Born With Magic (Book 1 Of The Last Fantasy Duology)

Chapter 16: Ramuh, Esper God of Thunder

"So she wasn't here for any more than a few minutes?"

"No Miss... but we were awfully frightened by it... I'm certainly glad it was no longer than a few minutes."

"Did she hurt anyone?"

"Well... no... she just... was unlike anything we had ever seen... we're simple country folk, Miss... fear of the unknown, I guess you could call it..."

"Well, thanks anyway."

Celes sighed and walked away from the last mother and child pair she could find outside of their homes in the village. All of the people had told her the same thing over and over again... that the girl ghost wasn't around for very long, and that afterwards she had shot back up in the sky and headed south, towards Jidoor. She entered a small shop, and spotted Edgar, shamelessly flirting with the young woman at the counter. Celes narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Well my dear, if you perhaps wanted to join me on our search..."

"Ahem, darling, what do you think you're doing?!" Celes suddenly burst out, and Edgar turned around, blushing mightily.

"Um, Celes, I..."

"Please excuse my husband!" Celes cried, and stomped over to Edgar, grabbing him by the ponytail. "He's a dirty, dirty old man!" Edgar whined in protest and squirmed in Celes' grip.

"Celes, what do you think you're doing?!?!"

"Oh, ma'am, thank you for getting him out of my hair." The young shopkeeper said, and with that, promptly turned around and left through a door behind her counter, slamming it so hard that the entire shop shook. With that, Celes dragged Edgar out of the shop, and released him once they got outside. He pretended to sniffle and reached back, gingerly trying to readjust all the hair ribbons that Celes had messed up in his ponytail.

"Celes!!" Edgar cried. "You could at least be gentle with me!"

"I was being gentle." Celes smirked, and put her hands on her hips. "Flirting with girls when we were supposed to be looking for clues about Terra! How un-heroic of you..."

"Hey, you have perfectly handsome companions to travel with!!!" Edgar replied in a high tone. "And alas, I only have you, the ice queen!!! Have some mercy!"

"Rest assured, the last thing I have on my mind is getting cozy with my "handsome companions"." Celes snapped.

"Not even Locke?" Edgar taunted, and Celes felt her cheeks turn red.

"You're a royal jackass!"

"Who's a royal what?" Locke suddenly asked from behind them, and they both gasped, whirling around to face their friend, who was trying his hardest not to laugh.

"Locke!" Celes cried. "When did you...?"

"I just got here, but I imagine I could have heard the shouting from miles away!" Locke laughed, and gently messed with the top of Celes' hair. "You look silly when you're angry, Celes. Your cheeks go red!"

"Silly indeed." Edgar snapped. "But at least you're here now, Locke! So where is my brother...?" Locke shrugged, and Celes reached up to smooth down her hair again, keeping her gaze on Locke while he and Edgar discussed what they had learned.

It's like he's normal again... She thought curiously. Like nothing happened today... What is he trying to do?

~~~~~~

"S-Shadow!" Sabin cried, and smiled happily at the sight of his friend. "Why, I never expected to find you here, in a place like this!" The ninja, still clad in dark clothes, and still even wearing his black mask, slowly stretched and crawled out of bed before replying to Sabin.