Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ The Life of Erin Tribal ❯ Chapter 22

The Life of Erin Tribal Chapter 22

There was a sudden jolt, and the castle seemed to be moving. Edgar was running back towards them.

"Right, we'll be near Kohlingen soon enough. The same groups from yesterday will be used," Edgar announced, regaining his composure after the run.

Erin sighed. She hoped that she was doing the right thing in going after Terra like this. Again, that dream came back to her. Why did the second one look so much like here? Suddenly, her mind drifted to her sister, and how she was doing. "I wonder what's so top-secret about Garnet's location that she can't tell me? Wouldn't she just be at the castle studying with Doctor Tot? Speaking of him, I hope he's doing fine, with how my mother has been acting lately…" she thought to herself.

There was another jolt, and the castle seemed to stop moving. Celes, Locke, Sabin, Cyan, and Erin left the castle, leaving Edgar to watch over Gau, who had woken up with the second jolt. Erin saw him run by her as they were leaving, and heard Edgar running after him, and he soon passed the group as well. Erin started to giggle as they got out of the castle, trying not to imagine what the wild boy was doing.

As they headed toward Kohlingen, they continued the same old routine. Sabin used his Blitzes. Celes and Erin were fighting, and Locke was doing a mixture of stealing and fighting. Cyan, Erin found out, was sometimes using a special technique, and sometimes just fighting.

"Cyan, what's that special move you use called?" Erin asked him after about half-an-hour of traveling and fighting.

Cyan looked down at the young girl. "It's called a Sword Technique, a special ability that allow thy user to do certain things with thee own sword," the tall man replied.

Erin smiled, thinking that he was actually talking with her. She giggled slightly to herself at the way he talked, but she didn't say anything. She didn't know if anyone could tell about her Alexandrian accent, but she sure hoped not, considering she had been there for nearing a month. But she had heard it takes years to change ones accent. They continued onward, defeating any monsters that got in their way.

After about another half-an-hour of the same old fighting, Kohlingen came into view. Everyone pressed forward, and Locke seemed a bit hesitant to enter, Erin thought, but he did so anyways.

She slowed down her pace to drop back from walking next to Cyan and started walking next to Locke. She looked up into his eyes. After being raised in the castle for over a year, she had been taught, "To be quiet and to always be observant. This will make the best king of queen in the future." Erin shook out the idea of her ever being queen, with her sister being in line ahead of her. With all that observing she had done of over 50 audiences, she had learned how to tell when they where telling a lie or telling the truth. She had also picked up on her own how to find out when something was bothering them but they weren't voicing it to the queen, to her mother. As she looked into Locke's eyes, he turned down to face her.

`Remember what you were taught Erin. Let's see, something is definitely wrong. I can see that sign in his eyes. Something is bothering him about coming to this village. But that's all I can tell. Something seems to be blocking my ability to almost read other's thoughts to find out what's truly going on. Maybe I'll find out soon in town.'

"Hey Locke, is something wrong?" Erin asked, trying to keep as steady of a voice as she could, trying not to show that she already knew something was wrong.

He looked back at the town, trying to figure out what to say, to say that something was wrong. "Nothing's wrong, Erin, " he replied.

Erin frowned, but she wasn't going to pry into his thoughts too much. She knew that she would eventually find out one way or another. As Locke started to speed up, Erin did as well, not to walk next to him, but to walk next to Celes.

They reached the town after another 15 minutes, and they stopped to look around. Sabin, Celes, Locke, and Cyan left her at the entrance to go and find someone to ask to see if they had seen Terra. Erin slowly looked around the town, noting some people taking care of some plants and a few kids running around. A few stopped to look at her, wondering why she was dressed so differently, why she just looked different all together. They soon went about their games though, leaving Erin be.

There were soon footsteps approaching her from behind. She looked back to see Edgar and Gau approaching her. She smiled to herself, seeing that Edgar had gotten Gau under control for the time being.

"Hey Edgar!" Erin yelled and started waving to get their attention.

Edgar looked at the figure in the distance and noticed it was waving at them. He soon realized it was Erin. He waved back to her to let her know that he saw her. She smiled again, the turned around to find everyone else. They were near by talking with one of the older gentlemen of the village. Erin ran to catch up with them.

When she got there, the man looked at Locke closely. "Hello Locke. Are you going to go visit Rachal?" the man asked.

Locke flinched slightly, hoping no one had seen his sudden reaction, and quietly shook his head `Yes' in reply. Of course, Erin saw him, and she started thinking to herself again.

`Ah-ha, that must be what's bugging him! I wonder if I should encourage him to go visit her, or just stay quiet,' Erin thought, but her thoughts were cut short before short before she could make her decision.

"He said that he saw Terra heading towards the town of Jidoor. So, why don't we head that way?" suggested Sabin, looking around at the group.

"Hold on, Sabin. Hey Locke, I know what's wrong, I just can't tell you how I know. I was wondering… do you want to go visit that girl, Rachal? I saw you flinch when that man mentioned her," Erin explained, realizing that Locke flinched yet again, "It might hurt you to go see her, but sometimes it's best to face the past before moving on with the future."

Locke sighed, realizing that now everyone knew what was wrong. "Fine, I guess," he finally replied after five seconds of silence.

~~

A/N: Hey, sorry for the lack of updates! I've either been super-busy with my site, have been playing a game, or just haven't felt like writing. I've been thinking of re-writing parts of this story to make them… well… flow better in. I started this story 10 months ago, and I have learned a lot about writing and have kinda grown out of some things as well. I'm hoping that once I finish the game I'm playing now (.hack//Infection, should finish in a day or two) that I'll be able to work on this more. I've also started an attempt at a Dark Cloud 2 story, and I've noticed that there is a lack of them around the web! Oh yeah, if you want to read later parts of the story (parts that I can't connect into the story yet) just visit my site! Link is in my author bio.