CHAPTER THIRTEEN: KAZHAM'S CHIEFTAINESS

Catherine heard a lot of banging and knocking sounds coming from below deck and decided to investigate.

She had been working on the body of one of the Armathrwn Society that Hanaa had been able to kill. Rost had somehow managed to talk his way into possessing the body by posing as an investigator from Jeuno and she welcomed the chance to examine a largely whole figure.

The body was quite disfigured, though not from just damage sustained from Hanaa's magic attacks. Along the arms and legs were numerous cuts and the black fabric cloak was torn all over. A hole in its chest seemed to be the killing blow, if such a phrase could be used for a puppet.

From what she was able to ascertain from examining the arms and legs it looked as though whatever substance created the muscle like tissue for the limbs seemed extra tensed and tight. No normal person could have muscles so tight, but inside the puppets limbs created increased potency in strength and speed, explaining their physical power in battle.

What she still could not explain was how they were able to use magical techniques or be controlled when no master seemed within range. Behind what was left of the mask (that had been torn and bent quite badly) was simply nothing but more tissue. There were no eyes or even a brain.

Contact with the salted sea water had created a similar effect to the distilled water she had used in her original tests. Because she had not seen the immediate effects when contact with the water was made she could not be one hundred percent sure that the coagulating effect went through the middle stage grey blob mass that hardened the puppets joints to prevent movement before turning from blood to yellow liquid.

The tests had meant she could scavenge a lot of the stinking yellow liquid to use against any others that they might find, she believed immediate contact with a potent enough sample would bring about the grey stage to at least slow down the puppet long enough to make it an easy target.

Returning to the matter at hand, she found that the source of the strange noises that she had heard from inside the room where she had conducted her autopsy and alchemy experiments was from the room they had given to Hanaa. There was another loud knocking sound and then more than one person laughing uncontrollably.

Catherine opened the door and looked to her feet as an empty bottle rolled into it. She recognised it as a bottle of red vintage Rolanberry wine. It could only have come from the storage on the bottom level of the Highwind where Rost enjoyed spending time alone.

Hanaa had clearly been exploring the airship.

"Caaaattthhhhyyyyyyyyyy!"

She sighed as she saw Nokum-Akkum attempt to get up from the side of the bed in the small room and fall over. His cheeks were bright red, which matched Hanaa's, and he had a large grin. On top of his head (slightly lopsided) was Hanaa's Warlock Chapeau. He tried to get up again but could not manage it. He muttered to himself a bit instead in squeaks and groans.

"Clearly… Someone casted…aru…a paralyze spell… on me!" he moaned.

Hanaa lay on the bed and had a hand over her mouth to subdue her uncontrollable laughter. Her other hand was strewn over the side of the bed occasionally batting a bit of Nokum-Akkum's messy hair from side-to-side that was poking out from under the hat.

"Hanaa Mocorho!" she shouted angrily. "You know full well that Tarutaru don't handle drink well! Look at him! How can you still be this irresponsible? It's only a matter of hours before we reach Kazham!"

"Lighten up, Cathy!" she replied (very high pitched). "My Nookie-Ookie is so fun! I missed this, trrravelling all alone…neverrr got to drrrink with anyone as nice. I know little guys…Tarrrus…don't last long, but…"

"…But what?"

"…I forrrgot what I was going to say!"

Without another word, she picked the drunken Tarutaru up in her arms and walked out of the room. She closed the door behind her to leave Hanaa alone. There did not seem to be any other bottles in the room so at least she would not get any drunker.

Unable to really move much, Nokum-Akkum happily waved his hands around in front of her nose and pretended to grab it before giggling. She took him to his room and sat him down on his bed (which seemed huge compared to him). She placed the Warlock Chapeau on the floor next to the bed. As he left she heard him call her.

"Cathy…."

She returned to him.

"You're drunk, Nokum-Akkum. Go to sleep. I'll wake you up when we reach Kazham in the morning," she replied, and pulled the sheets up over him.

"…I like you, Cathy…"

She rubbed his hair and stood up to leave again, "Sleep well, Nokum-Akkum."

The journey to Kazham would take the entire evening according to Samuel. Alain stood examining the map on the control room's wall again. It was late in the evening of the same day they had left Mhaura, but he could not sleep. Turning towards the entrance he saw Catherine entering with a very annoyed look on her face.

"…Is something wrong?" he asked as she walked over to him.

"Hanaa found a bottle of wine and chose to drink it with Nokum-Akkum," she explained angrily. "They'll both probably be sleeping off a bad headache for the next few hours. We may need to travel into Kazham without them."

During the war there were many times that Hanaa would chose to celebrate a victory or to morn a failure with any form of drink (and not just her, many soldiers chose to handle the war that way). As for Nokum-Akkum, his short friend was fully aware that Tarutaru just could not handle alcohol, but joined in anyway because he liked Hanaa so much, and because he liked acting the fool.

"She was a bad influence on him during the war and has not changed. I do wonder if she is worth the hassle it will take to keep her in check to achieve our mission. I hesitate to think what she'll do when she gets you alone."

He starred at her blankly.

"…That is to say, she is a bad influence on you as well. You were guilty of joining them on a lot of occasions. …Don't look at me like that!"

Pop cleared his throat and offered to leave them alone if they preferred. They both turned and told him to mind his own business. Catherine chose to leave at that point rather than embarrass herself any further.

Alain was almost tempted to go speak to either Hanaa or Nokum-Akkum just to see how bad they had gotten as Catherine was probably exaggerating. However, he knew how late it was getting and so returned to his room. As he lay silently in his bed he was sure he could hear his Tarutaru friend snoring loudly in the next room along.

A smile appeared on his face for the first time in a few days as he remembered the times during the war that Nokum-Akkum got drunk. He had noticed on more than one occasion that when he was drunk his Windustrian way of speaking seemed to disappear. Being around Humes for so long in Bastok was probably the cause and Alain was sure that sometimes the Tarutaru forced himself to talk like others of his race purely to maintain his Windustrian pride.

That accusation would be fiercely contested whenever he brought it up, but it was not uncommon for Tarutaru that stayed far from home for long periods of time to lose their unique speaking manner. Even Tarutaru with speech defects (meant in the nicest possible way) sometimes adapted and eventually ended up sounding like a Hume.

During the war he had met Doctor Shantotto, a powerful Tarutaru Black Mage, once and was completely bemused at her inability to do anything other than talk in rhyme. The most annoying part about it was that it seemed almost contagious and afterwards he could not help but do the same.

It was a terrible war and all I remember about it is stupid things like that? All those missions I went on seem so distant now… I guess it's a good thing that I don't remember the bad things that happened during the war…but still…if we get to Norg we'll know what happened on that day…

Despite the surprisingly loud snoring emanating next door, he was eventually able to fall into an uneasy sleep.

A knock on Hanaa's door made her curse out loud and throw her pillow towards the sound. Another knock persisted despite her cursing so she had no choice but to dig her head out from under the mess of sheets to find out who was being so rude to wake her up.

She did not recognise the room at first and was disorientated. The empty bottle on the floor made muddled memories of the night before come flooding back all at once causing her to groan at her own foolish antics. She was pretty sure that she was on board an airship, either that or just in a very small room.

Stumbling to the door she pulled it inwards and almost fell into the arms of a rather short and skinny Hume waited patiently outside. He was shocked at her appearance and could not speak.

"What… Oh, arrren't you the cute one? What's yourrr name again?"

"Eh, my name is Samuel. We met yesterday when you came on board, don't you remember?" the young Hume replied.

"Surrre I do, yeah, oh yeah! Yup, now I do. Hi."

She placed a gloved hand on her head and tugged at her own short blond locks and was suddenly very shocked. Her hat was missing again. Without talking to Samuel anymore, she dashed back into the room and scrambled back under the covers to look for her precious chapeau. Having no luck finding it under there, she thought hard back to the night before and realized that Nokum-Akkum had wanted to play with it while they shared drinks. She rushed out the door past Samuel and began checking rooms to find him.

Meanwhile Samuel tried to get her attention, "Miss Mocorho …Hanaa? Everyone has already left…well apart from…Hanaa stand still a moment and listen, please. I have a message to pass on from…"

Loud snoring easily detectable by her sharp feline ears led her almost straight to the Tarutaru's room. The nosy, but cute, Hume was muttering about something but she ignored it and concentrated on the matter at hand. Nothing would stand between her and the hat.

The white feathered hat had dropped onto the floor from the tossing and turning the Tarutaru had done in his sleep. She picked it up, brushed it down, and placed it on her head. Giving the tip a quick tap to knock it up a bit she smiled at Samuel who had appeared in the doorway.

"Rrright, cutie," she said, "what werrre you saying?"

"Alain, Catherine, and Rost left the airship this morning to head into Kazham to find directions to Norg. They asked me to tell you both to follow on as soon as possible and to use your communication pearl to find out where they are so you don't end up getting lost in the jungle out there."

"Quietaru!" Nokum-Akkum groaned. "My head is making noise hurtaru, so go make your noisy-woises someplace else!"

"But Nokum…" Samuel began, but was silenced as Hanaa's finger pressed against his lips.

She shooed him away with a nod and a wink and he complied without a word, completely entranced by her gaze as he went (almost resulting in him walking into the opposite wall instead of the entrance into the control room).

"So you don't want to get up my little Nookie-Ookie?"

An annoyed grunt and something about more noise was the reply.

"That surrre is a shame, you know? Those guys out therrre in that jungle having all the fun trying to find the hidden base and you want to stay in bed? You do know that the jungles out therrre have a heavy Beastmen population, don't you?

The Tarutaru's ears twitched and he turned his head slightly.

"And that's not to mention some vicious Malboro, deadly Coeurl, or Goddess Altana forrrbid…a rampaging Tonberrry!"

He sprung up from the bed.

"Alain is getting to fightaru those things while we stay here listening to our heads make noise louder! Where's my axe? Where's my armour? Silly-willy Hanaa! Go getaru ready!"

With a sly smile gracing her lips, she turned and left. Her drinking partner had not changed at all since the last time they had met. The perfect hang over cure for him still worked like a charm; the lure of battle. Though her own head was still a little shaky and her mouth quite dry, she was eager to see the Elshimo Islands and not to mention the Mithra tribe that had emigrated out there from their homelands.

They left the ship around ten minutes later in quite a rush. The Highwind was still in deep water, but had been able to pull up against a sturdy rock face at the edge of a thick forest of lush palm trees which just about fell in line with the middle deck exit. She had to help Nokum-Akkum up the slight climb onto the land, but it would be easy enough to get back.

After they left the ramp that stretched out over to the rocks retracted into the side of the ship and the middle exit door slid closed. Due to the risk of Beastmen or hungry animals being on the prowl nearby, they could not risk leaving the door open. Catherine had apparently learned the teleportation magic to bring them all back straight on board now anyway.

The air seemed heavy to Hanaa, but that might have just been because of how swelteringly hot it was and the sun bore down on them with the burning desire of a strong fire spell. She immediately regretted not finding something a little less thick to wear, but could do nothing about it now.

Many strange noises seemed present in the thick jungle that presented itself on all sides. Luckily they had seen smoke from camp fires coming from Kazham's direction and knew it was not far to the east. Groups of insects hung innocently around purple flowers collecting glowing pollen and swooping around almost deliberately in the middle of the trodden dirt path they found their way onto.

Behind her, Nokum-Akkum walked with axes drawn occasionally jumping quickly forward or turning left and right as if preparing himself to fight off invisible enemies. He was eager to chop something, but the area seemed strangely void of larger creatures of any kind.

The gates of Kazham were protected by a series of wooden stake walls and guard posts fit only for the very short. Mandragora seemed to run around happily in this area, blissfully unaware of their presence. They were not aggressive little plant creatures (unlike some larger varieties) and sometimes took to following passers by around, curious about what they were up to.

Now that's quite strrrange, she thought to herself. Not one guard at the gates or in the watchtowers to prrrotect against any Beastmen? I wonder what kind of military forrrce these Mithrrra have…or if they have any at all… but I've hearrrd things about Goblins trying to raid food storrres and all sorrrts…

Kazham was quite a small place, but very lively considering its size. A group of children were playing chasing games across and around the open area just beyond the main gates under the watching eye of what appeared to be a San d'Orian priest and a Chocobo Handler. On the left a cave seemed to have been manufactured into the rock creating a torch lit passage off to an Auction House (if the sign post was to be believed) while on the right another without a sign led off to someplace unknown.

Directly opposite the gates on the far side was a wooden walkway built over the dark rock that seemed to lead to the airships dock. She could see the tranquil sea dip into the horizon even from that far back since no airships were currently visiting.

Much to her surprise, the Elvaan priest that had been watching the children playing their games approached them both and bowed while raising his hands in a circular motion, which was the symbol of blessing from the San d'Orian church.

"Travellers may the light of the Dawn Goddess shine upon you," the cloaked Elvaan said. "You look a little lost, prey tell is this your first time visiting Kazham? How strange that a second set of visitors should arrive so soon after the first we have had for quite some time, and even stranger because no airship has touched down here for weeks! Regardless, I humbly offer my services to you. My name is Rauteinot, a humble missionary."

"Okay," Hanaa replied somewhat flippantly. "Firrrst off, talk a bit less. You talk way too much. Secondly, it's too damn hot. Thirdly, my short friend and I are looking for the first group of people you mentioned, do you know where they are?"

The missionary ignored her comments, but did answer her question. There was never any backbone in priests which always annoyed her. They just smiled with no emotion while you said whatever you wanted in their face. She liked it much better when people gave as well as they got.

According to the Elvaan priest, the first group of travellers (Alain, Catherine, and Rost) had already left town again and had not stayed for very long at all, though he could not say why.

She told Nokum-Akkum to try and contact them with his communication pearl as she had not yet been given one. The Tarutaru shook the sphere angrily after talking into it and hearing nothing come back.

"This pearl is clearly broken," he declared.

Snatching the pearl off him for a second, Hanaa tried speaking into it and listened for any kind of noise coming back from another pearl holder, but there was nothing not even a whisper. She was at a loss to why none of them were answering and was not sure what to do next when Rauteinot spoke again.

"If I may interject… Though I do not know where those three other travellers went once they left, I do know what they did while they were visiting. They asked to know where the tribal leader of Kazham stayed. Her name is Jakoh Wahcondalo and her hut is not far from here if you take that tunnel and then a right."

Hanaa clasped her hands together in front of her chest, went on her tip toes, made her tail stand on end, and smiled with glee.

"Thanks whatever your name was, you've been a grrreat help!"

With that she and Nokum-Akkum ran off through the right cave in search of the leaders hut.

They found the hut with little trouble, as it was at least three times the size of any others that they had past and had two Mithra equipped with knifes guarding the entrance. Surprisingly, they were allowed access with no fuss and soon found themselves inside the well decorated home of Jakoh Wahcondalo.

Exotic art and strange bamboo designs littered the front room that only had a small table with a rough rug under it in terms of furniture and a display of finely crafted weapons on the far wall. A folding screen separated the other sections of the first floor and a guard stood before the raised wooden steps leading to the other areas.

Upon asking to speak to Jakoh Wahcondalo they were allowed past and found her sitting crossed legged in front of a boiling pot dipping a fishkabob on a stick into it. She wore a little orange short skirt with matching coloured top and an extravagant headdress with many feathers (which made Hanaa instantly jealous and feeling inferior by comparison).

"So you two must be Hanaa Mocorho and Nokum-Akkum," she paused long enough to bite the head off the fishkabob. "They told me to expect you a little earrrlier than this…heads still a little sorrre from what I underrrderstand was an enterrrtaining evening?"

"Itaru is rude to talk with your mouth full!" Nokum-Akkum declared with hands on his hips.

"Hey, Jakoh Wahcondalo, just spill the beans on wherrre they are so we can get going, we don't have all day."

The Mithra was quite annoyed at her obvious impatience and in defiance took a much larger bite of the fish and chewed both loudly and slowly. Hanaa's eyes narrowed and she reiterated that they did not have time to waste as something could be wrong as they could not reach their friends via a link pearl.

She finished her bite, "Now then, yes, your frrriends had much morrre manners, so I gave them the inforrrmation that they wanted…the location of Norrrg. That old pirrrate wanted me to anyway. But in return I asked for a favour, just a little thing really…"

They waited.

She grinned at their impatience, "This fish is excellent. I highly recommend it."

Her patience had run out.

"Listen you poor excuse for a figurrrehead, how about you tell me what I want to know now before I put your head through that wall over therrre?"

The guards nearby all rushed into the room with weapons drawn and teeth bared and started to approach her menacingly crouched forward.

"Sure, sure, wouldn't be the firrrst time I've been outnumberrred," she grinned. "Still, we could just avoid fighting and I will walk away. I'm surrre our home land would be verrry interested in hearing that you have placed yourrrself in such a position of power. That's against our laws, isn't it? Still, if you have so many skilled guarrrds I'm surrre you're safe, I mean, they could handle Sin Hunters, right? Yeah, I thought so. You girrrls sure look tough."

A wave of Jakoh Wahcondalo's hand sent her guards back to their posts. The cheerfulness and arrogance that had been present were now replaced with quiet subdued looks of hatred. Clearly Kazham's leader had never been spoken to like that before.

"We lost contact with the outpost out in the Yuhtunga Jungle a few days back. I sent two of my guards to investigate and they never came back either. In exchange for the directions to get into Norrrg, your frrriends agreed to go see what's happened. Now get out and don't ever come back."

She (sarcastically) thanked her for the information and patted Nokum-Akkum on the head as a signal that it was time for them to leave. They both turned without a word and walked towards the exit. Outside the hut she looked down and saw the Tarutaru looked quite unhappy about something.

"Smile, shorrrty," she grinned. "I'm not really so mean, you know that. I just did that to get it over with quicker. Something is definitely wrrrong down at that outpost…"

"It's notaru because of thataru…" he replied solemnly. "…So close to a fightaru…so close… I was getting all excited…then they had to go and be big scardy-wardy catarus."

"I told you to make her give us a better map…I told you the one we had is absolutely useless… but would you listen?"

Rost sighed and crumpled the map they had taken from the Highwind in his hands.

"Yes, that's right Alain, keep moaning about the situation. I'm sure that will solve it."

"Would you two stop the petty bickering?" Catherine spoke sternly from behind them both.

Alain smiled to himself, he enjoyed taunting replies out of Rost, but at the same time was well aware he had done nothing to contribute to trying to find the outpost. The map had it clearly marked, but the maze of passages both on ground level and below it was not, and they had become lost soon after leaving Kazham with the information on how to find Norg.

They had agreed to find out why some guards sent to the outpost had not returned in exchange for the information. Beastmen were probably to blame and after so long he doubted they would find anything left, but they had agreed so regardless of how lost they were they had to find the outpost before carrying on.

The intense heat of the jungle was making all three of them tetchy. Even Catherine was being quite sharp with them both and that was very unlike her. They had been stupid to travel into the jungle near to midday. The sweat was pouring down his bare forehead and his body felt like it was on fire. The glowing amber ball hanging in the cloudless sky visible clearly through the palm tree canopies refused to relent.

The trio took a left through a short tunnel that seemed to head upwards slightly into a large open area. It was the second area they had found that seemed quite wide in comparison to the much more claustrophobic passages of the inner jungle.

"Wait a moment," Rost said and opened up the crumpled map. "I am sure I saw this opening on it. We may be in luck."

As Catherine walked up the slope behind them, he looked north and laughed with sheer relief. Just on the distance he could see a large wooden structure. Someone had blessed them with good luck; they had stumbled their way through the jungle and still managed to find the outpost. It may have taken them twice as long as they had planned, but that was not a point he wanted to dwell on.

"Approach with caution," Rost ordered as he drew his Great Katana.

Alain chose to ignore his order and began walking across the open grass area without taking his Great Sword from off his back. Catherine drew her mace and followed quickly behind while Rost brought up the rear now silent, but obviously angry and him ignoring his words.

The outpost seemed empty. The entire area did, there was not even crawlers, bugs, or birds over head. There seemed to be no one about and no signs of a battle. Inside the outpost's gates, the inner structure seemed completely barren and unused. The building seemed deserted for far longer than Jakoh Wahcondalo had made it sound.

"How strange," Catherine said out loud as she explored the outpost. "If wild animals attacked surely there would be far more destruction. This room seems undisturbed."

"Not quite," Rost said for a corner of the room. "Look at the floor; do you see the upturned darker dirt scattered about? And under the table are similar marks as if it was shifted back into place. Someone is trying to hide things from us…"

The Elvaan Samurai bent down and dug into the dirt with one free hand. Digging deeper he found darker dirt. Picking up some of it he rubbed it between two fingers and let it drop down before him. There seemed to be a strange tint to the dirt making it far darker than it should have been for how near the surface it was.

"This is dirt is laden with dried blood…"

From outside there was a chorus of noise formed from a mixture of yelps, roars, screams, and hearty calls.

Rushing outside, the trio were shocked to see groups of Goblins marching out in packs of six from the slope they had used to reach the open area as well as a second and third set off further to the right. There was a mixture of heavily black armoured close combat Beastmen wielding large swords and in the rear was the cloth wearing Goblins that often favoured magic or swift assaults with daggers and knives. All three of them moved close together with weapons drawn with each facing a direction in front of the outpost.

"It's a trap… Has Jakoh Wahcondalo set us up?" Catherine whispered to them both.

"She didn't seem like the sort of person to do such a thing, she knew Zeid after all. I can't believe that she would set us up… But Goblins aren't smart enough to plot something like this alone…" Alain replied.

"There are forty with more in the back straight ahead with twenty or so on the right. They appear to be marching in groups of six. They must be controlled by some larger creature; they would not cooperate in such large numbers without guidance of some…look there on the top of that hill!"

Watching from a raised mound covered in high grass and palm trees a black cloaked figure watched silently as the Goblin hordes advanced on the trio in front of the undefended outpost.

"It's one of those puppet assassins!" Alain cried.

"No," Rost replied, narrowing his eyes and placing a hand over his eyes to shield from the sunlight. "No, whoever that is does not wear a mask… I can make out a face…"