they chose to enjoy this for a while longer. Sure they were stuck in silence as much as they would at home, but here it felt so different. It wasn't boring, it didn't feel cramped, they weren't feeling restless at all. It was calming and serene.

She closed her eyes just as a gust of wind rushed past them, without sight to tell her what was what, she felt the most oddest and overwhelming sense of freedom. As if nothing could chain her to the ground and she could float up into the air as she were a bird, or run wild and free in a field forevermore with nothing to halt her. If logic would not allow something as bizarre as that, then she longed that society could, in a metaphorical sense. Society's chains were pointless for the most part; there were many they could do without.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes and pulled herself into a sitting position, thinking deeply. As she did this Jane took notice and felt the need to question.

"Fang? Are you alright? You look very serious."

"I'm fine, I'm just thinking." Fang replied, without anything in her tone to give hint if something was troubling her or not.

"It looked like it did. I'm sorry if I'm mistaken."

"There's no need to apologise Jane." Fang smiled and let out a short chuckle. "But I'm thinking, you know that Dẻteste woman? She's very interesting."

"You only met her for a second, I doubt that's anything to help grasp her personality. But I'd say she must've lived a very interesting life. Most people wouldn't like it I'm sure."

"If I see her again, I'll make sure to have a proper conversation this time. I wouldn't mind befriending her, just something different you know. She and Nora seem to be the only likeable people in this place."

"Oh Fang don't!" Jane yelled, immediately going into an upright position. "She may be a whore! What will people think when they see you with such a woman? They'll call you a harlot. You don't want that."

Fang didn't react badly to Jane's reaction; in fact she grinned and responded with a cheeky sounding. "Too late." Then her expression turned serious. "Besides, if I cared about what people think of me I would've let my mother marry me off to some bastard, force myself to love him, look after him and bear his children even if he beat the shit out of me every night. Instead I've married my friend so I wouldn't have to deal with anything of that nature, and in doing so allowed him to stay with his lover who is in fact another man. I've even accepted you as my friend, that speaks for itself. And I know that no matter how people stare at me or what rumours are created because of it, I will not force my husband to touch me when neither of us have any want to, just to create a child that will please the people around us and make them think we are a loving couple."

Jane was taken aback by Fang's sudden serious demeanour, nothing she'd said previous had given a hint this would take a turn like this. But still, she found herself agreeing with her. Besides, it was a fact that Fang would be too stubborn to be convinced out of doing this, and she disregarded society's views as a whole. Nothing anyone could say would change her decision now that she had made it. Sometimes Jane wished people didn't care so much for what other people thought, or at least for people to think things through and be reasonable. But it'd be a long time yet before society could develop a brain, if it did at all.

My sister is now the Khal and her fake fiancé is the Khaleesi. People who watch Games of Throne may be confused by that. But the Khaleesi has been the Khaleesi for a long time now so I've decided that my sister should be the Khal, it is only right. The Khaleesi's mother was very confused and still doesn't understand how this works.

I have no idea why I just said that, it was an urge and I had to follow.

Please review it shall be very much appreciated, I don't really care what you say, just to know what you think of this story is enough. The difference between amount of views and reviews is just wrong. It has the same average as one of my stories which doesn't even have 1000 views. This has over 10,000.

Jya ne,

~Serah Villiers Valentine