Prishe's Story

Prishe and Squall's journey brought them to a lake. In the darkness of the night, the lake was stunningly beautiful. Glowing mineral rocks adorn the shores and shimmering lights, theorized to be mineral fragments, glowed like fireflies all around the lake. The lake itself radiated a strange hue much similar to the aurora borealis. Only at night would the lake emanate such beauty, as though rejoicing in the calmness of the night after a war-savaged day. Not many people knew of the mystery this lake which was too ordinary looking before the sunset.

For Squall himself, this was the first time he ever set eyes on the mysterious lake at nightfall, and he relished this queer beauty as Prishe jumped around happily ahead.

"Oooh!" Prishe's sudden exclamation pulled Squall back out of dreamland. "Kain! Lightning! We FINALLY found you!" Sure enough, on the opposite shore of the lake, Kain and Lightning were seated on the rocky edges. Both seemed to be savoring the same scenery too. Lightning had even taken off her boots and let her bare feet hang in the crystalline waters.

"Prishe," Lightning called back, "Is something wrong?"

As Prishe made her way around the lake towards where the other two were seated, she continued shouting, "No! Nothing's wrong! Squall just wanted to- OUCH!" Squall had sensed danger earlier and had made his way stealthily to Prishe's back, ready to elbow her whenever she was about to divulge his secret; which he successfully did.

As the two managed to make their way around to Lightning and Kain's campsite, Prishe's loud mouth began again, "We've been searching ALL OVER for you. Squall badly wants to- OUUUCHHH!" This time, Squall had successfully, without Lightning and Kain realizing it, pinched the purple-haired Elvaan's arms.

"Mind if we join you?" Squall quickly said before Prishe's loud exclamation of pain drew Lightning and Kain's suspicions.

"Sure," Kain replied succinctly as he averted his gaze back to the glowing lake.

Prishe was about to open her mouth to thank Kain when a queer black blob suddenly appeared several feet away from them. All four of them turned to the black blob and eyed it suspiciously. Lightning, Squall and Kain all had their hands ready on their weapons.

And out of that bizarre blob came a huge red-mantled swordsman. His face was painted in red and white patterns, and his outfit was extravagant with spikes, stripes, polkadots, gold, red, etc. They had never seen such a person before.

Prishe was the first to recover from the shock of a huge unknown swordsman strolling into their campsite and asked him casually, "Never seen you around before, big guy. Where did you come from?"

The red-clad swordsman jerked his head at her direction as she spoke up, seemingly oblivious to their presence before Prishe said anything. In surprise, he asked her, "You don't know me!?" To which Prishe simply shook her head and shrugged. He then scratched his chin as he contemplated Prishe's reaction before slowly saying, "Hmm… I'm pretty sure I'm more famous than that."

"Anyway," he continued as he puffed his chest up, "I'm the mighty-strong-incredible-super-dashing-charming-smart-and-awesome… Gilgamesh!" There was a tone of dramatic pride as told them his name, as though expecting applause at the end of his introduction.

"Wait, so you're not a warrior of this conflict?" Lightning asked in astonishment.

"Well no, miss," The red-clad warrior looked at her with a puzzled gaze, "I know nothing of any conflicts. I came here looking for a Bartz. But I don't mind stopping for a date." He added a flirtatious wink in Lightning's direction as he said the last line.

"What…?" Squall suddenly jerked up, "If you're not a warrior of this conflict then get going and finish your own business!"

"Hey, hey," Gilgamesh replied, holding up both hands, as if trying to defend himself from the ferocity of Squall's words. "No need to get so worked up. Now ladies…" He said, turning back to Lightning and Prishe, "anytime~" He sent another wink flying in the girls' direction before striding off in a pompous manner.

"Why are you so worked up Squall?" Kain remarked calmly after the bizarre swordsman had disappeared into the woods.

"It's… nothing." Squall replied quietly. He soon regretted his sudden outburst for he now realized that there was no possible way that this Gilgamesh could have asked Lightning out.

Fortunately, Prishe managed to discern the situation and said changed the subject, "Well, if we're gonna camp here for the night, we better make sure there're no one else like that guy around. Kain, let's go for a walk!" Before Kain could say anything, she had dragged him by his arm into the woods.

They went deeper and deeper into the woods without saying anything. Once convinced that they are far enough from the campsite, Kain finally spoke up, "I've checked the woods with Lightning earlier, so let's cut to the chase. Squall came for Lightning, didn't he?"

Prishe hesitated for a moment before saying sheepishly, "Well he said he wanted to talk to her… Say Kain, how do YOU feel about her?"

Although Kain had part of his face covered by a helmet, Prishe could read the dragoon's shock at the sudden turn in conversation. There was a moment of silence as Prishe waited for Kain to respond. At long last, Kain finally replied, "There's no time to consider such things. This is a war."

"Exactly!" Prishe said cheerfully while Kain looked at her even more incredulously. "We never know what'll happen to us. If you don't take the chance, you might never get it. If you don't take the chance, others might take it."

Kain eyed the grinning Prishe suspiciously, "Aren't you supposed to be rooting for Squall?"

Prishe nonchalantly waved him off, "It's never about rooting for anybody. I promised Squall that I'd help. But who Lightning chooses is completely up to her."

Kain turned his back on Prishe and faced the sky. The twinkling stars were clearly visible from that tiny clearing. He stood there silently for a few minutes, a million thoughts seemingly dashing through his helmet covered head, until he finally spoke up, "I am grateful, Prishe."

Prishe grinned widely at his reaction and said, "You owe me a spicy hot taco."