Edonil: It's me again! Somebody said they wanted me to write more chapters. Longer chapters. So I'll give that a try... Warning: I've written twenty page chapters before. Hopefully I won't do that to you lot...

Kuja: Stop stalling!

Edonil: Yes, stalling, I know. Oh, and I got one review, which said (and I quote), "I don't see why I should spend time attempting to write a decent review if you're not interested in the story yourself." My response to this person is that I am interested in this story. I'm just more interested in my other stories. Just so you know.

Disclaimer: Hawaii looks good. Canada, where I live, looks bad. Guess where I'd be if I owned FFIX.

To Change

Chapter Two

Chocobos. Were. Infuriating. That was all Kuja could think of. How long could it take? Hah! He'd been here for over a month, trying to get that stupid chocobo to learn how to fly. Any luck? Nope. Just last week he'd convinced it to let him ride around. On the ground. Stupid, stupid chocobo!

Kuja was beginning to think that he should find another way to get to the Mist Continent.

Kuja was sitting in a cave he had found nearby. It was a very deep cave, but it was dark, and Kuja, though he would never admit it, was afraid of the dark. And claustrophobic. He didn't like caves. But he didn't want to be outside at night. He'd found something on the ground: a piece of paper. It was torn and weathered, and Kuja was trying to read it.

It appeared to be a map, but what it was a map of was beyond Kuja. He'd gotten the first bit of writing on the top figured out. It said,

Welcome to

Traveler, you

The tunnels of this

To the Continent

Unfortunately, about half of the words were torn off. Stupid map!

"Kweh!" Kuja glared at the chocobo. Ever since it had started letting Kuja ride it, it had expected Kuja to feed it. That was what came of riding chocobos.

"Go find you own food!" Kuja snarled. His own stomach rumbled faintly. There was very little food here. How had that bratty summoner lived out here? Kuja had been able to stab some fish with a stick, but he absolutely refused to eat raw fish. He had considered going to the Desert Palace, but then he remembered that before he went to Memoria, he'd collapsed it, as he didn't need it anymore, and didn't want anyone else living in luxury. And while he could cast firaga with the best of them, he wasn't so good at lower level spells, having skipped over them when he was a child. He had therefore attempted lighting a small campfire with firaga, hoping to cook his meal.

The result had been what destroyed his first cave.

So he had gone to Conde Petie, wearing a disguise, and bought some steel and flint. And he had learned a bit of the latest gossip. It seemed Zidane had gotten out of the Iifa Tree alright, as Kuja had hoped, and gone to Alexandria. That was where the realistic gossip ended. According to the rest of the gossip, Zidane had become Alexander- or had he been Alexander all along?- and the Queen Garnet had become some other Eidolon- which one it was changed with every telling. They supposedly lived in the Iifa Tree, which Kuja knew was definitely not true, and they could fly.

All of it ridiculous.

There was one other bit of gossip, though. Kuja had curiously asked a dwarf what news there was of himself, and the dwarf had said that he'd never heard of "this Kuja fella." So Kuja wasn't well known. That was definitely an advantage.

"Kweh-kweh-kweh..." Kuja could hear the stupid chocobo's cry echoing through the cave. The overgrown chicken must have gone further inside. Probably gotten itself lost in the process. Glancing around and taking a deep breath, Kuja hesitantly went further inside to find his only mode of transportation.

---

"Chocobo! Come here, Chocobo! Come on, I will not hurt you..." Kuja stumbled forward blindly, trying to coax the... thing to come to him. He should have brought light. He should have-

SPLASH!

Kuja floundered about in the water. Why hadn't he learned how to swim? Stupid, stupid, stupid! Another splash told him he'd found the chocobo.

It bumped up against him, chirping happily. "Do you know how much trouble you're in?" Kuja demanded. It just chirped again. "Fine! I'll tell you later. Now get me out of this!" The chocobo squirted water at Kuja through its beak. "I'm warning you..." The chocobo dived under water.

Kuja shivered. Was he to die here?

The chocobo answered that question for him by coming up directly below Kuja. At least his head was above water. But he was cold. He was-

Wait a minute! The stupid bird was swimming around! It could have swum him to the Mist Continent ages ago!

"Chocobo," Kuja crooned, "Would you please get me to dry land?" The chocobo happily complied. Kuja struggled onto the slab of rock. "Now get out of the water." There was a flapping sound. A sound that sounded like flying. Then the chocobo landed on him.

"Chocobo, tomorrow would you please fly me to another continent?" The chocobo kwehed. Kuja hoped that meant yes. "Then let us go to the entrance of the cave, and I'll find you something to eat." The chocobo nuzzled Kuja, making him fall over.

Into the water.

---

It was useless. The bird refused to carry Kuja when it was outside. So long as they were inside the cave, the dratted bird was only to happy to let Kuja ride around. But step one foot outside the cave, and...

Stupid chocobo. Kuja was beginning to think it was agoraphobic. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Why couldn't he have a chocobo that was more like him? Kuja was ready to kill the bird!

"Oi! You there!" Kuja turned around to see a man- a miner, by his clothes- walking towards him- out of the cave!

"Yes?" Kuja asked.

"Is this here the Forgotten Continent?"

"Yes." Then, because he had to know, "Where did you come from?"

"Me? In there." The miner pointed into the cave. "That there is Fossil Roo, it is. Leads to the Mist Continent."

"It does? Interesting..."

"Ya didn't know? That's weird. I thought everybuddy knew."

"I did not."

"Huh. Well, g'bye, mister!"

"Fare thee well," Kuja returned absentmindedly. A passage to the Mist Continent...

---

Kuja and the chocobo had been travelling for three days. Kuja hoped they were near the end of the tunnel. He was, after all, claustrophobic. Very claustrophobic. And apparently still thanatophobic.

Just yesterday they had come across a dead miner.

The miner had apparently been digging, as miners generally do, and hit a fault in the stone or something. The stone had landed on him, burying him. Judging by his position, Kuja had been able to deduce that he had not died in the collapse; he had starved to death.

Starving to death. Something else he was afraid of.

It didn't make sense! He was Kuja, an Angel of Death! But he was afraid of so much... He was phobophobic, afraid of being afraid! How could someone be afraid of being afraid?

It didn't make any sense.

Why was he so afraid?

Edonil: There we have it! A longer chapter! Four pages. This was all I could write in this chapter. Yes, I had some idea of how this chapter and the next one go when I started. The next chapter will feature Zidane! So please R&R! Oh, and agoraphobia is a fear of open spaces. For more phobias, go to