Hope was getting better at this solo-mission thing he had going on. It was a lot easier than relying on someone else, and arguing the entire time. It enabled him to do it at his own pace and not meet other’s expectations, which, as a ‘White Mage’ was to keep them alive and not screw up. Which was a lot of pressure, mind you. No matter how good he was at it.

Healing aside, the solo-mission he was on required that he examine the monsters of the area to check if their numbers were abnormal, or not. He was also going to see if he could find any plants that he’d read about in local books, or heard from more experienced individuals about. It’d help in his study of, ‘What is this Place?’ and ‘How hard is it to Survive Here?’ book that he had going on.

Mount Hotan—a place with long planes and lots, and lots of rock formations filling it like jagged teeth. Hope juggled between the map he had started on, and the compass, checking his direction. So far, so good. There didn’t seem to be many monsters, not as many as there had been in Reikinto Sands. His quiet steps and quick to hide reflexes saved him from many a fight, and soon he felt like he was almost done.

Staying out here too long wouldn’t be a good idea, especially if the larger predators decided to come out and take a bite out of him. The report he’d give them would have to do, Hope thought to himself while folding up the map and sticking it in his large go-to pocket. It snapped closed as he fastened the strap, and he looked about for a moment. “Nothing more here to see,” his body swiveled around, feet turning backwards so he could retrace his steps and head back to civilization.

The boy stopped, though, when he heard something. Quite familiar; like the sound of a sword being drawn nearby. It made him almost dive to the ground, and flatten himself against it in hope that whatever it was, it would go on past him. Hope stopped himself, though. If it was a person, maybe he could talk to them. Find out why the heck they were out here in the first place. Who knows, maybe this would go like it had with Kuja, but… more pleasant.

His hand went back behind him, clasping onto the boomerang that sat, folded in its holster and ready to throw. Better to be prepared, if they were bandits or something. Heavy steps, loud like when he had first alerted her of his presence followed, and Hope stepped out to where the stranger could see him. White hair that usually seemed soft and fluffy had a wild blow to it, from running and jumping and moving about all day, the ends dark with sweat that had yet to dry.

He had the face of a sheltered child, recently brought out into the dark world. Hope’s eyes though, reflected naught fear, but wariness and intelligence. Here was a young child that knew what they were doing, although they may not carry the look of someone that did. Green eyes widened as they focused on the reptilian like humanoid, and Hope opened his mouth to let out a slightly-less intelligent first word than he had planned on, “Whoa.”

What is that? The thought raced through his mind like a chocobo trying to win a race, and failing. He’d never seen something like, like whatever that was. Was it a monster local to the area? Something that had wandered from where it usually inhabits? Hope let the dumbstruck look hang on his face for a moment, taking her in. How interesting—he wanted to know, and it seemed to be advanced enough to not be classified as a monster. It looked human, almost, excluding the horns, tail, and scales. Horns—one of them looked like it was broken. He did a double take on her appearance and took a hesitant step forward, raising his hand. “Curasa,” He spoke, and the healing spell—Etro he hoped that she knew he wasn’t going to hurt her, but heal her—flew forward like a small leaf on the wind, and hopefully restored her somewhat to where she wasn’t bleeding or in severe pain. It looked like, whatever had happened, it had hurt a lot. Maybe a monster attack?

The strange creature seemed to become defensive, just like he thought it would when he started casting the spell. Then it seemed to relax, maybe, just a little when she found out that it wasn’t harmful. That was good, by the size of that sword, Hope didn’t want to think just what she could do with it.

"Well it's good to know they have Cure spells here too..."

 
It seemed to—wait, speak? Hope perked his head a bit, seeming even more interested in the new organism than he had moments before. It was intelligent enough to speak, and it spoke in a language he could understand as well. How fascinating.

“Cheers for the heals. So kiddo, why're you out in this scary place alone like a Billy no mates?"

"Also is there anywhere safe 'round here? I'd rather not sleep in a tree and end up becoming some snack for a bleedin' monster."

Hope had to wait a minute, one side of his refusing to give up on analyzing the intelligent species in front of him. Etiquette won in the end, and he cleared his throat as he dropped the hand that had been hovering in the air in front of him, even after the spell had finished. Kiddo—he wasn’t, okay, maybe he was, but it still seemed to make him twist and turn in his spot, one of his knees bending as he tapped the toe of his shoe against the ground, getting rid of excess energy. “Hope. My name’s Hope.” Not Kiddo. Please don’t keep using Kiddo. “I’m on a request.” Did it understand what those were, he wondered. It seemed like whoever it was, they were equipped for combat. “To scout the area and check out the monster population.”

Her last question, or the one after that made him think for a moment. No, there wasn’t really anywhere safe around here to stay. There were miles away from civilization, or, at least, from Provo. It had taken him a day to get here, and he had to camp somewhere in the middle and pray that he didn’t get eaten by anything when he hid in a hollowed tree, his back to the inside of the trunk and his front facing the hole so he could watch for monsters the entire night. Like the stranger had said, it wasn’t the most ideal of places to stay, but it was something.

“There isn’t, it’s at least a day and a half journey back to the closest city, Provo.”

"From your reaction I guess it's safe to say you haven't seen anything that looks like me right little Hyur?"

No, he hadn’t seen anything like her before. Seeing that he had made it obvious, a light blush spread across his cheeks and he shook his head quickly. “No, I, uh, haven’t.” Not in his entire life. It was strange, and he liked it because that meant something new. Discoveries were what drove him, uncovering new things and understanding them. His mother had encouraged it, and so had his father, although his opinion matter less than hers did. What she called him near the end made him pause, and voice in a thoroughly befuddled voice, “Hyur? What’s that?”

Another new word, another new thing that was invading his mind and settling in. There were many of them, and from how people that arrived here came with varying cultures and different backgrounds, he suspected that there were more to come. He’d have to make a note of it when he got back to Provo.

"From whence do you hail?"

She seemed nicer, the lizard-woman, so Hope decided that maybe it was okay to tell the truth. She wasn’t going to bite his head off (He hoped), and there wasn’t any reason to not be friendly since she seemed to enjoy talking. “From Cocoon,” he answered, “It’s like a floating world, above Gran Pulse.”

Hope had answered her, so maybe; “Where are you from?” Maybe she would answer him in kind.

There was the sound of growling, and for a moment Hope would’ve thought it was a monster. She conversed with her stomach a bit though, and Hope lightly grinned, a weak sort of thing that showed his amusement. He hopped to walk after her, his small legs propelling him forward in a solid attempt to keep up.

"So, lead the way to wherever kiddo, I'll chop up anything that gets in our way and turn it in to a miq'abob."

“Alright, then.” He agreed. Another bodyguard on another mission. This was becoming a normal occurrence, for him. Like the world didn’t think he could take two steps without getting eaten. Or maybe he was just a babysitter. Or a guide—yeah, Hope liked to think he was a real good guide. “If you do that, then I’ll heal whenever you need it. We should be able to make good time getting there.”

"Ahh I see. Does the job pay good?"

“Well enough,” Hope said with something akin to a sigh. It could be better, it seemed to say. But who was to argue about gil in their pocket, when some had none?

"A Hyur is a person like you, they don't have any distinctive features usually, I guess they're a race or species where I'm from..." So a different term for human, it seemed. If wherever she’d come from had a different name for that, then there were probably a lot more differences in the language as well.

He heard her tone feel like it kinda dropped, and looked up at her as he trotted along. She guessed? It seemed that something was bothering her, and he didn’t have an idea as to what. When she didn’t answer his question as to where she’s from immediately, he tacked it on to the things that seemed off about the stranger.

The smile Razz gave him told him that she agreed with the arrangement, and Hope looked at the path once again. If she wanted to talk about it, then she could. He wasn’t going to pry into anyone’s business that wasn’t his own. Even if she was very interesting, and someone he’d like to learn more about. He still wasn’t getting over the horns and the tail.

"Sounds like a good deal to me. I'll make sure to piss off the enemies enough that they won't even look at you.... But about where I'm from?... I wish I knew Hope... I wish I knew... If I knew, maybe I'd have a chance of finding my way home... But something tells me, it's far away now."

“But let's keep moving and get you too where you need to go. Once we're there, you can go wherever you're going and I'll travel. I need to see if anyone knows who I am. If anyone can help me fill in this gigantic gap in my mind. I barely remember anything. All I have, and this is going to sound nuts, but all I really have right now is this dark spirit sharing this body of mine telling me this place isn't home."

So that was it. She didn’t remember where her home was. Hope, he was far away from home too. But at least he could remember where home was, or more like, what home was. Here was someone that seemed to have trouble recalling… just about anything. So that’s what it was. Hope licked his bottom lip nervously, cornered by the topic. It hit close to his own problem about not being home, although he wasn’t in the same depth.

The spirit in the body thing made him shoot her a questioning look, though. Was she sure it just wasn’t a mental thing? There were medical conditions with some of the same things she was talking about, after all. He didn’t voice it out loud though. He read somewhere that people like that could be dangerous if you approached them with the topic of addressing the illness. Maybe he should search through his books to see if he could find something more about it, in case he met her again after all of this.

"But hey, just gotta keep going till I either remember or I find answers. Either works for me."

“So, is Cocoon part of this place? I mean... I don't see a bit floating place in the sky... Or maybe... Hm... Not from this world maybe? That seems... Odd... Yet not too out of the question to be honest. I have to keep an open mind right now or I'm not going to find any answers."

“If you search enough, maybe you’ll find someone else here that remembers you here as well.” He said, adding on to the optimistic turn with something she had said just a moment earlier. He didn’t seem as down anymore, not with the turn in mood that she seemed to have. It was easy for him to be swayed, it seemed. But then, in a way, she felt familiar in her own way. Not like the, ‘I know you,’ but ‘you remind me of someone’.

“It's not from this world,” He agreed, the small grin sticking like it’d frozen on his face. “We both seem to be a long ways from home. A lot of people are, in fact. I’ve met a few here and there, you’ll find them if you walk around enough. They tend to stick out.” Like a sore thumb, the lot of them. Some don’t even try to be discreet, and make noise across the entire continent like a herd of elephants.

 
"Hey... Out of curiosity... Do you happen to have a map I could take a look at? Y'know to see where we are? Might need you to point out where places are on it of course but... If the view from here is anything to go by, I hope to whatever Gods there are here, that Provo isn't in the snow. I seem to have a dislike of snow... For some reason, not sure why but I'm sure I'll remember eventually."

"Do you like this Provo place? Are the people there nice? How long do you reckon it'd take me to get there without a map or compass? Or better yet do they have anywhere I can live there temporarily and work? I'm gonna need money if I'm to survive. If it takes a while to get to civilization I may need to hunt something so we can cook it and eat. Any idea what monsters and beasts are edible?"

“I have one I’m drawing now,” He said while he reached down to open up his pocket again. Flicking the button, he reached inside and pulled the folded piece of paper out. Holding it out to her, he continued in a voice that seemed to slowly get more, and more excited. Things like this were comfortable topics, things he knew a lot about from studying hours every day. “No, Provo is down south. I haven’t tried going further than this before. In fact, this is the farthest I’ve gone since I’ve been here. It’s actually a pretty nice temperature most of the time, though it gets quite a bit of rain at times. If you like warmer areas, there’s a desert to the west. The local people call it Reikinto Sands. I’ve been, and there’s a large population of monsters there, it seems. If you ask around, someone might pay you to take some out.” He was most certain they would, in fact. The natives of Zephon weren’t shy about asking newcomers for help.

“There’s plenty of jobs, you just gotta get to them, you know? Zephon has no shortage of monsters. Monster-eating wise, I believe that if you stay away from the plant-monsters, most monsters here are edible. There’s the occasional odd one out, but you should be fine if you want to survive off the wildlife. As for getting to Provo, I’m heading there myself. It’s where I’ve been staying, and the people are real nice.” He made sure to address the food question first, especially after hearing her stomach make the noise that it did.

"Okay so I may need to hunt something sooner rather than later unless you have some food stuffs on your person. If not? Well, it'll be time for me to chop up some beasties for omnoms. How good are you at fighting? Not that I'll need you too do so but I'm a little more concerned about your safety alone, though being able to heal yourself has its advantages."

“I don’t have anything to eat,” Hope admitted. He’d been living off of plants, as thin as he was already. Hunting monsters wasn’t his good point, and carrying around food was just asking to get attacked. He was avoiding that, of course, so no food. “I’m pretty good, I can take care of myself while you find something to eat.” He’d survived this long. Kid or not, Hope was pretty sneaky when it came to keeping himself alive these days.

"Well, I guess I'll give the monster hunting a bash, if not I have other skills, weaving, mining, botany so I might be able to help you where plants are concerned?" Razz seemed to be capable of doing just about everything. Mining? Botany? She was like her own one-woman factory. If she was good at botany, then maybe him asking her for a few pointers would be okay? Later, of course, when they were feeling better and had settled down in a safer position. A sitting position where he could take out his notebook and write it all down.

"That's be a real big help, thanks."

"If you're headed to Provo, I guess I'll go with you. I'll need some place to set up a base of operations and from the sounds of it, that seems like a good place to go." That was reassuring; and nice—very nice. Hope was glad that she would go the whole way with him. It gave him more time to possibly learn from her. He wasn’t aiming at anything to do with the sword—that’d be insane. But everything else seemed like good topics of conversation.

“There’s lots of good places to set up, if you want, I might be able to point you to a few. If you can’t anywhere yourself, I mean.” He wondered just what a base of operations would entail; was she going to set up a business with all those skills that she had or something? It sounded like a good idea though, something that would get her organized. Was it for the people she was looking for as well, maybe? That could be it.

"Well that sucks a load of hairy balls."

Hope felt bad about not having anything to offer her at the moment, his hand moving to the back of his head to mess with the wild-layered silver hair that stuck up in the back. “Sorry about that,” Maybe he should start carrying something on him, in case this happened again. He seemed to have everything but food, and that was kind of… weird. Yeah, very.

"All right firstly though. Let's move some rocks, not sure how long we have left till nightfall and it'd be stupid to leave ourselves with nothing safe."

Then Razaphale started moving, shifting rocks in the area into what seemed to be a makeshift shelter for the night. If Hope had any manly pride, it’d be in smithereens at the moments. Sadly enough, he’d given up on holding any real physical strength a long time ago. Some things just weren’t to be. The boy looked around, seeming at a loss as to what to do as she pulled her—tools? Yes, and started to make a… well he couldn’t tell at the moment. "You grab some fire wood now this is done. I'll get some water with the pot, we'll need to boil it to make sure it's clean.” Oh, so that was a pot. Hope glanced over it again, in awe of the quick workmanship. Yes, Razz was indeed a woman of very many talents. He wondered just how long she’d spent working on them, and how hard it was. With how she seemed to take to the situation, he didn’t think that it might have been all that difficult, but who knows.

 “But while you're off grabbing firewood try and see if you can get some plants that're good for eating and a couple of thicker wood blocks. I can make us a couple of makeshift bowls and with the meat I bring back we can have a stew hopefully. If I ain't back in say thirty minutes don't worry too much. If you get back before I do? Grab some leaves or whatever would be good for bedding."

Sounded easy enough. “Firewood, plants, and uh, wood blocks? I’ll see what I can do.” Firewood wouldn’t be a problem, nor the plant. The wood blocks however… how was he going to manage that? Not wanting to disappoint her though, his head bobbed up and down in agreement. “Alright then.”

Leaving the camp, Hope would stop ever so often and search for dry wood on the not-so-much-a-path he was taking. Some there… some here… “Ugh, how can a bug have that many eyes?” Hope said as he shook off a particularly large size piece of wood. It might be what Razz needed to make the bows, or a bowl. There wasn’t really all that much to it, so he’d have to find another before long.

He kneeled down, setting all the wood on his legs as he shifted through some grass, “Any here…? Nope…” A sigh followed as he made to stand up, but it was swallowed down before it could escape and make any more noise than it had.

Because Hope had heard something. “Razz…?” He softly spoke out, huddling the wood close to his chest as his feet slowly turned him around. Too quiet; the warrior didn’t seem like one to pull tricks, and the eyes that he felt on him… they didn’t feel all that nice. Another branch broke, and Hope flinched away from it as he slid his foot across the ground, taking a step back towards the direction of their camp.

One second… two…. By three he had already started running, the whatever it was emerging from the shadows of the trees and grass to pounce on the area he had just been standing in. It was hot in pursuit soon afterwards, and Hope let out a loud yell of, “Ra—aaaaa-zz!!”

Moments later, he fell into the camp on his face, wood scattering about as he took his tumble. Right behind him, the source of his sudden harried retreat:

A Bandersnatch.