It isn't what it seems...come see chapter 17!
~~~~~

Chapter 17
~~~~

The sun beamed upon Sakura as they traveled down the road. "Wow...it sure is sunny..." Sakura exclaimed. "I wonder how is it back in the real world?" She thought to herself. As they walked, they saw a little stream that ran down the mountain, so they decided to take a little break, and have a little fresh water.
Sakura splashed herself with fresh spring water, and sighed. "Ah...it's so refreshing...! We don't see streams like this back in Tokyo..." Syaoran cupped his hand, and tasted the water. "Yeah," he agreed. "Everything's polluted, you can't even see streams anymore." Sakura wiped her face, and reached for the towel in her backpack. As she took out the towel, something slipped out along with it. "Hoe?" she said, picked it up.

It was a digital watch; Sakura was wearing that when they dropped into Ometin. "Hey, look!" She cheered. "It's my watch, and it's still running!" Syaoran turned around, and said. "Really?" He stood up, and walked towards Sakura. She looked closely, seeing the month coulomb showed "12", and the date coulomb showed "22".

"Hey..." Sakura exclaimed. "If we've been in the real world, it's almost Christmas!" Syaoran made a face. "Woah! Really? How long were we here?" Sakura tilted her head, and began to calculate. "Let's see...the day you asked me out was the Sunday...June the 17th, so...it's almost half a year!"
Syaoran blushed a little. "...You remembered the exact day when I asked you out?" Sakura's face turned red, and said. "Well...it's the first time anyone had asked me out...so..."

None of them talked for a moment. Then finally, Chocy broke the silence. "Wark wark!" It cried behind a few bushes. "What is it?" Sakura asked, and walked up to him along with Syaoran. She saw him pointing to what looked like a town in a distance. Sakura exclaimed. "Yeah! A town! Let's head towards it!" She started running, Chocy followed close behind her. Syaoran just stood there, staring at them. "Man, why on earth are they so energetic?

"Come on, Syaoran!" Sakura waved, Syaoran snapped out of it, and followed them. "Oh...wait for me!"

They entered a crowded town; it was filled with merchants from all over Ometin. "Wow¡K" Sakura exclaimed. Chocy looked from left to right. Everything was so colourful, that it hurts its eyes. Syaoran caught up to them, he looked around, and said. "Woe, it's pretty crowded here. This must be a trading town. Just like Tokyo."

"Syaoran~!! Let's look around!" Sakura was especially excited. She already ran off when she finished her sentence. "Sa...Sakura!" Syaoran yelled. He couldn't do anything but to follow her.

Sakura's eyes shined as she scanned all the beautiful goods from all over the world. She liked them all. "That beautiful girl over there." A beard man said, "This lovely golden necklace would certainly suit you. Why don't I sell it to you for only 35 ominian?"

Sakura blushed. "Oh...I'm not really that beautiful..." She cupped her cheeks with her hands. Syaoran grabbed her hand, and pulled her out of the crowd. "He's just trying to make a sale." Sakura made an angry expression. "I know."

Syaoran dragged Sakura out of the crowd, and said. "Just leave. We've got no time for this. We have to keep on moving." Sakura made a long face, she wanted to stay and shop. Suddenly, something clicked in Sakura's mind, and she yanked off Syaoran's hand. "It's Christmas!"

"So?" Syaoran looked back and asked.

"So it's a reason for us to start buying stuffs!" She grabbed Syaoran's hand and started to cuddle him like a kitten. "Please...pretty please..." Syaoran blushed, and agreed. "Alright, fine..." Sakura released him, and jumped. "Yeah!"

An hour later, Syaoran and Chocy were sitting on a bench while waiting for Sakura to show up after her shopping. It seems like a year before she finally showed her face. "Okay, I'm done." She came out with a little bag in her hand. Syaoran leaned closer, and asked. "Hey, what you got there?" Sakura turned away, and yelled. "No peeking!" Then she showed a smile along with a little blush. "It's for you."

Syaoran's face turned red. "M...me?" He asked, pointing to himself. Sakura nodded shyly, "For always protecting me. But you can't open it till Christmas, okay? It's not...complete, yet." Syaoran put his hand to his head. "Gees, thanks!" They smiled to each other, and then all of a sudden, a sales man interrupted them. "Come, try the new chocobo nuts! It's got the power to boost up the power of your chocobo, increasing its speed ten times higher! Buy it now!" He said, before Sakura and Syaoran knew what happened, he grabbed Syaoran by the hand. "You! You own a chocobo, why don't you try some of these?" He took out a few samples from his pocket. "Here."

Syaoran looked at the strangely shaped nuts, not sure whether or not to give them to Chocy. Sakura went beside him, and stared at the nuts. "It looks pretty poisonous..." She said, "I'm not sure Chocy would like this kind of nuts." Chocy jumped up, saying "Wark?" Meaning "Did someone say nuts?" He looked into Syaoran's hands; his mouth drooled, and pecked the nuts off his hands. "Wark!" It cheered brightly.

As soon as he started chewing, his face turned all red. "Ch...Chocy?" Sakura and Syaoran leaned closer to him, and waited for his reaction. "WWWWWWAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRKKKKKK!!!!" It jumped, and went berserk. "Calm down, Chocy!" Syaoran jumped onto him to try and calm him down. "Chocy??" Sakura said, Chocy just ran around in circle, knocking down goods and products that were being sold. Sakura turned around, and look at the salesman. "What was that you gave him?"

The salesman said proudly. "Nuts with the only ingredients that can boost up a chocobo's strength in a short time." Sakura tilted her head, not sure what was he talking about. He went on. "Hot pepper, and plenty of it." Sakura almost fainted. She turned around, seeing Chocy running off to the other end of the road, she yelled. "Chocy!" Then she ran off, chasing him.

She finally caught up to him with a few short cuts. "Sa...Sakura!" Syaoran looked behind, seeing Sakura was already at Chocy's heel, and shouted. "I can't control him, I'll try to bring him away from the crowd!" He stretched out one hand, and yelled. "Grab on!" Sakura grabbed on to his hand, and jumped on Chocy's back with a little pull from Syaoran.

Chocy increased his speed, Syaoran lost balance, and grabbed onto Chocy's head. Sakura wrapped her arms around Syaoran's waist tightly. "HHOOOEEEE!!" Sakura screamed. Syaoran looked back, and asked. "Can't you do something with your cards?" He asked. Sakura shook her head. "If I let go, I'll fall off Chocy! I can't use my hands!"

Chocy kept stomping down the road, until they reached the town exit. "Well, at least we're out of the crowd!" Syaoran said. Sakura yelled. "Yeah, but where are we going? When will Chocy stop?"

"I really don't know..." Syaoran answered. Sakura was afraid of that. Chocy charged down the road like nothing else matters.

~~~~~

"Where...are we?" Sakura said, as she squeezed the water out of her clothes. Chocy had trembled into an unknown forest, and ran into a small river with waterfall. He had cooled down once he hit the water. That was the good news, but the bad news is, Sakura and Syaoran were soaked.

"I think we're in some kind of...forest..." Syaoran said. Just then, and owl made a "hoot" noise. Sakura tightened her shoulders; she didn't like this place one bit. "Let's get out of here..."

"How?" Syaoran asked. "We don't know which way did we come from, so much for where to go." He said. Sakura shivered. "Well, at least find a shelter or some sort, I'm getting chilly..."

"Where?" Syaoran asked. "This place looks pretty deserted..."

All of a sudden, Chocy heard something. "Wark!" Chocy said, pointing his wing to one direction, then rushed off. "Great, Chocy, you got us into this, you get us out of it." Syaoran said. Sakura followed them. "Let's just hope he wouldn't get us even more lost¡K"

Once they walked down a hill, they saw a village...that's made out of mushrooms. "What a weird village." Sakura said. "Looks like one of those places the dwarfs live in the fairytales." They looked around, seeing that no one was there. "Where are the people?" Sakura asked. Syaoran followed. "If it IS people that live here."

They went into one of the houses. "Hello?" Sakura yelled, but there was no answer. The place looked like a hotel, it has a counter, and a stairs that led up to the resting rooms. There was a sigh on the counter. They walked closer, looking at the sigh. It said. "Please feel free to use any supplies in this village" Sakura looked around. "I guess they all moved." Syaoran frowned. "All of them?"

Sakura turned around. "Do you think we can use the supplies?" Syaoran hesitated. "I don't know...it seems pretty suspicious..." Before he even finished the sentence, Sakura jumped, and pointed towards a sign. "Oh! They have hot spring! I've got to take a bath! I just can't stand wet clothes!" She ran towards to door with the sign next to it. Chocy followed her. "Hey...wait!" Syaoran yelled.

Before she entered the hot spring, she saw a little cupboard with pajamas. She took it, and ran in to take a nice hot bath. "What a nice hotel! It's got hot spring, pajamas, and it's even free!"

She sighed as she sank into the water. "This is life..." she relaxed, and closed her eyes.

"Watch out, Sakura." Syaoran said from the other side of the wall. He splashed himself with hot water while enjoying the hot spring in the men's side of the bath. "This is really suspicious, I don't trust it." He said.

Sakura swam closer to the wall that separated them. "But you're bathing in the hot spring." She said with a smile on her face. Syaoran remained silence for a second, and then said. "I just hate wet clothes." Sakura giggled, and went back to relax.

~~~~~

"Jingle Bells¡KJingle Bells¡K" Sakura sang as she skipped down the hallway, now clean, and dry. She was wearing a Japanese style robe with light blue waves as pattern. Chocy heard her voice, and came up to her. "Wark..." Sakura petted him, and said cheerfully. "Hey, Chocy. Christmas is coming, isn't it great?"

Chocy angled its head, not understanding what Christmas is. Sakura smiled, and then went on. "Christmas is a holiday back in our world. It's the season when everyone shares their love, and gives presents to each other!" Sakura put a hand to her face, and started to imagine the perfect Christmas. "There'll be candles and Christmas trees, and the sky will filled with white snow, floating its way to the ground..."

"We don't even know if it does snow here in Ometin." Syaoran showed up behind them, Sakura woke up from her daydream, and turned around to look at Syaoran. He was wearing a robe similar to Sakura's, but a bit different. Sakura giggled, and put her hand to her head. "He he...yeah..." She stuck out her tongue.

As time passes, they realized that they haven't eaten anything since breakfast, and both of their tummies are rumbling like the roar of a lion. They looked around the hotel to find food, but none were found. They moved out to see if they have food in some other mushroom houses, to their surprise, they found hot steaming food lying all over a table in one of the mushroom houses. Judging by the tables and the chairs, Syaoran'd say that it is a restaurant, or at least it used to be. The question is, where were all the people, and who made the food?

Syaoran wasn't going to even touch the suspicious looking munchies, but Sakura already dug in before Syaoran could stop her. "The sign in the hotel did say feel free to use any supplies in this village! Forget about all those suspicious things, I'm hungry!" Sakura said. Syaoran could do nothing but to sit down and eat with her. Chocy didn't see anything he likes on the table, so he moved into the kitchen to find some nuts.

That night, Sakura and Syaoran had their separate rooms. Since it was an empty hotel, Sakura had decided to give Chocy his own room. Chocy was very excited about that. Around ten o'clock, Sakura was staying up late to finish off Syaoran's present. She sewed the tiny thing in her hand, and sighed. "Phew...I'm not too good at sewing..." Just then, Chocy walked in. "Wark..." He said gently. Sakura smiled, and said. "What's wrong? Can't sleep?" Chocy shook his head, and walked closer to her. "Wark wark?" He asked. Sakura looked at the present she was working on. "This? This is Syaoran's present." She smiled. "It's not finished, though."

"Wark wark..." Chocy said quietly. Sakura nodded. "Don't worry, I'll go to sleep soon. Why don't you go back to your room?" Chocy nodded, and left her room. Moments later, they all fell asleep.

~~~~~

Outside the hotel, some people were watching.

"He he... we've got two preys!"

"Calm down, we don't want to wake them up. Just wait for a little while...till the sleep medicine they ate in their food totally sinks in, and then we'll take them..."

"Don't worry, I won't screw up! Wee! I'm so excited! We haven't have humans here for a long time~!"

"Me too. I just can't wait to get them."

~~~~~

Chocy woke up in the middle of the night, thinking that he hear something, he got up, and checked out the noise. He saw lights coming out of Sakura's room, so he tipped toe forward, and peeked to see what was going on.

Chocy couldn't believe what was he looking at. Fairies were flying around in the room. They were fairies that were no bigger than the size of a Barbie doll, they have wings, and all of them are girls; some were pinching Sakura's face, making sure that the drug they gave her worked, the others were looking through her stuffs. "Useless craps..." One said, after coming out of Sakura's backpack. "Nothing here."

A fairy flew near Sakura's neck, and drew out her necklace. "This is cheap stuff." She dropped it, and looked at the others. "Anything good over there?" Another fairy was playing with Syaoran's present that Sakura was making. "This looks nice, I've never seen things like this one before. What do you suppose it is?" The others shook their head. "I don't know...let's just bring it back to the queen along with the girl."

Chocy jerked, and jumped up. "Wark~!!" He opened the door, and tried to shoot them away by flopping its wings. The fairies flew around it, "What's its problem?" Some said. "Silly bird. Stop flopping your silly wings."

Chocy wouldn't stop. [I would never let you take Sakura and her present~! She spent so much time on it!] He thought, and flopped its wings even harder. One fairy couldn't stand it anymore. "That's it you dodo!" Magic power gathered in her hands as she pointed her fingers at Chocy like a gun, she fired it at Chocy. Chocy was rolled all the way back to the hallway, and landed upside down.

Chocy slowly opened its eyes. He saw Syaoran, lifted out of his room in his sleep by some fairies; they were using magic power to carry him out. Chocy jumped. "WARK~!!" It ran towards them, trying to stop them from taking Syaoran. All the fairies looked around to see a mad chocobo charging up to them. "WAHHH! WHAT THE HECK IS THAT??"

They got into a big fight; it was a real mess. After ten minutes. Chocy finally fell. All the fairies were breathing heavily; most of them have scratches and messy hairs. "Oh...man...this bird sure can fight..." One of them said. "Now...let's go..." They started to drag Syaoran and Sakura away again. Chocy didn't give up that easily. He leaped up, and used his beak to grab on to Syaoran's sleeve. All the fairies looked at it, sweat drops rolled down on their head. They kept moving. "I don't have anymore energy to put up with that bird." One of them said.

"Me either." The other said.

"Let's just bring it back together and show it to the queen." They dragged him along with Sakura and Syaoran.

~~~~~

"We're back, you're majesty..." The troop said tiredly as they arrived at the doorway of a flowered shape palace. An intense looking fairy came out to greed them. She has long black hair, and dark violet tights with ball shape jewelries on. She looked at her troops, and said with a serious voice. "How disgraceful, you all look like dirty flies. All beat and worn out."

One of the fairies answered. "I'm sorry, my lady, we ran into some trouble on our way..."

"Silence!" The black hair fairy yelled. "I don't want to hear your excuses. Did you bring the preys?"

The fairies nodded lightly. They looked at each other, not sure whether to bring out their captures or not. The black hair fairy couldn't wait any longer. She shouted. "Well? Bring it out!" The others could do nothing but to follow. They brought out Sakura and Syaoran, the black hair fairy examined them. "Hmm...hmm...hmm..." The fairies were anxious to hear a respond. "So...?" One of them dared to ask. The black hair fairy took a deep breath, and said. "How cute~!"

Almost immediately, all the fairies in the palace fell hard on the floor. "The queen can never resist cute stuffs, now can she?" One of the fairies said as they got up. The queen turned around, and announced. "I want them in my room! Now move!" Just then, she realized that something was behind Syaoran. She flew around him to look, realizing that there was a bird looking thing holding on to Syaoran. That was Chocy...

"Oh? Who might this little fellow be?" The queen asked. One of the fairies went up to her and answered. "It wouldn't let go when we tried to take the preys away." The queen examined Chocy; Chocy stared at her with a mean looking pair of eyes. The queen felt the intension, and backed up a little. "Give it to Faira, she likes birds." One of the fairies answered with strength. "Yes, your majesty. We'll send it to the princess's room right away!" But as they turned around to try and take Chocy away, they realized that it was impossible. Chocy would never let go of the Syaoran's sleeve.

Just then, and cheerful fairy arrived. "Hi, mother, hi, everyone. What's up?" She flopped her wings into the room, and landed smoothly beside her mother. The queen looked around, and greeted. "Oh, hi, Faira darling, say, you're pretty good with birds, how'd you like to get this thing off of my cute new preys?" Faira didn't understand what she was saying. The queen waved her hand, signing her to see for herself. Faira peeked, and her eyes glowed as she saw Chocy, "Wow! It's a chocobo~!! Where'd you get it?? I've always wanted one of those." She flew over to pet Chocy, Chocy got annoyed, and tried to bite her hand, Faira took back her hand right away, she was lucky or her whole arm would've been chopped off.

"Gees, you're not too bright, are you?" She said, rubbing her hand to make sure that it was still there. The queen flew closer to her, and asked. "Well, any idea?" Faira put her hand to her chins, thinking. A light bald lid up, and she clapped her hands together. "Oh, I know~!" She flew out of the big room. "I'll be right back!"

She came back with a nut. It was only the size of a ping-pong ball, but to her, it was as big as her head. She had a hard time flying out, but she did it. "Here, chocobo...I got your favorite food..." She held it up, and Chocy's eyes glowed as he saw the nut, but it shook its head wildly. [No!] It thought to itself. [I must resist...the...temptation!] He shut his eyes, but as he opened up a little to peek, Faira was right in front of him with the nut in her hand. Chocy freaked out, and jumped. "Wark~!"

Faira held the nut, and flew farther away. "Here, chocobo, here..." Chocy stared at the nut. [I...can't hold it anymore...I want the nut...] He stared at the nut like nothing else in the world exists, and followed it. As it got closer, it bit, and swallowed the nut.

Faira stared. Almost immediately, Chocy fell asleep. Fairia sighed. "The sleeping powder I put it that nut finally kicks in."

"Good job, darling." The queen smiled. "You can keep that thing." Then she ordered the other fairies. "Bring these two kids into my room, I want to decide where am I going to them put in my room as decorations."

~~~~~

Hours passed before Chocy finally woke up. He jumped up, and then he was pulled back down. That was when he realized that one of his legs was chained to the wall by two magnetic rings. It looked around, he was in a room full of stuffed animals of birds, but the animals were awfully small.

Moments later, Faira entered. "Oh, you're awake." Chocy went mad when he saw her. He stood up, and pointed to the magnetic rings madly. "Wark~!! Wark wark! (What's the big idea!)"

"Sorry." Faira said. "It's just until you become totally obedient." She smiled.

Chocy continued. "Wark!!?? Wark wark wark wark wark, wark wark! (Totally obedient!!?? I have owners! I will never obey you!)"

"Owners? You mean the ones you wouldn't let go off back there? They won't be your owners anymore. My mother never let go of her preys." Faira said. Then Chocy realized that she understood what he was saying. "Wark wark? (You know what I'm saying?)" He asked. Faira smiled, and answered. "Yeah, I really like birds, so I study a lot until one day, I became capable of communicating with them. Therefore I understand what are you saying."

That didn't make Chocy happy, and yelled in chocobo language(Chocobo languages are in {...}). {Then tell me! Where the heck am I, who the heck are you, and what the heck did you do to my friends?}

Faira held up both her hands. "Whoa, calm down! One at a time!" She smiled, and sat down on his shoulder. "I'm Faira, princess of the fairy kingdom. That mean lady with black hair you just met is my mom, Feiry, queen of the kingdom. Your friends are with her, but they'll be okay, she just likes to collect cute stuffs." She giggled, though Chocy certainly wasn't in a laughing mood. He yelled. {Why did you kidnap us? Let us go!}

Faira yelled back. "Don't yell at me! It was their fault to start with!" She crossed her arms. "It was the humans actually. This whole area used to be ours, but the humans took over, and made a huge market!" Chocy thought to himself. [That was that big market we saw back there...] Then he asked. {That was the people living in here, though. Sakura and Syaoran weren't even from around here! They just arrived!}

Faira waved her finger. "Wrong, we planned a trap here to get back to the humans." She stared at him. "ANY humans. They're all evil anyway." She turned and flew around the room. "We made the little deserted town your so call owners were staying in, just to trap who ever gets here. One: to protect ourselves, two: to get back at them."

Chocy swallowed. {What...what are you going to do to them once they fall into your trap?} He asked with a shaky. Faira narrowed her eyes. "We take their money, or anything that's valuable, draw on their faces, and through them back to the river." She put her finger to her mouth. "Not too bad, for what they've do to us, but what can you do, we're against violence." She waved, and looked at Chocy. "Now it's your turn to tell your story."

Chocy looked at her with angry eyes. {I'm Chocy! A chocobo owned by humans! Sakura and Syaoran aren't like other humans! They're nice. They rescued me from my evil owner --- Terry! If it weren't for them, I would've been dead by now!} Tears came out of Chocy's eyes. {They loved me, and cherished me. I won't let you do anything to them! I will fight till I die!}

Faira was touched by his loyalty. She shook her head. "No, no humans would do anything like that! You're just a silly bird who is fooled!" She turned and flew away. "I'm not listening to you anymore!" Chocy struggled. {No! Come back! Release me!}

~~~~~

Faira flew outside, and reached an area that looks like a flower field. The flower field was located at the back of the palace. She flew further from the palace until she reached a grave. The grave was made out of crystal cross, with magic surrounding it. To Faira, it was as tall as a house. She looked at the cross, and sighed. She sat next to the grave, thinking. [Chocy was definitely fooled. How can any chocobo thinks that humans are great?] She looked at the grave, and thought to herself. [Maria...the poor thing...] She lowered her head, and felt the breeze blowing to her face.

"Princess." A fairy knight called, and Faira snapped back to reality.

"That bird in your room is getting really noisy, should we kill it?" The knight asked. Faira looked at him, and said. "Yes...no! Um...I mean...bring it out here, I'll handle it..." The knight bowled, and went inside to bring out Chocy.

Chocy came out with chains around his neck. The knights kneeled down before Faira. "We have brought out the specimen, your highness."

"Let go of the chains." Faira said, back facing them, she brushed her hair. The knights hesitated. "But...princess..." Faira yelled. "Just do it." The knights could do nothing but follow. They released the chains, and Chocy looked curiously at Faira. He narrowed his eyes, and asked. {Aren't you afraid that I'm going to run away?} Faira sighed, and said. "You won't leave with out your owners, and you have no idea where they are. You can't do anything." She turned around, and ordered the knights. "You are all dismissed."

As the knights went, Faira turned to Chocy. "I...I think I need to apologize. Maybe humans aren't all evil..." Chocy was surprised about her sudden change of attitude. He backed away a little. Faira continued. "But...not the ones I've met! They were all evil! They were all bloody monsters!" Chocy was kind of afraid of the strength in her words; he let her go on. "I had a pet once, a penguin bird. Its name was Maria; it was my favorite bird. It was cute, and it was loyal, like you and your master and mistress. But one day, a human invaded our territory, and it was killed." She looked up to the crystal cross, and smoothed it. "This is its grave..." Chocy understood how she felt, and looked sadly at the grave.

"From that day on, I promised myself that I would never, ever like another human. I don't want to touch them, I don't want to hear them, I don't even want to look at another human." She shook her head wildly, and looked down. "But...my hate faints away as time passes, and I don't want it that way, so I come to this grave every time I begin to soften up. This grave reminds me of everything I hate and against." She hugged the grave, and tear rolled down her face.

Chocy shook his head. {No! You shouldn't do that! You can't always live in the pass, you have to face the future, and mind what is ahead! You should leave your sadness behind!} Faira turned around to face Chocy. "You don't understand my lost!" Chocy shook his head wilder. {Yes! Yes, I do understand. You see, when I was getting beat up by Terry, I couldn't hate human more. I hate them so much; I could practically eat their flesh! But...it was the humans in the end who saved me...from that day on, I understand that humans weren't all that bad.}

Faira looked at Chocy, her heart began to soften up again. Chocy lowered his head, and joked. {Which is pretty ironic because Terry is not even human to begin with.} Faira flew closer to Chocy. "You mean there're creatures worst than human?" Chocy looked at her, and nodded. {Much worst! Humans aren't really bad, it's something that takes the human form that's bad! They're called the devils. They are missoners from hell.}

"So, so, the one who killed Maria is a devil, too?" Faira asked, her face began to light up. Chocy looked at her, and nodded. {Could be, when did your Maria die?"}Faira was catching on. "Around half a year ago!" She said. Chocy calculated, he remembered the thing Sakura said, they've been here for almost half a year. Chocy nodded again. {Definitely a possibility!}

Faira flew up higher, and held her fist in front of her face. "Why, it's those damn devils! I've always thought that it was human, but they are the real mean ones!" She looked around, and smiled. "Thanks, Chocy! Now I can stop hating humans!" Chocy gave her a "thumb up" (since he has no thumbs, he put up his wing) and asked. {So how about letting my human friends go?} Faira nodded cheerfully and agreed. "Right! Let's go and try to convince my mom."

~~~~~

"No way." Feiry said cruelly as she rejected Faira and Chocy's favor. Faira wined painfully. "Why not~?" Feiry turned to her, and asked. "The real question is why. I thought that you hated the humans for killing Maria, why are you trying to help them?" She flew away to the other side of her room, staring at her cute collections.

Faira followed. "I told you, it was the stupid devil that killed my Maria! Humans are nice, Chocy said so!" Feiry turned around, and sighed. "Darling, you can't trust the words of a chocobo. He can be lying just to get his so call owners out of here. Second, if he is telling the truth about the devils, we have no proof that they killed Maria. You saw it I saw it. They look like human smell like human. Don't you remember the face of the human that killed your Maria?"

Faira frowned. "How can I forget?" She was there, witnessing the whole tragedy. Feiry flew to her. "Darling, I know it's hard to hate someone sometimes, but you can't let that soften you up. We all hate the humans, they not only killed your Maria, but also took over our property."

Chocy couldn't remain silence anymore. "Wark wark, wark." It said. Feiry tilted her head. "What the heck did he just say?" Faira turned and said. "It asked you how was our property taken away." Feiry flung her hair, and flew in front of Chocy. "Little chocobo." She said. "Let me tell you. We were living around the area that big market is. We lived peacefully, with out having any contacts to the humans. But one day, the humans came and took over our land. We were forced to live in the forest around it."

"Wark, wark wark" Chocy said. Faira translated. "He asked 'Aren't you living peacefully in the forest?'" Feiry jerked, and coughed. "It...it's not the condition, it's the dignity. We were there first!"

Chocy asked again. "Wark, wark wark, wark wark?" Faira translated again. "He asked why didn't we fight back, or at least talk to them about us living there first."

Feiry hesitated. "Wh...why? Because we can't show ourselves to the human, you silly fool!" Chocy lowered an eye brown. "Wark?" Faira turned around, and said. "He asked 'why not?'"

"Huh...huh? Because...because they're big, and mean!"

Chocy asked again. "Wark?" Faira translated. "He said 'says who?'"

That really hit Feiry in the face. No one had really seen the humans do bad deeds. All they know is, humans are big, and fairies defenseless against them. They never interacted with the humans before, so they never have any evidence that humans are bad. "Um...um...no one needs to say it! We just...know!"

"Wark, wark wark wark wark, wark, wark wark!" Chocy yelled, Faira turned around, and yelled to her mom. "Mom, Chocy's right!" Feiry backed up. "What did he say?" Faira explained. "We shouldn't be afraid of them just because they are physically bigger than us! We can't hate them either. If we have never interacted with the humans before, how do we know they're bad? What if they're nice?"

Feiry couldn't say anything of a second. Then she came back to her. "They killed your Maria, and that is the truth!"

Sadness appeared on Faira's face. She was right, there were no proof that the man that killed Maria was a devil or not. It still could be a human that killed Maria.

~~~~~

They were back to Maria's grave. Chocy sighed hard, and so did Faira. "I'm sorry." She said. "I wasn't much of a help." Chocy shook his head. {It wasn't your fault. It was a long shot. I'm sorry that it could be a human that killed your Maria."} She petted him on the head. "It's not your fault."

Just then, they both heard a loud noise coming from the palace. With their max speed, they went back into the palace. They saw a man holding a bazooka in front of the palace's main door. Faira couldn't believe her eyes. "It's...it's that man that killed my Maria!"

"Finally, I found you all!" he showed a wicked smile. The next thing you know, he had his bazooka up on his shoulder, and started to fire. "I'm going to capture you all!" He fired; nets came shooting out of the bazooka. It pinned some of the fairies on to the wall. He took a look at some of them. "He he...looks cute, I can sell you for a lot of money."

"Stop it!" Feiry yelled. "Let them go at once!" The man turned around, and looked at the puny little queen. "And you must be the queen. You're going to worth the most of them all." Feiry moved her hand in a circular motion, magic gathered, and her staff appeared. "We are no dolls for you to sell!" She took the staff, and used it to cast magic. She shot magic rings at him, but he quickly took up his bazooka again. "Big deal." He fired the net, the rings vanished as it hits the net, then Feiry was pinned to the wall, too. That man walked towards her as she fought to get out of the net. "Pitiful creatures." He said, looking at her. "You are going to help me make some good money."

Faira couldn't just watch anymore. "Release her!" She yelled, and fired some magic balls at him. He felt something hitting his back, but he barely moved. He turned around, and saw Faira. "Well, well, well, look what we have here, a princess fairy, you worth even more than that old lady I just caught." Feiry's ears twitched. "Old...lady?" She said with anger.

"I guess I'll capture you too!" He fired, but Chocy got Faira out of the way just in time. That man eyed at Chocy. "What the heck is this worthless chocobo doing here?" He loaded another bullet into the bazooka. "Why don't you get a load of this?" He fired. Almost immediately, Chocy was frozen. "Ha ha ha...cold, isn't it? Let me warm you up a little." He loaded another bullet, and shot Chocy with a fire blast. "WARK~!!!" Chocy was deforested in less than two seconds, he ran around, trying to put out the fire on his tail. That man just stood there, and laugh. "Ha! How funny!"

Faira shot him at the back again. "Stop picking on Chocy!" He turned around, and aimed his bazooka at her. "You're right, I should save time, and capture you instead." He fired again, this time Faira dodged it. "You killed my Maria, I will never forgive you!" The man looked confused. "Who the hell is Maria?"

"The poor penguin bird you kill half a year ago! You are cold blooded!" She fired again. It barely hurt him. "Great, you can go to hell with her." He spoke as he aimed, ready to fire. All of the sudden, Chocy appeared in front of his face, and jumped around him. He was still trying to put out the flame on his tail. "Get off of me, you damn bird!" Chocy found sat on it, and put it out. It sighed for relieve.

"Stupid bird." The man said, but he smelled something, something burning..."Yikes!" he yelled as he noticed that he caught Chocy's fire, and his shirt was burning. "Ahhh~!!!" He screamed as he took off the shirt, and threw it away from him. That was when Chocy turned around, and saw it: the tattoo, on the missioner's right shoulder. Chocy almost jumped, he ordered Faira. {Go! Go to get my owner Sakura's necklace! Quick!}

Faira was a bit worried. "But...but what about you?" Chocy hurried her. {I have no time to explain! Just go!} Faira didn't know what on earth was going on, but she followed anyway. Chocy turned to the missioner. He swallowed. [I'm not sure I can beat him without Sakura or Syaoran, but I'll try my best!] He jumped towards him, using its claws to scratch on his face. The missioner screamed painfully. "Ow! Stop it! Ah!!" He swung his arms to get Chocy off; Chocy did a back-flip, and landed perfectly. He lowered his head, getting into battle position; he's ready to attack again.

At the same time, Feiry was coming out of her net. "You...S.O.B! How dare you call me an old lady?!" She yanked off the net that was on her, and gathered magic power. "You're going to pay~!!!" She summoned fairies of light; they flew around the room in light speed, bouncing from one corner to the other, the mission jumped around dodging it. "Yo! Watch it~!!"

Chocy took the chance, and used his beak to attack him on the tattoo. "Ahh!" He said painfully. Unfortunately, Chocy's power wasn't enough to kill him. The impact wasn't a total lost, though. It weakened the mission, and let Feiry realized his weakness. "So, you don't like your little mark on your shoulder being hit, eh? Concentrate all ammos on that mark!" All the light fairies merged into one, and aimed at the tattoo, but the mission was able to jump just in time to avoid being hit. The light fairies went pass him, and kept on going.

The missioner landed, knowing that they have found their weakness. "Well, if I'm going down, you're all going down with me!" He loaded his bazooka to max, and began firing in all direction. Chocy was busy dodging the shots, he didn't have time to get close to him. Feiry got even madder. "You S.O.B.! You're ruining my palace!!" Faira just happened to come into the scene. "Hey, Chocy, you mean this...wah!!" She backed up, almost getting hit by a shot.

Feiry's anger is now up to max. "EEEEEERRRRRRRR!!" She threw away her staff. "Screw the dumb magic!" She charged towards him full speed. "Eat this!!!" The mission was not expecting that, he got hit in the face.

Hard.

So hard, that he lost his balance, and dropped. Chocy just stared at it, both mouth and sweat dropped. Faira was staring, too. She couldn't believe how strong her mother was. "Wow, mom, that's really something." She said. Chocy snapped out of the matter, and remembered that the missioner is not dead yet. "WARK!!" He jumped on him, his claws landed on his tattoo, and his body vanished. All but his soul was left, and it was sucked into the necklace that Faira was holding. Faira was over excited by the whole battle. "That was awesome! You two were really cool!!"

~~~~~

"So I guess that it was the missioner that killed Maria after all." Feiry said. Faira, Chocy and her were around Maria's grave as the rest of the fairies were busied fixing the palace. Feiry sighed, and said. "Chocy, you are right. We shouldn't be too judgmental. We really should be more open."

Faira showed a big smile, and so did Chocy. "Does it mean that you're going to release Chocy's owners?" Faira said cheerfully. Feiry nodded. "It's the least I can do for the bird who saved our kingdom." Faira and Chocy jumped up and down together. Feiry sighed again, and looked at the sky. "I know that we all live on the same world. There're all kinds of life forms in this world. I know we can all live together in peace."

Faira stopped jumping, and looked at her. "You mean..." Feiry nodded again. "It's time we show ourselves to the humans." Faira flew near her. "Really? You think this is a good idea?" Feiry smiled, and looked at the sky again. "Only time can tell. It might not be a good idea, but we wouldn't back down unless we know for sure." Faira was over whelmed. "Oh, I'm so proud of you, mommy!" They hugged, and Chocy watched silently.

Feiry looked at Chocy. "And all this is because of you, Chocy. I must give you something in return. You shall stay here, and we should treat you like king!"

Chocy was thinking. [King, huh? Maybe just for a couple of days...] Chocy answered in "warks", and Faira said. "He said, just for a while, and he also wants to ask a favor." Feiry would not hesitate to help him. "Come on, Chocy, you name it, and you shall have it!"

Chocy thought for a moment. Then something struck him. "Wark! Wark wark, wark wark!" Feiry asked Faira. "What did he say?" Faira smiled. "Well..."

~~~~~

The sun shined bright. Sakura moved around in her bed, and slowly opened her eyes. She got up, and yawned. "Oh...I haven't have a nice sleep in a long time. That was nice." She did a big stretch, and rubbed her eyes. The she looked at the present she was about to give Syaoran. "Just a little more to go." She picked it up, and smiled to herself.

Syaoran walked sleepily down the hallway. "(Yawn) Good morning." Sakura smiled as she put her gloves on. "Go morning~" Syaoran looked at her. "You're up early." He said. Sakura smiled, and said. "Just to finish off something." Then she pushed Syaoran out. "Now go change, and wash yourself."

In around an hour, they were all prepared to leave this mysterious town. When they went out to get Chocy, they realized that Chocy had gotten...wider. Something else was new, too; he was wearing a red bandana. "Um...Chocy? Is that you?" Syaoran said, as he rubbed Chocy's stomach. [Anyone would've gotten fatter,] Chocy thought. [If they were served as king for three days.] Sakura looked at his neck. "Who gave you this cute little bandana?" She said, as she looked at his red bandana. Chocy remembered the time when Faira gave it to him. That bandana used to be Maria's. Chocy sighed; Sakura just looks at him with confusion.

Moments later, they were on their way out of the town. Then before you know it, it was snowing! "Hoe!" Sakura exclaimed. "It's snowing~! Cool~!" Syaoran was surprised, too. "I guess it does snow here in Ometin...what do you know."

Chocy looked at a near by tree, he saw Feiry and Faira sitting on there, waving. They had summoned the ice fairy to make the snow. Chocy waved back, and smiled. [Now it looks like the Christmas Sakura was talking about.]

Sakura reached into her bad. "If it's only...oh my goodness!" She said. Syaoran turned around. "What's the matter?" Sakura took out her digital watch, and smiled. "It's Christmas!" Syaoran looked carefully, and agreed. "You're right. But I thought just yesterday, it read December 22." Sakura looked at it again. "I must've seen it wrong or something." Then something hit her. "Oh, yeah!" She reached into her bag again, and took out a small present wrapped in rough fabric. "Merry Christmas!" She smiled brightly. Syaoran took the present shyly; he opened it to find out that it was a lucky charm. Just like the ones from the temple Miss Kaho works in, except that instead of a moon, this one has a little wolf on it, well, she tried to make it look like a little wolf anyway. A smile of happiness showed on Syaoran's face. "Thank you." He said.

Sakura smiled. "I made it myself!" She leaned towards him. "I want you to be save, always."

Syaoran smiled, and put the charm in the pouch of his utility belt. They left the town in a romantic snowy weather.

To be continued...

Author's notes:

Well, as you may have noticed, I planned to put this up before Christmas.

Didn't happen.

Oh, well...

Piggy Ho Ho
January 12, 2001