- Joined
- Jul 28, 2018
- Messages
- 128
- Awards
- 9
- Essence
- €22,240
- Coin
- ₡23,525
- Tokens
- 45
- World
- Mesa Roja
- Profile
- Click Here
- Faction
- None yet!
NPC Story featuring Ravenna.
10 years ago.
Erde Nona.
“Hey! Wait up!”
“That’s not exactly how a race works, little bug!”
A pair of chocobo feet plodded quickly through the dirt, speeding down the makeshift dirt path. Ravenna’s long, windswept black hair fluttered behind her as Fuyuhara bolted through the fields, carving a wide berth between his rider and her sister. A ways back, Oriole’s frantic screeches filled the air of the Hinterlands.
Ravenna glanced over her shoulder with a smirk. At this rate, her sister would never catch up with her. Secure in her victory, she turned her gaze back toward the finish line, just over a hundred meters away. Just outside their barn, they’d set up a line of barrels with just enough space in the middle for a chocobo and their rider to squeeze through, and now, she was poised to take first. Up ahead, she could see her father leaning on the barrel line. No doubt he’d scold her for not going easier on her little sister, but Ravenna held fast: she had to learn that nothing in life would just be given to her.
“But I’m six, Enna,” her sister would inevitably plead.
“Six years past the time you should’ve known that lesson, Ori,” she would reply like clockwork. Ravenna herself was only ten years old, but already the importance of hard work and diligence had been imbued in her. She supposed that came with the territory of being groomed to inherit her parents’ chocobo ranch, a duty she had begged for the moment she recognized it was a possibility.
Her eyes traveled down to Fuyuhara, and as he sped toward the finish line, she stroked his long, pink feathers and sighed with satisfaction. Another day, another victory.
“Wooooooooooooooah!”
Oriole’s loud exclamations now seemed to be coming from directly above her head. Ravenna glanced up, and watched in awe as her little sister and her yellow chocobo floated speedily past them. The older girl’s eyes grew wide — yellow chocobos couldn’t fly, which meant…
“Dammit, Oriole, no fair!”
“Sorry, sis!” the little bug laughed as her yellow bird-beast plopped down on the ground a ways in front of her elder sister. Ravenna scowled, giving Fuyuhara a slight nudge and urging him to blast as fast as he could after Oriole and her mount. The pink chocobo gave it his best effort, but Oriole had pulled too far ahead; within seconds, she’d passed the barrel line to hearty applause from their father, Ravenna holding up second place moments later.
“Excellent, girls, truly excellent,” their father boomed, rubbing one of his pointy ears. “Oriole, levitating yourself and Kopfooka… a risky move, but it looks like it paid off!”
“Thanks, daddy!” the tiny elven girl replied, sliding off the yellow beast.
Ravenna’s scowl deepened as she slid off her own ride.
“Using magic’s not fair!” she yelled, stalking across the cobblestone path to where her father and sister stood. “She know I can’t use magic — that I was born without it! It’s not fair, daddy, it’s not fair.”
“You’re always telling me life isn’t fair, Enna,” Oriole looked up smartly at her sister, “so why shouldn’t I cheat a little every once in a while?”
Ravenna locked eyes with her little sister.
Dammit, why did she have to be so right?
***
Present Day.
Kraw.
She picked up the rose-colored feather quill and began to write.
She didn’t quite know what would spill out of her mind — she never really did — but like clockwork, she began this week’s letter, word after word flying from her thoughts to the quill to the page. She detailed every bit of what she’d seen in the wilds, feelings that swirled within her, interesting travelers she met. She detailed the quirky mouse and his samurai companion that she’d spent such a short time with but somehow connected to so easily.
The mouse had departed so quickly, without even really saying good-bye, the morning after she’d left him. No doubt he’d gone and signed up for the strange tournament on the Comet as soon as he could, in order to ensure a slot, but she still wondered… had he received what she’d left for him?
Did he know she’d been lying to him? Would he forgive her that?
Her pen flew across the page. She pressed down so hard she was afraid it would break, or that she’d bore the words permanently into the wood of the desk. She brushed a clump of black hair behind her pointed ear, but it fell again just as quickly. For just a moment, she laid the quill down, procuring a tie and pulling her hair back into a high ponytail — she’d need it up for guard duty later, anyhow — before quickly swiping her writing instrument up again and continuing to pour her heart, soul, and mind onto the parchment before her.
He reminds me…, she wrote, pausing after that word. Of what? She knew the answer, but did she have the courage to finish that sentence? Did she have any right to, even?
Her pen touched back down, and she completed the thought.
The constant noises of Kraw whistled through the windows of Ravenna’s office, and the onyx-haired elf signed her name at the bottom of the page. She pulled an envelope from a drawer, folded the letter neatly, and stuffed it inside. On the front, she inscribed, in the clearest writing she could: Oriole.
She lit a fire in her waste basket, dropped the letter inside, and watched it burn.