Chapter 2: The Search Begins!
The sun was blazing hot in such a way that even someone would have to keep casting Blizzard on himself to stay cool.
Even at an oasis, nothing could stay cool for a mere five seconds. Pretty much all of the wildlife, which made their home at the oasis, had moved to other, cooler deserts.
A frog had kept waddling on the scorching sands in search of an oasis; after all, frogs did need water to survive.
The frog kept croaking, forgetting that, as a frog, he couldn't speak English.
"Now how in Ivalice am I supposed to get out of this one?" Marche, the missing leader of Clan Reaper, kept thinking to himself over and over again.
"And haven't the others found me yet? I'm probably going to die of dehydration if I stay in this stupid desert any longer!" he also panicked, and began to waddle a bit faster, but slowed down again, due to the amount of sweat he had already perspired. It was leaving a small trail that went along with his footprints.
After a few minutes, he sighed a heavy sigh of relief. An oasis in sight!
Marche did one giant leap into the body of water, making huge ripples into the liquid.
Taking a breath of air upon resurfacing, Marche squeaked a complaining croak.
"Ugh! This feels like taking a hot bath! . . . .But I suppose it's better than nothing." He mentally noted to himself, allowing himself to sink to the bottom of the oasis.
To his surprise, there were other frogs in the area, and from the looks of it, it looked like they were here for years.
But it was cut rather short when all of the frogs swam away from him.
"Wha?" Marche thought to himself, unaware that a shadow was glooming over him.
Suddenly, a child's hand had grabbed Marche and yanked him out of the water faster than anyone could yell "fire."
"Oh boy!" the human boy had squealed rather gleefully, with such an innocent look in his blue eyes.
Marche gulped, "Oh crud" he mentally cursed.
"Mommy! I found a frog!" the child yelled, running over to his brown haired mother, who was currently packing up some kind of chocobo carriage.
The woman turned her head towards the child, "Mark, what have I told you about taking frogs as pets?" she questioned him.
Taking a step back, the boy responded, "But Mommy! It's not poisonous! And I swear, I'll take good care of this time!" Hearing the "this time" part made Marche cringe.
Having taken a few seconds to think about it, the mother gave in, "All right, and if you manage to be good with this one, then we'll get you that puppy you wanted."
His eyes gleamed even more than they originally did, "Oh thanks mommy! I won't fail this time!"
After the child and his mother had boarded the chocobo carriage and were in the process of leaving the desert, Mark had placed Marche into a fish tank, which was filled with nice, cool water. It was definitely better than the oasis.
"Man, I could really use the others right about now!" Marche had mentally screamed in his own head.
(Meanwhile, in Cyril)
Tap tap tap tap!
"Whew, that should do it!" Ritz sighed, after hammering the last of the nails to hang up a missing poster, which had Marche's picture as a frog on it.
"And that's the last poster." Shara commented.
Ritz turned to her friend, "So, is there anything else we can do now?"
Shara shook her head, "No. We've already got a mission posted on the Pub boards, and Montblanc's gone shopping for Maiden Kisses."
"Well, there's no sense in staying here. We'll meet up with him at the Pub."
(A little bit later)
"All right, who ordered the 'Triple Large Cookie Sundae'?" the Vieran waitress had asked at the rounded table.
"ME! ME! ME!" Doned frantically shook his hand in the air.
The waitress handed the sundae to him, "Okay, okay, just don't shout next time, okay?"
"Okay." Doned simply said, and when the waitress left, he dug right in, not caring about being polite and all that. After all, he couldn't eat ice cream in St. Ivalice, so now was his chance.
Ritz and Shara turned away, trying to avoid the sight of Doned being rude in public (as well as the few clans who were staring at them because of it), seeing Montblanc and the rest of Clan Reaper coming back from the shops.
"Kupo, we got the Maiden Kisses, and a Cureall, just in case." Montblanc reported.
"Good. Now if we can just find him." Ritz responded.
Then Sis, the Clan's Archer, began to violently shake Ritz, for the third time that day. (AN: think of when, in Ruroni Kenshin, Misao is shaking him in her first episode.)
"It's all YOUR fault Malboro breath! How could you even let him get away? If I had been there, I would've disabled his legs, damn you!" she yelled in Ritz's ears.
"Stop calling me Malboro breath! Have you even considered your laundry smells like Coeurl droppings!" Ritz insulted back.
Kurt, the resident Dragoon, ran in and separated the two. "Siss! How many times have we already told you NOT to put your hands on Ritz?"
"Ugh," the Nu Mou Illusionist Hobbes began to comment, "if we're going to find Marche and get through this in a civilized manner is the focus on the task, not harassing each other!"
Doned pushed his finished treat to the side, "Question is, do we even WANT to turn Marche back!" he teasingly snickered.
That earned him a fist on the head from Ritz.
"OW!" Doned yelped.
"Another remark like that and it won't be on your head Doned." Ritz growled.
Salem, the group's one and only Ninja, pressed his finger onto his forehead. "Maybe we should split into two groups: one heading back to the scene of the transmogrification, and the second should investigate the nearby towns, particularly Muscadet." He suggested, knowing that Muscadet was the place closet to the area.
"An excellent suggestion." Hobbes smiled.
Charles, the moogle Thief and Time Mage, got out of his seat, "But if we DO look in the towns, what are the chances of someone finding a frog with a yellow wart on top of his head?"
Hobbes began to divide the clan into groups, "Alright; Ritz, Shara, and Salem, go back to where this all started. Everyone else, head to towns and ask questions. Doned, stay here in case anyone responds to either the missing posters or the mission contract.
Doned was still rubbing the sore spot on his head he got from Ritz, "Oh, so what am I now, Clan Reaper's receptionist?" he complained.
(And now, in case anyone was wondering about poor little Marche . . .)
Mark shoved the fish tank onto his rather messy dresser while Marche observed the new surroundings. The room he was stuck in was a complete pigsty! Heck, it was even worse than Mewt's locker at school, and THAT was messy.
"Don't worry little froggie! I'm gonna give you a name! Just let me get a book on names!" Mark told the frog as he left his room.
Marche brought himself to the surface, gasping for air. (Not that being able to breathe underwater was BAD thing, he was just used to oxygen.) But as soon, as he drew in his breath, he immediately drew it back in, having been revolted by the stench of the room. It obviously smelt as bad as it looked.
"Oh God! How am I going to survive THIS!" he cursed. Then his stomach rumbled, and he had realized he didn't have anything to eat in the previous hour or so. (Journey from the Delia Dunes to Cyril should last about an hour, at minimum anyway.)
A fly began to wonder around the tank, not noticing Marche. After seeing all those cartoons for God knows how many hours of being alone in the house with nothing else to do, Marche figured he was desperate for something to eat.
He lashed out his tongue and got the bug on the first try.
However, upon tasting the buzzing insect, Marche immediately spat the fly back out. "Eating bugs isn't all it's cracked up to be." He thought, sighing a very depressed croak.
(End Chapter 2)