A Song Winding Through the Branches
Author's Note: Tumblr got me yet again with a prompt. Que my Aerith muse poking her head up and taking interest in a way she usually doesn't. This falls in the Of Roads Not Taken past story-line verse.
Prompt: A soft wind drifted though the landscape, dancing through the muted trees. I closed my eyes as I stood among them, just barely able to make out the whispers of a sacred song around me.
(Aerith's POV)
Coming here, to the Lost City of her ancestors, Aerith cannot help but keep her eyes lowered. There is a hush over the land, one unlike anything she's ever encountered in the short amount of time she has been traveling. There's always been noise before, even in the dead of night with only Hyo awake and watching over AVALANCHE as a dark, silent guardian. Here, though, there is no birdsong. No small creatures skittering over the plains and through the long grass.
No snuffled breaths from sleeping companions. No sudden, sharp snores or mumbled phrases brought about by dreams. The quiet is all encompassing, pervasive and somewhat unnerving. Still, the young Cetra chooses to press on. She's here for a reason and she cannot stop here, not now. Not when so much hangs in the balance.
It's only as the last Ancient reaches the place where she knows she must go that a wind picks up and Aerith stops, tilting her head back as it dances through the trees. It tangles in her hair playfully, tugging at the bound strands. It whistles through the ruins and causes tattered cloths to flutter. And, underneath that -so faint as to nearly not be heard- is a sound that she almost misses. For a moment, Aerith holds her breath and then, just as she's about to give up, she hears it.
A song, one unlike any she's heard before. In a hushed cry, a multitude of voices blend together in harmony. Aerith gasps and her eyes fill with tears. She's never heard these voices before today, has never been close enough to try, but she knows that this sound is her people calling to her from beyond the world of the living. Comforting and calming her fears in the only way they can. She closes her eyes as the voices of those long past surge around her, the wind their medium.
Then, quietly, she hears one voice that -until now- she's only heard in dreams. It stands out in a way none of the other voices do and Aerith whispers, "Mama?"
Ending Author's Notes: Hope you all enjoyed this peek into the past with Aerith! It's short and it makes me sad because we all know that Aerith died in the original story line. More importantly, I can't find it in me to believe that her ancestors weren't with her in one way or another. How else would she have been able to leave the people she loved behind in order to die for them and the rest of the world?
But yeah...*sighs*