When they landed, they were back in the Duscae region, near the chocobo post. When the ship began its descent, Ardyn walked back over to the group. "I'm afraid this is as far as I can take you."
Noctis looked out at the wilds of Duscae with a frown. "What about the Regalia?" He asked.
"I'm afraid that wasn't part of my rescue mission," Ardyn replied with a bow. "You four were what I intended to rescue. Especially the two young princes."
Clenching his jaw, Noctis nodded at that. "And we are grateful for your help. Thank you for your assistance. But maybe just… don't tell anyone you saw us," he said before jumping out of the carrier.
When the door opened and the four started walking out, Ardyn watched them, smiling in what they guessed could have been a friendly manner. He took off his hat and bowed again. "I shall do what I am able. Here's hoping you find that car of yours."
Noctis gave Ardyn a half hearted wave as they watched the carrier take off and leave them behind. "Well this sucks."
"What are we going to do now? We don't have the car," Prompto said.
"We must wait and reconfigure our plans, perhaps find a clue to where it is."
"If it wasn't left back at Titan's crater," Gladio added gruffly.
"Wiz's is this way. We can at least get chocobos." Noctis added in a tight voice. Inside he knew he was probably flooding Prompto with guilt and anger and despair.
"Chocobos! We totally missed this before!" Prompto exclaimed.
Instead of the anger Noctis thought he would feel from his husband, he instead felt overwhelming joy and happiness.
Noctis turned to look at Prompto with a small smile. "Well, now we'll have plenty of time to spend with them. Imagine all the photos you can take."
"Aw yes! We need to see all of the fluffy babies!" Prompto cheered.
"Yes, and we can prove once and for all if your hair really does look like a chocobo butt." Noctis teased.
Prompto scrunched up his nose. "My hair does not look like a chocobo butt!"
"Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?" He laughed.
"Alright, fine!" Prompto chuckled. "And we are totally going chocobo riding together. Think about how romantic it'll be." Slowly Prompto reached forward and draped his arms over Noctis's shoulders.
Noctis looked over at Prompto with a smile and felt himself relax a little bit. The trip to Wiz took a while, but as the sun started to dip low in the sky, they were able to make out the cluster of a small settlement. The air was quiet and tense with hardly anything moving when they did end up getting close enough to see people.
"I wonder where all the chocobos are... you'd think they would be out and about..." Prompto muttered.
"Yeah, this feels really off. There aren't even people here." Noctis replied as he looked around.
"What can I do for y'all?" A stranger said as he came out of the house.
"Uh we want to ride the chocobos?" Prompto asked. "But we don't see them."
"Ah, that's 'cause Deadeye has 'em spooked. Keeping them in the barn for their own safety." The stranger said.
"Deadeye? Is it a beast?" Ignis inquired.
"A behemoth who's been terrorizing the hands. Yet to find a Hunter who's been able to take him out."
"Well hey! We're hunters! We could handle it!" Prompto said. "Then we could see the chocobos, right?"
"I mean, if Deadeye ain't around to cause trouble, I'd be happy to let them out. You takin' the hunt?" The stranger asked as he pulled out the slip of paper to hold out.
Noctis looked at Prompto before shrugging. "Yeah, we're taking the hunt." He reached out and took the slip to look over the details.
"Doesn't seem too hard," Gladio said as he looked over it.
Ignis leaned over to look over the hunt. "I believe we can manage this. But not till the morning. Let's rest at the caravan. We should have the funds for this."
The four headed off after making an agreement to Wiz, the owner they had been talking to, to take out Deadeye the next day. They were exhausted after all, dealing with Titan had really worn them out and they were all ready to properly crash. Noctis and Prompto snuggled up on their bed, both too exhausted to ever shower.
In the morning, Ignis made sure to check their restorative stock before they headed off in the direction Deadeye had last been seen. The group was able to keep easy track of the creature due to the large tracks and broken trees left in its wake.
Once they began to enter the hideaway of the creature, Gladio helped direct them through the various paths to avoid detection from the beast and still managed to stalk the beast to its lair.
"Noct, I believe you can use the containers to your advantage." Ignis suggested as they crept further inside. "Set fire to him to break through the hide."
Noctis nodded as they finally broke through the last wall of the hideaway and made an attack on Deadeye. Thanks to Ignis, they were able to pincer the creature and use the barrels to weaken it enough to finally take it out.
"Woohoo! We did it!" Prompto cheered happily. "This is probably our biggest beast to take down yet!"
"Yeah, but we gotta get back, and it's nearly dark. Come on, Blondie, time to go." Gladio barked.
"Should we take a picture though? How will Wiz know we actually did it?" Prompto asked.
Ignis stepped forward to pull out one of his daggers and start cutting off the behemoth horn. "We bring this back. But I suppose a photo wouldn't be bad either, for our own personal records."
"Oh yeah! Gloating photo for the records! Everyone lean in and say Behemoth!"
Noctis gave a soft laugh while they all grouped together to let Prompto take his photo. Once the photo was taken, they hurried to climb out of the destroyed pit to head back to the chocobo ranch. Fortunately for them, they were able to avoid any major fights with the daemons that tried to form around them during their run back to shelter.
When they got back to Wiz, they informed him of their great feat. He said he would be checking in on the birds to see how they were feeling. He hoped that soon enough they could be let back out if they were calm enough. With nothing more to do but wait, the boys headed back to the caravan. Prompto plopped down at one of the tables and sighed.
"I don't want to keep waiting! I want to see the chocobos now!"
"Soon, I bet, but the worst that happens is tomorrow. You'll get to see them soon, promise. We'll stay as long as we need for you to enjoy them." Noctis promised.
"Hmm, sounds like a good plan," Prompto sighed happily. "Too bad we didn't know this place existed otherwise we totally would have come here on our honeymoon."
Noctis smiled and pressed a kiss to the blond hair in his arms. "We should have. This would've been perfect. We should think of this as a second honeymoon."
"Aww, that sounds like a great plan. Sleeping with the chocobos,' Prompto as he leaned against Noctis.
"If not now, later. We'll come later." Noctis said as he drifted off peacefully to sleep.
"Hey at least let us get to the beds first, you sleepy head!" Prompto laughed.
"You've already proven you can carry me." Noctis said softly with a small smirk.
"Yeah but I don't think the caravan door is wide enough for me to get you through there."
Noctis snorted at that as he kept walking. "Well, I suppose I'm just doomed. We'll be sure to let Wiz know his place isn't ready for honeymoons."
"Or maybe you two can ask him. Maybe he has some secret chocobo suite," Gladio laughed as he stood in the doorway of the caravan.
"Gladio, I swear, I'll find a way to hit you." Noctis laughed as he flopped onto the bed he knew he would share with Prompto.
"Good luck with that, princess," Gladio laughed.
"You know, you're large enough, I bet I could hit you easily." He pulled a paperclip from the Armiger to toss it at Gladio.
"Easy target," Prompto snickered.
"Are you saying he's too easy for target practice?"
"If he isn't a moving target then yes."
"Good thing I'm more of a melee attacker then. You're our ranged guy anyways." Noctis laughed.
"You know I could still hit a moving target anyways," Prompto replied.
Noctis nodded against Prompto's back. "One of these days, we'll see just how good your shooting is."
"Always ready for a practice warm up if you need it."
"Maybe when we get up, but it would take away from your time with the chocobos."
"True. Okay, training later, chocobos first thing."
"Okay, let's sleep. Then sooner for you to see the chocobos."
"Sounds fine to me."
Noctis pulled the blanket over them so they could snuggle closer together and fall asleep. In the morning, he even managed to wake up early with Prompto to watch him interact with the chocobos.
As the four were eating breakfast at the tables outside of the caravan, Prompto was already full of energy. "Look at them! They're awake, and they're outside! The chocobos!"
"Prom, please, finish eating, then you can see them." Noctis said, though he was smiling a little bit as he said that.
"But the chocobos!" Prompto pleaded. "Just look at them over there! Just waiting to be petted!"
"Look at your breakfast, waiting to be eaten. Do you want to disappoint Specs?" Noctis replied as he waved down at the mostly untouched breakfast.
"No," Prompto pouted before he looked back at his food. "Sorry Iggy."
Ignis shook his head and gave a little sigh. "Your excitement is perfectly understandable. Finish your meal, and we'll go enjoy the chocobos."
Prompto did as he was told and finished his meal properly. He then jumped up from his chair and started to pull Noctis out of his. "Come on! Chocobo time!"
Noctis had just managed to finish breakfast in time with Prompto, so he just laughed at his husband when he was pulled from the table. "Okay, okay! Let's go see the chocobos."
They ran over to the areas where the chocobos were. Prompto was beaming with excitement, letting all the warm and happy emotions flow over to Noctis.
Prompto smiled before he approached one chocobo. He reached out his hand and let the bird come to him. "Aww, who's a good chocobo? Such a good boy."
Watching Prompto interact with the chocobo, Noctis just leaned against the fence with a fond smile. The chocobo the blond called for leaned over to start grooming his hair and rubbed the sharp beak against his cheek. At this point, he couldn't resist the temptation and pulled out his phone to snap some photos of the pair.
Prompto had the time of his life as he let the chocobos snuggle their heads next to him. Eventually he picked up some chocobo feed and began feeding the birds.
"Hey, at some point, do you want to try riding one?" Noctis asked after Prompto had finished feeding the birds the handful of greens he had.
"Oh you know I wanna do that so badly right now! There's even a race track I saw just across the road. We need to do that!"
Noctis looked back to the caravan where Ignis and Gladio still were. "Yeah, let's go check that out. I'll rent some chocobos, and we'll see who's the better racer in real life!" As he walked over to the rental, he made sure to shoot a text to Gladio so they wouldn't panic at their change in location.
"Oh you know it's on!"
Laughing Noctis smiled when he saw a yellow and a black chocobo come up to them. "Which one do you want to claim?" He asked curiously.
"Hmm," Prompto hummed.
Quickly he ran over to Wiz and asked him something out of range of Noctis's hearing. Wiz nodded and walked away to the barn while Prompto headed back to Noctis with the largest grin.
"What did you find out?" Noctis asked as he tilted his head at Prompto.
Prompto chuckled softly. "You'll see."
A moment later Wiz came out of the barn, bringing a long a black chocobo. It squawked happily as it was brought over closer to Prompto and Noctis.
"Oh, wow. I forgot how many colors chocobos could come in." Noctis laughed. "I take it you're taking this one?"
"Of course," Prompto said as he petted the head of the chocobo. "Gotta take the color that reminds me of you."
"I guess that means I need a yellow chocobo." Noctis laughed as he started to put on the reins to the yellow chocobo.
"The perfect color couple," Prompto said as he mounted onto his bird.
"So, did you get directions to the race track while talking to Wiz?"
"Yeah, it's just over that way," Prompto pointed out. "Let's head on over!"
Noctis allowed Prompto to guide him over to the race track where they were introduced to the way it worked. He couldn't help but laugh as they took off on the race track.
"Eat my chocobo dust!" Prompto shouted as his chocobo ran past Nocits's.
He smiled and spurred on the animal even though he never managed to catch up in that first race.
"Alright!" Prompto cheered. "I won! You did good my guy." Prompto petted his chocobo which caused it to wark happily.
Noctis gave his chocobo a pet and hugged him. "Would you like to do another one? Or just ride around for a bit?"
"I think a nice little stroll would be good. Just you, me, and our chocobos."
"Are you suggesting this is a date?" Noctis teased.
"Well why not?"
Noctis laughed and shook his head fondly. "This is why I love you."
"And it's why you married me!"
"Yes, that it is." He smiled and moved the chocobo in close so he could kiss Prompto on the cheek.
"Most romantic date yet," Prompto muttered happily.
"You're just saying that because of the chocobos."
"Well dude the chocobos make it extra romantic!"
"I'll be sure to remember that for future dates."
"Alright let's go. Looks like there's a nice path around the post. Let's see where it goes."
Prompto started ahead of Noctis, taking the lead so he could get some nice pictures. He turned around partly and started snapping away.
Noctis smiled as he watched Prompto and let him guide them through the trees for the morning. Then he guided them back to the outpost so they could have lunch with the other two and enjoy an easy afternoon.
As Prompto got off his chocobo he gave it one last proper pet. "Alright my new feathery buddy, I'll see you later okay? You be good now."
"I suppose now we start the search for the Regalia. I know Specs has already gotten Cindy to call the other garages for some leads." Noctis was distracted by the sound of barking coming from the distance that made him turn around quickly.
"Huh. Hey... is that Umbra?" Prompto asked.
"Yeah, it is. What is he doing here?" Noctis asked while moving forward to meet up with the dog.
The dog quickly started to run away from them, leading them on a small chase. Gentiana stared down at them with her small half smile and closed eyes.
". . . Gentiana. Aren't you supposed to be with Luna?" Noctis breathed his question.
"I am, but now I come to give you this message. So hear me, O King of the Stone. By the Stormsender's blessing will the path to the Stone be opened. The Oracle goes hence in her King's name," Gentiana replied.
"Stormsender? You mean Ramuh?"
As Prompto asked that question, the building cloud cover rumbled, and the sky opened up to start a drizzle that soon started a steady downpour.
"Go to the eye of the Storm. When the covenant is forged, the Oracle and ring shall await their King at the Walls of Water. Stray not from their path." With only the smallest dip of her head, the Messenger was gone from the area.
"Well that was rather sudden," Prompto said. "Leave it to an Astral to mess up the weather forecast."
"They're good at that. So, we just try to find this 'eye of the Storm'?" Noctis asked.
Umbra came up to Noctis and pressed his paws against his pants to get his attention. "Oh, sorry there, did Luna send another letter?" He leaned over to retrieve the notebook and waved Prompto over to read it with him.
Prompto hunkered next to Noctis, all while reaching out to give Umbra some good head scratches. "What did Luna say?"
"She's praying for us, supporting our journey to get to Altissia." Noctis explained. "Anything you'd like to say to her?"
"Hmm just hope that she's well and that we can actually meet up when we get to Altissia. Cause that's where Leviathan is, right?"
"That's what all the legends say. So, we'll find a way to get there, even with the Empire closing down all the ports right now."
Prompto sighed. "And I'm sure we wouldn't be able to use public transport so easily... not with the Empire plastering my face all over Eos as their heir."
Ignis stepped forward to interrupt them. "Perhaps once we find the Regalia, we can ask Cid if he might know a solution to our situation."
"Yeah... that sounds like a good plan. But now we go and find Ramuh?"
"Seems like it," Gladio added. "This rain seems to be his form of getting our attention."
"Whew!" Prompto sighed. "Much better than loud headaches."
"Unless we all catch a cold due to all of this rain." Ignis fussed.
Noctis took Prompto's hand and smiled at him. "Perhaps we turned in our chocobos too early. They'd be good to get around in this and find that eye."
"Well, let's go and rent them again. We gotta find the source of all this!"
With a little nod, Noctis finished writing their letter back to Lunafreya and tucked the notebook into Umbra's sling. "Alright, then, let's go back to Wiz's, and we'll set off to find where Ramuh wants us to go."
"Right, let's head on out and find another Astral!"