I release all rights and characters to their respective owners.

I haven't been writing at all recently. I just can't get anything good out of myself-not poetry, not short stories, not songs, not a thing. It has been making me very upset. So, I thought to myself last night, "It's time to go back to my roots – I guess I might be finishing Tundra after all."

So, here I am. I have no idea what to do next, and I fully expect that my quality of writing has deteriorated somewhat. All I ask is that you bear with me – we'll get to the finish line soon. It already feels good to have my fingers back underneath the keyboard. This should be fun!

As is customary, I now take time to vigorously thank all of my reviewers: …, Felix (actually my name), ^_^ sweet, tranquil09, UltaFlame, MartinIII, insoki, mediocre, AxelXIII, CyBeastSaber, The Fox Writer, Rocky0825, SpiritGuardian, AAA, Anonymous, Marahute Sol, Kd7sov, 17th warrior, riais, Grayjack72, bente-unerz36, Lofast, and Frutillas. You guys have driven me to continue my story for a long time, and you are a large part of the reason that I am picking it back up today.

Tundra

Chapter 12: The Heart Is Here

The eight young adepts sat at the table in the common room of their proud Lemurian ship. Upon their safe return, Kraden had jubilantly exclaimed that a feast was in order, and a feast he had prepared – Kraden had long since earned the title of a master chef, and he had proven himself once again with his latest culinary exploit.

The main course, per Felix's suggestion, was phoenix – it tasted like chicken, but it had a more rich flavor; one could also detect a gamey taste in the initial bite. Everyone agreed that it was one of the most interesting dishes that Kraden had ever prepared. The scholar had also delved into the store of corn they had purchased from Contigo and procured some butter, allowing for delicious corn-on-the-cob. Mashed potatoes, soup, and several other vegetables also complimented the main courses. It was the best-prepared meal any of them had ever eaten on the ship.

The group laughed and chattered heartily as they passed the dishes down the table. As usual, Ivan and Garet received their food last – the serving bowls tended to become empty when they passed the two boys. As soon as everyone had loaded plates, unfinished conversations from earlier began in earnest.

"So Garet," began Mia, "what exactly happened to your arm?"

Garet shuddered slightly as he lifted his spoon to his mouth with his left hand.

"I fell off the gangway," he said. "I landed right on my arm. I felt it bend in, and then it hurt really bad for just a second.. After that, I couldn't feel anything. I heard the pop, too. Then I looked at it, and the bone was poking…"

"No-no-no-no-no!" exclaimed Sheba, who covered her ears with her hands. "Details later, please. I'm eating."

The Jupiter adept looked plaintively at her plate.

"Sorry, Sheba," apologized Garet, before turning back to Mia. "So, anyway, I fell, it broke, and then I remember being carried on the boat. After that, Isaac said that I needed to be unconscious, so I just passed out. I don't really know why."

Jenna and Sheba giggled slightly.

"But you're fine now?" Mia inquired.

"Well, I do have a pretty bad headache…" Garet intoned.

Sheba and Jenna's giggles erupted into laughter. Garet looked at them with confusion.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

The girls laughed even harder.

"Garet, you have a headache because we had to use… unorthodox methods to produce your anesthesia," said Piers apologetically.

"And that means…" said Garet, making circles with his good hand to Piers.

"I used my sword pommel," the Lemurian said.

"Oh," replied Garet, who, judging by his tone, did not much care for unorthodox anesthesia. "I gotcha."

The girls laughed again. Garet rolled his eyes.

"So how did you get his bone back in?" asked Mia.

"Kraden and Sheba did it," replied Ivan. "Sheba set the bone, and then Kraden did the stitches. And let me tell you, he's a brilliant surgeon."

"That's one way to put it," agreed Isaac. "He did an amazing job."

Mia beckoned Garet to stand up; she walked around the table and looked at his arm. She peered at it, probing the outer layers of their handiwork. After a few seconds, she voiced her opinion.

"Absolutely flawless," she affirmed, looking at Kraden at the head of the table. "I couldn't have done better."

Kraden accepted her compliment gratefully, and took a small bite of his dinner. Mia made her way back around the table, and smoothed the back of a new pair of robes as she sat down between Isaac and Sheba.

"So much has happened in the past few days," Mia stated as she exhaled.

"Agreed," said Jenna. "I'm amazed we made it through that storm, for one."

"Tell us about the storm," Felix said, in his own very concise way.

"Yes, I'd like to hear what happened after we fell off, too," Mia added.

"We didn't have a pilot for more than five hours," said Isaac. "If you hadn't dropped the anchor, Felix, we wouldn't have made it. We caught a lucky break after that though. We went right through the eye of the storm."

"And it took five hours?" Mia responded, incredulous.

"Yeah, it was nerve-wracking," said Isaac. "The worst part of it was that I couldn't even make it outside without being blown off the ship. I had to just wait while everyone else was in working."

"Not after we got into the eye, though," Jenna interrupted, "Actually, Felix, I wanted to tell you – Isaac is your kind of idiot."

She winked in the blond adept's direction.

"We came into the eye of the storm, and he decided to strap himself to the helm. You'll probably see the mark from where he had Garet burn his bootsoles onto the deck. And look at his hands!"

Isaac shook his head negatively at Jenna, but the rest of his friends egged him on. He pulled his hands out from beneath the table, revealing his raw, twice-reblistered hands. Mia's jaw dropped. Felix's eyes opened slightly.

"Oh my goodness," gasped Mia.

"They're fine," said Isaac. "They don't hurt. Besides, I think it's about time Felix and Mia told us their story. I think we deserve a good story now."

"Not quite yet, Isaac," said Kraden. "What about after the storm? It took the rest of us quite a bit of time to find our two friends. I think that deserves some explanation."

"Yes," Felix agreed, "I would like to hear why it took so long after the storm. Mia and I were worried that you didn't make it."

"We got lost," said Ivan.

Garet chuckled. Isaac shot him a terse glare.

"We were blown off course during the storm," Isaac amended, "and we couldn't figure out where we were until later that night. We kept moving, but travel took us almost all day. By the time we got back to the coast, it was too dark to use the Wings anymore. We spent a day looking for you, but it wasn't until later that night that we saw your… battle? Garet got hurt as we were leaving, and you know the rest."

"Speaking of battle…" Kraden said, "I believe it is Felix's turn for storytelling. What happened? Sheba was watching the battle with Reveal, and she saw something that knocked her unconscious. A very bright light."

Felix took a long sip of water.

"When we came ashore, there was a little cluster of trees, and under it there were some eggs. We ate those for a few meals, but we were attacked by the parents. They destroyed our shelter, and a piece of it fell on Mia's leg. She didn't have any Psynergy left, and neither of us had either Djinn or weapons. I got rid of one of the phoenixes, but the other one summoned a minotaur. I fell, and the minotaur went after Mia…"

The entire table was silent. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about the food. Felix took another sip of water.

"Something happened. I can't explain what. Something appeared. It told the creatures to leave. Then, it vanished, and that was it."

Felix glanced at Mia, making sure she understood that his dream was to remain private. She gave him a small nod, indicating that she understood. He was not going to reveal it to the group until he knew what seeing a vision of the Mercury Lighthouse's guardian denoted. Besides, he had no desire to explain the second dream. He was afraid of what it meant.

"I saw it too," Mia added. "I wouldn't believe it, but…"

"Oh, we all saw it," said Piers. "It was so bright that it woke up the entire boat. That's how we found you."

"Wow," said Ivan. "I wonder what it was…"

"We might never know," Felix stated simply, indicating that he did not wish to discuss the issue any further.

After a moment, several small conversations broke out on the side, and the rest of the meal passed without incident. Afterward, everyone chipped in to help with the cleanup. As they finished, Felix gave a very warranted order.

"Everyone, it is important that we proceed to Prox as soon as possible. Our entire world is at stake here."

He looked at each of his compatriots, all of whom looked directly into his eyes. They didn't show any sign of distaste, even though he was sure they felt it at the moment. This was one of the hardest orders for a dedicated leader to give, but Felix knew that he had to do it.

He continued, "And, as the world is in our hands, we will be taking tomorrow off. We'll leave late in the afternoon. Get some rest. Talk. Enjoy some time together. We've all earned it."

Smiles broke out on the faces of his companions; everyone suddenly seemed to be walking a little bit lighter, talking a little bit louder. Everyone began to disperse from the area around the table – Jenna, Garet, and Kraden excused themselves to freshen up, as they hadn't cleaned up since before dinner.

"Isaac, do you have a moment?" Piers asked as he walked out toward the door to the deck.

"Of course," Isaac replied, following the Lemurian outside.

Sheba glanced at Ivan and Mia.

"Can I talk to Felix for a minute, guys?"

"Oh," said Mia, "sure, Sheba. Want to take a walk, Ivan?"

"Sounds good to me!" Ivan chirped, and they strolled off outside, making their way toward the back of the ship.

Sheba waited until Ivan and Mia shut the door softly behind them.

"Can we sit down, Felix?" she asked, indicating the couch she had slept on the previous night. "I need to talk to you."

Felix brought his fatigued and muscular frame down onto the couch quietly.

"What's the matter, Sheba?" he asked.

"I-I've messed up a bit these past few days, Felix."

She paused.

"Actually, I messed up a lot," she remedied.

"Everyone on this boat makes mistakes, Sheba. But you know that."

"I do," she agreed.

"You made a mistake, but that isn't what's bothering you, is it?" he inferred.

"No," Sheba said.

"You know I won't judge," stated Felix, as though it were the simplest fact.

"It doesn't make this any less embarrassing," Sheba countered.

"When you're ready."

Felix waited patiently. Sheba, seated on the opposite side of the couch, took a deep breath and began to tell Felix what she had done - how she had manipulated everyone, how she had rationalized her decisions and actions, and how everything had finally broken down after the first day of searching. Felix listened to her impassively, his face calm and serene, as Sheba poured out all of her doubts and failings.

"…and that's everything," she sniffled. "I've been terrible to everyone, and… I didn't know what to do without you here. We were all a mess. What's bothering me is that we fell apart… that I fell apart without you."

She paused. Felix said nothing, sensing that she had more to say. He continued to look at her intently.

"We need you, Felix. No, I need you. Don't leave us again. Please."

He embraced her tightly, and Sheba held on to him like a daughter holds her father.

"I won't," he assured her. "I promise."

"Do you need help, Piers?" Isaac inquired.

"No, not help, Isaac," the Lemurian replied. "I want to thank you for everything you've done these past few days. You've done a fantastic job of keeping us together. You can be sure that without your leadership, Feilx and Mia would be dead in the snow, and the rest of us would be likely be in the bottom of the ocean. We all owe you a great deal."

"Thanks, Piers," said Isaac, a little taken aback by Piers' up-front comments, but appreciative nonetheless.

"You've done remarkably well," Piers continued. "I was especially proud of the way that you handled the situation with Sheba. We needed that, and I am certain that the situation would have exploded without your intervention."

"I'm glad you think so," said Isaac wearily. "This whole thing is just…"

He struggled to find the right words.

"…messed up," he finished. "Thanks for the kind words, Piers."

"Of course," Piers replied. "I don't think we thank you – or Felix, for that matter – enough for saving our lives as many times as you both have. I thought that now would be a very appropriate time to do something about it."

He paused.

"Speaking of last night, by the way, I'm curious… How did you resolve the situation with Jenna?"

"It's… well, I mean… I don't know. She helped me down to my room after Garet's surgery, and we talked about it. She said she liked me, and I told her I felt the same way, but nothing else happened. She was sort of covered in blood. I don't really know what that means."

"You two have some more talking do then, it would seem," Piers commented.

"Yeah, I think we do," agreed Isaac. "Would you mind if I took care of that?"

"Go for it," Piers encouraged.

Isaac smiled in gratitude and made his way inside, down to the belly of the ship. Piers chuckled to himself, reminiscing about his younger days as he watched the blond adept leave.

"So, Mia, what's up?" Ivan asked, his boyish features full of curiosity.

The walked down the starboard side towards the back of the boat slowly. Ivan stuffed his hands in his pockets casually. He watched his breath freeze in the air as he exhaled out his nose. He looked over at Mia; her nose was toward the ground, and her brow was furrowed with confusion.

"What really happened while Felix and I were gone?" she asked. "I've never seen us so… frazzled."

Ivan chuckled softly at her word choice.

"Don't laugh, Ivan," she said indignantly. "I was being serious."

"I know," said Ivan with a contagious laugh, "it's just that 'frazzled' doesn't even begin to describe it."

Mia chuckled softly at his commentary.

"Go on, then," she urged. "what happened?"

"Do you want the long version or the short one?" Ivan asked.

"We've got time," said Mia. "I'll go with the long one."

"It began on a dark and stormy day at sea…" Ivan uttered dramatically through a grin, "when a company of eight heroic and good-looking adepts had been reduced to six."

Mia rolled her eyes and stopped walking, leaning back against the railing on the side of the ship.

"At that time, several of the more mischievous companions began to plot – they wanted to get Isaac and Jenna together while Felix was gone."

Ivan's histrionic tone of moments before deteriorated into a remorseful sigh; his face showed his regret and embarrassment plainly. Mia cringed as the pieces of the puzzle began to weave themselves into a tapestry in her mind.

"Oh my goodness," she sighed. "Ivan, did you really?"

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, we did. Not our best moment. It was really bad for Sheba, though. She even got Piers angry at her, and Piers never gets mad at anyone."

"I've never seen him react to anything unless it was warranted," Mia agreed. "He's a lot like Felix that way."

"The whole day after that was terrible – everything with Sheba happened in the morning. We walked around looking for you guys that whole first day after the storm, but everybody was irritable, and no one wanted to be around each other. Isaac got tired of it though, and then he called a big meeting on deck before we even went back inside. Everything came out, including the whole Isaac and Jenna thing… You know how Jenna normally yells when she's upset?"

Mia couldn't help but chuckle at his last comment – Ivan's commentary was infectiously humorous.

"Yes," she replied, inviting him to continue.

"Well when everything came out, Sheba tried to apologize. Then, Jenna yelled at her for a second, and then… Oooooh…" Ivan shuddered. "Then, she couldn't find anything else to say, so she just walked right off the deck. Didn't make a sound. She just shut the door quietly and went down to her room. It was the scariest thing I've ever seen."

Mia imagined the situation unfolding as Ivan had described it, and she had to agree that it would have been frightening indeed.

"I'll bet."

"When we saw your fight later that night, I thought that Jenna was going to tear Sheba to pieces on the way over to where you and Felix were. But, Garet fell and splintered his arm, so we had a great surgery-slash-team bonding experience instead of a fight on the tundra," Ivan concluded.

"You guys had a lot of action, it sounds like," Mia commented.

"Yeah, you could say that," Ivan replied dryly. "What did you and Felix do, besides fight wild animals?"

Mia hoped her blush didn't show as images of Felix's warm body pressed against hers came to her mind.

"N-nothing really," she stuttered. "Just, you know, talked and stuff."

"What, that's it?" said Ivan with a nudge and a grin. "I mean, you were with 'gorgeous Felix' in a hut all day."

"Ivan!" she shrieked, as she shot him a punch on the arm that was only partially playful . "I would not do that! Never!"

"That's not what you said in your sleep that first night after Jupiter Lighthouse," Ivan shot back with a satisfied snicker.

Mia's face turned a deep crimson shade. It was probably true, after all. She did have a habit of talking in her sleep, or so she had been told, and she had certainly dreamed of Felix before. She couldn't even look at Ivan. She slumped down to the ground and hid her face between her bands.

Ivan, for his part, wore a look of shock and amazement. He had been expecting another playful punch, accompanied by a cultured, yet flippant remark in the way only Mia could. He had not been expecting to hit the nail on the head.

"Oh my gosh, Mia I-I didn't mean to…" he stammered as he crouched down to her level. "Mia, I never heard you say anything, it was just a joke. I was only making stuff up. Oh, shoot… I didn't know you really felt that way, I wouldn't… especially not right after…"

Mia still wouldn't look up.

"Mia, I'm so sorry," he whispered quietly. "I won't tell a soul. Come on, you know I didn't mean it like that."

Ivan waited for a moment. No response was forthcoming, save a small sniffle. Ivan cringed to himself.

"What in the world can I say now?" he thought.

He sat awkwardly for a moment. At sixteen, he was struggling to handle the situation. He sat still as his mind churned, searching for a solution to his unfortunate teasing. Mia sniffled again.

He put his hand under her chin, pulling it up gently. He pulled a small hankie out of his pocket and wiped the tear streaks off of her face.

"It's not worth crying over," he said. "I won't tell anyone. I won't even bring it up with you again. It's safe with me. I promise."

He held out his pinky finger with an embarrassed grimace – the eternal gesture of apology and request for trust.

Mia smiled slightly, and the young Jupiter adept beamed – he knew that he had won her over, and so did she.

"You always know what to say Ivan," she said with a weary chuckle. "After you say the wrong thing, anyway."

"I do what I can," he intoned with a self-depreciating grin.

"I know you do," she replied sincerely. "Apology accepted."

"Thanks," he said, his boyish smile present as always.

There was a silent moment. Then, Mia spoke.

"How did you ever become such a goofball?" she pondered aloud.

"I blame Garet," Ivan responded innocently, not missing a beat.

"Riiiight," Mia replied.

She looked around, as though expecting to see the redheaded giant traipsing through the ship. She casually wiped away the last of her tears.

"Where is he, anyway?" she asked.

"Downstairs, I think," Ivan answered. "You know, I think it's about time we had an exclusive reunion party, just me, you, Garet, and Isaac. We can all hang out in Isaac's room because mine and Garet's smells bad or something."

"It does smell bad," Mia affirmed. "I can't stand it in there. You can barely see the floor!"

"Actually, Garet and I cleaned it the other day…"

"Really?" exclaimed Mia. "Now this, I have to see. Maybe we can have our reunion party in your room after all!"

"You won't believe it," promised Ivan. "It smells fresh."

Well, Ivan amended internally, maybe not fresh, but at least not stale anymore.

"I won't believe it until I see it," Mia claimed. "You have to prove it to me."

"I'll show you then," Ivan replied. "Come on!"

They headed inside, and down to Ivan and Garet's room.

Jenna stepped out of the shower (even after such a long time on the boat, the mysterious Lemurian device was still marvel of relaxation to her), dried herself fully, and pulled her tall, soft-pink nightgown over her shoulders. She walked over to her window, opened the porthole, and let the clean ocean air refresh her.

It had been a long few days. She had both lost and then found her brother again; she had survived what could have been the most violent storm in the history of Weyard; her best friend had betrayed her confidence right under her nose; Garet had suffered an injury that could have been life-threatening; on top of it all, she had been on her monthly.

Then, there was that Isaac boy.

She hadn't talked to Isaac directly since the aftermath of Garet's surgery. She had seen him and talked to him with the group, to be sure, but she had no way of knowing his reaction to her… last escapade before she left his room. She wasn't even sure if Isaac knew what she had done. He had acted perfectly normal all day, and hadn't even sought her out after dinner. She expected that Isaac would have at least talked to her if he knew.

She sighed in frustration, pulled her hair taut as if to put it in a ponytail, and allowed it to fall back behind her. Maybe she was over-thinking this. She took another deep breath of the ocean's pure air.

One part of her mind told her to seek Isaac out herself, to talk to him again. It was obvious that they hadn't completely resolved everything. On the other hand, she didn't want to make herself any more vulnerable to Isaac than she already had. After the episode with Sheba, she was uneager to put herself in a position to be hurt. Besides, she had put her feelings on the line when she had talked to him in his room. This time, it was his turn to find her. Even as she made her decision to wait, a visitor rapped lightly on Jenna's door. She cracked the door open nervously.

It wasn't who she had expected.

"Hey," she said, "I was just… Oh. Hey, Sheba."

Jenna's voice grew the tiniest bit colder. Only someone who was looking for it would have noticed, but it was not imperceptible – Sheba certainly was looking for it.

"Hey… Jenna, listen… I-I'm really, really sorry, I… I've been terrible, I know I have, but... Can I come in please?"

"Yeah."

Jenna pulled the door back to allow Sheba through. Sheba walked in, and then Jenna turned around as she shut the door. She crossed her arms and then didn't move, and her expression betrayed nothing.

Sheba shuffled her feet nervously. It was never good when Jenna was so angry that she was quiet.

"I know that this isn't a good reason for what I did," Sheba began, "but I… I thought I would be helping you by trying to get you and Isaac together. It doesn't make sense now, but it did then. I wanted you two to be happy."

"Okay," Jenna replied insincerely.

Sheba forced herself to ignore Jenna's tone.

"I'm not very good at this," she continued, "but I didn't want you to think that I was trying to hurt you. I know I did, and that's all my fault. I hate knowing that I did it, because…"

Sheba stopped, sniffled, and took a deep breath, forcing herself to regain her composure.

"Before Saturos and Merandi came to Lalivero, I was always that… that child who fell from the sky, or something. I-I never had a real friend… until I started traveling with you guys."

Her voice began to crack again.

"I-I've been terrible to you Jenna, a-and I wish I hadn't because y-you're my… my best friend. You're the… sniff… only real f-friend I've ever had."

Tears flowed freely down Sheba's cheeks. She didn't look down though. She kept her eyes focused on Jenna. The Mars adpet's brown eyes, which had been tainted by anger and mistrust moments before, softened immediately at Sheba's last words. Jenna immediately pulled her friend tightly to her.

"Oh, Sheba," she said tenderly, "thank you. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have been so angry. You were only trying to help. Besides, I can't be too mad at you, because…"

Jenna brought her mouth up beside Sheba's ear.

"… it worked," she whispered triumphantly, and both parties broke out into huge grins. Sheba squealed.

"WHAT?" Sheba exclaimed exuberantly, her tears drying up as though under the sun of the Lamakan Desert. "Since when?"

"Since I helped him downstairs after the surgery," she answered, beaming. "I told him everything, and he said that he liked me too."

"Jenna, that's wonderful! I'm so happy for you!"

And she was. Sheba felt her heart jump up ten feet in the air. The feeling was exactly as she had hoped it would be; even though there had been unnecessary heartbreak along the way, she was overcome with joy that her friends were… what were they, exactly?

"So…" Sheba questioned, "what exactly are you two?"

"Not a clue," Jenna replied. "We have to talk again pretty soon here. To be honest, I thought that it would be him to come and knock on my door first, not you."

"We'll wait until he comes, then," said Sheba. "I'll keep you company. Besides, we haven't had a girls night in a while. We've been busy saving the world."

Jenna smiled brightly.

"I'd like that," she agreed.

Isaac had been in his room for over fifteen minutes after finishing his conversation with Piers, trying to collect his thoughts. He was nervous – this was the girl he had liked to some degree, for as long as he could remember liking girls. What if tonight ended in kissing? He didn't know how to do that at all.

He washed himself off twice, in an attempt to rid himself unnatural amounts of perspiration he was producing. Jenna had never made him this nervous before. It wasn't like they had never had a deep conversation before - they had been the closest of friends, and then there was their conversation on the dock right before the boulder fell…

There was no other event in his life from before the fall of the Boulder that Isaac remembered with such clarity. Even as he thought about it, the memory of that conversation gave him some much needed confidence. He had handled that night-he could deal with this one, too.

He got up off of his bed and made his way to the other side of the ship, to Jenna's room. As he moved to knock on the door, however, his hand stopped at the sound of feminine laughter from inside.

He heard Jenna's infectious laughter as it combined with Sheba's high-pitched giggle. He couldn't interrupt this reconciliation, he rationalized. He turned to walk away.

A few steps later, he stopped himself. He needed to handle this tonight. He turned around again.

"Isaac!" came a voice from the other end of the hallway. "Isaac! There you are!"

It was Ivan.

"Come on, we've been looking for you everywhere. We're having a reunion party in me and Garet's room,"

"My and Garet's room," Isaac corrected internally.

"What reunion party?" the Venus adept inquired.

"The four of us! You, me, Garet, and Mia. Come on!"

Isaac glanced back at Jenna's door once more. There was always time tomorrow.

"Alright," he agreed. "Let's go!"

Long after the rest of the boat had fallen asleep, the Isaac, Ivan, Garet, and Mia labored to extend the night for as long as they could-the evening had been a fantastic idea, and the young adepts were having a great time as they recounted their favorite tales, including the first time that Ivan had worked together with Garet and Isaac to defeat the thieves in Vault.

"And then he was all like, 'We'll just have to kill you all to make our getaway!'" said Ivan as he waved his hand in the air madly, imitating the bandit leader. "I just remember thinking, 'How stupid can you guys be? You're about to get your shit rocked.'"

Everyone but Mia roared with laughter in memory of the three dim-witted thieves. She had heard the story many times before and enjoyed it immensely, though she hadn't been there.

"My favorite when Isaac insisted we go back to Altin to rescue Hsu," Mia said slyly. "More like make sure he stayed under the boulder so that Isaac could have Feizhi all to himself."

"Hey now, guys," said Ivan in mock seriousness.

Garet shook with the effort of holding down the volume of his laughter, and Mia grinned mischievously.

"Guys!" Ivan falsely threatened again. "Isaac doesn't 'like Feizhi that way.' He just wants to 'do the right thing and help people.'"

"Oh, so that's what you kids are calling it these days," Garet quipped, biting his lip in an effort to finish his sentence without laughing.

Ivan and Garet roared even louder than before, nearly falling to the floor. To Isaac's dismay, not even Mia was trying to hide her laughter. Her normally reserved manner had all but vanished, and she laughed just as loudly as the other two boys. Isaac, in contrast, had turned redder than Garet's hair.

"But I don't," Isaac argued in vain, which only brought more laughs from the group.

"Okay, okay," said Isaac, preparing to go on the offensive, "the situation with Feizhi was funny, I'll admit it, but what about that one time that Garet tried to use his 'good looks' to pry the key to the barricade away from the guard who he thought was a girl?"

Now it was Garet's turn to be embarrassed. It made sense to him at the time, after all. The guard had long, dark hair, a slim body, and wasn't moving. It was sometimes hard to tell what gender the guards were beneath their long uniforms. Isaac wasn't cutting Garet any slack, though-Ivan and Mia laughed as Isaac built up the anticipation."

"… so the guard listened to Garet that whole time. Didn't say a word. But at the end, the guard said…"

Mia and Ivan joined in at this point.

" 'Talk to you when I get off, cutie!' "

The walls seemed to shake with their laughs. Perhaps it was Ivan, however, who had legitimately fallen on the floor.

"That was the deepest voice I have ever heard!" Ivan howled.

"You should have taken him up on it, Garet," Mia said, as she wiped a tear of laughter from her cheeks. "He was a sexy man if I ever saw one."

"It was a good idea!" Garet groaned. "It just didn't work out right."

"That's what you think," Ivan playfully. "It wasn't that it didn't work out right – I think it was a great idea. You just didn't take it far enough is all."

Garet grinned in spite of the insult, and joined in the laughter.

"Get out of my-yawn-room!" he shot playfully.

Isaac and Mia immediately caught the yawning virus.

"What time is it?" Ivan asked, looking on his bedside table for the small clock they kept there.

Garet joined him in searching and ducked behind his headboard.

"Found it!" said Garet, who emerged from behind his bed with the timepiece in hand. "It's half past one."

"It's getting late," said Mia.

"It's been late," Ivan corrected. "I've had fun tonight, guys. We should do this again soon, but I need to go to bed."

"Yeah, I think so, too," replied Isaac. "I'll see you guys in the morning."

"Or the afternoon," said Garet, who fluffed his pillow several times.

"Or the afternoon," Isaac agreed.

He left the room grinning. That had been a fun night. He always found it interesting that Mia played with the boys so well. A peculiar sensation of happiness bubbled up from some internal source. This sensation was one that he had not felt in the longest time, and for a moment, he couldn't quite place it.

He smiled internally as he realized what the feeling was – it was the sensation of home. Their proud Lemurian ship, in spite of all of its shortcomings, was his home. There was pain and joy; there was work and play; there was struggle and success. It was a safe place, where trouble could take a backseat to internal peace. He had not felt this sensation since the morning that he and Garet left Vale on their quest to save the world, and he had not realized how much he had missed having a place he could call home.

He opened the door to his room, and immediately made his way to the small sink in the bathroom adjacent to his room. He washed off his face and promptly made his way to his bed. On closer inspection, he noticed a small note just below his pillows. He picked it up – it was half the size of a normal piece of paper, folded into thirds, and there was nothing on the outside-not even a seal.

He opened the piece of paper; there was a single sentence on the inside.

"See me on deck in the morning.

–Felix"

At that moment, Isaac realized that Felix had probably heard about him and Jenna. In fact, there was no way that he hadn't. Isaac allowed himself to release a resigned sigh.

"This is gonna be a fun one," Isaac thought to himself.

I have a question for YOU, my beloved and loyal reader - what did you think of my first chapter in almost six months?

I hope nothing in here seems forced. I finally finished this chapter, so I'm thinking about picking this story back up, at the very least. This chapter certainly moved in the direction that I wanted it to. My only concern about this chapter was how little time actually passed; this gaudy monstrosity was over 6,000 words long, but it spanned only the length of an evening in the story. I still have an entire day of conversation to write… As I'm sure you all know by now, I consider dialogue my weakest point.

I have two points to make:

First, a clarification - I don't think my actual spoken dialogue is weak; I try very hard to make it realistic. The weak point in my dialogue is details; I feel like I am unable to put in as much narration as I believe is necessary during the dialogue sequences. If anyone besides me has thoughts on that, I would certainly appreciate it.

And for the second, a storyline note - I got all of the conversations done that I promised, with the exception of Mia and Jenna - I decided that Sheba's characterization needed more work than Mia's did at the moment. I (tentatively) expect the next chapter to be very Mia-centric. She did not make as much of an appearance in this chapter as I would have liked, and I hope that I will rectify that to everyone's satisfaction.

Thanks again to all of my reviewers. And, just so you all know, if you leave a signed review, please note that I will be returning EVERY review that I receive from now on.

Thanks again, everybody! I've had a blast writing this new chapter, and I'm hoping to write more in the near future. The title for this chapter is dedicated to this community, for subconsciously nudging me to get back to work on this story. It's going to be nice to be writing for you guys again.