I haven't written anything in over a month so I figured I put out a short mudshipping one shot for those who are interested. Enjoy!

How to read dialogue in my stories:

- "Quote" marks means someone is speaking

- Italics indicate thoughts

Legal Stuff:

- I don't own Golden Sun or the affiliate characters

AMONG THE SAND

The Suhalla Desert wasn't as hot as anyone had expected. A constant breeze existed in this place, whipped up by the various Jupiter aligned lizards that called these sands their home. Four adepts walked through the dunes together, making their way toward the southeastern end of the desert as small gusts of wind blew sand past their feet.

The four adepts, Issac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia, were talking calmly to each other as they kept their eyes out for the various tornado lizards that had proved they could attack in the blink of an eye.

"You know, other than those giant lizards this desert really isn't that bad," Garet was saying. "I was expecting it to be as unbearably hot as the Lamakan Desert but with all the wind gusts it's actually pretty mild."

Ivan nodded in agreement. "All this sand flying around is irritating but it's nothing compared to the heat of that place."

"It may be easier to cross but these lizards are no pushover. Hopefully we won't have to fight too many more of them before leaving this place," Issac said.

Mia smiled at him. "I don't think that will be a problem. It looks like the desert ends right up there," she stated, pointing toward a set of cliffs ahead of them.

The other three looked off in the direction she was pointing and displayed smiles of their own. "Great! What are we waiting for then?" Garet said, picking up his pace as he made his way toward the exit. The rest of the group followed, rejuvenated by the idea of leaving the windy desert behind.

As the group neared the edge of the desert, Ivan suddenly jumped to the side, yelling out, "Ambush!" A group of monsters had emerged from behind the sand dunes and were closing in on the party in a surprise attack. Reacting quickly, Issac and Garet drew their swords to meet them head on while Ivan and Mia began to charge up spells.

A blast attack from one of stone soldiers that appeared knocked Garet away from the troll that was charging the party, causing little more than superficial injury. Thankfully, Issac was there to intercept it, swinging his blade at the monster to stop its charge. Ivan unleashed a barrage of lightning at the magicore that was hanging back near the stone soldiers, drawing its attention and causing it to cast a bind spell on the blonde haired boy to prevent another attack.

As Mia's healing spell refreshed Garet's energy, he moved to back up Ivan and engage the magicore while Issac continued to duel the Troll. A few more quick slashes from Issac downed the beast. Temporarily unable to use his powerful psynergy, Ivan had drawn his sword and engaged the two stone soldiers in melee combat. Unfortunately the metal blade was not causing much damage to their stone skin, but he managed to occupy their attention away from Garet and the magicore.

Garet cast a powerful heat wave that the magicore absorbed without much trouble as it counterattacked. Issac took the opportunity to slash at the beast from behind, rending its thick hide and causing it to roar in pain.

Meanwhile, Mia noticed that Ivan's attacks were not doing much damage to the stone based creatures and cast a powerful ice missile spell to deal damage to the creatures, making them angry. A grunt of pain diverted her attention to the other battle taking place where the magicore had finally managed to score a hit against Issac, who backed off as Garet stepped in to deliver the killing blow. Mia cast a quick ply to mend the skin on Issac's arm where he got hit as the blond boy turned toward the only enemies remaining.

Issac noticed the two stone soldiers glowing red in anger with broken shards of ice all around them as they rushed at an unaware Mia. Issac's eyes widened and his heartbeat stuttered. He yelled, "Mia! Watch out!" as he leapt toward the cerulean haired girl and tackled her to the ground, calling upon his djinn Granite to form a shield around the pair.

There was a flash of blinding light, and then nothing.

…

Issac's eyes opened slowly and he immediately squinted as the bright rays of the morning sun streamed into the tent he was lying in. Shifting his head slightly to avoid the glare, Issac took in his surroundings. He noticed he was in his bedroll and had a pillow right behind him to cushion his head. In the corner, he saw Mia propped up against one of the struts of the tent, her eyes closed and breathing soft. Issac smiled at the girl's presence and tried to remember how he had gotten there.

As he slowly sat up, the sunlight crossed his eyes and Issac saw a flash of light as his memory clicked. That's right! We were fighting some monsters in the desert and then… Issac suddenly held out his arms to inspect the damage, but all he could see was normal looking skin. Confused, he looked down at his chest and noticed that his skin there was flawless as well. He looked back at the sleeping girl in the corner. Mia's handiwork? He wondered. I should check to see if she's okay, Issac thought suddenly as he tried to get up.

A shift from Mia stopped him as he watched her eyes open and look into his own. The cerulean haired girl smiled as she saw him sitting up. "Oh! Issac you're awake," she sated, looking thoughtful. Issac nodded at her and she said, "I must have dozed off then…"

Issac just smiled back at her as she moved over to sit near him. "Thanks for healing me Mia," he said, inspecting his arms again as she positioned herself next to his bedroll.

Mia smiled for a moment but then crossed her arms and frowned slightly. "You're an idiot Issac," she said suddenly. Issac's face showed surprise as he cocked his head. "Why would you do something so stupid as throwing yourself in front of an explosion?" Mia finished saying.

"I just didn't want you to get hurt…" Issac explained after thinking about it for a moment.

Mia sighed and let her arms drop to her sides as she looked away from Issac for a minute. "Thanks…" she said softly. She turned back to Issac with a defeated look and said, "Just don't get yourself hurt for my sake again please. I was worried about you when I woke up and you were still pretty injured." Issac didn't answer her comment and instead sat there looking at her until she asked, "How are you feeling?"

Issac smiled and replied, "Not bad actually. I still have a bit of a headache but I seem to be in one piece and nothing else seems to be wrong thanks to you."

Mia shook her head slowly. "It certainly wasn't easy to heal all the injuries you sustained, but I think I managed. You've been out for almost a day."

Issac gave her an appreciative smile for looking over him and asked, "Are you all right too Mia?"

Mia fidgeted with her robes a bit as she answered, drawing Issac's attention to her arm. "I'm doing fine," she told him. "According to Ivan and Garet, I was only out for a few hours." She could feel Issac's gaze and looked back at him. After noticing where he was looking, she made an unsuccessful attempt to hide her arm from view.

"Let me see your arm," Issac said in a serious tone, holding out his hand to her.

Mia shook her head, but when Issac tried to lean over and grab it, she said, "Okay! Okay. Don't try to move around yet. I'll show you."

She slowly brought her arm out and let Issac hold it, causing his eyes to narrow. It was still injured and it was easy to tell where the blast had damaged her skin. Issac looked back at Mia and asked, "Why didn't you heal it?"

Mia broke his gaze and looked away before answering. "I was out of psynergy," she said simply.

She used her psynergy to heal me instead? Issac sighed and a golden glow appeared from his hand, mending the damaged skin and returning her arm to normal. "Any other injuries you still haven't healed?" Issac asked her.

Mia looked back at him and knew it would be pointless to try to conceal the truth. "Just my leg," she said.

"Show me." Issac said in a serious tone as Mia pulled up the hem of her robe to reveal the damaged skin just above her right ankle. "Thanks…" Mia said again softly as Issac's hand glowed gold and healed the skin with a touch.

"You should have healed yourself first," Issac admonished her.

"Your injuries were worse!" Mia stated loudly. "Those weren't bad and I wanted to be sure I had the psynergy I needed to heal you," she said with a sad smile.

"Mia…" Issac said slowly. He never liked to see her feeling down. He reached out and pulled the cerulean haired girl into a hug. "Thanks for watching over me," he said to Mia as he embraced her.

When he let go and Mia sat back, she flashed him a quick smile and said, "Of course…that's what friends are for…" She paused for a moment and then continued, "Well…you need to get some more rest so you just stay here and I'll let Garet and Ivan know you're all right when they manage to wake up."

Issac smiled and nodded at Mia as she turned toward the entrance of the tent. He noticed her face had a tinge of pink in it as she got up. I wonder what that's about… Issac thought, watching her leave the tent.

Issac looked down at his arms again, smiling at how well Mia had managed to heal him and noticed his mended chest again. Oh…I was shirtless that whole time because she was healing me earlier… Shaking his head, Issac flushed slightly in embarrassment from that fact and sighed as he lay back down with a smile to follow Mia's instructions and get some more sleep.

I guess it's sort of cute that being hugged by me like that would make her embarrassed, Issac thought with a smile.

Thanks for reading! I hope you liked the story, and for those of you who have read some of my other mudshipping stories this is the "Suhalla Desert Event" Mia refers to in chapter 8 of "The Water and the Earth Afterstory." Anyway, please leave me a review to let me know what you thought =)