Chapter 1:

"Hey there, beautiful, how about you and me get to know each other?"

Frill turned to face the speaker, he was a homely Bangaa, short and fat with few teeth left in his mouth. His breath was heavy and reeked like a Malboro, while his eyes absorbed Frill's figure.

Pinching her nose disgustfully, Frill shook her head, "Viera have sensitive noses, you know! You could at least try some anti-halitosis herbs!"

The Bangaa growled, "Huh! Stupid rabbit!" He turned around and stormed off, shouting profanities at anyone who as much as glanced at him.

Wiping a bit of spittle off of her green skirt and after adjusting her ears in the water of a barrel, Frill admired herself in the liquid mirror. She was tall and slender, picturesque in a lot of ways. Her skin was tanned and her tall ears were grey and finely-haired.

"Kupo, more man trouble, Frill?" Said a black-haired Moogle as he approached her.

Frill brushed hair out of her eyes, "You know it, Finty! I'm just too attractive!"

Finty reached into his vest's chest pocket and pulled out a golden band with a single ruby embedded within it, "Here, I, uh, found this somewhere, have it, kupo!"

Testing the ring out on her finger, Frill admired it, "You've been out, finding things again, haven't you?"

Grinning widely, Finty had to look up at Frill, "Kupo!"

Frill stroked her own ears, "What do you want to do now?"

"Uh, I don't know, kupo! What is there ever to do here in this town?"

They began a goalless walk around the dusty town of Agimimathu. It was the wet season around there, which was obvious with all of the rain barrels lined up next to every house or shop. The reddish cobblestone was slick, which was causing a lot of accidents recently.

Finty spat into a puddle spitefully, "Kupo, did you hear that old lady Grenta broke her hip yesterday? Slipped on a wet cobblestone and fell onto the pot she had just bought from the store. Kupo! It was hilarious! When she fell, she lost her earrings. Kupo, I picked them up to give them back, but, it uh, must've slipped my mind," He pulled out two pearl earring and marveled at them, "I wonder how they could've fallen off?"

The two earrings caught Frill's attention, "Ooh, can I see those?"

Finty tried to hand them over, but as he did one of them slipped out of his hand and fell into a gap between two cobblestones.

Bending over to pick it up, Frill slipped and fell into a puddle, soaking her clothes. Before Finty could help her up, a young Hume came to her aid.

He was tall and fair, his hair was blond and he had shining blue eyes. He wore a large sword on his back and was decked in customary soldier's clothing. He held her hand as he helped her up, "Looks like you had a bit of a tumble, miss."

He noticed the ring on Frill's finger, and called out over his shoulder to a small group of people, "Hey! Boss, isn't this the Enchantress's Ring?"

A Nu Mou wearing a long robe approached them and took a long look at the ring on Frill's finger, "Hm…" He flipped out a large book entitled Ancient Artifacts Worth a Whole Lot and compared a picture from the book to the ring on the finger, "I'd say it is! Good work Tordinoy!"

The Hume looked up at the Nu Mou, "My name is Tordinick!"

Looking up at the sky, deep in thought, the Nu Mou grumbled, "Oh yes, it's your brother the hunter who is Tordinoy!"

Frill backed away from them, "Who… Who are you?"

The Nu Mou smiled politely, "Oh deary me, how rude of us! My name is Kino-Labolle, but you can call me Kino. I am the head of a Clan named Tarnen Serpere. This is one of it's members, Tordinoy."

"My name is Tordinick!"

"He and his brother are members. They're identical twins."

Eying the ring on Frill's finger, Finty asked, "What does a Clan want with Frill's ring?"

Kino reopened his book and pointed to the picture of the ring, "The Enchantress's Ring is a powerful ring said to contain the souls of a thousand dragons. Of course that's all nonsense, because you only fit three at most in there, but but none-the-less, our client wants it back dearly, it was stolen from her several weeks ago by a notorious thief."

Backing up, Frill fiddled with the ring, "What? I just got it today!"

Pulling out a large coin purse, Kino shrugged, "We'll be sure to compensate fully. How much did you buy it for?"

Frill groaned and Finty stepped in, "Kupo, uh, I bought it for her!"

Kino closed the purse, "Oh, so that's the deal. I'm sorry miss, I did not know it was a gift, you may keep the ring."

A Bangaa fully clad in armor and robes, massive scarlet spear on his back, grumbled unhappily, "C'mon boss! We have to get that ring! We can't let another quest fail! We don't need more spots on our record than we already have!"

Silencing the Bangaa with his finger, Kino shook his head, "Silence Jintotsi! I will not deprive someone a gift, simply for money and fame!"

Frill whispered to Finty, "Maybe we should give them the ring, Finty."

Taken aghast, Finty wrinkled his nose, "Kupo! You know how much trouble I had to go to to, er, find that? Kupo! I don't care about any sob story they have, don't give them that ring! It's probably worth a lot!"

"I know, but it seems like the right thing to do."

"Since when were you so high and mighty? Just yesterday you made a pretty little Gria child cry because you said her dolly was ugly!"

"And I felt bad afterwards, right? Imagine how bad I'll feel if these poor people have to split up?"

"Just forget about them! Kupo!"

"I can't do that!" Frill approached Kino, taking off the ring in the process.

"Nooooooo!" Finty jumped onto Frill's back, trying to pull her away, "Don't doooooo it! Kuuuuuupoooooo!"

Throwing him off, Frill handed the ring to Kino, "Here, you can have it."

Kino inspected the ring, "But, the Moogle said this was a gift!"

"It was, but he stole it in the first place."

Standing up, soaking wet, Finty denied it, "Did not! I found that! Found it, hear me, kupo? F-O-U-N-D found!"

Tordinick tapped Kino on the shoulder, "The client said that a Hume stole it from her, a very skilled thief! That Moogle must have extremely quick hands if he can steal it from him!"

"How do you use this?" Finty asked as he tried to heave around Tordinick's sword, "It's super heavy!"

Snatching the sword back with one hand, Tordinick growled, "Give that back!" Tordinick resumed his talk with Kino, holding onto his sword tightly, "We could use hands that fast in the future!"

Crossing his arms, Jintosti nodded, "Aye boss, the client said that if we can pull this off then she had another retrieval quest for us!"

Glancing at Finty, Kino voiced his opinion, "True, but that's all up to him, isn't it?"

The Moogle's ears twitched and he humphed, "I would only join you dumb old clan if Frill did, and that's never happening, kupo."

Frill shrugged, "I'll do it."

"You have to be kidding me, kupo."

Kino held up his hand, "Wait a second, miss, before you sign up I have to know if you'll be useful in battles."

Bending over to look at Kino in the eyes, Frill grinned, "Useful? I'll be fire out there!"

Voice echoing inside of his helmut, Jintosti grumbled, "That's my job, girlie."

"It was a metaphor. I mean that I can use several elementalist's abilities, and I'm not half bad with a rapier!"

Finty grunted unhappily, "Then I can lend you guys my knife and my paws. Kupo."

Tordinick smiled and forcibly shook Finty's paw, "I look forward to working with you, Moogle!"

Kino shrugged, "Eh, it'll work. I guess we should introduce you guys to the rest of the gang then, if you'll be joining us. We're held up at a tavern at the west side of town."

Frill shoved Finty playfully, "Who knows, Finty, this may be fun!"

"Ugh, doubt it."

"You might meet a little Mooglette!"

"I'm fairly certain they're not called that."