A/N: Spirit Seer has returned to bring you another Golden Sun-themed essay from English class. Fear me. xD lol Nah, I wrote this one last year, though this isn't the exact version of it. I took my mostly-finished final draft and treated it like a half-rough draft. But this is mostly the same anyway. ^^ I hope you enjoy it, and I included the essay prompt in case some of you wished to read it.
*rummages around before pulling a disclaimer out of a random stocking*
Disclaimer: The author does not own in any way, shape or form the manga Naruto-
Oops, sorry, wrong one. XD
Disclaimer: The author does own Golden Sun. Camelot does, and anyone else that holds the copyright (as sometimes several people/companies do). I'm broke after Christmas shopping this year, so you'll get nothing if you try to sue me. This essay/fanfiction is mine, though. Please don't steal. XD lol
Prompt: Write an essay about a time you made an important choice.
Lightning illuminated my form dramatically from behind, staining the stone floor of the sanctum with my pitch-black shadow.
"Will you accept the responsibility of this quest, Isaac and Garet?" the Great Healer asked. "If you accept, there will be no turning back."
"I don't know what to do," Garet stammered from beside me. "You choose for me, Isaac!"
I blinked, recognizing this scene immediately from the first Golden Sun game: this event occurred after the intruders' raid in Sol Sanctum and the Elemental Stars were stolen. Jenna and Kraden had also been kidnapped; Isaac and Garet would be able to have them back in exchange for the Mars Star, the Elemental Star left behind when the chamber housing the stars began collapsing due to the removal of the Stars. Isaac and Garet would have died, but the guardian of Sol Sanctum, the Wise One, teleported them out of Sol Sanctum before the chamber collapsed, saving them from certain death. Isaac and Garet were taken to the nearby Healing Sanctum for questioning, since he and his friends had snuck in there when they shouldn't have and thus were witnesses to the event.
But why was everyone looking at me so expectantly?
A funny feeling tickled my stomach. I inconspicuously glanced down at my shoes, as though I was contemplating my response. I saw brown boots. I wiggled my hand slightly. Blue-gloved fingers answered my tacit question.
It couldn't be. Impossible. I could not have been transformed into Isaac as he makes the greatest decision of his life that leads to the tale of Golden Sun!
As if to erase any doubt, his signature yellow scarf nudged my fingers innocently with my movement, but I knew it was laughing mockingly at me for having doubted the truth.
I stood quietly for a few seconds, taking it in. I had become Isaac. This was unreal… Yet, as I looked at the Great Healer, standing before me (in much greater detail than a dream can conjure) with his air of quiet authority and waiting for my response, I knew this was anything but.
Fine. So I had to make Isaac's decision and decide his fate- or mine, as the case seemed to be at the moment. I looked down at the floor, going into true contemplation this time. Could I make the same decision Isaac did- to brave the unknown on a quest I barely knew about, beyond a game I'd played at home from my comfortable couch as I anxiously anticipated playing the awaited second in a hopeful series?
This couldn't be real. It had to be a dream. I wasn't even of the masculine gender- there had to be some illusion to this.
Soft breathing filled the quiet as those around me waited, the thunder rumbling amidst the heavy rain outside from the triggered storm. Everything here felt too real to be dismissed as an illusion of nighttime wanderings. I sighed, realizing that if it had been that simple, I'd have woken up by now or realized what it really was.
So it was as real as real got. I still couldn't accept this quest. What is I actually died? I didn't think a Water of Life could bring me back to the breathing world- this was reality, not a game. And what about my family? What if I couldn't return to them? I couldn't allow them to undergo the grief and worry for a missing child.
Yet, as I thought about it, Isaac had lived that. He had accepted the consequences for sneaking into Sol Sanctum when they shouldn't have, and he faced the same demons I was battling inside of me. While I had both my parents, who could've supported each other, he had had only one, his father having died in the storm caused by the intruders the first time they invaded Sol Sanctum. His mother had been left alone, and I knew it had pained him deeply to leave her behind, as she had no one else to support her at home but the worry that Isaac would die, like his father had.
I was scared… but he had been scared, too. I didn't know how to fight… but he hadn't known much more than I when he'd embarked on this quest. I didn't want to fight…
…and neither had Isaac.
My thoughts fell silent as I felt the weight of responsibility and sacrifice descending heavily on my shoulders. Resigning myself to fate, I knew I had to accept this, in Isaac's stead. I needed to rescue Jenna and Kraden. I needed to retrieve the Elemental Stars and return them to Sol Sanctum. This was my duty. I had Isaac's best friend and his teacher that required saving. They were waiting for Isaac. I couldn't let him down and abandon them. And the Stars needed retrieval, to prevent the lighthouses from being lit and causing the apocalypse of their world. There was no one else who could make this decision and walk this path but Isaac; and, unfortunately, his consciousness appeared to be out to lunch somewhere, leaving me, who happened to be the one standing in his brown boots, to choose for him. I had to make his decision- the same one he did.
I set my resolve, as he had probably set his. I knew I was walking headfirst into the unknown, but if he had done it, so could I. I had no idea if I would succeed, but Isaac had probably felt that same feeling of a slim chance at success.
There was no one else that could decide but me, and I had to make the right one. This was how the story of Golden Sun began.
This was the beginning of the quest.
Lightning flashed dramatically behind me again, and I'm sure my eyes were flashing with a similar light of determination. I stepped forward, head erected and standing tall. I announced the fateful words:
"We accept."
The Great Healer nodded as Garet mumbled beside me, scared and shocked that I had agreed to go. But as I tuned him out, I felt myself fading from Isaac's consciousness like a waking dream, Isaac miraculously returning to house himself in his body once more. I was simply shifted to the side, now a silent spectator in a world I had never dreamed of entering. Isaac never even seemed to realize he had been gone, and the scene continued without interference, leaving me to wonder what I had even been doing there in the first place. A catalyst? I wasn't sure. But I knew one thing:
The decision had been made…
…and the quest had begun.
A/N:
The narrator (intended to be myself- as it was a personal essay- and why I called it a crack-fic) has only played the first Golden Sun game. In case anyone asks, I have played both (and had at the time this was written) and am waiting, along with countless others, for the awaited third game that is scheduled to be released in June 2010. As the narrator has only played the first, however, this is the reason why she knows nothing that was revealed in the second game. I thought it would have more effect on the character if she only knew the events from Isaac's perspective, instead of from Felix's as well. Isaac made his decision with only a handful of facts, so shouldn't the narrator? Maybe a different choice would have been made had all the cards been shown. Hm….
And I forgot what else I was going to mention, but I hope you enjoyed this. Please R&R and share your thoughts! Thank you so much for reading, and have a happy new year. :D