*Author's notes at the end.

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Chapter 11

In Which a Dislike of High Speeds is Discovered

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"O'aka?" I called in surprise. I managed to dismount-or fall off of, take your pick-the chocobo. "I thought you'd still be in Luca!"

O'aka waved to Kiyo and nodded to Sky. "Remember, I wanted to travel but still wanted to sell things? It's the family business," he explained. "You suggested I be a traveling merchant. And here I am, O'aka the third, Merchant Extraordinaire!" He swept a deep bow and Sakura giggled. My stomach growled.

"Would you like to join us for lunch?" Sky asked.

"Sorry. Sk.er, lady." Sky shook her head. "Then sorry, Sky. Can't. I already ate, and I want to get to Guadosalam before the week's out."

"Where's that?" Nyk asked.

"Down the road a bit. About." Sakura peered curiously at the map. "Now that can't be right."

"Love that map, don't you?" Nyk said cheerfully. "Let me see." He took the parchment and wrinkled his forehead at it. "The mile scale's all off. There's no scale, actually. Just marks along the road. All different widths. No wonder. I knew it couldn't have been twenty miles to the inn. The sea part looks all nice and regular, though. Guess that's what you get from a nautical map."

O'aka cleared his throat. "Don't know how far it is, exactly. The Guados live there. awful strange bunch. Look kind of like plants. Best stores in Spira, though. I'm hoping to buy supplies there."

"To sell them for outrageous prices?" Sky asked, grinning. "You're notorious for that."

"Maybe. You'll get a discount, though, I promise. You know, speaking of selling." He took his knapsack off his shoulder and pulled out several bottles, small bags, and weapons that shouldn't have been able to fit in his sack. "Have some items here that might interest you." He looked up hopefully."

Smiling a bit, I walked over and knelt where he had spread his wares on a blanket on the ground. Sakura and Kiyo followed me, and Sky said she and Nyk would arrange for lunch inside.

"The Al Bhed invented a way to customize weapons," O'aka said conversationally. "It takes years to learn how, and that isn't very practical. However, I struck a deal with some Al Bhed that I met.um, in Luca, and I managed to obtain some pre-customized weapons! Anything specific you need?"

Sakura began bargaining for a quiver of arrows that she found as I picked up a small red cloth bag and opened it.

"You know," remarked Kiyo, "Seeing as I just bought new knives in Luca, I really don't need anything. I'll go see what's going on inside." He stood up and left.

I looked up briefly as he walked away, then turned back to the bag. Inside were dozens of small, four-pointed metal stars, in varying colors. I picked up a red one and looked at it curiously. It was warm, and ghosts of flames flew up off it every so often. There was a small stone embedded in the center.

I discovered O'aka was kneeling next to me. "Those are throwing stars. Long ranged weapons that are, well, thrown. Those in there are Tetra stars. All four elements, assorted. Only five hundred gil for the lot."

I chuckled. "You've improved your sales talk since I saw you last. You talked me into it." I fished the gil out of my pocket and handed it to him, dropping the red star into the bag and putting it in my pocket. They might come in handy, I thought, remembering how I'd had to throw rocks to distract the giant plant fiend we'd fought on the way to Luca. And just that morning I'd wished that I had a ranged attack to combat the dragon fiend.

"Thanks," O'aka said, packing his wares away and standing up. "Might even be able to rent a chocobo to get to Guadosalam. They're pretty expensive normally. Be seeing you, then!" He waved and walked off down he road, whistling."

"Who was that, anyway?" Sakura asked, slinging her new quiver over her shoulder.

"O'aka. He's from Kilika, came here with Kiyo," I said. "His family's shop sold items for outrageously high prices, till they realized no one was buying anything."

She grinned. "There's a fenced in area over there. We should put the chocobos in there, so nothing happens to them." I nodded and took the reins of three chocobos. Sakura took the other two, and we led them around the side of the inn.

There were already several chocobos in the fenced area, probably left there by the Crusaders we'd met earlier. They had the same style of bridle, though theirs were purple and the ones on our chocobos were green.

Sakura pulled the wooden gate open and herded her chocobos through it. A few of the other birds came over to investigate as I tried to force mine in. They were refusing to even go near the fence.

"I don't think they like me," I said grumpily, fruitlessly trying to pull one in by the bridle. This was proved when Sakura rolled her eyes and took the reins-they followed her in, meek as kittens. She laughed, and we headed to the door of the inn.

As we entered, we saw Sky, Nyk, and Kiyo sitting around a round table to the left of the door, eating cheese sandwiches and salad.

"'Pparently, th' salad's Guado-grown," Kiyo said as we sat down. Sakura hit him gently on the back of the head and told him not to talk with his mouth full. He swallowed and grinned.

"You mean, they just grow whole bowls of salad?" I said with exaggerated astonishment. Nyk snickered.

"Yeah. See, they grow a couple rows of the blue bowls with tomato salad, a couple with green bowls and carrots." We all cracked up. "No, I'm pretty sure they just grow the lettuce. Try some. It's good."

I looked dubiously at the bowl in front of me. My parents had had to trick me into eating vegetables when I was younger, and I still didn't like them. Warily picked up a forkful and looked at it.

"Don't worry, it won't bite," Sky said innocently. She knew I loathed vegetables. I glared at her and stuck the lettuce in my mouth.

"It is pretty good," I commented after swallowing. "I think I'll stick to sandwiches, though."

The rest of lunch passed uneventfully. It was nice just to sit and joke around, rather than running around and hitting things.

When we were almost done, Sakura pulled out the map again. Nyk groaned. "That thing's useless, you know."

"Is not. I just don't know how far it is to anything. It was right about the inn being here, anyway." She consulted it. "We'll be passing the ocean sometime today, probably around evening. It's just as far from here to Mushroom Rock as it was to Luca. At least, they both say twenty miles, so I figure both of them are wrong in the same way. We'll probably get to Djose tomorrow."

Sky raised an eyebrow. "Guess we'll just have to trust your estimates, then," she said dubiously. "I don't have much of a kind for that kind of stuff. We paid in advance for the meal, so we can go when we like."

We left a few minutes later. It's much easier to get on a chocobo when you've done it before, I discovered. Barely five minutes after leaving the inn, we were all ready to go.

Sakura didn't say anything for the first half hour after we set off, which was unlike her, considering the rest of us were chattering away. My curiosity got the better of me, and I rode over and asked her what was wrong.

She considered for a moment. "I'm worried about Liya," she said finally. "When we said goodbye this morning. she asked when we were coming back. I mean, it's dangerous, and we. we might not. So I told her that; I didn't think it was really right to lie to her. She asked why."

"What did you tell her?" I said after a moment's silence.

"I.told her we might die. She asked what would happen if we died, why we wouldn't be able to come back." Sakura shrugged unhappily. "She doesn't understand. She's too young, and she was just a baby when our parents died. I'm just worried about what'll happen if we don't come back."

"Don't say that," I said firmly. "We'll all be fine."

Sakura smiled a bit. "Ignoring bad things doesn't always work, Rai. You need to see the big picture. I'm just. Grandfather's almost seventy. He won't live much longer. I guess I'm wondering what'll happen to Liya if neither Nyk or I come back."

I shook my head. "If it happens, it happens. Don't dwell on it." She made a hmm-ing sound, but didn't say anything.

~~~

I didn't see the ocean at first. The setting sun was at just the right angle to shine blindingly into my eyes, and my chocobo pretty much controlled itself, as my eyes were screwed shut to protect them from the sun. And while your eyes are screwed up, you can't see much of anything. That's why I didn't see the ocean.

I smelled the ocean first. A sharp, salty, slightly fishy smell hung in the air, blowing towards us with the sea breeze. As I had just been reminiscing about the many afternoons my little sister, Tami, and I had spent fishing, I at first thought it was just my imagination. I was proved wrong, however, as the path took a sharp turn to the left and the sun swung around to sit to the side of us. The Highroad was carved out of the side of a hill in this area, and the sea that lay below us was an impressive sight.

The ocean wasn't blue. Or, it was only blue near the shore. Farther out it glowed orange, reflecting the sunlight. We paused and dismounted, both to take a rest and watch the ocean fade to a darker and darker hue. I winced as I got off my chocobo. I had never ridden this long before-really, I had never ridden before in the first place-and I was very sore.

"I love the sea," Sky commented. "Brings back memories."

"You're from Kilika, right?" Kiyo asked.

"Yes.lived there most of my life."

I squinted at the horizon. "There's clouds moving in.", I could see a large black splotch along the horizon, like a smear of black paint. "Hope we don't get caught in the storm."

"They're moving fast," commented Nyk. He was right, I noticed-I could see the clouds move, quickly and close to the ground.

Sky's head jerked towards the ocean as Nyk said this. She stared out across the water, her face unreadable, for a moment, then turned around abruptly. "Let's go!" She ran to her chocobo and tried unsuccessfully to mount it.

"I don't want to be caught out in the storm either, but." Nyk said as he walked over and gave her a leg up.

"Thanks. That's not a storm," she said impatiently.

"Sin?" Kiyo asked in a near-whisper. Sky nodded, and we all raced over to the chocobos. Nyk helped Sakura climb on hers while she muttered something about hating being short. I managed to climb up by myself-it's amazing what you can do when doom and destruction's looking over your shoulder.

The chocobos were fidgety, and started running almost as soon as I sat down. Mine stretched its head out to the front, and I had that awful feeling of slipping forward again. I clutched at the bridle, accidentally pulling the bird's head back and slowing it down. As soon as I loosened my grip, though, it was back to breakneck speed. I slid over to the left of the chocobo, and frantically grabbed the bird's neck. I stopped sliding, but I also lost the reins.

About five minutes after we started off, the path faded from dirt into gravel. The chocobo began weaving and darting among the rocks standing, most inconveniently, in the middle of the path. It became more and more of a struggle to hang on, especially when a loud, echoing roar was heard behind us-the birds panicked. Well, I don't know if the others panicked-I had my eyes shut tight, and was trusting the chocobo to steer itself. If I get out of this alive, I promised myself, I will do everything in my power not to ride one of these ever again. Somehow I lost my hair ties, and my hair came partially loose and streamed out behind me. Some of it blew in my face, and I chose to concentrate on that rather than the speed at which I was moving.

The path sloped sharply downwards to cut through the middle of the hill. As the steep stone and dirt walls closed in around us, I heard a low rumbling from somewhere far behind. I risked opening my eyes to see what was happening, and instantly regretted it. The scenery was a brown and gray blur, with two chocobos in front of me, and-I presumed-two behind. I screwed my eyes back up.

The chocobo slowed down a bit. I think it was tired, and even fear could only drive it so hard. I risked loosening my grip, only to find that yet again, I had been inadvertently slowing the chocobo down. My last desperate grab at its neck, or anything to hold on to, proved useless, and the next thing I knew I was sailing through the air as the chocobo zoomed forward and disappeared from view behind a turn in the path.

The impact of my shoulder hitting a rock tore down my spine and made me yelp. I saw a violet and yellow blur-Sakura on her chocobo-zoom past me. Sakura turned her shocked face towards me as she continued on, but apparently couldn't slow down her chocobo enough to stop.

The next thing I knew, my arm was nearly pulled out of its socket. I found myself sitting in a sort of sidesaddle on the back of Kiyo's chocobo. He sighed in relief.

"Thought I was going to fall off there," he yelled over the noise of the wind and the growing rumbling behind us. "You okay?"

I was jerked sideways as the chocobo leaped over a rock. I found I had wrapped my arms around Kiyo's waist, hanging on for dear life.

"Uh-huh," I said nervously, nodding quickly. Tears leaked out of my eyes, and I wasn't sure if they were from shock or pain.

Over the course of the next few minutes, I wondered if we were ever going to get off the Highroad. It seemed as if hours had been spent riding a chocobo at hundreds of miles an hour. Probably not hundreds, I amended. Thousands. It seemed that way, anyway.

All the while, the rumbling grew stronger and louder. The few looks I risked to take showed rocks and dirt being shaken from the sides of the cliffs, and the path behind us was obscured with tan and brown dust. All the time I was wishing for the chocobo to slow down, I was also wishing speed up, speed up, got to hurry, get out of here!

All of a sudden the hills themselves seemed to be rumbling. Dirt rained down from somewhere high above, and my eyes stung as dust was blown into them. I didn't dare to let go to wipe them, though. I sneezed several times, just as the rumbling escalated to an unbearable level and we burst out into sunshine.

Even when we stopped, I kept my eyes tightly shut. I was still shaking from the speed of our ride. I only opened them when Kiyo twisted around and said, "You need to let go for me to get off-what happened?"

At first embarrassed, I opened my eyes, wondering what he was talking about. A sharp pain in my shoulder reminded me as he dismounted. Looking at it, I gasped and felt faintly sick.

My shoulder was bleeding in several places, and so was my left hand. A gash ran down that arm. Why didn't I notice?! I asked myself angrily, dismounting. Sure, it had hurt, but.I collapsed as soon as I hit the ground. My legs wobbled, and my vision blurred for a moment. Finding it was easier to sit down, I sat.

"What happened?" Sky demanded, walking over to me and kneeling down.

"I fell off my chocobo." I gazed at my arm, faintly wondering why it hurt so much. Ah, that's right. I hit a rock, didn't I.

"You've lost a lot of blood," Sky said worriedly. I didn't notice. My vision blurred and settled a few times, before blanking out completely. The last thing I saw was the dust clearing where the Highroad used to be, and finding myself facing a solid wall of rock.

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I'm actually on time! *throws confetti* Despite several more. machina troubles. Ahem. On a side note, only five days until I turn fourteen!

If you check, you'll find that the Highroad did actually get destroyed five hundred years ago. (Actually, one of the reasons I chose this time to set the story in.) Maechen tells you, I think. The Highroad you travel on in the game is actually the "Newroad."

And that, as they say, is that.