Disclaimer: Anything you recognize – be it character, location, idea or line – belongs to others; I may be playing with them but I make no profit from this.
When Worlds Collide
A Brand New World
Harry was no longer scrawny and certainly no longer miserable, and he hadn't been lonely for a good while now. He had a fulfilling and exciting life at last, people he cared about. He was happy.
It had been the best idea imaginable, to take a chance with the 'Magic'.
When he'd opened his eyes again, right there in the middle of a darkened Surrey street, he had found a sort of hole hanging on mid-air, a roughly square-shaped see-through opening, like an invisible window that looked out on an entirely different place.
Another world!
Disbelieving and excited, he'd climbed cautiously through the weird window and found himself in a beautiful and otherworldly forest…
It had been night there as well and everything had been shades of blues: the enormous tree-trunks twining around one another, the soft soil under his feet, the graceful leaves and strange night-time flowers blooming. All had been unearthly beautiful. The trees had held huge bioluminescent spheres that emitted a soft, enthralling glow and everywhere he'd looked he could see small dots of light fluttering here and there like fireflies, leaving a sparkling trail in their wake till everything was glowing with small flickers of fluorescent colours.
It was so magical!
He'd barely noticed that the opening had closed seamlessly and noiselessly behind him. It's not like he'd wanted to go back after all! Magic had granted his greatest wish.
Magic was real!
He would not, could not doubt it anymore. Everything in the mysterious, enchanting wood had spoken to him of magic, the very air had seemed impregnated with it: Harry could almost hear a faint, melodious hum that filled him with joy and peace. A sweet scent that permeated everything had wrapped comfortingly around him as he'd made his way in the welcoming wood.
The deeper he'd gone, the more he'd felt enthralled by the place. He'd breathed deeply, letting the wonder fill him until he'd burst out laughing in delight!
It was under the canopy of indigo leaves that he'd met O'aka XXIII.
Harry had been running happily and jumping to catch the fluorescent fireflies, all the while laughing loudly and freely for maybe the first time in his life, when he'd slipped down a winding branch thicker than his waist, landing in a campsite next to a beautiful spring.
A man, friendly-looking but dressed so weirdly Harry had had to stifle his giggles – sandals that tied up on his calves and an unusual tiny jacket and the oddest little hat tied atop his head with a string! – had almost choked on the bread he was eating at his sudden appearance.
The look of shock on the poor man's face had been hilarious!
But he was an easy-going fellow and had quickly started laughing with Harry at the strange meeting: "Oooh, and what do we have here, now? Hey, lad, lemme see ye!"
Harry had giggled again at his accent: he sounded just like the plumber who'd moved to Little Whinging from East London some time ago and helped out with the maintenance at Harry's school.
The man had introduced himself as: "O'aka XXIII, Merchant Extraordinaire!" He'd even jumped up and made a funny bow and Harry had laughed nicely and made a ridiculous bow back: "I'm Harry!" he'd chirped.
"Ye be needin' something, lad? I'm always open for business!" had asked the man excitedly, showing off all his weird merchandise.
Harry had been completely fascinated by all the odd things he kept in his giant rucksack (and how did he lift it, he'd wondered?) as well as all his bags and satchels; but he didn't know what half those things were, much less if he wanted them; and anyway, he didn't have any money.
O'aka had sighed in disappointment, saying comically: "Eh, it figures…"
Then Harry's eyes had gone round when O'aka had invited him to have some dinner! He'd never tasted anything that good. And while they ate, the odd man had chatted kindly, explaining a good deal about this strange new world.
He'd told Harry that they were in the Macalania Woods, a junction point for several other locations: "They's connected to the Thunder Plains down south – not a good place, them lands, nobody likes to go there, 'cause of all the lightnin' strikes… ye know what they say: 'Plains of lightning, plains of thunder, those who cross are torn asunder' - and ye can't run a trade with no customers! So I've no business there, see?"
He'd gestured wildly in his dismay, making Harry grin.
"Then off to the west is Bevelle – been there a few times, strange place… the Heart of Spira, they say! Sure are a lot of 'em New Yevon guys about these days. And lemme tell ye, they like to keep their secrets… same as the old Yevon Church!"
He'd shaken his head sagely. "Makes me wonder what they're up to, it does - but best not go asking, if ye get my meaning…"
Harry's eyes had lit with interest.
"And to the east there's 'em Calm Lands – now them's a good place for business!" had gone on O'aka, perking up at the mere idea. "Specially now, what with everything…"
Then he'd gone straight from vibrant to depressed: "So I thought, thought I, people are bound to come throu' here, right? These woods bein' so central and everything? And with the Eternal Calm, now, I thought it'd be an excellent investment!..." He'd shaken his head sadly.
"What?" had asked Harry, scrunching up his nose in confusion.
"Why, the Travel Agency, lad! What else? Rin's Travel Agency! It used to be by the frozen Lake, back when the Macalania Temple was still there – a magnificent ice palace, ye know, beautiful! Quite beautiful! But now it's not there no more!" he'd concluded tragically. "Curse that Rin for selling me the place when it wasn't good no more!"
Harry was riveted: "Why not? What happened?"
"Sank," had explained O'aka miserably. "To the bottom o' the lake, no less. So then I got no more customers to sell to, and no money to pay the Al Bhed for the agency. Ooh… I was in a big trouble!" He'd shuddered dramatically before brightening up: "Course, Lady Yuna saved me!"
Harry had smiled, amused by all the mood changes: "And who's Lady Yuna?"
"What!" had cried O'aka dramatically. "Ye don' know…!"
And he'd promptly launched into a convoluted explanation, which Harry had had to stop quite soon because he couldn't follow: "Wait, wait! What's this Sin?"
O'aka's eyes had widened comically: "Ye… ye don't… where are ye from, lad? Nobody don't know 'bout Sin! I think my mom told me brother and me stories about it when we was real little - because I can't remember never not knowing about it, ye know?"
It was Harry's time to widen his eyes in surprise.
O'aka had tapped his chin with two fingers thoughtfully: "Alright, lemme see… Sin is – was – a great big whopping monster, ye know? Wait, I've got something to show ye here somewhere… found it laying 'round and ev'rything…"
He'd jumped up and started rummaging through his huge rucksack, stuffing his head and shoulders in to better look for the promised item and almost falling into it, much to Harry's giggled amusement, but in the end, he'd triumphantly re-emerged, holding out a sort of glowing little ball that, to Harry, looked like round water imprisoning a swirling flame.
O'aka had quickly explained to the fascinated boy that it was a Sphere, a kind of recording device where you could store voice record, video, memories or useful information if you knew how to do it, and that there were thousands of forgotten Spheres all over the world.
"Usually it's the Sphere Hunters who get them, but this one I found meself!" he'd told Harry smugly.
When he'd activated it, Harry had seen a brief, poorly shot movie, full of static and that had to have been taken by someone who was trembling badly. It showed a sort of huge, dark… thing. It was moving very slowly. Harry'd thought that some parts of it looked kinda like big fish fins but he couldn't be sure, and then the Sphere had been over.
"Scary, huh?" had asked O'aka, looking very proud of himself. "Course, 'tis just a Sphere, ye can't get any feel to it – 'cause, Sin was so big that when you see only part of it, it looks like a great blob, ye know?"
"How big?" had asked Harry, completely fascinated.
The question had seemed to throw O'aka: "Dunno. Never given it much of a though, really. It's Sin, ye know. It's just… so big!" and he'd waved his arms madly to drive his point home.
"Wow."
"Anyway, it existed for a thousand years or more, ye know..."
Thus had started Harry's education on the history of this new world, which, he'd discovered, was called Spira.
It was terrifying and amazing at the same time. Harry had listened with rapt attention and hadn't known where to start asking questions. Sin, whatever that was, or had been, monsters and fiends and spawns, Al Bhed and machina what ever they were, a place called Zanarkand (and wasn't that a great name? It sounded totally cool!) Guardians and Summoners…
"Summoners? What are those?"
He didn't even know why that was the question he'd blurted out first, in the end, but it was okay. It was what had caught his attention the most after all.
O'aka had goggled at him, but then he'd shrugged off his odd ignorance and started nodding vigorously: "Yeah, yeah! Summoners, they're the ones who defeat Sin. They go – used to, really – to this pilgrimage, all around the world, with their Guardians, they got into the Temples and got all the Aeons - that is, the creatures they summon, ye know. And then they went to the ruins of Zanarkand and then… then they defeated Sin. Well some did. Not all managed… But when one did, then we'd get a Calm. For a while. I remember… I was just a wee lad when High Summoner Braska defeated Sin. Ye wouldn't believe how it was afterwards! The parties! The fun! Not a single word about Sin, no attack, no fear, ye could go anywhere, nothing to worry about! And everybody was so happy… lasted over a year, it did!"
"Why only a year? What happened after?" Harry had felt confused. If the hero had defeated the monster, shouldn't things have been okay? That was how stories were supposed to go!
"Well, then Sin came back, didn't it? It always did. And then another Summoner had to go and do their thing but not many were able to, ye know? Sometimes it was years before it all happened again..."
"Again?" had asked Harry bemused.
"It… well… 'twas like a cycle, lad… first Sin, then a Summoner would defeat it, and we'd get a Calm, and then Sin again," O'aka had nodded sagely, "until another Summoner defeated it again, ye know. And that could take years…"
"But why? If Summoners can defeat Sin - why don't they do it right after the Calm ends? So there's always a Calm?"
O'aka had given him a sad look: "When Summoners went to pilgrimages to defeat Sin - they died, if they actually did it. Not everybody could… not everybody wanted to – some chickened out before the last stop… can't blame 'em, all in all. I don't think I've ever heard of a High Summoner who survived after defeating Sin – 'cept Lady Yuna, ye know?"
Harry had been lost in the story. To imagine… A Summoner had to sacrifice his or her life to defeat Sin, and give everybody peace and happiness… and then, a year or two later, Sin was back, and another Summoner had to go through the whole thing and die. Again and again… How could they do it? He didn't think he would have the courage to die just for a few years of Calm! How could they think it was worth it? And what was Sin anyway? How could you defeat something - only to have it return after a year or so?
"We were used to it, see?" O'aka had interrupted his wonderings. "Sometimes there was a Calm, and we all enjoyed it. Then Sin'd come back and the fear with it. Once a month you'd hear that Sin'd attacked this ship or this village or whatever," O'aka had shrugged his shoulders, as if it was all normal. "Or you'd see it here and there – creepy, it was. Real creepy... Whenever I'd be in a town and anyone so much as whispered that Sin was close by, it was panic. Madness! Ye never knew when and where Sin'd attack - if he was seen close by, ye'd better run!"
"Were you ever attacked?" had asked Harry, eyes wide with fright. A terrible monster that kept coming back again and again… it had seemed almost impossible, there in the magical atmosphere of the indigo woods. It had chilled him, to think that such a lovely place could hide so monstrous a danger.
"Couple of times," O'aka had shrugged it off with nonchalance. "It was scary as hell, ye know. It was just hanging there, in the air, and I really thought it would just drop down and crush everything, including me."
"And Sin just… attacks? Like, at random?" Harry had asked, seriously worried.
"Don't ye worry no more, lad. Lady Yuna took right care of it! She ain't High Summoner for nothing, ye know!"
"But you said it always comes back!" had cried Harry, upset.
"No, it doesn't! Not anymore! 'Cause Lady Yuna is totally awesome!" had retorted O'aka triumphantly. "She defeated it for good! And now we have an Eternal Calm! No more Sin! Forever and ever! Spira is finally free!"
Harry's mouth had opened in amazement: "How did she do it?" he'd asked in wonder.
But O'aka hadn't known, not really. He'd just waved his arms madly and gone on to talk of how Lady Yuna'd always been kind to him and how they'd met several times, before and after the Eternal Calm started.
Though he'd also told Harry everything that was common knowledge – like how the Church of Yevon had attacked Lady Yuna when she'd exposed their evil ways. Per-se-co-lu-ting her (Harry'd had to ask O'aka to explain that word, because he'd never heard it before): "They branded her a heretic! A traitor! Hah! Them's the traitor, says I! And I was right! In the end, them Yevonites were shown for what they were – Corrupt! Liars! Frauds!" He'd waved his fist menacingly. "O'aka knew it all along! Lady Yuna's the best of the best, she is – she couldn't be wrong! And O'aka's always been a friend to Lady Yuna!" He'd nodded emphatically, a determined scowl on his face.
Harry had smiled. He liked the strange man – and he liked Lady Yuna too. She was like a princess in a fairy tale, beautiful and brave and everything, fighting against the monster and the evil guys with her friends and triumphing after a lot of cool adventures.
"And now everybody knows it too, don't they? She's quite popular these days, eh?" O'aka had chuckled, suddenly back to being lively and merry. "Course, I helped her, ye know! Sold her some real good stuff… 'cause I'm O'aka XXIII, Merchant Extraordinaire!"
Harry had laughed at that, but he'd still been wrapped up in the tale. It was fascinating… he couldn't wait to learn more. "But where did Sin come from?"
"Don't rightly know, lad… I reckon nobody does… 'cause, ye know, those Yevon priests… they told us Sin came to be because long ago, we made machina and did horrible things with them, but… I'm not so sure they knew what they was talking about. We got some machina now, more and more all the time really, and nothing bad's happening…"
Harry had scrunched up his nose and nodded thoughtfully: "So it must have been something else that made it come…"
"Ah, well… who cares? Sin's just always been there. Maybe it's because of machina and stuff, or maybe it was there just… because it was there. I'm no Summoner, so, what do I know, right?" O'aka had laughed softly. "The important thing is that it's not there no more!"
Harry had nodded fervently at that.
In time, Harry had found out that O'aka loved to tell stories and having travelled all over Spira so much, he knew many, many tales.
Some stories were cute, like the one of little Benzo, the only boy known to understand the strange language of the Cactuars.
Harry thought that it was a shame that O'aka refused to go to Bikanel Desert, because he would have loved to meet the intelligent cacti that protected the region. And Benzo himself, who O'aka had told him was his same age. Unfortunately, the vendor was too scared of the Al Bhed who ran the excavation enterprise. Apparently, they had threatened to make him work there to repay his debt! Though he told Harry that if he wanted to go there on his own, when he grew up a bit, he could. "Maybe ye'll find out why all Al Bhed kids wear full body suits! Them's fascinating clothes, to be sure, but no-one knows what them's for! Ye could try and ask, eh?"
Other stories were funny, like those involving Tobli and his Hypello assistants.
O'aka and Tobli had met and bonded over the un-reasonability of their Al Bhed shareholders and become good friends over their common determination to avoid paying their bills, so the merchant had a number of tales about his highly-excitable buddy. Harry had a grand time imagining the diminutive stage producer zooming around in a hijacked Al Bhed machina hover and then crashing it into a billboard near the Moonflow, or roping a group of highly strung children into running all over the place shouting a promotional slogan for his latest show at the top of their lungs.
There were also stories that were terrible, like the tale of Omega, a traitor to Yevon who was banished to a small group of islands and slowly went mad being imprisoned in the maze-like dark passages, until his hatred for Yevon grew so strong it turned him into a fiend. Harry shivered at the mere idea of being trapped in isolation like that – he knew a little what it was like and wouldn't wish years and years of it on anyone.
And yet more stories were full of actions and sadness, like the numerous tales about the Crusaders, who had been fighting to defeat Sin for as long as anyone could remember, but never managed.
O'aka had told him repeatedly that they were pretty awesome anyway: "They were the only ones who could sort of hold Sin at bay – that's why we could still have Blitzball games in Luca!" Once Harry'd had a chance to see a match of the wildly adored aquatic ball sport, he'd agreed that that was an awesome accomplishment indeed. Blitzball had quickly become his favourite sport – just like for everybody in Spira, it seemed.
Despite everything, Harry's favourite remained the tale he'd heard that first night, of Lady Yuna's pilgrimage and Sin's defeat, however.
It was too amazing for words. It had everything: a dangerous quest to save a fantasy world, which was all the more awesome for being real, a monstrous whale-like horror to defeat, those priests that pretended to be good but were really enemies, a group of cool adventurers that O'aka could tell him a lot about because he'd actually met them, so it was almost like Harry himself had known the engagingly grim Warrior Monk, the stoically ironic but well-meaning Black Mage with her devout and funny not-quite-boyfriend, the chirpily perky Al Bhed with her love of machina, the silently strong Ronso warrior and the Blitzball star Lady Yuna had fallen in love with… and most of all, Lady Yuna herself, a totally great heroine, towards whom Harry was quickly developing a bad case of idol-worship!
And they had so many adventures! Even if O'aka didn't know everything and sometimes made things up, it was still wondrous. Harry never got tired of listening to it and thankfully, O'aka never grew bored of telling it!
That first night however they'd just chatted a bit more, O'aka finally getting around to question Harry about his own life. The boy hadn't said much. As far as he was concerned, there wasn't much to tell after all and most importantly, he was clinging to the hope that there wouldn't be anything to tell ever again – not about his 'relatives', not about his former 'home'.
In an effort to distract O'aka from his unwanted line of questioning, Harry had changed the topic asking: "So what are you doing here again, if the Temple has sunk like you said?"
"Ah!" had brightened O'aka. "See, here's the thing!" He'd rubbed his hands happily: "I'm going to save the Travel Agency! And then I'm going to get a friend of mine to do a show here! I'll make tons of money then, on account of this place becoming famous…"
"How?" had asked Harry, very interested.
"Well, ye know," had started O'aka, "Lady Yuna and her friends, the Gullwings, helped me out again! Stowed me away on their ship, they did! So those Al Bhed wouldn't find me… bought all me merchandise too, so I could pay me debts. Cool, eh? So now I'm in the clear again! No debts. Problem is, all these rumours sayin' that the wood is dyin'… that's no good for business!"
Harry hadn't believed that for one moment. There was too much life, too much magic in Macalania to think of it fading. He'd told O'aka as much and the man had been overjoyed: "Knew it!" he'd cried, and had promptly started muttering about taking the boy to meet the exiled Guado, "to tell'em fools too!"
Since Harry hadn't had anything else to do anyway, he'd gladly agreed to help the merchant out and over the next days, he'd been dragged along around the woods to 'support' O'aka's attempt at saving his shop.
The Guado people that the vendor had mentioned the first night had turned out to be – to Harry's shock – not human at all, but rather a plant-like humanoid race, with wooden-looking skin and overlarge hands that resembled branches. Harry was a bit grossed out by the prominent veins on their faces, but he could admit that their green flowerish hair were cool. Too bad their attitude was anything but.
O'aka had explained to a more and more confused Harry that they'd dwelled in a city of their own once, carved through the roots of giant trees, where they had been the protectors of Spira's Farplane and made a living out of the fact that they were the only ones who could make it safe for living visitors (not that Harry had known what the Farplane was… in fact, the whole concept had remained rather fuzzy in his mind even after several explanations, until he'd had a chance to see for himself.)
It had been clear from the start, anyway, that the vendor didn't think much of them. In fact, O'aka had told Harry, with an uncharacteristic frown: "I tell ye, these Guado merchants are shrewd! Rippin' off the pilgrims that went to visit the Farplane – that's how they got their living! Then they were chased away from their underground city and now they're here and don't know what to do with themselves! But they're not to be trusted – I tell ye, they's not changed. Them's trying to get our pity, but… they's still as arrogant, always lookin' down on us other races! But they ain't anything special in the end. Listen, ye watch that they don't get ye, too!"
Harry hadn't liked them much either. One of them had tried to explain to him that they'd sought refuge in these woods because they were spiritually connected to them, and that they and the woods were fading away together because of that. Harry had felt almost offended on behalf of the beautiful woods.
He also had some trouble understanding why the Guado were content to die - along with the forest - for their supposed 'sins'. Just because Lady Yuna's enemy, the evil Maester Seymour Guado, had done horrible things and now that Sin had been defeated, many people sought vengeance for his crimes and blamed all of them by association? He just didn't understand. In his opinion, they should go out and fight to convince everybody that they weren't all evil!
But it was no use trying to talk some sense into them. They were miserable and lonely, pathetically repeating that they would die when the forest disappeared, due to the fayth at Macalania Temple fading away, and bemoaning how sad it all was, but without doing anything to stop it.
O'aka had told him quite clearly: "'Tis no skin off me nose if them's killed or what. I just want 'em to stop being so depressing 'bout the woods dying!" His basic idea was to get the Guado to stay hidden in the woods and not interfere with the show he wanted to organize: "They're goin' to scare customers away if they're bein' so gloomy all over the place!" he'd complained.
Between O'aka's stubbornness and the Guado's tendency to apathy, they'd soon reached an agreement and Harry had been the only one not really happy about it, but at the end of the day, it was the Guado's choice what to do with their lives, he supposed.
Then had come the time to round up the three races of Musicians, ancestral protectors of Macalania: a tall, blue-colored bird-like one with a harp, a short one with something that looked like a trumpet but more curvy and a rotund one with big drums. Chasing them down and convincing them to play nearby the frozen lake had been fun, even if Harry found their music rather dull.
Tobli the stage producer had made up for it with his overwhelming enthusiasm, anyway. He'd descended on the Macalania lake like a tornado, his blue Hypello assistants in tow, and whipped the whole place in a frenzy, apparently all by himself. Harry had found it irresistible how incredibly fast he talked and had driven O'aka mad adding "Yup-Yup" to the end of his sentences for over a week afterwards.
Tobli was also responsible for a heightening of Harry's quickly developing case of heroine-worship toward Lady Yuna. The hyper chap had kept bemoaning the fact that her great success was making it hard to organize another show at the same level. Naturally, the boy had demanded the whole story and as the stage producer was incredibly proud that the Gullwings had asked him to help with their idea to lift the spirits of the people of Spira, he'd willingly told the tale.
Thus Harry had found out that Lady Yuna could also sing wonderfully – in fact, she was so good that everybody who'd listened to her had felt their spirit soar. Not only that: even the endless storm across the Thunder Plains had stopped for her! For the first time ever, those barren lands had seen the sun, and it was all thanks to Lady Yuna! How awesome was that?
Harry had pestered O'aka a good deal to obtain a Sphere of the concert and when he'd finally got his hands on one, at the Sphere Theatre in Luca, (not an easy task because apparently, everybody wanted a copy) he had ended up learning the song by heart, so many times he'd played the Sphere!
Meanwhile, anyway, the show had gone on and a surprising number of people had turned up from all over Spira for the event. O'aka had been walking on air, and so had Tobli. It had been a great success!
The only sad thing was that the Gullwings couldn't be there, because they were off fighting some monster or other somewhere (nobody was clear on the details, except for the general knowledge that they'd answered a help call from an Al Bhed). Harry had pouted at the missed opportunity of meeting his idol, but consoled himself thinking that there would be other chances.
Of course, everybody had gone away after the concert: the place wasn't very good for living after all; the important thing was that the word had started spreading that the shop in Macalania was up and running and had a cool inventory, so they could expect business to pick up again. Now if only that mess with the Guado and Ronso people would be resolved… but that was someone else's problem, after all.
During the clean up after the concert O'aka's younger brother, Wantz, had showed up unexpectedly, complaining that the merchant had opened the store again, "without even tellin' me! Why, I only left back then 'cause my job was bound to fail, what with the Temple being gone!"
O'aka had been all ready for a spat, but after bickering for a while, they'd come to the conclusion that it was best to combine their inventories. Wantz, especially, had been excited at the idea: "Why, our store's goin' to be the best on Spira! People'll pay any price for our stuff!"
That had been convenient, because once the excitement over getting the shop going again had died down, O'aka had grown restless. Being a travelling merchant was in his blood. He'd told Harry: "Makin' gil is all very well and good, lad, but I miss the excitement, ye know? Besides, how're we goin' to keep our store at the top if we don't get good stuff to sell?"
So he had decided to leave his brother to handle things at Macalania and be off.
"And what 'bout ye, lad? Ye stayin' or comin' with me?"
Harry had had no doubts whatsoever. He loved the ever-nightly woods and often he wished to return there, seeking the faint magical hum and the serene beauty of Macalania, but the lure of journeying around the world, seeing amazing things and having adventures, was irresistible.
So he'd gone with O'aka. And oh, how wonderful it had been to explore this brand new, exciting world!
He'd also come to enjoy O'aka's weird way of taking care of him. The travelling merchant didn't order him about or insist on strict rules, but he took the time to show him and explain plants and fiends, foods and items as they met them and always made a point to stop at important historical or artistic places, so that Harry would learn about the history and customs of Spira: he was forever telling him a story or clarifying something they'd seen and was careful to warn him of the many dangers the world presented and teach him how to look after himself.
The thing that Harry was most grateful for, however, was that he'd given him brand new clothes.
The poor merchant had been dismayed when he'd inspected the boy's rags: "Yewh! Filthy, filthy!" he'd cried comically. "These won't sell or me name's not O'aka!" And that had been the end of Dudley's horrible cast-offs, because to Harry's delight, the man had burnt them on the spot.
Now Harry ran around in a cool outfit of a deep blue colour ("'Tis called cerulean, lad! Ladies love it, ye'll see!"): a pair of comfy trousers and a loose shirt, both made of a strange fabric, different from any Aunt Petunia had ever made him wash, soft and velvety but very sturdy, with many dyed leather strings crisscrossing over the shoulders and down the arms.
O'aka had given it to him along with strict instructions of "finding what ye'll need to personalize it on your own, lad." Harry hadn't been sure what he meant by it at first, but the more people he saw, the more he realized that most of them took great care in festooning little bits of weird stuff on their base clothes. Many people were also willing to tell him how they'd found or been given this or that ribbon or accessory and Harry had come to understand that their clothes represented their personal history and the friends they'd made in life. It was a fun way to make their look unique.
Little by little, he too had added to his outfit: now he had a belt of woven cord, several coloured bands of threads and yarn decorated his wrists and he wore a black hair-band he'd bartered for in Luca, with the fiery Gullwings emblem on it, to which he pinned or tied small coins, little shiny rocks, odd-looking bones or whatever struck his fancy.
He loved it.
The only thing left from his life 'before' were his battered glasses, but as he couldn't see much without, there wasn't anything he could do about it. At least a man they'd met on the road had taught him how to repair them with iron wire instead of the non-existent tape or wool threads, and then a pair of gloomy but skilled twins had shown him how to dye it with vinegar until the glasses turned brownish-orange. That way they looked suitably odd, at least!
The morning when they'd first set off, O'aka had wondered aloud where to take Harry first, pacing back and forth outside his brother's store while the boy bounced impatiently in place, and finally declared: "Listen to me, lad! Best place to start learning how to travel is the Calm Lands! Off we go!"
Thus they'd turned their steps to the bright green grassy plains, where the sky was always sunny blue and a soft clean breeze brushed the landscape stretching gently in every direction.
It hadn't taken long before they got lost – the plains looked about the same everywhere – but it hadn't mattered either. It was easy to find other travellers equally gone astray and everybody just chuckled together over it: "People always get lost here – good thing the place is so pleasant!"
And pleasant it was indeed.
Of course, O'aka hadn't wasted any time in branching off into a new business venture and in a matter of days, every meeting had turned into an attempt at hooking new customers: "O'aka XXIII, Merchant Extraordinaire, at your service! You wanna buy something? Maps, compasses, potions, gear, tents! Anything you need to cross the Calm Lands, I have it right here!"
But mostly they just enjoyed their time together and chatted about everything and anything, or even simply lay down on the fresh, sweet-scented grass, soaking up the sun.
That had led Harry to his first meeting with the chocobos – the most lovable creatures on all of Spira, in his opinion. A meeting that had taken the form of a sharp tug on his hair, one day while he was dozing off and contentedly watching the clouds chase each other in the cobalt blue sky, while O'aka snored nearby.
Feeling too comfortable to be annoyed at being bothered, he'd simply lifted his head from the bright green grass and then he'd blinked in astonishment at seeing a pair of sharp talons just beside him, above which a bright expanse of yellow feathers was bobbing, bowing a cute chick head to tug on his hair again.
"Oi," Harry had said amused, tugging back before waving his arm at the creature. "Just what are ye, birdie?"
To his surprise, the bird had answered, but unfortunately it had been just a strange "kweh" sound, at which Harry had burst out laughing: "Ye're too cute!"
The strange bird had seemed to like his laugh and had made the "kweh" sound again, then butted its great dark orange beak against his waving hand amicably.
Harry had laughed again: "Ye're a friendly fella, aren't ye?" he'd asked, without even noticing that he'd started to imitate O'aka's speech patterns.
The bird had warbled some more, and then cooed delightedly as he scratched the underside of its chin.
That had been the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
It had turned out (when O'aka had finally awoken enough to explain) that the bird was a chocobo and that they were pretty common. It was about as big as a horse and its wings were stunted – O'aka had made it clear that it could never fly, much to Harry's disappointment – but its well-developed legs allowed it to run almost as fast as the Road Runner in Dudley's cartoons, as Harry had discovered to his great delight.
There was nothing better than speeding along through the landscape of grassy fields at amazing speed, the wind rushing around him, exhilarated and free, feeling the blood sing in his veins.
Better still, when he was riding the chocobo none of the wild fiends attacked him – it seemed they steered clear of the bright yellow birds; and that meant that O'aka let him go off with his new friend often enough, to have fun and explore to his heart's content, as long as he was back with the merchant by sundown.
In fact, the man even managed to make the most of it: he was a Trader after all, from a line of Traders. As soon as he'd realized the potential in Harry's having a chocobo to rely on, he'd tasked him with finding stuff to sell!
"Tell ye what; everybody knows that Gysahl Greens are a chocobo's favorite food, so they's good at finding 'em, I reckon. And them's good for selling, ye know. Ye and yer yellow friend can go lookin' for them herbs and every time ye get some for me, I'll give you something of my inventory in exchange! That way ye can start yer own trade sooner or later! How's that?"
"Awesome!" had been Harry's excited response.
The chocobo (whom Harry had named Sky Runner because, as he'd explained to a bemused O'aka with unfailing logic, it was way more cool than Road Runner – not that the perplexed merchant had understood the reference) was surprisingly intelligent, flapping his stunted wings excitedly and warbling at Harry or head-butting him lightly to communicate. From time to time he let out another loud 'kweh!' and the boy had soon learned to interpret it as delight.
Harry for his part loved to wrap his arms around his new friend's head, digging his fingers into the soft feathers and scratching, breathing in his nice, warm smell. He was happy the chocobo had apparently decided to adopt him and barely left his side even when he walked rather than riding, only running a little ahead at times and then returning to head-butt him or demand a scratch before running ahead again.
His excited warbling kept him entertained and he took to answer as if the creature was actually talking to him. O'aka laughed himself silly every time, but Harry wasn't fazed.
Often while they travelled through the Calm Lands, collecting stuff for O'aka's trade or running around for the hell of it, they'd spotted other yellow birds who were idly clawing at the ground or eating the grass and in the end, in one of their wild runs, Harry and Sky Runner had happened upon Clasko's ranch.
Sky Runner had immediately started kwehing and warbling, to which several others chocobos in a pen had warbled and kwehed back in greeting, attracting the young man with bowl-cut dark hair and a somewhat uncomfortable air. He'd been very surprised at seeing the pair, but not unhappy, and while Sky Runner had stayed out and made friends with the other chocobos, Harry had been led through the caves where Clasko ran his chocobo breeding program and shown around with a mixture of pride and embarrassment.
Oblivious to his new acquaintance's discomfort, he'd bombarded the poor man with questions, enthralled by everything he'd seen.
Calsko had been rather shy at first, but eventually, as they'd been making their way back outside after Harry had cooed and aahed over the baby chocobos in the nests inside, he had found the courage to ask about the boy's chocobo friend: "He's tame, isn't he?"
Harry had been rather perplexed at the question: "Well, he's my friend."
"But how did he end up with you? Did someone give him to you? Is someone else breeding chocobo?" had asked Clasko, unable to hide his anxiety.
Harry had frowned, glancing over to where Sky Running was ducking out of the way of two other chocobos pursuing him and flapping his wings threateningly at them, even while warbling excitedly like it was just a game. Harry'd reflected that it probably was. "I don't know, sir. He found me out in the plains and just started following me. We have a lot of fun together," he'd told Clasko, a bit defensively.
The man had smiled faintly: "I do not doubt it. But… do you mean to say that a chocobo just up and started following you? What did you do - lure him with greens?"
Harry had perked up: "The Gysahl Greens, ye mean? I'm s'posed to find some. Do ye know where I could…?"
"I can give you some," had allowed Clasko. "But I would really like to know how you did it."
Harry'd shrugged, unsure how to explain: "It just sort of happened."
Clasko had goggled at him, floored, but eventually he'd shrugged: "Ah, well. Maybe he used to be tame at some point or something. Some of the chocobos of these plains are like that, anyway – they grow easily fond of humans, if you're lucky enough to befriend one."
Harry had smiled brightly.
"Still, if you're that good with wild chocobos, I was wondering… would you like to stay around and lend a hand? I could use some help here in the ranch!"
Harry's mouth had opened in shock at the proposal, but he'd soon started to bounce around excitedly: "Can I help taking care of the baby chocobos? Can I? Pleeaasee…!"
From then on, he'd taken to show up rather regularly at the Chocobo Ranch, getting Gysahl Greens as payment for his work – enthusiastically doing easy chores like mucking the stalls, feeding and watering the chocobos, and sometimes even assisting Clasko with applying meds when a bird got hurt – and learning tons in the meanwhile.
And not only about chocobos, either. Clasko wasn't as good a storyteller as O'aka, but Harry'd soon enough cajoled him into recounting his days as a Chocobo Knight over their shared meals.
"I didn't like it much there," had admitted Clasko after Harry had seemed disappointed that his friend was no longer one of the elite soldiers who mounted chocobos. "I spent much of my time being ordered around." He'd smiled faintly. "Even when we tried to join the Youth League, after the Eternal Calm started, nothing changed… my friends Lucil and Elma rose quickly to the positions of command but I just remained low in the ranks. I guess it wasn't for me…" He'd shrugged. "I never liked fighting either. Just did it because it seemed to be my duty, I guess."
"So how did you decide to start all this?" had asked Harry curiously.
"I suppose the idea came to me back in the days, even if I didn't feel confident that I'd ever manage. After Operation…" he'd chocked on the word, and Harry had felt uncomfortable, realizing that whatever he was thinking about, it was paining him. But Clasko had shaken his head determinedly: "Never mind; after a particularly bad moment in my life, most of our chocobos had died and I started thinking, wouldn't it be better to have tame chocobos ready instead of having to replace those we lost with wild ones and train them from scratch?"
He'd looked out in the distance for a while and then offered Harry his little, sad smile: "So in the end, I hunted down this place, got some help to free it from all the nesting fiends that had overrun it, and set up my Chocobo Ranch. At first I thought that maybe I could do a bit of both, raising chocobos and still helping out the Knights, but… I like this job so much that I just gave up on Lucil's corps altogether. I'm much happier now!"
"What happened to your friends from the Chocobo Knights?"
"Lucil's working hard with the Youth League. I don't know much of what they do, but I think it's what she's always wanted. Elma's been around a few times. She wants to reorganize the mounted Chocobo Knights… I've told her I'm not interested, but maybe I'll give her some of my birds… of course, I don't have any Destriers, only Coursers… but maybe, with some specific training they might be able to bear the weight of heavy armour and withstand the shock of cavalry charges… I wish I knew how they bred them back when the Chocobo Knights were active combat units!"
Predictably, it hadn't taken long for O'aka to find out what his young friend was doing when he went off on his own and how he got so much Gysahl Greens. Harry had excitedly told him all about the Chocobo Ranch as soon as the man had thought to ask.
To the boy's surprise, O'aka had looked less than pleased and pouted unhappily, demanding to be shown "this shrewd fella o' yers". He'd been rather rude to the poor former-Knight, too, when he'd finally met him, accusing a bewildered Clasko of all sorts of nefarious purposes for his "invading the lad's life".
Harry had been rather unsure what it was all about, until he'd realized that O'aka had been… jealous?
The concept had awed him. No-one had ever cared about having him around before! Just the opposite, in fact. Now Clasko needed him for the ranch and O'aka didn't want to lose him. How awesome was it?
On the heels of the happy insight had come the realization that two of his very first friends ever were at odds with each other and that had brought him a new apprehension. He didn't want that! And he didn't want it to be his fault!
So he'd whispered a suggestion into Clasko's ear that he just knew would win O'aka over and the young man, who had been floored at the hostility and unable to do more than babble at the belligerent vendor, had seized the advice gratefully: "Perhaps," he'd said a little awkwardly, "I could become an investor? My chocobos can be sent on errands to find treasures and other items, and then you could resell them, and just give me a percentage…"
Harry, who'd come to know O'aka pretty well, had giggled silently at his dumbfounded expression and counted in his mind: 'One, two…'
Before he'd reached 'three', O'aka had burst in exhilarated thanks, his ire nicely derailed: "Huh? You're really gonna give me gil? Well, ye aren't such a bad chap after all. Thank ye kindly! I'll be sure to pay ye back! Heh! Good idea this of usin' yer birdies. Now let's talk percentages…"
Once they'd worked out all the details of the new business, a much mellower O'aka had set the three of them down around Clasko's table to discuss Harry's situation: "The lad can't very well run back and forth from yer ranch if he's on the road with me, now can he?" he'd said reasonably. "'Specially since I'm leaving the Calm Lands in a couple weeks…"
Harry had been torn.
On the one hand, he'd come to like travelling with O'aka a lot. He was a lively, funny companion and he took care of Harry like no-one else ever had. Plus, journeying was great and the vendor had promised to show him all the wonders of Spira, which Harry couldn't wait to experience.
On the other hand, he loved chocobos. And it felt good to be needed. Clasko valued his help and it made him feel important. Not to mention, Sky Runner absolutely adored the ranch.
And on top of everything, Harry was still completely overwhelmed by the mere idea of someone wanting him around and he didn't want to make either of his friends sad. Not for anything!
But what to do?
In the end, they'd come to an agreement that had Harry bounce with joy. He'd stay with Clasko for a couple months, learning all about chocobos, then O'aka would drop by and take him around the world to some cool place, then he'd be back again for another two months at the ranch and then off again…
And Sky Runner would be able to stay with Clasko year-round, so Harry and O'aka could go visit places too cold or too crowded for the chocobo without worry!
It was perfect!
O'aka had left soon after with a merry: "I'll be back in six weeks. Call me if you need something, lad!"
Sky Runner had kweh-ed loudly and Harry had felt inclined to do the same…