-----------------------------------
He was unable to take his eyes from those mountains. The stunning, frightening lights in the sky had come from that direction, and had receded there as well. What Isaac was afraid of, was that it could happen again at any time. Worse yet, it may actually hurt them next time, if that time ever did come.
Finally tearing his gaze away, Isaac instead turned to the way they had come. Besides the flattened grasslands and squawking mass of birds, a person would never know what had happened.
Unless they had been there.
He didn't know what to think. He felt like his mind was going to war, with two opposing sides trying to win out. The safer thing to do, it seemed, would be to go back to the ship, and leave this place. They didn't need this; they needed to find Felix, and the Jupiter Lighthouse before it was too late. If they didn't, he couldn't even bear to think about what may happen.
But what if this was where the Jupiter Lighthouse was? What if the lightning and thunderous noise had been Felix lighting the flame? Turning around and leaving could be the worst possible thing to do. They could conceivably miss them by the barest of distances.
Isaac dragged his gloved hand through his disorderly hair, then looked up once more.
They were watching him, waiting,
Isaac inhaled sharply through his teeth. Mia, Garet and Ivan stood there, eyes fixed on his. They were waiting for him to make a decision. Isaac was the leader; he made the choices. The choices that governed their fates.
The choices that governed everyone's fate.
His mind went into that all too familiar state of panic. He had to choose. He had to. But . . . what to choose? How could he choose?
Disjointed images flashed through his mind, both real and unreal. The world aflame; Jenna screaming as Saturos held her; Mercury Lighthouse with its beacon alight; a shadow crossing the lands; Kraden telling him and Garet about the Elemental Stars . . . his mother . . . his father . . .
His choice.
Resolutely, Isaac forced himself to take a step. A step towards the mountains.
~*~
It was cool and pleasant under the trees. The crushed leaves under their feet filled the air with the sharp scent of greenery. Many of the trees' branches reached skywards, leaving the lower half of the forest clear but for the bushes and grass. Leaves skittered across the ground with the breeze.
Having slept in the open the night before, Isaac found it a relief to have made it to the belt of trees. Being out on the dismal plains had been unnerving, as they had been clearly visible, even without a fire. He had been ill at ease, and had taken two watches to settle himself.
His companions had relaxed visibly, too, and were quite willing to put the previous days' disturbing events out of their minds. But he could still see they were worried, beneath their veneers of indifference.
"Garet, would you stop destroying everything you touch!" came Mia's exasperated voice.
When travelling, Garet seemed to have the most uncanny knack for breaking things. Even when he wasn't doing it intentionally, it still happened. It was a little understandable, considering his size, but most other times he did it anyway, regardless of how far away the poor plant, rock or flower was.
Garet's latest idea involved using a stick he'd found to smack against branches, shaking copious amounts of leaf litter to the ground in his wake. Unfortunately, that happened to include Ivan, Mia and Isaac.
Pulling the offending vegetation from his straw coloured hair, Ivan sighed.
"You could at least go behind us, so we don't get showered,"
Pausing in the middle of a swing, Garet seemed to consider the possibility. Then he turned, all smiles, and went to the back of the group.
"Fair enough," and with that carried on with his business. Isaac had to wonder, sometimes, if that Mars adept had any respect for the land he lived on.
"So anyway," Mia turned to Ivan. "What do you think?"
"I'm not really sure. I don't have the best abilities when it comes to offensive Psynergy. You should probably ask Garet, or Isaac."
"You see that's the point. That's why I'm asking you. Those two are obviously quite capable of blasting mountains away with their power, so they wouldn't quite understand what I mean."
"I suppose," the wind seer kicked a pebble up the trail ahead of him. "But I've never given it much thought, to tell you the truth. I've just learned to be happy with what I know."
"Even so, you are slightly stronger than me. Much as I hate to admit it, I'm surely the weakest here in terms of offensive attacks. I'm not saying I want to get stronger, that's not really my goal. I'd rather find clever ways of using my powers that cause more damage, but still require the same amount of energy."
"Strategically placing your attacks, stuff like that?"
"Maybe. More like . . . I don't know," The girl shrugged her shoulders, seemingly lost in thought.
The forest sounds could be heard without competition for a while, only interrupted by their footfalls and the occasional 'whack' of Garet's stick.
Thinking about Mia's problem, Isaac suddenly hit upon an idea.
"Needles."
Ivan and Mia turned to him. Mia looked perplexed.
"What do you . . . oh!" She immediately looked pleased. "That was a good idea, Isaac. Just the kind of thing I was aiming for."
Ivan still looked confused. "What have we all agreed on?" Mia spun about, smiling like someone who had just solved the problem that no one else could ever do.
"It was what I meant! Using the same attack, but changing the approach. You see, I have some ice Psynergy, right? Well, throwing large chunks of it is definitely devastating, but there is still the chance that I would miss the enemy, because there were so few of them, and they were big enough to block and so on. If I were to fire ice needles at them, they would have a considerable time trying to block them all. Besides that, I could make thousands of the needles, and they'd bombard the enemy, and shred them to pieces!"
"But someone like a Mars adept could use a firewall and melt them," came Garet's voice from behind Isaac.
"Ah yes, but to do that, they'd have to spend some precious energy, and they wouldn't even have hit me. So I win out, either way." Mia looked excited enough that Isaac half expected her to start practising on a few trees.
Morning gave way to afternoon, though under the canopy of leaves they felt little change in weather. Even if there had been an increase in temperature, they wouldn't have faltered for a moment. Days of trekking through deserts had given them a stronger spine than most travellers.
Still walking along the scant trail, Isaac was brooding. Something about the forest was giving him an odd feeling, but for the life of him he couldn't figure out what it was. It was like standing near the ocean, and hearing someone yelling, but you cannot tell if it's really a person or just the eternal crash of the waves.
Still they walked.
The further into the trees he got, the more agitated he became. The feeling was growing, yet it wasn't becoming clear what he felt. Isaac fumbled absently with the medallion in his pocket, absently picking at the grooves.
Behind him, there was the impact of boots hitting stone and a curse.
"Someone ought to clear this path a little, a person could break something!"
"Only someone as uncoordinated as you, you mean, Garet?" came Mia's disinterested reply. Isaac heard them, yet didn't hear them. He hated this feeling … this feeling always came before danger.
Still they marched. Hairs on the back of his neck rose with a chill. He cast a look over his shoulder, seeing only a fuming Garet.
Isaac turned back to the path. The winding trail suddenly looked sinister. Before he could give it much more thought, or even ask the others if they felt something, they rounded a corner and stopped.
"Wow…" breathed Ivan.
Isaac knew then, the cause of that dismal feeling.
Before them was a barrier. But it was unlike any barrier they had seen yet. Most walls and boundaries were made of stone or wood. Not this one. It cut a line straight through their path, not placed around things, but through them. Trees, boulders and ground were sliced, yet they were whole.
For this was not a wall of stone, indeed of any physical material. The barrier glowed and vibrated, a transparent field of energy. It never held a design; it continually shifted its lights of red, blue and yellow. It was there, and it was not.
It was a Psynergy barrier.
The four of them stood transfixed by the sight. It was beautiful, horrifying and unexplainable all at once. The sight of it had stolen their breath from their lungs, and they were only now taking it back. Their clothes fluttered lightly with the power radiating from the wall, and their hair stood on end in wild-looking patterns. Leaf-litter on the ground skittered around, and leaves trembling on the ends of branches fell.
Colours shifted in Ivan's eyes, reflected as Isaac glanced at him. The sight gave him the mental shake he needed, and he forced himself to stop looking at the wonder. Instead, he set off along side it, keeping well away, following its path.
He heard the tell-tale sounds behind him that told him the others had snapped out of their trance and were doing the same thing. They'd been together so long that they had certain jobs in situations like this, and they just automatically went to the task without consulting each other.
"It's not cutting the ground in anyway," came Garet's gruff analysis. "But then, it also looks like it's going through the ground. I can't really tell though, unless I start digging."
"The trees and plants don't seem disturbed. They haven't been affected at all. It could mean this barrier has been here a long, long time. Or, that it just doesn't impact on its surroundings." Mia turned from the fern she'd been studying. "Possibly, it's not even here at all."
Isaac stopped walking along, as it was getting hard to hear them, and started back. He could see Mia and Garet talking through the trees. Ivan was standing a little ways apart, fingertips to his temples. Mia and Garet turned to him when he arrived.
"Just keeps going. Doesn't seem to end anywhere near here," he said. Mia looked a little dismayed, but Garet, to Isaac's surprise, looked a little bored. There was a sigh from behind them, and Ivan joined them.
"It certainly looks like Psynergy. But for the life of me I can't get a stable reading on it. Sometimes the strength of it burns my mind; but other times it's barely there at all." He looked pained. "Sorry I can't be of more help."
"Don't be like that," Mia said, moving around to pat Ivan on the shoulder. "It's not your fault this barrier is hard to understand." Ivan didn't really look convinced, but he smiled at Mia anyway.
They turned their attention to the shimmering barrier.
"So what do we do then?" asked Ivan, gazing up at the phenomenon. Garet snorted beside him,
"We go right through it and carry on." Mia looked horrified at the very thought, and Isaac was certainly feeling horrified at the very thought.
"You cannot be serious!" she cried, looking at him with a mixture of fear and irritation. "I know that 'charge on ahead, lads' is your answer to everything, Garet, but this is different."
"Why is this different?" Garet asked peevishly.
"It's a glowing wall! What if you walk into it, and you get burned, or decapitated, or melted, or –"
"Alright, I get the point." But he was looking slightly sick now, which was better than nothing, Isaac thought. "So what do you propose then?"
"Oh, well, uh . . ." It was clear that Mia hadn't anticipated that she'd win the argument. "I mean, we will have to go through it of course," Garet got that supreme look of 'I'm right, you're wrong', but Mia didn't notice, "But we aren't just going to walk into it like it's made of air, or fluffy bunnies."
"Fluffy bunnies can be very scary in large numbers."
"Oh do shut up, Garet."
"It's true. I was smothered as a child. Right, Isaac?" Isaac couldn't stop himself grinning from the memory. Although having about four rabbits jump onto him was hardly what he'd call 'smothered', it had been very funny all the same. Especially when Garet started screaming at Isaac to get them off him, the horrid things.
"When the two of you come back from memory lane," Ivan's voice cut into Isaac's daydream. "The problem at hand needs your attention." Garet looked annoyed.
"I still don't see why we can't go through it."
"We can, Garet, and we will, but we need to know more about it first," sighed Mia, twirling some blue hair around her finger in agitation. "I don't suppose we could throw a branch at it, or something?"
In response, Garet heaved his whacking stick straight into the barrier. Unconsciously, they all tensed as the branch whipped through the air. Then it connected.
And went through, unharmed, untouched.
They all stared at the stick, as it bounced to the ground, and stopped. Relaxing just as unconsciously as he'd stiffened, Isaac eyed the piece of wood warily. It wasn't every day you threw something at a glowing, crackling wall and didn't get so much as a puff of smoke. The warning bells in his head were going off, but for no reason other than the fact that nothing had happened.
"Well that was spectacular," Garet yawned, brushing a leaf out of his flame-hair. "Let's throw a rock at it now."
"Not much point, is there?" mused Ivan, still looking at the innocent tree branch. "It would only do the same thing: fly right through as though it's not there. I don't think this wall is meant for stopping solid objects. That's why those trees look like they're split in half, because the wall just passes through them."
"Well it must be here for something. Unless the people here find it entertaining. 'Oh, it's boring today, let's make a shimmering wall and scare some tourists!'"
"I know you're joking, but it might be possible." That seemed to render the Fire Adept speechless for a moment. Ivan raked his fingers through his straw coloured hair, seemingly frustrated at himself. "I don't know. It doesn't feel like Psynergy. Not really."
Mia looked up in surprise. "You think so? I can feel a lot of Psynergy pulsing out of it."
"So can I," Garet put in.
"I do," Isaac found himself saying. Though he didn't say that his hair was standing on end, his nerves were tingling, and that he had a very bad feeling in his gut.
Ivan, on the other hand, tilted his head in thought. "I can't feel anything much. Sure, I can feel energy of some description, but no Psynergy. Maybe it's just me," he trailed off. Then his eyes lit up. "Maybe it won't affect me if I try to go through it. Maybe I'm the only one here on the same wavelength. If I can't feel anything dangerous, it mustn't be dangerous!"
"Only for you though," snorted Garet. "The rest of us might waltz into our deaths." Isaac winced. He wished Garet wasn't so flip about death.
Ivan seemed convinced, however, that this was the way to go. He argued on for a few more minutes, then when he realised he wasn't winning anyone over, he ended with, "If anyone has a better idea, I'd like to hear it. Even if you do, I'm going."
And, without giving Isaac any chance to consider what he'd said, he marched over to the wall and shoved his hand into it.
Everyone, even Ivan, stood frozen with the abruptness of what he'd just done. Isaac felt that if he moved even a hair, all hell might break loose. That second lasted forever, an awful timeless time of suspense.
Then time moved on, and nothing dreadful happened. No one died, or burned, or lost their arms. There weren't even any dazzling light shows like the one that had happened the day before. Isaac felt immense relief, which was quickly replaced by irritation.
"Are you HAPPY now?" Garet shouted, an edge of hysteria in his voice that only Isaac noticed. He wasn't paying attention to Garet though. He was focussed on Ivan.
The wind seer was still standing with his arm halfway through the glowing barrier, apparently unharmed. Although, Isaac thought with a shudder, it could have sent him stark raving mad and they just didn't know it yet. But then Ivan beamed at them, and said "I told you so: nothing to worry about at all." It seemed true enough. The barrier didn't even seem to have noticed the arm that had been punched right through it; it just kept on writhing and glowing in shades of red, blue and yellow.
"Alright then," Ivan said, pulling his arm back out, "Who wants to come through?"
Isaac thought this was a very stupid question indeed.
"Oh, Ivan, I don't know," Mia said quietly, obviously torn between wanting to carry on and wanting to run like mad. Garet however, looked like he'd won some sort of bet.
"Of course I'll go! I told you it was fine; but only Ivan could prove it to you, obviously." Giving them a ticked off look, Garet stomped over to Ivan and stood there with his fists on his hips.
Mia fidgeted a bit, then, biting her lip, moved over to them.
This left Isaac alone on the path. He had the terrible feeling that things were spiralling out of his control. The decisions were being made for him, whether they were destined for disaster or not.
He looked up from the forest floor, to where his companions were waiting. There was no way he was going to let them do this alone. Taking a firm grip on his terror, he came over to them.
The humming vibrations from the wall were even worse from this proximity. He could feel his teeth rattling and his clothes snapping from the rampant energy. Ivan glanced at them all.
"I think you should all grab a hold of me. That way, it'll be safer for you. We still don't know what could happen when you go through."
Isaac nodded, his throat too constricted to reply. He reached out and took hold of the seer's left arm. As he did so, Mia and Garet latched on to Ivan's right. Unconsciously, they all took one last breath. Then they stepped forward into the barrier.
A ferocious power ripped through Isaac's body, paralysing him through and through. Vaguely he felt his feet lift off the ground, but his attention was fully on the horrible sensation going on under his skin. It felt like he was being torn open and having the spirit snatched from him. Winds unlike he'd ever felt and was unlikely to feel again smashed his face. A thought shot through his pain like an arrow: he'd let go of Ivan. There was no time for this thought though; it was blasted aside by a violent motion. Suddenly, he was under the impression that he was flying at a great speed, but all he could see were the flaring lights around him. As he felt his mind start to loose it's grip on consciousness, Isaac felt a terrific impact on his back. His body twisted, but seconds later he was slammed in the leg. He tried to scream, but his voice couldn't make it out of his throat. Then his head hit something hard, and he knew no more.
-----------------------------
I bet that was fun for Isaac. That last bit took forever to write out. It's so much easier in the mind where you get visual aids :P. Anyway, any comments you have, like if there's some bad continuity in there somewhere, please review! Or don't, I wouldn't blame you. I'm so nasty for keeping this on the backburner.