First, it was quiet. Very quiet without the Lifestream constantly whispering in Aerith’s ears. It was both lonely and not lonely at all. The whispers had always made Aerith weird, different, and that had made her lonely, but now they were gone. But, they were gone. And she was truly alone in a strange, new place. She was determined not to be terrified. It would be fine, she was used to things like this, ever since he crashed down into her church.
Were they all okay? They had to be right? She couldn’t ask the Lifestream. This wasn’t where she belonged. She felt odd, weird, alone, but not alone at all. Maybe that’s why she had begun to wander around. Maybe in hopes of finding someone, but there was this deep sense in her gut that no one followed her. None of her fire-forged friends who promised her heritage didn’t make her separate from them had followed her here. Was this true loneliness?
This place she found herself felt like the embodiment of her loneliness. She felt dread in her stomach, she felt it bouncing off her skin. Everything felt chaotic. Chaos... she missed Chaos... The proper noun not the regular noun. She hoped he was alright and not freaking out at her sudden departure. There was a tiny voice that sounded nothing like the Lifestream begging for everyone to miss her. She kicked a stray piece of rusted metal with her boot. It landed on a clump of flowers pathetically.
Ah? Flowers? Here? Aerith quickly leaned down to examine them, and of course gingerly pick up the piece of metal she had cruelly kicked into the poor flowers. The small patch of flowers didn’t seem to be alone. It was a trial of flowers, vivid among the decay and ruin of this so called Sea.
Was this the Lifestream leading her somewhere? Leading her back home? She stood up once again. Well, she was never one to lose the chance at following flowers.
With a renewed bounce in her step she followed the path of flowers. She wasn’t sure what she was expecting at the end of them but it certainly wasn’t a person but there they were, a person at the end of the flowers.
“Hello?” Aerith asked, unsteadily. Was this fate? Was she supposed to meet this person? Did the flowers guide her for a reason? She hoped so, for as much as she hated fate and the pressure of the divine, she needed something, anything, to cling to.