Walking into the desert, Cecil finds a village by an oasis.

Looking around, Cecil spots an inn and walks inside. The innkeeper is most accomodating.

Cecil walks inside and sets the girl on a bed. She looks up briefly, then turns away immediately.

Seeing that he's getting nowhere, Cecil lies down in a nearby bed and goes to sleep. The girl glances at him briefly before going to sleep herself. However, they're awakened when the door bursts open and a group of soldiers enter. Cecil rises to confront them.

Combat ensues. Being typical unmotivated grunts, the lesser soldiers only attack when specifically ordered to (or if the General falls first). The General isn't much better; he flees cowardly if his men fall.

Darkness will end this battle swiftly, in two uses at most. If you're playing the NA version or would rather not use it, the soldiers should go down in a single attack each anyway, so it's not much longer that way. You can kill the General too, as long as you leave at least one soldier alive to keep him from fleeing while you beat him up. Doing so is considerably more trouble, particularly since the General is in the back row of the enemy formation (giving him double defense and halving Cecil's hit rate), but it's also more rewarding (242 gil and 869 exp instead of 162 gil and 471 exp). Not to mention silly; their script makes them attack themselves if the General is gone.

She finally looks at him.

They return to bed with no further interruptions. Rydia wakes first in the morning, and waits for Cecil to rise. They then leave the inn together.

Rydia may have a bit of a crush on Cecil at this point. Sure, he may have killed her mother, but that was sort of an abstract thing. He didn't literally take a sword to her. In contrast, he fought off former allies right in front of her to keep her safe, and no doubt looked really cool doing it. That sort of thing makes an impression.

Anyway, how about talking to some random townspeople?

By now, you should have a pretty good idea who the girl is. And, sure enough, Cecil walks into the back room of one house to find Rosa bedridden.

The old man nearby has a suggestion.

Putting this together with what the other townspeople have said, Cecil concludes that he must head north to Damcyan and seek help from their royalty.

Be careful with Rydia in combat. She's not a fighter like Cecil, and she starts out at only level 1 on top of that. Make sure to keep her in the back row. She can defend, use items as needed, or use the Rod she comes equipped with as an item to inflict moderate damage, since her normal attack is useless. As she gains levels, she'll start learning magic, but it's best to conserve her MP until it's needed.