IX
"Garnet!" Eiko ran up to the queen, her weird overall-dress thing spilling over with berries. "Lookit! I found a clever way to store all of the berries that we find!"
Garnet smiled as she carefully placed some more berries in her basket. Even as a queen, picking berries was an enjoyable activity. "Eiko, as clever as that may be, it's very unsanitary."
"How?" Eiko asked. She plopped down on the ground, only to have all the berries in her overalls be squashed. Her face went pale. "Oh… that is an unpleasant feeling."
Garnet laughed at the girl's misfortune. "I tried to warn you."
Suddenly, there was a blonde flash. Garnet realized that her basket was gone!
She stood up, her fists clenched at her sides and her porcelain face in a scowl. "ZIDANE!" she shouted.
Up in a nearby tree was the monkey thief, hanging on a limb by his long tail. He mockingly ate the blackberries upside down. "Mm… delicious!"
Eiko got up and stomped her foot, causing some dark juice to run down her leg. "That's so mean of you!" she looked up at the queen. "Are you just gonna let him get away with this?" she looked back at Zidane. "You need to treat Garnet nicer! She's you're girlfriend and you should be lucky that she even gave you a chance!"
Zidane just laughed at them and continued eating.
"Where berries?" a new voice asked. Quina came waddling up to the girls, his/her face blank as usual. Garnet pointed up in the tree. Quina gasped. "What? You no can eat berries until I make yummy food! I make cobbler from berries!"
"Here, Quina," Eiko offered. "You can use the berries that I picked."
Quina looked at her blankly (although that's not saying much… Quina always looks pretty blank). "I no can use squishy berries. I need not squishy berries."
Garnet sighed. "Quina, I thought that you were supposed to be in your English class right now. You haven't improved your grammar at all."
"I no need class! All I need know is how make yummy food!"
"Hey!" Eiko shouted. "We have bigger fish to fry than English classes! Zidane still has your berries, Garnet!"
Slice!
Zidane shrieked as the limb that he was hanging from was severed. He fell to the ground, the basket of berries toppling over. Berries spilled all over the ground.
"The princess must not be harassed, you chimp!"
Garnet smiled as Steiner shouted at the monkey on the ground. "Steiner, I'm not a princess anymore," she reminded.
Steiner gave a clumsy salute. "O-of course, princ—uh, your highness."
"What do about Zidane?" Quina asked.
Without a word, Eiko went to Zidane and sat on him, causing all the berry juice to leak onto him.
"This is a suitable punishment," she stated.
