Gah...my advisor is annoying me again! Oh well. I'm doing this chapter at

school which means I don't have my player's guide. Go figure ^_^; also for my grammar. I’m writing this story for fun so there may be a lot of grammar mistakes. If you like it you’ll like it and I hope it won’t be too confusing!

Chapter

5

Macalania gems and juice (the title makes no sense!)

After a somewhat good night's rest, the crew set out for Macalania the next day. Braska and Auron only had traveled through Macalania a few times and Jecht hadn't ever traveled there. Rikku however remembers Macalania like yesterday. Kimahri catching butterflies, Tidus and Yuna's reunion after the terror in Bevelle. However Rikku was glad to be out of Bevelle, since many bad memories were created there.

"So what is our objective in Macalania?" Jecht asked to nobody in particular.

"We go to the Macalania Temple and get another aeon." Rikku said. All three men looked at her.

"What? I heard it from somewhere...."Rikku replied. 'Damn! I spoke out loud again! I don't want them figuring out who I am!' she thought. She laughed nervously and followed Jecht. Rikku looked straight in front of her at Auron's back. 'He sure has a lot of muscles. He also wears his robe differently. I kinda wish he wore it like this ten years from now as well.' Rikku thought once more.

"Let's stop here Auron. I want to show Jecht something." Braska pointed to the butterflies.

"Jecht, if you catch enough blue butterflies then you get treasure, but if you catch red ones a fiend will come. We have enough fiends around here anyway so watch out okay!" Braska smiled and kept walking. They stopped once more near a lake. Rikku noticed the lake, as it was the same one that the group found a sphere in on Yuna's pilgrimage. Rikku decided to step away, in fear of them filming her onto a sphere as well.

"This is what spheres are made of, this is what memories are made of." Braska added to his explanation of Macalania. Auron stood guard for any fiends that may be nearby.

"There are also lots of fiends drawn to here. Hey, where's Rikku?" Auron looked around and saw she had left. The other three looked around the immediate area as well, unfortunately did not see her.

Rikku decided she'd go a little ahead of the others so they can have their "bonding" time. Rikku didn't want to risk exposing herself in one of those spheres in the future. 'I figure that Auron will find the few sphere's I'm in later,' she thought. She walked on the small trail for quite a while until she found a small clearing.

"This should be fine right here." Rikku leaned against a tree waiting for the three to join her. Rikku closed her eyes and drowned herself in her thoughts. When she open her eyes again however, a giant fiend was right in front of her. She screamed, and the fiend knocked her unconscious. The fiend picked her up and ran off.

"Did you just hear something?" Jecht was filling up his canteen with water from the small pond.

"Yeah, did you hear that Lord Braska?" Auron looked around.

"I think it was Rikku." Braska looked around as well.

"We should go look for her." Auron starting running off back towards Bevelle.

"Wait! Why would she go that way? She probably got bored and went ahead." Jecht grabbed onto Auron's hand and started running towards the small clearing.

"I see something on the ground!" Braska ran to the tree Rikku was once at and saw the sunglasses she always carried around laying there. He picked them up and handed them to Auron. Auron put them in his pocket and looked around some more.

"A fiend?" He asked.

"Possibly, let’s go ahead down the trail, we might possibly find her." Braska pointed in the direction they shall follow.

"Might? MIGHT?! We will find her Lord Braska!" Auron pushed Braska out of his way and started to run.

Rikku slowly regained consciousness. She tried to move but found out that she had been tied up by some type of sticky substance. 'great, some huge insect spit on me....' She worried, obviously caring less about the fiend and more about how she was going to clean her clothes once she got out of this predicament. She sighed. Rikku looked to see if the fiend was around and noticed it had gone off somewhere. 'If I scream it will come back and eat me, however I could try to get free.' Rikku tried to think of something to cut herself out of the sticky mess. She didn't think of anything and finally the result was her trying to struggle out of the substance.

"Jeez one would think it would be easier to free yourself but its not." Rikku did the one thing she could.

"AURON! BRASKA!! JECHT! COME HERE! THIS ISNT SOME STUPID JOKE I'M OVER HERE AND SOMETHING'S PROBABLY GOING TO EAT ME!" Rikku only hoped that the fiend didn't hear her and the group did.

"Hey, I heard Rikku!" The three said in unison. They all looked at each other and ran off towards her voice. They eventually found Rikku, unfortunately they also found the fiend waiting right behind them. Jecht ran to cut Rikku loose from the substance while Auron and Jecht starting fighting the creature.

The creature was a large, blue ape looking body however it had four arms and four legs. It towered three or four times over them. Braska started to cast protection spells upon him and Auron. Auron swung at him with his sword, not doing much damage. Jecht and Rikku joined the battle, both with the sticky substance all over them, but were able enough to fight. Rikku threw a flash bomb at the fiend.

"Quick Braska! Summon your aeon!" Rikku yelled. Braska obliged and summoned Bahamut. It flew from the sky to Braska protecting him with his massive body. The fiend struck at Bahamut however not doing much damage, just making him even more mad. Bahamut flew up in the sky and attacked him with his mega flare attack, leaving the fiend twitching on the crystal like ground.

"Lets go before it wakes up and calls his buddies!" Jecht and the group ran off hoping to find a more secluded spot to hide from the ape-ish spider like fiend.

The group of three males and one al Bhed female traveled very quietly until they found another lake. This lake however was not just any lake, but a hot spring. The group decided it would be a good place to stop for the night and finish their trip to Macalania Temple the next day. Auron set up camp while Jecht went to find some firewood. Braska went up to Rikku and told him to follow her.

“This is a pretty secluded area. Why don’t you get cleaned up before the rest of us.” Braska handed her a towel.

“What about fiends?” Rikku started to take out all her hairpins, ties and whatever else was holding up her hair.

“We’ll all be near you, if anything comes just yell. Oh another thing, why did you leave the group and decide to continue on alone? You should know these parts can be dangerous.” Braska turned around, allowing Rikku to undress and enter the hot water.

Rikku ignored his question while entering the water. ‘Ouch! Hot!’ She thought. Rikku stepped slowly into the water until her body was completely immersed in the liquid. She turned around her back toward Braska’s back. She looked down, wondering how to answer the question.

“I guess I got bored.”

“Don’t lie Rikku, I know there’s more going on than you’re letting on. I could sense it from the beginning. I don’t want Auron or Jecht thinking the wrong thing.” Braska sat down on a rock, still facing away from her.

“Braska, I only can promise you that I’m not interfering with your pilgrimage. I’m just; I’m here for a purpose and when its over I’ll be gone. However that will be after you get the final aeon.” Rikku knew her answer wouldn’t suffice for very long, but the longer she could stall from telling the truth the better.

“Rikku, I don’t think you’d try to do anything to stop me. I just, I hope you’ll trust me enough to tell me.” Braska commented.

“Braska, I trust you. I just cannot tell you, I don’t know if I will be able to tell you.” Rikku washed her clothes in the hot water, and then laid them on a rock to dry.

“I see. I guess everybody has their reasons they cannot say.” Braska stood up and prepared to walk back to the camp.

“Braska. Lord Braska, you’ll understand at the very end. Even if I don’t tell you why I’m here.” Rikku said.

“Thank you, Rikku. Thank you for being here, I enjoy your company.” Braska left. He walked back to the camp, with many thoughts in his head. He noticed that Auron and Braska had started cooking a meal. He noticed the pieces of meat; being cooked over an open fire most likely started by Auron. Auron grabbed him a piece of the meat and put it on the plate. Braska looked at Auron who just shrugged and pointed at Jecht. Braska decided not to question what type of meat it was from and to just choke it down. He took a taste.

“Hey, this is pretty good Jecht!” Braska ate some more of the meat. The two other men tried some meat as well.

“Wow! It’s pretty tasty!” Jecht replied. Auron just nodded his head in approval. They ate enough to be satisfied for the night and left some for Rikku once she was done bathing.

“Auron, I would like for you to keep Rikku company for a while.” Braska pointed towards the location Rikku was located.

“Now? But she’s not clothed! It wouldn’t be proper.” Auron muttered.

“You don’t have to look at her, just keep her company. She seems lonely.”

“A…Alright. I’ll talk to her.” Auron stood up and walked to the area Rikku was located in.

“Rikku! I’m coming over. Don’t be exposing yourself!” Auron walked towards the rock where Rikku’s clothes were located, his hand covering his eyes.

“Don’t worry about it Auron! You won’t be able to see anything. Oh, my clothes are still wet I was just wondering if you could start a fire to let them dry quickly? I want to put them back on.” Rikku asked.

“Sure.” Auron built a little area to start a fire and to hang her clothes to dry, making sure they wouldn’t start on fire.

“Auron, when Braska’s Pilgrimage is over. Could you collect all the spheres that have me or my name mentioned in them. I don’t want people to see them.” She requested.

“Why?”

“I’ll tell you later. I just don’t want to risk anything.”

“I see. Rikku how much to you know about me?” Auron looked at some trees trying to divert attention from the woman. Finally he just turned around, something he didn’t want to do but had no choice.

“I know enough, I know what you want to talk about and what you wish to leave in the past.” Rikku stood up and wrapped the towel around her body. She stood behind Auron.

“How do you know all of this stuff?” Auron unconsciously handed Rikku her clothing for it had dried in that time.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not going to tell you.” Rikku walked in front of Auron, still in her towel.

“Fine, do whatever you want. By the way, here are the sunglasses you love so much.” Auron threw the sunglasses to her, walked up and left. Rikku sat down and sighed. ‘This is not going well at all. I’ll hold out a little longer, I must. Rikku put her clothes on and walked back to the camp, sadly.

End notes: my writing is getting worse and worse =( boo! Oh well like I said its more for fun than anything ^^;;