Oof, I'm so very sorry. I was really tired yesterday and pretty much fell asleep right after getting home. I was hoping to wake up a little earlier, but nothing I can do about that now.

But since I'm having the chance right now, I might as well address a little something. Don't worry, nothing bad. I managed to do a little bit of thinking and reflecting over the holidays and I just wanted to thank you. I feel like I don't do that enough and now that I actually had a small encounter with one of you guys in the game (sorry, I was gposing at the time and only noticed when I was done) I want to make for that.

When I started writing this story, I simply wanted to make up for the severe lack of fics for the WoL/Y'shtola ship. Back then I barely made it to Stormblood so you could say I just scratched the surface of it all and truly started to care about the cast and characters. And now this story is in Endwalker, how crazy is that? Certainly nothing I did ever envision when I started to type down those first words. And what a journey it's been, in the game as well as this fic. And twice the emotional rollercoaster too.

I know it's not perfect, nothing is, and I'm sure I could have done many things better. And I'm sure I'll continue to stumble along the way as I'm working to bringing this tale to a close, too. But it's mine, and I'll stand by it, flaws and all.

So..thank you. For sticking by until this point and, hopefully, beyond. If this story managed to give you all even a modicum of entertaiment then I'm happy. Because that's all I ever hoped it would.

Great, now I'm getting all emotional, so how about we rather continue this journey instead?

Hydaelyn's Little Helpers

And thus, Zodiark was no more. Not by your hand, but rather by His own, guided by Fandaniel upon His defeat. As it turned out, it was all but a ploy to truly unleash the Final Days upon the world.

Well played, Fandaniel, well played.

Unable to do anything else, you returned with the Watcher and met up with some of your friends at his abode. There, he told you of the true nature of Zodiark's summoning and, now that he was gone, the fragile weave that kept the planet safe would soon be no more. But, as it turned out, Hydaelyn had made plans for exactly such a scenario. For the very moon upon which you stood served not only as a prison, but as an ark as well.

And as we all know, a ship required a crew to man it.

Zodiark was gone. Not too long ago, she might have rejoiced at that fact, but that was before she had known about the true nature of His existence, and the sacrifice it had demanded. Now, as she watched the last remains of His existence ascend from within his former presence in thin streams of aetheric energy, gently swirling round one another as if to dance one last time before dissipating into red, mist-like particles, there was nothing more than a bitter taste inside her mouth.

Tearing away her eyes from the sight, she instead looked towards the planet, watching its giant, blue form slowly spin in the vastness of space. It was a beautiful sight. And as she released a deep breath, S'eni let its calmness wash over her.

...Then the pain came. Sharp and twisting, like a hot knife bathed in Ifrit's fire plunging into her brain. The intensity almost knocked her off her feet and her vision began to turn a blurry red.

"Aeons of impatience..." she heard a voice speak in the furthest reaches of her mind, sending a cold chill down her spine. "...have finally come to an end."

With horror, she watched as dark stains began to form on the planet's surface, seemingly tiny at first glance, but in truth the size of a country. More and more of these stains appeared, spreading out like cancerous growth. In a matter of seconds, the entire globe was covered, leaving nothing behind...

Nothing, but ash...

"...Eni!"

S'eni jumped a little and blinked rapidly. Her head snapped to the left, where she was met by questioning, silvery-white eyes. "Y-Yeah?" she asked.

"I just said that a malefic aether is still emanating from the crater," Y'shtola replied, a frown marring her features. "Is everything alright?"

"I—" she turned back to where their planet was idly doing its rotations, looking normal as can be. "—Sorry, I just got lost in thought there for a second."

That vision from earlier still haunted her. The Echo had granted her many visions in the past, but never like this. No, this one had been something completely different; a premonition of things to come. And what was that voice...?

S'eni shook her head and returned her attention back to Y'shtola, giving her an apologetic smile, which turned into a little grin at the odd sight of her lover seated atop a gold-glowing dog that carried her through the air. Not that she was looking any less odd right now, sitting one of her own as well. As it turned out, her new canine friend, going by the name of Argos, had quite a few tricks up his sleeve.

Petting Argos' long neck, she nodded down to the crater below. "Think it's some remnant of Zodiark?"

The other Miqo'te looked at her with obvious concern for a few more seconds, before sighing and turning to look down as well. "Yes. I suppose it should not be surprising. Even in His fractured state, He was still incredibly powerful."

"Sure was..." she murmured. It made the curious part of her wonder just how powerful Zodiark must have been at the height of His power. Zenos, for his part, seemed less than impressed.

"The old god was a disappointment...it will need more...true despair, perhaps?" he had said before taking his leave again. But there was no doubt in her mind that she would soon see him again. S'eni rolled her eyes. Single-minded bastard!

Not wishing to think of the wayward crown prince longer than she needed to, she looked out into the distance. "It's funny," she said after a few moments.

"What is?"

"The truth about the moon. I've been watching it at night for so long, never once realizing what its true purpose was." And even then, it being a ship to traverse the vastness of space was certainly not on her list of things she would attribute the moon with.

"Ever since our time on the First it has been a string of one revelation after the other," Y'shtola said. "It's proven that even now we still know very little about our world."

"You sound excited," she noted and watched as her lover's lips quirk upward.

"Can you blame me?"

"No." S'eni chuckled. "I suppose not."

Y'shtola looked out towards the planet. "Just take its name for example. We've always ever called it 'Hydaelyn' because of Her status as the will of the star. Now we know its actual name..."

"...Etheirys," she finished. The Watcher had told it to them while he explained the events of the Final Days during the time of the Ancients. It was a beautiful, quite fitting name, she had to admit.

A sudden shift from Argos made S'eni look down at the dog, then up ahead, where their current destination, a gargantuan structure, was growing with every passing second. "Heads up. We're almost there," she said.

"Yes," Y'shtola agreed. "Just a little further."

Soon enough, they landed on a pathway not far from the building, situated at the end of a small canyon carved into the surface. As she disembarked Argos, S'eni looked up at it and a whistle escaped her at the sheer size of it. It dwarfed even the Watcher's domicile, which had already been quite reminiscent of Amaurot. A quick glance over to Y'shtola told her she must be thinking the same thing. After a while of waiting, the two of them were joined by Urianger and Thancred, each atop their own reflection of Argos.

"Apologies for the wait," Thancred said while getting off his canine mount.

"Since we are now all here, let's head inside and...oh?" Y'shtola made to turn around but stopped. Following her gaze, S'eni saw the Argos reflections disappear one by one until only the main one remained.

"Most intriguing. A means by which he conserveth energy, mayhap?" Urianger wondered aloud.

Thancred did a little shrug. "Well, I certainly wouldn't want him to blink out of existence on our account."

With a smile, S'eni walked over to him and gently stroked his muzzle. "Thank you, Argos. We'll from here."

The four of them then made their way down the path towards the giant doors waiting for them. As soon as they stepped close enough, they opened for them, and she could immediately tell from the lack of aching metal how well maintained the mechanism must be even after all this time this place existed. The inside, too, gave no indication as to how old it truly was. This crew the Watcher spoke of must be impressive indeed!

They stopped near two sets of stairs leading down and looked out to the hall below. The first thing she noticed was the giant Aetheryte in the center, spinning idly as if it was simply waiting for anyone to come by and attune themselves to it. As she shifted her gaze a little, though, she noticed various dome-like structures spread out throughout the area. But no sign of any crew...

"Everything's quiet," Thancred said while looking around as well. "I wonder where those people the Watcher told us about could be."

Suddenly, a light began to glow above one of the structures, followed by the sound of something activating and opening. A few seconds passed, before a person emerged from it with a jump, landing gracefully on the ground and walking away. That, by itself, wasn't too strange. What was strange was that the person was quite tiny...

...and looked like a bunny!?

Another one stepped out of the structure, and another. The same was happening with the other ones too, and soon there was a whole company of tiny, bunny-like people running about. A dumbfounded look formed on her face.

"You're seeing this too, right?" she managed to ask.

"I believe we all do," Y'shtola replied.

"Good. For a moment I thought I might have gotten a few too many hits to the head..." Were these the crew?

They watched the bunny people together like at an early morning drill, while another stood on a platform above them. This one seemed to be the leader of the bunch and began to give a rousing speech about, now that Zodiark was no more, that they were to move into the next phase of the plan and for everyone to man their stations. A loud cheer followed and they all began to scatter about.

"'Tis a rather curious crew She hath chosen," Urianger said. "Their endearing forms intended to ease the passengers' hearts, perhaps."

"Perhaps..." Thancred said, sounding not at all convinced of the notion, and the doubtful look Y'shtola shot the Elezen very much mirrored it as well.

"Well, I guess we'd best go down and meet them." S'eni shrugged and headed for one of the stairs, the others falling in step with her.

"They must be the Loporrits mentioned in the Watcher's records. Not at all what I expected..." Thancred rubbed his chin.

"Yeah, can't say I imagined them this...cute," she said, stepping to the side a little as two of them came rushing up the stairs, paying their group surprisingly little mind.

"They certainly seem amicable enough," Y'shtola commented, her gaze following the Loporrits for a second. "Not at all shocked to see us either..."

"I'm assuming the one that gave the rousing speech was their leader, though we might have to ask around just to be sure," Thancred said. "Her fur was brown, I believe. Might make it easier to spot her among all of them."

After reaching the bottom of the stairs, they split up in search of this supposed leader. The first one she approached was quite a chipper fellow that hummed to himself, calling himself Singingway, but he wasn't the leader. Neither was the one about to doze off, fittingly named Sleepingway. She was beginning to sense a pattern here.

Eventually though, she found one that matched Thancred's admittedly sparse description, who also seemed much more surprised at her arrival.

"Wh-What!? How did you—When did you get here?" the Loporrit asked, round eyes growing wide. "Who let you in? Why wasn't I told!?"

"I take it that means you were the one that was giving orders earlier?" S'eni asked right back, unable to hide her amusement as she watched the small woman looking about frantically.

"Me?" the Loporrit stopped and, after realizing how she must be looking right now, cleared her throat. "Yes, of course! As the only one around here capable of doing anything properly, it falls to me to take charge of the others."

"Well, well. Looks like you beat us here." Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted Thancred, Y'shtola and Urianger coming towards them.

"Your friends, I take it?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

When the three of them had joined her, the Loporrit woman let her gaze wander over each of them and began pacing down while talking to herself.

"A group comprised solely of children? What must their parents be thinking? This isn't a nursery, after all. Though perhaps we should build one. Or did we build one already?" S'eni watched her scratch herself behind a large ear, before turning back towards them with a large smile. "No matter. You needn't worry your pretty little heads. All will be well, I promise."

The four of them exchanged a look. Did she just...?

"But goodness me, we shouldn't be standing about gawping. I must take you to meet the others," the Loporrit said and pointed behind them to the set of stairs. "If you head back to the entrance, you'll find a path that leads to the central platform on the upper floor. You can't miss it. It's the large, glowing ball at the center. I shall gather the others and meet you there."

Without even letting them reply, she ran off, leaving them to stare after her until she was gone from sight.

"Back to the upper floors, I suppose," Thancred said after a brief moment of silence.

Making their way back up, they followed the woman's description and soon arrived at the central platform. Their host was already waiting for them together with another Loporrit. "Ah, there you are. Let us introduce ourselves to our guests, then," she said and cleared her throat. "Welcome to the moon. I'm called Livingway. We Loporrit were created to serve as the crew of this ark and to accompany the people of Etheirys on their fascinating journey through the sea of stars. Or, simply put, we are to make sure that Hydaelyn's plan goes off without a hitch and serve as the goddess' right paw...uh, right hand, I mean."

"Mappingway. I'm the navigator of the ark," the other Loporrit introduced himself. "Welcome."

Definitely a pattern, S'eni thought.

"Uhm, a pleasure to meet you all, but...I'm still trying to make sense of all..." Thancred looked around. "...this."

"I understand your confusion completely. But that's alright. I have a vague idea of why you are here," Livingway said. "Let me guess: something went out of control, Zodiark is destroyed and now Etheirys is in danger. A danger so grave that the inhabitants are unable to stop it."

"That...sums it up rather well," S'eni said.

Livingway nodded sagely. "And now they have sent you four children because we know how things work."

Turning her head, she shared a quick look with Thancred. So she didn't mishear earlier. They really thought the four of them were kids. She was suddenly very reminded of the shades in Emet-Selch's replicated Amaurot thinking they were nothing more than children either.

"Don't you worry, auntie Livingway is going to explain it to you." The Loporrit leader touched a panel behind her and a projection of the planet and the moon appeared above their heads. "These are Etheirys and the moon. Now that Zodiark is gone, the barrier protecting the planet will grow weaker with time. As a result of that, an apocalyptic calamity will soon strike Etheirys and destroy all life on the star."

A sudden shiver made its way down S'eni's spine when the projection of Etheirys turned a deep black for a visual explanation, reminding her a little too much of her earlier vision.

"So too hath the Watcher claimed," Urianger said to that. "By thine unperturbes countenance, I gather this eventually was anticipated?"

"The doom and gloom? Yes, quite anticipated' Livingway confirmed. "Etheirys is now like a harvested carrot. One that has been forgotten in the scorching sun...no matter what one does, it will wither and die. No praying any begging will stop it from rotting to the core. There is no other than to say goodbye to the carrot, Etheirys, and leave the planet as quickly as possible."

"And for that the moon serves...as our vessel?" Y'shtola asked.

"Correct. The journey can begin as soon as we have gathered as many people, resources, and supplies as possible on the moon. Our goal is to leave Etheirys behind us and find another planet to serve as your new home." The moon on the projection began to circle around the planet and shoot off into the vastness of space. "The distance between the stars is enormous, but we have spent many years creating the most propulsive of propulsion systems for our ark! It will turn a journey that would take generations into the tiniest of hops!"

"Amazing." Y'shtola's eyes widened at those words. "It must be a technology well beyond our comprehension then."

"The technology itself was not invented by us. The fundamental theories and required knowledge was given to us by Hydaelyn. Before She became a goddess, She was called Venat, and she studied the nature and structure of our world," Livingway explained. "The one called 'Watcher' was one of her colleagues in that particular field. Based on their acquired knowledge, they created us and the moon."

"You certainly know what you're talking about, that much is clear. But tell me, do you already have a destination in mind?" Thancred asked.

"We have a list of candidates, but even with planets, things are constantly changing," Mappingway replied, rubbing his tiny chin. "Furthermore, we can only travel in short bursts. So it could be a good while until we find a new home for you."

"We have made presentations for that, of course. The moon offers suitable quarters for all our guests," Livingway added. "With the information our collaborators on the planet have sent us, we were able to create the perfect biospheres. We're very proud of that!"

Thancred's eyebrow rose. "Collaborators?"

"Well you, of course! You are the ones that provide us with the newest reports about animals and plants whenever we are awake...right?" Something seemed to dawn on the Loporrit then and she cupped one of her round cheeks. "Ah, I'm sorry. I forgot for a moment that you're still children. Of course, you wouldn't know anything about this..."

"I believe you're quite mistaken there. We're as grown up as can be," Thancred said and crossed his arms in front of his chest. "And neither are we your collaborators."

"Huh? But...what are you doing here, then?"

"The Watcher sent us here. We are to cooperate with you and heed your counsel," S'eni said.

"W-Wait that means you're here on Hydaelyn's orders." The small woman blinked once, twice, then covered her face as if to hide a blush. "Oh. T-That is so embarrassing. But how can that be? You all look so tiny!"

"Well, we might not be as tall as the Ancients,' Y'shtola said. "But I assure you we are fully grown by our standards."

"Hm. Sure are," S'eni murmured and sent Y'shtola a tiny smirk, causing the other Miqo'te's lips to twitch upward for a fraction of a second.

"Then...you don't become as tall as the Watcher?" reaching behind her, Livingway pulled out a book and began to turn some pages within it. "Nothing in our notes mentioned that the people have become so small. I'd bet my paw on it!"

"That tome in thy possession..." Urianger furrowed his brows.

"This? It's one of the first handbooks our collaborators sent us! It contains information on the people of Etheirys, and a few empty pages to leave our own footnotes. Everything we learned about our guests-to-be is gathered inside..." Livingway trailed off and looked up from the pages towards them, then back to the book, and back up again. "Oh no! We always thought the book was aimed at our size...but you aren't..."

A collective nod.

Livingway's already wide eyes grew even larger as the realization struck her like a Chocobo's kick. The book in her tiny hands slowly slipped out of them, landing on the ground with a thud. Her mouth opened, only to release a long, drawn-out "Aaaaaaahhhhhh!" The four of them, together with Mappingway, could only watch as she began to run on panicked circles, her long ears trailing comically behind her as she did so, before slapping the control panel once more, summoning forth the image of another Loporrit.

"Buildingway!? Yes it's me...Change of plans! You need to rebuild all the domiciles to one-third of the size, got it!?" a longer pause as the one on the other end seemed to ask something. "Yes, everything. Everything! The burrow is burning! We've got no time to waste! Get to it!"

"What can you tell us about these 'collaborators' you've mentioned?" Thancred asked after Livingway ended the call.

"Later! Right now you need to tell me everything about yourself. Every detail. How you live, what you eat, habits, customs, toothbrush size...everything!"

S'eni shared a look with Y'shtola, who placed a hand on her hip and released a sigh. "I wonder what other delightful misconceptions they hold. "

She turned her eyes back towards Livingway, who was biting down on one of her nails to quell the resurfacing panic, and took a deep breath. This...was definitely not what she had expected. As she exhaled again, two words accompanied the air leaving her lungs.

"...Hoo boy."

Hoo boy, indeed...