Chapter 9 - 'Til the Mad Cows Came Home
Author's Notes: [Glances about the room at the several cows milling about, then sighs in despair] Well, I took too long with this chapter, and...you guessed it. The cows came home. Now, this chapter isn't nearly as long as it was going to be, but is longer than some have been.
"I see a bad moon risin'," Steiner carolled merrily, shattering the silence of the peaceful evening, much to the chagrin of everyone else, as he jaunted merrily along the dirt path. "I see trouble on the way..."
"Um...Steiner," Vivi attempted to interrupt.
"I see earthquakes and lightning," the oblivious knight continued, every bit as oblivious as the previous description suggested.
"At least he's not singing 'Gehen Sie zu mir, meine liebe Socke zurück' again," Freya murmured consolingly. Mostly trying to console herself.
"Steiner!" Zidane barked, to no avail.
"I see mad cows today!"
"What?!" the young man exclaimed. "Mad cows? What are you talking about?"
"Those are the words to the song," Steiner informed him, much aggrieved.
"No, they're not!"
"Of course they are!"
"No, Steiner, they really aren't," Dagger informed him. He crossed his arms and gazed at her sceptically.
"Well, what are they, then?"
"I...don't know," Dagger admitted slowly, "but I KNOW they aren't 'I see mad cows today.'"
"Yeah," Amarant agreed. "That would make the song even stupider than it already is."
"Oh, come, now! It's a classic!" Freya protested.
"A stupid classic."
"What is so stupid about it?" she demanded.
"Just think about the words," he scoffed before quoting in disgust, "'there's a bathroom on the right.'"
Freya blinked in surprise.
"Uh...what?"
"The words in the chorus."
"...That isn't what they are."
"What? Of course it is."
"No, it isn't. Give the poor band some credit! The line is, 'there's a bad moon on the rise,' hence the name of the song, 'Bad Moon Rising.'"
"Yeah, Amarant. Seriously! Don't you ever read the lyric sheets?"
"...Lyric sheets?"
"Yeah! Inside the CDs!"
"...CDs?"
"Zidane!" Dagger hissed, trying frantically to get the young man's attention.
"What's up, Dagger?"
"We're getting all anachronistic again! We don't know what CDs are!"
"Oh...right," Zidane grinned sheepishly. "Can we forget that last bit?"
"How about we forget this whole damn day?" Amarant suggested, scowling fiercely at the setting sun sinking behind the firs of the forest up ahead.
"I certainly agree," Freya added.
"M-me, too," Vivi piped up adorably.
Dagger shook her head with a sigh.
"I would like to, as well, but if we did that, then we'd have to start back at the inn this morning, and the day could very well go once again just as it did the first time! And this day is NOT one that I want to re-live, whether or not I remember the first time around!"
"True," Amarant admitted. "If we had to do this day again, I'd gnaw off my own hand to get out of these damn cuffs and away from all of you people."
"Hmph!" Freya stated predictably.
"Hey, look on the bright side, Freya," Zidane suggested consolingly. "At least he didn't threaten to gnaw off your hand."
"I hadn't thought of that. Makes more sense," the redhead announced coolly, smirking inwardly at her outraged expression.
"This is going to be a long walk," Vivi predicted gloomily.
"I hear ya, Hatman," Zidane replied, nodding.
Everyone stared askance at Zidane. Then, shaking his head, Steiner stepped forward and delivered a mighty smack across the young man's face. Giving his own head a shake to clear it, Zidane shot Steiner a small smile.
"Thanks, man. I needed that. I could feel myself slipping back out of character again."
No one replied aloud, but it is certain that the fear that this would not be an isolated incident was not far from the minds of any of the weary travellers.
"Zidane, might I suggest calling a halt for the evening?" Steiner spoke up a little more than an hour later. By now, the sun had completely disappeared beyond the horizon, and it was certainly becoming very dark. The situation was little helped, of course, by the fact that, not long after we last left them, our heroes had entered the forest looming up ahead over the path. And so, they found themselves following a dirt road right through the middle of a thickly growing forest.
"Sure, now's as good a time as any," Zidane agreed with a philosophical shrug.
They moved off of the road and back into the forest until they came to a clearing suitable to set up camp in.
"This looks like as good a place as any, don't you think?" Dagger noted, tossing her pack to the ground. Now, who wants to come with me to look for firewood?"
"I shall accompany you, Your Majesty," Steiner hastened to offer. Dagger nodded, and they set off into the woods.
"Alright; now, what do the rest of us do until they get back?" Zidane mused aloud.
"Enjoy the quiet?" Amarant suggested from the tree that he was propped up against. Zidane chuckled quietly at the sight of Freya trying to lean against the tree next to him, with much less success.
"How can you find this comfortable?" she demanded, a rasping sound filling the clearing as she shifted uncomfortably against the rough wood. "I've got branches poking into my back, and little bits of bark sticking to me, and..."
"There's an art to it, rat," he replied smugly. "It looks very simple to the untrained eye, but there are many secrets and techniques that must not be taken for granted."
"Er...I'm sure there are," she said slowly, shooting Zidane a look that clearly pleaded, 'Help me out here! He's insane! Insane, I tell you! INSAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!!!'
This rather expressive look was quite ignored by the young man, to whom a thought had just occurred, judging from the way his face lit up, electricity nearly crackling in the air around him.
"Vivi!" he exclaimed whirling to face the blue-cloaked mage, dropping to the ground and leaning in until their faces were inches apart.
"U-um, yes, Zidane?" the small boy inquired hesitantly, backing up slightly.
"Do you still have that sack of cornbread?"
"Yeah!" Vivi announced proudly. "It's right here."
He dropped a small burlap sack to the ground, and with a joyful yelp, Zidane leapt upon it, hauling out several bits of the fluffy yellow bread and tossing one to each of his friends currently present.
"Make sure you save some of that for Steiner and Dagger," Freya admonished, slightly concerned that, from the way the sack was emptying beneath the fair-haired boy's appetite, the knight and the summoner might find themselves going hungry.
"Yeah, yeah, I will," Zidane assured her around a mouthful of cornbread.
"No, he won't," she sighed as the sound of two voices, one male and one female, shouting at each other, grew nearer.
Zidane frowned.
"Who's that?" he wondered. "Normally, I'd say Amarant and Freya in a shot, but they're right there, so..."
"Oh, shut up, Zidane," Freya requested, huffily, crossing her free arm. Amarant nodded, satisfied. She was coming along nicely. A few more days, and she might have the gesture mastered, if she continued to progress as she had been.
"Steiner!" the female voice barked. "For the last time, 'Bad Moon Rising' does not have a meaning, other than the end of the world! More specifically, the 'hidden meaning' of the song is NOT my mother's skirt slipping down!"
She whirled about to glare at the black mage, the thief, the dragoon, and the bounty hunter, all trying desperately to hold back laughter, with varying degrees of success.
"It isn't funny!" she insisted.
"Of...of course it isn't, Dagger," Freya agreed lightly. "But...erm, just out of curiosity, how did the subject come up, exactly?"
"You weren't singing again, were you, Steiner?" Amarant demanded suspiciously.
The older man nodded miserably. Zidane threw up his hands with a groan of dismay. Amarant merely rolled his eyes, as did Freya. Dagger nodded grimly.
"B-but I like Steiner's singing," a small voice piped up.
"Why, thank-you, Master Vivi!" the Knight of Pluto exclaimed, flicking a tear from his eye, overcome by emotion at this unexpected confirmation.
"Yeah, yeah, his singing's decent," Zidane agreed, "but Steiner, you've really got to stop reading into everything you sing!"
"Exactly," Freya agreed. "After all, sometimes a Gyshal Pickle really is just a Gyshal Pickle. Oh, will you stop it?!"
This last bit was aimed toward blond youth, who had begun to snicker insanely at the word 'pickle.' With a cherubic expression, Zidane fell silent...for a grand total of three seconds, before he was overcome by giggles again.
"I'd ask someone to knock him back into character," Dagger mused with a sigh, "but this is pretty much IN character for him."
"'Pickle,'" Zidane repeated once again with a chuckle. Then, sobering, he held the canvas sack out to Dagger and Steiner. "We saved you guys some cornbread," he announced proudly, shooting Freya a smug glance.
"It's empty," Dagger announced slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, well. I'm not especially hungry."
"Nor am I, Your Majesty," Steiner agreed. "I must say, though, you really ought to learn to be a little more open to others' interpretations on matters of literature. Without seeking the hidden meanings, you miss much."
"Yes," Dagger agreed tiredly. "With literature, perhaps. But it's a song, Steiner! Not even a very good song!"
"Don't let the author hear you say that," Zidane suggested mildly. "She's a huge CCR nut."
"Well, yeah," Amarant snorted. "Why else would we have spent five damn pages talking about it?"
"Temporary insanity?" Freya suggested tiredly. Ignoring them utterly, Dagger continued, seating herself on a log.
"And even for the sake of argument, Steiner, there is no way that the bad moon rising is a symbol of the moral decline of society, the invertedness of the symbol indicating the wrongful acceptance of this decadent lifestyle! Invertedness isn't even a real WORD, for crying out loud! The song is talking about the end of the world, and that is ALL!"
"Ah! The end of the world!" Steiner repeated, plunking down on the log opposite Dagger. "A veritable plethora of symbols can be drawn from the phrase, 'the end of the world.' It could be the end of an era, the end of an abiding law or morality. Or..."
"Or it could just be the end of the world!" Dagger insisted.
"Geez...how does Beatrix stand him?" Zidane wondered aloud.
"Maybe his...'pickle' is larger than average," Freya suggested without thinking. Then, as the wild laughter of Zidane and the surprised chuckle Amarant reached her ears, she made a definite mental point to keep her mouth shut when she was too tired to control exactly what came out of it.
"No one writes something with only one meaning! There is always something deeper suggested, even if the author is not completely conscious of putting it in!"
"The meaning, Steiner, is the end of the world!" Dagger exclaimed, dropping her head to her hand in despair, knowing full well that it wouldn't be the end. And she was very, very correct.
"The surface meaning, yes," Steiner agreed, leaning forward with his elbows propped on his knees.
"The WHOLE meaning!"
"Only the surface!"
"Ack! Where are we going?" Freya demanded as she felt an all-too-familiar, but none-too-gentle tug on her wrist.
"I've gotta get away from these idiots," Amarant stated, heaving a long sigh. "Are the words to some damn song really that important?"
"Not important enough to have a heated argument about in the middle of the forest, close to the middle of the night," Freya replied, shaking her head sadly. "Alright. Let's be off, then, shall we?"
Amarant shrugged one shoulder, rather awkwardly, as he was not nearly so adept at it as of yet as he was at crossing one arm, and they set off into the forest.
"Hey, where do you think they're going?" Zidane inquired of no one in particular, watching his friends disappear among the trees with barely repressed glee.
"What?" Dagger glanced briefly at him. "Oh; I don't know." Then she turned back to her argument with the knight. "Steiner, I still don't know how you can honestly believe that any self-respecting song writer would write into his song the lyrics, 'I see mad cows today!'"
"It could be metaphorical," the man replied huffily.
"For what?!"
"The pain of seeing one's cows go mad?" Zidane suggested sarcastically, quite taken aback when Steiner nodded, impressed.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I agree with Zidane. It could be symbolic for the pain of seeing one's cows go mad."
An incoherent whimper of pain escaped the throat of the young Alexandrian woman, melting into a sigh of contentment as Zidane's arm snaked around her waist, his other hand stroking her hair soothingly.
Meanwhile, Amarant pushed roughly between two trees, and stopped, staring out in astonishment at the scene before his eyes. Freya, not being quite prepared for this sudden stop, walked headlong into him, shouted a quick curse, glanced around him, curious at what had captured his attention so fully...and then caught her breath as the loveliness of the spectacle captured hers as well.
It was a lake, fairly large, and fringed on all banks with long grasses, waving gently in the light breeze, the moonlight infusing them with an ethereal beauty that made them seem threads of milky white to be woven into a fairy-tapestry, used to keep warm the child-spirits of the forest. The lake itself was perfectly calm, still, clear, glassy. The reflection of the moon glinted off of it, like finely polished silver.
The romance in the air was nearly palpable, sparks flying between them like magical fireflies of pure enchantment, and it seemed to the two of them that they were the only people left in the world. And, at that moment, perhaps they were. Or not. It didn't matter. The whole thing had simply been a passing observation. Uh...anyway...
Their eyes met. And they knew. As one, they moved to do the only thing that could be done at such a moment as this.
"Hey, guys!" Zidane called several minutes later, fiddling with a leaf as Amarant and Freya emerged from the forest. "What were you doing in there for so long?"
"The only thing that could be done," Amarant replied, shrugging his shoulder somewhat less awkwardly than the first time he had tried it.
The young man's eyes widened. So, they had talked about that...decidedly odd incident on the road yesterday! Making sure to do so softly so as not to wake Vivi, Steiner, and Dagger, who had eventually ceased their pointless bickering and opted for the healthier option of sleep, he climbed to his feet from the log upon which he had been seated and threw an arm around each of his friends, insinuating himself within the tight space that the chain of the handcuffs left between them.
"Oh, man, congratulations, both of you! So, when's the wedding?"
"Wedding?" Freya repeated, a frown of confusion wrinkling her brow. "What are you on about?" Then she blinked. "What exactly do you imagine we were doing?!"
"Well...what WERE you doing?" Zidane countered, suddenly unwilling to voice his suspicions, a tiny part of his mind warning him that his guess had been incorrect, and to voice it might be to rain certain death down upon himself.
"As Amarant said, we were doing the only thing that could be done when one stumbles upon a still, clear, moonlit lake in the middle of the night with a...er, close friend!"
"Exactly! So..."
"We were skipping stones!"
Zidane's face fell, the motion manifesting itself through his shoulders, arms, and back as he slumped forward in dismay. With a chuckle, Amarant led Freya back toward the fire.
"Er...I hate to be a nitpicker," she began slowly, lifting one hand, "but why do you always get to lead?"
"Uh...what?"
"Read the narration, Amarant. Once again, it has clearly stated that YOU led ME back to the fire. I don't understand it!"
"...Narration?" the tall man repeated, scratching his head, bewildered. "I think you're just too damn tired. First, you start speculating on Steiner's pickle, now this. Get some sleep, alright?"
"Well, alright, but I still don't think it's fair," Freya replied, crossing one arm briefly before sitting in front of the leaping, twisting flames of the bonfire. Given little choice in the matter, he sat down next to her, and glanced sideways, the shadows from the fire flickering over his face, as something occurred to him.
"So...why exactly did you tell Zidane that we were skipping rocks?" he inquired, a hint of a smile playing about the corners of his mouth as he absently traced random patterns over the back of her hand with his thumb. Freya repressed a grin with great difficulty as she snuggled comfortably against his shoulder.
"Well, I couldn't tell him what we were REALLY doing, could I?"
Author's Notes: [Glances about the room at the several cows milling about, then sighs in despair] Well, I took too long with this chapter, and...you guessed it. The cows came home. Now, this chapter isn't nearly as long as it was going to be, but is longer than some have been.
"I see a bad moon risin'," Steiner carolled merrily, shattering the silence of the peaceful evening, much to the chagrin of everyone else, as he jaunted merrily along the dirt path. "I see trouble on the way..."
"Um...Steiner," Vivi attempted to interrupt.
"I see earthquakes and lightning," the oblivious knight continued, every bit as oblivious as the previous description suggested.
"At least he's not singing 'Gehen Sie zu mir, meine liebe Socke zurück' again," Freya murmured consolingly. Mostly trying to console herself.
"Steiner!" Zidane barked, to no avail.
"I see mad cows today!"
"What?!" the young man exclaimed. "Mad cows? What are you talking about?"
"Those are the words to the song," Steiner informed him, much aggrieved.
"No, they're not!"
"Of course they are!"
"No, Steiner, they really aren't," Dagger informed him. He crossed his arms and gazed at her sceptically.
"Well, what are they, then?"
"I...don't know," Dagger admitted slowly, "but I KNOW they aren't 'I see mad cows today.'"
"Yeah," Amarant agreed. "That would make the song even stupider than it already is."
"Oh, come, now! It's a classic!" Freya protested.
"A stupid classic."
"What is so stupid about it?" she demanded.
"Just think about the words," he scoffed before quoting in disgust, "'there's a bathroom on the right.'"
Freya blinked in surprise.
"Uh...what?"
"The words in the chorus."
"...That isn't what they are."
"What? Of course it is."
"No, it isn't. Give the poor band some credit! The line is, 'there's a bad moon on the rise,' hence the name of the song, 'Bad Moon Rising.'"
"Yeah, Amarant. Seriously! Don't you ever read the lyric sheets?"
"...Lyric sheets?"
"Yeah! Inside the CDs!"
"...CDs?"
"Zidane!" Dagger hissed, trying frantically to get the young man's attention.
"What's up, Dagger?"
"We're getting all anachronistic again! We don't know what CDs are!"
"Oh...right," Zidane grinned sheepishly. "Can we forget that last bit?"
"How about we forget this whole damn day?" Amarant suggested, scowling fiercely at the setting sun sinking behind the firs of the forest up ahead.
"I certainly agree," Freya added.
"M-me, too," Vivi piped up adorably.
Dagger shook her head with a sigh.
"I would like to, as well, but if we did that, then we'd have to start back at the inn this morning, and the day could very well go once again just as it did the first time! And this day is NOT one that I want to re-live, whether or not I remember the first time around!"
"True," Amarant admitted. "If we had to do this day again, I'd gnaw off my own hand to get out of these damn cuffs and away from all of you people."
"Hmph!" Freya stated predictably.
"Hey, look on the bright side, Freya," Zidane suggested consolingly. "At least he didn't threaten to gnaw off your hand."
"I hadn't thought of that. Makes more sense," the redhead announced coolly, smirking inwardly at her outraged expression.
"This is going to be a long walk," Vivi predicted gloomily.
"I hear ya, Hatman," Zidane replied, nodding.
Everyone stared askance at Zidane. Then, shaking his head, Steiner stepped forward and delivered a mighty smack across the young man's face. Giving his own head a shake to clear it, Zidane shot Steiner a small smile.
"Thanks, man. I needed that. I could feel myself slipping back out of character again."
No one replied aloud, but it is certain that the fear that this would not be an isolated incident was not far from the minds of any of the weary travellers.
"Zidane, might I suggest calling a halt for the evening?" Steiner spoke up a little more than an hour later. By now, the sun had completely disappeared beyond the horizon, and it was certainly becoming very dark. The situation was little helped, of course, by the fact that, not long after we last left them, our heroes had entered the forest looming up ahead over the path. And so, they found themselves following a dirt road right through the middle of a thickly growing forest.
"Sure, now's as good a time as any," Zidane agreed with a philosophical shrug.
They moved off of the road and back into the forest until they came to a clearing suitable to set up camp in.
"This looks like as good a place as any, don't you think?" Dagger noted, tossing her pack to the ground. Now, who wants to come with me to look for firewood?"
"I shall accompany you, Your Majesty," Steiner hastened to offer. Dagger nodded, and they set off into the woods.
"Alright; now, what do the rest of us do until they get back?" Zidane mused aloud.
"Enjoy the quiet?" Amarant suggested from the tree that he was propped up against. Zidane chuckled quietly at the sight of Freya trying to lean against the tree next to him, with much less success.
"How can you find this comfortable?" she demanded, a rasping sound filling the clearing as she shifted uncomfortably against the rough wood. "I've got branches poking into my back, and little bits of bark sticking to me, and..."
"There's an art to it, rat," he replied smugly. "It looks very simple to the untrained eye, but there are many secrets and techniques that must not be taken for granted."
"Er...I'm sure there are," she said slowly, shooting Zidane a look that clearly pleaded, 'Help me out here! He's insane! Insane, I tell you! INSAAAAAAAAAAAAANE!!!'
This rather expressive look was quite ignored by the young man, to whom a thought had just occurred, judging from the way his face lit up, electricity nearly crackling in the air around him.
"Vivi!" he exclaimed whirling to face the blue-cloaked mage, dropping to the ground and leaning in until their faces were inches apart.
"U-um, yes, Zidane?" the small boy inquired hesitantly, backing up slightly.
"Do you still have that sack of cornbread?"
"Yeah!" Vivi announced proudly. "It's right here."
He dropped a small burlap sack to the ground, and with a joyful yelp, Zidane leapt upon it, hauling out several bits of the fluffy yellow bread and tossing one to each of his friends currently present.
"Make sure you save some of that for Steiner and Dagger," Freya admonished, slightly concerned that, from the way the sack was emptying beneath the fair-haired boy's appetite, the knight and the summoner might find themselves going hungry.
"Yeah, yeah, I will," Zidane assured her around a mouthful of cornbread.
"No, he won't," she sighed as the sound of two voices, one male and one female, shouting at each other, grew nearer.
Zidane frowned.
"Who's that?" he wondered. "Normally, I'd say Amarant and Freya in a shot, but they're right there, so..."
"Oh, shut up, Zidane," Freya requested, huffily, crossing her free arm. Amarant nodded, satisfied. She was coming along nicely. A few more days, and she might have the gesture mastered, if she continued to progress as she had been.
"Steiner!" the female voice barked. "For the last time, 'Bad Moon Rising' does not have a meaning, other than the end of the world! More specifically, the 'hidden meaning' of the song is NOT my mother's skirt slipping down!"
She whirled about to glare at the black mage, the thief, the dragoon, and the bounty hunter, all trying desperately to hold back laughter, with varying degrees of success.
"It isn't funny!" she insisted.
"Of...of course it isn't, Dagger," Freya agreed lightly. "But...erm, just out of curiosity, how did the subject come up, exactly?"
"You weren't singing again, were you, Steiner?" Amarant demanded suspiciously.
The older man nodded miserably. Zidane threw up his hands with a groan of dismay. Amarant merely rolled his eyes, as did Freya. Dagger nodded grimly.
"B-but I like Steiner's singing," a small voice piped up.
"Why, thank-you, Master Vivi!" the Knight of Pluto exclaimed, flicking a tear from his eye, overcome by emotion at this unexpected confirmation.
"Yeah, yeah, his singing's decent," Zidane agreed, "but Steiner, you've really got to stop reading into everything you sing!"
"Exactly," Freya agreed. "After all, sometimes a Gyshal Pickle really is just a Gyshal Pickle. Oh, will you stop it?!"
This last bit was aimed toward blond youth, who had begun to snicker insanely at the word 'pickle.' With a cherubic expression, Zidane fell silent...for a grand total of three seconds, before he was overcome by giggles again.
"I'd ask someone to knock him back into character," Dagger mused with a sigh, "but this is pretty much IN character for him."
"'Pickle,'" Zidane repeated once again with a chuckle. Then, sobering, he held the canvas sack out to Dagger and Steiner. "We saved you guys some cornbread," he announced proudly, shooting Freya a smug glance.
"It's empty," Dagger announced slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Oh, well. I'm not especially hungry."
"Nor am I, Your Majesty," Steiner agreed. "I must say, though, you really ought to learn to be a little more open to others' interpretations on matters of literature. Without seeking the hidden meanings, you miss much."
"Yes," Dagger agreed tiredly. "With literature, perhaps. But it's a song, Steiner! Not even a very good song!"
"Don't let the author hear you say that," Zidane suggested mildly. "She's a huge CCR nut."
"Well, yeah," Amarant snorted. "Why else would we have spent five damn pages talking about it?"
"Temporary insanity?" Freya suggested tiredly. Ignoring them utterly, Dagger continued, seating herself on a log.
"And even for the sake of argument, Steiner, there is no way that the bad moon rising is a symbol of the moral decline of society, the invertedness of the symbol indicating the wrongful acceptance of this decadent lifestyle! Invertedness isn't even a real WORD, for crying out loud! The song is talking about the end of the world, and that is ALL!"
"Ah! The end of the world!" Steiner repeated, plunking down on the log opposite Dagger. "A veritable plethora of symbols can be drawn from the phrase, 'the end of the world.' It could be the end of an era, the end of an abiding law or morality. Or..."
"Or it could just be the end of the world!" Dagger insisted.
"Geez...how does Beatrix stand him?" Zidane wondered aloud.
"Maybe his...'pickle' is larger than average," Freya suggested without thinking. Then, as the wild laughter of Zidane and the surprised chuckle Amarant reached her ears, she made a definite mental point to keep her mouth shut when she was too tired to control exactly what came out of it.
"No one writes something with only one meaning! There is always something deeper suggested, even if the author is not completely conscious of putting it in!"
"The meaning, Steiner, is the end of the world!" Dagger exclaimed, dropping her head to her hand in despair, knowing full well that it wouldn't be the end. And she was very, very correct.
"The surface meaning, yes," Steiner agreed, leaning forward with his elbows propped on his knees.
"The WHOLE meaning!"
"Only the surface!"
"Ack! Where are we going?" Freya demanded as she felt an all-too-familiar, but none-too-gentle tug on her wrist.
"I've gotta get away from these idiots," Amarant stated, heaving a long sigh. "Are the words to some damn song really that important?"
"Not important enough to have a heated argument about in the middle of the forest, close to the middle of the night," Freya replied, shaking her head sadly. "Alright. Let's be off, then, shall we?"
Amarant shrugged one shoulder, rather awkwardly, as he was not nearly so adept at it as of yet as he was at crossing one arm, and they set off into the forest.
"Hey, where do you think they're going?" Zidane inquired of no one in particular, watching his friends disappear among the trees with barely repressed glee.
"What?" Dagger glanced briefly at him. "Oh; I don't know." Then she turned back to her argument with the knight. "Steiner, I still don't know how you can honestly believe that any self-respecting song writer would write into his song the lyrics, 'I see mad cows today!'"
"It could be metaphorical," the man replied huffily.
"For what?!"
"The pain of seeing one's cows go mad?" Zidane suggested sarcastically, quite taken aback when Steiner nodded, impressed.
"Yes, Your Majesty, I agree with Zidane. It could be symbolic for the pain of seeing one's cows go mad."
An incoherent whimper of pain escaped the throat of the young Alexandrian woman, melting into a sigh of contentment as Zidane's arm snaked around her waist, his other hand stroking her hair soothingly.
Meanwhile, Amarant pushed roughly between two trees, and stopped, staring out in astonishment at the scene before his eyes. Freya, not being quite prepared for this sudden stop, walked headlong into him, shouted a quick curse, glanced around him, curious at what had captured his attention so fully...and then caught her breath as the loveliness of the spectacle captured hers as well.
It was a lake, fairly large, and fringed on all banks with long grasses, waving gently in the light breeze, the moonlight infusing them with an ethereal beauty that made them seem threads of milky white to be woven into a fairy-tapestry, used to keep warm the child-spirits of the forest. The lake itself was perfectly calm, still, clear, glassy. The reflection of the moon glinted off of it, like finely polished silver.
The romance in the air was nearly palpable, sparks flying between them like magical fireflies of pure enchantment, and it seemed to the two of them that they were the only people left in the world. And, at that moment, perhaps they were. Or not. It didn't matter. The whole thing had simply been a passing observation. Uh...anyway...
Their eyes met. And they knew. As one, they moved to do the only thing that could be done at such a moment as this.
"Hey, guys!" Zidane called several minutes later, fiddling with a leaf as Amarant and Freya emerged from the forest. "What were you doing in there for so long?"
"The only thing that could be done," Amarant replied, shrugging his shoulder somewhat less awkwardly than the first time he had tried it.
The young man's eyes widened. So, they had talked about that...decidedly odd incident on the road yesterday! Making sure to do so softly so as not to wake Vivi, Steiner, and Dagger, who had eventually ceased their pointless bickering and opted for the healthier option of sleep, he climbed to his feet from the log upon which he had been seated and threw an arm around each of his friends, insinuating himself within the tight space that the chain of the handcuffs left between them.
"Oh, man, congratulations, both of you! So, when's the wedding?"
"Wedding?" Freya repeated, a frown of confusion wrinkling her brow. "What are you on about?" Then she blinked. "What exactly do you imagine we were doing?!"
"Well...what WERE you doing?" Zidane countered, suddenly unwilling to voice his suspicions, a tiny part of his mind warning him that his guess had been incorrect, and to voice it might be to rain certain death down upon himself.
"As Amarant said, we were doing the only thing that could be done when one stumbles upon a still, clear, moonlit lake in the middle of the night with a...er, close friend!"
"Exactly! So..."
"We were skipping stones!"
Zidane's face fell, the motion manifesting itself through his shoulders, arms, and back as he slumped forward in dismay. With a chuckle, Amarant led Freya back toward the fire.
"Er...I hate to be a nitpicker," she began slowly, lifting one hand, "but why do you always get to lead?"
"Uh...what?"
"Read the narration, Amarant. Once again, it has clearly stated that YOU led ME back to the fire. I don't understand it!"
"...Narration?" the tall man repeated, scratching his head, bewildered. "I think you're just too damn tired. First, you start speculating on Steiner's pickle, now this. Get some sleep, alright?"
"Well, alright, but I still don't think it's fair," Freya replied, crossing one arm briefly before sitting in front of the leaping, twisting flames of the bonfire. Given little choice in the matter, he sat down next to her, and glanced sideways, the shadows from the fire flickering over his face, as something occurred to him.
"So...why exactly did you tell Zidane that we were skipping rocks?" he inquired, a hint of a smile playing about the corners of his mouth as he absently traced random patterns over the back of her hand with his thumb. Freya repressed a grin with great difficulty as she snuggled comfortably against his shoulder.
"Well, I couldn't tell him what we were REALLY doing, could I?"