Hello! I'm in a good mood at the moment, because I just beat Ruby and Emerald weapon for the first time ever! Seven years of owning the game and I never managed it before... That's pretty pathetic... Oh well, here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters, places, or anything else in this story... Actually, that's not completely true, but let's just pretend that it is.

Chapter 3: Row, row, row your boat

The tea tasted distinctly of fish. That was all Yuffie could think about, sitting in that pokey little hut by the shore. The three men were outside, disposing of the deceased monster. It sounded like quite an effort. Yuffie considered going out to help them, but quickly remembered what had happened outside.

"Right," she thought, "They probably don't need my help."

Looking around her, she wondered how the three men coped with living in this tiny building together. An assortment of pots and pans hung from the ceiling in the part of the hut that Yuffie could only assume was the kitchen. Behind her, three bunks sat above each other, the top one considerably messier than the others. Next to the beds, there was a chest. The lid slightly ajar, she could see a faint glow inside. It hit her. How could these old guys be so much stronger than a young, agile, highly trained ninja such as herself? They had to have been using materia. Getting up off of her chair, she made a beeline for the trunk.

"You ok there young lady?" One of the old men walked in the door.

Yuffie jumped a foot in the air, "F… Fine. Just looking for the sugar."

The old man, seemingly satisfied by this, sat down at the table stroking his beard. Yuffie joined him as the other two came in. Errol walked over to the chest and closed the lid before joining everyone else at the table.

"So Yuffie," He said with a grin, "You gonna tell us what you're doing this far from home?"

Yuffie stared into her empty teacup. What was she going to say? She could hardly tell them she was running away from home. "My father sent me on a journey to help the town…"

Errol looked interested, "Go on…" he prompted.

"Well, since, y'know, the whole war thing, you might have noticed that the city's been a little…"

"Tacky?" The old man with the beard suggested.

"Yeah, I suppose," Yuffie continued, "Well anyway, Dad wants me to go find some materia. That way, Wutai can become powerful again."

"But why send you?" Errol asked, "Why not go himself?"

"Well, my old man's getting on a bit y'know, and what with me being the next best ninja in town…"

"The next best ninja?" The old man that had been silent so far piped up, "We had to save you from an Adamantaimai!"

"If you hadn't have interfered I would've whooped that beastie's ass!" Yuffie retorted.

"Whoa guys, calm down!" Errol held out his hands, "so how are you planning to find materia Yuff?"

"Err… I hadn't really thought about that yet…"

"Pfft!" The old man snorted.

"Well I'm making a delivery to Gongaga in the morning," Errol told her, "Shinra built a reactor there a while back."

"Of Course! Mako reactors! If I can get into one of those there'll be plenty of materia!"

"And what are you going to do? Steal it?" The old man asked.

"If I have to. It's the Shinra for crying out loud! It's their fault Wutai is like this in the first place!"

In response, the old man just grunted and turned his back.

"You can stay here for tonight," Errol told Yuffie, "take my bed, I'll sleep on the couch."

Yuffie looked to where he was pointing. A scruffy looking sofa sat in the corner of the room, looking about as comfortable to sleep on as a lumpy Cactuar.

"Ok."

The rest of the evening passed slowly, and Yuffie didn't talk to anyone much besides Errol. When it had been dark for a few hours, everyone clambered into their beds.

After a few hours, Yuffie was still staring at the rotten wooden ceiling, unable to get to sleep. Peeking over the edge of her bed, she saw the chest she'd noticed earlier. Everyone else was asleep, and all snoring very loudly.

"Geez, I'm glad I'm only staying the one night," Yuffie whispered to the stuffed bird perched next to her pillow, "These guys are snoring louder than Dad does."

She gently dropped down onto the floor, trying not to wake anyone, which was quite a feat, seeing as she was on the top bunk. Creeping over to the chest, she carefully prised it open. A loud creak escaped, causing Yuffie to drop the lid, letting it slam shut.

"Uh, whassat?" The grumpy old man woke up and looked around the room, "Urr, musta bin nothin'." He grumbled, rolling over and going back to sleep.

Clutching Howie, Yuffie sat in her bunk.

"Maybe I'll just leave it," she thought, "Errol is giving me a ride to the mainland, after all."

Yuffie woke to the sound of seagulls squawking on the roof. The early morning sunshine spilled in through the open window, bringing with it the salty smell of the sea.

"Morning Yuffie," Errol said, "Mack's cooking up some kippers for breakfast."

She looked out of her bunk to the kitchen. The old man with the beard was boiling something on the stove. She assumed he was Mack, she hadn't bothered to ask the fishermen their names the previous night. Crawling out of her bed and plopping onto the floor below, Yuffie sank into a chair by the table, avoiding the gaze of the less friendly old man.

"Any of you hear anything last night?" He asked, looking suspiciously at Yuffie.

"Oh, er… That was probably me; I dropped my chocobo during the night."

"Chocobo?" Errol asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, his name's Howie." Yuffie said cheerfully, pointing towards the top bunk.

Mack placed a plate of kippers in front of her, handing her a knife and fork.

"Thanks!" She said, digging in.

"We're gonna leave at about nine," Errol said, "So make sure you get your stuff ready."

Yuffie hurriedly finished her breakfast and climbed back up into her bunk. Gathering Howie and her clothes, she threw them into her bag, before proceeding to jump down onto the floor. She walked out of the hut to find Errol loading his boat. It was a shabby looking thing, just big enough to hold them both, along with the crates of fish. Luckily, the sea was looking quite calm today, and there was very little wind. Yuffie felt slightly relieved. She didn't like the idea of having to spend a few hours on the open sea as it was, and being in the middle of a storm would not help matters at all.

"All ready?" Errol asked, tying down the last crate.

"Yep." Yuffie walked over to the boat and cautiously stepped in to join him.

"Whoa…" Yuffie stumbled as the boat started to rock, "Is it going to be like this the whole journey?"

"It'll be a lot worse once we're away from land," Errol told her, untying the boat and letting it slowly drift away from the shore.

Yuffie sat down on the little plank that she assumed was a seat of some sort and sighed. She didn't like boats, she decided. She just hoped this trip wouldn't take long. Now that they'd left land, the rocking motion of the boat had gotten worse, and she was starting to feel quite sick.

After about an hour of rowing, Errol put down the oars. Yuffie wondered why he was stopping. There was no sign of land in any direction, and her seasickness wasn't easing up at all.

"So Yuffie, what are you gonna do with all this materia when you find it?"

"I'm going to bring glory back to Wutai…" Yuffie began, but found that talking didn't help her sickness.

"I know that," Errol said, "But how? I mean, I've never quite understood how materia works."

"But… you used materia…ugh… yesterday…with the adamantai…urk…mai."

"Yeah, I know how to use it, but how does it work exactly? How is it that using materia makes us stronger, or able to use magic?"

Yuffie tried to think back to her training as a ninja. She was sure Godo had told her about how materia works. She couldn't think with her stomach doing somersaults inside her. Oh well, at least talking about materia would help her to take her mind off of it.

"Well…urgh…you know how you have to attach the materia to your weapon or armour to be able to use it? Well… ugh… the magical energy or whatever it is that's in the materia flows through your equipment and enters your body. Ugh… so basically, the magic comes out of the materia and goes into you, allowing you to use it… I think…"

"I think I get it," Errol said, "Hey, are you ok? You look a little pale."

"I'm… uh… fine…" Yuffie told him, trying to ignore the rocking of the boat.

"Seasickness huh? You know what's good for that? Tranquilizers."

"Great!" Yuffie perked up a little at the mention of a cure, "You got any?"

"Nope."

Yuffie sighed and slumped down into her seat while Errol picked up the oars and continued rowing. Not much longer now and they'd be at Gongaga, where she'd find plenty of materia and be able to return home. And best of all, the recovery of Wutai would be at the expense of Shinra! Thinking about how she'd be worshipped as a hero when she returned home cheered Yuffie up a bit. And she'd finally have some real tales to show off, rather than those she just made up. A shame though, she did enjoy inventing stories. Oh well, one last time couldn't hurt.

"Hey Errol, did I ever… gah… tell you about that time I fought off 20 Garudas on top of Da-Chao?"

"Yeah, I think you did… Oh no, wait, that was the 15 Tonberrys. I still can't believe there was a nest of them up there…"

"Hehe, yeah. Anyway, Dad sent this annoying kid called… ow… Shake to train with me up on Da-Chao. The stupid little brat ran off and… ugh… when I found him, he was surrounded by a whole load of these Garuda things, flapping their wings all over the…urgh… place," Yuffie paused for a little while to catch her breath. Telling stories wasn't easy when your stomach was trying to turn itself inside out, "So I ran up to them, Shuriken at the ready, dodging every bolt of lightning they…urk… threw at me. Half an hour later, and I'm dragging the kid down the mountain, leaving a cave full of dead monsters."

"Wow Yuffie, being a ninja must be so exciting," Errol said, trying as hard as he could to convince Yuffie that he believed her, "It's so boring being a fisherman; wake up, catch fish, kill adamantaimai, deliver fish to faraway land, come home, go to sleep. That's about it."

"Ugh… It's a tough life," Yuffie said, "But I enjoy it."

The rest of the journey passed quite quickly. Telling the story seemed to tire Yuffie out, and she said nothing else, bar a few complaints that the boat was rocking too much. When they finally arrived at their destination, Yuffie was out of the boat before Errol even had a chance to tie it up.

"Man am I glad that's over!" Yuffie exclaimed, obviously feeling a lot better after getting out of the boat.

"Gongaga is in the middle of that forest over there," Errol said, pointing to the North, "We'll probably run into a few monsters before we get there. Quite glad I brought you along now." He smiled.

"No problem!" said Yuffie, jumping in the air, "Bring 'em on!"

After tying up the boat and picking up the first crate of fish, Errol lead the way into the forest. The trees bustled with the noise of birds and insects. Yuffie noticed they were following a small path where the grass had worn away. Suddenly, Errol stopped.

"What's wrong?" Yuffie asked him.

"Don't move…"

"What? There's nothing here, it's just a little froggy."

Errol backed away, "Stay away from it."

Yuffie walked towards the frog, "Aww, is Errol being mean to you little froggy?"

"Yuffie! Don't touch it!"

Yuffie turned around to look at Errol, holding the frog in her hands, "Errol, why are you so scared of a frog? Ouch!" The frog bit her on the finger and jumped out of her hands, running off into the forest.

"Yuffie! Are you ok?"

Yuffie looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "Of course I'm ok, it was just a… Ribbit"

"Oh no…"

Standing where Yuffie had been was now a small green frog.

"I told you to stay away from it," Errol said, shaking his head, "Here, drink this…" He rummaged through his bag and pulled out a small bottle. Walking over to Yuffie, he uncorked it, and poured it into her little green mouth.

A few seconds later, Yuffie was standing in the forest, human again, and with a shocked look on her face. "Wha…what?"

"You should listen to me more often," Errol said, picking up his crate and continuing on, "Now let's get a move on. And stay away from the frogs."