Cain meets Rosa
Rosa: It was really a beautiful city. Tall ivory buildings, clean streets that glistened with copper gold cobblestones, a portrait framed by mountains and sea. The finest masons across many worlds must have mastered the centerpiece to the marble mosaic of the town square itself. Each stone seemed to be polished, shining, beautiful. Placed within the ground where its contented citizens meandered with the utmost precision and care. The water within the amazing fountain, built with tiers for sitting and paths for walking across to come closer to the piece and waterfalls, took on a pale pink and pastel orange hue with the light of the encroaching dusk sun.
Rosa was tired, a bit hungry, and still recovering from the last traces of Desert Fever. Just as she had not allowed herself to show weakness in order to endure and follow the Dark Knight, however, she could not give in to Rivelata, either. It was a new, startling, and almost eerie place. Too powerful, too beautiful. It was a rather overwhelming place to be, and so many thoughts pervaded her mind to block out her senses in order to appreciate the beauty. It wasn’t until she both sat in order to rest and wait that she could finally begin to relax. Just a little bit. A familiar face would be the most welcoming of sights, across any world.
Cain: He had no care for the architecture or layout of this foreign land, why would a Dragoon take note of the beautiful carvings on the walls of all the buildings or the way that the setting sun cut out shapes on the cobbled streets. No, why would a Dragon Knight care for such beauty… Cain had no time for this petty, half-baked splendour; for throughout the whole of this bizarre city there was only one beauty that could catch his eye, only one thing that could make him look up from that skull-shaped helm.
He had to go to her; he had to go to Rosa, if Cecil wasn’t here then who was going to protect her. As he walked down the shadowy alleyways, armour clanking with each step. From a distance Cain had heard the sweet sound of trickling water. She… had to be there. In a sharp movement he turned the corner to see his… the white mage bathed in the orange light of the dying day. “Rosa…” he murmured to himself as he approached her, saying her name again in a slightly louder tone of voice “Rosa.”
Rosa: She kept dabbling in the journal, looking for any traces of information or people which might have been more informative or able to be recognized. In a way she still couldn’t quite believe that she had found Cain, of all people, there in the new world. Perhaps the earthquake had opened a rift to another place and now she had found herself somehow a part of it. Another world was possible, perhaps. But how she had come there was beyond her reasoning. One moment she had been falling asleep beside the campfire, lulled by the steady breathing of Cecil lying in the space next to her. And the next she had been rudely awakened by the banging of a wooden leg on the floor of a boat.
Forcing the cover of the journal shut, Rosa sighed quietly and recomposed herself, pale ochre eyes watching each individual as they passed through the thoroughfare’s main junction. She almost expected seeing those she knew with every passing second. Maybe Cecil would suddenly come around the corner. Every child resembled Rydia for a moment. Every stout and broad backed man like the monk of Fabul. Was that kingdom going to be all right? Would she ever know? The sound of her name shook her back, pulling her above the surface of her thoughts and to breathe the floral fragranced air. “Cain!” She exclaimed, a smile immediately lighting her fair features. She rose and swiftly crossed the steps of the fountain to meet him. “Cain, it really is you! I’m so glad to see you’re all right.” She placed both hands softly on the side of his arms, barely touching the cool armor; just glad to see an old friend again in such a strange new place, but nothing more. It was enough. “How long have you been here?”
Cain: “… Mere hours.” He told her, glad that his helmet concealed the way that his eyes wistfully looked down at his forearms to just glance at the way her delicate fingers curled around the dark armour, even if it was just for a moment. Cain couldn’t believe that Rosa had forgotten so much, had the journey here affected her? He silently cried out as to why the powers that be here in this bizarre place had chosen her. It almost felt like a punishment…
“You’re unharmed?” he had to ask, despite querying her over the strange journal system. Cain had to check, if anyone had dared touch Rosa then all he needed was a vague description and he would hunt down everyone that fit those characteristics and deal with them.
Rosa: It was a bit of a time discrepancy. The days that she had spent persevering through the deserts surrounding that single oasis of Kaipo were few, but long enough to last an eternity. It certainly felt like one before she had been able to see Cecil again. And now he was gone, just like that. No matter what had happened to pull her away though, she could not give up the hope that she could go back. And now, with Cain. It had certainly been even longer since she had seen or heard from the Dragoon. Even when they were both residing in the same castle. Had she been able to see his face more clearly, she might have been able to pick out more detail. For the time being, it gave enough to know it was he.
“Yes, of course.” She reassured him again, “The Sand Ruby eliminated the traces of sun poisoning. And my vertigo was being suppressed. I was wandering too long and far in the desert looking for you both.” Of course, she didn’t mention that it was because of her magic, and now she was without the full extent of it. “You look well,” she couldn’t help but to note. Not a scratch in his armor at all. Or at least, not those that she would have seen after an earthquake that floored an entire village. “Did anything else happen?”
Cain: Did anything else happen, she asks… what a thing to ask. Surely she wouldn’t believe him if he told her the truth, and how could he possibly tell her of his twice betrayal and how he had aided in Rosa’s kidnapping. He couldn’t, to see her now so calm and serene it would seem criminal to break such news to her.
He avoided the question and, with some hesitation, he let his arms relax by his sides releases her fingers from his forearms. “Yes, I’m fine.” He responded, as if he’d be practicing those words for Rosa for some time. “I don’t know what this place is… or how we got here, but there’s no easy way back.” Direct as always Cain continued “Let me help you find somewhere to board for the night before it’s dark. Don’t worry, Rosa… No harm will come to you here.” And with that said, as if avoiding any response those words might bring forth in her, he turned and walked up the stairs he had descended to meet her, turning back over his shoulder. “You can continue to look at these strange books in the comfort of an inn.” He would look after her, properly, this time permitting that she would allow him.
Rosa: She hardly realized that they had stopped along the pathways of the junction, people milling constantly around them and having to avoid the placed obstacle. Some people didn’t mind the extra two steps to go around; others glanced back with varying degrees of irritation. None of that really came to mind until Cain turned the course of the conversation to move again. By then, Rosa could only mutter an apology with a sheepish smile as she avoided a small collision with a passing stranger and let it be. She was forced to do the same with the unanswered, or unasked, curiosities and questions. There would be more time to discuss them later.
“I’m really not too worried,” Rosa admitted as she caught up to his long strides, keeping up beside and slightly behind him. “The people here seem kind enough. I just hope all this uncertainty and confusion settles soon. Now that you’re here as well, we have to be able to find a way.” The sooner the better, not that things were awkward between them, so she had to assume. It was a long time ago, and she appreciated the way he looked after her now. After a small pause she added, “…Thank you, Cain.”