They turned left, walking at a strangely leisurely pace, they walked down a hill for about half hour, finally getting to the bottom. Buffy turned around to face the Calm Lands and gasped.
A herd of giant chickens were running around. They had bright yellow feathers an huge beaks.
“Oh my god, what are they?” She gasped.
“Chocobos.” Lulu answered.
“Yum.” Buffy said.
Every single person in the group stopped and stared at her.
“What’s that you say again?” Wakka said, not believing his ears.
“Well, you do eat them, don’t you? Look at the drumsticks on them!”
Lulu coughed quietly, Yuna held her hand in front of her mouth, looking thoughtful as though trying to work out if Buffy was joking. Spike was stifling laughter. Kimahri was looking at the chocobo’s as though considering eating them.
The chocobo’s themselves were pecking in the grass, each of them about as tall as Auron. They looked up as though feeling the hungry stares coming from Buffy and the Ronso.
They made a funny ‘Kweh’ noise, picking up their giant legs and running away.
At around midday they saw a building, not far off. Between them and it was a large bowl shaped indent in the ground. As they walked down the saw a woman standing there. At first Buffy thought she was a pole. She was standing completely motionless, dressed in a long, green dress. As they approached, though, she looked up.
“Ah, summoner Yuna, quite the traitor these days.”
Yuna didn’t know what to say as the woman began to laugh quietly.
“Pay little heed to what the Maesters have to say, a summoners duty is to kill Sin, not to Yevon. Remember that.”
Yuna bowed deeply. “I will.”
“So, do you think you can do it?”
“I.. I don’t know, but.. I can try.”
“You have spirit. But it takes more than that to defeat Sin. How about an Aeon duel?”
Yuna chewed her bottom lip. “Okay.”
The guardians walked a little way back up the side of the bowl, sitting on the lush, green grass. As they watched the woman summoned Shiva, Yuna stepped back, summoning Ifrit. As Buffy watched they hurled icicles and fireballs at one another. Dodging and ducking, snapping and kicking until, finally Shiva fell to the ground. She seemed to turn into crystal, fading away.
The pole-woman held up her hand. “Stop, that is enough.”
Yuna bowed deeply, dismissing her Aeon and turning to the woman.
“Your power matches your resolve. I think you just may be able to defeat Sin. Farewell, Summoner Yuna, if you need to train any more find me at the hidden temple.”
Yuna watched as the woman walked out of the bowl. The guardians stood up, walking down to join Yuna.
“Let’s go.” Yuna said, walking towards the building.
They entered what appeared to be a motel. It was definitely Al Behd, there were a couple of buildings and a storefront. “Let’s stop here for the night.” Yuna said.
“But it is still daylight, do you not think we should continue while we can?” Auron said, more an order than a question.
Buffy turned on him. “What is this? ‘Let’s get Yuna dead as quick as possible?’ We got little or no sleep last night, all of us. And yes- I am aware that this was because you all came to rescue me but the point is- what difference does it make if we stop a couple of hours earlier and sleep in a room instead of on the ground. I’m soo over your ‘hurry up, let’s go’ crap. I understand that you want to defeat Sin but we’re not just playing some game.” She walked right up to him, hissing the words in his face.
“Yuna will probably die, none of us want her to but that is the reality, some or all of us may die as well, these are probably the last days of Yuna’s life, just because yours is over doesn’t mean you have to hurry up and end hers.”
Kimahri turned his head as she said this, everyone else was pretending to be somewhere else and they couldn’t hear her but Spike and Kimahri had brilliant hearing.
Buffy wondered why he hardly reacted, even he would normally have said something, she shook her head, giving Auron a fierce stare.
“Fine, I see no problem with us resting.” Auron said.
Everyone turned around, someone was coming up behind them. He appeared to be a Yevon monk. Buffy prepared herself for battle. Lulu stepped forwards. “Father Zuuk.”
Buffy frowned, Lulu knew him?
“Long time no see.” The monk answered. “You are Yuna?”
Yuna nodded.
“You don’t look like Maester Kinoc’s murderer.” Zuuk said.
“What you say?” Wakka asked outraged.
“That is the hugest load of bull…” Buffy began.
Yuna interrupted, stepping forward. “Please, tell us what has happened.”
“Maester Mika just issued a personal order, you know. It said you and your guardians murdered Maester Kinoc, desecrated part of the palace and fled. We are to kill you on sight, or so it says.”
“What of Bevelle?” Auron asked.
“Things are calm on the surface, but the depths are turbulent. After the death of Maester Kinoc, Kelk Ronso left Yevon.”
“Convenient.” Auron grunted. “Getting around will be easier with Yevon in disarray.”
“But be careful my friends, you have been branded enemies of Yevon. You should avoid temples for the time being.”
“Thankyou Father Zuuk, for your warning.” Yuna bowed.
“Father, you came all the way here just to tell us this?” Lulu asked.
“To tell the truth I was a little curious to see this summoner you are guarding. I hope her pilgrimage goes well, for your sake too.”
“Thankyou, Father.” Lulu bowed her head.
“I must be off, I shall pray for all of you.” He said, performing the prayer.
“Who was that?” Tidus asked as the man walked away.
“Until half a year ago he was a summoner.” Lulu answered. “Wakka and I were his guardians.”
“It was kind of a short pilgrimage.” Wakka added.
“He gave up half way. Here, on this plain. Now he’s a monk at the Bevelle temple.”
Buffy looked around, at loss for anything to say. “Oh, hey, while we’re here we can get our clothes washed.” She offered.
“That’s a good idea.” Wakka said, giving her his bag. He took out his other clothes and walked off with them. Buffy looked down at the bag.
“Great, I’m clothes duty person.” She looked around. “Hey, everyone come get your other clothes.”
They rummaged in the bag, pulling out their things.
Spike gave her a funny look. “Other clothes? We have other clothes? Nobody bloody bothered to tell me that.”
Buffy scratched the side of her face, realising with shock that she’d accidentally picked that habit up from Rikku. “Um, you don’t have other clothes. Um, c’mon.” She walked over to the counter.
“Hi, do you have clothes, for him.” She turned to point at Spike and found he was right behind her.
“But nothing poofy.” Spike added. “No dresses, funny colours, poncey sleeves. Just.. normal clothes.”
The Al Behd went into the building behind her, coming out a few moments later with a crimson top, very much like a normal short sleeved button up shirt, however it only buttoned to about halfway down the chest and it didn’t have a collar, the material was light but looked very durable and black, leather pants.
Buffy smiled. “They’re good, I’ll take them.” She handed over some Gil she’d picked up along the way, handing the bundle to Spike.
“Go, get changed.”
Buffy bundled everyone’s clothes up, except Spike’s coat which he put back on, she handed them to the Al Behd who took them and walked off into the building.
“So, what to do now?” Buffy mused, everyone was off doing their own thing, Spike was talking to an Al Behd, he came walking back to where Tidus was. “Cid says to tell you that they’ve taken a salvage crew back to Home, they’re going to catch up with us when they’re done, and you’d better look after Yuna, or else.”
Tidus gulped, somehow the message was scarier coming from Spike than anyone else, he wandered off to look for the summoner in question.
“Buffy?” Spike came up behind her. She turned around.
“Spike, Do you.. let’s go for a walk.”
He looked around. “Where to?”
“I saw the sea from up there.” She pointed back at the mountain they’d come from. “Maybe we could go there.”
“Uh, well..” He looked regretful. “The sea’s at the bottom of a cliff. But there’s a nice view.”
“Oh, okay.” Buffy took his hand, it was silly, she knew, but she felt.. reborn, almost. She wanted to do cute things like swimming in the ocean, watching the sunset. Things she never would have wanted to do with Riley. It was as though every bad relationship she’d had over the years washed away and she was left without the usual wariness that usually came with the word ‘boyfriend’. “Let’s go sit and watch the sea.”
Spike looked down at Buffy, at the slayer, at his slayer. He would have gone anywhere with her, done anything. He planted a kiss on top of her head. “It sounds good to me, love.”
…
Ethan gave a nasty smile to the assembled demons. Tyralla demons, usually shy, darting away the minute they saw someone. They fed off baby animals and scavenged the remains of other demons. Now they were his. With a little magick and a lot of persuasion he had them built into a small army, nearly thirty in total. They were to help him take over Sunnydale, then become his minions, serving him forever.
…
Giles frowned as he read the newspaper.
“What’s wrong, anything on..” Xander trailed off, casting a glance towards Dawn who sat in the kitchen, her back to them.
“No, no. Nothing like that…It’s just. Peculiar.”
“Okay, peculiar five heads and three tails or peculiar Mary-Kate and Ashley are coming to .Sunnydale?” He thought about this for a second. “Please let it be the second.”
“Um.. no, no. There are just, well it appears there have been some rather unusual incidents around town, they don’t appear to be related.”
Xander looked over Giles’ shoulder. He frowned, they were some pretty strange headlines. ‘Backyard collapses’ ‘Sunnydale tyres on the missing list’ ‘Power shortages attributed to severed cables’- the list went on. Something caught Giles’ eye. ‘Monkey’s ransack administrative buildings’.
“Monkeys?” Xander asked.
“It certainly seems unusual.” Giles said. “Perhaps we could talk with some of the witnesses.”
“Yes, I saw the whole thing.” The lady said as they sat in her living room. “Coffee?”
“Um, no, thankyou. Ahem, could you describe these monkeys?” Giles asked.
“Well, they were about the size of a ten year old child. They had very large ears, kind of torn I thought. They had no tails which seemed odd but they hung from the building just like those ones on T.V. They had funny squashed up faces and their fur..” She trailed off, looking guilty.
“Yes, their fur?” Giles asked.
“Their fur was blue.”
“Here we go.” Xander said. “Tyralla demon.”
Giles looked at the book. “That can’t be correct, granted they fit the description but that someone would call forth a multitudinous number of these demons is unlikely.”
“Why?” Xander asked.
“Well, they are merely scavengers, it would explain the strange happenings around town, however their behaviour is unprecedented. They shy away from humans as much as possible.”
“But, they like the graffiti on walls, holes in your garden thing?” Xander asked.
“Well, yes, as a matter of fact, they do. They appreciate chaos, they are often called the soldiers of the chaos god..” Giles’ voice trailed off.
“G-man?”
“I believe I know who called them. And how many times do I have to ask you to please not call me that!”