A/N: Hello everyone! 2022 is coming to an end, but there's always time for new beginnings. I began to rewrite UTCM for many reasons. One of them is that I felt the ending was rushed. Like, literally one of the last chapters was a Xenogears Disc 2-esque wall of text Plot Twist! Right in your face. Besides, there's always room for more in-depth character exploration. One of the many scrapped ideas was Lenneth's childhood, which I may include in the next chapters.
So, here's a new chapter, it took me two days to write it. Hope you enjoy! Fratley is such a fun character, in fact I enjoyed writing him the most. Not just Fratley, but everyone as well. Sometimes I get so excited about writing character interactions and describing their rich inner lives that I don't even notice the chapter's length at the end. For you to have an idea, I had to split this already long chapter in two. Feel free to leave a comment if you'd like to share your thoughts about my writing and how I can improve it, or any sort of feedback in mind, I really appreciate it. Janet out.
Steaming Coils - Blathering Hemispheres
June 06, 1778
...
The abandoned train station is one of the best places to hang out. It's where I go when I want to be alone, which ain't the case. This place has more broken windows than Dan's mouth could ever shed of broken teeth shards. It looks dirty, like no one ever bothered to clean or redecorate into something else. Anything would look far more pleasant, even a naked boy's statue would attract more attention and they would look at it and say 'it hurts my eyes by looking at it'.
It's just a penis. Like, what's the matter with having something in the middle of your legs? I used to call it the sixty finger. I told every single boy and girl I met that I had a sixty finger and then I dropped my pants and... Yeah, even I can agree that I am a kind of ass. Used to be. But really, why don't they just destroy this station? It looks ugly, it smells awful, like someone pooped inside and died as well, while pooping. It hurts to look at, and I swear, if we put a penis on it, they would do something about it.
Piss station. Pissssssssssssssssss... More horrid than frog pee, that would be rat pee. And I am a rat to tell. Penis station, how about that? I'm sure everyone and their grandma would get on their nerves and do everything in their reach to tear this place down for good. It doesn't do anyone no favors. It ain't even funny to look at, all it does is to make me cry, even if I am too young to remember the people who waited for the trains to come, but they never did for some reason I don't know and don't care.
— ...Train, Train, Train!... Train, Train, Train!... Take us far away! – Fratley began to sing. Dan and I just watch him running around the railroad like a moron. – ...Train, Train, Train!... Train, Train, Train!...Take us far away!... ...Train, Train, Train!... To the future! We will go! We will go!... Where it leads... No one knows! No one knows...
— The song has ended, but the melody lingers on. – Dan is not as enthusiastic as our little guest here.
— I love trains. – Said Fratley, in his usual agitated mood. I swear, by a single move of arms the kid alone could swim up a waterfall, and I don't know if that's even possible. – Have you guys ever been on a train before?
— Not me. – I said before yawning.
— Nope. – Dan shook his head in disagreement. – But legend says that there was a guy so strong he could suplex a whole train with its bare hands.
— Your story seems pretty far-fetched. – I know that Dan is filled with bullshit as much as his mouth is filled with gaps, but this time I rather believe in what he said. What the hell...
— Trains are A-WE-SO-ME! – I wonder which kind of coffee Fratley drinks to stay lit in the morning. Dan and I look dreadful like gut soup by comparison. – You go inside and you feel like riding a beast made of metal. It stinks but you'll get used to it. Oh! Best part is when you put your head out the window and feel the wind hit your face and your tongue runs dry and wind gets inside your ears and a bug comes in your mouth and it tastes awful!
— That must have been quite unpleasant. – I said, right after Fratley pulled a face, like he still felt the bug's taste in his mouth to this day. What an unforgettable experience...
— Not really. It was quite a fun ride. – Fratley smiled. I wish the world, or at least the world I live in, had more children like him. Maybe it does but I'm too lazy to knock every single door at Burmecia in search of a potential friend, and to be fair, I'm not really that desperate to make new friends.
I feel bad for hitting the door on that kid's face, he asked if I saw his dog called Seamus, but I did not. I didn't said a thing, just hit the door. Not even a 'good luck', 'good day', 'hope you find your dog'... Nothing.
— ... My father said that one day the world will run out of meat and people will eat insects. Worms have a lot of proteins, he said. Daddy once showed me a caterpillar this size! – And so Fratley began to sound like one of those fishermen who one said 'I got a fish THIS big' to a friend, but unlike those liars, I do believe in Fratley and all the fascinating stuff he says.
He spoke of lands not far, nor lands they were in his mind, sometimes it seems like he made all this stuff up on spot, but no matter, I find some time to hear him out. It's weird, because I find myself running away from others at times, but right now I'd beg Fratley to hear his wonderous stories.
Everyone has their own story to tell and I feel like listening, a thing I once thought to be boring as hell. Maybe that's me growing up and realizing why adults talk to each other for so long. This morning Lenneth and another Dragoon Knight saw each other and talked and talked and talked like they had nothing else important to do. Nothing mattered except the time they shared with each other, and the stories as well.
— I wonder where this railroad extends to... – Said Dan, looking at the faraway horizon, where there was no rain. – I see more leaves than roads.
— Kudzu. They're called kudzu. – Fratley said with that face. Yep, that face he always shows when he wants to tell us something we don't know. Here we go again... – My father said that life finds its way and I can see how. Its vines densely climbs over other plants and trees, engulfing the whole landscape into a sort of green hell. Like water hyacinths on a lake, the kudzu grows so fast and strong that it smothers and kills the environment by blocking most of the sunlight, and Burmecia has barely any as you can see.
Indeed. Lots and lots of kudzu are stretched at the fields alongside the railroad, the woodlands, hillsides, the train station, underneath the bridge and into the distance as far as the eye can see. Like snow, the vine covers everything in a monochromatic moonscape. If we stay in here for too long, maybe we will get swallowed by it as well. Looking better, it's both creepy and amazing to see how far this weed can take over the environment.
Like most kids during their bedtime, I accepted, almost as a matter of faith, that kudzu grew a mile a minute and that its spread was unstoppable. If you don't keep pulling up the roots it will grow back faster than you can destroy it, my dad said. I believed that kudzu had eaten much of Burmecia's countryside and would soon sink its teeth into the rest of the kingdom. Instead, it just lays here, like a phantom menace.
— The plants are being suffocated and dying, and no one is really doing a thing. – Fratley said, looking down like a sad bird.
— Why don't they get rid of all this kudzu? It looks nasty. – I said, soon as Dan and I walked down the railroad. I had to go back and catch Fratley like a little brother who got lost at the market crowd.
— Whenever mom has a headache, she drinks a tea made of kudzu. So yeah, it can be useful too. – That statement made Fratley cheer up a bit. He looked closely at a purple flower and sneezed. – ACHO!... Pretty flower, right? Did you know you can make purple honey out of purple kudzu flowers? Yum!... I like purple honey. Tastes like bubblegum.
— I heard that Clara weirdo lives in the woods. – Dan said, looking at trees covered in kudzu that resembled statues of ancient warriors and temples devoted to the old gods. Makes me both shiver in fear of being forgotten and glad for being able to appreciate and enjoy things before they disappear without notice.
— Oh, Clara Bow... A weirdo indeed. – I do remember Clara, that girl from the soccer match. I think it was a girl. – Is this the bottomless pit of melancholy where she lives?
— Maybe. All I heard were rumors, but I won't risk going in there! – Dan looked like a coward at first sight, but beneath the phlegm surface, he was actually smart. Kinda.
— Maybe we could be friends with Clara. No wonder she looks feral and more of a wild beast than a pretty girl. That's what happens when you have no friends... I guess. – If you told Fratley to befriend a rock because it has feelings, he would do it right away.
— Well, look at me, I didn't grow fur like a butt-ugly Zaghnol for lack of friends. – Dan replied. He has not really grown into a monster, but his hair looks kind of messy.
— Look, a rainbow! – Fratley pointed at the skies, where we could see a rainbow in its entire glory. He counted each color with the fingers at hand. – Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet... ROYGBIV. Have any of you seen a rainbow at the shower? Have you ever tried to touch it?
— No. You can't touch rainbows. – I said, being a bit harsh with Fratley, but that's reality. Screw reality, somehow I am a rat standing on its two legs in the middle of never ending rain, where's the explanation for that?
— I know. Daddy said it's because rainbows are not physical objects, but sunlight refracted and reflected on water droplets as seen by the observer, meaning us. But, wouldn't it be cool if we could catch a rainbow and put it inside our caps?
— Yeah. It would be a hella lot cooler. – I said while patting Fratley's head filled of imagination, then I stopped because I was afraid he would bite or feel dizzy with enough patting.
— It sure is boring around here. – Dan said, following a disturbing silence. The kudzu leaves being hit by raindrops remind me of scales that belong to a big monster lying on the ground. And even if that was the case, this place looks... I won't say boring, but kind of hopeless. A railroad that leads nowhere, weed draining the life around, mates ready to drag you down to their level of social, sexual and intellectual mediocrity... This place holds on of a kind of nostalgia long lost but now I can't ignore the hatred I have nurtured for it.
— My father said that Burmecia and Lindblum became best buddies after the war, so they built a railroad to connect both nations. – Fratley said, as we looked at the infamous railroad that never got properly finished, like any kind of Peace sign. Though, there's a kind of peace at this place, a secret garden that's not secret anymore.
— Yeah, Mary Smoke. Heard about it from gramps. – Dan said, scratching his head and feeling dejected, feeling like a child might feel. – I never came to see it.
— No one did. The railroad never got finished and so the people never came. I mean, they do, for a while and another you see a stranger arriving at town, but not on a train and that's quite sad. – Fratley explained further. He could not hide his frustration while talking about what could have been Burmecia's first step on advanced technology, or a child's first train ride. – A lot of men worked on the railroad and some died while working on it. They could not keep up to see the final result, and as you see, it's a shame.
— Man, there are times I love being a Burmecian... and other times I HATE IT SO MUCH! – Dan got on his nerves. Fratley was baffled by his sudden behavior. – Like we are the world's most overpast nation. It's all about History, tradition, family, blood ties, but when it comes to connecting with the outside world and its people, it's all about war. War war war war war war war war war...
— Hehe... You sound like a duck. – Fratley giggled. Hardly he got in low spirits. – Wah wah wah wah wah...
— ...Sorry, guys. – Dan sighed. I feel what he feels, but not really that much to get a silly outburst. – But I am tired of living within a fart bubble. I don't mean that I want to leave Burmecia, of course not! It's my home, where my friends are at, and I don't pretend to leave it all behind. If home is already too big and scary, imagine the world outside... Besides, I'm not trying to prove myself to anyone else like a sore loser.
— It's okay. – Said Fratley, putting a purple flower on his right ear. – We're just kids. We have a lot of time to do what we want, and you're gonna miss it.
— Yes, time... – Dan sat on the railroad and reflected. – There are moments in life we feel so insignificant by staring at nowhere, to find out that the ones we loved are no longer here. We ask why and nobody gives an answer. I don't want people to remember me in past tense. I'm not living my life so they say 'Dan this Dan that' when I'm gone, heck no! If you want to tell me something right in the face, then come on! Go for it! I'm not easily offended at all.
— You look like an idiot.
— Excuse me, what!? – Talk about easily offended... But yeah, it is not usual for Fratley to be that mean with others.
— Yeah, you do. Not an idiot, but someone who's deeply in love. Yeah, an idiot, confirmed. – I love the kid's sincerity.
— What's up? Learie dumped you? – I asked, before we walked once again at the seemingly endless railway.
— Not that! I'm yet to tell her that... I like her company.
— Then why don't you just tell her? I am at Fratley's side.
— I can't! I... I don't really know what I feel for Learie. I mean, what if I end up scaring the poor thing? If she's afraid of me and no longer looks straight at me because of something I told her?
— This is so shitty. Women and their conflicting double standards... – Worse than watching Dan agonizing over an unseen pain is that I felt something for Learie too. I thought it was temporary, but even if I might hate her, I don't really do. Seeing Learie surrounded by all sorts of friends in dark times is kinda comforting. I do want her to feel fine, and... I'm not really ready, I'm just a kid trying to figure out my place in this vast universe obscured by clouds.
— Girls are, like, raised in an entirely different clan from us, boys. They behave well and better than us. Sure, they can be over emotional and take actions without thinking, so do I! It's not all about "men do that, women do that", because not everyone behaves in the same way, we're all human.
— And rats. We're all rats. – Honesty is a virtue, as Fratley shows.
— So... What's the point? – I got lost with all the talk. Even Dan got lost.
— I don't know! I am so confused that... Learie has this effect on me, but I know it's not her fault. – It's truly horrifying what passion does to one individual. Dan looks like one of those sad poetry writers that drink alcohol and write about women they saw in dreams. – I want to tell her how beautiful she is, but not just that! Like, anyone can tell it straight, even her mom. I want to show Learie that I am not like anyone else when I say such things. What do I show her that's unique?
— Your teeth. – I laughed while Dan kept his seriousness.
— No time for jokes, Jackass! – Well, not so serious at all.
— Like I said... Why don't you just tell her!? Is that so hard? – Fratley was fed up, but he was right.
— Yeah, Daniel Brandford! You! Stand up! I'm talking to you! – I grabbed Dan by the shoulders and began to act tough, like a captain or a priest, the best of two worlds. – Yeah, YOU! Haven't you learned anything!
— J-Jack!? W-W-What are you doing, Jack!? – Dan stuttered and wanted me to let go of him, but I am too mad to care. I always wanted to bitch-slap his face, now that's a great opportunity to do it.
— Don't you dare quit on me, Dan! What's with all this self-pity garbage over a girl? That's so pathetic, not like the Dan I know at all!
— B-but Jack...
— NO MORE 'BUTS'! – I shook Dan like a bottle filled with milk. The milk has long expired by the way... – You have accomplished a lot, you dumb jock. You are just too thick to see it, aren't you? My advice is for you to go tell Learie what you feel for her, be cohesive and honest to yourself. You don't quit until ten minutes after you are dead, ya heard me! And don't be a jerk, or else!...
— OKAY, OKAY! For crying the wolf out loud, Jack... Goddamnit. – Dan wipe off his clothes after I let him go.
— Whoa... I didn't know Jack could be that inspiring. – It was Gary, who watched us with a coconut face. He and Meg were on a street near a weeping willow at the main square. They call it the 'tinkle willow', because the boys climbed it up without their pants and the rest you know. I know, but I'm a changed person now. No matter where I go, the past insists on haunting me to this day.
— I got upset. That's all. – I looked at Dan. He seemed shocked and frightened at first, but a lot better than before. No more angst. – How are you doing, Gary? Your nose...
— I feel fine. My nose is alright. – Said Gary in a nauseous tone. It must suck to not be able to breath with the nose but the mouth instead.
— Alright? You woke up bleeding this morning. – Meg said, holding on to her brother's arms.
— Pu-lease, sis. I am doing fine. – Gary refused to look weak in front of others. – Soon I'll be at the fields to play soccer once again, I can't wait...
— Why you! You jerk! – Meg frowned at her stubborn brother.
— What? Did I say something?
— Everything I didn't want to hear out of you! – I wonder if I and my friends should intervene. Nah, let's just keep watching the two fight each other. – Like, what's with you, are you mad?
— Mad, me? I said-
— No more soccer! For a week, like mom said.
— Mom ain't here to tell you what I should or should not do!
— BUT I AM! Do you want to die and leave me alone, huh? – Girls... They are more talkative than boys and whenever they argue they always wanna win and avoid the real point. In Meg's defense, her brother's a jerk. Even with the broken nose, he wanted to keep playing soccer that day. And Meg just wants the best for him, does not he understand?
— Uh... no. I won't leave you alone, sis. – Fortunately, may Bahamut bless us all, Gary understands. – 'Til pops come back, I'll be here for you.
— And after dad is in here, will you take care of me? What if he does not come back?
— ...Whatever. – Gary flushed. – Stop acting like a whiny brat.
— Me, the brat? Look at you, idiot! I'm trying and trying, but no, It's like talking to a wall. – How Meg tried. I appreciate her effort. It was a matter of seconds before Gary realized he screwed up.
— Look, sis... – Gary said. It didn't feel like he was the one who was talking, but another Gary. – Soccer is my favorite sport, but the way I ended up getting hurt was not that much of a shock for me that it was for you. Trust me, I've been through worse. But yeah, I should not have been inconsiderate with you and your feelings.
— Gary...
— I must have scared you that day, didn't I? I'm so sorry. I won't do that ever again. – Gary does not show that soft side very often, must be it.
— Here we go again... – Meg sighed, like she heard the same old story before. – How many times have we had this conversation? Will you continue repeating the same mistakes over and over again? I am not dumb.
— I know! And that's why I don't find you annoying at all, sis. After you were born, I felt dad and mom started to give you more attention than they did with me, but that's because they thought I was older and could handle things by myself, while you were just a defenseless little baby that could do nothing but cry and piss in bed. Now, I kinda enjoy your company, you are funny and you don't wet your bed anymore, that's quite an achievement!
— Gary, please. – Meg is both ashamed and flattered by her brother's speech.
— Okay, I'm done. What do I mean is that you are growing up, sis. I might be a fool at times, but it happens. Not everyone is perfect, and you know very damn well that I am beyond repair. But maybe, with a bit of effort, and inspired by an adorable young miss... Will you help me grow up a bit?
— Help you to grow up a bit?... – Meg said, shyly. Gary might be a dork, but he has a big heart. He folded his little sister's hands and looked at her straight with the eyes, as if he was about to say one last thing to melt her heart for sure.
— ...Of course I was referring to emotional maturity, garden gnome. – Gary laughed. Like I said, he might be a dork, but... Yeah, he's pretty much a dork right now.
— Gnome, ME!? – And Meg is pissed. She punches Gary's chest, but it's useless. – Hey! Stop laughing! Gosh, I hate you so much!
— Oh, I love you too! – Gary said, hugging his sister. Meg's jaw dropped and she looked like a surprised ghost.
— Kweh! – We thought Meg did that noise after Gary squeezed her like a toad, but then her cap fell on the floor and above her flaxen hair, there was a little yellow bird. He shook off the water that fell on its golden feathers. – Kweh Kweh Kweh!
— Sis, did you bring Koko with you? – Gary asked, as Fratley came near the bird who glided on the ground.
— My, is that a chocobo chick? Oh! He is so cute! – Fratley took a Gysahl green out of his pocket and feeded the chocobo with it. He has made a new friend, as it seems.
— She. She is cute, isn't she? – Meg took her bird with both hands and put it underneath the cap.
— He is a she!? – Fratley gasped.
— Yes. Her name is Koko. How did you know she enjoyed Gysahl greens?
— Hello Koko! – Fratley greeted his smallest friend. – And yeah, Gysahl greens are a chocobo's favorite! I've been meaning to find a chocobo for this long, so I always bring these with me just in case.
— I see.
— You are so cute! I mean Koko, uh... Yeah, I was talking about your chocobo, uh huh. Eh... Not that you are cute too, Meg. Uh... – Fratley is embarrassed. He does not seem to do very well with girls. In fact, I have not seen him interact with any girls so far. – You certainly look pretty... gulp.
— Oh, thanks. – The more Meg talked, the more Fratley's face turned red like a plum. – What a nice flower you got there.
— It's a kudzu flower. – Fratley took the flower he took earlier out of his ear and gave it to Meg, with his entire body trembling. – D-D-Do you w-want it?
— Isn't it yours?
— Well, uh... It c-can b-be-yo-yours... If you w-want. – With enough courage and dedication, failure is not an option for Fratley. He gives the flower to Meg and is petrified in fear.
— Thank you!... Is there something bothering you?
— N-Not r-r-really. – Fratley swallowed some spit and words. He took a breath and was ready to talk clearly. – You are touching my sensitive area.
— Am I? – Meg didn't understand what Fratley was talking about. My definition of sensitive area is different from his...
— Yeah. My heart. – Yep, totally different.
— ...You are weird.
— Wanna be my friend? – Fratley avoided eye contact and began to look around, like he refused to look at Meg's face. What is in her face that made him act so differently? I see nothing else.
— Why not? You look nice.
— Gee... I feel like an idiot. – The Sorrows of Young Fratley... That would make for a good book's title.
— Nah, you are not an idiot. – Meg took a glimpse of Gary, her brother and her idiot, also a punch bag at spare times. – You've been nice to me, unlike other boys who were mean to me.
— Was I nice? I mean, my mom told me that being a gentleman is a matter of choice, and I stand for being a true gentleman! Even if I happen to burp on the table at times or sneeze my nose in public, I'm trying! One day I'll become a true gentleman, you will see.
— Fair enough. – Meg giggled as she closed her eyes like a lady with a fan.
— Kweh! – I don't know what that means, but maybe Koko likes Fratley as much as her owner does.
— Well then, 'Sir Fratley'... You are my cute little gentleman! – Meg felt like a Queen and Fratley like a knight honored by her presence.
— Guess you are growing up too fast, sis. Slow it down or else you'll soon get married. – Gary was joking, right? It's not like everything he says needs to be taken at face value, right?
— NO WAY! – Both Fratley and Meg shouted. They look at each other, terrified of becoming more than friends.
— Meg and I... We are just friends. That's it! – Fratley claimed it was all about friendship, all hesitant.
— Marriage!? we're just kids! – Meg denied with all her strength that anything else was going on between them. I mean, they just met each other, what else could happen?
— I don't even know how it works. Uh, nevermind... It's a nasty thing only adults do.
— What do you mean? – Meg squinted her eyes at Fratley.
— Kissing. You thought something else? – Fratley is too pure for these kinds of silly thoughts.
— ...No. – Meg stood quiet and in awe for Fratley, who hummed a song while waving both arms like windmills. I think no one will ever understand what happens inside Frattie's mind. He looks inattentive and sort of absent-minded at times, but he really pays attention to what we say, despite giving a complete scatterbrain impression.
— Hey Jack... – Gary broke out of its silence cage.
— Yes? – I said back, distracted with the fragile, pellucid-blue rain. We got so used to the ceaseless rain that we just call it... Rain.
— Have you seen Clara Bow? – Gary asked, with a worried look.
— No, I have not. Clara just disappeared since that day we played soccer, right?
— Yeah, she just went back to the bushes and POOF! Gone. Like she never existed, but Clara Bow is real, isn't she?
— I think she is. – I do have my doubts. I mean, I never saw a fuzzy girl like Clara before, but I remember Gary's painful screech after his nose broke, that I can never forget.
— Of course Clara is real! CHOMP!... I saw her too... That thing. – Dan said, chewing some walnuts he bought at the market. – Want some, Jack?
— No, thanks. I am not hungry.
— Okay. Frat?
— I want, I want! – Fratley jumped like popcorn. Dan threw a nut, like one does with a flip of coin, right at Fratley's mouth, and he ate it. – Hmmm... Salty.
— Your aim has improved. – I said, praising Dan for his skills.
— That's the joy of wiping out basilisks from their pitiful existence! – What a prideful bastard Dan is. – Want more?
— More! More! – Fratley said, pleading for more nuts.
— There you have it. – Dan gave his entire sack of nuts for Fratley. – Have any of you noticed that these nuts look like a person's lungs?
— Lungs? They look like brains to me. – Fratley looked closer at the nut before eating it. Boy, was he hungry... He threw a nut at Meg's head, who looked confused and about to cry at first, but that nut was for Koko so she smiled back. – MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH!... Nature and its shapes... MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH!... We don't realize how everything looks amazing until we look closely... Look around and tell me if Burmecia is more than a rat hole. Look at the walls and their shapes and their colors and the people...
— As much as I hate this place, you can't deny it has some beauty. – Dan said, as we looked around the houses, the streets, the skies...
I do remember mom saying something about Burmecia taking years to be built just by its unique architecture. A landscape of organic mosaics made of terracotta, ceramics, pieces of glass, limestone and marble, how could you make a place filled with all of these things look dull and colorless? Everything looks depressing, even for those who've been living here for too long, but if you pay enough attention you may notice that there's a lot of blue shapes. Blue triangles, blue rhombuses, blue Dragon Crests, blue ceilings, blue Royah Soldiers...
Oh, and there's a lot of green as well. Climbing vines are green, men and women wear green, the children wear green, grass is green, apples are green... Yeah, it feels dull and monotone, but not liveless. My uncle Clyde once said that ''Hell is a place filled with good intentions''. What does this have to do with my previous thoughts? I don't know. I wonder if when all Burmecians die they go straight to Hell, because God surely must have had a good intention when he came to mix both rat and man into the same being. Maybe I'm getting too philosophical, better leave those questions for a smart ass adult to solve. Like, my dad could answer it, or maybe not. I do miss him and I try not to think he might be dead as I speak.
— I've been meaning to find Clara Bow since then. – Gary's thoughts revolved around Clara. Did he fell in love or something? – A few friends of mine said that she lived in a burrow within the kudzu forest. I swear, my friends and I have walked the entire Kingdom and we have not found Clara. Well, there was a toothless old lady, a baby born yesterday, a cousin I never heard about, the milkman's daughter... but no fuzzy Clara.
— Why do you want to find her so much? She does not owe you anything. – In my view, Gary does not look lovesick as Dan or someone who wants to make friends like Fratley.
— I know, but... I want Clara to be real. She did all that crazy stuff and then disappeared without leaving a trace, huh?
— I understand. – I thought it made no sense, but now I see what Gary is talking about. People pass by and they just turn into memories, leftovers, and that must be shite. – My mom used to do all sorts of crazy stuff, and then she got pregnant. No one pays a visit to her, no one asks if she's doing fine, no one. Not even the other Dragoons, who are too occupied on their crazy adventures
— Duty, Jack. They are on duty. – Meg said, cuddling her chocobo.
— Yeah, duty. Baby safety comes first, but soon after my brother is born, Lennie will abandon him and come back crawling over the King's boots. Because duty.
— Jack, please... You are talking about your mother.
— My mother? A time ago, she was not at home, and now that Lennie is there most of the time, I can't even tell straight on her face that she is my mother. I felt nervous just thinking about calling her by such a name, like I should give her the satisfaction of doing so! – I yelled, but at the time, it felt like nothing else. Just a yell. Now I feel my entire body trembling, my head is weightening a lot, Meg looks afraid and I... I didn't realize how bitter I had become. – You're right, she's my mother, I should call her that. But it feels strange, I called for her name in vain and now that she's in front of me... The hell is wrong with me? My apologies.
– Why don't you say it? Ain't that simple? Gee, and I thought you were good at inspiring us, Captain Jack. – Fratley, you never cease to amaze me. You're bringing me sun on a rainy day. You're making me glad when I don't feel that way.
— Okay... I have my issues, you have ours. I'll find a way to solve mine, so don't worry about me, 'kay? – I hate looking weak in front of others, like I have no control whatsoever over my life and my own choices. – Kudzu forest, you said?
— I smell adventure! – Said Dan, raising his fist like a warrior.
— You smell like crap, eugh! – Meg covered her nose in disgust.
— You gotta be kidding, right!?
— She's not kidding, Dan. You do smell like spoiled milk. – Fratley stood on Meg's side.
— Wait, do I? – Dan smelled himself and came to a conclusion. – B-But I took a bath yesterday... Makes no sense!
— *Sigh* What now? – I was aware of Dan being not a good example when it came to being hygienic, but I sense nothing wrong with his smell. Maybe I got used to it, or maybe Meg is just poking fun at his face. – Nevermind Dan, he's been like that since he was born.
— Hey! I am not!
— I know. I was joking. – Is it even time for jokes, Meg? What a silly girl.
— Seriously, what makes you smile at me?
— Face muscles. – And Fratley is equally silly.
— To Kudzu forest, here we go!... Except we can't go in there. It's too dangerous. – Gary stared at the monstrous green forms swallowing whole forests and abandoned houses, stream banks and slopes. – That's why we need some help.
— I'll go call my brother Zack! See ya! – Fratley ran away to his house.
— Maybe Jared has some guns or Dead Peppers... I will gently ask him if he can lend me some. Smell you later! – And so did Dan, his voice fading away in the distance.
— Later! – Gary waved to Dan. So much rain was falling that the sound blurred into one long, whirring noise. – Sis, you won't mind if I...
— As long as you bring me with you!
— Hmph! I can't play soccer, but to risk my life and others to prove a girl's existence is fine. I don't get you at all.
— I'll be there so you don't break any bones or do anything stupid.
— Have you not realized that going to Kudzu forest is something stupid, empty-head?
— Tee hee... I know, but you are not alone. Imagine going to that place on your own... That would be very foolish and I would never forgive you! Never, ever, ever, EVER! – At her limit, Meg furiously punched her brother's stomach again and again in a beat rush.
— Okay, okay! Stop! That hurts, hehe... – Gary laughed as if he was being tickled by a toddler. – I will call some friends to help us out. See you after lunch, Jack!
— Right! Until lunch! – My turn to say goodbye for now. If, by accident or fate, I happen to have a sister, I want someone like Meg at the side. More cute than meanie, if it's not asking too much.