When I was writing this, I was listening to the song It's about Time by Barcelona, and I thought, This is totally Bal's theme song. One of the lines that I thought fit him best was:
There's been too many times/ when I've drowned you with these perfect lines and/
You've heard me say that I can cure you.
This morning I woke up with this/ overwhelming fear of love and I/
Don't know if I can resurrect you…
Yeah… that's my beef. Thank you, ElTangoDeRoxanne for being the first reviewer! Cyber cookies for you.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Jack stared down at the world passing by at extreme speeds below. Elizabeth shut her eyes tight, stomach churning. Barbossa enjoyed the ride, watching the clouds whipping past the windows. They were currently onboard the Strahl, occupying three of the six passenger seats, while Fran sat in the co-pilot's chair and Balthier skillfully navigated the Strahl through the turbulent winds. Finally, they dropped through the cloud layer to reveal a huge, snow covered canyon, and Balthier steered them down toward a narrow chasm, dropping the anchor next to a glowing blue crystal with a metallic clang. As they disembarked, Balthier slid his finger along a luminous, rectangular prism mounted on a gold chain around his neck, and the Strahl vanished. He tucked the prism, apparently the ship's key, into his shirt.
"What be this shinin' jewel?" Barbossa asked, nodding toward the crystal.
"It's a Replenishing Crystal." Balthier said. "If one member of the party touches it, the entire party is healed of any ailments. Go on, try it." Barbossa laid a grubby palm on the crystal's surface. He was surprised by the fact that it wasn't cold, despite being left in the middle of a snowy rift, and was actually quite warm. It seemed as if pure life energy was flowing into him through his palm, and he flexed his fingers, enjoying the feeling.
"We head Southeast into the Feywood, and from there, through the Mist and into Giruvegan." Fran called over the howl of the Paramina blizzard. "Stay close! If you get lost, you will never be found!" Balthier checked the straps on his shoulder pack. It contained food enough for five people, his ration being an emergency ration should they run out of food, because he did not have to eat unless he wanted to. There were extra pouches of shot, a quiver of arrows, a few items to relieve status ailments, and — Balthier frowned. A wrench? Nono must be reminding him not to do anything stupid. He was jerked back to reality when Fran suddenly knocked an arrow to her bowstring.
"Balthier, there is danger nearby." she whispered in Vieran. Balthier scented the wind, parting his lips to draw the frigid air in through his mouth and taste for any foes. He didn't know how Fran managed to smell anything over the stench of Jack and Barbossa (at least Elizabeth had a sense of hygiene), or see past her nose through the blinding snow, or even hear anything over the roaring wind, but he trusted her judgment. If he tried hard enough, he could sense a Skeleton Warrior nearby. Sure enough, with a clatter of bones, the armored skeleton rose out of the snow.
The first thing Jack did when he saw the undead was crack a joke. "Well look, Hector, Balthy, it's your cousin!"
"I'm not cursed no more!" Barbossa yelled, slashing at it with his sword.
"I'm not a skeleton!" Balthier snapped, dodging a spear strike. Suddenly, the warrior glowed with power raising its spear high over his head. Balthier shut his eyes, throwing his arm over his face to protect himself from the spell that was coming.
"Don't look!" Fran cried, just as a brilliant white flash sparked from the end of the skeleton's spear. Elizabeth and Barbossa froze, while Jack swung his sword in random directions, cursing. Balthier swiftly put the Skeleton Warrior back where it belonged (in the underworld) with a gunshot to the head. It crumbled into pieces, its skull disintegrating to relinquish a piece of Dark magicite. Fran plucked it from the snow, putting it in Balthier's shoulder bag.
"Ffamran? What's happened? I can't see." Elizabeth called.
"You have been blinded by the Warrior's Flash attack." Fran explained. "Hold still and don't move. I will heal you." Under her care, she cleared Jack and Barbossa's eyes using Blindna, while Balthier administered eye drops to Elizabeth, not wanting to waste his Mist Energy.
"I forgot to warn you; we aren't the only people out here who can do Magick now. You might as well get used to being blasted with fire, blinded, poisoned, knocked out, or warped into other dimensions, along with anything else you might think of." Balthier said. Elizabeth blinked a few stray drops out of her eyes.
"Thanks for the late warning." she said grumpily, rubbing her hands together to ward off the chill seeping into them.
"How far be this Feywood you spoke of? I'd like to get meself out of this blizzard a'fore I freeze to death." Barbossa remarked, shivering. Balthier felt a stab of pity for the Caribbean pirates, who had never really dealt with weather like this except for the one voyage to Davy Jones's Locker.
"It is close now, just beyond that cliff." Fran said. They hurried toward it, narrowly avoiding a fight with a huge King Aevis that Balthier and Fran could have easily taken down alone, but would clearly be too much for the other pirates to handle at the moment, partially frozen as they were. After a few more battles with various other skeletons that rose out of the ground, one of which involved Jack being Silenced, to Barbossa and Elizabeth's glee, they arrived at the border of the Feywood.
Thick, green gold mist whispered through the snow covered trees, reflecting phantom images of things that were and weren't there at them from every angle. Balthier activated his Libra technick, traps instantly jumping into view. Was it just him, or were there more since the last time they had passed this way?
"Follow in a line, just behind me. This place is riddled with traps." he said.
"Couldn't you just do that walk on air thing like you did when we took down Davy Jones?" Jack asked. Balthier shook his head.
"It takes Mist energy to cast the spell, and there is a finite source of that in a man." he said, picking his way around another glowing red circle on the ground. "I hope that the gate into the city is still open. I would hate to have to go find Ashe and tell her we need to borrow Belias to open the gate into Giruvegan."
"Ashe?" Elizabeth asked.
"The Queen of Dalmasca. I would think she would throw you in prison as soon as look at you, Balthier." Fran said with the shadow of a smile.
"Can't blame a Queen's duty to justice." Barbossa remarked.
They continued walking, until heavy footfalls warned them that they were not alone. Out of the Feywood mists, a Golem loomed. Elizabeth froze again as it walked by on its long, shambling hands of wood. She was a brave woman, but the only living thing she had seen larger than the Golem was the Kraken. Too bad for her, many of the creatures in Ivalice were the same size as the Golem or larger. They snuck by it, finally passing into the area leading into the ice field guarding the entrance to Giruvegan. Balthier touched the Replenishing Crystal they found there.
"This is a safe zone, guarded by the Crystal's energy. We should rest here tonight before going on." Fran suggested. No one argued against her decision, and in moments, they started a small fire, and huddled around it for warmth. Everyone sat a little farther from Balthier, his deathly cold body temperature not desirable in the close to freezing environs of the Feywood. For dinner, a Mu that had fallen into one of Fran's cleverly hidden traps roasted over the fire, and Jack tested the meat, sinking a dagger into the little body to make sure there was no blood left inside that could possibly poison them or make them ill. Even though it had been deemed clean, it still tasted horrid, as did the vegetation they had foraged, and the meal was eaten in silence as everyone tried to choke it down. The disgusting taste was washed away with snow on the ground, and they lay down to sleep, Balthier taking watch. Eventually, he, too, drifted to sleep, more out of boredom than anything else, his back to the bright blue Crystal.
The next morning found the party tramping from pedestal to pedestal in a snow covered, foggy field, searching for the entrance to Giruvegan.
"The Ice Field of Clearsight— clearsight! I don't know about you all, but this is the least clear sight I have ever had." Jack grumped, shaking his head.
"The pedestals show the way, though you have to look through the pillars just so to find the right path." Balthier explained as they worked together to bring down a rather stubborn Behemoth. Balthier had cast Lure upon himself, and was taking all the heavy hits, while Jack, Elizabeth, and Barbossa rained their own blows down on the beast's head and shoulders as it bent over to smash its gigantic sword on Balthier again. The sky pirate dodged out of the way before he was pulverized, managing to shoot the Behemoth in the eye as he did so. It gave a deafening scream, purple blood flying everywhere, staining the snow with the boiling hot fluid.
Barbossa finally managed to get into the Behemoth's new blind spot and shoved his cutlass into its throat, with a bellow. The monster gave another gurgling scream, before collapsing, dead. For a moment, they all lay in the snow next to the gigantic corpse, too tired from the battle to move, before Fran cast Cura on them, rejuvenating their wills to keep going. Elizabeth climbed to her feet, brushing snow from her backside.
"If every battle is like this, I might well give up life as a pirate and become a civilian for good." she grumbled. Jack's eyes glinted mischievously.
"I thought you had a son?" he asked. Barbossa looked at her strangely, Fran raised an eyebrow, and Balthier smirked when she blushed.
"He's… I have left him with my old maid, from when I lived with my father, the Governor. I couldn't stay away from the sea." she whispered. "When this is done, I will go visit him, and we will see Will together when he returns for his day ashore."
"Is that why you seek eternal youth? To be with Will forever?" Fran asked. Elizabeth nodded.
"Your loyalty to him is admirable." the Viera replied simply, before walking toward the pedestal to view the next path. "The doors to Giruvegan lie just ahead. Let us hope that the Fountain lies within, as we suspect."
Even after all the years since Fran and Balthier had gone there with Basch, Ashe, Vaan and Penelo, the great gate of Giruvegan remained open to them, and they hurried through, stepping into a stone city filled with clear, glass waters and a crystal blue sky. Balthier trotted down the familiar walk toward the Waystone at the water's edge, the others trailing behind, taking in the sight of the ancient city with awe. Jack dipped his fingers into the water at the path's edge. "It's warm!" he exclaimed, staring back at the gate where snow piled near the entrance.
"It is heated by the Mist." Fran said, also bending to touch the water. Now Balthier knew how Fran felt when she was exposed to so much Mist. Being linked to her very soul, he had become slightly more like her in the fact that he was now much more sensitive to the substance. The Mist of Giruvegan was stifling, making it somewhat hard to breathe. It was as if an invisible hand had very gently closed around his neck— not very threatening, but uncomfortable nonetheless.
"Hurry up or I shall leave you all behind." Balthier said, massaging the medallion imbedded in his chest absentmindedly. They clustered around the glowing device, and he brushed it with his fingers. With a jolt, they were whisked across the water to the next floating island. They sprinted down the long walkway, for the joy of feeling the wind on their faces, before arriving panting at the next Waystone. The statue of Daedalus was still there, just as Balthier and Fran remembered it, and they sat in his shade, reminiscing of times long past, until Barbossa and Jack became restless and bade that they move on.
The inner city was as dark and filled with monsters as ever. Elizabeth stared at the yawning chasm below. "Careful, lass, it be a long way down." Barbossa pulled her back from the edge. Elizabeth shrugged his hand off.
"I would not be so foolish." she said haughtily, before following Balthier and Fran as they meandered down the water steps. Fran gestured into the gloom over their heads.
"If the Fountain of Youth existed here, then a pool must be at the bottom. We go down, toward the Crystal Core." she said decisively, making for the invisible path. Balthier grabbed her arm.
"I don't think it's that path." he said. "That one goes down, granted, but why are there two Mythril Golems over there?" he pointed toward an empty stretch of wall.
"Why not find out?" Jack asked, unsheathing his sword and charging the Golems. He gave a cry of surprise as a great stream of fire issued from the construct, and he quickly dropped to the ground, rolling the flames out.
"I told you to be careful!" Balthier snapped, as Fran cast Shellga to protect them from any further magic attacks. The second magic that came bowling at them, Thundara, bounced off the shield harmlessly. Barbossa pulled a small grenade from his jacket, using a match he struck on the floor to light it, and hurled it at the Golem with all his might. The resulting explosion actually knocked it back a step, and Jack took advantage to jump onto its chest, straddling the giant shoulders of the sentient blocks of metal and stone. The Mythril Golem gave a grinding shriek as it tried to shake him off, but Jack clung to it like a barnacle.
"Jack!" Elizabeth screamed in terror for his health, but the pirate ignored her, taking his dagger and jamming it in the crack between its chin and neck. With a heave, he managed to pop its head off, levering it out of the socket using his dagger as a lift. The Golem gave a metallic groan, staggering, before falling forward with a resounding crash! Jack leaped clear before he was smashed under the body, giving a tucked roll to soften his landing.
"Quite a performance." Balthier nodded his approval, before shooting the second Golem in the chest with aqua shot. Fran finished it with a powerful Water spell.
"Show-offs." Jack grumbled, but Fran was already examining the wall.
"This wall is actually a door: there is a sigil here, binding the door shut. It is activated using Magick. I wonder…" Fran traced the sigil for water in the air, and the rune on the door lit up in reaction to it, ponderously grinding open. Voices sounded in their heads as they stepped through the doorway.
"Deep in the heart of the city drowned in Mist, Eternal life awaits those with the courage to take it truly."
A golden glow reflected off the walls, shining from somewhere deep in the depths of the passageway. Luckily, there were no enemies in the tunnel, but they couldn't shake the feeling that they were not alone.
"So," Balthier began conversationally, despite the fact that the hair on the back of his neck was on end, "What'll you do with eternal life and eternal youth, men— and woman, pardon me, Elizabeth."
"Sail the seas an' never leave. I like me freedom. And probably explore all of Ivalice while I'm at it." Jack stated. Fran's ear twitched. Jack reminded her a lot of Balthier: they were dogs branded under the name of pirate for adventure and freedom, though they did not necessarily steal all that much. Barbossa was the opposite.
"I would amass a treasure wot like I had on Isla de Muerta afore I was killed an' the island sank into the sea." he said. Jack snorted.
"You do that, mate, and when you're done, might you invite me to share in the spoils?" he asked. Barbossa looked at him with eyes that clearly asked, what do you think, idiot?
"I will bring some water back to my son, and we shall stay with Will for eternity." Elizabeth said wistfully. "I will never leave him." Balthier scratched his head.
"Just remember, people, I don't think this Water of Youth can keep you from dying on your own. It'll just make you young and alive until the end of time, but if your brains get blown out, you'll be more dead then a doornail." he said.
"I'll keep that in mind." Jack quipped.
"Didn't your alter-ego drop it in the Flying Dutchman?"
"Shut up."
Balthier continued leading them down the passage, which seemed to stretch on for an eternity, a crooked smile on his face.
The Fountain, at last. It was not exactly how they had imagined it, or at least how the Caribbean pirates did. Balthier and Fran, not having heard of it before they met in Ivalice, hasn't known what to expect, but the fountain in front of them looked far from godly.
A shallow pool had been hewn into the wall, creating a sort of alcove set apart from the rest of the cave, and incandescent golden yellow water dripped from a crack in the slimy ceiling, keeping the pool full. Jack frowned.
"It looks like piss-water." he said.
"Ar, well I do know me a tale where the Water of Youth is the excrement of the—" Barbossa began, a wicked smile on his face.
"I DON'T NEED TO KNOW!" Elizabeth shouted, her voice bouncing and echoing endlessly in the cave.
"Fine then. Well? Who's going to take the first drink? Someone should test it to make sure it's not actually poison or somethin' like that." Barbossa said. All eyes slid to Balthier, who blinked, gulped, and began to edge backward.
"Me? I'm not interested in living forever, lucrative as it sounds." he stammered.
"If what you say about how the sea goddess Calypso bound you to Fran and all is true, then even if it is poisoned, you won't die." Elizabeth pointed out. Balthier rolled his eyes.
"No one thinks about my feelings! 'Let's give it to poor Balthier, he can't die!'" Balthier pantomimed them. "Don't you know how uncomfortable dying is? Or feeling poison coursing through your veins like fire while you're Silenced and not able to get relief from the pain? I don't know if you know this, but I feel pain, I really do."
Fran shook her head. "You should wait to drink the water." she said calmly, as was her wont. "It was too easy for us to come here: the doors to Giruvegan were wide open, and only the usual creatures were there to meet us. Even the door to the passage was bound with only a water seal: an easy spell, and a predictable one." Just as she finished speaking, a laughing, bubbly voice rang out.
"Smarty Viera, good for you, you figured it out!" Out of the yellow water, a figure comprised completely of swirling, bubbling water rose. It had no legs, just water flowing down or up into the pool, and a vaguely human torso and head.
"What are you?" Elizabeth asked, intrigued.
"A water god. I heard o' them before. I should have suspected there would be one here." Barbossa said.
"Ah, the Hume is smart, too." the water god sighed, crossing its arms. "Why do you come here, to my humble abode?"
"We have come to partake of the Fountain of Youth." Elizabeth said firmly. The god swiveled to face her slightly, then recited the words they had heard upon entering:
"Deep in the heart of the city drowned in Mist, Eternal life awaits those with the courage to take it truly. Well, Humes, Viera? Do you have the courage to take eternal life?"
"I do." the Caribbean pirates chorused. The water god shrugged. "Then take it. I care not."
"Really?" Jack asked, his brows bunching.
"Why not? I don't care what you do with your life." the god said. When they approached, it only moved back to allow them more room at the pool. Balthier frowned. Something didn't feel right.
Too easy… he thought. Just as Jack bent his head to drink, the water god laughed, a cavernous booming noise, and roared,
"Do you really think I would let you gain the life of the gods so easily? Think again!" Jack jumped backward just in time to avoid getting impaled on a blue spike of ice that suddenly sprouted out of the floor.
"The water god plays false! To arms!" Barbossa bellowed, drawing his own cutlass. When he slashed at the god, the sword just passed through the water, splashing, and it laughed menacingly, before sending a wall of icy water to crush him. But Barbossa was a sea pirate, and a little water did not scare him. He emerged from the ice bath, puffing and blowing, before charging back into the fray. Fran now readied a spell, Thundaga, and the air was filled with crackling electricity. The lightning bolt arced through the air, striking the water god full on, but nothing happened, and now it sent electrically charged water at them as an attack. In fact, the show of magick even seemed to enrage it, and the attacks were coming faster and stronger.
Balthier cast Flare now, ignoring the sap spell attempting to gnaw on his nonexistent life force. The water god screamed as the extreme heat evaporated his body away, but reformed out of the vapors as quickly as he'd vanished. When the god tossed Death his way, he felt a twinge of pain in his medallion heart, but nothing else otherwise when the spell simply melted off him.
By stroke of genius, Fran cast Blizzaga, freezing the waters of the fountain and the god in it. They sighed in relief, sinking to the ground to rest in their brief respite.
"Now what? It clearly doesn't want us here." Balthier panted.
"We aren't leaving. We've come this far, we've found the fountain, and I'm leaving with something." Jack said, crossing his arms.
"You will leave with something, your life!"
"But he wants eternal life…" the water god's voice sighed. The party leaped to their feet, drawing weapons as the ice imprisoning the god melted away. "Childish, really, for time will march on, and death waits at the end of all paths." A spell glowed between its hands, a golden orb of dancing light. And for some reason, that light was even more terrifying then Davy Jones.
"I chose to enact this punishment, to reveal what Hume hubris has wrought. A fitting one, I think, to put upon the Hume children of Ivalice, though I choose the Viera instead. See how your greed affects others of your world!" With that, the water god released the curse spell, throwing it toward Fran, who seemed frozen. She could only watch as the spell came closer and closer, the light reflecting in her eyes.
"Fran!" Suddenly, Balthier was there, pushing her out of the way. She fell to the floor with a grunt, catching herself before she hit her head, and now watched with abject horror as the spell contacted Balthier instead. The light sank into his body, and he twitched as the magic rushed through him like a thundering river. Then he began to shine with brilliant white luminescence, so bright that no one could see what was happening.
Laying her ears back against the deafening amounts of noise, which included rushing water, cracking ice, a laughing god, and Balthier's agonized cries, Fran felt forward in the whiteness, until she came up against someone's body. By his scent she knew it was Balthier, and he had stopped screaming and now only moaned thinly as she grabbed him and threw him over her shoulder. He was surprisingly light, barely taking any strength to lift, and she was able to hold him in one arm while she grabbed the hand of Elizabeth, who in turn made a chain with Jack and Barbossa, and led them at a full on sprint from the cave.
They lie on the walkway of the Gate of Earth, next to Giruvegan Gate Crystal. Fran touched it, feeling relief as healing energy flowed through her body, and the smaller body she cradled against her chest. When her vision, which had been lost when Balthier had taken the spell in her place, returned, she stared down at the person in her arms.
It was a Hume boy of about sixteen, with six pairs of earrings and a burned metal clover dangling from his ears. His clothes, which were too big for him, were awfully familiar: a gold and green vest, a white shirt, and black pants covered with shin guards. His shoes, which were made of steel, hung from feet too small to fill them completely.
It was Balthier, but his face was slightly different. His chin had a more juvenile point to it, his jaw less square. This was how she remembered he looked, eleven years ago, when she had first met him in the streets of Archades. This was how Ffamran had looked, not Balthier. Innocent. Fran allowed herself to trail a brown finger along the side of his face, which was cold. For a moment, fear gripped her, until she pulled his vest off and lifted his shirt to check on the medallion. It was still there, firmly imbedded in his chest, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Eventually, he began to stir, first his lips moving, then his eyelids fluttering. Elizabeth and Jack clustered around him, but Barbossa pulled them back.
"The lad be needin' some air when he wakes. Best not to spook him." he warned.
Balthier opened his eyes slowly, staring at Fran through honey brown eyes that were full of anything but innocence. His razor sharp cunning shone like a beacon out of his face. "W-where are we?" he croaked, his voice hoarse. Fran held a flask of water to his lips, and he took a long drink.
"Be calm, Ffamran. We are in Giruvegan, but when you are well we shall go back to the Strahl through the Paramina rift." she whispered to him in Vieran.
"Eih." he gave managed to give his assent, before sitting up and rubbing his head. "I feel like I was stepped on by the Behemoth King…" he groaned, swiftly returning to his usual self. Fran handed him a Hi-potion, and he drank it as quickly as possible, almost choking at the bitter, herbal taste, but his hands, which had been shaking madly from weakness, stilled, and Fran helped him up so that he could touch the Gate Crystal himself. Balthier rested his forehead against the warm crystal, staring at his reflection in its orange depths. His reaction was collected and controlled, though Fran suspected that when he was alone he would have a wild fit and surely break something, as he was prone to do when enraged. For now, he rolled up his pants, out of the way of his feet, and kicked off his shoes.
"You would walk the Paramina Rift barefoot?" she asked as he tucked the footwear into the shoulder pack that had thankfully not been lost.
"They are in the way. Besides, I don't feel the cold much." Balthier replied. Jack came up to him now, looking down to see him eye to eye.
"I'm sorry, mate. 'Twas my fault you're like this, what with searchin' for the Fountain and all."
"Don't be." Balthier was irked that he had to look up to look Jack in the face. The man was taller than him by about seven inches now. "I was the one who had to be heroic, leading man and all."
"What now?" Elizabeth asked. "You're a child, and we're far from the Strahl, getting there involving a trek through the Feywood. I don't think you're ready for that."
"Don't go maternal on me, Elizabeth. Might I remind you I'm twenty-eight, not sixteen?" Balthier snapped, pulling his sleeves up past his hands to leave them free.
"There is another way. We can teleport using this Gate Crystal to Mt. Bur-Omisace, and go back through the Rift." Fran said. Jack eyed the crystal warily.
"Isn't that the thing Balthier said dumped him in Port Royal the first time?" he asked. "I'm not sure about it. I've had enough magick for one day." Barbossa punched him.
"And I suppose you want to go back through the Feywood, fighting those huge Golems and hell-dogs and what-have-you, wot with Balthier out of commission and Fran tryin' to help him? I don't feel much like dyin' at the moment." the pirate said angrily. Jack rubbed his stomach.
"Fine, fine, but when we are blown to smithereens, I shall have had the last word." he sighed, closing his eyes as Fran touched a Teleport Stone to the Gate Crystal. In a flash, along with the uncomfortable feeling that they were dropping through the air, they found themselves back at Bur-Omisace. The city was nearly abandoned, only the Kiltias and a few haggard refugees wandering amongst the ruined tents. The gate into the Hall of Light was sealed shut still and guarded by the Nu Mou, though people clustered on the steps, deep in prayer.
"What happened here?" Elizabeth whispered, as rain pelted their faces. The air was heavy with sorrow, and it was as if the very sky was weeping in lamentation.
"Five years ago, this was the place where the Gran Kiltias of Ivalice resided, Anistasis, a Helgas Dreamweaver who aided us in retrieving the Sword of Kings, the nethicite cutter. When the Archadian Imperials attacked, Judge Magister Bergen rampaged, slaughtering everybody in his way. We… we arrived too late to save Anistasis, who has been enshrined inside the Hall of Light." Balthier said bitterly.
"And Bergen?" Barbossa asked, cocking his head knowingly.
"Dead. We killed him." Fran said, walking to Gurdy, the Moogle who ran the chocobo stables. "We'll need two chocobos, one them the strongest you have to offer, enough to carry three people at once."
Gurdy's eyes bulged. "Three people, k-kupo?" she asked. Fran nodded.
"My three companions do not know how to ride, only myself and Ffamfrit do." she explained. Gurdy made to protest more, but when Fran handed her an extra hundred gil, she sighed.
"Very well, a chocobo for Lady Fran, and a strong one for Master Ffamfrit. I hope he can handle it, kupo, he's such a tiny little boy." the Moogle conceded, leading a large chocobo from the compound and putting the reins into Balthier's hands. When Gurdy was out of earshot, he turned to Fran, raising an eyebrow.
"Ffamfrit? What brought that on?" he asked.
"No one must know of your fate. Ffamfrit, the Darkening Cloud, is your namesake, is it not? And now, he shall be your cover." Fran said. "Jack, you shall ride with me." she helped the pirate scramble over the bird's broad back and onto the saddle. "Elizabeth, Barbossa, you're with Balthier."
Once the two pirates were precariously perched in the saddle, Balthier swung himself onto the bird with no assistance whatsoever. It kweh'd loudly, turning around to glare at him with a critical eye. He stared right back, and the bird eventually looked away and flapped its wings irritably, but made no other form of protest.
It was a good thing they chose to ride back to the Strahl; in the blizzard, there were elementals, crocs, and Yetis that looked as if they wanted to give chase but didn't as the chocobos ran too fast for them. Elizabeth's arms were like iron vices on Balthier's waist, where she clung for dear life.
"That's definitely not like riding a horse." she gasped when they returned to the ship. Balthier slapped the chocobo's flank as it trotted back to the stables.
"We have things like horses here: Sleipnirs and Mesmenirs, carnivorous creatures with backs covered in an iron carapace. I wouldn't recommend riding them, if I were you. I still have scars." he joked. Fran's eyebrows threatened to vanish into her helm.
"I thought you smarter than to attempt riding a Sleipnir." she said. "When did you do that?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Balthier asked, stroking the key around his neck and opening the Strahl, stomping up the stairs and vanishing into his cabin, slamming the door with a bang.
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