I am SOOO sorry this took so long. Uni has been keeping me very busy and I haven't had much free time to devote to writing, so this about the first time in the past two months that I've actually done any writing that I enjoy. No further delays, here is...

Chapter 10

With a delicious meal in their stomachs, Zan and Mist climbed into the cart and sat along the side facing towards the road while Lani mounted a chocobo and Guiness finished covering the fire and checking the wheels. When he was done, they started off again with a slight jolt and Mist fell against Zan.

"Oh, sorry…" Mist half whispered as she set herself up straight.

"Not a problem," Zan replied with an expressionless face.

Mist, who was sitting closer to the front of the cart, turned towards the road ahead and blushed a little. Lani, who had turned back when she heard talking, gave her an all too knowing smirk. Mist replied with a frown and a disapproving stare. They understood everything the other meant by the look in their eyes, and had since they were little. It had proven quite useful at getting them out of tight spots with their parents.

As they continued along the rough dirt road, which seemed to be the only man-made formation in sight except for a village they'd passed in the nearby hills, not far from the road, the three teens asked Guiness about Duntarine. They knew a few things about the city, that it was a port in the northwest, that it was the ancient home of the Moogle race, and that it was a very prosperous city, rich in trade and an exporter of medical supplies, but since Guiness had family there, they thought it reasonable that he may be able to tell them more.

"Well I haven't been there that often mysself," Guiness replied, "But I can tell you a few thingss about the city. Firsst of all, it is one of the few plasses to export Cactuar needles,"

"Cactuar needles?" Zan said softly, as though thinking out loud, "I believe that was one of the things that Meranim said she was missing," he continued, louder and obviously directing the statement at Mist and Lani.

"Meranim," Guiness said in almost the same thoughtful way as Zan, "She iss the healer in Ssandross, correct?" he asked.

"That's right," Lani replied, "Do you know her?"

"I have made a delivery for her, and sseveral to her, in the passt," he answered, "A kind woman, but not a great tipper. She said ssomething about the world being a better place if people didn't have to pay for thingss. A nice idea but I don't work for free very often," he grinned at the youths, "But I did take her advice on payment by favourss,"

"So that's why we don't have to pay you for this if we help fend off the bandits?" Mist asked.

"Pressicely," Guiness replied, still turned inwards towards the cart as he spoke to her.

Mist felt a tension grow in her and barely caught a glimpse of its cause from the corner of her eye before acting immediately. She brought her hands together at the wrists and twisted them clockwise so that they split in opposite directions and stopped them when they were aligned with her arms, all the while envisioning a small swirl of air. She slid her hands apart until her elbows were as far apart as she could spread them and then she forced her hands forwards, crossing her thumbs.

"Aero," she called and a swirling vortex spun around Guiness, just in time for three arrows to bounce off the invisible shield from the direction of a small but thick clump of trees. The sudden calamity spooked the chocobos and they stopped immediately. A slightly unexpected reaction, but if trained well, a chocobo would do whatever its master had told it to in the right situation. No wonder the bandits were after trained chocobos.

Lani had obviously picked up what was going on from Mist's actions and had drawn her bow, nocked an arrow and dismounted her chocobo all in the time it had taken Mist to cast the spell. Zan was already out of the cart and had his rapier drawn, ready to fight. Mist followed him quickly with her sword in hand and they both joined Lani behind the cart, away from their assailants' line of sight. Guiness, still under the protection of the aero spell, took a little longer to join them but was unhurt by the second volley of three arrows launched at him as he took cover behind the cart.

"Thank you," Guiness told Mist, "You have earned your passage by that alone,"

Mist blushed, "It was nothing," she replied.

"So what are we up against?" Lani asked as she took a chance peek above the top of the cart.

"From the number of arrows fired, the accuracy and the presumption that these are in fact bandits," Zan began as he went through his logical, battle-hardened strategising, "I'd say we're up against three opponents, most likely a combination of Elves, Viera and/or Humans," Those races were generally the best at ranged combat, particularly archery, due to their long distance vision being better than other races. Of course, there were always exceptions but Zan was nearly always right when he analysed a battle situation.

"Ok," Mist said with a slight pause, as if giving herself another moment to think, "If we cast aero on ourselves then charge in, we should be able to get in close without taking any hits from the arrows."

"Mist," Zan interrupted, "We only know how many archers they have. There may very well be more bandits with swords or other close combat equipment with them. If we rush in we may well head into an ambush."

"I don't think that'll be the casse," Guiness informed them, "Banditss 'round these partss work in ssmall groups, from what the lucky oness say. It should jusst be the three of them but they'll each have swordss as well."

"Ok, the plan should still work then," Mist continued, "Just remember that since they're bandits we should try to capture them, not hurt them, so…any ideas?"

"I don't think we should wait too long," Lani said as she poked her head up to look once more, "They may get impatient…" An arrow flew close over Lani's head just between her ears.

"I do believe they're trying to kill us," Lani announced as she sat down against the side of the cart staring straight ahead for a moment before shaking off the sudden shock.

"I have an idea, kidss," Guiness told them and they all listened in on what he had to say.

"Ready?" Mist inquired as the others stood at the ends of the cart. Another volley of arrows had landed in front of them as they had formulated the plan. The bandits must have aimed at just the right angle and power to lob their arrows over the cart. They were definitely expert archers, and quite likely not very good swordsmen since they were trying to win before their opponents were too close. All of this had been factored into the plan.

"We're ready," Lani replied, standing next to Zan at the front of the cart.

"I'm ready," Guiness replied from the other end.

"Alright, let's go then," Mist told them as Lani, Zan and herself all cast aero on themselves before charging towards the trees. Guiness, still protected by Mist's spell, although not for much longer, followed not too far behind them.

The trees were sparse but still dense enough with shrubs at ground level to hide the trio of bandits launching another volley of arrows at each of the three youths charging at them. As they got closer, Lani fired an arrow between two of the places she had seen arrows fired from. She didn't want to hit them, just scare them into revealing themselves. It worked. A Human male rolled out of the bushes back into the trees and stood up with a sword in his hand, ready to fight. Almost immediately after he stood up, a Viera and female Human leaped out of the bushes brandishing swords as well.

Zan and Mist stood in front of Lani and began duelling with the two bandits that had leaped forward. The bandits fought as a team, standing ready to guard one another's back. The third, the boy, for he couldn't have been much older than Zan was if he was even as old, stood back and waited to see whether he was needed. He kept an eye on Lani, who stood ready, arrow nocked and ready to fire. She had no intention of firing but what the boy didn't know couldn't hurt him, but it could keep her safe.

As the duel went on the boy got impatient and charged forward. Lani fired a warning shot over his shoulder but it didn't seem to stop him. He got closer, nearly in place, another meter and…

Wham! A huge broadsword came down and hit all three bandits across the head, with the nockblunt edge. The boy had moved perfectly into place just in time for Guiness to catch up and finish the plan. He took the coil of rope that he'd taken from the cart and began tying it around the Viera's wrists.

"Lookss like your plan was a sucssess," he said as Mist helped him hold up the limp bandit.

"It was nothing, really," Mist insisted.

"You need to take more pride in your work, Mist," Lani told her, "You did a good job."

"Perhaps not your slightly ego-prone level of pride, though," Zan quipped.

As the others laughed, Lani just smiled and shrugged it off. She was as aware as anyone that she had a tendency to let things go to her head, "So how are we going to lug these three all the way to Duntarine?" she asked, "I mean, we're still at least a day away and we can't walk or it'll take even longer."

"I'm sure Sstorm and Thunder can make the trip tonight if we rearrange thingss in the cart a bit for you two and them," Guiness said as he finished tying the human girl's wrists. Storm and Thunder, it had been revealed, were the names of the two chocobos, still standing calmly where they had been left.

After a bit of effort, Zan and Guiness had managed to "carefully" place the bandits in the cart where they couldn't move very much. Once in the cart, Guiness tied the three of them together at the wrists in a way so that none of them could reach the ropes to untie them. Lani and Zan sat on the front of the cart with their feet on a small ledge and their hands holding small hooks that Guiness had explained were used for tying rope to when holding down a bulging cargo, like hay.

"Hold on, kidss," Guiness shouted back, "We're going to have to pick up the passe to make it to Duntarine before dark so that we can turn thesse three in."

Lani had a look of fear in her eyes, and surprisingly, so did Zan, to a much lesser extent. Guiness flicked the reigns hard and Thunder and Storm took off like lightning. Midday was approaching but the journey across the plains would continue all day until they reached the port city. The bandits would wake soon enough and the less time spent dealing with them the better.

. . .

So, I hope that was worth the wait. My wonderful beta reader is reviewing chapter 11 already and I'll have that up within a week or two. I've got a few big things planned for the next few chapters so stay tuned. I still don't own Final Fantasy, however I did meet a guy from Atari last week.