Madfantasy: I'm terribly sorry for the long uh, time gap … I have my own selfish reasons. Sorry, gomen ne! *Bows 170 degrees* Anyway, here's chapter 3 of our Feathered Warrior, enjoy !



THE FEATHERED WARRIOR

Chapter 3



Our two feet tall, brave, heroic, slightly tense Feathered hero stood like a miniature cowboy in the middle of the street.

Kuja peered in the evening light, trying to figure out what the shadow was. His instinct told him that it was a monster, and it was good that he was right, because he was poised for defense as soon as the hulk approached him.

An enormous fin raised out from nowhere and would have gave Kuja a good flattening slap if he hadn't leapt away in time. As with all his battles with monsters, he habitually stuffed two fingers in his mouth and whistled for his silver dragon. He then raises his hands into the sky and uttered some words. At that instant a tendril of lightning appeared from the sky to strike the monstrous shadow.

"A Whale Zombie!" he muttered to himself. This monster was a gigantic heap of bones, and quite a big challenge for Kuja to tame in his past glorious days even when he was larger in size.

The lightning bolt seemed too do nothing in deterring the black shadow from attempting to eat our feathery sorcerer. It raised a gigantic fin and gave little Kuja a good THWAP, sending him flying into the sky. And before Kuja realized and remembered that his silver dragon was dead, a GIGANTIC chocobo raced out from nowhere in response to his whistle, just in time to cushion his fall.

Kuja rode on the huge yellow bird, his face buried in its huge wings. He didn't know what was going on except that villagers seemed to be running out to put down the monster. He rode on, stuffed and tucked into the wings and tail of the large bird.

He couldn't figure out how long he was stuck on the feathery bird, being bounced up and down by its strides as it ran down the dark pavement. His head was stuck, and he couldn't see anything. He had totally lost his sense of direction. Finally the bird seemed to step into a lighted house and he felt himself bursting into light.

Trying to free himself at first, Kuja decided to lie low and observe his surroundings to the best of his abilities. He seemed to be in a small room, and there were quite a few people in there. From their voices Kuja figured that they were mostly males, but he heard some female voices. There was a lot of commotion going on in the place. Suddenly the sound of someone stepping in was heard and the room quieted down, probably because the newcomer was a person of some importance.

A muffled voice was heard, and there were many greetings. A pitched female voice, seemingly that of a girl, stood out amongst the low voices.

"Daddy daddy, look! Choco has a feather sticking out of its butt."

"Well, maybe it's a flyway feather. Pluck it out if you think Choco won't like it." Came the reply.

Just then, Kuja felt something yanking at his head. His feather was sticking out from the Chocobo's back. He scowled indignantly. As Kuja was being retrieved, he felt the someone who was dragging him out fall backwards, and he landed on whoever it was.

"OooOOooOOh, a teddy bear!" the little voice came from behind his head squealed with joy.

"Watch it!" he demanded in his chibi voice, "that HURTS!"

At once all sounds from within the room died. All heads were turned towards the little sorcerer, who was trying to thwap the hand who was being mean to his hair.

"A TALKING teddy bear!" the voice said again, holding little Kuja under the arms as you would hold a little cat or puppy.

"I am NOT a teddy bear!" Kuja screamed angrily at the one who was holding onto him.

"Put him down, honey," the man at the door said. He looked around the age of fifty. He was an extremely tall man whose skin had been tanned by the sea and the sun. He looked like a tribal leader. Kuja was put back on the ground. He ruffled his feathers and sniffed at his poor hair.

"What are you?" Someone said. Turning around, Kuja realized that it was actually a little girl, looking no more than thirteen years old, standing a little more than twice the height of little Kuja. She squealed happily when she saw Kuja turned around, her light brown hair shining in the lamp light.

"Address him as a who, honey" the man corrected the little girl.

"O-Kay. Who are you?" the little girl said sweetly.

Kuja brushed himself and tried to look dignified. Looking up at the excited girl, he bowed with as much courtesy as he wished to display.

"I am the sorcerer Kuja, brought back to life by the fairy godmother."

The population of the room gasped. A small commotion rippled through the air, with people whispering and saying "the fairy godmother!" with surprised and impressed voices.

"So you are the little one that our fairy godmother had sent us," an old woman sitting at the back of the room spoke in a thin, jagged voice. She was extremely thin and old, and her face was wrinkled. She held a perfectly round crystal ball in front of her, and she was the most lavishly dressed in the room, wearing a flowing silk dress decorated with embroideries, and a beautiful translucent violet scarf was donned on her forehead. A light of great wisdom and intelligence shone in her eyes.

The old lady wore also lots of bangles on her hand that jingled with her every movement, and three thick gold necklaces hung around her thin neck. Kuja realized that she must be someone important. A bald old man sat next to her, dressed equally richly.

"Welcome, little one," the old lady said with a nice smile, "I have received messages from the fairy godmother herself that she would send us someone to be our peace keeper."

The tribal leader guy at the door walked towards Kuja. "Several months ago a band of bandits had taken over our village. They kidnapped our mayor and threatened us with his life. We tried many means to infiltrate and spy them, but were unsuccessful. They seemed to have a very high number of guards and intelligence that are unknown to us."

The little girl came forward and scooped Kuja up and cuddled him like a teddy bear, "that's why daddy will send us to destroy them!" she said excitedly.

"Yes. My grand-daughter is very talented when it comes to magic, and she surpasses many older students in our village." The old lady said, "you will infiltrate the town tonight, find the location of the mayor, destroy the dens of the bandits, and burn their sorry behinds so hard they would want to run home whining to their mother!"

The group of people in the house applauded and cheered, while the old lady stood up, curtseyed and smiled to her supporters.

Kuja slapped his forehead and wondered how he was going to survive.