Vivi remembers a snippet from his childhood while lazying in bed with Raha. Pre-canon, pre-7th-Calamity, the time before the horrors. What did the teenage Vivi think of adventurers before deciding to become one?
The young elezen lad stood next to the wooden railing that he would usually use as a perch. As he hovered his palm over the old brittle surface, he felt the moisture evaporating from within, even though the surface itself had already appeared dry to the eye. This was but one of the many traces of the rain and wind that danced through the forest last night. In its recovery from the storm, everything looked a bit untidy: flowers and brushes bowed down to the ground, blades of grass sleepily clung together, leaves and branches congregated in every corner and drifted in the water. Only the pond, large enough to be unbothered by the tiny islands floating on its surface, kept reflecting the cheerful blue sky as usual. This still and sunny morning bore a promise of an unpleasantly hot day, in the event of which Vivien had a plan to retreat to the shade and do something else. For the time being, though, he stood in one blissful spot next to the pond where not many people would pass, and where the morning sun would lovingly lap at his back. He idly drummed his fingertips against the drying wooden railing as his eyes were fixated on the busy road in the distance, on the massive stream of people and things that people carried and things that carried people. One such chocobo cart had just spit out a loud and colorful pair of hyur.
"...Requires stupid amounts of aether, and have you ever seen any crystals within a dozen malms?", the hissing speech of the tall mage started reaching Vivien's ears. The mage wore a funny hat and looked incredibly tired in spite of this fresh hour. "No crystals? No creature!"
"Bah! Crystals! What if it came from beyond? Another world?!", boomed his shorter companion. His armor clanged every time he put an extra accent on his words, and an important-looking mammet scuttled along his heavy steps. "What? Don't give me that look, I know it all too well, but why would I lie to you?! I, for one, lack the imagination to make up such a creature... And the patterns on its skin! Runes, perhaps? They shimmered with otherworldly colors! Blue and purple and gold... If only I wasn't alone, I would've taken it on, and now you'd be happily picking at its corpse instead of lecturing me on the impossibility of what I saw with mine two eyes... I'll gather a group by the morrow, and we'll find it again."
"Let me consult my people first. We must attain a better grasp on what we might be dealing with..."
The tiny scrap of the conversation tore off as the duo strode out of earshot. They sliced through the air with such vigor, such fury, that a gust of wind washed over Vivien like something tangible. His nose picked up a bunch of scents, the familiar and not so much, the alarming and the fascinating... Metal, leather, blood, clay, potions, fresh herbs, grilled fish, mushroom soup, coffee... They probably had just left the inn, and whatever business they had further within the woods didn't concern the watcher of the road, who promptly turned back and resumed his unspecified duty.
Adventurers. These days, their kind was as sure to pop up as the sun after the rain, though the sun was universally more welcome among the people. Adventurers were often treated with a strange mix of respect and scorn, the former being owed to their baffling success in the tasks previously thought impossible, and the latter perhaps to their reckless and brash nature... To the adventurers were attributed the worst crimes and the biggest triumphs. Even Vivien's own mother went to great lengths to explain why adventurer should only be a choice when there was no other choice left. Then, remaining true to her convictions, she would put as much effort into highlighting the good things as well, like the endless excitement and friends all over the world. She cared for her credibility among her children, knowing full well that, should she become too partial and invested in showing only one side of the coin, some third party, some half-heard conversation, like the one that just rumbled past Vivien, would undermine her authority. Thus, Vivien grew up with the ability to see beyond the black and white. As for himself, he had no strong feelings either way, but he couldn't deny the spark of wonder brought by their sole presence. Adventurer seemed like another job to him, no less, no more, an occupation people picked according to their skills... That said, there was one thing that adventurers did have, and other people didn't.
Adventurers were in a constant state of movement, nigh impossible to spot in a restful state. Never stop, never settle, perpetually chase some task or tale, travel here, there, everywhere, mark the entire star with their footprints... Every adventurer had an invisible force that gently spurred him on. A wind... Insisting... Ceaseless...
*
"The eternal wind..."
"Hm?"
Vivi rolled over and nuzzled his face in Raha's shoulder. A sleep-heavy arm draped over him.
"I just remembered something from when I was a little bugger... I was like... Ten? Twelve maybe? And somehow that thread of thought ran in peculiar places... So let me tell you what I think it means, that phrase from your song... The eternal wind..."
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