As Luck Would Have It
A/N: Hello again! Boy you guys reviewed fast. Almost faster then I can get these out. Not that I'm asking you to slow down ;).
Claimer: I claim ownership of Zap! Yay! Don't know Zap? You will ;).
PennilessPoet: I believe you. Which is why he's not dead.
Feonyx: I made Shining Strike up, out of my own head. Wasn't originally meant for Ivan, but it did the job.
Jupiter Girl: You are both right and wrong at the same time. Only the two authors listed above know what I mean, because they guessed correctly. And Kaede knows. But tell me, why do you think it can't be Mercury or Mars?
Griffinkhan: Writer's block. Only, in my case, it was writer's giant wall made of steel, brick and thorny vines. But I got over it. And here I am!
Chapter Fifteen: Back to Bilibin
The Adepts left early the next morning. A light snow was falling, and the others watched as Isaac went a little crazy.
"It's snowing!" he was calling, running around in odd circles. "It's really snowing! Yeah!"
"Um, Isaac," Garet said as he rubbed his near-frozen hands together, teeth chattering. "You are a Venus Adept, remember? Earth, plants, rocks, mud maybe? Not snow. Not water of any kind. That is Mia's job."
"Yes, but it's snow, Garet! Snow! And it's falling, and hitting the ground, and all around me…it's so wonderful! A little cold, perhaps, but you don't know what you're missing!"
"I don't want to know," Garet said, shoving his hands deep into his pockets and shivering. "This is not the weather for a Mars Adept."
"It is cold," Zoe said. "Not unbearably so, but cold. Ivan?"
"Yeah Zoe?"
"What are you doing?"
"Snow angels."
"Ivan, you're standing on your head."
"I know it. Watch." With those words, snow was whipped up by a furious wind. The wind formed and packed the snow into the shape of a three-dimensional angel.
"Um, Ivan?" Mia asked tentatively.
"Yup?"
"Is there any particular reason you had to stand on your head for that?"
"Nope."
"Ok."
"I guess something's different. I mean…we got to beat up on Saturos, right? What could be better than that?"
"Correction," Garet said, pulling his face out of his double-wrapped scarf for a moment. "You, Ivan, with your wonderful zapping prowess, got to beat up on Saturos. And Isaac, with his Spire of Doom, got to beat up on Saturos. Mia, well, you got to hang out. And Zoe got to shock him some. But what did I do?"
"Become Mars Adept shish-kebab," Ivan said helpfully. Garet growled and buried his face again.
"How did you do it, Ivan?" Mia asked. "I mean, that cool attack. Is that some strange Jupiter Power?"
"Actually…I don't know. It just kind of…happened. I get the feeling that I wouldn't be able to do it again if I tried."
"Kraden told me about that," Isaac said, stopping his hyper running for a few seconds. "Sort of. Some kind of reaction happens between your thoughts, Psynergy, and spirit, and you get a sort of ultimate power. Only it's a last-ditch attack. Used only in life-or-death situations."
"Since meeting you guys, my entire existence has been a life-or-death situation."
"Well yeah, there's that. But I mean seriously."
"Then why didn't you do anything?" Garet asked irritably. "You were in a life-or-death situation, Isaac."
"No, Isaac was in a death situation," Mia said, her voice dropping a bit as some of the wind died down. "He was dead."
"I was?" Isaac asked in a shocked voice.
"To all intents and purposes, yes. Which is why I think you're acting this way now. You're enjoying life, and every moment and aspect of it. Though considering you didn't know you were dead, it's a bit odd, but you probably knew subconsciously."
"I don't believe it. I was…dead. But then…how am I here now?"
"It's Mia's fault," Garet muttered, the cold and wet making him more irritable than he had been inside Mercury Lighthouse.
"Mia? You did it?"
"Well…I had help," she stammered, face going even redder than it already was from the cold. "Megan and Justin, for starters…and Zoe, a little…"
"Oh stop it," Zoe said. "You put me to work, what was it, running back and forth and upside down for all I know, doing this and that and the other thing until my head was spinning three directions at once, and then you said 'sit and watch Ivan' and of course I did it. But you did most of the work with Isaac yourself, and you know it!"
"'Sit and watch Ivan', huh?" Ivan asked with a pout. "I'm glad to know I mean so much to you all."
"Well, we already knew you would be alright," Mia said with a grin. "You've got a hard head."
"I didn't hit my head."
"But you're still standing on it." Ivan immediately flipped onto his feet, and the adepts continued walking.
"I was dead…" Isaac said in a flat voice. He couldn't believe it. Mia and her students had brought him back to life. Dead, he thought again. Like my father. Like Jenna's parents. But I couldn't bring them back.
"It was terrible," Mia whispered, voice barely heard above the wind. "You were…fried, Isaac. I didn't think I was going to be able to do anything…but I'd already failed you all once, and I couldn't do it again."
"You did not fail us!" Ivan said indignantly. "You came through when none of the rest of us could have!"
"I might have been able to stop him from doing that to Isaac."
"You were busy doing what you do best!"
"Why are we arguing about this?" Isaac wondered aloud. "I mean, we all survived. Can we just please leave the past behind us?"
"Heads up!" Garet called suddenly. "Oozes coming out way!"
"More oozes?" Zoe complained. Oozes were not on her list of favorite monsters to fight. But then, she didn't have a list if favorite monsters to fight.
"Just two of 'em," Garet said, raising a hand and blasting one with a Flare Wall. "Well, one now."
"Barrel of laughs, Gar'," Isaac said, bringing a Spire down onto the second Ooze.
"Isaac wait!" Mia cried, but it was too late. The Ooze disintegrated, and Isaac fell to his knees. "I should have warned you!"
"Obviously," Ivan muttered. "Warned him of what?"
"That he shouldn't use Psynergy for a while…sorry, Isaac," Mia said as Isaac stood again.
"No, it's ok. Let's just hope that nothing larger than Oozes show up before we get to Bilibin. I'm pretty sure we left early enough to get there today." Isaac brushed the snow from his legs and hands, then continued walking.
"Garet?" Zoe asked, and Garet shook his head.
"You don't need to ask. Yes, he acts like he's got rocks for brains sometimes, yes, he was always such an early bird, and no, I see no change forthcoming."
"Thank you Garet."
***************
"Wind Seer's Plasma!" Ivan yelled, bringing down the Will Head. They had made it to Bilibin Cave with few distractions. "Someone tell me why they are called Will Heads, please?"
"They will head wherever they want to?" Garet offered. Ivan, thinking quickly, swiped the torch he was carrying at Garet's head. Garet's crimson hair immediately ignited.
"YAH! IVAN! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Garet yelled, running around screaming for a few seconds until Mia, between bursts of laughter, shot a Frost at Garet's hair, putting out the fire and turning his head to icicles.
"Hey! You look good that way! Not to mention that an inch or two off the top does wonders for your appearance," Ivan said with a friendly grin.
"I-i-it's so c-c-c-cold…" Garet muttered, teeth chattering. "M-M-Mia, what did y-y-you d-d-d-do?"
"Well, would you rather have it all burn off?" Zoe asked him, stifling a laugh when Garet shuddered even harder then he was shivering.
Mia frowned and bit her lip. Maybe she shouldn't have frozen his hair like that. He wasn't looking too good. You're overreacting, her mind told her. She had to agree that her mind was probably right. But still…even as they walked, she kept one eye on him. The others, aside from Garet, noticed this, but decided not to risk incurring Garet's semi-frozen wrath on Mia.
***************
"Seventy billion Will-head-anywheres, five Zombies and a Ghost later," Ivan said upon emerging from Bilibin Cave. "We're all in mostly one piece. Or, five separate one pieces, if you want to be technical about it."
"My head unfroze," Garet remarked. "Though if torch-boy hadn't lit it, it wouldn't have had to freeze in the first place!"
"You were asking for it," Zoe put in. "And you know I'm right."
"Well that's a switch."
"You want to take a little ride back to Imil?"
"NO! Anything but that!"
"That's what I thought."
"You two!" Isaac said with a laugh. They had only a short distance to go until they reached Bilibin, and the sun was nowhere near setting. They had made good time, and would most likely be just in time for dinner at the Inn. Then sleep, which pleased Isaac to an infinite degree, and then to find out about whatever was going on with the trees near Bilibin the next day, or maybe the day after. We do deserve a break once in a while, he thought.
What surprised them all was that when they reached the Inn, Garet did not come to dinner with them. Instead, he headed up to his room silently, and slowly.
"The shock of freezer burn must have hit him," Isaac laughed, and the others laughed with him.
"Must have," Mia said quietly, though her laughter was quieter, more detached, her mind clearly focused elsewhere.
***************
Garet was not at breakfast the next morning either, nor was he up when Isaac and Mia came back from the Mayor's house.
"It seems people have been turned into trees in Kolima Village by the Guardian Trees in Kolima Forest. Supposedly all because the Mayor is building a house for his wife, and he cut wood from one of the Guardian Trees. The Mayor said we were too young to go, but no one else has been able to solve this problem, so I say lets do it! Hey, where's Garet?" Isaac asked, suddenly aware of the absence of the Mars Adept.
"Haven't seen him," Ivan said, turning his attention back to the map he had been studying. It was rather new, in fact he'd found it on a bookshelf here at the Inn, and it showed most of the major landmarks. "Isaac, there's a bridge, or a barricade, between here and Kolima anything."
"One of the workers told me that Bilibin Barricade was so hastily constructed, it's very unstable. We should be able to find a way through. If that sleepyhead ever gets up, that is. I'll go get him." Climbing the stairs, Isaac sighed. Garet had never been an early riser, but this was late even for him.
"Garet?" Isaac asked, knocking on his door. "Garet, are you awake?"
"Go away," muttered a drowsy voice. Isaac didn't know why, but there was something wrong with the sound of that voice.
"Garet, it's me, Isaac. Mia and I found out what's going on. Come on, get up, you've missed breakfast already as is!"
"I said…go…away."
"Fine. I'll go," Isaac said, suddenly placing the feeling he was getting from the tone and volume of Garet's voice. "But I'll be back." Isaac practically ran down the stairs, nearly colliding into Zoe, who stopped just short of being run down.
"Isaac, geez! You don't have to run!" she said with a sigh. "For a minute I thought something was really wrong."
"Something is," he said gravely, before leaping past her and running to where Mia and Ivan sat, the latter still puzzling over his map and the former engrossed in a book that seemed to be about different locations in Angara. "Mia!"
Startled, Mia looked up from the book, sky-blue eyes puzzled. "Isaac? What is it?"
"Garet," Isaac gasped, turning on his heel and sprinting back up the steps, Mia hot on his tail.
***************
"Come on, Gar', it's not that terrible," Isaac said sympathetically a few hours later.
"It is so," Garet said groggily. "Mars Adepts despise cold. And I have to go and get one!"
"Oh stop it you," Mia said cheerfully. "You'll be better by tomorrow."
"Guess we're getting our little 'vacation'," Isaac said with a heavy sigh. This problem, people becoming trees, needed to be solved immediately. But Isaac knew he couldn't let Garet travel like this. And even if he hadn't known from the get-go, he would have found out, for Mia was very adamant that Garet stay where he was. Not that this made Garet any less irritable.
"Ivan, stop that!" Zoe cried as wind swirled around her. The two of them were up on one of the ledges of the town, looking out over the view. Ivan wanted to stay as far from Garet as possible, and Zoe wanted to stay as far from sickness as possible, so they had ended up here.
"I'm not doing it! I swear by Jupiter!" Ivan called as the wind increased in speed, lifting Zoe into the air and spinning her around.
"Whatever you are, stop this!" Zoe yelled, and instantly the winds vanished. In their place, on the ground in front of Zoe, was a Jupiter Djinni.
"Hello," he said, bowing as much as his body allowed him to. "I am Zap. A Jupiter Djinni. Bound to the power of the Wind. And you are…Zoe." Instantly, the Djinni's eyes lit up. "Well, well, well. It is nice to meet you indeed, Traveler."
"Nice to bond with me you mean," Zoe said mockingly. "But…Traveler?"
"Yes, Traveler. Now. I trust Torrent has found you? The Elemental Spirits were very explicit in their instruction."
"I'm right here, you old stick in the mud," Torrent said, flashing onto Zoe's head. Zap, satisfied, nodded, and both Djinn flashed out again.
"What?" Ivan asked, and Zoe shrugged. She really had no idea. But her confusion was quickly replaced with elation. She had two Djinn!
"Come on. Lunch is almost ready, I bet," she said, walking with a spring in her step. "And without Garet there, we may actually get to eat some of the food!"
***************
Two days and a lot of complaining from Garet later, the Adepts were ready to head to Kolima Forest. "Even if we have to knock it down!" Ivan proclaimed excitedly.
"You are not knocking down any trees!" Isaac said quickly, and Ivan laughed.
"I am not climbing anything higher than my head," Zoe said fervently. "After Mercury Lighthouse, I don't think I can stand sitting on a high chair."
"You can't stand and sit at the same time anyway," said Zap's voice.
"You're always so helpful."
"I try."
"At least it's warmer here than it was in Imil."
"That would be Garet," said Mia as she came down the stairs of the Inn. "Always one for the tropical climate. I suppose when we hit Mars Lighthouse you'll be ragging on me as much as is Garet-ly possible?"
"Darn right."
"Let's just get going," Isaac said with a laugh. "I mean—"
"We know," Zoe said exasperatedly. "You're going to say, 'while there's still daylight left'. Isaac, it's an hour past dawn. I don't even think the monsters are awake yet. And from here to Kolima is open ground. We will not run out of time!"
"Ok, ok. Sheesh." And on that note, the Adepts headed out the door, against the Mayor's orders, for the Bilibin Barricade and points beyond.
***************
Kaede: 'points beyond.' I like that.
Vil: Well, that's it for chapter fifteen! Still having fun, I hope. Go read Feonyx's Tolbi Redux thing! It's a barrel of thunder lizards in January!
Kaede: uh…yeah. Magic arrow time! Oh and Vil wants…at least eighty reviews. That's 80. An eight and a zero. Ochenta. Now review!!
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