ITEMS TO GET: Ether, Gisahl Greens, Mocha Coffee

   Head east from Qu's Marsh towards the river. While you're on the way, have Quina eat a Ladybug (the flying blue monster) and a Vile (the red-haired green humanoid) to learn the enemy skills Pumpkin Head and Vanish, respectively.

Wark, don't run

   Cross using the bridge just to the south, then make for the large domed forest up on the hill. Yes, it's the Chocobo Forest, but you can't really do anything without a Chocobo. Fortunately, there's a friendly Moogle here who will give you some Gisahl Greens with which to catch a Chocobo. Go outside and look for the Chocobo tracks near the forest. Stand on them and use the Gisahl Greens (from your item screen) to get a Chocobo.

   While riding a Chocobo, you can't be attacked. Unlike past Final Fantasy games, if you get off the Chocobo (with X), it won't run away. For now, just ride the Chocobo inside the forest.

   When you ride inside on your chocobo, the Moogle will give you two options. Select the first one to play a mini-game for 60 gil. (The second just cancels.) In this game, you have to locate buried treasure with your chocobo under a time limit of one minute. Run around the forest and tap the Square button to peck; the more characters in the chocobo's response, the closer you are. When you find the treasure, a counter will appear; pound on Square to dig up the gil and earn some Chocobo points. (This may increase your Chocobo Level.)

   If you dug up at least one treasure in the forest, your Chocobo Level will have increased. This nets you one or two Chocographs, photographs of certain locations on the world map. If you get on your Chocobo (just walk out of the forest and you'll be riding it), you can "equip" a Chocograph by hitting Triangle. (The little "Land" icons shows what kind of Chocobo you need to reach the spot). Find the location on the map and use the Square button to dig around for a chest -- as before, the more characters in the Chocobo's cry, the closer you are to the treasure. For starters, dig on the ocean shore just to the west of the river with the bridge. The chest here holds 2 Elixirs, 3 Hi-Potions, 4 Ethers, and 2 pairs of Gelminas Boots, the first accessory available in the game. Equip the boots on Zidane and Freija; they can both learn new abilities from them.

   Also, if you ride back inside the forest, the Moogle will give you four options. The first is to play the treasure-hunting game (it still costs 60 gil) and increase your Chocobo Level more, the second is to buy more Gisahl Greens (80 gil a piece), the third lets you see the current high score on the game, and the fourth exits. The high score screen also has two options on it; the second one closes the screen, but the first one takes you to another screen where you can buy goods with the Chocobo points you've earned from the forest mini-game. (See the shopping guide for a list of available items.)

   Before you continue on with the game, there's one other brief excursion you can make. Travel east from the Chocobo Forest and you'll come across a gate in front of the mountains. This is the same place that Baku and company were exploring in an A.T.E.; however, you can't get in right now. Just collect the Mocha Coffee key item from the log on the right (it's where Tuna was sitting in the A.T.E.) and the Ehter from the chest along the right side of the path to the gate. You can also restore your HP by examining the pool of water next to the log and selecting the top option.