Chapter Ten: Polka City

"Hey! We're almost there! It's Junon everybody! Let's go!" Jessica exclaimed excitedly. She burst into a sprint as they came within sight of Junon.
"I'm in too much pain for this," Harry moaned. He was limping along, carrying with him a big black eye, a swollen lip, bruises everywhere and a nearly broken nose.
"Oh come on Harry, it could have been worse. You'll feel better when we get into the city. We'll stay at the inn and then you'll feel as good as new!" Jim said, cheerfully. He turned and dashed after Jessica.
"Don't worry, Harry. You're tough, you can pull through," Florence encouraged. She slapped Harry on the back and chased after the others.
"Oh goodness, my back!" Harry screamed as he fell to his knees. He watched as the others ran off. "Oh, that's just fine! Leave me behind! I don't care!" Sarah wandered up to Harry and licked him on the forehead. "Oh great, the goat." Sarah looked at Harry angrily and proceeded to turn around and kick him in the gut. He promptly let out a cry of pain and the goat trotted off happily.
Before them, stood the mighty city of Junon. The sweet sound of polka music emanated from it. The place appeared to be coloured in red, green, purple, blue and yellow dots. Polka dots as far as the eye could see. Junon was made of two levels. The lower level was made up of slums. The upper level was more sophisticated. Still, no matter where you were in Junon, anything polka related wasn't very far away.
Junon used to be a fishing town until the polka cult came around. It was soon transformed to a Gengai military base. Pointing out over the ocean was the famous cannon: the Polka Ray. The Polka Ray was never used unless it was dire emergency. The thing can pack quite a punch.
Jessica stopped suddenly, gazing up at Junon. "Polka City has always been so beautiful. If I had enough money, I'd move here. The town is always so happy and joyous. It's a beautiful town to live in. Some day, I'll come here again, without a bunch of idiots."
"Yep, sure is a nice place," Jim commented as he walked up behind Jessica. "Still, I'm not a huge fan of polka-dots. I'll be just as glad to get out of here before they drive me insane."
"How can you say that? They're beautiful. They are perfection," Jessica said, fading out of reality, gazing at the polka-dots.
Florence jogged up beside Jim. "It's kind of nice. I think we should wait here a minute. Or until sunset, whenever Harry decides to hurry up!" The last five words Florence shouted so Harry could hear her.
"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying! Keep your dress on! Wait," Harry called, and a hint of a smile crept on his face. "Forget that last part."
"Don't even think about it!" Florence snapped back and then sighed, "Men. Does that man always sound drunk, even when he's sober?"
"No, at least when he's sober his speech isn't slurred. That, and he doesn't wobble around quite as much. Otherwise, he's exactly the same," Jim said with a bit of a chuckle.
"Hey, who's that?" Florence asked, pointing to a teenage girl who stood a short walk down the road.
"Let's go find out," Jim said. Florence and Jim walked on to greet this person while Jessica stayed behind, still hypnotized by Junon's polka-dots.
The girl was humming softly to herself as she skipped around in circles on the path and then reclined on a rock. She was wearing a pair of dirty brown shorts and a maple red top. She also wore a pair of brown and black hiking boots, burgundy gloves and a deep black headband that matched her hair.
"Hi there," Florence greeted the girl with a smile. "I'm Florence and this is Jim."
"Hi!" the girl said with a big grin. "I'm Muffie from Wutai."
"Wutai? I thought that was just a legend," Jim said, puzzled.
"No, no, no!" Muffie exclaimed. "It does exist! Want me to show you where it is? Yeah! I'll show you, just follow me! Come on, don't be shy!" At that, she ran around Jim and Florence and started to run to the nearby cliff that looked out onto the ocean. She jumped, and dived. There was a huge splashing sound. Before Jim and Florence knew it, they saw Muffie swimming out to sea.
"She was certainly strange," Jim commented.
"Yeah. Well, uh, let's get Jessica and Harry so we can get to Junon before it gets late," Florence said.
"Hey, wait a minute. She took all the spoons I was carrying!" Jim said as he looked in his backpack. "But everything else of value is still there."
"Spoons? What would anyone want with spoons?" Florence asked.
"I have no idea. That girl was really weird. Let's just get going."

The group of five entered the gates of Junon to find a man standing before a crowd, calling out to them. Curious, they stepped towards the commotion to see what was going on.
"What's going on?" Jim asked one of the spectators.
"That Colin Basnett is at it again," the person replied. "He's going to get jailed for sure this time."
The man, Colin Basnett, wore a strange polka-dot sweater, matching pants and goofy polka-dot sunglasses. He was a scrawny, little thing, no taller than Jim. He spoke in a loud voice to the crowd.
"I'm the boss around here! I order you all to do what I say! You aren't done yet? Well darn you, get your rear in gear! I'm the boss damn it! I'll be your mayor and supreme overlord! Ooh, look at me! I'm the mayor," his voice was quickly changing from overly bossy to sarcastic, "I'm Mr. Big Shot! Look at me as I run around in circles like a big idiot! Polka this, and dot that. We need more polka! Polka everything! La, dee, da! Down with the polka I say! Down with polka!"
Colin began to madly rip off his polka-dotted clothes. He threw the sunglasses into the crowd. He was soon half-naked, wearing nothing but orange, striped boxers. "Stripes is the way to go people! Stripes forever! No more oppression! Let the word be known!" He jumped up and down and began to roll around in a mud puddle, frantically. He kept screaming "Stripes!" over and over until the Junon police came and took him away.
The crowd began to separate and go back to their homes while the five companions stared at the place where Colin was screaming with confused and almost frightened looks in their eyes.
"Serves him right. I hope he never gets out of jail. Stripes are the lowest things ever, not when you have the perfection of polka!" Jessica exclaimed, gazing at the polka-dots all around her.
"Jessica, I think you're taking this a little too far. I mean, they're just polka-dots," Florence said.
"Just polka-dots? How dare you say such things! These aren't just polka-dots! These are perfection, these are our masters! They were sent as holy messengers! That's it, I'll meet you guys here later when you have seen the light!" Jessica shouted and stormed off down the street.
"Okay, see you later Jess!" Jim called after her. "Come on, let's find a place to rest. Maybe there's an inn by the beach." Jim lead the way towards the beach. When they got there they saw a young girl.
The girl looked at the group, smiled and then ran off into the water.
"Oh my goodness! Look out little girl!" Florence cried. In the water, was a great beast, about to attack the girl.
"We have to help her!" Jim exclaimed and started running into the water. "Come on you guys!"
"You go on ahead," Harry said. "I'm in way too much pain to do anything."
Florence and Sarah chased after Jim, and suddenly, a great battle against this water beast began.
"Alalaorfaleed!" came the battle cry from Jim and it had begun. Jim slashed at the beast while Florence wildly attacked with her rubber chocobos. Sarah finally finished it as she charged and slammed into the creature head on. The monster fled, leaving behind something.
"Hey, this looks like a costume. What the hell?" Jim asked curiously.
They quickly brought the girl back to shore as a man ran down to see what was happening.
"Chinchilla!" he cried. "Oh Chinchilla, are you alright? Oh my goodness, she isn't moving. I think she needs CPR! Can you help her young man?"
Jim stared in bewilderment. "Me? Okay, I'll try." He knelt by the girl, Chinchilla, and took a deep breath. "Hey, wait a minute." The girl's lips began to pucker. "She's breathing perfectly! What's going on here?" Jim stood up.
The girl sighed and opened her eyes. "I'm sorry. It was all a trick to get close to you." Jim stared at her in bewilderment. "Ever since you walked into Junon ten minutes ago, I knew I was in love. I had to stage this act so you would love me too." Chinchilla wrapped her arms around Jim's leg and locked on, not preparing to let go.
"I'm flattered and all but," Jim tried shaking the girl off, "I'm not really looking for a relationship. Hey," he shook his leg some more, "let go of me. Come on now," Jim was waving his leg madly, trying to get this girl off, "let me go!"
"Never!" Chinchilla shouted. "I'll never let this moment go."
"Okay then, I'll just shove you back in the water again." Jim started walking back to the water when a large dolphin swam in Jim's way.
"That's Mr. Skibbs. You fought him. It was all part of my clever plan for us to be together," Chinchilla said, gazing up at Jim.
"All right, this is just stupid. You're in love with me? Well then, take a look at this." Jim took off his hat to reveal his mangled, messy, spikey ball of hair.
Chinchilla screamed at the top of her lungs, released herself from Jim's leg and ran as fast as she could.
"Good work, Jim! That could have been quite a problem for us to have that girl stuck on your leg,?" Florence congratulated, smiling. "Let's just find that inn and get some needed rest."
"Who ever thought that my hair would actually help me?" Jim sighed. "Yeah, let's just get going before things get worse around here."
The companions hurried down the beach until they came to a nice looking inn. Perhaps not as nice looking as dilapidated. Still, it was an inn and the group was dreadfully tired. They walked in to find that the inside looked worse than out. There were loose floorboards and caked on mud everywhere. Spiders and their webs were strung all across the walls and the ceiling had green footprints on it.
"What a lovely place," Jim commented smiling.
"Yeah, yeah," a woman at the counter said. "You want a room? You get one! We have a special 'President Coming Into Town Sale', only 153 gil for family suite!"
"The President's coming into town?" Florence inquired.
"Yeah, yeah, that's what I said. Now, are you going to pay up or what?"
Florence thought for a moment, remembering their last encounter with President Doofus. "Yes, we'll stay for the night. Jim, pay the woman."
Their transaction complete, the group went into their suite which turned out to be more of a cramped, little room with a few grungy looking cots scattered around the room. The formerly blue wallpaper was now peeling and resembled a combination of yellow and purple.
"You'd think that at those kinds of prices they would clean up this joint," Harry said.
"I find it kind of cozy. It reminds me of the time I was stuck in that barn when I was a kid. I was looking for Sarah. She had run away. Ah, we were such crazy kids, right Sarah?" Jim reminisced, looking down at his goat. "It was almost exactly like this place. The smell of old cow and goat manure mixed with the sweet aroma of rotting wood. It was a very unsafe place to be in. One of the best nights I ever had as a boy. Well, more like a week and a half. That's when Dad found me choking on the fumes of that sweet, sweet manure. Those were the best times a boy could have."
The others stared at Jim for a while. "Maybe that explains Jim's current mental. . . issues," Harry whispered to Florence and she nodded slowly.
"Where did you run off to anyway, Sarah? We found you nearly two weeks after that. You were frightened and shaking when Dad found you in that ditch. Never were quite the same after that."
Sarah looked up at Jim for a moment. She then sheepishly turned and curled up into a corner for some sleep, glancing around nervously.
"Let's just get some sleep before this entire place collapses," Jessica said, laying down on a cot. The group slowly drifted off to sleep listening to the low harmony of polka, far off in the slums and the world of Upper Junon above. While the others slept, Sarah got on all fours and silently trotted out of the room.

Jessica walked down the streets, invigorated by the polka party around her. Men with giant accordions danced in the streets while children in their polka-dot clothes danced around them. Polka bands were on every corner and people were painting dots on the wall of every colour imaginable. The world was a beautiful place in Junon. Everything was colourful, even the slums. Polka was everywhere to be seen and there was a certain mirth that was brought with it. Jessica thought she could never leave this place. She could just wrap herself in a warn polka-dot blanket and dance to the beautiful rhythm.
There were polka-dotted signs pasted on polka-dotted walls that spoke of President Rufus coming to Junon. He was on his way to the western lands and would be stopping by to give his praises to polka.
Now that's a real President, Jessica thought. Someone who will give polka the praises they deserve.
"People of Polka City! I ask you to join me on a quest! I have been spoken to in a dream by four mighty polka-dots! They have told me to gather their children and take them to their home land! Come with me and be one with polka and all its sweet glory! Come with me to the land of cheese and honeycomb! There is more out there children! Follow me! Follow me, I say! The homeland of all polka awaits us!" A man at the street corner was yelling to a small crowd that had gathered around him. He wore old, torn up clothes, a polka-dot top hat, moth eaten gloves and polka-boots that had a large hole, revealing the man's big toe. His face was covered in a thick, black, tangled mess of a beard and bushy eyebrows. He had a long, chubby nose and deep brown eyes. To add to all of this was the scent of fresh alcohol. Obviously, this man was unbelievably drunk. "Now, who will join me?"
A soft murmur came from the crowd as the man asked his question. They weren't about to join some drunk on an insane quest for something he made up in his own drunken imagination. All except for Jessica of course. Such a smart man, she thought. At that, she jumped up and exclaimed, "I'll join!"

"Wheeze! Have you found Olaf, yet? Wheeze! I don't want him ruining my welcoming ceremony. Wheeze! Oh, drat it all. Where are my glasses? I'm blind without them. I need to find them so I can get my inhaler," Doofus said, feeling around his desk.
"Sir, your glasses are on top of your head and you left your inhaler in your coat," Murry said with a slight sigh.
"Oh, of course." Doofus quickly put on his glasses, got his inhaler and took a deep breath. He let out a sigh of relief. "Much better. Now, what about Olaf?"
"We've lost track of him, sir. We don't even know what he looks like. Our people have been on the look out for a man carrying a large fish. We've turned up with five already."
"Let's have a look at them."
Murry and Doofus walked over to a large window. "We can see them," Murry explained, "but they can't see us."
Doofus looked at each carefully. A few were carrying baskets full of smelly, dead fish. He looked at one and shouted out in surprise. "Is that a woman? We were specifically looking for a man carrying a large fish."
"Yeah, we're still trying to figure that one out. The lab tests should be coming up soon."
Doofus sighed. "None of these can be Olaf. I want him found and brought to me. He will pay for father's death! He will pay!" He started coughing madly and wheezing. "Get me my inhaler!"

Sarah trotted along a cold, dark street of Junon. She moved slowly, nervously. She turned at a sound, to only find a couple of people turn a corner to another street. They were talking and laughing. Why had she left? It was almost as if she was being drawn by something. She shuddered to think of what it was.
"Hello Sarah," a cold, ancient voice said from the darkness. "Do you remember me?"
The goat shivered. She tried to burst forward in a great run, but she found her legs had frozen in fear. There was no where to run, no where to hide. That voice had sent a horrible chill up her spine. She knew who it was, but there was nothing she could do.
A pair of glowing green eyes stared at her through the darkness. The face that those eyes belonged to suddenly flew right in front of her. A large purple fish was slapped to the ground in front of her, those green eyes staring into her soul.
"If you don't remember me, then you should at least remember Jimbles. Yes, you remember. Glee-hee-hoo!" the voice laughed. The voice stepped forward, so Sarah could see it. A man with long, balding, silver hair stared down at her with frightening blue eyes. He held Jimble's tail in his right hand and wore a long, trench coat. Beneath the coat was a red and white striped uniform shirt for Uncle Bobby's Fried Chicken. He also wore a sticker that read, "Hello, my name is: OLAF".
Jimbles foamed whipped cream from the mouth as Sarah trembled before her. A thousand memories returning to her goatish mind after being locked away in the deepest parts of her memory.
"You remember it all quite clearly, now don't you? You still don't know the full story. Perhaps I'll share it with you some time. Glee-hee-hoo! Ha ha ha!" Olaf cackled and laughed. He raised Jimbles high and then sent the fish swinging into Sarah. The goat flew a meter into the air and fell again to the earth.
Olaf lugged Jimbled over his shoulder and then dashed off into the night's darkness. "Ow! Stupid wall!" He continued his rush forward, hopping on one leg.