Here I am, back again! This time, it's for an epic Golden Sun multi-chapter story that is actually directly tied in with the game's storyline!
Ivan: It IS the game's storyline...
Sheba: You have no sense of creativity.
Hey! D: Well, I've seen several of these around FFN, but I wanted to take a shot at my own. Plus, I've incorporated some of the Golden Sun 4-Koma humor as well as all of the game's actual dialogue.
Ivan: See? No originality at all.
Sheba: Tsk, tsk.
...It should be a good one. Anyway, I know specifically that The Fanfic Reader has been waiting for this one, so here it is, friend! :D It took me a little while, and some of it seems a little off, but hopefully you all enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Golden Sun or any of its plot line. Likewise, I have no ownership ties to the 4-Koma and all credit goes to the respective translators.
Golden Sun.
Chapter One.
The Storm
In a disturbed state of sleep, Isaac tugged the pale red comforter of his bed tighter around himself. The air in his room had taken on a chilly tinge, which more than likely correlated with the unforgiving bullets of rain pounding against the thirteen year old's bedroom window. It wasn't quite the right season for a storm to hit Vale, but the unconscious blonde had little to say about any abnormal weather patterns, let alone his own hometown's.
As the discomfort soared and the temperature plummeted, Isaac's mentality slowly began to boot itself up, cautiously moving towards awakening. With this unofficial jump start, it was somewhat easier for Dora, Isaac's mother, to hastily get the boy up and out of bed.
"Isaac, wake up!"
"..."
Somewhat.
"Please, dear, wake up!"
Isaac stirred in his sleep, groaning, while routinely grabbing and pulling his favorite pillow over his bedraggled head. "I don't want breakfast today, Ma..."
Already at his bedside, Dora sighed. "The Mt. Aleph Boulder is going to fall," she warned in a panicked voice. Her hand repeatedly pulled at the visible sleeves of his blue pajamas. Isaac only jerked slightly in groggy speculation; wasn't that the myth all Valean mothers told their children to get them out of bed? Wasn't he too old for that?
Due to his unresponsive rebellion, Dora threw the covers off of Isaac, a twitchy hysteria somehow detectable in the motion. It was only then that Isaac voluntarily sat up in sleepy alarm. So, she was being serious after all?
"Come on, Isaac." The worry in her voice was evident now; this was for real. "We have to go- now!"
Lack of sufficient sleep forgotten, Isaac jumped out of bed and began to rush towards the staircase, but his mother caught him by the arm. "Mom, wha-...?"
"Isaac, you forgot something!" Of course he had. Wasn't she the one who was bent on getting out of there ASAP? What did she want him to grab at a time like this?
Without clarifying, the bronze-haired woman lifted her palm, releasing a bright light that manifested into the form of a large, white hand that plucked out the tunic just above Isaac's headboard. It dropped the cloak-type garment into Dora's actual hands which dutifully presented it to Isaac.
"It's pouring outside! Don't go out without your tunic!" Her motherly tone rang out clearly, and Isaac had to actively stop himself from rolling his eyes.
But, using Psynergy for that? While hurriedly equipping the familiar cloth, he silently thought, It was right there... This is why you're chubbier than Garet's mom, but didn't bother addressing the issue right then and there.
After dressing, he followed his mother back to the staircase when she stopped suddenly and looked him squarely in the eye. Unnerved by the situation at hand, Isaac swung his arms to a stop with impatience. What was with this woman today?
"Have you got everything you need?"
Isaac nodded silently, the need to evacuate cutting off his vocal chords. Chances were that his stuff would survive anyway.
Dora nodded, please with her son's response, and began to descend the stairs. "Good for you, Isaac," she praised, half turning to look at him as she furthered her steps, "A lost possession can be replaced; a lost life can't." That particular bit of wisdom was not unheard of to Isaac, so he only nodded and made a mental note to later ask what she would have said if he had contradicted this response.
After they had made it to the main room's dining table on the first floor, Kyle, Isaac's father, rushed in. The handsome man caught sight of his family and stopped, his dampened bangs clinging to his eyes. His breath was harsh and uneven, as though he'd been running.
"Isaac, Dora, hurry!" He prompted, alarm alight in his piercing blue eyes. "The Boulder could fall at any second!" He gestured for them to follow as he re-exited the house, and so Isaac and Dora followed suit, pausing only when the wind of his exit extinguished their only brightened candle.
Once outside, Dora caught up to her husband and pulled him to a stop. Isaac, rudely forced into full consciousness via the frigid pelting of rain, stared at his mother's back with disbelief. Yet another diversion?
"Kyle... Will they be able to stop the Boulder?"
In response, Kyle took a few steps forward, his hardened gaze directed towards Mt. Aleph, and shook his head.
"I don't think so... Not for long, anyway..." He took this into consideration before turning to her to announce an idea: "You two go on ahead and take refuge in the plaza."
"?" Dora looked less than pleased at this suggestion. "Aren't you coming?"
Kyle shook his head, set on his on-the-spot decision. "I need to help evacuate the other villagers."
This came to a surprise to Dora. Fidgeting, she gave Isaac a meaningful glance before nervously taking a step towards her husband. Meanwhile, Isaac fought the urge to jump as lightning flashed around them, illuminating the unnaturally grayed area.
"Let me help you, Kyle!"
Kyle's rebuttal was immediate. "It's too dangerous, Dora. Please, just take good care of Isaac!"
In this kind of situation, Isaac did his best to not become defensive, and though it was a tad difficult to not defend his self-care-taking abilities, he managed to keep a stiff posture and controlled expression.
"Isaac is old enough to get to the plaza on his own." There it was! The beautiful truth. "You can find your way, can't you, Isaac?"
"Yes," Isaac nodded, unintentionally sending some flecks of water flying from his blonde fringe of bangs. "Of course I can." He'd lived there his whole life, after all.
"You know the way-" his mother started, nodding at her son fondly, "just go south to get to the plaza. Be careful!" With that said, she turned away and linked arms with Kyle, who led her north, into Mt. Aleph's sacred ground.
Isaac stared after them momentarily before realizing he should get a move on. He changed his initial course and began to trek down the steps closest to his house when there was an odd rumbling noise. Aware that it wasn't the thunder, he turned to see a mini giant boulder rolling right past him and into the edge where the steps ended. Happy to have evaded it, but displeased with its landing, he rushed up to it and pushed and shoved, but the giant gravelly thing would not budge. Exasperated, he spun on his heels, accidentally grinding his boots into even more mud, and took the alternative; the steps near his neighbor's house.
Just his luck, and in a fashion similarly to before, another mini boulder rolled past him and into the foot of the architectural staircase. Cursing mildly, he sighed and re-evaluated the situation. If he couldn't get around these, he could always take the slightly inconvenient trip around Garet's house, past the bridge, and head in that general direction...
Finding this the best- and only- option, Isaac sighed and heavily began to trudge in the direction his parents had gone. The sound of his feet sloshing against the drenched ground started to take on a monotonous sound, as though he was marching along to a metronome. Finding this amusing, he tried to keep a consistent beat, stopping only when he heard very human-like grunts. As he neared the source of the sound, which was coming from the back of Garet's house, Isaac blinked and almost laughed.
His best friend, a spiky, red-haired boy that was also thirteen years of age, was tugging on the end of a rope that was outrageously, but tightly, thrown around a chest that had to be heavier than an average chest. It was kind of humorous, just standing there and watching Garet struggle with the ridiculous object.
"Ugh... Hrnghhh..." Garet caught sight of his approaching friend, but continued to tug on the rope. "Isaac, what do you want? I'm trying to save my things!"
"Come on, Garet. What's more important to you, your stuff or your life?"
"...Ugh..."
"Are you seriously still going at it?"
Garet ceased his ineffective pulling and regarded Isaac carefully for a moment. "You know, you're right." Just as Isaac thought he was going to say something about getting out of there, the energetic boy knelt beside the chest and started sorting through its contents. "Let me just grab this one, real quick! And I'll take that one, too! And that one, and that one..."
"Oh, Venus." Isaac slapped his forehead, amazed by Garet's materialistic persistence. "Whatever, just hurry up..." Although, I understand how you feel...
"OK! Let's get out of here!" He stood up and turned to Isaac with an armful of objects, toys, mostly. Isaac held in his laughter, and nodded.
"Let's go!"
Somehow reassured by the presence of his best friend, Isaac took the lead and helped Garet with some of his objects. They were crossing the bridge as the exchange occurred, though, and Garet's natural clumsiness caused one of his more favored toys to bounce out of his arms, off of the bridge's planks, and into the river rushing rapidly below them.
"Ack! One of them fell!" He groaned, looking devastated as the hammer-like thing disappeared into the currents. Isaac looked over the bridge's makeshift rope railing and shook his head.
"Forget it- it's gone," he commented, jerking his head in the other direction. "Come on, it might turn up later."
Nodding sullenly, Garet continued following after him, although his steps became reluctant.
Crossing the bridge in the stormy weather hadn't been too hard on them, but just as they stepped back onto actual ground, a loud rumbling filled their ears.
Alarmed, they jumped and looked around for whatever the cause was, but only heard panicked voices.
"Ahhh! The Boulder! It's falling!"
Isaac and Garet looked up to see a collective group of people standing at the entrance of Sol Sanctum, their blue, ringed Psynergy pulsating around themselves in unison; it took some hardy training to be able to keep it flowing so consistently. Just then, an enormous chunk of rock that was mortally rounded rolled into view, nearly crushing the four Adepts that stood there protectively. Their combined Psynergy slowed the rock, the Boulder, although it was visible that they were beginning to tire.
"Ugh... Ughnn... It's too heavy! We can't hold it for long!"
"If our Psynergy runs out, Vale will be destroyed!"
"We have to hold on until the villagers are safe!"
"..." One of the Adepts slowed his Psynergy to a stop and looked around, attempting to at least secure what was visible of the area. He caught sight of Isaac and Garet and turned to them, his hands cupping around his mouth in a makeshift megaphone. "Hurry, boys! Run! It's just a little farther!"
Garet grabbed Isaac's arm and stared at him with fearful, brown eyes, his previously cherished items dropping to the floor. "Come on, Isaac, run! The Boulder is coming!" Isaac dropped his share of things and nodded urgently, making haste to turn and dash past the steps. This time around, no mini boulder came to block his path.
...He thought too soon. At that moment, a miniature boulder rolled into the path, once again. Garet, who had not been there the first two times, instantly jumped on the rock and pushed. "...We can't get around this rock!" Releasing it, he grabbed Isaac's arm and pulled the annoyed boy in the other direction. "We'll have to find another way. This way!"
They slipped into the area with the lone cottage and almost instantaneously came upon a man lying on the floor near a blocked fence. Isaac, recognizing the man as one of his father's friends (although the name escaped him), ran up to him, blinking at his fallen figure. Garet stared at him, skidding to a stop, and looked almost unwilling to regard the fallen man.
"Um... Sir...?"
"Rock slide... destroyed fence... Monsters everywhere..." The man wheezed dramatically, his eyes closed, his head shaking. "I'm hurt pretty badly... do you think I'll die?"
"Ye-...!" Isaac elbowed Garet in the stomach and properly looked the man over. If anything, he had a bit of dirt and mud on him, but the rain made that pretty inevitable. Otherwise, he looked fine. Garet rubbed his stomach, glaring mildly at the back of his friend's head.
"I don't think you will, sir," Isaac commented honestly.
"This is awful," the man continued with his ramble, his voice unstable as though he had not heard Isaac's words at all. "I'm left here for the monsters to..." He stopped, stood suddenly, and looked genuinely surprised. "Wait.. That's strange... I'm not hurt at all!" He held his arms out as if to prove it, and Garet rolled his eyes. Isaac merely looked stunned at the man's odd behavior.
"But I'm serious about the monsters," the man continued, looking at Isaac and Garet seriously, "so be careful on your way to the plaza!" He nodded and then took off running with no sign of injuries whatsoever.
"..." Isaac and Garet looked at each other, shrugged, and continued with a sprint through the familiar grounds. It looked clear from where they were, until they passed the southern-bound steps and encountered one very deadly looking mouse.
"Hey," Garet mumbled, pulling Isaac to a stop. He crouched beside an overgrowth of foliage, with Isaac shadowing his moves, and pointed it out, his mouth set in a grim line, "That's a Vermin!"
"A Vermin? Like the ones Felix's dad makes Felix fight when they're training?" Isaac stared at the curious blue creature, it's back turned, with a certain curiosity. Garet nodded, his face somewhat whitened.
"That's what it looks like... That psycho man wasn't joking; there are monsters here!"
"..." Isaac pulled at the machete he had instinctively grabbed before exiting his house, and nodded at Garet. "There's only one way to do this, then."
"I have mine, too," Garet agreed, tugging out his own machete. "It looks like we can take it by surprise. Let's go!"
"Right!" Isaac rushed out of the bush and prevented himself from yelling as he forcefully brought down his overgrown knife forcefully on the Vermin. The Vermin rolled forward, yelping in an odd squeak from the blow, but Garet took his own jab at it before it could retaliate. The Vermin started to get up, but Isaac took his turn and smashed the machete on it again. With a final yelp, the Vermin glared at Isaac before disintegrating with the rain.
Breathing hard, Isaac looked to Garet for his reaction. Garet's eyes were bright with an unusual fire, and though the redhead was breathing hard, he was grinning.
"Dude, that was awesome! I mean, it was a little scary, but it was AWESOME."
Isaac threw him a half grin and laughed. "It was kind of awesome."
"Dude, it was amazing!" Garet held out his machete, and his smile faltered. "Although, we should look into getting real weapons..."
"You know your mom will tell you to wait until you're older..."
"It's worth a shot. But," Garet put on a serious expression. "Let's be on our guard, now. I'm sure we'll run into some more monsters on the way." Isaac nodded.
"Right, but we gotta hurry along, so let's go through them fast. Come on."
"Got it."
Silenced once again, they made their way around a jutting piece of land that turned in either directions, and so they chose the right-hand route. It wasn't a bad choice; it led them to a Bat monster, but its head was turned away from them.
Grinning, Garet nodded at Isaac, who immediately jumped into the first blow. His machete shined brightly, and the words critical hit, came into Isaac's mind. The Bat didn't even have a chance to screech before it disappeared into the air.
Garet's smile fell into a frown as he jogged up to Isaac, who looked triumphant, but humbled. "Hey, you didn't save any action for me!" He punched his friend in false anger, and humphed. "I call dibs on the next thing we run into." Isaac laughed and patted his shoulder sympathetically.
"Only if you're fast enough."
"Hey, I'm plenty fast! It's just this freakin' rain that's dragging me down!"
"Uh huh. Come on, we keep forgetting about the Boulder." Isaac shuddered and pulled his friend along until they were a few steps away from the next bridge. Of course, that's when two mutated Wild Mushroom monsters simultaneously jumped out, but had their backs turned to the boys.
"Oh, Mars." Garet whispered, tugging at Isaac's hood. "We are so lucky."
"I was thinking the same," Isaac laughed silently, "I say we take the one on the left first."
"On my left or your left?"
"... Garet, we're facing the same direction. Our lefts are the same."
"... Right..."
"...You DO know which way left is, right?"
"YES. It's this way. Come on, just jump him already!"
"Fine!" Isaac held out his machete and rapidly rushed the Wild Mushroom closest to him. It made an odd squeaking sound, alarming the other one, which was then amateurishly stabbed at by Garet's machete. Enraged, the first Wild Mushroom made a dash at Isaac, but missed, allowing Isaac an open shot that took the thing's life. However, this distraction was enough for the second Wild Mushroom to tackle Isaac with its poisonous blue top, but Garet hastily rid of it with another jerk of his blade.
Isaac, breathing ruggedly, rubbed his arm and frowned at Garet. "You couldn't be... a little quicker...?"
"Sorry," the redhead breathed, pulling up Isaac's tunic and sleeve, startling the blonde. He pressed an herb into his shoulder and the immediate fresh breath of relief washed over Isaac. "Kay taught me how to do this," Garet explained, referring to his sister. "I never thought her plants were good for anything."
"Nice." Isaac pat his shoulder, feeling no more pain, and rolled his sleeve back down. "Okay, now that that's all done, let's keep it going."
Instead of taking the bridge, they continued being southbound and made it to the foot of the second rock-enforced staircase, but were stunned into silence when they heard a familiar voice yell,
"Oh no! My brother!"
Alarmed, they knelt beside the river and pushed their eyesight, locking onto what had previously been a bridge of planks that connected their friend's house to her grandmother's house- it was now damaged severely, did not connect, and had five very worried looking people on its remains, three of which were holding their arms out in a futile attempt to reach out to a boy clinging to a post in the actual river.
"Hang on, Felix!" The voice was all too familiar- Isaac gasped. One of the people holding out their arms was his father... And so, that meant the boy that had fallen into the river was Felix, the boy who was one year their senior!
Next to Kyle stood Felix's father, and beside him was his mother. Behind the two, and looking pale-faced with panic, was Felix's younger sister, and Garet and Isaac's friend, Jenna. And, of course, behind Kyle stood Isaac's mother.
"Felix will be all right," Isaac heard his mom saying, "We'll find a way to save him..."
Suddenly, Felix sunk under the rushing river, alarming all of his onlookers.
"Nooooo! Felix!" Little thirteen year old Jenna cried out, running into her mother's arms. After a moment, though, Felix resurfaced, looking more fearful than ever.
"The rope won't reach..." Kyle looked at Jenna's father, his jaw set as his mind raced for a strategy. "We should use Psynergy. Do you have any left?"
The man shook his head, looking distraught. "I've used all mine up. What about you, Kyle?"
Kyle looked at him helplessly. "I'm drained from helping the other villagers..."
They stared at each other in a mutual silence until Dora spoke up suddenly.
"We have to get help."
Kyle turned to her, "Can Felix hang on long enough for us to find help?"
"There's nothing else we can do for him, is there?" Her voice was quiet, but her tone was strict.
"..." The collective silence reinforced her idea.
"Then go get help," Kyle relented, "but be as quick as possible!"
"Jenna," Felix's father brought a strong, calloused hand onto his daughter's shoulder. "Can you go, too?"
Her mom nodded at Jenna's questioning look, "You'll go find help, right?"
"Your brother's counting on you, Jenna," Dora prompted, looking at the girl with a grimace. Jenna, nodded, her movements somewhat shaky. "Alright, let's get going! I'll look up north... You head for the plaza, all right?"
Jenna nodded, already starting for the door. "Yes, ma'am. We're looking for anyone with any Psynergy left, right?" Dora nodded, and then they both went off in their own directions.
It wasn't too much longer when Dora spotted Isaac and Garet standing dumbfounded near the end of the largest staircase in Vale.
"Isaac!" Isaac directed his gaze towards his mother, and Garet did the same. "You saw what happened?"
"Yes... This is looking bad," the boy mumbled, distress clear in his sapphire eyes. Garet also nodded, downcast.
"I'm looking for someone who can help Felix. He's fallen into the river." Dora began to ramble, a telltale sign of her own nervousness. "I don't suppose... Could the two of you help me?"
Their responses were immediate:
"Yes, Mom!"
"Of course, ma'am!"
Dora beamed at them, pleased. "Jenna has gone to the plaza to get help. Go join her." With that, she nodded at the two boys and sped past them, and up the stairs. As she tread upward bound, though, they heard her mumble, "All of this because some random object flew out of the waterfall and smashed into Felix's unsuspecting head..."
The two boys jumped at the last bit and looked at each other sheepishly.
"Do you think-..."
"There's no way-..."
"A toy that size...?"
"Well... Maybe..."
Garet slapped at his own face, abashedly and shook his head. "Well, we'll figure it out later. Right now, we have to help Jenna."
Isaac and Garet nodded at each other and hurriedly began to run past Jenna's house, although Isaac paused suddenly when Felix could be seen directly across from them. "Hang in there, Felix!" He hollered, cupping his hands around his mouth. "We're gonna get you some help!"
Felix could only continue bobbing in the rushing river, but it seemed like he heard Isaac, at least.
"Come on, man," Garet chided, pulling Isaac along. "Standing there, shouting like a moron, isn't going to help him any."
"Sometimes a little reassurance can boost someone's strength," Isaac retorted mildly. Garet looked at him with his head slightly tilted, boots clanking loudly as they ran across the bridge.
"I know you're really worried. But we'll find him some help."
"If we were a little older, a little stronger..."
"It's not up to us!" Garet's tone heightened considerably, and Isaac flinched. "We just have to do what we can and go with it."
"Right," Isaac agreed slowly, "I guess so."
They continued on the trail in silence, although rain continued to pound them, and their boots sloshed monotonously in the mud. When they reached the plaza, they stopped to catch their breath, panting hard.
"Wow," Garet mumbled in between breaths, "The plaza is at the fullest I've ever seen it."
"No kidding," Isaac nodded, but stood up straight and began marching towards the Psynergy Stone. "Come on."
As they neared the mysterious energy-replenishing stone, the sight of a group of three men and a young girl became clear, along with the view of a lone man standing directly on the Psynergy Stone. Identifying the Mayor and Jenna almost instantly, Garet nodded at Isaac and sped up his walk, and Isaac made haste to match his pace with the redhead's.
They managed to hear the last of the elder men's conversation:
"Go aid the elders!" The Mayor was saying, his wrinkled face ridden with the stress of the day, "The Boulder is too heavy for them to hold much longer."
"We can't let the Mt. Aleph Boulder destroy our village," The first man voiced, nodding at his companion. The second man nodded.
"Let's go help the elders."
"We're counting on you," The Mayor added honestly, prideful in his citizens' selflessness. The two men acknowledged this and went off for their predestined course. Sensing an opportunity, Garet took a step forward and called;
"Grandpa! Jenna!"
Jenna jumped, looking surprised as her eyes went over Garet, and then Isaac. "Garet, Isaac... You came to help me?"
Before they could respond, the Mayor, or Garet's grandpa, spoke up, "Jenna told me about Felix. Is that why you're here?"
"That's right, sir." Isaac said respectfully, nodding at Jenna, who's frightened look lessened considerably.
"Good boys! Jenna could use a hand," the Mayor immediately dove right back into business. Before he could continue, though, the man who was standing on the Psynergy Stone leaped forward, his face bright and refreshed.
"Great! I'm all charged up!" The man chortled, flexing his hand, pleased.
The Mayor regarded him carefully. "How are you?" He asked, slowly, "Have you recovered your Psynergy?"
The man nodded. "Enough to save Felix, thanks to..." He paused dramatically, "the Psynergy Stone!"
"Ever the advertiser," Garet grumbled beneath his breath, although Isaac heard it and stifled a nervous laugh.
"OK, Jenna, you heard him. Now hurry back!" The Mayor turned to Isaac and Garet, who stiffened and straightened up immediately. "The path may be blocked by fallen rocks. You two can show them the way!"
Before he could dutifully turn to leave, Jenna stopped Isaac with a tap of her hand. "...Thank you, Isaac." She mumbled, and then shyly went to stand next to the man with the sufficient Psynergy. He looked after her for a moment, and then matched strides with Garet, bumping the boy's arm.
"Your grandpa is a scary person when giving orders..."
"Don't I know it..."
Besides that small exchange, the trip back was taken in silence, every person respectively pondering their own internal turmoil. Once they reached the Southern bridge and sight of her struggling brother and helpless parents was made clear, Jenna ran to its edge and yelled, "Mom! Dad! We're back!"
Dora then rushed into the scene, her eyes squinting against the rain and up at the group. "Is that you, Jenna!"
"Yes, ma'am..."
"I couldn't find anyone who could help... How did you do?"
Jenna nodded at the man, who then stepped up and made his image clear to Dora.
Dora nodded. "You're just in time."
Jenna bit her lip, her hands turning white against the bridge's rope railing. "Then my brother is still..."
"Felix is all right!" Dora called up, smiling brightly at the group, Jenna in particular. "He's hanging in there. Come down here, so we can save Felix!"
In silent agreement, the four of them clambered down the rest of the area and stood at the riverbank, awaiting the man's heroic actions. However, just when it looked like the man was about to draw on his strengths, an enormous rumbling sound erupted from above the waterfall.
It happened so fast.
The rumbling was too deep, too low for it to be the voluminous roar of thunder, and as soon as the Adepts looked up, panic ensued. The Boulder was rolling in sync with the waterfall's direction, leading it right onto Kyle, and Jenna's parents- not to mention little Felix, who was still clinging to his post.
As the Boulder fell, one particularly bright streak of lightning flashed-...
And then all was still.
His eyes shut tight, Isaac shivered, feeling all too alone in the downpour of the rain. His father was gone. At least, he would be when he opened his eyes. He couldn't open his eyes. Felix, too... Jenna's and Felix's parents, too... He couldn't open his eyes.
There were groans; probably from the man who's help they'd ensued. There was disbelieving murmuring from a voice that he pinpointed as his mother's. There was crying, loud sniffles, but not tremendous bawling... Jenna, she had to be sniffling. But the shock wouldn't let her cry out. And then, there were continuously sharp intakes of breath... more than likely Garet, who's bewilderment always left him stunned.
Isaac knew, then. He had to be the one to get help. Everyone was too stunned, too shocked... He HAD to be the one to go, and fast.
He opened his eyes and tried not to look at the others as he ran back towards the plaza, back to where there were any people who could help, surely, there were many...
Garet watched the guy run off solo, and almost instantly jumped to his own feet.
"Isaac... I can't let him go alone..." As he spoke to himself, Garet's voice began to rise with passion. "It's times like these that we men have to stand together!" With the resounding echo, he took off in a sprint that shadowed Isaac's steps.
Meanwhile, Isaac had passed through the town's next section when he heard two very suspicious voices... One was a man's, and one was a woman's.
"Only the two of us survived..." The man was saying, someways above Isaac's head. He figured they were standing on the cliff jutting above him.
"How could we have anticipated Sol Sanctum would unleash such fury?" That was the woman. Isaac stopped dead in his tracks. Sol Sanctum. No one was supposed to go up there. And these two's voices weren't particularly familiar to him... how was it that they had the authority to go into the Sanctum when he did not even recognize who they were?
The man was speaking again. "It's a miracle that even the two of us were spared..."
"That switch... It must have been a trap..."
"But to think it could conjure up a storm this powerful!" Isaac's heart skipped a beat at the man's words. They were the reason this was all occurring? The storm? The Boulder? His father's, Felix's, and Felix's parents' deaths?
"...Another demonstration of the awesome powers of Alchemy." It was the woman's voice again.
"Regardless, we must not fail the next time we challenge Sol Sanctum." Isaac's nerves blazed. The next time?
"Next time, we shall certainly..."
"Isaac, wait!" Isaac froze, though already frozen, at the sound of his best friend's voice and several heavy footsteps behind him. Just as Garet reached him, the man and the woman made themselves visible at the top of the small cliff.
They looked different than what Isaac was accustomed to...The man had foreign armor and headgear that framed a large tuft of blue hair. Likewise, his skin had something of a blue sheen to it. The woman was blonde, but her skin was also tinted, but hers was a sort of red...
"You were eavesdropping on us just now..." The man spoke, his fierce red eyes locked onto Isaac. Isaac's blood ran cold, "Weren't you?"
Isaac nodded slowly, unsure of how he could lie to such scary eyes. The man turned to the woman, and Isaac felt Garet grab his shoulder behind him.
"Isaac... Isaac, they look scary..." Garet seemed fearful, but he hadn't heard what Isaac had. He hadn't heard... "Are you sure you should be talking to them?"
"You must forget everything you heard." With hostility in her voice, the woman seemed much scarier than the man. Isaac and Garet looked up at them bleakly, silent.
The man laughed, antagonistically. "Don't worry... We'll help you forget!"
With that, the two of them jumped downwards and faced off with Isaac and Garet. Isaac, his emotions in turmoil with fear, courage, and outrage, he yelled blatantly as he charged the man, his machete drawn.
The man laughed easily and sidestepped him, raising his blue hands in an automatic motion- an eruption of flame overtook Isaac at his feet and instantaneously knocked out the boy.
"Isaac!" Garet cried out, trying to rush towards him. However, before he could take more than two steps, the woman expertly brought her scythe upon him and knocked him out, as well.
"Too easy," she snarled, looking at her companion meaningfully. "What do you say? Leave them be?"
"They're mere children," the man mumbled, nodding. "They're no threat. Let them live. No need for unnecessary blood on our hands. We want to be able to come back to this town."
"Sometime soon, surely." The woman agreed, stopping over the fallen boys. "Hopefully this was persuasion enough..."
The rain continued to pour on.
And there it is! First chapter. Good place to stop, I believe. :D
Ivan: I do like the part about the toy.
Sheba: Poor Felix QQ
Taken from the 4-Koma. Be sure to check that out, true Golden Sun fans. :D The links will be on my page.
Ivan: Also...
Sheba: Be sure to review/favorite/storyalert!
:D