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For the average Eorzean, the Warrior of Light was an avatar of hope. The Warrior of Light would save those in need, vanquish the wicked, and would always work humbly. Such a hero could blend in with the heads of the Eorzean Alliance as well as those in the marketplace. Heroes like the Warrior of Light were kind and generous. Those who met their hero would always claim that she was just how they’d imagined she’d be.
But the Warrior of Light was not always a hero. She had a name, and it was Moonflower. I am a person. Is that so hard to understand? Who will see me as a person? Sometimes, she had to hide away from the world, away from all the expectations that she wasn’t sure were fairly placed upon her. She had never asked to become a hero. Of course she liked helping people; she left home to study magic and to see if she might help people along the way, but it had never been her aim to help people so that she might be known as a hero one day.
Who would ever want to be a hero? Moonflower was silly but she was no fool. Heroes suffered. They suffered more than anyone else. They were given more burdens than they could carry, and then just for good measure, given even more. Friends, family, lovers were all ripped away from a hero. One had to learn to live with the pain, with the grief, or there would be no hope. Heroes weren’t left with a choice once they had become the embodiment of hope; they had to keep going.
One day, she saw a boy. He had brown hair and blue eyes, and he was sitting rather forlornly in a hidden corner in Gridania. Moonflower took note of him because of his peculiar dress; he had some sort of patterned jacket and gray gloves. His shoes were black and yellow of all things, which drew her eye. “Are you all right?” she asked him.
He lifted his head and she saw a grin that did not quite meet his eyes. “Oh, of course!”
Moonflower sank down to the rock next to him. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Sora!” he replied cheerfully, and even pointed a thumb at himself. “What’s your name, Miss?”
“My name is Moonflower, and it’s nice to meet you Sora.” She looked him over again, and determined him to be about the twins’ age, or older. Something in her yearned to know what had him so sad before, even if he said he was all right. “I couldn’t help but notice, before… You looked sad. What’s wrong? Can I help you?”
The smile on his face wavered, and in that moment, Moonflower knew. This boy was also a hero. She had felt that pain of trying to hide fear and tears. “I’m just a little lost,” he explained. “I need to find my way back home, but somehow I’ve lost my way.” He put a hand to his chest. “My friends will guide me home, and Kairi will light the way, I just know it. I… I just need to go home.”
Moonflower could not resist the obvious love in his voice when he said that name. Oh, how cute! Her tail flicked up in joy, but then she forced herself to pay attention to the rest of what he was saying. “You can’t teleport back? Is your aether broken, Sora?”
“It’s… it’s too far to teleport.” He pulled out something from his pocket and it was some sort of star made of seashells. “I’m kinda stuck here.”
She hummed, thinking about it. Well, she couldn’t fix that. But she could give him an ear and a shoulder to lean on, if he needed it. “There’s nothing to do but look,” she mused. “That’s a really nice shell star you have there.”
Sora’s grip tightened and he held the star up. “A lucky charm that Kairi gave me a few years ago. It really has been a lucky charm for me…” Again, his smile wavered and Moonflower’s heart went out to him.
“That was very sweet of her,” she said softly. “I’m sure she wants to see you too. Maybe she’s looking for you right now?”
Sora sighed, long, tired, and deep. “Is it bad that I hope so?”
“Not at all. Chocolate?” Moonflower offered a bubble chocolate to him, thinking he would need it.
He eyed it, surprised by how big the bubble chocolate was, but took it from her. “Thank you.”
“It’s all right to wish someone would come for you instead of you finding them, Sora,” she told him as he ate the chocolate. “I know how that feels to some extent. We’ve just met, but it’s clear to me that you are loved, and your friends must be looking for you if you are lost.”
He was quiet, focused on the chocolate, but then it was gone and he didn’t have another distraction. “You know how it feels?”
She nodded. “I’m always sent hither and thither to save the world, and I have the scars to prove it. You get tired of it after a while, and want nothing more than to go home. Or, if you end up alone somewhere, for someone to come find and rescue you. It’s all right to want someone to find you, Sora.”
He held up the lucky charm and rubbed his thumb over the little smiling face etched into one of the shells. “I want to go home. I miss my friends. I miss Kairi.”
Apparently he’d said the magic words, because the charm glowed and a true smile came to his face the second it did. Sora hopped to his feet, and Moonflower followed suit. A portal appeared, more akin to a door of light, and a voice called from within. “Sora!”
“Kairi!”
He dashed forward and a redheaded girl was swept into his arms. “Oh, Sora, I’ve missed you!” she laughed, hugging him with all her might. “And here you are!”
“I’ve missed you too.” After a second of embracing her, he let go just enough to turn around so he could say goodbye to his conversation partner. “Thanks for listening to me, Miss Moonflower. I’d almost given up.”
Moonflower clasped her hands and bounced joyfully. “It’s nothing, Sora. Go home and take care of yourself. Goodbye!” She smiled at both of them and watched them disappear into the door of light.
Sometimes being a hero meant helping other heroes find hope again.