Yay, a new chapter! A bit slow this time; I've been putting off working on the next one T.T Still have about ¾ of the next one to finish… but I feel like it's been too long. Guess I'll just have to work faster for the next one? D:

Words: 2,258 (Longer! Oh yeah!)

(EDIT: Bringin' in this chapter's poem. Was gonna leave the poems out, but has decided not to ;D This one's foreshadowy).

Fool's Paradise

Chapter Four: Embark

A few moments' respite

May be all you have

Before chaos consumes.

Yuna had gone outside to the forefront of the ship to gaze out at the sea a few minutes ago – or, well, try to gaze out at the sea. The masses of gossipy seafarers that had gathered around her made that a bit difficult, I presumed. That was okay with me. I didn't need another constant reminder that I was no longer on Earth; the elegant wooden ship surrounding me did well enough. I sighed, crossing my arms over my chest.

In the corner, a wide-shouldered man – I think he was dressed as a blitzball player – was upchucking out of a window. I almost wanted to join him, but I managed to keep the urge down. I brushed a few more hairs off my arm.

I had noticed a few minutes after Yuna left that there were blue hairs clinging to my clothes, and for a while the mystery provided no end of puzzlement. Who had blue hair? Seymour - but obviously that was not Seymour's hair. Cue disgusted shudder. Other than that, there was Kimahri. But why was Kimahri's hair on me? Well, obviously he must have been touching me. And not like that, in case any of my pervy friends ever reads this. (Yeah, you know who you are.) But why would Kimahri…?

I eventually decided that he must have carried me from the jungle to the ship. Yeah, Ronso were buff like that.

As I grumbled softly to myself a few minutes later, my leg itched. Again. It had finally stopped a few moments ago, for like, five minutes. Those minutes were some of the happiest minutes of my time on this horrible sea craft.

Leaning against the wall in an effort not to sit on that lumpy, smelly bed, I gave this sensation some thought, resisting the urge to scratch at the wound. I mean, wasn't that a good thing, that it was itching? Yuna had said she'd had trouble healing it with magic, but if it was beginning to itch… Well, didn't that mean my wound was healing? ...Hm. Well, I wasn't sure. What was I, a doctor? Obviously not. Can't deal with all the blood, thanks.

Oh, great. Sounded like I was getting snarky with myself.

I let loose a heavy sigh as I felt another headache beginning to pound against my skull – there had been a lot of them already, and it wasn't even a day after my arrival in… Spira…

I stopped immediately. At this place's name, this Spira, I forcefully shut down all thought processes; that simple word just reminded me of where I was and how clueless I was about how I got there – and even beginning to try to figure out this mess of a situation made me want to barf. Of course, the "pleasant" rocking of the boat did not help that.

Speaking of which.

I grimaced as a large swell tipped the S.S. …whatever this boat's name happened to be… precariously to one side, and leaned haphazardly against the wall of the cabin (The poor blitzer in the corner gave a particularly horrid gag at that, but it seemed he was out of food to regurgitate). Just thinking of going upstairs, into the open salt air, completely surrounded by water… that made me want to barf, too. Seasickness: it was currently at the top of my complaint list. After all, it was either complaining about the boat, or complaining about waking up in Spi—I mean, well, y'know… um, complaining about my itchy, scabbed-over leg… heheh… heh.

Eventually, I just stopped thinking. Thinking made me sad, and no one likes being sad. I let my mind become blank, or as blank as I could in my situation. Of course… this allowed a horrible thing called 'boredom' to set in.

I tapped my foot against the floor for a few minutes, ignoring the poor convulsing blitzer who had somehow found more to upchuck through the porthole on the other side of the room as I racked my brain to think of what a 21st-century girl stuck on a primitive wooden boat run by big yellow chocobos was to do for fun. Throw stones into the ocean? Cloud-gaze? Poke a chocobo with a stick?

That last one might have been interesting, had I still had that good ol' stick that I used to–

Ah, right. Not an ordeal I wanted to relive. Okay, forgetting about the dingo.

Finally, I just decided to venture up on to the deck and find Tidus. From the game, he seemed like a prime target to annoy, and annoying someone was just what I needed right now. Forget that I would be outside, surrounded by the open water, constantly in danger of falling into the deep, dark abyss that was the ocean…

I shoved myself off the wall abruptly and limped toward the door leading to the… big, um, open part below the deck, inside the ship… What was that called again? Yeah. I decided it might be a brilliant idea to venture outside this little room before I lost my decidedly flighty nerve.

Unfortunately for my nerve, I had barely taken three steps out of the doorway when I was accosted by a man with an amazingly well-done Cockney accent…. And of course, I was totally ignoring the fact that Britain doesn't exist here, at all. Isn't that such a weird thought, by the way?

"Oh, another one!" the (admittedly) portly merchant exclaimed, approaching my position by the stairs with an air of extreme interest. Interest in what, exactly, I wasn't sure. He looked a little weighed down by all those bags on his back, and I wondered briefly why he carried them instead of putting them in his cabin or something. Oh, wait – this boat doesn't have personal cabins. Just a room full of lumpy, smelly cots to sleep in… On that note, ew… "Interesting clothes you've got there. Are they from the same place as that other chap's? They don't really look like the same make, but what do I know?"

He trailed off, and seemed to be examining my t-shirt – which, rather unfortunately, had the words 'Good things come to those who break clay pots' on it. Yeah, so I occasionally played Legend of Zelda. As I leaned cautiously away from the merchant's eye, I silently and fervently hoped that Spirans couldn't read English… Mostly just to avoid the awkward 'What does that even mean?' but hey, there had to be other upsides, right?

"Um…"

"Ah, now, what are those symbols there?" Question: answered. Spirans wrote in a different language. Did this mean I was illiterate here? I suddenly found it less fun to know English. The man continued speaking exuberantly, but he soon became irate when he noticed the dirt, the blood, the sand, and the dirt caked onto my pajamas. "And what fabric are these pants made of? – blast it, but these are all filthy, as well! What is it with you lot and not cleaning your clothes? I can't sell dirty clothes, not if I want to fetch a good price!"

"I, uh, wasn't going to give them to you anyway…?" I informed him a bit hesitantly, brushing some dust off the edge of my shirt. I had begun to feel slightly self-conscious all of a sudden. Come on, it wasn't my fault I'd been through Hell to get here… "I kind of, y'know… need them."

"Of course, of course," he grumbled sulkily, half turning to resume his position by the far wall. "They always do." I spoke up; not really sure why, now that I look back on it. Maybe it was just to find someone to have a conversation with. This guy had to be as good as any…

"So, erm… who are you again?"

Alright, alright, pause here. Let's be completely honest. I seriously had forgotten his name. Hey, I hadn't played this part in, like, months. Don't judge.

It took a few seconds, but the merchant eventually responded in a prideful tone that seemed to have taken him a while to muster after my tentative dismissal.

"O'aka XXIII, merchant extraordinaire," the merchant, O'aka, recited with what might have been pride. "Soon enough, I'll be recognized all over the world, all over Spira!"

I paused.

Ah, Spira. Thanks for mentioning that, dude. Really. I mean, when I thought about their language and stuff I could at least half-pretend I was in a foreign country. But the world…

It kind of just made me feel small. And alone. I didn't quite like feeling either of those. Normally, I would hit someone in the face with a volley ball if they ever made me feel small and alone. Sadly, I wasn't sure that would work here, since I'm fairly sure O'aka didn't mean it that way.

I tried to hold in my expression of distaste at that thought of Spira. Giving a small grunt in reply to the merchant O'aka, I turned my back on him, not quite caring about how rude it was – and easily ignoring the man's slightly offended 'Hey!' – as I made for a decorative double door beside the wide stairway. I no longer wanted conversation. To be honest, I wanted to make like an angsty teenager and sulk.

I had forgotten about my original purpose of annoying a video game character and had simply decided to go view some chocobos by my lonesome. O'aka, grumbling under his breath behind me, must have somehow brushed off my snub, because he simply returned to his casual position by the stairs, and that was good. I didn't want to get into some sort of argument about his merchantizing prowess or whatever. He seemed huffy. I was huffy.

The door before me was, like the rest of the ship, happily made of wood. Above it, extending in a rather ornamental arch, were runes that likely spelled out the words 'Power Room' in the Spiran language – but as we have established, I'm illiterate, so I couldn't have read it if I wanted to. I figured that I might as well catch a glimpse of my first chocobo while I was on this boat – for, after all, I had always wanted to pet one. Perhaps fulfilling that childhood dream would raise my spirits.

Before I could even lay a hand on the doorknob, the door opened abruptly. I nearly jumped at the surprise, and then I nearly gasped aloud in utter shock as the Tidus himself walked out. I mean, sure, he sort of almost hit me with that door, but, c'mon… holy crap it was the main character of Final Fantasy X! THE Tidus!

"Whoa!"

Okay. So I guess I sort of did gasp in shock. Whoopsies.

"Whoa – sorry!" the blond blitzer exclaimed as he exited the Power Room, just barely stopping himself from walking into me. I stumbled back a little, mentally wincing as I bent my leg wrong or something and stretched the scab. But this didn't bother me much. In fact, I completely ignored it. Left completely speechless, I kind of just stared at him.

Okay, okay, I told myself quickly after a few seconds of utter silence. You've met Yuna. You've killed a fiend. You're meeting the original Tidus right now and you have to keep your cool. KEEP YOUR COOL, ERIN. You can do this!

"Uh, it's okay… my fault for standing there," I apologized quickly, though I didn't quite mean it. I opened my mouth to speak – despite having no idea what I was even going to say – but Tidus beat me to it.

"Hey, you're that girl!" I froze at those words, and had to scan my mind for where he knew me from. Had he somehow realized that I was the one controlling him through my PS2 on his adventure through Spira once upon a time, dictating his every move in battle, seeing his every private moment splayed on the screen?

…Wow. I didn't just think that.

"The one from the jungle, right? You did pretty good with that fiend, since you didn't have a weapon or anything. Well, except for that stick, but I don't think that counts. So I heard Yuna healed your leg up. Which means you're all better now, right? What's your name?"

One thing I had instantly discovered about this place, or, well, more specifically its people: well, Tidus talked a lot. More than me, and I could really get talking.

"Um, yeah. That's me. I'm Erin." I recovered from my shock marvelously, if you ask me. Looked like I was already starting to get better at this 'meeting video game characters' stuff! "I'm fine now. Yuna said she could only sort of half-heal my leg, but it's starting to heal on its own… a-and you are?"

Nearly swearing at the stutter in my voice, I had almost forgotten that Tidus doesn't really know me and I don't really know Tidus – technically. Almost being the operative word. But, hey, it looked like I did pretty good for my second meeting with a fictional character! For a few seconds, I felt proud of myself for making it through the conversation thus far. Maybe I could actually make it to Luca without people realizing I'm some freak from another, well, dimension – or, like, planet… or whatever… Earth, you know – who just appeared on a supposedly nonexistent island for no apparent reason. Maybe I wouldn't have to try to explain anything at all!

"Cool, I'm Tidus. So, what were you doing in Besaid?"

…Oh, fuck.

Heeeeyyyy, cliffy! Oh yeah. I'm mean. Keh.

So I've been working on other stories. That I haven't posted yet. Maybe I'll get around to posting them later, because they're awesome and I love them almost as much as I love this one, but first I want to get a BIG head start. I am so freaking slow when it comes to updates… ;-;

Anyway. Thank you all so much for any reviews, favorites, etc. They're all beautiful. Gorgeous, even. Love you all! :D