I don't own FFIV. I'm sure you guessed that already. As always, I welcome all feedback, including suggestions for improvement. Especially pointing out mechanical errors or plotholes.

How to Save the Environment in Two Easy Steps

Step One – kill a lot of monsters.

Step Two – make the Lunarians go away.

by Maelstra

Chapter Six – Stopping to Smell the Roses

The next morning . . .

A young, freckled guard hesitantly made his way forward. "Um, excuse me, sir . . ." The strange, white-haired people were the king's honored guests, but he still had his orders. "You can't be up here."

The long-haired man was leaning on the wall and staring down at the people walking around below, evidently deep in thought. After a delay, he quickly spun around. "Sorry – did you say something?"

"Um, sir . . . civilians aren't allowed on the battlements." The guard's hands started sweating. He noticed the stranger had a sword, and hoped he would not be inclined to use it.

The white-haired man's face went slack in confusion. "What?" He just stared at the guard a moment, then finally seemed to receive a burst of understanding. "Oh! Right, I see. I'm sorry. I'll just head back down right now . . ." He headed straight for the stairs.

The guard heaved a sigh of relief and went back to patrolling, not giving the Lunarian a second glance.

Golbez wandered slowly across the courtyard in the castle of Baron. He wandered close to every cluster of humans, curious to see what they were doing. Most gave him puzzled looks, but none reacted in terror. It was quite nice – but also very boring, since all those he found were too busy to talk to him for very long. Many also seemed anxious to move on and go about their business somewhere else, away from the openly staring, white-haired man. Golbez had nothing better to do, though, because all the Lunarians had followed FuSoYa to Mysidia, and Cecil had again put Golbez off when he had attempted to speak to him first thing that morning. Golbez sighed, hoping desperately that he would not have to continue to endure such treatment from his brother all the remainder of his stay on the Blue Planet. Golbez thought he did deserve it, no question – but he needed to warn Cecil, and he would prefer to do it while the Lunarians weren't around.

A few minutes later, Golbez wandered over to the training area. He watched the guards go through their exercises and sparring routines for a few minutes. Kain was not there, of course – Golbez had already noticed that the dragoon made quite a point of never being anywhere near him – but there were a handful of soldiers that Golbez recognized from his time as the head of the Baronian armies. He smiled faintly as he watched them display their skill. They had been very tense yesterday with the strange crowd of Lunarians watching them – now they were obviously much more relaxed and at ease. A red-haired one, whose name Golbez thought he should remember, was in especially fine form, swiftly disarming six other soldiers with lithe grace.

But nearly all of the remaining soldiers were new, and their inexperience was glaring. Golbez could not help but cringe as his a little dragon of guilt dug its claws deeply into his heart again. He knew that not all of the casualties among the Baronian guard had been his fault – Cagnazzo had been the one who brought all the monsters into the castle, after all. But enough of it was his fault. Though it had been Zemus giving the orders, Golbez had been the one to make them happen.

Suddenly, Golbez found it too painful to watch the soldiers train any longer. He left hurriedly and went out into the town outside the castle's walls.

The people in the village were much less concerned about Golbez's staring, and much more inclined to talk his ear off about whatever they were presently doing.

"My string beans haven't been growing well this year," an old man confided in Golbez. "I can't figure what it is. I keep pouring more of my new, experimental growing potion on them, but they still haven't perked up."

"You need beet juice." An older lady carrying three full baskets overheard the conversation and immediately joined in. "That's what my momma always said. Plants need beet juice to 'beat' the odds. Ha! Get it?"

"Don't be silly," a younger man scolded. He readjusted his armload of timber while he talked. "That's just superstition. Everyone knows that the only thing that really helps a garden is magic. Just ask Widow Farrell – you need to Cure your plants to help them grow!"

"I heard that Bio is good to cast on plants . . ."

"No, that's only for weeds!"

Golbez found himself surrounded by a whole group of people who seemed content to just hear themselves talk. He could not have gotten a word in if he tried. And strangely . . . he didn't care. His face broke into a wide grin as he let himself be wrapped up in their useless conversation.

Eventually, the conversation tapered off, and all but three of the group took the opportunity to break away and get back to whatever they were supposed to be doing. The old man glanced around him, then lowered his voice. "You know, I heard a bunch of strange people arrived at the castle yesterday. Apparently they don't talk very much, and every one of them has white hair." He looked up at Golbez as if just noticing he was there. "Aah! You're one of them, aren't you?"

"Uh . . . sort of . . . yes." Golbez put his hands up defensively.

The old man quickly apologized. "I'm sorry, fella. I didn't mean anything by it, really . . . It's just that I heard . . ." He trailed off.

"Heard what?" The beet lady had stuck around and clearly did not want to be left out of anything.

"I heard that they've fled their home and come to Baron, because . . . they are haunted by the ghost of Golbez!"

"No!" the younger woman gasped, dropping her bag of flour.

"Zemus," Golbez softly corrected.

"What's that?" the old man perked up.

"They're haunted by the ghost of Zemus," Golbez said more loudly, noticing that several more than just the three were now listening to him.

"What about Golbez then?" the beet lady asked.

"Uh, I . . . I think he's gone." Golbez figured the last thing he should do was tell them who he was.

"Can't be." Another man joined the conversation. "I heard my son tell me that he heard from his friend that he heard from his cousin that Golbez is here. In Baron. Perhaps plotting against us all, right at this very second!"

All the people gasped, and several shrieked. Golbez bit down hard on his lip. He was certain that Cecil was not going to like these rumors circulating, and he really didn't want to make things any harder for his brother. But he really had no clue how to fix this mess. He decided he had better try anyway, though. Too bad it was already too late to convince the people that 'he' wasn't here. "Okay, okay, so Golbez did come back with the Lunarians. The thing is, um . . . the Lunarians zapped him with their magic, so now he's totally harmless. Nothing to worry about. At all. Okay?"

The people were not terribly convinced. "If there's nothing to worry about, why did those white-haired Lu-loonians come running here for help?" the old man asked.

"Because it's the ghost of Zemus – who's attacking them, that is. He's a . . . scary demon that created Golbez." Sort of. Vaguely.

"Then why haven't the Loonians just zapped him with their special magic, too?"

Golbez found it a cruel irony that he did not know how to get people to believe him without throwing around fireballs and roaring at them. "Uh . . . He . . . eats magic. Yeah. You see, and since they can't use their magic on him, they've come to Cecil for help because he's such an amazing swordsman and paladin and everything . . ."

The old man nodded sagely. "I understand. We all need to run home and prepare to defend our homes against the vile, salivating ghosts of Golbez and Zemus!"

"For the honor of Baron!" "To arms!"

"No, that's not what I said!" Golbez moaned. The people paid him no heed and scattered, looking for farming implements to use as weapons. Golbez watched them helplessly, then shook his head. "Oh, never mind." He slowly started scuffling back to the castle.

So I did manage to post two chapters this week. Next week should be a normal, single chapter update. So, stay tuned. :)