Jay got me up early again the next morning. Man, I'd never had such a hard time waking up. The first time the bouncy ball hit me I jerked awake, half sat up, then fell back over. I said "Yeah…I'm coming…" and meant it but then…somehow…my eyes opened when the ball hit me again and I wondered when they'd closed. It went on like that for about half an hour, until finally Jay dragged me outside and splashed some water on my head.

"AAH!" I gasped, wiping the water off my face, or trying to. "That's cold! Brrr…and my hair's all wet…"

"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Jay said, and whipped out a little elastic thingy. "He told me ya gotta tie your hair back. Sometimes it can get in the way when you're racing, y'know? He said your bangs'll probably be most of the problem, but I'm guessing he was right when he said ya wouldn't let us cut 'em?"

I jumped. "Whaa? Cut? No!" I grabbed my bangs in both hands.

"Okay, okay. He didn't think so. Anyway, some guys race with such weirdo mops…it's amazing they can even see. So I guess you'll be fine but tie the rest back anyway."

I took the elastic and did as I was told. I hated it when my hair was wet…blegh. Then I tried standing up…oh my gosh. It hurt. I cried. Well, almost. My arms, legs, fingers…owwww!

"I thought he said it would get betterrr!" I wailed, hobbling along with Jay supporting me. Jay chucked.

"It will. Just gets worse before it gets better, ya know what I mean?"

"Nuh-uh," I whimpered. "It huuurts! Can I take a potion or something?"

Jay giggled. "Sorry man, the doc's banned ya from potions 'cept in a life or death situation. Says you're going through them like candy and half the time you're not even hurt."

I blushed. I had sort of gotten addicted to them lately…they sure were yummy…but I hadn't taken them without needing them too much. Just once or twice.

"But I think I'm gonna diiie," I moaned. "Waaa…"

"Aw whatever. Ya only had one fall yesterday, I lived through my second day after falling like a dozen times on my first. Was a pretty painful living but I lived just the same."

I whimpered all the way to Sylkis' stall. Jay tried to show me how to put the bridle and stuff on but I was kind of distracted by the aching in my legs, so I only caught about half of what he was saying. Then I limped out with them into the field, where Jay's friend was waiting with Charky, who looked really restless. Jay hopped over the fence and onto Charky's back in an instant, and then Jay's friend nodded at me.

"Alright, mount up."

I tried not to groan too loud, but when I tried to heave myself onto Sylkis' back, I fell off halfway up. Sylkis floofed his feathers and went "wahahaark". Sounded like he was laughing at me. I sniffled and got up and tried again. I made it this time, but needed a little help from Jay's friend. I sure was sore. Sore as…I dunno. I was just REALLY sore. This was almost worse than Floofer bites, except I wasn't dizzy and sick. Just hurt a lot.

"You ask your parents about it?" He whispered up at me, once I'd gotten settled in.

"Huh? Oh…no I forgot. I'll ask them today," I nodded.

"You do that." He raised his voice to a more normal level. "Okay, we're going to have a quick run around the track. A little competition between you and Jay, Sylkis and Charky. You're going to be using the reins a lot more this time. Chocobos have a certain amount of stamina. That means their energy level and endurance…how long it lasts and how much of it you use up at certain times in the race can mean the difference between winning and losing, so you have to learn how to pull back at the right times, and when to just let him run."

I sweatdropped. "How am I supposed to know all that?"

"With practice. It's different for each chocobo. Sylkis is pretty steady most of the time. If you pull him back in the very beginning just enough, he'll stay mostly the same speed the entire race. That can be good…sometimes. But if you let him, he'll slow down near the end. When you race Jay and the Black, you need to urge Sylkis to his top speed at the very end. I don't think he'll win against Charky...the Black's way too fast. But this is just a practice run, so we'll see. I'll tell Jay to try pulling him back a bit, it'll be good practice for both of you."

I felt fluttery things in my stomach at the thought of racing Sylkis against Charky, but I nodded.

"Okay, now I'll walk out to the track. You get practice directing now- that'll be useful too. You might have to direct the chocobo to cut in between other chocobo at just the right spot during a real race, so it's good to learn how to direct now."

He started walking toward the track. I nudged Sylkis tentatively and he started walking after Jay's friend, but then saw something apparently yummy-looking and started off in a different direction. I pulled nervously, and managed to get him back in the right direction, but he seemed to have a definite curve toward the left. We got to the rough racetrack thing and Sylkis stepped up next to Charky with a floof if his wings. Charky warked and scratched the ground impatiently. Jay saluted me cheerfully and I blinked.

"Ready to rumble?" he laughed.

"Uhhh I guess..." I meeped. I really didn't feel ready.

"Pull the Black in the beginning, Jay," his friend commanded. "And don't let him get too far ahead. He needs to learn to listen when you pull back anyway, this'll be good practice. I still expect you to win, but try not to."

Jay nodded. "Sure man, I got it covered."

"Alright then," he said, pulling out his PHS again. "Ready..."

I jumped and made sure I had a good handle on the reins and the chocobo. I stared at the track in front of me and gulped down trying to swallow my nervousness.

"Go!"

"HIYA!" Jay kicked Charky- it wasn't much of a kick. He didn't really need to. Charky was already ready to go full speed. Sylkis started off without even a hint from me. I didn't know if he was going full speed or not, so I just hung there until I heard Jay's friend yelling at me.

"Pull him back just a tiny bit!"

"Okay!" I called back, and pulled a little. Sylkis brought his head in and settled down but kept running.

"Good, now just sit tight until the last leg of it."

Jay was pulling back on Charky quite a bit, I could tell by the way he kept saying "Whoa man, slow up, slow up, gotta let the greeny catch up!"

I dunno if he meant me or Sylkis when he said greeny, but I guess he could have meant both. Charky didn't care about letting anyone catch up- he just wanted to run. Still, Charky seemed miles ahead, even though Jay was trying his best. Sylkis was running but no faster than before. It was still fast though. I winced at every bump, but after a while it just kind of numbed up and I didn't notice it. Things passed by in a blur and all I could see was green and black in front of me and all I could hear was the running of the chocobos and Jay talking to Charky. Dust kept flying into my face- Charky was kicking up a ton of it up ahead.

"Come on man, have a little pity y'know?" Jay told his bird.

"Let him loose!" Jay's friend called to me.

I jumped and kicked Sylkis and the Green shot off. Now it seemed like all he wanted to do was catch up to the Jay and the Black, and he stretched out his neck and I loosened up on the reins and leaned forward eagerly as we drew nearer. But Charky wasn't about to let us win. Right as we were up coming up behind, Jay went "Whoa!" and Charky turned into a black blur and shot across the finish line. Sylkis warked and flapped his wings, unsettling me, and then he ran right off the track. Jay's friend ran after us.

"Pull up!" he yelled.

I pulled really suddenly and Sylkis screeched to a halt. I tumbled off and landed in the springy grass.

"Arg," I said, and sat up. "More soreness..."

Jay's friend laughed. "That was good. You're still clumsy as nothing else in directing, but that only counts as your second fall, which is pretty impressive."

I sighed and forced myself to stand up and take Sylkis' bridle. Jay's friend nodded. "Alright. Get back on. You and Jay are going for another ride. Not a race, though."

"Hey man, I can't until after lunch!" Jay yelled from the track. "Captain made me promise to spend some time checking up on the little chocobo and letting the mama out into the field. Then he told us all to fix the roof on the house, you know, the spot we broke up last time we were here?"

"Oh...that's right," Jay's friend said, frowning. "Well you do that, but then after lunch you take little Sephiroth out to the mithril mine."

Jay stared at his friend. "You serious? Out past the Zolom? Man, you know I don't like going around that place."

"You'll be fine. I'll give you a summon materia to use if you do run into the Zolom, but the point is for him to have to direct the chocobo well enough to avoid the snake."

I blinked. "Zolom? Huh?"

"You'll see soon enough," Jay's friend said. "But for now I guess you'll just have some free time."

I blinked and was about to say okay, but something suddenly struck me as weird. "Okay...but how come you can't just go with me?"

Jay's friend stared at me stiffly and I wished I hadn't asked. Then he shook his head and said, "You just go...do something with the other Fluffs."

I nodded and walked painfully off to the stables, wondering why Jay's friend wouldn't ride chocobos if he knew so much about them, and how come Jay and his friend were friends when they were so different, and why they wanted a materia from Round Island so bad. I yawned and curled up next to the last of those of my family who were still asleep- Cait Sith and Dad. Mom and Yuffie and Reno I guess were eating breakfast. I wasn't all that hungry...and I mostly just wanted to rest my poor sore muscles. I listened to the noises of Jay's friend putting Sylkis away and heard him mutter something before he left. Then Jay came noisily in and took the mama and baby chocobo to the field outside. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't fall asleep, as tired as I was. I got up and sighed and went out and leaned against the fence with my chin on my arms and my arms on the top rail and watched Jay playing with the baby chocobo. It made me grin. The little things feathers stuck out cutely and it was so small compared to its mother. I realized that even though I was small for my age I was probably the youngest person here, except for the farmer's little boy who'd sold Jay the bouncy ball. He was probably...I dunno, seven. Anyway, it struck me that Jay and his friend seemed, mostly, to respect me as if I was their age, or one of their younger brothers or something. I wondered why...I mean, I was just a silly little Fluff. But mom always says "Don't question when people are kind!" so I decided not to worry about it. I just watched Jay pet the little bird and play with it. Then I got squished against the fence when Yuffie ran into me from behind.

"Save me Sephi! Reno's gonna get me!" she giggled. I started breathing again and laughed.

"Guess he'll have to get you then, 'cause he sure isn't gonna get me!" I said, and ducked under the fence, ran across the field and ducked under the fence on the other side.

"Heyy no fair!" Yuffie said, right as she was tagged. "I can't go through there, the chocobos'll peck me!"

I heard Reno yell "Hey, let's make it hide and go seek tag! You're still it, Yuffie!"

I grinned and ran out into the tall grass and crouched down, hiding. I knew I could get attacked by monsters out here, but I'd proven I could make out okay against the weaker ones, and it was still close to the farm, so I figured I'd be okay. Reno and Yuffie were making quite a bit of noise, tagging each other right and left, and then Reno apparently found a hiding place and Yuffie was running around yelling "Come out come out!" and started running around randomly. I moved to a thicker place in the grass so she wouldn't see me, now that she was walking around the edge of the chocobo field. She was sniffing me out. Oh no! But then I remembered I probably had a bunch of chocobo smell on me too because of the ride I'd had earlier. Still...she kept getting closer.

I felt so restless. I really wanted to just run, actually...run and run, even though my legs were sore. I wanted to start feeling free again. It was weird...it had only been a day since I'd made the promise with Jay's friend and become a member of the crew, but somehow I already felt kind of...restricted. Kind of tied up. I blinked in surprise when I started crying. What! No! I had nothing to be sad about! I rubbed my eyes. completely confused, and Yuffie pounced on me when she saw the movement.

"I GOT YOU I GOT YOU HAHAHA YOU'RE IT!"

I rolled over and buried my face in the grass and giggled even though I was still crying. "Yeah you did. Better run before I get you!"

"Oh! Oh yeah!" Yuffie pounced off my back, which in turn threw me even further to the ground, and I just lay there for a second trying to dry my face off and going "What in the Planet is going on?" and hoping that I would look normal enough in the next few seconds for nobody to notice I'd been crying. Yuffie had sprung away like a deer but then stopped like one in the headlights and looked around nervously.

"Seeeph?" she squeaked. "You're sneaking up on me huhh?"

I sprang forward and caught her legs. She fell over. "You're it AGAIN!" I giggled and ran as fast as I could to the barn, where I quickly dived into the Wonderful Chocobo's empty stall and closed the door. It was a little smelly but whatever, Yuffie ran right past. I panted and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that would stop the flow of wateriness...but it didn't. They rolled and rolled down my face. I wiped them off until my hands and arms were soaking wet. Finally they started to slow down and I just sat there staring at a leaf floating in the water bowl. What was wrong? I didn't even feel sad anymore, just frustrated that it wouldn't stop, and confused. I jumped when there was a scratching and the door opened. Dad blinked at me and I blinked back.

"What's wrong?" he asked. I blinked and some more rolled down.

"Nothing," I said honestly. "I don't know what's going on!"

Dad looked worried, then smiled. "You're sure?"

I nodded. "They just won't stop!" I complained. "I don't know!"

He looked at me fondly and patted my head with a paw. "Well, if your hands and arms are too wet to wipe any more of them away, then the wind will have to do the rest."

"Huh?" I blinked.

"I'm asking you if you'd like to run with me," he said solemnly, but smiling too.

I stared and then broke into a laugh and hugged him. "Yeah!"

For a young Fluff, it was pretty usual for them to run with their parents at ages younger than mine. But I'd always been too slow, and my parents had always had somewhere they needed to be faster than I could follow on my own. For my dad to ask me to run with him, even though we both knew I still couldn't keep up if he was running his fastest, sure made me feel great! I got up and my dad lead the way outside, past Reno and Yuffie who were now stuck in another play fight, past the fences and out into the tall grass, and then we went faster and I had to jog a little to keep up, and then faster, and I was running, running with arms spread wide and dad loping along beside me, leaping through the grass, and we both felt happy, the kind of happy you feel when you run with no destination in mind, you're just running to run and feel the wind. For a moment the tears rolled on worse than ever, but then they got swept off and my face felt cold and I grinned and we just ran and ran. Soon I didn't even care about the soreness anymore, it didn't matter. We were running and the sun was warm and the grass was long and green and I wasn't left behind in the dust. Dad started running faster, bounding and leaping high and far and I kept up still. I began to think "Wow, how is this happening? I'm slow, I'm slow...I can't run this fast!"

But I was. And when I tried to leap and bound like my dad...it actually worked. I felt...almost like a completely different person. But it was cool... I felt...like I was flying. Maybe I was, now that I think about it...!

You finally accept it! Thank Jenova!

Accept it? Huh? What do you mean?

You know exactly what I mean, Fluff. You finally accepted that you were nothing without me!

...and this was supposed to be a happy part.

When I got back from my run with dad, everyone was eating lunch, and after eating too (leftover spaghetti! YAY!) I felt better than I had since we left Round Island. Then Jay got Charky and Sylkis ready and his friend gave him his prized summoning materia to use in case we weren't able to evade the Zolom. We both climbed up on our chocobos and I waved bye to Jay's friend and my family, and then we started. Charky was anxious to go, so him and Jay ran circles around me and Sylkis while we started off. We followed nearly the same way me and dad and run through earlier, but then we just kept going and going. Soon Charky had settled down and Jay grinned at me.

"Now your turn. I wanna see some figure eights on the double, man!"

"Huhhh?" I sat back and stared at him. He laughed.

"Make Sylkis go like this." He drew a figure eight in the air with his finger. "And make one of the loops go around me and Charky each time, got it?"

"Oh. Okay...I'll try!" I grinned and started trying to direct. It was a little harder than I thought it would be, but after about twenty times I thought I might be getting the hang of it...

You're not a very fast learner, are you?

Maybe...it depends on what I'm learning I guess. Staying on was easy...making sure I was in charge of where Sylkis was going was a little harder. He wanted to stay behind Charky, but I had to force him forward and then around, then back and around, then forward and around...it was a little frustrating but with Jay's help I got it. Then he started me on backing up. That was even worse.

"Naw man, you gotta tell him to go AND pull back at the same time, got it?"

"But isn't that confusing?" I asked, puzzled beyond measure.

"Just do it, man, you'll see what I mean," he said, pulling Charky back from running into the two of us.

"Okay..." I said uncertainly. I squeezed with my legs and pulled back on the reins at the same time, and he started forward a tiny step, then moved a tiny step backward-

"Keep doing it!" Jay yelled.

I pulled and squeezed and Sylkis obediently backed up...quickly too. It sure felt funny, when I was so used to going forward. The chocobo's weight shifted differently when it was going backward.

"Great, ya did it!" he cheered and held up a hand for me to high-five. I cautiously rode up close so I could slap it. Charky warked and Sylkis backed off, so I missed.

"Hahaha, that dang pecking order," Jay giggled. "Charky's the bossy one, so I guess he told Sylkis not to get too close."

"Pecking what?" I blinked.

"The order in the group...like whoever's highest can tell the ones who're lower than him what to do, and they do it, 'cause he's at the top, y'know?"

I nodded slowly. "I think Fluffs do that too!"

"Really?" Jay chucked. "Well sure. I guess I can believe that. Seem like pack animals, anyhow."

We sat there a second, and then Jay clicked to Charky and said, "Well, we'll give 'em a rest until we get to the swamp...they'll need their strength then. So for now we just walk it."

So we walked along in silence for about three seconds until Jay finally giggled and said, "Hey, you wanna hear the story about how I almost died because of a toothpick from Junon?"

"Uhhhh..."

"It's a great story! It all started when this little kid told me that ya know, ya shouldn't chew on toothpicks from Junon 'cause they're made out of like really badly recycled wood, 'cause there isn't any wood around Junon, and I didn't believe him, so I got one from this scary coffee shop...I think it was called Beautiful Bro's Cafe or something, and I started chewing on it. I chewed on it and chewed on it and the kid was lookin' at me like I was crazy and then he said he was going home because he didn't think his mama would want 'im to see somebody die 'cause of a toothpick, and I just grinned and started to tell him he was being silly but then I accidentally swallowed a sliver of the toothpick and it got stuck in my throat and MAN I was in trouble. Then my friend gave me a drink of water and it just got stuck WORSE and-"

"Urm...how come you and him are such good friends?" I interrupted, blinking hard at his weird story.

"-I thought I was gonna die, seriously...huh?" he blinked.

"Um...I was just asking how you and him got to be friends."

"Oh, that's easy. We're half brothers!" Jay laughed as if it was the most obvious thing on the Planet. It really wasn't.

"Oh. You don't look like brothers," I said blankly.

"Yeah I know! We both come from same mom but different dads. Different as hot and cold, our mom always said, and kinda seems like he n' me are that way too sometimes," he grinned.

"Yeah you do!" I agreed. "So where do you guys come from?"

"Fort Condor," Jay said proudly. "Yeah, one heck of a place. Not many of our people come out to the other villages and towns on this continent, y'know?"

"Fort Condor..." I blinked, then laughed. "I really need a map. Where's Fort Condor?"

"Just the other side of Mithril Mines, it is! I'd take ya there, but it's gonna be hard enough just getting through the swamp and the caves. Maybe some other time." He looked kind of disappointed.

I nodded. "Okay! So...why do you guys want a materia from Round Island so much?" I hoped I wasn't prying too much. Jay luckily didn't seem to mind.

"Eh, it's not that we want the materia, man, though he really would like to at least look at it once we have it...nah, it's not that. Captain's gonna pay us quite a bit if we get it for 'im so he can pass it on to whoever it is he's working for. It should be enough to help out our situation at the Fort."

"Oh..." I said, wondering what the "situation" was.

"Hehe...they're tryin' to tell us we gotta pay 'em for keepin' the condors there...like it was theirs or somethin! Them condors belong to nobody! So if we get this money then we can keep 'em around. Ma always said they're good luck."

"Oh," I said again, sort of getting it but not really. "So...you and him seem to like birds alot. How come he wouldn't come with us?"

"Mmm he's busy, man," Jay said, seeming reluctant to answer for the first time today.

"But he knows like everything about chocobos! How come he never rides them?" I persisted.

"Well y'know...that's one thing he'd hafta tell ya himself, I don't got the place to say," Jay sighed.

I looked at Jay, confused, but then nodded. "Okay..."

"Anyway man, there it is!" He leaned forward and pointed over Charky's head and I looked up. There it was, alright. A big long expanse of grey...the green just kind of quickly faded into this weird murky water and mud. It was scary looking! The chocobos didn't seem to like it either, but Jay nudged Charky on, and then we both paused on the edge.

"Kay man...ya gotta keep close to me, just pretend like Sylkis n' Charky are tied n' can't get too far away from each other, understand? That Zolom- hey, there it is!"

I followed his pointing and saw a dark, loooooooong shadow slithering under the water a long way to the left. I shivered. "What is it!"

"A snake. Big snake. REALLY big snake!" Jay grinned nervously.

I swallowed hard and looked at him like "do we really have to go in there?" and he laughed.

"Alright, watch...it's goin' over there now. Let's book it!" He kicked Charky and the Black plunged splashing through the murky grey muck and I urged Sylkis on after him, keeping close up on the Black's tail and glancing around nervously. I nearly fell off when I saw the dark slithery shadow moving toward us like a wave.

"Jay! THERE IT IS!" I yelled. His head swung around and he went "HYA! GO CHARKY GO!" and the Black warked louder than ever and started running like nothing else. I couldn't really see through all the splashing, but then Sylkis stumbled and I saw the streak under the water coming at us. I squeezed my legs and pulled back and Sylkis practically ran backward, then I pulled him around to the left and we started running around the snake. Jay yelled at me but I couldn't tell what he was saying. I just knew I was scared and I really didn't want that snake to get me. So me and Sylkis ran...we ran until I finally made out what Jay was saying and turned.

"You're going the wrong way! Follow me!"

Me and the chocobo whirled around and ran toward Charky and Jay like they were gonna save us or something, and then all four of us pretty much galloped blind toward the cave on the other side of the swamp. I looked back once. The snake was rushing along behind us almost like he was a rope just trailing behind. I made sure to keep Sylkis going. We finally stumbled out onto dry land on the other side and stood there panting, me and Jay 'cause of fear, and the chocobos because of that and how fast they'd been running. Jay finally laughed.

"Man, that was some good work Seph. He'll be proud when I tell 'im you directed so good! Now just gotta remember that when racing time comes."

We were both dripping wet 'cause of the splashing that had been going on, so we both stared at each other and then I grinned and wiped a bit of water off the end of my nose.

"Thanks!"

"Heheh just you wait, we'll make you a real chocoboy," Jay looked pleased. "Now, into the mines!"

I stared at the dark hole of the cave and blinked. "In there?"

"Yeeep. Ya guessed it! And then on the other side we'll have a little break, then head back."

I sweatdropped. "Oh yeah...you mean...we'll have to go in there again?" I pointed despairingly at the swamp. Jay nodded and giggled.

"What'd you think we'd do, fly back?"

I blushed and sighed. "Well...I'll worry about that when we do it I guess." I didn't really wanna think about going in that swamp again right now.

"That's the spirit, Seph. Now let's get in those mines!"

The mines were pretty cool, I guess. We had to dismount and lead the chocobos in, and we got in a lot of fights, but it all worked out pretty good, and then we got out on the other side and plopped down on the grass and sighed in relief and took naps, throwing a couple greens to the chocobos before we let them walk around a little. It was nice...the sun was warm and the grass was soft and I don't know how long I slept but I felt really great when I woke up. Jay broke out some food and we munched a little bit before stretching and going out to grab the chocobos and lead them back into the mines. We didn't run into as many monsters this time, and when we got out on the other side, we watched, and the Zolom was all the way over on the far side of the swamp. We sprinted across and were already halfway to the other side before the snake even noticed us, and by the time it reached the middle where we'd run through, we were out into the dry tall grass and headed for the farm, with only a few cuts and stuff to show for our ride. We got home just as it was getting really dark, each took a potion, and climbed into bed...well, in my case...not really climbed. Just snuggled up between Yuffie and Cait Sith.