"God Damnit!"
"Now Cid. Is that anyway for a king to act?"
"......... But, Shera!" Cid whined as he was pulled in to his wife's arms. "It's not working."
"I'm sure you can get your ..................... flying toy to work eventually." The motherly woman said as she looked the strange craft. "Maybe if you didn't put so much iron on it....."
"Wood's not strong enough, Shera. I can't think of any other metal lighter than iron either......."
"What about mirthil?" she replied as she guided her husband out of the............ hangar. "I'm pretty sure that it's lighter than wood and stronger than iron."
"We don't have the right resources for mining or finding it. The kingdom of Highwind isn't known for it's miners! We're warriors damnit! Inventors! Scientists! But over all we're warriors! We don't know a damned thing about mining no fucking metal! I-----"
"Corel is a kingdom of miners, dear." she interrupted without raising her voice. "And we do have an alliance with them. After all, King Dyne is my father. I do believe that he would see the use of a flying machine in our defense. Being in between Shinra and Wutai is bad enough when they don't get along. It's even worse when they do."
Sighing King Cid draped his arm around his wife. "Sometimes I don't know what I would do without you woman." Stealing a brief peck on her forehead. "Now, what's this official business that I have to take care of?"
"Sephiroth's been kicked out by Aeris again...................." she said smiling weakly.
"WHAT'S THAT DUMB-ASSED MORON DONE NOW!" Cid shouted causing an eavesdropping servant to cringe away from the other side of the door.
"Cid you should be more understanding of him...... after all he is your son.............."she replied letting her voice trail off. This was the tenth time this had happened in three months.
"Do you know what it was this time?"
"He wouldn't say..." she replied starting Cid on another cussing spree.
******************************************************************************
Holding onto the top of a stone wall two dainty hands pulled the owner's face over the top. Chestnut hair engulfed the woman's face as burgundy eyes flitted around looking for something. Not finding what she was looking for the woman relaxed and pulled herself the rest of the way onto the wall. Gripping the wall with her black clad legs, she extended a hand to her companion. Blonde spikes cleared the top of the wall long before the face ever did.
Silently jumping to the ground Tifa motioned for Cloud to follow. After measuring the distance to the ground the blonde man began to pump his arms before jumping. Landing with the grace of an ostrich launched out a cannon the man looked blankly at the sky before focusing on Tifa's concerned face. Tifa waited patiently for Cloud to count the two fingers she held up.
"Oh.....errr......I know..... ummmm... .... the answer to this one!" he said between groans. "It's ten..... two fingers on each hand!"
"I guess that will work." Tifa muttered as she helped him to his feet.
"I was just playing with you, Teef." he said looking at her with an adorable puppy dog face.
"I know, Cloud" she replied as she watched him scan the heavily wooded area.
"You ready to find some monsters?" he asked with his back turned to her.
"Oh course." Tifa replied as she began to follow Cloud through the thicket. After all if they didn't get any monsters this time they would be broke. Being a monster hunter had it's disadvantages. Especially when the town you were trying to help cleanse expected you to bring back all the monsters you killed. You could only carry so much of them before they got really heavy.
"What's the name of this place again?" Tifa asked trying to keep up.
"Welcome to the Temple of the Ancients." replied a deep voice in her ear. Spinning around to face the intruder, Tifa found herself locked into a gaze of midnight blue. Eyes that seemed to penetrate her soul. "I'm Zack. Who might you be, lovely lady?"
******************************************************************************
"Grandfather?"
"Yes, Nanaki?" replied the old man without looking up from the telescope.
"Who was the young lady with my father?"
Looking up from the telescope in surprise, the old man turned his attention to the young creature beside him. "That would be Queen Aeris, Nanaki. She's here to met with the council with 'urgent' business concerning the Planet."
"Aren't you a part of the council, Grandfather?" the cat-beast asked with the innocents of childhood.
"Ho ho ho, So I am. Now, why didn't anyone tell me she was here?"
"Well, I just did Grandfather." Nanaki reminded his Grandfather.
"Ho ho ho, so you did." said the elderly man as he floated to the exit. Turning back to his charge he seemed to have an idea. "Would you like to accompany me, Nanaki? I'm sure it's not earth shattering news. More than likely it's the latest news about her husband. Ho ho ho!"
Leaving a trail of light behind his wagging tail, Nanaki bounded after his mentor. It was a special honor to be included in a Tribal meeting........ especially if you weren't on the council. Chuckling at his charge's antics the man floated into a chamber that would make an earth shattering decision that night.
Author notes: Yeah! Chapter 2 is now done! I've got more ideas on the way. Remember to vote on your favorite couples and I'll do my best to please the crowd... so far the results are as follows:
Cloud x Tifa- 3
Sephiroth x Aeris- 2
Yuffie x Reno- 2
Yuffie x Rufus- 2
Yuffie x Vincent- 1
Tifa x Zack-1
Aeris x Vincent-1
Elena x Rufus-1
Tifa x Vincent- 1
and that concludes the votes! Next chapter...I'll intorduce more people than I have no idea what i'm gonna do! TTFN!
