The Great Monster Troupe Chapter 4
The Phantom House of Galbadia Forest
By Limited Moon
Many eyes seemed to look at them as they entered the Phantom House. The three didn't know they were being monitored by the resident ghouls. The three entered the main hall of the large house, it was very dark in there.
"Where's the light?" Pesos said, looking around.
"It cold in here," Kupu said, shivering, "somethings in here with us, I want to leave now."
"Wark!" Boco agreed.
"You're not alone," Pesos said, "I cold too...and scared..."
"Bwahahahahaahahahaa!" came a shrill laughter from the far side of the main hall. The lights in the room flared on, and to the trio's surprise, a lot of ghouls were in the room with them.
"Bwahahahahahahahaaa!" came the laugh again, the topmost ghoul was the one laughing, "I knew ve vould have stupid animals vander into here! I'm hungry!"
"Hey, he called us animals!" Pesos said.
"Ghouls are strong, I wouldn't mess with them," Kupu said, "let's run!"
They turned to run, but two more ghouls appeared to block the exit. With a sigh, they turned back toward the side where the ghouls gathered.
"Wark..." Boco said hopelessly.
The topmost ghoul floated down to where the three were, he talked in an almost laughable Count Dracula mimicking accent.
"Ve are going to kill you now!" the ghoul said.
"No, me no let you eat me! I can't die, Ruv-e-lia depending on me!" Pesos said, readying his fists.
"WARK!" Boco agreed, flapping his wings.
"You two are idiots! You'll die!" Kupu yelled.
"and become GHOULS! BWAHAHAAHAHA..."
"SHUT UP!" interrupted Kupu, then he turned back to Pesos, "we have to RUN!"
"VELL!" the ghoul said, crossing his arms.
"No, we can't run either, we fight!" Pesos said, rushing the ghoul to his leftmost. The ghoul floated upwards and Pesos crashed into the wall. Boco, mimicking him, crashed into the opposite wall in the same fashion. Kupu shook his head sadly.
"We can't run, and now I found out that these two have no battle experience whatsoever," Kupu said.
"These two are hopeless," the lead ghoul said, "Ve shall feast now!"
The ghouls encircled the three, Pesos and Boco were still partially dazed due to the crash, and that meant that Kupu had to fend to himself. He punched one, but one was all he could hit, they continued to close in on the three.
"Pesos, Boco, DO SOMETHING!" Kupu yelled.
"Wha?" Pesos said, looking around, "EEK! WE SURROUNDED!"
"WARK!" Boco agreed.
Kupu continued to try to fend them off, only getting himself hurt, while Pesos and Boco panicked, this was their first battle situation ever, and they had no idea what to do. Just then, Pesos spotted a green orb stuck in the ground, he quickly grabbed it, and moved closer to Kupu.
"What's that?!" Kupu said in mid punch.
"I don't know" Pesos said, "I found it stuck in the floor, maybe it could do something?!"
"Huh?" Kupu said, "Well, come on, try to use it!"
Pesos held the orb up, the ghouls started to back away in fear, not knowing what he was doing. Nothing happened, however. Pesos lowered the orb and started pounding on it.
"What's wrong with this thing?!" Pesos said.
Just then, the orb began to glow, it raised into the air. A woman materialized within the center, she was beautiful, with long, flowing silver hair. She looked at Pesos, and raised her hands. Chocobo, moogle and ghouls all looked at the beautiful woman, and she began to speak in Pesos' mind.
"You have revived it, the power of the materia...my will, you have a great burden ahead of you...a burden which was decided by us gods since you made the decision to look for your lost owner..."
"Vat is she?! She is some kind of...goddess?!" exclaimed the lead ghoul.
"Materia? What...?" Pesos said.
"I shall grant you the powers within this materia, they are only remote...but they will grow strong if you wish to use them...it is your decision, but your destiny depends on whether you choose to build this power or not. Good luck..."
With that, the goddess lifted Pesos, Boco and the lead ghoul into the air, all three struggling. The goddess closed her eyes, and released a wave of energy into all three of them. Once the wave dissipated, the three were returned to the ground, and the goddess disappeared.
"Wow!" Kupu said, "What was that?!"
"Ow," Pesos said, rubbing his head, "I have a headache."
"Wark," Boco said in a moaning tone.
"Vat on, vat happened...?" The lead ghoul said, "vy did that voman do that to me?!"
The other ghouls had all gone to hide out of fear of the goddess, Pesos, the lead ghoul, Boco, and Kupu were alone in the main hall now.
"Vat did you do?!" the ghoul yelled angrily, "I demand to know!"
"I don't know...," Pesos said, "it happened to us too..."
"Vell, now the other ghouls are going to be scared of me from now on. Good job, you ruined my afterlife!" the lead ghoul said.
"Hey, what a convenient pun," Kupu said.
"Vell, now vat?! I can't stay here anymore!" the lead ghoul said.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ruin your afterlife," Pesos said, "why don't you come with us?"
"Vith YOU?!" the ghoul said mockingly, "BAH! Vy vould I do that?!"
"Let's go outside," Kupu said, "I hate this place now."
"Wark," Boco agreed.
Outside, the three tried to reason with the ghoul, but the ghoul would still not comply. Eventually he agreed on the terms that they find him a new home when they were done rescuing their "Ruvlia"
"Vell, if i'm coming vith you, I might as vell be given a name," the ghoul said.
"You don't remember your name?" Kupu said.
"You forget your memories ven you die," the ghoul said, "give me a good one, I am very sensitive ven it comes to names."
"Uh..," Pesos said in mid thought, "I know, you'll be Mr. Dead!"
"Mr. VAT?! Vat kind of name is that?!"
"take it or leave it," Pesos said.
"Bah, Mr. Dead, vat a stupid, pointless name," Mr. Dead said.
"Hi, Mr. Dead, i'm Kupu, this is Boco, and this is Pesos!" Kupu introduced.
"Bah," Mr. Dead said snobbily, "you vill all call me MD then, i'll settle for an abbrieviation."
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
So THIS is Ruvelia, I pictured someone...older, but this will do," Forage said at Zero's delivery.
"You can't do this! I'm an Atkascha!" Ruvelia yelled from the chair.
Zero punched her in the stomach, rending her unconscious again, Forage shook his head.
"We need her in top condition, that's dangerous," he said.
"It wont kill her to have a stomach ache," Zero said, "where's the gil Aleck."
Forage took a small gil bag from a belt under his robe, and tossed it to Zero. Zero caught it with no problems.
"Heh, strangely enough, I enjoyed doing this, anything else?" Zero said, hooking the bag to his belt.
"No, King Lesath has no other favors, unless you'll volunteer to spy for him?"
"Eh," Zero said, scratching his head, "i'll do this one for free, I LIKE spying, and it's for a good friend of mine."
"Good, i'll bring the girl to Lesath. Thank you, Zero."
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
"Zo, you all are looking for this..voman named Ruvlia?!" MD said as they traveled.
"Yeah, she's very nice," Pesos said, "but man in black took her..."
"Well, this is where we have to seperate," Kupu said, "I'm needed here."
"Wark!" Boco said sadly.
"Why do you have to go?" Pesos said.
"I'm needed at my home, so I can't leave here...maybe we'll meet again though," Kupu said, he pointed to the north, "that way leads to the end of the forest, there's a town of humans there too."
"Vouldn't humans...uh...notice us?" MD asked.
"You'll have to deal with that," Kupu said, "I must be off...OH YES! Take these!"
Kupu looked inside the bag he was carrying, he rummaged for a while and took out some Kupo Berries. He handed them to Pesos, and smiled.
"Here, take these, a word of advice: Learn to hunt," Kupu said, "good luck."
"Bye Kupu," Pesos said, "Good luck to you too..."
"Wark..," Boco said.
"Goodbye," MD said, waving.
After Kupu left, the three looked at eachother, Pesos sighed and said, "Guess we're on our own from here on out..."
.