Vivi was rather surprised at what had taken place to say the least.

He had never expected so many basilisks to swarm out at them. Wave upon wave of the creatures. Freya hadn't been as surprised, but she had managed to say something about it being migrating season. Then something about having told Zidane looking in the mountains above Burmecia was a bad idea.

Any conversations next had been lost in a blur as he tried to use magic as best he could, had to use his staff sometimes to hit a Basilisk away, and generally got lost in the pile. He heard sounds like someone entering a Trance state somewhere but with all the green lizard creatures scampering about it was impossible to see who it was.

He felt himself being cured at least twice by Dagger,  and had managed to give himself a soft in time when one of them had hit him with the petrifying gaze, but the battle had stretched out from the slow status that the creatures kept inflicting. They moved lightning fast when he was under that status and he'd had real problems keeping up with it all...  It was almost like he was standing still for a while, until things went a little faster for him when Dagger managed to cast another spell on him. He'd used the extra speed to blast a Firaga spell all around.

And then, with such a huge spell, the tide of basilisks ended and Vivi discovered he was now alone.  His three companions were all standing stock still, surrounded by fallen lizards, as the rest of the swarm simply scurried past heedless.

There was Zidane in trance, but not his usual glowing purple. He was pale white rock.

There stood Freya, spear embedded in a hapless Basilisk, for all time unless someone would intervene to restore her to flesh.

And there stood Dagger, frozen in the grey stone like the others, but with a triumphant smile etched into her face...

...Vivi realised that she must have managed to cast Esuna on him just in time to let him use the attack. But why had she allowed herself to petrify to save him? Had he been petrified and she had used her last second to save him rather than herself? Or had she misjudged her timing and thought she could have reverted him before using Stona on herself?

As he looked at her he had a strange feeling though.

'Dagger is... really pretty...' He found himself thinking suddenly.

Had he thought that? Why did he think that?! He knew Zidane always said it but he never got what all the fuss was about girls. They were just different from boys, right?

Like a lot prettier, but for some reason Dagger was really pretty smiling like that as a statue...

He shook his head and checked what items he held. He groaned. There weren't any soft left... So that meant he and the others were stuck until Steiner, Eiko, Quina and Armarant caught up. Assuming the tide of Basilisks hadn't now swamped them.

But on the plus side, he did have the Moogles Flute...

He played it, and a few moments later, Moguo arrived.

"Hi Moguo! Um... Can you go find everyone else and have them come help us out?"

The little Moogle looked at the others.

"Whoa... Guess you guys are in trouble, huh, kupo?"

"You could say that... I don't have any soft..." Vivi admitted

"Okay. I'll go tell the others to come give you a hand, kupo. I saw them when I was flying here..."

"Thanks. Um, Muguo... before you go can I ask a question?"

"Sure, kupo."

Vivi walked closer, and lowered his voice.

"I... I think Dagger looks really pretty just now. Is that normal?"

The Moogle stared for a moment, then giggled.

"Yeah, Vivi-kupo, it's normal all right. Just don't ask Zidane about it if you want to know more. Try Steiner. Or Freya. Yeah, Freya might be best, Kupo..."

Vivi waved goodbye as the Moogle flew off, and waited on the others arriving.

However, he kept finding himself sneaking glances at Dagger, and looking away quickly as well... His face felt really warm but he kept on doing it.

Luckily, Dagger wasn't paying too much attention to what the little Black Mage was doing.

Unluckily, Zidane's petrified form was staring right at both of them, and inside the statue he temporarily was, there was amusement...