Chapter 7 - The Tension Mounts...
The sunlight streams through the window, bathing all within with its radiant glowing sunshiney-ness. This sunshiney-ness gently nudges to waking a young man perched on a chair next to the window, one bare foot hanging rakishly out said window, much to the chagrin of the small birds. These birds fall to the ground with a small 'thump' as the fumes rising from the appendage prove to be simply too much for them, and they passed into a state of unconsciousness. Apparently, not only the birds are critical of the young man's foot-hygiene. A nearby flower garden seems also rather critical, in that it had gone on something of a strike, utterly refusing to continue processing carbon dioxide into oxygen. Into the dew-moistened soil next to the plot of marigolds and daisies is stuck a sign, bearing the words, "Amalgamated Flora Union Local #24601 Says No More: Working Conditions Unsafe."
Some yards away, a grove of shrivelled, dying trees also seems to be protesting the Foot of Doom.
"Okay, Rhianwen, I'll put my sock back on," Zidane calls angrily, yet quietly, to the sky, taking his foot from the window, and then promptly falling back asleep.
Across the room, it appears as though Vivi and Dagger have gotten the luck of the draw, so to speak, and have been awarded the privilege of beds. On the left-hand bed, Dagger is curled up, cuddling a pillow.
"Aww..." you croon, hands clasped at the side of your face in delight at the sheer cuteness of this mental image.
On the right-hand bed, Vivi is quite invisible to any spectators that may be spectating, as he is curled up under his hat.
"Hee!" you giggle, though at the back of your mind wondering how he fit under there; after all, his hat isn't THAT big.
A few yards from the bed, against the wall, Steiner is propped up in a sitting position, his behelmeted head slumped forward on his wife-beater- clad chest. A pair of boxers decorated brightly with little red tulips, and a pair of wool socks complete his ensemble.
"AAARRGH!!!" you scream, trying to claw your eyes from your head to rid yourself of the mental image burned into them...or something.
Close to the adjacent wall, Amarant and Freya have staked out a small section of floor to call their own for the time being. At first glance, it appears as though these two have finally learned to get along. Amarant is stretched out on his back, one arm wrapped protectively about Freya, who is nestled against his shoulder. When one looks more closely, though, one may observe that his other hand is wrapped lovingly about her throat, and that both her arms are stretched above her head, the hand not chained to his lovingly wrapped around his throat, the other wrapped around his wrist. Both are smiling in perfect contentment; what better way to fall asleep than trying to end the life of the other?
"Uh...kay...Rhianwen, you're on crack," you comment to yourself, shaking your head, before continuing on with the story.
"Ooh," Zidane groaned, climbing painfully to his feet and stretching. "Sleeping in a chair was a bad idea." He glanced about, and observed, pouting, that his comment had gone quite unappreciated by the rest of the room. "Hey! Guys!" he shouted, bringing his foot heavily down on the floor. The reverberations that this sent through the floor immediately jolted Steiner to wakefulness, and the knight bolted to his feet. "Oh, good. You're awake," Zidane commented, satisfied. Steiner glared back at him. "Yes, I had noticed."
"Great; well, you start getting some of our stuff together, maybe see if that kid's awake to unlock the other rooms first. I'm gonna try to wake up everyone else and-" He trailed off as he noticed that Steiner's attention was elsewhere. "What's up, Rusty?"
"Look at Amarant and Freya. Why are they sleeping like that?"
Zidane's gaze swung in the direction that Steiner was pointing, and grinned hugely at the sight of his friends curled up peacefully in one another's arms. He reflected that maybe he'd been right; maybe they didn't simply 'tolerate' one another quite as much as they'd have both have liked to believe.
"I don't know, man. Maybe you should ask then when they wake up."
With this, he sauntered over to the bed from which the large yellow hat was protruding, and poked the massive brightly-coloured headgear. Uncurling slowly, Vivi sat up with a yawn.
"Is it morning already?" he asked, blinking.
"Yeah," Zidane replied. "Sorry, Vivi. We've gotta get moving pretty quick. I'm gonna wake everyone else. Why don't you go with Steiner to find that guy who has the keys?"
Nodding, the small mage ambled out of the room after the boxer-clad Steiner, pausing briefly to wonder why the man wasn't wearing any pants. As they departed, Zidane crept over to Dagger's bed and placed a small kiss on her cheek. She smiled in her sleep, and turned over with a soft murmur.
"Alright," Zidane decided aloud. "Plan B."
He tapped her shoulder gently until her eyes opened. She started back, taking in a shocked breath.
"Zidane!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing in my...oh, I remember now. We're all sharing one room. Oh! I hope I didn't wake anyone else," she concluded, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Zidane laughed softly.
"I doubt it. Amarant and Freya are the only ones still asleep, and I think it might take a lot to wake them up right now."
"Why?" Dagger inquired, head tilted to the side. Zidane motioned to the wall.
"Check it out."
"Oh! How cute!" the dark-haired girl commented, eyes starry, hands clasped. Then she frowned. "Sort of."
"Well, I'm gonna go try to wake them," Zidane announced, picking his way across the room through the scattered boots, gloves, hats, and other various and sundry possessions of the six travellers. He knelt down next to the sleeping pair, and hesitantly tapped Amarant lightly on the shoulder. The man didn't awaken, but he stirred slightly, and moved his hand from around the young woman's neck to the back of her head, his fingers curling tightly into her hair. Freya murmured sleepily, then shifted to nuzzle his palm with her cheek. Zidane watched, eyebrow raised.
"Uh...kay. That was...weird."
Then he tapped Amarant's shoulder again, a little less lightly. The bounty hunter grumbled as he opened his eyes.
"What the hell do you want?" he demanded, trying to sit up, then stopping abruptly as he noticed the warm shape nestled against his side.
"I'm just trying to get everyone woken up so we can all get our stuff together and get out of here," Zidane replied, suppressing a laugh, but not quite able to suppress a smile. "I'll let you wake her up," the young man announced, gesturing to Freya, before climbing to his feet and sauntering out of the room, followed closely by Dagger, who peered curiously at the pair on the floor one more time before departing.
Amarant glared intently after both of them, and then down at Freya, just for good measure. The knowledge that no one could appreciate these glares, Zidane and Dagger because they had been turned away, and Freya because she was still asleep, set back the slight chances of his developing a good mood to no chance. Speaking of Freya...
"Hey! Wake up and get the hell off of me!" he barked, shaking her. She made a noise of protest, then sat up, gazing about her, blinking and disoriented. He bit back a smile at the decidedly child-like expression, then remembered that he was supposed to be pissed off, and stalked away, pausing first to stand up.
"...Ow," Freya reflected sadly, bumping over the wooden floorboards as she was dragged along behind. "That's about the third-worst way I've ever woken up."
"Okay, guys, I think the first thing we should do is head back to the tavern," Zidane announced, glancing back over his shoulder as he strode down the wide dirt road, bordered on either side by expanses of rolling green meadow.
"Uh...why?"
Zidane came to a dead halt and glared at the source of the question. Amarant returned the glare steadily. Zidane sighed.
"Why do you think? I wanna see if we can find out where that little red- head went. We don't really know anything about her-"
"We know she's scary," Vivi reminded the Genome. Zidane sighed again, rubbing his eyes wearily.
"Yes, Vivi, thank-you. We know she's scary. But, we don't know her name, or where she's from, or anything, so we should probably go ask around to see if anyone at the tavern last night does."
"Zidane, after she destroyed their main source of alcohol, why would anyone want to help us find her, even if they did make it a point to remember her name?" Dagger asked impatiently.
"I think, Your Highness," Steiner began thoughtfully, "that if anyone did know anything of our young friend, they still do. She does not seem an easy type of person to forget."
"Right," Amarant muttered. "The type that goes about, blowing buildings sky-high."
"I agree with Dagger, though," Freya spoke up, "that even if, as you say, they likely will remember her, they won't be overly inclined to help us find her. Or, if the worst happens, they may believe us to be friends of hers, and may form an angry mob, demanding revenge for their beloved tavern."
"Maybe the inside-out vampires will be with them," Amarant suggested dryly. Zidane looked askance at him.
"Inside-out vampires? Amarant, have you gone crazy?"
"Stark-raving," the bounty-hunter replied, completely deadpan.
"Uh...right," Zidane replied, edging away nervously. Then he sighed. "I wish Mr. Kaughnee would come back. He was really weird, but it's sure better than walking."
"Zidane, you've travelled nearly the entire world by foot! How is it that you're whining over walking 30 miles to a town?" Dagger demanded with a sigh. Zidane shrugged.
"It's too early."
"Hmph! Well, it certainly wasn't MY idea to set out at the break of dawn!"
"Yeah," Vivi agreed with the somewhat annoyed Alexandrian ruler. "I wanted to sleep more."
"I quite agree," Steiner put in.
"Yeah," Zidane admitted with mock sadness, "maybe we should have slept longer. I'm sure those two think so." He grinned at Freya, who blushed and looked away, suddenly becoming very fascinated by the scenery of fields and cows, and then at Amarant, who glared back. Nothing daunted, Zidane continued. "After all, they seemed pretty comfy down there on the floor, all cuddled up together."
"Zidane," Freya began, rubbing her forehead wearily, "please stop talking right now, before I'm forced to rip your tail off and shove it down your throat."
"Hey, that's pretty good," Amarant observed, almost smiling down at her. "I'll have to use it on you next time you won't shut up."
"You don't want to know what I'll disconnect if YOU don't shut up," she intoned darkly. As one, Steiner, Zidane, Vivi, and Amarant flinched.
"Freya, that was rather mean," Dagger commented, gazing reproachfully at the dragoon.
"Well, what is a girl to do," she asked plaintively, "when the men of the world just won't shut up?"
"I suppose," Dagger conceded with a reluctant nod. After all, she admitted freely to herself that there really were times when these men had to be kept in line, by whatever means necessary.
From here on out, the journey from the secluded inn back into the town passed without incident, save for when the group had the ill luck to be attacked by a swarm of angry Bandersnatches. To be sure, this, too, should have been no problem for our band of incredibly experiencedc and skilled fighters, had Zidane not been rather insistent that Amarant and Freya, despite obvious reasons to reconsider this, should fight along with the rest of the group.
However, being in a rather mischievous frame of mind, and desperate to alleviate the boredom, he did insist. Furthermore, his mischievous frame of mind led him to an absolutely absurd suggestion that Freya should jump, and was startled and dismayed when, acting entirely on instinct, she did so...and promptly came down again, directly upon the head of a hitherto very aggravated, and at this, utterly furious Amarant.
Amarant's temper, although not flaring up in full force very often, was formidable when it did. As such, Freya promptly found herself seized by the back of the coat, and flung into the air...where, upon sailing straight out for a split second, the chain of the handcuffs stretched as far out as they could, and she reversed directions to crash once again into Amarant. Both went down with a tremendous thud. Their mingled groans of pain drifted up from the ground.
Rolling her eyes and heaving a long sigh, Dagger started forward and held her staff out before her. Ribbons of light shot out from top of the staff and wound around the two unfortunate souls as she murmured a healing spell under her breath.
All in all, no lasting damage was done, even to Zidane, who, once Amarant and Freya were back to consciousness and coherency again, found another attempt being made on his life. Still, the group decided unanimously that, perhaps, the rest had better handle the fighting from here on out.
Once this conclusion was reached, the remainder of the journey passed much more easily, and before they knew it, the group found themselves sauntering up to a familiar pile of scrap wood.
"Alright, there's the tavern," Zidane declared. "Let's start questioning people. Dagger, you can come with me and start questioning people around here. Steiner, why don't you and Amarant go further into town and see what you can find out. And Vivi and Freya, you two can just sorta wander around the countryside and talk to nice old ladies. See if you can snag us some corn-bread while you're at it," the young man finished, patting his growling stomach. Vivi sighed and gazed up at Steiner. Steiner merely shook his head in despair. No, he didn't even want to try.
He glanced over at Freya, who made a similar gesture. Amarant?
No, Amarant decided, too easy. Dagger rolled her eyes, not for the first time that day, and likely not for the last. Oh, the things a girl would put up with for the man she loved!
"Zidane," she began very, very slowly. "Why are we here?"
"To find that little red-headed girl," Zidane replied proudly. Dagger blinked.
"Very good, Zidane. Now, why do we need to find this girl?"
"Well, because she's a really powerful sorceress."
"And WHY do we need a really powerful sorceress?"
"To see if she can take us to a really powerful white mage."
"I'm glad we're on the same page," Dagger commented dryly. "Now, here is the piece that connects everything. Why do we need a really powerful white mage?"
"...To break the spell that that M-guy put on those handcuffs in his magic act."
"And why is it necessary to do this?" Dagger continued, seeing that, indeed, the last question hadn't tied everything together in the mind of the young man as she had expected. Zidane pondered this last question for a moment.
"'Cause Amarant's gonna kill me if we don't."
The sound of teeth gritting filled the air.
"And WHY is Amarant going to kill you if we don't?"
"Y'know, I don't really know. I mean, he's joined at the wrist to a fairly good-looking girl; he should thank me, and the Magical Mr. What's- His-Name. His love life's more active now than it's probably ever been!"
"You...really don't enjoy living, do you?" Steiner noted with a shake of his head at the glare that Freya sent Zidane, nearly burning two neat little holes in her hat where it hung over her eyes in the process.
"No, he doesn't seem to," she agreed, trying to bolt after a quickly- retreating Zidane...and failing utterly. The glare changed destinations, and came to rest on Amarant.
"Well? Aren't you going to help?"
Amarant shrugged.
"What can I say? When he's right, he's right."
She blinked.
"Erhm...what?"
"It's about the closest thing."
"...Being handcuffed to me as a result of a man who thinks he's a cat- magician is the closest thing you've had to a love life in..."
"...Ever. Yeah, that's right."
A pause.
"You lead a sorry, sorry life, my f-mph!!!"
To anyone out there who would ask why on earth the last bit of Freya's statement was utterly unintelligible, I would suggest trying to speak clearly with someone's mouth covering yours, particularly if tongues are involved, and see how well you fare. As to whether or not tongues were involved in this case, I shall leave that entirely to you and your imagination to decide; I'm certainly not going to ask them, 'Hey, guys, didja use tongues?'
To me, that seems nothing more than an easy way to die.
Erm...anyway...
When the realization meandered through her mind that she was being kissed, quite remarkably well, by someone that was supposed to annoy her to distraction, she did what any sensible girl would have done: she decided that this was some sort of dream induced by severe and repeated impact to the head, that it would likely vanish soon, and that she should enjoy it before it did. Thus deciding, she wound her free arm around his neck, her other hand curled tightly around his, and returned the kiss most enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, Amarant was pondering the distinct possibility that this was a challenge of sorts. To be sure, he had been the one to begin it, but only as an effective means to stop her from talking. And, it seemed to him, she had escalated it into an all-out battle to see who would be the first to back away. Well, damned if it would be him.
'Heh-heh-heh...' ran Zidane's internal monologue. 'I knew it.'
'Oh! How adorable!' Dagger thought, a small voice in her head warning her that to say it out loud would be to incur quite a bit of formidable wrath. '...Sort of...'
'What are they doing? I wonder if it's sort of like what Dagger and Zidane were doing last night...I still don't know what Left-Foot-Yellow means...' Vivi finished silently with a small sigh.
'Most unseemly behaviour for the middle of the street. Someone should put a stop to this,' Steiner decided, watching intently without making any sort of move to be the one to do the 'stop-putting.'
'Oh, my...this is a long dream,' Freya noted. 'I'm not complaining, especially, although it is becoming rather difficult to breathe...rather an odd thing, in a dream.'
'Damn...this just goes to show, you can never tell about the quiet ones.' Amarant made a mental note to remember these words of wisdom in days to come.
'I...should probably stop them before they embarrass themselves,' Zidane mused. He strode over to the pair.
"Hey! Guys!" he barked, swatting Amarant's shoulder. "Sorry to break up the party, but, y'know, we've gotta get going."
"Fine," Amarant agreed coolly, not missing a beat. "Just had to find a way to shut her up first."
"No more successful than trying to piss me off until I stopped speaking to you, I'm afraid," Freya informed him dryly, also composed as ever. Zidane shook his head. By the gods, he had strange friends! Then, briskly, he decided it was time to get back down to business. This silliness had gone on long enough. If no one else would redeem the situation and make something intelligent of it, it was up to him, Zidane Tribal, to do it himself. And do it he would.
"So...Amarant, you and Steiner are taking the town, right? And Vivi and Freya are going to explore the countryside?"
"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Dagger howled in a most un-queenly fashion.
End Notes: [Sweatdrop] Alright, I think it just became a pseudo-romance. Hee-hee! I didn't plan that last page-and-a-half at all until it was out on paper...oh, fine. Microsoft Word. Let's not cloud the horizons with a bunch of semantic hair-splitting, alright? [Sigh] Well, depending on how the reviews treat this chapter, I may take it down and re-write it to be slightly less...blatantly 'shippery.
Oh, yes; and the title of this chapter is a working title only until I can think up something ridiculously clever...or just ridiculous. Y'know, whichever comes first.
And finally, I would just like to say that I do NOT hate Zidane. I don't know why I keep writing him like a lovable idiot in this story; I suppose it just feels natural. :o)
The sunlight streams through the window, bathing all within with its radiant glowing sunshiney-ness. This sunshiney-ness gently nudges to waking a young man perched on a chair next to the window, one bare foot hanging rakishly out said window, much to the chagrin of the small birds. These birds fall to the ground with a small 'thump' as the fumes rising from the appendage prove to be simply too much for them, and they passed into a state of unconsciousness. Apparently, not only the birds are critical of the young man's foot-hygiene. A nearby flower garden seems also rather critical, in that it had gone on something of a strike, utterly refusing to continue processing carbon dioxide into oxygen. Into the dew-moistened soil next to the plot of marigolds and daisies is stuck a sign, bearing the words, "Amalgamated Flora Union Local #24601 Says No More: Working Conditions Unsafe."
Some yards away, a grove of shrivelled, dying trees also seems to be protesting the Foot of Doom.
"Okay, Rhianwen, I'll put my sock back on," Zidane calls angrily, yet quietly, to the sky, taking his foot from the window, and then promptly falling back asleep.
Across the room, it appears as though Vivi and Dagger have gotten the luck of the draw, so to speak, and have been awarded the privilege of beds. On the left-hand bed, Dagger is curled up, cuddling a pillow.
"Aww..." you croon, hands clasped at the side of your face in delight at the sheer cuteness of this mental image.
On the right-hand bed, Vivi is quite invisible to any spectators that may be spectating, as he is curled up under his hat.
"Hee!" you giggle, though at the back of your mind wondering how he fit under there; after all, his hat isn't THAT big.
A few yards from the bed, against the wall, Steiner is propped up in a sitting position, his behelmeted head slumped forward on his wife-beater- clad chest. A pair of boxers decorated brightly with little red tulips, and a pair of wool socks complete his ensemble.
"AAARRGH!!!" you scream, trying to claw your eyes from your head to rid yourself of the mental image burned into them...or something.
Close to the adjacent wall, Amarant and Freya have staked out a small section of floor to call their own for the time being. At first glance, it appears as though these two have finally learned to get along. Amarant is stretched out on his back, one arm wrapped protectively about Freya, who is nestled against his shoulder. When one looks more closely, though, one may observe that his other hand is wrapped lovingly about her throat, and that both her arms are stretched above her head, the hand not chained to his lovingly wrapped around his throat, the other wrapped around his wrist. Both are smiling in perfect contentment; what better way to fall asleep than trying to end the life of the other?
"Uh...kay...Rhianwen, you're on crack," you comment to yourself, shaking your head, before continuing on with the story.
"Ooh," Zidane groaned, climbing painfully to his feet and stretching. "Sleeping in a chair was a bad idea." He glanced about, and observed, pouting, that his comment had gone quite unappreciated by the rest of the room. "Hey! Guys!" he shouted, bringing his foot heavily down on the floor. The reverberations that this sent through the floor immediately jolted Steiner to wakefulness, and the knight bolted to his feet. "Oh, good. You're awake," Zidane commented, satisfied. Steiner glared back at him. "Yes, I had noticed."
"Great; well, you start getting some of our stuff together, maybe see if that kid's awake to unlock the other rooms first. I'm gonna try to wake up everyone else and-" He trailed off as he noticed that Steiner's attention was elsewhere. "What's up, Rusty?"
"Look at Amarant and Freya. Why are they sleeping like that?"
Zidane's gaze swung in the direction that Steiner was pointing, and grinned hugely at the sight of his friends curled up peacefully in one another's arms. He reflected that maybe he'd been right; maybe they didn't simply 'tolerate' one another quite as much as they'd have both have liked to believe.
"I don't know, man. Maybe you should ask then when they wake up."
With this, he sauntered over to the bed from which the large yellow hat was protruding, and poked the massive brightly-coloured headgear. Uncurling slowly, Vivi sat up with a yawn.
"Is it morning already?" he asked, blinking.
"Yeah," Zidane replied. "Sorry, Vivi. We've gotta get moving pretty quick. I'm gonna wake everyone else. Why don't you go with Steiner to find that guy who has the keys?"
Nodding, the small mage ambled out of the room after the boxer-clad Steiner, pausing briefly to wonder why the man wasn't wearing any pants. As they departed, Zidane crept over to Dagger's bed and placed a small kiss on her cheek. She smiled in her sleep, and turned over with a soft murmur.
"Alright," Zidane decided aloud. "Plan B."
He tapped her shoulder gently until her eyes opened. She started back, taking in a shocked breath.
"Zidane!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing in my...oh, I remember now. We're all sharing one room. Oh! I hope I didn't wake anyone else," she concluded, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Zidane laughed softly.
"I doubt it. Amarant and Freya are the only ones still asleep, and I think it might take a lot to wake them up right now."
"Why?" Dagger inquired, head tilted to the side. Zidane motioned to the wall.
"Check it out."
"Oh! How cute!" the dark-haired girl commented, eyes starry, hands clasped. Then she frowned. "Sort of."
"Well, I'm gonna go try to wake them," Zidane announced, picking his way across the room through the scattered boots, gloves, hats, and other various and sundry possessions of the six travellers. He knelt down next to the sleeping pair, and hesitantly tapped Amarant lightly on the shoulder. The man didn't awaken, but he stirred slightly, and moved his hand from around the young woman's neck to the back of her head, his fingers curling tightly into her hair. Freya murmured sleepily, then shifted to nuzzle his palm with her cheek. Zidane watched, eyebrow raised.
"Uh...kay. That was...weird."
Then he tapped Amarant's shoulder again, a little less lightly. The bounty hunter grumbled as he opened his eyes.
"What the hell do you want?" he demanded, trying to sit up, then stopping abruptly as he noticed the warm shape nestled against his side.
"I'm just trying to get everyone woken up so we can all get our stuff together and get out of here," Zidane replied, suppressing a laugh, but not quite able to suppress a smile. "I'll let you wake her up," the young man announced, gesturing to Freya, before climbing to his feet and sauntering out of the room, followed closely by Dagger, who peered curiously at the pair on the floor one more time before departing.
Amarant glared intently after both of them, and then down at Freya, just for good measure. The knowledge that no one could appreciate these glares, Zidane and Dagger because they had been turned away, and Freya because she was still asleep, set back the slight chances of his developing a good mood to no chance. Speaking of Freya...
"Hey! Wake up and get the hell off of me!" he barked, shaking her. She made a noise of protest, then sat up, gazing about her, blinking and disoriented. He bit back a smile at the decidedly child-like expression, then remembered that he was supposed to be pissed off, and stalked away, pausing first to stand up.
"...Ow," Freya reflected sadly, bumping over the wooden floorboards as she was dragged along behind. "That's about the third-worst way I've ever woken up."
"Okay, guys, I think the first thing we should do is head back to the tavern," Zidane announced, glancing back over his shoulder as he strode down the wide dirt road, bordered on either side by expanses of rolling green meadow.
"Uh...why?"
Zidane came to a dead halt and glared at the source of the question. Amarant returned the glare steadily. Zidane sighed.
"Why do you think? I wanna see if we can find out where that little red- head went. We don't really know anything about her-"
"We know she's scary," Vivi reminded the Genome. Zidane sighed again, rubbing his eyes wearily.
"Yes, Vivi, thank-you. We know she's scary. But, we don't know her name, or where she's from, or anything, so we should probably go ask around to see if anyone at the tavern last night does."
"Zidane, after she destroyed their main source of alcohol, why would anyone want to help us find her, even if they did make it a point to remember her name?" Dagger asked impatiently.
"I think, Your Highness," Steiner began thoughtfully, "that if anyone did know anything of our young friend, they still do. She does not seem an easy type of person to forget."
"Right," Amarant muttered. "The type that goes about, blowing buildings sky-high."
"I agree with Dagger, though," Freya spoke up, "that even if, as you say, they likely will remember her, they won't be overly inclined to help us find her. Or, if the worst happens, they may believe us to be friends of hers, and may form an angry mob, demanding revenge for their beloved tavern."
"Maybe the inside-out vampires will be with them," Amarant suggested dryly. Zidane looked askance at him.
"Inside-out vampires? Amarant, have you gone crazy?"
"Stark-raving," the bounty-hunter replied, completely deadpan.
"Uh...right," Zidane replied, edging away nervously. Then he sighed. "I wish Mr. Kaughnee would come back. He was really weird, but it's sure better than walking."
"Zidane, you've travelled nearly the entire world by foot! How is it that you're whining over walking 30 miles to a town?" Dagger demanded with a sigh. Zidane shrugged.
"It's too early."
"Hmph! Well, it certainly wasn't MY idea to set out at the break of dawn!"
"Yeah," Vivi agreed with the somewhat annoyed Alexandrian ruler. "I wanted to sleep more."
"I quite agree," Steiner put in.
"Yeah," Zidane admitted with mock sadness, "maybe we should have slept longer. I'm sure those two think so." He grinned at Freya, who blushed and looked away, suddenly becoming very fascinated by the scenery of fields and cows, and then at Amarant, who glared back. Nothing daunted, Zidane continued. "After all, they seemed pretty comfy down there on the floor, all cuddled up together."
"Zidane," Freya began, rubbing her forehead wearily, "please stop talking right now, before I'm forced to rip your tail off and shove it down your throat."
"Hey, that's pretty good," Amarant observed, almost smiling down at her. "I'll have to use it on you next time you won't shut up."
"You don't want to know what I'll disconnect if YOU don't shut up," she intoned darkly. As one, Steiner, Zidane, Vivi, and Amarant flinched.
"Freya, that was rather mean," Dagger commented, gazing reproachfully at the dragoon.
"Well, what is a girl to do," she asked plaintively, "when the men of the world just won't shut up?"
"I suppose," Dagger conceded with a reluctant nod. After all, she admitted freely to herself that there really were times when these men had to be kept in line, by whatever means necessary.
From here on out, the journey from the secluded inn back into the town passed without incident, save for when the group had the ill luck to be attacked by a swarm of angry Bandersnatches. To be sure, this, too, should have been no problem for our band of incredibly experiencedc and skilled fighters, had Zidane not been rather insistent that Amarant and Freya, despite obvious reasons to reconsider this, should fight along with the rest of the group.
However, being in a rather mischievous frame of mind, and desperate to alleviate the boredom, he did insist. Furthermore, his mischievous frame of mind led him to an absolutely absurd suggestion that Freya should jump, and was startled and dismayed when, acting entirely on instinct, she did so...and promptly came down again, directly upon the head of a hitherto very aggravated, and at this, utterly furious Amarant.
Amarant's temper, although not flaring up in full force very often, was formidable when it did. As such, Freya promptly found herself seized by the back of the coat, and flung into the air...where, upon sailing straight out for a split second, the chain of the handcuffs stretched as far out as they could, and she reversed directions to crash once again into Amarant. Both went down with a tremendous thud. Their mingled groans of pain drifted up from the ground.
Rolling her eyes and heaving a long sigh, Dagger started forward and held her staff out before her. Ribbons of light shot out from top of the staff and wound around the two unfortunate souls as she murmured a healing spell under her breath.
All in all, no lasting damage was done, even to Zidane, who, once Amarant and Freya were back to consciousness and coherency again, found another attempt being made on his life. Still, the group decided unanimously that, perhaps, the rest had better handle the fighting from here on out.
Once this conclusion was reached, the remainder of the journey passed much more easily, and before they knew it, the group found themselves sauntering up to a familiar pile of scrap wood.
"Alright, there's the tavern," Zidane declared. "Let's start questioning people. Dagger, you can come with me and start questioning people around here. Steiner, why don't you and Amarant go further into town and see what you can find out. And Vivi and Freya, you two can just sorta wander around the countryside and talk to nice old ladies. See if you can snag us some corn-bread while you're at it," the young man finished, patting his growling stomach. Vivi sighed and gazed up at Steiner. Steiner merely shook his head in despair. No, he didn't even want to try.
He glanced over at Freya, who made a similar gesture. Amarant?
No, Amarant decided, too easy. Dagger rolled her eyes, not for the first time that day, and likely not for the last. Oh, the things a girl would put up with for the man she loved!
"Zidane," she began very, very slowly. "Why are we here?"
"To find that little red-headed girl," Zidane replied proudly. Dagger blinked.
"Very good, Zidane. Now, why do we need to find this girl?"
"Well, because she's a really powerful sorceress."
"And WHY do we need a really powerful sorceress?"
"To see if she can take us to a really powerful white mage."
"I'm glad we're on the same page," Dagger commented dryly. "Now, here is the piece that connects everything. Why do we need a really powerful white mage?"
"...To break the spell that that M-guy put on those handcuffs in his magic act."
"And why is it necessary to do this?" Dagger continued, seeing that, indeed, the last question hadn't tied everything together in the mind of the young man as she had expected. Zidane pondered this last question for a moment.
"'Cause Amarant's gonna kill me if we don't."
The sound of teeth gritting filled the air.
"And WHY is Amarant going to kill you if we don't?"
"Y'know, I don't really know. I mean, he's joined at the wrist to a fairly good-looking girl; he should thank me, and the Magical Mr. What's- His-Name. His love life's more active now than it's probably ever been!"
"You...really don't enjoy living, do you?" Steiner noted with a shake of his head at the glare that Freya sent Zidane, nearly burning two neat little holes in her hat where it hung over her eyes in the process.
"No, he doesn't seem to," she agreed, trying to bolt after a quickly- retreating Zidane...and failing utterly. The glare changed destinations, and came to rest on Amarant.
"Well? Aren't you going to help?"
Amarant shrugged.
"What can I say? When he's right, he's right."
She blinked.
"Erhm...what?"
"It's about the closest thing."
"...Being handcuffed to me as a result of a man who thinks he's a cat- magician is the closest thing you've had to a love life in..."
"...Ever. Yeah, that's right."
A pause.
"You lead a sorry, sorry life, my f-mph!!!"
To anyone out there who would ask why on earth the last bit of Freya's statement was utterly unintelligible, I would suggest trying to speak clearly with someone's mouth covering yours, particularly if tongues are involved, and see how well you fare. As to whether or not tongues were involved in this case, I shall leave that entirely to you and your imagination to decide; I'm certainly not going to ask them, 'Hey, guys, didja use tongues?'
To me, that seems nothing more than an easy way to die.
Erm...anyway...
When the realization meandered through her mind that she was being kissed, quite remarkably well, by someone that was supposed to annoy her to distraction, she did what any sensible girl would have done: she decided that this was some sort of dream induced by severe and repeated impact to the head, that it would likely vanish soon, and that she should enjoy it before it did. Thus deciding, she wound her free arm around his neck, her other hand curled tightly around his, and returned the kiss most enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, Amarant was pondering the distinct possibility that this was a challenge of sorts. To be sure, he had been the one to begin it, but only as an effective means to stop her from talking. And, it seemed to him, she had escalated it into an all-out battle to see who would be the first to back away. Well, damned if it would be him.
'Heh-heh-heh...' ran Zidane's internal monologue. 'I knew it.'
'Oh! How adorable!' Dagger thought, a small voice in her head warning her that to say it out loud would be to incur quite a bit of formidable wrath. '...Sort of...'
'What are they doing? I wonder if it's sort of like what Dagger and Zidane were doing last night...I still don't know what Left-Foot-Yellow means...' Vivi finished silently with a small sigh.
'Most unseemly behaviour for the middle of the street. Someone should put a stop to this,' Steiner decided, watching intently without making any sort of move to be the one to do the 'stop-putting.'
'Oh, my...this is a long dream,' Freya noted. 'I'm not complaining, especially, although it is becoming rather difficult to breathe...rather an odd thing, in a dream.'
'Damn...this just goes to show, you can never tell about the quiet ones.' Amarant made a mental note to remember these words of wisdom in days to come.
'I...should probably stop them before they embarrass themselves,' Zidane mused. He strode over to the pair.
"Hey! Guys!" he barked, swatting Amarant's shoulder. "Sorry to break up the party, but, y'know, we've gotta get going."
"Fine," Amarant agreed coolly, not missing a beat. "Just had to find a way to shut her up first."
"No more successful than trying to piss me off until I stopped speaking to you, I'm afraid," Freya informed him dryly, also composed as ever. Zidane shook his head. By the gods, he had strange friends! Then, briskly, he decided it was time to get back down to business. This silliness had gone on long enough. If no one else would redeem the situation and make something intelligent of it, it was up to him, Zidane Tribal, to do it himself. And do it he would.
"So...Amarant, you and Steiner are taking the town, right? And Vivi and Freya are going to explore the countryside?"
"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Dagger howled in a most un-queenly fashion.
End Notes: [Sweatdrop] Alright, I think it just became a pseudo-romance. Hee-hee! I didn't plan that last page-and-a-half at all until it was out on paper...oh, fine. Microsoft Word. Let's not cloud the horizons with a bunch of semantic hair-splitting, alright? [Sigh] Well, depending on how the reviews treat this chapter, I may take it down and re-write it to be slightly less...blatantly 'shippery.
Oh, yes; and the title of this chapter is a working title only until I can think up something ridiculously clever...or just ridiculous. Y'know, whichever comes first.
And finally, I would just like to say that I do NOT hate Zidane. I don't know why I keep writing him like a lovable idiot in this story; I suppose it just feels natural. :o)