Aloha de Chocobo
by Sabbie
Disclaimer: Final fantasy 9 does not belong to me.
This story is set in Disc 3 when Zidane and co. got the Blue Narciss. Garnet is still mute.
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The notion was absurd enough that Adelbert Steiner, for once, was agreed upon by other party members.
"Absolutely NOT!" he shouted violently. Amarant, the loner of the group conceded, "Are you stupid?", he said quietly. Quina was quiet in her/his way, contemplating on how the particular animal should be cooked. Vivi's eyes glowed indifferently. For the first time, he completely agreed with Steiner. Freya sighed and drowned her face in her palms. Eiko was a bit taken aback. Cid and Blank was looking at Zidane in a weird way. Garnet was sitting quietly, but she shared the sentiment the rest of the group has.
"Well, why not?", asked Zidane, asking for everyone's rationale. "A little fun never hurts."
"For starters, he charges 60 gil." Freya quipped in the most reasonable voice she could muster.
"Yes, but we dig money there too.", Zidane defended himself.
"That was not the point." Freya answered.
"What gives, man? I thought we needed to urgently seek out Kuja. Who knows what he'll do next!" Blank reasoned.
Cid added, "Yes, that's quite correct."
"What happens, happens." Zidane calmly stated.
Cid was in shock. The audacity! Not that he can do much to keep his dignity anyway, he was the only frog in the Blue Narciss. The last strip of his dignity was peeled away when he transformed into a frog. Now, Zidane is starting to get crazy ideas, and the Qu creature has been eyeing him for quite some time.
Vivi shot up his hand. "Ah, uum, um, Zidane, I think he is right. This...is not the proper time to...um go to chocobo's forest and ...um dig treasures."
Zidane sighed loudly. He'd been wanting to do this for a while. However, life intervened. They were caught in the middle of battle between the Silver Dragon and Bahamut in Iifa Tree, Garnet's mother's death, her immediate ascencion to the throne, and the attack upon Alexandria. It has been quite hard on most of the party. Dagger has lost her voice, (temporarily according to Doctor Tot--he had hoped it's true), Vivi had been really anxious to go to the Black Mage Village again, Eiko, well maybe it had not show much at all, but she definetly worries about Dagger, and Freya had been a bit more on edge than usual.
And, it was not exactly best to argue with people wracked with worry and stress. Zidane pursed his lips, trying to muster some more appropriate words to the group. After all, the chocobo has been some sort of pet to the party. It is only good to visit it, so it doesn't forget about its masters. Not to mention...treasures they have not discovered. Could mean some extra money for the journeys...
"Well, my rationale is, it is going to take about a day's journey to the Outer Continent, and it is a bit late, so we should go to chocobo's forest to kill time until tomorrow." he started.
No one argued with him. This was a good start.
"Besides, there has been much things going on around us, I think we deserve a bit of a break. Especially for Dagger."
Silence.
"We've had our theatre ship burned down, then the destruction of Cleyra and Burmecia, Alexandria's attack on Lindblum, the stopping of the Mist, the death of Queen Brahne...and Dagger's ascencion to the throne. For the last nine months."
Blank rose and eyebrow.
"And you getting petrified."
Blank nodded sagely.
"I know, it is urgent to find out where Kuja is and what he is up to, but don't you think we deserve a break?At least for a day?" Zidane pleaded.
Many pairs of eyes stared at him. Zidane couldn't quite make out yet what the rest of the group was thinking. They all had mixed expression on their faces.
Freya was the first one to speak. "Hmm... you're just saying this because you want to hunt for tresures on the chocographs though."
"Do we not deserve a break?", Zidane pressed on.
"He has a point." Blank stated in a matter-of-fact way. He hated to admit it, but it was true. One can only take so much. He did not get much break either. After getting unpetrified he had to rescue Steiner and help fight off Zorn and Thorn's bandersnatches. Later, Ruby practically forced him to help build that mini-theater.
"All right. We all deserve some sort of break. In one way or another.", Cid said, a bit exasperatedly. "Blank, I order you to turn the ship to the direction of the Chocobo forest!" He'd like to preserve the little strip of dignity he has as a ruler of Lindblum. At least, it wasn't Zidane who asked for the ship to be turned around.
So with that, the Blue Narciss steered to the beach of the Chocobo Forest. It was a half an hour journey and quite unevetful. The cleared up landscapes reveal the real beauty of the Mist continent. It was a lovely, mistless day.
"All right!"Zidane exclaimed as he unboard the ship. The rest of the ship's crew unboard in a more disgruntled manner.
From afar, the cry of "Kwehh" can be heard. It ran towards Zidane and started nuzzling him. "Hahaha, stop it Choco!"
Choco, the chocobo immediately nuzzled to Vivi when it saw Vivi waving shyly towards it. "He he he... I miss you too Choco." It nuzzled Vivi even more. Vivi laughed. The chocobo still remembered him. He was glad.
"M-master Vivi, I don't believe I ever hear you laugh in such a carefree manner!", Steiner exclaimed with surprise.
"Choco, this is Mr. Steiner.", said the ever-so-polite child as he brought Choco to Steiner. Choco winced when it saw Steiner. The bird sniffed Steiner before it nuzzled Steiner.
Steiner pet the bird back and the chocobo cried, "K-KWEEEHH!"
"W-wh-whuhh?", Steiner cried in shock.
"Don't worry Rusty, that means he likes you." Zidane shouted. He was walking closer to the forest.
"Incidentally, that's what he'd cry if he found treasure." Freya quipped. (Steiner:Does he think I'm a treasure?")
As she spoke, the chocobo turned its head to Freya. "No, Choco!", Freya cried. But it was too late, the bird lunged at Freya. The dignified warrior immediately lost her balance and fell as the bird rubbed its head on Freya's armours. Freya let a laugh escape from her mouth.
"Stupid Choco.." she said in the midst of her laughter.
"Heh. Where'd Miss Serious go to?", Amarant said sarcastically.
"Shut up." Freya countered.
"Where did you find it?" Cid asked curiously.
Quina answered, "Bird found when Quina go Cleyra with them." S/he took a deep breath and sign, "Quina no find way cook it yet."
Everyone just looked at her/him strangely. The bird was too cute to be even considered food.
Dagger reached out and touched the bird. At first the bird was cautious but her strokes was so soft it quickly warmed up to her. She smiled.
"Me too!", Eiko exclaimed. She tried to reach up towards the bird. She was not quite tall yet so she stumbled. Garnet picked her up and held her closer to the bird. At that point the bird rubbed Eiko's head against it.
"Kupo, Choco makes many more friends!", said Mene as it flew off from the forest.
"Who's first?"
"First?" Steiner quipped quizzically.
"Yes, Choco digs in the forest to find treasures and treasure maps. It's sixty gils per digging session in the forest. ", Mene explained patiently.
"Uhhhh...", the group awkwardly bellowed.
Mene turned to Zidane, "You brought more friends than before! Kupo! Why?"
"A lot happened.", Zidane replied curtly. Mene just nodded.
"What about you, young lady?", Mene pointed at Garnet. She quickly shook her head, flustered. Mene flew towards Garnet. "Don't be shy! Choco seems to like you." Mene took out one of the Chocographs Zidane had dug out previously in the forest before. "Here, why not try to dig this treasure?"
Garnet looked even more confused. But she relented and mounted the Chocobo. She read the chocograph and decided quickly that she knew where it was hidden.
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Fifteen minutes later she came with Choco, carrying a medium sized pouch filled with potion, antidotes, eyedrops and echo screens.
"Wow!" Zidane shouted. "You're good, Dagger!"
She blushed and dismounted the Chocobo. She made gestures that she'd keep it for the group. Everyone looked at her in admiration.
"Now!" Mene screamed, breaking the silent admirations. "Who's next?" He eyed the group and pointed at Steiner, "You!"
"E-ehh?"
Before he knew it he was on the chocobo's back and Zidane paid sixty gils to Mene. Choco guided the group to the chocobo forest and immediatly started digging. Steiner wasn't even sure what he was doing because the chocobo did all the work, by sniffing the ground and crying out, "K-kwwehhh!" everytime it found something.
He was even more dumbfounded when Choco dug out 200 gil, a quarter of his monthly salary.
"What do I do with this much money?", he asked Mene.
"You get to keep it, kupo!", Mene answered.
"Keep it?", he said, even more confused.
"Yeah, just stash it somewhere in case we need extra money." Zidane suggested. Hearing this suggestion, he felt a surge of pride. He, Adelbert Steiner, shall be able to rescue the group when they ran out of money! That's something he hadn't been able to do with the low wages he was getting in Knights of the Pluto.
"Yes!", he fiercely exclaimed and saluted Zidane.
"Who's next?"Mene cried out.
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And so the merriment continued . For the first time, the group finally managed to laugh freely when one of them fell off Choco, cry in excitement when one of htem found a Chocograph or more valuable treasures and be awed when Choco transformed and upgraded its ability...
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Meanwhile in the Dessert Palace...
"They're coming. They're coming soon. They b are /b coming to stop me..." Kuja chanted as he paced up and down in his hallways.
Black Mage number 235 whispered to 157, "He's lost it...hasn't he?"
157 merely nodded.
The end
A/N: I went wild with Chocographs when I got the Blue Narciss. It was fun!I also did not immediately go to Kuja. I imagined he was pissed when I arrived late.