"Isaac!"
Isaac knew before he opened his eyes who was waking him, and he knew it was pouring heavily outside. His window was engaged in a fierce battle with the wind; the gales of wind pounded mercilessly against it, yet the small glass shield held out. Isaac opened his eyes and gazed groggily at his mother.
The first thing he noticed was how panicked her face was. She had a terrified and frantic look in her eyes, yet somehow managed to retain that motherly look in them. She shook Isaac again, as if she could detach the sleep from his body.
"Isaac! You have to get up! The Mount Aleph boulder is going to fall!"
If anything could have woken him up, that was it. Isaac eye's widened, and he got up as if his bed was on fire.
There was a flood of questions all struggling to escape from his mouth. The result was several words being mashed up as they left his lips:
"Mo-what's…but-where-"
"Not now, Isaac. Here, your tunic."
A silver-ish glow surrounded Issac's mother, and a beam of light left her outstretched hand. The light enveloped Isaac's tunic, which was hanging behind his bed, and the beam gently guided his tunic down and into his mother's hands.
"But Mom-"
She silenced him once again by gruffly putting his tunic on him, grabbing his hand, and swiftly yet carefully brought Isaac down the stairs.
At that moment, a figure burst through the door. He was drenched in water, and was breathing heavily.
"You both haven't left yet?" he said incredulously.
"Kyle, I only just found out. First a storm brews out of nowhere, and now this! Are they going to be able to save the village?"
"I have no idea, Dora. I'm only helping evacuate the villagers…but if I were to guess…"
Kyle gave his wife a meaningful look, as if he wanted to spare his son the horrible truth, but Isaac understood nonetheless: if there wasn't a miracle, everything in Vale would be destroyed.
"Dad, what are we going to do?" Isaac asked, with so many different emotions welling up in his chest.
Kyle sighed. "All we can do is try to survive. Dora, take Isaac to the plaza, I have to get back to work."
"No," said Dora adamantly, "Isaac is old enough to on his own. I have to help you."
There was something in her voice that made Kyle not question her. Perhaps she felt so powerless, that she had to do something; perhaps that was what drove her. Whatever is was, he knew trying to fight against it would be futile. So, he simply nodded and ran back out into the storm.
Dora looked at her son. "Isaac, just keep going south, and you'll run into the plaza. Don't go anywhere else!"
Isaac nodded, and walked out of the door, how mother going north, himself going south.
The second Isaac stepped out, the rain began to batter down on his 12-year-old figure. He threw the hood on his tunic up, and ran, with his boots making a small sucking sound each time he brought them up from the mud.
His run seemed to take an eternity; the wind blew against him, and the rain didn't allow him to see more than 10 feet in front of him. It was almost as nature itself was trying to stop him from reaching the plaza.
However, before he knew it, he had reached the large building that was the plaza. He rushed inside, grateful for a shelter from the furious tempest.
"Isaac!"
A familiar voice called his name, and Isaac looked around, searching for its source. He saw Jenna waving at him, and Garet sitting next to her, wearing a grin (despite the fact that everything in Vale was going to be destroyed).
"So, what's going on, Isaac?"
Isaac looked at Garet out of the corners of his eyes, and said "Oh, nothing much, home about to be destroyed, Mom and Dad might die, pretty good day, if I do say so myself."
Jenna laughed, and Garet squinted his eyes. "Well, forgive me for trying to lighten your mood…"
Isaac quickly got onto the subject at hand. "So, how come none of us saw this storm coming?"
Jenna shook her head. "No one has a single idea. The day was looking to be nice, and all of a sudden, a storm comes, and ruins everything."
Isaac sighed, just as the door opened. He looked up, hoping it would be his mother or father, but it turned out to be Jenna's mother.
"Mom!" yelled Jenna, ecstatic that her mom was safe, but she didn't seem to hear here. She looked around, and spotted Jenna's father, who was sitting with some other men from the village discussing the situation. She ran to him, and quickly whispered something into his ear. His eyes widened, and they both dashed out of the plaza.
Isaac glanced at Jenna, as if to ask "What's going on?"
Jenna gazed at the door, and dashed out as quickly as her parents did. Issac and Garet looked at each other, and followed suit.
They could only see her darkened silhouette, but she seemed to know where she was going, so they assumed she was following her parents. After running in the rain for 3 or so minutes, she came to a stop. Isaac and Garet came to a halt next to her, and Garet asked her "Well? What is it?"
Jenna seemed to be in a sort of trance. She didn't speak, and her eyes were wide and glossy. She raised a shaking arm and pointed at the river that was adjacent to them. In the river was what seemed to be someone's cloak. Except, the cloak had arms and a head growing out of it. And the arms were clutching on to a rock in the middle of the river.
The cloak belonged to Felix, who was Jenna's brother.
Garet and Jenna ran over to where her parents were standing. Isaac couldn't even go with them; his legs wouldn't permit him to. He stared at Felix struggling to stay alive, and realized that if he didn't get help, Felix would die. Period. He tried to move again, and his legs responded. He ran as if his life depended on it (which, as a matter of fact, someone's did) toward the plaza, praying that someone had enough Psynergy to help. Suddenly, a voice managed to reach his ears. He turned around, and saw Garet running toward him. In the distance, he saw Jenna running in the opposite direction.
Garet reached him out of breath, and panted : "Isaac, we have to-"
"Get help, I know. C'mon, we can still save him if we hurry."
So they both ran, ran for Felix's life. You would think such a heavy burden on a child's shoulders would be nerve-racking, but Isaac felt surprisingly serene. He knew the importance of each step he took, but it didn't phase him, he kept his eyes on the large building that got bigger and bigger with each step he took.
What did surprise him, however, was two people with colored skin standing somewhat off the path to Mt. Aleph. They seemed to be discussing something intently; they didn't even notice Isaac and Garet standing behind them. Isaac would have kept on running, but there was something about them, something about the way they carried themselves, that made him draw closer. Garet was about to object, but Isaac silenced him with a quick allusive glance, and stood behind the strange man and woman, hiding behind a tree. The still deafening wind made it hard to hear their conversation, but Isaac strained to hear, and was able to comprehend their conversation.
"Hm. Two out of six surviving. And even we were lucky"
"Who knew the power of Sol Sanctum would be so strong? We didn't anticipate this."
"We must carefully plan out our next move. We should enlist that scholor-"
The woman cut off the man's sentence, and before Issac's eyes, disappeared. By the time Isaac realized what was happening, he tried to war Garet, but the woman already had what appeared to be a scythe to his neck.
"Hmph. So you were eavesdropping?"
The man walked over to them. "You should forget everything you've just heard." He then added, with malice dripping from his voice, "We'll help you forget."
His female counterpart seemed to take this as her cue; she spun around, and a flashing red light appeared in her hand. She crumpled her hand into a fish, and jammed it into Garet's stomach. His eyes widened, then glazed over, then closed altogether. Isaac's jaw dropped, and the woman turned around. He tried to run, but the man stood in his way, with the same malicious smile edging his features.
Isaac couldn't even turn around before he felt a searing pain in his back.
In the few moments before he met the ground, he knew two things. One, the woman was using Psynergy. And second, these two had something to d with the storm.
As he lay on the ground quickly fading, he saw the boulder fall from Mt. Aleph. Isaac knew what it meant for Felix, and all of the people standing next to the river. His heart seemed to stop, along with his breath. One word managed to creep up from his lungs, one word summed up all his emotions.
"No…"
