That you're leaning on my shoulder, But I can't see
"Stop being such a crybaby!"
"It hurts!"
"I told you not to engage it!"
"We need to get stronger before we get out of here!"
"Can the chorus please pipe down?" A sigh as the well-dressed young man cocked a brow.
"She's prodding my wounds on purpose." Vaan muttered, earning another hard glare from Penelo.
"I'm sorry I'm not an Archadian Prince well-stocked with Hi-Potions. You will take the salve, the bandages and the stitches and be grateful, Vaan."
"His wounds are but superficial. We need to build our strength if we are to cross these plains." Her voice was soft yet stern enough to push through the wind that rushed through the plains. Fran stood atop a small hill, scanning the lands around them.
"The Leading Lady has spoken." Balthier chuckled.
"If we are to cross, we best cross now. The winds have quietened." She noted, sniffing the air.
"Aye." The quietest member of their team spoke up, hefting his axe onto his broad shoulder. "Delaying will only leave the enemy more chances to seek us out."
"This time Vaan, try not to engage the flying creatures when we're battling a land-based enemy." Balthier reminded the younger man, scuffing the back of his head.
"Hey! We-" Indignant as he was, he was cut off from his retort as the Sky Pirate simply strolled on ahead. Vaan grumbled half a curse mixed with an insult before following him.
Penelo trotted alongside Basch, trying to match his large strides. Whenever she tired of Vaan's naivete she would seek his company. The older soldier was more mellow and gentler, patient and somewhat fatherly to her.
"Be you well, Penelo?" He asked with the faint traces of a smile in his eyes.
"My patience is a little thin but I'm otherwise completely wound-free!" She answered with a laugh, thinking twice before giving in and looping her arm around his. "I'll be glad to get out of here though. Something about large open plains frightens me since such little cover exists."
"Aye, that is true." Basch nodded. "But we shall endeavour to move on as hastily as possible."
"Our antagonists have arrived." Balthier noted wryly, drawing his rifle from its holster on his back. "Ready yourselves."
"Armed and ready!" Vaan dropped into an attacking stance, sword in hand. Penelo took a deep breath, slipping her arm from Basch and knocking an arrow into her bow. Fran nodded to her.
"Keep your aim straight and your arrow will fly true."
A pack of Worgens came into view, their Alpha male growling a challenge.
"Take down their leader!" Basch shouted, Fran loosening her bow soon after. It was a mad scramble and they were outnumbered as more Worgen joined the fray. But through it they persisted, sweat on their brow and blood on their arms. The creatures fell, cloven into pieces or littered with arrows or pelted with bullets.
"That's the last one!" Penelo cried, pointing at a Worgen straggler. She knocked an arrow into her bow, pulling the string taut before letting it sail through to lodge into her target. With a strangled cry the creature perished.
"Not bad," Balthier grinned, "you're proving a fine supporting actress." Penelo managed a laugh, wiping her brow.
"Anyone need patching up?" She offered, looking around. "Vaan? You alright?"
"Where is that pesky boy?" Balthier frowned.
"GUYS!" Vaan shouted, running towards them. "GUYS! IT'S BASCH!"
"Basch?!" Penelo gasped, running out to meet him. "What's wrong?"
"He's-!!!" A sharp howl of pain interrupted his words, Vaan collapsing in a spray of blood. Penelo screamed at the sight and then screamed louder as she saw his attacker. Their very own teammate, eyes ablaze and mouth contorted into a snarl. Blood dripped from his hands.
"He's Confused!" Balthier shouted. "Cast Esuna Penelo! DO IT NOW!"
She did nothing. Her breath was caught in her lungs, her chest painfully tight as her heart beat faster and faster the closer he approached.
"PENELO!" Balthier called out to her, voice strained with worry. Basch hefted his axe high. She heard herself scream loud enough her throat felt raw.
The axe fell.
Her world blackened.
*~*~*
She awoke to guilt and warmth. A strange mixture, but not altogether unpleasant she realized, as she opened her eyes and saw a very sober Basch fon Ronsenberg looking over her.
"Penelo, oh thank the Gods-" He began, falling silent as she sat up to wrap her arms around his neck in an embrace.
"You're alright." She breathed, relieved.
"And so are you, thanks to Fran's quick thinking." The man sighed, sitting back and letting the tension drip from his shoulders. The sun was long gone for the day, the sky now peppered with twinkling lights that reminded Penelo so much of home. Edging sideways, she rested her temple on Basch's shoulder.
"I am sorry, Penelo." Voice gruff and weighed by guilt. Penelo managed a soft laugh, patting his hand.
"It's alright Basch, I've lived through one war already."
Throwing her gaze, she spotted the others close by, sitting around a campfire. Vaan was already asleep, haphazardly sprawled atop his sleeping furs, mouth open and snoring lightly. The sight made her smile.
"Basch?" She looked up at the soldier, wondering just how he kept that storm so calm in those rainy eyes of his, after all he had been through. "Tell me about Landis? Of peaceful times?"
"Life was..." where to begin with this tale? "simpler. Life was not sullied by politics, when the land demanded your loyalty in order to provide food." He uncurled from his sitting position, lying back so the carpet of stars was all he could see. "My father was a strong, proud man who, like all of us in Landis, put the community at the heart of all things. My mother was part Archadian and that lineage carried an illness that she was cursed with fighting."
Penelo lay beside him, shifting to nest her temple back against his shoulder. She closed her eyes and tried to picture her comrade younger, living in a land she had only seen in dusty History books.
"I feel as though I have lived two lives." She admitted, her heart aching. "Penelo before the war and the Penelo you know now."
"Aye." Basch agreed, voice grave. "In wartime, everyone dies- only there are those of us whose bodies still live on despite the death of the soul." The tears were in her eyes but the fatigue refused to let them fall. She was tired of crying, tired of the heartaches that came and went as her trauma scratched at barely healed wounds in a vicious cycle.
"It is not so bad for those of us who live on." Penelo spoke at last. "Our bodies keep working until our will catches up to make things right. It's an obligation to all those who didn't make it; we have to forge a better future, one without war."
"Such talk in Landis," Basch turned his gaze to her, "would earn the respect and admiration of many a young soldier. Such brave words from a young woman, worth fighting and dying for." Penelo felt her cheeks flush. Basch chuckled, the rumble deep in his throat smoothing his tired face into a smile.
The guilt was gone, Penelo noticed, but the warmth remained.