“F-Fondest memory…?” Gyo was confused. He had been approached by the Wandering Minstrel that he had met on a number of occasions on his travels throughout Eorzea. The Au Ra thought long and hard on the question. All of his fondest memories were all relatively recent in his twenty-seven springs and summers of life. The wandering minstrel waited patiently for Gyo, as he knew just how skittish of an individual he was. The minstrel recalled that day when they met—how he offered a friendly hand to Gyo, and how the mere motion of that alone caused Gyo to dive behind the bar and cause some of the bottles to shake from all the trembling the Au Ra did. It took weeks before Gyo finally warmed up to him.

Gyo thought back to when everything began to change. He lost his vision while on his way to Ul’dah while fending off an attack from the Amalj’aa. He was already nervous around people, but losing his sight brought Gyo’s anxiety around people to extreme levels. His mind jumped all over the place, from fighting the primals, to playing in the forests with his animal family, to working with the various beast tribes that rejected the extreme zealotry wrought by their brethren. And then of course, there were the friends. Never did Gyo think he would have made as many friends as he did. Especially the Scions—

“M-Meeting Minfilia a-a-and the o-others!” Gyo responded abruptly, breaking the silence between himself and the minstrel.

“Oh?”

“Minfilia s-saw m-me f-for m-me,” Gyo shifted in his seat, “Sh-she n-never j-judged me. She m-m-made m-me f-feel…w-welcome.” The Raen smiled fondly at the memory. Even though he could see nothing, he could feel and hear the warmth she had in her voice. It was pleasant, void of something he was so used to hearing from people: judgement. For Gyo, it was unlike any other interaction with a person that he ever had. He expected Thancred to lead him into some kind of trap on that day. The two butted heads regularly when they first met—Gyo’s sensitive nose picked up so much perfume from the Hyur that it made him gag, while Thancred had difficulty adjusting to the Au Ra’s animalistic tendencies, and both had very different ways of tackling the same objective.

“So it sounds to me that your fondest memory is your beginnings with the Scions,” the minstrel observed. His lips curled into a smile as he rummaged through his bag for a pen and paper, “It warms my heart that you have not forgotten your beginnings, my friend.”

Gyo’s expression began to soften as he recalled the eventual fate of the Minfilia he knew. It was something that caused him to tear up, but he knew it was for the ultimate good. And after getting to know Ryne, he knew that, deep down, it was what Minfilia would have wanted too. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand, “Meeting Minfilia and the o-others i-is my fondest memory.” He said a second time, much more resolutely.

(Noble Barding)