Chapter 1: After the storm
I Don't Own Golden Sun
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The sun shone brightly in the small village of Vale. Birds chirped as they flew so high in the sky, chasing each other, playing a never ending game of tag. The wind briskly picked up, swaying the branches and leaves on the trees, rustling the common person's clothes, and entering open windows to cause a ruckus of flying papers. Slowly, the wind blew into an open window, caressing the young teen's face and whispering in his ear.
Slowly his eyes opened halfway. He peered out of the window as he lay in bed to see the passing clouds. He lay on his back, with his head lazily tilted to one side. He muffled a yawn, closing his amethyst eyes. Turning his head in the other direction, his blonde hair got messed up.
Half opening his eyes again, he stared at the door with a long, sad expression.
"Am I that much of a coward." He stated to the wind. As if hearing him, the wind flurried around him, lulling him back to sleep.
It wasn't long until footstep thundered up the stairs.
"Ivan!" yelled a deeply masculine voice as the door was kicked open. The aforementioned boy turned over and pulled the covers over his head. He simply didn't want to deal with his loud-mouth's friend's noise right now.
"Ok, get up! You shouldn't be brooding about how you make a fool out of your self!" Ivan winced.
"Garet, I'm not up to going anywhere right now. Besides we still have an hour before we have to leave, maybe by then I will have regained my pride." Ivan muttered slowly burying himself deeper under the covers.
"Listen, Ivan." Garet began sitting on the edge of the bed, "It's not you, he's just dense. He's been out of it ever since…we were kids." Garet said, almost reluctantly saying the last three words.
"I told him in the simplest way. I said 'I really look up to you, you know.' How could he have not gotten it?" Ivan snapped suddenly bolting up straight, "I'll never be able to tell him how I feel…I'm too much of a coward to just say three damn words." He glared at the sheets and tears threatened to spill.
"Ivan…Get dressed, we have to go." Garet said, breaking the tension.
"It'll only take an hour to get there…" Ivan muttered.
"Yeah, By Lemurian ship, not by foot!" Garet said surprised. Ivan snapped his head towards Garet.
"We're walking—since when?" Ivan asked stumbling out of bed.
"Since our fearless leader decided it would be great to get some exercise!" Garet complained.
"It's over a week's walk!" Ivan stated, "Jenna is gonna kill us."
"That's why we gotta go before she gets back from grocery shopping!" Garet said. A knock on the door turned their attention towards the new-comer. It was another teenage boy, with spiky blonde hair and clear blue eyes. His expression seemed like he carried the whole world on his shoulders. He pointed to the imaginary watch on his wrist.
"Yeah, sorry." Garet said tossing Ivan his tunic. Ivan quickly got out of his pajamas, an old worn out shirt and baggy pants, and dressed with his purple tunic, green over shirt and brown pants. He gave his hair a quick brush-through and put on his shoes. Grabbing his staff he smiled.
"Ready." And he walked out the door. Silently he tiptoed down the stairs. Ivan poked his head from around the corner.
"Lada dee….hmm…mm." A young girl of nineteen quietly hummed to herself. She bustled around the kitchen putting things away. Her hair was brown red, and in a high ponytail. She wore a slack cream shirt with ¾ sleeves. The borders of the shirt were red. Her skirt flowed to the floor, a red, pretty color.
"Damn…" Garet grumbled. He sighed and casually tried to get to the door.
Jenna blinked.
"What are you still DOING here?" And with those words, she picked up the frying pan laying near her hand.
"You know," Ivan began with unusual calmness, "Now would be a good time to-"
"RUN!" Garet yelled and grabbed both Ivan and Isaac by the scruff of the neck as he ran out the door.
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"I don't think she followed us." Ivan sighed leaning against the tree.
"Nope." The three boys jumped and turned to see a man of about Twenty-Five with long brown hair.
"When are you getting a hair-cut, Felix?" Ivan asked tugging on a long strand of hair. Felix chuckled and ran a hand through his hair. His laugh was deep, his face was flushed, and he had a bag over his shoulder.
"Felix," Garet began, "Is that a hickey?" Felix's face went blank and the heat rose at an alarming rate.
"Ah, uh, no, that's, I mean," He stuttered, "A mosquito bit me, Um, y-yeah."
"A mosquito or a lemurian?" Ivan asked. Isaac smiled and patted Felix on the back.
"I'll tell Jenna on you." That got them running. They ran through Vale, laughing about their great escape from the ferocious fire adept. They ran the trail out of Vale and to the cave, the stupid wind-less cave.
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"I hate. HATE. Hate Goma cave: It's dumb and windless." Ivan complained.
"Well, first go through Vault, and we'll camp out before Goma." Garet said, "Right?"
Isaac nodded and gave a thumbs up. Ivan sighed and watched as Isaac lead the way into Vault.
"I don't think he's so dense…" Garet muttered to himself. Ivan tilted his hair and it tossed in the wind, " Did you say something?" He asked. Garet shook his head. 'Damn kid, you are cute.'
Isaac turned and waved at them. Garet pushed Ivan forward and went to catch up to Isaac.
They walked through the familiar street of vault, resting only to restock on herbs. Garet fell in the ditch.
"Seriously! I mean can't they fill that damn thing in!" Garet thundered placing the herb on his arm.
"You should know not to run." Ivan said calmly while he watched Isaac. Isaac glanced at the shelves on the shops, getting all the needed supplies.
"It's better to shop here than in vale, nothing much there yet, it's still suffering economically." Ivan said as Isaac pulled out his bag of money.
"Hey, Ivan!" One of the boys behind the counter smiled at him. He was only around fifteen.
"Well, hey there Rob." Ivan said, not too friendly.
"Aw come on Ivey, you can't still be POed at me are ya?"
"Yes." Rob sighed and tucked a strand of wispy brow hair behind his ear.
"He beat me up when we were younger." Ivan muttered.
"No way, you were beat up by some guy three years younger than you?" Garet hollered in laughter.
"SHUT UP! I was SHORT!" Ivan cried. Isaac smiled secretly and remembered his first time in vault.
Who are you? I wondered as I saw your sad face in the crowd, you seemed to have just taken a beating, because you had blood on your hands. I followed you, I remember that. You had cuts on your fingers. You went to the sanctum priest, he healed you, almost reluctantly. Then you left. Simple as that.
"Hi." I snapped out of my daze.
"You're like me aren't you?" He said to me. I didn't know what he was talking about.
You have powers I nodded, he hadn't moved his lips. He was speaking to me telepathically, I put my defenses up, he was a wind adept.
"Isaac!" Garet yelled catching up to me. I was completely lost in his amethyst eyes, so wise for a fifteen year old. I felt pity to the horrors he might have seen or experienced in this town.
"There's the cave." Ivan said with a sigh. Isaac pointed to the woods.
"That's right, we've camped out here before. So there should be the clearing, I'll look" Garet said.
"You've camped out here?" Ivan asked.
"Yup, we camped out before we entered, and I guess that gave you enough time to catch up to us." Garet smiled as he pushed away some branches. Isaac smiled as he remembered.
"Shit, Isaac, what now?" Came Garet's voice from behind me. I sighed internally. I didn't know. It would take hours to cut the vines blocking our entrance into this retarded cave. A good gust of wind would know it down. I thought Ivan. Someone up there heard me.
"Can I help?" I turned to see the boy from vault make his way towards us. I knew my mouth was hanging open a little, I didn't expect him to follow us, even after we offered. He was so sincere and sad at the same time. I felt a connection to him.
I have to admit, I didn't like him reading my mind as much as Garet did. But I have learned to block it out for the most part, being semi-telepathic myself. I only told him what I wanted him to hear.
"How can you help?" Garet asked. I almost hit him. Duh Garet, he's a wind Adept!
Ivan closed his eyes the wind began to swirl around him and he opened his eyes so I saw them glowing a dull purple. "Gust" he whispered under his breath. The wind swirling around him turned into a cyclone and flew at the vines, tearing them to shreds.
"Holy…" Garet began. I was surprised, he was so shocked he couldn't swear.
"Isaac! Found it!" Garet hollered. Isaac rubbed his head. Ivan stared curiously.
What was he thinking about…? Ivan wondered but pushed the thought to the back of his head. They set up camp, with more bumps and bruises on Garet then on Isaac and Ivan combined.
"I swear that tent wanted to attack me!" He yelled. Ivan sighed handing him an herb.
"The 'tent wanted to attack you'? Garet you're pathetic!" Ivan said. Isaac finished tying off the loose knots as Ivan tried to patch Garet up. Isaac sighed at wiped some sweat from his brow. It wasn't all that hot out. It was almost past two in the morning. It took that long to get to this cave. Usually longer, but the adepts ran most of the day to made up for lost time. First, a whole day to get to vault, then another day to get to the cave, and finally a day wandering in it.
They would have to slow down because it was three days to get to Bilibin cave, and it would get colder as they moved. Goma took a day to pass, and it was a day and a half to Imil.
"Why couldn't we just borrow the Lemurian ship?" Ivan asked.
"Piers didn't trust us to take it." Garet responded and he stretched and removed his armor.
"Not it, sorry you two, one of you gets to go first on night watch."
"I could do it." Ivan said. Isaac shook his head. He pointed to himself, then to Ivan, and finally Garet. Garet moaned.
"I go last?" He huffed and went into the tent.
"What a child…" Ivan sighed and sat by the fire.
Ivan looked up to stare at the sky, a light breeze came. Isaac stared at him oddly.
"I'm not all that tired actually, I'll keep you company." Ivan smiled with a small blush on his cheeks.
Isaac wasn't stupid. He was very far from it in fact. He knew the boy had a crush on him. 'just a crush, it'll pass.' Not even Isaac understood whey he distanced himself from anyone but Garet. He felt more connected to Garet, not only where they childhood friends, but Isaac had a feeling that there was more to it.
Isaac stared at Ivan, spiked blond hair falling into his face. He threw himself backwards and glanced into the night's sky.
"Do you like to watch stars?" Ivan asked with a smile. Isaac grinned mischievously before poking Ivan in his ticklish spot.
"Meep!" He squeaked before retaliating with his own tickling. The two boys were rolling around in the grass when Garet came out of the tent.
"What the heck is all this ruckus?" He said before smiling at the two, "oh! Don't mind me…" He slid back into the tent.
The two boys stared at each other and realized the position they were in. Isaac was lying on the grass; Ivan was straddling his waist whilst their hands were entwined. They didn't realize when their tickle war became a wrestling match. They stayed like that until Ivan rolled over and stared at the stared. He stared at Isaac; he hadn't let go of his hands.
"Do you like to watch the stars?" Isaac nodded and sighed, letting go of his hands.
'why did I do that!' He scolded himself.
"I use to watch them all the time in Vault." Isaac nodded, remembering the nights as a child when he would stare at the stars with Garet and Jenna and…'no, only me Jenna and Garet, why did I think there was someone more.' He searched his memory again, recalled seeing Garet lying on Jenna's right and himself on Jenna's left. Garet was clutching the grass, like he always did…
Isaac nodded again.
"You did that too?" Ivan asked, getting another nod.
There was a calm silence between them, in which Ivan fell asleep. Isaac carried him into the tent and kicked Garet until he was waking up, hours later. He tucked Ivan under a blanket and set to rest himself.
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"Rise and Shine little princess'!" Garet hollered. Ivan creased his brow and snuggled into the warmth of his blanket, he was never a morning person.
"Awww, how cute." Ivan pried an eye open to see that he wasn't snuggling into a blanket. He had the blanket draped over him, and he was snuggling into Isaac. The grumpy Isaac lifted a hand to flick the older man off.
"Ouch, you hurt my feelings Isaac, when did you become so angry?" Garet smiled and left. The smile dropped on Garet's face as he was out of sight. 'dammit Isaac, stop acting like him!'
"Garet you are rather cheerful for it being morning."
"That is because I've been awake all this time and you guys didn't sleep until much later." He said with a smile. He had already put out the fire.
"I was about to put down the tent with you two in it, but I saw you guys so cute!" He snickered.
"Shove it." Ivan said.
"Queer" Isaac spat into Garet's mind.
"As much as you." was the reply.
"Okay, stop glaring you guys." Ivan sighed and put down the tent. Isaac smiled. Garet smiled. They all helped pack up the tent.
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Kit: so this was chappy one, that I finally found on my comp and finished.
Max: Idiot, the truth is she put it on her flash drive and lost the drive.
Kit: yeah I know.
Max: she gave up on looking for the drive and started again.
Kit: shove it
Max: Such a disorganized silly girl. Here -hands flash drive to Kit-
Kit: you had it.
Max: actually, no I just saw it on the floor over there.
Kit: -opens drive-there is no chapter one of this fanfic okay, wrong flash drive.
Max: jeesh! How many of those things do you have?
Kit: one gig for school, 256mb for home, another 256mb for pictures, wallpapers, fanart, etc. and I think a 1..sumthing? I dunno lemme think…128 for fanfics.
Max: a whole gig for school?
Kit: digital photography, taking pictures you know, and I think I have a couple of naruto episodes on that thing.
Max: never mind. I never asked.
Kit: but you did.
Max: stick around for the next chapter of this fic…what was the name?
Kit: beats me, it's been to long.
Max: I don't know you. I really don't. If you read this, please give a flame so I could light a fire under her ass so she could type.
Kit: I'm typing now aren't I? -yawns- I'm tired so I'm taking a nap. It's on my aunt's computer.
Max: huh?
Kit: the original chapter is on my aunt's computer, I forgot I store stuff on there too…
Max: I'm gathering everything you own into one place.
Kit: good luck, cuz there is also a computer in New York and we're in Florida.
Max: -tears hair out-
Preview…
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Isaac suddenly stopped walking and pressed a finger to his lips. His companions stared oddly at him as he moved his hand for them to move a little farther away. He shot a Clay Spire into the woods and began to run.
A loud shriek filled the air as the winged dragon tore trees from the ground.
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Review!
Ja Ne