An Ultimate Quest Chapter 2
By Karura
All seven of them decided to go, even though fairy tale land was not that appealing at all. They send messages to other comrades who fought Kefka in the old days as well, but decided not to bother Ralm and Gau, for they are needed to take care of the aging Strago.
Soon Mog came, but Umaro and Gogo does not want to be bothered, and no one knows for certain where is Setzer.
The problem is, they desperately needed Setzer’s Falcon, because the gate to the fairy tale land is up high in the skies above Tzen, accessible only through air ship.
“It’s been five days already!” Edgar complained to Sabin, with his back facing the door so he did not notice the two figures that just entered quietly. “Where is that pretty boy when you need him?” He grumbled.
“Do you want one of my cards on your pretty face, Your Majesty?” Setzer demanded in a rather casual tone.
Edgar turns quickly to see the gambler smiling at him, and Terra trying to cover an amused laugh.
“Setzer, where the hell have you been?” Edgar runs to greet him with Sabin. The three of them shook hands firmly. At last, Edgar asked: “Did you get my message?”
“Why else would I come to this dreadful place in the middle of no where?” Setzer grinned, “I took some time to prepare Falcon, the babe is now ready for your commend.”
“Good, I know I can count on you.” Edgar smiled, “I’ll order for a feast, it is time for us to be on our way.”
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They took little time to prepare for the journey. Although no one can use magic except for Terra who has Fire3, they have powerful weapon like the atma sword and, and they have powerful relics too, such as Offering, Relic Ring and Gauntlet.
Within two days, they set on their journey.
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Surprisingly, finding the gate to fairy tale land was surprisingly easy. The map Cid drew was very accurate, with the excellent navigation of Setzer and Edgar, they reached the gate without difficulty.
The gate looks like a big whirlpool, but…
“It is pink! By the @$$ of my great uncle Rubert, this is f*$#ed up!” Sabin cursed violently.
Celes gave him a warning look. Such language is hardly appropriate before ladies, if indeed Terra and herself can be count as gentle ladies.
“What do you expect, blockhead?” She said bitterly, “It is fairy tale land we are going, after all.”
Sabin shut up immediately. He might argue with Celes, but he definitely does not want the argument to end with one of Locke’s bloomberg in his mouth.
Setzer cried: “Everyone, hold on! We are going in!”
Everybody on the deck gripped the firmly, and stayed very close to each other. The strong wind from the pink whirlpool forced them to close their eyes, and turned their head to each other’s shoulder for protection. The last thing they heard before the ship goes into the gate was Sabin’s roar:
“I __just __hate __pink!!!”
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In the gate, the wind was strong, and there is a constant humming created by the vibration of the gate. But other than that, everything was fine, except whenever they open their eyes, all they can see is a pink mist. This did not last very long, however. In less than a minute, they are at the other side of the gate.
Setzer land the ship safely on the ground, on the edge of a huge forest.
“This is easy. Rather, too easy.” He said in a doubtful tone, “What is the catch?”
“Actually, there is no catch, not really.” Locke, who was studying the notes Cid gave him, now look at his companions and smiled, “First of all, the gate was not always accessible. In fact, it was sealed while the Espers were in our world, and the only reason we can access it now is because we have Terra, who is part of magic.”
His smile vanished, replaced by concern: “And the fairy tale land itself is dangerous. There are certain…rules in this land which we do not quiet understand.”
“For example?” Celes inquired.
“For example, according to Cid’s writing, you should follow the basic rules of a typical fairy tale story book. Some of the rules are: never insult an old beggar, she might be a fairy in disguise; always be careful where you spend the night, avoid house of giants and witches; and above all, do not mess up with the youngest prince or the youngest daughter of a merchant, these people always win no matter what.”
“Alright, I think I got your point.” Celes murmured, looking thoroughly disgusted.
“Terra, be sure to kiss a frog when you see one, he just might be a prince under curse.” Setzer joked.
“…” She has no recollection of her childhood whatsoever, therefore do not know how to reply.
Celes came to her rescue: “Well, why don’t you kiss the first ugly wart you see, pretty boy? She might turn out to be a princess too.”
Setzer only laughed, and the party set on advancing into the forest. For there’s always some sort of a castle in the center of a forest, as far as the fairy tales are concerned.
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They traveled half a day’s distance without any trouble. There was an old beggar who met them on their way, whom they treated with some bread and water. Of course when the beggar offer to make Terra spit rose and diamond whenever she speaks, she politely declined the offer.
They traveled on.
“Actually, it didn’t sound very bad.” Cyan commented afterwards, “Terra, maybe you should have accepted the offer.”
Terra shook her head: “I don’t know about this. What if I’m reciting magic spells? I wouldn’t like the idea of choking in the middle of a spell. And what if I cut my tongue on the thorns when I spit roses? That’d be awful. ”
“Yeah, I agree with you.” Edgar said enthusiastically, but for a totally different reason.
What if they were making love, he was kissing her, and suddenly choked by one of the diamond she spit out when she whispered “I love you” between their kiss? That would be truly awful.
For Goddess’ sake, what am I thinking? He forced himself to push the thought aside. She never thought of him as anything more than a friend, yet he is already thinking of…
.
Suddenly, a strange man’s voice interrupted his thoughts. Startled, Edgar raises his head to see two tall men approaching them.
The man on the left is young, about his own age. He wears some sort of dark metal armor pieces, and carries a huge sword that is as tall as he is.
The man on the right is older and heavy-build, carries a big gun.
“Who are you people?” The stranger on the left spoke again, looking at them with a trained alertness, one hand on the handle of his big sword.
“We are…travelers happen to pass by.” Locke replied, eyeing the two strangers curiously, “Who are you?”
“…Cloud.” The young man hasitatelly replied, apparently not looking for trouble, and asks, “Do you happen to know where the sorcer Lakefroth is?”
“Lakefroth? Sorry, never heard of him, can’t help ya.” Sabin said.
“You damn lying!” The other man busted, “That %^$& dog is so famous in your %&^$& world, you must know of him!”
“Are you calling me a liar, you over-size chimpanzee?” Sabin clenched his fist.
“W…W…What did you call me, you $*&)) son of a &*(^%$!”The man cursed fluently.
This time, both Sabin and Edgar jumped. “What did you call my mother? You **&%& piece of *&**% $hit?” The twins said in chorus.
“Edgar!”
“Sabin!”
“Barret!”
Terra, Locke and the young man named Cloud all tried to stop their friends, when suddenly, with a deafening “BOOM!”, an odd looking machine dropped in between them.
All of them stopped at once, ten pairs of eyes focused on the weird machine.
They watched in awe as the machine opened up, four people __or rather, living objects climb out of it one by one.
The first one was a boy with a punk hair-do, carrying a sword. The second one was a beautiful golden-haired girl with a crossbow. The third one was a human size frog dressed up in armor, and the fourth one was a grim looking man with pointy ears and blue hair.
The four of them looked around, and the girl smiled politely: “Good day to you all. I’m Marle Guardia of Guardia Kingdom; these are my friends, Crono, Glenn and Magus. May I ask where when are?”
“Oh brother!” Setzer thought to himself, “This is a strange world indeed!”
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