CHARACTER COUNTER: 2

A/N: This Chapter marks our first cameo for Zaz9-Zaa0 (apologies for the mispelled name in the previous chapter...Here goes...All cameos, may we remind you guys, are going to be in bold you know which is a cameo and which are characters in the fic...May Galtea watch over you!

Chapter 26: Chocobos and Cockatrices

The sun was a brilliant blaze that day, she remembered. The day in which a woman would remember as the happiest day of her life. She had woken to the sounds of birds chirping outside her balcony and when she had straightened up and opened the doors, the brilliant white birds took flight into the sky, easily distinguished in the eggshell blue of the sky. Ashe remembered that she had been smiling that day, a smile brighter than any she had ever given and her uncle, Marquis Halim Ondore had teased her about it.

"'tis true that all women are not themselves on their wedding day," he had said and Ashe had laughed at that. "Even if it is an arranged match."

Ashe had caught the concern in her uncle's voice when he added that and she had left the balcony to sit with him on one of her many sofas.

"Oh uncle, I have no doubts that I will be happy with Lord Rassler. Already he has shown me that this marriage will bring good for both Nabradia and Dalmasca. For me, that is all I can wish for."

Halim had shaken his head at that. "Not yet twenty years of age and you already speak like that of your father. I would have hoped that you are happy because you love this young man. It is a reason far more selfish than the one you have given me, but I must admit it is the answer I was hoping for."

"Love?" Ashe had been startled at the word. She had grown up reading stories of love in the palace library but she never fully understood it, after all her father and mother had an arranged marriage and though they had not loved each other, Ashe knew that they had been very fond of each other and had ruled Dalmasca well despite not loving each other. She had that much to hope for in this marriage with Lord Rassler.

"'tis to strong a word to describe what feelings I have for the heir of Nabradia, uncle. But I cannot say I hate him. He is intelligent and wise, very unlike the men of the court of Dalmasca that I have been exposed to. Therefore I am content with that."

Marquis Ondore had laughed at that and proceeded to give Ashe his own wedding present. It was an intricate gold chain, embedded with small diamonds. It would go very well with her own wedding dress that Ashe declared she would abandon the otherwise heavy choker the Palace Seamstress had given her to wear in order to use her present.

Two hours later, dressed in a splendid frock of soft white material and gold embellishments, Princess Ashe walked silently with her father to the chariot that would lead her, as well as Prince Rassler to the Dalmascan Cathedral. Her own Father, King Raminas, said very little about her impending marriage to the Nabradian prince but Ashe did not wonder at this. As a child, she had grown to learn that her father was a very busy man and could not be bothered with certain questions she had.

"I am proud of you, my daughter." The king said however, a few steps before reaching the enormous carriage being pulled by several golden yellow chocobos. Ashe withdrew her sight from these lovely animals to look startlingly at her father.

"Father?" she asked quietly and King Raminas smiled. "You will be a fine queen of Dalmasca one day, Ashelia." He had said this wistfully and made Ashe more alarmed. "If only I will be there to watch you rule,"

Ashe had reached out for her fathers hands and held them tightly. "You will be here Father, I shall make sure of it."

King Raminas had smiled once more and kissed her brow, right beneath the soft brown locks that fell across her forehead. "You look so much like your mother. So very beautiful."

Ashe smiled at this now, the smile that she had had when she woke was back in her lips. King Raminas tilted her chin. "That is a smile befitting a Lady of Dalmasca,"

Her father soon handed her over to the carriage with Lord Rassler. Ashe kept her head down as her hand accepted his, because she had never touched him until today and it made a faint blush appear at her cheeks. If the prince noticed this, he did not say but merely gave her his compliments of looking very lovely.

Ashe could not find the words to return his compliments, as he had looked so extraordinarily handsome in his ceremonial armor of white and gold, a compliment of her own wedding gown. She merely kept her head down and snuck glances at him as she allowed him to place the finely made veil with the blue Charybetrix feathers on her head.

"You must think I am calm about this whole affair," he whispered to her as he helped adjust the several layers of her veil around her gown. Her grey eyes snapped over to him as she had been thinking along the very same lines when he had said it to her.

"Do not look so surprised, " he chided gently in that calming deep voice of his. "I saw it in your eyes."

That made Ashe look away again. Rassler gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "This is my first wedding too," he said and that made Ashe smile once more.

"I had feeling that it was not, Prince Rassler Helos Nabradia," she chided, using his full name for the first time. She had not meant it to be a jest but Rassler was already laughing.

"If I did not know better, you accused me of looking old, Princess Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca." He said.

They smiled at each other and it was warmer than any smile they had ever shared.

The rest of the day had been a blur to Ashe. She vaguely remembered the wedding parade with all of the citizens of Dalmasca watching and cheering them on, standing side by side in that humongous carriage, shouting well wishes against the din of the music and the marching of the other creatures. She did remember that her heart was pounding heavily against her breast and that she was growing more nervous at the minute. She was grateful that the people of Dalmasca seemed to embrace their soon-to-be new prince and she saw with awe that Rassler seemed to accept them as well. He was beaming at them, even waving at those who waved at him, his deep brown eyes sparkling against the extravagance of their carriage. Once her stare had brought his gaze to hers and that warm smile was back on his face once more. She had known then that that smile was only for her. She smiled the same smile in return and felt her hand being held in his. That was the time that Ashe knew she was meant to love this man even if he was not the son of the king of Nabradia, and she was going to do everything in her power to be able to show that to him.

XOXOXO

"Queen Ashelia?" a voice said interrupting her thoughts and the Lady Ashe was forced to return to reality in an unpleasant bump. A frown was already forming in her lips when she saw the General of the Dalmascan Knights standing before her.

"Yes, what is it General Venitol?" her voice was clipped and cold. "Do you not know it is not polite to enter without acknowledgement?"

The young general looked sheepish, his gauntleted hand coming up to scratch the back of his spiky, golden yellow hair, making him look like a young boy caught in misbehavior. Ashe remembered how she had approached this young knight after the defeat of Vayne; he was the one who kept the Resistance at Rabanastre working in the absence of Vossler and herself, and she was impressed by his mind and skills to do such a task at such a young age. That was why when she restored the Knights of Dalmasca and Basch had chosen to watch over Larsa, Ashe did not hesitate in asking Tevan Venitol to be its head.

Ashe stared at this general, with his deeply tanned skin that made his royal blue eyes seem bluer than usual, and thought that he was not as old as she was, possibly younger and unlike her, he could manage to still look his age and act like it in certain times.

When he was not clad in his armor, a set that looked uncannily like Basch's old one, he was dressed like he was now, in dark short pants and a bright chocobo-yellow shirt that exposed his chest leaving only a handful of belts and buckles to attach this shirt to his pants. He also had a pauldron on his left shoulder with several more buckles as well as a gauntlet and glove that covered all of his left arm while his right bore only a glove and the sleeve of his bright shirt. And to finally bring this strange outfit together was a necklace around his neck that sported an intricate design that resembled something of a distorted cross.

"Well, what is it that made you come here in my office unannounced?" Ashe continued though she worked hard to lessen the sternness of her voice. Venitol must have noticed her tone because he straightened up and looked serious once more.

"We have news of strife within Archades, your Majesty. It goes ill with the Emperor." He spoke in a serious voice that he only used when the situation arose. Queen Ashe looked up at his words and a frown was back on her lips, though her eyes bore concern.

"What kind of strife?" she asked, sitting down on the chair behind her desk, her grey eyes were boring into the young general.

General Venitol shook his head. "Forgive us, Your Majesty. But the sources of our information could not give us anything more detailed than that. We thought that since we are somewhat in connection with Archades, you would like to hear this piece of news."

Ashe now stood and nodded. "Thank you, Tevan." She spoke his first name and surprise etched on the general's face. "You have done your duty beautifully."

The general merely bowed, knowing that the words his Queen spoke meant it was time for him to leave. When he did sneak a glance at his queen before he left, he saw her exactly as he had found her when he first entered the room, looking out the large window overlooking the ruins of the great sky-fortress, the Bahamut, a thoughtful frown upon her lips.

XOXOXOX

When Larsa woke the next day and found himself a bit confused as to his surroundings, it took him only a few moments for everything that had happened to him so far in the past two days to come whizzing back at him. He had not had a decent night's sleep since his escape from Archades and had not fully realized how exhausted he had been until he woke up that morning feeling a lot better of late. He found that he was alone in the huge tent, though he could see the shadow of a guard just outside of it, ready to protect Larsa if the situation needed it.

He let a sigh escape from him as he straightened from his cot and rummaged around for his boots or any part of his clothing that was still in the tent. Tossing over the thin blanket Corporeal Olen had provided for him, Larsa managed to find one part of his boot underneath the said cot, but the other one was a problem.

Larsa took some time to find the other boot and had only straightened up from under the table of the tent when Penelo came barging into the tent, a smile about her lips.

"Good morning!" she cried as she entered, and Larsa managed only to scrape his head on the edge of the table before hurriedly straightening up to greet her.

"Oh!" Penelo's embarrassed gasp made Larsa look up.

It took a few minutes for Larsa to realize that Penelo's red face was the result of him being bare-chested and dressed only in his trousers. The choice of going away from his usual sleeping attire came back to haunt Larsa as a blush immediately came up to match that of Penelo's. Larsa hastily reached for the thin blanket that had fallen on the floor to cover up.

"Oh..uhmm…Don't worry about it, I'm sorry, I should…have…uhm…given some warning…I-I'll leave you now!" before Larsa could say anything to apologize for his attire, Penelo had stammered her own apologies and left the tent hurriedly.

Larsa watched her go, his head cocking to one side curiously, all embarrassment forgotten. Only now did he realize that Penelo's embarrassment was not because of catching a male half-naked in a tent, seeing as how she spent most of her life in the presence of barely-shirted men in Dalmasca, but of another thing entirely. The only other explanation to her embarrassment was that she had never expected to see him half-naked in any matter. The thought made Larsa unconsciously grin in spite of himself.

The next visitor of the tent was Vaan and his response to Larsa's lack of dress was so opposite than that of Penelo that Larsa felt a blush come up again. He never did sleep bare-chested and Larsa tried desperately to think of the reason why he did it in the first place. Vaan, however did not give him any time to ponder on his reasons because as soon as Larsa was dressed in his old Archadian clothes, Vaan regarded him thoughtfully and said rather bluntly.

"We're not going to go anywhere with you wearing clothes as those. Anybody a mile away can spot that their Archadian."

"I beg your pardon," Larsa said humbly though he could feel his ears becoming warm. To be apprehended about his clothes for the second time was cause enough for embarrassment!

"Hmm..." Vaan continued to look at him thoughtfully. "I know, you can come in our tent and I'll look for some clothes for you. Shouldn't take long. You might want food to, I bet. Zirenne's shop cooks a mean breakfast. Come on!"

Larsa had no choice but to follow Vaan most discreetly out of the tent. The person standing guard outside was Olen, and he fell into stride with them neatly as they wove through the maze of tents to where Vaan's tent was. Larsa waited outside impatiently with Olen as Vaan went to find the said clothes. He returned a minute later to hand Larsa a small pile of clothes.

"These might get a little of getting used to," Vaan said as Larsa accepted the clothes with a word of thanks. "I'll be waiting outside if you need help."

Help? Larsa could not help thinking to himself, as he entered Vaan's tent. What help would he need to wear clothes? The young Emperor could not help feel a bit patronized at the thought that just because he was the youngest in the group did not mean he was a child. Thinking that he would just have to prove to everybody that he was not a child, Larsa began to dress.

XOXOXOXO

Larsa walked alongside Vaan after a few minutes, trying to look uncomfortable. Vaan had been right that these clothes would need getting accustomed to, as the dark blue short pants, loose sleeveless shirt bared at the chest and the metallic gauntlets and knee guards were short of making Larsa as if he were wearing only bits and pieces of an entire outfit. The only thing that remained of his old clothes were his boots, which were sturdy and unassuming in their black leather. He tried not to push his shoulder-length hair behind him once more as Vaan had said that the ponytail had been regarded as Larsa's trademark hairstyle.

Trademark hairstyle? Larsa did not even know that he had a trademark hairstyle! He had preferred not to cut his jet-black hair as the years passed but he had always kept them away from his face. Now that he had set it loose, he was starting to regret the thoughts of letting it grow.

"You would do well to stop fidgeting, "Lamont" " Olen whispered calmly beside him, with his dark brown locks and onyx jacket. "You have to look as if you are comfortable in your attire."

Larsa could only nod, keeping himself from telling Olen that at the moment, Larsa was wearing less than Olen and therefore had no reason to complain. He merely stole a glance at Vaan, who despite his attire seemed to walk at ease. Then again, Larsa had never seen Vaan in anything else save the fete, where the Hunter had donned on a shirt for the occasion.

Larsa followed Vaan towards the largest wooden building where Nimbus had pointed out the tent rentals to Olen. Thoughts of Nimbus gave Larsa another thought.

"Where are the others?" he asked Vaan looking about him to see if any other members of the Order of the Tournesol or his Judge Majisters were also following him though rather discreetly.

"The others of the Order have already left Camp, my lord." Olen supplied. "They await my return and Captain Sephyr's orders. From what I understand, we are not to follow you in your journey to Dalmasca."

Larsa nodded, though he did not regret ordering the Order of the Tournesol to return to Archades with Zargabath. He knew that this part of his journey was fragile, and he needed people who understood that; people who had undergone the same kind of journey before.

He did not want to explain his actions to Olen, nor did he need to, so Larsa turned towards Vaan and asked where Penelo was.

A knowing smile flitted across Vaan's face before he turned to answer Larsa. "She said something about repacking stuff or something like that. She said we'll meet her later when we're done. Said something about not wanting to disturb you or something like that." Again another smirk. Larsa tried his best to ignore the heat that threatened to dominate his face and instead focused on answering Vaan.

However the only thing that came out of his mouth was "Oh, very well then." And he said no more. Vaan was laughing silently, but did not comment as he pushed the door to the wooden store open.

The store was neat and had a cozy feeling about it, despite the earliness of the day. A large bar started from one end of the store to the other, where several hunters stood on stools and were eating breakfast. A maiden with a pleasant face and dressed in Phon Coast colors of blue and white. She waved behind her at Vaan and his companions as she proceeded to give her customers their orders.

"There are a couple more tables over there," she called pointing and not looking at them again as another customer asked if he could rent a tent.

"That is Zirenne?" Larsa asked Vaan as the hunter led them to an empty table.

"Yep. A heart of gold that girl has. Though she could get a little touchy when things don't go her way."

"She is a hunter?" Larsa asked sitting down in his seat.

Vaan shrugged. "That depends on how you look at it. She used to be I think, she still goes on hunts sometimes, if she has free time. But mostly, she stays here and makes good business. I think she likes it better to stay in one place than just moving around too much."

"And you call running this place staying in one place, Vaan?" a feminine voice cut in and they saw that the owner of the store, Zirenne had come to take their orders. She smiled at them as Vaan introduced Larsa, but when Vaan pointed out Olen who had been silent the minute they entered the store, her smiling face turned into a scowl.

"So, you dare come back you thieving coward you?" her voice rose into an alarming pitch that Vaan flinched, Larsa's eyes were wide but Olen just raised his eyebrows.

"You are silent!" Zirenne continued on in what was obviously suppressed rage. "Do you think I can forgive you of the money you took from me, you crazy bastard! I ought to—"

"Zirenne!" Vaan interrupted hastily rising from his chair and made frantic hushing movements with his hands, as several of the other customers were looking upon them curiously. "What exactly did Olen do?"

"Do?!" Zirenne directed her anger towards Vaan. "It's what he didn't do that's the problem!" she turned to Olen again who was still looking at her rather passively. His calm seemed to rile up Zirenne all the more.

"What, you think just because you are that good-looking with your chiseled cheeks, dark hair and deep blue eyes, I can forget about your debt?? You owe me 2500 gil for the tents you "rented" from me last night and you haven't bothered to pay up, you addle-pated son of a cockatrice!"

At these words, Olen stood up. Larsa quickly did the same, not knowing what he was going to do if things were to take a turn to the worse; Larsa hoped that Olen would not strike up such a fight with a woman, no less.

Olen continued to stare at Zirenne who, in surprise at Olen's sudden movement, stood silent, though her eyes were shining with defiance. An eternity seemed to pass before Olen reached behind him, (Larsa for one wild moment thought he was about to draw out a weapon) and let several golden coins drop from his gloves unto the table. Still silent, he gave Zirenne a polite but aloof bow and walked out of the store.

Silence followed, as Zirenne continued to stare at the door from where Olen had disappeared from, the whole store including Larsa and Vaan were equally silent. Then, Zirenne picked up the gold coins, of which seemed to amount more than the 2500 gil they owed and told Vaan she would be out with her specialty in a moment.

Larsa looked at Vaan as if asking if it was a good idea to still stay at the place, and judging from Vaan's look, he thought the same. Telling Zirenne they would eat breakfast there another time, Larsa and Vaan left the store.