Featherjewel

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A romantic semi-comedy... thingy as experienced by Hilda and Kuja (FFIX)

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Entry #3 - Of storms, palaces, and...

"My dearest companion, in the stormy nights of June 12th, 903:

What an terrible week this has been. I cannot even begin to describe all the wretched things that have happened in the past 7 days. But I shall try anyway, for your benefit.

The least of my troubles was the fact that somehow, I had misplaced this journal underneath the desk in my cabin. This is partially why I haven't been able to write for what has seemed to be an eternity. As fate will have its way, though, this was but a foreboding of days to come.

In addition to those minor problems, in my frenzy to get away from the Mist Continent in the shortest amount of time possible, I tried to take a shortcut to Dagguereo. Seeing as how the library is located in the southwest, and Alexandria in the far east (I stopped there to get food that didn't reek of pickles and oglops), the fastest way to travel between the two cities would be to head northeast. But in my planning, I had failed to remember that there was a windstorm-laden desert to the northeast as well.

I knew something was amiss when the airship started rocking back and forth more than it usually did. My fears were realized as I gazed over the railing, and saw four very large and very fierce tornados below me! Despite my most noble efforts of turning Hildagarde around, there was no escaping the force that those winds had upon my ship, and I assume that poor Hilda G. crashed just as I became unconcious.

Opening my eyes, I struggled to focus upon a very tall figure looming above me. At first, I was incredulous. Had I come back in Alexandria? The person that was staring at me had fairly long, well-kept white hair, with a purplish tint to it. Lots of Alexandrians have odd hair colours. The person also wore a codpiece-like thing, much like all the Alexandrian soldiers I had seen before. And fastened to the codpiece from the back, from where I could see, was a long, flowing white robe, almost like the one that General Beatrix wears.

Therefore, I came to the reasonable conclusion that Beatrix, upon seeing my injured self, became very frightened at the sight of all the blood, and turned very pale, even her hair growing white.

I wish it was Beatrix.

Crying tears of joy, I told the person "how glad I am to see you, miss General! I was just on my way to a different continent when-"

That imp cut me off mid-sentence (the nerve!), angrily shouting that they were neither Beatrix nor a woman. After realizing my mistake, I gave my apologies, muttering in disgust at all the profanities he hollered just because of a simple blunder on my part. And he did not quit! I assumed this man was a sailor, because he knew more four-letter words than even my husband, and smelled of seawater and fish.

Somehow, I wish he was at least a sailor. But as Fortuna is a very sadistic woman, he was not. And seeing as how my airship had broken, even if he did know how to travel the air, there wasn't anything that would be flyable in these deadlands.

But, before I could ask the womanly-man if he was a pilot, the man tugged me by the arm! And he had the festering *nerve* to drag me into what looked like his hut.

And as the theme of the day was still dragging on, it wasn't a hut. It was a palace. A palace!

In the desert! And it was underground too! An underground desert palace. Who would have thought. Before I could explore the place, however, he continued to drag me into a small cage-like room that appeared to be an elevator.

Dearest journal, I am sure that even a piece of paper would know by now that nothing on this crazy place was what it appeared to be. And it is with that, that I must say, this is the loveliest, most cozy prison I have ever been locked up in. And the rice soup that the man makes me eat is not that bad, either.

Other than that, just an ordinary week. I imagine I'll be in here a while, unless I can pull some of my feminine wiles very fast.

'Till the next (and I am sure there will be many more of those),

Hilda."

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Author's notes:

Hopefully, this makes up for the first two unbearably short updates. However, I keep worrying if this story is too boring, especially the Hilda ones (she'll get more interesting to read about, I swear! lol). I really like reviews, so if you are holding back because you feel bad about criticizing my work, don't, please, I beg you! :)

Once the plot really gets going, the story chapters will get longer and longer, I hope. Maybe I won't always limit myself to a journal type entry. I'll see as this thing gets rolling. Imani out.