Awesomest FFVI fic ever
This is going to sound really random, but...
Long, long ago in a galaxy far far away there was a crazy amazing Terra/Shadow fic. I loved it to hell and back. There was even a sequel.
Unfortunately, at one point Fanfiction.net banned NC-17 fics and the fic was wiped from FF.net. The author was so pissed about it that she dropped writing the sequel. As you may have guessed, this was like... six years ago at least.
Now I, being the obsessive fan that I was, saved the thing to my computer. Through successive computer-crashings and new-computer-gettings the fic has continued to survive. I've re-read it since then and I'm still fully in love with it, so I decided to post it here for internet posterity. The original author, DarkSilk, has an account at the Pit and the sequel is still there (if unfinished) but the author herself is long gone.
So anyway, with apologies to the original author, I want to post the fic here for internet posterity because damn it's awesome. If there were any sort of general FF fanfiction comm maybe I could post it there? I don't know. But this fic deserves to be read.
Because of its length, I'm going to have to post it in parts. Many parts. I might also have to fiddle with the formatting, but anyway, here's the first chapter. This might take a while. /:
TS
The blade of the simple gardening tool stabbed into the dirt, creating a soft and satisfying grating noise. The smell of rich, fertile soil was invigorating; a reminder to never again take for granted the life within the earth. The gardener had been at her task for hours; pausing now and again to rest and take in her work, and then she returned to toil as hard as ever. From a shallow wooden box she drew seeds and bulbs, arranging and planting, envisioning in her head the splendor that would be grown by the time summer was upon them.
In the shadow of a modest house, the modest young woman went about her self-appointed duty. Green-gold hair not unlike a tarnished treasure was pulled back and off of her brow by a plain red bandana, and eyes of a similar shade were absent and lost. Gloved hands picked through her little collection of seeds as she murmured incoherently under her breath, occasionally wiping good clean dirt off of her hands and onto her overalls. Finally, she sat back on the grass in the shade of her home, leaning over to roll up the cuffs of her pants.
Mobliz was on the mend, close to thriving now. In only little more than a full year people had come; drifters robbed of their homes in the great disaster, traders, lost souls of every kind congregated here. Terra looked over her shoulder to the other houses, most of which had not been here when she’d returned. The children… she would not be so optimistic to say that they were fine; they had lived through and seen more than any child should, but they were alive. Perhaps, given more time, they would be fine.
A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of the half-Esper’s mouth when she spied Reiji running between two of the original structures in her general direction. These days were so calm, so quiet. She recalled that Katarina had, in jest, accused Terra of growing soft in her domestic life. Perhaps the girl was right; maybe Terra had grown soft. What of the others? Her thoughts turned to them frequently, when her body was absorbed in a task that did not require her concentration. Each of those who had stood against Kefka in the end had parted ways, as each of them knew they would. There was much to atone for, much recuperating and soul-searching needing to be done, and what better time in history to do just that?
“Terra!” Reiji panted softly in an exaggerated manner when he was within speaking range, his mop of red curls looking damp from a recent swim in the lake. The boy, all of ten years old, doubled over with his hands on his knees with his chin lifted to flash an impish grin.
Her smile widened and she stood, taking her time in pulling off the heavy working gloves. “Yes, Reiji?”
“I found a dog! Come see! He came right up to me!” The boy reached out to take her hand, giving it an insistent but gentle tug. “Come on and see, he’s great! He’s a herding dog; you think he can herd cattle? What about sheep?”
“One thing at a time!” Terra exclaimed in mock exasperation, allowing herself to be lead by the hand across the uneven grass that made up the sparse land around her house. Reiji was pointing ahead of himself, starting to jog now with the young woman in tow. His excitement was infectious and soon she was very curious to see just what had gotten the lad so riled up. Dogs were hardly uncommon, especially herding dogs in rural villages such as this.
Reiji lead Terra away from the residents and towards what was slowly becoming a very lovely village square. It still had a long way to go, more structures to be added to the meager shops that had already set up, more earth to be leveled for masons to set in cobble and flagstones before it would be completed. The young woman nearly tripped over a small pile of the smooth stones a man was setting into the ground, uttering a startled apology as the boy continued his journey. In the center of the square, where the first stones had been laid, there had been a large, smooth, circular stone left for a sundial. It was, as of yet, only a stone, as the craftsmen had yet to do their work. It was here where Reiji lead her.
Her hand was released and Reiji ran to join his younger sister, Perlina. Both children stood flanking a rather impressive animal that stood sat on his haunches on the stone with a long pink tongue hanging from the side of his open mouth. Terra arched a brow as Reiji began to pet the large dog on the head, looking to the half-Esper for her approval. The dog was dark in color, though he had more browns and beiges in his coat than black. He was obviously tame, and well fed. Certainly no stray.
“See? Isn’t he nice? And big, too!” Reiji scratched at a pointed ear, grinning still. “Well what do you think, Terra? I want to call him Bandit, because he looks like he’s wearing a mask. Perlina wants to call him Dusty, but I think that’s stupid.”
“Is not!” The younger girl glared at her brother.
Terra was able to tune out the long string of ‘is not, is too’ that went back and forth between the siblings. Her attention was on the dog, which was incredibly docile, or merely tolerant of the children. She had seen herding dogs of this particular breed quite a few times before, but she had to admit that none had looked as much like Interceptor as this one did. Her smile fell, and she reached out a hand to the canine for his inspection. Shadow’s dog, Interceptor, was as big as this, wasn’t he? A pang of guilt struck her then; she had not turned much thought to Shadow or his canine companion much in the time since the tower fell. He had been just as his name: a shadow, to herself and her comrades. No doubt he had done his part in aiding them, but did it mean as much that King Edgar also paid him for his services? Terra shook her head slowly and stepped away from the dog, returning her attention to the two children arguing about what to call him.
Perlina broke away from her brother and skittered a distance of a few feet, then turned back and crouched with her hands balled up in the hem of her dress. “Dusty! Dus-teee, c’mon boy! C’mere Dusty, come on!” She tried to get the dog’s attention, to prove he like her name better. The canine seemed to arch a brow, tilting his head at the girl.
“Bandit!” Reiji took his turn in moving away from the animal and trying to coax it to come to him.
Terra chuckled and slapped her palm to her thigh, and on whim, found herself calling to the dog as well. “Interceptor! Here, boy.”
Surprise of surprises, the canine rose regally from his haunches and padded to Terra, looking up at her expectantly. It was perhaps not an affectionate reunion, but she was given a single wag of the tail, which was fairly good. Perhaps she had gained points by remembering his name.
Furrowing her brow, the young woman looked back into the soulful dark brown eyes of the canine and shook her head slowly in disbelief. Part of her was convinced she had just used the proper tone of voice, but the other part was wondering how Interceptor could have come to be here, of all places? Neither Shadow nor his loyal friend were aboard the airship when they fled Kefka’s crumbling tower… how could the dog have come to be here? Her head snapped up then and she cast a wary and thorough look around her immediate surroundings. Was it possible that the mysterious self-stylized ninja was here? In Mobliz?
Her lips moved and she sucked in a breath, almost tempted to ask the dog for answers. Was this all just an eerie coincidence fueled by her daydreaming? The dog snorted once, as if he was disgusted and then his head snapped up, ears at attention. Terra watched as he stiffened, and then bounded off like a possessed thing across the cobblestone so fast she would not be shocked if he took to the air. She was no longer paying attention to the siblings, who were first miserable that the dog had come to Terra and not them; and then wailing in despair when he took off so suddenly. They bounded after him, but they had better chances of catching a dragon.
Shaking her head again, she attempted to chuckle and dismiss the whole thing. This proved to be quite impossible by the time she had returned to her house, she swore she saw flickers of suspicious motion out of the corners of her eyes. It grew annoying enough to make her abandon the gardening and retreat into her home. Her instincts told her that the dog was indeed Interceptor, and she had learned to trust those instincts. However, that did not start to make sense. How had he ended up here? If man and dog had survived Kefka’s tower somehow, why in the name of anything holy would Shadow come here? It was not a pleasant feeling of an impending reunion that kept her pacing in front of her door until the sun set. Her protective urges were surging up with a vengeance at the mere thought that the assassin would be peddling himself in her territory.
Hunting for Shadow would prove fruitless, of that much she was certain. If he meant business, he would make himself known and soon. Perhaps it was paranoia or an over active imagination, but she did not believe for a moment the meeting in the village square was an accident or chance encounter.
(Author’s note: Hah… short, I know, but I do have more ready to go, and soon. Hope it was enough to catch your interest at least. Lemons to come in the near future, as well as that reunion. Won’t give it away, though. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my first stab at a fan fiction.)
(Author’s note: No lemons here either. I think I am going to just change the rating altogether, because well… this is kind of writing itself much differently than I had originally intended. Which is not bad. I’m liking how it’s going. If there are lemon warnings in the distant future, you shall know. Again, thank you for reading and for the reviews!)
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The sound had been unobtrusive at first; quiet background noise that was assimilated or dismissed during her sound sleep. As time went on, however, it seemed to grow louder, or she was bit by bit being roused from her sleep by it. By the final second before waking it was like some insane nightmare-clock pounding away at her nerves until she bolted upright in bed, desperately seeking the source. Her gaze went to her bedroom window first; but it was not the sound of a pane being tapped. It was duller, loud in the otherwise quiet little house. To her bedroom door she looked, squinting in the darkness. She had a visitor.
“Interceptor?” Came the unnecessary query from the drowsy young woman. The mystery of the sound was solved at least; it had been the dog’s nails on the wooden floor making the sound. Of course it was the canine from earlier today, but why was he standing in the doorway to her bedroom? How had he gotten in?
Before she could begin to wonder if she was perhaps still dreaming or not, the large canine’s ears perked up at an audible and short whistle from elsewhere in the house. Terra was promptly dismissed and Interceptor turned away without hesitation to answer the call. A gasp at his departure and the girl was tearing the blanket off of herself and bounding out of bed to confront the intruders. Bare feet touched cold floor and that served to rouse her fully from the lingering clutches of weariness as she prevented herself from stumbling by lurching to catch the doorframe, spinning around it rather artfully to chase after the speedy canine. Uncaring for the moment of her disheveled hair and nightgown, her tiers were drawn into a tight line when she saw warm light spilling from her kitchen.
If she had taken the time to consider what she had just discovered at her kitchen table, feeding his beloved dog something taken from her pantry, Terra may have been confused or curious, perhaps even a little wary. As it were, she was left completely and utterly speechless, having to lean on the wall for support once she’d crossed the kitchen’s threshold lest she slump to the floor. The man at the small table glanced up to her briefly and dipped a piece of bread into his cup, tossing the treat to Interceptor without saying so much as a word of greeting or explanation. Terra realized that she had never fully seen Shadow’s face before this moment, and were she one of many others who puzzled over his obscured features or driven themselves mad with curiosity, she would have been disappointed.
He was probably younger than he really looked, placing him somewhere in the mid-thirties, but that could have been a kind estimate. His hair was sandy and short with no real order or sense to it, like wild wheat. His features were not unattractive, but he was certainly not more than plain, the kind of face that was easily forgotten. Well, if it were not for the ugly scar over his left eye. At least the cowl more sense now, she amended. The clothing, the disguise could change, but a mark like that was a rather distinctive feature for someone who wished to remain anonymous. The old wound was closer to his temple than his eye, slicing deeply and jaggedly to his cheekbone. It seemed to have missed the hazel ocular and spared his eyesight, however. He had been traveling, that much was obvious by his simple -black, naturally- clothing and the pack resting on the floor between Shadow’s chair and Interceptor. In her astonished scrutiny, Terra was not aware that several tense moments had passed until the silence was finally broken.
“Terra.” Her name was spoken lightly without any real inflection: a greeting.
“Shadow…” She replied dazedly, pushing off of the wall to stand straight now that she we had recovered from her initial flooring, her mind began forming questions at an alarming rate; faster than her mouth could keep up. All that did was form little sounds such as ‘wh’ and ‘how’ in a loop with alternating order until she shook her head and blinked hard, blurting out the first she could wrap her tongue around. “What are you doing here?!”
He had glanced at her only momentarily when she’d first entered the kitchen. Now his attention was on his dog, to whom he kept passing off pieces of bread to. He seemed completely at ease, as if this were his home and he had returned to it after a long journey. His face was just as neutral and expressionless as Terra had always imagined it would be, his eyes finding nothing worthy of giving any more attention to than absolutely necessary.
“Sitting. Feeding my dog.” If he was teasing or attempting to make her angry, he was a master at hiding it. His voice was quiet, not unpleasant, and much smoother now that he was not speaking through cloth.
It was more frustrating than infuriating, but she should have known better than to expect him to spill a stream of dialogue without asking the proper questions. Terra tried again from where she stood. “But…why are you here?”
His immediate response was to gesture for her to sit down. Terra pursed her lips, not appreciating being offered a seat in her own home by someone she had not invited in, but her curiosity won over and she crossed the short distance between them and drew out the only other chair from the small round table, settling into it. When he did not say anything, she added in: “We thought you were dead.”
Shadow’s expression did not change in the slightest, but he did at least deign to look at her now. “Did you?” He asked blandly…though there was a hint of an almost concealed edge in his voice. “I can tell by your flood of joy and relief that you must have been very upset by the thought of me not making it out of there. Should I apologize for worrying you?”
It would have had less effect had he added sarcasm or bitterness to it. He did not; he almost sounded utterly sincere but his eyes were mocking her. Terra’s mouth dropped open in utter indignation and anger, her hands on the table braced herself to rise and protest this mistreatment and demand he leave. Before the first sound had escaped her throat, he had cut her off.
“I need to find your friend. Locke.”
That was enough to make her stop and blink again. Her mouth closed and she drew a deep breath, suddenly wary of the man before her. Slowly, she relented and returned to her seat, her voice controlled. “He’s not here.”
“I managed to figure that out all by myself. I’m asking if you know where he is.” At his feet, Interceptor lay down on the floor. Shadow kept his gaze carefully trained on Terra. Did he look…hopeful? Eager? It was impossible to tell, but he seemed more interested now than he had a few moments ago.
She tried to imagine what Shadow could possibly want with Locke. Did he want to kill her friend? Her thoughts must have been playing across her features because the visitor snorted lightly and shook his head. Terra cleared her throat and spoke up again, perhaps slightly embarrassed but she simply could not put it past him. “Tell me what you want with him.”
“I have a job offer.” Leaning back in his chair, rather like some lounging feline, Shadow perfected the art of looking extremely bored now.
Terra shook her head slowly. “I received letters from him, but he didn’t say where he was exactly. He travels…” That was the truth. She wondered if Shadow would leave now? He seemed to be now considering her words, perhaps judging whether or not she was being honest. It was brief, the sensation, but she experienced a moment of fear. Really, she did not know this man at all. “What kind of job?”
Now the other was silent, only shaking his head the smallest bit to indicate he would not elaborate. Not that she expected him to. In retrospect, this was the longest conversation she had ever held with the usually silent man. She felt uncomfortable then, wondering if she should ask him to leave. She wanted to go back to bed as much as she wanted to ask Shadow how he had gotten into her house, and more importantly, how he had escaped from Kefka’s tower. Again, he seemed to sense what she was thinking because he returned his attention to the girl and nodded his head once.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll be gone when you wake up.” He brought his hand up to his face, fingertips resting under his chin. He was not looking at her anymore; he was staring off at nothing in what seemed to be mock contemplation.
That sounded like a gong signaling the end of the conversation and Terra grudgingly nodded her agreement. If Shadow was not going to answer her questions, she would not waste her breath. He had made her feel the tiniest pang of guilt for not holding him in the same regard she had held her other comrades, but she managed to quell it for the time being. Rising from the chair, she thought of saying something like ‘it was nice to see you again’ but… it would sound hollow. She made her way to the kitchen door, her hand resting on the frame as she found herself hesitating. Mentally cringing, she turned to partially face him.
“Shadow?”
He lifted his head; an eyebrow arched a subtle measure.
Facing him fully once more, Terra furrowed her brow and asked hesitantly: “Are you… are you in trouble? Do you need…help?”
He stared at her blankly a moment without moving his fingers from his chin, though both eyebrows were now raised. He shook his head in the negative.
“You’re sure?” She pressed, her kind nature getting the better of her. It began to worry her. What if he had needed Locke’s help with something, and it was not a job as he had said. As she recalled, he seemed to do just fine ‘working’ on his own.
“You can’t help me,” There was a bit of inflection in his voice now, a kind of resignation.
Terra frowned. “But Locke can?” A shrug was her only response, which she did not take as a ‘no’. It irked her the more she thought about it. What was going on? Of course Locke was a cherished friend but what could he do that she couldn’t? Had she not fought alongside them just as hard, if not harder, than anyone? Was she not important enough? Was this some kind of chauvinistic attitude that the ‘girl’ was lacking in some area? Kat’s accusation of growing soft came back to haunt her then and her voice was more forceful than she had intended. “There might be something I can do if you would just ask!”
Shadow sat up and lowered his hand, seeming to appraise her for a moment. Then, much to her annoyance, he shrugged again. “Perhaps. Go back to sleep, we’ll talk in the morning then.”
The half-Esper blinked. Was it that easy? Well… at least he had not insulted her again. Giving a firm nod, and then a not-so-firm one, she turned away. “Yes…in the morning then. I…uhm… yes. Goodnight, Shadow.” He said nothing, and she left the kitchen and padded slowly and dazedly to her bedroom. Her initial pleasure at figuring out the true reason for Shadow’s visit wore off once she had closed her door and settled onto her bed. Had she? What had she just offered of herself, anyhow? An inward groan was her answer to those questions. There were far too many things left unanswered to dwell on now, she forced them out of her mind lest they plague her with insomnia.
She would know in the morning.
(Author’s Note: Wow, thank you everyone for the great reviews I received. Sorry it took so long to get this up, but as you probably know we had some technical difficulties. Wonder who spilled coffee on the server, huh? Anyway, nothing objectionable here, just plodding along as usual. I did put my own twist on Interceptor, hope you don’t mind. As always, thank you for reading! )
After Terra had retired to her bedroom for the last few remaining hours of night, her guest leaned back in the chair at the kitchen table and kicked up his feet onto its surface. Interlocking his fingers behind his head, he let his own eyes close. He knew she would not be there for long before she was up and going about her morning rituals, and he had needed time to prepare for the bombardment of questions he was likely to fall under. He had to be extremely careful in what he let her know if he really did need her help, as far as he remembered she might have moral objections. He really did not know her at all; but he did know that she was perceptive and intelligent, and as of this moment he did not have a cowl to hide behind.
The half-Esper had certainly changed since he had last seen her. It was in her eyes as well as her body, and it had not surprised him. Her eyes were bright, full of purpose and contentment. The shades that had tormented and confused her had been abolished or buried. For someone who claimed to feel nothing, he almost smirked when he realized she had evoked something in him: envy. She was happy, truly and undeniably content here. Another man might have been more opposed to disrupting this.
There was something else, too. She had grown soft. Perhaps that was only physical, but it was very noticeable. When he brought Terra to mind he saw the young woman with grim determination, her hands calloused from her sword, her body hard and toned from the rigorous and demanding life she had put upon herself. That had been a soldier, a warrior through and through, someone who campaigned as hard against daemons in the form of madness as monsters real and tangible, who slept in her armor, who ate hard tack and honed her arcane prowess between marches. Sure, she was young, and sure she was female, but Clyde certainly didn’t think she deserved the crystal-and-silk treatment her male friends seemed to heap upon her. He himself had distanced himself from their ragtag troupe; but he had come to think of Terra as their leader.
After his rather miraculous escape from the ruins of the tower with Interceptor, he had not sought any of them out. If they wanted to think him dead, he was not going to argue. He had reactivated a few of his information sources and kept loose tabs on a few, however. Figaro was a commanding force in the world right now. Not only had it been a second to the Empire, but also it had been leading in many technological advances. Besides, their royal family were heroes: King Edgar and Prince Sabin were hailed as being the ones responsible for ridding the world of evil and saving the world. Honestly, it made him sick. Sure, Edgar would give full credit to any of his comrades had they wanted fame and glory, but he certainly not being modest. Politics, Clyde supposed, were a game where it was vital to have edges such as being a hero.
A soft whine at his feet made him open an eye and peer down at his friend. Interceptor lifted his head and looked back, glancing towards a window briefly. The sun was coming up. Swiping a hand over his face, he let the legs of the chair thump to the floor and he stood up, jerking his head towards the kitchen door with a smirk. “I suppose you want out?” He murmured under his breath.
“I could always let myself out, but then you’d get lazy.”
The ‘Master’ snorted in response at the Fae’s voice in his mind. He had gotten used to it after all these years, his ‘dog’ was a real smartass most of the time. It was also the first thing Interceptor had said to him in days; the dog-fae was in the habit of ignoring him when he did not approve of his actions. It would seem all was forgiven, at least for the moment, so Clyde lead his companion through the kitchen and modest little sitting room to Terra’s front door, pulling it open. As Interceptor brushed past him, Clyde found himself almost face-to-face with a dark-haired young woman.
“Oh!” She exclaimed without a hint of disguising her surprise at seeing him, quite a bit alarmed. Her gaze dropped to the dog, who had stopped to stare at her as well.
The girl had her hand in a little fist; about to knock on the door the second Clyde had opened it. He looked to her, then down at his side, glaring death at the canine. The dog-fae just opened his mouth, letting his tongue hang out as he panted, wagging his tail. ‘You knew she was there, didn’t you, you bastard?’ He thought venomously to his companion, who slipped past him.
“Why Clyde, I don’t know what you mean.” The gleeful creature responded, bounding off to amuse himself and leave his friend stuck explaining himself to the girl on the doorstep.
“Ah…hello,” the girl watched the dog bound off, returning her attention to the man at the door, still having yet to compose herself.
He could imagine what she was thinking right now, most of it showed in her hazel eyes and did not amuse him in the slightest. He arched his brow and shook his head slightly, prompting her to go on. “Was there something you wanted?”
Her mouth set in a line and she took a step back, rather insulted for a moment. She tried to see past him into the house, but there was not much to see other than potted plants. “I’m Katarina. Terra was expecting me. Who are you?”
“Visiting friend,” He took a step back into the house and began closing the door. “I’ll tell her you were here.”
“Just a minute!” She proved to be a temperamental young woman in reaching out to catch the door with her hand and wedge her foot in it for good measure. There was a note of concern in her dark eyes, as she was probably wondering why her good friend did not tell her she was expecting company. “Terra didn’t mention you.”
He looked to Katarina, and to her foot in the door, replying smoothly: “She didn’t mention you either. I’ll tell her you were here.” The last repeated firmly along with a gesture to get her hand and foot out of the way.
For a moment she seemed like she was going to back off, then she grit her teeth and jerked forward, wedging her shoulder in the door now. “Get out of my way! Terra!”
Wincing at the rather loud shriek, he braced himself against the door and the struggling girl. He was considerably stronger than she, and could have easily forced her out. She was, however, very determined to get in, and he supposed he could understand a bit of her concern. Finally he shrugged and relented quite suddenly, stepping back and flinging the door open. Naturally, Katarina was unprepared for this and fell over the threshold with an impressive thud, sprawling onto the floor. She yelped in surprise, then anger, glaring up at him. He did not stay around for her barrage, merely returned to the kitchen.
Katarina pushed herself up with her eyes wide and bright, clenching her sore hands. She was sure she had splinters in her palms from breaking her fall on the floor. Dancing skittishly in the sitting room, she dashed down the hallway towards Terra’s bedroom and ran full into the half-Esper as Terra burst from her bathroom upon hearing the shriek and the thud. After the collision, Terra was pushed back against the bathroom door and Katarina fell onto the floor a second time. “Terra!”
“Kat!” The woman exclaimed breathlessly. “What’s wrong??” She had bathed and was getting dressed, having on a pair of leggings and a pale yellow button-up shirt. The shirt was not buttoned up, held closed between the half-Esper’s breasts by her fist. “I heard you yell, are you all right?”
Pushing her dark curls out of her eyes, the younger of the two looked up to Terra as she got to her feet. “Oh… gods, yes… I’m sorry,” Waving a hand, she breathed deeply to regain her composure as well. “I came to see you, remember we were going on an outing this morning? A man answered the door and I didn’t know him and I got worried and then I tried to get in and then he-“
“Katarina,” Terra broke in with a sigh. “Calm down… everything is fine. He’s a friend; he dropped in unexpectedly last night. I’m fine, really…” Then she furrowed her brow. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
Rather embarrassed now, she just shook her head and forced a little grin. “I fell through the door when he opened it for me. I’m not hurt…” The grin vanished and Kat tilted her head, arching a brow quite suddenly. “Who is he, Terra?”
Now it was Terra's turn to be embarrassed by the other girl’s questioning look. She imagined rumors of scandal would be rampant by the end of the day, and she just did not have the energy to try and explain. Besides, if she tried to assure Kat that there was nothing going on, and she was not keeping strange men in her house as part of some weird affair, that would only enforce the suspicions. “Shadow…. remember? I mentioned him when I returned. He was with us at Kefka’s tower.”
“Oh?” Smoothing the front of her blouse, Katarina’s expression changed to one of wonder. “Ohhhhhh. I had no idea… I thought you said he had, you know, perished?”
“We had thought that, yes,” Terra murmured, making sure Shadow was not around as she began to button up her shirt.
“Am I interrupting a cozy reunion, then?” Smiling brightly now, Kat leaned over to nudge Terra in the ribs lightly.
“Gods, no!” The half-Esper exclaimed, and then broke into a little smile of her own, shaking her head in a patient manner. “No, Katarina… don’t get the wrong idea, I hardly know him. He had come to ask me if I knew where Locke was, apparently he needed help with something. I volunteered to help instead; we haven’t had a chance to really talk yet.”
The other woman nodded lightly, looking back over her shoulder. “Well then, I suppose we aren’t taking the kids out today, hm?”
Terra groaned inwardly. She had promised to help Kat in her own garden, and take the younger children out into the woods today to gather herbs, berries and mushrooms for the fall harvest. The young bride had her hands full with her own little one; she had probably been counting on Terra’s help. “Ah, damnit Kat… I’m sorry. I promise to make it up to you as soon as I know what’s going on…”
The other woman shook her head, taking a step back. “No, that’s fine Terra. We can do it another day; we have plenty left before winter. Bring your friend by and introduce us more proper when you get the chance.”
“Yes, of course. Until then, Kat.” Despite what she was saying, Terra knew her friend was put-off by the sudden change in plans. They were definitely creatures of habit, no doubt about it. Katarina took her leave then, and Terra moved not long afterward to find Shadow and find out what the hell that was all about. Combing her fingers through her damp hair, she found him in the kitchen as if he had not moved from last night.
He looked up when Terra entered the kitchen, leaning on the doorframe. “Your friend is excitable.”
Had he even slept, she wondered? Well, no harm done, she was not going to be upset for nothing. Besides, she had stayed awake the few hours before sunrise, thousands of questions running through her mind. She did hate to seem pushy on such short notice, but he had interrupted her life all of a sudden, and she was eager to get back to it. “I suppose she is. Have you slept? Ate?”
He shrugged. “I rested my eyes for a spell. I could use something to eat in a while; and I was hoping to wash up.”
“Of course…” Drumming her fingers on the frame of the kitchen door, she held him under a scrutinizing gaze. Realizing that it probably seemed unfriendly, she offered a smile. “Are you going to tell me what it is you needed help with?”
After a few moments he nodded, rising from his chair and leaning over to pick up his pack and sling it over his shoulder. He seemed taller than she remembered. “Firstly, it would require that you leave here and travel with me. We would need to head to Soronza, it’s the nearest port town that would accommodate me. On foot, it would take five days to get there, four if we made excellent time. From there we would need to board a ship and head southwest for the Thyzalian islands.” He paused, watching her for reactions, which were not favorable as of this moment.
“That’s…quite a journey…” Terra murmured, straightening. Obviously the thought of leaving Mobliz on such short notice for a long journey was not appealing to her. But, she had offered, so she was not about to retract it simply because it did not sound easy. “And what do we need in the Thyzalian islands?”
“I’m glad you asked,” His tone had lightened as he approached her, keeping a respectful distance as he spoke with much more animation now than she had ever seen, using his hand to gesticulate. “Something called Djinn’s Blood. Ever hear of it?”
Now the half-Esper frowned. She was aware what a ‘djinn’ was, it was some kind of wish-granting creature from fable. Had Shadow said it wrong? He had pronounced it ‘dee-yin’, which was not familiar to her. This was a bit disturbing; she had thought he was needing help with something important. What was this all about? “No, I don’t think I have. What do you want with this Djinn’s Blood?”
Now Shadow seemed surprised that she had to ask. “I want to sell it. I know someone who would offer an obscene amount of gold for the stuff.”
Gold?! This was all about gold?! She was going to leave her home and go to the-gods-knew-where so this man could fatten his purse. Her mouth dropped and her rose-quartz eyes flared with indignation. “Wh…who do you think I am?! I am not traveling halfway around the world to hunt treasure!”
Calmly, the man raised a finger and pointed it at her. “Now you see? That is exactly why I was seeking the ‘treasure hunter’, and why I did not ask you to offer me your help.” He let that hang for a moment, and then he adjusted his pack, looking past her down the hallway. “May I wash up now? If you are not going to come, I have already wasted valuable time.”
Terra promptly closed her mouth, her voice stuck in her throat. He was right. He hadn’t asked for her help, she had offered it without first knowing what the problem was. He would probably not hold it against her if she retracted it, but then again… “Why do you need help, anyway?”
Now he smirked at her, almost. It was gone as quickly as it had come and he seemed to look at her thoughtfully for a moment. “This is not my expertise. It would be dangerous, and there are a few others who are seeking this treasure since a certain merchant put a bounty on it. A partner would be to my advantage, and the reward is great enough that I could sacrifice a share without suffering.”
“I see…” She crossed her arms, looking to the kitchen table. A part of her was intrigued, even flattered that Shadow considered her an even substitute for Locke. Though now she understood why he had wanted her friend instead of her. “What’s in it for me?”
“One-third.” All business now, he did not hesitate.
“I want half.”
“Not a chance. One-third,” Shadow repeated, obviously amused by her demand. “Why so greedy all of a sudden? What happened to the benevolent woman who was only offering to help a friend in need?”
Terra snapped her gaze back to him fearlessly, even stepping a bit closer to make her point. “There are a lot of people here who would benefit from gold. Mobliz is still recovering, I could put it to good use, I’m not being greedy!” Then she added, narrowing her eyes shrewdly. “Locke would demand half.”
“And you will settle for one-third, just as he would have to if he agreed to this, Esper-girl,” Barely suppressing a grin now, he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder and slowly push her out of his way. “Go and get done what you need to get done, I want to leave tomorrow morning.”
She moved to let him pass, fighting a grin of her own. As much as she hated to admit it, this very well may be what she needed; it could be a bit of fun, a bit of adventure. Locke lived for this kind of stuff; maybe she would get to see what the big fuss was all about. Sure, she would not have chosen to do this with the assassin of all people, but… well, she could always rationalize that it was a good thing to do for her charges.
Still, something bothered her. He was not being honest with her, this all sounded too easy.
(Author’s Note: Jeez… holy technical difficulties Batman. And for once, it’s not my computer! Okay, chapter four is here, and there’s a bit of language in here, nothing too objectionable I hope. Chapter five is nearly complete and should be posted very shortly. Thank you for reading and reviewing!)
Each step that took her farther and farther away from her comfortable little house and her safe little life made her question with greater frequency whether or not this had been a mistake. Each step was also a remind of just how soft she had become in only a year’s time; she found her feet ached from the walking, and she longed for a rest even though they had only been moving for little over seven hours. Her endurance surpassed that of mere Humans, so even in her softened state she was no burden on her traveling companion, able to keep pace with him without straining herself. If she gained nothing else from this venture, she would at least have built her strength back up.
Terra was determined to do her part to make the journey to the port last only four days, to push on. The walk so far was a pleasant one. The weather was not too warm, and the road was wide and well worn, leading them through a rich expanse of green forest that chirped and hummed with life. The trees were tall and the tops seemed to be struggling to close over the gaps where the road was, making lovely patterns of shadow and light on the packed earth that danced when wind stirred the branches overhead. The young woman skirted the remains of some small animal crushed beneath the wheels of a wagon, her eyes falling on Shadow’s back a few paces ahead of her.
“Shadow?” She ventured, speaking the first word from either of them since the journey began.
He glanced at her over his shoulder, adjusting the straps of his pack. After a moment, he spoke hesitantly. “Perhaps you shouldn’t call me that. Sure, it’s probably not the most unique name in the world but someone might make a connection and… I don’t want that. Not on this trip.”
“Oh?” Terra hooked her thumbs into the straps of her own traveling pack. “What do you want me to call you, then?”
“My name is Clyde.” He shrugged and kept going, about to ask what it was she wanted, when he was halted by Terra’s sudden bout of uncontrollable laughter. Spinning effortlessly on one heel, he faced her with both brows raised.
She had not been able to help herself. Of course, the half-Esper had never believed that his real name was Shadow, but for some reason his real name sounded hilarious. Leaning over to take a breath, she placed her hands on her knees now, quite aware that he was staring at her and probably offended. There had been a time in their previous travels when she had wished he would open up to her just a bit, wished she knew who was under that mask, and she knew more now than most people alive but… Clyde?? Straightening, she cleared her throat and attempted to look apologetic, sobering up.
“What is so damned funny?” He did not raise his voice, but he added the most inflection he had carried in his tone thus far.
“I am sorry, it’s just…” A hand flew over her mouth and she turned away from him, lowering her head. She was quiet for a few moments, but her shoulders shook with her contained giggles, nearing hysterics now. Tears threatened her eyes, and when she realized there was no holding it in, her hand dropped and she just laughed good and hard while Clyde watched on.
“We don’t have time for this…” He pressed his lips together tightly to keep his own self under control. It was not funny at all, not even one small bit, but laughter tended to be infectious. “Are you done?”
Terra nodded a few times as she faced him again, her face nice and red, her eyes bright with the unshed tears. Sighing and quelling the giggle phantoms, a sleeve was drawn across her eyes to clear them. “Oh… gods… I am so sorry. I wasn’t making fun of you, I just…” she laughed again, closing her eyes and shaking her head a little. There was no end in sight, she burst out again while sputtering the words: “I know now why you changed your name!”
Splaying his fingers, he touched the tips to his forehead, surrendering to a small chuckle. He could not help it any more than she, when put like that it was kind of funny. “Fine… so it’s a funny name, can we go now?”
The half-Esper started to take a step forward, stumbling and recovering enough to resume her walking, gulping for air. Any tension and worry she had been feeling was abolished for the time being, and she fell in step alongside him rather than a few paces behind. “Maybe you shouldn’t have changed it. I mean, if I got word that I was being hunted by the dreaded ninja assassin…Clyde…” here she paused to swallow hard, “…I’m not sure I’d be too utterly terrified. Then I’d let my guard down and your job would be all that much easier.”
He snorted, allowing for a rare grin as he looked to Terra askance. He had to admit, she seemed to have lightened up since he had last seen her. Then again, circumstances were not so grim, but he had the impression Terra would not have joked about his profession so easily a year ago. Not that he minded, he may be quiet, but he was not one to verbally tiptoe. Clyde was secretly pleased that she did not feel the need to walk on eggshells around him, as this would make his job much easier. “Maybe not… but I’m not the only one with a stupid name. How about you? Terra? Big bad half-Esper, turn-into-a-glowing-flying-screaming-sword-weilding-creature-and-rain-down-a-hell-of-fire? Who ever said a name had to fit?”
“I am nothing like that!” Her mouth dropped open and she gasped. In all honesty, she had expected him to just take the teasing and fall quiet again, not bite back. It was a welcome change from the silence that had reigned for the past seven hours.
Now his expression was highly dubious, perhaps sly, his tone dropping to a prodding level. “Oh, you forget, Esper-girl…I was there.”
Terra’s mouth shut and she regarded him in the space of a few quick glances, mildly insulted. A smile crept over her lips though and she nodded slowly. “Yes… I suppose you were. It’s easy for me to forget that, talking to you like this. You seem a different person.”
“Different? You never really knew me from the start. Oh, what was it you were going to ask before you degraded back there?” His pace was still fast, though more leisurely now. He had not been bothered by the silence between them, but even he had to admit this was preferable.
There was a wrinkling of her nose, but she let that remark slide. What had she been about to ask? “Interceptor. Where is he?”
That was a good question. He had noticed that the dog-fae was not heeling like a good pup, but that was hardly abnormal. There was no real point in looking around. “Off chasing rabbits, I suppose. He’ll come back soon, he never goes far.”
Terra nodded slowly and silence fell between them again. It was late into the afternoon; the sun was low in the sky. Nighttime was not far off, and she felt a twinge of guilt for not getting the early start Shadow, Clyde had wanted. He had been pushing to leave at the break of dawn before the sun crested, but Terra was unable to simply up and leave without telling everyone important where she was going, when she was expected back, and to assure them she would be safe. She also had the little ends to wrap up, finding someone to water her plants and care for her garden if an unseasonable frost crept up in her absence. The seasons had yet to be fully restored since the universe had been distorted and left dangerously akimbo, what should have been summer was a cross between a spring and a fall, and occasionally temperatures would drop drastically and leap back up a few days later. This made recovering difficult without the real ability to predict the seasons, but Terra was confident they would return to normal cycles within the next year.
“Clyde…” the young woman managed without laughing this time, but she did grin briefly. “How did you get out of the tower if you weren’t on the airship with us when it collapsed?” She had wanted to know that ever since he showed up in her kitchen, but there never seemed an appropriate time to ask. Now that the proverbial ice had been broken, perhaps now was a good a time as any.
He exhaled a nasal breath, seeming not to have heard her as his hazel eyes scanned the trees and underbrush for signs of Interceptor. Before she repeated her question, he spoke: “My dog got me out of there.”
Well, it would seem they were back to ‘get no more than you asked for’ square, which was mildly annoying. Or maybe he was angry that she’d made fun of his name. “Are you going to elaborate? How did he do that?”
“For fuck’s sake…” The curse coming rather vehemently as Clyde drew his fingers through his hair and shot Terra a perturbed glance. Of course she was going to ask about that sooner or later, and he wondered why he’d mentioned Interceptor at all. He should have just let her imagine he’d devised some clever way to get out. So he’d had a weak moment back there. So what if he’d been content to sit there and let the tower fall down around his ears? Suicide, like murder, was personal. “I didn’t ask the specifics of it. He bit me, I remember, and called me a lot of names, and the next thing I knew I was on a mountain peak, watching everything crumble and crash down from a safe distance.”
“He…called you names?” Terra quirked a brow as she kept her attention mainly on the path, avoiding some jutting roots. “Are you making fun of me or is he some kind of magick dog?”
“Pick one.” The answer was flat and carried a note of finality.
Color rose to her cheeks as she made it a point to glare at him for a few moments, scowling darkly. “If you were going to be an ass about it, all you had to do was say you didn’t want to talk.” Clyde made no response, playing deaf once again, which served to annoy her all the more. “Maybe I should apologize…” Terra drawled, lifting her chin. “I wasn’t aware you were so sensitive to being teased. It’s not my fault you have a stupid name, you know.”
He still made no response to that, and Terra had not expected one. Suppressing a small sigh, she fell quiet and started to walk again, though she did not get more than a step before she felt her feet betray her, and her chin was striking the powdered layer of dirt on the trail. The fall was not a hard one, and her hands had saved her from the most of it. Blinking hard and coughing dust, her head shot up to see Clyde stroll past her, speaking to her over his shoulder.
“Watch where you’re going.”
She gasped. “You tripped me!” Pushing herself up just enough to lunge from her knees, she made a grab for his ankle, growling. However, tripping him up like that was not as easy as she had thought it would be. He just stopped walking, balancing just fine on his un-captured foot, looking down on her with a faintly amused expression.
“So? Do you have any idea how hard I could kick you in the face right now?” Tugging his ankle away from her, which she refused to surrender at the moment. Oh, he would never admit it aloud but she was suddenly very, very cute. At least ‘cute’ was not ‘attractive’ per se, but he was struck with the sudden urge to pat her on the head. She was very determined to get him back, and he didn’t doubt she would think of some evil prank along the way that would turn into a war.
No one ever accused him of lacking a sense of humor.
“If you kicked me, it would be the last thing you ever did,” She twisted, pulling harder on his ankle to no avail; she just couldn’t get him off his feet. Finally she gave up and let go, quite frustrated.
“Not if I killed you, or knocked you unconscious, and then killed you after the kick,” Pacing around the young woman on the ground, he moved in a semi circle before leaning over and offering her a hand up. “But that would defeat the purpose of my putting up with you thus far. C’mon, quit playing around.”
Grudgingly she clasped his hand and used him to pull herself to her feet, disengaging to brush dirt from her knees. Huffing once, she picked a leaf and a pair of twigs from her hair, realizing how having nice hot baths available at a whim had spoiled her. “You still didn’t tell me.”
Reaching over her shoulder, he picked a leaf from her green-gold mane, flicking it away with a little sigh. She wasn’t as easy to distract when she got something in her head. “Interceptor isn’t really a dog. He’s a Fae of some kind. He just prefers to look like a dog. I’m not entirely sure what all his abilities are, and I didn’t even know he could talk until that day.”
“Really?” Terra wondered still if he was just putting her on. Fae were something like Espers, weren’t they? Magick creatures? “How long have you had him for?”
Clyde chuckled at that, shrugging. “He’s traveled with me for what… ten? Eleven years? Something like that.”
“Wow… that’s pretty old for a dog,” Terra commented more to herself. If she had a dog that was as healthy as Interceptor at that age, she may have started to grow suspicious of his true nature by now. “How did you find him?”
He was fully aware that he had not told this story to anyone, that there was only one other still alive who knew. The old blue wizard, Stargo, was sharper than he seemed, there was no doubt in Clyde’s mind that he had recognized Interceptor and knew full well the new ‘master’ was the one who had left his daughter without so much as a word. Stargo knew who Relm’s father was. It would seem that no one had ever said anything about that coincidence, not even Interceptor.
Clyde had known the second he’d seen the girl, the house she lived in. Interceptor had a special bond to Relm’s mother for reasons he was still unclear on. Why he had deserved the Fae’s companionship, he never knew, but he was grateful. He’d asked Interceptor why the dog-fae had left an angel like her to traipse around the world with a lost man. Interceptor mentally shrugged, giving the simple answer that Clyde needed him, and the lovely blonde angel wouldn’t be needing him for much longer. Relm would need him too, someday, but not yet. Perhaps, it was a family thing, and perhaps Clyde was never going to understand.
“He found me, actually. Just… he just started traveling with me one day, and he’s been with me ever since. I got the impression the longer I was with him that he was more than just a dog, but I only knew the half of it.” He heard rustling brush somewhere to his left; Interceptor was letting him know the conversation was being listened to from out of sight.
“He never talked to you before the day he saved you?” Terra was amazed by that thought. They had ten years as a team as close as they were, and they had never spoken? What was it like, talking to Interceptor, she wondered. Could she, if she wanted to?
“No…never.” Terra was easy to talk to. She listened to every word he said as if he were relating tales to a small child; she hung on his every word. That quality was partly the reason he had sought her out for this journey. “He didn’t need to, I guess. In a way, I’ve always understood him. He told me that the reason he never said anything before was… how did he put it? ‘I thought that if I talked to you, you would never talk to anyone else.’ He wouldn’t have me using him as an excuse to be an introvert any more than I already was.”
She smiled faintly, still not sure if she believed him completely, but she had to admit there was something strange about Interceptor. It must be nice to have a friend like that. Clearing her throat, she looked up at the sky. “It’s going to be dark soon, we should find a place to stop. I don’t much like the idea of walking in the dark.”
Nodding his agreement, Clyde was glad to be off the delicate subject. It threatened to turn into an unbearable, untouchable subject if it went much further than that. Either Terra’s timing was just good, or she was reading his mood better than he thought she could. “Good idea. Somewhere off the trail, clear enough to make a small fire.” He squinted a bit, waving off to the left, across Terra. “I thought I saw some apple trees that way. Let’s head off the road, see if we can get something to snack on while we look for a suitable campsite.”
Long, long ago in a galaxy far far away there was a crazy amazing Terra/Shadow fic. I loved it to hell and back. There was even a sequel.
Unfortunately, at one point Fanfiction.net banned NC-17 fics and the fic was wiped from FF.net. The author was so pissed about it that she dropped writing the sequel. As you may have guessed, this was like... six years ago at least.
Now I, being the obsessive fan that I was, saved the thing to my computer. Through successive computer-crashings and new-computer-gettings the fic has continued to survive. I've re-read it since then and I'm still fully in love with it, so I decided to post it here for internet posterity. The original author, DarkSilk, has an account at the Pit and the sequel is still there (if unfinished) but the author herself is long gone.
So anyway, with apologies to the original author, I want to post the fic here for internet posterity because damn it's awesome. If there were any sort of general FF fanfiction comm maybe I could post it there? I don't know. But this fic deserves to be read.
Because of its length, I'm going to have to post it in parts. Many parts. I might also have to fiddle with the formatting, but anyway, here's the first chapter. This might take a while. /:
TS
The blade of the simple gardening tool stabbed into the dirt, creating a soft and satisfying grating noise. The smell of rich, fertile soil was invigorating; a reminder to never again take for granted the life within the earth. The gardener had been at her task for hours; pausing now and again to rest and take in her work, and then she returned to toil as hard as ever. From a shallow wooden box she drew seeds and bulbs, arranging and planting, envisioning in her head the splendor that would be grown by the time summer was upon them.
In the shadow of a modest house, the modest young woman went about her self-appointed duty. Green-gold hair not unlike a tarnished treasure was pulled back and off of her brow by a plain red bandana, and eyes of a similar shade were absent and lost. Gloved hands picked through her little collection of seeds as she murmured incoherently under her breath, occasionally wiping good clean dirt off of her hands and onto her overalls. Finally, she sat back on the grass in the shade of her home, leaning over to roll up the cuffs of her pants.
Mobliz was on the mend, close to thriving now. In only little more than a full year people had come; drifters robbed of their homes in the great disaster, traders, lost souls of every kind congregated here. Terra looked over her shoulder to the other houses, most of which had not been here when she’d returned. The children… she would not be so optimistic to say that they were fine; they had lived through and seen more than any child should, but they were alive. Perhaps, given more time, they would be fine.
A hint of a smile tugged at the corner of the half-Esper’s mouth when she spied Reiji running between two of the original structures in her general direction. These days were so calm, so quiet. She recalled that Katarina had, in jest, accused Terra of growing soft in her domestic life. Perhaps the girl was right; maybe Terra had grown soft. What of the others? Her thoughts turned to them frequently, when her body was absorbed in a task that did not require her concentration. Each of those who had stood against Kefka in the end had parted ways, as each of them knew they would. There was much to atone for, much recuperating and soul-searching needing to be done, and what better time in history to do just that?
“Terra!” Reiji panted softly in an exaggerated manner when he was within speaking range, his mop of red curls looking damp from a recent swim in the lake. The boy, all of ten years old, doubled over with his hands on his knees with his chin lifted to flash an impish grin.
Her smile widened and she stood, taking her time in pulling off the heavy working gloves. “Yes, Reiji?”
“I found a dog! Come see! He came right up to me!” The boy reached out to take her hand, giving it an insistent but gentle tug. “Come on and see, he’s great! He’s a herding dog; you think he can herd cattle? What about sheep?”
“One thing at a time!” Terra exclaimed in mock exasperation, allowing herself to be lead by the hand across the uneven grass that made up the sparse land around her house. Reiji was pointing ahead of himself, starting to jog now with the young woman in tow. His excitement was infectious and soon she was very curious to see just what had gotten the lad so riled up. Dogs were hardly uncommon, especially herding dogs in rural villages such as this.
Reiji lead Terra away from the residents and towards what was slowly becoming a very lovely village square. It still had a long way to go, more structures to be added to the meager shops that had already set up, more earth to be leveled for masons to set in cobble and flagstones before it would be completed. The young woman nearly tripped over a small pile of the smooth stones a man was setting into the ground, uttering a startled apology as the boy continued his journey. In the center of the square, where the first stones had been laid, there had been a large, smooth, circular stone left for a sundial. It was, as of yet, only a stone, as the craftsmen had yet to do their work. It was here where Reiji lead her.
Her hand was released and Reiji ran to join his younger sister, Perlina. Both children stood flanking a rather impressive animal that stood sat on his haunches on the stone with a long pink tongue hanging from the side of his open mouth. Terra arched a brow as Reiji began to pet the large dog on the head, looking to the half-Esper for her approval. The dog was dark in color, though he had more browns and beiges in his coat than black. He was obviously tame, and well fed. Certainly no stray.
“See? Isn’t he nice? And big, too!” Reiji scratched at a pointed ear, grinning still. “Well what do you think, Terra? I want to call him Bandit, because he looks like he’s wearing a mask. Perlina wants to call him Dusty, but I think that’s stupid.”
“Is not!” The younger girl glared at her brother.
Terra was able to tune out the long string of ‘is not, is too’ that went back and forth between the siblings. Her attention was on the dog, which was incredibly docile, or merely tolerant of the children. She had seen herding dogs of this particular breed quite a few times before, but she had to admit that none had looked as much like Interceptor as this one did. Her smile fell, and she reached out a hand to the canine for his inspection. Shadow’s dog, Interceptor, was as big as this, wasn’t he? A pang of guilt struck her then; she had not turned much thought to Shadow or his canine companion much in the time since the tower fell. He had been just as his name: a shadow, to herself and her comrades. No doubt he had done his part in aiding them, but did it mean as much that King Edgar also paid him for his services? Terra shook her head slowly and stepped away from the dog, returning her attention to the two children arguing about what to call him.
Perlina broke away from her brother and skittered a distance of a few feet, then turned back and crouched with her hands balled up in the hem of her dress. “Dusty! Dus-teee, c’mon boy! C’mere Dusty, come on!” She tried to get the dog’s attention, to prove he like her name better. The canine seemed to arch a brow, tilting his head at the girl.
“Bandit!” Reiji took his turn in moving away from the animal and trying to coax it to come to him.
Terra chuckled and slapped her palm to her thigh, and on whim, found herself calling to the dog as well. “Interceptor! Here, boy.”
Surprise of surprises, the canine rose regally from his haunches and padded to Terra, looking up at her expectantly. It was perhaps not an affectionate reunion, but she was given a single wag of the tail, which was fairly good. Perhaps she had gained points by remembering his name.
Furrowing her brow, the young woman looked back into the soulful dark brown eyes of the canine and shook her head slowly in disbelief. Part of her was convinced she had just used the proper tone of voice, but the other part was wondering how Interceptor could have come to be here, of all places? Neither Shadow nor his loyal friend were aboard the airship when they fled Kefka’s crumbling tower… how could the dog have come to be here? Her head snapped up then and she cast a wary and thorough look around her immediate surroundings. Was it possible that the mysterious self-stylized ninja was here? In Mobliz?
Her lips moved and she sucked in a breath, almost tempted to ask the dog for answers. Was this all just an eerie coincidence fueled by her daydreaming? The dog snorted once, as if he was disgusted and then his head snapped up, ears at attention. Terra watched as he stiffened, and then bounded off like a possessed thing across the cobblestone so fast she would not be shocked if he took to the air. She was no longer paying attention to the siblings, who were first miserable that the dog had come to Terra and not them; and then wailing in despair when he took off so suddenly. They bounded after him, but they had better chances of catching a dragon.
Shaking her head again, she attempted to chuckle and dismiss the whole thing. This proved to be quite impossible by the time she had returned to her house, she swore she saw flickers of suspicious motion out of the corners of her eyes. It grew annoying enough to make her abandon the gardening and retreat into her home. Her instincts told her that the dog was indeed Interceptor, and she had learned to trust those instincts. However, that did not start to make sense. How had he ended up here? If man and dog had survived Kefka’s tower somehow, why in the name of anything holy would Shadow come here? It was not a pleasant feeling of an impending reunion that kept her pacing in front of her door until the sun set. Her protective urges were surging up with a vengeance at the mere thought that the assassin would be peddling himself in her territory.
Hunting for Shadow would prove fruitless, of that much she was certain. If he meant business, he would make himself known and soon. Perhaps it was paranoia or an over active imagination, but she did not believe for a moment the meeting in the village square was an accident or chance encounter.
(Author’s note: Hah… short, I know, but I do have more ready to go, and soon. Hope it was enough to catch your interest at least. Lemons to come in the near future, as well as that reunion. Won’t give it away, though. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed my first stab at a fan fiction.)
(Author’s note: No lemons here either. I think I am going to just change the rating altogether, because well… this is kind of writing itself much differently than I had originally intended. Which is not bad. I’m liking how it’s going. If there are lemon warnings in the distant future, you shall know. Again, thank you for reading and for the reviews!)
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The sound had been unobtrusive at first; quiet background noise that was assimilated or dismissed during her sound sleep. As time went on, however, it seemed to grow louder, or she was bit by bit being roused from her sleep by it. By the final second before waking it was like some insane nightmare-clock pounding away at her nerves until she bolted upright in bed, desperately seeking the source. Her gaze went to her bedroom window first; but it was not the sound of a pane being tapped. It was duller, loud in the otherwise quiet little house. To her bedroom door she looked, squinting in the darkness. She had a visitor.
“Interceptor?” Came the unnecessary query from the drowsy young woman. The mystery of the sound was solved at least; it had been the dog’s nails on the wooden floor making the sound. Of course it was the canine from earlier today, but why was he standing in the doorway to her bedroom? How had he gotten in?
Before she could begin to wonder if she was perhaps still dreaming or not, the large canine’s ears perked up at an audible and short whistle from elsewhere in the house. Terra was promptly dismissed and Interceptor turned away without hesitation to answer the call. A gasp at his departure and the girl was tearing the blanket off of herself and bounding out of bed to confront the intruders. Bare feet touched cold floor and that served to rouse her fully from the lingering clutches of weariness as she prevented herself from stumbling by lurching to catch the doorframe, spinning around it rather artfully to chase after the speedy canine. Uncaring for the moment of her disheveled hair and nightgown, her tiers were drawn into a tight line when she saw warm light spilling from her kitchen.
If she had taken the time to consider what she had just discovered at her kitchen table, feeding his beloved dog something taken from her pantry, Terra may have been confused or curious, perhaps even a little wary. As it were, she was left completely and utterly speechless, having to lean on the wall for support once she’d crossed the kitchen’s threshold lest she slump to the floor. The man at the small table glanced up to her briefly and dipped a piece of bread into his cup, tossing the treat to Interceptor without saying so much as a word of greeting or explanation. Terra realized that she had never fully seen Shadow’s face before this moment, and were she one of many others who puzzled over his obscured features or driven themselves mad with curiosity, she would have been disappointed.
He was probably younger than he really looked, placing him somewhere in the mid-thirties, but that could have been a kind estimate. His hair was sandy and short with no real order or sense to it, like wild wheat. His features were not unattractive, but he was certainly not more than plain, the kind of face that was easily forgotten. Well, if it were not for the ugly scar over his left eye. At least the cowl more sense now, she amended. The clothing, the disguise could change, but a mark like that was a rather distinctive feature for someone who wished to remain anonymous. The old wound was closer to his temple than his eye, slicing deeply and jaggedly to his cheekbone. It seemed to have missed the hazel ocular and spared his eyesight, however. He had been traveling, that much was obvious by his simple -black, naturally- clothing and the pack resting on the floor between Shadow’s chair and Interceptor. In her astonished scrutiny, Terra was not aware that several tense moments had passed until the silence was finally broken.
“Terra.” Her name was spoken lightly without any real inflection: a greeting.
“Shadow…” She replied dazedly, pushing off of the wall to stand straight now that she we had recovered from her initial flooring, her mind began forming questions at an alarming rate; faster than her mouth could keep up. All that did was form little sounds such as ‘wh’ and ‘how’ in a loop with alternating order until she shook her head and blinked hard, blurting out the first she could wrap her tongue around. “What are you doing here?!”
He had glanced at her only momentarily when she’d first entered the kitchen. Now his attention was on his dog, to whom he kept passing off pieces of bread to. He seemed completely at ease, as if this were his home and he had returned to it after a long journey. His face was just as neutral and expressionless as Terra had always imagined it would be, his eyes finding nothing worthy of giving any more attention to than absolutely necessary.
“Sitting. Feeding my dog.” If he was teasing or attempting to make her angry, he was a master at hiding it. His voice was quiet, not unpleasant, and much smoother now that he was not speaking through cloth.
It was more frustrating than infuriating, but she should have known better than to expect him to spill a stream of dialogue without asking the proper questions. Terra tried again from where she stood. “But…why are you here?”
His immediate response was to gesture for her to sit down. Terra pursed her lips, not appreciating being offered a seat in her own home by someone she had not invited in, but her curiosity won over and she crossed the short distance between them and drew out the only other chair from the small round table, settling into it. When he did not say anything, she added in: “We thought you were dead.”
Shadow’s expression did not change in the slightest, but he did at least deign to look at her now. “Did you?” He asked blandly…though there was a hint of an almost concealed edge in his voice. “I can tell by your flood of joy and relief that you must have been very upset by the thought of me not making it out of there. Should I apologize for worrying you?”
It would have had less effect had he added sarcasm or bitterness to it. He did not; he almost sounded utterly sincere but his eyes were mocking her. Terra’s mouth dropped open in utter indignation and anger, her hands on the table braced herself to rise and protest this mistreatment and demand he leave. Before the first sound had escaped her throat, he had cut her off.
“I need to find your friend. Locke.”
That was enough to make her stop and blink again. Her mouth closed and she drew a deep breath, suddenly wary of the man before her. Slowly, she relented and returned to her seat, her voice controlled. “He’s not here.”
“I managed to figure that out all by myself. I’m asking if you know where he is.” At his feet, Interceptor lay down on the floor. Shadow kept his gaze carefully trained on Terra. Did he look…hopeful? Eager? It was impossible to tell, but he seemed more interested now than he had a few moments ago.
She tried to imagine what Shadow could possibly want with Locke. Did he want to kill her friend? Her thoughts must have been playing across her features because the visitor snorted lightly and shook his head. Terra cleared her throat and spoke up again, perhaps slightly embarrassed but she simply could not put it past him. “Tell me what you want with him.”
“I have a job offer.” Leaning back in his chair, rather like some lounging feline, Shadow perfected the art of looking extremely bored now.
Terra shook her head slowly. “I received letters from him, but he didn’t say where he was exactly. He travels…” That was the truth. She wondered if Shadow would leave now? He seemed to be now considering her words, perhaps judging whether or not she was being honest. It was brief, the sensation, but she experienced a moment of fear. Really, she did not know this man at all. “What kind of job?”
Now the other was silent, only shaking his head the smallest bit to indicate he would not elaborate. Not that she expected him to. In retrospect, this was the longest conversation she had ever held with the usually silent man. She felt uncomfortable then, wondering if she should ask him to leave. She wanted to go back to bed as much as she wanted to ask Shadow how he had gotten into her house, and more importantly, how he had escaped from Kefka’s tower. Again, he seemed to sense what she was thinking because he returned his attention to the girl and nodded his head once.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll be gone when you wake up.” He brought his hand up to his face, fingertips resting under his chin. He was not looking at her anymore; he was staring off at nothing in what seemed to be mock contemplation.
That sounded like a gong signaling the end of the conversation and Terra grudgingly nodded her agreement. If Shadow was not going to answer her questions, she would not waste her breath. He had made her feel the tiniest pang of guilt for not holding him in the same regard she had held her other comrades, but she managed to quell it for the time being. Rising from the chair, she thought of saying something like ‘it was nice to see you again’ but… it would sound hollow. She made her way to the kitchen door, her hand resting on the frame as she found herself hesitating. Mentally cringing, she turned to partially face him.
“Shadow?”
He lifted his head; an eyebrow arched a subtle measure.
Facing him fully once more, Terra furrowed her brow and asked hesitantly: “Are you… are you in trouble? Do you need…help?”
He stared at her blankly a moment without moving his fingers from his chin, though both eyebrows were now raised. He shook his head in the negative.
“You’re sure?” She pressed, her kind nature getting the better of her. It began to worry her. What if he had needed Locke’s help with something, and it was not a job as he had said. As she recalled, he seemed to do just fine ‘working’ on his own.
“You can’t help me,” There was a bit of inflection in his voice now, a kind of resignation.
Terra frowned. “But Locke can?” A shrug was her only response, which she did not take as a ‘no’. It irked her the more she thought about it. What was going on? Of course Locke was a cherished friend but what could he do that she couldn’t? Had she not fought alongside them just as hard, if not harder, than anyone? Was she not important enough? Was this some kind of chauvinistic attitude that the ‘girl’ was lacking in some area? Kat’s accusation of growing soft came back to haunt her then and her voice was more forceful than she had intended. “There might be something I can do if you would just ask!”
Shadow sat up and lowered his hand, seeming to appraise her for a moment. Then, much to her annoyance, he shrugged again. “Perhaps. Go back to sleep, we’ll talk in the morning then.”
The half-Esper blinked. Was it that easy? Well… at least he had not insulted her again. Giving a firm nod, and then a not-so-firm one, she turned away. “Yes…in the morning then. I…uhm… yes. Goodnight, Shadow.” He said nothing, and she left the kitchen and padded slowly and dazedly to her bedroom. Her initial pleasure at figuring out the true reason for Shadow’s visit wore off once she had closed her door and settled onto her bed. Had she? What had she just offered of herself, anyhow? An inward groan was her answer to those questions. There were far too many things left unanswered to dwell on now, she forced them out of her mind lest they plague her with insomnia.
She would know in the morning.
(Author’s Note: Wow, thank you everyone for the great reviews I received. Sorry it took so long to get this up, but as you probably know we had some technical difficulties. Wonder who spilled coffee on the server, huh? Anyway, nothing objectionable here, just plodding along as usual. I did put my own twist on Interceptor, hope you don’t mind. As always, thank you for reading! )
After Terra had retired to her bedroom for the last few remaining hours of night, her guest leaned back in the chair at the kitchen table and kicked up his feet onto its surface. Interlocking his fingers behind his head, he let his own eyes close. He knew she would not be there for long before she was up and going about her morning rituals, and he had needed time to prepare for the bombardment of questions he was likely to fall under. He had to be extremely careful in what he let her know if he really did need her help, as far as he remembered she might have moral objections. He really did not know her at all; but he did know that she was perceptive and intelligent, and as of this moment he did not have a cowl to hide behind.
The half-Esper had certainly changed since he had last seen her. It was in her eyes as well as her body, and it had not surprised him. Her eyes were bright, full of purpose and contentment. The shades that had tormented and confused her had been abolished or buried. For someone who claimed to feel nothing, he almost smirked when he realized she had evoked something in him: envy. She was happy, truly and undeniably content here. Another man might have been more opposed to disrupting this.
There was something else, too. She had grown soft. Perhaps that was only physical, but it was very noticeable. When he brought Terra to mind he saw the young woman with grim determination, her hands calloused from her sword, her body hard and toned from the rigorous and demanding life she had put upon herself. That had been a soldier, a warrior through and through, someone who campaigned as hard against daemons in the form of madness as monsters real and tangible, who slept in her armor, who ate hard tack and honed her arcane prowess between marches. Sure, she was young, and sure she was female, but Clyde certainly didn’t think she deserved the crystal-and-silk treatment her male friends seemed to heap upon her. He himself had distanced himself from their ragtag troupe; but he had come to think of Terra as their leader.
After his rather miraculous escape from the ruins of the tower with Interceptor, he had not sought any of them out. If they wanted to think him dead, he was not going to argue. He had reactivated a few of his information sources and kept loose tabs on a few, however. Figaro was a commanding force in the world right now. Not only had it been a second to the Empire, but also it had been leading in many technological advances. Besides, their royal family were heroes: King Edgar and Prince Sabin were hailed as being the ones responsible for ridding the world of evil and saving the world. Honestly, it made him sick. Sure, Edgar would give full credit to any of his comrades had they wanted fame and glory, but he certainly not being modest. Politics, Clyde supposed, were a game where it was vital to have edges such as being a hero.
A soft whine at his feet made him open an eye and peer down at his friend. Interceptor lifted his head and looked back, glancing towards a window briefly. The sun was coming up. Swiping a hand over his face, he let the legs of the chair thump to the floor and he stood up, jerking his head towards the kitchen door with a smirk. “I suppose you want out?” He murmured under his breath.
“I could always let myself out, but then you’d get lazy.”
The ‘Master’ snorted in response at the Fae’s voice in his mind. He had gotten used to it after all these years, his ‘dog’ was a real smartass most of the time. It was also the first thing Interceptor had said to him in days; the dog-fae was in the habit of ignoring him when he did not approve of his actions. It would seem all was forgiven, at least for the moment, so Clyde lead his companion through the kitchen and modest little sitting room to Terra’s front door, pulling it open. As Interceptor brushed past him, Clyde found himself almost face-to-face with a dark-haired young woman.
“Oh!” She exclaimed without a hint of disguising her surprise at seeing him, quite a bit alarmed. Her gaze dropped to the dog, who had stopped to stare at her as well.
The girl had her hand in a little fist; about to knock on the door the second Clyde had opened it. He looked to her, then down at his side, glaring death at the canine. The dog-fae just opened his mouth, letting his tongue hang out as he panted, wagging his tail. ‘You knew she was there, didn’t you, you bastard?’ He thought venomously to his companion, who slipped past him.
“Why Clyde, I don’t know what you mean.” The gleeful creature responded, bounding off to amuse himself and leave his friend stuck explaining himself to the girl on the doorstep.
“Ah…hello,” the girl watched the dog bound off, returning her attention to the man at the door, still having yet to compose herself.
He could imagine what she was thinking right now, most of it showed in her hazel eyes and did not amuse him in the slightest. He arched his brow and shook his head slightly, prompting her to go on. “Was there something you wanted?”
Her mouth set in a line and she took a step back, rather insulted for a moment. She tried to see past him into the house, but there was not much to see other than potted plants. “I’m Katarina. Terra was expecting me. Who are you?”
“Visiting friend,” He took a step back into the house and began closing the door. “I’ll tell her you were here.”
“Just a minute!” She proved to be a temperamental young woman in reaching out to catch the door with her hand and wedge her foot in it for good measure. There was a note of concern in her dark eyes, as she was probably wondering why her good friend did not tell her she was expecting company. “Terra didn’t mention you.”
He looked to Katarina, and to her foot in the door, replying smoothly: “She didn’t mention you either. I’ll tell her you were here.” The last repeated firmly along with a gesture to get her hand and foot out of the way.
For a moment she seemed like she was going to back off, then she grit her teeth and jerked forward, wedging her shoulder in the door now. “Get out of my way! Terra!”
Wincing at the rather loud shriek, he braced himself against the door and the struggling girl. He was considerably stronger than she, and could have easily forced her out. She was, however, very determined to get in, and he supposed he could understand a bit of her concern. Finally he shrugged and relented quite suddenly, stepping back and flinging the door open. Naturally, Katarina was unprepared for this and fell over the threshold with an impressive thud, sprawling onto the floor. She yelped in surprise, then anger, glaring up at him. He did not stay around for her barrage, merely returned to the kitchen.
Katarina pushed herself up with her eyes wide and bright, clenching her sore hands. She was sure she had splinters in her palms from breaking her fall on the floor. Dancing skittishly in the sitting room, she dashed down the hallway towards Terra’s bedroom and ran full into the half-Esper as Terra burst from her bathroom upon hearing the shriek and the thud. After the collision, Terra was pushed back against the bathroom door and Katarina fell onto the floor a second time. “Terra!”
“Kat!” The woman exclaimed breathlessly. “What’s wrong??” She had bathed and was getting dressed, having on a pair of leggings and a pale yellow button-up shirt. The shirt was not buttoned up, held closed between the half-Esper’s breasts by her fist. “I heard you yell, are you all right?”
Pushing her dark curls out of her eyes, the younger of the two looked up to Terra as she got to her feet. “Oh… gods, yes… I’m sorry,” Waving a hand, she breathed deeply to regain her composure as well. “I came to see you, remember we were going on an outing this morning? A man answered the door and I didn’t know him and I got worried and then I tried to get in and then he-“
“Katarina,” Terra broke in with a sigh. “Calm down… everything is fine. He’s a friend; he dropped in unexpectedly last night. I’m fine, really…” Then she furrowed her brow. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
Rather embarrassed now, she just shook her head and forced a little grin. “I fell through the door when he opened it for me. I’m not hurt…” The grin vanished and Kat tilted her head, arching a brow quite suddenly. “Who is he, Terra?”
Now it was Terra's turn to be embarrassed by the other girl’s questioning look. She imagined rumors of scandal would be rampant by the end of the day, and she just did not have the energy to try and explain. Besides, if she tried to assure Kat that there was nothing going on, and she was not keeping strange men in her house as part of some weird affair, that would only enforce the suspicions. “Shadow…. remember? I mentioned him when I returned. He was with us at Kefka’s tower.”
“Oh?” Smoothing the front of her blouse, Katarina’s expression changed to one of wonder. “Ohhhhhh. I had no idea… I thought you said he had, you know, perished?”
“We had thought that, yes,” Terra murmured, making sure Shadow was not around as she began to button up her shirt.
“Am I interrupting a cozy reunion, then?” Smiling brightly now, Kat leaned over to nudge Terra in the ribs lightly.
“Gods, no!” The half-Esper exclaimed, and then broke into a little smile of her own, shaking her head in a patient manner. “No, Katarina… don’t get the wrong idea, I hardly know him. He had come to ask me if I knew where Locke was, apparently he needed help with something. I volunteered to help instead; we haven’t had a chance to really talk yet.”
The other woman nodded lightly, looking back over her shoulder. “Well then, I suppose we aren’t taking the kids out today, hm?”
Terra groaned inwardly. She had promised to help Kat in her own garden, and take the younger children out into the woods today to gather herbs, berries and mushrooms for the fall harvest. The young bride had her hands full with her own little one; she had probably been counting on Terra’s help. “Ah, damnit Kat… I’m sorry. I promise to make it up to you as soon as I know what’s going on…”
The other woman shook her head, taking a step back. “No, that’s fine Terra. We can do it another day; we have plenty left before winter. Bring your friend by and introduce us more proper when you get the chance.”
“Yes, of course. Until then, Kat.” Despite what she was saying, Terra knew her friend was put-off by the sudden change in plans. They were definitely creatures of habit, no doubt about it. Katarina took her leave then, and Terra moved not long afterward to find Shadow and find out what the hell that was all about. Combing her fingers through her damp hair, she found him in the kitchen as if he had not moved from last night.
He looked up when Terra entered the kitchen, leaning on the doorframe. “Your friend is excitable.”
Had he even slept, she wondered? Well, no harm done, she was not going to be upset for nothing. Besides, she had stayed awake the few hours before sunrise, thousands of questions running through her mind. She did hate to seem pushy on such short notice, but he had interrupted her life all of a sudden, and she was eager to get back to it. “I suppose she is. Have you slept? Ate?”
He shrugged. “I rested my eyes for a spell. I could use something to eat in a while; and I was hoping to wash up.”
“Of course…” Drumming her fingers on the frame of the kitchen door, she held him under a scrutinizing gaze. Realizing that it probably seemed unfriendly, she offered a smile. “Are you going to tell me what it is you needed help with?”
After a few moments he nodded, rising from his chair and leaning over to pick up his pack and sling it over his shoulder. He seemed taller than she remembered. “Firstly, it would require that you leave here and travel with me. We would need to head to Soronza, it’s the nearest port town that would accommodate me. On foot, it would take five days to get there, four if we made excellent time. From there we would need to board a ship and head southwest for the Thyzalian islands.” He paused, watching her for reactions, which were not favorable as of this moment.
“That’s…quite a journey…” Terra murmured, straightening. Obviously the thought of leaving Mobliz on such short notice for a long journey was not appealing to her. But, she had offered, so she was not about to retract it simply because it did not sound easy. “And what do we need in the Thyzalian islands?”
“I’m glad you asked,” His tone had lightened as he approached her, keeping a respectful distance as he spoke with much more animation now than she had ever seen, using his hand to gesticulate. “Something called Djinn’s Blood. Ever hear of it?”
Now the half-Esper frowned. She was aware what a ‘djinn’ was, it was some kind of wish-granting creature from fable. Had Shadow said it wrong? He had pronounced it ‘dee-yin’, which was not familiar to her. This was a bit disturbing; she had thought he was needing help with something important. What was this all about? “No, I don’t think I have. What do you want with this Djinn’s Blood?”
Now Shadow seemed surprised that she had to ask. “I want to sell it. I know someone who would offer an obscene amount of gold for the stuff.”
Gold?! This was all about gold?! She was going to leave her home and go to the-gods-knew-where so this man could fatten his purse. Her mouth dropped and her rose-quartz eyes flared with indignation. “Wh…who do you think I am?! I am not traveling halfway around the world to hunt treasure!”
Calmly, the man raised a finger and pointed it at her. “Now you see? That is exactly why I was seeking the ‘treasure hunter’, and why I did not ask you to offer me your help.” He let that hang for a moment, and then he adjusted his pack, looking past her down the hallway. “May I wash up now? If you are not going to come, I have already wasted valuable time.”
Terra promptly closed her mouth, her voice stuck in her throat. He was right. He hadn’t asked for her help, she had offered it without first knowing what the problem was. He would probably not hold it against her if she retracted it, but then again… “Why do you need help, anyway?”
Now he smirked at her, almost. It was gone as quickly as it had come and he seemed to look at her thoughtfully for a moment. “This is not my expertise. It would be dangerous, and there are a few others who are seeking this treasure since a certain merchant put a bounty on it. A partner would be to my advantage, and the reward is great enough that I could sacrifice a share without suffering.”
“I see…” She crossed her arms, looking to the kitchen table. A part of her was intrigued, even flattered that Shadow considered her an even substitute for Locke. Though now she understood why he had wanted her friend instead of her. “What’s in it for me?”
“One-third.” All business now, he did not hesitate.
“I want half.”
“Not a chance. One-third,” Shadow repeated, obviously amused by her demand. “Why so greedy all of a sudden? What happened to the benevolent woman who was only offering to help a friend in need?”
Terra snapped her gaze back to him fearlessly, even stepping a bit closer to make her point. “There are a lot of people here who would benefit from gold. Mobliz is still recovering, I could put it to good use, I’m not being greedy!” Then she added, narrowing her eyes shrewdly. “Locke would demand half.”
“And you will settle for one-third, just as he would have to if he agreed to this, Esper-girl,” Barely suppressing a grin now, he reached out to place a hand on her shoulder and slowly push her out of his way. “Go and get done what you need to get done, I want to leave tomorrow morning.”
She moved to let him pass, fighting a grin of her own. As much as she hated to admit it, this very well may be what she needed; it could be a bit of fun, a bit of adventure. Locke lived for this kind of stuff; maybe she would get to see what the big fuss was all about. Sure, she would not have chosen to do this with the assassin of all people, but… well, she could always rationalize that it was a good thing to do for her charges.
Still, something bothered her. He was not being honest with her, this all sounded too easy.
(Author’s Note: Jeez… holy technical difficulties Batman. And for once, it’s not my computer! Okay, chapter four is here, and there’s a bit of language in here, nothing too objectionable I hope. Chapter five is nearly complete and should be posted very shortly. Thank you for reading and reviewing!)
Each step that took her farther and farther away from her comfortable little house and her safe little life made her question with greater frequency whether or not this had been a mistake. Each step was also a remind of just how soft she had become in only a year’s time; she found her feet ached from the walking, and she longed for a rest even though they had only been moving for little over seven hours. Her endurance surpassed that of mere Humans, so even in her softened state she was no burden on her traveling companion, able to keep pace with him without straining herself. If she gained nothing else from this venture, she would at least have built her strength back up.
Terra was determined to do her part to make the journey to the port last only four days, to push on. The walk so far was a pleasant one. The weather was not too warm, and the road was wide and well worn, leading them through a rich expanse of green forest that chirped and hummed with life. The trees were tall and the tops seemed to be struggling to close over the gaps where the road was, making lovely patterns of shadow and light on the packed earth that danced when wind stirred the branches overhead. The young woman skirted the remains of some small animal crushed beneath the wheels of a wagon, her eyes falling on Shadow’s back a few paces ahead of her.
“Shadow?” She ventured, speaking the first word from either of them since the journey began.
He glanced at her over his shoulder, adjusting the straps of his pack. After a moment, he spoke hesitantly. “Perhaps you shouldn’t call me that. Sure, it’s probably not the most unique name in the world but someone might make a connection and… I don’t want that. Not on this trip.”
“Oh?” Terra hooked her thumbs into the straps of her own traveling pack. “What do you want me to call you, then?”
“My name is Clyde.” He shrugged and kept going, about to ask what it was she wanted, when he was halted by Terra’s sudden bout of uncontrollable laughter. Spinning effortlessly on one heel, he faced her with both brows raised.
She had not been able to help herself. Of course, the half-Esper had never believed that his real name was Shadow, but for some reason his real name sounded hilarious. Leaning over to take a breath, she placed her hands on her knees now, quite aware that he was staring at her and probably offended. There had been a time in their previous travels when she had wished he would open up to her just a bit, wished she knew who was under that mask, and she knew more now than most people alive but… Clyde?? Straightening, she cleared her throat and attempted to look apologetic, sobering up.
“What is so damned funny?” He did not raise his voice, but he added the most inflection he had carried in his tone thus far.
“I am sorry, it’s just…” A hand flew over her mouth and she turned away from him, lowering her head. She was quiet for a few moments, but her shoulders shook with her contained giggles, nearing hysterics now. Tears threatened her eyes, and when she realized there was no holding it in, her hand dropped and she just laughed good and hard while Clyde watched on.
“We don’t have time for this…” He pressed his lips together tightly to keep his own self under control. It was not funny at all, not even one small bit, but laughter tended to be infectious. “Are you done?”
Terra nodded a few times as she faced him again, her face nice and red, her eyes bright with the unshed tears. Sighing and quelling the giggle phantoms, a sleeve was drawn across her eyes to clear them. “Oh… gods… I am so sorry. I wasn’t making fun of you, I just…” she laughed again, closing her eyes and shaking her head a little. There was no end in sight, she burst out again while sputtering the words: “I know now why you changed your name!”
Splaying his fingers, he touched the tips to his forehead, surrendering to a small chuckle. He could not help it any more than she, when put like that it was kind of funny. “Fine… so it’s a funny name, can we go now?”
The half-Esper started to take a step forward, stumbling and recovering enough to resume her walking, gulping for air. Any tension and worry she had been feeling was abolished for the time being, and she fell in step alongside him rather than a few paces behind. “Maybe you shouldn’t have changed it. I mean, if I got word that I was being hunted by the dreaded ninja assassin…Clyde…” here she paused to swallow hard, “…I’m not sure I’d be too utterly terrified. Then I’d let my guard down and your job would be all that much easier.”
He snorted, allowing for a rare grin as he looked to Terra askance. He had to admit, she seemed to have lightened up since he had last seen her. Then again, circumstances were not so grim, but he had the impression Terra would not have joked about his profession so easily a year ago. Not that he minded, he may be quiet, but he was not one to verbally tiptoe. Clyde was secretly pleased that she did not feel the need to walk on eggshells around him, as this would make his job much easier. “Maybe not… but I’m not the only one with a stupid name. How about you? Terra? Big bad half-Esper, turn-into-a-glowing-flying-screaming-sword-weilding-creature-and-rain-down-a-hell-of-fire? Who ever said a name had to fit?”
“I am nothing like that!” Her mouth dropped open and she gasped. In all honesty, she had expected him to just take the teasing and fall quiet again, not bite back. It was a welcome change from the silence that had reigned for the past seven hours.
Now his expression was highly dubious, perhaps sly, his tone dropping to a prodding level. “Oh, you forget, Esper-girl…I was there.”
Terra’s mouth shut and she regarded him in the space of a few quick glances, mildly insulted. A smile crept over her lips though and she nodded slowly. “Yes… I suppose you were. It’s easy for me to forget that, talking to you like this. You seem a different person.”
“Different? You never really knew me from the start. Oh, what was it you were going to ask before you degraded back there?” His pace was still fast, though more leisurely now. He had not been bothered by the silence between them, but even he had to admit this was preferable.
There was a wrinkling of her nose, but she let that remark slide. What had she been about to ask? “Interceptor. Where is he?”
That was a good question. He had noticed that the dog-fae was not heeling like a good pup, but that was hardly abnormal. There was no real point in looking around. “Off chasing rabbits, I suppose. He’ll come back soon, he never goes far.”
Terra nodded slowly and silence fell between them again. It was late into the afternoon; the sun was low in the sky. Nighttime was not far off, and she felt a twinge of guilt for not getting the early start Shadow, Clyde had wanted. He had been pushing to leave at the break of dawn before the sun crested, but Terra was unable to simply up and leave without telling everyone important where she was going, when she was expected back, and to assure them she would be safe. She also had the little ends to wrap up, finding someone to water her plants and care for her garden if an unseasonable frost crept up in her absence. The seasons had yet to be fully restored since the universe had been distorted and left dangerously akimbo, what should have been summer was a cross between a spring and a fall, and occasionally temperatures would drop drastically and leap back up a few days later. This made recovering difficult without the real ability to predict the seasons, but Terra was confident they would return to normal cycles within the next year.
“Clyde…” the young woman managed without laughing this time, but she did grin briefly. “How did you get out of the tower if you weren’t on the airship with us when it collapsed?” She had wanted to know that ever since he showed up in her kitchen, but there never seemed an appropriate time to ask. Now that the proverbial ice had been broken, perhaps now was a good a time as any.
He exhaled a nasal breath, seeming not to have heard her as his hazel eyes scanned the trees and underbrush for signs of Interceptor. Before she repeated her question, he spoke: “My dog got me out of there.”
Well, it would seem they were back to ‘get no more than you asked for’ square, which was mildly annoying. Or maybe he was angry that she’d made fun of his name. “Are you going to elaborate? How did he do that?”
“For fuck’s sake…” The curse coming rather vehemently as Clyde drew his fingers through his hair and shot Terra a perturbed glance. Of course she was going to ask about that sooner or later, and he wondered why he’d mentioned Interceptor at all. He should have just let her imagine he’d devised some clever way to get out. So he’d had a weak moment back there. So what if he’d been content to sit there and let the tower fall down around his ears? Suicide, like murder, was personal. “I didn’t ask the specifics of it. He bit me, I remember, and called me a lot of names, and the next thing I knew I was on a mountain peak, watching everything crumble and crash down from a safe distance.”
“He…called you names?” Terra quirked a brow as she kept her attention mainly on the path, avoiding some jutting roots. “Are you making fun of me or is he some kind of magick dog?”
“Pick one.” The answer was flat and carried a note of finality.
Color rose to her cheeks as she made it a point to glare at him for a few moments, scowling darkly. “If you were going to be an ass about it, all you had to do was say you didn’t want to talk.” Clyde made no response, playing deaf once again, which served to annoy her all the more. “Maybe I should apologize…” Terra drawled, lifting her chin. “I wasn’t aware you were so sensitive to being teased. It’s not my fault you have a stupid name, you know.”
He still made no response to that, and Terra had not expected one. Suppressing a small sigh, she fell quiet and started to walk again, though she did not get more than a step before she felt her feet betray her, and her chin was striking the powdered layer of dirt on the trail. The fall was not a hard one, and her hands had saved her from the most of it. Blinking hard and coughing dust, her head shot up to see Clyde stroll past her, speaking to her over his shoulder.
“Watch where you’re going.”
She gasped. “You tripped me!” Pushing herself up just enough to lunge from her knees, she made a grab for his ankle, growling. However, tripping him up like that was not as easy as she had thought it would be. He just stopped walking, balancing just fine on his un-captured foot, looking down on her with a faintly amused expression.
“So? Do you have any idea how hard I could kick you in the face right now?” Tugging his ankle away from her, which she refused to surrender at the moment. Oh, he would never admit it aloud but she was suddenly very, very cute. At least ‘cute’ was not ‘attractive’ per se, but he was struck with the sudden urge to pat her on the head. She was very determined to get him back, and he didn’t doubt she would think of some evil prank along the way that would turn into a war.
No one ever accused him of lacking a sense of humor.
“If you kicked me, it would be the last thing you ever did,” She twisted, pulling harder on his ankle to no avail; she just couldn’t get him off his feet. Finally she gave up and let go, quite frustrated.
“Not if I killed you, or knocked you unconscious, and then killed you after the kick,” Pacing around the young woman on the ground, he moved in a semi circle before leaning over and offering her a hand up. “But that would defeat the purpose of my putting up with you thus far. C’mon, quit playing around.”
Grudgingly she clasped his hand and used him to pull herself to her feet, disengaging to brush dirt from her knees. Huffing once, she picked a leaf and a pair of twigs from her hair, realizing how having nice hot baths available at a whim had spoiled her. “You still didn’t tell me.”
Reaching over her shoulder, he picked a leaf from her green-gold mane, flicking it away with a little sigh. She wasn’t as easy to distract when she got something in her head. “Interceptor isn’t really a dog. He’s a Fae of some kind. He just prefers to look like a dog. I’m not entirely sure what all his abilities are, and I didn’t even know he could talk until that day.”
“Really?” Terra wondered still if he was just putting her on. Fae were something like Espers, weren’t they? Magick creatures? “How long have you had him for?”
Clyde chuckled at that, shrugging. “He’s traveled with me for what… ten? Eleven years? Something like that.”
“Wow… that’s pretty old for a dog,” Terra commented more to herself. If she had a dog that was as healthy as Interceptor at that age, she may have started to grow suspicious of his true nature by now. “How did you find him?”
He was fully aware that he had not told this story to anyone, that there was only one other still alive who knew. The old blue wizard, Stargo, was sharper than he seemed, there was no doubt in Clyde’s mind that he had recognized Interceptor and knew full well the new ‘master’ was the one who had left his daughter without so much as a word. Stargo knew who Relm’s father was. It would seem that no one had ever said anything about that coincidence, not even Interceptor.
Clyde had known the second he’d seen the girl, the house she lived in. Interceptor had a special bond to Relm’s mother for reasons he was still unclear on. Why he had deserved the Fae’s companionship, he never knew, but he was grateful. He’d asked Interceptor why the dog-fae had left an angel like her to traipse around the world with a lost man. Interceptor mentally shrugged, giving the simple answer that Clyde needed him, and the lovely blonde angel wouldn’t be needing him for much longer. Relm would need him too, someday, but not yet. Perhaps, it was a family thing, and perhaps Clyde was never going to understand.
“He found me, actually. Just… he just started traveling with me one day, and he’s been with me ever since. I got the impression the longer I was with him that he was more than just a dog, but I only knew the half of it.” He heard rustling brush somewhere to his left; Interceptor was letting him know the conversation was being listened to from out of sight.
“He never talked to you before the day he saved you?” Terra was amazed by that thought. They had ten years as a team as close as they were, and they had never spoken? What was it like, talking to Interceptor, she wondered. Could she, if she wanted to?
“No…never.” Terra was easy to talk to. She listened to every word he said as if he were relating tales to a small child; she hung on his every word. That quality was partly the reason he had sought her out for this journey. “He didn’t need to, I guess. In a way, I’ve always understood him. He told me that the reason he never said anything before was… how did he put it? ‘I thought that if I talked to you, you would never talk to anyone else.’ He wouldn’t have me using him as an excuse to be an introvert any more than I already was.”
She smiled faintly, still not sure if she believed him completely, but she had to admit there was something strange about Interceptor. It must be nice to have a friend like that. Clearing her throat, she looked up at the sky. “It’s going to be dark soon, we should find a place to stop. I don’t much like the idea of walking in the dark.”
Nodding his agreement, Clyde was glad to be off the delicate subject. It threatened to turn into an unbearable, untouchable subject if it went much further than that. Either Terra’s timing was just good, or she was reading his mood better than he thought she could. “Good idea. Somewhere off the trail, clear enough to make a small fire.” He squinted a bit, waving off to the left, across Terra. “I thought I saw some apple trees that way. Let’s head off the road, see if we can get something to snack on while we look for a suitable campsite.”