Well. So, apparently, if I wait long enough between updates, I have more spontaneous reviews. Hmm, interesting...Lol, just kidding. Pauses between updates will only happen if I hit writer's block, not because I want reviews. Because, thanks to the wonderful hit count, I have a better knowledge of how many people actually read the fic.
And from what I garnered from the reviews, people want to see Auron and Rikku explore Spira. So...no reunion here. But I do make up for it; slightly.
Chapter 9: A Knight on a Feathery Steed . . . Sort Of
At the mercy of lightning in the untamed regions of the Thunder Plains, most Spirans would turn straight around and run pell-mell back the way they came. Most did not have the determination to cross the vast plains unprotected. Most did not have a particularly compelling reason to brave the adverse elements when safety was a mile away in the other direction.
Clasko had a very compelling reason to go straight through the wilder part of the Thunder Plains. And also the determination not to leave. The name of the reason started with a cho and ended with a -cobo.
"C'mon, please?" he said piteously as the chocobo continued to jog lightly along, at ease in the terrible weather. "If we just go over the hill, we'll be safer. No lightning bolts would hurt you."
The chocobo gave no sign of hearing him except to shrill. Her path remained very linear.
Clasko sighed. He had found this chocobo near the mouth of the Thunder Plains, and goaded the bird into taking some feed from his hand (actually, the food had been for him, but Clasko would have given the bird his own foot if it meant catching the beautiful, sweet chocobo). Rather than following Clasko, however, the chocobo ventured into the dangerous Thunder Plains, and predictably Clasko followed, managing to climb onto the chocobo and ride the feathery steed.
There was no sign of the Thunder Plains' exit, which meant there was more time for a lightning bolt to strike them both. Just as Clasko was about to make another desperate plea for the bird to turn around, the chocobo halted abruptly and twisted her head to the left.
Bemused, Clasko turned to find what had caught his precious one's attention. All he could see was the mountainous ridge that separated them from safety.
"Yes, yes! Go that way, c'mon now, just go over the mountains and I'll be sure to give you a nice, fat bag of goodies for you to—whoa!"
The chocobo took off with long strides, head angled down close to the ground and wings spread for balance. Clasko toppled forward, grasping at the chocobo's neck.
Lightning bolts punished the land around them, but the chocobo always managed to veer away from the dangerous discharge. Slowly, when Clasko managed to concentrate hard enough, he could hear something over the roar of thunder and clashes of lightning.
He could hear children crying.
The chocobo slowed her pace and came to a halt before an overhang, and shakily Clasko dismounted. Leaning down, he could see two very young children lying in the recess, but no adults.
Those poor children! Where are their parents? What are they doing all the way out here? The chocobo must have heard the children, and her maternal instinct directed her to come here and make sure they were alright. "Hey!"
The girl looked up at him, her face streaked with tears and lined by distress. She pulled the younger boy closer to her, scooting away from Clasko.
"Hey, now, don't do that," Clasko tried reassuring the girl, flinching as lightning struck behind him. The children also jumped, and the boy began to wail.
Attracted by the crying, the chocobo jutted her head forward and began to croon. Although they had been startled by the bird's appearance, the boy had stopped his crying and the girl was less afraid. She stammered, "W-what is that?"
"This beauty?" Clasko petted his prize lovingly. "This is a chocobo. I'm starting a chocobo farm, and she's going to be the first of my herd! You wanna pet her?" Clasko asked, goading.
The girl hesitated, but her hand reached forward to stroke the chocobo's head. The bird closed her eyes, warbling satisfactorily. The girl giggled, and told the boy, "C'mon, Auron, she's really soft!"
Clasko frowned at the boy. He hadn't been aware parents were already naming their children after Yuna's guardians. Then again, maybe they had known of Sir Auron from Braska's pilgrimage.
"Where are your parents, little guys?" Clasko asked. "How'd you get all the way out here?"
The girl looked up at him, her lower lip jutted out in a pout. It was then that he noticed the swirls in her eyes, indicating her Al Bhed heritage. "We got lost. My tytto was testing some machina, and we were playing, and then VROOM!" she clapped her hands together, "we wound up by a huge river. A-and then we ran away from a witch-lady, and I didn't know where we w-were going, and now we're stuck here because the thunder won't stop!"
Auron had since lost his reservation for the chocobo, and leaned forward to run a tiny hand over the bird's beak. He overbalanced, though, and fell from Rikku's grasp and face-first into the dirt.
"Auron! Are you okay?" Rikku asked frantically, patting the boy's head. Auron began to sniffle, but the chocobo's head-butting distracted him from his hurt. The boy even managed a smile. "She's awll wet, Rikku!"
I can't leave these two here. I'll just take them with me, at least out of the Thunder Plains, and locate their parents once we hit civilization.
"Hey, you wanna ride the chocobo?" Clasko asked, patting the bird's back. "You can ride her, and she'll keep you safe from harm while we get out of the Thunder Plains together!"
"Really?" Rikku asked imploringly, the spirals in her eyes widening as her eyes did. "Really, you will?"
"Yeah! Hop aboard!" Clasko managed to coax the chocobo down so he could lift Auron onto the bird's back and help Rikku on in front of Auron. Climbing on behind them, Clasko spared a moment to hope that their combined weight wouldn't crush the chocobo's frame.
His concerns were almost immediately relieved as the chocobo scampered over the Plains. Auron made a gleeful noise, and Clasko barely heard him when he cheered, "Birdie wun fast!"
In spite of the chocobo's willing nature to take on extra passengers, she still refused to listen to Clasko to climb over the ridge that would place them under the safety of the lightning rod towers. They had many close encounters with lightning bolts, but with the comforting presences of Clasko and the chocobo, the children let out nothing more than a small shriek of surprise.
At the end of his rope of patience, Clasko nearly dismounted to lead, if not pull and push, the chocobo over the ridge. His decision was invalidated, however, when the chocobo swerved left and ducked into a cave's entrance.
Plunged into darkness, Clasko could only hold on tighter to the children and the chocobo to prevent them from falling. When they emerged from the cave, it became clear to Clasko why the chocobo had ignored him: they were now on the other side of the ridge, within the safe perimeter of the lightning rod towers, and it had taken them less time than if they had gone over the steep mountain.
"Good girl!" Clasko rubbed the chocobo's neck, and she took a moment to bask in his approval before starting off again, this time at an easier pace. "We're safe now, you guys."
"Yay!" Rikku smiled back at him, eyes squinted shut. "I don't like lightning. It's too scary!"
"Wight'ing bad," Auron agreed somberly, then yawning. "I'm tired."
"Me too," Rikku nodded, eyes drifting shut. "Can we stop for the night, Mister?"
"Ah, er, it's just Clasko," the man blushed. No one had ever called him 'Mister' before, except his mother when she was scolding him for shirking his chores in favor of searching for the yellow-feathered birds of his dreams. "Alright, girl, let's call it a day and stop."
The chocobo halted obediently, and lowered herself to the ground so her passengers could disembark. Slipping the tent out from his pack, Clasko thanked Lucil and Elma for drilling him so insistently on proper equipment and how to utilize them during his stint as a Chocobo Knight. Within minutes the tent was up, sleeping rolls were laid out, and the two children were fast asleep. Auron was tucked into the length of Rikku's torso, and the girl had slung her arm over the boy.
Such a cute picture, Clasko thought with a grin. Then he looked at the tent again. While the children were not exactly giants, the space was limited, and he was rather large himself. The sleeping arrangement, were he to try and shove his way in, would be intimate and uncomfortable. He wouldn't want to give their parents reason to think he was a perverted chocobo-fanatic.
Clasko sighed. It looked like he would be sleeping outside with the chocobo, and all future nights until he could procure a bigger tent. Ah well, I could imagine worse scenarios. "C'mere, girl," Clasko cooed, bringing the chocobo over to the tent's mouth. "Lay down, and we'll get a good rest before tomorrow. We've got to find these kids' parents, and then get all the way over to the Calm Lands to start up our Chocobo Ranch."
The chocobo crooned, and nestled her head under her wing. Lying against the bird, Clasko covered himself with a blanket and fell asleep to the rain falling on his face, the chocobo's warmth underneath him, and the soft breathing of the children in the tent.
"Dammit!" Tidus snarled, slamming a fist into the well-packed dirt of a recessed overhang. "Are you sure, Kimahri?"
"Kimahri sure," the Ronso nodded, his fur drenched and flattened by rain. "Rikku and Auron here, then leave on chocobo with man. Chocobo go that way," Kimahri pointed north, further into the dangerous part of the Thunder Plains.
"Who the hell would be so dumb as to go more into the Thunder Plains, ya?" Wakka scowled, arms folded. The spiky point of his hair was beginning to droop, the gel losing the battle with gravity and water. "That's dangerous! Should've gone over the ridge, to where the towers are."
Lulu rose from her kneeling position on the ground, where she had been observing a patch of yellow feathers dropped by the chocobo. She held one in her hand, swiveling it around by the quill. Her face was darkened by a look of concentration as she thought.
"Do you think they're safe, Kimahri?" Yuna asked her guardian, very near tears at the thought of her friends in the hands of an evil soul.
"They'd better be," Cid growled, cracking his knuckles. "If he hurts my Rikku in any way, I'm gonna show him straight to the Farplane, even if I have to take him there myself!"
"That won't be necessary," Lulu broke in, and for the first time in a long while a smile had crossed her features. "Think about it, everyone. Auron and Rikku were carried off by a man with a chocobo. Who do we know is crazy enough to ride a chocobo through the Thunder Plains, when there is safety and warmth just on the other side?"
The group took a moment to think. Yuna and her guardians all came to the conclusion at once. "Clasko!"
Cid stood, blinking and confused. "Huh?"
Alright, well, not the longest chapter, but it seemed like a good place to stop.
