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"Oh thank the deities... " Ourania muttered, sitting directly on the ground and removing her shoes to examine their undersides. She glanced at Fiore, "You're a healing Elysian, do you think you could do something about these?"

The crystal winked and glittered but performed no magical acts.

"Thanks a ton." the novice summoner muttered, grabbing some fleshy plant leaves that grew in abundance at the side of the road and sliding them into the sandals before putting her feet back in. "Not much better... but not quite as terrible."

She still had to go through the town and forest before she made it to the Temple, but first she was going to rest her brutalized feet. She found a fountain in the center of town square where the citizens were bustling about their business. She sat on the edge of the structure, taking off her shoes and temporary green-insoles to stick her feet directly into the flowing liquid. Several people stopped to stare, but it felt much too good for Ourania to pay them any mind.

She sat there for several more minutes before stretching and pulling her numb feet out of the water to place them in the warm dirt. She didn't bother to put her shoes back on, there were no broken bottles or twisted metallic structures in Barton for her to worry about.

The novice summoner took her time walking through the town, stopping to admire the coliseum for a moment before moving on. "It's really quiet here." she admitted to Fiore as she strolled.

She stopped to purchase a trinket for Na'ir, a small, round bauble that reflected the light and produced strange shapes on the ground when it was turned a different way. The Kederi would never admit it, but he liked shiny objects, not only because he found them pleasing to the eye but also because they distracted the younger or more easily riled pets and allowed him to get a few hours to himself.

Ourania put the crystal sphere in her bag along with Fiore, receiving a faintly painful shock when she touched the Elysian. "Ow, what was that for?"

She felt irritation emanate from Fiore and tried to interpret why, realizing that the crystal was angry at being stuffed away in her pack. "It's only until we get to the Temple and its for your own good. Just sit tight for a little while longer."

Fiore buzzed with annoyance for a few moments more before quieting. Ourania sensed her interest in the sphere and nearly giggled: it seemed that even Fiore who was beautiful herself could be distracted by pretty trinkets.

In the morining, Renault and Shadow did their normal routine and had breakfast really early. Last night, they said good bye to Vivian and cleaned up the house a bit. In the afternoon, Renault decided to go to Barton with Sakis. "Well, Shadow I'm going now!" Barton was a little far away, at least a mile, but in walking distance. Ren started off when Shadow yelled, "Ren!! You forgot your water!" Renault rushed towards the house and got his water and then he started to walk down the hill. Along the way, there was a very steep and rocky road. Renault's feet started to hurt and his arms began to numb because of the coldness from Sakis. He took out the blanket and wrapped it around Sakis.

Renault found a place to sit and rest. He drank some water and started going again. He was in the area of Aekea West and started walkin across the bridge. "Whoo. We're almost there Sakis!" renault looked at Sakis and just smiled.

After an hour or so, he finally got to Barton. The sun was setting at the moment, but there was still much activity going on. He walked around the city and saw some people he knew there. They were shopping at the clothing and jewelry stores. Renault hasn't been to Barton in a very long time. He was amazed at the major improvements in the small and quaint town.

In the evening, Ren found a place to eat and a inn to stay for the night because it would be very late by the time he got home. Renault took of his sandals because his feet were killing him. "Ugh, I wonder how Shadow is doing." ren muttered as he looked to the stars. After a while, he decided to stay in his room and finally fall asleep. He held Sakis in his arms so taht no one could try to steal him.

The next morning, Ren had breakfast and decided it was time to go home. He went on his way home until he saw a beautiful view of the crystal temple. "Wooow! That's amazing!" Renault stood in awe for a couple of minutes and he finally started off towards his house.

Some half hour or so later, Vashtya muttered something un-repeatable as he had to go around yet another wayward tree branch. "Stupid thing..." he muttered, noting with a small frown that, from the postion of the sun in the sky, it must mid-afternoon, or thereabouts, already. If he didn't find his way to the Crystal Temple soon, he'd have to either head back to his home and try again tomorrow, or hope that they'd be willing to put him up for the night at the temple itself.

Walking through what seemed like the billionth small clearing in the forest, he tried (yet again) to remember where the Crystal temple had been, and if he'd passed any familiar landmarks. Sighing, he sat down on a rotting stump, setting Shakti squarely on his lap and staring broodingly into her glittering depths. "How on Earth did we find it..." he muttered, his hands clasping the crystal comfortably.

As he mused on how to find it, Shakti glowed a bit brighter, and a small smile lit across his face as he remembered...the way to the temple. "Yessss..." he breathed out, shaking his head ruefully--how had he NOT remembered sooner? Getting to his feet and brushing himself off, he slung Shakti's over-the-shoulder sack back into place and strode off in a direction just a few shades farther north than the direction he'd previously been wandering in.

"And, with the Curse of Seven Stones broken at last, they were able to live - more or less - happily ever after. Or so the tales tell."

Odilen beamed as her small, rapt audience of children clapped for the end of the story, then slowly began to get up and drift away. A few of the older ones dropped coins in the conviniently placed open bag set by Odilen's feet before they went, and one small child deposited a half-eaten lollipop. She carefully examined the contents once all her 'customers' were gone, wrinkling her nose in distaste at the sticky candy that clung to the bag.

"It's not high-paying work, telling stories," she sighed, standing up and stretching. "Only the children listen anymore. Pity. Well."

Behind her, her chocobo Kez shifted lazily and yawned; the unusual miniature chocobo she'd named Bobby Corwin, or BoCo for short, continued to snooze on the larger chocobo's back. BoCo was so tiny that he could easily nest amongst Kez's feathers.

"Alright, you lot, I think we might manage an inn tonight," Odilen said after a few minutes counting gold. "Hmm..."

There was somebody there, close by. Pacing. Hm, that was odd. Odilen's curiosity rose, and she put the gold away and sidled over to the pacing person. "Is something interesting?" she asked, pleasantly as she could manage, ready to pull out paper and quill at a moment's notice.

((Is this the same Odilen that I know? It will change how I reply...))

((It's Odilen but older and sort of AU... she's older (about equivalent to 1 cool and not an Ieldi. I still wanted to use teh character after Kyendi went down so I changed her up a bit and grew her into the character I always meant for her to be. ^^ Right now she's a wandering storyteller always looking for a new tale to write down, kind of like the Brothers Grimm or something.))

((Nope, she doesn't have the same past anymore, but she's still the same character without a few things (as in she's not scared of the ground, etc). ^^))

Odilen made a face at the candy that she was still trying to dislodge from her bag. "If you want it, you're welcome to it, but it's already been in someone's mouth," she warned Quinny.

Kez stepped up behind her, fluffing his feathers and pushing his beak into Odilen's hair. "Hey, stop that," she scolded absently, then finally managed to pull the sticky lollipop off of the fabric. "Uh, here." She held it out for Quinny to take, and glanced over at the other people who had also gathered. "Are you having a party?" she asked, as nonchalantly as possible, but her free hand twitched slowly towards the scrolls of paper held at her side.

Kez rolled his eyes. He knew THAT look. Odilen smelled a story.