Wow! Seven reviews for only a chapter and a half? Once again, wow! Of course that could be because I've been leaving reviews (Assorted collection of gasps, oohs, and aahs).

Note: A few of you may have missed chapter one due to my stupidity. I replaced my author's note instead of uploading a new chapter. My bad. Anyway, go on back and read it if you missed it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, Square-Enix, blah blah blah blah blah, you get it. I'm not going to do these anymore. I mean, if I owned FF, then why the heck would I be writing fan fiction about it?

Chapter Two: Preparations

Seven o'clock... at least, that's what the loud gongs produced by the city's church bells were telling me. By my standards, that's at least two hours too early to start adventuring. If I had had my way, all four of us would have stayed in bed until midday. I say all four of us because if it was only me, the other three would inevitably end up making a lot of noise, thereby forcing me to wake up. I burrowed deeper under the covers, determined to ignore the tiny voice that was telling me to stop being lazy. Steven just didn't want to listen to logic, and I wasn't going to argue my point with him any more.

"Do you just enjoy making things difficult?" he asked me, a note of exasperation in his voice. He had been trying –unsuccessfully- to get me out of bed for the last half hour.

"No. I enjoy my sleep. Now go away," I mumbled, hoping that he would finally listen to me. No such luck. I shivered as the warm wool blanket suddenly disappeared. Sitting up and looking around, a saw that my "friend" was the one responsible for the sudden lack of warmth. "Why don't you go wake up the mages?" I asked, somewhat grumpily.

"Because I knew that you wouldn't kill me on the spot," he replied, shrugging.

"Is that so?" I asked under my breath. I had trusted Steven, but after betraying me like this, I wasn't sure if I could continue doing so. I mean, he pulled me away from my sleeping time! That was a big mistake. "So, when are you going to wake them?" I asked, trying to find out how to get back at him.

He shrugged. "In a couple minutes. I want to make sure that you don't drift off again. Remember, like it or not, we're all stuck in this together."

"Then why don't we both go back to bed? I mean, unless you particularly want to be on the receiving end of a fire spell, the other two aren't likely to be waking up soon." There. A perfectly logical explanation for a couple more hours of sleep. There was no way he would be able to win against that. Of course, I hadn't counted on his mule-headedness.

"Guess that's just a chance I have to take, yes?" He remarked, walking to the door. I groaned. Perhaps absolute stupidity would be a better description than mule-headedness. At the very least, the description wouldn't make people think higher of him than they should, and it fit almost perfectly. I watched, somewhat frightened about what kind of trouble he would cause. Luckily, there was a knock at the door before he had the chance to do whatever it was he was going to do. "Would you answer that?" he asked me.

"These are your rooms," I pointed out. "Whoever it is, they're probably looking for you."

"True," he said, sighing. He walked over to the door and talked to whoever it was for about five minutes. He looked a bit angry when he came back, and he was busy tearing a piece of paper to shreds.

"What was that?" I asked between yawns. This early morning thing was not going to work. I could see that from the start.

He grimaced. "Apparently, the King took an inordinate amount of interest in our... shenanigans... last night. He wants to see us around midday." He tossed the remains of the paper into the fireplace and set fire to them, watching them burn to ashes.

"Great!" Happy wouldn't begin to cover what I was feeling at the moment. We had just gotten an excuse to sleep in! At least, that's what I thought, until...

"I've got to wake the mages. We're probably going to leave soon after meeting the king." He walked over and pounded on the door to the adjoining room. Two thuds answered, seeming to come from opposite sides of the room. Apparently, the two mages were not too fond of each other. I turned and looked at our beds, gauging the distances. They were by no means close, but there wasn't five hundred feet of space between them, either. Why I cared at that moment, I still do not know.

An explosion sounded shortly afterward, and it took all of my willpower to not cower like a child. "What in the world was that!?" I yelled, shielding my head as a large chunk of the ceiling shook loose.

"I don't know. Whatever it was, they caused it," he replied, pointing at the door behind him. I watched fearfully as the door slowly creaked open. I could easily hear the two of them, arguing about something.

"... Told you not to lose your temper like that! You could have brought the whole inn down on top of us!"

"It wasn't my fault. You have no idea what a Black Mage's life is like. Compared to us, your life is nothing but happiness. To be forever controlled by the power that courses through your veins... it's nearly unbearable. I have very little control over it, if any at all."

The two mages joined us, the red one looking faintly put out. "Future reference," he began, looking at the two of us, "don't ever do that again." Steven nodded wordlessly, still surprised by what had happened. Serves him right, waking us all up like that, I thought.

"So, why did you do that in the first place?" The Black Mage- Jake, he had called himself- asked.

"We've got to get going," was his short reply. He turned and walked out of the room, grabbing his old sword as he did. I followed suit, and met him outside the inn. "So, what are we doing?" He shook his head, and held up one finger. Apparently, he was waiting for something. I wondered what it could be for a moment. I got my answer soon afterward, in the form of two magic users.

"Alright, here's the plan. We split up; each of us goes to a different part of the city. We buy what we need, we meet the king, and we get out of town without any trouble. But," he continued. I grimaced at the "but". "But" meant that there was most likely going to be work involved. "While we're looking for whatever we'll need, we should also talk to the townspeople, find out if there's anything that needs to be done. I'd rather start this quest with a purpose, instead of just aimlessly wandering around, wondering what we're supposed to be doing." I groaned quietly. Yes, the "but" did imply that there was work to be done.

He took out a small bag and emptied it into his hand. There they sat, sixteen gold pieces, each one worth about twenty-five gil. Around Coneria, that could get you a good sword, and possibly a chain-mail shirt. He gave four to each of us, keeping four for himself. "Where did you get all of this?" I asked curiously, stuffing the coins in one of the many pockets of my clothing.

"You of all people should know the answer to that," he answered grimly. I thought for a moment, remembering that he had spent a year of his life as a thief. Apparently, he hadn't spent all of the money that he stole. "Alright, that's it. Meet back here in about three hours." He walked off to the west end of town, where all the weaponry was located. The other two just stood there, not really sure about what to do.

"Umm... could you tell us where all of the magic vendors are?" the Red Mage –Robert- asked quietly.

"North end of town. You can't miss them," I answered, pointing vaguely to the north. The thanked me and went on their way. I headed off to the east. Someone was going to have to buy the food, not to mention the healing potions and such. Apparently, I had been chosen to do so. This was going to be a lot of fun. I knew right then and there that the whole journey was not going to be like this.

I looked around slowly, trying to find the vendor that sold all of those overly-preserved foodstuffs. We wouldn't be bringing much real food along, since we couldn't risk it spoiling. Dried meat, various dried fruits, and water. That was what our diet was going to be for the better part of this journey. Real food would be a luxury to be enjoyed in town inns.

There he was. I was beginning to think that he had taken his wares somewhere else. Very few people ventured outside the city walls anymore, afraid of the evil that we were fated to stop. The population of Coneria grew slowly, as many adventurers began settling there after a long life of journeying. They always had a lot of money on them, and I could always tell which people were worth robbing. I quietly cursed Lukahn for prophesizing the coming of the Light Warriors. If the prophecy hadn't been made, I would still be leading a normal, everyday life. I could remember it like it was just the day before, because it was.

"Umm, sir? Can I help you with anything?" the vendor asked, a bit irritably. Apparently he had been asking that for a while. I had been lost in my own thoughts for at least five minutes, by my reckoning. It was probably longer.

"Yeah... Four of your basic food packs, if you can spare them." His eyes lit up.

"F-four, did you say?" He asked hungrily. I nodded slowly. "Nobody's even bought one for nearly a month now, and you want four? Kid, for keeping me in business, I'll give you a special discount." He waddled – he had extremely short legs- into his little shop, and came back out, carrying a goodly-sized pack over his shoulder. He had another wrapped in his short arms. He dropped them on the small counter in front of the store, and hurried back inside for the other two.

"So how much is that?" I asked when he returned.

"For you? Fifty gil, no more." I pulled out two of the golden coins and dropped them in his hand almost negligently. I was just about ready to go when I remembered what Steven had said- gather as much information as you can.

"So, has there been any trouble around lately?" I asked, offhandedly.

"Nothing around here, no." He frowned, as if suddenly remembering something. "There was something going on up at the castle, though, now that you mention it. Maybe you should ask around there." I thanked him, grabbed the packs, and was on my way.

The castle. It just happened to be exactly where we were headed. Fate was giving us a huge push in the right direction, it seemed. I asked random pedestrians that I met on the street, and they all said the same thing. It seemed that our answers were in the castle, if there were any answers to be had.

I made my way to the fountain in the center of town. I sat down, breathing a sigh of relief. Those food packs were much heavier than they seemed. Steven had wanted us to wait by the inn, but the fountain was closer. The inn was still nearby, and it was much cooler near the sparkling water than on the streets. I didn't have to wait for very long before I saw the mages walking toward me, coming from the general direction of the castle. Each one carried a book under his arm. Steven joined us shortly afterward, coming from the west, where the Elemental Altar was.

"Anyone find out anything?" He asked as he arrived.

"Just that we need to go to the castle," was my reply. The other two nodded in agreement.

"Good. Great. Let's drop our things off at the room in the inn. Then we'll go see the king. We'll come back for them after the meeting." he said. I resisted the urge to cheer loudly. I wouldn't have to carry those packs around anymore! There was still something bothering me, though.

"Should we bring our weapons along?" I asked. "We won't be allowed to have them near the king."

"I thought of that already, and yes, we are taking the weapons along. They'll hold onto them at the front gate for us, and I feel safer in the city, knowing that I have a weapon at my side." I understood perfectly, and that was the end of that discussion.

We made our way back to the two rooms, dropped our stuff off, and hurried north toward the castle. Our little shopping excursion took longer than I had though, and we had just enough time to get there. Two guards, however, blocked our progress.

"We're here to see the king," Steven said grandly to the guards as we neared the castle.

"Who are you, to expect the king to see you uninvited?" One of the guards asked angrily.

"Oh, but we were invited." He nodded once, and we all took the hint. Moving almost in complete synchronization, each one of us withdrew our chosen orb from wherever we had hidden it.

"You see," he continued, "we're the Light Warriors."

Whoo. Another two months, and only one measly chapter. This one almost hurt to write, it was so boring. Well, at least it's out of the way, and now I can get to work on a much more interesting chapter! Woo! I'm not going to make any deadlines for the next chapter, since I inevitably will not have it done by said deadline. Just check back every once in a while.

Till next time, I'm going to go beat my head against the wall in the hopes that I will forget about our marching band music for a while.

TOKAM