A crash of thunder, fat drops of rain pounding on the thatched hay roof of a cottage near the top of a hill in a little village called Vale. There was a heavy pounding on the door that cut through the darkness of a sleeping boy's mind. The boy pulled his blanket more tightly over his head, trying to block out the frantic voices from downstairs.

There was a running of footsteps and a rather plump woman ran up to the boy's bed. "Isaac! Wake up!" she shouted shrilly over another crash of thunder. The boy, Isaac, mumbled something about a few more minutes, but his mother grabbed him by the arm. "Please, dear, wake up! The Mt. Aleph Boulder is about to fall!" Isaac's blue eyes shot open as the weight of those words fell on his ears. The Mt. Aleph Boulder had stood at the peak of that mountain for as long as he could remember. It had always been the joke of Vale that it was a wonder it hadn't fallen. Needless to say, Isaac wasn't exactly laughing.

Isaac, suddenly breathing heavily, swung his feet over the side of his bed. He was fully dressed in the work clothes he'd wore the day before. "Are you sure!" he asked, terrified. Dora, his mother, nodded frantically. His heart beating against his ribcage, his hands shaking, he grabbed his boots from under his bed. After he slipped them on, he moved to run past his mother, but she stopped him.

"Wait, your tunic!" she cried, and raised her hand to the brown leather cape on the opposite wall above the blond-haired boy's bed. Blue rings of energy enveloped the woman from her feet to over her head, and another hand, this one large, glowing and white, grabbed the tunic and pulled it down from the hook. "Here, hold still," she fussed over her son, draping the cape over his shoulders. "It won't do for you to catch a death of cold," Dora murmured, pulling the attached hood over her head.

"Mum! It probably won't do to catch my death of death, either!" complained Isaac, though he didn't fight against her. Once she'd stepped back, he reached out and grabbed his machete. The local monsters were probably riled up from the storm. "Does Dad know?" he asked as they ran across the room and toward the stairs.

"Of course he does!" Dora snapped, turning to her son just as they reached the landing of the staircase. Isaac was strapping his machete to his belt. "Now, do you have everything?" she asked.

Isaac looked over his shoulder at the books and toys he'd collected over the years, then back to his mother, nodding. "Yeah, everything I need." Dora beamed.

"Very good. Remember, a lost possession can be replaced, a lost life cannot." Isaac refrained from rolling his eyes, having heard the same story he didn't know how many times a week. They ran downstairs, where Isaac's father, Kyle, was pulling on his own tunic. Kyle, a tall, broad-shouldered man, looked up as Dora and Isaac came down.

"Come on, Dora!" he yelled, as a flash of lightning illuminated the room for a fraction of a second, making his features look ghostly white, even if he was in shock. "The Boulder's been leaning in this direction for some time now." Turning, the man pulled his hood up and ran towards the door. Dora and Isaac started running to follow, Dora grabbing her own tunic and was in the process of following after her husband, when Kyle opened the door, a gust of wind blowing out the candle that was sitting on the dining table. Isaac and his mother blinked at the sudden darkness that had enveloped them, glancing at each other, before shaking it off and running after Kyle.

Clutching her tunic around herself and pulling her hood over her auburn hair, the woman ran out of her front door and around the cottage, catching sight of Kyle, who stood looking up towards the waterfall, where a line of four men stood, watching the peak of Mt. Aleph. Isaac looked up as well, and gasped. On the very top, the Boulder sat, the battering wind making it lean ever so slightly in their direction. "Kyle!" yelled Dora, who'd torn her own eyes from the massive stone, looking to her husband. "Will they be able to stop it?"

Kyle pulled his arm up, blocking the rain from splashing into his eyes as he squinted up at the people. "I don't think so," he replied gravely, turning to his wife and son with a frown. "Not for long, anyway. Hopefully they'll be able to slow it down long enough to get the villagers to safety." Isaac looked away from the Boulder that was balanced so precariously on the peak himself with some difficulty. "You two," said Kyle firmly to Dora and their son, "run to the plaza and take refuge there." The man turned and began running up the hill.

"Wait!" cried Dora, grabbing her husband by the arm. "Aren't you coming?"

Kyle turned back to Dora, and shook his head. "I have to get the other villagers to safety!" he yelled as a crash of thunder nearly drowned out his voice.

There was a very brief moment's pause as Isaac watched his mother and father stare at each other. "Let me come with you!" yelled Dora, and Kyle blinked, surprised at her.

"And leave Isaac alone?" he demanded.

"Isaac's old enough to get to the village just fine on his own!" snapped Dora hotly, looking to Isaac, who'd been quiet all this time. "Aren't you?"

Isaac glanced over his shoulder again down the hill. The village wasn't all that big, really. He only needed to travel down the stairs that had been built into the cliffs that made up the various levels of Vale, and he'd reach the plaza. Turning back to his parents, he nodded. Dora, satisfied, turned to her husband, who was watching Isaac. With a heavy sigh, he nodded. "Be careful!" he yelled to Isaac, and both of them turned and ran up the hill.

Isaac, breathing heavily again, turned in the opposite direction, toward the stairs that lead down. Just as he reached them, however, there was a crash, and the cliff gave way, destroying the stairs. Backpedalling, Isaac slipped in the wet mud and landed heavily on his rear, muck already seeping into his trousers. He weighed his options; Isaac could keep trying to go south, down the rockslide, but that was an eight foot drop at least, and he wasn't exactly the most coordinated of children. He could fall and land on the large rocks and get a concussion, or worse.

There was nothing for it. Isaac climbed back to his feet, brushing at the back of his pants in vain before running in the direction his parents had gone. Kyle must have lead the mayor and his family away. His best friend Garet's house, which rested on the level above his own, was empty and still, the door wide open. There was a wide trail from the doorstep that cut through the mud and around to the back of the house, as if someone had dragged a heavy trunk across the ground.

Sure enough, as Isaac hurried around, there was Garet himself, heaving in vain on a rope attached to the heavy box of his possessions. A shock of high-spiked, red hair was drooping ever so slightly onto the other boy's forehead, his hood apparently having blown off. "Garet!" shouted Isaac, grabbing his friend by the elbow, though his next words were lost as another crash of thunder boomed.

Garet tugged his arm out of Isaac's grip as he gave a mighty heave of his trunk, which had stuck itself in the mud, and wasn't budging. "Get off, Isaac, I have to save my stuff!" yelled the boy stubbornly. Even if Garet was a little bigger than average, he still didn't have the strength yet to pull the box out of the muck.

"Garet!" shouted Isaac again, irritated at his friend's pigheadedness. "Leave it! If you stay here you-" Yet another crash of thunder, and this time Garet twitched, turning to Isaac with a scared expression, looking toward the peak.

"Right!" he said, throwing the rope to the ground. "You're right, I…" Isaac shook his head, grabbing Garet by the forearm and pulling him along. "Wait, we can't go south?" asked Garet loudly, holding his tunic tightly to his shoulders.

"The stairs in front of my house are blocked by a landslide!" explained Isaac, deciding not to mention that if Garet wanted to go south, it was odd that he was trying to drag his trunk up the hill. Isaac could only guess that the slightly older boy was following his family, who were likely already at the plaza by now.

Ignoring the stairs that lead to the Great Healer's Sanctum, the boys ran across the bridge instead, both of them keeping their eyes ahead and not to their right, which was in the direction of the waterfall, where four men stood with their arms up, facing the mountain, in the river that the boulder was sure to fall. Suddenly, with a loud crash that shook the very ground on which they stood, the Boulder itself, at least twice as large as Isaac's house, landed in front of the four men, whose bodies glowed, brilliant blue rings surrounding their bodies. All four of them were pushed back, as the Boulder collided with an invisible barrier.

With a great deal of effort, the men, two of which were Healers studying under the Great Healer, held the massive rock in place. "We can't hold it!" yelled a man, turning to his comrades.

"We have to!" yelled back one of the healers. All their backs were to Isaac and Garet, both of them staring transfixed, terrified, at the men. "The other villagers have to be evacuated!"

One man glanced over his shoulder, nearly losing his concentration as he saw the two boys. "Isaac, Garet!" he yelled. "Run!"

Isaac blinked, grabbing Garet again. The boys resumed running, reaching the other end of the bridge and continuing south, down the hill. Suddenly, with another crash, the cliff to their right gave way, and Garet grabbed Isaac by the tunic, using fairly considerable strength to pull the smaller boy out of harm's way. Both of them were panting. "Mars," gasped Garet, helping Isaac up. The blond-haired boy was breathing heavily, which was only slightly to do with his run to this point.

"I owe you," he said, and Garet only nodded, both of them turning to run down the side path that lead to the old man Kraden's house. Running past another landslide that blocked off the path to the cottage (Isaac hoping Kraden had escaped in time), they both froze as they saw a man lying still next to the fence that blocked off the path that lead to an old cave that they had been forbidden to enter. The fence itself was smashed; a large, albeit not huge, boulder lay next to the man.

The boy ran up to him, Isaac pressing two fingers to his neck. He had a pulse, which was fast and pounding. Garet shook the man, who stirred, and groaned. "I… I don't think I'm gonna make it… Monsters… From the cave. The fence…" Isaac and Garet exchanged terrified looks. The smaller boy looked the man over. He was soaked to the bone, but oddly, he didn't have a scratch on him. "I'm gonna be fodder for creatures to snack on," the man was whining, clutching his chest dramatically.

"You're not hurt!" yelled Isaac, frustrated. The man continued for a moment before blinking, looking down at his body and feeling himself.

"Wait… You're right!" He sprung up, patting along his legs, arms, and chest. "I'm fine!" The man, looking completely embarrassed, cleared his throat. "I was serious about the monsters, though. They've been riled something fierce by the storm." As the man turned and started walking, he looked to Isaac. "You won't… Tell anyone I…" Isaac shook his head just as thunder crashed again, and the man jumped, running off like his shirt was on fire.

Both boys slapped their palms to their forehead, and ran after the man. Suddenly, a large, red rat leaped out of the bushes at Garet, who couldn't reach his machete in time. Isaac, the smaller and quicker boy, ran forward, chopping the massive rodent out the air, where it fell heavily to the ground, bleeding. The boys glanced at each other. Garet, coughing, asked, "Debt repaid?"

Isaac, looking down at the dead creature, nodded, and they both ran off again, emerging on the other side of the landslide and running down the hill toward where Jenna, Isaac's other friend, lived. Jenna's house had a porch that extended out into the river, which was now white rapids of water. The boys ran around the house, catching sight of Isaac and Jenna's parents and Jenna herself, standing on the porch. Kyle held a rope, swinging it around his head. "Felix, try to catch this!" he yelled, and threw it out. Looking out to where it landed, Isaac and Garet gasped. Holding for dear life to a tree branch that had lodged itself in the rocks was Jenna's brother, Felix.

Felix lunged at the end of the rope with one hand, the other gripping onto the branch, but he couldn't reach it. Sobbing, Felix wrapped his arms around the wooden branch. "It won't reach!" yelled Jenna, and as Isaac looked at her, he saw that her eyes were streaming with tears even in the rain. Suddenly, a fork of the branch snapped, and Felix was submerged. Everyone let out a yell of shock, and Jenna actually lunged at the water, stopped by her mother. "Felix!" she screamed.

By what Isaac could only guess was sheer luck, the older boy pulled his brown-haired head over the surface of the water, pulling in a deep gasp, and wrapped his arms, and hopefully his legs as well, around the branch. Jenna's sobs only became more pronounced. Dora turned to her. "Jenna, we have to get help." Kyle pulled the rope in, looking grave.

"We need someone with Psynergy," he said loudly. "I'm tapped out." Psynergy was what Adepts used to perform certain abilities, like Dora's Catch.

"So am I, so I can't even use Catch," said Dora. The other two adults, Jenna and Felix's parents, nodded as well. Isaac's mother looked back to Jenna. "Come on, we can't do anything for him!" Hesitantly, Jenna looked to her parents, who nodded, and followed Dora as they went through the house and out the front door, spotting Isaac and Garet. Dora blinked at them. "Did you see all that?" Isaac nodded, glancing to Felix, then back to his mother and Jenna. Dora smiled. "Jenna, you go with Garet and Isaac, then."

The girl looked to the boys, her face shining in a mixture of rain and tears. She nodded. The three children turned as Dora yelled after them about going back north to find someone to help as well. As they passed, Isaac yelled to Felix. "We're gonna find help! Don't give up hope!" Felix looked at them, and though he was sobbing and holding on for dear life, he nodded.

Climbing the stairs to the south, the three children ran across the bridge above the river that lead into a second waterfall into the plaza. It was a good twenty foot drop, and Felix was probably not going to survive that if he wasn't saved, and soon. It took less than a minute to reach the plaza, the boys and Jenna rushing past everyone to the center square that held the massive Psynergy Stone, a glowing, blue, six foot tall gem that allowed Adepts to regain their Psynergy. Everyone in the village, save for Kraden, whom didn't seem to be present at the moment, were Adepts. The mayor, Garet's grandfather, was talking to two burly men.

"Go and help the elders with the Boulder! They need all the help they can get." The men, looking grave and not saying a word, turned and left. A third man was standing on the island in the middle of the small pond, his hands pressed to the Psynergy stone. Jenna, Isaac and Garet ran up to the mayor, who turned. "Jenna, what-"

"Felix is in trouble!" shouted Jenna, pointing up at the waterfall. The man on the stone looked over his shoulder.

"Oh, Mars," gasped the old man, clutching his heart, then turned to the man on the Stone. Pulling his hands from the gem, he leaped down in front of the three children.

"I can help," he said.

"Very well," said the mayor, patting the large man on the shoulder. "Go, then, and hurry!"

The three children ran, the man who'd just charged up on their heels. A pair of screeching rats swooped down on them, but Isaac and Garet, who were leading, simply chopped their wings off in turn, informing the man to save his energy.

As they crossed the bridge, Dora ran up to them. "There no time to waste!" she yelled, pointing to Felix, whose situation hadn't improved, but it at least hadn't gotten any worse. "Here!" Dora shoved a chain of green beads into the man's hands, and he nodded, walking to the bank and holding out his hand.

Boom.

Everyone froze, their heads popping upwards toward the mountain peak.

Boom.

Isaac, Garet, Jenna, Jenna's parents, Dora, Kyle, Felix, and the Adept, who still had his arm extended, stood transfixed as the massive Mt. Aleph Boulder seemed to hover in the air, feet above where Kyle and Jenna's parents were standing, Isaac's father extending both arms as feeble rings surrounded his body. Dora was running toward her husband, Garet was holding Jenna back, Isaac could see the silhouette of the boulder reflected in Felix's brown eyes, and the Adept that had followed them still hadn't put down his hand.

Isaac closed his eyes.

When he opened them, he was looking down at his feet, his arms were clutched tightly to his head, covering his ears. Even when he lowered them, there was still a deafening ringing as he looked up. Half of Jenna's house was gone. Her parents were gone. Kyle was gone. And as Isaac turned, he saw that the branch that Felix had been clutching was gone, too.

"Dad," breathed Isaac. Garet turned to look at his friend. "Dad," Isaac said again as he ran, past the Adept who was now clutching his mangled leg, running around and across the bridge. "Dad!" His dad was only washing down the river! If Isaac could run fast enough, he could catch up, and possibly find Jenna's family, too! But something made him freeze, sliding across the mud to a stop.

"All dead," said a deep, soft voice that was still heard even through the howling winds. The voice sent a shiver down Isaac's spine. "Only we two survived…"

"Such fury," said another, female voice. "How could we have known? Was that switch the trap?"

Isaac looked up as two people stepped up to the cliff above, not noticing him. The man had blue skin and hair, a long sword strapped to his belt, while the woman had a face of the palest white, with red lips and eyelids. The man nodded. "But to think it would conjure a storm so powerful!" Isaac felt a twinge of anger ripple his stomach. It was them!

"Another demonstration of the power of Alchemy," said the woman, twirling her large scythe nonchalantly in her hand and shrugging dismissively.

"Regardless," said the man, turning away from the mountain peak to look at the woman, "we must not fail the next time we challenge Sol Sanctum."

"Indeed," agreed the woman, shouldering her staff with a nasty smirk. "Next time we shall certain-"

"Isaac, wait!" yelled a voice behind Isaac, who turned, and so did the people, to see Garet running up to him. "You know, it's times like these when men have to-" Garet froze, blinking up at the people on the cliff, who looked right back at Isaac and Garet with cold gazes.

"How much did you hear?" demanded the man with blue skin.

Isaac felt anger teat through him again, but he stood defiant. "Nothing."

"Do not lie!" screeched the woman, dropping down from the cliff. "You must forget what you heard." The man dropped down after her, drawing his sword.

Garet and Isaac drew their machetes, but they both knew it was no use. "Don't worry," muttered the man, and he extended his hand, pointing his palm at the boys, "we'll help you forget." Red rings surrounded the two people, and the sheer power that they gave off nearly blew the two boys off their feet.

The woman closed the distance between herself and Garet, the boy lifting his machete, but she knocked it away, spinning her scythe and slamming the end without the blade into his face. The boy fell, and tried to sit up, only to receive a blow from the same end of the woman's weapon to the forehead, where he fell back, unconscious.

"Garet!" shouted Isaac, but there was a heat billowing from beneath him. It built hotter and hotter, until a massive, hot explosion blew him off his feet. The back of his head slammed into the cliff, and he slid to the ground.

"Nice shot, Saturos," said the woman's voice.

"He's not dead," replied the man. Isaac, his vision starting to fade, heard footsteps getting closer. "With any luck, they'll have forgotten this whole thing by morning."

And as soon as those words were out of his lips, the man and his partner had leaped away, leaving Isaac to fall down, deep into darkness.