"Ahhh it's good to see that you made it over here. I've been watching the chocobo races for the past hour and it is thoroughly enlightening. You can learn so much by watching them," Renault said as he looked away from the duo to return his attention back to the races. K' couldn't believe he had been sitting here for an hour, just watching the races. Did no one seem to care about the job? "I know what you're thinking, why I'm not caring about the job at hand."

"Well it may have passed my mind, I guess."

"That is not entirely true. I have been here for an hour but I've also been listening in on the conversations going around me. It's pretty easy when I stand taller than most and they can't really tell that I'm even eavesdropping. I've heard a few juicy little things."

His eyes grew big, "Well, feel free to share, I am all ears...way down here."

"Yeah like totally way down there."

He shot Himiko a dirty look, "Well first off, I heard some of the patrons talking about a man, a man that looked just like the unfaithful husband we've been trying to track down. They said he rather frazzled and worried, kept mentioning something about some jewelry."

"Jewelry? Well that's interesting, I wonder who the jewelry is for? Is it for his new roe squeeze or is there totally another girl in the mix?"

K' groaned, "Gods please, if there is another woman mixed in with this, I'm gonna go hug Sabotuer-"

"Wouldn't it be like totally wise to let him finish?"

Renault cleared his throat, "From what I was hearing, the jewelry seemed to be a special someone but he never specified if it was for his wife or not. He was asking around if anyone had seen Falling Skies but someone had mentioned that she had departed for Limsa."

K' snapped his fingers, "Gods, of course she would slip through our fingers like that!"

"Why not like totally hire some Doman ninjas-"

"I'm looking for realistic ideas here, not insane ones."

Himiko stomped her foot, "Hey hey, I totally know a Doman ninja. We grew up together back in that area. She's not the greatest of ninjas but she knows a thing or two about tracking others down. Plus she totally owes me."

K' shook his head, "That means just one more thing we owe you for. You are the last au ra in the world that I want to owe favors too!"

She smiled, "Oh it's not so bad. Did you have any bright ideas?"

He folded his arms as he looked away. Way to put a lala on the spot right now, "No but give me a few and I could have come up with something."

"All the while Falling Skies is slipping away from your grasp and you're no closer to solving this than the Eorzea Alliance is from kicking the Imperials out for good!"

"While I don't hold my colleague's disgust with you, you have been a rival for our group for quite some time. I find it just a tad curious that you are so eager to help us out now."

Himiko giggled, "Well it's true that we have been rivals for the longest of times but since some of my partners are lately being caught up in other things that don't involve chasing down hunts, I'm a little short on help these days so-"

"You turn to your most heated rivals? I don't get the logic."

"You seem more worried about me than the actual case! Maybe you totally like me being around?"

K' shook his head as he looked over at Renault, "Thanks. Did you learn anything else so far?"

"Alas I have not. I have learned that the fat chocobo is a force of nature when you put some food in front of it though. I have won quite a few bets by going with the chubby bird."

"I could have told you that! Well...Himiko, just where in Thal's marketplace is your ninja friend?"

She winked, "Well, we're gonna have to leave the Gold Saucer and travel out to Black Brush Station, she was working out there, trying to track down some bandits."

He didn't like this one bit. She could be leading him into a trap, a trap that he would never escape from. She could also be really trying to help and what she said earlier about her partners being too busy to help could also be true. He didn't know what to think but he knew he was still a little curious about her reasoning. "Well, Renault, you and K'tai keep looking around here for that husband. If you find him, squeeze all the information you can out of him. I'm gonna find Ulu and then go with Himiko to Black Brush."

"I don't exactly look forward to using force to get the truth out of him."

"Leave it to K'tai then. Just make sure you get her riled up before then, she really can get some information out of some tight lips after that."

Himiko laughed, "Just how would you like get her riled up?"

"Not telling."

Finding Ulu was a lot easier than it seemed. He had a feeling she had sampled some of the Manderville cookies, known around for being some of the sweetest cookies you would ever taste. It was known for making eaters of the cookies to drop onto their knees and praise the name of Manderville for the treats. He had never tried them personally but going off of the reactions of those who had eaten them, it was quite the experience.

Ulu was bouncing from machine to machine, trying each one to see which one would award her the most gp out of all of them and it was a sight to see. He had never seen her bounce around so quickly before, not since they had wandered into a flock of lost lambs and she kept trying to pick out the cutest one to take home, "Is it totally just me or is a Fat Cat following her around?"

K' had noticed it, though it looked a bit different, it was orange and seemed to have stripes on its sides. He hadn't seen a cat like that before, perhaps it came from a different area? Still it followed her around like a little puppy, even though she wasn't dropping crumbs or even food. Just why was this version of a Fat Cat so intent on following her. He snapped his fingers three times and Ulu stopped mid game and looked over her shoulder, "Oh hi hi hi! When did you two just show up all of a sudden?"

"We've been standing here for a few minutes, watching you?"

Ulu's eyes grew big, "W-watching me? You mean you act like those creepy people who sit in Limsa and just people watch all day? They'll even follow you around if they like you enough! Speaking of which, one time I saw this hyur and she had on the most absolute fabbest outfit-"

"Ulu, you're getting off the subject."

She looked at him confused before the light bulb went off in her head, "The subject? Oh right, wait what was the subject? You never told me what it was, you just snapped your fingers!"

"Have you learned anything about the husband or Falling Skies?"

She tapped her chin in thought for a moment, "Well...let me think Silver head, I do remember bumping into the husband. He looked so out of sorts, like he had grabbed the wrong map and was frantically trying to find the right one. Speaking of maps, this lala salesman sold me this map of the Sunken Temple of Qarn, I think we should totally explore it. Now what was I saying? Oh, right, the husband said that he had bought some jewelry for his wife-"

"Wait wait wait. He said he bought some jewelry for his wife?"

Ulu nodded, "Yup!"

"I don't get it, is he trying to keep it a surprise for his wife or something?"

Ulu nodded again, "Yup yup, I think it's some really really shiny jewelry, like the kind you would get from Rowena from running the Amdapor Keep gauntlet over and over and over and over again. Oh that reminds me of this song I heard the Songbirds that went Forward and Back. Or was it Back and Forwards? I think-"

"We are going to have to monitor your sugar intake," he said, "Still if this is true, it'd explain why he was being so secretive. Maybe Falling Skies is an expert jeweler?"

"Maybe, I didn't get that out of him though, we'd have to go an ask her! On another note, why are you and Himiko working together?"

"It's a temporary alliance for now. Once we're done with this hunt, she'll go back to her pals and we'll go back to being enemies."

"You mean frienemies?" Ulu asked and he shook his head, "Oh come on, you have to admit that the two of look cute together. Speaking of cute, that reminds me of this super sweet lalafell couple I ran into—er what was I talking about again?"

He slapped his forehead and sighed, "How you are gonna come with the two of us to Black Brush station to meet with a friend of Himiko's who can track down Falling Skies for us."

Ulu coughed a few times as the wind blasted them with sand as they arrived at the dusty old Black Brush Station. It used to serve as a stop for the trains that served the nearby mines but now served as a stop for new adventurers who came from Uldah and also to weary travelers who had attempted to take on the nearby Cutter's Cry and had failed miserably. They had tried it a few times but never got far thanks to the overwhelming amount of ants that lived there. "I hate the sand so much, its sandy and it gets everywhere."

"Did you just call sand...sandy?" K' asked and Ulu nodded.

"Well isn't it sand so wouldn't it be sandy? I prefer the sand on the beaches of Costa de Sol, it's a less sandy beach and it's sunny and you have the ocean-"

"How is the sand in Costa de Sol less sandy than here...on second thought, don't answer that," he said as he looked over at Himiko, who had wandered to the edges of the station. He walked over to her and tapped her on the leg.

"Are you waiting for your friend?"

"Totally, I let her know that we were coming and she said she is on her way but that was like an hour ago. She should totally be here by now!"

He looked down the road which led to that giant rock structure known as the Unholy Heir which was home to a ton of giant frogs that were insanely annoying to deal with, "Well there has been news of bandits roaming the roads as of late."

"Well what about the Brass Blades? Like aren't they supposed to be the police here?" Ulu asked.

"The Brass Blades are more corrupt than the local bandits!"

"I mean how corrupt are we talking about? That reminds me that this one guard in Horizon who was really corrupt, I mean he would charge little old roegadyn ladies to cross the road!"

K' and Himiko exchanged confused looks, "I'm gonna pretend that I get what you're talking about."

"Totally."

K' pulled out his greatsword and examined it for a moment, "Well I say we go out there to see if she came across any trouble. You never know what is out there."

"Oh is it time for Mr Big Knife?" Ulu asked as stars formed in her eyes.

"It's a greatsword."

Ulu tilted her head to the side, "Isn't it too small to be considered a sword? I mean it's as big as an Au Ra's fork! Oh that reminds me of this time I went to this restaurant in Limsa, there was this guy Au Ra there and he had the biggest knife you had ever seen! I mean his knife was as big as the entire body of a lalafell, it was so crazy to see! I half expected him to turn around and skewer me with it!"

"Could you...summon ruby carbuncle? We might need his help."

Ulu put her hands on what could be considered her hips, even though lalafells had no hips whatsoever, "Just Ruby? Why don't you want my help too?"

"As long as you can focus on the fight and not get distracted by other things."

"I can focus on the fight! When have I never concentrated on a fight?"

"Well there was that time we accidentally ran into that giant spriggan and we would have killed him but you kept getting distracted by all of the smaller spriggans walking around-"

"But there were so cute! How do you expect me to resist them?"

"Then there was that other time you thought you the Fire Elemental was looking at you wrong and-"

"Well it was!"

"So are the two of you totally done arguing with each other? I want to find my friend!"

K' nodded, "Oh...right, sorry. Let's get going then."

"Wow, you totally got told by Himiko!"

"I didn't get told by her at all. Now can we get going?"