It didn't take long for Ramirez to find a Trotmobile for sale. There were two older model Trots next to Nefroburg Motors, and the mechanic inside was willing to part with his two-legged one. "Always maintain your Trotmobile in good condition," he advised after he'd received the payment.

Ramirez nodded to him and went back outside to climb into his new Trotmobile. He frowned as the engine took some effort to turn over, then started rumbling with a cloud of exhaust. Perhaps De Loco can find some way to make these things run on Moon Stones instead of this 'gas' stuff, he thought as he waited to see if anything else would happen. When it remained calm he picked up the user's manual next to the seat and flipped through it, his brow furrowing in confusion over the complicated controls. This will take some getting used to.

He brought his Trotmobile around back into the garage and had them give it a full checkup, as he would have done with any ship he'd have flown in in Arcadia. "Y'know, you can personalize it if you want," one of the mechanic's commented as they went to work. "Change its paint job and give it a new name."

Ramirez raised an eyebrow, then set a hand on the console of the cockpit as he thought it over. He smiled as he said, "I shall call it... Corvus."

When he brought the Corvus back out of the garage, it was running substantially smoother and was colored jet black with a secondary coloring of red. He'd also had the right arm frame replaced with one that had a sword attached to it, and the left arm replaced with a cannon much like the frame on Vanilla's Earl Grey II. He'd also replaced the bird legs frame with the human ones and the roll bar 'windshield' frame with an actual roof and windshield to shield his rather pale complexion from the elements. The Moons may give me strength, but the sun just burns me, he thought sourly. It had been one of the more unpleasant experiences when he'd first came down to Arcadia, and he had no desire to experience it again in the Sabbia Desert.

Ramirez started piloting Corvus through the city back to the Nefroburg Station. Along the way, a part of him started to wonder why he was going to Happy Garland with Vanilla and Connie. You already have a Trotmobile, and you've learned other things here in Nefroburg. Why?

As if in answer, he rounded the corner into Station Square and saw Vanilla and Connie waiting for him in the Earl Grey II. Connie...

He'd met many beautiful women in his life, not least among them Belleza of the Armada. He'd had a minor crush on her when he'd first met her, but after what had happened on board the Aquila with Admiral Mendosa he'd developed a loathing for all Valuans, all humans. All of them except for Lord Galcian. He had seen the true way of the world and had the power and will to forge a better one.

But Connie... He was drawn to her for some reason. She was beautiful, but she was also--

"Ready to go then?" Vanilla said cheerfully as Corvus walked up.

Ramirez blinked and looked over at them, jarred out of his musings. Vanilla and Connie were smiling at him from the cockpit of the Trotmobile, and he found himself smiling back. "Yes, I suppose I am," he replied. He followed along as they headed for the city gate.

--

Willie watched with folded arms as Otto brought the Flap Flyer to the top of the hill. "Maybe we should increase the wing span," he suggested as Otto extended the wings out for another try.

"Let's try it with this increased wing flap first," Otto said enthusiastically. Willie smiled; no matter how many times they failed, no matter how many leg frames they went through with repeated landings, Otto's spirits never seemed to dim.

"Alright, here goes!" Otto brought the Flyer running, then jumped into the air and started flapping. He grinned as it reached its zenith, reveling in the feeling of being in midair with the vast field of Vision Ranch stretched below him. Then he yelped as something crossed in front of the Flyer and ducked his head just as it began its drop back to the ground.

Otto quickly stopped the Flyer and folded the wings back in as he turned to look up in annoyance. "Dang birds," he muttered. "I oughta..." He trailed off and gaped upward. Whatever he'd expected to see, it wasn't what was there. Instead of a bird, he saw... "A bunch of fish!?" he exclaimed. Sure enough, flying in the air above the rutted path and heading over towards Dr. Nutmeg's house was a school of fish, soaring along with their fins and tails as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"Hey bro, what's wrong?" Willie called down to him from the top of the hill. For once speechless, Otto just pointed. Willie turned and took a step backward in surprise. "Wha--!? Are those fish!?"

"Sure looks like it," Otto said, dumbfounded and awed at the same time as he watched them flit around through the sky. He looked back up the hill to make another comment to Willie, but found himself yelling, "Watch out!" instead.

Willie blinked and looked down the hill at Otto, then spun around and gaped as he saw what looked like giant snail floating through the air towards him. It had a large brown shell with green stripes, two orange eyes just below the edge of the shell with two grayish-brown tentacle-like appendages stretched out in front of it and a third portion of its slimy looking body extending backward under the shell.

"What the--!?" Willie yelled, then threw himself to the side as the snail thing suddenly raised its entire body up and fired a black cloud towards him from the bottom of its body. The plume continued past a short ways before dissipating. He rolled over to see the snail thing come floating at him as he lay on the ground and yelped in terror just as a large shape came running up and slammed into it, sending it flying into the wall of the garage.

"Stay away from my li'l brother, you... you... whatever you are!" Otto yelled as he walked after the thing in the Flap Flyer. The snail had righted itself and fired another black cloud at the Flap Flyer that dissipated around the Trotmobile with no effect. Otto extended a wing out and brought it crashing down onto the snail thing, snapping the wing in half in the process. But the snail thing slumped to the ground and gave a last squeak as it went still.

Willie got to his feet as Otto climbed down from their Trotmobile, and both brothers stared at the thing that had attacked them. "Wha... What the heck is that?" Otto asked, bringing a hand up and scratching his head through his cap.

"I dunno, bro," Willie replied, then looked back up as the school of fish went flying by overhead. "Hope there aren't any more of 'em, that's for sure."

--

The Cruiser Captain lowered his spyglass from his eye and shook his head. The reports of Valuan ships coming through the vortex had been right - monsters and fish were also coming through during their flight patterns in Mid Ocean. So far he'd seen Sky Sardis fish in addition to the more dangerous Marocca, Grouder, Throkryn and Scorfly monsters, flying in the air above Lake Luminoso and Meme Village. "They've probably shown up on the other side of the lake too," he said, and sighed. Valua might not have wanted to give the natives any idea of their presence, but the appearance of Arcadian creatures was going to be impossible to hide. Admiral Ramirez and Lord Galcian aren't going to be happy, he thought, and shivered.

--

Ramirez dodged his Corvus back as the spinning wheel of spikes rumbled past, and he briefly saw the terrified expressions of the two merchants tied to the flat end of it as one of them yelled, "Help me!". The glowing orange lights of the center of the device, which was apparently known as a Dervish, that were placed to look eyes swiveled to look at him behind the bars that protected them from attack. From behind the Dervish, Vanilla's Early Grey II aproached holding a boulder up with both arms. He flung it at the machine as Ramirez raised Corvus' arm and fired it's cannon into it. The central portion went up in an explosion, and the bar attached to the spiked wheel collapsed against the ground.

The bandit that had been controlling the Dervish went flying through the air and landed on the ground rolling. He quickly got to his feet and ran, looking over his shoulder in fear at the two Trotmobiles. Ramirez considered sending a cannon shot after him, but instead watched as the Earl Grey II walked over to the wheel and snapped the ropes holding the merchants to it. "Thank God you showed up!" one of them gasped as he stumbled, obviously still dizzy from the wheel's rolling.

"Not a problem," Vanilla called down, smiling and waving, then sighed as he looked back along the dusty ground to other darker circles of plowed up dirt where other Dervishes had stood. "It's horrible how many of these things are, and what they do to these merchants."

Ramirez grunted as he watched the merchants stagger off. These bandits certainly act like Black Pirates, he thought. The bandits in the Zibala Hill area, which led towards the Sabbia Desert, not only robbed the wayfaring merchants passing through the area but tortured them by tying them to the spinning wheels of the Dervish's sole weapon.

The two Trotmobiles continued their way down the hill, then across the stretch of flat ground in front of a stone wall with scrub bushes growing at it's base extending between two bare rock faces. "This should be Fort Raven," Connie said, "The gate to the Sabbia Desert. We should get some supplies while we're here."

The Earl Grey II and Corvus walked up the gate in the wall and waited for it to open before walking through. They had just barely made it through when a small green Trotmobile flew past them and slammed into the wall. Vanilla and Ramirez looked at the Trot, then looked forward to see a large black and red Trotmobile with a spider leg frame standing there.

"Ah c'mon, yer all too weak!" the large Trot's pilot said. "Isn't there anyone worth fighting!?" He suddenly noticed the two Trotmobiles that had just walked through the fort's gate and said, "Eh? You here t'fight me?"

Ramirez raised an eyebrow. Whoever this guy was, he didn't lack for guts.

"That's right," Vanilla said, rolling his shoulders to get any kinks out of them, "Let's get this over with."

"Ohhh ho! You've got a pair. But big talk won't help you none," the arrogant Trot pilot said. "You first, blondie."

Vanilla walked the Earl Grey II forward and a crowd of the fort's residents made a circle around them to watch. Ramirez leaned back in his cockpit seat and folded his arms, watching with a small smile. Having seen Vanilla in action and hearing his exploits, he knew the guy was going to get a surprise.

Somebody fired a pistol into the air to start the match, and the two Trots started circling each other. Ramirez's eyes widened as a giant spiked ball shot out from the black and red Trot, attached to a chain. Vanilla used his thrusters to dodge to the side of the attack, and the chain reeled the ball back in. The Earl Grey II charged in and slashed with the pickaxe as the ball was still getting reeled in, and the Trot rider slashed back with a sword. Vanilla dodged back and jinked his Trot around to avoid his attacks with the spiked ball, then hurried forward again and picked up the black and red Trotmobile. He immediately threw it and it hit the ground hard. Vanilla moved in and fired some cannon shots into it as it picked itself up from the ground, then dodged back as it landed another slash with its sword.

"Careful," Ramirez muttered under his breath, looking back and forth between the two. Vanilla's Earl Grey II was the far smaller of the two Trots, and he'd heard the smaller ones couldn't take as much punishment before they broke down. The bigger one fired it's spiked ball again, but Vanilla again jinked aside then rushed in and picked up the black and red Trot as it was reeling it back in. He again threw it immediately, then rushed forward until the Earl Grey II faced it's rear and started firing cannon shots into it at close range. The big Trot got up and tried to turn to face him, but Vanilla kept his Trotmobile walking to stay behind it, repeatedly firing his cannon. Eventually, smoke poured out of the black and red Trotmobile and it slumped to the ground with a groan of hydraulics.

"I...I'm Dudley!" the arrogant pilot - Dudley - said in disbelief, "How could I lose!?" He glared at Vanilla, and continued, "There's no way you'll get away with this!" He turned his black and red Trot around and walked it away sullenly.

Ramirez started walking Corvus forward as the green Trotmobile from before walked up to the Earl Grey II. "Are you alright?" it's pilot asked in a weak-sounding voice. "Mister, you're super strong! I didn't think anyone could beat Dudley! My name's Jimmy. Everyone else calls me 'Wuss' or 'Wussy' or 'Jimmy the big fat wuss'. What's your name?"

"I'm Vanilla."

"Vanilla? Like... the Vanilla? Didn't you beat the Killer Elephants? Man, no wonder you beat him..." Jimmy said.

"Jimmy, are you alright?" Vanilla asked.

"Ah, thanks for worrying about me. But, y'don't need to. I'm used to being picked on," Jimmy said matter-of-factly, shoulders slumped forward. "I'm supposed to be a gladiator, believe it or not," he continued, sounding proud. His voice weakened again as he continued, "Well, ex-gladiator. After years of hard work, I got a D Rank license from the Nefroburg Arena. But I just couldn't handle it. I ran away.

"I'm talking too much--sorry," he suddenly said, then muttered loudly to himself, "Why do I always do this!?" Vanilla and Connie exchanged a look, and Ramirez rolled his eyes. I know the weak are supposed to serve the powerful, but this guy couldn't even do that! he thought disdainfully.

"I'll be around here, so if you have any questions, just ask. Okay? Thanks again for today," Jimmy said, then walked his Trot away.

Ramirez walked Corvus forward and nodded to Vanilla, saying, "Nice job."

"Thanks," Vanilla said, grinning. "That Dudley guy needed to be taken down a notch. C'mon, let's go get some supplies."

The two Trotmobiles made their way towards the parking spaces near the marketplace, but before they could get there a bearded man wearing a gutrah and loose cotton clothes walked up. "Hey, you there!" he called up to Vanilla. "That was some match back there! I've never met a rider like you."

"Oh, it was nothing," Vanilla replied modestly, smiling.

"Phew, Lady Luck hasn't walked out on me yet!" the bearded man commented, then continued, "Would you mind escorting my humble little caravan here? I can't reach Alcazar de Condor without crossing this desert. There's thieves out there, y'know. We'll never make it without your help. Once we get there, I'm willing to pay you for each Trotmobile you protect. And I'll even pay for gas! So, whattya say, huh?"

Ramirez frowned as he looked at the man. He looked and acted remarkably like a Nasrean, which raised his hackles a bit. He glanced over at Vanilla to see he and Connie looking back at him. Ramirez was still frowning, so Vanilla sighed and looked back at the man, saying, "I'm going to have to decline."

"Hmph," the man said, looking sour. "Well, if you change your mind, just let me know."

The three of them descended from the two Trotmobiles after they'd parked and headed into Fort Raven's marketplace. It was a lively place, with crowds of people walking around and eyeing merchandise at stalls for spices, carpets, cheeses, fruits, antiques, clothing, bread and meats where merchants haggled with customers and loudly cried out the virtues of their wares. Near the back of the marketplace were entertainers, with a belly dancer and a snake charmer both performing for small crowds that tossed UR onto the carpets they performed on.

"This place is amazing," Connie commented as the three of them wandered around from stall to stall.

Ramirez was staring in surprise at some animals tied to the fence that marked off the marketplace. They were four legged creatures with long necks, light brown fur and great humps on their backs. "What are those things?" he asked.

"They're called camels," Vanilla replied. "I don't think I've ever seen any up close."

"Camels," Ramirez said thoughtfully. "They look almost like Dhabu, except--" He suddenly fell silent.

"Dhabu?" Connie asked, frowning in confusion. "What's a Dhabu?"

"A... creature I heard about in a story back home," Ramirez said. It was technically true, since the Elders had told both he and Fina about them and other animals on Arcadia. "They have two large legs and two small front arms, and they have a flat trunk hanging in front of their mouths and their fur is either purple or pink."

Connie giggled. "Wow! Those Dhabu sound amazing. Too bad they aren't real, I'd like to see one someday."

Ramirez smiled back, but felt a cold sweat break out. That was too close, he thought. Perhaps he really wasn't cut out for espionage... He was getting far too relaxed.

Vanilla and Connie walked over to the bread stall, while Ramirez headed over to the clothing stall across the way. "Welcome welcome!" the female merchant called to him, and gestured to the samples of clothing arrayed on displau around her. He blinked as he looked at the desert garb which looked almost exactly like Nasrean outfits he'd seen. "I suppose deserts can produce the same type of people," he murmured to himself softly, then smiled as he female desert garb, a billowy loose outfit of white and red cotton. "I'll take that," he found himself saying, and paid the merchant as she handed it over.

Vanilla and Connie walked over to him. "We just got some desert bread," Vanilla said. "It's eaten by the people here. It's kinda plain, but it's moist and it should keep well."

"What did you get, Ramirez?" Connie asked curiously.

"I got this desert garb for you..." he replied, handing her the outfit.

"Thank you," she said, smiling. "These clothes would be perfect for when it's hot outside."

"I wonder what else they have," Vanilla commented, and walked over to the clothing stall. He ended up buying himself a pair of swimming trunks made out of denim. "You never know when you'll need a swimsuit," he commented. "Are you going to get some, Ramirez?"

"Ah, no thanks," Ramirez replied. He'd tried swimming in the past, but found it only good for exposing his skin to the sun. Too bad there isn't some way to block the sun.

The three of them headed back to the gate leading out to the Sabbia Desert, but found a blue-uniformed policeman with a metal helmet and wood club guarding it. "It's dangerous out in that desert, what with the climate and the Desert Hornets," the policeman said. "I'm afraid we can't permit you to leave unless you have a reason for doing so."

Connie pleaded with him about her need to get to Happy Garland but the policeman was adamant, and he hadn't heard about the accident in the Quail Tunnel either. "It looks like accepting the caravan job is the only way for us to cross the desert," she said.

Vanilla looked over at Ramirez. "It really does look like the only way."

Ramirez shrugged. "If it's the only way. I wouldn't want Connie to miss her concert." He felt a warm feeling pass through him as Connie beamed at him.

"So, have you thought about my offer?" the bearded man asked as he watched them approach.

"We'll take the job," Vanilla replied.

"Really!?" the bearded man said in surprise, "Thank you so much!" He turned and called to the Trotmobiles behind him, "Yo! Get it started!" He turned back to Vanilla and said, "The name's Delsen. I'm the president of Deloche Emporium. I just founded it recently, so I need this venture to succeed. There's a little time before we leave, so stock up at the bazaar if you want. You can't get out without this logo on your Trot, so don't lose it." He handed over two license plates that displayed a bag full of gold. "I'll wait here in my Trotmobile. Let me know when you're ready."

The three of them climbed into their two Trotmobiles and started over to Fort Raven's garage. "We'll get these attached, and then we'll be on our way," Vanilla said.

Ramirez looked towards the gate to the Sabbia Desert and sighed. I hate the desert.