I release all rights and characters to their respective owners.

I was kind of hoping for some kind of review on the aesthetic qualities of the last chapter. That whole dream bit was certainly unplanned, but it flowed easily. Any thoughts?

And, I'm trying something new. I'm begging for a review before you start reading. If you looked at this, and took the valuable time out of your day, please. PLEASE. PLEEEEEEEEEASSE! Take two seconds to drop me a review. I don't care what it says. It can say, "This sucks, I want a cookie for wasting my time on this crap." I don't care. Anonymous? Don't care. Just let me know you read it. Can I be any less subtle? Probably not.

OK, that is all, enjoy this latest installment, and sorry for the delay! (PS: As I write this, I can't help but notice that this sucks. Sorry to everyone who wants this to be really good. I promise the next one will be better.)

Tundra

Chapter 7: Still Just Human

Six and a half hours later, Isaac was still grinding south at a painfully slow pace. At Kraden's request, he had gone slowly until the stars had come out. Half an hour since then, Kraden, the luminary student of Alchemy, had yet to reach a decision about their current location. Isaac groaned aloud in frustration.

Ivan, who sat between Sheba and a Boy-Resembling-A-Tomato on the edge of the boat, grunted in agreement. He had risen from slumber only about an hour ago, but, being the youngest, had lost his patience for inactivity quite quickly.

"Can I get food?" asked Jenna through a yawn.

"Yeah, can we get food?" echoed Garet robotically.

"No," Piers and Isaac replied simultaneously.

"AAAHHH!" cried Sheba. "We've had this same conversation five times now! Stop it! I can't take the whipped cream part one more time! I'll go crazy!"

"Too late?" Ivan whispered to Garet, who valiantly struggled and failed to stifle a loud guffaw. He snorted once, and lost his composure. His fragile mental state lost what structure it had retained through the storm, and suddenly, Garet found himself reduced to a slap-happy idiot. As unusual as this was, the fact that nobody around him responded to his sudden loss of sanity proved that they were on the brink themselves, after two days of almost total sleeplessness. Just as Ivan began contemplating joining Garet in the lands of mania, Kraden emerged from the door.

"I know where we are!" he shouted with joy.

This caused a slight stir amongst the young. Isaac turned around, while Sheba and Piers (the sanest of the bunch) stood up. Jenna cocked her head upward. Ivan became almost giddy with activity, while Garet laughed dementedly on the bench.

"WHIPPED CREAM!" he exclaimed, laughing maniacally.

He snorted once again and looked up.

"Did somebody say something?" he asked stupidly.

"I did," said a dejected Kraden. "I know you guys are feeling a little tired, but I just spent hours looking at maps and charts and stars. I'm exhausted."

"Sorry," murmured the group, embarrassed.

"So, can we move along?" inquired Kraden.

"Ahhh," yawned Isaac, stretching as he got up. "Let's do it. Where are we going, Kraden?"

"We are about six hours from the place I expect them to have landed, assuming they're alright. Make these course adjustments here…"

Kraden handed Isaac a sheet of paper dotted with an assortment of letters, numbers and vectors. To everyone in the group who scrutinized the paper (excluding Piers, Kraden, and Isaac), the paper was a bunch of meaningless scribbles. Piers, however, raised an eyebrow, Isaac's brow furrowed, and they both looked at Kraden.

"That can't be right," stated Piers. "That's in the wrong direction. That will take us directly south. We want to end up south east of here."

"I know that!" said Kraden indignantly, "But this will take us with the currents. I promise I did this right. I checked it twice."

Isaac shrugged.

"If you say so…"

He opened his mouth again in a wide yawn.

"How much have you slept, Isaac?" asked Kraden.

"Um?" the adept replied, not wanting to admit his obvious deprivation.

"I thought so," said Kraden. "Would anyone else be willing to pilot the ship while our fearless leader gets some shut-eye?"

"I will," volunteered Piers. "I've slept well enough."

Isaac thanked Piers with a nod, and headed inside, following Ivan and Sheba.

Jenna fell in line behind them, watching her shuffling feet and Isaac alternately. She had been thinking about her encounter with Sheba and Kraden, and Kraden's choice of words. Why had he said "we all?" It wasn't as though the entire ship was interested in her and Isaac, was it?

Besides, she affirmed to herself, as she turned toward her room of the ship, there was nothing going on between her and Isaac besides friendship. Nothing at all. Really. Isaac wasn't interested in anything else, and he would never be. They were just good friends, and she was perfectly happy with that. Jenna nodded in agreement with herself. It was then, as she opened the door to her room, that she realized that she didn't know whom she was trying to convince.

She then lay across her bed on her stomach, muddled in discontent. Her knees hung just off the edge, with her feet crossed. She kicked her legs up and down in a slow, steady rhythm, staring intently at the floor below her on the other side of the bed. She weaved her fingers together absent-mindedly as she sat on the bed. She didn't move herself for a long time.

She looked out the window of her room, and saw the beautiful night sky, though it didn't mean much to her right now. Stupid boys, Felix and Isaac both. Felix had already died on her once, and then he had to get blown off of the ship. Then, Isaac had to insist on following her brother too closely down that path for her comfort. Why didn't either of them care if their actions hurt her like they did? Wasn't it obvious that she cared about them?

Then, in the most honest moment of her life, Jenna realized that it wasn't obvious. She didn't show gratitude very well, or affection. She hadn't hugged her brother since… Magma Rock? Maybe?

At that point, tears started flowing freely down her cheeks. What if Felix was dead, and she hadn't said goodbye? She buried her head into her pillow, half in shame, and half to hide her sobs. She smelled the salt in her tears as her pillow soaked them up. At least Isaac was still here. She would have to make it up to him soon. Then, she cut herself off as she heard a knock from the door behind her.

"Hey, you," came Sheba's voice. "You in there?"

"..Sniff.. Yes."

"Can I come in?" she asked gently.

Sheba listened for a moment, and was about to leave Jenna alone when she heard a small noise from inside.

"Please…"

"What's the matter, hun?" probed Sheba, as she pushed the door shut behind her. "You've been crying."

"Sheba, am I… nice?" asked Jenna as she pulled herself up.

"What do you mean by that?" replied Sheba, as she sat down next to her on the bed.

"I don't let people know that I care, do I?"

"Of course you do," she said, hoping to prop up Jenna's dignity. "You just do it… differently than most people."

It didn't quite work as well as she hoped. Jenna began crying again, and put her head on Sheba's shoulder. Sheba grimaced as she wrapped her arms around Jenna and gave her a tight hug.

"Sheba, I never said goodbye to Felix! What if he didn't make it?" she wailed.

"Don't say that!" exclaimed Sheba. "He made it, I know he did. Felix works well in the water, for a Venus adept. He saved me when he jumped from the top of Venus Lighthouse, remember? And this time, he has Mia with him. They will be ok, I'm sure of it."

Jenna's expression softened a little at this.

"I'm still not very nice…"

"You are too! And if anyone says you aren't nice, I'll zap them so bad their hair will burn."

Her frown hung on for a second, and then lost control as a smile spread across her face.

"Thanks for talking to me," said Jenna.

"For you? Of course," said Sheba brightly.

"What should I do though? I want to do something nice. What should I do?" asked Jenna.

"Well, you could always bring Isaac something to eat," replied Sheba, with a wink and a nudge.

"I never said anything about Isaac!" Jenna said indignantly.

"You're not denying anything about Isaac, either," taunted Sheba.

"This is not fair!" Jenna moaned. "You can't come in and be nice to me and then make fun of me! You promised you wouldn't bring that up!"

"Sorry, Jenna," said Sheba, wiping away the grin. "Who would you like to do something nice for then?"

"Umm…."

"Isaac?" Sheba interjected helpfully, the grin back in full.

"HEY!" Jenna cried.

"I'll let you think about it, then," said Sheba, as she got up and scampered toward the door.

Jenna stood up to reach after the girl, but Sheba was much faster than Jenna, and was out the door in a heartbeat. Jenna sat back down, arms folded across her lap. There was no way she was going to make food for Isaac. No way.

Half an hour later, Kraden, who was resting on the couch in the main room, lifted his eyes from his book to see Jenna stealthily carrying a tray with two bowls of soup down to the rooms.

She must be really hungry, thought Kraden.

What's been going on between Jenna and me lately? Isaac wondered across the hall.

Not only had she been acting very strange, she had also APOLOGIZED to him. That alone struck him as suspicious, not to mention that Sheba was always giggling whenever they talked to each other. Sheba and Jenna were the closest pair of friends on the boat, except maybe Ivan and Garet. What did Sheba know that she was always laughing about? It seemed rather rude that she would laugh like that in the first place. Maybe, he reasoned, Sheba had been reading his thoughts while he slept. Could Sheba even do that? Not that it bothered him. He just didn't want to be the butt of a joke. Really. It didn't matter what Jenna's thoughts were, just why she was acting strange. He wasn't kidding, either. Strangely enough, Isaac, too, fell into his bed unhappily.

Who was he kidding? He had liked Jenna for as long as he could remember liking girls. He had worked hard to try to stop liking her so that he could save their friendship, but… Some days he was better at putting those feelings away than others. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe they knew had always liked her, and that was why she was being weird.

Stupid girls. Why were they always so weird and confusing? They never did anything nice, and they were always teasing. At least, it seemed that way to Isaac. He felt like he was being played. Girls teased so often that it was next to impossible to tell when they were being sincere, which was why Isaac was for a moment tempted to slam the door in Jenna's face when she knocked, carrying a bowl of soup for each of them.

"I don't mean to sound rude," said Isaac, in between spoonfuls of soup, "but why did you bring me soup?"

"What, I can't be nice?" said Jenna, slight affronted by his question.

"I'm not saying that, it's just a rare occasion."

Jenna was tempted to hit him in the face, but she wanted to prove that she could be nice.

"Well, I just wanted to do something nice for you, so I brought you soup," she said, careful not to let any sound of anger enter her voice.

"I do appreciate it," said Isaac. "Thank you."

"Sure!" said Jenna, smiling a little bit.

Sheba, who had her ear to the door, smiled. Things seemed to be going well enough to leave the immediate vicinity. She walked back down the hall to Ivan's room, where Garet and Ivan sat laughing. They immediately focused their attention on Sheba, who did a happy little jump-step as she came in.

"So," said Garet, "what happened? Did he let her in?"

"Yes," said Sheba.

Garet grinned and looked over at Ivan, who reluctantly put his hand into his pocket and dug out a few gold coins.

"Did he say something stupid within ten seconds?" asked Ivan.

"Yes," said Sheba again.

"Ha!" shouted Ivan jubilantly. "I'll take those back, thank you."

Garet scowled and returned the coins to Ivan.

"Don't you want to know what happened after he said that?" inquired Sheba.

"Did she hit him?" asked Garet.

"No way," said Ivan.

"Same bet?" asked Garet.

"Double," said Ivan confidently.

"Ha! You're on!"

He shook Ivan's hand.

"So, did she smack him or not, Sheba?" Garet asked eagerly.

"You really aren't too smart, are you?" Ivan asked, turning toward Garet.

"What are you talking about?" returned Garet.

"Do you really think Sheba would have been smiling if Jenna hit him? That would set us all back."

"Oh…" said Garet, as realization dawned on him.

"Pay up, Garet," confirmed Sheba.

He dug his own coins out of his pocket, and put them in Ivan's hand with a bitter scowl.

Boys, thought Sheba, as she walked out.

What is a "yawn" sound? Because it certainly is not "Ahhh." I just didn't have a clue….

And every time I write that y- word, I y-. Not a fun chapter to write while you're sleepy.

I thought that Sheba was being really manipulative in this chapter. How did I even come up with that?

So, that is all for this chapter, folks. Hopefully, this wasn't too horrible, but it was definitely not my best work. PLEEASE, I'm begging you, if you took the time to read this, write a review, even if all it says is "This sucks, I want a cookie for putting up with it."