He searched for a shallow basin, set up some simple traps around it, and started up a fire. He learned that the monsters of the steppes hated fire, so as long as you didn't stray away from open fire you could sleep soundly. In reality, if you kept the fire burning all night, monsters wouldn't attack. It was true when they traveled with six, and still after it became a journey with one.
In a sense, a cactuar was still a monster, so if it looked like it hated the fire, he would stop it.
For now, even if a monster attacked them in their sleep, they were up one in strength. They would take a hit before they woke up, but, well, it would probably work out. Moreover, he didn't want to scare his little traveling companion.
Although, the cactuar didn't seem to hate the fire at all, and just sat quietly beside Snow. Maybe it was a good thing that he kept saying, “This thing is dangerous. Are you really ok with it?” when he was making the fire.
“Hey, don't get too close. You'll get burned.”
Worrying instead about its lack of fear for fire, Snow instinctively called out to it. Nonetheless, it was a needless concern. The cactuar stared at the open fire without moving at all. It made it look a little different from other cactuars. Perhaps because it was the one away from the herd.
“Would be nice to catch up with your herd soon. I'm the same as you. On a journey to find my friend.”
The cactuar suddenly stood up. Just as he thought it was going to go somewhere, it turned to Snow and sat down again. As if to beckon his opinions. It seemed it could understand human words after all.
“I see. You'll hear me out, huh. Well then I'll start from the beginning. The person I'm looking for is a friend of mine and... a precious family member of someone dear to me.”
An image of Lightning's face popped up in his mind, and he was was about to accidentally call her “Sis." It was a word he forbade himself to use. At the same time, a foreboding image of “someone's sister-in-law” also came to mind.
“I guess I did accidentally call her ‘Sis' the second time we met.No wonder no other names came to me. I don't even remember calling her Lightning.”
Even so, he decided he would keep using the name Lightning now. Until they reunited, got her approval for their marriage and became a proper family.
That night when Serah came clean about her “other memory," frankly, he was taken aback. It was an outrageous story about how the Lightning they should have reunited with disappeared in an instant, and on top of that, the memories of all who were there had been rewritten.
P98-99
But at the same time, there was a part of him that was confident that some abnormal change had occurred. There was no way Serah would lie. On top of that, if you think about it, there were a number of miracles that occurred.
“Weren't we always told that Pulse was a hell that humans could never live on? Didn't we always believed that? Then, it would be normal for us to be really surprised if someone said people had been living here until quite recently. It goes against common belief, after all.”
For sure, when they discovered evidence of people living until recently, he and the others had didn't think anything other than, “well, such things exist too." It was too slight a reaction to having “common sense” overturned. Having things explained in order, what Serah said seemed plausible.
It wasn't just that. When Serah said, “Isn't that something to be surprised about?” in shock to being able to use magic despite not being a l'Cie, it had been how she really felt.
“Normal people can't use magic. That was common sense. Try and remember. How did you feel when you become l'Cie and could use magic for the first time? Weren't you completely blown away?”
Then he remembered. It was by the banks of Bresha Lake. When he found out he could use magic, everyone there was stunned and bewildered. Well, truthfully, aside from Vanille who had already been a l'Cie, everyone else including Hope and Sazh, and even level-headed Lightning was greatly disturbed. It was because that was the moment that they realized they weren't normal humans anymore.
That's right, “normal humans” and “magic” were two things that definitely did not go together. He had come to realize that first hand. Having that overturned, he should have been more surprised than anyone, but that wasn't the case. He just somehow accepted it like everyone else. He didn't even feel it was the slightest bit off at all.
It was clearly strange. On top of that, he didn't realize it in the slightest until Serah had pointed it out. Why, it seemed like someone had gouged out the very concepts of doubt and strangeness themselves.
Who was it?
Something had happened without them knowing, without them realizing. Only Serah had sensed it. Serah and Lightning were tied by blood, and the closest to one another. If what was the case.
What had Lightning sensed?
When it came to that, Serah had made the right deduction. Like Serah, Lightning had known “something." That's why she disappeared. The reason why she disappeared without being able to say anything to her own sister Serah, or us, her companions had to be because it was a circumstance so sudden that she couldn't.
Something big was happening. After realizing that, he couldn't leave it alone. Fortunately, life at New Bodhum was on the right track and people were happy again. Their relationship with the cavalry was good as well. Even if he wasn't there, they would do just fine. It would be a good time to go on a journey.
First, he would find Lightning. She likely had something to do with the abnormality. There was no way she wasn't. He didn't know if she was caught in something dangerous, or if she was fighting to stop the anomaly, but she had to know something.
P100-101
He'd find Lightning, find out what's going on and stop that “something." After everything is taken care of, the two of them would return to New Bodhum where Serah was waiting. He didn't plan on it being a long journey.
“I can't make her wait too long.”
When he declared he was going to go look for Sis, Serah said she wanted to go too. It took a lot of effort to dissuade her. He hadn't planned on it being a long journey, but there was no doubt it would be a dangerous one. They had even faced hardships traveling through Gran Pulse as l'Cie. He and Serah were but normal humans now.
Of course he knew Serah wasn't someone who needed to be protected all the time. Serah had more fighting prowess than she knew. Right after they moved to New Bodhum, she had been the fastest of all the amateurs to learn how to use weapons and she had exceptional reflexes as well. That was probably thanks to her lineage. Surely she wouldn't become a burden if they travelled together.
But even if that were the case, he didn't want to expose Serah to danger. That was his own selfishness as well as how he really felt. So he said something a little unfair.
“But, if our only teacher leaves on a journey then what will the kids do?”
Serah had a strong sense of responsibility. He knew that if she was presented with the idea of something being for the children, she would forget about her own desires and hopes.
“And also, there's whatshername. The girl that was crying the other night. If you left then she wouldn't have a place to cry anymore.”
It wasn't an excuse, it was something he thought for real. He couldn't take “beloved Ms. Serah” away from that girl who had lost her mother. Serah probably thought the same.
“You're right. I can't just leave the children, can I. Okay. I'll be waiting. Come back with my sister.”
Saying this, Serah tightly grasped Snow's pendant...
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