Chapter the Eighth: All's Fair in Love and War (part III)
Clocking in at 20,766. I have no idea if I'm going to continue this story. XD
White-faced scops owl
Ocelot
Black and white ruffed lemur
Eurasian badger
Also, Al Bhed translator
Chapter the Eighth: All's Fair in Love and War (part III)
Raidal laughed. “Hey, so what kind of candy do you like, anyway?”
“Oh, um, well…” Mary paused to think. “I really like toffee.”
“Okay, then.” Raidal put his hands on his hips and nodded. “Let’s go pick out some toffee.”
Mary blinked, and then realized what he meant. “Oh -- No, it’s okay. I have money, you don’t need to -- ”
“Consider it the rest of my apology, yeah?” Raidal winked at her. “For years of bein’ stupid.”
Mary laughed. “Okay.”
I told you, Eliazar said cheerfully. No time like the present. Now we get free candy.
They turned towards the front of the store to walk out of the aisle. Mary caught glimpse of red hair out of the corner of her eye and she turned her head to see who it belonged to, and then jumped a little, startled. It was her teacher Miss Harper and what seemed odd to Mary was that she was engaged in conversation with Nooj -- It wasn’t so much that they were talking that was weird, but rather the way she was speaking with such quiet, serious tones. Without thinking about it, Mary took a step back to be protected from view by the shelf and Raidal, who was all ready halfway to the glass case, didn’t notice.
Look at their faces, Elia whispered in Mary’s mind, form shifting into a white faced scops owl. He perched on her right shoulder and squinted his orange eyes. Mary followed his gaze. Nooj’s face was grim, and… Miss Harper’s expression was surprised and worried, but there was something behind her eyes -- curiosity and quick thinking and... contained fear. Behind those gray eyes, she was haunted by fear and sadness. It was an unusual look on Miss Harper, who was always smiling and energetic in the classroom, and it made Mary uneasy to see it. Eliazar shuffled his feet on her shoulder.
“But I thought that something like this…” Miss Harper was muttering, hand on her chin.
Mary wondered why she could hear her from so far away when she spoke so quietly, but then with a start she realized why Elia chose to change into the scops owl. With his new superior hearing, he could listen in on their conversation.
Eliazar! Mary scolded. Don’t be rude!
“… can’t you?” Nooj shifted. “You’re the only person I know who…”
Elia fluffed himself up indignantly. You’re just as curious as me and you know it!
But that doesn’t excuse eavesdropping!
Hush! We’re missing out!
“… if it gets any worse, okay?” Miss Harper said softly.
Nooj nodded. “I’ll be sure to do that.”
“And if you can’t find me, you can always come to Lanna. She’ll know how to get in contact with me.” Miss Harper paused, and then quickly added, “She lives just around the block from the store… Her house is the one with the red door and green roof.”
Nooj nodded again and then shifted uncomfortably. “And… Another thing -- ”
“Liliane!”
Miss Harper, Nooj, Mary, and Eliazar all jumped. Miss Harper turned to look to see where the joyous outburst came from, and then burst into a bright smile. “Oh, Lyra!”
“Heyyy, babe!” A beautiful woman with green eyes and long dark hair zoomed in out of nowhere to sweep Miss Harper up in a big hug, which the teacher returned. “What brings you round here?”
“Not much. I’m just popping in to get some gummies and chocolate for me and Jahari, and then I’ve gotta head back to the school. We’ve both got work to do, but it’s his birthday and I forgot to…”
“There you are!” Raidal said, appearing suddenly.
Mary and Eliazar jumped again and, this time, Elia changed into an ocelot, back arched in his surprise. Raidal laughed.
“Eeasy there. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He ruffled Mary’s hair. “What’re you up to?”
Mary fussed to fix her bangs again. “N- Nothing. I was just…” She glanced over at the shelf. “I was just looking at the peanut brittle here.” She paused. “Kieran really likes it,” she lied, “so I was thinking about getting some for him.”
“Ohh, I see.” Raidal folded his arms across his chest and nodded sagely. “I was wondering why you stopped…”
Mary shrugged. Eliazar turned away to preen a feather.
“So, are you gonna get some?”
“Oh. Um…” Mary glanced over at the little packages. “Yeah, I’ll get a bag.” She picked a small one off the shelf.
But Kieran’s allergic to peanuts, Eliazar thought.
“All right.” Raidal flashed a smile. “Now c’mon all ready, I wanna know what I’m buyin’ you.”
Mary made herself laugh a little, but it came out awkwardly. “Okay, okay…”
They emerged from the aisle and turned to head for the glass case. Mary spared a glance at the register. The dark haired woman was in animate conversation with Miss Harper, but Nooj was nowhere in sight.
He must have disappeared into one of the aisles, just like we did, Elia thought. Why did he hide? I thought he had something else to say… What was that about spiders?
I don’t know, but…
“They’ve got tons of different kinds of toffee,” Raidal said, interrupting their thought conversation.
Mary blinked, and then stared at the case. “Oh, wow.”
Raidal was only slightly exaggerating; they had an entire shelf dedicated just to the different kinds of the sweet. Almond toffee, English toffee, raisin toffee, cinder toffee, rum and butter toffee, treacle toffee, all available in milk, white, dark, and extra dark chocolate coating, as well as no coating at all, and in both textures of soft and chewy and hard and brittle.
“I don’t even know where to start,” she laughed.
“Well, let’s start with what kind of chocolate you want on it…”
Eliazar changed into a blue fronted Amazon parrot to click his beak, shuffle his feet, and preen his feathers impatiently. Mary knew he wanted to talk about what they overheard, but there just wasn’t any way to remove herself from the group now.
Oh, stop it, she finally said when he fluffed himself up and clicked his beak for the umpteenth time. You’re making it look like I want to get out of here. We can talk on the bus ride home.
He huffed at her, but shifted from the attention seeking bird into a black and white ruffed lemur. For the rest of the time they were in the candy store, he clung to her back and entertained himself by swishing his long tail, using it to grab random things off shelves, and blinking owlishly at anyone who passed by or looked at him oddly.
A woman with short sandy blonde hair and bright green eyes was working behind the glass case. As she reached into the case to pick out some white chocolate bark for Baralai, she glanced over at Raidal and Mary. When she emerged again, she called over, “Hey, do you guys need some help?”
Raidal shrugged and looked to Mary.
“Oh, um…” She paused, then shrugged as well and nodded. “Yes, please.”
“A’ight, hold on a sec -- “ She set the little plastic bag of white bark on a scale and shouted, “RAO! Lyra! E ghuf ed'c hela du caa Lil, pid kad ujan rana yht tu ouin zup!”
“Oayr, oayr, E's luseh'!” the dark haired woman answered.
“Oui fecr, yhofyo!”
Miss Harper must have understood what they were saying because she turned as red as her hair. The dark haired woman, however, was either unaffected or had no sense of shame, because she just flipped her hair over her shoulder, grinned, and made her way to the glass case.
“Heya, kiddos,” she said. “Whatcha need?”
“Um… Eight ounces of the dark chocolate toffee, please.”
“All righty,” the woman -- Lyra, Elia reminded Mary -- said cheerfully.
“Hey,” Raidal said casually, scratching the back of his ankle with his other foot, “what language were you guys speakin’ just now?”
“Oh, ‘s Lanna’s native tongue,” said Lyra as she plucked the toffees off the tray and put them into a small plastic bag. “Y’know, the blonde girly over there.” She nodded towards the other woman, who was leaving the glass case. “It’s called Al Bhed.”
“Al Bhed… huh. Sounds familiar.”
It does… Mary frowned a little, trying to place it. After a moment, it clicked. “Oh! Yuna and Rikku and Gippal all talk like that sometimes.”
“Yuna, huh?” Lyra set the candy bag on the scale like Lanna did with Baralai’s white chocolate. “That’s the name of Lanna’s kid. You guys go to school with her, then?”
Mary nodded. “We’re in the same class.”
“Cool.” Lyra grinned as she passed the candy over the top of the case. “There ya go… Small world, huh?”
“Or, you know, small neighborhood,” Raidal said, grinning, too. “Since, y’know, the school isn’t all that far away…”
“True, true.” Lyra cocked her head. “You want somethin’, babe?”
“Oh, uh. Sure, I’ll taaaake…” Raidal leaned over to the side to look at something the next row over. “Oh, yeah, I’ll take some mint truffles.”
“Mmm, good choice. These are delicious, let me tell you.”
Mary started to wander away, idly wondering where Nooj went. She spotted the blonde woman, Lanna, all the way across the store. She was speaking with two men, one with long blue hair and the other with shorter black hair streaked with silver. Mary recognized the former as Yuna’s father, but she didn’t have a clue as to who the latter was. Perhaps a family friend or an uncle? Though it was a little odd that Yuna’s father was holding the arm of the other man… Mary decided to drift closer to the group.
“Yuna and Rikku should be over at Cid and Rilla’s by now,” Lanna was saying cheerfully. “So we’re all free for tonight.”
“Good.” Yuna’s father smiled, and Mary couldn’t help but find his smile beautiful. She stared, enthralled. “I called this afternoon to double check on the reservation, and it is still set.”
“Awesome. I’ll let the boys know.” She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, smirking. “Y’know, it’ll be interestin’ to see Jecht all suited up.”
Yuna’s father laughed. “It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?”
The man wearing red snorted. “I suspect it might be a fight to get him into the tux.”
“I bet I know how that wrestling match would end.” Lanna continued to smirk. “So I guess if you guys’re late, we’ll know you didn’t ditch us.”
Yuna’s father blushed. “Oh, I don’t think we’ll…”
“Uh-huh, suuuuure.” Lanna laughed.
What are they talking about? Eliazar blinked.
“Where is the tall bastard, anyhow?”
“He’s taking Tidus to his mother’s,” said the man in red. “Jecht promised Daja that he would bring him this time.”
“He’s tryin’, then, yeah? That’s good.” Lanna put her hands on her hips and nodded. “Well. With the kids are out of the way tonight, we’re all free to get laid.”
Yuna’s father blushed again and cleared his throat. “So, ah. Is that the Liliane we’ve heard so much about standing over there?”
“Nice subject change, Braska.” Lanna snickered. “Yeah, that’s the Doctor’s Lil.”
“The Doctor“? Elia blinked again. Doctor who?
“Do you know why she decided to come back here? You said she’s not from this world, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, she’s from some alternate Earth. I’unno why she’d want to come back here of all places, though, considering what happened. I think it might have something to do with the spiders, which makes sense if you think about it. ‘Cause, really -- In order to stop them, she had to -- ”
“Hey, Mary!”
For the third time today, Mary jumped. Raidal laughed and clapped her on the shoulder.
“C’mon, kiddo. We just finished paying for everything, so we’re out of here.”
“Ohh… Yeah, okay.” Mary tried at a smile, but it came out sheepish.
“We’re more than two hours late…” Baralai said as the group left the candy store. “We’re going to be in a lot of trouble.” He fidgeted with the ends of his sleeves.
“Yeah, but,” Raidal swung the brown plastic bag full of candies and grinned, “it’s so worth it.”
“How can you say that…?”
Mary glanced over at Nooj, who was muttering something to Lucil.
I wonder what he was talkin’ to Miss Harper about, Eliazar said, swishing his long lemur tail. I smell somethin’ fishy, I tell you what.
Ohhh, stop it, Elia. Mary frowned at him. It’s really none of our business.
Riiiight. None of our business that Miss Harper had something to do with stopping the spider epidemic. He curled his tail up to her other shoulder. And Nooj was talkin’ to her about somethin’ serious, from the looks of it…
That doesn’t mean they were talking about anything relating to the spiders, Mary told him firmly. It could have been about anything.
Except you know what they say about Nooj and the antidote. And if Miss Harper was involved with stopping the spiders, then maybe that’s how she and Nooj know each other, and maybe --
“Is there a problem?”
Mary blinked, and realized she was staring at Nooj. She blushed deeply. “Oh -- No. Sorry. I was talking to Eliazar in our -- in my head, and I just kind of spaced out…”
“Hm.” Nooj studied her face for a moment, but then looked away.
I’m telling you, Mary, they know something about the spiders, Eliazar thought stubbornly.
Mary sighed. Even if they do, it’s none of our business.
Except Father died because --
Enough, Elia. Stop it. Just. Stop it. Let it go, okay?
Fine. Eliazar leapt from her back to the ground and form shifted into a Eurasian badger. They walked in silence to the bus stop and didn’t speak to one another until they got home.
White-faced scops owl
Ocelot
Black and white ruffed lemur
Eurasian badger
Also, Al Bhed translator
Chapter the Eighth: All's Fair in Love and War (part III)
Raidal laughed. “Hey, so what kind of candy do you like, anyway?”
“Oh, um, well…” Mary paused to think. “I really like toffee.”
“Okay, then.” Raidal put his hands on his hips and nodded. “Let’s go pick out some toffee.”
Mary blinked, and then realized what he meant. “Oh -- No, it’s okay. I have money, you don’t need to -- ”
“Consider it the rest of my apology, yeah?” Raidal winked at her. “For years of bein’ stupid.”
Mary laughed. “Okay.”
I told you, Eliazar said cheerfully. No time like the present. Now we get free candy.
They turned towards the front of the store to walk out of the aisle. Mary caught glimpse of red hair out of the corner of her eye and she turned her head to see who it belonged to, and then jumped a little, startled. It was her teacher Miss Harper and what seemed odd to Mary was that she was engaged in conversation with Nooj -- It wasn’t so much that they were talking that was weird, but rather the way she was speaking with such quiet, serious tones. Without thinking about it, Mary took a step back to be protected from view by the shelf and Raidal, who was all ready halfway to the glass case, didn’t notice.
Look at their faces, Elia whispered in Mary’s mind, form shifting into a white faced scops owl. He perched on her right shoulder and squinted his orange eyes. Mary followed his gaze. Nooj’s face was grim, and… Miss Harper’s expression was surprised and worried, but there was something behind her eyes -- curiosity and quick thinking and... contained fear. Behind those gray eyes, she was haunted by fear and sadness. It was an unusual look on Miss Harper, who was always smiling and energetic in the classroom, and it made Mary uneasy to see it. Eliazar shuffled his feet on her shoulder.
“But I thought that something like this…” Miss Harper was muttering, hand on her chin.
Mary wondered why she could hear her from so far away when she spoke so quietly, but then with a start she realized why Elia chose to change into the scops owl. With his new superior hearing, he could listen in on their conversation.
Eliazar! Mary scolded. Don’t be rude!
“… can’t you?” Nooj shifted. “You’re the only person I know who…”
Elia fluffed himself up indignantly. You’re just as curious as me and you know it!
But that doesn’t excuse eavesdropping!
Hush! We’re missing out!
“… if it gets any worse, okay?” Miss Harper said softly.
Nooj nodded. “I’ll be sure to do that.”
“And if you can’t find me, you can always come to Lanna. She’ll know how to get in contact with me.” Miss Harper paused, and then quickly added, “She lives just around the block from the store… Her house is the one with the red door and green roof.”
Nooj nodded again and then shifted uncomfortably. “And… Another thing -- ”
“Liliane!”
Miss Harper, Nooj, Mary, and Eliazar all jumped. Miss Harper turned to look to see where the joyous outburst came from, and then burst into a bright smile. “Oh, Lyra!”
“Heyyy, babe!” A beautiful woman with green eyes and long dark hair zoomed in out of nowhere to sweep Miss Harper up in a big hug, which the teacher returned. “What brings you round here?”
“Not much. I’m just popping in to get some gummies and chocolate for me and Jahari, and then I’ve gotta head back to the school. We’ve both got work to do, but it’s his birthday and I forgot to…”
“There you are!” Raidal said, appearing suddenly.
Mary and Eliazar jumped again and, this time, Elia changed into an ocelot, back arched in his surprise. Raidal laughed.
“Eeasy there. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He ruffled Mary’s hair. “What’re you up to?”
Mary fussed to fix her bangs again. “N- Nothing. I was just…” She glanced over at the shelf. “I was just looking at the peanut brittle here.” She paused. “Kieran really likes it,” she lied, “so I was thinking about getting some for him.”
“Ohh, I see.” Raidal folded his arms across his chest and nodded sagely. “I was wondering why you stopped…”
Mary shrugged. Eliazar turned away to preen a feather.
“So, are you gonna get some?”
“Oh. Um…” Mary glanced over at the little packages. “Yeah, I’ll get a bag.” She picked a small one off the shelf.
But Kieran’s allergic to peanuts, Eliazar thought.
“All right.” Raidal flashed a smile. “Now c’mon all ready, I wanna know what I’m buyin’ you.”
Mary made herself laugh a little, but it came out awkwardly. “Okay, okay…”
They emerged from the aisle and turned to head for the glass case. Mary spared a glance at the register. The dark haired woman was in animate conversation with Miss Harper, but Nooj was nowhere in sight.
He must have disappeared into one of the aisles, just like we did, Elia thought. Why did he hide? I thought he had something else to say… What was that about spiders?
I don’t know, but…
“They’ve got tons of different kinds of toffee,” Raidal said, interrupting their thought conversation.
Mary blinked, and then stared at the case. “Oh, wow.”
Raidal was only slightly exaggerating; they had an entire shelf dedicated just to the different kinds of the sweet. Almond toffee, English toffee, raisin toffee, cinder toffee, rum and butter toffee, treacle toffee, all available in milk, white, dark, and extra dark chocolate coating, as well as no coating at all, and in both textures of soft and chewy and hard and brittle.
“I don’t even know where to start,” she laughed.
“Well, let’s start with what kind of chocolate you want on it…”
Eliazar changed into a blue fronted Amazon parrot to click his beak, shuffle his feet, and preen his feathers impatiently. Mary knew he wanted to talk about what they overheard, but there just wasn’t any way to remove herself from the group now.
Oh, stop it, she finally said when he fluffed himself up and clicked his beak for the umpteenth time. You’re making it look like I want to get out of here. We can talk on the bus ride home.
He huffed at her, but shifted from the attention seeking bird into a black and white ruffed lemur. For the rest of the time they were in the candy store, he clung to her back and entertained himself by swishing his long tail, using it to grab random things off shelves, and blinking owlishly at anyone who passed by or looked at him oddly.
A woman with short sandy blonde hair and bright green eyes was working behind the glass case. As she reached into the case to pick out some white chocolate bark for Baralai, she glanced over at Raidal and Mary. When she emerged again, she called over, “Hey, do you guys need some help?”
Raidal shrugged and looked to Mary.
“Oh, um…” She paused, then shrugged as well and nodded. “Yes, please.”
“A’ight, hold on a sec -- “ She set the little plastic bag of white bark on a scale and shouted, “RAO! Lyra! E ghuf ed'c hela du caa Lil, pid kad ujan rana yht tu ouin zup!”
“Oayr, oayr, E's luseh'!” the dark haired woman answered.
“Oui fecr, yhofyo!”
Miss Harper must have understood what they were saying because she turned as red as her hair. The dark haired woman, however, was either unaffected or had no sense of shame, because she just flipped her hair over her shoulder, grinned, and made her way to the glass case.
“Heya, kiddos,” she said. “Whatcha need?”
“Um… Eight ounces of the dark chocolate toffee, please.”
“All righty,” the woman -- Lyra, Elia reminded Mary -- said cheerfully.
“Hey,” Raidal said casually, scratching the back of his ankle with his other foot, “what language were you guys speakin’ just now?”
“Oh, ‘s Lanna’s native tongue,” said Lyra as she plucked the toffees off the tray and put them into a small plastic bag. “Y’know, the blonde girly over there.” She nodded towards the other woman, who was leaving the glass case. “It’s called Al Bhed.”
“Al Bhed… huh. Sounds familiar.”
It does… Mary frowned a little, trying to place it. After a moment, it clicked. “Oh! Yuna and Rikku and Gippal all talk like that sometimes.”
“Yuna, huh?” Lyra set the candy bag on the scale like Lanna did with Baralai’s white chocolate. “That’s the name of Lanna’s kid. You guys go to school with her, then?”
Mary nodded. “We’re in the same class.”
“Cool.” Lyra grinned as she passed the candy over the top of the case. “There ya go… Small world, huh?”
“Or, you know, small neighborhood,” Raidal said, grinning, too. “Since, y’know, the school isn’t all that far away…”
“True, true.” Lyra cocked her head. “You want somethin’, babe?”
“Oh, uh. Sure, I’ll taaaake…” Raidal leaned over to the side to look at something the next row over. “Oh, yeah, I’ll take some mint truffles.”
“Mmm, good choice. These are delicious, let me tell you.”
Mary started to wander away, idly wondering where Nooj went. She spotted the blonde woman, Lanna, all the way across the store. She was speaking with two men, one with long blue hair and the other with shorter black hair streaked with silver. Mary recognized the former as Yuna’s father, but she didn’t have a clue as to who the latter was. Perhaps a family friend or an uncle? Though it was a little odd that Yuna’s father was holding the arm of the other man… Mary decided to drift closer to the group.
“Yuna and Rikku should be over at Cid and Rilla’s by now,” Lanna was saying cheerfully. “So we’re all free for tonight.”
“Good.” Yuna’s father smiled, and Mary couldn’t help but find his smile beautiful. She stared, enthralled. “I called this afternoon to double check on the reservation, and it is still set.”
“Awesome. I’ll let the boys know.” She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, smirking. “Y’know, it’ll be interestin’ to see Jecht all suited up.”
Yuna’s father laughed. “It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?”
The man wearing red snorted. “I suspect it might be a fight to get him into the tux.”
“I bet I know how that wrestling match would end.” Lanna continued to smirk. “So I guess if you guys’re late, we’ll know you didn’t ditch us.”
Yuna’s father blushed. “Oh, I don’t think we’ll…”
“Uh-huh, suuuuure.” Lanna laughed.
What are they talking about? Eliazar blinked.
“Where is the tall bastard, anyhow?”
“He’s taking Tidus to his mother’s,” said the man in red. “Jecht promised Daja that he would bring him this time.”
“He’s tryin’, then, yeah? That’s good.” Lanna put her hands on her hips and nodded. “Well. With the kids are out of the way tonight, we’re all free to get laid.”
Yuna’s father blushed again and cleared his throat. “So, ah. Is that the Liliane we’ve heard so much about standing over there?”
“Nice subject change, Braska.” Lanna snickered. “Yeah, that’s the Doctor’s Lil.”
“The Doctor“? Elia blinked again. Doctor who?
“Do you know why she decided to come back here? You said she’s not from this world, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, she’s from some alternate Earth. I’unno why she’d want to come back here of all places, though, considering what happened. I think it might have something to do with the spiders, which makes sense if you think about it. ‘Cause, really -- In order to stop them, she had to -- ”
“Hey, Mary!”
For the third time today, Mary jumped. Raidal laughed and clapped her on the shoulder.
“C’mon, kiddo. We just finished paying for everything, so we’re out of here.”
“Ohh… Yeah, okay.” Mary tried at a smile, but it came out sheepish.
“We’re more than two hours late…” Baralai said as the group left the candy store. “We’re going to be in a lot of trouble.” He fidgeted with the ends of his sleeves.
“Yeah, but,” Raidal swung the brown plastic bag full of candies and grinned, “it’s so worth it.”
“How can you say that…?”
Mary glanced over at Nooj, who was muttering something to Lucil.
I wonder what he was talkin’ to Miss Harper about, Eliazar said, swishing his long lemur tail. I smell somethin’ fishy, I tell you what.
Ohhh, stop it, Elia. Mary frowned at him. It’s really none of our business.
Riiiight. None of our business that Miss Harper had something to do with stopping the spider epidemic. He curled his tail up to her other shoulder. And Nooj was talkin’ to her about somethin’ serious, from the looks of it…
That doesn’t mean they were talking about anything relating to the spiders, Mary told him firmly. It could have been about anything.
Except you know what they say about Nooj and the antidote. And if Miss Harper was involved with stopping the spiders, then maybe that’s how she and Nooj know each other, and maybe --
“Is there a problem?”
Mary blinked, and realized she was staring at Nooj. She blushed deeply. “Oh -- No. Sorry. I was talking to Eliazar in our -- in my head, and I just kind of spaced out…”
“Hm.” Nooj studied her face for a moment, but then looked away.
I’m telling you, Mary, they know something about the spiders, Eliazar thought stubbornly.
Mary sighed. Even if they do, it’s none of our business.
Except Father died because --
Enough, Elia. Stop it. Just. Stop it. Let it go, okay?
Fine. Eliazar leapt from her back to the ground and form shifted into a Eurasian badger. They walked in silence to the bus stop and didn’t speak to one another until they got home.