Madfantasy: HI !!! I've finally got down to finishing the chapter !! *apologetic* I was really bounded down by my school schedule, but it was strange how the moment I found time to sit down and read a book or two, the ideas come surfacing back into my head again !

Chibi Kuja: who knows if you're just being lazy. (tsks)

Madfantasy: hey ! grr, shoo, off you go to chibi-world ! That's adventure, cannons and lots of SOOT for you !!! *Throws chibi Kuja into the story vortex*

Kuja: Soot ? no way !! *gets thrown* grr ! I'll get you for that ! Nobody throws Kuja !

There, there. And for now, enjoy the story of our feathered, little sized villain, in the bandit-rampant seaside village of Skaerpekoe.

The Feathered Warrior

Chapter 6

The explosion of the cannon vibrated the entire town so that even the grains of sands by the beach outside town quivered, as if the earth was a drum and a giant just took a stick and hit it. If the explosion were not so loud, the clash of glass breaking and screams of men would have been heard. The town and the mountains beyond the forest in the North echoed with the clap of thunder-like roar. Out of the dark night, shrill whistles could be heard, and in a short moment there were rattles in the sky, and gigantic firework display lit the sky in rainbow-colored dances, illuminating the island's tip with their glow.

A black wisp of smoke trailed from the gunpowder warehouse, out from the gaping black hole, which a moment ago was the building's hulking door. Just beyond the opening, a pile of something laid scattered, moaning and grumbling in pain and shock. If this were day, we would see that the bandits lay as if someone had invited them out of the warehouse with a large swinging baseball bat. The first bandit through the door, who was unfortunate enough to be hit by the cannon ball, hung on top of a tall coconut tree. Beneath it was the black sphere, guarding proud and gleaming innocently in the moonlight like a harmless toy.

"Kuja ?" Elfia said, peeping sideways from under her half-closed eyelid to look for her companion. Hearing no reply, she crooned his name again, hearing only the echo of her voice.

She stood and dusted herself. The moon shone from the small glass panels high above the ground, sending shafts of weak silver light into the building which made a lighted passage through the hanging smoke in the air. Silky patches of moonlight were cast upon the floor, looking like mosaics through panels which were broken, shattered or cracked by the explosion.

Elfia peeped out from her hiding place. She had missed the spectacle when the cannon blew up and flew upwards and broke the glass at the back of the warehouse. Where she last saw the cannon was a lump of something black. A patch of moonlight surrounded it like a gentle spotlight, while the soot on the floor wisped around in a sudden gust of night breeze. Catching the moonlight, they glistened like fairy dust as they spun.

The place seemed like the last burnt down stronghold of an empty, dead country, silent and motionless after a war had defeated it. A chip of glass winked in the moonlight and fell off from the panel above, making a clear jingle as it landed and bounced off to the side, out of the dim light. The sound was soft, but it echoed and seemed loud in the deafening silence.

Curious, Elfia stepped out, forgetting that the bandits were there in the first place. She poked the black, soot-covered statue like thing. A black round sphere hovered above it, and it seemed to glow from a few small fissures, where the soot hasn't covered its inside completely. A cough sounded from the thing under it, followed by a puff of black smoke.

"Hey, you alive ?" Elfia nudged the thing as she would any other day. She giggled, then laughed noisily as it opened its eyes, the only place which was still not blackened. It looked like an angry puppet doll came alive, glaring around with vengeance.

Apparently, the statue like being tried to talk, for it opened its mouth and emitted another cough instead, producing another mini cloud of black cloud. Another sound came, this time like a young child who was trying to clear his throat to sound important.

"You DON'T (cough) expect TH (sneeze) IS to daunt the great KUU (cough) ja !!" our courageous and evil feathered sorcerer declared, his arms still up in the air, supporting space that was once cannon. He turned around, eyes darting side to side quickly, suspiciously, and caught sight of the gaping hole in the door. All of a sudden it seemed as if some berserk magic spell had hit him, for he started behaving like a mobile doll gone haywire. "BANDITS !!!" he pointed to the door, shrieked and charged outside like a darting bullet without warning. He obviously didn't realize how loud he was shouting for a loud humming, sizzling and whining was in his ears and head have covered up all other sounds.

"Hee hee ! Black soot-ball !" Elfia laughed as Kuja disappeared through the door, tripping over something which laid beyond it. Looking up through the small glass panels, she saw the fireworks burst into rainbow-colored galas, throwing stars, sparkles, balls of lightning and what not into the violet sky, like dressed participants of a festival throwing out handfuls of silvery paper. She watched a storm of jubilant golden sparks whiz into the sky and fade slowly as they fell, thick smoke columns of the firecrackers illuminated dully by the display.

Meanwhile, Kuja raved about the place, kicking the fallen bandits and shouting for them to stay down as if he was dealing with a horde of rabid hedgehog pies. He went from one to another, oblivious to the glamorous display of fireworks above head, and the fact that the bandits were already down, until he made sure that all of them were down. He then shook his head and wondered where in Gaia that noise came from. He felt as if someone had raked his brains and let it rattled inside his skull for a minute or so. He stopped his rampage abruptly and wondered what had come over him that he had behaved like a mad cat. He stood now, as if the berserk magic spell had wore off all of a sudden.

"Bleh." He said, remarking on how he had disgraced himself. Sitting down in the middle of the pavement, he noticed that the noises in his head had dulled down a bit now. Forgetting that he had made a din just a moment ago, he wiped his forehead like he did when he was big, as if he had just done the lightest menial job in the universe and decided to stop to wipe the non- existent sweat from his brows. He felt some black goo smear on his face, and looked at his palm, frowning. He gasped, not really taking anything seriously, but feeling he should put up the front of a sophisticated sorcerer who ought to be shocked when his garments were soiled. Ah, such is the dainty ways of our charming sorcerer!

Kuja stood and jumped up and down like a feather duster, trying to shake the soot off his clothes. He grumbled to himself on how he must clean his beautiful purple jacket now, and how the black mages would laugh if they saw their master in this unworldly state. Dusting and flapping his sleeves, he looked downright agitated. Meanwhile, the little sphere of light hovered patiently above his head, still covered in dust and looking a little miserable because Kuja have yet to give it a good brush.

All of a sudden, a soft voice, gentle and hard at the same time, pierced the humming in his head and whispered his name. A wave of hushed silence engulfed him. A wave of chill seemed to sweep pass. The humming was dimmed abruptly. He felt the world spin for a fleeting second. It was as if the world had darkened alarmingly for an ephemeral moment, but whether Kuja noticed it, no one knew. He must have, for he steadied himself and shot an apprehensive look upwards.

A sudden touch seemed to shove him roughly back into reality, like pushing someone sleeping into an icy pool of water. It was Elfia, who had poked him in the shoulder. She was behind Kuja all the while he was prancing around. She could not help but grin at his miserable yet oh-so endearing chibi state. She watched him and let him be; knowing by now that he didn't like to be unkempt. She thought he was done the moment he stopped to look up and tapped him on the shoulder, telling him to go home.

"Did you see that ? I mean hear ?" Kuja said, suddenly serious, looking upwards. He looked like an adult. Elfia shook her head instinctively, for she had definitely not heard or saw anything uncommon in the few moments. However, she as a magic practitioner knew that sometimes sorcerers experience bizarre happenings that were meant for them and them to discern only.

She told Kuja that she had tapped him the moment he looked up. She had felt an infinitesimal pang of something, like what magic users feel when something magical was being executed. This she told Kuja too, but she confessed also that the feeling was so quickly it was like a needle sting, and it was gone moments before she realized it was there, and she could barely feel it, let alone figure out what it was.

Kuja lowered his head and lifted a little hand to his chin, thinking hard like an adult now. He pondered about what he had felt a moment ago, but decided that it was best that he interpret it himself, lest the opinions of others jumble and cloud its true meaning. He lifted his face finally, still grayish from the dust. The villagers were moving in to catch the bandits now, and Elfia told Kuja that it was best that they get moving.

Kuja lifted his feathery head and looked once more at the sky, not bothered by the creepy experience, but thinking, thinking about times long passed in Alexandria, where the glamorous fireworks and pyromatics lit the night sky in celebration, where the people parade in galas and celebrate, where there was always life in every alley. He thought about the time long ago, when he gazed down like a hunting hawk from the pavilion at Queen Brahne and the princess during the performance and saw her escape. For a moment, he was powerful again.

"Beautiful fireworks, isn't it?" Elfia said cheerfully, and led the way to bring Kuja to her rightful home in the village. She expects Kuja to ask many questions about the place and his task, some of which she would answer, others she would not know.