"Have you guys been here before?" Gippal looked around at the glowing trees of Macalania Woods with wide eyes.

"A few times, to visit Maester Seymour in Guadosalam," Baralai answered shyly, running his hand along the trunk of a large tree. "But they had said it was dying after Sin was defeated."

"The Guado," Nooj said unceremoniously, walking ahead just slightly. "They return to Guadosalam, peace is restored, and the Woods flourishes again."

"Or is it Vegnagun and the Black Death?" Gippal wondered out loud, reaching over to touch the tree that Baralai was admiring.

"It could be anything," Nooj answered with a nod. "Let's go to Guadosalam, and see if the Guado know anything."

Guadosalam didn't bring them much in the way of a conclusion about the situation. However, they did learn something interesting: many of the non-Guado who had taken up residence in Guadosalam had fallen strangely ill with fever and respiratory problems. Two had already died from it. This didn't sit well with the trio at all, especially not with what they had learned from the white sphere from Zanarkand.

And so they headed north toward Lake Macalania, the place where the sphere had pointed them. Not only that, but the Gullwings would be there soon as well and they longed to find out more about the situation with the dress sphere.

"There used to be a temple here," Baralai told the others as they left the Travel Agency and headed towards the lake in warm winter coats to protect them from the snowy elements. "But after Sin was defeated and the Fayth disappeared, it sunk into the lake. Ever since then, more and more fiends have been appearing, and people just don't travel here very often."

"It... sunk into the lake?" Gippal stepped up over a hill that overlooked the entire area. "Then what's that?"

The icy lake was laid out in front of them, glittering in the midday sun, but there was something striking rising out of the center.

It was a tree. A black, leafless tree, with gnarled branches and a thick, dusky haze around it rose from the very center of the lake and stretched toward the sky.

Ghiki...

"Ugh, not now!" Gippal put his palms to his temples, trying to force Rikku's voice out of his brain.

"What is it?" Baralai took Gippal's elbow, supporting him as he wavered.

"The dress sphere?" Nooj, too, helped steady Gippal with a hand on the shoulder.

"Why now... why?" Gippal fell to his knees in the snow. Ghiki I'm scared, please...

"Here." Nooj held out the sphere, covered in a plain cloth so he wouldn't touch it.

Gippal looked up at him.

Nooj smiled. That was a rare sight, indeed, but Gippal understood it and reached forward.

"Maybe by the time you're back, we'll have figured this out," Baralai added to Nooj's unspoken statement.

Gippal exhaled and placed his palms to the sphere.

------

------

"Ghiki, I'm so glad to see you." Rikku picked Gippal up and slung him over her shoulder.

"I'm here, Rikku," Gippal said, even though he knew she couldn't understand him. He pressed his cheek against her chin to let her know that he was at least trying to comfort her.

"It was so scary," Rikku whispered to him, leaning her head against his side. "A remedy fixed it, but I felt like I had been hit with everything at once. We had to get out of there..."

Gippal looked up. They were in the Macalania travel agency. It was odd how the three of them must have missed the girls only by a few minutes.

"She'll be okay," came Paine's voice from the side. Gippal turned and looked. "She needs some rest, but Tidus is taking care of her."

"I'm so glad Tidus came back," Rikku said softly, more to Gippal than anyone else. "Yunie'd be really sad if he wasn't. Plus, he's been such a great help with spherehunting!"

"Whatever that was that hit us," Paine continued, looking out the window, "it was no ordinary fiend breath."

"Didn't it hit you?" Rikku leaned her back against the headboard of the bed she was sitting on, lifting Gippal up and putting him on her stomach. To appease her, Gippal curled into a little ball and let her pet him while he amused himself with flicking his tail back and forth.

"Sort of," Paine answered, turning and looking at Rikku and making eye contact with Gippal as she did so. "You guys got the most of it. I just felt a little nauseous."

"Poor Yunie," Rikku continued, and Gippal watched as her eyes fluttered closed. "She looked like... she couldn't breathe..."

"Get some rest; cuddle your monkey," Paine instructed, taking a few steps out of the room.

------

------

Gippal lost track of time, and he wasn't sure if he fell asleep or not, but he started to get worried about Nooj and Baralai just as he heard the chimes on the door ring to signal new customers. He heard Paine talking, then opened his eyes to see the door to the room creaking open.

Baralai's head peeked in, their eyes connecting. "Lai!" Gippal said, though still keeping his voice down so as to not wake Rikku.

"That damn monkey of hers is so talkative," Paine said from the hallway. "What's going on?"

"Monkeys generally are," Nooj said about as flatly as he ever said anything as he, too, looked inside to get a glimpse of Rikku sleeping all cuddled up to Gippal.

"Did you guys find out anything?" Gippal wondered if Baralai and Nooj would be able to understand him now.

Nooj's eyes shifted over to Gippal and he winked. "That tree... is definitely the source for the fiends," he explained to Paine gently, and Gippal at the same time. "O'aka was telling us about you three going to investigate. Not a wise move."

"We tried to get close to it, since we saw the same haze from that thing that attacked the ship," Paine said in a low tone, "but something attacked Yuna and Rikku and paralyzed them, so they were unable to breathe. I managed to escape just barely... how did you two get so close?"

Baralai grinned lightly. "Sheer luck, I think," he answered, his eyes drifting over to Gippal. "We went when the haze was thinning. We believe it's not only the fiends, but something more dangerous as well."

"What're you guys doing here?" Rikku murmured, sitting up in the bed and taking Gippal with her.

"We came to investigate a... virus outbreak in Guadosalam," Baralai explained to both of them.

Rikku stood up, pulling Gippal up to her shoulders. "Virus?" She looked back and forth between Nooj and Baralai, then at Paine, then back at Baralai. "Where's Gippal? Aren't you three always together now?"

Baralai's eyes instantly flickered to the monkey on Rikku's shoulders. "She has no clue," Gippal said, trying to smile.

Baralai reached forward and scratched Gippal on top of his head. Gippal nuzzled lightly into Baralai's hand -- he couldn't help it! "Gippal went to Djose, I think, didn't he Nooj?"

"Yeah," Nooj said, his hand instinctively going to the pouch at his side where he carried the secret dress sphere. "We found a white sphere from a thousand years ago, and he went to Djose to analyze it, or something. Said he'd meet us back here, though."

"You guys are so full of shit," Gippal said, looking up at Baralai, who was still scratching his ears. "Why don't you just tell them?"

Baralai narrowed his eyes at Gippal just slightly. It gave Gippal the impression that the other two could understand him. "Where'd you get this little guy?" Baralai turned his eyes back on Rikku, though he still was petting Gippal.

"It's our Trainer dress sphere," Rikku explained, looking over and petting Gippal's back and tail. Gippal made an appreciative squeak. "We never used it when we were fighting against Vegnagun because we thought it was useless... but I like having him around. His name's Ghiki!"

"Gippal," Gippal said, as if to illustrate the point.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Gippal," Baralai said, not even realizing his mistake.

Rikku looked at him strangely. "Gippal?"

Baralai blinked. "I mean... Ghiki. Did I say Gippal?" He laughed nervously and put his hand up to fix that bandana of his.

"Nice going," Gippal snorted, climbing over to Rikku's other shoulder.

"You need to stop worrying about Gippal so much," Nooj covered smoothly, "I know he's been gone longer than he said, but he'll be fine. The guy can travel on his own just fine, you know."

Baralai shook his head. "Bet he'd be offended if he knew I accidentally called a monkey by his name."

Gippal put on his best imitation of a sneer and glared at Baralai.

"Let's go see how Yunie's doing!" Rikku hopped from foot to foot for a moment before taking off to go into the other room. She paused before entering, however, and pulled out her garment grid. "Sorry Ghiki, but you should go back. Thanks for making me feel better!" She pulled Gippal off her shoulder and gave him a kiss on his forehead before reaching a hand to her garment grid.

Baralai cleared his throat.

Nooj's attention was brought back to the situation at hand. Gippal was glaring at him. If Rikku changed, Gippal would appear out of the sphere... and that would look very suspicious. Nooj, too, cleared his throat and spoke up. "Come on," he said to Baralai, "it's not polite to be around a lady when she's changing."

"That was lame, Nooj," Gippal said, smirking, though he could see the edges of his vision blurring.

"Yeah, let's go see if anyone knows anything about the virus," Baralai said then, taking Nooj by the elbow and leading him out of the room.

"They sure got skiddish," Rikku said.

Paine replied, but Gippal lost concentration as Rikku's spherechange went into effect.

------

------

With a crash and a thud, Gippal found himself tangled up with something warm and covered with fabric, and he also found himself rolling in the snow quite rapidly. He hadn't come back into the world in a state of motion before; it was kind of nauseating. He clung to the object he was rolling with and clenched his eye shut until the moving stopped.

"Gippal?"

Gippal opened his eye, and realized he was face-to-face with Baralai. He laughed nervously. So that was the warm, fabric-covered thing he had been tangled up with. Right. "Um, sorry about that?"

"Don't worry about it." Baralai untangled himself from Gippal and stood up, brushing his clothes off, sending a shower of melting snow down toward the ground. "That was... really close."

Gippal couldn't help but wonder. "Why were we...?"

"Nooj handed me the sphere, and told me to run," Baralai explained. "Didn't want anyone to see... you know."

Gippal nodded, putting his hand over his eye in order to regain some sort of equilibrium. It was difficult to switch back and forth so often. "Thanks, Lai," he said when he finally didn't feel like he was going to vomit all over the pristine white snow.

"Like I said, don't worry about it," Baralai replied.

"Why didn't you guys tell them?"

"Because of something we found near the tree." Baralai put his hand on Gippal's arm, pulling him within whispering distance. "A layer of mud and rock under the ice, frozen by time. There were paw prints in it."

Gippal blinked. "...paw prints?"

"Two sets," Baralai continued in a whisper. "We broke through the ice to look at them better... we're lucky that this place is so frozen over... it must have happened quickly. Anyway, there were two sets and they looked really rather like tracks belonging to a dog and a monkey."

"A dog..." Gippal swallowed. "And a monkey?"

"Two animals that don't travel together ever under normal conditions," Baralai informed him, "and much less likely here, of all places. They stretched on, in the direction of the tree."

"But wait," Gippal said, making a connection and speaking quickly under his breath. "That sphere said they sent specially trained animals to deal with the tree before. Maybe that was them?"

"Sacred animals," Baralai echoed. "Two of which happened to be a dog and a monkey."

"So wait, man, are you saying that..." Gippal trailed off, staring at Baralai.

"That's what we think. The sphere we have is the sphere which... like, the dress sphere for the sacred animals." Baralai looked nervously back toward the travel agency. "Which makes perfect sense if they have the Trainer dress sphere."

"So, let me get this straight," Gippal said, closing his eye in mild confusion. "When I touch that sphere, I turn into a thousand-year old trained sacred monkey."

Baralai blinked. "Now that you say it like that," he said, putting his hands to his temples, "it all really does sound rather absurd."