**Well, this authoress (I love that term, BTW, so thankees much for it, SilverShadow ^_^) has had her vacation, and she is now getting off her rear and adding more to the story. Sorry for the long wait, everyone, but I needed a holiday with the family. ^_^ I got lots of great stuff for Christmas, including a lovely book of Tolkien languages (I'm gonna learn to speak Elven ^_^), some manga, and a new, hardcover sketchbook, among other things. So! Sorry for the wait, and to address a few reviewers...SilverShadow, I'll TRY a cameo, if it pans out. But trust me, I won't kill you. I think I said it before, I hate killing off characters--it makes me sad. Delphine Pryde--I bet Aeon riding would be fun, but I hate roller coasters. Well, the big ones, anyway. DarkMoonDragon, Lily was pretty powerful, but you saw what it did to her. Kinda what doing to much does to me, lol. And c-kai, sorry for the edge-hanging, but hey, its all part of fanfics, right? ^_~ Anyway, enough of my ramblings. On with the story!**

Arashi insisted on leaving very early in the morning, much to the dislike of both Yueh and Niet. Arashi was readying the wagon as the other two got ready with the sound of Ben's snoring from the next room overpowering any other noise in the room. Niet was plugging her ears as much as she could as she finished packing her hiking pack.

"I can't believe I even fell asleep last night," Yueh muttered, wincing as Ben let out another loud snort. "On the floor, nonetheless."

"You volunteered," Niet reminded her. Ben snored even louder for a moment, and Yueh had half a mind to go over and pound on the wall to wake him up. "You could have slept on the couch instead of me."

"And have you whining the whole way to the Djose temple? Heck no," Yueh said. She preemptively dodged Niet's joking strike. "Just kidding!"

A rather flushed Arashi peeked in and knocked on the doorframe. "You ready to go?"

Yueh latched the last buckle on her backpack and slung it over one shoulder. "Yeah, let's get a move on." She walked out the door past Arashi and began dodging the crowds that had appeared from the announcement at the Blitzball game the night before. Some held out small books and pens, presumably wanting autographs. She avoided as much eye contact as possible and darted to the wagon that waited in front of the inn. Soon after, Niet and Arashi came out of the door, looking a bit frazzled. Niet was still looking back over her shoulder and pushing Arashi forward.

"All those people, just here to see us...wow," Arashi said, walking forward in a bit of a daze.

"Yeah, and if we don't leave, like, now, they'll be chasing us down the road, asking for more autographs," Niet said, continuing to shove Arashi towards the wagon. "Let's leave in a hurry."

Niet, Arashi, and Yueh tossed their bags in the back of the wagon, and Arashi jumped in the back as well. Niet took the reins, and Yueh grabbed the map. Niet tapped the reins against the chocobo and they bolted off, away from the ensuing crowd. Yueh thought she saw the brown-haired Blitzball playing boy, Hunter, at the head of the crowd, but didn't look twice. She instead concentrated on the map, and didn't speak until they were past the main exit gate.

"We're on the Mi'ihen Highroad right now," Yueh stated, "and the nearest temple is the New Djose temple, right at the end of the Djose highroad."

"Rather obvious place to put it," Niet said, laughing. She steered the chocobos lazily as they came around a sharp curve. She took a glance at the map in Yueh's hands. "How long will it take at this pace? Are we gonna need a bit of white magic boost?" At this, Arashi peeked out from the rear of the wagon, wrapped up in a large, crocheted blanket. Her face was shadowed from where it sat on her head.

"Is anyone else cold?" Arashi shivered as the other two shook their heads. She gave a sigh and looked at the map. "Djose temple...Ixion." She squinted, trying to read the small printing on the map. Suppressing another shiver, she pointed her finger on their current position and traced it all the way to the Djose Temple. "It shouldn't take too long from this point. The chocobos need a break anyway, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Yueh said, not quite paying attention. She pointed to the blanket currently wrapped around Arashi's shaking shoulders. "Are you really that cold?" Arashi did a rather non-committal grunt before sneezing rather loudly, almost giving Yueh a snot shower. Despite the danger, she leaned in closer and put a hand to Arashi's forehead. Her eyes whipped over to Niet. "She's burning up."

"Really?" Niet freed one hand of the reins and put it to Arashi's forehead as well. "Whoa, freakish!" She went back to steering the chocobos and pulled them to a slow stop. "She's got a fever..."

"No kidding," Yueh said, watching Arashi shake her head and retreat back into the wagon.

"I'm fine, really!" Her voice sounded hoarse, Yueh realized. Arashi sneezed again before going on. "Just a little, um, under the...the...ACHOO!" This time, the whole wagon rocked with the reverb of Arashi's sneeze. Yueh leaned into the wagon from the front.

"You're sick, Arashi, you have to see that." Arashi, shrouded in her blanket, could barely be made out as nodding. "Then shouldn't we stay in New Luca for the night?"

At this, Arashi turned around, her face red with either sickness or anger--Yueh couldn't tell which. "No! We must keep going, and get the aeons! We have to beat this other summoner, I just know it!" She began to settle herself in the large pile of blankets and pillows and gave a small sigh. "I'm going to take a...a..." She sneezed again, this time taking care to cover her mouth. "A nap. Keep driving, and wake me up when we get to Djose Temple." Yueh watched as Arashi snuggled into the massive pile of soft linens and began snuffling quietly.

Yueh turned back around and motioned for Niet to keep going. As she did so, she asked Yueh a question.

"How did she manage to get a cold in the middle of summertime weather?"

"My luck," Arashi muttered from the rear. Yueh chose to ignore this.

"I think it was when she was flying around on Tsuki last night," Yueh said, thinking. "She must have caught something from the cold air high up or something." She stared straight ahead, and saw a figure waving from the road. "Do you think O'aka sells some sort of Spiran Tylenol?"

Niet gave a short snort of laughter. "I would seriously doubt that."

"Well, its worth asking, don't you think?"

Niet blinked. "What do you mean? He's not even--"

"Hey, O'aka! Hey!" Yueh stood up and waved wildly back to the figure on the road. "Over here! Hey! Go faster, Niet." This last sentence was mumbled under Yueh's breath. I'm not about to have Arashi die of...of...of pneumonia or something just because we didn't ask for Tylenol... "Oi, O'aka!"

The wagon finally shuddered to a halt right next to the figure which, as Yueh had guessed, was none other than O'aka, merchant extraordinaire. He tipped his hat to the girls and gave a short bow. "'Ello, ladies, 'ow are you today?"

"Wonderful," Yueh said. She quickly thought about this and spoke again. "Except for Arashi, she--"

O'aka nearly toppled over. He began babbling which, with his accent, was especially hard to understand. "Lady Arashi, is she--is she--she in't sick, or, or worse, is...is she?" He leaned on the seat of the wagon, his face pale. "Lady Arashi...I 'eard about th' New Luca attack, I did, bu' she didn't, she didn't--"

"I didn't die, O'aka."

Arashi was leaning over the back of the wagon's seat, still covered in her blanket. She seemed to be getting rapidly worse, Yueh noted. Her voice was still hoarse, but it sounded like her nose was plugged now as well. O'aka let out a large sigh of relief and patted his chest.

"You nearly gave me a 'eart attack, Lady Summoner. I though'--I though'--bu', it doesn't matter. Now, what can I do to 'elp ye?"

Yueh took in a deep breath. "Have any Tylenol?"

To Yueh's great happiness, and shock, O'aka nodded slowly. "Y-yes...ye say i' so oddly, though..." He rummaged through his backpack as Yueh waited with baited breath. He pulled out a small, cloth, drawstring bag and shook it up and down. "Tylanel, an herb that cures fevers an' most comm'n illnesses." He tossed it up to a slightly confused Yueh. "Make some tea ou' o' it, and Lady Arashi'll feel be'er in no time, righ'!" Going through his backpack again, he pulled out a small, mesh, metal ball attached to a rather dainty silver chain. "Ye'll need that as well. To boil the tea, ye see." He handed this to Yueh as well. "All in all, tha'll be...400 gil."

Niet blanched. "400? For a bag of herbs and a metal ball?"

O'aka puffed out his chest importantly. "It's quite 'ard to fin', I'll have ye know. On'y a few people know where to fin' it, and I'll tell ye, I'm sellin' i' quite cheap. Bein' as you're Guardian's 'nd all."

Yueh dug in her pockets and tossed O'aka the gil. "Thanks. This is going to help a lot." Niet grumbled quietly about something, so Yueh went on to cover up the noise. "I'm sure this, ah, tylanel will get Arashi well quickly." Everyday, I sound more and more cheesy... She gave O'aka a bow of the head.

O'aka gave a bow of his own as he stuffed the gil in his money pouch. "Thank ye kindly, Guardian. I 'ope Lady Arashi recovers quickly."

Niet gave a short wave as she made the chocobos dart forward along the path. O'aka shouted out a goodbye as they made their way further down the path. After handing the bag of herbs and mesh ball to a groggy Arashi, Yueh gave Niet a rather hard punch in the gut. Niet winced and let out a loud, "What was THAT for?"

"400 gil isn't a lot, when we have like, ten thousand," Yueh remarked. Niet's jaw nearly hit the ground.

"We...we have ten thousand?!?"

Yueh nodded. "Yeah, after the whole fiend attack at the stadium, I collected our spoils, and we got a lot of gil, and a few other gadgets."

"Yueh?" Arashi's voice was still rough, and could barely be heard. Yueh turned around to see Arashi sitting in front of a small kettle that was resting on a makeshift fireplace, so as to not burn down the wagon. However, the fireplace wasn't lit. Arashi pointed to the kettle. "Fire, please?"

Yueh nodded, and aimed a small Fire spell at the underside of the kettle. Arashi nodded a thanks and began to pour water out of a canteen and into the kettle. Yueh turned around and began to look over the map again. There was a moment's silence before Niet asked a question that Yueh had never thought of.

"How does O'aka always get ahead of us?"

The two girls looked at each other a moment before Yueh finally shrugged.

"I don't think I want to know..."

*-*-*-*-*

They didn't reach Djose temple before nightfall, but were about three-quarters of the way there when Niet stopped the wagon with a rather loud yawn. Niet jumped off the wagon to stretch while Yueh crawled in the back of the wagon to check on their summoner.

Arashi was sleeping on her back, still wrapped tightly in the blanket. Her glasses sat askew on her face, and her hair was plastered to her head with sweat. Next to her sat an empty cup of tea and a cooled, half empty kettle of water. She looks horrible...I thought she was getting better a little while ago... Yueh removed Arashi's glasses and placed them next to the kettle on the floor of the wagon and covered Arashi a bit better with the blanket. Crawling back out onto the seat of the wagon, Yueh explained the situation to Niet.

Sighing, Niet leaned against the wagon. "So she's still looking pretty bad."

Yueh settled down into the wagon's driver seat, shaking her head. "Very bad. I think she needs to get to the next temple. Maybe the priests can do something to help." Picking up the reins, Yueh motioned with her head. "Get in the wagon and put some cold water on a cloth on her forehead. I'll drive us the rest of the way to the temple." Niet nodded grimly and hopped into the wagon. Yueh gritted her teeth and hit the reins hard against the chocobos.

"Hya! Get going!" The chocobos took off at top speed along the dirt trail, kicking up dust in her eyes. She simply squinted and took it. Arashi is not going to die of some stupid cold just because I couldn't handle a bit of flying dirt! "Hup hup, get a move on! Hup--oh, crap!"

Rapidly approaching in the road ahead was a large basilisk, something Yueh did not particularly want to deal with at the moment. She grabbed the reins one handed and threw out a large Blizzara spell at it. It was thrown back a good distance, but the hit still left it alive. Yueh cursed under her breath and threw another spell at it. Unfortunately, she had hit a rather large bump as she had tossed the spell, and it went curving through the air directly above the basilisk, now back on its feet.

She was trying to ready another spell--a difficult task while steering the chocobos right--when she felt something fly over her head and nail the basilisk right in its head, finally killing the thing and scattering pyreflies everywhere. As she passed through the pyrefly cloud, she turned her head around quickly to see Niet, poised with an apple in hand.

She smiled and gave the apple a light toss into the air before taking a good bite out of it.

"Not just good for eating," she said through the bite. She gave another smile and retreated back into the wagon. Yueh trained her eyes back on the road and gave a sigh.

"Thanks, Niet." Yueh slapped the reins harder and gave another shout. "Hya! Go! Go!"

I'm not going to let you die, Arashi...not of a cold or of the final summoning.

*-*-*-*-*

Mariana and Genki were on the road again.

"At least we don't have to go through the whole Sanubia desert thing, huh?" Genki was following Mariana like a little puppy follows its master. "We can just go straight to Bevelle, and we're not traitors or anything...its going to be smooth sailing from here on out!" He looked Mariana in the eyes. "Right?"

Mariana let out a deep breath. "Right." She kept her eyes on the road in front of her, trying to ignore both her thoughts and Genki's nervous rambling. The former turned out to be much simpler than the latter.

"Just a few more aeons to go, right? Unless, you want to get the special aeons." He began making wild gestures with his hands as he spoke. "Which we really don't need. You're powerful enough without Anima and the others, right? I think you are. So we'll just go to Bevelle, and Gagazet, and then Zanarkand, and we can defeat Sin and maybe even not die!" Genki's brown eyes looked hopeful. "Right?"

Mariana stayed silent. Genki cocked his head to one side. "Right?"

If it will make you shut up... "Right."

Another bit of silence made Mariana hopeful, until it was broken by--

"Wonderful! We can stop Sin, and when we live to tell about it, we'll be heroes--well, a heroine in your case--and we'll win awards, maybe, and money, and..."

Mentally, Mariana was kicking herself. Why did I ever bring him along...? She took a quick look at Genki, who was still chatting ceaselessly.

Now I remember...

He was cute.

She took up his hand and squeezed it gently, which made Genki be quiet and simply stare at her in amazement.

He's...mine...