Sunlight and Shade

A/N: Ah. Cliffhangers. Not nearly as evil as Midnight C's in chapter four of Breeze, but hey, if she doesn't come and attack me, I will only IMAGINE my attack on her. Fair deal, that. I'm thinking on…less that 15 chapters for this, if you wanted an estimate. ALWHI will be on hold for a SHORT (note the SHORT) while, because when ideas find their way into my head on their strangely twisted path to get there, if I do not put them on paper (computer-simulated or otherwise) they tend to cause violent and silent implosion. So.

Midnight C: Ah, I should have mentioned this. This story takes place AFTER the events in both games. Felix, Jenna, Ivan and Picard went to Lemuria (why Ivan and not Sheba or all eight remains to be told, of course) and are on their way back when the storm hits.

Triad: I don't pick on just Ivan! I picked on everyone. You just wait and see, now. Oh, and, for He Who Should Leave The Fanfiction World (you know who he is), if I hear one word from you on this, too bad for you sir, because I don't listen. (No, VI, I don't mean you.)

Jupiter Girl: I don't mention it here, but the greenish glow relates to what happens when the Adepts and Tret Tree's turn-people-into-trees power collide.

Chapter Two:  Dark Sky

            The storm was over. The sun had set, and the moon had reached the apex of its nightly rise and fall. The ocean stirred in gentle rolls, and broken pieces of a Lemurian sailing ship rose and fell with the motion. Among them was the unconscious figure of a girl.

            Jenna awoke to find herself adrift in the dark sea. Her staff was clutched in her hand, and her head was pounding like the thunder that had been last in her thoughts. She was holding onto, or rather slumped over, a large chunk of wood. Her first instinct was to fall back into beckoning sleep, but the voices of Isaac, Mia, Felix and Picard, warning against such action, came back to haunt her.

            Felix. "By the Spirits, brother, if you didn't survive I will bring you back and kill you myself!" Jenna muttered angrily. In the night it was difficult to see, but she did make out some planks nearby lashed together with a length of rope. This gave her an idea.

            Swimming as good as she ever had (learning to swim had never sat well with any Mars Adept) she reached the planks and pulled them to her current wood chunk. Grinning, she grabbed the rope and looped it around both pieces a few times.

            She pulled herself up onto the makeshift raft. "At least I'm out of the water," she sighed, setting her staff down beside her. Something clicked in her mind, and she looked down at the staff in the dim moonlight, another idea forming in her mind and a smile breaking the concentrated look on her face.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

            As his eyes opened, the blue Psynergy bubble surrounding Picard faded. He rolled to the side and coughed up water, subconsciously giving thanks to be alive and realizing that it was night and he had somehow gotten to dry land.

            With a groan, he sat up and looked around. The ocean was in front of him. Long stretches of beach were to his left and his right, and behind him was forest. He looked skyward to see a mass of dark clouds.

            "Mercury tell me it isn't more rain," he muttered. When, after a few moments, no rain began, he sighed in relief. He'd had quite enough of rain, not to mention the thunder, lightning, and ship-breaking (also Adept-hurling) winds that went with it.

            Thinking of the wreck brought into his mind the fact that he was not exactly in the best condition to be washed up on some island. Closing his eyes, he focused his Psynergy on himself and felt the pain dissipate, eventually becoming nothing.

            Of course, the next logical thought struck him as hard as he had impacted the boat. "Ivan. Felix. Jenna. Oh no." Standing and stretching a little, he glanced down along the right stretch of pebbly sand. Nothing. Well, nothing that looked remotely human. There was, however, an unusually large log with scraps of sail hanging from it. The mast, thought Picard. He refused to pursue that thought and instead turned a half-circle so he was looking the other way, up the rest of the beach.

            Far up along the tide line, water washing over him as the waves rolled in, was a disheveled and dead-to-the-world figure that much resembled Felix. In fact, it was Felix. Muttering a Lemurian curse, Picard began to head in that direction. Felix, if you're dead, Jenna will kill you, he thought, not even bothering to laugh along with the Djinn voices at the odd statement.

            He reached Felix, knelt in the sand beside him and rolled him over. The Venus Adept's answering groan brought relief to Picard's mind—his face had already (in fact almost automatically) set itself in a show-no-emotion blank and slightly thoughtful position. Standing again, he half-carried Felix farther away from the incoming tide. How he knew it was an incoming and not outgoing tide, while still a mystery to him, was no longer the source of much contemplation, and hadn't been for years.

            Sighing again, he seated himself on a large rock and called again on his Psynergy.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

            The people of Sinelsol Island pondered the recent happenings. The Beast of the Bright Sea had brought them a gift, or so it had told the Elder. A gift to aid them in their time of greatest need. But looking upon this gift, small and not very extraordinary-looking, they wondered indeed how much of a gift it was.

            "The Beast of the Bright Sea has never been at fault," said the Elder when she heard the complaints. "He says he found the gift when his brother, the Serpent of Dark Storms, was playing in the waters far east of here and found it."

            "You speak of the gift as 'it'," spoke up one of the residents of the island village, which was called Yueivar. "Do you not know the proper name?"

            "I do not. The Beast of the Bright Sea did not tell me, though he claims the Serpent of Dark Storms would know. It was said several times by a human of the Water."

            The thought of a human of the Water brought hope into the islanders' thoughts. Perhaps, finally, someone was nearby who could help return to them their bright future.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+_+

            His first thought at regaining consciousness was that he felt like a dragon had chewed him up, decided he wasn't worth it and spit him out. His second thought was that this state of being was rapidly diminishing. The third thought was something along the lines of 'why in the world am I on dry land and how did I get here from cold ocean?' and was enough to bring him fully awake.

            He opened his eyes slowly, and his gaze met a fierce, worried-looking, golden-eyed one. "Picard?"

            "Felix."

            "You alright?"

            "Well enough. You?"

            "You tell me. You seem to know better than I do, anyway," Felix said, slowly pushing himself into a sitting position.

            "Hey, you're alive. Can't ask for more than that, right?"

            "Picard."

            "Alright, alright. Geez, you Venus Adepts are pushy ones. Anyway, there's nothing wrong with you now. Well…nothing that I could fix," Picard added with a grin. Felix sighed exasperatedly.

            "Specifics. Why's my left arm numb?"

            "It was broken."

            "Oh really? The way I saw it, somewhere in the middle of all that mayhem, it decided it didn't like my plan and to do something entirely different," Felix said dryly. "I meant, if you fixed it, why can't I feel it?"

            "I wasn't finished, is why. Now sit still, or else," Picard said with an evil cackle.

            "Tell me," Felix said as Picard's Psynergy surrounded him again, "is this strange attitude an attribute of all Lemurians, or just sailing ones, or just you?"

            "Tell me you didn't just twist Ivan's line around to fit your situation."

            "I did."

            "Thought so. How's that?"

            "Better. So where are we?"

            "Search me. I'm pretty sure it's not more than a day from…from the storm." Picard stood and looked around. For the first time he realized there were trees behind him, in fact a veritable forest of them. "We can't go forward without a boat, and walking the beach, while probably an act that will eventually bring us to civilization, might not be such a good idea in the dark. Then again, the forest is a worse idea…"

            "Wayard calling Picard! Stop it! You're babbling in that way."

            "That way?"

            "Like you're trying to take my mind off of something else."

            "Oh. Sorry. Reflex. Do you happen to have a better plan?" Felix, about to reply, whirled around instead at the sound of a frightened cry. Standing there was a young girl and two children. The kids were hiding behind the girl's skirt, peeking out curiously.

            "Hello," said Picard. "Our ship was wrecked in a storm at sea, and we ended up here. Might you have a place for us to stay the night? Or, at least, what remains of it?"

            "I-I-I can take you back to Yueivar," the girl said hesitantly.

            "You-way-var?" Felix asked incredulously.

            "My village. It's the second-largest on the island."

            "We're on an island, then?" Picard asked. "I didn't think there were islands with villages I didn't know between Lemuria and Gondowan. Though, Yueivar does remind me of the Lemurian word for rainstorm. Quite ironic, if I do say so."

            "You did say so. Now…um…sorry, but what's your name?" Felix asked the girl.

            "Cura," she said, more confident now. "These are my brothers, Daniel and Michael. Come. I will take you to the village Elder. She will be able to help you."

            "Good, because as soon as the sun rises I should like to get sailing for home," Felix said.

            "It doesn't," said one of the boys.

            "What?" Picard asked.

            "The clouds cover the sky all the time now. Cura says it wasn't always that way, but it was when I was born," said the other.

            "Before you ask," Cura said, holding up a hand as they entered the forest, "let me take you to speak with the Elder. She can answer your questions better than I."

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Vil: Oh. I own Cura, Daniel, Michael, Sinelsol Island, Yueivar (lluevar, for you Spanish-speakers) and the Elder. And the unnamed villagers.

Picard: Look! I'm a muse!

Vil: Yay! Oh, and those of you who THOUGHT Picard was musin' for you, I went and replaced him with a perfect replica. Exactly the same.

Picard: No one steal me. Or else.

Vil: So, that's that then.

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