Chapter 3: Parting
Slowly and poetically, he emerged from the wreath of mist.
Corduroy sherpa jacket and coal black jeans. Hair wet and tousled from the morning drizzle. Without his gunblade, he could have passed as any ordinary man.
But Quistis knew that he was far from ordinary. In fact, he was so extraordinary that his life was practically cursed.
Was that why Seifer Almasy was hiding away in these mountains…?
He stared at her in a way that radiated both curiosity and mistrust.
She stared back at him, tongue stuck to her palate.
Honey dipped her slender head toward Seifer.
He took a moment to scratch the horse's neck as she neighed a joyful tune.
Here was Honey's original master, and he was even in the wild, where the horse truly belonged. How could Quistis possibly take Honey back to Garden now? Ultimately, the horse was never hers to begin with. The time was nigh for Quistis and Honey to part ways.
She respectfully stood at her spot. If she came any closer, it would feel wrong, as if she was trying to win back the horse's heart. This was certainly not her intention at this point.
She observed their beautiful reunion with a wistful smile.
There was an adoration in his eyes and a tenderness to his touch that she had never seen before.
Her brain told her this was true. Her heart told her she was wrong.
Quistis again traveled back to that morning at the stables. His back had been turned to her. He had unceremoniously told her to leave him alone. But she had been so focused on her mission to talk to him that she couldn't recall much else.
Seifer suddenly turned away from the horse and looked straight at Quistis.
Something about his gaze made her remember. Seifer had been brushing Honey's mane that day. Though his hackles had been raised in Quistis' presence, the strokes of the hair brush had remained impossibly gentle!
Tell me I'm not a monster…
The heartbreaking way he had murmured these troubling words to her in the disciplinary room, as if he somehow knew that he would be doomed to a life of notoriety!
Present-day Seifer raised his hand in a grand farewell.
Quistis reluctantly mirrored his goodbye and turned around to go.
This happy day for Honey was a sad day for Quistis. The sadness crashed into her, wave after wave, as she walked away from the animal she had grown to love. She trudged through the seemingly endless stretch of bosky fields, back to the home that would no longer feel like a home without her trusty companion.
Just when she could see Garden in the distance, the ground beneath her began to shake. Her hand reflexively snapped to her whip as she spun around to scan the landscape for threats.
A white horse was galloping toward her at an incredible speed. With wide-eyed surprise, Quistis watched as the horse intercepted her path with a mighty snort.
She tried to move around the horse but it cut her off again with an urgent stomp.
Belatedly, she noticed that the horse was tacked up with everything she needed for a ride.
Upon closer inspection, a note was taped to the leather saddle. She immediately recognized Seifer's handwriting:
Trepe, I wasn't waving goodbye.