Okay, so as it says in my profile, I woke up in the middle of the night on the couch one night, and the t.v. was still on. I wasn't all that tired, so I was thinking about playing ToA until I was, but then a Garfield commercial came on... Um, then this came into my head. So, Anise sees an extremely rare species of Chesedonian cat, but it leaps from her arms and lands in Jade's, then disappears. Anise then accuses Jade of using a fonic arte to conjure up a fake cat in order to trick her. Well uh, no, that's not it, um.... Well Jade himself doesn't even know what's going on... Heh... Heh heh I just can't help myself, it just seems so funny when you put Jade in these situations... Or Guy, but he's in a different story in the future, kinda like the sequel to this.

I don't own ToA. It belongs to Namco Bandai.

Read on!!

If they traveled fast enough, they were only going to have to sleep in the desert for one night on their way to the Zao ruins. Which was good, since all of Chesedonia was on the line. Either make it, or fall into the Qliphoph.

Although, it was not fated to go so smoothly, because where's the fun in that? All the authors in the world would die if they couldn't find a way to mix things up, per say.

"Hey!" Anise stopped dead just outside of the Oasis, where they had stopped in order to speak with Asch shortly. Everyone stopped and turned in the direction of her excited stare.

"What is it Anise?" Natalia asked.

"That!" she pointed to what appeared to be a small brown colored cat with red stripes, grooming itself in the shade of a palm tree. "That's a Chesedonian Tiger Cat!" she exclaimed. "They're so rare, we'd be richer than Luke if we caught one!"

"Wh-what?! Are you serious?!" Luke exclaimed. Guy sighed, knowing that Anise would not give up on catching that cat unless it somehow disappeared into thin air.

"Anise, I would not advise going after it. Chesedonian Tiger Cat's like to be left aone, other wise, you'll have a nasty little scar as your only memory of it." Jade warned.

"Don't worry about me Colonel! This is my kinda job!" Without paying heed to the warnings of Jade, she ran to the tree, stopping a few meters away to stoop down to her hands and knees. After pausing for a moment, she began crawling.

"I swear, that girl..." Natalia sighed.

"Well, if nothing else, she's the most determined out of all of us. Let's just see how this plays out..." Jade smiled as he watched Anise grow ever closer to the Tiger Cat. Most likely, at the speed she was going at, she would manage to at least grab the cat, since they were almost blind(or, they were thought to be. It was incredibly hard to gather any information on this species.), but it would most likely escaped from her, earning her only a cut of it's sharp claws. But, all in the sake of amusement, he didn't stop her. Warnings were sufficient...

"Colonel, aren't you going to stop her?" Tear asked. Jade just continued smiling replying with 'Well I did warn her.', making Tear sigh just as Guy did.

"Aha! I told you you didn't need to worry!" Anise grinned happily and held onto said cat tightly, she knew her cats, and she wasn't letting this one get away...

"Well, it appears I may have underestimated you Anise, well done." Jade said, though every one could hear the hint of sarcasm. "By the way, what do you plan to do now that you've caught this animal?"

"Boo, why do you always ruin my fun Colonel?" Anise puffed out her cheeks, a sure sign she was annoyed.

"Anise, you'd better be careful or-" Guy never finished his sentence as the cat suddenly moved so fast nobody was sure what happened. Anise was suddenly grasping her hand while hopping around yelling 'OW!!', and the cat was no longer in her hands. "It'll scratch you...."

"Hey! Where'd it go?" Luke looked around for the cat. "Jeez, it's pretty fast, you were right Jade-huh?" He turned around to face Jade, only to see him with a slightly confused expression, holding the Chesedonian Tiger Cat that Anise had failed to keep hold of.

Jade stared into the eyes of the cat, which were a deep amber, slit pupils staring straight back at him.

"Ah! Colonel, don't let it get away!" Anise exclaimed as Tear finished healing her wound.

"Anise," Jade sighed, leaving the cat's gaze for a second. "I don't believe it would be wise to-" Suddenly the cat stared to glow. "Hm?"

"What's going on?" Mieu covered his eyes. In another bright flash, the cat was gone, Jade's hand were empty.

"What just happened?" Tear asked, looking around, but there was no sign that there was any cat here.

"Oh! It's gone!" Anise puffed her cheeks out again. "You used a fonic arte didn't you?!" she approached Jade. "That was a fake cat, you were only trying to trick me!"

"Oh I assure you Anise, I've never come across any arte that can conjure fake Chesedonian Tiger Cat's since I've never even seen one myself." Jade shrugged. "How would I be able to do that? Do you really think me so skilled?"

"I don't know! We never know what's going on in your head!" Anise crossed her arms.

"Instead of standing here doing nothing, aren't we suppose to be heading to the Zao ruins?" Natalia interruped.

"Yes," Tear nodded. "We don't have much time, we need to hurry. Let's go."

Everyone nodded, heading east towards said ruins. "...You used a fonic arte..." Anise muttered as she walked past Jade.

As expected, they were making good time, despite their hold up in the Oasis due to a certain cat. They made camp as the sun dipped below the horizon, deciding to continue tomorrow.

It was Jade's turn to cook tonight. He stared at the ingredients laid out in front of him. He was planning on making some stew, or something of the sort(because I can't remember what dish needs tuna, so we'll go with tuna stew.). But the cooking had not yet commenced for one reason, and one reason alone. Tuna. Tuna. Tuna. Tuna. Why was he thinking so much about this tuna?! Jade wanted to kick himself, he was getting nothing done. For some strange reason, he had a sudden urge to eat that tuna... But he needed it to make their stew!

...What to do...?

Tear glanced over to where Jade was bent over the fire, supposedly making stew. But stew didn't usually take this long to make, had he made a mistake of some sort? "I'll be right back." She told Luke and Guy, who were sitting next to her. "It's unusual for him to take this long for cooking, I'll see if he's alright."

"He's probably think really hard about something." Luke shrugged. "You know Jade."

Tear nodded, then crossed the camp site to where Jade sat bent over the cooking fire. "Colonel, are you alright?"

"Hm?" Jade lifted his head, glancing around to Tear. Tear lifted a brow, he appeared to be chewing something... He swallowed. "Hello Tear, do you need something?"

"Er-no, I was just wondering what you were doing. You don't usually take this long to cook..." Tear's eyes found a small pile of what looked like... tuna. "Di-didn't we just restock on tuna in Chesedonia?"

"Hm... Maybe. I didn't see any..." Jade trailed off, glancing at the bag that held their food stuffs.

Tear wore a face of confusion, almost amazement. "Colonel? Did you eat... all of our tuna?"

Jade looked up at her with a smile. "Oh, surely not Tear! I would never do that! If I did that, I would be so full I wouldn't be able to move!"

Tear stared back at him for a moment, but Jade seemed determined to keep this story up. So she decided to just accept it. "Alright, I was just making sure. But why were you bent over the fire for so long?"

"Well, I was planning on some tuna stew but there seems to be a shortage of tuna... I was thinking about what to make instead." Jade replied smoothly.

"...Alright then, I'll leave you to your cooking then."

Jade nodded as she walked back to where Luke and Guy sat. He turned back to the fire, releasing a breath that he didn't even know he was holding. "Oh that was close..." he sighed, looking back at the remains of the tuna. Why did he have such and urge to eat it? Raw no less? Good thing that had passed now...