FFXIV Write: 01 – Cross

“Midori…Just give me your hand.” Tora stood at the end of the rickety rope bridge that spanned the canyon below. Far — far too far for her tastes — below the thin snaking line of blue that delineated a river of some sort could be seen, though it only seemed an ilm or two thick. Katja’s ears tilted back against her hair, the auburn-haired miqo’te glancing between her adventuring partner and the river. 

“That’s a long way to fall…” She countered, her voice trembling with slight nervousness. Heights didn’t normally bother her, but this was a long, LONG way up.

“I will never let you fall.” The samurai replied with a quiet confidence, once more urging her to take his hand by waggling it a little. “Trust me. Take my hand. Look nowhere but here.” He gestured to his eyes with his other hand. “Now, come.”

Katja gave a final glance to the river below before the soft tch from Tora called her attention back to his face. Reaching out with a hand, her fingers wrapped around his wrist tightly even as his wrapped around hers. Holding onto one another firmly, Tora took a backward step onto the wobbly rope bridge. Her ears tilted back slightly, her voice tense and cross as she snapped at him. “How do you even know where you’re going? You’re going to get us both killed!”

“Midori.” He said patiently. “Trust me.” The samurai once again took her hands and began to guide her onto the rope. When she started to look down to find her footing Tora chided her. “Tch, do not look down. Trust in me. I will never let you fall.” He said, slowly leading her forward. She desperately wanted to look down and see where she was putting her feet, but she trusted Tora more than anyone else she knew. She would not jeopardize everything they’d built so far just for the sake of her own pride.

One step. Two. Eventually, she hit a point where she stopped counting the steps, her eyes locked on Tora’s sapphire gaze. “Remember when we escaped that slaver encampment?” She asked as her voice trembled from nerves. Her hand in his tightened but Tora countered with a reassuring squeeze.

To her right, a waterfall roared not far away that caused her ears to flicker to and fro with wariness. Each footstep she took with an agonizing slowness, trying to feel each step along the rope bridge as it came. The air was tinged with a cool crispness from the waterfall and she could feel lingering droplets on the air dot her skin. A metallic taste lingered on her tongue, the minerality of the air or perhaps her own fear as the root cause of it. So many distractions, so much focus to do what she had to beyond them. She felt the sweat beading on her brow.

“I do remember,” He said. “You were fearless. I saw even then that you were a woman to be both admired and feared.” A chuckle emanated from him as he recalled the first moments he’d met her. She had been cursing him out for talking too much. Her fiery, spirited personality had been crystal clear from the get-go. “I could not have asked for a better ally at the time.”

She scoffed with a small laugh. “I was your ONLY ally at the time, you mean. Your other choices were a bunch of merchants and peasant farmers.” That much was true, the chocobo carter that they’d been traveling with had been ambushed by slavers along the La Noscean coast. Their attackers had been smart, opting to use a few bombs loaded with knockout gas in lieu of explosives. It ensured that they were able to easily capture the dozen or so passengers that had been aboard.

The journey across the bridge seemed endless, but she steadfastly refused to look anywhere but at Tora’s eyes. Her heart beat in her chest like a wild animal in a cage; her hand in his felt clammy with nerves. Behind her, her tail swished back and forth, instinctively adjusting itself to help her keep her balance on the precarious line of rope that was her only path across this miserable canyon. Focus, Katja. Just get through this.

“Perhaps,” He admitted, giving a sheepish little shrug as he chortled. “Better to have one ally than none. It wasn’t as if I knew you were as skilled as you proved yourself to be.” Also true, Katja was resourceful even in the face of so much opposition. She could have been like the others and cowered in the relative safety of their prison. 

“Who knew that you’d be some kick-ass swordsman? I thought for sure that you were going to get us all killed.” She said, recalling how fiercely he’d fought as he played the decoy for the entire encampment of slavers. He’d been outnumbered but not outclassed, not by a long shot, managing to keep them all busy for more than long enough for Katja to lead the captives to the safety of the shoreline.

“Good memories.” Tora laughed. It was then that he let go of her hand, gesturing to the area around them. “And now you have crossed the bridge!”

Katja blinked a moment as she looked around to see that they were, indeed, across. Laughing, she shook her head in amazement. He’d distracted her enough with their old memories that she’d forgotten all about the crossing. Her admiration for the Hingan grew; he always found clever solutions to their problems. She stepped forward into him, wrapping her arms around his middle as she stood on tip-toe to kiss his cheek. 

“Thank you, Pancake.” She said as she smiled up at him, using the nickname she’d given him on that first adventure before she’d learned his proper name. A name he’d earned by being crushed by an unconscious roegadyn’s body.

He kissed her forehead, hugging her close. “You are always welcome, koibito.” A playful smile teased across his lips. “This is probably a bad time to tell you that we will need to cross again once our business in this village is concluded, eh?”

She buried her face against his chest with a monumental sigh. “Yes,” she agreed. “A very bad time. I could have lived blissfully for a few days without knowing that.” She laughed and shook her head again, then stepped away from him to look back at the bridge and the chasm they’d crossed. She’d be able to do it again, she was sure of it.

So long as Tora was with her, she could do anything.