Volume 1

Chapter 10

Awakened Forest

After sleeping off the remainder of his ailments, Steiner contented himself by focusing his attentions on the rag-doll. The lifeless creature flopped around in his hand, never failing to smile her stitched grin, while Steiner stroked her pigtails and tried to smooth the wrinkles from her dress. He wasn't sure how long he'd been locked in that room, but as the minutes passed his stomach tightened further, and he wondered how long the princess could survive without him. The idea that she might be dead …

"...…"

The lock clicked and the door swung open, and for a moment Steiner thought Garnet had managed to struggle back alone and save him. He jumped up from the stool, but was instead greeted by the tailed hooligan who'd gotten them all into this mess in the first place.

"Come on," Zidane chuckled, his eyes locking onto the toy as he walked into the room. "You're too old to be playing with a doll."

"Silence!" shrieked Steiner, shaking his hands at the thief. "A scoundrel like you could never understand! I'm just overwhelmed with concern for the princess! If only you rogues hadn't kidnapped her… This is all your fault!" He threw out his hand at Zidane, rattling the dolly just inches from his nose. "If anything should happen to the princess, I will have your head!"

"Take it easy. Geez…" Zidane said, quickly, before the knight could continue his tirade. "I'm gonna go look for her now. I'll let you come with me if you promise to be good." His voice was fringed with just the right amount of condescension, but the knight failed to see the joke. "What do you say, Rusty?"

Steiner's face turned cardinal; the colour fanned up from his cheeks all the way to his forehead, and the man started jumping repeatedly, causing his armour to clatter. "RR…RUSTY!" he managed to stammer, and planted himself down once again, glaring at Zidane with fierce eyes. "I am Adelbert Steiner, Captain of the Knights of Pluto, and I will never work with you conniving thieves!" The last few words he spat.

"Captain? I figured you were a private what with that cheap, rusty armour…" The whole display had amused Zidane to the point where he couldn't resist further pulling the man's strings, but as he watched Steiner's poppy complexion deepen, he put on a serious expression. "Look, this has nothing to do with Tantalus. It's something I decided to do on my own. I just wanna save Garnet."

Never in his thirty-three years had the Captain believed a thief, or any criminal for that matter. Felons didn't have the right to be treated like truthful members of society after they'd plundered and cheated for wealth and personal gain; they deserved to hang, and often times even that was too good for them. However, this logic wavered slightly when Steiner heard Zidane talk of saving Garnet; the way his eyes had never wandered from the knight's as he spoke, and the simple manner in which he'd said the words, actually made Steiner consider the boy was sincere. "Hmph…!" Uncomfortable with the idea of trusting the delinquent, Steiner clenched his fists, and through gritted teeth said, "You had better not be lying! Because if you are, I won't hesitate to kill you!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm counting on you, Rusty." Zidane dipped his head in a half-nod half-bow, hoping to placate Steiner; he was surprised the man had agreed so quickly.

"Make no mistake. I'm only going with you to rescue the princess! I will deal with you personally when this is over!"

"… Whatever."

"It may be difficult with just the two of us." Steiner thought for a moment, and then nodded as he said, "We should seek Master Vivi's help as well."

Amused, Zidane raised an eyebrow. "Why are you calling him 'Master'?"

"You fool. That black mage has unimaginable powers… I don't want to get him involved, but alas, it can't be helped. We need Master Vivi's powers to rescue the princess."

The thief wished he hadn't asked. Apparently, Rusty couldn't give a simple answer to anything; that would make for an interesting trip through the forest. "Alright, let's go talk to Vivi."

(!)

The mage was where Zidane had left him earlier; much like Steiner he seemed to have recovered from the affects of the seeds. His eyes shone bright from underneath his hat, and his breathing was back to normal, and he smiled as Zidane and the knight approached. "Well, Vivi," Zidane began, "we're ready to go look for the princess."

"Really! That's great! Be careful, okay?" was Vivi's perky response as he bid them good-luck with a quick salute.

"Actually, we want you to come with us, too."

"Huh!" the friendly expression on the mage's face dropped to one of surprise. An image of the monster from the forest, the feeling of claustrophobia being trapped in its pungent leaves, wouldn't escape his mind. "B-But I can't do anything."

"Hardly, Master Vivi. Your magic was highly effective against that monster." Steiner responded, with wide gestures of his hands. "In all honesty, I hold your power in greater esteem than I do this scoundrel's." The boy looked quickly at Zidane, almost apologetically, and then turned back to face the knight.

"B-But… I'm scared," he admitted, moving his hands together over his chest, "I couldn't even move last time."

"Please, Master Vivi. For the sake of Princess Garnet and all of Alexandria, I humbly request your assistance!"

"Come on! You're a black mage, for crying out loud! Show us what you've got!" encouraged Zidane. "Alright, let's get going."

Vivi swallowed down the acid feeling in this throat; he didn't want to let down the people who had rescued him, especially since it was his fault Princess Garnet had been taken in the first place. "…Okay." He put on a weak smile, "I'll… try my best."

"Thank you, Mater Vivi."

The boy got down from the bed and started to follow Zidane out the room, but Steiner, who had let the thief pass him, put out a hand. "Master Vivi…"

"Yeah?" he stopped and looked up at the man.

"It's about your black magic. I wish to try an experiment." The knight knelt down opposite Vivi, and began to whisper, "I was wondering if…" and he glanced at the door, perhaps to see if Zidane was still lingering, before lowering his voice even further. When he was finished, he gazed at Vivi with the pleading expression of a five-year-old.

"Magic sword…? Okay. I'll give it a try."

(!)

Whatever Steiner wanted to speak to Vivi about was none of Zidane's concern; all he really needed to concentrate on was getting the three of them through the forest alive, and on the right path to finding Garnet. He left his new comrades to talk, and headed alone to the makeshift entrance. When he stepped into the wrecked hallway, Blank was waiting for him. Taking his usual stance, Blank leaned beside the sconce, one foot perched on the wall behind him, with his arms crossed in defiance over his chest. He'd hoped Zidane would come to his senses, but as usual the idiot couldn't see the wood for the trees even in a forest this dense.

"Sheez… you really dig her, huh?" he said, haughtily.

"I can't sit around knowing a girl's in trouble. Goes against my nature." Zidane replied.

"Whatever. You're full of crap."

This abrupt insult only caused Zidane amusement; he leaned down to get a better view of Blank's scowl, hidden as he glowered at the ground by the tufts of his hair. "Ohhh…. I get it. You're jealous that I'm gonna get me a sweetie pie."

"Pshhh… She's not even my type." mumbled Blank. He unfolded his arms to remove something bulky from a pouch on his belt. "I came down here to give you this."

"You're always thinking about me…but I won't need a love potion to reel this one in."

"Why don't you get your mind off girls for a second?" snapped Blank, holding out the same purple style of bottle he always used for his tinctures. "This is the medicine I gave to that black mage and the knight. It's sort of like a seed remover."

"Cool. This'll really come in handy." Zidane walked to his brother and received Blank's medicine. As soon as the bottle had left his grip, Blank folded his arms again.

"Why am I always helping you…?" he grumbled. "Oh yeah. Here's a little tip from the boss." He slipped a folded piece of parchment from his pocket and held it out between his fingers for Zidane.

Don't forget to

set your abilities.

Leaving the band is your business,

but you better keep training!

Learning more abilities is

gonna make you even stronger.

Good Luck,

Baku

Trust Baku to ensure he got that little titbit. "Thanks, Blank. I'll see you when I see you." Zidane turned away from his brother, the note still clutched in his hand, and headed for the exit.

"How about never?" the red-headed thief called after him, and Zidane smiled to himself.

(!)

"Okay, let's really liven up this place!" called the conductor, standing on a couple of piled up crates and waving his wand earnestly at his recovered musicians. So far only four of his orchestra had the ability to play, but soon the others would join as well, and what better way to spur their restoration than with song. He'd chosen a particularly peppy tune from a play he couldn't remember the name of … seven something, or something seven. Rufus's Welcoming Ceremony rang joyously through the ship.

"Yeah, let our music do the fighting against those monsters!" agreed the violinist.

"This oughta boost morale" chimed the cymbalist both with words and through his instrument.

"This is great!" the drummer added.

"Brrum, brrrum, brrrruuum!" The trumpeter blew the words through the tube of his trumpet, and while no one knew exactly what he was trying to say, they understood what he meant perfectly.

Hearing the ensemble from the helm room, Baku came back down to the cargo hold to investigate the noise. When he saw how many of the orchestra were back on their feet, and just how excitedly they had taken to performing, the boss beamed at them. "Hey, not bad!" he walked through the collection of musicians to the hallway entrance. "I'm gonna go take a look around. Stay on your toes. We'll be leaving soon."

"Alright!" "Okay, Boss!" "Okay, Boss!" "Okay, Boss!" "Brrruuuum!"

(!)

Zidane, Vivi and Steiner travelled through the forest in silence, keeping their senses alert to changes in sounds or moving shadows which indicated a goblin or a fang, the beasts that dwelled in the undergrowth eager for a fresh kill. The trio walked back through the swamp to where they had last seen Garnet, taken by the prison cage, and on Vivi's instruction, continued down a steep hillside to another area of low-lying mire. Here the trees created dams for water with their twisted roots, creating filthy pools, but as Zidane trudged through them he realised they were not-stagnant, and that meant the water was being renewed by a nearby supply. They were close to the river; if Zidane listened closely, he could hear the roar of it's current; if they carried on the direction they were going, they'd eventually reach the Alexandrian Falls.

The expanse of land heading away from the pools seemed to have formed on-top of the tree roots, the ground founded by compact silt between the woody vines and coated in a fleece of moss. Mounds of shifted dirt were piled against trunks which literally leaned to make way for the humps, their mushroom shrouded bases stretched into odd screaming faces. Carefully, the group made their way across a narrow passage, weaving around the myriad of plant-life, which seemed to respond to their footsteps.

After an hour or so of walking, keeping to the track laid out by the river, they found a clearing in which to rest. At first the small break in the forest didn't seem any different to what they had journeyed through. It was a circular break in the thickness of the trees, where toadstools grew tall around the edges, and the ground was a bed of fungus. As they approached they startled a moogle, who bustled to a hollowed out stump in the shadow and hopped inside, it's pom bobbing about just over the wall of bark. The difference came in the sudden silence of the world around them; the grunts and threats of beasts died away the nearer they came to the centre, where a huge stump of a long-dead tree formed a basin of clear water.

"Hmm… No sign of any monsters here," Zidane said, peering around. Curious, he headed over to the stump. They must have been nearer to the river than he had suspected. "A spring.." he announced, with surprise. A trickle of pressured water bubbled up beside the trunk, probably pushed up from beneath the ground by a wayward current. They stopped to revitalise themselves, drinking mouthfuls of the little fountain, and instantly feeling restored.

(!)

Blank followed his boss along the hallway, surprised by the instructions he'd just received. "Are you sure about this?" he asked. Baku halted when he reached the spiral stairway leading to the helmsroom and faced the red-head.

"Yeah, don't worry. We'll be outta here soon, too." He placed a hand on the inside of his waistcoat, and removed a scroll of parchment, fixed with a piece of old string. "Here, take this map. It's gonna be a long trip back to Lindblum…" With a nod, Blank took the parchment.

"Alright. I'll see you later."

"I'm countin' on you!" and Baku stood to attention, raising his hands over his heart as he spoke; Blank followed his lead. After they'd signalled they parted ways, the boss heading upstairs just as Marcus came hurrying down, and Blank making for the makeshift exit out into the forest.

(!)

Just past the spring, Zidane found the river running parallel to a thicket of decaying stumps, over which reeds could be seen swaying with the motion of the current. They passed by quickly, each man sensing they were close to their destination by the way the forest seemed to scowl hungrily at them. The river disappeared from view again, as the land rose into another dense cluster of woodland.

They didn't notice the crimson highlights reflecting in the ripples of the chartreuse water from the opposite bank, where vines crawled up the walls of a stone hive, their thorns stripping the fungus from the surface of the rock. A hiss reverberated through the lair as it watched them walk along the stretch, it's senses picking up the vibrations of their steps as they trudged closer. The beast, bathed in the scarlet luminescence of its own petals, bore its fangs and waited.