Chapter 3: A Trail

"Hey, Gorf!" Mark was talking to Marche with his new name (which was really just frog backwards), "Isn't it so pretty in Cyril when it's the summer?" he asked, turning his head to look outside at the pretty scenery.

"Not when you're a frog, no!" Marche mentally responded. But then again, he was getting kind of impatient. Especially when your entire body was rearranged and you couldn't remember where even your lungs were. Better than being a turtle though. (They could breathe through their rear ends, and that's probably not the best thing to go through.)

As the young frog looked out the window, he saw two of his clan members, Salem and Kurt!

"Guys!" he yelled in his head. He performed a giant leap, which would've gotten him past the window, except for the fact that the window was locked closed. All of the time in the sun must've boiled his brain.

Wham!

Sadly for Marche, Salem and Kurt were busy talking to people (which were hopefully about clues concerning his whereabouts), and even then, they were rather far from the window, so they probably wouldn't have noticed in the first place.

"Gorf!" Mark reacted at Marche's action, and as Marche slid down the window (he was wet and slippery after all), Mark grabbed him.

"Bad Gorf! Bad frog!" he yelled at Marche. Mark put him back into the fish tank, "No dinner for you tonight, got it?" he finished before leaving his room to do chores. (Which, unfortunately, didn't include cleaning his room.)

Marche let out a small sigh, "Actually, no dinner would be better if all three of my meals didn't consist of flies! Particularly ones that weren't left for weeks in fly traps!"

(Back with Doned the Receptionist)

Upon seeing Kurt and Salem return from their little job, Doned jumped out of his seat from a small table within the Pub and walked to the duo. "I'm not getting any luck, are you guys?"

The Bangaa shook his head, "No we aren't. No one hasss reported sseeing a frog nearby with yellow wart on its head."

Doned frowned, "Well, that's one town down."

"Maybe Ritz and Shara are having better luck." Salem sighed.

Kurt turned around, "That's Cyril down, now we better get going into Sphrom. You know Hobbes and Sis are looking in Baguba Port and Muscadet."

(With Hobbes and Sis)

"Sis! Put him down NOW!" the angry Nu Mou furiously screamed at the Archer. It wasn't often one would see one lose their temper, but now was such a case.

Currently, Sis was really demanding information, and if they didn't have any (which was the only answer they've gotten thus far), she either shot one of their important limbs, or go in a killing spree.

Staring at him like a deer in the headlights, Sis weakened her grip on the Soldier she was ready to kill, and dropped him.

"She's a violent banshee! Run for your lives!" he began to scream while running away from the pair as fast as he could.

Hobbes sighed a really deep and rather frustrated sigh, "Sis, do you really have to kill someone who doesn't give you what you want?"

She crossed her arms tightly, and pouted, "Hey, if there's something I want, nothing, and I MEAN nothing stops me from getting it!"

"Obviously." Hobbes mentally noted.

"Oh heck," Sis continued, "the only reason I joined the clan was because I wanted Marche to be mine!"

The look on Hobbes' face changed from furious to shocked, "WHAT!" he stammered.

Sis clasped her hands together, and the look in her eyes resembled that of a regular romance dreamer.

"He's so handsome and dreamy! He's everything I dream of! A hottie!" Sis practically exclaimed to all of Ivalice.

Five words could best describe Hobbes' current mood: stunned, horrified, shocked, surprised, and a bit disgusted too, all at the same time (along with the look of fear on his face.)

Taking a look at her fellow clan member's face and body expression, she immediately made a sour face, "What?"

Hobbes rushed his hands to his ears, "I did NOT need to hear that!"

The Illusionist began to run as fast as his legs could carry him from the insane Viera.

An anger vein was ready to violently burst off of Sis' head, and she started to pursue, "Get back here!"

(At the scene of the crime)

"Uh. . .Kupo. . .. It's soOOOooo hot!" Charles whined, dragging his feet and his hands hanging.

Ritz and Shara were following Charles, and they weren't too far from him either.

"If I knew Charles was going to be complaining the whole time, I would've brought someone else. Even having Doned around would've been better than listening to him whine!" Ritz mumbled.

"I HEARD THAT!" came the furious reply from Charles.

"Then why did you volunteer to replace Salem instead of going with Kurt?" Ritz glared at him.

The moogle shook his head, "You KNOW how much Kurt and I don't get along! Don't you remember that one time when he hurled me across the room while we were in the Cadoan shop!"

Shara crossed her arms, "As much fun as it was paying most of our several million gil to replace the destroyed walls, shelves, and equipment, you don't have to keep reminding us about it!"

Charles eyes lit up as he saw a miracle, "An oasis!"

"Don't try to change the subject!" Shara said in a stern voice.

"WAAATTTTEERRRRR!" Charles screamed as suddenly ran faster than an Olympic champion toward the oasis.

Ritz slapped her forehead in frustration, shaking her head, "Why didn't he do that earlier?"

"FORRRE!" Charles jumped in the air, immediately curling himself into a ball, landing in the small body of water.

The coming wave splashed a large radius, including the small thief's fellow clan members.

"Ack! Charles!" Shara yelped.

The little moogle raised his head above the cool waters, and stared at the other two.

Squeezing as much water as she could out of her hair, Ritz formed an angry expression on her face, "If it weren't so hot here, you'd be toast Charles. Besides, 'fore' is for golf."

Smack!

"Ow!" Charles twitched, as a frog landed on his head.

"Ribbit!" the frog croaked.

Picking up and examining the frog, Shara noticed something.

"Is it just me or does this frog look like Marche's condition.

Frogs began to land all over the general vicinity, some in the sand, others back in the water, and a few landed on the travelers.

Ritz picked up one of the frogs herself, and made the same observation. "I think Shara's right. Think we should see if the Maiden's Kisses will have any effect on them."

"You two go on and do that." Charles tossed the frog on his head over to them, "As for me, I'm chillaxin'." He said, doing a back float on the oasis.

The girls were silent for a few seconds, when Shara asked no one in particular, "Where in Ivalice did he get that term?"

"Not me," Ritz immediately responded, "Had to have been Doned. Marche never uses slang."

Taking out a spray bottle and emptying the contents of the Maiden's Kiss container into it, Ritz closed the bottle tightly and shook it up. "Shara, could you gather up the frogs into one place? It would be easier on me if you did." She requested.

As soon as they were all gathered in that one spot, Ritz sprayed the entire bottle's containment onto the group of frogs.

A large, white glow emitted from the frogs, which became a blinding light of the same color. The group of three covered their eyes as quickly as they could (although poor Charles got blinded).

When the light died down, Ritz and Shara uncovered their eyes, and were surprised at what they soon saw.

Clanners from all races, all jobs, all levels of society, and all ages (as well as vast numbers) returned from their imprisonment.

"We. . .we. ." a Human White mage stammered.

"We're FREE!" Another Human screamed at the top of his lungs. And with that, every single Viera, Moogle, Nu Mou, Human and Bangaa originally trapped in frog forms dashed off to the nearest town, leaving behind Ritz, Shara, the currently blinded Moogle.

"Ahhhh. . . .My eyessss. . ." Charles whimpered.

Two more frogs, both of which were purple, hopped out of the water, wondering what all the commotion was. One croaked, with the other following.

"Better use the spray on these guys too." Ritz mumbled to herself, spraying the waters onto the remainders.

A flash shone on the area, but it wasn't as bright as the big one, so they didn't need to cover their eyes.

Two Viera, one being an Assassin and the other being a Red Mage, were looking over themselves.

"Sis. . .we've been saved! We're no longer frogs!" the Assassin said to the Red Mage.

"It's. . .a miracle!"

Noticing Ritz, the Red Mage asked her, "Did you save us?"

"Yeah," she replied, rubbing the back of her head, "As well as all of those other 'victims'."

Shara crossed her arms, "We're looking for one of our own clan members, he was turned into a frog, but we haven't had any luck."

Charles finally snapped out of that little daze by the earlier shining light, and removed his hands from his eyes, "What happened?" he asked.

Not hearing the Moogle, the Assassin spoke, "What does your friend look like?"

"Just like any green frog, except for the yellow wart on his head."

The Red Mage's eyes widened, "We saw that frog a few hours ago before you guys arrived."

Ritz raised her head, "Really?"

"Unfortunately, you're too late."

"What?"

"A kid grabbed him as his new 'pet' and took him away. Otherwise, we don't know much else."

Ritz's jaw was about to drop, but she kept it from doing so. Now how were they going to find him?

In a moment of intelligence, Charles asked the two, "Did you get the color of the kid's hair?"

"Brown." Replied the Assassin.

Shara sighed, "Now we're going to have to go into more detail with our searches. He could be in any of the towns without us noticing him."

Ritz turned to the way they came, "We better get moving." She said in a serious tone, walking away.

"Ritz!" Shara yelled after her, with Charles catching pursuit.

"Wait!" The Red Mage called.

Turning her head back, Ritz responded, "What?"

"If you're in a clan, we'd be more than happy to join you guys." She answered. "I'm Frieda, and this is Eustine, my twin."

"Welcome then." Ritz said.

(AN: You can officially kill me for keeping you guys on your toes for so long. And before I forget, the next chapter is the last.)