Work Text:
Foster - ‘to bring up(a child that is not one’s own by birth)’
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The charred ground beneath her greaves crunched as Katsum wound her way through the debris of fallen magiteks and resistance weapons, her eyes searching the wreckage for any survivors. The sky was clouded with the smoke trails from the fires, nearly blocking out the sunlight from shining down upon the now quiet battlefield. It had not been a long siege, but it was a hard-fought one to be certain. The Garleans were not wont to give up their castrums so easily, but this was no secret to the Bozjan Resistance forces. They had fought on regardless, and in the end, their resilience paid off and won them the day.
The blonde miqo’te knightess watched the resistance soldiers running in all directions around her, securing the perimeter of their newly captured base. Some still bore wounds from battle, yet still, they moved quickly about, following their orders and refusing to rest until everyone’s safety was secured. There was a kind of calmness in the urgency of their marching, a kind of moment to breathe before the next fight broke out. Perhaps it was her own odd kind of calm having borne witness to so many battles and fought in so many wars. You weren’t waiting for the armies to arrive and start firing, nor were you trying to find a way to sleep the night before. In the wake of the battle, only two paths remained: survival or death. And when you were still standing as she was, there was naught else to fear or prepare for. At least for this moment.
“Ah, Katsum, there you are. Good to see you are unharmed,” The sapphire gaze of the warrior turned to see Bajsaljien and a few of the Blades walking towards her.
She offered a soft smile as she came to a stop before him, “Will take a bit more than a few magitek colossi to take Raihogg and me down. How fare you and the rest?”
He grinned slightly at her comment and crossed his arms as he looked at the companies of soldiers moving about, “We suffered some few casualties, though we had more wounded than dead. That alone is a reason to celebrate.”
Katsum nodded, “Any sign of the holding cells?”
“We are searching for them now, and rest assured that you will be the first to know should we come across any of your people as well. We will keep our eyes open for the dragon sigil you spoke of,” His eyes narrowed slightly as his voice became grave, “Though you should know, after exploring what little bit I have of the castrum, I have reason to believe this place was more than just a prison.”
Her heart dropped at this, “You don’t mean…”
“Unfortunately, I do…we’ve already found signs of experimentation in some ruined areas. To make even more unsavory, I believe more civilians were held here rather than prisoners of war or freedom fighters.”
“So innocents then?”
“Yes…” He responded gravely. Katsum closed her eyes, her ears twitching back a bit as she took a deep breath.
Suddenly, a commotion broke out across the field, drawing their attention as a panicking soldier ran up to Bajsaljien, “Commander, we need help!”
“What’s happened? Is there an ambush?”
“No, sir, but we found a young girl. She was hiding in the shadows until we passed by and she ran past us out into the yard. Marsak saw her and tried to speak with her, but…the child doesn’t seem to understand us. She’s fled into a corner and won’t let anyone get near her.”
Bajsaljien looked to Katsum, “Seems like something we should look into.”
She nodded and followed the soldier as they turned to lead them to the girl. The voices grew louder as they drew closer, and Katsum could hear the voice of the child shouting in terror. She could hear her above all the rest of the people, her voice carrying and bouncing off of the walls of the buildings. Suddenly, she recognized the syllables in her words, and the words formed in the air and her steps quickened.
“Doh ehs an! Doh ehs an!” She heard her cry, shouting at the soldiers, ‘leave me alone’.
Dragonspeak. She was speaking the language of dragons.
The ancient language of the Draic kingdom; of her people.
Another voice rose over the noise then, “Come on, it’s alrigh’! We’re here to help ya, not to hurt ya!”
They rounded the corner quickly and into the crossway between two buildings, finding a large group of soldiers already gathered to see what the commotion was about. Bajsaljien shouted for them to clear the way and let them through and they waded through them. Katsum pushed past the remaining soldiers to see a resistance soldier holding on to the little girl’s arm, trying to calm her down as the girl thrashed against his grip wildly. She was covered in bruises and scrapes, her tattered tunic and pants looking far too big for her. Her dark brown hair was matted against her face and in her eyes, clinging to the tear stains on her tan skin and framing the terrified look in her amber-colored eyes. She was so small, looking only to be about five or six years of age, and yet with the furious movements as she fought against the full-grown Hyur soldier, it was clear she was no stranger to the horrors that must have occurred here.
The little girl thrashed against, screaming in frustration as the soldier grabbed her other arm, “Come on then, let’s go and—”
Suddenly, the little girl’s fist struck out and punched the soldier at the junction of his thigh and pelvis, making him flinch and fall to his knees after he let her go, allowing her to turn and run until she hit the wall at the end of the alleyway, pressing herself against it as she turned her wild gaze upon the rest of them.
The soldier seethed, “Bloody little—”
“I suggest you not finish that sentence,” Katsum snarled, a dark glare on her features as she stepped forward, “She warned you, yet you kept holding on.”
“I was trying to help her! It’s her fault for not listenin’ to—”
“Can’t you see she’s terrified!? She doesn’t understand what you are saying and trying to force her to listen is only making it worse.” Katsum’s tail lashed in anger, her hands shaking as so many emotions fluttered through her mind. A girl speaking her language meant there had been others here and they had to still be close. That thought alone was hard to contain as it made her want to frantically ask the child so many questions about where they were or where they had been taken, but by the fright, the girl already showed, it wouldn’t do anyone any good to be so frantic in looking for answers.
Bajsaljien raised his hands then, “It’s alright, let’s all calm down. Our frustration is only going to upset her more,” The Hrothgar commander looked at Katsum and nodded to her, “You know her words and what she is saying, yes? I would say it best for you to speak with her.”
The Warrior of Light nodded, “We are of the same mind. Thank you. Could you give us a bit more space though?” He nodded and they all stepped back as Katsum turned her eyes to the child who was now huddled in the corner, her knees pulled up to her chest as she hid her face behind them, only her shining yellow eyes visible amidst her dark hair. The sight was enough to almost make Katsum cry so she took a deep breath and stepped forward into the center of the alleyway and sat down on the ground, taking her sword off of her belt and setting it far to the side to show she meant her no harm.
The young girl watched her move, her wild expression never changing as Katsum took another deep breath and spoke in the dragon’s language, “ It is alright, little one. No one here wants to hurt you. You are safe. ”
The girl’s eyes widened as the words left Katsum’s lips, lifting her head a little. Hope flashed through her gaze for a moment before it fell away just as quickly, “ I am scared. I want my mother. They took her. She told me to hide. Loud noises happened after. ”
The girl spoke in a kind of broken way, speaking the literal words of the language and not through a true fluent manner, meaning she was taught quickly and no true formal learning had been given to her. Katsum could only guess her mother had taught her Dragonspeak instead of Garlean or Eorzean so that she alone could communicate with her and they could speak without anyone understanding them, though that now made it difficult for anyone trying to help to be able to speak with her.
Katsum blinked the tears out of her eyes and tried to smile for her, “ We have driven the bad men away and we will help find your mother. You have nothing to fear, little one. ”
“Queen…?” Suddenly the girl spoke in Eorzean a single word, staring at Katsum, “…Queen…?”
“ What do you mean? ”
“ The Queen will save us. My mother said this. Are you the Queen? ”
Katsum’s heart shook, no longer able to hold back her tears then. They had been waiting for her. They had known that she was coming to save them, and they had held so firmly to that hope that this child’s mother had even taught her only the word ‘Queen’ in Eorzean, perhaps in hopes that if they were separated, Katsum would find the girl then. Her ears fell back against her head as she smiled sadly to the girl and nodded, lifted her hand to the Draic necklace that sat atop her armor, “ Yes…yes, I am the Queen she spoke of. I am Katsum, the last queen of Draic. ”
The girl still looked warily at her and Katsum sniffed as she looked to her right and said, “Raihogg, do you think…? Just a shade maybe? I don’t want to scare her.” The dragon hummed in her mind as a ghostly image of the great red dragon appeared there beside her, his glowing golden-blue eyes softly looking between them as his throat rumbled with a kind of quiet purr.
The girl gasped and drew back in on herself for a moment when he appeared, yet she slowly relaxed as the sound he made seemed to calm any fears she might have had. She stared for a moment before she began to speak again as she began to cry, “ The Queen has come…the Queen has come, the Queen has come! ”
With tears streaming down her face, the girl stood and ran to Katsum, throwing her arms around her as she sank into her lap and cried. Katsum wrapped her arms around her in return and hugged her tight, “ You are safe now, child, I promise. We won’t let anyone hurt you, I promise! ”
“ Please find my mother. Please find her. ”
“ We will, we will. ” Katsum wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as she sniffed and looked back at Bajsaljien, “I’ve got her. I’ll take care of her. She says her mother was taken shortly before the battle began. They can’t have gone far. Please, find them.”
He nodded and turned to the other soldiers, “You all heard her, move out!”
The crowd began to disperse as Katsum turned to look down at the girl again, petting her knotted hair as she sobbed into her shoulder. Raihogg made himself fully visible and curled himself around Katsum and the girl, laying down as best as the dragon could and continuing to purr to help calm the child. Katsum closed her eyes and held tightly to the child as she shaking said, “ We will keep you safe now until we find your mother. I promise.”