**And I'm off from my vacation! I had this whole end of the quarter thing to deal with, so sorry for taking so long to update. The updates will be weekly once again after this, lol. So! As usual, responses are nice...I like reviews...and pleeease enjoy!**
"Okay, time for some softs," Arashi announced. She looked to Yueh. "So, do we have any?"
"Oh, yeah, right!" Yueh said suddenly. She ran back to the broken wagon (which Ben and Katy were attempting to set back up on a sort of jack system) and grabbed the item pack from the very back. Jogging back, she pulled out two softs and threw them to Arashi, who bobbled them and finally got a hold of the two items just before they fell.
"Wakey wakey..." Arashi poured the contents of the vials over the two statues, who began to slowly transform back into living human beings.
The first to regain themselves was O'aka, who, before anything else, began shouting at the girl beside him.
"Nikko, you've go'a run, forge' th' items!" he screamed out. He suddenly seemed aware of his surroundings and the lack of anacondaurs and became incredibly quiet. Flushing, he gave a deep bow to Arashi and Yueh, who were both on the verge of laughing. "Sorry, m'lady Arashi, ye see, this--this is m'sister..."
Yueh scrunched her face up in thought. Sister?
"But dad'll kill us if we leave the--" The young girl blinked and twirled around, surveying the scene. "Hey, where'd the anacondaurs go?" She looked at Yueh and squinted, confused. "And who're these people?"
O'aka managed to turn a deeper shade of red at the last question. "This, Nikko, is Lady Arashi an' 'er guardians, Yueh righ' here an' Niet o'er there by th'wagon. Ah, I see Ben is o'er there, too, eh? He caught up?"
"Yeah, he rejoined," Arashi said, nodding. She tilted her head to one side. "You said...your sister, O'aka?"
"Uh huh! I'm Nikko! Pleased to meet ya!" The girl gave a small, pleasant bow before popping back up to show a grin. "I'm trying to help set up a machina shop along with items, but..." Her swirled green eyes gave an awful look to O'aka. "He doesn't think it would do well."
"I tol' you, no summoner's goin' to buy a machina from an'one! Yevonites don' use 'em!" O'aka said, throwing his arms up in the air.
"Maybe they would, if they had a chance to!" Nikko shouted, her face going red.
"They think machina're evil! Ye'll get kill'd!" O'aka yelled back. His cap started falling of off his head.
"I have my axe, I can take care of myself!" she screamed, taking a large, silver axe out of her backpack. She held it in front of her in a rather threatening manner. "I am perfectly capable of--"
Yueh coughed loudly, and both parties quit shouting to turn and look at her.
"We have a broken wagon, and it's late, and we'd like to get to the inn..." She trailed off, giving the fighting siblings both a stern look.
O'aka blinked, and Nikko threw up her arms and stormed off towards the wagon. O'aka removed the hat from his head and bowed again, murmuring, "Sorry...righ', righ', we'll get righ' on that..." He wandered towards the wagon and began helping Ben hoist up the rear end of the wagon and tried to get it balanced to stay up.
"I swear, even Marvin and I didn't fight that much," Yueh grumbled. She began to walk towards the wagon and pointed her next question at Arashi. "Do you and your brother ever fight like that?"
Arashi's face formed into an unreadable expression. "I...no, we never did. At least, not since we were little." She cleared her throat and followed O'aka's wayward path to the wagon.
Yueh furrowed her eyebrows before shaking it off. Arashi was just weird, that was all...
As Yueh approached the wagon, the sounds of Nikko and O'aka fighting were easily heard once more. Ben, Katy, and Niet had stopped messing with the wagon and were now trying to ignore the increasing volume of the battling siblings.
"Let me call Ultimate Machina! It can lift and tow this thing all the way to the inn and--"
"I tol' ye, it doesn't work! Lady Arashi is a summoner, she doesn't wan' to use machina, ye see?" O'aka continued to hold the wagon up as Nikko threw two wooden boxes from the wagon underneath it.
"She won't be using it! I will! I'm offering my services for free! A sample, you see?" O'aka dropped the wagon onto the boxes with a particularly loud crash. The two were now staring each other down again. "It's just good business!" She tugged at the bottom of her baby blue tank top in frustration. "You have no business sense!"
"I 'ave more sense than ye do!" O'aka screamed out suddenly. "An' you can' use the machina!"
"Why not?!"
O'aka's face turned from red to white in a matter of a millisecond. He coughed and turned away from her. "Ye jus' can'."
Yueh watched, rather amused, as Nikko tromped around her brother to look him in the eye again. "Why not?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"Because..." He looked down and began to shy away from her. "I took it apar', so ye couldn' use it..."
Nikko's scream could be heard throughout all of the Calm Lands.
*-*-*-*-*
The two siblings continued bickering all through the walk and towing of the wagon. Yueh and Niet led the chocobos in front of the wagon, and they pulled it slowly as the other five took turns holding up the one rear side of the wagon in place of the wheel. When the group of seven finally reached the inn, Yueh's ears were ringing and she was certain that, at that point, both O'aka's and Nikko's throats were hoarse.
The innkeeper, who was wearing a nightgown and had her hair up in a rather sloppy attempt at a bun, bustled about for the group, readying rooms and promising food in the morning, when her cook was up and more with it. Arashi thanked the lady and ushered the girls into one very cramped room, and left the two guys to sort out sleeping arrangements in the other room.
Nikko was grumbling under her breath. Yueh could only hear a few words, like, "idiot" and "he'll pay," but she had the distinct feeling she knew what she was muttering about.
"I'm going to see what he did to my machina. I'll see you in the morning," Nikko announced suddenly. She stomped out of the room and slammed the door behind her.
Arashi paid no attention to this and instead flopped on the bed and began snoring within seconds. Niet sighed and resigned herself to sleep on the couch, while Katy settled into a corner with the mass of blankets that was in the wagon.
Yueh sat down in the only chair in the room and laid herself across it at an odd angle, trying to get comfortable. Just as she did, Niet commanded, "Turn off the light..."
"Lantern," Katy corrected groggily.
"Whatever," Niet mumbled, turning over, "just turn it off..."
Yueh cursed silently and got back up to blow out the lantern's flame. She finally slumped back in the chair and fell asleep minutes later.
*-*-*-*-*
Genki, meanwhile, was also in the Calm Lands, but instead was seated on one of the high cliffs, trying to keep warm from the cold winds and stay away from fiends during the night. He shivered and pulled his blanket tighter around him. His eyes looked to Mariana, who was cursing loudly after not being able to start a half-decent fire. She finally resigned and sat next to Genki, shifting herself and getting close to him under the blanket.
Mariana remained silent, and Genki didn't pressure her to talk. She hadn't said much at all since leaving Bevelle. In fact, besides cursing at the fire and at a couple of fiends they had encountered, she hadn't said a word.
Mariana moved again under the blanket, wrapping her bare arms around Genki and sighing. He pulled the blanket around the two of them, covering even their heads.
Genki wasn't quite sure at this point which was colder: the wind whipping above them, or the look in Mariana's eyes since they had left Bevelle.
*-*-*-*-*
Yueh was the first to wake up the next morning, her nose alerting her to a delicious smelling breakfast just down the hallway. She looked around the room and, seeing no one else up, began the usual ritual of shaking everyone awake. Arashi was the last person she tried to get up.
"Arashi…" She poked the summoner on the shoulder. "Arashi. Arashi! Ar-a-shi!" Yueh began shouting in the girl's ear. "Wake up! Its time for breakfast!"
Katy turned her head to one side. "Is Arashi all right?"
Niet waved a hand lightly. "She's always this hard to wake up. Try pushing her off of the bed, Yueh."
"Okay!" Yueh gave Arashi a neat shove onto the floor, where she made a loud thud and woke up.
"Hmm? Breakfast? All right, let's go," Arashi said simply. She walked out of the doorway leaving a laughing Yueh and Niet in her wake. Katy just stared at the empty doorway.
After breakfast, Arashi and Niet went to see how the wagon was being repaired, and Yueh got the job of telling Katy and Ben that they were staying behind. She found the two sitting together in front of the inn, both leaning over a book that Yueh recognized as an Al Bhed primer. So Ben's learning Al Bhed…
"Hi, guys!" Yueh said cheerfully as she approached. "How're you two doing?"
"Wha--oh, hey, Yueh," Ben said, looking up finally. Katy looked up as well and gave a quiet smile. Ben quickly turned his eyes back to the book, asking, "So its basically a simple cipher?"
"I guess, yes, in a sense," Katy replied. Yueh coughed loudly and the two looked back up again. "What is it?"
Yueh took a deep breath and said, "I have to tell you guys something. We're leaving for Mount Gagazet later this morning, and I--"
"Oh, yeah, I was gonna tell you," Ben interrupted. "We…" He looked at Katy, who blushed. "We're going to stay behind, I think."
"--agree wholeheartedly with your decision!" Yueh finished, a goofy smile on her face. "I wish you could come with, but I guess things happen, and…" She trailed off as the two returned to the book and to ignoring her. She turned around and let out a sigh of relief. At least they agree, I guess. Yueh then turned her attention to finding Niet and Arashi and the broken, hopefully repaired now, wagon. She heard a couple of recognizable shouts and walked towards the sounds. Where there's shouting, O'aka and Nikko are certain to be close-by…
Around the back of the building, Yueh found Niet and Arashi plugging their ears as Nikko and O'aka fought angrily as they both continued to work on the back wheel of the wagon. Yueh winced as the wagon jerked back and forth between both people's hands as they fought.
"You ruined Ultimate Machina! It took me half the night just to get it back to running!" Nikko shouted, placing a new wheel at the back of the wagon.
O'aka tore the wagon from her hands and adjusted it next to the axle. "I tol' ye, ye couldn' jus' leave th' thing lyin' aroun'! Some Yevonites were in here earlier, an' they tol' me to destroy th' thing!" He grabbed a hammer and began pounding on the wheel to stick onto the axle.
Nikko, left with nothing else to do, began pacing around her brother, throwing her hands up in the air at random points during her speck. "It doesn't matter! It's my property! Mom gave that to me! It protects me! Gets me where I need to go! I need it as a mode of transportation!"
O'aka gave the wheel a final hit, making sure it was fully on the axle and would stay there. He threw away the hammer after he had finished and stood up to face Nikko. "Ye don' need a 'mode o' transportation!' I walk'd all th' way here! I never needed a vehi'le!"
Yueh couldn't take it anymore. "Is the wagon fixed, O'aka?"
"Yes!" he shouted at Yueh, caught up in the moment. He quickly went back to shouting at his sister, ignoring the other three girls.
Arashi and Niet hopped in the wagon, and Yueh went up to the front, where the chocobos were already hitched. She gave the chocobos a light tap with the reins and led them out to the front of the inn.
"Blissful peace," she muttered when she was out of earshot of the arguing siblings. Niet joined Yueh out on the front of the wagon and waved a goodbye to the studying couple. Arashi peeked out of the front and gave a mini-Yevon bow and said, "Sayounara!"
"So!" Niet said, pulling out the map. "Where to next?"
"Our next stop is Mount Gagazet," Arashi said quietly. Yueh looked at the sprawling bit of Calm Lands in front of her and let out a small sigh.
"Our adventure is coming to an end," she murmured to herself. Arashi picked this up and gave a small smile.
"To the contrary, Yueh. This is only the beginning…" With this, Arashi retreated to the back of the wagon, pulling one of the blankets over herself with a satisfied sigh.
"I don't think I'll ever get her," Yueh mumbled.
"Neither do I," Niet chimed in, shaking her head. "Neither do I."