Chapter Five
Noises in the Forest


Going into a lake from a place of air and changing worlds at the same time is easier said than done. Clover found herself at the surface of the lake suddenly, gasping for breath.

"Woo! That's weird."

"Yeah," Kuja agreed, swimming to shore.

"So this is your world? Doesn't look much different than mine."

"That's because you haven't seen the cities yet. Or," he added, grinning, "my dragon."

She gasped. "Dragon?!"

"Let me call him. It's been a long time. I'm not sure if he'll come."

Kuja closed his eyes. White hairs of magic began to whip around his body, and then they shot into the sky. Several seconds later a roar split the silence.

"You idiot! Where the hell have you been?!" the great silver dragon cried furiously.

Clover's eyes widened as Flare turned to her. "And just who. . .are you?"

"Um...Clover."

"Clover? And how is it that you are with Kuja?" Flare tired hard to hide his snarl, but his rage at Kuja had not ebbed in the least.

"Flare, stop pestering her!" Kuja cried.

"Why should I listen to you, when you left me for so long?!"

"It wasn't my choice!"

"It. . .wasn't?"

"No!" Clover cried, intervening in their heated argument. "He was so hurt he didn't open his eyes for four weeks! It wasn't his fault at all, Flare."

"Humph. Alright, then. How are you related to Kuja?"

She grinned. "You'll see eventually."

"What's that supposed to mean?" the dragon demanded.

"Nothing, yet."

Flare gave a draconian grin. "You found someone like you, Kuja. Always talking in riddles."

Kuja smiled, but then it quickly faded. "Is Esuna alive?"

"...No. We found her in the Black Mage Village, and Garnet was so furious, she had the priest tracked down and killed. Several black mages saw it all."

"I see. Does Zidane still have the Invincible?"

"I don't think so."

"Hello! People! It's not like I'm here or anything," Clover said sarcastically. "What the hell is going on?"

Flare sighed, and Kuja smiled.

"I hope she isn't really hard to talk to, like Lady Hilda," Flare commented. "We've got a lot of explaining to do, if she doesn't know about any of this. Where do you come from, anyway? You're way behind in the times."

Kuja grinned. "I suppose we have some explaining to do as well."

"What do you mean?"

"Well," Clover said slowly, "I come from a different world, for a start."



"You're a funny little human, Clover," Flare commented when Clover was finished telling of how she met Kuja.

Kuja chuckled good-naturedly. "That she is. Give her a band-aid and some healing cream, along with a little scented lotion for herself, and she can heal anybody."

Clover grinned as Flare's eyes widened in surprise. "I don't think I've ever heard you laugh like that before."

Kuja shrugged. "So I lightened up a little. Something wrong with that?"

"No," Clover said slyly. "But, I hadn't realized that you were a bully before I met you."

Flare slapped a claw on the ground. "You didn't tell her," he snarled. "You're taking her friendship and using her blindly, when she doesn't even know what kind of a monster you were."

"Who says I don't know?" Clover demanded, before Kuja could look sheepish and shame-faced.

"How could you possibly know?" Flare shot back, suddenly very angry. "After all, you're only a small --"

"Girl?" Clover finished heatedly. "I know damn well what he did, and I'm fine with it! He's changed, you know?"

Flare snorted. "He'll only use you."

"Why are you acting like this?" Kuja cried. "I thought you were my dragon, long time companion! Why? Why are you doing this?"

The large dragon blinked in surprise, as if only realizing what he had said. He looked away. "I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry."

Clover raised an eyebrow, but said nothing.

Later, all three were around a raging fire in the woods. Kuja looked at Clover admiringly. The fire made her hair simply glow golden, the thin wisps of flame dancing in her eyes. She hadn't spoken since the argument with Flare, and that disturbed Kuja a little. She had always been so alive and full of energy, and now she was answering merely with nods or shakes of her head.

"Clover?" Kuja asked tentatively.

"Hmm?" Clover looked up from the fire.

"Why don't you want to go to Alexandria?"

"Flare told me your not welcome there."

The dragon's nostrils flared indignantly. "I did no such thing!"

"But you did," Clover contradicted. "When anyone mentions Alexandria, your eyes grow a little bit wider, and you look at Kuja like a nervous puppy, and at the same time you look like a fox stalking it's prey, or a cat pouncing on her catch. You want him to go there, but you also fear him. Meaning your going behind his back. Your claws flex every time you look at him. And when you look at me, there is pity in your eyes. But, you also don't want me to get hurt. You keep mentally saying, 'Go Away.'"

Flare's muzzle dropped, and Kuja smirked.

"Oh yeah. Flare? I forgot to mention. Clover is very good at interpreting body language."

"Please," Clover said, standing up. "Leave."

The dragon stood. "Alright. But you don't know the half of what Zidane and Garnet have planned for you, Kuja. You'll be sorry that you didn't protect Esuna."

And with that, he launched off.

"Esuna..." Clover said softly. "Everything comes back to her. How did you know I was good with body language?"

Kuja looked at her as she sat back down. "I didn't. I bluffed, just like you bluffed about knowing what I did."

Clover sighed. "You'll tell me someday, won't you?"

"I don't know. You don't want to hear it. And -- I don't think I can tell it."

"Alright. I understand. C'mere, you. Let's get some sleep. We need to start moving in the morning before Flare comes with your brother and his lady."



"Dammit!" Flare swore. "I had him here," and he clenched his claw for emphasis, "and then that witch he brought with him caught me! I don't know how she did it!"

"Calm down, Flare. They won't get anywhere. We've got soldiers everywhere," said Zidane. "They aren't getting out of the woods."

"You think soldiers will stop him?"

"No. But Clover will. She won't let him kill any of them," Garnet said.

"Yeah," Eiko added. "But don't any of you dare hurt her! She sounds really nice."

"You're right, Eiko," Zidane said, smiling at the small girl. "I'd like to meet her myself. Flare, know where they were?"

"Of course. I can carry all three of you."

"Alright, let's go."



"Ewwww! Totally gross!" Eiko cried, turning away.

Flare rolled his eyes at the grin forming on Zidane's lips.

Across the clearing Kuja and Clover were gasping for breath.

"What the heck was that?" Clover demanded. "Do you want your breakfast burned?"

He grinned impishly. "Yeah. I want it on fire."

Clover playfully smacked him away. "I don't! I'm hungry, and I'm not fond of eating you."

"Heh heh. Alrighty."

But as soon as Clover turned to tend to breakfast, Kuja's arms were around her waist, pulling her to the forest floor.

Clover broke away. "I don't want to catch it on fire, Kuja!" she protested uselessly.

He pressed his lips against her again and distractedly waved his had. What must have been an entire year's worth of rain came crashing down on the fire, splashing them both. Kuja grinned.

"Oop-sy."

"Kuja, we have to get out of here, or they'll find us. You know that."

"That I know. Care I don't."

"Argh! Now your talking like those two clown bimbos!"

"Uh huh. But I wanna stop talking now," he said, tracing her shoulder blade idly and then bringing his finger up to her neck.

"Do you?" she asked, struggling to speak as his mouth replaced where his finger had been.

"Mm hmm."

Kuja's explorations stopped abruptly. He lifted his head slightly, groaned, and stood up.

"Get out here, brother. Stop spying like scared children."

"One of us is a scared child, Kuja!" Eiko cried furiously. "That was so icky! How can you kiss him?" she demanded to Clover's great amusement.

A small chuckled escaped Clover. "It's exactly like when you kissed Zidane."

Both subjects of Clover's sentence blushed furiously, and Garnet stamped her foot. "You didn't, Zidane!"

"It was only a short kiss, after we beat Necron!"

"But I still liked it," Eiko said sheepishly.

Clover smiled at Garnet. "You're prettier than he said you were."

Now it was the queen's turn to blush. "Thank you," she said, and then looked furiously at Kuja. "You talked about me?!"

He waved his hands vaguely at the sky. "You're too pretty not to."

Clover said grumpily, "Well excuse me for not being a babe."

A slow, sly smile spread across Kuja's face. "We'll see how much of a babe you are later."

"Eek!" Clover and Eiko cried at the same time, but one voice was playful, the other sounding like she had just kissed Amarant. Clover laughed.

"You're cute, Eiko. I should make you my little sister," Clover said with a wink. "We'd never stop talking about girl stuff."

Kuja and Zidane groaned.

Clover waggled a finger at the two of them. "You know we'll only discuss you."

Eiko giggled and grinned. "I wouldn't want Garnet mad at me."

Clover smiled. "Hey, they're fair discussion game."

"Hey!" Garnet cried, hands on hips. She nudged Zidane with her elbow and grinned at the girls. "At least let me talk too."

Eiko dissolved into a fit of giggled, and Kuja prayed that he wouldn't have to deal with this. "Where'd Flare go?" he asked suddenly.

Clover's eyes widened. "I don't trust him. Do you mind if I use some of the magic you taught me?" she asked timidly.

"Of course not."

"OK. Here it goes."

Clover raised her arms to the sky, and bright red light swirled around them.

The red light shot away from Clover's hands into the woods, leaving a wispy trail of faint red dust that glowed in the air.

"There you go," Kuja said encouragingly. "We follow that, we find Flare."

"Right," Clover said.

Zidane was too busy to listen to the conversation. His mind was whirling, thinking of how much Kuja had changed since he had disappeared. His thoughts were abruptly disturbed, however, as his brother smacked him on the back of the head.

"Hel-ooo? Are you even alive?" Kuja demanded with a grin. Behind him, Clover chuckled.

"Kuja, Kuja, Kuja," she chided.

He grinned. "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha," was his answer.

Clover dissolved into hysterics at that, and Kuja joined her, leaving everyone but themselves confused.

"Oh God," Clover muttered between gasps and barks of laughter. "You even caught on to the Brady Bunch! Clever little thing, aren't you."

Kuja snorted, he laughter barely diminished. "What's wrong with me? You're sooo contagious! Why did you have to start laughing?"

Zidane stood there staring at them. "What on earth happened to you, Kuja?" he asked abruptly.

"Hmm?" Kuja asked, his laughter subsiding.

"You actually laughed, Kuja. You laughed."

Clover raised her eyebrows. "So," she said, standing up. "You were that bad, huh? To never have laughed."

Kuja turned to look at her, trying to speak. He wanted to tell her, but didn't. What Flare said about him taking her affection and making her blind was true enough that it hurt. Clover shook his head.

"Don't, Kuja. Don't worry about it. As long as it comes from you, I don't care when I learn what happened before I found you."

With that, she turned and followed the trail of red dust, leaving the rest to only follow after her. As Kuja began to trail behind, lost in thought, he was surprised when Eiko came up beside him.

"You have to tell her sometime, you know," the little girl said timidly.

"I know," Kuja said sullenly. He was not looking forward to that day.

"Could I help?"

"What?" he said bemusedly, clearly surprised.

"I might be able to help some, but gimme some info. Why are you coming with us, anyway?"

"I'm not. I'm following Clover."

"Oh. Well, anyway. As strange as it seems, trust Zidane. And you can trust me. I really like Clover, so I suppose I'll stick with you. Garnet's cool, too. She just doesn't like you very much."

Kuja rested his hand on the small girl's shoulder. "Thank you," he replied honestly. "Never thought I'd say that, but you helped me before, too, you know."

Eiko nodded. "I had to kick your butt. Shame I had to, though."

"Why?"

Eiko grinned devilishly. "You're cuter than Zidane."



Clover dashed ahead of the others, the hurt that Kuja didn't trust her was more than she wanted to admit. So she focused on the trail of illuminated dust, sprinting easily through the forest of redwood trees. She had been surprised to find the rare trees growing so abundantly.

She heard a roar ahead of her, and increased her already fast pace, leaping over fallen boughs of redwood. She entered a clearing, to see Flare on his haunches, ready to launch. And as he did so, she got a brief glimpse of a raven haired girl on his back.