I might take a bit to update this story, so I hope that anyone who likes this could possibly forgive me for my lack of updates. I have another story that I am trying to get reposted, because I needed to correct a few mistakes. Thanks to all those who read this, and a million thanks to those who leave reviews!

Things are not always as they seem.

I know this from personal experience.

As I stood outside one morning in late December watching the snow fall down and powder the ground in its white cloak, I heard a noise behind me.

I turned to find Jenna standing beside me.

"What'chya doing?" She asked me.

I stood for a moment, looking out at the Proxan sky.

"Thinking." I replied.

"Thinking about what?" She countered, a slight smile on her face.

"This whole quest." I said, shaking my head to free the blonde strands that had plastered themselves onto my fore head.

"What's wrong Isaac? You aren't getting cold feet are you?" She asked, making the pun very obvious, by stressing the 'cold feet'.

I gave a groan at the bad pun.

"My feet are quite warm thanks." I answered her literal question, and avoiding the real one.

Jenna made a noise of annoyance in the back of her throat.

I chuckled, and turned to face her, noticing how beautiful she looked with the snow in her hair.

I blinked for a moment, and dispelled the thought.

"You know what I mean!" She said her voice giving the hint that she was getting impatient.

"Well... no... I just... can't believe that I am going out to do the one thing that I was supposed to stop... It is a little disconcerting..." I replied.

"I could see that." She nodded, and stepped a little closer.

"You know, Mia and Sheba have made hot cocoa at the inn, you wanna have some?"

"Um..." I responded, thinking about how much a cup of chocolate could warm my hands, which had gone numb from the bitter Proxan wind.

"No... Thanks." I answered.

"Why?" She asked, her tone a little sad.

"I need time to think." I said.

"You've been out here thinking for three hours! Your fingers are going to fall off, so at least take my mittens." She said, shoving the mittens into my hand, and waiting for my reaction.

I looked down at the mittens, and saw that they where a bright pink.

I thought for a moment, and then I decided that pink would not hurt my manhood, so I slipped them on.

"You should come back in Isaac... You'll catch a cold." Jenna said, as a last ditch attempt to get me to come in.

I turned to her, a little shocked that she was showing so much concern for my health.

My face tinged a slight red, though who would notice, my face must have been the shade of Jenna's hair by now anyways.

"Please?" She pleaded.

I thought for a second or two more, then I nodded, and she took my hand happily, and pulled me toward the inn.

Once again, I felt a slight heat in my face as she displayed another act of affection.

When we got to the inn, she opened the door, and pushed me through.

"I got him back!" She said triumphantly, smiling at the group.

"Heh... Nice gloves Isaac." Garet said, pointing to the pink mittens I was wearing.

I blushed, and quickly took them off, and handed them to Jenna.

She smiled as she took them from me.

"So Isaac? Want some hot cocoa?" Mia asked.

"Yes please." I said, taking a seat next to Felix, and Jenna sat down to my left.

I looked at Felix.

He was moping into his mug, his brown eyes clouded by what ever he was thinking.

Jenna leaned across me, and jabbed Felix in the ribs with an elbow, causing him to dump half of his cocoa all over his front.

"Why so glum?" She inquired.

Felix just grunted, and looked down at his lap that was soaked in chocolate.

"Com'mon Felix! What's wrong with you now?" She was about to do something that I did not want to get into the middle of.

I stood quickly, and backed from the table.

Felix turned his eyes to Jenna, his face unreadable.

"Just let me be Jenna!" He said in a quiet voice, his eyes pleading for solitude.

"No! You can't just be a sulk all the time! You make Mia so worried she cries sometimes! You shouldn't be so mean!" Jenna's voice was strident, and she waved her hand toward Mia when she spoke.

Mia closed her eyes, and felt like disappearing, but she did not have the Djinn configuration to cast Avoid, so she settled with leaving to go to the bathroom.

Felix's eyes widened at what Jenna had said.

"Mia... worries about me?" He posed the question tentatively, as if he was hoping for something.

"Well... Oh! I shouldn't have said that!" Jenna said, looking around and finding that Mia had left the room.

"But you did just say..." Felix looked a little less sulky now, but sulking came so naturally to him, that even when he was genuinely happy, he looked a little depressed.

"Yes... I did... But I shouldn't have said that!" She cried, getting up to follow Mia.

"No... I'll go." Felix said, and left to find Mia.

I was shocked once again today, by Felix actually showing an emotion that was not pissy.

I turned to Jenna.

"I think you might have done it this time." I said, shaking my head.

"I don't need to hear it from you Bright-eyes!" She said in a hurt tone.

"Bright-eyes?" I inquired.

"Yes! Bright-eyes! Are you trying to make fun of me now?" She asked, a tear forming in the corner of her eye, and rolling down to her chin, where it refused to fall, instead it clung to her like a magnet.

I felt bad for what I had said, and I looked at her with the best look of sorrow I could muster.

"No Jenna... I wasn't trying to make fun of you... I just didn't understand why you called me 'bright-eyes'... I wanted to know." I replied, hoping to calm the Mars Adept before she got into one of her fits of rage.

"Fine, but stop being so mean! I just made a mistake that's all!" She got up, and went to leave, but my hand flew out and caught her arm.

I looked down at my hand, and found that it was gripping her arm, and I went to let go, but I couldn't get myself to do it.

"What Isaac? Do you have anything else to say to me?" She asked, looking down at my hand.

"Um... Sorry... I really didn't mean to... Hurt you." I had to force the words out, because I felt so embarrassed by what my hand had done without my telling it to.

Jenna looked me in the eyes, and I felt a little tingle in my spine, her red-brown eyes like the chocolate that I had started to drink.

"Thank you Isaac... I accept your apology." She said, with an odd look on her face.

I wanted to never let go, but I knew that that would have been awkward, so I released her, and went back to the table.

"Come back and finish your cocoa... They'll be fine." I said, patting her chair with my left hand.

She looked toward where Mia and Felix had gone, and then at the chair.

She shifted a little, and then walked back to the table.

She sat down with a sigh, and took up her mug.

She took a sip, and set the cup down, and leaned toward the others.

"The quest is almost over." She said, her eyes looking at each of the others, and then her eyes came to rest on me.

"Isaac... Will we make it?" She asked, her voice quiet and frightened.

I looked at her, my eyes wide. Jenna was never afraid of anything, and now she seemed helpless and small, like she needed protection, and it made me feel odd.

"I don't honestly know Jenna... I wish I could say that I did, but I don't." I said, thinking of the best way to help her.

Then she did something I had only seen her do once before.

She flung herself into my arms and broke down to tears.

I didn't know what to do, so I tried to remember when I had seen it last.

It was years ago now, when Felix and her parents had gone missing from the Mt. Aleph boulder.

Flashback:

I had been running, trying to find a way to the plaza, but large boulders kept blocking my path. I met up with Garet, and he had been trying to pull a large trunk full of stuff away from his home.

"Garet! There's no time for that! We have to go to the plaza!" I had shouted, and Garet looked up from the trunk, and he said, "You're right! Let's go to the plaza and get help!"

We ran and found a man lying on the ground, groaning and moaning.

"I'm injured badly... Do you think that I'll die?" He had asked us.

I looked at him, and didn't see any wounds on his body, and said no.

He lay there for a moment, and then he jumped up and looked at us.

"Be careful! There are monsters out there!" He warned us, and then ran off down the path.

We looked around, and then kept going.

Then a weird creature jumped from behind a stump, and waved a fork at us.

We drew our machetes, and the mouse-thing leapt at us.

Garet slashed at it, and hit it hard, and it fell back.

I lunged at it, and put it out of its misery, and we continued on.

Another monster attacked us, and this one was a bat.

It screeched, and dove at Garet.

Its fangs grazed his arm, but with a single swing, the bat fell to the ground in a heap.

We ran on, and then the weirdest things attacked us.

Two mushrooms stood there before us, their blue caps slick with rain.

We ran into battle, and clashed with them, to come out victorious.

But Garet had another wound, and he need attention.

So I crushed one of the herbs that I had, and used the rain to get it wet.

I tied the paste to his arm with a bandage, and he looked much better.

We continued quickly, running along the muddy river that was so swollen that it nearly flowed over its banks.

Then I heard a pitiful cry.

"Oh no! My brother!" The voice sounded like Jenna's, and she sounded like she was on the verge of tears.

Garet and I stepped closer, and found a scene that was startling.

My father was there, along with Felix and Jenna's parents.

They where reaching for Felix, who had fallen into the water, and was barely hanging onto a branch in the middle of the river.

"Hang on Felix!" My father shouted to him, but I doubt that he even heard it.

"Felix will be alright. We'll find a way to save him..." My mother's voice had carried over the maelstrom of the storm.

Then Felix disappeared under the water.

A shrill cry broke the air.

"Nooooooooo! Felix!" It was Jenna, and she sounded devastated.

She had jumped into her mother's arms, crying hysterically.

"The rope won't reach... We should use Psynergy. Do you have any left?" My father's voice said calmly.

"I've used all mine up. What about you Kyle?" Jenna's mother had replied.

"I'm drained from helping the other villagers..." His answered, his voice sad.

My mother looked around, and said, "We have to get help."

"Can Felix hang on long enough for us to find help?" My father asked.

"There's nothing else we can do for him here, is there?" My mother had replied.

"Then go get help, but be as quick as possible!" My father said.

"Jenna, can you go too?" Her father asked her.

She looked a little confused, and hesitated to answer.

"You'll go find help, right?" Her mother inquired.

Jenna nodded.

"You brother's counting on you, Jenna." My mother said, as words of encouragement.

Jenna gave another nod.

"All right, let's get going!"

They left, entering the house and coming out of the house seconds later.

My mother turned to Jenna.

"I'll go look up north... You head for the plaza, all right?"

"Yes ma'am. We're looking for anyone with any Psynergy left, right?"

They both nodded, and my mother came up the path and found us standing there.

She called out to us, and asked us if we knew what was going on.

We both nodded, and she asked us to go with Jenna to the plaza.

We ran to catch up with Jenna and headed to the plaza.

When we got there, we found Jenna, and got someone to help us.

We ran back to where we had left Felix in the river.

The next thing to happen where the saddest things that happened in my life, and I still feel like the little boy that had watched his dad be swept away by the boulder, when I think about it.

End Flashback

That was when it had happened.

Jenna just broke down, and had cried, leaping into her mother's arms

"What had she done to calm her?" I thought, my mind racing.

Then I remembered.

I gently pulled Jenna closer to me, and I started to rub her back.

"It's going to be all right... It will be alright..." I said, patting her back softly.

We stood like this for a few minutes, then she started to calm down, her sobs turn to quiet tremors.

She gave a sniff, and she pulled back slightly, so that she could look into my eyes.

"Isaac... Thank you..." She said, leaning her head against my shoulder.

I just held her to me, a feeling of rightness and happiness had settled into my heart, like this was how things where supposed to be.

When she pulled away she smiled, her face streaked with tearstains, but she looked much better.

But before we broke apart, she had said something that I was never expecting.

"I need to talk to you later Isaac... I have something that I've needed to tell you for a while..." She had said, whispering it into my ear so that I was the only one to hear.

I puzzled over what it was that she wanted to tell me, but I couldn't decide.

I mulled it over as I soaked in the tub, to get the lingering cold out of my bones.

"I wonder what she wants to say?"