BALPEN7

Hello everyone. I know, it's been far to long. But lucky for you special people, I've got a few ideas in my little head.

Now, for a little recap in case you were a reader and have totally forgotten. :)

So far Balthier and Penelo were stuck in the Parimina Rift in a cave while the others fought Fenrir. They were found by the party and Basch was hurt. They kept him alive and then left in the airship and went to Balfonhiem. Balthier felt bad for dragging Penelo into the unknown and so he wants to make t up to her by buying lunch. After their lunch he begins to apologize and Penelo runs off and a funny chase ensues. She pays Nono the moogle to left her on the airship and we leave off with Balthier trapping her in the cockpit and her wanting to be smited.

Here you are with the very late, but next instalment of TO FREEZE OR NOT TO FREEZE?

Balthier stood in the door way and there was no other exit.

Penelo's eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape. The window was not an option, it was impenetrable and there wasn't another doorway.

"Now where are you going to run Penelo?" Balthier asked leaning against the door panel.

Penelo was quiet and looked at him in defeat. "I don't know."

"How about you thank me for the lunch, maybe accept my apology and then appolgize for touching my airship controls and potentially ruining anything I had set up in here?"

"How about I do this!" Penelo said and darted out the doorway thought he opening Balthier had created by leaning against the right door panel.

The blonde girl didn't get very far, not even to the boarding door. A mere three and a half steps and Balthier grabbed hold of the back of her jumper, pulled her back to him and sat her down on one of the passenger seats.

"Really? I can't believe you acctually tried that. You honestly think that I would leave an opening by chance? I left it on purpose to see if you would try and escape."

Penelo growled and crossed her arms in the chair. The boarding door began to open and she could hear Vaan talking.

"What's going on here?" Basch demanded after seeing Penelo pouting in a chair and Balthier standing and scowling beside her.

"She broke into the ship and tried to take off." Balthier stated and then casually moved up to the captains chair to take his place for take off.

Basch sat down and buckled himself in. Vaan followed suit and then Ashe and Fran. "Why did you break into the airship?" Basch asked.

"I didn't break in. Nono let me on."

"What?!" Balthier yelled turning around in his seat to face the blond orphan. "He let you on?!"

"Yeah, I just asked him to open the hatch."

Fran lightly touched Balthier's arm and he turned back to face the controls. The entire time we took to get ready to take off he mumbled about firing Nono and somehting about incompitent moogles.

"Where are we off to next?" Ashe said breaking the silence of the party.

"Ridorana Cataract." Fran said looking over a ratty piece of paper. It was a petitioners bill that they had been holding on to for quiet awhile.

"Yeah! Another hunt!" Vaan cheered.

The airship took off and the party was jolted back into thier seats. Well, everyone accept Fran and Balthier, some how they always managed to counter the force of take off and stay completly still as if the ship had never even launched.

Penelo watched out the window as the clouds rushed by and streams of mist. The trip wouldn't be long and she knew that. Basch kept glancing over at her every few minutes and it began to get irritating.

"What do you want?!" She yelled.

Basch was startled but quickly regained his composure. "There is something different about you today." He said calmly turning to face Ashe's seat in front of him.

"Huh?"

"You seem upset or disrupted."

"I'm fine. I don't feel any different, just please stop glancing at me, it's awkward." Penelo said turning back to look out the window.

She could see it, the Ridorana Cataract jutting out of the mist ridden falls. It's towers were huge and seemed to reach forever into the sky. They didn't know where they were going, all they knew was that the hunt was at the the Ridorana Cataract, and it was supposedly huge. The petitioner was Rikken from Balfonheim and if he thought it was worth a hunt and reward, it was definitely a tough opponent.

Balthier pulled the airship around to a leveled platform where the anchor was waiting for them. The party got out and checked over their supplies.

"I think we're prepared." Basch said checking his armour and making sure it was secure.

"Let's go." Ashe muttered taking off up the steps to the cataract.

Everyone followed after her. "Our starting party will be Balthier, Vaan and myself." Ashe said touching the blue crystal to ensure their health was at it's best.

The party headed off into the cataract.

END CHAPTER

Review! What'd ya think? I left it off there because I can't remember the name of the hunt and where exactly it was, and I'd also like to put the actual battle into another chapter. Y'know just to keep this think flowing.

k thx bye ~ Yuf