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How does one prepare for a trip to a place so few have visited? How can I possibly prepare for the unknown? And so far away, at that!
Troubled thoughts on her mind, a lavender-haired miqo’te named Moonflower ran a finger along the spines in the Noumenon, the largest library in Sharlayan. There were only a few books about her next destination, and Erenville was reluctant to talk about his home every time she tried cornering him. She feared that she would not be able to traverse the landscape if she didn’t have the right know-how—she’d never worried about such a thing before, because she grew up in Eorzea, married a Hingashi man, didn’t care a whit about anything while on the First for a long time due to his death (aside from anger and anguish and agony), and had far more important things like staying alive and not turned into a monster to think about during her last adventure.
She definitely had reservations about this latest mission dropped in her lap, but G’raha had been very encouraging about making a decision when she arrived at their destination. She sighed again as she thought about having to leave her husband behind; they still hadn’t decided who should be taking care of their daughters while she was making such a long journey. She was tempted to teleport home every few days, just so they could avoid the headache this was causing. Naturally, that was assuming she accepted the mission. At this point, it was just as likely for her to turn around and return home.
There was, of course, an obvious solution to her problem about information, but the girl who’d asked her for help was worryingly not very knowledgeable about the land either, so that was a bust. Maybe if her brother who studied in Sharlayan were around…?
Moonflower shook her head. It would be impossible to track down someone she only knew by a name he hadn’t used on the island. Nothing for it but to read everything they’ve got here. The thought made her ears flatten in distress. All this information, little though it was, seemed very overwhelming. She wasn’t someone who read academic books; she was more likely to learn by experience than by studying it. With a heavy heart, she pulled down as many books as she could carry, and went out to find an unoccupied gazebo.
The first one she opened was an encyclopedia. She knew that they were generally helpful sources of information, with lots of pictures and definitions, sometimes even graphs and charts if the topic called for it. This one was about the land formations one might expect to see, and she was relieved that it was well-illustrated.
It was when she finished reading about braided rivers (a river that has three or more channels that come back together or drain into the same body of water) that a familiar shadow crossed her book. “Raha!” she exclaimed, looking up with a smile. “I see you’ve found me.”
“I see you’ve been busy,” he replied, sliding into the seat on her left. Her right was stacked high with books.
“I’m trying to learn what I can. Look, here’s the next entry.” She was about to read it aloud to him when she frowned. The word was very simple, but… she couldn’t read pronunciation guides and she was afraid of getting this one wrong. Instead, she held up the encyclopedia so he could see, pointed to the picture, and read the definition. “An isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top, similar to but narrower than a mesa.” It appeared that there were some well-known buttes in the New World, which looked impossible to pronounce as well.
That was something that she’d noticed as she read; the names for places looked like jumbles of letters. Moonflower was feeling very, very nervous about this trip. The Shaaloani Plains looked decently easy to pronounce, but some of the locations mentioned there really did look like someone tripped over the printing press.
G’raha grasped the edge of the book so that he could get a better look at the entry she was talking about. “Ah, buttes! We don’t have many of those in Eorzea, due to the way rocks are layered in the ground.”
“Why does it look like that?” she asked, feeling rather pitiful. “That word?”
Her husband was trying and failing to hide an immature grin. “It’s from an older form of a common language in Ishgard, Princess. Its source meaning is ‘mound’ and it doesn’t actually have a common root with what you’re thinking.”
“It’s pronounced byoot but it looks like a fancy spelling of butt!” she complained. “We’re in Sharlayan! For all I know, they spell everything with extra ‘e’s here!”
He couldn’t contain his laughter anymore. “Certainly, you are correct that there are multiple spellings for words, depending upon the location,” he agreed, once he’d calmed himself. He was still smiling, however.
“I’m going to make a fool of myself as soon as I step foot there,” she muttered, taking the book back and flipping the page to cenotes. “Maybe if I stay silent and glare at everyone, no one will try making me pronounce any of these words. I sound so stupid.”
“You? Glare at people?”
Moonflower jutted her chin in defiance. “I’m perfectly capable of intimidation!”
“As I well know.” She had the power to back it up, too. “Listen, my love. You will be perfectly fine over there. You are not going somewhere dark and terrifying like the Thirteenth, and you’ll have the twins with you.”
“But… but you won’t be there.” Moonflower was quite conflicted; she loved and missed the Leveilleur twins most cruelly, so it was wonderful to be spending a lot of time with them once more, but not having her husband with her… Not to mention their own twins, Sunflower and Daffodil. Would they forget their mother if she weren’t home with them?
“I’ll come along in my own time. You’ll hardly notice I’m not there!” He kissed her cheek. “I’ll help you learn as much as you can before you go, I promise you.”
“There’s not enough, and yet too much,” she sighed, looking forlornly at the books.
“You’ll learn. Have some faith in yourself.”
Her green eyes met his red, and she began to feel as she always did in his presence—the infinite belief he had in her, bolstering her confidence and holding her up when she fell. “I love you,” she whispered.
“I love you too.” This time, he kissed her lips, and she began to believe that perhaps she wouldn’t make a fool of herself on this next adventure.