Disclaimer: Final Fantasy IXand its characters is the property of Square-Enix, I'm just playing with them. I'm not making any money from writing this!

AN: It's been awhile since I last played this game, so forgive me if I got some details wrong.

Tail

It had been gnawing at Garnet since she first met him in the castle. Right now she was staring at it across the campfire. Zidane's tail was driving her to distraction. Perhaps she was just exhausted. Escaping from that horrid plant thing last night and searching for a way back above the Mist had thoroughly worn her out. Now here she was, a princess camping outside the Ice Cavern with the Captain of the Knights of Pluto and two of the strangest individuals she'd ever met. Vivi seemed like a decent sort of kid, and his magical abilities were very helpful even if she couldn't see any of his face except those eerie yellow glowing eyes. Did he even have a face?

Somehow, Vivi's lack of discernable facial features disturbed her less than Zidane's tail. What exactly was he? She'd been sorting through her memories for information on the various races of Gaia she had encountered in the past all day and she was still drawing a blank. He couldn't be part Burmecian. He lacked the tall, slender build of that race and the tail didn't look like any Burmecian tail she'd seen in the past. He didn't resemble any of the other tailed races she was familiar with, either. He looked for all the world like a human with a tail attached.

"And why would I trust a common sneak thief like you, eh?" Steiner grumbled in response to something Zidane said. The tail quivered in annoyance. The portly knight had been needling Zidane all day and the cheerful thief was beginning to tire of it. Garnet usually just tuned them out. Steiner's wounded pride at failing to prevent the princess's abduction was making him surlier than usual. The fact that Garnet wanted to be kidnapped did nothing to soothe him. The lack of food wasn't doing much for anybody's mood tonight.

Prior to tonight, the closest Garnet had ever come to camping was reading about it in the adventure novels she favored. She'd also never gone whole day without food. It was a shame that Zidane hadn't thought to take some food from the Prima Vista before coming to rescue her. She thought about drinking an extra potion earlier just to put something in her stomach, but decided against it, as they didn't have many potions with them and might need them in the Ice Cavern.

Garnet shivered as another cold draft wafted out of the Ice Cavern past the party. Her novels never mentioned how cold and miserable camping could be. The fire wasn't enough to warm her. She imagined that her lips were blue now, it was so cold. At least pondering about Zidane's tail distracted her from how miserable she was at the moment.

Should she ask him about it? She could almost hear her royal tutors chastising her about her lack of tact for even considering making such an intrusive inquiry, but she was curious. And didn't Princess Garnet til Alexandros XVII have a right to know more about her travelling companions? At any rate, she needed to start acting more like a commoner to avoid being captured and taken back to Alexandria. A commoner like one of the scullery maids back at the palace wouldn't think twice before blurting the question out.

"Uh, Zidane, can I ask you a personal question?" she began hesitantly.

"Sure thing, Your Majesty, go for it!" he replied from across the fire.

"Um, why do you have a tail?" she blurted out.

Vivi made an uncomfortable coughing sound and leaned closer to her. "Uh, Princess, you can't just ask people why they have tails." He murmured.

Zidane stared at her with wide eyes. Apparently she caught him off guard. She could feel her cheeks flushing. Steiner frowned at her in disapproval. Whether he was unhappy with her nosiness or irritated that she showed interest in Zidane at all, she couldn't tell.

"Ya know, I really don't know." Zidane finally answered after an uncomfortable pause. "I don't remember much of my life from before I met Baku and joined up with Tantalus, and even that's kinda fuzzy. I don't remember my family or anything. I was hoping I would run into more people like me travelling with Tantalus. No luck so far."

Garnet felt a twinge of guilt at the mention of the theater company. Zidane mentioned earlier that he'd been kicked out for coming to help her. Now she knew that the theater group was not only his job, but the closest thing he had to a family. Now they were lost to him, and it was all her fault.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked. It was rude of me." She replied, embarrassed at his attention.

"Don't worry about it. If I were in your position, I'd be asking questions too, especially about that weirdo with a tail." He said with a wink and a smile. Steiner glowered at him. Garnet made a mental note of his vernacular. It might be helpful to her endeavor to impersonate a commoner.

"Shouldn't we be getting some sleep?" Vivi asked with a yawn.

"You're right, my magical friend. We need our rest so that we'll be at our best to tackle this Ice Cavern tomorrow." Zidane laughed.

At Garnet's request, Steiner clanked off to get them more firewood as she made herself as comfortable as possible by shifting closer to the fire and resting her head on the satchel of potions. What she wouldn't give for one of her chocobo down-filled pillows from home right now. Just before she drifted off, she noticed that Zidane was still staring at her from his place on the other side of the campfire.

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