Zidane's POV
I followed snowy tracks that were no doubt fit Blank's descript but they soon turned into a new persona. Two heavier boots and yet another pair of foot prints evidentially different from Blank's also.
Horrible scenarios raced through my mind. He was attacked by bandits. He was ambushed by murderers. They all ended in death.
I quickened my already speedy pace and hurried after what could be the remains of my Blank.
A light pierced through the mist of the Ice Cavern and I stumbled out into the rocky cliff overlooking a prairie. There in the distance sat a humble little village. I believe its name was Dali.
The rocky slid to the bottom of the cliff wasn't too perilous, but the trek to the village was exhausting. Hoping to find Blank alive and well here was a lost hope but a hope nonetheless.
Black circles had formed themselves a nice ring about the corners of my vision. I was loosing consciousness. My efforts had pushed me to the brink of my body's limits and I was still pushing.
I could not give in. I could not rest until Blank was safe.
"Sir?" A voice struck my sensitive ears with a pang and I winced as I shakily bobbled my head in the direction of the speaker.
"Yes? Who's there?" I called.
"I'm an innkeeper… sir, you don't look well. Would you like to stay? I'd knock off the price for you, it seems you're in dire need of a good rest." He observed. Focus came to his face and it seemed friendly enough. Perhaps I should rest. Blank could be nearby and I'd be better off with a good nap to start my search fresh and acute.
"Please." I nodded. I felt his hand upon my back, gently guiding me across the cobble stones and through the door of his establishment.
"Just 12 gil." He kindly offered a palm. I dug through my pockets and pressed several coins into his hand. I was then shown my room and even tucked in. I must have really appeared a wreck.
My head throbbed anxiously against the pillow. I could feel my weighted heartbeat in my ears. I finally found sleep, dreaming of finding him…
Blank's POV
Lani returned the next morning. She brought a friend.
"This is stupid," came his immediate reaction. Flaming red hair and paler than white skin. He looked like he'd been drowned several times over and the color stuck. A permanent smug outlook, absolutely no laugh lines or any sign that this man had ever smiled in his life.
"Shut it, Red!" Lani barked, maneuvering around the bed to stand aside me opposite 'Red'. I stared at the both of them, back and forth. My body was still recovering from its migration ached too much for anymore movement.
"What's his name?" Red asked.
"I'm Blank." I responded for him, not wanting to be a third person --un-referred to in an endless conversation.
"Blank? What kind of stupid name is that?" Red commented, glancing over at his counterpart.
"Red. What kind of stupid name is that?" I hissed in retaliation. He threw up a fist but Lani knocked it back.
"His name isn't Red. It's Amarant." She corrected, leaning close to me as she tended to enjoy doing. I shrunk back and wrinkled my nose in distaste. Instead of becoming infuriated as before, she just giggled and hopped on the bed. Now she was unavoidable.
"I don't care." I growled, just trying to piss them off.
"You should." Amarant sneered. I furrowed my brow at him in an innocent challenge. Lani distracted the would-be fight once more by turning my face to her, a tight clenching on my thin jaw between her fierce fingers.
"Watch your attractive smart mouth. It'll get you cut." She warned, wagging a finger as if I were a dog.
"I've told you before-"
"You're a coward. We know." She rolled her eyes, mocking my distress and releasing my face. I fumed. If I had feeling in my good arm I'd destroy her.
"Calm down Blanket," Amarant smirked, probably the closest thing to a genuine smile he knew, "you're not going anywhere."
Suddenly a bell sounded and the pair perked up, startled a bit.
"Customer." Amarant said, pulling his thumb back towards the door. Customer? Where am I? I looked around quickly.
"Could you get that, Red?" Lani said to my face but directing the suggestion towards her cohort. She wouldn't abandon her captive.
He grumbled but obeyed, shuffling on his way out the door. Lani lazed, sprawling out aside me on the bed.
"So," She smiled a girlish smile, "You seem to be pretty depressed about something." Her random spur of psychiatry threw me off.
"Why would you even care?" I spat, rolling away from her.
"I don't really," She shrugged. I felt her arms around my torso and I shivered under her malevolent clutch. "I just like to know people's anxieties, their crushed spirits, their deepest loathings. I enjoy your screwed up insides; tell me." She sang.
"You're heartless." I tried to escape her grasp but I just wasn't strong enough yet. She pulled me closer and kissed the back of my neck just below my ear. "Get off!" I screamed.
"You've been hurt…" She kissed me again, exactly upon my nape, where the neck met the shoulders, "Your spirit broken by a single lost love… no?"
"Get away!" I shouted and wriggled madly, tearing my splint and burning the stiff muscles in my legs and arms and back. She just laughed and held tighter.
"I'll never let you go, not like someone else did." She gave a sinister promise.
"Zidane didn't let me go! I let him go! I let him go for his own sake!" I burst out with my inner broodings. Lani gave a chuckle and a quick peck on the ear, then her arms relieved themselves of me and she left.
I lay there panting… soon, crying. I can't stay here with these people. With her… This is beyond torture.
Zidane, I was wrong.
Zidane's POV
I slept in longer than I had hoped I would the next day. My biological needs surpassed my heart's at least in unconsciousness. I hurried from the inn's bunk to the village's plaza. Maybe I could get news of where Blank was from these people.
He had to have passed through here.
I explored the shops and the homes and the farms. I checked the airship loading field and all of the places in between. I'd nearly given up. No one had seen or heard anything of a stitched up redhead with a broken arm.
I a few more stops near the edge of the village. A bar, medicine shop, and a small house. I pushed through the double doors into the bar and sought out the tender.
"What can I get you, sir?"
"Have you seen a redheaded man with a broken arm. He's got stitches all over and a leather bandana…" I instantly asked, breath short and eyes tired.
"Redhead? I've seen a really redheaded man at the shop next door. Showed up a few days ago. Don't really recall any stitches or a sling but he's definitely got some shocking red hair." The man nodded.
"Thank you, sir!" I tried not to get too excited. This could not be Blank at all. It was however, the only lead I've had all day. I rushed from the bar and right next door to a seedy looking little shop of medicinal purposes. I stepped through the door and a bell sounded.
Upon entering I wouldn't have guessed it was open for business. Cobwebs and dust lined every item in sight. I coughed and waved a few particles from my face and slowly walked up to the desk.
"Hello?" I called back to no one in particular. Then a shuffling in the back room and I detected faint whimpering… "…Blank?" I shouted.
"Zidane?!" A cry replied. My heart nearly threw itself from my ribcage. I cleared the front desk with ease and, with a surge of newfound energy, slammed through the backdoor.
I found Blank… but also the owners of the two additional footprints. Blank was being gagged by a large pale man with bright red hair while being hauled off via his scalp by an angry woman.
They both froze in their attempts upon my admission.
"Get the hell off of him!" I yelled, drawing my daggers and focusing all the rage I felt on the blades.
"You don't want to pick this fight, I'm telling you." The pale man shook his head as he threatened. The woman laughed and drew a giant axe from its holster upon her back.
"My axe is pleased with your foolishness." She whistled, twirling the massive blade about in a showy manner.
Unfortunately I'm really no match solo…
I need to grab Blank and run for it!
I never wavered in my confident appearance but, fast as I could, I hurled a dagger precisely at the cuff of the woman's shirt. It caught and pinned her to the opposite wall. She pitted into a frenzy of rage at her sudden disarmament.
The man rushed at me but I dodged and ran for Blank on the floorboards. I pulled him up roughly and began sprinting for the window-- the quickest and easiest way out. A forward dive. A roll. Blank held together with me vaguely well. I had time to assist him back up and then we took off through the shattered remains and made for the airship field.
As expected the two captors were soon right on our heels. I tugged Blank's arm harder and guided him faster as we sprinted across the grass towards a loading airship. The cargo was just finishing and the turbines were beginning to spin.
I risked injuring Blank's arm further and quickened our pace once more. The wind from the propellers threw the locks of hair from my face and pushed skin to bone. I forced us up to the ladder just as the rickety bow lifted from the grass.
I shoved Blank up first and barely grasped the last rung. The pale man leaped and snagged my boot as I tried to ascend. I lost slight grip in my fingers and looked down. We were gaining altitude fast and this man was clinging so tight…
I shook my leg, wriggled my boot and barked at him to let go. He was persistent and managed to grab with two hands. I panicked and then used my other foot to gently nudge at the heel of my boot.
He made a mad scramble to reach my pant leg but I dislodged the shoe and it, along with the man, plummeted back to the plains.
Heart pounding and lungs burning in the chilling air, I climbed the ladder with difficulty. Blank had already somehow managed to hobble his way up and into the hull. I followed soon after and collapsed on the floorboards of the cargo hold.
I lay there, breathing heavily in and out just for a little while. Then I lifted my head from the wooden planks and peered over the inventory. It was a chocobo holding level. Stalls filled with hay and straw lined the path.
I spotted a fur-lined boot barely noticeable. It poked out from a nearby stall, sifted among the straw. I got up slowly and traipsed towards it.
I swung the gate open and there was no chocobo, but another passenger I knew very well. Blank lay, eyes closed, body huddled in the makeshift nest. I collapsed beside him and carefully leaned over to remove the gag.
He coughed a bit as saliva and blood from his reopened lip wounds spilled after the mouthpiece.
"You alright?" I asked, throwing the gag away and touching his face softly.
I'd missed this feeling. I smiled as the pain in my throat just before tears began to build.
"You… left Tantalus." Blank sputtered.
"That's all you can say?" I laughed a bit, stroking his face more and glancing over everything about him. I saw his disbelief. I saw his exhaustion and his heartache. I really saw it all in his eyes.
"Zidane I was wrong… I was wrong to leave you. I'm so sorry." Blank suddenly confessed. I shook my head at him, touching the thick strands of stitching about his neck tenderly.
"You were just doing what you thought was right…" I said, "But we don't have to be apart again."
He smiled.
"We're safe now." I told him, allowing myself to relax a bit with my own words. We're safe.
"I love you." Blank said, reaching for my hand and grasping it. I started and then regained myself to wrap my arms around him as I took to the straw for slumber.
"I love you, too." I replied.
The airship rode smoothly, carrying its precious cargo all the way to the city of Alexandria.
--TBC