Reflections
By QuistisChick

CHAPTER ONE

(This story takes place as Aeris walks to the City of the Ancients. This is my version of what happened along the way.)

Cat calls filled the air, over the heavy construction in the background. The young women with dark hair and a slender form ingnored them, she had much more to worry about. The workers of Bone Village were not an issue on her mind at the moment. But her future was.
Not just her future, but the future of the Planet. As she made her way through the small digging camp, she thought about how to help. She knew her answer was in the city. The city of the Cetra that lay past the Sleeping Forest. The girl paused at the entrance to the dark woods, and, gathering courage, stepped forward. She was stopped by a hand on her shoulder, and turned to see one of the workers.
He was taller than her, with blond hair and blue eyes. His eyes were full of childhood innocennce, and if it weren't for that, looked alot like Cloud's. At the thought of him, she felt her courage drop. Cloud . . .
"Miss, you can't go throught these woods," the young man's voice broke her train of thought and she looked at him. He had an accent and it took her a moment to place it. From her short time in Junon, she knew that was his hometown. He frowned. "You do which woods those are, don't you?" She nodded.
"The Sleeping Forest, I know. But I have to get through to . . . to . . . Icicle Inn." It was the first town she could remember being on the northern continent. As she said it, she realized it sounded familiar, but couldn't place why.
The man shook his head. "I'm sorry, but you can't. The boss has strict orders for no one to go through. It's dangerous; you'll fall asleep and there's plenty of animals out there. You could get hurt," he seemed apologetic, but she didn't care. She was an Ancient, and the woods were made to protect the city from outsiders. Of course, had she told him this, he'd definitly think she was insane.
"But I really ahve to get there. My mother's extremilly sick," she said, and he sighed. She knew this was going to be tougher than she originally had thought.
"Look, I'm sorry she's sick, but there's no way around it. I didn't make the rule. If it were up to me I'd let you go, my sister's very sick to." His voice softened at that, and she felt her hope fall. How else could she get to the Ancient City?
"Where's your boss?" The man pointed to a tent at the far side of the village. she thanked him and headed to it. First she had to work up her corage to get to leave Gogonga, and now she had to talk to some pig headed pen pusher. Her day couldn't get any worse.
As she approached the tent, her anger was bottling up. She had to leave her friends, and that was the hardest part. What if she never saw them again? What if the last person she sees is this meathead? She entered the tent, and saw that the head honcho was asleep on the job, feet propped up on a large pine desk.As she approached his desk, she saw a pile of nasty magazines under some official looking papers. Typical male, she thought, asleep on the job and when he actually is working his mind's in his pants. She hit the edge of the desk with her fist and the man woke up in a start, almost falling out of his chair.
As he composed himself, she stood, arms crossed in front of her. He was a short, balding man, in a cheap suit. She could tell by his mid section that he was a behind the deask kinda guy, and didn't help with the digging. He looked up at her in surprise.
"Listen-" she turned his name plate to look at her, "- Mitchel. I need to get to Icicle Inn. And if I can't go throught the woods, then how do I get there?" He shrugged.
"Not my problem, little lady. But if you wanna get through, there's two ways. One, you get back across the sea to Kalm, then hop a ride to Junon. Then take a boat up there." She rolled her eyes.
"And the other way?" He smiled, and looked her up and down.
"You can get the Earth Harp if you give me a little . . . 'convincing'," he said, and she pulled the coat that she 'borrowed' from Cid closer around herself; she took it of the coat rack before she left last night. She looked the man in the eyes.
"You, sir, are a worthless, perverted, loser." The last comment put her over the top. "You slave drive these poor men, and then you have the nerve to talk to me like I'm some hooker who's gonna throw herself at you? Let me tell you something," she said, slamming both her hands down on the desk, causing the papers and magazines to fall off. "In the last six months I have been ripped from my home, poked, prodded, and tested on till the wee hours of the night. I have sneaked into a horehouse, seen more dead people than I ever imagined, seen the President dead for Pete's sake. I have had my life in danger countless times, had my friend's risk theirs to save me, got caught up in a massive quest to stop a maniac from worlds domination, had to leave my friends to pray to god that this Planet doesn't blow us all to bits. And know, I have to waste my possible last precious moments of life talking to you. And that, mister, is the last thing I wanna do. I want to get throught hose woods," she quickly brought her hands up, knocking over his name palte, and pointed to the woods, "so I might get back to that hellish life I love so much. And if you think for one minute I'm going let you say 'no', then you, sir, are sadly mistaken!" Her anger had reached it's peak. She whipped her staff out in front of herself and called out, "Seal Evil!" A slight breeze picked up in the small tent, and a violet breeze surrounded the man. He became silenced, and when he tried to protest, no sound came out. He looked like a vetriloquest dummy with no one providing a voice. Satisfied, Aeris left the tent.