Zack had spent the night with little sleep as Cloud was turning over and over restlessly next to him. Zack was used to sleeping in uncomfortable or unfamiliar places from his frequent deployments. The Wutaian futon beds were not what he was used to, but not the most uncomfortable places he had to sleep on before. This was apparently not the case for Cloud. Though one of the first things Zack had learned during deployment was to be as quiet as possible even if he could not sleep in order not to disturb his comrades who would have his back the next day when he would not perform at his peak due to lack of sleep.
He was vaguely aware of Cloud getting up at daybreak, and eventually fell back asleep, until he was roused from his sleep by his beeping phone. He picked it up in a daze, thinking it could be important, but was confronted with a message from the "Treasure Princess", a Wutaian girl called Yuffie, who had repeatedly contacted him about locations she promised contained a wealth of treasure. Whenever he investigated these locations, they had almost always been worth their while, but a far cry from what Yuffie had promised him every single time. And following her leads almost always put them in serious danger. Mostly him, because she had a tendency to hide or run off before things got serious. Well, she was just a little girl.
When he saw that the message was from her, he put the phone down again without reading it. He was not really free to move in the current situation and would be unable to humor her today. Instead, he got up, stretched, did a few squats and a few pushups and then went into the bathroom to take a shower and get ready. It was already 9 am by the time he went downstairs to have breakfast. No one but a lady-in-waiting was there to tend to the guests' wishes. The others must already have finished, as Zack could not imagine that any of the others would have slept as long as he had.
While he had a quick breakfast with rice, vegetables, soup and tea, he got another message, which was again from the Treasure Princess. This time he actually read it, and it simply said: "Stop slacking and get over here!" This girl was really pushy and not used to being ignored. He finally opened the first message and it read: "You infiltrated the enemy's territory. Good job! Now it's time for the real test! Don't fail again, it would cost more than your life. There is a secret treasure hidden in a cave behind the waterfall, but beware! The monsters in the mountains are much stronger than anything you have ever encountered."
Waterfall? A secret cave? Monster in the mountains? Her message seemed even more cryptic than usual, but then his eyes wandered back to the very first sentence. "You infiltrated the enemy's territory." Did she know that he was in Wutai and was in fact referring to this very city? There indeed was a waterfall feeding the river that ran through the town. Was that the place the mail was talking about? He got up quickly without finishing his breakfast, thanked the lady-in-waiting and rushed back to his room. If Yuffie was really up in the mountains and they were full of strong monsters, he had to go get her out of there. He wondered what her parents were even doing, allowing her to roam the world like a vagabond, getting into trouble left and right.
After equipping both of his swords and double-checking his materia, he made his way as quickly as he could toward the mountains without raising the suspicion of passersby. The mountainside was technically outside the perimeter of the city, but Zack was determined not to be caught. Besides, there was no way out of the valley that way without some serious mountain climbing, so no one could seriously assume he was trying to get out of the city anyway, even if he was caught.
He was able to find the way reasonably well after exploring the city so thoroughly the previous day, but as he approached the edge of town, he was forced to circle around several patrols, who, he assumed, were securing the perimeter of the city, that delayed his progress. He finally reached the last row of buildings and found a small trail leading further up the mountain. Just as the message had warned him, it did not take long for him to encounter some of the nasty giant bugs and caterpillars native to this area. Though this was hardly the first time he encountered them, and they were no serious challenge to him, their sheer number explained why the Wutaians needed so many people patrolling around the city.
As he traversed the forest and came closer to the cliff, the bugs made way for groups of Rangdas roaming the area. The four-legged creatures with sharp claws and red faces with long, curves tusks were revered as Gods in Wutai, which, as far as Zack knew, had inspired masks traditionally worn during Wutaian festivities. They were also exceptionally nasty enemies to fight, which was possibly the main reason the Wutai military trained them for war. Zack avoided them as much as possible, but could not help taking down a few that had picked up his scent and trailed him.
While hiding behind a tree and waiting for a group of them to pass, a small pebble hit the crown of his head. High up above him in the branches of the tree, the skinny little girl he was to meet was sitting, looking down at him. "What are you doing? Get up here!", she hissed. He stepped away from the tree and turned around to look up properly. "I'm not going to climb a damn tree!", he whispered back. "Get down here and let's go back to the city. This place is dangerous."
She leaped off the tree and nimbly landed by his side. The scrawny little girl that barely reached his waist was wearing shorts and a bandana as usual, paired with a green shirt. "First you're late and then you can't even climb a tree! Looks like you need more training!" When she feigned punching him as she usually did, Zack simply rolled his eyes. It was funny the first time, but he had given up on humoring her. "Come on, let's go back to the city!", he ordered and turned back toward the direction of the city.
But before he could take another step, he heard her call out behind him: "The cave is this way, come on!" He whirled around to see her dashing off toward the waterfall. "Stop!", he yelled as he ran after her. When he finally caught up with her, she was facing a giant Vajradhara trying to hit her with a mace. She was quick enough to dodge, but Zack still jumped in between and struck the monster down in a few hits. By the time he was done and looked around, she had disappeared again.
Looking around, Zack discovered a small crevice in the rock face right next to the waterfall. Assuming that this was the way into the cave and Yuffie had gone this way, he squeezed through, not quite managing to stay dry. Before his eyes could even get used to the dim light in the cave, a fire ball roared towards him, barely missing him and hitting the wall. He drew his sword again and whirled around, facing a Nandi, a slightly rarer creature similar to the Rangda, but a lot more powerful. As he exchanged blows with the monster, he noticed Yuffie jumping off the cave ceiling just behind the Nandi and dashing off into the dark depths of the cavern. Again, he called after her, but she did not react.
He followed her around through the labyrinthian grotto, always just one step behind, but never actually catching up with her because she hid in crevices or held on to the rough walls to wait for him to arrive and engage the monster, believing her to be in trouble, only to dash out and run past the creatures while they were trying to kill Zack. If that alone was not bad enough, the monsters grew stronger and stronger, the deeper he got into the cave, and he got hit and burnt more than just a few times.
The cave finally led into a small, circular room that had, in contrast to the rest of the cave, a regular shape and smooth walls. Not just the room itself looked human-made, but on the opposite side of the entryway stood a small stone pedestal with two statues of snake-like dragons to its left and right. The pedestal was empty, but at its base sat a small wooden chest, possibly the treasure Yuffie had promised. She, however, was nowhere to be seen. Zack sighed. He had only come to help her get out of this situation. Taking the treasure and leaving her here was not at all what he had intended by coming here.
Half expecting her to jump out of a crevice and snatch away the treasure as she had done before, he looked around with folded arms and called out to her: "How about you come out now?" But there was no reaction. Did she get stuck somewhere? He gave in to the temptation after all and opened the chest to find a Dash materia. As he packed the materia and stood back up, he heard the sound of small, quick feet from the entrance.
He turned around to see the ninja girl running towards him. She stopped two feet away from him and again feigned a few punches in his direction. "You made it to the end of the cave alive! You like the treasure?" Zack folded his arms and nodded. Dash materias were quite rare, while being surprisingly useful in materia fusion. They also enabled the user to run with superhuman speed, which came in handy at times, but was also a bit risky at other times. Zack actually had no Dash materia at this time because he used his last one in a fusion and had not come across a new one since then, so this treasure would be very useful for him. "What I don't understand is what's in it for you", he wondered.
She put both fists on her hips and looked straight at him. "I already got my reward", she said proudly. "So I'll allow you to keep the treasure this time." Without awaiting Zack's response, she turned on her heel and ran off. He scratched his head. He had suspected for a while that she only called him to these weird locations because she thought it was funny to lead him through a cave full of deadly fiends and watch him fight. And normally, he would not particularly mind humoring her in exchange for a good reward. This really was a bad time to be playing with monsters, but at least she did not get hurt.