CHAPTER- 3

Dreamer

"Once upon a time, there was a big, bad dragon by the name of Old Alfonso the Dark-"

"Oi, I didn't agree to be a dragon, only a villain."

"Are you the narrator, or am I? Anyways, this dragon was very evil. He would regularly rob candies from innocent children, make babies and cry and do all kinds of bad things."

Alfy's mouth gaped a little wider after every accusation. He was about to interrupt, But Allard continued. "So, to punish him for his evil deeds, King Callas of the kingdom of Poisson-" Uncle Callas nodded imperiously"- sent the hero Navia of Poisson to defeat the dragon, and banish him from these lands."

Navia laughed. "Beware, foul dragon! Your end has come! My gunbrella will remove your darkness from this world, and send it to the abyss."

Alfy's surprise had long left his face, replaced by a blank look she wasn't sure she'd seen on any face except her mother's. He took a deep breath, and sighed. He said in monotone, " Rawr. I am Old Alfonso the Dark. Naive Hero, you cannot defeat me. How can the light of your 'gunbrella' compare to the darkness of my evil, candy-stealing, baby-scaring crimes?''

She couldn't help it. She started giggling. Alfy's sarcasm reminded her of her guardian, which shouldn't make her laugh, but it did anyway. When she looked at the group again, they were all smiling with their teeth showing. "Clori laughed, Clori laughed!" Allard echoed, and Navia came over to hug her.

They all gathered around her, and Allard thumped Alfy on the back. Alfy was somehow grinning like a loon and smirking at Navia at the same time. Money changed hands- had they bet on who would make her smile first?

Clorinde did not wish for things often, but tonight she had one, and only one wish. She wished that she and all her friends always stuck together, no matter what.

Xxxx

Alfonso did not come to Poisson frequently nowadays, but today he had come to the unassuming tree near the shoreline, between ten or so graves, to visit Marie's grave.

He sat there for a while, utterly lost on what to do. What did people even do when visiting graves? Let out there feelings, hoping the corpse six feet below would somehow listen? Hope a hopeless hope that they would somehow know?

She wasn't even there. No corpses were left to bury that day, except her clothes. What remained was nothing but lines and lines of mass graves, empty graves, with just a headstone to tell them apart.

All of Marie- the way her eyes crinkled when she smiled, how well she would bake for him whenever he came home after a long day- reduced to piece of hewn stone nobody but him and a few others would ever see.

A hand fell on his shoulder. He did not turn to look back, knowing it was Navia. She too, spent too much time standing by the two empty graves beside her father's below the marrow tree. He wished he could tell her how stupid that act seemed to him, but wasn't he doing the same thing?

Idly, he wondered if he should say something.

" Hello Alfy, are you visiting Marie?"

He decided against it, but still shifted a bit to the side to allow her some space to sit. She sat down at his side, and propped up her umbrella against the tree.

There was silence under the tree for the next minute or so. This was the first time he met Navia since that day, and he had many things to say then, but none came to him now. Right now, he just wanted the Marie sitting atop her headstone to stop existing.

Navia followed his gaze, and sighed.

"I see them sometimes too."

"What do you mean? I can't see anything."

Navia gave him a look, and he crumbled instantly. He took a deep breath, and looked away from her. "I do too. I see her here and there, sometimes in the house near her clothes, or by the door next to my coat. She's always smiling, but she doesn't whenever I leave the house."

He turned his gaze to the sky. "Sometimes, I just wish her gone, you know? If I can't see the real her, why is my mind giving me a fake Marie?"

He struggled to continue. "But then she's so similar to how she really was, that I just can't look away from her. I want her gone, but then I want her to stay too. It's li-, never mind, I think I am just going crazy."

He turned to look at Navia, and saw that she was staring into the sunset. Was she even listening to him?

"When Dad died, I had had a fight with him just a day before. I can't even remember what stupid shit the fight was about now. I had come back with cakes to the mansion just to see Anna the maid crying.

It had been a tough few months, and I'd see him damn everywhere. Telling me to be the 'Hero' that saves the world."

Uncle Callas's death had hit all of them hard, very hard. Even Allard, the ever- forgiving glue of the group, had snapped at Clori, and refused to talk to her even now. Uncle Callas had been, in a way, the father all the children in their group never had. Turns out, he died due to the damn Seawater too.

Navia had a lost look in her eyes. The Hero, huh? Long live the king, but the king was dead.

" He was in front of every child that was crying, every woman grieving, and every soldier in pain. I couldn't understand why it was that I kept seeing him everywhere. It was when I started helping them out that I finally understood."

Slowly, he started seeing the previous Navia return. The one that wanted to save the world. He saw how strength returned to her voice, and light filled her eyes.

"Death is not truly the end. As long as your wishes, your ideals and your name persist in this world, you will not truly die. Dad wanted to help people, and as long as someone in the world keeps helps someone somewhere, he too, will not die."

She put an arm over his shoulders, and pulled him into her side. "That is why I must keep on keeping on, no matter what. That is why the Hero must keep helping people, you know? Even though it is childish, and it most probably won't happen, I want to save everyone in Fontaine. Then everyone in Fontaine will remember that Navia, daughter of Callas, had helped save people in Fontaine. Everyone would be happy, and Dad's name too will not be forgotten."

Navia laid her head on his shoulder. Alfonso blinked the tears away from his eyes. It would not do to cry in front of Navia- if he did, she would cry harder than him. He could not lie- her wish was insane. Save everyone in Fontaine? From a flood? Not even the Archon could do that. Let it not be said that there was a single person in the world more optimistic than Navia.

However, as he turned back to the headstone, Marie was gone, replaced by a dandelion that had blown in with the wind.

He heard Navia hum something. She had tried to be quiet, but he was so close, that he could hear everything. He vaguely remembered it being something from school. He let his eyes close, and leaned his back against the tree.

"Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there.

I did not die."

xxxx

Alfonso was in a rather irritating situation.

"Come on, I never see you outside your house doing anything other than your job! A little stroll won't kill you, you know? All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

"No."

Sarah had been pestering him to leave his house for the last ten minutes, and it was getting harder to deny her without reason. Sarah could be surprisingly logical sometimes.

"It's just to the market! You used to help me out before, what's wrong now? Can't you get some groceries for this frail, old woman?"

"You just crossed thirty, woman. You are not old. Go get them yourself."

"I'll bake you a batch of macarons."

Man, that was a good offer. Sarah's macarons were to die for. Navia had almost wept tears of joy the last time she had come over.

"Five."

But if he was going to risk himself being recognized, he was gonna milk that offer for all it's worth.

"What! No way I am wasting all that flour. Two!"

"You were the one who offered. Four and a half."

"You're so annoying. Three!"

"Might I remind you that it's you standing at my door, and not the other way around? Four."

"Fuuuu- Fine! Four it is, you ass. Now get going!"

"Okay, okay."

He slipped into his shoes by the door, grabbed his large hat just in case, and set off in search of the items that were on the list Sarah had shoved into his hand.

xxxx

He turned away from the stall, his muscles straining and fingers burning as he held the bags of groceries. Seriously, who needed this much at once?

He trudged along the path home, stopping once to throw a ball back to some kids. As he passed by the Palais, he noticed a large crowd had gathered in front of the Palais. He saw Chevalier from foreign relations coming out of. He slowed down and waved.

Chevalier waved back, and fell into step with him.

"Hullo Mr. Rousseau, willing to walk a lady home?"

"Hello Chevy, it's nice to see you too."

She laughed, and took a bag from his hands.

"Careful with that, it's not for me. You know what the whole fuss is about back at the Palais?"

"That crowd? That'd be your tourists, immigrants and all from out of Fontaine. They must have believed the prophecy to be some local nonsense, but after the news of what happened at Poisson two weeks ago got around, they're shaking in their boots and are trying to leave. Too bad for them- all the boats already left. The next one will be coming around seven in the evening tomorrow, and they'll become someone else's problem."

Alfonso winced. Tourists and embassy officials had a habit of being especially annoying- he sent his sympathies to the poor sod who'd be responsible for them. He and Chevalier made small talk for a while, until Chevalier took her leave and turned.

He walked into his street, and knocked on Sarah's door.

"Coming!"

She opened the door, and shooed him inside. The smell of baked bread wafted through the air, and he felt like he could just drool. He set down the groceries near the kitchen, plopped down on the couch, and shut his eyes

"Here are your four batches of macarons. If you eat it all yourself, I won't be making any more for you. Are you listening?"

"Yes, yes, I hear you. I'll be leaving now. Need anything else?"

"Aww, nothing else sweetie." He cringed. "Don't hesitate to knock on my door yourself if you need anything, alright?"

He nodded, and walked across the street to his place. His keys jingled as he played with them absentmindedly.

He stood at his door, and then, discreetly, looked around himself. He found none that could have been following him.

Nodding to himself, he turned the key in the lock and stepped inside.

He yawned, and got back to work. He had been sharpening his sword when he had been so rudely interrupted. His fingers lightly gripped the dull part of the blade, and his other hand held the sword by the pommel. He lowered it slowly towards the sharpener. He had to concentrate for this. Slowly, slowly….

Knock knock.

His eye twitched. Who knocks on someone's door at 10 in the night? Looks like he wasn't going to be able to sharpen his sword today. He raised his blade, and held it in his right hand. He got up, and walked to the door slowly. He stopped, and looked through the eye-hole.

There was a pretty weird looking woman by the door. She had pink hair, wore a monocle, and had a camera around her neck.

By the Archon, it was a journalist!

She was stupidly trying to look in through the one-way eye-hole, her hand fiddling with a newspaper. She was doing everything but leaving.

Knock knock.

"I know you are in there, Mr. Rousseau. I just saw you go in through the door."

He'd give anything if it got her to leave. The last thing he needed was a journalist in his apartment.

She gave a dumb close-eyed smile." I know you're listening behind that door, Mr. No God T-"

His heart rate skyrocketed, and he acted.

In one swift movement, he opened the door with his sword hand, grabbed the woman's wrist with his left hand, pulled her inside, shoved the door close with his right foot, and pointed his sword at her.

Her eyes had blown wide open, and she had stopped breathing. She began raising her hands towards her camera.

"Hands off your camera. Archon knows you vision holders can make anything a weapon."

He motioned her to the couch, and she nodded. She walked across the room, and sat down.

"Speak."

She gulped.

Note:

Navia has had so much shit happen to her in life man, and she's still one of the most optimistic characters in game.

Please leave a review- comment what you liked, or what you'd like to see improve in my writing.