I think I probably owe you all one of these since I haven't done a one shot for a very long time (just under 2 years!)

How to read dialogue in my stories:

- "Quote" marks means someone is speaking

- Italics indicates thoughts

Legal Stuff:

- I don't own Golden Sun or the affiliate characters

In The Face of Adversity

A flash of cerulean hair was all the warning Isaac had before Mia burst from the treeline around their camp, a single word on her lips...

"Run."

Isaac reacted instantly, propelled into motion by the bizarre sight of Mia sprinting out of the woods, lacking the heavy Imilian robes she normally wore. Grabbing his blade and facing the crashing noises coming from the thicket she had just emerged from, Isaac kept his eye out for the unknown entities chasing her.

Mia grabbed her staff and repeated the word again, casting a hail of ice shards back at the general direction of the sounds behind her as Garet and Ivan emerged from the tents, looking bewildered but alert.

Isaac got his first glimpse of what was following the cerulean haired girl when a pair of wolves emerged in a tangle of leaves and branches. Sinking his blade into one of the charging wolves with a spray of blood, Isaac examined his surroundings, knowing that Mia could easily dispatch two wolves on her own and there was bound to be more to her panic.

Grabbing her staff near the fire Garet set up earlier, Mia used it to hit the second wolf as it lunged for her before impaling it with a conjured shard of ice. Its dying howls rang out into the night as Isaac looked over at Mia, trying to find out what was going on.

"Mia what-?" he started to ask her before more wolves emerged from the trees. Isaac turned his attention back to the wolves, eyes darting back and forth as he sized them up.

Five...six…seven...eight of them? Isaac thought, backing slowly toward Mia as the pack snarled at them. The cerulean haired girl tried to catch her breath in the few seconds she had as the pack hesitated upon seeing two dead wolves.

More wolves began to slowly emerge and Isaac realized it wasn't a fight they should try to win. Where did they all come from? he wondered, understanding exactly why Mia looked so panicked.

The moment's respite was over as the wolves, emboldened by numbers, rushed toward the adepts again. Cut off from Garet and Ivan by the frenzied tide, Isaac used his sword to slash his way through, the bloody blade ending the life of wolves that got in his way.

Bursts of psynergy from the other side ended in howls of pain as Garet and Ivan blasted away at wolves with their psynergy. The onslaught was relentless and Isaac was unable to make any headway through the horde. Retreating back toward Mia, Isaac cast a quake spell to destabilize the ground beneath the wolves' feet and followed up with a briar spell to slow their movement even more.

This bought him a precious few seconds to glance over at Ivan and Garet who had their hands full with a number of wolves themselves. Relying on Mia to have his back, Isaac invoked his psynergy once more and rained Stone Spires down upon the wolves near Garet and Ivan, continuing to pile up shards of broken rock as a makeshift wall.

Half of the wolves near the other two boys were either crushed or cut off from their targets by the barrage and turned to Isaac as a result. There were still a few stuck in combat with Garet and Ivan but Isaac knew they could handle the ones remaining on that side without a problem.

Mia had continued to keep the wolves at bay with a flurry of ice and hail, but the wolves were beginning to get through and were almost upon them again. Stabbing her staff into the eye of one of the wolves, Mia called out, "Isaac!"

"Now we run!" Isaac yelled, slashing the closest wolf to him and dashing past Mia, grabbing her hand. The two adepts took off, sprinting away from their destroyed camp and back into the trees. Darting over the foliage, Isaac could feel branches and leaves catching his clothes as he tore past. Howls and sounds of twigs snapping indicated the pack of wolves was still hot on their heels. Casting a glacier spell on the ground behind her, Mia continued to weave in and out of trees, trying to get as far away from their pursuers as possible.

Nice thinking Mia! Isaac thought when he heard thudding sounds and yelps of pain from the wolves as they hit the slick surface and went careening into trees. If this was another situation, it would probably be entertaining to watch, Isaac considered as they continued to run for their lives.

Bursting out of the treeline, Isaac stopped suddenly and grabbed Mia quickly to stop her too. The pair stood on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a dark canyon below. Isaac swore and Mia sucked in her breath.

"We need to jump," Mia stated, pointing along the edge of the cliff to an outcropping with a ledge below it, running along the side of the mountain. Isaac didn't have time to get a good look as the wolves came crashing out of the woods after them.

"Okay, okay!" Isaac exclaimed, using his sword to hold the first wolf at bay. "Jump then!" Isaac yelled as they both ran over to the edge of the cliff where they could reach the ledge. Mia cast another Hail spell to slow the wolves down and then ran and leapt from the edge, landing on the cliffs below. Isaac followed suit and landed roughly on the ground, moving away from the edge quickly.

Looking back from where they jumped, Isaac cast a powerful Quake spell to destabilize the ground, causing it to completely break off and collapse into the abyss below. The remaining wolves up above eyed the pair cautiously and judged the distance of the jump, unwilling to actually attempt it after Isaac destroyed the ground he jumped from with Mia.

The pair looked back at the wolves who paced a bit before finally giving up and heading back into the treeline.

Mia breathed a sigh of relief and exhaustion as she laid back on the rocky ground. Isaac could feel the pounding of his heart and pumping adrenaline begin to decline as he caught his breath as well.

"Let's get to a better location," Isaac said, pointing up to where the path was much wider with a tree sitting nestled against the rocky wall nearby. Mia nodded in reply as Isaac took her hand and helped her up, heading over to the tree.

"Are you okay?" Isaac asked as Mia suddenly hugged him in a tight embrace, whispering the word "Thank you," to him. Isaac wrapped his arms around the cerulean haired girl and held her for a moment before they separated and sat down against the tree.

"Mia...what the heck happened?" Isaac asked the obvious question he did not yet have an answer to.

"They came out of nowhere," she replied, looking over at the blonde boy with tired eyes. "I was just going to bathe in that pool near the waterfall really quick like you guys did, but then these wolves appeared as I got ready to do so…"

Isaac nodded as he put the pieces together.

"A few of them wouldn't have been a problem, but there were just so many…" she said. "I didn't even have my staff with me…"

"It's okay Mia," came Isaac's reply. "You obviously weren't expecting it and weren't prepared for them to show up. We're safe now at least."

Mia frowned. "What about Garet and Ivan though? They were fighting some of the wolves as well…"

Isaac smiled at the girl next to him, "I made sure to take care of that. I blocked off the wolves from reaching them with the rubble from Stone Spire. I mean….they were still fighting a few of them, but it was nothing they couldn't handle."

Mia looked visibly relieved at that news, glad to know she didn't bring harm to their other companions. "That's good…" she said.

Isaac looked over at Mia and checked to make sure she didn't have any injuries, noticing the lack of her traditional robe in the process. Underneath the robes Mia wore a light shirt and pants that were ripped in a few places from dashing through the woods, though it didn't look like they were too damaged overall.

That shirt looks good on her… Isaac couldn't help thinking. It's definitely a bit more...form fitting...than her robes though, he noticed. Isaac felt his face redden at the thought and her turned away a little too suddenly.

"Isaac?" Mia questioned, noticing the abrupt movement and wondering what happened.

These kinds of thoughts have been more common recently... Isaac knew. Whenever I'm with Mia I just….I don't know….

"Hey Isaac!" Mia said louder, waving her hand in front of his face to snap him out of his thoughts. "What is it?" she asked.

Isaac slowly turned back to face Mia and made sure to focus on her face for a minute. The blond boy had to hold back a laugh when he noticed how messed up her hair had gotten from fleeing the wolves.

"It's nothing...I just wanted to be sure you weren't injured," he said, letting out a bit of a laugh at the end of his reply.

Mia looked confused at his laughing and couldn't determine what was so funny. With a frown she asked, "What are you laughing at?"

Knowing he was caught, Isaac didn't hold back his laugh anymore and let it out while trying to speak at the same time. "Your hair…" he said, composing himself slightly. Reaching up with one hand, Isaac picked a few twigs and leaves out of Mia's messed up hair. "It's basically like mine now," he added, breaking the news to her.

Mia reached up to her hair quickly and could feel it was a complete mess. Her cheeks flushed slightly as she did her best to comb out the remaining leaves and straighten it back to how it should have been. When she was done, Isaac leaned over and picked out the last few pieces she missed, much to Mia's embarrassment.

Mia wasn't about to let Isaac have all the fun with it and she did the same thing to him, leaning forward to pick the pieces out his his hair as well despite Isaac's protests. Isaac smiled as he saw Mia giggle and he reached up to grab Mia's hands and pull them out of his hair. He struggled with her hands for a bit as she kept trying to get around him to mess with his hair.

Finally, he got control of her hands and pulled them down from his head, not letting go as they both sat there with grins on their faces. Mia tried to escape his grip a few times before giving up. "No fair!" Mia exclaimed with a smile, feeling some much needed happiness after the recent events of the night.

Isaac let one of her hands go to see how she would react and it didn't take long for Mia to reach up once more and tease the blonde boy one more time. She then halfheartedly tried to free her other hand with both of her hands and failed as Issac playfully said, "Nope! This one is mine now."

Mia gave a content sigh, glad just to have a happy moment to take her mind of their situation for a minute. Giving up again, she said, "Fine," and allowed Isaac to hold onto her hand with no more resistance.

Isaac loosened his grip so Mia could pull her hand out any time she wanted as the pair sat there. The happy moment began to fade away, back to the reality of the moment. Mia's hand didn't budge even though she could take it back if she wanted and it seemed to Isaac that Mia was content to just sit there like they already were.

"It's probably not going to be easy to find a pathway leading back to the others since we jumped across," Mia finally stated, bringing their present situation to the forefront of their minds.

Isaac nodded, barely visible in the night, and squeezed Mia's hand gently as reassurance. "There's no question that we won't be able to get back tonight, but in the daytime I am sure we can find a way."

Mia considered it and agreed. "I guess that means we're going to need to get some rest out here tonight if we can't go anywhere in the dark."

"This is as good a spot as any for that," Isaac replied. "At least we have a tree for cover and it's a relatively safe spot as well since it's hard to get to so we should be okay for the night."

There's no way we can do watches effectively with only two people, Isaac knew. He had tried that with Garet back when there was only the two of them and it only served to make both of them exhausted the next day. We're just going to have to risk it. At least we're out of sight of any monsters in the area.

Isaac looked over at Mia who let out a yawn and shivered slightly. She must be freezing without her robe! Isaac realized, berating himself for not thinking about it before. Removing his hand from hers, Isaac reached up and undid his scarf from around his neck.

"Without your robe, it must be extremely cold for you," he said, offering the cerulean haired girl the scarf. "It might not help much, but maybe it will help a little," he told her.

Mia gave him an appreciative smile for the gesture. "Thanks Isaac," she told him, scooting closer to the blonde boy to accept his scarf. Isaac helped her use it to cover her arms up so they would no longer be exposed to the cold.

"You're really warm," Mia commented as she felt the scarf, previously heated by Isaac's body temperature, on her skin. Happy with her newfound heat source, Mia moved even closer to Isaac until she was basically laying on top of him.

Isaac was surprised for a moment, but took it in stride as Mia cuddled up close to him, trying to keep warm. She gave a content sigh and closed her eyes for a moment, basking in her relief from the cold. Isaac felt his arm move to wrap around her shoulder as Mia leaned against him.

She feels warm to me too, Isaac noticed, happy to see Mia's shivering had stopped. "I'll be your heater tonight if you'd like," Isaac offered to her, determined to make up for their lack of a tent, blankets, and her robes.

"Yes please," Mia replied in a sleepy, but happy voice, unconcerned with her surroundings now that she was warm, tired, and felt safe. The cerulean haired girl shifted herself again so that she could be directly between Isaac's legs and capture even more of the warmth radiating out from Isaac.

Isaac felt surprised again, but just shrugged and let Mia have her way as she nestled her body up to his. Why is it that she acts so cute at times like this? Isaac asked himself, his reddening face a testament to his embarrassment at the situation.

"Hold me please," Mia mumbled out, immediately causing Isaac's heart rate to increase even further. I definitely would not mind seeing more of this side of Mia… Isaac decided as he looked down at the beautiful girl in his arms with a smile.

"Of course I will," Isaac replied automatically, which Mia acknowledged by shifted her body slightly in his embrace. She looks genuinely happy right now, Isaac observed, glad to have experienced this carefree moment while stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Mia opened her eyes once more, just enough to peer into the blue depths of Isaac's above her. In the dim blackness of night, Isaac could barely see the sparkle of her eyes that always reminded him of the sea.

"I'm glad you were the one that ended up here with me," Mia stated simply, closing her eyes once more with a smile on her face.

At that moment, the whole idea of a quest to save the world disappeared from Isaac's mind. Finding their friends was something that could wait for tomorrow.

In this moment, right here and now, they were nothing but two adepts together under the starry sky.