Chapter 14: Prelude to a Picnic -------------------------------- Kurago held open the inn doors while Kurune and Relm shuffled past, trailing dust into the lobby. Everyone was weary from an unfruitful search of the desert. Without Kulock there to guide them, all they had found was sand, rock, and the occasional Hoover or Cactrot. No Sands of Time, no Mog, and no Umaro. "Kupo, what took you guys so long?" Kulock asked cheerfully. He was clean. It was as though he had sneezed and all the dirt had flown off him... and onto everyone else. "I got dibs on the bathroom," Kurune proclaimed. She wanted to soak herself in a hot bath. She wanted to leave the desert behind and lose herself in the folds of a just-washed blanket. "Cool with me," Kurago stated. He had a Sylph Journal he had been neglecting anyway. "C'mon, Interceptor. Wanna go for a walk?" Relm leaned back, reopening the door to let her puppy back outside. Kulock was confounded. He had better things to do than stand there waiting for everybody to come back, so he went to Kurune's room where he exchanged the mint on the pillow with the letter he had received from Mog. Every good deed has its own rewards... * * * * The late night rains had abated, and the dreary morning was breaking up as well. Maranda was drenched, but it was already clearing up. Besides a little dampness was good for the flower beds. All morning long, Kulock had been hopping into rain puddles. Large puddles, small puddles, and all sorts of puddles in between. Some puddles exploded into great, big, all-encompassing splashes that terrorized the town folk of Maranda; other puddles had a dislike for puddle-hopping moogles and gave Kulock a good soaking; and still other puddles refused to splash at all -- they just weren't any fun. Kulock couldn't recall having a more productive day over a year. He checked off his 'to do' list, reached down into the knee-deep moat that surrounded him, and dredged up a handful of mud. Patting it into a rough shape, he threw it against the side of the bakery. Bull's-eye! The baker or one of his assistants peeked around the corner at him. Kulock waved a muddy hand in greeting, but whoever it was quickly fled. The last person to approach the moogle had been splashed, and it seemed no one appreciated mud the same way he did. Bull's-eye! This was too easy. He was just standing way too close to the side of the bakery, but there weren't any other targets within his reach. That tree maybe. It was a bit far, so Kulock took some time to squeeze out as much water from the mudball as he could. He loaded up and concentrated on the unlucky maple. Then he fired, kicking up a spray of water. Bull's-eye!...er, sort of. He hadn't killed the tree, but he was sure his woody adversary would think twice the next time it wanted to stand near a moogle. "Woof, woof!" Interceptor trotted up to the edge of the mini-pond, wagging his tail. "Kupo, Interceptor! Did you want to play?" "Woof!" Kulock leaped into the air, as high as he could, clear above the filthy waters. Interceptor watched expectantly. Then Kulock came down hard, splashing a clean coat of mud on the pooch. * * * * Relm wondered where Interceptor had run off to. Interceptor never strayed far, and she could have called for him at any time, but she decided to just let him run amok for awhile. She returned to her painting, mixing some magenta onto her brush. She was doing a cityscape -- a series of building, trees, and people -- commissioned by Maranda's town council. She had started in the early hours when dawn was just sneaking in and the streets were desolate. But now that everyone was bustling about, Relm had to paint fast -- the best way to paint if she was any authority. A bit of red, some green here, a lighter shade blue in the sky, and maybe more yellow in this corner. The centerpiece of her current canvas was the rebuilding of the town wall. One section of the wall had been completely torn down, and chocobos were busy hauling away debris and bringing in fresh material. Relm added highlights to the some of the workers and adjusted the hat on one of the foremen. She made a final check between the ongoing construction and her own rendition. Satisfied, she signed it and placed it along with the rest of her MarandaScapes to dry. * * * * Somewhere off the coast, the ocean glinted at Kurago from beneath a wisp of clouds. It awed him to be flying so far from land, and it frightened and exhilarated him at the same time. Each and every blue wave that called out to him was just that -- a blue wave. There were no mountains, no trees, no rivers, no towns. Nothing to give a flying moogle any sense of where he was, and no where for a tired set of wings to rest. The prospect of being forced into the ocean really unnerved him, sometimes pushing him towards the edge of panic. Almost all moogles could swim -- on hot summer days, when the forests of Elf Grove were muggy, all the moogles would go for a dip -- except Kurago. The deep waters of Lake Wolf scared him unreasonably as did the unfathomable ocean. He didn't know what lurked beneath the surface, and it kept him up at nights wondering. Kurago banked 180 degrees. He had been up too long, and it was time to head back; he didn't want to push his luck. A strong head wind which had hindered him before now favored him. The boost of speed and altitude reinvigorated his confidence, and in no time at all, land resurfaced in the horizon and sped towards him. He punched through a scraggly white cloud, one of the few remaining in the skies over Maranda. The previous night's drizzles had retreated in deference to the picnic Kurune had planned. Down below Maranda splayed itself out across the grassy plains. Kurago angled into a sharp dive, the wind zipping over his wings. Thunder roared in his ears as the town grew in size, its streets gaining definition. He kicked his feet out in front of him and landed resoundingly on the slant of a tiled roof, his DragoonBoots humming contentedly. * * * * Meanwhile, far away from the prying eyes of Maranda, a sapphire blue chocobo pranced back and forth scorching wet grass wherever it stepped. It stopped momentarily, aware of someone watching. Swinging its head around, it stared deep into Kurune with its twinkling violet eyes. The air around it blazed with a fierce heat, and fires leapt off its tenuous body -- a real life Phoenix reborn. Hot gusts blew her way, but Kurune didn't flinch. Droplets of sweat tinged her fur, and her ears were cold. She held onto the bird's kind and noble gaze until the fiery chocobo blinked. Returning to its little jig and ignoring the moogle, the chocobo hopped about frantically, scratching away dirt and pebbles, its bright yellow feet flashing dangerously close as it circled around Kurune. It stopped somewhere behind her, forcing Kurune to turn around The Phoenix impersonator considered the tiny moogle before it then squawked out a high C note. "Chiiirp!" Lifting its emerald-tipped wings, the chocobo bounced up. Its wings crashed downwards, and the bird *shattered*...into a shower of furry cobalt-blue kittens. Fuzzy green bunnies scattered in all directions. One of the kittens paused to wink at a bunny, and got a smile in return. The grasslands were on fire. Then one by one they all obediently snuffed themselves out. Kurune resheathed her new Flame Sabre, still shaken from the experience. She collected herself and left the charred field for the four winds to clean up. She had a picnic to attend to.