Episode 4: Part 2

<Ma & Zell: Mother/Son, Currently in Last Place>
     Ma and Zell reached the clue box at Nelveska Temple and opened their clue. Ma read it, then they trotted inside the temple and were whisked away to Dwarf Village. Zell made a dash for the next clue box as Ma got her bearings about her.
     "Detour: Forge Ahead or Forge Axe," Zell read. "I'd be better running through some caves, but whatcha think, Ma?"
     "I don't see myself being great at either one," Ma replied. "If I had to pick though, I'd pick the axe one. It sounds more fun, and I'm mostly here to do new, exciting things. And making an axe sounds cooler than walking through some tunnels!"
     "I'd more think running through some tunnels," Zell commented. "But you're right, Ma! Let's go make an axe!"
     Ma smiled. The two started to jog toward the blacksmith's shop to start their detour.

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     "Gar, directions on land be nothing like directions in the sea," Faris said sadly while looking at a wooden sign. The dwarf cave was well out of eyesight and the two girls stood in a grassy field, which could almost be considered a forest with the extreme quantity of trees, but there was still a large, open path that winded through the forest. "So we go... Errr..."
     Reina looked over the sign as well. An arrow pointing the way they came was labeled "Gaia's Navel." An arrow to the left read "Kippo Village." And a final arrow pointing south was labeled as "Kingdom of Pandora."
     "We go left," Reina said. "To ask directions."
     "Gyar, a pirate ne'er asks directions," Faris mumbled to herself. Still, she complied with Reina's idea and the girls ran left to the quaint town of Kippo Village. The people all looked very friendly, so the girls had no trouble running up to one of them and asking directions.
     "Excuse me, ma'am," Reina asked a woman wearing what looked somewhat like a nighty. "Do you know how to get to the Water Palace?"
     "Of course!" she said happily. "It's umm... I believe it's through Pandora! Somewhere past there anyway. I've never been. Have you?"
     "We just asked directions," Reina said confusedly.
     "Don' mind 'er, we love it!" Faris said. "And got ter go now. Bye!"
     Faris yanked Reina by the arm and pulled her toward the Kippo exit. The pair started running out of the city just in time to see Reno and Rude lurking by the wooden sign. The girls quickly turned their running into a tiptoe, but Reno and Rude turned around and saw them despite their efforts.
     "All right, ladies. This just isn't working, y'know?" Reno said.
     "What's not? Our tiptoe abilities?" Reina asked.
     "No no, this whole us racing each other. We're both at a huge advantage if we can just keep this lead, y'know? I say on behalf of myself and Rude, that we should work together this leg. This leg only though, okay? If we can get enough of a lead, then we could dominate this race. Our odds of winning will be 50/50, y'know?"
     Faris and Reina turned their backs on the Turks to huddle up. They whispered to each other.
     "Whatcha thinkin'?" Faris asked.
     "It sounds like a good deal, but can we trust them?"
     "No," Faris replied, "but it only be one leg, an' if they be tellin' the truth, scallywags so they be, we could be in a good, wonderful position."
     "You're right. We'll agree to it on one condition."
     "What might that be?" Faris asked.
     "That they were at least honest enough to not run off while we had our backs turned."
     "By the Powers, yer right!" Faris jumped up and spun in the air to face where the Turks were. They were no longer there. "We been had!"
     "Had what?" Reno asked. He and Rude were standing a slight distance away, kicking rocks. "You take a long time to think. It's a race, y'know?"
     "We're in!" Reina said. "Now let's go! Toward Pandora!"
     The foursome took off jogging down the path in the direction of Pandora.

     Zone and Watts returned to their axe forging station after watching a short demonstration by the blacksmith. Watts held the metal of the axe as Zone pulled out the old handle and ran to the shelves to put a new handle in. Meanwhile, Watts grabbed a pair of metal clamps and held the metal over the fire to make it more flexible.

-------------------------{Zone & Watts: Interview}-------------------------

     "This detour was more physical than expected, but it was totally our thing," Watts told the camera.
     "We've built a ton of things together, so we knew our strengths and how to do everything," Zone added. "We didn't even need to speak to each other, but the teams around us were so loud and getting more and more frustrated. Mostly the Ronso, who mostly shouted at each other and their axe."
     "I'm not sure, they might've been better than Dona, who constantly nagged Barthello and told him to work harder."

-------------------------{End Interview}-------------------------

     Dona leaned against the wall near Barthello's forging station with her arms crossed over her chest. "Come on, we need to be done now."
     "Dona, I'm working as hard as I can," Barthello responded. "You could-"
     "Help? How, Barthello? There's one axe. What do you want me to do? Hold it for you while you pound my fingers with your horrible aim? Or maybe do the pounding myself with the hammer I could probably not even lift. How could I help, Barthello? How?"

     "Finished!" Watts shouted as he presented the axe to the blacksmith. The blacksmith showed them the secret exit in return. Watts high-fived Zone and shouted "Go teamwork!" fully aware that Dona was easily within earshot.

<Zone & Watts: Resistance Fighters, Currently in 4th Place>
     The two ran up the stairs and found the clue box. Zone ripped their clue open and read it. "Make your way on foot to the Water Palace."
     "Sounds good," Zone said. They started searching for an exit to the strange crater-like formation they were in.

     "YEOWCH!" Zell screamed as he held his thumb tightly.
     Ma innocently held a hammer and instinctively hid it behind her back when her son started shouting. "OH! Zelly, I'm so sorry! I thought I had better aim!"
     "I'm fine, Ma, I'm fine," Zell said in an elevated tone. He started blowing on his thumb, hiding his face with his hands. "I just wish we could've done the cave running. This isn't fun at all."
     "I'm sorry, Zelly. But like I've always taught you, if you do something, you commit to it."
     "I know, Ma. I'm just praying I have two working thumbs by the end of this..."

     "Another dead end," Fran noted of their current path.
     "I really thought we'd have better luck with this," Balthier said. "Let's try that path then."
     Fran and Balthier ran back down the path they'd come down and took a different turn than before. The new room had water on the floor and light shining through the path at the far end.
     "Ah ha!" Balthier exclaimed. He trotted through the water with Fran only steps behind him. They ran through the final archway and were outside by a clue box. Fran reached in and took out a clue. "Make your way on foot to the Water Palace."
     "Seem to be a fair number of clues left in this box," Balthier noted as he looked through the clue box. "I think we're in good shape."

     "Stop, axe!" Biran yelled at his axe. "You need to look like other axe made by two-horn blacksmith! Yenke! Show axe what he need to look like!"
     Yenke complied and held the example axe in front of the axe on the workstation. "Like this!"
     Biran slammed the hammer down a couple more times on their axe, then held it up triumphantly as Yenke flagged down the blacksmith.
     "It's good," the blacksmith said.
     "Biran knows it is!" Biran yelled back, then suddenly cupped his hand over his mouth. "Biran is sorry. Biran did not mean to shout at his two-horned grace."
     The blacksmith led the Ronso to the stairs and pointed them onward. The Ronso ran up the stairs and found their way out the cave, where their next clue box awaited them.
     "Ronso can't lose," Yenke said as he pulled their clue out of the box and read it to Biran.

     "Is this good?" Barthello asked the blacksmith. He presented his axe to the blacksmith, who examined it briefly, then pointed the two to the secret exit.
     "Thank God," Dona said as she picked up her belongings and handed them to Barthello to carry. She jogged in front of Barthello as they went up the stairs, then found the clue box outside. They read through the clue and quickly departed to find the Water Palace.

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
<Reno & Rude: Partners, Currently in 2nd Place>
     The four in front ran through a grassy path to a place with a giant temple surrounded by shallow waters. Stairs led up to the marble entrance, where a clue box awaited them. Reina and Faris were first to sprint to the box, while the Turks jogged behind them several steps.
     Reina ripped open her clue and read it to Faris. "Roadblock: Who's proficient with many weapons?"

<Announcer Gippal>
     "A roadblock is a task that only one team member may perform. In this roadblock, that team member must follow the marked arrows to a secret path leading to a nearby witch's castle. First, they must use a teleporter to gain entrance to the haunted forest. Then they must go to a series of stations, which will test their skills with several weapons. First they must use a whip to lasso a pole across a small gap, then pull themselves across. Then at the next station, they will be provided a sword to cut through several bushes that block their path. Next a large marble statue is blocking the way, so they will use a provided axe to chop it down. Finally, they will choose between a javelin, boomerang, or bow & arrow to hit a distant target. Once they hit the target, they will be given a clue and they must make their way back to the teleporter, which will require one more use of the whip to cross the gap. The task will require a lot of strength and perseverance, so teams should choose wisely about who they send."

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     "We're both used to many weapons," Reina said. "But I think you have more strength for it. Besides, it's your turn."
     "Aye," Faris said. "I'll do it!"

<Reno & Rude: Partners, Currently in 2nd Place>
     "Okay, ready?" Reno asked. Rude nodded. "One, two, three!" Reno and Rude tapped their hands to the beat, then finally stuck out a number of fingers. Reno stuck out four and Rude stuck out two. "Dammit, you went with even this time?"
     "Roadblock's mine," Rude said with a hint of a smirk. He joined Faris in racing back the way they came where some arrows pointed to three stone pillars that created a crevice between them awaited. It was labeled with a sign that said "Roadblock Teleporter" in red and yellow.
     Faris was first to step inside. She disappeared from Rude's vision immediately, but Rude quickly joined her in teleporting into an eerie forest with a dense fog. They were on a raised plateau and were as high up as the moderately tall trees below them. Both ran along the plateau to the gap. It was only a gap of a few feet, but it was still a difficult jump, and teams were told they had to still lasso the pole, even if they could jump the gap.
     Faris was the first to the gap, and since only one pole was on the other side, Rude was forced to wait. She swung the whip above her head, then struck out at the pole. Her first attempt missed, but she quickly tried again and lassoed it perfectly on her second try. She gave it a quick tug to make sure it was steady, then ran at the gap and jumped across the gap. Just before her feet left the ground, she yanked on the whip and propelled herself even further toward the other side. She cleared the gap with no trouble, landing a couple feet away from the gap. She unhooked the whip and handed it to a staff member nearby, who passed it to Rude.

<Freya & Fratley: Reunited Lovers, Currently in 8th Place>
     "There!" Freya said to Fratley as she pointed to the cave opening where light poured in. They ran outside into the shallow pool and grabbed their clue. "Make your way to the Water Palace," Freya read.
     "I hope it's easier to navigate than those tunnels," Fratley added. They looked at their situation and saw the path they'd be following. The stairs for each level to get out of their navel-shaped valley were spaced on opposite sides of the canyon.
     "If only we could jump it," Freya said. "It looks like a straight shot."
     "If only."
     They sighed, then ran for the nearest set of stairs to head to the second level.

<Zone & Watts: Resistance Fighters, Currently in 4th Place>
     Zone and Watts continued on the path beyond the kingdom of Pandora and soon had the Water Palace in their sights, as well as Garnet and Brahne, who were by a rock nearby. Brahne was sitting down, catching her breath, while Garnet stood beside her, waiting semi-patiently to continue on.
     "Mother, people are coming," Garnet urged her mother.
     "We just can't have that!" Brahne screamed. She rose to her feet and started to jog in the direction of the Water Palace. At her slow pace, Zone and Watts easily ran past her, but were quickly passed by Balthier and Fran, whom they hadn't even noticed were behind them.
     "Sorry, ladies and gents," Balthier said, "but I think we'll be reaching that box first."
     "Stop antagonizing," Fran told Balthier, who shrugged in response.
     Zone and Watts increased their pace, but still came to the clue box at the Water Palace just behind Fran and Balthier. Garnet and Brahne crept in shortly after.

<Fran & Balthier: Sky Pirates, Currently in 3rd Place>
     "Roadblock," Balthier read. "Who's proficient with many weapons?"
     "Both of us," Fran said. "But I suppose it is your turn."
     "Indeed it is."

<Zone & Watts: Resistance Fighters, Currently in 4th Place>
     "Ugh, my stom-" Zone started.
     "Knock it off, I'm doing it," Watts said. "You need to start thinking about doing one soon though."
     "I'll try," he responded.
     "Try thinking? I- Whatever."

<Brahne & Garnet: Mother/Daughter, Currently in 5th Place>
     "Weapons!?" Brahne shouted. "Finally, my time has come."
     "Are you sure, Mother?" Garnet asked. "This really might be a difficult stamina test."
     "What about me says 'no stamina' to you, you silly girl?"
     "I- I just don't know if it would be wise."
     "Nonsense. Now step aside and watch your mother dominate!"

     Balthier and Watts took the lead in running for the teleporter, with Brahne in a distant third. They jumped through the teleporter and ran to the whipping posts, where they saw Rude handing the whip to the staff member, having just crossed the gap. Balthier took up the whip first and started whipping at the post. He missed his first few attempts, then on a third he hit the post, but not enough to have the whip latch on.
     "Hmm. This might be harder than expected," he muttered to himself.
     Meanwhle, Rude ran down to the level below and took up a sword. Ran down a path to a second teleporter that took him to the second part of the challenge, where he saw Faris chopping at a row of bushes. There was a large patch of bushes with dividers that created nine distinct paths. Even though teams could choose between each of the paths, they were told to each pick a unique path and could not simply bypass the task using somebody else's path. Behind them was a staircase with nine statues at the top. Faris was already over halfway through her large section of bushes as he started chopping the first group of bushes.

     "I'm nervous," Garnet said to Fran and Zone.
     "Nothing you can do but wait," Fran said. "Come. We'll sit by her." She pointed to Reina, who was sitting in a grassy area near the teleporter.
     Fran's blunt tone did little to comfort Garnet, but she complied and joined Fran and Zone in walking to sit with Reina.
     "Hello," Reina said to the girls and Zone. "Not really much to see over here, but it'd sure be nice to have some company. About all there is to do is wait for somebody to come back through this teleporter or watch Reno pacing by the Water Palace."
     Garnet smiled and dusted off a patch of grass to sit down before finally sitting. Fran sat beside her and stretched out her legs and arms, then lay back and watched the clouds. Zone moved to sit down, but then suddenly noticed that he was standing in the middle of three girls, all of whom were attractive and one of which had just stretched out her long, smooth limbs very seductively.
     "I uhhh, I should go pace with the umm, guy," Zone stammered and tried (but failed) to casually walk out of the circle of girls.
     "Nonsense, have a seat!" Reina said to him.
     "I uhh, suuuure. Yeah. Okay. Why.... Why not?" He took a seat between Garnet and Reina and leaned back on his hands, not noticing Reina's hand already occupied where he was placing his right hand. After quickly noticing he was crushing her hand, he quickly pulled it back. "Oh, I uhh- gah! Sorry sorry!"
     "It's okay," Reina said. "I'm just glad I got a cute boy to sit with us girls."
     "It is nice," Garnet added.
     "Oh gosh," Zone muttered as he curled into a ball. "Watts.... Hurry."

<Ma & Zell: Mother/Son, Currently in Last Place>
     "That looks like an axe!" Zell shouted. He handed the axe to the blacksmith, who nodded and pointed him upstairs. Ma and Zell quickly ran up the stairs and outside to the clue box. Ma pulled out the clue and read it. "Make your way to the Water Palace."
     "No time to waste, either. Let's go, Ma."

     "Hiya!" Faris shouted as she took up her newly acquired axe and chopped at the statue. The blade went halfway through the statue before stopping. She yanked the axe out and with one quick glance back at Rude, who was still in the middle of the bushes, she chopped at the statue again and shattered it. She quickly dropped the axe and ran along the path, following it to another teleporter. Faris teleported to the final location, where there was a rope separating them from a small target a short distance away. On a table beside her was a selection of long-range weapons. She examined them, then opted for the bow & arrows. She took aim and fired at the target, hitting it on her first try.
     "Yah har!" Faris cheered as a man handed her a clue. She ran back down the path, passing Rude,who was still working on the bushes, and Balthier, who was past the whipping post and heading to the bushes. She reached the whipping post from the alternate side now and took up a second whip and tried to lasso the post on the opposite side where Watts was currently trying to whip the post on her side.

     "You only get five attempts, then it's her turn," a staff member told Watts, referring to Brahne who waited behind him. "Also you must alternate attempts with the person on this side and stay back when it is their turn to avoid whipping each other."
     Watts agreed and took his first attempt. He lashed out at the pole, but failed to latch on with his first attempt. It was then Faris's turn. She struck out at the pole, but also failed to latch on.

<Biran & Yenke: Comrades, Currently in 6th Place>
     The Ronso reached the Water Palace and opened the clue box. Biran read it to Yenke.
     "Biran is mightiest Ronso! He should do hornless roadblock!"
     "Yenke agrees. Biran is mighty and will destroy competition!" Yenke added.
     Biran ran to the teleporter cheering, then disappeared into the haunted forest. He quickly came up on the line for the whip, waiting right behind none other than Brahne.
     "The sweet Lord blesses me again!" Brahne said as Biran arrived.

     Faris took her turn to whip the pole and finally latched on and pulled herself across. She cheered and picked up the clue that had fallen out of her hand in the process, then ran to the teleporter.

     "Those trains sure sound fun," Reina said to Zone, who had just finished explaining his model trains.
     "I love them," Zone said. "Here, let me show you a picture!" He reached into his backpack and pulled out a small binder of pictures, but as he yanked the binder out, it caught the zipper and the contents of his bag spilled on the ground. Zone quickly scrambled to pick up his belongings, obviously hunting for one item in particular, which Reina found at her feet.
     "Ooh, a chocobo magazine!" she said happily, looking at the front cover with a woman wearing no apparent clothes hiding seductively behind a chocobo's wing. "Girl Next Door," she read the cover. "Neat!" She quickly opened to a random page, where her eyes grew wide and her jaw dropped slightly. "I- Oh! I see."
     "Oh no!" Zone shouted. He lunged for the magazine, but Reina pulled it away.
     "What an interesting magazine," she said. "It's a cute picture though. She has an adorable dog that she's petting... while nude."
     "It's her Deling Sheepdog," Zone said without seeing the picture. "The uhh, woman has several dogs, but that one is her favorite. Its name is Pepper because of the black speckles in the fur. Also because it's a sheepdog named Pepper is why her screenname is peepdog- err, at least so she claims."
     "You sure know your stuff!" Reina said.
     "I read that a lot- err, I read a lot. And um, I like- you know. Retain information. I don't look at that magazine a lot, of course, but it's err," Zone continued to stammer on for quite some time, when suddenly Faris popped through the teleporter.
     "Yes!" Reina shouted. She tossed the magazine to Zone and hopped to her feet. "Nice meeting you!"
     Reina joined Faris in the corner away from other contestants, yet somewhat near Reno, as Faris read the clue aloud. "Make yer way by cannon travel ter the Upper Lands."

<Announcer Gippal>
     "Teams must now make their way to a strange forest known as the Upper Lands using a common method of travel known as 'cannon travel.' A short distance from the Water Palace is one of the cannon travel men, who will send the teams to the Upper Lands by loading them into a cannon and firing them several miles away to the forest."

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     "This be a dream o' mine," Faris said. "Cannons be a great love of mine, an' e'er since a dream I had, I been wantin' to be a cannonball, blasting through some mangy dog's hull... 'Twere a weird dream."
     "I... see," Reina said. She glanced at the clue. "Oh, there's more! Warning: delay point ahead."
     Reina and Faris ran through the only path out of the Water Palace area back the way they'd come, then headed for a split in the road they'd seen previously.

     Watts finally lassoed the pole tightly and jumped across the gap. He failed to clear the gap, however, and his feet hit the side of the cliff. He was only a few inches from the top, so rectifying this mistake was not too difficult. He took a couple small steps and pulled on the whip he used as a rope, then reached the top. He unhooked the whip and handed it to the staff member, then ran through to the next area with the bushes.

     Rude approached the target area for the long range challenge and selected the boomerang, which he gripped tightly and threw at the target like a baseball instead of a boomerang. The boomerang was about to hit the target, but hit a wind pocket at the last second and twisted away. He glared at the target, then reached over and grabbed the javelin. He sized up the target, then threw the javelin directly into the target. He took the clue he was given and quickly started his return to the entrance.