Some legends are told...

[raindownhell]

Aerith had been right; it wasn't a quick journey back.

Lea's route, achieved by pressing further into what Fang came to know as the Bancouri border-desert and then backtracking along the river was, indeed, longwinded. It was also safer, that much was clear. Ignoring the infrequent swells and waterholes along the route, the number of monsters was greatly diminished from what they could see roaming in the distance. Smaller plate wyrms, wyverns and helms could very occasionally be seen beyond a haze of wind-thrown sand, all species better left alone.

Desert monsters were typically large reptiles, creatures that didn't crave water like mammals did, or smaller pack hunters who got most of their water from their kills and seldom visited the riverside except to hunt at waterholes. The waterholes, while more dangerous than the fast-moving river, were still something of a boon, for they often saw small herds of prey animals, or larger lone monsters, which were of as much interest to them in terms of food as they were the other creatures that hunted there.

Mercifully, the waterside hunters weren't too dangerous. Weird gators with false, hinged faces had come as a surprise to Fang, but the one foolish enough to pick a fight with her was easily dispatched with a spearpoint to the soft, unarmoured flesh beneath. Gigantoads, though slow, were better skirted around. Unlike the gator, they were not edible. Their poisonous skin saw to that.

The long journey didn't bother her, at least. She'd been on the road for longer getting from where she had started to the Chocobo Eater and travelling with a supply of fresh, flowing water was much more preferable to stopping and filling up heavy waterskins every few miles. It helped that the river allowed them to wash the sand, if not the chocobo, away from them more regularly.

The company wasn't bad, either. She wasn't sure they were hardened Hunters like she was, she couldn't shake that feeling, but if they had only recently picked it up as a job, they were learning remarkably quickly. Where she was from, Hunting was a lifestyle, not a job, something you took to from a very young age to build up your strength and stamina. It wasn't the case here. It was lucrative, apparently, but still something you could just elect to take on or give up as you pleased. She felt fortunate to have joined up with a trio with formidable fighting and healing skills, nonetheless.

Abilities aside, it helped that they also weren't bad people. Lea was more social than Saix, and Aerith was more levelheaded and friendly than both of them, for all Saix attempted to look like a voice of reason for the group. All three had one thing in common. They were odd. The boys were very powerful fighters, but the way they handled themselves, and their weapons, and their elements, just didn't feel normal, not when they seemed almost naive about certain aspects of Chakra manipulation while using it in odd ways otherwise. Something told her that they just weren't normal for the world. Being displaced by centuries didn't make her feel any differently about it. Aerith was just different. Absurdly good at healing, that was for certain, and very in tune with the natural world.

She had a feeling that they probably felt the same about her. Even though they were definitely strange, they knew more about the world than she did. The collapsed city had been her tell, she was sure of it.

As she thought about it, she hardly noticed the warmth gradually leaving the air. Night was falling. Travelling at night would probably have been easier on them all, especially the chocobos, but sleeping in the heat of the day wasn't a viable option. It was time to find somewhere to set up camp.

Comments

[innatelunacy]

The journey had been longer, but pleasant. Prey had been frequent enough that they hadn't gone without, and weren't at risk of doing so. If Saix was honest, some of the food had actually been quite good. Aerith might have lamented the scarcity of fresh fruit and vegetables, but Saix hadn't missed it, and the food had been fresher and more abundant on this return journey than it had been on the long chase to catch their mark.

They'd tracked the river, too, which had meant there had been no need to ration water between stops, and they'd been able to rinse the sand and grime off themselves. He still smelled of chocobo, but being less generally grubby had improved his mood ever so slightly. Enough even that he'd teased and picked on Lea, as if they were sat in the Sandsea.

Fang still intrigued him. He hadn't tried getting close; sociability wasn't Saix's strong suit, that had always been Lea's domain, but he'd been cordial.

She was impressive, and clearly a hunter, but she was hunter in the same way that Saix was a berserker. For most of this world, 'berserker' was merely a job class, a fighting style, little more than a set of learned moves and skills. For Saix it was what he was, or at least a significant part of it. Other people weren't 'a commando' or 'a synergist', but Saix was a berserker, like Lea was a fire elemental, and Fang was a hunter. 'Hunter', for most, was a pursuit in the interest of money, or the fight, but Fang behaved as if it was an integral part of herself.

The chill of a desert night was creeping into the air when Saix turned to Lea. "Time to make camp," he said. They wouldn't hit Rabanastre this evening, but they couldn't be too far away now. Another day, maybe two, and the city and civilisation would be in reach.

If they stopped now they'd be able to find somewhere safe to set up camp and settle in before it got too cold and dark. Although Saix liked the desert nights, at least for the sky, even if the temperature was unpleasant. Not that he'd voiced that, of course.

[hearstheplanet]

Aerith had found the journey back much easier. She wasn't the hardened traveler that the others were. Saix and Lea endured the same discomforts, she was sure, and the aches, and pains, and grumbles, but they were better at ignoring it. Aerith craved civilisation after a while, no matter how close to nature she was; the feel of the living planet under her feet didn't make up for the lack of a shower.

She'd happily made use of the river to keep clean, cheekily telling Lea that he wasn't allowed to peek, just to see if he'd blush.

She hadn't been able to have a proper talk with Lea, however. Not one where they couldn't be overheard or interrupted, at least. She was sure he, and Saix, had their suspicions about Fang, and she had her own, but there hadn't been a real opportunity to discuss them without it being very obvious that was what they were doing.

Similarly, she'd hadn't had a real opportunity to talk to Fang. Saix and Lea were odd, she knew, and Aerith was used to it, but she wondered if Fang had picked up on it as obviously, with herself being odd, too.

They were similar, in some ways, and very, very different in others. Fang was a natural hunter, which had definitely caught Saix's attention, but she was skilled in a way that suggested years of doing it, rather than unusual natural talent, like Saix and Lea had.

They were, Aerith would admit, a very good team, and she liked Fang even if she couldn't shake that sense that there was something off about her other than what she knew and didn't know. That sense of an impression on her, from something else, lingered, and it was faint, but it lurked, at the edge of Aerith's senses.

She wondered what Fang was going to do once they got to Rabanastre. She didn't seem like she had somewhere specific to go, she'd just wanted to head for civilisation. On her wild caught chocobo, that Aerith had grown brave enough to pet, and with little more than her weapon and traveling supplies to make her way around.

She looked around when Saix spoke. The air was getting chilly. The great thing about having Lea around on a desert evening was that you never had to worry about getting cold, at least.

"That might be a good idea," she agreed, petting her chocobo's neck.

[innatelunacy]

"What's a l'Cie?" Saix asked.

Lea would undoubtedly be thinking it too, Saix knew. Neither of them had ever heard that word before, but she said it as though it held similar gravity to 'ryoka'. If she'd held off until now to say it, then it likely held similar, if not worse, implications.

It also did little to explain why she was so strange, although perhaps the explanation for that lay in the part about Gran Pulse, whatever it was, or wherever it lay. She made it sound like a location, but it could as easily be an organisation.