Yes, yes. I know, late again. I had about six pages of this typed up when my foot hit the computer cord and knocked it out of its plug. Boom, no more chapter. So then I come home-I was at the school library-and try to work on it again, and my computer freezes up. Don't you hate days like that? Anyway, you have a late night, a tired writer, and a very large pixie stick to thank that the chapter's here at all. There was much rejoicing.

Chapter 10

In Which There Are (Finally) Chocobos

The clouds that I had seen last night must have moved up the coast. When we all met on the large stone platform outside the Mi'ihen Highroad the next morning, a pale gray fog obscured everything. Leaning over the balcony at the front of the platform, I could just barely make out the outlines of the Blitzball stadium. Mi'ihen was just a dirt track leading into gray nothingness. The temperature must have dropped when the fog came in-I was shivering. My tunic and leggings were appropriate for the tropical sun and warm breezes of Kilika, but I probably should have brought a coat. Ah, well, I thought, I'll warm up when we start walking.

Sakura was amusing herself by standing next to me and shouting over the balcony, wondering at how it sounded thin and quiet and had no echo at all. I've come to not mind her as much as I'd thought I would-it was nice to have someone so cheerful for a friend. Sky was sitting on the stone steps leading up to Mi'ihen, fishing through a small knapsack. Sakura's grandfather had provided three for us, to carry food and blankets. Nyk was leaning against a stone pillar that stood by the stairs. I looked back towards Luca and saw Kiyo trotting up the road towards us.

"Sorry I'm a bit late," he said as he came within hearing distance. I saw that he was now wearing a belt with what looked like two knives handing from it. "Not much of a morning person, really." Sakura grinned and jerked her thumb at Nyk who, despite having been up for two hours, still looked half asleep. The rest of us were quite chipper in comparison.

"Shall we get going, then?" Sky said, looking up. We all murmured our agreement and came over to the stairs.

The sun started to rise high in the sky in the first few minutes of walking. Within ten minutes, a good part of the fog was gone, and the road was much easier to see. It was a dirt track surrounded by grass, and bushes were growing a little ways past the path. I thought I could see trees in the distance, but I wasn't sure.

"We'll probably be able to see the ocean once we get farther on," Sakura commented. She was holding the map and looking at it intently. "Before that, I think there's an inn. the writing's kind of blurred. The map stops a little after that." She rolled up the map.

"How far is it to the inn?" Sky asked.

Sakura unrolled the map again. "Let's see.it looks like about twenty miles. We'll be there by lunch," she said confidently, re-rolling the map.

Sky shrugged. "If you think so."

"It really would be nice if we had some chocobos," Nyk commented.

"I've only heard of them in the calm lands, though," his sister interjected.

"I know. Just-"

There was no time for further conversation-that's when the fiends struck.

Three fiends were in the group. One looked like a large stone, and the second like a circle made of ice. The third was a strange-looking, purple imp.

"I'll stay back and heal," Sky called. That was smart. New fiends can be dangerous-we've learned that by experience.

We all pulled out our weapons. Sakura shot at the rock-like fiend, but her arrow just bounced off. She ran forward and grabbed it, then quickly dodged sideways as the rock-fiend barreled towards her. Nyk cast a fire spell on the ice-fiend, who must have been weak against fire-it fell to the ground, where it dissolved into pyreflies.

Frowning at the rock-fiend, I decided to try something new. Concentrating on my shuriken, I was rewarded with a red globe of light surrounding the top point. I ran forward and slashed, and even though my shuriken bounced off the armor like the arrow had, the globe of light disappeared and the rock-fiend then glowed a dull red. The next arrow Sakura shot killed the fiend, and I grinned with pleasure.

All this time, Kiyo and the imp-fiend had been sparring. The imp had landed a couple of hits, to judge by the red scratches on Kiyo's arms, but I couldn't tell if Kiyo had-every one I saw, the imp dodged. Then Kiyo shook his head exasperatedly and drew a symbol in the air with one knife. The imp dropped to the ground, apparently asleep. Kiyo slashed it and it dissolved into pyreflies.

As we continued on, I asked Kiyo, "Don't you think it's a little unfair, to kill the fiend in its sleep?"

He shook his head. "It attacked us, so you could say it was in self- defense. And besides, when people die, do you know what happens if they're unsent?" I shook my head. "Either they stay on Spira as ghosts, kind of, or they become fiends. So every fiend we kill is a soul being sent to the farplane."

I started to think about my family and friends in Kilika-had those who didn't survive become fiends? -until I remembered Kiyo had told me about another Summoner there. Any who died had been sent, then, at least. "Oh."

We hadn't gone ten steps before we were attacked again. This time we were against two bomb fiends like the one's we'd fought on the way to Luca and a large, dragon-like beast. We were used to fighting the bomb fiends, so we took those out first while trying our best to dodge the dragon-fiend's attacks. It wasn't very fast, but it was strong, to judge by the way I saw stars after it rammed me.

After Nyk killed the last bomb with a Blizzard spell, Kiyo faced the dragon- fiend and made another symbol in the air with his knife, a different one than last time. A cloud of black smoke appeared around its head, and apparently blinded it, to judge by the way it just ran around randomly after that. With most danger of being hurt gone, I was able to get close enough to do damage to it. Killing it took a good five minutes; as I said before, it was strong.

After battle, Kiyo picked up one of the red orbs the bombs had dropped. "You have any more of these?" he asked thoughtfully.

"We picked up about thirty on our way to Luca," Nyk replied wryly.

Kiyo dropped the orb into his pocket and pulled out a light blue orb. "Rai, can I see your Shuriken for a minute?"

"Why?"

"I want to try something." I shrugged and handed it to him. He unscrewed one of the blades-why hadn't I known they could come off?-and placed the blue orb into a depression in the center. He screwed the blade back on and handed it to me.

I took it back, curious as to what he had done. Nothing happened for a few seconds, but then the four blades began to glow blue, and I almost dropped my weapon in shock. Recovering, I placed my hand to the side of one of the blades and pulled it back quickly when I realized the blades felt like ice- and were as cold as it.

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I figured if I used an ice orb-picked it up from that ice fiend-it would make the weapon have an ice attack. It should work better against the bombs," he said, a bit smug.

"I mean, how did you know you could do that?"

"Remember how I said my dad works with the Al Bhed?" he replied as Sky cast a Cure spell on Sakura. "They invented it, as a way to customize weapons. And to have something to do with all the useless stuff the fiends dropped. One of them taught me how."

"Oh." I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to use something the Al Bhed invented, but it did seem to help against the next bombs we encountered-ten steps after we set off.

"What's going on here?" a rather annoyed Sakura asked no one in particular after the fourth battle.

Things continued like that for the next few hours. Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted when we stopped for a break near the shelter of some old ruins.

"We've only gone two miles!" a dismayed Sakura exclaimed, holding out the map. "We'll never make it to-"

"Fiends!" Sky yelled. Two bombs and a dragon-fiend immediately beset us.

"I can't cast it anymore," exclaimed Kiyo-'it' meaning the Darkness spell. "Cast it too many times already!"

The dragon decided to run after him, and as his knives weren't of much use- he had to be close to use them-there was nothing to do but run. The fiend darted after Nyk then, but halfway to him decided to come after me.

I was backed up into the bushes, and had only one way to go-but that was forward, towards the dragon barreling towards me. I've never wished I could do magic more-but then again, as the Water spells Nyk was frantically casting seemed to do no damage to the fiend, maybe I should have wished to be able to attack from far away. At any rate, I hunched down, trying to shield my face, and prepared for the worst.

The worst never came. I heard a mighty roar and the thud of something hitting the ground, but I didn't dare to look up until I heard the faint sighing noise of pyreflies.

Wondering, I stood up to face a tall, black-haired man. He was wearing breeches and a vest-like shirt, and carrying a large sword.

"You all right?" he asked. I nodded, a bit embarrassed-guardians should fight, not cower in the bushes. He walked over to Sky, and I followed.

"I am Summoner Sky," Sky said, bowing. "I thank you for your intervention."

The man bowed back. "Think nothing of it. I am Thad, a Crusader. It is my job to fight fiends on the Highroad-among other things."

Sky introduced the rest of us as her guardians, as I looked behind the man. There was a green cart with two chocobos tied to it sitting by the side of the road. A black-haired woman was sitting on the driver's bench, and several more chocobos were milling about.

"Excuse me, but do you know why there's so many fiends here?" Sakura asked as I looked back at the group.

Thad looked a bit sheepish. "I'm afraid that's our fault. You see, every week or two us Crusaders journey down the Highroad, clearing it of fiends for the next week. We've been. a bit lax in out duties lately. It's been a month since we've been down this way."

"Thad!" the woman called from the cart. "Ye goin' to stand there gabbin' all day?" Thad shook his head ruefully and jogged towards the cart, motioning us to follow.

"My co-Crusader Yume," he said resignedly.

"Who would you folks be?" the woman asked critically as we approached. "Don't see many comin' down the Highroad these days."

Sky introduced us again. "A Summoner, are ye then? I remember the last Summoner to come down this way. You're fair young to be one." Sky stiffened, then relaxed a bit as Yume said, "But the Aeons chose you, they did. You're fair strong for your age, then."

"Yume," Thad said irritably, "likes to think she knows everything."

"But I do," said the woman virtuously. Sakura masked a laugh in a sudden bout of coughing.

"You won't find many fiends for the rest of the road," the man continued. "We've cleared out that part."

"Why do you have so many chocobos?" I asked, curious.

"We wanted to introduce a mounted unit to the Crusaders. We think a Crusader on an armored chocobo would be hard to beat, but." he sighed. "Our current general says it's too costly, requires too much training. We don't know what's going to happen to the chocobos now."

"Might take 'em to the Calm Lands, after Sin's dead," interjected Yume. She then eyed us. "Ye need to get to Djose, right?" Sky nodded. "Lot quicker on a Chocobo. No use after Mushroom Rock, but they're fair helpful on the Highroad. We'll sell you five, hundred gil each."

Thad seemed about to protest, but then sighed. "Well?"

Nyk turned to Sakura. "You said there weren't any around here," he said in a smug whisper as Sky counted out five hundred gil and handed it to Yume. Fiends sometimes dropped gil, and with the constant battles of the morning, we had gotten quite a stash of money.

"We'll be seein' ye, then," Yume said as Thad put bridles on five of the chocobos, led them over to us, and jumped onto the cart bench.

"Good luck!" he called as the cart rumbled off.

"I wonder if they're hard to ride," commented Sakura, looking at one dubiously.

"Well, you figure they were trained to carry Crusaders who didn't know how to ride," said Nyk, hopping onto a nearby rock, then the back of the chocobo nearest him. It peered over its shoulder to look at him, and Nyk rubbed its beak. "See?"

"Sure, but you've ridden before," Sakura said accusingly.

I took the reins of a smaller chocobo than Nyk's and led it over to the rock. I climbed on the rock and made a little jump up to the back of the bird. It wasn't uncomfortable, really, but it felt strange. When the chocobo bent its head to bite at the grass around its feet, I grabbed the reins tight-it felt like I was going to fall off! The chocobo looked back at me reproachfully, and I loosened my grip.

Kiyo was able to swing himself up from the ground, as he was the tallest of us. The other two girls had some problems deciding how to sit-their skirts made it difficult to ride astride like the rest of us. Sakura decided on a sort of sidesaddle, and Sky followed her lead; soon, we were all mounted.

"I've ridden one before," Kiyo called. "You nudge its sides to go. Lean back to stop, and pull the reins. Lean if you want to turn-it'll pretty much follow the way you're leaning. Push with your legs, too, it'll turn away from your leg."

At first, riding was hard. If I got going too fast, I would panic and lean backwards, making my mount stop in its tracks and look at me reproachfully. I was afraid to lean, for fear I would fall off. I can't blame the bird, though-it was extremely patient, as were all the chocobos.

Sometime around half an hour after we started, my fear vanished. Partially it was the sight of Nyk speeding along and waiting impatiently for the rest of us to catch up, and part of it was wanting to get to the inn quicker. But it was mostly just being impatient at myself, sitting on the chocobo for all the world like a sack of flour. Whatever the reason, I started going faster. We all did.

Of course, I was still sitting on the chocobo like a sack of flour, but at least I was moving.

I even started to have a little fun after a while. Zipping along a road with the wind blowing your hair straight back and making your eyes water while knowing there's not much keeping you from flying away backwards is pretty exhilarating, I have to admit. (Well. okay, maybe we weren't going that fast.) It was even better not having to fight fiends every ten steps. However, in the way of these things, just as I started enjoying it we were at the inn.

It was.well, strange-looking. The sign over the door was written in some foreign language-I think it might have been Al Bhed. The building itself was painted in pinks and blues, and reflected the sunlight back into our eyes. However, it was an inn, and I wanted lunch. All that mattered, really.

I squinted against the sun, looking up into the sky. From what I could tell, the sun was almost overhead. "Time for lunch," I said.

I was just dismounting my chocobo and telling it that it was a good bird for putting up with me when I glimpsed a man coming toward us at a run from the inn. With the sunlight reflecting off the building-stupid way to build, really-I couldn't see his face until he was a few feet away from us. When I could see, I gasped.

"O'aka?"