Okay, so this isn't quite nearly as long as I'd wanted, but alas I wanted to postbefore the weekend. This was about where the story began to wrap up, before I decided I wanted to make the story a little longer (and have more adventures for Rikku and Auron!) so I've had to edit a little. I hope this clears up a little bit of the parent-situation with Auron; if not, then feel free to email me and demand an explanation.

Chapter 7: Lady Rikku and Squire Auron of the Al Bhed Knights Strike!

"Rikku, I'm hungwy," Auron tugged at his companion's shirt hem.

"You're always hungry," Rikku replied. "Just hang on a little longer, alright? There's gotta be some nice people around here somewhere that'll feed us."

After the hectic ride in the machina that resulted in them pressing many buttons and unexpectedly being thrown out of the zooming craft, they had walked through the forest path. Rikku was certain this place looked familiar, but Auron's short attention span did not help to confirm or deny her suspicions. They wandered ahead helplessly, pausing once in a while to marvel at the funny trees and interesting plant growth. Several times Rikku kept Auron from chasing a butterfly and veering off the path into the dense unknowns.

Being a big sister is a lot of work, Rikku sighed mentally as she picked a stalk and stuck it in her mouth, unheeding as to who or what had trodden on it previously.

Unseen by her, Auron copied her actions, wrinkling his nose at the bitter taste on his tongue. His eyes focused on a rather large, black, hairy bug crawling along the stem before it flew away, startling him into dropping the stalk from his lips. He watched it spiral away for a moment before scurrying to rematch Rikku's slightly longer gait.

Oblivious to Auron, Rikku kept her line of thought, It's a good thing I'm such a mature grown-up. What would Auron do without me to keep an eye on him? Probably get lost and hurt and talk to a whole buncha strangers and get eaten by big, ugly, mean witches, is what—

"Rikku," Auron's tiny voice interrupted her thoughts. "What's that?"

Rikku looked to where the boy pointed. Off the beaten path, still a distance away, sat a little cottage, smoke puffing out of the chimney.

"It's a house, silly," Rikku tugged his hand, talking around the stalk in her mouth. "C'mon, they'll have food there."

"Food?" Auron followed, hurrying as fast as he could to keep up with her longer legs.

"Yeah, food!" Rikku encouraged him.

"Yay! Food!" Auron began to outright run, which turned out to be a mistake.

"Ooof!" a woman's voice cried as Auron ran smack-dab into her.

"Sorry," Rikku apologized, helping a sniffling Auron to his feet and brushing off the grass on his knees. "He wasn't looking."

"Oh, look at this mess!" the woman snarled, smacking the dirt from her dress. "It will take forever to clean this!"

"Dona, calm down," a man soothed the woman. "They're just kids, they didn't mean anything by it. Besides, you're already dirty, so what difference does it make?"

"Barthello, don't you start with me. If you hadn't convinced me to visit the Thunder Plains, we would have a lot less muck on ourselves and already be in Kilika." Dona finished ridding herself of the offensive particles, then glared down at Auron, shaking a finger at him. "You're a bad boy!"

Auron hung his head, nearly in tears. Seeing this, Rikku spat out the stalk and shouted indignantly, "Hey, stop scaring him, you big bully! It was an accident, he didn't do it on purpose!"

"Dona, please, don't yell at him," Barthello tried. "He can't be any older than four. He's got to wait until he's seven before he can start acting maliciously and knocking poor ladies to the ground, you know."

Dona folded her arms haughtily. "Hmph. I suppose. Some parents they have, though. Shouldn't they know how to look after their children?"

"Hey, my tytto is the bestest tytto in the whole world!" Rikku glared. "Don't make fun of my tytto!"

"Bad lady not nice," Auron murmured from behind Rikku's legs, where he had retreated for safety from the angry woman.

"I'm not a bad lady," Dona frowned. "I'm a Sum—well, ex-Summoner. I nearly saved Spira from Sin, I'll have you know."

Rikku stuck out her tongue. "Yeah, right. You're not nice enough to be a good Summoner. You yell at little boys and you treat kids like shoopufs! You're a mean, old, bad lady! And you're a liar! Sin got beatlast yearby my uncle, the coolest Summoner in the whole history of Spira! Everyone and anyone who's got at least a chocobo for a brainknows that!"

Barthello shied away from Dona as she swelled and howled furiously, "How dare you! Who are you? I'll give your parents grief for not raising you proper!"

"Not telling! You guys are strangers!" Rikku pulled Auron behind her as they walked away. "In fact, we shouldn't even be talking to you!"

"Bye bye," Auron waved to Barthello; the boy thought the man was much nicer than the old lady.

"Bye now, take care!" Barthello grinned in amusement, which quickly faded when he saw Dona's disapproving face. "What? They're just kids."

"Hmph!" Dona turned to walk away, when something landed in her hair with a sickening thwap! Mud and worms dripped down the back of her dress as Dona screeched.

"Ha!" Rikku shouted as Auron clapped for her. "Lady Rikku of the Al Bhed Knights strikes again! C'mon, Squire Auron, let's go!"

Dona glared daggers at the retreating backs of the children as they faded into the tall grasses. Barthello frowned, then asked Dona, "Did she just say Rikku and Auron? Like High Summoner Yuna's guardians? And what was that about her uncle beating Sin last?"

"Ooh, does it really matter?" Dona hissed. "Since little pretty famous princess Yuna destroyed Sin, everyone in the whole world will name the children after her party. Little Aurons and Wakkas and Lulus and Yunas will be running rampant across the globe. These two won't be the last."

With one last dirty glare at the vanished Rikku and Auron, Dona led the way to the Moonflow, Barthello loyally marching beside her—

—Until Tidus slammed bodily into her slim form, knocking them both to the ground.

"Oh, for Yevon's sake!" Dona climbed back to her feet. "What is it today? Everyone keeps barging into me!"

"Sorry, Dona," Tidus gasped. "Hey, you haven't seen any kids around here? One's about ye high, the other's like this? A girl and a boy?"

"Actually, we ran into each other just a bit beyond," Barthello jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "I'll tell ya, the little girl's got spunk."

"That's my princess!" Cid huffed, having caught up to Tidus and hearing the compliment.

"You should teach her manners," Dona glared at the Al Bhed leader. "She threw mud in my hair."

Cid narrowed his eyes at her. "You sayin' my family's uncivilized?"

"Hey, come on," Wakka jogged a bit past the group, "if we don't keep moving, it'll take us longer to catch up!"

"Right," Tidus nodded, and nearly moved on when he heard Dona's next comment:

"Horrible little boy, probably learned every nasty trick from Tidus. I hope he gets struck by lightning."

Tidus twirled, stepping up to Dona. "Actually, Dona, I learned everything I needed to know from him. Auron's a great man, and he's done more in his lifetime than you could ever hope to do even beyond your afterlife!"

"Excuse me?" Dona sneered. "I wasn't speaking of Sir Auron, you little twit. I was speaking of the savage boy that we ran into before."

Before Tidus could react, Yuna came forward and clouted Dona across the cheek hard enough to make her fall once more. As everyone stared, Yuna spoke steely, "That 'savage boy' you are referring to happens to be a sweet, endearing child that loves life and wouldn't wish harm on anyone, and who will grow up to be a loyal, reliable man! You should feel ashamed that you speak so ill of a child!"

Yuna stormed away, leaving in her wake six stunned guardians, a shocked uncle, and a humiliated summoner.

"Wow," Tidus whistled. "And I thought Lulu had a temper. Ow!"

"You should be more careful, Tidus," Lulu walked by, hand losing its glow from a Fire spell. "Mine is easier to light."

"Are we gonna get food thoon?" Auron asked Rikku as they trundled further to the little cottage they had spotted before. "'Cause I'm weally hungwy."

"Real soon, my dear Squire," Rikku assured him, pleased with herself at the new game they could play. "As soon as we get to that cottage, on my word as an Al Bhed Knight."

Upon reaching the yard, they spotted a stout Guado woman, hunched over her garden bed. She hummed the Hymn of the Fayth as she pruned an overly large bush of flowers.

"Excuse me?" Rikku said softly.

The Guado woman looked over. Her eyes narrowed upon spying the two.

"We're really hungry, ma'am," Rikku dug the toe of her shoe into the path. "We were wondering if you had any food we could eat."

Auron peered at the woman from behind Rikku. The woman looked mean. But, if she had food. . . .

"Well, perhaps a bite," the Guado nodded, her eyes losing their narrowed look. "Very famished, thee look."

"Yes, we're very hungry," Rikku replied. "Thank you very much."

As the children entered the little cottage, the Guado woman smiled and followed them with a slight cackle.

The children looked around as the woman close the door behind her, smelling the aroma of fresh-baked bread and spices. Auron, if anything, looked hungrier. Even Rikku lost some of her control and fidgeted anxiously.

"Would like, what thee?" the woman asked, smiling down at the children.

"Oh, anything, Ma'am," Rikku nodded. She backtracked, saying, "Except Brussels sprouts. We don't like Brussels sprouts."

Nodding kindly, the Guado woman left the table for the stove top, humming the Hymn once more and thus not hearing the conversation that carried on behind her.

"What are bwussel spwouts?" Auron asked Rikku curiously.

"Really bad things that taste like bad socks," Rikku told him sagaciously. "It's what the Maesters eat every day up in Bevelle. That's why they're so cranky and mean all the time."

Auron blinked, having recognized the name Bevelle but unable to place the term. He frowned in concentration, but could not drudge up any memory of a place called Bevelle. "What's Bebelle?"

"A bad place," Rikku said as they followed the Guado woman to a table in the center of the kitchen. "It's where aaaalllll the bad people live, especially," she added in a low voice, "lawyers and money swindlers. Maesters are really bad, 'cause they're liars and bad men and . . . ni-nincompoopers. And if you lie, or call your tyttos names, then you'll get sent to Bevelle and never be happy again! That's what tytto says, and tytto's always right."

Highly impressed, Auron gazed upon her with wide eyes and an 'o' shaped mouth.

"There be, for thee," the woman interrupted, placing a plate of hot sandwiches on the table. "Now, nice children, where thee parents?"

Rikku and Auron gobbled up a sandwich, Rikku saying between chews, "Mine'sth in Bikanel. We got stuck—" she swallowed hugely, "in a plane, and it took off, and landed us by the big river full of fireflies."

Auron looked between adult and child, a thoughtful expression on his face. He said slowly, hesitantly, "No pawents. Just Tidus and Yunie and evewybody elsthe."

The Guado looked down on them with a contemplative stare, then smiled widely. "Ah, see I do. Will thee excuse me? Flowers tending, I must." She exited the house, but not before she looked significantly at her stove where a pot of liquid boiled.

Auron followed her departure, having almost turned completely around in his chair. Now he sat properly and asked Rikku, "Awren't we not s'posthed to talk to stwangers?"

"She's not a stranger, you sillyhead," Rikku replied. "She's feeding us."

In the back of Rikku's mind, somewhere unbidden, a memory arose, making her face scrunch up. "Never talk to people you don't know, even if they offer you the cooked Maester's heart on a platter."

"But Pooops, what if—"

"No buts! I ain't gonna let my little girl grow up thinking she can trust every tysh person on Spira. You got that? Notta one!"

Rikku didn't remember having that talk with her tytto. But she hadn't gotten so far as beating Brother to the bestest assignments by not listening to him thus far.

Sliding out of her seat, she left Auron filling himself with the sandwiches as she peered into the pot. Green liquid bubbled inside, making her uneasy. Trotting into the adjoined living quarter, she spotted a broom, several deformed dolls, and a pointy, well-worn hat neatly placed by the hearth, the fire blazing an unnatural red.

Rikku's eyes widened. The Guado lady was a witch! And she was feeding Auron and her food! Just like in that story Tytto had told her about Hansy and Gredy!

"Auron!" the boy paused in his bite, looking at the older girl curiously. "Get as many sandwiches as you can, and then we go!"

"But," Auron stuck out his lower lip in his pout, "I'm tired."

"She's a witch, Auron," Rikku whispered at him desperately, jamming her pockets full with the sandwiches. "She's gonna stuff us up and then stick us in her pot next so she can eat us!"

Auron's eyes grew wide. "Eat us?"

"Hurry, Auron! Before she comes back in!" She grabbed his hand and bolted for a window, hidden from the Guado's view. "We'll run away and find Tytto and Yunie and Tidus. They'll protect us from the witch-lady!" She climbed onto the sill first, then pulled Auron up and through the window. Falling into a bush placed below, they managed to scramble out with nary a shout but with a few scratches.

Unnoticed, hidden by the overly-green foliage, Auron and Rikku disappeared into Spira's wild.

Ah, bad Cid, telling Rikku all those stories about witches and Hansy and Gredy (Hansel and Gretel). And it does appear that no one on Spira knows how to look after kids, bwahaha.