Official Story: Enter Sedorra

[Lonely Paper Star]

"Where are they?" Camille sighed, she and Stissi practically flying over the fields, in hopes of a yellow or blue blur. The runaways couldn't have been so fast that they already made it into the forest, could they? Blue-feathered Bristles, perhaps, being Stissi's offspring, but Koko?

The field south of the Wylds were flat and quiet. Sometimes herds of plant-eating animals grazed here, the peaceful kinds that didn't stand out or make loud noises. So surely, two chocobos should not be hard to find.

What if I'm completely wrong? she wondered. What if they went east after all, or northeast to Lake Arna? To the lake itself or the mountains by it? I'd be spending Stissi's endurance for nothing.

"What if we went back?" Camille asked the chocobo. "It'd make more sense if—"

But Stissi sped up even faster, ignoring her except for the stubborn grunt that escaped her.

"Hey!" The breeder pulled at the reins, but Stissi, again, didn't listen. She seemed pretty intent on finding the younger birds. Camille wondered if there was some familial instinct involved; an intuition that only animal kin would understand. "Stissi!"

Without warning, Stissi rushed forth in an impatient burst of speed. Camille found herself falling backwards and crashing onto her back. Pain shot through her body, especially her back, but it didn't seem like anything was broken.

Beyond, she heard the shuffle of Stissi continuing without her, not once looking back.

“Stissi,” she groaned, forcing herself to sit up. She found the chocobo ahead, her distance steadily increasing. “Stissi!”

Nothing. Anger she did not recognize started to burn, firing every limb. Not only because of Stissi's disobedience, but from her current situation, the runaway chocobos, the pain in her body. She was tired. Tired. She wanted her old life back without the guilt, or a new one far away. She wanted something, but she wasn't about to get a thing at all with one bitch of a chocobo and a long journey ahead.

“PRESTISSIMA GET THE HELL BACK HERE!” she screeched.

That caught the chocobo's attention. She froze mid-run, in a tense way that indicated her unwillingness to obey.

Then, she bent down. Just like at the stables, just like all the times when they raced together. Whether she did it from routine or not, Camille couldn't tell, but a reluctant compliance was better than none.

Camille hitched a breath, bearing the pain—and cursing herself for not bringing any potions—and made her way to her. She mounted, a bit gingerly this time, and let Stissi start dashing across the field again. Both rider and chocobo were tense, but as quiet as the grazing animals around them.

Better this way, she thought, forcing older, happier, more loving memories away. We need to concentrate on Koko and Bristles.

- } { -

Camille finally burst through the fringes of the forest, re-familiarizing herself with its shade and sounds. Stissi slowed to a trot, veering rather expertly down one path without her rider's prompting.

“You already know,” Camille said, more questioningly than intended. She was stating the obvious, surely, but despite the number of times she has been in the Wylds, it still makes her ramble with nerves.

Stissi warked curtly.

Camille briefly looked up at the trees above her head, at the small peek of sunlight through the thick blanket of leaves. The Betheron Wylds, she thought with a sigh. The notorious Betheron Wylds.

Like every time she has gone in, and despite her expertise... she prayed for nothing troublesome while she was there.