Filling In The Blanks

Disclaimer: I don't own FFIX or any of its characters.

Chapter 118: Perhaps a Stroke of Luck

He sat up and let out a puffing cough of dust. He watched it like it offended him, dissipating in the barely-lit area.

As his mind tried to replay the long topple down the cliff, he looked up with hands planted firmly at both of his sides, staring ominously at the long roots that stretched out above them, sending a spidery veil of shadow over them. Hardly any moonlight made it to the ground, but there was enough.

"Dagger," he croaked, patting around on the ground where he sat like he might find her there.

"I'm here," she said back to him, pushing slowly to her feet. She brushed off her yellow jumper, though it looked to him like doing that made it worse. Her gloves were caked in dirt.

"Well I guess if we were going to come down here, this was the fastest way to do it," he flicked his dusty hair from his eyes, licking his lips only to feel a film of grime over them. "Eugh."

"I guess the vines aren't as thick as we thought from above."

"Yeah," he agreed, "just fatter."

The air was cooler underneath the constant shade of the heavy roots and vines. It was quiet, but if they stopped and listened, they could hear bugs chirping and nested birds scuttling about underneath, hiding here still in the shade from the hot sun. It was their time to come out or relax in peace.

"Well," Zidane coughed, wiping at his face again, "Now what?" He lolled his head back, staring with a little despair at the cliff side that was now crumbled. "Should we try to crawl back up?"

"Zidane," she said sternly, staring at him with an almost exasperated face. "If we really saw what we think we did, we need to go see."

Zidane puckered his lips. That was the whole reason they had fallen in the first place; during their conversation, Dagger had alerted the blonde to a silvery glint in the distance, moving about beyond the thicket of tree roots. The moon was on their side that night, decidedly shining enough to show the silhouette of the shimmery something.

It looked like a chocobo.

Since the war started with Kuja, wild chocobos, or even chocobos not enlisted into his army of goons, were a rare and breathtaking sight. Despite being the mounts of such cruel soldiers, they were still a peaceful bird, always looking kind of sad and kee-wahing for freedom whenever left alone. But seeing them where they weren't trapped in a war they didn't understand was an entirely different experience.

It was only natural Dagger wanted to see them closer.

His lip pucker turned into popping his lips a few times before throwing up his hands. "Alright. You win. Let's go on a little adventure. Maybe I'll learn what makes this tree so special."

Her eyes squinted as she gave him a wide smile before turning and starting forward.

They took their time, careful enough in case any mist creatures were lurking about, but they didn't feel threatened. This place was peaceful; Dagger was, thus far, right in her observation that the tree wasn't frightening.

The only problem with their descent into the thicket was that the light got dimmer and more infrequent. While the night trudged forward and the stars shone brighter, the vines above them were cutting off their light supply.

As the light debate slowly started to slip from his mind, his eyes began to wander. They were adjusting to the darkness rather nicely, and he was able to make out the shadowed opacity of colors and burry silhouettes became dark shapes and objects. A smile rose to his face, not after long. This place could be stunning – beautiful, really. Part of him wished they would have fallen to their entrapment during the day, just so they could see what it really looked like underneath the hammock of nature above them.

"Keep up, Zidane!" he heard her call, and he realized his pace was at a slow crawl, his eyes wandering about too much for her haste to the chocobos.

"Coming," he told her as he rushed forward.

When he reached her side, she was leaning towards the cliff they had been following alongside. Delicately between her fingers was a white blossom, poking out from the dusty rocks that must have been sitting idle in the same spot for many, many years for flowers to be growing beneath it.

"Everything is so healthy down here," she said, shaking her head. Her hair fell in front of her shoulders and she used her free left hand to push it back. "There can't be too much sunlight and definitely not enough rain, so I wonder how…"

"Some plants are weird like that. Don't want water, don't want sun."

"This feels different."

He shrugged before tucking his hands behind her head and crossing his legs at the ankles, "Maybe it's the magic of this mighty tree."

"Don't make fun of me,"

He chuckled, "I'm not. I'm making fun of the people who wrote that stuff on the walls."

"Zidane," she started, her tone teasingly sassy, "You've been here for less than an hour. What do you know?"

"That it doesn't take magic to grow a plant."

She huffed, gently letting go of the flower before sticking her tongue out at him.

He faked an offended expression and dropped his jaw. "Someone is getting brave!"

"Please," she guffawed, "with that wobble of a walk you couldn't even take me down."

He gave his own little huff, mimicking her from earlier.

She let out a giggle and gave him a slight shove. "Okay, okay, let's not take that any further."

"Don't think you could take the heat, little missy?"

Dagger shuffled her feet in the dirt before standing on her tip-toes to get closer to his face. "I don't think you could."

He let out a loud laugh, snaking his arms around her waist just as she began to pull away. She let out a small squeak, and he used it to his advantage, effectively pulling her up enough to capture her lips on his.

"I love you, you know," he told her, his lips still moving on hers.

"I know," she said, pulling back from him and giving him a smile. "I love you, too."

They stayed like that for another moment. A sly grin began building on his face and she began to squirm. He knew exactly what she was about to say.

"But I just really want to see these chocobos."

He laughed and let her go, but didn't let her go far before grabbing her dusty hand in his. "We don't get much time to go on an adventure just ourselves. We might as well make it romantic."

"If you want to woo me, find some water so we can get some of this dust off of us. It's so still down here, there's not even any wind to take it."

"Maybe I'll call on the magic of the tree."

She almost snorted as she shook her head. "You are absolutely hopeless." He hummed, pleased. "Honestly, after all of the things you've seen in this world, you don't believe that this tree could be magic?"

He shrugged, "I just think that if it was as magical as the people from Madain Sari were making it out to be, it'd just… look more magical, or we'd be able to feel it or hear it or something."

"Hear it? Did you forget what magic is?"

He pulled his hand away and pouted. "You are quite the sass today, aren't you?"

She let on a small smile. This time with him was putting her at a great ease. Even if there were no chocobos – even if the tree wasn't magical… she needed this. They both needed this. Together. Alone. United and withdrawn. Everything all at once. Her smile widened.

Their conversation had distracted them from the distance they had covered. The cliff suddenly dipped to the left, and when they turned sharply to follow it, a glow appeared in the distance.

"What is that?" Zidane asked, pointing like she hadn't been looking and hadn't spotted it as well.

They both crept closer, this time being much more careful. The blonde tried to push the logical notion from his mind that if it was an enemy, it would have already heard them by now. But, there was some solace in that, he supposed. If it wasn't attacking, maybe it wasn't bad.

Zidane realized only when he could no longer reach out to his left and feel the cliff that this illumination was taking them further into the thicket and away from the safety rope of the mountain side. He glanced back at it longingly, before following the girl towards their point of interest.

The genome suddenly gave a gasp, running forward before he realized that he'd forgotten he was supposed to be creeping about.

"Vivi!"

The mage, who was huddled around some hole in the ground, suddenly snapped to attention, his sharp, yellow eyes resting on the duo that was now racing towards him. He leapt to his feet and gripped his hat, bouncing from one foot to the other in excitement.

"You guys made it! Oh I'm so happy you found me!"

"Vivi!" Dagger laughed, falling to her knees and hugging him tightly. "What in the world are you doing down here by yourself? What is –" she glanced around, suddenly realizing that the light was all around them now, "- what is all of this?"

He shook his head, gripping the edges of his hat tightly, "Isn't it amazing? Everything is so calm down here."

"How long have you been here?" Zidane asked, eager to get the entire story.

"A couple of hours. I stayed pretty high in the water and it washed me right out of the city. I remember someone talking about the Iifa Tree and followed the path until things started to look familiar from the runs we would take here to get plants."

Dagger was astonished. Vivi did all of this by himself? It was brave.

"How did you end up down here?"

His eyes got wide and his body was jittery with excitement. "You guys will never believe what found me."

"Vivi…" Zidane started slowly, cautiously.

He shook his head vigorously, trying to clear the misunderstanding without speaking clearly, "No, it's alright. Zidane, they were –" he gripped at his hat again, "- they were chocobos!"

Dagger gasped, whirling towards the blonde in equal excitement to the mage. He was feeling a little overwhelmed with their ecstatic faces leering ever nearer to him. "I told you, Zidane! We're going to see them!"

He let out an dazed chuckle. "I can't believe it. So they're really here, Vivi?"

He nodded largely, "I was sitting in the cliff by myself, and I kept hearing all of these scary noises because I didn't know if Kuja's goons were out of the city or not yet. A little group of them came around the corner and saw me, and only stopped chirping at me when I followed them. They lead me down here, under the tree roots and to this spot," he pointed at the hole in the ground and the two teens stared at it in awe, "which gives off a little heat to keep me kind of warm."

"This is amazing…" Dagger breathed, more to herself than anyone else. Zidane stole a sideways glance at her and her gloves here cupping her cheeks, eyes wide with wonder.

"Is all of this glowing light from the chocobos."

This is when Vivi got very serious. It was almost as though he needed them to believe him, so he was going to be very professional and adamant about it. "I don't think so. I think it's from the tree."

Zidane had to purposefully not look at Dagger, in fear that she would be shooting him "I told you so" stares.

Without a reply to combat his answer, Vivi continued, "There's something about being here… I was so afraid at first, and I know that the chocobos helped but, being down in the dark where not even the moonlight can get through, I was so afraid. But suddenly, there was a big pulse of light and I felt my black magic surge," he stared at the ground thoughtfully for a moment, shuffling his feet before looking back at the duo, "It felt kind of like that time I went into a trance in Dali, except this is… happy."

Zidane's eyebrows shot up, hiding beneath his messy bangs. "Trance, huh?" he crossed his arms, leaning on his left foot so he could tap his right. It was a casual motion, but it still prickled his nerves with pain. "If this tree is magical," he still avoided Dagger's very obvious stare, "then maybe the summoners had it figured out. If Kuja is after the trance effect, maybe the only other way to evoke that certain magic in people is anger. But with this tree, magic users are allowed to feel it in other ways."

"If that's the case, then why aren't you feeling it?" Dagger wondered, peering into the hole beside Vivi and seeing only light, but feeling a light, warm air on her face.

He shrugged, "Maybe this trance trait is for people Kuja targeted and this tree is for mages? The possibilities could be endless."

"D-do you think that might be why both the Village of Summoners and the Black Mage Village are both on the Outer Continent? So they can be close enough to this tree?"

"That is a big question. A good question, but too big for the three of us to brainstorm," the blonde decided. He let out a breath and slowly lowered himself to the ground. Dagger calmed herself enough to sit next to him and Vivi mirrored their motions.

"The harder question is… why doesn't Kuja know this?" Dagger pondered. "He's the most powerful black mage in all of Gaia and he hasn't targeted this tree…"

"Maybe he tried to?" it sounded more like a question than a statement, but it didn't stop Zidane from continuing. "Maybe the tree is just for good people or something, and so when he tried to use it for evil, it just shut him out."

Dagger had to stifle a hard laugh. "That's a pretty big responsibility you are trying to put on this tree you didn't believe five minutes ago had any magic powers."

"Ah," he breathed at her, an air of joking sarcasm on his voice, "there it is."

She pushed him, a smile on her face.

They sat there in silence for a moment, resting. Zidane tried not to draw any attention to himself as he massaged down his legs, sore from the lack of use and too much effort all at the same time. The two spent their time trying to look preoccupied enough for him not to notice they were analyzing everything he was doing.

"Say," Dagger started, a random thought coming to her, "If the chocobos dropped you off here, where did they go?"

Vivi shrugged, "they stared at me for a little while, maybe until I seemed like I was going to stay put? And then wandered off closer to the tree. After they were gone, I followed them a little ways back there, but the light dies down pretty quickly so I came back here."

"So the light comes from that hole?" Zidane asked, having stopped prodding himself for bruises and began poking at the jagged rock on the ground. A few pebbles rolled carelessly in and disappeared into the light. He wrinkled his nose at the irony of something solid disappearing into a hole of light.

"I think so."

The genome twisted his body back and forth, feeling the satisfying crack of a few joints popping. But he was really looking for anything to extend the reach of his arm. A branch or twig perhaps. In the end, he found nothing and sighed, leaning forward.

The others watched him with a careful eye. Dagger's hand hovered slightly off the ground and he watched her body shake with the strange angle she was contracting her muscles at. He supposed she meant to smack his hand away if he did anything daft.

Slowly, he lowered his hand to the hole, feeling a more intense warm air, but nothing more than that. It wasn't burning or stinging – it simply felt like he was moving closer to a fire, but still not close enough to burn.

Sucking in a sharp breath and plunging his hand before anyone could think about what he was going to do, his fingers dipped into the hole and disappeared under the solid surface of rock Vivi was currently sitting on.

He leapt back, perhaps on reflex, eyes widened as they watched Zidane's hand become engulfed in light. He wasn't screaming or twitching – everything seemed to be okay.

Suddenly, he ripped his hand back and cradled it to his chest; the other two sprung closer to him. "Are you alright?"

"What happened?!"

He shook his head, slowly pulling his hand from his chest. "Nothing happened it just felt… weird."

"What do you mean, weird?" Dagger demanded. "You scared us half to death!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," he mumbled distractedly, leaning closer to the hole. "It didn't hurt me it just…" he shuddered. "It was like feeling a worm poke at your hand like he's trying to get through. Or any odd-feeling animal. It's like I could feel a life force or something probing my hand…" he trailed, realizing how ridiculous he sounded.

They sat for a moment, staring at the light coming from the hole, before hearing shuffling in the distance. Immediately, Dagger and Zidane were on their feet, but Vivi didn't seem worried.

"That sounds like the chocobos."

They turned, staring into the darkness in anticipation. After a moment, Vivi pushed off of his knees to stand and gripped his hat in quiet excitement.

The light splashed onto the dry dirt over fifty yards from them. And as their eyes strained to see further, the darkness becoming splotchy with even more puddles of darkness in their vision, more noises began to fill the air.

Dagger was wringing at her gloves absent mindedly, her heart beating loudly in her ears.

"Kee-wah!"

She let out a little gasp, too distracted to see the small but pleasant smile Zidane shot in her direction. Finally, their shapes slowly began coming into view, and the yellow chocobos could be seen trotting towards them.

"Oh!" Vivi exclaimed, turning to his friends, "Th-there's so many!"

"More than before?" Dagger asked, her voice barley above a whisper. Her hands were curled into fists and tucked beneath her chin in anxious glee.

"A lot more!"

And they kept coming. A small herd of chocobos – perhaps twelve or so – appeared out of the darkness, their dark eyes staring almost expectantly at the trio.

"What do they want?" Zidane asked, though he didn't feel like this expression the birds were giving him was offensive or alarming.

Upon hearing his voice, one of the chocobos came forward from the back, ruffling his feathers. Three feathers on the very top of his head stood in disarray, making him look a little goofy. Though his eyes were wide and expectant, he still seemed gentle as he sniffed at Zidane. The genome raised a slow hand and after a moment of debate, the bird placed his large beak underneath Zidane's touch.

The others gasped, watching and waiting.

For a moment the chocobo stayed there and then ruffled his feathers again, turning to the side and craning his neck so he could still see Zidane.

"What does he want?" it seemed to only be him who bothered to ask.

The bird dipped his head down and pulled it back up, craning it even further, like he was gesturing to his own body.

"Oh my gosh, Zidane, I think he wants you to ride him."

"What?!" he snorted.

"Kee-wah!" the chocobo called out, seeming excited.

The blonde's eyes widened as he lifted his hands, feeling anxious as he stepped closer to the chocobo. It ruffled its heavy coat of feathers and bent its legs at the knee a little, allowing Zidane an easier way onto his back.

Slowly, Zidane rose to his tip-toes and planted his hands on the back of the chocobo. He was soft and Zidane could feel the pattern of each feather starting and ending. Sucking in a stroke of breath, and with it, a rather large amount of courage, he swung his leg up and over the giant bird.

The chocobo squawked, but only once before ruffling his feathers again and trotting its feet in place to get a feel for the genome on his back. "Kee-wah!" He seemed to approve. Immediately, he began trotting around in the light for the others to see, ignoring how Zidane had all but fallen completely forward on the bird, clinging around its neck for dear life.

"I don't know how Kuja's soldiers can fight while on top of these things!" he called out, his voice bouncing with every heavy step.

Dagger giggled and stepped forward, watching in awe the ridiculous and goofy sight in front of her. Her voice seemed to raise the attention of another chocobo, and she bravely stepped forward though she looked much meeker.

They made eye contact, and tentatively, the chocobo shuffled over to where Dagger stood, frozen in anticipation. She seemed to eye the girl up for a moment, wondering if she was about to make the right choice, before jerking her head towards her back just the same as the other chocobo did for Zidane.

She let out an unbelieving laugh, but her body took her before her mind did. Quickly, she found herself flinging her leg over the other side of the chocobo and hoisting herself up, looking much more natural on the bird than Zidane did. She brushed the nervously ruffled feathers of her mount down, feeling the soft texture and grizzly stems on the top layer of feathers.

"Are we riding too?" she asked, her voice just above a whisper.

"Kwee!" she chirped and began trotting, falling in a line after the excited chocobo still bouncing Zidane around.

It didn't take long for another chocobo to step forward and repeat the same process with Vivi. Soon, all of them were riding on the back of the creatures, though Dagger was the only one any good at holding on.

Twice before they were finished with their first parade, Vivi fell off and into the dirt, but his charismatic chocobo chirped at him loudly like he was laughing, before helping the small mage back onto his back.

After the first initial excitement of the chocobos, they all came to a slow stop, fluffing their feathers happily and all staring at each other. In turn, this made the trio of rebels stare at each other as well, not knowing what to do next.

"Shall we be heading back to see if any of the others made it to the Iifa Tree? We've been down here for sometime…" Dagger bit her lip, staring backwards at the darkened line of the canyon.

"If no one is there," Zidane started, patting his chocobo before dismounting. This seemed to be the only part he was any good at, "we're going to have to go looking for them."

They felt refreshed. While the quick memory of the tragedy of Conde Petie still lingered in their minds, there really was an effect of this tree, this ambient light and the friendly chocobos that made them feel like everything would be alright. But it was time to get back to reality. If the others were waiting, they were probably worried sick, and if they were not yet there, they could have been in trouble.

Vivi nodded, "You guys are right. Sorry I kept you down here for so long."

"You didn't do a damn thing," Zidane laughed, a smile lingering on his face as he continued to stroke the top of his chocobos head. He watched how he smoothed down those three stray feathers only for them to pop back up. The bird seemed to be grinning at him as he cocked his head to the side.

"We're glad we came," Dagger gestured around her, "to see this place, and to meet the chocobos. But most importantly, we found you. That's one less person separated from each other."

"Y-you're right," he agreed, though he sounded mildly hesitant.

Zidane took the lead, wandering away from the light after another goodbye exchange between him and the chocobo and the trio began walking. The chocobos stood behind them, such intelligent, but confused expression spread across each creature's face.

And then the three of them heard scuffling in the dirt and collectively turned to see the same expressions on the birds, but three or four feet closer to them than before.

Zidane's brow furrowed. The birds acted like nothing was out of the ordinary so they kept going.

Only to hear the scuffling again.

This time, he purposely didn't turn around for a few seconds longer, just to see if the scuffling would stop. When it didn't, he sighed and turned, the others, this time, turning with him.

Now the birds were even closer to them. His chocobo still wore that grinning expression, eyes unblinking as they stared intently at the blonde.

"Are they… following us?"

Dagger turned around fully, "You must go back to the rest of your family. We have to go now, and I would hate for you to get hurt following us."

They didn't answer, not even a chirp in response, so she sighed and turned back shrugging. "Let's keep going. They'll get bored and stop following us eventually.

"You're right."

So they did exactly that. The silence that occurred between them was more about the continuous sound of the large birds behind them and less about the tense situation that could potentially be opening up before them.

It was Vivi who eventually broke the silence. "I think it was a really good thing that you flushed all of those soldiers out of the city."

Dagger seemed surprised. Her dark eyebrows shot up and her expression was one of genuine shock. Immediately feeling nervous about the subject already coming up, she clasped her hands in front of her as she walked, squeezing her gloves and letting them relax on repeat. Her feet seemed to drag in the dirt and something about her body language told the black mage that she didn't necessarily agree with him.

"I've ruined their home."

Vivi shook his head, grabbing his hat. "Their home was already ruined. This way, at least they can rebuild."

She glanced at Zidane, seeking meaning behind Vivi's adamant opinion on the subject. She didn't think the mage held such a strong sway in the soldiers infesting civilian cities.

The genome beat her to a response because she seemed at an absolute loss for words. What can you say back to that? Who knew if that was the case? What if she killed innocent people who they couldn't even warn that this was going to happen, then they were no better than Kuja!

"I think that's a really positive way to look at it, Vivi." His voice seemed a little teacher-esque, like he wasn't entirely sure what to say, but something was better than nothing. But then he continued, "He's right, you know, Dagger… We saw in plenty of other cities how bad the lives of these people could be. At least this way they have a way of reclaiming their city. I think even innocents that have nothing to do with the resistance would feel pride in being a part of something that could make Gaia better again."

She sighed but didn't answer. Her eyes fell to the ground and she fell into a thick thought, leaving the two dreamers alone to the conversation if they wished to continue.

"Do you think everyone else is okay?" Vivi asked, hopefully. "Do you think Eiko is okay?"

Zidane let on a full-blown grin. "Eiko specifically, huh?"

"Well, I just thought – I mean – er – this is her home!"

The blonde laughed, crossing his arms behind his head and staring up lightly at the roots as they walked. They were far enough from the light that he wouldn't be able to tell root from sky if the latter didn't have so many stars. If it could be constantly nighttime with those stars, he wouldn't mind having to stand the heat.

"We're coming up on the cliff where Dagger and I slipped," he said to Vivi in a hushed tone, just in case Kuja's soldiers were already out and looking though he doubted they would go snooping about the Iifa Tree. Something told him that if Kuja wasn't trying to harness the power of this magical tree, he thought it was a waste of time and wouldn't be sending soldiers there, assuming then that everyone would think it was a waste of time. He always had to be correct. "Where did you come down? Maybe that would be easier to follow?"

He pointed to their dimly lit left, "The chocobos led me down some roots over that way. They had grown into the rock of the cliff and popped back out around a corner so they make a kind of staircase."

Zidane chuckled, "Of course they do. Alright, let's get going!"

He put a hand on Dagger's arm to guide her away from the cliff she was about to walk into. She jumped and let out the mildest of squeaks before nodding thankfully at him and adding to her alertness so she could also follow the mage. But then she stopped, reflexively striking out to catch Zidane's arm so he would turn too.

They glanced backwards, and not even ten feet back were the chocobos – still the same small colony staring with the same expressions, blinking apprehensively at them.

Zidane sighed, frustration rising in his breath. He walked to the chocobo he had ridden, and as soon as he got close, that odd, grinning expression overtook his face once more.

The genome stared at him for a few moments, studying his face and wishing with all of his being that they could understand what the chocobos wanted. He knew he wasn't the only one who didn't want to leave the birds, confused, at the bottom of the dark cliff.

"Tell me what you want…" he whispered in sheer desperation.

"Kee-wah!" he chirped back at the genome before stepping back and ruffling his feathers. "Kwee!"

"Kwee!" the tiniest chocobo, the one at the back of the herd hopped forward, staring at Zidane before flicking her feet quickly in the dirt. When she was done, she jumped back and seemed to lurch her head in that direction, like she was gesturing to the ground.

Zidane stepped forward, trying to get a closer look. They were scratches, and pretty hard to make out. It looked like she had hopped around excitedly, expecting him to understand her chicken scratch. (Bahaha, no pun intended guys, I swear)

When Zidane didn't back up right away, the others joined him, and they speculated what it was the chocobos were trying to tell them.

Dagger shook her head, "This could be anything. Or nothing! We don't know if they even understand us."

Zidane stole a glance at the chocobo he had written, and his expression seemed to be written out in annoyance. He chuckled to himself, trying to remember that all of this was probably coincidence.

"Wait!" Vivi nearly yelled.

The rest of the company swiveled quickly to look at him. Zidane's eyes were bewildered from the sudden noise. They shone navy in the darkness.

The moon suddenly broke out from behind a small cloud, and they were close enough to the cliff that a splash of illumination grew on the patch of dirt they were analyzing.

"They really are talking to us!" Vivi exclaimed.

"Vivi –"

"No, wait, p-please!" he insisted, staring at them with pleading, yet excited eyes. He pointed to the ground at the heaviest imprint in the middle of the messy circle. "Eiko was telling me about this. Moogles and Chocobos are really similar. In species, they're complete opposites, but she said that they've got kind of the same mindset. They're both creatures that spawned from the mist, but instead of a bad mutation, it had a really good effect on their intelligence and over centuries of being able to survive outside of mist zones, it sort of morphed with their genetics and now they aren't mist animals at all."

The two continued to stare at him, unsure where he was going with the whole thing.

"Anyways, the point of that is, is that moogles and chocobos have always been really connected. Especially because of the mail service they're natural friends and most moogles are friends with at least a few chocobos!"

"How do you even know that?" Zidane asked, trying not to laugh. He wasn't trying to laugh at Vivi's explanation, but the whole thing sounded quite ridiculous and off-topic.

"Well, the moogles and the summoning tribe all lived together in Madain Sari, right? So naturally, the summoners know a lot about the moogles too. And from the moogles, the summoners learned the communication between moogles and chocobos. They can understand our language, but then they can't talk back! So they came up with this spiral glyph system that the chocobos could scratch with their feet so they could talk to the moogles too!"

He seemed out of breath.

They stared at him for another moment. Dagger had a highly contemplative face on, and Zidane's nose was crinkled up in sour confusion.

"Eiko showed you all of this?"

He nodded. "She has a map of the whole thing in her old room underneath the kitchen in Madain Sari. She said her grandpa told her the story and would have her practice drawing the glyphs with the moogles to keep her busy while he practiced more intense magics."

"Come on guys," Zidane shook his head, "it's a really nice story but… moogles and chocobos wanting to communicate? Isn't body language enough?"

Dagger slowly shook her head. "Yeah but, the moogles speak most similar to us, and we still cannot find out what these chocobos are saying."

"I think they're saying they want to fight with us."

This captured both of his friends' attention.

"What?"

He nodded firmly, "What other explanation could there be?"

"Maybe 'hey, we're bored and want some company from you fine people for awhile and now we aren't ready for you to leave' could be part of it?"

"That sounds sillier than Vivi's theory, Zidane."

"What?!" he repeated, shaking his head. "You guys can't be serious! That just doesn't make much sense –" he turned his head slowly to the side. The chocobo he had written put his rounded beak into Zidane's hand at his side, nudging it gently.

They locked eyes and he slowly raised his head again, giving another ruffle.

"That's what you mean?" he asked, this time sounding so much more tender and willing to believe than just moments ago. "You want to fight with us?"

He dipped his head. "Keh."

"You're sure this isn't something Eiko is making up?"

"I saw the map," Vivi was going to stand with his story.

Zidane shook his head and ran his fingers through his bangs. He pulled all of the hair back from his face, but as he continued to the back of his head, they came back in blonde pieces, contrasting heavily with his tanned skin.

"That must be why they wanted us to practice riding them," Dagger nodded, feeling as though it all made sense.

The blonde shook his head in awe. "I can't believe it."

"Keep telling yourself that all you want, but I'm going to believe it." She turned towards the chocobos. "If this is for real, you'll be here waiting for us once we come back with our friends?"

"Kwee!" the littlest one chirped, her feet dancing a little in the dirt.

"We need Eiko to look at this, just to be sure," she decided, not sure if she was talking to just Vivi or even just herself.

"I know it sounds crazy, Zidane, but trust me. Please! I'm not sure about a lot of things, but this I'm certain about!"

Vivi had never quite been a beggar. And he'd never been one to push his own beliefs, values or way of doing things onto others even though he was always willing to accept advice and tips on what to do himself.

Zidane exhaled, shaking his head one last time. "Alright. Only because I know you wouldn't blow this out of proportion, Vivi."

"Thank you," he gave a smile though the others couldn't see it.

"If there are – err – anymore of you wanting to – umm – come with us, we'll be back in a few hours, depending on the situation with our friends, unless something has happened to us."

"Kwee-wah!"

"We'll be back for you, I promise," she let on an encouraging smile before turning to her friends. "We should really be getting up there."

Zidane let out another melodramatic sigh before offering one last look to his new chocobo friends. "You guys are unbelievable," was all he could really say, before giving his buddy one last pat down to get those feathers on the top of his head to stay down, but they popped right back up.

Slowly, the made the climb up the vines and roots, careful not to move the canopy too much, just in case someone was lurking about that they didn't want to alert their presence too.

Hopefully when everyone came back, they could shed some more light on whatever the hell just happened. Hopefully Eiko was the first person they found, because Zidane sure had a lot of questions and he just didn't know if he could physically wait.


A/N: Are you guys proud of me? I'm sure proud of me. It wasn't the quickest update but it's better than my recent track record, most definitely! Sorry if there were any mistakes. I was way too excited to get this to you guys to edit!

So here's a twist maybe you guys didn't expect. Ahhh, and you thought I was done with you! I thought that one solid chapter following Dagger and Zidane would be nice – they should, after all, be the ones getting the most love. This is a story centric around them!

I hope you enjoyed! I'm going to get to work on the next chapter soon, but this one had such great flow I'm not sure if I can promise another update quite that fast. But I will try! You guys are honestly just the best and anything I can do to make you happy within my reasonable ability, I will certainly try!

Until next time!

-zesty-