the party, once again, had to prepare. memoria was ahead, and they were under no illusions: it was going to be tough. they had figured it would be easier to train near the tree, and madain sari was near as well as somewhere with friends in the shape of eiko's moogles.  they hadn't realised that big trouble was coming in a small package. of course, eiko had a knack for being unpredictable in the means she caused trouble, even if trouble was predictable for her to cause.

but there had seemed no harm in what she had found. small, about the size of a chestnut, and glimmering golden, she'd picked it up before anyone else even spotted it.

'zidane, what's this?' she asked. the genome shrugged.

'no idea.'

'it looks like a nut. can i see it?' dagger asked.

eiko felt a strange sudden feeling to deny the request, but handed it over anyway.

'well, it seems to be gold rather than just golden. i don't think it's anything dangerous or useful.'

'okay. but what is it?'

dagger was lost for words for a second until she regained her composure.

'i haven't a clue.'

'oh. well, can i keep it anyway?' eiko asked.

'i don't see why not.' zidane replied.

***

eiko had put her find in with her things when they went to sleep that night, and since even the ruined village was safe, no one had to watch for anything odd. if they had been in a tent in the wilderness someone would have been awake to see the gold nut glow for a few moments before it opened up. from inside, a small but just as glowing ball of light emerged, and fluttered around the room where the party slept. it hovered over each of them in turn. it then hovered over eiko. it figured she was the best match. she had the personality, and the magic ability.

without a sound, it landed on eiko's head and vanished. a second later, eiko's eyes opened, glowing faintly. she stood slowly as if sleepwalking, and moved out of the door.

lani had remained in madain sari ever since being defeated by the party. for some reason, the former bounty hunter had taken to the moogles, and they to her. but she still had a paranoid mind, running when garnet or her former partner armarant got too close, and being alert for sudden noises. eiko's entranced walking caused enough noise to alert her as she moved out of the village.

'hey, what are you doing up?' lani asked, regarding the small summoner. her response came with a waved hand, and lani felt herself shrinking...

***

'zidane, wake up!' vivi said, shaking the theif awake.

'what's the matter? is there a fire?'

'no. eiko's gone wandering.' freya told him.

'well, this is her hometown. has anyone looked for her?'

'yes, but it's a little hard to explain, kupo.' a moogle said.

'oh. wait, which one are you again?' zidane asked. he could never remember the names of eiko's moogle friends.

'lani, kupo.'

'right, lan... wait, what?'

'lani says she saw eiko wandering out of the village. when lani spoke to her, eiko cast some kind of spell on her.' dagger said.

'and eiko turned her into a moogle?'

'it looks that way. but for some reason nothing is undoing it. not esuna, not remedy, nothing.'

'well, why would eiko just do that?' zidane pondered, looking at where she had been sleeping the night before. he saw the two halves of the gold nut.

'whoa, wait. the nut eiko found. it split in two.'

before anyone else could, lani had fluttered over using her eiko-given moogle wings.

'i know what this is. it's a hobnut!'

the non-mooglified beings in the room stared at her.

'and what's a hobnut?' freya asked.

'they're faerie dens. they hide in them and wait for someone to pick them up. then they borrow that person and try and have some fun, kupo.'

'what kind of fun? mischief?' dagger said, guessing where this was going.

'the faerie seems to have picked out miss eiko as a host, so it seems your guess is correct, princess.' steiner said.

'oh great. eiko can be bad enough when she thinks of pranks but now she's possessed by a mischeivous goblin there's no telling what she'll do.' zidane groaned.

'pretty much, kupo. the faerie makes magic stronger, so that's why it can't be cured. she'll take eiko to somewhere else to have fun. the only way to fix it all is get the faerie bored or to stop her in her tracks.'

'okay, how do we do that?' dagger asked.

'well, the faerie will get bored after a few months i think, but to stop her you could get other mages in front of her and have them cure themselves. they should be able to do that, but they can't cure others. kupo.' lani explained.

'alright, so where would she go first? and how do you know all this? and how come the whole moogle thing isn't freaking you out?' zidane asked lani.

'somewhere populated, it's an old legend, and i can talk to the moogles easier like this kupo.'

'oh. okay.'

***

the nearest 'somewhere populated' was the dwarf village of condo petite, but entering it was not easy thanks to the roots of the lifa tree that had blocked the entrances. the dwarves had built ways over, but they had also built ways to block off the ways over the giant roots. and so, even if eiko had come here, entry had been impossible. the dwarves hadn't seen her.

when they reached the black mage village, they tried to find mikoto first, zidanes ''sister'' the easiest to communicate with. a black mage pointed them to the chocobo stables where they found two genomes, a black mage, and two chocobos including bobby corwen. neither of the genomes was mikoto.

'i was told mikoto was here.' zidane said. one of the genomes, a male in blue who naturally looked almost identical to zidane except for being cleaner and having a blank expression, spoke.

'this is mikoto here.' he said, pointing towards the second chocobo.'

'...so eiko's been here then.' freya noted.

'yes, she has. she transformed the three of us.' a female genome said.

'three?' dagger asked.

'she was a black mage last night and i was a genome.' the black mage said.

'i see. just to be clear, you were a girl before, right?' zidane asked the former black mage.

'well, yes.'

'huh. didn't know any of you were female...'

'zidane! we have more important things to do than discuss the genders of black mages!' dagger said.

'okay. where did eiko go?'

'we watched her walk out of the village and make a golden chocobo appear. she climbed on it and it flew that way.' the black mage pointed.

'what's that way?' vivi asked.

'alexandria.' dagger answered, sighing.

***

it had been  the right guess. in the town square, they found a lot more animals than normal. confused cats, panicking chocobos, bewildered dogs, mistified chickens. the town was a menagerie of various animals. shouting and yelling could be heard running away from the scene, and a couple of bewildered knights of pluto stood beside a chicken that was trying to pick up a sword. steiner had tried to follow a fleeing man to get some information.

'what happened?' zidane asked one of the men.

'a little girl walked into the town a minute ago and turned every woman she saw into an animal! at first people were shocked for some reason and just stared, like they were hypnotised. she changed every woman, then when we all came out of our trance, most of the men ran...'

'but not you?' freya asked

'we have a duty here, someone has to guard the gate. we've sent for reinforcements from the castle. every other soldier around here was a woman so it's just us, because as you can see, bianca here isn't too good with her sword any more.' the other replied, pointing down at the chicken, as steiner returned. the two knights saluted. the chicken bucked angrily.

'which way did she go?' the captain asked.

'that way, sir.' they pointed down a street, the same one which ruby's theatre was located.

'okay, let's go... oh, she looks mad.'

the party ran there, finding what they wanted. eiko was just entering. they followed her in time to see her transform ruby into a frog. in the few seconds following, there was chaos.

'eiko! hold it!' zidane shouted.

'frog!' quina said. ruby grew wide-eyed with shock. eiko turned to the qu, eyes glowing. she looked at the party, and cast a spell aimed first at quina

your kind eat frogs. it's no fun for you to ruin what i make. an echoing voice resounded in the heads of the whole party, but eiko hadn't spoke.

quina shrank inside a puff of smoke, changing shape and turning green. in a second, s/he was a frog. eiko then looked at freya and garnet, casting another spell. there wasn't a puff of smoke this time, but the two females cried out in surprise. dagger began to grow fur and her nose and mouth began jutting from her face, while freya's hair vanished and her snout shrank away. eiko had swapped their species.

'whoa! what the?!' zidane yelled. steiner sputtered in shock, vivi stared in surprise, and even armarant was frozen in place by the surprising scene. eiko fled past them before they realised what had happend.

'well, this is different.' freya said, glumly. she was now a little shorter, had long white hair, and pale skin. garnet meanwhile had brown fur, and had become taller as part of her change.

'well, i guess i can see if i can really revert myself now.' she said, quickly casting a spell on herself.

sure enough, it worked, and she was human again. freya however was going to be human too for the forseeable future, and quina a frog. the burmecian knight stared glumly at her pink hands.

'look on the bright side freya, you're cute as a human too.' zidane said, earning a glower.

'we need to get after her!' steiner said.

all ran out, except the former qu. zidane came back in a few seconds later and picked quina up. the qu had responded to becoming its own favourite snack by starting to try and lick itself.

'you are what you eat, eh?' he said, running to follow.

ruby ribbited sadly, feeling a little ignored...

***

eiko had went towards the castle, jumping over with her chocobo. eiko had already left the castle by the time they crossed the moat. eiko had stolen the invincible before they caught up with her. the chocobo had went with her.

'how did she do all that so fast?!' zidane wondered in confusion. they'd went back to the castle, waiting to get the red rose ready to follow, but this was difficult. many of the soldiers and airship crew had been women. only a handful of male castle staff and knights of pluto were able to help get it ready.

'it matters not. what matters is she has done it.' steiner said. an eagle that had been general beatrix sat beside him looking confused, and various former soldiers turned animals wandered around.

'and now we're stuck here while she heads for lindblum.' freya noted.

'we're going to be chasing her for ages.' vivi said sadly, absent-mindedly petting a cat that wandered past.

'we have to wait. and vivi, i know they all want the attention but i'd rather you didn't pet the soldiers eiko turned into cats.' dagger sighed.

'oh. sorry.'

'how come it's only women anyway?' zidane wondered aloud.

'maybe that's what the faerie finds fun?' freya wondered. she kept looking at herself in a mirror, not used to the change in species yet.

'we know very little about this creatures motives. though what lani said has fit so far, we have no idea if what she says will happen is true. after all, it was merely legend.' steiner said unhappily. the beatrix-eagle sqwuaked and flew out of the room.

'where's she going?' vivi asked.

'the library. of course! maybe we can find a book there with some information? it's better than nothing, they'll still be a while with the airship.' dagger said.

'okay. can't hurt.' aramarnt agreed. they left the room.

'vivi, put her down please.'

'oh, sorry.' vivi said, putting the cat on the floor.

***

they had searched every book on legends between them, and they had found...

'nothing!' zidane groaned.

'well, it was worth a try.' freya shrugged.

'well, the airship should be ready by now, so let's go.' dagger said.

***

the invicible had landed south of lindblum. the red rose landed inside the castle, getting just ahead of eiko as luck had it. the town and the trek had been able to put up a very sizeable delay, but two soldiers trying to coax down a monkey that they claimed had been a chambermaid transformed by a little girl a few seconds ago wasn't a good sign.

'lady hilda may be of aid. a second white mage able to convert herself back might confuse the faerie.' steiner realised.

'good idea. maybe if dagger and hilda get in front of her and change themselves back all the time it'll get stuck, then get bored?' zidane pondered.

they arrived in time to see eiko, a stunned regent cid, and an oglop. the oglop suddenly was englufed in smoke, transforming back into hilda.

'eiko! look at me!' garnet shouted. sure enough, eiko turned, and turned garnet into an oglop too. she changed back.

'what is going on here?' hilda asked as eiko turned her attention to a cringing freya, who seconds later was now a cat. she froze on the spot.

'aunt hilda, there's no time to explain but eiko isn't herself. i need your help. keep having her transform you and transform back! i'll do the same!' dagger said. hilda nodded. freya then freaked out and began running around the room.

'huh. not a cat person.' cid said, bewildered by all this.

'well, she was a burmecian earlier on today.' zidane explained.

'oh. that makes sense.' the stunned regent said as eiko transformed hilda into a dog then turned on garnet.

even as garnet became a chocobo, hilda was back to normal. eiko growled, or rather, the faerie growled. it transformed hilda into a pig. garnet changed back. she was turned into a frog. hilda had changed back...

***

it went on for an hour, the possessed eiko trying to defeat the two other mages, but they kept changing themselves back. the men could do nothing but watch, except vivi, who held a still-trembling freya.

'zidane, we have a problem.' garnet said, between transformations.

'what?' zidane repsonded.

'we might need an ether to keep our magic power topped up soon.' garnet replied after turning herself back.

'um, you were a parrot there...' cid noted.

'oh, so i was.' garnet realised, before she became a cow.

'i uh, i'll just go get the ethers, will i?' zidane said, slipping away.

***

it took another hour and an ether each for hilda and garnet. but the faerie eventually gave in.

this is boring. i'm going. it said. eiko froze on the spot, and the glowing creature floated out of her head. eiko's eyes rolled back, and the summoner collapse with a sigh. the faerie vanished out of sight. garnet ran to eiko, checking on the girl.

'she's fine. she's just passed out.' dagger reported with a grin.

'okay. glad that's over and no one got hurt...' zidane sighed with relief, before someone cried out in surprised.

all turned to see that freya had returned to normal. unfortunately as a full grown burmecian she was larger and heavier than a cat, and the poor black mage had been squashed by the sudden increase in weight.

'well... almost no one.' he corrected himself as freya jumped up and helped vivi to his feet.