Viera Mating Rituals: Intrests

Further in sites of Balthier’s interests in Fran

Night had fallen, the Moon bright, full and high in the sky and an increasingly troubled Balthier sat by the campfire. Fran had gone to collect more firewood ages ago and he was starting to wonder what was keeping her. Perhaps some fiend gave her some trouble. The Beasts and Fiends in this area were mean viciously horrid creatures. Balthier stood and went to seek out his wayward companion.

It didn’t take long for him to spot her. She was down the beach a ways, just out of the sight of their camp. She stood on the edge of the sea, the waves washing up just short of her feet. She was staring up at the moon, mesmerized. Balthier’s anxiety washed away. He had seen Fran this way before. During full moons he would often find Fran this way, entranced, basking in the soft light. She would stay like that for an hour or so then something would seem to snap her out of it and she would continue on as if nothing happened. He stood back and watched the Viera who looked stunning bathed in moonlight.

As he watched Balthier noticed Fran starting to sway, slightly at first then more and more evident. She swayed in time with the gently pulsing tide.

“This is something new.” Balthier thought to himself and continued his observation. He admitted to himself long ago that a healthy portion of his interest in Fran was a bit scientific in nature. No mater how much he fought it, he was his father’s son. Also being Arcadian and a student of the Academy of Knowledge and Wisdom, he had had the Scientific Method engraved into his brain ever since he’d been able to speak. With both genetics and society against him, he was a scientist to the very core of his being, whether he liked it or not. Balthier observed Fran, studied her, noting the change of behavior, filing it away in the unconscious case study part of his brain he had developed long ago. The information kept he filed there was not only about Fran. Balthier studied people in general, behaviors, emotions, psychology and such. One of his favorite classes at the Academy had been Anthropology and he had developed a rather close academic relationship with Dr. Seamus Nathaniel Fawkes, his Natural History professor and head of the Anthropology department at the Academy. Also at a rather early age, Balthier found that the information he acquired during his studies of people, made it very easy for him to get what he wanted out of them. That is to say, manipulate them. Yes manipulation was the weapon of choice when surviving and navigation the treacherous waters of Arcadian high society. When Balthier and Fran first met, he began filling mental observations about her, out of habit mainly, for he did it with everyone he knew.

But Fran was different, Balthier soon found out. He knew right off she was of no real use to him, socially, politically, or other wise like is other “friends”. But within few short days after meting her he found himself fascinated by her and wanted to get to know her. She was different than anyone else he knew, in more ways that just her race. Well, the things that made her different were surely contributed to the fact of her race and culture…but still, Fran’s overall personality and manner fascinated Balthier. He found that she still had a bit of a problem adjusting to life outside the Wood. Even though she had lived among the Humes and the various other races of Evalice since before he was born. There were still many things Fran still did not comprehend or understand. Balthier had pointed the irony of this to her once and she had responded:

“Well of course, you have been you in this society all of your life. I had been me in a different society before I had to me in this new society, and for much longer. Change comes slowly to us for we have the time to be slow about these things. Everything outside the Wood moves so fast, I have spent the majority of my time outside conditioning myself to move at this worlds pace. I have only just recently begun to try and comprehend the beings of this strange new world…”

When she put it that way, Balthier had become more sympathetic to Fran’s situation. It was true. She had lived among the Viera, growing up with Viera culture far longer than she had been outside the Wood. It’s not easy to change and adjusts decades worth of habits and mannerisms.

Balthier’s fascination with Fran grew and he very much wanted to be friends with her, real friends, and not just to have her as an acquaintance or connection to use and be used by. They shared common interests and views. They had real conversations of depth and meaning. He greatly enjoyed her company and was happy just being around her. Balthier stood on the white sandy beach of the Phon Coast watching his Viera companion and smiled. She was beauitful. That was easy for him to admit. And he couldn't deny that he was atracted to her in the way a man could be atracted to a woman. He watched her swaying in the moonlight in awe of her beauty.

Fran began to raise her arms as she swayed. She raised her arms as if she were worshiping the moon, exalting praise. And then her movement became more than just swaying. Fran’s arms, hands, fingers began to move as if they had a life of their own, weaving their way thorough the air. Her hips rocked and swayed to some a silent beat. The dance was utterly hypnotic, so fluid and pulsating. And then Fran began to glow. Not brightly but a soft glow as if the moonlight itself had been absorbed by her skin.

Suddenly the movement stopped and a tension Balthier hadn’t noticed building broke. Slowly he let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. Fran seemed to have heard the exhaled breath for she abruptly turned her head in his direction. Fran’s sudden movement startled him a bit. Balthier stood still as if he were a rabbit hoping that if it didn’t move the hungry fox wouldn’t see it. Fran turned slowly and faced Balthier. She spotted him and a smile split a cross her face; however it was a smile that made Balthier strangely uncomfortable, for if a fox could smile, surely this would be the one would it have when he spotted the hiding rabbit.