Happy Tree Friends [Zidane]

Tagged : Zidane | Words : 707 | Notes : Took some liberties with Zidane, hope it's okay

“Eek!” Garnet squeaked when a gust of wind violently tore through the treetops overhead, and she clasped her hands over her ears for a second before looking up with an almost confused glare. That last blast of wind had sounded like it had torn off a few branches here and there, and she’d almost been expecting one of them to come crash down on top of her, but it seemed she was fortunate today. Well, no, not fortunate. If she’d been fortunate, she never would’ve gotten lost in the middle of a strange forest with dawn almost here! The queen shot an accusing look at her travelling partner, which was none other than Zidane the fool. She normally didn’t refer to him as a fool, nor did she usually mind his company at all, but today she was judging him. And judging him hard. “We don’t need directions Dagger!” she started with a sarcastic tone and a glare that could potentially kill if she put any more effort into it, “My sense of direction is flawless Dagger!” she continued on. Ohhhh, men! She should’ve known it would end like this… what was it with the male gender and their reluctance to ever ask for directions? Especially considering both of them were stranded on a strange world, there was no shame whatsoever in asking for assistance here, but nooo. Zidane knew where to go, or so he’d claimed, and as always, his confidence had put her mind right at ease and she’d gone along with it rather than insisting they ask someone anyway. She really regretted that decision now, now that it was too late to go back and change her mind.

When something rustled in a nearby bush, all Garnet could do was cross her arms over her body and gaze in the direction of the noise with a somewhat worried expression. It would be getting dark soon… and they weren’t anywhere near the exit of this forest. She also hadn’t seen any people in a while, and some of the noises she heard around her made her fear for their safety a little. Sure, they could both fight and she’d be able to summon her Eidolons if really necessary, but who knew what kind of monsters inhabited this planet? When they’d first arrived here, her thirst for adventure had set in again, just like it had last time when she’d escaped the castle. After months of being cooped up inside and having to take care of queenly duties such as meeting lords of other lands and having audiences with some of her subjects about farmland and whatnot, she’d been dying to get out and feel the breeze through her hair again. She’d been so eager to run around and feel like a free woman again, but now? Her adventurous streak had calmed down a little and the rational queen had stepped back in. This was a potentially dangerous place, and she’d need to keep her wits about her. If something did end up attacking them, she’d need to be ready. Thankfully for her travelling partner, her anger had eased down again as well, and her glares had faded from her expression, which was now full of concern rather than frustration about Zidane kind of maybe being responsible for the mess they were in now. She knew deep down that she wasn’t blameless either though, she’d been all too eager to go along with whatever plan he’d had, maybe if she’d been more rational at that moment, she could’ve said something that would’ve prevented this entire situation from even taking place. But she couldn’t go back to that moment, so maybe it was better if she didn’t think too much about it.

“I’m sorry…” she spoke quietly, though she kept her eyes firmly aimed at the bushes in case a wild animal came jumping out, “It isn’t all your fault.” Most of it was though, or so she believed, and she was sticking by it. “How long do you suppose it will take before the sun fully sets?” it couldn’t be long now, the sky was already painted in a faint orange glow, and the glare was set low in the trees, blinding her a little as she walked.

Tagged : Garnet | Words : 686 | Notes : I missed writing Zidane so much.

Zidane wasn't sure if the wind knew it, but it could stop whipping up into a frenzy anytime now. He heard the trees at a distance rustle frantically again and, not bothering to stop this time, he grimaced against the coming winds and raised a hand to keep more leaves from blowing in his face once the gust hit. His sigh was hidden within the gust. If he never walked through another dense forest in all his life, he would be perfectly okay for the rest of his life. After Dagger's kidnapping, Zidane had seen enough dark, leafy places to last forever, and this one just added to the misery. Finally, though, the wind passed on by again, and Zidane was left to swipe his hair back out of his face for the umpteenth time. Oh, and speaking of Dagger...she was definitely in rare form today. Zidane grimaced more widely at her than he had at the wind, but shifted that grimace into a weak smile as he glanced behind her and shrugged with both arms. "Really, Dagger, I've had this figured out from the start. The end of the forest's that way," he assured her, pointing his finger towards that assumed end of the never-ending trail that they were currently walking on. "And at the end of every miserable forest is a beautiful city bathed in sunlight! It's basically the golden rule of forests." Okay, it was the golden rule of forests in stories that ended happily ever after, but...it had to apply to real life too, didn't it? Either way, Zidane walked down the trail coolly despite his companion's jumpiness, confident that he'd be right.

Really, though, Zidane wasn't too confident in much of anything right now. It turned out that getting stuck on another planet for no reason was kind of a confidence-shaker, even if he and Dagger were adjusting pretty darn well to the whole thing, if he did say so himself. Sure, Dagger was kind of upset that he hadn't wanted to ask anyone for directions to the nearest city, but Zidane did think that he was headed in the right direction. Why would someone stick a trail in the middle of a forest like this one if it didn't lead somewhere? Zidane was relying on common sense here, and unless this was a planet where they hadn't heard about common sense yet - and Zidane had no way of knowing, since they'd met all of no one since arriving even if they'd seen a few people - Zidane figured his guess about the trail was right, even if Dagger wasn't...quite as enthusiastic.

He turned around to reassure her with a bright grin, but she spoke first. Zidane shrugged a little again, following her eyes towards the bushes as he responded. "You're probably right, though." What had she seen over there that was so interesting? He had to wonder what kind of monsters they had in this place... But, he didn't bother wondering too long, when she asked him another question. Though it was kind of hard to see the sun in the canopy of trees above them, Zidane raised a hand to his head to scratch it a little as he tried to give her an educated answer. By the look of that sky, the sun was already setting somewhere around here. "We've probably got...another half hour? Probably not much more than an hour." It didn't sound good because he couldn't know how long the trail was and the night in this forest probably meant danger everywhere, but Zidane was still trying to be reassuring. He clasped his hands behind his head, flashing her the grin he'd meant earlier. "You know, a red sky at night is a sailor's delight, because a red sky's supposed to mean no storms." There, he'd given her something to look forward to! Even if it was a dark night, it could be a dry night. Pleased with his efforts, he turned back to the trail ahead of them, hoping that city popped up around here sometime soon...

Tagged : Zidane | Words : 844 | Notes : Kind of bleh, but should be okay to reply to

To be perfectly honest, Garnet wasn’t even sure why she was blaming Zidane for them being lost right now. Yeah sure, he hadn’t been willing to ask for directions and he pretended like he had any idea where he was going, but was that reason enough to be upset with him? They’d just been stranded in a foreign land, away from everything and everyone they knew, maybe she should take comfort from the fact that Zidane was still acting like himself instead of running around and freaking out like she’d done when they’d first gotten here. Even so, the queen needed to vent some anger about the whole situation she found herself in, and unfortunately for him, Zidane was the only person in sight she could talk to, so he was a natural target so to speak. He could take it anyway, he knew she just needed to vent and she wasn’t genuinely all that angry with him… right? Hopefully he did, or this situation was about to get a whole lot worse than it already was with two people being upset with one another. A sigh of relief escaped her when he replied in his usual casual way, not a hint of frustration or hurt feelings in sight. Good, good… that was most excellent. They shouldn’t be fighting at a time like this. “That’s what you said last time, and yet we’re still no closer to civilization than an hour ago…” she remarked with a sigh, “Oh… it is?” she’d never heard of that rule. Must be because she’d rarely left Alexandria and met few people that frequently visited forests… maybe he was right and a magnificent city awaited them beyond the trees. The thought of being out of these dense woods and back in a safe place made her relax some. They were going to be… fine. Just stick together, keep your eyes open for danger and make sure not to get turned around or go in circles and they should be alright.

Well, now she just felt kind of bad when he agreed most of it was probably his fault. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so hard on him, it wasn’t his fault that they’d suddenly been… whisked away from Alexandria only to be dropped in some random forest neither of them had ever heard about. “I thought so…” she spoke quietly when he mentioned about an hour before sunset. That was a scary thought, because they were definitely not going to make it out of here in less than an hour. Not unless they were transported elsewhere by the same force or entity that had moved them before. “That is a relief!” she tried to say in a cheery voice, but her tone fell flat near the end. No storms was a relief, but at the same time, it didn’t really fix any of their problems. It just meant their bad situation wouldn’t get significantly worse. “No it… really is…” she tried again, flashing him a somewhat worried smile before glancing back at the road. She appreciated his efforts, even if they didn’t ease her mind as much as he probably planned. He was probably worried too, though he always had a way of hiding these things rather well. She felt like she knew him well enough to figure out whether he was actually feeling confident or whether he was just pretending though.

“Maybe…” she started unsurely but then quieted down again. Maybe there was a way to escape this forest without having to keep wandering around. Maybe if she summoned an Eidolon they could just fly on out of here… it seemed like a good solution, if not for the fact that the only Eidolon that could fly long distances was an Eidolon Garnet preferred not to summon. It wasn’t that she hated Bahamut, after all, it wasn’t the Eidolon’s fault others had ordered and manipulated it into committing those crimes against her mother and her people, but she was still somewhat fearful of it. She needed time to deal with everything that had happened, time to get used to her summon once more. But they didn’t exactly have that time, did they? “…If I summoned Bahamut, maybe… we could fly out of here…?” it wasn’t that solid of a plan, summoning him took a lot of energy, and keeping him in this world for longer than just a single attack cost even more energy she might not be able to muster up. And what if she couldn’t maintain him long enough? They’d crash, Garnet would be unable to summon anything else for a while, and if they were attacked then, Zidane would pretty much be alone on the battlefield because without her magic, Garnet might as well be a random citizen in terms of physical power. Perhaps even less so, since commoners tended to live harder lives than she did behind her palace walls. “Do you suppose it would be worth the risk?” she asked, assuming that he’d been thinking about the same risks she’d been thinking about.