Episode 9: Part 2

     "It's been too long," Reina said to herself as she rode her chocobo between some mountains. She spotted a river coming up and patted her chocobo on the head. "You're good with running in rivers, right?"
     "Wark!" it replied cheerfully.
     "Then let's go for it!" Reina urged her chocobo to go faster. She cheered as the wind raced through her hair and the chocobo broke into a near sprint.

     "No, chocobo!" Yenke shouted as the chocobo continued to walk in small circles. "Go that way! That way!"
     The chocobo did not stop. Yenke finally got off the chocobo. He grabbed it softly by the beak and pointed in the direction he wanted to go. "That way, okay, feathered-friend?"
     "Wark wark!" it replied happily.
     "Good." Yenke got back on the chocobo. It started going forward for a second, but then started making circles again, only this time in the opposite direction. "Yenke is horned...."

     Ma soon found herself in a spot with a mountain range on one side and an ocean on the other. There was definitely no passage this direction. She rode her chocobo back the way she came and found the location where she had previously met with Dona. She found the "x" on the ground, which indicated that Dona's route was incorrect. Ma started to head down the third, theoretically untested path, when a route marker suddenly caught her eye. It indicated the path that Dona had taken was the correct route to take. And yet, there was an "x" on the ground.
     "Oh Dona," Ma sighed. "You really never will change, will you?"
     Ma directed her chocobo down the middle path, hoping to catch back up to Dona.

     Dona guided her chocobo along a path, but came to what seemed to be a dead-end. She circled back and looked around for another path, but only found a small gap in the mountains leading to a river. She wouldn't have given it another thought if not for the route marker nearby. She inched her chocobo closer.
     "Is it safe to go in rivers? On a chocobo?" she asked herself.
     "YEE-HAW! Outta the way!" a woman's voice screamed as it approached. Reina and her chocobo were racing through the river in the opposite direction. She noticed the opening in the mountains, then noticed Dona waiting by the shore and smiled. "Jump, choco!"
     Reina's chocobo sprang into the air and landed in the shallow waters beside Dona and her chocobo. Water splashed all over Dona and her chocobo as Reina raced on.
     "Ooh, sooorry," Reina shouted sarcastically. She raced off and left Dona, who was absolutely soaked.
     "Urrrrg! Wrong again, Barthello! We should've U-Turned them!"

     Fran's chocobo trotted along to the area with an "x" on the ground, but didn't even notice it as she aimed for the marked path. She was more fixated on Reina, who was racing by her in the opposite direction.
     Reina was cheering and even did a bit of showboating as she stood up on the chocobo and surfed for a short distance. She waved to Fran, who waved back a bit less enthusiastically. "I love chocobos!" Reina shouted happily. "Wheeeeeee!"
     "Seems so," Fran muttered. She looked over her shoulder at Yenke, who was only barely making any forward progress. "Reina will have this roadblock win easily, but at least some people are still struggling."

     Reina rode by Yenke and stopped her chocobo. She turned around and pulled up beside him. "No no no, you're doing it wrong," she said. She helped pull Yenke into a proper chocobo-riding position.
     "Thank you, hornless lady," Yenke said.
     "I didn't do it for you, I did it for the chocobo. He can't have enjoyed that. Oh, but you're welcome!" She continued her ride back to the starting forest and rode past the group of racers talking near the gates.
     "Yah haw!" Faris cheered. She picked up her things and joined Reina in receiving their next clue. They retreated a short distance from the group so they would not hear.
     Reina opened and whispered the clue. "Travel tothe Castle of Bal on a pair of--! Black chocobos! Yes!"

<Announcer Gippal>
     "Teams must now travel to the Castle of Bal area and land their black chocobos in a forest surrounding the area. Outside the castle gates, which are closed, will be their next clue."

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     Reina and Faris found a section of black chocobos in the corral and were appointed two of them. They mounted them and the chocobos immediately flapped their wings wildly and took to the skies.
     Faris wrestled with a map of the area and found the Castle of Bal, then pointed the way. They started flying over the large sea in the indicated direction.

     Dona continued to angrily ride her chocobo around the strange, non-linear path around the world. She continuously had to backtrack after being pinned in by various mountain ranges and deep waters. After a short search, she finally found her next route marker and continued into an open strip of land heading to the south.
     "I hope this is the end," she mumbled to herself.
     "Me, too," Ma said as she rode past Dona.
     "Oh you did not--"
     "Talk all you want, Dona," Ma shouted from a short distance ahead of her. "Your trick didn't help you much, did it? Continue to moan and groan if you'd like, but make sure to eat my dust while you do!"
     "Get back here!" Dona's chocobo broke into a sprint and chased Ma all the way down the path. At one point, Dona took the lead, but only barely. Ma quickly closed the gap and the two reached the corral at almost the exact same time, with Ma only a split second ahead.
     Barthello and Zell hopped up and grabbed their things before joining their partners. Both helped their partners off the chocobos and took the clues.
     "Travel to the Castle of Bal on a pair of black chocobos," Zell read to Ma.
     Barthello read the same thing to Dona. All four picked their black chocobos. Dona and Barthello immediately took off and headed out to find the castle. Zell started out, but turned back when he saw Ma had yet to leave.
     "What's up, Ma!? We gotta go! They'll beat us," Zell said.
     "To where?" Ma asked. "Zelly, you haven't even found that castle on the map yet. Is it north or south? East or west?"
     "I uhh...err...dunno."
     Ma pulled out her map and searched for it. Zell looked over her shoulder for a moment, then pointed at the castle. "There it is! Let's go!"
     Zell started urging his chocobo to fly, but Ma was still waiting.
     "Ugh. What now, Ma?" Zell stopped his chocobo from taking off.
     "Well, we don't know where we are," Ma said. She checked with her compass and surveyed the area to get a feel for the world she had just circled on a chocobo. "Okay, we're roughly here, so we'll head north and somewhat west, or...maybe..."
     "Gahhhh, Ma! Let's just kinda wing it, okay? The other teams will do that."
     "Okay okay, Zelly," Ma said, putting the map away. "North...ish. Let's go."
     "Yeah! Let's do it!"

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     Reina and Faris flew through the air over some mountain tops, only making a few minor directional adjustments to avoid the extremely tall mountains. They landed in a forest surrounding a large castle.
     Faris started to head toward the clue box at the closed castle gates, but stopped and sighed. She turned around and walked back to the chocobos and grabbed Reina on the shoulder and pulled her away from the chocobos.
     "I was just making sure they're okay!" Reina whined. She joined Faris and walked to the clue box with her. She pulled out the clue and read it to Faris. "Find an alternate way into the castle through Jachol Caves. Caution: Xing ahead."

<Announcer Gippal>
     "Teams must enter the Castle of Bal, but must do so by navigating a cave full of hidden switches and puzzling routes. Once inside the castle, teams will find the fifth of six pre-determined delay points: the Xing."

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     Reina and Faris followed a sign pointing the way to the cave, which was only a short distance away. They headed inside to what appeared to be a normal cave. The occasional treasure chest littered the corners, but all chests were already opened. They followed a small passage to the back where the cave's difficulty became apparent. Along a wall was a series of eight switches, all shaped like miniature skulls.
     "Supposin' we just try one," Faris muttered. She walked to the nearest switch and tried to activate it, but her hand swung through the air as the switch vanished before their eyes.
     "It's that one!" Reina shouted while pointing to the farthest switch on the right; her voice echoing loudly.
     She and Faris races for the last switch, at which point all the switches returned. They reached the last switch and Reina reached for it, but once again, all switches except one disappeared. This time, it was the switch two from the left that remained.
     "This be strange. Okay, I'll be 'ere. You get the rest," she told Reina.
     "Right." Reina raced to the left-most switches and waited for the switches to pull their vanishing act.
     The switches disappeared, except for the one closest to Faris, who jumped on the opportunity and flicked the switch. The large wall of switches shifted to the left, barring their path back to the entrance, but allowing them to search the caves further. They proceeded on to find a large, steel door. There was no handle and pushing it had no effect, as Faris quickly learned.
     "Nother switch, eh?" Faris said. "Look around, Sis."

     Fran's facial expression was starting to show signs of aggravation as her earlier steady progress through the course had only begun to swing far down hill. Having gotten lost in a series of rivers, all of which lead to nowhere, she was starting to lose hope. She tossed her head back and rolled her eyes when she finally spotted the final route marker and was on her way back to the town, but her annoyment was only worsened by the fact that Yenke was not only in viewing distance, but also was gaining on her. His riding skills had obviously increased from the previous doughnuts he was doing earlier on the chocobo.
     Fran barely edged Yenke out to the stables and grabbed her clue with Balthier. As they were reading through their clue, Yenke came in and got his things as well.
     "Travel to the Castle of Bal on a pair of--" Balthier read.
     "--Black chocobos," Yenke finished of his own clue.
     All four consulted maps before leaving, but Balthier and Fran found the castle easily, whereas Biran and Yenke only just realized their map was upside-down. They found it soon enough and took to the skies on their black chocobos as well.

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     "Thar she is!" Faris said, pointing into an empty treasure chest. At the bottom of the chest was a switch. She flicked it and the steel door swung open.
     The girls raced inside and found a very wide open space. The middle had a gorge of unknown depths, but there had since been handrails added and arrows pointed around it. They followed a path and found a pair of ropes leading up a rock wall. There was also a small crew here to give them safety equipment and harnesses.
     "Didn't expect this," Faris said.
     "Me neither."
     Once fully equipped, the girls began climbing the ropes. Faris had no trouble whatsoever, while Reina was only about half as fast, but still faced few issues aside from fatigue. Once at the top, they realized they were no longer in the cave, but instead in the castle's basement. There were several decorations on the walls and doors. The entire room was carved from stone and was a dull shade a white. Elegant pillars decorated the area, but the majority of them were broken, as was most of the ruins of a basement.
     An arrow pointed them through a door and up a couple flights of stairs. They whizzed by the beautiful castle interior without a second thought until they were on a balcony overlooking the forest they had landed before. Faris was happy to see that their chocobos were still the only ones in the forest, but Reina had yet to even notice. She was just standing with the biggest smile on her face and her arms clenched and wiggling happily in front of her. To their right was the Xing mat and the next clue box. But Reina was looking to the left, where a set of small, blue-gray wyverns waited.

<Announcer Gippal>
     "This is the fifth of six predetermined delay points. An Xing can be used to force one team to stop racing until one team (or more) has past them. If the team waiting at the Xing is the last team, they will be notified after waiting for a time period of exactly five minutes, at which time they may begin racing again. Teams may only use one delay point throughout the race, so they must decide when it is most advantageous."

     "Hiryuuuuuuuu!" Reina shouted.
     Faris waved a hand in front of her face to break her stare. "Reina! I need yer help! This be a wonderful opportunity to use our power. We have a huge lead and we be the only ones with a delay left. What ter do?"
     "Gah, okay, okay, I'll think. But I wanna ride a dragon so badly!" She closed her eyes tightly, took a deep breath, exhaled, and opened her eyes. "Okay, so here's our options. The Xing isn't very powerful, so we could save it."
     "Or we wait ter see what team lands in that thar forest and use it on them. It'd give us a tremendous lead, methinks."
     "True. Or we use it on Dona and Barthello to get back at them for being meanies all race long."
     "Aye. Or we use it on Fran and Balthier to try again to knock 'em down a peg er two."
     Reina thought about it. "Okay, well I say we don't use it on whatever team comes next. We have a huge lead, so giving us a huger load wouldn't work out well anyway. We always get bunched up, and I think we'll win this leg anyway."
     "Har! That be the confidence I like! So do we play fer vengance, fer profit, er save it fer later?"
     "I saw Dona first when I raced around the world, so I think they'll be done first from the roadblock. This delay can be used to slow down somebody in the front, not the back. Okay! I know what we'll do!" Reina dug through the pictures and pasted one up. "There. I saw Yenke struggling a lot at the roadblock. Since I think Dona will be done first, our best bet is for somebody being in next to last place. So that would be Ma & Zell and Fran & Balthier. And of those," the camera revealed the picture of Fran and Balthier on the Xing board, "I think our biggest threat is Fran and Balthier. We'll just hope they're in trouble."
     "Good thinkin'," Faris said. She reached into the clue box and pulled a clue to read to Reina. "Make yer way by wind drake ter Carwin."

<Announcer Gippal>
     "Teams must now travel to the city of Carwin using one of the wind drakes, or wyverns or hiryuu as they're also known. The city will be tricky to reach since there are several mountain ranges in the way and wind drakes have difficulty flying over these mountains, so teams will be forced to find gaps to enter."

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     "Now?" Reina asked anxiously, almost unable to contain herself.
     "Now," Faris said.
     Reina raced out and jumped onto a wind drake, hugging it tightly and talking mostly baby-talk to it. Faris sat on the drake as well as it lifted up into the sky.
     "Trial and error be our best bet fer navigatin', m'thinks," Faris said. The wind was already pressing against them as they soared through the air. "I'll just let yeh do what yeh do though. Enjoy yer ride."

<Ma & Zell: Mother/Son, Currently in 2nd Place>
     Ma and Zell landed their chocobos in the forest by the Castle of Bal, just beside Reina and Faris's chocobos.
     Zell jumped into the air and cheered loudly. "Oh YEAH!" he shouted. "Only one other team is here! Probably Reina and Faris! That means Dona and Barthello are loooooost! Way to navigate, Ma!"
     Zell raised his hand for a high-five, which his mom happily gave him. They raced to the clue box and got their next clue.
     "Find an alternate way into the castle through Jachol Caves. Caution: Xing ahead," Ma read.
     "Better get in there quickly," Zell said. He
     Zell and Ma raced off to the caves and made their way inside. They found the switches and pondered it for a moment. When the switches disappeared, Zell and Ma both jumped back in shock.
     "They can do that!?" Zell asked.
     "I guess that's our switch then," Ma said. She tried to flip it, only to realize that the switch changes locations. "Oh. I...see."

<Dona & Barthello: Summoner/Guardian, Currently in 3rd Place>
     Dona and Barthello reached the forest and landed. Barthello immediately received a punch in the arm.
     "Your sense of direction sucks," Dona said. "Your sense of everything sucks. We're taking out those sisters this instant."
     "Okay, Dona," Barthello said unenthusiastically. He grabbed their next clue. "Find an alternate way into the castle through Jachol Caves. Caution: Xing ahead."
     "Oh wonderful."
     Dona and Barthello walked to the cave and walked inside. They started down a passage when it was suddenly completely blocked off. Dona jumped a mile when a chunk of the wall slammed shut in front of them.
     "That is not safe!" she yelled.
     On the wall in front of them was now a switch that asked to open the passage. Barthello flicked it and the wall moved aside, allowing them access to the disappearing switches.

     "Whoa!" Zell shouted as the wall slammed shut behind him and Ma.
     They had barely made it to the second section where a closed steel door awaited them. Now, unlike with Reina and Faris, the area they had to search for another switch was extremely small. This greatly helped them, however, as the small area only contained a small section of wall and a treasure chest, which Ma investigated to find the switch.
     She and Zell headed through the now-opened door and made their way to the wall with the ropes.
     "Good luck, Ma," Zell said as the crew helped him put on his safety gear.
     "I'll need it," she replied. "Whew. This doesn't look very easy."

<Fran & Balthier: Sky Pirates, Currently in 4th Place>
     Fran and Balthier reached the Castle of Bal forest and ran to get their clue at the gates. As Balthier read the clue to Fran, he noticed another pair of black chocobos landing in the forest.
     "They very well might have followed us," Balthier noted.
     "Or we're vastly underestimating these two," Fran added. "I'd not be surprised if they have been hiding their abilities from us."
     "I would, but still, what if? Not for us to worry about now. Come, to the caves."

<Biran & Yenke: Comrades, Currently in Last Place>
     Biran and Yenke reached the clue box and took the last clue from the box.
     "Find alternate way into castle through Jah Chole caves," Biran sounded the clue out. "Caution: X-word ahead."
     The Ronso wasted no time following the arrows to the caves.

     Dona and Barthello found the switch in the treasure chest and entered the last part of the caves in time to find Zell at the top of the rope waiting for Ma. Ma was only about halfway up the rope and was taking a short break from the climbing.
     "Oh hurry up," Dona whined as she and Barthello approached the ropes. She moved to talk to the crew working the ropes. "Can we start going up?"
     "Yeah, but only on the available rope. It's first come, first serve," he replied.
     "So which of us goes first?"
     "You should, Dona," Barthello said. "I- I think I can climb this quickly."
     "Yeah, because you were so fast climbing the dam earlier in the race."
     "This is shorter. I won't let you down, Dona."
     "Better not," she said. She started putting on the gear to climb up as well.

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     Reina and Faris navigated their drake through the skies and found themselves a bit lost. Their route required travel over mountains, which the drake was unable to do. Faris tried her best to hold the map while Reina navigated the drake along the mountains. They decided the best course of action was to just follow the mountains to the south and hope there was a break close enough.

     Ma and Dona climbed the ropes in what was becoming a fairly intense race. Ma was easily ahead, but Dona was doing a good job intimidating her. Ma had nearly reached the top when Dona was only barely nearing the halfway mark. Zell held out a hand for Ma and pulled her up to the top. She took off the gear and left with Zell to race through the castle. Before she was even fully off the rope, Barthello had already begun his ascent.
     Zell and Ma reached the top and found the Xing mat with Fran and Balthier's picture on it.
     "Oh sweet!" Zell shouted.
     "Now now, Zelly. We don't find pleasure in others' misfortune," Ma reminded him, though there was still a big smile on her face. She took their clue from the box and read it. "Make your way by wind drake to Carwin."
     "That must be these guys." Zell walked up to the first wind drake and climbed aboard. He helped Ma on as well. "This is gonna rock. These guys look badass."
     "Language. . . ."

     "I'm not sure I understand the physics of this," Balthier said after reaching for a switch that disappeared. He and Fran cornered the switches and were able to activate the correct switch. The wall closed off access to the front of the cage. "Ah, wonderful. This should slow our opponents down."
     Balthier and Fran proceeded through to the next area and found the treasure switch instantly.
     "Never try to hide something from me in a treasure chest," Balthier told Fran with a smile on his face.
     They raced through the door and over to the ropes, where Dona was about three fourths of the way up, while Barthello was about halfway.
     "Ohh, come on already!" Balthier urged them.

<Biran & Yenke: Comrades, Currently in Last Place>
     Biran and Yenke faced the eight switches and watched blankly as all but one disappeared. Neither budged when they reappeared and all but a different one disappeared. In fact, that same process happened a good five times before either Ronso even spoke.
     "Yenke is confused," Yenke said.
     "Biran, too," Biran replied.
     "Yenke has idea! What if Yenke and Biran hit all of them! As fast as Ronso-ly possible!"
     "Biran agrees!"
     With that, both Ronso ran around frantically hitting the switches. It took them a while, but they finally hit the correct switch by pure accident and moved to the next section.

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     Reina and Faris, having finally found a passage, landed their drake at Carwin: a small town with a stone wall around the perimeter. The clue box was right outside the town's entrance. Faris grabbed the clue and ran back to Reina, who was still with the drake.
     "Yer still racin', right?" Faris said.
     "Of course," Reina replied. "I'm just so happy to be home and among some animals. There haven't been enough this race."
     Faris ripped open the clue. "Use a submarine ter find and enter the sunken Walse Castle."
     The sisters walked to the coast and found the five submarines waiting by the shore. They entered and found the controls inside, which Faris took command of. She pushed the button to dive underwater and they began their hunt for the tower. The hunt was rather short, however, as the tower was only a short distance away. She drove the submarine into a clearly-marked section of the sunken tower. A lot of machina were set up to help the teams park the submarines with minimal difficulty.
     Faris and Reina stepped off the submarine into a section of the castle that had an air-pocket preventing water from flooding the room. There was a clue box across the empty room, which Faris and Reina raced over to.
     "Detour: Search for Shards or Rip to Shreds," Reina read.

<Announcer Gippal>
     "A detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. The choice: Search for Shards, or Rip to Shreds. In Search for Shards, teams must enter a section of the tower that is completely flooded and find five shards around the room. The room is fairly dark and finding small, transparent shards could be very difficult. In addition, teams will only be allowed in for as long as they can hold their breath, with a maximum of four minutes. Searching with several interruptions could also make this very difficult, but lucky teams could find themselves finishing quickly.
     "In Rip to Shreds, teams will enter an above-water room with a very large crystal in the middle of the room. Then, teams must use the hammers and chisels provided to break the crystal until the once six-foot-tall crystal is only one-foot tall. There is a line drawn so teams will know how far they must chisel it down. It is a very physical task, but teams with strength and perseverance could profit from it. I know it has nothing to do with ripping, so calling it 'Rip to Shreds' is a bit untrue, but leave me alone. I'm just the host."

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 1st Place>
     "I like the idear of breakin' up a crystal like all of 'em we saved b'fore," Faris said, "but I think we'd be best searchin'."
     "Aye," Reina replied with a smile. "Let's search!"
     The girls headed to a stairwell where the route split. A staircase down and to the right was labeled as leading to "Shreds" and a staircase down and left was labeled as "Shards." The girls turned left and headed down the stairs. As they headed down, the room got slightly darker. It was dark enough that they didn't even notice they had stepped into water on one of the steps.
     "Ready?" Reina asked.
     "Aye."
     The girls walked a few more steps, then dove into the water and swam into the room to find the shards. There was enough light in the room that they weren't about to swim into any of the walls, but the artificially provided lights caused a strange house-of-mirrors effect when they would reflect off the shards, then the water would bounce the light around to make the shard's true location difficult to locate. Both girls often grabbed at shadows.

     Barthello reached the top of the rope and waited for Dona, who was panting heavily only a short distance from the top. Balthier began his ascent while Fran waited for Dona to finish. Fran sighed when the Ronso entered and started waiting to climb as well.
     "Biran is not far behind! Neither is Yenke!" Biran said. "Ronso going to win this leg!"
     "Not likely," Fran told them. "Faris, Reina, Ma, and Zell have not been seen in a while. I assume they are far ahead."
     "Biran sees. Well, Biran will make quick work of hornless wall! He will climb faster than all hornless humans!"
     "What about Viera?"
     "Biran does not know Viera, but assumes he or she is equally hornless!"
     "I am not a hume," Fran explained. "I am a Viera."
     "Does Viera have horn?"
     "No."
     "Then you hornless, too! All hornless ones equal in Ronso eyes!"
     Balthier looked at Fran, who mouthed "climb quickly" to him. He nodded and sped up his climb.

     Dona finally reached the top with Barthello's help. He picked Dona up and carried her up the flights of stairs. She pretended to struggle, but was very glad for his assistance after a strenuous climb. He carried her out to the balcony, where seeing Fran and Balthier's pictures on the Xing board suddenly motivated her a little bit more. Barthello put her down and took their next clue.
     "Make your way by wind drake to Carwin," he read.
     Dona whined about the drakes, but not too much after being revitalized by the joy from the Xing. She and Barthello got onto a drake and started to fly to the east toward Carwin.