Isobelle woke fiercely, jolted awake by the dream she had been imagining. She had dreamt that Blank had become un-petrified, but because all the rest of the forest was petrified, he had been crushed under stone as the plant statues fell on top of him. She got up quickly and silently slipped out the room. The keeper wasn't even awake yet. As she went outside she saw it was sunrise and she looked around for a good place to see it by. There she saw an observatory tower and she ran towards it, racing the sun's rays towards the top of the hill. The monsters were only just awakening so they were slow and couldn't focus on fighting well, so they left Isobelle alone.

Isobelle sat down at the top of the hill and watched as the sun rose over Gaia. She put her hands behind her and held herself in the position she was in. she remembered the first time she had seen the sunrise, the beauty she felt as it ran its rays across her face. The grass underneath her was dabbled in dew and she carefully wiped a drop from a grass stem and tasted it in her mouth. There was no substance that she could have told about, but the feeling that she was drinking fresh morning dew from grass stems was pleasant. This is what life's about she thought as she watched the sun get onto its podium. She closed her eyes and dazed her mind about the early morning…

'What are you scheming?' a familiar voice came from behind her and her head shot up from where it had lagged onto her chest. She moved one of her arms to find it was become numb and mechanically rubbed her neck.

'I was watching the sun rise.' Isobelle answered and got up from where she was sitting. Shaking her arms she got some feeling back 'I didn't sleep at all last night, so I just dozed then.' She gave the knight a stern look 'Happy?' she asked and then her legs collapsed due to pins and needles. 'AAAGH!' she said annoyed. She looked at the sun to see it high on its podium and guessed she had probably been asleep for at least three hours.

'I say, are you alright?' the knight asked her and she gritted her teeth, moving her legs slightly and wincing as the pain shot through her she growled at him

'What do you care? I'm not the princess! I'm just looking for a way home!' Isobelle stood up sharply, her face portraying her pain. 'Just, just, leave me alone!' she shouted and started running. She didn't get far, her legs buckled again and she went flying on her face down the hill. Pushing her skirt down, trying to compose herself, Isobelle felt tears burn in her eyes. She shed them, hoping the stupid knight wouldn't follow. He did, but he pretended she wasn't there and walked straight past her and into the house next to her. Isobelle got up shakily and made her way back to the village…

She slid her way into the inn and quickly made her way to the bathroom, where she washed her face and arms from dirt. Her skirt was able to take a beating and anything came off it, she would wash it that night in a stream if need be, but it could hang on for now, and her top was heard-wearing too. She walked out of the inn and looked around quickly for Zidane and Dagger. It wasn't hard; they were standing over a pipe near the windmill.

'Sniff…Sniff sniff…' a voice was coming through the pipe.

'What's going on?' Isobelle asked and Zidane turned to look at her. He, as always, was looking at her chest when he talked, but Isobelle was used to it.

Vivi's stuck down there, we need to get him out.' Zidane said and Isobelle looked from him to a worried look on Garnet's face and back again. 'I'll go.' She said and walked into the windmill, about to ask, if there was a person in there, how she could get down into the hole. As she walked in, she saw a passage down into the ground and guessed that she needed to go down there. She looked down, her hands on the sides of the rim to see how far down it was.

It wasn't far and just as Isobelle was about to go down, a man came towards her 'what do you think you're doing?' Isobelle looked at him quickly. She hadn't get her leg over yet, had just gripped the rim tighter. Thinking quickly, Isobelle smiled at him

'I was looking for an adult, I thought there might be pone down there but now I've found you…' she stood up and brushed down her dress 'I'll just go tell my friends and then I'll take you to what I need to show someone.' She smiled at him again, trying desperately to think where she could take him. She slipped round the corner to Zidane and Dagger and whispered quickly to them what was going on '…you go down and rescue Vivi, I'll take the man away.' She concluded really fast and they all nodded. She ran back inside 'OK, this way!' she smiled at the man, gripped his hand and started dragging him towards the observatory tower. She didn't see Zidane and Dagger run into the windmill, but guessed that they had…

'Oh… well, it was here!' Isobelle gestured to a piece of field land where there had apparently been a treasure chest. The man scowled at her and started walking back to the village. 'Sorry…' she called out to him, being sincere about her lying and knowing he'd take it as she was sorry she'd wasted his time.' She heard him grumble abhor and the she turned her back. I hope Vivi's ok… I hope they're all ok… Isobelle thought, wandering towards a cargo ship that had just landed. She hid behind the ship as she saw people coming up from a trap door into the floor. They were carrying cases that had the Alexandrian mark on them. They loaded them onto the cargo ship one by one and then stopped abruptly, looking towards the observatory tower. Isobelle shifted her position too -slowly, so that they didn't see her move- and saw a familiar knight running towards the ship. She saw feet run into the trap door from under the airship, but then she had to slip round the ship to the ladder, so as to keep her skirt from giving her away. She did not want the knight to know she had been spying because then he would completely assume that she was a thief, a scoundrel…whatever, and she would never be able to prove him wrong. She had to move a step at a time, letting her skirt calm down before she moved again. Once she got to the ladder, she could feel the cargo ship rumbling, ready for take off and came face to face with Zidane.

'Isobelle, glad you could join us!' he said warmly and then jumped onto the ladder behind Dagger. Isobelle put her hand on the ladder also and watched as Zidane got high enough for her to get on.

He pinched Dagger's arse… Isobelle couldn't keep in her laughter and a few giggles slipped out, but they were torn away by the engine. Isobelle got up after Zidane and went to go into the ship, but Zidane slammed the door in her face. She started banging on it, as it had locked itself from the inside with the force of which Zidane slammed it.

'Come on…' she said, getting agitated, they were flying now and Isobelle didn't want to be on the end of the ship where she couldn't see anything. Getting agitated further, the next minute she was yelling her lungs out, banging on the door and then…Vivi opened it and she fell nearly on top of him, but she managed to grab the door frame in time and steadied herself. 'Thanks.' She said to him and he bowed his head in appreciation and then, like clockwork, adjusted his hat. They closed the door together and ran up on deck when they heard a thump…

They fought black mage 3 quickly; he flew off before Isobelle even got warmed up. Dagger grabbed the wheel and they went off full pedal towards Lindblum (Dagger having already decided that was where she wanted to go) Isobelle went to walk into the cockpit, when Zidane shouted at her and she saw Vivi flying over the edge of the ship, she went to run to him instead to help bring the little mage up again when Blank demented Mage 3 came flying back. With a shier turn, they missed being barbequed and Isobelle had to hold on herself, as she was thrown down onto the deck, hitting her head and making her feel dizzy as she went. She gripped her hands into the wood on the deck, put her head as low as she could and closed her eyes. She could feel her skirt going wild and her hair attacking her face, crazed by the wind.

When they were in the Lindblum gate, Isobelle put her head up to see her home being closed off to her, but no, they managed to get though and fly onto Lindblum again. She stood up, whooping at their luck, a smiled etched on her face as she turned round to the cockpit. She ran to garnet inside, full of adrenalin

'Well done! Wow!' she let off some steam and looked at Garnet, who was looking at the girl apprehensively. 'That was some pretty nice flying you did there. Well dome partner!' she forgot Steiner was standing near.

'Partner! How dare you call the princess your…partner! That is not…' he started up but the princess silenced him.

'Steiner!' she scolded. 'Thank you Isobelle. I thought it was pretty…Neat…too.' She said, struggling to find the right words so that she sounded like a normal girl. They smiled at each other, a wave of understanding running through them…