Warrior
It was all so clear. A house, bathed in a white glow, blanketed by the flurry of the previous night. It was cold and bitter outside, yet the warmth of the hearth seemed spread even to the outside of the house, touching all those close with the heat of a welcoming home. In the doorway stood two figures. A man and a woman. A mother and a father. The father, he had a warm look about him. His tall figure towered over the woman. His face looked kind and understanding, yet there was a sadness about him. He seemed worried. But the woman… there was no face. Why didn’t she have a face? In that moment, the void that was the mother’s face gave a cold feeling. Suddenly the warmth that had once radiated from the home was gone, the door slammed shut, the flurry again starting. The Father looked sad, confused, and upset. The mother, she looked on from far away. She then turned. Her voice was chilling as she called. “Yura….” Her call sent shivers through Yura, but she couldn’t move, just look at the scene before her. She closed her eyes, trying to drown out everything that was happening. “Yura…” What was happening? Why couldn’t she get away?
“Yura!!” Yura shot up, letting out a screech as the stern voice pulled her from her slumber, head almost colliding with the one that was hanging over her.
Whipping her head around violently, Yura spotted Edilia, a comrade and the personal guard of her best friend Vetelle. “Damnit Edilia, what are you doing sneaking up on me like that?”
“It’s hardly sneaking up on you in a place like this.” Edilia crossed her arms, smiling and shaking her head at Yura. Edilia was only a few years older than the 17 year old Yura, but seemed to be a fair bit more built. She was slender but tall and imposing. Her body had the marks of a true warrior, if the axe strapped to her back wasn’t enough of an indicator. Of course, Yura herself was no pushover, but she was far smaller than the imposing Edilia, though she shared just as many scars.
Edilia took Yura’s relative silence to continue speaking, “There are better places to relax than in the middle of a blizzard”
At Edilia’s comment, Yura took a moment to look around herself, realizing just where she was. She had evidently passed out in the snow near the edge a cliff she often found herself looking out over. Realizing just how much danger she had put herself in, due to the temperatures and not even thinking about the beasts that lurked nearby, Yura couldn’t help but sigh, beating herself for her ignorance. “I… yeah. You’re right. Sorry.”
Edilia was surprised by the apology in all honesty. Yura had always been one to get worked up over silly things like this, only to snap back to the teasing. “What’s got you in the dumps girl? It’s not like you to be so careless or… apologetic.”
“I… just a lot of thinking I guess. Too much of it.” Yura flopped back down for a moment, glancing up at the sky before Edilia dangled her head over the younger girls once more, obscuring her view.
“Well if that’s not dangerous short stack…” Edlia smiled at Yura, but the younger girl simply sat up once more, finally making her way to stand and walk towards the cliff edge, gazing out over the landscape before them. Edilia sighed, finally letting her usual smile fade in favor of a more serious expression “Need some talks?”
“Everyone is leaving the Highlands to enter the City-State, right?” Yura asked, seemingly diverting the subject, though Edilia indulged her anyway.
“Yeah. We’re all getting ready to head out. That’s why I came out here to find you in the first place. We wanted to know if you were coming or not. It is home for you after all, right?” Edilia gestured backwards towards the camp, though Yura wasn’t looking towards her. Her mind was other places.
Edilia wasn’t wrong. The City-State was Yura’s home. It’s where she grew up. Where she played with her friends. Where she spent a loving childhood with her father. It’s also where she abandoned him. Where she was abandoned. And now here it was again, standing before her. Yura continued to observe her home from a distance, the towers and buildings a silhouette in the snow, thinking about what it had become to her in her absence.
“Did I ever tell you why I left Edilia?” Yura finally answered Edilia, getting to her issue at hand. “My mother abandoned me and my father when I was very young. My father did his best to take care of me, and he did it well. He’s a good man, but… I was a stupid child. I wanted to know where my mother went, so I took it upon myself to find out. I left home. I abandoned my father, the man who needed me most, in a moment of childish ignorance and stubbornness. I was fourteen.”
“Yura, I had no idea… that’s awful. But you were so young! What were you thinking?” Edlia shot forward to approach Yura, but stopped as the younger girl quickly turned, shaking her head, an angry expression on her face.
“That’s kind of the idea here. I wasn’t! I never thought, only did! I was a stupid child and it reflects upon me even now!” The three years she had been gone, Yura had watched other do nothing but give and act in such selfless manners that made Yura question the very foundation of her decisions to leave. How could she have been so selfish? So stupid? “I was so desperate to find someone who clearly didn’t want me around that I forgot to think about everyone who did care.”
“Yura, you were young. Confused. You felt abandoned. It wasn’t selfish of you to want to know why what happened, happened.” Edilia tried her best to console Yura. She really had been a young girl, and children often did stupid things. Made mistakes. But Yura wouldn’t have it.
“You know, I've spent most of my life running away from my problems, beating my way through people, and chasing down ghosts. I guess it just never occurred to me that I should stop and look at everyone around me.” Yura threw her hands upwards, bringing them down to push her dark bangs out of her face, only to have them fall back into her eyes, now red in her attempts to stop her tears. “Now I have to sit here and think… what gives me the right to try and go back? Why should I? I’ve already screwed up, why hurt everyone again?”
“Looks like you have a choice to make here Yura.” Yura glanced over at Edlia, who was now directly before her, her usually playful face stern and almost cold. “Stay here and remain happily ignorant of the damage she had caused, or return home and face the consequences of your childish actions.”
Yura looked a bit shocked at first, but soon looked down sadly, looking at the reflection of the light in the snow. “What do I do Edlia?”
“See I... can't tell you that Yura. Thats for you to figure out. That’s your choice to make. But I know you’re gonna make the right one.” Edlia smiled once more, and gave the girl a firm pat.
Edilia was right. Yura did have to make a choice. A choice to stop running away from her problems. The choice that would stop her from constantly disappointing and hurting others. She had spent her whole life surviving. It was time for her to stop. She needed to be a fighter, for once in her life.
Edilia watched as Yura stormed past her, stopping where she had once been laying. In a quick motion, Yura grabbed her helmet that laid by her in the snow, looking into its mask before sliding it onto her head and grabbing the lance that had been plunged into the ground by her side. “Where are you off to then, Yura?” Edilia smiled at the girl’s actions, fully aware of what she was doing.
Yura turned to glace at her comrade, eyes covered by the visor of her helmet, but her lips still visible with a smile. “I’m going home.” Yura glanced past Edlia towards the City-State, turning and placing a hand over her chest as she bowed her head. “It’s okay dad. Your daughter is a warrior.”