The Fantasy Games (Final Fantasy Fanfiction)

Chapter Ten: One Day At A Time

Of all the things Yuna thought she'd feel through the course of the games, she'd never thought she'd feel this. The feeling that was settling into the bottom of her stomach and grating away at her mind as she walked through the forest along with her group. Every tree looked the same, every root looked similar to the last and the dullness was tearing at her nerves making her feel sluggish and worn down.

Boredom.

She was unbelievably bored.

They had been walking for three days now since her sending and they'd only come across a fiend once and Zidane and Tidus had swiftly taken care of it. Her feet had pained her at first which surprised her since she had been trained to perform a summoning on any type of landscape and she really shouldn't have felt any pain at all. They had been throbbing not only an hour ago but now they were numb, void of any pain or feeling whatsoever. The process of putting one foot in front of the other without stepping on anything that could threaten her balance had become second nature to her now that she didn't even have to think about where to put her foot on the forest floor. She hadn't tripped just yet but it could well happen soon.

"You seem to be very close," Garnet's soft voice came from her left. Yuna turned to look down at the small girl, taking the chance to marvel at how dark her eyes were; if she looked close enough, she could see her image reflected in their dark orbs. "You and Tidus," she added after a short pause, her face holding a neutral yet kind expression.

Yuna allowed a small smile to grace her lips though it held sadness as she looked at the back of her best friend's spiky head of sun-kissed blonde hair. She returned her gaze back to Garnet and nodded her head slowly. "We've always been really close," she replied softly. "We've nearly always been joined at the hip. It's not surprising since we grew up together... back in Besaid," a lump lodged itself in her throat as memories of her home flashed through her mind but she swallowed hard and continued on. "He used to always stick up for me when my older sister wasn't around and he used to always cheer me up when I was upset or when I hurt myself, or when Isaaru's training was especially harsh or when I was exhausted after practising spells. He tried to teach me how to play blitzball and how to use a sword and he never ever got mad when I couldn't do it or when I hit him with the ball by accident..." she trailed off and smiled sheepishly at Garnet, a slight rosy blush staining her cheeks. "Sorry for rambling."

"It's ok, I understand," Garnet said with a small smile of her own. A red-gloved hand reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek that Yuna hadn't even known she'd shed. Garnet's dark eyes shifted to the left then to the right before they returned to Yuna as she lowered her voice so that only the two white mages could hear. "Zidane and I are the same. Don't tell anyone but... before I met him, I led a really sheltered life, I was a princess and he was a thief, we should never have consorted with one another but..." here she smiled slightly, her gaze flickering to the thief walking beside Tidus before it returned to Yuna, "he really changed my life. I don't know where I'd be without him..."

"I know the feeling," Yuna gave the younger teenager an understanding smile. She wasn't too surprised to hear that Garnet was of royal blood, when Yuna had first met her she had instantly noticed the way her posture was perfect and how she was so soft-spoken and mannerly. Even walking alongside the girl she'd noticed how unaware she was of the world around her and the way she sometimes marvelled at the sight of the towering trees or fiends. She had suspected that Garnet had come from a rich background but the thought of her being a princess hadn't crossed the summoner's mind at all.

Her heart went out to Garnet though, despite the fact that the girl was in a place where it was either kill or be killed, Garnet still looked like she was enjoying the small shred of freedom she was experiencing and the fact that she could talk to other people and just be normal for once - well as normal as one could be when in the games. Yuna knew how hard it was to be a figure that people looked up to and the pressure it came with, having to look perfect and act mannerly and always having to be protected and supervised. Granted Garnet's situation was probably ten times worse than her own, the priests in the Temple hadn't been too strict; after all they had let her live with a bunch of Al Bheds.