Chapter 3
You know the drill; I don't own Final Fantasy 9 or any of its characters except for Amber and my evil minion- I-I mean my not so helpful and annoying assistant Fagtron.
Fagtron: HI!
Sorceress Myst: Don't ruin the intro! You're not supposed to be here, you're under aged for a PG-13 fic.
Fagtron: I'm two years old!
Sorceress Myst: (Stuffs her in a closet) Sorry about the delay, here's the story.
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The hot sun shone on the bright golden sand of the beach as blue green waves rolled in and out. The wind gentle blew at a tuft of whitish blonde hair, making it tangle. Crystalline blue eyes shot open and surveyed the surroundings. The figure groaned and straightened her hair before getting up to brush sand off her clothes. Her tail swished in annoyance as she looked for her masamune. The sword was two feet behind her and had a black velvet bag tied to it. Amber picked up the bag and rummaged through it. Inside was her royal crest, a large amount of Gil, dried fruits and vegetables, and a package of dried cow meat. She immediately ripped open the meat packet and devoured some of the meat. Gaia doesn't have cows so when Amber moved here, the only meat she had was monster meat. Once she tied the bag to her belt, she picked up her sword and finally noticed a note tucked in to the sheath. The end that was showing is wet, but the rest was dry.
'Find me in Treno'. The words were the same handwriting as the note Amber received yesterday.
"Kuja wrote this," she mused as she crumpled it up and threw it in the bag, "Well I will go find him when I feel like it. I have to find Zidane first."
Once she was a good distance away from the beach, she surveyed her surroundings. Up ahead were vast grasslands and a marsh to her right. The marsh was two miles away and had a good chance of someone living in it, so Amber took a deep breath and began her journey. The sun was unbearably hot and each step was harder to take once she reached the entrance. She noticed the swamp was surprisingly cool as she followed the wooden path. Up ahead were two moogles. The bigger one had a smug, knowing grin plastered on his face and the little one flapped his wings and laughed.
"Gosh Bro. You sure know a lot." chirped the tiny one. The grin widened on his face as he replied, "Yeah, I know."
"Um, excuse me? Could you tell me where we are?" the moogles finally acknowledged her presence.
"We are in the Qu Marsh in the Lost Continent. If you need supplies or a place to stay, go talk to the Qus. They live past the long grass here."
"Thank you." She paused at the place where the big mog was pointing to.
"Don't worry, if you have some frogs or food on you, they will welcome you." assured the small mog. She pushed through the grass until she came to a clearing with a large pot boiling over a fire in the center. Two creatures surrounded the pot. They had white faces and their tongues were hanging out.
"Chocobo Stew is good, right Quan?" the first one wagged its tongue at the other.
"Yes Quale, master will be pleased." The other responded. Amber looked to the right of the clearing to see a large, yellow, ostrich-like bird tied up to a huge log. Its head was drooped toward the greens near its feet.
"Did they say Chocobo Stew? They're gonna eat that bird? How awful!" she remembered the summoners telling her about Chocobos. They were like horses from what she guessed, except they ran with two legs instead of four. She grabbed the black bag and searched for the cow meat.
"I have to find a way to free that bird." She thought as she approached the weird …people.
"Look Quan! What is it?" the smaller one points at Amber.
"I not know. Maybe it edible." Quan licks his lips as she waves a hand in front of her.
"Uh, no I don't taste very good." She chuckled nervously.
"Oh! She talks!" Quale shouted in surprise, "Do you want to try Chocobo Stew?"
"We are making our first dish for our master."
"Chocobo Stew you say? Are you sure you want to eat the Chocobo? He looks awfully …stringy." The Chocobo looks offended, "I'll tell you what, if I give you something that's better than Chocobo meat and your master likes it, then I'll take this Chocobo off of your hands." They look at her, then at each other, and then back at her. Quale cocks his head to the side.
"What better than Chocobo?" Amber pulls out her dried cow meat.
"How about this? It's called cow meat." They seem fascinated so she continued by explaining, "A cow is an animal that eats grass all day and goes 'Moo!'"
"Ahh!" they say in unison. Amber laughs inwardly, she felt like she was talking to Zidane, no more like Tybalt. Quan sniffs the meat then licks his lips, "Okay we try."
Amber waited an hour and a half before the two Qus approached her with a wooden bowl full of the stew. Quan gives her the bowl and she stares at the contents. There were carrots, potatoes, celery, onions, and of course the cow meat in a reddish broth. She takes the spoon Quale was holding out and tastes the stew.
"Mmm, this is good." She then bites into something that was both tangy and savory. There was another vegetable in it. She fishes it out with her spoon and holds it out to them, "What's this?"
"Gysahl pickle." Quale answered while licking his lips.
"You mean a cucumber soaked in those smelly greens? Hmm…" she decided that they were not as bad as they smelled, but she still loves dill pickles more, "So did your master like it?"
"Yes. He said to give you Chocobo and place to sleep." Quan answers then Quale leans forward and wags his tongue, "We set up tent near fire."
"Okay, thanks." They walked off muttering something about frogs as Amber finished her stew. She looks up at the small bits of sky showing through the trees and was surprised to find it already dark with stars glittering above. It was then that she finally began to wonder about yesterday's events. Who was that woman? Didn't they gather all the genomes and take their souls? That woman seemed like she wanted hurt her. It was a possibility that she could be insane. Amber just hoped she would never see that woman again. The sound of a twig snapping pulled her out of her thoughts. She looked around and found nothing. She dismissed the sound as one of those Qus wandering around. She got up and followed the light of the fire to her tent which was built near the Chocobo, whose eyes were beginning to close. She walks up to the Chocobo and unties it from the log.
"Hey there. Will you wait for me in the morning?" the Chocobo makes a soft 'Kweh' sound and then falls fast asleep. Amber scratched its head before climbing in the tent and falling asleep herself.
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"Mommy!" she jolted awake. She knew exactly who the voice belonged to.
"Zidane! Where are you?" Amber searched through the darkness until she spied a tiny, blurry figure running towards her.
"Zidane!" She started running but stopped when an evil voice penetrated through the eerie silence. Pale white hands encircled Zidane and picked him up. The man stepped out of the shadows as Zidane struggled to get out of his grasp.
"Kuja! You bastard! Let my son go!" As shadow cast over both of them as if a cloud was passing through. Once it passed, Kuja look much younger, like a teenager. A little girl with red hair was now in his arms. The sound of a gun loading made Amber jump. Standing next to her was a 20 year old woman with green eyes and black hair that reached past the shoulder blades and covered half her face. She lifted her gunblade and pointed it at Kuja.
"Kuja! Let Lucy go! She has nothing to do with this!" Amber knew who she was, her picture was in the family history book. Cara. Kuja laughed as he knocked the girl unconscious.
"Of course she does. I have looked into your family history…" Everything flashed as time sped forward. Now Kuja was laughing as he dropped the girl. Cara was kneeling on the ground and another man was helping her get up. Although Amber couldn't see his eyes, she noticed his black hair with natural blonde highlights that was tied up with a dark blue bandanna.
"…I needed her blood for my immortality spell not only because she was your cousin, but because she was also a descendent of Tarae, the first known sorceress." Cara could only glare at Kuja. Suddenly, Cara vanished and was replaced by a 17 year old girl that looked like Cara but with red hair. She was breathing heavily as she glared at him. Kuja was now covered in blood.
"I hate you!!! Get out of my life!" He looked shocked and sad as she slowly faded away only whispering, "Alexia."
The girl dropped her bloody gunblade and covered her face as she fell over crying. Everything went black and Amber was all alone again. A sound made her turn around. Behind her was a woman that looked like Cara but had longer hair, a tail, and light blue eyes that seemed to glow. She held an unconscious Zidane.
"That woman…looks like me. No…wait. She IS me!" She panicked as the Amber with black hair pulled out a dagger and was about to slit the boy's throat.
"NNNOOO!!"
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Amber awakened with a gasp and realized it was just a dream. She took deep breaths before climbing out of her sleeping bag. It was lighter outside so she assumed it was morning. She unzipped the tent and went out into the cool, crisp air. The Chocobo was already awake and came up to Amber.
"Aww…you waited for me. Come on, let's get out of here before those Qu guys decide to cook you for breakfast."
"Kweh!" the Chocobo followed her out of the clearing and past the tall grass. The two moogles weren't out yet. Amber was a little disappointed because she wanted to ask for directions to Madain Sari. They continued to walk out of the marsh. She decided to talk to the Chocobo so she wouldn't have to talk to herself for the rest of the journey.
"So, what should I call you? You're a guy Chocobo right?" she was surprised when the Chocobo nodded its head. Well at least it's somebody to talk to.
"Okay a name…Oberon? No? …Okay." she laughed a little from the Chocobo's reaction, "What about Puck?"
"Kweh!"
"Okay, Puck it is." They were now out of the marsh and Amber just stared at him. She knew how to get on a horse, but a Chocobo was different. He didn't even have a saddle!
"Now how am I supposed to get on you?" she could swear the Chocobo was laughing at her, "Hey, it's not my fault that I never ridden a Chocobo before!" Puck slightly kneeled down and lowered a wing for her. She stared at him again before shrugging and then placed her left foot on his wing then swings her right foot over to his other side like she would for a horse. With her feet placed snugly inside his wings and her hands on the sides of his neck for support, Puck slowly stood up and began walking. After getting used to the way a Chocobo moves, she directed him to go towards the canyons in the distance and took note of something she will never want to do: dye her hair black.
Amber couldn't help but notice something different about Puck. The summoners said that Chocobos have yellow feathers and a brown beak, but this one seemed to be made of gold. She was even more surprised when she found out that Puck could climb mountains. Soon a swirl in the canyons appeared. Inside the swirl was Oeilvert. On her first year on Gaia, she helped construct Oeilvert, gave power to the stones that would recite Terra's history, and released Ark. From what she remembered on the maps, the Outer Continent was northeast pass the ocean from here and south of here was…well she definitely didn't want to go south unless she was on the verge of dying because her tomb was located in that area.
"Alright, we need to go northeast from here and cross the sea. Can you swim?"
"Kweh!!!" he started running south.
"N-no Puck! We need to head northeast! Huh?" he jumped off a canyon wall. A forest was in front of them. Puck kept running then jumped on a tree branch once he reached the edge of the forest. Then jumped on another and kept jumping until they were on top of the trees. Puck flapped his wings and soon they were in the air.
"You can fly?!" she was astonished.
"Kweh!!!" he turned around and finally started heading the right way. They-She was finally going home.
"Zidane, I hope you're there!"
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Baku glanced at the little ones playing on the floor. When he's not out stealing valuables with the troop, he runs a little day care for Blank and Cinna. Their parents forgot they exist so they always come to him during the day and return home at night. He looked at the new boy who was hanging off a chair with his tail. Guards came in the middle of the night and said that he was abandoned at the gates. The boy looked like he came from a rich family by looking at his fancy night clothes. Zidane Tribal, as what was sewn on his night shirt, said he didn't remember anything about his family, how he got here, or even who he was. Baku had decided to raise him himself rather than find him a new family. He smiled, he never had a kid of his own, now he has a son …until his parents come looking for him.
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Sorceress Myst: So did you like this chapter? I want to give thanks to all who reviewed so far…Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Now Fagtron, come out and ask those questions.
Fagtron: (falls out of closet with a card.) What was that dream about? What will Amber find in Madain Sari? What happened to Kuja? How will Baku react if Amber finds Zidane? Find out in later chapters.
Sorceress Myst: If you keep this up, then I might think about letting you stay during the story.
Fagtron: Really!
Sorceress Myst: Sure…in eleven years.
Fagtron: Aw man.
Sorceress Myst: And before I go, I have a prologue and the first chapter up in my Final Fantasy 8 fic in case you're interested. C ya!
Fagtron: BYE!!!!!
