Disclaimer: I may not own it, but the Force is with me.
Chapter 4: Wearing Thin
The plan had been coming together perfectly. They had won the town's trust, set up their ladders and started scrubbing away the oily grime. There was just one snag the bandits hadn't considered: cleaning was hard work!
In preparation for the scheme the Selkies had traveled to Shella to purchase a toad oil solvent. (Yet another bit of 'honest business' that had made the outlaws squirm.) Both to enable them to remove the toad oil, which is notoriously hard to get out of anything, and to make them look more convincing as professional cleaners.
Problem was, it didn't work. The Yuke who made it must have been a hack or a charlatan (oh, the irony) because the cleaning potion barely put a dent in the many layers of grime. The lack of progress was causing tempers to wear thin.
"My paws hurt, and my wings are getting tired. How much longer will this take, kupo?"
"When will you stop asking that!" Meh exploded. As much as the Selkie liked the little moogle, he was getting fed up with hearing the same question every two minutes.
"We're going to be at this for days." Bal grumbled from the top of the ladder. "You two overdid it with the toad oil; you must've used more than 40 vials..." he said, scrubbing wearily at the crystal's side.
Meh stopped and glared up at the young outlaw. "You're saying this is our fault?"
"You heard me."
That was it. He was the leader, it was his plan that had failed, if anyone was responsible it was Bal Dat. "Get down here, Pipsqueak. We need to talk." Meh growled.
'Pipsqueak!' How he hated that nickname, it was one of the main reasons he'd left Leuda. Scowling right back, Bal slid down from his perch and was face to face with Meh in an instant. "You wanna start something, old man?"
Artemicion hovered well out of harm's way around the top of the crystal, watching his friends prepare to rip each other's throats out. He knew he should try to break it up. Even so, the usually stalwart moogle didn't dare to come close. Selkies may be carefree and silly when in a good mood, but they were terrifying when angry. Even for someone as cute and fuzzy as he, there was a good chance he'd be ripped to adorable shreds.
The moogle had almost gathered enough courage to intervene when a female voice sounded below. The waves of Selkic animosity that had threatened to engulf the village square evaporated as the would-be combatants turned to examine the newcomer. She was a Clavat, fairly young and wearing a pink dress. More importantly she carried a wicker basket that gave off the delicious aromas of a home-cooked meal.
"I'm sorry, am I interrupting something?"
'she's cute...' "Of course not, my dear. How may we be of service?" Meh replied glibly, throwing in a dramatic bow for good measure.
Giggling at the Selkie's old-fashioned manners, the girl held up her basket. "You could take a break for lunch."
---------------
"It's really good of you to do all this for us."
"Yeah! Thanks, kupo."
"Oh, it was nothing..."
The four had retreated to the shade of the trees to escape the afternoon sun and eat their lunch. The currently sat in the grass by the road into town, surrounded by huge swords imbedded tip-down in the earth.
"Besides, you guys deserve it after working all day in the hot sun." The girl paused for a moment to grab another roll, "Speaking of which, how's it going? How much longer do you think it's going to take? Not that I'm impatient or anything." She added quickly.
Bal noticed Meh stiffen upon hearing the dreaded question, but the old man kept his mouth shut. "It's a lot harder than we expected. At the rate we're going it'll take at least another day before we finish cleaning."
"And after that we still have to push it back into place and find a way to hold it there. It keeps sliding out, kupo."
"Hold it in place... I have an idea." Scooching around to face the town she pointed to the crystal's niche, "The crystal sits in a crack in the bedrock of the mountains. If we had a big chain with, I don't know... spikes? Yeah! Spikes on the ends. We could embed the ends in the rock and that would keep the crystal in place." The girl mimed pounding a nail with a hammer.
"That's... a pretty good idea. I'm impressed."
"Thanks, it comes from being a blacksmith's daughter."
"But where would we find a chain of that size?" Meh inquired, breaking his silence.
The young Clavat regarded him with a look that said 'Haven't you been paying attention?' then smiled and said, "I'm the blacksmith's daughter. I'll get dad and the other smiths to forge it. We may have hired you three, but that doesn't mean you have to do all the work by yourselves. We're here to help."
A/N: Aw, isn't she a sweet little Clavat? That's the last bit of even semi-fluffy, feel-goodness I'm going to write in this fic, I promise.
To my reviewers: thanks for taking the time to write, I really appreciate the support. Master Summoner Sheena, GermanBunny, you guys rock!