Chi: Hi! I know, I know, it's been forever and a day. I'm sorry. But hey, I kinda got busy with school, and then with family business... soooo... But I'm back now, and hopefully I'll be able to update on a more regular basis. At least once a month, hopefully. I'm trying to replay the game as I write this, and trying my hardest to stay as close to the story as I can, but as the story progresses, Cat will end up changing more and more about the storyline, just by being there. The curse of insert fics ^_^; but I'm actually gonna do it on purpose. Don't worry, I won't do anything too huge, like kill someone I don't like, or anything like that. Buuuut... you will notice some weird little bits. I mean, come on. They really do have to sleep and stuff. So there.
Cat: ...
Chi: What??
Cat: ...Nothing really, but I'm just wondering when you're gonna get on with it. I bet they are too.
Chi: Oh yeah... ^^;; So on we go!
After going down some steps, they saw a small booth with an odd looking man in it. Well, it wasn't as much a booth as an enclosure with some weapons on a blanket. But it would suffice.
Crono pointed at him, catching Cat's attention. "Is that the guy you were talking about?"
"Yep! Sure is!" Cat skipped over to him and grinned pleasantly. "Hi there! You sell weapons, right?" She was afraid she was at the wrong booth; after all, there was no telling how different than the game this might really be.
"I do," the weird looking man replied. "Would you like to buy?"
"Yes," Crono said, walking next to Cat and studying the swords. Then he pointed at one that looked quite well made. "How much is that?"
The shopkeeper glanced at it. "Oh, that would be my Lode Sword. Four thousand gold."
"Yikes, that's a lot." Crono blanched, then indicated a different one, which had about three identical copies near it. "How about those?"
"Three hundred fifty gold."
Crono thought about that, and Cat leaned forward, looking fascinated. "Is that the iron one? Wow..."
Both Crono and the merchant looked at her, obviously surprised. "You've a good eye, lass," the merchant complimented her. "That is indeed iron. I call it the Iron Blade."
"How'd you know that?" Crono wanted to know. He wasn't sure what to expect from her; first she seemed totally incompetent, then she surprised him.
"Oh, uh..." Cat's brain flailed for an excuse. "...Lucky guess..." she offered finally, for lack of a better explanation. "I've studied weapons a bit, and I'm really interested in swords, and I just kinda guessed..."
"I see." The merchant studied her a moment more, then apparently lost interest for the time being when Crono cleared his throat to get his attention.
"I would like two of the Iron Blades," Crono told the merchant, pulling out seven hundred gold.
The merchant took it and said, "I live on the continent east of here. Come visit me sometime. My name is Melchior." He looked past them at Marle and added, "By the way... do you think you could convince that young lady back there to sell me her pendant?"
Cat sucked in her breath. She knew that the better choice was to say no, but without a player to direct him, who knew what Crono's personality would urge him to say? Luckily, he shook his head and explained, "No, sorry. She seems quite attached to it, so I don't think so."
"...I see." Melchior lost interest in her and glanced at Cat again. Cat squirmed under his gaze while he handed both swords to Crono without taking his eyes off her.
Crono accepted them and gave one to Cat. She forced herself to tear her eyes away from Melchior and thank him, despite the fact that the merchant was still staring at her. "Thanks a lot, Crono!"
"You're expensive," he complained, but the grin on his face told Cat that he didn't mind too much. The odd expression on her face worried him more. "You alright?"
"Mm-hmm..." Cat could still feel Melchior's eyes on her. "Let's go do something, I'm getting bored!"
Crono and Marle, who had come up and joined them, both laughed. "Okay, then," Crono said after he'd calmed down a bit. "Let's go and fight the battle robot! He should be somewhere up there," he added, pointed up towards Leene's Bell.
"Great! Let's go!" Cat dashed away from Melchior, in a hurry to get away from his gaze. She already knew that he was more than he seemed, and it worried her. The longer she stood there, the harder it was to act natural, and the less natural she seemed, the more obvious her oddness was. Once she'd passed a kid sitting on a bench and climbed the stairs, Cat slowed down and waited for Crono and Marle to catch up. In response to their odd looks, she made up an excuse. "I just realized I don't know which way to go," she said, looking sheepish. It was an expression she'd learned early on, from pretending to be stupider than she was.
Laughing, Crono pointed to the left, and the three went that way. They passed an old man who was getting ready to eat lunch, and a cat who was sitting behind some booths. Then they went by a young man who was saying, "Try your strength against Lucca's battle robot!"
Then they were in a small enclosure, with a large, roundish robot. It had two points on his head that looked almost like ears. It shifted its substantial weight from one oval shaped foot to the other as it watched them approach it. When they got close, it yanked out a microphone and started singing, much to their surprise.
"They call me Gato; I have metal joints. Beat me up, and earn fifteen silver points!" it sang out, just slightly out of tune. Cat giggled hysterically.
"Spread out and surround it," Crono told them, unsheathing his sword and facing Gato from the front. Marle moved around to the right, and Cat went to the left. Marle pulled a crossbow from her back, and Cat followed suit, yanking her sword from its sheath awkwardly.
Just then Cat noticed the robot step towards Crono, and the circular covering on its stomach swung forward. "Look out!" she cried without thinking, and rushed forward, sword in front of her. As Crono froze in shock, Gato extended what seemed to be a boxing glove out of the opening on its stomach quickly, hitting Crono several times in his own stomach. Cat jumped forward, swinging her sword over her head and down onto Gato's shoulder. It turned its attention to her, ramming her with its glove multiple times and making her stagger backwards. Marle shot Gato in the back and set another bolt on her crossbow. The robot froze for a moment, then hit Cat again. Since she wasn't ready for it this time, the wind was knocked out of her and she fell on her backside. Crono ran at it, his sword ready, and slashed it twice. Then he rushed over to Cat and stood in front of her to try to stop her from being hit again before she regained her breath.
Gato seemed to have had enough though; it stopped moving for a moment, then went back to the center of the enclosure again and pulled out its microphone again. "I lost, you won. Here's fifteen points! Now wasn't that fun!?"
It extended its glove again, this time much slower, and with fifteen silver tokens in it. Crono took the tokens and held out a hand for Cat. Cat took it and hoisted herself to her feet. "Not bad for your first time, Cat," Crono told her as they all put away their weapons. "But I think you need to work on how you unsheathe it."
"Well, sorry!" Cat protested. "It's the first time I've ever even held a sword!"
"It's alright!" Crono told her. "Just try to pull it out straight, like this." He demonstrated. "That way, it comes out easier."
Cat tried it, pulling her sword out slowly. "That's it," Crono assured her. "Just a little faster when we're actually in front of a monster, okay?" Cat made a face at him and he laughed. "So, what're we going to do with these silver points?"
"I dunno," Marle answered thoughtfully. "What else is there to do?"
Cat gasped, making the other two look at her funny. She didn't seem to notice though, and she proceeded to jump up and down excitedly. "I wanna go to the tent of horrors!" Cat squealed, and Crono raised an eyebrow at her.
"Why?"
Cat stopped bouncing around. "Just... because..." After a moment's thought, she added, "I dunno. It just struck me as something fun to do."
Marle giggled. "Well, it does sound fun. Let's do it!"
Crono sighed at the two of them and agreed, although a bit put out. "Okay, fine." He led the way back south towards the entrance and made a left turn towards a large, colorful tent. The three teens passed an old lady who stood in front of the tent calling, "This is the Norstein Bekkler's Tent of Horrors! Spend your fifteen silver points here! Parental discretion recommended."
"How did she know how many silver points we have?" Cat whispered to Marle behind Crono, who led the way into the tent.
"I dunno, maybe she's psychic," Marle giggled, following Crono.
They entered the tent, which was bigger inside than it first appeared. There was a grate in the back of the room, straight ahead, which Cat swore she could see red eyes peeking through. Then they saw what appeared to be a floating face and two hands. The face had a big nose, almost like a clown's nose. Crono approached him, and then the face started laughing hysterically. Marle jumped and hid behind Crono, while Cat just raised an eyebrow at the odd laughter.
'It sounds almost just like the laugh on the game, except more annoying since it's in real life...'
"Welcome to Norstein Bekkler's Lab!" the face bellowed, waving its hands around flamboyantly. "The spine tingling show is about to start!" Not seeming to notice how freaked out Marle was, it moved over to the side and asked, "How many silver points would you like to spend?"
"Ten, please," Crono told it. The grate ahead of them opened, making Marle jump, and three men dressed as soldiers came out and stood in a line parallel to the three teenagers.
The first one stepped forward and announced, "I'm Vicks."
After Vicks had stepped back, the one on the right presented himself and said, "I'm Wedge."
When Wedge had gone back to his place, the middle one came forth and stated, "I'm Piette."
Next, as Cat knew they would, the three soldiers started going around the line, mixing themselves up thoroughly. Cat paid close attention, ignoring the fact that Crono and Marle both seemed to be shocked by the three men's behavior. When Vicks, Wedge, and Piette all found new places on the line, the face called out, "Find Wedge."
Crono and Marle both looked at each other in confusion before turning to Cat. Cat studied the three men carefully. As far as anyone could tell, all three were identical. Luckily for her, she already knew what was going on, and she had watched as carefully as she could. Almost certain of herself, she pointed at the one on the left and announced, "That one is Wedge."
The other two were shocked when the face cried, "Is it THAT obvious?"
"Way to go, Cat!" Marle squealed happily as the face held up a furry, adorable doll.
"It's a Poyozo doll. It'll spruce up your room." Then the doll disappeared, and the face said, "It's in your room now. Thank you, and come again."
Cat grinned triumphantly as they exited the tent. Marle was chattering happily. "I can't believe you did that so easily! I was totally confused when they came out! I had no idea they'd do something like that!"
"Neither did I..." Crono commented, sounding a bit suspicious.
Cat's grin faltered slightly, then she brightened up again and said, "I've done that before. It's a... game that I played with my friends all the time. Except we couldn't do it with people, so we did it with cups. It was hard, but after a while, you've learned to start paying attention the moment they start to move. We'd put small objects under the cups, and then we'd tell them which was where and cover them, and move them around, then we'd have them guess which was a certain object." Cat cursed in her head. Why did she have to make her lie so elaborate? Once she'd started talking, she didn't seem to be able to stop!
Crono smiled at her, all suspicions gone. "Oh, okay."
"That sounds like a lot of fun," Marle giggled.
As they went up the steps, Crono groaned. "Looks like Lucca's not done setting up," he said, pointing at two blonde guys who were blocking the way to the northernmost part of the fair. "So, what can we do now?"
Cat looked to her right. "What's over there? We haven't been over there yet." Without answering, Crono started walking that way with Cat and Marle in tow. There they saw some colorful booths full of fruits, a little girl who looked quite distraught, and a table with cans of soda on it. Cat rushed over to the girl quickly and asked, "Are you okay?! What's wrong?"
"Help me find my cat!" she wailed, looking horrified. "She's missing!"
Cat hugged the girl, trying to make her feel better, and looked over the girl's head at Crono. "Can you two try to find the cat while I try to make her stop crying?"
Without waiting for Crono's response, Marle nodded and dragged him away by his arm. Cat hugged the little girl, saying, "There, there, my friends are going to go find your kitty. Don't cry, they'll find her."
A few minutes later, Crono stomped back. Cat looked up at him and started laughing hysterically. He had scratches on his arms and one on his cheek. Crono didn't seem to think it as funny though, although Marle behind him obviously did. "We found the cat," he announced, "but it didn't seem keen on coming with us."
The girl heard this and burst into tears again. Cat sighed. "Marle, keep an eye on her. Crono, show me where the cat is."
Marle took over soothing the hysterical child while Crono led Cat over to where the kitten was hiding in some bushes. Cat crouched down, making herself very visible to the kitten and cooed, "Hello there. I'm Cat! What's your name, sweetie?"
Groaning, Crono grumbled, "Cat, come on now, do you really think it can understand you?!"
"It can," she insisted gently, so as not to scare the kitten. "Come on, your friend is very worried about you now. She's crying a lot, because she thinks you're lost. And she doesn't think you're going to come back. But you will now, won't you? Please? She's quite upset about losing you, and she wants you to be near her."
"Cat..." Crono's voice trailed off as he heard a soft mew and saw the kitten's head poke out of the bushes. Cat continued to coax her out until she could pick her up and cradle her in her arms.
"That's a good little girl... She'll be happy to see you again..." Looking at Crono meaningfully, Cat led the way back to the distressed child, with the kitten in her arms. Crono looked down at his scratched up forearms, sighed, and followed.
The girl looked up sharply when she heard Cat's footsteps, and squealed in delight when she saw her kitten. "You brought back my cat! Thank you!"
Marle started giggling happily. "It was sweet of you to try, Crono," she assured him, using a quick healing spell on him to heal the scratches.
Cat grinned. "Yeah, it was. Thanks. You did find the kitty, after all." Then she noticed the drinking contest nearby and squealed happily. "Hey! You wanna try that?"
Crono looked over at it and grinned. "Why not? I'm usually pretty good at these."
The guy doing the contest heard them and called, "It's a soda guzzling contest! Drink as quickly as you can for thirty seconds!" Crono strutted over and grabbed the first can. "Ready...go!"
Chi: It's 4 in the morning, so I thought that'd be a good time to end it...
Cat: 4:03...
Chi: Whatever! Oh, in case anyone was wondering, these A/Ns are always stuff me and Cat talk about when I finish or start chapters. If I need help with an A/N, I just tell her what I'm saying and she says something smart aleck -_-"
Cat: ^_^V
Chi: Anyway, those of you who got an email about this, sorry if you didn't want it. I try to make people happy. And I thought maybe you'd want to know that I finally updated.
Cat: 4:05...
Chi: Aww, shut up! *hits Cat with frying pan*
Cat: @_@ lookit the purdy birdies.... *falls over*
Chi: ^_^V Please review and tell me what you thought!
