A small girl, six years, three months, and two days old exactly, was walking amongst a melancholy parade of grown ups, all of them wearing dark clothing and sullen expressions; their heads turned down woefully towards the dirt and grass covered ground. Today was a sad day for the Destiny Islands. It was a sad day because it was the day of the funeral for a very important man who had died protecting his daughter, who had been toying with something she shouldn’t have been toying with. He had died three days prior to this day, and the tiny brown haired girl with strange eyes had yet to except what had happened - that it was all her fault. She’d have given anything to get him back. She wanted her father back. Despite that, the girl stayed quiet; disturbingly quiet. She was normally such a sweet and talkative girl, but not a single word had been uttered sense the accident. She didn't even cry.
For such a young girl who’s own father had just died, she didn’t cry very much at all. After the incident, the older men who had been teaching her decided that they would tell the people of the island that Gran Summoner Braska had been involved in an accident, but that his little daughter had not caused it all to happen. Something had gone wrong with a summoning, and Braska, being the hero he was, dismissed the beast at the cost off his own life. It was a great tragedy for the Isles of Destiny indeed. The Summoner had been injured before the beast could be sent back to where it came from. In reality, he had not been the one to summon it. It had been his six year old daughter, who was being trained to become a summoner herself one day. One day, during her lessons, the happy child contacted a creature with whom she knew nothing of. Not only was the creature strong -too strong for someone like herself to have even been able to call or see at all, but it was cruel and dark and very dangerous. It had been an accident..
For a child to call such a thing…even though it had resulted in Braska’s demise, the elder summoners thought Yuna had an amazing talent. They chose to protect her reputation and lie about what had happened so they could have more time to figure out exactly what it was that made the creature so intent on answering Yuna's call. Bahamut didn't appear to just anyone, let alone a little kid. They would keep the people of the Destiny Islands from thinking the girl a monster herself for what had happened. They would protect the kindness and innocence in her that her father was so very fond of.
For three days, she did not cry. She’d always been talented when it came to hiding her true feelings and being strong when things were hard, but now, even though she did not weep, she did not speak either. Yuna was never overly chatty or annoying as most children tended to be at her age, but she was quite mature and capable of conversation during any given time. She was polite and responded promptly and intelligently when an adult spoke to her. However, there were no words she could say at the moment that would fix things, or even make them the smallest bit better. She only sat in her room quietly and stared out the window at the rising and setting sun or the moon as it faded back and forth into the night skiy, wishing that her father would walk into her room and say that it was all a big mistake and that everything was really alright. The girl had quiet simply shut herself down and shut herself away from everyone else.
Even the morning of the funeral was a silent one for her. Her older aunt got her ready for the ceremony while her athlete of a husband tried to at least get Yuna to smile or laugh - something the blitz ball player was usually extremely talented at. If asked, anyone would agree that the man was a bit of a clown naturally and Yuna had always adored him. Once everyone was ready, they left the small home and went to the cemetery where the funeral would take place. They walked along the long road to where the burial would take place. There were a lot of familiar places there, most of whom came to Yuna with a sad smile and kind words. Again, she didn't respond to a one of them. Instead, she just stared at the ground below and avoided eye contact with anyone.
When the ground became boring to her, which is did so quickly, Yuna began to look around the gloomy place. For a while as they walked, she read many of the tomb stones that they passed. She didn't know any of the names. In her short life on the Islands, very few people she'd known had died. Sighing, the six year old turned away from the stones and looked to her side at the black fencing that separated the cemetery from the rest of the Island. As they usually did, the tall structure only served to make the place look that much more depressing, Yuna noticed. She noticed something of a completely different sort as well, however. There, sticking out against the blurry back drop of the funeral, a blond boy stood, watching the large group of black-clad people march along.
He must have noticed that Yuna was looking at him because he smiled the biggest smile at Yuna that she'd ever seen on a boy. He was familiar. Yuna was sure she'd seen him at school or around the parks, though she'd never actually spoken to him. He always seemed to be off doing something by himself. It seemed weird to her that he would smile at her like that, though maybe it was her current mood that made it so. He tilted his head awkwardly and a little over dramatically when he noticed the brown haired girl in the distance wasn't smiling back or waving, but only watching. The others' all moved on as she stood and watched as the boy easily maneuvered his tiny body through the gate.
Once he was through the gate, however, he seemed uncomfortable and cautious. The blond boy watched carefully, ducking behind grave stones quickly if he noticed anyone looking at him, though not many did. The adults were mostly busy talking with one another or grieving quietly to themselves. When he decided that the coast was clear, he hopped out from behind his hiding place and made his way over to Yuna, who wasn't exactly sure why she had waited for him in the first place. If Aunt Lulu saw her falling behind, she'd be angry...
The kid looked her up and down like she was something he'd never seen, to which Yuna responded to by backing away slightly, a little uncomfortable. He set his hands on his hips and leaned forward towards her when she stepped away. "You're a little weird." He stated flatly, not at all bothered when the statement quite visibly threw Yuna off balance. She was weird? He was the one watching a funeral from outside the gates. Yuna thought that was pretty strange. Other than the annoyed look on her face, however, Yuna didn't respond.
"What's the matter? Don't you talk?" When she still said nothing, it was like a light bulb went of in his mind and he smiled again. "You're really quiet. Like a mouse!"
Yuna was not a mouse. She didn't like that idea at all. Mice were cute and everything, but they weren't very welcome guests in homes and cats were mean to them. He held out his hand to her happily and waited for her to take it. "Hello, Little Mouse! My name is Locke Jeremiah Cole! I'm seven years old - I think so, anyway - and m favorite cookie flavor is cranberry with sunflower seeds!...or was it raisen and cinnamon? Well something like that. All I know is that Olivia is good at making cookies. You like cookies, right, Mouse?"
"Don't call me that..." Yuna mumbled half under her breath. She really didn't like that name...
He leaned towards her again and tried to get a good look at her face. “I’d call you by your name if you’d tell it to me. It’s common sense, Little Mouse.”
“..Yuna.” She said quietly, still pouting. Why was he teasing her? It wasn’t really a good time for this, anyway. Yuna had far more important things to tend to. For some reason she didn’t know, however, Yuna didn’t leave him standing there. She stayed put and endured his odd personality.
“Yuna? That’s an odd name.” Locke said and lifted his hand to his chin thoughtfully.
“It’s short for Yunalesca. It’s not weird.”
“It is a little bit.” He argued with a laugh.
“You’re kind of rude.” Kind of was a bit of an understatement, but Yuna felt like she would be the rude one if she pointed that out.
“So I’ve been told. Do you wanna come play with me, Yuna?”
“Why should I? You haven’t been very nice.”
“Well…you look bored and sad. It doesn’t really seem like you wanna be here. So…we can go somewhere else. Makes perfect sense, don‘t you think?”
She really didn’t want to be there at the funeral, no. It was doubtful that Locke really knew why she didn’t want to be there, but that didn’t really seem like it was the point. Even if she wanted to, though, it wasn’t a good idea for her to just walk away from her own father’s funeral. It was going to be a horribly annoying thing to sit through; people talking about her Papa while he wasn’t there. Half of those people there didn’t even really like her father to begin with, and those people would be the ones to yell at her if she just disappeared. It was just their duty to be there, which made it all that much worse. Yuna didn’t want to be like them, going to the funeral just because of a misplaced sense of duty.
“Hello?” Locke was waiting for Yuna to answer him and held out his hand to her impatiently. “Are you coming or not?”
It was a bad idea, but Yuna took the boys hand anyway. It was hard to explain, but something just felt right, like she could trust in him and everything would be okay. Obnoxious as he was, this Locke boy seemed very honest. Right away, like someone had pressed his on switch, Locke laughed and began to lead her in the direction of the beach excitedly. On the way, he talked a lot. It was like he’d never had anyone to say all this stuff to before, so he just held onto it and saved it all just for her. He talked about his favorite cartoons and foods, and how he thought pirates were cool. He spoke briefly about bullies around town, and how pirates were so much cooler than said bullies, but the two of them reached the beach before he could even begin with that subject. Yuna was thankful for that, because it sounded like he might have had a lot to say about everything and anything that caught his attention. If the warm sand of the beach hadn’t distracted him, the boy probably could have gone on for forever.
As he began to give her a tour of all his favorite spots on the sandy beach, Yuna noticed they were all a good few yards (at least) away from where most of the other children played, like he avoided them on purpose. Even farther away than the more popular spots was the water. Whenever Yuna suggested that they go near it, he deflected and said that she should see another spot - one that was even farther away. Yuna was a little curious. What kind of kid loved going to the beach, but didn't go into the water?
There was one spot, underneath a palm tree near the dock that he seemed to favor the most. He lead Yuna there and released her hand for the first time sense he'd taken it. While she removed her shoes and sat them at the base of the tree, he dug into the sand on the other side of the trunk. By the time she’d sat down into the warm sand, he had already found what he was looking for. When the boy sat down next to her, he was holding a red bucket with a white plastic bag inside of it; securely closed with the top folded several times and secured with a cheap clothes pin as to not allow sand inside. Locke breathed out a soft sigh of relief when he had it in his hands, was probably relieved that it was still there.
“What’s in there?” Yuna asked as her curiosity got the best of her, her blue and green eyes looking into the bucket at the bag..
Locke pulled the plastic bag from the bucket and then removed the pin that held it shut. Then he dumped the contents of it out onto the sand between his outstretched legs. His toes wiggled in excitement in his sandals as he looked over the small collection of toys in front of him. A little blue shovel with one of the corners chipped off fell from the bag, as well as three dinosaur toys, and a pirate figurine. The figures looked a little old, but Yuna could tell he liked them by the way his eyes lit up when they were in his sights. He lifted a green one from the sand - a fat dinosaur with a long neck and a spiky tail- and dusted the sand off of it. Yuna couldn’t help but smile. He looked really happy.
“How come you don’t take them home with you?” She asked. Locke only shrugged absent mindedly at the question.
“It’s fun to have my own buried treasure here that no one else knows about.” He stood up and held his hand out for Yuna again. “Well, no one else but you, now. Do you wanna make a sand castle with me?” She nodded and reached for his hand again. He helped her up quickly, and then picked up the bucket and shovel after pocketing his little figurines. The two of them walked a little closer to the water, though Locke wouldn’t get any closer than five or six feet to the shore. When ever the two needed more water for the sand, he would ask her to go so he didn‘t have to, which Yuna didn’t mind. She liked water. It was kind of important to one who was going to be a summoner, sense a lot of the dancing and rituals they performed were on the water. Really good summoners could even walk and dance on it. She remembered the first time her father had shown her that he could walk carelessly on it‘s clear surface. He was holding her in his arms tightly, and she was a little scared at first, but he didn’t drop her. He later told her that words couldn’t have described how amazed she looked when Yuna realized she could see the sandy surface and all the little fish beneath from where he held her. Then, apparently, she wriggled out of his arms and jumped in to catch them.
The two children stayed there at the beach for a good portion of the day, building sand castles and then destroying them like giant monsters did to cities in old movies, only to build them again, each higher than the last. Locke liked to pretend that his pirate and it’s army of viscous dinosaurs were over taking a king’s palace. Then he would make the little toys trample over it, or he would stomp on it. At one point, he told Yuna she should knock it down, at which point she just fell backwards right away and crushed it under her bottom. She laughed, and so did Locke.
Some time between the third and fourth sand castle, after Locke had asked Yuna to go and get some more water, she took a little longer than usual. The girl took slow steps into the water and took a deep breath as she did, her eyes closed. She didn’t rush. Locke would live if he had to wait for just a minute. The girl had wanted to step out into the water for just a moment and think ever sense she had decided she would leave the funeral, and suddenly felt like now was the right moment to do so. It was a personal moment for her, a much needed one. To Yuna, it was way better than going to sit with a bunch of old men who would pretend to have actually liked her father for two hours. She didn’t go too far into the water - no further than a foot or so deep - and she sat down without a worry for her new dress. She prayed in silence and bowed her head ever so slightly. A sadness filled her, but so did a sense of pride. What had happened had been her fault, yes. It was sad and she would probably never be able to live with herself, but she didn’t want to think about that right now. Instead, she thought about her father and what a good person he was. The pride of being the daughter of such a good and wonderful person was much stronger than the sadness brought about by the loss of him. He wouldn’t want her to cry. Yuna would give him her own personal funeral. It would only take a moment, but it would be real and true.
The tears came and Yuna welcomed them silently for the first time in three days. It wasn’t like an endless river, but they still came. Her breath was steady though her mind was anything but clear. Did she really have to say goodbye? Goodbye sounded so…permanent. Once it was done, there wouldn’t be any turning back, and Yuna would have to go on living without him and admit that he was gone. It was possible, but it didn’t sound like a very happy road to walk alone. Yuna didn't know if she was ready for something like that.
“What are you doing, Yuna?” Locke was calling to her from their demolished sand castle now. “The sand is gonna dr-Whoa!” He sounded surprised or excited, and Yuna opened her eyes so she could see what he was shocked with. Before she even had the chance to turn around and glimpse him, however, a bright blue-green light flew past her sights, and she looked in front of her instead. There, floating around her in the water were little tiny puffs of light, five or six or so. They danced above the clear waters and Yuna watched them, holding out her hand as if she might catch one. Her eyes were wide and a little bit red from the tears. One of the lights, known as pyraflies, flew towards her and hovered above her hands, and Yuna was filled with a sudden warmth - a happiness she couldn‘t explain. She began to cry harder now as she stood up while cradling one of the little lights protectively. She lifted the light into the air above her head and let it go like she was freeing a bird. It floated off into the sky and joined the others as they continued to dance around Yuna.
By now, Locke had walked as close to the water as he dared to see the pyraflies. Water dripped off the skirt of Yuna’s dark blue dress as she watched them fly up into the sky until she could no longer see them in the great blue above their heads. She smiled, eyes still tear filled.
“What was that?” Locke exclaimed from behind her. When she finally turned around, after wiping away any tears that remained so he wouldn‘t see, Yuna smiled at him. He looked a little freaked out, like he’d never seen a pyrafly before. Though, that wouldn’t be too far fetched. Most people saw at least a few in their life time, though that wasn’t usually until later in their lives. Kids didn’t see them a lot, because they were mostly at funerals or wakes; places were people were put to rest. When a person dies, their soul is supposed to become a pyrafly. They get trapped in the person’s body, and it was a summoner’s job to call it out, so it can fly to heaven and be at peace for forever.
She didn’t answer the boy’s question or explain about the little ghosts. Really, Yuna didn’t feel like explaining it to him, or really talking about summoners and souls. She just wanted to play with her new friend. Any more sad feelings or fears could be dealt with later when she was by herself. It took a little while to get to boy to stop asking about it, but Yuna managed. He sure was stubborn.
When the two of them finally got bored of building and viciously destroying sand castles, Locke invited Yuna to go back to his house, and she accepted the offer. Everyone would be unhappy with her when she got home, so she would put that off as long as Locke kept giving her excuses to do so. The two of them walked together, barefoot and covered in sand, back to his home. They carried their shoes, and Yuna also carried a seashell Locke had found while they had played. They hadn’t decided who would keep it just yet, but they had agreed that Yuna would get to carry it for a while.
Locke’s house turned out to be a popular bed and breakfast at the edge of town. It wasn’t very busy at the moment, and a very dirty and barefoot Locke burst through the doors without giving it a second thought with a prideful smile on his face. She could hear him greeting his foster mother even on the other side of the door, where he had left her after his mad dash. Yuna did her best to wipe her feet off at the door before she entered the home. While she was outside, she could hear the startled voice of an older woman from inside yell at Locke for walking in all filthy after not checking in all day. She poked her head in through the door to see a tall woman with brown hair in a braid and a bandana on her head looking the boy up and down, tugging at his clothes gently and wiping his face clean. She stopped yelling at him in the middle of ordering him to go upstairs to take a bath when she saw Yuna walk in quietly. The woman stared at her for a moment, apparently dumbfounded, and then she turned her head to back to Locke, who’s smile got bigger in a foolish “I told you so“ kind of way.
Suddenly, her mood seemed to change from anger and annoyance to a relieved sort of cheerfulness. Yuna didn’t exactly understand the cause of this change, and wouldn’t for years. The little girl didn’t know it, but the older woman was happy to see that her boy had brought home a friend. It was unknown to her whether or not he even had any before that moment. It might not seem like a big deal, but every parent wanted their child to have friends. She sighed and then smiled at Yuna before she wiping her hands on a rag that had been sitting on the counter.
“Can we have some ice cream, Olivia?” He asked happily. The woman thought about it for a minute, and then smiled warmly at the little boy who she had been yelling at just a moment ago. It was far too close to dinner time for ice cream, she knew, but she would make an exception this time.
“Go wash your hands at least. The both of you.” She said as she walked over to a door on the other side of the room. Yuna only caught a glimpse of what looked like a pantry with another door inside that one before Locke took her hand and lead her to the sink, where they both washed their hands quietly. Locke could hardly contain his excitement. Apparently, he really liked ice cream. When the two were finished, Locke sat himself and Yuna at a table just in time for them to see his mother walk out of the pantry door with two bars of ice cream in her hand. Before handing the children the icy treats, she inspected both their hands; after which she made Locke go back to the sink and wash them again. Yuna laughed. After that, the children enjoyed their ice cream while Locke’s mother tended to dishes left over from the morning’s meal.
Once they were finished eating, the two sat on a couch in the same room and played board games like tic-tac-toe and checkers. Locke suggested that they play hide and seek, an idea that was quickly shot down by his foster mother who decided that it was too late to be playing games like that and that it was getting close to Locke’s bed time anyway. She asked Yuna for her name and straightened her posture rather uncomfortably when her question was answered. The older woman didn’t explain herself, however. Instead, she just smiled and patted hers and Locke’s head before walking into the next room, where the family telephone was. Not that the two children really thought about where she went and why. All they knew was that she left and came back in after ten minutes. She went back to her cooking and cleaning after that and didn’t say much to either of them while they played. Though, Yuna did glimpse a soft smile on her lips directed towards the two of them every so often.
After a couple hours of playing, the two of them sat and talked. It was getting close to both their bed times and that was visible on their faces, but neither of them showed any sign of wanting to sleep any time soon. It was like they were afraid that, if they fell asleep, their new friend would disappear and they would never see each other again. They lived in the same town and would see each other a lot after that day, of course, but two children their age didn’t always look at things the logical way. They just knew the here and the now, and it was nice to have someone to talk to for both of them. The games were neatly put away where they belonged, which gave Yuna and Locke some room to sit while they laughed and joked. His mother even brought them each their own blanket to cuddle with while they sat, which Yuna appreciated. She’d been a bit chilly for the whole day after leaving the water, even long after her clothes had dried.
They looked out the window behind them at the sun as it set in the pale orange sky and paved the way for thousands of little twinkling stars to decorate the quickly darkening sky. The moon was no where in sight that clear night. Their heads leaned tiredly against the window pane as they stared wide eyed at the beauty of it young night’s sky, both of them wondering what was up there and feeling small in comparison to it all.
“Yuna? Tell me about your family.” Locke asked out of the blue. She was so tired that she didn’t even let the suddenness of it bother her. Instead, she just sighed and kept staring out the window.
“Don’t have one. Not anymore.”
Locke glanced at her for a moment with a sad look in his brown eyes. That sadness was quickly washed away when he sighed, however, and he replaced it with a weak and tired smile. She hadn’t told him about what she was doing when he pulled her away from the grown ups earlier, and didn’t know if she would. Locke seemed really happy, and Yuna didn’t want to mess that up by talking about depressing things or people dying. It wouldn’t be fair for her to bring his good mood down by getting sad or crying.
“Me either.” He said, “At least not a real one.” It was probably a good thing his foster mother had long sense left them by themselves to go upstairs before then. Even though Locke probably didn’t mean those words to be hurtful, she probably would have felt a little tinge of pain if she’d heard him say that. Yuna knew she did.
She folded her legs closer to her chest and smiled back at the young boy as best she could. The red cushion beneath them was comfy and she couldn’t help but feel tired. Her eyelids were beginning to feel heavy and she just wanted to cuddle up beneath her blanket and sleep. Before either of them knew it, they were both sleeping, curled up in their own blankets. Locke was lying flat on his back on the couch while Yuna still leaned against the window, having fallen asleep while she gazed up at the sky not long after Locke.
Sometime around ten o’clock, there was a knock at the door. The sound of foot steps followed by the creek of the wooden door opening were not loud enough to wake the children, nor was the sound of muffled voices coming from the two people who now stood there. Not even a minute afterwards, Locke’s foster mother and a tall dark haired man with a scar on his face walked through the door. She looked tired but thoughtful, while the dark haired man’s eyes locked on Yuna and Locke right away and a kind smile took over his face. He ran a strong hand through his black hair and shrugged a little to the older woman standing next to him. “Thanks for calling. She had us all a little worried.”
The man, appearing to be somewhere in is early twenties, walked over to where the children were sleeping and gently lifted Yuna from the couch after removing the blanket she was snugly wrapped in. He leaned the girl against his chest and she wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, showing no signs that she would wake any time soon. She’d had a long day. The man looked at the top of her head and exhaled calmly. “Though, it looks like it was all for nothing. She was in good company. Thank you, Miss Olivia.”
She smiled and shook her head. “You're very welcome. I was happy to see that he’d finally made a friend. Let’s try and make sure they get to see each other again, Mr. Fair.”
“Call me Zack.” Zack tilted his head and nodded towards the sleeping child in his arms. “And trust me. Once Yuna puts her mind to something, there’s no stopping her. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing lots more of…was it Locke? Ah. Locke, then.” Zack’s striking blue eyes seemed soft as they gazed at the boy on the couch, who had sense shifted in his sleep to take up the entire couch now that it was available to him. Locke snored a little as his thin leg hung off the edge of the couch, pulling his blanket down with it. Zack had seen the boy around town and was a little surprised. No one saw Yuna ever making friends with him, but Zack was happy about it. The older man couldn’t help but laugh quietly, afraid that if he did so loudly, he might wake up one of them. He didn’t know if they would be difficult to separate while awake, and didn’t want to take a chance and find out the hard way. “Well, time to take this little monster home.”
Before he walked out of the door, Zack dug his hand into the pocket of his pants and pulled out a small, slightly abused and crinkled card. He quietly handed it to Miss Olivia and then nodded before walking out the door to take Yuna home. The card was his own "business card" as he liked to call it, with his name and contact information. If she had any trouble setting up another play date for the two children, all she would have to do was call him, and Zack would take care of it. For now, however, it was time to take Yuna home and then get back to his own home for some much needed rest.
After all, the summoner who's funeral had taken place that day had been his charge.
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