Hello, everyone. This is my first Golden Sun fic, and I'm pretty excited about how it's turning out. Hope you're having fun getting back to school (or work or whatever you have decided to do with your lives). I'll just... um... go now.

Oh, and I don't own Golden Sun. I hope you have realized this.

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"I'm sorry, Isaac, but we can't play today. Some relatives are coming for a visit. We have to help get everything ready for their arrival."

Julia's words rang around in his head as twelve-year-old Isaac kicked around a red ball all by himself in a remote corner of the remote town of Vale. None of his friends could play with him today. Julia and Keith, her twin brother, were too busy helping their parents to get ready for their relatives. And Rich was also helping; since he was Julia and Keith's cousin, these people were his family, too.

There simply were no other children his age in the village that he could play with. In fact, his friends were much older than him as it was- Julia and Keith were seventeen while Rich was nineteen - but they still let him play with them. There was always Evan, but he was only nine, and he liked to stay inside and read books.

Isaac sighed as with one big kick, the ball landed in the nearby river. Casually using Psynergy to retrieve it, he put down the ball under a nearby tree and proceeded to walk around the village, along the relatively flat ground and the calm river that flowed through the center of the village.

Eventually, his wanderings came to an end in front of Mr. Kraden's house. Mr. Kraden was a young scholar that had moved to the village about seven years ago. The elders were somewhat surprised that someone from the outside without any Psynergy at all knew about Adepts and wanted to live in an Adept village. Mr. Kraden's house was also special because it guarded the path towards Mt. Aleph.

Isaac, along with all of the other children in the village, was told many times by the elders that he was never supposed to go down the path to Mt. Aleph. It was dangerous because monsters sometimes were on the path, and also that it was a holy place where only special people were allowed to go. That didn't stop some of the children from sneaking down the path when none of the adults were looking. But, when they came back, they always said that there was nothing interesting there: just some statues and a big door in the side of the mountain that couldn't open.

Julia, Rich and Keith had gone together with Kraden to the mountain as part of their studies. Isaac had wanted to go with them, but they always said he was too young to go; he would most likely just be a burden in case there were any battles with monsters. He was supposedly too young to have enough of a grasp on Psynergy to help any…

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After some more walking, Isaac found himself near Mayor Garret's house. In the doorway, he could see Miss Jenna sweeping some dirt out of the house while yelling instructions to someone inside of the house. A few moments later, Mister Felix, the blacksmith, came out of the house, hurrying down the road toward the plaza.

"Why, hello there, Isaac! How are you this evening?"

Realizing that he had been seen, Isaac quickly ran over to the house to speak with Miss Jenna.

"I am fine, Miss Jenna. Are you all ready for your family to visit now?"

"Ugh, don't remind me! We're nowhere near ready yet and they should be here very soon! My brother completely forgot to bring the fish he caught today for dinner, my daughter isn't back yet from the market, and my good-for-nothing husband is sitting there on the couch doing absolutely nothing!!"

"Hey!" a deep yet friendly sounding voice responded from inside the house, "I am doing something productive! I'm taking care of all these letters and complaints before they get here!"

"Paperwork can wait, but the bedrooms are still a disaster! Move it! NOW!"

"Yes, ma'am!" A mess of jostling emanated from the house as Mayor Garret wisely acted as his stressed-out wife asked him to.

"Miss Jenna, is there anything I can do to help?"

"Aw, aren't you just the sweetest little boy!" Miss Jenna reached down to pat Isaac on his head. "But, everything is being taken care of. You should probably run home now, it's getting dark."

After walking to the village, passing a rather frantic Felix passing the other way with a basket of fish, Isaac managed to make it to his own house. His mother, Dora, was out in the yard, taking in some laundry that was drying.

"Oh, good, you're home. There's a storm coming from the north, and it looks like it's going to be really powerful. I hope Kyle gets home soon. He went off into town to greet Mayor Garret's relatives."

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The storm turned out to be quite a bit more powerful than anyone had expected. Rain was coming down in torrents while lightning was striking ominously around Mt. Aleph. In fact, lightning had apparently struck a large boulder that was hanging precariously off of a ledge on Mt. Aleph. The boulder had fallen off and started to roll down the mountain towards the town. Some of the adults had rushed to stop the rock from destroying houses and hurting any people. Isaac's parents had gone around warning any innocents that were in the path of the boulder. Isaac himself was told to go to the plaza where it was safe. He was currently running through the forest: a shortcut that he knew of.

He was almost to the plaza when he ran into someone that he had never seen before. He was somewhat older than he was, about fifteen or sixteen, with long black hair pulled into a ponytail. He was also wearing foreign clothing and had a sword. He was traveling in the other direction, towards where the boulder was.

"Don't worry, little boy, you're almost to the village. It's not far."

"Who are you?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm Takeru. I'm visiting some relatives."

"Ah." Takeru calmly walked past Isaac toward where the boulder was. Isaac hesitatingly took a few steps forward, then, after checking to see if he was being watched, silently followed this strange person.

Soon, the forest abruptly ended at the village path. Two figures were moving along the path at almost exactly the point where Takeru burst forth.

"Takeru? Is that you?" The voice revealed that the figures were Julia and Keith.

"Yeah. Are you coming to help, too?"

"Of course. The adults probably won't be able to hold out for much longer. Let's go."

Isaac silently followed the three teenagers from the cover of the forest. Eventually the forest and the path diverged, and eventually he lost track of the three of them. After a short time, he made his way out of the forest. He ventured into the large meadow that separated the forest and path.

A large crash in front of him made him stop. From the limited light, Isaac could make out the large rock rolling straight for him. He didn't move a muscle as the rock rolled closer and closer and loomed larger and larger…

'Ragnarok'

A large brown portal appeared above the boy's head as a sword twice as large as the rock slammed into the boulder, splintering it into many different pieces. Not pausing to look back, he tore away from the scene, lest anyone caught him there. As his heart pounded in his chest, he ran, not toward the town, and safety, but toward the mountain in the distance from whence the rock came, one thought running through his head.

"That was much sooner than I expected."