Chapter Text
The war had been going on for far too long now, many had lost count on the years that had passed ever since. Whole generations had been born and perished in the meantime. When Niflheim first declared war against the other nations, it didn’t take long for them to take control of the Tenebrae territory. Several decades and even more than a century later, the two remaining nations Lucis and Accordo had tried to team up against the sheer force of Niflheim and lost, ending in Accordo being annexed.
Ever since then, Lucis fought relentlessly against the advances of the Niflheimian military. While the Lucians had very talented individual fighters, Niflheim surpassed them with their technological progress. It didn’t take long for Lucis to be driven back until only their main city, Insomnia remained. Everything else had fallen into Niflheim’s control, and every attempt to regain back parts of Lucian territory ended up futile.
The main reason for Niflheim’s attack was the expansion of territory and gaining access to more resources. Their own land had always been at a disadvantage in terms of certain resources, mostly food-related, with long and harsh winters and temperatures never rising up certain degrees. With further technological progress, their environmental pollution became worse, making certain parts of the country inhabitable completely by now.
Still, even though their motives were of no noble cause at all, their countrymen and especially their military was indoctrinated to believe that their Empire was honest, noble, and doing all that for the greater good of their homeland.
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Small footsteps made their way through high grass and dirt, running fast to escape from hungry predators. The young frail girl ignored the pain from her bleeding bare feet and kept going, huffing out air. In her panic, she tried to climb up a tree, jumped on it as high as she could and forced all her remaining energy to pull herself up high until she reached a branch she could safely hold unto. Her blood stained off white dress ripped up in the process.
She could hear the sabertusks, the wild beasts that were chasing her, just underneath. Scared that they might try to climb up as well, she held in her breath, struggling hard to not make any sound. Even when a strand of her dark blond hair tickled her face, she kept silent. A few seconds later the wild animals moved on, leaving her on her own clung to a tree branch.
The girl finally breathed out and then heaped in lots of air. While being safe at last, her panic did not want to subside. She kept clawing into the wood of the branch underneath her, her petite body laying on it. Shaking, confused and tired the girl closed her eyes. Her mind was racing and strove to process whatever had happened today. It was way too much for a little child’s soul to handle.
After her heart rate slowly stabilized, she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore, crying herself to sleep in her seemingly safe shelter. She quietly sniffed and hiccuped until her eyes were red and swollen, her eyelids feeling like a heavy curtain forcing its way down. When her small body slid down the branch bit by bit, her drained self didn’t even notice.
The big bird reached its beak up to nudge the limp body softly, letting it fall onto it’s soft, feathery back. It gently lowered itself to the ground, letting the child rest on itself. The Chocobo wasn’t sure what kind of baby chick it had found, but it seemed tired and lost, and therefore in need of help.
With subtle poking, the bird wanted to make sure it’s newfound baby was still alive and well. The child breathed evenly, and while there seemed to be splatters of blood on its skin and its odd ‘fur’, the child itself did not seem to be injured. “Mhm..” came from the small child, slowly but gradually regaining consciousness after the very eventful and tiring hours of yesterday.
“Mama..” the girl whispered in her sleepy state. For a moment, she felt as if she was in her beloved mother’s embrace. She opened her eyes, blinked two times, and a third time, but the image in front of her didn’t change. She sat on a big black-feathered bird that she recognized as a Chocobo, even though she had only seen yellow ones in books before. Her eyes widened as she tried to grasp the whole situation. Did she fall from the tree? Did this feathered friend save her from falling harshly onto the ground?
“Kweh!” the Chocobo cheered as it saw the little strange chick awake and moving. It softly bumped its head against the girl’s, rising up from its sitting position and starting to walk carefully with the little girl on its back. The girl still had trouble understanding what was happening, but she decided to hold onto her new friend. Everything still seemed so unreal, so tough to catch.
When memories of yesterday’s events flashed before her eyes, she closed them tightly, holding onto the bird a bit more than before. She didn’t want to believe they were real. She didn’t want to remember. Concentrating instead of what was going on right now, she noticed the Chocobo bringing her to a more open field, a place where Gysahl greens and other veggies grew in the wild. It halted and kneeled down for her to climb off it with no big effort.
She crawled off the bird’s back, setting her feet onto the soft grass. The Chocobo gestured with its head towards the greens before them, walked two steps and ripped a leaf of Gysahl only to hold it out to the girl beside it. Unsure of what to do, the girl took the greens out of its friend’s beak. Her stomach rumbled and it already hurt, she did feel hungry after all. “Thank you…” she muttered to the bird, hesitantly biting into the food she had been gifted. The Chocobo ‘kweh’ed in excitement, watching happily how its little chick started eating.
It wasn’t like Gysahl greens were in any way poisonous for humans, they had always been safe to eat, but there were a lot of better-tasting things to eat then raw green leaves. Still, the hunger drove her to keep eating despite the plain and slightly bitter taste. After she finished with the one her friend gave her, she looked around to find any other wildly growing vegetable to eat, settling on a carrot that she dug out of the ground. The bird kept making encouraging and happy sounds, and despite how confused and lost the girl felt at the moment, she couldn’t hold back a little smile.
They both kept eating for a while, though there was not much for the poor girl to find and eat. Her knowledge about plants was not very good, and so she didn’t touch anything that she didn’t somehow recognize as something edible. She could still feel her stomach craving for a meal, anything decent, but she knew there wouldn’t be anything. If only she had listened to her father more, the way he so passionately talked about the Lucian wildlife and vegetation. But it all seemed so hard to understand back then, she just loved to listen to him talk and often didn’t pay attention to what exactly he was talking about.
Another wave of emotions and memories hit her like an uncontrollable storm. Tears started streaming down her little face, her small body shaking. She couldn’t remember everything that had happened the day before. It was like everything was in a fog, her mind had closed it off and only replayed several little snippets randomly. She remembered the knock on the door, her father screaming for her and Mama to hide. Then there were these very loud noises, shots..gunshots…
Without her noticing, the Chocobo had moved in front of her, sitting down and snuggling its head against hers. It had noticed her clear discomfort, a crying little chick had to be comforted. When she felt her friend nudging her so softly, she laid her arms around the bird’s neck, cuddling up against its fluffy feathers. The tears didn’t stop for a long while, but the warmth and gentle snuggles of the Chocobo helped her in the end.
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Days passed, and without notice, it turned into several weeks. The child had grown close to her new friend, naming them “Svar”. They cuddled up together every night, keeping each other warm. With the help of the Chocobo, the girl managed to stay safe. The bird noticed whenever a dangerous animal was close and fled with its uncommon chick on its back. It tried it’s best to keep the little chick fed, but the child seemed to weaken with every passing day. She had lost weight, her skin was full of scratches and the soles of her feet were covered in blisters.
It was the third week outside in the wild when it happened. She walked alongside her feathered friend, staggering slightly. It felt so hard to keep her eyes open, she felt like she was burning up inside. She tried to keep up, but her energy was gone, her legs couldn’t carry her anymore - and so, she fell. Her eyes fluttered shut, her breathing was ragged and her body shivering. “S..svar..” she breathed out her friend’s name before losing consciousness.
The Chocobo kweh-ed at its little chick, panicking. It poked her small body and nudged her to get up again, but the girl didn’t move. Svar tried again and again but to no avail. Their shouts became desperate. Realizing its child would not get up again, the bird carefully dragged her shivering body onto its back. When it felt like the girl was safely positioned, it got up and walked in a fast but attentive way, as to make sure the child wouldn’t fall down.
The bird remembered seeing other, grown-up not-birds like that child nearby. It tried to find the way to that place, even though it was scared of them. They seemed to be dangerous, carrying around weird things that they pointed at others. While Chocobos were well known to be fine around humans, wild ones like Svar were not. Even though it feared that area, the bird wanted nothing more than its child to be safe.
Reaching the gates of the large iron walls, the Chocobo halted with a bit of distance, but close enough to call out to anyone behind there. It made the loudest of noises it could manage. Screaming and flapping its little wings, kicking its feet into the ground. If just someone would hear it, would see the little child on its back. Anyone.
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Loqi Tummelt had just gained the title of Brigadier General. Something he should be proud of. He was proud of it, but what he didn’t get was being stationed at that Imperial base in the middle of nowhere, between Lestallum and Hammerhead. There was literally nothing going on here, there was nothing to observe or to defend, except for what? A road? Some trees and wildlife? Stupid.
Of course, the base had some kind of sense, it was positioned at the only road towards Lestallum, a Lucian city in control of the Empire. But that didn’t change the fact that nothing was happening since the two weeks Loqi had been stationed here. How was he ever going to prove that he deserved the title of a General if he did nothing but sit on his butt and file boring paperwork about daily observations of - nothing?
He was frustrated and considered writing to a higher-up and asking for a transfer to another base. But he struggled with the thought. Would they interpret it as him giving up? Maybe it was some kind of test, see how long he could stay here without complaining? So Loqi didn’t follow through on that. He could stay here forever if they meant to test him.
“Sir!” someone knocked at the door of his small office room. It ripped Loqi out of his boring cycle of thoughts. “What is it? Come in!” Loqi answered while straightening his position at his desk. The soldier entered and saluted promptly.”Sir, there is..well, it’s a bit of a weird situation..” he muttered out. Loqi raised an eyebrow. “Speak clearly, give me a sentence and stop stammering around. What is it?”
“There is a Chocobo outside our gate. It’s making a lot of ruckus. Also, it seems there is a child on its back. Maybe dead, at least unconscious.” he managed to finally get out. “Of course..a Chocobo.. with a kid..” Loqi shook his head. It surely sounded absurd, but it was something. Something happening. Not what Loqi had hoped for, though. “Okay, I will check it out. You’re dismissed, go back to your position.” The soldier nodded swiftly and moved away.
Loqi sighed heavily before he too got up and moved out of his office, climbing down the stairs and outside towards the gate. He ordered two soldiers to open the gate up and prepared himself mentally to face a raging huge bird. He took a few steps outside. A black Chocobo kept screaming around in front of him. He knew these were rare, so he probably should try not to hurt it. But would it try to hurt him?
Lifting his hands up, he slowly got closer to the bird. “Calm down. See? my hands are up, I’m not going to hurt you. So stop screaming at me. A..and don’t fucking kick me..” Loqi wouldn’t admit it openly, but he was scared of Chocobos. Maybe not scared per se, he just respected their ability to kill a human with a single kick if they really wanted to. The bird went quiet, but it still was wary around the man, ready to peck at his face if it needed to.
Loqi tried to catch a glimpse at the child on the bird’s back. He managed to ascertain that the child, a girl around six or seven, was definitely alive and breathing, but it looked like she needed medical care as soon as possible. “Don’t fucking peck me, okay? I want to help her.” The Chocobo seemed unsure and moved its head towards Loqi, who backed away in a split second. “Hey, I said I will help her..” he tried telling the bird in a slightly softer voice. When he got closer again, it lowered its head down, giving Loqi access to the child. Loqi gently lifted the girl up and took her in his arms.
The Chocobo made another sound, it seemed worried. The blond huffed. “She’ll be fine.” Loqi kept questioning himself why he even tried to talk to a bird, but it seemed to work, so whatever, right? He distanced himself from the bird, the girl safely in his arms, until he went back inside the base, the gates closing after him.
“I need a medic, follow me into the infirmary!” Loqi ordered, storming ahead into the direction of the infirmary. He could feel the child shivering and its head burning up. A medic quickly made her way through her comrades and followed Loqi with fast steps. The Chocobo stayed frozen at that very spot, staring at the gate for a good while. With its head down, it finally moved away from the base but decided to stay in the area.
They put the girl on one of the beds. Loqi let the medic do her work, checking the child for injuries, taking a blood sample, and so on. He waited outside of the room so she had enough space to move around. When the door finally opened again, the blond stormed inside. “And? What’s her condition?” Loqi asked. The medic smiled softly. “She’ll be alright. I gave her something to calm the fever and to fight against the infection she caught.” She went on to explain the overall state of their little patient.
Some scratches, blisters on her bare feet, malnourished and an infection that she most probably caught from drinking unclean water. The medic went on about how fascinating it was that a Chocobo had carried her here. “That bird saved her life with that, Sir. Still, humans aren’t birds, and they can’t survive the same way they do.” “I get that…” the blond sighed. It still didn’t change his distrust in these particular animals. They looked way too cute to be able to kick and peck like that.
“I will watch over her. You can rest for now.” Loqi told her. The medic wanted to argue. “But, Sir.. you don’t have to do that. I’m fine with staying up the night.” “No, you’re the only medic we have here. On the rare occasion that something happens, I want you to be well-rested. I’ll be fine.” She understood that this was his final order and didn’t try to convince him otherwise. With a nod and a salute, she exited the infirmary.
Loqi sat down at the edge of the bed. He mustered the child before him, now breathing calmly. She had dark blond hair in a grown out bob cut, fair skin and a few freckles covering her nose and cheeks. He wasn’t sure if she was pure-blooded, but she was definitely Niflheimian. “What happened to you, kid?” he whispered to her, even though she couldn’t answer. Remembering what the medic had said, she must have been out in the wild for at least two weeks or more. “You must be a tough one.” Loqi murmured, a little smile forming on his lips.
For now, Loqi didn’t think about how to report this incident or what to do with a child at his military base. He wasn’t even sure if there was any kind of regiment about anything like this. A civilian seeking help? Sure. But a sick child being carried by a Chocobo right to their gate? Most probably not. A child of unknown background. What happened to her parents? Why was she out in the wild? Questions that Loqi hoped to get an answer to as soon as the girl would wake up. For now, he settled on watching over her, gently caressing through her hair.