I'm sorry! I've just been stressed, damn school, science project, thunderstorm, lost the document, yadda ya. I figured I'd leave it alone, considering it's five chapters long, and then I looked and went "Only two chapters? What the crap?" So here's the third, and I'm sorry it's so late.
Chrono Cross Switcharoo
Chapter Three: A Difficult Passage through Fossil Valley
"Ow. Ow. Ow! Ow. Ow! OW!" Serge was groaning with every briar that popped out.
"You have to hold still," Kid told him, digging her elbow harder into his back. "This isn't going to work if you're jerking around the whole time."
They had just recently gotten back to Arni with Leena, who was unconscious and with the doctor at the moment. Serge, on the other hand, had taken a moment to rest—and sat down point-blank in a briar patch. So that was why Serge was sprawled over Leena's couch as Kid knelt beside him to pull out the painful things.
"Owowowow—careful!" Serge complained to her as she pulled insistently on a stubborn briar.
"I'm sorry, it just won't come—"
"THAT'S NOT BEING CAREFUL!"
"If you stopped squirming, maybe I could—"
"OW! Ow, ow, ow—ow! Bloody—!"
"Just a second, if I can twist it just a little—"
"Ye're TWISTIN' it!"
There was a clear, ringing pop as the briar came out. Serge let out a slow groan.
"There. That's the last one, okay?" Kid said to him, setting the briar on the tin with the rest and handing Serge a bottle of Tablets. "I'm going to check up on Leena."
Kid didn't have to go far before the doctor walked out, unhooking his stethoscope from his ears. "It looks like Miss Leena should be just fine," he said to them. "It's a wonder she landed on that plant, so she only has a few sprained areas. She should be fine in a few days."
"Good ta know," Serge replied, switching to a sitting position on the couch. He grimaced suddenly and struggled to find a less painful position, finally ending up in the exact same one as before.
Kid turned to him. "You know, Serge, there's this thing called a Tablet—"
"I know, I know," Serge said sourly. "I just don't like cherry flavored."
The alarm clock Kid had salvaged from her house went off at six that morning in the guest room of Leena's house, waking them both. As Kid yawned and stretched, Serge brought his fist down on the clock, knocking it off the table. When the thing continued its ringing, Serge sat up long enough to kick it into silence. "I liked that alarm clock," Kid told him indignantly as Serge turned over and went back to sleep.
Since Serge wasn't awake yet, Kid took the time to change and then went to the kitchen for some breakfast and a cup of coffee. As she did so, she debated with herself over whether she wanted to wake Serge up right after she ate, or right when they were ready to leave. But trying to imagine him grumbling about missing breakfast all day long was not a bright prospect, and so it was right after she had finished that she went back to the guest room and pushed Serge out of bed.
"Why do we hafta get up so bloody early...?" Serge muttered sleepily, rubbing his eyes.
"It's a two to three hour walk to Termina, and we have to get going," Kid told him.
"Oh," Serge said, remembering their decision to go to Termina the previous night.
He and Kid met Leena in the kitchen moments later as Serge drank several cups of coffee. "Termina," Leena repeated after Kid had explained the plan to her. "That's awfully far away..."
"We'll come back and let you know how it goes," Kid promised. "Then, if you're feeling well enough, maybe you could come with us."
Leena blinked. "Me? Leave Arni?" She paused to consider it. "That might be interesting. After all, I've never been any further from Arni than Opassa Beach. I'll let you know when you come back."
It seemed like days later that they reached Fossil Valley, the only route to Termina. "A nice, cool valley," Serge remarked, sliding his pack to the ground and wiping off the sweat that had come out onto his brow. "And no more bloody mosquitoes," he added.
"Oh, they were bothering you?" Kid asked him.
"Yeah." Serge gave her a funny look. "Weren't they botherin' you, too?"
"No, I used some of the formula that keeps them off. Some guy in Termina developed it a few years ago."
Serge sighed in exasperation. "Why didn't ya tell me ya had that kinda stuff, mate? Ya could've saved me a lotta hell..."
"Sorry, I just didn't think to. I thought you had some—it's pretty commonplace."
They continued along the route until they reached a pair of dragoons who were blocking the road. "Please turn back here. The Acacia dragoons are currently investigating the area."
"Oh, good," Serge muttered.
"They are?" Kid asked the dragoon, seeming strangely interested. "Hm, that's just too bad. I was going to meet a group of my roomies up in Termina." She pouted for a moment, but then seemed to spring an idea. "You know, it would be real sweet of you to let us past just this once?" she cooed coaxingly to one of the dragoons, clasping her hands behind her back and giving him a disappointed look. "We wouldn't disturb any your little investigation, and I'm sure I could bring a few of the girls back down here to meet you."
The dragoon seemed to be getting a bit excited. "Hey hey, Travis, let's let the girl past, eh? She can't do any harm."
"I...I don't know..." Travis was saying slowly, but he was blushing furiously. "U-um...sure...why not..." he said finally.
"Wow," Serge half-whispered once they were past the dragoons. "Just...wow. Do ya have any idea the kinds of places ya could get inta just by doin' that?"
Kid shot him a sharp look. "That was only to get us through here. It is not to be abused."
"Uh-huh." But Serge was grinning from ear to ear. "I'll let ya know."
They passed through the valley with little incident, but Serge put out an arm to stop Kid as they reached the end. "What is it?" Kid asked him, and then caught sight of the two dragoons up ahead. "Oh."
"Let me take care of this," Serge said to her, starting forward.
"No!" Kid seized his arm and pulled him back. "I think I saw a ladder a little way back. Maybe there's an alternate route."
"But don't ya wan—?" Serge didn't get to finish as Kid took his hand and led him swiftly back down the path.
They halted in front of the dragoon barring the ladder. "Now might be a good time ta use that sweet-talkin' from before," Serge whispered.
But that proved to be unnecessary. "Are you the exorcists?" the dragoon asked them, seeming somewhat shaken for some reason.
Serge frowned. "What's an—"
Kid brought her heel down on his foot. "Yes," she told the dragoon, "we are."
"Oh, good! We've been waiting for you guys." The dragoon gave her a closer look. "You seem a little young...but I guess that doesn't matter. Go right on up. The captain will tell you what to do."
Kid paused for a second, wondering if this was such a good idea after all. What if they were required to do something that they couldn't?
"Why'd ya hafta stomp so hard?" Serge whispered to her, his teeth gritted in pain.
"Sorry. I just needed you to shut up," Kid replied, and started up the ladder. "Yai!" she shouted suddenly as she felt a hand on her backside, and she turned to glare down at Serge.
"Whoops," Serge said simply, but he couldn't hide his devilish grin. "That handhold was a little warm."
"You're lucky I'm not going to kick you in the face," Kid muttered as she continued up the ladder.
They crested Fossil Valley's higher ground to see a group of dragoons at their work, but occasionally looking back in a panic as a low, windy moan came from the large dragon skull several feet away. The captain rushed to meet them, but not without one of these fearful glances. "You must be the exorcists. All we need you to do is get whatever's making that sound to stop, okay?"
It seemed like he was going to give them some other instruction, but just then one of the other dragoons called him over to inspect something. "I guess we're on our own, then," Kid remarked to Serge.
"I don't see how we'll stop it, though," Serge mused as they walked up to the skull. "There's probably a hole in that thing, so when the wind goes by it makes that sound. We'd hafta tear apart the top of the skull or somethin' ta get it ta..." But his voice died away as the sound abruptly stopped. Out of the dragon skull hopped a human one, for whatever reason wearing a clown hat and red nose. Its jawbone clacked against the ground between intervals before it halted in front of Kid and did its best to look up at her.
"Hmmm..." it murmured in a strange, dry voice. "Looks like you must understand what I'm going through. You're dead too, I get it?"
"Uh, no..." Kid told it slowly.
"Could've fooled me," the skull told her. "You believe what you want to, but I know we have something in common. Anyway, I wanted to ask you a favor—as two spirits in the wrong place?"
"Go on."
The skull let out a rattling sigh. "You might have noticed that I'm not really...whole...right now."
"Yeah...mate..." Serge told it dazedly. "Yeah...we kinda did..."
"I also can't remember anything." The skull seemed to frown. "Well...I do remember some kind of accident, but that was a while ago. I'm not sure how long. But I think if I start getting back my body parts, maybe I'll start remembering things." It grinned wryly. "And even if I don't, at least I'll have all my body parts again. So can you help me out?"
Kid exchanged glances with Serge—or, at least, she tried to. Serge was still trying to comprehend the enormity of the event. For whatever reason, the notion seemed impossible to him, but it seemed perfectly rational to Kid. "Yeah, I guess we could take you along. I don't know whether or not we'll find your body parts, though."
The skull let out a small hop and a clack that seemed to be an exclamation of joy. "Gee, thanks! Just be careful—I am kind of heavy, and I get nauseous if you swing me around too much."
"I wonder how he can get nauseous," Kid mused to herself as she set down her pack for the skull. She stood up, and immediately had to step back to avoid falling. "He wasn't kidding about being heavy!" she said to Serge as her companion stood up, still looking somewhat dazed.
Serge shook his head. "I just...can't understand that. So I'm just gonna put it outta me mind for now."
The captain stopped them as they headed back to the ladder. "Uh...how did you do that?" he asked them, and it was obvious that the question was the one at the front of all the dragoons' minds. But Kid only shrugged in response. "Oh." The captain seemed somewhat disappointed. "Do you...do you still have that...skull?"
"Yeah."
"Could I see it?"
Kid reached into her pack as a number of other dragoons began to form a crowd somewhat further away. She brought out the skull to face the captain, who winced at first, but then looked a little closer.
"Hi," the skull greeted him abruptly.
The captain let out a startled exclamation and stepped back, but he stepped forward again more slowly, laughing good-naturedly. "That's such a clever trick! How did you do that?"
Kid smiled mysteriously. "I didn't," she told him.
The dragoons backed away as Serge and Kid walked around to inspect the higher ground, but they found no such alternate route. "I guess we'd better go back down then, mate," Serge said. "Maybe those two've already run off somewhere."
"Wait a minute, what's that?" Kid asked, pointing in the direction of a colorful object somewhere further up the path.
Serge shaded his eyes against the sun to get a better look. "Looks like a bellflower ta me," he told her.
"It's pretty." Kid stepped over the spine of the dragon skeleton as she ascended the inclined ground. She knelt beside the flower, examining it more closely. It was a bellflower in its prime, its blue petals in the shape of a bell with its edges curled back just so, and a streak of violet at points along the edges. The stem was long and graceful, a pleasant green that set off the blue and violet, and its two long leaves delicately curved at the ends. It seemed almost a shame to pick it, Kid realized, being so beautiful and sustained in that environment—
"SQWAAA!"
Kid turned around with a gasp as a Dodo rose up behind her, its tiny black eyes narrowed in fury. "Hang on, Kid!" it sounded like Serge was shouting from below, his feet pounding against the rock as he rushed up toward her. Kid let out a scream and raised her right arm as the Dodo's beak came down, slicing several gashes in the soft skin of the underside of her arm.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed, reflexively seizing her arm with her other hand. She let out a pained hiss as the blood began to well up between her fingers. Above her, the bird screeched again and brought its beak down again, this time slamming into Kid's skull. Kid let out a cry and seized the place with both hands, throwing herself to the ground to try to escape any following blow.
The bird screeched a third time, but this one died away in a gurgle. Kid looked up to see the blade of Serge's sea swallow coated with blood, having gone through the Dodo's throat. He blinked and wiped away some of the red liquid that had splattered onto his forehead. "Ick."
Kid was looking at the bloodstained sea swallow, remembering that she had seen a bloodstained blade like that not too long ago. If only she could remember—
"You okay, mate?" Serge asked her, stepping down as the bird collapsed.
"I'll be fine, I think," Kid replied, assessing the damage done to her arm. The gashes didn't look terribly serious, and it didn't seem like the Dodo had struck any veins or arteries.
"Hold still a sec—this might sting," Serge told her, taking out a few pieces of cloth. Kid let out a few moans as he tightened them around her arm to control the bleeding. When he was finished, she checked her head for blood, and found a bit of it on her fingers. "Looks like it got ya there, too," Serge noticed, using a few additional cloths to wrap up that area as well.
Kid stood shakily as he helped her up and, almost as an afterthought, delicately plucked the bellflower from its place. She wondered vaguely what kind of harsh measures the flower had suffered in order to survive on such barren ground.
As it turned out, Solt and Peppor were still there when they got to the bottom of the ladder, and it was clear that Kid was in no condition to hold her own in a fight. "Don't you worry about me," Serge told her, taking out his sea swallow. "They're both bloody idiots, so it shouldn't be too hard ta kick their arses."
"No, I'll come with you," Kid told him. "I can cast Elements from the sidelines."
Serge frowned and shook his head. "That ain't gonna work. They're gonna come after ya eventually, and ye're gonna be like a sittin' duck. You just wait right up here."
"Hey!" Kid cried out as he took her by the waist and lifted her easily onto a ledge nearby.
"Okay?"
"Serge! Get me down from here!" Kid shouted after him as he shouldered his sea swallow and started toward Solt and Peppor. There was a pause. "You'd better come back!" she called sourly. Serge flashed an OK sign and disappeared behind a section of rock. There was a synchronized scream, and Serge returned moments later, looking bemused.
"What'd ya do ta those blokes?" he asked her.
"Virtually nothing," Kid replied.
Serge let out a low whistle. "That ain't what they thought."
Kid shifted to get into a better position. "So are you just going to stand there, or will you help me down from here?"
"Right, right." Serge approached her and, with the same lack of care as before, took her down from the ledge. "We oughtta get ta Termina pretty soon. I don't think it's that far off. And when we do, we're restin' there before we do anythin' else."
"Why?"
" 'Cause you had that little talk with the Dodo."
"I'm not hurt that badly," Kid told him, looking at her bandaged arm. "I think we could afford to get to the manor."
"Oh really?" Serge poked her in the arm.
"Hey, ouch!" Kid exclaimed, grabbing the place in pain.
"I think that just about settles it."
Kid glared at him as he started off for Termina.
"Well? Ya comin' or what, mate?"
"Wow," Kid remarked as they reached the steps that led into the port city. "This is much larger than Arni..."
"What'd ya expect? Another teeny little village?" Serge asked her, starting forward. But he halted abruptly and turned to look at the flower merchant nearby. The merchant was conversing with what looked to be a dragoon, or a Deva or something.
"...Yes, Karsh has been worrying me these past few days. You never know when those restless spirits might do something drastic. I hope he doesn't get himself hurt," the merchant said, frowning worriedly.
Kid's stomach plummeted with something like a dreaded recognition. "Karsh?" she whispered to Serge. "Wasn't that the—?"
"Shhh!"
"Well, I'll have to be getting back to Miss Riddel. That is, if you're certain you have no other bellflowers?" the dragoon asked her, his expression hopeful.
"I'm sorry, Glenn, but the men preparing for the festival bought a bushel of them. If I had remembered..."
"It's not your fault," Glenn told her. "Good day, then."
"Hey, wait a minute!" Kid called after him as he was leaving, but he was already out of earshot.
"What're ya doin'?" Serge asked her. "He's just a stupid dragoon, just like that Karsh guy. 'Sides, he probably just wants that flower 'cause he's in love with some lady." Something dawned on Serge then, and a slow smirk began to spread over his face. "He did say Riddel, right? She's the lady of the manor. He must've fallen for the lady of the bloody manor! What rotten luck."
"You seem happy about it," Kid noted sourly.
"Hell yeah! It's always funny when one of me enemies ends up in a hopeless case."
But Kid had just remembered the look of pain that had crossed Adam's face when Kani got so angry. "I don't know if that's fair, Serge," she said sharply. "Someone with a dilemma like that deserves encouragement, or friendly advice, or sympathy, at the very least. I know someone who's not necessarily the most faithful guy, but that doesn't mean he's something to laugh at."
Serge stared at her for a moment, seeing the determination in her azure eyes. "Whoa, hey, I didn't know ya'd take things so seriously. I just thought ya were angry at the dragoons right now, that's all."
"Okay, then," Kid let him off, releasing him from her gaze.
"So anyway, let's find a hotel or somethin' ta stay in tanight," Serge changed the subject, his eyes wandering over the different shops. "There's an inn right over that way," he told her, pointing to the door to their right.
"We can make reservations there. But first I want to look around a little," Kid told him.
"Do ya hafta? I have reason ta believe ye're cousin's gonna pound me if anythin' happens to ya."
Kid laughed. "Are you sure you're not just getting overprotective, Serge?"
"Well, no..." But Serge did seem to color a bit, for some reason.
"I'm not going to become an invalid just because I'm a little hurt. Come on, we can't just come here for business reasons," Kid told him. "Let's just look around a little. Unless you'd like to stay behind and fluff my pillows." Then she was off like greased lightning, heading past the element shop toward the merchant stands along the road. Serge followed her at a run, profanity flying faster than his feet against the road.
A/N (This DOES mean "Author's Note," right? I've seen a bunch of different stuff around...): Hopefully, things will go faster than this. I just have to eke out chapter seven, and then eight, and then nine, and stuff. And I have no idea how I'm gonna repeat all that stuff that Belthasar was talking about, cuz he talked for a frickin' long time! Oh, well... (shuffles off to play Chrono Cross again)
Review Replies:
Dai: I know, I know—I'm doing that! Leave me alone! (throws pillows) You hurry up and revamp that other chapter in Moribund. I can't believe what you did to Sora! (wails unconsolably)
