We trudged through the deep snow, leaving pockets of footprints behind us, until they were quickly refilled with snow. Thankfully, Fran seemed to know where we were going. If it weren't for her uncanny ability to sense hume machinery, we would have never found our way back to the cloaked airship.
I watched her hair sway back and forth over her contrasting dark shoulder blades, and the same nagging question reached me.
How was she not complaining of the cold?
The flakes of snow caught in her hair, adding to her ethereal appearance, but the rest seemed to melt upon contact with her skin.
She didn't complain about her load either. She carried a wolf on each shoulder, all without losing pace. Naturally I had to carry at least the same, and despite the cold, rings of sweat were burning from under their itching pelts.
Finally we reached the ship, and we dashed up the stairs as quickly as we could, but a drift of snow still followed us in.
I dropped the wolves and clutched my shivering body while I stumbled to the shower. I took of my damp clothes and ducked under the showerhead as soon as the water came down.
Fran was looking out the window at the whirls of snow, but her ears twitched and she flinched when I shouted. She opened the door without a knock, and saw me on the floor, my legs tangled in the shower curtain from my panicked escape of the frigid water.
"It's f-freez-zing!" I moaned. Fran threw a dry, but not at all warm, towel over my head.
"Of course it is. I'm not wasting any reserve power on hot water for a bath."
"Then won't you at least use your magic to heat it, please?" Fran closed the door behind herself as she left, and I dropped back onto the floor, and curled into a ball in my towel.
She demanded that I learn to use magic, because it could be used even when your hands are tied, which she assumed would be a common scenario for me. She formed the flame easily, but I only singed my hands. She suggested I try ice magic, but I promptly refused. It was much too cold for that. The lessons were short-lives and fruitless. She informed me by a glance outside that we could not fly in the storm.
"You are not accustomed to weather, are you, hume from the place of the sun?" She said, with a mischievous twinkle in her dark eyes. I shrugged. Even I could see the tell-tale signs of a snowstorm.
"I've dodged bullet rain before, have you?" I retorted. She smiled, just slightly.
"Only when I am near to you."
We skinned the wolves and she tried teaching me how to sew. More shortly-lived lessons. I pricked my fingers much too often. I managed to produce what looked like a decent glove, and I was pleasantly surprised until she informed me that it lacked a thumb.
I left her to sew more long underwear while I polished my guns. The storm let up, and we went back into town to sell what remained of the pelts, and restock our armory with bullets and arrows.
Again, the fact that she wore nothing but her tight breeches and a thin cotton blouse bothered me. So what if the sun was shining- the ground reflected the cold even more! I offered her the fur coat she had sewn for me, but she refused with a simple shake of her head.
"It fits you and only you." I frowned at her as I fit my arms back into the warm sleeves.
"And how would you know that if you haven't even tried it on?"
"Because I took your measurements in your sleep." She said. She continued walking as I froze and stared at her. I shook my head with a smile, and rubbed my hands together.
"You could have just asked me and I would let you make all the measurements of mine you like!"
We had more gil than I expected, pulled from the bodies of the monsters we had hunted a week earlier. She counted the money, and dumped a good portion of it into a leather pouch and handed it to me.
"We are even now. This is yours." I weighed the hefty bag in my hand.
"Even?"
"I have been keeping the gil as I saw fit. But we have broken even now, and you may keep your fair share."
"Ah, so you've been holding out on me." She shrugged, and what a cute gesture it was coming from her!
"I advise you not to waste it."
"Yes, mother."
The priests in the village warned us that another storm was coming. I was eager to leave the snowy hideaway, but Fran suggest we remain there longer. I would have none of her reasoning, until she told me that it was a good place to search for treasure.
"People do not enjoy digging in snow. It is a good place to hide treasure, and feel that it will not be found."
"But the cold doesn't both us!" I said proudly.
We left the airship that evening, and followed the worn snow path all the way to a bridge of ice.
"Further down is a temple filled with beasts." She said, pointing down a ledge. I saw a grey marble mountainside, and she pointed out the outline of a courtyard, covered with a thin layer of ice.
"Well, looks promising to me!" I said approvingly. "Shall we?" Fran shook her head.
"No. It is too dangerous. We would be fools to enter alone."
"But we're not alone!" I declared, reaching my arm around her shoulder. She stopped me with a quick glance, and I casually tucked my arm against my back instead.
"I am not talented with esuena yet." She admitted. "If we are poisoned, I cannot cure it. And every monster inside had a different venom." I nodded, grimacing.
"All right then…no temple. I'm fine with that actually. Are you?"
"Yes."
"Good, let's move on."
Giant winged monsters circled overhead, and Fran advised me not to attack any. We could probably handle one, but fights drew the attention of others, and we did not want a crowd of flying adversaries. Fran had the eyes of a viera, but I was still the one to spy the frozen flag. It rested against the side of a frozen cliff covered in spikes of ice.
"There!" I shouted, and looked to her. She nodded, and I ran ahead to examine it.
"Ah! Wait!" She called, and I looked over my shoulder without slowing. Something whipped around my ankle, and I was tugged through the air and bashed against the cold cliffside. My double vision noticed something moving overhead. A grey blur, coming down towards me. I gasped, and braced myself, but the impact came from my side instead. I landed in a pile of snow, and the boulder screeched against the cliffside and rolled off the ledge.
Fran's body was carefully pinned above mine, like a wild animal guarding its prey. When the boulder crumbled off the cliff, she bolted upright and touched my head.
"That was a close one." I said, swallowing nervously. She looked very serious, and I wanted to ease the tension with humor. She did not respond.
"Do not concern yourself." She said, now tugging at the back of my arm. "The icicle only punctured your thigh, and did not break off with you. I can heal you now."
"Icicle?" I slurred, sitting up.
"Do not-" I clamped my jaw shut and held back a yell. Blood was pooling into the snow from a gaping hole in my leg. I quickly looked up, but my eyes located the red-smeared spike of ice on the wall, in front of a dangling rope. I closed my eyes, and felt bile rise up in my throat. Fran covered the wound with her hands and chanted something so low I could not hear, but my flesh gradually closed over.
"I am sorry." She said. Her words surprised me so much that I didn't feel sick anymore.
"For what in Ivalice, Fran?"
"I did not recognize the trap until it was too late. For that, you were injured." I shook my head.
"My dear, dear Fran…" I cracked an eye open. "I'll forgive you if you kiss me right now."
"You are certainly healed." She said, rising to her feet. Her hands were dripping with blood, collecting into droplets on the tip of her long nails. She wiped them off on a cloth before I could stare. I tested my leg, and found that though it was healed, my body felt weak.
"You lost an unhealthy amount of blood very suddenly. We should return to the ship so you do not go into shock." I raised a finger.
"One more thing. Is that trap deactivated now?" She nodded.
"Yes."
I turned around and pulled the flag out of the ground. It led to a chest, and the lock was easy to break because it was frozen. I took the bag of coins that was inside and rejoined Fran.
I could read her expression just fine now.
'What a silly hume.'
He did not ask for assistance, but he hesitated before the ice bridge until I took his arm over my shoulder and helped him walk across it. On the other side, he did not ask that I release him, so I held fast.
He stretched out on the hallway bed and crossed his arms to sleep. I heated a basin of water with magic and fitted his feet inside it as he rested. I could tell by his sudden smile and sigh of pleasure that he was not asleep, so he could enjoy the treat even more.
"Won't you just take my jacket?" He asked. His question sounded strained, as if he'd been holding it back for some time. I looked up at his still form. "You must be cold. I mean…your dress is not proper for a place full of blizzards."
Ah.
"Ffamran, look at me." He cracked open a hazel eye at my face. "No. Look at me." I stood, and his eyes wandered down my body before slamming shut again.
"What am I supposed to be seeing?" He asked, clapping a hand over his eyes. For a hume male, he was blushing to a quite noticeable degree.
"You tell me."
"Skin. Lots of perfect, unblemished yummy chocolate skin."
"And why do you think that is?" He groaned. "For attention? Do my kind dress so openly because we like the lingering stares? Do you think we get satisfaction by noticing someone looking at us with longing, but knowing that he may never touch you? No. It is not a good feeling." My speech had left him silent, so I took his hand and placed it on my collarbone. He flinched away.
"Fran!"
"Feel." I took his reluctant hand and firmly splayed it over my exposed neck. I waited, and finally he opened his eyes, somewhat startled. I let go and he held his hand for a bit longer, before pulling away with a hiss. He looked at his red hand, then back at me.
"A viera's body temperature is much higher than a hume's. If I wear such restricting clothing, I will overheat. Even in the snow." He stared, wide-eyed and awed.
"Why…Fran. You're hot." He smirked.
"Go to sleep."
"Yes mother."
I had used much of my magic that day, and surprised myself by falling asleep in the seat across from him in the hall.
I woke with a start, and a strange smell. I listened, and heard the distinct crackling sound of meat frying in a cast iron skillet. Ffamran was gone from his place across from me, and had taken it upon himself to cook, it seemed. I stood and retired to the shower to scrub his blood off my arms, then rejoined him in the kitchen for dinner.
"Wolf, again." He said, and set a bottle of rum on the table as well. "And water."
He counted the gold pieces as we ate.
"Half and half?" He suggested. I shrugged, and his eyes lit up as if I'd done something rather amusing.
"I do not care how we split our profits." I said. I could tell that he was doing something new by offering me them, and I felt odd by refusing it.
"Then I will keep it in a chest in our room and we take from it as we need."
"I…You earned it this time, so you should keep it as yours." I said. "Put it in a chest, and move that chest to your side of the room." He put his hand on his chin.
"I thought you said you didn't care."
"There will be things I want to keep for myself, and you should feel the same." I concluded. He nodded.
"Yes, understandable. As long as one of those things is not this airship." He cracked an eye open, examining me.
"The same applies to the hoverbike in the garage." We locked eyes for a moment.
"Deal."
"Deal."
Nono hopped onto the table and grimaced at the sight of the meat. Nono did not like our diets, and rifled through the cabinets until he found a bag of assorted nuts and dried berries, and took them down to his hammock in the garage.
The snow buffeted the windows until they were coated with a layer of frost. The ship was powered down during the day, and Fran turned the heat on at night.
I noticed though that her blankets were no nearly as heavy as mine. It was so cold enough to layer, so why was she acting like it didn't bother her?
She noticed me staring, and pulled the heavy red curtain into place, blocking her from view.
The wind shook the airship, just enough so things in the room swayed. The blankets that hung off my bed twitched, and the socks I'd hung to dry swayed. I closed my eye tightly and remembered where I was.
I was perched in Mt. Bur-Omice, inside a stolen airship with bags of stolen treasure, and sharing a room with a viera.
I often reminded myself of my current situation, and always smiled. I was no longer a Judge, for however a short time it had been, and no longer restrained to the city. I was as free as a wandering esper now. Like the wind. I loved it, but there were things that didn't feel quite right.
Fran was not one of them. She was perfect, and being near her felt amazing. I appreciated her for what she was, taking the chance to partner with a clumsy hume as myself, and I was learning to feel the same for who she was. She was no arm decoration. The ship wasn't either, or the gold coins, but that delicate birthday crown was.
I grabbed it from its shelf and held it between my open hands. I closed my eyes, and wrapped my fingers around it, feeling the cold crystals and amber between my grip.
Those gold coins were not the same. There was no guilt in taking them, especially when it helped nurse my wounded pride.
But this crown…
I hid it away again and rolled onto my shoulder.
Ffamran was eager to leave the desolate mountains. He said he'd had his fill of wolves and snow. He refused to eat breakfast, and spent all day polishing his boots until they were scrubbed raw and his hands were stained.
More than once, I saw him twirling the blush amber crown in his hands, but kept a cloth between his dirty hands and the gems to not stain it.
"How much do you think it's worth?" He asked absent-mindedly. I knew very well that it would sell for a high profit, but I also knew that money did not concern him in this case.
"Enough. But you would have to find an underground dealer." He nodded. "That would be one of yours though." He cracked an eye open at my odd wording. "What you do with it concerns only you." I looked away. "Throw it into the snow if you'd like." He stared at the gems, and they stared back until they reflected a glare.
"After all the work we did?" He suddenly snapped. "Pirates don't just throw away their loot, Fran."
"Certain pirates do."
"The dense kind!" He sat up. "We went to all that trouble, and we were successful. We infiltrated the royal palace. Imagine what this is worth! We could be bathing in gil!" His words did not match him. I stood.
"You do not need to yell."
"But you're right. What I do with it concerns me and only me, because I'm apparently the Captain now." I watched patiently as his face tightened and he gave into a sigh. He set down the crown. "Fran…"
"I suppose I should go and swab the deck or something likewise then." I snapped.
Before I knew it, I was walking down the stairs, into the whirling snow.
"Fran!" He yelled after me. I heard him stumble into the snow. "This blizzard won't let up for another day- come back!" I continued on. "Fran! Stop!" He grabbed my wrist, somehow managing to catch up with me. I pulled myself free, and the force caused him to fall backwards into the snow. The wind calmed, carrying the snow higher and thinner.
"I will travel with the hume seeking adventure." I said firmly. "Not one like you." He stared, obviously shaken by my threat. So much that he trembled. No…that was not just his body shaking.
A stabbing pain lodged itself in the back of my skull, and I fell onto my side, deaf to his concerned shouts. I watched something move above us- above the clouds, but close enough to cause the earth to shake under its vibrations. A massive airship, trailing banners of Archadia, slowly plowed through the snow clouds. Its dozen Glocair Rings hummed powerfully, in unison. But there was something else causing it to move. Something sinister. The pain returned, and I kicked my legs out as if an electric shock had been delivered to me. I could not control myself. My lips curled back in a feral howl, and Ffamran flinched away. I could only imagine how I appeared under the influence of the Mist.
Just as I realized the cause for my behavior, there was nothing I could do to halt it. My vision changed from tan to red, and my eyes burned with the color of fury. I had never felt it this strong before. Sometimes as I walked through the airship hangers of the Empire, I could feel the thick air, but I changed my course to avoid it if it became uncomfortable. Even then, if was nothing in comparison to what I was feeling now. I was in snow, but I felt like my body was on fire.
Ffamran touched me, and my arm lashed out and dug into whatever flesh I could grab. He resisted, but I held fast, lifted him, and threw him against the docked airship. The sound of his body hitting against metal echoed in my ears, and I remembered myself for just a moment. In that moment, I screamed, and used every last ounce of willpower to turn and run away from him.
What had I done?
"Fran!" My voice echoed against the blank mountains.
Damn it all! Damn my temper! Why did I take it out on her, of all people?
"Fra-!"
I stumbled and caught myself against the rock face to my left, and clutched my throbbing temple, where it had impacted against the airship.
Speaking of airships…
I looked skyward, and the sound of one of my father's designs still disturbed the clouds. What was that doing here, of all places?
A howl echoed through the mountains, bouncing off of so many stones and snowdrifts that I couldn't tell where it had come from. But I knew who it had come from. And she would cause an avalanche making such a noise.
What happened to her?
Surely she was not just angry. Of course, viera's tempers were something of legend, but I doubted it was that. She was too proud to lose her temper in such a flamboyant way. But that meant something else was amiss with her. Something that was evident on her skin, but could not be solved by looking at her. The problem was on the inside, where her hands had clutched her head as she collapsed.
The fresh image urged me onwards, through the hip-deep snow and pounding hail.
She could hurt herself out there, acting like that.
I remembered the trap that had impaled my leg. She was obviously in no condition to recognize them. I ran, picking my knees up high in awkward skipping jumps to clear the most snow each time. A crash sounded, and another scream- slightly more vieran. I raced after it, and my pulse quickened as the path led me over the ice bridge and towards the temple.
When there came a manmade path underfoot, the snow thinned, and I could run faster. Which I did, because far ahead, I saw a dark, slender figure moving through the white.
"Fran!" I called. She turned at my voice, then dropped onto all fours and ran away. "Wait!" I chased her right to the entrance on the palace, but she slipped on her heels when the stone became slick with a layer of ice, and crashed into a decorative pillar outside. I caught up, and put myself between her, and the dark entrance of the temple. She shook her head, and rose onto her legs, towering over me, even from a distance.
"Fran…it's me, Ffamran." I said quietly. Her teeth showed, clamped together, but leaving enough space for a growl. "You know, the silly little hume?" Her lips curled back further, and she moved to my left, as if examining which side of my body would be easiest to leap at. "You can't go in here, remember? I'm useless with magic." Her eyes continued to bear down on me, creased under furrowed brows. "Please, my darling." Her ears twitched.
She was responding to endearments?
"Dearest Fran." I continued. "My darling…" This felt so odd. I was used to a much different reaction. "That's right…just-" She shouted, and launched herself at me. I dropped to the floor, but Fran didn't lose momentum until she bashed into the stone wall. Drifts of snow feel from the overhang when she hit. I rolled onto my knees, ready to defend myself, but faced a much different sight instead.
She was on her knees, driving her forehead into the wall again. Her body shook with strain. What on Ivalice was she doing? She gave a soft whimper, and I cautiously moved to her side.
"The Mist…" She moaned. "It's…everywhere. Inside of me." The Mist? I'd heard it before.
"How can I help?" I begged. She shook her head, driving her cheek against the cold wall.
"You cannot. Run from me. I will attack you again." I shook my head.
"I'm not leaving you here, Fran. Especially not so close to the palace." She closed her eyes tightly.
"Even my moments of clarity are dim…please…" Her face tightened and she cracked her fist against the wall. She pulled her head back, and I slid my hand between her face and the wall. Her cheek hit my palm instead.
"Stop this. You'll bruise your pretty face." She turned to look at me, and I noticed how quiet the air had become. Again, it was only the sounds of the wind, and suddenly, Fran's ragged breathing. Her eyes rolled back, and she fell into my ready arms. I brushed my hand through her tangled hair, and whispered an endearment one more time, while it would last.
I woke, warm and rested. The familiar scent of wolf cooking filled the airship, and my nose twitched eagerly. I was quite hungry, I realized.
I bolted upright, my ears standing tall. I was in my bed in the airship. Somehow.
I found Ffamran cooking in the kitchen again, Nono sitting at the table expectantly. He noticed me first, and stood on his hind legs as if to see me better.
"Fran! You're awake, kupo!"
Ffamran turned, and beamed a sterling smile.
"Good morning, my darling." I frowned, and his smile faded into a grimace. "I see, that is the reaction i was more expecting." He emptied the grease slathered meat onto three plates.
"Have I been asleep long?" Ffamran shrugged.
"Since yesterday night. It's supper time now." My eyes fell to the floor.
"How did…" The answer was obvious. But Ffamran turned and faced me.
"How did you end up back here, safe and sound? I drew you into my arms and carried you home like the proper leading man would." I sat at the table, and began eating. He joined me, and poured a half-glass of rum for me. I drained it in a gulp and waited for more. With a smile, he serviced.
But he left his drink untouched, and his smile faded.
I explained what I could about the Mist to him. If we were to travel together, we may encounter such places again, and he should know what to expect of me. But his questions were amateur, and uneducated. He stopped after a short time.
"The airship to fly over was my father's. He has mentioned the Mist to me before, Fran. He is using magecite to harness its power."
"He was unsuccessful." I said bitterly. He took leave for a moment, and returned with the blush amber crown.
"…I'll be honest with you, Fran." He closed his eyes again. "I don't want this." I nodded, having expected such a response eventually.
"Then, do as you see fit."
For now, his answer was shutting it up in a chest under his bed, but I knew that he had other, better, plans for it.
Neither of us slept easy that night, but at least we had the sound of a living person to ease us to sleep instead of the silence.
A/N~ I had given up on this story for the most part, but I got a really inspiring review, and I decided to finish it. This isn't the last chapter yet, but it's a start in the right direction. Thanks to those of you still with me X) I won't give up again!
