It didn't take long to run into everyone the next day. We found Anise almost immediately.

"Ion! Ion! Where did you run off to now?"

"You know Fon Master Ion?" Tear asked.

"See I told you Anise was behind this," Arietta said. "She just wants to steal Ion away from me."

"Oh look, it's Gloomietta."

"I'm not gloomy!"

"Enough," Van said. "Do you know where Fon Master Ion is?"

"Oh, the Commandant's here. And a lot of the other God Generals too. What are you guys doing all the way out here?" Anise asked.

"We're looking for Fon Master Ion," Tear said. "I take it you're his Fon Master Guardian?"

"Do you know where he is or not?" asked Van sounding impatient.

She never got the chance to answer because of the angry mob that showed up. "Thieves! I bet they're the ones who stole the food from the storehouse. Their huge liger probably ate it all."

"What are you talking about?" Asch asked.

"Yeah, my liger didn't eat any of your food anyways."

"So it's just a coincidence that you show up and all our food disappears? I don't think so."

"Listen," Van spoke up, "there's been a misunderstanding. I'm Dorian General Van Grants, and the liger you're accusing belongs to the God General Arietta the Wild. None of us have stolen anything."

"Well we…" they seemed a lot less eager to pick a fight now that they knew who they were dealing with. "You should go talk to the mayor. She has the final say on everything. If she says your liger didn't eat it, then we don't have a problem with you."

"All right," said Tear, "we'll do that."

Sure enough, when we got there Jade and Ion were already inside. "…looks like cheagle fur. It's probably what raided your food stores."

"I see," said Rose before turning around. "And who do we have here?"

"Rose, we think these guys' liger is the one who ate all the food from the storehouse."

"I told you he didn't eat any of it!"

"Calm down everyone, Rose said. "It has actually been confirmed that the fur was from a cheagle, not a liger. These people aren't to blame."

"Oh, well…we're sorry. Please forgive us," said the leader as the group began to shuffle away.

"Fon Master Ion," said Van, "We heard that you'd been kidnapped. Tell me, is this true?"

"No. I'm sorry for worrying everyone. Were you searching for me long?"

"Heck yeah," Asch muttered under his breath.

"In any case, began Van, "we need to get you back to Daath. Your disappearance has caused quite a commotion."

"I have something I need to attend to first. And seeing how the cheagles are the scared beast of the Order, I feel obligated to investigate why they've been stealing food."

"I can have Asch and Arrietta see to that. You need to go back."

"Now now, questioning the wishes of the Fon Master isn't a nice thing to do is it?" Jade said with a smirk.

"And you are?" Van asked.

"Colonel Jade Curtis, Third Division Malkuth Imperial Forces. And who might all of you be?"

"Dorian General Grants, Commandant of the Order of Lorelei."

"God General Legretta the Quick."

"Largo the Black Lion."

"Asch the Bloody."

"I'm Arietta the Wild."

"Locrian Sergeant Tear Grants, Grand Maestro Mohs, Intelligence Division."

Nobody bothered to ask who I was. I swear maids are invisible.

"You're working for Mohs?" Anise piped up.

"Intelligence Division you say? Are you here looking for something?" asked Jade.

"That's classified information," Tear responded.

"Why don't all of you work together," asked Rose. "If you have the time to investigate this cheagle problem for us, we'd greatly appreciate it."

"Well if they're willing, I suppose I can't say no," Jade said.

"Let's just get this over with," Van responded.

"Then it's settled. If there's anything you need, let me know," Rose said.

"I can't believe I have to work with Gloomietta," mumbled Anise as we made our way towards the Cheagle Woods.

"I'm not Gloomy!"

"Both of you shut up," said Legretta as she marched ahead of them.

"My, we have a rather short temper today don't we?" Legretta shot Jade a glare that would have sent any normal person cowering in fear, but Jade being Jade, he smiled like nothing had happened.

"I think we're here," Ion spoke up.

The Cheagle Woods was fairly large, but it looked so peaceful that you would have no idea there were monsters there if you didn't know any better. Nobody else seemed that impressed with it though.

"Oh, Mommy is here. Can we stop by and see her please?"

"Maybe after we're done," Van answered.

After wandering around for a bit and defeating a couple of monsters, we spotted our first cheagle. "Over there," said Ion pointing under a large bush.

It was pink and appeared to be a youngster. "It's so cute."

"I wanna see too," said Arietta, but as her liger turned around so she could get a better look, the cheagle took off. "It ran away…" she said sounding disappointed.

"I'm not surprised," said Jade. "Ligers eat cheagles, so it's only natural that it should run away."

"Aww..." she pouted.

"Maybe they're just scared of Arietta because she's so Gloomy."

"Shut up Anise!"

"Can you two please get along," Ion begged. I hate to see you two fighting."

"Okay fine, but only because you asked nicely," responded Anise.

"Anything for you, Ion," Arietta said.

"I think it went that way," Asch pointed. "We should go after it."

After walking in the general direction Asch pointed out, we found the cheagle again. When it saw us, it scampered into a tree and disappeared.

"This might be their nest," said Tear. "Cheagles live in trees."

"Arietta, maybe you should leave your liger here for now," said Largo. "He'll only scare them away."

"Aww…." she pouted but she dismounted anyway.

"Let's just go already," grumbled Asch, charging ahead.

We followed him in and were greeted by a whole hoard of cheagles.

"There's so many of them!" Anise exclaimed.

"They're all so cute," Tear said with a blush.

Suddenly, an old looking cheagle made its way to the front of the pack. "Are you of relation to Yulia Jue?" it asked us.

"It can talk!?" said Asch, sounding surprised.

"Yulia Jue, the founder of the Order of Lorelei, made a pact with the cheagles," said Ion. "I'm guessing that's why we can understand them."

"Indeed," responded the cheagle elder. "This is the sorcerer's ring, given to us by Yulia. It allows us to communicate with humans, among other things. Are any of you of relation to her?"

"Yes. I am Fon Master Ion of the Order of Lorelei. We're here because we've heard you've been stealing food from Engave."

"I see…so you've come to exterminate us."

"It's not like that!" Tear rushed to explain. "We just want to know why you're doing it."

"Cheagles are herbivores," Ion elaborated, "so we don't understand why you need to steal people's food."

"It's because of the ligers," said the cheagle elder.

"Huh!" Arietta exclaimed. "How to you figure it's their fault!"

"Allow me to explain. One of our youngsters caused a fire in the northern forest, burning the ligers' home. As a result, they moved here to prey on us."

"Then you deserve it!" Arietta shouted.

"It still doesn't explain why you're stealing food," Van said.

"We give the food to the ligers, and in exchange, they leave us alone. It's the only way to preserve the cheagle tribe."

"That's horrible…" said Tear.

"But what can you do about it?" asked Anise. "It's not like the ligers are just going to move."

"If something isn't done, the ligers could move on to Engave after they've finished off the cheagles," stated Largo.

"We're not letting that happen!" Asch stated firmly.

"But how can we stop it?" said Ion, becoming downcast.

"I will send you an interpreter to speak with the ligers," the cheagle elder said. "The young one must atone for his sins."

A small blue cheagle came forward from the back of the pack. "Mieu!" I exclaimed happily! Everyone else looked at me pretty strangely.

"This is Mieu," said the cheagle elder, sounding slightly confused as to how I knew his name. "He's the one that started the fire in the north. He will serve as your interpreter to make up for what he's done."

"We don't need him," said Arietta. "I can talk to the ligers myself. And I don't want that creature that destroyed Mommy's home anywhere near me!"

"Mommy?" asked Tear sounding confused.

"Arietta was raised by ligers," Van explained. The ligers that are here now are actually part of Arietta's family."

"So Gloomietta can get them to move, right?"

"SHUT UP, ANISE!"

"Please Arietta," asked Ion. "I can't allow the cheagles to suffer, and I'm sure you know lots of other good spots where the ligers could stay."

"Ion, I…if you say so Ion. But they can't move now. Not until Arietta's brothers and sisters hatch."

"This could be a problem," stated Legretta. "They'll need even more food after the new ligers hatch, and if the cheagles can't provide enough, they may go for the town."

"Liger young like human flesh," added Largo. "Perhaps we should stay away for now and leave this to Arietta."

"Mommy won't let them eat you if I ask her not to," Arietta said.

"I'm not sure I want to take the chance," Jade spoke up.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Asch asked.

"I'll talk to Mommy. You guys can come if you want to."

"What about Meiu?" I spoke up.

"In either case, Mieu is banished from the cheagle tribe," stated the elder. "Naturally I don't mean forever. A full cycle of seansons should be enough to learn from his mistake."

"But where will he go?" asked Tear. "He's so young…"

"He can come with us," I spoke up quickly. "I wouldn't mind looking after him."

"Does that sit well with you, Mieu?" asked the cheagle elder.

"Mieu, mieu, mieu, mieu!" He seemed like he was happy, so I took it as a yes. The elder then proceeded to give Mieu the Sorcerer's Ring. "Thank you very much, Master!" Mieu said. I promise I won't be a burden to you."

"Ma-master?" said Tear blushing. I bet she wished she had Mieu instead. But in either case, he was supposed to belong to Luke, not me. Things are getting really messed up.

"We'll let Arietta take care of the ligers," Van said. We need to get Fon Master Ion back to Daath."

"But I can't go back yet," said Ion. "I promise I'll go back soon, please just give me a little longer."

"What is so overwhelmingly important that you can't come back and let everyone know you're alright?" asked Legretta?

"I have a letter from His Majesty Peony the Ninth, Emperor of Malkuth," said Jade. "He requests a formal peace treaty with the kingdom of Kimlasca. We need Ion to act as a neutral third party, and to show by his presence as Fon Master that we're serious. We also need him to gain entrance into Kimlasca."

"I can help you with that," said Van. "I tutor the king's nephew in sword fighting. I can grant you access to Kimlasca, and I'm sure the Kimlascan nobles will listen to my opinion."

"Then we can get you home too," said Tear turning to me.

I'm not even sure if this is a good thing or not. On the one hand, Tear and Luke did head back to Kimlasca to give the Ingobert the peace treaty. On the other hand, we'd be skipping a whole bunch of stuff that happened in the game. But I can't really make the God Generals attack the ship if Van is going to go along with this so…

"Then it's settled," said Ion. "I'm sure if we all work together, we can achieve peace between the two kingdoms."

"I have a ship parked near here," said Jade. "We can use that to get to Kimlasca."

"I'm heading back to Daath," Asch said abruptly, and turned and began walking away.

"What's with you?" asked Anise. "Don't you want to help people?"

"It's not that it's…personal reasons."

"It'd probably be best if we didn't bring too many God Generals, otherwise it could look like we're trying to force them to sign," said Van. "Largo can go back with you, and Arietta can catch up to the two of you once she's done."

"Fine," said Asch, and he proceeded to leave. Largo followed behind him.

"I guess that leaves us," said Tear.

"Let's be on our way then," Legretta said.