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~Night of Gales~
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Before Ein appears in real-time, damn! I've gotta finish her prequel story!
Otherwise no one will know how will Saga tie in to the present!
Spoiler for Part 6 : Dreams:
~Part VI : Dreams of Bliss, Pain of Burden~
None of us really spoke for a while after our initial greeting. Well…how should I say… I don’t think anyone of us really expected that we’d meet again, under such circumstances. I was fighting a war, and I could die any day with just a moment of carelessness, and I don’t even know anything about Tiara other than the fact that she’s…Tiara.
“It’s been…a while.”
Ha. A while indeed.
“Yeah…a while indeed. A few hours.”
“I suppose you’re right about ‘fate’ meeting us like this again.”
“I wasn’t serious when I said that… I’ll mind my words next time.”
“Haha.”
“Hmm.”
The both of us smiled at the dryness of our interaction. Awkward even, perhaps.
Though really…it was unexpected. Meeting her like this again…
“Ek-hem!”
The other woman’s cough brought us back. Trapped in our own world like that… how embarrassing. Even Tiara’s looking away right now, even when I’ve already turned my head away.
~~~
God. That was embarrassing. I recall mom saying stuff about being in her own world when she’s with dad, having to have someone snap her out of it…and here I was, doing the same with someone I’ve just met.
“Care for an introduction…Tiara?”
Shamal…couldn’t you at least make Tiara sound less auspicious? Using mental communication, I told her.
Shamal, play along. It’s an order.
“This woman here, is my elder sister, Shamal. And Shamal, this is Saga. We’ve met each other earlier in the day.”
Sister!? Princess, this is-
Please, Shamal…go along. I don’t him to know I’m a princess. At least not now.
“Shamal. Pleased to meet you”
Good. They’ve shaked hands. At least he bought the difference in our looks.
~~~
They don’t really look like sisters…Whatever. It’s not like I haven’t seen a stark difference between siblings before…
It’s just that… This woman…Shamal, I feel like, I’ve felt this feeling before.
Almost like a wind that blows in the battlefield.
~~~
“Shamal…can you leave us for a moment? I have something to talk to Saga, just for a little.”
“Tiara! I can’t leave you alone with a stranger. You’ve just met him yourself not too long ago right, then-“
“Shamal…trust me. Trust my judgement.”
Don’t worry. Saga won’t do anything. I don’t sense any enmity from him, and even if he has…I won’t lose to any normal person.
“….Alright. But I’ll be on guard just in case.”
“Alright.”
“Thank you.”
~~~
“I’m sorry about Shamal. My sister can get a little over-protective at times, but she’s a nice person.”
I smiled.
“I think it’s a good thing. To have an important family that loves you and cares for you.”
“Oh…your parents…”
“Like I said, don’t fret it. Besides, I’ve found myself a different family too. Though not bonded together by blood, we’re no less a family than any other.”
That’s right. I may have lost many things, but there are still people and family I want to protect… And that is why…
“Saga, why are you here? In this field of flowers… I came here by accident, but you…”
She sounded hesitant, like the last of the sentence carried a different weight.
“You seemed melancholic…sad, as you sat here. Even more so than when you were at the grave.”
She…noticed. I closed my eyes, and stared out to the ocean, illuminated by the moon light. My hand plucked out a flower from the ground, as I showed her.
The moonlight flower. One of the few flowers that can survive the painful terrains of the desert lands, and also one of the most beautiful, as they shine a bluish-white under the moonlight, just as their name implies.
“This place…was the beginning of my dreams.”
“Once I met… a man from across the ocean here.”
I told her my story.
~~~
“Saga…go across this ocean. See the world beyond where you stand.”
Long ago…I met a man. Clear complexions, with a long hair reaching towards his back, and clothes, eccentric and noble in presence… He called himself a traveler, as he traveled to places for 3 days in search and gain of knowledge, before setting off to another…Never staying in one for more than 3.
I used to be merely a simple boy… I never thought of ambitious things…thinking it was just fine to live my world within the circle it was provided…but I was wrong.
I heard stories. Things I never thought imagined happened all across the world. Interesting people. Interesting things. There are endless things the eyes, ears, mouth…everything that can be felt, imaginable to the human thought. Before I realized it… I wanted to see it myself. The world for what it is.
“Saga…to become strong, is to understand how weak you truly are. All humans reach their limits one day. It’s not shameful to admit that, but it is to deny or to give in to it.”
Using his sword, he dug a hole to plant a small flower on an empty plain.
“When you understand that…next time, regardless of what you do…you’ll never be the same man you used to be. This flower…is my parting gift. Take good care of it.”
“Goodbye.”
~~~
“He taught me that becoming strong…is to never give to the pressure of adversity. That is why I must stay strong, until the day the day I can make my dreams a reality.”
“But…you’re still saddened, right?”
“Yeah…thank you. This is the first time I’ve ever told anyone about this. Thanks…for listening.”
The moon of the sky…was directly below us. As if shining for us.
“Saga…I must go now.”
“Yeah, I must be leaving too, otherwise they’ll be fuming.”
“Same here.”
We both laughed.
“Can we meet…again?”
“Of course.”
It was our beginning. But at the same time, the was also the prelude to the end...An end that seemed almost eternal.
Okay, the next one will have a short-time skip for sure. Since I can't be bothered to make Tiara-Saga Meeting #5,6,7,8 along with skirmish #9568456. It'd ruined the flow.
Oh, and Shamal's never seen Saga since she's not one to fight in the frontlines clearly, and even so, only Signum recognizes him for sure.
Next time...we jump from 1st base to 3rd. 
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Night~and~Gale: ~ The Final Mythology of the Man who Defied Destiny.
The sleeping lion shall awaken beyond the depths of time, crossing ten billion lights, come to Terra.
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