Bella, a few days later, was sitting with the Chocobros eating food that Ignis cooked for them. Kirara was sitting on the ground eating the fresh vegetables happily. Bella finished her food and looked up seeing everyone finishing up their food.
"I was curious, do you all have Chocobos?" asks the young maiden and the men froze looking at her. "What?"
"Do we have... YES, we have Chocobos!" Prompto grins widely grabbing her hands pulling her up making her eyes widen. "I honestly thought you would never ask!"
"... Meaning?"
"There's a Chocobo post about five minutes away, I don't see why we couldn't go visit it," Ignis suggests making Prompto yell happily making everyone chuckle.
~
After finishing cleaning the Caravan, they began walking toward the Chocobo post. It had been a while since she's seen Chocobos, she wondered if they were any different looking then the ones in her world. Kirara was on Gladio's shoulder sitting there watching everything. Ever since Ardyn dropped them off, Kirara has been more tense and it worried Bella, but she knew better.
After getting to the post, they were looking for someone to ask about the Chocobos. "Excuse me, we'd like to ride some Chocobos," Prompto asked the man as soon as he saw someone.
The man turned to them with a small frown. "The Chocobos, huh? I hate to break it ya'll but we can't permit our birds to leave the Post." The man informed them. "Not while Deadeye's still about. He's an uncommonly ferocious behemoth that's taken to prowlin' these parts of late." The man sighs a little bit. "His scent makes our birds nervous an' to prevent accidents an' tragedies, we have no choice but to suspend rentals."
Bella sighs quietly, looking at Prompto as his face held a small frown, she walked up to him and touched his shoulder gently. "But hold on -" The man started once more making Bella look at him curiously. "Are you lads that have been makin' a mark?" The men nod with a small smile on their face. Bella's just held confusion a bit, wondering what he meant. "You reckon you can handle the likes of Deadeye?"
The young woman looks at the sharpshooter, whose face light up and look at Noctis. Noctis nods with a small smile on his face. They all begin walking towards Deadeye's lair, passing the Post and going into the Nebulawood to take down Deadeye. Kirara, once a fair amount of distance away, jumped off Gladio's shoulder and changed into her sabertooth form making Bella smile as Kirara rubs herself against Bella's upper side.
Then, everyone hears a loud growl in the distance, "The hell?" questioned Gladio as they all stopped.
Bella and Kirara looked up seeing a tree falling in the distance, you could hear the tree hit the ground. Bella takes a deep breath and looks at everyone; "Something's amiss,"
"C'mon." Gladio encouraged everyone as they nod and continue going. Kirara lets out a low growl, keeping herself close to Bella.
As they continued, they heard another loud growl. "Geez, that thing sounds very unhappy." Bella commented quietly with a frown painting on her face. Bella noticed the further they went in, the heavier the fog got. Kirara kept her eyes ahead of her, Bella puts her hand on Kirara's fur, making sure to stay close to her.
When they got to a destination where they had to crawl through to get to the other side, Gladio stopped Noctis from going ahead, Bella understood why. Gladio motioned everyone to follow him; The shield went first, then Noctis, then Bella, followed by Kirara, Ignis, and Prompto pulled up from behind. Bella could feel Kirara close to her, Bella's heart began pounding against her chest but she knew what this was from. While quietly crawling through the thing, Gladio motioned everyone to stop. Bella felt the stomps from the behemoth, quietly gulping the young woman looked up seeing the beast standing there shaking his head.
Bella's eyes widen, unsure how to feel. Holy crap... she noted to herself quietly. She realized why he was called Deadeye. Biting her lip, the young girl watched the behemoth growl lowly as it was eating something. Gladio motioned everyone to move,
Everyone nods following Gladio, about a minute of crawling, Bella saw Gladio move to the side as the behemoth stomps making everyone stop and the snout of the behemoth in front of the king. The behemoth lets out a loud roar as Bella closes her eyes from the sound. It was loud, Deadeye sniffed around but then lifts his snout and begins stomping off, Bella looks at Gladio who was calm and collected throughout the whole ordeal and it made Bella jealous.
When Gladio motioned everyone to follow, they all do so quickly and swiftly. Bella got out of from behind the king and looks back seeing Kirara coming out and nudges Bella's side. The young girl smiles touching Kirara's head.
"He's missing an eye and a horn," Bella stated, putting a hand where it was missing on the Behemoth on her face. "That's why he's called Deadeye."
Gladio nods pointing at Bella, "Exactly, Bells," Gladio looks at everyone.
"We'll keep out distance until we exploit his blindspot then," Ignis added making everyone nod. Bella steps up, "yes, Bella?"
"I'll take Kirara to the sky and follow him that way, we know how to keep our distance," Bella suggests to them. Noctis shakes his head as does Prompto looking at Ignis. Ignis looks at Bella with a curious look, wondering what she meant.
Ignis pushes up his glasses a little bit. "Bella, I have to ask, what do you mean?"
The young maiden chuckles, pushing a strand of her hair back and touches Kirara head tenderly once more. "I'll meet you at his hideout, too long to explain," Bella winks their way, climbing on Kirara's back as she took to the sky before anyone could protest.
"She can handle herself," reminds Gladio, looking at everyone. "Let's get going before we lose him," the men nod, following Gladio.
Back in the sky, Kirara and Bella were following the Behemoth from a distance. Pinching her lips tightly together, she wondered if Deadeye could smell them. She got worried, but she's done things like this in the past so why is she worried now? Taking a quiet deep breath, Bella looks down seeing him walking into some ruins, Kirara stops in the air, watching him as well. Behemoth growls loudly, letting out a small roar, walking towards the back of the ruins.
After five minutes, she heard the men below her, Kirara takes off towards them, Bella's hair flowing behind her. The sabertooth feline lands on the ground beside them, as Bella jumps off dusting off her skirt a little and looks at them.
"Did you learn anything?" questions Prompto, stepping up to her as she nods her head a little bit.
"He has several barrels around, I'm assuming their filled with something, so we blow them up," Bella suggested looking at the place. "We would have to create a big enough distraction to bring Deadeye to one of them."
The men nodded at the plan, Noctis was to detonate one of the barrels to weaken the beat, Ignis and Prompto would try to distract the beast well enough to guide him to barrel while Bella and Gladio help weigh it down with attacks. Hiding down beside Kirara looking at Ignis and Prompto while they talked over the plan, her bright orbs caught the princes form in front of them, Bella's heart sped up once again while she stared at him. Shaking her head, she needed to focus. Bella orbs watched the beast charging at the two men in front of her, Bella quickly touches Kirara's head bringing out her Bow-Blade, drawing out the arrow back while Gladio jumps hitting its blindside, Bella lets go of the arrow hitting its leg as Noctis tossed a fireball at the barrel when the beast near itself towards it.
The barrel exploded by the beast as it roared in pain, Bella closed her eyes from the debris when the last piece hit the ground and a loud thump made Bella jump, Bella looks up seeing the beast down and growling in pain and breathing heavily. Bella released Kirara from her weapon as the young maiden walked up to the Behemoth ignoring the warnings from the men.
She stopped in front of the Behemoth's face, touching his mane feeling how dirty and matted, the Behemoth growls lowly. "You don't have to worry anymore, you'll be fine." Bella whispers to him. "You've been through a lot, but – you won't hurt anymore." Deadeye growls quietly closing his eyes and takes one last breath.
Bella then walks back to the retinue as a smiling Prompto jumps for joy as they all walk back to the Chocobo ranch, the fog had lifted, and the sun was shining brightly. Kirara growls loudly walking beside Bella.
It was about ten minutes later when they reached the ranch, Kirara was back in her small form and on Bella's shoulder. Prompto went up to Wiz about the Behemoth now dead, Wiz was more than happy to let everyone use the Chocobos for riding, Prompto jumped for joy running towards a bird and started petting its beak. Bella chuckles a little bit, walking up to the bird and touches its neck. She looked around and saw it was the only white one around. Smiling, Bella touches its beak and up to its head, she could hear it 'kweh' quietly.
"Wow, you know your Chocobos there, young lady," Wiz was surprised. "I've never seen a Chocobo act like that, how did you know how to touch a Chocobo like that?"
Bella giggles a little bit. "I always adored Chocobos, ever since I was small, I did my research on them." The young maiden spoke. "I kind of guessed how to pet a Chocobo when I first met one, which is now," she caught herself at the end, coughing a little bit. "Thank you for letting us meet the Chocobos, sir,"
Wiz smiles. "Feel free to take them if you need to get around," he told them handing Bella a Chocobo whistle. "I'm sure they'll be happy to come help you in your time of need." With that he leaves after everyone tells him thank you.
Bella smiles, taking the whistle and putting it in her pouch she had on her belt as they walk off to the edge of the Chocobo Post, the men began talking about the Regalia. Bella takes a deep breath putting a hand to her chest, wondering what was going through her mind when she said that. Before she could go deeper into her thoughts, she runs into Noctis's back.
"Oof..." She groans rubbing her face. "Sorry, Noctis."
"No problem, Bella," smiles Noctis as he turns back to the guys, making Bella sigh a little bit.
She wondered what was going to happen next after they get the car back, were they going somewhere else... or... Bella's thoughts stopped after that as she heard the thunder boom in the sky as it started raining.
It could be worse... She thought with a smile closing her eyes feeling the rain drench her.
~
A/N: Yes, I have been doing some updates on this story, I do plan on doing more, but that will take time, but I want to start finishing this story and Road Between, I've been neglecting them... Badly. Along with my others... I apologize... I hope you like this story! I have more in-store for this story and I hope you enjoy it! Love you guys!