Timber Mountains (approaching Bluerock Cliffs) - 11.26 p.m. (Timber Time)
Daniel got terrified as total darkness loomed when the bus drove along the mountainous roads of the Timber Mountains. mountain trails. After three hours since the departure, Rinoa yawned, snuggling in her blue sweater as the temperature in the bus got colder. Squall felt blockage in his ears as the bus moved to higher altitude.
"We're almost there!" Rachel said in excitement after passing by a lit-up billboard: 'Welcome to Timber Mountains: Extreme sports 24 hours a day and 365 days a year!'
The bus finally stopped at its destination; Bluerock Cliffs, a ski resort town famous for winter sports operated twenty-four hours a day. Dressed in their winter apparel, the teams got down the bus. To them, Bluerock Cliffs seemed to be this small but restless mountain town populated by skiing daredevils. In the distant, they could watch a couple of mountain-bikers drifting down a snowy slope beneath the chairlifts.
The Trepies spotted a clue yards a few yards in front them bathing in the fluoresent beam of a lamppost by the street.
"Hey, the clue!" Rachel and Daniel ran to the box and opened it.
"Detour," Rachel and Daniel said as they read the contents of the envelope. "Slow Climb Up or Fast Slide Down."
Slow Climb Up: Head to the nearby Bluerock Cliff where you will climb up the cliff to a crevice 20 feet above to get the next clue.
Fast Slide Down: Head to Station 3 at the Timber Mountain Slopes, four miles from Bluerock Cliffs, and ride mountain-bikes to the bottom of the slope to get the next clue."
"Rinoa, ready for climbing?" Squall asked. Rinoa gave a thumb's up. The couple then slung their backpacks and began running towards Bluerock Cliff that was just a short walk away. Quistis and Xu and Rachel and Daniel followed Squall and Rinoa from behind.
Bluerock Cliff resembled a fifty feet stone wall, fifteen feet from the base of the cliff was a crevice, as large as a cave. Handholds and lights were attached to the cliff, making it a spot for wall climbing. However, at night, one might mistake a handhold or a foothold for a piece of loose rock, but that did not deter enthusiastic wall-climbers from taking up such a challenge.
Rachel was the first person to put on her climbing gear. She nervously looked up at the steep, jagged cliff, lit up by strobe lights.
"This is scary." Rachel shook her head as two men put on safety cables on her. "I've climbed cliffs before but this is really scary."
Rachel eased herself, fixed her foot on the rock and climbed up to one feet at a steady pace. Being an experienced rock climber, she got to the crevice. She snapped the safety cable off her and entered the brightened cave to pick up one of the red envelopes lying behind a stalagmite.
"Head to the pit stop - The summit of the Gazing Mountain," she read out loud while looking at the summit of Gazing Mountain in the distance. She got out of the cave and stooped at the base of the cliff to find a Daniel hanging on to a rock for footing.
Squall was already halfway below the crevice.
"Daniel, you can do it!" Rachel waved at Daniel, "Just don't look below!"
"Okay." Daniel said when he was halfway from Rachel. He stepped on a loose rock.
"Daniel!" Rachel wailed as she saw Daniel's left foot hanging in the air.
Zell stealthily embedded one of his earplugs into Irvine's ear while he was napping. The cacophony of musical instruments and vocalists screaming rang loudly in Irvine's ear.
Irvine woke up abruptly and pulled off the earplugs.
"Was that Metalhead, pardner?" Irvine asked, glaring at Zell's walkman. "Your freakazoid band gives me the creeps ya know."
"Who cares?" Zell retaliated, nodding his head to the music. "You could've let me join the concert."
"We don't have the money, Zell," Irvine explained. Zell then plugged a cable to the bus' speakers, blaring 'Freeway Ultrastar'.
"Zell stop it!" Selphie screamed, pressing her ears .
"That's for giving me cold Jambalaya for dinner you S.O.B. cowboy," Zell jeered.
"Hey I kinda like your taste in music boy," the driver said, nodding his head to the song.
"Ugh, stop it!" Irvine pleaded. "I promise I won't lock you up in a hotel again."
Zell turned up the volume. Rajin, Selphie, Irvine, Edea and Kadowaki closed their ears tightly while Fujin, Seifer, Zell and the driver listened intently to 'Freeway Ultrastar'.
"Okay, okay!" Irvine fell to the floor and crawled towards Zell. "Meow! I'll also buy you Deling City hotdogs when we get there!"
"Good kitty." Zell rubbed his fist on Irvine's head and switched off the music. Irvine stood up in embarrassment as the other passengers began to laugh hysterically at his act.
"Well done Irvine. You do look like a kitty," Edea sarcastically joked, giggling.
"Aw... I wanted to listen to Metalhead badly!" Seifer whined.
"Huh?" Selphie turned to Seifer. "What did you just say?"
Seifer closed his mouth with his cuppedhands. He took off his hands and balled his hand into a fist in front of her.
"Stop pondering on my personal agendas you bitch!"
Selphie started crying, however, she wiped off her tears and retaliated.
"I didn't want to team up with you anyway you S.O.B!"
Both of them turned from each other's face and tried to sleep on their seats.
"Hey driver, what's so great about Metalhead anyway?" Irvine asked, wanting to strangle Zell dozing peacefully in his seat.
The driver chuckled.
"The band comes from Timber and they're the city's pride in the music industry. So basically every Timber citizen's proud of them."
"Cool," Seifer thought, closing his eyes for some sleep.
"Don't worry Daniel," Rachel shouted at Daniel with both hands gripping onto a handhold while his left leg swayed. "Just don't look down!"
By then, Squall had reached the crevice while Rinoa put on climbing gear. Quistis was already half-way up. Daniel nodded slightly at Rachel above him. Calmly, he swung his foot to the nearest toehold and resumed climbing.
"Good work Daniel." Rachel gave a high-five to Daniel as he got to the crevice. The Trepies then rode the flying fox back to the base of the cliff, screaming in exhilaration.
"Hey, wake up!" Irvine shook Zell violently.
"Where are we?" Zell woke up groggily. "I had a good dream of Deling City hotdogs."
"We're going to arrive at a town called Bluerock Cliffs in no time," said Irvine, who was all dressed up in his cozy beige cowboy sweater. He handed to Zell his winter clothes.
"Hey I told you not to mess around with my luggage!" Zell snatched his clothes from Irvine.
After the bus parked alongside with two other buses at the town's bus terminal, Selphie, in her bright yellow cardigan, surfaced from the bus; Seifer, Zell, Irvine, Edea and Kadowaki followed. The three teams jostled to the nearby clue box.
"Let's climb!" Selphie cheered. She had climbed and propelled down cliffs back in Trabia.
"No, I'm not doing it!" Seifer said, shaking his head violently.
"Now who's calling chicken-wuss you S.O.B. of an ex-knight," Zell taunted as he walked to the direction of Bluerock Cliff.
"Okay I'll do it!" Seifer gritted his teeth in anger. "I'll even climb up the cliff faster than that chicken-wuss!"
He wished that he could bring along his Gunblade and chop Zell's fists off.
Once Selphie and Seifer arrived at the cliff, Zell was found already in climbing gear.
"See ya suckers!" Zell started climbing.
"I swear I'll reach there in a second and strangle you to death!" Seifer yelled at Zell, pouting back at him. Seifer screeched at the operators to quickly attach the safety cable on him.
"Good luck Seifer!" Selphie shouted at Seifer ten feet above her. As Seifer reached for the next handhold, he stepped on a loose rock. Both feet slipped off. Seifer gripped onto the handhold tightly.
Selphie froze at her position, gaping.
"Seifer!" She then started climbing, hoping to help Seifer.
"Don't worry!" Seifer yelled back. He swung his legs and stepped on a rock. The rock fell off and Seifer remained dangling precariously.
"Seifer!" Selphie climbed up the cliff at a faster pace.
Seifer tried again. He finally stepped onto a foothold his feet and continued climbing. Selphie overtook Seifer and reached the crevice first. There, she pulled Seifer up.
It was Kadowaki and Edea's turn to climb. Zell and Irvine cheered wildly at the old ladies who made it to the top.
"Oh my goodness! I'll never do that again," Kadowaki remarked, panting for breath. She took the clue from behind the rock and tore it open.
"Go to next pit stop, summit of Gazing Mountain." Kadowaki then wrapped her arm around Edea's sweater as they neared the flying fox.
"Here we go again," Matron sarcastically said.
Fujin and Raijin, and Nida and Shelley stepped down from the bus in deep seriousness, staring at each other briefly. They ran to the clue box.
"DETOUR," Fujin said.
"Oh oh, no way I'm going to climb a cliff!" Raijin squealed. Fujin kicked Raijin in the ankle.
The operators were already waiting for the both of them at the Bluerock cliff. Raijin shoveed Nida and Shelley aside rudely to get to the climbing gear first. After wearing the climbing gear, Raijin climbed, followed by Shelley, effortlessly scaling the cliff.
As Raijin was just below from the crevice, he stooped at Fujin who was seen as a dot from above.
"Aaacckk!" Raijin shrieked, losing his grip on the handhold.
"FOOL!" Fujin hissed.
Raijin regained balance and reached to the crevice. He entered the cave gingerly and spotted the stalagmite. He looked behind it, where a knife appeared on top of the last envelope. He picked up both the knife and one of the envelopes and went outside to see Fujin climbing towards him.
Shelley paused, feeling her stamina dissipating rapidly. She almost forgot that it was 3 o'clock in the morning already. Insane!
Fujin overtook Shelley and pulled herself up to the crevice. Raijin showed her the knife he had found.
"KNIFE, BELONGS TO SEIFER!" Fujin said, smiling evilly.
"What are we supposed to do with it?" Raijin asked.
Fujin snatched the knife from him and unsheathed it. The silver glimmer of the knife's blade shone as Fujin swiped it over one of the cables.
"Fujin, you cut the cable!" Raijin exclaimed. Fujin kicked Raijin in the ankle.
"FOOL!" Fujin held onto Raijin's sturdy back as they rode the flying fox.
Shelley finally lifted herself up to the crevice and quickly ran into the cave to get the clue.
"Nida, hurry!" Shelley shouted at Nida, meddling with his footing. Fujin and Raijin had already landed at the base of the cliff as Nida was only at the halfway point. Shelley felt anxious.
"Nida, you can do it!" Shelley decided to motivate Nida. She then noticed Nida's safety cable that was cut apart, realizing that Fujin and Raijin did this to put them out of them out of the race.
"Nida, the cable's been cut!" she warned. Nida heard the muffled voice of Shelley and panicked. Adrenaline was pumped into his veins. Nida wanted to get to the top as fast as possible, and eventually reached the crevice with Shelley pulling him up.
"That was really close!" Nida said, out of breath.
Fujin and Raijin stepped off the 24-hour operated gondola. The summit was dark and quiet, with the mountain breeze blowing coldly past them. Raijin's run turned to a lethargic shuffle as he searched for the pit stop.
"I'm out of breath honey, ya know." Raijin wheezed heavily.
Fujin, also tired, kicked his butt in anger.
After 3 minutes of walking, they arrived at the summit viewpoint where Headmaster Cid was waiting for them.
"Welcome to the Gazing Mountain," the man greeted but it did not calm the duo. They had overworked themselves so much that they wished they would not join the stupid goddamn race for Seifer's sake in the start.
"Fujin and Raijin," Cid began. The duo gazed at Cid anxiously although they knew that they were not going to be kicked out of the race.
"You're team number eight!"
Nida and Shelley quickened their pace as they neared Headmaster Cid. The man greeted both of them as they stepped on the mat.
"Nida and Shelley," Cid began. Nida and Shelley did not show any signs of worry but instead, becalmed. Cid's tone started to turn solemn.
"I'm sorry to tell you that you've been eliminated."
Tears built up in Nida's eyes after hearing Cid announcing their elimination from the race. Shelley allowed Nida's head to rest on her shoulder for comfort.
Nida gazed upon Cid in tears.
"If I weren't a slowpoke we could have..." he stuttered. "Yeah, I guess it's not that good to be overconfident and over-relaxed when it's crunch time." He started laughing with Shelley.
"Nida, you've impressed me just now. I'm so proud of you," Shelley admitted.
Nida and Shelley were the first team to be eliminated from the Amazing Race!