This has been really, really long in coming, I know. I'm working on it, I truly am.
(And, fair warning...you might not like me at the end of this chapter.)
Chapter 14: Lost in the Proverbial Rabbit Hole
Celebrating Auron's success in avoiding a mess didn't go much farther than feeding the chocobos, a piggy-back ride (of which Rikku simply had to have, too) and pats on his back. Clasko and O'aka promised him, however, that once they reached the Travel Agency in the Calm Lands they would get him a treat.
After cleaning the impermanent camp, the quartet set off on Goldie and Comet. O'aka was cheerful enough, teasing Rikku and Auron animatedly and discussing the future of O'aka and Clasko's Supremely Singular Choco-Item Delivery Shoppe with the other man (who was wondering why a simple name such as Clasko and O'aka's Delivery Service wasn't good enough for the merchant). But as they neared the four-way intersection that led to the Calm Lands and Bevelle, O'aka quieted until he was hunched over Auron and directed Comet to trot in Goldie, Clasko, and Rikku's shadow. Curious about her adopted uncle's behavior, Rikku leaned over dangerously and swatted at O'aka's sleeve. "What's the matter, Uncle? You look scared."
"No O'aka is scared of anything!" he blustered, rising in his seat and straightening his back. Realizing how close they were to Bevelle, however, he slouched once more and mumbled, "Bevelle simply don't sit right with me."
They were now passing by the two guards protecting the path leading to Bevelle. Surprised that anyone not of Al Bhed heritage would be troubled by the Very-Bad-Yevon-Men, Rikku scowled at the plainly bored guards. In the blink of an eye Rikku slipped through Clasko's loose grip, landed on the ground with a grunt, sprinted to the two, and kicked one's shin. "Bad man!" she accused over his yelp.
"Rikku!" Clasko and O'aka gasped. Auron stared bewildered, confused but certain there was a purpose to Rikku's antics. He wriggled, intent on helping her, but O'aka tightened his hold and kept the boy on the chocobo.
Rikku ignored the adults, glaring up at the baffled guards. "What'd you do to my uncle? Shame on you! He's a good person!" As she went to kick the man again Clasko spilled from Goldie and snatched Rikku up, smiling uneasily at the men with empty apologies tumbling from his lips. Rikku began spouting words in Al Bhed, words that all the adults assumed she had picked up from her father and none of which were anything six-year-olds were supposed to know. As Clasko struggled away with a handful of Rikku and Auron's attempts to follow up on Rikku's attacks were fouled by O'aka, the two guards traded looks and sighed as one.
"I told you we should have filed for a transfer."
"How could I have known crazy little Al Bhed girls would come and kick your shins? Maybe you should smile more; people wouldn't want to kick you so much."
"Oh yeah? Maybe you should wash behind your ears more, so you'll stop whining about how your girlfriend complains."
"Hey, at least I'm not trying to buy my way into the Temple!"
"You're the one who wants to be the next Praetor!"
"I think I'd make the best Praetor in over a century."
"Pfft. You'd make a good Praetor—of a shoopuf tribe."
"Jerk."
"Moron."
"And ye never go within an inch of anyone else who's three feet bigger'n ye, got it?" O'aka finished his impressive lecture, glaring down at the children—mostly Rikku, but Auron's attempt to back Rikku up had not gone unnoticed—some yards down the path leading to the Calm Lands. Clasko was putting in a commendable stern look over O'aka's shoulder, but both children were blinking up guilelessly. When O'aka added for them to stop, "tryin' to look innocuous when ye both know ye did wrong," the childishly innocent looks transformed into confusion, Rikku going so far as to ask, "What's in-hock-wuss mean?" After that O'aka and Clasko sighed in defeat, reiterated firmly never to approach adults like they did the guards ever again, and set back off down the road. No matter how gravely O'aka delivered the speech, though, Clasko couldn't help but notice the wide grin on the merchant's face as he undoubtedly recalled Rikku's determination to avenge her Uncle.
It took not much longer after encountering the two guards to reach the Calm Lands' southern entrance. When the chocobos finally broke free of the dark shelter the Macalania trees gave the pathway and into the brightly lit territory of the Calm Lands, Rikku gasped in amazement, echoed shortly by Auron's loudly vocalized, "It'sth huge!"
"Is this the Calm Lands, Uncle Clasko?" Rikku bounced in her seat, gazing up excitedly at him. The swirls in her eyes seemed to spin as they dilated. "I've never seen this before! And what's that? And that? And—"
"Whoa, Rikku, one question at a time!" Clasko chuckled, biting the inside of his cheek so he wouldn't laugh harder at her pouting expression; he was sure that would only make her pout more, which would turn it into a rather vicious but amusing cycle. "Yes, this is the Calm Lands. That," Clasko pointed to the tall structure being built below the cliff where they stood, "is a hovercraft. It'll be a part of the amusement park they're gonna open up in a year or so. Or so they say; I haven't really kept up on the progress."
"That over there's the Travel Agency," O'aka put in, pointing to the other object of Rikku's interest. The chocobos were nudged to follow the descending slope, and thankfully the birds seemed no more inclined to go too close to the ledge than O'aka or Clasko did. "We're gonna stop by there and pick us up some grub, and get into contact with ye's Pop."
"Oh, yeah," Rikku's face fell. She missed her Byby and Yunie and Tidus and everyone a lot, but…they'd be so mad. Were they so mad that they wouldn't even want them back? She and Brother had had a fight once, and Brother had said he was so mad that he'd never speak to her again, and for a whole day Brother didn't say a word to her, though by the next day he'd gone back to pushing her in the sand and being pushed back once more. Were grown-ups worse when they were mad? Would they not speak to her for forever? She didn't want that, she wanted Yunie to smile at her and Lulu to do up her hair like she did her own and she wanted Kimahri to lift her up high and and and….
What do I do? Rikku wailed internally. What would Byby do?
"Now, Rikku, we want this to run real smooth; it ain't everyday we kidnap a summoner right from under five guardians' noses. So, make sure you avoid anyone who'll give you a hard time, got it? If someone even looks at you cross-eyed, you go and take the long way, and save your strength for the big fish. Take all the time in the world; you only got one chance at makin' everything right, so there ain't no need to get all into a rush. You hear me?"
Making a face, Rikku put a hand to her temple. She had that headache again, the one that came whenever she heard that voice in her head. The headaches hadn't been there at first when she heard what she assumed was Byby's voice, but now it came and took its time going away.
No matter the ache in her head, Rikku decided the Byby voice had a point, though most of it she didn't really understand. If she and Auron went back now, before they could decide what to do to make Byby and everyone else less mad, they'd be really in for it. It would be better to make the ultra-super-bestest Al Bhed invention in the whole entire history of Al Bheds of Spira before going back to Byby, crawling into his lap, and doing what she did best—second-best, actually: asking him forgive her.
It wouldn't be a very good idea to blow up her Byby, after all. She'd learned her lesson from when she tried to give her teddy-bear Ruffy her own hand-made time bomb so he'd start talking to her again.
"Rikku?" Clasko's voice made her look up; he was looking at her like all grown-ups did when she thought to herself. "You alright? You looked pretty serious."
"Uh huh!" Rikku nodded brightly. Her smile faltered, then she lowered her head as she said, "Uncle Clasko? Can I ask you a favor?"
"Uhh, sure, Rikku," Clasko hoped this wasn't something along the lines of girlishness—he'd thought himself lucky so far, but he knew how his luck went as well as anyone else: frankly, it sucked. "What is it?"
"Can we stay with you for a little longer?" Rikku asked, retraining her gaze back up to him sharply.
They reached the bottom of the slope, and turned northward. O'aka angled his head to their direction, listening in on the conversation. Interest piqued because O'aka's interest was, Auron turned his head as well, large brown eyes filled with the single-minded focus only a child could achieve.
Blinking, Clasko asked bewilderedly, "I thought you missed your t-tytto, and were worried about making him madder by staying missing for too long."
"Yeah, but," Rikku twiddled her thumbs, gaze wandering over the Calm Lands before coming back to his, eyes rolling upward instead of tilting her head back, "Byby's gonna be mad anyway, and if we waited a little longer, I could make him something so yfacusa that he'd have to forgive us and not be mad." (awesome)
"Rikku, I'm sure your father just wants you home safe and sound, that'll be enough for him," Clasko tried to reason with the girl, but she shook her head fervently.
"You don't know my tytto! If he's mad, he'll be mad the whole way! Please? Please please pretty please with sand angels and apples and machina and my bestest teddy on top?"
It occurred to Clasko then that this girl was very knowledgeable in the art of making grown people who were supposed to have willpower crumble. He sighed, looking to O'aka for help.
The merchant was none, merely shrugging and saying, "If the lass wants to make her Pop a present, who're we to stop her? Ye got until tomorrow," O'aka warned as her face brightened. "We need to get the two of ye where ye belong, and that ain't on two chocobos wanderin' around the world."
Rikku looked horrified at the idea of having only a day to prepare her ultra-super-bestest invention. "I need to get supplies! Uncle Clasko, I need down! I need so much stuff, there's bound to be something around here, right?"
Before he had any chance for input Rikku squirmed and slid out of his grip like water out of his hands—he'd have to figure out how the hell she did that before she got herself into worse trouble than insulting the guards—and began exploring through the grassy fields, stopping every once in a while as she investigated something interesting. Seeing Rikku free and able to wander on her own, Auron looked up at O'aka with a pout of his own—Rikku must have been teaching him her art—and said plaintively, "I wanna pway with Rikku!"
With a chuckle and a, "Sure ye do, lad," O'aka slid off Comet and lowered Auron to the ground. "We wanna be able to see the both of ye at all times, got it?" O'aka called after them, watching as Auron, arms outstretched for balance, took hurried steps to make up for Rikku's longer gait.
Clasko joined him on the ground, relieving Goldie of his weight; both began leading their chocobos, giving them time to graze and recuperate from traveling with passengers. "What are we going to tell their guardians?" Clasko asked nervously. "I mean, her father's gotta be outta his mind worried about her, and if he learns we kept them a day longer just because we couldn't say no to Rikku, he's gonna—"
"Ah, don't worry about it, Clasko. There's only one person in Spira me fears, and the chance of High Summoner Yuna getting involved in this is zilch. After her, me ain't afeared of what anybody does."
"If you say so," Clasko sighed.
The children were looking carefully for items to be used (well, Rikku was; Auron kicked at the dirt and trotted happily over to Rikku with every one of his findings, including a rather repulsive and big spider that tried to eat at Auron's fingers) not too far ahead, giving Clasko something small to be relaxed about. Up until he noticed something moving on the horizon.
Something very low to the ground and very, very fast.
Clasko gave a shout, rushing to snatch Rikku and Auron into his grasp before the fiend could reach them. Auron yelped and Rikku cried in indignation at being torn from her project before they noticed the fiend approaching. Clasko attempted to back away but tripped over a rock Auron had tossed aside when Rikku informed him it wasn't valuable, landing on his behind as the lupine leapt into the air and snarled—
—Only to be struck aside by a blunt-ended bolt.
The quartet and chocobos watched on as four people surrounded the fiend, herding it away from the travelers with electric rods. A youthful man holding a crossbow came up to them with a sigh, wiping his face with a cloth. "I'm so sorry about that," the man bowed his head. "We're importing fiends to the Calm Lands for the carnival, but…well, sometimes the fiends don't like the relocation and get out of hand. No one was hurt, right?"
"I don't think so," Clasko swallowed the lump in his throat he was sure was his heart trying to escape from him; he let Rikku and Auron go, the latter of whom kept a tight handhold on his shirt—it wouldn't surprise Clasko if it took everything and then some to convince the boy that the danger was over and it was safe to let go.
Rikku, on the other hand, bounded over to where the fiend had landed, fingers weaving through the thick grass thoroughly. She paused, then scooped up two objects, hefting one in each hand. She inspected the one in her left, a deep blue princess-cut gem with a red, cross-shaped symbol embedded in the center, before doing the same to the one in her right, a trinity of golden, miniscule stars tightly attached to one another. She didn't have to know what they were to know they would be useful in her project, so she tucked the gem and stars into her pocket. The sharp points of the stars poking through her pocket made walking uncomfortable, however, so she took it out and put it in a pouch made of thick, tough leather that hung from her belt. No longer being prodded by sharp, pointy things, Rikku obeyed Clasko's call to return with only a cursory swipe of her foot over the area to ensure nothing had escaped her notice.
As she came up to the adults she saw O'aka gaping at Clasko as he kept Comet and Goldie from running off, and tugged at one side of his pants. "Whatsamatter, Uncle O'aka?" she asked curiously.
The merchant stared down at her, his look of amazement changing into humor as he laughed. "Me neither seen nor heard of Clasko dropping the reins to a chocobo for anything in the world. The sad part is, no one's ever gonna believe ol' O'aka when me starts spreadin' the news."
Rikku blinked, not quite sure why it was so utterly remarkable of Clasko letting the chocobos go. But she let a smile beam past her confusion and she cheered, "I'll back you up, Uncle O'aka! Now let's go to the Travel Agency and get us our—I mean, Auron's cake!"
As Clasko and O'aka suspected would happen, Rikku wound up sharing Auron's cake as she chattered away with the Al Bhed at the counter. O'aka had promised Rikku that her tytto wouldn't be contacted until the next day, but nothing kept Clasko from sending out a message to Lucil and Elma about lost children.
Nothing, except for the Al Bhed trader's unfortunate reply to his request.
"Our system's down. Rin's reorganizing the Agency from top to bottom, A to Z. Our messages aren't coming or going through. If it's a high-priority emergency, we can record your message, but we won't be able to send it out until at least tomorrow when our runner gets back from Mt. Gagazet." The trader shrugged her apology. "It's the best we can do."
Clasko gaped, then sighed. He supposed he should have expected his luck to return to its normal bad fortune after the lupine incident. Just as he turned to Rikku and Auron to get the name of their guardian O'aka bounded over, his usually-excited expression even more-so than usual. "Clasko! I've found it! I've found where our shop will be!"
Clasko paused. "Huh? What?"
O'aka actually bounced on his feet and grinned like a person with a devious thought firmly planted in his head. "Ye ever hear about a monster breeder situated here in the Calm Lands? The one who made all those nasty beasties from fiends all 'round Spira?"
Thinking on it, Clasko thought he remembered something of it. At least, he remembered running into Tidus, Lulu, and Wakka on multiple occasions holding some very weird weapons and looking like they'd let fiends have the run of the battle. They had said something about a wacked-out man who bred monsters that gave them a remarkable challenge to beat. "I heard something of it. What about him?"
"He up and left about a month ago," O'aka informed him, pumping one arm as he was overwhelmed with the idea of success finally at his fingertips. "He left his place completely empty! No fiends, nada, zip! The whole place is free for the taking for anyone with a keen eye for entrepreneurial opportunities. Let's nab it before a young buck with some daft idea gets ahold of it!"
Gazing at the nearly-possessed O'aka, Clasko wondered if he had much of a choice in the matter. "Just, give me a minute so we can get a message out to—"
"The Travel Agency'll still be here tomorrow!" O'aka interrupted, reaching down and nabbing Rikku by the waist in spite of the chocolate covering her right hand and the squeal she emitted at the unexpected action. "We gotta go stake our claim on that property now, before someone else does! Right, Rikku? Ye wanta see where our new shop will be while ye get yer present all ready for yer Pop?"
"Yeah!" Rikku crowed, squinting her eyes shut with her wide smile. Chocolate stained her teeth and rimmed her mouth. "Pleeeassse, Uncle Clasko? I wanna see your shop!"
"I wanna go, too," Auron trundled up to Clasko, using one chocolate-covered hand to tug at Clasko's pant-leg. Auron's face was covered even more in chocolate than Rikku's, and taking a glance at the boy's shirt, Clasko noticed an equally-large mess down his front.
Did he even get anything in his mouth? "Uh, right, Auron, but first let's get that chocolate washed off, huh? You too, Rikku," Clasko glared firmly at O'aka, whose excitement deflated once he figured out the former Chocobo Knight wouldn't cave and head out immediately. "C'mon, O'aka, let's get them cleaned up. We'll head out right after," he added with an eye-roll and sigh as O'aka instantly brightened.
The trader directed them to the restroom where they could find washing basins and a storage space with extra clothes. As the quartet headed into the back and disappeared from view someone else entered the Agency. The trader smiled and greeted him, recognizing the man as one of the people working on the amusement park. "How's construction going?"
"It's going," the man sighed, leaning on the counter. "All those damn fiends keep getting in the way. Those Malboros are the worst."
"Be glad that they are the worst," the trader shuddered. "No one knows what in the world happened to all those…those monsters the breeder created and still had before he left."
The worker gulped appropriately. "I've heard about them. They sound like a real nightmare. Well, no one's seen hide nor hair of anything out of the ordinary for the Calm Lands. We can just hope it stays that way."
"Yeah," the trader nodded in agreement. "Hope they went to some deep, dark cave to die and leave us people in peace of the Eternal Calm."
They fell silent, thinking over the past seven months and the delightfully Sin-free future. As Clasko, O'aka, Rikku, and Auron exited the Agency's underground extension (Auron clothed in a new and clean shirt) the trader smiled and waved a good-bye to them. Clasko tried to wave back, but O'aka growled something about wasting time and losing good real estate and yanked him away, circled by the two happy children.
"They look new," the worker remarked.
"Travelers passing through," the trader informed him. "I think the two adults were talking about setting up a shop in the breeder's old place."
"Shouldn't we warn 'em about the new breeds?" the worker asked.
The trader shrugged. "Like you said, there hasn't been any sign of them in the Calm Lands. As long as they don't go wandering into dark, creepy caves, I'm sure they'll be fine."
"You sure this is the way, O'aka?" Clasko asked hesitantly; they had left the northern boundary of the Calm Lands a while back, and were now wandering down a dusty path that went underneath the bridge leading the way to Mt. Gagazet. "I'm pretty sure I heard the breeder's locale was within the Calm Lands boundary, not outside of it."
"O'aka XXIII is most definitely sure, O'aka nodded, pointing ahead. "See, there's a cave over yonder! The person said it was set inside a cave."
Auron leaned to the side, peering past Comet's long, feathery neck. "We go that way?"
"Yep, that's gonna be our shop," O'aka nodded proudly. "Ain't it grand?"
"Let's leave the chocobos out here," Clasko mentioned, also peering at the cave. "I don't know if the breeder had it properly lit and laid out for chocobos. They'll be happier outside in the sun until we get a lighting system built in."
Rikku let out a whoop, dropping down off the chocobo after Clasko dismounted and rushed to the mouth of the cave. She tried to penetrate the darkness with her eyes, but everything remained in the shadows. The smile faded from her face as she felt the darkness oppress her, and she felt a growing ache in the back of her head. She didn't know what the worry in her meant, but it felt the same as back in Macalania, when the big, bad, nasty fiend had nearly gobbled her and Auron and her Uncles up.
The adults came up behind her, Auron's right hand held with Clasko's left. "You ready, Rikku?" Clasko smiled down at her. Emboldened by his mellow attitude, Rikku took Auron's free hand and O'aka's right, entering the cave in a line.
They went a slow pace, both for Auron's sake and for exploratory purposes. As the natural light from the outside dimmed, Clasko dug around in his pack for his flashlight marked with the emblem of the Chocobo Knights, one of the few remnants of his former career. The cavern was rather enormous and empty, but as they went from one cavern into a long, endless tunnel Rikku couldn't help but feel uneasy. There was something familiar about this cave. Something bad.
Looking to her right, where Auron walked beside her, Rikku saw Auron's face scrunch up into a look of discomfort. His smaller hand squeezed hers tightly.
He must have squeezed Clasko's, too, because the man glanced down and asked, "Auron, what is it? Do you need to go to the potty?"
The four of them paused as the adults waited for Auron's reply. The boy squirmed, giving a frown that looked more like a pout. "It'sth a bad pwace, Uncle Clasko," Auron told him quietly. "I know it. Bad, vewry bad."
"Yeah!" Rikku nodded furiously. "I don't like it one bit! Plus, I feel like I've been here before! And it's bad!"
"But, how could you have been here before?" Clasko frowned. Another mystery with these two children! Clasko felt as though for every day he was with the two delightful kids the more questions he had. "You've never even been in the Calm Lands before today—"
"Uh, Clasko?" O'aka spoke up suddenly; terror lined his face and his eyes widened to the size of spheres. "W-we've got ourselves a problem here."
Clasko turned sharply. Fiends had snuck in from behind them, from where the rancher could only guess, and were approaching them with hunger and murder in their eyes. The first line of fiends comprised of mostly lupines and Ahrimans, but in the distance Clasko could see the vague outlines of the enormous Iron Giants lumbering to them.
The two adults would have stood frozen had it not been for the squeals of the children as they turned and ran further into the cave. Echoing the youngsters, O'aka and Clasko raced after them, picking up one each as they sped away from the fiends. Clasko's flashlight rolled on the ground after he had dropped it in his fright, the yellowish beam attracting the attention of a few lupines. Losing interest fairly quickly, the fiends howled and ran after their prey.
Running straight through the tunnel, ignoring turns branching off the main pathway, Clasko led the way with Rikku in his grip into the final chamber, crying out in dismay as he found it a dead-end, bare of anything useful to fight off the fiends. He stopped abruptly, too abruptly as O'aka plowed into him and knocked Clasko three steps forward.
A flash of light threw the chamber into blindingly-painful relief, but when the light faded and the fiends entered to tear their prey into pieces, there was no one left in the chamber.