Looking to see Uricks response and seeing his gesture to go on without him, Saina nodded in understanding before turning away. She walked with the mechanic in tow, listening to his questions. She had to chuckle under her breath. The curious man was... oddly amusing.
"No, You are not in trouble."Sifen followed in tow, looking around. All of the not-desert around him was a nice sight to take in, after all. With the added bonus of being away from the group gave him the familiar silence of Bikanel island's vast desert he called home for so many years.
"Oh good, so what are we doing then?" He asked, kicking a rock into a nearby trashcan hitting it dead on with a loud bang. He pumped his fist once after the rock connected. They walked in awkward silence for a moment, almost as though the pale, snow-white style chick had forgotten about him or something. In reality, she was thinking about how to word what was needed to be said. Then, breaking the silence, she spoke up when the Besaid stables came into view.
"You seem to not understand the weight of what you have pledged to do. What exactly was your intention when you swore fealty to her ladysip?"Sifen looked away from the ground and stopped his search for rocks when the question was asked. "I pledged to repay a debt for the damage I did. I just gotta do some odd jobs for you guys for a bit free of charge for a while and then I'll be on my way. Why?"
A troubled look fell onto the short womans face. Did he really not know? The legends of summoners are like a fairytale--a real one. Most children adore hearing about them... Though, perhaps, the man was not from the local area. If going by his tattoos or cloaked appearance were anything to go off of, she could almost say that she was... exactly like him. An outsider. Maybe even more so than herself if he didn't know what a guardian was. They walked into the stables, passing a few empty stalls, one of them holding a regular, golden chocobo which slept curled up in the corner of its confinements.
"What is your name?"She stopped in the center of the walkway to turn and look up at him, putting off answering his question for a moment. She hadn't caught it with all the going ons of the group back in the hut. She'd been more focused on how funny it was to see everyone spring into action like they had.
"Sifen." he said, stopping as well. "And you?" He asked, looking down at her with a goofy smile. He still wasn't sure whether to be serious or to have fun at the moment, so the goofy smile was awkward, but still retaining it's goofiness. To which, Saina raised her brows... and gave a slight smile back. At last, someone was being pleasant with her, and being rather respectful. Perhaps Besaid wasn't full of complete fools afterall.
"Saina."She pulled off one of her black gloves as she started walking again, talking on a she went.
"Listen Sifen, what you have decided to become apart of is something many people only dream of doing. You have become a guardian. And that means... you have signed your life away to protect our ladship, the summoner Eva."An eyebrow raised on Sifen's face. "Noooo, i signed my next year or so to repaying all of you, not just her. Honestly, it's mostly for that poor girl I fell on." He lowered his eyebrow and looked at Saina once again. "I didn't sign up for anything else. If it means protecting you guys for a while I can handle that though. I've been a guardian of a warehouse before so it's not a foreign concept to-"
"It is not the same thing!"She whirled around, her hands outstretched and fingers spread just as a blue chocobo poked its head out of the last stall on her left behind her, apparently the creature recognized her voice, letting out a happy "WAARK!" upon seeing her familiar blue and black hair. She exhaled, closing her eyes tightly almost as if she was experiencing a mild headache before taking a breath and stepping up to him again, seeming to regain her composure. When she spoke, it was in a firm, but hushed tone.
"Sifen, whether you knew it or not, you have signed your life away, and swore fealty to the summoner to defend her no matter the cost. This isn't a job that just ends on a whim. As long as her ladyship chooses to go on this journey and stays her course, we are to be there to protect her at all times."Her throat was starting to hurt. She hadn't talked this much in... ever.
Sifen frowned a bit. "Dang. Do... Do we get food? Money? Or did I just sign myself into slavery?" He knelt down before plopping his butt onto the dirt with a slight jingle of metal throughtout his may pockets. "Because I had nothing before this, it's not like I can help fund this journey of yours."
Saina watched him sit down a moment, looked at Mercury, then sighed before going over to him and sitting down next to him. She looked at him and let the silence surround them for a moment save for the sounds of the blue chocobo scratching at the door in excitement to see her again.
"Nobody expects you... to help pay or... to help out much other than to defend the summoner from fiends. And, you should know, they drop gil anyways."She spoke softly, using her hands to talk by gesturing to him now and then.
"You are not a slave... what you are Sifen, what I am, and Urick, and Gippal and... Alex,"She grimaced at the name;
"We are Eva's knights... for lack of a better term. Summoners cannot fight on their own without the assistance of others due to their focus in life on things like healing and... well, calling down great god-like deities. It leaves little time for the study of blades. That's where we come in."The last few sentences she spoke had a positive, proud tone in her voice with an edge of humor as she looked at him, her gaze very much so softer than the one she had used to catch his attention before. She stood up at that moment, her back turned to Sifen.
"And in the land of Spira, there is no greater honor than to serve a summoner."She turned back to him, and offered him her ungloved hand, her eyes determined. Sifen chuckled a bit. The whole speech he just received was all too dramatic and cheesy. But endearing at the same time, and so he took her hand, but quickly pulled it back and removed his own glove and giggled. "Whoops!" He said and grabbed her hand and shook it. "Seems I'm in over my head." He chuckled. and glared to his hand as it felt as though it were freezing. Sifen tried to stand, pulling himself up on Saina's arm but ultimately pulling her down instead, causing the dark haired woman to blink in mild surprise when she found herself in the dirt again. Sifen dusted himself off and stood up on his own before turning to help her up, which she gladly accepted. Once on her feet again, she put her black glove back on and opened the stable door, taking her large bird from his confines and was happily greeted with the blue chocobo nuzzling his massive beak against her exposed abdomen. As she stroked his feathers, she looked up at Sifen.
"I'm going to load Mercury onto the boat down by the docks and wait for nightfall so that we may leave. If you have something you need to handle, I recommend doing it now. Afterall, we won't be coming back to this village until the journey ends."Saina allowed him his imagination to see when that may be.
"I'll go find work on the ship to get some Gil for myself, not too many fiends around here since you guys killed them all. Shouldn't be too hard to find some work on the ship anyways. Where are we going again?" He asked, grabbing for several pockets to check if he had all his things. Pants, tools, guns, all check. He understood his new job well enough. Protect the summoner, shouldn't be too hard.
"Luca,"Saina answered him thoughtfully. At least, if memory served correctly. It had been awhile since she had heard the teachings. In one hand she held Mercury by the reigns, her other hand in her pocket as she talked, feeling once again the sphere that Thane had left behind back in the stadium.
Sifen's face turned as pale as the girl's. Luca. His hometown. "O-oh. Sounds like a, uh, really interesting place." He faked a quick smile that lasted maybe half a second. "Never been there. This uh, could be uh, fun. Yeah." He sheepishly said. Saina raised her brows at his peculiar change in behavior, but chose not to pry. Afterall, everyone has their secrets. She started walking out of the stables, Mercury in tow.
"I'm heading to the docks now. You may as well come with me since you are headed there anyways."Sifen nodded. He was through with speaking for a bit, and simply followed with no expression or sign of complex emotion in his face, ironically matching the usually expressionless woman he walked with. Luca. This wasn't going to be fun. What if he was recognized by an old friend, or worse, his parents. What would they think of him? It had been 14 years after all.
The two went on their way in silence, interrupted only by the chirping of the blue chocobo beind them.
Sifen had taken to distracting himself with work on the ship, he had been helping load things mostly, as they already had dedicated engineers. He couldn't even count how many times he had walked from the ship to the dock, but after more than a few hours of work he had earned a nice amount of pay. The others started popping up as well, however he seemed to be the only one doing any work. The other girls seemed all dolled up, but he couldn't blame them. They weren't as poor as he and didn't need the work.
Meanwhile, Saina had spent her time loading her chocobo on deck and getting him settled in, much to the excitement of some of the workers Sifen had encountered. Blue chocobo's weren't exactly rare, but definetly uncommon and the ham of a chocobo had soaked up the attention. Confident the playful bird would be alright, she had taken the time to find a secluded enough spot to pull her hood up and rest. She didn't want to miss seeing the night sky while out in the open ocean. The beauty and serenity of the scene would certainly be something to write songs about. She had made it back a bit early and when Eva found her way to the docks, she approached her and bowed her head, pulling her hood down.
"You seem tired, m'lady. Once we are on board we'll have to get you situated in your quarters right away. We have a long journey ahead of us."Having been able to remove herself from the public eye for the most part, albeit unintentionally, she heard a few murmurs here and there about her strange, apparitional appearance was from the gathered crowd. Though, whether they were bad or good, she paid them no mind enough to bring herself to care. It was then she noticed the black mage from before approach with Gippal. Her eyes widened slightly. Eva had chose her to go on their journey? She, who needed a wheelchair to go long distances? Saina would definetly need to have words with the summoner later.
"Might as well give me your things, I'm loading things anyways after all, and I don't want any help, you'll make me get paid less." He smirked and looked for the other two men but settled his eyes on Alex who had strength on par with Urick. "Please, I kinda need it for things." He walked to the summoner and Alex and looked at their feet. "Did you not pack anything?" He saw Naisha, the girl who he had fallen on (Saina had told him who each person was, but not much about them other than what they could do.). "Hey, uh Nai? Do you have anything that needs to be brought on the boat?" He walked over to her past the others on the dock and approached her. He had a debt to her that was deeper than the rest. Of course he bowed to the summoner before basically blowing her off. He could get her stuff on another trip from the boat.
