A Clearing in the Preserve, Saturday Afternoon

[intraspective]

Ino was very dubious indeed at the moment.

It was bad enough that she'd woken up in the same room with a boy. (Even if she happened to like that boy.) Bad enough that he'd had cooler slippers than she'd had. Bad enough that all her weapons had been turned into toys.

But Zack had a smile on him, and was pretty cute (for a boy), and he shared his magic marble things with her. Jump had been a lot of fun, really.

She still didn't believe him when he claimed his toy sword could summon things, though. Ino spun and came to a stop in a clearing in the preserve. "Far enough in!" she declared, because clearly things like this couldn't just be shared where anyone could see. "Now you've got to show me. I'm watching you."

Half hoping he'd fail so she could lord it over him. And half hoping he'd manage it because that would be the best thing ever.

[For the weetiny puppy!]

Comments

[puppy_fair]

Zack would be lying if he said he didn't like it when girls watched him. It meant that he was doing something right, and girls were pretty when they laughed, even if his mom always joked that he was going to have to get married, soon, if he kept showing off.

He didn't wanna get married. He just wanted to play chase the girls and hunt frogs and maybe even play chase the girls with frogs, which was the best game ever.

For now, trying to summon a chocobo would be the next best thing, because all the frogs that they found around the pond turned out to be booooring.

"I can, and I will, too! You just gotta keep watching, Ino!" See, there was totally a foamy sword in his hand, and he was holding it up to show it off, complete with holes to put his shiny materia in and everything! And he had this feather, okay? And if he did this, and that, and a little bit of posing (which was completely unnecessary but just made the whole thing more awesome), then he could proooobably even get a chocobo to show up!

Like... Like... Like...

He wrinkled his nose a little.

"I think maybe I gotts to do the right actions, first."

[intraspective]

"I'm waaaiting," she trilled, clambering up a tree and sitting on a low hanging branch. "What kind of actions do you got to do? Can anyone learn?"

Her father would probably not be impressed if Ino picked that skill up.

[puppy_fair]

"Sure they can!" Zack beamed up at her, putting his free hand on his hip. "It's called a chochobo stomp, and you have to be all stompy so that the chochobo knows you want it to come visit!"

Zack then proceeded to demonstrate the chocobo stomp, which mostly consisted of a really, really silly looking strut, with his wee little chest puffed out proudly as he went.

... It needed work.

[intraspective]

Ino was going to, well, giggle a whole lot.

Because really now. That was pretty funny.

"Chochobos like stomping?" she laughed, flipping over the branch to hang upside down. "Or do they like people lookin' silly?"

[puppy_fair]

"I think it's prolly both," Zack decided, giving a firm little nod before pointing his sword up at the sky again. "Come oooon, chochobo! We wanna see you do it now, too!"

It was possible that Gaia-to-Fandom Summon transit routes left a little something to be desired.

Maybe.

[intraspective]

"I think you're a liar," she informed him, falling out of the tree deliberately and landing lightly. "You can't do it at all!"

And the wind or something had picked up because those bushes over there were rustling. Ino was too busy crossing her arms and working on a pout to notice.

[puppy_fair]

"Can too," Zack protested, working on a pout of his own. "I've done it lotsa times!"

No, he hadn't. He'd only recently picked up the item. And he wasn't five when he'd gotten his hands on it.

The bush over there rustled a bit more, and then after a moment of that, something within them announced its presence with a somewhat distressed cry of "Roo-kii-rooo!"

"I told'ja!"

[intraspective]

Ino had absolutely not fallen on her butt in shock. It was totally another blonde ninja girl who'd done that, yes.

She bit her lip. "It sounds upset!" Ino was going to--go and inspect the bush. "Hello?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack blinked after her, and then he was taking off toward the bush at a run, too, dropping to his hands and knees and trying to pull some of the branches out of the way.

"We won't hurt you, Mister Chocho," he promised, demonstrating his innate talent for naming things while trying to spot the bird in the broken shadows that the forest cast.

... It wasn't that hard. The bird was bright yellow.

It was also about the same size as a duck. And tangled quite thoroughly in some long weeds, flapping and struggling and letting loose the occasional panicked 'kweh' to demonstrate just how displeased it was at this predicament.

[intraspective]

"Hiii," she said, wriggling her way further into the bush and ignoring the scrapes she was picking up. "Don't be scared, we'll help you."

A kunai would've come in handy right about now, sigh.

Ino was just going to crawl further in, almost to the baby chocobo. She reached out to see if she could touch it. Maybe that would calm it down?

... Or it would bite her. That was a possibility.

[puppy_fair]

Normally when a chocobo felt threatened, it would peck at what was frightening it and then run in the other direction.

In this case, it was going to peck at the kids who were reaching for it, and then turn and... get more tangled up in the weeds.

Clearly, it had to be drawn from the weeds by the two kids, who would attempt to do so bravely, like SOLDIERs. And ninjas.

"Maybe if we find it some foods, it'll be less afraid? Chochobos like greens," Zack reasoned, trying to pick some of the weeds closest to him out of the way without suffering further damage from that big little beak.

[intraspective]

Ino nursed her poor hand and levelled a Look at the birdie.

"Stop that," she scolded, "we're trying to help you."

Because that would totally work, yes.

"Any kind of greens? Can't it just eat the weeds 'round it, then?" While the chocobo was flailing around Ino was going to see if she could spot anything that looked edible... if you were a bird. "Seeds?"

[puppy_fair]

"Eeew, not weeds," Zack replied, wrinkling his nose. "Gysahl greens and Krakka greens and Sylkis greens and stuff like that, silly."

... They were all very fancy names for different types of Gaian carrot.

"But seeds might work, too! Or fruit-stuff!"

[intraspective]

"I don't have any," she complained, daring the pain of a peck to see if she could yank a weed around the bird's feet loose.

[puppy_fair]

Zack frowned at that, his little lip sticking out in a big pout before he decided to try a different tactic.

"What if I hold him, and then you pull the weeds out?"

This plan couldn't possibly end well.

[intraspective]

"You'll get hurt," she noted, frowning. Because the pecking did hurt. A lot. Ino inspected her arm and scowled. "But we can't just leave him here."

[puppy_fair]

"It can't be too bad," Zack decided, wriggling his way out of the bush, and then walking around it to peer in the other side, so that he wasn't getting in Ino's way. "I fight monsters all the time back home, and Mister Chocho is just a baby."

It was worth noting that the monsters that Zack fought back home? Were also frogs.

With the bird still flapping and keeping a wary eye on Ino, that meant Zack was free to wriggle in behind, sniffling only a little at the thorns that scratched at him along the way, and then...

"Gotcha!"

"WARK!"

He could wrap his arms around the chicobo and shut his eyes tightly and try to ignore the fact that it was pecking at his forehead in a panic.

[intraspective]

Ino was not going to shriek. She wasn't. She was a NINJA. Ninja didn't shriek at the sight of their companions getting hurt!

She was going to flail and reach for the weeds as quick as she could. They didn't want to come out of the ground, not with a birdie tangled with them making it harder to get a good grip but she managed to get a whole bunch of them free all at once.

Which sent her tumbling backwards a bit, shut up. She was a badass ninja.

(In training.)

Ino winced and bit her lip to keep a moan from escaping and went back to work. "I'm almost done!"

[puppy_fair]

"Keep going, keep going!"

It didn't take too long for the chocobo to figure out that all of the struggling and pecking in the world wasn't going to make the kid with the spiky hair let it free to tangle itself up in the weeds even more. After a few more pecks, it settled in, feathers ruffled, to look thoroughly disgruntled at the both of them.

... In a fairly adorable sort of way.

"There's some around his feet, I think!"

[intraspective]

It was absolutely adorable.

Ino wriggled in closer, right up to where he was and frowned, tongue sticking out, as she worked on getting the bird's feet free.

A few more tugs, careful not to disturb the poor thing, and Ino sat back to grin despite the scratches on her face and declared, "And free!"

[puppy_fair]

"Yaaay!" Zack would have to put off the mandatory victory dance for a moment, because he was now in the process of squirming out of the bushes backwards, with the bird still in his arms so that it wouldn't just go and get itself all tangled up again. "See, Mister Chocho? You're in good hands!"

Relatively good hands.

Well, they had the best of intentions.

'Mister Chocho' did seem a little less distraught, now that they were headed for daylight again. Mister Winkles, who was being jostled about unceremoniously in Zack's pocket, was significantly less pleased.

[intraspective]

Mr. Winkles deserved to be less pleased. Ino's point of view was biased, though.

"And we'll keep you safe!" she piped up, making her own way out of the bushes and winching at her scrapes. On the other hand, she'd help save someone!

That was important.

[puppy_fair]

See, they were heroes, now!

... Nevermind that the chocobo would have been just fine if they hadn't summoned the poor thing in the first place.

"I think he's calming down," Zack reported, blinking at the bird as it craned its wee little neck around in an attempt to stare him down. "Maybe now we can find something to feed to him, huh?"

[intraspective]

"Maybe we can find berries?" she said, standing as she got out of the bush. "Would he like those?"

[puppy_fair]

"I betcha he would," Zack announced, smiling quite merrily as Ino freed herself. "Everybody likes berries! I bet there are ones all ooover the place. Forests are good for those!"

Granted, this was not the jungle around Gongaga, but it had trees, which meant that it was totally close enough.

[intraspective]

"It might be too early for a lot of them though," she said, because Ino had to be logical about plants. "They don't all grow at the same time and--awww! He's adorable!"

[puppy_fair]

"And he's sooooft." Zack's wee little face was nuzzling into the chicobo's back, while the bird made low, only slightly disgruntled cooing sounds somewhere in its throat and settled into his arms. "I bet there's stuff in that garden that he'd like!"

The one that had the neat pillows in it! How many gardens could grow pillows?!

[intraspective]

"The pillows are not for eating," she informed him severely.

Well, as severely as she could when she was going to wander over to pet the chicobo. It was cute!

"But maybe it might like flowers?"

[puppy_fair]

"Maaaybe," Zack agreed, wrinkling his nose as feathers tickled at the tip of it. "But only if they're the kinda flowers that bees get honey from, 'cause chochobos need yummy flowers, not icky ones like dandelions."

The chocobo 'warked.' Zack took this to mean that it totally agreed.

[intraspective]

"Dandelions make good tea," she informed him haughtily. "But we can get him things like bluebells and stuff."

[puppy_fair]

"Do bluebells have honey in them?"

What Zack knew about flowers at this point in his life could be summed up in, 'they smell.'

You could tell.

[intraspective]

Ino's expression was pained. She could tell. Easily.

"Bees like 'em," she answered without answering the question. "That's gotta be a good thing, right?"

[puppy_fair]

Zack considered this train of logic very, very carefully.

The chocobo warbled softly as it decided that it was really actually quite comfortable right where it was.

"So, all we really haveta do is follow the bees to find the perfect chochobo food?"