A/N: Hey, guys, guess what! I'M BACK! My apologies for taking so long to get this out. D: I've had a busy band trip to Washington D.C. and lots of crap to make up these past two weeks. But I've finally finished this week's chapter, and I've made sure to make it a little longer than last chapter! Oh, and Cloud and FFVII belong to Square Enix. Old Fart Jacob, the story, and the horses belong to me (although I'd much rather have Cloud than drunk old farts. :/)

Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Cloud awoke with a start. Groaning in pain, he sat up from where he lay, pressing a hand to his forehead. Sky blue eyes blinked open briefly before snapping shut against the bright light that shined deep into the dark pupils. He forced himself to open his eyes again and take in the scene around him. A brilliant white light shone on endlessly into the distance, causing his golden crown of spikes to gleam. A quick search with his sapphire orbs led him to realize there was no source for the pure light; it shone on of its own accord. He carefully patted the ground with a cautious hand and felt two different silks: soft and gritty. With a frown, he stared down at his hand. Fresh earth coated his palm and, as he looked down to where his hand had been, he spotted a few crushed petals.

He realized, with a start, that he was in an endless field of gold and white flowers.

Leaning over from where he sat in the dirt, Cloud grasped the stem of a nearby white flower and pulled it from the ground. After a brief bout of resistance, the flower came free of the dirt. A faint twinge of guilt tugged Cloud's gut, for some reason he didn't understand. He brought the small plant to his face and studied the silky petals. They seemed to shine with their own bioluminescence much like the white light around them. Tiny, fine hairs caught some of the pure light around them and glittered gold. Cloud admired their natural beauty for a few seconds, wondering if these flowers were real or just a figment of his imagination.

As he contemplated the flower, a sound drifted into his ear from his right. Startled, he looked up, trying to find a source. There was nothing to see but the flowers. Again, the sound whispered from his right, this time louder. It sounded like someone was crying out, but it was muffled, as if Cloud were underwater or had cotton stuffed in his ears. He listened for the sound again, straining to catch the meaning of the words. There they were again. He slowly rose to his feet from the flowers and slowly started making his way toward the sound. The closer he got, the less muffled it became, yet he still couldn't understand the words. But he was able to pick up a panicked tone in them. The more frantic they became, the faster he walked. It wasn't long before he was running towards the sound, an unfounded fear pounding through his body.

"What are you saying?" he called out towards the voice. Suddenly, it answered with perfect clarity. With that clarity, he felt his heart plunge with an adrenaline rush. A vision of chestnut hair and green eyes flashed in his mind's eye and a soft female voice echoed around him.

"Cloud! HELP ME!" the voice called in terror. His heart seemed to stop for a second before it started pounding again with renewed vigor. His feet slammed against the ground as he ran even faster towards the voice. He knew that voice, he knew who that belonged to! Wait, no he didn't! What was going on?

"Wait! Don't worry, I'm coming, _!" Cloud felt a cold chill wash over him. He had called out the name of the voice's owner. He knew her name, he knew it, yet when he called out nothing came from his mouth and when he tried to remember it nothing popped into his mind.

The voice gave a sudden pained gasp, and in his mind's eye, Cloud saw a flash of silver. No, it was two different silvers. One shone like metal while the other had the soft glint of… hair? Yet, with that flash, Cloud felt an incredible rage and hatred burst from his heart. A deep, masculine chuckle sounded from the same direction as the female voice.

"Cloud…" the female voice whispered. The gentle soprano was now rough and scratchy, from what, Cloud didn't know. The pain in it… Cloud felt a freezing hand of extreme grief and guilt wrap around his heart. It was so terrible, he felt as if his heart would stop and wither away to nothing. Tears leaked down his lightly freckled cheeks as he stopped running and came to a halt, bending over and putting his hands on his knees as sobs started wracking from his body.

"I'm so sorry," he gasped out. "I'm so sorry, _." Once again, the name gave no meaning to his mind. He collapsed into the flowers and started to sob into the silken earth.

"Cloud. Wake up."

He felt a hand gently shake his shoulder. With a small grunt he rolled away from the pressure and snuggled deeper into the earth under his head. Whoever it was, he wanted them to leave him alone. Couldn't they see what had just happened? She was dead, and it was his fault. What?

"Hey, Cloud," a different voice whispered next to his ear.

What? What do you want? he thought groggily. He heard a faint mischievous chuckle.

"WAKE UP!" the voice bellowed in his ear. With a startled gasp he sat up quickly, banging his head against something hard. His grunt of pain was mirrored by the voice that had just blasted out his eardrums. Rubbing his hand against his forehead, he became aware of other aches not just on the surface of his skull, but deep inside as well. His eyes slowly opened, taking in the dim light around him.

What? Where… am I? he wondered. A quick inspection around him revealed he was home. He looked down and realized he was in his bed, his humble bed sheets covering the lower half of his body. The "earth" had been his worn out pillow. Looking up, he spotted his mother sitting on a chair to his right, clear relief on her face. On his left was a put out looking Zack who rubbed his forehead; presumably where his and Cloud's skulls had connected.

"It's good to see you awake, sweetheart," his mother murmured as she gave him a warm hug.

"What happened?" asked Cloud. He couldn't remember anything from earlier.

Zack spoke up, "You got in a scuffle with those drunk bastards and gave them a run for their money, but you got a good knock or two in the head before they backed down. You were coming back to the sales stall when you just collapsed at my feet. We brought you home and now Doc says you got a concussion." He gave Cloud a strange look. "And, are you feeling alright buddy? You were crying in your sleep and acting pretty distressed, so we woke you up."

Cloud remembered the dream and his tears. Had they been real? He thought they were just part of the dream. He carefully lifted a hand to his face and his fingers came away damp. He could feel the salt starting to stiffen on his skin. A quick wipe with his sleeve and the tears disappeared.

"I'm fine," he answered quietly. "It was just a dream." Zack didn't look convinced, but decided not to pursue the subject anymore.

"So, aside from the obvious concussion, how are ya feelin'?" Zack asked cheerily as he plastered a quick smile on his face. Cloud just gave his friend a long explaining look to which Zack gave a quick laugh. "I figured as much. I gotta say, you really whaled away on those punks. It was really entertaining to watch those sorry mutts scramble off with their tails between their legs," he smiled at the memory. Mrs. Strife didn't look as amused by the retelling as Zack, though.

"You're lucky, Cloud. That could have turned out much worse than it did," she murmured to her son, who looked away, hiding his face behind his long blond bangs. "Zack has told me what happened, but still, you know better than to pick fights. I've raised you better than that." Cloud didn't answer, but rather kept his face hidden. After a few moments of silence, Mrs. Strife stood up and faced Zack.

"I think you can go home now, Zack. I'll take care of things from here."

"Okay, Mrs. Strife. I can come in and check on him later though, right?"

"Of course, dear," Mrs. Strife said with a small smile. "You know you can visit whenever you want."

As soon as Zack left the room, shutting the door behind him, Mrs. Strife turned to her son who still sat silently staring at his hands. She gave a sigh and walked over to his bed, sitting down once again in the chair next to him. She studied his face carefully, looking into the eyes that were exact copies of hers. She pursed her lips as she realized he was developing an ugly black eye. She then raised her hand and placed it lightly on his bruising forehead. Cloud just looked away from her and out the single window in his bedroom. The sunset was not very impressive today; storm clouds had been blowing in during the evening and were now covering the sun. Said clouds were also floating surprisingly low; they hid the very peaks of the highest mountains around Nibelheim. Cloud's mother gave a small sigh and leaned over, stroking her fingers through her son's hair. He gave a sigh himself and leaned into the familiar and comforting touch.

The two sat together for a little over an hour, simply relaxing and enjoying each other's presence. But finally, Mrs. Strife rose to her feet again and headed to the door of the tiny bedroom. Before stepping through the doorway, she turned and said, "I'm going to go get Doc so she can check on you again. I'll only be gone a little while. Will you be alright?"

Cloud looked up at her and gave one of his tiny smiles. "I'll be fine, Ma. I can take care of myself."

His mother returned the small smile and shut the door quietly. Cloud gave a small yawn and settled himself down into the covers of his bed, trying to contemplate what had caused his dream.

Cloud woke up again a few hours later. The storm clouds had moved off from the Nibel Mountain Range. Moonlight was streaming through the window, reflecting off the curtains and floor, giving the room a dark silver look. Cloud shuddered as he was reminded of his dream. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, waiting a second as the blood rushed out of his head.

Ow, damn, he thought to himself as the pain of his headache doubled from what it had been a moment before. He was struck with a sudden thirst, so he made his way into the kitchen where he pulled out a glass from one of the old cupboards. He stuck the cup under the facet and turned on the water. Turning off the water when his cup was filled, he took a long deep drink while looking around the house.

Hmm. Looks like Ma isn't back yet, he noticed. I wonder what she's doing.

His vision felt a bit impaired as he looked around. With a frown, he wondered if he had a black eye. It wouldn't be the first time he'd received one.

I got in lots of fights as a young kid. The other children would always poke fun at my hair since it was naturally spiky and so bright. One day I had enough and took down one of the boys who kept antagonizing me. That started a long period in my childhood that involved blood, tears, and scraped knuckles. It only got worse as us kids became teenagers.

His thoughts were interrupted by a few banging noises outside. Confused, he made his way to the kitchen window above the sink and looked out. Why were the barn doors open? It wasn't really that windy outside, was it? A bad feeling clenched Cloud's gut. He went over to the door and slid his feet into his boots. Quietly, he opened the door and padded out to the barn, his hunter's experience allowing him to glide silently to the open doors. He walked up and kept to the side of the barn, keeping out of sight in case there was a person in the barn. His ears picked up sound from inside the barn. Faint whispers and chuckles were drifting to him from somewhere inside.

Who is it? Cloud thought in distress. His hand gravitated to his belt to grab… nothing. Darn it! he thought angrily. He had left his hunting knife in the forest from his hunting expedition the other day. He had no weapons for defense in case the people inside were aggressive. He inched to the doors and peeked into the stable. Four men were huddled around the entrance to one of the stalls. As Cloud watched, a fifth emerged from the stall with a familiar dove white mare, a crude rope halter and lead placed on her head.

NO! What are they doing? They can't take her! Cloud thought with panic. And you can't take them, Cloud, a voice in his conscience whispered. You'll only get your skinny butt kicked all the way to the Capitol! But Cloud threw his rational thoughts to the wind and jumped into the barn, charging the thieves. As he rushed through the aisle, he grabbed a pitchfork leaning on the wall as he blew by. Before they could even react, three of the men were down in a matter of seconds, one with a large lump to his head and the other two rolling on the ground clutching their stomachs from having the handle of a pitchfork shoved into them.

As Cloud darted between the men, he started to recognize faces. It wasn't until he was about to attack the man holding his mare that he truly understood who these people were.

They're the goons from this afternoon! He glared angrily at the man holding his mare. It was Old Fart Jacob. The drunken man from that afternoon was not so drunk this time. His eyes met Cloud's glare with equal anger and something else: vengeance.

"You made a fool out of me earlier today, punk. I think I can take this for compensation," Old Fart Jacob snarled. Before Cloud could reply, the one goon he'd missed grabbed him from behind. As he struggled, Jacob slammed his knee deep into Cloud's stomach, leaving the teenager coughing. The thief tugged on the rope and ran out of the barn, the dove white mare pulling against the rope but following all same. Having recovered, the other goons rushed out after their leader but not before each giving Cloud a good fist to the head. The blonde was finally released by the final goon as he darted out the door after his group. Cloud hit the floor on his hands and knees before immediately struggling to his feet.

"Hey, wait!" he called after the goons. He stumbled to the barn entrance, grasping the wall for support with one hand while the other pressed against his already bruised head. As he reached the doors, he spotted the group of thieves mounting steeds hidden in the forest across the road to Cloud's home.

Oh Goddess, no… Cloud started sprinting towards them. If he didn't catch them soon, he'd lose his mare forever! As the last goon mounted his horse, Cloud redoubled his speed, his legs pounding into the ground as he ran as fast he could to the goons. But, they were all mounted now, and before Cloud was within a hundred feet they hid their spurs in the horses' sides and dashed off, leaving the teenager in the dust.

Cloud yelled several profanities in their direction before darting back to the barn. He rushed up the ladder to the loft and threw down a bridle, saddle, and blanket. He leaped down to ground level, grunting in pain as his landing jarred his legs before dashing into one of the stalls. A couple minutes later, a dark mahogany shape galloped out of the barn in the direction the thieves had gone. Cloud urged Nabi into an even faster gallop and the two disappeared down the road, melting into the night.