Finding Your Own Way

"Girls?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been thinking."

Three young women, all dressed in the traditional robes of a white mage, sat together in a house. It was late at night, and a fire crackled in the hearth to drive away the cold from late winter.

"What've you been thinking about?" asked the youngest, most petite of the three.

"It's about Sarah." said the oldest, tallest, and most mature-looking of the group.

"Sarah, huh? What's she been up to lately, anyway?" interjected the middle child, who was just an inch or two shorter than the older sister.

"Mom says she's been keeping well. Really enjoying Levia, apparently."

The youngest one looked down at the floor. "I miss Sarah."

"Me too, Four. But, you know, she found her own path. She adapted to this world a lot better than we did. Got a name and a new job and a boyfriend..."

The middle child spoke up again. "So is that what you're hung up on? Sarah's success?"

"Yeah, Two, pretty much. I'm just wondering why... why it was just her. Why was she so special?"

"Three had always been a little different from the rest of us. I remember you'd pick on her about her weight sometimes. Heheh."

"Ugh, don't remind me of my youthful indiscretions, Two."

"What about her crystal, and how it glowed?" said Four. "And then it turned out she was a Warrior of Light?"

"Right there. That's the sort of thing that's bothered me. I mean, Mom never played favorites, but Three... Sarah... she always seemed to stand out a little, didn't she?"

"Well, what are you waiting for, then?" said Two.

"What do you mean?"

"Listen. Sure, Sarah lucked out by being a Warrior of Light, but that wouldn't have meant a thing if she hadn't been brave enough to find her own way. She broke away from us to hang out in that bar with that mantis we fixed up together, and then she found Alex. She made her own decisions in life and found great rewards. If you're hung up on that, why don't you blaze a trail yourself?"

"Why haven't you?"

Two paused.

"...I'm afraid."

"I am, too."

Four nodded. "Sarah was always in danger at that bar! Remember the time she fought that dragon?"

One and Two both cringed at the memory. "I wish I didn't," Two sighed.

One seemed deep in thought.

"Well, it doesn't have to be exactly the same." she said finally. "I mean, sure, Sarah became her own girl, but she was never alone. She had Alex, and the mantis, and all those other crazy people at that bar. I heard she became friends with quite a few of them. They helped each other overcome things that they could have never done alone."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying we find our own way. We blaze our own trail. But we do it together."

Two smiled. "Count me in."

Four nodded. "M-me too. But... how?"

"How what?"

"How do we 'blaze a trail' like Sarah?"

"First things first, we need names. I'm sick of being One. Everyone else in this world has a proper name, and we won't be truly independent until we stop thinking of ourselves as generic, replaceable units. And second, I think we should try to master different classes. I don't think we'll get very far all looking the same."

"Different classes, huh?" Two mused.

"Yeah. Of course, keep training your white magic, we need it for our job. But I think some new abilities may be in order. Is there anything you guys always wanted to be?"

Four spoke first. "I... I always wanted to be strong. I want to be able to protect people. Not just heal them."

"Hmm..." Two mused. "I've been thinking about alchemy. I'd like to try going into item crafting."

"And as for me," said One, "I think we need to put a little more force behind our magic. And I know just the thing to study up on."

The three girls smiled at each other. They may not make it big like Sarah did, but they stood a fair chance of becoming their own people.

-----

(While they certainly won't be turning into major characters anytime soon - or even secondary, or anything beyond their role last year of occasionally-seen support characters, I have thought for a while that Sarah breaking away from her roots as a generic nameless white mage would inspire her sisters to do the same.

Concerning personalities of the sisters: I always envisioned One as the mature, confident leader, Four as shy and a bit naive like a more extreme version of Sarah's early days, and while I never settled on anything for Two, making her the spunky one seems to work. And while Sarah has focused on becoming a REALLY good white mage, her sisters are opting for hybrid skill sets...)