Hehe, I'm baaaaaack! I finally thought up somethin' last night, though, when you've eaten a bowl of sugar cereal right before bed and you're staring at the ceiling and tossing and turning for two hours before you finally fall asleep, you tend to have to fill your mind with something…so here it is! =D
Chapter 4
River Belle Path
Bal Dat still hadn't asked my name, and I was never one to force a subject upon another. I suppose he didn't really care if my name was Alain or
((Out of the story : Golly gosh I'm tempted to put BillyBobJoeBobFrankBobBubbuhDuh III! Sorry *Sweatdrop*, back to the story!))
Tae Sun. I didn't know his reasons on staying, or his intention while he was traveling with me, but I let him be.
He stared down into the fire like it was his salvation, eyes wide and intent, thoughts concealed behind his closed lips. I couldn't help but smile at him. "Hmm…I think I'll wake Mog up to keep watch over you."
His eyes suddenly jolted up at me. "Wha? Wake that…that thing!?"
"Don't worry…" I smiled gently at him as I stood and walked towards the cart. "He's only a carnivore."
Bal Dat scrambled up, red hair frazzling itself in his haste, and grabbed my arm. "Why do you need to have him watch me anyway?"
"Personal business. It shouldn't take more than twenty minutes. Oh. And can I borrow your crystal shard? You've got the chalice to protect you." I tilted my head to the side, taking out a couple of slabs of the uncooked meat, and shoving the bags into his arms. "You can cook these while I'm gone."
"I'll only give you the shard if you don't wake up that…thing." He glared at Mog's pompom, which was sticking out of the flap of the cart.
I held out my hand, not responding.
He just looked uneasily at me as he slowly reached inside his pocket and handed me the crystal piece.
I smiled thankfully and tugged on Mog's pompom like a bell rope directly afterward. "WAKE UP, MOG!"
Mog squealed and jumped into the air, and I could see a large indent where he smacked against the top of the caravan's cover, and thudded back onto the wood. He flew around out of the back and came right up in my face. "DON'T TOUCH MOG'S POMPOM, KUPO!!!!!!!" He snapped his little fangs at me, but I simply grabbed him by his pompom again and threw him in Bal Dat's direction.
Bal Dat dropped the bags of meat and began running around the fire, Mog just whining about his pompom. I giggled and nodded to Bal Dat, brandishing the shard he'd given me. "I promise I won't be long!" I turned and walked away.
I backtracked a little ways where the river branched off in three directions, to the Eastern Sea, to River Belle Path, and to the Western Sea of course, right past Tipa's Port. I looked around. No one was watching. There were hardly any wanderers nowadays. I tucked the crystal shard into my blonde hair and stripped of my clothing, ducking down into the water behind the bridge. I sighed with relief, the stress of the journey floating away with the river. After washing myself, the last thing was my hair, and, having gotten used to the chalice, I forgot about the shard and I took out the small braids that started at my ears and met at the back of my head. But before I could dunk, I heard a voice, saying:
"So THIS is where you snuck off to!"
I yelped and looked up, automatically going directly under the bridge for cover. "Curse you, Bal Dat! Why did you follow me!?"
"Mog fell asleep again, and I was curious." He grinned as he lay down on the bridge and swung his head over on the side, his large eyes peering underneath the bridge. I could feel the warmth and safety of the chalice. Had he brought the whole caravan?
"Bal Dat! Don't look!" I shouted at him. He was old enough to know it was not polite to watch a person take a bath.
"I'm not lookin' anywhere beneath your collarbones, Miss. I'm just wondering why my crystal shard is about to fall from your hair."
I gasped as I looked at my hair draped over my shoulders. Sure enough, the shard was tangled in the locks of my hair, but it could've easily fallen, had Bal Dat not stopped me.
"So, ready to go back?" he asked in a hearty tone, swinging himself back over and up onto the bridge.
I detangled the shard from my hair and dunked myself quickly, walking towards the shore to get my clothes. "Don't watch."
"Aye." Bal Dat walked over to the blue beast, patting it as it grazed upon the lush grass near the river.
"So in we go…" he muttered, removing his feathered cap as we passed the sign to River Belle Path, as if to pay respect to those who had entered and never returned.
I nodded. I'd dried my hair near the fire and had eaten once we'd reached our resting spot, but it was finally time to venture into the unknown.
Once we'd rumbled down the grassy path and came to the fork, I took a look at the sign. With an arrow pointing to the left, it said, "Scenic route". And arrow to the right stated, "Short cut". Apparently this used to be a touring ground before the Miasma came. "Scenic route" made it sound so much more cheerful. Though, with broken bits and pieces of things here and there, it wasn't so pleasant to the eye anymore.
Bal Dat walked to the right where the supposed 'short cut' was, but there was a large wooden gate blocking it. He put one eye up to a slit in the wood and glanced around, then downward at the lock. "It only opens from the other side. There's a big piece of wood barring the doors shut."
"Well, it all leads to the same spot, so once we reach the Myrrh tree, we can just take the short cut back and open the gate. We'll leave the papaopamus here, and get him when we come back. There's no sense in taking that big a load with us," I reasoned, taking the crystal shard and tucking it behind the beast's ear. It would be safe enough.
"And…is Mog coming?" Bal Dat added.
"Unless you want to carry the chalice yourself…" Without waiting for a reply, I shouted, "MOG! GET THAT CHALICE AND COME ON! WE'RE LEAVING!"
Mog kupoed himself right out in front of me, squabbling and complaining like some sort of white fuzzy bird. He plopped the chalice down in front of him and glared at me. "Well, kupo? Let's go!"
I looked in the cart and sighed, smiling. I picked up my racket for the first time since I'd left the village. I stared at its smooth surface. It had been painted dark blue, forest green lines weaving themselves from the handle to the very top, where it ended with a well-carved spike. My little sister, Fa Loo, had a little Clavat friend. Her friend's older sister liked to carve. We never talked much, but as a 'Going Away' present, she gave me a rather fine racket out of a thick branch of penota wood -- a type of wood almost as strong as iron. When it's soaked, however, it is as soft as cotton.
"Are we gonna go or what?" Bal Dat's voice broke my memories.
I nodded, smiling as I turned. "Let's go."
Okie! That's not the end of this chapter! See, since I've been putting you guys on hold for so long and I felt really bad, so I just whipped something up this morning. As soon as I finish it (I'm really tired right now…) I'm gonna replace it with the finished version, k? So keep checking this chappy for the rest of it. I'm so sorry, but this is all I have for now. *Falls asleep on the computer desk suddenly*
***
Two weeks later?
***
Hiya peoples! Okie, once again, it's nearing midnight! However, I've been depressed the whole day and I don't feel like going to bed =P So in effort to distract my sorrows and immense emotional pain (Kinda repetitive, ain't it?) I've decided to continue!! BWAH! Oh, and by the way…*Glares around a little* I only got one or two reviews for this before *Sniffle* is no one reading anymore???
Oh! And to that special reviewer who asked if I was Korean or whateva – Nope! Nice and American! Just the way I like it =P However, I DID have my sis do my hair like Rikku (Final Fantasy 10) today. It's pretty awesome…I've got pictures from it =D Anyway, enough stalling! Here's the end of the chappy!
I took a few steps forward, but quickly withdrew my foot as a shooting pain ran through it. I gazed downward to see I'd almost stepped out of the ring of the safety of the chalice. I looked back to see Mog, rocking back and forth on his small paws, eyes closed.
"MOG!"
Mog snorted and looked around. He kupoed shortly before taking off into the air, swooping down and catching the chalice handle in his mouth, flapping just behind me.
Walking a ways down the path with Bal Dat, I heard a snort. The first monster. I gulped – was I ready for this?
"What's wrong?" Bal Dat asked rather smugly as he saw me pause in my steps. "It's just a simple goblin."
I shuddered as it came around the corner, yet it still hadn't spotted us. It must've been unnaturally stupid. It's large bat-like ears flapped up and down as it hopped anxiously. It was quite ugly indeed. Though, what was I to expect from a rogue? I doubted I'd meet any halfly decent-looking monsters on my journey.
"No problem," Bal Dat laughed, taking a tiny dagger from his belt and flinging it at the side of the goblin's head. As if it hadn't noticed, the goblin just sort of stopped moving and fell over.
I winced. 'Even if it's a monster's life you're taking… it's a life nevertheless.' My father's words rang out in my head. "Is it…dead?" I asked, cautiously approaching the unmoving corpse.
"Aye." Bal Dat walked up to it and began undoing all its armor. He examined the blade the goblin had been carrying, but seeing it was chipped and rusted, he threw it behind him.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm a thief. A good dead body is a looted dead body," he remarked with a smirk. "Ah hah!" He pulled out a small red ball, glowing in the palm of his hand.
"Magicite? That thing would carry magicite?" I asked in amazement. By the looks of the idiotic creature, you'd think it wouldn't even be able to walk in a straight line, much less wield powerful magic.
"Well apparently it does, because I found it, didn't I?" Bal Dat pointed out. He tossed it into the air, opened his pocket, and shifted a little so the small red marble plopped inside. He patted it gently, then bent down and retrieved the dagger from its head, thick green something stringing from it like saliva.
"Is that…"
"Please don't tell me you've never seen monster blood before," Bal Dat said as though it were common enough to find like grass.
"I feel sick…" I muttered, turning away.
He rolled his eyes and grabbed my arm to keep me from getting away. "Come now. If you're going to be like that, how do you ever expect to beat the big bad head honcho?"
"…Honcho?"
"You know, the boss. Keeper of the keys. Guardian of the big booty. Moat of the gold castle. Ya know?"
"No, I don't know," I muttered, frowning. Goblins were bad enough. I had to fight something larger?
"Wherever there's treasure, there's gonna be something guarding it. Haven't you read enough tales? There's always a wicked witch or monster in between the prince and princess, or something to that extent."
"Alright, I get the point. Now I'm not so sure I want to go," I said, gazing longingly at the path we'd just trod down.
"I'll keep ya safe. Trust me," Bal Dat said confidently, pulling me along.
"You're afraid of a cottonball of a moogle. What makes me think you can stand up to a huge monster?" I asked skeptically.
He chose not to reply to that, and we wound our way towards another large wooden gate. However, this one had a place for a keystone to be inserted.
"Where's that key?" I murmured, as both Bal Dat and I searched high and low around the area.
"Maybe it washed away in the river," he suggested.
"Maybe…" I stood slowly, and thudded my head on a branch. "Ow!" I turned. That wasn't a branch I'd hit my head on. It was the hilt of a very large sword. The holder of the sword was also very large…probably three times the size of the last goblin we'd fought. "I don't think Mommy's very happy we killed her baby…"
The giant goblin shrieked at me, raising its sword. Well, naturally, I ran out of the way, and it ended up only getting its sword lodged into the ground. As it was tugging it out of the ground, I ran around back and slammed my racket against its rear. Bad idea. That only made it angrier.
"Hey you big hunk!" Bal Dat shouted from behind it, throwing another one of his daggers at it. It successfully sliced into its arm and got his attention as he stumbled around, shrilly screaming until it fell over, trying to pat around with its large sausage-like fingers to see what was making the pain in its arm, but it kept missing the dagger. I took the opportunity to run forward, and, to my surprise and in my haste, do a forward flip, bringing my racket down hard on its face. There was a deafening crack, but when everything was overwith, the only thing that had broken was the monster's nose.
"It's just knocked out. We'd better search it and get outta here," the young thief advised, quickly rummaging through with his expert skills and, fortunately, finding the keystone. He dropped it into the pedestal and the door swung open, leaving us to sprint away from the unconscious body as fast as possible.
"Think it'll follow us?" I asked, splashing cool water on my face from the river.
"Nah."
"KUPO!!"
I spun around to see Mog struggling to fight something off of him. Looked like a mutated squirrel of sorts. I rushed up and tried to smack the thing off of Mog, and by the end I'd scared whatever it was off, but left Mog with several bruises. "Ack…sorry Mog…"
"Gotta hate Mus."
"Mu?"
"Mu. It's what just attacked Mog," Bal Dat explained. Suddenly, he stopped, grinning. Spinning in a very slow circle, his eyes widened. "BOOTY!"
"Wha?" I looked in the same direction as he was looking, spotting a rusty old chest. "Oh. You sound like a pirate," I remarked, but Bal Dat was already over at the chest, trying to pick the lock.
"Heh heh…" He still faced the chest after taking out whatever was in it. He unrolled a bug-eaten piece of parchment, looking all too hopeful. "What is it? The inheritance of a million gil? Some sort of prize? An award? An antique painting that could sell for billions?" His face fell. "…A…a design for a bronze belt…" He sighed in a depressed manner, tossing it behind him.
"Hey, hang on!" I grinned, catching it as it fell. "I should hang onto this."
"If you say so." He rolled his eyes. He looked around. "Hey look. What's in there…" He pointed to an Earthy bridge, crossing the river. Underneath was a cave-like thing, so dark and gloomy. "Let's check it out."
I gulped. "Myrrh tree, you'd better be close."
We stepped carefully through the marshy cave, each squish our feet made was sickening. Soon my footwear was soaked, and I couldn't see a think except a small light that gave me hope there was an exit to this horrible place.
"Kupo! The Myrrh tree, KUPO!" Mog shouted after dropping the chalice outside of the cave. I stepped out, shielding my eyes of the blinding light I wasn't used to after traveling in the pitch black for so long. Sure enough, there was the Myrrh tree, looking as promising as ever and reminding me strongly of my will to get home.
"Not so fast!" Bal Dat said, grabbing Mog's pompom before he rushed out of the circle of light from the chalice. He looked towards a beautiful waterfall springing downward from a cliff at least fifty feet in the air.
"What about it? Let's get going!" I said, picking up the chalice and hurrying towards the sparkling tree.
"Nah, nah!" Bal Dat grabbed my hair also, making me nearly fall over. "…Something's watching us."
Review, review, review, review, review, review, REVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIEWWWWWWWW! Sorry, it's now 12:30 (Yes, it took me an hour to write this pathetic last half of the chappy.) and I'm extREMILY tired. So if this last half is completely stupid and hardly any of it makes sense, lemme know through review. =P I've been losing my interesting touch lately cuz of how late I've been tending to write. I need to write it when I'm more…………………..*ZzzzzZzzzz*