melodiesoflife | The Shopkeeper's Daughter: Act 2

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The Shopkeeper's Daughter: Act 2

Characters: Lots!
Where: The hospital; the shopkeeper's shop; just outside the Chocobo Farm; in the wilderness; on the plateau.
When: September 12-13
Summary: It's time for The Shopkeeper's Daughter to get properly underway. Here we have act 2!
Warnings: Possibly some violence...

Overture
It’s market day in Aqures Ixen. People stream out of their homes and into the common areas, carrying all kinds of items, for bartering is just as popular on these days as buying things outright. Market days always bring with them a special kind of energy. Anything is possible on these days. One never knows what treasures one might find for sale. Except, of course, for Baltoro’s Blooms.

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Gerad lies in an entirely separate wing of the hospital from our Heroes’ fallen comrades. A rough-looking man, he seems more or less recovered from his ordeal with the caravan, judging by how antsy he seems. His eyes flicker from the window to the door and back again in a constant loop. Is he waiting for something? For someone? A tense scene indeed awaits the Heroes…if they can make it past the nurses.

One might think that market day would be one of our friend the shopkeeper’s favourite days, but alas, it does not seem to be. He sits beside his ailing daughter, holding one of her pale, clammy hands tightly in his own. He silently prays for the triumphant return of the Heroes of Light. They will save his daughter, won’t they?

The Queen of Dalmasca finishes saddling up her yellow chocobo, tightening straps and tying expertly crafted knots. It may be absurdly early in the morning, but she doesn’t believe in wasting time, not when her little friend’s life is on the line. She looks out to the south east, petting her chocobo’s neck gently. All she needs now is her companions.

The Heroes make good time, settling in for the night at the edge of a small, sparse forest. Just past the uneven line of trees, the ground gets rocky and begins to slope upward. Their destination is within reach…but first, sleep.

As the Heroes finally arrive at the top of the small mountain, they are greeted with a rather unwelcome sight. Dirt. Just a lot of dirt. Some greenery, but clearly not the kind they are looking for. Ah well, better get to scrounging around in all that dirt. Hero-ing, yay.

Sparks had arrived a bit early in order to get Mercury ready for the trip, and the rocket horse seemed excited to finally be getting out for a real adventure. When Sparks said pack light, he meant it - this was supposed to be a fast trip, and he wasn't sure if anyone needed to ride with him or not. Maybe the newbies hadn't gotten themselves a chocobo yet.

Oh, right. Chocobos. Before he had gotten Mercury here, he went through that process, but not without being dragged through the forest and getting pecked a whole lot. He turned to those nearby who seemed like they were without one.

"Alright. If ya don't got a bird yet, someone light can ride with me. Otherwise, you can borrow my chocobo, if'n he don't peck ya to death first." Sparks nodded towards a yellow chocobo in a corner stable that the man a rueful wark when mentioned. It didn't seem like the friendliest creature in the stables, for sure.

Sparks looked over the map, and then at the field. Then back to the map. Then back to the field.

His shoulders slumped. "This is it? This is it? I thought it was supposed to be a field of flowers. This almost puts the Martian desert to shame."

The evening before the trip, Ales packed everything he owned that would be of use: a pocketful of gil, small research tools, a botany book with a few of its pages bookmarked, and a notebook. Mimi made two sandwiches in case he got hungry on the road and Luffy ate all the food.

While the bag wasn't too heavy, he didn't realize how big it would be. He reminded himself to build a better portable storage device the moment he bought some metal as he searched for a position where he could carry his supplies on his back without tipping over.

"Let-let me help you take it over there, if you want, kupo." Mimi flew behind him and lifted half of the bag.

Ales muttered his thanks and headed out the door, towards the meeting area. After a twenty-minute trek through the city, he final reached Lady Ashe, desperately hoping that whoever would let him ride with them would also carry his bag.

"Finally here! Glad to know that we have such a large group coming."

"Hey! Marshall!" Ales jumped as he waved his arms to get Sparks' attention. "Would you mind if I also brought my bag with me?"

He pulled a bulky bag about the size of his body with one arm. "It's not really that heavy, just awfully inconvenient to carry around."

"Maybe it needs water?" Yuffie walked up behind him and stared out over the field.

It didn't make much sense to her, why didn't they check if the information was correct first?

Yuffie spent a few minutes in the shadows watching the group assemble. She had a small bag slung across her shoulder filled with her usual traveling supplies and a tan cloak draped over her small frame. She hadn't meant to watch the group for very long but she was interested in what they were up too.

She had obtained a chocobo from the farm easily and enjoyed the company of the spastic golden bird. It wasn't as quiet as she was though and quickly alerted everyone to the young ninja's presence with a happy 'Kweh'. With a heavy sigh Yuffie road her chocobo in view and gave a happy wave.

"Morning." Her bird was already packed and her moogle was sitting behind her with a book in his little marshmallow hands. It was clear he was mostly coming along because he had too. "So where we headed?"

Edited 2014-09-20 20:35 (UTC)

She liked trees and that included sleeping in them. With her chocobo tied to the trees base, Yuffie jumped up into it's branches and began to wrap them together to make a quick but sturdy bed. It was how she preferred to camp because it kept her items close to her and she was out of harms way from most things.

She laid down her cloak over their prickly leaves and to fill in holes of empty space that lead to the ground below. She then set her pack down as a pillow.

"And! A bed!" Yuffie grinned at her work, looking at the others below.

Zelda was waiting by the front entrance of the hospital. She made sure to note all the heroes at the meeting to see who would be here but she still wasn't sure who was coming.

Her hands fidgeted nervously with her pink dress. The nurses had insisted that he didn't want any visitors and she wasn't sure if she should try to press the matter alone.

"Hey that's pretty neat. Honestly this is my first time sleeping outside like this. Like... outside a city and everything." She stares up at the sky, kind of in awe.

"You know, I thought a sky like this could only be seen from a colony. All the stars, the occasional ship entering the Earth's atmosphere..."

Yuffie looked down curiously. "First time, EVER, sleeping outside?" Considering the young thief almost lived outside at times she found that hard to believe.

She rolled on her stomach to face Allenby as the tired moogle wrapped himself in Yuffie's cloak.

"What is your home like?"

That was going to be an adventure to explain, but maybe Yuffie might understand some.

"Home? Please, don't play it up. It was a training facility and that's it. I never really had a 'home', at least not up until the Gundam Fight Finals." And she suspects that last bit went over her head.

"But it was cold, plain, tiny windows... At least the bed was soft..." she says, trying to say something more... descriptive about it.

"That doesn't sound like fun." Yuffie was confused but she was also interested, so it was one of the few moments she practiced patience. Her moogle grunted, indicating that he wanted her to be quiet so he could sleep.

She smiled at him before turning back to her conversation. "What's a Gundam Fight?" She whispered as she carefully pronounced each word.

"Well... it's kind of hard to explain, but... it's a big tournament between all the countries to determine the next President of Countries." she says, not caring for either moogle trying to sleep. Maybe something would ping more than interest, like, being from the same place but not having known.

"And the Gundams... they're like... gigantic suits of the armor in some of the shops. Bigger than the buildings here. WHen you get inside, the machine does everything you do. You punch; it punches."

Yuffie's smile slowly widens at the explanation. "That sounds amazing!" She wasn't whispering anymore and was to excited to care. Her moogle grunted, snatched up Yuffie's jacket and flew over to a quieter area to sleep.

The young girl smiled sheepishly as the Mooshoo made his grand exit. "I like the idea of a tournament to determine who's in charge. If that was the case where I'm from I would have my country back!" She might be a little over confident in her abilities.

"Well, that's the idea. The best fighter from every country goes down to Earth in their Gundam and fight's it out. This last one ended up kind of a huge mess though." she explains. You'd think someone who participated would be a little more hype but, she looks visibly... not bored, and not distraught but... certainly not pleased with the topic at hand.

But there's no way without knowing that without pressing on, now is there?

"A huge mess? Still it sounds better... at least better than a bunch of people dying in a big war." She had experienced her own horror's of war and didn't much care for it.

It would be nice if things could be solved so simply, like what Allenby described but Yuffie knew better than to believe that.

A mountain boy himself, Cloud had no trouble scaling the path. There was more than one occasion where he managed to get ahead of the group and had to wait for them. When he reached the top though he waited for the others and was now standing ahead of Sparks in the open area.

He frowned as he looked around the field of dirt. "Are you sure this is the right place?"

Cloud brought his chocobo up alongside the Queen, watching as she finished prepping for the trip. It was a bit comforting to see someone else who was at least as familiar with the birds as he was. His own pack was well filled and his mage staff was slung over his shoulder.

"Ready to go whenever you are."

Even though Kobato had been to the meeting, she still wasn't a hundred per cent sure of what exactly she could do to help. But never the less she found herself going to the hospital first to see who else is there and how she could manage to help them.

When she came across a person she had spoken to before she gave a small smile and walked on over. "Are you here for the same reason I am?"

"Oh, definitely. And it worked for... hmm... thirteenth so... Fifty-two years before someone got greedy! That plus some other unrelated stuff getting mixed up and throwing a wrench in everything." she explains.

"It all got cleared up but... it all ended up being a war anyway. Not overly terrible, but certainly scary. When you only have about two-hundred mobile suits to fight off a whole monster of a colony..."

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Page 1 of 8

The Shopkeeper's Daughter: Act 2

Scene 1: The Hospital

Scene 2: The Shopkeeper's Daughter (interlude)

Scene 3: Setting Out

Scene 4: Camping

Scene 5: The Plateau

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Setting Out

Camping

The Hospital

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Setting Out

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