From the Thunder Plains to Macalania Forest, Monday Night

[the_merriest]

The thunder cracked overhead, and Rikku ... barely noticed. She'd done it. She'd really done it. Boom! Fear of lightning: gone.

She was still in a state of shock, really. "There was no way that should have worked," she insisted, for what had to be the twentieth time.


"Well, then you sure showed it, didn't you?" Reno grinned and gave a shrug of his shoulders. "You stick yourself into the thick of junk like that, you stop noticin' after a while. You did good, yo."


"I figured ... either I'd get over it, or I'd figure out I'm never going to, and either way's pretty good, yeah?" She leaned up for a quick kiss. "Plus I had a Turk around for back-up. I mean, hard to fail with one of those handy."


"Yeah, well, we get the job done," Reno quipped, happily leaning into that kiss of hers. "So, anything else on the agenda for today? Hunt down some more fiends? Sell this stuff off? Wild sex under one of them towers?"

He was still Reno. He had to toss that in there for good measure.


"Let's sell things off," she decided. "Wild sex can wait until we're not so wet."

"Although ..." She bit her lower lip and bounced nervously on her toes. "We, uh. Do we ... have time to go somewhere else, first? I know we want to get to Gaia, 'cause I reallllly want to see the chochos, but there's .... there's something really close by that I want you to see. I mean, if you're interested? We don't have to."


"Okay, then. First stop, pawnin' off this stuff, and then you can take me wherever it is you wanna see?" Reno wasn't going to be picky, here. "We can see the chocobos after the New Year, anyhow. Ain't like break ends tomorrow, zoto." It didn't! Which was awesome! "Lead on, yo."


Packing up didn't take long, and neither did stopping at what used to be Rin's Travel Agency to sell off the weapons and whatnot they'd accumulated. The Al Bhed girl behind the counter wasn't as good at haggling as Rin was, so they got a fairly good deal out of it.

From there, it wasn't too far to walk back to the edge of the Thunder Plains. The far end, the one that didn't border Guadosalam, where they came in.

"I want you to close your eyes," she said, her face serious. "I mean it. No peeking until we're there."


"My eyes?" Reno gave Rikku a bit of a puzzled look before shrugging and doing as he was told. "I'm gonna have to trust you not to walk me into an open manhole or nothin', I guess. I know where your chocobo is."


"No manholes," she promised, taking his arm with a grin. "You'll be totally safe. Benefits of having a Guardian around, zoto."

She guided him carefully past the last tower into the opening of the woods that lay beyond. Once they were surrounded by lush trees and low branches, she took a moment just to soak it all in again. Breathtaking. Okay.

"Okay," she said. "You can look now."

The woods of Macalania were filled with huge, crystalline trees of deep aquatic blue. The low, flat branches formed twisted and gnarled paths through the forest, wide enough for several people to walk on, side-by-side. There were budding flowers against the trees, each nearly as tall as a person, and the center blossoms were sparkling spheres of white light.

Looping around the trees was a shimmering arc of bright light. It was a handy shortcut to the other side of the woods, and to the place where some mysterious blossom had given her Godhand its powers. Plus, there was nothing quite like walking on a suspended path of starlight.

"Welcome to Macalania Forest," she smiled.

(OOC: for raspberryturk, who was modded with permission and who co-wrote this with me and who rocks. NFB-distance.)