Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

“What is this Claire?” He asked as he looked at the small stone in the palm of his hand. He looked up to see a young girl standing in front of him, looking at him with a silly grin on her face, her long brown hair caught in the summer breeze. They were standing on a hillside path following a gulley down towards a village.

“It’s a..…umm…..oh! I can’t remember what it’s called!” She shook her fists in frustration. “But I know it’s a crystal of some kind. Isn’t it pretty?”

“A crystal? What’s so special about this that you’d give it to me?” Claire and Flynn had known each other for as long as he could remember. She was his only friend in the world. No, more than that, she was like a sister to him.

“Well they say it’s supposed to protect whoever holds it. Travellers sometimes have them because it provides them with the strength needed to keep them going. That’s why I gave it to you. So you’ll be able to look after me wherever we go.” She grinned back at him.
Despite knowing her all his life he knew nothing about Claire’s family, only that she lived in a small house on the edge of the village they lived in. Despite passing it by everyday when they met and parted ways, he had never seen or heard anyone else inside.

“Well it’s a pretty thing for sure. Thanks.” He smiled as he placed it in his pocket. She rushed into him and hugged him, pecking him on the cheek as she did so.

“You’re welcome.” She drew back from him and looked him in the eye, a wicked grin forming on her face. There was a brief silence and Flynn was aware of the sounds around him, the wind in the grass and the birds in the trees. Then Claire broke the silence.
“Race you back to the village! Last one’s a rotten egg!” She laughed as she ran away from him down the hill.

Taken completely by surprise, Flynn got after her, but not before she had gotten a long way ahead of him. Worried that she might trip on the path he called out to her as he ran after her. “Be careful Claire!” He saw her look over her shoulder as she ran. As she did Flynn felt his foot catch on a loose rock, sending him down into the gully on the side of the path. It was a short fall and when he came to rest he heard Claire calling to him as she ran back to him.

“Flynn! Flynn! Are you ok?” He saw her appear at the top of the gulley, silhouetted by the sky behind her.

“I’m fine. Just hang on and I’ll be up in a minute. Ow!” He winced in pain as he felt a bolt of pain shoot through his right leg. He heard Claire gasp on concern and start climbing down to him. He sat up to look at his leg as she joined him. They could both see the right leg of his trousers had been badly torn and a growing red stain was forming.

“Flynn, your leg! You’re bleeding! Badly!”

He winced in pain again and felt more blood running out of his wound. “I must have caught it on something on the way down. You better go and get some help. I don’t think I’ll be able to walk home like this.” He winced as he tried to get a closer look.

This seemed to anger Claire slightly, almost offend her and she locked gazes with him briefly and Flynn thought he saw a tear in her eye. “Don’t be stupid Flynn! I won’t leave you here like this. Hold still.” She knelt next to his leg began to roll the leg of his trousers up.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Flynn protested more out of uncertainty than offense. Claire urged him to be still. She took a deep breath before closing her eyes and the concern was replaced with a look of calm focus, her face lost of its childish innocence as she raised a hand towards his wound. “Claire?”
He could see the air around her outstretched hand begin to glow, weakly at first but quickly rising to a bright light that almost blinded him, all the while her face remained calm and focussed. Flynn felt his leg tingle and looked, gasping as he saw the wound beginning to diminish. The bleeding had stopped and now the wound was disappearing. Seconds later it had disappeared completely without so much as a mark and the pain was gone too. The glowing from Claire’s hand ceased and she opened he eyes, taking a few breaths as she did. She looked at him and smiled weakly, clearly drained from the effort.

“What you just did. I’ve only ever seen grown ups do it. How did you learn to do it?” He asked her. She stood up, helping him to his feet. She looked down and saw the crystal she had given him had fallen out of his pocket. She retrieved it and pressed it into his palm, squeezing his hand tightly as she did. For a moment Flynn thought he felt something warm in his hand. There was a long pause before she looked at him and spoke again.

“Promise me you’ll hold onto this Flynn. Take it with you everywhere and think of me when you look at it. I might not always be here for you when you need help, but maybe I can be there in a way with this.” She gazed into his eyes, her face still serious.

“I promise Claire. I’ll never let it out of my sight for a second. You can count on it.”

She moved closer and hugged him tightly. “Thank you.”