Rachel was awed by the desert, it seemed to go on forever. All her life she had been around trees and plains, but she had never seen so much sand in the same place. She looked at Sabin, "Do you have any idea what would happen if one of us got sepperated here." Rachel had a bad feeling that she already knew the answer, and it wasn;t very pleasant. I have to be sure not to get left behind this time, or I will be dead for a hundred years before they find my corpes

"Seperated in the desert eh?" smiled Sabin. "My master taught me this proverb; 'Shall you ever be lost and desolated, never give in. If your courage and will to survive supasses your hoplessness, you will survive.' In other words, never give up hope when you are lost. If your will to survive is great enough, you will pull through."

"Should any of us ever become lost and seperated from the others, you must never give up. We're the 'Chosen Ones' confoundit! Should one of us pass away, we would have failed all life and hope for the future."

Adriaan sneered at Silvien. "I don't think you really deserve to hear my name, but since we're stuck traveling, my name is Adriaan." Adriaan glanced at Sabin as he talked, trying to ignore the annoying Silvien. "Do we know that we're helping the future, though?" She looked around. "The voice just said that we 'will see a spectacle never before seen by our kind.' Does that mean we're saving the world?"

"I am glad that at least you have faith that we will not fail, but as Adriaan said, we really do not know what will happen when we get all of the crystals," Rachel paused for a few moments, "What if it is better that we fail."

"Adriaan. Hmm..." Silvien seemed distracted, lost somewhere in his own little universe. "I think there's more sand in my boots than me," he complained, somehow completely avoiding the others' questions. Who knows if the world really does need saving. And if it does--from what?

They were near enough to the oasis village now that Silvien could see the items distributed in the individual bazaars. "Okay. Whatever you guys do...do not, I repeat, do not waste any gil. We need to save every coin and can't be buying useless--what's this?" He abandoned the group, swiftly striding over to a single stand. "Hah! Sunglasses! And only eight gil." He reached into his pouch and handed over the gold coins. When he turned around, a pair of blue tinted sunglasses we resting on the bridge of his nose. "So? How do I look?"

"I thought you said we weren't supposed to waste money." smiled Sabin. "Oh, and they look horrible on you." Sabin gave a quick chuckle. Meh, they look okay. Don't really matter whether you were 'em or not... "Anyways, we might need to buy some extra required supplies, like water and food. Especially meat." said Sabin, licking his lips. "Good and fresh meat to cook over the open fire..."

"Yeah? Well, that face looks horrible on you, Steven." It was hard to tell by his tone whether he meant the statement to be playful or insulting. "And I'm not wasting money. We'll be crossing the desert and sunglasses keep light from hitting your eyes. That, and everyone knows that every decent gun mage wears shades." He smirked, peering at Sabin over his new glasses and fixing him with an arrogant stare. "And I think Ellya will take care of our food problem. We take down the monsters, she takes the meat. But I guess it wouldn't hurt to pick up a few items before we cross the desert."

"Ya batcha kids are thinkin' of crossin' the desert?" came a gruff voice. To the right was a rather hairy merchant swaddled in tatty animal skins...which didn't look any better than the ones he was selling. "As in...ya're plannin' on walkin'? Ya'd be sand wyrm fodder in ten seconds!" He tossed his head back and gave a bark-like laugh.

"Is that creepy old guy talking to us?" Silvien asked quietly.

((Note: The old merchant is not an NPC.))

When she heard her name, Ellya looked up. We're in the town already? she thought. She nodded at Silvien with a slight smile when he mentioned that she could provide meat, and even mumbled a "nice shades" when she saw them.

She looked across at the man. "Yes... uh... we were planning to cross it," she said, wondering if she was saying the right thing, "d'you have a problem with that?" She took on an aggressive stance, "Because if you don't think we can... well we can!" She looked around at the others, hoping that they'd join the protest so she wouldn't look a complete fool.

The merchant stopped laughing immediately, looking at them while wearing a stern expression. "Have ya ever seen a sand wyrm, lassie? Big suckers. About as long as a train and as big around as that there lake." He pointed to the large body of water located in the center of town, which was over a hundred feet in diameter. It may have been an over exageration, but it still got his point across. "And deadly fast under the sand. The safest way is ta fly, but ya don't look like the wealthiest group. Ya're only hope is ta outrun 'em. But ya probably can't afford ta rent my Sand Shark either." The hairy man gestered to a four wheeled terrain vehicle located behind him, groaning under the weight of several hundred baskets of more merchandise. "But there's still a way. I may be willin' ta tell ya how for a small fee of...oh, I dunno...three-hundred gil."

"Hmm...300 gil...we could get 10 gallons of water for that price." said Sabin. "Should we risk 300 gil and possibly find out this other method of crossing the desert?" I don't know...I don't really like this merchant. My master taught me to never give a first judgement of someone...but...

"Well, he looks okay to me...I guess..." mumbled Sabin. "Besides, I have an extra bag of 500 gil in my pocket in case we need it. So, whaddya all say?"

Ellya looked at the man slyly. "Sir," she said, "how much would it be for a pair of Couerl gloves? Would it be very expensive?" She took the Couerl skin from her bag quickly and hid it behind her back, hoping that the man would fall for the little trick.

((Man, I am getting so far behind due to schoolwork and other stuff...))

"Well, it has only began, barely even; I mean, we got attacked once, but that was it so far...", he drifted off. "Well, anyway, I'll get us some supplies; I have plenty of gil...now where did everyone go?", he asked. "Oh, there they are, talking to some old merchant guy. Time to shop for supplies and other stuff."

"Coeurl gloves, eh?" The merchant eyes widened suddenly. "Those are rare, those are. Coeurl's are magical creatures. Ya'd really trade me some for some information?" He took a moment to seriously consider their offer, stroking his tangled mess of a beard.

"Alright," he said finally, smiling. "What ya have ta do is ta get yourselves some Chocobos. But ya won't find any in the desert. The only person who has some is Mr. Bogg, the man in charge of the races on the other side of town. If ya're nice ta him, he just might let ya borrow a few." The merchant's smile broadened, and he held out his hand expectantly. "Now...as for those gloves."

"Why should we give you something for you telling us what everyone knows," Rachel infuriated by the "information" they had just traded for, "Isn't it obvious that if you want to get somewhere fast, all you got to do is rent or buy a chocobo."

"I was thinking more of trading for this... gil thing, not for information. Anyway, I don't have any gloves of the stuff, just some of their skin," She grinned widely at the man, "but thank you anyway, we might just go see this Mr. Bogg guy on the other side of town. Bye-bye!" Ellya gave a little wave and began to walk, beckoning the others to follow.

"Did you see his face?" Silvien snickered, shaking his head as they walked away. "It was as red as a tomato, he was so furious. What an idiot! I guess that's what he gets for being a moron and--" He paused, looking around. Were they one party member short? "Where's Nathan?" he asked, voicing his concern for the alchemist's whereabouts and butchering the name in the process.

Rachel felt really stupid now. She should have known that Ellya wasnt really planning on giving the gloves away. "I haven't seen Nikolas since we entered town," Where is he, we're not going to get anything acomplished at this pace.

Ellya turned around quickly, looking for Nikolas. "Hey, you're right, I wonder where he's got to..." Ellya scanned the horizon, not knowing what she was looking for. Aren't Alchemist supposed to make smoke or something, then it would be easier to find him. "Maybe we should split up," she suggested, "one group can look for him and the other can go look for this Mr. Bogg guy. Then later we can meet... somewhere."

((Sorry, I've been busy with school and everything, but mostly, the computer didn't tell me that anyone had posted... ))

Adriaan smiled coldly. "I'll look for him, if anyone wants to come with me." She turned and headed off towards the busy part of the market, hoping that someone with sense would follow her--not Silvien. Of course, if he does, this would be a grat opportunity to lose him... Adriaan smiled to herself.

"You're just brimming with good ideas, aren't you, Ellya?" He smirked. "Alrighty then. Ellya, Rachel..." The mage glanced over at the remaining women. "You two lovely ladies come with me. Steven, good luck finding Nathan. C'mon, girls." And he gave Sabin and Adriaan an informal two-fingered salute before turning on heel to leave.

Realizing that it was probably bad idea to go off somewhere with Silvien, Rachel thought fast, " I don't think it is a good idea to split up," A reason, I need a reason. She thought franticaly, "I mean what if someone else gets lost as well, then we would have to find two people."

(( Wow, I'm starting to feel really sorry for Silvien, no one likes him but Ellya ))

Ellya laughed. "Don't worry, we're agreeing to meet up somewhere so we won't get lost! Now let's hurry before it get's too dark to find anyone." She waved to Sabin and Adriaan quickly and turned around, grabbing Silvien and Rachel by the hand and beginning to walk away, "now let's go!"

((We didn't actually agree to meet anywhere, did we?))

Adriaan, nearly lost in the crowd, didn't see the others wave to her and then break away. She wandered through the crowd, pretending to lookd at booths and items while she was actually studying the people. If any of the group had actually followed her and they noticed her eyes, it would seem like she was looking for their "lost" member, but she was relly scouting the crowd for a likely victim. She spotted a nicely dressed man with a beautiful woman on his arm and she started moving discreetly in their direction, glancing at items being sold so that the movement seemed natural.

(( No we never actually agreed on a place, but I'll fix that ))

As she dragged the others off, she shouted back, "don't worry, we'll meet at the fountain in the center of town at noon!" Still dragging the other two with her, she walked over to an old woman selling fruit at a small store. She hesitated a second, then: "Excuse me," she asked, a little timidly, "do you know where we can find Mr. Bogg?"

(( What time of day is it? ))

((Edit: Whoops! Didn't see the new posts. ><! I'll edit this later when I have time. And it's probably late afternoon/evening.))

Silvien was caught off guard by the young gunner's enthusiasm, and when she grabbed his hand, he noticed that his face felt hot all of a sudden. But it could've just been the pounding desert sun. Still, he couldn't help feeling good inside. All of his life people had tried to avoid him if possible, and here was someone who actually liked him. Silent for the first time since their journey began, Silvien gave a quiet nod and allowed Ellya to lead them.

((Time skipping time.))
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The other side of town wasn't nearly as busy as the area they had left. They had wandered up to a big sign that read 'Chocobo Racing! Place your bets here.' But the place was barren. "There's no one here," the young man sighed, ambling over to the counter. Sitting on the counter was what appeared to be a small, white teddy bear with pointed ears, a large, red nose, purple bat-like wings, and a fluffy pom-pom sticking out of the top of its head. It had on a blue jacket and a nametag pinned to its chest, but Silvien didn't notice this, and he picked it up. "Looks like some dumb kid left their toy."

"Who're you calling a toy?! Kupo!" The animal flew out of his hands, fluttering back over to the counter where it turned to face them with its arms crossed. "Don't you know a Moogle when you see one?"

"Eh. Sorry," Silvien stuttered, scratching the back of his head, "...Mr. Moogle. I didn't think you were--"

"Real? Well, I can assure you I'm very real. And that's Mr. Bogg to you, mister! Kupo!"